Friday, March 29, 2024

Wenger fears Arsenal will be priced-out over Kylian Mbappe

Arsene Wenger says it would be ‘hypocritical’ of him to say he wasn’t interested in signing Monaco forward Kylian Mbappe, but has suggested that Arsenal won’t be able to compete financially with some of the other clubs who will look to sign him this summer.

The 18 year has burst onto the scene this season, capturing the imagination in the Champions League in particular, and he’s a player who pretty much every club in Europe would fancy at this point.

If it came down to a bidding war, or a wages war, the Gunners would probably find themselves beaten by other clubs – even with the resources and cash available to us there are those whose pockets are much deeper.

Speaking to SFR Sport, the Arsenal manager said, “Obviously it would be hypocritical and a lie to say that we are not looking at him.

“But he’s already in the bracket of clubs who are, perhaps, much better financed than us.”

Even so you’d like to see us have a go, but beyond finances perhaps the fact things seem pretty unstable at the moment is something that work against us too.

Wenger also spoke about Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, insisting the duo should stay in North London.

“Firstly I think they should stay here because they are world-class players and it’s very difficult to find world-class players, even for a lot of money,” he said.

“There are lots of clubs with lots of money. There are fewer talented players needing to make that decision. Today there’s Mbappe from Monaco and the whole of Europe is already on to this.

“And not just us in our situation. You talk of ‘losing out’; you’ve got to find them and bring them in.

“So, we have two reasons for keeping them.”

The 67 year old already confirmed that he’s working on transfers ahead of next season, so we’ll find out soon enough what irons he has in the fire.

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Clarkey

Forget the transfer fee. The fact we’ll likely be playing our European games on Thursday nights next season is the reason we’ll struggle to sign him, or anyone else worth having for that matter.

Smart-Arse

We have pretty much as good a chance as Liverpool, City and United to get top four. Despite his flaws, Wenger has proven that is the one thing he achieves over and over again. We’ve been in worse positions at this stage and still made it. Getting top four is as routine as losing in the CL 2nd round – you should know better by now.

The competition for Mbappé is too strong. We need to be looking at out-of-favour “stars”, like Douglas Costa & Lucas Moura, as we did with Sanchez and Ozil.

David Hillier\'s luggage

What Smart-Arse said on so many levels. With the World Cup next summer there will a host of these slightly out of favour players looking to secure their spot at the tournament, bargains to be had

IamaGoober

The club with the two billionaire owners; (one of) the highest match day revenues in the world; the most expensive ticket in English football – and we are getting priced out of buying an 18 year old player?

Hilarious.
We are being taken for mugs.
Cant and wont are too very different things…

IamaGoober

Genuinely cant understand why people are thumbing my comment down. I am stating facts. We are one of the wealthiest clubs, playing football in the worlds wealthiest league. To say we cant compete financially to buy a player is utter nonsense. This is why we don’t win anything with out current set up. There’s no investment in the team anymore. Mbappe is easily worth the investment because he is 18. If he keeps going on the trajectory he is currently on, he will be certainly worth more money in the coming years… That was always Wengers trump card was always… Read more »

Parisian Weetabix

I think the reason your comment has divided opinion is because it appears to an extent that you’re accusing Wenger of lying, and while Wenger may have his flaws I’m pretty sure he does have the club’s best interests at heart, and if it was financially possible for us to sign Mbappe I think Wenger would be just as keen to do so as any of us. But at the same time you raise a valid point that given the comparatively exorbitant prices our fans pay for tickets, the new stadium, the sponsorship deals etc., there’s no obvious reason why… Read more »

IamaGoober

@Parisian Weetabix I think to a degree it is Wengers fault, ultimately he decides who we buy. He has his internal gauges on how much an 18 year old player is worth – and how much he is willing to spend. But his valuations are outdated, a young upcoming player would of been worth £10-11M ten or so years ago.. now they’re worth more. Look at the signing of Martial as a prime example, supreme young talent now costs close to the £50M mark. And 100% Arsene has been untruthful regarding the amount of finances he has at his disposal.… Read more »

JB1

@Goober you’re wrong. We have a wage structure and other areas to fill – CB, LB, GK, MD and a striker. We absolutely cannot compete with Barca, Real, City, Chelsea and even Man U on a pure financial level when it comes to allocating funds for mega stransfers and wages.

