Transfer Window Pains And Amusing Hypocrisies

By Daniel Cowan
In Arsenal
Jan 25th, 2013
37 Comments

We’re signing someone! No we’re not. Why haven’t we signed someone? We have two players for each position. We need more players. We have a big squad. He will be like a new signing. Other teams are signing players. There’s no quality available in January. Such and such is available. Arsène knows. Wenger out. Sack the board.

These are just a few of the things that clog up my timeline on Twitter and have caused so many of my favourite tweeps to take month-long hiatuses.

It’s boring. It’s so bloody boring. I hate the January transfer window and sympathise with Wenger when he says it should be removed or limited.

It’s painful supporting a club, any club, that you feel needs improving who aren’t signing players in the transfer window. It’s especially hard when you see the club moving players out on loan, reducing the squad depth and not replacing them at all.

This month we’ve been linked with so many players and as the deadline looms ever closer the tension is mounting and most Gooners are primed for explosion. If we don’t sign someone most of our fans will explode. If we do sign someone, most of our fans will explode because it’ll be the wrong signing or we didn’t make enough signings. Twitter is full of people foaming at the mouth and smashing ten bells out of their keyboard or mobile device with every second that goes by that Arsenal do not announce a signing.

Things are made worse by the constant baiting and trolling from fake ITK’s desperate for attention making up crap left, right and centre luring in the gullible and inexperienced fans.

If all the rumours were true then this month we would have signed Villa, Cavani, Falcao, Götze, Hummels, Diame, Yanga-Mbiwa, Zaha, Wanyama, Cesar, M’Vila, Capoue, Gourcuff, Llorente, Imbula, Aurier, Sneijder, Baines, Shaw and Nani…. and a few more I’m sure I’ve forgotten.

I do think we need a few new signings but I also feel we have a decent squad and with more time together and maybe a few formation tweaks from game to game we could be consistently dangerous.

Twitter in January

If we don’t sign any players I’ll be a little disappointed but unlike many of my fellow Gooners with veins throbbing angrily in their temples I won’t be bursting any blood vessels over it.

The thing that has annoyed me more than anything over the past year and especially in this transfer window is the hypocritical opinions with regards to certain signings.

Whilst they are all very good players I have seen people go bat-shit crazy over “missing out” on players like Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Cisse, Cabaye, Dempsey, Sahin, Vertonghen and Allen, yes Joe Allen.

The hypocrisy of this is ludicrous but the irony of it is extremely entertaining to me. Most of the people who get so wound up over these players joining other clubs are the ones that scream “I want my Arsenal back” and “We HAVE to win titles, top 4 isn’t good enough” (I’ve always maintained that we are not entitled to trophies).

When did we turn into supporters that wishes we signed players that Europa league clubs at best signed with no issue?

When did we turn into a club that battles with Newcastle, Spurs and Liverpool for players?

Snatched from the clutches of Newcastle on deadline day

Why did we wish for Cabaye when statistically an out of form Ramsey was performing at a similar standard and contributing at a similar level? Surely it makes sense to keep the money and let Ramsey contribute to the same level as Cabaye until he hits form and shows that he is Cabaye’s superior not his equal.

Why wish for Vertonghen when you know he isn’t going to be a regular? And now that he has gone to Tottenham and cited regular football as a reason, why still wish for him? He has proven that he hasn’t got the belief in himself to fight for a place at Arsenal so why would you want to trust him to improve our defence?

The same goes for Yanga-Mbiwa. I really like the guy and I think he would have been a great signing but I don’t feel like we’ve missed out. If Wenger wanted him but he chose Newcastle then I’m not going to feel we missed out because there would’ve been a reason he chose Newcastle over us.

And now the furore over Diame. If he was going to improve us that much do you not think Wenger would buy him? He only costs £3.5m and is proven in the league. Squillaci cost £4m. Wenger wouldn’t think twice about spending £3.5m on a player like that if he thought he would be an asset. I’m not saying Wenger is right nor am I saying he is wrong but I have to respect his opinion on signings. Another issue is, if he was that good why didn’t Wenger sign him when he was free? Some will say that it was because he was injured but I say they are forgetting Amaury Bischoff.

