By Billy “le chien” McGraw, visiting professor of psychology at the Centre hospitalier universitaire de Dijon, Dijon, France.
Well mes amis here I am at the University of Burgundy (I chose it because of the wine) and yet still keeping up with the ins and outs and roundabouts of the world of football.
And casting my eyes upon the waters of the insulternet I found this…
“We cannot have a situation where Summer of 2015 Arsene Wenger is allowed to amble through the off-season, unwilling to make tough decisions or take any risks.”
That quote from a blog (not mark you a bloggetta but a serious blog which I gather many readers of Untold also consider from temps de temps) seriously disturbed my afternoon nap today, (a nap I needed after a stroll round the cafes of Dijon in an attempt to get a good feel for the local vino) and not just because the grammar is wrong (although I corrected it in the quote above – and heaven knows I make more grammatical errors in one sentence than a mongoose eats crabs on a Friday afternoon in Hawaii) but because it struck me as odd.
There are several reasons why a manager might do nothing in the transfer window and I will come to them in a mo, but first take a look at the sentence above. Particularly “Arsene Wenger is allowed to amble through the off-season.”
And that made me wonder – what evidence was there for the ambling (flâner as we say in France, or perhaps marcher tranquillement). Did the writer catch sight of him out for a stroll peut-être or did Mr W have words with a journalist saying how lovely it was to take it easy in the summer months.
And then there is the word “allowed”. Someone “allowed” Mr Wenger the luxury of the amble – so who would that be? And more to the point how did the writer know? Was he there lurking in the car park as Mr W prepared to be driven home after the final game, only to see Mr Gazidis trot over and say, “it’s been a hard season monsieur le boss, you toddle on home, put your footsies up and watch back to back series of The Killing while I tidy the office up a bit.”
It seems unlikely.
So given that this scenario didn’t happen, what did?
The arrangements of the club vis a vis the future look of the team all takes time and a huge amount of knowledge which the manager doesn’t get by an “amble through the off-season, unwilling to make tough decisions or take any risks.” He took decisions about Wojciech Szczęsny, Lukas Podolski, Yaya Sanogo, Abou Diaby, Carl Jenkinson, Damián Martínez, Serge Gnabry, Joel Campbell, Ryo Miyaichi, Gedion Zelalem, and Chuba Akpom and I am not sure which ones of those were wrong.
But beyond all that internal activity there are several reasons why a manager might appear to do nothing in the transfer window.
It is true that there were no eye catching transfers that summer, but in the previous transfer year there were
| Date | Player | Postion | Transfer from |
| Jan 15 | Gabriel Paulista | DF | Villarreal CF |
| Sept 14 | Danny Welbeck | FW | Manchester United |
| July 14 | Calum Chambers | DF | Southampton FC |
| July 14 | David Ospina | GK | OGC Nice |
| July 14 | Mathieu Debuchy | DF | Newcastle United |
| July 14 | Alexis Sánchez | FW | FC Barcelona |
| July 14 | Joel Campbell | FW | Olympiakos Piräus |
| July 14 | Francis Coquelin | MF | SC Freiburg |
| July 14 | Ignasi Miquel | DF | Leicester City |
| July 14 | Jack Jebb | MF | Arsenal FC [Youth] |
| July 14 | Glen Kamara | MF | Arsenal FC [Youth] |
| July 14 | Emiliano Martínez | GK | Sheffield Wednesday |
| July 14 | Brandon Ormonde-Ottewill | DF | Arsenal FC [Youth] |
Now you may exclaim that some of these “transfers” were in fact the sorting out of matters that related to players who were already at the club. But I would say that if M. Wenger didn’t do that we wouldn’t have Campbell, Bellerin, Iwobi and Coquelin in the first team now. It is the manager who has to take the final decision on all these players and see which ones should stay and which go, who should be loaned, and who should remain at Arsenal.
And just consider these youngsters. Where does the writer of the “ambling” comments think the manager gets his knowledge from in relation to whether Iwobi should stay, go or be loaned. On whether Coquelin was really the big deal in midfield, or who we should be signing in the future.
