There are many things I want to get across in the blog but I want to start by saying that this is in no way whatsoever an anti-Wenger or Wenger out post so if that is what you were hoping for then I’m afraid you are going to be disappointed but I hope you’ll stick around for the rest of the post.
The title of the post isn’t deliberately misleading in order to gain more hits, I truly believe that Wenger should not be involved in the financial aspect of transfer negotiations. I believe that finance should be left to the club to deal with. We employ football managers not general managers.
Wenger is infamously frugal and there are reports that we may have missed out on M’Vila because of penny-pinching. Whilst I rate M’Vila as a good prospect I wouldn’t be devastated if we missed out on him although I would be annoyed if we lost him to another premier league club.
We have also reportedly missed out on many players over the years in negotiation stages because we didn’t meet the asking price, Mata, Cahill and Jones being examples. When we went back in for Jones, United had declared their interest and that was us finished.
Gazidis sensed that Wenger's negotiation tactics weren't being well received
Had Wenger or even Arsenal as a club not have been so concerned with saving a few pennies we may not have lost Nasri just as he was starting to become influential, we may never have lost Cole over £5k a week and Van Persie might only be midway through a more lucrative contract than at the end of a relatively poor one for someone of his ability.
I’m sure Arsenal could benefit in transfer and contract negotiations if Wenger concentrates purely on the football side of negotiations and the club decides what we can afford to pay for a player Wenger wants. If we have a budget to bring in 3 players and target 9 players then the club should focus on buying within the budget rather than allowing us to miss out only to realise once the transfer market has closed and our other transfers have been concluded that we had enough in the coffers to pay the asking price in the first place.
It is also the penny-pinching that has for so long stopped Wenger from buying experienced premier league players. We saw this season the impact of players like Arteta and Benayoun to an extent can have on the team with their years of premier league experience and keeping him out of transfer negotiations might help us recruit more of these types of player.
I don’t think we are going to spend the sort of money that some people want us to spend and if we did manage to get M’Vila for £17m I don’t see us spending loads more. Last summer was a one-off, we needed to bring in 6 or 7 players to compensate for the loss of 2 and I don’t see that happening again.
If you look at the only other successful non-benefactor club in the premier league, Manchester United, you see that whereas we tend to buy mostly from abroad and purchase nationally every now and again United compliment their overseas purchases with experienced premier league performers.
Players like Valencia, Ferdinand, Carrick, Rooney, Berbatov, Van Der Sar, Jones, Young, Smalling, Tevez, Smith and Saha have all been purchased from other premier league clubs and were instantly and consistently effective as they needed to adaptation to the league and I could like many more.
Players like Nasri, Arshavin, Chamakh, Koscielny, Hleb, Eduardo and Adebayor all needed to adjust to the league just as Santos, Gervinho and Mertesacker have had to do this season and Koscielny has attributed his improvement mostly down to knowing the league better.
Arsenal are currently being linked with M’Vila, Kagawa, Vertonghen, Giroud, Lewandowski, Radu, Capoue as well as experienced premier league players such as Dempsey, Kalou, Hoilett and N’Zonzi.
I personally think we should forget about the M’Vila’s, Giroud’s and Kagawa’s (even though I rate them all and would like to see them at Arsenal) for the immediate future and should be focusing on experienced premier league players.
We have lots of young players with excellent futures ahead of them but I think we have been foolish in recent years by investing far too heavily in youth and overseas talent. Talent that needs time to adjust that we cannot afford to give to too many players if we want to challenge.
As I said, I don’t think we are going to spend lots of money, in fact I think the money we will spend is mostly going to be on redressing the balance in the wage structure. There are plenty of players available on free transfers this summer that could do a job (not wildly improve the team but decent options in the squad) for Arsenal including Owen, Kalou, Drogba, Gordon, Hargreaves, Hoilett and Bosingwa as my guest blogger on Monday suggested.
Apart from Gordon I am not going to suggest any of those players as it seems suggesting any sort of experienced player who is available on a free transfer is like a personal insult to some fans.
I’ve thought about this a lot and I’m basing my thoughts on how the season panned out, the performances of our players and their experience of the league, the players we’ve been linked with, experience of many Wenger transfer windows and potential departures.
I’m going to base this on Van Persie staying put (M’Vila signing or not doesn’t affect these ideas). What I’m looking for is experienced, gutsy, hard-work, technically sound and versatile players.
