Arsenal

[Daley]

Almunia, Squilaci, Denilson oh my.

[Rev]

Robin van Persie £90,000 £4,680,000 - A bit low

Andrey Arshavin £80,000 £4,160,000 - About right for when he joined, an embarrassment now.

Mikel Arteta £70,000 £3,640,000 - Last minute transfer wage being a bit higher than it should be shocker. But not ridiculous.

Theo Walcott £70,000 £3,640,000 - About right.

Thomas Vermaelen £70,000 £3,640,000 - About right.

Yossi Benayoun £70,000 £3,640,000 - - Last minute transfer wage being a bit higher than it should be shocker. Ridiculous.

Gervinho £70,000 £3,640,000 - Slightly too high, but not terribly.

Manuel Almunia £60,000 £3,120,000 - There aren't enough words in the universe.

Per Mertesacker £60,000 £3,120,000 - Last minute transfer wage being a bit higher than it should be shocker.

Sebastien Squillaci £60,000 £3,120,000 - All the appropriate words were used up by Almunia, but this is probably worse.

Tomas Rosicky £60,000 £3,120,000 - About right, especially if he keeps getting back towards form.

Bacary Sagna £60,000 £3,120,000 - About right, probably a bit low.

Aaron Ramsey £55,000 £2,860,000 - Ridiculously high. He's good, but he must have signed it either when joining from Cardiff or after breaking a leg.

Alex Song £55,000 £2,860,000 - About right.

Jack Wilshere £55,000 £2,860,000 - About right. Although he should be on the same as Ramsey.

Nicklas Bendtner £52,000 £2,704,000 - As much as the £52k/B52 thing entertains me, that's ridiculous.

Marouane Chamakh £50,000 £2,600,000 - This is much lower than I expected it to be. It's probably about right if he was ever in-form.

Abou Diaby £50,000 £2,600,000 - He's got to go. He's never going to be worth this much.

Andre Santos £50,000 £2,600,000 - Last minute transfer wage being a bit higher than it should be shocker. Although that is really bloody high.

Carlos Vela £50,000 £2,600,000 - About £1m per chip per annum.

Denilson £50,000 £2,600,000 - Oh god I'd forgotten he was still here really. Help.

Johan Djourou £50,000 £2,600,000 - I'd get rid of him in a shot for this much. Not worth it, at all.

Laurent Koscielny £50,000 £2,600,000 - About right, probably a bit low.

Lukasz Fabianski £40,000 £2,080,000 - Well, it's less than Almunia at least.

Wojciech Szczesny £40,000 £2,080,000 - Too low.

Ju Young Park £40,000 £2,080,000 - About £2m per appearance, then.

Kieran Gibbs £40,000 £2,080,000 - Assuming he's insured and it covers the wages when he's out, that sounds fair enough.

Vito Mannone £20,000 £1,040,000 - Well, it's less than Fabianski at least. But, seriously?

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain £20,000 £1,040,000 - What Ramsey should be on. Probably fair enough.

Carl Jenkinson £20,000 £1,040,000 - We have to pay £20k p/w to tempt Charlton players in? Seriously?

Emmanuel Frimpong £20,000 £1,040,000 - About right, leaning towards bargain. Until he got injured again.

Ryo £20,000 £1,040,000 - Giving him a million quid a year is fun, but maybe we should put him on a football pitch. See what happens.

Francis Coquelin £15,000 £780,000 - Bit of a bargain really, since we force him to stand wherever there is a hole in the formation.

Henri Lansbury £5,000 £260,000 - About right.

Ignasi Miquel £5,000 £260,000 - I quite like him, I think that's a bit of a bargain.

I like that all the reserves are on £1k. That's perhaps a bit high, but very fair.

Wenger on £45k per week more than RVP seems a bit...wrong. "I'm sorry, we can't pay you more. We pay me too much."

[The Fox]

You bored, man?

[Rev]

First day back at work after holidaying

[hauk]

Some of those wages (if right) are ridiculous. It doesn't really change my opinion on who we need to get shot of in the Summer though. Is there anyway we can just let people go (don't Chelsea do that?). I mean if we let Denilson or Diaby go it's not like we are missing out on a transfer fee as we didn't sign them for anything (I doubt anyone would buy them anyway!).

Was interested to read Zonal Marking's analysis of the game, saying the team played more of a passing game, and less direct against Spurs. We looked so much better than previous games and I hope we can just continue to play like that for the rest of the season, starting at Liverpool. The team spirit was amazing throughout and everyone seemed to be communicating, which is something I haven't seen all season really. If we finish the season on a high, maybe even snatching 3rd from Spurs I can see Van Persie staying, especially if a couple of decent players are signed at the beginning of the transfer window.

[Silent Runner]

Do you reckon the Spuds'll make a commemorative DVD of their first two goals?

As if by magic......

