lomekian
Essays are my thing
I think its as much that Lokonga and Vieira would have been fine to integrate and get experience if we were competing for 4th, but the team has gone to competing at the level where everytime we drop points its a disaster. Both have strong elements, but needed to be playing regularly to develop, but injuries and our level increasing have knocked that on the head. These kind of buys often don't work out, and its not a disaster.It's a shame we've decided to ignore our academy, 40+M invested in Lokonga and Vieira would've been massive for the academy and we could've picked up better talent from smaller clubs.
I don't even think buying Vieira and Lokonga was a bad approach, just that Arteta is no Wenger and doesn't have that talent for finding players (getting rid of scouts doesn't help either).
Arteta needs $$$ to buy players who are ready to play so as long as he is in charge we should stop buying players who might be good one day
Vieira is a shame because what he's good at, he's very good at, but his weaknesses are too pronounced to carry at this level bar being a sub.