Merci Arsène

[SA Gunner]

 

[Makingtrax]

In 2005
Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has said there is money available for Arsène Wenger to bolster his injury-hit squad if the Frenchman can find the right targets. Rumours had surfaced that the Arsenal board refused three requests from Wenger to strengthen his squad during the transfer window. Hill-Wood told a newspaper: "That's absolute nonsense, Arsène was offered money. "But he said he wasn't going to buy for the sake of it and would only act if he could find someone to add to the team." Hill-Wood was also keen to stress that the financial burden of the £357million new stadium is not hampering the Gunners in the transfer market. "It is important to say that the new stadium finance does not impinge on him at all," he said. "The cash is totally separate and it is not affecting our ability to buy new players at all."

In 2008 Speaking at Friday's Champions League draw
Danny Fiszman, the power broker on the Arsenal board, said: "We've never said no to Arsène so I'm sure that, whoever he wishes to bring in, he will be fully supported.
"There's no set amount. But as I said we've always supported Arsène, we've never said no to him and have no intention of saying no to him.
"I think Arsène said it's not a big name we're after, it's a big talent. I think it's about big talents and committed players.

"You say we don't pay the wages other teams do. If you look at our total wage costs you'll see they're virtually the same as Manchester United and substantially more than Liverpool.
"Of course we're all a little less than Chelsea who are in a world of their own. But compared to Manchester United and Liverpool we're good payers.
"We believe it's a team sport and we do well but we don't want the disparity between the top-earner and the bottom-earner being too big. It takes 11 people on the pitch to deliver."

In 2009 after record profit.
"There is money to spend but at the moment I am very happy with the squad I have," said Wenger. "It's not because I'm against spending money; I have nothing against spending money. It is not a personal thing, it is just that I have a squad that is strong enough to compete."
"I do not spend money because out of tomorrow's squad is [Samir] Nasri, [Theo] Walcott, [Nicklas] Bendtner. And people want me to buy strikers, but where do I put them? I don't know. I have to then lose players who, for me, are world class."
"I am very happy with the squad I have," Wenger concluded. "If in December we need to buy someone to add to the squad, I will do it."

November 2009
You can see in sport that a manager is always under pressure to buy because to buy reassures people," Wenger said.
"I am always insisting that in our job you should live with your resources, because it is always defendable that you make money if it is linked to the income you earn inside the club, it is not anymore if it is not linked to the income made inside the club.

"There is never too much money, what is important about the money is the way you use it. Ideally you want everybody to have a lot of money available but the danger comes with the way you use it.
"It has always been the reality here and that's always why I have always defended so much the way we live, the way we play and the way we manage.
"We have a different view because we try to integrate the players after they have worked hard into the first team. And this job requires special people but it demands as well a special force to give a chance to young players."

In 2011
I’m not against spending money if the players we buy improve our squad.
“We must find them and we’re looking very hard, believe me. We have a very big squad and if some players leave we’ll try to bring others in.
“We request top quality. We’re not scared to spend money, don’t worry, but we want to know what we’re getting for it. If you look at the quality of the players I’ve brought to the club you’ll see I’ve not done too badly.”

In 2012 after £150 million sponsorship deal.
Wenger acknowledged he now has serious cash when he said: “Of course. But football is more than just splashing out. It’s much deeper, much bigger than that. It’s about sweat, thinking, working hard.
“You have a big tradition of that in England. I believe the pride of this country historically is built on that. It’s what makes this football strong and interesting. If you go to Nottingham Forest they have won the league. If you go to Aston Villa they have won the league.”
“That means historically this country has always been about effort and thinking about the game. I am scared these qualities have less importance in the game today. It (our philosophy) won’t change. It doesn’t mean we will not spend money. I am always painted like a guy who refuses to spend money, like a greedy guy, and people who live with me can tell you that.
“But I just think I act like a responsible manager because we went through a period where we had restricted funds and I acted in a responsible way. We want to be the best. But the best is not only about buying players. We need to continue with what has made our strengths until now.”

In 2013: Fan Question and answer seasion.
Club Chief excutive Gazidis on the upcoming sponsership deals.

"It is a big summer. We have been working very, very hard to gain the kind of financial capability we need as a football club to be at the very top end of the game," he said. "Those long term commercial deals have come up for renewal. You know about the Emirates (stadium and sponsorship) deal, I can't talk about the (new) kit deal yet, but we're confident of a good result there too.
"It is all about giving us the capability to go to the manager and to say 'here is the money for you to compete'. That is why we are in this stadium and that is what we want to do."

