As if you needed to be reminded, it has again been confirmed for the benefit of perplexed Arsenal fans that Arsene Wenger does not have as much money to spend on new players as his counterparts at Rouble FC and Oil Slick City.
The man to reveal the shocking news on this occasion; Gilles Grimandi – utility man-turned-scout who mostly spends his days pottering about France trying to offload magic beans and a bedraggled Sebastien Squillaci,
Pushed to outline the difficulties of his job, following a summer which has seen him recruit a striker who has to kill Kim Jong-Il in two years time, Grimandi explained while playing with his delightful Gallic curls:
“The fans want us to bring in star names, but they don’t all grasp our economic limitations.
“There are no proven big stars currently on the market. Besides we are not competing on a level playing field with Manchester City and Chelsea.
“Our means are limited by comparison and our pay structure prevents us going crazy when we sign players.”
Just to rub salt in the wounds, despite the transfer window shutting over 40 days ago, the agent of Eden Hazard has gone on record saying we made an approach for the Belgian (but failed…in case you were wondering), while Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has confirmed he dismissed Arsene Wenger’s attempts to sign Yoann Gourcuff.
Super.
Oh well at least he tried…
It’s really amazing how my expectations of Arsenal has gone down in a year
What about the money raised from selling players, what’s the excuse for not spending that money?
If a player is unavailable or “not for sale” like Gilles said, then there’s nothing to whinge about. All we can do is ask, and we did. Dortmund don’t want to sell Gotze, and even if he was available they would wait a few years until he was worth twice as much (better than Messi at 18? different player, but yes). Same can be said of Hazard at Lille.. and Gourcuff is injury prone and inconsistant (sound familiar?), and would be a flop in the EPL. There weren’t any super stars (future or present) available other than Mata (we got… Read more »
Hmm, when Cesc was “unavailable” and equipped with a “get stuffed” price tag to prove it, that didn’t stop the Cuntalonians piling in for Sale of the Bleedin’ Century now, did it?
Maybe we need to stop making formal approaches to clubs and just shadily wave big bundles of fifties at agents, while our players shoot their mouths off in the press about how great Gotze/Hazard/${god’s_bloody_gift_this_week} is going to be for us. You know, the way every other bastard does it?
@OzzieGun: it appears that they tried to spend the money on particular players but were rebuffed. Identifying, approaching, (setting up negotiations and) negotiating (with clubs, agents and players and your own financiers), and sorting out registrations is probably a lot more complex than clicking the left mouse button or hitting “Enter”.
Probably!!!!???
Then how come every other club manage to do it? Its piss poor management from the top down to Wenger
Yeah, I agree….but there is no excuse for not getting the business done earlier in the summer. Now we are in a situation where the defenders are still getting to know each others game, which should have been done in the pre-season.
What a bullshit line of excuses that is. So that the new cliche is it? It used to be ” championship manager”. We sol cesc and that French cunt for 60 million pounds. Do you think any other club in the world would have trouble hitting the left mouse button to spend that fuck load of cash? Fuck no. Quit drinking the kool- aide. Too many horse shit excuses from the board. And fuck this twit Gilles. .
