6 reasons Arsenal transfer window was NOT a success

6 underwhelming facts about Arsenal transfer activity by Twig Mesut Ozil’s arrival has expectedly lifted the spirits of the coaching staff, players and fans of Arsenal. In addition, we’ve finally spent above £15M and it makes bigger deals easier for the board to swallow in future. Finally, Arsenal FC have awoken to the reality that we live in an inflated market and top players are at least 20% more expensive than they are worth. Wenger had always indicated he is ready to spend up to £40M even, if he finds the right player, and was true to his words with Ozil’s signing. Ozil really is class but… 1) Arsenal still haven’t rid themselves of Bendtner It was a transfer window that saw Wenger clear out a large number of under-performing players, but Wenger failed to get rid of that ONE PLAYER that Arsenal fans MOST wanted to see out of the club – Nicklas Bendtner. I’m sure most fans would rather if it was Chamakh and not Bendtner that Wenger kept as Giroud’s backup. However, Bendtner is not a bad player at all, and even he could thrive with Ozil, Ramsey and Cazorla behind him! The question is a) Does he still want to play for us? and b) Can he stay out of trouble? I doubt it on both counts. 2) The squad is still thin No matter how you do the maths, 4 players IN doesn’t sufficiently replace 20 players OUT. With a number of injuries to first team players, Podolski, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Arteta and Vermaelen, there’s a danger that fatigue might prevent Wenger’s regular eleven from reaching their potential. An injury to any of Walcott, Giroud or Mertesacker will leave us severely exposed. Wenger left it too late into the window to recruit the numbers that his squad needed. 3) One striker is not enough With Wenger not succeeding in signing any proven striker, Arsenal have only Giroud to depend on. The situation is worsened by Podolski’s injury and Sanogo’s immaturity. What does Wenger do when Giroud suffers one of those frustrating days in front of goal? Bring on Flamini? Methinks when the Suarez deal wouldn’t come off, Wenger should have moved quickly for another striker, even if he’s not a “big name”. There are unsubstantiated rumours that Arsenal did try to bring a striker in on deadline day. But even if an offer was “unbelievable” it would have left the selling club with no time to find a replacement. In short, Wenger should have dumped the Suarez project much earlier, unless he was willing to make a THIRD BID, which never happened. 4) Arsenal are lacking a left winger Di Maria would have been perfect, but the player apparently didn’t want to come. Other than Oxlade- Chamberlain, no other player plays the left wing well, and this has been going on for a long time. Cazorla is not a left-winger, and always drifts into the middle crowding the midfield. I think Gibbs, given his aggressiveness, could be developed into a left-winger to give our midfield some width. He has been the de facto left winger whenever he plays with Podolski anyway. But that won’t happen. As things stand now, expect more of our goals to come from the right wing than the left. 5) Arsenal failed to sign ANY of their main targets I do not believe Ozil was one of Wenger’s prime targets this Summer. Wenger might have a long- standing interest in Ozil, and actually wanted to sign him from Werder Bremen, but the fact remains that the Ozil transfer was an opportunistic one that depended 100% on Madrid’s move for Gareth Bale. If the Gareth Bale transfer had failed, could we have ended up only with Viviano, Sanogo and Flamini? That would have underwhelmed even the most optimistic Arsenal Fan. I believe Wenger’s main targets were Luis Suarez, Luis Gustavo or Lars Bender, Julio Cesar and Ashley Williams. We only got Ozil due to the “domino effect” – admitted to even by Wenger himself – that the Gareth Bale transfer caused. 6) Why did Wenger buy Ozil? Did Wenger buy Ozil simply because he was available? Should he have added £10M to the £42.4M paid for Ozil and gone ahead and made a bid for Suarez even if Liverpool swore that they would not sell? The central attacking midfield is the LEAST of our problems and four players, namely: Cazorla, Wilshere, Rosicky and Ramsey can effectively assume that role. Not forgetting Oxlade-chamberlain who the manager sees to have a future in the middle. Does Ozil’s arrival mean Cazorla will shift permanently to the left? I don’t like that at all. Ozil definitely makes us stronger, but despite all the bells and whistles, it wasn’t the area that Arsenal needed strengthening.