The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) have called on Stan Kroenke and his fellow Arsenal board members to clarify their vision for the future running of the club and to outline whether or not funds are available for Arsene Wenger to strengthen his squad in the transfer market.
The request is made in advance of the release of the club’s latest financial results, which are expected to reveal another profit-generating period, but with concerns mounting over the long-term effects of possible failure to qualify for the Champions League.
Having sold the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Gael Clichy and Emmanuel Eboue during the summer, the Gunners look likely to see their profits for the six months to November 30, 2011 rise to a pre-tax figure of £45 million.
However, the concern raised by the AST is whether that profit represents money to spend on new players or merely an accounting profit which exists as a future safety net should the club miss out on the riches of playing in Europe’s premiere knockout competition.
Scrutinising the effects of the doomsday scenario – failing to qualify for the Champions League – the AST predicts that in addition to a loss of at least £27 million of UEFA television money, player retention will prove more problematic, the sale of premium corporate seats will drop, attendances will lower, while the value of future sponsorship deals will likely suffer.
It is also believed that falling outside the top four will see Arsenal lose out on other revenue closer to home. The further down the league the club falls, the less Sky will be inclined to show us on television and the less money we get from the Premier League in prize-money. As a consequence, cash we’ve grown accustomed to pocketing will be ceded to rivals.
None of the above is particularly ground-breaking. It doesn’t take a degree in economics to grasp the basics of supply and demand, but that doesn’t make it any less important for the board to at least consider the questions which the AST are proposing.
Have resources been held back in January as a contingency for failure to qualify for the Champions League?
Why is Arsenal’s £130 million annual wage bill not delivering results on the pitch? Are too many average players earning more than they are worth and is this making it hard to offload them? Are there plans to address the wage structure in general, rewarding those who deserve it?
If Arsenal fail to qualify for the Champions League, might the club fall foul of Financial Fair Play (FFP) issues in 2013 and 2014?
Would a rights issue, the likes of which was offered by Alisher Usmanov in the summer of 2009, be similarly dismissed if offered again this year?
Meanwhile, Stan Kroenke will be in town this week, ahead of the financial results and for the monthly board meeting, each one of which he has attended since taking control.
If there is a public backing of the manager it should be taken at face value, rather then being the ‘dreaded’ vote of confidence suffered by many other managers in the past – and hopefully the owner can provide some direction and leadership at a time when the club really needs it.
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The full AST statement can be found here
So basically missIng out on 4th place means we’re screwed right and proper.
Right up the poo pipe, son!
Someone should point out to the board that FIFA’s Financial Fair Play only matters if you are qualifying for European competition.
Matters not a shite otherwise.
Thankyou for pointing this out arseblg and AST. But I fear this season won’t bring champions league football next season as the wheels have now come firmly off. This was asked of the board last season and we were all let down. What top quality players want to play in the Europa league? Not many if you look at Liverpool as an example!
Yeah, that Suarez bloke really sucks…
What top quality player will sign for us???????/ With this man doesn’t want to give up his 7 mil a year and leave, it doesn’t matter if we play CL, Europa league or even Championship!!!. We never sign a “top, top quality” players for 7 years. All of our last 7 years signing never deminded a CL to play for us unless we signed someone I don’t know!!!!!!!!!!
Squilliaci, Chamakh, Park, Per, Santos, Kos, Verm, Gerv, Arteta, Silvester,, Le cunt, Santos etc we were fighting for their signing with only mid to bottom ten teams not with ANY top club. They were “top top quality” only in Arsene’s head.
Logically, we’ve surely benefitted frm the Champions league for 15 straight years.
KSE’s strategy
1.Don’t lay out any direction
2.Don’t invest anything in the team
3.????
4.Profit
@Ebouefan. You are so wrong. KSE strategy: 1. Profit. 2.Profit. 3. Profit. Et cetera.
where ???? = Arsene Wenger
I think we need to review the wage structure. Get rid of some of our mediocre players – the ones who are happy to play at 66% effort, collect their wage, and go home feeling satisfied. Get rid I say.