Arsene doesnt have the money to spend for the simple reason that he is supplicant to a greedy board, who, as every human being on the planet now knows, DOhave the same kind of cash to spend as City and Chelsea, they just refuse to do so. There are two explanations. Either he is so happy to be their yes man that he will not rattle their cage. Or He is genuinely supportive of the lie that is the filthy ‘self sufficiency model’ despite the fact that the club that he is supposed to be managing is going down the… Read more »
Actually the self-sustaining model is simply an exercise in good corporate governance or stewardship. If you had your own business with good but not infinite resources you wouldn’t run it into the ground trying to compete with other businesses with more or even limitless resources. That would be sheer folly. The opprobrium of some fans towards the management of the Club for exercising caution and prudence is simply astonishing. Admittedly a number of things over the summer could have been handled far better but it’s madness to expect (or want) them to bet the house on chasing success. Football is… Read more »
Your almost Shakespearean argument is sound though it has its flaws. By your very argument you would insinuate that we are the only club run with any kind of business acumen. I say two words: Manchester United. Run with a similar goal but infinitely better. I then take you to the interview Ivan Gazidis took part in where he said in no uncertain terms that the pay structure so often discussed is something of a myth, in fact he said it doesn’t exist. Yet here we are with Msr Grimandi contradicting that. This isn’t the only piece of contradictory information… Read more »
Opprobrium? How’s the view from up your ass? Wanker
“Rebuff”? Hmmmm. My guess is that these “rebuffs” by Hazard and Gourcuff/Lyon might also be read as clubs and agents holding out for more from the indiscriminate moneybags at Chelsea and/or City – a-la Mata, this summer. Is Mata really worth 24 million? I don’t think so. I think the market for ‘super quality’ is now reduced to the following scenario: any offer from a bona fide football club like Arsenal now being initially ‘rebuffed’ by the selling club or agent, in the hope that the indiscriminate moneybags from oligarchs and oil despots from former football clubs/playthings like Chelsea or… Read more »
On the other side of the transfer equation, there is simply no excuse for letting a player of Cesc Fabregas’ quality go for less than he was truly worth. That whole episode was a disgrace, and cost the club around 25 million. Barca were well able to afford his full fee, and they should have been told to either pay the true valuation for the player, or go elsewhere, no matter what the feelings of the player or the manager. ‘Friends is friends, but business is business’ after all. I sincerely hope there is some sort of review going on… Read more »
I don’t want star names – we already have star names, I want a coach who can coach, motivate and inspire them.
@Dave Gooner: I totally agree with you there. @sleepinggiant: do you know how rich Manchester City’s owners are? Arsenal Holdings plc’s consolidated annual financial statement reveals football-related revenue of £225.4m and property (this is exceptional) of £30.3m for FY 2011 and wages amount to £124.4m. Most of the wages, by the way, go to the players; amongst the non-playing staff of the club, there is what is called the “fan discount”, which allows the club to pay everyone much less than they will get on the market for doing the same job. And in case you are wondering, the directors’… Read more »
sleepinggiant was talking about our two major shareholders being worth 10 bllion plus betwen them.
So being very rich obligates them to spend like there is no tomorrow? Some would say that demanding such speculation on players ought to be considered greedy too – but instead, it is perpetuated by those don’t have the money and look on jealously. There is no comparison between the resources of our shareholders and those of Manchester City’s; Manchester City’s owners are able to call on resources of upward of £500bn and these are the people who probably would spend in the billions out of sheer vanity. The combined riches of Usmanov, Kroenke and Abramovich is pitiful in comparison… Read more »
Not in the slightest, was just pointing out that you misread his post and cleared that up.
I have no opinion either way on the subject becasue right now I just couldn’t give a flying f*ck what happens at board level just what goes on out on the pitch.
Are you employed by the board as bullshit propaganda agent? Here’s a simple lesson in basic math for you sweetheart. Cesc+ nasri+ ebou+ clichey= 70+ mil £. Arteta+ gervinho+ per+Santos+AOC= 42mil £. Where’s the other 30 mil plus the 35 mil ” war chest ” promised before any sales?
fuck off with that bullshit mate.
the 65M is Wenger and the Board pockets , MUHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Spot on master bates. It’s in the boards pockets not on the pitch where it bloody well should be. And then to make matters even worse for us gooners, we get some ass pirate like arsenal>spurs here making all sorts off bullshit excuses for the board about Chelsea this and city that. The board at Chelsea and city have nothing to do with the robbery the boars is commiting at the arsenal. Self sustain my ass. Highest ticket prices in the world in a giant stadium. 70 million £ of transfer sales and ” war chest” go unspent and we… Read more »
yeah! Wenger is probally already a Billionaire by now,All those years. With the Revenue that Arsenal get we could buy Messi 12 times.Wenger is a very evil person .
fuck all this wenger apologists ,wenger should be fired and charged of fraud and 911
No jack off, I mean master bates, wenger isn’t evil , nor is he the problem. He ha a budget handed down to him from the real cocksucker, I.e. The board. They are the problem.
