According to Sky Sports, Watford will not be signing Kieran Gibbs after failing to agree personal terms with the left-back.
The Hornets had agreed a cut-price fee with Arsenal last week but it appears they’ve been unwilling to match or increase the player’s salary, rumoured to be in excess of £65,000 a week.
Kieran Gibbs to #WatfordFC deal is off. More details on @SkySportsNews soon.
— Adam Leventhal (@AdamLeventhal) August 29, 2017
If the report is true it’ll leave Gibbs with just over 48 hours to find another club. It’s either that or several months playing under-23 football at London Colney.
Watch this space…
Absolute farce!
I think this small little situation says a whole lot about the mentality of the players at Arsenal. Gibbs is a professional footballer. He is literally more then happy to play for the Arsenal under 23’s then to move to another Premier League club and play first team football, for a tiny bit less money after spending years and years earning nearly £70,000 a week at Arsenal. And just in case people didn’t know, the Watford training ground is literally right next door to Arsenals, so its not even that bigger change. He could live in exactly the same house,… Read more »
I know I just read the WBA thing so this is moot at this point.
You wouldn’t collect your paycheck for 12 more months and become a bosman and choose where you play next and not worry about transfer fees? He’s probably going to get less then half of what he’s getting now for a salary. I don’t blame him at all. That doesn’t mean he has no desire to play 1st team somewhere in the PL. It just means he understands where and how long he has left in his career.
Surprise surprise….
I get the argument that most people wouldn’t take a pay cut in the real world. However he has been raking in 65K a week for a few years of very little work. He’s a deluded millionaire, who is comfortable and lucky. He know’s Arsenal need him off the books. I would be interested to know what the pay cut would be… 40K a week?? Oh poor little thing, how will he possibly survive.. Look, I like the Gibbs. He is a quality professional.But now is the time to fuck off and start playing football again, even if it means… Read more »
You cannot blame him for not wanting to take a pay cut. It is not delusional to stick with a job when the other offers do match what you are on.
sorry… do “not” match
It is if you’re a professional footballer, because it’s not just a job. It’s a job PLAYING FOOTBALL. Think about it: careers are short and his chances to play are limited. It must be one of the most fun jobs on the planet when you’re in the team, but pretty soon his time will be done. Why on earth would you hold out for a bit more money when it would mean giving up the precious chance to actually PLAY FOOTBALL regularly?????
Ideal world yea I would like that attitude but a professional footballer sees it as his job. Also, I don’t think you would call it fun playing at the Emirates being booed by your own supporters as you head in at half time, whilst banners get held a loft asking for the manager to resign.
I wouldn’t be surprised if I found my self doing the exact same thing in his shoes. The career is short so get all you can while you can?
Just because you make *M per year in salary doesn’t mean you are living like you and I. Hopefully he is saving as much as he can and live off it for the rest of his life. He is a professional footballer. It’s a career not just some game at this point. If he is rejecting 50,000/week is one thing but I’m assuming the clubs want him to maybe take half or more for a salary. You would think twice too, plus in a year he will have the opportunity to pick and choose where to play and not worry… Read more »
Am surprised at the attitude of some of our players who do not see the bigger picture. Gibbs is an England international a good year could give him an outside chance of making the world cup. He has a good year watford will increase his salary or he will join another club after all he only has one year left on his contract.
Or Watford goes down and he’s losing value year over year.
You see stuff in a perspective as a fan. Just like I do but you have to see it in a professional footballers perspective. His International career is over unless major injuries occur.
You understand how transfers work? If Watford and Arsenal agree to a fee, Gibbs and Watford have to agree to new contract.
Thank goodness for that; we need all the centre backs we can get.
You have won the internet today. Well done sir!
It’s due to wages, we pay our average players far too much. Let’s hope WBA come back in for him before Thursday.
That is very true, we do pay too much for our average players. However when Gibbs signed his extension he was first choice left back for Arsenal and battling and (an overrated) Leighton Baines for the role in the England side. £60k a week in that context seems ok. Problem is £60k a week for a back up LB is probably too much, and the player himself needs to think about that balance of playing time vs wages, particularly in a World Cup year.
He’s not in the WC squad no matter his decision here.
Arsenal should pay him the remains wage imho.
Let’s say his wage is 70k, WBA offer 50k, i think we should pay 20k and take those 7Mill from WBA. It cost us 1M but we got 6M, imagine if he stays, next year he will go for free, and we have to pay 70k/week, around 3,5M. Well, bad business for us if he stays.
Just to be a devils advocate here. Lets say they agree to no salary, should Arsenal cover the whole salary? lol I think thats a good idea but I don’t think WBA or Watford want to give him 40-50,000/week, I think its more like 25,000. Why wouldn’t Gibbs just stick it out for another year and become a bosman next summer and he gets to pick what club to go to without worrying about any fees?
