Is money still a problem, or is it Wenger?

[IBK]

Been a while since I've started a thread - mainly because there's been little new to say. But the events of the last week or so, combined with the debate over whether this team finally has what it takes, has got me thinking.

If I've judged the mood right the feeling is that while the Ozil transfer lifted the club and the players immensely following a lamentable transfer window, and Flamini has been a revelation - we are still at least 2 or 3 players away from making a genuine title challenge.

Chelsea highlighted this week that we simply don't have a second string team with the talent to take pressure off our first team regulars, and I am worried that the likes of Ramsey; Giroud and even Ozil are looking jaded already.

Many Arsenal fans would agree with all the pundits that our league position reflects our easy start, and that we are more likely than not to fall off once the going gets tougher.

Its impossible that Wenger, who not only has spent all these years in the Premiership and Europe, but has presided over what is almost certainly the most injury prone Premiership club of the last 5 years, does not appreciate the need to have a big, and strong squad. So why have we been left short? Does Wenger's spending on Ozil demonstrate conclusively that his unwillingness to spend big until this season was because of a genuine lack of funds?

Or are there still reasons to question the philosophy/ability of a manager who:

- Only pulled Ozil out of the bag following a clearly disastrous close season
- Only signed Flamini when he fell into his lap on a free
- Continues to overplay many of his players
- Seems to make no allowance for the fact that at least 3 key players will be injured at any given time

Is Wenger still being loyal to a club that is not in a position to 'do another Ozil' - or does he refuse to accept that modern football is as much about the numbers as it is about talent?

[Dein-machine]

Been a while since I've started a thread - mainly because there's been little new to say. But the events of the last week or so, combined with the debate over whether this team finally has what it takes, has got me thinking.

If I've judged the mood right the feeling is that while the Ozil transfer lifted the club and the players immensely following a lamentable transfer window, and Flamini has been a revelation - we are still at least 2 or 3 players away from making a genuine title challenge.

Chelsea highlighted this week that we simply don't have a second string team with the talent to take pressure off our first team regulars, and I am worried that the likes of Ramsey; Giroud and even Ozil are looking jaded already.

Many Arsenal fans would agree with all the pundits that our league position reflects our easy start, and that we are more likely than not to fall off once the going gets tougher.

Its impossible that Wenger, who not only has spent all these years in the Premiership and Europe, but has presided over what is almost certainly the most injury prone Premiership club of the last 5 years, does not appreciate the need to have a big, and strong squad. So why have we been left short? Does Wenger's spending on Ozil demonstrate conclusively that his unwillingness to spend big until this season was because of a genuine lack of funds?

Or are there still reasons to question the philosophy/ability of a manager who:

- Only pulled Ozil out of the bag following a clearly disastrous close season
- Only signed Flamini when he fell into his lap on a free
- Continues to overplay many of his players
- Seems to make no allowance for the fact that at least 3 key players will be injured at any given time

Is Wenger still being loyal to a club that is not in a position to 'do another Ozil' - or does he refuse to accept that modern football is as much about the numbers as it is about talent?

To be able to dine at the top table these days is quite easy. Chelsea, shit awful not so long ago with no history etc have won EPL's, Cups & Euroepan Cup. Man City have come from being the Tottenham of Manchester to EPL winners in no time at all. Europe's richest clubs are sitting at the top of their respective leagues & we see the same old faces in the C.L every year. Money is key, we haven't had it whilst paying for the stadium so we've been working our balls off to stay in the pack. Now we're told we can finally compete & although I thought Wenger was his normal useless self in the transfer window, he pulls Ozil out of the bag last minute. In our current team we seem to be spoilt for choice with quality midfielders. This at least is a start because this hasn't been the case for years. Now we need to be spoilt in defence & attack aswell. To do this we need class players on class wages competing for a starting line up knowing we have quality cover for injuries. We are still way off this in defence & attack.
If this can be addressed, we can compete but Wenger has to realise that the big teams don't & can't rely on young talent coming through unless they really are exceptional. With Wilshire, Gibbs & Rambo in the team we have our young homegrown contingent, the rest of the team needs to be quality players. You look at players like Milner & Rodwell now at Man City, they have made an awful decision football wise because they simply wont play many games. They are doomed at Man City. If they don't win the league again this year then the owners will spend whatever is necesary to try & regain it which means world class players in & others out.
I've never really wanted Arsenal to do a "Chelski" or Man City but unfortunatley whether we like it or not its the only way now. Football has moved on. Our problem is whether Wenger's ready to change. With the capture of Ozil & the emergence of Rambo, Kos, Giroud - we really do have a good base but we could fuck it up bigtime if we don't buy quality players for all positions. In reality I believe Kos is our only world class defender, we need a younger DM to finsih a quality midfield & at least one true quality forward. Therefore only 5 players to find & we will be ready.

[Penguin]

It's a bit of both.

