The Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger has admitted that he may not have the money to invest in players compared to Moneybags Man City, but he still believes his team should now be ready to win the Premiership title.

He was asked directly if he thought this would be Arsenal’s trophy-winning season. “Yes but it depends as well what you consider a trophy,” he said.

“For me a trophy is the championship or the Champions League. Would you like to finish 10th in the League and win the League Cup and say you’ve won a trophy? Certainly not.

“After every season you think about where are we, because the main target is always to get the maximum out of the team.

“I believe last year we were not that far off – with all the injuries we had, with all the problems we had, to finish third in the league and go out in the quarter-final against Barcelona, was not shameful.”

“It’s always like that in my head. Maybe more than ever. My concern is that the policy we have chosen delivers trophies.

“In the last four, five years we have gone for a young team, to bring them up, and we try to be more of a team than the others. We know how to play together but we need to deliver trophies now.

“You just say to me now Manchester City invests over £100 million, we £8m, and if we do not win it it’s a scandal. That’s the question you ask me.

“And I think that you are right, because if we don’t win the championship it is an absolute disgrace, but you have to accept, too, that the league is at a high level and it is not as easy as it looks.”

We all know its not easy Arsene, but it would help if you invested something, or at least replace the players that have left……..

When we speak about key men for Arsenal, we talk about Cesc Fabregas, Robin Van Persie and even Andrey Arshavin etc but for me the real key man is Thomas Vermaelen.

In terms of importance, Vermaelen is much more valuable. It is not a secret that the defensive side of our game has been in the lime-light this summer as we have lost Gallas, Campbell, Silvestre and Senderos. We have added Koscielny to our defence but as yet, that is our only defensive signing. At the moment, that does not look enough. Our only well-known back-up is Johan Djourou and he has not ever had a full season and seems to get more injuries then I have had hot dinners. Johan can be a good player for the club and proved it when he kept Kolo Toure out of the team a few seasons ago; however, injuries seem to come at the wrong time for him.

With Koscielny and Djourou, we have two defenders with great potential but not established. Even Thomas Vermaelen, has only one year experience in the Premier League but proved how good of a player he is.

Thomas was fearless last season and was always putting his head where some people would not put their foot. Thomas was everywhere, he defended like a solider and added goals to his game.

His importance is massive this season. An injury to Thomas and Arsenal will be in real trouble. I still think a centre back will come in, it may happen last minute, but unless Wenger has seen something in our younger generation of defenders, such as Nordtveit then perhaps a deal will not happen. We have strongly been linked to a goal keeper and that seems the more likely deal to be concluded. If a deal for a centre back is done then it may be left very late. I feel Mr Wenger is willing to take a risk with the Liverpool game and thinks he can get away Blackpool at home but think he may have his signings done by the Blackburn game, if not by then, I expect to have a long night when the window shuts. We all remember the Arshavin deal or the Cole and Gallas swap, they certainly were long nights.

Even a defender does come in; I feel Vermaelen will be a massive player this season. He has the tag of ‘future’ Arsenal captain and reminds me of Tony Adams type figure when playing at the back. He can command the back four and control it. He is very vocal and organises his defence well. He will be a great asset this season and I really hope for all our sake that he stays fit because if he does and a centre back and a goal keeper does come in, then I can see Arsenal having a great season.

Arsene Wenger has signed a contract extension until 2014 that will see him end his career as a football manager at Arsenal.

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is well aware of the defensive frailties of his squad after losing four defenders this summer, but he says it is extremely difficult to find suitable players in the transfer market this summer.

“Let’s not be fooled,” he said. “We are short at the back, and we need to add. If we manage to do that, then we are better equipped. We have more experience now, the average age of our players is 23, 24, when they are real men; the league is more open. It is time for us. I believe we have managed quite well to stay in the top four in recent times while we built the new stadium. Now it is time to deliver.”

Wenger did manage to buy Laurent Koscielny, but only after protracted negotiations, as Lorient knew how urgently Arsenal needed him.

“It was unbelievably difficult to get him,” Wenger said. “Many team do not want to sell,”

“Germany is in a very strong financial situation. In France the clubs are well managed and do not need to sell. In Italy there are fewer players now who could strengthen Arsenal than before. And in England the transfer market is flat. For years we had no money but now we have money we cannot buy players.”

Well I certainly hope you find a couple very very quickly Arsene! There is only two weeks of the transfer window left….

Running a football club is about two things: surviving and winning.  Obviously if you can’t do the former, then the latter is out of the question.

