Yeah I mean I don’t actually include Ronaldo and Messi and all those in that, because I don’t think we were ever really that close with those guys, those are more Arsène ‘would’ve/could’ve’ comments for me…
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I think the Kante one stings because it was a player we needed who cost less in both transfer fees and wages than the guy we eventually signed - who’s proven to be totally useless.
I mean, that period of a few seasons would have been very interesting had Wenger managed to sign Reina, Alonso, Suarez and Kante (the four major names we missed out). I’d assume Alonso would have moved on before the other 3 would have come along though
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I know Wenger blamed the salary though – Kante was on about £100,000 a week at Chelsea (he’s probably had a pay rise since), what was Xhaka on when he first joined us?
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Thanks for the linky mate. Yeah, I’m definitely filling Kante’s comments under the category of “low effort platitudes” and am not about to wholly blame the club on this one.
To be clear, I also shouldn’t take Wenger’s comments at face value about it coming down to wages. Gutting if he really did sign on for that kind of wage though, as I’m certain we were paying Xhaka similar from the get go
Wenger certainly said “we can afford any player” and “we aren’t afraid to spend” which seems like either a pack of lies, or he didn’t try hard enough, because we had endured Giroud for about four or five seasons and Vardy was clearly a player we needed.
The same with Kante, but Wenger chose Xhaka instead, and these are two players we were after.
Wenger choosing Xhaka over Kante sounds like another baseless statement haha
On the Vardy part, you’re removing his agency from the conclusion. Acting as if he’d definitely have joined us if we approached the transfer in a serious fashion. It’s perfectly possible that we approached him seriously and properly but he just didn’t want to join us in the end. The fact that he didn’t choose to join us does not in and of itself prove that we didn’t try hard enough.
Except it happened.
In which case you’ll have no problem providing some evidence that Wenger chose to sign Xhaka over Kante.
He “tried” for Kante and then got Xhaka.
In that order.
The biggest problem with that two-step was really the second part … 
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120k when he joined Chelsea IIRC and Xhaka was on 100k.
I think Wenger thought he’d found his new DLP in Xhaka and he had many attributes to come good, he just hasn’t because he lacks the intelligence.
Bro Ten years ago the majority of posters on OA thought Yaya was shit and didn’t even want him. There were also those who didn’t want Eto’o after Henry left because they thought Adebayor was better 
. Not like what anyone here thought or said would of made a difference to the transfers, just saying though.
But I agree Yaya would of addressed a real problem area for us after Silva left and would of been good for at least 6/7 seasons.
There’s been a at least 5/6 seasons were one or two signings would of probably seen us win a title, which is what makes so painful, we used to be so close. Im sure in a parallel universe, we got the “nearly signed” players and they go on to win more titles, and we’re all on OA, Talking about the Messi/Ronaldo years art arsenal or who was better Vieira or Yaya.
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Reading these last few posts makes me hate this recent iteration of the club even more.
Time and time again we were so close for a period of about 6-7 years and we never made the moves to address that and close the gap.
Now look at us, teetering on the brink of Top 6 and miles behind the top guys already.
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Yeah I gotta be honest after his first season at Barça I also thought he might just be kinda shit in the end, so I would’ve probably been one of those guys if I was on this forum then.
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Simple nope on this one. Divey Vardy has never been nor will ever be on Auba’s level.
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He has been for the last month 
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The thing I find more bothersome than missing out on Mahrez is, why wasn’t their a plan B/C/D? Or was Lucas Perez that player?
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I’m willing to believe it’s because Wenger became a reactive manager in the latter stages of his reign and rarely seemed to have an alternate to any failure in the transfer market.
We failed with Vardy and ended up with Perez. We failed with Mahrez and ended up with nobody.
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I think he was more gun-shy than reactive to a degree… I think he lost his nerves on spending and making decisions about players over time - in earlier days it just seemed he was more decisive and certain and the fact he got it right so often reinforced this - as that changed, his confidence waned and it became a vicious cycle.
I know this is completely against the “he was so arrogant” narrative, but I still think it played a large part in how his decline occurred.
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We failed with hazard and got Gervinho 
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