Arsenal hero Martin Keown feels the fans needed a big name signing this summer.
With Dennis Bergkamp, the Gunners won the Double twice and in 2004 clinched the league title, their last to date, by going through the whole season unbeaten.
Yet with Arsene Wenger worried about getting value for money with his transfers, Keown accepts a modern-day Bergkamp was never likely to arrive.
He told the Daily Star Sunday: "There is a budget and model that Arsenal work to and Wenger sticks to it rigidly.
"But when Bergkamp came in there was a structure but the club went in a different direction. It was a move that produced a buzz around the place."
A measure of how desperate Arsenal have become is that they signed Yossi Benayoun, 31, on loan from bitter rivals Chelsea.
Keown said: "I'm not sure about Benayoun. I never thought Arsenal would loan a player from Chelsea."
