Klaus wrote:

He spent over £50 million net on an Inter team that was already one of the two best sides in Europe.

Wow 50M on a top class team......... that Jose really loves to burn money like crazy.
Much better to pick up Chamakh for nothing eh?

The fact is, Biggus, that Inter team was along with Barca the highest paid teams in Europe. I think that even Madrid and Chelsea were quite behind those two. They were paying about double the wages that Arsenal was at the time. Wenger's faults are numerous, but I doubt that even Mourinho could win the Champions League for Arsenal with the resources currently being committed to the team. The next question of course is what's the limiting factor vis-a-vis resources for the team? Is it Wenger or Gazitis?

Biggus wrote:

Klaus wrote:

He spent over £50 million net on an Inter team that was already one of the two best sides in Europe.

Wow 50M on a top class team......... that Jose really loves to burn money like crazy.

Fact is he spent a lot of money on a team that Mancini had already spent £500 million on assembling for the past three years at that point and they had a higher wage bill than Chelsea.

But yes, Biggus, Wenger is the only reason we don't spend money like that. We are after all the biggest, richest and most well-run club in Europe. As soon as that french pariah leaves we can start splashing the cash just like Inter who have been owned by one of the wealthiest men in Italy for decades.

It's wastage but not significant relative to other clubs? For what it's worth, I think the club recognise the problem but they've not been able to solve it yet.

The wage allocation / player utilization thing is an issue.

Sure United have some guys getting a free lunch (like their very own Park), but given our much-hyped financial constraints, we just can't afford. Certainly, guys like Squillaci, Park, Chamakh and Almunia have stolen money from 2 stars this season. Those guys have added absolutely no value to the team this season and yet each make about 50,000 quid per week. I'd rather replace those two with Bartley on his 15k or so a week and 2 solid players on a free.

Christ there's a lot of crack smoked about Arsenal wages.

We've had a few misfired transfers in recent years but our wage bill will always be sky high and include unused players on big money if we want to challenge.

Unused players that belong on Wolves, Wigan or West Ham. That's the problem. We'd be better off if those places went to Bartley and Frimpong, and the savings derived from that went towards paying Kagawa instead of Gervinho, for example. Burnsy, you're an entrepreneurial guy. You know that you need the top to be strong first and foremost.