Let’s pay megabucks to the few really talented players we have and pay peanuts to the guys who don’t step up on a regular basis.
Then we will be able to afford the Mata’s etc while keeping the overall wsge bill manageable
So increase the gap between the highest and lowest players.
I have to say I completely agree. There should be a wage structure in place so that crazy sums aren’t handed out but at the same time wages should be based on performances and contributions to the team and not based on a left-wing code in which everyone is earning relatively similar amounts.
The likes of Denilson, Bendtner, Diaby and Walcott are the result of the current structure where potential has been rewarded instead of results. It’s the equivalent of a corporation ‘giving’ you a well-paid position in their business based on what results you ‘might’ end up with in your education.
Definitely, even a basic+bonus’ system for all rewarding everything from pass completion to assists, tackles won & goals.
“Quit pro quo clarice” sneers arsene
It’s the only way I could justify overpaying anyone and it’s good business sense.
They have and use the stats already, simply correlate them to pay!
It would be churlish to try and second guess silent stan. Maybe he can rattle some cages whilst over here, be of use as he’s the majority shareholder. Still rather him than usmanov, stan’s clearly the lesser of two evils
How come nobody wants to give Usmanov a chance? We’ve done sweet fuck all so far under Korenke, and he even seems to be prepared to back a manager who has won nothing for seven years.
The Yank knows nothing about football, has a reputation for owing average, unsuccessful sports teams, and never speaks.
Usmanov is an Arsenal fan who attends almost every game and is worth over TEN BILLION quid. This one’s a no-brainer for me.
hang on… fat… gooner…Usmanov? You cheeky so and so!
Niet!
Didn’t he back Arsene’s last minute shopping spree last summer that brought in about 5 players? He didn’t choose the players, that was the manager’s choice, so you can blame him for the quality he signed that’s not delivered eg Park, Benayoun.
Just don’t say we’ve done fook-all under Stan, coz that’s far from truth.
The Denver Nuggets have made the playoffs every single season since 2003-04 working with the constraints of not only the salary cap but the fact that no free agent superstar will join them. That’s not Kroenke’s fault by the way, as the top basketball players make more endorsement money when they go to big markets, which is important because the NBA has a set maximum contract policy. Moreover, they have been one of the more shrewd teams in terms of player management, getting assets in trading a washed up Allen Iverson and of course acquiring nearly all of the Knicks assets in exchange for Carmelo Anthony in a scenario in which the Knicks had all the leverage. New York was Anthony’s only desired destination and he was in his final contract year. He’s only owned the St. Louis Rams for one year but they were terrible for at least the five years prior. As of now, he does not (yet?) own the LA Dodgers.
Maybe his silence is frustrating as a new owner, but it’s a desired trait relative to many other US owners (Daniel Snyder). I don’t agree with any of your criticisms. The one reservation you can have as of now is how profit-driven American sports teams are in general, but even if an owner wanted to go broke building a superteam, the salary cap policies in the NFL and NBA prevent doing so.
Off topic, but why am I the only one with a Napoleon picture?
@Zack-
I agree with you about American owners being largely silent and ‘behind the scenes’, I personally like them to not be very public. I would hate having, say, Mark Cuban as an owner. I like the passion for his team, but he bugs the shit out of me. But saying that the Nuggets making the playoffs is a big thing is a little misleading, because half of the NBA teams make the playoffs. I know they gave…the Lakers (I think) a run for their money a few years back when they had the dude with the horrible neck tattoo (birdman?), but I dont think they have done much other than that.
I think most people are worried that he is just not a genuine fan of Arsenal, which for a top athletic club in the world, is not very good. Also, a lot of Americans don’t quite value this sport like Europe does. I have been hearing a lot of rumblings about that lately, and I understand their worry. I know if a rich European bought my NFL team, I would be pretty worried the direction of the team. But that is a bit different I guess. I do say give him a bit of time, and if it doesn’t work than…..self medicate.
