Arsene Wenger says that the money available to Premier League has inflated transfer fees, but that the club have no choice other than to deal with the new market dynamics.
Manchester United smashed the world transfer record this week, paying over €100m for Paul Pogba – a player they let go for free four years ago – and the Arsenal manager says that English clubs are going to have to get used to it as everybody knows they’re cash rich with TV money.
“If you go to Spain and you’re an English club – straight away the inflation comes in” he said.
“So I would say, in France the clubs, amongst themselves, are very reasonable. If an English club comes in, the price goes straight away up because they know there is money in England.
“It makes the market more unpredictable. Where you could approximately value a player before, today the identity of a club that comes in for a transfer is more important than the rest.”
It’s certainly very true, but there’s nothing Arsenal, or any other club can do, except accept it and get it on with it.
They’ve helped create the cash cow that is the Premier League, they’ve benefited from it, and this situation is partly down to them.
It’s something that Wenger appears to be on board with, saying, “We are in a system that we don’t master.
“We have to follow the prices paid by other people. That has gone up because the availability of money is much higher.
“That’s why we may have crossed the £100m bar for the first time.”
And as for new arrivals ahead of the start of the season, that now seems unlikely, although moves are expected before the end of the transfer window with Valencia’s Shrrodan Mustafi high on the club’s agenda.
“Of course we are looking to strengthen our squad,” he said. “We are in the transfer market, but we are focused on concentrating on our players – we have to get them ready for the season.”
“but that the club have no choice other than to deal with the new market dynamics.”
*checks watch*
Whenever you’re ready, Arsene.
no kidding! I mean the English teams all rank in the top 30 richest teams in the world. This should not come as a shock to le Professeur.
I’m still fine with most of Wenger’s purchase. I never heard of Cazorla, Kos, Giroud, etc. before we purchased them and they’ve turned out quite well.
He surely can’t be addressing the supporters with this explanation of the market. Perhaps it is more to the board or it is the answer to the security question of the vault, where our cash is kept, because someone forgot the pin.
Thanks Arsene, now can you please sign someone with all that money? If you don’t care about the over-inflated prices then can you not just pay them? We only really need two or three extra players: CB, ST, and if possible a new winger.
It is a hell of a gamble not strengthening properly this summer with Ozil and Alexis coming to the end of their contracts. If we lose them we will struggle to replace them, and with one year left on their contracts we won’t get top dollar for them if we have to sell. It’s good putting faith in young players and trying to be frugal but faced with that possibility i think i would pay whatever it took to get what we needed and show that we have ambition. At least to get something to show that we are actually… Read more »
So the 3 players we want are all potentially going to cost 100 million each or therabouts now (if they are the top quality everyone seems to be demanding). Did we get 300 million Euros from the TV deal this year? Don’t forget we have to pay the players too, and if they cost a lot then they’ll expect BIG wages.
He really is the waffle King these days
Might make this my new username…
Can someone please explain what this means. Couldn’t even find it in urban dictionary
It’s like Burger King but with waffles.
I like the ones with bacon on them…
Why does he always say ”we must concentrate on our players first” when asked about the progress in the transfer market? Does every other club do this? Man City made like 4 signings while they were on their pre-season tour. why are these things always a problem for us?
Hear it every summer…
Same excuses
We hear the last week is always the busiest, then we do no business
Stop talking money mr Wenger. Please.
but he hasn’t and won’t accept the realities of the transfer market.
Buying some at this point is just a nonsense – no pre-season no adaptation period nothing. Our transfer business again was poor. Good we got our hands on Xhaka early…
It’s not non-sense when we clearly need to plug certain positions due to injury.
Gabriel will be out for a long period of time, and we need someone to fill that spot. It doesn’t matter if he had no pre-season, whoever is coming can get acclimated within the season. The important thing is we plug the holes. We can’t go and not buy anyone when we need certain positions to be filled.
I’m getting so fed up of hearing the same old bullshít. We’re being left behind, and it’s making us all miserable.
Do we really care how much a player costs? The money’s there to be spent, that’s all we need to know. Spend it.
All 20 PL teams have the money. We are in competition for every player we want. How much would you offer up front for Draxler right now?
Same responses but little action it seems. Even though he’s said he can’t control it he’ll try by not paying what is required for the player he wants, I’d love to be proved wrong but I just don’t see it now at this stage..we’ll get a defender in and nothing else
We saw this problem coming, which is why players should have been acquired last summer. We either play the game now and spend more than we want to, or we hope Iwobi, Akpom, and anybody else from the academy bangs in 30 goals each this season.
