Guardiola is right on Wenger and spending by the way. Look beyond the transfer spend at our wage bill. When we were at our best, our wage bill was way ahead of most of the rest of the league bar United. Wage bill is the biggest predictor of on pitch performance. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

This is not to downplay Wenger’s skilll in the player trading element of it. That was critical in enabling us to compete with a much richer club in Man Utd, and enabling funds to be used where they matter (on wages). But our success was predicated on a big increase in spending.

If anything, this is a testament to Wenger’s deeper understanding of what really mattered on the pitch. That is: not spending big money on players. But identifying and recruiting the best, based on market inefficiencies, and retaining them with wages that matched their talent.

The apotheosis of this was Project Youth. Those kids were paid massive money for their status in the game when they were brought in. But it worked. In a way, it all started going wrong when Arsène abandoned that to fill his squad with established stars.

And what’s important here for present purposes is that Arsenal need to go back to doing that. We need a wage bill that sustains a squad that is commensurate with Liverpool’s. Like Liverpool, and like early Wenger’s Arsenal, that doesn’t have to be built on huge transfers fees.

But it does have to be sustained on spending where it matters.

[ENDS]