Arsenal's Thrashing of Viking FK Will Not Appease Fans Hungry for New Signings

After seeing his Arsenal side demolish Norwegian outfit Viking FK 8-0 in their latest pre-season friendly, Arsene Wenger might feel he has earned the right to relax a little.

However, in his post-match press conference, he seemed almost too calm about the club’s prospects in the transfer window. Arsenal are in serious need of reinforcements, and a friendly victory—however impressive—does not change that.

Arsenal fans want to see the club behaving bullishly in the market, ruthlessly pursuing their top targets to ensure they improve the team. Instead, the Gunners continue to use the rhetoric they made their trademark in the impoverished years immediately after the move to the Emirates Stadium.

The need for new players is obvious. Arsenal are lacking a top-class centre-half and a prolific centre-forward. It’s not even a question of quality any more—it’s a question of numbers. Long-term injuries for Per Mertesacker and Danny Welbeck mean they need to add players simply to have the requisite depth to survive the first half of the Premier League season. 

The suspicion lingers that Wenger is not keen to engage in the highly inflated arms race that the transfer market has become. Although he paid big money to lure Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach, he has not yet taken another major chunk out of Arsenal’s sizeable budget.

Nevertheless, Wenger insists it is not the rapidly rising prices that put him off. He told Arsenal's website:

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It’s not the prices, it’s the players. At the moment I’m focused on the players we have. Today we didn’t have Ramsey, Xhaka, Alexis - he will play on Sunday. We still have Ozil at home, and Giroud and Koscielny too. We also have young players who came on and did well. We do not have to panic but we are on alert in the transfer market so that we can make the right move when the opportunity comes up.

"

Now, it’s entirely possible that Wenger is simply trying to downplay Arsenal’s desperation to avoid strengthening the position of the selling clubs.

Right now, if a club received a bid for their star striker from Arsenal, they’re immediately aware of two things. The first is that Arsenal urgently require a forward, and the second is that they have deep pockets. By talking up the current options within his squad, Wenger may simply be playing a game of poker.

Trond Tandberg/Getty Images

However, history suggests he might be speaking in earnest. After all, it was only last summer when similar statements led to the club starting the season without a senior outfield signing. 

After the Viking game, Wenger laid out his criteria for a new signing. He said:

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The money is never a problem if you have to pay what is requested. The price of a player is down to four ingredients. One is the talent, two his age, three is how much you expect him to improve your team, and four his resale value. If he ticks all four boxes then the price is not that important. You have to find the player.

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The problem is that Wenger may be being too exacting. While his commitment to identifying and recruiting the right players is commendable, Arsenal’s need is now so great that the Frenchman may be forced to compromise. It might not be possible to find someone who ticks every one of the boxes Wenger has described.

The question of residual value is an interesting one. Some would argue there is no longer any real need for Arsenal to buy players based on whether or not they’ll be able to sell them for a higher price. If he is a success, they’ll want to keep him. If he’s a failure, his value will plummet anyway. Wenger must accept that any transfer is a gamble. It is not an exact science.

Leicester City have been widely praised for their transfer acumen over the past couple of years. However, it is easy to forget that as recently as January 2015, they spent a club record £9.7 million fee to sign Croatia striker Andrej Kramaric. Kramaric was nothing short of a disaster, but Leicester accepted the loss as part of a broader strategy. 

Wenger must accept that he might have to extend beyond his comfort zone this summer. If he is struggling to identify appropriate targets, he may have to relax his parameters. 

Trond Tandberg/Getty Images

That’s not to say he shouldn’t be encouraged by what he saw against Viking. Speaking to the Arsenal website, he admitted he had been impressed with the speed of Arsenal’s play:

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What was very pleasing was that we played at the pace we wanted to play and we were very quick. Our collective game was very good and we were able to give confidence to all the players.

[...]

I’m also very pleased with the focus, the dedication and the unity of the group. I look at that a lot and also how good the spirit is because we know that will be vital in the Premier League and we need to be strong mentally. How united we behave, how much we take care of every detail when it comes to performing will be vital.

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Those are good qualities to be demonstrating at this stage in preparation. There was also an excellent 90 minutes from Santi Cazorla. Having the Spaniard back in the midfield ranks is a huge boost.

Talking about the diminutive playmaker, Wenger told the club website:

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It’s the first time he’s played 90 minutes for a long, long time because he’s basically been out since November. He played the last game of the season and 90 minutes today. Let’s see how he recovers from that. Of course we need him back in good shape. He’s a pleasure to watch, especially when it’s a demonstration like tonight. He’s one of the few players that you don’t know whether they’re right or left footed. It’s good that he came through well.

"

The manager will also be pleased with the contribution of some of the squad’s younger players. The likes of Alex Iwobi and Chuba Akpom are enjoying excellent pre-seasons that suggest they could play a part in the senior squad next term.

However, Arsenal need some more seasoned players if they are to sustain a title challenge. It’s one thing to be encouraged by a player like Akpom—it’s quite another to be convinced.

Bringing in a new player might be a gamble, but relying on a young talent with limited first-team experience remains a bigger risk.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and will be following the club from a London base throughout 2016/17. Follow him on Twitter here.