After refusing to be drawn yesterday over whether or not Arsenal were preparing a £300,000 a week deal for Alexis Sanchez, Arsene Wenger has insisted that the club has to respect its wage structure but has also dismissed the idea that the player could leave for a more lucrative deal in China.
It has been reported that the Chilean’s representatives have had a £400,000 weekly wage offer from an ‘unnamed’ Chinese super league club (reminds us of this, actually):
Chinese Super League side Lao Tzu have made an offer to Alexis Sanchez of £900,000 a week! [source: Jack Eechan – Shanghai Express] pic.twitter.com/KUT3SfGujd
— arseblog (@arseblog) January 4, 2017
But Wenger believes the uncompetitive nature of football there at the moment means truly top players will stay in Europe.
“Every club and every player has to make decisions,” he said. “Where are your priorities? Where do you want to play?
“The first priority for top players is to play with the best players and in the best league. After that, it is not about choosing to go to China because you earn big money. You make big money in England as well.
“You have the best combination of playing at the top and big money is in England, at the moment. So, for me, China is not a debate.”
Sanchez has been the team’s most effective attacking player this season, and heading into the final 12 months of his current deal – and at 28 years of age, it’s not surprising he’s looking for a significant wage increase comparable to those earned by top players at other Premier League clubs.
The Arsenal manager warned, however, that the club had to respect its wage structure – in terms of how much a player earns and how that compares to others in the squad too.
“You have many different opinions,” he said. “Some people tell me: ‘Just give him what he wants.’
“But then you cannot respect any more any wage structure and you put the club in trouble as well.
“You have to make the decision in an objective way. The club always has to be the priority.
“I understand top players are a big priority but, even for important players, you can only pay as much as you can afford.”
We are owned by two billionaires yet we can’t afford 300k a week?
This is why we end up with average players because we are still selling our best.
We will be a selling club until kronke and wenger leave.
We have been selling our best players and paying high salaries to average players at the same time. Our wage structure is illogical.
Who are the best players that we have been selling ?
Two billionaires? Kroenke is the majority and controlling shareholder, and there is a board of directors which includes chips and gazidis. Are you talking about Usmanov? He’s a shareholder yes, but has no place on the board or a say in anything at all. We most definitely could afford £300k a week (and I for one, wish we would), but it’s a slippery slope to start paying out that much in salaries. Arsenal are run as a self sufficient model, only spending what the club earns, which is why we have this god awful wage structure. And we just can’t… Read more »
I understand your point but it is a combination of certain players getting more than they earn and certain players earning more than they get. Alexis would stay if two things happened. First, you always ask for more than you actually expect to get in a negotiation so I don’t think the 300,000 pound a week payroll is something that he HAS to have. Second it’s really not as much about the money with him as it is the chance to win the league. There will be no winning of the league with Wenger staying and continuing with his player… Read more »
If Wenger leaves, you can expect Özil to leave as well.
And we definitely will struggle/cope if everyone grt a pay rise unless we win the league and other trophies on a regular basis. I.e genuinely compete in all comps. Until that happens Can see why there is hesitation in paying such a high wage.
However is could be all part if negotiating at this level, both parties want what is best for them so I suspect both parties have been dicking around in negotiations.
I agree with almost everything that you said, but why would our operating profit being under £100mil prevent us from getting a DoF?
There are many ways and wages we could cut to afford one. Don’t think a DoF would cost millions, especially as you factor in the worth they bring.
I completely agree, if you offer one player 300k then the average players will be demanding 150k (which is roughly what ozil and Alexis are on). But if there is one player to make that exception then it’s Alexis. His work rate and impact he has on games completely merits such a big contract and all the players can understand that. I wouldn’t give such a contract to ozil because although he has unbelievable talent and ability, his work rate doesn’t merit that and him getting such a contract would unsettle the wage structure. Not Alexis though, if I were… Read more »
Does this happen at clubs like United? Are their average players demanding huge wages because of Rooney and Zlatan. I don’t think so. Arsenal just use their money unwisely. 300k a week is roughly 15M a year. Yet we just spent 16 M on Perez, plus wages is probably ~20M this year. For what? Arsene is defending a wage structure that rewards underperforming players, and underpays those who deserve it, and will get those wages elsewhere, Sanchez
@btw
haha welcome to socialism 😉
Best way to force wenger out if Arsenal is to boycott arsenal matches, stop buying tickets or kits. With a financial drop, wenger will leave the team. Let him go coach teams elsewhere. Arsenal is not his father’s team. Let him go
Bro I love your comment
Wenger has to go. Arsenal will never never never never never never ever ever ever ever ever ever win anything under him. He is Obselete done finished past his time long long ago. Thanks for the past but the future is now. HE HAS TO GO!!!!!!
