We all know how badly Arsenal’s season started last year with the never-ending transfer rumours regarding both Mesut Ozil, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and the highly disruptive saga of Alexis Sanchez’s desire to move to Manchester City, but thank god that a situartion like this can not now happen thanks to the FA and the Premier League voting to unilaterally change our transfer dates so that all transactions must be completed before the start of the new campaign which begins on August the 11th.
This means that all new players must be in place before 5pm on Thursday August 9th, hopefully ending the dreaded uncertainty and the distraction of our players ahead of the serious fixtures that spearhead our campaign. Who could forget the awful performance of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in our 4-0 defeat to Liverpool just a week before he joined Jurgen Klopp’s side last summer?
England may have voted to change the rules, but we still have to conform to UEFA rules which state that there must be a full 12 week window every year, so that means that effectively the English transfer window will open in just two days time for the movement of players in the UK.
So where does this leave Arsenal as we are currently without a manager? I would imagine that with our new power structure at the club, any new transfer dealings will be dealt with by Sven Mislintat, Raul Sanllehi and Huss Fahmy, overseen by Gazidis, and whoever the new manager is will be told to just coach work with the players that are put are put in front of him, so effectively he will have no say in which players are targeted by the club.
Judging by the arrivals since the new regime was put in place this could mean the purchasing of expensive players like Aubameyang and Henrik Mhkitaryan, or promising youngsters like Dinos Mavropanos, all of which have been successfully integrated into the side.
The biggest problem facing all Premiership clubs this season is that the World Cup is going to disrupt any transfer negotiations with top players. The first group game is only four weeks away so any early signings will have to be completed in the next two weeks, before the international teams meet up to prepare for the Finals, and with our new our new transfer deadline, there is only another four weeks after the Final before the window shuts.
This will create problems for everyone, not just Arsenal, but as I don’t expect the new manager to have too much input on the new arrivals, it shouldn’t be any worse for us than anyone else…
What do you think?
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