talkingOfArsenal.com

The BBC's website last Friday quoted Manchester Utd's manager, Alex Ferguson as saying that Liverpools Benitez was going to be handed a war chest for the coming summer.

Buried in the detail of that article which did mention Arsenal, was the following:

"In terms of net spending - taking into account income from sales - the clubs are much the same. Liverpool's net spending over five years on players is £82.5m and United's has been £85.5m. Meanwhile, Chelsea spent £154.8m net on players during that time and Arsenal just £3.4m."

I've always felt that Wenger has the well-being of Arsenal at heart, hence his unwillingness to spend large amounts of cash on any one player.

Considering that in the last 12 years during Wenger's reign, Arsenal have consistently finished in the top-four season-in season-out (top-2 in eight of those years), including 3 premiership titles along with FA Cups and the like, you've got to hand it to Wenger - he really is a magician when it comes to signing players and juggling the finances at the same time.

In a world where big money on so-called big players dominates, Wenger is swimming against the tide, for both philosophical and practical reasons.

In practice, Arsenal do not have any inclination to borrow and spend on player purchases and wages (yes, they borrowed to build the stadium) - all purchases and wages are funded through the clubs income.

Philosophically, Wenger does not accept that you need to spend big in order to win big - and last season, he almost proved it with Arsenal leading the league until the last few months.

If that isn't representative of a world-class manager, some would even argue the best football manager in the world considering his resources and what he has achieved, then I don't know what is.

We should cherish the fact that he is our manager, and that he cares about the future of Arsenal, hence his frugality in expenditure.

Heaven forbid that a few short-termist, glory-hunters who claim to be Arsenal fans succeed in making him leave Arsenal.

C'mon you Gunners!