Arsene Wenger Given £55m To Spend In The Summer

Arsenal will look to make up for lost ground on fellow top four challengers this summer by giving Arsene Wenger £55 million to spend on recruiting new players, according to the Daily Mail.

The club have been knocked out of the FA Cup and League Cup, and are effectively out of both the Champions League and the Premier League title race, leaving them with the only ambition of finishing inside the top four in order to gain European Cup qualification next year.

After seven years without a trophy, the Daily Mail claim that it has finally been decided that money must be spent in order to keep Arsenal in with a chance of winning something next season.

Despite Wenger’s failure to deliver success to the London club in recent years, Arsenal’s majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke and the Gunners board will support their manager despite growing unrest among the Arsenal fan base.

As I wrote yesterday, this support from the board and the fans must be present in abundance, as must substantial funds be available for Arsenal to compete with clubs who have mountains of cash themselves in the transfer market.

However, what must also be assured is that Arsene Wenger, known for his reluctance to delve into his transfer fund, does purchase players who are ready-made, quality players, rather than young men with potential.

Whilst this has been successful to a degree, it has not brought Arsenal the desired silverware to appease frustrated fans and ambitious players. Former Arsenal manager George Graham diagnosed the problem when quoted in the Daily Mail as saying:

‘I think Arsenal are in crisis. I think it’s been slipping away for the last couple of years and they’ve not been replacing the players that left four or five years ago. They’ve got money to buy players and I can’t understand why Arsene didn’t go out and buy some real quality players in the summer.”

“Nowadays you’ve got to introduce youngsters coming through like Sir Alex Ferguson does. But at the same time he’ll buy the ready-made player who costs £25m because they’re not afraid to do it.”

“I think Arsene has overdone the youth policy and the players coming in are not as good as the ones that have left.”

The Mail go on to name Eden Hazard, Mario Goetze and Lukas Podolski as potential signings, and all are quality players who will cost a considerable amount. Wenger now has no excuses. It is spend to succeed or fail to do both.

Thanks to DBSfootball for submitting this guest post