In the aftermath of the Fulham defeat, Arsene opined,

Of course I am frustrated but when you lose a game it is not always the solution to buy

If his gut reaction had been to open the chequebook, he is right. It would have been a kneejerk reaction and one that ought to provoke great concern amongst the support. Panic buying suggests a loss of faith in his players, something that would have gone against his grain. However, in this instance, it seems to be Arsene clouding two entirely separate issues.

The defeat on Saturday is something that can be worked on during training sessions. The signing of a midfielder is an altogether different matter, a subject that the manager has regularly talked of in the past month. Indeed, been specific about in press conferences where if he was not inclined to take such a course of action, he would not have spoken about Barry or prior to the first leg against FC Twente, specified a time scale for making a purchase.

Any incoming player though should not be to silence discontent; it must only be if that player is going to fulfil a role in the team that no-one else can. There is little point in signing a young player, with less than one hundred games unless Arsene knows that there is a Patrick Vieira Mark II arriving. Even then, can he afford to take the risk?

The problem is the conflicting messages coming out of the club, fuelling dissension. Arsene comments that he needs a centre back and buys one; observes that he needs a midfielder and then backtracks. Is it price that is putting him off? ‘Resale value‘ is a phrase that crept out recently. Why is he worrying about that for an experienced player? This is the core to the conflict. Edelman, Fiszman and Hill-Wood have all sought to allay fears that the new stadium would restrict transfer funding; Arsene is behaving as if he has zero funds despite balancing the books this summer. What is the truth? More funding will be coming by the impending sale of Senderos to AC Milan once the loan period expires.

The infuriating aspect of all this is that Arsene has a good squad to build upon. He simply needs to add one midfielder with experience and he will be in a decent starting position. Remaining issues are of form that Arsene can deal with on the training pitch; ongoing it is focussing on defence. He needs to get a defensive coach in situ, in the same way that Keown was a couple of years back. Let them get on with dealing with the defensive principles, Arsene can manage and deal with the issues further forward.

He has told us that the club is not close to signing anyone. It has been this way since the end of last season, according to the manager’s press utterances. I hope that is him simply trying to cool the media fervour for signings, especially after last week. FC Twente pitch up at The Emirates tomorrow, the timeline Arsene put on signing a midfielder. My concern would be that the deadline closes on midnight next Monday and no-one is incoming.

’til Tomorrow.