A fantastic summer of action in the transfer window coupled with all the action from Euro 2012, it has been a very busy "off-season" for football fans. The transfer window has officially closed for most leagues. After an agonising transfer window for Gooners in 2011, we had hoped the worst was over and we would have learnt some lessons from that. Unfortunately, things haven't been much different, we still ended up with a transfer surplus and AGAIN lost two big names from our team. What we feared many seasons ago have become a reality, we ARE a "selling" club.
When we sold Patrick Vieira, aged 29, to Juventus in 2005, everyone praised Arsenal, knowing how to cash in on a player past his prime. It happened again in 2007 when we sold Thierry Henry, past his best, still making a handsome profit of 6 million after 8 years. At that point of time, the youth proposition was still pretty strong, we were building our team for the future, 4-5 years from then, there was promise we would have been world beaters with likes of Cesc Fabregas and Van Persie spearheading the team. It is the actual 4-5 years now, that's certainly NOT the case. Since the cashing in on Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Adebayor in 2008, the exodus has worsened and the team is going nowhere.
It has been the same old story this summer, with Van Persie on his last year of his contract, we apparently had "no choice" but to sell him. We could have lost Theo Walcott as well, and he has still yet to sign a new contract as of now. Confirming a disastrous transfer window was the exit of Alex Song, a key pillar in the Arsenal team, when he just started to play the best football in his career. It's really been appalling in terms of players leaving this club. If money was so important to this club, why hasn't the club raised much from the sale of some out-of-favour and under-performing players?
Apart from selling Vela and Almunia permanently, we have raised NOTHING. If we had sold Bendtner (5m), Denilson (3m), Squillaci (2m), Chu Young (3m), Djourou (3m) and Arshavin (5m), we would have raised an additional 24 million pounds! (Vela:3m). With the available kitty of 40 million at the start of the season and assuming we did NOT run a transfer surplus, we would have 64 million available to spend and just imagine some top players we could have brought it. Obviously we didn't do that and we did not strengthen the squad further. 1 year on, there is still no sign of a replacement for Samir Nasri. This club is really not managed by the best people there can be. If Arsenal are a club only keen on making a profit, they have STILL NOT optimised the clubs funds and transfer policy, leaving the club to struggle for a top four position all over again.
Despite all the departures over the years, it's really unbelievable how we are still known as a top club. Imagine Arsenal being seeded in the Champions League draw, notwithstanding the fact we have never won the competition, went through qualifiers 3 times and only reached the semi finals ONCE in 15 years. It's a record we have tried to defend over the years and it has got to the stage where we have to concede we have failed to live up to expectations. People can say Arsenal are unlucky not to win. But when we compare ourselves to other teams over Wenger's tenure, Liverpool has got to the final twice, won once, Chelsea has been in the final twice, won once and of course Man Utd, reached the final 4 times, converting twice. If you were to add up all the semi finals they have been in, Arsenal's record is woeful at best.
Looking forward, we've signed three quality players this close season with hopes of transforming the club's fortunes. Podolski is a certainly a good player that will score goals with his brilliant left foot. Cazorla plays for the national team, so he's got to be of a certain standard. Giroud is the French league's top scorer and has the physique to adapt to the physicality of English football, he is a key man to deliver the goals this season. With Oxalde-Chamberlain , Walcott and Gervinho, there's still hope we do have enough firepower in our attacking play.
The difficult thing to accept would be we no longer attract the best talents in the world and we have to settle for the next tier of players. We used to think about building our own best talents, it's pretty clear that project has been a massive failure. NONE of our established players come from our youth system today (established players are a rarity in Arsenal anyway).The likes of Vela, Merida, Freeman, Emmanuel-Thomas, Nordtveit etc have all been future talk and none of them made it anywhere close to the first team, a clear indication the youth policy hasn't delivered. On the other side of the coin, try looking at successful clubs and whether they have any success with youth. With the exception of the golden boys of Man Utd (Scholes, Giggs, Neville and Beckham) and Barca (Xavi and Inniesta), the youth system success rate is very low. You look at Invicibles in 2004, I don't remember anyone coming from the youth system. Similar to what I mentioned in my previous post, success in the transfer market is key to real success in football today. Chelsea, Man Utd and now Man City have been good examples of that. Although they have occasionally stuffed up on some transfers, they have still been tops on absolute terms of good signings. While Arsenal are still haggling over a couple of million, bigger clubs (I say this with reluctance) are all dealing on a much larger scale.
Competitor Analysis
Chelsea have been most successful in terms of signings this summer with Eden Hazard and Oscar being their high profile captures. The European champions are all in to defend their crown and challenge for the league this season, which they finished a disappointing 5th last season. They have sold Raul Meireles and Michael Essien which is quite a statement of how strong they are.
Verdict: A very strong transfer window
Wildcard signing: Thorgan Hazard
Player to watch: Eden Hazard
Man Utd had the whole world of strikers to buy and they chose Arsenal's Robin van Persie. Some argue it is a gamble on a 29 year-old for such a price but RVP's record speaks volumes, the former Arsenal captain had a splendid season and is one of the best in the game. He has already started to pay off as of this writing but the big question mark still lies whether RVP can gel upfront with Rooney. If they can, it may be a very deadly partnership. Having said that, there are few partnerships upfront that are actually successful in the past. Kagawa should be a good signing for the Red Devils, he looks like a very interesting player, I reckon he would do better than Park.
Verdict: A bold move by SAF for RVP.
Wildcard signing: Angelo Henriquez
Player to Watch: Robin van Persie and Tom Cleverly.
Man City apparently had a very frustrating summer, according to manager Roberto Mancini. Reports suggest he missed out on Javi Martinez and RVP as the club was not supportive of his targets. However, it hasn't been a quiet summer for the Citizens, with the signing of Javi Garcia, Jack Rodwell and Maicon. Like Chelsea, they still could "afford" to lose Adebayor, De Jong and Adam Johnson. A surprise for me would be Tevez staying with all speculation of his career since the madness last season (Well only a few clubs could afford his wages). They pretty much still have their world class players who won them the title and are clear favourites to defend their title.
Verdict: Already have a fantastic squad of players, additions are not significant.
Wildcard signing: Jack Rodwell
Player to Watch: Javi Garcia
I have always looked forward to transfer windows for some salvation for Arsenal but Ivan and the rest seem to think very differently, including this one. It's nothing but pure frustration looking at this team having key pieces taken out season after season. Another thing that really troubles me is the quality of players we have, they are just not that good. It doesn't take a genius to know whether a team are title contenders. As much as I hope miracles can happen for this team, I don't think we have done enough to deserve one, please prove me wrong.
~deyao~
