Are Arsenal Really Going To Spend Some Money?
I know it might seem like I’m a little obsessed with the goings on at Arsenal, but when a story in the press raises my eyebrows I can’t help but react to it, particularly when it comes to the topic of their spending. And before gooners everywhere jump in with a counter argument about the obscene amounts spent at Chelsea, find me a quote where I’ve ever said I agree with the sort of contracts we dish out.
The reason I tend to pick up on reports of Arsenal lashing out on players is because it’s clearly not going to happen. Whether Wenger actually has a significant budget each year or not remains to be seen, because he certainly doesn’t show signs of spending it. And yet, here we are again with yet another ‘story’ to suggest he’s going to break the habit of a lifetime.
If recent reports are to be believed (and excuse me if I remain sceptical here), Arsenal are keen to land a new defender with a price tag of around £16million. Now whether the Udinese defender warrants this sort of price tag or not, there’s no way Wenger’s going to go for it. And true to form, the Arsenal manager has made a more conservative offer of £9.5million for Cristian Zapata. Now whilst I appreciate there’s nothing wrong with a bit of bartering, I’d have to say your average stall holder wouldn’t fancy customers like the tight Frenchman down the market. Far from just being a tentative offer to test the waters, it’s so painfully shy of the asking price that the tides already gone out. So unsurprisingly, Udinese (after a good laugh no doubt) have turned the offer down flat.
And what about the 21-year old Colombian, rumoured to be one of the most highly rated defenders in Europe at the moment? How’s he going to feel about moving to a club where the boss wants him so badly he’s prepared to pay just over half his worth? Wouldn’t exactly inspire contract negotiations surely?
So is Wenger trying to siphon his budget off into some Swiss account or is this another case of the press having a laugh? One thing’s for sure though, David Villa’s got no chance of playing for them next season.
Why would a Chelsea blog be interested in how much money The Arsenal spend?
Mind your own business…..got nothing interesting to write about your own team. Even though you have yet another manager that cant speak a word of English - fact.
Why dont you stick to worrying about your own club.
Ok, so you have a bottomless pit at the moment, but at any time your banker may have enough, and pull out of the camp - then you might find yourselves on the receiving end of such ‘mighty’ offers when you are debt ridden….
Remember Leeds
That one day, could be your cheating club!!
cant argue with that! spot on
I think the real question is how much Chelsea have to spend before they finish above Arsenal, per point.
My reckoning is something like £175 million.
Chelsea Exenditure since 2004 = £350 million
Arsenal Net Expenditure since 2004 approx = £0
Chelsea Total 2008 85 pts
Arsenal Total 2008 83 pts
85 pts - 83 pts = 2pts
Total cost per point = £350 million / 2 = £175 million
“siphon his budget off into that swiss account” take it u can prove that cos if u cant in this country we have laws to prevent false claims against people. but when u consider that chelski “fans” are still singing about wenger being a pedo, nice topic by the way to make fun of, yrs after it was proven, ie fact, that story was posted on an internet site by one person who not only got sacked for doing it on wks time but also his company paid wenger damages for it, still when it comes to the truth chelski fans can be a little blinkered ie “we didnt buy the title” “we didnt tap up cole” “£32 million on shev was money well spent” etc etc etc
You really are swayed by the fact Arsenal are tight and are disrespectful towards players, how about the fact we refuse to pay the huge transfer fees and prefer to shop around, whereas the Chavs will pay over the top money for average players,SWP,Duff.
We have a club stable in years to come because the bubble will burst in the PL and a lot of clubs will be, if not already heavily in debt.
Why just to keep up and compete rather than build up slowly, we get slated because we haven’t won anything for three seasons, so what, our team is getting stronger,stable and next season we will win a major trophy.
Wenger will prove once and for all you don’t need to spend, spend,spend to bring back trophies.
Too many glory hunters following teams and we have our share as well
Do you believe Villa will go to a team that has over blown ego racists, boring tactics, boring fans, a ground that doesn’t sell out.
