WHO SPENT THE MONEY? by Ken 1945
Following on from the official announcement that Declan Rice had signed for The Arsenal (what a fantastic signing and a statement by the club) the comments, inevitably, began to discuss why this kind of eye watering money transfer hadn’t happened under AW or UE?
The claim was made that AW didn’t like spending money, but was quickly challenged by another claim that he had spent £100,000,000 in his last season and that didn’t seem to tally with my recollection of events, so I checked it out.
AW announced that on the 20th of April 2018 that he was leaving the club at the conclusion of that season.
Gazidis and Wenger’s relationship had deteriorated badly and there seemed to be a power struggle going on behind the scenes and, unfortunately, it became public knowledge, when Gazidis introduced his “three musketeers” as part of his backroom shake up.
Then, on November 21st, 2017, the club made this official statement, when introducing Sven Mislintat to the media, while giving him the title of “Head of Recruitment” from the beginning of December 2017.
“One of Europe’s most respected player recruitment experts, who has that responsibility across the first team and the academy”…. (One can still source this via Google if they want to)
In fact, one of his first actions, along with Gazidis and newly appointed Huss Fahmy (in charge of players contracts) was to go to Germany in December and agree the terms and conditions for Aubameyang to sign for the club in January 2018.
That is why I never gave AW any credit for signing Aubameyang, as, quite clearly, recruitment had been taken away from him, along with the contracts of players, by Gazidis and Kroenke.
Mislintat signed a further eight players, all of whom have left the club, as has Aubameyang of course.
Stephan Lichtsteiner – Denis Suarez – Henrich Mkhitaryan – Sokratis – Mavropanos – Guendouzi – Leno – Torreira.
These were all players signed by Mislintat, that Unai Emery was presented with at the start of his career as Arsenal coach. It was also UE who wanted Zaha, but was presented with Pepe, courtesy of Mislintat once again.
The statement was made on JA that Wenger would not have agreed to having transfers and contracts taken away from him, but he obviously did, as was the case for UE and MA when the latter joined after UE departed.
The point was also made that, if, as some suggest, the club was actively looking to replace AW, why would they let him spend £100,000,000?
A very sensible point whichever side of the fence one sits!!
Thank goodness that the club and Mislintat parted company and MA then became manager.
He has made some excellent, good, bad and downright terrible signings, just as AW did, but to say that Wenger spent £100,000,000 in his last season is wrong, as is the statement that he didn’t like spending money.
I believe he made three signings that broke the club record at the time, but he just didn’t have the Kroenke3s money backing him as it is today.
I only wish that the club, after looking into Mislintat’s handling of transfers, had made their findings more transparent, as there seems to have been some very questionable signings that took place financially.
Gazidis and Mislintat have a lot to answer for in my opinion.
ken1945
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We will never know what really happened and those people have left
Then false statements shouldn’t be made if we value the history of the club.
That’s the purpose of the article, nothing more and nothing less.
The legendary Frenchman was always vocal he can never work with a sporting director, he says it’s was just not his style.
The same style that made arsenal a laughing club for more than a decade. I love and respect Wenger alot but please stop making it look like he’s buys too are world class. Wenger spent big money’s on too many average players.
Care to list some examples? Money spent in relation to quality?
Xhaka 45 Mustafi 41 in the same bloody transfer window to make things worse.
30 million for Xhaka
33 million mustafi
– Squillaci, Gervinho, Park, Mustafi, Santos.
But Wenger didn’t like spending money, so did we get these players for free then?
The most bizarre signing was Ozil. At the time we were stacked with attacking midfielders, and had only bought Santi 12 months, who I would argue, was consistently better for us than Ozil.
We desperately needed a DM, a CF, a winger, a CB, but instead, we blew our entire budget on the one position that didn’t need strengthening.
Not bizarre at all as Cazola slotted into the CM position where he played his best years for us and he was also injured if I recall ,so the Ozil signing made perfect sense as he was quality in his first couple of seasons and we were crying out for a number 10
So you thought another attacking midfielder was what the team needed that season more than any other position?
