Reason is because if we did bid the money Dortmund want we'd then have to sign him and stump up, or find some other reason not to sign him. The club doesn't want to spend big money, it wants to buy 2nd tier players for smaller amounts, it doesn't care about competing, only about the balance sheet.
What's clear to me is that this club penny pinches, instead of going out and signing genuine quality for decent money it goes out and signs 2nd tier players for less but overall the cost of those 2-3 players would have been enough to sign that top quality player, it's a false economy.
I honestly don't know if it's because Wenger doesn't want to buy star players or because of pure stupidity.
Aren't Ozil and Sanchez star players?
Ozil was a panic buy, no doubt about it in my mind, the club were under a lot of pressure and went all out (very out of character), a bit like the summer when we signed about 5 players at the end of the transfer window (most of them rubbish).
With Sanchez, Wenger probably saw him as a bit of a project after his not overly successful spell at Barca where he wasn't a starter, he certainly wasn't at the peak of his powers and wasn't a player who had just had a great season.
Even if those two are, they are the exception rather than the rule, 2 players in 12 years after losing countless of our best players at the peak of their powers.
Last edited by Özim; 27-06-2017 at 11:28 AM.
But it's not 2 in 12 years, it's 2 in 2 or 3 years (was it 2? Can't remember if we signed them in consecutive seasons, I think we did).
For most of those 12 years our spending was restricted by the stadium move, as I said Dein has backed that up. Since the new sponsorship deals were sorted out there has been a clear change in our spending.