Execs take 33% pay decrease (for a year). Players need to step up.

by .

So it would seem that the Arsenal players still haven’t agreed to take a pay cut but the club has said talks have been ‘productive.’

Still not a good look.

For context.

  • Dortmund and Bayern players took a 20% pay cut by March 25th.
  • Juventus players agreed to shave £81m from their wage bill by March 29th.
  • Atleti players took a 70% pay cut by April 2nd.
  • Barca players took a 70% pay cut by March 30th.

Now, I do have to point out that the Spanish were able to enforce the cuts because there’s a law in Spain called an ERTE that can be enforced in an emergency. Regardless, it happened, no one is complaining.

Meanwhile, in England, the PFA is still dragging its feet. The Premier League players aren’t stepping up to the plate in many places. Hector Bellerin, who is the go-to for the squad, hasn’t managed to convince the players to do the right thing. I have no doubt he was one of the rumoured few that put his hand up for a cut, but the others aren’t so keen.

There could be a number of reasons.

Age: If you are 33, the chances you’d want to give up any cash right now are slim.

Contract length: If you are a poor performer on a HUGE salary, you’ll likely want to ride the cash/money train until it chugs to a halt.

Selfish: Everyone’s a socialist until someone comes for their portion. We saw this with Wenger when he oversaw a socialist wage structure… that had him as the highest-paid. Some players just won’t want to play ball.

Trust: Come on, the players read this daily, they know my views on Raul. They probably think he’s investing that 12.5% into a shipment of N95 masks he has earmarked for the NHS at a 40% mark-up. I understand that.

Shared pocket damage: Apparently the players were worried that the execs wouldn’t share the pain. I thought this was a bit of a silly worry. That concern has been alleviated via a .com press release.

“Over the past ten days we have been in discussions with them around the potential financial challenges ahead, and how we are planning for those now.

“These are productive and ongoing conversations around how our players might support their club in an appropriate way.”

“Our owners, Kroenke, Sports & Entertainment, are fully committed to supporting Arsenal through this challenging time.

“We are also carefully controlling our costs. We have stopped most capital spend, and our discretionary operating expenditure is being strictly controlled.

“Earlier this month, our executive team volunteered to waive more than a third of their earnings over the next 12 months.”

“In addition to our employees, we are extending our commitment to pay casual workers on our payroll from the end of April to the end of May.

“For our matchday casual workers this means they will be paid for all four Premier League games that have been postponed and will be paid again should they work at these games once re-arranged.”

The execs are taking a 33% cut to their salaries for A YEAR. That is a stinger of a cut. It also sets the tone.

All of the above is exactly how we all think when we’re hit in the pay-cheque… however, this is reality, the club is fucked financially short and long term, something has to give and the players should take the hit, which is minor compared to Europe.

There will come a point where there’s no choice, which means we’d be in a very dangerous situation and the club would be nearing bankruptcy.

Arsenal shouldn’t need to create a covid-19 business plan to get some sacrifice on the table. It is absolutely clear what is going on.

  • No fans through the gates
  • No fans buying shit
  • No football on the TV
  • Threats to sponsorships
  • Longterm concerns about how the game will come back

Arsenal players need to speed up this process. This is a real problem. A global one. It’s not the fault of the club. Players need to do their bit.

ONTO REAL FOOTBALL NEWS.

David Luiz has been on a bit of a press tour. I actually really like him, I didn’t think I’d ever read myself write that, but he seems like he’s been really good for the squad. He’s a huge character, a lot of fun and he’s obviously a legend.

THANK YOU KIA.

Anyway, he had this to say about the evils of Arteta’s homework.

“We have been given assignments just like in school and at university,”

“I spent an hour and a half on a video call with Arteta, analysing games and training sessions from this season.

“‘Tell me about this game without watching it, David,’ he would say. Afterwards we would watch and see we were tying to do something good, but couldn’t execute it, or we thought it was bad, but in this case good.

