Arsenal: 2020 winter transfer window sneakily one of best ever

Arsenal have made two rather underwhelming signings this winter, but that has translated into one of the sneakily best winter windows in recent memory.

Arsenal weren’t supposed to do much with this winter transfer window, and on the surface, they haven’t. They’ve brought in two guys on loan—Pablo Mari and Cedric Soares,—with potential to buy, and they’ve loaned out six youngsters, including Emile Smith Rowe, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Tyreece John-Jules.

I can summarize this entire window in one idea: Zero risk, incredibly high reward. That’s a hard thing to pull off in any transfer window, let alone the often quiet winter one.

By bringing Mari and Soares in on loan, the Gunners are completely off the hook if it doesn’t work out. They just send them back. No harm done. But if it works out, they have discovered gold in underwhelming places.

Pablo Mari comes in as that rare left-footed fullback we can never seem to find, and if he pans out and proves a defensive solution for the long-term, we are geniuses.

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If he doesn’t? *Shrug*

And Cedric Soares I am practically gushing over. He is such an astute addition to this fullback corps. With his experience in the Premier League and his reliability, he essentially allows Ainsley Maitand-Niles and Bukayo Saka to be freed up for their preferred roles.

But he also doesn’t get in the way. He can compete directly with Hector Bellerin, fill in if Kieran Tierney or Sead Kolasinac gets hurt again. And who knows, maybe he becomes our first-choice rightback.

If he doesn’t? *Shrug*

Mavropanos has been desperate for a loan for the past couple years, Emile Smith Rowe needs those final pieces to take the step into the Premier League spectrum and Tyreece John-Jules could use a jolt to his future prospectus as well.

All in all, every single move here has all the potential to pay huge dividends with literally zero risk of anything going wrong. That’s what you want from any transfer window. These are all temporary solution that could become long-term solutions. They’re cheap and they’ve the potential to make this club look like it’s run by geniuses. And I think we could all go for a little belief in that area.

With such low expectations, the only way to go is up. I can’t wait to see Pablo Mari in action. I can’t wait to see Cedric Soares too.