Yesterday evening Arsenal FC released a statement which read:
We are pleased to announce that we have reached a voluntary agreement with our first-team players, head coach and core coaching staff to help support the club at this critical time.
The move follows positive and constructive discussions. In these conversations there has been a clear appreciation of the gravity of the current situation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and a strong desire for players and staff to show their backing for the Arsenal family.
Reductions of total annual earnings by 12.5 per cent will come into effect this month, with the contractual paperwork being completed in the coming days. If we meet specific targets in the seasons ahead, primarily linked to success on the pitch, the club will repay agreed amounts. We will be able to make those repayments as hitting these targets, which the players can directly influence, will mean our financial position will be stronger.
The agreement is based on the assumption we will finish the season 2019/20 and receive the full broadcasting revenues. The resulting savings will help cover some of the financial risks we have this season in relation to our matchday and commercial income.
We are proud and grateful to our players and staff for pulling together to support our club, our people and our community in these unprecedented times which are some of the most challenging we have faced in our history.
Victoria Concordia Crescit.
The Mirror report that Mesut Ozil is one of three players to reject the pay cut. The other two have not been identified or the coin didn’t land on their names. It’s up to them at the end of the day but whoever the three are, they aren’t going to be popular around the place. Would you want a bloke alongside you in the trenches who wasn’t prepared to put his 12.5% in? No, me neither. Hardly sends out an all for one, one for all message does it and I wonder how the kids feel, the ones who this cut will hit hardest. Anyway, whoever those three are, they should be ashamed of themselves. Raul and Edu to take them to one side and tell them to find another club this summer because they’ll never play for Arsenal again.
Whether or not these guys believe the pay cut is fair, they are partly to blame for the way the club has been failing. Around this time last year, securing a top four spot was on the cards and a Europa Cup trophy was well within our grasp. The players didn’t perform well enough and it’s as simple as that. Regardless of what they thought of Unai Emery, they should have fought harder to get back into the Champions League for Arsenal FC and it’s fans.
Arsenal lost at home to Crystal Palace on this very date, dropped another two points against Brighton a couple of weeks later and sandwiched somewhere in between were thrashings at Everton, Wolves and Leicester which didn’t help at all but the Palace and Brighton fixtures alone should have given us five extra points. All we needed was two! I know we dropped throughout the season which cost us too but the Palace defeat at The Emirates really hurt us in the end.
Footballers often cite wanting Champions League football as their reason for leaving, yet when the opportunity presented itself, there wasn’t much evidence to suggest they wanted it back then. Neither was there in the Europa Cup Final.
We’ll never know if the money from the Champions League would have made a difference to the financial situation the club are in now but I suspect it would have. Logic suggests so but our wage bill needed trimming and those players who don’t like it know what they can do.
Stay safe guys and stay healthy…
OAP discount then Sue. 😂
New post up now
Happy Birthday to every hairdressers dream – David Luiz, 33 today!
Reloaded today! Not on at 3pm though, 7.30pm instead!
Potter, re your 7.16pm. Makes total sense but Ozil has I believe said that he’s happy to run down his contract which if true, is pretty selfish and proves he’s all about money. No other club is going to pay him what Arsenal are.
Ivan and Arsene really cocked his deal up and all because desperate times called for desperate measures imo.
Kev, I get that but didn’t Wenger see how Mikki was struggling at Utd? Had the club taken the City offer, we’d have been far better off but again, they all left it too late. Imo
So a lot fans and media still having a go at Ozil yet Silent Stan and Silent Josh say nothing, do nothing and yet no one in the media are asking questions about Arsenals owners
Is the rumours go that the 3 players who’ve copped more insults and personal abuse than any other player in recent times aren’t feeling benevolent.
Just another reason to hate them but we do love a scapegoat 🙂
Morning all.
Bored to tears here-still hahahaha
Definitely should have sold him Rico, but Arsene wanted Mkhitarayan when he was at Borussia Dortmund so I suppose he was still keen, but ultimately a complete waste of money.
