As the transfer window continues to fly past, fans are getting increasingly irate as to the lack of incoming players to Arsenal.

Fans have themselves to blame for this level of frustration (to an extent). The media run stories about transfers again and again because that is what gets hits. They have to fill column inches, even when there is nothing to write about. When there is nothing to write about, they either re-hash old stories or simply make them up.

The best example was a piece in today’s Daily Mail that really got to me. The initial title was: “Cesc Fabregas says he is a Manchester United fan”. This was a (non) story about comments that he made (while still at Arsenal) in 2009 before the Champion’s League semi-final. That was one comment over 4 years ago, about respecting their team, with the likes of Ronaldo and Rooney.

That was barely a story then, let alone now. The reason they ran the story was that it was something that sounds like an exclusive new story when there was nothing else going on.

Now the title of the article has been changed to say that “Cesc’s staying” after some comments by Vilanova. The second that there was some form of new information, the paper decided to adapt (/ditch) the non-story in favour of comments that were said at least in this decade. The few hours that the old title was up, saw lots of Arsenal fans worrying that Fabregas was one step further to joining united because he was a United fan.

The misleading articles that many papers write have caused lots of anger towards Arsenal for not acting. A paper reports that Arsenal are interested in a player, the player then not being bought within the next 48 hours and Wenger is “dithering” and ruining the club’s chances of success. Despite the complete lack of interest from the club in the first place.

The club’s kit unveiling was another example of people deciding that a player would definitely be unveiled because the club announced there would be an “audacious stunt”. People got their own hopes up due to a slightly ambiguous comment, and blamed the club for not announcing a new player… despite the fact they never said they would.

BBC sport releases a gossip column summarising all of the day’s transfer rumours published in the major papers. Here is a complete list of all the players that the club have been linked to since the end of the season.

Higuain, Rooney, Jovetic, Suarez, Williams, Fellaini, Benteke, Fabregas, Grenier, David Villa, Julio Cesar, Mignolet, Wanyama, Mendy, Gareth Barry, Cabella, Aurier, Skrtel, Capoue, Gundogan, L.Bender, Ahmedov, Nani, Papadopoulos, Corchia, Deulofeu, Torres, Cabaye, Brown, Ngoy, Draxler, Flamini, Kondogbia, Krul

Anyone saying there is genuine interest in every single one of those 34 players probably needs to get their heads checked.

Yes other clubs have signed big players already, and yes it would be nice to have already signed someone, but the benefit of having a player for the first few pre-season games is not worth being forced into overpaying for said player.

There is still around a month to go before the next season starts, and almost 7 weeks before the window closes. While many of the individual reports can be dismissed as rubbish, the pattern is that there will be a “big money” player signed this window.

If September the second comes and Wenger still hasn’t signed any players other than Yaya Sanogo then something will have gone terribly wrong… until then, be patient and try not to read too much into anything that isn’t announced on Arsenal.com, or at least take it all with a pinch of salt.

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Comments  

#22 sebastien9 2013-07-25 11:52
Arsene Could have signed higuan for only 37 millions rather than being in for suarez who wants to go to RM ! I trust in wenger but when u've got opportunities uu've got to sign the key players !
-3 #21 Wamba Jack 2013-07-19 18:53
Fair enough but Arsene is drunk on his Wenger-nomics and won't dig into his 'darling profits' to sign any recognizable big name players. It is nauseating that ailing Arsenal FC is plotting to dish out a new contract to this 'dick-head' of a manager. And Wenger and his co 'dick-heads' like Ivan Gazidis are hell-bent on extending the septic rot at Arsenal beyond an eight empty years! Ouch! Stench, stench! Yuck,ck,ck,ck,ck.... ...
#20 jackson 2013-07-18 08:32
if you tie yr mind in foot ball of today you will have good investment by spending time talking nonsense
#19 trugun 2013-07-17 17:34
Quoting Ab:
Like or dislike. I don't really care. Arsenal isn't winning a trophy this year.

