Arsene Wenger is a deeply principled man. His stubbornness to concede that his philosophy may not be the only way for the club to achieve success has hindered the club in recent times. With this in mind, it’s particularly interesting to take a closer look at his activity towards the end of the transfer window – there has certainly been a noticeable change in tack after the humiliating 8-2 drubbing at the hands of Man Utd last weekend. A stark wake-up call had been served, to ignore it and carry on would have been nothing short of madness. It’s been a long time coming, but it appears as if the penny has finally dropped for Wenger.
Mikel Arteta, Yossi Benayoun, Per Mertersacker, Park Chu-Young and Andre Santos all arrived on the final day. All of the five new recruits are aged between 26 and 31 years of age. They boast 233 international caps between them and there are two international captains (Benayoun, Park) among them. It’s abundantly clear that adding experienced, wiser heads became the top priority for Wenger in the final few days of the transfer window.
It’s also interesting to see that players like Arteta and Santos have signed long-term deals, despite being 28 and 29 years of age respectively. Wenger is famed for offering only one or two-year deal extensions for players approaching the twilights of their careers. Players such as William Gallas and Robert Pires have suffered at the hands of Wenger’s strict approach in not offering long-term deals to more seasoned performers in the past and it seems again as if there has been a shift.
The transfer of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain just served to underline that there was sufficient funds in the bank to move for the right players. Paying £15m+ for a relatively unproven youngster appeared to be a kick in the teeth for some fans when they were seen to be bargaining over a million here and there for more established players throughout the summer.
But are they the ‘right’ players?
Mertersacker is certainly a handful in the air at 6ft 6in tall and he’s been added to try and rid the side of their ineptitude at defending corners and set pieces effectively. However, the side may have to play a deeper line to compensate for his almost chronic lack of pace. Nonetheless, the Bundesliga’s almost break-neck speed of play is extremely similar to that of the Premier League and he should adjust fairly quickly.
The Arteta and Benayoun deals came out of the blue. They obviously needed to replace the creativity in midfield of both Nasri and Fabregas and Arteta in particular looks a great purchase. For a long time now I’ve regarded him as the best player outside of the established top four and it will be interesting how he handles the step up.