Interesting news if true. Diaby on £60,000! What exactly has he done to deserve that. I admit he is a good player when fit, but when has he ever been fit enough for any significant duration of time. Also he was available for transfer? Firstly, we have less chance of flogging him than Denilson, especially as he's on 60k a week. Secondly, he aint moving anywhere on that kind of money!
Wishful thinking i'm afraid The Board will sell RVP if they get a good offer i.e above £25 Mill, Podolski will be RVP's replacement. Goetze- no chance.
Diaby should be offered a 'pay as you play' contract. He could have been such a good player but injuries have probably hindered his development too much.
The Sun - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...et-me-leave-Ajax-for-magnificent-Arsenal.html Vertonghen, 24, said: "Arsenal are a magnificent club. I have instructed my agent carefully. He knows which clubs I want to join and Arsenal are one of them. If a club of their calibre can reach agreement with Ajax then I will gladly go over." Sounds like Vertonghen has thrown his hat into the Arsenal ring by coming out with a "come and get me plea". I say £10m is well worth getting him with his level of talent and versatility. He can play a variety of positions - left back, center and DM. He would be ideal for left back cover as Gibbs is injury prone and Santos isn't nailed on either. We need quality CB cover (Djourou doesn't cut it) and Frimpong is out for at least Feb/March 2013, so he can cover Song as DM.
I think too many clubs willing to spend are in for Götze. He would suit Arsenals philosphy perfectly but clubs such as, for example, Chelsea, would be willing to spend a lot, lot more. By no means am I saying 'bigger' clubs are in for him, but if Götze has the option of 50k a week at Arsenal or triple that anywhere else, unfortunately he's gonna go anywhere else. Would like to see him in England regardless though. Watched him a few times and for his age his talent is ridiculous.
I think most are in agreement that he'd be a very useful addition. A utility player in the form of John O'Shea but... not sh*t.
Oooh interesting. I didn't hear a whiff of that which just goes to show how little most/many of us actually know about the inner runnings of the club.
Lol. Even though he wants to come to us and he is very affordable, will we go in for him especially after Djourou got a fat 60k a week pay rise?
Thats the problem throughout the club though. Our top guy is reportedly rvp on about 85k a week. Yet the chavs and citeh have people on 200k+. Yet our wage bill is not THAT far behind those clubs. Ok it is about 30% below but still that isnt alot considering they pay their top guys 150% more than we do. The only explanation is we have a huge squad of deadwood on big money. We pay our **** players alot of money. It makes no sense and it doesnt work. Time to change the approach and have our top players on more money and our squad players (who are almost always young) on less money. For example rvp should be on 150k a week and bendtnar should be on 20k a week. Not 85k and 50k.
I suppose RVP has really only now played a full season so it's hard for him to be paid over 85k. But he clearly is in a league above ALL our players. After this season he should really be on 120-140k a week. The rest should be on 60k a week max as no one really has done enough, or is good enough to get into the 80k+ bracket just yet. The problem is wages have gone unrealistically high so it's hard to put players on proper wage limits....
But players like theo and arteta are easy to replace. SO we should say here you go. 50k a week. take it or leave it. For bendy we should of said 25k a week take it or leave it. If they leave it then no problem. Very easy to replace all those guys. Nowadays wages are far more expensive that transfer fees. So its the wage bill that needs to be focussed on. People say us or everton dont spend. But we spend 125m a year on wages. Everton also have a huge wage bill now hence they cant buy any players.
I agree. Although i like Theo and in the right system he would flurish, he is not a player we rely on. The following players IMO are our core players - Chesney, Vermaelen, Kos, Mertz, Sagna, Wilshere, OXO, Song, RVP, Ramsey and Frimpong (i have a good feeling about him). The rest we can just replace without too much hassle with our reputation.
Exactly. So we should pay rvp what he wants (within reason) because we cant replace him. Whereas those we can replace we shouldnt pay what they want and should get rid. This all needs to be within reason of course. But if we approached it with these attitudes then we wouldnt be as shafted as we are right now in terms of our wage bill and the quality of our players.
What i think we should be is a little more ruthless with these players. They get paid enough so i really don't have much sympathy but players like Walcott believe their own hype. A pay rise you say? For what? I seriously don't know who put a 60k clause in Djourou's contract, talk about ****e business!!!