You are still a small club with a sugar daddy, your global support which Kenyon is trying to promote doesn’t exist, and you still are and will always be small fry
Strangely enough, I agree. For Le Boss to buy a player who is just ‘highly rated’ for that kind of money would be crazy - he has shown with Sagna that you can buy the best defender than the whole of the premiership for a bargain.
Big money doesn’t always give a big return for the clubs who ‘buy big names’ rather than ‘big players’ just because they have a platinum card owner - look at the fools who bought Andriy Schevchenko for instance just because he was ‘highly rated’!
i do wish once in a while that we would spend a buy a big player, but how can i argue with what arsene {god} has achieved. mutu, sidwell, schevey, swp {wasted} anelka, hilario, loads of money, load of crap.
There is something so classless and tasteless about articles like this. Sure, we live in a footballing world where money is 90% of the ingredients for success and let’s face it, Chelsea have more money than any other club in the world, let alone England. And I have to say that there will always be a certain amount of jealousy when supporters of other clubs talk about Chelsea’s amazing spending power. If clubs were forced into a situation as envisaged by Platini where they would have to spend within the confines of their earning power then I guess CFC would be a mid table team. I wouldn’t laugh that off too quickly though. Platini and the powers that be have seen at first hand the kind of competition that Financial Doping brings. The CL final this year was a terribly dour and uninspiring affair and I doubt this went unnoticed in the corridors of power. Ok, so Arsenal fans admit that Chelsea have more money and will always be in a position to buy trophies as they have done recently. If that wasn’t true, then why had they not won the league for so long? But I hope that Platini gets his wish and the EPL is forced to run like the German league. Then we’ll see who has the best footballing ethos. But, until that day, this kind of article merely goes to illustrate how deeply sick and unpleasant certain factions of Chelsea supporters are. To suggest that Wenger is “siphoning money” to some Swiss account “again” while CFC is built on money gleaned from dubious sources by a Russian gangster is unfair. But then again, when did fairness ever matter to such a morally bankrupt club who have a 40,000 seat stadium that they cannot fill as the quality of their football is so deplorably low?
look at your own team mate. Who u buying? DECO? RONALDINHO? over-rated, over paid egos, PERFECT FOR YOUR CLUB……btw, how many chav players scored in euro’s? and arsenal? oh two…….
chelsea, totteringham flopspurs, villa, newcastle, manuare, have all spent more money on players since the premier started. its not all about cash, it helps, every club seems to have plenty of it, but none of you have what we have. class, real dedecated fans. you either love or hate us. you cant pretent to be an arsenal fan, we dont buy successs, we earn it through planning and patients. so what if our players are mostly overseas imports, thats the way of the world. as the song goes: cheating chelsea b’@t*)(s, the’ve gone and bought the league, but when the russian f~#ks off, you’ll be another leeds.
Chelsea were a mid table team pre Russian c*nt.
You used to buy Chris Sutton for ten million and graeme le saux for 6 million. dont ever question wengers spending you wankers.
Scolari, bit of a let down he is isnt he? no club management for how long? It’ll all end in tears.
Once again, this article shows that fundamentally, women should not be allowed near computers let alone write about football.
Relax love, you sit down now. Leave football talk to the men and Arsenal chat to Arsenal fans
Cunt
i tell you what why not spend about 9 million on a croat centre half who nobody has ever heard of and has never played and will probably sink without trace now you have finally got an autocratic manager who will be taking no shit off your autocratic owner. oh, forgive me you have already ticked that box.
as i remind all the chelsea supporters who miraculously crawled out of the woodwork 4 years ago when abramovich goes you are fucked as i believe he will want repayment on the interest free loan he gave you when he bought you.
tool.
