chuckdee4:

Heard City want to improve their bid for Nasri to £22M

I say take the money and bring Mata in, Nasri has not looked the least bit interested since pre season began.
Wenger should get rid of this silly kid, half a decent season and he thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread. The chap is still far from being the finished product, if he's reluctant to signing a new contract then let him go, the last thing we need is a player who doesn't want to be at the Emirates.

£22M? I'd fly him to Manchester myself.

Wenger is only holding out cos he doesn't want to sell to a "rival", and to exorcise the whole "selling club" image.

Gervinho is even better suited to the wing-role Nasri is playing sef.

coogar:

goal.com is rubbish. . . . .i have never trusted them. they lack credibility and 99% of the rubbish on there are lies, speculations and pub rumours.

ibime na king of trumpery - always has been.
if goal.com could hire ibime then what else is there to say about the outfit?

I wasnt salaried. I only wrote max once a week for fun. Back then their journalists got paid £12,000 pa only. Ma best mate Amarpreet Dhadwal was salaried but always complained about cash flow.  Back then literally, they had only a few guys covering everything. Some would write so much, they had to use aliases so it doesnt seem like they're writing 20 articles per week. Ampy also wrote as Anthony Singh. 

However though, they're on a different level now. They dont do innuendos and conjectures so much anymore, and I find them to be just as reputable a source of news as any other site except soccernet (where traffic is slow).

Ibime:

I wasnt salaried. I only wrote max once a week for fun. Back then their journalists got paid £12,000 pa only. Ma best mate Amarpreet Dhadwal was salaried but always complained about cash flow.    Back then literally, they had only a few guys covering everything. Some would write so much, they had to use aliases so it doesnt seem like they're writing 20 articles per week. Ampy also wrote as Anthony Singh. 

However though, they're on a different level now. They dont do innuendos and conjectures so much anymore, and I find them to be just as reputable a source of news as any other site except soccernet (where traffic is slow).

with the invention of twitter, all thesse goal.com journos will soon be sacked. i get breaking news every minute on twitter from the reliable peops i follow there and majority of them are closer to the club than most journos. ben hibbs of man utd post the team list like 90 mins before kick-off.

debosky:

No ‘new information’ has been provided. He has made a claim that Arsenal players get paid ridiculous wages - something people have claimed without evidence and repeated till it’s now considered fact.

I’m not bothered by the fringe players - they will leave in due course.

it is true arsenal players get paid ridiculous wages. i didn't even know myles had written this already cos i had this discussion with a friend only last night. it's a factual statement all those substandard players in arsenal cop ridiculous wages. you only need to look at arsenal's wage bill to see so.
the difference between the wage bill of man utd and arsenal is not more than £20-30 million pounds despite the fact that rooney, rio, berbatov, etc earn ridiculous wages. the question is. . . . .who are the equivalents @ arsenal earning this ridiculous wage packets every week? van persie? cesc? nasri?

proudly9ja:

I still believe we will bring in a defender. It will be foolhardy of AW to think the current set up of the defence will take us anywhere above 7th place in the league.

While I do feel we need a defender, this gloom and doom talk about our defence causing 7th place is way off the mark.

As 'bad' as the defence is, it is clearly better than Tottenham's, and no one seems to be talking about Liverpool losing and drawing pre-season games and conceding bad goals like they conceded 3 against Norway yesterday.

Because they signed some overpriced British wannabes, everyone thinks they'll be the next best thing after sliced moi moi. Spurs haven't signed anyone apart from an 16 year old, but I assume 7th means finishing below them too?

Kenny and Liverpool can do no wrong, despite losing to Hull and Galatasaray, while if Arsenal even concede a goal it is a disaster.

