The Arsenal Supporters' Trust wrote a piece about our financial position following the disappointing 2017/18 season and recently tweeted that we shouldn't get too hopeful about investing in the January market because (to paraphrase) we have ageing players on long-term contracts and high wages that will be difficult to shift, in addition to falling revenue streams.
Here's the link:
https://www.arsenaltrust.org/news/2017/arsenals-financial-position-for-201718-assessed
For those who can't be bothered to click on the link, I'll go through the main points on here:
- Matchday, Broadcast and Commercial revenue are all down. This is mainly due to not participating in the Champions League, causing a £40m loss [of income].
- The wage bill increased from £200m to £235m which represents a 17.5% increase.
- Consequently, we have an operating loss of £44m. In contrast, the previous year, we had £52m operating profit.
- It is not sustainable to rely on player sales to fund business model as the fees for players we are getting are minimal whilst the wage bill is rising.
- Taking all these factors together the AST predicts that, in the present season of 2018/19, Arsenal are heading toward making a loss of nearly £70m (in the absence of any player sales). At the operating level, they predict a loss of c£60m.
- At the end of the current 2018/19 season, they forecast cash available for player purchases of around £40m.
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Obviously we will make some money from player sales, as the likes of Elneny, possibly Ramsey in January and a few others will be off the books.
But it is worrying that we have such a paltry amount of money available to reinforce our squad.
Just to put this into perspective, I've seen that Mkhitaryan and Ozil are on combined wages of £550k p/w. That's £28.6m a year wasted on two old players that have no future left at the club.
So how do we get out of this situation? Is the only option to find a way of getting CL football? Because if we spend three consecutive seasons out of the Champions League, the ramifications could be huge.
Doesn't take a genius to work out that wages increasing and revenue falling is not sustainable.
To me, it seems like we will need to invest in young/cheap players and nurture them into stars like Pochettino has done at Spurs. Or we need Kroenke to pull his finger out, which is high unlikely based on his ownership of the club to date.
How Strong Are Arsenal's Finances?
posted on 31/12/18
comment by 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 (U18355)
posted 19 hours, 51 minutes ago
comment by KLS (U1695)
posted 1 hour, 59 minutes ago
Must be bad if you couldn’t pay Torreira’s release clause in one go, so you agreed to pay more so you could pay in instalments.
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Pretty much every deal is paid in installments so that has nothing to do with anything
What the Torreira deal does show is that there are quality players affordable to us with the correct scouting. Hopefully the scouts won’t let us down next month
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That’s not the point I made.
Yes most transfer fees are paid in instalments but not when the player has a release clause, when buying a player for a fee in they’re contract that allows them to leave it was meant to be paid in one instalment. You didn’t have the money to pay it in one go so agreed a deal to pay more as to pay it in instalments.
On a thread about Arsenals finances, I’d say it’s bang on point and don’t see what Samir is getting his knickers in a twist over.
posted on 31/12/18
comment by KLS (U1695)
posted 3 minutes ago
comment by 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 (U18355)
posted 19 hours, 51 minutes ago
comment by KLS (U1695)
posted 1 hour, 59 minutes ago
Must be bad if you couldn’t pay Torreira’s release clause in one go, so you agreed to pay more so you could pay in instalments.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pretty much every deal is paid in installments so that has nothing to do with anything
What the Torreira deal does show is that there are quality players affordable to us with the correct scouting. Hopefully the scouts won’t let us down next month
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s not the point I made.
Yes most transfer fees are paid in instalments but not when the player has a release clause, when buying a player for a fee in they’re contract that allows them to leave it was meant to be paid in one instalment. You didn’t have the money to pay it in one go so agreed a deal to pay more as to pay it in instalments.
On a thread about Arsenals finances, I’d say it’s bang on point and don’t see what Samir is getting his knickers in a twist over.
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Corporate finance doesn't work that way. Arsenal easily afford to pay any 'release clause' if they so wished but write off the debt by amortisation over the length of the contract.
posted on 31/12/18
comment by KLS (U1695)
posted 29 minutes ago
comment by 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 (U18355)
posted 19 hours, 51 minutes ago
comment by KLS (U1695)
posted 1 hour, 59 minutes ago
Must be bad if you couldn’t pay Torreira’s release clause in one go, so you agreed to pay more so you could pay in instalments.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pretty much every deal is paid in installments so that has nothing to do with anything
What the Torreira deal does show is that there are quality players affordable to us with the correct scouting. Hopefully the scouts won’t let us down next month
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s not the point I made.
