With Arsenal FC holding their Annual General Meeting today, the subject of money was always bound to be a hot topic. More specifically, the gap between the massive amount of money that the club has in the bank and is earning in profit every year, as opposed to relatively meagre spending in the transfer market.
And before the AGM even began, Arsene Wenger addressed the issue in his press conference ahead of the Premier League away game against Watford on Saturday, replayed in full on Arsenal Player. His words will have left the Arsenal fans scratching their heads, they certainly have done to me.
The Frenchman spoke once again about how the financial restrictions placed on him when Arsenal had to finance the move from Highbury to the new state of the art Emirates stadium and I think that most of the fans have a certain sympathy with that. And I think there is now a real appreciation of how well Wenger did to keep us up around the top of the Premier League in those hard times, especially now that two back to back FA cup trophy wins have eased the frustration.
But we are all desperate for Arsenal and Wenger to push on and challenge for the EPL title again and there is a real feeling that our transfer business has not been good enough.
Wenger said, “At the moment we are in the fight and that’s what you want. I believe we have the potential to do it and that’s what we want to show now in the coming games.
“I’ve been here for 19 years and we had some turning points in the history. When I arrived we had the financial potential to fight for the titles. After, when we moved into the new stadium, there was a period where we did not have the opportunity to fight for the title but we had to work very hard to stay at the top. In the last two, maybe two-and-a-half years, we are back in the fight because we have the financial potential again to get the best players.
“When you look well at the last two years, we’ve brought in Ozil, Alexis, Petr Cech. That shows that we are back and are capable to fight to get the best players.”
This is not really addressing the issue. For me and many other Arsenal fans, the question is still why the boss did not spend some of the mountainous cash reserve to add more top quality players. We have seen what effect the likes of Cech, Ozil and Alexis can have, so why stop there? Wenger admits that the lack of money made it impossible for Arsenal to win the league for years, so why does he expect us to believe that he can do so now without spending what we have?
“For me and many other Arsenal fans, the question is still why the boss did not spend some of the mountainous cash reserve to add more top quality players.”
We were looking for top quality CF and CDM in the summer but it appears Walcott and Coquelin are doing a very good job so far. How many CDMs in Europe are as good as Coquelin? Walcott will be in top 5 goal scorers in the EPL I’m sure (injury permitting). I think we have the desired quality. We maybe lack a bit of squad depth though.
‘…maybe lack a bit of squad depth’
lol, thats funny, if we lose le coq we throw away everything
theo goes- its olivier
why with our cash reserves would u take such risks
we do not need cavani an pogba at 120 million
just depth- imbula cost how much?
vietto, dybala- were hardly 50 each were they?
makes little sense
I dont understand this talk of quality back ups that we are supposed to get. Giroud scored 14 goals + 3 assists in 21 starts last season, 16 goals + 8 assists the season before…. to me thats sounds like a good enough back up. we have Welbeck who is expected to be back later this season, he is also a fantastic player, and a back up. we’l also have rosicky and wilshere later, we got promising young stars…there’s plenty of back up at arsenal. lets just stop worrying too much about “what if so and so got injured” as if arsenal is in crisis already.
And this talk about getting the Dyabalas, Imbulas, Viettos etc…well I understand we all have fantasies of who to sign, but we have Fifa manager mode for that. Just log onto ur fifa manager mode and buy dyabala and everyone else u want at arsenal, otherwise these fantasies are the reason why most fans hate and abuse Wenger and the player.
im not worried pal, the subject was mentioned, i voiced my opinion.
this being a forum-that can happen
i do hope ur ‘stats’ keep u warm at night
sad you have to use throw away fifa remarks that everyone uses-
shows little imagination on ur part
all
All I’m saying is that, Wenger only signs players that he and the coaching staff think are best for the team, not what we as fans think we want. Some of us wanted players like; Balotelli, falcao, yann m’villa, and dozens more that he never signed. when he signed the likes of carzola, podolski, giroud, sanchez, welbeck, and ozil, no one saw it coming…my point is we have various fantasies of what signings we want, even if Wenger were to sign players based on what fans want, he would’nt be able to satisfy all of us. So the signing of players and game tactics should be Wenger’s business, after all he is the one managing the team, not us. Our business should be to watch and support the team and nothing else.
No Wenger makes a lot of mistakes in the transfer market, a lot. Apart from dilly dallying and wasting time, he also looses deals for small amounts and buys a lot of crap players as well, Park, Chamakh, Kallstrom, Squid, Silvestre, are just a few examples.
Arsene is not honest, there are players out there that can make our team better, or at least push our first 11 as viable alternatives. Vidal, Kongdobia, imbula, Draxler are just a few examples of affordable players that could have made an impact in this team.
Not buying anyone is stupid, pretentious, and misguided.
We rely too much on Sanchez, Coquelin and Theo staying healthy and in form playing 50+ games a season. It’s a big, stupid risk to take.
I would sympathize if we were broke, but we are not and we are very close to having a wonderfully balanced squad, so in my personal, humble opinion, Wenger has knowingly, and deliberately hurt Arsenal, to have another excuse for not winning the league.
I think people are frustrated with Wenger, primarily because in the last 3 years he has been slow to sign top players. Ozil, Sanchez and Cech are amazing signings and I wouldn’t swap them with anyone…but I feel that in the time frame he could have at least signed another top CF, and decent backup to Coquelin. Giroud is good, but not great. I don’t think Walcott is flexible enough in terms of all round ability to be dangerous against any team (like Aguero or Suarez for example). I am sure Wenger will get around to signing the right player and I still have faith in him especially after signing the 3 players mentioned above, but the fans are impatient and I agree playing video games based on pure fantasy is just fuel for the flame.
