Having got back to Premiership football with a nice 4-1 win, Champions League football makes a return this week. Our game is at The Emirates against Braga on Wednesday night and I can’t wait!
But as the competition kicks off Arsene Wenger has taken the opportunity to take a sideways dig at a few of the other sides involved in the Champions League.
UEFA have bought in new financial rules in hope to stop so many clubs living beyond their means, something that clearly doesn’t happen at Arsenal, in fact totally the opposite happens at Arsenal! He believes that the new rules will finally help us and make us stronger in a competition we should have won by now.
UEFA have put in place tighter controls on spending for clubs entering the European competitions, Real Mallorca have already been thrown out of this seasons Europa League after entering into administration.
Wenger said this about the new rules:-
The new rules will be a massive advantage for Arsenal, We are one of 10 teams equipped to win the Champions League. We are fighting against some big budgets, clubs who lose €150 million to €200 million per year. You don’t deserve a lot of credit for winning a competition, if all the others balance their books and you are the only one who can lose a huge amount of money.
Nobody is unbeatable. We lost last year to Barcelona in the quarter-final. They could have knocked us out after 45 minutes. But in all the other three halves, I think we should have knocked them out had we been a bit more stable defensively. You could say that Barcelona could be the team to beat this year. Real have invested a lot of money, again. You cannot dismiss them. But, two years ago, Inter were organised too and they went out early. It is not as easy at it looks. We are one of only three clubs who have come out of the group stage 10 consecutive years. Teams with massive money have not done it. We deserve a lot of credit for our consistency. After that, we deserve a lot of blame for not having won it. I believe our group stage is a good test. It is much stronger than it looks.
I’m not sure his assesment of our two matches against Barca last season is quite right…
Anyway, these new financial fair play rules stipulate that clubs have to break even over a rolling three-year period if they want to play in the European competitions and all clubs will be risk assessed, taking into account their debts and salary levels.
Platini says the intention of this new rule is to ‘protect’ them rather than punish them. There is an agreement in place with all the clubs who this new rule will apply to, they have to not spend more than they generate, therefore bringing stability and economic common sense back into football!
There will be some leeway granted for the six years after 2012 but some Premier League clubs, notably Manchester City, Chelsea and Aston Villa could still fall foul of the rule unless they change their spending habits. Manchester United have had a ‘dummy test’ carried out relating to their own finances and despite being heavily in debt and having to pay out £45M each year to fund their debts, they apparently would not suffer through the new rule.
Ourselves, ‘our neighbours’ and Liverpool would sit very comfortable within the new rules. The chairman of the European Club Association (ECA), Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, said the new rules were “a huge achievement” that would shape the future of European club football into a more responsible and sustainable business.”
Also the English Football Association and Premier League are in total support of this new financial rule and welcome them on board – so why don’t they think about introducing something very similar within the English game? It’s not only clubs who get into Europe who overspend is it?
Well there you go, every one likes the new rules but I don’t see how it will change much to be fair, especially if Manchester United have been told they would be ok. How much do they owe?
Don’t suppose anyone doubted we would be fine. Is that why Wenger won’t spend any money and why the club have concentrated on clearing their debts? I don’t know the answer, but I suspect it would be ‘Yes’..
So the new rules come in 2012, then clubs will be given a bit of slack for the following six years. Why don’t they just say the rule will come into effect in 2018?
Can you see this new rule ‘really’ changing the way clubs like Chelsea, Citeh, Barcelona and Real Madrid spend their money??
Over the weekend we were linked with a £2M bid for Nick Powell. He’s 16yrs old and plays for Crewe and England under 17’s. We are apparently hoping to secure his signature in January, that’s if Roy Hodgson doesn’t get in there first. Talking of Livepool, they had a bad day at the office yesterday, but for Reina they would have been beaten.
£50m striker Torres?? Looks more like a £50,000 striker at the moment 😉
Well that’s it for today, have a good one all…
Morning all….
swipe? speaks the truth watch yer rico hi and bye catch you on twitter
“Don’t suppose anyone doubted we would be fine. Is that why Wenger won’t spend any money and why the club have concentrated on clearing their debts? I don’t know the answer, but I suspect it would be ‘Yes’..”
Why yes? Debt (and the interest expenses) incurred through investing in stadium infrastructure is specifically precluded from these rules.
Arsenal are making enormous profits after tax every year now and adding to its cash mountain. There is no excuse for us not to have invested more in our squad other than Wenger thinks we have enough.
hi rsd, he’s clever, he doesn’t miss a chance to have a pop at the clubs who spend for fun…
hi jp, i am sure that is one of the main reasons he doesn’t spend, but as a fan, do you think we have enough??
I’m off for a couple of hours, catch up shortly…
Hi rico, not enough, no.
