Could Arsenal Afford to Pay a Player £200,000 Per Week?

By: Homey | August 28th, 2011

On August 14, I wrote a blog in the wake of Cesc’s departure to Barca. In that blog, I argued that we desperately needed to get a high quality replacement at such an important position on the field. I then proceeded to suggest Sneijder, since he’s been in the news a lot lately as a potential transfer for someone. My point was really more that we at least need someone like Sneijder, if not that exact player himself.

In the comments’ section, former Arsenal Offside blogger Sairax wrote, “Sneijder’s on like, 200,000 a week. Try again.” (I’m not sure if she meant pounds or euros, but it’s pretty close to the same thing either way.) Brenton, Darren, and others jumped on board with Sairax, while I still wondered why we couldn’t pay someone that much per week. I decided to retreat into my hole for a while, do a lot of research, and then come out firing again. This, despite the fact that I respect Sairax and my fellow blogging team greatly. But I’m a stubborn mule with a calculator, so this is what you get sometimes.

Now before I start spouting a lot of figures, I’ll repeat something that has been a source of frustration for me since I started blogging. That is, it’s hard to pin down exactly what various players are making. It’s often the case that a player’s salary is listed at vastly different figures, depending on what source you read. Still, I think I’ve done enough research where at least my numbers should be pretty close to being accurate. And if I’m wrong in a few places, please know that it wasn’t without tremendous searching for the right figures on my part.
Ronaldo
OK, based on what I’ve found in source after source after source, there’s only one player in the world who made at least £200,000 per week last season. One. His name is Ronaldo. According to these sources, which are all in harmony, Ronaldo is making €12m per year. That comes to about £10.5m per year, which is just a shade over £200,000 per week. The rest of the top 5 earners were Messi, Torres, Yaya Toure, and Rooney. According to these figures, Rooney is making about £160,000 per week. And that was good enough for the top 5 in the world. Now I know that those sources were for last season, and Eto’o has recently signed a mega-contract worth over £200,000 per week. So now there are two players making at least that much. But if my research on this issue is correct, the wages of the top players have been WAY overblown. Some people think half of Man City’s players are making around £200,000 per week.

Now let’s turn to Sneijder’s wages, since that was the topic of debate a couple weeks ago. In the lists I saw, it showed his wages at €4m per year. If that’s converted into pounds and listed on a weekly basis, it actually converts to a little under £70,000 per week. Now, I did find another story that listed his salary at about twice that, but it doesn’t seem quite as accurate. According to the story, Sneijder was talking to Dutch goalie Piet Velthuizen, and Velthuizen told him that he’s making €400,000 per year. Sneijder reportedly responded, “Don’t you think it’s funny that I make 20 times as much as you?” Stay classy, Wes. Anyway, even if that figure were correct, it would mean that Sneijder is making around £135,000 per week. So no matter how you slice it, Sneijder is assuredly NOT making £200,000 per week. I think where all of that comes from are the reports that he’s been demanding that sort of money from Man Utd or whatever team hopes to sign him. One report even said he was asking for £250,000 per week from United.

I’m not sure how true all the reports were about his wage demands, although I’m sure he would have been trying to get all he could. But based on my research, he’s most likely not even making as much as Arshavin or van Persie at the moment, so I don’t think we have to feel too badly about being too miserly about our wages. I think the bigger issue while discussing Sneijder in particular, is the problem that he seems to have with van Persie. So let’s rule that one out and move on to some more general points, which is really what I hoped to do with this blog anyway.

1) As I’ve already tried to point out, the numerous lists I’ve found have stated that we’re not as behind in wages as we might think. And the top players really aren’t making as much as we may think they are. So if we paid someone a sum of, say, £130,000 per week, we’d be putting that player in the top 15 in the world. That’s not so bad, it’s not so out of reach, and it’s not much above what we were paying Cesc already. So the issue of whether we need to pay £200,000 per week is a bit of a moot point. The question instead is if we’d be willing to pay around £130,000 or so to a few select players. Suddenly, it’s not such a drastic thing as we thought.
henry
2) Believe it or not, Arsenal once upon a time actually did pay someone £200,000 per week, or at least very close to it. Back in 2006-07, Henry was given a contract extension that paid him £5m up front, plus another £5m each year for three years. Thus, in his first year of the new contract, he made a cool £10m. Even if you spread out the £5m over the course of the contract, his yearly amount would still put him in the top 15 among all players today. Keep in mind that this contract was before Arsenal started paying off a lot of debt, before Arsenal made fantastic profits off sales of big name players, and before Man City, PSG, and others inflated the market yet again, etc. Of course in hindsight, the amount Arsenal paid Henry that year was far too much for the production we received, and it probably helped to prompt his move to Barca. Still, if we could pay that amount in 2006 to one player, I’m quite confident we could pay that amount again.