Gordon is one. He will put pressure on Szczesny and is a very good keeper. A free transfer too!
The next one is Clint Dempsey. Sure we could have Kagawa and yes he would be preferable for the long-term but we’ve thought in the long-term for a while now and it’s not getting us anywhere. Is is a coincidence that we bought experienced players and a few proven EPL performers and finished with more points and higher than the season before after our worst start in living memory for most fans with a team that was supposedly our worst in 16 years and significantly worse than the season before? I don’t think it is. I think our experienced players brought a solidity and calmness to the team and took us over the line in a number of games where we probably would have collapse in with the previous years team.
Fulham ace Clint Dempsey
Dempsey is an experienced premier league player, versatile, hard-working, tough and gutsy. He is also a very talented footballer and scored many goals for Fulham last season. He is a player who would fit in well at Arsenal and would give us something different.
The last player might be a bit of a shock for most of you but I’d really like to see us make a move for Kevin Doyle.
Doyle could be the player we signed Chamakh to be and more. Doyle is another hard-working, gutsy player and he holds the ball up well and is comfortable and suited to a number of formations. Able to play upfront on his own, in a partnership, right or left in a three or wide right in a five. He is strong, good in the air, stretches defences, brings other players in and is good in defence. I don’t think he is going to be a starter but he could take the role Chamakh occupies at the moment and actually be able to influence a game from the bench. He’s not prolific but he is so much more than just goals and personal glory.
Everything Chamakh should have been and more?
They’re not the signings we are going to get nor the signings some want us to make but they are signings who would fit our budget, be instantly influential, add experience, guts and steel to the team and are old enough to not hold back any of our promising youngsters.
They’re not marquee signings or big names but I don’t care about that. I want a team that can compete in a manner of games and therefore across the season not a team full of players that might be half-decent in a few years time.
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You might need to re-write this part of your post “we needed to bring in 8 or 9 players to compensate for the loss of 2 and I don’t see that happening again”.
Fabregas, Nasri, Clichy, Bentdner, Denilson, Vela, Eboue, either sold or loaned.
The main bunch we brought in Arteta, Mertesacker, Santos, Gervinho, Chamberlain, Park and Benayoun.
Thanks Nick. I meant 6 or 7. Wrote most of that on my iPhone. I have amended that now. I only really consider Fabregas and Nasri as the players we needed to replace.
While I appreciate what your trying to say, to write Arshavin, Chamakh and Eduardo needed time to settle might be a little wide of the mark. 2 of them eventually fell out of form and Dudu had his leg snapped in half (He was in great form before that happened). All 3 had an instant impact in the first 6 months.
They did have an instant impact and then they fell away because the league caught up with them. I still believe we do not sign enough experienced premier league players.
I don’t agree, I just think Arshavin is lazy as fuck and Chamakh couldn’t get to grips with being a bit part player. It is a more challenging league, I do agree with you that 1 or 2 PL players might be an improvement. Like De Jong instead of M’vila for me would be less of a gamble.
I’m so fucking tired about this fucking transfer saga. We’ve lost out on Eden Hazard to Chelshit, why? Bcos of the board stinginess. When will trophy land at Arsenal? When are we( the fans)going to enjoy the dividend of supporting a club like Arsenal? Why can’t we challenge other club for top,proven players? I’ve begining to ask myself whether i made a mistake joining Arsenal in the first place. My everyday prayer is for that man(Wenger)to sign M’villa and Oliver Giroud for us so, if he want to sign EPL players for us no Problem with that. Arsene Wenger, Ivan Gazzidis and rest of the stingy and selfish board please you guys should sit up and read the hand writting between the lines. What will be our hope,our joy, our faith if what we are seeking and hoping for in this transfer window did not come to fruition? Shall we experience the storm of last season again? No,no,no, i don’t want to go to Gogorta again. Well, Arsenal is like a wife to me no matter what may i will not divorce her. A Gunner will i be till eternity.
hi after this suggestion, give us how the formation will look live to fit those player you suggested.
433 – Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Song, Arteta, Dempsey (Wilshere when fit), Doyle, RVP, Podolski.
442 – Szczesny, Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs, Walcott, Arteta, Dempsey/Wilshere, AOC, RVP/Poldolski/Doyle
I’ll leave the selection to Wenger.
