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Arsenal Finances

Toby

No longer a Stuttgart Fan
Moderator
Hope Emery and Sven can work miracles on limited funds...

It very much hinges on them sort of unlimiting our funds by being a lot more ruthless and clever in the market. Take a look at Dortmund: They almost went bankrupt before the Watzke/Zorc era and have come back to the european top through top class work on and off the pitch. Financial and business acumen, great scouting of managers and players, humility, stability - still all based on a club on the brink of bankruptcy in 2006.

Aubameyang - In: 13m Out: 65m
Hummels - In: 5m Out: 35m
Pulisic - In: - Out: 64m
Sahin - In: - Out: 10m
Dembele - In: 15m Out: 120m
Gundogan - In: 6m Out: 30m
Mkhi - In: 25m Out: 40m
Kagawa - In: - Out: 16m

Even with players that didn't turn out as a success or were deemed surplus to requirements they didn't do too bad:

Sokratis - In: 9m Out: 15m
Yarmolenko - In: 25m Out: 20m
Mor - In: 10m Out: 13m
Ginter - In: 10m Out: 17m

They do have some deadwood they can't seem to get rid of like Schürrle, Rode, Toprak but they are absolute shrewd in transfers and have great scouting deparment, whose famed ex boss is now at Arsenal. We should really try to emulate their transfer strategy to unlimit our funds. '

You just know that guys like Yarmolenko, Mor and Ginter would have stayed at Arsenal forever eating away wages and losing their value until they transfer away for much less than what they were brought in for, or even leave on a free. We are/were one of the worst clubs in terms of protecting our investments. Chambers is the next case of this. He should've been transferred away on a permanent deal 1 or 2 seasons ago when it became clear he wasn't going to become a starter and guys like Holding were pushing him aside for the backup roles. Instead of a young, english Arsenal reject who might well be good enoug for any midtable team, you now have a CB who not only didn't cut it at Arsenal, but didn't convince at Middlesbrough and Fulham, too. No one's gonna pay close to the 20m Arsenal paid for him.
 
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Gooner Zig

AM's Resident Accountant
Trusted ⭐

Country: Canada
We have ~ £50m per season in revenue about to kick in from next season (new Addidas deal, improved Emirates deal and Visit Rwanda sleeve sponsorship)

Our wage bill is reportedly ~£220-230m. If we had "no money" how the **** do we have such a high wage bill?

The club is mugging us off.
 

celestis

Arsenal-Mania Veteran
Moderator

Country: Australia
We have ~ £50m per season in revenue about to kick in from next season (new Addidas deal, improved Emirates deal and Visit Rwanda sleeve sponsorship)

Our wage bill is reportedly ~£220-230m. If we had "no money" how the **** do we have such a high wage bill?

The club is mugging us off.

When Arsenal announced the Özil contract and the figures also Auba's and Mkhi's , I was excited because I thought we could afford it , I mean what a statement to prospective players . Fact they are crying poor in public again just makes us look like amateurs .
 

darkgunner

Well-Known Member

Looks like it's our turn to be the next PL club sucked dry and destroyed by American parasites.

How the **** can we be this poor? I know Wenger ****ed us hard when it came to wage bills, but no way can we only afford to loan players? 2nd highest revenue in the league... Tv money... Highest season ticket prices...
 

ptrcopp

Well-Known Member
Let’s get real. This is ****ing embarrassing.

The only other club in the top half of the league saying they don’t have money to spend on transfers is Sp**s.

But they are financing an over priced stadium, that has gone over that original price because of miscalculating the costs and time it would take and errors in the construction.

And we can’t even buy a Barca reject for £15m
 

The_Playmaker

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
Let’s get real. This is ****ing embarrassing.

The only other club in the top half of the league saying they don’t have money to spend on transfers is Sp**s.

But they are financing an over priced stadium, that has gone over that original price because of miscalculating the costs and time it would take and errors in the construction.

And we can’t even buy a Barca reject for £15m

Are you not happy that we are not buying a reject for that money? That is what we used to do.

They are simply taking a calculated risk. They believe Emery can get enough out of the squad as it is to either get top four or win the Europa league.