Connor- Europeans should stay out of American Football. The fact that International American Football has not been good is not that surprising when a Swede is running the International American Football Federation.
I think our wage structure is a broader issue the supposes mediocre players.
I also understand that our younger talent also receive reasonable salaries (c.15/20k pw for young reserve players who maybe just play carling cup) which is very much out of kilter with other clubs and perhaps rewards potential before delivery.
Agree completely with the wages thing, but in general we have to manage our resources better.
Which takes into account the wage bill but also how we spend our money.
Let’s say Park is on £20k a week + transfer fee of £2m, over 12 months that’s a £3m outlay for a player who doesn’t play. We can’t use our money like that, especially if we’re trying to be clever about it.
Agree Blogs. This is one thing that has been trumpetted by Ivan at a number of AST meetings – our supposedly excellent financial modelling process when buying players that is the envy of all other clubs.
I remain unconvinced when we have players we have a system of player receiving salaries which do not match their contribution to the team.
Everyone accepts there will always be the occasional player who does not live up to expectations or deteriorates unexpectedly but we just seem to have too many.
Maybe we should look at the model?
The transfer fees of players come under player amortisation cost (cost of writing down transfer fee over life of contract). So, in the financial books, a player signed for 10 million to a 5 year contract, represents an amortisation cost of 2 million annually. Arsenal’s last set of account that published a 22 million amortisation cost are waaaay lower than United and Spuds (39m) and Pool (40m).
This shows more or less that we haven’t been buying any big names for big fees, but shows in that sense that we have room to move to afford it. You have to think if we shifted the HUGE pile of deadwood out of the stadium (Almunia, Denilson, Diaby, Walcott, Squillaci to name but a few) on a permanent basis, this would leave in the wages bill and it would not be difficult financially to keep the Van Persie’s and buy the Gotze’s of the world.
Mind you the 40 million or so we don’t generate in commercial revenue compared to our rivals every single year is enough to buy and pay for a world class player. EVERY YEAR!
It is not hard to see how spending money and success go hand in hand. Few people want an Usmanov or the like to plunge us into 800m debt. However, if the wage system was re-thought (read sensible) and our commercial department got off their arses (even with the long term deals we have) it is not hard to see us being actually competitive again whilst recording profit
Agree some of the players dont deserve the wages they are getting for the shift or no shift they put in. But with the young players especially coming in from outside England isnt a higher wages a way to lure them? Yes we have fantastic academy which will help them for the future no doubt but if you do come barca , dortmund i guess the wages we offer them do pay a part to get that talent associated with our club(fact is who doesnt wanna start earning at an ealy age.)
I agree with what your saying but i’ve heard things like Craig Eastmond is on about 15k a week and Jay Emanuel Thomas was on about the same the problem being is giving young players that kind of money means we struggle to move them on as other clubs won’t pay that much for them.
Is it true that our board memeber other than the chairman sit on beanbags?
Surely i cant see any protest against the board.
Why the fuck does my name changes. Stupid fone
Just remember: no matter how incompetent Wenger is, he mustn’t be criticised. He may have spunked 130 million in wages on a squad of which half are either unfit or not good enough to play for the first team, but Wenger is God, so he absolutely can’t be slagged off.
In fact, he should be given more money so that he can waste it on more useless crap like Park, Almunia, Bendtner, Arshavin, Squilaci and Walcott.
Wenger is God! Wenger is God! Wenger is God! Wenger is God! Wenger is God! Wenger is God! Wenger is God! Wenger is God!
You can accuse Wenger of not spending enough money and i agree that it seems weird and uneconomical not to spend a bit more and in return have a much higher chance of being successful. But I don’t really know if the reason for that is his stubbornness, the boards stubbornness, or if we simple have no money, and neither do you I guess, so it’s unfair to blame only Wenger.
