Struggling Arsenal to give Wenger £55m for summer spending spree

[Confuseous]

Arsenal have given Arsene Wenger their unequivocal backing and will give the beleaguered Frenchman £55million to rebuild his ailing squad.
Majority shareholder Stan Kroenke and the Gunners board remain 100 per cent behind the Frenchman despite being resigned to a seventh consecutive season without a trophy.
The north London club's season went from bad to worse on Saturday as they crashed out of the FA Cup after to a 2-0 defeat at Sunderland.
Saturday's loss came just three days after Arsenal's humiliating 4-0 defeat against AC Milan in the Champions League - a result that virtually sealed their exit from the competition.
This season's struggles have, for the first time, raised major question marks over Wenger's role as manager.
However, the Arsenal board remain staunch in their backing of the under-fire manager and still believe Wenger is the man to revive


- Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...ene-Wenger-given-55m-spend.html#ixzz1mtgCU7i7

 

[mollusk]

Feel sad for Arsenal.But nothing stay up for long.So hopefully with this amount of money he (wenger)will invest in quality players.should sell Walcott and djourou.

 

[bushtucker]

should also sell other deadwood like arshavin, rosicky, squillaci, ramsey, etc.

 

[mollusk]

should also sell other deadwood like arshavin, rosicky, squillaci, ramsey, etc.

And dun forget that injury prone Gibbs .

 

[chowka]

Transfers, tactics & treatment table trouble - Five reasons why Arsenal have gone from Invincibles to invisibles

The Gunners saw their slim hopes of a trophy collapse with a 2-0 defeat to Sunderland in the FA Cup to further highlight the club's decline under Arsene Wenger

Feb 19, 2012 9:00:00 AM

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By Jonathan Birchall & Stephen Darwin

This week eight years ago, Arsenal beat Chelsea twice in six days and sat seven points clear at the top of the Premier League. Three months later, the title was won and the Invincibles etched their names into English football history. Arsene Wenger took top billing.Less than a decade on, with the club's pursuit of silverware all but over for another season, the Frenchman has gone from making history to clinging on to it.

Arsenal's 2-0 loss to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light has rubbed salt into a wound that was re-opened at San Siro on Tuesday, as AC Milan demolished the north Londoners 4-0 to leave the FA Cup as the Gunners' only realistic chance of securing silverware.

Wenger's men simply couldn't take it against a Black Cats outfit who, inspired by Martin O'Neill, are on an upward trajectory so steep that the result didn't come as that great a surprise - an indictment of the Emirates side regardless of the Northern Irishman's impact.

But where has it all gone wrong? From board to boot room, the factors that have led to Arsenal's disconnection from their rivals have converged, culminating in crisis point.

LACK OF INVESTMENT

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Over the past half decade, Arsenal have spent almost £50 million less than their counterparts at the Stadium of Light on Saturday. That they have remained at the Premier League's top table over that time deserves due praise, but with Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour having changed the face of football finance, Wenger, one of the English game's great innovators, has found himself stuck behind the times.

The question that remains is why Arsenal have let it happen. With a billionaire backer and pre-tax profits peaking at £56m in 2010, the Gunners have the financial might to be challenging the continent's elite in the transfer window.

Wenger insists that funds are available if required, with the caveat that the club is able to make "between £15m and £20m profit" per financial year. Such restrictions appear to have been put on the Frenchman by himself alone, with the club's wage limit of £100,000-a-week one of the hallmarks of Wenger's reign.

That said, the club's majority shareholder Stan Kroenke has endorsed the cautious stance taken by the Gunners' boss, telling stltoday.com in September: "There's a risk of going backwards if you overreact and start throwing money around in an attempt to solve your problems."

Perilously for Arsenal, those reversing wheels are already in motion on the pitch. Spending big may be the only option in putting on the brakes.

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INJURY PROBLEMS

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Managers often like to use injuries as an excuse, and are duly pilloried for doing just that, but in Wenger's case the loss of numerous key members of his squad through time out on the sidelines has proved particularly harmful.

