Once again Jim White of Sky Sports News can pack away that yellow tie, for the next 5 months at least. Another Transfer Deadline day has passed. Sky’s on site reporters can live without the fear of unruly fans shouting <insert generic sexually explicit quote> at them or prodding them in the face with what looked like a large purple vibrating sausage to the more naive of us. As per usual the day didn’t quite live up to the hype that precedes it, not that it ever could. But there were still newsworthy transfer dealings aplenty. Focussing mainly on a tail of two strikers.
After creating a boatload of chances against newly promoted Leicester City and only coming away with a draw, it should come as no surprise that Arsenal were one of the teams looking for one of these strikers. To say that the jury is still out on Yaya Sonogo and Joel Campbell is an understatement and with Olivier Giroud ruled out for the next few months reinforcements were needed. What came as much more of a surprise was that Manchester United were the other side involved in a transfer deadline day striker chase.
United acted fast, allowing Javier Hernández to leave for Real Madrid on loan and agreeing a deal with Monaco to bring in Radamel Falcao in a similar year long deal. Even though it took the whole day (and then some!) for United to finally complete the deal the bulk of their negotiations seemed to come while the day was still young. And Arsenal benefited too, signing United striker Danny Welbeck in the wake of the Falcao deal. But who was the real winner here?
In a straight contest between Welbeck and Falcao, it doesn’t seem to be that close of a contest. Welbeck is seen by some as a promising prospect, even as he approaches his 24th birthday. But, despite his impressive physical attributes, his inability to actually put the ball in the back of the net has always been used as a stick with which to beat him. Emile Heskey and Cameron Jerome are also impressive athletes without being natural goal scorers and, without meaning disrespect to either, you wouldn’t hear them mentioned in the same breath as Radamel Falcao too often.
Falcao is a goal scoring machine, having managed 155 goals in 200 games since moving to Europe. He has looked impressive during his time in Portugal with FC Porto, in Spain with Atletico Madrid and France with Monaco. There’s no reason why he won’t taste similar success in England as well, who would bet against him? But, despite all of these impressive accolades, it’s Arsenal who have done the better business in my opinion.
Woah, what’s with all the hostility United fans!? Hear me out. United started this season with one glaring problem. They had a manager with a determination to play three at the back and just three established centre backs on their books. With injuries taken into account they have supplemented their defence with the young players they have coming through and this has contributed to their poor start to the season.
Maybe you don’t win anything with kids after all? United have brought in Marcos Rojo, a left back who can also play in the centre of defence, and that will help. But they were still crying out for defensive reinforcements and Falcao is unlikely to slot effortlessly into their back three.
United are short of a wing back to play on the right as well. Again, not much Falcao or their other marquee signing, Ángel Di Maria, can do about that. Falcao is a truly phenomenal striker, but to think he can solve the problems of a team that already had Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie is as naive as thinking that it was a large purple vibrating sausage that we saw on Sky Sports News on Monday.
Arsenal on the other hand, well they’ve brought in a player who is tailor made for them. They needed that imposing presence up front. Someone who can hold up the ball and link up with their already talented midfield, many of which already know their way to goal. If played through the centre for an extended period of time, like he wasn’t at United, it’s possible that Welbeck will rediscover the goal scoring touch that he showed early in his career. If he doesn’t then he will still perform a valuable role for Arsenal in a position that they were severely lacking in before this week.
Wenger one, van Gaal nil so far. United will be a force to be reckoned with in attack this season but their defensive frailties are such that it is hard to imagine them finishing above Arsenal this season. What will make that even more disappointing for United fans is that they clearly had the resources to make sure that wasn’t the case. They are a side who are probably just too top heavy and we may find in time that the excitement around players like Falcao and Di Maria was just papering over the cracks.