Before I go into my suggestion, let me say that is all it is. I’m not saying this is the case, or even that I believe it’s the case, only that its possible. I’ve used some things we know (facts), some things we have been told (hearsay) and some speculation and fully accept the latter two categories can be easily dismissed with other hearsay and speculation. I’m not asking anyone to accept the premise, just don’t dismiss it before you have considered it.
Firstly, there have been studies that prove an 85% correlation between spending and success, across all mayor football leagues Let me repeat that “studies” STUDIES, not my opinion. So if you are looking at it from a business/investment angle, you would conclude to have better than a 15% chance of regularly being in the top 4, you would have to be in the top 4 spenders. Well we are not We can not come near the spending levels of City, United and Chelsea. That leaves one spot, and Liverpool are spending much more than us to secure that spot. In simple terms, to get the 4th spot regularly, we have to outspend Liverpool. But outspending them we are not.
What then if Arsenal have decided that the cost of chasing this top 4 spot is beyond what they want to spend? What if on a business level they have decided 5th or 6th is the way forward?
In the last couple of days we have learned that Stan Kroenke is the 100% owner and all trading on Arsenal shares has stopped. I am told that all his other sports businesses do not spend on the levels to “compete”. So why will Arsenal be different?
We know that we have been out of the top 4 for two years and we are told that it’s unlikely we will be back in it this year (I believe we could by the way), and yet our the club’s value is at record levels and we have moved up in the list of most valuable clubs. Also , despite no top 4, we have negotiated record sponsorship deals.
So does it make business sense to spend at levels that will increase the debt burden (It’s already the 2nd highest in the league behind only MUFC in the hope we might get CL football. ? It might not you know?
We know Ivan Gazidis is leaving. Many people find that hard to understand after all his efforts to bring in a new regime. What if he has been told that we will not be spending at the required levels and doesn’t want to be blamed?
We were told Mikel Arteta was going to be our new head coach we have been told Gazidis favoured him and we have been told that Arteta decided against it because he would not have been given the money, he felt he needed, to compete.All of what were have been told could be bollocks, but what if it’s not?
We have been told that previously a 4 year deal was offered to Aaron Ramsey, which he had accepted,and now we are told that offer has been removed and Arsenal “are not in a position” to proceed. Well what if that is because Arsenal have decided not to pay CL wages because we won’t be in it, and they have accepted not being in it?
If Arsenal have decided not to chase top 4 on business decisions, all of this makes at least some sense?
The problem is we as fans don’t want to think of football as a business. We don’t want to accept that City and Chelsea have bought our place at the top table. We rail against the studies that prove a massive correlation between spend and success, because we don’t want it to be true. We do not want to see the club we love and the game we love become more like Monopoly. But that is how it is now.
I liked this
There you have it then, Its a disturbing thought that I wish I had never had……………..Sorry
Positively Arsenal 
Don’t all be taking at once.
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alabamagooner
September 28, 2018 at 12:59 pm Edit
Ok, here goes:
1) This is a really stupid move. You can’t tell me they can’t afford to pay him at least what they are paying Auba and Miki. He wasn’t asking for Mesut’s salary AND he wanted to stay. But, that apparently carries no weight in the new Arsenal regime, which I can’t say I like very much.
2) If Aaron goes, the last of the ethos of the club as we knew it goes with him. Kos can’t instill it alone, and I’m not convinced any of the younger players (bar perhaps Hector) really buy into it yet.
3) It makes no sense to me that Emery has built a first XI to include Aaron, only for the club to yank his contract offer.
4) I’m even more pissed at Ivan Gazidis now. I believe that contract would have been signed it he had stayed.
5) IF Emery freezes him out now (I don’t think he will, but I don’t think a lot of things will happen and then they do) it will poison my view of this club. He’s done nothing to deserve that. He gives everything, every game, he doesn’t pout (looking at you Mesut), he just gets on with it. What he deserves is to play, and to have a testimonial at the end of the season.