Ozil would leave Sue but only if the club paid up his contract and that’s not happening so Mesut will have to be the clubs Aunt Sally for another 12 months.
I did read somewhere that his agent, Dr Sogut, now represents Mustafi, so that should make things a bit interesting if we want to sell him in the summer.
Mind you, it sounds like she`s been through some shit!.
Jumping off the cliff, Katie Price, went down so quickly she lost her eye lashes ,but gained a beard and moustache! 😆
😂😂😂
Christ how long would it take to confiscate that lot??!! Still be doing it at the start of the next series haha!
She’s vile, she ‘cleared her nose’….. women don’t do that!!!
You have got me curious, Sue, so will watch SAS now……………………………does Katie Price without the make up look like Simon Jordan then ?…………………..are they the same person?
😆
Ab sweat!!?? Please don’t tell me she wants them again tomorrow?! 🤣 Plutonium 😂😂
Cayenne Pepper, Paprika, Slow Chilli, Molton Lava, Plutonium, the sweat from my ab workout! hahaha
Have it on Planner so not watched it yet, Sue,, but now I`m intrigued!…………………….have they confiscated Katie Price`s Botox ? 😆
First time I`ve commented on JA for ages and thought it might have got binned seeing as I referred to him as a Nazi! hahaha
Also, Le Coq, going back to last night and who dares wins, how gross is Katie Price?!!
Hey Le Coq! Adolf indeed 😆 All joking aside, becomes really tiresome reading that sort of tosh all the time!!
Jesus what did you put on those wedges? Are you sure your daughter was crying from the wedges and not just the thought of having to eat your cooking?! 😝
Hey Sue!…………………..I know where you mean “but elsewhere”…………………….just read a shocking post “elsewhere” and the Adolf…….sorry Admin sounds like he would like the genocide of any one who likes Ozil!………………….hilarious really! 😆
Another hot day and I thought I`d try my hand at something new!……………..I`ve become an expert at making spicy wedges, although these are for men as they are too hot to handle for women!…….I call them Fire Wedges, although I could call them Covid-1900 degrees celsius wedges as they will give you respiratory failure!………my Daughter had one and it made her cry!
😥
If as we are led to believe that money needs to be saved then it’s probably best that we unload both Ozil and Mhikitarian and put the half million to better use .
It will not be a sellers market when things all set up again so the club may have to be a bit more realistic about their valuations.
Afterall £550,000 a week gives you £ 27 and a half million off of the bottom line plus whatever fee you can get for them
Just wish we’d sold him Kev and not the swap. Hindsight eh.
In a way I can’t wait until he goes, for his own sanity more than anything! He’ll no longer be the scapegoat… every day seems to be a ‘let’s slate Ozil day’.. I don’t mean on here, but elsewhere.. some of the comments from gooners I’ve come across has been terrible to say the least!!
No worries, Kev! Everyone has an opinion and tbh I’ve heard a lot worse!!
The decline in Alexis has been staggering, although we all laughed at Man Utd it’s been a mystery as to why his end product has fallen away so dramatically, even at Inter Milan, where he only scored five goals…
Now although his departure saddled us with the useless Henrik Mkhitarayan I think that we definitely got our money’s worth out of Alexis.
For me, Ozil has been one of the most disappointing signings in my time as an Arsenal fan, yes he has his good days, his stellar games, but when we really need him, when we’re up against it, he isn’t there, he doesn’t step up.
When Arsenal signed him I felt as I did when we signed Dennis Bergkamp, that we’d signed a game changer, but although they both played the No.10, that’s where the comparison ends.
Sorry Sue… 😕
Cross was always the man in the know, according to him anyway. Too much disinformation about for me these days.
Another thing re Ozil, perhaps if Wenger and then Emery hadn’t neglected the defensive units, Ozil might have been better..
Thanks Sue, on his day he can be brilliant, sadly we haven’t ever seen enough of that side of Ozil. He and Alexis were good together though.