Costa really wanted to go there, caused troubles and in the end was stopped by Chelsea. Oscar is there. What does Wenger base his idea that players would prefer England on?
With all do respect, Oscar is not in the same league (no pun intended) as Sanchez. And Costa isn’t quite either, though he’s a bloody good player. But he’s a complete mercenary, so I think with respect to China he’ll continue to be the exception that proves the rule. I think Wenger’s still right about this, but only for the present. Things could change quite quickly in the future. There’ll be a tipping point, where enough high profile players have made the switch to China to make more of them feel like they’re not being unambitious to make the switch… Read more »
Wenger just shut the story of 300k offer down. Come on, money is the main thing for Sanchez and lot of others. PSG buy any player they want from PL and Ligue 1 isn’t a strong league. Both Ibra and Falcao went to France when they were arguably the best two strikers in the World. Arsenal was already a big club and as soon as City got the money, they attracted players we couldn’t.
1. Of course Wenger shut that story down. He never admits anything about behind-the-scenes happenings. 2. I’m not suggesting that money isn’t a huge factor, just that once you’re talking about 300k a week, there are likely to be other factors in play too. Ibra and Falcao may have been going to a weak league, but I’m sure they were promised that they were joining teams who were going to be bringing in a lot of other top talent and competing against the best in Europe in the CL for the foreseeable future. The Monaco project kinda came crashing down… Read more »
Falcao is still at Monaco playing.
Fish, chips, cup o’ tea, bad food, worse weather, Mary fucking poppins
Someone just ask Alexis – D’ya like dags?
Sp*rs could win the league, will be in CL…….and Arsenal will miss out. What a horrible season! Maybe Krooked Kroenke will take it easy on us and not take money from the club. Better yet, maybe he will get bored and sell.
It will hopefully be the best thing for Arsenal if Spurs win the league and we don’t get in the champions league. It might show the board and team we are far from one of the best teams in London and a big change will happen.
Spurs have a lot of better young quality players, a better manager and board that will back the club. We just have shit a major shake up needs to be done at Arsenal if we are to compete ever again as one of the best teams in London.
I disagree that their young players are way better than ours. In general, I think their squad is still significantly weaker (though obviously their starting 11 is stronger in some areas). The problem is their manager is outperforming our manager to a ridiculous degree. You take Pochettino and his methods from that team and there’s no way they’re anywhere close to challenging for the title. I think their pressing game (in contrast to Klopp’s similar style, for instance), is really dirty, as the whole tactic is predicated on them stopping the opposition from countering by picking up lots of niggly… Read more »
our squad is definitely better than spurs . we have worldcup winners , best players from euro , basically we have one of the best squad in premier league . we regularly call upon worldclass players like sanchez ozil xhaka while they can only call upon alli who was playing in championship a few years earlier . if we had a manager who who knew how to get the best out of them we would never be in this position. he is completely clueless . even if had lionel fkn messi wenger will make him look mediocre.
Arsenals squad has a problem playing as a unit. Then they have bad games and everyone blames the star players but even Messi can’t do it by himself. There in lies the problem. Wenger has failed to unify the team. I have no bad feelings toward Wenger. He did a great job for longer than most but he is done here. He should be smart enough to know it’s time for someone else but he’s hanging on for his own good. It doesn’t matter how much are coach loves his Club. If the right move is for the coach to… Read more »
I would prefer Arsenal finishing right above relegation than Spurs winning the title.
Agreed. 61 never again.
Money making machines don’t bore him sadly
I’m really sick of him and Özil’s shenanigans. Both are being paid more than they’re worth currently. We didn’t hear anything like this when Koscielny signed and he’s our best player.
Not even TGSTEL asked for this type of money and he always got us st. Totteringhams day
Euh… Özil and his reps have saif nothing so…
Kos in his thirties not really got the same bargaining chip
Wenger the old dictator won’t let anyone else but himself be the highest paid employee at the club.
Get rid of him, get rid of his ridiculous socialist wage structure & we might become a serious team again.
You’re really mix politics with business, this is a private entity, your opinion is good only if it matchs thiers, they run thier business the way they run it, if you like it stay loyal,if you don’t, then they really don’t care,and so does every other team.
So he’s basically telling us we still can’t compete with the ‘big boys’ after they promised us that by now, we can can compete with anyone in Europe. I’m just tired about everything Arsenal, just tired.
I’m tired of idiots, like you, who don’t have a clue!
Thank you.
Why is he an idiot. He’s absolutely right. I know you don’t rate Sanchez which shows that you are the one who doesn’t have a clue.
Quiet, Dawn, awful, use, of commas, there. I’m tired of grammatical imperfections, plaguing these boards.