And that leads to another point – some of these deals take more than one transfer window to get through because the selling club won’t sell at all, or won’t sell to Arsenal. And there is the question of just how fast a team needs to be changed around. Bring in a whole new load of players each summer and you start getting a level of instability that is hard to correct.
Let’s also take the timing issue a stage further. Wenger saw that Coquelin could be the real deal in defensive midfield – a position that half the clubs in the Premier League were looking to fill. But he also knew that Coquelin was a different sort of player, and needed someone particular to play alongside him – another hard to find player.
Eventually he found him – off the radar of every other club and playing in Switzerland. Not just a great player but a player who was perfect to play alongside Coquelin. That transfer didn’t happen in the summer, but was undoubtedly being made ready.
Plus we know from Untold’s statistics that most transfers don’t come off in the first season – but quite a few more do progress over time. So there was a need to see how all the transfer activity bedded in.
Yet this writer has the knowledge that Mr Wenger was “unwilling to make tough decisions or take any risks.”
Perhaps he did make decisions but the deal was scuppered – but then even taking the decision not to buy another midfielder because Elneny would be able to move in January 2016 was a brilliant decision. Supposing he had bought another player of less ability. Would that have been a great decision?
No, I think not. And I think the evidence that the manager was “unwilling to make tough decisions or take any risks,” is simply not there.
Plus I’ve written all this without a mention of Jeff Reine Adelaide. Somewhere around that time a decision was made to go chasing him – and eventually it paid off. And I suspect we might well be thankful for that.
- Arsenal v Crystal Palace Sunday 17 April 2016 – The Match Officials. Arsenal achieve the 1 in 2 billion chance.
- Are Arsenal fans the only fans who are endlessly miserable? It seems not.
- PGMO admits Untold Arsenal was right
- Forget the training and the preparation. Get these two things right and you will win the league.
Untold Arsenal has published five books on Arsenal – all are available as paperback and three are now available on Kindle. The books are
- The Arsenal Yankee by Danny Karbassiyoon with a foreword by Arsene Wenger.
- Arsenal: the long sleep 1953 – 1970; a view from the terrace. By John Sowman with an introduction by Bob Wilson.
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football. By Tony Attwood, Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews.
- Making the Arsenal: a novel by Tony Attwood.
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal by Mark Andrews.
You can find details of all five on our new Arsenal Books page
- A selected anniversary from beyond football and a nice picture of the stadium and a train.
- Today’s Arsenal anniversaries and the Insult of the Day
- A list of the most recent posts from Untold and the Arsenal History Society
- Details of all the the books Untold Arsenal has published
Arsenal has needed a good striker for a long time now. We need a striker that can be consistent enough to score at least 30 goals a season. IF this does not get fixED the club should brace itself for another era of drought. Wenger feels that his opinions are way ahead of fan’s opinions. Even though he is the pro here, you cannot ignore the analysis of millions of football mad fans watching your team week in week out. Many fans knew that players like Mertesacker, Senderos, Almunia, Adebayor, Denilson e.t.c where liabilities months before Wenger realised it. Arsenal is always heading into seasons with a major deficiency in either attack, midfield or defence. THAT IS NOT FRUGALITY IT IS CARELESSNESS.
“He took decisions about Wojciech Szczęsny, Lukas Podolski, Yaya Sanogo, Abou Diaby, Carl Jenkinson, Damián Martínez, Serge Gnabry, Joel Campbell, Ryo Miyaichi, Gedion Zelalem, and Chuba Akpom and I am not sure which ones of those were wrong.”
Maybe should approach the question from a opposite angle, why did we buy these players in the first place.
Dear me some of you really can polish a turd and put a positive spin on anything.The season has been a failure.The only 2 players that have come good at arsenal on that list are sanchez and coq.The latters rise in form was more down to luck than judgement.The majority are bang on average and as proved the way 2015/16 has panned out are not good enough to elevate us to the premier crown never mind the top of europe.Glaring deficiencies in our squad were so obvious that everyone outside untold could see,hell most of you thought chez and ospina were good enough and we didn’t need cech.the pundits ,media and tv all told us that we needed a quality striker but wenger decided that we didnt need one or werent going to try for one and that decision has come back to haunt him.That is why you are seing more and more arsenal fans wanting a change and that he has taken us as far as he can.And whiler hes as it take that scrooge kronke with him.
