DISQUS

burngooner · 4 months ago

well lets be fair, Arsenal do have a large share of capital compared to Celtic, but was the result simply down to money ?.....HELL NO. people forget what Arsenal has is a great FOOTBALLING IDENTITY which tells you to PASS and MOVE yes thats what this team is based on. Its a ART that the Wengers boys have mastered and do it to every opposition out there. most have been playing together for some while now and know every other players next move. All this has come through lot of hard work put behind the screen in scouting and academy. When all there work comes out just as planned you get a good result.........Simple as Dat

Steveo · 4 months ago

Just get over it. We won, you lost. End of. In every game there is a team that cost more than the opposition. Will we whinge if we get beat by Chelski, Manure, etc. on account of money? Doubt it. Will Celtic apologise for beating the likes of Motherwell or Dundee Utd (whom the old firm have dominated partly by buying any decent players they bring on because they can afford to)??? Nope. Bring your small time Charlies down to Ashburton, take your spanking and then p*** off back to your little competitions where you belong. It's not as though Celtic or Rangers are ever going to progress very far in the CL anyway so best leave it to a team that will have a good go.

robertmcmahon · 4 months ago

would just like to add after reading the other posts. yea maybe in the past few years there has not been english players in the arsenal squad. but their has been a hell of a lot brought up threw our youth system and playing in the premier league. its not wengers fault they couldn't make the step up. He may regret letting a few of them go because in there mid twenties they got better (upson) but that was way to long to wait. and he has so many english players in the underage and reserves set up. plus wallcott, gibbs and the one everyone is getting so excited about - wilshire. so infact he has done loads for english football. and as a irish man looking in admiring your first 18 players and think you's have every chance of winning the Wcup next year i still feel that it is only about 18 players you have of any real class. spain could field 3 very strong teams. but as i said your 1st team is a gud as any out there. i do really hope england does it next year. this is your best team ever. but not for long. theres a great setup in england and i feel that in the 10 years that england should have some major honours! p.s. that should mean a lot coming from an irish man. :)

EminemFeatDRe · 4 months ago

Good God Man Trap Will Bring Us Irish The World Cup!!Lol

dolphinoconnor · 4 months ago

I am an arsenal fan but I have to say the above article is highly biased and very misleading. The simple fact is that the revenue (and by extension the wage bill) of Arsenal is three times higher than that of Celtic. It is simply undeniable that Arsenal are much wealthier. It is nonsensical to argue otherwise.

From Celtics point of view this problem is compounded by the relative obscurity of Scottish football - the SPL makes for a rather poor shop window for the very best young talent in europe. If you were a 15 year old player in France and given the opportunity to sign (for the same wages) for either Arsenal or Celtic where would you choose to go? Even if Celtic could afford the massive scouting system that Arsenal have put in place, do you think it would reap the rewards that Arsenal have enjoyed? I don't think so.

Having said all that, the comparison between Arsenal and the rest of the "big four" is certainly valid - similar budgets but different philosophies.

robertmcmahon · 4 months ago

Great article. i like the part about the peruvian 12 year old because henry use to be played as a left back in france. then he was moved to left wing a few months before wenger bought him. but i would safelyy say wenger had his eyes on him long before that and knew he was no defender.

also wenger keeps going on about this "recession" hitting football hard. and if it does then teams like united and liverpool could find themselves following leeds. i know people might laugh at that statement because they have such big followings but so do leeds. infact they hadd near 30,000 at their last home game and their league 1. were making money and their not. arsenals only debt is a stadium which is paying for itself at the moment. well it an highbury complex. wenger is a genius because these four yeears might have been hard but at least we won't be fighting it out in mid-table in 3-4 years time selling players to keep our club going!

geezer1287 · 4 months ago

I dont think anyones mentioned this but.....You werent complaining about rich vs poor when youve beaten Man United at your end. I repect Celtic, thought they played well, we got lucky, but deserved it. I dont see why the media makes such a big commotion outta nothing, before the game it wasnt "rich vs poor" so why does it change after the final whistle??

Great article by the way, as always

bostongooner · 4 months ago

Brilliant article that rationalizes and explains what has being going on in N5 these last 10 yrs and more. Well played.

