Arsene Wenger says the current level of transfer inflation was easy to predict even if the prices in today’s market were difficult to predict five to ten years ago.
The Gunners have so far spent £40 million, not an insignificant sum, signing Granit Xhaka, Rob Holding and Takuma Asano, while the likes of Manchester United and Manchester City have blown the budget topping the £100 million mark.
Building on comments he made on Thursday, the boss made clear that even though he sensed the market was changing beyond recognition he still finds some of the prices surprising.
“It’s not so tiring, it’s just surprising more than tiring,” he told his pre-Liverpool press conference.
“We knew that [price rises] would happen. It was not difficult to anticipate that. Of course it was difficult to imagine five or 10 years ago that it would go to that level, but maybe that’s the consequence of the success and popularity of the Premier League. After
“After that you can discuss. I said the other day that the price of a player normally depends on his talent, on his expected strengthening of the team, on his age and on his resale value.
“After that, we are in a system where we are in competition as well and if your opponent pays £40million, then if you want the player you have to pay £45million.”
This week Manchester City signed John Stones from Everton for a fee of £47.5 million – the highest price ever paid for a defender. With Arsenal also on the lookout for a centre-back – Shkodran Mustafi being top of the shopping list – Wenger made clear that while English players may come with a premium, there are still bargains to be had.
“Well yes, we know that in England the transfers are very high because there’s an influx of money. When you go outside England, it’s very high because you’re English. So you’re not too surprised about the transfer amount because the clubs don’t need the money in England and maybe that’s why they only weaken if the price is high.
He continued: “I think it’s harder than ever to convince people that you can buy good players at a reasonable price, and that the quality is necessarily linked with the amount of money today is in everybody’s mind. Most of the time it’s true – good players cost a lot of money – but you can still find players of top quality at a reasonable price sometimes.”
I get where he’s coming from here, but if it was that easy to predict why did we baulk at Higuian fee a couple of summers ago?
I hate the people who say ‘pay what it takes’ as much as the next person, but if we’d done that for certain players over the last few years we’d be better off on and off the pitch right now.
Similarly, I can’t help think back to the time we choose not to go ahead with the Alonso deal because of a £ 2M difference – probably meant selling Denilson and TGSTEL. What difference it could have made!
It’s so weird, then our problem was too little money, now it’s too much money!
H, why do you hate the people who say ‘pay what it takes’ when you agree with them???
Because the lack of nuance implied by that easily thrown out sentence is often applied to just about everything to do with Arsenal.
So that’s why I generally hate the term.
But in the case of transfers when you look at this summer it’s hard to disagree, although some bang average players going for well over the odds who I reckon will take some shifting. We struggled for years to shift average players on too much money.
Has anybody calculated how much would cost Juventus a single game played by Higuain considering his resale value will be 3 millions at the end of his contract?
If he has any resale value at all… and doesn’t get any injuries…
He just needs to shut the fuck up and sign some players.
I think the fundamental difference between us and City/United is that while we both hold the resources to go and spend forty-odd million on a player should we want to, it’s a far more risky investment. While we can’t afford to get it wrong because of the way we operate, and aren’t infinitely bankrolled, City have spaffed £110m on three centre backs in the space of two years. And two of them are absolute shite. That’s eye-watering to say the least.
Still City won the league a couple of seasons ago while we didn’t
City didn’t win the league. The Sheik won the league and City were his puppets. If you’re after the instant gratification of a title bought by a billionaire, maybe it’s time to accept that Arsenal aren’t the club for you….
So Matt, you’re saying we should just go blow the whole load on a whack of players that the media have built up, hope and pray that it pans out, put the financial future of the club at risk since we don’t have unlimited money like the oil tycoon teams, and maybe, just maybe we’ll win the league. Once.
his point isn’t invalid. and i don;t remember mangala or demichelis being hyped by the media. while they spend an exorbitant amount of money, they have much more success in recent years than we do, right. so there is clearly a link. they have simply pushed the extreme with their spending as they literally don’t give a fuck if that guy turns out bad and they have to get rid. they just don;t see that as a financial risk to their operations, where as it would destroy our club. the reality is city could have spent 30-40% less and still… Read more »
Or spend smart. Aguero turned out to an absolute bargain. If we would have bought him I’m pretty sure we would have won the league.
He who never takes risks doesn’t get to taste champagne.
Aguero wasn’t a big gamble. He was a top striker then but cost £40m we didn’t have.
