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- #21
Country: Wales
You look at a lot of windows around this period and you don't get the sense of there being a "plan" really. 2013 was the same spend a lot of the summer being linked with holding midfielders and strikers end up with Özil. Heavily linked with Higuain even make a bid, then go all in for Suarez and our only striker signing ends up being Sanogo plucked from the second division in France and then our midfield signing ends up being Flamini on a free. Of course Özil improved the team no doubt but going into the window you wouldn't say that area was the most vital position we needed to improve. In January 2014 we ended up being linked with strikers and end up signing Kallstrom on loan and he barely plays.
Summer of 2014 everyone knows we need a CB, a holding midfielder to replace the aging Arteta and a striker to at least compete with Giroud. We got a winger in Alexis and an RB in Debuchy so we addressed those issues but we neglected the important areas and only signed Welbeck after Giroud got injured and would have had to rely on Sanogo. We then sign Gabriel halfway through the season.
Summer of 2015, yet again it was obvious we needed another midfielder, again at the very least to be an alternative to either Cazorla or Coquelin should either get injured. Once again most would have said we needed a top quality CB with Mertesacker really declining, Gabriel being fairly average/not adapting and a striker because it's something we lacked since Van Persie. We only sign Cech. In the end we rotate between Walcott and Giroud both going through dry spells, put all our faith in Welbeck after January but he was never gonna be the prolific striker we craved. Cazorla did end up getting injured (as did Coquelin at the same time for a few weeks) we end up with Ramsey and Flamini as a pairing, then Ramsey-Coquelin which was terribly balanced as both were limited in starting attacks. We sign the extremely average Elneny who doesn't even slightly improve things. Mertesacker's weaknesses are exposed in the second half of the season. We become predictable and dull.
In the summer of 2016 we actually tried to address the weaknesses in the squad, we sign Xhaka early, most saw it as a good signing getting in the type of midfielder we desperately wanted. So we at least tried to address a glaring issue. We move for Vardy which would have been an excellent signing and would have added a different dimension to our attack. It didn't come off and we didn't seem to have an alternative until we signed the unbelievably mediocre and a player with an appalling attitude in Perez from Deportivo. Many of us are somehow convinced he was the Spanish Vardy despite him being a tad overweight and having not even a fraction of the explosive pace. Our CB signing was Mustafi when Evans would have been a far better option. I've no idea who was responsible for this, we actually tried to address the weaknesses but signed average players in each position so it didn't make a difference and made things arguably worse.
Summer of 2017, again we move early for Kolasinac an offensive minded full-back/wing-back so a good signing in theory. Such a pity it turns out he's not a footballer. But we did well to make an early move considering Monreal was starting to decline. Lacazette then was signed, just the 5 years after we needed to sign a striker of decent quality. But once again most were of the opinion that with Xhaka struggling, Cazorla being finished, Ramsey injury-prone and Coquelin not being the level required we could have done with another midfielder. It didn't happen. CB was an absolute must tho, I mean how on earth we didn't even attempt to sign one in this window is beyond me. It was so so obvious with Koscielny now starting to decline, Mertesacker completely done, Mustafi being a flop we absolutely needed a CB in this window. We could have addressed the Alexis situation a lot better/earlier. In hindsight we probably should have just tried to agree a deal early and get him out because he was becoming a bit of a problem. But it is what it is.
For me that's at least 4 seasons of transfer windows with mostly poor planning and execution in what we were trying to do. I mean you could easily go back earlier and look at the clusterfuck of a window in 2011 too. It's absolutely amazing how things like this were allowed to go on for so on. In the end it's no surprise we fell out of the top 4. Things got so stale and we were so horribly mismanaged that everything caught up on us. At the same time Man City were building something in anticipation for Pep, Sp**s were doing well with Poch and in the transfer window making sensible signings. Liverpool sorted things out after a few disastrous windows and seasons under Rodgers. Chelsea are an anomaly some good windows, bad windows, lots of changes in managers but still relatively consistent 15/16 aside were at least competing for top 4 or competing for major trophies. United are the only side that's been worse than us in that same period.
Imo it can all be traced back to the club letting players run down their contracts.
If you can extend a player that’s great, one less spot to fill in the window. If they won’t sign you sell them and have money to buy a replacement.
This is what the club should’ve done with Fabianski and Sagna. 2014 was the first of many windows that we had too many fires to fight.
Our net spend skyrocketed after 2013 but instead of buying one or two top players each window like say Liverpool have done we just bought four or five average ones in each window because we had too many areas of need.