Did you watch the Luton v Man City game last night? Erling Haaland is a sensation who is scoring 5 goals away from home IN A MATCH. Yes, he is supported by the best player on this planet currently in Kevin De Bruyne but you have to be at the right place at the right time to score some of those. His performance and the stats convinces me more that –
“The difference between Arsenal finishing 2nd and Man City winning a treble is Haaland.”
It was apparent after last season ending tragically for us when we topped the league for 200+ days and lost to Man City. You may say we had injuries and fatigue towards the end of the season but we had lost some very winnable games prior to that, just because no one was able to score. Eddie and Jesus are not as clinical in front as you would expect your CF to be. If you think I am exaggerating, answer me a simple question – would you prefer Trossard or Eddie/Jesus up top? And Trossard is mostly a left-winger.
So what did we do? We brought Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, David Raya and Jurrien Timber. Rice has proved his worth, Havertz is still trying to and Timber is out injured since the first game he played for us. And we are doing well defensively. Look, I was/am as excited as you to see Timber play for us, and I understand we need to pay 35m today to not spend 80m tomorrow, but after finishing 2nd, we need a CF who can score. We could have lose 5 points had Ramsdale been playing instead of Raya (lets just say), but that CF would have covered those losses.
I’m sure Edu and Arteta knows this, because of the rumours surrounding Ivan Toney and Arsenal. But Brentford rejected any claim of our inquiry and we are registering losses as a club.
The Club released 2022-23 financials, and here’s a summary if you are interested :
We had an increase in operating profit from football from 80m to 116m. We paid about 18m for players to leave, which club has determined exceptional costs (player impairment). We spent 139m (+12m) on players, made a profit of 12m down from 24m from last season in player’s sale.
There were increase in broadcasting revenue, largely because we played well and finished 2nd in last season. Commercially we did well as well, with a 30m increase in revenue – yes those tshirts you see every other two days are selling well.
We have a wage bill of 235million. We extended few players and put them on bigger wages – Eddie, Martinelli, Saka, Ben White, Ramsdale, and at this pace it’s going to only increase.
We paid 18m for players to leave. Our current wage bill is 235m GBP. Our players’ sale decreased from 24m to 12m. And we are out there loaning the likes of Tierney who could have fetched 30odd millions in a market. These 3 things need to change. The first one is almost done, we don’t have any dead rubber (as of now). Our wage bill is unsustainable if we don’t win things. Our current crop is going to stay and will likely earn even more in coming years, so that’s only going to increase. Paying 65m for Havertz and making him the highest earner at Arsenal when he wasn’t getting any favour at Chelsea just mean we said yes to whatever his agent asked for. We need to fix that mate.
Third, what’s all that hype of Mertsacker running academy well when we can’t generate any profit and non of them can break into the playing XI. We tried to emulate Chelsea’s academy structure of making profits from the sale of youngsters, but it has not worked yet (except may be Saka / Nelson) but they were playing well before Edu, Arteta and Mertsacker took over.
And stop increasing ticket prices and asking 75 pounds for a tshirt. There are 16/18 year olds out there supporting you who can’t afford that. Don’t cover your incompetence on the cost of fans. KSE are shrewd businessmen and I think they see this, hence the Vinai’s departure.
Right, so we are registered losses in the books. We only managed to remain within FFP because Brentford agreed to give us Raya and take payment a year later. We can’t sell anyone and the Centre Forwards are the costliest item in the market.
And we need one desperately. Tough time requires tough measures, if we win something this season, all’s well but if we don’t, we need to cut loose the likes of Eddie, Jesus, Nelson, Thomas Partey, ESR and a lot more of the deadwoods who can’t improve us any bit more. Tierney as well.
So here, we need a goal scorer and we can’t afford one. That’s me done for today.
Some of us have been talking about the financial implications of Arteta for a while now.
This really isn’t a surprise.
AK
Excellent post. So true. Martin, my old next door neighbour’s nephew holds a senior position at Chelsea. He reported to Marina when she was there. His description of her was apt – she stood up to piss.
She has gone – but the attitude hasn’t changed. Chelsea went high and AFC’s negotiators said yes.
ooops there goes another £65M.
The gang of three this season will eventually be joined by Chelsea and Man U. Ratcliffe is ruthless and will ensure positive changes are made. Liverpool will need to have a new manager hitting the floor running and City (unless they are punished) will still be the team to beat over the length of a season. There may be another intruder. Introducing players from a strong youth system will be essential.
NORG
Plastic Pedro will delighted to know that the group of teams looking to be in contention next season for the title is expanding. He can use the information to grow the list of clubs that we’re waiting to become shite in order that we eventually might be in with a shout in order to continue wafting smoke up Arteta’s khyber.
