Woolwich Arsenal, the club that changed football. Have your name in the book as an official sponsor. Updated information here
By Anne
Part one of this article can be found here
From here, we’ll move on to consider:
Possible “shady” motives
1) Agents attempting to sell players
In my previous UM report, I highlighted:
“certain comments made by Arsène Wenger from time to time regarding transfer rumours about Arsenal. For example:
The following exchange took place between Arsène and a journalist during the Pre-Leeds press conference:
“Q: I know you’ve said in the past you’re not the biggest fan of the January transfer window.
Arsène: No. I’m still not.
Q: Might it be different this year? I mean, you’ve been linked with a couple of players….
Arsène: Well, every agent who wants to sell his player links himself with Arsenal, most of the time. But at the moment we are not on any concrete case apart from Thierry Henry.”
If the opinion Arsène expressed about agents during this exchange is correct, we can thus conclude that a large number of the transfer reports listed in the quiz were leaked by agents attempting to “sell their players.” But what does that mean, exactly?
Transfers from one club to another would certainly be included in the above statement. One of the more innocent motives that would fall into this category might concern a young player whose agent is simply attempting to generate some hype or publicity about that player, and get his name out. Or perhaps a player is looking for a transfer, and his agent is attempting to generate hype around him for that purpose.
For example, at the time when Nicklas Bendtner was looking for a transfer away from Arsenal, a huge number of transfer reports came out linking Bendtner with every major club in Europe, essentially. I personally suspect that Bendtner’s agent was leaking these reports in an attempt to promote Bendtner and make him more marketable. In general, I see nothing truly nefarious about agents leaking transfer rumours for these reasons.
However, transfers are not the only player sales that occur in football, although the other types of sales are much more secretive and shadowy, and often of questionable legality.
In my money laundering series, I haven’t gotten around to the issue of 3rd party ownership of players just yet, but it is an issue that I believe factors heavily into this type of transfer reporting.
While the specifics of how these third party transactions occur are somewhat shadowy, given the questionable legality of many such transactions, it does seem to be fact that many “sales” of players occur that have no relationship whatsoever to an actual transfer between clubs.
For example, parties will trade in things like the “playing rights” of a particular player, or his “image rights.” These types of third party transactions involving ownership rights to players occur year round, irrespective of whether or not the transfer window is open or approaching. It is thus possible that, particularly with regard to transfer rumours that are published when no transfer window is near, some of these transfer reports leaked by agents relate to player “sales” other than transfers, and such sales may or may not be legal.
The market for third party ownership rights to players is particularly strong in South America, and I would thus look for this motive to be in play with regard to transfer rumours about players from those countries. For an example from the quiz, I would look closely at:
“Arsenal is preparing a £23m January offer for Porto’s Hulk.”
Note the following excerpt from the article itself:
“It was reported that Arsenal were in the hunt for Hulk and were preparing a £23m January offer for the Brazil international…
A swap deal however will have certain issues as the player is currently also owned by a third party. Although Porto do own 85% of the prolific goalscorer it would be somewhat of a complicated deal to offer cash and a player for someone who is owned by numerous parties.”
2) Attempts to influence the gambling markets
On transfer deadline day, Sky Sports carried live reports throughout the day of all of the latest breaking transfer news and rumours. At the same time, Skybet (which I refuse to link to) was also “live,” offering “live betting” on whether or not said transfers were going to occur.
I personally know very little about how the gambling markets in player transfers operate, because it’s an issue that I haven’t had time to research yet. However, the above scenario nonetheless seems to suggest a certain conflict of interest, does it not? Specifically, if Sky has a financial interest in causing the public to place bets on certain transfers, does it not seem that this might influence their reporting about those same transfers?
This incestuous relationship that exists between the media and gambling interests is a highly significant issue, and most certainly needs to be investigated further. However, for the time being, let’s just say that some media reporting about transfer rumours is likely influenced by the gambling markets in player transfers.