The future is bright if not engaging, exciting and worth watching.

I think the one thing people fail to comment on with Wenger is his ruthless nature with malcontents. It's not as obvious as Ferguson but it's the same nonetheless. If you so much as hint at wanting to leave, you will leave, but it will never be a fire sale.

Which leads to the obvious example of how not to do it. When the Spuds just quit on their employers, fans and shirt last season in order to get their manager fired was anything written about how pathetic this fine group of English talent gathered at huge expense were disgracing the game. No.

It's only a matter of time before that lot will implode. The thing to look forward to is the classic post Redknapp scenario of financial ruin and relegation (West Ham, Southampton and the soon to be down and out Pompey).

As for the comments of the Old Firm below. You were relevant for about 5 minutes in the 60's, so you have a few fans and you're loud. If you want to fly, drive or swim to watch that crap you are welcome to it. Season over, see you next year.

bhoy1887 · 4 months ago

The main reason Arsene wont spend big is the last time he splashed the cash he got stung Reyes anyone ? although he got most of his money back I think the main thing for Arsene was it confirmed that no matter how much you spend every transfer is a gamble.No matter what your artilce says you would have a poorer side without your tv deal.I dont ask or expect anyone to apologise for that just admit most of the foriegn players would not be here but for the money. Also Celtic have a decent youth set up with 6 player used last season coming though the youth set up although unfortunately the young Scottish players are not as good as those from the past eg Johnstone and Dalglish. Although I totaly disagree with anyone who says that young McGeady is not top class. It looks like this tie is over and I wish arsenal all the best in the future and look forward to watching their fine brand of football in the coming season. One last point this team Strachans players the time to judge Mobray will when he has his own.

EminemFeatDRe · 4 months ago

arsene has never spent big unless he feels he has to have the player as he did with reyes,reyes was actually very good in his performances its only because he couldnt settle he moved but he was still worth it for the goals against chelsea!
and the celtic youth set-up just isnt as good as arsenal's
at arsenal from the start players are tought 'the wenger way'of beautiful football and play this way through all age groups and then at senior level if they are good enough, a lot arent but wilshere,gibbs lansbury all are and will i imagine stay at arsenal for a fair bit of their careers

bhoy1887 · 4 months ago

Hi if you re read my post you will see that i said our developing players are not as good as in the past. With respect Arsene did not invent youth policy. Busby had one at Man U Big Jock bless him broungt through many at Celtic in his time some of them truly world class. Your problems lie in the future when Arsene retires and your new guy WILL want to do it his way. If you consider Arsene to be you best ever manager then it follows that his replacement will be inferior, thats when your problems will begin. When i was much younger Celtic in nine years played in six European semi-Finals and two Eurpean Cup finals losing the second in extra time I thought it would last forever then Stein nearly lost his life in a car crash was out of football for a year. He did come back but was just not the same man we replaced him with his captain Billy Mcneil and it was slowly downhill from then on. Good luck in the coming season everyone enjoys Arsenals current style of play though as you will know it has not always been the Arsenal way. Enjoy it while it lasts someone someday will want to change it . Hail Hail

EminemFeatDRe · 4 months ago

I know i hacve always dreaded the day arsene leaves us it will be one of the clubs worst days but im sure if the new guy convinces the board to pay high wages we could compete but arsene can do it cheap because he is the best in the world

pmgandhi · 4 months ago

Hear Hear. Excellent analysis and retort. The pundits do not understand what development means and what gambles managers are willing to play. They are comfortable with a template and will rarely go against the stream. We sold Kolo for 14m , Lescott is being valued at £25m while we got Vermaelen for £10m. The criticism comes "He is unproven in premiership". Of course he is unproven - he has never played here before. But can he defend.. yeah he can. Its that stupid nothing statements that gets my blood boiling. Another one is "Arsenal havent won anything for 4 years". Its easy to forget that in that time we have made more progress in Champions league whilst also reaching the semis and finals of other tournaments. We nearly won 2007-08 prem as well.