Ambarish – you probably speak fluent cockney after your spell in London but Hoopah, just in case you’ve never been… Khyber equals Khyber pass equals arse.
Marina Granovskaya could certainly teach Edu and probably Garlick a thing or two.
KP
I still meet up with my old neighbour about once a year. Matchdays between Arsenal and Chelsea were always interesting. He had 4 kids and we had 2. His nephew told some interesting stories about the Chelsea captain.
KP – I once posted on LG that Pedro was fast becoming a second Alistair Campbell – it didnt go down too well.
for quite some time now there has existed a contingency within the fanbase who have too easily thrown around terms like “culture change” and “generational manager”, among others, without care or concern for what those phrases truly mean/represent…in many respects it reminds me of the ridiculous GOAT conversations, which nowadays will take place long before it’s logically justified…this sort of nonsense is largely a direct result of the scoial media age, as these type of “debates” typically generate the kind of clicks/traffic that are the straw that stirs their oftentimes insipid drinks…in the case of our particular club, neither of the above terms apply, at least not yet…until we stop repeating the mistakes of the past and actually accomplish something of consequence, we’re simply a nice story with little to show for all the energy exerted and monies spent
so as to dispell the notion that I can’t see the forest through the trees, I clearly recognize that there’s been some positives during MA’s time here, but that was likewise the case during Wenger’s latter years, as we were never out fo the top 4 mix…simply-put, gone are the days when I’m willing to settle, which is why I’m so critical of a manager who’s either unwilling to do what’s required to win at the highest of levels or simply doesn’t have what it takes…this is in no way meant to suggest that we’re trash, far from it in fact, or that I can’t see how we’ve progressed in recent years, it’s more about my unwillingness to accept a Wengeresque latter days reboot
which brings me back to your noteworthy points Ambarish…we’ve been needlessly wasteful and/or misguided far too often when it comes to our recruitment choices, like in the past, and we haven’t done near enough when it comes to the developmental process…as such, it strongly suggests that we’re still not a serious club hellbent on winning serious trophies and until we change that narrative I will continue to offer up my “negative” critiques on a regular basis
TRVL
The fanboys praise Arteta for what he’s done.
The problem with them is the expectation level – Arteta has spent £650 odd million and inherited over £400 million in talent.
When a manager has a billion £ squad competing for top 4 shouldn’t be achieving something it should be the minimum expectation.
Beyond that Arteta’s many flaws are too easily overlooked or have excuses made – Ambarish highlights the fatigue / injury excuse made for our collapse at the end of last season. Who overplayed players? Who didn’t rotate to keep them fresh? And who the fuck is doing exactly the same this season?
Marc-hear! hear! far too often people completely ignore context when discussing our club…when you speak to the unprecedented spending they’re quick to reference clubs like Chelsea, who has struggled to find the right mix recently, but totally ignore how successful they’ve been in the last two decades both at home and abroad…now this doesn’t mean we need to adopt the same slicing and dicing model, but when you spend as we have expectations naturally rise…if you can’t meet those expectations you should be summarily axed, as that’s the nature of the beast at the top of the footballing charts…after all, the Real’s of the world have no problem whatsoever flipping their managerial script if they feel like they’ve underachieved…if you’re really serious, this is who you model yourself after…ironically, we’ve actually helped Chelsea on several occasions by our willingness to take on their periphery pieces, sometimes at totally nonsensical fees, when they’re in reboot mode…according to some in the “media” we might be doing it again this upcoming offseason
as for MA’s unwillingness to rotate, it’s fairly obvious why he conducts himself in this manner, in that he only has one tactical plan, which is a rather antiquated version of Pep’s, circa 2018-19, with an inverted twist, that doesn’t truly suit those he’s brought into the club or re-upped…Tross isn’t a like-for-like Marts cover piece due to his lack of pace, Havertz is a tweener who’s neither a good enough passer to replace Xhaka nor does he have enough goals in his boots to justify him playing further up the pitch, Vieira is too small and slow to play in the pivot position or out wide, both White and Zichenko don’t provide enough up top to offset their defensive deficiencies, Ramsdale was never going to be a fit if MA felt it was imperative that we played out from the back, Tomi’s too injury prone and not well-suited to play in and inverted role, Eddie doesn’t have the first touch required to be a deeper-lying facilitator like Jesus etc…all of which was self-inflicted…ironically, Jorginho was the most logical hire, even though I would have much preferred a younger, more defensively sound alternative, as he wasn’t super expensive and he can on occasion craft a pass from deeper and more advanced spaces
TRVL
A couple of things worth reflecting on from your comment.
1) Chelsea when successful went through managers quicker than I go through cold beers on a sunny day – the reason they maintained success was the right setup behind the scenes that under no circumstances gave the manager too much power.
