If Wenger HAS lost direction, it all starts with the players he's brought in, not to mention the inflated wage deals for squad 'fillers' who just make up the numbers.

For that money we could have brought in four superstars and held on to RVP. Kompany, Aguero, Yaya and Tevez, for example.

Other big teams build their squads with a handful of stars and shrewdly bought lower-ranked names and highly-motivated youth players. Wenger now prefers a mass of middle-ranked players to avoid the horror of paying superstars superstar wages.

Superstars tend to have opinions and demands too. Shocking.

Funny, he never had that problem with Henry, Vieira or Sol (or with himself) though...

2010/2011
Koscielny 8.5m
Squilacci 3.5m
Chamakh 3m*
Wellington 2.5m

2011/2012
Oxlade-Chamberlain 12m
Gervinho 11m
Arteta 10m
Mertesacker 8m
Santos 6m
Park 2m
Jenkinson 1m
Campbell 1m

2012/2013
Cazorla 16.5m
Giroud 12
Podolski 11m
Monreal 8.5m


* signing-on fee, paid over length of contract in addition to salary)

Limited resources my arse. Wasteful and inept more like.

That's not the issue. The net spend is obviously lower than almost everyone.

You can still ask a separate question, though, as to whether he has spent well AND whether it would be better to spend what money we do have on a smaller number of top, top, top players (as Wenger would put it) or on a load of good to average ones, which is what we've done...

We're now reaping the consequences of that policy - Wenger's policy - with poor, inconsistent performances and fringe players we can't sell and are orced o part fund their wages at other clubs.

The policy has FAILED and alienated many fans and a good few players such as RVP and Fabregas who lost their belief in Wenger's approach.

I just said that the figure is pretty meaningless when you have had more than that in outgoings.

And as for your questions regarding the quality of the signings, when Wenger has spent (comparatively) big, he has generally spent well (Cazorla, Ox, Giroud, Mertesacker, Podoloski), but there will always be duds when you are trying to find true bargains in the bargain bin.

Really???

We could have bought Sergio Aguero or Yaya Toure with the money we spent on Squillaci, Chamakh, Wellington, Park, Gervinho, Santos and Campbell.

I know what I'd rather have done...

complaining when we bought Vieira and Petit and Kanu for **** all. When you don't have big money sometimes you win and sometimes...

Mohamud wrote on Sat, 16 February 2013 21:08



complaining when we bought Vieira and Petit and Kanu for **** all. When you don't have big money sometimes you win and sometimes...





Are you comparing Vieira, Petit or Kanu to any of those players???

They were all top players then they joined.

Petit had captained Monaco and already played for France, the only surprise was Wenger moving him from LB to DF.

Kanu had already won the Champions League...

Despite the endlesly-repeated myth of Vieira being 'unknown', he was already a major name in France since a young teenager and had already earned a big move to Milan. Just because the English press pack at the time thought an overseas trip meant crossing the Thames, it doesn't mean that Vieira actually was unknown.

The punts haven't so well worked recently. So? When you haven't got the money you take a punt or you resign yourself to obscurity. he's got more balls than all the losers on this so-called Arsenal fansite will have put together.