Clarification:
Based on the comments and emails let me try and restate the point I was making. When Wenger says that Arsenal have nothing to be ashamed of for finishing third in the league because they spend less than United and Chelsea, I disagree with that statement.
Arsenal are a big club. They should not be a selling club. They should be challenging and winning trophies every season. I don’t understand the ashamed comment. And that is what I was trying to say below.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger was quoted in the official Arsenal magazine as saying:
“There are three clubs in the fight for the championship – when you see how much money the others have invested, we have not to be ashamed. There are two main trophies in our job – the Champions League and the Premier League; today, we can still win them both. In addition, the club is in a healthy situation and we have a fantastic young side. If that is still not enough, I can understand, but we are fighting very hard to deliver. I believe that Arsenal fans can be very proud of their club, and that is at least what we try to give them – pride.”
Ashamed?Arsenal are not a poor little football club trying to compete with the big boys. Arsenal is one of the four or five richest clubs in the world. We have a fantastic stadium that generates a cash stream that our London rivals would love to have.
Yes Arsenal cannot and will not compete with the likes of Manchester City in the transfer market. But that doesn’t mean that Arsenal are a poor club. Look what David Moyes has done at Everton and Martin O’Neill at Aston Villa. Smaller clubs than Arsenal, but they all manage to buy experienced players. Even that other lot in North London are a smaller club than Arsenal, but Harry Redknapp is still able to invest in experienced players. Why can’t Arsenal?
Yes debt is a big issue in the Premier League, and nobody is asking the Arsenal board to put the financial future of the club in peril by buying Kaka. But Arsenal has become a selling club in recent years and I don’t understand why.
{ 21 comments… read them below or add one }
Very odd post. Everton, Villa and Spurs have consistently been below Arsenal in the League for as long as I can remember and yet the writer wants us to have a transfer policy like those clubs? Wierd.
I personally prefer Arsenal to be better than those sides, AND to make a consistent profit year after year, something which none of those sides do unless they sell their best players.
No mate, the writer was spot on. And talking of best players, dont we sell ours year in and year out because the Henrys and Vieras of this world wanted us to be a bit more ambitious and win things for a change ? Isnt Fabregas at the moment looking despondent about our “school boy” performances ? No, you should not criticise when you talk more rubbish than the person you are critisising.
no mate…u r talking shit. when did we sell our best players?
If you’re so keen to compare Arsenal with the mighty Everton and Villa you must be over the moon that we’re streets ahead of them in the league table and in Europe. Arsene Wenger has followed a policy of common sense and good business practice since he arrived. The hysterical nonsense from fans demanding he buy every name that the tabloids can print would be laughable if not so irratating. Thankfully it’s he and not the brainless mob who calls the shots. That other clubs have to spend vast sums and likley as not bankrupt their clubs to compete at Arsenal’s standard is testament to Mons. Wenger’s genius.
Trophey or not this season has been and continues to be excellent for Arsenal football fans, thanks to Arsene Wenger and his crew.
David you are a fool or is this a windup? All the clubs you’ve just stated are not in a position to win the Premiership or Chapioms league. That is because the players they’ve bought are not as good as the ones we’ve tought. Along with a new stadium this club has planed for the future. Harry/Pompy did well buying experienced players…NOT! other clubs to follow, watch this space….!!!!
What’s to understand? We have the players to compete in every position except maybe goalkeeper but you find me a keeper that’s better than Almunia that is also available and tested in a top team. I think our problem lies solely with the fitness coaches and staff, our players are dropping like flies at the slightest touch. Look at the forwards we have Van Persie, Arshavin, Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela. Look at the youth forwards we have Simpson, Sunu etc. I don’t think I need to list the quality players we have in other parts of our team.
The only players who we’ve been able to keep fit is Vermaelen and Arshavin (for the most part), and these players are new and have been working with different fitness staff in their careers up to now. It is not a coincidence that all of our players that have been with us for a few years now keep dropping yet Arshavin and Vermaelen two new recruits can ride even the toughest tackles and are able to play through the pain barrier.
We all know the reasons why Wenger won’t buy, the right player, for the right price, that will slot in, that will not disrupt team cohesion, that will not push out a player that has worked long and hard to earn his place in the squad. I think the final point is the key, replacing a player with a new one because of injuries would set a dangerous precedent in a squad so often hit by injuries. Plus there’s no way to predict who will be injured next or how a player will come back.
Everyone was crying for a DM during the summer and we obviously needed one, yet if Wenger did pay big bucks for one then Song wouldn’t have had his chance and even Diaby might not have had the opportunity to display his worth.
