Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger takes a lot of criticism for his activities, or quite often, lack of activities in the transfer market. Many Arsenal fans are fed up with Wenger, and much of the frustration stems from Wenger’s unwillingness to spend like rivals Chelsea, Manchester United or Manchester City.
Wenger is often defensive on this topic and for the most part he sticks to his guns. When he does speak about the transfer market, he doesn’t usually admit any shortcomings.
Yesterday saw an interesting, unique change of course in this regard.
On the highest spending single day of his Arsenal tenure, Wenger admits that the transfer window didn’t work out as planned. However, he still maintains that his double swoop for Lucas Perez, the Deportivo La Coruna forward, and Valencia centre-back Shkodran Mustafi, are not panic buys. Both deals are currently in the closing stages, moving towards finalization, and the combined expenditure makes for the most expensive day in Arsene Wenger transfer market history.
“This season I thought we had the easiest transfer market ever because we knew what we wanted to [buy], we knew who we wanted, and it didn’t come off,” Wenger said. “So you have to restart, and when you restart, when you [deal] with some leagues they’re on holiday. And after you get the European Championship.”
The duo, plus the purchase of holding midfielder Granit Xhaka right after the season ended, means that Wenger has fulfilled his promise to buy three new first team players. It’s a very stark contrast from last summer, when the Gunners brought in Petr Cech, and that’s it. Arsenal bought no outfield players last season.
In terms of which player deals didn’t come off, Wenger would not say, but obviously Jamie Vardy was the first one that comes to mind. Possibly Vardy’s teammate Riyad Mahrez, Real Madrid forward Alvaro Morata and Lyon striker Alexandre Lacazette are on that list too.
However, that’s the summer transfer window- you win some, you lose some and it’s good of Wenger to be honest about it with himself, his club and his supporters.
You can also consider the summer transfer window now essentially closed for Arsenal, given the tone of the Wenger comments here.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, currently contributes regularly to the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye publication and Bold Global.
He also consistently appears on numerous radio and television talk shows all across the country. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram and Sound Cloud.