“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” ― Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
24 days to…the closing of the window.
Everything about the transfer window reminds me of the commercialization of Christmas:
• The countdown.
• The massive price inflation. This window last year’s 30 million pound player is now 40 million (25%), 20 million is now 30 million (50%), 10 million is 20 million(100%). It’s evident from those percentages that, like Christmas, the higher margin is on lower end product. Always the poor pay more, eh.
• The wall-to-wall media hype allied with the selling of massive amounts of expensive advertizing best exemplified by that 24-hour Jim White-SkySport frenzy on deadline day.
• The widescale brainwashing of football fans into believing that the only way owners and managers can show their love for the fans is by engaging in massive transfer spending. Arsenal fans are arguably under the most psychological pressure because Papa Wenger and Uncle Ivan refuse to join the madness, avoid the pressure to keep up with the Jones, by hardly ever spending a fortune during the summer transfer window.
Predictably Arsenal’s twitterati and the big bloggers are up in arms, defaming the club’s greatest ever manager for refusing to bend to the pressure to spend for spending sake. Many are like children at Christmas who can’t understand why Momma and Poppa refuse to buy them the most expensive plaything.
https://twitter.com/triplec1988/status/761578406119149568
The BBC tactic is to wheel out out an ex-player to attack the club’s transfer spending:
“The board and Wenger have let Arsenal fans down again”.
Brutal from Chris Sutton.
But a fair assessment…?https://t.co/TdBqtZLdkA
— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) August 1, 2016
On transfer inflation one tweeter dismissed the club’s prudence.
Benteke €46.5m
Firmino €41m
Son €30mOff the top of my head but ~€50m for Mahrez is overpriced?
— Doug Nichols (@TheTXI) August 1, 2016
This fellow has seemingly given up:
It’s become painfully clear that nobody has any clue what the hell The Arsenal are doing as far as transfers.
— Brian (@GunnerFaithful) July 29, 2016
One podcaster puts the boot in:
Surely Asano & Holding aren’t being counted as signings? For me we’ve signed Xhaka and thats it, and that’s not good enough @Arsenal
— Gimli (@GoonerGimli) July 19, 2016
To be fair not all of Arsenal twitter have given in to the pressure.
Wenger is an absolute fraud. How he bought Rob Holding for 2mill when Stones is going for 50mill is nothing but FRAUDULENT. 😂😂😂
— IslingtonGoonerAFC (@Born_a_gooner) August 1, 2016
We stayed in the CL despite financial difficulties since 04, been steadily improving last 3 seasons – 4,3,2 (2FA cups too). Why the moaning?
— Sahan Mendis (@theredandwhite1) July 30, 2016
Xhaka 34M in a market where Higuain goes for 75M. Don’t come at my boy Weng ever again.
— Tosí (@OzilAssist) July 29, 2016
” Wenger’s main summer signing each year since 2012 has been; Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech.
All remain key men”
— Common Tater (@RancidPotato) July 21, 2016
As usual it is the data which has the final say. Most of you readers are familiar with my mantra:
“Unlike the media [and Twitter], which thrives on emotion, in the silent statistical world, there are no headlines. There are no narratives. No excuses. No hope and no despair. Just data.”
I did my research and not surprisingly, it is Arsenal’s prudence and Arsene’s discipline in the transfer market which stands out like a shining light.