“This discussion is good and will help us a lot in the future.”

One of the things that landed the manager the job at Arsenal was his ability to dazzle people with his technical know-how and actually make it interesting. Emery was a bore, flat ideas, with no idea how to transmit them effectively. It’s nice to know that Arteta seems to have the knack of communicating effectively with top talent.

Who knows how this work will impact the players when they come back to finish out the Premier League season, but at least the manager is keeping the players occupied with ideas and thoughts. It’s obviously something that was a struggle when the team was back-to-back with games.

Bigger concern is what the longterm looks like. Arsenal are going to be clobbered by corona regardless of what the next few months bring. I think we’re going to be in for a shock with the players we can keep. The wage bill is unsustainable anyway, now we’re living in a world where Havard University are saying we’ll need to socially distance for up to 18 months. Arsenal, and clubs up and down the country are going to have to control their costs. We’re going to lose big names. I suspect this is the excuse the club needed to go harder on a project youth approach. It’s lower risk, lower cost and would make sense now we have an elite coach.

I don’t envision a world where we keep players like Auba and Lacazette.

I could be wrong, but we’re going to need to attack that wage bill to bring it in line with a reality we’ve been living in for 3 years.

SCARY TIMES. The only thing that pulls me through this is all is that we won’t be alone. Everyone will pull in their belt buckles this summer. The pain will be shared. If anything, this might work out well for us, we can do in 3 months what might have taken three years. Trim the fat, get a decent plan for the future, put it all on the kids for the next couple of years.

Let me know what YOU think in the comments.

x

 

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Billp79

want to make some money…
club colored face mask
with or without logo’s

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Marc

But that rule is an insert from the 70s or something …

Clubs I believe will be allowed extreme circumstances alter thevsaturday thing, as it’s done around the world..

They will fight to get more income because at the end of the day they are greedy business men…

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Rich…

Swapies with players…

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Spurs selling their naming rights for 250m

He’s a good business man ol levy for sure .

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

Red

Whatever happened to the three Nigerian wonder kids we signed boutb4 years ago…
I think I know the answer…….

alex cutter

“want to make some money…
club colored face mask
with or without logo’s”

This is an excellent idea.

Northbanker

I agree Pedro and have stated several times that i believe youth is the way forward – from our own academy and signing low cost starlets. My biggest concern though is whether we can now shift on senior players. Without this crisis we could have sold Xhaka, Mustafi, Auba and Laca for decent money this summer and cleared out our wage bill. The timing for AFC has therefore been particularly disastrous. We will now be stuck with Auba’s onerous contract in the final 12 months with all of the ‘loyalty’ bonuses etc crystallising. I’m hoping and praying therefore that we… Read more »

Sid

Incoming Szoboslai, Sangare
if possible sell Auba& laca for luka jovic
If not keep Auba sell laca

Not renewing ramsey, welbeck was a good decision chambers, holding should follow. Keeping eyes on Tierney but hoping for the best with him.
The days of having diaby rosicky wilshere in the team should forever be gone

Guns of Hackney

Champagne socialism. Nail. On. Head. This is the one question one should ask themselves of these socialists: do they play the lottery? If the answer is yes (it will be) do you think they are playing it to win and give all the money away or keep it and make their lives easy? The answer is the latter, always. Onto football. Laca and Auba can fuck off. If we get £100m for these two, job done. We’re currently being linked with some exciting talent, so let’s nail these deals down and move into phase two of Arteta’s plan. Hopefully football… Read more »

Valentin

Marc, Sweden is the only country that did not impose a lockdown. Economically it will be the least affected. However it also has the highest rate of infection of all Scandinavian countries. They have a small number of death compared to Italy, Spain, Germany, UK, because their population is much lower than those. But the number of death caused by the virus per capita is poor. Even the government has started to admit that a lot of deaths are occurring in nursing home. They claim that it is due to the way the care for the elderly was not as… Read more »

