I have to say, I’m starting to feel very positive about the future of Arsenal. The more I think about it, the more I draw the conclusion that this moment in time, though horrendous in so many ways, will actually work out very positively for The Arsenal.
We’ve still not found ground zero with regards to what’s going to happen at large to football clubs. As with all great disasters, you only find out how bad the mess is when things go wrong. Recessions always uncover bad business practice and I have a suspicion that football has been doing silly things for a while now and this moment in time might bring those problems out of the dark into the light.
What does that mean for Arsenal? Well, it’ll mean that there’s a levelling of the playing field to a certain degree. This is going to happen in a few ways.
1.World-class in every position might die
It doesn’t matter what happens to the pandemic over the next 3 years, the memory of it will be seared into the minds of football executives around the world. Football is no longer stable, fan attendance is now a luxury, the game can be ripped from TV at any point. What does that mean?
It means clubs are going to have to work hard to build better businesses, and most important in that equation, they will have to grow their cash position. The simplest way to generate more cash is to aggressively attack the wage bill and sell unessential assets. I think we’re going to see clubs turn to youth and place less onus on having packed squads of superstars. This will be true of all clubs, bar the mega brands. The days of having a £110k a week reserve right-back might be behind us (for a while).
That will mean bargains this summer as clubs look to move players on. Money will go further this year and there will be a glut of good players on the market.
2. A focus on youth
Clubs were already moving in the direction of academy players, but I think you’ll see more of a push in this direction. Young players are going to be at the heart of The Arsenal model moving forward, no doubt about that. Why this moment in time is going to work so well for us is a few fold. Firstly, we have a world-class coach at Arsenal. People keep chiding me about that, but it’s not even debatable, Arteta is one of the best young coaches in the world and he operates at the cutting edge. He has to prove himself as the top dog, but the credentials for making players better are undoubted. That is great for young players because it means they’re going to get better. It means that young players around Europe will want to join us. It means that we are in a position to develop a squad. This hasn’t been the case over the last 5 years.
Additionally, we can blood these youngsters in a ‘safe’ environment. Learning your way in Premier League football is tough, certainly made tougher by crowds that have high expectations. There won’t be crowds for a while, which means kids can blood themselves into the game with a little less pressure.
3. Fan expectations
Arsenal fans will demand less, if the powers that be come out and state that their plan is to move forward with a young base of players.
We know that we’ve taken wild gambles with transfer fees, we bodged the Wenger replacement hire, there is a lot of fat that needs to be trimmed from the squad. Fans are not expecting a lot from the club at the moment. Again, the perfect environment for a club pursuing a longer-term plan with youth. Fans forgive talented young players far more easily than they would mercenary signings.
What I believe would be a mistake is if we continued to shoot for the stars with has-been purchases that please super-agents. Coutinho? Willian? Really? Why would Arsenal throw more bad money at the squad. Let’s be strategic, let’s focus on a clever rebuild, let’s not ship out one problem and bring in another 2.
4. The dreck
The club will move on senior players this summer. We might not ship out Mesut Ozil because his deal is so outrageous, but I think we’ll certainly look to move on other big-name players that have big wage packets. Alex Lacazette signed his own P45 with that balloon idiocy, I think we’ll move on a host of other players that have 2 years to 12 months on their deal. The reason they’ll move is the same reason Auba wants to sign a new deal with us… security in football is not what it used to be. Sokratis will want a 4-year deal, even if it’s on less money. Lacazette will be 29, he can’t run the risk the game is in a mess in a years time.
I also think you might see some surprises this summer. Players that haven’t delivered to the standards Arteta is looking for. Talent that might not hit the heights we had hoped for. Some players aren’t salvageable, no amount of coddling or arm around the shoulder is going to change that, the difference this summer is we have a manager not concerned about the difficult decisions.
Arsenal were in a mess last summer, this year, we have a fine young manager, we have a Technical Director that ‘should’ have a plan in place, and the brief is clear… sort Arsenal out ASAP. No mercy on who we ship out.
5. Money
The game isn’t going to be fucking around with big transfer fees. You’re going to see big players take loan moves and you’re going to see big names lose massive value on their fees. Dembele of Barca is now up for sale at the price we paid for Mustafi. You’ll see more of that.