3) Destablilization of a club and/or team
On the subject of the potential use of transfer rumours to destabilize a club, we will once again turn to certain comments made by Arsène Wenger. Specifically, prior to the Norwich match, Arsène expressed the following opinion about Blackpool in an interview with Arsenal player:
Arsène: “We have seen last year Blackpool, who in the end was unfortunate because they had, I think…players who were unsettled by other clubs, but as long as they were stable psychologically they could win everywhere.”
If we take Arsène’s words as true, this would indicate that transfer rumours can, in fact, be used to destabilize a club by unsettling certain players. As such, it is certainly possible that transfer rumours (particularly those concerning key players) might have been leaked for the sole purpose of destabilizing Arsenal. Untold Media has previously expressed concern about this issue with regard to transfer speculation about the future of Robin Van Persie.
With regard to the rumours included in the quiz, I would suspect this motive in the reports about RVP, Theo Walcott, and Alex Song. The names of these players often come up in news reports parroting the “exodus from Arsenal” if Arsenal doesn’t “splash big cash” talking point, as players who are going to leave if Arsenal doesn’t spend as directed. Because of that, I would personally expect these particular reports to be linked to that campaign.
Overall, there are many possible motives to leak or publish false transfer rumours. And unsurprisingly, this large number of motives leads to an equally large number of false transfer reports. Some of these reports are likely intended to further legitimate business dealings, whereas others are likely linked to much more nefarious goings on. With regard to UM’s transfer quiz specifically, I would posit that all of the above factors likely played a role in the decision to report some of the rumours on the list.
Out of all of these rumours, I find the “exodus from Arsenal” rumours to be the most threatening to Arsenal. These reports are also linked to the transfer market on another level, in the sense that the motive for these likely efforts to destabilize the club seems to be to coerce Arsenal to spend additional money in the transfer market. And the question that brings to my mind is, once again, WHY? Why would someone go to such effort, and care so much, about where and how Arsenal spends its money?
That, I believe, is the most important transfer market-related issue facing Arsenal at the current moment, and it is on that issue that we will primarily focus as we continue our examination of the operations of the global transfer market.
@EKA:
As you can see, I posted your comment. However, I do have to wonder whether you posted it, because I don’t see it anywhere.
And we have a follow up from EKA:
EKA says:
February 9, 2012 at 8:48 am
I tried to comment Untold Arsenals comments about this article but they removed my comment after a while and instead post a pro-Kroenke message where Anne “feels ok” with Kroenke. Wow, and she accuses me. I wonder what her agenda is.
EKA’s comment is still held in moderation – he has posted under 2 different identities ‘EKA’ and ‘Untold Story’ with two seperate email adresses. I haven’t clicked approve as I read his article and, although I do not trust Kroenke I find his overtly pro-Usmanov stance deeply disturbing i.e. starting his ‘argument’ on why Usmanov is ace:
“We know that Usmanov don’t want to own Arsenal primary to make more money.”
We all know that do we… how exactly do we all know this?
But it goes on:
“At Forbes list with the richest people in the world Usmanov is 35th with $17.7 Billion and Kroenke is 440th with $2.6 Billion – the same amount as Glazers but less then Steven Spielberg.”
Jolly good… I’m not quite sure what that is supposed to tell us other than he’s clearly a ruthless greedy bastard?
Anyhoo – I don’t want to make this the point of argument in the comments section and give it further publicity. Anne – I will send you his message and email address and you can reply privately as it was addressed to you.
DogFace why would a man who has a personal fortune of $18 billion use a club worth $700m to make money ? Just as Abramovich doesn’t see any point in making money out of Chelsea there would be no point in Usmanov using Arsenal to make money. There are many more profitable ways for a man such as him to make profit from $700m. His motivation has to be for pleasure which means that he will spend money. I expect the conspiracy theorists on this site to be out in force talking about money laundering but I really don’t think money-laundering is a major problem in Russia. Kroenke, on the other hand, is worth less than $3 billion and he really needs to make money out of Arsenal which means not spending money on players unless you can sell them for more. The current board have no ambition. Peter Dead-Wood doesn’t care whether we come in the top four and Ivan The Terrible thinks that Man City should be jealous of us while they sit top of the league. The guys simply don’t care about success for Arsenal FC, only about profits. One final question, this site supports Arsene and Arsene is starting to show dissent against the board so which side will you take if this turns ugly ?
