that's wrong. Fergy can afford to pay for someone whose clearly going to be a gem, thus costs large amounts Where as wenger has to make do with buying 10 players for a mil or 2, knowing that atleast 1 or 2 of them will turn out to be a gem yes it may mean he misses out on alot of gems (such as the stories about drogba, yaya toure, ronaldo etc ) and that he ends up with alot of abit **** players that maybe he cares for/persists with too much (denilson etc) which i think is his only real fault But every now and again there will be a fabregas, a ashley cole, a wilshere etc etc
You got £35m for Fabregas and £25m for Nasri. It is Wenger's fault for being so stubborn as to keeping hold of two players who clearly didn't want to be there for so long that he didn't have time to buy a decent player. Had he sold Fabregas earlier he could have got Mata. Instead he has panic bought on the last day by bringing in 3 players who are all the wrong side of 28, two of whom are injury prone.
This season maybe. But generally Arsenal don't have that amount of money, and we can't really sell the top players every season in order to buy good youngsters at the prices united pay. Plus, unfortunately we don't have the draw united do to players the success, history etc, same as say spurs don't have the same draw we do btw, Mertesaker is 26, park is 26, arteta is the only one over 28 And besides, the whole of this article is about Arsenal lacking the experienced players to go with the youths....
This is the main difference imo. SAF could have sold Scholes, Giggs and Neville three or four seasons ago for a few million a pop. Scholes and Neville in particular haven't been nearly as effective over the last few seasons, and Giggs increasingly needs resting in busy periods. But he didn't, cos he doesn't just judge them as players, he judges them as sources of experience in the dressing room. As a result, players like Cleverley, Smalling, Jones and Welbeck get to see players like this on the training pitch and get direction from them when the game isn't going well. Compare that to Wenger, who seemed to shuffle experienced players like Adams, Parlour, Merson, Vieira and Henry out of the door as soon as they got close to 30, only to see many of them continue to perform at other clubs. I appreciate that some of these players may have wanted to leave, but Wenger should have been putting his arm around them and showing them that he still valued and needed their experience, like SAF did, and continues to do so, with all his senior players. It seems like Wenger didn't value their experience at all, only their technical skills and physical attributes like pace and strength. That, to me, is the main difference between SAF and Wenger in their approach to youth. SAF sees young players as just one part of his team, and recognises that some situations call for youth and others for experience. Wenger sees young players as the main bulk of his team, and as soon as an older player is surpassed by a younger one that older player is out the door for as much cash as possible.
I was referring to Arteta, Benayoun and Santos actually. Park chu Young was bought from a Ligue 2 club with an ok scoring record. Mertesacker is the type of signing you should be making. An established player with great experience. Plus he is only 26. They had the money this season and he could have bought 2 maybe 3 top players from Europe. Instead he has brought in some iffy signings. Since the Invincible season he has done this. That summer Wiltord, Parlour, Kanu and Keown all left and he brought in youngsters van Persie and Flamini. That is a lot of experience he is losing and he brings in just 2 young players. The season after Vieira left and Fabregas replaced him in the midfield. Fabregas is not Vieira. They are different types of players. Gilberto was about to leave and he wasn't the bite and steel in midfield you needed. Flamini did a decent job but you got rid of him as well. Anyway Hleb, Diaby, Walcott and Adebayor all come in when Vieira left but none of them capable of filling his position. 2006-07 was when the squad started to get very unbalanced. Cole, Campbell, Lauren 3 of the 4 of the Invincible defence all left replaced only by Gallas. Since then the defence hasn't been replaced properly. Pires and Reyes left and Rosicky (who was an established player in the German league) and Baptista come in. 2 decent signings at the time. Season after you lost Henry. Adebayor did more than enough that season to replace him. He was a good player for you. A shame that he is a greedy bastard though. You signed Lassana Diarra but sold him on quickly to Portsmouth (god knows why) Ljungberg left. Sagna come in who has been a decent signing and Eduardo who was ok but not really a replacement for Henry. Luckily Adebayor stepped up to the plate. Then the season after that you lost Lehmann, Flamini, Gilberto and Hleb. You replaced them 4 players with Nasri and Arshavin. Both decent signings and big money (for Arsenal) But again since Lehmann left you haven't replaced him. It is known Wenger is tight with his money and the wages he pays that is why players like Clichy, Nasri, Adebayor and Cole all wanted to leave. It is also known Arsenal are not in debt and they have quite a bit of money behind them. The only thing is Wenger has a masters in economics I think..he probably looks at £25m for Mata as a swindle. As shown by his £6m bid for Gary Cahill.
In dont understand how arsenal dont have alot of money available to spend, they have the second highest attendance in the league, dont pay huge huge wages and always qualify, and go quite far in the champions league. I know they have stadium debt but surely they are not spending all their money on that. the blame for arsenals spending lies in 1 of 2 places: either wenger is just choosing not to spend big and hopingthat the youth players develope quickly or the board have all this money and they arent releasing it to him. personally i think its wenger, by doing this if he finishes in the top 4 everyone still thinks its a good achievement as he's done it with a team of youngsters. If you ask me i think wenger has taken arsenal as far as they can go, maybe arsenal should bring somebody new in to build on wengers work with a fresh approach.
