I agree that not signing Ronaldo because he would have ended up at Real Madrid is a terrible argument. However I strongly disagree that David Dein was responsible for the siginings. Before Arsene Wenger came to Arsenal i’m not sure we knew who some of those players were. And yes David Dein took a leap of faith based on Wenger’s word and signed some cheques but credit still has to go to Wenger.

Don’t forget Henry was rotting away at Juventus and Vieira was a bench player at AC Milan. Those signings could have easily gone wrong however Wenger’s faith in those players made them Arsenal greats that we talk about today. If we’re going to talk about signings since the “youth project” then there is an argument that Wenger has signed more good player than bad. Not World Class of course but if you look back at Wenger’s transfer activity you’ll see he has only ever signed 2 already established World Class players; Sol Campbell and (maybe) Alexis Sanchez. All the other players became World Class at Arsenal before they moved on. So I think Arsene deserves a lot more Credit that you’ve given him.

Wait, so you’re saying that because Ronaldo would have left for Real anyway, it’s a good thing we missed out on him? That’s a rather strange sort of logic…

Yes he signed Vieira, Pires, Henry and Lauren and yes he had a lot of success with those players. But how much was their signing down to someone like David Dein too? Quite a large part. And the success that Wenger had with those players was largely down to the sheer brilliance of those individual players, coupled with their experience prior to joining Arsenal, or having the English core providing that experience. As soon as Wenger took up ‘project youth’ the experience of players he was bringing in was negligent at best, and those who had ‘experience’ were lacking in quality, and lo and behold the winning ways dried up.

Of recent signings you mention Cesc, Kos and Alexis. Okay, so those are three from the ‘modern’ era of Wengers reign, one of which (Alexis) was an already established star. In this last 10 years or so there have been a much higher rate of poor quality players signed by Wenger (and Wenger alone), largely down to the ego trip he is on.

So you think Wenger is the only manager who has ever made a bad signing? That’s a bit harsh. Everyone misses signings. He’s human, not a cyborg. He admitted that he regretted missing Ronaldo and Drogba but in the end, Ronaldo would have left for Real anyway, that is wherevhe wanted to play. Yaya did not have a work permit and could not have signed. I don’t think he was ever linked with Bale. Ibra he was willing to give a chance to but he went elsewhere. Schneiderlin? You’re going to count that as a biggest mistake? He is nowhere near worth the 24-27 million United payed for him.

With those blunders in mind. Think about Cesc, Pires, Henry, Kosc, Lauren, Alexis, Vieira. Guys that have benefited the team to no end. If you only highlight the mistakes of someone, of course they should be sacked. But when you look at how much they’ve done to outweigh those mistakes, you see why they are still here.