Is money still a problem, or is it Wenger?

[Dein-machine]

The announcement of the sponsorships deal in the midst of all the speculation about funding and our transfer policy, it became impossible for Wenger not to spend. In a recent interview, he said he didn't want to bankrupt the club, hence the lack of spending. That has to be an exaggeration and why I don't trust his words regarding this issue. We spent £40m on Ozil but we've had seasons where we've spent £40-£60m on players but we've spread the cost across some very average players instead of putting everything in the pot on a true world class player. It's still not clear if we're now strapped with cash because we didn't go for Higuain or make a much improved offer in Suarez.

If we'd have used our money wisely and spent money on world class player a year, we'd have been able to build on a potential title winning side instead of having to start so far back after the core has been chipped away at. But what's done is done and I hope we have now learned our lesson.

Agreed - but the problem is one world class player a year could still take time to make a competitive team. Fabs was always going back to Barca no matter what which has left as with RVP being the only world class player we've had since the Invincibles. With all the improvements this year I still only class Ozil as our one true world class player, if its going to take another 5 to make us compete will he be around for 5 years. Unfortunatley immediate success is going to need quicker investment than that. No team has world class players in every position, even the great Barcelona teams of late regularly played Puyol, Pique, Mascarano, Busquets who whilst are very good team players, they are not world class.
If we're happy that Ches is starting to become top keeper, I think we need better full-backs & another centre back to partner Kos, we need world class DM & a world class striker. If we could find & buy these sooner rather than later, we can compete with anyone. The other issue is Wenger. I can't argue that whatever we do at Colney gets us playing nice football etc but he's tactically weak & is useless from the bench. We could do with someone on the bench who knows how to change things, to react in match situations. Wenger is clueless, his stubborness means he takes it personally if he has to change things becusae it would suggest he wsn't right from the start.

[Power n Glory]

Buying any Player is a gamble, and (at the time) we didn't have the money to put all of our eggs in a single basket. Could you imagine the uproar if we had gambled all of our transfer kitty on a Flop?

While I agree we have had a fair few bad eggs (Arshavin, Park, Santos, Squillani, Gervinho, etc), but we have had a decent number of Players that have come good and will play a role in our Team in the future (Cazorla, Podolski, Giroud, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Ramsey, etc).

But look at the uproar now. Players constantly leaving, fans disheartened and not bothering to renew season tickets, written off by our rivals….would it have been worse if we’d have signed Suarez or Torres before Liverpool got to them? Pushed the boat out for players like Xabi Alonso, Ribery or Mata. Just one massive signing each year. It would have been enough to keep the fans and players on side or at least kept that hope. Just look at what Ozil has done., Bendy, Denilson, Vela….the years we wasted on these and the sacrifices we’ve made just wasn’t worth it in the end. Sprinkle on top crap like Chamakh and Gervinho….it just wasn’t worth it. Wenger’s rep hasn’t taken a battering.

[Power n Glory]

Agreed - but the problem is one world class player a year could still take time to make a competitive team. Fabs was always going back to Barca no matter what which has left as with RVP being the only world class player we've had since the Invincibles. With all the improvements this year I still only class Ozil as our one true world class player, if its going to take another 5 to make us compete will he be around for 5 years. Unfortunatley immediate success is going to need quicker investment than that. No team has world class players in every position, even the great Barcelona teams of late regularly played Puyol, Pique, Mascarano, Busquets who whilst are very good team players, they are not world class.
If we're happy that Ches is starting to become top keeper, I think we need better full-backs & another centre back to partner Kos, we need world class DM & a world class striker. If we could find & buy these sooner rather than later, we can compete with anyone. The other issue is Wenger. I can't argue that whatever we do at Colney gets us playing nice football etc but he's tactically weak & is useless from the bench. We could do with someone on the bench who knows how to change things, to react in match situations. Wenger is clueless, his stubborness means he takes it personally if he has to change things becusae it would suggest he wsn't right from the start.

Cesc would have left on a high at least!

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

I don't care much for number crunching or financial musing but most of the number crunchers who follow us have expressed the view that we can most certainly still spend big on another 1/2 world class players in the next couple transfer windows. Moreover it is not an endless cycle. We mainly find ourselves in a position of need now, because we have been shedding quality players down the years.