Double doubles

@JB1 there’s now wage ‘cap’ forcing this wage structure, we can restructure the structure so to say. I’m with Goober on this one, we’re ok playing second tier.
And by the way, Wenger does lie. Best intentions sure, but he lies, see: Cesc/Nasri won’t be sold (sold a week after), almunia ‘injured’ when he was dropped, we have funds for transfers (years later, we had no funds back then) etc

Bould\'s Eyeliner

You can’t expect there to not be lying or posturing in contract negotiations. Ever. Doesn’t matter if you’re looking to rent an apartment. Someone lied to you about that flat. It’s never nice, and I generally hate it, but looking for honesty in PR statements is like looking for a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. The intention of PR is to improve your public approval, and so, naturally it’s always filled with subtle bullshit. White lies and incomplete truths, all that jazz.

IamaGoober

@JB1 I’m actually not wrong. What I stated is fact. If you don’t believe me you can look online and find our financial reports. In fact there are articles on arseblog so you don’t have to look too far. We have the money there but we choose not to use it. To counter your point, I am willing to bet money that we do not even complete half of those signings that you suggested. There is no way in hell Arsene will sign a CB, LB, GK, CDM, and a CF in one window. That’s practically a whole squad. Over… Read more »

GoonerJust

We did buy sanchez and ozil, but still we haven’t won PL and go beyond CL 2nd round

CLEGooner

If we weren’t going to WHL Sun, I’d agree. But we are. I’m scared.

Smart-Arse

We usually draw with that lot these days (i think 4 of last 5 PL games). Go there, take the point – ending their title hopes in all likelihood – and then go all out for the United win. That would put us in a very strong position for top four.

Throw in the fact United have a) important players injured and b) away games at City and Spurs, and Liverpool can’t defend. We have more than a good chance.

TexasGooner6

If Wenger really wanted MBappe last year we could have gotten him for probably 35 mil. Dangerous for an 18 year old. Yes but Wenger did the same thing with C Ronaldo, and many other young guys. He hesitates because at that age he wants a bargain. Agents and players are too knowledgeable now. He just needs to spend the money and get his new Henry. Don’t go buy bargain basement guys. Get a true star. Whether that guy is 18 or 25.

FirmCoq

You should also know better than, this season our form has been in the toilet lately, and you conveniently neglected to include Manu as well in the top 4 race. We might have as good a chance as Liverpool but there are already 4 other teams who are in better position than us, out of which you cant catch 3 for sure. So dont be a Smart-Arse.

Bosscielny

What was that about competing financially with Bayern Munich again? Have we given up on that one?

Ben

I think Mbappe is beyond Bayern as well. He’s in the City, Utd, PSG, Barca & Real category

Crash Fistfight

I’d say Real makes sense for him. Morata hardly scores and Benzema’s not young any more (neither is Ronaldo, for that matter). Also, not playing in the PL means he won’t get kicked all game long.

SuperTom7

In that regard, I would fancy us signing James. Think he would suit us well.

Demac

Yes. Imagine the twin genius of mesut n james sitting just behind alexis pulling the strings n makong runs when alexis drops deep.

Matt

I nearly googled “makong” for a second there, assuming he was some west African hotshot from the Bundesliga…

Danger Mouse

James from Gunnerblog? I’m not sure, he seems quite injury prone.

Crash Fistfight

On the upside, every time he gets an injury, the team wins 🙂

North Bank Gooner

Anyone else think we should lynch James Gunnerblog before the game this weekend? Or at least hospitalize him a little. Twice is more than mere coincidence, and we REALLY need the 3 pts! Oh come on James, it’s for the team………

Bould\'s Eyeliner

Could you imagine if he had a recurring injury every few days until the end of the season. Poor man… breaking his back for the club like that…

Bould\'s Eyeliner

But then we’ll DEFINITELY win the match if he goes off.

