Arsenal

épieur · September 1, 2011

"The market will be hyperactive because everyone believes financial fair play will happen soon. So we are quickly doing the last buying before the stores will be closed. And for the first time for a while, I will be very active, too." - Wenger, may 24

"Financially, we're in a strong position. We have resources to spend. We're certainly not sitting there saying 'Let's hold back on our resources for some reason.' Why would we? The resources are there. - Gazidis, July 18

The talk at the start of the summer was a 40m transfer budget for Wenger. Now, Wenger has been active. He has signed:

Carl Jenkinson £1.2M

Jon Toral £0.35M (Academy player)

Héctor Bellerín £0.4M (Academy player)

Gervinho £10.6M

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain £12M

Joel Campbell £0.9M

Park Chu-Young £3.0M

André Santos £6.2M

Per Mertesacker £8.9M

Yossi Benayoun Loan

Mikel Arteta £10m

11 players signed, for a total of 53.5m. However, balance it against out-going transfers:

Jens Lehmann Retired Free transfer

Thomas Cruise Unattached Free transfer

Mark Randall Chesterfield Free transfer

Roarie Deacon Sunderland Free transfer

Gaël Clichy Manchester City £7M

Wellington Levante Loan

Denílson São Paulo Loan

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas Ipswich Town £1.1M

James Shea Dagenham and Redbridge Loan

Jamie Edge West Bromwich Albion Free transfer

Samuel Galindo Gimnàstic de Tarragona Loan

Kyle Bartley Rangers Loan

Cesc Fàbregas Barcelona £35M

Emmanuel Eboué Galatasaray £3M

Carlos Vela Real Sociedad Loan

Pedro Botelho Rayo Vallecano Loan

Samir Nasri Manchester City £22M

Armand Traoré Queens Park Rangers £1.5M

Henri Lansbury West Ham United Loan

Gilles Sunu Lorient Undisclosed

Joel Campbell Lorient Loan

Nicklas Bendtner Sunderland Loan

22 players have left the club this summer, 10 of them on loan, for a total income of £69.5m. Bear in mind that Arsenal's wage structure is heavily tilted towards youngsters. They pay them a lot more than most other clubs in order to attract them.

So not only has Arsenal summer seen them net a £16m profit, they've also done an even more thorough job this summer than we have of clearing out players to lift pressure from the wagebill. If you look at it like-for-like in the first team, this is what has changed:

In attacking midfield/forward positions, Fabregas, Nasri, Bendtner and Vela have left the club. They have been replaced by Benayoun, Arteta, Gervinho, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Park.

In midfield, Denilson has left. He was not replaced.

Eboue has left. He has been replaced by Jenkinson.

Clichy and Traore have left. They have been replaced by André Santos.

Per Mertesacker has been added to central defence.

esacker £8.9M

Yossi Benayoun Loan

Mikel Arteta £10m

11 players signed, for a total of 53.5m. However, balance it against out-going transfers:

Jens Lehmann Retired Free transfer

Thomas Cruise Unattached Free transfer

Mark Randall Chesterfield Free transfer

Roarie Deacon Sunderland Free transfer

Gaël Clichy Manchester City £7M

Wellington Levante Loan

Denílson São Paulo Loan

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas Ipswich Town £1.1M

James Shea Dagenham and Redbridge Loan

Jamie Edge West Bromwich Albion Free transfer

Samuel Galindo Gimnàstic de Tarragona Loan

Kyle Bartley Rangers Loan

Cesc Fàbregas Barcelona £35M

Emmanuel Eboué Galatasaray £3M

Carlos Vela Real Sociedad Loan

Pedro Botelho Rayo Vallecano Loan

Samir Nasri Manchester City £22M

Armand Traoré Queens Park Rangers £1.5M

Henri Lansbury West Ham United Loan

Gilles Sunu Lorient Undisclosed

Joel Campbell Lorient Loan

Nicklas Bendtner Sunderland Loan

22 players have left the club this summer, 10 of them on loan, for a total income of £69.5m. Bear in mind that Arsenal's wage structure is heavily tilted towards youngsters. They pay them a lot more than most other clubs in order to attract them.

So not only has Arsenal summer seen them net a £16m profit, they've also done an even more thorough job this summer than we have of clearing out players to lift pressure from the wagebill. If you look at it like-for-like in the first team, this is what has changed:

In attacking midfield/forward positions, Fabregas, Nasri, Bendtner and Vela have left the club. They have been replaced by Gervinho, Benayoun, Arteta, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Park.

In midfield, Denilson has left. He was not replaced.

Eboue has left. He has been replaced by Jenkinson.

Clichy and Traore have left. They have been replaced by André Santos.

Per Mertesacker has been added to central defence.

Of those, I would say Mertesacker is the only signing that has in any way strengthened them this summer. The rest are sideway steps or downgrades.

How on earth can the Arsenal board get away with this? This is frankly as bad as what G&H were doing to us. They've lost two world class players for a total sum of 57m. Their direct replacements, Arteta and Benayoun, have cost them 10m. Undoubtedly on lower wages as well. If the board did not intend to spend, why on earth has Wenger scattered his resources on players like Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Park that he didn't really need? If they did, why on earth did he settle for such average replacements for two of his three most important players?

Arsenal's summer has to be one of the worst I can recall for any top club in many years. That it came on the back of a season finish where Arsenal imploded and one imagines that all of them must be sick of playing with all these youngsters can't be good for squad morale either.

Wnenger is very good at making teams better than the sum of their parts, but I think he has stretched himself too far here.

_00_deathscar · September 1, 2011

This post is not viewable to guests.

You can sign in to your account at the login page here