Pathetic
Well I hope you weren’t one of the gooners that took the day
off work to enjoy the unveiling of that “special” player Arsene was talking
about. I was in the office all day, but of course found the time to refresh
various websites every 5 minutes, desperately searching for updates from the Arsenal
camp. When it got to 17:30 I’d already reminded myself that the window doesn’t close
for another 6 hours and that plenty could happen in that time, and happily
skipped to the nearest pub to help the locals get rid of some of those beers they'd
accrued. Even on the train an hour later, with signal coming and going more
often than Charlie Sheen comes, then leaves, and whilst being diverted from one
tunnel to another, I was still making my phone put in a good shift. It was only at about 22:00 that I formally
relinquished the ghost and pretty much lost interest, dejected in the knowledge
that we were doing sweet FA to strengthen our team in line with our competitors
and were letting another opportunity pass us by.
What surprised me so much about our inaction was that Wenger
had been pretty loose lipped about our transfer business, maintaining up until
the recent press conference that we were well and truly in the market for
another player or two, even highlighting a couple of areas that he’d like to
see an improvement in.
As it played out, every club in the league improved their
squad with more purchases than we did.
Whilst I realise that quantity is no
measure of quality, it is a pretty good measure of how many players you
strengthen your team with, funnily enough. Our squad is as thin as it was last
season: no second keeper bought to pressure Szcz and compensate for Fabianki’s likely
departure; no defenders bought in any areas when we conceded the best part of
50 goals last term and proved that we didn’t have the numbers to cope in all
competitions; one central midfielder bought (who looks the business) but one
sold to a rival champion’s league club, so no real improvement in depth there;
one out and out striker bought in who scored goals for fun last season in France,
Pod who can play both centrally and out wide, but we lost the best centre
forward the premier league to our most competitive rivals.
Therefore we head into the season with two out and out
strikers in Giroud and Chamakh, a situation which is a little more than
confusing when Chamakh barely featured all preseason and wasn’t on the bench
for either of the first two games. Wenger obviously doesn’t want him, and
apparently neither does any club in Europe. That’s quite an impressive deterioration
in status considering he was in a fair amount of demand when we purchased him. We
couldn’t convince Walcott to sign a new deal and are hoping he’ll be the first
player to “love the club” enough not to stab it in the back, push its face in a
puddle, apply wedgie, then defecate. Walcott can sign a new deal at any time, it’s
not really got anything to do with a transfer window, but it sends a strange
message when we spend all summer trying to convince a couple of players to stay
whose desires to be here are less than apparent, whilst getting rid of Alex
Song, the one player who wanted to be here and wanted to sign a new deal. In the
midfield area we have Wilshere coming back into contention, so I guess he’ll be
our new signing (aim revolver at head), and with Rosicky returning too we definitely
have enough bodies in there to cope.
We haven’t played with an out and out defensive midfielder
for years now so I don't bemoan that lack of an M’Vila as much as some do, it’s
more the principle. The principle now dictates that not only will we allow our
best striker to sign for a direct rival (something they would never sanction in
reverse), we will allow our statistically most creative midfielder to go when
he still had 3 years left on his deal. So on the face of it we sold a starting
midfielder and brought in one who is arguably more effective going forward but
plays in a different position, one out and out striker to replace Persie, and
the only true addition coming in Podolski who didn’t replace anyone (but looked
like he was replacing Walcott for some time).
I can only envisage 2 scenarios: we genuinely have no money
at all, we can only afford to buy once we have sold and therefore selling Van
Persie and Song were necessary evils to fund the purchase of an extra body in
Podolski; or we have a board and manager that hate the club and want to see it
fail, die, burn, and have its ashes sprinkled somewhere we knew it didn’t want
them. By the way I don't believe the second scenario, or the first, so I'm at a
genuine loss as to what to think.
We are a club that is masquerading as a current superpower
in the guise of a huge stadium and a faithful fan base filling the seats, but
unfortunately we are clearly anything but at the moment. Yes we have a good
squad still, yes we will battle for 4th spot and probably make it, and
yes we will be involved in some great games, pulling back 3 points when all
seems lost, but do we have the capacity to realistically fight for the title
alongside the Manchester clubs? I hardly think so. Do I blame Wenger for this? No.
do I blame the people above Arsene at the club. Indeed yes I do, and while I don't
believe in any way that they’re “lining their pockets” with banker-esque
bonuses, I do believe that our financial prudency is a little extreme and may
well come round to puncture our posterior on its parabola.
Thus, it was another transfer window selling our best
players and amassing a profit. And there was me thinking the script was revised
for this year’s production.
Now all we can do is break a leg (preferably Persie’s).
Match preview up tomorrow.
Adieu.
@halls_dja
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