By Tony Attwood
The “trouble” I refer to above, is in the sense that, at least according to the newspapers and websites, Arsenal’s scouts are missing the best targets for transfer. Targets that are out there, and rival clubs are moving in to buy, long before Arsenal get there. Quite why Arsenal’s scouts and management team are being so slow we are not told, but over and over again we are reading that others get there before Arsenal do as Arsenal are slow to take decisions and poor at the arrangement of work permits for non-UK nationals
Now in one way this can be readily explained is that while the UK was part of the EU, EU players could more freely from one country within the EU to another. Now of course they can’t and the procedure for getting a work permit can be tedious, and during the course of that an EU country can come in and bid for the player.
Of course it is not only Arsenal that suffer in this way as the headline “Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United suffer blow in pursuit of 20-year-old PSG wonderkid” reveals.
And there is also a secondary issue here in that Premier League clubs really don’t want to sell to other Premier League clubs because that is simply making one’s immediate rivals ever stronger. So Arsenal are forced to look to Europe – with that non-EU problem rising again.
Thus the old story that Arsenal are too slow is still out there as with the headlines such as “Liverpool are now confident of fending off “ competition from Arsenal to sign £100m PSG star” and then again Morgan Rogers aim sly dig at Arsenal after completing Chelsea move.
One of the points here however is that we are never given any detail of just why it is that Arsenal are particularly slow, and certainly flipping through the transfer headlines I get the feeling that the “Arsenal being slow” story is sometimes just thrown in to fill up a bit of space – as no clear evidence is ever provided. Consider for example, “Journalists are tipping off Liverpool managers as Arsenal move slowly”.
But there is a certain amount of rebuttal going on as we see in the Facebook report that “Arsenal legend Thierry Henry and ex Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp hit out at ‘fake news’ following quotes attributed to them on social media.”
And of course some of the headlines are not actual tales of transfer moves at all but rather a writer urging a club to move, as with Liverpool urged to hijack Arsenal’s move for ‘exciting’ £38m star.
In fact there is even a suggestion that because Arsenal are known generally to move slowly, when then do move in the market that simply makes everyone else move even faster, as we see with Julian Alvarez to Arsenal could accelerate after mega Chelsea deal
Plus we have the notion that quite a few players don’t really want to go to Arsenal – and who can blame them when all they and their agents read is that they will get a better deal faster done as with headlines such as Arsenal midfield target ‘wants to join’ Chelsea after £64m offer snubbed
Even when Arsenal do sign a player it means another favourite of the crowd is edged out so we don’t get anywhere as seen in, £75m Arsenal transfer could mean the end of fan favourite due to contract situation.
Thus the overall impact of the stories being run is that Arsenal really are not very good at all this transfer stuff, so we end up with second best. And the most common notion we get is along the lines that Is Barcola next on Arsenal’s list after missing out on Rogers?
Now of course we might look at all this and think- clearly Arsenal are not that awful at getting the players they want since the club won the league last season. What’s more, it is obvious that Mikel Arteta and his team of negotiators have a pretty good idea of who they want, and a good abiliity to get the players concerned. Indeed there is a positive point here: if you were a footballer would you prefer to go to a mid-table club helping them to fight for a top five place, or to a club that has just won the league, thus revealing its management knows what it is all about?
So, there is a faith in Arsenal at one level at least, but even so such an almighty torrent of negativity must be concerning to some young players who are thinking of moving to Arsenal. One read through that bunch of headlines and the story behind them, and thoughts could turn elsewhere. Maybe, they might think, Tottenham would be a better proposition. Of course the Totts just finished relegation by one place for each of the last two seasons, but eventually they must pick themselves up surely. And they have that lovely new stadium…
Obviously I don’t know how the thinking of players goes, or what influences their agents will have on which club they choose to play for, but it seems very unlikely that such a resourceless torrent of negativity has no impact on the way players who are looking at a move to Arsenal will have on those players’ thoughts – and those of their agents.
Quite why Arsenal get such a torrent of raging negativity through the summer window I am not sure, but it has been going on for years, and there is no doubt that the transfer team have to work not only on persuading clubs to part with their top players, but also on the players who might read all the raging negativity bout Arsenal and have severe doubts about coming to the club.
Obviously some of the players and their agents will have the sense to take a look at last season’s league table and think, “their senior figures at the club can’t be that awful, given that Arsenal won the league last season.” But then there will be voices pointing out that ManC were in a state of turmoil with their manager leaving and questions abut their finances, Man U are looking to save up money for their new 100,000 seater stadium, Aston Villa’s manager never quite manages to get the right team together and although Liverpool are likely to end up higher than their fifth of least season it doesn’t quite look as if they are ready to rise to the top once more.
Of course the ins and outs of most transfer deals are never revealed, and we never get to know exactly why player x went to club Y rather than club Z, but the style and approach of Arsenal last season, and the fact that they have finished in the top two for the last four seasons running, will have some influence.
So there is a move toward seeing Arsenal more positively, which is why the anti-Arsenal brigade put so much energy into writing ceaselessly negative stories about Arsenal on the blogs. We can only hope that some players’ managers are able to let their charges know that “it’s always like this – don’t worry its not real.”
