So did Arsenal get summer transfer action Spot On?

Even the Arsenal fans who can count themselves part of the ‘Arsene Knows Best’ group of Gooners were left scratching their heads when the summer transfer window came and went with a whimper once more, despite the revelations from the likes of the member of the Arsenal board Lord Harris that Arsene Wenger was sat on a huge mountain of cash.

And if we were left a bit bemused at the manager´s failure to sign a single outfield player, the only Premier League team not to do so, then the football media including former Gunners like Thierry Henry were even more critical of what many called the stubbornness of Le Prof.

That attitude is slowly being shifted though, and a report in The Mirror today that has extolled Wenger´s transfer plans and called our summer one of stability rather than one of lost opportunity. The report also talks about how the experience and ability of our only signing Petr Cech looks to have been the perfect addition to an already strong squad.

We have certainly been seeing the benefits to players like Gabriel, Walcott and Coquelin of having faith in them and not bringing in more competition and we saw another Gunner in the shape of Joel Campbell grab his chance to impress with both hands at the weekend, so did Arsenal and Wenger get the summer transfer business spot on?

Or are we still just an injury or two from seeing this early promise fizzle away?

Tags Cech Wenger

23 Comments

  1. I chose to stay positive even though i was hurt we didn’t sign an outfield player..but so far i gotta say its amazing how Wenger chose to stick with with this team. If this works out and we win the EPL, i’ll proudly say the man is a f**king genius and the deserves to be the world best coach.
    Hopefully as we’re taking each match one by one,it’ll end well and we won’t regret anything.
    COYG!!

    1. I think that he will look to buy a DM soon, considering the lack of depth in the area. Possible signings: Krychowiak, Lars Bender, Samper.

      Krychowiak and Lars Bender will be cup-tied, so this may have a bearing on whether signings will be made in January or next summer. However, they also may want a more significant role than Samper.

      I’ve also seen some rumors about Michy Batshuayi, but his signing seems unlikely as Welbeck comes back around then. This should lead to Arsenal waiting until next summer to buy a striker, and many targets seem possible then, especially if Arsenal can put a strong showing out in the Premier League and Champions League. Perhaps we could impress Lewandowski or Muller enough this Wednesday?

      1. We need depth. Le Coq has proven his place. No cover. Alexis fuel and talent have no cover. We could have used a couple players, possibly not loaning out all our young talent might’ve helped.

        1. Alexis replacement will be Walcott shifting across and or now Campbell hopefully if he can keep it up also Oxlade and other youngsters coming through shortly namely Iwobi Adelaide.

  2. i have been really impressed by our performance this season.The boys deserve a pat on their backs.our transfers were not as we all expected but lets just keep playing the good football and lets see how far we can go.

  3. Absolutely not! Most fans, and dare I say, some AKBs included, knew we needed strengthening for three reasons:

    Injuries – Our usual glut of injuries has now fully set in, and everyone knew it was coming at some point…apart from Wenger of course. So squad depth was vitally important. Now let’s clear this up, the injuries are nothing to do with bad luck or some kind of curse! There’s something fundamentally wrong at our club because it happens every season. If your car breaks down twice a week, every week – is that bad luck or is it more likely that something is actually wrong with your car.

    Quality – Our first XI was actually looking pretty good going into the transfer window, but most fans know we needed a top striker. One could say, the missing piece of the puzzle. Although we’ve improved with Walcott upfront, he’s incredibly wasteful in front of goal. Proving once again, how important a clinical striker is.

    Teams performances – Great win in the FA cup again, but Arsenal were very poor when judging them in the competitions that are very hard to win. Despite having a much stronger team, we actually gained less points in the league, despite moving up a position, and Arsenal pretty much hit rock bottom in Europe. So when one looks at the league and in Europe, and in the previous season, one has to say, it really wasn’t good enough?. It clearly wasn’t, so more quality should have been brought in. Yes we’ve beaten Bayern this season, but I feel we’ve taken yet another step backwards in Europe, having only 3pts out of 9 and losing to Zagreb and Olympiakos. It isn’t a surprise because it’s the same squad bar Cech (who didn’t even play in the first two games).

    We are playing really well at the moment, I hope this continues, and I feel confident we can get a result in Munich. But if it’s injuries that derail us again, like almost every other season, then we all know who’s to blame 100%.

  4. We are definitely an injury or two from “fizzling away”. I stand by my previous comments of criticizing Wenger for not buying a few specific players in the summer.

    If we win the league at the end of the year I’ll admit I was wrong and Le Prof is a genius. We’re playing well at the moment and hopefully we continue getting good results.

  5. anyone who reckons wenger entire plan was to buy no-one but petr cech is deluded.
    he knows we needed reinforcements

    weve had few campaigns were we one or two injuries away from the title.
    weve made a great start-im delighted-but i refuse to have selective memory , that window was a shambles

    we still pray every game that le coq doesnt get injured, bellerin, monreal, sanchez

    reinforcements would have prevented that an provided more competition

    to say it was spot on – is an absolute joke

    1. Well… I must be completely and utterly deluded ?
      We all know that Wenger’s normal summer signings are done very late in the window, even as late as the last hour!
      But this year, our only summer signing was done very very quick, which shows that Cech was Wenger’s only and main Priority! .. Surely if wenger really wanted to sign an out field player, he would have done so, long before the window shut.
      Even our own scouts, have come out and said that wenger is indecisive!
      A certain DM that left Southampton for Man Utd was left feeling absolutely gutted because he had his heart set on Moving to Arsenal this summer, only for wenger to drop out of the deal, after terms were agreed between the club and player!
      Theres no real proof that wenger tried to sign anyone else apart from cech!
      He even stated after the window closed that he thought his team and squad were good enough and that he believed in them.
      that was his reason for not signing an outfield player!

