Monday 30th

Arsenal have had all summer to buy players. Why they haven't done so until now is very much an area of conjecture. Have we been unwilling to do so or simply unable to get our business done?

For all our frustrations, it's hard to imagine that we've remained as static as we have through choice. If the manager and the club accept we need new players just 3 days before the window closes I think it would be reasonable to assume they were aware of this throughout the summer. The defeat to Manchester United so close to the deadline may have sparked a bit of urgency, but I very much doubt it was a case of 'Oh, I thought our squad was better than that, better buy some players so!'

So what has been the problem? The money has been available since the get-go. Our transfer fund, pre-Nasri and Cesc, was around £35m which was to be boosted by sales of 'fringe' players. How many of these players have we actually sold? Vela, on loan. Denilson, on loan (despite the fact I'm pretty sure there were concrete bids from Spain). Almunia, gone nowhere. Clichy, we got some money for. What of Nicklas Bendtner, for example? Back in July Arsene confirmed he was being left out of things because he was in talks with other clubs <http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-bendtner-and-almunia-could-leave>
, and the player's father and agent confirmed there had been lots of bids <http://news.arseblog.com/2011/07/lots-of-bids-for-bendtner-bendtner/>
.

So what's holding things up? Are we to take it that not one of the clubs who have been given permission to talk to him have managed to find a financial package attractive enough for him to accept? He made it very clear he wanted to leave the club. He might well be on higher wages here than he'd get elsewhere but that doesn't mean a new club has to give him exactly the same. You have to ask have Arsenal carried out their side of things properly? I can't believe that there wasn't one offer acceptable to Bendtner, especially given his desire to leave.