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The new signings were effective but the gap could only be closed to 10 points at the end of the season.

That summer major reinforcements came in the shape of Giovanni Van Bronckhorst and Sol Campbell. The latter joining on a free transfer from bitter rivals Tottenham. Kolo Toure was also bought that summer. This team that Wenger had been building over the past few summers went on to win a League and FA Cup double that season and became the foundation of a team that won two FA Cups and went unbeaten in the league over the next 3 seasons.

You may, by now, be wondering where this is going. Well I’ll tell you.

With the arrival of Santi Cazorla to add to Giroud and Podolski and the signings of the past few years I want to bring a little more positivity to your Arsenal supporting lives and lay out some similarities between these periods of time. We’ve been rebuilding the squad under the radar masked by the sales of some top players which we didn’t have to deal with last time but then again last time around we only really had one big name and that was Dennis and he wasn’t going anywhere! We’ve also had to contend with finishing significantly behind the champions.
Over the past few summers we have seen the arrival of Vermaelen, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Arteta, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gervinho, Cazorla, Podolski and Giroud.

That could easily read Lauren, Campbell, Toure, Edu, Pires, Wiltord, Kanu and Henry. Not in terms of direct comparison of ability but in terms of spend, squad depth contribution and current and future playing contribution. The current lot cost a combined £83m (approximately) and the 1999-2001 signings cost a combined £48m (approximately). The £35m difference is easily swallowed by the change in spending in football over that period. In 2000 Pires was earning £17,000 per week and Bergkamp was our top earner on £30,000 per week. We have sold fringe players over the past few years that have earned more than those two figures combined.Going into next season we have a fantastic squad who I believe are capable of challenging for the title despite some concerns over our defence which I believe I did a decent job of defending in my last post.

We have international pedigree strikers entering the peak of their careers, three international class centre-backs, six “first-choice” players for our three midfield spots, three promising youngsters pushing them hard for a spot and if the rumours of a swoop for Sahin on top of the signing of Cazorla are true then we’ll have 14 players fighting for 5 spots across our midfield and wide areas. That is the sort of strength in-depth so many have been crying out for and the likes we haven’t seen since our early noughties purple patch.

Wenger has built an incredibly good squad on the quiet and players that were maybe maligned for their performances last season will be considered excellent depth players going into the new season. Wenger has, in my opinion, built a title challenging squad and has quite remarkably done it almost entirely unnoticed.

So far this summer Wenger and the club have brought in Podolski and Giroud for a reported combined fee of approximately £20m. There are varying reports on Cazorla ranging from £12m to £20m but I feel comfortable in the £16m range that’s been reported and even at £20m Cazorla is an absolute steal and Sahin on a season long loan would be incredible business.
Those players combined with our other purchases of the past few years would see a complete overhaul of the team with real strength in depth and quality of competition with a transfer spend of roughly £35m a season. When you consider that many clubs drop £35m on a single player you can’t help but admire the club and especially Arsène for their stubbornness to stick to their principles and their ability to spend extremely wisely in the majority of cases.

For years fans and the media have been calling on Wenger to spend big bucks on one player. In the early part of the century it was £20m on a player. Then it was £25m. Then it was £30m and these days we see figures of £35-40m thrown out there. Götze being a perfect example. There was so much willing for Arsenal to spend £40m on Götze but Wenger instead spent the money on AOC, Arteta, Gervinho and Mertesacker. This summer it was Hazard for £32m and if Arsenal do manage to pull of the deal of the year by getting Cazorla for £12m then that will see Santi, Giroud and Podolski for the same fee.

I’m sure there have been plenty of players over the years that we would have loved to see come to the club but you cannot help but admire Wenger’s ability to pick up fantastic players for next to nothing when compared to the spends of other clubs.