But its easy to forget and there is clearly an agenda that media have, clearly on the payroll of that Ukranian mafia

daniel765 · 4 months ago

You are absolutely right, People forget that money does not buy success. There is a price to be paid. Arsenal lack of trophies and lack of activity in the transfer market is the price we are paying to develop the you and very talented footballers that we have on our payroll. How many clubs can do what Arsene had done. So when we suceed, people must understand that we have worked for it. Great article.

Joe04 · 4 months ago

I like the piece, Strachan was going on with much the same the other night saying it was like Wenger had a machine gun and mobray had a slingshot because of the cost of our team and the fact that we bring youth players in from abroad (er check last years successful under 18 teams, 2 frenchmen, Barltey from Bolton and a genuine academy 8).
Strachan and Wallace are right they just chooses the wrong evidence. At the end of the day Fab was free, but that doesn't mean he isnt currently getting paid the wages of a £20-£30 million player, a player celtic would be forced to sell long before he reached that value (if he ever would in the scottish league) and one they certainly wouldn't be afford to, or be able to, keep if he did in fact reach that level. By the by, i'm sure i read when Bendtner signed he cost 1 million, Song i'm almost certain cost £2.75 spread over the year of his loan and subsequent purchase and regardless of how much we got back in, we still paid £15 Million for Gallas.

cleveleysgooner · 4 months ago

Good article - however you have underestimated just exactly how much Chelsea have spent. Since 2004 - I reckon that hey have spent over £400m not £100m [think of Crespo / Shevchenko / Veron / Duff / Mutu, over £100m just for them - and not much back in way of sells ].

jj87 · 4 months ago

Firstly, let me say, broadly speaking, that i have great respect for Celtic and its fans.

That being said, the stream of garbage centred around 'Arsenal having more money than Celtic, that's so unfair, boo hoo hoo', is quite frankly a little taxing.

Do Arsenal have more money than Celtic, absolutely. But why is that. Its because the english clubs looked to the future and they saw a dream. That dream became a reality, its called the Premier League.

The Premier League has become the greatest sporting league the world has ever known. It has reached more people than anything barring the Olympics and the World Cup. That should be applauded, that should be used as an example to what can be achieved.

Scottish football has been left to rot for the past 20 years, maybe even beyond that. The league, its grass roots system, its set-up, national team are archaic. And the times of great scottish players are nothing more than a memory.
For the past couple of decades the authorities up there have sat back and allowed the scottish game to fall to pieces.
The result, what we see now. An embarrassment of a league and Celtic and Rangers first teams that are quite frankly a joke.

If Celtic fans want to blame somebody for the shocking state of their game, the fact that Arsenal have more money than them, then take that blame to the powers that be within Scottish football. Don't stand around whinging that Arsenal have made a success of themselves. Don't cry that the English took the steps to address the decline in our game, and succeeded so spectacularly. The gap in wealth is a testament to that vision dreamed up in the early 90's(when the english league was barely better than the SPL right now!).

This whole argument from Celtic fans reeks of sour grapes and jealousy. Its easy to throw bile at those with success, its a lot harder to go about improving your own lot, no doubt thats why Celtic find themselves in the siutation they are now.

diceman1984 · 4 months ago

Damn right!

mjlbsucksnob · 4 months ago

mjlb, you completely missed the point of the entire article, and if you truly believe that Wenger shouldn't be applauded for what he has done than you are not a true fan of the game. Everyone knows that it costs money to put together a team, and to claim differently would be ignorant, but somehow Wenger is able to field a COMPETITIVE team by making proper investments instead of throwing money around. If you look at net transfer spending over the past five years arsenal have spent less than Celtic, since Arsenal have in fact netted a nearly 25 million pound profit over that time period. Get your facts straight and try to stick to commenting on subjects you know something about.

diceman1984 · 4 months ago

Freaking awesome piece on how we always are/were/will be different from all clubs, which I personally take a lot of pride in.

This team will win again, I'm not in a hurry as I will always be supporting this team forever. In the end, I rather have us prove everyone wrong instead of bombarding the market with money to be runners up, nobody really give us any credit but we always laugh the loudest eventually.

PS: Arsenal have become one of the richest club because of its own doing, we've never been bought or taken over by rich lords. And I believe clubs like Celtic do have money but attracting (or finding) great players to sign for the club is another matter.

mjlb · 4 months ago

Nonsense!!

