What constitutes a successful signing? Is it the number of goals they score, the assists they make, the clean sheets they keep? Or, is it, in fact, the impact they have on the fans? The probable truth is that the status of every signing is nuanced and varies in the mind of each individual fan. We all have our own opinions on whether we rate a player or not. I can think of a few Arsenal players I’ve watched over the years who I didn’t rate at all yet the general consensus over player x was that he was a particularly good player more often than not.
We have the signings whom everyone rates, the Ødegaards and Bergkamps of this world, and then we have the Nicolas Pépés and the Mustafis whom we prefer to block out of our memories because remembering their performances makes you want to eat a sack of cement. But there is a category of signings that carries more nuance and perhaps polarises opinion among the Goonerverse. This is what we will be exploring today.
I suppose when determining the success of each signing there are a few factors we ought to consider. Perhaps the most important is the price tag. When you make any transaction, you are looking for value for money. On the surface, a new winger who scores ten goals a season would appear to be a decent signing. But when this winger cost £72 million then you want a bit more than that. I suppose some players become a victim of their own price tag which I’d imagine is difficult for them to accept because no player decides not decide his own price tag. But football is football and business is business. The two are very much intertwined.
But enough waffle. Let’s get down to it. The first player we will be looking at is the Gallic God, Olivier Giroud. Now I’m sure many of you, namely CER, will be thinking “21CG, what are you smoking? Of course, Giroud was a successful signing!” and I completely understand that POV. He is certainly an interesting player to dissect and truthfully, I do think Giroud was exceptionally good at what you’d expect him to be good at. His hold up and link up play was excellent; he was a huge threat in the air and his highlights reel will demonstrate that he was the scorer of a number of outrageously good goals. I suppose we better look at the numbers which tell us the Handsome French Bastard notched 105 goals in 253 appearances. That works out at roughly a goal every 2.4 games. So, no disgrace certainly but I don’t feel that would be enough for a club which supposedly had title aspirations. Giroud cost around £10 million to bring in from Montpellier in 2012 which even then, in fairness, was not an obscene amount of money. But he did undeniably miss a lot of sitters (Monaco in 2015) and many of those would prove to cost us dear. He was not a 20 goal a season striker although I will concede he wasn’t a million miles off that mark.
With Giroud I always felt he would’ve been more effective as a 2nd choice striker, coming off the bench perhaps when we needed a goal, giving us a different outlet when we needed to pump balls into the box towards his magnificent barnet. Just imagine we had signed Aubameyang a couple of years before we did, and were able to utilise Giroud as an impact sub…
I strongly suspect that if that had materialised, there wouldn’t have been a Lestah “fairytale” in 2016 and it instead would’ve been us lifting number 14 with Giroud being praised to the heavens for his invaluable contribution to the cause. That would’ve been nice. I think with Giroud you must take the facts into account. Was he a prolific, clinical striker? Not especially. But has he not been effective for every side he has played for? Without a doubt. This is a player who has won trophies with every club he’s been at which I think often gets overlooked. Pre Arsenal, he won the Ligue one title with much unfancied Montpellier where he was the league’s top scorer. Quite a remarkable achievement it must be said. In N5 he won three FA Cups, assisting Ramsey’s winners in 2014 and 2017 as well as scoring against Villa in 2015. He won another FA Cup with Chelsea as well as both the Europa League and Champions League whilst at Stamford Hut. That does sting but you can’t knock it. He then won Serie A with Milan and then there is the small, insignificant World Cup victory with the French for whom he is remarkably their all-time record goal scorer. He is a player I have probably criticised more than most over the years, but his CV certainly contradicts many of my criticisms.
So, my Giroud Verdict? I must confess, when I began planning for this article and drew up the players I would be looking into, my first instinct was to place Giroud into the unsuccessful category. However, the more I have thought about it I have decided to change my mind. I said at the start of the article, value for money is the most important thing and with Giroud I believe we certainly got that. I think it’s possible many of my previous criticisms of him stem from the fact he went on to enjoy success with one of our biggest rivals which shouldn’t have a bearing on the success he had with us. No unconscious bias here. I do hope David Coote, Howard Webb and the rest of the merry men from PGMOL HQ are reading this. I digress. Whilst Giroud wasn’t exactly universally popular amongst the fan base, the majority appreciated the qualities he brought and over a century of goals in five and a half seasons, whilst winning a few trophies along the way has ensured that in the years and decades to come Giroud will likely be remembered quite fondly by most of the Arsenal family. You just can’t hate a man with a perfectly chiselled jawline and a head of hair so perfectly maintained it was enough to drive even Super Mik green with envy.