You can have a trophy ab "The teddy out the cot trophy"
#18 jacob4 2013-07-16 22:45
Ok article, can't blame fans on every single thing, but who els is their to blame it on?
-4 #17 dcdc 2013-07-16 22:26
Some thoughtful posts on both sides of the question. I happen to think that Wenger and his colleagues in management have been economical with the truth regarding their intention to bring in top quality players. The cynic in me says this is done to persuadeseason ticket holders to commit each year. Then we see very little in the way of real incoming top quality.
+9 #16 Dawn 2013-07-16 21:08
Well written and absolutely spot on. Glad to see some proper Gooners coming out and agreeing with what you've said.
+14 #15 Cheadle 2013-07-16 18:58
Great article. Everybody hails Laudrup as genius for buying goal scoring Michu for 50 bucks or whatever (pennies in football currency) Just cos somebody says Arsenal has 70 milln to spend so Wenger must look for the most expensive player around just to spend big. No I say buy sensibly, call the bluff of Real Madrid and any other Price-Inflating team. OPR hastily assembled a bunch of money hungry mercs plus a mercen'arry coach and got relegated. Arsenal are coming to a position of real strength. Something the subsidized Spanish "Big" teams can only dream of. Sure Wenger has bought some awful players in the past but so have Mourinho, Guardiola, Ferguson and other big coaches its called being human. If we are to buy a really good player we need as much noise around us as possible so that we can quietly complete the actual deals in the background.
+11 #14 Digby 2013-07-16 18:04
Let's see. Wigan won a trophy last year. So did Swansea. Are all trophies created equal? Is this just about trophies? How about a trophy for the most baseless transfer rumours? Or the most desperate fans? As long as they play Arsenal football and show progress and give us something to cheer about...how about second place? I'd rather be second than mid table and win a trophy. OH...and beat Spurs. Yes. I'd definitely take that. Second and absolutely thrash Spurs
-18 #13 Ab 2013-07-16 17:43
Like or dislike. I don't really care. Arsenal isn't winning a trophy this year.
-1 #12 Fada D 2013-07-16 17:38
The good thing this year is that, we have no top players to sell this time. Can you remember the last time we didn't have a top player sought after by other clubs? Whichever way you look at it, it is frustrating because this is a familiar pattern. We end up buying who is available on the cheap at the end of the window not who will really want or need
-9 #11 Steve 2013-07-16 17:30
how can you blame just the Media, every transfer window we see the same old talk yet no substance behind it. If we are serious about signing top class players why do we always look to drag our feet, its high time took there roll serious and took on some big players to enable us to start to challenge.
+17 #10 mick 2013-07-16 17:29
@Blocked
Totally agree. As if building a new state of the art stadium and training ground is not showing ambition!!
-12 #9 Ab 2013-07-16 16:58
Whether you defend wenger or not.it doesn't really matter.
-16 #8 frank 2013-07-16 16:53
Fans are not to blame every season we hear big name from wenger but we neva see them wearing arsenal shirt. We fans are tired of trophiless we need trophy at least capital one cup and please wenger bring in quality players.
+18 #7 raj 2013-07-16 16:51
This actually is the first time we as a club have had money to spend because AW has been able to keep us in top 4 and had a net spend of 10mill in the last 7-8 years... I dont actually remember AW saying year in year out that we going to spend apart from this one so lets see what happens
+16 #6 John 2013-07-16 16:44
Whoa, a measured article amidst the transfer hysteria! I find it absolutely hilarious, one of the funniest was claiming not signing Cesar would be Arsenal's downfall. Comedy gold.
+19 #5 Sudhir Samuels 2013-07-16 16:43
Things that come out of media is quite a disgrace these days, worst is how fans/readers react to all this without a bit of thought. Its good to read some sensible perspective in your blogs. Keep up the good work.
-13 #4 Joel 2013-07-16 16:43
It doesnt matter what the media are saying its what the Club are doing that matters.Or should I say-Its what they sre not doing. Every supporter knows that Arsenal require a forward who csn hit the net; a central midfielder capable of galvanising the team when its defending as well as attacking; a centre back who can dominate the penalty box and doesnt look like hes running in quicksand; and a goalkeeper who doesnt mske mistakes in high pressure games and can distribute the bsll to his own team.Without the addition if this "spine" Arsenal will contnue to fall further behind their competition and will go through another Season of failing win Trophies-or rather fsiling to even compete for Trophies!
-15 #3 Galway Gooner 2013-07-16 16:40
I don't think you can blame the fans here. Every season Wenger comes out and spouts some crap about "super super quality" players and then we end up selling our top players. So the fans are already on edge. A few weeks ago our CEO comes out and talks about the great pot of money we have and how this summer we will really spend. Now maybe we will but so far it has the feeling that we are once again dragging our heels over a few quid here and there. If we talk about spending big then we should spend big. If not simply shut up about it and stop getting fans expectation levels up.
+16 #2 Moses 2013-07-16 16:35
Well said. Transfers are complicated negotiations, the real world is not like championship manager.
+23 #1 Blocked 2013-07-16 16:31
I love following the Arsenal tweets. I take pleasure in blocking the absolute ***s that reply to them demanding signings. Even better are the muppets calling into talksport saying AW should have been fired years ago for not having ambition. They easily forget Arsenal saying things would be tight until new commercial deals were in place. Selective memory for absolute bellends.