You would think that Arsenal is a club in meltdown, pay cut fiasco, absent owner, financial losses mounting up, players breaking social distancing, our best player not signing a new contract, young stars not signing new contracts and so forth.
But you know, every club has the exact same issues, some more than others for sure but huge issues nonetheless.
Compare us with the so-called most valuable club in England, Tottenham.
They have players breaking social distancing rules, in fact, their manager did the same and actually encouraged it, they have high profile stars that will be out of contract this summer, at least with us there is a year left on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s contract. None of their players has agreed to any form of pay cut to my knowledge, they even shamelessly furloughed their staff until the backlash from their own players and fans forced a humiliating climbdown.
Then throw in the financial impact, I know I would rather be in Arsenal’s shoes right now, no one wants a billion-pound white elephant sat there doing nothing.
I could go on, you get the picture and it is not just that lot. Those Chelsea players really did themselves proud rejecting a pay cut across the board, Liverpool will never erase the memory that they also furloughed their staff.
Then what about when it does all finally return to normality, there is no guarantee that even the clubs with bottomless pits of money, Chelsea and Man City, will be able to freely go and spend money as they did before.
Clubs are going to have to be sensible and frugal and the one thing about Arsenal is that they are frugal with their money, mainly because there is a huge lack of it for a top-six team.
However, in my opinion, Arsenal is well placed because of the abundance of brilliant young talent we have. I would argue that our youngsters stand up against the very best in the Premier League and that puts us in a great position to hit the ground running without spending any significant money in the next transfer window.
The club owns the Emirates without any debt and has cash reserves, well, so it has been claimed.
I agree it is not great right now but in comparison to most other teams I feel Arsenal is not in bad shape, the players appear to be united under Mikel Arteta and I am sure that Aubameyang, Saka, Martinelli etc will sign new contracts.
Yeah, I would rather be in our current state than almost any other team in the Premier League when everything is taken into consideration.
PRutt!
Rather overblown conclusion when saying we are in better financial shape than”almost any other Prem team”” and there are a number of others who are better off than us. BUT Martin makes a fair point about Spuds and mentions others who have blotted their copybooks more than we have. Personally, I havenever subscribed to the school of thought that judges oneself by others but rather only by being the best you yourself can be with more effort, and more determination.
Merely having others worse off, which a sizeable number are, has never been of any import in my book. It is and ALWAYS SHOULD BE only about are we the best WE can be.
On THAT point, the clear answer is NO WE ARE NOT. It has always been fools gold to compare yourself with others, simply because you are never comparing like with like, as we are all different. This is as true for fotball clubs as it is for individuals.
I like your optimistic attitude which I feel is justified given the wealth of young talent at Arsenal. Every successful team and business is based on good Management ,and in this respect I am heartened by the manner in which Arteta conducts himself and the improvements he has achieved in terms of team effort and spirit.To get to the next level we need to bring in 2/3 quality players to replace those who are clearly not up to it, but I am sure Arteta is fully aware of this and I wish him well.
Certainly Liverpool and Spurs did an about turn after pressure. Chelsea refused a cut and it was agreed that the players could carry on their normal charitable giving and not necessarily to the NHS
Arsenal have been generally frugal, apart from paying several senior players ( and this is not about Ozil) generous contracts that do not relate to their contributions on the pitch. We don’t splash the cash like the Manchester clubs and this ability to operate on a relative shoestring might stand the club in good stead.
With money scarce almost everywhere, this maybe the time when a skillful manager rather than a well funded manager could really win the day when football resumes.
Robert, I may be wrong but I believe that we are still paying of the debt on the stadium. As for the cash reserves much of what ever it is set aside for paying installment on player contracts and other debts on bonds. We are not in good place financially contrary to what many seem to think. The current situation is going to make matters even harder. Still not all doom and gloom. You are quite right, we have some very talented youngsters and they will certainly get their chances as there will not be many players coming to AFC in the next window.
I am making a list of modern three word phrases like ‘here and there’ ‘up and down’ ’round and round’
So far i have 200 such phrase but not including ‘doom and gloom’ so thanks for that.
Can you roll out some more please?