Arsenal Missing Chances Isn't Giroud's Fault

I understand that missed chances have been a frustrating part of this season but I struggle to understand some of the counter arguments and criticisms being made around the same. It is a pretty complex and interconnected series of arguments so I'm going to try and put them all together here

Misfiring Midfield

A lot of these chances are being missed by our midfielders and wide forwards. The likes of Alexis, Ramsey, Ozil and even Theo are all finishing at a rate that's quite a bit below their usual standard (I recall Alexis converting around 30% in seasons past). It's why, while I get the emotional response to declare that we should buy another striker, I don't necessarily understand the rationale behind how buying just anyone, because we have the money, is going to make them score a chance that isn't falling to them.

Where's The World-Class Striker?

To be clear, the idea that we need a world class player up front and a ball playing defensive midfielder - I don't think anyone is in disagreement with this and I'm certain as a club we're looking to always improve or upgrade on what we have. We have certainly tried for that level of player in the past with all the rumors around Benzema last summer and the far more public football news around the Suarez release clause before that. In those cases, the former was never likely to move and the latter, we did exactly what we needed to by matching the release clause. In the end, it wasn't a question of money but rather Liverpool being willing to violate contractual obligation to keep the player.

That last part above is why I do not understand people saying £50-60-70-80m would have got Suarez just because the release clause failed and using that to target us for not having ambition. It is contractual fact that a release clause is the amount a club needs to pay to secure someone. It's like the MSRP on a product, you're not going to pay $5 for a $1 pack of gum just because you want to show that you're ambitious and you have money.

Now the fact that we have money. I saw a lot of people stating that we're sitting on £200-250m (proven to be substantially lower) and questioning why we're not spending it (and some mention of transfer inflation making that money meaningless). That is a fair question on the surface level but digging deeper, there's a lot more to it. I think it is a bit facile to assume that all that money is available for transfers. I'd venture a guess that at best around half of that is, and while that's a size-able amount by itself, it does make me feel like this is intentionally ignored by some to make popular sound bites rather than factual assertions. As for transfer inflation, that's going to happen regardless of whether we have money in the bank or not and I'd only be worried about it, if it was the case that we needed wholesale changes like say United or Liverpool do and at the same time ignored the availability of the right kind of player.

The Wrong Guy At The Wrong Price

To be clear now I understand it can be frustrating to see the money there and not immediately think of it every time something goes wrong (or you see the word Flamini anywhere on the teamsheet). I'd honestly be surprised if no one has thought of that at some point or the other. However, that money, no matter how big the amount sounds and how much TV money is coming in and how much transfers get inflated, it is still a limited resource. Buying more of the same kind of player isn't going to make us better, and buying whoever is available at whatever the asking price (like say Jackson Martinez or even Schneiderlin last summer) isn't going to make us better either. I appreciate the fact that there is an observable trend to only buy a player who is better than what we have, either now or potentially. The former type being the signings of Alexis, Ozil, Cech who instantly displace someone in the starting lineup; the latter applies to the signings like Chambers, Gabriel, Elneny, Welbeck. I understand that people want to see more of the former type of signing and I'm sure the club does too but that's where it gets tricky.

These are the type of player that will take us to the next level, the level of a Barca or a Bayern and into the echelons of the best of the best. This level of player fits in perfectly at a club like that and is the kind of player we should be after (and I believe we are). However, in my mind, that's where the catch lies.The fact is that as close/far as we are to that level, we're not there just yet. At the same time, these clubs don't need to sell and won't bother if they have no way of replacing or improving (can you imagine Barca selling Busquets when there's no one like him in the world?). We managed to get Ozil and Sanchez from clubs like this at a time when they were willing to sell them to make way for their new shiny toys in the form of Bale and Suarez respectively. The argument made towards us, that a. we shouldn't sell our best players if we can't replace...b. we shouldn't have money in the bank, it should be spent on the best players...isn't unique to us, it applies even more strongly to these clubs too and if anything, they're in a stronger position than us in both counts. Bayern or Barca aren't going to sell someone to keep money in the bank and not replace.