The key thing won’t be the transfer fees, it’ll be the wage bill. If we can free up £600k a week in cash, that can go towards some very exciting young players that we can hopefully pick up for prices that feel within range. The entire dynamic of the squad can be reworked this summer. This is shopping in the dip. Now, I realise we’re not exactly wealthy enough to be picking off players like elite disaster capitalists, but we can make some tough decisions that allow us the freedom to operate in this market. Selling Auba might be one of those moves. There will still be an elite market, it’ll just be smaller. PSG, United, and maybe City will be spending big… but Madrid, Barca, Juve, Atleti and most other clubs will not be.
There are deals to be had this summer, but they might only come if we’re prepared to invest in smart choices and trust in our scouting.
7. The football
I said this the other day, but it bears repeating. The football is going to get better. Having a full month with the players on the training pitch is going to have an impact on the game we play. Better ideas, fitter players, and the mental fatigue of Emery being lifted should contribute to a clearer identity on the pitch and hopefully, a more exciting brand of football we can get behind.
My hope is that we start to become unpredictable in a good sense. The ideal would be that we are a solid team capable of delivering devastating results. We know this team has another level, we know that defending can be part of our DNA, now we need to find out if we can be ambitious. We need to know if the players can be convinced that they are capable of finding that next level. Only then will we know if this moment has worked for us.
Right, those are my thoughts, see you in the comments. x
Boom
2
3
Trofee
Pedro
It may be my reading skills but did you go straight from point 5 to point 7?
Nice post though, agree with a lot of it. As many have said, hopefully the days of obscene transfer fees and outrageous wages are a thing of the past, along with the slippery agents.
First team
“It may be my reading skills but did you go straight from point 5 to point 7?”
Chris
Only losers and pussies write a point 6. Real men who drink oat milk skip it.
Point 6 is already an obvious assumption, Pedro is great – why actually write it? The man is modest to a fault.
No.9. John Radford!
Top 10
Point 6 is like current Arsenal centre-halves: often sadly missing in action. 🙁
Love the positivity!
Since Point 5 and Point 7 were 🔥, we didn’t need a Point 6.
Point 6. is more like Ozil, great statistically but cant be seen by ordinary “obsessives”
Im telling you for free!
Calling arteta world class is riddicalous
Pedro As always thanks for keeping things up at the moment – it’s got to be really hard work with very little happening. It’s a good piece but I’m worried about “The club will move on senior players this summer.” If salaries are going to be more sensible why would a player give up a lucrative contract he’s already got? “Lacazette will be 29, he can’t run the risk the game is in a mess in a years time.” Why not – he can run out his contract, move on a free and take the best deal on offer at… Read more »
Great post – i just hope Raul Reads it and agrees and he can actually create such a vision
These Coutinho stories However make me nervous we’re still on double or quits thinking.
Spot on, I wish some of our department heads to visit this site from time to time I particular our TD Edu, because I can see us succeed in this direction, we really need to ship out our ageing and top Paid Players from Mesut to Mustafi there is no shame starting over and Raul and Co. Have a perfect excuse some of the players we are linked with give me the creeps, like Coutinho, William and they bloke from Ajax because they all come expecting a pig salary. I would rather we are seen as a small club over… Read more »
Very good post Pete…
Spot on,
Pedro is trying to sell us the future like Wenger use to do, always jam yesterday, jam tomorrow but never jam today. I hate youth projects, we are launching our third one now and first two were failures, with a novice coach who only worked with world class players.
I am glad that there are a few youngsters fighting for place in squad but we also need senior, experience players, you win nothing with constant youth players who don’t amount to much or want to leave because Arsenal never seem to improve.
Danm autocorrect
Coutinho loan, free signing Goetze?
Ok I would take those 2… and the cost might be good.
Those 2 would add to our attack in much better ways.
those 2 would also bring experience…
i think it might be good if it happens.
@jwl, “you win nothing with constant youth players who don’t amount to much or want to leave because Arsenal never seem to improve”
those experience are youth players from somewhere and we don’t seem to improve with experienced players either we are one of the club with a lot of experienced players and yet we are behind in every level. Yet our most recently perfomer is a 18 years old. On the other the so called experienced earn a lot of money and underperforming and we even can’t ship them out because nobody wants them. So which is better.
“we are one of the club with a lot of experienced players and yet we are behind in every level”
Er that’s nothing to do with experience that’s because we have too many shit players on too much money.
@Guns of SF “Coutinho loan, free signing Goetze? Ok I would take those 2… and the cost might be good.Those 2 would add to our attack in much better ways”
Coutinho is on 250,000 aren’t we trying to reduce our wage bill?
