With an extensive summer rebuilding job required, Arsenal’s football executives are still in the dark about how much money they’ll have to spend when the transfer window opens.
What happens between now and the end of May clearly plays some part in that, as it’s still possible for the club to qualify for the Champions League by winning the Europa League, but at this moment in time there’s still doubt and uncertainty about what level of funding will be available.
Raul Sanllehi was recently summoned to the US to meet with Stan and Josh Kroenke, but after two days of discussions returned to London none the wiser about how much money there would be to spend – with or without Champions League football.
Arsenal are currently telling agents that they’re not yet ready to discuss potential deals and contracts, just one week from the end of the current season, and with a lot of work to do between now and the start of the new campaign.
The reported appointment of Edu as Technical Director is welcome, but due to his involvement with Brazil at the Copa America he won’t be taking up the role until July. Also, it’s worth remembering that Arsenal were confident of securing the services of Monchi until his 11th hour decision to go back to Sevilla.
There is pressure from KSE to trim the wage bill significantly, with high earners like Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan considered under-performers and expendable, on top of the confirmed departures of Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck and Petr Cech. The difficulty is finding buyers willing to take on salaries of that level.
Arsenal do have a list of summer targets, but in keeping with a club whose owners won’t guarantee a transfer budget it mainly consists of young players who won’t break the bank. Those expecting big-name signings this summer will likely be disappointed, but an investment in youth may signal a strategy to build over a couple of seasons to make the team competitive again.
Ultimately though, an already complicated summer is being made even more so by KSE’s lack of clarity and commitment to providing the money necessary to invest in a squad which badly needs it.
Had to check the calendar if it was 1st of April, sadly it was not…
They’ll sign a player and then release the new kits. We’ll all get excited and buy the kits. The sales of that will cover the cost of the player and then they’ll announce there was no one else available!
I won’t be buying anything from AFC until I see what players come in!
Must be season-ticket renewal time! Where is the ‘war-chest’ quote?
Not looking good for next season. Current run of form very poor, some good players leaving, not lots of confidence in those left, any new ones will have to settle in. Leicester, Everton, Wolves up and coming. Other top 6 teams with money to spend.
Can’t see many positives but happy to hear them if they can cheer us up.
At first glance it looks quite gloomy; but in the long run, I think we’ll have reason to smile. I saw Dortmund face the real possibility of relegation two seasons ago; today, they are giving Bayern a good fight, thanks to their investment in youth. I suspect that the Arsenal management have been casting furtive glances at Signal Iduna Park. We also have a good crop of youth – Guendouzi, Willock, Nketiah, Neilson, AM-N, ES-R, Torreira, Bellerin, Holding, Mavropanos, Leno (in goalkeeping terms) – who, importantly, already have EPL experience, and prospects like Saka, Xavier Amaechi and others. Some –… Read more »
pope alaba umtiti rabiot nkuku pepe in
The wolves scenario….. is anyone at our club a major investor at a super agents agency? Maybe we can punch above our weight too…..
It is extremely gloomy when we look for inspiration to clubs recently facing relegation and clubs emerging from the Championship. We are supposed to be one of the clubs at the top, not looking three years down the road to when we might be competitive again. We are going to need something special, something intangible in the mix, like the kind produced under the previous administration, but I fear our current management team simply don’t believe in magic.
You have to brace up to the reality on ground: Arsenal will not be able to compete with the big teams in the market in a while yet.
It is going to be more of prospect and potential from here.
There are going to be false dawns and mirages here and there.
KSE won’t invest a dime of their money!
“We are supposed to be one of the clubs at the top…” That is not a divine right really.
Top clubs that can and will spend for quality and depth are : PSG, City, Bayern, Barca, RM, Juve, Chelsea, United add Liverpool and Spurs. That’s 10 teams ahead of us. Everything thereafter is hit and miss and less managed. Particularly in the PL, we will be falling further behind with the sort of depth our competitors will afford. Lack of ambition and direction seems to be set in deep. 1) No chief executive (ala Gazidis) to provide a accountable voice and set proper agenda, keep those below under control. Present set of executives (Venkatasham etc) don’t seem to be… Read more »
I’m not sure I’d throw Chelsea or Spurs into the list. Roman seems to be losing desire to fund Chelsea and they’re operating on a similar basis to us, it seems. As are the Spuds, who have massive stadium building costs to defray which will impact on their ability to spend for the next little while.