I think a quality striker, or a DM and we could have won the league that year, what with all the managerial changes at our rivals, yet ignoring the squad’s deficiencys cost us. The proof is in the pudding! 4th yet again, and rubbish in Europe.
We did win our first trophy in just shy of a whopping decade, and if we’re going to give some credit to Ozil for that, I’d say it was more about the physiological boost it gave everyone at Arsenal from signing a big name rather than his performances, as he wasn’t amazing that first season. He was decent, but I don’t think he blew anyone away with what he was doing.
@Jen
The Shirt Selling Genius (Ozil) and Podolski were the worst player on that pitch in that that FA cup final.
The likes of Santi, Koscielny, Giroud, Wilshere, Ramsey etc are the ones that stood up while our Merchandise broker was busy showcasing his most popular magic trick (The Disappearing Act). Poof 💨 😊
We had Giroud!!! He was a qaulty striker, a critically underrated one too
Who was laughing at us Lenohappy?
All the clubs that finished below us, while we were a top four club, winning cups and participating in the CL season after season?
What a vivid imagination you have.
I don’t think 9 years straight of winning nothing, counts as “winning cups”. Yes Wenger did win a few FA cups right at the end, which was fantastic, but any other manager would have been sacked long before the 13/14 season given that barren run.
Arsenal are a big club, and scraping into the top four most seasons, miles off the top, is not an achievement to be proud of. How many times did we challenge for a league title after the Invincibles….zero! Only twice we were runners up in the 14 years post Invincibles, and neither of those two were genuine title challenges. That’s a really poor record over such a long period. We’re not Spurs you do realise?
Finally, there’s participating in the CL, and being competitive in the CL. Very big difference!
I love what Wenger did for Arsenal, and he’s a legend, but post 2006, it was very poor, and he was the luckiest manager ever to not only keep his job, but to be one of the highest paid around during long regression.
That’s your opinion on Wenger’s time, I disagree.
While respecting your opinion, I want to point out that I know exactly what kind of club The Arsenal was and is…. and who made the modern day Arsenal the force it is today.
Now, back to the article… do you believe :
1. That Wenger was scared to spend money?
2. That Wenger spent £100,000,000 in his last season all by himself?
Jen, Wenger is the only manager of The Arsenal to not win a trophy in 9 years and still keep his job.
2016 was for me the big chance to win the PL, as all the other big clubs were having problems, but although we beat Leicester home and away we still finished well adrift of them.
Arsene Wenger was hired to be Arsenal’s manager and yes, he was brought on to win titles for Arsenal. He did exactly that many times including the famous Invincibles squad all during the ever rich indomitable Alex Ferguson era. And then he got the vision that nobody had. He noticed Arsenal as a club needs to improve in financial gain with other European clubs. Without him, there’s no Hale End, there’s no Emirates Stadium, there’s no worldwide scout network and there’s no modern nutrition for footballers. And then Chelsea, Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham came with their sugar daddies to blow every plan out of the smooth water. Wenger stayed on for 10 years in order to pay off the stadium debt with younger recruitments playing beautiful football, thus the beginning of constant barrage of insults and banter from the media and football fans. It’s a like general who sacrificed himself to save his troops in a hellhole for 10 years. Now, we are out of debt, polished with 60k capacity modern stadium, world class training centre and renowned recruitment facilities. Even Mikel Arteta was bought by Wenger to captain the team in the DM position and he retired at the Emirates crying. Just look at other clubs now. Liverpool and Chelsea with their smaller stadium still need sugar daddies to survive, Tottenham in deep waters with 1billion stadium debt with average squad with merry go around managers, Man City with financial court cases with even more corrupt state own owners, Man Utd with their rat infested stadium with rat personality players and I can go on and on. In this world of utter moral collapse, I’m not surprised with the existence of certain dumb and shameless section of so-called Arsenal fans who support the club by wanting to destroy it. Get lost.
3 PL titles in 22 years is hardly many, that works out at just over 1 every 7 years.
The Invincible season was an incredible achievement, thankfully VAR wasn’t around, as it was never a penalty against Pompey, it was a dive by one of my favourite players, Pires.
