Today, we welcome Ifeanyi Ohaka as a guest blogger to the blog. Ifeanyi Ohaka Is a Chelsea fan from Nigeria but after reading is article, I found it difficult to disagree...
The transfer window might still be open but Arsenal are clearly running out of players to sign. They have been linked with too many players from Jovetic to Fellani, from Higuain to Rooney and now Suarez but the truth is they are not even close to signing any of them. They need to bring in quality players to improve their average squad. Truly their squad is average, they are at least 5 quality players away from been real genuine title contenders, right now their squad is too thin for them to challenge for trophies. They are only top four contenders and if they keep up their low activity in the transfer market, they will lose that place to other teams ( Spurs and Liverpool silently doing the right businesses in the market so far). Wenger made it clear that a top four finish is as good as a trophy (not everyone agrees with that) and to me, it is the mentality that is killing the club.
They are out of excuses for their fans and their fans are rightly getting impatient. Their season ticket is one of the most expensive in Europe, yet as the fans are loyal, they keep buying the tickets and attending matches but for how long? Many will not accept it for a fact, but most football fans will not keep attending matches if their teams are not winning and if the old ones keep attending matches, new fans will not come in as nothing attracts them. Signing players like Squillaci doesn't do so much to your fan base but signing players like Rooney does. Real Madrid keeps increasing their fan base every season not because they keep winning ( at least not in recent time ) but because they keep signing big players and let's face it, most young football fans are glory seekers, you need to win before they support you and guess what? The more fans you have, the more money you make from sponsors.
The club needs to give their fans hope again and make them believe by first getting quality players and show the fans they want to move forward. They need to change their philosophy which clearly isn't getting them anywhere. They sell quality and replace it with mediocrity, and if they continue in this tread, the will become a Liverpool before they know it. It is understandable that the stadium the club built had an impact in it activities in the transfer market however, it is also important to note that the club took a long term loan with only 17m repayable to the bank every year for 17 years. What this means is that the club can afford to repay the bank and still buy players in the market without going bust. For instance, they could have bought Mata for 16m but kept delaying things till date for the release clause ended and Chelsea came in.
As a Chelsea fan, I am happy we got Mata but I know for sure if Arsenal had done things faster, we would never have had a chance. In the same window or the one after, Arsenal had the chance of signing Varane, but dragged things till Madrid came in. What more? They could have signed Hazard for 16 million but chose to wait one more year. All the 3 players I have mentioned were well within Arsenal's budget both in terms of transfer fee and wages and would have massively improved them but the club's antics made them lose out. They knew Cesc will leave in the same window is what makes it worst.
Arsenal needs to improve their negotiating methods if not, things are not going to change. To me, it all starts from the negotiation, there are not many clubs in Europe better than Arsenal when it comes to spotting talents but Arsenal only does her own for other teams and unless they are more decisive ( note that I have not said throw money that they don't have at players, and no, I am not an hypocrite, I do not support recklessness even though I am a Chelsea fan but discussion for another day ), the status quo will sadly remain the same for Arsenal.
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