As a neutral, I dearly hope that Arsene Wenger spends liberally this summer. Amidst the fog of a covert infrastucture at Arsenal it’s always been difficult to discern who makes the decisions about transfer budgets. Some think that Wenger, the idealist, is genuinely loathe to spend over £10m on a player. Others think that the board are corporate tightarses and Wenger is just too noble to blow the whistle on them.
If it’s the latter then we simply hope that the brilliant but flawed Frenchman finally gets the money he deserves in order to improve the squad before he’s carted away to an uber posh funny farm to talk football with Maggie Thatcher..
The Guardian reports that Arsenal plan to spend big this summer but the first bit of business could be to offload defender Bacary Sagna. The France right back has been blighted by two serious leg injuries, which have taken their toll. He can still do a job down the right but Arsneal are said to be looking for long term replacements after offering the 30 year old just a one year extension to his current contract (which expires next year).
As reported on soccersweep this week, the rumoured short list of arrivals includes Pepe Reina, David Villa, Celtic powerhouse Victor Wanyama and Toulouse midfielder Etienne Capoue.
We say ‘good’. Wenger has stood by the Arsenal policy for years and, if I had a penny for every time The Frenchman has come out after defeat and said something along the lines of him still trusting this group then I would be at least a thousand-penny-aire.
But this squad patently isn’t good enough to win things. Otherwise it would have won things. Football is a results business and Wenger needs to better balance his desire for cosmetic perfection with a pragmatic approach to success.
I don’t want to hear excuses about not being able to compete with the Citys and PSGs of this world. London is one of the most attractive cities on the planet for a footballer and Tottenham, Chelsea and even Fulham, do just fine attracting high profile players thank you very much.
We aren’t asking for a remortgage of The Emirates. Just for a decent percentage of gate receipts, from the inordinately priced tickets, to be spent on improving the squad that the loyal fans pay so much to watch.
One carefully chosen £30m player plus a couple of high quality young players in the £15m bracket would do the trick. Falcao, Wanyama and Mats Hummels of Dortmund shouldn’t be names beyond the realm of the Arsenal recruitment policy. Not when Bergkamp, Henry and Viera have previously said yes to this great club.
Wolfgang
Feb 22, 2013 at 2:25 pm
Make sure he gets the top quality guys not some top promising kids with wc potential. The latter have been a waste of time and disappointment eg Vela, Denilson,Senderos,etc.So much time was wasted.
If he continues with his y project it will inevitably lead to disaster.Then he shd go,
Walcott has been with the gunner for some 6 years. You just wonder if the gunners had a top quality player,it could have made a difference.
Wolfgang
Feb 22, 2013 at 2:40 pm
As well as getting the players who can significantly improve the gunners,the tactical part has to be examined. According to one report,red faced decided to go physical to break the gunners passing rhythn and it has been a disaster for the gunners. Out of 11 games played the gunners have lost 10 and won one only.Why is this so?
Elementary. Wenger always plays in one attacking mode.So if teams play anti soccer they will be able to score with acres of space wide open.If Wenger doesn’t bother about the defence and made the gunners hard to beat,the same defensive blunders will be made time and again and he shd be sacked.
rahaizad
Feb 22, 2013 at 2:55 pm
It’s time Wenger stops moaning about the rest of the world and regenerate himself. If he is truly an economist , he should realize that he’ll be left behind if he does’nt change his approach. Chamakh, Santos, Chu Young, Squillacci, Gervinho, ………..exceptional players ? Don’t make me laugh. Wenger do not develop players into world class players. I repeat, he never develop any players at all. Anelka, Henry, Viera, Pires, Fabregas were already talented players long before Wenger bought them. The only difference was there were no Mansour or Abramovich 15 years ago. Otherwise, Anelka, Henry, Pires would still be world class players even if they played for Man City or Chelsea. It shows how over-rated Wenger is.