If we’re that insignificant to your lot why all the worry? When your trophy cabinet is as full of ours, and your club history as grand (which will never happen as you don’t have the time and you’ll ALWAYS be playing catch up) then MAYBE we might be bothered. We have better players and a better youth academy and a better manager and a better stadium and a better….etc,etc……..aaaaah bless ya, you lot really make me giggle…x
Wenger will spend what is necessary. Chelsea will not. Instead of developing players, it will be out with the old, in with the new.
thought this was a chilsea boyz blogs. stick to the cheeky chappys from the bridge big guy
im a gooner(season ticket holder) and i think we are missing the point and that is we are a football club not a BANK so even if chelsea spend huge amounts the question was would arsenal spend and the response is NO because as chelsea are obsessed with spending big wenger is as osessed with winning on a tight budget but 1 he does not have a tight budget(he has cash to spend) and 2 he has not won anything and whats more he wont win anything next season unless he buys 2/3 top players and not 17 year old kids
hahahah chelski are in a debt of 785 million dollars. they spend an average of just above 1 million a day. every day of the year. arsen is very very smart, the club is in debt after building a new stadium, at this rate the debt will be paid of in no time at all. The plan to build a new stadium was proposed by wenger himself, he knew all too well that it would affect his transfer fee. so he invested in youth. we now have fabregas (20) , theo(18), adebyor (23), clichy(22), denilson(19), bendtner(19), traore(18) vela(19) merida(18), these are just some of the players. most of them are internationals at their tendor age. they all would have cost no more than what shevshenko cost chealski. i know i would rather have cesc than sheva. i dont mind clubs spending big eg. united they have spent 300 million in years compared to arenals 40. but they have spent it well, unlike chelski
Ignoring the petty insults implied in the article and explicitly stated by the online Arsenal contingent, I think what you’ve highlighted just illustrates the differences in transfer policy between the two clubs.
Firstly, there’s no confirmation anywhere that Arsenal have made a bid for Zapata, and the facts of Arsenal’s transfer dealings are one of the most secretive things in world football.
Secondly, it’s negociation. Arsenal (reportedly) put in an offer that was probably a bit below their valuation of the player. Zapata and his agents lick their collective lips abouts a lucrative Premier League contract, tells Udinese he wants out. Udinese reluctantly negociate to a deal lower than their valuation.
In contrast to Chelsea, who see an average left back in Asier Del Horno (for example) and immediately spunk a ludicrously inflated amount of money for his services for a year.
Most clubs have to barter for deals with players as most clubs do not have an Abramovich type figure who can just keep increasing his interest-free loan to the club (let’s hope he doesn’t get bored and want that repayed anytime soon eh!)
I’d pay very little attention to who the press link Arsenal with due to the secrecy of Arsenal’s transfer dealings (no mention of Eduardo last year, very little mention of Sagna until the deal was done). So until you hear Wenger actually comment about it (like he did with Nasri) I wouldn’t pay much attention to it.
Stick to writing the Chelsea articles, maybe you could write-off Scolari and organise some “you don’t know what you’re doing” chants in games before he wins the games and takes you to the Champions League final.
I am a gooner who believes that some of the points made by this Chav are valid.Yes i agree we probably will compete for the title next year i also believe a bit more investment in the team has been needed over the last few years instead of making profits on transfers.We pay the top ticket prices in Europe but behave like a championship club in the transfer market when we told the move to the Emirates would allow us to buy any player we need.We followed Fernando Torres for years and then bulked at the fee and nobody can tell me he would not have improved the team
Why is a Chelsea Blog monitoring the spending habits of Arsenal Football Club? The answer is plain to see, without any financial doping Chelsea never won anything apart from an FA Cup, 55 years is a long time to win the top flight in England. Money aside Chelsea are a small Club albeit an ambitious club but small none the less. They will implode because the figures dont add up. You cannot go on making huge losses and gamble on the hope of winning silverware to balance things out. If you have a couple of seasons where you dont win anything then you are introuble. Chelsea are a car crash waiting to happen just like leeds Utd. 10 managers in 17 years,
Hoddle shafted, Guillit shafted, Vialli shafted, Ranieri shafted, Mourinho shafted, Grant shafted, Scolari ??????
Small club No history run by clowns.
CHELSEA IS A VERY SMALL TEAM WITH BIG ISSUES, KINDA LIKE A BIG MAN WITH A SMALL PENIS REALLY, THEY CAN KEEP TO THEIR RUSSIAN FUTBOLSKI WHILE ARSENAL CONTINUES TO DAZZLE WITH TOTAL-VUTBOL!!!!
