Arsenal fans were understandably frustrated one again this summer with the transfer action, or lack of it, done by Arsene Wenger and the Arsenal board. Two players signed and one of those on a free was not what most of wanted but a lot of us were not that surprised as the Frenchman has not exactly been very proactive in the market for a long time.
While our big Premier League rivals and most other clubs around have spent more and more money on players we have not jumped on the transfer bandwagon and Wenger has often spoke about why he thinks that the ever increasing spending is wrong and perhaps even unsustainable.
A few years ago it started to look like he was going to be proved right and helped out by the Financial Fair Play rules but you could be forgiven for thinking they were no longer in place because transfer fees and expenditure by clubs, especially in the Premier League have continued to rise and defy all logic, culminating in the crazy signing of Neymar by PSG which almost doubled the transfer record.
Wenger continues to buck the trend though, and Sky Sports report his latest comments suggesting that he still believes things will change and prove his own transfer policy to be right.
He said, “Something will happen. It is for the first time that, politically, the German prime minister came out.
“I think politically something will happen in the next 12 months to regulate and limit the transfer amount.
“You have to go one of two ways – regulate it properly or leave it completely open. But you cannot be in between – that is where we are at the moment.
“That is only to the advantage of some clubs who can deal with rules in a legal way. The regulation has to be stricter and clearer, or open it completely: you can do what you want provided you can guarantee you have the money to pay.
“At the moment, we are a bit in between and that does not work.
“With the amount of transfer levels and the expected amount of contracts the players want, you will have more and more players going into the final year of their contract,” he added.
“You will be in a position where you either extend for money you cannot afford or you go into the final year of their contract.
“This season there were 107 players in the Premier League who got into the final year of their contract for the first time and you will see that more. The clubs want too much more for normal players.
“So what happens? The club cannot sell and doesn’t extend the contract, so more and more players are going into the final year.”
So what do you think Gooners, has Wenger got a point or is he living in dreamland as many Arsenal fans seem to think?
D.N.