Gotze what is he good at Dortmund can’t keep him because he refused to reduce his wage so say we give him 200,000 on 5 yrs plus sign on fees after a year it will be Ozil all over again. Am I glad you are not Raul.
Guns
The problem with Goetze and to a lesser extent Coutinho is how far they have fallen in recent years and how massive their salary demands would be, Goetze is on 160k a week and is said to want the same if he moves. Coutinho is on 220k a week.
Far better to spend 15-20m on someone younger with high potential like Szoboszlai or Jonathan David or Almeda etc etc with a more reasonable sub 50k wage. Far easier to get rid if they don’t work out too.
Fraser
Is the only incoming
@Mark ‘
Er that’s nothing to do with experience that’s because we have too many shit players on too much money”
Remember Xhaka at Monchengladbach we we’re all singing praise
Ozil-Madrid
Laca-Lyon
Auba Exception
Mustafi, they all seemed like good players, or they became shitter when the come at arsenal, tranfser market is always risk, ask Barcelona if we bought like Barcelona did in the last two season we will file for bankruptcy and being relegated in the next two season.
Wouldn’t mind Fraser on a free, if we move Martinelli to striker after selling 1 (or both) of our strikers we would need someone out there to take the load off Saka, makes more sense getting someone experienced on a free than splashing on another high potential youngster like Kluivert or Moussa Diaby in a position where we have arguably our hottest talent playing already.
Don’t think that’s all the business we do however, if it happens at all.
@Marc
Players are on pay cut salaries so your fears of inability to shift players doesn’t apply. There’s the option of loaning/player swap. The senior players want to play so for the good of their career they will move because we won’t be able to pay them their so called high salaries. It will be the same everywhere so running down your contract is pointless.
Agree Freddie – Coutinho will come expensive and that was my earlier point. I’m sure he can still contribute but we need o be forward looking now and build ahead. That means buying at lower levels and looking for young starlets
I’d be more excited about signing Kokcu who is tomrrow’s man
Freddie
Fraser would come in to be just a backup and that’s my problem with it. We need competition for our young wingers. I don’t want to splash out on a winger when we have pepe Nelson and Saka too. I want Saka to progress and hold the LW position as his own but he needs real competition to do that. I wouldn’t take Fraser over all of them and That would actually make them comfortable and not strive for more. We should even go for a high potential winger from the championship if possible.
izzo
They’ve taken a 12.5% drop which is temporary – they’ll soon be demanding restoration of full salaries.
If salaries are going to drop dramatically why would Xhaka walk away from £100k per week.
Really can’t be demanding anything when there’s no money to pay them. They risk ruining their future employment if they sue. Salary caps needs to come to the PL. Also will every every player be demanding their original pay if asked to take further pay cuts down the line. There’s no situation where they win. Player values have dropped and so will their salaries.
izzo
I’ve got a 3 year contract and the club sits on a prime piece of land in London – pay me or I’ll sue, when I win you’ll pay or go tits up. Fuck the next contract I’ll go play in China for a couple of years.
izzo
Out of interest how would you cap salaries? As a percentage of a clubs turnover or a straight maximum wage?
Straight wage cap obviously. PL needs to level the playing field. No more of this silly 350k and 500k a week stupidity. No more 80-100+ million players. No player is worth that. Not even Messi or Ronaldo who are approaching retirement age.
izzo
What would you make it then?
I’m not in charge of making the rules and regulations governing finance in football so that’s up to the experts. Covid isn’t going anywhere and a vaccine is not a cure.(there isn’t even a cure for the common flu) There’s a high chance it returns mutated in the ember months. Money in football will not be carrying on business as usual.
We have salary caps here in the NFL. The cap is renegotiated annually. The teams get to distribute it as they see fit. The owners love it because it puts a lid on their costs. The players accept it because they get benefits in exchange, like union representation over issues such as safety and looking after players in need in retirement. Obviously, some of the concerns differ in England. But the basic principle is the same. And one product of this system is that the same teams don’t dominate every year. The New England Patriots have been a perennial powerhouse… Read more »
NJ
One small difference – no other country plays American Football to any serious degree. You cap the PL and good players will all leave for Italy, Spain, China or the Middle East they will follow the money where ever it goes.
You only have to look at how many English players would move abroad compared to now.