(from twitter)

[Daley]

Some of those wages (if right) are ridiculous. It doesn't really change my opinion on who we need to get shot of in the Summer though. Is there anyway we can just let people go (don't Chelsea do that?). I mean if we let Denilson or Diaby go it's not like we are missing out on a transfer fee as we didn't sign them for anything (I doubt anyone would buy them anyway!).

Arsenal are contracted to pay those players that amount for as long as the contract is for. If Chelsea let people go they either pay up their contract or settle or I suppose you could just drop the transfer fee as long as someone takes over the ridiculous wages.

Was interested to read Zonal Marking's analysis of the game, saying the team played more of a passing game, and less direct against Spurs. We looked so much better than previous games and I hope we can just continue to play like that for the rest of the season, starting at Liverpool. The team spirit was amazing throughout and everyone seemed to be communicating, which is something I haven't seen all season really. If we finish the season on a high, maybe even snatching 3rd from Spurs I can see Van Persie staying, especially if a couple of decent players are signed at the beginning of the transfer window.

Even when we were two down we looked good going forward and it was just the comedy defending that let us down. Impressed that the players managed to get it back to 2-2 before half time.

And a lot of love for Sagna calling them "the enemy" in his post-match interview.

[Guest]

RvP as your highest earner and only on £90k? Aren't top earners at other top clubs on £200k ish?

[George Clooney]

RvP as your highest earner and only on £90k? Aren't top earners at other top clubs on £200k ish?

To put some perspective on it, you have 23 players on a higher wage than the highest earner at Stoke City. 23. Now I'm sure you will argue that Stoke are shit and have shit players, but you have 2 entire football teams and then extra on as much as our highest earner, Peter Crouch (who is on £40k a week, the clubs wage ceiling).

And yeah, there are some players on silly money at other clubs, but they were generally players bought for silly money too at times in their careers when they could command that. RVP is currently in his best season that I can remember, and he could almost certainly get more than that if he negotiated either with Arsenal or a new team, but I dont know when he last re-negotiated his contract, and at the time that much probably seemed fair. Man City were blatantly paying massive wages thought to attract people, something Chelsea did when Rom first bought them, which of course them means the players there already want similar when they renew, meaning it all gets bumped up.

[The Fox]

For any non-Gooner who doesn't know, RVP will have a year left on his current deal this summer. Even though he doesn't seem like someone whose sole motivation is getting as much money as possible, he will still expect a hefty pay increase if he wants to negotiate with Arsenal. It seems like a foregone conclusion to give him whatever he wants, but he is 29 years old so the club might not be so willing.

[Lucky]

Said it before, I think that is where we go wrong.

RVP should get a new contract of around £150k per week but loads of others shouldn't be on anything close to what they are currently on.

If people were paid sensibly (if you can call £150k per week sensible) and the cake was cut according to ability, performance etc and not into kind of equal pieces there wouldn't even be a need to increase the overall wage bill.

These for example are just utter madness;

Manuel Almunia £60,000 £3,120,000

Sebastien Squillaci £60,000 £3,120,000

Nicklas Bendtner £52,000 £2,704,000

Abou Diaby £50,000 £2,600,000

Carlos Vela £50,000 £2,600,000

Denilson £50,000 £2,600,000

Johan Djourou £50,000 £2,600,000

Lukasz Fabianski £40,000 £2,080,000

Vito Mannone £20,000 £1,040,000

not to mention Chamakh, Park & even Gervinho is paid too much.

What could he have been on in France? £25k per week?

Why didn't we give him around 40 and increase it at some stage if needed? Straight in on 70 is a bit mental.

[Guest]

I can't get my head round Vela on £50k. That's lunacy.

[The Fox]

I should probably point out that some guy appears to have pulled this out of his arse though, right?

[Guest]

6-0-6 on five Live are all talking about Arsenal, RvP, Kroenke, the stadium, and wages at the moment. Basically saying that RvP should get £150k just to keep him there.

[Lucky]

Said it before, I think that is where we go wrong.

RVP should get a new contract of around £150k per week but loads of others shouldn't be on anything close to what they are currently on.

If people were paid sensibly (if you can call £150k per week sensible) and the cake was cut according to ability, performance etc and not into kind of equal pieces there wouldn't even be a need to increase the overall wage bill.

6-0-6 on five Live are all talking about Arsenal, RvP, Kroenke, the stadium, and wages at the moment. Basically saying that RvP should get £150k just to keep him there.

They must have read this I suppose before they went on.

[BlinkyBear]

Saw a couple of mentions on Twitter earlier of us apparently agreeing personal terms with Podolski. Le Grove also said we'll be finalising a deal with a "big name" in France in the next week.

I'm hoping it's M'Villa rather than Hazard, but I guess the whole thing is likely to be bobbins anyway. Thing is though, if it isn't, could this be THE summer?

Speculation and hope I know, but gotta find a positive after finding out that Almunia is on 60k a week to walk his dog.

