Arsenal Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2011/2012

inagoodway

how do Arsenal fans feel about having handball henry back on the team? what a jinx.

KeithAFC

I read something like 70 players on the wage bill? 70 players!

meriwether

Pepe LeFrits wrote: »

Liverpool are the only comparable team there. Otherwise, you can legitimately ask, how many times have Arsenal finished ahead of Man United or Chelsea?

... and Arsenal aren't run on a shoe-string. £125m in wages last fiscal year, probably going to be more in the next one (I think those numbers are coming soon).

There is a club punching well above its weight in terms of finances near the top of the premier league the last few seasons, but unfortunately it isn't Arsenal.

Why are Liverpool the only comparable team there?

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/

Here's a link to net transfer spend since 2003. All clubs have spent more on transfers than Arsenal.
In fact, every current premiership team, bar Blackburn, spent more than us after netting sales off in that period.

That is testament to a few things:

-The humongous spend by the oligarchs/Arabs
-The ludicrous fashion most clubs are run in
-The achievements of Wenger.

While building a new stadium.

I'd like to see Liverpool build Stanley Park and spend what we spent on players, and see how they would have done.

Galvasean

inagoodway wrote: »

how do Arsenal fans feel about having handball henry back on the team? what a jinx.

In his short stay his goals won us two matches. yeah, what a jinx he turned out to be :rolleyes:

DB10

inagoodway wrote: »

how do Arsenal fans feel about having handball henry back on the team? what a jinx.

Yeah 3 goals and 2 winners in about 3 matches. Some jinx.

He ****es all over Robbie Keane. Fact.

enfant terrible

Radharc na Sleibhte wrote: »

I dont know, does he?

Don't know either, maybe we're paying our younger and fringe players too much.

Gareth Bale signed a new contract last year for £70k a week, while we're paying players like Almunia and Squillaci £60k a week.

But as I said i don't think Wenger wants a Tevez in his squad on 200k a week and a Jenkinson on 5k a week.

Don't know why could be a good motivator to young players to try and prove there're worth bigger wages.

Radharc na Sleibhte

DB10 wrote: »

Why couldnt Coquelin be on 25k?
Seems about right?

Also on Djourou, come on lads the guy isn't good enough and has had his chances.

I would trim 20 players from that squad.

For what? Hes practically a youth player who would be nowhere near the squad if it werent for all the injuries.
Maybe im just old.

meriwether

enfant terrible wrote: »

Fine he's almost earning a third of what Vincent Kompany makes at the richest club in the world, he's also the club captain.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2020036/Sergio-Aguero-causes-Manchester-City-rebellion-wages.html

Does Ferguson pay kids like Jenkison 20k a week at MU?

No, Man Utd players play for the jersey only.

Apart from Wayne Rooney, who threatened to walk unless he got the guts of £250k a week.

Utd pay the market rate, as do Arsenal.

meriwether

Radharc na Sleibhte wrote: »

For what? Hes practically a youth player who would be nowhere near the squad if it werent for all the injuries.
Maybe im just old.

Coquelin is very promising, and £25k a week is appropriate.

wandatowell

enfant terrible wrote: »

I think its £124m
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/sep/30/arsenal-annual-accounts

Not sure where the other 40m goes on wages, how much could the staff and youth team be on.

Administration fees i.e. the board members lining the pockets.

They pride themselves on never taking a penny out of the club in dividends but they get their cash don't you worry bud

meriwether

inagoodway wrote: »

how do Arsenal fans feel about having handball henry back on the team? what a jinx.

Are you the guy who pissed in the Cuisine de France counter in some supermarket in protest at Henry's handball?

enfant terrible

meriwether wrote: »

No, Man Utd players play for the jersey only.

Apart from Wayne Rooney, who threatened to walk unless he got the guts of £250k a week.

Utd pay the market rate, as do Arsenal.

