21 May 2014 22:48:12
To my mates Banbury and Steve r,

You seem to think that spending millions guarantees you world class footballers.

Ask Abramovich if he agree's that the £50m he spent on Torres was good business?
Or the £30m on Shevchenko?

Or Ferguson paying £28m for Sebastian Veron?
Or Liverpool paying £20m for Aquilani?

Or City paying £18m for Jo.

Or Madrid £56m for Kaka.

The list is endless.

You don't have to spend big money for get big players.

One of the most saught after defensive Mid's is Paul Pogba. He cost Juventus absolutely nothing from Man Utd.

Arsenal have the class and the team and the manager to turn good players into world class players.

We have done it time after time after time, and will continue to do so. Yes, I want the best players on the market, the Draxler's, Gundogan's, Reuss's, Kroos's and Sanchez's of this world, but I have supported Arsenal long enough to know we won't spend big and Wenger won't do wholesale buy's for fear of de-stabilising the team.

That's why I'm excited by the likes of Schneiderlain, Remy and Aurier. Good players who will become very very good players.

Like I said the other day, how many world class players have Arsenal bought over the past 20 years?

You can count the amount of players on one hand.
In fact, Abu Hamza can count the amount of players on one hand.

For me, we are 2 very good players away from being a very very very good team.

1.) 22 May 2014
Post of the year so far Dags! Great point well made!

2.) 22 May 2014
Agree. I can only think of us signing Bergkamp and Özil who were already world class.

Look at our current team:

Szczeney - peanuts from Poland (a good name for a band.)
Sagna - 7m
Mertersacker - 8m
Kos - 8-10m
Gibbs - nothing
Wilshere - nothing
Ramsey - 5m
Cazorla - 16m
Ozil - 42.5m
Walcott - 12m
Giroud - 11m

That's impressive, and some of the legends like Henry, pires, vieira, Campbell. And some players who have been good players like Hleb, flamini, adebayor, van persie and nasri all for nigh on nothing and all bar Campbell were near enough unknown.

So why stop now! I'd snap up Remy and schneiderlian ASAP

3.) 22 May 2014
Dags have you been drinking again, I haven't got a clue why you keep saying I/we have been saying, we must spend big on wc players etc. What I've said is we must by players better then what we have not the same or less experienced. We don't need players who need potty training or are coming to sit on the bench and watch with us at getting fourth again. Unlike you I don't think we are as close as you think we are and I don't see what the likes of remy aurier or sneiderlin are going to do for us, and no I don't trust you lol. We need better players and not all better players come with big tranfer fees but some do.

4.) 22 May 2014
Akie don't miss out the other bargains. Santos 7m, park 3m, chamack free, sylvrstre free, eboue 3m, almunia 2m, senderos, reyes 12m, galas free, miatchi 2m and the other forgetable japanese player who went to fulham. Of those you have mentioned some have actually gone on and won the league though.

5.) 22 May 2014
And let's not forget stepanovs, sqillaci, bischoff, djorou, diawarra and denilson. All bargains. Lol. let's hope we get a bit better than them akie eh. At least we didn't pay 40 mil for them. Only poking gun mate.

6.) 22 May 2014
I am 90% with DAGS here and 10% with Steve.r.

You can only bed-in 2 new starters in a team - so if we go for 1 established big star the rest must be along the lines of what DAGS is saying, good players with potential.

2 big reasons, one the players we have are very good and Wenger is loyal to them so he is not dumping half the team and he is not going to block Gnabry, Ox, Jenkinson etc. Next, the discussion of budget is misleading we will not spend $100 m.

So we can dream to have a new team but then we wouldn't be Arsenal.

7.) 22 May 2014
Dags while I would agree, the landscape of the epl has changed since the days of henry and ice-berg.

do we have a player like matic or yaya toure? NO, we need to get a DM who will give the opposition a headache as much as they give us one.

we need a striker who will have movement and create opportunities.

while i'm happy for the likes of schneiderlin and aurier, I feel upfront we need someone more potent compared to remy.

at the end of the day, remy may not make the national squad over giroud and benzema, so is he really as good as giroud?

8.) 22 May 2014
Thank you Leegun.

9.) 22 May 2014
Rooney 30 million tenager Hazard Drogba its easy to list the big money buys that didn't make it but its the ones that do that deliver PL titles.
Henry and Reyes both cost decent money for potential of their day (17 and 15 million or similar) one a legend the other not so good.
Spending decent money is not a guarantee of success but it does put the odds in your favour and for every Torres there's a thousand Chamacks

10.) 22 May 2014
22 May 2014 19:54:45
Great Post Dags, I agree with what you are saying. Man U paid £28m for Fellani! They could off kept Pogba and Ravel Morrison instead. £35m for Carrol, £32m for Lamella, £25m for Soldado, £20m for Darren Bent (to A.Villa).

If we can get Aurier, a young, team of the season player for £6m or so that's a bargain. Vela £3.3m! that's insane.

But. In this day and age players cost x2 and x3 as much as they did during the invincibled era around 2000-2005. Wenger has a great chance here with his current crop of players and financial strength. So I just hope he spends £20m on a back up keeper, 4th choice CB and New RB. But £40m on a top draw player like Benzema or Khedira.