Samir Nasri has claimed that Arsenal have been more focused on their financial situation then they are on strengthening to challenge their rivals.
The midfielder was one of a number of Gunners to be sold for a profit whilst the Emirates Stadium was being paid for, with Manchester City being the main customers, taking Emmanuel Adebayor, Bacary Sagna, Gael Clichy, and Kolo Toure also.
There were reports that Nasri didn’t want to leave the club, but the decision was made for him, and the French international has now taken a shot at his former side.
He claimed: “We must also take into account the fact that when I was in Arsenal, we did not fight on equal terms with Chelsea or Manchester United.
“The bosses of the club have always wanted to have healthy finances, they never wanted to go into debt. So they obviously did not recruit like the others.”
Our club went through a period of selling, whilst Arsene Wenger managed to somehow keep us in the top four despite others constant investment, but now that the Stadium has more-or-less been paid off, we have begun to invest more strongly.
Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil come in for a combined £74 Million, but that has still been dwarfed by our rivals, and our club has still been more subtle in the market than the remainder of the top six.
Despite all the spending by Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and even Tottenham, we finished above every one of them last season, with only surprise-package Leicester City denying us from the Premier League title.
Stan Kroenke has stated on more than one occasion that we are unable to match the spending of our rivals, which we know is simply not the case considering our revenue, and you can’t really disagree with Nasri’s comments unfortunately.
Would Kroenke spend if it assured us of success? Does he simply only believe in business? Do we think finishing outside the top four would convince him to alter his spending restrictions?
Pat J