So the transfer window has come and gone and on the whole I have to say I'm pretty pleased with the results. We lost Cesc, who was always going to be hard to replace, but ended the annual Favreish indecision with a good financial result. Let's hope the Gunners can do as the Packers have in moving forward.
We got rid of two players who think so much of themselves but provided no sustained effort in Nasri and Bendtner. Both were outspoken and generally did not contribute to the harmony required of this team's motto. Also, the Nasri deal had to be done. To get that much for him in his last year was a coup. Bendtner's on loan, so maybe he'll learn something about this club and what it means to be a teammate at the Stadium of Light.
We brought in two solid, world class, national team capped defenders in Santos and Mertesacker, who coupled with Vermaellen and Sagna, I think will provide an imposing, organized defense in front of our ever improving bat-crazy young keeper. Well done, but with the funds remaining I would have like to have seen another player in Samba, Dann or the elusive Cahill to add that bit of depth we sorely lack at times.
In the midfield the coupling of Benayoun and Arteta is pure magic. I look forward to seeing how they gel, instruct, and mold our younger quality midfielders. Provided Benayoun stays healthy, I wouldn't be opposed to trying to keep him at the end of the year. Again, with cash available even after all those signings, we could have used another player here. I will admit as an American and a Gooner, the prospect of having Clint Dempsey make a London switch would have put me over the top. His physical play under mental control and Texas heart would have made this fan extremely happy.
As for the forwards, we lose Bendtner and bring in Park Lee Kim. Hopefully he will get to be a KATUSA when he goes back for military duty in two years. The prospect of him sitting in some dirty, forlorn northern outpost near the DMZ eating canned kimchee and cleaning his rifle strikes me as a little silly. I really hope this motivates Chamakh to get back into a little of the form that made him our best scoring opportunity until RVP returned last season.
Now on to the big question that seems to be the major topic of the day after: what the hell took so long. Stubborn Arsene? Board interference? Or is it as Piers Morgan suggested on Fox Soccer Channel's, Goals on Sunday last week after the ManUre beating, that Wenger is lost without David Dean. That Wenger holds on too tight because he can't make decisions about players. Is that what took so long to pull the trigger yesterday and why we got Arteta at the death?
I also have another suspicion that the players themselves are involved in the delay. Why did we ultimately get Arteta? According to Moyes, he couldn't turn down the Champions League exposure. Were players waiting to sign all summer to see if we would make it to the CL?
Were they waiting to see what the Fabregas/Nasri situation would do? Not sure but at least worth a shot. See you for Swansea, lets hope nobody gets hurt this weekend.