Valentin

Even Sky is starting to admit that the season cannot be completed. Sky Sports and BT have both (at least publicly) said that they will not try to recoup money from the premiership. I suspect that they may request an one year extension to their current deal. Next season will also be a financial strain for the club. Nobody will spent any money. Financially people will still be skint. Even if the league restart in September, Very few people will buy a full season ticket. Same thing with commercial deals, they will bring a lot less. No more a 3rd… Read more »

Spanishdave

It make you wonder why we do not have specialist hospitals for infectious diseases where the nurses and doctors can be properly protected .
Why do we bring people with viruses into general hospitals where they can spread the disease easily amounts patients with existing problems.
They used to have isolation hospitals for tb and then they closed them all down to save some money.
Madness
Here in Suffolk we have very few cases and less than 200 deaths most of which were elderly. But we are locked down and many small agricultural companies will go bust.
More madness

Sid

Capitalism is the pandemic
Virtually everyone wants to join the upper 1%

Putting the needs of society above ones interests has been inverted to personal success in an opportunistic environment.

The house of cards is crumbling

Im telling you this for free!

CG

Question(s) for the day.

1) Will Saliba be taking a 12.5 % cut of his wages too, when he arrives ? And if so- does he know yet?

2) Did Mikki have a vote on the wage cut?
(He is one of Arsenal highest earners after all)

3) Or are these two players exempt from the annual wage cuts- and how will that sit with the other players?

Mulerise14

Guns of Hackney, No way any club is paying us near £100 million for Auba n Laca.we should be able to have £35-£40 and we should sell. For Auba,we could still get £35million for him,but we would be loosing so much more that whatever such sales would get us.so we should be looking to keep him and built the team around him and Luiz as elderly statemen for a youthful looking side. Redtruth, Re:Youth True one needs to tred with caution when it comes to youth,but not one of these young group will go for less than £20million if we… Read more »

TitsMcGee

Can’t wait!!!!!”

There is nary a book that has ever been written or will ever be written that would be as predictable…..

“I nearly signed….”
“I could have worked at…”
“Fans have no patience…”

Mulerise14

Oops….i meant £35-£40 for Laca

Nelson

“Barca players took a 70% pay cut by March 30th”

Barca has a very good academy. It should be easy now to sign the next Bellerin or Cese.

R.S.P.C.Arsenal

I reckon saka could be off…

Think his agent has got big eyes and want to move him on maximise profit in these uncertain times .

CG

Arseblog.

Arsenal’s current wage bill: £ 232 million.

Arsenal players: £140 million ( 60%)
Arsenal Admin: £92 million ( 40%)

And I always thought the game was about the players!

AFC have a 14 strong executive team!

To put that into context
Leicester City won the league by 10 points with only 16 players.

Its quality players we need not more pen -pushers.

Arsenals rotten Gravy Train laid bare!

Marc

RSPC

You do worry that he might be getting bad advice from a self serving agent.

Of course it’s possible it’s good advice because they’ve decided Arteta is a really average coach.

Stand by for Pedro meltdown!

Pierre

Tits magoo
“Can’t wait!!!!!”There is nary a book that has ever been written or will ever be written that would be as predictable…..“I nearly signed….”
“I could have worked at…”
“Fans have no patience…”

It could be said that never a comment that’s ever been written by a Wenger obsessive will be as predictable as the above.

The least you could do is try and be a little more unpredictable.

Henry Root

People have to get real. There won’t be any mass gatherings taking place until there is an effective vaccine. We won’t finish this season and we won’t start next season for some considerable time .It may well be that it is not feasible to start it at all. The game is in serious trouble let alone worrying about transfers. These are grave times and the only hope would be to play behind closed doors live on TV. Live attendances won’t be viable, especially in London or other big cities. People won’t travel by packed tube to Arsenal . Until people… Read more »

Pierre

Marc Let’s hope that Saka doesn’t read the negative comments on Le Grove day after day about the players and club or he will be off like a shot. I see piers Morgan is being his usual ignorant self . I don’t hear him apologising for remorsefully slaughtering Wenger day after day. Would be nice to hear him him say that actually he got it wrong about Wenger and the club has regressed alarmingly in ALL areas on and off the pitch since Wenger left. Fortunately we now have Arteta to get us back on track , he will make… Read more »

James wood

Henry will the game regress to the leather lace up
brown panelled ball and oranges at half time .😏

No truly I jest things are going to take a while.
Perhaps the virus will disappear all being slower than it arrived.?