Your team still cost over £35m. Celtic's cost under £10 million. Therefore it was rich against poor. He wasn't comparing you to the 3 above you in the top 4, he was comparing you to celtic and therefore it was rich v poor. I think there was a sense of bitterness, paranoia and ignorance in the above article. I appreciate you tried to be impartial, but you failed!

Caldwell, Maloney, Mcgeady, Brown - all came through Scottish youth systems in the last 10 years. I'm afraid to say your homegrown youth players did infact come via Spain and France. And still no Englishman in sight. Wenger should not be applauded by your fans, but criticised for killing the English game and young players chances. How long before Wiltshire is moved on?

Arsenal1 · 4 months ago

Correct me if i'm wrong but didn't Mr Wenger say that it wouls take 10 years to develop British players, worthy of playing at a club like Arsenal. If u look at the few British players at the club, they are undoubtedly highly talented, players like gibbs, ramsey, walcott and wilshere. So to say that Mr Wenger is killing the English game is propostorous, and if u look at it he made another correct statement, as these players are coming through. I expect an Arsenal side in the future to have many British players, all of whom will be playing for their respective national teams.

atid · 4 months ago

mjlb Dont know how wenger has killed the english game because from what you have stated you are trying to say the national team would be better if we had less foreigners and more english talent. You have also stated 4 players who have come through the scottish youth systems at celtic so why is the scottish national team so shit if there are so many homegrown players coming through the ranks. Don't get me wrong i would love to see more english talent at THE ARSENAL but if the players ain't good enough they ain't going to play and if we were to play them then we would end up with a national team like scotland

simondomt · 4 months ago

Idiot we have Walcott & Wilshere both coming through along with many more behind them 6/7 years in the future the majority of arsenals players will be english while everybody else has none because they cant afford the extortionate prices english players command!!!!

tom · 4 months ago

there's a reason there aren't many British players at Arsenal: with a few notable exceptions, British players are crap. Leaving out Man Utd and Chelsea, who can afford to buy the few English players capable of playing top level club football, there are few worth having. If Arsene started bringing in average players like Caldwell, Maloney, Mcgeady or Brown, the club's days in the top 4 would be over.

clifton666 · 4 months ago

What it boils down to is that Celtic believed the hype that Arsenal would be easy to beat, easy to contain etc. etc. because of the pivotal & inspirational players they sold this summer without replacement. Everton should have been a warning but it went unheeded & now Celtic are looking likely to be dumped out.

Arsenal spend comparitively very little to a lot of other premiership clubs because they don't have the money to spend, so they invest what little money they have wisely in a mixture of foreign & home-grown talent. And now they're supposed to feel bad because Celtic don't have the same resources? Sorry, but that's just sour grapes.

My best friend is a gooner & he's proud that Arsenal don't rush out with millions of pounds of russian/middle eastern/whatever money to buy competitions, they use a sustainable business model with is sensitive to the current global economic conditions and to be honest if they are still able to be competitive in competitions with thos limitations then I for one take my hats off to them.

This article was actually a very good read & the problem is that shit managers & shit teams for years have got away with the "but we don't have their money" excuse and now Wenger is showing what you can achieve if you actually pull your finger out & do something about it.

Dgob · 4 months ago

Boys, play nicely now. I respect Celtic and many of their fans show respect for us. It seems sad if we let media inspired nonsense (Arsenal rich v Celtic poor) create unncessary tension.

Remember that those comparisons came from a truly AFC hating media and ignore the fact that poor and rich are relative terms. For example, the Scottish population and Tv coverage are much smaller than that in England. Hence the Premier league has more money and transfer fees are obviously hiked up when its an English team doing the buying. However, in terms of spend by many teams in England (Arsenal's spend it along the 'poor'), just as I imagine Celtic's spend would put them among the rich in Scotland.

It's all relative man, and I've never heard them saying it was poor against rich when we kicked the asses of the likes of the Gallacticos or AC Milan!

