Arsenal aren’t messing around. They are flooding fans with so much news, they don’t know where to look. It’s an avalanche that almost looks like a distraction.
First, we won the FA Cup… hooray!
Then it’s leaked that we’re going back in the Kia trough for Willian… hmmm?
Then we officially tell the world we’re laying off 55 Arsenal workers… say what?
buuuuut… Coutinho… maybe… PARTEY?
Back to lay-offs. A large chunk of that sits in the recruitment department… names like McDermott and Cagigao… SAY WHAT?
THEN the David Ornstein of Lille newspapers announced that Gabriel Magalhães will be joining Arsenal as our right-sided centre back. That’s a fucking coup. Tall, aggressive, great on the ball, and one of the hottest young defensive talents in France (video)… SEXY?
Where do you start?
First, let’s start on the redundancies aspect of things.
There are two ways of looking at this. The first is that billionaire owners have some responsibility to stand up and be counted when the world is hurting. This was Wenger back in the day.
‘What matters to me is when you have a club with 600 employees you have the money to pay them at the end of the month.’
Letting go of 55 people when society is sick is heartless. Stan K is rumoured to have personally gained over $400m during the pandemic. The Walton Family, of which he is married into, has amassed $25 billion during the pandemic. Josh K said he wanted fans to ‘be proud’, I’m not sure slashing 55 peoples livelihoods at this time levels up to those words.
The other way to look at this is pure play capitalism: Never let a good crisis go to waste.
Businesses around the world have been given the cover of a pandemic to cut the fat and get lean. It’s grim, but there’s always 10% of a workforce that could be improved, and in this moment, there’s not only substandard talent to be rid of, there are also people that have nothing to do, so why keep them?
For me, this looks like a blend of self-sustaining-business-model ‘necessity,’ opportunism… and a bit of a power grab.
The biggest sledgehammer apparently went to the scouting department. That’s where a lot of the cuts will be directed. Are we really surprised though? The 3 years of Don Raul, Sven, and Edu was not the moment the weird recruitment started. We’ve been pretty bad at bringing through the cream for a very long time, so it’s hardly a surprise leadership is looking to upgrade there.
The big question Arsenal fans will have is: What is the plan post-lay-off-shake-up looking like? At the moment, this has the feel of a dictator hollowing out government institutions to concentrate power.
Most fans are spitting feathers because we’re not hiring in expert talent, we seem to have outsourced decision-making to cronies of Raul and Edu. Jason Rosenfeld of StatDNA quit, Sven Mislintat was moved on because he despised the approach, a whole collection of youth scouts didn’t have their contracts renewed, Cagigao who was promoted post-Sven is out, and Brian McDermot has apparently been moved on. We can pay £24m for David Luiz for a year, but can’t afford scouts and some corporate admin, really?
5 or so weeks ago, Kia J, the Shadow Tech Director numero 1 said this when he was asked about David Luiz’s deal.
‘There are several issues within the whole structure that will be resolved.’
Kia isn’t just a fee printing machine and an average talent spotter, he’s also clued into Arsenal’s restructuring plans that involved people losing their jobs. That comment on Talksport Radio now looks even more disgraceful than it did at the time. How can that not be a breach of trust or some sort of corporate protocol? It’s basically him admitting that ‘problems’ at Arsenal will be resolved. What problems were they I wonder? One can only speculate. Either way, if I came out and said something like that about one of my clients in the media, I’d be kicked off the business and I’d be in big trouble.
The whole thing is very sloppy. The worst thing is that Arsenal aren’t out ahead of these very obvious PR problems. That press release doesn’t cut it with a fanbase that chases down the planes of players on transfer deadline day. Where is Raul to explain what the future holds?
I understand that staff are having conversations this week on the redundancies, so maybe they are waiting to make things official before they come forward with a plan. However, from my understanding, if you make someone redundant, you have to kill the role, or the redundant parties can file for constructive dismissal. If the scouts are being made redundant in that 55, we can’t legally replace them, so we’ll be running with a severely depleted department or relying on junior talent to pick up a lot of important slack.
