Middle East consortium 'to bid for Arsenal'

[Kano]

What's going on at City makes no financial sense but if you've got (in effect) infinite amounts of money then who cares

that made more sense a couple of years ago with no ffp on the horizon and the fact they had to invest huge amounts to make up a hell of a lot of ground in terms of infastructure and in squad terms. in fact, the city guys seem to have some sort of plan rather than abramo who just throws money at trophies.

in terms of an investment, we are very stable, that we know. so why someone would throw billions at something and destabilise it when there is no need to doesn't make any sense. particularly when the match day return is one of the key roi's in the whole business. one of the basis of the ffp is that you cover what you spend with what your revenue - and our matchday is bread and butter. the entire 'bid' is complete horseshit, nothing less.

[Letters]

Good point about ffp although Arsenal don't need as much investment to be competitive as City did, and we have a fair bit in the bank to start with.

[Japan Shaking All Over]

I have to disagree with that. For starters, the wage bill is out of balance because he choses to pay these guys silly wages at some misguided pre-emptive strike against vulture clubs like City and Barca. Guys like Bendy and Denilson weren't even on these clubs radar but for some reason he chose to pay them massive wages they didn't earn even though they've always expressed a desire to start games and prove themselves more than anything else. There were no threats of leaving on a free if not paid accordingly, the most frustrating thing for young players is not getting a start and I remember countless players leaving or threatening to leave because of this. Bribing them to stay with money is Wenger and the clubs choice. Look at the recent contracts for Gibbs, Wilshere and Ox. None of them were demanding a huge pay increase and none have done nothing to warrant one either but he handed it out willingly even though these guys would have probably signed for an extension for a fraction of what was offered.

As for Cesc and RVP leaving, these guys have been with the club longer than guys like Ljungberg, Sol Campbell, Wiltord, Pires and Overmars but won less. It's very rare for a club of our size that's winning nothing to get almost 10 years of service from players without winning anything. Most of the past players skipped off to another club after a season or two of watching Wenger and the club refuse to sign new blood. Cesc and RVP watched for 8 years as Wenger refused to sign new players, wouldn't adapt to tactics and gave naïve speeches about us being 2% away from domination when we can't even do the basics of defending a set piece. To top it off they watched as we sold key players each season. Ade, Flamini, Hleb, Henry...just as we he perseveres with trash like Almunia in goal for years even though the world can see he's no good. Eboue on the flanks, Denilson for goodness sakes while better options were on the bench or in the transfer market. The deluded speeches Wenger makes about 4th being a trophy, our defensive record being great away from home and the way he just clouds over some many problems, they sat and heard that nonsense we're all fed up of hearing day in day out as they sat and watched a disillusioned and ill equipped team perform and choke week after week.

You can't make out as if Wenger is a victim of the players when you look at it. The crazy nonsense we're seeing now has been going on for years and he's blinkered and ignorant to the fact that he needs help and the team need help. He got 8 years of service from those guys, more than what a lot of the Invincible players served under Wenger and saw that this was a sinking ship. They could have stayed on another 8 years and won fuck all under this man. He still has no clue about defending or tactics and is a spent force. It has nothing to do with the modern day players because back at Highbury Petit, Overmars and Anelka fucked off a lot earlier even when we were on the up. If we weren't winning trophies back in during the Highbury years, Sol Campbell would have never signed for us and would have most likely signed for a club like Chelsea. And let's not forget about that 'orrible bastard Vieira. He'd have been a Chelsea boy too if they were around back then. Same goes for a lot of other players.

I agree that Wenger did himself or the club few favours by not providing the likes of Cesc and RvP with a decent enough squad to work with. I think we would have stood more chance of them sticking around a while longer had he done so.

I think we agree that Cesc woud have gone back at some point but he was on a seven year contract that still had a few years to run, RvP. . ? I think,he may have seen out his days with us had we made the squad more competitive. The likes of Nasri and Ade may have a place in this argument too but I consider them talentless virginas and not worth wasting ink over.

[Kano]

Good point about ffp although Arsenal don't need as much investment to be competitive as City did, and we have a fair bit in the bank to start with.

exactly, so whilst city needed that sort of investment, we don't. very little of this 'amazing' offer adds up to very much and the fact that they are apparently willing to work with usmanov makes even less sense and leads me to believe it is shit from the russian at a time when we have crashed out of the fa, effectively out of the cl and on the eve of a very big north london derby. sounds very dodge in fact.

[Nayan]

What's going on at City makes no financial sense but if you've got (in effect) infinite amounts of money then who cares

Well look at it this way - everyone thought Dubai was minted to lending them money to help with cashflow as they built ski slopes and airports was easy profits but it turns out they were massively in hock to Abu Dhabi and in fact had to have their bankers consolidate their debts into one easy payment etc.

We now hear of a faceless consortium which cant possibly be the state wealth funds of Qatar and UAE who would not fart about in the press or indeed deal jointly Ie at best they are a bunch of punters playing with borrowed money or could have been the Usmanov bullshit machine trying to wiind up Kronke.
Or some spurs fans making mischief ahead of their cup final.

So if you take this story seriously (I dont, myself) you should care.

[Nayan]

exactly, so whilst city needed that sort of investment, we don't. very little of this 'amazing' offer adds up to very much and the fact that they are apparently willing to work with usmanov makes even less sense and leads me to believe it is shit from the russian at a time when we have crashed out of the fa, effectively out of the cl and on the eve of a very big north london derby. sounds very dodge in fact.

spot on. When kronke spuffed his 400mill on arsenal shares that went into the previous boards pockets to buy them out. Likewise when usmanov paid over his 70mill that just let dein take a profit. None of that cash went into the squad.
Similarly whether the guy behiond the guy behind the fake sheikh spends 1billion of 1.5billion or whatever all taht would do is turn into a profit for usmanov/kronke were they to sell up. There would ahve to be other money budgeted to buy players

[Nayan]

there is 225million of debt outstanding in the form of bonds secured vs the stadium and gate receipts. Simp[ly buying out the shares would not mean that the shareholders can 'forgive'; that debt. Youd have to have all the bondholders agree to that and that is totally separate. Or youd have to buy them out of their holdings and they are under no obligtion to sell. Yet another hole in this story