Arsenal have spent some decent money over the last few seasons:
2020/21
Partey €50m
Gabriel €26m
2019/20
Pepe €80m
Saliba €30m
Tierney €27m
2018/19
Torreira €29m
Leno €25m
Papastathopoulos €16m
2017/18
Aubameyang €64m
Lacazette €53m
Mkhitaryan €34m
That’s an awful lot of money, €434m, without much return.
They seem to sign one good one every season or on occasion less.
Off the nearly half-a-billion spent, only Aubameyang have provided a decent return.
I don’t think Leno is bad, not top class like but good enough for them. Tierney is good but does seem to have injuries.
Agree iftikhar. However with that spending power I wonder how strong they would be if (when?) they get their recruitment together.
You know Paul, I’m thinking just the opposite. They didn’t have CL money for few seasons now and COVID has hurt them probably more than it hurt us. Add to these the mega deals they offered to Sanchez, Ozil and, presently, Aubameyang.
All in all, they are probably scraping the barrel.
And Willian…
They will be paying extra for average - decent talents and that’s what will gut them. They are in the position that we were for the majority of the noughties.
Still remember them being able to attract talent like Ozil etc at the fag end of the wenger years. Now those won’t come. They are stuck with not being able to offer european football to a highly paid team with some talent.
Pay more to keep them and have a crack at european football or get rid of them for the money and go for youth etc.
If we didn’t have a keeper a level of Allisson / Oblak… I wouldn’t mind a Leno.
They should be buying young, talented, players. Even if they don’t finish in CL places (highly unlikely) the wage bill will be affordable and they can be sold for good price.
Buying highly priced players to break into CL clearly hasn’t worked.
What Arsenal need is a manager like Klopp. A manager able to get the most out of his players using a system, and able to spot better players that will improve his system.
Examples are the way he has used Gini and Hendo in positions they normally wouldn’t play in.
Arteta for me is not that manager. I’m not saying he couldn’t become that manager but Arsenal is a big club in the doldrums. They should have kept Emery if their plan was Arteta.
I think that is the dream strategy, but most of the other clubs are trying to do the same, so a lot of competition for these players. They need an edge, and better quality control.
Off-course there’s competition. But the pool is big enough too. You don’t need a Bellingham or a Sancho to be successful. Brentford and Norwich has netted some good money from their projects. Even our fringe players (Wilson, Grujic) will fetch a decent amount.
But the main issue is, Arsenal is buying costly (and paying high wage) in the hope of qualifying for CL and they are just bleeding money.
The funny thing about the gunners is that the coach they need is not what they want. For example , A Rafa would very quickly organize their defense and work with what he’s got there without too much spend and make them compete for top 6 and even top 4 if some of the other lot have a blip.
That would give them time to sort out their hiring etc and get better talent in place , and then hope for a succession plan.
But what they seem intent on doing is to buy their way to immediate parity and with a coach like Arteta , that clearly isn’t gonna work.
Arteta is not the man to take them back into Champions league.
Whoever signed off on 80 mil for Pepe wants fucking shooting 
That being said , They did sign Martinelli for peanuts and Saka is a youth product which were good deals… And then they’ve made blunders like giving Ozil that idiotic contract , Signing Pepe for that amount , Mustafi for 35 odd … Not selling off Auba when they had the chance.