3) If I had to start an imaginary team from scratch, and I were handed a certain budget for transfers and wages, the position where I’d be most likely to spend the most would be the central attacking midfield spot. I think most fans would likely feel the same way. While the pure goal scorers get the most glory, I’d rather have a superstar at a position that’s around the ball the most, and has the most to do with the flow of the game. A center forward would probably be next on my list, followed by a central defender or two. So in theory, those are the spots where I’d be willing to spend the most. With that being said, if the best player out there for us, at the position of greatest need, cost us £150,000 per week, would it really be so unwise to do that? Sticking with the £150,000 per week figure, that brings us to Kaka. That’s about exactly what he’s reportedly making at the moment, and there were rumors we were thinking of taking him on loan our buying him outright. And those rumors were quickly quieted by fans and pundits who say he’s paid too much for Arsenal to handle. Now, I list him here by means of example only. I think if I had my way, I wouldn’t invest such a huge sum in someone with injury and age concerns. But still, if we thought he was definitely THE GUY to stick in the center of midfield and make things happen, that amount of money shouldn’t be a sticking point.
Kaka
4) Related to the last point is the fact that not only has the club yet again made a huge profit from player sales this summer (about £40m as of this writing, before any deal for Park), but we’ve also seen a freeing up of salary money as well. If you were to merely combine the wages we were paying Cesc plus Denilson, that would be enough to pay Kaka right there. Again, it’s with great frustration that I’m not able to sort out exactly what all of our players are making, or were making. One site, for instance, lists Bendtner at £2.5m per year, Denilson at £2m per year, and Carlos Vela £1.6m per year. Another site lists Denilson at roughly £3.1m per year, with Almunia checking in at £2.6m per year. Any way you slice it, the wage bill seems to have gone down this summer. Factoring in the loans of Bartley, Botelho, Vela, Shea, and Randall, plus sales of Eboue, Nasri, Fabregas, JET, and Clichy, the club is saving (very rough estimate) a little under £20m per year in wages. Assuming Bendtner is sold before the window shuts, that would push the savings total to about £22m per year. On the other side, based on what I’ve read, I’d estimate the combined wages for AOC, Gervinho, and Jenkinson at around £8m per year. Campbell just lost his bid for a permit, and will be loaned out, so I didn’t include him in this year’s wage bill. The rest of it is hard to sort out, because we have to speculate on a couple of new players we’ll bring in. As of this writing, the Park deal seems imminent, but I don’t know what his salary will be. Plus, we’re bringing back Traore and Miyaichi from loans, and probably paying guys like Frimpong more for playing in the first team. Anyway, even factoring in what we’re paying for those new players, it’s still safe to project that the wage bill will decline overall this season. Thus, without even factoring in the massive profits from sales, and looking just at wages, it’s pretty clear that there’s more than enough room to bring in a high-earning midfielder.

5) I think that perhaps the bigger issue that was raised in the aforementioned August 14 blog is the issue of what a player with a massive salary would do to our entire wage structure. I think the theory says that if we paid one person a huge salary, then everyone else will be knocking on the door, asking for pay raises. Let me address this issue in the following three ways:

First, I think that objection almost assumes players are living in a little Arsenal bubble, and have no idea what players on other teams are making. But it seems pretty clear to me that if one of our players wants more money, he can easily point to what a comparable player is making for Man City, Chelsea, or whoever else. And I’m sure that goes on all the time already. So it’s going to be up to us to keep up with the market (at least with a few of our key players), or else perpetually lose players.

