Arsenal fans started to hear a few years ago that the club was coming to an end of the years of frugality forced upon it by the financial policy and the move to the new Emirates stadium. We also saw Arsene Wenger then smash the club’s transfer record by spending over £40 million to bring Mesut Ozil to Arsenal from Real Madrid.
However, apart from the signing of Alexis Sanchez and then Granit Xhaka and Shkodran Mustafi this summer it still feels like Arsenal are much less willing to splash the cash than all of our Premier League rivals. That is why I am a little concerned about the news reported by Metro that our two big name players are demanding something like £230,000 a week to sign extensions to their current contracts.
Ozil and Alexis were already the top earners in the Gunners squad and the report claims that they have been offered a significant increase up to around £180,000, but it seems that is not enough. Going above £200,000 would destroy the current wage structure and would surely lead to more of our key players wanting more.
Will Wenger and the Arsenal board let this happen? We can afford it but I am not sure if we can afford to lose our two superstars, so is this the end of Arsenal’s current wage structure? Will we be forced into paying close to what the Chelsea’s, Man City’s and United’s of the world pay in wages as well as the crazy transfer fees that Premier League clubs now have to?
Bob.
Didn’t that weasel Gazidis state afew years ago that Arsenal could afford to buy any player excluding Messi and Ronaldo? And didn’t he also say that the club Could afford to pay the Rooney type wages? (Over £200,000 aweek). His statement was around that time when we were heavily linked with shrek… I mean Rooney.
Other reports were suggesting that Ozil and Sanchez were both demanding a figure more closer to £250,000.
Look, Arsenal can afford to pay these kind of wages,as long as the players in question step up their game and earn it!
I recently read that Arsenal fc supposedly have more money in the bank than Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich combined. ? That is shocking, if true.
The only thing that worries me about these big pay rises is that most players after ‘receiving one’ they seem to give less effort on the pitch, afterwards.
Maybe it would be wiser to offer these player’s bigger bonuses instead? .. You know, an incentive to earn it, at least in that way we won’t end up with the lazy overpaid ‘Theo scenario’ from yesteryear lol.
FG, when it comes to finances it is very easy for the media to misrepresent things. We do have a lot of money in the bank but also have large debts. The latest figures are
Cash £226m
Debt £232m
I have just seen the following in the accounts. “In addition, our year end bank balance includes advance receipts, of primary sponsorship and season ticket sales, which represent working capital for the 2016/17 season. These advance receipts amounted to £100.6 million.”
In other words, a large chunk of the cash reserves are from season ticket sales so the money has to be paid out during the year on things like players wages. So there is not £226m available to buy players.
It would be interesting to learn if there is any Bonuses paid to the players and if the value for example a Goal bonus was different for each player? It was strange how Walcott was pulled off after 70 minutes against Basel when he was on a Hat-trick, yet Ozil and Sanchez were kept on for the full 90.
Was that an Ebenezer stroke to avoid paying Walcott the Hat-trick bonus ? ? ? nothing surprises me with wenger.
Has anyone else seen the recent report claiming that Gazidis received a £1 million bonus? ? and wtf was that for?…. Was it for the so called invincibles charity game? He did seem rather excited about it, at the time. Lol ?
The sadtruth is we can never compete with the big clubs. We have let the likes of city and chelsea overtake us when it should have been us winning league and challenging Manchester United for the tag of beingthe biggest club of England.
My worry is if we don’t get a big name manager after wengwr goes we are in deep trouble. We are not Manchester United who can afford to finish outside top 4, we are not Manchester United who can afford a mistake of appointing someone like moyes. I worry for our clubs future. We have to show intent and not act like small time club.
@Wayne Barker
Sad that so many think this way. Big name managers or players can only guarantee big time debt. They do not automatically bring silverware or bump up a clubs status in any way. Man U has become the prime example of this. Half a billion pounds and 3 managers later, they’re a club in disarray. And the only thing they can do, is keep throwing money at their problem and hope…
Sanchez deserve it but ozil dont…period!!
Am not saying ozil is not good but sanchez earned it as he worked like a horse.
at United, DeGea earns above 200k, Shaw earns close same as Ozil and Alexis 180k, Pogba earns 290k on a first contract so paying £250k for Ozil or/and Alexis is even cheap n we have the money.
.
u could also sell Giroud to free up 100k.
Just get it done, the wage structure is outdated anyway.
Pay em the monies! Alexis and Mesut are both our big name players, not only will they win us games but will attract other big name players to the club.
I am reading rumours about a done deal for Isco in January- I very much doubt this will happen but what a signing that would be!
MAKE IT HAPPEN WENGER!!