We didn't have the chance though, NSIS. If we'd have agreed a fee with Bolton, then Chelsea would've matched it and offered the player a better deal. No offence Piskie, but it's not that much different to what the G14 were doing. Alright, the money's just utterly ridiculous now, but the protectionism and outrageous financial gap was still there. Arsenal's wage bill has been more than double that of Everton for years now.
I think our high wage bill has been due to paying lots of young players decent wages (30k 40k) on long term contracts, rather than paying individual stars massive wages (in the 100k plus range) Arteta had to take a pay cut to join us remember.
As far as I'm aware PNP, the reported interest from The Chavs, is just that. There were certainly no reports of any interest in him, from them, last week. If that is the case, and as we know Arsenal had already backed out, we were the only interested party on deadline day. Assuming he would have signed for us, maybe we should have just payed the £15mm, and grabbed ourselves a top class centre back.
I think that it's a mixture of both, Piskie. I seem to remember you guys weren't be far behind in giving out a 100k wage. Atleast your spending was funded mostly by success, rather than the teams that come out of nowhere these days.
I've heard that loads of times from Arsenal fans Piskie, but it doesn't add up. Your wage bill is £110m and a player on £35k pw earns £1.82m pa.
I did read a rumour that we were already in contact with Bolton regarding a prospective transfer in January. Given we have three months to thrash out a fee, add-ons, player exchanges etc, we need to agree upon a package that satisfied both parties, and get it sorted early in the window. On the other hand, it's quite possible that Nedum Onuoha could be available for transfer come January...
Unfortunately our chance has probably gone with regards to signing Cahill. I'm guessing Bolton didn't require the cash and are happy to take a smaler cut in Jan or nothing next Summer as they would rather have him in their team for another season - which is fair play to be honest. In short, if we really wanted him, we would havepaid the £15M and got him. My guess is that he is holding out for a move to one of the 'big four'. Perhaps we need to utilise our scouting system more - or attempt to sign players earlier in the transfer window.