| Nett Spend 92/03 – 13/14 | Purchased Gross | Sold | Nett | Per Season |
| Manchester City | £1,145,480,000 | £316,903,000 | £828,577,000 | £33,143,080 |
| Chelsea | £1,195,199,000 | £484,125,000 | £711,074,000 | £28,442,960 |
| Manchester United | £922,950,000 | £435,490,000 | £487,460,000 | £19,498,400 |
| Liverpool | £917,805,000 | £539,300,000 | £378,505,000 | £15,140,200 |
| Middlesbrough | £237,910,000 | £57,680,000 | £180,230,000 | £7,209,200 |
| Arsenal | £587,365,000 | £407,674,000 | £179,691,000 | £7,187,640 |
| Tottenham | £686,700,000 | £525,167,500 | £161,532,500 | £6,461,300 |
| Sunderland | £327,745,000 | £170,580,000 | £157,165,000 | £6,286,600 |
| Stoke City | £149,065,000 | £47,630,000 | £101,435,000 | £4,057,400 |
| Crystal Palace | £156,760,000 | £59,990,000 | £96,770,000 | £3,870,800 |
| Everton | £349,045,500 | £254,586,000 | £94,459,500 | £3,778,380 |
| West Bromwich Albion | £178,650,000 | £86,376,501 | £92,273,499 | £3,690,940 |
| West Ham | £303,282,000 | £216,782,000 | £86,500,000 | £3,460,000 |
| Hull City | £108,445,000 | £57,680,000 | £50,765,000 | £2,030,600 |
| AFC Bournemouth | £78,085,000 | £28,595,000 | £49,490,000 | £1,979,600 |
| Leicester City | £123,895,000 | £94,195,000 | £29,700,000 | £1,188,000 |
| Watford | £89,345,000 | £60,000,000 | £29,345,000 | £1,173,800 |
| Swansea City | £99,427,500 | £87,560,000 | £11,867,500 | £474,700 |
| Southampton | £279,687,500 | £280,845,000 | -£1,157,500 | -£46,300 |
| Burnley | £53,300,000 | £87,560,000 | -£34,260,000 | -£1,370,400 |
Publicly available data on transfer spending demonstrate in no uncertain fashion that despite the billions spent by City and Chelsea with United and Liverpool breathing down their necks, none have had sustainable to success, unlike Arsenal. City came 4th last year and had to ditch their manager. Chelsea came 8th and has had three managers since last season. United continue to show ambition at a mouth-watering cost. None other than Fabio Capello was forced to remark:
‘They have spent €500million (£424m) in three years to win the FA Cup and twice they did not qualify for the Champions League,
‘Money is not always enough’.
Despite Liverpool’s willingness to spend whatever the market charged for average players (something Arseblog would no doubt approve) they have never won the Premier League in its 24 years of existence. This appetite for the transfer market doesn’t seem to have changed under Herr Klopp.
What was astonishing to me was how per season transfer spending club by Middlesborough exceeded Arsenal’s during the period under reference. This is the classic yo-yo club which enjoys a spell in the Prem only to be relegated to the Championship. I nearly fell out of my seat when it hit me that they have spent the last 10 years trying to get promoted.
What the data above ignores are the clubs whose owners spent lavishly, like Santa Claus, temporarily endearing themselves to the fans, only to conveniently fall out of sight out of mind to the bloggers and tweeters who demonize Wenger for not “showing ambition”. One such club is Aston Villa who between 92/93-13/14 were not afraid to spend.
| Purchased Gross | Sold | Nett | Per Season |
| $401,890,000.00 | $228,575,000.00 | $173,315,000.00 | $7,290,600.00 |
Despite their per season average spending also exceeding Arsenal’s, last campaign Villa was finally relegated to the Championship after two-three years of flirting with disaster. American billionaire owner Randy Lerner has had to sell out to the Chinese, after a reported 50% hit to his net worth. One wonders what he now thinks of the advice of the mainstream media and his many spendthrift managers who demanded he spend big every transfer window to strengthen the squad.
In closing let me remind you of something Arsene said about transfers recently:
“I buy players that I feel can strengthen our team. Today, you have to be very strong inside the club when you are responsible, not to just buy to buy.
“There is always a wave of opinions, and people are better informed today than all the players. They always tell you to buy but when you ask who to buy, they become much shorter, because if you look at the market in Europe there is a lot of money available, but not many players that really strengthen the teams.
“And if you look at who is spending the most in Europe, they are not the teams that won the leagues. The global investment of all the clubs around us didn’t stop Leicester winning the league. So we have to focus on our quality, and try to strengthen our team.
“If you analyse well our season, we finished top of the top-four. We lost maximum points against the teams between five and nine. Maybe the games we were expected to win, we did, but against teams like Southampton and Swansea, we dropped too many points.
