Arsenal: Panic and pain shows Gunners’ efficiency

The quintessential panic and pain of transfer deadline day was evident this summer. It perfectly illustrates the importance of Arsenal’s efficiency this summer, standing in the face of what has gone before.

I love transfer deadline day. The drama, the uncertainty, the roving reports, the suspicious airport sightings, the rogue stowaway in the training ground car park, the wheeling-dealing, old-school manager, the sly, silently conspiring agents. It’s all quiet, softly-softly, whispers, shrouded speak, until bang! The deal is done.

Catch the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal podcast right here

I get to enjoy it a lot more when Arsenal are not involved. As an Arsenal fan, there are few things more frustrating than straining into the repetitively addictive Sky Sports News’ images, waiting for that deal to be done. I still remember being on tenterhooks for a whole day when Mesut Ozil was rumoured to be on his way or when Arsene Wenger reportedly spent the day with the Pope, ostensibly disinterested with what was to play out at London Colney! Only transfer deadline day could throw up such a story.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

But this year, it was a very much subdued affair. The biggest deals of the day came at Everton and Fulham. In fact, not one of the traditional top-six made a permanent signing — Chelsea did secure the loan signing of Matteo Kovacovic. That, though, is not for the want of trying, especially at a bemused, downhearted, enraged White Hart Lane and Old Trafford.

Both Spurs and Manchester United would have been expecting a signing. Jose Mourinho said he had five centre-half targets. Earlier in the summer, he wanted two. Then his goal slipped to just one. By Thursday morning, he had resigned himself to missing on all five, even making desperate, last-ditch attempts to sign Diego Godin from Atletico Madrid. Spurs, meanwhile, became the first team in Premier League history to not sign a single player across the whole window.

The two clubs had a miserable deadline day. But they shouldn’t have been in such a position. They were complacent earlier in the window. They were not swift in their evaluations; they did not make their approaches early enough. They waited too long. And then they were panicking to sign someone, anyone, of relative quality.

This, I believe, is the greatest aspect of Arsenal’s summer window. Although I don’t necessarily agree with every move that they made, at least they were efficient and effective in their business. They recognised an area of need in the squad, they found a player who addressed that need, and then they went and got him. By early July, their business was done.

It flies in the face of the recent mechanics of the club’s summer windows. How many times have we seen Wenger desperately jumping from mediocre player to mediocre player in the final days of the window just to address a position that everybody knew needed addressing two months before? Not this time.

It was just nice to sit down and watch the mania of deadline day knowing that there was no pressure on Arsenal to do anything whatsoever. They got their business done. They were the efficient ones. And that is a sign of a very good summer indeed.