Arsenal board NOT Wenger to blame for transfer failings?

Arsenal fans are fed up with it and rightly so, but just where does the blame really lie for the club’s failure to compete with all of our Premier League rivals in the transfer market?

We keep being told in every transfer window by Arsene Wenger and members of the Arsenal board that there is plenty of money to spend but it never gets done. Just the fact that they are talking about big transfers shows that they know it is what the fans want and suggests that they also know that it would help towards major trophy success.

Is Wenger really that stubborn that he does not spend the money just to prove a point? I doubt it, but perhaps the theory put forward by Brian Reade of The Mirror this week makes more sense. He suggests that the club is happy to use the Frenchman as a buffer between their profiteering and the anger of the fans.

Why Wenger is content to take the flak is not so clear but perhaps his massive annual salary makes it easier to understand. Reade goes on to say that it really does not matter whether the transfer policy comes from the boss or not, because it is up to the board to make sure that the club and the team is as strong as possible and that is clearly not happening.

If the board thinks Wenger should be signing more and better players then it is up to them to do something about it is it not?

Bob.

37 Comments

  1. If the board are to be blamed, that means Wenger dislike what they are doing. That tells me that he should be speaking against them and voice his opinion. He could say.. .if the board continues to act indifferent, then someone has to leave the club. The club or myself will be gone.. Statement like that will awaken everyone and we the fans will know what is going on..

    No action to show that Wenger isn’t part of the problem.. .

    1. if Pogba’s transfer was £100 million, I say let’s bid £80-85 million take-it-or-leave-it offer for Lewandoski and give him a £2 million sign on fee, £180k per week, £10k bonus for every goal and £50k bonus for every hatrick. Done deal.

      1. Why would he leave a super club like Bayern to this unchallenging team? And why would Bayern accept any bid for their world class main striker? We can keep dreaming

  2. Rubbish

    I used to believe that, but no more

    Wenger spent £35 million on Xhaka
    A luxury player
    That shows the Board aren’t that tight
    Other clubs signed players that were affordable to us ie
    1. Mkthiaryan
    2. Nolito
    3. Ashley Williams
    4. Janssen
    5. Ibrahimovic (£0 transfer fee-we could afford £300,000 per week if we sold Walcott)

    Wenger has been lazy. Poor planning and preparation

    1. Exactly. Buying Xhaka before a forward and a cb is poor management and has nothing to do with the board.
      And if Wenger really feels hampered by the board, he should have enough spine to put his position on the line.
      Finally, it is not only a matter of players. Wenger doesn’t organize the team well enough defensively, and he certainly doesn’t make our midfielders and attackers work hard enough. That is the main reason we are so easy to score against.

    2. True @ArsenalGirl.
      Anyway I no longer worry myself who’s responsible for lying to us fans. I however know someone is lying to us from the top.
      The problem I have now is when Wenger comes out to say things like we have money…I’m not afraid of spending the money…It’s not my money. Bla bla bla…I just want to scream ‘SHUT UP’. Why talk so much. I would rather he says nothing and eventually does something…instead of talking all the time and do nothing. Same thing with Gazidis when he said we can afford any player in the world except Ronaldo and Messi.
      I’m getting upset again. I have to stop here.

    3. @ArsenalGirl If you bring in a player on that salary (Ibra), well above your current wage structure, then you end up having to renegotiate contracts with a lot more of your big players.
      Who’s to say anyone bid for Walcott anyhow?
      Mkhitaryan, Pogba & Ibra have the same agent, a friend of Mourinho.
      Nolito turned down Barcelona to work with Pep (& get a Man City salary).
      Janssen is an unknown, maybe Wenger doesn’t rate him, maybe he wants someone different from that big Giroud type target man- for greater options.

      You can potentially cite a lack of preparation for us having to play Holding/Chambers…. but having their 3 first choice centrebacks out would have a similar impact on most of our rivals. The transfer window isn’t even shut yet though; you can say we should just pay over the odds to have a more complete squad for the extra cpl matches- but saving £3-8M on each of multiple transfers may equate to affording the signing of another big player in a future transfer window- & when you don’t have the same financial resources as several of your rivals, that stuff is important.

      1. No, wrong, all wrong.

        First of all agent is important but money is more important. Who ever pays the fee gets the player.
        People used to come to Arsenal to work with Arsene – no more. Now they want to work with Pep, Mourinho, Angelotti, Klopp etc..
        Not having a world class central defender to pair with Koscielny and spending 16M on Chambers, 16m on Gabriel and not finding a solution to the problem shows a distinct lack of understanding the transfer market and a distinct lack of scouting.
        Saving money on a transfer is less important than getting your man, specially the amounts you are talking about.
        We have had average Giroud for 4 seasons now – there were lots of expensive options over those 8 transfer windows, we were told we had the money, where is the upgrade?
        We loose the competition in the transfer windows. We start the seasons unprepared, and lacking quality year after year.

