Originally Posted by DocDutch (Post 35384139)

Problem is if we get rid of wenger i still bet that the board won't spend any real money on new players that a new manager would want to get.
My thinking is that the board made a mistake of going for kroenke instead of the Russians

Originally Posted by denphone (Post 35384142)

But remember Arsene Wenger has made some poor buys in the last couple of years and has to accept some responsibility for that but l am not saying get rid of him but he does however have to admit in the last couple of years that he has got things seriously wrong with his transfer strategy.

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35384574)

You do have to break even for the security of the club. I am unsure why, in recent years, the money from sold players hasn't gone to replace them. I suspect that's why there are rumours of serious cash to be spent but I don't believe they will break the wage structure much, that would be insane. I wouldn't support it either, I would rather drop out of the top four teams but have a stable club rather than do a Leeds or Rangers trying to chase the dream.

Originally Posted by denphone (Post 35384896)

Originally Posted by denphone (Post 35385449)

Any names on your mind Alan?.:)

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35385431)

The wage bill is too high, spread out amongst average players. It's welcoming news that there will be a lot of players leaving when the window opens which should bring that wage bill down, we need to player the younger/reserve players less than we do.

However we bring in more promising young players than a lot of clubs and pay high wages in lieu of high transfer fees to support such a model. Szcesney and Wilshere are examples of this working. Denilson, Bendtner are examples of this failing. It's difficult to know in advance which will be successes.

Wenger simply doesn't have the money. £55 million and you have to remember that includes money left over from the Fabregas and Nasri deals.

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I don't feel sorry for the boss. Well, I do, because he is being portrayed as a senile old fool when he deserves a lot more respect, especially from the clubs fans considering all he has done.

However that's not why I defend him. I defend him because he remains one of the best managers in the world. This is why the likes of PSG and Madrid still court him to take over, he refused an offer to manage PSG already this season.

The truth is the club breaks even. He doesn't have the money to spend lavishly. So what better manager is there for this than Wenger? A owner like Usmanov will spend his own money, falling foul of FFP and risking the club's security should he ever leave.

Originally Posted by TheDaddy (Post 35385542)

only £55 million lol and FFP doesn't include stadium costs so Usmanov could pump in millions a year if allowed to, even if it was only the £25 million you suggested earlier that's buying one top class player a season rather than selling one.

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35385548)

The £55 million has to cover wages as well as the fee and is only that high because of the sales of Nasri and Fabregas. You take out players going out and Arsenal break even. I agree it would great if the owner paid off the stadium and freed up that money. That would be great. It would instantly negate the need for CL football to break even, it would help first team investment.

The finances effectively mean that in the short term Wenger is still dependent on shipping players out in order to buy - unless we take on more debt or the owner finances it. Long term our commercial deals are under performing because long-term deals were signed almost a decade ago so when they expire that will go drastically up, additionally once the stadium is paid off then all the money also goes into the club. So it's looking rosy long term but in the short term Wenger doesn't have money to invest in the team beyond that raised by outgoing tranfers.

Originally Posted by thenry (Post 35386037)

there was a fake article published by goal.com saying our ceo told van persie he'd have to stay. no quotes from Ivan but the famous close source quotes.

Originally Posted by Damien (Post 35386069)

The Van Persie story comes from the Telegraph. Goal.com then did their usual sourceless speculative article. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/foo...-the-club.html

I trust The Telegraph more than Goal.com.

---------- Post added at 09:35 ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 ----------

Very interesting article here on if it's actually wise to offer RVP a new deal: http://goonerboy.blogspot.com/2012/0...e-get-new.html

I don't agree with it completely, I think it would be too damaging. However the parallels to 2007 are interesting. Henry leaving saw the emergence of Fabregas from promising talent to one of the best players in Europe. We have a few very promising young players ready to make the step up, Wilshere, Chamberlain, Ramsey, Gibbs...