Not sure if you know this, but other clubs also have places like Hale End, new stadiums, worldwide scouting networks and modern nutrition for their players. Please don’t say it was all down to Wenger.
Wenger never paid off the stadium debt, KSE have taken over the bond payments.
The beautiful football, yeah getting hammered by other big clubs, lovely 🙄.
Yes Arteta was bought by Wenger, but that was because he refused to pay the £18m that Liverpool wanted for Alonso, £16m was the maximum he wanted to pay. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back with Fabregas, and he was off.
Liverpool are redeveloping Anfield and they don’t have a sugar daddy. They are run the same way we are, spending what they make .
When calling people dumb, try looking in the mirror when saying it.
Seeing as The Arsenal have been in my family for well over 100 years, my Grandad watched us when we played at Plumstead, I won’t get lost 😁
For me, last season was the biggest chance to win the PL, as we were well ahead of city, who beat us home and away, with eight games to go and after MA had spent much more than £100,000,000 in one season.
In fact, MA has reportedly spent twice that amount so far in this summer window, so let’s hope he wins the PL, otherwise you’ll be forgetting what he has done to date and start calling him out I assume?
Could’ve sworn this thread was about Wenger, not Arteta 🤔. Still, at least Arteta never blamed the fans for not winning the PL…
The thread was about whether Wenger spent money or not – nothing to do with Leicester winning the title – but as you brought it up, I responded in kind… I wonder what you regard as the biggest letdown 2016 or last season?
For me, it would be 2016, as we then had a very experienced manager. Shame that our CF failled to find the net for a few months in the second half of the season.
Have you thought that perhaps they couldn’t sack Wenger because any top manager would have refused to work under same restrictions?
I vekuece that one manager refused to work under those restrictions – ar least that was what the media reported.
Remember that Gazidis has brought in his three musketeers to run the club before Wenger left abd that was the scenario for both UE and MA when they took over as coaches!!
I believe.
Negativity at it’s best , Wenger is gone and so are the players he bought. Arteta is the coach now support him and the team that’s what fans do. I would rather see Arsenal do well I care less who is it that takes my great club to greatness. Pardon me English is not my first language
Yeah this was blatantly obvious to Arsenal fans…. the computer system to identify players etc were all brought in to take the transfers away from wenger. Wenger stated when purchasing ozil ” we still can’t compete with the others ” which meant he had to keep the mediocrity also. When sanchez wanted to leave wenger wanted a swap with martial not mkhitaryian, yet mtinslat wanted the terrible mkhitaryian and got his way as he had the incompetent gazidis backing him.. look at gazidis time qt Milan, contract renewal issues, players who have come through youth and leaving on a free, big money buys leaving on a free … gazidis was a cancer who served no benefit to arsenal he was part of a rot which he allowed wenger to take the criticism and ridicule from the fans and media
There will come a time when I will start to question if the great Arsene took the fall for the sin of others as some of us are certain because he has refused to confirm about it to this day even in his biography.
Personally I believe he detested (as I do) how football has sold its soul to the devil. When we win the league because we can at last compete financially with the others I wont enjoy it as much as if we had won it by producing talent from our academy along with clever scouting and signings.
I dont understand how can Man City, Chelsea and soon Newcastle enjoy that paid to win success considering they are clubs without winning heritage.
Thank you Ken. Excellent.
Thank you Charles.
The gaffer has gotten everything he wants since replacing Unai Emery in December 2019.
Emery barely got 18 months to implement his ideas , despite people like Sven Mislintat and Raul Sanilehi making his transfer for him, similar to what they were doing under the legendary Frenchman final year.
Arteta has call his own shot.
Surely the legendary Frenchman did not spend that pisspot load of money in his final year, but it was a fail attempt to introduce a sporting director to the club, which may have help costing the Spaniard his job.
I’m not sure mislintat was the problem – he’s done well elsewhere and is director of football at ajax now, apparently. I don’t think he’s a bad guy or a fool. It was a strange time – I think it could have been great if he’d worked closely with wenger, but it appears he didn’t – whether that’s his fault or the way the club was being run from above at the time, I don’t know.
Gazidis is something else entirely.
