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Only in football could you come in for criticism for running a strong, successful business with impressive profit figures.

Arsenal's balance sheet showed £37m profit and that does not even include their sales from their Queensland Road property gold mine. With that factored in, Arsenal's figures top £60m. Incredible.

Yet rather than earn praise for being responsible, the club get questions as to why they don't spend more, don't buy big names and don't plough all its profits into winning trophies. It's been seven years since the last piece of silverware in case you've forgotten.

But since when did big money buys guarantee success? Andy Carroll cost Liverpool £35m and has been farmed out on loan 18 months later. Was Fernando Torres really good value at £50m?

I'll tell you two of the deals that have impressed me the most across the whole of the Premier League. Santi Cazorla cost just £12m. Lukas Podolski, a world class German forward with an incredible scoring ratio for club and country, was just £10.9m. Great business.

Cazorla was targeted by Real Madrid not so long back, is loved in Spain and Arsenal took advantage of a fire sale at Malaga after they ran into problems after some irresponsible financial decisions.

One of Arsenal's success stories this season has been Carl Jenkinson. He is a died-in-the-wool Arsenal fan who has come on leaps and bounds.

He is a terrific character and even dedicated a personalised inscribed piece of paving outside the Emirates to his grandfather. It's Roy of the Rovers stuff.

Jenkinson cost £1m from Charlton, had a difficult first season but grew stronger for the experience of playing games and got more games than he could ever have imagined because of Bacary Sagna suffering not one but two broken legs.

(Image: Mike Hewitt)

That is a typical Wenger deal. Scouted brilliantly by Arsenal's hugely respected Steve Rowley, given his chance and is now relishing the opportunity.

It's the same for Wojciech Szczesny. The Polish keeper was thrust into the first team early in his career and, even though Arsenal have looked at other keepers, Wenger decided against taking the plunge.

Arsenal scouted Hugo Lloris for a long time before the Lyon keeper went to Tottenham for £12m. The big drawback as Arsenal saw it was Lloris lacked a physical presence, particularly on crosses, for the tough nature of the Premier League.

They nearly signed Nuri Sahin on a year's loan from Real Madrid. It was only a loan but the wages were mind blowing. Sahin had been booked in for a medical, was due at the training ground and suddenly there was a change of heart. Wenger was concerned about a lack of pace.

We'll see whether Lloris and Sahin prove to be good at Spurs and Liverpool. But you can bet that deep within Wenger's mind will be a concern for Szczesny and Francis Coquelin, to name but two.

Coquelin had an outstanding game in the Capital One Cup. He's shown great promise in the Premier League, too. Better observers than me tell me that Coquelin will be superb and a first team regular within two years.

Quick feet, great technique, speed of thought. Coquelin can be a terrific holding midfield player. Signing Sahin would have blocked Coquelin's progress, no question.

(Image: Clive Mason)

It should be pointed out that Wenger's first responsibility should be to the overall success of the club and to the fans that pay the players' wages. Is that more important than a loyalty to the players? In my view, yes. Wenger probably feels they go hand in hand.

Look at this weekend: Arsenal host Chelsea and their new grading system means that the cheapest ticket costs £62 and the most expensive general admission ticket is £127.

That makes it the Premier League's richest game. Match day income is likely to top £6m and it's little wonder Arsenal fans sometimes crave the big money signings to go with their big money tickets. It's like Arsenal charging Harrods prices and yet they go shopping at Tesco's.

But if you buy into the Arsenal and Wenger philosophy then it can be a rewarding exercise. Do fans care how their club is run? I genuinely believe the majority of Arsenal fans believe in Wenger, his budget, his vision and him.

Yes, they would like a trophy. But the majority appreciate how hard it is to get into the Champions League each and every season.

There are big cash reserves there. £100m-plus, in fact. It could be spent on big-money signings. But we go back to whether they guarantee a trophy. Largely, they don't.

But rather than sign Olivier Giroud, why not sign Fernando Llorente for closer to the £20m mark? Arsenal looked at Eden Hazard for a long time but once he went past the teenage prodigy stage, he was out of reach. It seems that Arsenal have a £15m limit.

That's partly Wenger and that's partly the board. But they both buy into responsible accounting, finance and running of the club.

Wenger clearly takes more satisfaction out of buying a player young and developing him than spending millions on ready made stars.

They also keep a tight wage bill. There's no getting away from it, they've offered Theo Walcott £75,000-a-week and not a penny more for a reason. They regard him as a player they want to keep but don't want to make him the highest paid player at the club.

Podolski has scored 44 goals in 103 caps for Germany, is world class so, in Wenger's mind, that makes him more valuable in wage terms than Walcott. Walcott being in a strong bargaining position in the final year of his contract is an irrelevance to Wenger.

Arsenal spend around £20m less on wages than Manchester United. But more than £45m more than Tottenham. They don't do £200,000-a-week deals but every player is paid well.

That probably needs addressing to keep players hungry and should a squad player really earn nearly as much as a first team regular?

This season, Wenger has moulded a nice dressing room spirit. He took a player like Mikel Arteta for £10m and the Spanish midfielder has, in just over a year, made a huge impact on the whole squad. Again, sometimes you don't need a superstar to make a big difference.

Arsenal's profit sheet would have been criticised if they had made a poor start. Then the questions would seem more relevant about why money hasn't been spent to build a successful and trophy-winning squad.

But, as it is, they've made a good start on a budget. That should be applauded - not knocked. Arsenal are a club in support of bringing in Financial Fair Play throughout the Premier League, not just in European competition.

Chelsea spent big this summer. They bought big players and Roman Abramovich suddenly seemed to go back to his old huge spending ways with Oscar, Hazard, Marko Marin, Cesar Azpilicuerta and Victor Moses.

But I'm reliably informed that Chelsea will come within the Fair Play guidelines thanks to the windfall and turnover from winning the Champions League. They must be applauded, too.

Ultimately, Arsenal will be judged on trophies and not balance sheets. It's no good having money in the bank if the club is not winning trophies.

But the amount of people castigating a club for actually trying to run themselves responsibly simply defies belief. There should be perhaps a better balance.

I think Arsenal should have signed another striker. And why not go for Llorente over Giroud? I think they should have signed a defensive midfielder and perhaps a versatile defender who can play right back and centre back. Sadly, Johan Djourou no longer seems to be in Wenger's vision.

However, Arsenal may sign a striker in January. That's definitely on the agenda. They certainly need one as that's an area that they look short in.

Furthermore, how about this for a bonus: clever accounting means you can write some off a transfer fee off in January against investment in the business. So, don't be surprised if the much-needed striker does rock up in the January window.

But next time you see a high street shop shut down or liquidated in these times, just think of the game of Russian roulette some irresponsible football fans want Wenger and Arsenal to play. Just think Leeds United if you don't believe me.

Don't knock them. Applaud them.