There is definitely one way that Arsene Wenger could endear himself to the Arsenal fans once again, and that would be if he went and bought a certified superstar in every single transfer window. The big name on the table at the moment is Antoine Griezmann, with Man United supposedly ready to equal his buyout clause to tempt him away from Atletico Madrid.
But if you listen to Wenger, he always says that he will only buy players that will improve the team (although I’m not sure how Bramall and Holding fit into that category) but Griezmann definitely will improve us considerably. According to Paul Merson, if Arsenal are serious about competing for the Premier League then they have to match the other top teams in the transfer market as well as on the field.
Merson said: “They pay top dollar those Arsenal fans.
“When you’re paying that kind of money you have to be watching world class footballers at the club. You can’t just have two – you should have five and six in my opinion.
“With Griezmann, people go ‘they’ve [Arsenal] got that kind of player’. They haven’t. They’ve got two of them but you could do with another one.
“For me there isn’t a club in the world that wouldn’t want Griezmann.”
He is right of course. If we look at how much money our rivals spend, and we are supposedly up there with them as the richest clubs in the world, then why don’t we invest as much as our competitors? Anyway, the fact is we know Wenger won’t be joining that bidding war and is even unlikely to spend anything else in this window after getting Bramall at the bargain basement store….
Darren N
“SHOULD Arsenal be competing for players like Griezmann?” – Yes.
“WILL Arsenal be competing for players like Griezmann?” – No.
Yes we should but no we wont because we wont pay £100m for one player or get into a £100m bidding war for a player. The jury will be out on Pogba for a long time. United lost £15m on Di Maria and the same on Depay. Everybody wants the finished £75m article but those players are genuinely rare and will need China wages to come to Arsenal. look at Pep at City- buying youngsters for vast sums now investing in the future. That was Arsenal 5 years ago except cheaper less sophisticated models. We can afford £30m-£50m players and can probably pay £65m for a player like Aubameyang. But Pogba money for Griezmann is another thing entirely.
The reason we can’t compete is because of wengers business model. We have players like Jenkinson who isn’t good enough for any of the top 7 teams but is on too large a salary for any of the club’s outside the top 7. Whilst Chelsea can sell their unwanted players for 50-60m, Arsenal struggle to sell theirs for £3m.
Even spurs can get big offers for their unwanted players. The only players we could sell for big money are our 2 best players, ozil and alexis and thats because they are on poor salaries for their ability.
Pay structure needs an overhaul for the best 22 and also the squad, in particular those outside the 22 needs trimming. The club should only have around 70 players on its book and that includes those on loan.
Of course we should be in for players like this, we are supposed to be an elite club with ambitions of winning the highest honours in football, Players Like Griezmann and considered amongst the best in the world and its only with players like this in th team can we ever ever hope to attain those honours. The very fact that WE are NOT in for these players should tell the fans of our beloved club exactly what they should already know. WE HAVE NO AMBITION Again I ask where the BT sports deal money has gone? If we had a war chest of 80 million before the deal AND we had all our bills and debts covered in our long term fianacial plan, where the F@ck has this alleged 150million gone???
Surely it whould have been spent on buying these world class players we all know we need instaed of being salted away somewhere OR being put towards other things?
The board DONT WANT US TO WIN THE EPL as it will mean the level of fans ambition is raised to champions league glory, and this would mean spending shed loads of money and the Board dont want that at all !!! far better to sit at fourth spot keeping the Wenger fans happy and collecting huge profits that get paid out in share dividends to the main shareholders and (supposedly) everyone (who matters) is happy.
We should be in for the likes of Griezmann AND every other world class player that fits our method of playing, Ive said it time and time again our squad is only half world class the rest are mediocre at best (yes I know Ill get thumbed down ect by all the AKB’s on site) but the results over the last ten years are proof alone that we are NOT good enough to compete with the other Elite teams. So we are an elite team when it comes to financial muscle BUT we are NOT when it comes to playing ability and silverware. So how and why is the gap not bridged ?????
The other important thing to remember is that in the last ten years Wenger has won NOTHING of note so his repuatation amongst the world elite players is less than it was a decade ago and there are few of them that actually WANT to play for the club now our reputation for having no ambition is paramount now rather than our repuatation for winning competitions. Top tier players crave sucsess not just money and we have ambition in abundance to offer. We have plenty of money but that not on offer either. We are the ONLY club with a board of directors with the background ours have and while some thinks that’s old school and quaint its actually hamstrings us at EVERY TURN. we are run by ex merchant bankers and silverspooned toffs who care more about what happens in the FT than they ever will about what happens in the sports pages of the sun.
