It looks like Adebayor and Hleb will be on their way out of Arsenal. Arsenal’s valuation for Adebayor is 30 mil while Hleb is around 15-18 mil. With the stupid price other clubs are expecting us to pay to buy players, then Arsenal too are entitled to ask for silly prices.
In all, thats around 45 mil. Which is good enough to bring in more than two players with experience. Maybe one of them a prolific striker. The squad needs more depth as we all saw last season and it cannot be replacements… Otherwise we’ll be back in square one at the end of next summer discussing what went wrong and when.
And then this is my own thoughts on Wenger’s transfer policy:
There are surely money available, maybe even the suggested 30 mil pounds (excluding the possible sale of players). But Arsene has a transfer cap for each player that he chooses. And any clubs demanding more than that value will officially be strike out from Arsene’s list. With the prices and events that are currently on going, I am guessing that the cap is around 20 mil. Think about it, when was the last time Arsene signed someone who is above 20 mil? NONE in his entire time with Arsenal.
So, lets check some examples (too many to link if to put all in) from the list:
Players linked officially by press:
Huntelaar – above 20 mil
Arshavin – above 20 mil (Zenit kinda asking for crazy price)
David Villa – above 20 mil (with the competition of clubs who wants to sign him)
And here are the players that we are seriously linked to:
Roque Santa Cruz – 13 mil (as stated in certain reliable sites)
Nasri – 13 mil (signing imminent)
Aaron Ramsey – 5 mil (signed)
* Obefemi Martins – 13 mil, but i sincerely think its his agent who’s trying to up his price.
Players signed previous seasons:
Tomas Rosicky – 7 mil
Aleksandr Hleb – 11 mil
Eduardo – 8.5 mil
Bacary Sagna – 7.5 mil
Theo Walcott – 9.5 mil
William Gallas – Swap deal with Ashley Cole + 5 mil (actually Arsenal earned).
*Arsene Wenger admit after Man Utd signed Wayne Rooney that he made a bid of 20 mil, but that was all he could afford. Man Utd signed Rooney for 30 mil.
Subsequently, Arsene told the press that Arsenal is now a selling club with no one to come out and deny those quotes. I’ll write again on the logics of that matter soon.
Article By Duck
July 10, 2008 at 3:51 pm
“be the first” is very misleading I think thats why a lot of people write “first” anyway moving on good article I think you are right but he might actually go that little xtra for arshavin but you never know!
July 10, 2008 at 3:53 pm
hleb cost 8 mil
July 10, 2008 at 3:59 pm
HLEB COST ABOUT 8 MILLION, AS DID THEO. EDUARDO WAS ABOUT 7.5 MILL.
July 10, 2008 at 3:59 pm
surely there is a chance of breaking his own buying pattern. However, Arshavin is already 27.
July 10, 2008 at 4:00 pm
And also walcott was only 5 mill, i think it rose to like 7 or something. We don’t really need to sign a superstar, every single time one of our rgeat players like Henry leaves another less prolific player like Adebayor steps up to take the mantle, and this happens time and time again. This is why I am honestly not worried. However, I would like to see some signings, I think Nasri would be great for us. Personally I think no-one will buy Arshavin for his current price of £24 million. I think it will get near the end of the transfer season with no-one having bought him and Zenit will think oh crud and bring it down to something more realistic like £15 mill
July 10, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Theo’s eventual transfer fee came up to 12 mill, so the price is actually correct.
July 10, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Arse shavings aint worth more than 7 mill tops.
Only an idiot would wanna spunk the kinda money Zenit are asking for….. Oh, here comes peter Kenyon.
July 10, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Gooner Chris;
Sorry you are wrong.
We did a deal with Southampton, so they could get money asap as they are skint.
So there!
July 10, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Figures taken from Wikipedia
And its the max figures. Those are fees ‘that should rise up to’ x figure if player fulfill certain requirements.
July 10, 2008 at 4:04 pm
no Jack Hleb cost around £14million actually which is why selling him for £12million is outrageous!
July 10, 2008 at 4:05 pm
We don’t buy superstars….WE MAKE THEM!!!!
July 10, 2008 at 4:06 pm
We can’t afford these players and yet Wenger is the highest paid manager in the premiership last season on four and a half million, one and a half million more than Ferguson. Am I missing something here???
July 10, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Reasonable article.
