STUPID ENGLISH MONEY
Wenger still won’t let Arsenal pay it
YOU can understand why Arsene Wenger baulks at the current transfer market. Alexandre Lacazette is the player in his sights, a striker whose signature would probably conclude Arsenal’s business for the summer given that Shkodran Mustafi is close to signing for £30million.
Yet this is an era in which foreign clubs have an acronym for the ridiculous amounts of cash they can obtain from Premier League clubs: SEM — Stupid English Money.
So, Lyon insist that Lacazette, 25, is worth £60m, even though he was unable to get in the France squad for Euro 2016, let alone displace Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud up front. Until they lower that valuation, Wenger will hold fire.
When asked if Arsenal, who face Liverpool today, will have another striker before the end of August, Wenger repeats the familiar refrain that they have Theo Walcott and Alexis Sanchez to support Giroud. However, Lacazette is a man he would ideally like.
Wenger knows his side need to improve their finishing if they are to end what will, by May, be a 13-year wait for the title.
They scored 65 goals last season, the same as West Ham and six fewer than the Gunners managed in 201415. Given the amount of firepower added to the Premier League, Arse- nal will surely need more than Giroud if they are to win the title.
Yet in a summer which has seen Manchester City and Manchester United spend £322m between them, Arsenal’s current outlay of £44m on Granit Xhaka (£38m) Takuma Asano and Rob Holding, does look somewhat paltry.
‘They signed a lot of players the year before as well,’ is Wenger’s pointed response to the largesse of the Manchester clubs, who finished fourth and fifth to Arsenal’s second last season.
Frustrated fans would doubtless point out that United won the league in 2013, City in 2014 and Arsenal in 2004. ‘You’re talking about the fans but if you want to make everybody happy, then just buy 20 new players and everybody is full of hope until the first game starts and then we’re back to reality,’ he adds.
The idea of injecting vibrancy through buying players is not one that will ever appeal to Wenger. ‘Vibrancy doesn’t make you win games,’ he said. ‘What makes you win games is the quality of the performance and the quality of your football. And you have to focus on that. That is very difficult in the modern game. There is always demand for new but new is just new.’
Nor does he believe there is a risk of going stale. ‘Stale? Football players have to meet their needs. When they meet their needs, they express their quality. A football club should be built on making sure the players meet their needs and develop.
‘You come every day, you drive in here and the first day it’s new but after six months it’s not new any more. So what you need is that you come into a club and you feel you can improve as a player, you feel you can win things together, you can share things with people who live inside the club. What is new makes news. But apart from that, it makes noise. But the noise is not necessarily always quality.’
All in all, Lacazette might be a decent addition but it’s hard to justify smashing the club’s record transfer fee or paying twice the amount they did for Alexis Sanchez.
There is, of course, always pressure on the apparently frugal and cautious Wenger to buy. Amid the din, he appears confident his voice will be heard this season.
Of course, if it isn’t, it could yet be his last campaign.