Second, I already blogged about this issue back on July 5, but the notion that superstar players in any sport should make 5-10 times more than their teammates is not a foreign concept. It’s reality. So if we have one superstar making £150,000 per week, and a bunch of other guys making a third of that amount, it’s really not outside the norm at all. Super talented, super valuable players, especially at key positions, should be expected to make far more than teammates with lesser roles. Furthermore, as I wrote on July 5, and as Tim Payton hinted at on July 25, our lesser players are probably making too much money anyway. Our wage structure seems to be built on a model where most everyone is paid well, but nobody is paid super well. And that’s not really a model that keeps or attracts the most dynamic players in the world, unless we do what we did with Henry back in 2006.
Nasri Man City
Third, I think paying one or two new players really high wages would have a positive effect on the rest of the team, rather than a negative one. For instance, let’s say Wenger has the following conversation with Sagna: “Bacary, we have a chance to spend big money on Player X. He’s really great and will help us win big, but he’s also going to make three times more than you make. Would you want us to sign him?” Well duh. Of course Sagna would say yes, unless for some reason Player X was a right back. While today’s players (like Nasri) get a bad reputation for being all about money, I do think they want to win titles as well. So when Nasri and Clichy say stuff like they’re really into winning trophies, I at least partially believe it. Not that a fat paycheck hurts their feelings either, though. But even RvP has reportedly gotten testy with Wenger lately over the lack of action, and he and Wilshere are already on record as saying we should add more talent. So yes, players are greedy, but that’s only a part of their motivation.

OK, so what should Arsenal be doing about the wage situation? I think we should go about it in three ways. First, we obviously can’t afford to pay massive wages to players who end up as backups, or who don’t fit into our plans for some reason. That’s a big reason why Chelsea and Man City get such bloated wage bills. Man City handed Adebayor a contract worth over £140,000 per week, putting him in the top 10 in the world, and then relegated him to the bench. Come to think of it, there’s a chance that most of City’s purchases from Arsenal won’t hold down starting roles this year, despite making huge sums of money. So for Arsenal, we definitely can pay someone what Adebayor is making. We can even do that for a couple of players. But we need to make sure that they’re high character people who fit in our scheme and are relied upon to start most matches.

Second, as I discussed in my July 5 blog, we need to free up salary money where we can, if we want to pay our best players competitive money. While this may be difficult, this summer has shown that it’s possible. We found takers for Denilson, Eboue, Vela, and so forth. And in their places, we have younger, cheaper players who can do about as well (or hopefully better). So if we keep developing our excellent youth system, and shoring up depth with young, low-paid players, we can pay a few world class players what they can make anywhere else.

Third, and not to beat a dead horse again, but we simply must start showing ambition in the transfer window. We just qualified for the Champions League group stages, and we most certainly have money to spend on new additions. The reason I mention that in a blog about wages is for two reasons. One is that if our current players believe this is an ambitious club with a bright future, they might be willing to play for less money to stay where they are. And related to that is the fact that we’ll be able to recruit better players, so long as wages are at least similar to what other clubs are offering. Now of course we can’t win a nuclear arms race with Man City for any player in the world, but there’s also a better than zero chance that we could have signed Mata, for instance, if he truly believed we had as much chance of winning titles as Chelsea.

Finally, I want to address something that some of you have no doubt been thinking while reading this. And that pertains to the reported tension between the board and Wenger regarding wages. According to a report that went pretty viral in Arsenal fan circles, Wenger was pushing for the club pay much higher wages than the board was willing to pay. So you may be thinking, “Well what can Wenger do about wages? His hands are tied!” Since I don’t want that issue to be the focus of this blog, I would simply say two things briefly. One is that the original article that quoted the unnamed source was factually dodgy at best, has been roundly criticized, and even drew a strong objection from the club itself. Next, and more importantly for me, this blog isn’t really intended to be a direct criticism of Wenger personally. I really don’t know what’s happening behind closed doors regarding spending and wages. My purpose here is to simply point out what the general wage market looks like, and how our club might fit in with that right now.

Overall, I hopefully have painted an encouraging picture of at least what Arsenal could do in the wage market, if the owner/board/manager chose to do so. We’re really not that far behind, and the market isn’t quite as insane as many people think. Now it’s just up to the club to pull the trigger on some players of “super quality,” as I heard someone recently say. Time will tell if it ever happens.

