Why Arsenal MUST spend big and win the Premier League and Europa League

Arsenal (and Wenger) Must Win the EPL And The Europa League In 2017-18

Anyone who watched the Arsenal v Leicester match – exciting as it was – would have come away with a terribly sinking feeling that with this type of display the Gunners at best would finish somewhere in the bottom half of the EPL final standings in the 2017-18 season. And this after providing for the absence of Sanchez, Koscielny and Mustafi – plus the below par show of Ozil. There was no getting away from the fact this was a typical and intrinsically somnambulant show.

Barring Kolasinac, Lacazette, Xhaka and later Giroud and Ramsey, the rest of the squad were amateurish. Our clearances were weak and hurried – panic-stricken at times. There were miss-passes, possession was given away easily, very little effort was made to win the ball back, passing was shoddy, the back-line was fragile and the mid-field unimaginative, and at times terribly naive.

It is a terribly sad fact that Arsenal started off this 2017-18 EPL season at their lowest ranking in twenty years. And it reflected in their hugely disjointed display. Arsenal’s position is shameful – any fan of Arsenal will tell you this. Their worst performance in two decades. The drama surrounding Wenger’s future at Arsenal; the fan’s genuine disappointments and angst; the uncertainty over the future of Sanchez and Ozil at the club – and so much more making negative headlines – is taking its toll. The Board has given full powers to Wenger, we have been informed. We are also told that some directors were pushing for Sanchez to be sold at £500M rather go free next year – only for the Manager to oppose this vehemently.

In another case it was widely circulated that Lemina’s entry was vetoed forcefully by Wenger. Why is the that the Powers-that-be that decide on the future of the Club are pulling in different directions? What kind of muddle-headed decision making is this?

“The priority is we are open to an exceptional player,” Wenger told Sky Sports.“ Just to remind you that we have 33, that is basically unmanageable, and all 33 players are good players, very good players. To bring one player in would be stupid, if we find an exceptional player we will do it.”

Somebody needs to point out to the great coach what these 33 “good players, very good players” achieved in the last year was something that was not achieved in the last 20 years. These “very good players” had successfully got the Arsenal into the Europa League! Such was the great quality of the players!! And now the cerebral remark of the century: “To bring one player in would be stupid, if we find an exceptional player we will do it.”

Are we to understand that the professorial coach has “ …. 33 players … are good players, very good players.” And outside this golden circle, he cannot find a single exceptional player anywhere?

It stands to logic that 33 is a very large squad to be kept well paid, well fed and idle on the sidelines. It needs to be trimmed down to about 21 or 22. Very obviously, selling some of these “very good players”, at least 12 to 13 of them, is a must. This must necessarily yield at least £125Mns apart from cutting down on the wages bill. The saving here could lessen the burden when increased wages have to paid to Sanchez or Ozil or Chamberlain and others.

Wenger reportedly started with a purse of £150 M. And a free hand on footballing matters. After the signing of Lacazette, a significant signing , and the free transfer of Kolasinac, Wenger is still left with almost at least £100M. Add to this an expected £125M after the trimming of the squad. Of-course, he has only two weeks left before the transfer window closes for him to act quickly.

The facts as of now is that Arsenal is out of ECL. They are in the Europa. Their every effort must be to get back into CL in the season of 2018-19. Their only target; Win the EPL in 2017-18 and the Europa Cup and anything that is there in-between. There can no thought other than this.This will be the only reason for them to be playing in the EPL this year. All decisions, efforts, thoughts, actions, dreams, purpose in life even, is to win the EPL and Europa. Nothing else matters. The Board and Wenger must be on the same page in this resolve.

If there is one thing that Wenger must do without wavering and with utmost determination is to retain the likes of Sanchez and Ozil. He must sign up Lemar, Ascensio, Goretzka and Seri now. These are all quality youngsters. There is plenty of experienced heads in rest of the squad.

[He has vast reserves in Giroud, Iwobi, Welbeck, Walcott, Xhaka, Ramsey, Chamberlain, Monreal, Cazorla, Bellerin, Mustafi, Elneny, Koscielny, Holding, Kolasinac, and the frontline has Sanchez, Lacazette and Ozil. Add the new signings: there is at least 120 to 130 Goals in that squad. You will need all of that and more. Our hope is that Wenger will decide wisely.