At least Wenger understands that money does most of the talking when it comes to big name signings. And it’s not like we have any of that in our near-bursting coffers. /s If the prospect of big money is turning the heads of Pogba and Mahrez (who recently met with Conte secretly), then I think it’s time to show everyone that we can play with the big boys with a big name signing. It may have looked foolish for Manure to splash the cash on Pogba but at least they strengthen themselves with a world-class midfielder. I don’t think any… Read more »
Such bullshit. We have the cash to be forcing moves, even in this financial climate. Both Manchester clubs have less cash reserves than us and are still managing to improve their squads, both pushing £200m spent to date. We’re fucking Arsenal for crying out loud, make the moves we need to happen, happen, and stop living in the fucking 90’s. Peace.
Show some fucking balls and spend some money you old dinosaur.
Looking forward to hearing the usual excuse… “we tried”.
What Arsene usually says –
– We’re working hard day and night to find top top quality players, but there is no availability.
– People are obsessed with buying players, we must look for ‘internal solutions’, Leicester won the league without any big signings.
– We have a very strong squad and I believe that this squad has special spirit, cohesion and mental strength to win the league.
– We cannot compete in the market with City, United and Chelsea.
– We must spend responsibly.
– We finished second last season and we shouldn’t panic, we have a strong squad.
Wenger is all mouth, no trousers.
Wenger with no trousers is not something i particularly want to think about
He makes it sound like were Brentford ffs . Im not a fool to believe we have a budget of £150m but the money for the right signings whether they are inflated or not is there and have to be made regardless .
“That’s why we may have crossed the 100m for the first time.”
Does he mean the Pogba deal or is he talking about Arsenal? If so, suggests 60-70m about to be spent. Mustafi and Mahrez? I know I’m probably wrong but could I be right?! Seems foolish to talk about Pogba again and give Moaninho more ammunition.
“but we are focused on concentrating on our players – we have to get them ready for the season” urrrrggggghhhhh This club is going to send me to an early grave
Wenger must stop deceiving fans. First class striker & defense are old age problem year in year out. He always keep on saying there is no right players in the market if so why are they available for other clubs? Why always wait for the market to be saturated first? Wenger & the board don’t want buy players.
Has anyone considered that maybe wenger is willing to pay the fees and wages but the players don’t want to play for him??
Also on the other side of the coin, maybe the board have said to Wenger you can have 100m to spend but we won’t sanction more that 30m on a single player?
Either way the board and manager are a shambles. Wait and see Alexis and Mesut look to leave come Jan.
“Has anyone considered that maybe wenger is willing to pay the fees and wages but the players don’t want to play for him??”
Nope. If he’s willing to spend, Lacazette is a Gunner right now.
He mentioned Spain. Welcome Mustafi? At this point I feel nothing will calm the fans unless we sign a striker in the same tier as Özil, Sanchez, or Cech. Otherwise said, it’s not happening…
The danger is, if we don’t improve and strengthen our squad by spending whatever money it takes, we will get left behind, and then our best players will be attracted to leave…
I’m sure Arsenal must already have a reputation with other clubs and agents as being a pain in the ass when it comes to transfers, if you was mahrez agent and had interest for us and Chelski where would you go looking for the money?
Pogba 100% …
How do you know Content met Mahrez in secret? We have read all the bs clickbait about players coming to us all summer but now you’ve read another bs clickbait article about Mahrez to Chelsea and now you presume it to be true. Who’s the source? Emanuele f’ing Giulianelli?!
Giulianelli is completely full of shit
The reality of the market is that Arsenal is one of the world’s top 10 richest football clubs and in great fiscal shape due to a fantastic economic management from first and foremost Arsene Wenger. With small means in an other time of inflation – the oligark years – he managed to keep our club at a top level in the world. The reality is that this puts us in an exceptional shape to do transfer business and we should. Because in this new world of exceptional TV and sponsorship money, ambition and big signings enables us to keep building… Read more »
*Conte
All I hear is fans saying spend it. On who exactly? All the names being mentioned are so under whelming.
I would pay 75m for Auba before the pre season kicked off without batting an eyelid. Hell, even draxler with his 10+ goals and 5+ assists a season is looking mouth watering right now. There are players. The management philosophy is the problem.If he really wanted Higuain years ago, he would’ve come along with Ozil. Don’t even get me started on the Suarez debacle. If he really wanted Mikhi he could’ve been bought.Same goes for Icardi,Mahrez or whoever is trending. To cultivate a culture of success, sacrifices must be made. People have to make money one way or another.Pogba’s agent… Read more »
10 goals and 5 assists look mouthwatering. Yet to alot of people ollies 20 odd goals and 10 or so assists are fucking crap. He is such a wanker. Hes shit and he only cost 12 million. Making him even shitter. What an absolute fucking idiot. I cant believe wenger bought him for 12 million, he is also a prick and his mum is a prick. Also his mrs and that woman he cheated on her with are both shit. He isnt even good looking.
