Detailed review and look forward after Arsenal’s transfer window…

Hi Arsenal fans. If you are still high on Ozil, please keep smoking that stuff from the Emirates because nothing tastes better right now. Before I start, I would like to warn you guys ahead of time that this will be a long article. There is just so much to say. But the transfer window is closed and it is not as if you guys have better things to do so kick off your shoes and lean back let’s talk Arsenal. What else could be better? So the window has closed. Thank goodness. It was long and tortuous. Not only is Wenger a brilliant economist and manager but I bet you that he will make a good interrogator. Get him a terrorist suspect who won’t talk and Wenger will extract the truth from the bugger without water-boarding him. All he has to do is to subject the suspect to three days of arsenal transfer rumor and he or she will spill the beans in no time. Anyhow, the window turned out much better than we feared. At some point, we had all given up and resigned to a nightmare season with no back-ups. But lo and behold, Wenger ended up signing four players, one of whom is so top class that he is on the lips of folks all around the world. Did we do enough in the transfer window? Not really but we are in a much better position to cope with the rigors of playing in four tournaments. I don’t want to dwell on how we missed signing a backup striker and defender. Who knows what exactly transpired with players we nearly bought or could have bought. But I believe Wenger has done enough to deserve a break so we will get off his back for now The good news is that we now have more depth with the signing of Mesut Ozil, Mathew Flamini, Emiliano Viviano (forgive me if I misspelt his name) and Yaya Sanogo. It is not yet clear the kind of impact Sanogo will have this season but the other three signings are more than capable of doing a job at the highest level. So welcome to our new players. In addition to having more depth now, confidence is sky high among our players and our fans are over the moon. Wenger’s genius has put Tottenham firmly in our shadows yet again in spite of them blowing 110 million pounds on new players as against our 42.5 million. Respect for our club is coming back and our opponents are more scared of us now than they were two weeks ago. Thanks to the arrival of Ozil, Wenger gets a break, Kroenke and Gazidis get to look good and the arsenal brand is back on the pedestal where it should belong. Everybody wins. For the first time in like forever, I turn on the television and hear tv pundits calling arsenal title contenders. Hours before the announcement of Mesut Ozil’s signing, they all said that this will be the season we played our last champions league football. HA! What a difference a few hours can make, or rather, what a difference a top top player can make. Dearly beloved, we have entered a new era in the history of this club. A lot of us are still angered by the fact that we haven’t done enough and for good reason. But if everyone understands the full implication of Ozil’s arrival and the 42.5 million that we paid for him, you will know that the shackles have finally been broken. In fact, not only has our financial hesitation been overcome, it has been blown to pieces. Wenger just spent the kind of money that would normally have given him a heart attack. But here we are. We spent that money and the world has not come to an end. We are not filing for bankruptcy. On the contrary, the sale of Ozil shirts alone will make Arsenal a ton of money. So I bet you that we will spend big again. In fact, when the numbers came in that arsenal had sold 7,200 Ozil T shirts in 36 hours, making almost half a million, I can assure you that Gazidis and co were kicking themselves for not making this kind of marquee signing earlier. If the sale of Ozil jerseys holds steady, and I don’t see why not, it will generate enough money to pay our players their monthly salaries. Chew on that for a second. This is HUGE. I have read all kinds of blogs on Ozil’s capture, from the most cynical to the most optimistic. It is fascinating. Some claim that we got duped because Wenger only signed one top player instead of the promised three. Others say that we didn’t spend at all and only got our books balanced after the sale of our dead wood players in addition to revenue from the Asian tour and champions league qualification money. What they don’t understand however is that old habits die hard but Wenger finally took that step that has given him sleepless nights and in so doing, he has liberated himself. This step is huge. As it stands, no amount is too big now and next time around, we will be part of an elite few bidding for the Falcaos and Cavannis. All it took was that first step and a very crucial and clever one at that. So now we have the football world’s attention, respect and admiration. Who knew that this day will come? As it stands, the Arsenal squad is still a bit short (apart from the BFG of course), but Wenger will juggle it as usual. That was part of his plan all along. The man is a genius at balancing the things he holds dear. He has spent big without putting us in debt. He has also brought in players without blocking space for the up and coming Zelalems and Gnabrys. And he has kept just enough players to ensure that everybody gets a game without grumbling. Believe it or not, there is a downside to having a big squad which is that many players won’t get games. This causes disharmony in a club. You can’t have it all. That is why Man City players are always fighting. But we are a tight squad and we are reaping the benefits on the pitch. It is said that we don’t have a fourth center back… or do we? Flamini is a defensive midfielder who can play center back and right back. When Arteta recovers, he will be first choice in defensive midfield, leaving Flamini on the bench to come on and cover any of three positions. They say we have only one striker but Walcott can play there and so can Podolski. As for the problematic left wing, Cazorla will now own it with Podolski while Ozil, Rosicky and Wilshere will rotate at central attacking midfield. Ozil can also play left wing. So the truth is that as it stands, if all of our players are fit, we can field two first teams of almost equal strength. That is not bad. Our problems have reduced significantly, thanks to our shrewd transfer activity. We will likely be in the market in January for one more striker but until then, we can manage. Giroud has a very good injury record and is in the form of his life. Walcott is our insurance in the event of a Giroud Injury. Fellow gunners, we can certainly push on from here and cause major havoc in all competitions. We just need to keep believing. A new dawn has come to the emirates and Ozil is ours.