The Premier League Panel: Should Arsenal have signed a striker in January?

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Who spent wisely this winter - and who got it all wrong? From Arsenal to Manchester United and Newcastle to Ipswich, our expert panel runs the rule over the transfer window.

Transcript

00:00Hello, I'm Matthew Gregory and welcome back to the Premier League panel.

00:07This week, we're going to take a look at the transfer window and try to figure out

00:11who made the smartest signings and who spent their money in all the wrong ways.

00:15To help me pick through the bones of over £370m worth of transfers, I'm joined as

00:20always by an expert panel, London World Football Reporter Dylan Oakley is here, as is freelance

00:25journalist Mark Carruthers.

00:27Dylan, it is one of the busiest January transfer windows in recent memory, but I wanted to

00:31start by asking you about a team that didn't sign anyone at all.

00:35Arsenal seemed set to go all out for a striker, but ended up drawing a blank despite a bit

00:40of a late £60m bid for Ole Watkins.

00:43Dylan, that offer for Watkins either seemed naively optimistic or deeply half-hearted,

00:49so what were they thinking?

00:51It's a strange one, because everybody knows that they need a striker.

00:56They know that they need a striker.

00:58It's no secret, you know, and the bid for Watkins, look, it would have been a fantastic

01:03signing had they managed to land Ole Watkins, but it just seemed like a bit of a nothing

01:09bid in the sense of, especially straight after Villa had sold John Duran as well, there was

01:14no way they were going to then sell Ole Watkins too.

01:17I think maybe had they worked to put a bid in early in the transfer window, possibly

01:24there would have been more chance of it happening and Villa could have kept Duran, but I really

01:28didn't understand it in terms of, there were other options for them to go after striker-wise.

01:33I mean, they were linked with Kunja from Wolves.

01:35I think that probably would have been a more realistic bid, but then obviously he signed

01:39a new contract, which didn't help.

01:42They could have probably signed Maffizatel on loan as well.

01:45Obviously, he went to Spurs, but just as a solution to the end of the season, if they

01:50didn't want to make a big permanent transfer move, personally, I think they're probably

01:55waiting for the likes of Benjamin Sesco in the summer transfer window, but it did seem

02:02a bit disappointing from an Arsenal perspective because Liverpool are in a fantastic position

02:08in the title race this year, but a couple of slip-ups, if Arsenal were to keep picking

02:14up wins and wins and wins, there's no reason why they wouldn't necessarily be able to capitalise

02:18on that.

02:19I just think it was just a bit of a half-hearted effort, as you say, with the Watkins bid and

02:25just completely disappointing, I think, from an Arsenal perspective.

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