6) I hope the fans treat him with the decency he deserves. We will never again have legends (yes, I said it) who give the club a decade of their lives, because that’s football now. I hope people appreciate him, I believe he’s the last of that ilk we shall ever see.
7) I hope Aaron stays until summer, gets all the money he can, goes somewhere else and lights the world on fire. I hope the Director of Football feels stupid, and puts this decision down in his notebook called “Worst Decisions I’ve Ever Made”.
8) My positive side still holds a tiny sliver of hope, that this decision will be reconsidered by both parties at some point. But it’s admittedly very tiny.
9) I will follow Aaron’s career wherever he goes, and cheer for him unless he’s playing Arsenal (and maybe even a little bit, then). I hope it’s abroad. He deserves to play in a league where he doesn’t get kicked to death, and it would kill me to see both him and Oli (the second worse decision ever made) at Chelsea. I hope he and Colleen and their precious little family of five enjoy life wherever they land.
10) My heart is broken. I feel like someone has died. I knew the day would come, but I hoped he could end his career here, like Tomas did. No player will ever hold my heart like this again.
Footnote: I reserve the right to take *most* of this back if this all turns out to be bullshit. But I don’t think it is.
There you go, George. There’s your blog. Call it “10 Things I Realized Yesterday”.
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well you could very well be right, but that is not to say that AFC are not going to try and get top 4, or that if we do get top 4 we will not then spend like a top 4 side, as a club that is self sustaining, it would make practical sense to actually act that way. We are currently a EL team, and are spending overall like a good EL club.
It has to be remembered that if we win the EL, regardless of our BPL finishing position we will be in the CL. As I said above we are in EL and spend like a good EL club, so if we win EL and get in CL I would expect us to spend like a CL club.
We appointed Unai Emery as successor to Wenger, and the one think we know about Emery is that he has one hell of a good record of winning the EL.
At the announcement of his appointment earlier this summer, the soundbite was work within our budget, promote from academy, spend only money we have, but that we can not and will not spend like the mega rich clubs so we have to be “smart” with how we spend our money. The “smart with our money”, with our scouting and our coaching was mentioned over and over. But it did not fit the soundbites of our uber bloggers, so it got by and large over looked.
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Sorry, George, I didn’t mean go off topic, but thanks for copying my comment over from the previous blog. I spent 30 minutes on that, I hated for no one to read it!
I hope you’re wrong, here, but I fear you may be right. Something smells off at the club.
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The worrying thing is that if I were the owner,and in it for the £, that is exactly what I would do
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I think its a very important blog George. Stacks to think about, its really complex. My honest answer would be I dont know. Maybe for the cheque signers they say they are, but they are also I it for Monopoly, so why would they be content to sit outside top 4?
Many spoke of AW ruining his legacy, but the 20 yrs CL cast a long shadow. I think Unai wants to win everything, he has a tough job, hes limited to a degree, but that leaves him more chance on the players, and we arent doing too bad considering the change from a long successful epoch, he might not give a fig about flowing football(?), but hes there trying to conduct wins. Later who knows?
Do the players want it? Is football just a cash machine, or a dream fulfiller, or both, or neither? Arse Arsenal just a stepping stone, although most stoners seem to have not been too great away form the nest?
Im one of hose fans who cant grasp the dynamics of the modern game. And neither can Leicester fans either! Look at all those years Stanley we sneaking around the bottom, then last season, what a run. Who would have expected that?
My thoughts are more concerned with Unai getting the lads into a formidable force, but with Monopoly world it could be chicken and eggy? But that equation is a false premise, evolution doesnt happen like that (ask Leicester).
Seems that we are moving quickly into a new era, quicker than we thought, I feel deeply for Rosicky and Alabama, and agree, Im also behind Unai, and like him and what hes trying to do, I mean without a massive “war chest” ( what tool came up with that?) what kind of coach could we have got in?