Heavenly Chapecoense

Likely what Wenger will do. I would buy him to replace Ramsey.

a different George

Plus, we already have his brother-in-law.

canon 10000

Morata is incredible. Can’t score as many as Cronaldo but he’s an asset. If Real sell him I’d like for us to try at least.

WRT getting kicked you should see what’s been happening to Messi lately. People are cynical and thuggish in Spain, too. Anyway Mbappe is no sunflower in the wind himself.

baz00r

And he’ll get a nice break over Xmas.

Gooner Stubbs

Mbappe goes to one of the richer clubs, they release someone else, we buy that someone else. After all, it’s how we got Alexis and Ozil. The other way to acquire ‘world class’ players is to do some fucking homework and get them earlier in their careers. We could have got Leroy Sane in 2015 when it was obvious he was going to be a star. The same thing is true of N’Golo Kante and Antoine Griezmann. You don’t have to wait until they become unaffordable. You just have to be both good at your job, and if that’s not… Read more »

kaius

We used to be the club that polishes rough diamonds. Think most of us would be happy if Arsenal just rediscover the ability to identify and *actually sign* prospects before they blow up.

Alexis Oxlivier-Chambellerin

We *acutally signed* Xhaka, didn’t we?

kaius

Xhaka was a Swiss international playing Champions League football and cost nearly as much as Ozil.

The Premier League’s wealth has utterly warped what people define as a prospect.

PeteyB

Rob holding

emob

Add Dembele or Aubameyang to that list. his is where I blame Arsene the most. I know we can’t compete for Griezmann *now*, but why didn’t we get him when he left Real Sociedad. same thing goes for Aubameyang. We used to be that club.

Matt

Didn’t Griezmann specifically say he chose to work with Simeone over Wenger. Wenger was a big fan of his from several years back – you’d expect him to snap up any pacy left-footed forward prospects from the Alsace.

Gooner Stubbs

Griezmann is culturally Spanish now. Despite all the talk, I’d still be surprised if he went to United.

a different George

Griezmann is not from Alsace.

Gooner Stubbs

Ousmane Dembele or Moussa Dembele? Both French and under 20. (Not Mousa, obviously).

Crash Fistfight

I couldn’t understand Aubameyang. He looked like an Arsenal player in the making, and he was in the price bracket that we could actually afford at the time! Same goes for Draxler – he went to Wolfsburg for something like £24m, which was easy for us to top at the time.

I often don’t understand our transfer dealings 🙁

Copelandão

Same a star? I think you’re getting a bit ahead of your self there. Yes we’ve missed some gems but we weren’t the only ones, and at least they were on our radar which shows we were looking. I think if you look at kos, ramsey or chambo its clear we’ve done OK with identifying and signing talent at a young age. You can’t sign them all though!

Anthony

Fully agree. Not to mention Draxler and Suarez when they were at Schalke and Ajax respectively.

John C

We can’t even compete with Monaco and Juventus who have much less money than us, forget about Bayern.

New manager needed urgently!!

Thomas Lambert

Both Monaco and Juve have more money than us…

John C

No they’re not

GunnerDareMacedonia

How juve don’t have more money than us they splash 86mil pounds on Higauin I know the sold pogba but they paid 86 mil for 30 year old it is insane

Ervin

Do you even know who owns Juventus? If Juventus wants to play hard in the market, no team has a chance of competing with them in terms of how much money they have…..perhaps PSG only. Juventus has always maintained that they won’t break their banks above what their league in general can afford. When serie A was extremely rich early 90’s , Milan and Juventus were breaking world records in terms of signing players. Now that the Milan’s teams were bought by Chinese multi-billionaires , you will see how they will again break their record-signings, as they did early 90’s.… Read more »

Crash Fistfight

*EXOR

And yes, the Agnellis are minted.

