Arsène Wenger must be a man with a sense of humour. It’s the only real reason I can think of as to why he thinks this summer has been a good one so far, following an interview in some random Swedish media outlet.
He’s been quoted as saying that he is very pleased with our market so far and whilst from a signings perspective you can say that they two players appear to be settling in quite well, it does come across as if he’s happy and pretty content to let these last few days of the window play out without any signings.
If that is the case Arsène may say that he’s happy, but whether that’s true or not I’m not sure, because he’ll be one of the few who actually are happy with what’s happened. Let’s not forget that this summer was supposed to be a summer of answers. It’s not just about signing players, but about getting answers on existing players, yet here we are a couple of weeks in to the new season and:
- A host of players who have been frozen out of the club are yet to be moved on
- Some key positions – like midfield – have yet to be addressed
- Some key contracts – like Özil, Alexis and The Ox – have yet to be sorted out
We were promised changed and yet we have been delivered the same. This has not been a good summer at all. Even if we’d have moved people on and tied down a couple of players to new deals without signing any more players on top of what we already have, Arsène could argue that it’s been somewhat of a successful summer, but as it stands he’s fooling nobody.
And now the noises from multiple media sources – which usually mean there’s no smoke without fire – are saying that the Ox won’t sign a new deal, which if true, surely means that a swift sale has to be made. Wenger can probably get away with holding on to Alexis and losing on a free, but keeping ansquad player of other clubs are offering big cash, is just a pointless exercise when you can take the money and reinvest the cash. So I hope that if that’s true, Arsenal move quickly – lightning quickly – to move the player on.
But I’m not holding out much hope. Simply because I’ve been on this earth 34 summers and the last six or seven of them have seen Arsenal to the same sh*t every year and just fall short of a proper title-winning looking team. So I expect more of the same come this time next week. I expect Arsenal to do the bare minimum to strengthen to try to just about scrape the Champions League. Because that’s all that Arsène is really looking at; getting back in to a competition we have no chance of winning. Whoop-de-f*cking-doo.
It’s the only explanation I have when I see other teams saying “eff this, we’re gonna try to have a proper go by strengthening our team”, by improving their numbers, yet we stand still. I don’t want Arsenal to spend beyond its means, just use the money we do have to get stronger. Everyone in the Premier League now has cash, yet we’re still holding on to our reserves, for what reason I have no idea.
There aren’t even little rumours here or there either at the moment. No snippets of info leaking out and much like I said with the Ox situation, usually this is a case of no smoke without fire. Well, when it comes to incomings at the moment there isn’t even a puff right now.
We have a week. Things can still happen. But I’m beginning to lose any remaining belief I had that things would happen.
Catch you all tomorrow.
You’re absolutely right when you say that this is supposed to be a summer of answers. Too many people wanted Wenger to go and when the contract was signed I expected to get quite a few impact players signed early, especially after the rumours about Mbappe etc.
But it does seem to be playing out exactly the same as every other year for who knows how long.
I’m tempted to say let’s wait and see what has happened on 1st September, but I’ve done that for years and it’s usually bitten me on the arse.
Same here. Come 1st September I think you also know what your feelings will be Rich – mine probably the same too.
The truth is Arsenal is still worse off than last season in terms of strengthening the team. What business have we actually done and how much have we spent? Maybe 10mil or thereabouts when you add and deduct what has been spent on Lacazette and the sales of schezney, Gabriel and other fringe players. Kolasinac was brought in on a free. I am sure Everton will even end up higher than Arsenal this season. Forget the top four places. The problem with Wenger is that he has lost touch with the modern game. He believes so much in his average players who albeit have no competition for places and that is why they are so pedestrian. Ramsey, Xhaka, Ozil and the likes have no competition and have no players pushing them for places. They know they can be average and below par and will still be the first on the team sheet. Only Wenger believes in the team and not the team perse but he is just a business man that believes in balancing the books for the board and not on the sporting side and winning things. Trust Arsenal will become a mid table team struggling to even qualify for Europe before he leaves. Don’t blame all the players who wanna leave. They knew they can never win things with Arsenal.