Wenger Vows Not To Spend….And This Time He’s Right

Following another defeat, a chorus of boos from the crowd still ringing in his ears and with pressure mounting, you’d have thought Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger would be doing his best to get back on good terms with the Emirates faithful.

However, the Frenchman has risked another backlash after declaring he doesn’t intend on spending his way out of trouble. Speaking after Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Man Utd, Wenger was asked if he agreed that he needed to invest in the squad, he replied:

”I don’t. Spending money is not the target. It never has been in life.”

”We need our players back. We missed 10 players. When you see what we created in the second half, it’s important for us to get the players back.”

(source: telegraph)

We’ve had to sit back and watch Arsenal slump to three successive defeats this month and the areas that need strengthened are clear for all to see, and have been for some time, but the boss is adamant he doesn’t need to get the chequebook out. And for the most part, he’s right.

He’s right, because the damage has already been done and he missed the window of opportunity for signings to make a difference when it mattered most.

Nearly four weeks ago after beating QPR 1-0, which was our last league win by the way, Wenger was asked about the injury to Thomas Vermaelen and if he would now be dipping into the transfer market, he told Arsenal.com:

“it would be stupid for us to drop points because we don’t have a left back.”

No sh*t, but it seems you were that stupid Arsene. No signing was made, no short term loan, nothing, and three defeats later Arsenal are now adrift of fourth spot and unlikely to catch Chelsea, who are strengthening their squad further this month with international players. Gary Cahill is already in the bag to sort out their dodgy defence, and they’ve had a £16.6m bid for Willian turned down by Shakhtar. Willian has been linked to Arsenal in the past, but again it looks like he’ll go to a rival as no doubt Chelsea will go back with a larger offer and snap him up.

Wenger had the time to address the full back issue during the first week of the window but he sat back and simply hoped we’d get by with Djourou, Miquel, Yennaris and Coquelin as emergency full backs until the first team players return.

Who didn’t predict this would happen? It was obvious Wenger wouldn’t bring anyone in to help the defence. Now with Vermaelen back, and Gibbs and Sagna hopefully joining him for our next league match away to Bolton on Feb 1st, Wenger has the perfect excuse not to buy now.

There is no point bringing in any defensive cover at this point, the damage has already been done. Let’s try and get past Villa in the cup next week with what we’ve got and hope Sagna and Gibbs don’t have any set backs once they return.

However, the one area where Arsene is most certainly wrong with his assessment is the attacking third. Arsenal desperately need another striker to compliment van Persie and I would argue a central playmaker is also required, but with Wilshere also back soon hopefully he can add that creativity we’ve been missing.

But will Wenger bring in a striker in the next week? Don’t bank on it. After all, Chamakh will be back from the ACN soon. Sigh.

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