IF we managed to do that, we would spend the money we have in the summer and also have the added attraction of being a Champions League club.
 

progman07

Established Member
We have ~ £50m per season in revenue about to kick in from next season (new Addidas deal, improved Emirates deal and Visit Rwanda sleeve sponsorship)

Our wage bill is reportedly ~£220-230m. If we had "no money" how the **** do we have such a high wage bill?

The club is mugging us off.
Yes, we made some awful squad decisions we could not afford.

Let's assume we sold Sanchez for 50m, Özil for 40m, Ramsey-Wilshere-Ox 30-30-30m (surely realistic price ranges), we would have 180m to spend, and freed up Özil's wages for the players coming in.
 

field442

Hates Journalists Named James
Trusted ⭐
I’m not going to slag off Kroenke just yet. We’ve spent a decent amount in the last four or five years. The club is currently reaping the rewards of years of Wenger’s approach to being fair with the wage structure, terrible scouting and buying of players as well as ****ty management of player contracts. Alexis, Ramsey and Welbeck will all have left for nothing in the space of 18 months. That’s easily £120m we’ve missed out on that could’ve been used to buy players.
 

darkgunner

Well-Known Member
I’m not going to slag off Kroenke just yet. We’ve spent a decent amount in the last four or five years. The club is currently reaping the rewards of years of Wenger’s approach to being fair with the wage structure, terrible scouting and buying of players as well as ****ty management of player contracts. Alexis, Ramsey and Welbeck will all have left for nothing in the space of 18 months. That’s easily £120m we’ve missed out on that could’ve been used to buy players.

Kroenke didn't have 100% ownership of us for the last few years. We don't know what kind of damage he did to us by loaning the money to buy Usmanov's shares.

We could be in another era of austerity.
 

field442

Hates Journalists Named James
Trusted ⭐
Kroenke didn't have 100% ownership of us for the last few years. We don't know what kind of damage he did to us by loaning the money to buy Usmanov's shares.

We could be in another era of austerity.

The club was being run as a business and will continue to do so unless anyone can prove Kroenke has taken out money to pay off loans, but until then it’s all speculation and propaganda. What’s happening now is just laying the blame at his feet for running the club as a business rather than a personal play thing.

Look at the real reason we can’t spend and it’s due to half a decade of mismanagement under Wenger and Gazidis. The only thing you can blame Kroenke for is keeping them in a job.
 

Garrincha

Wilf Zaha Aficionado
Trusted ⭐
Look at the real reason we can’t spend and it’s due to half a decade of mismanagement under Wenger and Gazidis. The only thing you can blame Kroenke for is keeping them in a job.

Or potentially he has cut back spending as does not have the same trust in the new regime yet. He lost his CEO & a steady long term manager in the space of 6 months.

Looking at Josh Kronke in the news seems to have other big projects on the go rather than a bigger role here as suggested in the summer.
 
He is a santi cazorla type player. Very technical, creative and with an eye for goal.

We are not interested in loaning him. If you do not want to pay up we will find another club to buy him


Barcelona do not do handouts.

Ps thanks for Vermalean he is only injured once every two weeks.
 

goonerwarsh

Established Member
I think it's a bit too simple to put this down to one person or situation. Where we are today is just a result of years of neglect; some really bad management of finances and of the actual team itself. Really ever since we moved to the Emirates we've been making bad decisions that have taken us from being slightly ahead of the curve to now beneath it and desperately playing catch up. Arsenal's gradual fall from grace from having a team that would at least challenge for the title some 15 years ago to the mess we see before us today has been like watching a car crash in slow motion.

Even dating back to letting Ashley Cole go and getting Gallas in return, David Dein being forced out, paying fortunes to players who hadn't yet earned it like Bendtner and breeding an atmosphere of complacency and stagnation whilst those around us all were acting far more efficiently and with more foresight. Even the Fabregas debacle, can you imagine the frugal hard bastard at Sp**s letting an asset like that go for such a measly fee. We've acted so subserviently and you get what you negotiate in life. Emery hasn't got that much to work with at the moment, I think he's doing what he can with a hell of a mess he's inherited.
 

