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.