A good question for us as fans because it goes to the heart of how we criticize players, our expectations of the club we support and what we feel about club ownership and funding.
So, if someone offered you double or treble your wages for the same work, would you turn it down? Really?
Arsene Wenger has been talking to a French radio station about the difficult preparations for this season, making some painful observations:
“half the dressing room wanting to leave”.
Asked about players ambitions, he said:
“No, it’s not that [players have to leave to win titles]. The problem isn’t that. Frankly, if you compare what Manchester City have won in the past and what Arsenal have won, then you don’t go to Manchester City to win titles. Players go to Manchester City because they pay much better than Arsenal.
“They are a force clearly, because they have exceptional financial clout, so it’s not surprising what they’ve done. There’s always a financial logic behind who ends up being successful in any league. If Barcelona or Real Madrid paid three times less than Malaga, players would go to Malaga. That’s always the case. It’s as simple as that. So when a player has the choice between two clubs who have the same ambitions, if he can earn three times as much at one club, he’ll go there. That’s logical.”
Most of us have had a go at Samir Nasri, me included. But probably for doing something that we would do too. Especially if we worked in a business where you had to retire in your late thirties.
For a long time Arsenal competed for one of the top three places. That’s competing on and off the pitch, which are of course interlinked. Then along came Roman Abramovich, whose massive cash injection inflated the cost of competing. But a disastrous period for Liverpool eased the pressure a bit. Then along came new owners, in two waves, for Manchester City, the current owners completely dwarfing the scale of Abramovich’s investment. Up goes the cost of competition again and, realistically, we are fighting for fourth.
That’s a painful come down in our expectations and campaigning for one fourth spot rather than one out of three spots is a tight margin of error.
Ivan Gazidis points out that Arsenal can compete without playing in the Champions League every year. In pure financial modeling terms he may be right, but if we do fall out of the Champions League it’ll bloody well hurt and it will be hard work to get back into it.
Some of the club’s response to all this has been spot on, building the new stadium was the right thing to do and will make a lasting difference to the club’s fortunes. On the other hand, we’ve clearly been behind the other big ‘brand name’ clubs in exploiting potential for commercial income. There are rumours that we are getting back in the game on this one and I hope they’re true.
The pre-season tour of Asia, whilst adding to Arsene Wenger’s stress, is clearly more productive financially than a secluded training camp in Austria.
All these things are long-term though compared with an owner who can rustle up a £200 million pound shirt and stadium deal!
So is the solution to have our own billionaire? Move over Stan, we want to be Alisher’s hobby?
When your dying of embarrassment at Old Trafford or Ewood Park the answer is ‘yes please’. But is it a case of be careful what you wish for?
What happens when Emirs and oligarchs get bored? Do the clubs crash and burn like Leeds United? I don’t know the answer really, I wish I had more faith in UEFA’s Fair Finance strategy. I’m not yet convinced we have the best commercial management available. I am convinced that we’d be in a he’ll of a lot deeper water without Arsene Wenger.
What do you thin
Related posts:
