I point you all to an article on Arsenal's website, in interview with Peter Hill-Wood in 2008: http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/chairman Points to take from the article: In 2008 Arsenal had £90m cash sitting in a pot Wenger could buy whichever players he chooses Our cash pot should be higher than in 2008 due to record profits Our cash pot should be higher still due to player transfers The fans bring in most money to Arsenal It costs us only £20m per season to service our outstanding debt Can those who continually claim that we don't have money to spend and never have since our stadium move please keep quiet. I've known for some time we have had money and the reason we haven't spent is because Wenger refuses to spend it. Spend some fcuking money, or did your Economics degree only teach you how to be tight !
Maybe they're saving it all up until they have... [Dr Evil Voice] One Billion Dollars [/Dr Evil Voice]
Well I believe not only he is tight but the CEO and board as well. I wonder what other reason there could be for them to be sitting on all this money unless it is to dress up the balance sheet. What might Mr Kroenke be planning? He and his lackies.
If we miss out on CL football next season, irrespective of Hill-Wood's claim that the bank loan (c£130m) is ring-fenced, the fact of the matter is that is still £20m less revenue for Arsenal. Why we haven't sought to fix our problems since the transfer window opened is beyond me. Can anyone give a sensible explanation for this ? For every reply of "good players are not available in January" I will give a response of "speculate to accumulate".
Wenger is just ridiculously stubborn - he believes that the failed lightweight players who he has invested so much time and effort in will after all turn out to be at the level he wants. He has an insane refusal to accept when he's wrong or misjudged someones ability.
Blaiming the board is non-sense for three reasons: 1. Every summer they come out and announce there is money available. 2. Wenger does'nt want to 'kill' the young players at the club. 3. Wenger is not willing to change his philosophy towards spending big. The man is completely opposed (ethically) to the way most big clubs now do business. However its become almost impossible to buy top players on the cheap. The transfer market has changed and Wenger will either have to change with it or we will continue to fall behind.
I said at the start of this transfer window that this was most likely Wenger's biggest moment. Buy now, perhaps paying over the odds, but a great player results in a strong second half of the season, Champions League qualification, and a proval to RvP & Theo that the club are serious about challenging. The club rises, and new, good players want to come and play for Arsenal. Fail to buy, the side fizzles in the 2nd half of the season, no Champions League, no inspiring story, and RvP & Theo leave in summer. The club loses 20m from lack of qualification, and new players won't be of the same quality without the offer of Champions League. From the looks of it, it's going to be the "fail to buy" option. Spending an extra 5m on a player now could be the difference of tens of millions in future revenues. It's not looking good at all right now.
I would say this post is two or three years late. The teams not soo lightweight now..its just not that good. A few classy creative players (lightweight or not) would benefit our team massively right now.
and we always fall below the 'valuation' of any possible signing. Funny that. Its always the other club wanting too much money. In fact Arteta dropped his wages in the last 10 mins of the window only because to his credit he wanted CL football. Otherwise we wouldn't have got him. Makes you wonder what he is thinking looking at our current form and league position. Probably disillusioned.
I know. Looks like Cahill will be going to chelsea for as little as £6-7 million. The guys a hell of alot better than djouoru or squillaci and we currently need more defensive cover. With our current situation seems like he would have been a good signing for that price (we did offer 10 million for him over the summer)
The board may announce that we have money but do they in reality want to spend it? I'm aware Wenger is at fault too for his stubborn ways but I believe the negotiating team is nowhere as sharp as when David Dein was with the club. We used to get our man. Now we start off the chase but end up as an also-ran. Wenger though is now noted to be unable to make quick decisions either which has resulted in the loss of some potential players who might have come to us such as Alonso. Really, the whole setup needs an overhaul. Sadly I cannot see anyone doing it. So where does that leave us? Only the AST and perhaps our near-30% shareholder can do something to take away our plight. I can't see who else can.
I really do not know what Wenger and the inept board is waiting for? Isn't 7 years without silverware like, long enough to make some decisive transfer decisions? Qualifying year in year out for the champions league has made us massively complacent. This has stopped us from making proper decisions in the transfer market, wage structure and the getting rid of non-functioning players. We are really scraping by now and even run of the mill premiership sides can now compete with us on footballing terms. We used to be able to batter these same sides, now you really don't know...... If you changed the name of Swansea FC and Arsenal FC around and watched lastnight's game, you wouldn't be able to tell which one was Arsenal!!!
Lady NB-S said the board should be sacked. She was absolutely right Oh no you musn't say that my friend. Piskie says Arsene has kept us in contention and as we know, he is always right..... Too true. This follows on from the complacency. I would be surprised if a proud man like Wenger is taking this lightly. Surely this is not the case. What sadly is more evident is that perhaps Arsene no longer knows what to do about it. Now it could be because he has not been given the budget to go hunting good players. It could also be that he doesn't want to spend. Whatever is the case, the consequence is that we have lost out and will continue to do so unless change is forthcoming. However I see no prospect of change under the current management regime. Sad but true. Who would have believed this was possible and who would have forecast that a newly-promoted side would have achieved this. It's what we do now that is important. We should have got Hiddinck or MON. Arsene could perhaps have done the decent thing. That or show up the board for their inept manner of handling transfers and why it is that they seem to be holding on to the money that should be invested in the team. We need change and we needed it before now.
You can almost hear what he and that twit Gazidis will say in February...... we didn't buy anyone because there wasn't anyone to buy. That those players were simply not available. Well other teams find the players they want. Why not us? Why not Scott Parker last summer? We need a change of management staff and we need it now. There and here...
Its quite simple , the board doesnt care about winning trophies , trophies dont equate to cash in the bank. ALL the require Arsene to do is to qualify for CL to guarantee a nice income from that. HE has convinced them that , with the team he has got , he can achieve that . They are happy coz they dont have to spend on new players. He is happy coz it suits his philosophy of bringing new player thru. The only down side is , its a massive gamble . he has got away with it for years , just scraping into the last 4. This year it has not come off and HE , and the board WILL have to pay the price with a hefty 20 million less next year. The demise of the team has nothing to do with football. Just money .
Shwan it isn't that we are not grateful to Arsene for what he has done and when things don't work out, it is perhaps easy to forget about the cost of the stadium but as I understand it, we have reserves so why could we not have utilised some of that to ensure that having dropped from the Top 2, we at least remain in the Top 3. As Swansea showed yesterday and all season thus far, you can get the job done without the need for bank accounts the size of Chelsea's. Our management ( read Gazidis ) tends to put out the argument that we get through this patch, financially we're sound and all will be well. What I would ask is that if all is not well on the pitch, how can all be well, in the short, medium or longer term? Does anyone really believe that without the success on the field, we can be financially successful?
gunner B alright ' it has nothing to do with football' What! The playing staff we've lost, second-rate signings, disillusioned signings who don't get used, youth promise not coming through, countless players sent on loan....., THAT'S EVERYTHING TO DO WITH FOOTBALL. Wenger and the Board have little ambition - except possibly to make a billion pound club.