I agree with U. I think adding Kalou will be a great addition. Also, Nigel De’ Jong is a fighter and will protect the back 4 very well
I think De Jong is a decent player but I don’t think he is for us. He is quite dirty and not a very good passer.
I agree that Wenger should not have anything to do with transfer negotiations. My understanding was that this used to be David Dein’s role and you can see how much more successful we were in the transfer market when he was around than we have been since Wenger took over.
I am sick and tired of seeing us sell players for enormous profit (or lose them because we quibble over silly amounts), and then not reinvest it. We sold 3 players last summer for the sum total of ~£65m+. We spent about £35-40m and most of those were last day transfers (I don’t think they were all panic buys but some of them certainly were after the 8-2 debacle).
We all hoped that this summer would be different and the signing of Podolski gave us some hope that we had learned our lessons of getting in early and sorting things out so that the squad was settled for pre-season training.
So far Podolski remains the only signing and I can’t imagine that we’ll be signing anyone of note (i.e. international stature) during the Euros, which means we have about 9 days to get most everything else sorted. Otherwise we’ll end up where we were last season: pre-season starts and we’re no nearer knowing what RvP is doing and whether he needs replacing or not, or strengthening in other areas (CAM, DM and striker at least).
If reports are to be believed we’ve cooled our jets on M’Vila over transfer fee and Kagawa looks like he’s heading to Man Utd for similar reasons. How far down our list do we need to go before we get that bargain that Wenger’s after?
I have to say I’m not jazzed by any of your EPL suggestions at all. I agree with the need for experience and bite that these players might add but all of those you mention are squad players and not first eleven – we need proper quality for the first eleven. Most of the ones you mention are in the twilight of their career, perma-crocks, or playing in really bad teams so probably stand-out in them.
Now if we were looking at the likes of Baines, Jagielka, Sturridge and Toure then I’d be excited!
Sadly I think you may be right – we’ll end up with none of the ‘big’ names we’re linked with, we’ll sign some of the ones you mention and RvP will leave early August leaving us little or no time to replace him or get someone settled in.
It’s still early days Matt…. We’ll sign more that Podolski.
I couldn’t disagree more that these players aren’t good enough for first 11. Gordon is good enough to be our number 1. Dempsey is good enough to play in a number of positions for Arsenal. Doyle I admit would more than likely be a benched player but it we changed formation he would be in contention for a start for me.
Baines I would like to see but he’ll probably go to Utd and we already have two players in the LB spot. Jagielka I would also love to see but he is a defender and I didn’t list any defenders
Sturridge and Toure…. we’d never be able to afford their wages and do you think Chelski or Citeh would actually sell first team players to us?
I believe experience, fight and guts is more important than more “promising” players with “potential”.
I’d love to see the players with the “big” names at Arsenal but I would rather see us challenging for trophies next year not the year after or the year after that and for that we need players who can immediately benefit the team. Just my opinion.
Owen and Drogba would be bench players too (neither can regularly last 90 mins nowadays), and Hargreaves – dear God what a waste of money he proved to be for both Manchester clubs. Why would we take a risk?
I know we’ve got two players in the right back position already, but Gibbs cannot be relied upon on a regular basis and there’s an argument for Santos to be played further up the pitch and not as a left-back. Thus leaving space for someone like Baines.
And if we can’t afford Toure or Sturridge wages then I can’t see how we could afford Drogba, and possibly Owen and Hargreaves (although likely they’d only get PAYP contracts). And rumours suggest that both may leave current clubs. If they want to leave then we should be looking at being in the market for these types of players. Why should the traffic be one-way?
Gordon was the only one I originally hesitated about dumping in with the others. He’d certainly give Chezzer something to think about, but don’t think he’d oust him as number one yet.
Dempsey I’m not convinced about. Yes he had a stand-out year for Fulham. I know he’s a midfielder and not a striker, but he’s only had 2 seasons where he’s delivered double figures in goals and in his entire Fulham career he’s never bagged more than a 5 assists in a year.
I agree his work-rate is great and that is very appealing, but I don’t know what else he adds above and beyond what we already have. Hence why I think he’d be primarily a bench/rotation player.
I think it’s also important that we sign ‘big’ name players to encourage better marketing etc in the run-up to all the commercial deals being renewed.