Arsène signed Bischoff despite him carrying an injury because he felt he could be an asset if fit. It didn’t work out so he let the player go. He could have easily done that with Diame.

Wenger will take risks on injured players

I want us to sign some players before next Thursday, I really do, but I want them to be the right type of player. Wenger gets stick for saying he’ll only buy if he sees quality and many say that quality like Diame and the rest mentioned is staring him in the face but he’s too stubborn to see it.

I’ll have to go with Wenger on this one. We have a choice, or rather Arsenal have a choice. They can either rival Newcastle, Spurs and Liverpool etc for players and accept a role as an outside chance for top 4 at best or they can aim high and sign the quality that is needed to take us to the level of United, Chelsea and City.

I’d rather we tried to sign players that are worthy of our ambition, ie the sort of player that could get into Chelsea’s, City’s or United’s team.

Some may say that we can sign the lower quality for now and get rid of them when we’re closer to the top but I say to them that signing those sorts of players won’t get us to the top and even if it did we’d struggle to improve further because of limited squad places. We’ve seen how hard it is to get rid of players we don’t want any more. Do we really want to go through that again? I can guarantee that the same people screaming for Diame or any other player of that level will be screaming for us to sell him and call him deadwood within 18 months. Not because he is a bad player, but because he’ll no longer be what they consider “Arsenal level”.

Cazorla, Giroud and Podolski are signings that are our level and the types of signings I want to see but let us not worry about who may or may not sign and let us not worry if we don’t sign anyone come February first.

Better to have a tasty dish that needs a little something extra and leave it as it is than to spoil it by putting in the wrong seasoning.

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About "" - 509 Posts

I am a South London born Gooner now living in Leigh-On-Sea, Essex. I'm a husband, daddy, podcaster, trainer enthusiast and aspiring author. My work is my passion and for that I will always be grateful. Here is where I write my thoughts and views on Arsenal Football Club, the greatest team the world has ever seen.

37 Responses to “Transfer Window Pains And Amusing Hypocrisies”

  1. Ben says:

    Good one there bro…Gooners calm down !

    • Daniel Cowan says:

      Thanks Ben. You win the award for being the fastest ever comment on one of my posts. I think it had only been up for 10 minutes.

  2. Scott says:

    Very well said. Sanity in an insane transfer period.

  3. RedCurrant says:

    Sanity…I do love a bit of sanity on a Friday evening!

    Could you turn this article into a pill and adminster it to some of our more sickly red ‘n’ white bretheren?

  4. Harry says:

    Good and logical reasoning…. We have good players already. We should clamour and shout that we should buy if we can’t get quality better than what we already have of which will be hard to find in January. And we also have good under 21’s which I feel will do well given the chance as well. Nice one

  5. eduardo says:

    have to say one of the best pieces I’ve seen on the transfer window nonsense we have to put up with, I always get the feeling all this I want him or him signed comes from people who do not live in the real world or who never grew up

  6. Gun_1 says:

    great post…but you can lead a whore to culture but you can’t make her think.

  7. Harry says:

    Gooners really need to calm down and just support the club no matter what and see how the players will reward them at the end. Nobody likes losing especially when you have millions of people looking up to you. It hurts them more when they lose cos they know they have let millions of people down. Yea it hurts but some things are inevitable and not planned. Life isn’t a bed of roses. GOONERS REALLY NEED TO CALM DOWN

  8. Shard says:

    A good article. Thank you.

  9. Scott says:

    I agree. Support your team.

  10. Eddy says:

    Agree with a lot of your points re the fact that a load of names that we have been linked with,wouldn’t improve the squad sufficiently to warrant their purchase but nor did giving huge contracts to Gervinho,Chamakh,Squillaci and Arshavin.Put simply I don’t trust Arsene and the Arsenal Board in the transfer market anymore.The only time I hear “I want my Arsenal back”,is when suppprters feel they are being fleeced by an unambitious Board who are prepared to give absolute dross £60k a week for 4 years and then the supporters are left to cover the cost of these poor decisions and huge wage bill,watching a team that could be doing a lot better with the money spent.We have so much dross eating into our wage bill that the owner refuses to sanction any more expenditure until we clear the decks IMO …very frustrating

    • Daniel Cowan says:

      To be fair I think it’s harsh to retrospectively slate decisions to sign players/give them contracts. We can certainly bemoan the board/management for not doing their utmost to get rid but not for signing them.

