Gazidis – Arsenal always WANT to sign players early…

Arsene Wenger has developed a reputation of only signing players at the last minute to try and get the price reduced, but according to the Arsenal CEO, Ivan Gazidis, they do usually try to get the signings done early if possible.

Look at Alexis Sanchez last summer, who was signed as soon as the World Cup was over. It can be done, but Ivan thinks that sometimes it works to Arsenal advantage to wait until the last minute…

“We always want to sign players early,” he said at the Supporters Q&A. “Everyone looks at the year where we signed five players on deadline day, but we actually signed players earlier that summer, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was one of them. Perhaps you’re also referring to Mesut Ozil but I can assure you it’s better to sign Ozil on deadline day than not at all.

“We always try to sign players early but it’s a very complicated chess game, believe me. Pieces need to move around and with certain players, you need the deadline to force a decision, you need something final to push others to make the decisions they have to make. So we’ve always signed players early but sometimes, players just don’t come up till the end of the window.”

Ivan then talked about the new rules on FFP, and how it could actually help to make the smaller Premier League clubs become more competitive in the coming years. “I’ve spoken about Financial Fair Play,” Ivan said. “And I don’t like those words, because I don’t think it’s about fair play. I’ve always been in favour of some kind of financial regulation because I think that’s good for football. I don’t think it dramatically affects Arsenal because our strategy would be the same with FFP or without it. We still have to expand our commercial revenues, we still have to be efficient, we still have to compete against richer clubs.

“Just look at some of the ownerships we have in the game and it’s not healthy. What we want are responsible owners that respect the history and the traditions and that don’t come into it knowing they’re going to get abused if they don’t shovel in hundreds of millions of losses in cash, that’s not healthy because when you have that environment, sensible people stay away from it and questionable people come in. We want sensible people to come in.

“What’s happening with FFP isn’t what’s being reported. There are some amendments. Basically, they’re for clubs that are not in the Champions League, if you’re outside the Champions League and you have a plan for how you want to develop, you are allowed to invest a bit more money, but you have to get yourself back into the confines within three years, so it’s not quite what’s being reported.”

“What’s going to happen in the Premier League is that clubs like Crystal Palace, Newcastle or Norwich City and they are going to have more money than anyone else in Europe, outside of the top ten clubs. They are going to have money to access some of the best players in Europe, which is fantastic for the league. So the Premier League is going to become even more competitive and it’s going to get harder for clubs like us. Two years from now, every game Arsenal play, you’re going to be watching us against teams that have players that can hurt you if you make a mistake.”

So he obviously thinks that this will only be helping the smaller clubs get bigger, but as we discussed in an earlier article, it is going to be a lot easier for big clubs to get around these rules. All classy transfer targets are definitely going to become more expensive as more able bidders are allowed to join the auctions. Ithink it will be interesting, but I am still sure that Wenger will be able to attract more players with the guaranteed success we have at Arsenal.

Things can only get better….

Onwards and Upwards!

Tags Gazidis Wenger

25 Comments

  1. Early Schmearly
    Pay the money and sign the players. It’s as easy as that.
    In order to be Champions you need to pay what other clubs want.
    On first week Arsenal should
    1. Wrap up Cech
    2. Sign Reus for £45 million
    3. Sign Martinez for £25 million
    4. Sign Kondogbia for £30 million
    5. Sign a decent defender like Hummels for £30 million

    £130 million – £70 million warchest = £60 million

    Make up the extra £60 million by selling Deadwood like Wilshere, Mertsacker, Jenkison, Podolski, Campbell and Sanogoals

    SIMPLES SIMPLES SIMPLES

    1. Why you want to sell Wilshire? Do you even understand why city wants to buy him? What do you think they wil not get better MF then Wilshire?
      Hope you know homegrown rule will be in effect by 16/17 and every clubs want to have best HG players in their squad.
      How many players do you know which are better than him? He was MOM 6 times in last 7 matches.
      Wenger should not sell him, Jenikson, Ox, Walcott and Gibbs and even Szc.

    2. Firstly, selling Wilshere? What then hell!?

      Secondly if we wated to sign Mesut earlier in the windiw we would have had to pay more, maybe 50-60 million, so they didn’t have to faff about with the Bale transfer. Given this hypothetical, we probably wouldn’t have had the money to sign Sanchez… I would rather bide our time and get 2 world class players than rush and only get the one.

