There is no correlation between spending on transfers and results, plus Liverpool turnaround and Mesut.

Posted on by Tony Attwood

By Tony Attwood

You might remember that there was a lot of fuss last September when the transfer window closed and the idea was written down and then copied over and over that Arsenal was the only major club in Europe not to sign an outfielder in the summer.

Following that Untold started to run the league table with an extra column showing how much each team had spent in the summer  and where they were in the league.  We also did it not just for that summer but across the last five years, taking the net spend of each club.

We then combined that with research into how effective new big-money signings were in the following season over time.   That piece concluded that only 25% of such players had a major impact in the season following their signing.

I chose to keep publishing the table of transfer money as an extension of the league table for several months, until the notion that Arsenal was failing because of a lack of signings died down.

But now the Guardian has either coincidentally or because its writers read Untold (you can decide which) has published the astounding news that the figures relating to transfer money spent “show there is no correlation between spending on transfers and sporting achievement.”

The article is by Simon Burnton, a sub-editor for sport at the Guardian.    As we noted in September Man City were the money mad club, trying to buy their way to another title with Raheem Sterling, Nicolás Otamendi and Kevin De Bruyne.  As the Guardian piece says, “Their outlay of £124.4m comfortably exceeded the combined total of the rest of the Premier League’s top nine but they finished the season in fourth, two places worse off than last year, with 13 fewer points.”

POS CLUB P W D L GF GA GD PTS Net £m  £ pos
1 Leicester City 38 23 12 3 68 36 32 81  28.9  7
2 Arsenal 38 20 11 7 65 36 29 71  15.6 14
3 Tiny Totts 38 19 13 6 69 35 34 70  -6.7 20
4 Manch Airport 38 19 9 10 71 41 30 66 124.4  1
5 Manchester U 38 19 9 10 49 35 14 66  33.6 5
6 Southampton 38 18 9 11 59 41 18 63  4.8 19
7 State Aid Utd 38 16 14 8 65 51 14 62 26.5 9
8 Liverpool!!! 38 16 12 10 63 50 13 60 15.4 15
9 Stoke City 38 14 9 15 41 55 -14 51  21.3 12
10 Chelsea Oooops 38 12 14 12 59 53 6 50  7.8 17
11 Everton 38 11 14 13 59 55 4 47  20.9 13
12 Swansea City 38 12 11 15 42 52 -10 47  5 18
13 Watford 38 12 9 17 40 50 -10 45 42.5 3
14 West Bromwich 38 10 13 15 34 48 -14 43  27.5 8
15 Crystal Palace 38 11 9 18 39 51 -12 42  21.5 11
16 Bournemouth 38 11 9 18 45 67 -22 42 38.7 4
17 Sunderland 38 9 12 17 48 62 -14 39  37.2 6
18 Newcastle thanks 38 9 10 19 44 65 -21 37  80 2
19 Norwich City 38 9 7 22 39 67 -28 34 27.1 10
20 Aston Villa 38 3 8 27 27 76 -49 17 9.3 16

Eight of the 10 bottom-half sides spent more than Arsenal but that didn’t help them rise up the league and overtake Arsenal.  Under half of the top top clubs in the league were in the top ten spending table.

Of course a lot depends on what one spent in the years before.  The Championship clubs spent a lot because they had much lower incomes in the previous season and so spent on the promise of the money to come.  I would guess Norwich are now in trouble, unless they managed to put all their players on a contract which reduces their salaries dramatically in the event of going down.

Meanwhile we bought Petr Cech for £10m, and guess what, (well you know) he won the Golden Glove with 16 clean sheets.  Cech was beaten just 31 times in 34 Premier League appearances.   Worth remembering when people talk about our crap defence.

But there is more, because last season we promoted players up through the ranks as we always do.  If we had bought a full back for £30m and he performed like Bellerin, we’d have said it was a good deal.  But Bellerin was just part of the production line: Coquelin and Iwobi obviously are part of the whole process.  And the winter purchase of Elneny – what a prospect he looks, and what a bargain.

And then look at our loanees

  • Chuba Akpom Hull City;
  • Serge Gnabry West Bromwich Albion;
  • Carl Jenkinson West Ham United;
  • Ainsley Maitland-Niles Ipswich Town;
  • Emiliano Martínez Wolverhampton Wanderers;
  • Yaya Sanogo Ajax;
  • Wellington Silva Bolton Wanderers;
  • Wojciech Szczesny Roma;
  • Jon Toral Birmingham City;
  • Danny Crowley Barnsley;
  • Gedion Zelalem Rangers

If things go their normal way (normal for the last couple of years) one of those will step up, and so will one or two of the current under 21 squad.  Joseph Willock would be my choice, along with Jeff Reine Adelaide.

The bloggettas and the mainstream websites, plus TV will of course ignore all this and just revert to the notion that buying is everything, which is a bit sad really.

