Arsenal: How are they going to balls all this up?

Seemingly, Alexis Sanchez will join Manchester United and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan will join Arsenal. It is too good to be true. How will the Gunners balls all this up?

Arsenal are at the centre of a transfer storm. Usually, historically, traditionally, this does not end well. If there is anything that this club excels at, it is screwing up the transfer window in ways that only worsen year on year, increasingly maddening the fans in ways that were not even thought possible before they happened.

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And this time around, the Gunners are in a position that, if taken advantage of, could lead to a somewhat prosperous and advancing winter window.

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Alexis Sanchez, who is seemingly nearing a Manchester United exit, with just six months remaining on his contract and in a position where he can sign for any club he wants for nothing at the end of the year, has been targeted in a swap deal for unwanted Armenian creator Henrikh Mkhitaryan, a player who Arsene Wenger has admired in the past and reportedly tried to sign before United completed a £26 million deal with Borussia Dortmund. Given the Chilean’s clear threat to walk away with no value for Arsenal, that is not all too bad.

And in addition to that swap deal, which Wenger revealed in his pre-match press conference on Thursday morning is in progression, the Gunners are reportedly chasing current Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang after offloading the wages of Theo Walcott and Francis Coquelin, as well as allegedly offering Olivier Giroud as a makeweight.

It would be an extremely beneficial and progressing January window if Arsenal were able to trade Sanchez for Mkhitaryan and then replace Walcott and Giroud with Aubameyang. It seems too good to be true.

We have been in this position with this club so many times before that it becomes increasingly difficult to trust them in being able to see through such high-profile and forward-thinking deals. Unlike Manchester City, United or Chelsea, they do not have the track record or the pedigree to inspire confidence in their ability to secure these type of moves. So why would that change now?

Entering the January window, I must admit that I feared the worst. My expectation that Sanchez would be sold and that his replacement would be a significant step-down. But this proposed and strongly rumoured scenario might actually be an improvement. So it leaves me with just one question to ask: How will the Gunners balls this all up?

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I really hope that I am wrong, but the longer that this saga drags on, the more I doubt that it will ever have a happy ending. Ultimately, only time will tell. Let’s hope that we don’t have to wait too long to find out.