Two great teams, enough said

EminemFeatDRe · 4 months ago

i just wanna point out arsenal actually have 2 billionaire owners and could afford almost anyone but wenger will never do this unless he has to because its not who he is and i prefer it that way and the way we play compared to everone else,its far more exciting how arsenal play and frustrating when shit teams play 11behind the ball because its the only way to stop arsenal

T · 4 months ago

mjlb I imagine you are bitter celtic fan, The match was an example of how if you build a good enough quality team with vision and creativity and train the players minds and ball skills then they will always beat a team of thugs who only know how to foul. I feel sorry for you having to watch the pathetic excuse for football that you have in scotland. Also Arsenal's team, over the years it has taken to develop, actually cost less than yours did so if you had a manager who was shrewd enough to notice these players (like wenger did) you would have been able to have this team yourself! Final point why should wenger play players who aren't as good just because there english? My Boss would be sacked if she hired only english people as it is I work with people from Cameroon, Italy, Spain, France, Ireland, Scotland, Nigeria, India, Portugal, South Affrica... why is football any different? Plus it's illegal to employ someone due to nationality!

sj · 4 months ago

i'm an arsenal fan..and i'd have to admit celtic didn't just go out and kick us..and they aren't just thugs..under mowbary they atleast attempt to play football..

EminemFeatDRe · 4 months ago

sj they still went out to stop fabregas via a foul every time he got the ball and others when he didnt(fox the cunt)so they played a dirty game mostly

TheArsenal · 4 months ago

If it wasn't for Wenger, English football would be about long balls and bad tackles. Wenger changed the game for the better. The fact that Scottish football is still played this way has nothing to do with money, it's about class.
English players are too expensive or simply not good enough to play for Arsenal. Wenger hasn't built a team of foreiners because this was his aim, he just bought the best players he could for the right price.
As for your comment on Wilshere's longevity at the club. Do you really believe Wenger will sell him just because he is British? If this was the case Walcott and Ramsey would have already gone and Adams, Keown, Parlour, Campbell, Cole etc would not have had the careers they did.
Within the next five years the Arsenal team will be full of English and British talent and the national team will be dominated by Arsenal players. Whilst Scottish football will continue to suffer and the Scottish national team will either be English based or sub-standard. I think bitterness, paranoia and ignorance are not words you can associate with Arsenal fans. We have nothing to be bitter about, whilst Celtic and Scottish fans clearly do. We have nothing to fear, so where does the paranoia come into it and if we are ignorant to the current football climate of Scotland then maybe this reflects the opposing levels of prestige and therefore coverage. The premier league is richer than the SPL because it is better. Arsenal are one of the world's best clubs in the world's best league and Celtic are a decent team in a very average league. No offence, I appreciate the good work at Celtic and believe they, Scotland and it's clubs are making the best of a bad situtation.
I have tried to use fact rather than opinion and delusional speculation and I wish you luck at Ashburton Grove. May the best team win.

lam4lam · 4 months ago

Why not having an english player in sight bother you and many others. arsenal along with chelsea are the only clubs in the PL who promotes and develop young talented players ( Mainly english youth ). the reason why currently there are few english players in the arsenal squad simply because firstly english players are over-rated and therefore expensive ( Lampard Vs Essien ) and infact french or foreign players are far more better than english players.

Dig that

EminemFeatDRe · 4 months ago

celtic sold then bought back maloney so he cost them money duh!didnt mention that did you?caldwell was taken from hibs no?have you heard of jack wilshere he is english and a 1st team player,gibbs also and walcott there is 3home grown players you absolute fool!and wilshere is gonna be a 1st team player easy!
and wenger created many english players carrers by giving them the advice he is so great at and allowing them to go to clubs and play week in week out,so he is helping the english game,moron!

