Arsenal: Overspending Is Like Committing Suicide

The above photo shows Arsene Wenger's anguish, which many Arsenal fans seem to be feeling these days. Few signings, no "big names" and a club which seems to be heading into "mediocrity" might be reasons for feeling that way.

Make no mistake, Arsene Wenger is following a very correct strategy.

This is not because I'm someone who supports Wenger blind folded, or due to the fact that I might be part of the "Wenger Knows" brigade. This is purely and simply a statement by an Arsenal fan.

If any club over spends, they will face potential decimation.

I am going to focus this argument on Leeds United. I'm sure that I might have done this before, but it is the perfect example of what can happen to a club when they live beyond their means.

Leeds achieved success for around four years in the Premier League after which its board assumed that Champions League qualification was inevitable. They focused their attention on paying big wages and buying players for a lot of money, but after all that wheeling and dealing, didn't qualify for the Champions League and completely under achieved. This was followed by relegation soon after and as they say, the rest is history.

Leeds United are now in League One and don't even own their home-ground, Elland Road.

Arsene Wenger is a manager who has taken a lot of heat from the press and the "fans" for not spending enough, despite apparently having the funds to do so. Wenger, as many have said, has behaved stubbornly and wants to show that he can win things on a shoe string budget.

I have news for people who think that way—he has already done that.

The Invincibles season was preceded with one, mandatory signing—that of Jens Lehmann for around one million pounds. So, Wenger has no reason to prove such outrageous claims by some sections of fans.

As Glenn Moore of the Independent himself quotes in his article, Wenger has the money but the truth is that he doesn't want to spend it all on signings due to his vision and commitment towards the Emirates Stadium project which he embarked upon almost a decade ago. He calls it "an experiment," and it certainly seems to be testing many fans' patience.

Wenger also expands on Arsenal's infamous wage structure in the same article:

"I believe you need a wages structure. You want to be fair with everybody, or try to be as fair as possible. You could make the odd exception but you need a logic in the way you pay your players and in the way you structure the whole wages bill. Personally, I don't think it is right to lose £100m and to play football. I feel that the skill of a manager is to do the maximum with the resources he has and try to be successful. I don't believe that [£100m losses] can last a long time, it will not be accepted, not only because it will implode [if the benefactor pulls out]."

That is hard to argue with. I don't know what Chelsea fans would do if, tomorrow Roman Abramovich were to move on and sell Chelsea. We're seeing the ill-effects of the "benefactor model" at Manchester City, where it is not known whether Mark Hughes has the money to spend and more importantly, whether he'll continue to have funds in future. I don't think that Liverpool have had many positives to take from foreign ownership either.

Another interesting thing that Wenger has said time and time again is that a club needs stability on and off the field to succeed in the long run. He has been at the club for 12 years now and after he leaves, his successor will have a vacuum of power to fill. It certainly won't be easy as it is, but if a financial burden is added to this equation, the situation becomes insurmountable.

He says, "If you do not balance the books you go bankrupt and die. I could push the club into big debt. I go away with success and the guy who comes after me suffers for five years because he cannot buy a player any more and the club goes down. The guy who comes after me has good players he can work with, he has a healthy financial situation, and he has a club in good shape. That is part of management as well."

Many fans have expressed their concerns about having to qualify for the Champions League every year and being pretenders to the throne. But, the fact is that if Arsenal spend the amount of money that Chelsea spend, the club will go bankrupt. It's always an act of sustainable development—win as much as you can in the present with an eye on the future.

It's difficult for fans to look at the big picture—that's probably why we're called fans. But, it's not as if Arsenal are finishing sixth or seventh in the table and not challenging for anything every season. A period of transition is not the worst thing in the World.

Just ask the fans of a club like Leeds United.

A period of transition is something every team will go through after sometime. Players age, managers move on and these days, so do the owners!

In the past three seasons, Arsenal have appeared in two cup finals, and have looked like serious Premier League contenders last season and for some reason or another, have ended up trophy less. In terms of pure mathematics, that is zero trophies, but football isn't all about mathematics.

So, for those of you who want Arsenal, or the club you support to change their ways and spend big—just think about the ramifications of the club spending beyond their means.

After all, I don't think that you want your club to end up as a footnote in history.