"It is no secret that we think he (Wenger) has done a fantastic job and we think we can give him the tools he needs," said Gazidis.
"When we are thinking about trusting someone with the type of money we will have, we can think of nobody better than Arsène.”

"He is not scared to spend money, but he has to believe he is getting a top-class player.
"The parameters in which he has to operate is to spend what the club can afford and my job is to make that as big as possible and Arsène's job is to think about which talent he wants to spend that on in the best way possible.
"If we only find one player that we like, we won't spend twice as much on him just so we can say we spent all of the money. That doesn't make any sense to me - the key will be to buy the players Arsène Wenger believes in."

In 2014
Wenger said: "I've said that many times, without any doubt: if we find the right player we will do [a deal].
"There's a huge difference between the perception that people have of me: I'm not scared to spend money.
"It was periods where we had not the money. What I don't like is to spend the money I haven't got. What I fought against is to spend money that would put the future of the club in danger. Now I have money. No problem at all.''

March 2016
We He said: “I think if we want to buy at the end of the season, money will be available.
“But the money before the end of the season will not help us.”

August 2016
After Saturday's 0-0 Premier League draw at champions Leicester City, but the visiting supporters made their displeasure plain by chanting: "Spend some money!"
Asked by a reporter after the game why he was reluctant to part with the club’s cash, Wenger replied: “Why do you say I’m reluctant? I don’t understand that.
“If I buy you tomorrow for 45 million, I’ve spent 45 million. Have I done well, yes? If I listen to you, I will have done well, because I have spent the money. But spending the money in itself is not a quality.

“Spending the money and buying a top player, that is different. We are ready to do that. I spend 300 million if I find the player, if I have the 300 million.
“I have not to forget as well that we are a club who has 600 employees who we need to have a responsible attitude as well.
“It’s a bit surprising that you come out of football games, you don’t speak about football. You have to speak about money.
“I believe that you have to respect the players who have played, the performance that has been done today by those teams.
“If we can find players who can strengthen our team, we are not reluctant to spend the money.”

Etc etc…

I can’t be bothered to look for more Wenger and Club quotes throughout the last 15 or so years.

Was the money available to wenger or not? Did he want to spend or not? Were they (Wenger and the board) just acting like seasoned politicians with such contradictory double talk or not?

Never read such twaddle. Bits of quotes pieced together as if it actually means something, just for an agenda. 2004 to 2013 the club invested £0 in player transfers. I'll repeat that £0. All purchases were found from sales in order to meet the stadium debt. All revenues went on wages to try and keep players. But of course we all know all the best players were eventually poached. These are facts not soundbites from bits of interviews.

No manager in any professional league in the world has functioned well with those constraints. Klopp, Pep, Conte could never have donr what Arsène did.

And when things relaxed a bit there was a lot of catching up to do on squad development compared to the rich clubs. 2014 to 2016 saw us go from 4th to 3rd to 2nd and adding FACups. The unrest from the fans was a disgusting betrayal of what that man had done for this club. He should have walked away after the 15/16 season and not let their protests, planes, rants and general bad behaviour drag the club into the ground.

Hardly surprising it's taken 5 years and more money than Arsenal have ever spent in real terms to take us back into the top 4.

 

[BergMan]

Wenger won the most competitive premier league season ever, in his first season in charge. Merci Arsène
@Makingtrax

 

[Xln]

Legend. Will always appreciate everything he has done. Was the main reason I become an Arsenal supporter. A little bit of class within football for once.

You won't find this kind of class in football anymore. It's just buy and win trophies, passion and love for the game itself is gone.

Full on corporate level stuff

 

[Makingtrax]

Wenger won the most competitive premier league season ever, in his first season in charge. Merci Arsène
@Makingtrax

Great post. Despite the general belief that the prem is getting harder, it’s definitely not. All the data shows it’s been getting ever easier for the top teams, obviously not in a linear manner. I showed a graph of the average league points for the top 4 CL qualifying teams in the last 10 years v the 10 years when Arsène first came, it’s way higher. The reason is because the revenue gap has got ever wider between the top and bottom teams.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

Great post. Despite the general belief that the prem is getting harder, it’s definitely not. All the data shows it’s been getting ever easier for the top teams, obviously not in a linear manner. I showed a graph of the average league points for the top 4 CL qualifying teams in the last 10 years v the 10 years when Arsène first came, it’s way higher. The reason is because the revenue gap has got ever wider between the top and bottom teams.