Sarcasm on the internet rarely sounds good. But I hear you and you are making a good point. He has a philosophy many cant understand or disagree with, while we float around in our instant gratification bubbles buying players online in under a minute
Bit of a sarcasm overload that one
Offer £60 million to Dortmund for Pierre Aubameyang and let’s see if they aren’t willing to do business.
But we won’t, won’t we?
should be more though cause if you compare him to other transfers of attackers it might take close to 80 mill
true
Why is everyone losing their shit. All the news posts on this site, have turned into doom and gloom, sign sign sign, spend some money comments. Chill the fuck out people. Consumerism gone mad. We signed 1 Keeper last summer, everyone lost their shit. He without a doubt improved our team. We looked good for a while, everybody shut the fuck up, then we derailed and everybody bemoaned the lack of signings. Meanwhile Leicester showed the world what the sport is all about. Sport. The effect of their success has been written off as a fluke. It really wasn’t. They… Read more »
Man City, Man U and Chelski have all won the title over the last 12 years with expensive talent. Our 2 best players are Sanchez and Ozil. With over 200 mil in the bank and a new tv contract why wouldn’t Arsene be aggressive and get a striker? Because he doesn’t see “value.” At some point Wenger has to wake up and splash some money. That or change the formation so that we have 2 strikers up top. Giroud should not be the only one up there.
You are not wrong. However, I feel that the thing that is unacceptable is not only did we “save” money with only signing Cech last summer, we have a rather big pot of money that we are sitting on regardless of last summer. So how can you justify not spending to improve the squad even with an inflated transfer market. We should spend the maximum of our allocated transfer money. I am not saying we go overboard and spend spend spend. But if we have accounted and budgeted to allocate 100mil (for example) to spend on players, we shouldn’t be… Read more »
Wenger is a great manager but he’s lacked decisiveness to go and get the players that are needed. He’s got Cech, Sanchez, Ozil, Xhaka yes, but 1 top signing at a time has not been enough, we’ve shown to be a couple of top players short every season.
Hope he gets the CB this week and also hope that Walcot and Ox step up their game for the season as it seems we’re going to need them
The players we are linked with – Mustafi, Lacazette – are for sure more expensive then they would have been a year or two ago, but they aren’t inflated by Stones or Pogba proportions. Realistically we could probably get both for around £70m, which wouldn’t be *crazy* money and would leave us in much better shape both in terms of the squad and fan’s morale.
It’s a shame Wenger can’t just accept it and pay 10m or so over the odds for once. I’m dreading hearing *spend some fking money* on Sunday.
I am beginning to fall out of love with football because of the transfer market. Football should be the main attraction yet a transfer story regarding an obscenely overpriced player seems to gain more interest than a 5-4 classic between two rivals. We are obsessed and suddenly the world has become awash with wannabe financial experts. Sure, we are poor at adapting to the transfer market and additions should be made but lets not lose sight of the fact we follow arsenal for the football, and not the money they spend. We have a talented squad of players who have… Read more »
Yes but at the same time, we are a big football club. Arsenal being a big football club should maximise their squad potential with the resources they have. Simple analogy; i love driving, i got a good car because i love driving, but because i love driving so much, my car has incurred alot of wear and tear and it’s would cost me to maintain. Should I not spend money (within my budget of course) so my car can be performing at it’s peak? One thing that shouldn’t co-exist in a big football club are gaps/weaknesses in the squad and… Read more »
Have to say this season same as last poor transfer management. How are we without a striker and a central defender?? We have had all summer, its been spoken about by all at the club, how are we without??
These Wenger quotes will kill me. . Or is it my love for the Arsenal?
The Club that we love is being mismanaged.No planning or forethought as far as transfer policy is concerned.There is absolutely no point complaining about other teams transfers when your strategy has such a scattergun approach…When you point a finger at others there will always be three others pointing back at you.Id like to think that once the “Great Dictator” steps down Arsenal will change its outlook and policy.I don’t expect to win trophies every Season or to spend huge sums.I do,however,expect Arsenal Football Club to compete on all fronts and to manage a transfer policy which identifies the positions that… Read more »
This has been the problem, is need to give is british talent time to grow, but while he does that the club suffers in its need to win trophies and cups.
I find it strange that Wenger is just now realising the market prices has become inflated, when it was the EPL that started this crap, i find it even more annoying and gets me angry that everytime he comes out to speak about things that even a blind man can see, but refuses to rectify the situation.
