It can only be said that leading up to the end of the summer transfer window, Arsenal fans can only have been frustrated and dejected by Arsene Wenger’s activities.
With Manchester United and Liverpool making all of their major signings early, the Gunners had only brought in young upcoming talent such as Carl Jenkinson from Charlton, Southampton’s Alex Oxdale-Chamberlain and forward Joel Campbell from Deportivo Saprissa.
This was followed by a startling exodus from the Emirates Stadium including the conclusion to the long drawn out saga of Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri to Manchester City and Emmanuel Eboue to Galatasaray. All experienced first teamers that left a giant hole in Wenger’s team particularly in defence and midfield.
So it was truly bemusing when Wenger’s next move was South Korea striker Chu Young Park from Monaco. There is no doubt from YouTube videos that he can scores goals and will be a great addition to the team especially with Nicklas Bendtner going to Sunderland but it wasn’t what was needed at the time.
And that was shown as Arsenal were embarrassed by an in form Manchester United losing 8-2 at Old Trafford, their worst defeat since 1986, truly exposing the team’s weaknesses.
But it came down to the last day of the window for fans worries to be eased. The left back position left by Clichy was filled by Andre Santos. Brought in from Fenerbache for £6.2 million the player is a Brazilian international having played in the squad that won the Confederations Cup in 2009 as well as featuring most recently in this year’s Copa America, but missed a penalty as Brazil lost to Paraguay on penalties in the quarter-finals.
He is a defender who can defend and get forward to support the wingers as shown by the five goals he scored for the Turkish side in 25 league appearances helping them to the Süper Lig, the country’s top division.
Next to arrive was Per Mertesacker from Werder Bremen for a reported eight million pounds. Mertesacker is another defender with a vast amount of quality and experience having spent five years at the German club and 75 caps at international level including two World Cups and a European Championships, the 26 year-old is exactly what the defensive department needed, especially with the recent news that Thomas Vermaelen will be out for a month.
With the back four sorted, Arsene then looked to the midfield and brought in two great players that will have a fantastic impact in the squad.
The first was Yossi Benayoun on a season long loan from Chelsea. The Israeli international’s career had stuttered at Chelsea, after enjoying three successful seasons at Liverpool, with the attacking midfielder only playing seven league appearances in two seasons for the London club having had an Achilles injury last season. He was already low in the midfield pecking order at Chelsea but with the arrival of Juan Mata this summer as well meant he fell even further down so it now gives the player a chance to get a full season under his belt with a real chance at plenty of first team action with Wenger.
Then the Arsenal manger pulled off a transfer coup in prising Everton icon Mikel Arteta away from Goodison Park for £10 million. The deal nearly didn’t happen until Arteta handed in a transfer request to push the move through.
The 29-year-old has truly been a creative force for Everton in the eight seasons he has played for them with 27 goals in that period and he has won many accolades from fans and there was no surprise that Arsene made a move for him as not so much a replacement for Fabregas but someone who can come in and drive the team on and create chances in a similar way.
Some may have seen the frantic last day transfers by Wenger as panic buys as much speculation had linked Arsenal with bigger and younger transfers such as Gary Cahill, Mario Gotze and Kaka. But what has been brought in are players with masses of international experience and Premier League experience. Defenders who can control the back line and midfielders who know how to carve open English defences at the highest level.
Of course it remains to be seen how the season plays out whether the manager has got it right but on pure face value I would say yes.
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no disrespect to you, but your article is total dillusional and unrealistic, the player bought in by wenger pat the german is probaly the best player, arteta, since his injury 2 seasons ago has lost pace, and his passing is not as great as it was, also to note he soon will be hitting 30 years of age, he is past his best, santos is well documented by turkey and brazillian supporters he is useless at defending, against paruguay he was turned inside out by an attacker since then has not played for brazil, chelsea reject did not have a medical on signing, if he was so good why is he not in the chelsea team, the korean striker i totally believe he will give 100% but he is not of class, these are just avergae desperate signings, we will not qualify for champions league next year, we will not win a trophy, they sold our best 3 players, they knew for a long time they where going they REFUSED to sign players instead we had promise after promise, then we got the statement we believe in the quality we have then we played man utd that showed the world what our quality was, so i think your artyicle is full as the rubbish that has come out from the arsenal board and wenger, get realisitc
Dave, u got it wrong wt ur comments abt d new playrs brought in by wenger, u sed Benayoun is Chelsea rejects, i agreed wt u but Roben, van dar vart, Snidder are all Madrid rejects but they are now d best playrs in world. so, Benayoun wil come gud 4 Arsenal, jst blliv me. Also on Arteta, he wil prove u ppl wrong wt his passes & goal scoring, everton plays more phisical than arsenal, so Arteta wil be very gud in arsenal team more than he was at Everton.
Sorry but I do not agree ,Vermaelen was injured before the Man U game and AW must have known that he would be out for some time so why did he not buy Cahill