Hey I'm an arsenal fan and new here. While the rumours of our clubs transfer activity continues to gather pace and expectations get high I was wondering if generally speaking how most of you guys feel if we splurge a considerable amount of money and win a trophy. I personally love our club philosophy of promoting from within and have really enjoyed the season despite our errr...harrowing start. Nonetheless I don't get what kind of fulfilment people derive from spending loads and winning. I would just look upon it as boring whereas playing attractive football, promoting youth and spending within our means to achieve a respectable league position has its own charm. I know lot of you are desperate for a trophy but I personally think its over rated even though my brother who supports Liverpool makes fun of the trophy drought we are currently experiencing.
I don't think any of us are calling for ridiculous money to be thrown about, just a couple of top signings to augment the talent we already have. I think that our austerity over the past 5 years (transfer fees if not wages) has earned us the right to spend a little money and it will allow us to challenge for trophies again as well as increase our chances of continued CL qualification. I love the fact that we nurture talent and have developed a healthy base of young players but experience is always needed to supplement it when we're talking about winning stuff.
Cb - its not about spending lots of money, its about spending SOME money. Actually, its buying the right players because it is not like we aren't spending money. There are good players available for between £10m and £20m which is money we can certainly afford to spend, so instead of putting our money in "potential" all the time, lets buy some players who have developed already.
As already been said, it is not so much as winning trophies, but actually standing a chance, competing, challenging... We were out of the running for the league by Christmas... I think it is a tad unrealistic to expect us to win the league or trophies year on year, (unless of course you a manure fan!). I think just competing and challenging for honours will do me, if we win it then great! This season, we did not really stand a chance.
As I've stated nothing against spending some money but as PISKIE alluded to we have spent some money over the years although I concede a bit too much on youth. Fans ive come across though have insane expectations and won't be happy unless we spend £50mil on stars. Don't get me wrong I wouldn't mind a big signing now and then (gotze my ideal signing!) but some of us have been spoilt to no end. I won't call them fans but some people I know have even switched teams (bout 4 to Manu, 2 to barca, even 1 to man city and have the audacity to call themselves supporters) out of pure frustrations though I feel we're better off without them.
Welcome. I think that spending on established players has a lot more risk than people would have you believe. The Torres/Shevchenko/Arshavin transfers show that even what seem to be nailed on successes, can fail, because a player is not comfortable with either their team, the system, or the league, either physically, technicaly or mentally.. When we get linked with a high profile signings obviously there is a lot of excitement and expectation, but there is no reason to assume that, even if we signed Messi, that (after he joins) he wouldn't play for us like he does for Argentina and not like he does for Barcelona. Please don't slay me, I love Messi as a player, just using him as an example. You will see a lot of fans claiming that this player and that player would "Obviously" be a good signing, and calling you all the names under the sun if you dare think different. I'm afraid this is the area where I really do subscribe to the "Wenger Knows best" philosophy. I have no idea what system he has in mind for next year or which players are in his long term plans. I don't know what his budgets are, or what the club can afford. Frustrating as it is, to think that there are players out there that would surely help our cause, I feel we have to rely on our manager and his scouting network, to find ones that are within our budget, and decide which are the best for the team going forward. What is really difficult is that there is no way of really knowing whether they have done a good job. When we win trophies obviously they have, but if we don't win, either because there are no players that are available which would suit or team, or they are beyond our budget, the club may be doing well just getting into the top 4.