“On the other hand, we had a good defensive record, overall, but we can still strengthen that. And we were a bit short of goals scored. We didn’t convert enough chances we created. We created the most in the league but our finishing was not as good as the season before.
“You say we should have won the league, but Leicester lost only three games during the season and won the league. You have to respect their performance. It’s not the name that wins the league, it’s the quality of the performances.”
I would advise well thinking fans to heed the words and deeds of Arsene and just like at Christmas, avoid the hype and psychological pressure. As most of us try teach our kids, in the words of Dr Seuss:
What if Christmas….doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
Positively Arsenal 
but anicol he has a point, imagine our transfer record is the mere pittance of £42.5M, its a disgrace, did you know its only the 5th most expensive transfer fee paid by an English club, Man Utd, Man City x 2 and Chelsea have all paid out higher fees. How the fuck can any self respecting AAA expect to win a transfer dick swinging contest if Wenger won’t pay £60M fee, so that we would top the British transfer record, well till the Pogba to utd deal is done,
by the way look at the success of the 4 transfers bigger than our paltry sum.
di maria to utd
de bruyne to city
sterling to city
torres to chelsea
on second thoughts it might be better not to look at the success of those particular transfers, it might be uncomfortable for whoever wrote the original tripe that was blocked.
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Surely that was one of the self-texting/replies to his own comment/selfie portrait master that spend their fruitile days trolling any and every Arsenal blog. And Twitter I would imagine given their online portfolio at various blogs.
One of the elite no less.
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Testing
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I had a look under the bonnet Ian but you’re not on any banned list – unless you are Hunter in disguise !
Are you using different names on the same IP address ?
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I think its because I’m using my phone,tablet and PC and I’m Ian on some and arse or brain on another. I’ll get my lad to link them all up that should sort it all out
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As far as other blogs are concerned we really don’t have to worry about them. They will become more and more reliant on sensationalism and will write less and less of what they really think. Writing a blog like that must be boring and so we can carrying on enjoying being positive and leave the rest to live under their miserable cloud.
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Further thoughts on Gnabry:
If it was his call to go to WBA then arguably he’d have played instead of Iwobi last season, and completed his break into the first team which began with those stellar moments against Tottenham etc and was interrupted by injury. He scored twice against South Korea three now for the tournament. Regardless of how or why his season unfolded last year during what was always going to be a tricky return from injury in the long term it may be that Arsenal receive a bonus* with Gnabry now Iwobi both in contention.
*losing a or any player like Gnabry to injury is never a bonus!
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it is my understanding re Gnabry, that despite AFC taking him back mid-season from WBA, there was a dispute between the clubs, they did not want him, and they wanted to send him back to AFC, but they wanted a payment to allow him to either play for Arsenal or to go out on loan to another club for the second half of the season. In essience they wanted a good chunk of the loan fee they had paid Arsenal, paid back to them. Arsenal refused to pay WBA for us to be allowed play him in our first team, and none of the clubs interested in taking him on loan were willing to pay the money WBA wanted.
So Gnabry came back to AFC, trained with the first team, but played for the U21’s only, and despite some great performances, he actually could not be promoted to the first team.
Arsenal did not like that West Brom firstly broke agreements of giving the lad a fair chance and then how they publicly were critical of the lad, and his fitness. It became clear that West Brom only took him on loan cos they thought one of their wide men was going to be out injured for much longer than he was. Then when they wanted rid, demanded money back. So as to not set a precedent for future loan players, Arsenal refused point blank to give West Brom money back. They did try to get other interested loan clubs to pay what West Brom wanted, but as all interested clubs where from the Championship they could not afford or were unwilling to pay the money.
Its true that Arsenal had advised Gnabry to go on loan to other clubs ahead of West Brom, but the lad was led to believe he was going to get a good run of games in the BPL, so you can see why that looked a better choice than Championship level football.
When Arsenal agree to loan out a player, and get agreement with more than one club, they normally allow the player to decide which club he goes to, of course they advise him on the choice, but it is up to the player. I don’t know why bloggers and twitteratti are having a go at Gnabry for his choice, its not like he, like the bloggers and twitteratti, had the benefit of hindsight.