——————————————————————–
[F]or I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I’ve committed to Him until that Day. II Timothy 1:12b.

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Category: Arsenal News, Arsene Wenger, Randoms, Rants, Transfer News and Player Movement

« Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal: The Nadir, if We’re Lucky. | Home | Parks and Santos and Transfers and Oh My! »

rupert

Although it's a decent article the whole Sneijder section is a bit pointless, to analyse this all properly you need to look at the pay these players get after tax. In england these guys will get taxed 50%... Arshavin was sickened by his 80k a week salary dropping to 40k. In other countries these players may not even get taxed at all??? So Sneijder may be on 75k a week with no tax, which means in England he'd need to be paid 150K a week to make similar money. WHich is sort of the reason why many players are fancying the idea of playing abroad... So yeah if we bid for guys like Hazard; Kaka; Sneijder; they will probably ask for at least 70-80k a week after tax, which may be something our club can't afford...
FredJacob

Chu Young Park Exclusive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Homey_Mills

I hope nobody has kidnapped JG. But I do believe a transfer post is on the way sometime today.
Perry S.

JG fathered a child in Africa who is playing for a Columbian youth team. He went for a visit and has not been seen in a few days now. You and your bloggers better pony up that massive cash reserve you've got from blogging on here because I hear the ransom is large.
Perry S.

On another note, its nice to see some excitement in this blog, with Arsenal fans, and within the Arsenal world as a whole.
brenton

Miralem Pjanic apparently available for 10m euros, likely going to Roma. I would snap him up in a second for that price. Great attacking mid.
SJGgumby

Latest rumors that Bendtner could possible stay and Chamakh could go out on loan. This would make me extremely happy.

I don't buy it though.
TJ

That would make me happy as well. RVP, Park, Bendtner is good. Anything with Chamakh, I'm convinced, is not good. I thought he had questionable touch last season, this season is even more shockingly dreadful.
Perry S.

Whats really sad is Chamakh has a knack to use his head well, but doesn't necessarily get the service to use it. Reminds me of what is happening to Carroll over at LFC.
SJGgumby

I agree sorta, but on his current form he's a big part of the reason that he's not getting good service, since he's been basically useless as part of the build-up. I'd love to know if he looked this bad in practice too.

Its a shame - not sure if its his personal troubles, a lack of confidence, or if he's just not that good and that spell in the beginning of last year was a fluke. But I'd be all for loaning him out and letting him try and work it out there.
TJ

But look who are Perry, we're not a crossing of the ball team. Yes, it's nice to have multiple methods of attack, but when you look at Walcott, and even Gervinho.. we don't have the type of player to cross it, because we were designed that way. I'd much rather have players who can run at players. Now, Pool have gone out and spent on players they think can cross the ball, Downing, Adam, and that might be why the are retarded and start Carroll over the great Suarez. But the way we play, Chamakh is miles behind RVP and even Bendtner in the skill department.
Perry S.

Yeah I agree, I'm not saying we should transform into that type of team, but I just find it sad that we purchased a player who was already known for this specific ability and brought him to a team that really can't support him in that role. Whats worse is that he's pretty much one dimensional, poor Chamakh, we (and he) had so much hope for him.
brenton

Apparently we're going to buy everyone ever. Awesome.
TJ

So we're in for another left back? Santos, and Vargas? And Gibbs? okay. Sounds good to me. And I'm liking these cheap, quality buys of less than 10 mill each for Mertesacker, Santos, and Park. Now we splash the cash for a ballin' ass CAM and maybe M'Vila, and we're set! Woot woot!
brenton

Word
Omar

From Skysports....

Gunners check on Vargas.... wow

Fantastic for AFC and its fans in Peru.
gener4

The more I am seeing of Santos, the more I am loving this guy. AMAZING on the ball, great elusiveness, hell of a passer, and can take set pieces. Looks like a fantastic attacking option and possession guy.
Frankgunner

why not buy ericksen from ajax???
Tee_sui

He wants to continue development and maturing in the Eredivisie/Holland before moving to bigger things.
Perry S.

Eat your words and line up for egg on your faces, Wenger haters.

In Wenger I Trust.
Marloneious

Words are edible?!
Perry S.

