Premier League 2018-19: Arsenal's non-spending problems are not all about Arsene Wenger

For much of just over the two decades of Arsene Wenger's management of Arsenal Football Club, a lot was made of the so-called frugality of the Frenchman. So many Arsenal supporters, fans and neutral observers alike were always left perplexed at Wenger's seeming distaste for spending. The former Arsenal boss laboured to explain how he was willing to spend the money if it was available.

"I've said that many times, without any doubt: if we find the right player we will do (a deal). There's a huge difference between the perception that people have of me; I'm not scared to spend money. It was periods where we had not the money. What I don't like is to spend the money I haven't got.

"What I fought against is to spend money that would put the future of the club in danger. Now I have the money. No problem at all" Arsene Wenger laboured to explain. At the time no one seemed to believe him!

A few months after his departure, it is extremely clear that the problem was not Wenger. The problem was and still is Kroenke and his immediate team. After all, Wenger was able to break Arsenal's transfer record in 2013, 2017 and 2018 when he signed Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Real Madrid, Olympique Lyonnais and Borussia Dortmund respectively.

Arsene Wenger was regularly accused of being afraid to spend

In today's world, football has become a very strange and abnormal kind of business where clubs have sometimes spent more than they earn, but find a way to survive and grow even bigger due to financiers who pump in money they earn outside football. Manchester City have been able to establish themselves among the giants in England and are on course to do the same in Europe. Chelsea, PSG and others have done the same.

Arsenal don't need that. They have the money to spend, without a doubt. I'm not saying Arsenal should be careless with their funds, no. But surely Arsenal supporters deserve better. It is very disturbing that a club of that magnitude can have a budget smaller than that of West Ham United. Apart from the physical aspect, football is as well psychological. Football matches are won about 30% on psychological grounds and 70% on physical.

When a team is full of superstar players playing superb football, it develops a feeling of invincibility and the opposing teams will be absolutely petrified to face them. As a consequence, such fear helps such a team beat others psychologically before they meet physically on the pitch.

Manchester City had a psychological edge over their rivals before games

The Manchester United team of 1999, the Arsenal invincible team and Pep Guardiola's Manchester City team last season had that aplenty. The fear and respect is generated first in the market before matters on the pitch. Arsenal needed to make a statement signing, one that would set their camp buzzing and at the same time send shock waves through the opponents' spines, just as Liverpool did when they signed Alisson Becker from Roma. With the other new players at Anfield, Liverpool are sure to command a lot more respect from opponents both at home and abroad than Arsenal would.

This is not to despise the players Arsenal have signed, they are actually good players and could surprise their doubters with impressive performances. But buying talents instead of proven players has left many unconvinced, including their opponents. This will make them come at them convinced that they could pick points from them and Arsenal will have to prove them wrong first.

Football has become more monetized, so much so that the teams that spend more money are the ones that achieve big on the pitch. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, PSG have all spent huge sums of money on player purchases and the results are there for everyone to see.

Hirving Lozano (left) would have a huge impact on the wings for Arsenal

Nowadays, rarely do teams that operate on shoe-string budgets win trophies of note with Leicester City being an obvious exception. It is clear that Arsenal need a speedy winger, one they can rely on to widen play if the opponents suffocate the middle. Cristian Pavon, Hirving Lozano, Wilfried Zaha and Florian Thauvin would be very good candidates. I'm sure Emery would be very happy to have one of them.

But will he be given the necessary funds to land them? It doesn't seem so, at the moment.So it's now crystal clear that the frugality, the stinginess was not synonymous with the departed Arsene Wenger, but with Arsenal themselves.