He will know that this season Arsenal will have to play 60 to 70 high intensity matches. Sometimes even two to three matches a week. That it is also a World Cup year which will bring in more pressure on the Club re: any injury to the players or over-playing them and/or letting them go stale in a World Cup year. There will be the usual quota of injuries. There will be no time to rest and recover. So much travel and so little time to prepare and plan. We saw what happened to Man United last season. And how they went for the Europa and dumped the EPL. What Wenger thinks of this is only too well known. It will be very interesting to see how he reacts to this kind of mental and physical challenge this year. We hope he will walk the talk on this one.

This small challenge : PSG is reportedly ready to offer £80M to 90M for Sanchez and that Man City will offer Sanchez £400,000 per week. Ozil, Chamberlain and others will be tempted with similar offers and the Directors may be tempted to sell. As of date Wenger has stood firm. It has been stated by squawka that Alexis Sanchez has been directly involved in 75 Goals in 103 Games for Arsenal –53 Goals and 22 assists [9th August 2017]. There is no one in this universe who has the integrity, honesty, talent and work-ethic who can fetch those goals and have those kinds of inspirational qualities and lift the entire ream to another level. No one. Not even £125M can produce those results. Only a combination of Wenger and Sanchez can do that. The Squad with the suggested changes can work miracles in the 2017-18 season. And you must build on that in the CL year in 2018-19.

If Wenger can achieve the incredible double of winning the EPL and Europa it will bring in extra hundreds of millions of Dollars to the Clubs kitty; TV Rights and Revenues; More sponsors;, advertising Contracts – especially in a World Cup year if you are in CL – and so many myriad avenues for raking in the moolah if you are the EPL Champion and Europa Cup winner and are in the CL and a small matter of having high-profile players or hugely talented stars/starlets in your squad – it will attract the big ad-spenders to the Club like nothing else does.

Arsene Wenger must understand this clearly. All the players in the Arsenal squad, not just the “very good players”, today were his first choice once. Today we see the consequences of the “very good players” bringing the club to its lowest level ever in the last 20 years. That must be reversed. A significant number of those “very good players” will have to be sold on a priority basis. At least four/five more quality players must be signed immediately. It is unlikely that if Arsenal win the EPL and Europa, anybody would want to leave. Just being in the possession of the EPL and Europa titles will bring in significant gains to the club. And note: the revenues will only keep increasing. Wenger must spend big now.There should no compromise on this. The target must be to win EPL and Europa – both.

One remembers this quote of Tony Dorsett: “To succeed…You need to find something to hold on to, something to motivate you, something to inspire you.” The answer is self-evident! Arsene Wenger!

With Wenger leading from the front there is no limit to what Arsenal can achieve this season, but he has to spend BIG.
There is no easy way out here: Arsenal has to fight and fight hard. More so, the leader, Arsene Wenger. Everything hinges on his fighting character. The great Marv Levy has said: “Football doesn’t build character, it reveals character!” Wenger’s super character — Exactly !!

And we can expect that in response to this challenge, the great Wenger will definitely underline and echo what Archie Griffin said: “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog!” And ,Oh ! Boy – do we have a humdinger of a great Arsenal and Wenger Combo season Coming up!!!!!

30 Comments

  1. OT: Seems like Gabriel is set to join Valencia. I read his major problem was understanding the English language. They try to teach him some basic words but.. …… Anyway, I thought He is a good player on his day but shaky at times. All the best Gabriel if you leave for Valencia. A likable person but maybe wasn’t to be at Arsenal.

    In other news, can’t wait for some dead woods to Leave esp Debuchy and Jekinson……

    1. Gabriel is from the Favela’s.
      He grew up very poor with almost zero education and certainly no English education.
      I feel for him and I really liked the way he played and the fighting spirit he has.
      But it’s better for him to play in Spain, the language is a lot more similar and easier to understand for him. I wish him well.

  2. Liverpool have agreed a 20mil deal to sign Seri 20mil not 40 not even 30mil 20mil for one of the best players in Europe right now! A perfect cazorla replacement is available for 20mil and wenger is trying to get wilshere into the squad wtf is wrong with this club? Even when there’s a bargain like delli alli (5mil) van dijk (10mil Celtic) they just don’t seem to know how to get bargains no more it’s like if there a free transfer then Wenger licks his lips but if they cost 2mil 4mil Wenger can’t afford to risk it like when he turned down the chance to sign lemar Mendy kante for a combined 12mil bcoz 12mil is a lot of money to a club like arsenal apparently but Stan can take 6mil out of the club no problem! Elneny coquelin Ramsey xhaka will not get a football club top 4 bcoz the balance ain’t ready right it was so obvious bs L City that we need another’s midfielder that’s holds the ball and can pass forward directly with defensive positioning even nzonzi would cost more than 20mil it’s getting real boring being just short every season when ur in the hardest league on the planet

  3. Arsenal will NOT spend big and will not win the Europa or PL.
    They certainly won’t as long as Wenger stays there.
    He cannot even get rid of players much less sign them..
    Everton will over take us soon – £150 million spent compared to £44 million from us.
    They have ambition we have Wenger..

