Good morning Grover’s, the word on the street is that part two of our disaster summer should be finalised tomorrow/today with the departure of Samir Nasri to Manchester City. He’s landed a monster contract (£200k p/w) for 3 months work in 3 years. Bravo Samir, I hope you find great happiness at City.
Today’s post is crowd sourced / stolen from the comments section yesterday. Long term Grover Gambon has provided some interesting food for thought using this site as a research tool. We’ve reached a tipping point in the Arsenal business model that if left unaddressed could spell mediocrity long-term.
Read on…
1. Since the PL started in 1992, we have invested less in transfers than every other team in the PL. We are literally 20 out of all 20 teams in net transfer spend.
2. In 2006 we moved into our new stadium to compete with UTD & Madrid etc, and were promised it would mean a step change in squad investment. Since then we have spent less than all 91 other teams in the football league. We have been outspent by the likes of Colchester, Macclesfield, Walsall.
To put this into perspective, since 2006:
- Wigan have spent £72m more than us in transfers
- Norwich have spent £74m more than us
- QPR have spent £93m more than us
- Bolton have spent £104m more than us
- Hull have spent £95m more than us
- Blackpool have spent £76m more than us
How can we EVER hope to compete when we spend less than every professional football team in the country?
No-one wants us to spend £300m in 3 years like City.
Man Utd have spent £58m in the last 5 years. That’s £11.6m per year on average. That is sustainable.
Making on average £10m profit isn’t sustainable, it’s money hoarding.
The stadium is getting empty, why do you think that’s happening? The lack of investment is killing the club, and it seems no-one has any desire to spend money, or force the manager to spend money.
Even Tim Payton said just a few days ago, £100m cant score a winning goal or keep a clean sheet, or bring success. The players £100m can purchase absolutely can.
If we don’t start to act like a big club we will become exactly what we are acting like – a small club trying to eek out profits.
Then when we find ourselves with 40,000 fans in 3 years, and 8th in the PL, the board and manager will blame the recession, which is nonsense. The club is strategically destroying any chance of success we might have by putting profits first.
Compelling stuff eh?
Now, what can be said is that whilst we have been outspent by the likes of Hull, we have still maintained a higher level of performance than most of the league over the past 5 years. However, we’ve now reached a tipping point. At the beginning, Project Youth seemed clever. As fans, we naively thought that a great youth player would follow an upward curve and become a world-class senior player. Well, we learnt the hard way that you can beat a Brazil Youth team captain with the patience stick (I was going to say love stick, but that sounded wrong), but that doesn’t always create a miracle or an advanced pass.
If we want to break free of our stagnation as a club, the following items must be addressed.
1. If you steal Europe’s best youth team players and lure them over with the promise of first team football and money, you’re not encouraging anything other than mercenary behaviour and a sense of entitlement. Going forward, we need to think about how sign youth players. Macheda scored a goal that set United onto a title march. After the game and the subsequent hype, his agent asked for a payrise on his low salary, he was told no and sent out on loan. If that was an Arsenal Youth team player, he’d already be on £20k a week. We need to give our kids something to aspire to… firstly to become a better player. I’ve been told many times that the way we pamper all out players is second to none… They want for nothing. I’m not sure that is a motivating factor at 16.
2. Our bonkers pay structure needs to be amended to reflect current ability, not future potential. The best companies in the world pay on a meritocracy. You earn what you’re worth. Arsenal adopt a pay scale that averages out the money so the lowest earner isn’t far off the higher earner. This is supposed to avoid jealousy. I say bin that policy. I was told by someone who is not Pam that the deal for Mata fell through because of wage demands. We won’t pay over £90k a week because our pay structure won’t allow it. Well, if our pay structure is so strict at the top end, why is it so loose at the bottom end?
Nik B on £52k a week? Abou Diaby on £60k a week? Aaron Ramsey bought over to Arsenal on £20k a week when all United would offer was £5k a week?
It’s madness. We need to have pay grades. Reserve, Squad player, First team player, Super star. We need to match the superstar wages of United and pay our youth far less. The whole point of having a younger squad was that it was cheaper. There is no way our group of pretenders should cost us £115million a year to service.
If City and United are paying over double what we are to keep their best players, we need to come somewhere close. If our top pay is £90k a week, how can we expect even Jack to take half what his top peers are earning in a few years time? We can’t. He might love the club, but he’s not stupid. We need to up our top whack and sharpish, especially when you consider that Arsene Wenger’s pay packet sits well outside the clubs pay structure (£135k p/w)… It’s also worth noting that when we were successful our wage bill was the highest in the league… paying superstars.
