“Spend some F****ing money Arsene!!” Guru or bust? Is he the only sane manager left?

Arsene Wenger, now 63, began his tenure at Arsenal in 1996 and he led the club to almost a decade of non stop success. He has since, however, suffered eight seasons without a trophy including two abysmal loses in the Capital One Cup final. Arsenal have won no trophies since 2005, and have now been forced to qualify for the champions league for the past 7 seasons. He is the strangest character in football today, some say he is one of the bests, some think he is simply an arrogant Frenchmen that had a few great years.

The main problem that people address is his refusal to spend money. Wenger refuses to buy those players depicted as game changers, “world-class” or “fuoriclasse,” but instead focus on taking the maximum value out of each player. However, is this the right decision when you have a club as distinguished as Arsenal, competing in a league and competitions with clubs like Chelsea, Manchester City, or Real Madrid, even though Arsenal made roughly 155 million pounds last year after deductables.[1] (Management firm Deloitte estimated last year thatPremier League clubs had cumulative debts of £2.4bn.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gSFEaI4HdA

But isn’t the fact that he consistently makes the Champions league ( a 30 million pound pay off) while being the only club in the top 10, of the premier league to earn a profit, simply astounding?

Wenger, who graduated in economics at Strasbourg University in 1971, has a mathematician’s brain. The subject taught him how to see the true potential in each player, Valuing a player for what they are or what they could be. Despite having players like Samir Nasri, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie, Wenger has never spent more than 20 million pounds on a player until this year with Mesut Ozil. The total he paid for Henry, Vieira and Pires was less than the £23m he received from Real Madrid for a troubled young French teenager, Nicolas Anelka.

Wenger’s Genius transfer deals

• Kolo Toure (Bought: £150k ; Sold: £16m ; Profit % = 10667 %)
• Cesc Fabregas (Bought: £500k ; Sold: £35m ; Profit % = 7000 %)
• Nicolas Anelka (Bought: £500k ; Sold: £23m ; Profit % = 4600 %)
• Alexandre Song (Bought: £1m ; Sold: £15m ; Profit % = 1500 %)
• Robin van Persie (Bought: £2.75m ; Sold: £24m ; Profit % = 873 %)
• Marc Overmars (Bought: £7m ; Sold: £25m ; Profit % = 357 %)
• Emmanuel Adebayor (Bought: £7m ; Sold: £25m ; Profit % = 357 %)[2]

In addition, Billy Beane, general manager of the Oakland A’s baseball team and a innovative economist in his sport, says: “When I think of Wenger, I think of Warren Buffett. Wenger runs his football club like he is going to own the club for 100 years.” Wenger has most recently moved Arsenal to the Emirates Stadium. Not only has this increased there revenues, but they sellout practically every match while having the most expensive tickets in the league. Never previously a giant club, Arsenal now rank fifth in global football for revenues. In the short term, though, heavy debts on the stadium has curtailed their spending[3]

Wenger in his first seven seasons at Arsenal achieved an average league position of 1.6 while only spending 7.5% of the Premier league’s total wages. In the past six years his record has been less striking but he has still managed to average a league position of 3.3 while spending 8.8% of the total wages in the Premier league. [4]

The problem seems to be that Wenger is no longer open to any form of change. He is set to his system and is sticking with it despite the outcome, however as players values skyrocket, there must begin to be more and more leniency to tactics. Is Wenger recent purchase of Ozil a one time thing to please the fans or will he adapt a model more suitable for the premier league.  Clearly the investment is paying dividends as Arsenal  has now collected 9 points from 9 and currently leads the Premier League.