Yes.
Marloneious

Clever haha.
Homey_Mills

Uh, ok. I'll prepare a blog on this topic by the end of the week. It won't really be a true roundup, but more just my thoughts on what we've done and not done. I think JG will blog today, and then again on Thursday. I'll hope to blog Friday or Sat. And I think Brenton will set up a live blog for Wed afternoon/evening for the last couple hours of the window.
Perry S.

You know I'm going to have a LOT of fun with this, right ;) And thanks for continuing to do all of these blogs (all of you), still really enjoy them, regardless if I agree or not.
SJGgumby

I think its too early to be triumphant. First, I don't think we've added more than depth, since I still envision Kos and maybe Gibbs as starters when fit. Much needed depth, yes, but still no replacement for Cesc.

Second, its quite a shame that we left it so late. A couple of these players could've been the difference vs Newcastle and Pool. So we may have cost ourselves 3-5 points by waiting. Maybe that's worth the fee savings, maybe not.

So I'm holding out judgment until midnight - if there's one more big, "super quality" signing coming in at CM, then I'll declare myself hopeful. Otherwise, I'm still going to be disappointed and worried about qualifying for Europe next year (EITHER European league).
Perry S.

I'm fairly certain Per Mer will be starting. Secondly, I'm fairly certain we'll have a good midfielder when all said and done. And finally, just remember I said I told you so when we qualify for UCL yet again. Make sure you pile it on heavy if I'm wrong....but I won't be.
SJGgumby

To be fair to me - I'm not writing us off of the champs league. I'm just expressing my worry - I think the chances are under 50%, but could easily see Liverpool continue to underperform or Chelsea get old fast and let us sneak in there. Think a lot depends on this final signing (if any).

And it'll be interesting to see what Wenger does about Per - I see him as a backup / starter against Stoke and that sort of team. I think he's really high on Kos when paired with Verm- and depsite some inconsistencies, I can see it.
Perry S.

Fair enough.
Homey_Mills

As long as you know I'm not going to retreat from my position I've had about Wenger all summer.
Perry S.

That is definitely your prerogative, but I'll be here to continue to tell you otherwise and Wenger will be with Arsenal to continue to prove you wrong :D
Martin

Mertesacker on his way to London for his physical and to finalize a deal. Arsenal reportedly still sniffing around Christopher Samba and Gary Cahill and looking for a playmaking midfielder. There are also pretty credible reports of Arsenal inquiring about Clint Dempsey, which . . . you know, would be kind of a dream come true for me as an American Arsenal fan who was born in South Texas (where Deuce is from) and lives in Greenville, SC (where Deuce went to college).

I know there's a lot of negativity about Wenger at the moment, and I wish he had done this business earlier in the transfer window, but even the Homeys of the world have to acknowledge this: he said he was going to go out and buy established, experienced players in positions of need. He has done exactly that:

Park Chu Young: 26 years old, captain of S. Korean national team with 53 caps, 3 seasons in Ligue One.

Andre Santos: 28 years old, 22 senior caps for the most storied national team in the world, 2 seasons in Turkey

Per Mertesacker: 26 years old, 75 caps for German national team, 7 seasons in the Bundesliga, captain of Werder Bremen

That's three pretty seasoned, experienced players, all of whom play positions which needed strengthening for us. And for a total of 20 million.

Wenger's back, baby!
Andylowe14

and lets not forget he already got gervinho
TK

In a way, perhaps this drubbing at the hands of Man Utd, our biggest rival, may have been exactly what was needed to get a reaction out of the club. Wenger is doing his best to adapt to reality, which requires experience and older heads in the team, instead of the usual claims of "stifling the youth." Up gunners! And thank you Fenerbahce for getting relegated! I wonder if we'd have gotten a left back if the cheapest option was Baines at 15 million...
Perry S.

