Hot on the heels of the Ospina transfer comes confirmation that Chambers has joined Arsenal from Southampton, for a fee of £11m, rising to £16m.
I must admit that I was surprised to learn that we were to sign another right-back, having already signed Debuchy, but the transfer makes more sense in the light of recent comments suggesting that he could be used at centre back, or defensive midfield, as well as at right back. After all, Chambers is tall and athletic, has Premier League experience, is British and, at just 19 years old, has the time and talent to become a major star of the future. The transfer does, however, raise serious questions about the future of Carl Jenkinson.
I feel that it's worth noting that this is the second transfer in the space of two days that Wenger has let slip before the official announcement on Arsenal.com. Firstly, on Saturday 26th July, Wenger is quoted by ESPN referring to competition between Szczesny and Ospina. The transfer was officially confirmed by Arsenal.com on Sunday 27th. Next, on Sunday 27th, Wenger is quoted in the Telegraph referring to the Chambers transfer before Arsenal.com's official confirmation the next day. So it seems that gone are the days of Arsenal's absolute secrecy surrounding transfer business and Arsenal.com is no longer the place where transfers are confirmed first.
But what does this tell us about the current state of things at the club? Arsenal News Review speculates here that Wenger now delegates the transfer dealings, just providing a list of targets for a separate team to work on signing. For me, this seems to be an overly-simplistic model, as there must be constant interaction between signings that are progressing well and future targets, as the collection of new signings need to complement each other. It is hard to imagine that Wenger is not involved in regularly reviewing the transfer dealings and influencing the next signing.
It had previously been considered that, by announcing the arrival of players prematurely, the completion of the transfer was being risked, with the possible last minute involvement of other clubs with more money. Wenger announcing two signings before the initial confirmation suggests that either he is no longer responsible for the transfer dealings and so is no longer motivated to keep them so secret, or that with the club's increased financial strength, there is no longer such a risk of big money clubs hi-jacking our transfer dealings. The momentum of big players joining Arsenal is increasing - players want to join Arsenal and we are now able to offer competitive transfer fees and wages.
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