Ivan Gazdis Interview - New Spending Power

[GP]

I think in admitting that we can now finally sign a player like Rooney and pay the fee and wages is proof that he hasnt provided the money until now

Well, yeah.

If people are still clinging to 'Wenger chooses not to spend' then they really need to pay more attention.

[cricketsi]

It's not the usual. He's making it clear that there is money to spend and that we don't have some inflexible wage structure in place that's holding us back. He's also making it clear that he's not going to start telling Wenger how to run the team or the best way to get results. That's fair enough in my book.

It's food for thought because I'm tired of the constant excuses about Wenger's hands being tied or forced to sell his players.

I think it's actually quite possible (and maybe correct?) to read parts of that transcript as saying that we have been operating under financial constricts in recent years, and back up the theory that Wenger was financially forced into many of the decisions made. I certainly don't think it all reads to back up your position that such a viewpoint is inaccurate.

[Power n Glory]

A certain amount of money has always been there, obviously not enough to buy the likes of Wazza but then no one was seriously demanding or expecting worldie signings like that over the past 5 years. The problem is that what he has had available to him has more often than not been wasted because his eye for talent has become somewhat blurred.

Wenget's decline is as much to do with his stubborn and inflexible approach to managing the squad as it is with not having the ability to buy whoever he wants.

That's what I'm talking about. We weren't expecting mega signings each window. It's just been a shock to see how poor the quality has been. When you look around the Prem and Europe in general, you can see we've wasted our money.

Q: You talked about the boffins who drew up the wage policy...?
IG: "They don't draw up the wage policy - that is not what I said. We are not advised. Arsene and I have a huge amount of experience in this area. Arsene is the guy that decides the talent that we want to have. We also have people who do analystics, at our direction, to help us to think about that."

Q: But on the back of a fag packet, if you ask a fan, do you want to pay Squillaci, Chamakh and Djourou 60k a week or pay 180k on a stellar signing, they'd say pay someone 180k a week. Why don't you do that?
"I'm not going to get into an individual debate on individual players. I'll come back to what I told you before..."

Q: But there are players nowhere near the first team on 60k a week?

We could have spent more wisely over the years. If Wenger doesn't spend again this season, are we going to again resort back to the theory that he's been restricted some how? He's never been a big spender as a manager. Every club has to work to a budget and I have no doubts about us having to be prudent over the Emirates period but if you buy cheap, you buy twice. That's what's happened here.

[Power n Glory]

I think it's actually quite possible (and maybe correct?) to read parts of that transcript as saying that we have been operating under financial constricts in recent years, and back up the theory that Wenger was financially forced into many of the decisions made. I certainly don't think it all reads to back up your position that such a viewpoint is inaccurate.

I don't doubt the restraints. Everyone has to work to a budget. But how it's been spent is the problem and what I have a real issue with.

Imagine you've been invited to a fancy party by your parents/boss/. Suit and tie type event. You notice your girlfriend has run out of nice dresses and needs something appropriate for the party. You give her £300 to spend on a new outfit. As a guy, you don't know what the heck is in style and can't really tell her what to get, this should be her area. But for £300 you'd think she'd be able to find something that looks the part, right? It doesn't have to be designer, just something that looks classy at least.

Hours later she comes back with a load of cheap outfits from Primark that don't look the part. The trashy look. The sort of dress that's not appropriate for this type of party. Kisses you on the cheek and boasts about saving £100 cause the stuff was on sale! You hint about wanting her to look more classy and her response is that she can't afford the sort of dresses the Hollywood stars and rich kids buy.

What can you do about that? The problem is the mentality and not the budget. We're not minted but we're buying low quality players and squandering a lot of money. It will be interesting to see what Wenger does now that the budget has increased. If the standard in quality doesn't go up then there really isn't much else we can do. You just have to hope he gets things right and signs more Cazorla type players and no more Gervinho's and Giroud's. I think the club have done well to push these sponsorship deals through and I thought they were going to pin our financial constraints on sponsorship money once we've paid down this Emirates debt. It so happens they're not and we're moving ahead quickly.

Gazidis can't really tell Wenger who to buy and how to achieve success. That is not his field. But he has set the bar higher and he has openly said we're not settled on 4th and our financial muscle must now translate into success on the pitch. That's the only thing they can do at this point. They've sent a clear message and it at least shows that he's paying attention to the criticism about him, Stan and the club in general. Now that they've made a firm statement, the focus should be on them to get tough if we continue to stagnate. The Board seem to be declaring that they have done their part and we're over that hump. Plus with the wage cap in place, we shouldn't have many more excuses. I said a few seasons ago that Wenger's financial doping argument and emphasis on finances has pushed the Board to try and increase more revenue and to an extent, deflects attention away from the real problem at heart. We'll see what happens over the coming months.

[Power n Glory]

I think it's actually quite possible (and maybe correct?) to read parts of that transcript as saying that we have been operating under financial constricts in recent years, and back up the theory that Wenger was financially forced into many of the decisions made. I certainly don't think it all reads to back up your position that such a viewpoint is inaccurate.

I don't doubt the restraints. Everyone has to work to a budget. But how it's been spent is the problem and what I have a real issue with.

Imagine you've been invited to a fancy party by your parents/boss/. Suit and tie type event. You notice your girlfriend has run out of nice dresses and needs something appropriate for the party. You give her £300 to spend on a new outfit. As a guy, you don't know what the heck is in style and can't really tell her what to get, this should be her area. But for £300 you'd think she'd be able to find something that looks the part, right? It doesn't have to be designer, just something that looks classy at least.