Morning all,
Where is that Braga post or is set for tomorrow?
Is there any punishment if any club exceeds the amount of money?
‘morning all. two very busy weeks starting for me, i expect my presence here will be sporadic at best.
good win on saturday – robinson’s tackle should have been a red as well. we can argue cahill’s tackle ad nauseum, but the ball had gone and chamakh was already out of bounds.
hi again all…
Stef, poss wednesday, the matchday
hi oliver, that’s not such good news about your busy two weeks 🙁
i think wenger is not far wrong when he says cahill was looking for revenge having not been given a free kick…
Stef, re the money, i think they just get kicked out the competition…
Rico, to bad that the rule don’t apply from next season 2018 is pretty far away, maybe they are waiting the clubs prepare for the rule. Not allowing to play is a good enough punishment.
Anybody saw MOTD Hansen said we aren’t title contenders 😀 lol and who is Man. City?
But no wonder there and yeah no caption of Diaby injury anywhere on the media except the arsenal blogouniverse.
Lovely day today sunshine since early dawn, makes that arse go for a walk.
n where r HH regulars?
bye till l8r
All seems a bit daft re this rule Stef and Hansen doen’t know what he’s talking about 😉
catch you later stef, enjoy the sunshine 🙂
Quiet old day again…..
Hola! rico, “I’m not sure his assesment of our two matches against Barca last season is quite right…” is the understatement of the day. Lol.
Why the six-year wait, one wonders? In that span of time, I’m guessing a couple more clubs will go into administration. This piece of legislation, for the determinable future at least, is nothing more than a toothless tiger then. 😉
Howdy agag, 😆 we were torn to shreds in both matches, maybe wenger didnt see it 😉
Funny thing though agag, Wenger won’t be our manager by the time the rules ‘really’ come into force…
Seems awfully quiet everywhere, rico.
Well, AW has laid rock solid foundations to ensure our Club’s future for the next generation of Gooners… Now, for that small matter called silverware… 😉
I still don’t understand how MU and the Scousers will pay off their debts. Admittedly, I don’t care a feather or a fig. 🙂
oliver, we haven’t seen much of you here. We’ll miss the comments-slash-articles. 😉 I hope you’ve settled well into your new home.
Phew, I was beginning to get a complex agag 😉
He certainly has set the foundations, but some other manager may come in and blow it all…
We all keep saying he doesn’t need to break the budget, just sell a few and buy two… 🙂
agag, we will all miss oliver, it will be like going through another international break without him around 🙁
Staggers me too how the manc and dippers will beat the new rule, especially the mancs, they are in massive debt…
Howdy ladies.FFP Rules will change alot.madrid/red mancs have never been the problem since they generate revenues.inter/blue mancs/chavs do not generate enough revenue to validate their expenditures…i also saw that we have had 82 shots in our 4 games with 44 on target resulting in 13 goals.AA has 2 goals and 3 assists in 4 games…he may seem lazy but he is effective.
Sell a few = D&D; Buy two = let’s go Dutch. 😀
And I’d cough up the 50K if it means we get Torres… You know me, I’m hopeless about The Great and Perennially Injured. Must be why I like Robin and Rosicky and Dudu so much.
Hi KTR7, I have been waiting for you to help me make sense of it all 😉
Spuds can’t generate much revenue either 😉
Double Dutch agag, so the goal keeper begining with SK, then who else, VDW 🙂
Torres will cost much less right now agag, he isn’t happy and you can see it when he plays, credit to Cesc I guess…. He seems to be over his Barca woes, for the moment…
Boo, KT.
Well, I have to read more about the FFP Rules; I’ll only express ill-informed opinions on it now, since I haven’t taken the time to process the same. Or maybe, I’m just smug cause I know our club is in fine financial form. 🙂
AA, in both interviews and body language, is a different player, it seems; at least now, he recognizes his own failings, instead of incessantly complaining about every other thing/person, not unlike in the past season. I thought his finishing was dismal last Saturday, but like TR7, he had great movement and seems to be enjoying his football more…
But the Dippers midfield was abject, rico. No striker would be happy with such type of service. 🙂 Can’t say I’m not enjoying it… Haha.