I definately remember Mangala being hyped by the media before $iteh bought him. He was a good prospect at £20-25m but Porto saw them coming and whacked the price up to 40m which put pressure on the lad and he hasn’t recovered yet.
Now they’ve real problems meeting the ‘Home Grown’ squad requirements and have to pay through the nose for Home Grown players.
Home grown players are more expensive but when you know the buyer is desperate, they become even more expensive.
May I also humbly add, that the oil sheiks and oligarchs don’t give a shite about the history of a club or its supporters, they are after instant gratification. (Or in Abrahamovics case, (gratification for and protection from his psychopathic temperamental ‘boss’) All these owners will bore and refuse to keep shedding billions at some point, principally when the money has all gone. We all remember oil sheiks in the 70’s, Japanese CEOs in the 80s, Russians in the 2000s. The point is the free money dries up eventuially and the club are left messed up. Ask my friend of… Read more »
I’ve seen a few articles which have suggested that it’s a sign of desperation on United’s part. They stand to lose 25m a year off their sponsorship deal if they don’t make the champions league this year, and their status will suffer for each year they don’t have sucess. They’ve been struggling since SAF left and they can’t afford to screw up any more. There’s a lot of hype. They’ve spent a lot of money on Paul Pogba, which doesn’t seem to be justified. Mkhitaryan should be top notch but even that’s not guaranteed. Look at Di Maria. Falcao turned… Read more »
Arsenal have done the best on the transfer market? We have one striker in the team who will not be available at the start of the season so we are starting the season with no strikers Great work indeed! If City’s signings have been so poor how come they have won the league twice whilst we’ve been same old same old. Also regarding Pogba, he’s one of the best players in the world. Top 7 or 8 I guess and that’s what it costs. People don’t seem to understand supply and demand or think it doesn’t apply to footballers. There’s… Read more »
City won the league mostly because of players they signed years ago, who are now getting old. If you look at who we have signed in recent years, you have the likes of Santi Ozil Alexis Elnenny Who between them cost about the same as Paul Pogba … Plus Nacho, Xhaka, Per, and people like Joel, Coq, Hector and Iwobi coming through. For me the jury is still out on Gabriel although it took a while for Kos to come good. There aren’t many duffers. We should have signed a striker, although it is fair to say our attack underperformed… Read more »
Not sure anyone has been more accurate about our situation on these boards in months. While I hope we win the league, I like to watch my boys more.
It’s rich to say buy, but who sits? I’m not sure Santi starts this weekend, and that’s without Ozil or Jack.
Blogs was cute in May paying homage to Arteta and Rosicky while complaining that we didn’t bring anyone in last summer. We only get 25 squad spots people, and I’d rather see Akpom, Gnabry, and Iwobi come good than RM out there.
Pogba is a good player but he isn’t a messi or a ronaldo. I find it hard to see how anybody can be worth that kind of money when you consider what you could buy with it instead, unless they are going to get you 50 goals a season.
Which other players would you buy for that much?, considering players like Yannick Bolasie and Mane are 30-35million in the current market?
Gundongan cost 20m. Mkhitaryan less than 40m. Draxler would probably be in the region of 40m, and Mahrez probably similar if the rumours are to be believed. Kante cost around 30m.
I’d take some combination of them over Pogba, it would do us more good.
It isn’t always about what you pay.
Bale wasn’t worth 85m either. He’s good but he’s not that good.
You get a player who is a bit better for 2x the money.
Pogba was not a bad deal for United, and cost as much as Rooney did in terms of their annual turnover, this article goes into greater depth of how signings star players drives commercial success, and football success, something Wenger should have learned from signing Bergkamp.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/37045474
Wenger didn’t sign Bergkamp.
No, but he was around to see the effects signing a player like Bergkamp had
David Luiz cost more than Stones right?
They said ‘defender’.
But you can definitely think of a clever line.
I thought Luiz was 49 euros
He’s right, but it does not excuse the fact that we still need a striker for the second year running. Get on it Arsene!
We need like an Eduardo.
Or Eduardo himself
Erm, if its easy to predict price inflation why is he surprised at price inflation? And more importantly why didnt we offer £60m for Suarez? This wasnt the ‘madness’ I wanted.
That 40m + 1 pound bid was one of the most embarrassing things I’ve lived as an Arsenal fan, pathetic
I can imagine it was probably the wording.
“any sum more than 40m blabla”
Not that they stuck to it.
Also. Relax… no need to get so embarrassed.
