£120m Or Bust: Allardyce Fires Arsenal Warning Ahead Of West Ham Clash - But Is He Correct In His Thoughts?

Arsenal take on West Ham this evening looking to climb back into the top four of the Premier League table. As if the three points weren't important enough against their north London rivals, Hammers boss Sam Allardyce has been quick to give his opinion on why the Gunners are not challenging for the league that they led for so long.

Allardyce points towards the financial strain since Arsenal switched to the Emirates, and suggests that they won't be title contenders for some time yet.

Reported on the Mirror, Allardyce said, "I still go back to the fact that Arsenal’s building of the Emirates is one of the main reasons why they have not won another trophy or won the league since.

“They haven’t had the spending power to sustain what they had before. They used all the money to build the stadium which limited their spending. So I’d say that was the start of what they haven’t been able to recover from.”

But is he right? I disagree with the West Ham manager. The Gunners proved this season that they can cut it with the best on a long term basis, but in the big games they have fallen short and have suffered a lot of injuries.

 For me there is a lack of winning mentality. It's as if the players, the fans and everyone else involved with the club expects them to fall short, and the nine-year wait for a trophy won't end until everyone pulls together.

Of course the spending has something to do with it, but they spent money this summer and that hasn't worked.

For me it's a lack of winning mentality, not the amount they spend.

Comments

[Steve S]

I believe Sam has a point. If Arsenal had spent more money on quality players they would of had a depth in the squad that would of been able to handle the injuries that they had. West ham had injuries at the beginning to mid season and we do not have the funds or depth in squad to deal with it which is why we are where we are. Arsenal were winning the league with a fit squad as soon as the injuries started to appear (which is part of the game now days) they started to slide, and as they have not been able to spend the money are the depth of the squad they are now looking possibly at 5th or best 4th spot (again).

[bernard]

Big Sam is right in his comment. You don't get high quality players for free, Wenger should be saluted for the structure he has been able to build at afc. With time his policy of developing babies will turn to full quality matured players that can win trophies. By the way how many clubs in England has won trophies in England? Can we we have the statistics or pie chart that can tell us how other teams have fare in regards of not winning a trophy?