Since when as coming 3rd been achieved by average players? Which is what you appear to be claiming, John
Mr Wenger apparently said that we have created more chances than any other team in the league. That’s not true.
Spuds have created 432, City 425 and Liverpool are joint third with us with 388.
He may have impression that we have been making more chances than anyone else and yet we are closer to fifth place than to the top of the table so I guess that means he will go for a top striker next summer.
People, it’s not about the squad being bad, it’s about the squad being given too much responsibility on field and them not taking it, or not being ready for it.
I think a squad needs the input of their manager/coach while on the pitch. The manager/coach should be at least 1 preferably 2 steps ahead in his thinking and analysis of the game, and can surely see the reaction of his players when things go wrong.
This is the time when the team needs some support from the manager, and not just at 1/2 time.
The strategy of Arsenal has become too transparent, so that even teams that should really have no chance against an Arsenal team playing well, end up out thinking and out strategyfying (new word) Arsenal, and this has happened more times this season, signifying that the teams are figuring out how to play Arsenal more and more.
Personally i think there is an analysis DVD passed around these teams on how to beat Arsenal. Well, i won’t be surprised at all.
The title should be more like: ‘We shouldn’t have to endure a situation like the summer of 2015, but we probably will.’
Why don’t Arsenal challenge for the PL title anymore?
Because they don’t have to. There’s absolutely no pressure on the manager or players to win the title, all that’s required is CL qualification, or as we’ve come to know it, ‘the 4th place trophy’.
We know there’s no pressure because we got it directly from our major share-holder, Stan Kroenke, who said ‘If you want to win titles you wouldn’t get involved…’
Your comparison with Ferguson and Wenger regarding their age is irrelevant to anything football related. Forget top four, from 1992 up until when Ferguson retired in 2013, United were never out of the top three, and he never went more than two years without winning a trophy.
Arsene Wenger just doesn’t possess the same qualities as Alex Ferguson, and I would imagine the drive, desire and ruthlessness instilled by Ferguson at United has never been seen at The Emirates.
Arsene Wenger’s ego and personal greed know no bounds, however, because at a time when he could be trying to improve things at the club, as well as fixing his relationship with the majority of the fan-base, he’s off to the Euro’s.
What we pretty much know for sure is that whatever Wenger does in the summer, it will not be anywhere near enough. How do we know this? Because Wenger is a creature of habit who isn’t going to change, whether it’s needed or not.
Oh look, the 420 guy is back.
WorldFootball had a note, I am not sure where it originates or when for that matter. But apparently, Wenger has made a comment about Brexit. If England vote to leave the EU, that decision will do more to shape what the rest of the silly season is about than anything else.
Josif, I can find no evidence that Mr W said what you say he apparently said. Please can you supply the source of your information
GG – what an extraordinary question. He bought them because he thought they could turn into good players. I fully admit I don’t have a full analysis but the data I do have suggests Arsenal get more of the younger players we buy through to first team level or a good sell on fee than most if not all other clubs. Do you have any evidence to the contrary.
The gun – where is your evidence? We published an article the other day to show that simply having a 30 goals centre forward is no guaranatee of success, and indeed many teams do well without such a player.
Aha, one of the sites founders!
Good day Mr Attwood.
Despite all the bluster and rhetoric from Mr Wenger about Tottenham and trying to convince everyone that there isn’t a power shift in North London, the facts are that this is a culmination of a momentum that has been growing in recent years.
So my question for every Arsenal supporter out there is this:
Why are Tottenham much more efficient with their spend than Arsenal, and why do they get more value for money than Arsenal? Or, why are they appearing to be more intelligent with their set-up than Arsenal are with theirs?