We’ll have to wait and see where that lands because I’m sure Arsenal’s head of HR is well aware of the law and will have made sure Arsenal has the maximum flex to do what is best for the club.
Regardless, I’ll say it again, days like this remind you that Arsenal is not being run properly. The lack of leadership, true expertise and empathy is palpable.
Gutting data, scouts, and dissent is not a plan, if KSE thinks it is, we’re in trouble. If cronyism is the strategy, watch Arsenal burn, I’m sure QPR fans loved it initially when Kia was pulling the strings at their place, ask them how they feel about that now. Ask Barcelona how their ‘we don’t need scouts’ approach has gone for them… no, ask Lionel Messi. We’re gravitating towards football structures most clubs are trying to get away from.
Doing things the hard way is the only way, shortcuts always end in tears, especially when super-agents are close by. Our infrastructure should be built out with elite specialists in every department. Technology and data should support experienced people making tough decisions. Our staff should feel empowered to find marginal gains, innovate processes, and eke out advantages where others aren’t looking. Raul should have the whole club pulling in the same direction with a grand vision for the ages. There should be no doubt about where his priorities lie because he should bleed Arsenal like Arteta and the fans do.
Still, there’s time for a plan. We might see it this summer. We might make some elite backroom hires in the vacant positions. We might mix it up with the players. I might be totally wrong about our leadership. This summer could be the one. My worry is that all the things I’ve told you to watch out for haven’t just happened, they’ve gotten markedly worse in a very short space of time.
This summer feels scary, promising, weird, exciting, and a little bit sad.
Fingers crossed it works out. We can’t afford another disaster. Arsenal has to get it right.
Yep sid’s into his equine sports 😄
Luteo
If the word of the day is redundant I’m curious what is was so I don’t use it again.
Pierre
How dare you question the integrity of Auba – money’s got nothing to do with it.
How was the golf?
Luteo
Which Amy Lawrence did you check out?
There’s another Amy lawrence that worked for CBS in the states. Be careful Sid will send you a bill soon.
Diss
The one with the horse face
Dissenter
Clearly the one that writes about football over here.
Dammit I googled the other one too.
Dissenter you cunt
I seem to have stumped Terraloon again.
Kounde’s hair is fantastic
A lot of you here believe all the shit on twitter and Facebook.
90% of it is made up shit to get hits.
Read between the lines use your head.
It’s evidently got magnetic properties.
Dave
Have you seen how Sweden is now getting on with COVID whilst all the other amazing countries who fucked their economies are facing second waves?
Love some hotdog for breakfast
Twitter saying AMN has asked to leave and we are Willing to listen to offers for him. Arteta wants to keep him but he wants to leave and have accepted his wishes.
We get the rumoured £20 million for AMN and that makes the £30 odd million for Iwobi look reasonable.
SpanishDave
“A lot of you here believe all the shit on twitter and Facebook.
90% of it is made up shit to get hits.
Read between the lines use your head.”
We trust you more
Val
Have you got the breakdown of the 55 employees yet?
How many are in the scouting team?
Tapsoba (Leverkusen) is another young cb I’m quite impressed with.
Mackie, Daniels, Latimer 🇬🇧
Alex Stafford 🏴
Stephen Bradley 🇮🇪
Ty Gooden 🇫🇷🇧🇪
Julio de Marco 🇪🇸🇵🇹
Leonardo Scirpoli 🇩🇪🇦🇹
Hans Gillhaus 🇳🇱
Alessandro Sbrizzo 🇮🇹🇨🇭
Looks like 10 more scouts are gone.
Business’s use this type of environment to remove staff they are not sure about.
Given the track record of our scouting over the last 10 years this move is warranted.
What is more important is the structure and personnel that are implemented in replacement. Let’s see.
