Profit before transfers. Confirmed.

[Syn]

Forget about the £15-20m profit. The most annoying thing about this article is that he says he's interested in Hazard. Which means Hazard will be the star man for a 2 or 3 seasons before fucking off to Barcelona, leaving us in 'transition' again. Hasn't Nasri, Cesc and the countless foreign talented young dickheads before that taught you anything, Arsene? Oxlade is our Hazard. Lets try to build a sustainable squad for once - Rooney, Rio and the mancs; Lampard, Terry and Chelsea; Wilshere, Oxlade and Arsenal. Money does need to be spent - but on a few more players like Vermaelen, Koscielny, Sagna, Eduardo. Signings of that nature; come at a good age, around 24 years old, have some experience and aren't supposed to be the next big thing but solid players.

[server too busy!]

I've seen the interview, Wenger says at the start of the season he must make a £15-20m profit. If it were by anything other than player sales why not say by the end of the financial year?

[Kano]

Forget about the £15-20m profit. The most annoying thing about this article is that he says he's interested in Hazard. Which means Hazard will be the star man for a 2 or 3 seasons before fucking off to Barcelona, leaving us in 'transition' again. Hasn't Nasri, Cesc and the countless foreign talented young dickheads before that taught you anything, Arsene? Oxlade is our Hazard. Lets try to build a sustainable squad for once - Rooney, Rio and the mancs; Lampard, Terry and Chelsea; Wilshere, Oxlade and Arsenal. Money does need to be spent - but on a few more players like Vermaelen, Koscielny, Sagna, Eduardo. Signings of that nature; come at a good age, around 24 years old, have some experience and aren't supposed to be the next big thing but solid players.

we have wilshere, gibbs, scsyearjky, the ox, ramsey, frimpong (if he ever walks again) cocklin, jenkinson - a pretty solid base to build on i'd say.

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Forget about the £15-20m profit. The most annoying thing about this article is that he says he's interested in Hazard. Which means Hazard will be the star man for a 2 or 3 seasons before fucking off to Barcelona, leaving us in 'transition' again. Hasn't Nasri, Cesc and the countless foreign talented young dickheads before that taught you anything, Arsene? Oxlade is our Hazard. Lets try to build a sustainable squad for once - Rooney, Rio and the mancs; Lampard, Terry and Chelsea; Wilshere, Oxlade and Arsenal. Money does need to be spent - but on a few more players like Vermaelen, Koscielny, Sagna, Eduardo. Signings of that nature; come at a good age, around 24 years old, have some experience and aren't supposed to be the next big thing but solid players.

You keep saying this and I keep pointing out we sell players to Citeh now (four in the last couple of years)! I expect that to be the case for any of the kind of players you mention. The reason being I can't expect those 'sustainable' players to want to stay at Arsenal, regardless of nationality if we keep falling down the league. Mentioning Rio and Rooney is a bit odd given they were bought for huge sums and are able to 'sustain' them because they have achieved success again and again, that success achieved by supplementing them with those players you suppose would 'fuck off'; like Ronaldo for instance.

[server too busy!]

You keep saying this and I keep pointing out we sell players to Citeh now (four in the last couple of years)! I expect that to be the case for any of the kind of players you mention. The reason being I can't expect those 'sustainable' players to want to stay at Arsenal, regardless of nationality if we keep falling down the league. Mentioning Rio and Rooney is a bit odd given they were bought for huge sums and are able to 'sustain' them because they have achieved success again and again, that success achieved by supplementing them with those players you suppose would 'fuck off'; like Ronaldo for instance.

And lets not forget, wasn't Rooney on the brink of leaving for City last season!

[LDG]

Been trying to read into this a bit more, and see if I can make any sense of it.

Pure speculation this, but I think he's talking about self-sustainability again, and that if we want to buy someone like Hazard for 30mil, then he has to fund it somehow, buy giving himself some cash through selling players, and balancing current contracts etc.

I think to him, it's not just black and white, i.e. you buy to improve the team. I think he genuinely trys to juggle everything in order to take into account everything to do with player costs, from resgistration through to ammortisation of contracts, through to player sales.

