its not different, its the same every year. its wengers policy for better or worse. All sides have had injury crises, they havent dealt with it as well as others. They werent forced to sell those players to balance the books. This is the route they have taken, and so far its not quite been good enough for the title. whether we applaud his approach is another matter entirely. Every other top side will build for next season too. Wenger has repeatedly said the money is there, and he has chosen not to spend it
Except Arsenal was missing their most important players for most of the season. Their three most important players far and away are Vermaelen, Cesc, and Van Persie. Vermaelen is their commanding CB, Cesc runs the midfield, Van Persie is their one good finisher. Vermaelen was out for the whole season...imagine where ManU would be if Vidic were out for the whole season? Van Persie is crucial to their plans because he's their one good finisher (which is why they need another one since he's so injury prone), and he was out for a long time. Cesc missed plenty too. And Djorou missed a lot of games, who is their other very good CB and important to their plans. It is true that other teams had injury crises but their most important players were there for most of the season (and let's not forget about all of the goalkeeper injuries Arsenal had this season). I think the equivalent would be ManU losing Vidic for all of the year and Nani for much of the year, and missing VDS for a while. If that had happened, they would have dropped a lot of points.
Anyway, these last two seasons Arsenal hasn't really got rid of their players and they're actually going out and spending big...they went out and shelled a bunch of money on two experienced CB's last season like everyone wanted them to (Squillacci didn't adjust to the Prem but that was kind of a surprise to everyone since he's got a very good reputation), they got a target-man striker (Chamakh) so they have a plan B, and not too long before they bought a very quality player and goal-scorer in Arshavin. Don't know why he's struggled recently but I bet he'll be good next season. They have a young squad that is only improving and since they're holding on to these players, they're going to get better and better. I don't think anyone foresaw them making a second place finish in the Prem this season, especially missing key players like Vermaelen, Djorou, and Van Persie for such a long time. They're only going to be better next season, there's no denying that, and if SAF retires this season after the big 19, I'd bet on Arsenal taking the title.
We need to sign a few leeders in the summer maybe?
Leaders are made, not signed. Arsenal, unfortunately, will have to wait a few years until they have better leaders. They still will win some trophies in the next few seasons because of their quality though.
and perhaps there in lies the problem. we arent talking about 20 millon every year, its the one big purchase that plugs the Gap.
But they did that this season, they did what everyone asked of them and shelled out on two CB's. One was a good signing, one will be better next season (Squi is a good player, once he settles in to the Prem he'll be fine). But they lost their best CB for the whole season and their second best was out for a while. That's pretty bad luck. Also, it's not like they can just throw around 20 million a year, since that would put them into debt and stunt the growth of some of their current crop of players. If it's not a good deal, Wenger won't do it, and that's what I admire about him. The trophies will come soon for sure and I think they'll be the team to beat in the Prem next season if Cesc and Van Persie can stay healthy.
Samba would have been my pick from january,
He would have been expensive and Arsene could have gotten the same player (Oguchi Onyewu) for free in January. He didn't because if a player is technically **** and can't pass the ball, he won't fit in to Arsenal's system. Arsenal has two commanding CB's, Vermaelen and Djorou, they don't need another. Although signing Onyewu on a free would not have been a bad idea considering that they were missing their two starting CB's for most of the season, and he is more or less the type of player they need (strong and imposing in the air).
And every time Wenger puts Bendtner on the wing I want to shoot someone, it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.