It’s rare that a January transfer window yields up everything a club needs in one go…and this year was no exception.
Acquiring major transfer targets mid-way through a season can be fiendishly difficult, particularly if selling clubs are not inclined to lose their star players, and the only real way out of that issue is to throw mountains of money at it (cough, Chelsea)
And while that approach may get you all the baubles your heart desires, it’s not a transfer policy most are able or, indeed, willing to pursue. Quite apart from anything else, in the long run it will simply lead to clubs hiking their asking prices to extortionate levels simply because they know mad executives will be silly enough to pay it.
So for those clubs with a more strategic, balanced approach – like Arsenal – it means compromises have to be made and, on occasions, targets missed. It can be frustrating, particularly when you see a key target snatched from under your nose, but there are strict principles that underpin it and I think most people can get on board with that.
And it’s that approach that more or less summed up this January window for Arsenal. They obviously had a set of targets they had prioritised – namely Joao Felix and Mudryk – and they missed out on both because they were gazumped by a club that has more money than sense. A third key target, Moises Caicedo, they missed because, frankly, Brighton were never going to sell – not without a silly amount of money. Arsenal don’t do that, as well we know.
It can be irritating to look across London and see Chelsea dropping £600m inside a year on players, particularly if they are players you had set your own hearts on, but doing that brings its own long-term problems and I, for one, am grateful we won’t have to deal with them.
What we do have are a set of signings we can be thoroughly pleased with. Leandro Trossard, Jukub Kiwior and Jorginho are solid additions to this playing squad and will bolster our options for the key second half of the campaign. Nobody is pretending that are the perfect solutions but, as countless January windows have shown us, sensible compromise can yield good results.
We needed some flexibility and support in our squad and in Kiwior and Trossard, we have added just that. Quality players who can perform across a number of positions and who are tactically flexible enough to adapt to the manager’s needs. In the centre of midfield, we needed support for Thomas Partey and, while he isn’t a like-for-like match, Jorginho has an excellent profile and the technical level the manager will be able to work wonders with.
I get that adding a huge signing to the squad would have given a lift to the fans but, while we couldn’t land what we wanted this time around, what we did was move sensibly to address some vulnerabilities and sure up our options for the remainder of the campaign. We are pushing for the Premier League title, after all. What we needed were experienced, ready to play options and we have that in bucket loads now.
Between them, Trossard and Jorginho have hundreds of Premier League appearances and international caps in spades. That know what it takes to perform at the highest levels and have done so for a long time. We should have no worries that these two will bring more than just quality to the squad. Could we have said the same of Caicedo or Mudryk?
Mikel Arteta and Edu haven’t made a success of every signing that has come through the doors at London Colney, no executive team ever has, but there is no arguing they have plenty of hits along the way. In fact, it is their diligence and strategy that has got us to the top of the table and, hopefully, in with a real chance of winning the Premier League for the first time in almost 20 years.
For that alone, they deserve the respect and trust of fans and the space to make the decisions they believe put us in the best possible position to deliver on our goals.
We have missed out on players before (Vlahovic, Martinez, Locatelli, Buendia) and it has done us absolutely no harm. In fact, we couldn’t be in a better position despite failing to acquire their services. That should be reassurance enough.
With that January window now shut, however, minds can be refocussed at last on what really matters; bringing home the league title. That task begins again in earnest on Saturday lunch time. Come on you Gunners!
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