FA Cup Final Covid edition

You proved my point. We've both spent similarly loads. Coutinho masking £140m of their spending doesn't hide their spending. It's just that more of our signings have been pap. More of theirs haven't. The answer is not that we need to spend less. It's that we need to spend better.

 

End of the day they was in a position to sell couhtnhio, we let Sanchez and Ramsey contract run down and they walk for free. Take away the couhtnhio money and we have similar net spend. But they have a squad way better than ours.

Hence why I said if we buy and sell right like Liverpool have done we can replicate. It's not all down to luck that Liverpool built that squad you know

 

I agree it's not all down to luck - a lot of it is based on data-driven, well-thought out decision-making, with a clear vision of what to achieve and how to get there, in addition to a recruitment strategy that is centred on the manager's philosophy.

But I also do believe timing in football is absolutely pivotal. Because Liverpool had the perfect storm. Them getting Klopp at the time they did, getting players like Mane (who was regarded as overpriced) and Salah (a flop with Chelsea) facing minimal competition from others, the sale of Coutinho to replace Neymar going to PSG which, in turn, enabled them to reinforce weak areas of the squad (the signings of Virgil Van Dijk and Alisson).

Like you've said, we let too many players run their contracts down or sell them for a pittance. They've been able to command fees like:

£27m for Benteke
£24m for Sakho
£12.5m for Ward
£20m for Solanke
£18m for Ings
£15m for Ibe
£11m for Joe Allen

And they've regularly been receiving fees between £3m - £7m each season for multiple youth/fringe players too, which all accumulates.

Our recruitment needs to be better, but so does our ability to sell players.

 

The big factor is income in relation to spending. Sales are one way to generate that but so is being successful in European competition.

We spent £72m on Pepe - when we needed Defenders/Midfielders and finished 8th.

Liverpools expenditure is completetly justified, they won the Champions League then the League and will announce big profits off the back of that.

 

You say this, but how much money have they actually spent since winning the CL? They've bought Minamino, but that's it.

Mane was bought in 2016. Salah was bought in 2017. Keita was agreed in 2017. Van Dijk was bought after the Coutinho sale in January 2018. Alisson was bought the Summer of 2018 with the rest of the Coutinho money. Fabinho was bought in 2018 too.

Most of their big signings have been a consequence of money recouped via player sales.

That's why their net spend is so low.

They spend and sell very intelligently.

 

A big part of it is how they manage to get rid of the deadwood, we have players on big contracts who aren't worth it. Mustafi, kola and sokratis all on 100K a week they all know they aren't getting that elsewhere so refuse to be sold.

But Liverpool have them on lower basic wage with high incentive like start and win bonuses. So when Liverpool tell the players it's time to go we aren't playing you they are happy to move on.

As they know sitting on the bench won't pay them. Many would say footbal shouldn't be about money but it is, money rules everything in this world and footbal is not an exception to that rule.

Our new regime seems abit more frugile in that regard, I'm abit sceptical over the Cedric, Mari and Luiz deals but time will tell if they are legit or Kia and Raul fleecing us out of some money.

 

That's basically what i was saying.

If you want to spend money you better be successful. Particurlarly if there's some financial risk involved.

As I said - we bought Pepe for £72 million then finished 8th.(money that IMO would have been better spent elsewhere)

Liverpool/Klopp were fortunate to make good money from Sales (they bought well in the first place) then went back into the market with several big money signings - all of which worked out because the club won The Champions League & EPL. Regardless the 'net-spend' these trophies will have a positive effect on soo many areas from merchandise to TV money the financial implications are massive.

 

Question for everyone here:

Could Mikel Arteta realistically be sacked next season?

What I mean - is there anything that could happen performance wise (within reason - not something over the top like relegation) that could get him the sack? Or is this upcoming season a free punt for him?

Are the expectations improving on 8th? Or is he safe even if we finish 10th for example?

 

I don't think it's a 'free punt'. Arteta had initially agreed to join us for next season, but decided to leave City earlier so that he could get familiarise himself with our current crop of players, learn about them, and figure out which ones are at the required level. He's had 7 or 8 months to learn that. Now he should have a clearer idea over who he plans on keeping and who he'd prefer to move on.

I don't see any justification for keeping him if we finished 10th. That'd be worse than this latest season - which was catastrophically bad in itself.

By equal measure, we shouldn't sack him if he doesn't get 4th either considering our precarious financial situation and the fact other clubs above us will be likely to spend more than we will (Chelsea, City and United are already making money moves...).

For me, we need to see a clear path of progression in all aspects - league position, style of football, defensive improvements, chances created, defensive stability, competitiveness and team harmony.

If he does this, then he will be at the club for a long time.

 

Hmm... I would say if we finished bottom half of the table he would definitely go. (say 13th and lower)
Particularly if there's significant investment this Summer.

The Club obvioulsy want to prioritize getting back in the CL.

 

Back on the Ozil/transfer staff redundancies topic...

Arsenal are reportedly using Nicolas Pepe's club record £72million arrival last summer as the principle subject of an internal investigation over their transfer business.Theres an investigation into the fact Emerys top targets were somewhat ignored and the whole budget was spent on Pepe.

Soo another reason why perhaps the 55 redundancies were more justified than what is being made out in the press.

Its kinda weird that we have needed defensive re-inforcments year on year yet all our big signings have been forwards.