Written by Squid Boy on Thursday, 18 August 2011 17:07
I wasn’t going to blog today. I thought I’d wait until tomorrow – that way I could get the latest injury news ahead of the Liverpool game from Arsenal’s press conference and speak about any developments in Nasri’s potential transfer to Man City.
On the subject of the latter, as I type this news has broken from respected London Evening Standard journalist James Olley that Nasri is in Manchester today (presumably having a medical) and insinuating a fee has been agreed between the clubs but the structure of the payment has not. With a figure of between £20m and £25m being bandied about, I’m glad we are biting City’s hand off for a player who is in his last year of contract, may walk for zero next summer, has only exhibited half-a-season of good form, and who is clearly disaffected by the fan reaction to his summer contract signing stagnation.
So I hadn’t intended to blog today. But then I read then I read the following tweet from the omnipresent Tim Stillman, and it got me thinking:
“I have to genuinely ask if Arsenal fans would be clamouring for us to sign Cahill/ Samba if they hadn't been so frequently linked in media?”
The man is of course correct. The same could be said about numerous “supposed” transfer targets this summer – from Phil Jones to Juan Mata.
I remember the hoo-hah surrounding Phil Jones when it broke that we had missed out on him. The abuse Arsene got was terrible – and I’d venture to say that this was from folk who had hardly seen Jones play. Then it appeared we had been mighty unlucky not to secure his services, having matched Man Utd’s offer for him and apparently offered a higher wage. In his case, the lad simply wanted to stay in the north-west of the country, and there was little we could do about that. The reason we didn’t sign him wasn’t for lack of trying, and Arsene got cut a lot more slack from his detractors.
A similar scenario may indeed be playing out with Juan Mata, with Chelsea apparently ready to pounce. If we miss out on him and he ends up in West London, I envisage all hell to break loose on the Interweb and at the Emirates.
This was nearly the case with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain too. As it seemed Arsenal were stalling and other clubs started to sniff around, there was downright anger from fans – not particularly because we need another young attacking midfielder, but because we’d miss out on our target.
Of course this all comes with the assumption that we trust the various sources which break transfer rumours. While there is no doubt that some journalists prey on our insecurities and link us with a player that fits the mould (“hard nut central-defender with Premiership experience”), sometimes you have to admit there is no smoke without fire. I am loathe to believe newspaper rumours, but when respected sources close to the Club break them on Twitter, I do take them more seriously.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that some fans aren’t frustrated with the name of the player we are or aren’t signing. It is when we identify an area that needs strengthening but don’t seal the deal. This is a scenario which has happened for a good few years now (again – if you believe what you read). I’ll give you two such examples.
Firstly there was Xabi Alonso in 2008, with many saying he came mighty close to signing. We missed out on him and had to contend with a central-midfield of Song and Denilson for the majority of the season. It did well in the sense that it helped contribute to a long unbeaten stretch that helped us overcome Aston Villa for fourth spot, but it certainly lacked in creativity, as witnessed by a run of four consecutive 0-0 draws in the league across January and February. I think it is fair to say that the signing of Andrey Arshavin sparked us into life that spring.
Then there was the curious case of Mark Schwarzer last season. He had umpteen medicals with us if we believe what we read, but the clubs just couldn’t agree a fee. In this case it worked out extremely well as we now have a rejuvenated Fabianski backing up the ever-impressive Wojciech Szczesny. Had we signed Schwarzer then who knows, Szczesny might be a Man Utd player right now.
So there is evidence on both sides of the equation that missing out on targets can have a happy or sad ending. Furthermore, it is fair to say we may not have been flush with cash in either of those instances. That’s not the case now.
I accept wholeheartedly that we’ve had the Cesc and Nasri issues hanging over us this summer, not to mention needing to secure Champions League qualification. And while we could have dealt with the outgoings of the aforementioned two gentleman earlier to swell the coffers, there’s nothing we could have done about the CL tie – which we arguably need to win to be able to attract our targets. So next week’s second leg is utterly vital.
I’m not going to lie. I don’t watch much football except for Arsenal matches. I am not well-placed to judge whether Samba, Cahill or Jagielka would be better for us. But with Arsene having identified at the beginning of the summer that we need strengthening in that area, and with pretty decent evidence that there has been interest in all three of them, I will be disappointed if we don’t get one of them. Why? Because we will not be addressing a weak spot in our squad. And that, to me, would be minimalism. Heck, I’d almost rather Arsene had said he believed in our current quartet and stuck with them as opposed to admitting a weakness but failing to remedy it.
In addition, once Nasri follows Cesc out of the exit door, I’ll be disappointed if we don’t get a replacement or two – be it Jadson or Mata or whoever. Again, I have seen neither play and so yes I am partly being strung along by the media here – but equally, there is no doubt we will need replacement(s), as Arsene himself said, if both end up goners.
To conclude, personally I wouldn’t have Samba, Cahill or Jagielka ahead of our current first-choice pairing of Vermaelen and Koscielny. I certainly wouldn’t mind them in reserve though – not because I don’t rate Squillaci, but because Arsene himself believes that we need more depth and quality there.
We have made this mistake in the past to mixed results. Sometimes it pays off and a younger tyro comes through our ranks. But sometimes it doesn’t. And it hurts us.
In the past we may have been hamstrung financially, but that should not be the case this summer at all. I guess all we want the Club to exhaust every avenue in our quest for success – no more scraping by, no more hoping that injuries will not hit us too bad, no expecting youngsters to make the step-up flawlessly like Jack and Cesc did. We have the money this summer. And we have obvious gaps in our squad that have been identified by the powers that be. Let’s leave no stone unturned.
Squid Boy - http://twitter.com/#!/TheSquidBoyLike
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