The Times report that Arsene Wenger will be given whatever cash he needs to secure new signings before the transfer window closes.
The article is relatively low-key, there’s no mention of ‘EXCLUSIVE’ and it’s only a couple of hundred words, but it certainly reads like a leak from the board.
Deputy Football Correspondent, Matt Hughes, writes: “Arsenal had planned to limit their summer transfer spending to £100 million…but the club acknowledge that they may have to part with more than another £70 million to provide Wenger with the players he wants in an inflated market.”
The article goes on to name Alexandre Lacazette and Shkodran Mustafi as the top targets.
Back in May, Arsene Wenger dismissed a Hughes’ ‘exclusive‘ which claimed the Frenchman, at a time when his future was the subject of intense debate, had been offered a new two-year contract. The boss was very miffed stating in a press conference:
“That’s completely wrong and I don’t know where this information comes from. You can treat that as just an invention. Another one. It’s absolutely false. And I would like this press to check the information before they give it out because they could have checked with the club or with myself and we’d both have denied it.”
Given the proliferation of references to Stan Kroenke in Hughes’ contract story it seemed pretty clear that he’d been tipped off from on high. We’re now wondering if the same source is responsible for this story going public. You’d be surprised if it were Ivan Gazidis, given his recent comments. Maybe Lord Harris of Peckham, who this time last year went public on our financial muscle?
As was the case in May, the latest story firmly puts the ball in Wenger’s court and covers the board from criticism if he decides against splashing the cash.
We await Wenger’s response, likely to come in the build-up to Friday’s friendly with Viking in Norway, but suspect he’ll stay coy on suggestions we’re absolutely loaded (which we are) given it weakens our hand in negotiations.
Chris Samba and Grant Holt. Job’s a good ‘un, nailed on for the title.
oh shit sorry I meant to post that under my “ITK” monicker. It’s absolute gold, solid as a rock, the source for that. For real.
You mean, you meant to post that in 2006.
Yeah, who does he think he is recycling old transfer rumours like that? A professional sports journalist?
Don’t forget joe cole, he’s coming too and Jelavic
And all of the Bender family (Lars, Sven and Futurama Bender).
And their Danish cousin, Niklas, TGSTEL
I think you’ll find that the Futurama Bender is actually related to the Wolfsburg left-back.
Bender Bending Rodriquez!
Sébastien Frey is a free agent. Surely now is the time to pounce.
there has to be one free agent signed this summer or I no longer recognise this club.
You’d think it was coming out of his own pocket.
When Fergie was entering his last year, he went and spent 24M on RVP. At the time, this was considered to be over the odds. But look how well that paid off. I only wish Arsene would try and adapt a similar care-free, out with a bang attitude.
When £24m won’t even buy you 8 goals a season players like Benteke (you might get Theo for that, though), it’s a far more complicated picture, even after so little time…
We like fergie of old, because he wretched utd hard for good 6 years (now + 2 years after which mourinho will leave the club in a worse state than it’s now + another year for the new manager to settle), but I for one would actually prefer Arsene not doing that to the Arsenal, if it would be up to me.
if wrecked means 1 FA cup in 3 “post Fergies 20 year reign” seasons I wonder what you’d call our post 2004 Emirates years. and of course United have spent about 400£ (soon to be 500) millions which shows they werent wrecked resouces wise and Fergie left tons of money and a champion squad for his successor to build on. their under achievement is mostly due to a whole club adaptation, no patience over Moyes and poor choice of manager with Van Gaal.
Fergie left a dog shit squad behind. Total dog shit. They are still if fact recovering.
Too true. If he hadn’t had the option of talking Scholes out of retirement to protect the back four, they’d have continued to leak like a sieve that season. Rather than winning the league, they’d have been bloody lucky to get a top four finish.
the dog shit squad had just finished the league with more points than anyone else. and again he left the club in a so healthy position financialy the fact that theyre making record total spendings every following transfer window shows it. just take a moment and look at additions like di Maria Mata. they also seem shit at United. I think they were misused. so badly. what van Gaal did to these high class players shows the fact that you dont need to be shit to seem like it. you just need to be used like one.
Are you really comparing being fourth, third, and second in the league with being seventh, fourth, and fifth? You may call them champions as much as you want, but I wouldn’t want (*) any of them anywhere near our squad (except Danny :DD), and the fact they they have sold (*) all of them just proves the point.
