So according to Wenger, just as the board said, we have the money to go out and spend now: http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-we-re-able-to-spend-money-now So basically, if nothing drastic gets done by next season in terms of improvement, then please let us not hear this bullshit of oh Arsenal are no longer a top side but can only fight for top 4 and maybe get the odd cup as some have been going on about as some sort of reprieve for Wenger. It's quite clear to everyone that we have had money for quite some time, and not just this January, but that we've simply been not using the money properly, and always going after 2nd rate players to try and save a buck, that's why Arsenal are where they are, it's a self inflicted regression that has made us become a no longer elite club, and simply a good club that can scrap for top 4 while trying to get the odd cup, which btw, we never get lol. Arsenal HAVE the resources to become an elite club again, and we've had the resources for sometime now to be much better than we have been for the past 2 seasons, that's why many fans like me are very frustrated with our situation, because we don't feel Arsenal have just become **** and lost it, we feel that those running the club with this manager, have caused us to become **** and lose our rightful place, which can be more than regained if they regain that hunger they used to have, rather than only trying to balance the cheque book (which needs no balancing) and getting that top 4 spot as a trophy.
Same thing he's been saying for a while. Its interesting that he's coming out with all this though, it seems the club are very awaire of the fact the fans are starting to turn. The thing that worries me is that he seems to maintain this squad is strong enough. I would be very sad to see Wenger leave the club on the back of another poor Season. We need THREE World Class players ADDED to this squad and to do that we need to trim away some of the mediocre players still on our books. Its not going to be easy.
Hmmm there is a slight glimmer of hope with that latest statement. It's not hugely different from what we've heard before though.
We tried to sign David Villa and Capoue as well as getting Monreal in January. So that shows me that the club are trying to doing something about it
How exactly is signing new players going to improve for example, our terrible defensive organisation? That's down to coaching or shall I say, lack of it. Even better CB's than the ones we have would be made to look terrible in our team.
That's my biggest reason for believing Wenger is not the one to take the Club forward: His Coaching very clearly just isn't up to scratch. Look at how well Bayern defended. That wasn't down to great individual players, it was organisation & drilling. There's zero reason that Arsenal can't be like that, and in fact, fans should be asking "why aren't we like that?"
Defensively I think we rely too much on zonal marking in many situations. At the beginning of the season I disagreed with pundits who were saying that, but it has been shown to be correct. Our transition speed from Attack to Defense is also PISS POOR, compare to Bayern for example ... one second they're attacking us the next 9 of their players are around their 16 yard box, how the **** did that happen? I don't think we would be able to get a better replacement for Wenger this summer, but one thing that's dawned on me is that we can never have a disciplined high-pressure defensive performance of the likes of Milan-vs-Barcelona under him. It has nothing to do with individual players.
If Arsene Wenger has said he has only just got the funds then I think you have to believe that. Also, players that are not in the team are on contracts that expire in the summer like Squillici and Arshavin. It is going to e a very busy summer for Arsenal but they must get 4th spot to have a chance of signing the top players.
The board have maintained that there is money to spend for a while, however no one really knows how much, except the media speculation, it could be that there was only 10 - 20 million to spend in these times 'when we had money to spend' and as I keep saying, all arsenal war chests also have to include wages for the players bought. So 10 - 20 million would basically buy you one gervinio in the current market. I'm afraid this is just a case of certain disgruntled individuals only hearing what they want to here, and claiming that we have had bundles of cash to spend but wenger chose not to spend, there is no evidence that we had the amount of cash needed to by players of the quality that we all want.
"If we find tomorrow a player of top, top, top quality, we will take him." How many times have we heard it already? You do not need to "find" a player of "top, top, top quality", because everybody knows them. If Wenger said - "we will buy top top quality players and we are ready to pay top top dollar" , that would be great. But "finding" them means bringing unknown guys. We need a top top quality CF, there are proably a dozen of them in Europe, probably half a dozen will suit Arsenal style and every 12 y .o. kid knows them. Just go and buy Arsene, offer their clubs enough money so that they will sell. Instead we will try to find someone somewhere who is supposed to be top top quality, but apparently nobody knows about it apart from Arsene. Same old story, same old spin. Wenger says it now because fans are angry. Next month Arsenal will win 4 games in a row and Wenger wil say that we have a big and good enough squad which is almost impossible to improve.
Wenger made the same statement in December/January and bough no-one until Gibbs got crook and he was forced to buy a left back. I don't want Arsenal to become a buying club, there has to be a balance between academy/home grown players and buying top talent, but I can't get away from the fact that we've let go a number of top players (for whatever reason(s) they left) and replaced them with substandard players. Money has been spent, but only after we've topped up Silent Stans coffers by offloading decent players. We are now so far behind that only huge (Man City or Chelsea style) investment will get us close to being challengers again. Today is the first time in over 20 years I've had the opportunity to go and couldn't be bothered, sadly I am not alone and if the club aren't careful they'll lose fans hand over fist if the team regresses further
The only money to spend is on themselves. More cock and bull . Just a bunch of fat cats telling the suckers what they want to hear.
It's intriguing how it happens. What is it that Bayern do/have that Arsenal don't? Can we say for sure that Wenger is telling his players not to bother getting back to help when the other team is counter-attacking? Or is it that the players simply don't have the energy/inclination to get back and help?
It's not that he is telling them not to bother, but he is probably not telling them that they really should work on being a lot quicker in transition. It's a "we will go there and play our game" mentality. Which would be fine 99% of the times if we were Barcelona but we're not.
I'm sure he's telling them to do it too, but the players we have in MF are all very attack minded. Wilshere is our creative engine and so it comes down to Arteta to screen. He's not a DM and so if the ball goes past him, we're relying on our CBs to clear the ball, and too often we're giving it straight to the opposition.
