When probed for the 437th time in his Arsenal tenure about why he was not splashing cash on new signings, he was exasperated. The market is grotesquely inflated regarding English sides, he argued.
Most of the new TV money is being used on new signings and increased wages that will saddle clubs with £10m-a-season players that may turn out to be useless and still have four years to run on their contract.
Then, walking contradiction that he is, he splashed out over £50m on Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez.
Manchester City have spent the most money of all the Premier League sides this season. Pep Guardiola arrived with a long, long shopping list and it cost his new club in excess of £170m.
He was well aware of the need to ship out some unwanted players before the transfer window closed. Seven senior squad members were loaned out in August with five - Joe Hart, Eliaquim Mangala, Wilfried Bony, Samir Nasri and Jason Denayer - all leaving on Transfer Deadline Day.
https://twitter.com/TorinoFC_1906/status/770944809024577537
But not even sending them elsewhere has gotten those hefty wages off their books, as The Timesreport that City will pay the bulk of the players' wages while they are off at other clubs.
In fact, City will take a whopping £13.5m hit to pay the salaries of men Guardiola would rather be without for the next season.
The club are said to be paying £4m of Hart's £6m annual salary while they are paying over half of Mangala and Nasri's wages. Stoke City did pay a £2m loan fee for Bony so that effectively negates their share of salary pay-outs for 2016/17.
During a summer where ludicrous money was laid out for average players, City's loanees have emerged pretty well.
Wenger should get out while he still can.
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