As much as I want those young lads to be the answer to all of our problems. If ‘Project Youth’ under Arsene Wenger rein taught us anything is that it’s fairly unrealistic to expect too much from the academy prospects at this point in their careers. They’re all still such raw talents, they have so much to learn still. And lets not forget, that previous project was all built around Cesc Fabregas, there isn’t one guy in our youth set up now who is anywhere near as good as him. I know everyone is making comparisons between us now under… Read more »
So what do we do as fans? How do we best support contributing to Kroenke leaving our beloved club? Not buying anything? Not watching anything? Not follow official platforms? And how do you do that without loosing touch with the club I love so deeply? I really feel like a hostage.
I was thinking last night watching Liverpool what other top clubs get for Mkhitaryan’s 200k wages…
Raheem Sterling – 180k
Mo Salah – 200k
Harry Kane – 200k
Hazard – 225k
David De Gea – 200k
Doh!
As much as I loved Wenger, the transfer and contract policy in the last 5 years has left us in shambles…
Yeah. It felt at first like Wenger could just take a signing and mould him into the player he wanted. Kolo and Henry spring to mind. But he started allowing players to merely express themselves and this led to Xhaka and Ozil just ambling around the field. With exceptional and hard working players like Sanchez, this worked well but too many players have become so devoid of tactical and organisational nous. As we are seeing now, all the talent in the world means nothing without these things.
It wasn’t just Wenger though – Gaidizis was behind the Mkhi deal and Ozil contract. The he fucked off to Milan as soon as he could and left the mess for someone else.
I think Sterling is on a bit more than that now but otherwise, spot on. A lot has been made about Sanchez at United but I’d argue we’ve had almost as bad a deal. Unlike United, we often can’t afford to not play Mkhi, and his effect on the wage bill is felt more keenly here.
Just wow.. How about an exercise on what other clubs get for Ozils £350k wages? ?
Manchester United- Alexis Sanchez ?
I fucking hate them so much.
I know this will never ever happen – but is there such thing as offering Ozil/Mkhi to stay on slightly lower wages? If they really want to stay but are forced out potentially on lower wages elsewhere, can’t they just be like pay me less and I’ll stay ? I assume the club will threaten to not play them so they are forced out… basically, how on earth are we going to sell them? It seems impossible to me…..
That’s not a headline I’m overly keen to see. Billionaire sports franchise owners ask players to take pay cut.
I guess I’m saying, “Billionaire sports franchise owners ask multi-millionaire players to take pay cut, or else sit on the bench and rarely play football competitively again.” Of course I don’t think this would happen. But my question still stands, does anyone here (or at the club) realistically believe we’ll be able to sell Ozil/Mkhi? I’m wondering how this will all play out…
We can sell them, if the owners eat the loss. Like a free transfer, basically.
Which they should be more than willing to do, the grubby bandits, since they’ve made a killing on the Club’s share value largely on the basis of selling swill to fans at the price of Ciroc.
Ah I see, makes sense – thanks!
Ans what the players want for their lives? Any idea? And how much do you spare then? Enough to pay Messi?
Especially considering Özil wants to stay… and the club has signed a 3 years contract. I know fans love to play FIFA but a signed deal is to be respected. Özil respects this deal, the club should too. When i signed with my company, i didn’t intend them to kick me out after one year especially as i’m loyal and do my job and as I have planned my life according to this cotnract…
and if you were not doing your job and were just coasting along doing he bare minimum ?
So you want to financially demotivate your players and then put them on the field? I don’t understand the logic other than saving ? what does that get us?
Mkhi will be easier to move on, Ozil though is on astronomical fees, but he is a unique talent. He would do great in a team like Chelsea but that would be selling to competition.
Not really, if we threaten that they’ll just keep training and earning big wages whilst their PR team spins the message that they’re happy to fight for their place in the squad
That doesn’t sound very human. Imagine if your employer did that to you at work?
