James Goyder
The transfer window opens in 40 days’ time. The World Cup kicks off in 45 days’ time and the 2018-19 Premier League season begins on August 11th, less than a month after the World Cup final.
It’s a hectic schedule for any club, let along one which is dealing with its first managerial change in over two decades. While few around the Emirates wanted the Arsene Wenger era to be extended, fans should also face the reality that things could get worse before they get better.
Getting Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan tied down to long terms contracts, along with last summer’s signing of Alexander Lacazette, should more or less take care of things at the sharp end of the pitch.
With Arsenal having splurged over £100 million on attackers in the last two transfer windows the new manager is unlikely to have funds to make any more major signings in this area. But the defensive situation needs addressing urgently, and it could quite accurately be described as ‘desperate’.
As the season’s progressed it has become increasingly clear why Wenger might have tried to sell Shkodran Mustafi to Inter Milan last summer. He looks a total liability, the German’s judgment is terrible and for a World Cup winner he makes an incredible amount of unnecessary errors.
Unfortunately Laurent Koscielny’s form has also lapsed. The injury prone Frenchman has looked unconvincing this season, having to constantly compensate for Mustafi’s errors has exasperated the problem, but it seems he’s coming to the end of an otherwise impressive Arsenal career.
Would a new manager see either Calum Chambers or Rob Holding as the solution to this problem? Moving the always reliable Nacho Monreal into the middle sounds a more viable short term option but there aren’t many world class centre backs on the market and £50 million seems to be about the going rate.
Then there’s the man between the posts. Petr Cech was one of the best in the world in that position, but this season he’s looked like the calibre of ‘keeper who would be more at home in a mid table Premier League team than one which supposedly has title winning aspirations.
What about the Granit Xhaka dilemma, encapsulated by his performances against Atletico Madrid and Man Utd? The midfielder’s passing was outstanding in both games but he repeatedly committed stupid fouls and demonstrated why he has become such a divisive figure at Arsenal.
Some managers might feel this is a central midfielder they could build a team around. Others will view Xhaka as a liability due to his well highlighted lapses in judgement and concentration. The squad status of the Swiss international remains very much in the air until an appointment is made.
Let’s not forget that Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere are both out of contract in the summer. The similarity between their current situations pretty much ends there but either could end up being a key man in Arsenal’s midfield next season, or leaving on a free transfer next month.
It’s a lot to think about, particularly when you consider that funds will presumably be limited. Arsenal potentially need a new goalkeeper, central defender and central midfielder with this summer’s World Cup giving clubs a very limited window of opportunity in which to get their transfer business done.
Mourinho and Guardiola will both have identified their targets, and be working with £100m budgets. Liverpool have already signed one of the best central midfielders in the Bundesliga and Arsenal will need to make some extremely shrewd moves in the coming months if they want to close the gap on the top three, let alone overtake them.
It means the club can’t afford to wait until the end of the current season to appoint a new manager. They need to get the new man in place immediately so that he can start identifying transfer targets and decide which members of the current squad he wants to move on.
Yet, there’s clearly a structure in place where players can be purchased without managerial input. It’s difficult to imagine that the January signings of Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan would have been sanctioned purely on Wenger’s say so. But the new man will be in control of first team affairs and it’s impossible to see how all these situations can be satisfactorily resolved without his involvement.
The club is entering a period of transition which could prove to be extremely traumatic. It’s absolutely essential that the new manager hits the ground running next season. With every passing day Wenger’s eventual replacement is losing ground on his rivals.
