Arsene Wenger would be negligent not to reinforce Arsenal’s midfield in last days of January window

COMMENT
By Wayne Veysey

If ever Arsene Wenger needed a nudge in the direction of the Arsenal safe, it came with the setback in Jack Wilshere’s rehabilitation from ankle surgery.

Wenger may have been unforthcoming on Friday about the latest brutal example of Arsenal’s seemingly never-ending struggle to get all their best players on the pitch at the same time.

But it has inadvertently provided the notoriously frugal manager with irrefutable evidence that he needs to identify a reliable central midfielder, grab the company credit card and spend some of the £55 million (€65.5m) nestled snugly in the club’s bank account.

Of course, world-class playmakers aren’t hanging around waiting idly for potential employers to flutter their eyelashes with less than four days to go before the end of the transfer window.

But Arsenal can live without recruiting an A-list instigator of attacks and protector of a vulnerable defence. B-list would do absolutely fine. Another Mikel Arteta, who is not quite out of the top drawer, but certainly the one below, would do the job.

It is not an exaggeration to suggest that the club’s Champions League status could depend upon it.

Setback for Jack | Wilshere’s rehabilitation from ankle surgery has gone off course

For Arsenal, 2011-12 is all about finishing in the top four. The end of the six-season trophy drought would be wonderful. An FA Cup triumph or against-the-odds Champions League success would be an eye-of-the-needle pass through the heart of the club’s growing army of critics. But Wenger, the great Europhile, recognises that the bread and butter is Champions League qualification.

The Frenchman’s stores of goodwill with the board are such he is unlikely to lose his job should Arsenal end the season with their nose pressed up against the glass of the room accommodating Europe’s elite. But his pride is such that he would in all likelihood walk away from the club to whom he has given the best years of a glittering career.

We have seen enough of Wenger’s caution over the years to predict that he will feel the answer to Wilshere’s setback, which could conceivably keep him out for the rest of the season, lies in the current squad.

“We have seen enough of Wenger’s caution over the years to predict that he will feel the answer to Wilshere’s setback lies in the current squad“

However, the evidence to the contrary is almost overwhelming. Aaron Ramsey looks flat on his feet, Arteta and Alex Song are running out of petrol and the likes of Francis Coquelin and on-loan Emmanuel Frimpong need to learn to walk elsewhere before running in the first team. Abou Diaby has become a question rather than an answer and Thomas Rosicky looked so unsuited to central midfield in the Manchester United defeat that it was a wonder he was not wearing an ‘L’ plate.

Wenger has known since August that Wilshere would miss two-thirds of the season. It is mainly why he bought Arteta for £10m (€11.9m), an extravagant sum by the Frenchman’s standards.

But the accomplished Spaniard and Yossi Benayoun, the other midfielder who was part of the eleventh-hour summer window recruitment, are hardly adequate replacements for three-fifths of last season’s midfield, featuring Wilshere, Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. And even that team fell apart horribly in the final three months of the season.

Arsenal badly need backup to Robin van Persie up front. But an even bigger priority is someone to complement and compete with first-choice midfield trident Song, Arteta and Ramsey.

Even had the final stages of Wilshere’s rehabilitation run smoothly, Arsenal would hardly have had an embarrassment of riches in the midfield battleground.

It would be negligent of Wenger to allow the clock to strike 11pm on Tuesday without the Arsenal fax machine whirring into action with a contract ready for a new midfielder to put his name to.

His team needs reinforcement. Badly. There is money to spend, too. Plenty of it. Arsene knows, we are told. In that case, he will know what to do.

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