Arsenal: Hector Bellerin critcisms honourable but foolish

Hector Bellerin has criticised clubs that spend £200 million in the transfer window, defending Arsenal’s frugal principles. Such criticism, though, while honourable, is foolish.

Arsene Wenger is an economically minded man. It is both a vice and a virtue. It means that Arsenal, even as they continue to compete at the top level, are managed with great care and attention, protected financially and stable for the future; it means that titles and trophies, no matter they’re being the ultimate and only goal, are often out of reach of a talented and yet flawed team.

What has so transpired, as so perfectly and painfully delineated this summer, is a club that continues to spout its ambition without ever proving it with. Actions, as they say, speak louder than words, and for Wenger and Arsenal, their actions tell a very different story to their words.

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But for Hector Bellerin, a player who has benefitted from Wenger’s seeming unwillingness to spend, patiently working his way through the academy and into the first team, the flashy spending of those around them – Everton, Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City all broke the £100 million mark; Arsenal ranked ninth in the Premier League, behind the likes of Leicester City and Watford – is not necessarily a sign of success. Speaking with the IB Times, Bellerin implied an element of criticism towards those clubs, stating that ‘football is not just about spending money:’

"“Football is not just about spending money. There are some clubs paying £100m and £200m on players but I do not think that’s the philosophy. The important thing is to build a good team, a good block and get results from there. Sometimes it takes time while other clubs use money. Each club has its own resources and its way of working. What matters is that on the pitch we give the maximum to prove that money is not everything.”"

Such comments, while honourable and deserving of respect are, unfortunately, a little foolish. Although football is not just about the money, it is often those that spend the most that achieve the most.

Between the years of 2010 – 2016, including the summer transfer window in 2016, per CEIS, Manchester City amassed the highest gross spending in Europe, totalling £867 million. They are followed by Chelsea, Manchester United, Barcelona, Paris-Saint Germain, Liverpool and Real Madrid in that order.

During that same period, Manchester City won two Premier Leagues, as did Manchester United. Chelsea won one, but did win the league in 2010 and 2017, and have also won the Champions League in that period. Barcelona won four La Ligas and two Champions Leagues. PSG won four Ligue 1 titles and Real Madrid won one La Liga and two Champions League titles (they would go on to win another Champions League and La Liga in 2017).

The only outlier, then, is Liverpool, and that can be explained because of the raft of sales that they prohibited. No club in Europe made more money than Liverpool from sales between 2010 – 2016, and they actually only amassed a net spend of around £170 million. Manchester City, for example, amassed a net spend of approximated £650 million.

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Bellerin may want to protest that Arsenal can avoid spending and can still build a squad that can ‘prove that money is not everything’. But as history teaches us, that simply isn’t true. Other than the odd miracle, namely Leicester City, spending is a necessity for success. It far from guarantees it, but without it, titles and trophies are just a distant dream, a whisper in the wind, an unfounded hope that will rarely become a reality.

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