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Arsène Wenger recently described the club as having a ‘socialist’ approach to its pay-structure. Ignoring the fact that his reported salary of £7.5 million equates to a weekly wage in excess of £144,000, there is a fundamental problem with this definition. Paying players based on a formula that largely disregards contribution, risk and importance to the club isn’t socialism – it’s plain stupidity.
The most recently available figures show Arsenal spending about £144m a year on wages. A quick glance at Spurs (£91m) and Manchester United (£162m, some of which will be bonuses for winning the Premier League, as the figures are from 2011/12), and then a quick glance at the league table, tells you we’re not getting our money’s worth from our expenditure. Is this likely to change any time soon?
For years I’ve heard people talking of the much-vaunted ‘clear-out’ - AFC getting rid of the deadwood in our playing squad and using the freed-up income to invest in quality and make us competitive. For years we’ve been getting further away from the top whilst our wage-bill has continued to spiral. This year will be no different. “But Arshavin, Squillaci and Denilson are out of contract and we’ll sell our other players that are out on loan this summer – we’ll have loads of extra money to spend on new players,” I hear you cry. Wrong for two reasons –
(1) We will seriously struggle to offload our garbage. The reason that Chamakh, Djourou, Santos, Park and Bendtner are out on loan is not because they might have a future at the club – it’s because nobody else will pay them half as much as we do. Unless they take a considerable pay cut and the club will accept a marginal return on their investment (in transfer fee and wages) on these players, they won’t be going anywhere. Unfortunately, Silvestre and Squillaci are proof that even players who have had a career at the highest level will happily take the hand-outs that we are willing to give and still be welcomed with open arms at London Colney. Don’t be surprised if these players are all loaned out again next season because we couldn’t find a buyer.
(2) The money has already been spent – during the course of the season, Walcott, Wilshere, Ramsey, Gibbs, Chamberlain and Jenkinson have all signed new deals. I doubt anybody could contest us tying Wilshere down to a long-term deal and the Walcott issue is quite divisive, although many feel the new deal was justifiable. What worries me is that the other four have undoubtedly seen a significant pay increase far beyond what each of them could dream of earning at another club. Gibbs was having a good season but, after suffering yet another break-down, he has shown what a risk a lucrative long-term contract is. Chamberlain could yet be a great player for the next decade and Jenkinson is a genuine Gooner who has made great strides and will probably be first-choice next season after Sagna is sold, but was it necessary to give these players new deals only 12-18 months after signing on a long-term basis? Finally, Ramsey has just signed a fourth contract since joining the club – it would be difficult to justify three pay rises (inevitably) for any player in that space of time, but it is alarming given how out of sorts he has looked in the past two seasons. Rest assured that these new deals will have soaked up any saving we set to make by players being released.
Our approach seems to be to pay young players handsomely in the hope they make the grade and give them regular pay raises, with the fall-back of loan deals if they don’t cut it. This is in complete contrast to Manchester United, for example, who will only offer younger players a lucrative deal if they have proved themselves for a sustained period in the first team. They have accepted that some of their more frustrated youngsters may have their heads turned by big offers from elsewhere but they have deemed this a price worth paying and it’s hard to argue given their success. It also allows them to offer players like Rooney and van Persie in excess of £200,000 a week (reportedly) – I’m sure Ferguson doesn’t enjoy paying footballers that much money, but it’s a necessary evil if you crave success.
The policy is not working. It speaks volumes that we have loaned Denilson out for the last few years of his contract, essentially waiving a transfer fee and paying him to p*** off another group of fans. There’s no way anybody will pay any sort of remotely substantial fee for somebody like Park plus anywhere near the wages we’re paying. We’re stuck with these players until their contracts expire (or in his case until Kim Jong-Un loses the plot) and there’s nothing we can do except lie in the bed we’ve made.
Will lessons be learned from the last few years? It doesn’t look like it. Although there are a few players who will be snatched away from the teet of the cash-cow that is Arsenal FC every year, there are tens more waiting in line for unwarranted pay increases to ensure that our wage-bill goes up and we go down. All the while we’ll be hearing from those who staunchly defend Wenger and the club that we will be getting rid of X, Y and Z in the summer and we will use the money to add quality to the squad. Don’t believe it – nothing will change whilst the current manager is in charge under the current board.