But while noting the key points let’s also not forget one or two other issues that have emerged in the dying days of the season.

There was the hilarious (but seemingly true) story that La Liga clubs will be fined (or “financially punished” as the papers now like to put it as it sounds if they have written something important) if they show empty seats on television during live games.

So presumably lots of free tickets to passers by in Spain then as regulations that are due to come into place next season will demand that sections of grounds which appear prominently on television must be fully populated.

Barcelona won the league in Spain by one point, but the notion that this might be a competitive league is rubbish.  Only three teams were ever in it.  Leicester as we know won by 10 points as did Bayern Munich (but we knew that before the season started) while PSG won the French league by 31 points, which makes the whole process rather pointless.

There have also been some typical headlines this past week.

Win the Europa League and Liverpool could be ready for a golden era

was the calmest of the pre-final wild ranting predictions by the press.  Now they are full of how Liverpool need deep rooted changes in order to get out of their usual 7th and 8th slot in the league.   There was also of course the equally wild headlines about the Europa final.

Riot police called in as fighting breaks out between Liverpool and Sevilla fans in the stands prior to the Europa League final

While back with the football, finally the media has stopped being taken in by Kloppomania, at least for a few days.  Here are a few headlines.

Klopp’s emotionally charged football could not paper over the Liverpool cracks forever

Liverpool vs Sevilla player ratings – which Reds flop is awarded just 3/10 in Basel?

Jurgen Klopp must rebuild Liverpool after old transfer failings ruin big night

One match which was a defeat, and the press have moved from the new megastars of football to 3/10.  Funny isn’t it?

This also turned up – I am sorry as I don’t know the source, but if you do please say so we can acknowledge it.  (And also tell the creator that if they want to know a bit about which colours are easy to read and which not, that’s one of my areas of study, and I’ll be happy to spill the beans).

Last, Ozil has been doing his thing again.  Here are his headlines from the Daily Mail…

Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil heads out to Jordan for a kick-about with starstruck child refugees

  • Mesut Ozil visited Zaatari Refugee Camp, near Ammam, on Wednesday
  • Camp is home to 80,000 refugees from the war in neighbouring Syria
  • German kicked a ball around with the kids and handed out football shirts
  • Ozil then took part in a training session for Jordan’s under-17 girls team

Meust does this stuff and lots, lots more – remember…

Ozil pays for Brazilian kids’ operations

as he used his World Cup bonus for that.  And sometimes it gets a bit of publicity – but what is interesting for me is that he keeps on doing it, in different places with different people, choosing causes, giving time, giving money.  Good on yer Mes.

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58 Replies to “There is no correlation between spending on transfers and results, plus Liverpool turnaround and Mesut.”

  1. Good write up……. Mesut always make the difference both on and off the pitch….. more grease to his elbow.

  2. Interesting read.
    I reckon that any general statement can be proved untrue; generalising by nature only really plays the percentages.
    I do agree to a point – it certainly appears that spending doesn’t equate to a title. However, it is no coincidence that clubs like PSG, Chelsea, Man City et al have become far, far more successful overall since huge resources were pumped in. That’s not coincidence!
    I think maybe the 5% extra that champions have every year is the part you cannot buy.
    Some of the fans (myself included) are annoyed because of the lack of spending over the past 12 months. Not because we would have won everything – its obviously not that simple! However, we have an owner who has watched his asset double in value since he took over. Over a billion in clear profit, while we were told we had to sell all our best players.
    Whether or not there is a correlation between spending and on-pitch success, fans will always be disgruntled if the board/management of a sporting organisation are more interested in profit than glory.
    If we spent sensibly what we could each year, we would have a happier, more united fan base, a better chance of winning and far more support for Arsene Wenger.

  3. Arsene Wenger just needs to change his ways by tweaking it a little and stop relying on methods that clearly show they need tweaking.

    The players did not perform for him so they either need to be replaced or they need to get a good “kick up the arse”. They let him down.

    Just as the team should be a team, a good manager has to also have a team to delegate parts of his job to, others who will inject some fresh ideas into Arsenal.

    Football is ever changing and if managers do not adapt to changes, well, they stand still.

  4. Great article Tony, puts it all in perspective. That poster is great. Also well done Mesut Ozil. One question I ask, do the players get Premier runners up medals as they do in the cups?

  5. Well done Mesut. Somehow I just can’t picture Rooney doing something like that..

    GoonerDave,
    I think there is two types of spending,the Norwich/Newcastle type, that even if you spent £80m there is still no guarantee of success. Then there is the obscene type of throwing ridiculous sums at anything and everything,the type we see with sides like PSG, Chelsea City, etc. This type also involves raiding your rivals for their star players (think we have lost our star players to these types of clubs in the PL) and thereby severely weakening them. That’s bound to give you some success since your not only strengthening but also weakening your rivl at the same time. I think Arsenal would do the Newcastle type of spending, and not the letter where a team goes all out to sweep everything in front of them, even if the plyers might end up on loan elsewhere.