Incidentally DogFace would you call anyone with money a ruthless greedy bastard or just those from Russia. If it’s the latter that would make you a racist. Kroenke can’t possibly be a ruthless greedy bastard because he’s American, hang on isn’t American known to be home to more ruthless greedy bastards than any country on Earth ? Can’t believe you’re a respected contributor to this site with such statements.
Charlie,
You seem to have no understanding of what it is to be an Oligarch in modern Russia. These men need assets outside of Russia in case the Russian government changes it’s mood or personnel. Look at what has happened to our own Boris Berezovsky, formerly a multi-billionaire, now reduced to suing his old business partner, Roman Abramovich.
Usmanov has incredible wealth on paper but if somehow he annoys Putin, he’ll be selling those shares to Kroenke faster than you can say ‘Спасибо товарищу.’
Charlie – I have already stated that I do not trust Kroneke. I do not care where he or Usmanov were born – to suggest that the motives for my lack of trust might be ‘racist’ are quite frankly a reflection of your weak mind.
I’m interested though as you seem to be taking this all very personally, do you regard Alisher Usmanov to be a Fit and Proper Person – if so why?
There was a generalisation there about Russian businessmen which I pounced on perhaps unfairly because I know it was meant in jest. Usmanov is certainly no worse than a board who insist on 20m profit every season and have been quoted saying things that clearly show no ambition for the club. Personally I do not care how he made his money, to some extent, that’s just me. I’m not writing his biography so I don’t know his history and I am pretty sure that you don’t either because i’m sure he kept it well hidden. If I supported Cheslea I wouldn’t care how Abramovich made his money and if I was a Spuds fan I wouldn’t care if Harry paid his taxes. I only care what is best for Arsenal FC and it is not the three running the club now who would see us in mid-table if Arsene Wenger hadn’t performed miracles over the last 10 years. If a billionaire wants to get pleasure by spending his money on players for Arsenal and seeing the team win, which I believe to be the case, that would be a welcome change in my opinion.
You’re right – of course, he ‘may’ spend money but like Abramovich this money will be accounted for in a company and still ‘owed’… although if the FFP rules are enforced then I’m not certain that he could even do that.
Owning a football club is something of a ticket to respectability and perhaps reveals something of Usmanov’s political ambitions on the world stage.
Owning a football club would also give you a distinct edge in the Asian black markets – if you were into that sort of thing.
You can find a little on his history here: http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/category/usmanov/
Quick question, if Usmanov would be so bad for Arsenal why did the one ex board member who clearly does love the club, David Dein, resign over Usmanov being shut out ? I can assure you that David Dein knows a lot more than any of you about what happens behind the closed doors of the boardroom. Arsene trusted and believed in Dein, to fault his judgement is also to fault the judgement of Arsene.
Charlie – I do not trust David Dein and I also do not agree with your statement [above]… nor do I hold your judge of character in any esteem whatsoever.
We are agreed on one thing. It’d be better if the current board were happy with breaking even in order to get in one or two star players and properly challenge for trophies. Playing for profit will get them nowhere and if Arsene leaves to manage France they’ll see exactly what would’ve happenned if he hadn’t been there. We’ll all see it unfortunately.
Yes… that may be the case – but isn’t that what being a supporter of a club is all about – take the rough with the smooth and keep singing and all that?
Charlie,
and what would we/Arsenal/you do when this billionaire suddenly dies/gets bored/steps down?
If Kroenke would die/get bored/stepped down he could sell the club as a club that has been runned in a decent way with not much debt (apart from the stadium). What would happen if usmanov spent £1B pound, then gets bored and wants his money back?