RR yes good shout. Lad looks mustard
Marc
To be honest I think AMN is the better player. Even in this market Iwobi was worth 15 mil max. AMN has potential. He just doesn’t have the focus to go with it. He will become a dependable player for a midtable team though. They might use him in midfield and I think he can do better.
Christ, not Daniels too!
Habesha
I think they are similar – will both end up floating around the bottom half of the table. The only thing I want to see is a sell on clause – should be in every deal we do.
Why have we got a full time scout in Ireland? Place has a population half of London and the National Stadium has a stand built out of lego at one end.
Daniels has 5 kids to feed.
Fuck you Stan!
But yeah it looks like sentimentality is out the window this summer and they’re going for sellable assets to help with the rebuild. Thank fuck for that
Jamie
9 if you count the illegitimate ones.
Marko
Yeah he caught the eye the first time I watched him and not just for his hair.
We have a Portuguese and Austrian scout? Who the fuck knew. Also one things for sure absolutely no point in having a scout for Ireland not unless Arsenal are installing some Guinness taps at the Emirates stadium
Sell on clause is a must. Especially when we have the upper hand in contractual position.
Anyway In other news Auoar isn’t moving any time soon. See what I mean by Jean-Micheal Aluas.
https://tbrfootball.com/report-arsenal-can-sign-houssem-aouar-but-will-need-to-meet-lyons-63m-asking-price/
They want Ndombele money for him.
Hahaha Traore rubbing baby oil allover before a match isn’t a joke.
CG Aubameyang, playing in a poor creative team has shared the Golden Boot last season and finished second this . He has not been seriously injured since we signed him and physically is still in top condition. Pray tell me who you you would replace him with ? How would you replaced over 25 goals a season? At what cost? He has almost single-handedly won us the FA Cup His salary is still £100 k a week less than the ridiculous contract given by your idol Wenger to Ozil, possibly the most catastrophic decision this club has ever made Who… Read more »
Thank you Diss even if you are taking the piss.
Hope this is a turning point year we need it.
Any rumours whose going?
Henry Root
“”””Pray tell me who you you would replace him with ? How would you replaced over 25 goals a season””””
I would replace him with Danny Ings of Saints.
I dont dispute PEA is better individually- but Ings scores a similar amount of goals but offers more to the team all round.
Also , he is British.
And my preference is to see more Brits in the team.
I like Brits. Always have.
Marc. Far from stumping me I had to take time out to watch a little football. You talk as if you are party to conversations between the likes of the Kronkes and you clearly aren’t. The filing deadline for the 2019/20 P11Ds was around one month ago on 6 July 2020 As Luiz signed in August 2019 any benefit in kind would not become known to HMRC till those forms were submitted. The Class 1a NIC that the benefit attracts would be payable on or before 19/7. The pandemic may have delayed that due date. The tax liability due on… Read more »
People are assuming that seeing as we are getting rid of scouts, we will be going the contacts approach. I don’t think that’s necessarily true, maybe we are going more data driven. These days, you don’t need a scout based in every region of the world watching every game. There’s shit loads of data being churned out for people who know how to translate, plus media. No starlet can be kept a secret tucked away in Eastern Europe anymore. Now you just need someone to fly out and watch the players your data picks up. They don’t need to spend… Read more »
I can’t believe that the position of the hand also count when checking offside. I checked the leg, it wasn’t offside. But the player leaned forward and the hand was offside.Wolves was lucky.
Arsenal have used the pandemic to get rid of the dead beats. We don’t need all those scouts anyways. We got connections now
Terraloon That’s an awfully long way of saying “I haven’t got a clue” and “oh shit I hadn’t thought of that”. I didn’t ask about anyone’s tax return or P11D. You said the £6 million “agent fee” would’ve been slipped through the books as a benefit in kind. That would be taxed and would be taxed at a rate of 45% so a tax liability of £2.7 million so if Luiz was on the £200k a week (which he wasn’t) it would have taken about half his take home pay, on his actual salary of circa £125k per week it… Read more »
We have so many redundant players and the board is doing shit up to now.