Actually, not in a way, but exactly what we needed. Again, I will repeat we are only 3 games into the season and people speak as if we're going to be relegated (HAAAA). I'm quite suprised by fan reaction here, and by the volume of people who have asked for Wenger's head. It really stifles me that people were so naive to think there would be no actions taken to resolve the situation.
Homey_Mills

The official site said we've just signed Park. Not sure the official price yet though.
Gigi_man

He got the #9 shirt. Would it be my dream of a true fox in the box?
They also say 25 goals in like 90 games, thats not too much fox in the box, but I guess its not a bad number for a guy in a relegated side?
Homey_Mills

I'm trying to focus more on his goal total from last year, which was pretty good. Especially since he scored about 1/3 of the total goals that Monaco scored for the year, on a reall bad team. So we'll see.
Gigi_man

good focusing
Martin

Yeah, I'm trying to focus on that, too. That's not bad when you consider how bad Monaco was and how defensive Ligue 1 is.

I've also heard that he's not really an out and out goal-scorer, more of a support-striker type guy in a lot of ways, which fits in with Arsenal and would mean he doesn't have super high goal tallies, but can get players around him involved.
TK

Agreed. I think he, like some of the websites have been saying, is going to be back up for van Persie, when he's injured, and Chamakh, when he's away at the Cup of Nations, so for 3 million, it certainly doesn't seem bad.
gener4

I'm surprised by AW's appreciation for Young. After reviewing his stats, and watching a couple clips, I don't see anything special about this guy. I get that Chamakh is in POOR form, and Nik doesn't want to be here, but 26G/9A in 103 appearances for Monaco is pretty uninspiring. It's not like he's 19.
Satan

Martin, with the amount of Information and insight you provide us, why don't you just do some part time blogging here? haha
Martin

After Sunday's debacle, I thought, "Man, am I glad I don't have to write THAT match report." I'm retired from daily blogging, thanks....
Homey_Mills

Well you could still do what you're doing now, only here. Just once a week or whatever. I think it would be cool, but you wouldn't have a website named after you. So there's the downside too.
Gigi_man

Motion duly supported!
SJGgumby

Could also be every 2 weeks each if Sairax was also on board...

I think Arsenal Offside should aim to have the highest number of bloggers of all the Arsenal blogs. Or at least the loudest.
Homey_Mills

Then we could spread out the 10 cents a month they're offering us, and we'd each get 2 cents per month.
Gigi_man

I am so happy if Wenger shuts my mouth off, happiesta man ever, thats all I was asking for,
Although, I will start jumoing when I see it in the official, no offence to you Martino, its just my heart is ripped apart and cant stand a disapointment at the moment :)
Perry S.

I saw a reply you had to something I wrote a few days ago. You said something along the lines of "Perry make me believe in Wenger..."

Gigi, I don't need to make you believe, he himself will be bring you back on board.
Gigi_man

:) from your mouth to Wengers ears
Rico

What about the German defender Per Mertesacker we are apparently in advanced talks with.
Traore is away! am sorry but he just didn't cut it at all.
Patoux21

Any news on Hazard? with Nasri and Fabregas gone we still need a replacement
Perry S.

Joe Cole is on his way to Lille on a seaon long loan. If this comes to fruition, then I'd have to believe Lille are up to seeing Hazard go.
Homey_Mills

In our dreams.
Goal.com_Arsenal

OFFICIAL: Arsenal have secured the signatures of M'vila and Martin with a combine fee of excess £ 30 000 000, with M'vila earning around £76, 000 per week and Martin around £ 63,000 per week. The signing of South Korea Captain Park Chu- Young to be completed within the next 2- 3 hours for a fee of £ 3 000 000. It is expected Gary Cahill will be signed for £ 12 500 000, not including bonuses and add ons and with Ignasi Miquel and Ryo Miyaichi going to bolton on a season loan. It is also reported a there will be a last minute in a dash luring Andre Ayew to the emirates and Andre Santos is reported to have agreed term with the gunners and is currently under going a medical.

