Match Reaction vs Bayern Munich (home)

If Wenger was going to announce he's going it should have been and would have been last night, having had 24 hours to reflect on the latest embarrassment. I don't see any news. No statements, everyone still in the dark waiting on him to make his proclamation. The man who loves Arsenal holding the club to ransom as it falls apart around his ears. Right up until the end it appears who will refuse to do it any way except his way, regardless of whether his way is the right way or even works.

Martin Keown said in his piece in the Mail today, "But he wants to go out as a winner, as a champion. Football is his best friend. Maybe winning the FA Cup and finishing in the top four might achieve that."

Fine, looks like he's staying until the end of the season at least. Because he always sees out his contract, blah, blah. That's not what struck me about what Keown said though. Instead it was, "...as a champion ...and finishing in the top four might achieve that." It's subconscious now. Top 4 has been transformed into a trophy. You are a champion if you can win it.

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

In terms of spending power, i think people believe the club is much bigger than it is. Bayern, Barcelona, Real, Man City, Man United, PSG and Chelsea can easily outspend us and maintain a far higher wage bill.

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Barca, Real, Man City, Man United and possibly PSG can outspend us, Chelsea can do too...but they are a lot more restrained in their spending these days....Hazard and Costa cost less than Ozil and Sanchez combined. Kante less than Xhaka, David Luiz less than Mustafi. Chelsea have bought extremely well over the past 3 or 4 years...we've bought badly.

Bayern aren't actually huge spenders...I would say we are at their level in terms of spending if we choose to spend....choose being the key word here. Bayern have also bought well, admittedly they do lack competition in the market from their domestic rivals.

Wage bill wise we are not that far behind Chelsea, Man United or Man City which is pretty incredible considering they all have multiple players on 200K per week..

The issue isn't about our spending power...it's about spending it wisely...that in my honest opinion has been a problem for quite a while now.

http://www.totalsportek.com/money/en...-club-by-club/

Byaern's 11 the other day costs less than Arsenal's, which is saying something.

I keep reading this, though i haven't seen anything that confirms this

It doesn't sound right, can anyone provide evidence?

And even if so than it certainly is not the case when you compare the squad

We conceded the title race to Leicester City! Why is anyone talking about spending power unless to further the point that Wenger is wasteful with money?

Talking about spending is completely pointless when we have a manager who can't get the most out of the players he already has.

And comparing spend to Bayern is misleading anyway. They get to pick whoever they want from their own league in a way that we couldn't.

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Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie

I keep reading this, though i haven't seen anything that confirms this

It doesn't sound right, can anyone provide evidence?

And even if so than it certainly is not the case when you compare the squad

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It appears you are into alternative facts. You dont like the available evidence so want another set.

Wenger wastes money, believe it. We have over 200m in the bank, believe that too. Last year our wage bill was £1.8m behind City. that is also a fact. Money is not our problem. Wenger spending it wastefully on unproven kids to buy their loyalty is the thing and buying players nobody has on their radar so he can prove he has an eye for talent . All this has brought us to where we are.

Are we still talking about money?

I hope people aren't claiming that Leicester have proven that spending power and success are not correlated.

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Originally Posted by Letters

I hope people aren't claiming that Leicester have proven that spending power and success are not correlated.

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Look at the French league. Monaco are leading PSG right now. Who is spending more?

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Originally Posted by Delusions of Grandeur

We lost conceded the title race to Leicester City! Why is anyone talking about spending power unless to further the point that Wenger is wasteful with money?

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Leicester was an outlier but of course it's proof that even with Money being an issue (and it is) that Wenger cannot succeed anyway

The correlation between money spent and prizes won/final league position is normally quite concurrent.

Therefore i do think fans have to manage their expectations somewhat because although we can buy two or three players a season in the 30 million bracket, we cannot do that of players in the 40-60 million bracket like Man City, Man United can do.

This doesn't mitigate for Wenger's failure and it's not even an attempt to, but you have to look at Spurs who have a decent squad and a decent manager but the likelihood of them winning the title is remote. The difference is they aren't routinely humiliated by bigger sides and they play decent football.

Now i think we can clearly surpass what Spurs do as we are a bigger club with greater spending power, but there are three clubs in England who will always be able to vastly outspend us so whatever we are battling against the odds.