No wonder Wenger said that you shouldn’t listen to people who haven’t even spent half a day in football.

debosky:

No wonder Wenger said that you shouldn’t listen to people who haven’t even spent half a day in football.

you have sunk to the depths of blowing wenger's backside again.
wenger's policy should be questioned. what do you fans actually want?
money in the bank or trophies on the shelves or a bit of both?

the evidence suggests that arsene wenger continues to add value. arsenal's wage bill was the fifth highest in the country at £111m, more than £20m a year less than citeh and man utd. last season, arsenal came third, and last year they were fourth.

fans would say actually winning a trophy should count for something. and on that basis, given that arsenal has not won the league since 2003/4, you have to argue that wenger's productivity is fatuous.
in fact, if you combine spending per unit of output with success in winning trophies, there is no doubt that alex ferguson is incomparably the most successful manager in the united kingdom. man utd's wage bill per premier league point is £1.6m, just a fraction more than arsenal's £1.5m.

the fact is: for the extra £100,000 per point, man utd were 2nd in 2009/10 and champions in 2010/11.
to be clear, arsenal and wenger cannot argue that they could not afford to spend the extra £20m shelled out by man utd on wages, at least not on deloitte's report. because deloitte shows that arsenal were the only club in 2008/9 and 2009/10 to make substantial pre-tax profits, of £46m and £56m respectively. no other club came within £40m of that profit.

it is therefore a factual statement that arsenal's cherished strategy of running its business on a financially sustainable basis is less in the interest of its supporters than its board may believe. if arsenal's wage bill had been £20m higher (that is the same as man utd's), its profits £20m lower, and the club had actually won something, i doubt many gaynners would have complained or would you?

I have read the original article you plagiarised, so stop trying to talk like you've come up with original thought.

Secondly, your argument on the extra £20m in wages is quite foolish to say the least. Will paying the same players bigger wages make them win the EPL? Clearly not - what is required is purchase of the best players that command the big wages.

In essence, you're not only talking about adding £20m onto the wage bill, you're ALSO talking about making big money purchases on a regular basis, such as the £30m Fergie spent on Nani and Ando and the likes.

Furthermore - while Arsenal made a 'profit' in those years, a large proportion of that cash went to repaying loans that were owed to the bank, so they were not necessarily available for transfers AND wages.

Now I am not saying that Arsenal can't win anything till it spends like Utd, but to compete at the very highest level, it must begin to gain parity in the number of star performers on its books - whether they are bought or groomed.

debosky:

Secondly, your argument on the extra £20m in wages is quite foolish to say the least. Will paying the same players bigger wages make them win the EPL? Clearly not - what is required is purchase of the best players that command the big wages.

it's called motivation. it's either you buy best players/big wages or you pay average players huge wages.
wenger is the manager, he should know better.

In essence, you're not only talking about adding £20m onto the wage bill, you're ALSO talking about making big money purchases on a regular basis, such as the £30m Fergie spent on Nani and Ando and the likes.

which your income pretty much covers.
you make £100m at the gates every season don't you?

Furthermore - while Arsenal made a 'profit' in those years, a large proportion of that cash went to repaying loans that were owed to the bank, so they were not necessarily available for transfers AND wages.

which begs the question? why?
is there a sledgehammer waiting to hit on wenger's forehead if these loans are not paid?
can't he refinance the loan in such a way he pays far less monthly/annually?

Now I am not saying that Arsenal can't win anything till it spends like Utd, but to compete at the very highest level, it must begin to gain parity in the number of star performers on its books - whether they are bought or groomed.

which begs the question - why has wenger refused to sign star performers? money is no object. wenger makes money
deloitte has proven it, the income at the gate has proven it. last saturday the commentators said there are 40,000 on the queue for the season ticket. so where is the money?

coogar:

it's called motivation. it's either you buy best players/big wages or you pay average players huge wages.
wenger is the manager, he should know better.

According to cats like Proudly, Arsene pays average players too much already, and they are still not performing.

which your income pretty much covers.
you make £100m at the gates every season don't you?

You can't spend all your income on transfers - there are running costs, wages of the board, etc to look after, not to mention repayment of £20m annually on the main Stadium debt.

which begs the question? why?
is there a sledgehammer waiting to hit on wenger's forehead if these loans are not paid?
can't he refinance the loan in such a way he pays far less monthly/annually?