Oh Arsenal pay very well ask

Almunia – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Fabianski – £50,000 PW = £2,600,000 PY
Gibbs – £40,000 PW = £2,080,000 PY
Jenkinson – £20,000 PW = £1,040,000 PY
Squillaci – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Djourou – £50,000 PW = £2,600,000 PY
Ramsey – £55,000 PW = £2,860,000 PY
Diaby – £50,000 PW = £2,600,000 PY
Chamakh – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Walcott – £70,000 PW = £3,640,000 PY

gnfnrhead

Personally, I think some people just seen all the zero's and over reacted. Very little of that is out of the ordinary. We know Diaby was overpaid for potential, but other than him, there are only a handful of players who are paid more than their performances warrent. The only real questionable wages there I think are Mannone, Squillaci and Walcott. Bar Diaby, everyone else would have been about their market value when signed. Nothing like this massive over the top wage some people seem to be seeing.

Also, just noticed no Frimpong. I'd guess he is around the £20k-£25k mark.

In an ideal world we would get rid of:

Almunia – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Squillaci – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Djourou – £50,000 PW = £2,600,000 PY
Arshavin – £70,000 PW = £3,640,000 PY
Diaby – £50,000 PW = £2,600,000 PY
Chamakh – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Walcott – £70,000 PW = £3,640,000 PY
Park – £40,000 PW = £2,080,000 PY

I'd also try get Rosicky on a lower contract. His performances have warrented him some more time albeit on a lower wage. Maybe a little harsh on Djourou, but he doesnt seem cut out for it. Bartley always gets good reviews whenever he plays so I'm hopeful he and Miquel can replace Djourou and Squillaci as fourth and fifth choice center backs. Could probably throw Mannone in too as we have a few good youth keepers and I dont think Mannone will make it at Arsenal. Three straight swaps, no-one crucially needed.

Injuries have ensured Diaby wont make it at the highest level so we should cut our losses with him. Arshavin simply doesnt look bothered. He needs to be replaced. Chamakh and Walcott need to go too. Chamakh isnt cut out for this level and Walcott thinks he is a megastar who doesnt need to put in any effort. We'd be better off without them. Chamberlain has already replaced Walcott, but we need someone to replace Chamakh. Four out (Diaby, Arshavin, Chamakh, Walcott), two replacements needed on top of Frimpong and Chamberlain. Ryo could maybe end up replacing Arshavin meaning one one player (a striker) is crucially needed. Ideally two.

Park, I dont know. Wenger doesnt seem to even want him and he'll be gone in a little over a year anyway. He needs to be replaced either way. May as well try do it this summer.

I dont think we need MAJOR surgery. Just some dead weight needs to be dropped. We have players that look good enough to replace them for the most part. Get rid of those mentioned above, sign a striker or two, maybe a left back and we'd be in a better position already. That'll make for the strong foundation, after that we just need to add to the team to bring us back up to a title contention position. I think that is do-able in the summer provided we can get rid of the players mentioned, and we hold on to van Persie. If we cant do both of them, then we'll be in the same situation this time next year.

This ended up a lot longer than I originally intended

meriwether

enfant terrible wrote: »

Oh Arsenal pay very well ask

Almunia – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Fabianski – £50,000 PW = £2,600,000 PY
Gibbs – £40,000 PW = £2,080,000 PY
Jenkinson – £20,000 PW = £1,040,000 PY
Squillaci – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Djourou – £50,000 PW = £2,600,000 PY
Ramsey – £55,000 PW = £2,860,000 PY
Diaby – £50,000 PW = £2,600,000 PY
Chamakh – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Walcott – £70,000 PW = £3,640,000 PY

I don't see what your point is.

Some players are overpaid. If Arsene Wenger could predict the future, he obviously wouldn't have paid them that sum (in fact he wouldn't have signed many of them).

But he doesn't predict the future. So now he has to replace these players. This happens in football quite a bit. Players get sold, and in turn bought.

And I suppose the new players he brings in will work for nothing, will they?

BTW, remove Ramsey from that list. Nowt wrong with Aaron.

Radharc na Sleibhte

meriwether wrote: »

Coquelin is very promising, and £25k a week is appropriate.

Plenty of promise. So promise him money when he reaches it.

It is appropriate when you see what Diaby is on though in fairness.

