Then how in the blazes is Wenger doing a brilliant job if he is failing to meet your expectation (which is the right one), that "we can and should expect to win trophies".
I agree that we can get players, but make no mistake, if Chelsea or City were in for those players - it would make it a lot harder. For whatever reasons surrounded the Mata deal, he ended up at Chelsea, who offered vastly more. I'd also agree that our concentration levels and basic error making were largely responsible for our downfall last season. As I said, if we can address the 'small things' as Arteta did, then we can go from being not far off, to actually overtaking Utd and City. (Personally, I still think we need a DM and another creative attacking MF)
No, we lost him because he wanted to see investment in the squad and did not get it !! You and the other Nasri haters can continue telling yourselves he left for money but the bottom line is, at the beginning of the year, he said he wanted to see investment in the squad and he is quoted as saying the Arsenal transfer policy was the main reason he left. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/26/samir-nasri-money-manchester-city
I think Nasri is a greedy ****, who showed a massive disrespect to Arsenal and our fans (and is still doing it) But I also don't disagree with him about the squad needing investment. I think that's what we're all calling for !!!
I don't think money is the issue in any way shape or form. I think how we play and the players we have been buying are the reasons we remain chokers when it comes down to it.
Some of us have been calling for it for longer. The issues are the poor transfer policy - failing to act and bring in the talent required - which IS available at the prices we can afford, our best players leaving, poor tactics, and poor coaching defensively, allied with a lack of mental strength throughout the team, evidenced by the regular lapses of concentration. Its been the same for 5 years. It's why I laugh when anyone says that Wenger is doing a brilliant job, and cringe when the excuses fly around to exonorate him from any blame.
Part of it is mentality, there has to be a reason why every February/March we go through a monumental collapse, it never used to happen when we bought a different type of player. For years pundits would comment on Arsenal's soft underside, but what did Wenger do to fix the problem ? Nada. We all saw it but either he refused to see it or refused to admit it. Him sticking with Almunia and Flappyhandski was another issue - continually gifting the opposition goals. If you look at the problems we have had as a team since 2005 every one of our problems were solvable, every one ! Its funny how our last trophy was on the back of luck and resolute defending against Man U, can you imagine our current team being able to do the same ? Not a hope in hell. We ship goals for fun ! P&O ferries aint got sh!t on us !! We didn't buy players because they would all have prevented the development of our kids, not because we couldn't afford them.
I think the club had a policy to develop youth, based on the fact that they couldn't afford to dip into the market as they had in the past. We might be at a different stage now, but when we built Emirates, managing our debt was a massive factor in our approach. I do agree that mentality has cost us, it would be my opinion that that has largely been down to the inexperience of our players, a result of the youth policy.
Well I disagree about the first part. Since our last trophy we have spent: £36.9m in 05/06 £14m in 06/07 £31m in 07/08 £15.7m in 08/09 £10m in 09/10 £14.5m in 10/11 Looking at those figures we spent a decent amount the season BEFORE we moved to the Emirates and the season AFTER the move, the season of the move we didn't spend much. The subsequent seasons after the 07/08 season we have spent a pittance while we continued to amass a fortune in the bank. £10m spent in the 09/10 season takes the p!ss ! There is no justification for it whatsoever. Wigan and Burnley spent marginally less than us.
I think we've reached a point now where there's no excuse not to spend decent money on players. Up until now, I can understand why.
Break up the excessive youth signing policy. Reduce high wage contracts on young unproven players, prune down playing staff to approx 50 from 71. Reduce numbers of 'coaching staff'. Only buy to deal with perceived problems - reduce buying 'potential quality ' as an investment in future - maturing 3/4 years out is wrong.
There's been no excuse for the last few years. Still, even I would be prepared to forget the past debacles if Wenger would just change now and sort out what he needs to do.