21CG verdict: Successful signing (just about)
The next man on the agenda is a player who perhaps polarised opinion amongst Arsenal fans like no other. A no-nonsense, (well there was a fair bit of self-inflicted nonsense from him in fairness) tough tackling, all action midfielder. I am of course referring to a certain Granit Xhaka. Signed from Borussia Monchengladbach for a hefty £35 million back in the sweet summer of ’16, Granit spent seven years in N5 before returning to the Bundesliga with Leverkusen the summer before last. He spent most of his years with us playing the deep lying 6 role, in which he often struggled at times. He developed a very unwelcome habit of giving the ball away in dangerous areas, a habit which often cost us. A real concern that Xhaka never really managed to shake off was his discipline. In 225 PL appearances, Xhaka was shown 4 red cards and 57 yellow cards. This equates to approximately a card every 3.6 games. In all fairness to Xhaka two of those reds came in his first season so he was only sent off twice in his final five seasons.
Interestingly, all his dismissals were straight reds. His first two were both alleged ‘studs up tackles’ in the opposition half, and if you watch them back, I think the majority of you would agree that most players would receive a booking and a booking only. I say “most players” because Xhaka arrived at the club with a reputation of a player with discipline issues. In 58 Bundesliga games for ‘Gladbach, Xhaka received 4 reds and 18 yellows which equates to a card every 2.6 games. That is quite a hefty record and one you would assume the club was aware of. However, I would say that if you watched Xhaka regularly, which we all did, you probably wouldn’t think he was a dirty player. The English media did seem to enjoy lambasting him, he was once branded a “brainless idiot” by none other than Gary Neville. Takes one to know one, eh Gary? This was clearly something that affected Granit. He was certainly a vocal character both on and off the pitch and in an interview, he hit back at the media pointing out that “this is football, not ballet.” I think he did have a point.
But the real low point of Xhaka’s time in N5 was surprisingly non card related. Upon his substitution in a home game vs Crystal Palace in October 2019, a game in which he was booed off by the fans, he hit back by quite blatantly telling us to f*k off. Not a great look but it wasn’t exactly unprovoked on Xhaka’s part. To make matters worse, he had recently been appointed club captain in the infinite wisdom of then gaffer, Unai Emery. He was quickly stripped of the captaincy and not seen for a number of weeks. A short while later, Unai was given his P45 and after a few weeks of Freddie interimming (don’t think that’s a real word and now I’ve typed it out I can see why), Super Mik came to Granit’s rescue. We don’t know exactly what Arteta said but we do know that Xhaka had his heart set on a move away (I seem to remember a move to Inter being on the cards at the time) and “his bags were packed”. But whatever Arteta said, it worked as Xhaka stayed and ahead of the 22/23 season, he was shifted further forwards into the left 8 position. We were not seeing the same Xhaka, this was clearly a completely reformed player. Xhaka’s new role helped him add goals to his game as well as being able to enhance the game of many of his teammates. By being moved up the pitch Xhaka’s lack of pace was less apparent and when he did give the ball away it tended to be in the final third as opposed to the edge of his own penalty area.
He turned things around to such an extent that many fans wanted him to stay on. Before his final game for the club, it was basically settled he was off to Leverkusen and his send off was quite remarkable. He scored a brace in a 5-0 win over Wolves and there were raucous chants of “Granit Xhaka, we want you to stay”, ringing round Ashburton Grove. He was clearly somewhat moved by the reception, but I think he’d had enough of London life and the vulturous, often repulsive English media. He never publicly apologised for his outburst, but I suppose his upturn in performances was kind of an apology. But was one exceptional season enough to make up for six very mixed and error strewn campaigns? I wouldn’t say so personally. And was his £35 million fee really value for money? For me it’s a ‘no’ but he’s far from the worst signing we’ve ever made. I never imagined being a little sad when he left and that’s testament to the strong-minded character of Granit Xhaka. He will always be welcome back in N5, but I remain scarred by some of his earlier performances and I don’t think I’m alone in that regard.
21CG verdict: unsuccessful signing but not a “flop”
Thirdly and finally, we have a mercurial talent, perhaps the last truly great number 10 in football, a former club record signing, I am of course talking about Mesut Özil. Again, in many people’s eyes, Özil’s Arsenal status requires no questioning given the ridiculous level of talent he possessed. This is certainly a player analysis that requires context and a certain amount of nuance to determine how successful Özil’s time with Arsenal really was. This is one I’m sure will spark a good deal of healthy debate in the drinks. Here we go.
First and foremost, I have been watching Arsenal for just over 15 years now and I’ve been a season ticket holder for 14 years, a privilege I certainly do not take for granted. I have seen some great players don the famous red and white strip in that time and in terms of pure talent, Mesut is the finest Arsenal player I’ve had the pleasure of watching in that time. He truly is one of the finest players we’ve ever had in 138 years of rich history and tradition. In total he was an Arsenal player for seven and a half years, but his final appearance came ten months before he departed so for the sake of fairness, I will call it seven years. Özil’s first two campaigns in North London provided plenty of evidence of his stupendous ability to pick a pass, we just didn’t see it often enough. I will put this down to adapting to the physicality and pace of the English game as well as adapting to a new country in which he was not initially comfortable with the language. But there’s nothing wrong with that and it certainly wasn’t down to a lack of effort despite what some of the troglodytes in the media said about his application. It was true that he had a languid running style which often made him look a bit lethargic when he actually covered more ground and made more sprints than most.
