Arsenal Sign What They Actually Need in January Transfer Window

Britain may have left Europe yesterday, but Europe is still very much coming to Arsenal, in the form of Spanish central defender Pablo Mari and Portugese full back Cedric Soares.

Much was lauded over Arsenal's big summer spending, but very little of that spending was on defenders, who have been desperately needed by the Gunners for so long. To some extent, that has been rectified in the January transfer window, with the arrival of Cedric Soares and Pablo Mari.

 

Cedric Soares, a proven Premier League defender

 

Cedric Soares is a proven Premier League defender, having made more than 100 appearances since joining Southampton in 2015. He is a much needed back up to Hector Bellerin, who has suffered frequent injuries in recent times.

Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, said: "He knows the league and he doesn't really need to adapt so I'm very pleased. We were short at right-back, we've had some big issues in that position before. We only have two players there and Maitland-Niles isn't really a right back and Hector [Bellerin] has had injuries so to bring in a player of that quality wasn't easy."

Pablo Mari, a 6’3" defender

Pablo Mari is a 6’3" defender, who became a hero at NAC Breda, in the Dutch Eredivise, scoring in a match against Heerenveen, which lifted his side out of the drop zone and secured three of the four points that they needed for survival. Mari captained the Dutch club in his spell there and was in the team of the month, twice, during his time in the Eredivisie. He then moved to Deportivo La Coruna, where he was ranked as the most accurate passer in their division.

At Flamengo, Pablo Mari won Brazil’s Serie A and Copa Libertadores last season. He is the first Spanish player to have won the Copa Libertadores.

Both players have been signed on loan, with an option to buy, should they prove as successful as Arsenal would hope. 

Arsenal's summer signings have not covered themselves with glory, with the notable exception of Gabriel Martinelli, who has scored 10 goals in 22 appearances, since his arrival. But Nicolas Pépé has not been able to transfer his Ligue 1 form to the Premier League, David Luiz has proven as unreliable as many expected, Kieran Tierney has been almost permanently injured and Dani Ceballos, who has had his moments, may be too slow for Arteta's style of play. 

Cedric and Pablo Mari, may not be the marquee style names that some Arsenal fans are looking for, but they they are experienced players in the positions where Arsenal need improvement most. Let's hope that they can flourish at the Gunners, under Mikel Arteta's leadership.

Arsenal Paid Too Much for Their New Recruits

Arsenal paid too much for their new recruits and let go of their players for far too little, according to a formula calculated by a London-based investment company.

The data centres on the 'intrinsic value' of a player - a calculated fee based on performances for the selling club and the projected impact on the buying club, as well as taking into consideration their prime age.

It calculates that Arsenal paid almost £31 million too much for Nicolas Pepe and William Saliba.

Alex Iwobi and Laurent Koscielny were let go for £39 million less than their intrinsic value.

The one redeeming factor, in all of this bad business, is that they picked up a bargain in David Luiz, paying £27 million under his intrinsic value.

We can only watch and see whether time will tell if the formula is reliable.

Summer transfer window: Who carried out the best business?

Huge Summer Transfer Season for Arsenal

It certainly has been a big summer transfer season for Arsenal, with six major recruits joining the club and far more spent than the forty odd million pounds that was threatened to be the limited budget as the last campaign ended.

Of the six major recruits, one of them is a loan, another was immediately sent out on loan.

Dani Ceballos on loan from Real Madrid

Many Arsenal fans are over the moon at this new found and untypical splashing of the cash. While I wish all the new recruits the very best and hope that they do well for the club, I can not help but reflect that much of this spending may have been in the wrong areas, given the results of the last few seasons.

Let's bear in mind that Arsenal conceded 51 Premier League goals last season and also had some heavy defeats in the various cup competitions. At the same time, only Man City and Liverpool scored more goals than Arsenal in the Premier League and this has been true for several seasons, Arsenal being among the highest goal scorers, but concede more than any of the top five and even more than some teams that finished below them.

Armed with this information, the Arsenal management chose spend the vast bulk of their transfer budget on attacking and midfield players. They let go two goalkeepers and two right backs and never replaced any of them. They replaced one older central defender with another one, bought a young one and immediately sent him out on loan. They may have bought a decent left back, but he is injury prone and injured at the moment. It's all very well spending a lot of money and bringing in a lot of recruits, but how much change is that going to make, if they are not in the positions where the weaknesses are apparent?                    

David Luiz, older central defender

  

William Saliba, immediately sent out on loan

                           

Kieran Tierney, injury prone and injured at the moment 

               

Nicolas Pépé, record signing, a lot of money

Gabriel Martinelli, youthful forward

Let's also spare a moment to consider the departures

Alex Iwobi - Often the whipping boy for many of the unhappy fans, he was and is highly rated by football managers and other players. As evidenced by his £34 million transfer fee. He never scored an awful lot of goals for Arsenal, but he made some very significant contributions.