Tony,
The point I was trying to make was that while you were rightly giving him credit for moving theses players on, he should take respondibility for brining some of them to the club in the first place.
Herb’s army, coming on here and posing a question the answer to which has been explored in recent posts isn’t very helpful. Untold doesn’t have a complete answer to that yet but we are certainly getting closer to it – if you would care to go back and read.
GG Of course that is right as you say. But for any sense to be made of this situation we also need to see how many players are brought in by other clubs who then don’t become regular first teamers or get sold on at a profit. Every club brings in lots of players who don’t make it.
Perhaps you could point me in the direction of those answers, Mr Attwood?
https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/wenger-not-worried-finishing-below-004000669.html
Here is a source Tony.
Herb, very significant concerns have been raised at the level of the EC concerning European transfers and the legitimacy of them, and Tottenham’s name has been cited. Questions have been asked about difference in cited transfer values and subsequent changes to financial arrangements after contracts have been arranged, and the fact that amounts cited are often different in different documents.
@Herb’s Army,
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch! Tottenham spent only about £4m less than Arsenal in the last 5 seasons and may still finish below Arsenal just like the last 20+ seasons. Hope you’ll come back and apologize when Arsenal does overtake them.
Tony,
Another important factor to consider is how long it takes to make the decision that a player isn’t suitable or good enough, as the likelihood is that only when the players is moved on will a replacement be made. Hard to quantify this I know but crucial nevertheless, on that point you would have your opinion as to how successful were are and I have mine, on a scale of 1 to 10 I would say we are in the lower region.
I would suggest that some posters here have never run a business or a sports club. Paying the bills is the number one concern regardless of whether the club is professional, or not for profit. Staying afloat so you can indulge your passion is always the number one concern because if you win the league or sell a lot of product but still go bankrupt…well, I hope you have rich relations. Hopefully you make a profit and sell a lot of product/win the league but staying out of hock has to be number one priority.
I want the Arsenal to win every trophy available, no doubt, and I am disappointed when we don’t but if we don’t go bankrupt we do have another chance next year. That is the beauty of sport; we wipe the slate clean at the end of May and start again in August. I should point out that Arsenal takes a second place behind my family. I am not happy when we lose but I bring my own weather to the party. I refuse to let a loss or 2nd, 3rd or whatever finish discolour the time I could spend with my boys…often coaching them at football, strangely enough. So, cheer up people, we have a match tomorrow, which we hope the Arsenal win but if not, bring a smile to whomever you are with.
Herbs Army
Spurs finished below Arsenal for 20 years and if by chance they are 3 points ahead of Arsenal for one season you think they are better than wengers team. One good year does not weigh more than 20 years of superiority.
Pls call a spade a spade.
arsenal fan tv just did the video on arsene wenger says summer transfer gonna be limited and i am so surprise of the amount of abuse given to the club manager on the comment section from the so call fans of Arsenal football club.the WOB and the AAA flocks so freely running their mouth in the media this days’ when you just dont like someone or dont want him anymore,whatever he said or done is just wrong in your eyes. thats just the reality of some arsenal fan this days when the true supporters just left with untold arsenal for the positive spins of the football club they love
And the site brags about evidence. Probably 99% of the claims in the article have no backing evidence. Practice what you preach folks.
An interesting and enjoyable article by Billy “le chien”.
Unsurprisingly, it has wound up the aaaa’s and spuddies, led by the herpes army, their response to logic being totally illogical – as usual! 🙂
A special quote to Mr. Herbs Army:
“A CLUB SHOULD BE LIKE A GREAT BIG FAMILY WITH ALL MEMBERS OF IT STICKING AND PULLING TOGETHER IN THE SAME DIRECTION”
These lovely words are from… Herbert Chapman.
Maybe you should stop misusing the name of our great manager from the past, Mr. Herbs army.
You are being very disrespectful for his legacy.
Brilliant comment posted by Backagain after another article earlier today
The following text was lifted from Facebook and really sums things up nicely
“AFCL – Arsenal Football Club London!
