Arsene Wenger has explained his 'three-point plan' for success - and his priority remains building from within.
The Arsenal manager delivered a well-received speech at Thursday's Annual General Meeting when he predicted that those connected with the Club would be "happy" at the end of the season.
Wenger's team are on the right track, sitting top of the Premier League and top of their Champions League group. The arrival of club record signing Mesut Ozil has galvanised the Club, but Wenger believes that long-term success still comes from within.
"I think that the core of our club and our strengths has to be what we produce internally, with the players who come out from our education," he said.
"We have a specific style of play that demands a special education inside the Club, and of course after we complete that with good scouting. Good scouting is sometimes to develop players through our coaching skill into world-class players who are not necessarily known when they arrive here.
"They compete as well with recognised players like Ozil but you don't need special scouting to identify Ozil, because everybody knows him.
"I don't think that [big-money signings] can be the rule for anybody because first of all the number of these players is limited.
"Secondly the competition worldwide has become much bigger than 10 years ago, and today on the world market you have 15 clubs who have the potential to sign these players."
A glance at the league table is proof of Arsenal's solid start to the new season, but their fine form goes back even further, with just one defeat in 17 Premier League games. Indeed, no team can match the Gunners' top-flight points tally in 2013.
"It is nice to hear that," responded Wenger, "because it shows the situation was not as dreadful as everybody thought it was.
"But especially [it shows] that we are consistent, we have addressed the situation since last November and that we are confident in our results, and that is very encouraging for the Premier League this season.
"I said I want everybody to be happy by the end of May and that is of course the target of every manager. That's why we work so hard."
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