Laurent Koscielny - Long term captain and best of a bad bunch of central defenders in recent years. I never rated him as highly as many Arsenal fans, but there is no doubt that he made some major marks and will be missed at Arsenal. I would be interested to know what happened at the club to change his attitude so dramatically. Maybe the new regime, after Wenger, was not to his liking.

David Ospina - A more than adequate back up keeper and first choice for the Columbian national team. His departure baffles me, especially as no replacement has been recruited.

Carl Jenkinson - I don't think Carl was ever given enough opportunities to show that he was probably the best back up right back at the club, especially after his successful spell at West Ham. A talent under utilised by Arsenal and another strange departure that has not been covered with a replacement.

Krystian Bielik - Came in as potentially the next big thing at centre back, never really played at lot of games at Arsenal and apparently never developed to requirements. Left as a midfielder.

Cohen Bramall - There was a huge fanfare when he joined the club and much discussion about his rapid rise from non-league ranks. Again, never got many opportunities to shine and has now gone to a League Two team. The ups and downs of a football career pretty much defined there.

Danny Welbeck - Oh Danny! Danny, Danny Danny! So much potential, so many injuries. He did some great things for Arsenal, just nowhere near often enough. I hope he can find some success before retirement.

Aaron Ramsey - What more can we say about Aaron Ramsey? Releasing him, on a free transfer, was one of the most stupid decisions the Arsenal football club has ever made. For all the money Arsenal have spent on midfielders in this transfer window, have they really replaced the man who should have gone on to be a long serving Arsenal legend?

Petr Cech - Arrived from massive rivals Chelsea and is often accredited as one of the best ever goalkeepers in the Premier League. He was past his prime when he arrived at Arsenal, but still did very well for them, especially considering he spent much of his time behind one of the most suspect defences in the whole table.

So, while a very big transfer window for Arsenal, I can't help but have my concerns about the wisdom of many of the decisions made. But we wish all of the new recruits success and hope that they can bring Arsenal back to really competing for the top prizes in the game.

Sad Day for the Arsenal Football Club

Another sad day for the Arsenal football club. Another long term player let go, another young talent that Arsenal developed into one of the club's best, one of the best in the country and by this measure the world. A British player in an English club.

Add in his goals, creativity and more, there are at least a dozen reasons he should be staying at Arsenal.
 
It just demonstrates the mismanagement of this club under Kroenke. Who is unable and unwilling to keep the best players and is happy to run a club where loyalty counts for nothing. #KroenkeOut

Aaron Ramsey

Arsenal Giving Away the Family Jewels

Another sad day for the Arsenal football club.

Jack Wilshere has spent most of his life at the club and is Arsenal through and through. Last season he was relatively injury free and played some good football. He was unlucky not to be selected for the England World Cup squad and now has been told that he will not be selected in the match day squad next season, at the club that he loves, despite accepting a financially reduced contract. For me that really stinks.

Jack Wilshire, moving to West Ham

I wasn't always Jack's biggest fan. Apart from a tendency for injuries, his short temper and petulance was always going to prevent him rising to the captaincy, that many saw him destined for. But on his day he could create openings that would change a match and he was a true Arsenal man. In these days of so many football mercenaries, god knows we need a few of those.

If this is typical of the type of decision we can expect from the new manager, Unai Emery, then maybe we have moved in the wrong direction. It may suit some sections of the fans, who believe that football is about constant change. But it is certainly not my idea of a club, which I believe is about construction and development, otherwise we'll all be Chelsea, or Man City.

In the last season and a half Arsenal have disposed of numerous long term players, as well as the coach, whose head so many were screaming for, Santi Cazorla, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Francis Coquelin, Wojciech Szczesny, Kieran Gibbs, Tomás Rosicky and now Jack Wilshere. OK some of them had reached the end of their careers or there were other good reasons for their departures. But the "Wenger Out" crowd were very fond of saying that one man does not make a club, so how many do? At what point does the club's identity start to disappear?

In the meantime, Arsenal have signed Bernd Leno from Bayer Leverkusen. This is another unusual decision. Is Germany's fourth choice goalkeeper, who didn't make it to the World Cup in Russia, going to be better than Colombia's number one keeper, or one of the most successful keepers in the Premier league?

Admittedly Petr Cech is probably nearing the end of his career and Leno may be coming in as his replacement. But it is going to be difficult to keep all three of them happy and give them enough games.

Jack Wilshere: Arsenal midfielder confirms departure