3. The over reliance on youth to carry us through the troubled times has to stop. Arsene Wenger claims that spending isn’t the answer, yet in the same breath blames the success of everyone else on spending money. He fails to see that the only thing he hasn’t tried over the last 5 years is invest in some proper players. We’ve been saying on here for years that there will come a point where our best young players will become bored of not playing with top talent. That time has come. The youth of yesterday can’t stomach the mediocrity of the youth of today. So they’ve upped and left. Ironic, infuriating but ultimately, understandable.
No one is saying don’t buy up the best youth players. If Chamberlain costs us £15million in the end, that’ll be because he’s worth it as an England international. If Joel Campbell becomes the new Nik Anelka, fantastic, if he doesn’t, what’s a million quid? The problem comes when you stake a season on those long shot eventualities. Something we’ve done every year for 5 years. It’s ridiculous. How can our ‘busy summer’ equate to selling potentially nine players and buying in 3 teenagers and very rough 24 year? How is that sustainable if our primary objective is anything other than profit?
Wenger complains that scouting networks around the world struggle to find good players, that’s why they come to us. Wrong Arsene, one big club will generally come to us once a season to pinch our best player. You can’t flog your poor players at all! Big clubs also shop elsewhere. Look at Franck Ribery, Nuri Sahin, Alexis Sanchez, Kun Aguerro, Ashley Young, Adam Johnson, Nemanja Vidic, Hernandez, Luis Suarez, RvDV… there are plenty of great players out there if you have the intent to buy them. Trouble is, we shop in different markets, generally the types that no one else will.
It’s getting beyond a joke now. We’re two games into the season and we’re still yet to see any decisive action. The mood among the fans isn’t one of anger or rage, it’s just flat acceptance that the chances are, we’re watching the slowest car crash of 2011. Wenger has presided over two very poor performances, he’s antagonising the press and the fans and now he’s boycotting press conferences. This has all the hallmarks of Rafa Benitez… more focused on his personal battles than on the greater good of the club.
Very disappointing to see. But what can you do bar wait, hope and pray…
Book Writing…
If Theo Walcott writing a book about his non-event of a career doesn’t sum up the shameless money grabbing tendencies of the modern footballer I don’t know what does… he has spent 80% of his career running into the back of full backs, now he’s penned a book? It’s embarrassing… but not surprising. Another one that hasn’t signed a new deal… watch this space eh? Chelsea are sniffing around.
Cesc Playing For Barca…
So after weeks of claiming Cesc was unfit, he turned out for Barca last might in one of the lost intense games on the planet. Another fine example of the club treating us like children and lying to us. I had to pack the game in after an hour… the quality and beauty of their play made me jealous. It also angered me that Cesc has won a trophy after ten minutes of his Barca career. I know people would like to think his career will be spent on the bench, but get real, he’s an incredible talent and he’ll get game time this year. It’ll be interesting to note his fitness… I had my suspicions about that last season.
Spanish Strikers…
So the Spanish footballers are now striking for two weeks. Looks like split television rights has put the rest of the league in mess. Gutted Spain… 200 players owed €50 million, what a mess? Not as bad as their economy of course… like Geoff said, I can’t wait for that higher tax rate to drop over there!
Finally, chaps, did everyone’s partner get together to fund this chaps speech?
I’ll leave you on this… I was late to the party on this Gunnerblog video, very good!
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P.P.S I have spares for United and Liverpool, e-mail for details.
Courtesy of @Stavro5c
david-
too true! campbell did more for arsenal sitting in the stands than chamack did during the udinese match…at least he showed up!!!
Lurch,
we are one injury away from seeing him playing week in, week out!
we are lacking depth so much it’s not funny, we have played the grand total of two games and we have no backup CBs (I don’t consider Squillaci to be an option), no LBs, fuck all midfield options and one world class striker…
Eboue was a fucking wank stain on our proud badge.
there is no glass DDM, its a small china bowl…
& like a wise brother once opined,
‘if the milk turns out to be sour – I ain’t the pussy to lick it’
David,
that makes two of us…
Ebowie was hailed to be one of the top RBs in the world, so what did the senile idiot do? moved him wide right, which ruined him…
Professor, my arse!
fully aware Suga3, we need 4 first xi players min, 5 if we want to be competitive – provided Nasri fuck’s off.
ddm-
you may be right: he did, after all, hump the back of every goalscorer in an embarassing display of “solitude” in celebration.