      In this case Gazidis is right, it’s a chess game, eventually we do have to make a move though…

  2. Cech is a good START to business, lets just hope that one finalizes without a hitch. As much as I’d like to see our business all happen in the next fortnight we know the summer will drag on while to poker games play out. I’m not too concerned with the business being done late as long as ALL the business is done within the window.

    Gazidis is a touch confused about the Ozil situation, nobody was too concerned that we bought Ozil on the last day…..it was the fact we needed a CB and ST but didn’t get one, instead we closed the Ozil transfer after losing 3-1 to Villa at home and having the supporters tear their hair out. Just get all the business we need done within the window and I nobody will have a bad word to say.

  3. Name five top class signings you’ve made for arsenal ever since you came whether late or early and i will buy you beer gazidiz..
    You are one of the most incompetent ceo i have ever seen in the transfer market and i believe you are better suited for financial purposes where surprisingly you are by far the best..
    Trusting you on our transfers is like playing mert as a central striker

        1. 3 League Titles, 6 FA Cups. What have you accomplished in those years?
          Built a stadium on Football income.
          In every CL every year.

          What have you accomplished in those years?

          1. those league titles were achieved while David Dein was there mate.The point trophyhungry gonner is making is that whilst Wenger has been running everything we don’t win much.When others who had more authority like Dein where there Wenger was more focused on the football

    1. Wojciech Szczesny, Samir Nasri, Andrei Arshavin, Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Mikel Arteta, Per Mertesacker, Olivier Giroud, Lukas Podolski, Santi Cazorla, Nacho Monreal, Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Mathieu Debuchy, David Ospina, Calum Chambers, Danny Welbeck, Gabriel Paulista.

      1. half of these signings are rubbish or at best mediocre in reality.3 or 4 are top signings(kos,Santi,Alexis,Nasri),and the rest are still to be decided(Ozil,Gabriel etc)

  4. OT. I don’t know why fans here supporting Martinez. He was aweful in today’s match and Colombia is out of Copa America.
    I am still not convinced that he is solution for our striker problem.
    if we have money then we should sign someone like Cavani.

    1. I’m sure everyone is familiar with the idiom “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks”, its the most applicable phrase when i think of describing Martinez, I’m not saying he’s that old but the point i’m making is that he is getting older so the margin for error or correction is slim. If he cant hit the ground running this season he hasn’t got a chance in hell establishing a prolific scoring record in the league.

    2. I agree with you about Martinez. He is getting on and he is not a huge step up from our current set of players, but then you mention Cavani, who, from what I have seen this season is pure trash. JM is by far the better player. Cavani is a has been.

    3. Well going by your logic, Giroud had 11 touches the other night for France (least fo any player including GK’s)……should we sell him? Clearly not.

      Jacksons career record is unquestionable, he’s quality and would be a good addition. The right addition? Well that’s for Wenger to call.

      1. Jacksons career record is highly questionable, hence why he’s going on 29 and still playing in the Portuguese league and hasn’t been snapped up

        1. He has been Primeira Liga top scorer in all three of his seasons at Porto and he is not represented by Georges Mendes so this transfer rumor is legit.

        2. South American , dude. They sometimes get to Europe late.
          There’s the curious case of a certain Di Stefano….ever heard of him?

        3. Right, because unless you make a move to a top European club before the age of 25 you’re bad?

          Jackson’s known to be a good guy, he has his own youth football school back in Colombia so perhaps he simply felt he owed Porto a few seasons for taking the risk of introducing him to European football. Now he’s decided to take the final step up and he’s being supported entirely by Porto because of his prior service.

          Fans like you make these stupid baseless judgements. Being the best player in the Portuguese league is a thing to be proud of for someone coming from a remote town in Colombia. I swear people forget that players are human beings.

  5. I don’t think there’ll be much activity this summer. Let’s focus on having a successful preseason and winning our cup which we couldn’t manage last season.

  6. Cech + Vidal and we are good to go. There are no real world class strikers out there that can make a big change. And most importantly if we do buy a striker before Theo signs a new contract then he might decide to play hard ball.

    Cech first, Theo contract after and then if we can pick up a Vidal or A Schneiderlin or maybe just maybe Cavani or Higuain.

    Patience will be needed and we will persevere.

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