Wenger summing up the season after the Fulham match.
” But we are not to go overboard. Maybe one year you will realise that it is not easy to finish in the top four every time. Even if people say we have to spend money, we have to be realistic. We cannot buy players for £50 million and, even if we try to strengthen our team and spend money if needed, that is fact. “
There are two points here but they all point to Wenger’s defensive prickliness and his apparent disconnect. The line “one year you will realise …….. “ has this accusatory ring -fans need to wake up and smell the coffee. But it does not square with the hubris shown not two months ago with Wenger explicitly stating Arsenal was on target for the quadruple. It might have been a throwaway line but it was laid down by the manager not the fans.
As Arseblog correctly points out – which Arsenal fan demands spending £50 million on a player? Part of why Wenger is so sought after is the corrective he brings to a transfer market on steroids. No one is asking him to give up on that. But not to bring a reinforcement for Thomas Vermaelen in the winter transfer with the knowledge his season was all but over was foolhardy and it cost us dearly.
It also opens up a debate on whether Wenger’s transfer picks where he has spent money have been successful. In the last few years it has not panned out as planned. Andrey Arshavin has lived in the shadow of his exuberant first year and now the side is looking to recoup the money. Samir Nasri so scintillating in the first half of the season faded away in the new year stuck on the wings. He is now holding up his contract extension. Thomas Vermaelen outstanding first season gave way to a second sidelined by injury. Sebastian Squillaci has been an unmitigated disaster. Laurent Koscielny is a work in progress but in the right direction.
For a manager so famously budget conscious this is a questionable rate of return. The £50 million player is a canard Wenger really needs to stop trotting out. He has to do better with the money he has and not lay into club supporters.