Arsenal are now officially a selling club if you believe the Wenger quotes in a Sunday newspaper.
In an interview with NoW, reported by Agence France Presse, Wenger said: “The strategy of the club is to sell every year and to buy less expensive players. We manage at Arsenal to maintain all our football ambitions – national and European – while having to free up – for 17 more years – an annual surplus of £24m to pay for our stadium.”
Figures in the NoW show a £4m profit on player trading since the Emirates project £58m spent to £62m gained.
Nor does it stack up with Keith Edelman’s previous policy statements about the finances of the stadium being separate from the playing side. Unless there has been a change of policy, brought on by the credit crunch. [London property prices are expected to dip from anything between 15-25% of what they were [with local variations], but come last quarter 2009 they are expected to rise and recover, with increasing demand in London fuelling the market.]
Incidentally on Friday, Fitch Ratings downgraded Arsenal Securities Plc’s £50m Class A1 secured floating-rate notes due 2031 and £200.2m Class A2 secured fixed-rate notes due 2029 to their underlying ratings of ‘BBB’/Outlook Stable from ‘AA’/Outlook Negative. This follows Fitch’s withdrawal of Ambac‘s Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) ‘AA’ rating.
Wenger said: “The club’s strategy is to favour the policy of youngsters ahead of stars and to count on the collective quality of our game.” [Difficult when player power is bigger than ever, and backed by Bosman and Webster rulings, meaning they’ll be targeted and their heads are likely to be turned at the end of every season.]
And now the European Clubs’ Association is hearing complaints this week about Arsenal and Liverpool over ‘poaching’ youngsters under 16.
Arsenal are being squeezed from all sides it seems.
AZ Alkmaar are furious after losing 15-year-old midfielder Oguzhan Ozyakup to Arsenal and 17-year-old striker Vincent Weijl to Liverpool last week.
AZ president Dirk Scheringa told the MoS: “We could do nothing to stop Arsenal signing the boy because in Dutch law we cannot give a player a contract before he is 16 years of age. This is ruining academies on the Continent. It is time English clubs pay attention to their own academies and develop their own talents.
“It amazes us they keep stealing foreign talents and ignore their own in a country with 50 million people. Where were England at Euro 2008? Maybe that is something to think about.”
Hardly fair Dirk, when Arsenal awarded six professional contracts last week to Thomas Cruise, Henri Lansbury, Jay Thomas, Kyle Bartley, Rhys Murphy and Sanchez Watt.
Meanwhile Wenger told the NoW:”If I had the power to change anything basic in football, it would be the transfer system which makes mercenaries of players,”
“If they are bad ones, they stay and, if they are good, they think only of leaving.”
He added: “I have fought for them to earn a very good living, but I impose respect for their contract upon them.”
On the basis of the above financial reckoning, selling and buying cheaper, the NoW suggest Arsenal will go for Huntelaar if Adebayor goes to Barcelona. However the Guardian says Roque Santa Cruz has said he would prefer to play for Arsenal above Man U and the machinery for a deal is already in place. The paper surmises that the Paraguyan may be a better bet in Wenger’s mind, referring to Adebayor’s big-headed attitude towards the end of last season, and the number of times he was offside – the highest in the Premiership, last term.
Thoughts naturally turn to a wealthy benefactor, but Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood has poured cold water on that idea. “It [Stan joining the board] has certainly been talked about and it will happen sooner rather than later, although the details have not been finalised,” Hill-Wood, told the Daily Telegraph. He also denied that a Kroenke takeover of Arsenal is inevitable.
“I don’t think he has any intention. In the long term, in 10 years’ time, he may take a different view. Things might change. He is certainly committed to not taking over the club.”
He added: “He is quiet, not ostentatious. He could be a very good ally and colleague. There is some logic in him getting close to us. He is a sensible man who is a sportsperson, and has got some expertise in his business, and that has helped him to develop a fanbase there (in Colorado).
On Hleb, Hill-Wood said that he has made it clear he wants to go, so it is likely he’ll go.
Meanwhile the Nasri deal looks like going ahead, now that Marseilles accounts are in the ‘right’ time period. Even his agent says it will go ahead now in eight days time.
And the Sunday Telegraph claims Arsenal have emerged as favourites to sign Andrei Arshavin after Chelsea ended their interest.
The paper says Arshavin has his heart set on a move to London because he believes it will be more valuable for his children to learn English than Spanish and is expected in London this week. Another paper says Barcelona is his favoured desination and the only club to so far put in an offer.
[Both ANR ‘ers have been on separate vacations the last two weeks. Normal service will resume soon].