Being that Arsenal never disclose transfer fees paid or received i would take the figures in that table with a pinch of salt
Spurs have outspent by 200m when Arsenal have double their income. that makes sense since Arsenal have spent 500m on a stadium and have ~100m left to pay. Everyone was warned the policy would shift to Youth when the new stadium was built. The commercial revenue was tied up long-term (for renewal in a couple of seasons) to give stable income to pay for the stadium. The reason Arsenal fall away in Feb / March is squad depth. The players are great the start of the season, but the same first 11 is played for almost all games. Players hardly ever get rotated and as such injuries happen, form falls off, and nothing is replaced. Thus towards the end of the season the team struggles. Tactics are another issue - this is a Wenger problem - the team is set up for the opposition to beat them, they don't go out to beat the opposition on tactics, just to play the Arsenal way and hope it's enough. That needs addressing. Arsenal can't compete financially with City, Chelsea, Man Utd, even Liverpool right now because they don't have a sugar daddy, and their commercial revenue isn't high enough. My hopes are that Kroenke the businesman, who is here long-term, and has never sold a share in any of his sports teams, will work hard on the commercial side, with overseas tours etc. and improve this area of the business. couple that with progressing youth, like ramsey, wilshere, coquelin, jenkinson, chesney etc. and the renewal of big sponsorships, and the paying down of the debt, and to me, the future looks bright.
So Man City and Chelsea have spent over £1b between them in the last 9 years ? Proud moments for fans yeah ?
Sorry to have only just caught up guys. I've been away through much of the week. I couldn't agree more Mr Head. Everything boils down to leadership and decision-making, both of which left much to be wanted. Yet we seem to get more of these types on our board. By that I refer to Gazidis being brought on board in the last couple of years. As for the rest of the board and our manager, I think Matt Slater sums it up all too well http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/mattslater/2011/10/arsenal_agm.html Chasing 4th place is such poor reflection on our history and inadequate reward for many years of faithful support from our fans.
1) We have never paid the going rate for players. When Wenger joined players were going for record fees non stop all around us, Man U were splashing big bucks on the likes of Veron, etc, Wenger didn't splash any real cash until he bought Wiltord for £13m and he was our most expensive signing until Arshavin !!! 2) I will concede that teams have improved, every game is a potential banana skin .. apart from playing the newly promoted teams. 3) WE have money to spend Wenger just won't spend it, the stadium move has not impacted on our spending power, the board continually say money is there if Wenger wants it. 4) The Invincibles, of course they were never going to last forever but Wenger broke the team up too hastily. The "1 year contract for 30+ year olds" was the stupidest policy I have heard of in football. Massive own goal by Wenger there. I am still of the opinion that had Wenger acted early enough this season and not neglected the squad in previous seasons (keeper, CBs and strikers) we would've been much closer to the top teams squad-wise.
All these people that were on the Cahill bandwagon. You knew we would win if we signed him. He has been utter dross this season and has been forever - Samba too. Fact is you dont know ****. Fans want to get respect from the club? Stop talking out of your arses about football when you haven't got a clue.
There's alot of sense in that. Trouble I find with many Arsenal fans is they've been desperate for AW to sign anyone, they read a bit of media hype about a talented player and want us to sign him without having studied the players performances, weaknesses and strengths, and analysing whether he fits into our system.
(1) We did pay the going rate for players. As I already mentioned, we never went for the mega bucks Veron's. But we paid the market rate for what was available. £13m for Wiltord proves that point. (2) So therefore it's not that teams like Arsenal, Chelsea and Utd have been playing 'below par' it's because the others have improved. (3) 'the stadium move has not impacted on our spending power' - take your head out of the sand mate. The board are usually pretty quiet on most affairs, but this was one where they spelt it out clearly - we would not be buying expensive talent, but developing the youth instead - it's crytsal clear (to most) (4) Out of the invincibles squad, name one player who went on to better things after Wenger sold them?
