CrimsonGunner11 wrote:theHotHead wrote:Angelito you missed the part when our wage bill was rising at an alarming rate but the quality of our players was decreasing, im talking about the so-called "Socialist era" of Wenger's reign. He should've been sacked for that, I have been generous saying 6 years, should have been sacked in 2011.
Without doing any research I would say the increase in wage bill was the best strategy Wenger and the Board could come up with to keep us competitive during a time where everyone was relying on their owners to bail them out and our focus was on sticking to our philosophy/spending only what we earned.
So in short, it was either pay high signing fees, high wages which clubs with generous owners could afford or low signing fees, higher wages than other clubs which our club had to use in order to steal the best talents away from clubs not opting for the self-sustaining model.
Was it the best idea? Probably not but, at a minimum, it was what kept us in the CL for so long and helped pay off the stadium debt; all without having to divert away from the club's philosophy.
In hindsight and most likely in the moment, I know its a strategy I wouldn't have gone for
I don't agree, the squad didn't need an overhaul, the beginning of the demise was the CL final loss in 2006, that lead to Wenger preferring small technical players over the powerful players the team had. Mistake no1. The next step in the demise was breaking up the Invincibles too soon. Yes Vieira had left but we had Gilberto, there was plenty of life left in the rest of them but Wenger's insistence not to offer more than a year to players aged 30+ hit us! Mistake no2.
Had Wenger not made those 2 mistakes all we had to do was make a few surgical implants here and there. That would not require buying the best and most expensive players in the world, Wenger and his scouting network should have been able to find players and have them adapt to the team, as Wenger and co had been able to do for the 10 years that preceded that CL final.
We had no reason to try to compete with the likes of Chelsea, Real and Man U etc for the big bucks players, but such was our standing in the game that we were an exciting option for every other player. But no, we went fully in the other direction, spending a pittance and giving those players big wages. What we should have done is spend reasonably and give those players a decent wage. All we needed was 2 players a season, the squad was strong already, a cull was not required.