The defensive crisis at Arsenal is such that it has now become a priority with just two weeks remaining in the transfer window Gooners can start bracing themselves for the words they all knew are coming, and that is “I could not find value in the market.”
Currently the Gunners need to find a defensive midfielder and a centre-back yet it would appear that prior to the injury to Mathieu Debuchy Wenger was only ever looking to bring in a defensive midfielder.
The Frenchman is already preparing the fans for a let down by saying: ‘We are a big attraction, but if it was easy we would do it. We haven’t found anyone.
‘I am not the only one working on the case. It’s not a supermarket where you go in and buy a defender; it’s a market that is very restricted.
‘Players who can strengthen the best 10 teams in Europe, you don’t find many and it’s the same for everybody.
‘Of course we have made enquiries and then you have a second handicap of who wants to sell their best players, especially a central defender, in the middle of the season. They say, “OK, come back in June or July and maybe.”
Wenger meanwhile insists they could cope without a signing anyone in January. ‘We can, because we have Chambers, Mertesacker, Koscielny and Monreal, who can play centre-back,’ he said.
‘But we have now lost Debuchy, who could play centre-back, and Gibbs has been out. If we have another injury or two we will struggle. It’s risky. It’s too risky.’
The Frenchman is now paying the price for some poor decisions he made last summer when letting Thomas Vermaelen go to Barcelona and Bacary Sagna, who often played as a stand in centre-half join Manchester City.
Sadly this has all the hallmarks of January’s gone by, and yet with the Gunners looking to have a fantastic chance of getting to the latter stages of the Champions League it would be unthinkable not to get some cover in when you have the money available, and should Wenger fail to sign any players yet more fans will be heard singing the chorus of “Wenger Out.”
