Quote Originally Posted by BoringBoringArsenal View Post
Agreed, but if your bosses are happy with your output, and pat you on the back at the end of every profit making financial year, then who the hell can tell you that what you are doing isn't great? You have to remember who Wenger is really answerable to at the end of the day.

I honestly believe that he's given a tight budget to work with, and said budget only comes after major asset stripping. It has always been the Arsenal way. Even in our most successful era, this was how it was. An example is the sale of Anelka and the subsequent purchase of Henry. Now that worked well and we all hailed Wenger as a genius. Thing is, inevitably, others soon caught on and found ways to better what we were doing, especially when the arrogance and complacency started to seep in - a bit similar to the smartphone industry a la Blackberry and Apple/Android situation.

As for SAF, he really has no alternative but to reap on field success, because as heavily indebted as the mancs are, he's still given funds to work with in the transfer market without having to 1st strip down his team. The manc **** Board ensure that money is invested in the squad for the purpose of strengthening.
Our board are certainly not blameless. At best they've sat back and been far too content to watch the money keep rolling in. At worst they've asset stripped and made Wenger's job impossible. I think Wenger has been too principled though, in an era of clubs spending £20m on mediocre players he's refused to play that game. Admirable up to a point but you have to mix it with a bit of pragmatism. He's clearly not the bumbling idiot ™ make out, even this season it's looking like we might scrape a top 4 finish, you don't do that every single year without having some nous, but we wouldn't have had to break the bank to be properly competitive.