The new Ajax?! Why Wenger's quotes could be untrue

I was having a look on the Internet, browsing the latest football news and transfer gossip and happened to stumble across a piece quoting Arsène Wenger regarding the necessity of selling a star player every summer in order to raise enough money to cover the costs of the loan paid in securing the Emirates Stadium, with the need to rely on the young talent coming through the ranks. Initially, I was shocked, bordering on distraught in fact. And then I saw that the article was attributed to the ever-reliable (or not) News of the World.

Admittedly, whilst the article does indeed sound ominous, my point is that such "news" is the perfect reminder about the fodder that can be seen in the national press about Arsenal's supposedly calamitous position. After all, this is the same newspaper that, twelve months ago, wisely predicted that we would be reeling from Henry's departure so much that we would end up finishing sixth and from therein spontaneously combust into football oblivion, ala Leeds United.

A look at some pure business facts should be taken into account after digesting the article. Wenger has apparently stated that a sum of £24 million is required to be raised from sales per annum in order to cover the costs of the Emirates Stadium "mortgage", an ordeal that would have to continue for seventeen years!

With a sponsorship deal secured with Fly Emirates securing in excess of £100 million over ten years, television coverage rights, membership/season tickets and match tickets (incidentally the most expensively priced in the country) bringing in revenue close to £100 million, and booming merchandise, logic suggests that the costs of maintaining the stadium are more than covered.

In any case, Forbes have put Arsenal as the richest club in Britain, whilst also bracketing us in the top five richest clubs in the world based on profits, which have amounted to over £50m over the last business year, further proof to the doubts that should be cast over the News of the World article.

I would therefore be very surprised if Le Boss, a man so secretive when it comes to discussing transfers and internal business matters, had indeed come out so extrovertly to a Sunday paper that is obviously smarting from the end of a fabulously entertaining European championship.

The article may have some grains of truth in it, but, in my opinion, this may purely be a smokescreen from Wenger implying the possible sale of Adebayor, who has done himself no favours whatsoever in the past two weeks. Having previously come out several times reaffirming his commitment to the club, the recent overtures have been less than impressive from a man who owes his stardom to Wenger, who stood by him and elevated him to becoming the club's main striker when so many fans had doubted his ability. The figures mooted, ranging from £22 million to up to £36 million are indeed an attractive proposition, something which will not go unnoticed in Wenger's mind, particularly that he may have several reinforcements lined up for the sum of money raised from the sale of Adebayor.

However, if Wenger had in fact come out with such statements, and I, as many Gooners will sincerely hope that he hasn't, then the responsibility for the situation would ultimately fall on the board and Wenger himself, especially after having previously insisted that the move to the Emirates Stadium would propel us into competing in the transfer market as opposed to struggle to pay for our new home! As I took in the article at first glance, I thought of the potential disaster that could ensue from becoming a selling club. Naturally, my mind went all over the place. Adebayor today, van Persie tomorrow, and then Fabregas, the crown jewel of the Emirates Satdium, would be off too. Chilling thoughts indeed!

And that is why I am convinced that this cannot be true. Wenger, a man of principle and honour cannot make a promise and break it so carelessly and callously, freely admitting to the national press that he has no option but to turn Arsenal into a selling club for decades to come.

If this indeed is to be the case, then there is only one option for our survival, an option that would require the hard-nosed traditionalists to stop living in the past and face the contemporary world, a world that David Dein had so bravely and realistically spoken of in terms of the future of the club requiring significant investment.

Granted, football take-overs have become old news and severely out-of-fashion, with foreign consortiums ranging from Russia to the US and Thailand owning clubs up and down the country. In fact, "re-take-overs" are now emerging, with Liverpool and Newcastle United prime suspects. Traditionalists have claimed that such activities are not good for football and have highlighted the vitality of money and profits over competition taking over in the sport, with Peter Hill-Wood being the most high profile figure in terms of the "Arsenal view".

Nevertheless, if a football take-over was required in order to fight the situation of becoming the new Ajax of European football, unearthing unknown gems and turning them into world class stars before selling them off to our continental (maybe even national) rivals, then, in this case, perhaps selfishly and maybe even hypocritically, I would quite happily "kill football" - and save Arsenal.

User Comments

gunpowder

Posted on 13 Jul, 2008 at 01:25 PM - Reply

this is all bullshit. we have enough money and arsene didn't make that quote. Arsenal have been enquiring around for all the players in the planet this transfer season and we all know adebayor is being sold cause he is not good enough. our transfer budget may not be as large as that of chelsea or man u but we're certainly not in debt. atleast thats what i understand from the financial articles i've read concerning arsenal.