Money wise we cant compete with the Russian and Arab sugar daddies. Chelsea could probably field two teams capable of winning the league and City have the money to do the same. Even though we broke our transfer record with the Ozil signing I don't think we can afford to spend that much on one player every window. I get the feeling that Wenger chose to make one massive signing in the summer instead of 2 or 3 cheaper players. Not much you can do.

But Wenger hasn't given us the best chance of winning trophies even if we don't have the financial power to compete. Some of his decisions have been baffling and he has failed to address problems stretching back 8 years or even more.

[IBK]

Thing I'm wondering is whether Wenger's failure to reinforce is because of funds; stubbornness or lack of competence in the transfer market? The fact that at last he did spend some money at the end of the Summer might suggest that he is no longer scared to spend, but I do have concerns that Wenger is still swimming against a tide that as has been pointed out is irresistible in terms of money spent equalling league position.

I think I am right in saying that the Invincibles season was remarkable not only in its own right, but for the small number of players that we used throughout the season compared with the competition. I worry that the manager still clings to this blueprint.

The second concern is his constant gambles with players' fitness - despite all evidence to the contrary. We saw it with our reliance on RVP a couple of seasons ago; we saw it with his failure to replace Song; with his failure to bring in an experienced keeper, and now we are seeing it with our reliance on Giroud. I'm also pretty convinced that Flamini - upon whom our team now relies more that could have been predicted - was an accident rather than planned.

The likes of Chelsea and Citeh simply don't take these risks, and it shows. Even Spurs make sure they have proper cover (its funny that they were accused of taking risks in terms of a striker last season, but I'd say that they were arguably better covered than we are this season - plus they had Bale who was more effective than any of their strikers). For me, Wenger is a slave to his injuries - through his own fault - and this won't change.

Is it because he cannot bring himself to 'kill' injury prone players (personally, I would be close to regarding Podolski as a failed experiment, and Walcott is absent too ofen for our second highest paid player - lets not even go ther with Diaby), or is it because his 'eye of the needle' football relies upon too small a group of players being able to understand each other?

And something is badly wrong with our team's fitness level. For four years now, we have been the team consistently at the top of the injury league - and generally have key players out too. Whether is lack of conditioning, over playing or poor selection in the transfer market in terms of physicality we are doing something wrong - which means that we are not seeing value for the money that the manager does spend.

So I can't help but see the problem with our squad as Wenger's as much as any lack of funds.

[The Ogg Monster]

Wenger knows what hes doing.

So we're out of the 'Shitty Who Gives A Fuck Cup' to a team with billions to spend, and we lost to last years CL finalists (Dortmund).

Flamini was a masterstroke, its such a shame he's injured for the Liverpool game and maybe the unted one too.But Keeping him Ramsey and Ozil fit, and Giroud too, will be key to out success this year. With those fit, we dont need a huge squad.

As for the squad, does anyone here honestly expect us to have as good a squad as Chelsea and City with their zillions? No. But on planet earth we have (IMO) the best squad other than those mentioned, made up of many British players too.

In conclusion -the triple is on.

[Zerlathon]

It was only until just recently we were hampered by sponsorship deals that were well below market value for the sole purpose of getting the funds in place for the construction of the Stadium.

I don't think it's just coincidence that the moment new deals worth a considerable amount more money Wenger goes out and doubles the previous transfer record. So on that basis, I think this shows that there was certainly something hindering us from keeping up with the Jones'.

We still have a considerable amount of money in the pot from the Summer and I feel that Wenger will spend it. Give it a another Season, and I feel that our Squad as a whole will vastly surpass others in the EPL in terms of quality.

[Özim]

Flamini a masterstroke....really? You don't think we only brought him in because he was free and thus a low cost low risk option?

[Power n Glory]

It was only until just recently we were hampered by sponsorship deals that were well below market value for the sole purpose of getting the funds in place for the construction of the Stadium.

I don't think it's just coincidence that the moment new deals worth a considerable amount more money Wenger goes out and doubles the previous transfer record. So on that basis, I think this shows that there was certainly something hindering us from keeping up with the Jones'.

We still have a considerable amount of money in the pot from the Summer and I feel that Wenger will spend it. Give it a another Season, and I feel that our Squad as a whole will vastly surpass others in the EPL in terms of quality.


The announcement of the sponsorships deal in the midst of all the speculation about funding and our transfer policy, it became impossible for Wenger not to spend. In a recent interview, he said he didn't want to bankrupt the club, hence the lack of spending. That has to be an exaggeration and why I don't trust his words regarding this issue. We spent £40m on Ozil but we've had seasons where we've spent £40-£60m on players but we've spread the cost across some very average players instead of putting everything in the pot on a true world class player. It's still not clear if we're now strapped with cash because we didn't go for Higuain or make a much improved offer in Suarez.

If we'd have used our money wisely and spent money on world class player a year, we'd have been able to build on a potential title winning side instead of having to start so far back after the core has been chipped away at. But what's done is done and I hope we have now learned our lesson.