This presupposes that Wenger makes the financial decisions - as far as I'm aware, he makes footballing decisions within a fixed budget, with minimal board involvement. The budget however, is not determined by Wenger.

which begs the question - why has wenger refused to sign star performers? money is no object. wenger makes money
deloitte has proven it, the income at the gate has proven it. last saturday the commentators said there are 40,000 on the queue for the season ticket. so where is the money?

The money isn't there as implied - the 'money' came from selling good players, and that affects your ability to compete. The 'profits' mentioned in those two years were one-offs, associated with massive player sales and property sales. The money went to repay loans and offer wage increases and a few purchases, but not on the scale required.

The recent financial accounts showing a small loss are a better representation of where Arsenal would be without selling players or flats.

What we need is improved financial income to generate an extra £20-30m a year which can then be spent on transfers.

debosky:

According to cats like Proudly, Arsene pays average players too much already, and they are still not performing.

and why are there so many average players in arsenal? in 99(just after france were dominating world football), arsenal had vieira, petit, henry, pires, wiltord, etc. this will be the equivalent of having xavi, iniesta, david villa, torres, jesus navas, etc. how did the table turn?

You can't spend all your income on transfers - there are running costs, wages of the board, etc to look after, not to mention repayment of £20m annually on the main Stadium debt.

unfortunately, you have to spend most of your income on transfers unless your name is sir alex ferguson.
the club must weigh it's priorities. do we want trophies or do we want to be a healthy club(no trophies and £200 billion income in our kitty).

This presupposes that Wenger makes the financial decisions - as far as I'm aware, he makes footballing decisions within a fixed budget, with minimal board involvement. The budget however, is not determined by Wenger.

not true.
wenger is the alpha & omega of the arsenal board. he decides who to buy, who to go after and the amount of money to be spent every transfer window.

The money isn't there as implied - the 'money' came from selling good players, and that affects your ability to compete. The 'profits' mentioned in those two years were one-offs, associated with massive player sales and property sales. The money went to repay loans and offer wage increases and a few purchases, but not on the scale required.

the money is there. danny fiszmann revealed this before he passed away.
i am now sure wenger and the board share the loot with the everlasting promise of "we shall deliver next season"

The recent financial accounts showing a small loss are a better representation of where Arsenal would be without selling players or flats.
What we need is improved financial income to generate an extra £20-30m a year which can then be spent on transfers.

extra £20-30m a year again? you are a wetdreamer!

debosky:

While I do feel we need a defender, this gloom and doom talk about our defence causing 7th place is way off the mark.

As 'bad' as the defence is, it is clearly better than Tottenham's, and no one seems to be talking about Liverpool losing and drawing pre-season games and conceding bad goals like they conceded 3 against Norway yesterday.

Because they signed some overpriced British wannabes, everyone thinks they'll be the next best thing after sliced moi moi. Spurs haven't signed anyone apart from an 16 year old, but I assume 7th means finishing below them too?

Kenny and Liverpool can do no wrong, despite losing to Hull and Galatasaray, while if Arsenal even concede a goal it is a disaster.

No wonder Wenger said that you shouldn’t listen to people who haven’t even spent half a day in football.

What is my business if Liverpool lose to Hull or Enyimba for that matter? I support Arsenal not Liverpool FC. I don't know where your loyalty lies though

The case is simple. Last season we finished fourth. The supposed weak link in our first choice defence has been sold off (good) but he's been replaced by another who virtually everyone agrees in not as good as the previous weak link. That sounds like disaster to me.
Add that to the fact that our back up CBs have had a not too good preseason and the supposed back up RB is a player who last played for a league 2 side. Considering this is Arsenal where it is certain that the fourth choice player will likely get no less than 8 games in a season (that's 24 points), this for me is another source of worry.