Ok ,it’s Gazidiz .yeah Fuck Ivan ,he is the bad guy . He is reason we are in deep shit ,he is also responsible for Global warming.
We could have bought C.Ronaldo but they went for benayoun.Sure we could pay him 200,000 per week ,just get rid of any four fringe players. and use the 65M.easy but the won’t do that because they are assholes.
Fire the Board , Hire Frog + fatgooner and Me
The 65M may be used to pay off debt, which will ultimately free up more money in the future. Without knowning the exact financial this could be smart. It is also conservative. Another approach would be to spend big on top players and hope that better league position, CL position, and increased revenue through a growing fan base would make up for the money lost on player transfers. One thing is for sure, Arsenal is not the risk taking club. That said, all of Wenger’d double speak and contradictions coming out of the club make my stomach turn. I don’t… Read more »
your an idiot
anyone saw bendtner kick portugals ass yesterday? scoring the winning goal and setting up the other..
Lets give him to sunderland and buy a older south korean attacker who HAS to go on duty in 18 months..
shocking mgmt
Couldn’t agree more about Park, it’s been piss poor management from start to finish so far. If he is ‘that’ good as Wenger told us, why hasn’t he played mor ethan 45 minutes of football 11 games into the season already? Christ we ended up with Mertesacker playinhg upfront against Sp*rs for the last 10 minutes when he could of come on no?
First of all he wasn’t just given . He wanted to leave , It’s like wenger was acutioning him to clubs.
BTW. Park > Bendtner . Bendtner scored one ,park scored 2 .Let’s not forget Bendtner knocked us out in UCL last season ,he missed two sitters.
Park is hasn’t been playing regularly because of
A.Van Persie is FULLY FIT ,
B.Communication
So why buy a player who can’t communicate?
Didn’t do The Pinball Wizard any harm..
Nothing new, Bendtner’s always managed to do the business for Denmark.
The reason he’s at Sunderland is ‘cos he couldn’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo for us! Presumably his shooting boots have “return to Copenhagen after use” written on them…..
I wached the game in Denmark, Bendtner was average at best. Even my wife, who does not normally watch football, said that he played like he did not give a shit, was too cool for school. He strolls about chewing his gum. It was Ericksen and Rommedahl and other who really won that game, Denmark controlled the midfield and looked worthy winners, but it was not Bendtner who won the game for them.
Arsenal>Spurs You are missing the point. You are comparing apples with oranges. Have you seen Man City’s accounts? They would be woeful beyond words.The only reason we talk about Arsenals accounts is because we are so wealthy as a business that we can ALMOST compete on a self sufficiency model. The trouble is that the owners are using this to mask the reality. You ask me do I know how rich Man Citys owenrs are? The answer is yes. Instead of going into an intersting but completely irrelevant analyisis of Arsenals accounts you should be asking yourself this is simple… Read more »
Actually, sg, there are UEFA licensing rules pertaining to this issue. My understanding of UEFA’s ‘financial fair play’ is that clubs must demonstrate to UEFA that they are a ‘going concern’: that is that they will continue to operate indefinitely, and will not go out of business and liquidate their assets. For this to happen, the club must be able to generate and/or raise enough resources to stay operational. Clearly in the cases of both Manchester City and Chelsea, this is open to question, in the way that they raise money, and under what terms. For example, Etihad is I… Read more »
How is it greed, if the owner refuses to spend his own money on the club???
Its his money, its his choice what he decides to spend it on!
Its called a lack of ambition not greed!
2 very different things mate.
How much Usmanov is worth ($US 17.7 billion) is irrelevant as Stan Kroenke is the owner of Arsenal. Usmanov wants to be the owner, and you can be sure that he won’t spend a penny on Arsenal except in pursuit of that goal. I don’t want him in charge of my club ever. Stan is worth $US 2.6 billion and he is a businessman. At the start of 2011 Mansour (worth $US31.5 billion) had spent over 1 bilion pounds on Man City (about $US1.57 million). It’s much more now, of course as he splashed again this summer. No sane businessman… Read more »
I mean of course that Mansour spent $US 1.57 Billion on Man City in 30 months. That is now higher as a result of his summer spending plus his $US600 million backhander disguised as a sponsorship. he has already spent as much as Stan Kroenke is worth in total (including Arsenal F.C.)
