I’m writing this as the transfer window has just closed and Arsenal have ended up with a £17m profit. For a club of Arsenal’s size, with I believe the 5th largest turnover in World football this is a pretty shocking state of affairs, as much smaller clubs like West Brom, Brighton, Bournemouth, Watford and Huddersfield all had a bigger net spend and showed more ambition in the transfer window than Arsenal.
It was an appalling transfer window from start to finish. Kierran Gibbs eventually ended up going to West Brom for £7m, after Arsenal had turned down an earlier bid of at least £10m. The Ox wanted to leave Arsenal so desperately that he turned down a far bigger contract offer from Arsenal to join Liverpool.
Arsenal bid £30m, £40m, £50m in an attempt to sign Thomas Lemar, before pulling the plug on the deal. Only to return on the very last day of the window to bid £92m for a player we probably could got for £60m in June. Comically Lemar turned Arsenal down scuppering the deal to take Alexis Sanchez to Manchester City.
Shunned by Lemar
Who could blame Lemar as Arsenal messed him about for two months before getting cold feet and pulling the plug on the deal. He’d also probably watched the 4-0 capitulation by Arsenal at Anfield and seen the disastrous team selection and tactics and thanked god he hadn’t signed for us.
Alexis had a bad day
Now Arsenal are left with an unhappy player who had his heart set on a move to Manchester City. How is Sanchez going to behave when he returns to Arsenal, a club he doesn’t want to play for. Will he start to play up and be disruptive and rebellious. If he does it will have a demoralising affect on the rest of the squad.
Let’s not forget that our other marquee player Mesut Ozil still hasn’t agreed a new contract either and will no doubt quietly try to see out his contract and walk away on a free at the end of the season. I don’t know about you but I want players who are committed to the club. If they don’t want to sign a new contract get shot of them. I don’t care how good they are, if they don’t want to play for us get somebody else in that does. To me this is weak management by Arsene Wenger and bad for team spirit.
How can Arsenal let nine players get into the last year of their contract, with another eight players in the same position next season. That is pure negligence on the part of Arsene Wenger and the club. This is a result of Arsene trying to do more jobs than George Osbourne and keep all the plates spinning at the same time.
Contracts were neglected because Wenger didn’t have the time to devote to it. We are a billion pound enterprise that needs a specialist to sort out contracts and transfers. The board just let Wenger stumble his way through it with no accountability by them or Kroenke. We dither and try to lowball so much with other clubs and agents when conducting transfers that some of them alledgedly refuse to deal with us.
Doesnt know if he’s coming or going
Make no mistake this club is in rapid decline. Sunday was a perfect example of this. Liverpool were organised, energised, vibrant and attacked at speed. Their players all believe in what their manager is telling them. While we were the complete opposite. Disorganised, lethargic and slow and players that don’t believe in what Arsene is telling them.
It wasn’t too long ago that Alexis Sanchez chose Arsenal over Liverpool and Luis Suarez wanted to sign for Arsenal. I don’t think that would be the case now. Liverpool are on the up and we are on the way down.
Get your replica wall clock here
Stan Kroenke made a terrible decision for Arsenal Football Club by giving yesterday’s man Arsene Wenger a two year contract. But a marvellous decision for Stan Kroenke. Imagine if we’d had a new manager in charge this season. There is no way Kroenke would have got away with a £17m profit in this transfer window.
Arsenal need to attract bigger and better commercial deals. But these brands want to be associated with successful clubs and successful clubs owners invest in their playing squads. Marquee players appeal to marquee companies.
Arsenal are failing spectacularly on and off the pitch. They have become dysfunctional. Arsene Wenger’s best days as a manager are well behind him. The geriatric board are just puppets for Kroenke and our majority shareholder isn’t investing any money into the club. The rumours that the club has no money rung alarm bells with me. The highest match day revenue of any club in world football. The biggest cash reserves in world football and record TV deals but we have no money!
Where is all the money going?
We know that Kroenke has had problems building the new stadium in Los Angeles and is being sued for a billion dollars by the city of St Louis. Could it be he is using the money that Arsenal generate to subsidise or leverage his US sports ventures in some way. I wouldn’t put it past him.
I’m convinced that we will continue our descent into mediocrity unless we can rid ourselves of Stan Kroenke and be in no doubt he’s going to take some shifting. So much for the “Catalyst for Change”.
Started going to Highbury in ’66. Season ticket holder since ’76. Love The Arsenal. Need I say more?
That perfectly captures the cure awful state we are in. We used to be the example of ‘how to do things ‘. We have now become very rusty from top down.