[Zerlathon]

The announcement of the sponsorships deal in the midst of all the speculation about funding and our transfer policy, it became impossible for Wenger not to spend. In a recent interview, he said he didn't want to bankrupt the club, hence the lack of spending. That has to be an exaggeration and why I don't trust his words regarding this issue. We spent £40m on Ozil but we've had seasons where we've spent £40-£60m on players but we've spread the cost across some very average players instead of putting everything in the pot on a true world class player. It's still not clear if we're now strapped with cash because we didn't go for Higuain or make a much improved offer in Suarez.

If we'd have used our money wisely and spent money on world class player a year, we'd have been able to build on a potential title winning side instead of having to start so far back after the core has been chipped away at. But what's done is done and I hope we have now learned our lesson.

Buying any Player is a gamble, and (at the time) we didn't have the money to put all of our eggs in a single basket. Could you imagine the uproar if we had gambled all of our transfer kitty on a Flop?

While I agree we have had a fair few bad eggs (Arshavin, Park, Santos, Squillani, Gervinho, etc), but we have had a decent number of Players that have come good and will play a role in our Team in the future (Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Ramsey, etc).

[Letters]

Flamini a masterstroke....really? You don't think we only brought him in because he was free and thus a low cost low risk option?
"Only"?
No.

[Dein-machine]

The announcement of the sponsorships deal in the midst of all the speculation about funding and our transfer policy, it became impossible for Wenger not to spend. In a recent interview, he said he didn't want to bankrupt the club, hence the lack of spending. That has to be an exaggeration and why I don't trust his words regarding this issue. We spent £40m on Ozil but we've had seasons where we've spent £40-£60m on players but we've spread the cost across some very average players instead of putting everything in the pot on a true world class player. It's still not clear if we're now strapped with cash because we didn't go for Higuain or make a much improved offer in Suarez.

If we'd have used our money wisely and spent money on world class player a year, we'd have been able to build on a potential title winning side instead of having to start so far back after the core has been chipped away at. But what's done is done and I hope we have now learned our lesson.

Agreed - but the problem is one world class player a year could still take time to make a competitive team. Fabs was always going back to Barca no matter what which has left as with RVP being the only world class player we've had since the Invincibles. With all the improvements this year I still only class Ozil as our one true world class player, if its going to take another 5 to make us compete will he be around for 5 years. Unfortunatley immediate success is going to need quicker investment than that. No team has world class players in every position, even the great Barcelona teams of late regularly played Puyol, Pique, Mascarano, Busquets who whilst are very good team players, they are not world class.
If we're happy that Ches is starting to become top keeper, I think we need better full-backs & another centre back to partner Kos, we need world class DM & a world class striker. If we could find & buy these sooner rather than later, we can compete with anyone. The other issue is Wenger. I can't argue that whatever we do at Colney gets us playing nice football etc but he's tactically weak & is useless from the bench. We could do with someone on the bench who knows how to change things, to react in match situations. Wenger is clueless, his stubborness means he takes it personally if he has to change things becusae it would suggest he wsn't right from the start.

[Power n Glory]

Buying any Player is a gamble, and (at the time) we didn't have the money to put all of our eggs in a single basket. Could you imagine the uproar if we had gambled all of our transfer kitty on a Flop?

While I agree we have had a fair few bad eggs (Arshavin, Park, Santos, Squillani, Gervinho, etc), but we have had a decent number of Players that have come good and will play a role in our Team in the future (Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Ramsey, etc).

But look at the uproar now. Players constantly leaving, fans disheartened and not bothering to renew season tickets, written off by our rivals….would it have been worse if we’d have signed Suarez or Torres before Liverpool got to them? Pushed the boat out for players like Xabi Alonso, Ribery or Mata. Just one massive signing each year. It would have been enough to keep the fans and players on side or at least kept that hope. Just look at what Ozil has done., Bendy, Denilson, Vela….the years we wasted on these and the sacrifices we’ve made just wasn’t worth it in the end. Sprinkle on top crap like Chamakh and Gervinho….it just wasn’t worth it. Wenger’s rep hasn’t taken a battering.

[Power n Glory]

Agreed - but the problem is one world class player a year could still take time to make a competitive team. Fabs was always going back to Barca no matter what which has left as with RVP being the only world class player we've had since the Invincibles. With all the improvements this year I still only class Ozil as our one true world class player, if its going to take another 5 to make us compete will he be around for 5 years. Unfortunatley immediate success is going to need quicker investment than that. No team has world class players in every position, even the great Barcelona teams of late regularly played Puyol, Pique, Mascarano, Busquets who whilst are very good team players, they are not world class.
If we're happy that Ches is starting to become top keeper, I think we need better full-backs & another centre back to partner Kos, we need world class DM & a world class striker. If we could find & buy these sooner rather than later, we can compete with anyone. The other issue is Wenger. I can't argue that whatever we do at Colney gets us playing nice football etc but he's tactically weak & is useless from the bench. We could do with someone on the bench who knows how to change things, to react in match situations. Wenger is clueless, his stubborness means he takes it personally if he has to change things becusae it would suggest he wsn't right from the start.

