How Arsenal Might Have Better Spent the £42.5M Mesut Ozil Money

Arsenal shattered their transfer record on the final day of the summer 2013 window with the blockbuster £42.5 million purchase of Mesut Ozil.

He struggled at first to settle into the team. Maligned by fitness issues and a niggling illness, he did not immediately develop relationships with his teammates.

Yet even after Ozil appeared for several weeks as a regular fixture in the team, he failed to really cohere. He did not influence games as much as someone would expect a £42.5 million player to.

While people often reflexively decry Ozil for going totally absent in games, especially big ones, he did put in some great performances during his first season. But they were far too intermittent, and his malaise continued past whatever can be considered a reasonable grace period.

Some new signings, especially those who come from foreign leagues, take a season to acclimate to the Premier League. Robert Pires is the classic example. But even after Ozil returned for his second season in North London, he could not seem to find any sort of solid footing.

Inexplicably shunted to the left wing by Arsene Wenger, he was totally unable to impose himself on games or create anything in a clogged midfield.

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The best players, though, would find a way to make things happen. Ozil, however, wilted. It will be interesting to see how Wenger works him back in after he returns from a lengthy knee injury.

It is important to note that the question is how, not if. His indifferent form throughout his Arsenal career would land most any other player on the bench (despite Wenger's incredible faith in his players), but Ozil literally always starts when fit.

Given the dichotomy of that obduracy and Ozil's anonymity, it's naturally worth wondering if Arsenal could have spent the massive sum they shelled out to purchase him a bit differently.

While the Gunners were questioned at the time for buying an attacking midfielder when they obviously had pressing needs in other areas of the pitch, Wenger recognized of the need for more talent in that area.

Arsenal would, however, have been much better served by reinforcing a couple other keystone positions first.

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They actually needed another center-back last season, too, despite the fact that they already had three—count 'em, three—senior central defenders. Thomas Vermaelen was not going to stay longer than a season, and Arsenal were lucky that their lack of defensive depth was not exposed.

The Gunners would have been set up quite well for the captain's departure had they purchased someone young and good to apprentice—or even saved that money until this summer and gotten someone who could plug the massive leaks in their defense.

Then there is the fabled defensive midfielder that has been rumored to be coming to the Emirates for years but has never actually arrived. Arsenal need a dynamic, physically imposing player at the back who has positional discipline and is able to distribute the ball as adroitly as Mikel Arteta.

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Such players do not come cheaply, but this is where the largest part of the £42.5 million should have gone. While Javi Martinez would have been nice (and, somewhat justifiably, blown the entire transfer kitty), a more modest signing like Morgan Schneiderlin or Lars Bender would have exponentially improved the team.

With more depth in defense and a much more solid foundation at the foot of midfield, Wenger could then have turned his attention to purchasing a striker. Because it's always advisable to have more than one of those in a team.

Just as Wenger does not seem to have gotten the memo this season that one needs more than two central defenders to see one through a season, he did not understand that Olivier Giroud could not shoulder the attacking burden by himself.

No wonder, then, that the Frenchman was utterly exhausted by February and was only productive for the first quarter to third of the season.

If the Gunners limited themselves to a very modest center-back and a good-enough defensive midfielder, they certainly could have signed someone in Danny Welbeck's price and quality echelon.

Imagine how much Arsenal's trajectory would have been altered last year if they actually had a productive attacking focal point for the entire season. This and the two crucial aforementioned upgrades would have brought Arsenal on par with Manchester City and Liverpool.

Interestingly, two of the three personnel problems still remain. Take note, Mr. Wenger.

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