MWABA

Posted on 11 Jul, 2008 at 04:29 PM - Reply

wenger is a coach of wonders hence all he does is wise

Joe

Posted on 10 Jul, 2008 at 09:37 PM - Reply

firstly im not too bothered if adebayor goes, it has not bothered me that flamini has gone and hleb has followed him. we are the underachievers just like spain were but we will pull back Wenger will put on his magic hat and conjure a miracle which will once again set the premireship alive. But then i do believe we will begin to flop around january just like last season. The premiership is not ready for us and if we do win it i will be the happiest man on this earth but i think for now we, as loyal fans if you consider yourself one, should be happy with the FA Cup. but look on the bright side at least its better than what spurs can do. And i so do agree with the face of bringing in a rich guy, i am ready to accept alisher usmanov because he can bring in david dein and that is Arsenals heart, He keeps us alive so lets just keep Dein in our prayers.

keenan

Posted on 10 Jul, 2008 at 06:49 PM - Reply

we just need good defenders 2 be super force and sell senderos to a lower class team like derby or fulham or just give him away on a free deal.

ajax

Posted on 10 Jul, 2008 at 12:16 PM - Reply

in the next 4/5 years ajax and arsenal will be the best clubs in europe. Ajax is coming back

Frank Vos

Posted on 10 Jul, 2008 at 12:11 PM - Reply

The new Ajax? Let's win some European titles first then...

Cyril

Posted on 10 Jul, 2008 at 04:57 AM - Reply

If this news comes from News of the world be very careful, they are making false interviews/statements

Otherwise this is simply a PR statement to mask an exodus happening at arsenal. Sorry to see Wenger having to come up with an excuse about financial problems to hide the fact that this year was a disappointment and that it triggered some players to want to leave.

jp20

Posted on 9 Jul, 2008 at 03:25 PM - Reply

is arsenal is the richest club in britain?wat abt man u and chelsea?

u can never trust the english press !any football fan must know that by now!

and pls sell ade,if you dont sell him now,he'll probably play for some time and then again ask to leave!
u cant trust ppl like ade!

and finally for us to become a european super club,we need guys like fabregas,van persie to stay

richie

Posted on 9 Jul, 2008 at 12:34 PM - Reply

You cant keep a bad player just cos he is good friends with your star player, senderous has cost arsenal so much its unreal we where knocked out of the last 2 champions league games by this man every gooner knows how bad he is yet he still there he will continue to cost us dearly as long as hes at the club as wenger has not got a great record of being able 2 sign good center halfs

Adam

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 10:26 PM - Reply

Great piece, eased my worries about the quotes that hve been attributed to Wenger, though they do not seem real after a second glance. The emirates stadium brings in 2 to 3 million on matchdays in the premiership & in europe, so the worries about it casting us into a debt-ridden financial situation are baseless speculation

AntoniodosSantos

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 08:54 PM - Reply

It's clear why we haven't gotten rid of Senderos. Senderos is Cesc's best friend. Getting rid of him = bye bye Fabregas.

David

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 08:39 PM - Reply

It's only the cheap shareholders who don't want to reinvest, and i doubt how much of these had gone into Mr. Wenger's pocket as he always underspent the budget he'd been given. If what Wenger said was true, then we really need foreign investment to keep us competitive. Although Wenger had brought us trophies in the past, those were won by the likes of Bergerkamp, Vieira, Henry, Pires, Lehmann, all super world class at their prime years. Besides that, Wenger has been quite weak in in-game strategies such as defending lead, making sudden effect substitutions. Remember he had cost us three league titles during the last 10 years due to his less experienced coaching abilities compared with AF. I would say, to make Arsenal a real super power, we should have a manager like Hiddink or Lippy, and a billionaire like Roman.

Ben Hutton

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 07:56 PM - Reply

I didnt read the whole article...tired, its extensive etc. However, has anyone thought that Wenger may be playing down the clubs wealth in order to reduce the prices hes having to pay for potential signings? Also, with however much profit we make a season theres absolutely no way we'd have a defecit of £24 million a year. Its rediculous, and another example of newspapers trying to dig the knife into the gunners. Lets not worry lads, itll be THE season next season

richie

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 04:09 PM - Reply

I agree with AZBO as far as the defence issue stands we gota clear out the rubbish senderous/hoyte/and djourou.

AS for what marc says i cant recall the last superstar we sold henry? past his best. Overmars,edu,viera,anelka,petite,cashley cole not 1 of them as ever done as well outside our club.

So trust Arsene if he sells a player its prob for the best.