Cesc would have left on a high at least!

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

I don't care much for number crunching or financial musing but most of the number crunchers who follow us have expressed the view that we can most certainly still spend big on another 1/2 world class players in the next couple transfer windows. Moreover it is not an endless cycle. We mainly find ourselves in a position of need now, because we have been shedding quality players down the years.

We spent nigh on the entirety of last summer chasing a forward and a DCM. We got both in Sanogo and Flamini, but neither of those guys were the key cog in our initial plans and we failed to get our prime targets. The last few hours was spent scrambling around for Chelsea's 4th choice forward. In light of that, I can't believe the manager believes the squad is complete, so the fans aren't alone in thinking we aren't quite there yet. Wenger is just prepared to ease it out over a few years.

In the summer he was quite on saying something along the lines of 'we're in a good position to challenge in the next 2-3 years' which really worried me at the time, but also hinted that Wenger was willing, if not erring towards acquiring some of his top targets over some time and not all at once.

Unfortunately the manager is still in less of a rush than we are. Even with his contract being up soon.

[Ollie the Optimist]

In 2013, we have won more points then any other team. Ok thats over two seasons but still thats a huge step up from recent years, our problem has been the big games. I think Arsene has discovered a great team spine, and over the summer added in one huge signing in Ozil to go with Cazorla as the stand out stars as such. we have great first team players, giroud, podolski, theo, ramsey, jack etc. This team keeps winning even when written off. We've been top of the league since mid september. Almost two months. when was the last time we topped the league for that long?

our problem however is the big games (I'm not going to include the COC from last week) but in the league, we haven't beaten a top team (unless you count spurs as a top team) at home in 2013. we lost to city, drew with liverpool and united. add in the champions league and we lost to dortmund and munich (though they are two best teams in europe, no shame in that) so this month will show us all what how much we have improved this season. Arsene looks different this season, he looks driven, hungry for success, so do the players. the passion in their celebrations when they win/score is great to see and i also find they look visibly hurt when they lose which i like to see.


but to answer the OP, is it money or wenger? well as i said above, i think AW has created a great first team squad capable of winning the league but IMO can't challenge on four fronts. I think AW has almost decided to go hell for leather and win the league and if he wins it this season, it will be his greatest ever achievement. I don't think AW was pressured into buying Ozil either. To me, the stories read that he was offered ozil for 42 million and he just did it, not to please us as fans but because to him, it was still a bargain. He's always said he never has a problem spending money if its a fair value. 42 million for Ozil IMO isn't a fair value, its fucking bargain. He got the deal done within 48 hours. no mucking around, said yes and one phone call later Ozil was convinced. I think AW is happy with this squad, and its a real close knit squad, each player willing to fight for each other, put the shift in. Going out and buying a ton of players doesn't always work. See palace, spurs and city this season for example. However i do think we are one striker short and i think AW will buy again in January. He wants this league title and he knows this is his chance and if he can get a good striker for reasonable cost, hell do it IMO

[IBK]

Good post, Ollie - but I think you are wrong in a couple of respects.

I think Wenger was prepared to pay for Ozil because he was a long term target - perhaps the only target that was genuine 'super super' quality in his book. For me, this doesn't mean that he is now prepared to meet market price of players in general. If in January there is no player that conforms to his very very narrow criterion for paying money, not only will he not spend big, but he won't spend decent for a player - eg a striker - who would be top four material but does not meet his particular standards.

We have seen many times that even when we want a very decent player (Higuain?) - Wenger will miss out rather than paying what he sees as over the odds. And this part of his philosophy leaves us short.

The other part is seen in the players he has let go - rather than paying a penny more in wages than he thinks is merited. All of the recent top 3 Premiership teams have benefited from this and taken players from us (Spurs, not so much :lol:). IMO had AW been in Rogers' position this Summer he would have let Suarez go to an EPL competitor - because of his 'purist' philosophy.

This is not saying that AW is shit. If we had our key players fit more often I think we would be genuinely competitive. But IMO it is Wneger's aversion to being 'extravagant' in his eyes, rather than lack of funds that has seen us spend net only 11M in transfer fees since 2005 (Ozil included).

[GP]

Wenger would absolutely not have let Suarez go. 100%.

[milla]

Wenger would absolutely not have let Suarez go. 100%.

Like he did with RVP and Nasri and Cesc. :coffee:

[The Ogg Monster]

Flamini a masterstroke....really? You don't think we only brought him in because he was free and thus a low cost low risk option?
Really.

[GP]

Like he did with RVP and Nasri and Cesc. :coffee:

Cesc was a special case, rvc and nasri were in the last year of their contracts.

