There are many questions relating to the lack of a goalkeeping signing that fans are probably asking. Why Mark Schwarzer? If Fulham were demanding too much for him, if, as seemed apparent at least a month ago, that this transfer was running into difficulties. So why did the manager not turn to other targets?

The answer, almost certainly, is that there were no other targets that fitted Wenger’s flawed vision of trying to develop a winning team from youngsters.

Schwarzer, a good Premiership keeper who is past his prime, was nothing more than a stopgap keeper who would not threaten his youngsters and to keep the shirt warm for when (if?) one of his young keepers become good enough. Rather than sign a high quality number one, at or near his peak and then if the youngster is good enough make him number one (like Joe Hart at Manchester City) , Wenger is going on the hope and expectation that they will make the grade, so he can keep to his flawed dream.

This is a high risk policy with a low chance of success, especially with Wenger’s way of developing goalkeepers, i.e. practice on the training pitch and little match practice, rather than the traditional method of getting them to play lots of competitive games. Let’s remember that Fabianski was considered, when he signed three years ago, as one of the best young goalkeepers in the world.

It is not as though there were not any other possibilities. There were plenty of them: Rene Adler of Bayer Leverkusen, the German number one who missed the World Cup due to injury, Igor Akineev the Russian number one, Hugo Lloris the French number one, Steklenberg the Dutch number one or if he wanted something on the cheap then Eduardo, the Portugese number one who had such a good World Cup. In addition, there are probably a number of others who with his far more extensive knowledge of the game and great scouting network Wenger would know about. All these goalkeepers are in their mid to late 20s, and bar Eduardo would likely cost in excess of £10 million.

With Wenger now saying we have money (rather disingenuously if one believes quotes he and the board made since at least 2007-2008 which suggests we had money back then) that should not have been a problem in signing one of these ‘keepers. What seems to be the problem is that he does not want to hurt, as he sees, it his young goalkeepers at the Colney crèche.

To make matters worse, none of the young Arsenal goalkeepers have yet gone out on loan to get the much needed match practise and experience to develop, or in the case of Fabianski, save their goalkeeping careers. Although with another week left for league clubs to sign loan deals there is the hope that some, such as Szczesny might go out on loan to Championship sides.

More than any other position goalkeepers need to play matches to enhance their decision making and positioning. All the top goalkeepers past and present, (Casillas, Khan, Seaman, Buffon, Van der Sar, Shilton etc) have all played regularly from a young age gaining that experience before reaching their peak in their late twenties, early thirties. They have not done so by just training, playing in the reserves and then getting the odd professional game once a month, which has been Wenger’s strategy with Fabianski. This has certainly not helped Fabianski develop from being one the hottest young ‘keeping prospects into a Premiership class let alone world class player.

The failed pursuit of Schwarzer is all too typical of a manager fixed on his deluded anti Chelsea/Man City policy of developing a young team on the cheap rather than in the best interests of Arsenal Football Club. This will mean a continued lack of investment in the playing squad and thus failure to compete at the highest level, let alone win a trophy.

Unfortunately this is the way it will remain until Wenger leaves. But with the obsequious board seemingly happy to see Arsenal chug along in relative mediocrity, just qualifying for the cash bonanza of the Champions League to pay off the stadium debt, it will take a catastrophe (i.e. not qualifying for the Champions League) for that to change at which point we all suffer.