A shift in transfer policy at Arsenal or just the coming together of long term plans? Reflections of the transfer window so far, and a look forward to the big "kick - off"! 

For a number of years now, "Gooners" have been un-happy with the transfer policy of the club and have claimed that we only ever signed young and un-proven players from abroad, who have a lot to give to the club in a medium to long - term perspective. This at times has not gone down well, but over the last year or so, this has began to change, and the club has actually brought in some established players in European football to really push the team on! This is great news for the club, as it gives us a good chance of actually challenging the likes of Untied and City, in the premier league, and perhaps the likes of the Spanish giants: Barcelona and Real, in the champions league, if we keep building! Our "policy" seemed to shift somewhat last summer when we brought the likes of Mikel Arteta, an established player in the peek of his career. I think many people were shocked by this, because the boss has in recent years, preferred to "develop" players as opposed to just buying established Premier League players. But what are the reasons for this change? Why did we not do this before?

Well, I believe there are a number of reasons for this, the first being financial restrictions. As we all know, the club has invested an astronomical amount of money in the last decade on facilities including the training ground, medical centre, property developments and of course the greatest stadium in the world, The Home of Football, has been constructed as well, all at great cost to the club! This has meant that the club has not been able to spend huge numbers of money on playing staff, because they have had to "service" the loans e.t.c that were taken in order to fund the fantastic infrastructure that we now have. These improvements in infrastructure, are absolutely imperative to the development of the club, especially in the long term as it gives as a platform to grow financially and on the pitch. In addition to this the club has always said that they want to live "within their means" and grow "organically" if you like, and therefore were not prepared to rack up big debts buy buying expensive top players, like the likes of Manchester City. These things have meant that we were not prepared to spend big money on players, which of course is extremely frustrating as a fan, however we HAVE to accept this, and realise that we will benefit massively from this very very soon! This is something which I believe, we should be very very excited about! However, in order to preserve the financial strength of the club we have not spent big on established stars, up till now!

So why have we now seen established players like Podolski and Cazorla come in? Well firstly I believe a key factor in this is the changing face of football, since the likes of Manchester City have to come to the forefront of things. What do I mean by this? Well it is clear that Arsenal can no longer afford to grow players otherwise we will just get left further and further and further behind City, this is why I say that City have changed the face of football, because teams have to change in order to acquire players and at least try to compete with them in the league. I believe that Arsene Wenger acknowledges this and absolutely knows that he has to bring in players of established quality, otherwise he is going to completely left behind and isolated, and eventually that could lead to him loosing his job! I therefore believe that he has been partly forced into buying more established players in their peak, to help bring success to the club NOW!! He is certainly under a GREAT deal of pressure from the outside to deliver success for the club, and to end our drought, but I do not believe that the drought has forced him to make these big signings, as of course he always wants to win trophies, but I believe that he acknowledges that the team needs top experienced, and prooven players at the club to actually take us to that next step, and let's hope together, that we can achieve that this season! The strength of young players means that with this sprinkling of quality from outside such as Podolksi, Giroud and Cazorla we can challenge for honours and I believe that the experience that these guys bring, coupled with the experience of the likes of Van Persie (if he stays) Arteta, Vermalean and Sagna can really help us to push on further!

All in all I have been extremely encouraged by this summers' dealings to date, and I hope that this continues! The squad appears to be in great great shape going into the first game of the season, barring a few injuries e.g Bacary, and I believe that this season will be a successful one for us. The players that we brought in last summer: Arteta, Gervinho and Mertesacker especially I believe added something, but the players we have brought in this year are of the quality needed to push us to win things this season. I am excited to see how the team bonds together, and how the new boys settle in, but I am very confident that they will do so well. I do think that before August the 31st we could do with another defender, maybe a fall back, but I do believe that we are in great shape as it stands!

So BRING ON Sunderland in just over a weeks time.  I absolutely can't wait, I am delighted that we have at last brought in some top quality players from Europe, all of whom are experienced campaigners in different leagues, and in the cases of Podolski (100+ caps for Germany_ and Cazorla (double Euro winner and World Cup winning team member) especially with their national teams, and I believe that this season will be a successful one, but as we ALL know the Barclays Premier League is one in which NOTHING can be taken for granted, nothing can be banked upon and we MUST hit the ground running early and get some good points on the board in the first few weeks of the season! If we do this we will do great. There is so much competition in the premier league these days and it is bound to be tight, but if we just get on with our business, ignore the rubbish the media spout out, we can be up there fighting for the championship and if we challenge there to the wire and pick up a cup or 2 along the way it will be a great season for us! LET'S DO THIS GOONERS!!!

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!!! THIS CAN BE OUR YEAR!

UP THE ARSENAL

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