We then could act like Portsmouth/Leeds/……
I think on Untold we have made it clear in the past that we would have loved the old status quo to remain intact for as long as it could.
It wasn’t to be, but I can’t find any indications that Kroenke is out to destroy Arsenal.
The (not liked by you) sustainable business model has been the key for Arsenal since a long period (even before Kroenke) and this is to be sure that we can enjoy Arsenal for many years to come at the highest possible level.
I think you and whoever that “worried fan” might be is afraid of the fact that if we would win things again Usmanov will have not chance of becoming the nr. 1 at Arsenal.
DogFace do you trust anyone ? For those who read this site regularly you would get the impression that the whole world is corrupt. Besides, name me a successful football club that does have trustworthy ownership ?
Walter the sustainable business model is only sustainable while Arsene is performaing miracles and keeping the club in the top four. It is about to come crashing down around them because Arsene is getting sick of the lack of ambition from those above him. Have you noticed how he always denies links to other jobs, until now !
Hmmm… I hate to say it (and I really do) but FC United of Manchester maybe? And no – my default position is not one of trust.
One final thing because it’s getting late here in China and time that I wasn’t on my computer. The sustainable business model hasn’t provided the one thing that really matters, trophies. Do we really care about the profits of Arsenal PLC ?
Charlie
Why do you distrust the board so much? Do you think they are out to destroy Arsenal? They are only filling their pockets? How so? They do not draw dividends. Their policies did increase share price and they turned a heavy profit when they sold to Kroenke. But they could have sold to Usmanov at a higher rate. They didn’t. Unlike Dein. And if Arsene Wenger felt so strongly about Dein’s departure, or even about our model, he would have resigned, and would definitely not have defended our model with the vim that he did at the AGM. So spare us the Arsene will leave fear because the board are driving him away. We’ll see. Either way. That is no argument for bringing in Usmanov.
Trophies quickly become memories it seems…
Ok, one final final thought. I know the big fear is that Usmanov would fall out of favour in Russia, lose his wealth and sell the club. Why is selling the club a disaster ? As always it depends who buys it. As for the club being unsustainable well yes you might have a wage bill of 200m quid a year like Man City and only have income of 100m when the Russian is assasinated (we’re getting a little far-fetched). You might need to sell some key players to get the wage bill down and make some money…..hang on that’s what happens every summer anyway and that definitely what happenned last summer.
Until the stadium debt is payed off and the new shirt deal is signed..
DogFace those trophies came when spending on players was not so restricted. You can tie Arsenes’ success to the net amount that he had to spend each year. Arsene Wenger would be winning trophies with the same regularity if he wasn’t spending less net on transfers than any other manager in the year for the last 10 years.
sorry *in the league, not *in the year.
oh and if Usmanov just wants the club to do well with his money..why does he need to buy the 67% stake that Kroenke owns..Just pay Arsenal £1 billion with the proviso that Arsene Wenger decided what happens to that money, and make a show of it and he still gets the same plaudits and still gets to have his fun.
Winning or buying?
If the board sanctions a single transfer over 20m for someone like Eden Hazard or Neymar who are both keenly convetted by Arsene I will hold my hands up and say I was wrong.
Who says they are keenly coveted by Arsene? He was asked a direct question about Hazard and he answered by talking about his skills.Arsene also said that it is a manager’s job to also gauge whether the money demanded for a player is worth it. Maybe Arsene doesn’t think they are worth 20-30 million
@Charlie
“Ivan The Terrible thinks that Man City should be jealous of us while they sit top of the league”.
What Ivan Gazidis actually said was “We’re in three competitions this year. You know, Manchester City would love to be in three competitions. They’re not”.
Don’t get Me wrong, I’m enjoying this debate but stick to factual quotes.
Charlie,
correct me if I’m wrong but wasn’t it Usmanov a few years ago who was the only person on the AGM that asked to pay a dividend to the shareholders?
