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.

As it becomes clear that Arsenal’s “summer transfer strategy” is pretty much non-existent, I wonder why Arsenal didn’t try and get Radamel Falcao.

The Columbian striker went to AS Monaco for £50 million and with the complete shambles that has happened with Luis Suarez, £50 million for Falcao would have been the marquee signing Arsenal fans would have craved as well as being a phenomenal piece of business.

As it becomes clear that pursuing Luis Suarez is making Arsenal look lame in the transfer market and Liverpool like a strong club with firm attitudes towards players wanting to leave (not like we were with Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie) then I still don’t understand why we didn’t go for Falcao.

If Liverpool weren’t so determined to keep Suarez and there was even a slight possibility they would sell him to us, it is generally agreed that the price to complete such a deal would have been in the £50-£55 million territory. But the way we’ve conducted ourselves it’s obvious it’s not going to happen now.

It was universally accepted that Radamel Falcao was the 3rd best player in the world, behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. He managed to score a simply stunning 70 goals in 90 games for Atletico Madrid and 72 goals in 87 games for FC Porto. He’s been outstanding for the last 5 seasons now and his goalscoring record is only bettered by, you guessed it, Messi and Ronaldo.

And the strange thing was, when Falcao moved to Monaco he actually said that he moved to the French side because he wanted to follow in the steps of his idol Thierry Henry:

“My heart has been with Monaco since my idol Thierry Henry played there.”

So we missed a trick there didn’t we? If he “loved” Thierry so much then why not join the club where he enjoyed the most success? Of course, his big wages may have been a factor in “loving” Monaco so much but according to Gazidis we could have paid similar sums anyway.

How great would it have been if Arsenal weren’t so useless and went for Radamel Falcao this summer? That really would have been a real sign of intent and the other teams in the Premier League (and Europe) would have stood up and taken notice of Arsenal.

Plus we’d be credible title challengers and the fans would have faith in the club. After all, if we had £70 million to spend and were willing to spend £40-£50 million for Suarez (who has all his baggage and is banned for the first 6 games of the season) then Falcao would have been a dream signing.

As it stands today, we can only imagine what could have been:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1r05RnlqJY

Over two weeks ago, I posted an article explaining why Arsenal will “buy” no-one this summer (Yaya Sanogo doesn’t count as he was free) and not spend a penny during this transfer windows.

A couple of days later, I published a post saying how Arsenal have conned the supporters this summer, more of which you can read here. The basics of it were that it was Arsenal who were the ones who gave us the expectations of big signings this summer, and by July you could see that it was essentially just a lot of hot air and PR.

And a month ago, I posted two possible Arsenal starting elevens for next season. One was based on all of the rumours going around and included Rooney, Suarez, Fellaini, etc., while the second one was a more “realistic line up” which minimal signings. Even the more reserved line up looks like a pipe dream now…

The fact is, we’re 8 days away from the new season and not spent any of the alleged “war chest” that is at our disposal.

I could talk about Arsenal’s inability to close a deal in the transfer market, the fact we aren’t ruthless enough, how we are penny-pinching or how Arsene Wenger just doesn’t like spending money. But all of those points have been exhausted by now.

The sooner we realise a big signing isn’t going to come, the better. I’ve had enough of checking the BBC Sport and Arsenal.com websites about 50 times a day to see if we’ve actually made a signing. Are we the only Premier League club yet to spend a penny?

So what’s happening so far?

Recently, Cesc Fabregas declared that he was going to stay in Barcelona, quashing any rumours of a possible move to Manchester United. I always thought this move was going to be unlikely as Arsenal always had first refusal and Arsene has constantly said he believes that Cesc is going to stay in Spain for at least another season. With the amount of money available to spend surely we’d be in the running if he was available anyway.

Wayne Rooney is trying to force his way out of Manchester United for Chelsea, but he has yet to submit a transfer request and Chelsea have not yet offered enough for his services so that one is still up in the air. Gareth Bale to Real Madrid is also far from a done deal and we all know about Luis Suarez. The Rooney deal is the most likely to happen if any of them go through, while Cesc and Suarez look dead in the water. I would be inclined to ask what they were smoking at White Hart Lane but stranger things have happened. I just struggle to see how Gareth Bale is worth £100m – he’s not in the Top 20 players in the world, so how he can completely smash the world transfer record is beyond me.

But what does this all mean for us? Well assuming we don’t sign anyone this summer (which some of us have suspected all along) then Cesc Fabregas, Wayne Rooney, Gareth Bale and Luis Suarez all staying put would be good for Arsenal.

