Online Reporter
LONDON. − Hours after the January transfer window closed, Mikel Arteta staunchly defended Arsenal’s policy NOT to bring in attacking reinforcements.
First, the Gunners boss claimed the decision was NO gamble, despite seeing Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka struck down with long-term injuries and Kai Havertz his only fit centre forward.
Pushed on whether Havertz could now play every game for the rest of the season without a rest, Arteta said yes, gushing over the German’s robustness and labelling him a ‘genetic powerhouse’.
On the failed recruitment push, the Arsenal gaffer added in his February 4 press conference: “We are disappointed, but we have to move on. Nobody knows whether it is better to have done it or not. We’ll know at the end of the season.”
Eight days later, and Arteta already has his answer: It was an unmitigated, disastrous decision − one that sees the rest of their campaign teetering on the edge of collapse. Costly is an understatement.
Havertz − that physical specimen of a man who looks after himself properly − tore his harmstring during a training session on the club’s mid-season warm-weather retreat to Dubai this week.
t is very unlikely we will see Havertz, 25, again in an Arsenal shirt until the 2025/26 season begins.
The Middle East has often been a venue to trigger an upturn in form, with a trip there in January 2024 almost spurring Arsenal to the Prem title only to be pipped on the final day by Manchester City.
Now, it must be the place of nightmares for Arteta, his charge to catch Prem leaders Liverpool and progress in the Champions League resting at the feet of his THREE remaining fit options: Leandro Trossard, 17-year-old Ethan Nwaneri and disappointing summer loan signing Raheem Sterling.
With Gabriel Martinelli also expected to be out for at least a month with a hamstring strain, Arteta must survive for three months with NO recognised centre forward. − The Sun
