You have to take a lot of the stuff he says with a pinch of salt, I just don't think he's very honest most of the time.
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The net spend of -9 million in the last 3 seasons is the problem, how many clubs have such a low net spend, moreover homw many big clubs do, probably none.
His net spend in the last decade is ridiculous to be honest, time and time again he's sold our best players and wasted the money on inadequate replacements rather than biting the bullet and going for proven players, he's a master at passing up opportunities to sign quality players.
It was -9m in the 3 years BEFORE the new financial deals came in place and £110m in the last 3 seasons since.
There were times when he could and should have spent more in the last decade but it's clear from that that the new financial deals changed our spending power and the spending, and level of player we've been signing, has been different since. And it has immediately yielded trophies if not the biggest prizes yet.
But now the deals are in place we should be competing - we are of course, we could yet win the Double! I don't think we will, but it's bizarre just how low Wenger's stock has fallen when we're currently 2 points off the top and have draws which really should see us progress to the FA Cup Semi-final.
If we finish below Spurs or Leicester then he should be sacked.
There, I said it.
What has that got to do with the price of fish (as my mum would say, no idea why)? You're saying money has always been available and that the spending since the new financial deals proves that.
There was a clear difference between our net spend (which is surely the most relevant measure of our financial power) before the new financial deals and after.
I think we can all agree that Wenger has been too cautious in the transfer market but there's no doubt the spending has been different since those deals were in place.
Money has always been available. I'm not talking about net spend or balancing the books. What I'm saying is you can't say we could never afford a player like Ozil, Sanchez or even Cech for crying out loud (£10m).
Go to that season where we bought Gervinho, Ox, Park, Santos, Campbell and that's another example of spreading the costs instead of doing what we're doing this season and signing on one massive marquee player a season. Yes, we had to sell players because they grew tired of winning nothing but replace them with quality and don't dilute the quality. Doing that has a knock on effect where we're forced to then sell RVP the following season. Rinse and repeat. :doh:
Cautious is too kind a word for it. He refuses to accept the current state of the transfer market, he feels it is wrong, unjustified, not good value. But he doesn't drive the market so all he's doing is spiting the club and the fans by not spending the extra that could have brought in key players at key moments and made a big different to our history over the last 10 seasons. He's made critical mistakes and a whole generation of potential has been pissed down the pan as a result. His much quoted CL record is an absolute scandal. Yes we have qualified for 12 billion years consecutively, but that in itself becomes meaningless given how we have performed once we got there. All for lack of that little extra investment which he's clearly had because he could afford to keep Diaby in the treatment room for years on £50k per week. That's almost £3mill a year right there, £250mill if you factor in the cost of treatment. He gave long contracts to knobs like Bendtner, gave pay rises to players who achieved nothing. We haven't bee short of cash, we've just spent it on all the wrong things. The best training facilities, the best pitch, a mega stadium, the best facilities any player could ever want. Money no object. But when it comes to the transfer market he chucks it all away by refusing to put the best players in those facilities. In the one critical area without which nothing else can succeed he leaves us short season after season. Because, in his estimation, everyone bar himself is doing it wrong. Fine if that's what he thinks, but then he;s got to go out and prove he's right. He hasn't done that. He's failed and he'll continue to fail for as long as he refuses to admit he's wrong.
Money HAS always been available but the new deals have made a difference too.
That season you're talking about, we lost Fabregas, Nasri, Clichy, Arshavin, Eboue...Bentner :d.
Signing one marquee player would have left us short.
I don't think anyone would argue that Wenger has got things right in the transfer market but if you're arguing that that new financial deals have made no difference and we could have always done what we did in the last couple of years then I don't agree. The key difference in the last few years is we've signed some big players without selling key players, hence the much bigger net spend.
Problem with arguing with Letters is that he keeps on saying erroneous facts and hopes that its repetition will consolidate it as fact. When we moved to the Emirates our net income went up immediately. We started saving money right away irrespective of the stadium payments. We were never in a position where we could not buy quality players, Onkly that we could not do it on the same gargantuan level as City Chelsea and United. We offered 42m +£1 for Suarez before we bought Ozil and before the new TV deals came into effect. Are we saying at that time we could not afford to have offered Pool 50m or even 60? Of couse we could we already had over 150m in the bank at that time. The 200m is increasing year on year. Wenger refuses to spend either because it suits him for CYA (cover your ass) reasons or because the directive from above is to keep the coffer in good balance to enable the club be used as collateral against other Kroenke related deals as we have just seen with his mega ranch purchase.
THe reality is IMO that no one cares about the on field achievements of this club. It is just a vehicle to further wider business interests. Another 10 years of this crapness would suit a lot of rich people just fine. Not to mention their quislings on this forum who are just polar opposite to rationale because it fills a vacuum in their day.
PS we never really SOLD any big players. They left because we could not give them the ambition to stay. A self inflicted curse that may soon be repeated.