Assessing Arsenal's January transfer window | Chronicles of a Gooner
Arsenal were all over every homepage online and every back page of newspapers over the last month as they tried to add a few players to take them over the line in the Premier League title race.
While they missed out on a few top targets, they did manage to make a few very shrewd signings throughout the course of January.
90min's resident Arsenal man and host of podcast 'Chronicles of a Gooner' Harry Symeou has taken the time to assess all the business Mikel Arteta and co. have done.
On this edition of TCOAG, Harry Symeou reviews & rates Arsenal's January transfer window following the signings of Leandro Trossard, Jakub Kiwior & Jorginho along with multiple departures! If you can see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!
Jorginho
"I think this is the one of the three transfers that's sparked the most debate. I think a lot of people felt underwhelmed by the capture of Jorginho, I think a lot of people felt a little bit let down based on the fact that we were pushing really hard for Moises Caicedo from Brighton - someone for the longer term, someone with exciting potential and someone that would have strengthened us, perhaps not just in the here and now, but for many years to come.
"Jorginho is the opposite to that. The very nature of this deal is that it's one for the short-term and one to help us in the interim, and that has upset a lot of people. Add to that that he's ex-Chelsea and that makes it harder for Arsenal fans to warm to him.
"I've always supported Jorginho as a player, I think he's a very, very talented, clever, footballer and that's an opinion I've had for a long time. That opinion's not something I've decided to just put across since he's been linked with a move to Arsenal, it's something that I've often said about Jorginho. He is a very clever footballer, a very technical footballer, and someone that could really help Arsenal in that deep-lying midfield position because of his ability to progress the ball forward.
"He is an upgrade, undoubtedly, on Albert Sambi Lokonga in the 'six' role, and he's definitely an upgrade on Mohamed Elneny.
"When you look at the fact that Arsenal paid a minimal fee for Jorginho in comparison to some of the other money that's been thrown around in this window, and you look at the fact that he's only been signed to an 18 month contract, I think that the club have come away from this quite well.
"Is it a signing that I'm jumping up and down about? No, it's not.
"But is it a signing that makes sense when you actually sit down and think about it? I think it probably is."
Jakub Kiwior
"He's not a player that many of us had on our radar, but he's someone who's been highly rated in Italy.
"He's a left-sided centre-back and, as I've said multiple times during the window, I felt that the squad was missing a back-up there.
"Did it need to happen in this window or could Arsenal have gone bigger on the midfielder or forward? You could make that case but Arsenal have clearly been watching Kiwior for a while and like him, and felt there was an opportunity to get the deal done now.
"Someone that's been highly rated in Italy, a left sided centre-back was, as I've said to you guys multiple times during the window, something that I felt the squad was missing a backup, A natural replacement for Gabriel, particularly with Pablo Mari out the door, but you know, did it need to happen in this window or could we have gone bigger on the midfielder on the forward, you could make that case and you could make that argument but are still have clearly been watching this guy for a while arsenal clearly like him are still clearly felt there was an opportunity to get that deal done now.
"I like the idea of this signing, and I like what I've seen of Jakub, but would I have done it in this window? If it were up to me, I probably would have waited and I probably would have gone bigger in one of the other two positions."
Leandro Trossard
"Again, not the first choice. Clearly Arsenal were trying to do a deal to get Mykhailo Mudryk, but in terms of second choices, I don't think they get much better than Leandro Trossard. It's a very savvy bit of business from Arsenal.
"He scores goals in the Premier League, he's has proven that time and time again with Brighton, and he's always been a problem for us when we've come up against them in recent seasons.
"Arsenal's ability to pivot away from a first-choice target when they realise they're not going to be able to do that deal and be able to turn their attention elsewhere and progress deals really, really quickly
"The circumstances and the situation between him and Roberto De Zerbi and at Brighton kind of opened the door for us. And again, I talked about our sins, ability to pivot away from, you know, a first choice target when they realise that they're not going to be able to do that deal and be able to turn their attention elsewhere and process deals really, really quickly is a great thing. That's what they did with Trossard.
"We've seen a bit of him already at Arsenal and I thought he looked really lively and I thought he looked as though he fits into this team really, really well.
"We can be obsessed with the future and buying players of like 21 years old. We've done the heavy lifting with the youngsters Edu alluded to that in the past. We're now at a point where we need to be able to find that balance and we need to sprinkle a little bit of experience into this very talented and exciting young squad to help us get over the line when it matters."
