In a recent article for the Online Gooner Sandy Doherty stated that Wenger’s return – pound for pound - compares badly with Moyes and O’Neill and that for the amount spent, Arsenal should have achieved more in recent seasons. To such negativity I'd like to respond quite simply by proclaiming that this suggestion is rather blinkered thinking, typical of unappreciative fans.

I appreciate that The Gooner is an open forum and all fans’ views are valid but how can you even begin to compare the quality of football produced by Everton, Villa and Arsenal thus. I go to games to enjoy the football and ideally to see my team win far more often than they lose. I'm getting value for money on both counts with the added bonus that watching Arsenal in recent years is often like watching the Brazil of old. Total brown trouser defending, centre backs attacking in the opponent's box rather than grimly defending a single goal lead. Left backs belting down the right wing on an overlap.

Above all we see seriously slick passing between tightly marked players with plenty of fast interchanges. Sweet ten, twenty or thirty pass moves by Arsenal are now the norm and as such are almost totally taken for granted. It's the sort of play that's rarely matched by any other club on the planet, other than maybe Barca. Movement, interchanging positions, the willingness to take a chance, a total lack of negative concepts, how does that compare to the blandness of Villa or Everton? In short we watch the sort of football worth crawling over hot coals to see if you care about the game. It is a total privilege to be in the same stadium as Wenger, so watching his team play should be regarded as an honour. To whinge about his not producing value for money is nothing short of ludicrous.

How can the opportunity to enjoy Champions League football every season be seen as lacking value for money? How can a consistent top four finish be considered anything other than a success? How can watching world class players be regarded a failure to deliver? Has Sandy not noticed that whilst rebuilding a team on a comparative shoe-string in order to finance a state of the art stadium, Le Boss has also been setting up our next generation of players. A bunch of kids who are being groomed in the skills required to not only minimise future spending but more importantly to step seamlessly into the current Arsenal method of play. Squads of home grown quality back up for the first team, how cool is that! When was the last time anyone at Arsenal saw a young player dipped into the first team who didn't have all the required technical skills and ability of a future international player?

While the Chavs and Citehs of this world are buying both a first and second string off the peg we are building from within. Developing players of pure quality. Whilst Villa and Everton are traditional hard working organisations comprising good honest journeymen Arsenal are a major and massive step beyond this concept. Wenger has got us to the top and kept us at the top, and he's not only done that by winning matches, he's done it by playing the sort of football most supporters at other clubs never get to witness in their lifetimes. If that's not excellent value for money I don't know what the f*** is.

Arsenal as a club have no more right to be permanently on top of the pile than Everton, Villa, Spurs, Citeh, West Ham, Leeds, Portsmouth, Newcastle or any other long standing well established English league club. But we there are due to the consistency that allows continuous European football, the income it provides and the means to invest in the future of the club. In my eyes that is tremendous value for money and a huge achievement. Clearly like far too many Arsenal fans, Sandy has been spoiled by success and has fallen into the trap of believing that trophies are the be all and end of a fan’s enjoyment and the only measurement of success. They're not, they're the icing on the cake and both the icing and a massive cake will be with us again soon enough. Enjoy Arsenal's quality football while you can, football is a cyclical sport where teams fall as well as rise. And unfortunately Wenger won't be with us forever. Sure he has faults, but when he's gone, only then will he really be appreciated as giving tremendous value for money.