Are Arsenal about to buy another shedload of players? Or just sell Auba?

Allegedly, in the summer of 2007, Arsene Wenger described Arsenal as a club that “makes superstars”, rather than buying them.  At least that is what a wide range of media outlets say.

Then, in March 2020, Daniel Levy commented that external perceptions of transfers can be different to the facts and also to what a manager might wish to do…. “Spurs is a club that makes superstars. Jose Mourinho wants to bring in players who give everything for the club because they recognise the opportunity.”

So was Levy just copying an old Wengerian saying?

Well, not necessarily because although the first reference I can find to the phrase “a club that makes superstars” is indeed in 2007, the quote only turns up in one place, in ArsenalFCBlog in an article on “The Arsenal Policy on Buying Players”.  And although there is a link that leads to Arsenal.com, that leads to a dead page.  In fact, there is nothing at all on the Arsenal site that involves this phrase.  Nor in fact anywhere on the internet – other than with the Tottenham quote.

Besides although the Telegraph assigns this comment to Wenger, saying “In the summer of 2007, Arsene Wenger described Arsenal as a club that “makes superstars”, rather than buying them,” the quote just doesn’t sound at all Wengerian.  That is not how Wenger spoke in English.  

Meanwhile there is a lot of talk about our players’ ages, and this is quite interesting.  The data below is derived from that provided by Transfer Market…   The players whose contract runs out this coming June are shown in bold.

Now there is constant talk about the players Arsenal need to bring in to keep the progress going, but it is also a fact that as the Telegraph points out, the last Arsenal accounts showed a loss of £47.8m, and that included paying off 50 people who were made redundant.

Many of these were from the old talent-spotting team who have been replaced by the new analytics team that watch players on video and collect data on speed, heart rate, attentiveness etc.  

Meanwhile, the Kroenke family has said that financial support will be given to Arsenal, which is good.  But it must also be remembered that all of the Kroenke companies are sports companies and most of these have been badly hit by the pandemic.

So what Arsenal are doing is borrowing money in the hope that Arteta’s redevelopment programme brings more trophies.  And certainly, his case was not harmed by the winning of the FA Cup, and the dramatic turnaround from Christmas Day onward last season.

Some players have gone, such as Ozil, Mustafi, David Luiz and Sokratis and what fills the club with hope is that the next dividend will be a return to the Champions League.