AzboSelecta

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 02:21 PM - Reply

as long as the defence is up to scratch next season we will win the lot, silly mistakes against birmingham, chelsea, man u and liverpool in the champions leauge is wot cost us last season. wenger must have alot of faith in senderos and gallas cus they were poo last term

FunGunner

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 01:34 PM - Reply

I think it is highly unlikely that Arsene actually said we have to fund the loan repayments by profits from transfer business, because it is not the case. For a start, no financial institution would lend money on the basis of such an uncertain method of repayment. Daniel Fiszman has explained that the loan repayments are in fact entirely funded by 1/3 of the increase in the Emirates stadium revenue. That's one third of the INCREASED takings as compared to Highbury, not 1/3 of the total revenue of the Emirates. The repayments will not be affected by the credit crunch because Keith Edelman negotiated a fixed a rate of interest to run for the full 25 years of the loan.

Furthermore, profits from property sales - 90% presold, so again, the deals are largely insulated from current market conditions - will net around £90 million in 2009 and make a huge dent in the capital owed.

As you have said, Arsenal FC are one of the richest football clubs in the world. I really wouldn't worry about that NOTW article, if I were you.

CK

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 12:55 PM - Reply

It is a matter of how much money the board wants to re-invest into the club. Yes, we are among the richest club, but then most of the profit goes to the share holders and paying morgage. I bet the budget for players has not changed much since the start of Wenger's reign.

Clockendrider

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 12:26 PM - Reply

The assumption everyone is making is that being a selling club is bad. It is bad if you are selling your best players at unreasonably low prices. It is not if you are squeezing the pips out of the buying clubs every time e.g. the sales of Anelka, Overmars, Vieira and Henry. The art is in having replacements ready and able to take their place. If these replacements can be bought/retained/developed at a lesser cost than those sold, then surely this is the best model possible as long as you are continuing to compete. Last season showed beyond question that, after the huge cash drain of building the new stadium was completed, we are very well able to compete and to compete with a club which has an owner willing to put in stupid amounts of money, the likes of which have never been seen in footnall before anywhere in the world. Don't know about you, but that's good enough for me. The board and Wenger are to be commended on following this high risk strategy and frankly getting it right.

sulazu

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 12:02 PM - Reply

If there was any truth in the comments attributed to Wenger as to Arsenal becoming a selling club, which I like many other Gooners will hope it is not, then we ask Wenger/ Management to justify our moving to the Emirates. We have had of Manchester United indebtedness as they even borrowed to finance players transfer. It shows United`s resolve to continue to excel in Europe and maintaining their image in world football. With 2 Champions league cup in their kitty prior to the start of last season, Utd spent over 50million pounds to strengthen its squad and a resultant League and Champions league medal reward. By this, they make more money to finance their debts and retain their pride among world great clubs. As to whether Wenger and co want Arsenal to emulate Ajax as world known exporter of talents, we should remember that Ajax do have European history as they have in past won 4 Champions league cups, one better than United. Arsenal where is thy honours?

Marc

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 11:57 AM - Reply

The Emirates deal was structured so that the club would receive the vast majority up front. It was £90 million, but the huge initial payment meant that the deal was worth over £100m when interest was taken into account. Therefore we can't include this money when thinking about our income over the next 10 years.

Our shirt sponsorship was thrown into the deal with Emirates and is worth around £3m a season, which falls massively short of the figures being received by Manchester United and Chelsea - however the club were desperate for the cash at the time and had to take it, although we're now stuck with Emirates as shirt sponsors for another 5/6 years.

But increased TV revenues, consistent appearances in the Champions League, the highest ticket prices in English (maybe European or World!) football should stand us in good enough stead.

My only worry is that by gambling on youth, a longer unsuccessful period will work against the club. We'll fail to attract top players (even though at the moment we never buy top quality, choosing to develop talent) we'll consistently lose our best players, and these factors combined will mean that key sponsors and corporate box holders / club level members will not want to renew contracts once they're finished. The corporate tickets at Emirates generate almost as much as the whole of Highbury did on a match by match basis, and I know for a fact that the club struggled to sell all club level tickets in time for the new stadium opening. I'm sure they'd have much more of a struggle now.

Things seem to be running on a knife edge. Although we were promised by the board that the new stadium would in no way affect funds for players, this is obviously not the case. We've chosen to place all our hopes on youth and not gone for a decent enough balance of youth vs experience and this has cost us in terms of silverware. We now have to hope that our 'kids' are experienced enough to mount a sustained challenge for honours although the squad quality would seem our major weakness at present.

Unfortunately it seems as if us Arsenal fans are in for another few years of nailbiting. Not exactly the 'European Super Club' status we were promised by the board when they told us we were moving. It looks like those days could be 15, 20 or even 30 years down the line.

Baz Stores

Posted on 8 Jul, 2008 at 11:39 AM - Reply

We may owe alot of money on the stadium, but compared to the money that Manure owe - it is peanuts!

It is all bunch of horse brasses!

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