        1. Spending money on Chambers and Gabriel shows a distinct lack of understanding in transfer market, because it didn’t work out (so far). Would you get a grip, no-one knows for sure if they’ll work out or not. Fans say you need to at-least try sign players and if it doesn’t work out it’s better than doing nothing, that they can understand once they see an effort in the transfer market. Moving the goalposts when suits, as usual. Aiden-Gooners comments were perfectly accurate, if you were honest enough you’d admit that.

        2. Also he has no understanding of what it takes to make a great defender. Neither Mertesacker or Gabriel are good enough. Add insult to injury and make M skipper when he is injured and his only quality is organising and collecting fees for club dinners. There that’s the armband sorted out! Wenger has become an embarassment to himself and the club. Still 8.5 million plus other income and endorsements and he’d probably turn up naked .

    4. Sorry but you cannot say that about Xhaka.

      Wenger work with the squad day in day out and he is quite stringy regarding transfers. If he is willing to spend 35M on Xhaka then surely he sees Xhaka as a huge improvement.

      Wenger does not buy luxury players!

      Please note: Ozil is not a luxury player!

  3. A few years ago Arsenal fans would have killed for this lineup 🙂

    ____________Balotelli (C)
    _______Sanchez Michu Walcott
    _________Fellaini Ramsey
    Monreal Koscielny Mertesacker Debuchy
    _____________Cech

  4. what i am really struggling to understand is why we would splash out on Ozil, Sanchez and Xhaka if we dont plan on completing the team?

  5. Yep. For years arsenal fans have been condemned to debating whether it is the board or Arsene Wenger that is to blame. And round and round we go even as the torture continues. The bottom line my friends is that it makes no difference who is at fault. Wenger and the board are one and the same. He has been given a free reign when it comes to how the club is run and he does as he pleases. If both club and manager where at loggerheads over our transfer policy, Wenger would have gone long ago. Do you get it? Wenger and the board are one and the same. I just feel sorry for the poor fans who are so fond of the club that they don’t know how to stop caring about what it does. That is the painful part. If only there was a switch we could flip to stop caring so much so that the pain will finally go away. The cruelty dished out by this club on its fans is just the stuff of legend. Unbelievable.

    1. Well said mate,
      But the contradictional virus has spread into the fan’s heads too.
      If Wenger has been given a free Reign to run the club,
      how he see’s fit, which does seem to be the case, Thanks to Kroenke, Then surely he has more power and Say than the actual board itself?… Which doesn’t make them one or the same.

      The weird thing is … How the fan’s don’t want to acknowledge the statements coming from the board and Wenger, One wants to spend and keeps stating the amount of money available to do so and have also suggested that another extra £100 million has been pumped into the kitty,
      ( No! muff.. not that kind of pump or kitty ?) while the other keeps stating that the Right player’s are not available!

      Why do the majority of the fan’s, love to complicate things by suggesting that Wenger is covering for the board When the man is clearly a stubborn egoistic, penny pinching fool.

    2. I agree they’re both to blame because they’re both responsible for the clubs fortunes and all they do is make excuses for not doing their job. We want action not excuses. It’s all very well saying we focus on what we’ve got but when what we’ve got isn’t good enough then someone has to take some responsibility. There’s plenty of quality out there and if we can’t find it then we’re doing something wrong and heads should roll.

  6. We cannot single out any person on the issue. It’s the joint responsibility of the Club Board and Wenger himself. The Board found their ideal coach for the club so as to increase their revenue.. leaving the rest unconsidered…

  7. I really do not see Wenger playing the part of the abused wife, but remains in the relationship because the husband provides her with security. Wenger is man who loves the limelight , loves to talk and express his views on things that does not concern him, therefore i strongly doubt he would refrain from telling the the media the difficulty he is facing with the board.

    I therefore can only come up with one conclusion, Wenger and the board shares the same mind set and find their relationship mutually benefiting, with wenger collecting 8+ million per year and the board members collecting there profit bonuses. the only way we can change this mind set, even if you bought the season tickets, just avoid at least 3 home matches, stay home and watch the matches if u need.

    Trust me if this is done i am sure the arsenal board will notice, because one of the ways that arsenal make money is from things sold at the stadium

  8. Wenger’s contract insists on Wenger having complete control regarding Team Management, this includes transfers and prices. The Boardroom runs the club and the other revenues. This has been made clear publicly.

    Like other corporations, directors hire Managers to control various different businesses. Inside the businesses there are sub-managers usually chosen by the manager. If a business declines then the board replace the manager.

