I can understand the frustration of Arsenal fans who can see that yet another injury hit campaign is hurting our hopes of winning the Premier League title this season and that the January transfer window gives Arsene Wenger the chance to boost our title hopes.
At the same time I can understand the manager’s assertion that he already has a strong squad of players to choose from and the fact that he is clearly not desperate to splash the cash this month. Not yet at least, because I have a feeling that this transfer window could well see one of two players coming to swell the ranks of the Gunners.
What I think the Frenchman is doing is to keep his eyes and ears open to who is available but more importantly keeping his options open. Just this week we have seen our central midfield area hit by the injury to Francis Coquelin, the negative news on Santi Cazorla and the fact that Elneny is off to the African Cup of Nations.
If Wenger was to react to this and sign another player though, we would have an overload when Coquelin and Elneny return in a few weeks and the chances of getting someone as good as Cazorla are slim in the extreme. What may happen in the next few weeks, though, is that we lose a big player and possibly for a lengthy spell.
That is when the boss will need to use the club’s money and the transfer market, don’t you think?
Sam P.
I agree, very unlikely that you’d find someone in the Jan market that could replace Cazorla. Maybe if we threw enough money at it we could, some teams outside the prem cannot say no to money, if we spot a midfielder at one of those clubs well then we should be impossible to say no to. The thing is though, Cazorla is a top bracket player, most of them are already at big clubs except the younger ones who’ll need time. Mccarthy at Eve would be a decent fill in for Cazorla if we could get him. He’s a little like Wilshere though, but without the injuries and without Wilshere’s gung ho approach. Moreover, I think we need an actual first teamer, not a standby, with Cazorla’s age and such.