This quote talks about poetry but right now, it applies to my mindset about Arsenal football as well — “When you explain poetry, it becomes banal. Better than any explanation is the experience of feelings that poetry can reveal to a nature open enough to understand it.” — trying to endlessly dissect and explain every part of the arsenal and constantly argue about things that in truth I have no control over and probably will never really know the complete inside out story about has made me weary and is taking away from the joy of the beautiful game and the joy of supporting the arsenal and in the end, all I want is that joy.

Here is the current list of players over 21 —

1. Szczesny (HG)
2. Fabianski
3. Mannone (HG)
4. Sagna
5. Mertesacker
6. Vermaelen
7. Djourou (HG)
8. Santos
9. Squillaci
10. Gibbs (HG)
11. Koscielny
12. Diaby
13. Rosicky
14. Arteta
15. Ramsey (HG)
16. Arshavin
17. Cazorla
18. Giroud
19. Podolski
20. Walcott (HG)
21. Park
22. Chamakh
23. Gervinho
24. Bendtner (HG)

— that is 24…including 7 HG players (and no I’m not including Eastmond here because he’s not worthy of being registered for the first team) 

The ones Under 21 are — Jenkinson, Wilshere, Coquelin, Chamberlain, Frimpong 

Of the 24, Arsene himself confirmed (earlier this month after the Asia Tour) that Squillaci, Park and Bendtner are nearly off as well.

So we’ll be down to 21 with 6 HG players, giving us squad spaces for 2 foreign players and 2 HG players. Arshavin and Chamakh might be off as well and that gives us space to sign 4 foreign players and 2 home grown players. (Coquelin and Jenkinson will be registered next season and I think both might count as HG players)

Here is the current list of players over 21 —

In response to an article on @ladyarse about how FFP won’t work…here are a few counter points

First, the shortfall allowed for the first accounting period is 45mil EUROS which in today’s exchange rate translates to a little over 35mil pounds total over 3 years. Also, this 45mil is only allowed if the debt amount is taken up by owners through equitable investments (money in exchange for shares) otherwise it is just 5mil euros of allowed loss for the 3 year period.

And this isn’t really something you can “hide” since it covers all player, agent and wage transactions including signing fees and bonuses (losses from developing infrastructure like a new stadium are allowed).

Secondly, the city deal that everyone keeps harping on about, well that deal is currently under investigation and has NOT been approved YET under UEFA’s fair value policy. So the outcome of that will be interesting to see.

As for teams earning money from sponsorships and TV Revenues (the right way), that’s a fair way to earn money and teams like Madrid and United are profitable because of their excellent commercial revenue (and ours will go up from 2014 as well). FFP is designed to prevent sugar daddies from essentially doing financial doping (like Chelsea did where Roman wrote off the money)

Lastly, UEFA has the backing of the European Commission on this and it also has the backing of the Spanish giants and most teams in Europe. The ones most affected by this will be people with new money making big losses, namely Chelsea and City. United, Madrid, Barca and most other big teams meet FFP regulations by spending what they earn. If anything, it is in the best interests of Madrid and Barca to push for FFP as the skewed revenue distribution in Spanish football is set to be re-organized a bit and revenues are likely to drop more considering the state of Spain’s economy.

I still have plenty of hope for FFP to come through and work.

‎”Life is like a book with many chapters we call seasons. 
Some chapters tell the story of love, drama, comedy, 
mystery, loss, adversity, growth, disappointment, triumph, etc. 

Some chapters are dull and ordinary, others intense and exciting. 
The key to enduring, persevering and being hopeful is to never stop 
on a difficult page, to never quit on a book or a chapter that seems 
too long. Some chapters may be sweet but too short. Your words, 
thoughts, actions, non-action and choices are the pens that write the 
pages in your book. 

Have the courage and faith to keep turning the pages believing better 
chapters lie ahead. Trust. Listen. Believe.
Activate your gifts and talents. 
Be creative. Be kind. Be patient. Be faithful. Be grateful. Be fruitful.”

Diamond Taylor 

Slightly edited but this is so true

when people question Arsenal’s ambition i laugh. They need a slight refresh of what it really means

am·bi·tion   /amˈbiSHən/

Noun:

A strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work.

Spending a lot of money doesn’t require determination or hard work. It just requires deep pockets. The Arsenal way (the classy way) is more ambitious than the sugar daddy way as you’re trying to beat the odds despite all adversity through sheer sweat and determination.

We give it our all and fall just short, that doesn’t mean we aren’t ambitious, that just means we try again without giving up. It also doesn’t mean we go looking for shortcuts, for then, success would not have been earned, it would be hollow

A reply to @AngryofN5’s post about “Chamakh the Pony” and the great Wage debate

First about Chamakh. I posted this as a comment to that article, but thought I’d share it here as well. Also, I tend to let the words that flow from an impassioned defense come out completely so some of this might seem a bit blunt. I apologize in advance about that.