  6. In other words the Chelsea type of spending can give you some ‘measure of success’ as you’re looking to criple everyone around you.

  8. Tony, the source for the message to Savage was from this account on twitter:

    Get Kroenke Out ‏@ArsenalOpinion

  10. para at 10:26 am

    I’m always struck by the confidence displayed by comments like yours. You should be managing Arsenal.

  11. Thanks for the fantastic link Kenneth, even the most dedicated Spud will have to chuckle will he not.

  12. Tony
    Arsenal were the only club across the Europe’s top five leagues not to buy a senior outfield player before the season started , which was a reason for a wave of discontent amongst the Arsenal fans.

    I looked up all top five league’s title winners , all CL and Europa league winners for the last five years ( only five because it’s way to boring to do research no one is likely to appreciate:) ) , and every club that won any of those titles or trophies, had made several senior outfield purchases at the beginning of the title , trophy wining season.

    So in short , during the last five seasons( I suspect this pattern will repeat itself for all other seasons prior to 2010), no club has won any silverware without strengthening their outfield lineup with senior players.

    So if you believe in statistics, Arsenal by being inactive in the transfer market last season( outside of getting Cech and a youth player) practically guaranteed to go trophy less for the season.

  14. Man City, Chelsea and Man utd are the biggest spenders in the PL by far.

    Since Arsenals last title, who has won every PL title bar two since?

    Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd.

    I concede what a Club spends at any one time doesn’t always correlate with immediate success.

    I concede that sporadic spending, even in large amounts doesn’t always result in success, read Liverpool and Spurs in particular.

    But, consistent, long term spending does, and to use isolated events, such as United spending big over the last few years for no return. Or Man city spending over £100 Million last Summer for a Cup, is misleading.

    As is using the freak event of Leicester City winning the PL.

    Assuming the Status Que where to be maintained over the next 10 years, that is Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd averaging net spends of £50 to £100 Million per season, whilst there closest rivals invest an average of at best half of this, but more typically a Quarter and less, then it is those 3 that will continue to dominate.

    I’m sorry but if money was irrelevant why did Arsenal invest in a very costly 60,000 seater stadium?

    Simple. Because they knew they had to up there available transfer funds if they wanted to compete with the likes of United (at the time) but now City and Chelsea.

    Okay, the changing financial landscape will make it a touch more difficult but why is that? Because other Clubs have more money. You see, again it comes down to money.

    I will put my neck on the line here and say that if Man City, Chelsea and Man Utd invest close to £100 million each this summer, which I expect them to, one of them will win it, and all 3 will be in the top 4.

    If Arsenal only invest, say £30 million we will be top four competitive but come up short of the title.

    If we invest £60 Million plus we will give ourselves a chance of the title.

    Leicester will struggle for top 10.

    As for Liverpool and Spurs?

    How will they do? Well guess what, it will all depend on how much they spend.

    But again with those 2, as we have seen before, just making a ‘Splurge’ in the transfer market every now and then is very hit and miss, hence Liverpool yo-yoing from 6th to 3rd to 5th to 2nd to 8th and the like.

    But as I say, it’s all about consistency. It’s all about how much you are spending over long periods of time and if you do that the correlation between average net spends over time and finishing position is irrefutable.

    Here are some average seasonal Net spends:

    92 to date

    Man City £30 per season

    Chelsea £27 per season

    Man Utd £17 per season

    Almost every title over that period has been won by one of those 3.

    The exceptions being Blackburn Rovers, and guess what? Yep, the time they had mega bucks.

    Arsenal. And of course not for a while, or more accurately, not since the oil money arrived.

    I’m sensing a theme here.

    And of course now we have Leicester City

    And I’m sorry, but one single solitary title not won with mega money doesn’t change a thing.

    After those 3 we have Liverpool, who as I said earlier, do spend a lot for not really a great return, but they tend to do it in ‘splurges’ which is very hit and miss. Also they tend to buy 2nd tier players which heightens the unpredictability even more.

    But all that being said, as 4th top net spenders the still average a 5th place finish, which almost perfectly befits there spend.

    The spanner in the works is of course Arsenal, or should I say Wenger, who has performed miracles on a relatively meagre spend and takes that average 3rd/4th place. But then again, as we all know, Wenger is a genius.

    2003 to date:

    Man City £50 Million

    Chelsea £44 Million

    Man Utd £31 Million

    Liverpool £ 20 Million

    Last 5 years:

    Man City £63 Million

    Man Utd £57 Million

    Chelsea £30 Million

    Liverpool £32 Million

    Now there is no doubt that over the last few years things have got tougher at the top. And why is that? MONEY.

