5 IN 48!!

Quite a description from 'She Wore'

It is like a breath of fresh air, all of a sudden we can’t wait to see the team play. Five experienced players in 48 hours, that is what an 8 goal drubbing can get you. Oh sorry for reminding you, I had forgot that we had already forgotten what had happened this past Sunday. Well it’s not about how we got here, let’s just be happy that we are here. Most of us would have liked these signings earlier on in the window, to give them time to adapt to our game play and all. But we live in a world where we rarely get what we want, when we want it and how we want it. It’s funny though that the excuse throughout had been that we could not find players of ‘super quality’ yet we managed to get 5 of them in 48 hours, panic buying, anyone?

Typical Shrewd Arsene signings, non above £10M though not so typical when you look at their ages, Per 26,Park 26, Santos 28, Arteta 29 and Yossi at 31. Each of them brings in a wealth of experience and leadership in their own respect. Per and Park are captains, Per was at Werder Bremen and Park at South Korea. The rest bring in much needed experience. How many captains do we have with us now? Park, Ramsey, Vermaelen, Rosicky am forgetting someone am sure! 

Per the Giant!

My pick of the lot would be the German giant Per Mertesacker, at 6ft 6 he has all you need in a centre back, to me he is the most vital signing we made. The CB position is one that has been dogging us for ages, and in him we might have just found the solution we were longing for. How quickly he adapts to the pace and grit of the EPL will be vital, I understand the reservations some of you have with his pace coupled with high defence line we play. Look at John Terry, I pick him as many refer to him as one of the best CBs we have in the league, and they also play a relatively high line, how fast is he? Vidic, Carragher, Ferdinand too. My biggest joy is that he is good at both defending and attacking set pieces, finally we have an answer to Peter Crouch, Andy Caroll and the likes. I don’t know much about his injury proneness but I do know that they don’t come any harder and tougher than the Germans, I hope it also applies to him. 

Mikel Arteta

 My next pick, right next to the Per giant, is Mikel Arteta. With the departure of Cesc, we really needed a new creative source. The options we had with us were not up to the standard we were used to, in Arteta we have the next best thing in the Epl to Cesc. He should adapt quite quickly to our game play, my only concern would be his injury record. Apart from that, he is a great set piece taker, we have lacked that for a while now, if he is able to stay fit he can have the impact we all know he can. 

Andre Santos (Gilberto look alike?)

Andre Santos is next up, I’d like to see him slot right in just like I would the fore mentioned. Don’t know much about him only that he is very good going forward, but not so much defending. By this I don’t mean he is an awful defender, rather that he is attacking attributes are better compared to his defending ones. I don’t mind that, compared to what we had. He is a true Brazilian, skill and flair come naturally to him, a wicked left foot and a set piece taker. Park and Yossi you feel are mainly back up players, but who add a wealth of experience none the less.

Benayoun.

Finally our youngsters can have established players to learn from, and look up to instead of being thrown in the deep end and told to swim. From the signings the permanent and long term players are the Per giant at 26, Park and maybe Santos at 28 to some extent. The rest are just stop gap measures to salvage a couple of seasons till the young crop is ready to take over, or till we find a better player (Like Goetze). Not unless Wenger has taken a complete U turn in his policy and belief, this is a transitional squad he is assembling, one that can still challenge for titles as it gives way to the future. 

One thing that I am happy with in the just concluded transfer window is the fact that we were able to get the next player on our list after the first or second options did not go through. Mostly we tend to go for one player and only him, like was the case with Schwarzer. This time round we took in Per after failing with Cahill and Jagielka, took Benayoun when Arteta seemed to have stalled, luckily for us we got the both of them. I know it is a long shot but I am hoping that all these players live up to the expectations we have of them (looking at Chamakh and Squillaci).

We have renewed confidence in this new look side, we are definitely stronger than we were at the beginning of the season, if the players we have got in can adapt to their new environment fast enough who knows we might pull off a surprise this season. Another thing that comes with these signings is grit, who said that you can bully Arsenal? Let them tell it to Per, Vermaelen, Sagna, Santos, Song, Frimpong and Van persie. Where is that Barton character?

With the close of the Window, here is a summary of our ins and outs.

Players IN	From	Permanent/ Loan	Players Out	To	Permanent/ Loan
Carl Jenkinson	Charlton Athletic	Permanent	Cesc Fabregas	Barcelona	Permanent
Gervinho	Lille	Permanent	Samir Nasri	Manchester City	Permanent
Park Chi Young	Monaco	Permanent	Gael Clichy	Manchester City	Permanent
Joel Campbell	Deportivo Saprissa	Permanent	Emmanuel Eboue	Galatasary	Permanent
Per Mertesacker	Werder Bremen	Permanent	Nicklas Bendtner	Sunderland	Loan
Alex Oxlade Chamberlain	Southampton	Permanent	Armand Traore	QPR	Permanent
Mikel Arteta	Everton	Permanent	Denilson	Sao Paulo	Loan
Yossi Benayoun	Chelsea	Loan	Gilles Sunu	Lorient	Permanent
			Joel Campbell	FC Lorient	Loan
			Carlos Vela	Real Sociedad	Loan
			Kyle Bartley	Rangers	Loan
			Henri Lansbury	West Ham	Loan
			Wellington	Levante	Loan
			Jay Emmanuel Thomas	Ipswich Town	Permanent

I know you might be wondering where Almunia and Squillaci are, maybe even Chamakh, well if they are not on the right side of the above table, that means that they are still with us. What for you ask? The grounds man needs help, the cook also, I really hope so. Though I do think Chamakh deserves another chance, I hope he comes good when that chance comes. 

The international break is here that means we have to wait a tad longer to see this squad in action, we have 16 players doing duty for their respective conntries and they are. Van Persie (Holland), Ramsey (Wales), Rosicky (Czech), Gervinho (Ivory Coast), Arshavin (Russia), Vermaelen (Belgium), Sagna and Koscielny (France), Park (S.Korea), Per (Germany), Sczcesny (Poland),Song (Cameroon), Yossi (Israel), Chamberlain (England U-21), Walcott (England), Djourou (Switzerland) and a kid called Rhys Murphy (R.Ireland U-21), was he on the bench at OT? 

Before I leave several of you have asked me what our strongest side will be. Well it should look something like this:

SCZCESNY

SAGNA  PER  VERMAELEN   SANTOS

   SONG             WILSHERE 

    ARTETA

WALCOTT    VAN PERSIE     GERVINHO

That should do it, with Frimpong, Ramsey, Arshavin, Park, Yossi, Koscielny, Gibbs and the rest stepping in when required, now that looks like an Arsenal bench don’t you think? 

Overall this has been a good transfer window, we managed to do what was needed. And did it all while making a profit, cutting our wage bill and close to £40M to spare from our transfer kitty. Not bad at all, could have been better but am stressing on the not bad part! Here’s hoping it pays off. 

Back home the Harambee stars face Guinea Bissau at the Nyayo national stadium, this they simply must win, if they harbor any hopes of qualifying, I see them doing just that. Do you have your ticket yet? I know I haven’t, not because I don’t support them, but because I’ll probably be in Nakuru for some sevens rugby. I will be sure to catch it on tele though, we should support the boys, no matter what is happening off the pitch. They are representing us after all!

With that ladies and gentlemen……

 

KWISHA!!!