And you don’t need to be apologetic about him, he did a good thing and I am thankful, because with that spending power they could and should have been breezing through the league otherwise.
(*) almost
couple of years later no one gives a shit if you finished 4th or 6th that one season (unless they may mock you) longterm we will all remember last season Liecters not Arsenal second or United fifth. consistency is of course important as long as you do achieve something. so I for one would rather we had won as many leagues as United through past decade and if sowouldnt care if we would take a couple of years to get back to the very top with a whole new era ahead.
Didn’t work out that well though did it? 24m at the time (maybe around 40 today) for one good season is not very good at all.
I’d argue, and I suspect people would agree, RVP was the sole reason they won the league that season, and I’d guess the difference between 1st and 2nd would perhaps be that in prize money, no to mention any immeasurable aspects winning would then mean translated into money i.e. sponsorship negociations.
Lets also remember that he was sold for, was it 6M? its 18M net.
Yeah, but you would count it like this, you would need to factor in also the salary for two years, reported to be upwards of 200 000 pw plus bonuses, but also shirt sales etc.
Actually shirt sales are now pretty tiny moneywise to the club. Their main ‘shirt’ income is from Puma themselves.
Have a look at this ; http://thesetpieces.com/features/transfer-window-myth-busting
I know about this, but afaik clubs are getting less and less and rvp’s shirts were still under the previous deal. Nevertheless, they probably sold around 1m – 1.5m of his shirts and even with the `only’ 10 percent share, that’s solid income.
@Andy Mack Im not sure I saw on SkySport couple days back that Ibrahimovic’s shirt sale within the first seven days was like +70£ millions. thats about now and not tiny at all
@broken red army. Even if those numbers are correct, the club gets very little of it. Read the link.
It might also be that selling RVP to Manure is the reason we didn´t win the league that year.
Agreed, but I don’t think we had a choice. Not after he went public the way he did.
If he’d twisted his knee in their tenth game then most would have said ‘typical RvP’ and that we’d been wise to sell him for that type of money. It’s only because he managed his once in a lifetime relatively injury free season that this conversation is dragged up.
Having said that, I’d guess playing for Mike Rileys Team helped that year.
Suspicion: CONFIRMED!
I’d hope Arsene would consider spending 24m for a world class striker that would help secure a title.
Think we got screwed with Van Persie because he was coming to the end of his contract and he only wanted to go to United.
He was really hot shit at the time. We should have got 40-50m for him, even accouting for inflation since. Same with Fabregas really.
Higuain just went for 75m, Aubameyang has been quoted at 60m+, same with Griezmann, Lewandowski similar. He was that level of player.
I remember thinking that 24 million was a drop in the bucket compared to actually winning the league. Additional tv dollars, and commercial contracts. Plus you have the winning mentality I think our squad needs. Wenger really missed the mark on that deal. Should have kept “The skunk” and gone for the title. Let him walk if he wanted to at the end of the year.
Down to you prof.
I feel about Arsenal talking about how much money we have, the same way as Arsene saying “we showed great mental strength”.
Naturally by that I mean I really, really, REALLY love both subjects.
That extra 70 mill seems perfect to bag is some Mahrez and Draxler eh!
I think you misunderstand, 70m is what we would have left if Wenger was limited to 100m total this summer, the article suggests we might exceed that 70m, I imagine we will spend another 70,000,001.
The extra pound usually swings it!
interesting idea. would you take both of them if it meant we don’t sign a CB?
Thumbs up for 2 attacking players. Thumbs down for attacking player and CB.
90 million euros would equal 75 mil gbp. Instead of Mahrez and Draxler I would prefer throwing down that kind of money on Greizmann. Make Atletico turn it down. They want to bring Costa back anyway and can’t afford what Chelsea are asking.
I somehow don’t think this is a healthy sign about what’s to come…
I concur.
Xhaka;mustafi;lacazette;mahrez AND draxler *swoon* one can dream right?
Yeah, and Messi and Suarez and Ronaldo. That’s be awesome!
Then theres only one thing we must do: Hijack Man Utd’s Pogba transfer just to see Mourinho cry thereby flooding Old Trafford and rendering the ground unusable because of the toxicity of his tears.
I wouldn’t pay £100m for Pogba, even with MUFC’s money. We have a much better option in Xhaka.
Too much emphasis is placed on the cost of the player. It doesn’t matter how much we pay,as long as they are the right players for us and can add something to the squad. Elneny is a prime example.