No way he would have sold Suarez. Not a single chance.

[Penguin]

Wenger knows what hes doing.

Depends what you mean by knowing what he's doing. If you mean keeping us in the top four every year, building teams within our own financial means and showing us an attractive style of football, then yes you're right. I don't take that lightly. Other managers have won trophies but failed to finish in the top four (like Benitez).

If you mean winning trophies, learning from his/our mistakes and building on our weaknesses then you're wrong. He hasn't done any of that for the best part of a decade. Only the first part has anything to do with money.

[I am invisible]

If our bids for Suarez and Lars Bender had been successful then our spend would have smashed the hundred million barrier, so I really don't think there's a stubbornness issue here - I'd chalk our lack of other impressive signings up to a) struggling to sell the club to the very best players after 7 or 8 years of looking like a selling club with no ambition, and b) wasting too much time chasing the wrong targets (or target)...

[IBK]

Cesc was a special case, rvc and nasri were in the last year of their contracts.

No way he would have sold Suarez. Not a single chance.

Don't know what that view is based on. It cannot be denied that Wenger will sell his very best players, and he is prepared to let them go to the competition. This has happened consistently - and the trigger is usually a player's public desire to leave. With Suarez's record, and a 40M payday I'd say everything we know about Wenger says he'd have sold.

[IBK]

If our bids for Suarez and Lars Bender had been successful then our spend would have smashed the hundred million barrier, so I really don't think there's a stubbornness issue here - I'd chalk our lack of other impressive signings up to a) struggling to sell the club to the very best players after 7 or 8 years of looking like a selling club with no ambition, and b) wasting too much time chasing the wrong targets (or target)...

Well, I'm not at all sure we'd have stumped up 42M for Ozil had we already spent 40M on Suarez :unsure:

[GP]

Don't know what that view is based on. It cannot be denied that Wenger will sell his very best players, and he is prepared to let them go to the competition. This has happened consistently - and the trigger is usually a player's public desire to leave. With Suarez's record, and a 40M payday I'd say everything we know about Wenger says he'd have sold.

Only when he's over a barrel, as with rvc and nasri.

Vieira pined for a move every year, but Wenger only sold when he was done with him.

You're wrong on this one.

[IBK]

Only when he's over a barrel, as with rvc and nasri.

Vieira pined for a move every year, but Wenger only sold when he was done with him.

You're wrong on this one.

Perhaps...but remember that with Suarez there is also his baggage. I think there are arguments both ways.

[GP]

Maybe, but Wenger had no issue with putting over £40m on the table for him, I just don't think there's any way he would have sold him.

We don't need to sell any more, as we have previously.

[milla]

If our bids for Suarez and Lars Bender had been successful then our spend would have smashed the hundred million barrier, so I really don't think there's a stubbornness issue here - I'd chalk our lack of other impressive signings up to a) struggling to sell the club to the very best players after 7 or 8 years of looking like a selling club with no ambition, and b) wasting too much time chasing the wrong targets (or target)...

Must make another bid for Lars Bender next summer. Striker, RB and DM are a must IMO. :coffee:

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I think we should splash the cash, get in Alan Smith from Leicester City and Brian Marwood from Sheffield Wednesday.....make sure that come near the end of the season we don't have to play a ridiculous fixture like Liverpool away needing a 2-0 win

[hymppi]

Must make another bid for Lars Bender next summer. Striker, RB and DM are a must IMO. :coffee:

Didn't he just sign a new contract? Or was it the other Bendy?

[milla]

Yep he did. It means his price just gone up by 20-30% IMO. :coffee:

[hymppi]

Yep he did. It means his price just gone up by 20-30% IMO. :coffee:
Alrite. We should start saving money. Enough with those hipster cappucinos.

[Power n Glory]

Perhaps...but remember that with Suarez there is also his baggage. I think there are arguments both ways.

Song, Cesc, Ade, Hleb, Henry, Reyes....with our recent record you just can't be sure. These guys weren't down to their last year. If you fall out with Wenger he doesn't want you in his squad. We'd have sold Suarez if he'd have aired things out like that.

[The Ogg Monster]

We're top by FIVE points already ffs. Give him some street cred.

[IBK]

Song, Cesc, Ade, Hleb, Henry, Reyes....with our recent record you just can't be sure. These guys weren't down to their last year. If you fall out with Wenger he doesn't want you in his squad. We'd have sold Suarez if he'd have aired things out like that.

That's what I think.

[IBK]

We're top by FIVE points already ffs. Give him some street cred.

You misunderstand. Wenger's being accused of gambling with a small squad, not being a shit manager.

Although having said that, I heard a pundit today criticising Sperz by saying that constant rotation denies players getting any proper momentum/fluidity. Maybe this is why Wenger seems to gamble with his squad?

[JonasTC]

You misunderstand. Wenger's being accused of gambling with a small squad, not being a shit manager.

