DownSwinging.com

So the hot “news” this morning is that Wenger’s first choice signing is AS Roma cruncher, Daniele De Rossi. While De Rossi is exactly the type of player Arsenal needs, don’t expect to see him at the Emirates later this fall. With a £30m price tag, you don’t need me to tell you how uncharacteristic it would be for Wenger to splash. I couldn’t even see him shedding £20m on the 26 year-old. Roma, much like Valencia, are in an atrocious amount of debt, but are still holding on to their most prized assets, so as to not turn off the supporters. But much like Valencia’s David Villa, the hefty price tags have only served as a repellent to managers, who would rather wait out the situation until the club ultimately have no choice but to cash in. It is believed that De Rossi and Alberto Alquilani, Liverpool’s target, are the clubs most valuable players, and Roma are at a bit of a crossroads. If you believe what you read, Alquilani is on the verge of a move to Anfield, which could do one of two things. One, make De Rossi untouchable, so as not to completely disassemble a team who were in the Champions League knockout stages just this past season. Or two, make De Rossi more available, so the club can officially turn the page and start over. Either way, I don’t figure Arsenal to be involved.

With more and more quotes coming from le boss about being happy with the squad, and maybe not using any of Arsenal’s windfall, supporter’s are by no means on the edge of their seats, expectantly waiting for an immenent arrival. It’s more of a deja vu type feeling. Every year around this time, the days crawl by and rumour and circumstance is really all there is to cling onto. We get the little flashes of ‘how brilliant would that be!’, but it eventually fades out.

To those who claim Arsenal could win the league with the squad they have now, I don’t completely disagree. However, I do feel that everyone would have to remain healthy, and the youngsters would have to genuinely contribute to the cause. Ramsey, Vela and the like would need to become more established and impactful in their substitute roles, while Walcott would have to make just another step in his progression towards becoming a star. That being said, just because your squad ‘could’ win the league doesn’t mean that strengthening isn’t neccesary.  I just don’t really see Wenger spending more than £15m for the rest of the summer. It’s also quite evident that if the £15m or so were to be used, it would be spent on multiple players to establish depth.

Wenger would see signing an established player like De Rossi as disloyal to his current midfielders, as well as an admission of wrong-doing to the fans and media. If nothing else, Wenger is a stubborn man. And with an ever-growing chip on his shoulder, you get the impression that winning is going to happen his way, or not at all. And to be honest, thats a little frightening. One complaint I did have on his ‘not all problems can be solved by buying’ argument, is that while this is certainly true, as you can look to the spuds spree last summer, to indicate that spending upwards of £50m can still see you toiling in the relegation zone 8 matches into the season. But, surely some problems can be solved by spending. Buying a player who plays a position that is considered a weakness in your team, can be solving a problem.

Either way, as the summer moves on, it becomes increasingly important for us to get behind our team. Whether he makes the signings we want or not, come September 1, we’re stuck with what we’ve got, which lets be honest, is quite a good little team. I’ve changed my tune on the striker front. I feel that assuming we don’t loan Vela, we could have a very complete strike force. Expect Bendtner to top 20 goals this season, and van Persie to follow up one of his healthiest seasons to date. But above all else, enjoy the football from our young guns; we are in first place afterall…