From Paul Griffin
Hi Myles,
There is a perception in the media that Wenger makes Arsenal money.
For instance, Paul Merson uses this as the main reason to keep him.
I would dispute this on many fronts.
Have a look at the wage bill at the end of the 2010 season, Spurs was £67m compared to ours at £111m.
At the end of the 2009 season, Arsenal recouped £40m from Toure and Adebayor.We spent £10m on Vermaelen.
People think £30m profit, but no.
Wenger demanded 18 contract extensions on ridiculous wage increases.
These included Denilson, Diaby, Bendtner, Traore, Eastmond, Rosicky, Walcott etc. Never in the history of football was mediocrity rewarded so much. Diaby on £60,000 a week which is more than Modric at Spurs. Almunia on £50,000 after one season of being No.1. He is on more money than proven keepers like Schwarzer, Howard, Robinson and Friedel.
The reason why Wenger does this is because he wants a happy-go-larry cosy cartel of a dressing room where no one is knocking on his door complaining.
The consequence is that we have to loan out Denilson & Bendtner, keep Almunia because lesser clubs can’t afford their wages, so we lose out in transfer fees.
Myles says:
He got a huge sell-on clause when he sold David Bentley to Blackburn, Paul. So when Spurs signed Bentley, Arsenal got £4m. That was a very smart deal, especially as DB did nothing at Spurs.
He loves to sell the English youth and keep foreign kids like Aliadiere and Vela.
I don’t know what Wenger’s future is. Or even what his present is.
Can anybody, even him, rewrite history and spin his way out of no trophies for six years, a Carling Cup Final defeat by about-to be-relegated Birmingham, and a spectacular and humiliating 8-2 trauma at Old Trafford? His Youth Project, growing his own team led by the fantastic Fabregas, has failed. The departure of Fabregas & Nasri proves that the Youth Project was nowhere near being successful.
Yes, Wilshere and Szczesny are great, and Song is a tenacious skirmisher who did well in Dortmund. The rest are duds.Not good enough to play for Arsenal.
Face it, Arsene Wenger has been sulking and dithering since February.
When I was in the USA from May 4 to May 24, Nigel Bidmead, a Wenger loyalist, wrote this on ANR :The next three months are the most important three months of Wenger’s 15 years at Arsenal.
IN THOSE 3 MONTHS, HE DID NOTHING !
He’s plainly not the same man.
Maybe he’s said to Rice, “Stay with me for one more season, Pat, then we’ll go together.”