It does happen though, I have seen it happen when long term employees end up earning to much. It should happen with Ozil, he should be asked to take a 50% cut in salary for the good of the club. He can earn the other 50% back by meeting simple KPIs such as keeping the ball, looking before passing and occasionally breaking a sweat. We could do similar for Mika, maybe his KPI could be keeping the ball near his feet sometimes. Iwobi could have a KPI of passing the ball to an Arsenal player, say $5k everytime he actually… Read more »
And what do you do with the spare money? And what if the income of simply having an Özil in your team (social media, adidas deal, world wide attention) is also cut?
Like chelsea had a bogarde if im not mistaken. Was on 40k per week like 10 years ago and just didnt play. He 2as happy to train with the reserves and do PR stuff.
Mkhi with his current form is basically nothing more than an Elneny tier player, I would only accept him staying if he’s willing to be paid 50k per week. Something which I doubt is possible.
Ozil with his current form is barely better than an Iwobi tier player, at best he’s worth Walcott salary. 140k per week. And that’s paying more for his marketing power than his football ability. Again impossible for him to accept be paid so little.
And why would he accept? Would you do it for your colpany especially when this company has no financial problems?
They shouldn’t accept, but at the same time neither should the club accept that they are massively underperforming for what they are paid. That’s why it is for the best for the club to do everything in their power to move them on.
The only time I can remember something like this happening was John Terry at Chelsea…
For this to happen players will need to sign a new contract. Why would a player sign a new 3 year deal for half slaary when he has 2 years remaining on his current salary?
Because to live in the real world means that he needs to understand his salary is stopping us buying quality players to play alongside him and make us more capable of competing and winning. If at the very least he is given the opportunity to think about that and he still refuses then there will be an agreement about his motivations and level of “giving a fuck about Arsenal” which can then be shared with the fans and his next two years are hell. Or he can take one for the team and be welcomed back with open arms and… Read more »
Tough for that cos i wouldnt take a pay cut for my company to grow. They should be growing the business and increasing the income through other means instead of staff salary.
Do you think Ozil gives a fcuk that Arsenal can’t sign quality players?
As long as he is making his £18m a year he is happy.
“Because to live in the real world means that he needs to understand…”
Hahaha…wake up. The real world doesn’t work like that. All parties have to abide by the terms of the contract. Likewise if they want to terminate it or amend the terms.
This club is really becoming/is a joke. The board the players and the last few weeks the manager to…Kroenke doesn’t give a shit about us he only cares for his American teams. I think we just have to realise and except that we are at the standard of the likes of Everton wolves etc now and that’s the way it will be. The good days are gone for this club. Gone are the days where u can build a team to compete with no money even the likes of wolves,Everton,west ham will spend more than us. I am a life… Read more »
Man, long gone are the days when I was a child who thought people in such positions are all well-mannered, well-educated professionals who know what they’re doing 100 % of the time.
Then you grow up, this bubble pops & you find out they often have no clue like we all sometimes do after all.
The More I see Liverpool win the more it infuriates me. 3 years ago they finished below West Ham and Southampton and now they are here in the verge of winning Champions league and Premier League. Reason for their success is their owners backing the manager and we have a clown in America not willing to spend a penny on this football club. #kroenkeout
you guys instead of planning how to reform our team you are talking about salary. me personally, my concern is let KSE sell arsenal to some one capable of managing it financially because he has failed. why should we continue to suffer in his hands like this yet we are the one making for him the money? he should thing of this. i do not know if this message can reach him right.
They aren’t gonna sell.
Except our net spend the past three years, let alone five, has exceeded Liverpool’s comfortably. Only the two Manc teams have spent more than us in that period.
We’ve bought poorly if anything and I want us to build from the inside out with our youth as much as possible.
Well this is pretty disheartening! But i wouldn’t put our lack of transfer funds all down to Stan being miserly – our squad management has been atrocious recently. We will soon have lost an entire team on free tranfers, over just a few seasons: Cech Jenkinson/Debuchy/Kos/Per/Monreal Cazorla/Ramsey/Wilshere Welbeck/Sanchez That’s 11 players in exchange for £0 plus an inconsistent Mkhi on £180k/week. A lot of those are ageing/retiring players who were never going to get a fee. But the fact we had an ageing squad that needed rebuilding (especially in defence) made it even more important to get money out of… Read more »
We even sold Giroud, Szczęsny and Walcott on the cheap. The only player we got a fair price for was Ox but, personally, I think that’s the kind of player you want to keep. The fact that it was Liverpool that went after him, and that he doesn’t look out of place in that side, speaks volumes. Say what you will about him but I’d take him back in a heartbeat. The Mkhi deal has to be up there with the most frustrating ever. We had £60m on the table from City for Sanchez that summer and did nothing. 6… Read more »
How much money to buy Liverpool and change their name to Arsenal?