Arsenal Other Teams
1999/2000 Thierry Henry - £10m
Kanu - £4.5m Anelka - £22.3m - Madrid
2000/2001 Pires - £6m
Wiltord - £13m
Edu - £6.5m Overmars - £25m - Barcelona
2001/2002 Campbell - FREE
Toure - £150k Veron - £28.1m - Man U
2002/2003 Gilberto - £4.5m Ferdinand - £29.1m - Man U
El Hadji Diouf - £10m - Liverpool
2003/2004 RVP - £2.75m Mutu - £15.8m - Chelsea
Crespo - £16m - Chelsea
Duff - £17m - Chelsea
Saha - £12.8m - Man U
2005/2006 Diaby - £2m
Adebayor - £7m
Walcott - £5m (eventually £9.1m) Wright-Phillips - £21m - Chelsea
2006/2007 Rosicky - £6.7m Shevchenko - £30m - Chelsea
2007/2008 Sagna - £6m
Eduardo - £7.5m
Anelka - £15m - Chelsea
Hargreaves - £17m - Man U
2008/2009 Ramsey - £5m
Nasri - £12m
Arshavin - £15m Bosingwa - £16m - Chelsea
Berbatov - £30m - Man U
Keane - £20m - Liverpool
Jo - £18m - Man City
Robinho - £32m - Man City
Bridge - £10m - Man City
2009/2010 Vermaelen - £10m Zhirkov - £18m - Chelsea
Aquilani - £20m - Liverpool
Johnson - £17m - Liverpool
Santa Cruz - £18m - Man City
Adebayor - £25m - Man City
Toure - £16m - Man City
Lescott - £22m - Man City
Tevez - £25m - Man City
2010/2011 Koscielny - £9m
Ryo - £1m Torres - £50m - Chelsea
Luiz - £21m - Chelsea
Ramires - £17m - Chelsea
Carroll - £35m - Liverpool
Suarez - £22.8m - Liverpool
Meireles - £11.5m - Liverpool
Kolarov - £16m - Man City
Balotelli - £24m - Man City
Milner - £18m - Man City
Džeko - £27m - Man City
2011/2012 Gervinho - £10.5m
AOC - £12m
Santos - £6m
Mertesacker - £8m
Arteta - £10m
Jenkinson - £1m
Campbell - £1m
Eisfeld - £450k
Lukaku - £13m - Chelsea
Mata - £23.5m - Chelsea
Meireles - £12m - Chelsea
Young - £17m - Man U
Henderson - £20m - Liverpool
Adam - £12m - Liverpool
Downing - £16m - Liverpool
Aguero - £38m - Man City
Nasri - £24m - Man City
2012/2013 Giroud - £12m
Podolski - £9-10m
Cazorla - £12-16m?
Sahin - Hazard - £32m - Chelsea
Oscar - £25m - Chelsea
It’s amazing that Wenger has managed to keep us in the top four for so long when you compare what we have spent on teams and others have spent on players. This is not to say that any of those players are bad players but would you really swap 4/5 very good players for 1 very good-class player?

The year is 1999 and Arsenal have just finished the season without a trophy. They have been comprehensively beaten by an inspired Chelsea by 5 goals to nil in the Worthington Cup, have exited the Champions League in 3rd spot behind Lens in 2nd and group winners Dynamo Kyiv, lost the FA Cup semi-final to Manchester United in extra-time and missed out on the league on the final day of the season to Manchester United by 1 point. (Incidentally United conceded 37 goals that year and still won the league, Arsenal conceded 17 and finished 2nd. These days “defensive frailties” are often quoted as a reason for not winning the league but I would suggest that United’s 80 goals scored to our 59 and Man City winning the league on goal difference shows that attack is quite often the best form of defence.)Arsenal had started the season poorly with 4 draws and a loss before the end of September leaving them with just 10 points and though they fought extremely hard to get back into title contention they ultimately finished the season pot-less and with a bitter taste in their mouth. Things for the fans were about to get worse.

Picked up for £500,000, free scoring Nicolas Anelka looked to be the buy of the century until Real Madrid came calling and Anelka left in a £22.3m deal. Financially it was very good for the club but having come so close to retaining the title and with no prolific striker in the ranks with Ian Wright having left the summer before the fans were understandably tetchy and worried about our ability to compete.


Shortly after losing Anelka we signed Thierry Henry. Thierry who had started his career as a striker joined Arsenal with a decent reputation as a wide player but coming off the back of a disappointing spell in Turin. At the time he was not considered a direct replacement for Anelka and many felt that we would still be lacking up front. We had replaced our best goalscorer with a winger.
The following season we finished 18 points behind United and never really looked like challenging for the title. That summer we sold Overmars and Petit in a £30m double deal to Barcelona but we made an early statement by signing Pires and Edu for a combined fee of £12.5m fighting off interest in Pires from Real Madrid along the way. Arsène Wenger had essentially replaced two star players with players of equal calibre for less than half the price. He also picked up future defensive star Lauren for £7m and the often forgotten Fourth Musketeer Sylvain Wiltord for £13m. Wenger had managed to replace and strengthen the team for a net spend of £2.5m.

iseg007: I really doubt it, I know when applying for IT jobs, they always ask for PSW or workpermit, most companies dont want to apply for anyone as it is a waste of time when there are EU citizens avaliable.

The few ones i know that one can apply for are the Blue-chip companies, like Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, Accenture, Ernest & young....and a few others, but the competition is CRAZY...I will not advise anyone to come and do Masters or school in the UK.

horny4u: I live in beautiful southwest England but I order my smoked goat head, hard chicken, pomo, shin meat etc online. I envy those that can go to all this markets o. No shame in loving my food...Tesco only just started selling gari, beans and malt and Morrison okro and rodo...in the past they were not catering for the minority market so ....
Lets not over posh ourselves I shop at waitrose alot because they have high quality organic food but someone needs to cater for my ogiri needs and if loving my food makes me backward....oh well!

