World Football Report Cards: Grading Arsenal's Activity in the Summer Window

If you're a regular follower of my articles, then you may remember that earlier in August, I went through the 20 biggest clubs in Europe and graded each and every club's transfers in and transfers out, before assigning a final overall grade.

Now that the transfer window has closed until January and most players have had the opportunity to play with their teammates or at least know where they fit in their new team's plans, I've decided to go back through all 20 clubs I reviewed in August and assign new final grades on each club's transfer activity.

The format will be as follows: Each day, starting today, September 1, and ending September 12, I will be publishing "report cards" for two of the teams I reviewed in August. The schedule should look like this:

September 1: Tottenham Hotspur

September 3: Arsenal

September 4: Liverpool and Chelsea

September 5: Manchester City and Manchester United

September 6: Lyon and Marseille

September 7: Paris Saint-Germain and Lille

September 8: Juventus and Napoli

September 9: Milan and Inter Milan

September 10: Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund

September 11: Bayer Leverkusen and FC Porto

September 12: Real Madrid and Barcelona

Stay tuned and enjoy!

Transfers In: B+

Transfers In: RB Carl Jenkinson, RW Gervinho, RW Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, CM Jon Toral, ST Hector Bellerin, ST Joel Campbell, ST Park Chu-Young, LB Andre Santos, CB Per Mertesacker, CM Mikel Arteta (AM Yossi Benayoun on loan)

A very mixed bag of transfers came about as a result of the need for fresh blood following the late departures of Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas.

On the plus side, the transfers of Gervinho, Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta all look likely to heavily improve the quality of the current Arsenal starting lineup. Though there are concerns about Mertesacker's speed, his physicality and experience will prove vital to leading Arsenal in the right direction. Mikel Arteta and Gervinho are loaded with creativity, and though Mikel Arteta has a reputation for being injury-prone, he has generally proven to be a remarkable player when on the pitch, and should find his top-form again if he can stay healthy.

On the not-so-plus side, there are big question marks surrounding the acquisitions of Park Chu-Young, Yossi Benayoun and Andre Santos. As Allan Jiang discusses here, Andre Santos was never really that great at Fenerbahce or in his appearances for Brazil. It's hard to label the move a complete mistake as none of Arsenal's left-backs, including the oft-injured Kieran Gibbs, look ready to step up and fill the void left by Gael Clichy. But the question that must then be asked is whether or not it was really wise to let Clichy go for the poor amount of only £7 million, when he has been a key part of Arsenal's defense for so many years and continues to be greatly missed. I would not rate Santos as an improvement over Clichy.

Then come Park Chu-Young and Yossi Benayoun. Are these guys really the type of quality Arsenal wants to be putting out regularly? Park Chu-Young, while a great player for South Korea, comes in with huge doubts about whether or not he can be the next Park Ji-Sung, while Yossi Benayoun, at 31 years old, is nothing more than a second Rosicky. While I do love that Wenger did make signings, I can't quite see how Benayoun really improves our team, while Chu-Young is just a huge question that won't be answered till he plays.

Finally, there are the "typical" Wenger signings; Oxlade-Chamberlain finally signed after months of courting from Arsenal, Toral and Bellerin were snatched up from Barcelona's academy and Joel Campbell signed from Saprissa in Costa Rica and has been sent on loan to Lorient. Nothing to be said here; Oxlade-Chamberlain may play a role as a sub in the coming season, but likely will continue to develop along with rest of the youngsters at Arsenal for the future.

Transfers Out: C

Transfers Out: GK Jens Lehmann (Retired), LB Gael Clichy, AM Jay-Emmanuel Thomas, CM Cesc Fabregas, AM Samir Nasri, RB Emmanuel Eboue, LB Armand Traore, ST Gilles Sunu (plus a whole host of loans)

Many people will say that the grade here is too harsh on Arsenal considering both Fabregas and Nasri seemed determined to leave. Let me explain.

The grade given here actually doesn't have much to do with Cesc Fabregas. Of course, if Arsenal had maybe won a couple trophies over the last six years, then there would've been a much higher chance of Arsenal retaining Cesc Fabregas. But at the end of the day, Arsenal did everything they could to keep Fabregas without going against his will; he just wanted to go home and play with the people he grew up with. Unfortunately for Arsenal, there's not much they could've done that they didn't do.

Nasri is a different story; Arsenal completely mishandled his situation. At first, he just wanted more money, and in today's world, a player like Nasri easily deserves to make the £110,000 he was reportedly demanding. When Arsenal wouldn't budge, it allowed Manchester City and Manchester United to make their interest in the player known, and suddenly it became an issue of ambition for Nasri, as it looked more and more likely that Nasri would move on from Arsenal.

But remarkably, Nasri ended up starting Arsenal's second game, and reports swirled all over the world that Nasri was reconsidering a move away from Arsenal. However, the nail in the coffin was struck in Arsenal's abysmal performance against Liverpool, in which Arsenal struggled to get enough able bodies on the field, let alone get any real dangerous play going. After that, Nasri re-reconsidered his decision to move and decided to make the move to Manchester City.

Beyond Nasri and Fabregas, some of Arsenal's other sales also aren't the best. Armand Traore, at only 21 years old, was sold for peanuts to QPR, and the purchase of Andre Santos hasn't really given Arsenal much of an upgrade in the position. I've already talked about how poor the transfer of Gael Clichy was, and Eboue could've arguably been retained until January, given that Carl Jenkinson is still very young and doesn't look ready to be regularly active at the highest level.

Overall Grade: B-

After building up his team for years, it seems Arsene Wenger will be starting a brand-new project in 2011-12. The signings of Gervinho, Per Mertesacker and Mikel Arteta signal the end of Arsene Wenger's youth-only policy and indicates that Arsene Wenger may try to go for an experienced players-youth player combination going forward.

Ultimately, this transfer window has been a huge disappointment for Arsenal fans. At the start of the summer, and even midway through the summer, very few Arsenal fans expected both Nasri and Fabregas to be sold. The loss of Clichy as well meant that Arsenal lost three of their best first-team starters.

It is hoped that Gervinho, Mikel Arteta and Per Mertesacker will make the loss of Nasri and Fabregas a lot less felt, but there are definitely many other issues in Arsenal's starting lineup that need to be addressed. One such issue is the lack of a true center forward in recent games. With Robin Van Persie and Theo Walcott keeping themselves out of the middle and not being very effective in the air, Arsenal's crosses go unmet far too frequently.

As has been said very frequently in recent times, this is likely to be Arsene Wenger's hardest year on the job yet.

Thoughts?

What do you think?

Do you believe that the grades are too harsh on Arsenal? Maybe too lenient? Do you believe there are some players Arsenal should've pursued with greater intensity or players Arsenal has retained that should've been sold?

Also, I'd love to hear your predictions on where you think Arsenal will finish in the 2011-12 season based on its transfer acquisitions and sales. I, personally, believe Arsenal can expect to finish fifth with the strengthening they've done this summer, though had Juan Mata joined or Nasri been retained, I'd probably have given Arsenal an outside shot at fourth.

Looking forward to hearing your opinions and reading your comments!