Wenger’s high risk strategy not the one I was hoping for
August 30, 2012
I was well up for Arsenal taking some big money risks for once in the last couple of days of the transfer window.
This isn’t quite what I had in mind.
Following yesterday’s news that contract talks between Theo Walcott and the club had broken down, it’s emerged that Arsenal have decided to keep the player beyond tomorrow’s transfer deadline – but without getting him to sign a new deal. Apparently following ‘amicable’ talks between Arsene Wenger and Theo yesterday AW is so confident that Walcott is committed to the club that he’s prepared to let the deadline pass and run the risk of allowing him to move into the final year of his contract.
At first glance you have to say it looks…risky. Essentially we’ve taken a high stakes, who blinks first, Mexican stand off of a negotiation – and at the last minute fumbled our gun and seen it slip through a grate. Basically, if we don’t give them what they want they can now threaten to move Theo for free next summer. They can even start negotiating with other clubs in January.
It’s a curious decision indeed but I can only assume that Le Boss is so confident in Theo’s integrity and they’re so very close to coming to an agreement that we don’t even think of it as a risk. But then you have to ask yourself, if Theo’s that committed to the club and the deal is so close why not just give us all a few less sleepless nights and sign the stupid deal?
I’d like to think the reason is that all our negotiators and staff are so busy concluding deals to ship out those who need shipping out and bring in some exciting new faces that they simply don’t have time to deal with it. Alas that doesn’t seem to be the case. Things are deathly quiet. Even more quiet than usual and this is with only one and a half days to go until the window shuts.
The days when Arsenal were capable of bringing in shock new signings under the radar are long gone. Every new player we sign these days seems to be talked and talked about for six months before we get any official confirmation from Arsenal.com. So the fact there appears to be literally nothing going on, sadly, seems to suggest that there is nothing going on.
And with the manager himself having said only a week or so ago that he was still looking for two or three new players we’re faced once more with the prospect of a season in which we don’t have all the elements we hoped for in place. Another season where we’ve made a surplus in the transfer market. I’m already anticipating the interview where Arsene tells us that he was only interested in signing super, super quality that was better than what he already had and ‘don’t forget we have Diaby back what we didn’t have last year and Wilshere and Rosicky still to come so we have a very strong squad’.
I really hope I’m wrong.
There’ll be enough distraction from the misery of the countdown of doom at least today as the Champions League draw is announced this afternoon. As ever the vagaries of the seeding system threaten to throw up the odd group of death while no doubt Manchester United can look forward to facing some FC Powder Puff that nobody had even heard of before today.
Clearly the teams for us to avoid are Borussia Dortmund (again) who despite being Bundesliga champions still languish in Pot Four alongside the mighty BATE Borisov, Italian champs Juventus who are in Pot Three as are PSG who despite underperforming last year have since added Lucas Moura, Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to their ranks.
Somebody’s going to get a tough draw.
Maybe if it’s us it will inspire one final late dip into the transfer market. But I wouldn’t count on it.
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23 Responses to “Wenger’s high risk strategy not the one I was hoping for”
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Not sure I agree with you on this one MH – lots of talk of the club being on media lockdown and we’ve been linked with enough players from enough decent sources over the past 7 days that when coupled with Wengers words point to us at least working on deals – if they hapen or not is another topic really.
Can someone please explain to me how Dortmund are in pot 4 yet City are in pot two?
Really hope you’re right, Zinc.
Getting very worried we’ve been hoodwinked again on the signings front.
If we don’t sign a new striker, a rugid centre mid and perhaps some defensive cover we could be in real trouble.
Fact is teams around us are improving year on year and we sit still.
Oh well, at least we have the profit trophy
Arteta was a shock to me, reports emerging at 8 or 9 and rumbling on until we signed him right on the deadline, and a damn good signing too.
I’m pretty sure we’re looking for a midfielder but I don’t think you’re wrong about Wenger looking for super, super quality either, for the 4th straight season I find myself thinking ‘now, if Diaby stays fit we’re sorted ok in midfield’ and just because it looks more likely this season doesn’t make it any less terrifying. If one of Diaby and Arteta stays fit at any given time I’m actually optimiistic because I have faith in the ability of the youngsters playing with them, it’d just be nice to have another midfielder out of his teens, y’know?
CockEndRider – it’s all designed from the ground up so United can get a nice easy group and Arsenal get a nice tough group.
if anyone is cautious enough to evaluate wengers comment,he might has well has concluded business for transfers.
To be fair, Wengers comments don’t mean much when it comes to transfer business – that’s not to say he always lies, but he says enough stuff that isn’t true to leave you a bit clueless. I think he wants to bring in more players personally.
wenger is bringing no one in . so we should forget it and get on with it. with wilshire,frimpong,sagna coming back , they are like new signings.
Calm before the storm…
10 minutes before closing time, that’s when the action will begin.
My money’s still on M’Vila.
Shambles, yet again! The Walcott affair exposes the total incompetence of Gazidis and his team.
Wenger’s comments are Wenger’s comments. He said that he was going to add another midfielder and defender to the squad, yet we all know our defence is very much OK and our midfield is quite stuffed. I’m more and more convinced we won’t sign anyone else, but I don’t see that as a cause for despair.
One thing that’s changed is that we finally have a dynamite of a playmaker and decent backups if he’s out (Rosicky – when fit, Oxlade). And that’s about all that was COMPLETELY NECESSARY for us to mount any sort of a challenge this season.