And I agree that there is something wrong with our wage structure, but to accuse him of wasting money on transfers is absolutely rubbish. Does anyone remember how much we payed for the likes of Anelka, Henry, Viera, Fabregas, Van Persie Szczesny, … ? Another example: the defence that set a new record of 10 consecutive clean sheets in the Champions League cost less than £5 million. No manager can even try to compete with Wenger and his scouting staff on value for money from transfers, it’s just a shame that he doesn’t do it (isn’t allowed to do it? ) more often.
Stupid, immature comment. If you’re going to attempt sarcasm, try and do it with a modicum of intelligence.
Wenger is certainly not immune to criticism, but don’t you think there are other problems with the club? Hence why the AST are posing these questions to the board.
By the way, no one should ever be “slagged off” as you put it. What good does that do anyone? If you’re going to criticise, make sure you have a well reasoned argument with a point to it, else no-one’s going to listen. Grow up.
A few days ago, Paddy, I asked a simple question: how much is Djourou getting for his new contract?
Listening to the radio today (Five live Monday Night Club) I find out from an AST member that it is fifty grand a week! Yes, fifty grand for our fourth-choice centre-half. A man so awful that he had to be dragged off at half time against Man U at home.
I rest my case. Wenger must go.
That cannot be right about Djourou? Can it?
What is more sad, Welbeck at Manure asking for 60K and they ONLY overing him take it ro leave 42K!!!!!!!!!!!!.
That is shocking about Djourou, bloody hell. I’m with you on the wage structure and think the club needs a massive shake up but I don’t think just removing Wenger is the answer. The problems seem to be starting from higher up and trickling down, and we need some answers from the board as to why they’ve allowed the club to get in this mess.
I just cant see any benefit in constantly calling for the manager’s head. I understand I but feel like its oversimplifying a deeper rooted problem.
Sigh.
It’s about profit has been for years and that’s been obvious. If as suggested we have 45mil profit put that on top of potential players sales. ie rvp 30 mil plus the dead weight may bring in another 15+ it’s not inconceivable that we have 90 million to spend in the summer and still not put ourselves in debt.
Does anyone really believe we would spend anywhere near these sums.
Arsene has already said that this years results are down to injuries to jack, diaby and santos etc so presumably when these players come back with the odd addition he thinks this squad is strong enough.
The board take the fans support for granted because of the waiting list. I know many people that have 4 or 5 season tickets and cannot sell the tickets for most games. That’s why so many empty seats at most games. They can’t wait for the season to end and will not renew.
And the problem is stan and his board honestly believe that the surplus will be taken up by the waiting list. It won’t, not on current form and without cl football.
The football model they are relying on is flawed but sadly it will only unravel the deeper in the shit we get.
I like Stan’s syrup.
Never fails to gimme an early morning ‘bubble’ on the train.
Syrup?
This guy hits the nail on the head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8aFkKsTlH0
I welcome the questions that the AST are proposing, good on them. We’re all desperate to know the answers because the situation at Arsenal is baffling. Other questions I would like to know the answer to:
How can we justify being the fifth richest club in the world, yet we’re barely fifth in the Premier League at the moment? Shouldn’t a club of this stature be aiming to compete at a higher level?
And similarly related to the club’s wealth and league position, how can we justify our season ticket prices? If we are not achieving success, would the board consider lowering prices in line with this?
Unfortunately, I think I know all the answers already. It’ll be the same old propaganda.
“If there is a public backing of the manager it should be taken at face value, rather then being the ‘dreaded’ vote of confidence suffered by many other managers in the past – and hopefully the owner can provide some direction and leadership at a time when the club really needs it.”
Is the author of that paragraph satirical or retarded ?
The only direction Kronke is interested in is one that point him towards more – short term – money. The only direction Wenger is moved towards is Hubris and he’s too stupid to know what automatically follows.
Throw in a chorus from Petit to Parlor, all telling us that we are in the pits of Hades if we ever think of getting rid of the Alsace parasite and you have a recipe for being right where we are.
Predictions for Sunday ? Who wouldn’t bite the hand off all comers for a 0 – 0 draw ? But I can’t see Spurs being that inept.
wenger out…thats all in my mind about Arsenal now.
wenger out.!!!!!!