@NJ Gooner
I don’t forsee a strain in quality or competitiveness. The PL is will always be among the best leagues for any footballer wanting to play in Europe even with a wage cap.
Lol you really think players will flock to China and the Middle East to play footy because of making less money? Yikes
Italy and Spain have no money. Be real here. No one wants to jump ship to the middle east or china for that matter.
Habesha I would agree with you if we didn’t need to spend that money on so many other positions, we already have the starting players for the wings sorted, a backup with experience for free is fine there, wouldn’t mind someone like Said Behnrahma though but far from a priority. We have 3 midfield positions that needs first XI players, our strike force needs to be sorted one way or the other and another long term CB needs to be brought in. After that we can look to doubling up with quality talents in one position but until we have… Read more »
lol no one will go to china .
We will struggle to even give players like Ozil Miki Mustafi for free.
No to old flops like Gotze of Coutinho. It would be Ozil mk2.
Arteta is not WC . To early for judgement.
He kept Haker vs $ 20M so not the best.
If China’s paying more money than clubs in Europe players will leave.
anyone who thinks that there is a club to take on Coutinho and Goetz salaries is crazy. Good luck finding that. My point is that they can be obtained on loan ( PC) and Goetze might find EPL and London/ Arsenal attractive enough to take a cut.
If not, fuck em.
MY point was obtaining the two of them would upgrade our attack considerably.
Im all for cheaper and better… just that the rumor mills has these two hotting up right now
Again players in Europe aren’t moving their families to China regardless of the money. I think if the money merry go round were to continue it will only be in form of a super league which means the death of domestic leagues. LOL who in their right mind can see that happening.
its a toasty 92f here in the bay area.
I just killed it on the grill. Steak, hotdogs, delicioso~!!!!
happy family, happy life
As Pedro said, this virus has brought things back down to normal kind of.
Salaries and transfers. Older stars looking for a last contract.
Free agents looking for that…
The loss of revenue for clubs across the world makes this summer a very interesting one indeed.
They would both come in as CAMs right? Where we already have a 350k nexus of inadequacy occupying the space. No need to fill it up with another 350k worth of 2 players. That’s 36m in wages a year for 1 position right there, seems a tad excessive. Of the players we’ve been linked with I would probably go with: Fofana, loan back to St Etienne, minimal fee upfront. When Luiz leaves in a year Saliba has one year of prem experience in him and we don’t have to field 2 PL rookies as CBs. Soumare. Would transform our midfield… Read more »
FL
I’m with you man. You have a good take on potential recruits …
Some of the names you mention I know of… others not so much….
Edouard yes.
Kessie
Szoboszlai
I do see value in Coutinho on a year loan. The salary we can cover. for that period.
Especially if we sell players this summer. He is also Prem tested etc
The post is like a single sentence jointly authored by Sir Winston Churchill and Mr Bean. A good post tainted by unnecessary claims of world class status for an apprentice.
And don’t think you are winding us, you are just being ridiculous.
Some great points in there though.
So many people on her have absolutely no idea how serious the financial hit is that the game will suffer. There may be no gate revenue for many months. TV revenue may be affected. There may be knock-on effects on our sponsorships. There may be no European football next season and if there is we are unlikely to be in it. To suggest we can spunk £100 m on transfer fees is utterly out of the question. Pedro’s post is excellent and realistic and is written by someone who has done the maths. We may have a game where fifty… Read more »
Nice post Pedro. We need something to look forward to . Some great young players could provide an antidote to what we have seen in recent years, with a manager in decline, and another who u fortunately never took off at this club.
Pedro, Barcelona’s attempt at fire sale of all their most marketable players is not something that will be repeated across the board. It is very specific to them. They could not afford Griezman fee and even less his astronomical salary. Yet Pride led them doing something stupid. So they went to bed with a loan shark expecting a rising market to cover their lack of resources. Even without COVID-19, they would still be in a financial mess. COVID-19 just made it much worse. Kind of waking up knowing that they can’t repay their loan to the nice Corleone family because… Read more »
Goetze will not improve our attack, because Arsenal issue is not the final third, but the central defensive part. Sort that and we have a decent attacking squad. He is £160kpw and is demanding the same. Not worth the money especially if you add the loan fee around £10 millions. Countinho is a highlight player. Look good with his screamers, but in real life he hoard the ball, shoots a lot (most of it is off target). He is the kind of player who look good in a smaller team where he is the main man, but in a structured… Read more »
Bris, he’s a world class coach, that’s a fact.
