Three days ago The Daily Mirror claimed ‘Arsenal will scrap their wage cap in a bid to keep their best players and attract stellar signings’. The national newspaper also said that the current wage cap limit at The Emirates is around £100,000-a-week.
I think we’ve all heard by now the rumour circulating the press, the one claiming Stan Kroenke, a.k.a Silent Stan, will hand over a hefty warchest, believed to be around £55 million, to Arsene Wenger in order to strengthen the squad this summer – this coming after that thrashing in Milan and being dumped out of the FA Cup on Saturday, leaving us with yet another trophyless season.
Many Arsenal fans, including myself, believe the club have cash to splash – we wouldn’t be the fifth richest club in the world if we didn’t right? – But our main problem is not the actual transfer fees paid for our targets, but more to do with our wage structure.
The lure of sky-high wages does not exist at Arsenal and as such other teams like Manchester City, Chelsea, PSG etc are able to tempt the talented players out there to sign more lucrative deals, thus leaving us empty handed and scrounging for scraps. We have lost countless amounts of targets over the years through this, as well as our very own players – Samir Na$ri being the most recent who now pockets a reported £200,000-a-week at Citeh.
Wages have always proven to be our stumbling block, as we are a club which keeps to a very tight structure. But if this was slightly adjusted or radically changed, then we would be able to compete on a level playing field with the others.
However, haven’t we heard this all before? Hasn’t Wenger been handed a warchest in the past and still refused to spend it? Will the club really adjust/break their wage structure in order to keep and attain the best talent in the world? Yes, yes and no!
As much as I would love to see our wage budget altered, I just cannot see it happening while this money-grabbing board remain in control of our beloved Arsenal. While Arsene Wenger has never exceeded the £15 million mark on a player since his arrival in 1996, and I don’t think he will change now.
Every Arsenal fan, including myself, wants Robin van Persie to sign a new long-term deal at the club, and so does Wenger, However, because we’ve lost a load of stars in the past due to wages, what makes anyone think our club will make an exception for the Dutchman?
In order for our club to once again be in business and acquire silverware, then the board must and I mean MUST loosen the purse strings and modify the wage cap. IF this is done then Wenger will at least be able to compete with the other big hitters for the talent, as well as keep hold of Arsenal’s best and brightest for years to come.
Conversely, I stick by the saying – I’ll believe it when I see it!
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Re sign rvp sell walcott arshavin, almunia, and any other scrubs we can offload, even if its for less than we would like, just get them off the books, including guys we loan every season who have no chance of making our squad. Basically, clean house a bit, but walcott and arshavin could bring 25 mil in
Fully agree with the headline.Wenger has been getting too many kids.I believe if the massacre at OT had not taken place,he would happily get more kids. Instead he was forced to sign five players on deadline. That show how desperate he was.Those players were not the ones he was looking for.
His on style tactical style is god send for other teams especially Mu.Notice how often he lost to red faced and cannot understand why.Well if you can’t score,you lose. The gunners make too many touches and passes before shootibg and that’s why.
If he doesn’t want to win ugly,Arsenal are done for.
l was made to understand that Djourou is being paid aroun 50K per week. If that’s true then, one solution to solve RVP’s wages is to cap Djourou’s wage to 10K as that’s what he’s worth really and put the balance extra 40K into RVP’s thereby increasing his wages to around 140K weekly. That, in my humble opinion will be the turning point to our beloved Arsenal.
Sell the lot, Wenger and Board/Kroenke out.