I would have been more embarrassed as a fan if I was a liverpool supporter during the Dalgleish period when he was covering for the racism comments.
That is Inexcusable.
And he paid how much for andy carroll?
Why? The clause was for any bid over 40million. Personally I think it was 99p too much. The Arsene Wenger abuse at the train station in Stoke should be your most embarrassing moment as an arsenal fan.
I totally agree with this
The release clause was indeed over 40milliion and they just ignored the contract terms or the contract wording was crap so they could just ignore it.
However would a bigger bid have forced their hand? They sold him the season after to Barca for 75m so would they have sold him to us a year earlier for 60-65?
I think the most embarassing moment was getting smashed 8-2 or maybe the 7-1 or 6-0 or being 4-0 up at newcastle and ending up 4-4.
Yeah that 8-2 hurt. The 4-4 at Newcastle was a complete fucking joke, go back and look at the penalty decisions.
We didn’t need a bigger bid to force their hand, we needed Suarez to commit to joining us but he didn’t because he wanted to go to Spain.
Embarrassing? I thought it was funny. A cheeky, tongue in cheek bid. Suarez would have been off to Barca at the end of that season anyway . . .
Because the only way we were getting Suarez was through a release clause, which we were told there was, and we met. Liverpool were never going to sell to us unless legally required after the owner came out and made those comments. And i don’t know why anyone ever laughs at our bid. Has any team ever offered to pay more than a release clause? If so, they are the ones to laugh at, not us for bidding the exact amount we were told his release clause was at.
What should have we offered for Vardy?
If his clause said “£20m” then £20m, but if it said “Over £20m” then £20m +1 would do the trick. But in both cases the player decided not to join us, so it’s all rather irrelevant.
If it was easy to predict prices would go crazy this summer, why did we buy only Cech last summer when prices were more reasonable?
Because the PR of this club is full of paradox.
Wenger’s says this but refuses to pay the prices asked, please pay the money or leave, and I love the man, not only for what he has done for arsenal but how he has changed football
I’m having a bad feeling about this Mustafi deal especially after seeing Wenger’s answer when asked about it.
Whatever be the case I hope the deal will not be off because we refused to pay Valencia’s asking price, he seems to be the best CB that we are being linked with.
getting really bored now whenever the omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent one opens his gob. boring.
So don’t read the interviews.
Simple.
Waffle King strikes again.
If he’s off next year it’s probably for the best his replacement will have some cash to play with, with whatever philosophy they have
This is the first time I’ve ever heard him talk about outbidding the opposition. Normally he baulks if the price goes up or even if another team is in for the same player. Progress maybe?
Yawn
Same old stuff; please bring Laudrup or Koeman when Arsene takes the happy decision to retire
Are you seriously kidding. I don’t see the fuss over Koeman, and Laudrap? Wasn’t he sacked by Swansea?
What baffles me about wenger is the amount of lies he tells to appease fans. This is becoming a rip off. Just tell us we are not getting a striker and be done with it. then we could all come to our decisions whether to spend our own money or not.
You mean bring in Frank Rijkaard!!
Who cares how reasonable the price is? If you can afford it, pay it
If Wenger does not get a striker this window, then he needs to leave. I’m sorry going 5 seasons with Giroud as first choice is totally unacceptable. Ozil and alexis need to save their careers as well. See wenger loves being mediocre and winning 4th place trophies and fa cups, let him stay on his own.
I’m so pissed by that presser. Ridiculous comment. Talking about finding anything better than he has like Giroud is suarez or something.
What City paid for Stones is ridiculous, but again what we paid for Chambers probably is too. That old English premium is something for sure. Unfortunately to compete in England consistently you need to spend money to earn money. If you look at what Wenger has spent on top players in three of the last four Summers with Ozil, Sanchez and Xhaka that is great, but it can’t just be for those three. He needs to be willing to get two or thee players at that level as other teams do each Summer. If he balks at the price and… Read more »
$iteh have problems meeting the ‘Home Grown’ squad numbers so with any player that qualifies for this, their team has $iteh over a barrel.
I would say that they both improved significantly thanks to being at Arsenal, so not really sure about that ‘saving the career’ or what it should mean, because Ozil in particular will probably never be properly appreciated by the general public. Or is it about trophies? Honestly, I do not think how large part of the motivation of a player comes from this, do you? (As opposed to, for example, playing for a team where you feel good, or where the manager is not a cunt.)