Somebody asked me earlier if I wanted a ticket for the game on Sunday. Without hesitating I responded “No Thanks, fuck sitting with those wankers!” . I didn’t ask, but the ticket would probaby have been free – Truth is I didn’t care. “Those wankers?” well sadly that refers to the vast majority of people who now attend the souless bowl that is The Emirates stadium. I haven’t called them Arsenal supporters because in my opinion they don’t deserve that title. The last time I Iooked it up ‘support’ meant to ‘hold up’, to ‘carry aloft’, to ‘underpin’ or something like that. These people are not ‘supporters’. Anyone who screams abuse at the players or brings banners asking the manager to leave is not a ‘supporter’. They are no better than ‘Glory hunters’ who have spat their dummy because we haven’t won whatever it is they want us to win in a while. Back-to-back FA cup wins isn’t enough! Almost 20yrs of consequetive Champions league qualification isn’t enough! Living with the knowledge that we’ve seen our team do things ‘in recent memory’ that virtually no other fans can imagine & that only a few other clubs will ever do, is not enough! Yes! I want Arsenal to win trophies, yes I do not like when we do not acheive what I would like us to achieve & Yes I think Wenger has reached his zenith & his glory days are over. I’m also not a fan of the current aloof ownership who clearly only see the club as a means of ‘making money’. I understand all of those things, but I also understand that you cannot ‘win’ all the time & if your attachment to a club is solely or mostly about ‘winning’ then what use are you to that club. If you judge a club only by what it can do for ‘You’ or what glories it can provide for ‘You’ to revel in then what value are you to the players & mangement? In essence: Where is your SUPPORT when it is truly required? Any fool can wear a red & white jesters hat at a trophy parade or poke fun at a rival who has won less. Any fool can gob off down the pub when the trophies are rolling in! Any fool can spit & froth at the players or attempt to hound the manager out when no obvious replacement is on the horizon! The Emirates stadium is now rammed full of such fools! . . . . . I sat among the Scousers at Goodison pk the other week. We played well & won 2.0. At the end of the game some people sung about getting Kronke out then they unveiled a WENGER OUT! banner. These people are not Arsenal supporters. I respect their right to do what they want outside the stadium, but I will never abuse an Arsenal manager whilst he’s doing his job or sing shit about the owners at such an innapropriate moment. We are not Leeds, we’re the opposite of a ‘financial mess’. We are not Aston Villa, on route to obscurity! Any team that currently sits above Man Utd, Man City & Chelsea is hardly on the brink of ‘being forgotten! The Scousers asked me ‘what’s all this about laaa?’ & they looked horrified when I explained. “Fookin’ hell” said one “what have yooze got to be moaning about?” I felt like a father trying to justify the fact that his child had deliberatly shat his pants because their were no blue smarties left in the packet! . . . . .
We used to have a Football club! It won, it lost, it excited us & it sometimes bored us senseless, but it was our club We SUPPORTED it regardless. Nowadays Football has been taken away from people like me/us. Billionaire owners, multi millionaire players & managers with more economics degrees than coaching badges are now standard fayre & as a big club we naturally have all of that! I do not celebrate any of that. I hate it, but I accept that things nowadays are way beyond our influence! Our job is to show ‘support’ & hope that success will come our way. Not to be irritants whos behaviour slowly but surely eats away at the fabric of a club until there is nothing left. Unless you’re a glory hunter – Football is not solely about Winning! Winning is beautiful, but if you don’t win everybody that you think contributed to that ‘non-victory’ is not a cunt! . . . .
I SUPPORT Arsenal & I accept everything about us is not perfect, but if you abuse any player whilst he’s wearing the shirt, attempt to hound out the manager ‘during a game’ or bring nothing, but negativty & your ‘demands’ for Glory to the stadium then I have no desire to sit anywhere near you! . . . . . Try Supporting the team, irrellevant of the result. Not whinging & booing because they’ve ‘ruined your weekend’ – You might be suprised by what we can achieve & if we win Nothing then at least keep your integrity & leave your toys in the pram – because we are The Arsenal!”
What a surreal experience!
