Former Arsenal star Paul Merson has bemoaned the lack of ambition shown by Arsene Wenger in the transfer market.
Wenger’s relaxed approach in this summer’s window has come in for heavy criticism after the club failed to strengthen key areas of a squad that many believed needed fine tuning for a title push.
Other than Petr Cech, Arsenal did not make any significant additions to their squad and they earned the dubious distinction of being the only club in Europe’s top five leagues that failed to sign any new outfield players for their first team squad.
Merson has ripped into Wenger and reminded the Frenchman that he is not sitting on his or the club’s cash, but rather the fans, who deserve more bang for their buck.
The former Gunner added that the whole notion of the new stadium was to make the club financially strong enough to attract the best players in the world, which he feels has not been the case so far.
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“I wouldn’t be happy if I was an Arsenal season ticket holder, paying top dollar [for it]”, Merson said on Sky Sports News.
“It is their money, not Arsene Wenger’s money. It is not the club’s money, it’s the fans’ money they pay to buy players.
“The whole idea was that we are going to this big stadium, holding 60,000 people, to bring in top quality players.”
While Merson admits that it is not always easy to attract the best players, he bemoaned the chronic lack of ambition shown by Wenger this summer.
“Just put in a bid for [Karim] Benzema, £75m; if Real Madrid turned around and said that we are not selling him, you can’t argue with that.
“You went in a positive way, you put in a bid, they turned it down or the lad doesn’t want to come, but show some ambition.”
