Newcastle United have lost one of the highest regarded managers in the game and if Arsenal is not careful they risk replicating the farce that is unfolding at St James Park.
Rafael Benitez refused to sign a new contract and one of the reasons was because of the low transfer budget of £60 Million.
Now, think about that, he basically walks because he gets a transfer kitty £15 Million LESS than what Unai Emery has been given at Arsenal.
Only yesterday we ran an article that claimed Emery is demanding the board splash the cash for Crystal Palace forward Wilfrid Zaha.
I finished off that article with the following words,
In conclusion, whether this particular rumour is true or not it does not change the fact that there is a transfer budget storm coming soon at Arsenal Football Club.
The situation with Benitez could not be a more glaring example of what happens when a manager is not given support in the transfer market that he feels is necessary for him to do his job.
And if you think it stops with the manager then you would be mistaken.
Players are no different, they want to play with the best players, they want to be competitive and they want to play for a club that is ambitious and perception is everything.
When a manager quits a club over lack of support then what are the players to think? They will be sat there drawing their own conclusions and they will not be positive.
They cannot be blamed for questioning whether it is worth staying at a club that lacks the basic requirements a top class manager demands.
And don’t get me started on players we are trying to sign.
Losing a manager over funding can be really toxic.
If that is not a warning to the Arsenal board I do not know what is.
It’s only u21 but Nelson scored. Come on Unai give him a chance next season.
Hes not good enough sorry to say another hype English kid
I disagree and also think Nelson should be given a chance.
By the way, the article could be good for us….. Emery out, Benitez in………..
Nelson will play this season because that’s all we av got we be lucky if we finish in the top 8 this season
Declan if any manager is not given the tools he can’t do the job why do you think Emery has asked the board for more money he wants to do the job
Newcastle may just get an oil rich buyer for the club and then that restriction may change drastically.
Didn’t read the article and whether there is any truth to third statement but there are many reasons he may want to leave.
One thing is for sure, 45 mil (if that turns out to be our war chest) is a measly some in today’s game and with the improvement that is needed this will fall a long way short.
But business before success is what we have at AFC. Just look at other teams in SKs portfolio and you will see that our demise will continue even with the best efforts of UE and his staff.
I’m no Kroenke fan but that “look at his shite US clubs” narrative doesn’t work anymore. Rams were in Superbowl and Nuggets had second best record in the NBA Western Conference. Just saying…
Only took both 10 yrs to be competitive, but what do I know I only live in the States. Watch and learn when they play new season.
Neither will make the playoffs, he’ll sell players for profit and the 10 yr cycle starts again.
Trust me, I’ve watched Kronke the parasite suck the life blood out of clubs for 20 years.
Spot on Durand; Kroenke’s “modus operandi” is clear in his US franchises for all to see.
Yes Rams were in Superbowl and hammered badly, I watched the match and couldn’t help but drawn comparison with Arsenal.
Completely agreed , Arsenal is one of the top 10 richest clubs in the world , some fans are blaming some players like Ozil’s salary for the lack of funds yet there are many clubs with higher wage structures yet they have WAAY more tranfser funds than us.
The FFP is also an excuse , when we have clubs like Man City and PSG spending fortunes.
The simple fact is Kroenke is taking money out of the club and Arsenal will not move forward with him as our owner .
Arsenal fans should do everything in their power to get him out.
#kroenkeout
It’s not just Ozil though. It is also alot of other players. It is Mustafi. It is Xhaka. Etc Etc. Replacing every overpaid player in this squad means an astronomical wage bill.
It’s easy to say the solution is now. But it isn’t. There really is no point in saying Ozil this or Ozil that. Because there really aren’t many team in Europe that have Ozil level wages purely on the bench. Those wages are what you pay your star player if you haven’t won a major trophy in over a decade.
To say, like you do, all clubs do this – is just a joke. No, they don’t. That is in fact the issue.
Just do the Math of all of our player’s wages plus the money we have spent in the last ten years and compare them to the money other TOP 10 RICHEST CLUBS IN THE WORLD have spent on wages and transfer fees , there is your answer , if Kroenke doesn’t spend Arsenal WILL decline massively in the next few years i hope most fans are not like you because if they are club is going to decline and it will lose most of it’s international fans , whether you like it or not you have no part in making decisions regarding Arsenal operations , fans are not club’s accountant and should not act like they are , what we should do is to make sure that the people who run Arsenal care as much we do.
Won’t be a warning to Kronke, he can’t be bothered. He doesn’t care about owning shitty teams, so long as the money keeps coming in. He has several bad teams in States, and their futures are bad as well.
It all starts at the top; if Kronke doesn’t demand titles and trophies, then neither do managers or players. Wenger was content with his top 4 trophy and so was Kronke because money was coming in.
This filtered down to players, and left us with the state of apathy we are mired in. Frees, bargin bins, and complaining about other teams spending is Arsenal mantra thanks to Kronke.
Since invincibles, no squad we had is worthy of carrying their jockstraps, and we still have yet to push on.
Pity Kronke doesn’t live by self sustaining model he preaches, aye?
Borrowed money to move Rams to Los Angeles and build stadium, borrowed money to buy up the Russians shares too.
But our beloved Arsenal? Sorry guys, we have to live within our means.
How about Walmart sponsor Arsenal? 5 years for £500 million would bring things around. Maybe Josh can ask mommie for a few pounds.
This has always been my thought about Satan getting Mrs Satan to sponsor the club…….Wigmart on the shirt !
Also another loophole around FFP, how about Satan buys Messi for Colorado Rapids and loans him to Arsenal as I`m sure the Rapids dont come under any FFP juristriction.
If Torreira wants to leave back to Italy, he is valued at about $50m. If Kessie is being offered we should get him plus $20m.
