It’s time to make a decision at Arsenal – the club needs to decide which way it wants to go.
With financial fair play looming on the horizon, the financial playing field that clubs have to play on looks to be levelling out – no longer will smaller, wealthier clubs be able to punch well above their weight. Gooners everywhere will breathe a sigh of relief. For them, it can’t come too soon. However, it is going to take a little while longer before it makes the impact that Arsenal need it to.
In the meantime Arsene Wenger is staring at the possibility of losing the latest crop of his established stars.
Robin van Persie, Andrey Arshavin, Thomas Vermaelen, Johan Djourou and Theo Walcott are all now two years off the end of their current contracts and the club will be looking to secure them to new long-term deals in the very near future.
Without the long-term contracts, Arsenal will find it hard to fight off offers for their best players next summer.
Before the introduction of financial regulation, wealthy clubs will use this last opportunity to pay inflated prices to try and prize the key assets away from other teams. The vultures are already circling the Emirates and the rumours have already started as to who and when.
So Arsenal have a choice. They can, just this once, break the bank and secure their best players on lucrative, long-term contracts, or they can sell them and invest this money in youthful replacements and debt management.
What is most painful for Arsenal fans is knowing that their two majority shareholders are both billionaires.
Whilst it looks as though Usmanov (one of the richest men in the world) would happily invest some serious money into the club, majority shareholder Stan Kroenke seems much more interested in seeing a regular profit sliding into the bank.
The danger is that if Arsenal become less competitive on the field, they become significantly less competitive off it. Maybe now is the time that Arsenal takes a step away from the moral high ground, spunk some cash and in doing so, protects its short-term future. The long-term seems to be reasonably assured thanks to the strategy in place at the club, but could sticking to their guns leave Arsenal vulnerable because of financial markets outside of their control?
It’s a tricky dilemma for Arsenal and its supporters. Every fan that I know is incredibly proud of the way that the club is run. It is good to know that the team they support has been built organically. Yes, there are a few dissenters calling for private investment, but by and large they are a small (but vocal) minority.
The main problem for many supporters is frustration; they pay the highest prices in the league to see their team play, but they don’t see the same level of investment made on players that the other teams make. This is largely due to debt attached to the new stadium, which many fans seem to have forgotten is still being paid off. Still, it’s undoubtedly frustrating for everyone.
Mike………..you are way off the mark. The EUFA Fairplay rules won’t ever be applied to the big Clubs and are simply a smokescreen to permit Platini to run for FIFA president in 2014.
clubs with Arsenal’s and Barca’s youth development pedigree will become the Southhampton’s of the rich clubs like Real,shitty,etc. with the full complicity of EUFA and FIFA.
While I wouldn’t advocate returning to the olden days when professional footballers were the slaves of their Clubs, the introduction of the Bosman Ruling in 1995 has, in many ways, been a curse on the game. Contracts now mean absolutely nothing. No sooner has a contract been signed than plans are made towards a better deal at renewal time. On a 4-year contract, you have the ludicrous situation where at the HALFWAY stage, negotiations begin to prevent a possible Bosman in TWO years’ time.
I would like to see a return to sanity where a contract means something and is honoured by both parties to its entirety.
Surely it must be possible to devise a means better than the crazy system we have at present.
walcott can go.. please go.. we don’t need him.
I agree, go Walcott.
The fair play is going to make no difference … it’s wide open for abuse.
A club can have any number of reserve players under 21, that kills the squad size limitation of 25.
A club will only be allowed to be self-sustaining under the fair play rules, right? What is to stop Mohammad’s brother from buying a any player from Man City for 150 Million every time they need to buy players. Mohammad can even give the cash to his brother to buy his own player.
The only thing which could probably help Arsenal in the long term is the Stadium being paid off. Usmanov could do it. Kronke could do it. Somebody needs to do it. Usmanov might have been the better option now I look at it differently. At least proper football is played in Russia, making Usmanov more football minded. Kroenke’s mind is full of mls, nfl, nba distractions. Besides, from day one our owner has said he’s only interested in making money. That he’s only interested in Arsenal as a business.
Kroenke had the oportunity to break his medocre patter in the states and he has so far flubbed it. He is not the ass that Hicks and Bennett were with Liverpool, but if he cannot understand what selling the brand means there is not a bright future, because clbs make as muc off the field as they do on it. I am hoping he ssteps up. Igt is critical to keep them all but Andrey…those that are bashing Theo are morons..the boy creates chances for others with his speed, and his vision. Keep this team intat Nasri is easily replaced, Fab not, but can be. Aim for more consistency for Ramsey and give some of the younger guys more time…
truth with Kroenke in charge we’re fucked.He and Gazidis would love to see the back of high earning players tread water on the pitch and just use the club for their commercial interests. Short-sightedness and mistrust made the board think an American was better than a Russian and i bet they are all now regretting but can’t do fuck all abt their stupidity.Well we will vote with our feet if better decisions are not made.