Arsenal sweated until beyond the final minutes of the transfer window to complete a deal to sign Danny Welbeck for £16m from Manchester United. The paperwork for the England forward was being processed with the Premier League after the 11pm deadline, which concluded a strained and curious day in the life of Arsenal Football Club.
Arsène Wenger was not in the country as the deal began to take shape, which put bizarre extra pressure on a day designed to be intense. He was in Rome, coaching a team in the Interreligious Match for Peace at the Stadio Olimpico organised by the Pope (his team lost 6-3), as back at the Arsenal training ground in Hertfordshire the club’s negotiators were pulling out the stops to bolster one of the areas of the team in dire need of reinforcements.
The arrival of Welbeck offers a pacy alternative to boost a forward line that has looked underpowered while Alexis Sánchez adapts to a new role in English football and Yaya Sanogo ineffectively fills in for the injured Olivier Giroud. Arsenal’s supporters had made their feelings clear after watching attacks fizzle out at Leicester on Sunday, with entreaties to sign a striker. That player turned out to be the 23-year-old Welbeck, who it is hoped will emulate the renaissance experienced by Daniel Sturridge when he left the Chelsea periphery for a central role and the responsibility he relishes at Liverpool.
Although Arsenal initially contemplated a loan deal, Welbeck was interested only in a permanent move. Once the wheels began to whirr on Manchester United’s move for Radamel Falcao, with Welbeck told he could leave Old Trafford, the route south became a serious option. Manchester United were disinclined to sell to a direct rival, and Tottenham were also in the mix, but Welbeck’s preference was to go to the Emirates because of the Champions League football on offer.
Wenger has been trying to build a young British core at the club and now adds Welbeck to the group that includes Theo Walcott, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Kieran Gibbs and Calum Chambers. The prospect of the speed of Walcott and Welbeck, alongside the darts of Sánchez, could have a liberating effect on last summer’s deadline day signingMesut Özil, who requires runners to aim his steady supply of assists at.
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