I think he's feeding a soundbite in to let people know he has to balance the books first in order to make that kind of purchase.

Dunno. Might be completely wrong, but it would fit in with the whole self-sustaining crap.

[Syn]

You keep saying this and I keep pointing out we sell players to Citeh now (four in the last couple of years)! I expect that to be the case for any of the kind of players you mention. The reason being I can't expect those 'sustainable' players to want to stay at Arsenal, regardless of nationality if we keep falling down the league. Mentioning Rio and Rooney is a bit odd given they were bought for huge sums and are able to 'sustain' them because they have achieved success again and again, that success achieved by supplementing them with those players you suppose would 'fuck off'; like Ronaldo for instance.

We wouldn't keep falling down the league if we made more signings of the type I'm proposing. Obviously if we slide down the table then you are at risk of players feeling better about moving to the league leaders because the top teams are no longer your rivals. You talk about losing to players to Man City - not one of them were English. But I accept that Clichy and Toure were as good as 'English' in the sense that they had been long-serving players but it was more our decision to get rid of them rather than them forcing a move. Nasri and Adebayor forced moves. And Nasri, in particular, was one of those highly-rated foreign youngsters that I'm saying we need to avoid. So I don't see the inconsistency.

Tottenham have got it right. They've got their core of predominantly British players - Bale, Walker, Lennon, Dawson and others, and mixed them in relatively established players in the squad. Their star young player is Bale. He's not going anywhere. I'm not against signing players like Modric because Modric isn't Cesc Fabregas - he's not one of the world's best central midfielders and never will be - but players like Modric would definitely improve us. And I think - with the current crop of future talent (Szczesny, Coquelin, Wilshere, Oxlade, Jenkinson, Ramsey, Gibbs) - we will get it right also. We just need not to throw them all in at once and need more solid signings like Arteta around them.

The English premium exists for a reason. There is sound statistical and theoretical thinking behind what I'm saying. Many people think clubs are crazy for paying over the odds for English players. They're not crazy. Statistically, they are much less likely to force moves. Not because they're inherently better people. But because they're more averse to a change in surroundings. Rooney hasn't even mastered English, how is he going to learn Spanish? British players are statistically more likely to stay by the club. Ronaldo did pissing off and Rooney and Rio are staying is not a surprise or a statistical anomaly. Cashley pissing off is a statistical anomaly. Henderson going for £20m or Chamberlain for £15m or Rooney for £30m - at the time of their purchase, they didn't have the reputation of being as good as Gotze or Hazard...probably because they weren't not as good as Gotze or Hazard. But clubs pay big money for English players because they think the way I do - in the long run, it's more likely to pay off. Of course if you're interested in making money - as we are - then by all means go for Hazard as we'll get double his transfer fee in a few seasons time.

[server too busy!]

Been trying to read into this a bit more, and see if I can make any sense of it.

Pure speculation this, but I think he's talking about self-sustainability again, and that if we want to buy someone like Hazard for 30mil, then he has to fund it somehow, buy giving himself some cash through selling players, and balancing current contracts etc.

I think to him, it's not just black and white, i.e. you buy to improve the team. I think he genuinely trys to juggle everything in order to take into account everything to do with player costs, from resgistration through to ammortisation of contracts, through to player sales.

I think he's feeding a soundbite in to let people know he has to balance the books first in order to make that kind of purchase.

Dunno. Might be completely wrong, but it would fit in with the whole self-sustaining crap.

So where does the extra revenue from ticket sales and sponsorship go? They should be used to balance books not using player sales. If we're that hard up that its a struggle to be self sustaining, then sort out the sponsorship side of it. Get rid of fringe players earning £70k a week. How can we possibly be poorer than before our stadium move. Weren't we self sustaining then as well?

[Syn]

And lets not forget, wasn't Rooney on the brink of leaving for City last season!

He didn't leave though.

[server too busy!]

Thats because Man Utd gave him £250k a week. Would we do that?