Plenty of Arsenal supporters were left very disappointed with the lack of action from the north London club in January.
The Gunners completed just one signing, with Auston Trusty joining from Colarado Rapids, but the centre-back will spend the remainder of the season at the Major League Soccer club.
Apart from that, the north Londoners offloaded 14 players in total, leaving Mikel Arteta rather short with his options for the rest of the campaign, with Arsenal chasing a top four spot in the Premier League as they look to get back into the Champions League.
As it stands, the Gunners are sixth in the top-flight table, two points below Manchester United, who occupy fourth place. West Ham United are one point ahead, while Tottenham sit just below (on goal difference), with Spurs having one game in hand on their north London rivals.
It still looks very much on for Arsenal, but their lack of activity in the January transfer window may well cost them this season. That is the view of former Gunners striker Alan Smith, who has been speaking about his old employer's chances of playing Champions League football next term.
Smith wrote in his Sky Sports column: "I did think Arsenal might sneak into the top four, but things do change every week with form and injuries.
"It would be a heck of a result if Arsenal were to grab fourth now. They have got it all to do now and it may just be a step too far on this occasion.
"Everyone has got to stay fit in those forward positions and they have got to hit form and stay in form all the way through to the end of the season because they do not have much wiggle room now in terms of the squad.
"There is still a long time to go in this season, so we will see, but for Arteta, as much as he would love to get into the top four, it is also about improving the position of the club and the stature of the club.
"They need to improve on those two eighth-placed finishes and become a more formidable team, and I think he is making those steps with this team.
"They are going in the right direction and are more respected now. They are not such a pushover anymore and defensively they are very organised.
"There is still so much ground to make up for Arsenal. They have slipped a long way down the pecking order so something drastic really needs to be done to make up the gap and Arteta is trying to do that.
"He is trying to turn over that team and produce a young, hungry unit. Aubameyang heading out is another step towards that.
"It was always going to be a slow process for Arsenal but if at the end of the season you can say that it was better than the previous season and you can look ahead to the next campaign with even more optimism, then that's got to be a good thing."
As Smith mentioned above, Arsenal have allowed Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to leave the club on a permanent deal, with the Gabonese striker moving to Barcelona.
Smith thinks Arteta has "gambled" with the way the Aubameyang situation has gone, but backed the Arsenal manager for the way he has handled the complicated matter.
He added: "Mikel Arteta is proving to be a very decisive manager, especially with his dealings with certain players, none more so than Aubameyang.
"That could have been something that was hanging around his neck for quite a while, but he decided quickly that he was not going to try and bring him back into the fold. He did not want to try and rehabilitate him and reintegrate him into the squad.
"You do not know what has happened behind the scenes, but Arteta has drawn a line under it and he will want to move on from there pretty quickly.
"It is a gamble. Every time the team cannot score a goal, that will be thrown in his face and I am sure he is fully aware of that and prepared for it. But he may just have the freedom now to try one or two things like playing Gabriel Martinelli down the middle at times.
"I thought Arteta might try and get Aubameyang back on side given the vast outlay Arsenal had made on him, but only the manager and the player would know what the chances of that actually were.
"He obviously decided he did not want to do that, and he wanted to make a clean cut. Managers are paid big money to make big decisions, and this is a big decision. There is no doubt about that.
"But if Aubameyang does not fit into Arteta's blueprint and the way he wants the team to play in that high energy style, and he does not feel the striker can reach the levels he has previously, then make the break and move on."
