When the transfer window first opened, it sounded as though broke Arsenal would be stuck without any moves to make. Setting the expectations so low may be massively helping the assertion I’m about to make, but I find the small moves that the Gunners did make are enough to qualify Unai Emery’s first January window as a success.
? Denis Suarez vs Liverpool(2016)#afc
— Arsenal Ajans (@ArsenalAjansTR) January 29, 2019
It wasn’t perfect, of course, but it was a success. I don’t care what anyone else says about it being underwhelming. You can’t isolate the January transfer window and approach it without context, you have to look big picture.
There are two main moves that were secured this January. The first, Denis Suarez, is a tremendous opportunity to give a trial run to a player that has the potential to sort out the aging, overpaid creative midfield that Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have come to typify. Aaron Ramsey is leaving too, obviously, but between the three of these players, Suarez has the potential to create more chances than all of them, given his track record.
The option to buy is an exciting one, because it gives added impetus to his performances, because he is actually fighting for a place in the future of the club.
I would have preferred to see Ozil offloaded somewhere else, but at the end of the day, that never looked possible. So all things considered, and given the financial straits of the club, landing Suarez is a huge success that should be celebrated, not criticized.
Then there was the outbound loan move, sending Emile Smith Rowe to RB Leipzig until the end of the year.
The young Englishman had found a decent amount of game time under Emery, and had showcased some outstanding talent, but with the arrival of Suarez, it was important that Smith Rowe not lose his momentum.
Leipzig have the ability to give him that luxury, while returning him to the Emirates at the end of the year for a chance to be a further solution to the midfield issues that Suarez will already be trying to fix.
These are two moves that benefit the future of the club, and given the transitional phase that we are currently in, it makes more sense to think long-term than in the present day, as unpopular an opinion as that might somehow be.