To my immense surprise, Arsenal bought a player yesterday.
And not just any player. Several friends whose opinion I value highly sought me out to tell me just what a good player Arsenal have got. To be fair, his CV speaks for itself: Nacho Monreal is a Spanish international at the peak of his career.
Were it not for an injury to Kieran Gibbs on the eve of the transfer window, I doubt anyone would have arrived. Arsene Wenger revealed in his press conference today that Gibbs could miss as many as eight weeks with a thigh problem, and the prospect of relying on Andre Santos for that crucial period of the season was obviously not something the manage was prepared to face.
It shows you how swiftly a deal can be done when there’s a bit of urgency. I have spent most of this window frustrated with Arsene’s reluctance to enter the market. He seems to have fallen out of love with the entire idea of transfers; his recent quotes suggest he finds them dirty and a bit sordid. He views them as the ugly side of football – a side he would rather not engage with.
His relationship with the market seems to have been irrevocably soured by the sages over the likes of Fabregas, Nasri and Van Persie. Meantime many of his own signings have floundered. In the last few years, transfers have been more hurtful than helpful.
He’s wrong to be dismissive of transfers. People rightly laugh at cheque-book managers, but good recruitment is a skill. There are deficiencies in Arsenal’s squad and a club with our resources ought to be able to correct them.
Monreal is a great start. I would have liked to have seen him supplemented by a defensive midfielder and a striker, but despite reported bids for Etienne Capoue and David Villa, it wasn’t to be.
We’ve been allowed to get away with it, though. I expected our rivals for fourth place, Spurs and Everton, to make significant additions in this window. Instead, Tottenham only added Lewis Holtby, failing to sign the striker or holding midfielder they plainly need. Everton, meanwhile, got an England U-19 International defender and missed out on ambitious moves for Alvaro Negredo and Leroy Fer.
I expected both clubs to consolidate their strong league position with a few speculative purchases. Instead, they’ve allowed us right back in to the game.
No-one predicted the signing of Monreal. However, as usual with Arsene Wenger, there were clues. A few days ago, he said of the January window:
“It’s a market for me that is a wrong transfer market because the only teams who sell players are teams in financial trouble.”
His sympathy obviously only extends so far, as he returned to the club from whom he stole Santi Cazorla, debt-ridden Malaga, to take another top talent.
It’s unusual for Arsene Wenger to sign a player who provides genuine competition for an established first-team player. His squads usually have quite a rigid hierarchy, with a clear first XI and then a set of reserves. Nacho Monreal breaks that mould: he has not come here to play second fiddle to Kieran Gibbs. Once Gibbs is fit again, there will be a genuine tussle between these those two.
That is how it should be. Competition is healthy, and important. Has the emergence of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain seen a decline in the form of Theo Walcott? Quite the opposite.
For the first time in a long time, Arsene Wenger may have the option of rotating a member of his defence without significantly weakening the side.
For now, however, Monreal has the left-back slot to himself. He is cup-tied for the European clash with Bayern Munich, but I expect him to slot straight in for tomorrow’s Premier League tie with Stoke.
Let’s just hope the orcs don’t end up feasting on Nacho.
Even if Arsene finds the system of transfers distasteful, he appears to not be alone.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2271803/David-Sullivan-bullying-threats-violence-agent-demands-transfer-window.html
Yeah, we weren’t exactly bucking the trend. It wasn’t particularly the busiest transfer window by any means.
That said…should have got the striker and Capoue.
Monreal is not available against Bayern. If (touch wood) say vermaelen takes a knock, we will see Santos there. If Koscielny takes a knock and Vermaelen shifts to LB for the game, we are short of one player to partner Per…other than Brighton hopeful Squillacior the other promising but very young Nacho …Miquel.
Letz c how it goes,,,,
The reason why recent Wenger signings have not been great, is because he goes for the cheapest option always. It is not about the cost of the player, but there is a reason why Cavani is expensive, because he can make a difference. It seems Wenger will only buy when he absolutely has to, otherwise he will make do. To him it is about the economics and business of the team, not so much about winning cups. At Arsenal success is measured by the profitability of the team, not success on the trophy hunt. And if it just happens that they win something then all the better.
Nah. there’s also opportunity cost to take into consideration.
Wenger is also projecting what may come on market in the summer.
To that he weighs against risk he is prepared to take. It’s cutting it somewhat close for all of us but he obviously thinks he can secure the minimum with what we’ve got.
Considering that we now have 7 unwanted players on our list (Park, Bendtner, Chamakh, Denilson, Arsharvin, Squillaci,Santos), you realise that he should not take on second choice players.
In a sense it has made it that much harder to add into the squad. The criteria/bar has been raised for the incoming players. They have to be players of top drawer quality (since this summer) and we’ve seen it with the new additions – Santi, Giroud and Podolski where two summers ago, we had a mix bag (arteta, Per, Benayoun, Gervinho, CHmaberlain largely succesful) where as (santos, Park,earlier Chamakh, squillaci) clearly not.
