Mmhmm. Because in the end, the market does roughly value players at what they're worth. Good players cost money. The best players cost a lot more. The price you pay for a player factors in the likelihood of him being good for your side.
Except it doesnt. Do I really need to list the number of expensive buys that flopped completely? Point out that our best players were cheap? Point out the canny buys made elsewhere that were absolute bargains? Or even the complicating factors like length of contract etc? (Eriksen is currently half price...)
While a really basic "More money = better player" logic is all nice and tidy, its just not actually true.
In this case, it's expensive, and we're not really doing it after a promising start.
Says who? Why? Why cant we be looking for value?
And this whole thing is precipitated upon people having no patience at all and crying about our lack of ambition and business. What happened to waiting to see what actually happens before judging?
I don't know how many more ways I can say this, but spending *150M* net while outside the top four, in the Europa League, is spending bloody freely. From a goddamn tinpot washed-up side in the Europa League, to boot.
It's a level of bloody going for it, that.
I saw a report a few weeks back that said Liverpool werent in for any business this summer because they spent the budget last. Beginning to ring true at this point. Essentially they mortgaged this years budget on winning the league.
With Arsenal stacking up payment plans one on top of the other this season - my view is they are basically doing similar. Spending on the credit card and paying it off later. And not in a "Well every club pays installments" way - as Bedford pointed out - if they dont make CL* then its £45m again next year, most of which will go on buys they made this year.
Its not spending freely. Spending freely suggests you have money to spend. And if they really were spending freely they would have pushed on and got Zaha, not taken the budget option...
You seem to be wowed by them being, frankly, reckless.
And its not even as if they buys they are making transform them into contenders.
*I really dont think they will
They are spending large amounts now - by this argument, City never spend a lot, Chelsea never spend a lot, United never spend a lot, because on average, every season they only pay about 25-40m in outgoing fees. What does it matter if it's down the line for enormous overall fees? Apparently they're prudent and cheap, because they only spend 40m on outgoing fees a season.
By that yardstick, Real's purchase of Bale was a cheap, unambitious move because they only paid us 15-odd million a season for him.
Its not about 25m a season each. Its not about comparing club to club in such a basic way. Its about individual clubs and what they can afford, what is prudent, what is reckless?
And while its impossible to categorically verify, it seems many clubs are demanding more up front than ever from Premier League buyers. I wouldnt be at all surprised to find out we have already put that £40m down on NDombele, for example. Not all deals are straight instalments at all, theres a balance to them.
They havent spent a large amount now, they have promised to hand over a large amount in the future. And while you seem impressed by this (I really dont know why) you seem to miss the connection that that large amount is on players that dont actually improve their side - which should be the sole point of the window.
I dont care for billy big gonads massive money signings, I care for the team being improved.
Excellent attack + more excellent attackers = no improvement. That doesn't seem right to me.
How have they improved? Depth - yes Ill give you that (though this is based on the idea Pepe actually delivers). But in terms of team performance they have gone from an excellent attack to an excellent attack. And still have all the glaring weakness they had before. I dont see how you can view it as having improved. If they bought a couple of CBs (for now) and a proper midfield then Id be more concerned.
They will add another defender. This year. That left-back from Celtic. I don't think they're done yet.
They havent yet. And they have been struggling to do so. I believe Celtic want £25m, and free spending Arsenal cant seem to match it...
As it stands, with the Koscielny situation, their defence is even worse than it was last year. Which was already terrible.
I don't doubt they will find some way to spend on what they need. They spent tons net last year on Torreira, Leno and Sokratis (no doubt on long-term payment deals) despite being in the EL, and are doing it again this year despite still being in the EL. Given that, they will probably do it again next summer.
By contrast, we spent 18 months sitting on our hands, went out and bought NDombele, and are now haggling over 5/10m for Lo Celso, by all accounts - trying to play whatever games we can to lower the price. And we haven't gone anywhere with Sessegnon, either. In between, we got to a CL final, earning 120m in revenue, but that only seems to have been enough to get NDombele over the line. The disparity is striking.
Your desperation to see the money being thrown around is blinding you.
Arsenal are not doing good business. They didnt last year and they havent so far this. Their team is getting worse and not better, but because you have this notion they are throwing cash around and "showing ambition" you want us to follow their lead?
Lets forget the £1bn stadium we finished literally 3 months ago. Forget about that, because we need to spend like Arsenal!
Lets forget that we bought one of the most coveted midfielders in europe, a player PERFECT for our team, improving it in the process, that smashed our transfer record. The exact sort of thing you are pining for. Forget that, its gone now - WE MUST DO IT AGAIN! SPEND ALL THE MONEY!
Despite popular belief, and despite the improvement we have made, while we can spend "more" (and we have) we cant just go and blow money like the richest teams. Our stadium is yet to start paying us back. And we cant simply spend freely when we are a self sufficient enterprise.
We have a team now, today, that is more than good enough to start the season.
I am very comfortable waiting until then to see what business we actually do. If Lo Celso comes in later than is ideal, so be it, especially if that haggling enables us to move on more players in addition to him as well.
It strikes me as really strange that before the window is shut people are having whinges and tantrums about these things as if we dont have a side ready for the season already.