Slartibartfast

CIES Loyalist
You Are My Arsenal took a look at Arsenal's financial situation, why they have no wiggle room in January and the outlook for summer and beyond. Since I know most of y'all are too lazy to click on a link, I'll copy and paste the pertinent parts (keep in mind Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) and Short Term Cost Control (STCC)):

http://youaremyarsenal.com/arsenal-stan-kroenke-analysis-stats/

When it comes to compliance with these complicated sets of financial regulations, each club’s situation is different. Though increasingly rare in the Premier League given the massive financial advantage its clubs share in the world’s most lucrative league, PSR can be a major concern (as it was for Liverpool in the years leading up to Fenway Sports Group assuming control of the club). However, for Arsenal, a club who has cleared a pre-tax profit every season but one since 2002, this is not a concern. Instead, their two-season drop into the Europa League and relatively static sponsorship revenue (due largely to being at the end of long term agreements with major sponsors Emirates Airlines and Puma) has made STCC their biggest hindrance to free-spending in the transfer market.

Since falling into the Europa League for the 2017/18 season, the Gunners have been in something of a difficult position. With one of the largest wage bills in the world of football and the 5th largest in the Premier League, the loss of revenue from Europe’s more lucrative Champions League has been painful. Missing out on the extra revenue of the Champions League has served to offset any gains from other revenue streams that factor into the STCC calculations, leaving the Gunners rather close to the standard wage growth cap of £7m per season (the exact amount they are allowed for this season is still unclear until the club publishes its financials for 2018).

Unwilling to fall too far behind their rivals and eager to return to the Champions League, the Gunners have found themselves forced to spend handsomely on wages over the last 12 months, with a new contract for Mesut Özil, high wages for both January 2018 arrivals Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and a summer window that saw five new players arrive at the club. Despite this growth being offset by the expiring contracts of Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla, and Per Mertesacker, the Gunners are operating tight to their allowance for yearly growth. This has drastically limited their ability to spend but this January on players without requiring the sale or loan of players already in the side.


SO WHY DO OUR RIVALS SEEM UNAFFECTED? SHOULD I BLAME STAN KROENKE?

Arsenal supporters have been irked by their rivals’ apparent lack of such financial restriction this January, and sadly one statistic, in particular, has done much to add to this confusion: investment by ownership. As has been represented elsewhere, other clubs in the Premier League have seen their owners contribute vast sums of money to the club’s coffers while Arsenal’s Stan Kroenke has not. However, these contributions do not have the same effect on STCC as they do on PSR.

Take, for example, two clubs who have recently dealt with large amounts of debt: Chelsea and Liverpool. Chelsea have racked up a staggering net debt of around £1 billion since Roman Abramovich purchased his ownership stake, while Liverpool’s current ownership group, FSG, have paid down a significant amount of debt racked up under the previous regime since their purchase of the club in 2010. In these cases, the clubs were in more danger of running afoul of PSR than STCC and short of increasing revenue elsewhere, the club’s investors were obligated to invest further in the clubs to avoid failing to remain within the allowable debt limits of PSR.

With STCC, these investments are irrelevant. In order to increase the standard annual £7m boost to their wage bill allowance, clubs are only allowed to use revenue from match day income, sponsorship income, or profits from player transactions. This means that any ownership investment into the team can help with PSR but does nothing to increase their allowance for STCC. Given Arsenal are in a healthy financial state, including extremely bountiful cash reserves, they are in no need of increased investment from Stan Kroenke to remain FFP compliant. To put it simply, even if the American deposited £100 million into the club’s accounts, it would have no practical effect on their spending power this January.


WHAT ABOUT MANCHESTER CITY? HOW HAVE THEY GOT AWAY WITH SPENDING SO MUCH?

Oh Manchester City. The club everyone wants to catch up to both on the pitch and off, despite numerous credible (and evidence-supported) allegations of the Cityzens gaming the system. Owner Sheikh Mansour is a member of the royal family of Abu Dhabi, whose global investment reach and estimated collective spending power are over £1 trillion. As an owner or shareholder of a massive portfolio of companies across the world, Mansour is in a slightly unique position where he is able to use one of his other businesses to sponsor the club, as he has done with the Etihad Airline to the tune of a massive £80 million per season. While the Premier League is required to look into any sponsorship deal that involves such self-dealings, this is usually deemed perfectly acceptable as long as the sponsorship deal is considered to be of fair market value. If it is deemed to have an artificially inflated value, the Premier League requires that the club’s financials are calculated with the lower fair market value in mind.