You are right, Arsenal cannot compete with Abramovich. I can live with this when you see what players Chelsea have bought like Shevchenko, Malouda, Anelka, Cole, Wright- Phillips actually the list is a lot longer and is a who’s who of ineffective mercenaries. Players move to Arsenal to improve- most (but not all) do. They move to Chelsea for financial reasons only. Chelsea are in the Inter Milan class for wasting talent. Face facts Chav as a Chelsea fan you have not seen enough quality football over the past 2 years to know anything about it.. Greed,? yes are the best.
Why would villa pick chelsea over arsenal they don’t know how to play football and villa would get pissed off very quickly with the amount of long balls lumped up to him. Chelski are just a shit club with no history and spend 3 times what players are worth.
Kaka youre having a laugh because i think your forgetting these are good players not pieces of shit like schevchenko,anelka, malouda, a cole who our just bought at inflated prices can’t wait to see chelsea go another season without winning anything.
Although the same can be said for us except we are not piling ourselves into millions of debt. As soon as abramovich has enough of running a shit club then its going to be like leeds all over again.
Me, on June 14th, 2008 at 10:04 am Said - Even though you have yet another manager that cant speak a word of English - fact.
Quite sure about that arent you?….Heres a quote for you then…..
A spokesman for the Portugal coach insists that the veteran boss will have no problem getting his message across to his troops once he arrives in England.
“English will not be a problem for him,” said Acaz Fellegger.
“Felipe has already worked in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Japan. In all these countries, he communicated in English.
Taken from SSN if you want to check it out…..FACT
looneygooner - We know we spent big to get where we are and I accept it had to be done if we were to challenge for the Premiership and in Europe, but what Chelsea has also done is heavily develop our youth system and facilities to draw the best young players to Chelsea so they will hopefully one day make it to the first team so we dont have to spend as much as we have done in the past. Our aim is to be self sufficient. Until we have reserve players breaking into the first team I’ll be happy for the club to spend if we need to.
With this 5+6 rule coming into effect over the next few seasons we already have in place a good foundation to make the transition a little easier to take.
And one final thing, it wasnt that long ago that YOU were playing boring football as you put it. Over the past 4 years the history books will say 2 titles to Chelsea + 2 titles to United, no where in the history books will it say….but Arsenal played nice football.
noel reynolds - If and when RA goes from Chelsea he will be looking for his cash back, but I’m sure there’ll be another sugar daddy willing to come along and keep us ticking over.
I’m an Arsenal fan, and the only reason I came to this post was because one of my posts was a related post!!
Anyway, I see what you’re saying and if we’re going to base our spending on past seasons then you’re totally right, Wenger is not going to pay for a huge signing like most Arsenal fans expect. He’ll get one relatively big signing (hopefully Nasri) and some youngsters. All this talk of Villa, Benzema, Veloso, etc can be thrown out now.
http://www.arsenal-opinion.com
Goonergerry - You’ve mentioned a few players we’ve signed who havent been up to scratch, but you could say that about any club. As they’ve been high profile players obviously its gonna be highlighted more. As for the moving for financial purposes only….I sense an underhand dig at a certain Ashley Cole…lol.
On the flip side, players like Joe Cole, Lampard, Carvalho, Cech and even Drogba have improved during their time at Chelsea.
And I’ll say it again, Its all well passing the ball in pretty patterns across the pitch, but in reality, you’re remembered for what you win, not by how well you play. I’ll settle for boring 1-0 wins every week as you did not that long ago.
if you listen to wengers comments he never said is looking to buy a centrel defender he is looking bring a inmore quility on the defensive side which will probebly mean he will bring an experiened full back that can play protect thr defence as well as in midfield and is big phsycal and is very good at dealing set plays i think he will also look to bring in another wide player and goal keeper no more than that.
and with wengers abitlity to spot talent there no need to spend 50 million. i feel wenger can a big strong full back for around 5-10 million, a wide player for around 5-12 million and a goal keeper and we will be fine. remember if evon you spend 100 million that no garantee that you will win every thing.
i feel last season missing risisky and edwardo completly cripled arsenal, risisky would have scord 10 goals at least,and edwardo would have scord al lest another 10 goals. so the complete nonsense that arsenal need to spend big is utter crap, arsenal just need to bring a few more wingers ,a holding midfielder and goal keeper.
i feel chelsea have this arrigents about them , they feel because they have money they can buy there way out of trouble,any player the whole ashly cole sagger is perfect example of that. before this big owner came there where nowhere, you cant realy count manu because they are and will always be great team,evon wenger and ferguson are not best buddies there always been huge amount of respect and tranfer policy you never aprouch player without going to the club first but the likes of chelsea , real madrid , barc, ac milan the whole way go about things i just dont like.