Yes most transfer fees are paid in instalments but not when the player has a release clause, when buying a player for a fee in they’re contract that allows them to leave it was meant to be paid in one instalment. You didn’t have the money to pay it in one go so agreed a deal to pay more as to pay it in instalments.
On a thread about Arsenals finances, I’d say it’s bang on point and don’t see what Samir is getting his knickers in a twist over.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I wasn't getting my knickers in a twist over anything, KLS.
On multiple threads, I've seen you mention Torreira's transfer fee and the way we've paid it when it's been explained to you about 4 or 5 times why it was paid in the way that it was.
You kept bleating on about it even despite this and I didn't want you to derail a conversation on the wider, concerning problems that we have financially.
posted on 31/12/18
comment by KLS (U1695)
posted 4 hours, 37 minutes ago
comment by 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 (U18355)
posted 19 hours, 51 minutes ago
comment by KLS (U1695)
posted 1 hour, 59 minutes ago
Must be bad if you couldn’t pay Torreira’s release clause in one go, so you agreed to pay more so you could pay in instalments.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pretty much every deal is paid in installments so that has nothing to do with anything
What the Torreira deal does show is that there are quality players affordable to us with the correct scouting. Hopefully the scouts won’t let us down next month
----------------------------------------------------------------------
That’s not the point I made.
Yes most transfer fees are paid in instalments but not when the player has a release clause, when buying a player for a fee in they’re contract that allows them to leave it was meant to be paid in one instalment. You didn’t have the money to pay it in one go so agreed a deal to pay more as to pay it in instalments.
On a thread about Arsenals finances, I’d say it’s bang on point and don’t see what Samir is getting his knickers in a twist over.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Again even when release clauses are met, more often than not they are paid in installments.
posted on 31/12/18
comment by Kyzr117 (U10805)
posted 6 hours, 1 minute ago
Don’t often find myself agreeing with GT but he’s spot on when he says 22 games unbeaten emery’s the new messiah the saviour, couple of defeats later and we’re back on the Wenger hate train.
Emery bears all responsibility now, for all our results, just as Wenger did.
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This is such a load of rubbish. All I heard when we were on the fraud unbeaten run was how good a squad Wenger left behind. The squad is complete trash, doesn’t matter who the manager is. In the top 6 we have the worst squad all round, arguably on par with Chelsea’s at best.
If Emery gets us CL football then we should be extremely happy and proud to have him as our manager because it has no right to be playing CL football. Very few players are up to it and to make things worse, our 2 best players play in the same position. The squad isn’t only subpar but hugely unbalanced.
posted on 31/12/18
Exclusive: Aaron Ramsey to hold talks with Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Juventus, PSG & Real Madrid before leaving Arsenal as a free agent in the summer. #AFC have little money to spend in Jan so loans more likely with a bigger budget next window. Full details coming up @BBCSport
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Don't hold your breath lads.
posted on 31/12/18
Incredible that Ramsey has been linked with all these top clubs after the last 5 years of inconsistent performances.
I suppose, on paper, he does look like a valuable player to have. And as there's no transfer fee, it's probably a lot more appealing for those clubs.
Just hilarious that Ramsey could be starting for Bayern, Real Madrid or Juventus next season He's not even good enough to get into our team, yet he could end up in theirs.
posted on 31/12/18
Of that list I can only see Bayern or Juve signing him. Juve just like their free signings and big Weng will be calling the shots at Bayern and dying to give Ramsey ridiculous money he doesn’t deserve
posted on 31/12/18
Not sure he will start anywhere. The European clubs are looking at this for the short term. Lets give him what he wants for a season and then some mug Prem club will buy him for £30m. Think those days are over!
posted on 31/12/18
comment by 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 (U18355)
posted 5 hours, 47 minutes ago
comment by Kyzr117 (U10805)
posted 6 hours, 1 minute ago
Don’t often find myself agreeing with GT but he’s spot on when he says 22 games unbeaten emery’s the new messiah the saviour, couple of defeats later and we’re back on the Wenger hate train.
Emery bears all responsibility now, for all our results, just as Wenger did.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
This is such a load of rubbish. All I heard when we were on the fraud unbeaten run was how good a squad Wenger left behind. The squad is complete trash, doesn’t matter who the manager is. In the top 6 we have the worst squad all round, arguably on par with Chelsea’s at best.
If Emery gets us CL football then we should be extremely happy and proud to have him as our manager because it has no right to be playing CL football. Very few players are up to it and to make things worse, our 2 best players play in the same position. The squad isn’t only subpar but hugely unbalanced.
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That's also rubbish. How is it possible to be unbeaten with a trash squad? What we shouldnt ignore is that our injury list is too long.