I’m sorry fellow gooners anyone with the name Chips doesn’t impress me I ask you f****** chips.
You cannot argue that there were no players available this summer that are better then Arteta or Flamini…when we are challenging for titles, we need better backup then that! Healthy competition does everyone good; we don’t need to wait till a crisis to buy good players.
Chips Keswick was way, way worse. No singular reassuring quote, basically told everyone to f themselves as he sticks with what he does and listens to nobody outside of the board.
Transfers will be a sensitive thing for a while, I thought Wenger was reasonable and he did have some great monologue during the AGM. Although I do want to see a new class DM with urgency, but I think the explanations of Wenger were quite fair, unlike Ivan and CK.
Never mind Stan, who didn’t say a word again. Nice to know we have an owner like that.
Why are any of us surprised what was said at the AGM no one really grills anyone and it’s the same questions asked about a lousy 3 million that went to one of Stans company for management fees or something who cares about pocket change, and every year the management are always saying that they have confidence in the team to do well and yes they do up to a level
All said and done I realy have a great feeling about this team its almost gelled together, let’s hope no injuries
remember when tottenham spent over 100m in one transfer window? remember how arsene wenger was laughing? arsenal are not tottenham.
Hmm! What would we have said if the Boss had signed Francis Coquelin from a top Europe club outside the UK? Would we have said, hail the Boss! Arteta & Falamini are at Arsenal as 2 top back ups to Cazorla & Coquelin. Right? Walcott is at the moment efficiently leading the line for Arsenal. And he’s being backed up with Giroud. A recorved from injury Welbeck could come in into the fray. And also a returned from injury Wilshere could productively manned the Gunners right wing again to make way for Ramsey to go back to his preferred midfield position. Who is that new striker we want the Boss to sign in the January window? Neymar, Lewandoswki, Bale or still Benzema? Save maybe Lewandoswki, I cant’t see Arsenal signing any of the remaining above names, because the clubs they play for will block their move away. Because of d huge money that will be involved to successfully bid for Lewandoswki, the Boss could back off to bid for him in Jan’ window. That leaves the Boss with the unfancy option of Aleksandr Kokorin.
None of Silent Stans sports enterprises in America have won any titles. They all make money though.
The future is not bright whilst he holds the reins.
We need to buy for depth. Our first 11 is one of the best in the PL, but depth is needed. I’m not even going to list who I would’ve bought that would be the 87th time I’ve listed that info on here.
Hopefully everyone stays injury free and proves me wrong but the options available during the summer transfer window, specifically at midfield, were numerous and affordable.
Apparently now we “should” by Carvalho for 50 million, Pogba for 90 million, etc.
Same old obsession of our fans to buy every available player! It is not just buying for the fun of it but because we need those players. It would have been logical to relate the lack of transfer activity with poor not to just talk about buying players? How much did Coquelin and Bellerin cost? Aren’t they among the best players in the premier league?
We should all understand it’s just not about adding numbers to the team. It’s about adding a player who is compatible to the dynamics of our team. A player that’s going to balance the team. And we are not going to see that in every player we like however good they look in their respective teams.
I still don’t understand. 3 Million for a Billion Dollar man is a pocket Money. If his Company is giving a Service what is wrong in paying for them. You have to understand that the People working in that Company have bills to pay simple. But I do expect the chairman should be able to explain the Kind of Service provided by the Company to the shareholder. I am not one of then so I don’t care and this 3 Million is not going to help us get a top class Player. On Champions league’s Performance lets be honest the whole tournament is designed to go against EPL Teams. 2 out of 3 last EPL Champions league winners didn’t qualify for the next season Champions league automatically (Liverpool and Chelsea). We Play FA Cup and Carling Cup and a 20 Team league while Germany Plays a 18 Team league. Most of the league in Europe are one sided you can tell who will finish in which spot in the league. and hence those 2 -3 Teams get high sponsorships and hence they get top class Players. Since the Team strengths are unbalanced in These leagues the stronger Team gets of with just giving 75% in most of the games all thru the season while it’s not true in EPL. Also I find refrees are bit soft in other leagues while a red Card in La Liga is just a yellow Card here. Top it up with the squad restrictions imposed by FA and UEFA and winter breaks you will clearly understand its difficult for EPL Teams to concentrate on Champions league. It’s pretty lopsided.
Regarding the Transfers I could also have loved to have top class backups, lets be honest we won’t get them if they cannot Play in the first XI and who more over who is available. Most of the Transfer talks were just fabricated by the media to get into the nerves of the fans and divide them and make Money. As a fan its important for us to be behind the Team. Think what would have happened if Ramsay for let go because fans were not happy with him. Again think what could have happened if we had bought Falco, baletolli as fans wanted. Benzema after all was not availble and he is behind Oliver Giroud for France. Cavani and Lewendoski would have been an excellent choices but do we know if they were available or was it just in the Daily mirror or Piers Morgen’s FIFA Manager mode?.
I want Arsenal to win every Game so did my parents wanted my and your parents want to us to win in everything. But we know the reality is different. Look at Spurs and Liverpool Money doesn’t even gaurentee you a top four spot if you don’t spend it on the right Players.
I am positive Person, I don’t worry about the things that are not in my control. So let’s get realistic and get behind the Team and enjoy it. Win or Lose I will be a gooner for life. If we don’t win I just lose my bragging rights so what? Will you Abandon your child if he Fails in an exam?
Gooner for Life