Can that translate to management? Who knows.
https://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/the-sum-of-all-broken-promises/ “Along with people’s hopes and dreams of a decent life. What you see, then, is a nation, and a system, that has come to be based on broken promises. That’s what the restless public will take away from this morass of statistics. The discord will rapidly leave the statistical frame and take hold in the emotional frame, and that frame will feature entirely negative emotion: rage, resentment, grievance, vengeance, feelings like that. The sum of all broken promises is a broken social contract. That’s the agreement that we will behave civilly in exchange for the liberty to go about… Read more »
Sell ozil please.
If he wanted to secure his own personal future by bending the club over then he’s done that well and truly.
He can leave now, the money situation has changed globally and we know without Shadow of a doubt that he is not interested in taking a pay cut even when 70% of the world has been retrenched.
Fuck me this player pisses me off in ways I never even knew possible, would rather have mkhitayan in house than on loan.
Pedro
Bris, he’s a world class coach, that’s a fact‘
Sorry man
That is NOT a fact.
He’s a huge prospect, nothing more
It’s not un-realistic to think that this could be our starting 11 next season:
Leno
Bellerin
Luiz
Saliba
Tierney
Torriera
Partey
Coutinho
Pepe
Aubameyang
Saka
40m on Partey, Coutinho in loan.
Elneny, AMN, Sokratis, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Lacazette, Mhikitaryan, possibly Ozil all going the other way.
I’d still like another centre half though.
I wouldn’t touch Coutinho and Goetze, at any price
We need to become the club of big ideas and exciting risks, not one trying to squeeze out the last drops from yesterday’s men.
Dissenter
Coutinho is 27, which means he should be at his peak. We all remember how good he was at Liverpool, and that’s because he was their best player, the fans favorite.
At Barcelona and Bayern, he never established himself as one of their key players. If we were to sign him and build a team around him, I reckon we would see the best of him again. He could easily play a Cazorla/de Bruyne type role in the midfield.
Dissenter, his time at City points to a different truth.
He’s coached elite players at the highest level, broke records, won major trophies.
He’s one of the best. Not a prospect in the world of coaching.
Agree on Goetze and Coutinho… would be like signing the same problems we’ve had with Ozil.
Pedro I fully agree that a month of training with Arteta is great for the squad and also no crowds is great for the kids I’m not sure you can say Arteta isn’t afraid of big decisions tho. So far since he came in all of the clubs problem children have remained in the first team and mustafi was even brought back from the cold Ozil plays because even tho he mostly contributes nothing relevant, he’s willing to run a little bit more. Xhaka has an entire strategic setup built just to accommodate his weaknesses rather than dropping him. Mustafi… Read more »
Marc it’s true that players do follow the money but firstly China’s economy has also been hurt badly by this, secondly the Chinese super league is really, really fucking bad
My team usually finish mid table and are equivalent to a league 1 team. You can count how many good moves happen in a match on one hand… missing a couple of fingers…
The best team in China typically is Guangzhou evergrande and they lost the Asian CL final over two legs to a team for Qatar a couple of years back. Proper depressing stuff
It’s good fun to go to Chinese games tho. The fans know it’s shit but don’t care and are quite rowdy My son (2 at the time) started crying after my team (TEDA) scores and the fans erupted and all the guys around us turned to us and were like ‘oh we made the baby cry! I’m so sorry!’ Hahaha You can also see which foreigners give a shit and which are there for the money. Saw obafemi martins play a blinder and run himself ragged. Meanwhile tevez was the laziest cunt I’ve ever seen on a football pitch in… Read more »
Overmars
How can you build a team around a one year loan player? It would be madness. We all know we could not afford to purchase Coutinho and for all we know he may have lost his mojo for good!
Goetze appears done and we already have enough over paid/under performing prima donnas stinking the place out. Arsena need to concentrate on keeping existing players who add value to the squad and shipping out those that don’t. Forget all this talk of incomming superstars – it is not going to happen!
