Summer Dithering Cost Arsenal The Double?

Arsenal’s form in 2015 has left a bittersweet aftertaste in the mouths of many of their supporters as they lament what could have been had Arsenal been quicker off the mark.

A slow start to the season ultimately cost Arsenal in the race for the title and it is clear for all to see that the primary reason for the poor start was due to injuries. Where some supporters differ is in how much they are willing to accept this as an, for want of a better word, excuse.

Many feel that Arsenal can no longer use injuries as a legitimate reason for a lack of a title challenge because Arsenal get so many injuries each season - more so than other sides it seems - that they should anticipate the fallout and ensure they are prepared. Multiple and extended layoffs are part and parcel of Arsenal’s season these days so surely it cannot be a surprise or stroke of unforeseen bad fortune?

It can also be said that Arsenal’s finances are now healthy enough to supplement a strained squad with fresh faces and versatile players to cover injuries.

It’s hard to disagree with these sentiments in principle and certainly the club should be better prepared but knowing you need to be prepared for a certain eventuality and finding the necessary tools and provisions to do so are completely different things.

Take for example the need for a centre-back. Thankfully for Arsenal we managed to secure the services of Gabriel in January and there are benefits to doing so but the question being begged to be asked by many is “why didn’t we do it last summer?”.

I try to steer clear of Twitter conversations that include prices we could receive for players or estimates of how much it would cost to secure the signature of the player who would “solve all our problems”. I’m not a fan of pulling arbitrary figures out of the air and acting as though transfers are that easy.

Players are commodities, assets, and anyone who has tried to buy a commodity or an asset like a house, or even a car, will tell you it’s not that simple. Sure, if you want to walk into a car dealership and say “I need something with wheels, preferably in blue” and throw £20k at their feet you could have a hassle free shopping experience or you could find yourself punting home in a wheelie bin.

Buying an asset is tough; there are financial agreements to be made and legal requirements to fulfil. When the asset is a human being though, it gets a whole lot more complicated.

Footballers are often painted as greedy people who care nought for the game, only for what they can earn from it and whilst there are a few characters like that the vast majority of players are in it for the love of it. The primary desire and motivation at the core of most footballers is to play regularly. If you cannot guarantee that then you are making your job harder.

It would be foolish to lure a footballer to your club on the promise of regular game time and not follow through. The truthful statement of “I want you at my club, I see a big future for you there but you will have to fight for your place” scares a lot of players off. Not every player has the character to leave a place they are considered a regular to start over again and earn their way into a new team.

So many people are in jobs that no longer appeal to them, challenge them, or inspire them because they fear starting over again somewhere new. Why should footballers be any different?

Take Luiz Gustavo for example. It was rumoured he turned Arsenal down when they were looking for a defensive midfielder because he was guaranteed to start for Wolfsburg but not for Arsenal. I cannot say if that is true or not but compare that to Coquelin who was unhappy at being recalled from Charlton where he was almost a shoe-in to start to come back to Arsenal to be on the bench.

Coquelin came back, albeit begrudgingly, sat on the bench, albeit with a hefty grumble, but took his chance when it came and has not looked back since. He wasn’t given a guarantee, he earned it.

Some players don’t want to do that. We were lucky with Coquelin in that he already belonged to Arsenal so he had no choice but to come back. I suspect had he been given the option he would have elected to stay at Charlton and would be a free agent this summer.

The search for a top class centre-back last summer would have encountered many of the same difficulties and it is for that reason I feel it is unfair to complain that Wenger failed to strengthen the team.

It was well-documented that Arsenal tried for Manolas and Sokratis but sadly the former preferred a move to Roma, similar to Nastasic who preferred a loan to Schalke rather than the reported loan with option to purchase on offer at Arsenal, and the latter was off the cards as soon as Dortmund and Arsenal were drawn together in the Champions League group stages.

Arsenal tried for two younger players to play understudy to our established partnership and neither were interested and they tried for an experienced hand but were blocked at the last minute by his club.

Finding a player of the right calibre is hard and when you do find one there is no guarantee you will be able to sign him. He may elect to move elsewhere or stay put, his club may be unwilling to sell, he may want assurances of game time that you cannot in good conscience guarantee; there are so many variables you cannot reduce it to the nescient sentiment of “Wenger didn’t try hard enough” or "Wenger dithered". We don’t know what goes on behind closed doors.

What should Wenger have done, bought an inferior player just to make up the numbers? That could easily make recruiting a better player even harder as they would just see even more competition for spaces. Of course Wenger could tell his new target that the player he bought 6-12 months ago was just a stop gap until he could get him but how would that callous admission play out? Would the target not wonder if he is just a stop gap too? Would a manager this ruthless and cold be willing to stand by him as he adapts or if he had injury or form problems in the future?

If you manage to convince this new target to join after that you now have the problem of trying to shift out a player who may not want to move to a lesser team now he has the prestige of Arsenal on his CV. He may not want to take what would likely be a pay cut either without the lure of a big signing on fee so he’ll just let his contract run down and we’re stuck with him.

There are so many things to analyse when signing a player that it’s really not as simple as just throwing a dart at a list of players and buying the one it lands on. It may not seem like it now but Arsène did the right thing in waiting for a better player to come along in January.

I would also go as far as to argue that the player he bought will benefit in the long term from being bough in January. Had he been bought last summer there would have been an immediate expectation for him to perform given our injury crisis and had he fallen short of those expectations he may have struggled to win the crowd over and his future performances could have been tarred with the air of exasperation we came to breathe when we saw Squillaci or Santos on the team sheet.

Signing in January gives him time to adapt to the team and his new surroundings. Next season he should be ready to rock but even if he isn’t he will most likely be afforded some grace as he joined during a period of goodwill and that will extend to next season as the fans appreciate he is technically in his first full season with the team.

The importance of missing out on signing another central defender last summer has been massively inflated and seriously misrepresented as wilful negligence by the manager. The reality is so far from that and in time people will appreciate Wenger for not settling for second rate players for numbers when they see the quality of the team we have in the years to come.

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