John C

Both have smaller wage bills and turnovers, who owns them and how rich their owners are have nothing to do with it. Our owners are also very rich and Kroenke is married into the Walton family, which by any measure are just about the richest family in the world, so access to money isn’t our problem, desire to spend, even what we have is.

a different George

Juventus is owned by the richest family in Italy; Monaco by a Russian oligarch.

awqg

War chest?

GunnAlex

While Hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing. I’ve read that we tried to sign him last summer. It is very frustrating that we could’nt have got that deal over the line while the players profile was significantly smaller. What held that deal back? Assuming it was a punt that we delcined to follow up, I’d want to know why it was less worthwhile than our Sanogos and Parks. It could quite easily be other unknown factors, so I’ll hold back the fangs. But i certainly dont want to hear the boss trot out the usual, re Bale, Ronaldo, Ibra, n… Read more »

Copelandão

They were still in need of the player having sold martial, and with that money didn’t need to sell until he was worth more.

Andy Mack

Sanogo didn’t cost any fee (only salary) at a time when we were still broke.

Bould\'s Eyeliner

I was really hoping that kid would make a lot of us eat some humble pie. Alas… he sanoshow.

Sigh…

Vehcede

Actually get out

Rich

We have the highest cash reserves in world football.
The sixth highest revenue
Low manageable debt
2x shareholders with a comined net worth of $23billion USD.
and yet at a time when we need to be convincing our two best players to stay, we hear nonsense like this.
Under Kroenke and AW we’ve become second rate, nothing we do or say even whispers ambition let alone screams it.

John C

We’ve been infected by a horrible, corrosive inferiority complex by a manager whose long lost his competitive edge.

Clive St Helmet

I think it’s quite slippery of you to include Usmanov’s wealth in that 23B calculation, considering he’s not a member of the board so the club will not receive investment from him except in the form of a share purchase and his wealth contributes two-thirds of that figure. Our majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, had a net worth of approx $7.5 billion. In addition to Arsenal, he owns the LA Rams, the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche, the Colorado Mammoth, the Colorado Rapids, and part owner of the Colorado Crush. He also owns large amounts of real estate. So he’s spread… Read more »

Rich

I think you’ve mixed up “can’t compete’ with “won’t compete’?
It’s a self profiling prophesy, no one has asked the club to put our future at risk.
But surely no one in their right mind would try suggesting we’ve done everything that we possibly can to be as successful on the pitch as we possibly can?

Clive St Helmet

Perhaps “can’t compete” isn’t quite what I meant, but certainly all of those clubs would beat us in a “pissing money away” contest. Bear in mind that a proportion of our massive cash balance is used to service debt, and that much of it is in actual fact allocated to complete transfer payments (transfer fees are not paid up front and in full). The club also has to anticipate falling match-day revenue (fans are already staying away after all) and probable loss of Champion’s League football next season. Add to that anticipated bumper wage increases at the end of the… Read more »

John C

We piss loads of money away being cheap, we operate a false economy. The current squad is full of financial wastage, we’re paying circa £150,000 a week on 2 right backs we have no intention of ever playing again because we didn’t buy the best when we should have. El Neny, didn’t cost a large transfer fee but is a waste of wages as he never plays. Sanogo, another waste of wages. Lucas Peres came with a large transfer fee and presumably pretty large wages, doesn’t play. Between that lot we’ve spent around £40m in transfer fees and £300,000 a… Read more »

kaius

Absolutely spot on. A successful transfer policy means buying well, but it also means selling well. Only players I can think of who were moved on purely because of competition are Podolski and Szczesny. Mostly players leave due to injury or age like Wilshere, Rosicky and Arteta.

I mean, our wage bill is £90million higher than Spurs. Our problem is not spending money we don’t have, it’s how do we become more efficient with what we’re spending now.

John C

Exactly, what Arsenal actually can’t afford is to buy the Jenkinsons, Sanogos, Elnenys and Peres’s of this world.