    In the 92 to date table once you dropped down past the 4th biggest spenders, Liverpool with £14 Million, Villa, in 5th spent half that and everyone else down to the bottom dropped gradually to the 20th placed Southampton on around break even. In other words, outside the top 4 the other 16 all spent within £7 million of each other, which is pretty negligible.

    In this regard we ARE talking about other factors such as the manager taking far more importance than simply money.

    2003 to date’s spending profile was similar with Liverpool again 4th top spenders with £20 million and Villa again in 5th, again with a net spend, at £10 Million, half that of Liverpool in 4th. Yet again the remaining 16 Clubs spent, in a pretty consistent decreasing amount, within £10 Million of each other down to Watford with a nigh on Zero net spend.

    Now lets look at the last 5 years and an indication of how things are changing and getting a bit tougher for the elite and it will only get tougher, but again why is that? MONEY.

    Again as you saw above, the top spenders remained the same, but the difference is the others, especially the middle tier sides, have got decidedly more money and can, and do, and will to an even greater degree as there MONEY kicks in, have a bigger influence.

    BUT, if, as I suspect, those top 4, or maybe 3 in reality, kick on and re double there expenditure, they will, as they have done for over 20 years, continue to dominate, and they will do that on the back of HOW MUCH THEY SPEND.

    Not about the money? The figures say different.

  15. I acknowledge the point about there being little correlation between transfer spend and league finishing position. (Wage spend is a much better indicator).
    Do you think the fuss in September about Arsenal not signing an outfield player was due to the opinion that adding Petr Cech was good but insufficient to take Arsenal from where they were in 14/15 to winning this season?
    We will never know if adding a couple more class additions would have given us enough to win the title.
    What we do know is that by not adding an outfield player, we did indeed fail to win the title. Opportunity missed.
    Maybe it would have made no difference to buy a player. But just maybe it would. Wouldn’t it have been nice to try?

  17. great piece as always Tony. the real problem for premier league club is the ever growing demand from fan(especially for Arsenal) to buy new players when they knew the club set to receive more money from the new TV deal that got the media into frenzy mode and constantly lauding that buying is everything.and like Tony mention above the mainstream websites, the bloggettas and TV tend to believe and revert to that notion which is a bit sad really and clearly not helping the situation at Arsenal. the club that believe recruiting and buying quality players to strengthen the team is just important as players development plus the importance to trust the club academy youth system and never afraid and always willing to gave any young gun with quality and potential a fair chance to play in the 1st team

  18. @ Kenneth Widmerpool -May 20, 2016 at 11:26 am – Awesome ! Almost split my guts laughing at that . Will endeavour to send it to as many Spuds friends as I can . I think they too could do with a good chuckle or two !

    Tony , nice poster !

  19. Ste, the analysis of expenditure has been taken back over five years, and not once has there been a case of the clubs coming out in the Premier League in anything remotely like expenditure order.

  20. I think net spend often paints a slightly distorted picture of transfer spending. The gross spend is what really reflects how much money is spent buying or attempting to buy a title. Income received from player trading (the sale of intangible assets) is just another (potential) revenue stream along with the sale of merchandise, tickets or pies! It would still show that spending in one transfer window doesn’t impact significantly in one season. It’s the cumulative spend that tells most but even so Chelsea, spending big since 2003 have something like a 70% failure rate and City spending even more since 2008 much the same. However in the Bundesliga and La Liga this impact is far more visible. Those wanting Arsenal to spend their cash reserves in a single dash for glory are chasing rainbows. Consistent, steady and cautious spending offers the best chance of success for a club like Arsenal.

  21. Jambug, Although I’m in the same direction as you, my process is different.
    The aim is for a club to get high quality talent. The Chavs and $iteh seem to be trying hard to develop their own but have problems getting them into the 1st team squad, whilst Dis-Utd consistently produce squad players but (from what I’ve seen) recently they’re rarely 1st team talent.
    We always seem to have a few in the squad and 1 or two in or close to the 1st team. So we don’t need to spend quite as much as the others.
    However year after year of buying three £30m-50m players must eventually give a decent squad to get a top first team from and that’s what both the Chavs and $iteh have done over a period of more than ten years. But most of their £30m-50m players don’t really get going until the second or even the 3rd year in the squad.
    We haven’t had the money to buy like that in the last 10 years and our base squad starts at a slightly higher level than those guys without their £30m+ players. So there’s little point buying for the sake of it. We do need to buy players but we need to be much more careful than the others as we don’t have the money of the big guys yet, and also have a fan base fighting itself for success NOW, which is not how it works as shown by the chavs etc.
    We could easily have bought De Bruyne (or Benteke or many others) last summer and have the less intelligent screaming about him not being worth the money (and what a failure the manager must be to buy him), whereas although he certainly hasn’t been great his second year may turn out to be excellent (still unlikely to be £56m worth though, but we’ll see).
    If Siteh win next season then it’s unlikely to be effected much by this summers signings, but more about last summers signings coming good.
    So yes I think we should have bought last summer but I don’t think it would have made much difference to this last season.