mjlb · 4 months ago

i was merely replying to the article above which if you look again did not mention walcott, gibbs or wilshere. And do we know why? Because they weren't in the team. You can't call them 1st team players if they aren't in the team. Jack Wilshere is not a 1st team player yet. Because of a few fleeting glances in pre season you can't say he's established yet. Therefore calling me a moro is a bit overboard. I'm just stating the facts from above. I think Wenger is a very talented manager, one of the best, even if at times he only sees things one way. However maybe you guys should be asking yourself if you need English grit in your team alongside the substance. Chelsea have Terry, Cole and Lampard in the first XI, Man Utd have Ferdinand, Carrick, Scholes & Rooney and Liverpool have Gerrard and Carragher. Even Villa last year had Barry, Young, Knight and Davies at the heart of their good work last year until the last month when they faded. These players are all key players for their clubs and certainly help the foreign players display their talents more freely. Perhaps if you added this to your undeniably brilliant players in the first XI, you would be above these teams and not looking up at them..Admittedly you're not looking up at the moment but it's only 2 games into the season.
As far are Celtic and the SPL are concerned they have so far been celebrated for their play under Mowbray keeping the ball on the deck and I certainly don't think they were heavy handed on Tuesday night whatsoever. Donati is formerly of AC Milan, Crosas - Barcelona, N'Guemo was on Wenger's radar only a year ago. These boys play football. It's the only way they know how and Mowbray shares that philosophy. The SPL was already a poor league before the collapse of Setanta which took another 50million (half their revenue) out of the league. That's now 60m to share between 12 teams. Arsenal have more than that to themselves. I think you genuinely need to understand the financials before making statements of grandeur. I know you think that £35m may not be much for your starting line up in today's market, but compared to out market where even championship clubs can pay higher wages than Celtic and Rangers and League 1 sides can pay more than the other 10, it is on stratospheric terms.
I have no issue with Arsenal or Mr Wenger and I am 100% not bitter. I live in England and have done for 8 years so I am used to the "Scottish footbal is garbage" comments and "I don't know any of your players" attitude, and why should you need to know. The SPL is a minor league in European terms where as the Premiership is the greatest league in the World. What potentially you can't quite grasp though and maybe do not want to grasp is that Celtic is the 4th biggest supported club in the world according to FIFA due to number of fans worlwide and merchandise sales worldwide, and their fans demand greatness even thoguh they play in a very ordinary league but they still punch above thier weight. Even with their horrible budget they have reached the Champions League last 16 twice in the last 3 years (unfortunately drawing Barcelona and AC Milan on both occassions), have beat AC Milan, Man Utd, Benfica, Lyon, Juventus, Porto in the same competition in recent years. And have made it to a Uefa Cup Final in the last 7 years. Imagine the potential of this club with even a handful of the cash available to the EPL. I hope even an ignorant man would acknowledge that much.
In terms of Scotland it was only 18 months ago they were beating France home and away and were ABOVE England in the World Cup rankings. I am fully aware this is nothing to do with Celtic or Arsenal but since other people have mentioned the very sub standard level of the Scottish game on here I'd believe I'd respond. At the moment it's not great but if you look at EPL Transfer Activity this year you'll notice that one of the main countries players are coming in from is Scotland. The best Scottish talent is once again being cherry picked by Premier League clubs and hopefully a Dalglish, Souness, Hansen, Law, Bremner, or Gemmill will come from this in 5 or 6 years time.
I hope Arsenal do well this year and I will be at the Emirates on Wednesday night for the return leg even though the tie is over, but the new stadium is fantastic and hopefully Wenger's style of football will be rewarded at last as it's been too long without a trophy for you boys.

pad · 4 months ago

whilst i agree with the sentiments of the article - the criticism of the british game in particular - i can't accept that arsenal vs. celtic isn't 'rich v poor'.

vermaelan and arshavin costing more individually than the celtic first XI is testament to this.
to claim the likes of fabregas are free is also a bit wrong - and not just because it's clearly their former teams who nurtured them before they were poached. what do you think tempted fabregas to leave barca for a lesser side? it's because EPL offer wages to teenagers that are ridiculous. so really it is money isn't it?

simondomt · 4 months ago

Fabregas was 16 and about to be dropped from Barca youth when arsenal 'saved' him there was no 'poaching' involved. And he learnt most of his 'skills' at arsenal learning from the likes of Pires & Henry at this supposedly 'lesser' side.

