Arsenal: Patience Is The Name of The Game

I am sure that every Arsenal fan right about now is frustrated—frustrated that Arsene Wenger hasn't been able to make one "official signing" and that all the players who are at the club seem to be wanting a move away from us.

We're a club which seems to be in constant transition especially after the departure of Patrick Vieira. For whatever reason that may be, (Henry wanting to "win" more titles fast, Ljungberg's injuries, Pires wanting more than a one-year deal, etc.) I feel that we have done really well to cope with the departures.

I was talking to one of my friends, who supports Manchester United and putting forth my case that Arsenal is a team which needs time—the departures per year seem to be increasing and that I didn't expect that to happen this year.

Then, I saw the next day that Flamini has moved and Hleb has demanded a transfer.

The friend called me after he saw the news and asked me, "So, looking forward to another season of transition? Two key players are set to leave—again!"

Flamini is a player who has had one good season—ONE. Hleb, for all his silky skills and ball control has contributed eleven goals and fourteen assists in his three seasons at Arsenal—I think Fabregas out shone his performances of three seasons in the 2007/08 season alone!

The impact of Flamini moving will be far more than Hleb moving. I know that every other fan goes on about how "we're losing our creative midfielder," but the statistics speak for themselves.

Arsene Wenger took us—a club which was languishing in mid-table mediocrity and turned us into championship material. He brought in all sorts of players from god-knows where and most of them succeeded. That has always been the case with Arsene Wenger and everybody knows this.

So, why the sudden need for a "star player?"

A star player will hurt the egos of the youngsters at Arsenal. I'm sure that all of us, at some point in time have bemoaned the fact that we're far too inexperienced - the irony is that the mistakes this season came from the two "stalwarts" at the back—Toure and  Gallas.

They are probably more responsible than anybody else in the team for conceding goals right after we scored in key matches.

When the press started rolling in the reports about Samir Nasri, all of us thought, "Well, he looks like a good player—I hope we get him." Then, when Wenger was asked about Nasri, he said that he was interested.

In a totally un-related quote in that interview, he said that signing French players was tough now because the wage-differences are lesser. What does the press do?

They put two and two together to criticize Arsenal's "rigid-wage policy" for the "failure to sign Nasri" (we pay the third highest wages in the Premier League, I may add) and what's more?

I see the Arsenal fans criticizing Wenger for the same!

I've always admired Wenger and the way he works. Maybe he should have made one signing in January but nobody in the world expected Eduardo to get injured like the way he did or Robin van Persie to come back as late as he did.

Wenger's only human.

Last season, when we sold Henry—everybody thought that Arsenal were finished. I saw a few reports saying that we would finish in a mid-table position.

Well, I think that our performances spoke louder than words to make those writers look like fools.

After we sold Henry we bought two players—Bacary Sagna and Eduardo da Silva. Everyone then asked, "why a right-back when we have Eboue?" Again, we all know the answer to this question today.

As for Eduardo, up until February, he had scored twelve goals in all competitions.

So, my simple suggestion is that if you want Arsenal to sign David Villa or Ronaldinho—go play Football Manager. That is the closest you would ever see either of them at Arsenal!

Let Arsene work his magic. I think that if you're a true Arsenal fan, you would still have faith in Wenger and in the fact that Arsenal will challenge for honours next season.

At the end of the day, patience is a virtue and if you don't have this virtue—well, you are better off supporting some other club—not Arsenal.