The only addition that, for me, is a must, is another striker – and I’m not talking rubbish deals like Llorente, but simply a decent and reliable competition to Giroud. Unless Wenger already knows he’ll be stuck with Bendtner, Chamakh, and/or Park for another season, he HAS to buy someone new. If there’s no deal coming for any of these guys, again it would spell no more transfers in that department.
Lack of rumours doesn’t constitute lack of business, I wouldn’t depend on that as a measure of our team’s efficiency on the market.
And finally – the whole Walcott business is hard to read. First, I don’t think anyone in their right mind would invest in Walcott right now. Not even City. Yes, he’s a good winger with some goals and assists in him, but he’s unpredictable and costly for someone so inconsistent. Would he be good business for City? As far as I recall, they typically play a derivative of 4-4-2 with 2 false wingers (Milner is hardly a winger, either), and the right side is typically occupied by Silva. Even if they’re on the lookout for speedy fringe players, do we think Walcott’s ambition is to be a fringe player on the wing? He said himself he wants to be a striker, and he’s 1st team material at Arsenal. Few could offer him anything better.
The second thing is the rumour about the “gentlemen’s agreement.” Yes, it sounds weird, probably threatening, but then, it plays very well into the narrative of unsellable Theo. Since there are no real offers from any top club, he can’t do anything but stay put. And since he doesn’t like the new deal, he’ll stay put on the old one. I suppose the matter will be resolved like Arshavin’s contract last year. He also was in his last season, but signed an extension midway through. If Walcott agrees to a slight raise in exchange for future transfer profits for Arsenal, all’s good and well and we can look forward to replacing him.
One other thing I’ve been thinking of yesterday: next year’s squad. Our NextGen team features a number of interesting players who should be able to replace a number of ageing or possibly departing members.
I’m thinking of Yennaris, Bellerin, Angha, Toral, Gnabry, Eisfeld and Ebecilio. With these, we shouldn’t really worry about finding replacements for Rosicky, Sagna, Walcott, Santos or Diaby. I know it’s Fantasy Football talk, but they all should be able to join the 1st team within the next year. Some of them look really good.
Let’s learn to stop worrying and love the bomb!
And I’d be careful with the “incompetent Gazidis” type of comments. In some instances, the bed isn’t made by Gazidis and, for all we know, he’s probably responsible for most of the good things that happen at Arsenal right now.
what i dnt understand is wengers clear idear which is fast becoming a dumb idea. Wenger says he need a super player can he truly splash the cash to get his super player. No. 2 which club is ready to release their best player exept only arsenal has been doin bc of their unambicious character which lead to 7 yrs of trophyless seasons. No. 3 wenger has sold two of his best players and has not replaced one of them yet can he spend to replace in the same value he has sold. No 4 the window drawing close has he identify this super player to give him enough time negociate and sign before the window closes.
Zdzis,
I’d be more worried about suggesting that large a section of the youth team can/will step up. Several of those players are still 17. I’ve been following the new-look youth system closely and we do have some fantastic talent. But it wasn’t so long ago that we were lauding the talents of players like JET (Wenger called him an exceptional player), Merida (Cesc replacement now in Liga 2) and Lansbury (still a fantastic player, still better than Jordan Henderson, sold for £1m) …
I agree UmBongo, we can’t put too much expectation on the shoulders of these young players – we do have lots of talent, Gnabry and Eisfeld look like they might potentially make the grade, but Walcott looked like the biggest young talent in the country when he was 16 and he’s not necessarily hit the heights (yet anyway) that perhaps people were expecting him to hit. I’m sure there are first team players in that team, Yennaris has already featured as have others but most will need time and not all of them are going to make it.
@ ClockEndRider re: August 30th, 2012 9:07 am
Simple.
Dortmund are not in pot 2 because City are.
And City are not in pot 4 because Dortmund are.
Wenger says that Walcott is not obsessed with money. Possibly not but I bet his agent is.
Wouldn’t want to be in City’s shoes right now! That is a tough group. Real Madrid, Ajax, and Dortmund. Glad, glad, glad it wasn’t us.
@UmBongo & Zinc
That’s why I’m talking next year, people.
Angha will be 19.
Bellerin – 18,
Yennaris – 20,
Ebecilio – 19,
Eisfeld – 20,
Gnabry – 18.
Don’t want to sound disturbing, but we already have 4 U-21 players in our 1st team squad. Can’t see why at least half of those listed above couldn’t cut it as backup players within a year from today. Mind you, I don’t expect either of them to become a part of our 1st XI, but I do expect them to challenge for it. Even if only 2 or three will eventually make it (and it does seem likely there’ll be more of those), they will still strengthen Arsenal in areas where we now have players looking to depart or slowly getting too old. And that’s the point.
Yeah, I certainly agree we’ve got lots of promising young talent (as usual) and I’m excited about their respective futures – at the moment I think Yennaris, Eisfeld and Gnabry look like the most likely to be ready within the next 12 months (not to mention players like Afobe, Ryo and Aneke) to take bigger roles in the first team, but it’s pretty fluid, players like Olsson and Bellerin suddely look like they’re going to be special too, not all of them will be able to transfer that to the top level though, and I’d not bank on them to the point of not signing other players when it comes to competitions like the CL and EPL. We’ve got 4 major competitions to try and compete in every year, that requires a deep squad balanced with quality, experience and youth – those players are one element in that set up.
Just to clarify – the bigger role I see those players potentially taking would mostly be in League cup matches, perhaps FA and perhaps one or two will slowly filter into the EPL/CL teams – but when you look at how even Frimpong and Coquelin are still on the fringes it goes to show how hard it can be to break into the team for those top competitions.
Good draw today.