I want to win things sooner rather than later but I can’t see Doyle, Gordon or Dempsey (at 29), being ever hailed as Arsenal greats.
Owen and Drogba I spoke about for different reasons. I think strength in depth is important. Hargreaves I’m not considering at all, he is just a player who regardless of his injury problems has a lot of talent who is available on a free transfer.
I agree on the left-back situation, Santos certainly would suit playing further up field (Goonerdave66 did a great piece on it recently) and I would love to see Baines at the club but I don’t see it happening and I was looking at positions I feel we could benefit from the most, I didn’t think LB was one of them.
I think you are labouring the Owen/Drogba point a bit, this post isn’t about that.
Toure wants to leave to go back to Barca. Sturridge I have no issue with but I don’t think he’d be available at a price relative to his impact at Chelsea.
I’m not really looking for a player to oust Szczesny, just keep him on his toes and be able to do a decent job when called upon. Fabianski is a better all-round keeper than both of them but his biggest problem is confidence and concentration. Szczesny is only better because he has those two things in abundance. Gordon is a steady keeper and would be able to hack only playing a game here or there and play it well. Fabianski can’t step in and immediately perform, he needs time to get his rhythm.
I wouldn’t rate someone purely on assists, especially when you see the players who are supposed to be putting away their chances. Dempsey is a quality all round player in my opinion but hey, I don’t expect people to agree with me. Debate is good!
I don’t think “big” players will affect our commercial deals in a significant way. Being a globally recognised and bankable brand will. If we aren’t winning things but have the best players in the world we’ll make money sure but we’d still be behind teams that actually win stuff because they will gain more attention. Look at United… who are their big names (global)? Rooney and that is it really. Us? RVP. We’re far behind them firstly because we tied into long deals but mostly because our brand doesn’t match theirs.
Big name players do not guarantee us success especially when we have to bed them in.
I don’t think every player we have to sign has to go down as an Arsenal great. They just have to help us win stuff again.
Rooney, Evra, Vidic, Ferdinand, Giggs, Scholes, Young. Not to mention players who are huge in other markets – Anderson, Rafael, Hernandez, Park, Valencia.
I would argue that they’ve all helped Man Utd’s global brand.
But perhaps I’m being pedantic and looking at last year’s acquisition of Chu-Young cynically.
But overall it’s difficult to argue with you too much – we both want the same thing: new signings that will lead to Arsenal winning trophies again. And the best way to start that is probably to remove Wenger from the negotiation team.
I do see where you are coming from but I think you put too much on player’s iconic status. Beckham is the biggest player in the world in terms of commercial value so why aren’t Galaxy signing massive deals? For me it is more to do with the club and the league than individual players. A winning team is likely to be supported more globally than a non winning team.
I’m sorry but I don’t agree on your post that you rather have kalou Dempsey Doyle over gouid kagawa etc arsenal need big names to attract big names and more importantly keep out start players that agreement is that the arsenal squad isn’t strong enough and bringing in some like Dempsey who’s had 1 great season 1 ok season and then 4 very poor seasons over someone like kagawa who is a recognised international someone who has won comptitions leagues etc is just madness absolutely madness it’s seems you’ve taken the stance of what the club has in taking other clubs castoffs and 1 great season players. Which arsenal have taken in 7 years which is disgraceful by all accounts
Dempsey has not had 4 very poor seasons at all. Have you only just started watching premier league football?
I think it is absolute madness that anyone would argue that we should take “big” names because “we haven’t won anything in 7 years”. The reason we haven’t won anything in 7 years is because we keep replacing our outgoing PROVEN performers and replacing them with players who need to adapt.
Let me remind you that Nasri had a similar few years to Kagawa… did he win us something? Song from 2009-2011 was being touted as one of the “top DMs in the world”… exactly as M’Vila is now. Arshavin was rated as one of the worlds best players when we bought him… look how that turned out. Every single player we’ve made into a superstar was a promising youngster or a cast off. Vieira and Henry… both cast-offs. Overmars, labelled as finished because of his knees. Cesc… couldn’t break into Barca’s reserve team.
Look at the top players at all of the clubs that have won stuff and you’ll see that they are experienced in the league or surrounded by players who are experienced also.