    At Arsenal the manager is Wenger, he appoints all the sub-managers and tells them what he wants. The boardroom tell Wenger what they want, he explains the reality of their expectations, they nod and agree, then let him get on with his job. He will give a list of players he wants and the prices he will accept. Negotiators have to keep Wenger informed of every stage and no sale is completed without the say of Wenger.

    The boardroom cannot tell Wenger anything.

  9. The hierarchy at a club goes: Players – Manger/staff – Owner

    From that point point of view it is Kroenke’s fault ecause he is accepting this poor management.

    Having said that and being philosophical, The owner’s God is clearly money/profit and ultimately he would have non without the fans. This in a way makes the fans his boss but and the fans seem to accept Kroenke’s poor management. After all they keep giving him their money for nothing much in return compared to what they would get with other big clubs.

    Unfortunately, I don’t have season tickets to cancel but I did decide to cancel my TV subscription and in years to come, and if I am not alone in my boredom of all things Arsenal, other revenue streams will start to shrink, less interest in Arsenal means less televised games of Arsenal means less TV revenue, means less global shirt sales etc. Declining revenue will mean declining value and profit.

    I have no illusion that my decision not pay a premium to be able to follow the PL this season will have any immdeiat impact but if it is symbolic for how many Arsenal fans feel and act, it will show up in the numbers sooner or later.

    For now I simply can not justify paying good money to this lot. To pay good money to see Giroud play, to pay good money and spend valuable time to see this shipwreck that has become so predictable like bad baywatch slowmotion.

    Even if we sign Lewondowski tomorrow, I have lost my ability to believe in what this club stands for, the lack of ambition, the waves of dishonesty (“money is not an issue”, “we are very active in the transfer market” etc etc.), the mediocrity and the self-harming simply don’t gel with what I identify with.

  10. OT
    Has anyone else got a full page advert with a car, sea view and tree with jusrarsenal visible as a narrow strip down the middle.

    Actually this is a silly wurstion because if you have you probably will not see this post

  11. all to be blamed..

    Fans/Supporters= for not boycotting games or stop traveling to away games… this will send a signal to the board

    Wenger and co= for unending lies, pinch buying, wrong additions at wrong time, too long negotiations.

    The Board= their aim. is money not success and supporting lies.

    as a dyed in wood fan. theres light at the end of the tunnel?

  12. if arsene is the victim like so many AKB’s want him to be, then he’s part of the problem. he has never said anything negative about management then and just accepts his 8mill a year and moves on. Arsene knows what he’s doing and he knows he’s creating teams that aren’t good enough.

  13. What are you smoking mate? Lewa is only going to leave Bayern for a club like Real or Barca, we are not in the same league. Money doesn’t attract the biggest stars as much as the opportunity to win titles, they are already rich beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

    On the article, if it was the board why has Wenger not spoken out? I am certain it is down to Arsene and it is hard to ignore the fact he seems to almost deliberately not do what the fans or media call for just to try to prove himself right. Combine that with his loyalty to players that simply don’t deserve it, Theo, Bendtner, Senderos to name just a few that were given way too many chances. In Theo’s case his true loyalty was shown when RvP left and he held the club to ransom over his contract. The board should be seriously concerned and yet they show no signs of it, so they are also a big part of the problem.

  14. Hi guys, I really don’t think the issue with Arsenal is about transfers to some extent. I believe the issue is with Arsene Wenger and his tactical approach to games and team management as a whole. We can get the best players but will not make it to the champ’s league final or win the EPL because Arsene is out dated. Talk about developing your players from the academy look at Diego Simeone he is using Lucas Hernandez and Gimineze who were nobodies until last season when Godin and savic were absent. Look at Tuchel at Dortmund. Let’s watch Koeman at Everton. We’ll see that it’s a coach issue not transfers per se. Last season we were in for Ashley Williams now he’s an Everton player. We’re looking for strikers elsewhere whilst Shane Long still plays for Southampton. He’s faster than Giroud, more clinical and really knows the premier league. He can start league games and giroud comes on as a sub and for champ’s league the swap roles. I don’t also understand why Arsene refuses to play Joel Campbell regularly he has vision, pace and is very clinical. Our players are good but they need the right guidance to be great players where they’re played according to their strengths.

  15. Arsene is a company man,always faithful to an establishment.That itself is is an anomaly.Faithfulness to the detriment of the fans is not acceptable.

  16. Of course it’s the board, it’s convenient for some fans to blame Wenger, gives them more ammunition. Put it this way. If Wenger went up to the board and said I’m withdrawing 200m from the bank to go and sign Messi, the board can and would tell him to do one. But if the board said to Wenger, we’re gonna smash the transfer record so we can sign Messi, what’s Wenger gonna do, or what can he do besides resign.

  17. It could also be that players are not willing to come to Arsenal without assurances that wenger will be manager for the next 3-4 years or because they believe wenger has lost his touch or the club have no ambition.

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