Toledo .. ACTUALLY .. our only debt is the remaining £120m - I don't know the exact detail figure - from the share issue raised to pay for the Emirates stadium itself (from the £300 odd million). Interest payments are only £20m per season and it's term is mortgage type, over 25 or so years The £120m bank loan, or thereabouts, has been paid off already, it was ring fenced, the sale of the Highbury flats dealt with that. We do not have crippling debts in any way shape or form, I have direct quotes from Peter Hill-Wood from 2008 that confirm this !
Well you did mention wages, but I doubt that would get rid of all the transfer money we are able to spend. And as PNE said, the board have always maintained that there is money to spend if Wenger wants to, so I think it is as simplistic as I am making it sound. So are the board holding Wenger back or not?
It is very difficult for us (and I do include myself in this) to get a grip on these huge sums of money and financial deals. I know I would like more clarity and understanding of the financial situation, but I know from my experience in the business world that deals these days are very complex. I know the board have said that there is money available, and I think there is, probably as much as 100M. But there is more to it than that. Even 120M is a massive debt and we have a few loans as well . Newcastle's debt is 150M and it nearly drove them under. As you say the interest on our mortgage is only 20M, but it is so low because it is a true mortgage and we are paying off the principle as well. As in a normal mortgage I would imagine that the interest is front-loaded and as time goes on that number will drop further, but the payments on the mortgage will continue to be greater than just the interest which is (I Guess) reported seperately from principle repayments for tax purposes. In other words "Interest" is misleading and does not represent the full repayment on the mortgage. This means that we must be careful with our wage budget and other operating costs. The problem is not that there isn't money available, it is that there isn't ENOUGH money available for the kind of players the fans expect. Even though we have money available, we cant outbid Man City or Chelsea, or several clubs abroad for players. As long as there is one mega-rich club in for the player, they will just outbid us in the auction. Like Chelsea did with Mata. He would have fit our wage structure, but we bid the auction up to 24M and Chelsea kept on one-upping us. We either end up paying 80M for the chap, or we let them have him. So that is the "money" issue. We do have a strong cash position that could be invested in a player. However, financial people will tell you that you don't use capital to cover operating costs (it is like a big no-no of running a business), so that money probably will not be used to increase the wage structure, because it represents sold capital assets, property and players, not operating profit. If you want to predict who we are going to buy, look for players that have a high asking price, but a low wage demand (young?), that no other mega-rich club wants. We are capital rich, budget poor, if that makes any sense to you. I do think that there will be a clean out this year. There are a lot of fringe players reaching the end of their contracts, it being much easier to see who is pulling their weight and who is not, and there is a bit of cash available. I am sure most of the fans will claim thay bullied Wenger into buying, or if we don't make the top 4 they will cite that, but the financials make sense for him to do it this summer anyway. So I don't know if that answers your question, but to put it clearer. I 100% believe that Wenger is limited by the financial situation at the club. Is that good enough?
I believe totally there is money available, I believe Wenger will not pay over the odds for some players - like Cahill - correctly in my opinion. I think this point is a red herring though, Wenger has alluded to the tru reason why he hasn't bought players in the past and that is because he does not want to hinder the development of the likes of Denilson, Diaby, Walcott etc.
I will be honest and admit I didn't fully understand everything you said Toledo, however i don't think our position is unstable enough that we couldn't have a transfer budget. This summer we spent roughly £50 million and sold roughly £70 million, so basically we had and extra £20 million to spend on top of what we already had. Look at the squad we have at the moment and how they are performing, do you really not think that it could be improved upon in any way? I have already listed to you a number of players who went to clubs that I assume (from their lack of comparative size and the fact that they are not in the champions league) have a smaller wage bill than us. With the money we I am sure that there are more players out there who could make us title challengers. The likes of Chelsea and Man City cannot buy every single young promising player can they?
Plus, unless I was led to believe, didn't Chelsea only come in after Arsenal refused to meet Mata's sign out clause of 21 mil before the start of the season? They can't outbid a release clause.
I think Toledo has hit the nail on the head over wages. We might have money to spend on transfers, but we need to get value for money. Just because Man City are offering someone £180k per week, it shouldn't mean that we necessarily try to match this. Otherwise a £20m signing, can suddenly turn out to cost vastly more over the period of his contract with a huge salary and end up looking more like a £40m signing. We're operating in a skewed market, I think Arsenal are taking the right approach at the moment.I do think we need a cash investment into our squad in certain areas, but we need to be mindful that we don't get held to ransom because others are willing to throw obscene amounts of cash around.
nah. I expect Kroenke & Wenger have been doing a 'Arry somewhere !! Mystery trips abroad -- watching players? a likely story.
he can't write etc. puts his mark - a cross - on his contracts. Said he didn't know what e-male was - that it was bloke porn.
]Harry Redknapp: 'I write like a two year old' - 'I've never written a letter in my life' I'm not sure that illiteracy is a legal defence, no wonder he got his dog to handle his financial affairs.
After hearing the prosecution evidence up to now you have to assume he's got a ****ing good lawyer defending him
as for wenger, i think things are going ok for arsenal, 2nd round of CL, 5th in the league, not great, but there is a reason why wenger is always wanted by real madrid and other big clubs, he's second only to ferguson in the english game (out of the current managers). he's been unlucky with injuries recently, thanks to his excellent financial management, it wont be a disaster if you go a season without CL football, however with his record of at least top 4 every season since he's been there, surely he deserves to be judged at the end of the season?
I'm not afraid of him going because he's been with us for so long. I believe that he's done a good job keeping us in the Top 4 over the last few years where others would have struggled. I'm not sure that Mourinho would have done any better given the same resources.
