Former Plymouth player Kari Arnason has hit out the club, claiming they sacked him because he wanted to be paid. The Iceland international says he was fired by email for refusing to defer his wages for a further month - even though he has gone without pay since October. The 28-year-old, a popular figure at Home Park, said: "You do a club a favour by playing without wages for seven months and then get sacked. "I wasn't expecting goodwill as football is a business. But you don't expect to be fired for not signing a document saying you will not get paid in June. "I could have given the club 14 days' notice as soon as my wages stopped but I carried on. "We were not paid in November but we were not too worried. No one knew about the financial situation of the club. "They started selling everyone in January and we heard the club owed £1m to the taxman. At one stage we were offered a percentage of our wages but we decided to give it to the office staff. "Then the administrator came in in March and we signed the deferrals. "A lot of the boys were struggling. One player has five kids - another one lived with me due to his financial situation. "After another month not being paid, I decided I would not agree to defer my wages and told them that on June 10. My agent then received an email from the administrator saying I had been sacked. "Maybe I'll get my money - maybe I'll be reinstated - but it's a strange situation." The Pilgrims are in dire straits after two successive relegations and going into administration in March with debts of £17million. Arnason says he has reported the club to the Football League and PFA for a breach of rules. Working on a average wage of £2,000 a week for a Pilgrims player, he could be owed around £60,000. He added: "It's a short professional life. An average footballer plays until he's 32. "Most of the guys don't have any education. I was lucky enough to do my business degree, so maybe I can get a decent job. "But most are focused on football because in England you play from when you are a little kid. "Wages wise, we are not talking about the Premier League. We do not all bank millions. I'm talking about the Championship, League One, League Two and Conference. "It is a brilliant job but if you're not getting paid you have to ask some serious questions. "At the moment, though, I am looking for another club."
We are getting a lot of mixed messages and somewhere in between the two will be the truth. Before this story broke, the story was that Arni wanted to leave and return to Iceland , though still under contract to Argyle. Argyle's story then became that having been made aware of this situation and the fact that they could not pay his wages and he would not defer them, they granted him a free transfer - compare and contrast with Bolasie where he gave notice to terminate his contract and before it expired Argyle managed to squeeze a small fee out of Bristol City. As of this morning Arni is training and on trial with Hearts, not in Iceland but closer to it. Confused - you will be. Anyway, I didn't see Arni as staying on next season whatever and obviously his agent has been manouvering behind the scenes but I hope he gets fixed up with a new club before the start of the season. We all know that none of this will go down as Argyle's finest hour but you can't blame Guilfoyle or Ridsdale for any of this - we all know who the guilty men are.
This makes me feel sick. I'm finding it hard to support such a buggered up shower of ****e. The man deferred his wages for 7 odd months, gave some of what he did get to the backroom staff and then gets sacked when he refuses to sign an 8th consecutive referall! I'm not against him leaving per se as he must be a high earner, but the way it's been handled (by email!) leaves me embarrased. On a lighter note.. who's the horny bastard with 5 kids?
errrrrrr Argyle never manage to do anything right in the past few years, shame to see him go as as the season progressed i enjoyed watching him more through a more attacking style and the few long shots he would have but its obviously just another excuse to get rid of a wage packet.
A disgrace, no employer should be able to get away with such a sacking. Email. A joke, Its turning out to get worse as it continues in its sorry state
The comment from Ridsdale,that he (Arnasson) was "looking for another club in Iceland to the best of my knowledge.I have told him he can do pre-season training elsewhere" as reported today,I think says it all.What a bloody attitude towards an unpaid worker,who was fairly popular with the fans.I seriously wonder what kind of a club we are going to have with these (lovely) people.IT SUCKS!
In case people forget it was the previous Board who caused all of this mess not the current lot. Arnason it is rumoured wanted to leave and if that is true then he would do so regardless of what Argyle wanted. He is probably one of the higher earners which it is known we need to offload wage wise. The current lot have used this situation no doubt to weild the axe. Not pleasant but their remit is to get Argyle on an even keel and there will be casualties along the way. I wish it could be otherwise but as there is no loyalty, or very little, in football from either players or management then why should we be surprised at this outcome. Arnason would have done something equally as dastardly had it suited his purpose I'm sure. He stayed without pay and played, very well in the end, but that says to me that nobody else was that interested in him at the time either so he had nowhere else to go. Had somebody dangled a contract his way and it suited him do you really think he would have been here. It is the way football people conduct themselves generally that makes my attitude towards it cynical. It is why most of us are comparitively poor and business people generally are not. We are too nice to be rich.
Must be one of the poor ones then aka.............. The problem is that if you are like me you say it as it is and don't hide anything. That is not however the way business, and especially football, seems to work. I hate flannel and bullshit from anyone. You know the sort of thing when you have to complain to a company and they tell you the computer made a mistake. Why don't people just admit somebody cocked up and tell the truth. Well you seldom get that these days from anywhere. I'd ask you this, why would he go to the newspapers and tell his story? To advertise himself maybe or is that a little too cynical. I would reckon this would be a much better world if the truth about all things would out and then we would all know who to truely wave a fist at. Inside football generally sucks aka all around.
You said it sensible..think you're being a tad cynical there. No doubt that if any of us were put in that position there'd be a clash of interests tellig us what to do. But having stuck by the club, I think it's unfair to say 'Arnason would have done something equally as dastardly had it suited his purpose'. Let's not tar all footballers with the same brush. IMO it's not the fact he was sacked, it's 100% the manner in which it was carried out.
unfortunately, this was always going to happen, one day someone was always going to turn round and say (rightly so) that they want paying. Its a sad sad story.
I feel sympathy for Arnie but I am certain that there was more to this than the article suggests. We will find out soon enough...
IMO Arnie has been badly treated and got zilch for his loyalty, all those months without pay and then this. Sensible has made some good points but could haves and would haves are simply speculation and tarring all players with the same brush, in the end it wasn't Arnie that did the club wrong it was the other way around. Sacking by email is inexcusable. I would have gone to the press too.
As each day more of the intrigue,farcically called a buy out comes to light,each day the sour taste of dismay increases in the fans mouthes.How on earth can the supporters sit at Home Park at the first game of the season and look forward to the future with an already sorry history of a flawed takeover.I am not alone in this view judging by thre comments posted in the Evening Herald today.
When the season starts and administration is behind us just remember the phantom Irish clowns will only be are landlords. They will have no footballing input to PAFC ,but unfortunately will be liable for the first year financially if I have understood the reams of gumpf that we've been subjected to.
As long as they cover the losses for next season we will be able to get oput of admin and build a new squad. That is the hope. If we have to begin in admin and get penalised again it will not help the developers to attract clients to the area.
