Opening a door, closing a window

Well, well, well it was a busy old day at the Emirates on transfer day. I bet Arsene's cheque book didn't know what had hit it. Pat and Gilles must have been working overtime in the old get away van. All in all I'm pretty impressed with our dealings. Park Chu-Young or as he shall forever be known thanks to be predictive text - Paul Chu Young seems a sensible and solid signing. Experience? Check- he's south Korea's national captain. Reinforcement in a vulnerable position? Check- We've had finishing issues of late and have shall we say a history of frailty in that position. Next comes a pair of much needed reinforcements. Andre Santos at left-back, who once again has plenty of national team experience, having just played at the Copa America. Also it's a postion that needs reinforcing as Clichy has departed and Kieran Gibbs seems to be made out of glass. And then the big one. The much needed centre half. And what a big one he is. Six foot six of Bremen captaining, national team lynchpinning German engineering. Beautiful. Nice move Prof. I wasn't massively thrilled about Yossi Benayoun but you can't argue with how much top level Premier League experience the guy has. Then we were all thinking this is great but we're still missing something, a certain sunny western European je ne sais quoi, soemthing cultured, sophisticated, something that maybe has a way with free kicks. Then lo and behold with about ten minutes to go, it happened. The missing piece began to click in. Mikel Arteta is coming. Yes. THAT is precisely the kind of something we all want. So maybe that heavy loss might not have been so bad if it's triggered this lovely rebuilding right here. I for one am VERY excited to see how this goes. Plus its so fun to have to keep track of deadline day for once, its normally boring for gooner.