Arsene Wenger has painted himself into the corner with the Arsenal fans in the build up to the January transfer window. The manager has already spoken a few times this season about the nedd to strengthen the Arsenal squad, especially in the area of defence, so there is no way that the Frenchman will get away without signing at least one centre back next month.
And Wenger has now gone one better than that, as an report in The Observer explains. The boss was responding to the idea, quite common among Arsenal fans and anyone who has witnessed our recent woes in one transfer window after another, that he is tight with the transfer cash.
Instead Wenger insists that he has merely been looking after the financial solidity of the club and that he is perfectly willing to splash the cash now that the funds are there, as the recent transfers of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez would seem to back up.
The Arsenal boss declared, ““There is a huge difference between the perception that people have of me and [the reality]: I’m not scared to spend money. If you go out with me one night, you will understand that.
“What I don’t like is to spend money that I don’t have. Now I have money so no problem spending it at all. What I fought against was spending money that would have put the future of the club in danger.”
However, another accusation labelled at our long serving manager is that he is always too focused on the creative and attacking side of the squad and does not do enough to make the Gunners hard to beat at the other end and in the centre of midfield.
So Arsenal fans will be expecting that the boss not only spends some decent money in the transfer market, but that he does it on a defender and a defensive midfielder. I am hoping for the Celtic centre back Virgil van Dijk and Morgan Schneiderlin from Southampton.
So which big money players do you think Wenger has his sights set on? Or do you think we are heading for the bargain basement brigade again?