Since Ivan Gazidis made the very public pronouncement about our financial firepower, Arsene Wenger has been straight on one line. He will only add real quality to the squad. In the meantime he has been absolutely buffeted by all and sundry.
The vitriol within Arsenal blogs has reached new levels. This is against the form team in the Premiership in 2013. Little trust was shown and the sentiment and advice was simple. Spend some f’in money. Putting it another way, buy someone, anyone.
True to his word, Wenger has added real quality. Arguably Özil is one of the highest profile inward signings in Premiership history, if not the highest. I think much of the football world is still shocked.
I’m writing a squad assessment next, so I won’t say too much more about Arsenal.
The other big story of the transfer window (for me) was the haphazard way in which Man U went about their business. A string of very public missed transfers has concluded in them paying £4m more for Fellaini than they needed to. As for the Bilbao fiasco, I don’t believe the story that the lawyers who visited the Spanish FA were acting independently.
I think Ferguson has done the right thing in the main by staying away from Old Trafford, but with Gill’s retirement there seems to be a lack of transfer knowledge at the club. This is one area where the current team could have leaned on the knowledge of the outgoing pair. Not in terms of who to buy, but how to buy them.
Final words on the window. It will be tough to judge the outcome for some time, possibly the end of the season. I do think Everton have done well, getting a good price for Fellaini, keeping Baines and bringing in two players of quality.
The Arsenal Ostrich 