Arsenal create noise by silence

Like a battle-weary soldier I muster my last strength for another refresh of NewsNow… “Angry Wenger hits out”, “Is Gazidis Next in the Firing Line?”, “Gunners Have a Badly Stocked Armoury”, “Testing Times for Depleted Arsenal”.  Hang on, that’s not football talk, that’s war talk!  It is truly a battleground.  The volleys are flying, the shots are raining goalwards, the enemies abound.  Arsenal are at war with insanity and the world is teetering.

Two weeks remain left to run before the transfer window shuts out the light, leaving us trapped inside and bracing for the vampires.  We’ve been through this before, but never has the hostility been so intense, not just from the usual agenda-fuelled editors, but more so from the venom of our own soldiers, shooting each other in a sly moment of delusion.

As ever, I remain positive, assuming that within those eternal two weeks the master will find his stroke.  You have to doubt that the answer will be as brand-name-inspiring as we hope, but I remain 99% sure it will come.  Make that 98%.  Why then is there such a screeching disparity between my view and the rest?  It’s the silence that’s making the noise.

The Arsenal management are caught between the shout and the stare.  No doubt they have said they’re working hard, Gazidis declaring he works his evenings away, but the words have fallen to the ground like Neo’s dodged bullets.  Apart from actually sealing the signings and announcing them on dotcom, so many of us would just love an indication that the club does actually have one hundred percent intention to fill the gaps in the team.  The fear is that they’ll simply not sign anyone – it’s a genuine fear.  And Wenger does nothing to lessen those fears when he uses words like “maybe”.

If the club are in fact in negotiations, what evidence do we have to that effect?  What we’re doing now is refreshing NewsNow every 120 seconds and reading tit-bits from what we hope to be credible sources – Daily Mail, Telegraph, Guardian, Tribal Football, Sky Sports.  If they’re to be believed, Arsenal are bidding well below market value, stoking the furnace of fury.  If the club are indeed negotiating aggressively and efficiently, like the pro-brigade believe, the club remain mute to that effect.

The question is: can they afford to elaborate on their deals?  Talk Sport referenced the supposed Chelsea deal for Mata, with the guest illustrating how the publicity surrounding Arsenal’s chase of the player is what alerted Chelsea’s interest, illustrating the club’s desire for silence on their deals.  I’m not sure Chelsea are that clueless about the available market, maybe they are, but I do believe there’s an element of truth to the story.

Everton’s chairman earned the club a level of praise this week for coming out with a simple honesty about the club’s ability to secure funds for players.  I can guarantee you that the statement earned the club some leeway.  I tell you what I would love: for Arsene to come out and hang up another club’s dirty laundry for once.  If a club like Bordeaux short-changed us on the Chamakh deal after agreeing a price, I’d love for Wenger to state what actually happened, and why we pulled out of a deal which would have helped Arshavin out of his pig-in-the-middle role.

The honest truth?  The haters would still hate.  There is a culture in some parts of the world, where when something goes wrong, it is always plainly someone’s fault.  When your club don’t win the title, it’s the fault of the manager, or the injuries, or the referees, or the rubbish down the lane, or the media, or the board, or the owners.  This all means that 19 clubs are in error.  It’s much like poor Sir Bobby Robson at Newcastle, holding the great club away from its right to top 4 and the title challenge – you’ll be aware of the aftermath of his sacking.

Arsenal could hang out the dirty laundry and become the tabloid we wish, but in truth, their job is to win the title.  It won’t shut everyone up, but it would help.