I have long loved the style of Arsenal's play and entirely respect Arsene Wenger for the attacking mentality and fluidity of play that he creates. Of course there will be ups and downs throughout a season and this has been evident over the last few years, but the question on everyones lips is why Arsene isn't willing to spend more?
I completely understand both sides of the argument and I'm going to briefly outline my understanding of them below.
Why he doesn't spend:
- he has faith in his existing squad
- he wants his existing squad to believe they are capable of winning a title without the need of additional players
- he doesn't want to spend
- he likes to develop players rather than buy them in
Why he should spend:
- is he being naive to think he can get away without investing in players when all other clubs are doing so?
- there are definite weaknesses in his squad
- not buying players may fill his team with as much doubt as confidence in themselves
- it puts a lot of pressure on the players, especially if there isn't adequate cover in your position
- injuries could cause significant problems with a lack of quality in depth
I respect the fact that Arsene doesn't throw money around like Manchester Utd/City and Chelsea, although these are undoubtedly good teams I respect them less for the fact that they just buy in whoever has had a good season prior to their move and if they don't work out then they're shipped off, usually resulting in the loss of millions for the club...Falcao and Di Maria anyone?
But as a fan it also concerns me that Arsene's lack of desire to spend may be expanding the divide between the teams. Of course you can counter that by saying that after all of Chelsea's spending they have gotten off to the worst start to a season in 29 years.
At the end of the day it is the results that matter and providing Arsenal are getting the wins then no-one is going to care. The problem is that they aren't having that consistency at the minute and it is putting Arsene in line for some flack.
Overall I think Arsene needs to strike the balance between getting those great players to help strengthen the squad and raise the rest of the talent. He did it with Sanchez and it paid dividends, so why couldn't he add to it this season? Perhaps if Arsene had been a little more modern in his willingness to spend then the likes of Fabregas and Van Persie would have stuck around and who knows how the team would have looked then.
So until the next transfer window! And I'm sure a lot of us will be interested to see what decisions you make then.
