Continuing on from yesterday’s part 1

Recruitment

Dissent

The injuries to centre-backs Mertesacker and Gabriel in the first and last pre-season friendly matches and the lack of subsequent recruitment of an experienced replacement (despite Monsieur Wenger publicly agreeing with the need for such), and a striker upgrade, rather over-shadowed both the pre-season and opening matches. Boos rang out at the end of the Liverpool match and supporter unrest for the season was quickly underway. As usual, there was much more significant dissent away and at Leicester there were various critical chants. These included some questioning Monsieur Wenger’s competence, others expressing a desire for him to leave, but - most loudly of all - a very clear and near universal expression of the travelling Arsenal supporters’ desire for the Club to spend significantly more money on player recruitment.

Monsieur Wenger’s tetchy response to the dissent and the issue of recruitment lead to an extraordinary defence of his inactivity. “We are a club with 600 employees who we need to have a responsible attitude [towards] as well.” It is hard to see how Arsenal’s global record levels of football club cash reserves needed to be maintained to ensure paying non-playing workers, many of whom are on the minimum wage. Such extraordinary and unique prudence, especially given the television riches flooding into the Premier League, certainly doesn't extend to the £3m paid to the billionaire absentee owner for ‘consultancy fees’ which no one at the Club has ever satisfactorily explained.

Exits and remains

Joel Campbell went out on yet another loan, to Sporting Lisbon this time, as his extensive footballing tour of Europe continued and, in all likelihood, will never return. Having had a troubled acquisition and ineligibility problems in 2011, he finally got his chance last season and seemed a technically gifted, hard working and defensively diligent player. Yet he never seemed to get all the opportunities he deserved and somehow seemed to remain behind Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain in the manager’s thoughts.

New arrival Takuma Asano was shipped straight out to Stuttgart in the Bundesliga. Chuba Akpom remained, perhaps because of Welbeck’s injury, likewise Yaya Sanago – who has yet to feature and start to show a supposed promise that few supporters detected. The biggest surprise was Mathieu Debuchy, also yet to feature, staying at the club. When Carl Jenkinson returns from injury and with Rob Holding also able to play right-back, the position appears rather over-subscribed.

Transfer window Recruitment

There was a huge consensus among supporters, Arsenal supporters’ websites, former players, pundits, journalists, that there was an obvious need for another centre forward option and defensive midfield cover, at least, before the start of last season. There were also concerns that the centre-back position also needed upgrading and these were subsequently born out by events. Of Arsenal’s three specialist centre backs last season, only Laurent Koscielny was consistent enough to cement a regular starting place as the second position oscillated between Per Mertesacker and Gabriel, largely due to poor form.

There was no sign of any desire to re rectify the situation until Mertesacker’s injury on 22 July. Yet Per has one year left on his contract and is at the latter stages of his top flight career. And Gabriel seemed no closer to establishing himself in the position. With no planned upgrade, the scenario would have been similar to that with Arteta, Rosicky and Flamini last season and Mohamed Elneny and Granit Xhaka not being signed until 6 / 12 months too late.

The need to buy an experienced centre back was accepted by Monsieur Wenger after Per Mertesacker was injured on 22 July. Then Gabriel’s injury on 7 August compounded the situation further. The first three matches fell on 14, 20 and 27 of August, yet, astonishingly, no-one was signed by then. Finally, having been the subject of specific transfer speculation, Shkodran Mustafi was signed from Valencia after the weekend and announced. The 6 foot, 24 year old, 13 caps international was a late addition to the German Euros squad. The fee of £35m is comfortably the highest Arsenal have paid for a defender. But, whilst he featured as a 61st minute substitute in the Euro 2016 semi-final on 7 July for Germany, he had limited match time in the tournament and surely could have been of use in the opening matches had he been signed and integrated earlier. There are no guarantees, as evidenced by his replacement at Valencia (on loan), Manchester City’s Eliaquim Mangala – signed for around £32m in 2014. Nevertheless, recently - in Bellerin, Monreal, Koscielny, Coquelin, Elneny, and so far Xhaka and Holding - Monsieur Wenger has proved a good judge of individual defensive ability.

