One of the big last minute deals on a chaotic deadline day was Arsenal’s capture of 29-year-old Mikel Arteta. The Everton midfielder joined the Gunners on a four year contract, for a fee of around £10million, in a deal which was thought to be dead in the water. Arsene Wenger, who reportedly put in a an initial £5million bid which was rejected, was understandably keen to make improvements to his squad, but less has been made of the potential repercussions for Everton.
If Arteta had been sold towards the start of the transfer window, or even a few days before the end, it would had given the club some time to think about a replacement and consider a potential reinvestment of the money. However, with Mikel handing in a transfer request just moments before the deadline approached, David Moyes was left in a tricky situation. It prompted him to accept an earlier rejected bid of £10million for the player, but with no real chance of finding a replacement. Now of course we will never know if Moyes would have had the chance to bring in someone new anyway with the revenue, but all the same you have to feel sorry for the Blues’ boss as he’s pretty much had his hands tied behind his back.
I don’t think Everton fans should be overly unhappy with the squad they have, even if people are making it out to be a particularly bad window for the club. They aren’t bereft of talent, with young Ross Barkley impressing recently, and the likes of Leighton Baines, Phil Jagielka, Jack Rodwell and Seamus Coleman still on their books. They have reasonable depth and with Royston Drenthe coming in adding pace and energy, who can be a very good player on his day and seems enthusiastic to make an impact at Everton, I would expect their season to pick up after a few results.
The major issue appears to be in the forward department. After Jermaine Beckford joined Leicester, Everton were left short on strikers and the reinforcement came in the form of loan acquisition Denis Stracqualursi, top scorer last season in the Argentine Primera Division… no that doesn’t mean much to me either. Nonetheless, the 23 year old striker appears keen and is the fox-in-the-box kind of striker who always looks for goals, either with foot or head.
Still, with the money from the Arteta transfer, you have to feel that they could do with some kind of long-term solution to their striker situation – someone who can get the clichéd 20 goals a season. Aside from their new Argentine addition, they only really have Louis Saha and Victor Anichebe to lead the line, who are both injury prone and somewhat inconsistent. You look at Fulham’s seemingly inspired capture of Bryan Ruiz for £10.6million and think Everton could have lined something up if they really wanted, because the talent is out there. I’m just not sure that, after a few seasons of what could be considered as overachieving, the board have the same ambitions right now as the fans.
Now the window has closed, it is up to the players more than anyone to show some grit and fight to get them where they need to be come the end of the season. They have important players like Cahill, Howard and captain Phil Neville who can step up and get the team performing well and build from some good solid results. Forget about departures and poor performances and go forward with the decent squad that they have.
As for Arteta, you’ve got to say that it would have been hard to turn down a move to Arsenal at this stage of his career if he wanted it. At 29 years of age and with a career which has been subjected to injuries and inconsistency, this was possibly his last chance to get a big move. At Arsenal, he has a chance this season to make an impact at a big Champions League club. After the sale of two of their most influential players, Arteta can now try and gain the limelight in a midfield of which he will have creative reign should he command it.
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