David- I’m with you mate. I love Eboue. I don’t care who says what..he is a good man. He was the best right back when we reached the CL final. He is a good utility player. He fucked up big time that Liverpool game but RvP should have scored the sitter he missed.
as for where we will finish, as things stand, we will not get to celebrate the St Totts Day this season!
WENGER OUT, OUT, OUT!
Lurch LeRouge says:
August 18, 2011 at 23:30
‘if the milk turns out to be sour – I ain’t the pussy to lick it’
———————————-
I need help. I read that 3 times and each time i read it all wrong
its not sept 1st yet Suga3!
haha
Lurch,
one needs a bit of a wig rehearsal
#orderinthecourt
you don’t use twitter much do you arsegun.
Goon from BD
Its just that i dont think Arsene Genuinely knows how to fix the problem.
Everyone misses sitters right when we need them to go in.
Nasri for one misses alot of 1-1 situations which is why i have no problems with him sodding right off.
david
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QRVbEQogDk&feature=related
not a lot, it was meant mainly as the blog tool, but since I have taken the DooM vow of silence…
keyser wheres my picture ffs?
fuck me CFC are after both Mata and Modric!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2027673/Chelsea-sign-Juan-Mata-bid-Luka-Modric-EXCLUSIVE.html?
When the fuck did Chelsea buy Lukaku?
jeez, Ivan. Get your act together. Splash the wonga! There’s hardly anyone left
don’t worry, Diaby will be like a new signing
David- Same here. I wouldn’t give a damn if Nasri was sold in normal circumstances really. What hurts is……I was pretty sure our plan was to move Nasri central to replace Fabregas and spend to fix other issues.
I never liked him personally. Van Persie misses a header in dying seconds……. buries his head in the ground and Nasri misses a sitter and smiles.
And Wengers gone mental. If he lets Traore go with Gibbs injured and doesn’t sign a lb then I would like to think he is asking for a sack.
yesterday
thats it
i give up
mata and modric?
how about this
chesney
sagna cahill verm jag (apparently))
parker wilshere
hazard berbatov arshavin
rvp
football manager style!
we could afford that
the only way out of this K hole now is with fatty, the only way.
There’s going to be fucking murders if we lose next Wednesday.
To gamble with your own money is a matter of balls & risk. To gamble with the very future of a footballing institution as Arsenal is disrespectful and worthy of the harshest retribution.
Wenger makes the decisions he feels are right but the sanctioning is done upstairs. If this all goes tits up then the blame needs to shared among all that have presided over this clubs failures.
To us this is The Arsenal not a fucking investment, unfortunately to those that pull the strings it’s the other way round. We are known to be amongst the most realistic and certainly most patient fans, however these attributes have only helped assist the thieving bastards upstairs. Our patience & trust have been factored in to the timescale in which maximum profit can be obtained with minimal outlay before that “tipping point” suggested in Pedro’s bang on post.
kronke and his crew are in it to make money simple as, maybe he wants to prove to his wife’s family that he can actually make some cash of his own, who knows. Stripping us of our playing assets, keeping Wenger onside for now then possibly having a very public showdown with him when it all goes tits up, then sell to the Uzbec as was always the intention. It’s not clever it’s downright fucking crafty and our so called custodians have been complicit in the whole sorry affair. Shame on the fucking lot of them!
We need some serious investment and sharpish. This window alone can’t repair the rot, the players we need wont come unless we qualify for CL. Not even Citeh could source the personnel required within a week, these fuckers wont even try.
How can you explain the madness of king Wenger this summer? Perhaps he is off as rumored & the kids brought in so far are for the next managers future, perhaps the pot of gold is being kept for him also. At least that way Arsene can say he left us with future talent on board, allowing the new man to invest on the repairs and improvement. Problem is, we’ve cut the team quality that much it’ll now take major investment to put it right. I for one aren’t convinced Wenger is capable of doing this so it’s probably best he’s not inclined to do so. So why wait around, a new man should be in place already surely. Wenger is no longer the man to turn this around, he can no longer be trusted, his own signings have now lost faith in him so why wait.
Whichever way you look at it we are either fucked just in the short term or it’s terminal. Kronke & his boys have managed, and been aided from within, to do a number on Arsenal FC. It’s time for him to just fuck off and sell as far as I’m concerned, the sooner this humiliating episode of our history is over the better.
