Before we venture into why Arsene Wenger has regressed in the transfer market (next slide), we have to establish his genius and how much influence he wielded.
£21.8 million—the profit Arsene made from Nicolas Anelka in 1999 [2], who was only a Gunner for two seasons and a half.
£7 million, free transfer, £150,000 and academy graduate—how Wenger constructed the Invincibles' back line (Lauren, Sol Campbell, Kolo Toure and Ashley Cole) [3].
Ignored a major red flag in Thierry Henry's Serie A failure [4] and proceeded to not only spend a significant amount in bringing him to Highbury (£11 million; per BBC Sport), but changed the Frenchman into a No. 9.
Blind faith is the phrase to describe Le Professeur waiting eons for RVP to finally put one great season together. He then sold him to Manchester United for £24 million after the Dutchman turned into Judas (from BBC Sport).
Bought Emmanuel Adebayor for £3 million, when he had scored four goals in 21 games for Monaco, and sold him for £25 million (to Manchester City) four seasons later.
[1] Converted to around €40.6 million for a player that didn't make one single PFA Team of the Year in three Premier League seasons. Wenger sold poor old Joan Gaspart a bill of goods.
[3] £7.15 million for the Premier League's best defence. Manchester United bought Rio Ferdinand for £30 million (via BBC Sport).
[4] In an interview with FourFourTwo.com, Thierry claimed his form had nothing to do with his exit from the Bianconeri.
[5] Here are some brilliant quotes about a young, brash, misunderstood and troubled van Persie (compiled by The Telegraph's Oliver Brown):
Bob van Persie; Robin's dad: "When my wife and I divorced, he came to live with me until he was in his twenties. Until he turned 12, I had a hard time controlling him. But suddenly he turned positive. He found football as something to put his energy into."
Rik van der Donk; sports teacher: "Robin was a rascal. He always made a statement [i.e. Van Persie 2 PSV 0!] when he came into the classroom—teachers had difficulties with him."
Carlo de Leeuw; worked with RVP at Feyenoord: "The coach [Bert van Marwijk] asked him to warm up, but he replied, 'No, I don't want to', or words to that effect. Then he was told to go away. He was that kind of player. You had to keep him short, you know what I mean?"
Martijn Krabbendam; football writer: "Van Hooijdonk [One of the world's most prolific forwards at the time] was not the type to be overruled, and I watched Robin push him away, thinking 'What is he doing?' He hit the bar with the free-kick, so you could say he was right. It showed character."
Krabbendam added: "He [Van Persie] was essentially a street kid talking to the coach [teammates, staff, media, etc.] like he was one of his friends. He didn't always have the vocabulary to verbalise his feelings."
Link: [Soccer Live] Bolivia - Argentina - FIFA World Cup 2014 Qualifying
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