Can you say that you know it with a certainty of 100 % that Arsene Wenger is the cause why we are not spending?
Can you even say with a certainty of 100% that spending 90 million more will make us a winning team?
The “Wenger Outists” and the “Spend some fucking moneyists” keep up their never ending chants, but none of them ever tell us exactly how much we must spend to guarantee becoming a winning team (because we are already NOT a winning team, so the spending they demand MUST bring trophies, as the only way to win is to come FIRST in something).
So… HOW MUCH?
Can the “Wenger OUT” crowd change their tune to “Somebody IN” please. I’m just curious to see who’s being suggested. Just for laughs.
Can you say with any certainty that if we get Wenger Out then our best players will not agitate to leave because Arsenal have sacked the man they came here to work with?
There will always be unforeseen results from any action taken without deep thought and careful planning in consideration of all of the potential consequences.
A knee jerk reaction will generally impact in the area of one’s own groin.
The summer of 2008 was when we fucked everything up. 05/06 was the last season at Highbury and 06-07 was first season at Emirates and it was clear that we were building a new team. 07-08 our young guns surprised everybody and we would have won the title had Martin Taylor not broken Eduardo’s leg. That is three trophyless seasons but it was acceptable b/c it was clear that a good new team had been formed. In summer of 2008 we should have strengthened that good young team with two experienced good players. Instead we let Flamini and Gilberto go without getting a replacement and brought in Slivestre and Bischoff.
Pat Rice Out!!!
Vic Akers Out!!
Sorry, couldn’t resist going against the grain.
Well, at least no one can say Arsenal are a selling club. We even go to great lengths to pay young and/or average players well over the odds based on potential effectively making them unattractive to all bar the very top sides when it comes to moving them on. And let´s face it, if you´ve flopped atArsenal, you´re unlikely to make it anywhere else at the same level or better.
A wage structure like ours becomes a handicap when all it serves to do is limit how much you can pay the best players. When the efforts of RVP are worth far more to the team than the aforementioned well-paid players, surely Robin´s entitled to think he´s worth double or even three times their salaries? Face it, would you let Squillaci and Vela go to free up the funds to pay Robin what he´s worth to the team? Thought so…
In all seriousness though, I do have a couple of comments regarding the profit / no-profit forecast.
1) Arsenal does not declare a dividend to te shareholders, so any profits not reinvested in the club operations would theoretically increase the share price. The cash reserves would be offset by the equity on the balance sheet. You would only realize a gain if you sell. Stan isn’t selling. The Fat Russian (TFR) is stubborn and isn’t selling. AST isn’t selling. So, we have a Mexican standoff and an increase in the cash accounts.
2) If we do not qualify for CL, we face a number of challenges to our revenue stream as many have outlined. We will need to live off of our “fat” reserves in the form of lower operational income and increased player spending to get us back.
I sincerely believe that all of this was looked at many times over. So, why didn’t we spend in January?? Quite simple. Because no one else spent. It all seems to have a domino effect contingent on one team’s big purchase (e.g. Torres). That didn’t happen this year. The only way we could have pried an important player from another team was to throw stupid money at them and we all know Arsenal (specifically Wenger) does not throw around stupid money.
They probably came to the decision that the best scenario was to chance it this year and spend the next when we would have an easier time moving the dead weight contracts and acquiring quality reinforcements when FFP forces other clubs to right their ships. I sincerely hope they guessed right.
Listen it is not rocket science,no cl no new players……………period
Wenger have spent only in late Augus(for several seasons)t because he knew that Arsenal had qualified for the cl proper.
Listen it is not rocket science. No CL equals different players to the ones we might have targeted with CL…..period.