John cross should name the person who named Ozil and why they did not name the other 2 players.
Further more silent Stan and silent Josh should come out and say what they are doing to help the club and prove it before the fans and media have a go at any player.
Well without one we wouldn’t get the other Adam but Cross has always been negative towards Arsenal.
Great read, Rico.. it popped up on my phone today – the pictures of my son and I sat at the Emirates watching Mustafi gift Zaha that goal 😳 Some of our losses have been so bloody frustrating! So close, yet so far… could very well continue for a few seasons yet!
I just knew Ozil’s name would be mentioned by the media! Sod the others, just Ozil. I know he’s on far too much and I wish we hadn’t offered him that much… but I do really like him, I love watching him when I go there…. ok so now I’m just waiting for the onslaught 😂😂😂
Rico. I think that lockdown and no football to stress over allows these stories to fester myself. Wage reductions, furloughs etc.. and all that.
Morning Adam. I don’t think the lockdown makes much difference. These kind of stories are written anyway. It’s the kind of stuff the media love.
Hi Geoff.
Well said Cicero, happy birthday HRH you do us proud… 👑
Hi Rico and All If it is true then these 3 players should come out and tell us fans why they refused and if it just money hungry then never pick them again and sell them ASAP but at the end of the day Stan or Josh Kroenke need to come out and make a full statement about the rumours and state fact’s.
Morning Rico. One of the unfortunate by-products of our current situation is that people have a lot of time on their hands.
Potter is right. Like a tiny seed, a story is planted and as it germinates it encourages speculation and indignation. As small leaves appear this soon becomes resentment and the relevant writer or site that planted the seed is somehow enriched. Irony is heaped upon irony as the gullible are lead, nose first, into the pit of despair. Accusation via social media follows and with zero proof or first-hand knowledge a whole new story is written.
It’s worth noting that Ozil’s agent said that taking a higher percentage wage deferral would be better option than a cut obviously, as they would both eventually receive the full amount.
Good morning all.
Happy 94th birthday to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11 🔔🔔🔔
Never believe anything in the newspapers, not only do they have their own agenda, they do tend to make things fit to sell a headline…
Interesting to read RvP say that before he moved to Utd, he was not offered a new Arsenal deal.
Two sides to every story , and here is the other
http://dailycannon.com/2020/04/mesut-ozils-pay-cut-refusal-isnt-all-it-seems/
No one apart from those involved will know the truth , but speculation is the lifeblood of social media and people like Cross do all they can to light the spark .
The illusion of truth
“Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”,
Morning Andrew, thanks. The way I’ve read the statement, I think it’s a yes which would be totally wrong imo. Take the cut or out would be the ultimatum I’d give them but I’m sure that would be illegal as far as their contracts go.
Morning Kev, I read Xhaka and Mustafi are the other two. Oh the irony. The three of them more than contributed to the disaster of last season.
Morning rico & all, good post and nice to hear. Is it a majority decision as they say ‘the squad’ or can some refuse and expect the others to play alongside them as if nothing had changed?
Morning Rico, thanks for the post.
It’s another gloriously sunny day.
So the rumour is three players have yet to agree to the wage cut although it doesn’t mean that they won’t anytime soon in the future.
John Cross, the man on the inside (in his dreams) breaks the story and names Ozil, with Dr Sogut his rent-a-quote agent apparently unavailable to comment so it looks as if the Ozil story has some legs. I did hear another name, but it was probably nonsense so I won’t add to it by spreading the rumour.
The Board etc have deferred their wages, so they’re guaranteed to get their money back whilst the players won’t be.
I also read that the millions that Stan was going to pump in isn’t all what it seems. Not that I’m surprised by that!
Then the Fenerbahce rumours with Ozil resurface, so maybe there is going to be a parting of the ways between Arsenal and it’s top earner after all this summer?
Plenty for News Now to get its teeth into and speculate about.