We are approaching the start of August now and the marquee signing that we have been promised still hasn’t arrived. A whole host of names have been linked yet the only addition to our small squad is the young Frenchman Yaya Sanogo.

Same old Arsene

Could the reason for this be a lack of available targets, or because Arsene Wenger simply doesn’t want to spend. Amy Lawrence from the Guardian claimed last night that the latter.

Arsenal, and more specifically Arsene Wenger are struggling to break away from their frugal transfer market nature and this is holding them back when trying to sign big names.

There is a conflict within Arsenal. Ivan Gazidis is very keen to spend and has made this very clear- at the beginning of July we were told that we could afford the Rooney’s of this world and we are finally ready to compete financially with the big boys of European football.

Yet Arsene Wenger is keen to stick to his ways and find bargains and value for money despite the reported £70 million we have to spend, much to the annoyance of the Arsenal faithful.

It is not even as if the players aren’t out there- for a combined total of £65 million, we could have Fellaini and Suarez in our first team and with these players in tow an assault on the Premier League would not be too far off. But Arsene Wenger’s old ways are hindering our progress and something needs to change.

Higuain failure

This is exemplified perfectly with Gonzalo Higuain. Reportedly we agreed a €25 million fee in June, then Real Madrid changed their mind and wanted more in the region of €35 million. In the end a cash rich Napoli decided €35 million was an acceptable fee and we ended up losing our main target.

Clubs with enormous amounts of money like Arsenal at the moment should not have any problem identifying targets. It is inevitable that when other clubs know that we have a large amount of money at our disposal, we are always going to have to pay an inflated fee.

Look at the other transfers this summer- Higuain £31 million, Cavani £55 million, Falcao £52 million- all at least 10-15 million above their actual value but these are the prices you have to pay to secure a player with so much competition on the global market.

Come the end of the summer, if our transfer kitty hasn’t been touched then Arsene Wenger has something to answer for. Frankly, it is quite absurd that a club that has been limited financially for so long is not determined to compete. If we stick with our current squad, seeing Chelsea, Man City, Man United and even Spurs all strengthening heavily, then this year will be our toughest fight for a top 4 finish ever. A club with money to spend like us should be using this platform to try to win the title next year, not settle for mediocrity again.

Come the Emirates Cup this weekend, if no signing has been made expect the ‘Spend some f***ing money chants to be in full swing’.

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