Going out of business through overspending and mismanagement of funds a la Portsmouth equals no players. (and apparently you can even come back from that multiple times)
Kroenke has stepped in approved the complete overhaul of management, from GM, coach, basically right down the entire line of the St. Louis Rams. Before next season starts, it looks like the players will be made up of an entirely different team. He’s been vocal, he’s voiced his opinion, and he has participated. (At least alot more than he has with Arsenal)
Everything that we need him to do here. Now, I’m not saying gut the team and rebuild from scratch, I’m just saying he needs to stand up, voice his opinions and stance on the whole of Arsenal and his involvement with the team, and dissolve this Limbo that he has left everything in since his purchase of the majority shares. The indecision, the lack of direction and commitment, the non-existence of leadership. This is slowly and surely to continue the downfall of this team unless something is done, IMO.
“the lack of direction and commitment, the non-existence of leadership” … more or less on and off the pitch right now! (RVP excluded)
Doom Doom Doom.
Even if we do finish outside the Top 4, then there is still a chance next year. Just look at (look away) Spurs. Not in the Champs League this year, but are fighting for the title this year…… It can be done…. with the same manager.
What ? Harry ? No thanks!!!!!
(Yes, I know what you meant really)
(But if you didn’t mean it really then I repeat statement number one with even more exclamation marks)
For all the good Wenger did, he has done equal harm. He has now completely and utterly fucked Arsenal for the next decade with his insane wage policy which is going to be extremely difficult to turn round. Getting rid of this bastard and his stupid, selfish policies is going to be extremely difficult.
Unnecessarily rude insult given at the end of a rant that is based only on speculation about who controls and plans the wage policy. As such not worth the screen space it takes up. Scrolling your rudeness off of my screen in
3
2
1
Gone
If only I had some of that Microsoft money. I would run straight to Ivan and the rest willing to donate everything. But the problem is that I would probobly get a “No thanks!” and some jibber jabber about our cool self-sustaining business model.
Read all the comments with interest and some valid points raised on both sides of the argument. However, the board’s policy on releasing funds to Wenger has nothing to do with his inept tactical awareness and on the evidence of the last two games an inability to motivate the dressing room.
It may be for the better we finish outside the top four. Maybe then ACTUAL changes will take place. 1 step back, 2 steps forward kind of thing. It seems mediocrity is not considered failure, so we either need to win something very soon, or completely fail so changes take place. Anything but consistent mediocrity.
Self sustainable business model – self destructing football model. On the business side yes we’ve benefited for that long. On the football side yes for the most part of that time but looks like we just appear in the champions league not to win it but make some cash and put a few of our best players in the window
Self sustaining need not be bad for performance. Bayern Munich have made a profit 19, yes NINETEEN years in a row. In that time they have won 10 domestic titles, 7 German cups, 6 League cups (small comp), a UEFA cup, an Intercontinetal cup, a Champions League and twice runner up of the champions league.
Say what you will about the Bundesliga, but those European results are only matched by Barca, Real, Juventus, AC Milan and United over the same period.
Seriously, what is the point in asking these questions?
It is evident that the board, the owner and the CEO of the club have no interest in footballing issues and want to run the club as a business.
There will be changes only when the club has financial problems i.e. they show a loss. Till then, it will be status quo. Nobody cares about champions league, wage bill, etc. till we are making a profit. Wenger will never be sacked because he can deliver profits with minimal resources.
Its basic big-management thinking – If it aint broke, dont fix it. For the guys running the club, the only time Arsenal will break is when the profits dry up. Till then, every season is actually a “success” – no matter what the fans and bloggers have to say.
Spuds aren’t doing that badly for a team that finished outside the Champions League spots. They managed to hold on to all their key players despite Thursday night football on Channel 5.
I hope like hell we qualify for CL, but not end of the world stuff if we don’t. The team with the cocks on their shirts prove as much.
COYG!
If its true about djourou being on 50k a week and thinking about it, having signed a new contract and when you here what others earn it sounds true. Then as a club we are fucked.
The 3 rd highest wages in the league is laughable when you look at the quality and the effort we put in.
We have arguably one truly world class player in rvp, and we don’t pay him city type wages anyway. We have quality in verm kos sagna jack and one or two others that have proved it over a few years.
But the rest are either young or just not very good. It’s unbelievable that we pay these people so much for so little return.
