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Wenger: 'We Have To Be Responsible'

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has once again spoken about the precarious financial situation in football being exacerbated by the spending of sugar daddy clubs. Perhaps his dealings with Malaga in trying to sign Santi Cazorla over the last few days have reinforced his belief.

The Sun newspaper carries quotes today (their origin is unclear, therefore the time at which he made them might well be too) reiterating the economics graduate`s belief that a storm is coming in football finance.

'We consider ourselves in a privileged position because we have a massive income,' Wenger said. 'But overall we are not mega-rich because we do not have unlimited resources.

'A club can buy players like PSG has done or Manchester City or Chelsea, with unlimited resources, but overall football suffers.

'Look at the activity on the transfer market since the start of the summer. PSG are ambitious and they have resources and that's it. We talk always about the same things.

'Europe at the moment is like the Titanic but we live in football like nothing matters.

'More than ever we have to run our club in a strict way because it looks like everybody suffers in Europe. I would be surprised if football is not touched by it at some stage.

'If you look at debt in football across Europe at the moment, it is quite massive and we have to be responsible. We have to be ambitious but also make sure we are not getting in trouble financially.

'It is difficult for us because the wages in some other clubs are very high. But of course our players quite rightly compare themselves to the players of the other clubs.'

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Writer: Tim Stillman

Date:Wednesday August 1 2012

Time: 1:06PM

Your Comments

...and as usual, the only people that have come out and criticized him are the dim wit blue chavs north and south. With such cracking arguments as "well you paid Sol Campbell £100k per week" and here's another classic "spending lots on players like Mertesacker and Chamakh means he doesn't have a leg to stand on" (£8 million in total transfer fees, helloooooo!) Me think they doth protest too much. Says a lot about the "luminaries" that follow these clubs no??

Scotch Eggs Rule

If fans of Chelsea or City buy Wenger's argument, it would reduce the value of the trophies they have won/ bought to nothing. Guess they have no choice but to reject the argument however compelling it is.

Deltaforce

Yes I do agree with him to a certain extent but he doesn't mind selling players for over inflated prices does he ? And to the very clubs he criticizes for being irresponsibe....I bet he would not have said no if Citeh would have gone up to £30m + for Nasri - imho you can't have a go about these things if you are part of the problem too....

radarman

radarman, you omit the choice of the player as a factor completely in your post. If a player wants to sign for a particular club AND has only a year left on hos contract all that remains is to then get the highest value possible for him. Nasri could have insisted on signing for Manchester United (who put in a bid for him) but chose city instead. Hope you realise that without a players signature no transfer is complete.

Deltaforce

Deltaforce - I don't think that I omitted anything - Nasri may well have wanted to go Citeh and if the chavs had matched their offer he might have gone there instead - I don't know - but what I do know is that AW doesn't mind being the beneficiary of massive profits, from the sales of players, to the very clubs he is having a go at......I am not saying that it isn't good business but why moan about clubs like Citeh if you are benefiting ?

radarman

Radarman have you also considered that Wenger might prefer that players like Nasri sign a new contract at Arsenal without having their heads turned by the big payday?

Will-i-am10

Isn't it funny how opinions change, eh?

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wenger-psg-are-the-french-man-city-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_M4y1zXQ9o

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2181959/Arsene-Wenger-Chelsea-Manchester-City-damage.html

fifthcolumnblue

Will-i-am10 - Yes I am sure he would love that - but what's your point ? AW is concerned about the whole thing right ? wages,transfers etc etc - I bet he is not concerned at all about accepting nearly £80 million pounds from Citeh in transfer fees and if RVP goes there it will be £100 million in the last few years...That is staggering and please don't tell me it's ALL because the players want to go there and there's nothing AFC can do to prevent it from happening.....

radarman

Going by your logic radarman - its not fair that AW and Arsenal accept transfer fee for wantaway players? Strange logic coming from an Arsenal fan.