Basically my point is, lets be patient with this crop of players and solve the real problems that plague the team by seriously reconsidering the fitness regime. When these players stay off the treatment table and get some consistent runs of games together they’ll be unstoppable. Replacing injured players by buying in new ones would tear our whole system we have apart.
maybe you should take a look at this website and learn more about what other ”top” clubs are facing because of their spending
http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/2010/02/epl-owes-more-money-than-rest-of-euro-football-combined/
Rubbish blog, look at henry he was sold and never was as good, hleb the same toure the same as well as adebayor they are not as good as they were and wenger still gets great money for them! we are still consistent in Europe and the league with spending nothing, 4 or 5 years down the line you will realize you were wrong and wenger was right. He is educated in business and has brought this club to somewhere any other manager would not have been able to. Imagine benitez at arsenal for the past say 7 or 8 years he would of brought in expensive players that might have worked or might have been flops. and we would have no stadium and prob no trophies either. in 3 to 5 years time the stadium will be our own and we will have no debts our squad will be at the right age and we will dominate because if the rule comes in that you can only buy within your earnings we will be the only club that has the financial edge over the rest! stop talking crap and stop been so negative. Any true fan will be happy where we are and where we are heading..
the REAL point the author is quite evidently making is that we actually have enough SPARE money to make a tidy profit each year AND buy a couple of experienced players.
i back wenger entirely and don’t want him to go, but to suggest that we can’t afford to spend a bit of money without turning into an unprofitable and doomed-to-fail club is absolutely nonsense. wenger has done miracles on a shoe string budget, however he doesn’t have to work on a shoe string budget for arsenal to remain profitable, that part is just him making his own statement that he thinks he CAN win without spending much money, not that we need to.
even after debt repayments from the stadium, if you include player sales last summer plus the surely ever increasing warchest from huge profits we make every year, don’t tell me if wenger wanted to spend 50-60 mil in the summer that we don’t have enough to just about cover it. i for one don’t want him to spend that sort of money, since i think for 25 mil you could get maybe 2 or even 3 good enough players to make the difference for us. my point is simply that it’s understandable why many fans are not happy that we never win anything as we persist with working on a shoe string budget when it’s blatantly not necessary. members of the board come out every summer and say we have 40+ mil and wenger can have who he wants and wenger has himself said if he wants a player they will get him for him. so people who think we are struggling for money right now are being fooled.
Arsenal is not a poor club but they have poor ambitions. I remember every fantastic player that left saying the reason for it is bcoz the club has no ambitions or do not meet theirs. Why didn’t AW challenge for CR9’s, Torres or Babel’s signatures baffles me when we were already in the bidding for them but instead will let any other club have them just as long as they increase their bid. AW would totally suck at poker even if he had a good hand to begin with.
And we all should know by now that AW is not interested in the goalkeeping department or maybe he lacks the eye for it. I can’t blame him for that coz if one likes offensive minded and creative football, we can’t expect both but at least don’t be so naive. He should at least have signed Shay Given, David James, etc who are experienced in the epl. Even Ferguson knew Van der Sar was a good catch when the time was needed most. We can never have youngsters for a goalkeeper. Thats on the verge of insanity!
I know AW likes young, energetic and technically sound players, but please not the GK too! It is the 1 most important position where experience is definitely needed.
I also hope Wenger learns from all the injury problems he’s been having from all these seasons. Tiny players are surely going to get injured no matter how technically gifted they are, but at least get some with some gutso!
I don’t wish for AW to spend, spend, spend too but i sure hope he goes for it next time when there is an exceptional talent around like Torres, e.g who was already the captain at his previous club. Coz such players are certainly very rare!
I hope he signs David James soon!!
i am most surprised that you want divid jame as our keeper?
“… but Harry Redknapp is still able to invest in experienced players. Why can’t Arsenal?”
What? As in WTF?
Wenger is right to point out that there are only three clubs realistically chasing the title – and Arsenal is one of them. We’re still in the title race and the CL. This is where a club like Arsenal needs to be early March. Today – right now – this is success.
As for Sp*rs, they’re still in the FA Cup … woo hoo … way to go. You’re forgetting just who got Portsmouth into administration, and who’ll screw Sp*rs in exactly the same way.
Arsenal operates the club on a different model from (a) Chelsea/MU/Liverpool and (b) Sp*rs/MC.
The other big 4 teams are in trouble financially, and Sp*rs will soon be. MC will follow the Chelsea model until patience runs out.
All the “big” clubs are in a mess except us. If there’s another Nasri or Vermaelen out there then AW will buy, but he won’t buy for the sake of fans’ impatience. He has to know that any new player will add to the squad.
Maybe you could say that Song, Eboue, and Diaby are “like new signings” … because if the majority of fans had had their way none of these would still be at the club.
This is the disconnect that fans have. If we behaved like Flash Harry then we’d end up like his teams.
Arsenal has a future. Can you say the same thing of our rivals. This season Liverpool have fallen. Next season it could very well be Chelsea/MU … but thanks to AW it won’t be us.
And yes, I, for one, am proud of my club.
