Arsenal and the winter transfer misery « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager

By Walter Broeckx

On all radio stations you hear songs with words like: ‘It’s Christmas time’ and all deejays are pretending to be father Christmas and are shouting ‘Hohoho’ between every Christmas song they are playing. We hear the word peace every five minutes and with the snow so much present we are heading for that white Christmas we are supposed to dream of.

We all are wishing each other happiness in the new year that is coming very close now and I just will join in already and wish the readers and participants of this blog all the best for the new year: staying healthy and enjoying the Arsenal. That’s all it takes to have a good new year for me. And that is what I wish to all of you.

But behind the date of 1 January is already the start of a new period that I hate: the winter transfer period. Ever since the start of December we could see little reports in the media about player A who could come or should come. Player B who could leave or should leave. Player C who is unhappy and want to leave and player D who is happy and doesn’t want to leave but will have to leave.

And the closer we get to the new year the louder the talk doing its rounds. If one should believe all the hype the media we should prepare ourselves for a complete new team in January. Forget the 25 rule we will have a squad of 52 players at least. If we should believe the media that is. The fact that they wouldn’t be able to play in the EPL is just a small detail for the know it all in the media. As long as they have their headline that has brought some extra readers to their sites and newspapers the world is fine for them.

Also on the going-out front it is as if we will have a whole team leaving us in January. You name a player and we will give you a team that is interested in him. All top teams are after our players. And that is a bit strange as they all are rubbish according to some sources in the Arsenal blog world.

So how on earth would Real Madrid be after that ‘useless’ (not my words and opinion!!!) Clichy. Why would Mourinho (of all coaches) be after him? Or is he not that bad as some try to tell us? And if it is not Real Madrid, they will find another team for him. You just got to love those newspapers and websites for their help in the transfer dealing.  All for free and without any self interest of course.

But the problem is that some fans believe all this media rubbish. And all of them have their own opinion on who we should sell or give away, as they are bad players you understand. So we are starting on a new round of ‘Wenger should buy X, Y and Z or he should be sacked’. And as everyone has a different opinion on who this player X, Y and Z are we would have hundred of new players coming over to us. And if Wenger doesn’t buy their own personal top 3 he should be sacked.

So expectations are high once again from some fans. And with every new rumour they grow bigger and bigger. And then they find themselves disappointed at the end of the transfer period as Wenger hasn’t bought their preferred players and we start again with a round of abuse against the manager, the board and everyone who is not in the we should buy them all-mode.

Am I against signing new players? No. But I certainly don’t have the pretension to say that I know who we should buy and who we should sell. And this is just because I am a supporter. I’m not a would-be manager. I’m just a supporter with my biased view on things and with my biased view on our players. I like them all, so I wouldn’t want anyone out. They all have their skills and they all have their flaws. Just like I have and most of us have in our own little lives.

Sometimes I have written a masterpiece and sometimes when I re-read what I have written I think: Why did I send this to Tony? And why did he publish it?   It’s the same with football players. Sometimes you find the genius assist and sometimes the ball goes in the stand. As a supporter you swear for a moment, if the latter happens. But then I know: that is just the way life goes. Apart from one useless and rubbish Arsenal player in a game last season no player can finish a game with a 100% success in his passing. We just have to accept the fact we and the players are human beings.

So let us take a look at what we have and what we will have in the next months of the season. First of all we are in second place and we have played the big teams away from home.

We have missed some key players so far this season like Vermaelen in defence. And Robin Van Persie in our attack. And as we are used to having him out for half a season we can count on him in the next months of the season. He always has some injury that keeps him out for months and now he has already had this period of the season.

We have Cesc back and hopefully he will finally get his season underway and we can hope that his hamstrings are completely healed for the rest of the season. We get Diaby back who is much hated by some of our own fans but who can offer something completely different to the rest of our midfielders. We just got to hope that he doesn’t get kicked off the field once again by some Neanderthal who can get away with it unpunished as it happened twice this season.

So that should be 4 players we didn’t have for the biggest part of the season we should have now. Two in midfield and one in attack and one in defence. And in fact having them missing was also a bit of a blessing as it gave the chance to Wilshere to shine and to prove he is worth his place now and will be a very great player in the near and distant future for Arsenal. And I will not even mention Ramsey as I think he still will have to climb a big mountain to come back to his level. But sure wish he would get back as soon as possible.

We are second in the league for the moment and we are certainly not rubbish. We are nearing the ideal age for most of our midfielders (most of them are still only around 21-23 years young) who are getting stronger each season. We have (when fit) four good centre backs, we have cover on our full backs. We have cover in attack and when all our players are fit (and it can happen, just look at City who had only one player out this weekend) Wenger is having a difficult task to keep everyone happy and give them playing time.

So I don’t need any new players for myself. I will support  and stick with the older players and will not throw them away just because there is a new shining player in the display. And if someone gives me a new player under the Christmas tree I will accept it and cherish it just like I will do with the older players.  As a supporter I will support my Arsenal players until the moment they have left.

Yesterday Wenger said that if we could learn from our mistakes in the first half of the season we could get far. And I think he is right. And as most of our players are still young and in the learning stage: we will learn.

The longer the route to glory, the sweeter the success will taste.

Arsenal on Twitter @UntoldArsenal

Untold Arsenal on Facebook here

Untold Indexes index the index behind the index and then supply the contents

Arsenal history takes the official version, tears it up and starts again.

Making the Arsenal is, well, just so different from everything else in the history of history that really words fail most people who have ever read it.