I read an excellent, reasoned article by Tony founded in fact and analysis. Then I plunge into a series of negative and unfounded assertions plus the appropriate 38 pushes of the like / dislike buttons to ‘back’ them up.
Go and spend your time elsewhere the lot of you, I say! At least I didn’t waste my time reading them after a cursory glance.
Just read the post quoted by Walter.
Having got tickets for our matches against Crystal Palace and Norwich, I am hoping to be sitting near proper supporters and not a bunch of whingers. But even if I am, I will be vocally supporting the team and I’m sure thousands of others will be as well.
GoingGoingGooner
Seriously?
Your comment is right out of circa 2006-7 season when Arsenal cash balance was around £53m and their net spend a negative 836,000.
The” spend as little as posible lobby”, otherwise known as UA, would’ve said then that Arsenal needed to keep this amount in the bank for day to day operations and perhaps as some sort of requirement from the bank that had financed the new stadium.
As the cash balance ballooned every year reaching over £101m and £127m in 2009 and 2010 respectively, yet the net spend for the 2009-10 season a whopping negative £31m, the mantra on UA changed into ” well, maybe we could’ve spend more each season since the stadium move, but what’s an extra 20-30 million a year when other clubs can spend three times that….”. Ignoring of course that Arsenal never had to match anyone’s spending pound for pound since they had the one thing the oil clubs never had – the continuity of management.
And when finally the cash balance reached the £200m mark, a sum so vast that it has never been reached by any football club( for a very good reason, since hording cash is counterproductive in a inflationary transfer market), the mantra on UA changed again and morphed into ” Arsenal tried but there were no players available”
Show me one person ,sane or otherwise ,that has ever demanded Arsenal spend all their cash on players thus risking the club’s financial well being and I will retract my post and apologize to you personally with flowers , assorted chocolates or a fine bottle of whisky 🙂
You remind me of those Japanese Second WW soldiers stuck in the wilderness, not knowing the war ended years ago.
The Arsenal self imposed austerity should’ve ended years ago as well, unfortunately somewhere along the line since the stadium move, a decision was made to keep the spending as low as posible no matter what the income, even if it meant beginning each season a player or two short to compete on four fronts.
A legitimate case can be made for not spending any more than a bare minimum to stay competitive.
For one ,Arsene is perfectly capable of realizing his shortcomings prevent him from taking the team to the next level , so no amount of spending will compensate for it. His performance in Europe might be an indication of what his ceiling is.
Also, the sheer amount of wrong refereeing decisions that seem to go against him every season might influence his spending.
The latter might’ve been mentioned on here before, but the former ?, that would be blasphemy.
An expert on matters of the toilet is our John. He calls our major shareholder Kronke, Scrooge. Obviously the faecal educated individual has no idea of how Arsenal is structured. Shareholders own shares & do not buy players. That is done by admin officers of the club on the recommendation of scouts & agreement of the manager & directors. It is not expected nor is it practice for shareholders to finance purchase of assets (players & not necessarily with small arses 😉 ). Directors may loan the organisation funds for specific purpose, & those are clearly listed on the balance sheet.
Menace, Kroenke is the majority shareholder and he controls the board. As such, he is the ultimate authority on who Arsenal buy and how much Arsenal spend.
Wenger is the public mouthpiece of the club – Gazidis rarely comments in public. And Wenger is absolutely loyal to his players and the club, so you will never find him saying, “The board wouldn’t sanction more player purchases.” But I suspect that’s what has happened over the years.
So when the press and others blame Wenger for not spending, I believe they should be pointing the finger at the board and, ultimately, Kroenke.
exactly menace, completely agree with you. this so call expert about Arsenal football club want Arsenal owner to be like chelsea owner’ shady as human being can be. even the owner listen to them and make big money signing to replace the whole squad, this WOB and the AAA flocks still find fault and excuse mainly b’cos Arsenal football club is still manage by Arsene Wenger.the lack of respect and discontent from this flocks who nowdays call themself an Arsenal fans is fast becoming full blood hatred toward AW.you just cant make that up
Where is Proudkev?Hope he is fine
Why doesnt he comes to the blog?
