Arsenal legend Tony Adams slams decision to sign Martin Odegaard as he insists Mikel Arteta needed to bring in ‘strong defenders in January instead’ – and says he was ‘so annoyed’ when Willian and Nicolas Pepe joined as they didn’t need them either!
- Arsenal didn’t need to sign Martin Odegaard, according to Tony Adams
- The club legend insisted they should’ve brought in a strong defender instead
- Adams also criticised Arsenal’s signings of wingers Nicolas Pepe and Willian
Arsenal‘s recent recruitment has been slammed by club legend Tony Adams with the former defender insisting they didn’t need to sign Martin Odegaard, Nicolas Pepe or Willian.
The trio have all been signed over the past two seasons, with Odegaard joining on loan while Pepe and Willian were brought in on permanent deals.
Pepe is the club’s record signing after splashing out £72million on him back in 2019 while Willian was handed a lucrative £220,000-a-week deal after joining on a free transfer from Chelsea last summer.
Tony Adams insisted that Arsenal did not need to sign Martin Odegaard in January
The club legend also hit out at their decision to bring in Nicolas Pepe (L) and Willian (R)
Both have flattered to deceive and Adams insisted Arsenal wasted their money on them as they already had promising youngsters Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe at the club.
Saka has been one of Arsenal’s most consistent performers this season while Smith Rowe is increasingly having a real influence on the team.
The 54-year-old, who made 409 appearances for Arsenal as a player and captained the club to the Premier League title, also argued that Mikel Arteta should have made it his priority to sign a defender instead of Odegaard back in January.
‘To be honest, there’s an argument that you don’t need Martin Odegaard,’ Adams told Premier League Productions.
Adams insisted Arsenal’s focus in January should have been on signing a ‘strong defender’
He said they didn’t need Willian or Pepe as they had Bukayo Saka (L) and Emile Smith Rowe (R)
‘I got so annoyed that we bought Pepe and Willian in when you’ve got two kids [Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka] bursting into the team.
‘There’s other areas in the team that you could look at, there’s holes in that team, we saw how fragile they are defensively. The defence has always been the weak link.
‘As the sporting director of Arsenal, you wouldn’t be getting Odegaard in, you’d be getting good, strong defenders into the team instead.’
Odegaard, who is on loan from Real Madrid for the remainder of the season, made his first Premier League start for Arsenal on the weekend as they defeated Leeds 4-2.
A hat-trick from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and a Hector Bellerin goal secured the victory for Arsenal, which saw them move up to tenth and to within four points of Liverpool in fourth.
Arteta reserved praise for Odegaard after his first Premier League start in win over Leeds
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored three goals in Arsenal’s 4-2 victory on Sunday
Arteta was complimentary of January signing Odegaard after their victory over Leeds. ‘Big credit to him,’ Arteta said.
‘To play the first Premier League start against Leeds after not playing a lot of football in the last three months, run the way he did, be as comfortable and creative as he was on the ball and the personality he showed on the game was great.’
He added: ‘I’m very pleased with the result and very, very happy with the performance, especially in the first half against a fantastic team that make life so difficult for you.
‘They really put some really high demands in every action whether it’s with or without the ball. I think we handled that and read the situations really well and created some big problems for them.
‘And then, at half time I said to them [the players] this is a team in the Premier League that is never going to give up, it’s going to throw everything at you because of their character and belief.
That’s what they’ve done. They’ve thrown everything at us. We’ve scored four as well, we could have scored more.’