Although having said that, I heard a pundit today criticising Sperz by saying that constant rotation denies players getting any proper momentum/fluidity. Maybe this is why Wenger seems to gamble with his squad?

Gambling? He's forced to "gamble" with a "small" squad since we have like a gazillion injuries, i dont really understand where you get the small from, i think we have a brilliant squad with good depth, only really needing a back-up striker and maybe another DM

Fabianski
Jenkinson-Mert/Kos-Verm-Nacho
Arteta-Wilshere
Ox-Rosicky-Podolski
New Striker

Would say thats a pretty decent back-up team, most of them could easily be in our starting line-up.

[Penguin]

We have 'a gazillion' injuries every single year. It can't be luck if it's always happening so you have to take the injury prone players into account when you're building a squad. Players like Diaby, Rosicky, Wilshere and Gibbs should be expected to miss long periods of the season.

I think Wenger did gamble to an extent. He offloaded a lot of deadwood, which was a good thing, but only brought in two players for our first team squad. It was a gamble to go into the season with only Bendtner as Giroud's backup. He had time to get someone else even if it was only a stop gap until January.

[JonasTC]

I would still say that we have been unlucky with injuries, one season we had all our fullbacks injured at the same time and this season its all our wings that have been injured at the same time.

It wasnt really his plan to take a gamble on bendtner, since he was trying to offload him all summer and at the same time were after some pretty good strikers, but Napoli paying silly money for Higuain, Liverpool smoking to much dope and Chelsea pulling out in the last sec, were few of the reasons why it didnt happend this summer, but atleast he have showed that he knows we need proper cover for Giroud and are willing to spend, and i have no doubt we will see a quality striker comming in, in january or summer.

[Power n Glory]

We're short on real wingers and strikers.

[IBK]

We have 'a gazillion' injuries every single year. It can't be luck if it's always happening so you have to take the injury prone players into account when you're building a squad. Players like Diaby, Rosicky, Wilshere and Gibbs should be expected to miss long periods of the season.

I think Wenger did gamble to an extent. He offloaded a lot of deadwood, which was a good thing, but only brought in two players for our first team squad. It was a gamble to go into the season with only Bendtner as Giroud's backup. He had time to get someone else even if it was only a stop gap until January.

Yup - I agree.

[IBK]

I would still say that we have been unlucky with injuries, one season we had all our fullbacks injured at the same time and this season its all our wings that have been injured at the same time.

It wasnt really his plan to take a gamble on bendtner, since he was trying to offload him all summer and at the same time were after some pretty good strikers, but Napoli paying silly money for Higuain, Liverpool smoking to much dope and Chelsea pulling out in the last sec, were few of the reasons why it didnt happend this summer, but atleast he have showed that he knows we need proper cover for Giroud and are willing to spend, and i have no doubt we will see a quality striker comming in, in january or summer.

Problem is that January rarely sees real quality available in the market...

[The Ogg Monster]

Dont agree on the injury prone thing. If RvP would have been offloaded early it would have been a mistake.

About the thread title- neither money nor Wenger are a problem.

[Dein-machine]

Dont agree on the injury prone thing. If RvP would have been offloaded early it would have been a mistake.

About the thread title- neither money nor Wenger are a problem.

Depends what is meant by problem. If the problem is that we haven't been able to compete at the top of our own league or in Europe for 8 years then the problem is very much down to money. I am not a great Wenger fan but with limited cash I don't know that anyone else would have done more than keep us in the top 4 of a very competitive league when all around are spending big. However even if we had money, Wenger has made it clear that we still wouldn't have spent big, he wanted to nurture & buy young talent. Therfore if money wasn't the problem then Wenger was. He couldn't get his head round the fact that buying quality like Chelski & Man City have done wins titles, but the facts are there for all to see. Its one of the reasons he was never able to defend a title because he thought he could keep ahead of the rest without adding top quality every year. The truth is that our board have been extremelly happy to get CL football every year by finishing 3/4th, slowly paying off the stadium whilst winning fuck all. They don't view it that we have a problem at all because their shares are now worth a lot of money, especially with an asset like The Emirates paid for.

[Özim]

I would still say that we have been unlucky with injuries, one season we had all our fullbacks injured at the same time and this season its all our wings that have been injured at the same time.

It wasnt really his plan to take a gamble on bendtner, since he was trying to offload him all summer and at the same time were after some pretty good strikers, but Napoli paying silly money for Higuain, Liverpool smoking to much dope and Chelsea pulling out in the last sec, were few of the reasons why it didnt happend this summer, but atleast he have showed that he knows we need proper cover for Giroud and are willing to spend, and i have no doubt we will see a quality striker comming in, in january or summer.

We always seem to struggle with transfers, we pretty much had 3 months to get the players we needed in, you can make excuses about cost and clubs not wanting to sell but at the end of the day you should have a shortlist of players and backup options, I don't think we excel in that department.

