What is the biggest mistake the club made that has put us in our current situation?

[Riou]

Our spending has never been obscene. Squads are built up over a number of years of spending. We've never even been in the top 4 for the cost of our 25 man squad.

What mistakes do you think Arsène made?

Don’t want a squad cost fight or anything, just your honest answer.

 

[Makingtrax]

What mistakes do you think Arsène made?

Don’t want a squad cost fight or anything, just your honest answer.

Staying too long. All that loyalty wasn't good for him. Should have gone soon after the invincibles to a rich club like Real Madrid. With real money Wenger would have been unstoppable. You can't play really attacking football with the calibre of Squillaci at the back and not expect to get panned occasionally.

 

[bingobob]

Our spending has never been obscene. Squads are built up over a number of years of spending. We've never even been in the top 4 for the cost of our 25 man squad.

We spent £72m on Pepe this season making him the 5th most expensive player in PL history. Pogba, Lukaku, VVD and Kepa are the only players who cost more.

Weve one of if not the most expensive front line in the Premier League.

Our spending has been obscene. By previous standards and current standards weve spent an obscene amount on players.

And I'm fed up hearing people say we dont spend enough. It's like these whatsapp groups I'm in with United fans and they blame the Glaziers for everything when all theyve done is spend money on players. All weve done in recent years is spend. They finally listened to the fans chanting spend some ****ing money!

One of the problems has been recruiting the right players. Our hits for our money has been very poor. And we keep trotting out the same line we cant afford to make mistakes when we spend big. But we have spent big and we keep making mistakes. Its exhausting.

 

[Makingtrax]

We spent £72m on Pepe this season making him the 5th most expensive player in PL history. Pogba, Lukaku, VVD and Kepa are the only players who cost more.

Weve one of if not the most expensive front line in the Premier League.

Our spending has been obscene. By previous standards and current standards weve spent an obscene amount on players.

And I'm fed up hearing people say we dont spend enough. It's like these whatsapp groups I'm in with United fans and they blame the Glaziers for everything when all theyve done is spend money on players. All weve done in recent years is spend. They finally listened to the fans chanting spend some ****ing money!

One of the problems has been recruiting the right players. Our hits for our money has been very poor. And we keep trotting out the same line we cant afford to make mistakes when we spend big. But we have spent big and we keep making mistakes. Its exhausting.

It's not about the odd player though, it's about the whole squad.

VVD may have been similar to Pepe, but VVD is a CB not a striker. He's a class act and doesn't compare to an ageing Chelsea reject at £7m, come on.

Liverpool have proven pros to rotate like Milner, Lallana, Shaqiri, Origi etc. We have a bunch of as yet unproven kids finding their way.

 

[Aussie_gunner123]

I'm pretty certain Aubameyang was a bigger name signing than Salah, Mane and Firminho combined. Özil was a bigger name signing than KDB, Silva and Laporte.

Our problem hasnt been signing names or spending amounts (which has been obscene over the last 7 years) it's been signing the right players. Our return on investment has been shambolic.

Also weve spent plenty of "leftover cash".

Apart from maybe a few signings look at the majority of the signings who have failed, I'm not going to name any because there have been too many who have failed over the last decade. Not only that, we've let young key players off to PL rivals & look who we get from our rivals in return, the players who are way past it.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

The summer of 2015 broke us because we didn't sign any outfield players and the summer of 2016 broke us too, because the players we signed turned out to be meh.

Poor squad planning has been an issue for years.

 

[bingobob]

It's not about the odd player though, it's about the whole squad.

VVD may have been similar to Pepe, but VVD is a CB not a striker. He's a class act and doesn't compare to an ageing Chelsea reject at £7m, come on.

Liverpool have proven pros to rotate like Milner, Lallana, Shaqiri, Origi etc. We have a bunch of as yet unproven kids finding their way.

I know VVD is a class act. I said we should have signed him straight from Celtic and he is a player who could play for Barcelona and got laughed at on here for saying as much.