French Giroud

Very biased to think Ramsey had intention for signing for Arsenal at meagre amounts.

Why didn’t he sign since Summer after all the promises?

He wanted to pull Arsenal into a bidding game. Yeah Barcelona offered this, Inter Milan promised the other one.

And people here defending him. Lol if only he was Spanish, French etc we would hear something different.

CG

Pierre “”””I don’t hear him apologising for remorsefully slaughtering Wenger day after day. Would be nice to hear him him say that actually he got it wrong about Wenger and the club has regressed alarmingly in ALL areas on and off the pitch since Wenger left. Fortunately we now have Arteta to get us back on track ,””””” Well said, Would it not have been so much better though if the two were working in tandem. Like would have occurred at any sensible club out there Arteta’s youthful enthusiasm and ideas allied to Wengers experience and big game nous. Arsenal… Read more »

Uwot?

Yes tits.you nailed it.you just know it.But what I’d really like an explanation is his reasoning behind some of those infamous choke results & “tactics “behind those humiliations at places like Manure 6-1,8-2,4-0 & Chelsea 6-0, & liverpool 5-1.& others too numerous to mention.no doubt in my mind half of those at least could have been far better managed…..

Marc

An open question or two with no agenda behind it.

Do those who are prophesying a complete long term meltdown in football leading to much lower and more sensible transfer fees as well as lower more sensible salaries also think that the TV deals are going to dramatically fall as well?

Thomas

“I don’t hear him apologising for remorsefully slaughtering Wenger day after day.
Would be nice to hear him him say that actually he got it wrong about Wenger and the club has regressed alarmingly in ALL areas on and off the pitch since Wenger left.”

___

Why should he apologize when he was right all along about Wenger?

Pierre

Uwot “.But what I’d really like an explanation is his reasoning behind some of those infamous choke results & “tactics “behind those humiliations” Do you think United fans dwell on the 6-3 defeat to Southampton or the 5-0 drubbing from Newcastle. How about the 6-1 defeat AT HOME to city or how about the 5-0 defeat to Chelsea, 4-1 defeat AT HOME to liverpool, 4-0 defeat to Barcelona. What were Ferguson’s “tactics” behind those “humiliations.” The fact is , in 20+ years at a club , bad results and performances happen even to the best managers in the world but… Read more »

Marc

Pierre

Come on you know you can’t play that card you’re brighter than that.

Thomas

Aubameyang always seem to get away with it whenever someone even mentions the idea of selling him. He’s part of the problem. The penalty miss against Spurs, the miss against Olympiacos. Arsenal haven’t won’t a single thing since he and Lacazette joined. Both should be sold.

Henry Root

Re Marc’s point it is inevitable that as all businesses will shrink the TV companies will negotiate tougher deals which might mean lower or may mean almost all games go on TV .
For those who don’t think the game will be significantly affected I’d love to see them outline their reasoning.

Marc

Henry

The next round of TV deals won’t kick in until 2022, you won’t see all matches televised under these new deals it just isn’t going to happen.

Do you not think things will be moving back towards normal by then?

Sid

Attendance/Tickets sales will drop, tv subscriptions will drop, merchandise sales will drop, the talent curve of footballers is straightening ……

Im telling this for free!

