Never understood why Arsenal are soo cheap. They're probably one of the richest clubs in the world (their ticket prices are over the roof and stadium almost always packed) yet they hardly spend much (other than few players like Ozel and co).
They pay quite generous salaries to players (esp. Ozil), routinely let player contracts run down thus failing to recoup/maximise outgoing transfer fees and haven't had CL revenue for a while.
Arsenal must be one of the worst run clubs, from a finance common sense perspective, in the UK. And I'm cool with that! The way they went about financing the Emirates, for example, was a bit mental too - spunking money on interest instead of servicing the debt, and having cash tied up in high risk property ventures.
They're not cheap. They just have no money.