Mikel Arteta oversaw his first transfer window as Arsenal’s manager last month.
The Spaniard didn’t have the time or resources to do much manoeuvring in the market but I believe that the transfer window was a winning one for Arsenal for two reasons.
Firstly, Arsenal signed players for the position that they needed to reinforce. They signed Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares to help make the leaky defence stronger.
Both signings have now completed Arteta’s squad and I’m glad that we didn’t enter the second half of the season without new defenders coming on board.
Secondly, this window was successful because Arsenal didn’t make panic buys.
Most teams would have jumped at the chance of grabbing anyone available to them, but Arsenal with Arteta in charge stuck to what they needed and they even avoided making long term signings just in case the players don’t fit into their system.
Most fans would have expected the likes of Edison Cavani and Dries Mertens to be brought in, I would have loved to see any of them in the Arsenal shirt too, but I reckon that it was a better move for us to sign only players that we needed because the summer is the best time to make long term signings.
We will not know for some time how successful Mari and Soares are but the principle behind their signings is a valid one and that alone tells me we are definitely under a different regime, well, up to a point.
An article from Ime