Written by Mean Lean
on
Wednesday, 08 February 2012 14:35
Happy Wednesday to you,
How's tricks? good, glad to hear it. I haven't managed to finish writing my blogs the last few days. Yesterday's one rather turned into a rant so I guess it may have been a good thing that you didn't get to read it. I don't want to be held responsible for making your ears bleed, or would that be eyes? Anyway, it was about Manchester United, refereeing decisions, Arsenal and evening themselves up. You know how that story goes don't you?
Anyway bad refereeing decisions have actually helped us out for a change even if inadvertently so, we will all take it. Liverpool and Tottenham bored the pants off us also. I am regularly told by opinion shapers that Tottenham have a very strong squad but after a quick flick through the squad sheets, I decided that it wasn't actually very strong at all., still an away point at Anfield must be seen as a positive for them.
We are now positioned only three points behind Chelsea who were robbed collapsed spectacularly. With Chelsea still to come to the Emirates, the fourth place spot is still within our grasp even if there is still a mighty long way to go.
Anyway, this blog is mainly about what Arsene has said about having to make cash every season.
During the summer Liam Brady had told Irish television that Arsene Wenger hasn't been able to bring in the players he wanted due to financial restrictions. Nigel Winterburn has recently spoken to Norwegian television about how Arsene Wenger doesn't have as much money as everyone thinks to buy players.
Now Arsene himself has publicly come forward and spoken about the club needing to make £15-£20 million profit at the start of every season. Arsene has not made it clear as to how that cash is supposed to be generated but just a quick glimpse at his transfer dealings since moving to the Emirates will tell you all you need to know.
Show me a season where Arsene hasn't once had to balanced the books. Explain why Arsenal only signed a bulk of our players after we had qualified for the Champions League.
For me it is as clear as day that Arsene Wenger has had to work under constraints ever since we packed our bags and moved into the new house down the road called the Emirates stadium.
It is still unclear as to what Arsene meant, whether he was talking about transfers or the club generating revenues from another source but our record in the transfer market tells its own story. There are not many clubs left in the league that have a positive net transfer spend over the last few years, there are certainly no big clubs other than us.
I find it difficult to imagine that this is down to the beliefs of the manager rather than the structure of the club. It is usually those who have an axe to grind with the manager that perpetuate that myth. The idea that a new manager at the helm will then open the door for mass spending of super stars defies logic in my opinion.
I have already recently spoken about our transfer spending in a recent article called The Facts And Opinions Of Arsenal's January Business so I won't go into all that again but feel free to read the previous article if you haven't already.
One gets the feeling that the shackles will not be released from the treasure chest until we can renegotiate our old commercial deals and longer term once the stadium repayments have come to an end.
When the Arsenal board said that we could only compete with the best players in the transfer market by moving to the Emirates Stadium, perhaps they missed that bit of information in my previous paragraph. To be honest, if they didn't miss out that bit of information then how do you think it would have gone down with Arsenal supporters? And from the point of view of the club, would it be a good decision to take fans that the purse strings will have padlocks and chains on for 10 years or so.
Anyway, I must say the finances side of the club is not my strong point and to be honest we sometimes tend to get a little hung up over it all but I accept that it is very much linked to the playing side and that should be our real interest.
Eden Hazard's name was again mentioned by Arsene, and it isn't the first or I suspect the last time that his name will come out of Wenger's mouth. Arsene has been watching Hazard for a number of years now, I wouldn't be at all surprised if he knew of Hazard way before anyone else. Arsene know's French players very well, especially young French players, I say French players but of course I mean playing in the French league.
We could have made a move to bring him to the club much sooner and I don't know if we decided to let him develop further or if the chance just wasn't there either by his club or the player himself wanting to continue to gain first team football. The trouble now is that everyone and his dog know's about Eden Hazard and big clubs usually end up fighting for the same players.
I have watched Hazard a few times and like many I have seen the compilation clips. He is 21 years of age and is immensely talented, I would be delighted to see someone of that quality sign for Arsenal but with so much competition for his signature from clubs who are not self sustaining, I just cannot see it happening. That said he was at the Emirates against Manchester United courtesy of a Gervinho ticket apparently and a free spirited player would thrive under an 'express yourself' coach like Arsene Wenger.
If I was to guess the situation then it would be this. Arsenal are interested in Hazard and we will make a bid of what we can afford, both in terms of wages and transfer fee. Other clubs will offer more in terms of salary and signing on fee and it will be down to the player to decide whether he buys into the Arsene philosophy or if the lure of hard cold cash.