The only way we won't finish outside the top four with that back line is if the others perform poorly. As an Arsenal FC fan, Id rather we did something about it than wait to find out.

[size=18pt]Holger Badstuber's guide to defending one-on-ones[/size]

One of the most difficult scenarios for a defender is when you find yourself facing an attacker knowing that you are the only thing that stands between them and a clear goalscoring opportunity. FC Bayern München's Holger Badstuber offers his advice on how to win that battle.

http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/stars/starskills/video/videoid=1652303.html#holger+badstubers+guide+defending+ones

Show these to those duds in Arsenal defence

dayokanu:

[size=18pt]Holger Badstuber's guide to defending one-on-ones[/size]

One of the most difficult scenarios for a defender is when you find yourself facing an attacker knowing that you are the only thing that stands between them and a clear goalscoring opportunity. FC Bayern München's Holger Badstuber offers his advice on how to win that battle.

http://www.uefa.com/trainingground/stars/starskills/video/videoid=1652303.html#holger+badstubers+guide+defending+ones

Show these to those duds in Arsenal defence

Has he shown it to Mumunich's defenders yet? Those idyots that couldn't even win Gerwoman League

He showed it when he led Bayern to the German double in 2010 and the Champions league final, Also the German team to the World cup third place.

And he would be a better instructor than your failed coach called Wengay

proudly9ja:

What is my business if Liverpool lose to Hull or Enyimba for that matter? I support Arsenal not Liverpool FC. I don't know where your loyalty lies though

When you’re mouthing off that Arsenal will finish behind Liverpool (based on pre-season results) then it matters. Why do you feel Liverpool will finish above Arsenal despite their MUCH WORSE pre-season performances?

The case is simple. Last season we finished fourth. The supposed weak link in our first choice defence has been sold off (good) but he's been replaced by another who virtually everyone agrees in not as good as the previous weak link. That sounds like disaster to me.

How is that a ‘disaster’? You need to stop watching skysports and their hyperbolic description of everything. We have had this exact replacement of LB by an understudy without issues, so what is the ‘disaster’ in that? Was there a disaster when Cashley left and Clichy took over?

Add that to the fact that our back up CBs have had a not too good preseason and the supposed back up RB is a player who last played for a league 2 side. Considering this is Arsenal where it is certain that the fourth choice player will likely get no less than 8 games in a season (that's 24 points), this for me is another source of worry.

Fair enough - it is a cause of worry, but how does that imply Liverpool and Spurs will finish above us? I still don’t see how you’ve made that gigantic leap ‘not too good preseason’ for CBs leading to 7th place.

If that is the basis of judgement, where will Liverpool finish conceding 3 goals to Valarenga and three unreplied goals to Galatasaray ? 10th?

Besides, our acknowledged best CB virtually missed the whole season and is back this time around -surely that is an improvement? With a full EPL season under their belts, why can’t we anticipate improvements from Koscielny and Djourou?

The RB may be an ex-league 2 player, but on current showing, he knows more than Eboue about being a RB, and I am more assured with him on the pitch.

The only way we won't finish outside the top four with that back line is if the others perform poorly. As an Arsenal FC fan, Id rather we did something about it than wait to find out.

This is nothing but bollocks. Judging on pre-season performances as you hastily have done, Arsenal will finish above both Liverpool and Spurs

Goals conceded in preseason
Spurs: 4 in 4 games
Liverpool: 15 goals in 5 games   
Arsenal: 5 in 5 games

At best we can say Arsenal and Spurs are neck and neck in terms of goals conceded as we stand.

Liverpool and Spurs have not improved their changed their back lines (apart from buying No 2 GKs), again why will we perform worse than those two sides defensively if we keep our current backline with Vermaelen set to play the season?

If you said we won’t win the league with this backline I might understand, but to say we won’t finish in the top 4 based on preseason performances has no basis in reality.

debosky:

Goals conceded in preseason
Spurs: 4 in 4 games
Liverpool: 15 goals in 5 games   
Arsenal: 5 in 5 games

Chelsea: 0 in 5 games

^^ We know Chelski's pre-season performance is the inverse of their early season form so I'm definitely not going to have any Chelski defenders for the first few weeks of FPL.

