Is Arsenal’s transfer policy simply smoke and mirrors?by ED
It seems as if recently everyone and their mom’s uncle have been linked with Arsenal during this transfer window. First of all the whole CDM issue, it’s an age old conundrum with Arsenal … It’s no secret that in recent seasons our vulnerability has been at the heart of our midfield a sort of void that has been left by Vieira that no one had been able to quite cut the mustard and display the sort of dominant displays he had in his prime.
The emergence of Le Coq this season has seems to have convinced a few individuals that we may have found the solution to our problem although, and rightly so, a few cynics have questioned (with Arsenal’s track record with injuries) and the obvious point that the premier league is alight with one season wonders are we in a comfortable position to close the chapter on this one? We started this transfer window off by being linked to Geoffrey Kondogbia (He opted to go to Inter Milan) then it was on to our good old friend Schniederlin (Who unless you have been living in a cave, has moved to United) accompanied by Vidal (Who we are being told is possibly on his way to Bayern as a replacement for the modern patron of German football Schweinstieger), not obviously forgetting the obvious one that rears its head every window for the last 3 seasons, William Carvalho.
Then there are the Strikers – many argue whether the strike force of Olivier Giroud (as the focal point of the attack), Theo Walcott/ Oxlade Chamberlain and Danny Welbeck/Chuba Akpom, have the capability of proving a formidable strike force. I’m not going to suggest in winning the title just yet, but the question is whether they are capable of building upon what we have already done? Whilst it can be argued that their injuries have been a hindrance towards them unleashing their full potential.. It begs the question because it has happened before and not just on one occasion I may add, could we continuously blame the injuries for us finishing second best to the rest of our competitors. With that being said again it seemed as if Wenger entered the market first of all with Jackson Martinez (who moved to Althetico following the activation of his 25.8 Million buyout clause) then on to Lacazette, a transfer favourite Benzema, now Edin Dzeko.
Now all of a sudden, from concentrating on strengthening the teams fire power and midfield steel, reports in the papers seem to be indicating we are after a new left back and centre back. A week or two ago we were talking about an agreed fee with Juventus for Vidal, 3 weeks prior to that we were talking about Martinez joining the strike force.
Perhaps this is me reading way too much into this but it seems as if we made enquiries into those players, but I don’t think that it is the price tag putting us off.. to the best of my recollection I don’t recall a formal bid submitted for those players. It has drawn me to the conclusion that perhaps Wenger is playing chicken in the transfer window and hiding his real intentions behind ‘smoke and mirrors’, it’s a known fact that he doesn’t like to publicly discuss his transfer business, in fact for long periods of time we are often left wondering if anything anyone publishes on Arsenal is the whole truth or completely fabricated nonsense.
I remember the Ozil deal, especially when he denied all reports linking with a departure from the Bernabeau a week before the transfer deadline, queue the 24 hour mark, a bid launched and 24 hours later Ozil was a Gunner. For me it seems as if it is a similar pattern to the way deals transpire within Arsenal, unlike most clubs who there is a whole song and dance number before the actual transfer of a player. It seems as if Arsenal divert attention away from the clubs transfer dealings and only wait to present the end product a bit like a magician “a crap load of smoke and mirrors, then presto rabbit out of the hat”
Eddie D