Just £20 Million more for transfers if Arsenal qualify for Champions League? by Martin
One of the biggest issues us Arsenal fans have with Stan Kroenke is that he refuses to inject any serious money into the club for transfers and so when you see a headline that roars “Arsenal handed unexpected transfer boost… is Stan Kroenke set to splash the cash?” you feverishly click on that headline to find out what is happening only to realise you have been a victim of click bait.
That headline comes from the Daily Star and it is basically a load of bullshit, their reasoning is that because Kroenke is making a profit now with his Pepsi Center, where his NBA and NHL teams play and that he will use some of the money to finance Arsenal transfers.
Now, there is absolutely no evidence that will be the case, not a single source in the article, nothing, just the opinion of the Daily Star, however, let’s assume they have got it right, let’s assume there will be more money to spend, good news, right?
Nope, not when you get to these beautiful lines.
“Another finish outside the top four will see the Spaniard handed just £40m with which to make improvements, claims The Sun.
But if he can guide Arsenal to a Champions League place, he will be granted an extra £20m to play with”
An extra £20 Million, is that it? is that all qualification for the Champions League gets us.
That is simply taking the piss and it will catch up with us, we cannot spend so little and expect to maintain a competitive level when the clubs around us will have far larger transfer budgets.
Even Tottenham will probably have more to spend and they have spent a bloody Billion on a new stadium.
If any of this turns out to be accurate I will be furious, £20 Million extra? There is no other way to say it but of that is what happens then Kroenke needs to go and go now.
60 M could only get Nicolas Pepe
Or Malcom/ David Neres + Denis Suarez
They can get more transfer funds and free some wage space if they can sell Ozil, Mkhitaryan, Mustafi, Elneny, Ospina or Xhaka
Why would they sell Ozil, Mkhitaryan and Xhaka who are key players?
David Ornstein said ages ago that if Arsenal make it into the UCL then they would most likely be given £100 million to spend, this will also include the players wages as Arsenal operate that way.
Who seriously reads any of the daily rags? I avoid them like a virus and would recommend everyone to do the same. If what they are reporting is true then it will be covered in other media.
I read one or two rags most days and the MAIL every day. But, beyond the papers name on the front page and the date each day, I tend not to believe much else at all. Really I buy the MAIL for the puzzles and quizzes pages, the cartoons and because it has good theatre reviews, mainly on Fridays. Decent sports journos too esp the magnificent MARTIN SAMUEL and despite him being a West Ham fan. But no ones perfect after all! Also as my family has been buying it since Stone Age days. OR SO IT SEEMS! The word “NEWSpaper” has long since made no sense at all.
Midkemma, if the 100m includes wages, then how much would actually be available for the signing of players because that amount still wouldn’t be enough. We have few players we can sell for big money so we will struggle to get players of the right quality. I keep wondering how we could genuinely improve the squad with such low figures when a player like nicholas pepe who has had only one top season would cost at least 60m in today’s market.
More bollox slagging off Kroenke!
Let’s wait and see what funds are spent in the summer before needless speculation!
Next topic please.
This is Arsenal. I don’t expect more than 40-60. We paid a price missing out on CL football whilst continuing to buy expensive players.
If we manage to sell Ozil for 20 million (given his crazy wages we can’t expect much more), Mustafi for 25 million and maybe Aubamayang for 40 or 50 (I know this might be controversial but can we afford to have two strikers of this quality whilst rarely playing them both? We would be better of swapping one of the two strikers for a quality winger, and Laca is younger and fits the mangers hard-working style more)
Total sales of players could reach 75-85 million plus 40-60 of new money would give us a budget of 115 -140 million. That would not be so bad depending on how we spend it.
I agree, i love auba but this might be the last opportunity to get big money for him so as to improve the balance of the squad. I just wish we had a better owner who would invest in the club so we don’t have to sacrifice players but i think its our only way forward, although it worked for liverpool with suarez and coutinho.
So we sell our world class striker. Who would we get to replace him without paying a fortune. We need to improve the team and selling our best players would certainly not do that.
What i meant was selling auba to fund wingers since emery prefers to play with one striker anyways. I didn’t say we should sell auba to replace him with another top striker. I would prefer to keep him and lacazette as long as funds are available to buy the players we need to compete.
Martin, i see your point and it makes a lot of sense but if we continue this self-sustaining model, the only way to compete will be to do what liverpool did. Yes, selling our best players doesn’t seem right but football isn’t black and white, liverpool sold their best player and they got better because it allowed them to create a more balanced team. I’m not saying we should sell all our best players, i’m saying that we might have to sell a few players for profit if we intend to compete because thats where we are due to kroenke.
Having two top-top strikers who rarely play at the same time whilst not having true wingers or (next year) a creative midfielder makes no sense for a financially constrained club.
Ask yourself how many games Auba started in the last 10? If Emery is willing to play Laca-Auba more or less every game that’s one thing but they don’t play together very often.
Do you really believe Arsenal would sell 2 World Class players in Aubameyang and Ozil?
They have more value to us than we might get from the market due to age. Auba has come in and made the PL look a breeze, some players take ages to adapt and some like Falcao/Pavon/DiMaria never take. He (Auba) has more value to us than the money we could bring in, how much would it cost to replace that end product in today’s market (at least 80m, ..and no guarantees). Ozil has more value to us also, if we up the quality in our team/squad that also ups Ozil’s ability too, he can at times only be as good as the players around him, he needs more time to figure out tactics and his teammates after being so used to the freedom they all enjoyed under Wenger. This is still only Emery’s first season remember. Who suggested selling these players.
