Will the Last Gunner to Leave Please Turn Out the Lights?

 With a few hours to go in the transfer window, this is how it's gone:

Arsenal

In
Lino Sousa (West Brom)

Out
Harry Clarke (Hibernian) Loan
Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Roma) Loan
Folarin Balogun (Middlesbrough) Loan
Deyan Iliev (released)
Brooke Norton-Cuffy (Lincoln) Loan
Sead Kolasinac (Marseille) Free
Pablo Mari (Udinese) Loan
Karl Hein (Reading) Loan
Tyreece John-Jules (Sheff Wed) Loan
Calum Chambers (Aston Villa)
Ryan Alebiosu (Crewe Alexandra) Loan
Nikolaj Moller (FC Den Bosch) Loan

In addition, Aubamayang is rumored to be going to Barcelona.  While some of those loan departures above are young guys whose Arsenal careers may not be over (Balogun will almost certainly be in Arteta's plans for next year), many are not coming back.  Calum Chambers and Ainsley Maitland-Niles were once mainstays of the club, important and versatile squad players who contributed in important ways.  AMN was fantastic filling in at left back in our last FA Cup winning campaign, for instance.  Kolasinac was our starting left back for quite a few games.  Pablo Mari played CB for a while. The only addition is a 17 year old who will join the academy and play for the U18s.

We're light almost everywhere now.  We don't have a central striker that anyone is afraid of.  Our best mids are fine, but we don't have enough to cover for suspensions and injuries.  There's no credible backup for Tomiyasu at right back, especially now that Chambers was sold.  Our only spare central defender is Rob Holding.  The rest of this season looks as though it will be an exercise in doing more with less, which seldom works out well in sports.

There was talk of our picking up American GK Matt Turner from MLS, but it seems as though we and Leno are stuck with each other until the summer, when Turner is supposed to make the move.  Ramsdale is cemented in as our #1 going forward in all but shirt number.  (The on-loan Szczesny retained the number for Leno's first year so turnabout is fair play here.

The fans are scratching their heads.  Instead of making moves to improve our chances at European places, we're engaging in a concerted attempt to trim the wage bill.  I am not understanding this.