No. Arsenal is a club with a loser mentality. There are many other teams who can beat us for him with ease.
Remove Wenger first … We will never win the league with him again no matter whom we signed …
Revised post
Of course we should be in for players like this, we are supposed to be an elite club with ambitions of winning the highest honours in football, Players Like Griezman and considered amongst the best in the world and its only with players like this in th team can we ever ever hope to attain those honours. The very fact that WE are NOT in for these players should tell the fans of our beloved club exactly what they should already know. WE HAVE NO AMBITION Again I ask where the BT sports deal money has gone? If we had a war chest of 80 million before the deal AND we had allour bills and debts covered in our long term fianacial plan, where the F@ck has this alleged 150million gone???
Surely it whould have been spent on buying these world class players we all know we need instaed of being salted away somewhere OR being put towards other things?
The board DONT WANT US TO WIN THE EPL as it will mean the level of fans ambition is raised to champions league glory, and this would mean spending shed loads of money and the Board dont want that at all !!! far better to sit at fourth spot keeping the Wenger fans happy and collecting huge profits that get paid out in share dividends to the main shareholders and (supposedly) everyone (who matters) is happy.
We should be in for the likes of Greizman AND every other world class player that fits our method of playing, Ive siad it time and time again our squad is only half world class the rest are mediocre at best (yes I know Ill get thumbed down ect by all the AKB’s on site) but the results over the last ten years are proof alone that we are NOT good enough to compete with the other Elite teams. So we are an elite team when it comes to financial muscle BUT we are NOT when it comes to playing ability and silverware.
The other important thing to remember is that in the last ten years Wenger has won NOTHING f note so his repuatation amongst the world elite players is less than it was a decade ago and there are few of them that actually WANT to play for the club now our repautation for having no ambition is paramount now rather than our repuatation for winning competitions. Top tier players crave sucsess not just money and we have Plenty of money but NO ambition to offer players and we buy cheap because we are cheap in our ambitions and we appear cheap to the rest of the footballing world we have plenty of money (which we boast of but NEVER oofer out) but no abundance of ambition to offer.
Shut up! Got bored at the 1st read
When you think about it as fans we are in a catch 22 scenario, many of us want to see the back of Wenger but ask ourselves who would replace him? well I can tell you this, with our current policy in play NOONE that’s who !!!
No manager worth hjis salt or with any ability will come to a club that’s not willing to try for the top players and this is probably more than likely the reason that Arsene has retained his role for all these barren years. I mean he makes us money, doesn’t want to spend hardly any and gets us the feted top four cup every year. If your on the Arsenal Board why WOULDNT you want Wenger in the job forever ???
While I agree it would be good to be in for Griezmann and other players like him, the idea that just going out and spending huge amounts of money buying x number of world class players will give you a winning team has been shown to be flawed. Leicester showed us that last season. Look at the way Man U have spent millions on players such as Di Maria who just didn’t work out and moved on PDQ. Decisions to buy players need to take into account complex issues such as the style of play, the existing players, the temperament of the new player etc. I’ve watched Arsenal bring in ‘superstar’ players going back to Malcolm MacDonald (who? -look him up) and sometimes they work, but mostly they don’t. Give me a team full of Tony Adams and David O’Leary’s any day.
We have had this discussion a billion times lol
For years I have felt like a mugg defending Wenger. Even a couple of years ago I was blaming Kroenke. Even though Kroenke is a cheap you know what. Fact is that Wenger wasn’t stopped from signing Ozil, Alexis, Xhaka all over £30 million each
But Wenger refused to spend less money on a Top DM. He could have got a better forward than Lucas. We are weak in defense. We need another quality RB and lb to improve on Gibbs and Montreal
Wenger either spends on quality once in a while or doesn’t spend on what we meet.
Also he has too much loyalty to some players like Ramsey
Wenger is the problem
I am a bit of a gambler, so I would prefer us to buy one really good player each window and address other needs from internal sources.
Perhaps Xhaka will come good but IMO, who is to say that we would not have been better of to save the money we spend on him and put it together with the 17 million on Perez (could have kept Gnarby and given him a chance on the wing where Perez is mostly played) and perhaps we could have even sold some dead wood giving us a budget close enough to go for Aubamayang or Higauin.
I am not convinced that buying a number of decent but, average players (who would possibly not even start for other top 6 teams) is as effective as buying one great player each window.