@sleepinggiant: no you don’t understand.
No buddy, you don’t understand. You just keep believing the bullshit your spouting. Thus is football club mate. You play football to win matches. Take your financial horseshit to a bank.
..er, I dont understand what? Its quite clear I’m afraid. Man City and Chelsea – dont give a toss about self sufficiency. The owners invest their own money. Their accounts are impossible mess, but we don’t talk about their accounts because they are irrelevant. Arsenal – such a big club it can almost be a top club without the owner investing money. That means greedy owners get to hide behind this fact. When in doubt, they sell our top players, charge criminal prices for tickets BUT DO NOT PUT A PENNY OF THEIR FORTUNES INTO THE CLUB. Nothing to understand… Read more »
That’s all an inescapable truth, whether it’s genrally agreed with or not is a different matter, but it is the truth.
you don’t understand
You can’t say that we should be keeping up with Chelsea and City in terms of spending, then describe their accounts as an impossible mess. They are reliant on a source of income that will one day pack up and leave. Then they are screwed. Arsenal, however, are not reliant on anyone’s wealth, so we are in no danger of getting caught out by this. Whilst it may be irritating now, when the day comes that billionaires become bored with football, we will be grateful that we never succumbed to such a model.
Tell that to sleepinggiant. He is still sleeping and he doesn’t understand!
And neither Usmanov nor Kroenke take a substantial amount (if any) OUT of the club either. You’re longing for large scale investment, fair enough and I doubt anyone would complain if Kreoenke or Usmanov piped up and said ‘I have a spare 500m but it must be spent on buying Messi and paying his wages’ but to imply they’re doing anything nefarious with the hard earned money is simply wrong.
Ya sg, I really find it quite unbelievable how gooners fail to see this. It’s called drinking the hill wood, gazidis kool- aide. It really is sad.
I for one am glad we aren’t at the whim of very rich owners spending a fortune on us. What happens when they pull out? What happens when their source of income fluctuates? Oil isn’t always going to be the safe bet it is now for sure! I don’t necessarily fully support arsenals youth first policy but I fully support their economic policy. This is an issue for FIFA to look at further. Clubs should be made to live within their means rather than have a few rich clubs inflated the whole Market at the cost of everyone else! This… Read more »
I am sick and tired of hearing about this “self sustaining model”. Wot about sustaining the Arsenal way of football on the field?
What exactly is Arsenals way??? Im pretty sure your definition of Arsenals way is infact Arsene’s way! Personally im disgruntled as most fans with out tranfer dealings and our boards lack of ambition, (the alarm bells were all evident when we let Cashley leave over an extra 5k, but we were blinded by out love for the club to see it) This self sustaining model relies on champs lge qualification, fans satisfaction and arsenal being seen as progressive to lure in shirt sponsers and other endoresments. If we continue to struggle and fail to make champs lge for a few… Read more »
Fucking legend mate, I mean, most wonderfully worded. You’ve hit the nail on the head.
Absolutely, we must continue our traditional belief in fair play both on the field an off it. We didn’t buy any trophies with Russian steel money or Arab oil money and we absolutely should not try to do that now. Well done for making this point.
Didn’t quite understand what you meant about the self-sustaining model. I know it will make you laugh but it almost sounded like you were against it.
We are in a mess, and will be all season. all these big name players that we need and want like gotze/hazard etc will all go to either man u/city or chelsea, sad to say it but its the truth. however where the fuck has the money from cesc and $amir gone? Also if were going to start going down the route of playing the arsenal way, I cant believe against spurs we had one of our defenders go up front so that we can hoof the ball up to him?!? when was the last time we had ever done… Read more »
So Grimandi says “There are no proven big stars on the market.” Well too my knowledge most of the big stars are never actually put on the transfer market to begin with take Fabregas for instance was never on the market but was certainly sold.
