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Transfer Update: Arsene’s Inertia Could Cost Arsenal Dear

645 comments January 11th, 2013

I don’t know why this blog is called a Transfer Update.  There are no transfers to update you on, really.  I’m writing it in the immediate aftermath of reading some truly baffling quotes from Arsene Wenger.

I’ve studied Arsene for more than ten years.  In the last few seasons, I’ve watched every one of his press conferences.  I have grown accustomed to his verbal ticks and repetitious rhetoric.  In recent months, amidst all the familiar traits – the wit, the charm, the searing analytical brain – I have seen a new trait creepy ominously in: doubt.

It used to be that when Arsene spoke about transfers in the press, you could write it off as bluff.  Bluff, however, is grounded in logic. Arsene’s recent words are those of a man who can’t quite make up his mind.

This very morning, he said:

“In England you are always under pressure to buy. We are still working in the transfer market but we only want exceptional players … Our squad is quite complete already.”

This comes just over a week after he told the media:

“I will be active, yes. Will I be concrete? I hope so. We are looking everywhere.”

The conviction is gone.  It’s a trend that’s not unfamiliar to those who’ve had to deal with Arsene Wenger in recent months.  Ask any agent who has spoken to him about a potential signing: his reaction is never more than lukewarm, never without caveats.  Despite the fact his Arsenal squad continues to to convince, the man solely responsible for recruitment is not sufficiently convinced by anyone outside it.

Meanwhile, through our gloomy transfer window, we watch good players come and go.  We know Arsene admired Demba Ba, but he decided not to move for him based on a fairly spurious belief that he was too similar to the significantly less predatory Olivier Giroud.  Arsenal scouts have watched Wilfried Zaha for months, but it seems the player will be allowed to join Manchester United uncontested.

The consequence for Arsenal is crippling inactivity.  Arsene sets a bar of “super super quality”, and sets about looking for a player to ease his own apprehensions about entering the market.  Such a player, of course, does not exist.  Arsenal procede to do nothing.  Perhaps, in a final scramble and with need for sheer numbers, they sign a player out of panic who is not good enough.  They then spend the next few transfer windows struggling to offload this player from their wage bill, hampering their financial potential, and so the cycle continues.

If you know who you want, January is not a complicated time to do a deal: Liverpool went and signed up Daniel Sturridge before the window was even open.  The club are not prohibited from looking for potential signings in the months between August and December.  If they haven’t found anyone of the requisite “quality” by now, I have no faith that they will do so in the coming few weeks.

Forgive me if this sounds a little over the top.  I am merely struggling to understand how an unconvincing draw with Swansea has done so much to erase Arsene’s belief that this team needs reinforcement.  Our rivals will doubtless continue to improve around us, so we ought to push on and do the same.  If we don’t, there is a very real risk that we will fail to achieve our basic goal for the season: Champions League qualification.

If our squad is “complete”, then why are Arsenal sixth?