Deltaforce

Radarman, make a point... any kind of point...

damiano_tommassi

Er - I have previously said that I am not saying it's not good business... and I think I have made a point.....

radarman

fifthcolumnblue - How has his opinion changed? He's always said clubs in completely false positions such as yours are damaging for the game of football. 99% of fans agree with him, of course you wouldn't, as Delta said earlier it would completely reveal your clubs "achievements" for what they are, hollow and meaningless.

Scotch Eggs Rule

radarman - I'm pretty certain Wenger would of wanted to keep all those players instead of selling them to chav clubs, but unfortunately the players wanted to leave so what can he do but earn as much for the club as possible. You conveniently forget we've made a lot of money selling to clubs who generate their own money as well, Real Madrid, Barcelona etc etc. So what is teh difference between selling to them and selling to a club artificially funded as long as the player wants to leave it's hardly down to us to give them a free transfer to maintain moral stance. Wenger's told the truth and has no reason to not take the moral high round regardless of whether it rubs you up the wrong way or not. Fact is, the market is knackered because of clubs like City, Chelsea and PSG, NOT because of Arsenal.

Scotch Eggs Rule

That is staggering and please don't tell me it's ALL because the players want to go there and there's nothing AFC can do to prevent it from happening.....radarman - Eeerm wrong! EVERY single one of those players wanted to leave for one reason or another, (Nasri - money, Adebayor - money, Toure - hated Gallas, Clichy - money, spent a long time at Arsenal) so why should we keep unhappy players? So there you go, we've told you that is exactly the reason why, despite you asking nicely so what now?

Scotch Eggs Rule

I don't feel City have paid over the odds for their purchases in transfer fees: Nasri, his person aside, is a £22m player but players who transfer for £22m never got £185,000 a week. Kaka is on about £150k and his fee was nearly £60m! Torres was on an improved contract t of £110 when he went to Chelsea for £50m and upped his wages to £175.

No 10

No 10 - City haven't paid over the odds? Like £25 for Dzeko, £25 for Adebayor, £20 for Santa Cruize, £18 for Kolorov, £24 for Lescott, £24 for Bolotelli......need I continue?

Scotch Eggs Rule

*That's millions, before anyone tells me that 25 quid for Dzeko's a bargian!! lol

Scotch Eggs Rule

I found myself having to make similar arguments with some ill-informed ("Wenger is always bitter and should focus on winning his team a trophy"...like he hasn't won ANY trophy in his time here) fans; amazing how the issues raised are always along the same lines. Any forward thinking person should commend the gaffer for being able to speak up, for the good of the game, what a fair few others would wish to say but are unable to articulate without sounding like a case of sour grapes. Wenger is advocating a joint effort to curb the excesses of football, in the face heavy recession in the Euro economies. Why is it so hard to see that soccer cannot play the Ostrich in this matter? Today, it is Malaga; it can be the chavs another day.

Naijagunner

Scotch Eggs Rule, I guess No 10 was referring to the quality of the Arsenal players City have bought, in response to the claim that Wenger has been 'happy' collecting all that money from City for those players.

On that basis, I would say the players they got from Arsenal went for the value placed on them by the (selling) club and the expectation of the buying club. Adebayor just finished the season as top goal scorer; Nasri gave some MVP performances the previous season; Kolo was one of the EPL's best defenders and (if Rio could go for 30.5m) was worth his 15m, I'd say. As for Clichy (how much was he again?), the fact that he was used actively by City says a lot about the value they placed on him.

Naijagunner

*Adebayor just finished the '09 season that is*

Naijagunner

Happened on a related topic on the VC site yesterday, under the heading "That Wenger swipe", which made interesting reading. Most fans on there appeared sobered by the sheer weight of possibilities thrown up by Wenger's position.

Naijagunner

Scotch Eggs Rule - I never said those players didn't want to leave Arsenal - I said - "please don't tell me it's ALL because the players want to go there "....by there I meant Citeh....

radarman

Wenger is talking like this is some sort of new phenomenon, like football only started to suffer when the noveau riche came along. Leeds, as an example, suffered long before Chelsea or City were taken over, so how does he explain that one?

Bluedub

I think Wenger said plenty about the Leeds situation when it happened. But as you may have noticed, it's not 2003 anymore. Do you still typically talk about the fuel crisis? Or foot and mouth disease?