Nelson
The law says is any part of the body you can score with so the hand’s position in offside is irrelevant.
Thanks Marc. The VAR official may have seen something different.
CG
Ings is a good player but has missed the better part of two seasons with injury .
He would cost £50 million as he is under contract and he would want a salary of about £22 million over 3 seasons .
I think it would be a bigger gamble to sign him than resign Auba . As for the ‘ Brit is best ‘ argument that really is a dangerous one. I love the inclusivity of a range of nationalities playing for Arsenal .
Our greatest team under Wenger didn’t have many Brits
“As for the ‘ Brit is best ‘ argument ”
Which is demonstrated by the number of World Cup’s won by England, Scotland and Wales.
Dany ings over Auba because he’s British. Amazing he still engagements on here everyday
“Edu Gaspar, Arsenal’s technical director, is leading negotiations to sign Gabriel Magalhaes from Lille who want a fee of £18 million as well as £9 million in add-ons, according to Brazilian media outlet UOL Esporte. ”
Would be a fantastic deal if true.
Is there a club with more CBs?
This whole syoer agent argument is redundant.
Was listening to the aresblog podcast and they were talking about how mendez super agent numbero uno effectively won the league for Monaco with his dealings and made lowly wolves a mid table premier league team.
Not saying its all good with suoer agents but if the game is played right it can work.
Raheem
We’ve got to think we can move some on this summer.
Radio R 19.03
Had it on 100% authority ex players that shared the Dressing room with him
And where Pals of mine at the time.
That Garth Crooks regularly Used Baby oil before and after the game.
So it was he’s choice even then.
Must admit far better than the old white horse oils I used before a game.🥵.
Think we should sell our souls to Kia, Jai and the like. If you’re watching Wolves you’ll see a game where the kabul have secured the services of VAR and the ref. Every decision going the super agent club, it is so blatant.
James W
I see, wasn’t aware this was a thing.
I was amused to see Traore’s arms looking looking so shinny. I heard in media recently that he greases his arms with baby oil to help fend off opposing players grabbing him. I thought it was said in jest but turns out it wasn’t.
White horse oil
It cleared your throat, got rid of hangovers too.
The good old days.
Smelling salts, they woke you up on a cold day.
RR
Probably not, we have a fuckton of them. Bar Saliba they’re all pretty wank though so can’t blame the club for finally fixing that position. They’ll have to start selling some off/ giving them away/ turning them into glue soon.
Wolves is hanging on dear life.
Radio R 20.38.
Makes your skin soft.
On Black skin you would not only get that
but also a nice sheen.
Garth s skin glowed although he does not look to Kosher now.
Spanish D 20.38
It’s a wonder we are here.?😂
James
Heading the ball with the lace hitting your forehead on a wet day!
Yep we are still here.
I used to see most pitches with only grass in the four corners the rest was thick mud.
The good old days!
Marc.
Have you still not grasped it
Luiz is paid circa £6 million yet his remuneration package was said to be worth
£10 million. That £4 million was for
Don’t take my word for it read this article and pay particular attention to example 1
https://www.danielgeey.com/post/but-who-actually-pays-football-agents/
Gabriel would be a great pickup. In a couple of seasons we could potentially have a top class center back pairing for the first time in ages. We haven’t even had an above average center back pair since Koscielny-Mertesacker in their primes.
I’d assume we’ll be clearing out some of our current crop, which is badly needed. But who would buy them? Holding shouldn’t be difficult to move on, but Sokratis on 90k/week, and an injured Mustafi?
Spanish D 20.56
And the the old boys that refereed Sunday’s.
Barely left the half way line but still gave offsides😂.
Oranges / a light ale /orA Senior service Half time.