What if it is the name? That would just make Liverpool crap too!
Maybe we change our name to Real London?
Mustafi has unfortunately already taken Real Arse.
I hope it’s paid by instalment. 350k a week
Am only advising my fellow arsenal fun’s that if this time kse did not splash cash to buy good players instead rely on young products, lets sit home and watch our matches in our sitting rooms. i request that let his stadium remain empty without supporters and see how he will progress. i request to inform mr kse that we supporters are the owners of the club, if we are not valued then our presence will one time be felt later. let this message go to all arsenal supporters across the world.
I’ve been offered a season ticket for 2019/20 and I genuinely feel torn about taking it up with this lot running the club.
I’m hearing loads of stories like this so it must be true. I won’t be rushed into renewing mine until I know where we are headed.
The dark ages…
Everything is going in the wrong f****** direction
Jesus, I thought Stan was only silent to us, not to people trying to run this fucking club. Selling Ozil and Mikhi on top of losing Ramsey and Welbeck in one transfer window is championship manager nonsense. It would mean we make 4 new signings in midfield/attack. Of course we’ve got Nelson and Smith-Rowe to return who both could take up a place. Smith-Rowe is potentially a Ramsey replacement as a goalscoring midfielder. I think we won’t be able to have the major clearout everyone is expecting, especially if there isn’t a lot of money to spend. It makes me… Read more »
I will repeat what I said in another comment, and whilst it wasn’t very popular I am still convinced it was the right call.
Let Barcelona have Lacazette, take the players and cash they are offering. And start to build a new squad with players who can defend, and cross the ball.
Look to build a foundation and have some young blood to play with Abu when needed and play just one upfront with Ozil and Gendouzi / AMN / Torreira behind him and two decent wingers at the side.
We should go for Kieren Tierney to understudy Abu.
Obvs Tierney for Sead I meant…
We have a load of internationals in our defensive squad. They got there by being good defenders. Leicester, Wolves, Everton haven’t had that, they just employ systems that work on their strengths and teach them how to defend as a unit. Our problem – back to Wenger years – was that we expected defenders to know how to defend and did none of the training work which GG used. Wenger was lucky to inherit one defence, lucky to transition into a second but could never recreate it. Barca, the team which we sought to emulate, rely on forwards and control… Read more »
I agree in parts, you are right. I will be honest and suggest something that could get me hung by saying that our old back four weren’t necessarily excellent defenders, not in the mold of today’s players. There was little skill involved but much more attitude. What we lack isn’t skill it is attitude. I saw Auba giving shit to Sokratis in the Brighton game because he was acting like a cunt, again. But why was that left to Aubu? There is no way that Adams or Bould would have let that shit go, and Dixon and Winterbourne wouldn’t have… Read more »
Sell Laca to Barcelona for £90 million. Right now, I think they’d go for it. Suarez is finished and they need a competent striker. That money would go a long way in helping us rebuild the squad, along with whatever transfer budget we get, and player sales. We could have around £160 million to spend once it’s all said and done. Auba will be quality for a few more years, he relies more on intelligent movement and positioning then he does his pace. Bring in two good wingers and he’ll be banging in goals left and right.
What a waste of sperm!!!! #smh
Sell Lacazette, our player of the season and one of the very few in the squad that can hold their head up high after this term? He’s virtually the last player I’d sell (that isn’t already leaving for free).
I will rather we lose Auba than Laca. It’s a no brainer to sell Laca at this current form unless we are getting monstrous fee for him.
I think the chances of moving Miki on are greater than that of moving Ozil, so I would look to do that and try and get a couple of players that Ozil could strike up a good relationship with on the pitch – he can provide the killer pass if no one is making the runs!!! However, if we can get shot of both then I think we should!!!