FFP rules ladies consider loss a bigger crime compared to debt because as with our debt it was as a result of stadium investment.among the big clubs we,mancs,spuds and pool will be fine since we have revenue to burn.Abramovich supports them because he has already established the chavs among the elite and now he won’t need to spend much since their academy has great prospects like kakuta.Inter will have a problem since they made huge losses despite winning the treble.you may say they may pull out of the CL but those revenues are keeping them afloat.Barca are also readjusting in preparation for this rules since most big clubs will want to continue participating in the CL and it would be too much of a gamble to expect an European Super League just to avoid keeping their clubs in a healthy financial sitiuation.
agag, the rules are open to interpretation imho, they make very little sense 🙁
agag, it still is and i’m enjoying it too 😆
I’m intrigued about Barca’s P&L statements, KT. Why are they in such dire financial straits? What have they been spending on? Apart from Chygrynskiy somehting or other…
What i love about chamakh is that he pulls outwide often which in turn forces AA to make theoesque runs to the middle.in the Bolton game chamakh pulled out left many times which forced AA to move into the vacated space.Their partnership may become similar to that of messi and eto’o which enabled messi play central most of the time despite starting outwide.This results to AA/Messi playing in their favourite roles in a more fluid system.AA looked interested and i have a feeling he is about to explode.Chamakh also works hard alot and he is an adequate rvp cover.last season when bendtner/AA played central we lacked this intelligent movement resulting in our goal average dropping by 50%.we have two genuine false nine’s/9 and a half forwards who as Aw put it break down walls for our offensive players resulting to goals from all over the park.i prefer such strikers to a pure number 9 like Torres since if the forward has a bad day you won’t score and you can see this when an off-form torres/drogba play for their respective teams.Torres has been poor which has translated to pool scoring only two goals.
KTR7, so that’s why Roman spent big to start with then, but he has an aging squad now, soon he will have to splash the cash again…
Chamakh is showing himself to be yet another astute AW signing. He seems to be a really intelligent player, although his finishing needs more polish. KT, I read some really interesting Gingers article on Chamakaka and dear Denny Boy; exactly what you’ve been banging on about regrding false nines.
Torres has been poor because Pool’s playmakers have been rubbish, KT. Torres alone cannot save Liverpool from what seems to be a collective grand wish to implode so early into the season.
Agag Laporta was running barca to the ground.they spent 70mil on ibra but after one season they have loaned him out to milan with an option of buying at 25mil.Chygrinski was a sham,they delayed in paying us our dues in the henry and hleb transfers.They may have to buy cesc for 50mil+ while we only paid 500k in compensation.They bought alves for 30mil which is too much for a Rb and with his age he may have no resale value.Villa will also have no resale value as he is 29.this is bad business agag not forgetting they pay very high wages.They are doing all this while donating millions to UNICEF hence they get no revenue from their shirt sponsors.This has left them in dire financial mess as it is and it will not surprise me if they are unable to purchase cesc next summer.
I’m more than impressed with Chamakh, and we hve yet to see the best from him by far – i like a player who can actually use his head and score….
KTR7, Will your post be ready to go up on wednesday?? I’m really looking forward to it 🙂
Torres just isn’t happy and I love it 🙂
Agag thats the problem with building the team around a number nine.in our system if cesc is having a bad game,chamakh and rvp are intelligent enough to drop deep to play as playmakers.Torres can’t do that and thats why they are struggling.You have to give it up to Aw since we have mozart,cesc,nasri,ramsey and wilshere who can play as playmakers.pool have only gerrard,chavs have lampard and benayoun,mancs have scholes and carrick,barca have xavi,iniesta,thiago and jonathan dos santos.inter have sneijder and stankovic,milan have pirlo and seedorf.madrid have özil,kaka and canales.we are being severly underestimated which i love since no one will see us coming.with our defense making improvements daily…
Rico i’ll send my post to you tomorrow…
Its good to see cesc backing big Al and i hope all gooners will follow suit.if you have time check out lima’s goal,braga player, vs porto…it was a screamer that anyone would be proud of.
KT, I’ve always been happy about our midfield; people say we have too much of the same type (small, technical players), but I’ve always felt that with a good DM and beasts at defense, we’d be the team to beat.
And all those other teams are aging or are already aged, KT. 🙂 Shame Ramsey’s progress was dealt a blow by such a pedestrian player. 🙁
rico, the thing about Torres is that not many teams can afford him; Barca certainly can’t and I don’t see him going to Atleti’s arch-rivals; so Arsenal remain a possibility. Haha. Oh self, stop dreaming…
Evra has been very poor of late by the way.Agag i agree with what you’re saying and i believe in kozzer,squillaci and vermy we have 3 reliable cbs.last season we were a cb injury away to seeing silvestre in the team which is an improvement to me.Diaby has also improved in positional discipline as we have seen him play dm twice which can only be an advantage to us.Spuds love saying they have a better team than us but the truth is we are ruthless to teams like west brom and we always impose our game on all teams be it the mancs or leicester.we also have several gears to climb to which makes us much better than them.
Thanks KTR7 🙂
I’m up for giving Al a chance…. Just hope that can last until the end of the season……
Good night, kids. I’m off. Lovely talking to you both. 🙂
Night night agag, lovely chatting away with you too, always is 🙂 Rest well…..
I’m off too all,
see you tomorrow
stay safe, night night
Night all…
Morning
New Post up….