Our transfer policy is simply unacceptable. by KM
Okay. With more or less a week until the window ends, we are again terribly unprepared for the start of the season. We missed all of our targets apart from Xhaka and to all the people who kept saying “wait until the window ends”, I believe the time to panic is right about now. No wait, it was 1 month ago, when it was clear where we are heading.
Arsene came out with statements like the fact the club has 600 employees and that he treats transfer money like it is his own. This is an abuse in our face. He practically said “I am Arsenal and Arsenal is me” and this is well true. But I’d like to address the reason why are things so bad? How can we improve our transfer policy?
Well this is impossible. This means that either Wenger changes or he is stripped of some of his power, to allow transfers into the hands of other people. Both are as unlikely as it is for us to win the league. The end of Arsene is near. This year, next one or in another 3, with this policy he is simply self-destructing his own legacy.
We miss a man like David Dein. We need a director of football, a transfer manager/committee and practically a board and a coaching staff that are capable of doing their job. Transfers are not that hard to do. We make it hard, because we want to bargain in a market where money flies like flies! We will not sign Mustafi and we’ll hardly sign Johny Evans for 25 million and honestly I prefer giving Rob Holding a chance, rather than signing Evans…
Anyway though, when Gabriel got injured it was time for us to go to Valencia and give them 30 or even 35 million and just get Mustafi. We should’ve done it even earlier, so he could be prepared for the start of the premier league. Now it will not happen… We should’ve coughed up 40 million for Lacazette, because with Giroud it doesn’t work.
United and City spend big to improve sides that needed improvement and excluding Pogba they didn’t pay all that much over the odds. Nolito was bought for reasonable money, why didn’t we try to get him? Spanish clubs, apart from Barca and Madrid, are cash strapped and we could use that to our advantage, but of course Arsene has to make the negotiations, because he has to have control over everything and this is why we are so bad at it.
Arsene has the dream job people hope to get their entire life. He gets incredibly well paid to do the entire work, which he doesn’t do really well, but he still gets paid and he’s immortal at the club. The real problem is not that this season will go to hell. The fact that this is the 10th season in a row that goes nowhere, with no ambition and no preparation is what worries me.
Fans fight each other over the fact, some are so attached to the club, they don’t want to believe it’s as bad as it is, while others realise where we are and want to break the wheel. At least we all realised Arsenal is a business not a football club, with an accountant in charge. But even from that perspective we have a problem. In a competitive environment, if you don’t look at the competition they will destroy you, because they always improve.
We just look at numbers, but the numbers will become dangerously bad in a few years time with our suicidal policy. The players themselves are tired of Arsene. Club captain Mertesacker (why exactly is he captain? anyone???) said last year it was a miracle we finished second. Koscielny said this would be a “difficult season”. Oh really Laurent? I feel your pain brother. I wouldn’t want to play for Arsenal under Arsene, and I’m a fan of the club!
Even the story with the employee that left – true or false, either way it put out a serious point. This is not about where the season goes, it’s about how the club is ran in a fundamentally wrong way. Fans booing themselves on the first game of the season! I can rant here for hours with real proof why we need change as soon as possible, but it will still not convince the blind faith some people have for Arsene.
Sure what do we fans know compared to a manager with more than a 1000 games under his belt. Well you don’t need a 1000 games to see the results and the league table over the past decade. You can clearly see the pattern that repeats yet again. I call for the fans to express their frustration.
Arsenal has over a 100 million fans worldwide. Put that as a country and it will be the biggest by population in Europe (excluding Russia and Turkey, which I don’t count european). Arsene is like the prime minister with Ivan the president. Fans over Europe express their concerns with club decisions. Arsenal fans can do it too. Because if we just accept whatever comes our way, we are just part of the problem.
And we need a solution to come from somewhere. The best one would be a new owner and a new board. This is virtually impossible as long as Arsene delivers the numbers though. Decide for yourself what is important.
Konstantin