At this stage in ozil’s career, i disagree he has more value to us on the pitch than the money we would get from a sale and his wages be off the books. Ozil isn’t in his prime anymore, expect you meant his comercial value then i agree because he makes the club a lot of money.
Why do we waste so much time in speculation? It is rather odd that we have now veered from being Arsenal supporters to administrators and financial managers. As supporters we need good players. How these players are procured is none of our business. It gets even more ridiculous when we start believing every rumour and gossip we read or hear about. Perhaps some of us need to heed Trump’s warning about fake news! Surely how can anyone be duped to believe that a journalist will know everything that goes on behind closed doors? This is simply not possible. Thus we need not waste our valuable space and time in such trash.
Martin if they are world class in the eyes of Emery why are they not starting every game?
Does it make sense to have two supposed world class players on the bench and a number of average players on the pitch?
If Emery finds a way and loves having Ozil, Auba and Laca start every game, then, of course, keep them. But it seems he has little or no faith in Ozil when it comes down to the big games and I doubt Auba is the type of striker that Emery likes. I think he likes more industrious players. Laca works a lot harder for the team than Auba.
Pointless arguing what Kronke will allow for transfer funds. The only certainty is that it will not be enough to fill the holes in our squad to compete with the top teams.
We have 50 million available from the new kit deal if I’m not mistaken, so I believe Kronke will spend at least that, not this pesky 40 million rumor.
Easy to mention players we would sell, hard part is finding teams interested in them. We all would sell Mustafi, but who is interested in buying? They are only worth what someone is willing to pay, and with their high salaries the price will be lower.
I don’t worry so much about the kitty, but more about the players we are after. I’d rather spend 80 million on 2 impact players who can do the job, rather than several youngsters at a good price
If we make the CL I reckon we’ll spend at least 90m, with player sales it could go to 110 or 20. We spent nothing in Jan and I believe this is the reason for that, and we want clubs to stop hiking the prices up just because we are an English club.
This man has no interest in spending any money to improve Arsenal all what’s he want is making money week in weeks out he is not a serious person and we should make sure wa send him out and let serious person take over. Period.
The budget will all depend on how many players go.
Ozil and Mkhitaryan are taking home high wages and arguably not delivering sufficiently on the pitch, Cech, Lichtsteiner, Ramsey and probably Monreal will be leaving for no fee, but that will reduce the wage bill too, Elneny and Mustafi may bring in a bit of money, but the fee for Ospina will be quite low. Likewise if we do decide to sell Asano, Chambers, Jenkinson and other players that have been deemed to be not good enough at various times. The situation with Welback seems uncertain at the moment, Arsenal may offer him a new contract, if only so they can get a fee for him in January/next summer. Id be surprised if Arsenal were willing to let Xhaka go at the moment to be honest.
Given the number of players on the list that are definitely going, or are likely to be sold, I suspect Arsenal will be wary of selling too many players that they dont have to, unless they get a good offer for them. As such I think Xhaka, Welbeck, Chambers and some of the others will still be in the squad next season. There just isnt the money to replace/improve on them in addition to all the other positions needing to be filled.
As such I think it is likely that Arsenal will focus on three or four bigger purchases and fill the remaining gaps with youth team players. So I would expect a winger, a creative midfielder, a central defender and a left sided fullback to be the main targets, probably all a bit younger (25 or less,) to keep the price down. I dont thiink Arsenal will be going for anyone costing more than £40m unless they manage to move Ozil or Mkhitaryan, because it would limit them too much in terms of the other transfers.
Any other vacancies will be filled by giving more playing time to Nelson, Nketiah, Smith-Rowe and some of the other youngsters. We have talented youth teams and it would be good to see more of these players given an opportunity to step up to the first team rather then losing them cheaply to other clubs who can offer more playing time. (ie Gnabry)
Im sure that this is the kind of transfer plan that Emery will have been told to expect when he came to Arsenal, buy a few experienced/talented players when necessary, promote from within when possible.
I agree with your assessment to a great extent. I see no reason for selling Xhaka when he has been performing well this season. I would also advocate for Welbeck to be given a new contract because of his size. Currently we score very few headers because we lack someone with height which Welbeck provides. Monreal is aging and not as agile as he was in previous seasons, so he could be allowed to leave. The back line has promising youngsters namely Holding and Mavropanos with Bellerin and Ainsley Maitland Niles on right back. We need someone for left full back to replace Monreal and compete with Kolasinac. I believe we may not need forwards. Perhaps we need someone to replace Ramsey. As you observe we can promote some of our talented youngsters to first team. By and large the future is bright.
With this yankee at the helm we’r doomed…
And how are we gonna find these players without a Director of Football??
Without reading too many posts, there is an obsession with the transfer market.
I thought the acadamy had a lot of talented youngsters coming through. The best way for them to improve is by being promoted into the first team. From what I have seen Smith-Rowe could replace Aaron Ramsey, then there seems quite a few others are itching to be given a chance.
Do not reply claiming experience is needed, as you only have to look at Mustafi, Xhaka and to a lesser extent Kolscielny.
I like the old saying: if a player is good enough they are old enough!