I feel your frustration. It’s always last minute panic to get the players in. Now we have to pay extra because clubs know we’re desperate.
Your watch is going to run out of batteries mate. I don’t understand why he’s telling us all this now. Everyone knew that the prices will be inflated for the English clubs but somehow our manager who happens to be an Economics graduate failed to understand this. If the desired quality is not available you have to make do with whatever is available. Getting Lacazette now and playing him is better than turning to Akpom. And if in the future a player of desired quality is available you can get him and make place for him by moving on some… Read more »
Here’s a thought, Wenger. Since the transfer market is crazy right now, how about we take advantage of it? As it stands, we have players we can sell like Walcott and Debuchy. Sell them for crazy (or even “cheap”) prices and get other people in without taking too much of a hit. Crazy transfer fees should mean crazy wages and I don’t think a player of Walcott’s profile will find it difficult to get a club willing to match his wages if we don’t ask for too much for him. Freaking Bolasie is moving for 30 million quid. Walcott should… Read more »
This exactly. Are we taking advantage of this inflated market by wheeling and dealing like Juve did? No.
And if the demand isn’t there what does that suggest about some of the players in our squad? Complaining that potential targets are “underwhelming” when only 2 players at the club cracked double figures for goals is just nuts.
If this window passes without us moving players on it will be just as damning an indictment of our strategy as the lack of players recruited.
Just get on with it Wenger you twat! You’ve become an embarrassment and so has my beloved club.
Who should we buy up front? Which striker?
Romelu Lukaku.
But since we are not willing to spend £40+ million on a player, I’d take Islam Slimani for half of that fee. I can swallow the bitter pill of not willing to spend for a top player, but not spending at all when we need a player for a certain position, that’s outrageous.
This change was entirely predictable, we knew this additional money was coming some time ago, so as a club lets digest the change, in a nano second, and get on with it. Compete and show intent. I don’t understand, have our scouts and management not spent all of last season and the closed season discussing who we need and who is good enough for us, so we are ready to pounce? It’s laughable isn’t it… It’s just negligence. Do we have targets? If we have a need and a target why not pull the trigger. Do we know who the… Read more »
Correct! My sentiments are the same. On one hand I understand the argument that there’s no value in this transfer window. But if we don’t spend now, it’s not going to be any cheaper next year and if we have the same mindset moving forward, how are we ever going to improve the team. Just bite the bullet now and get in some quality so we don’t have to urgently seek a top player for the next few windows. It’s like those people saying the property market bubble will burst so we shouldn’t buy a house. I don’t think the… Read more »
Can’t wait for the season to end and hopefully Wenger leaves arsenal. Stop renewing your season tickets ffs. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
Wenger need to do literally everything himself? He has no time for transfers cause he is to busy consentrating on his own players prepping them for the new season? Why can’t he delegate tasks like every other manager? Guys i really want Mahrez, see if you can get him for under 50 mill, if they want more than that then call me for confirmation on any bids beyond that. now go get him, il be here coaching the team, thank you. Or better yet, here is a list of who I want this window with names listed based on priority.… Read more »
His comments this summer have actually convinced me that a director of football is a must.
When Wenger leaves will arseblog comments become funny again? Cos it’s getting on my tits.
It’s all very whingy isn’t it
Why are we forgetting that we finished 2nd last year. We had a bad year and finished 2nd. Spurs had their best year and finished below us. United had a shocker and finished even lower. Same as Chelsea. It’s clear we just needed a little fine-tuning to push us over the finish line. And at the beginning of the summer, those signings would have been a deep-lying midfielder who could pass between the lines (Xhaka) and a clinical striker (Vardy). We didn’t get Vardy because he decided to stay at Leicester. Then we had a massive problem at CB. Now… Read more »
“Why are we forgetting that we finished 2nd last year.”
No one has forgotten, and that’s why fans are outraged. Because if the team did enough, spent enough to improve last year’s team, we probably could have won the league.
And now we’re heading back to the same story…
Last year shows it’s hard to predict anything, so why predict based on last years result?
If anything city, United, and Chelsea are going to be much better than last year.
If we wait around long enough Danny Welbeck will return and that will be exactly like a new signing! And this time round he costs nothing.
Brilliant isn’t it?
But Arsene, I could see this coming as soon as the new BT deal was announced. So the problem really is why has Arsenal FC not planned for it better?
If it’s so tough managing in England with the gobs of money there (which Arsenal has plenty of) trying to sign players then maybe he should go coach in France so he can pay less for players. What a load of crap, always and excuse not to spend money.
Aubameyang
He’s got a degree or whatever it is in economics and he’s only just realised the idea of prices going up when sellers know the buyers have money