It is easy to say a player is “pony” or wages are too much in hindsight. Unfortunately, a club cannot be run or managed on hindsight; you only use the information you have at the time of signing someone to judge how much they deserve on contract.

Phil seems to treat the French League and its Champions as some nobody team, well they went as far in the CL that season as we did in 2009/10 (so much for “wherever the hell he came from”). Chamakh actually helped his team to consecutive league titles in France. At the time of signing, he was actually proven in the CL and now holds a record for scoring in the most consecutive CL games (including goals against Juve and Bayern). We tried signing him the previous summer and winter for about £6-7mil but he wanted to represent Bordeaux in the CL (just like Hazard did last summer for Lille). What people don’t remember (or choose not to) is how Chamakh turned down offers from Liverpool, Spurs, Sunderland and Russia to join us (some even offering more than what we did). If he was so “pony” when signed then why were any of these teams offering him contracts in the first place?

Plus, people conveniently forget that he had a hot start for us by contributing over 15 goals in his first 4-5 months here and since then, has barely had the chance to play because of RVP’s other worldly form and our luck with RVPs fitness. If it weren’t for that start, considering our utterly dismal end to the 2010/11 season, we would NOT have reached the top 4 that year. This year, with RVP as captain and continuing his immense form, his chances to play have been even harder to come by with under 200mins in the PL season, how much can you expect a striker to score in that much time?

NOW WAGES

Phil’s suggestion to offer small increases to contracts is incredibly unrealistic and will NEVER work. Giroud was earning 15-20k a week in France, and now we’ve signed him and have offered him 45-50k per week. Chelsea in comparison are rumoured to have offered him 90k a week, so if we followed the policy Phil was suggesting, then you can rest assured that we’ll lose out on even more targets to rivals because we don’t pay up. Whether we like it or not, fact is that a squad player earns anywhere from 40-60k a week. If you don’t pay them even that much, you won’t have much of a squad left.

And these numbers aren’t even outrageous, they’re a natural progression.

5-10k per week — Youth players like Miquel

15-25k per week — exceptional youngsters or those signed from outside like Ox, Joel and Ryo

40-60k per week — Players who make the jump from youth and reserve level to become a regular part of the first team after showing they can perform. Denilson and Bendtner showed their worth in 2008-2009, Wilshere and Szczesny in 2010-2011.

40-60k per week — First team squad players who are signed from abroad (where previous contracts are lower but consideration needs to be made for higher taxation levels in the UK as well). Park got 40k/week, Gervinho, Koscielny and Chamakh around 50-55k, Nasri (in the past) and Mertesacker got 60k/week

70-90k per week — Key first team players. Arshavin, Van Persie, Arteta and Vermaelen all earn in this wage range. I expect Walcott, Koscielny, Sagna and Song to jump into this range as well once they renew their contracts.

above 100k per week — We have no one in this range yet but if someone like RVP renewed, they’d go into this range.

Note: It must be noted that most players are unwilling of accepting a large part of their wage in performances bonuses. It was rumoured that Nasri had been offered 90k/week and performances bonuses that would take it to 110k/week but he turned that down. Now he’s earning 170k/week at City.

I personally see little wrong in the structure though I do agree that we have played a risky game of rewarding potential on the basis of one good season like we did for Denilson and Wilshere. It has its pros and cons though. On one hand it prevents a promising young player from being poached and rewards them for good performances on the pitch over the course of a season (we’ve never offered a contract raise to someone who hadn’t proved themselves in the first XI). On the flip side, it can look poor in hindsight if a player doesn’t live up to his potential like Denilson or Vela and makes it difficult to offload them. However, at the time of the contract, it is a fair and reasonable deal as its impossible to know that a player who has played well for one season will completely flop in future and only in hindsight does it look bad IMO.

We’re not the only ones who reward on the basis of potential either. Take a look at United. Macheda earns 35k/week at United (after scoring a couple of wonder goals and being hailed as their saviour). Hernandez upped his wages to something like 80k/week after his first season there. Cleverley got a contract increase to 40k/week after a good loan spell (I think he was yet to play United when he got the raise) and Welbeck is currently demanding 60k/week. 

Also just for comparison. If you look at the closest team above us in the league and look at the wages that they pay, you’ll notice that we’re offering roughly on par or less for our squad players.

