Former Arsenal player Stewart Robson, one of Arsene Wenger's biggest critics, believes the manager cannot be trusted with a large transfer budget, citing the Frenchman's recent signings which have not quite gone according to plan.
Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis confirmed Wenger had plenty of money to spend in the summer, with the experienced manager reportedly looking to bring in some proven world-class talents.
However, according to Robson, Wenger is the last man to be entrusted with such a large budget.
"I am not expecting any marquee signings at Arsenal," he told talkSPORT. "There is a lot of talk about it, but I don't know if I would trust Arsene Wenger with that money.
"Over the last few years some of the players that he has said were going to be world class haven't ended up like that -- people like Philippe Senderos, Denilson, Marouane Chamakh, Armand Traore, Sebastien Squillaci, Nicklas Bendtner, Carlos Vela, Emmanuel Eboue, Park Chu-young, Lukasz Fabianski, Gervinho and Andre Santos.
"Over the last two seasons they have spent some money on Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski, Mikel Arteta, Nacho Monreal, Per Mertesacker and Andre Santos. They haven't been top-class players.
"Arsene Wenger doesn't appear to want to sign the top-class players, or what other people would describe as top-class players.
"He goes out and says: 'I can buy you cheaper players for a better price, who are going to be world-class players in the future,' but that hasn't been the case in the last few years.
"Some of the players who he has bought have regressed under him like Andrey Arshavin and Thomas Vermaelen. Nacho Monreal hasn't been a good signing and Andre Santos has been hopeless for them.
"Per Mertesacker and Lukas Podolski are past their best and Gervinho is another player who they spent a lot of money on and hasn't really come to the fore."
Quite how Monreal has not been a good signing, even Robson will probably struggle to explain, with the Spanish international left-back doing exceedingly well since joining the Gunners late in the January transfer window.
Mertesacker has just had his best season with Arsenal, while Podolski will surely get better next season.
Wenger has had some trouble with signings off late, there is no doubt about that and if the Arsenal manager again refuses to spend money when it is readily available, then Robson might have a case.
However, with Arsenal being linked with some big names like Gonzalo Higuain, David Villa, Marouane Fellaini and Stevan Jovetic, there have been signs that the prudent Frenchman might finally be ready to spend some money in the transfer market.
