Morning all.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has said his goodbye to the fans on Instagram. It reads.
Not a mention of the backroom staff, including the current manager, or previous managers for that matter. I think it was right for him to leave, of that I have no doubt, but it’s a shame when any player departure unfolds in the way his did.
Arsenal must learn from this though and I’m sure they have, or are. I hope we never give a player £350,000 a week contract again. Half that amount is too much in my opinion but I know football doesn’t work like that. Sign or be sold has to be the way forward too because the club are losing too much money with players leaving for free. With Aubameyang, I’m sure Arsenal are saving more money by not paying his wages than they’d have earned on a transfer fee. Same probably applies to Ozil and the rest who’ve walked for free recently.
I know Edu and Mikel Arteta had nothing to do with the signing of Sead Kolasinac, Mesut Ozil, Mustafi, Mo Elneny, Alex Lacazette, Eddie Nketiah and Aubameyang etc, but in Aubameyang’s case, they were the ones who though giving him a new £350,000 a week contract was the right thing to do despite his age. Logic alone says bonkers! A new contract, fine if that’s how they felt but the wage hike is what prevented Arsenal from selling him. Instead, they had to give him away for nothing but as said, the club has removed his ridiculous salary off the wage bill.
Lacazette, Nketiah and Elneny walk away this summer. Again though, a new contract would mean a wage increase and that money adds up. Probably to more than what Arsenal might have made had they been sold and in any case, if a player doesn’t want to commit to the club, or accept a move, Arsenal’s hand are tied.
How can Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe be earning a reported £30,000 a week, but Pepe is on £100.000? Or Martin Odegaard £120,000 a week? Gabriel Martinelli earns £90,000 a week. Gabriel earns £50,000 a week, yet Ben White is paid £110,000. Alex Lacazette and Thomas Partey are earning a weekly sum of £220,000 and £180,000 respectively. We already know Lacazette is probably moving on in the summer and rightly so because to keep him for another two seasons would be foolhardy in my opinion because Arsenal in all likelihood would end up in the same mess as they were with Ozil and Aubameyang.
Not only do Arsenal need to sort out their wage structure in my opinion but the management of contracts has to improve. Easier said than done I know as it’s not just Arsenal involved in negotiations but if there’s a hint of a player only wanting to stay for a ridiculous salary rather than being at the club, then sell him.
I think the club has been going around in circles for a long time. Players come and go, yet as a club, and I include the manager in that, we never really progress. Much of that is probably down to the type of player we’ve signed, or the lack of depth in strength of the squad. What I would call fringe players, have often been considered first team players by Arsenal. At the beginning of a new season, more often than not it seems we’re a player or three light. Not in numbers of course but in quality/ability/experience. Average players on high wages are hard to shift.
The summer of last year, January this year too would suggest that Arsenal’s plan is to move on those who aren’t part of Mikel Arteta’s plans going forward. Obvious I know and as much as I’m hugely disappointed that the club didn’t bring in a midfielder and striker last month, we know that January is an overinflated market. If the club are balancing the finances and sorting out the squad, why would they then go and pay over the odds for a player and offer him a ridiculous salary, just to get him through the door? Not that Bruno Guimarães cost Newcastle Utd ‘that’ much and his salary is the reported to be the same as Ben White earns.
If the summer is as productive as the last with the signings we make being the final piece of the jigsaw, then perhaps I’ll start to believe in this process Mikel Arteta talks about. The club’s process I mean.
See you in the comments.
And no apology from PEA for cutting me up on the M25 that time. We’re done! 😂
He won Us the FA Cup almost single handed in 2020. That will be his legacy.
Is Guimaraes any good though? Not sure we can afford to take a punt of £50m on a player that might be a bench warmer. Newcastle can now waste as much of the Al Saud’s money as they want with little consequence.
When players come in from other leagues they take quite a while to settle. And the quality of the French league is questionable. I mean Pepe got 20+ goals for Lille. Raul conjured up £70m for his transfer and he’s clearly a Dud.