Little Dutch

Can you direct me to where I might find quotes from Wenger about the financial situation in football then? There's no need to get smart mate, I'm merely asking a question.

Bluedub

Why should anyone direct you to find quotes from Wenger bluedub? Googling is fairly simple. Moreover, if you level a charge against Wenger, the least that one would expect is some minimum amount of research to back your thoughts up.

Deltaforce

What charge have I levelled?

Bluedub

The charge being that Wenger did not comment on the Leeds situation when it happened, but he is commenting only now on Chelsea / Citeh? That charge was fairly straight forward from your post, bluedub.

prits

This is all hot air to cover up what is really going on at Arsenal. He mentions this every year. What is being missed here is the vast fortune that Arsenal major shareholders are building up from the value of their shares improving over years by being stingy on players. They don't pay relatively high wages and don't buy players because they have built a stadium for 200 million+ but the main thing is that the shares bought by these people way back when have drastically increased so that when they are sold when these people retire or want out, they make a fortune as they are raking in the money from 60,000 fans every fortnight but not spending it. This was on a major Arsenal website. So the Arsenal directors are preserving their fortunes at the expense of the fans who won't see a trophy for ages and cry out plaintively 'we don't have the money that other clubs have' which is a lie - the board are simply preserving their investments in the form of increased share value at the expense of 60,000 muppets who want a trophy every now and then. And Wenger of course goes along with this, either wittingly or unwittingly. Meanwhile the shareholder`s fortunes are amassing but the trophy cabinet is bare. And chairmen like Abramovich who DOES spend his money are treated as bad people somehow. Think again Arsenal fans!

OldShedBoy

Arsenal share price: At 31 August 2010, a single share in Arsenal had a mid price of £10,250, which set the club's market capitalisation value at approximately £637.74m. I rest my case m'lud!

OldShedBoy

Prits, that was a question, not a charge. I was wondering how he explained football suffering before the nouveau riche came along.

Bluedub

" but the trophy cabinet is bare." ????.....OldShedBoy - are you about 12 or something ? Our trophy cabinet has and always be will a lot fuller than yours matey !!!

radarman

OldShedBoy didn't even make sense to himself. Just exercised his rights to freedom of speech and put up a meaningless rant. This whole line of talk is getting tedious now....

Naijagunner

Cover up whats really going on? Arsenal is a publicly traded company, with their annual financial results being published for all to see. I think Arsenal fans on here are sensible enough to sort out their opinions. That post from oldshedboy has so many holes and all of them can be picked apart so easily.

prits

Yeah, think the share price going up might have something to do with the unwanted Usmanov hoovering them up at well above the market price. We have two shareholders that own 96% of the club and don't speak. Aside from prits' point that our accounts are published, it's hardly fertile ground for such a conspiracy.

Little Dutch

Well you guys have got your wish as RVP will not be going to City, to the relieve of most of he City fans who are happy with our four strikers. However you will now be strengthening another of your rivals thvScum United .... Well done to you all in your wisdom.

Wswilly3

Bluedub - since this particular issue did not exist in English football before the nouveau riche came along, then you probably would not find similar quotes. The Leeds situation came about since they spent more than they earned, and they paid the price for it which happens in real life. But clubs like City and Chelsea do not - they clearly spend much much more than they earn. Rather than spend your time arguing about what Wenger did / did not say, please pick out a logical hole in his argument.

prits

Thanks for your gratitude and insight as ever willy.

Deltaforce

Do I sense a tinge of regret there, Willy? You are sorry your club can't have its way, all the time, ain't you? Apologies.

Naijagunner

If it is any comfort, I will be surprised if we do sell Robin to Fergie. Most Arsenal fans would rather he went to City (at least, we can rightly say it is for the money) than to United, for the obvious reason that we still see your club as a middle table side that has just had its recent performances enhanced by an injection of some external "substance". When it wears off, you will be back down where you belong. United, on the other hand, are a different kettle of fish. The best option is that he remains with us and becomes a legend or goes abroad, so we can forget him.

Naijagunner

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Writer: Tim Stillman

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