I’d take that over a piece of shit like Stan Kronke taking £3m a year from the fans. Also, if we’re going to fleece the fans, at least put the money back on the pitch and not use it to prop up the egos of players that have done nothing to earn a pay rise. Gibbs, Ox, Ramsey and Wilshere shouldn’t be on the wages they earn but they all jumped well ahead of a player like Coquelin on the pay scale without having to battle for their spot on the team. It’s senseless. Coquelin earned his new contract and fought for it. That’s how you should earn it at this club. Being rubberstamped as a future first teamer shouldn’t get you a £50k to £80k contract.
I agree with that actually - players at Arsenal are rewarded far too richly before they've really achieved anything (I'm looking at you, Theo - although you may be coming good now...)
I suspect it's not just us that does it though, if we don't do it they'll just piss off to another club who will - and in some cases we might think "so what" but IMO we've finally got a decent squad now so we don't want too many jumping ship.
Exactly. Theo is the prototype for this. He’s jumped right to the top of the food chain without really earning it. We propped up his wages so high when he was young that when he finally has some bargaining chips going into negotiations we’re looking at his wages going up to £100k - £140k. We’re going to be in the same position with Wilshere, Ramsey, Ox and Gibbs pretty soon when we don’t need to be.
Fear of them leaving makes no sense either. Where are they going to go for first team football or even the opportunity when so under developed? Even if they do catch their attention, they’d be foolish to leave so early. Most players want first team football at that age and most of the young players that have left us have left because of the lack of first team football and not wages. Coquelin would have been gone if he wasn’t given a chance. It’s the same for most of our young players. They want the opportunity. And if there ever were a case that a club like City wanted then (Sterling) there is no way we can stop that if we’re not winning silverware. We could offer them a fortune but it’s obvious we can’t compete the wages of the mega rich. Trying to keep our young players sweet with bumper wages to ward off bigger clubs is just misguided and waste of our resources. It’s stopped us from keeping a hold of our established talent because we wouldn’t top up their wages or invest in real talent ready for the first team.
A final point on the AGM:
Sir Chips referred to our captain as "Michael Arteta". Just shows how in tune he is with the club he's supposedly the chairman of.
I honestly reckon neither him or Lord Harris actually like football. They're both Tory donors so Rugby's probably more their thing but because they've inherited such a cushy gig here, they're reluctant to give it up easily.
When you add in the two Kroenke dicks as well, you possibly have 4/6 members of the board who have zero passion or awareness of footballing matters which is a far cry from the days of David Dein, Fizzman and Richard Carr.
There's not much in it between him and the fat Russian anymore.
In fact it wasn't for the alleged dead bodies/crime/violence associated with Uzmanov's dealings (similar to Abromovich), I'd be openly championing him to seize control. He's far more wealthy than Stan (and Abromovich for that matter) and he probably wouldn't be taking money out of the club for his own use.
Even though some of the outbursts during the AGM regarding the matter were cringeworthy in nature they did hopefully have the desired effect of directly displaying to the board the level of anger there is about the issue.
It's a joke really. Three million taken out for two successive years now with no credible attempt to even explain what exactly it's for, the services provided for it or to show that it was a competitive price.
Frankly if I wasnt an Arsenal fan, I wouldnt watch either. Compared to the champions of England in the last decade, we are way up there in terms of prices. I do understand that we are in London and we have a new stadium, but for the price we pay, there is very little value.
Arsene Wenger, the only football manager that got paid 8 million quid to do nothing but sit on his arse..
I'd rather watch us than Chelsea and their prices aren't that different - their cheapest ticket is more expensive than our cheapest.
There isn't much value in watching top level football these days but if enough people are willing to pay it...
Very little value at all and I resent the fact that this club is preaching this self-sustaining model as if it’s beneficial to the fans when it’s beneficial to the higher ups. The Chips’s and the Stan’s. Their attitudes at the AGM epitomises what’s wrong with the sport and I’d rather not see or hear about it because it spoils the illusion and I’m reluctant to part with my money to support such characters.