Rico: “Not that Bruno Guimarães cost Newcastle Utd ‘that’ much”
Pete sounds to me you road raged PEA, you should apologise to PEA for holding him up and cutting him off 🤣
The priority is clearly a top class first team striker, that is the hardest position to fill and we are always going to struggle against bigger clubs in the current pecking order a la vlahovic.
We need a young, hungry striker that can grow into a top tier player. Where we are as a club we will not be able to get a ready made player as they will go to a top tier club, we have to accept that as fans.
I like the names that we went after and for me it’s better to hold fire rather than panic buy someone we then can’t get rid of later. This next purchase is really make or break in the current squad rebuild
Good day! Our club has borrowed a large loan on commercial terms. It would be fair to say the whole exercise of clean up to reduce wage bill is to get lean and balance the book as they say
Morning Rico and all
Well put Rico, I wrote something similar yesterday that I wonder first Ozil then Auba will Arsenal change its way and only pay a maximum amount of say 2 hundred thousand per week so the player will be easy enough to off load if needed.
The way I understood what Auba said was only aimed at the players and the fans not Arteta and co
Just a shame it ended the way it did for both Auba and Ozil who knows what really went wrong maybe the players didn’t care then maybe Arteta doesn’t like players earning more than him, either way there has to be a better way then just freezing players out.
Well Rico, I read your site a lot because as an old Gunner I appreciate the lack of BS, I like your summary and think you have summed up my feelings completely. As for Auba, I believe that he and his agent planned this farce when they saw the panic in the AFC eyes when he started to ignore his new contract offer. The idea worked. He should have been immediately they played games with the negotiations. Im glad he has gone but acknowledge the wonderful times he gave us, especially the FA cup and Shield wins against the top four teams. My feeling is that AFC are very slow in making their interest in targets they want and by the time they do they are up against the blackmail system that is now the transfer market. I think that now they have reduce the stupid wage bill and hopefully they have learned a big lesson in economics they can aim at class players like, Declan Rice, and Mane. Class where we need it.
Morning Geoff, all.
I think what the club are doing as far as players moving out etc etc is the right way to go although timing with one or two struck me as being odd but, if along the way we as a club don’t sign the experience to go with the youth, it could be a disaster. As will coming out of a summer transfer window without a very good striker and midfielder imo and at least one of each.
However, and it’s just my opinion, as much as players are important, so is the manager. Hmmm
Bnsb, welcome back and Fuzzy, welcome to you too.
Pete, I’d like to see Pepe on the left, he seems to play better there. Martinelli through the middle.
Ha ha re Auba Pete.
Re Bruno, his fee wasn’t as much as we paid for Partey was it?
Good afternoon Rico, thanks for another fine post.
I have no doubt that there have been serious problems within the squad and the management at Arsenal for some time.
It is to be hoped that things are settling down to some extent, with the appointments made to the executive management over the past couple of seasons.
However, the appoint of a rookie head coach and his precipitate promotion to club manager has brought more troubles to the squad.
It seems that certain faces don’t, or didn’t, fit into Arteta’s “process” and were not willing to buckle down under his regime. I think some of the problems must stem from Arteta himself. His previous job as assistant to Guardiola may have given him a false sense of his own ability to handle top rated players. While at City he was sheltered within the umbrella of respect afforded his boss and assumed that on moving to Arsenal he would be able to rely on the respect of a new set of players. The main problem is that respect is not automatically given, it has to be earned.
I fear that Arteta’s frenetic activity on the touch-line, as he attempts to micro-manage the team and tactics is not helping him, it shows a lack of trust in his players and a lack of ability, on his part, to ensure that the players fully understand his pre-match instructions and his anxiety is being transmitted to the players and is distracting them during the game.
Too often we see players showing dissent when substituted and clearly not understanding why they have been taken off, perhaps either Arteta or one of his assistants could spend a moment or two in order to explain the situation to them instead of leaving them sulking on the bench in full view of the cameras. Not a good image at all.
I hope that in time Arteta will calm down, earn the respect of his players and become the kind of manager we would all like him to be.
Sorry if this is a bit long winded.
So far so good Kev. 😉
Afternoon Cicero, thank you.
