Why are Arsenal’s transfers so bad?
While it is easy to criticize Arsenal’s decision-making on and off the pitch in the current scenario under Mikel Arteta, it can safely be said that Arsenal has fallen off a cliff since the golden era under Arsene Wenger. Criticized for his authoritarian and “old school” tactics, Arsenal fans are now realizing how impactful Le Professeur’s philosophy was, with Champions League football guaranteed even in the last stretch of his tenure.
Arsenal’s fall has been, however, a process. A series of bad contracts to aging players, inability to offload dead-wood, and overpayments in the transfer market has damaged the reputation of the club amongst players, with the club relying on its past glories to attract top talent. In this article, we will try to understand why Arsenal’s transfers have been so bad, and try to review their business this summer to decipher their plan going forward.
Philosophy Under Wenger
Wenger entered the Arsenal job with proven pedigree in signing young talent from across the world, discovering the likes of George Weah and Lilian Thuram in his time at Monaco. When he arrived at England, his skill in the transfer market was quickly further evinced, signing Emmanuel Petit, Nicolas Anelka, Gilles Grimandi and Marc Overmars within his first year in charge. The quartet of players represented what would become Wenger’s guiding principles in transfer policy during his time at Arsenal, with a heavy focus on players based in France.
While the initial transfer policy was a success, with most players going on to be superstars for the club, the transfer policy started to show its cracks in the following years, with signings like Gervinho,Yaya Sanogo, Mathieu Debuchy and David Ospina turning out to be poor financial decisions.
Wenger was also known and criticized for his “accountant” mentality — spending very little to no money on players and often letting the club’s stars leave for low transfer fees to keeps the books tidy. While one explaination to the low funding could be the cost of building the Emirates Stadium from 2004–2006, the lack of investment continued and coupled with the riches of clubs like Manchester City and Chelsea helping propel them to Premier League glory, Arsenal fans were getting impatient.
However, an underappreciated aspect of the Wenger era which has been brought to light in recent years has been his ability to keep his team in the title race almost every year, with regular Champions League football being a norm for Arsenal fans.
Post Wenger Era
During the 22 year Wenger era at Arsenal, the professor wore many hats — being the Coach, Director of Football and Head of Talent Development simultaneously. Arsenal logically decided to share those responsibilities out, but instead of continuing and enhancing the legacy and style of football Arsene had left, they decided to rip it to shreds.
Believing one or two signings could take the club back to the top 4, Arsenal brought in aging players in big wages hoping to bridge the gap, adding unreliable veterans like David Luiz and Sokratis to squad. Something Arsenal seemed to have not planned for, however, is a scenario where these transfers don’t bring in the short term success they were bought in for. The club is now left with a set of players with little to no resale value in the market, worsened by the huge wages they are in, making them impossible to offload.
Along with the failure of older signings, the change in managers has halted the growth of many young talents like Mattéo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira, tanking their value. After winning the FA Cup just after 8 months of being in charge, Arsenal handed Mikel Arteta the ability to build the squad, and get rid of players he did not see fit in his long term plans. This meant that the above mentioned players who were valued at a combined 60 million euros a season ago would now leave for much lower fees, all because of the club’s unclear vision and direction in the transfer market.
Not only did Mikel Arteta’s talent management cost the club in the transfer market, but the newly promoted coach was the driving force in handing out massive contracts to aging players like Willian And Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with both having underwhelming seasons with little to no impact on the squad.
Arteta’s business in his first transfer window — 2020–21 was questionable as well. The club was rumoured to be focusing on an attacking midfielder all summer, with Houssem Aouar being one of the strongest rumour out of a few others. However, Arteta decided to go in for Thomas Partey for big money, a 27 year old defensive midfielder who is likely to be over 30 by the time young talents like Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli hit their peak.
The lack of creativity was evident in the first half of the 20–21 campaign, with Arteta’s side sitting 15th in the table before Christmas. The season was only saved by the emergence of Emile Smith Rowe and the signing of Martin Ødegaard, attacking midfielders who boosted the sides creativity- something Arteta should have focused on from the beginning.
21–22 Transfer Window and the Future
Arsenal’s 21–22 transfer window has shown a more coherent recruiting policy for the future. Even though some might consider Ben White an overpayment, he along with other signings like Albert Sambi Lokonga represent a transfer policy which involves targeting young talent who will eventually mature and gel with the existing young core.
This window has shown that Arsenal have accepted the reality of the situation — they won’t be challenging for the title anytime soon, and they need to build patiently to replicate the success they garnered in Wenger’s reign.
It’s not hard to imagine an Arsenal 11 competing for the title in 2024 — with young signings like Gabriel, Tierney and Ødegaard along with the existing young core of Saka, Smith Rowe and Martinelli all hitting their peaks at the same time.
As much as Arsenal fans complain about the lack of invesment in the squad from owner Stan Kroenke, the truth is that Arsenal has had the resources to build a world class team in the post Wenger era, if they’d only had the strategy and intelligence to do so. Since 2017/18, Arsenal have been the 4th highest spenders in the Premier League, with only Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea outspending them in that period. And yet, the squad is still in a rebuild stage, and has fallen off considerably since Wenger left.
With this season’s transfer window, Arsenal have acknowledged their mistakes in the past, and are now set to grow with an identity — something which was lost after Wenger left. Whether Arteta is the man to lead the rebuild the team is an entirely different conversation, but one thing which is clear is that Arsenal have a very bright future ahead.
Go Gunners! ❤️