We should also bring back Bennacer for $10m who is showing a lot of promise
Kessie
Bennacer – $10m
Saliba – $25m
Tierney – $25m
Claude Maurice – $17m
Total spend $75m
There have been some claims on here regarding our stadium and that we have virtually paid for it…so I decided to see if that was true.
What I actually found was that we will be paying interest payments of £15,000,000 a season until 2031…hardly the “nearly paid for” scenario being posted on here is it?
There have also been claims on here about the financial mess left by the previous regime:
As you know,we had an uninterrupted run in the CL, so I decided to see what the club earnt just by being in it up and until the knockout stages.
Now on average ( average being the key word because of inflation etc) the values to our club was £50,000,000 a season.
While rubbishing the winning of the fa cup seven times during the previous regime (again on average), revenue worked out at £30,000,000 each time we lifted the trophy.
Now, I will let you work out what the revenue from CL and fa cup produced for the club, but PLEASE don’t tell me that this is/was a mess.
While we all try to work out exactly where the above money has gone, don’t forget to add the matchday revenue, the TV money, the sponsorship money and the premier league money for the top four finishes under the previous regime.
Now then, if one wants to argue about players signed, contracts, performances, horrendous salaries, humiliating defeats, salaries etc etc then they are for another discussion…but what we should be asking ourselves is this, apart from the Emirates costs and the actual running of the club, where has all this revenue actually gone?
Just do the sums, don’t get hooked on headlines like “bleeding the club dry” bandwagon regarding individuals either…if we are a self sufficiently run club, the likes of Zaha SHOULD be a drop in the ocean for us shouldn’t it?
We should be light years away from even thinking if we can compete with the spuds, they have only had two years of the CL and top four monies to spend.
I have sourced these figures from various sites such as wickipedia and the fa, so have taken them at face value.
Not trying to excuse/defend/praise anybody either, just challenging those who forever bemoan the situation regarding the financial status left by the previous regime.
gotanidea, sorry if this is longwinded, but sometimes one needs to explain one’s theories and sources.
You should have stuck this in an article Ken for a wider audience and further debate.
Happy for you to do that if you think it will stimulate debate admin.
Not me my friend, you lol, You know I welcome articles from the site users regardless of their opinions and I struggle to think of any Arsenal article that would not stimulate debate.
ken, thank you for the information, which confirms the rough figures I had found. My question always has been where did the income go, as it certainly wasn’t reinvested in players? The sole transfer in of Petr Cech, with no accompanying outfield players was the main case in point.
The excuse was always paying down the stadium debt, so it will be interesting to see how Spurs fare with their more expensive stadium debt and the disproportionally lower wage structure for players. One can see them having difficulty keeping and attracting players, particularly if Ponchitino leaves.
As I have stated previously should Emery leave at the end of his current contract (end of 2019/20 season) due to lack of support from the board, this would deter any quality prospective manager/coach from applying at the Emirates.
ozziegunner, couldn’t replydirectly to you rpoint as there wasn’t a tab.
I know you do your homework as well, so it’s good to know we concur…why is it that others cannot do the same before making accusations about every tom, dick and harry, along with every situation?
Great points ken. I do believe however as well as stadium debt not finished until 20131, there may be bonds tied to the stadium debt that consumes millions of our cash flow. I read somewhere that in 2009, Usmanov proposed a rights issue to raise around £150 million to refinance the bonds and pay off some of it in the process in order to ensure more money is available in our cashflow but the proposal was rejected.
shaquille o’neill, i remember that Usmanov proposal now that you mention it and the picture gets murkier with every new twist and turn.
Your points begin to take me out of my comfort zone regarding understanding the situation, but I reckon that goes for 95% of the fans…they don’t really seem to want to know the complete story though, as long as they have someone to blame.
At the moment it’s the past regime, but give it time!!
As I have said in another post, time has a habit of bringing out the real story and I guess we will have to wait.
Thanks for jogging my memory and good to see your name on here.
It needs supporters like you to bring a little sense of reality to the doom and gloom scaremongers who just want to play the blame game.
I can think of 6 million reasons why Dick wont be bothered by Satans lack of investment !…………..you can add one more in that he would have been told this when applying for the job and add another, if Dick saying that he knew about every Arsenal player and the club on the interview, he would have sure known that Satan has never invested a single penny/dime in the club !
Dick knew exactly what he was coming into when applying for this job and to say he would leave due to no investment is deluded imo.
Sorry, I disagree Le Coq. Emery only has a contract for this coming season, so he can push the point. A coach/manager of his age and experience won’t waste his time at Arsenal if not supported by the board in the transfer market. At the end of the 2019/20 season Emery won’t be short of offers.
Arsenal is a business investment. he can chose to reinvest the cash or just throw it away. just stop attending the matches. that is the only way to hit him hard.stop buying his goods/services otherwise let us not continue asking the investor how he is using his earned cash. we are living in a free capitalist world,willing buyer willing seller.
Thank you @Ken1945, for your painstaking research and stating of the facts as they are. On face value, Arsenal football Club is indeed a very rich Club. However, we do need to find out exactly how much we made from the Highbury apartment sales as well as all recurrent expenditure involved in running the club from top to bottom. Only then would we be able to make sense of the cash available to the club to spend.
Oezil, Miki and Auba’s salaries should not impact the club considering the merchandising eaxh player generates for the club as well as the size of our earnings.
Abel, yet another pot of money that went into our coffers from the Highbury re-development…another one I hadn’t taken into consideration.
With all this money, we should have bought the spuds out lock, stock and barrel!!!
Still, we are led to believe that the old regime left us in a financial mess!!! The mind boggles doesn’t it?
It’s more a case of ‘giving a dog a bad name to hang it’ Ken. Who cares about the truth when lies sound so much better.