Totally agree re Mikel and his sideline antics. Calm down, it does no one any good whatsoever. He’ll give himself a heart attack if he’s not careful.
Good comment, Cicero. To paraphrae Boris ‘The Blade’ Yurinov: Long is good. Long is reliable.
I also think that albeit Arteta’s background as a former Arsenal player and captain nurtured by Pep Guardiola seemed like the perfect fit, the ‘cultural differences’ between City and Arsenal were some kind of a mismatch. You may be right about the challenge to handle top rated players, but my own heartbreak is the type of transfers City makes vs. the tradition and opportunities of Arsenal. I know that neither Wenger nor Emery are absolute role models and best practices given their departures from the club, but neither would have even considered a transfer like Ben White, meaning to break Arsenal record for a player in a position the squad has already abundance of players – especially when the funds were limited and other parts of the team needed more important and urgent reinforcements.
Don’t get me wrong, since Ben is an Arsenal player I wish him all the best, but he was a City-signing, more similar to Aké or Grealish than to Aubameyang, Pepe or even Odegaard. The same applies to Willian: we didn’t need a right winger at the time – especially a 31-years-old one – but the message seemed to be more important than the needs of the squad and the balance of the locker room.
I also share your hope – and Rico’s – that Arteta calms down, earns the respect of his players and becomes the kind of manager we would all like him to be. But I can’t help to feel sorry for the guys that have been sidelined and/or exiled, giving the impression they were not good enough for Arsenal or their personality didn’t bode well with the club. I think there are/were a lot more in Mavropanos, Saliba, Mari, Torreira, Nelson, Guendouzi, Chambers, Nketiah, hell even Lacazette. And the money are (not) getting for these players – including Mustafi, Sokratis, Ozil, Kolasinac, M’khi, and Auba – so basically everybody that have left in the last 2.5 years apart from Willock and Martinez would have been enough to sign Haaland or Mbappé, maybe both.
(Cicero on 2nd February 2022 at 8:00 am
Obi, following on from that Vlahovic has said “it was an easy decision to snub Arsenal in favour of joining glorious Juventus”. That says it all.)
In the famous words of Mandy Rice Davies ‘He would say that’…
Arteta needs to take man management skills course
Morning all.
Pbarany – I think there are/were a lot more in Mavropanos, Saliba, Mari, Torreira, Nelson, Guendouzi, Chambers, Nketiah, hell even Lacazette. And the money are (not) getting for these players – including Mustafi, Sokratis, Ozil, Kolasinac, M’khi, and Auba – so basically everybody that have left in the last 2.5 years apart from Willock and Martinez would have been enough to sign Haaland or Mbappé, maybe both.
This went through my mind when writing about the management of contracts and whilst I’m all for loans, I don’t really see what benefit when they are for senior players. If they’re not ‘right’ for Arsenal, why can’t we just sell them? Bellerin, Torreira, Guendouzi, Mavropanos, Mari, Nelson and Runasson are highly unlikely to play for Arsenal again and there’s still a question mark over Saliba. All we’re doing is running down their contracts before they leave for nothing.
Are they that bad that no club wants to sign them? No, not in my opinion. If Arsenal are having a major clear out, or Mikel Arteta doesn’t think certain players don’t fit into his plans, why keep them registered to Arsenal.
Morning Rico.
I’m no PL manager, but I have played football simulation, which makes me an expert on everything – among other things. (Sorry, this is a Hungarian phrase which is funny in my native language, but looks rather lame in my English translation.)
Nevertheless I have a few hypotheses on loaning senior players; but they might have nothing to do with the actual underlying reasons, so are strictly theoretical.
1. To increase market value before selling (a.k.a. to fatten them before the slaughter). Firstly no – major – club in their right mind would want a player that had 40 minutes game time in the last 5 months. Secondly even if they have proven their skills in the past, an out-of-favor player couldn’t generate substantial cash, as it is clear that they want out and the manager/club don’t want to keep them either. So they need the opportunity to shine elsewhere for a while, in order to turn up the demand (competition) for their services, even if they end up being sold at the end of the loan spell. That should have been happening with Torreira, Mavropanos, Guendouzi. This could work in theory, but we are still Arsenal, so eventually we still sell for a fraction of their fair value.
