The Arsenal approach to spending money in ten easy steps, rinse, repeat and lets start again Arsene;
Step 1 – Make a ridiculous amount of money through high ticket prices, bloated tv deals and increasing sponsorship from gulf state airlines
Step 2 – Step back and watch as your gross revenue rockets upwards
Step 3 – Build up a large amount of cash reserves. This is the step where Arsene Wenger is wheeled out in front of the press to say the club has plenty of money to spend but they are only looking for players with great/special “quality”
Step 4 – Sell a number of players and replace them with fewer players, continue to pretend the squad depth has improved because of the 16 year old eastern Europen you signed in May has potential to have great/special “quality”
Step 5 – As the Summer transfer deadline approaches and fans are getting desperate, Arsene Wenger is wheeled out again to re-iterate the great/special “quality” within the squad
Step 6 – Week 2 of the season and at least 3 senior squad players are already injured. Arsene Wenger speculates that the players recovery time could be anywhere from 1 week to 5 months. The media universally assumes it will be 6-8 months.
Step 7 – Arsenal website declares a player has joined the squad…..it turns out to be perpetually injured Abou Diaby, who’s return now from his most recent injury is treated as being “like a new signing”
Step 8 – 1 day left before the transfer deadline and 4 more senior squad players get injured, Arsene Wenger is confident they will all return from injury with 5 weeks to 18 months.
Step 9 – Stan Kroenke takes a break from pretending not to move his NFL team to Los Angeles, somewhere he can charge even higher ticket prices then Arsenal do, and agrees Arsenal should probably sign some players
Step 10 – Arsenal sign Real Madrid/Barcelona cast-off. Fans go wild. One eyed optimists everywhere ignore the fact that the squad only has 2 senior central defenders and one striker and predict this is the year.