Ozil was a fantastic signing but it can mask our deficiencies on the transfer front, we got rid of a number of squad players and brought in two players, think we could have done better than that and should have when taking into consideration the size of our squad and our backup options, there's really no excuse, as mentioned by someone else we have injuries every single season without fail due to the injury prone nature of some of our players.

[JonasTC]

We always seem to struggle with transfers, we pretty much had 3 months to get the players we needed in, you can make excuses about cost and clubs not wanting to sell but at the end of the day you should have a shortlist of players and backup options, I don't think we excel in that department.

Ozil was a fantastic signing but it can mask our deficiencies on the transfer front, we got rid of a number of squad players and brought in two players, think we could have done better than that and should have when taking into consideration the size of our squad and our backup options, there's really no excuse, as mentioned by someone else we have injuries every single season without fail due to the injury prone nature of some of our players.

But we did have a shortlist and we did put offers out on quality players, so what exactly do you want Arsenal to do? Offer more money? Make Higuain our best paid player and put him on the bench? I agree with Wenger on that, i wouldnt want us to put out top money, unless he's a 100% starter, Higuain wouldnt have been, Suarez would have and thats why we were willing to buy him, but Liverpools crack-smoking people only wants russian/arab money for him and tbh i dont want Arsenal to go there.

The excuses about us not getting more players and our squad being thin, really needs to stop. Except for a striker (and maybe RB, because we never know which jenk will show up), i think we have a brilliant squad and good cover on almost positions, something even silly money clubs like city and chelski dont have.

[Power n Glory]

Depends what is meant by problem. If the problem is that we haven't been able to compete at the top of our own league or in Europe for 8 years then the problem is very much down to money. I am not a great Wenger fan but with limited cash I don't know that anyone else would have done more than keep us in the top 4 of a very competitive league when all around are spending big. However even if we had money, Wenger has made it clear that we still wouldn't have spent big, he wanted to nurture & buy young talent. Therfore if money wasn't the problem then Wenger was. He couldn't get his head round the fact that buying quality like Chelski & Man City have done wins titles, but the facts are there for all to see. Its one of the reasons he was never able to defend a title because he thought he could keep ahead of the rest without adding top quality every year. The truth is that our board have been extremelly happy to get CL football every year by finishing 3/4th, slowly paying off the stadium whilst winning fuck all. They don't view it that we have a problem at all because their shares are now worth a lot of money, especially with an asset like The Emirates paid for.

That's a good point.

[Dein-machine]

But we did have a shortlist and we did put offers out on quality players, so what exactly do you want Arsenal to do? Offer more money? Make Higuain our best paid player and put him on the bench? I agree with Wenger on that, i wouldnt want us to put out top money, unless he's a 100% starter, Higuain wouldnt have been, Suarez would have and thats why we were willing to buy him, but Liverpools crack-smoking people only wants russian/arab money for him and tbh i dont want Arsenal to go there.

The excuses about us not getting more players and our squad being thin, really needs to stop. Except for a striker (and maybe RB, because we never know which jenk will show up), i think we have a brilliant squad and good cover on almost positions, something even silly money clubs like city and chelski dont have.

It was clear at the end of last year where we needed strengthening & it would have been clear that we were in a postion to spend. This didn't just happen late in July when as per usual we start to get mentioned with various players that never end up signing. We woud have known this in May of last year. By the time all the wrangling about Higuain & Suarez was doing the rounds clubs like Man City & the Spuds had already acquired quality players without the fuss & with the chance of those players having a decent pre-season. In the case of Suarez it was never going to be plain sailing mainly due to Liverpools relcutance to sell to us & also the threat from Real Madrid. For some reason this always seems to be the case when we are linked with anyone. We needed then to act by buying another striker, from our supposed short-list to get the cover we needed. Even if we had gone on to buy Suarez it shouldn't be viewed as a problem when you see the amount of strikers at Man City for example. We startd the season with only Giroud as a 1st team striker & there was even doubts about him being the finished article after only one year in the EPL. Simply not good enough by Wenger & the board after telling us we were finally in a position to compete financially.
We only got Ozil in the final week of transfer deadline & could have lost him to the Mancs last minute, after getting rid of alot of the deadwood our sum total of players in could have been Sonogo & Flamini! - costing fuck all. Ozil's signing has plastered over the cracks of yet another disasterous transfer window for Wenger, why we think we're likely to get better players & better deals by leaving everything to the last minute is beyond me. We give our new players no chance to have a pre-season with new team mates & sometimes can't play them for a few games because of match fitness. It was only two years ago that we bought 3 players a month after the season started due to the Mancs hammering us & embarrasing Wenger, how can anyone justify that having had 3 months to get your squad ready for the new season.

[Özim]

But we did have a shortlist and we did put offers out on quality players, so what exactly do you want Arsenal to do? Offer more money? Make Higuain our best paid player and put him on the bench? I agree with Wenger on that, i wouldnt want us to put out top money, unless he's a 100% starter, Higuain wouldnt have been, Suarez would have and thats why we were willing to buy him, but Liverpools crack-smoking people only wants russian/arab money for him and tbh i dont want Arsenal to go there.

