Arsenal: Arsene Wenger using Sead Kolasinac for evil

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is a thrift shopper and he doesn’t care what you think of it. The problem is now he has proof that he can be right.

Arsenal found a true gem in Sead Kolasinac. The left back for the Bundesliga team of the year in 2016/17 has been everything we could have wanted and more. Even the rabid English media has simmered down and accepted that, yeah, maybe he was a good signing after all, despite the fact that he didn’t cost £50m.

One of the main criticisms that Arsene Wenger runs into is his reluctance to spend. And to be fair, I agree that a transfer is not determined by the price tag. You really can’t argue that, although if some bold soul constructed a graph comparing price tags with impact, you would probably see that more times than not, expensive players have bigger impacts, but that’s not the point.

The point is that it’s foolish to judge a move based on how expensive it was, and to slate a move because it was cheap or free.

And, as mentioned, that is one point Wenger makes. But another point he has made painfully clear is that if he can choose between an actual solution that costs a lot of money or try to slip under the radar with a slick pick-up, he will probably choose the latter.

You can say that Alexandre Lacazette is an exception, but Lacazette took three years for Wenger to finally pull the trigger. And this was after he tried Lucas Perez, who was about a third of the cost.

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Wenger recently spoke up about his prized Bosnian, saying that he is proof that there are still good deals to be made out there (as quoted by ESPNFC).

Again, I agree whole-heartedly. Of course he proves that. But what I worry about is Wenger using Kolasinac as his banner to go out there and try to find more bargain buys rather than spending more on what is right in front of him.

Because it always feels like he is more intent on being clever than directly addressing a problem. For instance, no major sale has ever been met with an immediate, answering purchase.

Or, there are examples like Yaya Sanogo, where a bargain buy fell flat on its face. I don’t want Kolasinac to open the door for more Sanogo’s, and that’s what I’m afraid of.

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In the end, only time will tell. Wenger has been spending more lately and I have to give him credit for that. It is absolutely not all about the money, but by that standard, money also should not be holding him back.

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