Is this all a case of one step at a time? But the turbo capitalism has to be kept in check, for sport and monopoly are now went entwinned like never before and all that works needs balance?
It is a weird time ( new and a bit nervy), but there is hope.
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Seeing as we really do not know what is really going on behind the scenes, and rely on “reports” in the media, which are very frequently either made up or tinkered with, perhaps we should wait and see, rather than get upset.
Players and their agents yield a lot of power nowadays, especially as contracts start to wind down.
The extremely unfair criticism of AW in recent years when there were similar situations with other major players, belies the fact this is happening to other clubs as well.
No club or manager would deliberately or even negligently allow a player’s contract to wind down. It takes 2 to tango and the players (and/or their agents) want what they want and clubs like ours that do not want to be hung out to dry for obnoxious wages, have to try their best.
How many players have left us when they are established players and have been truly successful elsewhere?
Even Sanchez with his multi-hundred thousand pounds/week salary, is hardly lighting the world at Manure is he?
It comes down to greed, which has been allowed to take control of our beloved game and is now ruining it.
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I have see more trophy success and more European football at the highest level in my three score life as an Arsenal fan than any man has a right to hope for. Empires rise, empires fall. Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair….
… for a little while then get back to watching the football and supporting the team.
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Shotta was: Bang. On. The.Money? With his thoughts over the Summer?
What we’d discussed amognst oursleves was the method that the new owner was going to use to wase himself free of the obliigations he agreed to with Fizman during the deathbed negotiations: A DEAL WHICH NONE OF THE BLAGGERS EVER DISCUSS! Lol?
Step 1: Remove the old gaffer.
Step 2: Ivan/Brutus gets his historical reward and scarpers from the scene
Step 3, etc.: You can all see the rest.
As I wrote during the summer when the Agent’s PR reps were hawking Chamberlain on their blags and podcasts, losing Ramsey from this squad/dressing room could be a bigger blow then losing the old gaffer, given the turnaround in staff and players, that is not speculation but logic. The current regime could possibly be repeating many of the mistakes made by Utd. Let’s hope not but the signposts are not encouraging. It’s not the Boot Room but the opposite and that is not Football (if i am not making any sense to you: just ask Pat Rice).
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ease > wase
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I quite like where the club is at the moment. We feel trim and ambitious. I like the structure, especially with Gazidis out of the frame, and I like our new signings.
Now, say we were to hit the jackpot soon (like Liverpool have done, blindly) and sign/develop a player that could command £100+, I’m confident that this setup could make that fee go a long way.
For now, we’re at the very start of a cycle with this squad. Each match brings us closer to a new identity, and slowly new heroes will emerge. My eye is on Sokratis and Iwobi who both look very good.
To me, the Ramsey decision speaks to a unity of purpose behind the scenes. I’d guess that with Gazidis gone the majority of the decision-making panel hasn’t been won over by him. The timelines work out.
Ramsey is such an orthodox player that you can see how this might happen. He has qualities that some coaches will love and cons that others might not be able to look past.
For my money, does he warrant parity with Ozil? Not even close, and I like him.
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The premise is not without evidence, but it would be a mistake to think it started now, with Kroenke as sole owner.Through Arsenal’s glory years under Arsene Wenger, the club was second richest to Manchester United and the two clubs were true rivals, going head to head. In the first nine years of Wenger’s leadership, from ’96/’97 through ’04//’05 Arsenal were first in the league three times, second 5 times, and third once. Then came Abramovich in ’03 and in two years Chelsea emerged as title contenders. By spending hundreds of million. They replaced Arsenal as the second richest club. Not long after, Sheikh Mansoor bought Manchest City and Arsenal were now the 4th richest club. Not surprisingly, they finished between second and fourth for the next 11 years.
The thing is, Arsenal have always been fiscally prudent, even in their glory years; they just had more money relative to their peers. The club is not suddenly being cheap, they are competing against clubs that are spending out of pocket to win. Sheikh Mansoor is doing it to develop the brand for the club and as a marketing arm of a bigger concern and Abramovich is doing it out of vanity. Either way, Arsenal have been left behind.
