Now it makes sense why you are trying to get rid of Ozil

the longer you're out of the champions league the harder it will be

fans won't accept price increases for seats

marketing deals will not be as big

emery needs a few windows to get players out and ones he wants in.

he should be given time to build a squad

Strong enough to finish outside the top four forever.

If Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool choose to invest heavily in players every year we will consistently miss out on CL football.

It is scary but it has been budgeted for and it is a reality.

comment by (Kash) I'm the Mane (U1108)
posted 6 minutes ago
Now it makes sense why you are trying to get rid of Ozil
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It's not just the high wages (though it is one of the reasons). It's the fact he isn't performing/producing regularly for us. This whole situation isn't entirely his fault. Our board panicked when they realised there was a strong possibility of both Sanchez and Ozil leaving midway through the season. Due to their own incompetence to begin with for letting them run their contracts down.

But the fact remains we can't keep a luxury player like that on the wages he's on if we want to build a strong team.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

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.

Shifting Ozil will be difficult because there are not many clubs who could afford to pay his wages and he will definitely not take a pay cut.
Also having retired from international football he couldn’t be bothered if he is benched all season!

comment by Raptor✡ (U1071)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Stranglers (U21996)
posted 10 minutes ago
Strong enough to finish outside the top four forever.

If Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool choose to invest heavily in players every year we will consistently miss out on CL football.

It is scary but it has been budgeted for and it is a reality.
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We’ve done alright with very little investment Mr Stranglers
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Afternoon

You have done and are doing no more than we did between 2005 and 2015.
Fools gold.

The reality is we are not going to get champions league with that defence. Emery is quite within his right to say I can't turn water into wine you have to give me the resources otherwise we've got no chance. It will help once the likes of Ozil and Ramsey are gone that will free up some money though.

comment by KLS (U1695)
posted 8 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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You keep obsessing about this and it's already been explained why. With all due respect, it's getting a bit boring.

Either comment on the actual topic at hand or stop commenting at all.

The mess the old regime of Wenger and Gazidis left behind will take us a good few years to clear up. A big issue for us, as many posters have indicated, is wages.

Now we have Ramsey, Cech, Monreal, Welbeck all on mega wages all being released at the end of the season. I fully expect the likes of Koscielny to be sold as well. That'll free up a lot of wages for us to invest but at the end of the season.

As for this upcoming window, I'm expecting nothing. Maybe one or two Mislintat gems but nothing more. We really need to shiethouse a CL spot for any significant investment.

Nice article Samir. I am glad you have reminded people what a clear mess that Wenger and his acolyte put us in.

We can however be creative.

For example Wilshere and Santi were on a combined £180k a week:

That is equiv: £9.4m. a season

We spent £26m on Torreira and his wages are £2.6m a season. So on 5 years that amounts to £39m over 5 years = £7.8m a season.

So by getting rid of Santi and Wilshere of the wage bill we were actually able to spend £26m on Torreira!

Cech - £100k
Monreal - £65k
Lichtsteiner - £90k
Ramsey - £110k
Welbeck - £70k

That's a combined weekly wage of £435k. That's £22.6m a season.

It'll take time to clear the shiete Wenger and Gazidis created but we'll get there.

Also need to remember Serial that this is actually amortised money. As I explained above Torreira is actually £8m a season against the P&L though his wages are actually £2.6m a season.

Its not only their wages you are clearing but their transfer fees as well. So that figure of £22.6m may actually be nearer £35m a season.

Aye good points J99.

Would also explain why Emery is allegedly keen to get rid of Ozil. That £350k wage and any transfer fee would go a long why to helping out our financial issues.

Yep. Its astonishing we were paying Champions League wages to non Champions League players! Xhaka, Mustafi, Kolsaniac... are 3 of the worst signings in our history. Not because they are any worse than Steponovs or Song. But because they cost a combined £75m and I shudder to think what wages Wenger gave them on top of that. And Gazidis even gave Xhaka a new contract last year. Spurs have a wage bill half of ours and are completely outperforming our huge expensive buys!

Spurs have a wage bill half of ours and are completely outperforming our huge expensive buys!
——————
Spurs are just about to enter a world of pain.

Or do you think their girlfriends are going to let them earn baby money?

This team will break up by this time next year.

Xhaka and Musladi are apparently on a combined £200k with Kolasinac on £120k. Combined with the transfer fees that's an astonishing waste of cash.