It could be argued that a somewhat laid back approach in the transfer market to bolster his squad has resulted in injuries being far more detrimental than they should have been but, just this season, being stripped of Jack Wilshere in particular, arguably one of only two Arsenal players who would get a game at Camp Nou, has left a gaping hole - and then some.

Wenger has been forced to tinker to the extreme with a back four that has looked fragile to say the absolute least; and while they now, finally, possess a goalkeeper in Wojciech Szczesny who looks the real deal, the likes of Johan Djourou, Carl Jenkinson, Francis Coquelin, Sebastian Squillaci and Per Mertesacker are either not ready to step up, not in the right mould for Premier League football or just simply not good enough.

And it is that aforementioned list, which could have been extended with a few more names in truth, that has made the absences of injury casualties such as Bacary Sagna and Thomas Vermaelen, as well as Kieran Gibbs and Andre Santos, who are nowhere near the top of their profession, so sorely felt by Wenger and the Gunners’ faithful.

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KEY PLAYERS LEAVING

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It's turned into something of a cliché in more recent times but key player departures have certainly hurt Wenger and his ability to take Arsenal forward.

Of course the most damaging departures have been those of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri just last summer. So much, if not all, of the Gunners’ free-flowing attacking momentum was channelled through that talented duo and ripping out the main midfield fulcrum has, thus far, proved irreplaceable.

Even before that, though, Arsenal's former talisman Thierry Henry, a sometimes superhuman individual capable of winning points on his own, had been difficult to replace – not to mention a back four that has been as settled as a feverish new-born baby since the departures of the likes of Lauren, Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell.

In Henry, Freddy Ljungberg, Robert Pires and Dennis Bergkamp, Arsenal had an attacking line-up that was the envy of their Premier League peers during their 'Invincibles' season and while the likes of Theo Walcott and Gervinho have shown flashes of potential, they have more often flattered to deceive than torn up trees.

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LOSS OF DAVID DEIN

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If Arsenal's own problems weren't painful enough for die-hard Gooners, that they are being coupled with Tottenham's emergence as the strongest side in the capital will only serve to twist the knife in the red half of north London.

Led by Harry Redknapp from the dugout and Daniel Levy in the board room, Spurs are following the model under which their bitter rivals prospered for over half a decade under Wenger and David Dein, the club's former vice-chairman.

Ousted by the other members of the club's board in April 2007 due to "irreconcilable differences" - namely his support of Stan Kroenke's proposed takeover at the Emirates - Dein left after a 24-year spell which saw him pull off some of the greatest transfers in English football history.

Overseeing and securing the signatures of players such as Ian Wright, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira and Henry, Wenger's negotiator-in-chief was arguably the shrewdest operator in English football transfers for over two decades.

"David Dein is no longer there and there is no denying the fact that this has destabilised the team and the manager," said Henry after leaving for Catalunya months after the businessman's departure. That the loss of a board member was to prove so pivotal to the club losing its greatest ever player speaks volumes over Dein's influence.

The Gunners' not-so-secret weapon at the negotiating table has never been replaced. That their transfer policy continues to suffer is surely no coincidence.

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TACTICAL ISSUES

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'Boring, boring Arsenal' is how the saying used to go during George Graham's reign but Wenger had the good fortune to inherit Graham's mean defence and the wisdom to blend it with creative flair further forward - and by gosh did it yield results for the Frenchman during his early, highly successful years at the club. As much as they despised and disagreed with that old 'boring' tag, what Gunners fans would give now for an uninspiring 1-0 win.

The likes of Tony Adams, Martin Keown and the rest of the old guard - a defensive unit so well-drilled in the art of defending a slim advantage - are long gone now, though, and the more Wenger has continued with his somewhat unsustainable philosophy of 'perfect' football, the longer Arsenal have suffered.

With the somewhat uninspiring arrivals of Mertesacker, Squillaci, Mikael Silvestre and Pascal Cygan, to name but a few in years gone by, unable to complement solid, but too-often injured, mainstays such as Sagna and Vermaelen, Arsenal have lacked a settled defensive unit capable of winning trophies.

It’s all well and good if a side has the attacking capabilities to paper over the cracks at the back, look no further than Barcelona, but the Gunners don’t, Robin van Persie aside, possess the attacking prowess to mask their defensive frailties and Wenger has been too stubborn to accept and adjust accordingly.

