Arsenal at Summer Transfer Window 2011 -2012 Review | Arsenal January Window 2012 Targets

2011-2012 summer transfer window is by far the busiest transfer window Arsenal have ever had, in total 5 players had left and 8 players joined Arsenal. Even though the number of players coming in is higher, the quality of the players Arsenal lost is huge.Arsenal had the best midfield last season with the likes of Cesc, Nasri, Wilshere, Walcott and Song playing along but they had problems in other areas and eventually had a disappointing campaign.

Arsenal fans are used with star player departures like Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit, Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Mathieu Flamini, William Gallas, Jose Antonio Reyes, Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Adebayor and etc. But never it had happened that two big star players left in the same window. Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri both very young and high quality midfielders and their departure will be a very big loss to the club. We can understand the Nasri situation who has only 12 months remaining in his contract and Arsenal are forced to sell him for something instead of nothing but Cesc situation could have been handled differently, Wenger could have held on his most priced possession, arguably the best midfield player in the league like what Spurs did with Luca Modric. It’s known that Cesc wants to return to Barca and his performance wasn’t at his best because of distractions but he is still a hell lot of a player, he yet again finished the season topping the assist list. Thats where Wenger missed on the title, it’s really tough to win anything with a world-class playmaker for an attacking team like Arsenal. But the arsenal fans has all the reasons to cheer up, they got the two of the best young midfielers in Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere, especially Jack what a season he had last term, hopefully he steps up in the absence of Cesc as Cesc did when Henry departed. It’s the same old story for the same old Arsenal.

Mirel Arteta, Yossi Benayoun, Park Chu-Young, Per Mertesacker and Andre Santos on the final two days of transfer window is called pressing the panic button, even though they all are quality players they need the time to set in with the team, thats where Wenger’s decision is again questionable, he could have brought them earlier on and looked at the Cesc and Nasri’s situations.

Arsenal still need two top quality midfielders, one for the Attacking role and another for defensive role. Overall creativity of Arsenal had come down with the loss Cesc and Nasri, no more Arsenal can associate them self with 6-nil victories, they need an attacking midfield to complement the deep-lying playmakers Arteta and Wilshere, so someone like Adel Taarabt or Marvin Martin who are not Champions League cup tied will fit the bill. Another area of concern is defensive midfielder, Alex Song is quality versatile player but never a defensive midfielder he has too much of attacking instinct for the profile, Arsenal need someone to protect the back four and win the ball like Makelele. Both Song and Diaby can never be Mekelele, they both have the attacking instinct, so again Yann M’Vila who is not Champion’s League Cup tied will fit the bill. With this two players coming in will complete the Arsenal squad and make them competitive for the Silver wares, if not we would see the like of RVP and Walcott departing next season.

~ by shazhell on September 27, 2011.