Swarbs. Its only once in the blue moon that a manager will get 5-6 youth-teamers breaking into the first team from a youth-cup side at the same time. The only two clubs that I can think of doing it were Man United and West Ham. Man United with the Neville, Beckham Scholes generation and West Ham with the Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Glen Johnson and Anton Ferdinand generation. Arsenal won the youth cup a couple of years back and the only player to make the break-through was Jack Wilshire, they had a successful one 11 years ago and their only success was Ashley Cole. Liverpool won it in 2006 and 2007 and their only success was Jay Spearing, however they have been lucky recently with the emergence of Jack Robinson, John Flanagan and Martin Kelly. Jack Robinson aged 17 is still recognised as a academy player, even though he has first team experience. Arsene Wenger has done okay building successful youth-cup winning teams, has he got much success churning out a large number into first team regulars? Its my opinion that other clubs have done more and I have mentioned both.
My opinion is that as Wenger has a masters in Economics he will have a thorough understanding of the value of money. In my opinion I think he believes that spending £25m on a player doesn't represent value, especially in this current climate while the world is in recession. He is probably looking into things a bit too much and not moving with the times. It is unthinkable that a club of Arsenal's stature has never spent £20m on a player. They NEED to spend that type of money to stay at the top.
MUFCOK. I reckon Wenger has lost the plot. I'm being serious here. He thought paying £17 million for an accomplished premiership centre-back was day-light robbery when he paid £26 million for two players with no premiership experience Gervinho (£11 million) and Oxlade Chamberlain (£15 million). Is that not a little bit hyocritical? Wenger lost out on a number of players due to being slightly tight with money. The reason why Arsenal have suffered recently is down to Wengers stupidity. He was dithering in the end and that led to desperation. He ended up signing players that his philosophy wouldn't allow him to. Then again this is hypocrisy. I'm not suggesting he's a bad manager, but his principles seems to have got mixed up recently. He's just given a lot of people a massive rod to beat him with. They will beat him when Arsenal don't qualify for the champions league at the end of the season. I cannot for the life of me see them qualifying for the champions league.
exactly right, any team that wants to compete right at the top level have to spend, look at barca, they had by far the best team in the world last season, didnt really have to buy anybody this year but still went ahead and improved their squad with 2 big money signings in sanchez and fabregas
But why couldn't arsene stump up and buy players like that. United (apparently) in hundreds of million pounds more debt than arsenal so why can't he afford to do this? Piskie... 5 flops rosiky denilson arshavin koschilney almunia.
So many assumptions. First of all Fergie is a terrific manager. He does things very well and all credit to him for that. However, His budget and spending power are clearly different to Wenger's. Also, there is no doubt that Manchester United are in many circles a bigger draw than Arsenal, in terms of established stars wanting to join. I would say there are two main differences. Fergie is either able to, or chooses to sign young players when they are definitely going to be good, and Wenger either chooses to or has to pick them sooner. The experience of this transfer window seems to indicate that it isn't a choice. If Wenger does not snap them up when there is a doubt about their ability, United (or someone else) will get them. Second, Fergie either chooses to or can hold on to experienced players until they retire. Wenger either chooses to or must sell them on sooner. I think that this is more clear cut. I think Arsenal need to sell on players and realize their value, before they are worthless.
Wenger and Ferguson spent a similar amount this summer. Wenger £55 million, Ferguson £57 million. Ferguson bought better if you ask me. Before anyone says Wenger lost two key players, nobody can use that as an excuse, if he had bought better previously, then maybe he may have kept those key players. Arsenal were 3 players short of the title, due to Wengers stubborness, they are currently 3 players short of top four.
Don't you mean that no one really knows what Wenger has done, tried to do, or what problems he faces, but everybody thinks they know better, without understanding anything about the finances of any company (let alone a football club), managing a top football team, or really anything other than how to sit in a chair and yell at the team on a week-end.
Wenger must have equalled Utd's bid for Jones, as he was allowed to speak to the player by Blackburn which can only happen if they met the release clause. A better example there would probably be De Gea. Although it's worth noting that Wenger was willing to pay around £15 million for Nasri, Walcott and Chamberlain, none of which had PL experience when bought. On that basis, Jones for £17 million seems to be well within his price bracket. Maybe Wenger just doesn't value defensive players as much as he values attacking midfielders? I don't agree that wages are the main factor in every player's mind. VDV, for example, was willing to take a big pay cut to play at Spurs and Hargreaves was willing to play for Utd for free. But they do make a big difference when all other things are equal. From the point of view of Nasri, why stay at Arsenal who are quibbling about upping his wages to £115k when he can go to City, play a similar amount of games, have an equal or better chance of success, and make twice as much. And honestly, I don't think Nasri was asking for particularly excessive wages given that Arsenal are the most profitable club in the PL by quite some way at the moment. But you are right that players do have all the power. Which is as it's always going to be when the supply of top players is so low and there is nothing that can really stop them from moving clubs. It would be nice to think that players are as loyal to their clubs as fans are, but they are only human. Unless they are lifelong fans of their club, or naturally very loyal, they will move to another club if they think it's better for them, just the same way a trainee accountant, doctor or lawyer can get thousands of pounds worth of training from the first company they work for then jump ship as soon as they are qualified and a better offer comes along.