They didn’t say we can’t compete, they said this is how we manage our club,and this is how it has been run, you like it stay with us, if you don’t then you are free to join others (don’t go to Spùrs)
Your being loyal to a fault to the wrong entity…the board and management and not the players. Next you can close your eyes hold your breath and put your fingers in your ears and stomp up and down instead of opening your eyes and looking at what is really going on. Just like a loyal Brit has a right to question parliament, you have a right to your opinion about the way your club is being run. Crappy…time for a new coach and some new blood.
@arsenal fan long time, a right to an opinion – yes a right to have a say in how the company is run – no That’s the cold hard truth of it. Arsenal Holding PLC are a private company to which none of us are shareholders. Hell, even one of the biggest actual shareholders doesn’t get a vote. It’s like saying you have a right to demand that Starbucks serve their coffee differently because you’re a paying customer and you don’t like the way they do it. Annoyingly, that’s just not how it works. All you can do is ‘vote’… Read more »
“this is how we manage our club,and this is how it has been run”
…to the ground.
yup :/
I wish there were as many Kroenke Out signs around the world as there are Wenger ones.
Arsene may not be very good at it any more, but least he gives a shit.
Our wage structure is out dated. Ten years ago we made a plan, but since then player wages have sky rocketed. However, AFC is still sticking to the original plan. Without an owner whom is willing to spend to win, it’s near impossible to be winning trophies consistently. No surprise really, but the leagues across Europe are lop sided with the same sides winning over and over. It becomes pointless to watch other than I love football!…Overall the system is flawed in that it does not encourage an even competitive process. This is the reason the CL is stale…it’s the… Read more »
I want Sanchez to stay, but tbh 300K is just too much. I think around 200K is the better option here and we try to attract him by showing real intention to compete for next season. Start by changing the coaching system, get rid deadweight players, and sign more world class player.
Another way of looking at it is 300k x 52 weeks x 3 years comes to a cost of 46.8M. How much did we pay for him? How much would it cost purely in transfer fees to replace him? I’m not a fan of his tantrums on the pitch but can’t argue with his drive and mentality to win.
The problem is these players don’t stay at their Peak forever & we have a 67 year old coach who’s been struggling for years who’s going to come back for two years with the same old same old. There is absolutely no reason for Alexis to stay as long as Wenger stays. It has nothing to do with his relationship with the coach it has everything to do with the team’s ability to win the league title. They can’t do it with Winger they need new inspiration and the new system.
Babel fish translator from Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy – “We offered him big bucks, he wants even more, and we can’t pay him that much so he is leaving.” I say to that fair enough. Wenger is right. You can only pay what you can afford. The only reason Sanchez woud want to stay at the club is $$$. If the club were more ambitious or were performing well, then the club could have said to Sanchez that he should sign as he could win the league and UCL with Arsenal. Would have been a compelling argument too. However,… Read more »
While I get it’s a ton of money, Wenger also needs to be realistic that with the influx of cash thanks to the tv money & popularity of the league, the going rate for keeping your best players is much higher than it was 3-4 years ago. Even mid table Premier League clubs are now among the richest in the world and thanks to that transfer fees for Premier League clubs and wages are going to keep going up. It’s going to require a real change in mindset from Wenger that I’m not entirely sure he’s capable of to be… Read more »
Barcelona are severely hurting in midfield and would probably pay plenty for the likes of Ozil and as a double bonus he’d fit in perfectly for their style of play and wouldn’t compete against Arsenal in the Premier League.
He really doesn’t anymore as Messi and Neymar don’t do any defensive work so their midfielders have to. That’s not exactly Ozils strength
I like Ozil but top European clubs simply don’t play with someone like his skill set anymore – it’s really hard to see where he would fit. At most major European top clubs the midfield is required to do a lot of heavy lifting to pick up for the more limited defensive work of the wide players. The wide players tend to be much more based on speed, dribbling & the ability to score. He doesn’t have the workrate to be a midfielder in that system and he doesn’t have the dribbling/speed to be a wide player either. He can… Read more »
We could easily afford 300k/week if we weren’t wasting wages on players who: 1. aren’t good enough (looking at you Theo and Gibbs) and 2. Don’t play (Lucas Perez, Wilshere) or 3. Over spent (Xhaka and Mustafi). This could be sorted by a competent manager. My wish would be Wenger step down immediately. And the board appoint a new manager so he can build the team with the players of his choosing. #wengeroutNOW
Just because Mustafi has had a nightmare of a year so far in 2017 doesn’t make him overpriced.He has those qualities of being one of the very top defenders. He just needs to cut down on his mistakes and learn to make the right decisions at right times.Don’t forget Koscieny was almost as inconsistent for quite a few seasons until he and Per started pairing up regularly. Xhaka has been pretty good in my opinion.A couple of stupid tackles have him sent off but I feel, he has been, by a lot, treated unfairly by the incompetent referees in PL.… Read more »
Mustafi, isn’t bad a bad player but Wenger overpaid by about 8/9 million. Because he waited so late in the market he ended up negotiating against himself. I’m not ready to completely write off Xhaka as a flop but considering Chelsea spent less money on Kante. Because Wenger didn’t even put in an offer for him my expectations for Xhaka have been greatly increased. Although I like him Coquelin simply isn’t good enough. Period. Neither is Gibbs, Mertesacker, Monreal, Iwobi(One day he probably will but not currently),Elneny, Cech. Theo (10+ years and we’re still talking “potential”) and if I’m being… Read more »
We can certainly afford to pay him. We’re loaded
We are 7th at the moment.