Our squad isnt exactly cheap either and full of experienced international players. Weve spent just under 60m to obtain Mustafi and Sokratis. Xhaka and Torreira cost 55m. Özil. 42m. 50m on Lacazette. With the exception of Xhaka most weeks those guys make up the bench. Özil latterly has played.

It was a valid argument at one time to say we havent spent enough or weve under spent. The current reality is far from that. Weve spent hundreds of millions on acquiring talent. This is an indisputable fact.

 

[bingobob]

Apart from maybe a few signings look at the majority of the signings who have failed, I'm not going to name any because there have been too many who have failed over the last decade. Not only that, we've let young key players off to PL rivals & look who we get from our rivals in return, the players who are way past it.

You're absolutely spot on with the exception of young key players. I'm not sure who weve sold in recent years that has left to better things? The Ox maybe but he has spent most of his time away injured.

Anyway, now that you recognise the problem hasnt been spending money it's been obtaining the right players. Our player acquisitions have by and large been poor for the money spent.

 

[Aussie_gunner123]

You're absolutely spot on with the exception of young key players. I'm not sure who weve sold in recent years that has left to better things? The Ox maybe but he has spent most of his time away injured.

Anyway, now that you recognise the problem hasnt been spending money it's been obtaining the right players. Our player acquisitions have by and large been poor for the money spent.

Imo Fabregas wasn't exactly sent to a PL rival but when he finished at Barca we had the opportunity to bring him back & he wanted to but we decided to ignore him, he goes to Chelsea. From then we have only signed players like Cech (decent enough for a few games I'll admit) & now Luiz. We let Sanchez off to United & they give us Mkhitaryan who has been past it. Sanchez failed at United but did well for us so we could have kept him. The Ox had his on & off moments with us same as at Liverpool now. We have let Wilshere, I think we could have kept him for good cover to have. Sagna wasn't young when he left but I still think we should have kept him aswell rather then go to City, we also let Nasri off to City who was key for us at the time.

 

[Aussie_gunner123]

How could I forget about RVP aswell, I knew I missed someone.

 

[Manberg]

It's easy to forget how great a player Alexis Sanchez was for us but it was he who wanted out. Selling him wasn't a mistake.

 

[Makingtrax]

I know VVD is a class act. I said we should have signed him straight from Celtic and he is a player who could play for Barcelona and got laughed at on here for saying as much.

Our squad isnt exactly cheap either and full of experienced international players. Weve spent just under 60m to obtain Mustafi and Sokratis. Xhaka and Torreira cost 55m. Özil. 42m. 50m on Lacazette. With the exception of Xhaka most weeks those guys make up the bench. Özil latterly has played.

It was a valid argument at one time to say we havent spent enough or weve under spent. The current reality is far from that. Weve spent hundreds of millions on acquiring talent. This is an indisputable fact.

Some terrible buys there which has made matters worse. But our squad cost £400m+, City £1000m+ and when it comes to injuries/rotation there's a huge difference who comes on. Just like I said about Liverpool.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Liverpool didn't have a huge net spend when they won the CL and competed for the title last season. You don't need to spend big. You just need to spend smart. If if was all about spending big, Man utd would have been competing for the title. Liverpool were smart in their spendings that's why they are where they are.

Net spend has little to do with it. The defender and GK they bough that transferred their defense was a 70 M a piece. They spent huge on their defense and midfield. Huge sums on players. Before that they weren't even close.

When we had the opportunity to spend big Raul went to the first agent inhis phonebook and got tricked and came back with Pepe which we paid like 50 M more for than we should have.

 

[bingobob]

Some terrible buys there which has made matters worse. But our squad cost £400m+, City £1000m+ and when it comes to injuries/rotation there's a huge difference who comes on. Just like I said about Liverpool.

If Man City is your barometer you're heading for disappointment. They have the financial backing of a country.

If you spend 400m squad depth should not be an issue. The fact that you're saying it is is the cause of concern. The money has been spent poorly.

