The start of the Premiership season has seen some outstanding examples of quality, most notably from Manchester United and Manchester City. But sitting proudly in fifth place are Wolverhampton Wanderers, which many may find surprising. In first team terms the Wolves of this season are only two players and £10 million worse off from their final day survival last season. These two players have added confidence, quality and work-rate which a certain north-London club decided to ignore.
Admittedly, Jaime O’Hara is not Cesc Fabregas or Jack Wilshere, but as a squad player he surely would have been a more able individual than Arsenal otherwise had in the centre of the pitch against Manchester United. More striking though is why Arsene Wenger did not feel that Birmingham City’s £4.5 million valuation of Roger Johnson was not worth a gamble? In fact it would not have even been a gamble. Roger Johnson has shown himself over the last two seasons to be a highly competent no nonsense defender. Birmingham City were only relegated because they didn’t score enough. As gifted or as promising as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is, is he three times the value as Roger Johnson?
One day probably, but as a short-term fix at the very least for Arsenal, Johnson would only make the Gunners a more solid team. What good is building for the future if the present mob can’t do the job? Johnson’s swift appointment as the Wolves captain shows his leadership skills too, another characteristic this Arsenal side is lacking. Wolves, fortunately, are not a ‘big name’ in the Premier League having to consider tomorrow’s talents for the years to come, and nor unfortunately have they the money to cherry pick foreign obscurities which will command the Premier League like they did in the mighty French, Polish or Mexican Leagues…
The simple matter is that a bit of pragmatism in the transfer window, to buy players that can ‘do a job’ inexpensively, is a transfer policy which is often ignored by bigger clubs who could do with padding their squad out. Wolves, utilizing the commanding presence of Johnson and the passing and control of O’Hara have won two games and drawn one, remain unbeaten and have conceded only one goal and have seven points.
It took Wolves until well into October to amass that figure last time round. Is it a sense of snobbery that teams like Arsenal feel that such players are not good enough to be part of their squads?
Arsenal will finish above Wolves most probably, but will their season be as successful? The Fabregas and Nasri stories carried on for far too long, a more definite and cut-throat plan of action should have been taken. Mick McCarthy identified his targets quickly and had his business done many weeks before the the commencement of the season. Big clubs need big players, yes, but big clubs need a dependable pool of players to select consistently who can keep the side ticking over and keep picking up points.
They may not be as skillful as the clubs plentiful batch of wonderkids, but experience and grit they don’t lack and would surely be a success for this purpose. What makes this all the more puzzling is Wenger’s penchant for financial value, which the two examples of O’Hara and Johnson most definitely are. At the time of writing, the talkSPORT statistic that of the last seventeen players Arsene Wenger had purchased only one, Mikel Silvestre, had any previous Premiership experience, was still the case.
Arsenal may yet have saved their season with some last minute wheeling and dealing, yet the case is that these players touted as probably saviors are still going to need time to adapt to the pace of the league and maybe even will have been overpriced. Only time will tell, but having players of the ilk of Roger Johnson and Jaime O’Hara, would only have aided Arsenal in their current state.
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Jamie O’Hara was at Arsenal – did you properly research this article? What is needed is not a short term fix as you say, but a long-term cure. If these guys are as good as you say, I simply ask why neither of the two Manchester clubs sought their services, or indeed Chelsea, Liverpool, etc. I agree these are good players, but no better than good, honest pros … journeymen if you will – and do you define success by surviving in the Premiership? If so, are these really the players that Arsenal need or require? I think that you need to re-think your strategy my friend, because this makes no sense! Arguably, you would have a point in saying that Arsenal have too many Johnstons and O’Haras and need to step up to the level of the 2 Manchesters, Chelsea, etc, but these boys are not the answer.
arsenal football club is a farce, santos, was never rated in turkey, what gets me is this kroenke and the board, have taken the money for the likes of fab,nasri,clichy, and we get santos and a korean striker, pat the german is a solid defender but lacks pace, anybody knows a quick player will turn him over time and time again, wenger and the board have become desperate, trying to look for real quality players, but the saying is what you pay for is what you get, it is like going into a supermarket, buying the cheapest beans, you know when you eat them they dont taste that good but when you buy heinz you know premier league beans beautiful!! they have sold our best players, and bought in players, frankly that are not up to the task, wenger keeps on about the 8 players missing, sorry but against man utd you had 6 internationals on display there is no excuse, the board and kroenke are hoping this little bit of buisness they have done will appease the fans, i be very surprised if it has, we had oportunity to buy enrique from newcastle to me is a better left back than santos, again it did not happen, and i am sorry but i still think we will be fighting relegation, you can not take arguably the best three players out of your team, sell them and buy cheapies from the cheap supermarket, and hope they can fulfill the task left by clichy fab or nasri, KROENKE HAS TO GO AND TAKE THE SNOOTY BOARD AND OLD FARTS WITH YOU, wenger has made mistake after mistake, he knew what was needed in this squad and to wait till after a 8-2 thrashing i find disgusting and a matter of unprofessionalism, he should know better, he should have during the summer break been planning and had new recruits ready, to replace and he didnt this is a club that is dying because of the greed to make money, what these tossers dont realize if they qualify for next years champions league they would be on target for 50 million, but there actions to date have clearly shown they have no real desire for success but to line their own pockets kroenke should go back to america he knows nothing about football, even my mum does and she is 65, and she said we need top class players, and do you know what she thinks we will get relegated.
JeffersAFC – when you are losing your best players and have replaced them with kids with potential, you leave a gaping hole. This has become evident in just the 5 games that you have played this season. Failure to end in the top 4 this season could seriously see the remaining few top 4 type players you have looking for the exit door as well.
A couple of years without your champions league money/allure to the top players and the whole business model is shot. No point having a shiny big stadium then when the best you hope for is a top half finish and a cup run.
You needed to plug gaps from the mercenary players that left you. Johnson and O’Hara would have done that. Instead, you have spent a lot more on unproven players. Risky strategy in my view.