Arsene Wenger Should be Judged on Quality of Signings in January

Filed under: Arsenal, Premier League, Football

When it was all over, when the music and the dancing stopped, some very decent judges thought that Arsene Wenger had rescued a parlous summer situation and ended the transfer window by improving Arsenal's position and making them competitive anew. Really?

Out have gone Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy as big guns that Arsenal wanted to keep. In as replacements have come Mikel Arteta, Yossi Benayoun and Andre Santos respectively.

That would be a 30-year-old with a bad injury record, another midfield player who has knocked about some of the top clubs of the Premier League but without any of them wanting to keep him and a left-back with a reputation for attacking instincts that outstrip his defensive qualities.
How exactly does that improve Arsenal?

But wait, say the Arsenal diehards. Gervinho is clearly better than Nicklas Bendtner, who is a decent striker and might blossom at Sunderland but not quite good enough for a Champions League club.

On top up front, there is Park Chu-Young and at the back, Per Mertesacker is the type of giant German defender that Arsenal have been crying out for.

All that may be true but Park is due to do his South Korean national service the year after next. It will be interesting watching Arsenal work out ways of getting him out of that.

And why did Wenger only come to realise on deadline day that Mertesacker was what he needed all along? The 28-year-old stopper was, it is understood, recommended by chief scout Steve Rowley three years ago. Mertesacker could have been prised out of Werder Bremen at almost any time.

Indeed, there was, in Wenger's belated dealings a desperation at odds with his traditionally calculated management and development of players.

How many times has he refused to give a player over 30 more than a one-year deal, for example? Arteta, aged 29, comes in armed with a four-year contract.

Now it might be said that Wenger has finally seen sense and heeded sound advice. He has more experienced players, such as Santos, to counter-balance ones for the future such as Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. He now has a physical defender with presence and perhaps some leadership qualities.

Arsenal fans will surely hope so, along with those of who continue to wish Wenger well for his enlightened contribution to the Premier League these past 14 years.

Having earned some breathing space by cajoling the side into a win over Udinese to reach the Champions League group stages, he now deserves some time to determine if these new signings will work.

After the 8-2 defeat by Manchester United at Old Trafford - what someone cleverly called the Frenchman's 'Shredded Huit' - Arsenal need to demonstrate very quickly that they can integrate the new men.

And eight points behind Manchester United and City after just three games, they are fortunate they are at home to Swansea City when the Premier League resumes after the international break.

Post-transfer deadline day, the next ritual for the English game is the annual early autumn managerial cull.

Wenger can comfortably be expected to survive that, even if it takes a while for results to pick up. It is only by the start of the next transfer window in January that we will know more realistically whether this is for the manager the start of a new era or end of empire.

 

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Source: http://www.fanhouse.co.uk/2011/09/02/arsene-wenger-arsenal/

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