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Conte and Wenger: speaking from the same script. Is the transfer system broken?

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A tale of two clubs. Chelsea and Arsenal. What is the difference between them and us? 8 top division league titles. That’s right. We have won it a respectable 13 times and Chelsea have won it only 5 times. Albeit we have won it less number of times in the Premier League era than them but all that can be put down to them winning three during our Banter era and Mourinho’s money spilling sugar daddy Abramovic.

However, in Conte and his recent quotes on the market we have a manager seemingly supporting Wenger’s view of the market. I do understand that they signed Michy Batshuayi but then they’re so money rich that they can seat him on a bench in their training ground and still manage to keep him happy with the wages. Or send him out on loan, as they did to all the KDB’s and the Schurrle’s. Let’s take a look at the quotes of the two managers and compare.

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CONTE:
“Every single club wants to improve because they want to fight for the title and I think that Chelsea is waiting for the right solution.”

“In this moment it’s not easy for us but I think for all the clubs this is a crazy transfer market.”

“The price is high in general and this market is a bit crazy because when you try to buy one or another player the cost is very expensive and not the real valuation for the player. It’s a very strange situation now but we are waiting on the right solution for the club.”

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WENGER:
“Look, we are a whole team working on strengthening the team. I am not the only one and unfortunately nobody speaks about the performance of Rob Holding today. You should be happy, he’s English, he’s 20 years old, but I am sorry, he did not cost £55m so he cannot be good and that is for me what is most disappointing for me. You don’t speak about the performances of the players anymore, you just speak about money. Anything else than football. I believe that it’s not right.”

And then WENGER again-
“Why do you say I’m reluctant, I don’t understand that? If I buy you tomorrow for £45m that means I’ve bought you for £45m, have I done well? Yes, if I listen to you, I will have done well because I spent the money. That is not a quality, buying a top player, that is different – and we are ready to do that. I spend £300m if I find the player and if I have the £300m.”

If I did not label the quotes I bet most people would have ascribed all three of those quotes to Wenger. Now don’t get me wrong, Chelsea will buy someone and they will splash the cash probably more than we will. However, we have 250mil in the bank whereas they have every penny of Abramovic’s money, of which he has already spent 1 billion on them. And then how did they repay it? Well shit, he didn’t take the money back but turned all his outstanding loans into shares in the club. Which is a scary tactic really. He could change their name to Abra Balls FC one day after ten years and another one billion and nobody would be able to complain. They would have had trophies.

 

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Anyway, now let’s look at Klopp and Liverpool. I like Klopp, the man is funny and thoughtful and also, he seems to have a bit of a human side to him.. They’ve bought the players, they’ve bought literally ALL the players compared to our meagre two. They brought in Klavan, Grujic, Matip and if there’s someone else I forget please forgive me- this is an early morning rant and my net was down so had to type this from memory.

Now compared to nearly every other big team Liverpool have always had a bit of a lesser team in the past few seasons after Suarez left. So it is no surprise then that Coutinho and Firmino are the only top class stars there and even Sterling left them, the little runt. What I am saying is that for Klopp right now it is necessary to have his own squad, he is obviously set in for more than 3 years at this club and he is going to improve them slowly, and not in a Big Bang. So say he already has players X, Y and Z. To improve all three he will need only about 80 mil even this today’s market because those are the players he will buy, very slightly better than X and Y and Z, just for the sake of getting his own team on which he can work. He is not 20 years into the job like Wenger is, which is why he can justify the mediocre purchases even to himself.

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Now if we take a look at Arsenal’s squad, we are probably the best midfield in the country on paper, and the only thing lacking is our attack in my opinion. Before both Mertesacker and Gabriel got injured, Wenger must have had a plan to transition Holding and possibly Bielik into the team at some point of the season. Koscielny is arguably the best centre back in the league on any given day and we all saw how he improves everybody who plays with him. The problem with a striker is that they are in short supply at the moment. There are no Thierry Henry’s struggling at Juventus, there are no unknown Messi’s.

There are world class strikers of course but we saw what it takes to buy one. Juventus sold Pogba for 89 million and bought Higuain for 79. They play different positions but Juventus were betting on Pogba for league dominance this season so when they were losing him they decided to go and buy another sure quantity in Higuain. A sure quantity will cost 80 mil and still, I don’t see how Higuain will score another 36 goals this season.

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The one striker available to us is Lacazette. The problem with this one is not the club or the player’s agent or our manager or our negotiator, it is Jean Michael-Aulas. Yes, that guy who keeps coming out with quotes about no Arsenal bids and that Lacazette is staying at Lyon. Those of you who were football fans starting around 2006 must have heard of Lyon because they were in the midst of a tremendous 6 or 7 season blitzing of Ligue 1 where they won it on the trot. That period was down to Jean Michael-Aulas’s hard ball nature in the transfer market. Whatever way you look at it, they have been playing hardball with us for quite some time now.

His price was see sawing all over the summer despite the fact that he was not even at the Euros even in the absence of Benzema. Is he a sure thing? No, despite what all the Arsenal fans are claiming after his 5 goal haul in two games. 5 goals in 2 games anywhere is a big achievement but the thing is Wenger knows the situation best. He makes mistakes and letting Higuain go to Napoli was a mistake so I hope he doesn’t make another one but for Christ’s sake- try and understand that it’s a player we’re trying to buy. Not a bran bar from a super market.

Keep the faith. Ozil is back, Kos is back. COYG.

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3 Responses to Conte and Wenger: speaking from the same script. Is the transfer system broken?

  1. Matt August 22, 2016 at 9:07 am #

    Very good article. I would add that amongst the 5 goals lacazette scored there were 2 penalties… He is a good player but batshuyi left for 30M they have similar stats and batshuyi is just 21. Lacazette divides opinion in France.. I don’t think we should pay 50 or 60m for him and he to wait a couple of years until he adapts to th PL

  2. Ogban August 22, 2016 at 10:33 am #

    My disappointment really is with the media and the so-called pundits who are working ever so hard to promote this ‘financial doping’ in the the transfer market. Because of their actions and utterances, we have all now been brainwashed into agreeing that it’s okay for clubs to buy themselves a title by acquiring players at ridiculous amounts of money. Tbh, I thought we should have been eulogizing Leicester City what they achieved last season with so little spending, and encouraging others to do same. When English class were winning titles in Europe, they were not spending this way. Now we spend to enrich other leagues and can’t even win the Europa. Pffff!

    • Matt August 22, 2016 at 11:23 am #

      I can’t agree more with you especially concerning the pundits. It’s so good to see that there still are some fans like you and me that have not been brainwashed and still would like some values to hold in this madness that already exists in football.

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