Proudkev pls come back UA needs you.
Plssss.
Two quakes in Japan, and now one off the coast of Equador. It doesn’t look like any tsunami from this could affect northern Chile, but I am hardly an expert. But it shouldn’t bother Alexis too much. Not to say he doesn’t have friends in Equador. He is a caring person. Death tole sitting at somewhere in the 30-40 range at the moment. Best wishes to all affected.
if u are unhappy, u don’t deserve the sadness, support Bayern and u will win every year probably. in the EPL u are bound to be since from now it looks like no one will dominate for two years. Go and make your noise elsewhere. its that simple. but u just keep coming back here. someone tell us why
Robert – you’re right. However, I think Wenger is far more astute than we give him credit for & he controls a set of purse strings better than most other managers. Ultimate decision is the boards & majority shareholder does weild power.
Tom – It is so easy to criticise Wenger when your hands don’t have to dip into your own pockets. My opinion is that Wenger knows better than both of us. Hindsight is also such a wonderful excuse for intelligence.
@Jerry
‘Tottenham spent only about £4m less than Arsenal in the last 5 seasons and may still finish below Arsenal just like the last 20+ seasons.’
Sp*rs have spent on average £50-60m less per season than Arsenal over the last 5 years, unless wage spending doesn’t count for some reason? Given the accepted correlation between wage spend and finishing position, we should expect to finish above them every season.
Anyway, have a laugh:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gD79wEzVEw
A team that has a number of upcoming youths in its academy is asked to always go out and buy players grown from other academies, what will happen to those ones grown in its owm academy? Where the like of Gedon Zalalem, Rene-Adelaide, Chuba Akpom, Sergie Gnabri,etc are threatening to get into the first team, where will you put all those you want the manager to go out and buy? It’s still painful today that many academy players like Oguzan Ozyakop, Benik Afobe are doing well and plying their trades elsewhere and they went out on the cheap having not been allowed to season in their own parent club by the attitudes of the AAA whose penchant to criticise the manager for using them is limitless. I hate to make allusion to this but look what has happened in Tottenham Hotspurs who used their academy players to rise to the 2nd spot on the league. Others are supposed to take a cue from us in that respect and not the other way round. I make bold to say Arsenal will not be bringing in more than one or two players this summer window- maybe a prolific striker and a defender. Other things are present with us and in abundance that thise who need may come and loan or buy some from us.
Tom,
If you cared in the least bit to read Swiss Ramble you would have noticed that the figures you quoted are ever so slightly off. But if you’re so concerned about our cash balance, why don’t you start promoting the club in your country, helping them increase their commercial income, and eventually reach to the numbers you’re so quoting? That would indeed be a good thing to do. Contrary to everything you’ve been writing on this site.
GG I have no idea how to evaluate this. The figures we have often quoted here show that given one year only 25% of transferred players who cost a fair amount by the average of the day actually make it but given three years 75% do.
It is not spending money that is important, it is who you scout and buy.The next transfer window will be manic.The gutter press will go overboard as usual,clubs will spend because of the increase in revenue.Who do we buy to lead our attack, someone who van score this magical 30 goals.The chances of getting a well known top,top striker are limited.Who are they, very limited.
The Spuds, knowing a huge outlay on the Stadium is around the corner,had to look at other alternatives rather than get the cheque book out.They have seemed to have done it well.
On a slightly different matter, my Wife listened to a talk by David Dein at her College last week.The students were totally in awe.When he was asked “should AW stay at Arsenal, he replied “that is up to Aw, however he must see out his contract.
Thanks Paul
It’s not how much you spend, it’s whether you get the best for the job. Off the top of my head I can mention players who’ve moved for pittance and are doing or did the job for their teams eg pogba, coman, cahill, Luiz gustavo, kante, vidal when he moved to juve, there are many more. The most important thing is getting the quality to do the job, not the price. Florentino perez put it nicely when he said a £100m player who plays is cheaper than a £1m player who doesn’t play