So far, only one club in the modern era has fallen from pretensions of greatness to a desperate attempt to survive: Leeds.  Other supposedly big clubs have fallen from the top to the bottom however – I recall Manchester City in the 3rd division in 1999, and Wolverhampton and Portsmouth in the 4th (I watched them at Torquay when living in Devon for three years).

The fact that it hasn’t happened for a few years now, and the fact that Manchester City has recovered, and the fact that somehow Portsmouth don’t really count (two cup finals and they don’t count – an interesting thought), means the thinking is, top flight clubs don’t go bust.

Let’s just pause on Portsmouth. They won the FA Cup, and we haven’t won anything for five years.  So if winning is everything, we should be like them, spend and spend, and then notice that there is no club left….  Maybe not.

I seem to recall Sky saying that Manchester City has bought £78m worth of players this summer – and it is this that dominates the thinking, not survival.  For some people the thinking is that we have to keep up with them, no matter what.

But the truth is that survival is not a God-given right.  Liverpool and Manchester United are on the edge.  Manchester City are just a change of mind (or a coup, or a heart attack) away from total collapse.  Tottenham are utterly dependent on the continuing largess of a man hidden in tax havens and a policy of endlessly buying players and flogging them at what any sane person would call a loss, but which for accounting purposes is a profit.

Aston Villa are dependent on Randy Lerner (although I doubt he would walk, given the profit he is making out of his loans to the club), Everton are dependent on one man who is desperate to sell.  So it goes on.

What we are looking at is a pack of cards. If one topples, the banks and the owners are going to get very nervous, and all hell springs forth.

Survival is not given, it has to be earned, and most clubs are not earning it.  Except at Arsenal where we seem to be able to go around posting half yearly profits in excess of £35m.

But even that doesn’t give the full picture, which is this: Arsenal are coming to financial dominance just at the moment when all the other clubs are either dependent on one man who is irreplaceable, or are already entering collapse mode.

And that is before we factor in the new anti-doping regulations.

What Arsenal have done, and indeed what Arsene Wenger has done, is redefine English football – not just from the point of view of how the game is played, what food is eaten, how we train, worldwide scouting and everything else in that arena, but also how the game is financed.

When Wenger was interviewed for the job at Arsenal Danny Fiszman asked him about his ambitions.  He is reported to have said, ‘That when I leave, it will be in a better state than when I arrived’.

The stadium, the youth arrangements, the scouting system, the 12 years in the Champions League, the doubles, the unbeaten season, and the continuing profits – I think he’s done that a dozen times over.

The fact is that the expenditure of Real Mad, Man Arab and Barca-loan-us is unsustainable, as witness the fact that no one can unravel Real Mad’s accounts and Barca ran out of money this year.  Although some, like those three, live in a world of total madness, most clubs are trying to claw their way to sustainability, but for most it is extraordinarily difficult, and will take years.

Of course we now want to return to the era of winning trophies as well - and we will do so, of that I have no doubt.  But the main thing is to make sure that the sustainability of the club is assured, for without that we can slip backwards.

How different is our position from Man IOU.

For the last ten years the most profitable sporting club in the world has been Man IOU, making profits of between £40m to £80m a year – the sort of figure Arsenal is now moving into.

But in Man IOUs case almost all of that money goes to service the debt.  Now it can be argued that this is a special case – but the fact is that the previous owner sold to the Glazer Gang knowing that this was the ploy.  What Arsenal has sought to do is diversify its ownership, and thus attempt to stop such a buy out.  Had they not done so we could be exactly where Man IOU is.  Boycotts, turning up in a funny mix of club shirts and 100 year old scarves, unsold season tickets…

Chelsea of course are in a different position – although they are dependent on the mental and physical well-being of one man, and their ability to adjust to meet the anti-doping regulations.

But supposing we had had a pre-season like Chelsea’s.  The cries of anguish when we won in Poland could be heard across the ether – what would the Anti-Arsenal Arsenal blogs have done with a defeat?  (Actually I am not sure that many clubs have fans who would so berate their players for scoring six in a pre-season friendly, but that just shows how deep the AAA has got.)

Back at Man IOU the bond issue they had revealed to us that the Glazers will  take out almost £130m in cash from the club this season.  That is in addition to the straightforward payment of interest on the bond of around £45m – a total of £172m out of the club a year.

Compare that with the dividend paid to shareholders at Arsenal this year.  And last year.  And the year before.  Zero.

So what we have is the best stadium in the world, a club that is making a profit and in no danger of failing to pay its players, a club that has set up magnificent training facilities, world-wide scouting on a scale other clubs can only dream of, and not the slightest problem with financial doping, and 12 years in the champions league.

I want this club to be here for my grandsons to enjoy, and under this regime I think that is likely to happen.