Was supposed to be @Trez
If you’re in any way trying to suggest winning trophies doesn’t mean anything to them, then you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about.
Ozil and Alexis love winning. If it was all about the money, they would’ve signed a new deal by now or maybe gone to china.
I repeat, if arsenal do not show ambition, those 2 will leave. I for one will not blame them if they do.
No, I wasn’t suggesting anything, I was asking whether you know (anyone doing sports at the top level). For one, I think one of Ozil’s main motivation is to improve as much as possible, for Alexis to a lesser extent maybe. Hence the revelations how talking with Wenger and his ideas for their future convinced them to join, and I think this is one of his most underestimated contributions – Arsenal are maybe the best of the clubs where these players will get almost unconditional support and, more importantly, the opportunity to play the main role, as in/if Alexis will… Read more »
Oh yeah – I agree that they may move in the future, which might or might not be down to club being more successful, but might also, at least partly, have to do with them moving on with their careers – they’ve possibly moved to the next step with the Arsenal, but might want to move yet another step. And to be honest, at least in the next 10 years real or fcb will always be more famous, more successful, and have a better shot at CL, no matter whether Wenger buys the best available striker this summer or not… Read more »
Definitely think footballers main motivations are money and winning. Why else would players always push for moves to bigger clubs? They’d be happy to just go to america, play a few games in a terrible league and rake it in. Or go to China etc.
Do you really think Ozil has improved? The guy was loved at Real by the fans and players, they only sold him to fund their next new shiny toy who barely gets a game.
Yes, I think Ozil is twice the player he was, he understands the overall game much better and he knows what it means to not just be there in his position doing his job, but for him to be sole person responsible for changing the whole game, He’s not always succeeding in this, partly because he’s not always working hard enough and you can argue that partly because his teammates are not good enough. But one, it’s hell lot of a job, and two, he was hardly the main character at real.
The real issue is that we were very good last year and only lost to a Leicester side that for some reason bamboozled all the other teams. We beat them twice, but either through luck or skill, we didn’t get any help from the other teams. Manchester United and Chelsea were awful. They could justify replacing any of their players. Arsenal on the other hand were second, the vast majority of our players were good enough to win. It is more likely that if we replace a player, that we will get worse rather than better. Arsenal fans can pretend… Read more »
Woah man, that’s one twisted way took look at the last season. I’m sorry; but we were dreadful for the the most of last season! Finishing 10 (!) points behind Leicster is embarrassing no matter how you look at it. Injuries don’t persist 100% out of luck – the problem is probably the training, the immense overload that player in this club suffer from and also bringing back unfit players way too fast back to the squad after injuries. As far as I see it, finishing second is the same as finishing 6th – I don’t care about the money… Read more »
You don’t care, but some care. And don’t forget that the reason why the Arsenal is, unlike pool and perhaps even bvb, a ‘top club’, is because they are right there at the top year after year. Just imagine what would happen if you would complain 20 or 25 years ago that doesn’t include the Arsenal in the list of the top clubs, you would’ve been laughed off the ground. So what’s the difference then?
Unfortunately we can’t buy players that don’t want to be sold by their clubs or wish to move on. For example I’d love Griezmann or Lewandowski at The Arsenal but it ain’t going to happen. Most top clubs need the same sorts of players this season, primarily centre halves or strikers, with the Manchester clubs having more money than sense we won’t compete, not forgetting Chelsea sniffing around Lukaku for 60 odd million is bonkers. There isn’t an easy answer we’ll have to wait and see, hopefully Mustafi is close and Mahrez may well be in red before the end… Read more »
Not this bs again. If you predicted the inflation, why did you keep money in the bank? If you accept the market today, why don’t you spend the money that you have? We are acting with such arrogance, it’s like we are saying “sure today you need to spend a lot of money for good players, but you’ll see, we will get the best players for peanuts and prove you all wrong.”
Spend the money on Mustafi and then go big after Griesman pay the £85 million release clause. I know you thinking he won’t come but if it’s wenger’s final year, we on our way to recruiting Simione to.
Easy to predict that Arsenal wont buy a top class striker…Van Persie left 4 years ago…
I hope this is Wengers last season…Whats the point of building a new stadium…
In no way, shape, or form is John Stones worth over 20 Rob Holdings.
Looking forward to revisiting these purchases at the end of the year for comparison.
Agreed, but we weren’t desperate to buy some ‘Home Grown’ players to meet PL Squad requirements. 😀