Enuff of the Liverpool - Tottenham comparisons, all clubs have their own problems. Lets face Arsenal.

Point is , we had a woeful season last time out because of terrible defending and so far nothing has been done to fix it. The players haven't improved much judging by their pre-season performances.

As it stands, we still have just one decent CB in TV5 and saying he will have a full season is not realistic because injuries (hopefully not) and fatigue will set in @ a point when we have to play 8 -10 games a month. Then we'll hav Squills and Djorou commanding our defense.

A potential disaster if you ask me; but imma keep them fingers crossed, waiting on Wenger and the Aug 31st date.

debosky:

^^ We know Chelski's pre-season performance is the inverse of their early season form so I'm definitely not going to have any Chelski defenders for the first few weeks of FPL.

Yeah yeah!

the waiting una don dey on since may.

that time na transfer window never open, then na e still early, then na waiting for players to be bought first, then na window never close na, 31st never reach,

shebi wen september 1 reach una eye go clear? i dont understand why you pple just like disturbing urselves. after all this years, u still dey expect wetin nor go happen?

if u want defender, just go babalawo or white garment church, carry squillacci with djourou name go say make e kpeme. otherwise, nuffin for una o



abegi, ARSENAL FOR THE TITLE. HAters CaN gO dRiNk HaToRaDe with GaMaLiN 5oo

@Proudly

I also think Myles is talking gobbledook, according to coogar's diagram, there has consistently been about a 20m - 30m differential in the wage bill between Arsenal and Manure, if yu look closely at the graph, yu'll see it started right about 2006/07 (shortly after the move to the emirates), stayed steady between 08/09 and actually seems to be increasing again through 2010 (the 2011 figures I believe will show even a larger difference) and has stayed same since indicating a clear shift in priorities. Where I disagree with cougar is in his assumption that 20m - 30m is a small amount of money, considering that at a time Arshavin was our highest earner at 8m per annum (from the 2010 forbes list of highest paid footballers), that amount would have effectively given us about 3 - 4 more Arshavin class players on the wage bill so that in footballing terms can in no way be considered little. One thing I've omitted though is the amount in tranfer fees it would cost to bring in such players.

With the change in priorities as well came a change in the wage bill structure, it was also important to secure the value of those players that were seen to have potential and being developed from within in order to avoid losing them (a lesson learnt with the Flamini experience), if yu've noticed, once a player gets into the first team frame, he gets a long term contract (Wilshere and Ramsey were recently contracted till 2016 and that is the reason Vela, Denilson, Bendtner are all contracted till 2014).

Now, I won't get into an argument about the amounts we are paying these budding players relative to other clubs, at present our modus operandi is not exactly like any other club in the PL hence the hate we have to live with from all quarters but all I'll say is that the board and Arsene aint idiots and the books are balanced anyway so I don't consider it anything worth raising dust over. What you need to keep in mind is that the alternative to securing the future of those players are the huge transfer fees we aren't paying when those players deliver on the initial promise they showed.
A good way to look at it is to imagine how much we would need to pay to buy a player of Ramsey/Wilshere's class in 2 - 3 years time or even now considering how much 'pool got Henderson for.  I agree it won't work for all players but then is there anything with exactly 100% certainty in this life? and mind you, as bad as they are now considered to be, Bendner and Denilson have delievered a top 4 finish year on year so they are not exactly as bad as they are being painted and IMO are worth the 40k - 60k per annum or so that they are reputed to be earning.

follypimpi:


So how come no club has signed them yet if they are as gud as you claimed.