Why would a club put there prized asset on the market because once there listed it’s basically saying there surplus to requirement and there value drops a fair bit. The reality is you want quality you have to pay for quality
I’m pretty sure Samuel etoo and kin aguero were on the market, as well as that cunt tevez. Snijder wanted to leave inter, Sanchez left udinese, purloined and sweeper were also both looking for an out. No stars on the market eh gilles?
So now guys come on, give me the thumbs down and the load o wage structure bullshit about how we , the arsenal, top ten biggest clubs in the world listers
*pirlo and seedorf. Fucking iPhone spellcheck. Sorry for the incoherence.
I’m pretty sure Samuel etoo and kin aguero were on the market, as well as that cunt tevez. Snijder wanted to leave inter, Sanchez left udinese, purloined and sweeper were also both looking for an out. No stars on the market eh gilles?
So now guys come on, give me the thumbs down and the load o wage structure bullshit about how we , the arsenal, top ten biggest clubs in the world listers, can’t afford them. O ya Diego Forlan, cesc fabregas, and Samir nasri moves as well as savic. No stars my ass
-Sanchez said he only wants to play for barcelona. ONLY BARCA even manshitty’s billions weren’t enough to convince him.
-Eto’o hates Song .
-Diego Forlan costed a fortune and is OLD. and flopped in the EPL with man U
-Sjneider- wanted Man Utd(ONLY)
-Tevez- is a CUNT and london is not hawai
-Arsenal only plays ONE striker . he is world class and captain . Aguero can’t be benched
Next? maybe you should be our new scout
i wasnt saying we should sign any of those player jack off. gilles said there were no stars on the market, a pure bullshit statement as you cant deny that all those guys either moved or tried to move. that means they were “on the market”.
As far as me being an arsenal scout, ill pass, man city just offered me more money and all you have to do to scout for them is watch arsenal matches. easy money ehh?
If UEFA have the minerals to strictly enforce their financial fair play rules then Arsenal have set themselves up beutifully. That’s a big if though.
There’s a simple solution to all our problems- Usmanov!!! That way we won’t have to listen to another session held by Ivan gazidis whilst he gets out the lube talking about self sustaining models.. Fuck off gazidis and take your American “soccer” fuckwits with you. What’s the purpose of having a new owner if things only get worse? When there’s a more than willing Russian billionair waiting in the wings
Perhaps we should offer our club to some Colombian business men. It doesn’t matter that we have an owner. They’d handle that small problem for us, and they have a lot of money to spend. ‘Willing’ doesn’t necessarily mean honest, upright and a fit person to be an owner of a club with the history, traditions and class of Arsenal. And that means a fit person according to MY standards, not some wishy washy test set by money hungry Premier League graspers. I support the Arsenal, a club that win or lose I can respect and in my own small… Read more »
the fans who think “Usmanov and Kronke have money, they should spend it” are no different to the club that thinks “our catchment area has a very strong demographic profile, let’s charge a small fortune for tickets” if you think holding shares in a business is about anything other than getting the value those shares return, then you are impossibly naive abramovic had to do a debt/equity swap in order to keep chelsea within what pass for rules citeh parade a sponsorship deal whereby a company owned by the citeh proprieters pay way over the odds to sponsor an asset… Read more »
This.
the other thing that some people might want to consider is that we’re in a fucking massive amount of debt for teh construction of ashburton grove
pissing a load of money away on transfers and salaries whilst ignoring our obligation to creditors would, perhaps, lead to some less than nice consequences
I thought our debt on the Emirates though was manageable with the interest repayment being reasonable.