Agree this wasn’t wenger’s fault – I don’t think he had much control at that point.
On wenger, I would add that something did need to change – the higher ups were right to try to step in in some way because wenger had been getting it wrong for a while. I think mislintat was a good call, but how they implemented the changes was disastrous, made things worse
Whether wenger spent £100 million or not he was finished long time ago. He never evolved with the ever changing football world hence he has become the weeping boy for the other top managers.
I respect and adore the man in general but he had become a dinosaur in the transfer market. Modern football had gotten away from him.
I do believe that he rated Auba but was spooked out by the transfer fee. So Gazidis had to force the transfer through as wenger was petrified of spending £60 million.. That’s my opinion. But I do think that he was deeply involved in the Ozil, Lacazette, Mustafi, Xhaka etc signings.
Wenger never liked spending big. He was mostly stuck in his 90’s – early 2000’s bubble mentality of looking for not so known, raw or up and coming young players from around Europe and South America, develop them hoping he assemble another invincible-like title challenging team..
Funny you claim to adore and respect the man you love to talk trash about. Never seen your one post speak positively of him. Claiming you adore and respect him before your every post against him, are you lying to yourself or to the others?
@HH
I adore him but it does not mean I have to delude myself always trying to clutch at straws for the sake of it.
If you talk about wenger changing the English league when he first turned up. Him playing the most attractive football in England. Him being very classy and principled as compared to most of his counterparts. Him having an eye for talent like no one else. Him assembling the the invincibles. Wenger being the reason we are such a massive global giant today. Being a consistent top 4 manager etc..”..
I will be here praising him..
But when we get into this “Wenger was the biggest victim manager of all time” kind of talk I just cringe..
I am always frustrated whenever I think about how Wenger refused to adapt to the game. He was so firmly planted into his own footballing philosophy even if it had been cracked / found out by nearly most of his opponents. We could have done more in that time but he became too stubborn that he couldn’t listen to peoples calls for him to adjust to the ever changing time.
It all led to him being turned on by our boo happy fans and ended up being let go by the club.. It was the most painful thing I have ever witnessed as an Arsenal fan. That and the way our fans booed Eboue into tears. The way they made harrassing Xhaka their mission.
Watching protests, empty seats, abuse, booing, fans harassing wenger at that train station etc.. Every non Arsenal fan constantly making fun of him.. Such a nice honest man being treated that way was so sad.
He stayed too long and had become too stubborn and stuck in his own ways..
well you make a wonderful job at deluding yourself always trying to clutch at straws for arteta 😉
I also support arteta but I always cringe at your posts
What has this got to do with Arteta? This is about Wenger.
@HH
And some words of wisdom.
Just because you love, respect or adore someone does not mean let going of your cognitive capabilities. It does not mean you should compromise on your objectivity, rationality and logic.
Wenger did some very good and flawed things since we moved into the Emirates stadium. No one can convince me otherwise.. I have been here before he turned up in 1996 to when he left in 2018. We all saw the good and bad throughout his 20 plus year tenure as Arsenal manager.
I agree with you that perhaps he should have changed with times had he wanted not to be turned a villain and win more trophies.
Still I firmly stand with him that senseless and wasteful spending was, is and will never be good for the greater good of the game.
@Goonster
And also some words of wisdom to you.
Just because you love, respect or adore someone does not mean let going of your cognitive capabilities. It does not mean you should compromise on your objectivity, rationality and logic. so don’t be the same thing to arteta what you are criticising HH for
“Wenger never liked spending big. He was mostly stuck in his 90’s – early 2000’s bubble mentality of looking for not so known, raw or up and coming young players from around Europe and South America, develop them”
I disagree – I think the problems started when he/we moved away from doing that. I remember when twente won the Dutch league and lille won the French league and thinking there must be a few good players we could get on the cheap there. Newcastle bought tiote and cabaye who would both have fit in really well at arsenal, but we didn’t.