Seriously dont understand why we dont have the likes of Walmart as sponsors. Owned by kroenke’s wife and still we lack in major sponsorship deals. Manutd is about to get sponsored by Saudi Aramco, one of the biggest companies and the richest oil company in the world worth trillions. Why do we have such poor and less commercial deals ? Them being the main reason we have a poor cash influx aswell. Give no credits for gazidis being part of this great clubs history since he was a failure as ceo. We are such a poorly run professional football club… Read more »
I cannot believe there are people who are still against sugar daddy owners who I’ll invest funds into the club because its against the clubs values traditions and pointless principles. Modern football has changed. Fenway sports of Liverpool follow the same model as ours but they invest the money the club has earned and their own money aswell. We have bunch of dicheads who dont give a f at all.
I am seriously lowering my expectations for the next season: fighting for top six.
No…FSG is successful because they sell high and buy low.
We, by contrast, sell low and buy high.
They’ve spent substantially less than we have over the last 5 years in total transfer funds.
Basically…we have the same model, except they’re good at it and we’re absolutely completely terrible at it.
Hate to say it but we need to follow the Tottenham model. They went for either young players who could become world class, or players who had world class potential and signed for big clubs but didnt intially live upto their potential, while also promoting from within. We have many young exciting attackers such as nelson, saka, nketiah and Smith-Rowe. Id rather we brought them through then have another season of the likes of ozil and mkhi, atleast they know would give it their all
After the stadium move we did exactly the things you say. The problem was that it always felt like we were a couple of players short from achieving big things. Tottenham are basically doing what we tried 10 or so years ago.
Yeah, but those were the happy(and exciting) times, comparing to now
If KSE thinks they can start to build again with youngsters, they will face some difficulties… – Lacazette, Auba, Leno or even Xhaka will face the question: will they sacrifice their final years for a club (and for their owners) that is unwilling to show real commitment? (We can hate RvP or Alexis but they faced a similar question)… I think you can’t expect the very best players to give up their motivation to reach the highest levels if their whole career were beeing built on that. – During the trophyless 9 years, we fans also had to be patient… Read more »
We should sell Xhaka as soon as we can, he’s not Arsenal quality and he never was. Leno isn’t going anywhere, neither is Auba. We should sell Laca to Barcelona, but for more money then they are offering, then bring in players that fit Arsenal’s style, players who are tough and fight for the badge, along with having great technical skill on the ball.
He’s no worse than Torreira. We will be short in midfield. Already we ONLY have 3 options in deep midfield – Granit (With his passing range), Torreira and the developing Guendouzi. You want to get rid of one of them? If anything we need to add one more capable player who can hold the ball at feet and critically give us the extra dimension carrying it up the spine through traffic better. Minus Granit (for argument sack). One (or two in our case) injuries in this area and we have no rotation beyond bringing in a half baked and relatively… Read more »
There will always be room for younger players. BUT yes we will have to ( be realistic) – older more seasoned players will have to be critical. GK – Leno is now senior player. Whether we promote Martinez or go for market solution remains to be seen. Beyond that, the rest of the young hopefuls lack experience on loan still and need to be assess further. CB – Mavropanos needs to go out on a STRONG loan to accelerate his development (and cirtically not at our expense). He is over rated by some and still positionally raw (over commits at… Read more »
i want Zaha with Edu bringing in a very good Brazilian full back for LB, a CM and a young incredible talent like the next neymar or something.
Sell chambers for 10mil plus
sell elneny, miki, xhaka
Bring in Koul from Napoli.
look within for the rest.
On the one hand – it is prudent to trim the wage bill, not overspend on players who underperform, and have a different strategy dependent on whether or not we qualify for the CL. On the other hand – KSE signed off on those salaries in the first place, and having a budget for scenario A versus scenario B would equally be prudent – we need to be able to start having conversations now, for targets we would be going for in either scenario – we could always drop conversations about player A if we end up not qualifying, and… Read more »
That final paragraph may be the problem Shedzy. They have relied on the people allegedly in the know to sway decisions.
“Do we need to pay this money to keep/get the player? Do we need him? Will he improve results?”.
After a while of that and not getting results, would you trust the “experts”? In business, the front line staff are the ones who get the blame first but at some point the axe falls on the management.
