Over the many years that I have been writing about our club, I almost always like to write about things that I have a formed a reasoned opinion on and that said opinion is one that I am happy to hold. The question mark in the headline above indicates that this is one of those rare occasions that I am genuinely torn.
I have been a huge fan of the transfer policy that we have implemented over the past three years or so and it is undoubtably the reason that we now have two top level ‘starters’ for every position on the pitch. It will be the main reason that, if we do gone on to lift the Premier League trophy on May 24th, we didn’t fade under either mental (bottle) or physical (injuries) pressure. The squad is dynamic and I believe that this policy must now be maintained, adding and letting go players when required, is we want to go on and become a true giant of the European game.
However I do wonder whether we are missing a trick here and need to add an additional string to our bow. This thought was triggered by an article on Centre Devils about Carlos Baleba the mercurial Brighton midfielder. Now I have been a long time admirer of Baleba who has, despite a rotten run of luck with injuries, has shown on a number of occasions how to take a game by the scruff of the neck and turn one point into three for the Seagulls. If we still had a 2022 mentality on transfers then we should be looking at adding him to our squad this summer. But we are not in 2022 and must as I like him I simply do not he is of a level to join our group of 24 elite starters.
For many years clubs now (two, in particular) have undertaken what I will politely describe as a deliberate policy of ‘tactically buying’ players. In short this means that they are spending, often obscene amounts on players that will never be anything other than fringe squad players, only ever playing in the early rounds of the League Cup or warming the bench on a cold Tuesday night in Burnley. They do this for one simple reason and that is to stop them going to other rival clubs within the Premier League, buying them not because we want them, but because some other club does.
I’ve always been uncomfortable with this policy as whilst it may help the signing club with those much discussed small margins, it is undoubtably detrimental to the player concerned and had ultimately seen the terminal decline of many an upcoming and every semi-established star. It feels the antithesis of everything that I believe that The Arsenal stands for.
But is it now time to bite the bullet and start messing with other club’s plans? We can only howl into the path of a Category 5 hurricane for so long and if Josh and Mikel really want to build a successful dynasty then maybe it’s time to hold our collective noses and start engaging in some off the field dark arts. Any thoughts?