I get where you’re coming from but just paying whatever it costs isn’t a sustainable strategy. Mahrez might be perfect for Arsenal but I wouldn’t pay €100 million for him. I not trying to act like Arsenal are poor but as a self sufficient entity with limited funds Arsenal just can’t adopt a pay whatever strategy, as much as we’d like them to. And once you pay significantly over the odds once, selling clubs will take notice, and you can add 5,10,15 million to every transfer going forward. Arsenal have a reputation of being pretty inflexible in their valuations, and… Read more »
I also agree with that and believe that if a player is identified we should push the boat and pay extra if required. However, I don’t agree with the pre concieved notion that only a £50 million player can improve us. There are plenty of players who can improve us. We just need to find them
Is elneny really lifting this team? I would rather we spent more on someone who can make the XI better
Eleneny deserves to be in the starting 11. I would pair him with xhaka in front of the back four. I’d start him at least till Santi is fully fit. He should start over jack everyday
Huh? Pretty much every Arsenal commentary out there says words to the effect of ‘not enough squad depth’. We sign Elneny, and apparently he’s not lifting the team, despite his arrival only a few months ago, and that cash should be spent on the starting XI. Unless you think he’s dogshit, he’s either immediately improving the starting XI, or he’s in the chasing pack that forces the starting XI to improve themselves. All I can conclude from your comment is that you think he shouldn’t have been signed. In that event, as I clearly think you have lost your mind,… Read more »
Eleneny is a fantastic midfielder. I especially like his fighting spirit and he has an engine that never quits. He is the perfect example of money well spent.
Just runs and runs and runs …
Unfortunately Wenger considers any proposed fee in the way that he would treat his own money.Its commendable that he doesn’t like the idea of spending more than he deems a player to be worth…but when Troy Deeney is valued at £30 million plus, then you can’t view the current market in that way . Unfortunately Arsenal will not bring in the type of players that they need ,in order to truly compete on all fronts ,until Wenger steps down and takes his “holier than thou” attitude with him.
Just get a cb and a st…that’s all we ask for. We need goals.
It sounds like that will be what we end up with. Mahrez too would be great but if the rumours about the prices we will be paying are to be believed that would push our total spending up towards 150m, or perhaps even more.
Doesn’t seem likely that we will sign Mahrez and no striker, although I guess it’s possible.
There’s players we clearly need. Stan should encourage Wenger to choose the players he wants and let Gazidis go and get them with the knowledge that we’ll get them regardless of the cost involved. I just hope we get them in time for the Liverpool game. How great it would be to start the season with a wine over them!
Maybe with some cheese on the side?
Having unearthed diamonds for peanuts all your life it is hard to change one’s way.
I don’t think Wenger is afraid to spend… he just doesn’t want to blow 30m on average players.
But that’s the sad reality in the current market and big money buys is not auto win.
Over the years Wenger’s bought more hits than duds. Let’s see how this season pans out.
Unfortunately he’s also missed out on a lot of quality players because he wouldn’t pay a few million more. Suarez and higuain both could have been bought if they’d stumped up a bit more cash. Also could have had draxler for 30m last summer rather than the ridiculous amount that will be required this time.
The Suarez deal wasn’t about money. We met the ‘over $40m’ release clause figure which pissed Liverpoo off but that’s all any club needs to do. It failed because Suarez decided he’d wait for his dream move to Spain where his Spanish wife desperately wanted to move back to.
The Higuian deal may have been about the money (Although Higuaín could have made it happen but he wanted the Napoli money) but we couldn’t have got him and Ozil in the same window then, so which would you prefer, Higuaín OR Ozil?
Seems like 40m is the new 30m
And the rest
The earlier you learn how to stay far away from paper’s rumours during transfer window, the longer you live without heart attack
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-really-200million-cash-available-7944463
Stumbled onto this. Old news. Seems quite true though.
Sure, you can never tell for certain with Arsenal in the transfer window, but I’m feeling much better about things now than I was a couple of weeks ago. We’re now 4/9 respectively with skybet to sign Mahrez and Lacazette, and surely, SURELY Mustafi’s only a matter of time too? This has a very different feel to last year when we just seemed to be waiting for a big name to become available (and very few people genuinely thought Benzema would ever be an Arsenal player). With the season opener just a couple of weeks off, it may feel as… Read more »
No poometer? I just wanted to talk shit
First of all I’m not defending him as I have been quite worried about Wenger’s apparent reluctance to spend money when needed (although we don’t ever know exactly what goes on behind closed doors). But If this is true and his budget has only just been increased then he has been working most of the summer on the budget of £70m. If I was him I’d be a bit fucked off that, with a few weeks left until the season opener, my boss then says that I can now have more money. It might have meant that he worked on… Read more »
No he had a budget of 100m and they have apparently set aside another 70m to spend.