Santa Cruz would be a good buy at 13 if we got 30 for Ade, I actually think Santa Cruz is more deadly in front of goal, and then maybe we could use Bendtner for his heading ability.
But wouldn’t it be nice to get a Villa, even if a little overpriced. Unlikely hey!
Still got a sneaky feeling he may go in for Johnson! 10M!
We need a left midfield player. I would be tempted to go for Lennon, get him for 6M and then turn him back into the player he was looking like 2 years ago.
And there must be goalkeeper coming in shorly!
Live in hope.
.
July 10, 2008 at 4:10 pm
who cares how much a player costs? If we sign someone, we just want them to play well. The price doesn’t matter.
July 10, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Wenger is paid well to do his job. I seriously doubt Alex Ferguson’s team will be playing CL football given the same budget.
Wenger has not only helped Arsenal Football Club to save money but to make big profits from player sales. Which, at the same time has brought a fantastic way of playing football and some trophies too.
July 10, 2008 at 4:12 pm
And Wengers salary is justified. You need to appreciate the WHOLE club structure and Wengers input into that. Not just the first team. The next manager will benefit from what he has done.
July 10, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Dick Turpin,
Uh, AFC minds. Cos there’s a stadium to pay for. Otherwise we’ll all be watching Arsenal play from some park in the future.
PJGooner,
Why would Spurs let Aaron Lennon go for 6M? especially to a rival club?
July 10, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Duck, I didn’t mean spend £100M you muppet. I was merely stating that who cares if Theo cost 12M or 8M. It is in the past and it is paid so who needs to worry about it. Same goes for Hleb.
July 10, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Duck – they may not want him to come to us, but they after releasing him, the last price I saw was 6M, I think it was Newcastle looking at him.
Why would they let Sol go to us… the fact is clubs have no control over it, look at Ade, they only push up prices.
July 10, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Isn’t really the lesson here that Wenger doesn’t do overpriced? He spent big on Reyes and Walcott, was prepared to pay £20m for Rooney, so it’s not the case that he’s not prepared to make big investments. But if a player costs more than Arsene thinks he’s worth, he’ll say “no thanks” and move on to the next name on the list. The kind of deals that United has a history of doing, where they get their man regardless of the price doesn’t exist in Wenger’s way of doing business.
I also think wages is an overlooked factor when it comes to which players we sign. We rarely bring in players with high wage demands – even when we spend big, it’s not on superstars with £100k plus wage demands. Again Wenger is ruthless when it comes to getting what he considers value for money. I think this is a huge factor in the “we don’t sign stars, we make them” philosophy.
July 10, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Jesus! jack and spike, how dare the author get the fee of transfers one penny out!
July 10, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Link
Link
Link
July 10, 2008 at 4:19 pm
Wenger has paid high prices before, maybe not the top 10 prices in the league (chelski and man Utd hold that honour).
The key is that we must make ourselves look attactive again, we can not go another season without winning a thing, so we do need to spend, either big or small, but spend we must.
July 10, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Wenger has a budget, both for wages and transfer fees. And he sticks to it. That is his philosophy. So most of this discussion is pointless. he will buy who he buys. You know full well he doesn’t take any heed of the papers or fans. If he did, he would have bought a decent goalkeeper. He is very singleminded and always will be.
July 10, 2008 at 4:20 pm
Yep, that link is from yesterday GunnerRashidinho.
The actual Russian link for that is:
Tden.ru
July 10, 2008 at 4:20 pm
AJ;
Take the stick out your arse and take your meds. Who the fook was being serious?
July 10, 2008 at 4:27 pm
i think what dick turpin means is that there are people in arsenal who take care of the cost of players and there are people outside who watch the games. the games watchers dont really care about how much a player costs, the money men in the club do.
at least i hope that what he meant or i look a fool!
July 10, 2008 at 4:28 pm
dispite all reports that ade is going with 3 years left is highly unlikely that barc or milan are going meet the 30 million price tack and chaiman has stated they have no inentions of letting him go. hleb on the other hand is likely to leave
July 10, 2008 at 4:28 pm
spot on francis
July 10, 2008 at 4:29 pm
LEON, regardless, any normal fan should want Ade to go. He has acted disgracefully this summer and I will not be singing his name if he stays.
July 10, 2008 at 4:29 pm
Dearest Tickets
Cheapest players “WHY”
Just tell us the truth
July 10, 2008 at 4:31 pm
neil, its simple. newest stadium, balance books.