And paying a dividend to the shareholders=drawing money out of the club.
Shard here’s a quote about Neymar
‘If I had the money today, I’d put it on Neymar,’ said Wenger.
Read more: http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/883996-neymar-interest-confirmed-by-arsenal-boss-arsene-wenger#ixzz1lta2Xsbr
“I like Eden Hazard a lot and for many reasons,” he said, before helpfully going on to list those reasons. “His creative ability, his talent for unbalancing opponents, his vision of the game, and his consummate skill in making the final pass. Hazard has what it takes to play for a top-level club and Arsenal are a top-level club.”
If that’s not a manager covetting players then Barcelona never suggested any interest in Cesc and i’m a monkeys’ uncle.
@Tasos. Arsenal are not in 3 competitions, the most important one is gone. I guarantee that nobody at Man City would swap places, it was a ridiculous statement by a deluded man. Arsenal are in the last 16 of two cup competitions, by no means favourites to win either and only have a chance in the FA Cup. Man City are favourites to win the Premier League.
Walter they may not want dividends but we have no idea what their wages are because they are hidden amongst a squad of 70 players on wages between perhaps 3000 quid a week and 100000 quid a week.
@Charlie
Once again you misquote the man.
He did not say “swap positions”, merely that they (Man City) would love to still be in the three competitions at this stage, as I’m sure Man Utd would also be.
I fail to find anything wrong with such a statement.
@Shard, I believe when Dein did resign, there were reports that Arsene offered to resign as well in loyalty to Dein, since Dein is the one who fought with the board to bring Arsene to Arsenal (twice, the year before he was hired)!
The owners do not make a difference frankly, it’s up to the board who does all the negotiating. For the self-sustaining model to work, the Board needs to work properly and do their job so the club can make a profit! For example, Fabregas sold for I believe the same price as or less than Andy Carroll! Are you kidding me? The board needs to get their act together, not Arsene or the competing owners.
If Kroenke as the owner wants to run it as a business, that’s fine and is what should be done, but all successful business get the right employees to work and manage it, and fire/get rid of those that don’t!
any chance you could find those ‘reports’ Jerry?
What I found are these quotes from Arsene after Dein resigned.
“I will complete my contract so I am going to stay here until 2008. I will continue to give my best as I always have.
“If this had not happened, people would not be asking me these questions about my contract. I committed to that.”
“We have lost a man of class, intelligence and competence who made a great contribution to this club.
“It is a disappointment and a big loss. David always at heart had the best interest of the club.
“Even if I am very sad it is important to keep the best interest of the club in mind.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/6574129.stm
And as we know..Arsene signed another contract after that. Dein might be Arsene’s friend. They may have shared a good working relationship. But if you say Arsene doesn’t believe in what Arsenal are doing, I would have to think you are wrong because all the evidence seems to be to the contrary.
Charlie.. in the end..Neymar will go to only one club. The rest can have all the money but they won’t get him. What good does their money do them in getting the player then? Really..How you read a criticism of Arsenal’s transfer policy from that stupid article, I don’t know. It’s a less than serious question and Wenger played along.. So he’d like Neymar. I’m sure he’d also like Messi and Xavi and Ronaldo and a world XI of the greatest talent. Let’s go get them, once Usmanov sends Arsenal a cheque. After all, he just wants to see Arsenal succeed and at the most be able to boast about it. So why does he need anything else? Write Arsene a cheque and publicly state you are willing to finance any purchases Arsenal makes and their wages. If Arsenal say no to that, we can ask them why?
@Shard, I never said Arsene didn’t believe in what Arsenal are doing since Arsene has built Arsenal as a self sustaining model which I support as well and is one of the reasons I support the club as opposed to the other money rich clubs. Here’s a quote from Dein in regards to Wenger then:
“When I left in April I think his future was very much in the balance, in fact he said to me at the time he wasn’t sure he wanted to stay on,” Dein said.
