Arsenal are far more ambitious than NUFC and far less in dire need of reinforcement - their situation is so alien to ours. Before the season started they looked to have a great squad, apart from GK. They signed Cech to rectify this, no messing around. If their squad was anywhere close to as deficient as ours they would be making sure that they did the necessary to rectify the situation and they would not be taking until the end of the window to do so. Everton have greater similarities as they very rarely spend much. However they still manage to do what they need to in order to be competitive, not just scrape by. They were more ambitious with their managerial appointment than we have been and when they had a player on loan who did very well for them, they did what was required to secure his permanent transfer. We have seen NUFC run into the ground over successive transfer windows, successful loan players allowed to leave (wouldn't want to pay high wages) and too little being done about clear squad weaknesses this summer. The priority still seems to be to strengthen just enough as has been judged to survive and then make do and get by.
Arsenal may be more ambitious but their fans have been calling out for a goalie for a few years now and this has just been addressed. They are still calling out for a world class striker and have been for years but in relative terms Arsenal have been shopping at a level or two below that eg Giroud.
Everton fans are so happy with their Club that a number of their Supporters organisations got together to fly a banner over the Southampton ground yesterday. Net spend on average I think I read is about £2M over the last 5 years.
I'm not saying we are good or that players don't need to be bought but just that claims of the apocalypse should be left until at least the current transfer window is shut. McLaren has just got here. We have bought 3 players this window of better apparent quality than for a while and if rumours are to be believed we are still trying to get in a couple more. Let's see what happens in the next 2 weeks before we commit mass suicide off the Tyne Bridge.