Football shirts that rubbed your nipples and if it rained
it took two people to get them off.😂
Terraloon “Luiz is paid circa £6 million yet his remuneration package was said to be worth £10 million. That £4 million was for” Another re position. So the £125k a week was right all along give or take. Problem with the extra £4 million is he’d have to pay tax on it basically halving it, it was a one year deal so how the hell did that turn into paying the agent £6 million. You’ve kept digging and every time you change your story you look more stupid. You know what I’ve grasped you are a liar who doesn’t like… Read more »
Lest we ever forget who owns this club
Marc Last post on the matter from me it’s too late and you clearly haven’t grasped the basic fact that it is the norm that club will reimburse the player for monies he the player is contractural obliged to pay his agent. How the numbers break down are far from clear, you make assumptions as do I the likelihood is neither of us are anywhere close but go back to the article and despite what many feel she would have far more reliable sources about such matters. As an aside don’t forget the club also had a liability in respect… Read more »
Terraloon I’ve grasped precisely what you’re trying to say – every time you’ve changed you story. “the basic fact that it is the norm that club will reimburse the player for monies he the player is contractural obliged to pay his agent.” Not sure “paying my agent” is a legitimate expense so the player would be taxed on the amount otherwise players would just make their wives the agent and divert 80% of their earnings into the agent. “but go back to the article and despite what many feel she would have far more reliable sources about such matters.” They… Read more »
Marc
I will bin you if I were Pedro for that “Kim Dumb Pedro” remark. There’s no need to slam Pedro like that.
Are you trying to be a martyr here?
Do you think there are 72 virgin maidens waiting for you in the bin paradise?
Congratulations to Wolves, although the Greeks had more than enough chances to win it.
Would love Wolves to go all the way but feel Sevilla may be a step too far for them.
Please god, don’t let MU win it.
Did anyone see Papa Abou Cisse for Olympiacos?
Now that’s what I call a central defender.
A man mountain.
Why can’t we go for someone like that?
Dissenter
I’ve made that comment in jest several times – it’s banter whilst making a point and not buying into Pedro’s agenda. If I wanted to insult him – trust me I could do a far better job.
Remember the revolution will be blogged.
South American region one of the few areas of scouting network that remains intact.
That’s good
“Do you think there are 72 virgin maidens waiting for you in the bin paradise?”
Do they require you to be signed up to a Super agent as well?
Marko
Is it sponsored by “Kia Motors”?
I will bin you if I were Pedro for that “Kim Dumb Pedro” remark. There’s no need to slam Pedro like that.
Are you trying to be a martyr here?
Do you think there are 72 virgin maidens waiting for you in the bin paradise?
I agree with dissenter you’re really wasting a good dumb insult it should be Kim dumb Dissenter instead
I know I said I wouldn’t respond but one simple question
In the FA schedule you clearly attach so much credibility on how much is shown to have been paid in respect of the Luiz transfer ? Because that’s what is under discussion.
As for you only having one agenda then that made me laugh because it’s pretty obvious that you can’t tolerate anyone having a different view to yours evidenced in one by you having to resort to name calling
Un
Mate it’s too fucking hot – I like the sunshine but can’t deal with the heat when I need to sleep.
Is it sponsored by “Kia Motors”?
Actually now that you mention it they are all named Kia. I just thought it was a coincidence
Marko
Heck ya, Kim dumb Dissenter is a better insult since I don’t carry around a paddle to flog you with and then bin you.
Really his grouse was with Terraloon, no need to throw Pedro under the bus like that.
Terraloon and Marc
One of you may be right, neither of you may be right or both of you may very well be right in some ways.
Why don’t you just hold virtual hands and lets all sing you a happy birthday song.
Terraloon
You know very well that the FA list does not break down the individual payments per transfer – I would have no problem in fact I’d like to see it introduced so it did. You should also have the basic intelligence to be able to work out that out of £13.5 million paid to agents on a transfer spend of over £130 million it makes no sense what so ever for almost half of the agent spend to go on less than 7% of the transfer spend.