CG

I thought the most humiliating result Arsenal have suffered in recent times was the HOME defeat to Olympaikos despite having Pepe/PEA/Laca/Ozil starting. (£200 million of firepower) Our ‘visionary’ coach unable to rouse a performance despite the financial ramifications of it. I guarantee- Wenger would have won that match. I also guarantee he would have managed this pay cut fiasco with much aplomb than what MA is currently doing. You can be the best coach in the world( and MA can coach nicely) But what separates the men from the boys – is the ones that wins the games that matter.… Read more »

Santan

CG

“A reminder of Wengers body of work.x 20 successive CL qualification
x3 League titles
x7 FA Cups
x7 Charity Shields.”

Difference is that MA is months into the job with one of the worst arsenal squads ever.

Marc

The most humiliating result for Wenger personally was the 2 nil win away at Man City where the players – pissed off with being thrashed in away matches at the top clubs decided to ignore him and set up their own tactics.

Marc

sid

I’m talking in the longer run not the next few months.

Sid

A U-shaped depression is the long run, this is like the agrarian revolution, the great depression, institutions and systems have to change their way of doing things or collapse.

Jamie

Ah yes, Wenger the hero who wasted over a billion pounds on transfer fees and wages in exchange for 3 FA Cups in 12 years peppered between being embarrassed by any half-decent club in the CL knockouts for almost a decade and then letting Leicester win the league ahead of Arsenal.

Wengerites are such epic cucks who seemingly love being humiliated. Strange folk.

Marc

Jamie

It’s hysterical that Pierre has quoted “humiliations” suffered by ManU under Fergie’s reign. Of the 4 PL “humiliations” Pierre referred to ManU won the title in all of the seasons those results took place.

ManU didn’t have time to reflect on them they were too busy celebrating.

NEEG

Marc

The real prize Fergie was after was Wengers 4th place trophy.

Uwot?

As Marc has pointed out.If you’re continually wining titles.i.e.more than anyone else.20 to be exact.& you ( fergie) have delivered 13 of the said 20.you tend to let the odd humiliation/ hammering slide.being as you have a shiny trophy to show you as CHAMPIONS on a regular basis.something our late illustrious manager failed to do for the last 13 years of his tenure.

andy1886

F365 saying that Auba has asked to leave. Could be complete b*llocks but to be fair we may need the cash (just as long as we get a good deal). If there is something on the table I would be happy for us to rest him if the season resumes as our one asset being injured in a pointless season finale would be peak Arsenal.

GunnerDNA

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta reportedly held lengthy talks with his players in a bid to convince them to take a pay cut proposal given to them by the club 😳😀

GunnerDNA

CG,

“A reminder of Wengers body of work.x 20 successive CL qualification
x3 League titles
x7 FA Cups
x7 Charity Shields

.#Big Game Manager#”

Someone needs to take your phone. I hope you’re well!

Tom

CG I don’t know if I would call Wenger a big game manager. Big game managers tend to win the big games when everything is on the line. The FA cup final is a big game of the third tier tournament. CL and EL finals are higher in the hierarchy of one off big games and he didn’t do too well in those. Recently Wenger recounted his biggest disappointments and top of the list was the Eto “ offside goal in the CL final vs Barca 2005-06 season which according to Wenger was the game changer ,and had the VAR… Read more »

andy1886

On. the money there Tom. Expect little or no humility in Wenger’s musings in which I expect him to be quick to take credit and even quicker to deflect any blame. There will be plenty who will lap it up of course, bless them.

Uwot?

Playing Coco Almunia was a sackable offence in itself!Minute he came on knew were doomed!

Marc

” If there is something on the table I would be happy for us to rest him if the season resumes as our one asset being injured in a pointless season finale would be peak Arsenal.”

If and it’s a big if the season resumes we’re 8 points off 4th, 10 matches remaining and a game in hand on most of those above us is hardly a pointless season finale.

Dropping the only player we have who scores on anything even remotely like a regular basis would be madness.