100 less 30 for Xhaka =70m.
That’s how i read it, an initial budget of £100m but accept it might be an additional £70m on top of that figure, so a total of £170m. Which would be more than doable considering the massive new TV deal and the cash reserves.
I read it as we had £100m and spent £30m leaving us £70m to spend but the board have acknowledged we may need to spend more than the remaining £70m to get the players needed at these increased prices.
But we’ve spent more than £30m haven’t we? Plus I also thought that figure included wages which would probably put the spend nearer £50m.
At the end of the day I couldn’t care less, i’d just like us to get the right players in.
The money in for Hayden roughly balances any other outgoings at the moment.
Salomon Kalou is available on a free transfer…
“Free transfers” still cost money — signing fees, agents’ fees, salary…
Oh dear……
I think he might have been recycling the now-seemingly decades-old ‘Arsene in for Kalou’ rumours. Out of the same envelope as Frey goalkeeper rumour. Keep with the beat, baggy.
A Jungle Book reference, love it.
Front loading the budget is the bold, calculated risk that Arsenal should be taking. In the worse case scenario, and they lose say £170 million, the club would not go to ruin due to the number of assets (players) that could be sold off in an emergency. More likely however, is that Arsenal would begin to win more trophies, gain more fans, have better and more marketable players, increase their profile in emerging football markets and negotiate astronomical new sponsorship deals, all of which really would catapult us into the highest echelon of the game. All this talk of powder… Read more »
You are aware that only around a quarter of new signings have what’s considered to be a ‘Good’ first season. Half usually hit form in their second season and a quarter are never considered a success. So whoever we buy may not get going until the 17/18 season.
First up, I’m all for appropriate spending. So, now that’s out the way, are you for real? Selling players off in an emergency to balance the books? Are you familiar with the phrase ‘doing a Leeds’?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doing_a_Leeds
You make some other good points but it’s been proven time after time that the phrase ‘speculate to accumulate’ and football are incompatible bedmates.
I really hope we don’t get lacazette. What a pointless, sideways manoeuvre that would be…
When your funds aren’t unlimited – and ours aren’t – then you DO have to be cautious. And if you need 2-3 players (as we do) then even we CM players know that if you overpay for one, you leave yourself struggling to get the other 2. Hence we can’t spend 75mill on Higuain. Cos we need to get 2 players for that money. And cash in the bank is the basis for buying players – that is true – and we have those cash reserves. But you need an operating profit when you want to create a spending budget… Read more »
Lacazette looks exciting tbh, Icardi on the other hand would be a complete waste of money.
Maybe I’m missing something. Why is lacazette better than giroud? Or are people assuming we will sign him as a back up to giroud? I understand that he is a different option and that’s great but I don’t think that’s what we as fans have been clamouring for all this time. We need a world class striker, or failing that someone close to it. Lacazette is half way through his career and doesn’t look anywhere near either. I really, really don’t get this one. It smacks of desperation and the prices being quoted should not be linked to a player… Read more »
The problem is truly world class strikers like Lewandowski or Aubameyang would not come to Arsenal; in the case of the latter he even said that he would only leave Dortmund for Real Madrid.
I don’t think Lacazzette would be a gamble at all, he’s been scoring consistently for the last 3 seasons. The fact that Giroud played for France instead of him was a choice of the french manager based on taste more than anything.
I think we are looking to fill in for Danny in his absence so Giroud gets a rest.
Let’s assume we take the risk and spend more and in the bargain we win the title, won’t AFC be making more money than what was invested on the players?
Of course; for the last +10 years we could’ve won the league more than once but several times we were short of a couple of top-very good players in key positions.
What happened with Leicester is a once-in-a-million win, like Blackburn some decades ago
Agree, could’ve have won the league at least 3 or 4 times in the last decade – we were within touching distance, but drifted away only cause of those crucial signings (or the lack of). More often than not, we just lacked 1 good signing.
Real, Barca, United and recently few smaller clubs have made huge investments and they’re reaping the benefits. Unfortunately, us on the other side, have been ‘wise’ with our money and continue to be also-rans.
