Personally and although i have no proof, i have a feeling that there might be some tension between Wenger and the board ie we have the money to spend on transfer fees but our wages structure is killing us as we being run strictly as a business, which is fair enough i suppose. But its killing our chances of competing for trophies, the only way the board will learn is when people start complaining with their wallets ie near empty emirates for one.
Someone mentioned it before that our rot started when Dein left us as he was in charge os transfers and wages i imagine...dont think he will come back but personally id like to see him back at Arsenal in charge of transfers.
Its not though, as stated before, we used to compete, we always spent less than Utd on wages, you can have a team of 28 year olds who you bought at 25 on big wages with big transfer fee's, or as Arsenal you can buy people just before their names get big, for much smaller fee's and smaller wages.
There isn't a right or wrong way to do it. The simple problem is that Wenger used to spot, Lauren's, and Pires's, and bring in Henry's, and Vieira's, and Silvinho's, and Edu, Gilberto, Freddie, Eboue, etc, etc.
In the past 5-6 years he's been picking up FAR worse quality players for no more than he could have been buying good players. Theo, 15mil, Squillaci around 6-8mil?, Hleb around 10mil, Diaby, Denilson, Song were cheap but suck wages out of the club and prevent us spending more on other players.
We could have bought, Given, 5mil, Adam Johnson, 7-8mil iirc, Kompany 5mil, Zarate is now highly rated, he would probably have only been 5, maybe 10mil at the time he went on loan to Brum. Hernandez, Cleverley, for the quality Lampard has shown over the past almost decade, 12mil was ridiculously cheap.
There are, every single season ridiculously high quality players going for very very cheap. I just can't remember the last 5-10mil player Arsenal bought who became absolutely amazing, we used to get them constantly, City/Utd are still buying them, why aren't Arsenal?
The quality of the players we've been buying is dramatically down, the numbers of ridiculously good quality players you can get for sub 10mil ISN'T. You can't possibly blame prices. Lazio and Real were paying 30mil+ for players over 10 years ago, when Arsenal were still getting good deals. City pay stupid amounts, and still got Given and Kompany for next to nothing.
Real paid £46mil which at the time was 76million Euro's, in 2001.
Pretending Chelsea and City have come in and ruined transfer fee's is laughable. Wages as an excuse is laughable, Arsenal used to offload expensive players as they approached high wage situations and buy BETTER PLAYERS, and make a profit, nothing stopping us doing that now.
Considering the team and the new stadium supports 50% higher wages than it did the last time we won anything, sorry but all these excuses are just that.
Arsenal isn't being forced to buy young and sell when they get older, this was his entire philosophy, it used to work when he bough the right younger players, lately he's been buying much worse and its not working.
So when he WANTED to do this and won stuff, he was a genius, now when he wants to do it, and screws it up constantly, its the boards fault?
Where would Arsenal be if we spent 5mil on Kompany, instead of more than that on Squillaci, what if we got rid of Diaby 4 years ago, saved 12million in wages, and bought Merieles instead. What if we spent 10mil on Arteta several years ago, instead of Hleb. What if we also didn't waste close to the same amount on Walcott, and saved the probably 10-12mil we actually paid for him, and had another 25mil to spend on someone this year, etc, etc, etc.
Theres ONE reason Arsenal aren't doing well, quality of players, price, wages have nothing to do with that, at all. We bought a lot of not very good players, instead of very very good players. There basically isn't more than 2-3 players in the squad we couldn't have gotten a better player for less money. Wenger did exceptionally well in his first 7-8 years at bringing in the right players at the right time, in the past 6 years, Vermaelen is just about the only player we paid money for and got right.
Ageuro is an AWESOME player, and cost 35mil, actually it might have been Euro's, not sure, Crespo went for the same fee, in 1999, though that was also almost 60mil Euro's, Figo went for almost the exact same a year later, 60mil Euro's. Sorry but spending hasn't changed, price of players hasn't changed, the big clubs always overpaid, didn't stop us being BETTER than clubs like Lazio and Inter previously, and now we're much worse. Hell, when you factor in inflation for 12 years, Aguero is MUCH cheaper than Crespo was, and when you compare it in Euro's with inflation, Aguero is under half the price of what the Crespo deal would be today, and barely 1/4 of what the Zidane deal was worth.
We're spending 50% more on wages, we're buying more expensive players a little more often, the quality of the players we buy is the ONLY difference, and Wenger is choosing who to bring in.
Well Rooney wanted assurances about what was being spent and that they would actually build on the outgoing team they had. If I was a player I would have my agent ask the same questions rather than blindly sign for a team stagnating, wouldn't you?
I think Rooney though did Fergie a favour with money, Nasri's public announcement I doubt will do Arsenal getting players any favours on the count they haven't won anything.
Rooney wanted more money, simple as that, Utd were winning titles, anything else he said is a joke. RVP wanting assurances when Arsenal came 4th for the umpteenth time in a row, makes sense, Rooney, having won 3 prem leagues in a row and being in champs league finals wants assurances they can....... move up the league...... laughable.
he's qualified in that if that's what you mean?