The excuses about us not getting more players and our squad being thin, really needs to stop. Except for a striker (and maybe RB, because we never know which jenk will show up), i think we have a brilliant squad and good cover on almost positions, something even silly money clubs like city and chelski dont have.

A very shortlist by the sounds of it, we waste too much time on transfers, if Higuain was too expensive then move on, Suarez was never realistically going to happen, Liverpool made their stand point very clear. There were other players available, maybe not as good as those but they would certainly be very useful for us right now and would have given us options and goals. Why are there always excuses for us when other clubs seemingly have no trouble signing players, are we special?

If Giroud, Fabianski, Sagna or one of the centre backs get injured we're in trouble IMO, our squad is very good in the midfield area but needs more depth elsewhere.

[Letters]

We're a bit lightweight up front but fine elsewhere. Defence could do with a bit more depth but up front is the biggest issue IMO.
Either way we're never going to be able to assemble a squad like City or Chelsea can.

[Bumble]

people do say that Wenger has had little money to spend but lets not forget we have one of the highest wage bills in the country and even last season we were paying a £1m a week more than Spurs. So when people think Wenger has done well on a tight budget, it is misleading as people forget all the money he has wasted. With 4 spots available has Wenger done amazing work to keep us 4th... not really that is the bare minimum as the real competition is Liverpool and they have been screwed up for years.

[IBK]

It was clear at the end of last year where we needed strengthening & it would have been clear that we were in a postion to spend. This didn't just happen late in July when as per usual we start to get mentioned with various players that never end up signing. We woud have known this in May of last year. By the time all the wrangling about Higuain & Suarez was doing the rounds clubs like Man City & the Spuds had already acquired quality players without the fuss & with the chance of those players having a decent pre-season. In the case of Suarez it was never going to be plain sailing mainly due to Liverpools relcutance to sell to us & also the threat from Real Madrid. For some reason this always seems to be the case when we are linked with anyone. We needed then to act by buying another striker, from our supposed short-list to get the cover we needed. Even if we had gone on to buy Suarez it shouldn't be viewed as a problem when you see the amount of strikers at Man City for example. We startd the season with only Giroud as a 1st team striker & there was even doubts about him being the finished article after only one year in the EPL. Simply not good enough by Wenger & the board after telling us we were finally in a position to compete financially.
We only got Ozil in the final week of transfer deadline & could have lost him to the Mancs last minute, after getting rid of alot of the deadwood our sum total of players in could have been Sonogo & Flamini! - costing fuck all. Ozil's signing has plastered over the cracks of yet another disasterous transfer window for Wenger, why we think we're likely to get better players & better deals by leaving everything to the last minute is beyond me. We give our new players no chance to have a pre-season with new team mates & sometimes can't play them for a few games because of match fitness. It was only two years ago that we bought 3 players a month after the season started due to the Mancs hammering us & embarrasing Wenger, how can anyone justify that having had 3 months to get your squad ready for the new season.


Lots to chew on here - and for me it highlights the issue with our transfer business. For me Suarez was a total gamble and was never going to happen once his get out clause didn't stand up. As soon as Liverpool called our bluff this transfer wasn't going to happen in a million years - and Suarez can never, ever have been a planned signing for us. Like I say, I have real doubts that we'd have spent 40m odd on both Suarez and Ozil.

I think we're a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place with Wenger. Yes, he'll gamble on raw players like Sanogo, and clearly there's a very short list of players whom he will spend big on - but the blind spot seems to be mature players who would be reliable back up in the positions we are short in, and this seems to be partly a deficiency in our scouting network where the likes of Newcastle; Sperz - even teams like West Brom or Swansea seem to function better, but mostly because of the managers adamant stance that market prices are over inflated.

[Ollie the Optimist]

ive figured out the reason why we are doing so well now. Its that 3 piece suit Arsene has been wearing for matches. he rocks the 3 piece suit.

[Dein-machine]

Lots to chew on here - and for me it highlights the issue with our transfer business. For me Suarez was a total gamble and was never going to happen once his get out clause didn't stand up. As soon as Liverpool called our bluff this transfer wasn't going to happen in a million years - and Suarez can never, ever have been a planned signing for us. Like I say, I have real doubts that we'd have spent 40m odd on both Suarez and Ozil.

I think we're a bit stuck between a rock and a hard place with Wenger. Yes, he'll gamble on raw players like Sanogo, and clearly there's a very short list of players whom he will spend big on - but the blind spot seems to be mature players who would be reliable back up in the positions we are short in, and this seems to be partly a deficiency in our scouting network where the likes of Newcastle; Sperz - even teams like West Brom or Swansea seem to function better, but mostly because of the managers adamant stance that market prices are over inflated.

Agree