A Miserable Transfer Window For Arsenal So Far….

What a summer it’s been for Arsenal. Weeks and weeks of rumours of new players joining coupled with speculation from papers and twitter yet nothing has happened. Well, not nothing, we have signed two right wingers and a defender, but two of them are under 20 years old, and only one of them is likely to play a significant part in our squad next season.

Even our selling has been conducted appallingly. We have seen months of speculation about both Nasri and Fabregas and only now with the season about to start does it look like we’re ready to sell meaning we’ll be without two of our best players and no replacements for the opening day of the season.

Even the shifting of deadwood hasn’t exactly gone to plan, Denilson wasn’t wanted by anyone and had to be shipped out on loan. Whilst Almunia and Squillaci have attracted very little interest.

Bendtner on the other hand, has been close to a transfer, although his wages have meant we’ve had to lower the asking price by a significant price. The fact that we gave such big contracts to Denilson, Almunia, Bendtner and co. yet let Nasri and Clichy have theirs run down is mind blowing, and the people in charge of that should be ashamed. 

Speaking before his friendly for Denmark, the big Dane said he was very close to leaving the club. Similarly Eboue seems close to leaving. Ideally though, he’d have left and been replaced during early pre season, not this close to the season.

The main issue regarding transfers has been the lack of movement in defence. Our first choice left back has departed and doesn’t even look like been replaced, whilst we are no closer to signing any of Samba, Cahill, Dann or Jagielka than a month ago. That’s despite the continuous mistakes made in pre season by Djourou and Squillaci.

Now it looks like they may be our starting pair for the season’s opener at St James’ Park, with injuries to Vermaelen and Koscielny highlighting our lack of depth. The same problem we had last year which meant that Squillaci had to play 33 matches.

We only have to look at our biggest challengers for next season to see where we’ve gone wrong. Manchester United, league title winners last year and Champions League finalists have improved on their side this summer and did it in time for the new additions to settle into the team during pre season.

The signings of Ashley Young and Phil Jones show the need for Premier League experience whilst David De Gea has shown the potential to be a quality goalkeeper for the next 20 years. You could call him their Szczesny – but more experienced and arguably a better player. It also shows Sir Alex’s desire to fill his Goalkeeper’s position quickly and for the foreseeable future – unlike Wenger when replacing Seaman and Lehmann.

Liverpool too have acted quickly in the market, and although they’ve paid over the odds for a few players, they’ve successfully secured their main targets in time for the season. Given their lack of European football – a distraction until the last stages – Sir Alex has put them down as dark horses for the title, and who’d want to bet against him?

Maybe we will sign a defender by this weekend, maybe we wont sign one until deadline day. Maybe we wont sign a defender at all. But when we do sign one, it will certainly not give him enough time to adapt to the team and the style of defending we play. That was a problem for Squillaci last year, who missing pre season made a lot errors in adapting to our style, and has subsequently lost all confidence and seems a very bad player indeed.

We can still sort out our transfers this summer, selling Fabregas and or Nasri signing Cahill, Mata and a striker would please me. Adding a player like Javi Martinez of Athletic Bilbao to that list would make me think we are serious title contenders. 

Right now though, I cannot say I am confident about the new season though, I am more worried.

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