I just think its a lot for an unproven youth player.

You can see why RVP COULD look elsewhere if money motivates him.

Radharc na Sleibhte

Skillachi 60k is just incredible.
Thats gonna give me nightmares!

Can we not sack him for something?

meriwether

Radharc na Sleibhte wrote: »

Plenty of promise. So promise him money when he reaches it. It is appropriate when you see what Diaby is on though in fairness.

I just think its a lot for an unproven youth player.

You can see why RVP COULD look elsewhere if money motivates him.

It sounds very easy.

Perhaps.............have you ever considered that it isn't that easy?

Have you ever heard of Mathieu Flamini?

MoscowFlyer

Gibbs gets 40k p/w?

Where are these numbers coming from?

meriwether

gnfnrhead wrote: »

Personally, I think some people just seen all the zero's and over reacted. Very little of that is out of the ordinary. We know Diaby was overpaid for potential, but other than him, there are only a handful of players who are paid more than their performances warrent. The only real questionable wages there I think are Mannone, Squillaci and Walcott. Bar Diaby, everyone else would have been about their market value when signed. Nothing like this massive over the top wage some people seem to be seeing.

Also, just noticed no Frimpong. I'd guess he is around the £20k-£25k mark.

In an ideal world we would get rid of:

Almunia – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Squillaci – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Djourou – £50,000 PW = £2,600,000 PY
Arshavin – £70,000 PW = £3,640,000 PY
Diaby – £50,000 PW = £2,600,000 PY
Chamakh – £60,000 PW = £3,120,000 PY
Walcott – £70,000 PW = £3,640,000 PY
Park – £40,000 PW = £2,080,000 PY

I'd also try get Rosicky on a lower contract. His performances have warrented him some more time albeit on a lower wage. Maybe a little harsh on Djourou, but he doesnt seem cut out for it. Bartley always gets good reviews whenever he plays so I'm hopeful he and Miquel can replace Djourou and Squillaci as fourth and fifth choice center backs. Could probably throw Mannone in too as we have a few good youth keepers and I dont think Mannone will make it at Arsenal. Three straight swaps, no-one crucially needed.

Injuries have ensured Diaby wont make it at the highest level so we should cut our losses with him. Arshavin simply doesnt look bothered. He needs to be replaced. Chamakh and Walcott need to go too. Chamakh isnt cut out for this level and Walcott thinks he is a megastar who doesnt need to put in any effort. We'd be better off without them. Chamberlain has already replaced Walcott, but we need someone to replace Chamakh. Four out (Diaby, Arshavin, Chamakh, Walcott), two replacements needed on top of Frimpong and Chamberlain. Ryo could maybe end up replacing Arshavin meaning one one player (a striker) is crucially needed. Ideally two.

Park, I dont know. Wenger doesnt seem to even want him and he'll be gone in a little over a year anyway. He needs to be replaced either way. May as well try do it this summer.

I dont think we need MAJOR surgery. Just some dead weight needs to be dropped. We have players that look good enough to replace them for the most part. Get rid of those mentioned above, sign a striker or two, maybe a left back and we'd be in a better position already. That'll make for the strong foundation, after that we just need to add to the team to bring us back up to a title contention position. I think that is do-able in the summer provided we can get rid of the players mentioned, and we hold on to van Persie. If we cant do both of them, then we'll be in the same situation this time next year.

This ended up a lot longer than I originally intended

Hands up who was demanding a paycut for Arshavin when he smashed 4 in against Liverpool all those years ago?

Thats how contracts work. £x per week, for x years.

If the player turns out to be a complete waste, like Arshavin, you are stuck with the terms of the contract.

enfant terrible

meriwether wrote: »

I don't see what your point is.

Some players are overpaid. If Arsene Wenger could predict the future, he obviously wouldn't have paid them that sum (in fact he wouldn't have signed many of them).

But he doesn't predict the future. So now he has to replace these players. This happens in football quite a bit. Players get sold, and in turn bought.

And I suppose the new players he brings in will work for nothing, will they?

