Where’s the money, Arsene?

Has he missed a trick here?

The sight of the white cannon emblazoned across the stand at Emirates on any other day would enthrall the fans of the club and fill them with a sense of belonging and loyalty but not on the opening day of the season. The cannon was visible, out in the open for the fans to have a look at it.

Only this time it did not exhibit the power it is supposed to wield. Luna had just slid the ball in the Arsenal net, and Villa went 3-1 with only five minutes left on the clock. The stands emptied out in a time lesser than the time taken by the Villains to celebrate their goal. The unexpected defeat helped adding oil to already roaring flames of anger against the club for its incompetency in the transfer market until now.

Years of excuses and sighting Emirates Stadium as the excuse for not having enough financial power to dive in the market for marquee signings seemed to have been canned in a box and thrown in river Thames for good when Wenger and Gazidis declared that Arsenal have a 70 million war chest at their disposal. For the first time in years, the prospect of no big stars leaving the club and the promise to break the bank lifted the Arsenal fans to cloud nine, and thus began the anticipation of what could be the most sensational summer for Arsenal ever.

Wenger had 90 days from the finish of last season to the beginning of this one to go out, buy early and buy big. Summer kicked off interestingly with host of star names being linked to the Gunners. By the time the transfer window officially opened, Higuain had already undergone some 2,376 medicals at Arsenal according to the ‘Twitter Officials’. Official bids were made for Suarez amounting to 40,000,000 and 40,000,001 pounds each. Never in the history of football would a pound have created such an uproar as this one.

90 days, tonnes of speculations and one EPL defeat later, the Arsenal squad still doesn’t have any new faces. The only signing has been that of Yaya Sanogo, a young French striker, who was a free agent in July and had recently spent eighteen months on sidelines due to injury, while the players Arsenal chased all throughout the summer landed elsewhere. Wenger seems to be stuck on Suarez who has been changing his stance over Liverpool every week while sitting on sidelines due to his ban. Wenger seems to be willing to spend upto 50m on him but not buy anyone else.

It’s not just about being a frustrating summer for Arsenal fans, it’s also about the club’s credibility that is getting hurt when it comes to transfer activities. Over the years, Arsenal have become a great scouting club, identifying amazing talents only to see them chose rival clubs over Arsenal either due to lack of financial power or the lack of challenge provided for the title races.