[SeanR]

Nicklas Bendtner £52,000 £2,704,000

because 52 is his lucky number...

[Art Vandelay]

Call me suspicious, but these kind of rumours always seem to come around the times we've announced bumper profits.

[The Fox]

The Arsenal Insider article that published it says "We can’t completely confirm the verasity [sic] of this information but the level of detail leads us to believe it to be accurate."

Sorry but that's bollocks. Anyone with a comprehensive list of Arsenal staff could knock that up in an hour if they were bored enough.

I mean, take Koscielny's alleged salary for instance. This is a guy bought from Lorient, uncapped by France, who even Sirloin hadn't seemed to have noticed much, and who had been playing in Ligue 2 not long before we bought him. I simply cannot believe that we had to pay him anywhere near £50k a week in order to secure his services, given his experience and reputation.

[BlinkyBear]

Call me suspicious, but these kind of rumours always seem to come around the times we've announced bumper profits.

Wages or Podolski?

I'd be very sceptical of any transfer stories at this time of year because ST renewals are due soon but if the rumour comes from a newspaper in Germany regarding a German club and player it seems much more genuine to me.

As for the wages as a quick point-why do we pay players in whole figures or figures that 'end' in a 5 apart from NB? It seems to me like they knocked up the figures got to Bendtner and realised that they should probably follow the 52k rumour and stick that in. Problem is it sticks out as an odd figure and in a system of equality and structure, it seems odd that there is ONE player who is awarded a unique salary figure.

[SeanR]

blinky has me on his block-list...

[BlinkyBear]

blinky has me on his block-list...

Do people actually do that?

Anyways, I diidn't know that you were making the same point tbh; thought you were just pointing out the wages for those who didn't 'know' about the his number.

[Daley]

http://www.arsenal.c...city-in-beijing

Arsenal Football Club is delighted to announce that the first-team squad will be travelling to China in July to play Manchester City in the famous Beijing National Stadium.

Arsenal and Manchester City will play each other in the inaugural ‘China Cup’, a one-off match in Beijing’s ‘Bird’s Nest’ Stadium on Friday, July 27, kick-off 8pm local time.

The Gunners will be travelling to China for the second consecutive year, following their successful summer Asia tour in July 2011, in which the Club played matches in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Hangzhou, China.

The sudden change from a small, quiet pre-season tour of Austria or something to a full-blown world tour is apparently due to the Nike/Emirates sponsorship renewal situation, with both expiring in 2014. Gazidis is building towards that already. Hopefully they will put us back on the map on that front as our commercial revenue is pretty pitiful compared to others.

Someone on Twitter mentioned yesterday that there are "only" 8 years left of the stadium deal. Will be strange to think it could be called something else after that.

[BlinkyBear]

http://www.arsenal.c...city-in-beijing

The sudden change from a small, quiet pre-season tour of Austria or something to a full-blown world tour is apparently due to the Nike/Emirates sponsorship renewal situation, with both expiring in 2014. Gazidis is building towards that already. Hopefully they will put us back on the map on that front as our commercial revenue is pretty pitiful compared to others.

Someone on Twitter mentioned yesterday that there are "only" 8 years left of the stadium deal. Will be strange to think it could be called something else after that.

Forget where it was but I read yesterday that we'll be playing in Seoul, Beijing and then Kuala Lumpur before going to Nigeria for a couple of games. That's a pretty massive pre-season trek if nothing else and whilst it'll definitely help the commercial side of things, I just hope that all the transfers are sorted before so the squad are settled and ready for the new season. There's little point doing a pre-season like this if it ends up like last year which was a bit of a mess and left us in an awful position in August.

[Rev]

blinky has me on his block-list...

SeanR has me on his block list.

Nicklas Bendtner £52,000 £2,704,000 - As much as the £52k/B52 thing entertains me, that's ridiculous.

[Daley]

Ryo has been named Bolton's player of the month. Not sure if that says more about him or them but good anyway.

[toythatkills]

Ryo has been named Bolton's player of the month. Not sure if that says more about him or them but good anyway.

Arsenal players win that more often than Bolton players do.

[carlito]

Arsenal list of wages - As if anyone that posts on "Arsenal Insider" would have access to that info.

Le Grove Transfer rumour - they have been full of shit since their inception. Worthless website.

[Petrousgyre]

To put some perspective on it, you have 23 players on a higher wage than the highest earner at Stoke City. 23.

To put that in some perspective, in the last five years Stoke have spent £85 million nett more on players than Arsenal. So either spend loads on average players and pay them poorly* or spend little on decent players and pay them well. I'd suggest that, regardless of how poorly this seasons gone, the Arsenal approach seems to work a bit better.

I'd also question the veracity of those wage numbers, some of them seem made up.

_{*poorly in relative terms, obv.}

[carlito]

They are all made up! Any accuracies there are just blind luck. Not even worth discussion.