    1. Window isn’t over.. The path seems clear to N’Zonzi. If we secure him or a midfielder of that quality we’ve done a hell of a lot better than Siggy and Rooney.

    2. Have to agree Arsenal will win neither PL nor the Europa League. They have not sorted out their defence during the off season, that is a crime for a team with ambitions of winning anything worthwhile . For me, I`m backing Manchester United to take the crown with Everton and City in the top four .The London clubs will struggle to get into the top six.

  4. Article starts off by saying Kolasinac played well. In the aftermatch review they showed a camera view from behind the goal of Leicester’s first goal. From the corner Kolasinac was defending the area in front of the far post. As the corner was taken he left his position and went for an aimless wander across the front of goal. This left an unguarded area in front of the far post which leicester attacked. Cech was then forced in to this area to try and deal with the ball but was easily bypassed and left stranded. This area defending of set pieces does not work if someone leaves their area for no good reason. It is mistakes like this which loses matches. Lets hope that Kolasinac learns from this.

    Lets also hope that Xhaka this season does not get needless and pointless red cards. The refs also seem hotter this season with bad/dangerous tackles. That is good as we have sufferered more than most due to bad tacles and injuries to our players. Just imagine how good Abou Diaby would have been for us to name just one of the many. But Xhaka will have to be careful.

  5. “We are also told that some directors were pushing for Sanchez to be sold at £500M rather go free next year – only for the Manager to oppose this vehemently”.

    I cannot see Wenger turning down £500m for Sanchez.

  6. Abramovich wants to win tophies, that is why he bought Chelsea. Sheik Mansour sees man city as a means of promoting abu dhabi so money will be thrown at the club to buy success.

    We have an owner who sees Arsenal as an investment to make him money. He believes that the best return on his investment is to spend the minimum to achieve a top four position. And top four in practice means third or fourth.

    Talk of spending big to win PL and europa league is just wishfull thinking. We will have to achieve these aims by spending, at most, on one more top player this transfer window and possibly lose sanchez as well.

    1. This site sometimes amazes me, with how people can vote down true statements of fact!

  7. We should have got Lemar but failed.
    I hope we get Mahrez, especially if we lose OX. Mahrez will be good cover for Alexis too

    We need another top CM. If Cazorla was fit and healthy, we would not need one but as good as Ramsey, Coquelin and Eleny are on their days, they are not consistent

    Would love Seri, Goretzka or Carvalho

    United are looking excellent with Lukaku, Mktharyan, Martial, Mata, Matic, Pogba etc. We need more or increased quality in midfield

    We won’t be able to win the PL if we don’t get one or two signings to increase our quality.

    But if we make a couple more signings we could win it. It’s up to Wenger.

    1. Mahrez is so lazy he makes Ozil look like Ramsey. A team with Ozil struggles to defend…a team with both Ozil and Mahrez Bayern will score 10 goals against us.

  8. There is cause for concern, we can’t offload players we don’t need, we are buying players that we don’t use or end up selling, we dilly dally on transfer targets and they end either going to another club or become more expensive and finally we are not spending money as promised. Kolasinac is a great piece of business but Lacazette we could have gotten him years ago at a much lower price, and plus a striker was a position we cried out for years ago and we only got it now. It seems to me our transfer business look very disorganized at times and we are always playing catch up. Don’t expect anything to change as long as we have an owner who does not care and his sole purpose is for investment. The argument of spending too much will put the club in debt and in a bad position is rubbish, and it is mentioned far too many times to scare fans. If an owner is interested and care for the success of the club, he will invest into the club accordingly, and not worry about returns on investment. This is the trend of what top clubs are doing and it differentiates those that are often at the top and the occasional runners-up.

  9. The trouble is the history of the last ten years. We have always been two quality players short of a title challenging team. He will not change that. My heart goes out to the supporters. Wenger has serious misguided belief systems, causing yearly implosions. Please Monsieur Wenger buy jean Seri, William Carvalho or Riyad Mahrez. Please no Groudhog day.