BTW, remove Ramsey from that list. Nowt wrong with Aaron.

Wenger has done some great things keeping us in the champions league while spending nothing in the transfer market the last few years.

But like he is praised for his achievments he should be critised for his failures.

He has made a mess of our wage bill, paying average to poor players and kids extraordinary salaries.

It will be nearly impossible to move on players like Almunia, Fabianski, Squillaci, Djourou, Diaby, Chamakh and others with the massive wages they are on.

It will also stop us from paying RVP what he deserves and signing top quality players on big salaries.

inagoodway

inagoodway wrote: »

how do Arsenal fans feel about having handball henry back on the team? what a jinx.

thanks for the feedback.(i admit i was taking out old anger on Henry)

i would defend my own team likewise. Good luck:)

Radharc na Sleibhte

meriwether wrote: »

It sounds very easy.

Perhaps.............have you ever considered that it isn't that easy?

Have you ever heard of Mathieu Flamini?

Well obviously.

We're speaking here in very simplistic terms. Thats too much, thats too little etc. obviously theres a lot more to it than that.

Anyway, how accurate those figures are is anyones guess. Lovely round figures.

meriwether

enfant terrible wrote: »

Wenger has done some great things keeping us in the champions league while spending nothing in the transfer market the last few years.

But like he is praised for his achievments he should be critised for his failures.

He has made a mess of our wage bill, paying average to poor players and kids extraordinary salaries.

It will be nearly impossible to move on players like Almunia, Fabianski, Squillaci, Djourou, Diaby, Chamakh and others with the massive wages they are on.

It will also stop us from paying RVP what he deserves and signing top quality players on big salaries.

Even a back of a fag packet calculation shows that buying and paying top class footballers would be wildly in excess of what we would save from axing all of the above.

You're just not comparing like with like.

Raskolnikov

meriwether wrote: »

Utd pay the market rate, as do Arsenal.

Not true. The top earner at Arsenal, Van Persie, is on £80k a week. At City, off the top of my head, Yaya Toure, Aguero, Silva and Tevez alone are all around the £200k each. At United, Rooney is also on the £200k mark. The likes of Lampard, Terry and Torres would all be on £150k-£200k. Gerrard is apparently on £140k.

£80k a week sounds like a fortune to us, but when you consider that the Premier League is littered with mediocre players earning not much less (Darren Bent earns £70k a week for example), £80k for RVP is a bargain.

gosplan

The wages problem isn't going away. Loads of those players are on the dreaded unspecified 'long-term contract' and the only one we'll be able to offload probably will be Arshavin because some mad rich team in Russia will stupidly match his wages.

This is in the end the failure of Wenger's master plan hatched 7/8 years ago. I think that after the invincibles Wenger believe his hype and the board were to happy to believe it given that he was the man who could deliver a free stadium.

The reason we paid large wages to young players was to get quality young players to stay with us and build a core team that would develop together. Notice now how Wenger's stopped mentioning that now it hasn't worked out. The problem was that experience, it turned out, wasn't overrated and the entire financial face of football changed just as Arsenal were going through a planned period of contraction.

Also many of the crucial transfers have just been poor or just not worked out. Think in one season Reyes, Freddie and Henry left and we got Vela, Eduardo and Walcott.

If I sound down on Wenger, it's because I am. His big mistake was that he foresaw (and relied on) football standing still and waiting for him to complete his project. Instead, money flooded into the game, it was harder to get and pay the players he wanted, the big two became a big four, now a big six and all the time he's had no choice but to stick on this project that he's stood alongside and given unwavering support to, just as he has so many of his mediocre players.

But, I really feel that the mediocre squad we have now is the result of the planning the club made years ago. It succeeded in that we have our stadium but it's been a disaster in almost ever other way. The lowest point perhaps came in the summer when the exact type of players that our wage structure was designed for, Fabregas and Nasri, p1ssed off and left us stuck with Denilson and Bendtner.

The main reason I think Wenger deserves another crack at this is that this mistake was made a long time ago. He deserves a go at rejuvenating Arsenal with a decent transfer budget. I think the penny might have finally dropped that just because he judges a player to be a good 19-year-old footballer, he won't necessarily become a good 25-year-old footballer.