Now Liverpool, buoyed by windfalls from the sale of Suarez and Coutinho, are outspending the gunners as well. It is too soon to tell if this is a policy change by ownership; has the club decided to spend non-football revenue to win or are they simply reinvesting their profits from the two sales? If it is the former, then Arsenal will become like Liverpool.has been for the last two decades, bouncing between 8th and 2nd hoping for a bit of luck to make them contenders.
These are the realities that fans of the club have never embraced. Wenger Out, Wenger Out was their war cry, but does anyone really think Pep Guardiola would be contending for titles if he was managing Brighton or Huddersfield? Manuel Pellegrini won with Man City and he’s struggling to get West Ham competitive.
Even Manchester United are struggling to win titles and you cannot say Mourinho is a poor manager. He’s won everywhere; but the landscape has changed. United might still have the biggest revenues of any club, but they are no longer the biggest spenders. United have to compete for players with City and Chelsea and Liverpool when before it was a choice between the Red Devils and the Gunners.
The idea that Arsenal have made a “decision” not to chase top four is a stretch, but the decision they have made, one that has guided the club in the modern era is, they invest what is prudent financially and if that continues Unai Emery and any other manager at the club will need to catch lightning in a bottle a la Leicester, to win a title.
It is funny that the same people insisting Arsene Wenger win now are pleading for time for Unai Emery. Unless Arsenal change their spending policy time is not going to help. Who knows, by this time next year we could have banners flying over the Emirates; Emery Out, Emery Out and he won’t have done anything wrong either.
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Many thought provoking points though I wouldn’t necessarily say we gave up on top 4, just that perhaps instead of buying our way into we will stay our course.
Liverpool spend quite a lot but we only judge in May how many points that translate to. Last season many said they had an exceptional season but they got same points as we did the season before.
Last season we were just poor; so if we can improve our away record over the next few months we can easily get at least a 12 point swing that could potentially be enough to get back in top 4.
It’s the hope right?
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Bird, what makes you think Aaron want parity with Ozil?
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PG, senior player, established international, last big contract of his career. His last deal was in excess of £100,000 and that was four years ago. Since then wages have sky-rocketed and he’s become more important to the club.
I bring up Ozil because he’s the benchmark. Now, I don’t think his agent would be after parity exactly, but I think he’d want something approaching that. What do you reckon?
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On second thoughts – extrapolating his goals to games tally from last season – if he has a good, healthy 13-14-esque campaign I think he could negotiate that wage on a free transfer next summer, for sure.
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Also, I meant “unorthodox” in my post above! I can honestly not think of a comparable player anywhere.
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It is possible,who knows what Stans real aims are, but if he has a plan as this article suggests,fans and sponsors will desert the club in droves, and that pennywise pound foolish strategy will cost him. It is said he is interested in worldwide media rights, a successful Arsenal gained at a reasonable cost will do a lot better than say a Watford on this front.
But Ivan himself cited Leicester as a transfer model (yes, I know they won the league, but Arsenal are a richer club than LCFC who are now a mid table club)
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/we-can-learn-from-leicester-recruitment-says-arsenal-chief-skdpdrrgh
except that we could be spending less than Leicester, and others, we did last summer, though Jan 2018 transfers should be factored in.
If Stan is really that lacking in ambition, he will kill the club,resulting ultimately in having to sell, at a lesser amount than if we compete.
Losing Ramsey will be heartbreaking, and seemingly foolish in such circumstances.
But I think there is more going on, as much as I love the player, I do wonder if both parties have agreed, but his agents may still be stalling on doing the deed, maybe not returning calls, signing things. Perhaps someone has said enough is enough,maybe Emery thinks he is dispensable under such an environment. Only a theory of course.