Billyonaire: It baffles me. If a world class economist known worldwide with 25yrs experience in the world bank job is criticized profusely by her own people, I think we need our heads examined.

buzugee: i will lol. and post it here. and then on saturday, liverpool street, you see them carrying live chickens on their head crazy people. then you also see them at billinsgate with huge boxes of fish on their head. these people like meat. thats why they get gout and all kinds of extinct diseases

drzed: For your information there are MANY Christians studying (or have studied) in King Fahd University. Many are applying even in Nigeria as we speak. There are also many Christians currently working full time in King Fahd University. A lot of them from Nigeria too. Just to mention a few Christian staff (with links where available):

1). Mr. Adewale Adejumo (PE Department)
2). Dr. Robert Opoku (Management and Marketing Department): http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/MGM/opoku/
3). Prof. George Stegeman (Electrical Engineering) http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/EE/stegeman/
4). Anthony Donova (English Language Dept)
5). Filippo Beltrami Gadola (Architecture Dept): http://www3.kfupm.edu.sa/arch/Arc_People/beltrami.html
6). Dr. Aldo Vesnaver (Earth Sciences)
7). Dr.Michael A. Kaminski (Earth Sciences)
8.). Dr. Giulio Vignoli (Earth Sciences)
9). Dr Giovanni Menanno (Earth Sciences)
10). Dr. Stephen Binns (Mathematics): http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/MATH/binns/
11). Dr. Robert Heffernan (Mathematics):http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/MATH/heffernan/
12).Dr. Jan Pieter Hogendijk (Mathematics):http://www1.kfupm.edu.sa/math/Faculty_pages/Adj_hogend.htm
13). Dr. Stefanos Orfanos (Mathematics): http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/MATH/sorfanos/
14). Dr. Uwe Shauz (Mathematics): http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/MATH/schauz/
15). Prof. Wolfgang Forner (Chemistry): http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/CHEM/forner/
16). Dr. Dr. Herman Perzanowski (Chemistry): http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/CHEM/herman/
17). Dr. Jayprakash S. Chadchan - Probably a Hindu(City/Regional Planning): http://www1.kfupm.edu.sa/crp/jpchadchan/index.htm
18). The Late Prof. Olusegun Wallace (Economist) and his wife Rosemary Wallace

There are many more Christians in Engineering Departments (i.e. Computer, Civil, Mechanical, Aerospace, Systems, Chemical) as well as in English Language Dept, Finance Dept, Information and computer science Dept, etc. There are also Research Institutes and semi-independent colleges affiliated to this University which I have not even touched/mentioned. Google is always there for the extra curious.

And this list is from King Fahd University ONLY. Which is just one of MANY Saudi Universities. There are thousands of Christians in other universities, colleges and private sector/industry. Not one of them will tell you he was harassed or coerced to convert to Islam. The personal web pages of some of these Christians are provided above. Email them and ask for yourself. Make e no be like say I dey form lie give una.

So Mr (or Mrs) ekt_bear, kindly verify your facts before making wild insinuations which border on the inaccurate (read: untrue). Dont assume. KNOW for sure, before you make any claims.

Oh, by the way, you are welcome! ...for thanking me deep down in your heart for enlightening you on this matter

cheers

Alpha2k: What i do is grow maize for marketers @ N6/standard size. We agree on quantity eg. 50,000 standard size. 50,000xN6 =N300,000. A deposit is made for land preparation, planting, weed control & fertilzer. Balance paid at havest time. Farm site is in ogun state. Transportation of harvest cost about N25,000 depending on quantity & distance expecialy lagos. You can reach me on 08062408926. Austin.

pato405: my brother, help me talk to this guy, I'm just tired of arguing with him. I'll have to ignore him. Everyone knows that getting a job as a foreign student is NOT an easy task here in UK. He's making it sound like it's a piece of cake. most people who get jobs that pay them up to £20,000 get such jobs after MSc usually during the 2yr post study work. some expend the whole 2yr post study without getting it - then, they go back home or try another country.

now, the 2 yr post study work which usually gives them the grace to search for such jobs have been cancelled - meaning they must get such jobs while their Msc is on-going (first 12months) OR immediately after their Msc (the remaining 4months since they usually give 16months visa for a 1yr course). that is a herculean task. something that they find difficult doing in 40months (16 Msc + 24PSW) has now been reduced to 12/16 months (Msc only) to search for because PSW (24months) has been cancelled. this analysis is simple na.