EminemFeatDRe · 4 months ago

Barca didnt even want fabregas they didnt offer him a pro contract thats why he left and arsenal were probably the only team who were good who offered him a contract,also spain do offer a lot for youth players its only the best in england who earn a lot
jack wilshere £10k is a good amount for a player of that ability

duncanmaclean · 4 months ago

An apparently well-researched article when it comes to Arsenal's incoming and outgoing transfer fees. I have two questions for Mr Attwood though --

1) Why didn't he research Celtic's incoming and outgoing transfer fees over the same period of time, to obtain a fair comparison of the cost of BOTH teams players? I'll guarantee it isn't even remotely close to the 45 million+ that Arsenal have spent, according to the figures he has quoted. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. Let's compare the wages that the two clubs can afford to pay their players.

2) Why didn't he compare Arsenal's annual share of the Sky TV pot to Celtic's share of the TV money paid to the SPL? Celtic get about 3 million pounds per year from their share of the SPL TV rights. How much do Arsenal and the other EPL teams receive? Could this possibly be one reason WHY Arsenal (and the other EPL teams) can attract and afford to pay players tens of thousands of pounds per week, while Celtic can't?

Arsene Wenger is certainly a very astute manager who must indeed be congratulated on his player selection and teams performance. But let's compare apples to apples, by comparing his efforts to the managers of clubs which have similar amounts of money available to buy and pay highly-paid foreign players, rather than comparing them to Celtic. So Mr Attwood's article should correctly be headlined "Why Arsenal's Wealth Beat Celtic's Poverty"

sj · 4 months ago

brilliant article..

rustygogo · 4 months ago

Superb and incisively analytical piece. Very difficult for majority of football analysts to admit that Wenger ushered in a revolutionary change in football management and ethos upon his arrival; rather better to point at ' flaws' in the Wenger model - '' no English players '', '' very frigile '' '' too tiny '' ....etc.

Some however have valued and copied his model (which may be unfruitful in the short run but will definitely pay dividends in the long run) but the pressure of instant success sometimes fuels the abandonment of of Wengerism .

However aspiring managers should stick to the the principles as ditching them will not be beneficial in neither the short run or the long run. Ask Tony Mobray!

John · 4 months ago

I love it!

Mud in Strachan's eye.

Dexter · 4 months ago

good article i stand by my team arsenal till the end and always say its takes some patience but in the end we will have the last laugh.

seanyboy · 4 months ago

fantastic article well done

celticdan · 4 months ago

Celtic fans were under no illusions that they were playing a much better team.
Arsenal are my favourite English team and are a joy to watch.
But when was the last time Arsenal won anything,the FA cup in 2005 and league champions in 2004.How long are gooners fans going to put up with that when they keep losing there best players.
Someone commented that theo walcott was a young English player comming through,but the gooners paid 5 million for him going on to 12 million depending on appearances,Celtic cannot compete with that type of buying power.

The likes of Burnley,Hull and Stoke can out spend Celtic because of the TV revenue this is not sour grapes it's fact.

Artur Boroc 2 million
Andreas Hinkel 1.7 Million
Gary Caldwell Free transfer
Glenn Loovens 2.5 million
Shaun Maloney 1.5 million
Massimo Donati 2.1 million
Landry N'Guemo Loan
Scott Brown 4.4 million
Aiden McGeady 0 (youth set up)
Georgios Samaras 1.5 million

Celtics starting 11 cost a fraction of the Arsenal starting 11 Fact

Chelski became champions because they bought the best players as did Man utd,the more you spend the better players you can buy,Thats why Arsenal have won nothing for years and thats why Arsenal beat Celtic on Tuesday night.
Celtic have 0 debt and have new state of the art facilities now i hope we can bring through some youth players the same calibre as Arsenal have.

EminemFeatDRe · 4 months ago

arsenal dont sell the best players,wenger lets players like ade go because they clearly dont wanna play for us anymore,he sells touré who was great and buys vermaelan who has been better so far and can head!
thats an improvment and bendter is ade's replacement and this is the year walcott will go through the middle since he has been building up body strenght.
and arsenal have a debt but only because of the emirates and that will be gone in a year or two thanks to very smart ideas in selling apartments at highbury,reccession affects it but it will pay off!and celtic have there stadium a long time,so thats why they are not in debt arsenal when the stadium is payed off wont be in debt ever again as long as wenger is in charge!
so celticdan face it,its not our fault you play in a pathtic league but wenger says yous could play in epl(lies)not top 6 as he says but yous cannot win cl anyway we do have a chance every year i feel

potter · 4 months ago

Some time ago a club was extremely proud and rightly so of it's European success featuring a team born within spitting distance of their ground. Instead of bleating that life is unfair because the premier league is better television and that the Scottish equivalent is only interesting to scots at home or abroad. Maybe they should study their roots and go back to the way it was before and grow their own world beaters instead of buying Primark players and wondering why they can't compete with those from Harrods..