  22. Joel Campbell made a big impact this season and he’s very much an outfield player. It’s just that he was bought a few years back (£4m?) and thereby fitted the stupid narrative not signing an outfielder last summer. It is a statistic that means nothing other than Arsenal plan ahead better than just about anyone and thereby avoid panic buys that represent a huge gamble and potential disaster (see Newcastle) if they don’t come off.

  23. But I should add, it’s about buying the right players rather than just any players, as we can’t buy indiscriminately like the chavs and $iteh.

  24. Blessed are the flexible, for they can tie themselves into knots .

    I am grateful that I am not as judgmental as all those censorious, self-righteous people around me.

    I have the power to channel my imagination into ever-soaring levels of suspicion and paranoia.

    I honor and express all facets of my being, regardless of state and local laws.

    Today I will gladly share my experience and advice, for there are no sweeter words than “I told you so.”

  25. Does anyone remember a certain unbeaten season in which mr arsene wenger failed to sign an outfield player and only signed an aging world class goalkeeper, after the previous season when we’d won an FA cup and come second (ok one place better than third)?

    The reason why there is such controversy over what correlation there is between money spent and league position the following year, is in statistical speak a problem of omitted variable bias. Money spent is directly correlated with the talent of players you can buy, and the talent of players is directly related to final league position the following year. Money in itself is in no way directly related to your final league position and there is even an argument to say teams try harder against you and are always aware of what you can dI. A lot of the “upsets” this year have been because of complacency from Chelsea city and united when playing the so called small teams. Wenger has done so well on a small budget because he is good at spotting talent. Leicester clearly are too after spotting vardy Kante and mahrez. Liverpool Man U and man city clearly aren’t as we have repeatedly seen. Carroll for 35mil anyone? Depay? Sometimes these big money gambles pay off but often we see expensive players who are overconfident of their skills fail in an ever more competitive premier league. Just think we haven’t really made a bad signing since we got Ozil except for maybe debuchy but he looked good before he got injured and bellerin usurped him.

  26. its naive to say spending has nothing to do with titles! Chelse and City would not have won the league or champions league without a huge investment in the squads, however for me I think this really shows how brilliant our manager is! during the times the big clubs in England were spending huge sums of money on players, Wenger had to sell one superstar a year and have virtually no money to buy in new players! yet we never dropped out of the top 4! and if we had the same resources during this period we would have a few more championship trophies! Leicester was a one off and will not happen again for another 20 years!the thing that will be interesting is Arsenal will spend a huge sum of money this transfer window! Xhaka is going to cost 30m and we will need to spend 40m on a striker which I fully believe Arsenal will do. Wenger wants three new players and we could be looking at a record spend from the Gooners! so should be interested to see how the AAA responds to this!

  27. Jaroda, we certainly do not ‘know’ that ‘not buy = not winning’ for this season.
    We know we didn’t win and we didn’t buy which could have some correlation but it’s not necessarily even a contributing factor in that outcome, as there are far too many other issues effecting each and every season.
    If we’d bough Ings or Benteke we’d have bought a striker, but neither had a positive effect on this season.

  28. ‘not buy = not winning’ should be ‘not buying = not winning’
    and
    ‘If we’d bough Ings’ should say ‘If we’d bought Ings’ etc

  29. The youth team is really interesting at the moment, Toral and Zelalem look like the most likely however the real talent seams to be the generation below them which could lead to Sanogo, Akpom, Hayden Wellington and Gnarby moving on! Nelson and Rowe look like real stars in the making, then we have the Willock brothers Malen, Nwakali, Ntiekah (24 goals this season) Dragomir and Mavididi really exciting times for our youth! not forgetting Bielik and Moore.

  30. Three macho mice are sitting at a bar discussing just how tough they were. The first mouse slams a shot and says: “I play with mouse traps for fun. I’ll run into one on purpose and as it is closing on me, I grab the bar and bench press it 20 to 30 times.” And, with that, he slams another shot.

    The second mouse slams a shot and says: “That’s nothing. I take those poison bait tablets, cut them up, and snort them, just for the fun of it.” And, with that, he slams another shot.

    The third mouse slams a shot, gets up, and turns to walk away. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?” ask his friends.

    The third mouse stops and replies: “It’s time to be going home to shag that cat.”

  31. @ Tom

    If everybody buys outfield players then the team that wins the league is going to have bought outfield players!!!

    The fact that just tis once, Arsenal did not buy an outfield player and did not win the league is a complete misnomer.

    How about if I say that approximately 95% of teams that bought outfield players didn’t win the league? By your logic it must mean you have more chance of NOT winning the league if you buy outfield players than if you do buy some. Therefore by not doing so, we increased our chances. If you’re going to use statistics, you can’t just apply them blindly to an argument you wish to prove, it doesn’t work like that.