      Yet we all know that we have many injury prone key players in our squad, but nothing was done in bringing in decent back up!

      At the moment, all is well and no one is complaining because we are winning games and thats all that matters!
      God forbid anymore injuries!
      Otherwise every fan and his dog will be barking at wenger again, if we start slipping down the league table because of lack of signings to cover injuries.

      1. He’s bound to say he thinks his team is good enough whether he had targets in mind or not ! Installing belief in the squad!hes not gonna come out and say we need players ,we need this we need that like a certain Jose mourinho ! It’s no good for morale

        1. It’s a good point Muff. I was thinking more like was Wenger better off not pulling the trigger because the ones he wanted were unavailable or would he have been better off paying over the odds for whatever was available. Personally I would rather wait and do some head turning in trying to get the ideal candidates rather than take any gambles on the names newspaper people herald. Cech was an inspirational signing and I believe this season could have resembled a recent previous season if without the big man.

  6. Believe me, we are one injury away from seeing our early promise fizzle away, I prey it dsnt hppn. If any player frm the first 11 is injured we’l struggle to win matches

  7. Wenger was looking to increase squad quality not quantity over the summer, so I don’t think his plan was to stay quiet.
    What I really give him credit for is his relationships with his players. Almost all players current or former have nothing but praise for him (unlike current players under moanrinho and even players under SAF). Look at how Mourinho is handling Hazard/Fab/Matic now, throwing them under the bus at the first possible chance, he’s not selfless. On the contrary, look at how loyal wenger stayed to his players, ozil, ramsey, giroud, walcott, wilshere and it is not blind faith, it is faith in their abilities in the face of harsh fans and constant media bashing, but he stands there to take the punches instead of his players. That is Wenger’s class, which distinguishes him from SAF, Mourinho, Gaurdiola.
    I dream of this being our season, and hope the players strive for that till the death. With every big win our dream comes more to life, and Wednesday is another big day, hope we get a result.

    1. True that but in the same vein that lauded loyalty and faith in his players is one of the major reasons we have not won the title in years……you referenced SAF, Mourhino,Guardiola and whilst I agree with your assertion about Mourhino I beg to differ with adding SAF and Guardiola to that list, ruthlessness and decisiveness is key in winning on the biggest stage and when its all been said and done these 2 are more successful trophywise than Wenger simply because Wenger is too nice, too indecisive and lacking that ruthless touch that makes winners…..Diaby,Chamakh,Sanogo,Szechmy just to mention a few players who should have been offloaded long ago but who we kept and hoped will come good…not all managers have the luxury of a job for life like our Wenger so comparing other managers who”s job depends on results to him is unfair and impractical

  8. Listen Baby Please

    I still think it was wrong not to bring in an outfield player or at least a very big gamble but lets see How the season pans out. I still think getting a DM and another striker would not have hurt us but at the end of the day Wenger calls the shots and we need to trust him.

    Right now we are in fantastic position in the league
    If we get OX, Theo and Ramsey back after the International break, we should be in great shape

    I really believe we can win this season

  9. I think we have at least 2 players to play in evry position.
    Cech/ospina
    Bellerin/debuchy – kos/gab – mert/chambers – monreal/gibbs
    Coq/flamini – cazorla/arteta
    Ramsey/ox – Ozil/wilshere – sanchez/welbeck
    Giroud/walcott
    And others like: rosicky/campbell and many other on loan players.
    I agree with wenger that we need to buy quality not quantity. With a strong squad like this, only players of benzema class could improve our squad. Everyone is calling wenger to buy a striker, but why need to buy a second fiddle striker that cant even compete with giroud and walcott. And these two has grown into class day by day. I hope soon we might not see a need to buy a striker.

    1. The reality is it does not take a world class strike to compete with Walcott and Giroud because they both are far from been world class and that has always been my own gripe….saying there are no better strikers than these 2 in the world is just blasphemous to say the least…….there are strikers out there not exactly in the world class moulds who will give us options and will be better than the 2 we have …..Bacca, Jackson Martinez, MandUzlic, Aubermeyang just to mention a few will definitely improve the quality of our scoring options no doubt….and all were available in the summer if we had made a move

  10. As far as am concerned we have achieved nothing yet.In fact our epl form is flattering.We are bottom of our UCL group, out of the league cup and already the treatment room is full with the usual suspects.

    If we win the league , I will take my hat off and eat it and hail Wenger as a genius. If we don’t win it (OFCOURSE DUE TO INJURIES) then I shall continue to bash wenger for being a stubborn manager. Because let’s be honest, he has played the injury card for far too long now and if he was wise enough, he would have learned by now that HALF of his squad are too injury prone and cannot be relied upon.

  11. Its way too early to take such a view not been negative or scare mongering but we are just one injury or two away from totally imploding…imagine if Giroud get ruled out for just a month?….the folly or otherwise of Wenger’s transfer policy last window will not be known until the end of the season…we are on a good run now, coping admirably with the injuries so far but I advice cautious optimism..I still strongly believe he should have let Flamini, Arteta,Rosicky leave in the summer and get replacements for them and 2 of them been injured all these season so far justifies that assertion……and last but not the least blooding Walcot as a striker is a huge huge gamble,especially in a season when we have a realistic chance of winning the title: I believe Walcott will come good as a striker sooner rather than later but learning on the job so to say is dicey, if it pays off and we win the title them Wenger will be lauded and praised by all and sundry and rightly so but if we mess it up due to lack of fire power upfront then he should carry the can…and a P60 too

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