talkingOfArsenal.com

The last few summer transfer windows, have been extremely frustrating for Arsenal fans.

All about us, clubs are spending their cash, buying big-personality footballers sometimes with exotic names.

The question is, is this really wise?

Is David Bentley really worth the reported £17million? Is Darren Bent (signed last year by Spurs) really worth £17million? Is Robbie Keane worth £19million? Is Michael Carrick worth £18million? Is Carlos Tevez really with £35million?

The bottom line is, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester Utd, Spurs and other clubs have all spent, and are all continuing to spend impressively, and these expenditures are on what I appreciate are good players - but great players?

I don't think so.

Without doubt, we have entered a phase in club football, where a culture of average players with overpriced valuations is becoming the norm.

Clubs are paying through the roof, for what are basically good but not great players - as far as I'm concerned, the sorts of player valuations we talking about here really ought to be limited to the absolute very best.

The transfer market truly has gone mad, and there are clear analogies to be drawn between this culture of player over-valuation, and the recent housing market boom that appears to be on the brink of correction.

We appear to be in the midst of a massive bout of 'irrational exuberance' with regards to player purchases (as Alan Greenspan so famously put it) and, just like with the dot-com boom and the UK housing market, there's bound to be a corresponding correction at some point.

The current model of clubs spending big to buy average, is not sustainable. Even Chelsea, with their supposed bottomless pit of funds, are beginning to appreciate that their spending regime is not sustainable.

Abramovich might be a multi-billionnaire, however at Chelsea's current levels of annually salary spend (last year this was reported to be £117million), it would take approximately 8 years to blow a £1billion, something even Abramovich with his billions is unlikely to be wholly comfortable with.

If it hasn't tweaked yet, all those players on £90k to £120k per week adds up. And Chelsea's reported annual wage bill of £117m doesn't even take into account player purchases.

Manchester Utd are now running at almost £1billion in debt (if my calculations are right), and they are betting on winning silverware over the next few years, in order to attract new fans from the Far East - paying off £1billion will require a fair number of "Ronaldo 7" shirts to be sold.

And then there's Liverpool with their boardroom squabbling and looming stadium build - they couldn't have picked a worse time to borrow £400million from the banks to embark on an inherently risky venture.

Which for me, is why Arsenal fans having a go at Wenger for not joining in this mindless spending splurge is extremely ignorant, and virtually bordering on moronic.

Wenger is well known for signing good players with great potential at bargain prices. Eduardo, Sagna, Clichy, Adebayor, are all now household names - who'd heard of them before they turned up at Ashburton Grove?

You can't just go out and buy average players at inflated prices in an over-bouyant market, just because other clubs are doing it and, for now, appear to be getting away with it.

Arsenal are cutting their coat according to their size, no more, no less - and in Wenger, they have the best manager with the best chance of delivering silverware on a sensible budget.

The phrases 'dot-com boom' and  'credit-crunch' have worked their way into common parlance - I fully expect some phrase or other to be concocted in the next few years that encapsulates this period of financial madness during which average players commanded silly money.

And when that happens, Wenger, Arsenal Football Club and us Gooners should be sitting pretty.