Mick Appleton
I've been thinking a lot recently about our current transfer policy (or lack of one), and I have come to some conclusions. I started by thinking of how many players we have missed out on in recent years, either by offering less than was required or by being outbid, and I realised that this has been the case for a very long time now.
I remembered the joy of signing Charlie Nicholas and then realised I felt similar when we signed Aaron Ramsey. That joy was not just because of signing a good player, but because of our having beaten Man U (in Charlie's case, Liverpool as well) to their signatures, a joy that was born out of seeing us lose out to the top clubs, both here and abroad, on so many occasions. If you consider just the signings we missed out on this summer, then you'll see what a difference it would have made to our squad. Imagine, Gary Cahill and Phil Jones instead of Mertesacker, Djourou and Squillaci, or Mata instead of Gervinho. I think a top-four finish would have been the least we would expect if those signings had been made, instead of fourth being our only realistic goal. Unfortunately, once again we nickel-and-dimed and came up short. We made a derisory offer for Cahill and were almost certainly outbid on wages for Mata and Jones. The club’s current standpoint seems to be that the new UEFA rules will eventually put us all on the same playing field, but only a fool really believes this. Manchester City have already bent the rules to their advantage with the Etihad deal, and Chelsea and Man U will soon follow suit while we continue to toe the line and fall further behind.
The fallacy of moving to a new stadium to compete with Europe's elite has fallen flat, and our inability to attract top talent or keep our own talent at the club has shifted us from serious contenders to also-rans. No sane Arsenal fan could have viewed this season with anything except trepidation after Cesc & Na$ri left. The arrival of Jenkinson, Oxlade-Chamberlain (both of whom I like) and Gervinho (who needs to improve drastically) were never going to fill that void in the short term, and the deadline-day buys were like putting on a band-aid after severing a limb. They have stanched the bleeding a bit, but will not prevent terminal decline if major surgery does not follow.
Arsène seems to have lost his knack of picking up players on the fringes of the top clubs and turning them in to superstars. When was the last time we signed someone who excited you? I can't think of anyone since Marc Overmars (I know people will say TH14, Pires etc, but they were not stars when we bought them). We have been very unlucky again with injuries, but the truth is our squad is wafer-thin; of our eight main defenders only four are of the requisite standard, and none of those four is a genuine left-back. Sadly, Thomas Vermaelen is the best left-back at the club, but we cannot afford to play him there, as that means either Mertesacker or Djourou have to partner the impressive Koscielny.
I have just read that the club has again embarrassed itself by trying to get Kieran Richardson on loan! Why would Sunderland loan us a player that plays regularly for them??? This would have been a solid idea if our regular left-backs were of a high enough quality to make it worthwhile filling the gap until they return, but I think Santos is cover at best, and Gibbs is a total write-off, so a permanent solution is required (I'd take Baines, and Everton need the money). We have similar problems in midfield, where the goals of Pires and Ljungberg have never been replaced, and this has led to an over-reliance on our main striker to score the majority of our goals. This has come home to roost over Christmas, with Robin looking jaded and the profligacy of others meaning we missed out on a real chance to put pressure on the top three when they slipped up. Instead of the nine points required, we ended up with four, which is just not good enough. Walcott and Gervinho really need to find the net on a regular basis if we have any chance of making the top four or competing for trophies.
The team has done well to drag us back up the table after a disastrous start, and this has been helped by the deadline-day signings, but would any of them be playing if all of our players were fit? Would Arsène play Arteta (who has been solid) ahead of Song, Ramsey or Wilshere, or Mertesacker ahead of Koscielny or Vermaelen? As for the other two, Park and Benayoun have not started, even while we've been short. These players were brought in to bolster the squad after the departures of Bendtner, Denilson, Eboue etc, which is fine, but they will not take us, in the words of the club’s new motto, “Forward”.
The dream of making us a super club by moving to the new stadium will never be realised until we abandon our current wage-structure and reinvest the money that is relentlessly sucked from the fans, along with the outstanding transfer-budget, on marquee signings. This will convince RVP and our other star players to commit to the club. The bottom line is, if we really want Eden Hazard, we need to compete with Barça, Chelsea and whoever else covets his signature and, if we don't, I fear the glory days may never return. Let’s get back to where winning trophies takes the place of making a profit.
