Sadly with how the market works it seems that Wenger made a rather big mistake in the last summer or two by not spending enough money on the squad. Now when you look at the prices that are quoted for average players and how it goes up for half decent ones I think the club could have possibly done better business for half (just guessing) the money they are being asked now.
Especially last summer is really frustrating in that regard when you see the same players going for double the money they were valued back then (Draxler for instance) :-/
Yep, the market has been consistent in the last 8 years or so, we just have a mindset (including a lot of the fans, not just the club) that we shouldn’t spend more than X on a player. The market moves every year, 30m players become worth 40m then 50m then 60m. If we’d bought 3 30m players 3 years ago we’d he reaping the benefits now and still have over 100m in the bank.
There’s no point holding on to cash, being twice as rich and then when you go to spend that cash, everything being twice as expensive, especially when not spending affects your results in the meantime.
We wouldn’t spend 20m when the best players were 40m. Now we won’t spend 60m when the best players are 100m.
I don’t think he didn’t want to spend. I think he actually tought he could win with a core consisting of Szczesny, Mertesacker, Arteta/Flamini, Ozil and Giroud upfront. Which was a proper illusion from him and a complete overestimation of the quality of said players.
Combine that with the fact that he can’t make a difference on the pitch in tactical regard (the beatdowns, same mistakes at the back, not being able handling certain opponents/playing styles) and there is really no other conclusion to make, but the fact that his time is gone.
But that has been said times again. We are going to have to sit this out.