  32. The driving test –

    A lady failed her driving test 4 times. At the fifth attempt, she was determined to pass.

    But the test had the same question : “You are driving at 120 mph. On your right is a wall, on your left is a cliff. On the road, you see an old man and a young man. What will you hit ?”.

    The woman walked up to the examiner and said: “I’ve answered this question in all four ways i.e. the wall, cliff, young man, old man. Yet I failed all the four times. How is this possible ? What am I supposed to hit ????”

    Examiner : “The brakes!!!”

  33. Sorry Brickfields, I don’t like that last question.

    At 176 feet per second (120 mph), it is unlikely that hitting the brakes will do anything useful. It’s entirely possible doing so will remove all control and result in the car travelling a ballistic trajectory.

    In the context of an pro-Arsenal blog in the middle of silly season, the answer is to hit the person running around saying “Buy! Buy! Buy!”.

    If you have any opinion different from mine, you are naive.

    🙂

  35. @ Gord – May 20, 2016 at 2:46 pm – You may well be right . Actually I do like it !

  36. Salesgirl : ” Sir , no smoking in this shop.”
    Man : ” But I purchased the cigarettes from your shop !”
    Salesgirl : ” Sir , we sell condoms too , but it does not mean that you can start fucking here !”

  37. I am more happy to keep a top 4 position and develop new talent like Bellerin Iwobi etc than winning the league spending zillions on Di Maria Falcao etc.
    Who failed miserably and didnt won anything for there clubs.Even would not spend a dime on player like Costa who may bring shame to clubs like Arsenal.

  38. Great article, and love the sentiment with the part that we can hardly read.

    One of the things I love about our club is what we do for charity, and Ozil embodies this by doing our clubs work and a lot more, I would love to hear in the next year or so that Arsenal are joining with Ozil to do a football camp or similar abroad, even a day visit, and encourage all gooners to get involved in its support…

  39. Gord

    so we should run over our Manager who came out and said he wants to Buy Buy Buy!! three players so a BUY for each

  40. Where on the Arsenal.com website does it say that our manager wants to buy buy players?

  41. Following the recent protests just before the end of the season, I can see the pressure is bearing fruit. Precisely, that’s what the so-called AAA have been asking for. It’s unlike Wenger to start transfer proceedings even before the window has officially opened. If we see some quality players being brought into our squad, it shows what protest can do, however small it may look. When we have quality in depth, we will not only challenge for the title, and even CL, but we will be able to hold onto our key players like Ozil and Sanchez. These guys are not just playing for money, they want trophies — that’s the CV they want to show at the end of their playing career. If you can’t give them the trophies they’ll move to other more ambitious clubs. It’s a simple truth that some people on Untold cannot see.

  42. NT
    Are you really suggesting that Wenger, by apparently saying he is going to spend, is doing so as a result of pressure from a small group of disgruntled fans.
    I don’t think so!!

  43. NT

    The one thing I love about Wenger is he doesn’t listen or get influenced by the crowd or pundits, he is given a yearly budget from a board that is reluctant to spend and does what he can to strengthen. All the abuse he takes from fans and pundits blaming him for the lack of transfer activity is wrong! He protects the board which just shows the integrity and decency of the Man. I think the board will give him more funds, not because of the protests but more the empty seats! 3m Pounds per premiership game is what the stadium is worth for tickets and food and a full stadium brings in the sponsorships and TV money and the board don’t want to lose that income! I hope the protests do make the board give Wenger the funds he deserves and if that allows him to win the league and sign another 3 year contract then I for one am happy! Sometimes the AAA can be useful

  44. NT, Think hard about our past transfer dealings and you’ll remember guys like Nasri and Podolski who we bought very early (possibly before the window opened). Across the years there really are plenty we’ve signed early (not always big names though) but the media (and therefore the ‘sheep’) perception is we only buy late.
    Yes we have bought many late in the window as well but that’s the way it works with some player/teams. They won’t sell until they’ve got cover sorted and their cover isn’t available until the other team have their cover available etc etc.

    Do we buy more late? Yes but most teams do. They just don’t get the media shouting about it.