Arsenal are spending 50mn pounds every summer. Rest depends on CL and sales. So, my bet would be on 60mn without CL, and 80mn with CL.
Yeah I’d take that bet despite the doom and gloom on here. We actually had a budget of 75m last summer without CL, and Emery said there was no money to spend in January because all funds had been earmarked for this summer.
They will find a way to deny him money.
Wages will still be an issue even if we are losing Welbeck, Cech, Lichsteiner, Ramsey (That’s about 330K per week), potentially 3 players in at 90K ++
Elneny and Jenkinson can free up some spare change for wage improvements for other players in squad already…but first you have to find buyers…never mind Ozil, Mustafi
I think its 50m with CL.
Champions league or no champions league, we are talking about a £150m minimum investment in the squad to start pushing us in the right direction again to make us more competitive. The sad thing is even if we do win Europa, I can’t see us spending more than £100m in one window. We’ll end up short again in key positions. As much as Liverpool’s first team is great, they have players on the bench that can do the job if called upon, as evidenced by last night. To be competitive you need not just a great team but a great… Read more »
You like living in reality.
100m? More likely we will spend nothing.
We will balance off what we spend with what we can take in.
Welbeck, Ramsey, Lichsteiner, Cech all leaving and for free.
If so and no one wants to buy Mustafi or Ozil (let alone Jenkinson and Elneny those prodigious talents), we will likely curb spending to 50M max (and that’s generous)
That would represent enough risk for Kroenke. Some of it covered by new sponsorship money some by (hopefully) CL.
There will be very little incoming income (Ospina? Maybe Mhkitaryan?)
Maybe I’m missing something but there seems to be a lot of unhelpful, scaremongering conjecture in this piece…
So to paint it in a more positive way; we’ve not rushed in hiring someone for a very important position but now have Edu lined up who’s an Arsenal man, we’re keeping how much we have to spend close to our chest (smart move in my opinion) and we’re looking to invest in promising talent.
Doesn’t sound that bad to me.
Spot on.
agreed 100%. well said
I agree with you, but I also understand the fear being expressed. This comes from a lack in confidence that there is a plan. Whether Project Youth, British Core or some other identity to build around, we at least saw a plan. The upheaval since Wenger left, the poor form down the stretch, quality players leaving for free, overpaid players staying, has everyone worried. This will sound strange, but what the fans are missing right now is Gazidis. He was very good at spin and saying what we wanted to hear. He didn’t speak enough and the club didn’t follow… Read more »
There’s something to be said about the lack of leadership.
Gazidis was (as per usual with some segments of the fan base) much maligned.
At least he had the testicular fortitude to be public and call the shots.
He got us Emery.
Currently, we seem a bit rudderless and without sufficient clout or gumption from higher up to control the likes of Raul.
Or give direction in concert with Emery to where we should be going with the squad.
Its a bit of a mess.
The season is coming to an end,the Ramsey is gone,mkhitaryan ,and also should also go..am thinking of one Smith Rowe.. to be recalled from loan,Nelson… And defence is leaking. Can’t we find a replacement for mustafi
No.
You need to find a replacement for Koscielny.
Durability issue.
You sell Özil who doesn’t want to leave but well, who cares about his life and wish… so you sell Özil, not much as anyway he is bad, you gain 40M for his remaining two years of contract plus a tiny transfert money… let’s say 60 M and with that you intend to buy a class replacement? Transfert + wages? Ok… good luck.
On his wages we will be lucky to get £20 million for him. He is a risk for any big club. High wages and low output for more than one season.
well get zero at the best. he’s got no resale value as of now, unless china or mls
Try to live in reality.
Who wants to buy him again?
And pay the wages he’s on?
Forget trying to sell Mustafi, have we had success trying to sell Elneny or Jenkinson?
Are there no buyers willing to pay for their massive talents?
Have a good think.
It’s gonna be a hard few years. Think we best buckle up for more of the same. Strong Europa league campaigns, mixed in with some good results against the “big” teams but ultimately we’ll struggle along in the league finishing 5-8th until a night in shining armour comes along.