Who’s having anything nice for dinner this evening?..
I’m have steak Paul. Medium rare with a nice pepper sauce. I just don’t know if I am gonna mash my potatoes. What do you think?
?? my roomate just told me he fucked up dinner. Have we won anything yet?
The same way Wenger deserves huge credit for the invincible season, he deserves huge blame us sitting in 7th place (17 points behind Spuds).
I am still waiting for single coherent argument for Wenger staying. Come on pro-Wenger fans, one of you must have a valid reason?
Actually, we are having a nice turkey Easter dinner today 🙂
“….and in the year 2017, Arsenal needed to beat a team (second from bottom of the league) to reclaim 6th place from Everton (for goodness sake) and the fans were not at all sure such a feat could be accomplished??” How bad is that?….keep tuned to this channel!
Funny it comes from one of the most expensive managers for the last decade. Not even considering his achievements (or misachievements).
that is so true . he is one of the best paid manager in the world and yet he hesitate to extend the courtsey to his players.
Another player destined to join another rival, joining a long queue, because although we say they are rivals we’d be telling porkies because in truth we haven’t been for a while now.
Even the fucking potatoes have bypassed us now.
Depressing “beer please”
Sanchez and Ozil could have made substantially more wages signing elsewhere, it’s Wenger who’s living in the past.
Because of our arcane wage structure from a previous era, we can’t sign the best players, and even the best young players don’t sign here either, we only look for bargains, and don’t play the agent game everyone else does.
Even mid-table clubs don’t think this way anymore, and that’s what we’ll be looking for cheap, cheap “quality” despite one of the highest earning clubs in the world.
Also, is this just me, or are we seeing a battle in the media between Gazidis who seems to want to bring the club forward and Wenger who wants to stay in the past?
Gazidis is protecting himself and his own profile, not the club.
Seems to be working
Bye bye Sanchez don’t let the door hit you on the way out where ever you maybe going we need players that want to be at the club more than money grabbers.
We won’t miss you.
yeahh.. fuck you Sanchez.. we’ll just buy top players who don’t want big salaries..
and shit players who don’t deserve big salaries..
We have a league to win.
oh wait…
“You have to make the decision in an objective way. The club always has to be the priority.”
I agree wholeheartedly, Mr. Wenger.
Now be a man of your word and resign.
Wenger says players won’t go to China because they want to play at the top and be paid a lot.
Arsenal are currently 7th (and dropping like a goddamn rock); the football is shit.
The players under-perform, to a man, every time they’re given half a chance.
And “The Boss”comes out to say he refuses to pay our top player the wages he’d get at clubs that actually compete for trophies.
What the fuck is going on in his brain?
China makes the market so much more constricted. It is affecting supply at the moment.
hence prices remain very high.
I don’t think Arsenal will risk losing Alexis for free (its not in our nature) so likely he is gone.
But should they work something out, it will likely be a very short extension (perhaps tied to the gaffer’s)
It will be good to keep at least one of Ozil or Alexis.
Those we can get rid of IMO – Walcott, Gibbs, jack, Jenkinson, Debuchy, Ospina, Elneny.
Also still on the periphery Campbell.
Arsenal wage structure equal=
1.- 4th place
2.- Buy cheap, sell expensive, send money to board staff
3.- FA cup to keep fans quite
4.- Arsenal
who cares what wenger dismisses.
we dismissed him long ago after he over stayed his welcome.
300k per week? This is definitely Alexis’ agent trying to jack up prices. I think only Messi and CR7 deserve that much
Wenger trying to make Alexis look bad with this wage demand is just sickening. All Alexis wants is to play for a side with a winning mentality. Arsene Wenger will most certainly take Arsenal down. This 67 year old Arsene is not the same man we used to know. All I see in Wenger is a man terrified of life without Arsenal and as such challenges anything that’s a threat to him staying on as manager.
Wenger out time for change from top to bottom in Arsenal afc