Arsenal were ultimately unsuccessful in their attempts to sign a striker in January. A protracted chase of Dusan Vlahovic ended in failure with the Serbian instead joining Juventus in a big-money move.
Other options were open to Arsenal such as Real Sociedad’s Alexander Isak who had a £75 million release clause. However, the club deemed the figure far in excess of the Swedish international’s market value and not worth the investment at this stage.
This decision reflected well on the club. Considering the fact Arsenal have spent the fifth most of all Premier League sides on players since 2012, with the third-highest net spend, money has been wasted on players that have not helped the club progress.
Instead, Mikel Arteta and Edu have drastically changed the recruitment strategy in the last 18 months. Despite serious spending continuing, there is a renewed focus on ensuring the players acquired will improve the squad’s quality and have room to develop their ability and value.
Therefore, it was unsurprising to see the news break from The Athletic that Arsenal had turned down the opportunity to sign Mauro Icardi from PSG.
PSG were reported as one of the interested parties in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Theories regarding a swap deal come to mind yet this was never substantiated.
Aubameyang joined Barcelona and Icardi remained with PSG.
What is crucial is that the club are sending out a clear message through Mikel Arteta and Edu’s work. If a player is not deemed good enough to progress what the club has, they will not be pursued or even considered.
Arteta explained to the press ahead of the match with Wolves that he was happy with the work done in the winter and provided good reasoning for the lack of incomings.
“We did what we believed was the right thing to do. The squad composition and contracts were catching up, be fair with players who haven’t had a lot of minutes. We had a clear plan of what we can do but then it has to be doable,” said Mikel Arteta .
“Edu and his team have done a great job. We are very clear we only want the best people and the best players at this club. When we are in a rush and the reasons to get a player on board are not the right ones, we didn’t do it.”
Despite my personal perspective remaining that some players that moved in the winter window elsewhere could have improved the team, I am pleased the club did not revert to the panic buying seen in previous windows.
This type of rushed purchasing is far too risky with what is at stake for the short and long-term thinking behind where the club is going.
The summer provides the challenge and expectation set by both Edu and the fans to see Arsenal push into the transfer market with even greater purpose and ambition to aid in the rise back to the summit.
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