2) I forgot we even had Vieira in the squad. He cost €35 million.
I didnt see the game but it appears Leeds gave a good account of themselves last night against Chelsea. Because promotion is their priority Farke elected to play some youngsters and rest some of their first team squad. Leeds lost but the youngsters proved their worth. I expect a few Hale Enders were green with envy.
“Plastic Pedro will delighted to know that the group of teams looking to be in contention next season for the title is expanding. He can use the information to grow the list of clubs that we’re waiting to become shite in order that we eventually might be in with a shout in order to continue wafting smoke up Arteta’s khyber.”
KP
From the direction of the smoke and given how El B farts around his nonsense,or whatever we hear conveyed on Le Potage , could guess.
In Ambarish environs there are tandoor ovens used for cooking – voluminous around midriff so have the connotation of your English brick shithouse..so guess Ambarish had a good chuckle too.
In 22 / 23 AFC recorded a loss and then spent a huge amount of dosh. Whilst we have an owner with deep pockets we will not be in trouble however FFP must be foremost in the minds of Management not involved with on field activities.
By signing Havertz and paying him a salary way above other players they have created a problem. Younger players who continually provide a greater contribution to results must question if he earns £X then why not me.
Havertz will never be world class – he is nothing more than an average player who tries hard – I used to get a few school reports like that many decades ago.
Been out of the gooner loop this week and will catch up later.
I’m watching this new series and really impressed with the authenticity of the action and detail. I’ve been in a Lancaster bomber simulator and was shocked at the battering with the shaking.
The Flying Fortress was bigger and bouncier when reading more.
Of course the yanks won the war for us, but their contribution was also heroic after JK was fucked off after playing nice with Hitler to sell arms.
The UK finally paid off its WW2 debt for WW1 arms in 2002. God Bless America. 😂
Anyway, the series is better than Band of Brothers and Pacific so anyone interested in something closer to being authentic, this is a brilliant series to watch. Looks like a new Brad Pitt has been found and a new Benedict Cumberbatch too.
Haven’t raved over a war series for a long time.
Enjoy
Masters of the Air https://g.co/kgs/XYckNBV
Tony
The American take on the war is a little warped. Of course they made a huge contribution but they forget some of the details.
If you like that type of thing and if you’re over here I can highly recommend spending a day at Duxford – the Imperial War display is very good there’s then an additional American part (extra cost but definitely worth it) which is excellent including a memorial section that is quite moving.
You could easily do Duxford and take in a match spread over a couple of days.
Great comments and post Ambarish. Carry on up the Khyber Pass was a comedy classic.
Liverpool are struggling to score with about 12 minutes to go. Fingers crossed.
Oh well Pool didn’t get the memo and dying seconds get the 3 points.
Thanks Marc I’ll definitely go there if I come over. I think there was a series many decades ago entitled All Our Yesterdays and others of the post war eras I grew up in.
I did a lot of reading way back when and a sucker for good true story war movies.
If you’re ever here in Bangkok, a 90-minute drive west takes you to Kanchanaburi where the bridge over the river Kwai was. It’s a big iron bridge now but the museum is well worth the heat and sweat walking round for authenticity.
Long wordy accounts are there to let your imagination feel the horrors as you read and keep wiping your brows.
That goal tonight is indicative of a title winning side. Pool had no right getting the points as Forest stifled Klopp’s boys for 98 minutes, the goal coming in the dying seconds.
Interesting to see if Ten Hag can get his £1.3b misfit squad to take the points tomorrow?
Will Sheffield away be a banana skin? On paper we win by 3+ goals. If City take the points as most expect, pressure will be on El B to get all 3 points.
Tony
99th minute? I have a feeling we’re going to see Klopp time for the rest of the season to ensure Liverpool take the title.
Marc
There was a long injury in the 2nd half for the extra minutes. I doubt we’ll see the return of ‘Fergie Time’.
A Manure win tonight will work for us nicely, and a Pool draw with City next week, and the gods will be surely smiling down on us.
Hope everyone is well with spring approaching.
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I got some title-winning “feels” from that Pool ending, especially with Klopp fielding another “makeshift” 11, but I quickly reminded myself that it’s still early days…I can’t say that I”m overly confident about the possibility of United taking all 3 from City, but maybe they’ll luck into a draw with some late-game heroics from Mctominay…then come Monday we simply need to come out and dominate a substantially weaker side so we can rotate a handful of players into the mix shortly after the break…what are the chances of that being the narrative? coin toss at best…no matter, I’m far more convinced of a one-sided affair, in our favour of course, than us gifting away all 3…see you all Monday
New post.
Sensational goal by Rashford with thanks from Gooners globally🙏👀😂