Fuck the Kroenkes! With the money going around the premier league these days there are no easy games anymore, except for maybe one or two teams at the bottom of the table. Mid table teams are spending more than ever to bring in top quality signings and in a few years time we are going to seriously struggle to compete if these pricks only care about milking the club for a profit. The only faith I have is in the fans, because we are all far too connected to this club to let a downslide like this happen. I think… Read more »
No hope for next season. Not going to get better until these vultures are gone. I feel for those at the club who no doubt care for it and have ambition. Sadly, they’re hamstrung.
In order to be close to competing again. We have to get rid of Kroenke. Only way to do that is to protest and stop attending games. Unfortunately I think we’ll go through a couple of managers before the fans wake up and it comes to that.
It’s very clear to see that Arsenal are on course to be a mid table team. Even if we find a few young gems Kroenke will want us to sell them at high prices so that leech can make a profit.
I see a few dark years ahead : (
Good luck
The Krankies don’t even seem to be good businessmen
and they certainly don’t care about football
Anybody who wants to know why we are in such a mess should read the article above. Stan Kroenke’s problem is a simple one: how can he get the Champions League money with spending as little as possible? That’s what Emery was brought in for: to do what Wenger was so good at. Stan doesn’t give a damn about trophies; he just wants money. He’s a parasite and a cancer on Arsenal Football Club. He won’t announce the transfer budget until season ticket holders have renewed: then we’ll get the bad news. There’s only one way to get him out:… Read more »
Ok im not buying a jersey then
It’s just the most punchable face
Anyone expecting KSE to spend big and “back the manager” is sadly deluded. They don’t spend big. Just look at their teams – Rams and Nuggets. They don’t pay big money for anything and it won’t be different here. They build through the draft, which requires a team to be bad for a while to acquire talent. Unfortunately, there is no draft in football. In football, you pay top money for top players. We will be bad for a long time but there is no guaranty that this strategy will work. The people who refused to sell their shares to… Read more »
Not saying you’re wrong, but as far as I can tell, this says that the Rams had the 3rd highest wage bill in 2018: https://overthecap.com/2018-spending-on-nfl-rosters/
Yes the wage bill.
Mslintat and Raul cleverly ushered in the “panic Loan” era.
Aside from over commiting on Ozil, we add the likes of the waning Mhkitaryan (low hanging fruit) and Lichsteiner to the sum of 90K per week each.
Wenger was poor at management you say?
Someone needs to stand up to his dad and tell him a big budget is needed to be done in the transfer window. Or the gap will widen even further.
How are they supposed to set a budget when they don’t know what is going to happen and why should they let the media and everyone else know about it anyway? I know this won’t be popular but there are probably a dozen scenarios on the table and what happens in the next couple of weeks will be crucial. We could do anything from winning the Europa League and qualifying for the Champions League, to finishing fifth and being in the same competition for next year, to finishing sixth and not winning the Europa League, which would be the biggest… Read more »
Won’t set a budget until –
1) We know if we are in or out of CL
2) We have a successor to Mslintat in place.
3) Unai finalizes his outgoing.
Do we realy need spend any money? If existing players play a bit better next season and some youngsters inprove we have a fighting chance to get 4th place. Ultimately it is a big opportunity to save a load of money for our overlords. And that is what matters.
Every time I see his picture, I hate him more and more and…..
Get ready for Arsenal to spend some time in the wilderness.
Once upon atime Arsenal were the 5th/6/7th richest club
in the world. Since the last ten years the gunners have declined
as as epl force.
Get real the gunners qualifying for the cl is to enrich the US owner.
He wants to win trophies on the cheap with youth which has been tried
and not working.
Helder Huges is right about Wenger.Defensively there was no
organization.He has left the defence in a shambolic state.
With better organization under Emery the gunners
could defend better as a unit.
Actually they did well to beat MU and Cheklsea. Since then
the gunners have gone off the boil defensively.
