The release of the financial figures for Arsenal Football Club for the year 2014-15 will no doubt have many fans and people in the media scratching their heads and wondering just what Arsene Wenger was playing at in the summer transfer window.
The Frenchman only spent around £10 million on the transfer of Petr Cech from Chelsea and we actually sold or released a few squad members and may well have ended up better off than we were at the end of last season. We heard Wenger’s reasons for not signing a single outfield player and I can sympathise in a way, because there does seem to be a shortage of really top class strikers available.
It also seems clear that the top players want to be playing at the top clubs and being in with a good chance of winning domestic titles and the Champions League, so maybe Arsenal with our two FA cup wins in the last decade are going to find it tough to bring the best players to north London.
So maybe we might have to bite the bullet and pay over the odds, like other Premier L:eague clubs like Man City, Man United, Liverpool and Chelsea have done. Not just on transfer fees either, but on wages to attract those players that might otherwise be reluctant.
With nearly £200 million gathering dust in the bank, Arsenal can certainly afford to be a bit carefree with our money but is the wage structure at the club stopping us from doing it? It is well reported that Wenger and Arsenal are resistant to having some players on a lot more than the others and I think that the top earners at the minute, such as Alexis and Ozil, are on something like £140-150,000 a week, while some of the big players at City, Chelsea and United are on about double that.
If Wenger is really serious about signing a Benzema or a Cavani, does the club have to abandon the wage structure? Or should we try to stick with our footballing principles?
No – we don’t need to change the wage structure, we simy need to change the manager, anything else will then change accordingly. Like winning the league, champions league when your club has the 2nd biggest attendances in the league and is one of the best supported teams in world football. Probably the biggest team in Europe to NEVER win the champions league/European cup.
No! we dont have to change a thing! We just have to show the desire to be ambitious in top signings! Coyg!
Gathering interest at a rate probably = or > than inflation more like it.
So much money for what?
There are a few players that need to leave and we will need better replacements.
Definitely… I’m quietly optimistic about a few of our current youth players though.
Hayden, Crowley and Jeff are looking fantastic!! There looks like there will definitely be spaces in the squad from Arteta, Flamini and Rosicky’s hopeful departures. Not suggesting for one second that those names should be the only place we look, but the limited times I’ve seen them I’ve been super impressed. If they use this season to the best they can, I’d love to see a youth player first-team readied next season.
bet 5 bucks with a mate todays game 😀 😀 😀
wonder what ill use the money for after the game 😀 😀 😀
Bet 10 bucks next time.. U will be rich after the season!!
We don’t see u nowadays..Wats up.
Thug life…
Change the pay structure.
Through out Europe the
max wage should be 10k p/w.
Wage bill must not exceed 15 mill
Arsenals is 160 mill p/y.
The max transfer fee should be 100k.
Then its up to talent, coaching and commitment to the club.
Ave ticket prices should be 25 quid.
Countries then can keep most of their players
Haha… I actually knew this would be your comment!!
Honestly I get the hate for commercialism, I really do, a lot of the evil in this world is a product of it.
But I don’t get why you have such a disdain for elite sportsmen who play for a club with a world-wide fan-base that generates such a crazy amount of income. What the players make is a snippet of what the club actually produces…
In your ideal world, where wage bills are for argument’s sake, so small. Where would all the excess money go?? Divided amongst the shareholders, make the rich business men richer??
It’s still a sport with a world-wide fanbase, the most competitive teams will still draw the best players, the teams with the best players will draw the most fans, and the players with the most fans will still draw lucrative endorsements.
Corporate world aside, we’re still a generation where excellence and the elite are rewarded. I don’t get where you pull these imaginary figures from. If you’re the best, or up there with the best in the world at something, with such a large interest world-wide why do you feel their earnings shouldn’t reflect that?
Change wengers wage packet. He gets bonuses all the time for saving the club money each year.
Haha do you have proof of this?? Because if we’re just throwing wild speculations out there….
SANTA CLAUS IS REAL!!!!
Santa has always been real.
Bob, please, are Arsenal earning the money Man Utd are getting? Maybe we are getting a 3rd of it. And does Arsenal get the massive cash support Man City and Chelsea are getting from their owners? Arsenal get 0 cash support from her owners. So, when Arsenal increase the seating capacity of their Emirates Stadium to match Old Trafford, and get audacious merchandise here and there. they can then be able to pay the outrageous wage bill to bring in World class strikers and others. But for now, we build our own.