Arsenal 08-09 Retrospective: An End-of-the-Season Review Part II

(Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Declarations of a Summer "War Chest"

The board wanted to save its back, and in doing so drove Arsenal targets' prices up. Keith Edelman once bravely stated that Arsenal had cash balances of 70 million pounds freed up for transfers in a summer where Arsenal saw minimal transfer activity.

Then, more recently, Danny Fiszman (who is self-exiled in Switzerland) said that Arsenal could spend 30 million pounds on a single player. 

Whether that was a fact or a statement made to appease supporters in anyone's guess—but it did not help either way because nobody saw anything tangible at the end of the day.

These statements hindered the Arsenal's managers decisions and he made some interesting remarks about his frustration at the reckless remarks made by certain board members about transfer funds:

"If I tell you I have £250million, every player I call will cost three times more." 

He alluded that if he had the money available, he would spend it—this, contrary to many Arsenal fans' belief:

"When I am manager of a club I do with what I have available and you have never heard me complain about the money that was available. But as well I do not accept people to think that I am stupid enough to have £100million at my disposal and put it in the bank because I am scared to spend it."

He also had a strong message for certain elements within the board who kept revealing Arsenal's "healthy position" on transfer budgets:

"I believe the more everybody shuts up inside the club and doesn't talk about anything and works hard is the best."

All in all, it does look like the Arsenal board was doing its best to cover up the fact that there certainly wasn't that much money available for transfers—certainly not the amounts being stated in the press.

The Transfer Policy at Arsenal

Arsenal have a peculiar transfer policy. There are a number of figures bandied about in the press, but the truth is that Arsene Wenger gets a certain amount (say "x") to spend on players. 

"x" includes the new signings wages for the current year, and contract renewals for current players.

So, when Adebayor got a bumper pay-rise last season, the amount went out of that season's overall transfer budget.

The prudence at Arsenal cannot be appreciated more, but to tie up the manager's hands by combing transfer fees and wages for the current year means that Arsenal have a very limited leverage in the transfer market.

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