Absolutely gutting to see Fabregas looking so happy holding a trophy in Barca colours, he’s even there after every other bastard has left the dressing room.
FUCK OFF NOW PLEASE KRONKE & TAKE THE SENILE FRENCH CUNT WITH YOU!
berbatov!?
please no. prefer the pink booted one.
The pink booted goal machine you mean.
he’d provide goals for rvp
more so than rosicky
Feck Bendnter we’ve still got Almunia!
berbasloth in the hole? provider for RVP??
back away from the hallucinogens yungun!
That will be Wenger’s excuse.
He tried to sign players but there was no one left after Man C, Chelsea and Utd got their first picks.
Just like he predicted at the beginning of the summer.
Self fulfilling prophesy in my opinion – he let it happen that way – especially the prevarication with the Mata non signing. Never put a serious bid in. Such a dishonest maipulatative liar just to prove his point and get his own way on transfers.
Dont be surprised if Cahill ends up at Loserpool as well.
.
YoungGunsBlog Jamie Sanderson
Kieran Gibbs out v #LFC. As I mentioned earlier in week, Armand Traoré has slight groin strain. Late decision to be made.
====
jeez, Arsene. Who’s going to play CB? (Assuming Verm will be pushed out there)
theyd probably form a better partnership than henry and bergkamp!
Peace out. I’m off to play some 5-a-side. (**pulled on my B52 shirt)
wow. wow.
cabin pressure in short supply round your neck of the woods Incesc?
2 words:
visionary
Spurs… cunts…
hahaha
come on scottish football is awful and spurs have had a settled summer.
desperately trying to convince myself we havent slipped behind them
the scum looked well organised Incesc.
we need a bloody miracle
Pat Rice will save us!
….and if not, Denilson will be back next year!
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/transfers/everton-must-sell-jagielka-bank-tells-club-2340128.html
reckons baines and jagielka might be a good bet
oh
shit article, didnt read it before i posted
Agreed,anyway he says he wont sell jags,Enrique was a guy we really should off had i think,cheap as well.
wasn’t that shit…
i’d take all 4 for 70m.
ARSEton?
cant work out the team for saturday
we have no midfielders.
such a fucking sham.
chesney
sagna vermalean (3 games in 7 days???) koz Jenkinson????
frimpong ramsey lansbury???
wlacott rvp arshavin
how long has he known cesc has been going?
fucking arsehole
then udinese then man u
what is the fucking man thinking?
I would rather play a 4-4-2
Theo Ramsey Frimpong Arshavin
RVP Bendtner
sick of 4-3-3.We have conceded more goals than we ever have in this formation and it hasn’t helped our offensive game that much either.But you know Wenger will stick with it no matter what happens.Even if it means playing someone like chamakh/Bendtner out wide
WENGER OUT!!
Jenks at left back would be crazy,sagna maybe.
Pier says:
August 19, 2011 at 01:02
Pat Rice will save us!
History shows that rice has been the saviour in times of famine, but I don’t think pat rice will save the Arsenal fans from this 6 year trophy famine
Ofcourse I hope I’m wrong Pier
Yes, but we want top quality because we have already top quality here and we want to improve our level.
Who is Wenger trying to fool??Someone mentioned that maybe the club is waiting to qualify for the champions league before ‘splashing the cash’So what if we don’t qualify for the champions league??No signings??In fact if there is no champions league it will get even harder for us to sign players.And with out current we will struggle to qualify for europa league never mind champions league.Wenger is basically banking on RVP and Vermalen staying fit for the whole season and hoping that Jack and Ramsey play out of their skin.
Yes, but we want top quality because we have already top quality here and we want to improve our level.
Who is Wenger trying to fool??Someone mentioned that maybe the club is waiting to qualify for the champions league before ‘splashing the cash’So what if we don’t qualify for the champions league??No signings??In fact if there is no champions league it will get even harder for us to sign players.And with out current we will struggle to qualify for europa league never mind champions league.Wenger is basically banking on RVP and Vermalen staying fit for the whole season and hoping that Jack and Ramsey play out of their skin.
13 days, including today, and counting…….
So Gibbs, Song, Gerv, JW, Djourou, Traore and Rosicky out for Pool. We’ll line up
Szcz
Sagna – Kos – JD/Verm – Verm/Jenk
Frim – Ramsey
Arsh
Theo – RvP – AOC/Ryo?
We’ll be lucky to get a draw.
where did my arsenal go ?
morning chaps!