The other reason is that I think we have a very mediocre team. Really, I think a lot of these players are not CL level footballers. How good are they really? Hleb didn't look so good after, Bendtner's scored like 3 goals in 16 games. Basically, I think if you give this team to the type of manager we'd get if we finished 5th/6th, we'd more than likely have a worse season and then what's the route back to the top? We have a big stadium? So do Newcastle. I mentioned in another post that Spurs have been trying different combination of money, management and players for 20 years now and it's finally about to pay off. (I'd actually give a testicle for a St. Tottinghams day this year)

It's not fear of the unknown, it's my belief that Wenger stands a better chance of us getting into the top four than Moyes or whoever. I believe that Wenger is such an ingrained institution at Arsenal that whoever takes over is practically doomed to failure so they at least need to start with a decent squad, a CL place and some cash in the bank.

KeithAFC

AST confirmed that our wage bill is £130M.

That is a lot.

Radharc na Sleibhte

enfant terrible wrote: »

It will be nearly impossible to move on players like Almunia, Fabianski, Squillaci, Djourou, Diaby, Chamakh and others with the massive wages they are on.

Absolutely, and the exact same reason in reverse why RVP does leave.

The salary scale doesnt really appear to be quality related?
Would that be the norm?

Radharc na Sleibhte

KeithAFC wrote: »

That is a lot.

Just for players?
I wonder what the admin side are on.

gosplan

Radharc na Sleibhte wrote: »

Absolutely, and the exact same reason in reverse why RVP does leave.

The salary scale doesnt really appear to be quality related?
Would that be the norm?

Players were paid on potential quality rather than actual quality. It's why sought after players like Walcott, Ramsey etc joined us.

Join Utd and you might be a superstar. Join Arsenal and your first contract will set you up for life so even if you have a horrific injury in your first week and never walk again, you'll still make a million or two.

enfant terrible

meriwether wrote: »

Even a back of a fag packet calculation shows that buying and paying top class footballers would be wildly in excess of what we would save from axing all of the above.

You're just not comparing like with like.

What like Modic on 45k a week, Kompany on 65k a week, Bale on 70k a week.

Not every good player is on 200k a week and we could have signed plenty of them the last few years instead of paying prospects the wages of quality established players.

Raskolnikov

enfant terrible wrote: »

What like Modic on 45k a week, Kompany on 65k a week, Bale on 70k a week.

Not every good player is on 200k a week and we could have signed plenty of them the last few years instead of paying prospects the wages of quality established players.

You're forgetting that when these players were signed, they were signed as prospects. If you were to sign these players today, you are talking at least £100k a week for each of them. That brings us back to the option of finding talent on the cheap before other clubs do. That bring Arsenal back to square one. Assuming you do find another Luka Modric on £45k a week, if he turns out to be as good as his namesake, do you really think he is going not going to leave the club when the likes of Man City or Chelsea come calling, offering to triple his wages?

It's pretty clear, that while Arsenal have a wage cap of £80k a week, they are going to be behind the likes of United and City. If you ask me, the transfer of Eden Hazard this Summer is really going to show the intentions of the Arsenal board in the future. If we are to believe his signature is a battle between Spurs and Arsenal, it would be a disaster if Hazard chose Spurs over Arsenal. It would indicate that Arsenal are behind United, City, Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool in the pecking order of attracting talent.

gosplan

enfant terrible wrote: »

What like Modic on 45k a week, Kompany on 65k a week, Bale on 70k a week.

Not every good player is on 200k a week and we could have signed plenty of them the last few years instead of paying prospects the wages of quality established players.

While I get your point, there's a lot of hindsight there. Modric hadn't done a whole lot before Spurs got him, starred in a couple of games for Croatia and won a league title with Zagreb.

We signed Arshavin.

Kompany is a Belgian international CB.

We got his partner, the captain of that team.