But it was Özil’s third season in which we finally saw the absolute best of him on a weekly basis. By the end of 2015, the German had amassed a staggering 16 PL assists with half the season to go. It looked for all the world that Özil was going to smash Henry’s record of 20 PL assists in a season. But Özil only accrued three more assists and ended the season on what was still a hugely impressive 19 assists. Unfortunately, our then annual February-March dip would prove fatal for our title challenge as we rather embarrassingly finished ten points behind plucky little Lestah in second place. Not that Özil’s performance levels dipped. He was still creating chances and key passes at an otherworldly high rate. I would argue it was down to the collectively poor finishing and downturn in form of the likes of Sanchez, Giroud and Walcott. But no one was in any doubt about the sheer quality of Mesut Özil.
Over the next couple of years Özil could generally be relied upon to perform at a high level consistently. 16/17 was his most fruitful season in front of goal and a good few times a season he would produce a goal/assist or a cheeky bit of skill that was so outrageous even the opposition couldn’t help but admire Özil’s elegance. His unique finish away to Ludogorets in the Champion’s League where he flicked the ball over the ‘keeper then sent two defenders for a Doner Kebab before passing the ball into an empty net and THAT performance at home to Lestah in 2018 were just two reminders of his class. And Özil also won four FA Cups playing in three finals, being an integral part of all those winning campaigns. He is indeed our most decorated player post Highbury.
But upon his bumper £350k a week new deal in January 2018, it seemed Özil’s magic was waning. His output levels decreased, and he seemed to let a lot of games pass him by with little influence. In fairness Özil was never the type of player to take a game by the scruff of the neck, that was more in Alexis’ ballpark. But those moments of magic he used to produce became increasingly few and far between. Shortly after Arteta’s arrival Covid hit and Özil was allegedly the only Arsenal player to refuse to take a 12.5% pay cut to help with the Club’s finances during that difficult period. He reportedly paid Gunnersaurus’ wages after the T-rex mascot was furloughed by Arsenal. (In fairness, if you’ve seen Gunnersaurus’ feeble attempts to save the Junior Gunner’s penalties at half time in every home game, you will understand why the club made that decision.) but Arteta deemed this to be an act worthy of exile from the first team squad. He did not appear for the first team following the resumption of the season and was not even registered for the Premier League or Europa League squads at the start of the 2020/21 season. Özil’s final Arsenal appearance proved to be the 1-0 win over West Ham on March 7th, 2020. Perhaps it was fitting that one of his final acts in an Arsenal shirt was to provide a cushioned headed assist for Lacazette to win the game. Mesut and the club came to the agreement to cancel his contract and pay out the rest of his wages as he departed meekly on a free transfer to Fenerbahçe in Turkey.
It was a sad and depressing end to Özil’s Arsenal career. He really ought to have achieved so much more with Arsenal. But despite that he will still look back on a career that saw him win cups in England and Germany and Spain, the La Liga title with Real Madrid and most notably, the 2014 World Cup with Germany in which he started every match for an exceptional Germany side where he was undoubtedly one of the players of the tournament. For me he was one of, if not the finest playmaker of the 2010’s. Perhaps his one regret was not achieving a league title with Arsenal and how his time with us ended. It was a sour end to what was ultimately a sweet and fruitful career for both club and country. It is no secret that Özil experienced his fair share of off the pitch controversies but we are assessing his footballing abilities and achievements here so it wouldn’t be fair to include these here.
Whilst Özil didn’t achieve as much as we had hoped or expected when we smashed our club record fee to sign him in 2013, I would argue that he provided us with enough magic to prove himself as a successful signing. If you had asked me two or three years ago, I almost certainly would’ve given you a quite different answer, but time is the most powerful healer of wounds as they say. Quite simply, I would’ve paid to watch Özil tie his shoelaces, he was that good. Perhaps the true marker of how good/successful a player is/was for your club is measured by how they make you feel when they play. Özil was a true joy to watch, and it was a pleasure to have him at Arsenal for the majority of his time in N5.
21CG verdict: successful signing but should’ve achieved more.
I hope this article filled an Arsenal shaped hole in yet another interminably dull Interlull, and I look forward to much healthy debate in the drinks below. You might agree with much of what I said, you might think I’ve been too harsh or lenient on certain players, all opinions are welcome. As always, happy reading and I hope this whets your appetite for the rollercoaster ride we will no doubt be embarking on starting on Saturday with a classic 3pm appointment with Nottingham Forest. Lastly, I would like to apologise for any Granit Xhaka related PTSD episodes my article may have caused you.
COYG!!!
