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Arsene Wenger on Friday confirmed that he was interested in signing Diego Costa before he moved to Chelsea in the summer.

According to him, he is a player he watched closely in the past, and one he likes. Asked whether he was a player he was interested in, he replied:

“Yes, but that was a deal that was struck early.”

“Costa has done fantastically well, I must say. I impressed by how well he has done,”

“He has all the aspects of a striker that I like. He is focused, I always determined and ready for a fight.”

The question then is why didn’t Arsenal try to sign him in the summer?

Liverpool did try to sign him when they bided for him last summer when nobody knew he would have the season he had with Atletico Madrid, yet Arsene Wenger was interested but never made an attempt to bring him in this summer.

And this is not the first time Arsene Wenger would admit to have been interested in a player that his doing well in a rival club.

It has become imperative that Arsenal and Arsene Wenger should step it up when it comes to getting a deal done early.

The club is known to dither a lot when it comes to closing a deal done for a player; it has resulted in the club losing out on key transfer targets in the past.

Arsenal lost Juan Mata to Chelsea for the same reason in 2011 after being at the forefront of starting the negotiation with Valencia.

The same happened this summer when Kostas Manolas joined Roma after Arsenal dithered to sign the Greek defender.

For these scenarios to stop being repeated where Arsene Wenger speaks to the media about targets that were not met as a result of inertia from the club, Arsenal must dish it lethargic approach to transfers by learning fast to get signings across the board early doors.

The club has shown that they can be decisive when it comes to getting deals done early.

Arsene Wenger played a pivotal role in the signing of Alexis Sanchez when Liverpool was also interested in signing him.

Same applied to the signing of Mesut Ozil for a record fee last summer.

With this, it is a sign that the club can indeed adopt a shift in it transfers strategy by not only signing a player early, but by going toe-to-toe with other clubs when competing for the signing of a player.

While Arsenal have lost out on several players in the past as a result of indecisions and dithering in getting a done, however, going by how the transfer business was conducted this summer when four players were signed in a space of three weeks in July, the club certainly have the machinery to make what happened in July as the tune for other transfers in the coming years.

It is the will and the drive to toll that path continually that becomes the key to change Arsenal’s approach to transfers.

 

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