Arsenal won’t win things if they keep adding to their squad with unproven players with potential because they technically haven’t added until the 2nd season and by that time they’ve lost another decent player so they haven’t moved forward at all. If Arsenal complimented their signings that have “potential” with experienced premier league players then they have a better chance of competing in my opinion. But then again it is just my opinion.
Daniel, you really have Kicked the hornet’s nest here.
Firstly, sone fans belive only high profile signings will
Make up fot our failings of the past 7 years. Secondly,
In order to compete with ManC, Chelsea etc spending
Cast amounts is the way they do. I’m of a mind that AW
Likes to buy unknowns & make them into great players.
I do think one more marquee signing and maybe one
More experienced would suffice. But clearly I’m in the minority.
Thanks Madge. I’d like to see a marquee signing as a signal of intent but I’d much rather see us bring in players who can make an instant impact and actually last a full season rather than players like Chamakh who ran out of steam after 5 months.
doyle,gordon r d same level as bendtner nd fabianski,dempsey i like his work ethics.wat arsenal really needs r nt new signings just the attitude of d players we already hve,we normal fail against weaker teams,teams dat shud b easy 4 us 2 beat.our players seems 2 lack drive 2 win against d smaller teams except mayb 3
or 4 times last season.wenger should teach his men to b ruthless.and please we dont need players like denilson,vela,bendtner,park,chamakh,djourou,fabianski even ramsey in d team…yes ramsey.we shud replace dem wit players like dempsey,epl experiece,consistent nd a hard worker.kagawa,flair,pacey,good decision making and can play various positions upfront,nigel de jong can do d dirty work let d likes of arteta,song,wilshere do d offensive bits,jagielka grt utility man nd fairly consistent,last but not least giroud,hes a young version of drogba,nd he can shoot unlike bendtner and chamakh.
Giroud would either not get a game (unless we change formation which I don’t think we will) or he would be playing because RVP has left. Which do you prefer?
Gordon is a top keeper, as is Fabianski. Fabianski’s problem is confidence not talent.
Doyle can’t be compared to Bendtner. He is more comparable to Chamakh and Davies. Able to weigh in with a few goals but mostly there to hold up the ball and bring other players into the game. The job that he does he is one of the best.
wenger will never accept he is wrong.he is stubborn and reluctant to change specially now that he is over 60.the team needs young and also experienced english players combined with top south americans in order to gain titles and supporters in the years to come.the other experiment with young africans and french players was not successful,specially when you consider arsenal to be a title contender team.if you want to be an elite academy for man city,then you are on the right way mr. arsene..
There is nothing wrong with the players we already have, The problem is Wenger is tacticaly inept. We start with a 451 for every game even when we have no fullbacks. Walcott shouldn’t start rather come on when we are winning and explot the space he will find when teams push up. Arshavin, Bentner and Chamakh are great players played or not played out of position. Also going back a few years players like Pires and Gilberto should have been kept instead of the stupid ‘over 30 one year deal crap’. I hope Bould can address the defence this year because at times last year we were shambolic. I hope Ramsey is loaned out to a team where the manager will hairdrier him when he needs it and maybe he can get he basics right. It seems that Wenger doesn’t care who we play, who are their danger players or prepair the tream for the oposition in any way, it’s just go and express yourself lads, I have faith in you.
i really worry about our team in the next Pl for the fact that we are concentration to buy abroad rather than the experienced pl players. look player like scot parker whom we were linked to last yr.
wenger used to point good players and ending up lossing them just for few amount of money. he used to go to France where players were little bit low price but nowadays they have matching the uk prices. player like kelvin doyle is a good player to be included in our team.
But Daniel, you’re absolutely right. You do need to look at the league and the club and when you put Beckham’s presence at LA Galaxy into context you can see what he’s achieving for them.
In the year after he signed Galaxy doubled their revenue. Their overall value ($100m) is more than twice that of any other MLS team and their revenue is 2.5 times that of any other team ($44m).
In terms of on-pitch success they’ve been in the Final and Semi-final for the previous two years and are current MLS Champions.
I am not completely au fait with the structures for MLS, but there are all sorts of financial restrictions placed on them which means they don’t have the ability to sign lots of foreign players on huge wages like we do in Europe. Deals like the ones for Beckham at Galaxy, and Henry at Red Bulls, are still fairly rare as the sport is growing in the US, but there is no doubt about the success Beckham has brought to Galaxy both on and off the pitch, and for the wider sport in the country.