July 10, 2008 at 4:32 pm
some confusion here.. i was referring to Turpin’s comment
“who cares how much a player costs? If we sign someone, we just want them to play well. The price doesn’t matter.”
Anyway, nvm.
July 10, 2008 at 4:34 pm
We have £300M of debt which we are looking to pay off as quick as we can. We could 100 Year loans and end up paying back millions more. The club are trying to pay it off quickly and then the Dearest Tickets will mean we can get the best players and compete, without taking on huge debt and putting the club at risk.
We are looking to be self funding. Short term pain, long term gain.
July 10, 2008 at 4:35 pm
If the club sent a letter to Milan (if so, i think possibly to Barca as well) indicating that they are prepared to sell Adebayor, then i think its only a matter of agreeing on the transfer fee. Which will also alert Barca that they need to speed up things to compete.
There is a reason why Arsenal wants to do that. The club needs money to make a few purchases. A FEW.
July 10, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Yikes… sorry Turpin, i was under the impression that you meant ‘however expensive the player is, and as long as they play well’.
July 10, 2008 at 4:37 pm
if wenger can do what he normally does and take the over inflated prices for Ade especially and Hleb and replace with equal quality it works for me. i suspect that transfers such as this also hasten the debt payments. very nice of barca to annually fund our new stadium
July 10, 2008 at 4:41 pm
i still strongly believe we should have won the EPL last season- if not for dodgy decisions by refs. those calling for too much buys dont really have faith in some our young talents.i we need just a CD nothing else.
July 10, 2008 at 4:46 pm
Nice one jeffers :
“very nice of Barca to annually fund our new stadium”
we can’t blame the refs. If the team has created and converted more chances then we would have won it.
July 10, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Look at players signed previous seasons:
Tomas Rosicky – Undisclosed
Aleksandr Hleb – Undisclosed
Eduardo – Undisclosed
Bacary Sagna – Undisclosed
Theo Walcott – Undisclosed
So if there’s any players out there that are going for an undisclosed fee, I’m sure they’re top of the wish list for Wenger ;0)
July 10, 2008 at 4:59 pm
i think we did as well as we could last year, there is always a question of what if. chelsea could have spent an extra 15 million on someone who can take a penalty and they would have been champs of europe. I admit, although the end of last season was very upsetting at the time (for me especially the last minute loss to the scousers), i am now very proud of what we did last season. no one can be guaranteed to win anything, but we expect to compete and we did it well.
July 10, 2008 at 5:00 pm
If there are free and good players, thats even better. So, is Birshoff going to be one of them? just like Sol Campbell?
July 10, 2008 at 5:00 pm
Hleb cost 11m at most, and that fee is disputable, 8m for Theo due to poor Southampton.
If we can get Hleb out for 15m and Ade for 30m that is great business. I say bring in Martins or Santa Cruz or Guiza, I would like Guiza the most, he might even be the cheapest, but he is 27 though. Maybe he might bid again for Zapata, and Diego Capel?
July 10, 2008 at 5:02 pm
Gunner4life&beyond – Guiza signed for Fenebache a couple of days back my man
July 10, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Those figures above are maximum amount that the club could pay for if those players perform. In accounting, one always need to take the max figure less the club don’t have enough to pay for should the player perform.
July 10, 2008 at 5:05 pm
you forgot zapata link !
July 10, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Got a feeling that Arsene will replace Adebayor with someone who is around Ade’s age. Strikers and midfielders at the peak of their career 27-29 will cost a bomb.
July 10, 2008 at 5:08 pm
capel would be great. he’s very tidy and tougher than reyes who some might draw comparisons to!
July 10, 2008 at 5:12 pm
AS ON THE ARSENAL WAY WEBSITE:
Arsenal have managed to get close to £3m knocked off what the eventual fee could have been for England and Arsenal winger Theo Walcott, with cash-strapped Southampton accepting a reduced fee up front for the 19 year old to help their financial struggle.
Arsenal had so far paid £7m of the maximum £12m fee, with £5m of that being paid straight up in January 2006 when the teenager was bought to the Emirates (well, Highbury at the time…). The Gunners will now only be asked to cough up £2.1m extra this year for the youngster, bringing the total transfer price up to £9.1m, with £2.9m being written off completely.