@Aussie_gunner123 going back the guts of ten years isnt where I thought you were going. But yes we did sell some key players back then. In more recent years since weve increased our financial fire power I dont think weve sold a young key player to anyone. Alexis wasnt young and by all accounts was done, Wilshere wasnt young and was broken. Ramsey wasnt young any more and he went abroad. You could say our contract management ****e given who we lost for nothing and the same situation looks to be playing out with Aubameyang.

 

[Aussie_gunner123]

If Man City is your barometer you're heading for disappointment. They have the financial backing of a country.

If you spend 400m squad depth should not be an issue. The fact that you're saying it is is the cause of concern. The money has been spent poorly.

@Aussie_gunner123 going back the guts of ten years isnt where I thought you were going. But yes we did sell some key players back then. In more recent years since weve increased our financial fire power I dont think weve sold a young key player to anyone. Alexis wasnt young and by all accounts was done, Wilshere wasnt young and was broken. Ramsey wasnt young any more and he went abroad. You could say our contract management ****e given who we lost for nothing and the same situation looks to be playing out with Aubameyang.

In my honest opinion I was pretty much just pointing out all our players we have given to our PL rivals over the years, how silly we have been to give our PL rivals those players of all ages compared to the players they have given us in return. Why do we sell some of our top players to our rivals to strengthen them only to weaken us. Mkhitaryan compared to Sanchez is a perfect example. If we had sold those players to other leagues it wouldn't matter to me nearly as much as it would a lot of fans I'd presume.

 

[Jury]

There are so many contributing factors that it’s difficult to single out one. A lot of decisions exacerbated the previous blunder and it went from there. BUT... if I had to pick one that came at a really bad time and may well have sent us down the wrong road, it was buying no outfield players THAT summer. Nobody cares about the owners when things are going well on the pitch, and that’s where it went wrong. We fell out the top 4 at the worst possible time and it’s been a big struggle since.

 

[GDeep™]

Or we hired the guy who won the league in France and had a successful European spell. Sounds like the French version of Klopp. The guy we wanted turned us down and still doesnt have a job. Chelsea appointed Lampard ffs and United who spend money in their sleep appointed OGS. Title chasing managers hahaha. Who else can we appoint. Where is the cream at the top who are they? who have we missed out on who others have swooped in and appointed? they must be at Madrid or Barca or Bayern by now!


Our spend over the last 10 years has been ridiculous. We spent 72m on one player last season. Liverpool went slightly higher than that and won the champions league ffs.

Absolute drivel to state what you've stated.

Chelsea went to Lampard after elite big hitters like Hiddink, Conte, Sarri all didn’t work out as expected. Similar to Utd, who went the in house route after Moyes, a man appointed by Ferguson, and later big hitters like LVG and Mourinho didn’t work out.

You can argue we’ve never hired a top manager under Kroenke, one who comes in with intent.

Our net spend by season over the last 10 years is 20-25M per season. We’ve spent around 750M over the last decade, Sp**s a little bit less and Liverpool around 1 billion.

 

[GDeep™]

We blew 100m in 2016 on three bums. These were all Wenger signings

One of those players was later sold and we recouped the cash. The other two signings were starting for Arteta ahead of signings the new regime made over the last two seasons.

So yeah, those 2016 signings are highly questionable, but we’ve gone on to back them up with even more poor signings, you never talk about those?

Mustafi and Xhaka were starters for Arteta before the lockdown.

 

[GDeep™]

Wenger created that culture at Arsenal.

Most managers meet a messy end, Wenger was no different.

It’s weird to see this sort of posting though, considering the Wenger years were the golden period for this club.

Why not look back on the positives instead of clinging on to negatives in such a bitter way?

Wenger had a few bad years and he paid for it. As soon as the Champions League money went away, he was moved on.

 

[Oxeki]

Chelsea went to Lampard after elite big hitters like Hiddink, Conte, Sarri all didn’t work out as expected. Similar to Utd, who went the in house route after Moyes, a man appointed by Ferguson, and later big hitters like LVG and Mourinho didn’t work out. .

The only elite manger in that list is Conte and mou.

You could argue that Mou and LVG was finished before they went to man utd.

The rest are certified bums