Walcott is as important to the way we play as Bale is to Spurs. He is an absolutely vital part of our team at present. Everything good going forward in the last 4 games has been on the right, on his side of the field, we have absolutely relied on him. How you guys can claim to know football and suggest that he isn't part of the core of the team baffles me. You slam Wenger for giving players like Arshavin, Diaby, Bendtner and Djourou contracts, who have played for Arsenal many times, and are full internationals, and then want to make hand wanabes like Frimpong and oxo, who havent even proved they can play in the first team yet, fat contracts. Honestly, you should sometimes read the garbage you are writing. I honestly think you really believe that Wenger sits down and goes, "Hey, I like him, lets pay him a 90K. Hmmm, don't like him, lets give him 30K." It is very unlikely that the club will differ greatly from a normal business. The club will have a salary framework for the first team, the rest of the first team squad, and then the reserves. All players in the club will be on a pay scale set for that group, and that will have a range set, based on experience, performance (including the number of appearances/starts), and their position. When an offer is made, Wenger will go to the chart, estimate how many times he thinks the guy will play/start, and then negotiates with the player, where in the range he will be paid. So (completely made up), it might look like this (but it is very probably far more complicated). Position: Midfield (First team Squad) Squad player not likely to be a starter - <20K - 30K> Substitute Named on Bench > 30 times - <30K - 40K> Backup Player < 20 starts estimated - <35K - 45K> Junior Player > 20 Starts estimated, < 50 appearances lifetime - <40K - 50K> Experienced Player > 20 starts, 50-150 appearances lifetime - <45K - 55K> Senior Player > 20 starts, >150 appearances lifetime - <50K - 75K> It really doesn't matter what the specifics are and I don't know what the key components are for football, but the chart will show a set of criteria, defining the player's experience, previous contribution and expected contribution and give the permitted salary range. This is what a "Pay Scale" looks like everywhere I have been. That is the way I have always assumed it works and nothing I have seen or heard would lead me to think different. The key part of the system is that someone cannot play 50 times for the first team in a season, or be in line to play 50 times and not get paid the appropriate salary, regardless of whether you or I, the board, or even Wenger, thinks he is crap.
I think if we offerred to swap Djourou to Ajax for Vertonghen they would take it in an instant. Why wouldn't they? I think we should be upgrading the team, not going the other way.
Oh please, don't try comparing Walcott to Bale, Bale has more technical ability than Walcott. He is a proper winger who can go past players as well as makes incisive crossing and causes all sorts of problems. Walcott is a central striker who's been stuck on the wing to "learn his trade". Im not saying Walcott is a bad player but he is not a core player and can be replaced. Walcott has shown time and time again that he has average ball control and lacks the tricks to go past players. Just because he has a few good games, people go over the top. If Bale and Walcott went on the market right now, how much would each go for and who would buy who? Let me tell you with much certainty, Bale would get into the very top teams where as Walcott wouldn't get into any top Champions league team.
Why? In terms of experience Djourou has over 150 appearances in top flight games playing for a top 4 team in the premiership. Vertongen has just over 200 games playing at an inferior standard and his international team is ranked 12 spots below Djourou's. Logically speaking, Djourou is the more senior player, and the better bet to be successful. He also knows our system already. I'd rather go on facts, rather than the opinion of people I know nothing about. Now to Piskie's point about 4 CBs. Our CBs play a very different role. We have Kos who man marks the CF, and Metersacker who is a sweeper type. Kos has not been good at sweeping in the past, and no one would make Metersaker man mark anyone except perhaps Peter Crouch. TV seems to sweep more than man mark and I honestly can't remember which role Djourou is best at, but I am pretty sure it was sweeping, as his best spell was when he was playing with Kos, in the first half/middle of last season. If we are interested in him, it is either because we need another peson who can mark at CB. Or it may be that he is going to be another DM or LB, and not a candidate for CB at all. In any case, I'd be surprised if it is as a straight swap for Djourou, because that would be a fairly subjective risk.
So for not rating walcott we know nothing about football? So anyone who disagrees with you is wrong about everything? Glad we cleared that up Nobody cares is Djjorrou is an international. He isnt good enough for arsenal. End of. And nobody complained about arshavin getting his deal. At the time he deserved it. We all specifically stated that its players who we have bought through/up in the system who are the problem. Wenger loves them and gives them big deals because they are "his" players. Yes the pay scale is like that. We are all saying that! But we are saying it should be more skewed towards the top end rather than amply rewarding average players.
