Take this medicine. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18156868 This article about French champions Montpellier reminds me of Arsenal of a time now past. The similarities are obvious. It also serves as a reminder when some people say there are not enough good players out there. Of course there are, we just have to look, but to be honest I think many people are now beginning to understand that. We don't buy players not because they are not there - contrary to Wenger continually claiming he will only buy players to improve the squad - we don't buy players because a) Wenger was solely focused on developing youth and b) Wenger is keeping the Arsenal coffers well and truly topped up ... but for what reason ???? You don't become champion of France by having bad or average players, it is clear the manager managed to motivate, galvanise and instruct his team in a way that say them beat squads assembled for much more money. Let us remind ourselves that, in recent years, Wolfsburg, AZ Alkmaar, FC Twente, Montpelier, Lille and Bordeaux spring to mind as teams that won their league beating clubs with far greater spending power. The money excuse is just that .. an excuse.
Good link I totally agree with the guy's conclusions. As always in discussions people use extremes as a way of validating their argument, but that takes the scenario far away from being actual to hypothetical. I don't want Arsenal to spend vast sums of money, I simply want us to spend more than we are to buy players capable of turning us into contenders. If we remove the arguments to the extreme - somewhere in the middle is exactly what we should be doing and, certainly NOT using the excuse that City are spending more than us.
I still think we need to spend some decent money on quality players and I don't think they come cheap. Also I don't think the argument has ever been black and white . . spend and you'll win, scrimp and you'll lose. there are many more factors that come into play. But you simply can't ignore the massive spending power of City and with it, their ability to cream off the very best players and the effect it has on the rest of the transfer market.
Dortmund too. None of their signings were big names. Two league titles on the trot now for them. Arsene is still good at this though. Chamberlain will prove to be an amazing signing for the price. Joel Campbell needs educating but has the raw ingredients to be ****ing incredible. Wilshere is obviously the academies biggest talent but we also have Gibbs, Frimpong, Jenkinson, Aneke and Afobe who have massive potential.
I think many fans would be happy to see us simply competing. The trophy arguments are made because have not even been competitive.
Agree. Even if we were coming up just short, but putting in the effort, I'd still be satisfied. As it is, we're not far off, but we just don't seem to take the steps to take us to the next level. It's not like we need a revolution at the club, just two or three decent players to supplement the squad.
Montpellier and Dortmund, and us when we were at Highbury. Money plays a part - or course it does, it can immediately elevate you to challenger status. Its not a valid excuse for failure though.
One of the most important things to do is to recruit good scouts and pick up the best youngsters out there from an early age and buy bargains. This is what saints are doing at the moment,investing in the academy and improving the scouting department so we can buy the very best youngsters and hopefully keep them in the future. We've got some great players coming through the academy at the moment (don't tell Wenger)
U might be able to beat 1 billionnaire team but in the PL we have 3 including United who are all willing to spend the cash when needed.
More than 3 - we have more income than Chelsea and City, and our owners net worth dwarves Abramovic's and the Glazers combined When will people understand that this is about choice not an inability to compete. We've set off to have a 'sustainable business model ' (drone) but we've just taken it too far.