Tom

F365 saying that Auba has asked to leave. Could be complete b*llocks but to be fair we may need the cash

——-

Andy,
Let him.
People thinking Auba’s going to pick up his scoring pace as soon as the game resumes might be in for a disappointment.
There are few worse things for a goal scorer than a lengthy break from the game.

andy1886

Marc, seriously what chance would you put on us making the CL places? Just can’t see it myself. Best for everyone (bar the Scousers) is that the season get’s written off and we all start afresh when it’s possible to resume. Let the contracts end on June 30th, reset the squad and see if we can move on in a more sustainable fashion. Would love Stan to sell but it’s not a sellers market and he’ll wait until he can get top dollar again (regardless of any issues with the Rams’ stadium project).

Marc

andy

I can’t see the PL writing off the season unless they have absolutely no choice (not something I agree with) the issue is how do you decide promotion, relegation and European places?

Of course we might see them decide to cancel European competitions for a season to stop unnecessary international travel, that then makes the other issues easier to deal with.

Calypso

Greetings my fellow gooners , I hope all is well.

Tom

Marc
Up until the covid19 outbreak I shared your position on retaining Auba but not now.
If someone offered Arsenal good value for a 30 year old striker, who might not kick a competitive ball before he turns 31 or even 32, I would take it.

Marc

Tom

Problem is what’s “good value” in the current climate?

Tom

Marc
In this climate I’d take anything north of 40m or thereabouts to shave his 11m in wages off the bill.

andy1886

I’d take £35m if they agree to take Ozil in a BOGOF deal….

G8

Football/sports is dead until a cure/vaccine is available
Too early to ease the lockdown measures in Europe, unless they already decided to not give a fuck anymore .
Germany just reporting unprecedented 300 death in the last 24 hours.
In case of trump he is definitely pushing that agenda despite opposition from some business cheifs and health experts.
It’s like he has to open the country at all costs.
Could be disastrous decision!

G8

City owners could be in deep fainancial trouble as oil prices ,business and tourism all severely affected by the covid crisis..
Plus also Abudhbi government is involved in draining political regional conflicts and wars .
Good for football if that type of ownership is halted!

Tom

G8
Trump wants to open the country because the way he sees it there’s no downside to it, for him of course.
On one hand he claims he has the total power to do anything he wants to -federalism be damn……..but on the other hand he refuses to take any responsibility for anything at all. I know, shocking.
So, if the economy opens up and infection rates and deaths spike up,
he can blame it on governors and individual states, which is what he’s done up to this point.

Dissenter

Marc
The decision to finish or cancel the season also depends on how other major European leagues handle theirs.

Nelson

I can see that the entertainment for the next generation will switch towards high tech, multi media and smart phone based. The popularity of football will decrease.

James wood

Wage deferrals taking a time for something that should be black and white.

GREEDY BASTARDS comes to mind.

Brad

The future for this club is bleak, we’re set to lose our strike force in the summer at less than we paid for them. No funds to bring in a replacements of a decent calibre and we need to qualify for the champions league to make any money that isn’t the 24% of our revenue (Generated solely through match days)

Henry Root

If you don’t play next season and you don’t complete this you will lose gate receipts , TV income and sponsorship. Every club will be @ffected and the pyramid will collapse. Some of you really have no idea how serious this is and expect 5o be back to playing football in the autumn. Until there is a vaccine there won’t be any sport with audiences in stadiums. If you don’t have a season and can’t stabilise the situation forget ‘ I’d take £45 mill for Auba’ you won’t get anything like that . There will be few deals that aren’t… Read more »

Valentin

Germany and Denmark the two European countries with the fewer death per capita and closest to ease lockdown have decided that restarting their season in May is improbable. And in Germany, Clubs have already restarted collective training. Realistically the EPL will be lucky if UK is not still in partial lockdown at the beginning of June. To finish the season before 30th June is not realistic. Then you have the issues of liabilities. I doubt there will be an insurance company willing to insure clubs, players against COVID-19. The premiership could not afford the lawsuit if a player were to… Read more »