If we were making the same signings as Brighton right now, with the base we have and the greater ability to keep hold of the best ones, I think we’d be in a great position to challenge for the title (not that we aren’t anyway, just saying you don’t need to spend all that money)
@Davi
I feel like we had become the Brighton for the likes of City, Barcelona. Lol
But on a serious note.. What still frustrated me about wenger back then was his unwillingness to change his ways. How many times did everyone scream for an experienced goal keeper, serious CB’s and a tough DM? Nearly each and every season that was everyone’s cry. And wenger always stubbornly turned a blind eye.
“But we still have Diaby, Rosicky, RVP, Wilshere, Vermaelen, Bischoff etc to come back”….
That kind of statement from wenger became a catchphrase nearly each transfer window..
It was so frustrating..
Completely agree. And I feel the same about wenger – he’s a legend of the club and he changed the game, but he stayed here 10 years too long. Why he kept persisting, I can’t understand – even if it was love for the club, you have to know when to call it quits and give someone else a chance.
That said, I do wonder if anyone else would have done much better during those years – some things weren’t right behind the scenes as we saw with emery. Maybe that’s why he stayed? But maybe that only delayed the kick up the backside they got with emery? Who knows
Davi, the 90’s bubble!!!
The Arsenal’s unique achievement in modern day football was the Invincibles – just ask Alex Ferguson!!
Now, when did we achieve that, or when was the only time we have appeared in the final of Europe’s most prestigious knockout competition or when did we win the fa cup three times in four seasons, or when did we qualify for the CL eighteen years on the trot?
Most certainly NOT in the 90’s bubble!!!
Sorry, I really don’t follow Ken. The invincibles was 03/04 and the team was full of cheap or cheapish players who at best had reputations as *potential* top players before they joined in the 90s/early 2000s bubble period that was described.
After that we had some (relatively mild) success at times,as you describe, but we were never really challengers for the title as we had been before. Our level fell to just making fourth and cup runs.
Davi, 03 – 04 was a third of the way through that generation.
Meanwhile, we were always in the top four or winning fa cups and CS” right up until his last season.
That’s not living in a 90’s early 20’s bubble”, that’s consistency at the highest level in the hardest league in europe.
CL final in 2005 /06…. that’s halfway through the 2,000 season!
His top four qualification run didn’t end until 2016, that’s, what, fourteen years after this make believe “bubble” that’s now been introduced to knock his achievements… correct?
I could go on, but that wasn’t the point of the article – just another false claim IF one really looked at the facts.
I couldn’t agree more that Arsene should have left earlier, perhaps after his 7th fa cup win even?
But let’s not blacken his name and history making false claims and inventing “facts” that don’t bear scrutiny.
What are you talking about? What false claims have I made? I didn’t even come up with the bubble idea you’ve latched onto, but it was about the concept of buying up-and-coming players rather than the ready proven stars, and goonster was saying that model was outdated – he wasn’t saying wenger was completely backwards in all aspects, and I certainly didn’t, if that’s what you’re thinking. I actually disagreed with him that the “bubble” was the reason for our decline – I said I thought he changed his approach, but should have stuck with that original model.
Compared to winning titles and the invincibles season, what you describe is mild success – fa cups are impressive, CL final is impressive but not on the same level, and getting fourth is fine, but it’s a drop off.
Honestly I think you’re too emotionally invested in this, you’re not reading the things I’m writing but you seem convinced I’ve got it out for wenger (and for some reason feel you have to defend his good name).
Sorry we disagree, I guess, but that was another smug/obnoxious response for no good reason, Ken. I haven’t behaved that way towards you.
I wasn’t having a go at YOU regarding the newly aquired “bubble” era that it seems Wenger was in, nor am I emotionally involved with any individual.
What I am involved in, is The Arsenal, both the present and past.
Now you might think that I was having a go at you as an individual, nothing further from the truth and if you feel I’ve been smug or obnoxious, then you have read my posts wrongly.
The article was to show that two claims… Wenger didn’t like spending money and that he spent £100,000,000 in his last season, are completely wrong.
The backtracking on those two statements by the people who made them, has evolved into a further opportunity to try and have another go at Wenger…. hence the “bubble” theory and how our Hales End players were never given a chance.
It is always the same, show them that their wrong and they attack in a different way.
