It seems like it’ll be another drab couple of months for the red half of north London transfer-wise, so I thought I’d bum myself out and reflect on missed targets and wasted opportunities from my beloved Arsenal.
Now I’m writing this on the weekend before the transfer window shuts, so I’m hoping that I jinx the entire thing and Arsenal manage to pick up a few of our remaining targets and prove me and the rest of the Arsenal fanbase wrong. But it seems like hope is dwindling, and I think rightfully so.
With the first target of the summer being Gonzalo Higuain. The ex-Madrid frontman was clearly transfer listed by his old employers, and it is the general consensus between Arsenal fans alike that we do need another striker, and what a magnificent chance to sign a already proven world-class striker in Pipita – 190 appearances with 107 goals for arguably the second biggest team in world football and he was largely second fiddle to Karim Benzema? Sigh, Arsene.
Then begun the Luis Suarez saga, but with Arsenal wanting to stump up the cash for the Liverpool striker and bid forty million pounds plus one quid for him (laughable, in my eyes) it was pretty clear that it was just going to anger Liverpool owner John W. Henry.
Once again, the saga fizzled out and Arsenal still remain striker-less, but we’ve got Yaya Sanogo on a free – a player who wanted to quit football to become a postman. Yep, a postman.
Whilst the striker talk was going on, we had quieter “deals” in place for other positions, such as Marouane Fellaini from Everton, with an expiring time to pay his release clause whilst Everton were managerless.
The list of central defensive midfielders that we missed out on continues, with Geoffrey Kongdogbia signing for AS Monaco and Etienne Capoue now a Spurs player. Shambles. With our shredding of dead wood including the sale of Gervinho to AS Roma, it seemed like Erik Lamela could be on his way out of Roma, did we act on it? No, instead Tottenham are in talks with him and he will more than likely be available to play against Arsenal on Sunday.
We arguably need a defender or two as well, with Sakho from PSG looking to be on his way to Anfield, that’s a good player missed once again, don’t even get me started on the Julio Cesar debacle.
At least we’ve got Flamini, though…