The Window is Closed or No Use In Crying Over Spilled Milk

The window is shut. It was made by those who are dead, and the dead keep it. The window is shut

We’re done. It’s over and the window is shut. Only 122 days, 2929 hours, 175790 minutes, 10547403 seconds until the January transfer windows opens. Let the speculation begin.

Anyway, I’ve heard it all today, from the down trodden, to the angry and to those who are like “och well, these are the chips we are dealt, onward Arsenal.” I know the pulse of all of you and I would say the majority are ticked off. My opinion on all this madness differs but it bears some discussion I am sure (and we don’t have a match this weekend).

First let me reiterate, I agree with everyone who says that the duo of Almunia and Fabianksi in goal was the cause for many of our lost points last season. Both have deficiencies that over the last year and half have become painfully obvious. When Almunia burst into the scene uprooting Jens Lehmann many thought we had a true gamer. In reality it looks like we have a good shot stopper who’s biggest problem is an inability to be decisive and command the box. He’s shown flashes that he can do that if he wills it but frankly he has been to inconsistent and his faults have cost us. AS for Fabianksi, I’m sorry but the problems of the older of our two Polish stoppers is painfully obvious. While he commands the box a little bit more than Almunia his decision making is down right awful. His performance against Wigan last year was atrocious and in a friendly this year he about played himself out of any hope of regiaining the team or fan’s confidence.

The truth is, if  you chose to believe it, is that we have two promising talents in Vito Mannone and Wojicech Czszesny. Mannone performed admirably as a fill in for the injured Almunia and Fabianski. His performance at Fulham in the early part of last season earned him priase and regard by the Arsenal faithful. The kid with one vowel in his last name, well, we’re going mainly on friendlies and reports of other people but by all accounts he is a gifted youngster who could be the real deal.

But that doesn’t make the inability to land a goal keeper by the last day of the transfer window any less painful to the Arsenal faithful. It’s clear that Arsenal had a target – Mark Schwarzer. They laid an offer down for him May, went away to the World Cup and still couldn’t land him. Many people don’t rate Schwarzer that highly, but he single handedly willed and performed Fulham to the Europa Cup final. Additionally, as the Australian NT stopper he performed quite well in South Africa. He was not a long-term solution and the deal would’ve been for two years. Enough time for him to act as player coach and bring along the young talent. This was absolutely the right move to make. If you believe you have talented players in any position – you don’t want to clog the top with long-term contracts that won’t get them that access. Plus you had a player that was willing to do the role the club were bringing him to do.

The likes of Given, Lloris, Marchetti, et al. Would’ve been longer term projects. It would’ve forced both Mannone and Czszesny to sit on the bench even longer. Arsenal seem intent on not letting these two fester on the bench and frankly I agree with that plan. While they may not be ready for prime time, they are pretty damn close and having a guide like Schwarzer help bring them along was the right antidote.

But alas its not going to happen. Almunia now has to go out, and after hearing that he was not wanted and perform at a high enough level to keep Arsenal in the title hunt. He now has to show that he belongs here. Arsenal faithful are now going to get a chance to see what Manny is really made of. Does he have the intestinal fortitude of Emmanuel Eboue and can he change people’s perceptions of him? Or, is he a shrinking violet and will he wilt under the pressure? That remains to be seen.

So it’s happened. We have the team we are dealt with. If you look at our additions, Marouane Chamakh, Laurent Koscielny and Sebastien Squillaci – we have added to our attack and made our defence younger and quicker. If you look at who we lost in my opinion only the intangibles of Campbell and Gallas’ leadership is what we lost. Ever since he was rapped by Drogba, Senderos was never going to be a solid CB choice, and he now is spending the entire season in Fulham’s training room instead of ours. Mikael Silvestre is off doing his thing in Germany for Werder Bremen. Sorry we didn’t lose anything there. As for Gallas, I don’t agree with those that think he made Vermaelen look better. Vermaelen made him look better. When you look back at some of last year games it is always TV5 covering for an out of position Gallas. Additional from a header perspective – he was one of the worst in the EPL. Sol Campbell was never going to be an every day player. He was likely Carling and FA Cup fodder and was going to be a leader on and off the pitch. But he decided he wanted to play every day and decided Newcastle’s 1 year deal was better than Arsenal’s 1 year deal.

If reports from training are correct Squillacci is a hard ass and a strong player. What we know of Koscielny is that for someone of his age he does very well at learning on the fly and correcting problems so they do not happen again. Yes, he needs to spend time in the weight room so he doesn’t get out muscled like he did against Fulham. But his positional and situational awareness are very good and like Vermaelen he is rarely caught out of position. His completed pass rate is 86% second on the team to Vermaelen who has a 100% completed pass rate.  I think our CB will obviously be anchored by TV5 with Koosh and Seba rotating based on the game. Seba if he is the hard man we’ve been led to believe will likely see action against players like Drogba, Rooney and Tevez.

So we’re done. We’ll each believe what we want to believe. I personally don’t buy into the conspiracy theory that this was all done so that we could cement a top 4 place. I’m sorry there is noone in professional sports – globally – that comes out and says, “Hey this season, I want to finish 3rd.” It just doesn’t happen. Criticize Arsene for being too dependent on a youth policy. Fair point to rail about waiting until the close of the window to do business. Be critical of his team selections. But to say he doesn’t want to win is ridiculous and is an easy way out.

So I will ask you the question that Tim from 7amkickoff and I spent an hour on the phone discussing – given what you think of our frailties – realistically what could the team have done?