Comfort zone
He’s just respecting his contract, as Wenger stated everyone should do…
he’s better at LB than Ox or Bellerin, we might as well start using him.
Yes – he can play right back in Wenger’s new system:-)
Economical comfort zone
Arsene probably pulled this deal and tomorrow Sead will be linked with a move somewhere at this rate.
Not a bad idea!! Sead came for free, so Wenger can make 30-40mil selling him now. At the end of the window, we can end up with U-23 playing as the first team and having 1 billion in the bank.
Couldn’t Arsenal pay part of the wages to Watford to push the deal through? We’d get a transfer fee, plus a major part of his wages gone. Or pay it all for another season and get nothing for him next year. Either way, just get it done so both parties can move on.
That’s how every functional club does it, alas…
ARe you talking about a loan?
If he is transferred out he needs to agree to a new contract with the new club. So its not just about kicking in for this season. Its about the years on the contract he signs for.
Again, if you were in his shoes wouldn’t you stick it out and wait till next summer if the offers on salary are really low? You get to pick the club to go to without the hassles of a transfer fee?
No doubt we’ll be playing him as a striker against Bournemouth
and he will be there to make a last minute tackle to prevent an equalizer after earlier making a goal line clearance
he’ll become Sanchez replacement
He’s on 65k a week? Wtf!
Surely some kind of electric heating device would warm the bench more cheaply and reliably. It could be periodically moved to the medical centre, in case any of their treatment tables needed warming.
You know he signed his contract years ago? It wasn’t signed last summer.
Send him to Chelsea instead of Ox.
Maybe they won’t notice ?
Wish it was mariner doing the reports. Chelsea paying 35 million for gibbo and is keeping Ox
I get you don’t want to take a wage cut Mr Gibbs but surely you want to actually play every week. You’re already a multi millionaire so a pay cut is not going to harm you : have some pride.
If he wanted to play every week he would accept pay cut, he is benched 3-4 years at arsenal not playing bar odd 3-4 games a season and he is happily taking 80.000pw
He might have some pride and doesn’t want to take a pay cut for a club that might get relegated. “Hey Bob, have some pride! Go work over at this shop for less money, and if that shop downsizes next year, see who might want to take you on!” Fact is, they have their own reality and life and perception of what they need. It’s their right to do so and make business decisions in their own favor. We don’t have to like it, but as was said, it’s a short career and he’s got to get what he can… Read more »
And….it gets worse….I really hope we aren’t left with gibbs, debuchy, jenkinson and Perez all on our roster…especially now that Ox is gone and Mustafi is following him. Sanchez probably will too and at this point who can blame him? We are becoming a mid table side and it’s only us fans that can see it
Gibbs is feeble, always getting sick or injured. When he tries he can be very good, but he’s like his mate Theo, there are two many feeble games in between. He’s not worth the wages he’s on so other teams won’t touch him unless he’s a bargain.
Part of the “British Core”, that Wenger established few years ago…He gave these guys huge contracts and now it all flopped. Gibbs, Ox, Theo,Wilshire, Ramsey etc
Beautiful! Looks like nothing good will happen to this club at the moment!
We are facing an extreme rot. Nothing else to say..
This simply tells you everything you need to know about the problems at the club.
Where is wenger to praise our wage structure, looking overpaid fringe players in and chasing star players out. I can accept us not paying 400k a week for a top player, but why the heck are we overpaying our fringe players Then?
Hahaha. Been a really entertaining season so far, and it’s only begun !!
I recently left a job where I was very well paid for one where I’m paid 33% less, and I’ve never been happier. The work-culture, my colleagues and my everyday satisfaction is so much higher, eventhough I’m earning a lot less.(and never been close to 65.000 a week, sadly) I don’t get why fucking millionaires wanna sit around being miserable, instead of doing what they love and still being bloody millionaires, just at a slightly slower rate. Unbelievable.
Because by all accounts life inside the club is one of the best around. You took a cut for a better culture. He’d be taking a cut and leaving a comfortable workplace culture, so that is very different.
I’m watching the space but nothing happens. How much longer do I need to watch?
It’s a sailboat.
not sure bout the mentality etc, but if i were paid $x to work less in a company i grew up with and love, surrounded with familiar colleagues and friends, i too wouldnt want to earn less working harder in an unfamiliar place.
I understand Gibbs choice as a human being, afterall his wage in Arsenal is ridiculously high and moving to smaller team would cost him a paycut.
But it kinda embarassing though as a footballer, it looks like he has lost confidence in himself, he even choose money over regular football(at least he’ll be on the bench in WBA), epitome of mediocrity.