Tomorrow marks the start of the new Premier League season. We all know about all of the players we’ve released in this transfer window and that we’ve only brought in Yaya Sanogo, who will forever be remembered as the only signing we made in the summer of 2013.

Mikel Arteta, one of our most important and experienced players looks to be out for 4 to 6 weeks with a thigh problem. Added to that, Vermaelen, Monreal, Sagna, Ramsey, Diaby, Miyaichi and Sanogo are already on the injury table, Cazorla has a 10,000 flight from Ecuador and Bendtner, Park and Frimpong have minimal involvement in years gone by.

That means that we roughly have twelve “fit” players for the seasons opener against Aston Villa, and two of those are goalkeepers.

To say the squad is threadbare would be a massive understatement.

And if clubs came in for Bendtner, Park and Frimpong then they would have been allowed to leave. So our squad could have been even more “light” on numbers.

So what is going on?

We are well past the point of making a marquee signing to appease the fans. Now Arsenal fans just want some mediocre signings to make up numbers in our increasingly depleted squad.

Most teams aim to have two players per position but we are well below that. Injuries happen all the time and God forbid we had an injury to Koscielny, Mertesacker, Szczesny or Walcott. The concern isn’t so much tomorrow’s game against Aston Villa, it’s the two Champions League qualifiers against Fenerbahce.

You do wonder what Arsene Wenger is thinking. And what does he need to do to get the sack, because completely ignoring a £70 million war chest against the wishes of Ivan Gazidis, Stan Kroenke and the rest of the board is a good way to go about it. I’ve heard from various sources now that Gazidis and Kroenke are keen on Arsenal to stay competitive and have urged Arsene to spend, while the manager has dithered in the transfer market and made some very poor decisions – including dropping interest in Gonzalo Higuain for Luis Suarez. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but it was obvious from the start that Suarez is a mercenary who would jump ship from Arsenal if Real Madrid came in for him.

The strange thing is well is that Arsene hasn’t even done his bare minimum of buying cut price players from the French league. We’ve got Sanogo but no-one else. We haven’t even recruited many young Frenchmen this summer.

Many senior players such as Arteta, Wilshere, Walcott, Podolski and Ramsey have talked about how Arsenal need to spent to compete. But why is Arsene being so stubborn? Has he had enough and wants to get the sack? Has he lost the plot and thinks we can win the league with twelve fit players?

Or has Arsene filled his swimming pool with £50 notes? Who knows what’s going on.

There is a small part of me that still believes that the longest transfer window that ever was will end in a few signings before the hammer comes down on the 2nd of September.

Maybe, just maybe, Arsene is playing a poker game and waiting until the last days of August to swoop in to make the 4/5 new signings we need. Then again, maybe not.

What a wonderful summer it has been for Arsenal fans. At least Saturday will give us a sweet release from the nightmare that is the transfer window. Well, for a couple of hours anyway, as it doesn’t actually end until September.

Any excitement once the season ended has well and truly vanished into a sea of disappointment, resentment and depression. Sure, we should all support the club through think and thin, but after 8 disappointing seasons Ivan Gazidis (a name I cannot say without feeling sick) gave us fans the worst thing he could give supporters – a thing called hope.

Maybe it was just posturing, showing off, or possibly even real intent, but for whatever reason we haven’t spent a penny (apart from the £390,000 in compensation for Yaya Sanogo). With 2 days until the Premier League season is about to start, Arsenal fans are feeling anything but excited.

After checking online numerous times every day since the season ended to see if we’ve bought anyone, it always ends up the same way. The player we’ve been linked with moves to a different club. Higuain to Napoli, Jovetic to Manchester City, Luis Suarez to er… Liverpool and now Luiz Gustavo to Wolfsburg.

How does this happen? We are either penny-pinching to the point where we are losing out on all of our transfer targets or we have the worst negotiating team football has ever seen. We go back to the old adage about David Dein and whatever your views on him, he didn’t seem to have all of these problems in the transfer market.

Arsene Wenger is like me when I go shopping in town for clothes. I don’t like it and can’t be arsed. I see things I like but I dither around because I know fuck all about “what looks good” and end up not buying anything for the fear that I might look like Justin Beiber one of those kids from Wand Erection. My wife on the other hand has no such problem. Give her my credit card and she’ll buy things I never knew existed. So in that sense, Arsene Wenger needs to be more like my wife.

I am rambling slightly now so I’ll end it there. I will say though that even now, when all hope is almost lost that I would find it inconceivable that Arsenal didn’t make at least 2 signings before the transfer window ends. We have a good base (our form in the last 10 games of last season) so to not build on that would be absolutely criminal.

There’s 5 days left until the start of the season, and I don’t know about you but I can’t wait. Ever since the season ended it’s been a painful and tedious summer, where we’ve been linked with so many players and yet signed none (of note anyway). So at least the start of the new football season will be a welcome distraction.

So here we are. Currently in terms of our first team squad, we’ve signed one player (and bought none) released twelve and spent exactly zero pounds and zero pence.

