I am willing to grant Wenger that both Oxlade-Chamberlain and Jenkinson will both be quality Arsenal starters one day. Oxlade Chamberlain, who I started following after our first link to him, really impresses me.
However none of these players help to solidfy our D now. I hate how cheap Wenger is sometimes. We have money, it is obvious for the world to see. He has come up with a policy that is misguided and is coming back to bite us. Basically he stinges out on paying top end talent, saying we have a strict wage structure due to the new stadium, but then to thwart off interest in our youth players he pays through the moon (in the form of salaries). Now our top end talent wants to leave elsewhere for more money, and we cannot even sell our fringe players because no team can/will meet their wages (Bendtner's refusal to move despite admitting he wants to and Denilson only being able to command a loan are two prime examples).
United is constantly able to sell their bench depth or failed youth projects to lower level clubs and grab a few million, which helps fund their future acquisitions. We can't because our youth wages are way too high.
United identify their needs (new GK for instance) and pay a few million more than "market" to secure them and have it done within the first 2 weeks.
Arsenal reportedly lose out on deals all the time because we are unwilling to budge over our valuations, which are unrealistically low. Arsenal also take their sweet time, everyone has known for years we need a DM and a CB, and yet we have never fixed the problem.
The above illustrates why United have been champions and Arsenal have been also rans.
In case you can't tell I am getting frustrated at Wenger. I think top 4 is still likely, but no more as we will continue to leak goals through our very suspect defence.
I hope he makes some signings soon so I can eat my words.
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