Why are Arsenal so tight?

[lowerwest]

We all know all we can really hope for is 2 loans this window if anything when real cash needs to be spent. Every year the dumbing down of Arsenal is something to behold. Each version cheaper and more crumbly than before.

We all know that under Kroenke this will only continue. Talk of Goetze and Hazard are just flannel. How many times do we need to hear we will spend 30m on super quality....yeah right but we NEVER do.

This year 5th next season who knows.

[flash gunner]

"Moving to the Em****es will make us able to compete with Europes biggest clubs"

[lowerwest]

ah yes the lies and spin of us moving. werent we going to be battling chelsea and man u for top top talent. when exactly was the last time we beat those 2 to anyone worth having. aaron ramsey and theo i suppose but neither of them are the real deal are they.

[brazilianGOONER]

what is sad is that i spent money i couldn't really have spent to watch them last year and am willing to sell my car to go again this year if necessary - i know some of you will lower your life quality to be able to afford your season tickets, some will choose jobs that allow them to go see away games...

we basically do what we can to follow The Arsenal, and what we receive back is a club with absolutely no ambition and the only worry there is is making profits by the end of the year.

we, supporters, are nothing but a few stupid people who go to the stadiums to clap those fuckers who also don't give a fuck about anything other than collecting their wages and having their own brand of clothing.

sorry, am a bit depressed today, but sometimes i stop to wonder why the hell we care so much when club and players care so little.

it's like having a wife/girlfriend. you know you're going to regret having the whining bitch beside you every fucking day, but still you cannot live without that.

[T.S]

You know, I don't think it's as straight forward a situation as some people would believe. In my opinion, what has happened is that, once we moved in to the new stadium, the club had a plan to secure what it thought would end up being their most valuable players on long-term big-money contracts in order to maximise any transfer fee they would receive for them should any offers come in. However, for the most part it has backfired. Whereas in some cases it has worked (i.e. Nasri and Adebayor), in most cases, we've just been lumbered with squad players who will never fulfill their potential and who we cannot sell because no one will pay their wages (i.e. Diaby, Bendtner and Rosicky). It's all guess work, but it wouldn't be entirely irrational to assume that these players may feel less incentive to go on and fulfill their potential given that they're already on big-money and thus, have 'made it'.

So begins the process of - player shows potential - player is given big contract to maximise transfer fee - player feels no incentive to push-on given that he's already on the big money - due to lackluster performances, player spends most of the time on the bench collecting huge paycheck which hinders club's ability to pay top wages to top players - top players think twice about coming to the club (or staying with the club) because they can make more elsewhere - club is left with astronomical wage-bill largely dished out to under-achievers with little or no motivation - club cannot splash the cash as much as it would like in the transfer market because a) top players don't want to come because of wages and b) the transfer fund accounts for wages also, so any outgoing transfer fees are hampered by already bloated wage bill.

Now, I know absolutely nothing about running a football club, so I am almost certainly wrong here - but this makes sense to me. Basically, the club put all of its eggs in the big contracts basket and it has backfired badly. In order to spend the big money (transfer fees and wages) for the top players, the club first needs to clear out the deadwood raking in absurd amounts of money.

Who is responsible for these players getting these contracts (board or Wenger) is another matter entirely. I'd guess it's probably a combination of the two.

[SouthCoastArsenal]

Sorry Tony, this falls down with the fact that Flamini, Cole & Adebayor all left after being unable to negotiate pay rises having each had their best season respectively for us.

These 3 players were INDESPENSIBLE to our coninued successes but left over our 'wage structure' not giving them what they wanted.

Admittedly, greed no doubt played a part, but who can argue that Cole etc was not worth anothe 5k a week given what we have had to endure with his sucessors

[donaldo]

TS

Thats the problem we cant get rid of the deadwood because we have given them massive contracts.Who in their right mind would give Denishit Diaby Almunia Roshitty and Billy Bender £50k plus a week other than Wenger.We can loan them out but thats all.Useless they take massive wage cuts to join other clubs we are stuck with them.Thanks Wenger.Because there is nothing that goes on at the club without him having the final say so.

[TeeCee]

Wenger has ALWAYS preached continuity and equality. That's why he pays players so much, because if everyone is equal he thinks everyone will be happy and if everyone is earning good money, they won't want to leave. Throw in the fact that mediocre players are earning fortunes AND playing regular football, it also brings guaranteed adulation from the players for the manager who has given them everything they wanted! So in Wengerworld, everything should be perfect
Happy players
No one wants to leave
They all love the boss

[SammyDroppedHisShorts]

It all started going down when the Cashley Cole incident over money arose...we have never recovered from that disgraceful incident

[ambarron]

We all know all we can really hope for is 2 loans this window if anything when real cash needs to be spent. Every year the dumbing down of Arsenal is something to behold. Each version cheaper and more crumbly than before.

We all know that under Kroenke this will only continue. Talk of Goetze and Hazard are just flannel. How many times do we need to hear we will spend 30m on super quality....yeah right but we NEVER do.

This year 5th next season who knows.

Remember we don't buy superstars, we make them

[northbankbren]

"Moving to the Em****es will make us able to compete with Europes biggest clubs"

it really sad to be honest. All the extra money, and we actually spend less than before.

[Goonanana]

I can see where Tony S is coming from, take Kos for example. Now I know nothing of his contract situation but say Wenger didn't give him a new, long or improved contract last season when the general consensus was that he was tripe and then he ends up leaving this Summer for a pittance when he actually is starting to look solid then everyone will blame Wenger for the Flamini situation arising again. If however he put him on £50k on a 5 year deal and he didn;t improve at all he'd be getting slated for creating another Denilson. It must be very difficult judging these situations but then again I suppoes he gets paid £4 mill a year to make those judgements so he should be getting more of them right

[the playing mantis]

tony saunders, unfortunately your theory is not upheld by the fact diaby and roshitsky were given new contracts fairly recently, ie after they had shown they were sh*t and always injured, indeed roshitsky got one when still out injured.

[ambarron]

I can see where Tony S is coming from, take Kos for example. Now I know nothing of his contract situation but say Wenger didn't give him a new, long or improved contract last season when the general consensus was that he was tripe and then he ends up leaving this Summer for a pittance when he actually is starting to look solid then everyone will blame Wenger for the Flamini situation arising again. If however he put him on £50k on a 5 year deal and he didn;t improve at all he'd be getting slated for creating another Denilson. It must be very difficult judging these situations but then again I suppoes he gets paid £4 mill a year to make those judgements so he should be getting more of them right

Fantastic post

[worthing_gooner]

I can see where Tony S is coming from, take Kos for example. Now I know nothing of his contract situation but say Wenger didn't give him a new, long or improved contract last season when the general consensus was that he was tripe and then he ends up leaving this Summer for a pittance when he actually is starting to look solid then everyone will blame Wenger for the Flamini situation arising again. If however he put him on £50k on a 5 year deal and he didn;t improve at all he'd be getting slated for creating another Denilson. It must be very difficult judging these situations but then again I suppoes he gets paid £4 mill a year to make those judgements so he should be getting more of them right

Fantastic post

All well and good, but there's "rewarding the player" and then there's "rewarding the player"!!

A young Abou Diaby comes in on 20k a week - great. He wants an improved deal because he's breaking into the first team - sign him up for another four years for 30k and say if you become a regular first team player in two years time, we'll increase it to 40k for the remaining 2 years.

Don't just say oh Abou might become good, better give him 60k straight away.

It's ridiculous business!

But then again we've seen ridiculous business from Arsenal time and time again in the last few years.