It seems a little odd that Arsenal Football Club would choose to drop a rather large hint about there being a lot more to come from the Gunners in the current transfer window on the same day that our chief executive Ivan Gazidis had issued one of those statements of his that sends chills down the spine of Gooners the world over.
The American, as reported by Metro, basically told us to chill our beans and not expect any big money signings because Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal scouting team were trying to do what Leicester City did before winning the Premier League title and find some hidden (and cheap, of course, very cheap) gems in the various leagues around Europe and the world.
Gazidis said, ‘It’s how well you can identify talent. It’s how well you can develop talent. It’s how strong your club philosophy is. It’s how together you are as a football club, what your support services are like in the medical field, fitness, analytics, psychology. All of these things become differentiators.
‘Leicester identified players from the French second division, so maybe there’s talent that we’ve been overlooking,” said Gazidis. “They did their talent identification [well], they had great unity within the group, as well as quality.
‘It wasn’t built on money. It was built on the great fitness work they did. It was built on all of these other elements. I think that’s going to be a continuing trend within the Premier League.’
Not exactly music to the ears of Arsenal fans Ivan. So while every other league title for years has proven the value of spending money and getting the best players, Arsenal decide that last season is the example to follow.
But the news did get better for us Gooners yesterday, as the club officially announced the third transfer of the summer being completed for the young defender Rob Holding from Bolton and the report on Arsenal.com ended with an upbeat suggestion that more transfers were just around the corner.
It said, “We remain in the market, so stay close to Arsenal.com for any further transfer news.”
How optimistic are you on this topic Arsenal fans?
Bob.