I found this article from 2010 that gave some kind of breakdown on turnover and debt
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/the-debt-league-how-much-do-clubs-owe-1912244.html
i think the point isn’t whether it’s manageable (clearly, it is for a club of our size, following, tv revenues, etc) it will be about whether or not a debtor is allowed to spend a proportion of income over and above a certain % of turnover on items other than debt reduction. to put it another way, if somebody owed you a load of cash – you’d be happy if they were paying you back over 25 years at a nice rate. what would you think if they then started running around in a Humm Vee, drenching hookers in Crystal… Read more »
No I totally understand and see your point. But from the same perspective Man United have had a monumental debt and still have managed to spend a lot on new faces maybe the only difference is that where they have managed to constantly acquire trophies and the revenue they gain from winning them helps with acquiring new talent.
that is true and it does hold us up to some rather high standards as well as bringing with it the terrible and hideous possibility that demento may actually be a more effective manager than our own urbane, cultured and witty one of course it’s also true that the glazerhawks cashed in on stepover boy to the tune of £70m, and then reinvested about 32p of that back into the team, and did the united fans call for ferguson’s head? anyhow demento is a: unavailable and b: not wanted at the grove (i hope i speak for the many in… Read more »
the only sam is nelson, our debt repayments are fixed in terms of amount and timing so we are not obliged to control our spending to satisfy our debtors in any way, other than the obvious requirement of paying each installment in full and on time. However, you are still absolutely correct that “pissing a load of money away on transfers and salaries whilst ignoring our obligation to creditors would, perhaps, lead to some less than nice consequences” if, by spending that load of money we fail to meet a debt repayment. I think an important point to make is… Read more »
Anyone for Twister!?
All this nonsense about not having money is bull crap. But then again we don’t because our salary is about $25M less than Man Utds (although theirs include performance bonuses for winning the league and getting to the champions league final).
So in reality, Arsenal’s salary and Man Utd’s Salary is much, much, closer. It’s ridiculous because they have much, much, better talent
Not long before Kroenke Inc start paying out dividends…
http://m.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/may/10/stan-kroenke-arsenal-cash-dividends?cat=football&type=article
That’s speculation on the part of a man who would like to write a news story about Arsenal fans protesting against the Arsenal board.
Don’t believe everything you see written down.
You should be more concerned that Stan has plans to abolish season tickets and then sell every seat at the Grove twice for each match next season, and will require each ticket holder to fight a duel to the death before being allowed to take his seat for the game.
Trust me on this. I’m a prophet, you know.
So OK, I admit the bit about duels to the death was made up, but I thought that was pretty obvious. Am I getting this negative reaction for trying to make a joke and be cheerful during these trying times? Am I out of touch with young people today and you all actually love the press? Is it just the haters not wishing to be told that they are being led like sheep? Or did some of you believe the story and are transferring your ire onto my post because you can’t find Wenger’s dog to kick it? Nope, it’s… Read more »
Wow some fantastic comments here some really well put together arguments really interesting stuff, thanks to arseblog for giving us the platform to ‘vent’ ‘prove our allegiance’ etc. I’m of the opinion arsenal > spurs speaks a lot of sense and why should the owner put his money in no one did before why now as long ad they aren’t stripping the club and putting in what is made then that is all we should ask, evidence shows this is the case at least so far! Anyway cheers blogs an cheers to all the other arsenal fans for your enjoyable… Read more »
This article is just more pro-Wenger, pro-Kronke bullshit. In the last two years we have made a shit-load of money by selling the likes of Nasri, Fabregas and Adebayor. We have also made huge amounts of money buy selling the most expensive club tickets in the world. Fuck-all of that money has been invested in buying and keeping proven quality. The shit in this article is just ment to convince the fucking stupid among our fans that there is nothing that can be done to make us successful again, and that Wenger is doing a decent job in tough circumstances… Read more »
Well said. Cheers.
I don’t know about you lot but I fucking love Arsenal FC and when Kroenke and co have gone, whether you are for or against them Arsenal will still be Arsenal and I’ll love her just as much as I always have.
Well said. Cheers.
Amen to that
we all love the arsenal, thats why we read and post on this blog. just because you love your club to death doesnt mean you shouldnt speak up when youre unhappy with the way things are being done at the club. i wouldnt sound so pissed off all the time if i didnt love and support this club with all my heart(and wallet as it may be). i just feel that with the tradition, resources, revenue and support that this club has, its criminal that were in a position where we cant hammer such shit teams such as newcastle, spurs,… Read more »