I’m sure Chelseadenise is a perfectly nice girl, but her article says everything about what’s wrong with the Chelsea approach to footy. It’s all about how much money you have. Respect is afforded those who can pay silly amounts of money for players. Those who don’t have the money or resist runaway market forces, “like the tight Frenchman down the market”, are regarded as somehow inferior. It’s a “My dad could beat your dad” sort of approach. I do hope Chelsea grows up one day but until Roman walks off with his ball they should just keep sucking tit.
Abz - you going to put up a more convincing argument than that or just crawl back into your cave?
Aesthetic Relic, don’t make me laugh Joe Cole has improved, he was restricted by defensive Maureen, his natural talent sticks out like a sore thumb as there is no-one in your team who can play on his level.
He needs to leave and go somewhere abroad perhaps to really express his self, you restrict the player at Chelsea.
The only thing Drogba improved was his diving even Essien looks like he’s had enough with all the big egos at Chelsea.
I have seen your youth team and they are miles behind in everything in football skills, you’re kidding yourself if you think any of your youth team will break through.
The Russian wants instant success now as ‘it’s my club and I do what I want with it’.
He pulls the strings, it’s that simple, what he wants he will get, accept the fact the club is a fad with him, he will get bored and your club will be pimped out again to anyone with money, where’s the class in that.
You don’t get it and you never will, you are blinded by money.
Our boring 1-0 wins were done by a team that played as a unit, we didn’t have the superstars, you do and you still play boring football, all that money and no dignity to show for it, look at Terry’s vile racist remark to Tevez and then snorting from his nose onto his neck, such class follows Terry.
Arsenal Holdings, through wise investments and short-term sacrifices, has laid the foundation for greater long term growth and financial stability. The transition from Highbury to The Emirates has resulted in a doubling of match day revenue for the 2006/2007 season. Furthermore, the development of Highbury Square and surrounding properties owned by the group are poised to provide Arsenal Holdings with greater long-term revenue. The development of Highbury Square is expect to yield around £300 million with the group stating in their year end financial report released in September 2007 that over 90% of the units have already been sold with the revenue from this development expect to be on the books for the next financial report to be released in September of this year. The smart refinancing package that the group complete two seasons ago consolidated bank debt into around £260 million of long term bond debt with a combination of low fixed and floating interest rates, giving the group greater flexibility in servicing its debt.
The half yearly financial report that covered the group’s finances from the May-November 2007 reaffirmed the sound financial base and potential for greater growth that the group outlined in the 2006/2007 report. The half yearly report noted that profits had risen by £20 million before taxes. Revenue for broadcast was up as Arsenal and the Premier League gain more popularity over seas. Furthermore, The launch of Arsenal TV in January 2008 in association with Setanta Sports is expected to increase broadcasting revenue even more. The move to the Emirates is also progressing nicely. International friendly matches and two Bruce Springsteen concerts will net the group a healthy return. The Emirates Cup has also been highlighted as an added source of revenue as the group reported that as of November 2007 match day revenues were already an astounding £41.4 million, with that number clearly expected to rise with the release of the next year end financial report due in September.
So what does all of this mean for the average fan? We can expect revenues to rise and debt to fall leaving the club with greater disposable income in the long run to use for wages and transfers. Since Arsenal’s debt is revenue generating and held over the long term, short term fluctuations in economic patterns will not effect the long term potential of the club and over a long enough time line the move to the new stadium will pay for itself resulting in greater power in the transfer market as well as a great ability to reward success players for outstanding seasons. This will help further cement Arsenal as a global football powerhouse able to compete financially with any club in the world without fear of future debt and possible bankruptcy al la Manchester United. So while we might yell at the papers and scream at the websites now over the perceived weakness of the club in the transfer market or our supposed inability to hold in to key players, in 3-5 years time the full effect of the move will start to iron themselves out and a new era will begin in North London.