Hours later she comes back with a load of cheap outfits from Primark that don't look the part. The trashy look. The sort of dress that's not appropriate for this type of party. Kisses you on the cheek and boasts about saving £100 cause the stuff was on sale! You hint about wanting her to look more classy and her response is that she can't afford the sort of dresses the Hollywood stars and rich kids buy.

What can you do about that? The problem is the mentality and not the budget. We're not minted but we're buying low quality players and squandering a lot of money. It will be interesting to see what Wenger does now that the budget has increased. If the standard in quality doesn't go up then there really isn't much else we can do. You just have to hope he gets things right and signs more Cazorla type players and no more Gervinho's and Giroud's. I think the club have done well to push these sponsorship deals through and I thought they were going to pin our financial constraints on sponsorship money once we've paid down this Emirates debt. It so happens they're not and we're moving ahead quickly.

Gazidis can't really tell Wenger who to buy and how to achieve success. That is not his field. But he has set the bar higher and he has openly said we're not settled on 4th and our financial muscle must now translate into success on the pitch. That's the only thing they can do at this point. They've sent a clear message and it at least shows that he's paying attention to the criticism about him, Stan and the club in general. Now that they've made a firm statement, the focus should be on them to get tough if we continue to stagnate. The Board seem to be declaring that they have done their part and we're over that hump. Plus with the wage cap in place, we shouldn't have many more excuses. I said a few seasons ago that Wenger's financial doping argument and emphasis on finances has pushed the Board to try and increase more revenue and to an extent, deflects attention away from the real problem at heart. We'll see what happens over the coming months.

[cricketsi]

I don't doubt the restraints. Everyone has to work to a budget. But how it's been spent is the problem and what I have a real issue with.

Imagine you've been invited to a fancy party by your parents/boss/. Suit and tie type event. You notice your girlfriend has run out of nice dresses and needs something appropriate for the party. You give her £300 to spend on a new outfit. As a guy, you don't know what the heck is in style and can't really tell her what to get, this should be her area. But for £300 you'd think she'd be able to find something that looks the part, right? It doesn't have to be designer, just something that looks classy at least.

Hours later she comes back with a load of cheap outfits from Primark that don't look the part. The trashy look. The sort of dress that's not appropriate for this type of party. Kisses you on the cheek and boasts about saving £100 cause the stuff was on sale! You hint about wanting her to look more classy and her response is that she can't afford the sort of dresses the Hollywood stars and rich kids buy.

What can you do about that? The problem is the mentality and not the budget. We're not minted but we're buying low quality players and squandering a lot of money. It will be interesting to see what Wenger does now that the budget has increased. If the standard in quality doesn't go up then there really isn't much else we can do. You just have to hope he gets things right and signs more Cazorla type players and no more Gervinho's and Giroud's. I think the club have done well to push these sponsorship deals through and I thought they were going to pin our financial constraints on sponsorship money once we've paid down this Emirates debt. It so happens they're not and we're moving ahead quickly.

Gazidis can't really tell Wenger who to buy and how to achieve success. That is not his field. But he has set the bar higher and he has openly said we're not settled on 4th and our financial muscle must now translate into success on the pitch. That's the only thing they can do at this point. They've sent a clear message and it at least shows that he's paying attention to the criticism about him, Stan and the club in general. Now that they've made a firm statement, the focus should be on them to get tough if we continue to stagnate. The Board seem to be declaring that they have done their part and we're over that hump. Plus with the wage cap in place, we shouldn't have many more excuses. I said a few seasons ago that Wenger's financial doping argument and emphasis on finances has pushed the Board to try and increase more revenue and to an extent, deflects attention away from the real problem at heart. We'll see what happens over the coming months.

Every man should think he has the prettiest wife.

Your comment was about putting to bed arguments about Wenger being forced into selling players. Yes, in hindsight he could have done better than some of the signings, but that doesn't change the fact he's been financially hamstrung at times in the past, which Gazidis is kind of saying.

[Ollie the Optimist]

It can't be just me that has noticed the massive change in comments made to the media. Usually we hear that we have the 70 million war chest to spend of wenger wants too but added in to those comments was FFP, got to be careful etc


This year it's, we can sign Rooney and pay the huge wages. We have cash, we will spend it. No mention about FFP at all, just all talk about spending big because we can finally afford those players.

[Ollie the Optimist]

It can't be just me that has noticed the massive change in comments made to the media. Usually we hear that we have the 70 million war chest to spend of wenger wants too but added in to those comments was FFP, got to be careful etc


This year it's, we can sign Rooney and pay the huge wages. We have cash, we will spend it. No mention about FFP at all, just all talk about spending big because we can finally afford those players.

[Injury Time]

It can't be just me that has noticed the massive change in comments made to the media. Usually we hear that we have the 70 million war chest to spend of wenger wants too but added in to those comments was FFP, got to be careful etc


This year it's, we can sign Rooney and pay the huge wages. We have cash, we will spend it. No mention about FFP at all, just all talk about spending big because we can finally afford those players.

All I hear is

[Power n Glory]

Your comment was about putting to bed arguments about Wenger being forced into selling players.

That's part of it along with Wenger spending money foolishly. We can't say he hasn't had anything to work with because you can see our wage bill and the price tags on certain players. Hamstrung to an extent but it doesn't excuse wasting money. If I sell my Ferrari and get good money for it, it doesn't mean I downgrade to a Peugeot and a bunch of secondhand clapped out motors with the profit made from the sold Ferrari.