I will update if any new reports arise.
Martin

The first sign we should have had that this was not true was when you said you were from Goal.com
Bertrand

That is the best news ever. If true.
TJ

Jesus Christ, I hope you're telling the truth.
Ambrose

:) Glad to see I'm not the only one praying
torrit

I think there's a lot of us :P
torrit

Well, apparently Arsenal have been told by Rennes that Yann M’Vila will not be leaving the club unless they receive and offer of €40 million so I guess he's will not be joining anytime soon.
We're also putting together a take-it-or-leave-it offer for Marvin Martin.
In more positive news:
Reportedly we're close to signing Mertesacker for £8.8 million and are offering
£10 mil for Chelski's Alex.
There are also some rumours about season-long loan move for Yossi Benayoun.
gener4

I have a very close friend who is a Brasilia FANATIC. Knows all three levels of the Brazil squad inside and out. He says Santos is an upgrade over both Gibbs and Traore. Although he doesnt have the same pace, he's better on and off the ball, and seems to have a great head for the game.
brenton

He didn't go to the World Cup, but has played four times in 2011 for Brazil. Ahead of Bastos and Marcelo?
Gigi_man

Good point. No Wcup and ahead of those two established ones?
brenton

Bastos and Marcelo are complete defensive liabilities. New coach likes someone a bit more solid? I'm going to look for Brazil match reports.
gener4

Also note, he has a solid foot, scoring 10 from 59 appearances. I doubt we've had 10 from our back FOUR in the last 100. That point aside, i think he'll probably cost somewhere in the 14m range
brenton

6.2m pounds cited by the BBC.
gener4

That's it??? That's a STEAL. He cost THEM 9m.
brenton

And only 2 years ago. Weird.
TK

You do have to remember though that his team is going to get relegated, ala Juventus, because of the match fixing scandal, so that's probably the reason why.
brenton

Yah, could be. Whatever the reason, I'm a happy camper.
gener4

Correct. I believe he had a fall out with Dunga. Wikipedia for all its accuracy already lists him as a Arsenal player.
Gigi_man

That could explain it, and if he fell out with Dunga, while Dunga made them play like they did, it might be good news.
Martin

Apparently we have, or are very close to, finalized a deal with Fenerbahce to bring in left-back Andre Santos. Santos is 28 and has been a fairly regular player with the Brazilian national team the last few years. According to people on Twitter who are in the know and have watched Brazil fairly regularly, he's gotten some mixed reviews, but the bottom line is that he's quite a bit better than Traore, who is close to leaving for QPR. It's an improvement, and we definitely needed a LB.

Also, some media reports have Arsenal bidding for Dortmund playmaking CM Mario Gotze, but the bid being rejected. Honestly, I doubt this happens, because I'm not sure why Dortmund would sell, and frankly, why Gotze would leave, because he's got a better chance of winning trophies and has nailed down a spot in his NT at Dortmund. Unless we just offer him boatloads of money, not sure why he'd want to come to Arsenal. But I'll say this -- if there is any player worth offering lots and lots of mony to and for, based on what I've seen, it's Gotze. I don't think we could do much better in replacing Cesc. I've only seen each player a few times, but based on what I've seen, I'd definitely take Gotze over Hazard.

If nothing else if this story is true, it's a good sign in that it shows that Arsenal are willing to pay a lot to get someone who can do the job right now, which seems uncharacteristic.
Frankgunner

how about christian ericksen anyone??? how come he is not being linked with us since the Ice Man himself recommended to wenger?
Gigi_man

Great news. Really. I think we need an established player, I d take it even with the mixed reviews.
SJGgumby

Soccernet claims that Dortmund want 35M Euros (about 31M pounds). Is he worth that amount - I haven't seen much of him? Given his age, I wonder if he'd be more reasonable with his wage demands and make that transfer fee amount more palatable.

All of your doubts for why Dortmund would want to make this deal make a lot of sense to me, unless Dortmund needs the cash - anyone here know anything about their finances?
Bertrand

He is worth that. Definitely.

Better than Ozil at his age (19 i think). Watched him in the German national team, and he played confidently and fitted right in. Scored a goal as well.

Not sure if hes 'overvalued' at 30 mil pounds, but he has resell value.
gener4

BV are a PLC, so their finances won;t see too much of a swing one way or the other. I wouldn't classify them as rich by any stretch, focusing on growing from within (sound familiar?). 35m for one of their kids goes a long way to pleasing the shareholders.
brenton

Most German clubs don't need money. Dortmund average 77,000 at their stadium, and tv rights are making them bank.
Casimir

Dortmund was actually in a dire financial state a few years ago, hence their decline from European play and being a mid-table team (or that can be attributed to under performing for the talent they had) for a few years before making progress in Klopp's first year and surging last year. But when they were in the red was a while ago now, which was one of their motivations for selling people like Rosicky to us, Smolarek to Racing Santander, and I'm forgetting the Swiss national team's target man's name. I believe they only turned the corner financially like two years ago, so the board may have in interest in selling. But I doubt Klopp would want to, and Goezte is kind of reaching hero status there as a youngster. But as we learned with our young heros, everyone has a price, and if we give them an offer too good to refuse, they'd be dumb not to sell.
Martin

Although the flip side of that is that their matchday revenue is still way, way below Arsenal, because they generally charge about 10-15 Euros per ticket as I understand it.

