Another day, another player

While driving today to a tennis session, I had my sister as a listener. As a result, she had to endure my forty-minute lecture on Arsene's transfer policy down the years. While she may have found it genuinely interesting, this lecture had another side effect: as I talked, I realised I was using the past tense more and more often.

Of course, this doesn't include things that are still true, like wage structure and careful thinking from Arsene before signing an individual, rather, I talked about penny-pinching. And it struck me that penny-pinching no longer existed at Arsenal.

Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty sure Wenger still uses critical thinking when purchasing players (I will give you a shiny fresh example soon). He still evaluates players judging by what they can bring to the team and how it correlates with the money he's willing to pay. We've both missed (Higuain) and signed (Sanchez) good players because of that strategy, which even these recent examples demonstrate. There were earlier deals that fell through or went ahead because of Arsene's policy, but the latter definitely outweigh the former.

However, this system received if not a drastic, then certainly a feasible overhaul last year, when we've bought Mesut Ozil for a record-breaking fee of £42.5 million. Wenger always maintained that quality comes first and then, if the right player pops up, he'll pay the money to get him. While Ozil deal is more of an exception, than the norm, it demonstrates something else: we are financially capable of pulling off such deals. Wenger is now able to breeze more freely as he now has room for manoeuvre.

This transfer window things are going so well I cannot believe it's Arsenal we're seeing. Quick, efficient, getting the right players to cover the right positions. But did we go on a spending spree? No. We have spent a lot, no doubt about it. But I'm still sure there was hard work from Arsene involved to keep our expenses to a minimum. We've got the right players (Sanchez, Debuchy, Ospina; and it's not over yet), but did we pay all that much? You'd be amazed, but those three combined cost us approximately £10 million less than Herrera and Shaw combined. Three quality players (one of them a star) against a young Shaw and a two-bit midfielder I haven't heard of till last year. Now that's critical thinking. Going about the deals the smart way, not just splashing cash everywhere.

All of this leads us to another shiny example of Arsene's making I promised to demonstrate earlier. From reliable sources it has become obvious we're in for Chambers. Have a look here, this guy rarely gets anything wrong (in fact, I cannot remember there was one thing he got wrong):

Pay attention to the fee. Above £10 million. For such a sum we are landing ourselves a full-back, 19 years of age, who can cover at least two positions. From Southampton. Luke Shaw anyone?

Right now I'm in the state of quiet awe. If we get Chambers, we'll solve our centre-back problem, while also covering right-back position and (possibly) defensive midfield. Now, I'd still prefer someone more experienced and natural in midfield and this deal can also mean Vermaelen's tenure at Arsenal has drawn to a close, something that'll leave us with three centre-backs again, but saying just this after (hopefully) getting such a player for such money means to completely miss the point. It's a remarkable piece of business, one that more or less sorts out our problems in defense.

Of course, there's a downside. Just over a week ago I've talked how Manquilo's signing can influence Jenkinson's chances and today's announcement means we're back to square one. If Chambers arrives, it will probably be the end of Jenks career at Arsenal.

In best case scenario, he'll be shipped out on loan, while Arsene will try to make a centre-back out of Chambers. If he succeeds, Jenko will return and fight for the right-back position with Debuchy. Though it's the best case scenario, it's still far from bright for Carl.

The worst case, well...Jenks will be sold. Debuchy will be №1, Chambers №2 and we'll buy ourselves another centre-back or retain Vermaelen. This will really be a sad day for Jenko and all his Arsenal fans. To come this close to the first team and then fail inside one summer without having the chance to impress or to even influence the proceedings is not just sad, it's extremely bad luck. I really, really hope that Jenks will remain at Arsenal and have a long and successful career with us. If Arsene thinks he'll have to make Carl a centre-back, or a DM or whoever else, he should tell it to Jenks. This guy will rip his heart out to be a Gunner when his professional career ends, so we should give him a chance. Without any doubt.

Phew, enough for today. If I make it to 1 a.m. to watch the game, I'll report on it tomorrow. If not, then I'll be back to give my thoughts on it and discuss something else.

God knows there's an abundance of material. And this makes me happy. It's much better not having the time to talk about everything, then having nothing to talk about (like it was last summer).

Back tomorrow