Just get the feeling we have been here before, Ox for starters, reports he had agreed etc, but it seemed he had no intention of staying at any point, we all know what happened in that game at Anfield in the midst of all that, i think that approach and the result in that game unfairly damaged the manager.
Whatever the truth, I will always rate Ramsey, wish him the best an be appreciative for what he has done. He changed cupfinals
If Stan has settled for 5th 6th, he will do something unique,impossible, and most likely unite the fanbase, Robbie will be pleased,
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As you point out Labo it is not only about us. On at least two occasions during Arsene’s long top 4 run we held on to our position only because, in the final furlong, one of the pack in front of us stumbled and as string finishers from February onwards we were always on hand to nip in. Two seasons ago while I expected Liverpool and/or Spurs to fold they didn’t.
This season Chels and LFC and Citeh look good as you say, so far. The red Mancs look to be in a spot of bother for all their spending because they have a nutcase in charge, and Tottingham’s form is up and down.
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Agree Andrew. All we can do our side is to keep our heads down and get the points, even if our heart stops a few times during games, but just remain thereabouts to capilise on any misfortune at Totnum and Manutd.
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BK
Liverpool were splashing £20M on loanee markovic and £30M on Carroll long long long before any windfall from any sales.
Please, let’s not onfuse the record here, it is clear:
They’ve been outspending the Arsenal for a decade or more. And the gap is only increasing. I’m not saying i want AFC to spend £30M on King Kenny’s retirement package, far far from it as you know, but neither should we ignore this objective record.
Thank you.
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Some of the games we lost last season, 1-3 to Swansea at the Liberty, 1-2 at Newcastle, 1-2 at Bournemouth and at Brighton, Vicarage road, Ostersunds at the Ems, at Forest FFS – in plenty of those game we are actually in the lead.
Don’t tell me that was about money. It was about our players not doing their f***** job on a particular day.
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FP, I think for the last decade they’ve always had roughly the same clout as us, and this was reflected in the wage bill, which has always been a great gauge for final league position. Sometimes LFC’s was lower and sometimes higher but they were usually in our neighbourhood.
They invested when FSG took over, and made some hilarious missteps (which of course have been wiped out by ridiculous recent returns). But honestly, without looking it up, were they spending a dramatic amount net? And per year, was it ever dramatically more than we’ve spent since we’ve felt a bit more confident (around 2013)? I don’t know but I’d be shocked if it was.
I don’t think they deserve credit, by the way; I think they’ve fluked it completely lest this be mistaken for an apology.
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The composition of the squad last season was covered in great detail over the summer. You are entitled to that opinion, there are others that are supported by some of the players you mention: for example: Mertesacker should not have been on the pitch against Bournmouth.
We don’t play the blame game here, and we note that the belated replacements of Gabriel and Coquelin fit Arsenal’s MO and are as good if not better then the players/holes in the squad that they are filling. But too much turnover as ‘bama so easily articultes means the squad is in danger of losing it’s identity. If this comment is proving difficult to interepret I kindly refer you to Manchester Utd who haven’t exactly been shy with the check book eh?
Thank you.
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Sorry BK but if you add up the transfer net spend over the period that you refer to i think you will find that there is a significant variation. Do we need to speculate when we have access to the facts and figures? I’m too busy to do the sums right now but…£30M on Carroll…hello!
Cheers.
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What I’d like to know, if icy-hearted businessman he is : when and how does he plan on making money out of us?
Selling the whole caboodle at the right moment, using club as collateral or similar (as some suggest but I haven’t attempted to understand), or regularly taking money out of club?
If it’s first, when is that likely to be, as we can’t guarantee value keeps climbing if investment is limited and we don’t get back into top four? Keep it tight and wait and see?
For the last one, he’d need to take plenty out for it to be worth hassle, amid threat of more damaging fan revolt than before. None of this measly 3 million once in a blue moon, given his status as a multi-billionaire.
So…I don’t have a clue,really, what old Stan’s plans are for us.