Hi everyone this is my first post. Anyway I agree with the author of the post David. First and foremost it is really silly for Wenger to overlook the fact that we are only in the title race because both Chelsea and Man U have not been as good as they have been in the past. Secondly David is absolutely spot on Moyes with far less resources than Wenger has been able to fashion out a very tough side which in less than three weeks has played Man City, Man U and Chelsea of the park! It is not enough for Wenger defenders here to say that Everton are not challenging for the title or Champions league (after all they had a terrible start to the season. I respect Wenger for what he has done in the past but Pride? Pride for what? When Man u and Chelsea come and kick our behinds in the emirates we can have no pride. It is like a bully coming to your house beating you in front of your kids.
Wenger does not need to spend on David Villa he can buy a decent striker for cheap, he could have bought Slylvian Distan or even Lucio (who I understand was bought for only bought by Inter for Five million!)
Wenger and those who defend him are scaremongers. They equate all criticisms on Wenger’s failed policies with a sign that one is a glory hunter. All Wenger needs to do is sign some decent quality acquistions to add onto the good players he has.
@ the man who’s losing his pride, you were doing ever so well till your last line which is as big a howler as Lukasz’s
Nice one mate,couldn’t have said it better. The trouble is we have many brainwashed Arsene Cannot Be Wrong fans who think whoever dares to have a different opinion to wenger’s is a traitor and has been brainwashed by the press!
What are you talking about, spurs, villa and everton are not fighting for the champions league or the league whereas we are??!! experienced players does not mean they are better players. I think what wenger is saying is that at the start of the season aresenal fans expeceted (even if other fans didnt) that we would be fighting for the league still in March.. and we are… If arsemnal fans were realistic we would have taken at the start of the season that by March we would still be looking good in the champions league and only 6 points of the pace with all the big games out the way and the others still to play each other. I dont think Wenger meant ashamed as you have interpreted .. English is not his frst language and i think what he meant was we have no reason not to be proud of the team and he club. I’m so sick of the negativity of some Arsenal fans
Maddy, don’t u think it would be good to have David James for a year or 2 until we find a solid GK? I believe he would be good to have as it would make Lukasz and Manonne know that they would have to train alot harder in order to replace him. A youngster needs a challenge in order to become better. James would also add a balance to the team with the experience he has and the know-how of preparing for big games. A football club needs a good balance of experience and youthful enthusiasm in oder to progress successfully down the years. AW is in a different era now and he does no longer have a solid defense which inherited in the likes of Seaman, Adams and co. where he can add to it creative players he already knew and worked with previously like, Viera, Petit, Anelka n Henry. I bet Henry would not have become the player he is today with such flair n creativity without watching and learning from players like Bergkamp n Kanu. The point i am trying to make is that AW does not have such a squad like that anymore where a young player can develop into an outstanding quality. Kolo Toure would not haven become a great defender without the help of Keown, Campbel and Lauren. Gilberto and Edu without Viera’s, etc. Fabregas was very lucky to have the opportunity to learn from these players around him. Not the same for Theo, Nasri and Denilson.
I am sad to see this young squad crossing the ball aimlessly the moment they get near the corner flag like again Chelsea, where only Arshavin was in the box. It is the last thing to think of doing with players like Terry n Lampard around, even when Drogba is defending. It is pointless to keep doing that even if Sagna, Nasri or Clichy did manage to put in a wonderful cross suddenly. The previous Arsenal squad would not have done this even if Henry was the only CF. They used their brains and creativity play past the left/right back or even take them on. This squad has a hell lot of technique but no brains. I can’t believe we have come to a point where we even scream Shoot!!!!
I hope AW realises that this young squad he has built with so much passion n hard work could do with abit of mentors.
I would have loved the idea of Slylvian Distan or Lucio, Steve Biko coz they are superb. It would have been a great addition!
AW would not have had to make that panic decision to get back Sol Campbell whom he knows and has worked with for a back-up in case Gallas and Vermalen got injured.
These are the kind of signings that would have been very AW like, not over-priced and out of sight from the media and top clubs who would pose a challenge n eventually overprice them. I wish AW would ease off on 16 and 17 year old signings. Trying to un-earth a gem cannot be considered an everyday business model.
I hope he realizes that we are in a footballing business and not De Beers. I love the man believe me! I would dread the day when he has to leave coz He has made Arsenal who it is today! Just wish they would not think so much about making profits year on end, for the board to fill their pockets.
Sometimes I could not understand what AW is thinking, Arsenal FC is a Top Big clubs, and yet can not compete with the likes of MU Chelsea, Real, Barca….etc. AW alaways depend on his younger players where they always fail him (only some are good). I think AW konw, his broad cannot give $$ more than 10m to spend in a summer. I remember somebody said, “With $$ alone you cannot be a winner” but to me “Without $$ you will always be a loser” maybe in EPL, CL, FA cup or even in League cup. Look at Sir Alex F.
he knows when to bring a replacement and the result is they are winning year after year.
To me is very simple, “If you’re good you’re not good eoungh, but others say you’re good you’re really good”. Same thing over here, you tell me whole season unbeaten or play a beautiful & attrative football, I don’t think is great about but in return year in year out you beat your rival and win the EPL & CL I’m sure you are good.
{ 1 trackback }