Combined with the team’s recent on-pitch success and growing global profile, City has been able to increase their player wages massively during City Group’s ownership tenure as sponsorship revenue is factored into STCC. Inflated or not, the Sky Blues undeniably have a lot more money coming into the club, allowing them near limitless increases over recent seasons.


DOES THIS MEAN ARSENAL ARE FINISHED AS A TOP CLUB?

With rivals all around them growing revenue at an alarming rate and with owners willing to help make up for any losses on the back end, some fans are genuinely worried that Arsenal will fall away from their fellow rivals in the top six. However, the Gunners will soon have far more money to play with in the summer, and should they return to the Champions League after two years in the Europa League, the job becomes even easier still.

Those long term sponsorship deals that have seen the Gunners’ commercial revenue level off while their rivals’ increased are coming to an end in 2019. A new five year deal with the Emirates Airline for both shirt sponsor and stadium naming rights will kick in this summer, with an estimated value of over £200 million, spread out over a five year period. Additionally, the club’s five year deal with kit manufacturer Puma that has netted them £30 million a season will be coming to an end, with Adidas set to take over for next season. The new deal will be worth an estimated £60 million per season. All told, the Gunners will immediately have more than £50 million extra to play with under STCC, and this will give them much needed breathing room to expand their wage bill and compete with their top six rivals on a spending front.

Additionally, the Gunners will see the wages of Laurent Koscielny, Aaron Ramsey, Petr Cech, and likely Stephan Lichtsteiner come off their books in June, saving the Gunners nearly £500k per week in wages, which stands to increase their spending power even further this summer. With new Director of Football Operations Raul Sanllehi espousing the need for the Gunners to build their squad efficiently, and the apparent end of Arsène Wenger’s and Ivan Gazidis’ controversial socialist wage structure that had helped the club hold on to talented young players for longer during the lean, post-stadium build years, the Gunners should see their financial freedom only grow in the coming year.

Arsenal’s recent financial restrictions have been the result of a near perfect storm: reduced revenue due to dropping out of the Champions League, a ballooning wage bill, the uncertainty around Arsène Wenger’s future causing players to run their contracts down more than expected while waiting to see what direction the club would take going forward, largely flat commercial revenue over a five year period, and some poor decision making by the club’s hierarchy on the transfer market. However, the club have totally reshaped its football operations over the last 18 months, and the new team of Raul Sanllehi, Sven Mislintat, Vinai Venkatesham, and contract negotiator Huss Fahmy is dedicated to improving the club’s situation both on and off the pitch. It may take a few years to see how they plan to reshape the future of Arsenal Football Club, but for the first time in many years, fans have confidence in the club’s ability to adapt.
 

Gooner Zig

AM's Resident Accountant
Trusted ⭐

Country: Canada
Look at the real reason we can’t spend and it’s due to half a decade of mismanagement under Wenger and Gazidis. The only thing you can blame Kroenke for is keeping them in a job.

Ultimately the buck stops with Kroenke does it not? He was the majority shareholder and now sole owner of the club, ultimately everyone is accountable to him. You say the club was mismanaged for half a decade under Wenger and Gazidis, I agree however that's on Kroenke.
 

field442

Hates Journalists Named James
Trusted ⭐
Ultimately the buck stops with Kroenke does it not? He was the majority shareholder and now sole owner of the club, ultimately everyone is accountable to him. You say the club was mismanaged for half a decade under Wenger and Gazidis, I agree however that's on Kroenke.

Yeah but that’s an entirely different thing to saying he’s taking money out of the club and bleeding us dry.
 

Gooner Zig

AM's Resident Accountant
Trusted ⭐

Country: Canada
@Slartibartfast

We have made hefty profits on player sales in 2018 (Giroud, AOC, Walcott, Wojech, Gibbs, Wilshere) - the sales of those players alone would have given us significant room in the STCC model, the problem is timing, I haven't found anything online which states when PL clubs are required to report their wage bills and income for the purposes of the STCC guidelines.
 

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