It is mid-July, the sun is doing its best to remind us that summer exists, and the transfer window is open. Across the Premier League, clubs are signing players with an urgency that suggests the season starts next week rather than next month. Manchester United have been busy. Chelsea have been busy. Manchester City, inevitably, have been busy. And Arsenal? Arsenal are monitoring the situation.
Monitoring. The word has become a punchline, a shorthand for the particular brand of inertia that characterises Arsenal’s summer transfer windows. We are always monitoring. We are always interested. We are always on the verge of making a significant signing that will signal our intent and bridge the gap to the sides above us. And then July becomes August, and August becomes September, and we start the season with the same squad plus a 19-year-old from Ligue 2 that nobody has heard of.
The frustration builds
I am aware that this frustration is not new. Arsenal supporters have been complaining about transfer windows since approximately 2006, when Wenger began the long process of financial prudence that accompanied the move to the Emirates Stadium. The stadium was necessary. The financial constraints were real. The argument for patience was legitimate.
But that argument has a shelf life, and it expired some time ago. The stadium debt is being serviced comfortably. Commercial revenues have increased dramatically. The club is sitting on a transfer war chest that, according to various reports, runs to tens of millions of pounds. The money is there. The need is there. What is missing is the willingness to act.
Look at the squad as it stands. We need a striker — Olivier Giroud is a good player but not a great one, and the absence of a world-class number nine has cost us in the biggest matches for years. We need a defensive midfielder — Arteta is aging and Flamini, God love him, is not the answer to any question that begins with “how do we compete with Bayern Munich?” We need depth in virtually every position.
What others are doing
The contrast with our rivals is painful. Manchester City have signed Fernandinho and Jesus Navas, adding quality and depth to an already formidable squad. Chelsea are circling the market with the cold efficiency that Roman Abramovich’s billions provide. Even Spurs — Spurs — are making moves, preparing to spend the Bale money in a manner that, while scattergun, at least demonstrates ambition.
There was a time when Arsenal’s restraint in the transfer market could be presented as a virtue. We developed players, we promoted from within, we did things the right way. And there was genuine nobility in that approach. But virtue without silverware becomes stubbornness, and patience without progress becomes stagnation.
I do not want Arsenal to become Chelsea. I do not want reckless spending, carousel managers, and trophies purchased rather than earned. But there is a vast middle ground between financial recklessness and the paralysis that currently grips the club, and we seem incapable of finding it.
The Higuain saga
Gonzalo Higuain was supposed to be the one. The Argentine striker, available from Real Madrid at a price that Arsenal could comfortably afford, seemed the perfect solution. For weeks, the deal appeared imminent. Briefings were given. Confidence was expressed. Supporters dared to believe that this summer would be different.
And then Napoli signed him. Just like that. The rug was pulled from beneath our feet with a briskness that would be impressive if it weren’t so infuriating. Arsenal were left at the altar, bouquet in hand, watching the groom drive off with someone else. It is becoming a recurring scene in our transfer window theatre, and the audience is growing restless.
What happens next
The optimist in me — and he is becoming increasingly difficult to locate — says that there is still time. The window does not close until September. Wenger has a track record of late-window moves that transform a squad overnight. The signing of Higuaín — if it happens, and the rumours refuse to die — would be precisely the kind of statement that the club needs.
But the pessimist — louder now, more insistent — points to the pattern. Every summer, the same promises. Every summer, the same disappointments. Every autumn, the same excuse: we couldn’t find the right player at the right price. The right player, it seems, is always just out of reach, like a mirage in the desert of Arsenal’s transfer ambitions.
I wrote before about the changing of the guard that this squad needs, and nothing that has happened this summer has altered that assessment. If anything, the need is more urgent than ever. The gap between Arsenal and the clubs above us is not closing — it is widening, and every summer of inaction makes it wider still.
So we sit and we wait and we monitor the situation, because that is what Arsenal do. We monitor. We consider. We reflect. And then, when the window closes and the season begins, we look at the squad and we think: not quite enough. Again. As always. Not quite enough.
The summer of discontent continues. The sun shines, and Arsenal watch from the sidelines, and the transfer window turns without us.