There’s too many, what are perceived as low cost, low risk players who when added together cost a fortune and provide very little when we’d be better off with one player who cost £50-60m and was paid £250k a week.

kaius

Yes, but he didn’t say “board member” did he? He said we have two *shareholders* with a combined net worth of $23billion. To be honest I don’t know why you’re providing excuses for billionaires – plenty of wealthy owners find solutions to help their clubs. Fact of the matter is, we punched above our weight for the first decade under Wenger, won some major titles, but after investing the proceeds into a new stadium, the last decade has seen us degrade our sporting ambitions and our footballing pedigree. And we’ve shown no appetite to make up for that in a… Read more »

Clive St Helmet

I’m not providing any excuses (I’m certainly not a Kroenke fan), just clearing up ambiguity.

kaius

We’re all aware of Arsenal’s self-financing model. It’s the envy of clubs across Europe. As someone else stated above, no-one’s asking the club to put our future at risk.

The problem Arsenal have is recently we haven’t gained a competitive advantage from transfer spending, and up to now we’ve not been ambitious enough to contemplate other methods such as a change of manager or appointing a sporting director. And today, the average Arsenal fan knows more about Kroenke’s holdings or Arsenal’s financial exposure than what the club’s actual sporting ambitions are.

Clive St Helmet

I agree 100%; all I’ve done is pick holes in that $23B figure (which is obviously a misdirection) and pointed out that the massive cash balance is not as massive at it would first seem.

kaius

No it’s not obviously a misdirection. The $23billion aggregate figure of Usmanov and Kroenke’s net worth was the fourth point he made (the others were our cash reserves, revenue and debt) to illustrate our financial strength. A misdirection was you saying we can’t compete with Man Utd, City, PSG, Barcelona or Real Madrid in a “pissing money away” contest, when the discussion was about signing a guy who could be as good as Thierry Henry. Aguero, Rooney, Ronaldo, and Neymar are a few players whose price tags were seen as exorbitant at the time but turned out to be great… Read more »

Maniac

Considering how much Monaco got for Martial I expect it will be well beyond what we will be willing to pay. That, as well as the uncertainty at the club, the quality of the current team and the fact that we’ll likely be competing in the Europa League rather than the Champions League, means that I really don’t rate our chances of being able to sign him.

Mootilated

What is an amount we are realistically willing to pay for players, though? I mean, if we cannot afford to pay for an upcoming youngster like Mbappe what is to say we can afford well established superstars which become available in the transfer market? Especially if we fail to get Champions League qualification this summer.

Crash Fistfight

Well, I doubt we’re likely to pay a world record fee to sign anyone, which could happen with Mbappe, what with the teams that will be interested in signing him. The problem is that for anyone we’re likely to spend big on, someone else more attractive will probably be more attractive. That’s why I think it would be better to pay over the odds (if necessary) to sign younger, up and coming talent. Even that is a problem, as agents get involved with players at stupidly early in players’ careers and start trying to engineer huge moves in the future… Read more »

Crash Fistfight

*some else more attractive will probably be interested as well.

Mootilated

what I was trying to say is; if Wenger is saying we cannot afford Mbappe’s transfer fee. Who can we afford? Or is he just unwilling to spend obscene fees on youngsters?

Lord Bendnter

It would have been ludicrous to think we would buy him. Hmm would he leave a club that’s on the verge of winning Ligue 1 and in the semifinals of the champions league for a club that’s struggling for a top four finish? Only reason you’d leave is if that club offers you a very high salary, or has a very decorated history (Real/Barca/etc), or has a squad of world class players. So let’s stop this useless talk and of how we ‘wanted to buy Mbappe’

Crash Fistfight

Has anyone ever pointed out that your username is spelled incorrectly?

Lord Bendnter

I can’t deal with all the fanmail that I receive, that’s why I have to create such alter egos. How did you kñow it was me? What gave it away? The picture?

