Former Arsenal defender Tony Adams has been “annoyed” at deals to bring Martin Odegaard, Nicolas Pepe and Willian to the club in recent seasons.
Mikel Arteta brought in Odegaard on loan from Real Madrid in January, while Willian has disappointed since his summer free transfer.
Pepe has scored 15 goals in 69 appearances in all competitions following his £72m move from Lille in 2019 and Adams has explained why those three deals have frustrated him.
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Adams told Premier League Productions: “To be honest, there’s an argument that you don’t need Martin Odegaard.
“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.”
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a hat-trick as Arsenal overcame Leeds 4-2 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
With Aubameyang moved centrally, Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe operated from the flanks with Odegaard making his full debut at number 10.
On the performance, Arteta said: “I thought [the creativity in the final third] was much better.
“We were much more efficient and we were composed. We took our time when it was needed. We had movement, runs in behind, people in the box and arriving into the box.
“Our decision-making was much better and our efficiency, we were hitting shots and many of those were on target. That was the difference.”
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