I do know that’s a bloody good last full paragraph though. There’s nothing to suggest at present we will try close the gap with the biggest spenders, and some intimations we may rein expenditure in a little.
With the knowledge of the effects of spending being what it is, it may finally be time to adjust my own hopes from wanting, at heart, nothing less than the strength we were at with the strongest Wenger teams.
Maybe I should have done so long ago.
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FP, on Carroll they recouped big chunk as West Ham were even more gullible. Actually, thinking about it, he’s worth more than £15 when fit (ho ho!)
OK, this is the first google result, from the doubtless non-partisan Daily Post
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/revealed-how-much-money-liverpool-13741942
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I said 85% correlation, not 100% so yes, us losing badly at grounds we should have won at, and United being shit at spending, is the reason its not nearer 100%.
How hard is this to understand. ?
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birdkamp
The biggest fluke for Liverpool, with perhaps some inspired something or other thrown in by the main architect, who later went to Chelsea, was saving themselves, without much visible pain, from the brink of financial catastrophe a few years back.
Don’t know dates nor exact details but think they were in a hole for a few hundred million.
The old owners were ousted, terms renegotiated with banks, new owners, and off they went again.
I think the key fact was that, much to the old owners displeasure, the cost of buying for the new owners was the debt and a relatively small amount on top. Golden for Liverpool- debt taken care of, new, better owners. For the new owners, they got the club for less than it’s value would have been if sold on old owners terms.
So, if spending more than your means is cheating (or at least incurs big risks you have no right to complain of should they hurt you later), in a sense, they did so over a number of years, earning a better chance of success in the process, and were then spared paying anything like the full price.
It’s a fairly familiar football story,I think, with similar happening at both Milan’s and Atletico in recent times. Disastrous debts, mostly run up spending way more than what you are earning, on players and wages, in an attempt to keep up with or beat wealthier clubs. A period where it can be sustained no longer, a reckoning…and then not long after things get healthier and within a few years might be looking good.
I remember reading Inter under Mourinho were running at something like 160 million debt per season to do what they did!!
Imagine how greatly our chances now or previously would improve with that extra money, or even Liverpool’s 200 million or whatever it was.
I don’t want us to do it, but it irks me that some competitors have and some no doubt currently are, though probably not on the scale Inter were back then.
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The last two seasons when Arsenal did really poor was so unique to events at the club for over two decades.
1) Wenger’s contract situation, as said by himself, add to a lot of uncertainty with nobody knowing exactly wtf was going on. He only extend during that off-season.
2) Wenger pandering to Alexis Sanchez’s whims when he clearly wasn’t playing at his best, making the team looked disjointed, caused a lot of unhappiness off the field and led to a lot of angry finger pointing and shouting matches amongst players on it.
When Sanchez left in January it didn’t necessarily improved our away record but the team looked more cohesive and had a good run in the Europa, pity Auba couldn’t play though to help us go all the way after he so seamlessly adjusted well and scoring at will.
There’s plenty to be encouraged about in this team, hope they can just shut the noise coming from those outside who clearly wished that Arsenal would succumbed to mid-table mediocrity post Wenger.
We won’t go away.
We are the Arsenal!
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Rich, this drags me even further out of my comfort zone! First Liverpool, now finance!
Through that lens, we nearly sent Liverpool and Chelsea under, along with Leeds. All of them spending well beyond their means trying to match us in the early 2000s.
Once again, it puts AW’s achievements into perspective. Playing straight as we do, where would we be if we’d appointed say Christian Gross or even Houllier?
Reading how in the hole they were 15 years ago, it rams home how much the picture has changed in the 2010s. I wonder how much prep went into disastrous transfers like and Diomande and Aquilani (i’m trying hard to remember their biggest turds) compared to Coutinho or Luis Suarez. Know this is all a tangent.