I see both points in having some older stars or former stars ish
Experience is important and especially with our mids. Who is the veteran who can guide and control the games and mentor the youths
No one
We need some vets and guns blazing youth with something to prove
Aussie Gooner Many ways we could work a Coutinho deal i n our favour. 1 year with first option to buy. Or 1 year with obligation to buy. Unfortunately, he’s still contracted at Barcelona until 2023, so we’d be looking to pay at least 50m. People say Coutinho’s done. In the Bundesliga alone, he’s managed 8 goals and 6 assists in 22 games playing through the middle this season.. The fact of the matter is that’s an improvement on what we have in midfield. These stats are also very similar to what he was doing at Liverpool. But most importantly,… Read more »
Barca will let him go cheaper. They are screwed financially and need cash in a bad way
And anyway, who says we can’t afford to buy top players? Yes, coronavirus will affect transfer funds, but that will be the same with everyone.
If before last summer, I was to write on legrove that Arsenal will buy spend 72m on Pepe, 27m on Saliba and 25m on Keiron Tierney, you’d all rip my head off.
As I said earlier, we have 8 or 9 players that we can generate some funds by selling. If we wanted to buy Coutinho, we could easily.
China
100% agree on Arteta. To date I have not witnessed any magic. He shows little sign of wishing to alter the staus quo by playing all the usual suspects and dropping the likes of Martinelli who could of by now had substantial PL hours under his belt. No doubt some of the younger player will be considering their next moves (ie Saka) if they do not feel appreciated in the current set up.
Overmars
I would be better in our current midfield! We need to build on young players that feel loyalty to the club and want to see pathways to success – not stuck behind lazy, overpaid and uninterested ‘senior’ players.
I said it a few days ago… his persistence with ozil makes one scratch their head….
The worry is he is pandering to under performing vets to keep the dressing room and any sort of mutiny’s
It comes with a cost. Losses
At least emery was tough on all these slackers
Arteta might be too sentimental… too close
Guns
Agreed – it is a bit too early to start anointing Arteta with laurel wreaths!
I’ll give Arteta until the summer to sharpen his blade but if xhaka and or ozil are still regularly in the starting 11 next season then something is very very wrong Is cazorla out of contract this summer? With Ceballos leaving you wonder if a pay as you play deal for him wouldn’t be a bad idea. He wouldn’t be expected to be first choice and instead just an experienced squad player to be called on when needed. And if he does still turn it on and have the stamina then by all means he could play again regularly We… Read more »
A serious CM/DM + santi on a free for pay as you play would be a great boost for our midfield depth.
Santi > Ceballos, xhaka and ozil even with a simmer frame
Oh dear me, Carzola? Lets keep the heart out of football matters
China
“Ozil plays because even tho he mostly contributes nothing relevant, he’s willing to run a little bit more. ”
Ground breaking view from China.
Have you ever thought of going into football management ?.
You could have guns of SF as your assistant who defends that clown Emery with the classic line ” At least emery was tough on all these slackers”.
Did him a lot of good didn’t it
They would be like the Laurel and Hardy of football management.
” that’s another fine mess you got me into Stanley”
Guns of SF
“I said it a few days ago… his persistence with ozil makes one scratch their head….The worry is he is pandering to under performing vets to keep the dressing room and any sort of mutiny’sIt comes with a cost. Losses”
We are the only team in Europe not to have lost in 2020 and Ozil has started in the majority of the games. I can’t quite see your point?
Whilst there are many unsubstantiated rumours circulating about players that Arsenal are allegedly interested in I do think that there is now clear evidence as to what positions are likely to be filled this summer. 1. The intention seems to recruit two specialist squad full-backs. Soares appears to have been recruited on the right and there is now a suggestion that Arsenal will replace Kolasinac with a more defensive full-back on the left possibly Kuruzawa from PSG who is available also on Bosman. 2. It is also probable that Arsenal will exercise their option to buy Mari. So we will… Read more »
China “I’m not sure you can say Arteta isn’t afraid of big decisions tho. So far since he came in all of the clubs problem children have remained in the first team and mustafi was even brought back from the cold” The easiest decision would be to have binned the so called “problem children”. A big decisions , against many of the fans wishes , is to bring Mustafi back into the starting line up , is to start Nketiah regularly ahead of Lacazette, is to play Saka at left back , is to leave Martinelli on the bench despite… Read more »
‘and anybody thinking we should look at Coutinho and Willian needs a wake-up call. They will want a fortune’ No, they wouldn’t want a fortune. They got the memo too, football is blown! Big players with big contracts will enjoy the rest of the crazy money for the duration of their contracts, after that, nobody will pay them anything like that again. Guys who felt they were smart by running down their deals are now in big problems, their clubs who were chasing them for a renewal wouldn’t have the deal on the table for them again, not even a… Read more »
I am going to post something later about loans but whilst doing a bit of research I came across this
https://www.premierleague.com/news/464747
It’s this particular bit that interested me
They are:
– Premier League clubs may not register more than two players on loan at any one time.
