I've never bought into the Barca hype. I said to my housemates in September I would absolutely guarantee Barcelona won't win the CL due to their weakness in defence and I was told the same old mantra of "It's Barca, you can never rule them out", "They are still the best in the world". We don't know what will happen with Dortmund next year but Bayern and the Spanish duo will be up there. That leaves at least 3 teams to overcome.
You can criticise Wenger for any number of mistakes he's made in the transfer market, the 'punts' he's taken in the last few years just haven't been as good as the 'punts' he took when he first arrived. The real blame though, in my opinion, is with the Bosman ruling. Until this came into force the player was owned by the club until they either released him or sold him, these days managers have to put everyone on a 5 year 50k a week contract just in case he turns out to be the next Cesc. No club can run the risk of having a big player leave on a free - it happened to us with Flamini and we've been fortunate no other decent players have had their contracts run down to expiry, so whilst we've sold players like Na$ri and RVP towards the end of their contracts we've still picked up big cheques for them. The flip side of course is the long list of **** that's been clogging up our wage costs in recent years, we all know who they are and signing these players was clearly a mistake, but the option of Wenger taking a flyer on a Denilson or a Gervinho or a Squillaci on a 2 year deal didn't exist because if they turned out to be good assets they'd disappear for nothing to one of the chequebook bully clubs. Who is given a 2 year contract these days ? I hear of the odd 3 year deal but most are 4 or 5 year contracts, every manager has his hands tied when it comes to signing players, unless you are buying the very best (that come with the price tag and wage demands to match) there is always a chance the player will fail, every club has these it's just that we have greater knowledge of our own mistakes. So yes criticise Wenger for the mistakes he's made, but also think about the market and the environment/climate he's working in...
Don't forget we weren't going to renew Flamini's contract originally.Gilberto Silva had been playing in the South American championships so Flamini took his place.Flamini was a revelation in that position and Silva couldn't dislodge him and it was only then that the club decided to renew his contract.Before that season started there was a thread on BBC 606 on whether Flamini should be offered a new contract and the overiding opinion of Arsenal fans at that time was no he shouldn't.When the lad decided to seek pastures new Arsenal fans decided to say he was disloyal,a greedy bastard and the name Flamoney was born Don't forget also that before Bosman,freedom of contract came into being.At the end of a players contract he could decide to leave and if the buying & selling clubs couldn't agree on a fee the transfer fee was then set by a tribunal.Two of the first players to leave us under freedom of contract were Liam Brady & Frank Stapleton.
