An injury to Gabriel just before the final whistle blew last night, took the gloss off of a 3-2 victory over Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side. The injury looked serious and I feel sorry for the player, especially if he’s out for a long time which looks likely. But let’s put his loss into perspective, Gabriel is indecisive, he has zero confidence, he looks like a rabbit caught in headlights…. He’s certainly no Franz Anton Beckenbauer is he? If him getting injured pushes Wenger into signing a top quality centre-back, then it could be a blessing in disguise.
Already in dire need of a centre-back, we now need two. Yes we have Holding, Bielik and Chambers, but neither of those should be expected to fill the void until Merts, Gabriel and Koscielny return, it just wouldn’t make any sense whatsoever, not if Arsenal are serious about challenging for the Premier League and Cups. That’s not me criticising any of the younger defenders but a few losses with them in defence and they’ll be ruined. Confidence levels will drop and they’ll struggle to get it back.
Three really good goals were enough to beat City but as so often happens, defensive frailties were there for all to see.
Wenger has just six days to sort this out and he simply has to sign at least one top to central defender in that time, two before the window of opportunity shuts but I bet he doesn’t. He’ll make do with what he has, just has he has done for the past few years….. Disgraceful and negligence of the highest order if that turns out to be the case…
We hear Wenger saying things like ‘we are in the market’, ‘we are monitoring the transfer window, we aren’t afraid or transfer fees, we are trying to find the right player’ etc etc
Well why is he just monitoring it????
Make transfers happen! He should have know long ago exactly who he wanted yet as usual we are heading for another reactive last few weeks. We seldom make a transfer happen, we sit, wait and watch on as other clubs snap up players who could very well have been good for Arsenal. Then we get left with the scraps or players who are not available as it’s too late in the transfer window for their club to find a replacement.
We act like such a small club with a lack of funds, a club who cannot push through deals for the players we actually need…………..
It really is pathetic for a club ranked the fifth wealthiest in the game..!
Spending £100- £150 million doesn’t give you guaranteed success, as so many clubs in the league have proved, certainly last season but sometimes it’s necessary in order to be ambitious and really give us a chance of winning the league. Heck, we might even get past the knock-out stages of the Champions League too. Even if we get pipped at the post for the league but gave it a real go, spending money on top class players would increase the fan-base, sell more shirts and other stuff the club shop sells and that in turn, together with all the TV money in the game, would go a long way to recouping what has been spent on those players. Money sitting in the Arsenal bank is no good, not for the people who really matter, the fans!
But no, this transfer window has yet again shown a serious lack of ambition, and the inability to get transfer dealings over the line has stifled the pre-season excitement and expectations once again..!
Its going to be a long and tough season ahead…..