“I think it was important he stayed on for the future of the club with all the players he is bringing through, his eye for talent.
“It was a very, very major decision for him to stay on. Certainly I wanted him to stay on. My love for the club is undiminished, irrespective of events that have happened and I know Arsene is right for the club.”
http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/65305-dein-wenger-considered-quitting#ixzz1luX3Iasr
It was more than just a good working relationship though, Dein tried bringing Wenger when Graham was dismissed but got overruled in 1995. Then he was finally able to get support in 1996 when Rioch was dismissed. Arsene truly loves the blub that’s why he stayed on, even with a board that didn’t approve of him in the beginning!
Dein is the one who brought Kroenke on board, which the Board did have a problem with and was one of the reasons for Dein’s ouster.
Hill-Wood’s comments:
“Call me old-fashioned but we don’t need Kroenke’s money and we don’t want his sort. Our objective is to keep Arsenal English, albeit with a lot of foreign players. I don’t know for certain if Kroenke will mount a hostile takeover for our club but we shall resist it with all our might.
We are all being seduced that the Americans will ride into town with pots of cash for new players. It simply isn’t the case. They only see an opportunity to make money. They know absolutely nothing about our football and we don’t want these types involved.”
http://soccerlens.com/arsenal-vs-dein-kroenke-can-get-30-what-are-the-boards-plans-for-arsenal/1443/
Now the same board is singing Kroenke’s praises.
And I don’t think Arsene does agree completely with the current board.
Hill-wood on Champions league: “”We are hanging on in there, no more,” he told the Daily Star of the club’s current position. “From a financial point of view, not qualifying for the Champions League is quite a blow.
“We have been planning for not qualifying every year, so it’s not a disaster, but it would be nice if we could.”
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1009893/arsenal%27s-hill-wood-plays-down-impact-of-failure?cc=5901
Arsene Wenger on Champions league:
“”For me it would be [a disaster]“, he said. “Because I want to play with the best.”We want to be in there, in the top four, and to play in the Champions League, and anything else would not be good enough.”
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/1010942/arsene-wenger:-not-reaching-ucl-a-%27disaster%27?cc=5901
Every now and then Arsene will say a comment like that, that contrasts the current board slightly.
Arsene is not getting the support he needs, due to the Board, not Kroenke or any other owner. Hill-Wood’s comments on Arsene’s summer transfers:
‘We have brought some new players in and although I don’t know that much about many of them I think, generally speaking, they are going to improve the squad,’ Hill-Wood told the Daily Star.
http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/football/874725-arsenals-peter-hill-wood-i-back-arsene-but-dont-know-his-signings#ixzz1luelQm8b
That’s ridiculous if the chairman doesn’t know those players: Arteta was in the Premier league already, Benayoun also as well as the Israeli team captain, Mertesacker a German International.
Most of the chairman’s comments are about making a profit, where as Arsene Wenger’s is appropriately about winning. Wenger is doing his job to the best of his ability, I don’t think the Board is though. We’re not going to make good profits by selling players like Fabregas at a home price discount. Hopefully the new shirt deal will help if the board can actually negotiate properly.
@Shard, the comment at 7:07 is after a comment i made at 6:58 pm which was long, is why I think it’s awaiting moderation?
@Charlie:
“I expect the conspiracy theorists on this site to be out in force talking about money laundering but I really don’t think money-laundering is a major problem in Russia.”
So, if I were to suggest that the Russian mafia regularly engages in money laundering, that would make me a “conspiracy theorist?”
@DogFace:
“Winning or buying?”
Touche.
This conversation has become a bit redundant. However, it does inspire me to ask, once again, the question I posed at the end of my article:
“WHY? Why would someone go to such effort, and care so much, about where and how Arsenal spends its money?”
Only concern for the good of the club, right?
Am noticing a slight change of tack, though. From targeting Arsene to targeting the board and management.