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they only thing that really throws a spanner in the works when it comes to the soundbite that Arsenal have decided to spend its limited budget elsewhere instead of on Ramsey’s wages is that if as BBC’s David Ornstein reported, a new deal was agreed by AR with AFC, then we have just dumped what would instantly have become a £50M + asset with the signing of the contract, to what is now an ever decreasing asset. We try to sell him in Jan we get a fraction of his true worth, and if we don’t sell him in Jan we get nothing at all. But if he had signed a new deal we could have sold him for a massive fee, as I say £50M or more. So an awful business decision, and this after all the club’s talk about being smart in the transfer deals.
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Team news: Sokratis, Maitland-Niles, Koscielny
Arsenal Media 28 Sep 2018
Sokratis
Ahead of Unai Emery’s media conference on Friday, here’s the latest team news update from our medical team:
Sokratis
Now available for selection following right dead leg during Everton match last Sunday.
Emile Smith Rowe
Right hip being assessed ahead of match against Watford on Saturday.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Small fracture to left fibula. Progressing well and now expected to return to full training in early October. (Initially aiming to return to training in November).
Dinos Mavropanos
Groin injury. Expected to return to full training in by the end of October.
Laurent Koscielny
Right Achilles tendon repair. Now working outside. Aiming to return to full training in November.
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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Emery on Aaron Ramsey’s Arsenal future
Arsenal Media 28 Sep 2018
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Aaron Ramsey’s contract situation has become a hot topic in recent days – so what has Unai Emery made of it all?
The Wales international’s deal is due to expire at the end of the season, and our head coach had his say in Friday’s press conference:
Emery – Gracia is competitive and always improving
‘Each player is doing well… but we need more’
‘If it rained less here, it would be better!
on whether he considers Aaron important…
For me, every player is very important with their relation with the team. I consider each player an important space in the squad.
on whether he has told the board he would like Aaron to stay…
There are three elements, three aspects. One is the player and also the player with their family and representatives. The other is the club and the other is the squad. My focus is always on the team. My focus is preparing with the players and only thinking about the match tomorrow. Each player has individual aspects to work or to do or to speak with the club or with the team, but my aspect for the focus, only to think, is the matches and preparing for the matches and to speak with the players if they are thinking and are very concentrated on work for giving us the best performance and to help the collective performance.
Copyright 2018 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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Peter Crouch agrees with me, and nails it here…is a sentence I never thought I’d write.
(apologies for Daily Fail link, but that’s where it’s published and it’s worth reading.)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6218935/amp/PETER-CROUCH-Losing-Aaron-Ramsey-Arsenals-identity-chipped-away.html
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Essentially it is pointless comapring AFC’s spending with their rivals as the club has been following a completely different, solvent, traditonally sane, business model.
Not like the local tanning salon then.
Gullible is not the correct word to describe why West Ham spent so much money on a player who has worse control/first touch (most of the time) of a football then your average punter in your local park.
Will this model for AFC change? That is a geniune discussion, but not one for me as it is also out of my comfort zone!
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Told you Emery would stone wall it.
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With news of Ramsey leaving it will be a big blow as Ramsey has been the golden boy for Arsenal since the last decade,scoring the winners in 2 cup finals.
Ramseys departure will mark an end to the most trusted lieutenant of Arsene Wenger.
I hope Arsenal still finds a way to keep him but if he goes it will be another faliure for the clubs management since Wenger’s departure.
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Still can’t help but think there is more to this than just Stan or someone calling in the pennies.
It s also odd Ramsey’s people have kept so quiet.
Maybe the medics have found something? Hope not for all concerned.
I wish he would stay but looks like he won’t, imagine some replacements are already here , and maybe we will add a Nzonzi or someone like that, for better, or for worse.
But on the face of it, it is just beyond insane on all fronts, do have some reservations about Stan but I cannot believe he is completely stupid, nor are others running the club, there must be something
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Rosicky, in fairness, in terms of players running down contracts, or cheapening their value – Messrs Fabregas and Van Persie,there were a number of similar management failures when Wenger was there. Wenger of course got blamed for just about everything, but since these failures, real or perceived , have carried on after wengers departure, know I am preaching to the converted here, but may just suggest that if there s such a problem, Wenger and for that matter Emery are not the ones at fault. but I suspect we just have to wait and see on this one .