  45. so NT by your logic Arsenal buy new player bcos of that protest, not bcos Arteta, Rosicky and Flamini left the club. and Wenger was so pressure by thatprotest that he decide to bring the player so early, but not bcos of the European cup that can be a great factor of significantly increase transfer fee if the player had a good tournament and other club will enter the bidding war. i’m sure Wenger realize this even from last season hence he just bring Cech and Elneny for merely 5mill really shrewd bisness by the manager in january when Arsenal unexpectedly unlucky by the injury to Santi and Le’Coq. that was a big blow to the team and i think Arsenal will challenging Leicester for the title if we not losing both the players at the same time especially Cazorla with his long lay out. but we still manage to finish 2nd and overall is been unexpected season for every club in the premier league. the other thing you point out about Alexis and Ozil’ like if both of them are leaving, Arsenal are not capable to find other players to replace them. but sure as hell is not the end of the world.just bcos you dont like the idea of Wenger gonna be Arsenal manager for yet another season you cant just discredited his work and branded him useless like you just accused some people on Untold are blind just bcos they use their logical thinking

  46. @NT, maybe your right or wrong about the effect of the protest on the transfers but I highly doubt it. There’s two main scenario which prompt this:
    1. Arteta and Rosicky leaving so will need replacements
    2. Euro 2016 where many clubs would like to secure their targets early because it might push the price of player up substantially if player does well.

    Sanchez was signed during the last World Cup I believe.

    Arsenal came second in the league while having most of the key players injured for long length of time and some forward players out of form all at the same time. Normally injuries and bad forms occur during different periods in a season to some players but not most at the same time. Had the injuries and bad form didn’t hit all at once, I think Arsenal would have won or at least challenge for the league title. This could be said the same for Manchester United as well.

    Let say if AW signed Vardy, Mahrez, or Kante at the start of the season and these players didn’t play well due to Arsenals playing system, the WOBs would probably burn down the Emirates in anger for not buying ‘World Class’ players.

  48. Well I look at money differently. Spend does not always buy class. Class is what Wenger is & gets (not always but more often than not). Teams are what a coach puts together with his influence. Arsenal have been incredible in that they have played beautiful football & managed to get 2nd place despite the traffic jams & lack of green lights.

    Leicester were not a one of. They were put together by a clever coach at an opportune time. They played well & had skill where necessary. They had the greatest asset of all ‘unabated freedom’. What is this freedom? Oh! go & whistle!!

    Gord it was what is heard not what is believed to be heard. Bye Bye Bye to 3 of our former players. So easy to mistake bye for buy! 😉 😉 😉 ..

  49. NT
    More like wish full thinking on your part. Do you really believe that Arsene Wenger is swayed by that little side show at all, if so you are delusional.
    We need to buy players because of those who are leaving the club and if the right player becomes available and fits into Arsenal’s style of play then AW will no doubt go after him but their will be other clubs also involved.
    Now if it comes to pass that he told the board who he wants and they go for player X y c and we don’t get them guess who will get the blame. The name calling starts again even before a ball is kicked and thus it’s starts all over again and again. It’s up to the players if they want to leave their clubs and of course the clubs will hike the money valuations right up there or it may depend on CL which would be OK for us. I hope anyone he may want to come to the club does not turn around and say “thanks Arsene but no thanks as I’ve seen the way the supporters of your club turn on their own and I do not want to play in that kind of atmosphere nor do I want my family to listen to the vile abuse I may take if I don’t hit the ground running or if I hit a bad spell”. These little things are what the aaa may just may have achieved and being the kind of people they are they will never own that at all.
    We need to spend that I have no doubt at all but I will leave who Arsene Wenger wants in his team up to him after all if they become fantastic players he will get little credit for it but God help him if they don’t fit in.

  50. It looks like we are nearing our first signing of the summer..looks a good player too

  51. Haha!!
    Peter the sheffield wed fan eh!!Your telling me theres a fan of another club as batty as you lot on here Not possible.It is probably you menace getting one of your indian slaves to dress up in a shef wed shirt and offering him money .
    Isnt it funny though WALTER that as soon as MENACE made the post to belittle me you were there right by his side to back him.Why isnt that the case when he makes horrible homophobic remarks and threatens posters with violence.If that was me or any of the other so called AAAs our comments would be put into moderation and barred.Many posters have made complaints about him and steptoe OMGARSENAL but surprise surprise nothing has been done about it.Is it possibly because he does your dirty work and the leading backer for your cult like beliefs.

  52. New player……nothing on the official site, but it seems pretty much a done deal on every other source.
    Can he help us…Xhaka can……

  53. Ste……………¨many poster have made complaints about him and steptoe OMGARSENAL¨? Re ally? How many? you mean you and another aaa pseudo-fan? Yep….that’s a crowd isn’t it!
    So you talk about Menace’s racist comments yet you denigrate East Indians,calling them slaves and claim Walter likes menace more than you….poor babe! Actually everyone on here likes Menace more than you so back to your mommy’s teat to comfort your addled spirit. By the way, are you referring to steptoe & sons? That’s not an insult at all but here’s one hand-fashioned for you: “You’re too dumb to pour water out of a boot with instructions on the heel.”

  54. Ste are you Nick? Or his brother?
    Or have you changed your “nick”name?
    Did you use multiple names before?

    You react with “ste” and talk about me in the place of the “Nick” name….

    Why is it that we only see negative supporters using different names? Maybe the answer is in the article from AKH?

