Match Reaction vs Bayern Munich (home)

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

The £100m we can afford to spend each season is from what we generate from the stadium, sponsorship deals and TV money I suspect. I don't think any of the money spent has come from us having to dip into the money we have in the bank. What is it? £200m?

We can't compete with those clubs when it comes to the quantity of players and can't afford to stockpile players. I think Chelsea have learned from that episode and City may follow considering how things are going for them.

With the money we generate, we should be able to match them 11 v 11. That Chelsea team top of the table aren't that better than us man for man either and that was the consensus earlier in the season.

Sanchez and Ozil are in and around the same quality bracket as Hazard and Costa but other than that they are superior to us in every area of the pitch.

Now is that as much Wenger's fault as it is the spending differential?....Yeah of course.....but they've dropped 15 points this season.....i think even if a better manager was getting the best out of our current squad that would be very tough to match.

[Power n Glory]

Why are we talking about money anyway? We're struggling to compete with Spurs.
There was a time when money was a factor in why we weren't competing, it's not a factor now.

Exactly.

[IBK]

I just want to go into big games not knowing what the outcome is, having my palms sweaty before the game because it could go either way. I am sick of knowing almost with 100% certainty how our games against the big guys are going to be like. There have been a few outliers like the win against Barcelona at home, against City away and Chelsea this season which does make me sit up and take notice but you know that these victories are more anomalies than the norm.

Frankly, I just want to get excited about the club again.

This.

[Power n Glory]

Sorry £113 million, obviously i'm wildly distorting (False information ha ha)

Chelsea have spent 300 million in transfers in the past three seasons, they have recouped more by getting rid of players they didn't need

But again you miss my point, whether you want to accept it or not the tv money has inflated the value of players we'd look to bring in from abroad. This is why we had to pay over 70million just for Mustafi and Xhaka, why Leroy Sane cost Man City over 40 million etc.

A Griezmann a year or so ago would cost about 40 million, now it's between 60-70 million.

Now will Chelsea spend 180million a year every year? No because they won't need to because they have the most settled squad at the moment, but the idea that they couldn't is absurd.

City and United are no where near where they want to be so they will continue spending in the 150million+ bracket until it works for them

We cannot spend that much

How much money have Arsenal spent over the last 4 windows?

How much would it have cost us to sign Kante, Gabriel Jesus and Mkhitaryan?

There is inflation and there is poor decision making.

[Power n Glory]

Sigh.....it's simply to clarify to people that even when we get rid of Wenger we won't be going toe to toe with Chelsea, City and United every season

People here seem to think it's a be careful what you wish for argument, it's a "he's got to go but don't expect miracles" argument

Are you a mind reader? No one has said that. It's just what you're saying is wrong. The numbers don't add up. I'm just looking at the facts.

[Power n Glory]

Sanchez and Ozil are in and around the same quality bracket as Hazard and Costa but other than that they are superior to us in every area of the pitch.

Now is that as much Wenger's fault as it is the spending differential?....Yeah of course.....but they've dropped 15 points this season.....i think even if a better manager was getting the best out of our current squad that would be very tough to match.

Did you say that when the season started? I'm I lying when people were saying the team looked good enough to compete and we didn't need anyone in the January window? Or did you hold a different view and think we needed to spend £150m to get close to Chelsea?

[IBK]

Mentality is often not enough without money, Money is significantly dented without Mentality. You need both.

People laud Simeone because of Atletis mentality, but they have not been able to break the two club domination in Spain of Barca and Real....that's not a failing. It's just understanding that money is the most important factor in the game, not the only one but the most important for sure.

I think honestly some users on here are frightened to face this reality because it will appear like an excuse for Wenger. We can definitely do better, we can compete but without Kroenke paying out of his pocket we won't be able to break the city-United-Chelsea hegemony, anymore than Atletico can break the Real-Barca one.

I get what you are saying. But it's a mixture of factors, really. If I can be controversial and give Wenger 'credit' for something, in his successful years he showed that there is an alternative route to success - namely buying and developing good but not already 'world class players' and in a sense, we have become conditioned to this approach. I believe firmly that our current squad has more in them than recent results suggest, but the manager has become stale, his tactical shortcomings have been exposed, and the team has lost the togetherness and self-belief that will elevate them. The right manager would IMHO get a lot more out of them - we have as good a squad as the Spuds, for instance. Whether this would be sufficient to compete consistently with the big money teams you have mentioned is doubtful, but we have to accept that we will never adopt the 'star signings' approach that has characterised the very top teams. I think that a club of our resources should be able to challenge for top honours from time to time, but competition is an unfortunate fact of life. Spending massive amounts is undoubtedly the best way to ensure that you are in with a realistic chance of winning the league season in season out, but it is not the only way to achieve occasional success - with the resources available to us. Where we are at present however is someway short of this aim - and we need to think realistically, and our approach needs to be to have a team that we can at least feel has the tools/ability to win against the top teams in any given game. The depressing atmosphere surrounding our club ATM is because currently I don't think we have this. A new manager will hopefully provide the tools - then we build from there.

[Niall_Quinn]

Why are we talking about money anyway? We're struggling to compete with Spurs.
There was a time when money was a factor in why we weren't competing, it's not a factor now.

That's right. There's a lot more to it than just the money. There needs to be a long term plan how money is used and it needs to dovetail into building a squad that can compete. Some of the money doesn't go on transfers at all, it goes into spotting, signing and developing the next Harry Kane or Deli Alli. The spuds still haven't won anything, but you can see there's a plan in place for them, following on from a period where they splurged with the Bale money. But the have clearly learned their lessons. Square pegs in square holes, you use what you have to buy or otherwise obtain what you need. Then you get a smart manager to organise the squad and send them out to execute a clearly defined plan.

Our summer window was panic, not planning. And because so many windows before that were similar it has resulted in a giant mess. A lot of money has been spent and we still have the wrong players in the wrong positions looking totally disorganised and without a plan. The defence is a shambles. All this time later is seems we have one guy, Kos, who can actually defend.

What we have needed for many seasons is a quality striker. We've used Alexis to plug that hole short term but now he's off in the summer and a whole bunch of transfer windows later look where we'll be. Back where we started with Bif up front. Even if we had more money I doubt Wenger could use it effectively. He's the problem, not the lack of money.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Are you a mind reader? No one has said that. It's just what you're saying is wrong. The numbers don't add up. I'm just looking at the facts.

No I'd be wrong if I'd stated that Chelsea had spent that much, but I've said from the outset that they haven't needed to

Has our spending been poor? Of course but I'm not talking about our decision making im talking about our spending power relative to the three clubs I've mentioned.

It doesn't require tea leaf reading. It requires only understanding that tv money has inflated the market and that United, City and Chelsea can outspend us.

The correlation between spending and trophies and the fact that the three clubs spending ability is largely unrestrained doesn't require me to be a mind reader.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

Did you say that when the season started? I'm I lying when people were saying the team looked good enough to compete and we didn't need anyone in the January window? Or did you hold a different view and think we needed to spend £150m to get close to Chelsea?

At the start of the season we hadn't bought anyone and when the transfer window was closed we were five points behind the leaders.
Looking at the squad it's clear they have underperformed and that's very much oh the manager, but what cannot be ignored is a team that I state has dropped 15 points all season. Now Conte is a good manager but no I don't believe we could have competed this season with a side that has won 21 out of 27 games, it would be very difficult.

And that's a result of proven quality, the kind of proven quality that we wouldn't be able to catch up with by one summers spending