July 10, 2008 at 5:24 pm
You people who write this site are too negative on Arsenal! Lighten up! Last year we bought Eduardo and Sagna for about £15 mill combined. Before that Rosicky (he was class when we signed him) and before that, Hleb.
We have bought Nasri to replace Hleb who is a big talent, most clubs knew of him. If Ade leaves we may buy someone but seriously are any of those players mentioned apart from Villa and maybe the lazy Arshavin that good?
We have great youngsters coming through and we don’t need much else except maybe a new striker. Nortviet was wanted by Milan, Lansbury and Wilshere will be class, Diaby will step up and so will Bentnder. If they do lets see who will complain.
July 10, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Arshavin aint worth 20 mil, barely 10 i think, any player can have two good games, against holland he was quiet against boularouz then came to life when an ageing centre-back, whose left footed was put at right back. He looks good on the ball when he isnt pressurised, but anyone can do that. I’d rather we pay for David Silva, he’s worth more than double what Arshavin is worth (He can also play anywhere across the midfield like Arshavin did). If we get good cash for Ade n Hleb to the tune of around 40 -45 mil, then we could go after Huntelaar and Silva, and sign Nasri and still have cash left. Plus Ajax apparently want Gilberto… Anyone for a player + cash deal ? ? ? Could be the case.
July 10, 2008 at 5:52 pm
People, the biggest thing for me is the signal it shows other players and teams, when every season we sell/let go our biggest/1st team player/s. For me it shows a distinct lack of ambition. Are we becoming a stepping stone team for players. You don’t build a new stadium, then tell the supporters we can’t compete because of same stadium.
Someone mentioned that know one from Arsenal have come out and refuted those (apprently) comments by wenger, WHY? Don’t want to sound negative, but they need to hire a proper PR person,because for me we aint acting like no Big club.
July 10, 2008 at 6:27 pm
hleb will be a huge loss to our team thats a fact and as goes for ade well he is very similar to kenwyne jones, good player but still got alot to learn to be the finished article i felt last season we needed 2 super quality players to build on what we already had to win major honours, if we hadnt lost eduardo like we did last season things could have been different that guy is worldclass trust me, this summer is no different to any other for me look at when we had viera, henry its no different we will be in the top four next year i strongly believe that martins would be a good signing lots of pace and a handful up front wenger is not silly he is a magician in the transfer market leave him to it!
July 10, 2008 at 6:38 pm
Nasri and Santa Cruz will be percfect, after them let’s start the new season,
July 10, 2008 at 6:49 pm
honestly i think silva and nasri should come, and that would make me the happiest.imagine the kind of offence we would have if silva did come in. david silva by the way. and when wenger had an offer for 24 million for adebayor, he should have accepted it. i dont want him in the club. i dun think he is any good anyway.leave ade, pls leave. and hleb, wtv ur story is, just get it sorted out quick.lastly if gilberto leaves, then we have to look for a defensive midfielder. no question.
as for now, david silva and samir nasri is wat i think, would be one of the best deals. we have a good current squad. it just lacks a little bit of legs. very talented squad. imagine if eduardo and van persie injury free.
July 10, 2008 at 7:19 pm
sign players who want to join, villa , martins , ?? zhirkov? , imagine nasri, vela, zhirkov, glichy – we own the left side of the pitch. now martins plus right sided midfield dynamo, a dm, and we are fully loaded and ready to rock.
July 10, 2008 at 7:21 pm
silva would be dream on the right of cesc, probably a pipe dream though,
July 10, 2008 at 8:00 pm
Hleb was 11.5 mil’ and don’t forget Reyes who cost 13.5 mil’…
July 10, 2008 at 8:34 pm
Actually Hleb was £9.95m in one of the few figures actually reported.
July 10, 2008 at 8:38 pm
We need buy three world class players, were is all the money going!
Even the Spurs squad is looking classy.
I am worried
July 10, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I remember AW saying at the end of the season we need 2 more experienced quality players to add to what we already had.Know with definetley 2 players gone and another 2 who look like they are going where does this leave us.I know we have signed RAMSEY and VELA as just got his work permit but these kids are work in progress not the experienced players AW was talking about.At the end of the day we all know we need to sign about 4 or 5 quality players to compete with the rest.These dont have to be transfer breaking signings but they have to have the quality to fit in to the ARSENAL way of playing.But with it being harder and harder to unearth quality talent these days for nominal fees may be its time AW let go of the purse strings a little bit and spent some serious money in transfer market.(we can all dream).