I think if you add a globally recognised name (or two) to our team, then you both increase the chances of on-field success as well as off-field commercial success.
If memory serves correctly then the increase at Galaxy has been due to shirt sales not to better commercial deals.
You may be entirely correct. I recall that Real said they funded the £25m transfer fee from Man Utd in increased shirt sales with 2 months of his arrival.
But I have certainly seen some creative marketing and commercial deals done that no one else in the league is doing that must be having some impact.
And certainly the value of the club cannot be due to one player – Beckham is old and surely near retirement. As a franchise owner I’d be pretty pissed if the value of my club was due to one player on the roster.
BTW – nice bitch-slap earlier!
This blog touches on the edge of a subject that needs dealing with , the reining in of AW.
The vacuum created by Fiszman’s illness allowed AW to be given massive responsibility over and above the duties of a football manager. The board lazy and hungry for profit+balance sheet success were rewarded financially, when Fiszman’s sad death provoked SK to buy the club.
AW was allowed to have a say even in Ivan Gazidis’ recruitment, this is a most unhealthy, unsatisfactory situation where 1 person who is also the highest paid employee +closest to the players has control and decision making outside his remit.
Wenger spent 5 hours according to board minutes discussing catering in club level, the cost of this time at his wage level is around 13000. AW needs to return to the pitch+squad, all non football duties removed from him to lighten his stress load.
He needs as you write removing from negotiations, and also from wages, contracts, and selling/buying valuations of players. Dick law who is slow and a ditherer also needs removing full stop.
AW should be managed by the board not the other way around, and Gazidis needs to be let to do his job, provided with a list of who stays , who we want to buy, and left to sort it out.
AW’s nose+attention fixed on the teams+pitch then we may find we buy players not insult the team we try to buy off+get sent off with a flea in our ear.
Penny pinching needs putting in to context winning the league is worth 40 million pounds, the Cl another 40 million pounds paying that little extra to do so reaps huge income, commercial revenue possibilities, sponsor bonuses etc. Again time AW was managed
Hear hear!
I’m not sure Wenger is as actively involved in the financial side of Arsenal’s transfer activities as this article implies mate? Sure, he’s the guy who preaches the philosophy to the masses but is he really the one who says “I really want player X but the price is little bit too high so forget it”? I don’t reckon so. Scouts identify targets, Wenger approves or denies them, the money men decide on a ceiling price for said player and the likes of Gazidis and Law negotiate the deal surely?
I think that’s the way it’s supposed to work but unfortunately in the absence of people on the negotiation team following Dein’s departure Wenger helped out / moved in.
The wage structure and over playing of players is entirely down to Wenger. Do you think Law & Gazidis sit in an office and say to each other: “You know what? That Djourou chap is worth a new contract on £50k p/w”? And if that’s Wenger’s decision why is it so hard to imagine he’s more heavily involved in targeting and negotiation of player acquisitions?
Well to be honest yes, I do think that Gazidis and/or Law decide on contracts and wage packages for potential signings and existing players. Surely Wenger can’t do all that aswell as identifying targets, negotiating deals, Managing the team and cleaning the bogs…
Yet he does. The quotes from ex-staff and ex-players about his input is there to see. You can also see his input on non-footballing matters in the boardroom minutes.
Wenger had a hand in recruiting Gazidis. If you think that a manager like Wenger who regularly consults the club on non-football related matters would not want to be involved in transfer negotiations then I suggest you think again. Wenger is regularly involved in contract negotiations.
Good post. Kalou/Doyle(one of them) and Dempsey will definitely be good signings. I am sure Craig Gordon is a good keeper and he is Free Agent which is a bonus but he has just one league appearance this season and i don’t think we can rely on him even as second string to Szczesny. And about the main point about Wenger you are right,persuading a player to join a club or sign a contract will definitely depends on the manager (60-80%) approximately most of the time. So by taking him out of the remaining (20-40%)i.e leaving financial aspect of transfer/contract negotiations to other club officials should definitely relieve some pressure of him and concentrate more on football.
Daniel….while I respect your desire to improve things at AFC, your post is so off the mark that I couldn’t ignore a respectful rebuttal:
1)keeping him out of transfer negotiations might help us recruit more of these types of player….wasn’t he the one who recruited Arteta,Per,Vermaelen, Kos, Chamakh, RVP etc.,etc. for a song (pardon the unintended pun)? Why would his absence ensure that we could recruit others of this ilk…your argument is circular and irrational!
