When Ivan Gazidis promised fans a busy summer transfer window I was stoked (is ’stoked’ just an Australian term or do you lot in England use it too? Just in case you don’t it means very excited). He mentioned elements of our squad departing the club, and I assumed he meant players like Almunia, Squillaci, Denilson et al.

Almunia missed all of the pre-season searching for a new club. Surely that’s a good thing? Well, with around a fortnight until the window slams shut he remains a Gunner. How hard can it be to dispatch him? Apparently very hard, since there have been barely any whispers of a deal let alone any interested clubs.

Denilson is a similar case. Rumours of a swap and cash deal for Shakhtar’s Willian were followed by amusing tales of Shakhtar only wanting the cash. Funny, unless you’re an Arsenal fan. The best we could manage is to farm him out to Sao Paulo, his boyhood club. The Tricolor Morumbi must regret that after his two red cards so far. As for Squillaci, well, I doubt we could sell him even if Wenger wanted to. He’ll be a drain on the Arsenal payroll for a year or two yet sadly.

Alarmingly, it does appear that Gazidis was actually referring to players such as Nicklas Bendtner, Gael Clichy and Emmanuel Eboue. Gael’s gone to City to ‘win’ things and earn a hefty wage for the privilege of doing so, whilst Eboue was offloaded to Galatasaray without much fanfare at all.

In the case of Nicklas Bendtner (The Mysterious Case of Nicklas Bendtner by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has a pleasant ring to it) the Dane has been reduced to being linked with Stoke, Newcastle or Sunderland in his search for regular game time since being pushed down the pecking order by the woeful (and lazyish) Marouane Chamakh. As things stand no deal has been made and some clubs such as Sporting Club of Portugal have even strenuously denied any links to him. Ouch.

Now compare the players mentioned in the last few paragraphs. If you could pick either trio, which would you have? Yes, me too.

Even more alarmingly, Gazidis may have been subtly referring to players most gunners considered crucial to the club six months ago. Cesc left for Barca at the start of the week, but we all knew that would happen one day, and we did make a lot of money from it (even though Wenger says an open market would have generated more – thanks for that Cesc).

The departure of Cesc would be softened by the ability of Nasri, if only Nasri actually played for us and wasn’t public enemy number one in Islington. It’s hard to decipher which statements (inflammatory or conciliatory) are his since so many keep getting reported, but the one obvious problem for all Arsenal fans is Samir’s refusal to sign a new contract.

Whilst his sale would be devastating for Arsenal who will need a playmaker in the post-Cesc era, to let him leave for free in one year when he has so many cashed-up suitors right now is equally problematic. If I ran the show (oh, how we all want to live that dream for a day) I would let him leave now for a hefty sum and reinvest it. Instead I predict that Wenger will let him leave for a hefty sum but not reinvest it. Well, at least not on experienced and proven players anyway.

The start of the summer transfer window was also exciting for the prospect of new, quality players. Gervinho was the name on everybody’s lips and it was practically a done deal from day one. However, since then we have replaced the aforementioned players (well, the ones we have successfully offloaded at least) with some more Wenger-style children. Carl Jenkinson is a 19 year-old full-back, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is a 17 year-old winger/forward, and Joel Campbell is a 19 year-old forward. Players for the future certainly, but not the kinds of signings that stir up fans and strike fear into opponents. Especially given the departures.

At the start of the transfer window Gunners worldwide licked their lips over the prospect of Christopher Samba or Gary Cahill partnering Thomas Vermaelen in the heart of Arsenal’s defence. Neither has even had a concrete offer made for them. To a lesser extent many fans would probably even settle for Scott Dann, Phil Jagielka or Per Mertesacker. Anybody must be better than Squillaci.

With Cesc gone and Nasri seemingly set to follow, a creative presence must be purchased for the central midfield berth. So far Wenger has baulked at Juan Mata’s price tag and played down links with Jadson, despite the player tweeting about the prospect of good news and his manager acknowledging Arsenal’s interest. Mmmmm, frustrating.

With Clichy now located at Northern moneybags Manchester City, Gibbs and Traore will share the responsibility at left-back. However, Gibbs is injury prone and Wenger has never given Traore an extended run in the senior squad let alone the starting eleven. When Jose Enrique was angling for a move away from Newcastle it was Liverpool who made the move to snap him up, not Arsenal. Let’s hope that doesn’t come back to haunt us.

Furthermore, if Bendtner leaves, our goal dependency will ride almost entirely on Walcott, Gervinho and Van Persie since it is almost guaranteed Chamakh won’t score. Even if Bendtner stays many fans want Wenger to buy a proven goal-scorer. How come some Russian club I’ve never heard of can afford Samuel Eto’o but a Premier League club that regularly reports record profits can’t?

Ivan Gazidis was brought to the club to help build our brand and image. I have no doubt he is doing a pretty good job, and will probably continue to do so. But the best signing Arsenal could make in my (ultimately superfluous) opinion would be none other than David Dein. Let that sink in for a while. I don’t have a major in business or economics, or pretend to know the ins and outs of how Arsenal FC functions, but I do think that Arsenal’s real problems only started after David Dein was ousted.

Even iconic figures like Thierry Henry bemoaned his departure, and surely that should have signaled concern? In some quarters Arsene Wenger is criticised for wielding too much power, and some doubt that Gazidis is the man to rein him in. They don’t doubt that Dein was capable though, and somebody really needs to prompt Wenger into making the odd high profile (by that I mean quality and proven winner) signing.

Why shouldn’t Dein and Gazidis be able to work alongside one another? Dein could balance Wenger in the power stakes, especially when it comes to transfers and budgets, whilst Gazidis could continue his good work on enhancing Arsenal’s image and marketability.

For me it ultimately comes down to this situation: At the start of the transfer window the club confirmed that Wenger would have a substantial budget to buy players. Selling the likes of Clichy, Eboue, Cesc and (probably) Nasri can only have inflated that budget to ‘dizzying’ heights (Wenger’s words, not mine). There should be no excuse for missing out on a Samba or Cahill, Mata or Jadson, due to a little haggling over price.

Somebody (David Dein) needs to remind Wenger that despite his mostly impressive transfer history, there is an old adage – ‘if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys’. At the moment our squad is becoming littered with talented, young chimps. Whilst they will develop under Wenger’s tutelage, right now we need to dangle a few bananas and attract some alpha-male gorillas.

thegunninghawk.com