We spent nigh on the entirety of last summer chasing a forward and a DCM. We got both in Sanogo and Flamini, but neither of those guys were the key cog in our initial plans and we failed to get our prime targets. The last few hours was spent scrambling around for Chelsea's 4th choice forward. In light of that, I can't believe the manager believes the squad is complete, so the fans aren't alone in thinking we aren't quite there yet. Wenger is just prepared to ease it out over a few years.

In the summer he was quite on saying something along the lines of 'we're in a good position to challenge in the next 2-3 years' which really worried me at the time, but also hinted that Wenger was willing, if not erring towards acquiring some of his top targets over some time and not all at once.

Unfortunately the manager is still in less of a rush than we are. Even with his contract being up soon.

[Ollie the Optimist]

In 2013, we have won more points then any other team. Ok thats over two seasons but still thats a huge step up from recent years, our problem has been the big games. I think Arsene has discovered a great team spine, and over the summer added in one huge signing in Ozil to go with Cazorla as the stand out stars as such. we have great first team players, giroud, podolski, theo, ramsey, jack etc. This team keeps winning even when written off. We've been top of the league since mid september. Almost two months. when was the last time we topped the league for that long?

our problem however is the big games (I'm not going to include the COC from last week) but in the league, we haven't beaten a top team (unless you count spurs as a top team) at home in 2013. we lost to city, drew with liverpool and united. add in the champions league and we lost to dortmund and munich (though they are two best teams in europe, no shame in that) so this month will show us all what how much we have improved this season. Arsene looks different this season, he looks driven, hungry for success, so do the players. the passion in their celebrations when they win/score is great to see and i also find they look visibly hurt when they lose which i like to see.


but to answer the OP, is it money or wenger? well as i said above, i think AW has created a great first team squad capable of winning the league but IMO can't challenge on four fronts. I think AW has almost decided to go hell for leather and win the league and if he wins it this season, it will be his greatest ever achievement. I don't think AW was pressured into buying Ozil either. To me, the stories read that he was offered ozil for 42 million and he just did it, not to please us as fans but because to him, it was still a bargain. He's always said he never has a problem spending money if its a fair value. 42 million for Ozil IMO isn't a fair value, its fucking bargain. He got the deal done within 48 hours. no mucking around, said yes and one phone call later Ozil was convinced. I think AW is happy with this squad, and its a real close knit squad, each player willing to fight for each other, put the shift in. Going out and buying a ton of players doesn't always work. See palace, spurs and city this season for example. However i do think we are one striker short and i think AW will buy again in January. He wants this league title and he knows this is his chance and if he can get a good striker for reasonable cost, hell do it IMO

[IBK]

Good post, Ollie - but I think you are wrong in a couple of respects.

I think Wenger was prepared to pay for Ozil because he was a long term target - perhaps the only target that was genuine 'super super' quality in his book. For me, this doesn't mean that he is now prepared to meet market price of players in general. If in January there is no player that conforms to his very very narrow criterion for paying money, not only will he not spend big, but he won't spend decent for a player - eg a striker - who would be top four material but does not meet his particular standards.

We have seen many times that even when we want a very decent player (Higuain?) - Wenger will miss out rather than paying what he sees as over the odds. And this part of his philosophy leaves us short.

The other part is seen in the players he has let go - rather than paying a penny more in wages than he thinks is merited. All of the recent top 3 Premiership teams have benefited from this and taken players from us (Spurs, not so much ). IMO had AW been in Rogers' position this Summer he would have let Suarez go to an EPL competitor - because of his 'purist' philosophy.

This is not saying that AW is shit. If we had our key players fit more often I think we would be genuinely competitive. But IMO it is Wneger's aversion to being 'extravagant' in his eyes, rather than lack of funds that has seen us spend net only 11M in transfer fees since 2005 (Ozil included).

[GP]

Wenger would absolutely not have let Suarez go. 100%.

[milla]

Wenger would absolutely not have let Suarez go. 100%.

Like he did with RVP and Nasri and Cesc.

[The Ogg Monster]

Flamini a masterstroke....really? You don't think we only brought him in because he was free and thus a low cost low risk option?

Really.

[GP]

Like he did with RVP and Nasri and Cesc.

Cesc was a special case, rvc and nasri were in the last year of their contracts.

No way he would have sold Suarez. Not a single chance.