Quote Originally Posted by Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie View Post
Don't know why we didn't sign Mikhytarian, possibly because Wenger thought we had enough attacking midfielders, however is he the quality of an Aubemeyang or a Griezmann who can also play wide? No he's not and they would cost twice as much

By August our priority was a centre back, a defensive midfielder and a striker

When you have a transfer budget that incorporates wages as well as the transfer fee, it's a bit more difficult to say this player is good value player I'll have that. Does that excuse Wenger for dithering and signing Lucas and Mustafi as panic signings no.

Would Kante have joined us over Chelsea, they'd simply be able to outbid us on wages.

Of course when Mahrez and Vardy decide they'd rather stay at Leicester than come to us you know you have a problem.
I’ve said this before but the cost of strikers have gone up because there aren’t that many world class strikers around that have records of putting 30+ goals away a season. Prices being touted around for Griezmann and what Higuin went for can’t be seen as the norm for every position. For strikers, you have to be prepared to take a risk on a kid with raw talent. Gabriel Jesus went for around £30m, Gabriel Barbosa went for £25m and now we’re hearing about Wenger spotting Mbappe before anyone else.

We were linked with Griezmann before he went to Atleitico. He cost them £25m but we instead went for Welbeck (£17m). As said above, there are strikers out there we could have bought before the price tag rocketed and the same applies today but we’re taking a bigger risk because most of them are unproven.

By August our priority was a centre back, a defensive midfielder and a striker
Again, were there no players available that we couldn't have bought for a £100m?

When you have a transfer budget that incorporates wages as well as the transfer fee
And where did you get that information from? I remember some years back you made the same assumption when we signed Ozil and said all the money went on that deal. Can we stick to the facts and not make assumptions? We're only talking about transfer fees and this just reminds me of the conversations being had back when didn't have this much money to spend but fans were jumping to conclusions based of ambiguous statements from Wenger and the club.