Catch-22

So the argument that if we throw money at them, any club will sell anyone simply doesn't hold true for me. If they have a replacement in mind however, we should certainly be on the case and that's where our Catch 22 position lies.

• Firstly, the players who will take us to the level of a Bayern or Barca, I'd argue that most of them (all if you consider just CFs and DMs) are already at these clubs and unlikely to be sold unless they're being usurped by newer/better.
• Secondly, if we look to target the kind of players who would end up at a club of that level, we're again at a disadvantage because the reality is that these players would pick these clubs over us (eg. Ozil picking Madrid over us when he first moved out of Germany).
• So that leaves us in our current position. We have the money, we want to spend but we have to wait for a domino effect from the clubs above us to get the players that will truly and instantly take us up a level. It is a bit of a frustrating reality even for me (And I imagine the club as well) but it is what we have to deal with.
• In addition, I don't understand when people start accusing the scouting team and Arsene of not doing their jobs given this situation and given the fact that the teams around us haven't exactly managed to buy great players in the same positions that we're expected to. Look at City buying Bony as backup CF, Chelsea buying Pato, United spending such a huge amount on Martial as the kind of purchases that our near rivals have made up front - are their scouting teams not doing their job either? I think one of Arsene's comments last year on the lack of strikers in Europe was profound and visible across the board; just take a look at the striker options (or lack of them) for world champs Germany to see evidence of this.

Armchair Scouting Is Easy

We fans have an enviable position of being able to suggest transfers and pass criticism without any accountability or need for reasoning and then go ahead and make it sound like no brainers that the club is ridiculous for not taking up. For example, I personally thought Cech was a luxury that we didn't need (how wrong was I?) but that Martinez was overrated and we'd be better of chasing someone like Morata if we did indeed need a striker with potential. Many disagreed as they felt the need for a striker and GK was more desperate than what I perceived. However, while Cech has proved spectacular and much needed, spending 40m on a Jackson Martinez (who has somehow ended up in China) would have

- reduced the money we have available to spend on someone who is truly an improvement for us. This is because the transfer fee, the signing fee, the agent fee and the first year wages have to all be accounted for from the cash reserve (from what I have understood over the past few years). So for JMart, that's a 40m fee, a 5m signing fee + agent fee (I'm probably underestimating this) and at least a 5m wage for the first year. That's about half the money I'd estimate we have in the cash reserve dedicated for transfers.

- Had we done that, it would have left us with a player who sounded great in popular opinion but worked out badly while leaving us a huge amount poorer. This would lead to the club rightly being criticized for daring to spend on such a player (preferred in 2015) and wasting our resources instead of spending on a target Y the fans would prefer for 2016

So long story short, I completely understand that it can be frustrating to see money in the bank while Alexis misses a chance or a Flamini does something silly. However, I don't think Alexis missing a chance or our 3rd/4th choice defensive option in midfield screwing up is an indictment of our transfer policy that isn't based on simply buying more of the same. I admire the fact that we look to improve on what we have rather than spending at the rate the United or Liverpool have in the last couple of years to little effect. I look forward to us picking up players who can be instant or potential improvements in future windows as well and this summer should be particularly interesting.

- Given Theo's form, Ox's injury, Joel's likely departure and Cazorla being central, I think we're going to make a wide player a priority this summer. I reckon this will be a wide playmaker/wide forward or a hybrid of both those roles and I can envision us going after someone like an Isco or even a Mahrez. It should be interesting to say the least.

- Other positions that we might be looking at - a young LB with a higher ceiling than Gibbs as a successor to Monreal. Maybe a similar situation at RB but I think Chambers is a very capable backup and will look for more playing time as well (that's assuming Jenkinson doesn't take up the backup RB role).

- Plus I don't think we ever stop looking for improvements or potential improvements at any position, so that depends on what the scouting team and Arsene manage to find in the market.

Don't forget to like us on Facebook, add us to your G+ circle and follow us on Twitter.