Just doesn’t make sense.
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Mandy, I don’t think Ramsey’s people HAVE kept quiet, I think the leaked information about the 4 year contract being yanked came from them. His agency had rubbished every single contract rumor before, with cheeky comments on Twitter, Instagram, etc. There’s been none of that with this one. That’s why I think it’s real.
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If Aaron has a better offer he’d best seize it with both hands. It is a short career and if he is not settled then it is time for a change on both sides. I’m not too sure about his market value or where he might end up. Rumours of China which seems a surprise. Irrespective of the Yuan on offer he is not dragging the family off to the Orient. I’m not sure about his profile with big PL or Euro/CL clubs now who could afford him. Not what it was two years ago. I doubt he will find a club as supportive over the remainder of his career.
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Maybe Alabama, guess the club don’t have an exclusive line to Ornstein.
Would love to know what has really gone on, but can’t even quiz them at an AGM anymore
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You could never ‘quiz’ anyone anyway could you Mandy ? Oddly enough the real eye opener that social media illuminates is that in spite of 24 hour sports news, TV, radio, hundreds of articles, podcasts, blogs, Twitter foaming like a fountain hour after hour I know jackshit more now about what happens in the workings of Arsenal football club than I knew in 1978
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Obviously I lie awake at night worrying about my lack of insight (bannnnnned smiley)
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Very true Anicoll, have never had the pleasure of attending an AGM , have heard Ivan would speak to some off the record at drinks after the event, but who can trust Ivan eh?
Just read that John Cross saying that the Ramsey situation is down to the club worrying abut the spiralling wage bill, as well as Emery realising the player doesn’t fit his system.
So we can now rule out both of the above in this mystery.
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We wont know about Aaron until we know about Aaron as a the moment its all hearsay.
If we have withdrawn a contract then the new guard maybe thinking more long term to get us back up amonst the elite. At the moment there are many teams outspeading us plus we are behind Barca, Real, Bayern, Juve, City, chelski, manure and all the CL teams in respect of choice of players.
The sensible thing to do would be buy young talented players who salaries are not high and who would also have good sell on fees. Do this for a few years try to pick up a few cups maybe get entry to the CL through winning the Europa or maybe overachieving and getting top four and then start introducing star players again.
The climb maybe gradual but is definetly less risky than trying to outspend the big boys and those who think their big boys.
Oh and by the way utd should of been added to that list of teams who brought their way success, it is no coincidence that they hadnt won the league fot 30 years until the PL came along and promised them big money and fist choice of players every season.
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The ManYoo had spent big on transfers and wages every year from their last 1st division championship in 67 until their first PL in 93. Spent more than every other club and never recouped transfer fees like Liverpool did by selling Keegan and Rush. Much good it did them. Ferguson had gone four years with no trophy and finished 9th 10th in one season. As though that would be allowed now.
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a_o_b wouldn’t it be easier to buy in more good young players if we signed up AR now and if we don’t want or need him next summer sell him for a big fee, I fail to see how letting him run down his contract and leave for free is good business, as we not only lose the player but any fee too. there were reports in the summer, which have surfaced again, that we turned down £50M for him from Man Utd only 3 months ago. Now he is not even worth an already agreed contract.
Is this our way now, first we agree a deal with Jack and let him go for free only weeks later, now we agree a contract with Rambo only to pull it weeks later.
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I think that “support” as you put it, Andy, goes both ways. If Aaron wanted to leave, I suspect he would have done so in the summer, especially after a Player of the Year season. He stuck around, to give the new guy and new system a chance. If Emery has decided he doesn’t want him, then fine, but I wouldn’t call that supportive. I think Aaron has been plenty loyal to the club, as long as they have to him.
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