Eddie Chavez · 4 months ago

That's a simplistic article too. Transfer fees tell only one part of the story - wages are a different matter. Currently Celtic to my knowledge don't have any players earning more than £25k a week - and there are probably only a couple of the squad earning that. The average is probably between £10k and £15k a week. How good would your scouting have to be to attract players in that wage bracket and hope to compete in the Champions League? Don't get me wrong, Arsenal are a very good team currently and their scouting system has reaped dividends - but they don't face the difficulties Celtic face in trying to attract people to a crappy league, in a rain-soaked city. :)

Well done to Arsenal for playing lovely football - but after Tuesday I don't see them as serious CL contenders this year...and I doubt they'll pick up any trophies this season. Same old, same old then.

Roshan · 4 months ago

Nice1 buddy..

who? · 4 months ago

Sam Wallace what a tit, there's always 1001 reasons for something isnt it? if arsenal lost it would be down to "losing to a team with more physical presence and maturity in terms of age" wouldnt it? well guess what, that wont happen. the media enjoys taking the mickey out of arsenal.

akif · 4 months ago

oi u thikk ass who ever wrote it .. look at fabregas free den bout now look he is one of the best midfielders in the world.. wy dont u comparwe dem with their values now nd well like to see wat hpnd ...maneul almunia 8-7mil... sagna11mil... gallas 8mill... vermalen14mil..after celtic match..clichy 22mil.... walcott...9mil... fabregas...50mil.. nasri13mil..arshavin25mil...van persie.25mil...eduardo15mil..

Michael · 4 months ago

Wonderful article! What was Untold has now been told! Bravo!

Steveo · 4 months ago

Ok. Now we have established that having more money than the other team is unfair, it follows we now have to move to a socialist system in football where each club is given an identical budget to the next to cover transfers, wages, etc., so every club is on an equal footing. Is that what we want? In which case perhaps the likes of Celtic (and Rangers) would struggle to fill the top 2 spaces every year and therby not be in a position to engage in this trite discussion about funds in a Champions League context..... I guess, in the interests of fairness, Celtic will now lobby the SFA for this to be introduced.

For once it would be nice to see the Arsenal win wihout someone try to p*ss on their parade. Particularly following all the propoganda against us in the close season for NOT spending money on players.

EminemFeatDRe · 4 months ago

this should really be the last said about it because it should end all argument there is,
If money won a football game why were man city not 1st in the premier league last term?because they were rubbish,why were chelsea not champions every year since abramovich took over?why did man u lose to stoke even though they have £80million extra now?its because football is a sport where resluts are gained by team performance and not how much is in the bank!soto say celtic lost because they have less money means that qpr should be in the premier league since they are the richest side in the championship,yet they are an average side and also a point on the english thing jack wilshere is a young british player and he alone destroyed the scottish champions in the emirates cup so we clearly have the better youth and celtic cannot say anything about money they have spent plenty in their time so stop whinging because you arent as well financially managed as arsenal are!

EminemFeatDRe · 4 months ago

~And also if lacking money means you will lose,liverpool will be relegated this season which we all know wont happen,they are£60million down supposed to be made up in transfers so clearly if this is the way football was run put all you r money on liverpool going down and become broke yourself

Fred · 4 months ago

spot on buddy! SPOT ON! Unfortunately this attitude permeates through all levels of "reporting" and is not exclusive to football. If people just put a little more thought and research into what they write....

diceman1984 · 4 months ago

When we don't buy someone and lose people say that we don't have money to buy players so that's the reason.

When we win 2 big games against 2 good side, people say we beat them because we are richer.

People really hates us huh?

I don't care, I like that people always find bad things to say about Arsenal because I will find it so great when we prove them otherwise as we always do!

jazbo · 4 months ago

Great post !!!!!