Bc for whatever reason Unai decided to go to a back 4. Witness against Palace, switches to back 4 second half, Mustafi imploded. But next match against Wolves with the much vaunted pairing of Sokratis and Koscielny (again in back 4) we were decimated. Then next match against Leicester a chance to put things right and still opportunity for St Toterringham’s courtesy of our charitable neighbours, we go back 4 again and were reaped but the Barcelona of the midflands. Lesson not learnt against the south coast titans BHA. This time defensively in back 4 we were decent but midfield… Read more »
Must spending smart again then like last summer. Though it might be harder without mislintat here
Mslintat and Raul together ushered in the PANIC LOAN era. Spend too much on wages for old players who barely feature like Lichsteiner or are on the wane like Mhkitaryan at expense of other areas requiring attention. Lichstiner perplexed me with Chambers available. Instead little effort was made to retain Calum for the season. He could have filled in at Rback which was his NATURAL POSITION at Soton. And he could have been a viable alternative to Mustafi at right of back 3 not to mention an extra option (in lieu of the mediocre Elneny) in midfield. Your Mslintat more… Read more »
It’s getting boring seeing you complain the same thing again and again without you even realize what you are talking about…yawn
We aren’t going to see an increase of last summers spend and to be honest I’d expect less as they’ll view us as having bought a ‘spine’ at the time.
We’ll likely see a defender and midfielder come in and maybe a striker if we decide to cash in on either of laca or auba
You live in reality? We won’t sell Laca or Auba unless they agitate for a move. We will be risking it with only one performing striker particularly with Welbeck gone. As is we already have 4 or 5 major requirements as yet unfulfilled by the stellar team of Raul and Mslintat. Add to that players leaving – Ramsey, Lichsteiner, Cech, Welbeck, Ospina (potentially and much recommended) Koscielny plus true dead woods in Elneny and Jenkinson, we will really be asking for it to have to go fill in a requirement to replace one of our top strikers. The word ‘mental’… Read more »
It is very usual for clubs to say that they will invest in youth when they don’t want to spend less for transfers….But the reality is that signing youths are very risky..and nowadays quality youngsters are more costly than experienced good players along with its risks….Also now a large number of clubs have good scouting system and therefore a youngster who is talented is always in the radar and will cost huge transfer fees…..So usually clubs will purchase youngsters who are not so talented resulting in wasting of transfer money….
What Kroenke does is simple. He calculates his capital expenditure ( players in/out), his operational expenditure ( players salaries are huge part),revenue and risk and opportunity. As long as Emirates is sold out, fans are buying merchandises and the club secure fairly large sponsor deals, I think his beancounters tell him that the risk of spending huge sums om players and salaries is far higher than the potential gains by enteting CL.
Thus we’ll be stuck with mediocracy and EL with him in charge.
The gap between our club and Liverpool was saddingly obvious yesterday evening.
He is adverse to risk to future. We may need to gamble a little to gain traction on teams around us but he probably won’t. He will try and be net neutral which is the problem because the league is intensively competitive around us. This is just facts on the ground. Chelsea, City can spend beyond us. United too. Spurs may get a boost from selling Erickson and some of their assets this summer to Madrid and the likes. Liverpool should they win one of the competitions will get a boost. If we continue to just balance off the books… Read more »
Stan, little finger in mouth: The transfer budget will be ONE MILLLLLLION DOLLLLAARS
They’ll whittle us down if we don’t win the europa and make CL for sure. That CL spot so important once derided by some in favour of Wenger winning some small cups. We will need 4/5 players (we may get just 3) : 1) GK – Depending on assessment of Emiliano and if Ospina should (likely) find a new club, we will have to replace Cech. 2) Cback – We need a player in his prime not close to past it like Sokratis. Player to replace is Koscielny. Stalwart but long in the legs and will have massive durability risk… Read more »
Urgh…Spurs won which means perfect shit storm of Spurs winning CL, Liverpool winning league and Chelsea winning Europa may yet happen. More importantly it means either way, Spurs and Liverpool will have money to spend. Spurs will sell Erickson so additional money there. It will be a heated market with City, Chelsea and United also spending never mind PSG, Barca, RM, Juve, PSG and Bayern. Where will we be spending particularly without a europa cup win? Kroenke will cut Unai’s pocket money for the summer. That once too easily maligned 4th place pot Wenger use to prioritise as a minimum… Read more »
If the owners aren’t willing to spend money on the club then Arsenal fans should boycott the purchase of season tickets and other merchandise purchases.. hit the owners where it hurts them most. Would love to see an empty stadium to make our voices heard and say enough is enough!!!
We should have hammered Kroenke before long ago.
I think it’s kinda late now for London fans.
Somehow, they have to find a way to suit him like how Liverpool fans did to get rid of those liars Tom Hicks and Gillet.