Arsenal Supporters’ Trust Demand Inquiry Into Club’s Lack Of Transfer Activity

Chris Wright

2nd, September 2015

8 Comments

wenger-transfers

The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) have demanded that an inquiry be launched into the club’s transfer strategy after seeing the summer transfer window come and go with just a single Petr Cech to show for it.

It’s not hard to sympathise, is it? After all, the £10million signing of a new, world class goalkeeper just isn’t enough for a club of Arsenal’s grandeur.

Anyway, the AST have released a statement in which they voice their discontent with Arsene Wenger’s frugal ‘cost benefit analysis’ approach after watching their side end the transfer window as the only club in the top five European leagues to not sign a single outfield player.

The statement reads:

Arsenal are in a very strong financial position thanks and it is of course disappointing that the transfer window has closed with just the signing of Petr Cech.

Arsenal have built a strong squad and just one or two more good additions would have strengthened the chances of winning a first title in 11 years. No one wants Arsenal to buy players just for the sake of it, but we do want to see the money being invested to make the club stronger.

This isn’t an issue that affects just one transfer window and seems to indicate a wider structural issue. In recent years Arsenal have overhauled both their Academy and their medical set-up.

We urge the board to now open a full review into its arrangements for scouting and purchasing players. A review of this type is a good governance practice and can only help Arsenal to become a stronger club. The AST will be raising this with the Arsenal board.

Now that the window is closed the squad is as it is. Arsenal have a strong squad that has recently won silverware and we urge all fans to get behind the team over the rest of the season.

Of course, how they plan to launch an inquiry into “Wenger couldn’t find a player he fancied at a price he was willing to pay” is anybody’s guess.

The fervour for new faces was further stoked in July by Arsenal director Lord Harris kindly telling all and sundry that the club were sitting on £200million in disposable funds and that they were now in a position to “buy any player in the world” – well, apart from the “half a dozen who are un-buyable” that is.

But in cold, hard reality, the Karim Benzema link was a fabrication of the press and was never actually on the cards for a second, whereas PSG reportedly wanted £50-odd million for a 28-year-old, off-the-boil Edinson Cavani.

That’s zilch value for money in anyone’s book, let alone Wenger’s.

Anyway, we find it incredibly hard to empathise when the dreadfully depleted team you’re having to watch scrape by every week already contains the likes of Cech, Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil, Olivier Giroud, Santi Cazorla et al.

Come back to us when Brighton “striker” Chris O’Grady (three goals in the last 14 months) is your only deadline day signing of note.

Spoiled buggers and self-entitled nonsense. Football’s full of it these days.

Posted in Arsenal, Newsnow, Transfers & Rumours

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8 Comments

  1. Inno says:

    Being a Celtic fan, I can feel the hurt, even though we spent a fair few bob in the window.

    However… we let our best player go with a whimper, failed to strengthen and have a foward line that consists of Griffiths, Ciftci and Stokes now *shudder*

  2. ERG1008 says:

    @Inno Yeah and you’ll still piss the league.

    As Chris says “Come back to us when Brighton “striker” Chris O’Grady (three goals in the last 14 months) is your only deadline day signing of note.”

  3. wenger_is_an_avb_oap says:

    The only club in Europe not to sign an outfield player, despite having more money in the bank than almost any other team in the world. Absolute disgrace! Wenger must be a shareholders wet dream: delivers minimum standards with very little expenditure, all whilst the fans continue to queue up to pay ever increasing ticket prices to watch a team managed by a guy who collects £8m a year in wages and has been living off a ten year old reputation because he holds all the power at the club. There are many things to admire about Arsenal but there are a lot more faults, failures and problems to shine a light on. – Arsenal fans, the manager and the board owe a massive debt of thanks and gratitude to Mr Abramovich who could have quite easily kept Cech to his contract for another year or sold him abroad. Without Roman, Arsenal would be the only club in Europe to make 0 signings but still believe it to be more of an “improvement” than City or Chelsea or United, to the extent they can win the title. Arsenal fans should be up in arms!!!!

  4. Dave says:

    I don’t understand why this stat about not signing an outfield player keeps being batted around. If you sign a new top class player every season there will never be any team cohesion and you’ll end up with world class players on big money sitting on the bench and losing their form, or players who could benefit the team never getting a chance. In recent years, Arshavin, Podolski and Coquelin to name a few. Everybody wanted Walcott to sign a new contract, so what happens to him if we sign a striker, then he’s behind a new striker and Giroud? Or we play him out wide…so what happens to Oxlade-Chamberlain?

  5. Russ says:

    What are you doing, Dave – trying to be reasonable and intelligent in a discussion involving the likes of Wenger_ abv? Don’t bother. It’s an embarrassment to the 80% of Arsenal fans – who feel blessed to watch the team they have every week – to have to listen to the likes of the Supporters’ Trust. Wannabes of the worst kind. Face it, fellas – if you knew the first thing about football the club would have probably have hired you already. Dream on, dream on. There you go, 20001 & Depeche Mode references in the same post. I win today!

  6. Ferdinand says:

    The more, the merrier. Lets have competition in our team. Not when everyone thinks that their place in the squad is secured whether in form or not.

  7. Saul wakhungu says:

    I think Wenger has quality .they are all children born of a mother and are like the ones u want wenger to bring.Raise their salary n they will perform.

  8. Bobby says:

    Not an Arsenal fan and do agree that this is to an extent self entitled bollocks, but Arsenal charge fans so much for tickets and generally rinse them of their money in so many other ways that some investment should be expected.

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