 

[wikiphile]

What Arsenal needs is a solid goalkeeper most of all :*:

 

[mollusk]

What Arsenal needs is a solid goalkeeper most of all :*:

It's not the keeper.they do not have a solid midfielders to control he game.

 

[Confuseous]

It's not the keeper.they do not have a solid midfielders to control he game.

The trouble is they have no SPINE - literally and figuratively down the team. Every link is weak.
Walcott is the biggest wanker; just brainless speedy wanker with poor decision skills.

 

[bushtucker]

wow! i even forgot Silvestre used to play for Arsenal. didn't play much did he? more like a backup to the first team.

left-back position used to be a forte for arsenal from way back to the 90s with nigel winterburn, ashley cole, gael clichy. now we had to get centre-back vermaelen to play as makeshift left-back.

 

[no_faith]

sell: Theo Walcott, Andrei Arshavin, Johan Djourou, Aaron Ramsey, Sébastien Squillaci.

Theo Walcott, overhyped. after so many season, cant put a decent cross and pass, bobo shooter.
Andrei Arshavin form from bad to worst. Russian cant last in BPL.
Johan Djourou and Sébastien Squillaci best buddies in crime, critical mistake and leak goals. oppo lucky star.
Aaron Ramsey insteand of advancing, he is moving backwards.

 

[mollusk]

The trouble is they have no SPINE - literally and figuratively down the team. Every link is weak.
Walcott is the biggest wanker; just brainless speedy wanker with poor decision skills.

This team do not have the grit and determination.arsene should sell that Walcott .the more I see him play , I think I will get hbp.

 

[bushtucker]

top 3 "always injured and lacking match fitness" award goes to:

kieran gibbs
abou diaby
tomas rosicky

 

[mollusk]

top 3 "always injured and lacking match fitness" award goes to:

kieran gibbs
abou diaby
tomas rosicky

Gibbs will take the top honor ..hehe

 

[red amoeba]

sell djorou...judging by his performance against Man U and the latest match report, he will be good to play for Sengkang Dolphins.

sell Fabianski, he is a calamity. Keep that Szy...(sorry spelling) guy. And that Italian goalie, if he is not sold. get a solid goalie, old abit nevermind. need experience. that Finnish guy at Bolton? Not bad.

keep Van Pussy...break the wage structure and keep him. He is currently earning 80K a week compared to Looney 220K - what a gap. And some one commented, even Chelsea shld try to prise him away to replace the impotent Torres.

Arteta can keep. Build the team around Chamberlain and Van Pussy. Welshire will be midfield general.

 

[GOD IS MY DOG]

aiyah..........just get rid of Wenger lah........


get Martin O'Neill............this guy can perform miracles with very little money..........

 

[red amoeba]

aiyah..........just get rid of Wenger lah........


get Martin O'Neill............this guy can perform miracles with very little money..........

or Sam Allardyce

 

[Alamaking]

Too late to rectify anything...... Wenger should leave....

 

[BlueWave]

djorou managed to let ibrahimovic looked like speedy gonzalez in the recent CL game. enough said. :(

 

[zeddy]

All deadwoods must be cleared by the Monsieur Wenger.. Chief among them are Walcott, Arshavin, Djourou and others.. I said it all along.. Walcott is an over rated player.. Very very infuriarting watching him play.. Can't cross, can't shoot, can't score.. They also need to revamp back their defence and midfied.. They are missing players with leadership qualities like Viera, Bergkamp.. That young Chamberlain boy is a good prospect for the future.. I believed he'll only gets better.. He'll not be another Walcott.. Wenger should stay.. He's still a good manager.. But he must also stop buying young players.. Now its not the time to develop young players.. Wenger cannot be too stubborn anymore.. Its time he change his shopping habits..

 

[syed putra]

Their biggest mistake? Selling off abdebayour. His partnership with Van Persie and cesc fabregas was fantastic. Until today, they cannot find a decent replacement. All he asked was for a pay similar to what Fabregas got. And he was the top scorer.