Cesc would obviously massively strengthen Manchester United, especially when central midfield is a weakness in their team. They will probably go for Marouane Fellaini now which will improve their team but not in the same dynamic way Cesc would have done.

And if Wayne Rooney stays at United, we know how a sulking player can affect a squad mentality. After already reportedly being “angry” at David Moyes, the new Manchester United manager can’t afford to lose the dressing room so early in his career at Old Trafford. Selling Rooney and bringing no-one in sends out a mixed message out to the rest of the squad.

With Luis Suarez, the same thing applies. Unlike Rooney, Suarez has publicly declared his unhappiness and really made himself an outcast at the club. Brendan Rogers has called him totally disrespectful and John W Henry has come out and said he’s not for sale at any price, especially to Arsenal. Any hopes we had of making a deal are long gone our “relationship” with Liverpool looks no existent. But keeping a disgruntled player who will be disruptive in the Anfield dressing room and potentially not perform at his maximum only helps us. We might not have signed Suarez but we’ve managed to piss Liverpool’s board and management enough to make them weaker for the upcoming season.

Then we have Gareth Bale. If he moves to Real Madrid then they will be a weaker team but again, this is a player who has signalled his intentions to leave. If Real Madrid don’t stump up £100 million (and they would be stupid to in all honesty) then it will be Tottenham who will have an unsettled player in their ranks. Bale has yet to perform at the highest level in consecutive seasons and I don’t believe that if he stays, that he will be as effective as he was last season. Usually after a fantastic campaign opposing teams tend to work out how to play against you and many managers doubled up against Bale towards the end of last season and managed to nullify his threat more effectively.

There, I may be clutching at straws but I’m trying to stay positive for the upcoming season! Which is 8 days away if you didn’t know… *sigh*.

We all know what’s been happening with Luis Suarez, and we are now at the end game. Arsene Wenger has two choices, and which one will be pick?

We started this whole saga by submitting a bid of £30 million to Liverpool which was immediately rejected. After some consideration (and some kind of belief that there was a release clause in the contract) we bid what will probably the most famous amount in British football, a price of £40 million and £1.

What followed was a lot of talk from Liverpool. First they mentioned the “lack of class” we supposedly had and their owner, John W Henry famously asked what Arsenal were smoking over there at the Emirates. And Brendan Rogers talked a lot, mentioning how Luis Suarez was not for sale, and then admitting that he could be if the price is right.

Rightly so, Liverpool publicly came out and said Luis Suarez was going nowhere. Saying anything other than that would immediately reduce his market value. But Luis Suarez had other ideas.

He came out yesterday and basically cut all ties with the club. He talked about giving everything to Liverpool, how Rogers reneged on a verbal agreement and desire to play in the Champions League.

The response from Liverpool and Rogers, was to force Suarez to train alone as he has shown “total disrespect to the club”. And if you’re on Twitter, there have been pictures going around of Luis Suarez crying, but whether they’re real are a joke are yet to be seen.

So this situation has now reached breaking point.

What will Arsene do?

The first option is to finally go and get him. It would be an understatement to say that Liverpool aren’t happy so what will it take for them to sell Luis Suarez? Some Liverpool fans are saying that they can be patient because he’s banned for the first 6 games of the season anyway and others are even saying they’d rather keep him and let him rot in the reserves.

But we know that’s not how it works.

Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri are players who have manufactured moves away and we haven’t been able to stop them. In the end, if a player wants to leave then the best thing to do is try and get the highest price you can. That all makes sense, but will Liverpool follow the same rules? They bought Andy Carroll for £35 million so you never know what the Liverpool hierarchy are thinking.

If Liverpool can play a waiting game then technically, so can Arsenal. Because of his ban, he can’t play for us anyway (although surely he could in the CL qualifiers?) and getting him on the last day of the transfer window wouldn’t make a huge difference. The problem I have is that the longer we leave it, the more likely he will move somewhere else instead.

There’s no doubt Luis Suarez has burnt all bridges at Anfield, and there’s also no doubt that Liverpool would much rather sell Suarez to another club that isn’t a “Top 4 rival”. If Real Madrid lose out on Bale, what’s stopping them chasing Suarez? If another big European club start turning their attentions to Suarez then there would be major doubts about him coming to Arsenal.

Liverpool have spent decent amounts of money this summer strengthening their squad and are targeting the Top 4. With Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea having superior squads then it is Arsenal (and Tottenham) who are the biggest threat to that. You can argue that Liverpool are still a way off the Top 4 but in their minds giving us Suarez would be a step backwards.

If Arsene doesn’t get his finger out and make something happen soon, I can see this whole sorry saga ending in tears.