I thought the idea was to win.
When did it become about making profit?

yeah it's easily viable in my opinion. the local players don't cost anything and most foreign youngsters are bought for minor fees. we also get loan fees for whoever we send out, and transfer fees for whoever doesn't make it. plus with sell on clauses so we get cash later down the line sometimes.

that alone probably balances the books and then you have guys like fabregas, wilshere etc who are massive assets and others such as clichy, bendtner who are decent players for us and also make us a few million if they get sold. obviously there are some flops but the cost of those is peanuts compared to the ones who make it.

going by your transfer funds...

comment by Carefree-Educating the delusional

lol no surprise you're a chelsea fan. clubs who don't have a sugar daddy need to balanace the books or they go bankrupt

It's also clear that we develop few top players (eg Wilshere)
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You said 'a few top players'. Wilsheres one but who are the rest bud?

Will Arsenal fans be happy with the not winning anything but playing great football trophy again this season?

I was under the impression that you actually spent a fair amount on young players, i mean for their age of course.

I wouldn't be surprised if you were only breaking even,

lol we probably break even just from selling players such as bentley, upson etc, etc, etc. could name you plenty. they also have sell on clauses...we got £4m from blackburn when tottenham bought bentley for example.

and then you have a guy with the value of fabregas and you wonder whether we break even lol. whether we sell him or not isn't significant because he is a £40m asset.

then toure, clichy, bentdner etc. etc. etc. who were pretty much freebies who provide decent service and then make a few million when we don't want then any more.

It's clear AW has modelled our youth set-up on Barcelona.

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Yes ofcourse he has, because Barcelona recruit and nurture their young talent from an early age and errrrrrrrr Arsenal go around poaching these young talents when they turn 16. Yep both are exactly the same...

comment by N-N-N-Nineteen

he meant modelled on barca in terms of how young players are trained. barca, and united both have plenty of foreign kids in their academy who are 'poached'. try not being an ass for a change, it might help with your rage issues and you might get some mates

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Tex: Without getting too pedantic I actually said "few" not "a few" but if you are looking for another example you only have to look at the LB in your team.

Not many teams in the world develop true high class homegrown players (eg Barca brought Messi over from Argentina). Even at Arsenal if you were to take top quality local talent developed you would have to go back to Tony Adams et al. A lot of this comes down to luck; Man U lucked out when they got the Scholes, Giggs etc cohort, but haven't really brought through anyone since. And that's why we get in young players from all over the world.

I recall a show on TV featuring Wenger and a younger Fabregas. Wenger was going on about his youth policy and said that by the time an academy player gets to 25, total expenditure is similar to a cash purchase. Looking at our current lot, it's obviously not working.

V interesting last post

@NautiusAlot. Right now I'd be thrilled if we went back to ''playing great football''. The other trophies will surely follow. COYG!