It is somewhat ironic though that for the league itself, we now have teams like Bournemouth, Fulham and Brentford, being able to outspend AC Milan. The Super League is already here.

 

[Makingtrax]

It is somewhat ironic though that for the league itself, we now have teams like Bournemouth, Fulham and Brentford, being able to outspend AC Milan. The Super League is already here.

Of the top 20 costliest squads in Europe 12 of them are from the Prem. Nevertheless the gap in revenues between the top and bottom of the Prem is still widening.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

Of the top 20 costliest squads in Europe 12 of them are from the Prem. Nevertheless the gap in revenues between the top and bottom of the Prem is still widening.

Aye, somehow we've ended up in a situation with an increasing divide within a league that is itself increasingly more rich than any other.

Football finances are completely broken.

 

[Riou]

Wenger won the most competitive premier league season ever, in his first season in charge. Merci Arsène
@Makingtrax

Shocked 01/02 and 07/08 are that low down, think they were the tied best season ever personally...more than 2 teams trying to win the league in both years too, proper exciting stuff.

 

[Riou]

@Makingtrax

...how does he keep doing this!?

 

[Makingtrax]

Lol. He knew his ball, and he knew his refs.

 

[db10_therza]

Great post. Despite the general belief that the prem is getting harder, it’s definitely not. All the data shows it’s been getting ever easier for the top teams, obviously not in a linear manner. I showed a graph of the average league points for the top 4 CL qualifying teams in the last 10 years v the 10 years when Arsène first came, it’s way higher. The reason is because the revenue gap has got ever wider between the top and bottom teams.

Going to stress that I don’t want to downplay the great man’s achievements here, but idk about this “data science” having read the methodology. No system is perfect of course, but I would have trimmed the outliers before doing the analysis. The sole reason the league looks “less competitive” in recent years is because of Man City. They’re an outlier that destroys the standard deviation without using some winsorization technique.

 

[Makingtrax]

Going to stress that I don’t want to downplay the great man’s achievements here, but idk about this “data science” having read the methodology. No system is perfect of course, but I would have trimmed the outliers before doing the analysis. The sole reason the league looks “less competitive” in recent years is because of Man City. They’re an outlier that destroys the standard deviation without using some winsorization technique.

True. So to negate that, look at the average number of points of the 'top 4' CL qualifying teams. In the last 10 years they are noticeably higher than in the first 10 years of Wenger, reflecting the less competitive nature of the league now for the top teams.

 

[db10_therza]

True. So to negate that, look at the average number of points of the 'top 4' CL qualifying teams. In the last 10 years they are noticeably higher than in the first 10 years of Wenger, reflecting the less competitive nature of the league now for the top teams.

Yeah I’d agree with this - in that the leading pack has moved clear and the leader of that leading pack has moved even clearer. This isn’t the same as saying it’s more or less competitive though. Tbh I think that’s subjective anyways means different things to different people.

 

[Makingtrax]

Yeah I’d agree with this - in that the leading pack has moved clear and the leader of that leading pack has moved even clearer. This isn’t the same as saying it’s more or less competitive though. Tbh I think that’s subjective anyways means different things to different people.

Apart from the freak Leicester year, those top teams are a mix of the top 6 teams in the league. They're gaining ever more points and breaking records. They're taking those points off lower teams. The league getting less competitive for those top teams is about the only explanation, particularly as it coincides with the widening gap in revenues.

 

[db10_therza]

Apart from the freak Leicester year, those top teams are a mix of the top 6 teams in the league. They're gaining ever more points and breaking records. They're taking those points off lower teams. The league getting less competitive for those top teams is about the only explanation, particularly as it coincides with the widening gap in revenues.

Yeah - this is pretty much undeniable. I guess the question is whether you think the competitiveness within that mini league of 6/7 has increased or decreased. Bear in mind that mini league itself used to have 4 teams so in a sense it’s already more competitive.

 

[Makingtrax]

Yeah - this is pretty much undeniable. I guess the question is whether you think the competitiveness within that mini league of 6/7 has increased or decreased. Bear in mind that mini league itself used to have 4 teams so in a sense it’s already more competitive.

Yeah no doubt the competition within that those top 6 has increased, particularly now Arsenal are spending more.

 

[albakos]

Henry describes one part of Arsène's genius mind

 

[14Henry]

Henry describes one part of Arsène's genius mind

Such a simple thing but when you hear it from Henry you realise its a ton of simple things added to make a huge contribution.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Big congratulations to mister wenger