So we are right smack in the January transfer window and as is the case with this period in the football season, fans all over the world are glued to any bit of news on likely additions to strengthen their respective teams. Compared to the summer variant, its not a favorite of managers to do deals..no thanks to the criminally short space of time to negotiate those deals but for some of them in peculiar scenarios it offers a huge life-line to rescue a dying season. Take Sam Allardyce of West ham for example, his club is neck deep in relegation waters after losing 8 of their last 10 games in all competitions, conceding 16 goals in their last six and managing to score just 6. You'd agree with me that is hot relegation form, but his fate has not been helped by terrible injuries to key players. In such cases as described above, such a manager would be grateful for the 31 days the January transfer window offers to quickly address the rot in his setup to avoid sure relegation. It offers a welcome opportunity to find quick solutions to present squad problems as opposed to waiting for the summer to come by which time your fate would long have been sealed.
Arsenal as a club are not completely without its own squad problems even though the first half of the season has been remarkably successful for us. We sit top of the EPL after 20 games and are still in the Champions league and F.A cup. We do not boast the largest squad around, but we do have cover in important areas if the need arises. However, we are now half way through the season & many of us would have observed from the games we have played...as well as the injury misfortunes we have suffered that this is a window we must leverage on if we want to remain in the strong position we are in come the latter stages of this season. The popular cliche is that you cannot have a ''perfect team'', but my take is a ''perfect'' team may win you a game but a ''perfect squad'' will win you a League title. You will agree with me that in the light of the recent news of Theo Walcotts' serious injury our squad is now well below what you might describe as anything near perfect. We need to augment it in this window to replace the goals that Walcott's presence in the team guarantees. Even before the injury, i had in my wish list for this window a Striker and maybe a Central defender. The former was by far more crucial than the latter in my opinion, as it was evident from the 1st half of the season that Olivier Giroud cannot be banked on to cater for all our striking needs this season..not with his erratic finishing. Many names are being bandied around from heavy weights like Jackson Martinez, Diego Costa to lesser knowns like Mitroglou and Morata . Even the familiar name of Salomon Kalou has been mentioned but it will all boil down to the question of are we looking for a ''stop gap solution'' until the end of the season or a much more permanent, morale boosting'' signing. Unfortunately only Arsene Wenger can provide the answer to that question.
My opinion would be for us to get a striker on a short term loan who isn't Champions league cup tied. Ideally, he would not cost too much for us to bring in so as not to disrupt our budgetary allocations for such a loan, but at the same time his potency would be such that his impact can be immediate and decisive.The million dollar question is who and where do we find such a player? There lies the reason why managers are paid the big money. :-) Make no mistake, there's every reason to believe that Arsene can find such a player. He's done it with Eduardo in the past and can certainly do it again. He knows this is perhaps the best chance we have to win the EPL title again and i'm sure he and his retinue of scouts worldwide are looking for that person to help us do just that. Having said that expect a few surprises though we all know Arsene has that unpredictability in the market...He could still shock us with a massive Mesut Ozil-esq signing..
On a closing note Theo Walcotts injury is a bad blow to him and us. And i want to join Fans worldwide to wish him the speediest recovery possible. However we must not let ourselves crumble under his unavailability for the rest of the season. Arsenal have capable replacements who though may not be similar to Theo are definitely able to contribute something. We welcome back the Ox from long term injury and Gnabry is also a good option...so here's hoping we just rally round ourselves and push on to the finish line. back on Monday.
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