The one signing we have made is Yaya Sanogo who was free from Auxerre. The twelve players we’ve released or sold (including loans out) are Andrei Arshavin, Denilson, Vito Mannone, Sebastian Squallaci, Andre Santos, Gervinho, Marouane Chamakh, Johan Djourou, Francis Coquelin, Joel Campbell, Craig Eastmond and Ignasi Miguel.

That is a lot of squad members to lose without buying anyone to replace them.

I know on Twitter there’s a graphic going around showing that we’ve actually released/sold  about 100 players but most of those were youth or reserve team members.

So in terms of players likely to be involved in the forthcoming season, our squad currently looks like this:

Goalkeepers
Wojciech Szczesny
Lukasz Fabianski

Full Backs
Bacary Sagna
Carl Jenkinson
Kieran Gibbs
Nacho Monreal

Central Defenders
Laurent Koscielny
Per Mertesacker
Thomas Vermaelen

Central Midfielders
Jack Wilshere
Mikel Arteta
Aaron Ramsey
Abou Diaby

Attacking Midfielders
Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain
Santi Cazorla
Tomas Rosicky
Ryo Miyaichi

Forwards
Theo Walcott
Lukas Podolski
Olivier Giroud
Yaya Sanogo

So after not including players like Nicklas Bendtner and Park Chu-Young who aren’t going to get a look in this season, then we have 21 players we can call upon for a whole campaign. Added to that, two of those players are injury prone (Diaby and Rosicky), another two have little or no Premier League experience (Sanogo and Ryo) and we have Theo, Ramsey, Vermaelen and Mertesacker reportedly out injured.

So to say the squad is threadbare at the moment would be an understatement.

We’ve had a decent pre-season and there have been some encouraging signs, particularly with the performance against Manchester City, but our squad is light on numbers. Technically speaking, we have a starting eleven which could probably compete with any team on the day but injuries to any of our key players and we would be in massive trouble. Arsene Wenger and Arsenal have done really well in offloading some of the dead wood in the squad but I thought we would at least make a few signings to ease the burden.

It has been widely reported that players such as Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta and Theo Walcott have publicly encouraged signings to the club but with 5 days of the season to go nothing has happened.

There’s still over two and half weeks to go in the transfer window but you would think that after seasons gone by we would have learnt our lesson and planned much better. The same point has been battered to death – why not get the players in early so they can settle into the club and squad so we can start the season in the best possible manner?

As the Suarez deal is dead in the water, and there are no hints of any signings upon the horizon, I thought I would try and “second guess” who, if anyone, Arsene Wenger and Arsenal are going for.

It seemed like we were in for Gonzalo Higuain for around £22 million but then he went to Napoli for £34 million. And despite all the mumblings about having a £70 million war chest the bottom line is 3 months after the season ended we haven’t spent a penny.

Our transfer record is £15 million for Jose Antonio Reyes and we have yet to break that as yet. And to be honest, deep down I don’t think many Arsenal fans expected us to complete a £50 million deal for Suarez. There is a minuscule chance it could happen but for many reasons, including Liverpool’s huge reluctance to sell I just don’t think Arsene would take that risk.

Not on Luis Suarez specifically (and his problems), but on signing a single player for £40 million plus. We know what Arsene’s like, and would be spend that much on one player? What if he gets injured? What happens if the signing doesn’t work out? The usually frugal Wenger would have a seizure if something went wrong and he spent the best part of £40 million on it.

So it is clear that Arsene would (if he signs anyone) spent around the £20 million mark. Only yesterday, there were rumours of Arsenal going for Luiz Gustavo for £14.5 million. That is a much more realistic transfer possibility that Luis Suarez, Wayne Rooney or Gonzalo Higuain. Whatever you think about Arsene, he still likes value for money.

So what positions do we need strengthening?

Well a central defender is paramount with Vermaelen injured, Miguel and Djourou going out on loan and with Bacary Sagna filling in at the moment. So who is available and under £20 million?

We know Ashley Williams has been linked to us all summer so maybe that deal could come in? Then there’s Phil Jagielka from Everton who would be around £14 million. Or how about someone from Ligue 1? Then someone like Nicolas N’Koulou.

We also need a midfielder and striker, and we’ve already been linked with Luiz Gustavo. Aaron Ramsey has looked good in pre-season but we can’t rely on him, and Wilshere and Arteta could get injured or at least need resting during the season.

In terms of midfielders, Fellaini would fit the bill but I’m not sure Everton would sell for less than £20 million. But how about Sebastian Larsson? He’s played for Sunderland for a few years and impressed, and is technically very good. I’ve always liked him and I’m sure he’d like to move back to Arsenal. And what about Mohamed Diame? He is a real powerhouse in the middle of the park and has an eye for goal as well.

So then we move on to strikers.

Christian Benteke was linked to us and before signing a new contract with Aston Villa would have been around £20 million. Then there is Demba Ba of Chelsea who will probably find it hard to get a game with Torres and Lukaku in the squad, and with Rooney who might join them. And Remy would have been a decent buy if he didn’t move to Newcastle.

So who do you think we could get for less than £20 million? With the squad as light as it is, you would like to think Arsene is looking to buy 3/4 players in different positions rather than splash £50 million on Suarez.