How long before anyone who doesn’t like Usmanov becomes known as the “Kroenke Knows Brigade” (KKB). Or how about the “Kroenke is Great Brigade” (KGB)?
@Kentetsu:
I don’t know if you’re still checking this, but I had meant to tell you how much I enjoyed your comments above. Very interesting and well thought out.
On the subject of Neymar:
Let’s take a quick look at all of the varies third parties who own him:
“Santos own at most just 55% of Neymar’s playing rights. The DIS investment group purchased a 40% stake in the player’s future transfer fees in 2009, and the Terceira Estrela consortium bought up another 5% last November. And none of that takes into consideration the interest Neymar’s family still retains, and transfer-mongering agent Walter Ribeiro is due his piece of the pie as well.
In any case, we know there are at least five parties with something to gain from a big-money transfer, not to mention Neymar himself…Two of those parties are investment firms who make it their business to turn a substantial profit on their outlays.”
This would be quite a complicated transfer indeed, with quite a few interested stakeholders. Would it be in Arsenal’s best interest to involve themselves in such a complicated transfer? Or would it be in the best interest of one or more other parties?
@Anne, I personally didn’t like the current Board because some of the comments I feel they don’t support Arsene enough like some of the quotes above and the Cesc sale. I agree Cesc had to be sold, but at a better price considering his age and amount of years left on his contract (especially when you consider the Carroll sale at the time). For us to be a self-sustaining model, we have to maximize profits where we can so we can get adequate replacements to have a strong team while maintaining profits.
As good as Neymar is, I wouldn’t break the bank considering all the different third parties, plus I don’t think it’s worth going bankrupt for 1 player! It’s better to get players who still have something to prove, because they’ll play harder for the team like most of our current squad players.
@Jerry: “We are all being seduced that the Americans will ride into town with pots of cash for new players.” – Never have I. And tell you the truth, I never want ANYONE, Americans or Russians or Arabians, throw their money in to Arsenal just because they have too much money and don’t know how to ‘entertain’ with it (they can always send it to me for that matter), make Arsenal spending like other idiots, and end with ridiculously huge payrolls. It IS sick. The way Man C and the others trying to buy trophies makes me sick, even if they success.
“The Arsenal way” – the sustainable model as you called it, in my opinion, is the only RIGHT way to do business, and I want to see Arsenal successing with that model, to prove to the stupid football world that IS the only right and healthy way to do business. And I am sure that is what Arsene Wenger and Kroenke and the Board want, too.
About “the Cesc sale”: It is AW’s decision to let him go because he wanted to go to Barca. As AW said, that was a “special situation” where the price could be “very much higher” but it wasn’t because “the player didn’t want to go anywhere else.” The Board had nothing to do with that.
Hey Jerry i’d agree with Shard that IF Neymar leaves he’ll go to Barcelona but he has said that he wants to stay at Santos. Despite all that the kid scored his 100th league goal on his 20th birthday recently and if Arsene puts him top of his wish list he must be pretty good. It is quite likely that he would be a contender for World Player of The Year if he played in Europe along with Ronaldo and Messi. If you can get one of the worlds’ best players with the money that you got from selling Cesc and Nasri then any ambitious team would do exactly that. In reality he probably isn’t interested but I am very confident that this board would not sanction his purchase even if he was interested in coming to Arsenal. As for the self-sustaining financial model balls to it if it leaves the trophy cabinet empty for the next 10 years as I suspect it will. Your team is even in contention for trophies or not, this team is not because too little money has been spent, too many good players have been sold and too many of the alleged bargains turned out to be duds. Did you all notice how nobody would buy Bendtner or Denilson in the summer because their wages are well above what they are worth ? The same will probably go for Squillaci, Chamakh, Park and Diaby this coming summer. Arshavin will be bought by a Russian team because he’s still a hero over there. The problem here is that even with a man of Arsenes’ intelligence at the helm you take a big risk if you try to buy players on the cheap every single time. The Ox has been great BUT he wasn’t cheap, the exception that proves the rule.