It's not just a matter of academy products making the Arsenal first team. Look at how many former Arsenal youngsters are playing in English (or continental) football as a whole. Also, it isn't just a matter of supporting Arsenal's own youngsters. By buying Walcott and Oxlaid-Chamberlain for example, Wenger has given great support to the Saints' academy, which is one of the best in the country. Wenger believes in developing young players, giving them a chance where he can, and helping them even if they don't make it at Arsenal. He doesn't do it for "selfish" reasons, i.e. for Arsenal's benefit alone. He does it for the good of the game as a whole and because he wants youngsters to be encouraged and properly nurtured. Good on him IMO.
this thread seems to be covering TV as well, so i've read that Sky Sports 1 is free on Sat 17th August - for those of you on Freeeview, it says 'Pick Tv' will be showing the Sky sports 1 content they have the swansea vs man u match at tea time edit, this should be on the pre-season thread, apologies
Just a suggestion. I notice Yossi Benayoun is still a free agent, obviously has Premier League experience and fills the attacking midfielder vacancy. Downside is he is 33 and after spells at Liverpool and Chelsea probably has fairly high wage demands. But could he do a job if we offered him a one year deal? Thoughts?
I would imagine Benayoun's wage demands would be tempered by the fact he is currently unemployed so unless someone else were to come in for him I would suggest that Mr McNally et al would be holding the aces. Personally I would not be uinhappy to have him on board on a free - plenty of experience and I reckon he's a decent player who could add something to the squad.
I don't usually like the idea of signing older players, but it might be argued that Benayoun could be an exception, given the importance of PL experience in the AM position. Not sure it'd be worth breaking the wage cap though.
i don't think i've ever read a more deluded outlook of any manager in my life! truly ridiculous statement but hey, you keep on believing that
And here's more delusion. Wenger is ridiculed because he refuses to play the usual game of "success at any price" so beloved of many fans and the media. Rather than pour scorn on him, we should see him and Arsenal as allies of clubs like ours in the cause of common sense and sustainability. Wenger has consistently refused to play the game of competing with the Man Citys, Chelskis, Liverpools and other big spenders. If Arsenal wanted to play that game, all they would need to do is hand the club over to Usmanov, already a 29% shareholder, and the richest man in Britain. They could do it tomorrow; the price would be small, just the soul of the club. We thank our lucky stars for having the owners we do and the sort of club we have; Arsenal, despite the size of the club and relative riches compared to ourselves, have principles and values not dissimilar to our own.
i partly agree robbie, but i'm sorry - you are obviously very protective of the club - but its complete fabrication that arsenal don't spend enormous amounts of money on foreign players. just because they don't spend as much as the other big clubs does not make them some kind of 'shining light of sanity' - they are a massive part of the rat race too. the reason they are criticised is because they actually CAN afford to pay big money for players but spend it on generally weaker players than the other top clubs. they went years and years without ever buying an englishman. wenger didn't even play one in many, many games! he's done little to help english football in that respect. in my opinion, the best thing he's brought to the game is a pretty brand of football and nutritional expertise which this country ignored pre-1996. rough fees quickly sourced from t'internet... reyes £18m arshavin £16.5m cazorla 16.5m wiltord 14.5m henry 14.1m (bargain) nasri 14m jeffers 13m hleb 12.8m oxlade-chamberlain 12.2m van bronckorst 12m eduardo 12m walcott 12m gervinho 11m koschelny 11m podolski 10.6m arteta 10.5m giroud 10.5m vermahlen 10.4m lauren 10m mertesacker 10m these are big money signings in anyones book.
I never really understand the criticism Wenger gets. Year after year he brings Champions League football to the club without spending big money. How much have Spurs, Liverpool etc spent trying to get Champions League football and failed? So Wenger probably deserves some credit for what he does.
you're right, he does deserve some credit for doing that. what is it? 14 years in a row, something like that. but he does spend big money as illustrated above - he just spends it poorly more often than not
Along with this I also feel Wenger has single handedly pushed up the price of young players, the fact that Zaha went for £15 and Icne is valued at £8.5m makes it very hard for clubs like ours to offer these players a step up. we were luck that Birmingham basically had to sell that we got redmond so cheap.
I don't see the justification for blaming Wenger for the fact that Man Utd were prepared pay £15M for Zaha or Cardiff were prepared to pay £8M for Ince. You might as well blame him for Blackburn forking out £7M on Jordan Rhodes! It's more a case of what Yarco rightly said, the effect of pouring more and more TV money into the game; transfer fees and wages spiral accordingly. Clubs with a player that a cash-rich club wants aren't going to let the player go cheaply; why should they? Superman's list shows that Wenger is prepared to go so far but no further when it comes to pursuing his targets, much like us. He ridicules paying £10M for Mertesacker, but if he bothered to check out transfermkt he would see that Mertesacker is currently valued at £14M! Superman thinks PM is a hopeless CB, but that's obviously not an opinion shared by everyone (including many Arsenal supporters as it happens).
not sure about that bath. i'm not sure when the premium for young english players started rising so dramatically
i never said that - you've made that up! granted i don't think he's worth what arsenal paid for him but he's far from hopeless. and where did i ridicule him? i think you're seeing things...
He's good when he still has play in front of him he can position well, but his lack of pace means that once play passes him he will never catch up to it, he wouldn't get into either of the Manchesters' or Chelsea's team
you probably right and i have little evidence to back it up i just feel like Wenger was the first to start shelling out that amount of cash.
I agree, I was going by the ; just poor value for £10M then. But given that transfermkt currently value him at £14M, £10M doesn't look over the odds at all.
oh, i see! no the was for the list, not mertesacker in particular and there is no way per mertasacker is worth £14m by the way! there isn't a club on the planet would pay that amount. i think a fan must have updated his profile. £6m max
Pace isn't everything in a CB; just look at John Terry. What matters more is that he has pace around him. You look at the CB pairing, not each CB on their own. Of course, one would like CBs with everything, but how much would you have to pay?
