Simples. You take each case on it's merits and pay what each player is worth at the time. But the captain and main goalscorer is always going to get more and the rest pro rata, that way there is an incentive to perform and if satisfactory to stay. The Man Citeh 'effect' is not going to last forever especially when the Uefa Fair Play Rules come in so it can be done.
Which other club has one player over the £100K mark and the rest well below it? We all agree that Van Persie needs to be paid the top players wage. But cleary we, the board and manager will disagree with how much the players that are in the level below should get paid. And rightly or wrongly those players themselves will think they are worth more then they get paid. Man City probaly need another DM because Barry is rubbish. If they went for Song and he takes notice that Robin is getting way more then him he will be gone.
Well perhaps Alex Song may not require to be on a par with RvP. Perhaps a decent increase will suffice. Trouble is the wages we pay runs the risk of other clubs poaching our players and prevents us from bidding successfully for top players. The result of the first instance will be that we become a selling club and the latter will mean that we will have to grow or buy astutely. Growing success is something Gazidis mentioned on R5Live in the spring and a route he favoured over buying quality. It seems to me this club is wholly reliant on the FFP rules working for them. As discussed briefly elsewhere, there is no complete certainty of this and while FFP may make us financially stronger, it does not necessarily mean we will be as strong or strongest on the pitch. Without strength on the pitch which can translate into triumphs, where will we be?
I doubt we are as dependent on the likes of Song as we are on RVP. No club is ever going to succeed by selling it's best players continually, time to wake up and smell the coffee Arsene!
If the players in our club got paid for talent, then Van Persie would be miles ahead imo at this moment. Clearly the time has come for the board to make him that offer. Now, would the players below Van Persie'e level want to be so far behind in terms of wages? And they should be imo be because none of them are as important or on his level. But those guys and their agents will have different ideas. And thats the problem. If we pay our one world class player the wages he deserves then we will have to deal with the players in the 2nd tier. And thats my biggest fear and why i feel Robin will not get the money he will want from the board. Hence he will be the next to leave.
Only RVP deserves to be on a top wage, no other Arsenal player does. Modric - if he gets the payrise being discussed, will be miles above the other Spurs players. We had a top tier at Arsenal, Henry along with one or two others were in it, this is common sense, not all players are equal and those that think they are better than they are should be put in their place. How on earth could Walcott or Song ever ask for parity of pay with RVP, they better become one of the best players in the world for that to happen !!!
Most people and journalists in particular live in a world of cliches and are unable to see things independently. We were routinely praised for the "beautiful football long after we stopped playing it. Now expect media to talk about our poor defense all this season even if we stop leaking goals. Reality is nothing, image is everything.
Our first team established 11 should all be on high wages. However we tend to give new contracts and decent wages to all our fringe players also. They should be earning less than they do. I dont think 'making the first team' squad should automatically deserve a massive pay increase. You have to play and prove yourself to earn big bucks.
You have hit the nail on the head Sir, the fact that we pay our younger, inexperienced and unproven players so high leads me to believe that they are so comfortable financially that they lack the drive to push on and work harder. Look at Carlos Vela for an example, massively overpaid and does not seem intersted in either training hard or playing hard, he's already making a fortune without ever having to produce and he is safe in the knowledge that even if it does not work out for him, he's made a killing out of football. The incentive has to be there to keep on improving and many of our squad seem quite content with being also rans, they are being paid more than they could realistically expect to achieve if they moved on. We are not doing everything wrong as a club on the wages side but more balance and more accountability needs to be shifted to the players in order to turn things around both on and off the pitch. On a side note I seen the Spurs game last night and they were 1-0 down at home to a part time team from the League of Ireland with nearly an hour played! no disprespect to the Irish lads I am sure they tried their hearts out, but having seen the team Spurs played that is shameful and bodes well for the weekend no matter what excuses they trot out. They were having a go at us for only beating a seasoned CL outfit OLY 2-1 but I am sure they won't be saying too much about last night.