Javier Hernandez – 80k/week

Ferdinand – 120k/week

Vidic – 90k/week

Carrick – 70k/week

Owen – 50k/week

Nani and Valencia – 90k/week

Smalling and Jones – 50-60k/week

Giggs – 80k/week

Berbatov – 110k/week

Cleverley — 40k/week

Welbeck – currently on 15k/week but after his first season is demanding a renewal for 60k/week

In the past

Wes Brown – 50k/week

John O’Shea – 60-70k/week

If you want us to compare to the team closest to us in the league, we can take a look at that too. Here’s some of the wages at Spurs who until this summer had a much tighter salary CAP of 80k/week. On average their wages are lesser than ours and certainly the wage cap leads to a tighter distribution. But you can see that even their squad players are earning similar amounts (though about 5-10k less as per their cap)

(Did a fair bit of searching for these wages and they’re from either news stories of contract renewals or from Spurs forum discussing their wages here — http://www.tottenhamhotspurs.tv/forum/players-lounge/20918-spurs-economics-club-wage-structure.html)

Lennon – 45-55k/week

Bale – 100k/week (his rumoured new contract value)

Modric – 65-75k/week

VdV – 55-65k/week

Parker – 55-65k/week

Krancjar – 40-50k/week

King – 60k/week

Defoe – 60k/week

Gomes – 35-45k/week

Dos Santos – 35k/week

Bassong – 50k/week

Dawson –45-55k/week

Gallas – 55-65k/week

Huddlestone – 35-45k/week

Bottom line is this

It is quite easy to complain about wages in hindsight, but you don’t have that luxury in real time. Everyone thinks Van Persie to be paid 130-150k/week and right now that seems deserved but if his form dropped or god forbid he got injured again, would people again cry out “Why were these wages offered?!?!?!”?

One more thing to explain the convenient timing of Usmanov.

This summer and next are the last two where our more severe financial restrictions will be in effect. Especially with wages. This is when Usmanov can convince people that he’s most needed for AFC because all he wants is total control to turn us into his money making play thing.

What he doesn’t tell you is this. Starting 2014, with the renegotiated deals in place. The below estimate (as I understand it) will be how much ADDITIONAL income we have every year compared to now.

Increase in TV and Prize Money for PL/CL performance (~£30-40mil)
Increase in value of existing shirt and kit deals (~30mil)
Additional Sponsorship deals (~10-20mil)

Add up these three and you’ll see that from the summer of 2014, we’ll have an additional 70-90mil pounds a year…and this is a conservative estimate as there are new commercial deals being negotiated all over the world and the value from additional deals might even be more.

So imagine, 70-90mil extra a year. More for transfers and wages. Who would need Usmanov to spend money then? No one. That is why he’s making all his moves and announcements this summer and next. He is DESPERATE.

Also for those doubting Gazidis and his abilities to run the club…know this

1. He was a big part of converting the MLS from a league of no consequence to something that is actually a legitimate destination for players to go to…Bekcham started it off, Henry is there and Kaka has plans to head there as well

2. Manchester City wanted him to oversee their massive spending and project to take over the league. Arsene wanted him and he turned down City to join us.

3. Dein was an excellent transfer negotiator but he never had to face oil money so his relevance in this era is questionable…oil money is competition that Gazidis deals with on every transfer that he and Dick Law have to negotiate

4. Dein also was never hindered by the massive limits that were in play here at Arsenal. Especially after the move to the Emirates. Summer of 2009 and 2010…we spent a combined amount of less than what Liverpool paid for Andy Carroll…that is all the money we had for 2 summers. 35mil.

5. Gazidis, in his first month here oversaw the club record transfer of Andrei Arshavin, who changed our fortunes in 2008/2009 season and got us into the top 4

6. What Gazidis inherited from Dein and Edelman was a boardroom and club in an utter mess with half the players running into their last years of contracts. He renewed RVP’s contract in 2009. And despite the club being in turmoil last summer, got Wilshere, Szczesny and Vermaelen to agree new long term deals

7. Gazidis also knew his job well enough to ensure that once CL was confirmed last summer, we managed to sign FIVE players in 3-4 days time of whom FOUR played a vital part in our recovery from 17th to 3rd

8. People slate him for letting RVP and Nasri run down their contracts. Well know this. These players chose to do so. Contracts were offered to them early in the season. Van Persie turned down his offer in September/October and opted to wait till the end of the year (Theo’s depended on him as well). Nasri turned down his offer in December and did the same. You CANNOT force a player to sign a contract

9. Also if you doubt that he can’t sign players…we got Giroud when Chelsea wanted him and Gervinho when City wanted him…Arsene and Gazidis were both big parts of convincing them

10. Take it from people who have met him (not me) and know that he’s a FAR more intelligent man than most of you give him credit for and he’s a better person to run the backend operations of the club than most people in the world.

11. His real test will be with new commercial deals for 2014 and from what I’m hearing, we might overtake Liverpool with the best shirt deal in the league (We’ve opened negotiations with Emirates for around 25mil a year apparently)

So before you mindlessly slate him…ask yourself…do you know all this?

For those who think Usmanov is a saviour…please educate yourselves before spouting rubbish

The guy is nothing more than an opportunistic slimeball who wanted to get his PR move done when the club was down and RVP had successfully disrupted club harmony

Read these and educate yourself. And if you doubt the source, craig murray is a former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan

http://bit.ly/kjjmFd

http://bit.ly/OysdbW

http://bit.ly/KXsUGW

http://bit.ly/cTFhGV