Arsenal’s one positive from strangely quiet January transfers

Arsenal has had a turbulent time of late, but it was their efforts, or lack thereof, in the mid-season transfer window that has many wondering just what on earth the club was doing.

With the obvious need for the squad to be strengthened, there was only one player signed and that was Auston Trusty from the Colorado Rapids in the MLS. Hhe was loaned back to the American side while Matt Turner from the New England Revolution is due to arrive in the summer.

With the team already threadbare, Arsenal needed reinforcements in their bid to maintain their top four push.

A cardinal sin was committed.

Arsenal’s one positive from strangely quiet January transfers as Edu and Arteta see no new signings despite Aubameyang leaving for Barcelona

The Gunners allowed several players to leave and did not replace them. None of them. The result of this is that Mikel Arteta quite literally has 21 senior players to use for the second half of the season, three of whom are goalkeepers.

That is a worrying number to look at. One or two injuries to key players, or even a Covid outbreak, and all the positive work that the club has done to drag itself back from oblivion will be undone.

During January, we saw Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Roma), Folarin Balogun (Middlesbrough), Sead Kolasinac (Marseille), Pablo Mari (Udinese), Calum Chambers (Aston Villa), and former captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Barcelona) all be moved on and not a single soul brought in as a replacement. Of all those not replaced, the former captain is the toughest to swallow.

Arteta and Edu tried to bring in players but ultimately failed. Dusan Vlahovic, now at Juventus, and Arthur, still at Juventus, were the two most prominent names being linked with the club, but the Gunners did not get close to either.

A team that was showing signs of fatigue as January hit did not receive a timely boost of energy from a new signing. Instead, the opposite happened: the squad was cut again with six first-team players off the books.

It is a massive gamble to trim the squad further when it was clear to see, especially across that January period, that the team can ill-afford another string of absences. While deals are notoriously hard to get done mid-season, Arteta and Edu knew this was always going to be the case.

There is sympathy for the recruitment team, with Arsenal’s other top four rivals making just the solitary permanent transfer between them, meaning it’s not a simple matter of acting early and dotting the i’s and cross the t’s. However, the club has nonetheless faced fierce criticism for its lack of activity.

And now, with a squad that has shown it’s capable of going toe-to-toe with the best in the country, there is little to no reserves to fall back on. It is not hyperbolic to say that their Champions League ambitions are on the line due to this. Arteta and co have taken a huge gamble in a season that 18 matches ago seemed already done and dusted.

There is, however, one big positive from Arsenal’s January window.

If there is a good thing to come out of a desperately quiet transfer window is that Arsenal trimmed its enormous wage bill significantly: nearly £640k-per-week in total, which will equate to around £10-£15m by next June, although a £7m lump fee paid to the former captain needs removing from the equation. Being rid of Aubameyang’s wages is a helpful given the situation they dug for themselves with the 32-year-old’s fee still £20m short of what he would have earned across his deal, but the lack of options throughout the squad doesn’t change on account of that.

With no European football and no cup competitions to play for, Arsenal’s only matches are going to come in the Premier League. All 17 of them, once per weekend. While other teams fighting for a top four spot will be charged with midweek games thanks to European football or the FA Cup, the Gunners will be at home getting refreshed.

The problem is that with the league now the sole focus, there is no margin for error. Every game needs to be played at 100%. Arsenal can’t afford to drop points, almost anywhere. There are no excuses.

This window will be looked back on as either a stroke of genius or a complete and utter shambles from Arsenal. Get top four and the squad is open for business with Champions League money, an enticing project and gaps to fill. Fall short and the opportunity to invest when the team has a genuine chance of the top four will be considered one of the biggest mistakes in recent years.