  10. Well, i wish Arsene & the board can read this article. But They cannot, right?
    We have to sell before we can buy any more.
    I see many loan deals & transfer deadline departures. Meanwhile, it seems we have another “like a new signing CM” in Jack Wilshire, He got a few games under his belt at Bournemouth last season so if he can stay fit and give us at least 25-30 games this season, he would be decent cover for santi.

    I forsee jack wilshire, chambers, jenkinson adding to our numbers in squad dept this season. Thats so i dont get dissapointed if Mr. Prof. Arsenal Wenger just decides not to see any exceptional players to buy in the whole world.

    Out.
    Debuchy
    Gibbs
    Chambers
    Jenkinson

  11. We better stop fooling ourselves and realise that arsenal is a profit making club, the policies of the club are set in a way that trophies and success in competitions are not the priority of the club. So i believe we the fans shouldnt be surprised if there are no new signigs come sept. 1, 2017.

  12. What a joke. there must be 10 players on that list that won’t get a game. Wenger has stockpiled mediocrity….

  13. Arsene is done buying I said it weeks ago.once he start using that phrase exceptional player! he is done.Arsenal can never win d EPL or CL wit Wenger in charge.Two more seasons of misery

  14. I think Wenger has to leave for the deadwood to be cleared.These are the players that he bought and he is biased towards them.If we had some ruthless manager who just decides players futures based on his performance and attitude , then we would have sold more than half of these “very good players”.Look at Conte at Chelsea, They want to get rid of their top goal scorer just because he has a bad temperament and attitude.This is the kind of ruthlessness we need at Arsenal to win trophies.I don’t think Wenger will ever be able to muster that kind of courage.

  15. This transfer window has been more of the usual – Two good additions, but still short of the activity that we need to really challenge for the EPL title. The situation with having so many average players on superstar wages has dug a massive hole for Arsenal FC, just like lots of fans alluded to on this site for many years.

    Wenger sees himself as an ideological guru, or some kind of pied-piper, rather than a pragmatic manager. His little fantasy world has no place in modern football management. He will not change, and so we are doomed to history repeating itself for another 2 seasons. At the end of this season we will be “Celebrating” 4th place + maybe a cup win due to our enormous squad.

    1. Wenger renewed the bloody things and now it is stopping us from putting together the team that we do need. In today’s money, we paid very little for the bulk of those players, some where youngsters when bought. Just sell them cheap except for Perez, add some performance based clauses and a percentage of any larger sell on fees. Easy, and Wenger should not be involved in talks unless it’s an arrival.

    2. Won’t win anything this year. The teams not good enough and Wenger is tactically woeful. He also cannot seem to motivate his players. Groundhog year again I’m afraid. Always will be till Wenger goes.

  16. Wenger is back to his old routine. He would love to win the title, but he wants to win it with people printing up how much Manu, City and Che spent compared to Arsenal. And when you lose it’s not as big a shock when other teams are blowing you out of the water financially speaking. The problem is Leicester, and now Tott have title hopes. Everton too look to have improved, enough to gate crash the top four if they can score the goals.

    Arsene, no we, ..Arsenal, have to use our full resources, it must be the priority. Then let others work on outgoing transfers, and loans if it comes to it. Arsene said he’ll be very busy with transfers, outgoing, imagine Mourinho saying something like that while he still has over hundred mil at his disposal, or Pep, Conte. Conte is demanding stuff to happen, they just won the league and there’s already a threat of him walking because they’re failing to meet his demands and expectations. Are the placards polished and ready to go people, maybe the fans are the only ones demanding anything being done at the Arsenal.

  17. Asene needs to clear out d dead woods,add chambers and 30m to sign van dirk,sell walcott and sign mahrez or asensio,add cocuelin to 20m to get seri,sell debuch,jenko,perez,gibbs.keep Sanchez and mezut,and start d season.with d return of santi later in winter,and d competition Wilshere will bring to ramsey and xhaka,and d introduction of giroud in secnd half and d form of mezut and Sanchez,and d rotation of mahrez,seri,etc den arsenal will hav too much for epl,and may win d league.but wenger won’t sign,and may even sell Sanchez,ox,mezut,and will end up with failure,afterall its his calling,his a specialist.thank

  18. Dangote should fasten up to buy arsenal from this good for nothing owners who cares about there business incomes from the club, and his first priority is to sack Wenger, he need to move his a*s for someone else to try. This night mare is getting worst by the day,

  19. We knew Wenger was not very good last season and the season before that and the season before that, all the way back to Groundhog Day. Now Wenger is still here and he’s not very good and it’s Groundhog Day. Fourth place anyone?

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