Crash Fistfight

I’d recognise that beautiful face of yours anywhere Nicky B <3

ontheup

I am surprised at the comments here. There is an air of resignation. Don’t get me wrong I don’t think we’ll get M’bappe, but there is no way we should accept that we can be priced out. Arsenal has money to spend, as much as any club. We are being priced out because we don’t want to pay what is the market price (by definition). When we spend £100m for Xhaka, Mustafa, Lucas (and Holding), we can spend £100m on the most promising striker in Europe, especially if we are likely to sell one of our strikers (one of Giroud,… Read more »

Pooner

Problem is we don’t just need a striker – if we did then we could, like you say, spend all £100m on him, but we also need players in quite a few other positions.

Lord Bendnter

Yea, and also I think 100mil is a ridiculous price for a youngster

Pooner

Well that too (it’s ridiculous for anyone tbh, I don’t care what anyone says about ‘market value’)

John C

That it maybe but £80m for Ronaldo has to be some of the best business Real Madrid has ever conducted, his value has made the price look relatively cheap.

The question is one of quality not price, if Mbappe is the next global superstar who will help whichever club has him regularly win the biggest trophies over the next decade, it would be money well spent.

TexasGooner6

The issue isn’t just the amount of money but also the agent’s fees. Wenger doesn’t buy the big money agents players. Never has. They go to Real, Barca, City and Manchester(s).

Andy Mack

We’ve seen many times that being a great player in a different league doesn’t always equate to being a great player in the PL. If it was a guarantee then I think we’d probably be prepared to stretch for him but we can’t afford to take a gamble with that level of money yet.
If we’d actually managed to win the PL or the CL in the last 3 or 4 years then our income would have been far greater (especially from commercial income) but we didn’t, so we still have to be careful where our money is spent…

Spanish Gooner

I hate to say it but there is no reason why he should leave Monaco for us, never mind turning down Real Madrid. A french national playing for a french team in a tax haven which is top of its league and in the semi final of both the cup and the Champions League, with a manager who clearly trusts him and a team that brings the best out of him. Somebody tell me one thing Arsenal can offer that Monaco can’t?

Andy Mack

The only thing is that one day he will probably want to compete in the top league which is definately the PL. But I think for the moment I agree and I also think he’s more than happy where he is.

TexasGooner6

Monaco’s stadium is about 25,000 capacity and not always full. Plus Ligue 1 is weak. The best players go to the best clubs and the best leagues. So right now most of the great players want to be in Spain, England and Germany.

John C

I actually had 2 season tickets for Monaco a few years ago and to say it’s not always full is the understatement of the year. Most games are played in front of a couple of thousand fans and the “Ultras” behind the goal look like they’re paid to be there.

Rogerbij

Happy to pay 30,40,50 million for him. Oh you twisted my arm, 60 million…now how high do you think his price will actually go?

Sean

There was some nonsense online the other day about Man City refusing to pay the €110 million Monaco value him at.

It’ll be interesting to see who plumps for him. Imagine being 18 and worth 100 million, I’d probably go insane and lose my mind before I’d kicked my first ball for the club.

Though in fairness I could sign for Arsenal tomorrow on a free and still lose my mind for living my wildest dreams.

gee

I think the players get a 10% signing on fee – so thats a cool 10 mill just for a signature. who is gonna turn that down?

Andy Mack

Monaco and his agent wouldn’t turn it down, but the player may be very happy where he is and when you get above a certain income then money isn’t so important.

Andy Mack

Should say’ Isn’t so important to everyone’.

Amusa

His idol is Ronaldo.
Madrid need a striker.
We all know where this is headed.

gee

But he looks like Henry mk2. not the complete article needs to polish his left foot but a serious player at 18, looks better than Henry at that age as he is already playing down the middle. time will tell tho

kaius

Strikers we’ve actually signed since 2010-2011: Podolski, Giroud, Welbeck and Perez*.

This is the real cost of our “banter era” transfer strategy. Arsenal under Wenger is not a destination for any top European striker and it’s pretty funny to hear Arsene pretend otherwise.