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I should add, that West Brom wanted almost all the loan fee paid back to them, as “he had not got in their team”.
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I can see ManUtd fans celebrating buying back Pogba for dt much. It’s such an unbelievable world with the money flying around in this window.
I’m happy to wait and see what Arsene and his transfer team do because I’m sure they won’t throw common sense away in whatever deal they’ll complete
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seemingly uefa have listed John Stones in Man City’s CL qualifier squad, I bet Everton are delighted with that.
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I have reservations about us, or any PL club for that matter, loaning players to other PL clubs. The prime objection is that in a single competitive league you should not be assisting an opponent over the others.
And as with Gnabry the chances to actually play are far from guaranteed. For the host club fighting for survival, as WB usually are, it is a hard schoolroom to allow a young player to make mistakes and learn. Surely the point of a loan is to try to ensure the player gets game time. Farming players out to CHampionship clubs seems a much more sound option.
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Ta for Gnabry info. Sorry for various blog-shite re Arsenal. Ta PG, A5, Steww, edu, fins & ‘2014ianbrainorspace’.. For keeping up and exposing the crap.
Wow! I was just typing the above – moving my finger around text I’d written, when a few of the previous comments were read out, very quickly! What happened?
Please ask your son, Ian.
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Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge 38m38 minutes ago Blackburn, England
If we paid £70m for Bony and Mangala its a huge problem, To City it’s irrelevent.
We have to be much more discerning.
Fortunately AW is.
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Thanks Shotta for the article.
You’ll all be glad to know that Maureen is now officially the first football manager to have spent over a billion pounds on transfers.
Where is that list of hopeful youngsters he turned into superstars again?
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Sky sports news going into a full-on jizzathon over today’s transfer news.
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11 cb’s in 10 yrs costing 212.5 million thats a trully amazing stat and for a small return considering.
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“Where is that list of hopeful youngsters he turned into superstars again?”
Mendez
Raiola
LOL
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The bloke is poison – every club he has managed he leaves ( or is sacked from) dirty, and their reputation diminished.
Even his usual media arse lickers know this.
Good coach, but no moral fibre.
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There is some marvellous stuff out there on social media tonight, generally along the lines of “Ffs Arsene just buy someone, anyone, any position, I don’t fucking care – I can’t STAND it anymore”
The human condition, on the hook.
Just beautiful.
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but arsenal hve actually bought many persons in diff positions… they just chose not to notice!
Holding – defender
xhaka – midfield
Nwakali – midfield
Asano Striker
Not bad!
If we buy early, some people forget,
if we by late, we are panic buying
so what is AW to do? Ignore them I say
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I remember how the much the media/ WOB loved they way Arry would wait until the big spenders had their spoils, then delve in for some last minute of deadline day action, getting decent player at a good price from a club that needed to sell but had run out of time in a bidding war…or maybe taking advantage of some transfer domino effect.
Wenger is hinting very strongly he is employing such tactics….and yes, they are a gamble, and yes it meant these players may not be ready for the start of the season but odd that the WOB /media react so differently to him than Arry. Ok, Wenger is not a luvable , media friendly wheeler dealer Cockney rogue who owns a pet dog with a vast knowledge of tax avoidance………but…
Having said that, I suspect a fair portion of the WOB/media are actually Spud fans.
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Morning Positivistas, Ticket for the Saints game on 10/9 safely purchased and even though I forget to get on-line at 10.00 when the box office opened. Plenty still available for those who fancy a Saturday in N5.
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TEAM NEWS: GABRIEL, JACK, PER, WELBECK
Arsène Wenger has revealed the latest team news ahead of the Premier League opener against Liverpool on Sunday:
on Gabriel…
Gabriel has an ankle problem, and will be out for six to eight weeks. It is a bit better than we feared at the start.
on Jack Wilshere…
Jack is doing well, but he will be short for Sunday. He is back in training but will not be completely ready for Sunday.
on Carl Jenkinson…
Carl is doing well, and he should be back in November. He is on schedule for his return.
on Per Mertesacker and Danny Welbeck…
We had very good news on Danny’s latest scan and Per is at the moment off his feet for three weeks, so of course if is a bit boring for him. He is with his family in Hannover, but on the football front he is very frustrated. We think it will be four to five months for both players.