Hello, long suffering Spurs fan here, I was directed to this site by a Gooner mate of mine, he gave a pretty damning verdict on it, but in the authors defence I think most is well put forward.
In regards to this topic, it’s quite clearly the media who don’t know their head from their arse, it’s common knowledge that Wenger always tries to be shrewd, yet they still link the Arse with anyone left right and centre for god knows how much.
About this Zapata bid, why would it matter if their first bid was snubbed? It’s quite concievable that they could come in with an improved offer. After all, it’s not exactly the first time in history a transfer bid not meeting the sellers value is rejected is it, doesn’t necessarily mean he’s not wanted as much as he should be. As for Villa, we all know that ain’t going to happen, I personally think he’ll be off to Real Madrid.
I think Wenger is a cock (but thats for another day :-)….but one thing I do commend him on though is his approach to running the Arse. I don’t know the nitty gritty details but I read their finances are soaring and with the new stadium in place, long term stability is well assured. Look at the likes of ourselves and Newcastle, spent shed loads over the years and chopped and changed managers willy nilly, yet haven’t achieved a fraction of what they have. Their trophies have dried up too, but looking beyond that the transformation of the club is unreal and something I’m massively envious of. I remember the days where they’d be lucky to get in 15,000 and Spurs were bossing it in Europe.
In a game where money is seen as the root of all evil, I think it’s great that someone is going against the trend with his wage structure and economic transfer fees. Of course it hasn’t proved to be enough in recent years (long may that continue!!), but I don’t think he should be “forced” into breaking his habits.
Simon.
Oh, and in response to the Arsenal fans telling ‘chelseadenise’ to worry about her own club - it begs the question, what an earth are you doing reading a Chelsea blog in the first place then?!
It’s perfectly natural to have opinions on other clubs, even if they don’t fit in with the general consensus of your own fans, like I’d say to Wenger, stop moaning!
It’s a blog posting,people can say whatever they want about any club don’t mean it’s true,
I’m an Arsenal fan and wheather we are 1st or Last,Spend £10m or £1000m i will always be an Arsenal fan so put away your knives and if all you can do is slag the poster for supporting Chelsea and stating her/his opinion on your club and getting into a big fight over it you are no supporter at all.
Finally a bit of common sense amongst the insults, lol. Correct me if I’m wrong but at the top of the post didn’t I say I’ve never actually agreed with the way Chelsea throw money around? I just happen to be of the opinion that there is a middle ground between paying over the top and cutting off your nose to spite your face, aka - being a martyr.
looneygooner - look at Terry’s vile racist remark to Tevez and then snorting from his nose onto his neck, such class follows Terry.
UEFA recently cleared him of that as they saw no wrong doing……says plenty if you ask me.
Someone mentioned its like my dads bigger than your dad with some of the comments, which is one way to put it. some of you gooners can see beyond your red tinted spectacles and admit that theres things that you’d like to see change, which is fair enough. I can do the same with Chelsea.
The reason I mentioned the youth team was because of the contant reference to the money at Chelsea. You seem to have missed the point where I mentioned that in the future the clubs aim was to be self sufficient which is why we are trying to ATTRACT youngsters to Chelsea to make the transition easier.
Aesthetic Relic, go on to youtube and you can clearly see Terry mouth the words’ you Argentina cunt’, then he puts his hand across his nose and mouth and Tevez wipes something from his neck, it is as plain as daylight, and it’s you my friend who has the blue tinted specs.
As soon as there is a sniff of Wenger paying anything between £6 to 12m for a player, within a fortnight Chelsea seem ready to pay £20 to 30m for that player!Do Chelsea hire a full time team just to watch every Wenger move and scout on our scouts? Maybe the recent stuff about Arsenal wanting to buy Crouch for £10m is a clever ploy to get Chelsea to pay £25m for him.God help Arsenal if they end up with that fat Russian.