2)Had Wenger or even Arsenal as a club not have been so concerned with saving a few pennies …. What world do you live in? A few pennies? Typically understated nonsense…it is millions of euros difference between AFc and the moneybags Clubs…we NEEDED Arsenal and Wenger’s famous frugality to preserve us from the fate of lesser Clubs like Plymouth and Leeds…not senseless criticism like yours base don your whiny notion of ¨what ifs¨!
3)¨keeping him out of transfer negotiations might help us recruit more of these types of player.¨ – this takes the cake! Arteta came to us,taking a salary cut because he wanted to be with Wenger and AFC, regardless of who was doing the negotiating. Excluding Wenger is pointless and in fact counter-productive, as the manager should have a significant say in who is brought into the Club and for how much.
4)I think we have been foolish in recent years by investing far too heavily in youth and overseas talent…. well lets see, how much did Arteta,Benayoun,Vermaelen and Mertesacker cost us, along with the OX and Walcott,Jenkinson and Santos? The only overseas talent in this lot is Mertesacker and he did very well until his injury. Every other guy had EPL experience! The OX and Walcott are in the English Euro team….not a bad return on Wenger’s investment….so another FAIL on your part!
Dom your comments are well off the mark. Let me explain how you are wrong in so many ways.
Citing players we have already bought is a nonsense argument as keeping the manager (any manager) out of the negotiations wouldn’t have stopped us buying these players. Arteta, we could have had two games earlier if we had not haggled so hard over the wages. Mertesacker, Vermaelen and Koscielny were all bargains and whilst I love all of these players at the time of each of their purchases for just a few million more we could have had a proven EPL defender like Jagielka or Cahill who would not have needed a settling in period. You completely miss the point of the post. The point is not to blame Wenger it is to say that experienced EPL players might not be missed out on so often for a cheaper overseas import who needs time to bed in which actually helps to fuel our inability to win something. Chamakh was a free transfer and whilst he has proven to be unsuitable to the demands of the league in our formation (I believe he would benefit from being in a 2) we would have had him a year earlier if Wenger had not decided to pull out of negotiations rating him too expensive. RVP was bought as a 20 yr old. Poor example. Again you miss the point. I did not call for him to be out of negotiations completely, just to relinquish control over the finances. He shouldn’t have to make those decisions.
If we cannot compete against money bags clubs why do we need Wenger’s frugality? Isn’t it a little pointless and a waste of his time? You seem to think he personally finds our bargains. Wrong. Our scouting network do that. The world I live in Dom is the real one. Dortmund and Montpellier have proven that you can compete on a budget. And when I say pennies I meant it in relative terms. Some of the deals we have pulled out of or being beaten in have been over what could be considered pennies in the grand scheme of things.
You keep citing the same players Dom, this shows your argument is weakening. Arteta took a salary cut at the last minute because he didn’t want to miss out on his last chance to join a champions league team. Our harsh negotiations almost had us miss out on him. It was literally at the last minute that he joined. Him taking a pay cut was his decision not due to Wenger’s negotiations. Once more, you completely misunderstand the point of the post. I’m not saying exclude Wenger, I am saying take the financial decisions out of his hands. If he says he wants a player and the club find out that player wants £5k more a week that their limit instead of Wenger deciding to back out the club could make the decision to pay that little bit more for the player or to the player because that is the player Wenger wants.
Wrong! Only Arteta and Benayoun had EPL experience. Arteta cost us £10m but we haggled too hard over £10k a week and almost missed out. Benayoun was a loan player. We’re a top 4 club and we rely on LOANS. Vermaelen and Mertesacker both cost £10m. Mertesacker we could have had a year earlier if we’d paid a little more and we missed out on Jagielka, Jones and Cahill at least a total of 5 times because of money. Ox, Jenks and Walcott came from lower leagues and being so young needed time to be eased into the team. Santos came from overseas. The point of this comment is about replacing our proven performers with unproven performers and youngsters. It creates a cycle of being “almost” good enough to challenge. Walcott and Ox being in the England team is NOT a return on Wenger’s investment as it does not benefit the club. It doesn’t help us win something nor does it win us any money.
I appreciate your comments Dom but please do try to refrain from erring towards getting personal.