If they're selling one player every year, this summer it'll be van Persie. It's sell him, or offer him like 150k a week, which I can't see them doing.
What I would like to know is what plans they have for all the money in the bank. It doesn't look like they have much intention on winning on the field. How long is the stupid financial model going on for? If we are no longer a winning club, do the money men in their designer suits think the money model will be a success when the stadium is half empty?
I will never agree that the problem is the board. While Wenger insists on spending £13m on an inexperienced 18 year old 1st division player instead of £13m on a grown man who isn't inconsistent, we will never go anywhere. Where are the the modern day Pires, Overmars, Ljungbergs ? These players cost around £5m. Granted, players of this ilk would cost triple that now but, so what, we spent £10m on Koscielny who had only just started playing for Lille was it ? The players I mentioned were doing well at their clubs but the biggest clubs were not interested. There are loads players around like that, we don't have to be linked with the big names, leave the biggest clubs to have bidding wars for the big names. 3 x £15m players would put us back on track.
Koscielny, Vermaelen, Mertesacker and soon hopefully Santos will all show that they were worth far more than Wenger paid for them. Those 4 would make up a very solid back 4 for a total fee of ~34m. Look at the first-choice team at this moment: Chesney (Nominal) Sagna €11 (not sure what the exchange rate was back then, but he was no more than 8m) Koscielny (10m) Vermaelen (10m) Santos (6m) Song (Nominal) Arteta (10m) Wilshere (Youth) Theo (12m) RvP (3.5m) Gervinho (10.5m) It's full of bargains and youth. When Wenger spends, he gets value for money. It's just that his value and the fans value are a little apart. He goes for things that are literally too good to turn down. The fans would rather he just went for players who are in the stages of becomming great, but aren't quite there yet.
Hothead has a very good point - that why buy Oxo when similar money could have bought to fill positions where we had BIG problems. Worse that he doesn't get used, except when he has no real choice. Its like painting the mast when the ship is holed.
I think we have problems right through our management and on the field. The board have made us a selling club and Arsene bought into the grand financially-sustainable plan. He saw what he thought was a way to make the club financial stable in the years to come so his contribution to the plan was to get us to stay competitive. Fortunately in the early years of this grand plan we were strong enough to remain in contention. Even when Chelsea began to splash their millions we were still a Top 3 side. Then City entered the fray with their money bags and we became 4th. That's a very dangerous place to fall down to because when you're in 4th place, you have no room for error. It only takes one good side or even one side with better luck than ours to take away that 4th place. When Liverpool too have spent for success and Newcastle spend wisely, the scenario swiftly changes. Being a mere Top 6 or 7 club is no good for us. The wider a berth you give yourself, the lower you will fall. The youth policy backed the sustainable plan. However it failed because we didn't keep our successful players who had come through it. I think both Arsene's inability to convince players to stay and the board's own policy to sell them has been our downfall. It has made for what we recognise as a selling club and if we can see that, so too can the players. As Arsene himself said last summer, we are no longer a side with ambition if we sell ( Nasri and Fabgregas ). Perhaps Arsene was beginning to appreciate the folly of the grand sustainable plan since it has impacted on the sporting ambitions of the club. Has he as a loyal employee of the club maintained his silence? 135K a week buys a lot. However I think Arsene went in with his eyes open and with the best of intention and for that reason he has in good conscience kept his silence. Other managers may feel that it would be best to speak out. Who knows what really is going on? Football was much more straightforward before money became all important.
