Apologies for the title, but you don’t know how much I hate the transfer window. The periods when it opens during the summer, and then again in January, are about the worst periods of the year. Okay, I’m being overly dramatic, but I bet I’m not the only one who’s noticed that of late, the transfer window is full of nothing, if not lots and lots of hope, then lots and lots of despair.
You wake up to the “news” (mostly on Twitter now), that the signing of X player is imminent. Cue lots of excitement and discussions as to where X will fit in the team. Wake up the next day to the “news” that X’s agent denies that a the player is leaving the club, and in fact, X has signed a new 5-year contract with its club. You get the picture.
Well, the player X right now is Mata, and we haven’t yet reached the new 5-year contract bit, but surely it isn’t too far away? The latest on the”possible signing” of Mata is from Marca, who are reporting that we have a week to sign Mata, if not, we aren’t having him.
Like seriously, where and why do these so-called journalists come up with all these ridiculous ideas? I wish it was all simple. Well, it used to be, until everyone decided they want to to be the “first” to break the news, so they cook up as many stories as possible, in the hope that at least one of them will prove to be true. And the worst part of it all is that some fans actually fall for it. I won’t lie, I have in the past, but I refuse to anymore, that’s why I don’t bother my tiny head with transfer speculation. What’s the point!? Until I see Player X being paraded in his Arsenal shirt and official confirmation from Arsenal.com (whether or not it comes a million years after the signing has actually been confirmed and the whole world and her children know for sure that it’s a done deal), I ain’t believing it. I’m not even going to bother looking for it!
Okay, rant over.
So other than signing Gervinho and Jenkinson, we’ve really not done anything this window, except sell Gael Clichy and loan out Denilson, and it’s ultra worrying. We cannot tell whether Cesc and Nasri are definitely staying, and even if they are, our defence isn’t any better than last season, if anything, it’s worse, what with losing an experienced defender and replacing him with an unproven talent. The season starts in less than two weeks. Yes, the window is open for a bit longer, but it is concerning.
Ivan Gazidis mentioned that we’re trying to sign players, but I swear I remember hearing that last season. Are we just being bullshitted into believing that deals are trying to be done behind closed doors, or is anything really happening? (Football) Life would be so much less complicated if we’d done all the dealings AGES ago, and all we need concern ourselves with is preparation for the upcoming season. It definitely can’t be healthy having a squad trying to prepare for the new season, but sill wondering if any players will be going or coming. It’s crazy! Yes, they’re professionals and should just get on with it, but I bet if it was me, I’d quite like to know as soon as possible what competition I might be having for my spot in my team. Sort it, Arsenal! As much as I love lastminute.com, you cannot rely on that website EVERY BLOODY TIME, because I bet it will fail you at some point! Sorry, I think I said ‘rant over’ earlier, but I guess I was wrong.
We probably won’t have Cesc or Nasri playing in the CL qualifying round, injury or no injury, because if they do play and we end up selling them, they’ll be cup-tied this season, meaning we’ll get less for them. What was I saying about lastminute.com?
I guess I won’t mind if we end up strengthening in defence, and in Cesc and/or Nasri leave, we sign adequate replacements, but I can’t begin to contemplate the fans’ reaction if we don not sign anyone, and we end up losing both Cesc and Nasri, or even one of them! Sure, I’ll still argue that we’ll finish in the top 4, but surely we’re more ambitious than that? Our squad shouldn’t just be capable of finishing in the top 4, it ought to be capable of seriously challenging for trophies. We did that last season, up to a point, but we probably won’t be doing any challenging if we go into the season with a weaker team than we ended the season with. Sort it Arsenal.
But all hope isn’t lost. There are still 3 weeks left of the bleeding transfer window. We’ll be alright, right?