July 10, 2008 at 11:43 pm
Forget about patterns, something has to happen soon. The season starts in about 4 weeks not to mention the Emirates cup before that.
Re-Hleb. I can’t wait for this guy to leave, I know goals aren’t everything, but this guy has only scored around 28 goals in his life, for all pro clubs and country with around 300 appearances. Surely not enough goals for a great talent that he is.
Adebayor has to be one of the most frustrating players for me, I’d put him in the same bracket as Kiwomya. He scored 18 goals last season in the premier league excluding Derby, not bad I know, but not exactly amazing! With the service he had, he should have scored 50.
July 11, 2008 at 12:06 am
before the start of last season not many people expected flamini, adebayor and hleb to play so well throught the season but they did and im sure the same will happen this season…. im not sure adebayor is leaving but anyway even if he does im 100 percent sure he won’t be missed. i honestly dont think we need to sign more than 1 or 2 players. i feel players like walcott, song, diaby, bendtnder,denilson are naturally gonna get better with experience and therefore improve on last season… i think even the likes of clichy and sagna are gonna be even better next season so i dont see any reason for us to be worried at all…. the only thing we should be praying for is avoiding injuries coz i feel its vital that players like toure, fabregas, van persie stay injury free next season
July 11, 2008 at 2:08 am
I think we should not sell Ade this season. The reason being, Btendtner is not ready for a full season yte, probably needs on e more season to be top class. Then we sell that thug.
July 11, 2008 at 2:12 am
Sounds about right, but if Arsenal are merely going to sign one or two players only, then the squad will be down in experience. I have no doubt that the youngsters can step up, but experience is something that cannot be replaced by skills.
And you can’t discount out whether the players will be injury free or not. That is the reason why Arsenal needs a bigger squad with QUALITY and EXPERIENCE.
July 11, 2008 at 4:45 am
The key is not just experience, but Premiership experience. What’s the point buying big names from overseas who might need a season to bed in, when you have young players already at the club in exactly the same situation?
The risk to me is about the same either way – the risk that your young players will show their inexperience vs the risk that your experienced big signing will come up short. So the smart thing to do is save the cash for wages and show your faith in the players you’ve been working with day in, day out. Or else buy proven Premiership talent if they’re not overpriced, and the only player being talked about who fits these criteria for me is Santa Cruz as a replacement for Ade if he goes.
This season is no different from any other season, and we won’t see Wenger make any surprise moves.
By the way, all this harping on about QUALITY and EXPERIENCE is exactly what you’d expect from fans of our rivals, not Gooners. We should show a little faith here people, we have one of the best squads in the world with some of the most exciting talent. Other teams would take our midfield or attack in a heartbeat, even without Flamini, Ade and Hleb. I’m sick of grumbling fans who think that this it is anything less than a privilege to be a Gooner right now.
On experience: last season, if we’d defended our lead at OT we would have won the Prem. It was our defence that failed us and our 2 CBs are two of our most experienced players. Gilberto has won world cups, but he couldn’t get in the team because of some weird little French utility player no-one really rated. If you want an experienced team there is none better than AC Milan – guess what, we beat them at the San Siro. And against Birmingham it was our captain and the most experienced player on the field who lost his bottle. Bottom line: it was NOT lack of experience that lost us the Premiership and got us knocked out of the CL. It was lack of killer instinct, win-or-die attitude. If Wenger works on instilling that, we will blow teams away.
July 11, 2008 at 9:13 am
we love to buy player like nasri .falcao.molligan/
July 11, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Every body is right in thier own opinion. but to me in AW i trust. You can only see a little from the out side which is where we all are. but he his in the inside and i know he wants to win more than we want. he knows the best thing he needs. for me i believe we dont need to look any where for any experience rather than look for talented and hungry players that are ready to make name. Flamini was at his best last season because he wants to attract other clubs and make more money and not because he wants to do it for arsenal so all i believe we need are good talented players that want to win things for the club and are ready to make winning a do or die
July 11, 2008 at 11:00 pm
how dare the author get the fee of transfers one penny out!
July 13, 2008 at 1:19 pm
McGOONER please READ this,Remember last season when everyone said Arsenal were gonna come about 7th and Tottenham looking for the 4th spot.What happened to them?We love the pressure of the press and Wenger and his players love proving people wrong.