Swiss Ramble had a great look at their finances about a year ago:

http://swissramble.blogspot.co...

Yeah, like most German sides, they are well run, so it's not like a Spanish side where they would jump at the money to pay off creditors. Still, they don't have the income Arsenal do, and that's a lot of money. I think we'd have to come pretty close to hitting their valuation -- they don't need the money, and they sold their other star midfielder, Nuri Sahin (Bundesliga player of the season last season) to Madrid, so I imagine it would piss off fans for them to win the title, get into the Champions League, and sell both their star midfielders. But everyone has their price.

Asto whether he would be worth it, I would defer to others, but he has looked like a real dynamo every time I've seen him, and at 19 he's only going to get better.
Casimir

If Cesc is worth ~30M, I'd say Goezte is definitely worth in the 20s, and his price tag at the club is going to be higher naturally since they don't want to sell and we have a desperate need, so I can see it inflating into the 30s, but an objective estimate would be 20s I'd think if it were an English or Spanish side purchasing.

(I may just be talking out of my ass but whatever, everyone has an opinion just like everyone has an ......)
brenton

Yah, high attendance through low ticket prices is an affliction Bundesliga teams have to deal with.

I did read that Dortmund were almost bankrupt about six years ago, but have since stabilized.
gener4

German TV rights are all pay-per-view, so it varies from team-to-team. Dortmund have one of the highest gates, that is true
brenton

That's interesting (re: ppv tv). I would have thought there would be a few big broadcasters like most other countries.
gener4

I would have thought so too.
Spike_gunner

loved this post, well done Homey
Felegy

"Come to think of it, there’s a chance that most of City’s purchases from Arsenal won’t hold down starting roles this year, despite making huge sums of money."

Looks like Nasri solidified his starting role this past Sunday. Been with the team for a week and pretty sure he had 3 assists. So much for him not being able to play in the middle, roaming around and creating havoc. Once again, a guy played out of his best position under AW....
Bertrand

Fabregas > Nasri

Stop whining man. It's getting tiresome.
brenton

Your point, unlike your astute observation re: tennis scores, is not at all apparent. Fabregas is better than Nasri, we know. What are you driving at here?
Gigi_man

I beg to differ, it was not that astute, astute would have been actually getting the between the line points...
Felegy

So "Fabregas > Nasri" is supposed to mean what exactly? That Fab is greater than Nasri? Duh. But we all knew that Fabregas was leaving at some point. Nasri, on the other hand was a bit more sudden and unexpected, at least to me.
I was just pointing out that it is silly wishful thinking that Nasri is just gonna be a benchwarmer for ManCity, he is going to flourish there and it will be painful to watch. Enough of my whining though.....although thats pretty much all there is to do in regards to Arsenal right now.
Bertrand

'Once again, a guy played out of his best position under AW'.

AW had to accommodate Fabregas in the Central Attacking Midfield berth. We needed width, so we couldn't have played with 2 Central attacking midfielders, and Nasri did a good job out wide. 10 goals wasn't it last season?
Gigi_man

Great commet from RvP, very captain-like imo.

"I don't think we can hide behind injuries or suspensions. It is no excuse. They had injuries too, this is football."
GOONER

Gigi, sadly our manager is hiding behind excuses...
Gigi_man

I know, I know, sadly I know, I which I didnt know...
Waka

Am not sure about Sneijder not getting along with van Persie... Unless its a recent development. In 2008, we played Ajax in pre-season and Sneijder and Suarez terrorized us. RvP was quoted as saying that he believes Sneijder was a future superstar and he would love to play alongside him at Arsenal...
brenton

2010 World Cup, Sneijder basically refused to pass to RvP.