Bale was signed as a LB. Dropped for a year in favour of BAE and was in his third year at the club before he featured on the winning side. No-one saw that coming, least of all Spurs.

We got Ramsey



Perhaps it's not really your post I'm disputing but the other day in this thread, someone pointed that Silva was cheap a few years ago, Bale was cheap a few years ago, Kompany was cheap a few years ago. Why didn't we sign them then? Well, we tried to but picked the wrong players and it's that exact policy that has us in trouble with big wages.

enfant terrible

Raskolnikov wrote: »

You're forgetting that when these players were signed, they were signed as prospects. If you were to sign these players today, you are talking at least £100k a week for each of them. That brings us back to the option of finding talent on the cheap before other clubs do. That bring Arsenal back to square one. Assuming you do find another Luka Modric on £45k a week, if he turns out to be as good as his namesake, do you really think he is going not going to leave the club when the likes of Man City or Chelsea come calling, offering to triple his wages?

It's pretty clear, that while Arsenal have a wage cap of £80k a week, they are going to be behind the likes of United and City. If you ask me, the transfer of Eden Hazard this Summer is really going to show the intentions of the Arsenal board in the future. If we are to believe his signature is a battle between Spurs and Arsenal, it would be a disaster if Hazard chose Spurs over Arsenal. It would indicate that Arsenal are behind United, City, Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool in the pecking order of attracting talent.

No I was making the point we could have signed experienced players like the above or other Dunne, Given, Parker etc and their wages would be similiar to what we're paying for prospects like Djourou, Fabianski, Bendtner and the rest.

We could be paying a Sergio Aguero for what we're paying Almunia, Squillaci and Djourou together.

This crazy attitude Wenger has to wages is the main reason we're falling behind our rivals because as Wenger says himself we can't afford to pay the top players appartently.

enfant terrible

gosplan wrote: »

While I get your point, there's a lot of hindsight there. Modric hadn't done a whole lot before Spurs got him, starred in a couple of games for Croatia and won a league title with Zagreb.

We signed Arshavin.

Kompany is a Belgian international CB.

We got his partner, the captain of that team.

Bale was signed as a LB. Dropped for a year in favour of BAE and was in his third year at the club before he featured on the winning side. No-one saw that coming, least of all Spurs.

We got Ramsey



Perhaps it's not really your post I'm disputing but the other day in this thread, someone pointed that Silva was cheap a few years ago, Bale was cheap a few years ago, Kompany was cheap a few years ago. Why didn't we sign them then? Well, we tried to but picked the wrong players and it's that exact policy that has us in trouble with big wages.

Good post but I was just using them as examples of experienced players on wages similar to what we're paying prospects and backup players.

Hopefully Wenger has now seen this is not working and will start signing prover international players for the same salaries he's paying Almunia, Park and co.

jank

I think some people need to cop on. All you have to do is look at Rangers and see how they went to the wall. This is going to be an occurrence that will be more likely now. Wages are far too high at the moment and I think the PL is only a few years away from a crisis where clubs will be going to the wall left right and centre. I believe if the Arsenal board back Wenger he can get us back to where we belong but if the board are just going to sack him and get someone like Moyes in but continue the same policy of not spending any money then do you really think it will change things?

Raskolnikov

jank wrote: »

I think some people need to cop on. All you have to do is look at Rangers and see how they went to the wall. This is going to be an occurrence that will be more likely now. Wages are far too high at the moment and I think the PL is only a few years away from a crisis where clubs will be going to the wall left right and centre.

I do agree with you on that. The money that Chelsea (and especially City) are spending is just mind-bogglingly dumb and completely unsustainable. The problem is that given the vast personal fortunes behind these clubs, they can sustain the losses for decades. The question is, will Arsenal fans tolerate a finish outside of the top 4 to stay financially viable?

jank

Also, look at Liverpool. They spent the guts of 80 million in the last 12 months. Yet are they a better team than us? Do they have their new stadium. Do they ****!

jank

Raskolnikov wrote: »

I do agree with you on that. The money that Chelsea (and especially City) are spending is just mind-bogglingly dumb and completely unsustainable. The problem is that given the vast personal fortunes behind these clubs, they can sustain the losses for decades. The question is, will Arsenal fans tolerate a finish outside of the top 4 to stay financially viable?