Djourou has a chance to be fit
———–chesser——–
sagna-kozz-JD-vermy
—frimpong-ramsey—
–theo–arsh–ryo—
——–RvP————–
zarate didnt play for lazio yesterday.
even if rosicky if fit i would go with Arsh ahead of rosicky.Rosicky just pointless
mike
was he injured
nishanth
i agree
I can’t find any details, anywhere, about Arshavin being injured. Yet he wasn’t even on the bench on Tuesday night.
Anyone have any info?
Any explanation to the complete bollocks posted yesterday:
To put this into perspective, since 2006:
- Wigan have spent £72m more than us in transfers
- Norwich have spent £74m more than us
- QPR have spent £93m more than us
- Bolton have spent £104m more than us
- Hull have spent £95m more than us
- Blackpool have spent £76m more than us
Posting undiluted shit like this removes any credibility to the “we state facts argument”.
Stop using Gunnersaurus for this back of the envelope math!
Dan Roan is about to post an exclusive interview with David Dein….
If it’s wrong explain why.
Anyone can come on here and badmouth someone, especially without an argument to back it up.
he was on the bench against Udinese DDM.
I am pretty sure we will make some signings.Wenger has absolutely no excuse whatsoever.What i am worried is that we will replace the likes of Cesc and Nasri with crap players like zarate and valbuena
Dein tells us ‘to back Wenger, he deserves respect for what he’s done’..
Whats he’s done is undo everything that he inherited & built upon so that now we have the biggest pile of overpaid dross Ive ever seen.
His interview is on Football Focus tomorrow. Wonder if he mentions how rich he became selling out !
morning chumps…..
what are the chances that we’ve signed 2 CBs. LB, DM, 2 CMs, FR while i was asleep eh?
Are you sure?
Yep, you are right, i have just had that confirmed by someone else, thanks.
Yeah..He didn’t come on because we had already made 2 subs within 50 mins and then late on frimpong came on.
Can’t believe that Wenger wants Arsenal us to get excited about the signings of ,Jenkinson,Campbell and Chamberlain.
Who is this cunt Paul King?
ACLF id imagine? The guys got serious mental problems.
As if David Dein is going to be interviewed and state that Wenger has lost his way, he’s no longer up to the job, and should consider stepping down etc etc etc……
FFS, it’s about as insightful and informative an interview as when players of a club are interviewed about their new manager, and they (surprise surprise) all to a man come out and say how great he is, how much they are looking forward to working with him etc etc blah blah fucking blah.
Sycophants, obviously looking after their individual interests. This is NOT surprising. Why bother with the interview ffs? Is anyone really gonna say “i don’t really rate him it was a calamitous mistake offloading the previous manager”…….ha fucking ha!!
Likewise, Dein is ALWAYS going to back his mate, because he’s his fucking mate AND he may end up having to work with him at Arsenal again.
Pointless fucking interview.
There is absolutely no justification for what is happening at Arsenal right now.Terrible management.Half the players don’t give a fuck.There is no real incentive for a player to join us.We are not interested in fighting for trophies and most of the other clubs will provide a better financial package.The situation can still be sorted.Its not too late
Bookmakers William Hill have dramatically slashed their odds on Arsene Wenger to become the first Premier League manager to lose his job this season.
Wenger’s odds were 33/1 before the latest transfer developments but now stand at just 10/1. His odds of lasting the season are 1/6, and 7/2 to face the exit before the end of the campaign.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14586175.stm
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz……..
Ok, so lets get a balanced view on Arsene Wenger.
We will go to his best friend & neighbuor David Dein.
Stupid interview.
Still want Dein back in charge though, then we’ll see his real views on LeSenile.
gambon
Dein is an akb, why can’t you accept it?
Agreed, stupid interview. The signings and first team promotions are total utter madness. The end is near. I promise with the new management we will buy big and that player will be a massive hit and we will all collectively say, “we told you so.”
David Dein, the man who to replied to me personally by defending Wenger & Denilson when I said why are we having to watch a manager continually play this sub standard cretin.
Jenkinson, Ryo, Oxo, Cambell, Gervinho, Lansbury, Frimpong
vs
Cesc, Samir, Clichy, Eboue, Bendtner (most likely), Denilson
Most agree on Denilson, some on Eboue, Clichy, Bendtner, no one on Cesc and Samir.
i think we”ll go down 3:0 to liverpool.. finish 6th this season. and probably lose in Udenese next week..
Doubleg – It’s called not burning your bridges…..
NEW POST!