      Gervinho was quality in Ligue 1. Hasn’t adapted but it’s only his second season. If no improvements by the summer, sell up.

      Chamakh was great when he first joined but change in formation/tactics & lack of games has stagnated him. Should be moved on or accommodated in a 2 man strike force.

      Arshavin, also great at first but for many reasons has dipped. Time to move on.

      Squillaci joined with a CV that read like Sol Campbell but sadly didn’t adapt. Should be moved on.

      The contracts and signing of these players shouldn’t be criticised as we sign on potential and ability. Sometimes that ability/potential isn’t realised but that isn’t the board or the managements fault. It happens at every club. Not moving them on is the fault of the board/management but it’s also worth remembering that it isn’t easy to move on a player. Wenger and the board aren’t blameless but I feel there are bigger shortcomings than players not working out that deserve more attention than “deadwood”.

  11. wenkev02 says:

    Great blog again!! Proper gooners will agree,the rest take note….

  12. iain says:

    Llorente was probably the only top quality transfer and giroud is very similar. Gotze, jovetic, villa etc dont look available so I cant blame wenger for holding off on a striker. Wanyama though looks quality, as did m’villa so he really has no excuse in strengthening at defensive mid. I like arteta and coqelin but both are a bit lightweight against the power of city and chelsea. Heres the thing- it is and was remiss not to strengthen adeqately as the top players have been sold. This squad would get mullered by the invincibles.

  13. Joeos says:

    Brilliant analysis and summary. At 16.27 today the Guardian posted an article headlined “Manchester United gazump Arsenal” with regard to Zaha, this after Arsene Wenger had clearly stated that he had not bid for him. I believe him as the position that Zaha plays is not one where we need additions. Clearly a false report to stir up controversy.
    Anyone who states that Wenger is not aware of the areas where the team can be improved and the club is not working to acquire players to strengthen the squad is either simple minded or part of the agitprop brigade who are out to destabilise the club to facilitate a change in control.
    I was tempted to go onto the Arseblog comment section and make reference to your blog, but on balance decided not to as you can probably do without the attention of the fuckwits, retards and agitprops that post ignorant abusive comments on that site.

    • Daniel Cowan says:

      Haha. I wouldn’t mind the publicity mate, feel free to post it. I enjoy seeing all manners of opinions on my blog. It’s all about the conversation 🙂

  14. OMGArsenal says:

    It is, as you so clearly stated, a matter of wants versus needs. The whiny,knee-jerk moaners and gloomy bitchers want Wenger to keep them happy by spending money he can’t afford, hoping that some miracle will happen and a superstar a la Bergkamp will come in and ¨save¨our season. That is total BS since there are no players like that available anywhere in January AND our season doesn’t need saving, it simply needs more support from our fickle fans.
    In this age of instant gratification, our anti-Wenger anti-Arsenal plastic fanboys should take up cribbage and leave Football to the true Gooners.

  15. dwane says:

    This has been more like a couple of seasons we needed a proper center back paring along with an proven defense midfielder,Wenger still after 5 seasons hasn’t address this issue which clearly show in our game plans!

    I guarantee we’ll those results Arsenal problems hasn’t been getting goals, it’s letting them in on a regular basis !

  16. Nir says:

    Superb Daniel, Just loved it.
    Exactly what I was thinking, why should we buy squad players and not someone who can get us to new level? Specially this lines explains everything “When did we turn into supporters that wishes we signed players that Europa league clubs at best signed with no issue? When did we turn into a club that battles with Newcastle, Spurs and Liverpool for players?”

    As far as panic (of not signing) is concerned, let us not forget we all get excited when we sign good players, its about the passion and love towards Arsenal, more than hating arsene or board, it is that feeling of wanting Arsenal to progress rather than really abusing. Those who will criticize wenger atm will certainly cheer him up when we r in good run of form. Its all to do with passion and love towards Arsenal.