The activation of his release clause and attempt to sign Jamie Vardy caused great surprise. But in the absence of many available world class upgrades to the much maligned Olivier Giroud, there seemed to be a good logic. He could both supplant or supplement Giroud. He added pace and directness and relentless harassing of defenders, as well as much needed desire, spikiness and aggression. Eventually he said no and to great angst among supporters, plan B seemed to be to make completely unrealistic low bid(s) for Lyon’s Alexandre Lacazette with the French club stating ‘Arsenal made a formal offer of €35m (£29.3m) and there was no addition as the season started.

And then, together with Shkodran, along came Lucas Perez who, like Vardy, had a modest release clause (€20m / £17.1m). Some supporters were underwhelmed with what for many, other than Arsenal’s recruitment team, was an unknown player. But the similarities with Vardy didn't stop at the modest release clause. Lucas scored in a club record 7 consecutive games, including against Barcelona and Atletico Madrid, before going on to score 19 in all competitions for the 15th place La Liga side, having again helped his home town club avoid relegation. The 27 year old also achieved success late in his career, having previously had spells in Greece and (very unhappily) the Ukraine before his €1.5m move home. And as Sid Lowe wrote in The Guardian last December after he equalled the scoring record, “he is always moving. It looks like it means everything to him. Quick, determined, chasing everything, there's a kind of desperation about the way he plays, a need to win.”

Perhaps, after all, Monsieur Wenger did learn something from Leicester about hunger, commitment and desire? But untouched by the Euros, why was he not signed earlier, assimilated on the pre-season tour with him being unquestionably fit to start against Liverpool? Similarly, Rob Holding. Was it worth the apparent delay to try to shave Premier League peanuts off the very modest price paid to Bolton, a fraction of what was paid without hesitation to Southampton for the even more inexperienced Calum Chambers? Did Arsenal end up paying even more for Shkodran after delaying? And surely the fruitless pursuit of Lacazette at Monsieur Wenger's historic valuation was completed delusional? It is hard to see how that business model will bring about the best dividend, having let the obvious gaps in the team concede five early points to less hesitant and more market savvy key rivals.

Nevertheless, whereas Chelsea and Manchester United made four major signings each, and Manchester City six - some admittedly at eye-watering prices - those clubs had significantly underperformed last season and had new managers overhauling their squads. So, having signed Granit Xhaka early for around £30m Arsenal’s net transfer spending reached around £85m. As a result, Arsenal have for the first time in very many seasons, a squad that does not appear to many supporters and others, two or three players short (albeit some would argue still a world class centre-forward short). To Arsenal Audit it looks complete for the first time since The Invincibles broke up. There is a potentially pacy starting team of Cech, Bellerin, Monreal, Koscielny, Mustafi, Xhaka, Elneny, Lucas, Ozil, Alexis and Welbeck (once fit). And decent back up from Ospina, Debuchy, Gibbs, Mertesacker, Gabriel, Holding, Coquelin, Cazorla, Ramsey, Iwobi, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Giroud.

Arsenal's prospects for the remaining season

The early signs of the season have hardly been encouraging. The friendlies were dogged by injuries again seriously weakening a defence that had previously needed reactive reinforcements for three successive Januaries and many supporters had argued - rightly so last season at least - upgrading in any case. Dissent translated from supporters websites and social media to boos after the chickens came home to roost after another disastrous home Premier League opener. A tepid draw at Leicester led to vociferous chants again questioning Monsieur Wenger's competence, future, and particularly the Club’s player recruitment.

The captaincy stayed with a third successive incumbent afflicted by injury and problems while form and the idea of leaders all over the pitch seemed as fanciful as ever as Arsenal capitulated against Liverpool after a promising start. Monsieur Wenger admitted that the squad was insufficiently physically prepared for the opening matches yet Arsenal's traditional key rivals overcame very much more significant difficulties and opened up a five point lead after just two matches. The British core looked more unlikely than ever to be the loyal and successful future of the Club as Jack Wilshere headed out to Bournemouth on loan to try and rebuild his ailing domestic and international career.

The early signing of the similarly aged Granit Xhaka, a defensive midfielder with a great passing range had hardly helped the British core crown jewel. A Premier League standard win against Watford was followed by the signings of Shkodran Mustafi and, a seemingly Spanish version of Jamie Vardy, Lucas Perez. And, even if stubbornly wedded to 4-2-3-1, the tactical possibilities in setting up according to the opposition and counter-attacking possibilities are there. And Xhaka and Perez could add much needed bite.