Therein lies the conundrum.
OTOH, there is a value argument that he should be prepared to pay the extra quid or 5 above the threshold held by his sound economic instincts purely because we are still in vulnerable risk position-wise in the league and clearly following last game, still not wholly convincing.
Wenger out
I don’t believe that transfer went though.;)
I am happy we have signed an international player with experience, and I am happy that he is named after a food. What’s the odds that Arsenal will now launch a line of nachos at the snack bar, and Mr Nacho will get a cut of the profits?
Will be the most expensive nachos you’ve ever bought.
we have to raise £8.5m somehow. £8.50 a serve of nachos would mean you english lads will have to buy 1 million nachos over the life of his 4 year contract. 19 games a season, means 13,157 serves every premier league game (I’m not including cup games or friendlies).
you boys better get used to nachos
Hi GS,
The thing about signing on just about anyone (say second tier targets is :
1) For certain positions (Striker at the moment) the list of available top quality strikers that suit what we need to complement Giroud is very very short
2) If we don’t land them, taking on someone second choice may constitute opportunity cost down the line (summer) when someone truly good comes on.
Remember, we already have 3 unwanted strikers still on our list with no ability to shed them. The last thing we need is one more to add to our second eleven (We could honestly start a new Arsenal team of rejects to play championship footy except Squillaci would prefer not to)
Of course the other side of the coin is whether with our better revenue this season, we should pay a couple of million quid extra and get those top players anyway. the likes of Leandro (Spds target) and Jovetic were rumoured to be available sub 20m mark.
Capoue (or Toulouse) was motivated at 12m
There is a fair amount of truth in saying that the gaffer is a little too rigid with his buying structure considering our vulnerability in league position.
OTOH, although cup tied, I’m pleased that we forked out for the full monty on Monreal. Evidently nacho average Left Back. Also available to play further forward. An excellent signing it looks like.
Kuzmanovic was available.on the cheap. Shoudlve.got him. Wenger out
he was the greatest on fm09. never bought him because i concentrated on recruiting a frenchie midfield of menez, nasri, sankhare and ben arfa, but i liked kuzmanovic a lot. one of the best midfielders in the world in that game.
“He’s wrong to be dismissive of transfers. People rightly laugh at cheque-book managers, but good recruitment is a skill”
first of you go on about how he is “wrong to be dismissive of transfers”, well who told you he is dismissive? noone, you made that out your mind/arse. you are calling him wrong for something which exists only in your mind, a hypothesis that he dismisses transfers entirely.
have you ever heard him say that he doesnt like or want to do transfers? i see him say the opposite, i see him say that provided he finds the right player he will do it. Hence, THE RECRUITMENT POLICY, a concept in which you felt you had to remind a professional like wnger that its a needed skill?
are you suggesting that wenger is not good at recruiting personnel? that he hasnt got skill in identifying and getting the right players/people for his plans?
is it ok now if i critisise your blogging skills and abuse you and your work since i caught you under-performing? or is such a behaviour only reserved for the manager and our players from our own “fans”?
that’s unaustralian, hunter13
australia ? never been there yet mate. glad to though one day
Haha dad,
He wants to tell Sir Arsene how to go about recruiting world class football players…. lolz.
Maybe Sir Arsene will teach you how to play better Football Manager…..loool…..Oh wait! he doesn’t play at being football manager – He really is one!
Wenger has in the last four season done some poor pice of business that is for sure. Arshavin, Chamack, Santos, Squill, Park, And sold Cesc, RVP, the rest sold is no problem. So one could argue that he has done a poor job indded. Not to mention how much money those tranfers has cost us and not to mention the fact we pay them so much we can`t shift them and buy better players. Yes he has done a poor job.
I’d like to see what other manager in the world could build new £350m stadium (with good grass) whilst winning 4th place trophy every season.
You think boring Mourinho could? ….No
You think money bags Fergie could? ….No
Maybe “Messi” Guardiola? …Yeah right
Sir Arsene is the No. 1 Football Manager in the world. You silly Englanders need to show some respect. And better still, first learn how to grow good grass
They have no appreciation of the good grass, week in week out always good grass.
a poor job ? according to what standards? yours ? his? rivals?
you cant use such expressions and not back them up.
Just to point out, that there’s a slight lack of research here:
Nacho Boy was heavily scouted by Bayern in the summer, upon initial interest they found him lacking as a player and therefore did not pursue a transfer… Just saying. Presenting him as an A-Lister is a bit heavy… (not to say that he can’t be one of those Wenger-pulled-out-of-the-hat tricks).
Are you seriously believing all those transfer rumors? Arsenal also have bus load of players that were supposedly “heavily scouted”, but never signed.
Maybe they were not good enough. Maybe the owning club didn’t accept our bid. Maybe the player opted to stay. Or more likely than not, those news stories were never credible to begin with.
Dad, tell these peasants how we’re the real supporters….
(and also tell them about the grass)
By arsene wengers standard.
Let’s see how this move plays out.