How Yaya Sanogo epitomises Arsenal’s transfer failings. by Precious Et Al
A few days ago, the premier league announced the list of players who have been released from their clubs ahead of the upcoming 2017/2018 season and in this list, Arsenal had three players- Kristopher Da Garca, Stefan O’Connor, and our dearest Yaya Sanogo. This is the very same Sanogo who having been afforded playing opportunities galore in the 2013/2014 season by Wenger, proved a colossal disappointment and showed nothing at all to justify the faith placed on him, with performances ranging from the mediocre to the absolutely shocking.
And, in that season, he lined up many times alongside Ozil and Cazorla- most notably in the champions league against Bayern; missing chance after chance as though it were his job description. All of this begs the question as to why was he signed in the first place? If in four years, he could only score one competitive goal, why then was he signed? Surely the scouts and Wenger couldn’t have made such a judgemental error? Well, news flash, they did. And it isn’t for the first time.
Time and time again, our approach has shown a club seriously deluded in its transfer dealings. A club passing on established talents to sign inferior players; in the erroneous notion that turning inferior players into world class talent will somehow justify the lack of genuine competitiveness in winning trophies. It most certainly wouldn’t; and so far, hasn’t. The few that managed to achieve a semblance of world class status have bolted once they realized their talents weren’t aligned with the direction of the club, and the players who managed to stay after achieving this semblance have either remained stagnant or continually produced declining performances- whether the stagnancy or depreciation is injury induced or not doesn’t excuse the flaws in our transfer policy over the past years.
If the youngsters we sign achieve stagnancy after a few years, or turn out just not good enough, or, worse still- leave us after nearing a resemblance of world class status, then, why do we bother? And then, when there is a chance of signing a genuine potential world class talent, we dawdle and lose out all the while seeking to unearth players from obscurity.
Having said that, in recent years, with the addition of genuine world class talent in Cech, Sanchez, and Ozil, our transfer policy seems to have changed for the better- and; in this path should we continue, even as we are faced with a decisive summer. And, if we are indeed pursuing talented youngsters, we shouldn’t dawdle. If we intend unearthing them from oblivion, we should get our facts right about their abilities so we wouldn’t end up having yet another Sanogo. And, we should also provide a clear enough path for the youngsters into the first team, so, we wouldn’t end up with another Gnabry situation.
Precious Et Al