Us not getting Hazard is understandable, although if we go back to 2003-2004 we'd at least be in with a shout of getting him even if teams could offer him more money. However, that doesn't excuse us passing up the opportunity to get good quality players who wouldn't have cost the earth, which we've done over the last 5 years. The names have already been mentioned in this thread (Alonso, Mata, Parker, Ben Arfa/Cabaye etc), and instead we went to the bargain basement and settled for dross like Chamakh, Silvestre, Bischoff, Park, Denilson, Squillaci, Almunia, Fabianski, etc. Wenger has made some decent signings like Vermaelen, Sagna and now Podolski but they are vastly outnumbered by the crap in recent years.
Eduardo; Nasri; Koscielny; Song; Oxlade; Arshavin; Nasri; Arteta; Mertesacker. All players who were either 'names' or quality players. Not sure Wenger's got it any more wrong than other top managers when evened out. Even the great SAF had to rely on 2 geriatrics this season because he didn;t have sufficient quality in house...
Putting the laughter back into manslaughter
David Ornstein @bbcsport_david
M'Vila camp tell me he will not be joining Arsenal or any other PL club as things stand. Only serious interest from elsewhere in Europe #afc
He's exactly the type of player we need, and he wouldn't cost the earth nor would we be in competition with Man City, Chelsea, Man Utd etc. Why aren't we seriously interested?
Fair point but some of those were simply bought in to replace first team players. For example, Eduardo replaced Henry, Arteta replaced Cesc and Nasri replaced Hleb. He should have bought this calibre of players to augment the squad, not simply to replace players who had left.
How much do you actually know about M'Vila? Why do you say he's exactly what we need? Seems to me with Sagna out we need a FB more than another midfielder. And even though Podolski is here, another striker is required if you consider Chamakh, Vela, Bendtner aren't viable. Jack will be back, who are we dropping for M'Vila? Song or Arteta? I know it's good to have options but chucking a load of cash at another midfield player seems luxurious when we are short on quality in other areas.
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