Peter Le Beau
They have started to call the period between the football seasons “the Silly Season”, because the media have almost free rein to invent transfer stories to sell newspapers and get website hits. The two transfer-windows are periods of intense speculation, often agent-fuelled, and for the naive supporter can be times of incredible excitement and frustration.
Arsenal have, in recent seasons, been subject to a media onslaught which has been orchestrated particularly by Barcelona and Manchester City to unsettle our players. Last close season was agonising as we waited for signs of pro-activity from Wenger and Gazidis and ended up losing Cesc and Nasri with limited time to replace them. We entered the season with a woefully inadequate squad, and this culminated in the loss of eight points from the first three games. A transfer-deadline Supermarket Sweep ended in five late signings which helped to rescue our season. But if we had got our act together properly, what might we have achieved?
I’ve covered this before on the Online Gooner, but it bears repeating because we MUST learn the lessons of last year. Of course, that’s easier said than done when we have yet to clinch Champions League football and RvP is perilously close to the end of his contract. But at the moment, remarkably, the mood at the club is very upbeat, and the win over Citeh is an apt moment to consider what, press hyperbole aside, Wenger is likely to do this summer.
We have some indications already. It is well-nigh certain that we have signed Lukas Podolski from Cologne, and we also seem very interested in Jan Vertonghen of Ajax. If these stories, which are well-sourced, are true, it is very encouraging confirmation that the penny has dropped. Last season not only scarred the supporters, it must have had a huge impact on Wenger himself.
It’s not worth having a rumoured war chest of £50 million if you haven’t got a plan, and Wenger’s plan will be pretty complicated. People are well aware of some of the issues Wenger’s philosophy towards building a squad has created
We have an enormous number of ordinary players on above-average wages and long contracts
We don’t and can’t match the salary packages paid by City and Chelsea
We must get our squad signed before the Euros and the Olympics - and we must sell the deadwood
We have a lot of promising players on loan at clubs all over Europe. Some may never play for Arsenal, let alone the Arsenal first team. Cue Botelho, Silva ,Galindo and Campbell. But loan-spells are the way to give promising players experience and a fast track to breaking through into our first team squad
Arsenal consistently get more injuries than other clubs in the Premiership. We have to name a squad of 25 but we really need 35 to get through a season. Effectively, two of our top midfielders have not played all season and, in recent years, Vermaelen, Djourou, Frimpong and Rosicky have been out for the season.
Lots of difficulties and lots of thinking necessary to prepare us for a season that, at this juncture, might be much more promising than we dared hope twelve months ago when Wenger left the pitch at Fulham as fans exhorted him to spend some f****** money.
Let’s look at his options - firstly, players who are liable to be surplus to requirements.
Goalkeepers - Fabianski, Almunia and Mannone. None of these is good enough to be part of a title-chasing squad, and Fabianski is of an age where he needs to be playing regularly. It’s unlikely that we could raise significant fees for these, but they will represent a significant burden off the wage bill if we can move them all on. It just goes to show how difficult this position has been to fill.
Full-backs - I don’t think we have got any first-team squad members to move on. But, unless Botelho is thought to be up to Premier League football, it seems sensible to let him move away as well.
Central defenders - the new contract for Djourou was a big clue to Wenger’s intentions. We must shed Squillaci; Bartley has apparently pulled up few trees in Scotland and is expendable, and Miquel looks very promising and probably needs a season on loan in the Premiership. Not much in fees to be garnered there, but again some serious wage-savings can be made. I will return to Mertesacker later.
Midfielders - we have got rather a lot of good midfielders, and yet I suspect we may well see one more. The most problematic is Diaby. He looks unable physically to play in the Premiership. Wilshere, hopefully, will be back, and either Coquelin or Frimpong may need to go on loan. Yossi Benayoun is a decent player, but I believe he earns £70k a week and we probably don’t need to sign him permanently. Denilson is surely untransferable to Sao Paolo (or anywhere else) on his current contract. We either give him away (and may have to pay up his contract) or end up paying his wages. Sadly, I suspect there isn’t room for Lansbury, and he may bring in some revenue if sold. We have some real talent bubbling under in this area. Gnabry is, I understand, being compared to Wilshere in terms of quality, and Ozyakup and Aneke are likely to need long-term loans because they are expected to have a future here. I also like Yennaris, who can play full-back as well.
Wide players - big decisions are necessary here. Theo will be pressing for a very lucrative new contract but, before he gets too greedy, he might understand that we have lots of talent here. Arshavin will hopefully be sold on. We loved the Meerkat, but he failed us too often, and I suspect we played him out of position. He may raise a significant fee if we can offload him to a Russian club with more money than sense. If it were up to me, I’d sell Gervinho, because he has underwhelmed me all season. and I see no sign of real improvement. He’d likely fetch a serious fee as well, but I suspect Wenger won’t give up on him yet.
Strikers - RvP has been sensational and has stayed fit all season. He is world-class, and I am assuming he will be here next season. But I don’t believe we will keep him if he indicates he wants to leave. We might come to a deal similar to the one with Henry in 2006, where he stays for one more season after signing a long contract, but will agree a move with Wenger if the team doesn’t shape up next year. Bendtner, the self-proclaimed “World’s Greatest striker” has had the sort of season most of us expected at Sunderland. That’s about his level but he has a very good contract and won’t be easy to move on. Chamakh, he of the Shisha pipe and poor first-touch, is on his way out (hopefully for a decent fee) and perhaps Park can finish his medical at Lille and sign on for them next season. Vela is keen to move to Real Sociedad if they can afford him. Afobe probably needs a season in the Premiership on loan after serious injury problems.
So we have a need to offload around 15 players who might bring us around £30-35 million in transfer fees but might save us significantly more than that in wages. It’s easy to play Football Manager in your mind at times like these, but I think Wenger might do the following
Goalkeeper - Szczesny needs good, experienced back-up from an experienced goalkeeper the appearance of whose name on the team-sheet if he is injured wouldn’t make us wince! My choice would be Jussi Jääskeläinen of Bolton, who has been displaced by Bogdan but was a top-class keeper and should still do a fine job - and would probably accept back-up at Arsenal. Craig Gordon or Sorensen are other possibles. Martinez is apparently top-quality. I’d let him go out on a loan where we could recall him if we had injury problems.