There is another angle of this story though. Let us say that Andrey Arshavin leaves in the summer which I would guess is very likely. We would be then left with four wide forwards. Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Gervinho and Ryo Miyachi. Chamberlain is only 18 years of age which is frightening and is almost certainly going to improve dramatically with playing time and maturity. Ryo Miyachi is 19 and is a similar type of player to Hazard. Not as polished or as good but he hasn't had top flight experience as yet. Who is to say that Ryo cannot be as good as Hazard is now with two years of top flight experience under his belt.
If Ryo makes Chamberlain type strides in three months at Bolton then would paying £25-35m on transfer fees and then a further £80k+ per week on wages be wise when that money could be used to improve other parts of the squad that doesn't have as much depth. *ahem* striker *ahem*
There are rumours doing the rounds that Johan Djourou is on the verge of a contract extension. Johan Djourou had lost a bit of form and then has had to fill in at full back. Currently he is our fourth choice central defender and as fourth choice central defenders go, that is pretty good going. We tend to have short term memory as football fans, rewind back one season and we were all praying for the fitness of Johan Djourou. Before his injury he was one of our best players and when he didn't play, we suffered.
The decision to extend Djourou's contract hasn't gone down well with a section of Arsenal fans, which I guess isn't a surprise in itself. There seems to be this need to want this perfect squad which I guess is no bad thing as all we can do is want better but is it realistic to expect a perfect squad?
It is the same for every club around the world to demand the sale of player x and bring in a replacement but the simple truth is that it is just not possible to have four central defender all as good as each other unless you can pay people huge money to be content on the bench.
Every club has a hierarchy of players from best to worst in every position unless we can find a way to clone players so you can have a squad of four strikers all as good as van Persie, four central defenders as good as Laurent Koscielny and four midfielders as good as erm.. Amaury Bischoff.
In other news, Carlos Vela would like to stay in Spain which is understandable. He didn't get much of a chance at Arsenal and wasn't ready to take the chances he did have. I still think there is a very talented player tucked away in there. A player that had he adjusted to English life, matured physically and had the correct attitude could have been a big player in this league but that just hasn't happened. Whatever happens to the cheeky chipper, I wish him well.
There are also some Daniel Sturridge to Arsenal rumours floating around. Bergkamp knows where that is coming from. Perhaps it is contract renewal time at Stamford Bridge. It is far too early to get too involved in transfer tosh. Well, apart from Eden Hazard of course.
Before I go, I would just like to have a mini rant. Well, I don't want to have a rant but feel I need to.
Arsenal Vision has been around for a few years now and it has always been my therapy. A chance to get the Arsenal off my chest. I am not a professional writer and have never claimed to be. You will find punctuation errors, spelling mistakes and content that at times makes little sense.
I have left the comments section open to those who want to have a say on this club. Whether I agree with your view or not, it is irrelevant. I have my say and you have your own as long as it is respectful and Arsenal related.
Now and again you get comments from rival supporters who come on and write abuse and you have to expect that. The internet is used by many people who are of varied age groups. That is life.
What I am totally fed up with is people who claim to be Arsenal supporters coming onto the blog and churning out comment after comment slagging off everything to do with the manager, the players, the opinion of other Arsenal fans over and over again, day after day, week after week. Then it turns into a continuous slagging match.
Unfortunately I do not always get the chance to read the comments straight away because I try and set aside some time to pour out my thoughts and then get on with my day. I come back to the article later in the day, often in the evening to find abusive diatribe.
It appears enjoying your team, manager and players upsets some people, upsets them enough to write something that resembles this
You deluded AKB fool. We avent one a troffy for 7 yers but you r 2 far up venga arse to understand anyfink
This is an Arsenal blog for Arsenal supporters and it kind of helps if you actually like Arsenal. If you don't like anything about Arsenal at present then I question why you waste time reading Arsenal articles from someone who actually likes Arsenal.
I am bored of it all now. Seriously bored. I don't claim to know more than anyone else, I have my own views, my own happiness and feelings about Arsenal. I don't claim to be a great painter, I just enjoy painting but I get rather fed up when I put my painting out the front to dry to come back and see that mostly the same people have shat on it again.
Take your poo, rub it in your hair and find someone else who enjoys the smell of your own poo. I am fed up of smelling it now so for that reason I am reluctantly moderating comments, at least until people can stop abusing others and can actually discuss football in a mature and sensible manor.
Don't get me wrong, this is not an 'agree with me or your comment will not be shown' this is about respect, about communication. I couldn't care less if you want Arsene Wenger to leave and think that Owen Coyle or Jurgen Klopp could do a better job, I don't care if you think player x is not as good as player x from another team, I just ask everyone to respect the other view and not to pollute the blog with how much you hate everything to do with Arsenal.
*Steps down from the soap box*
Thank you and back tomorrow.
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