It’s finally Over! Yes, the summer transfer window for the 2016/17 season has slammed shut and it has been absolutely frenetic throughout. The newly acquired spending power of the Premiership clubs were on full show in the market as the spending crossed the £1 bn mark for the first time in history. Each and every club has been busy in this particular window and the very fact that even the Gooners are feeling content should be the justification of how crazy and unpredictable it has been all summer. Let’s now take a look at what Arsenal did in this window.
Ins
Granit Xhaka – Borussia Monchengladbach, £34m
Takuma Asano – Sanfreece Hiroshima, £2.5m
Rob Holding – Bolton, £2m
Lucas Perez- Deportivo La Coruna, £17.1m
Shkodran Mustafi- Valencia, £35m
Outs
Jack Wilshere – Bournemouth, Loan
Serge Gnabry – Werder Bremen, £4.2m
Takuma Asano – VFB Stuttgart, Loan
Issac Hayden – Newcastle, £2.4m
Mikel Arteta – Retired
Tomas Rosicky – Released
Mathieu Flamini – Released
Dan Crowley – Oxford United, Loan
Wellington Silva – Fluminense, £2.5m
Jon Toral – Granada, Loan
Wojciech Szczesny- AS Roma, Loan
Joel Campbell – Sporting Lisbon, Loan
Calum Chambers – Middlesbrough, Loan
As we can make out from the above list, there were a number of departures in the summer and as the veteran trio of Flamini, Rosicky and Arteta vacated their positions, there was an imminent need of reinforcements in the midfield region. Arsene Wenger, in this transfer window, has really addressed some key issues which needed to be looked at desperately for some time now.
Where they got it right
With an arrival of a quality combative deep-lying midfielder in Xhaka, an experienced international defender in Mustafi and a versatile proven goal-scoring forward in Perez, it has been an excellent window for the Gunners.
Wenger also quite expectedly bagged two young players in Asano and Holding. While Asano has been a good player for his club in the J-league, Holding has already shown glimpses of his talent in his 3 appearances for the North London club. Capturing a player as talented as Holding for £2m while John Stones fetched a fee of £47.8m was another piece of transfer masterclass by Le Prof.
While due to his same old dithering, the fee of Mustafi can seem a little bit more than what it should have been but ironically signing Perez, a player who Arsenal didn’t want to sign when first offered was a great deal which suits the specifications of the squad.
There were a lot of strikers which were linked with Arsenal but none of those materialized and even if it seems that the club had to settle for a player who was in the proverbial ‘2nd list’ option, can turn out to be a hugely successful buy for Wenger.
While the club did a pretty decent job with their captures in the summer, the deals struck for the outgoing players were just as impressive. The much-publicized deadline day loan switch for Jack Wilshire to Bournemouth, where the Cherries agreed to pay the England international’s £90,000 per week salary in full along with an additional £2m loan fee is an extremely successful piece of business by Arsenal.
Any weaknesses now?
The team currently has excellent depth in all positions and the squad looks very strong which is more than capable of challenging for the silverwares on multiple fronts. The fans were made to wait in the window, though.
Rating their transfer window
A solid 8/10.