2. It’s easier to find a buyer if they have an option for a trial (half) season, and their salaries are still covered. (Nelson, Clarke) Or the club is stalling: they have regretted the signing in the first place, but instead of terminating the contract with a hefty compensation, they try to loan the player so he is not around, and his wage is off the books. If the host club won’t sign them, the either go for a next loan, or eventually get released. (Iliev, Bellerin, Rúnarsson)
3. Postponing the decision. Maybe the club changes mind, or the manager gets replaced, so who knows, perhaps the player will start with a blank slate (clean sheet) under the new coach. It happens especially when the player is high profile and the manager’s position is less than stable. But the player needs game time, and might even put in double shifts to prove all his critics – including but not limited to the hostile manager – wrong. See Lingaard (worked) or Saliba (who knows?), M’khi (failed).
4. And there is a 4th scenario, that exists only in my mind, as I would pursue that if I were the manager of the club. (Keep in mind that I’m probably the biggest advocate of the ‘small squad – many minutes – high morale’ model.) It works in a European competition environment too, but best tailored to an interim hiatus of 10.000-12.000 minutes if you have talented players and don’t want to keep spending big money on new signings.
Center backs: after the departure of Mustafi, Papa and Luiz we still had plenty of central defenders, Gabriel and Mari left footed, Holding, Chambers, Saliba, Mavropanos and Ballard with right feet. That’s already 7, and White was not yet signed. I think 4 should be enough without European competition and 5 with EL/CL games, but let’s assume I’m too risk-taking and add 1 to both. We are still 2 too many (imagine Charles Bronson’s face to the prior statement!) but we don’t want to sell or release as we might need an extra man next season, and they are talented boys for the future. So why not keep all 8, but identify the primary and secondary pairs, and out of the remaining 4 keep 1 with the club to train with the team and sit on the bench at cup games, and loan the other 3 in a ROTATING manner, so they still play 2500+ minutes a year, but rejoin the teammates once every other year. In that case they keep developing, get the visibility and have the chance to join Arsenal “permanently” if anyone from the 4 senior defender retires or decides to leave the club.
The same could work with our current attackers. I have my trust in Lacazette, Nketiah and Balogun too – a coming out I may regret at the end of the season, but it’s not just loyalty speaking, I’ve seen them playing well and so did you, so for me it’s only matter of mental preparation and motivation. But even without a big money reinforcement 3 strikers are too much. So I would re-sign Lacazette at the end of the season (if manages 12 goal contributions in the remaining games) as well as offer a new contract to Nketiah. And just like with the defenders above I would rotate the 2 young guns on loan, and the other will be Lacazette’s (or whoever will become our main striker next year) understudy. So it’s neither a sales preparation loan, nor about postponing the decision, but keeping their development maximized without harming the team or their trajectory. So proper loans needed – again something Arsenal don’t really excel at.
Morning Pbarany.
There’s a lot of if, buts and perhaps hope in there. Lol
Surely the club need to live in the here and now and imo, there is little chance of many of the more senior players, if any bar Saliba have a way back. Also, with such vast changes going on, I can’t see a change of manager taking place any time soon. Certainly not before those players contracts run out.
Re Lacazette an Eddie, they’re gone at the end of the season imo.
I think the the main contributory factor in Arsenal not being able to sell many of their senior players is all about the salaries we have them on.
We can’t sell them because they’ll just simply sit on their deals like Kolasinac and Ozil rather than take a pay cut (I don’t blame them btw) and when we loan them out we almost always get saddled with paying a significant proportion of those inflated salaries. This is all on senior management (mismanagement)…
We pay for that through our subscriptions.
Look at Aubameyang, being lauded in some sections because he took a pay cut to join Barcelona – but did he?
It’s been strongly suggested that Arsenal had to pay him £7m to leave, to join Barcelona, and is that £7m the difference over 18 months in what Barcelona are paying him now and what we would’ve paid him if he’d stayed?