*Alexis doesn’t count, he’s a forward. If we’d signed a wide forward/winger and played Alexis at no.9 for a whole season, then we can call him a striker.

gee

to be fair only out and out strikers Wenger signed – Suker(old) Anelka (young),Wiltord ,Kanu (heart problem), Adebayor, Eduardo. all the rest were converted wingers

Crash Fistfight

Also: Franny Jeffers, Christopher Wreh, Nicklas Bendtner, Kaba Diawara. I’m sure there must be more.

gee

jeremy alialidere or whatever his name was

Crash Fistfight

Good call.

kaius

The original “fox in the box” (or was that Jeffers?). Let’s not forget Marouane Chamakh.

Carlos Vela

what about me?

kaius

Exactly. Wenger has a weird outlook when it comes to strikers. It’s one of his worst flaws in my opinion.

Pedant

It’s easy.

Let him go to Juventus, not be very good for a season and then come to us.

Worked with Thierry.

Russ99

Obviously Arsene is shooting one across the Gazidis bow, that he doesn’t want to break his stick-in-the-mud wage structure. We surely would have enough to compete for the transfer fee.

I’d also say a good reason we didn’t sign him last year is the continual ineptitude of Dick Law to make a tough deal, and also our refusal to pay agents, which along with a ten-years-behind view on appropriate wages is why we can’t sign or retain impact players.

A sporting director is our only hope this changes anytime soon.

Paul

I’m not sure it would be wise to pay the 100million quoted for Mbappe but I do know we ‘can’ compete but it’s more that we decide not to. I just wish he wouldn’t say we can’t compete as it actually makes us seem smaller and for no benefit. We can just not make an offer but let everyone know we could. Same result but better for the image of the club. Very small minded comment to lower expectations that are already low. 😉

Andy Mack

If you say that you can pay loads then every single player (+ his agent and club) want unrealistically big money.
Look at some of the mediocre players $iteh have bought to get their few genuine top players. Well we don’t have the money to play that game and get such a low strike rate.

Paul

You just say “we think that is an unreasonable price for a young player” rather than “we can’t compete with the big bullies”. We have 2 billionaires, we just decide to ‘compete’ differently. I think Arsenal is run correctly to be honest if you want to be sustainable but the PR/marketing us a ‘not as well financed’ I don’t believe is great. Just say ‘we don’t waste money’. Make it our choice.

Andy Mack

I don’t think there’s any benefit telling someone ‘That’s all your worth’. rather than saying ‘we can understand why you want more but we don’t have more, however we do have facilities etc etc etc’. If a player joins knowing that X is all he’s worth then for some players that’s the level he strives to reach… Such a large portion of a players achievements revolve around his confidence/ego levels.

The Doff

The fans will love this. “We could compete…but we won’t.”

If you then went back to explain that you can’t break the wage structure, need to keep reserves to operate yiddy yadda, you’re basically at the same point you are when you say you can’t compete in the first place.

Glocken

Maybe if Wenger wasn’t hoarding up 10 million plus bonuses per year on his own contract and giving inflated wages to average players like Jenkinon, Debuchy, Ospina, Coq, Perez, Giroud etc we might be able to afford it. Don’t let Wenger’s pitiful lies blind you, the real reason we won’t buy him is because we are a big club with a small club mentality, actually spending money would make him accountable and out of excuses as to why he’s failed in the league and Europe for 13 years. He would rather lose or achieve the bare minimum with a modest… Read more »

Laughing Stock of Football

Typical wenger bullshit. Arsenal have got the cash to buy whoever they want. But if you were him would you want to join England’s 6th best team or Spain’s number 1 or 2? It’s a tough one isn’t it?

Magneto

Like everyone else, I don’t know where Mbappe will end up eventually. However, I’m fairly certain that if he went to Utd under their current manager, that he, like Martial before him, would struggle for game time and receive public slagging offs for no good reason. Let’s remember, this guy is what, 18 or 19? He is still learning his trade as a striker and professional footballer, and needs the right kind of coaching & support. Under their current manager, Utd is not the best place to get that, and his game would suffer. He needs to go to the… Read more »

Crash Fistfight

Probably won’t happen, though. $$$$$

yagaru

Sad really because it wasn’t that long ago that exciting French players would have been desperate to join Arsenal. Also, we’ve got the money we just aren’t prepared to spend it.

a different George

The historic tradition for the very top French players was to play in Italy or Spain–Kopa at Madrid, Platini at Juve, Zidane at Madrid.

