Addressing the Mad Mad Mad World of Arsenal’s Transfer Meltdown

It’s transfer deadline day and by all indications, Arsenal plan to stand pat. No new striker, no new DM, no new nothing. The expected meltdown is epic. From all corners arm chair managers and technical directors crying over the fact that we have not spend a reported £200m on players.

It’s laughable really. No, not the fact we didn’t spend money. It’s laughable that people base a club’s chances at success purely on who they purchase in a transfer window. If you spend any time on social media – which I believe most do, then you know that we will surely fail because we haven’t spent all of our money on new players.

As I write that I get a chuckle. Every year I watch the meltdowns and ask myself what in god’s name did these people do before social media when most transfers weren’t announced until the day after the window closed.

On one level the meltdowns are to be expected. Football is a business now. Money spent can equate to success. But can not spending money do the same?

Before I go on a little anecdote:

I am a youth soccer coach in the US. I currently coach at 3 levels – U18, U12 and U8. Each year I go through a tryout process and have to select a roster of players for my squads. Turnover dependent on both my own choices and a player’s family choice to seek out another club.

Early on in my coaching career I was taught – you have to live and die with your roster choices.

Essentially, parents in my area aren’t going to judge me (for the most part) on how well I develop their child. They will judge me on wins and losses. And my roster selection is part of that.

So why the anecdote? Well I’ve been thinking about that statement in context of Arsenal. Come 6PM UK time (1PM EST) today if no further signings occur it has to be clear that Wenger likes the squad that he has and feels that what it would take to get the world class players in is too much.

Now before anyone goes on and starts ranting by calling me or this blog “Wenger apologists” – settle down. I’ve always been fair. This blog tries to separate passion for the team and look at things impartially.

At the end of the day Wenger has always said he likes his attacking options. He likes the team as its constituted. If that’s his feelings – then he has to be assessed on that and what he does with a squad he is backing.

Is that a wait till May kind of statement? Sort of. If it takes the end of the season to get an honest assessment then so be it. However, if poor runs occur and we can’t continue to score then the assessment can happen a lot sooner than May.

I never get worked about transfers. I love the big ones that come in but in the end I look at the squad and the players wearing our colors and support them. That’s what we do. I’m not going to complain about what or what didn’t happen.

As a supporter our lot in life is the right to bitch and moan. But some of it now has gotten to the point that it is about things other than how good or bad we’ve played. Now it’s about things we don’t have any insight to.

We can pretend all we want that a few people on twitter know something about our transfer dealings – clearly they don’t. We don’t know whether or not we truly went after any of the players we’ve been linked to.

I keep going back to Wenger’s assertions that he likes his attacking options. I remember him saying in January last year his transfer focus was on defense – which led to the signing of Gabriel.

Is his faith wrong? Who can say. Yesterday there was video being shared around social media with Patrick Vieira talking about the trust Wenger shows in his players being one of his strongest attributes and conversely a weakness.

But he’s now got to sink or swim with this squad. Are we better than we were a year ago – I think so. We have depth across the board – even at striker. We did sign one of the best goalkeepers in the league this summer.

You simply can’t sit here and say that other teams are better than us because they’ve signed players. It ignores so many other factors. You have to look at the total picture. It’s hard because when the passion of support comes into play you only look at what’s in front of you.

I was challenged on the signings by the likes of Chelsea, City, United and Liverpool being told how much better those teams have gotten. The logic is just by signing players they are better. That logic ignores other realities of each of the teams.

You need to look at United and know that the signings are the least of the worries. Louis Van Gaal has that team in shambles right now. On the pitch they look lethargic and without a clue. Off it they are in turmoil because they don’t seem to be operating correctly. I look at United’s signings and don’t think they’ve done anything to make them any better than they were last year.

The only team you can truly say is likely better off this season than last is City. But they haven’t addressed what happens when the lose Aguero, Toure or Kompany to injury. They’ve shown that when any of those players are out they struggle.

The fact is this, as a fan we reserve the right to bitch and moan but for the love of Pete could that moaning have some context or rationale thought behind it (it’s a rhetorical question.)

I’m not going to make some absurd claim that we should support the team we have. We all have our reasons for our frustrations with Arsenal. What I am going to do is say that at some point it has to be okay to assess Wenger on his decision to stand pat and ride it out with this squad.