I am a red member who deciddd in February not to invest a penny more until there is significant change. Things have now got even worse !!! Players want to leave players don’t want to come .
As a season ticket holder : how will you try to influence ‘ significant change ‘ ?
Is it legal for Kroenke to use Arsenal’s TV money to invest in the La Rams. He should be investigated by the League, Ustinov, FA and Lawyers. It may be a crime.
We have no proof that Kronke is doing a Maxwell but with the amazing amount of money the club has generated plus the lack of transfer spending, it smells that they claim we have no money.
The only way now is to boycott the club in thousands to force the issue with Kronke , he is the problem and must go.
Bonaroca:- Irrespective what Mr Wenger should have resigned after winning two Trophies. Whether it is pride
or greed, I will not delve into the matter, but it is obvious that Mr Wenger has lost all the plot to get Arsenal on
a firm footing. His changes in team selections were absolutely showed that he was in panic to produce a
winning team. When one goes through his selections, you would notice players playing out of position,it
reminds me when as a young boy to play out of position and that was enough for the coach to kick me out.
I always had a good opinion of Mr Wenger, but it seems age have caught on him and is trying to cover up
as possible to win the Premier League, “Mission Impossible”
My regret is that the Ox left Arsenal, and only Mr Wenger is responsible, this young player was well paid, but
he was right to leave because he was played time and time again out of his favourable position since joining
Arsenal. Sorry about my comments but at 85 years since 1946 sided with Arsenal then in relegation Zone
Kroenke is only to blame in so far as he cluelessly stuck with Wenger when everyone with a brain sees he’s shot as a coach and overwhelmed with all the responsibilities he’s taken on. There’s no proof he has otherwise weighed in on or meddled with anything and to do otherwise is to shift blame away from it’s rightful owner.
Wenger is the one who flatly refused to work with a DoF at the same time he was letting contracts wind down and has consistently shown a hesitancy to act in the modern market
Wenger is the one who plays a team that is less than the sum of it’s parts, getting blown out more often than relegation clubs, making head scratching team selection and tactical choices that routinely fail
Wenger is the one that plays youth players too much too early, then tosses them to the U-23s for their errors and hasn’t gotten the promised potential out of anyone in a decade
Changing the manager is both much easier and will be much more revealing on where blame lies, we should focus on that first, then go for Kroenke if things don’t improve
Gary talks a lot of sense.Football fans have to be very wary of the owners theses days.Football is changing.Ive seen the worst at my club Leyton Orient.As you’ve all probably seen what one man can do to my Club.Be warned..well said Gary & Up the Os !!
Gary, this is right on the money. I have reviewed my blogs going back to the start of last season and I have forecast more than once that we would fall out of the top 4. That top players would want to leave and comparable players would spurn us. Regrettably, it has happened sooner than I thought.
We are at a bad place, with morale shot and we are like a ship with a drunken Captain who cannot see that he is incapable. This year, the competition for places in the Premiership is fiercer than ever and as of today we have 15 clubs ahead of us. I think it is likely that we shall finish 5th or 6th. Ozil may leave this year and we shall have no world class players in our team.
We are being told that we have no money so we won`t be able to buy any top players. Lemar has already said that he wants to go to Liverpool. Ox went despite being paid £60k per week less than he was offered to stay with us. Whatever the future is for Arsenal, I would rather have a quick demise than a death by a 1000 cuts. Kroenke and Wenger have to go. You are right Gary, that big companies will only want to be associated with the biggest clubs. I doubt that Dubai would have paid the price they did for the rights to the name of the Stadium if we had been in the position we are in now. If Shirt manufacturers offer us a price for having their brand name on Arsenal`s shirt, it will include the existing Emirates ensign on it. It`s own signature will be on the shirt and the price of having that right will be proportionate to the Status of the club.
The further we decline, the less our brand image will be worth and that is what Kroenke admits that he paid for when he bought the club. That is why I cant understand why he does not invest his profits on expanding the image instead of destroying it.
Every where I look there is nothing but negativity associated with Kroenke and Wenger, yet the disciples of Wenger accuse critics of him as being negative. Those who blindly follow Wenger need to realise that they are the obstacle to any progress forward. The “Wenger outs” are not the cancer that is killing the club, it is the greed of Kroenke, the weakness of the board and the incompetence of Wenger and Gazidis.
This club will never be united until they are gone and the proportion of supporters who agree with those who want that to happen, the longer our recovery will be delayed. The sooner we get back where we belong, the better. The club will be here when Wenger is long gone, so I would urge those who cling to past glories to take the veil of misguided loyalty away and stand up for changes.