In all honesty, I’m quite content to live in the present and watch MA building our club into a force to be reckoned with… meanwhile, remembering the, mostly, brilliant times under AW.
BUT and this is the crux of the article, when a false claim is made that fully intends to have a go at Wenger, or ex players come to that, shouldn’t we question it?
I know for a fact that if anyone does the same regarding Mikel Arteta and / or his players , I will defend him to the hilt as well.
Pleased to see that you acknowledge getting to the CL final etc was impressive and couldn’t have been achievable if this fictional “bubble” was in any way true.
Hope that clears it up for you anyway.
I see – I did get the impression we were having different conversations.
I apologise for what I said – It seemed to me you were saying I was making false claims to go at wenger, but I got the wrong end of the stick.
No problem, I always find that one can often misread another’s written thoughts, as I did with Didrik the other day…. and let’s remember we all want the same thing honesty and a successful club.
👍
If only David Dein had still been around Ken .To me his “departure” was the beginning of the end for AW.
Agree 100 % Grandad, that and the fact that the club, once again, didn’t replace DD with like for like.
Just imagine having the managers job and then DD’s.
Lucas perez is still hunting me
I thought he looked great every time he played. He was a good finisher and he set up goals for others – wenger didn’t seem to like him, so didn’t pick him much and he got labeled a flop. I never understood why
The insults this Great man gets from an ungrateful section of the fan base is beyond ridiculous. Wenger clearly stated severally we couldn’t compete financially with the big spenders. The fact that we were able to afford Ozil(who they disgraced out of the club) was a testament to his financial acumen, something this paying players to leave current management can not boast of.
He said we were in danger of loosing our principles which I believe we have already lost. Deceiving players to take cuts to prevent loss of jobs only to end up sacking same workers players took cuts for. Dismantling the whole great scouting system and now actually turning into a Money Spending Machine club. How many players did this current regime disgrace out, pay to leave or made to feel worthless. If you are not wanted by the manager best you look for a new club for your own good. Wenger brought many academy players. Even Emery in his short time did great with the academy players. How many has this regime brought up? NOT A SINGLE ONE. Over here we used to make stars, now we buy them. The same contract management Wenger was called out for is what we are witnessing now at its infant stage. Saka, Martinelli, Harvertz, Partey, Jesus, Saliba,Nketiah even Nelson. all on big to crazy wages. We are about to renegotiate about 300 with Ødegaard. Who are we deceiving that we have slashed the wage bill? We just slashed them to dish them out again. How much do you think we will renegotiate with the likes of Saka and Ødegaard next renewal? Even with champions league. We are heaving into crisis on the contract front and I predict that to happen within the next 2-3 years might be sooner if we don’t start winning actual trophies. Be prepared to loose star players in about 3 years.
I’m tired of all these Media and Fans d riding Arteta like he’s the second coming while in the process belittling Wenger and making it look like he was our downfall. Heck without this man we won’t be spending north of 600mil now. Let’s give respect to whom respect is due.
Well said.
I always enjoyed seeing academy players and youth coming up and getting chances. Some even made it as depth and a few even started.
Now opportunities are limited, and some questionable to even get chances to prove themselves.
We have some really talented players in the academy making waves, let’s see if they get chances or if they keep checkbook managing.
Don’t want to hear complaints about City, Utd, Chelsea, and Newcastle spending big money, because we are right there with them. 600 million and still going, big club spending without being funded by oil.
You think we should wait and see if the academy get chances? My people have a saying “as long as you see the tail, you don’t need to see the head to know it’s a snake”. I personally don’t think anything will change. We are going on 4 years and no single academy player has been brought through under this management. Do you think they need 4 more years to start doing that? When exactly will the academy start being a part of this process? Our bright youths are all leaving one after the other. There may be a couple here or there that may get the odd chance but overall I don’t see the situation changing.
How many of our academy players did manage to make the first team, keep their place or move to any other top teams since 2006?
And isn’t it the same people the were pelting Arteta for playint Willock? Isn’t it the same people that have been and continue to pelt Arteta for giving Nketiah his current contract? Aint it the same people that are making fun of Arteta giving Reiss Nelson his new contract?