The whole club needs a overhaul, from our wage structure to the way we do our transfer business.
The usual rubbish will come out from the board meeting, the same sound bites we hear every year. And the fans will continue to feel more distanced from the club than ever before.
I don’t feel distanced from the club. I’m just a fan. They have never made any decision based on my thoughts or wishes, and I don’t expect them to start doing so. I’ll still support them anyway because they’re Arsenal.
It’s kind of like real life. You know, that thing where you have children who don’t listen to you or act on your suggestions, commit all the same cock-ups that you did, and don’t always do things right, but you still love them anyway.
See, that is what support is all about. It’s actually a nice thing. All warm-and-fuzzy feelling inside sort of stuff.
Now, regarding your other thought. I must say that if we do not make 4th place neither you nor the club is “fucked”.
“Fucked” is when they tie you down on your stomach, take a baseball bat and a coil of barbed wire….” I’ll stop that one while I’m still ahead on the warm-and-fuzzy feelings.
I’ve never posted on here before, but must say I love the daily Arseblog. Thanks Mr Bloggs, it’s certainly given me many a chuckle.
I actually think you’re the most creative swearer I’ve ever heard, well done that man.
I’ve been a season ticket holder for over 30 years and, as most on here, love the Arsenal.
Still reading the comments on here, I am genuinely surprised how many still support Mr Wenger. Don’t get me wrong he’s been a great manager in the past, but how many more chances should he get?
It’s his team, his squad, his tactics. Somehow he’s convinced many that 4th place is an acheievement, when we used to challenge for the league.
He says “we gave absolutely everything” at Sunderland. Does he really believe that?
His comment that we haven’t worked half a day in football was beyond arrogant and rather dismissive of the life blood of any club, the fans.
Final straw for me was giving Djourou a new contract. He has so many players, either with us or on loan that he can’t get rid of because of long, pricey contracts. HE created that by being overly loyal and by rewarding promise. Now with Djourou he’s rewarding mediocrity.
As for those who say name a replacement, had you heard of Arsene before he came?
But just for the sake of argument, Joachim Loew, Unai Emry, and places on coaching staff for Steve Bould, Dennis Bergkamp, Martin Keown, TA, to teach these players what it means to wear the shirt.
Even Alex Fergusmoan doesn’t think he knows it all, he regularly freshens up his coaching staff.
If Wenger does stay, he needs to start listening to people who have the best inerests of the club at heart. Please use the ex players (winners) on the coaching staff as a minimum.
Actually, if you’ve been supporting that long then you should actually be able to remember that we used to bobble around between 5th and 7th most years, and the times we won something were occasional but always very special.
Well said Fred. Great fist post and totally hit many nails on the head.
Does anyone know if Arsene actually discusses and sets the wage of his players? Or do the Arsenal finance people sort it out? Cus I have a hard time imagining Arsene going through the nitty gritty of contracts and clauses in order to sort out his squad and transfers. Would’ve thought he would just tell them the players he wants, players he wants to keep, and players he wouldn’t mind/wants to let go.
As for Johan, think his new contract is untimely. He was great last season, really stood up, but its scary to say now but he was one of our more solid defenders then, don’t know how he went from that to how he is now, confidence really can destroy a player. But yeah I have to agree that £50k is too much considering his total contribution to the club to this date, whoever sorted that deal out needs to get a reality check. Need to adapt a Bank like wage structure that has an average set level for a wage, and then a performance related bonus that makes the bulk of what they take home. Yes it’s short sighted, short termed, but so is football. Players can leave at the drop of a hat, so the club has to ensure they’re not being ripped off.
Anyway I’m hoping we bring Podolski, Hazard and Gotze in this summer, proper quality players and for once I can’t begin to say how happy I am that we’ve been linked to them, even if we get a couple I’d still be happy. Saying that anyone realised how Wenger hasn’t brought in any African talent since Ade? Hope he brings a couple in as in general they provide good pace or strength as their leagues tend to be much more physical.