It was Wenger (and the Prem’s incredible relative wealth) who changed that; the best example, of course, is Patrick Veira. And even then, Henry went to Juve first; Thuram stayed in Italy and Spain; Makelele only came to England after being sold by Real; Laurent Blanc didn’t come to Manchester until he was 35; Didier Deschamps played one season at Chelsea after years at Juve; etc.

Andy Mack

Spain and Italy are such a great lifestyle compared to the cold, wet and grey winters here. Certainly a big pull for any player with a family to consider.

Glasgow_Gunner

We would only get this guy if we intercepted him on his way to Everton.

ramgooner

After this post, i desperately want to change my name to “Flamini’s Chequebook”.
However, i have been using ramgooner for years now 😐

PBM

While I would love Mbappe to join it is highly unlikely. In any case I suggest that spending 100M on two quality defenders in the mould of Bonucci or Chiellini (I accept that Juventus wont let them go) is probably money better spent. Nevertheless, natural defenders of that type with a bit of a ‘dog’ in them is what we need. We are generally OK at the other end of the pitch

santori

Monaco have no pressure to sell him now at 19yrs.

There will be also other attractive offers so the price will be inflated.

We are better off looking at Mahrez should Barca drop interest or for the matter Konoplyanka at Sevilla (on loan) should Ozil decide to leave.

We need highly technical players to come in.

Mbappe is a talent but there may be time to bide as well as he is still young.

One player I wished we could have kept was Gnabry.

santori

As mentioned tediously many transfer windows, yes we are financially strong but there are 7 or so other clubs who are stronger and can pay more. Chelsea, City, United, PSG, Bayern, Barca and RM all have more spending power. Arguably Juve may also have more allure as Italian heavyweight. Some have better commercial revenues at the moment, others are debt financed and don’t have to live within their means, plus there is also an allure we may not be able to match because of our recent’failings’ and should we not make that all important Top 4 trophy. In which case… Read more »

santori

As far as Europe and CL is concern.

I don’t understand why people think we are out.

We have 18 points left to play for.

IF we finish all our games with wins, we will match Liverpool (IF they do not falter themselves)

Someone is dropping points today in the Manchester derby.

We have big games ahead of us and it is going to be difficult.

But that’s where a bit of bottle comes in.

If the team exhibits the sort of belief some posters here do, we will not make Europa never mind CL.

kas

I wonder if Mbappe’s agent read Henry’s comment, that only Sanchez would get into the Spurs team. Not that he’d sign for us anyway.

JAL

Don’t give me this bullshit. Our owners are just as rich if not more than Chelsea, Madrid etc we just CHOOSE not spend the money and break a stupid model. It’s a matter of appetite and we all know this club lacks ambition.

Zandram

Yup. He’s an interesting option for us, but we need to plan well this summer. Come up with a list of 3-5 firm targets according to how we wanna play next season (difficult i know cos we dont know who will stay / go – mesut/ alexis).

GunnerDareMacedonia

Well he is the best talent in europe right now, but monac will sell him for 150 mil and honestly we can compete with that amount with the others big spenders. Anyway it gives us opportunity as there are strikers that lost the spot light, everyone will be chasing mbape, belloti, lukaku and will pay insane amounts, i thin mbape will go to real , lukaku to chelsea, griezmann to man utd , so we can go and buy abumeyang for 60mil pounds which is resonable and the guys is a beast we can go for belloti we can go… Read more »

Merlin\'s Panini

We haven’t got a hope in hell of getting this kid. He’s the hottest property in Europe. No chance he’ll come to us.
I’d love him at Arsenal but there will be richer and more successful teams after him.

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