And we still have Saka and ESR too. Or is there a special kind of academy player that people prefer?
People were screaming about Balogun 2 seasons ago. He was introduced and looked out of place. Then many turned around asking for him to be sent out on loan as he was not ready or good enough..
This season people were calling out for young Charlie Patino. The kid was given a game and looked like a lost 12 year old amongst rugby players..
Let the manager and his coaches decide when theh believe any player is ready..
Mr Chapo and others are lashing out because the limitations of Wenger’s approach which they hold on to so dearly has been found wanting.
The world has moved on.
Arsenal now have one of the most valuable squads in world football.
Whether anyone likes it or not Arteta deserves the praise he has received for the vision and drive that has enabled us to reach this point.
I only dispute your opinion regarding academy players and only because the likes of Martinelli and ESR, Saka, Reiss Nelson and Nketiah were already on the fringes when Arteta arrived and are all in the 25 man squad
How many do you expect any EPL club to be bringing through anyway? We have to wait and see if the youth development side of the club brings through sufficient talent for Arteta to use going forward. It would be foolish of him to only be a cheque book manager.
Arteta doesn’t get credit for those players. They were all already in the first team squad. Martinelli scored 10 goals under Emery! All of those you just mentioned were already in the first team squad. So no credit to Arteta on that. I’m not against Arteta but I oppose the idea that he gets credit for those players.
I see your point absolutely but they were brought through as well.
Do you think it’s too early to think that Arteta can be given credit yet for any academy player coming through?
Exactly Chapo saka and Martinelli were already established first team players before Arteta rolled up ,credit should go to edu for finding Martinelli ,not sure how Arteta as any credit for our best 2 players at this moment in time ,but I’m sure the herd will try their very best .
Of course they will. By the way I also don’t give credit to Edu because its widely known that both Johnathan Vidalle and Francis Cagigao were the ones who discovered Martinelli. It was Francis who specifically recommended the signing of Martinelli
Like you said let’s wait and see if going forward Arteta gets sufficient youth talent to use. If that happens I will hold my hands high and give him credit for those ones. I’m not anti Arteta, I actually do appreciate the fact that he came in and reshaped the whole club and culture and fan base not just the playing squad, which is quite an achievement on its own.
But I won’t give him credit for this current crop of academy graduates until he starts bringing his own through in the coming season and hopefully next few years to come.
At the end we all want the best for Arsenal regardless of who is the manager. So it’s not an agenda against the young manager.
Couldn’t agree more Chapo
So then why did people nearly get to a point where Willock was being scapegoated? He was our academy graduate but our fans treatws him like they did Xhaka or Mustafi even of Arteta tried to groom him into the team?
What about Nketiah. Why are people still cussing him out? Aint he one of our own academy graduates?
People are laughing at Arteta giving Nelson a new contract. They are not happy about it. An article on here being sarcastic about Nelson having the same agent as Nketiah. Reiss Nelson is also our academy product. But he not many seem to be happy about him getting a new contract.
Balogun was talked up 2 seasons ago. Arteta included him. He looked out of his depth and everyone was not comfortable with him being a starter at the end. Some started to label him average and overhyped like all the others.
Charlie Patino. People were waxing lyrical about him all last season. Arteta wa pelted for not giving him a chance. He was given a chance and looked like Bambi on ice. Since then many have gone quiet on him. You can hardly ever hear his name from the mouths of our fans ever since that Cup game..
Until the next flavour of the month youngster comes up.
👍😊
Iirc Chapo, only 2 players came all the way through the academy under Wenger and actually played consistently in the team, Wilshire and Iwobi.
only 2 players came all the way through the academy under Wenger
Do you mean in his last years or what? But if you mean all through?
Then you must be so young to know Ashley Cole, Fabregas and many others like Gibbs are from the Academy too.
I gather you mean the youth set up, not the academy, as that only started in 1998. Cole came through the youth set up. Gibbs, like Fabregas and all the other non UK youngsters, didn’t come all the way through the academy. Gibbs came to us at the age of 16 when Wimbledon ceased to be a football club.