Chelsea are 7 years into the Roman era and they have yet to break even, even one year. They have spent 100's of millions on players and wages. Yet now look at them. AWB is one game away from the sack and their best players are old and over the hill.

I agree that Wenger needs to change his ways, be more brutal with his players, get the best out of them but lets not go over board here. We need perspective.

iMuse

Taking out profits on player transfers, we just about break even currently. If we don't finish top 4 then our revenue will drop by 40 million so we will be in the red unless we make a profit on transfers (RVP?) or take the hit with the cash reserves and hope we qualify next season. We could afford one year out of the CL because we are due 35 million from the queensland development but otherwise without CL football in the medium term we aren't going to be this leader of Financial fair play that wenger would like to portray to everyone.

Drexel

Alot of people here gettin their nickers in a twist over the wages. To me it looks perfectly normal. Ok there are one or two who should never be on 50k(reserve goalkeeper for one) but the rest look about right. If Arsenal and UTD were both goin for the same 18y/o player who do you think that player will choose? UTD every day of the week. Unless Arsenal offer something different. Which is a better starting wage. I dont like it, you dont like it but it needed to be done. Not offering them type of wages to young players, Fab would have prob stayed in barca. Ox would have went to Liverpool i think. Walcott may have gone elsewhere(not a bad thing in hindsight).

Also people are in dreamland if they think we are goina get rid of 11 players next season. It will never happen. I reckon Bendtner,Arshavin and Squallici will be the only players realistically being shipped out. Walcott is goin no where. Maybe Chamack

enfant terrible

KeithAFC wrote: »

"AST confirmed that our wage bill is £130M. "
That is a lot.

I think City are getting better value with their £170m wage bill than us even considering they are wasting wages on Adebayor, Tevez, Bellamy, Roque Santa Cruz, Nedum Onuoha and Wayne Bridge.

Remove them and they are probably not much ahead of us on player wages, scary thought.

Better value is an understatement.
They also put in a shift for their manager unlike Arsene FC.

Quazzie

RVP 11 wrote: »

Better value is an understatement.
They also put in a shift for their manager unlike Arsene FC.

Oh give it a break will ya.

emergingstar

RVP starting talks on a new contract next week might not mean anything but it's a start
Also want to say great debate here last night first times in months proper points were giving, and none of the childish comments we were getting

Fair play to all involved I enjoyed reading the last few pages this morning bulling i missed getting involved myself

emergingstar

RVP 11 wrote: »

Better value is an understatement.
They also put in a shift for their manager unlike Arsene FC.

Just after I posted about good debate *sigh*

L'prof

enfant terrible wrote: »

L'prof wrote: »

So you want us to remove 11 players in one season???

Yes that was the point I was making, well done.

Idiotic!

Quazzie

Quazzie wrote: »

Oh give it a break will ya.

Have you not got highlights of the invincibles to watch?:pac:

enfant terrible

L'prof wrote: »

Idiotic!

Yes you are idiotic considering I never said to remove 11 players in one season.

L'prof

enfant terrible wrote: »

L'prof wrote: »

Idiotic!

Yes you are idiotic considering I never said to remove 11 players in one season.

Right so Ted.

Sgt Pepper 64

jank wrote: »

I think some people need to cop on. All you have to do is look at Rangers and see how they went to the wall. This is going to be an occurrence that will be more likely now. Wages are far too high at the moment and I think the PL is only a few years away from a crisis where clubs will be going to the wall left right and centre. I believe if the Arsenal board back Wenger he can get us back to where we belong but if the board are just going to sack him and get someone like Moyes in but continue the same policy of not spending any money then do you really think it will change things?

I agree with this, but let's remember how all this came about in the first place, before any oil billionaires. sky and their tv money. the premier league made a pact with the devil and its been that way ever since. all the epl teams have their snouts in the trough and the money had largely gone on transfers and wages. rather than cheaper tickets and facilities