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160810/team-news-gabriel-jack-per-welbeck#c7MW99XOzeSTRopZ.99
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http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160810/ozil-giroud-koscielny-back-in-training
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160810/arsenal-train-ahead-of-liverpool-game
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Gnabry and Asano playing in the Olympics again tonight. Germany on at 8, and Japan play at 11
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Jeorge Bird @jeorgebird 5h5 hours ago
Ozil, Giroud, Koscielny and Wilshere trained today. Zelalem, Willock, Bielik, Bennacer and Macey trained with first team.
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Gnabry puts Germany 1-0 up after 7 minutes
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by the way, the game in on the bbc redbutton
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Germany 2-0 up
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The son of Arsenal U18’s Manager Kwame Ampadu,15 year old Nathan Ampadu, last night became Exeter City’s youngest ever first team player, taking the record from one of Arsenal’s all time greats, Cliff Bastin. Arsenal have shown interest in signing the lad. He can play CB or CM.
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http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160810/the-breakdown-pre-season-special
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Germany now 4-0 ahead
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Qualification from the group tp be determined by result against Fiji it seems
Germany 4 – 0 up and with the others drawing… all of 5 pts so far…
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Thats interesting about Nanthan Ampadu I hope he has his Dads speed it would certainly make him a handy defender.
Mandy,
What the press never remind people about arry was the fact that Bournemouth, west ham, southampton, portsmouth all went bankrupt partly due to arry. In fact even the spuds lost money during his tenure, so it wasnt just the figures in his tax declaration he couldnt add up.
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Gnabry makes it 6-0 to Germany with a free kick just before half time. his 5th goal of the tournament so far.
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Germany won 10-0 and are through to the next round as runners up to south korea, with mexico missing out.
Portugal and Honduras came out of another group, with Argentina missing out
the other two groups conclude later tonight
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reports from Germany suggest that Arsenal and Valencia are both trying to sign Fabian Schar from Hoffenheim for €10m, with oddly enough Valencia wanting Schar cos they are selling Shkodran Mustafi to Arsenal for €25M + €5M add ons.
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Steve Gooner @Merse10 6h6 hours ago
@Sir_Livers Sky have this weird obsession with the amount of money spent. Willing it to be more than last year like it’s Children In Need
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Sky
Owned by one of the most evil capitalists in history.
figures.
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Japan came 3rd in their group.
I assume this means Asano is on his way back to Arsenal.
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Schar would be good, but that would banjax Chambers.
Mustafi (if rumors are to be believed) would be an ideal long term replacement for Per.
Arsenal would have the back row department sorted for a considerable number of years into the future.
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Eddy
More importantly – does Nathan Ampadu qualify as Irish – like his dad?
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Wenger: “Of course we will look to add, we are working on it, but until Sunday I have to find an internal solution and an efficient solution.”
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well DC young Ampadu has so far played under age for both England and Wales, but as his Dad is an Irish citizen I think Nathan would qualify for Ireland. For God’s sake, Tony Cascarino got an irish passport with no entitlement at all.
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you know the only reason why arsenal are signing mustafi is cos he is best friends with ozil, and after releasing flamini, we had to get ozil a buddy.
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Chambers has had a good pre season and was captain of a successful England U21 team in the Toulon tournament. He is 21 years old, has been wth us for 2 full seasons, and made his Saints league debut 3 years ago.
Clearly CC is still a bit inexperienced compared to Kosc or Per but I cannot see a player being suddenly parachuted into our central defence from the Spanish or German close season is going to somehow magically do better.
If he does a good job over the next few games then it would be a huge boost for the player and for our title credentials.
I’d stick with Callum for now and see where we are after the Watford game.
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Asano’s olympics is over, so yes he can come to Arsenal now.
Gnabry still going strong, with the 5 goals.
the draw for the quarters
Brazil v Colombia
South Korea v Honduras
Nigeria v Denmark
Portugal v Germany
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