If Emery will have pittance to work with it's because we're still clearing up Wengers desperate attempts to save his job.

comment by Stranglers (U21996)
posted 4 minutes ago
Spurs have a wage bill half of ours and are completely outperforming our huge expensive buys!
——————
Spurs are just about to enter a world of pain.

Or do you think their girlfriends are going to let them earn baby money?

This team will break up by this time next year.
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No. They do what we should have continued to do after 2012 except Wenger believed in a 'socialist wage structure'.

They pay the players they want to keep like Kane and Alli on large wages and long contracts. But the rest of the players they pay according to their profile. So they don't pay Van Dijk wages to Alderweireld. And if he cries they sell them like Liverpool sold Coutinho.

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

Xhaka and Musladi are apparently on a combined £200k with Kolasinac on £120k. Combined with the transfer fees that's an astonishing waste of cash.
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comment by Jenius99 (U4918)
posted 48 seconds ago
Xhaka and Musladi are apparently on a combined £200k with Kolasinac on £120k. Combined with the transfer fees that's an astonishing waste of cash.
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Big Weng

We've spent hundreds of millions in the last few years and got little to show for it so not only did we waste that money but the duds are now sitting on massive wages that will be hard to sell.

Ozil, Mkhi, Cech, Kolasinac, Kos, Welbeck, Ramsey, Mustafi all on big wages and absolute dross or past it or not in Emery's plans... that's more than 1m a week in wages

Ozil has really become a toxic influence on this club with his wages, attitude and bad performance messing up the wage structure and must be p!ssing other players off.

Good article! Quite worrying, but not all that surprising.

I agree with Jenius and SerialWum; I think we're making steps in the right direction (overhauling a lot of the backroom staff, for example), but it's going to take time for the issues with the old regime to fully unwind.

A lot of people talk about the need to shift deadwood, but given the salaries some of said players are on, it's likely a lot easier said than done.
The last season was particularly damaging, with 3 players soon to turning 30 in the current season
-Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, and Ozil - tied down to deals that made them among the highest paid players at the club, with Ozil - a player for whom their seemed to be limited interest from anywhere but China when his contract was expiring - being made one of the most highly paid players in the world.
These 3, along with Lacazette and Kolasinac, who were also signed last season, make up our 5 most highly paid players according to reports.

For what it's worth, I don't think Lacazette or Aubameyang were bad signings in isolation; in fact, I think in the right system and with the right players around them, either one of these could be 25-30 goal a season strikers.
But signing both just highlights the lack of direction in the club's transfers in recent times, as Emery is now forced to work out how best to accommodate two goal poachers in the same system.

The current squad lacks the balance necessary to compete at the top, and is burdened with a number of white elephants.

As mentioned above, hopefully we can clear a huge amount off the wage bill in the Summer and open up some squad spaces, but I think it will be a few years before we can fully address the flaws and imbalances in the squad.

comment by DaStuDogg (U9291)
posted 4 minutes ago
Good article! Quite worrying, but not all that surprising.

I agree with Jenius and SerialWum; I think we're making steps in the right direction (overhauling a lot of the backroom staff, for example), but it's going to take time for the issues with the old regime to fully unwind.

A lot of people talk about the need to shift deadwood, but given the salaries some of said players are on, it's likely a lot easier said than done.
The last season was particularly damaging, with 3 players soon to turning 30 in the current season
-Aubameyang, Mkhitaryan, and Ozil - tied down to deals that made them among the highest paid players at the club, with Ozil - a player for whom their seemed to be limited interest from anywhere but China when his contract was expiring - being made one of the most highly paid players in the world.
These 3, along with Lacazette and Kolasinac, who were also signed last season, make up our 5 most highly paid players according to reports.

For what it's worth, I don't think Lacazette or Aubameyang were bad signings in isolation; in fact, I think in the right system and with the right players around them, either one of these could be 25-30 goal a season strikers.
But signing both just highlights the lack of direction in the club's transfers in recent times, as Emery is now forced to work out how best to accommodate two goal poachers in the same system.

The current squad lacks the balance necessary to compete at the top, and is burdened with a number of white elephants.

As mentioned above, hopefully we can clear a huge amount off the wage bill in the Summer and open up some squad spaces, but I think it will be a few years before we can fully address the flaws and imbalances in the squad.
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All true 😢