– The maximum number of loans registrable in the same season is four, and, under no circumstances, shall more than one be from the same club at any one time.
Now by my recognise Arsenal currently have 3 players on loan and listed in the first team squad
Soares, Mari and Cellebos
Yeah Pierre mate because now ozil has done an amazing job under Arteta, emery and Wenger right? You can’t even be arsed to explain away the fact that he doesn’t even make assists anymore, which was the primary reason We were always told he was so good. Now you don’t even have any excuses left except ‘you don’t know anything’ Re those big decisions, I don’t think it was brave at all to bring the old losers back into the first team. He probably did it because he didn’t want half of his senior players making unhappy noises the day… Read more »
Salary caps must be the way forward. It’s the only way clubs will survive the next few years as revenues decrease due to the pandemic. Academy players should, irrespective of ability and potential, be on an equal pay scale. Imo, no academy player should be on more than £1k a week. Once you’ve made the first team, you’re on a minimum package until proven and have played a set number of times. First team regulars should all be on sensibly structured salary scale, with bonuses built in for appearances, goals scored, assists, clean sheets, commercial revenue from shirt sales etc.… Read more »
Terraloon,
My understanding for the two players limits was that Premier League clubs may not register more than two players FROM Premiership rivals on loan at any one time.
Otherwise it would be redundant with the 4 loans limit at any given time.
As Ceballos is loaned from Spain, then Arsenal complies with both stipulations less than 2 from premiership {Cedric Soares) and less than 4 in totals (Ceballos, Soares, Mari).
Graham62, The initial academy and first contract package is exactly what France and Spain have. That is also the reason why every year more than 20% of their academy players leave to play abroad. Personally I disagree with the idea of players having individual bonus such as £10,000 per number of goals they score a la Lacazette. At some clubs that created some serious friction on penalties and free-kick duty because some players wanted to pad their stat and other wanted to pad their wallet. The bonus should be based on the final achievement of the team tempered with your… Read more »
Valentin
Wow!
That’s quite complicated.
Let’s just give them all the minimum wage.
That would sort them out.
🙏😷🍺
Forgot about the loan system.
May come in handy now.
Graham “””””Forgot about the loan system”””””””””” Or did you mean the ‘loan shark’ system surely? Its Rauls latest strategy at the the club. Surely his last throw of the dice – before his gross mismanagement of the club in 2 years is finally exposed. That is to get the clubs money into the hands of his cronies in exchange for a few of their mercenaries ( Courtinhio, Wlliam etc) ————- Proper match with proper clubs with proper executives on later for the first time in months. Dortmund v Munich. Maybe the reason , they are light years ahead of us… Read more »
Valentin if our bonus structure is built based on title wins then nobody at arsenal is getting shit for their summer bonus package haha 😀
If you want to watch heavily regulated football just watch the Chinese super league. You won’t be impressed lol
Graham
“Again imo, no player should be on more than 100k a week. Remember that’s still the equivalent of £5.2m per annum”
Fine but once things are back to normal and they will go back to normal, commercial and TV revenue are back to previous Covid levels and fans are back in the stadium there’s going to be a level of excess cash freed up from the wage bill. If the club is selling out most matches they are not going to reduce ticket prices where does the money go? Other than into Kroenke’s pocket?
Graham,
This is the system that Chelsea has.
Bonus based on
1) winning the league
2) reaching Champion’s League qualification via the league
3) winning Champion’s League
4) reaching Champion’s League final
5) winning Europa League
6) reaching Europa League final
7) winning FA Cup
8) winning League Cup
No bonus per victory, no bonus per goal scored, no bonus per blank sheet kept, just bonus on winning a trophy or making money for the club.
If the club was smartly run, we would have implemented a similar incentive system years ago.
Valentin My understanding was that you can only take two players on loan ( temporary transfer ) at any one time. The four player thing could be achieved by having two signed in August till January and then a different couple of players signed in January till the end of the season. Now here’s the point that no where in the FA rules does it mention that you can take players on International Loans . The PL rules deal exclusively with the numbers of loans permitted between English and Welsh Clubs. ( in other words the only two countries that… Read more »