The goal posts have been moved again.
It used to be “I do not expect Arsenal to win trophies, I just expect us to compete for them.
Now the line seems to be “Arteta has spend £400m, if he does not need win the league than he is a failure”.
To prove their point, they produce infographics which show that since his first summer transfer window (2020) and prior to this window, Arteta has spent £380million, whilst Pep Guardiola has spent £280m.
Kai Havertz, Declan Rice and Jurrien Timber will take his spending to £580m.
Of course, anyone with half a brain will realise Arteta has spent big rebuilding an entire squad, whilst all Guardiola has done is make changes here and there to a squad that won the league title in the two seasons prior to the on Arteta joined us in.
Of Mikel Arteta’s first 18 man squad (a 1-1 draw against Bournemouth in December 2019), Bukayo Saka, Granit Xhaka, Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe are the only players still with us. You would not be surprised if 50% of those leave us this summer.
Two days later, Manchester City beat Leicester City 3-1. 9 of the 18 are still with Manchester City.
In that period, Manchester City’s squad retention has been 125% more than ours, yet our purchases have only been 35% more.
That shows that whilst Arsenal have spent more, Manchester City have averaged more per player. We have rebuilt a squad whilst City have made tweaks.
And whilst Arteta had spent around £100m more than Pep in their respective transfer windows up until this one, Manchester City’s 2022/23 squad cost them more than 80% more:
The above highlights shows just how far behind others were are in terms of squad investment.
The £200m we look set to spend this summer would only see us leapfrog Liverpool in the table. And the gap between us an City is basically the equivalent of us repeating this window again next summer, and Manchester City not signing (or selling) any players over the next 3 windows. We all know that will not happen.
Imagine a world where we sign Victor Osimhen for £100m (based on his Transfrmarkt value), Josko Gvardiol (who will probably join City this summer) for £65m and Romeo Lavia for £30m.
We do not sell Gabriel, to make space for Gvardiol, or Gabriel Jesus to make space for Osimhen. And Lavia comes in as cover for Declan Rice with Thomas Partey staying at the club.
That is the sort of dealings we would need to do to close that gap on City. And again, they would have to sign no-one.
At that point, then yes, I would say not winning the league would be seen as a failure by Arteta. But not now whilst the gapis is still big.
“Arsenal have outspent 99% of the league” is another thing that I have seen.
Firstly, it is no surprise that these people have stupid opinions because the clearly failed at school.
99% of 20 is 19.8 teams. Which obviously makes no sense. It reminds me of when City were winning 5-0 and were signing “who put the ball in the Cockney’s net, half of Manchester City”. Ignoring that half of 11 is 5.5 (which is what we sang back!).
If you also take into account that you can not outspend yourself, to outspend everyone else in the league would be 19 teams. And that needs even more maths (you’d have outspent 18.81 of the 19 teams). But I will keep it simple for you and stick with the “5% per team”.
The truth is that 5 times have spent more than us on their squad – prior to this season. 15 have spent less. That means we have only actually outspent 75% of the league.
And even if the argument is that we have outspent 95%. The 5% we would not have outspent is Manchester City. And they are the only team that finished above us last season.
If we finish 2nd, or even 3rd, behind Manchester City (and lets say Liverpool), it should not be seen as a failure.
If you hold yourself to the level that “anything other than 1st is failure” then you are going to spend a lot of your life disappointed.
We have won 13 league out of 124 English top flight titles since we were founded in 1886. That would then be 111 years of failure.
Why would you invest your life in something you deem is a failure 90% of the time? You would not follow a boxer who loses 90% of his fights…
Because of course, football is not just about trophies. And not winning the league, or a trophy, does not mean failure. People only push the line of “if he does not win the league he is a failure” line to push an agenda.
I am delighted that the club, and Stan Kroenke, are finally backing a manager. Investing heavily in the squad. Interestingly, we are following a similar path of KSE’s American franchises.
Exciting young coach, big outlay on bright, younger talent. And that philosphy has bought the group a lot of success the other side of the pond.
So this season for Arsenal? We need to be competing withfor the league again. But I am not going to begin calling for the managers head if we finish behind Manchester City (who could so easily win another treble or have another 95+ points season).
As many others say, ensure you enjoy the journey…
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
How about Jack Gralish & Eriling haaland they make it to be 170M what are you talking about?
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Totally agree. Funnily enough, I was having a similar conversation with a Newcastle fan a couple of weeks back and I told him that they could improve next season and still finish lower down the table. That`s the nature of the Premier League at the minute. City are the only team who will look at finishing 2nd as a failure.
I`ll be happy if we can finish top 4 again, I think the next couple of seasons are vital for us, we`ve got to re-establish ourselves as a consistent Champions League club and keep adding that little bit of extra quality to the squad every summer. If we can add a bit of silverware than that will be a bonus. I think we are well placed to be the team who most closely challenges City in the next few years. Hopefully we can win one of the big ones – League/Champions League – but as long as you see the players giving 100% and the club showing ambition, that`s all you can really ask for as a fan.
Up The Arse.
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