Why is that so difficult for you to comprehend?
Sometimes I hate social media, its a moron leading other morons.
Those who are outraged that the club is signing willian and extending aubas contract while cutting jobs are just plain stupid.
Would these same morons be outraged that a company who fired x number of employees is buying raw material for production? Coz thats what players being brought in are, raw material for on pitch production.
Dissenter
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but no one can be bothered to insult you!
Terraloon
In the FA schedule you clearly attach so much credibility on how much is shown to have been paid in respect of the Luiz transfer ? Because that’s what is under discussion.
Nobody knows exactly but is its 13.5 million overall and Luiz fees was about 8 million or 6% of 130 million spent, then kia would have received about 800k which COINCIDENTALLY is also the number he and arsenal have said, was the fee paid. But that doesn’t sound as fun as OMG KIA FOR 6 MILLION FOR LUIZ!! OMG OMG
*kia got
Well we can agree on one thing namely the schedule should include far more information Look in closing I have in a perverse way enjoyed our exchanges. Forget the numbers the agents even taking a £ out of football stinks. The amount some agents are declaring as income are quite simply staggering and there are dozens of them with their noses in the trough. The clubs pander to players and whilst I don’t blame the players I just can’t believe the sums being paid , often through fear , by clubs they really are being held to ransom. David Luiz… Read more »
Pedro
The Walton Family, of which he is married into, has amassed $25 billion during the pandemic.
How in the world is that relevant? So you are either implying that Stan (and I hate fucking leech) has his business expense paid by his wife Or that the Walton family is a shadow invester in arsenal and no one knows.
For your daft line to have any relevance one of these are the only 2 scenarios that would have true.
Walton family wealth has Nothing to do with the layoffs. Stop muddying the waters unnecessarily.
*one of these 2 scenarios would have to be true.
Terraloon
If you want to start a petition calling on more disclosure in how / how much agents are paid I’ll be the first (well probably second!) to sign it.
If you want to start a petition calling on agent fees to be paid directly out of the players earnings I’ll sign it.
It pains me to say it but CG did some months ago put up some really good ideas about how agents should be paid / and agent oversight.
You have a good night to and it has been fun!
“The Walton Family, of which he is married into, has amassed $25 billion during the pandemic.”
The really important question is do they have a single daughter in the family? For that sort of money I’d do her even if she looked like Amy Lawrence.
Rocky
Kia isn’t the players agent.
Trying to link transfer spend in a period with amounts paid to agents over the same period is futile.
For instance look at the vast sum Liverpool paid to agents in the period and then look at transfer spend in the same period.
Marc
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news but no one can be bothered to insult you!”
Ha that’s it for me then.
“For instance look at the vast sum Liverpool paid to agents in the period and then look at transfer spend in the same period.”
You see that’s just it, Kia with the South American connection and Liverpool players suddenly getting fond of Bolivian Marching items.
And that’s the truth!
U sayin l’pool team are cokeheads??
Marc,
https://images.app.goo.gl/zXxqGsK8rqsi1k676
Alice Walton, worth US$11 billion. Divorced.
I think you might well have an in. My sources tell me she’s on the lookout for a new man, and has a particular soft spot for distinguished Brits with expertise in the finer points of VAT.
Dissenter
“Ha that’s it for me then.”
Well unless you’d really like me to?
WOABS
I’d do her! Might have to brush up on my accounting stuff from college but I’m nothing if not dedicated.
Why don’t you just hold virtual hands and lets all sing you a happy birthday song.
You are so American
Marc
Oh noooo
I see you’re in a feisty mood today. I’m just messing with you. Sheath your dagger mate. I consider you a good guy here.
I had nightmare for days after the last time we cussed each other out 😉
What about all the big talk “We are a family. We are all in the same boat and fight for Arsenal.”
The next day, the club stabs you at the back. “You fool. We are a business!”
Dissenter
Mate banter – always.
Unless you’re talking about fucking VAT.