Saka
Smith-Rowe
Nketiah
Balogun
Szczesny
Willock
Iwobi
Gnabry
Bellerin
Wilshere
Etc!
Just seeing this. Thanks admin for saving me the stress lol.
Neither Saka nor Smith- Rowe came through under Wenger.
Of that lot listed how many would be considered a really top player.
The world has moved on from Wenger. It seems some of our fans can’t.
We’ve all moved on and hope MA brings the club success – but when claims are made that are untrue by fans who regularly knock AW, shouldn’t we, as supporters, challenge those claims?
Unless, of course, your not interested in the history of The Arsenal?
Correct David. It seems some people don’t know/understand that the non UK youngsters could only come here at the age of 16. So the majority of their years in academy football was at their previous club.
I thought we were talking about Arsenal promoting youngsters from the academy. Who mentioned which manager?
Great first post Chapo – they say time heals, but it seems with a section of our fan base, time forgets what AW did.
Was busy all day so didn’t have time to read or reply Ken. I actually wasn’t expecting this by now. Even Wenger seem to have moved on and came to the Emirates last season. I’m surprised some people are still this way. And of course no one addressed the time ticking contracts implosion which they all derided Wenger for. Maybe when Wenger is no more that’s when they will all let him breath. After all, we live in a world where one’s value is only seen when one is six feet below.
First it was “Gazidis who controlled the buying of players” now it’s Sven Mislintat.
Below is a quote by Wenger from Arsenal.com on the appointment of Mislintat.
“We are delighted that Sven is joining us. Identifying and developing talent is a core part of our philosophy and Sven has an outstanding track record over many years. We look forward to him taking our existing recruitment approach forwards”.
Why did the club allow Wenger to spend £100m ? Simple really. They wanted us to get back into the CL, but we ended up 6th in the end.
Mavropanos got his chance elsewhere and doing gr8, not Arsenal standard – but could have sold for more.
Guendouzi Leno same thing. Leno was not a ball playing GK, but a good stopper.
Mkhitaryan is still doing good where ever he goes.
Point is, not all players were bad, but we made them look worse without giving them proper game time or positions, so resell was a dud
As it seems AW was responsible for everything once DD left, the fact that he sanctioned the continued contracts of the likes of ESR, Saka, Wilshere, Iwobi, AMN, Nketiah, Nelson etc etc ticks the boxes for me.
How fortunate for UE and MA.
I’m not sure what your Wenger quote is proving, with regards to your belief that he spent £100 million in his last season – but it is clear that Mislantat, Fahmy and Gazidis had control from December onwards and, from your previous post, where you listed the signing on dates of said players, it was indeed these three who spent the money.
As for your last paragraph, I guess the same simple analogy can be applied to MA, who was allowed to spend in order to get into the CL…. we ended up 8th 8th and 5th, before we qualified last season… but they were HIS signings and, as I I’ve said previously, some have been brilliant, so me good, some bad and some awful, just as it was with Wenger, until the club announced that Gazidis and then Mislantat and Fahmy were to take over.
From then until Gazidis and Mislantat left, it was down to them…. a reported £72,000,000 for Pepe, when Zaha would have cost around £40,000,000!!!!
They are the ones who spent over £100,000,000 and God knows how much we are going to lose on Pepe!!
I blamed the wrong person with Sanhelli and Pepe deal😔
Ken1945
Do you believe Mislintat had the power to sign players, Wenger didn’t want?
I don’t think that is how it worked/works.
Mislintat and other in his position find prospects and make a case for recruiting them, but in the end the manager, and especially Wenger sya yes or no.
Also, I honestly believe Wenger never came to terms with the ever rising prices for buying players, and he had a great belief in his own ability to develop players.
It worked extremely well for some years, but in the end he couldn’t keep up with the modern times, IMO
AndersS, just read your post – read what UE said when he left the club regarding Mislantat and how the players he wanted were ignored.
Now, the claim is that Wenger spent £100,000,000 in his last season, when it seems the club were already planning life without him.
Do you tgunk that the club would allow him to spend that money under those circumstances?
They let George Graham spend just over £6m in ’95, and that was after he had handed in his letter of resignation a couple of months earlier.