Quote Originally Posted by selassie View Post
We kept on renewing their contracts when they were offering very little playing time. It's not like they were tied to long term deals, we didn't even reduce their weekly wage, we had 35 year olds on fairly big wages playing between 5-10 games a season, how is that not a big deal?!!!

It wouldn't be such a fuss if they contributed or we didn't penny pinch and dither on fees and player contract duration when attempting to bring new players in.

I'm not overly fussed on the Asano deal, it's another opportunistic punt on a young player, he either makes it or he doesn't.

If Wenger wishes to load the squad with potential that's up to him, I'm more concerned about him fixing deficiencies in the first team.
Arteta only had one bad season before his last, so it wasn't obvious he was going to break down again in his last season. Rosicky still made 250+ appearances for Arsenal and when he was available, was always a valued contributor to the team. A lot of fans saw that despite his injury record, which is why he got a good send off. I also think their experience and maturity was part of the reason Wenger wanted them to stick around too. Why should their wages mean anything to us? We're not in charge of budgets, not accountants or financial experts. The club could obviously afford it and with money always available to spend, it had no impact on the transfer policy. It was never a case of funds not being there to spend. Just choosing not to, which is entirely different.