Arsenal and Joachim Andersen: Okay, now I’m angry

Arsenal are letting Joachim Andersen walk to Lyon for a tiny fee, and suddenly I don’t think I like this transfer window much anymore.

I think, for the most part, I’ve done a good job keeping a level head this transfer window. I’ve done my best to accept Arsenal‘s situation, the funds that they have, and the discretion they’ve had to exercise when it comes to discerning what they can and can’t do without.

Then there’s Joachim Andersen. The Danish defender who I called the best idea of this summer transfer window. Supposedly, the Gunners were bidding on a double purchase, lining up a move for both Andersen and midfielder Dennis Praet, but the deal fell through when we couldn’t stump up another £5m to complete the deal.

All went silent, and now I have to confront the first to make me truly angry all transfer window—that Joachim Andersen is going to Lyon for about £20m.

I’ve seen some annoying things. Leandro Trossard going to Brighton for £15m was really annoying, for instance. Wilfried Zaha‘s lingering is annoying too.

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But to see Joachim Andersen, a clear-cut solution to our biggest problem, go somewhere else for a fee less than what we are considering spending on an 18-year-old who we will have to immediately loan back to his current club? That’s where I cross the border into Angrytown, even if only for the time being.

Here our beloved club is busy bidding £40m on a guy who is supposed to cost £100m, but they can’t be bothered to bid half that price on a guy who would have made me immediately proclaim this transfer window a success. Spend the money on Andersen, spend the rest on Kieran Tierney and I’ll be here to hang hats on this transfer window as a job well done.

It’s the defense that needs help most of all, and Andersen wasn’t just a future solution, but a present one. He played the game the way we need it played and he was more than competent on the ball as an added bonus. But don’t mind him, he’s taking a horizontal move to Lyon instead of a jump up to Arsenal where he could have been give the keys to the damn mint.

I don’t get it. I really don’t. The way this transfer window is going no longer jives with that I was hoping would happen. I’m trying to stay optimistic, but seeing Joachim Andersen passed by so easily isn’t helping.