Of course the club don’t want this in the public domain as it makes the club look dumb, weak and vulnerable to smart agents and it is a terrible stain on the reputation of the club as it likes to think it does things properly and trades on that reputation.
It’s been suggested that Willian also got a pay-off, it’s makes him look good and stops Arsenal looking stupid if these things are covered up, but those on the inside know.
Ozil as we know got the entirety of the remaining six months of his Arsenal deal paid up when he left and now the Fenerbahce fans can see what most of us could see and have generally turned against him.
So yes, I’m glad we’ve got rid of many of these overpaid, underachievers and I’m glad we’ll probably release Lacazette and Nketiah in the summer – we just have to move on.
I don’t care about Torreira or Guendouzi or injury prone Mavropanos, they’ll all leave in the summer and we can forget about them as we always do. Move on.
As for Vlahovic, the more I read about him and his agent the more I believe that we dodged a bullet.
Pbarany we have a similar saying in Australia,
He’s an expert at everything but qualified at nothing
I wouldn’t want to be in Arteta shoes if we finish lower than 6th place, he may have the backing of the owners but will the fans still support him. As he has no excuse for not strengthening the squad
Morning Rico and all
Kev, there is truth in your arguments, but I think every club have their own players with unreasonable salaries. And we struggle to offload players with average salaries, too.
Among those players Kola, Ozil, Willian and Auba were obviously having salaries beyond their values. Kolasinac and Willian had their ‘sign-on fees’ incorporated to their wages, while Auba and Ozil had the raise to re-sign their contract. Could apply to Mari as well but that wouldn’t stand to players like Mustafi, Guendouzi, Mavropanos, Eddie, etc. Lacazette is somewhere in between as his 200k salary is the result of being a popular commodity back then, just like Partey. And we would surely pay at least 200k for Vlahovic – which could have been justified if he kept scoring goals like he did in Florence, but would have been an issue if he would resort playing on a DCL or Watkins level.
Agree re the wages Kev and it would appear that the club is righting that wrong with future signing. Possibly why they’re going for younger players. I can see the logic.
Morning Geoff. We don’t truly know that re the squad which is why I think he’ll get another transfer window at least. Maybe Kroenke, the club refused to pay the big prices for players in January
When it comes to player payment it’s going to be a hard juggle, but I can see our players leaving if they are not paid good money, The bigger clubs will offer more and before we know what has happened the player is off. There is no loyalty any more by both players and club.
Peter I think as a club that we have to be more aware and more switched on regarding the personalities of players and the influence and future issues agents can bring.
The kind of amounts being demanded by Vlahovic and in particular his agent sounded alarm bells to me, these guys are like bandits, they’ll rob you blind and then try to engineer a Bosman at the end of it.
Klopp hasn’t exactly been slow coming forward in what used to be known as tapping up of SAKA and Martinelli and of course we had the Smith Rowe , Aston Villa session .
We need to be looking at those three and securing them because they are our future if we want to improve our situation
Kev, we have full agreement on Vlahovic and his entourage.
But we had the same situation with Willian, and probably Partey – our highest earner since Auba left – did exploit big time the fact that with the last day exit clause trigger he could have asked as much as he wanted. Which I would mind less if he would provide a world class performance on a weekly basis; but for an average, Xhaka-like performance (whom I rate as high as TA) 220k is closer to robbery.
Seems like Auba has taken a pay cut to get away from Arteta a drop of 250 k plus as his 100k will be in Euros
Maybe Arteta likes the younger players because he has no idea on how to coach or manage high profile players with big egos
Based on the Vlahovic-saga, Geoff, ego has only minor correlation with the actual age.
But from the ego perspective I think Odegaard is a perfect guy, that is already an established star, yet doesn’t have the inflated ego or the fancy allures, while Lokonga could become the next Goretzka or Pogba, without their egos and financial demands.
Morning all
New post up now
To my surprise I found a level-headed article on our transfer window:
https://www.football365.com/news/opinion-arsenal-manchester-united-january-transfer-window-arteta
This seems to run to the same conclusion as Rico: Arsenal getting smarter.