  55. @ Walter, they are called ‘trolls’ sad people who doesn’t have much to do in life but to insult and anger others for a cheap thrill. If only that one sperm didn’t make it.

  56. He guys, leave these sorry souls alone. “Assist” me to applaud the “assist king” Mesut ‘Assist’ Ozil, for providing so many ‘assists’ to so many, so soon after a season of so many assist! Doesn’t he ever get tired of giving assists? Someone please tell him to save some for next season, so we can have extra pleasure gloating over the aaa and have ammunition to assist them cry when we win the EPL title!

    Plus, that TH14 assist record needs breaking, and who else to do the honours but Assist (sorry Mesut) Ozil!

  57. Tony Attwood

    “Ste, the analysis of expenditure has been taken back over five years, and not once has there been a case of the clubs coming out in the Premier League in anything remotely like expenditure order”.

    Sorry Tony, you know how much I love this site and everything it stands for but I just think you have this very wrong.

    Here is why, again.

    Distribution of Domestic Trophies over the last 5 years:

    2011-2012

    PL = Man City
    FA = Chelsea
    LC = Liverpool

    2012-2013

    PL = Man Utd
    FA = Wigan
    LC = Swansea

    2013-2014

    PL = Man City
    FA = Arsenal
    LC = Man City

    2014-2015

    PL = Chelsea
    FA = Arsenal
    LC = Chelsea

    2015 – 2016

    PL = Leicester
    FA = Man Utd or Crystal Palace
    LC = Man City

    Before I go any further I would like to apologise to Palace, because for the sake of ease I am going to assume a United victory today, (working within earshot of Selhurst Park I do so with a heavy heart), because not only do I believe that, but even if they don’t, it makes very little difference to the crux of the point I am making.

    So over the last 5 years we have 15 domestic trophies to play for.

    Obviously the big one being the Premier League.

    Out of 5 Championships the big 3 spenders have won 4. The other is obviously Leicester City this year.

    –How does that not equate with expenditure?

    The second is the FA Cup, and this has been more spread out. But even so 2 have been won by the big 3 (todays result accepted), 2 by Arsenal, since they started spending a lot more money, and one by Wigan.

    –How does that not equate with expenditure?

    And thirdly the League Cup. 3 have been won by the big 3. Of the other 2, one was won by Liverpool, the 4th biggest spenders, and the other by Swansea.

    –How does that not equate with expenditure?

    So out of 15 available domestic trophies this is the breakdown of winners:

    Man City = 4
    Chelsea = 3
    Man Utd = 2 (todays result accepted)
    Arsenal = 2 (both after a significant increase in spending)
    Liverpool = 1

    A n other = 3

    Leicester = 1 PL
    Wigan = 1 FA
    Swansea = 1 LC

    I’m sorry, but by any stretch of the imagination how are the trophies, including the PL, especially the PL, not following the money?

    I know all three of the really big spenders have struggled in the PL this year but do people really believe that given there finances they wont be back next year? Not only that, but in a supposedly bad year for the big 3 they could still end up pocketing 2 of the 3 domestic trophies. Hardly proof that big spending doesn’t work is it?

    I accept that once you match expenditure to table position bellow the big 3 plus Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs, who have pretty much dominated the top 6 for many years, it looses correlation. But personally I don’t see that as particular relevant, because as I said in an earlier post, once you get away from the ‘big’ spenders the % difference in there spending is negligible.

    For example:

    ’93 to date, a meagre £7 Million average seasonal net spend covered the entire rest of the PL.

    ’03 to date, a meagre £10 Million average season net spend covered the entire rest of the PL.

    Under such circumstances of a much leveller playing field, the money has a much lesser influence, and therefore by definition, other factors, such as the Manager, injuries, luck etc. have a much bigger influence.

    Look at Newcastle and Villa. The 2 Clubs within that ‘other’ group that have probably been the biggest spenders, but look at there disastrous Managerial policy.

    Then look at the likes of West Ham and Southampton. 2 Clubs with average to low spending within that ‘other’ group, but much better youth and managerial policies.

    Under those circumstances, where the spending is relatively small, and relatively equal, bad policies/Managers and not money, are what can mean the difference between a Europa Cup place and relegation.

    But, no matter what way you look at it, when it comes to mega spending, especially when it is maintained over a substantial period of time, has a massive and irrefutable influence on how successful you are, or more accurately, how many trophies you win.

    To say it doesn’t is, in my opinion wrong.

  58. Tony Attwood

    Can I assume that your persistent reluctance to address the points I make, backed up by the statistics you, and I, place so much faith in, means you agree?

    Or do you think that by just ignoring them makes your quite clearly wrong conclusion that:

    “There is no correlation between spending on transfers and results”

    will make it right?

    Just wondering because you seem to be unwilling to contest my conclusion for some reason.

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