I can pass that question back as a question as well, something in the lines of how come Barcelona hasn't signed Cesc yet? 
does the long drawn out transfer really tell us anything about Cesc's ability?
Basically, valuations differ and player's interests also have to be considered, e.g. it was rumored that Arsenal had a deal with Benfica last season for Traore but that he couldn't agree on the salary with Benfica and of course we all know the biggest salaries are paid in the PL.
Just as we are willing to now sell Cesc to Barca but can't agree on a price, like Arsene says, there are 3 parties to a successful transfer.
Player's interests are less clear cut, it could range from the silly such as Tevez missing his family to the ridiculous such as Reyes feeling cold in London.

In addition to what I was saying before about how much we pay those players and how much they make for the club, we also make money on loan fees, if I'm not mistaken we've already made about 500k plus on Traore when loaning him to Juventus last season and we made a million loaning Senderos to AC Milan before he went on a free and then got snapped up by Fulham. I'm almost certain Fulham wouldn't have bought him from us if they needed to pay, I don't blame them as they have to balance their own books as well.

You can see for example that Bartley's contract just got renewed today, you can expect news about Frimpong soon as well.

Arsenal’s Ignasi Miquel has won the European Under-19 Championships with Spain.

Good to hear he's gotten regular football over the summer. . . .from his performances last season, he surely can't be worse than Squillaci can he?

PS - this is no invitation to rants about youth.

debosky:

Arsenal’s Ignasi Miquel has won the European Under-19 Championships with Spain.

Good to hear he's gotten regular football over the summer. . . .from his performances last season, he surely can't be worse than Squillaci can he?

PS - this is no invitation to rants about youth.

did he do it by himself/star performer or one of the lucky uns to be in a trophy winning squad a la cesc(2010 world cup + euro 2008)?

debosky:

Arsenal’s Ignasi Miquel has won the European Under-19 Championships with Spain.

Good to hear he's gotten regular football over the summer. . . .from his performances last season, he surely can't be worse than Squillaci can he?

PS - this is no invitation to rants about youth.

What the hell does this mean? are we not supposed to celebrate our own?  
We are going to either swim or sink with our youth project anyway so why not view it with some optimism?  
I forgot, negativity is the in thing cos we are goint to get relegated next season anyway.

While we are at it, Gilles Sunu has gotten 2 goals for france in the WYC and Coquelin isn't doing too badly even though France conceeded 4 goals in their opening game.

duduspace:

What the hell does this mean? are we not supposed to celebrate our own?  
We are going to either swim or sink with our youth project anyway so why not view it with some optimism?  
I forgot, negativity is the in thing cos we are goint to get relegated next season anyway.

While we are at it, Gilles Sunu has gotten 2 goals for france in the WYC and Coquelin isn't doing too badly even though France conceeded 4 goals in their opening game. 

arsenal sank years ago with their youth policy. the sinking was so epic it puts titanic's tragedy to shame.

Dudu what youth policy are you still talking about when majority of your starters were bought from other clubs.

Youth players are Sczezny, Gibbs and Wilshere in 7yrs of youth policy

dayokanu:

Dudu what youth policy are you still talking about when majority of your starters were bought from other clubs.

Youth players are Sczezny, Gibbs and Wilshere in 7yrs of youth policy

cesc, hleb, almunia, nasri, diaby, adebayor, gallas, gilberto - they are all products of the youth policy.
how many of them still play for arsenal? arsenal have the highest employee turnover in the history of football association.
no stability at all.

coogar:

did he do it by himself/star performer or one of the lucky uns to be in a trophy winning squad a la cesc(2010 world cup + euro 2008)?

He featured in all the games as a star performer.

coogar:

cesc, hleb, almunia, nasri, diaby, adebayor, gallas, gilberto - they are all products of the youth policy.
how many of them still play for arsenal? arsenal have the highest employee turnover in the history of football association.
no stability at all.

. Next time do better

naijababe:

. Next time do better

ok ma'am.
gallas, gilberto, silvestre, squillaci, campbell, eduardo(all part of the youth policy)

debosky:

He featured in all the games as a star performer.

evidence, please.
any link to player ratings, etc ?