Blackburn was only ‘one in a million’ as you put it, because they couldn’t afford to buy the title a second time.
Very true. Leicester and blackburn are very different situations, jack walker bankrolled rovers and they were the biggest spenders in the league. Most of the team were big money signings (for those times) and they broke the british transfer record the summer before they won it paying 5 million for chris sutton.
“but suspect he’ll stay coy on suggestions we’re absolutely loaded (which we are) given it weakens our hand in negotiations.” I fully agree with that. But let’s be honest, everybody in the world know the club has money. Other clubs that has as much money as AFC deal with that, and do not need to drag negociations until the end of the windows.
It’s a bit hard to play poker when everybody else can see your cards.
With that whole amount Wenger should sign cb and a killer striker, we need winning and goals so that we can secure the title. The market is wide open and days are almost ending with no striker signed. Depending on Giroud this is another dry season.
Nice try Gazidis.
To me that reads that we had 100M start of the summer but the figures been increased to ensure we get a CF and CB. I don’t think it means they are saying it’s now 170M.
What a bunch of tedious wank. Someone at arsenal needs to just be the dickhead, grab everyone else in those plush offices by the throat, and start forcing shit. Whether it’s Kronke, Gazidis or Arsene, who cares. Just someone be in fucking charge please.
Arsenal is failing to attract players because of this weird deadlock at Arsenal where no one wants to be the one to take the risks that need to be taken to take the club forward.
Dear Arsene.
Go and buy:
1. Mahrez.
2. Lacazette.
3. Mustafi.
And we will win the title.
going off topic here guys….
why do our players need a longer break than any other players in the league?????
martial playing for united already and he made the euros final but ozil and ramsey are not even training yet and they didn’t make it to to the final. seems like we are always 5 steps behind at the start of the season
How many games did martial start in the euros?
Personally id rather our players had a proper break and come back completely refreshed so that they can play their best football than have a short break and either look knackered all season (alexis last year) or pick up an injury and miss months instead of a couple of games at the start. But you know each to their own and all that.
@BOb I understand what you are saying but it will be still arsenal players who get injured no matter how long a break they get.. look at our injury record, which is second to none. Martial was just an example. Messi is also back playing and he played the copa final too. do u think barca would risk him if his rest was insufficient? its across europe that players are back playing except for arsenal (and ronaldo and bale but i bet the will play 1st game of season), and they certainly don’t have an injury record like ours. and… Read more »
The issue has got nothing to do with how much Wenger has. IMO there is about 85m potentially freed up for him to spend. He’s spent 30m on a very good DM which we need. He has to spend the rest on a striker(CF) and a Cback. with no compromise to quality on both ends. Also it depends on the player weighed against a potential other player available later in window. Say we pay 33m for Lacazette and a Draxler comes vaialble for between 38-42m, it may be well worth waiting for the product down the line. It isn’t easy… Read more »
Part of the cost can also be balanced off against a sale of say Walcott. Thus far there hasn’t seem to be any major offers for him.
However given new player has to adjust, Wenger may feel compelled to hold on to Theo at least to January just in case the new striker himself has issues transitioning.
The other thing is at these premium prices we have to be very careful that the player is a good fit for our system. We cannot reinvent the wheel around the new player. Wenger has generally been spot on with his higher priced purchases like Ozil (great Panic Buy), Alexis and Granit (not to mention Santi and Cech who were steals) Wenger has had his fair share of poor buys but most of those had less impact to our bottom line because generally he spends so low. Should he spend high premium and get stuck with a player that does… Read more »
Aguero is a top class striker with numbers to show it.
However there are plenty of other expensive failures around the market.
In a world were Lukaku is £75M and Higuain (great striker but close to 30) went close to that price…I say lets get rid of 2 players and get 1 world class player…
Sell Walcott (£25M) + Sell Debuchy (£9M) + Dont buy lacazette (£40M) + Add £10M = Trigger Greizmann release clause (£84M)…maybe add £1 as well….
Is Greizmanns release clause ‘Over 84m’ or ’84m’?
If it’s the 2nd then the £1 isn’t necessary.
I won the league by 11 points I’ll have you know – I can’t be that shit. Just imagine if I had the Leicester team last season at Man Utd!! Now get out of my press conference before I throw a bottle of whine at you.
Like perry groves. He just runs and runs and runs……
Or like the Spuds in 2006 they had the runs and the runs and the runs…..