    Cheers Daniel, certainly a good start of day for me!

  17. Ben says:

    Good work Daniel. I have to say I don’t agree with all what you have said, but I very much enjoyed reading it. For some fans, the issue is the same mistakes, over and over. AW went into the season underprepared. The signings he did make where very good. Plan and simple we needed more. Now he has a few days to bring in at least someone in to prevent ‘burnt out’ to a major player. I’m personally not the sort of person/fan to lose my rag over a player we ‘missed out on’. But saying that, when you find out the club are unable to wrap up a deal – Mata, Zaha and Gary Cahill. If is frustrating to say the least. I could state a case for a few of those players – Sahin, Mbiwa and Vertongen but that’s what it’s all about. Opinions.

    • Daniel Cowan says:

      The Mata’s, Cahill’s and Zaha’s etc are the sorts of players I’m talking about as being our level. They are players that are deemed good enough for the clubs that we want to be beating.

      Some people have struggled to understand that. Yes our level has fallen but not to Europa league team standard just yet (the season isn’t over). It’s fallen from title winners to top 4 challengers. If we want to win titles again we need to have title challenging players and some names mentioned are not those players.

      Yes we do need to strengthen but do we want to strengthen by improving the structure or do we want to fill in holes? People talk about papering over cracks all the time but some of the players they want constitute papering over cracks and that is the kind of asinine hypocrisy that I highlighted in the blog. Does it make them less of a supporter? No. Are they to blame for anything? No. Is it amusing? To me, and that’s why I mentioned it.

  18. Douglas Adams says:

    It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

    All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others.

  19. Nikki says:

    The thing is you can’t judge players good enough or not just by looking at the competition or even whether he is from small club or club who compete in Europe League. Cavani? He never taste Champions League. Before Napoli, he was from Palermo. Falcao? He was identified by Wenger when he still played in Colombia. Vermaelen? We compete to sign him with Tottenham or almost compete. Jenkinson? He regularly tout to replace Sagna, where was he from?
    My point is, we don’t necessarily have to buy a quality players like Podolski, etc. That supposedly for the summer business. If you said that Cabaye is Europe League quality, which I disagree, then we need that kind of player. Not necessarily to topple our first team choice, but to deepen our squad.

  20. Mitchell Edwards says:

    You had me untill you said something on the lines of Ramsey being as good as Cabaye. I’d swap them in a heartbeat if they’re similar because Cabaye can score freekicks.

  21. thomas says:

    The thing is the squad isnt too bad but could do with one or two additions, and some of those players such as sissoko or yanga mbiwa could have strengthened our squad. i also personally believe the main reason fans get irritated when newcastle sign these players is because usually we cannot compete for the “top, top quality players” wenger blabs on about. Wenger runs from there transfer fees and wage demand or we get outbid by a richer club. so when good players are available we must move quick, we will not always find a cazorla (16mil) or poldi(11mil) for those prices.

  22. LJB says:

    If you cannot see how players like Vertonghen.Dembele andLloris could have improved this team then you know nothing about football.If you think that Santos is an adequate back up left back who,.given Gibbs’ injury record,might have to be relied upon,then you know even less.And if you think that we compete with Man U,Chelsea and City for players,then there is no hope for youy.There isn’t a single Arsenal player who would get into any of these sides and there isn’t a single player in world football who, at this moment in time, would choose to come to Arsenal instead of those clubs.

    • Daniel Cowan says:

      If you think the article was about any of that then you cannot read and there is no hope for you.

    • tyler says:

      Quite a few players would get into City, Chelsea, or Man U. Wilshere, Vermalean, Sanga, Cazorla, Walcott to name a few….

  23. tyler says:

    Fellaini. He would improve this squad. He is top class. We are thin in the midfield and at left back. If one of our CB’s goes down for any extended time, then we are thin there as well. But getting Fellaini would be awesome.

  24. Master J says:

    I wouldn’t mind who the player will be, but I believe we do need a trusted defender!

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