The philosophy behind Wenger's frugal transfer market nature is valid, but it has sadly warped into delusions of grandeur. When Henry left and all the pundits projected a fall from the top 4, I laughed as they talked about our "failure to absorb crucial departures." This is because we still had a strong supporting cast behind the aging talisman. Adebayor was among top goal scorers, Van Persie had goals to offer when healthy, Fabregas was becoming a man, Flamini showed top-class athleticism and grit, Song found his feet anchoring the midfield, Theo's pace was yielding more end-results, etc.
Most importantly, our back 4 was balanced and steady. On top of that, we made some impactful additions along the way. Sagna and Arshavin both made immediate impacts - the latter breaking our standing transfer record. While we weren't winning things, we were certainly in with a chance as a legitimate club among the European Elite Class. There was no cause for panic.
But now let's take a look at what's left from the extensive supporting cast:
- Gallas got old.
- Toure, Flamini, Adebayor & Clichy took off - all alienated by club decisions.
- Vermaelen is injury prone
- Arshavin is a shell of his former self
Now take away Fabregas & Nasri and we're not left with much at all aside from unproven talent with no trophy experience. Talks of how efficiently we've run the club can be rubbished. We haven't thrown the plastic around in the transfer market and we have the Highbury assets as well as astronomical ticket prices - all of course while adhering to our coveted wage scale. Yet according to the numbers, we barely broke even this past financial year. When we have access to income other clubs do not, we should be in a stronger financial position. But the looming financial fair play rules don't look so innocuous anymore. Presumably, I'm as uneasy as the Arsenal FC peanut counters.
Infrastructure aside, here's where I take issue with our transfer activities...
We splurge €12 million on Laurent Koscielny, an EPL-untested center back that had 1 good season in Ligue 1. Yet, we offer the same or less for Chris Samba & Phil Jagielka - all while Ivan Gazidis makes public announcements bragging about the money Arsene Wenger has at his disposal. On a side-note: In trying to pacify fans, he created an unforeseen monster (cheers of "Spend some money" at the season-opening away match).
And oh yea, those messy little Fabregas & Nasri sagas got drawn out into the current Premiership season. Now you've got yourself a real stew...
Without speculating on what's available to spend, our actions have weakened our negotiating platform and now we must weather the fall-out. We'll suffer through "we know what you're good for" mark-up prices, along with "Nice offer, but how do we replace the player you want?" no-sales.
With more teams figuring out how to defend against our slow building attacks, we need top-class dynamic talent capable of changing the flow of the game with moments of brilliance - much like (but preferably better than) one player we just sent away and the another that refuses to extend his contract.
These options simply aren't available in abundance this late and for the first time, that beautiful flowing football we've taken for granted is suffering. You need quality players to play quality football and WIN. The facts remain:
- We came up short last season.
- We are losing our best players.
- We are not replacing our best players with comparable or stronger players.
- Our recent contemporaries are only strengthening their squads.
Nothing in sports is guaranteed and this season's results are by no means set in stone. I just advise all Arsenal supporters to keep their delicate valuables at a safe distance while enduring the next 10 months.
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