BWoolley wrote:

I think the issue may be about cumulative wages - understand the PL has capped annual wage increases (except as may be justified by higher revenue), which we will overshoot massively if we re-sign Ozil and also bring in Auba, Malcom and Mkhi (or comparable players) even after getting shot of Walcott, Coquelin and Alexis. Hence, the club being somewhat reserved in signing all of them at once.

well, here is the math according to the alleged wage bill that is online in various places

lacazette - £100,000
kolasinac - £120,000 (i think this is wrong, it probably includes the sign-on fee he got because he came on a free)

thats £220,000 in.

coquelin - £55,000
walcott - £110,000
szczesny - £60,000
gibbs - £80,000
gabriel - £50,000
oxlade - £65,000

thats £420,000 out.

so we've already cut £200,000 from our wage bill. i think the only players who have extended are youth guys like AMN who are probably on £10,000 a week or less.

this summer, we'll be losing £530,000 combined for alexis, ozil, wilshere, cazorla, and mertesacker. we know cazorla and mert are likely done completely, so that is £160,000 for sure that is coming off the books. alexis is on £140,000 and hes definitely gone. so that is £300,000 in wages off the books. we need to give wilshere more money, and ozil huge money if he stays, which he might or might not. we also need to give ramsey a new contract if we want him to stay, since he only has 1 year left. if debuchy leaves, as expected, thats another £70,000 you can remove.

How much do we stand to lose by not qualifying for the CL for a second season running.....no doubt a lot of the savings resulting from these transfers will go into offsetting that side of things.

We make about 50-55m from Champions League. The Europa League is immaterial, with the winners making a maximum 15m pounds. We must win the Europa League this season and get back into that Champions League annuity if we are to keep up with City and United.

That's why winning the Europa League is so so important. That CL money makes all the difference.

7 days later

It doesn't take into account other potential new deals as well, Ramsey for example. We need some new commercial deals asap.

We'll be fine in the short-term, I think. Like the article says it's just a question of slimming the squad. It's about time we started to prioritise quality over quantity anyway. Per, Cazorla and Debuchy will all run out of contract, and they will free up £250-300K or so per week in wages; Sanchez and Walcott have already departed, and there are several other players we're expected to get rid of in the summer without any replacements coming in: Ospina and Jenkinson, probably Welbeck, possibly Giroud and Monreal.

The wage bill restrictions might mean that we'll be looking at moving Elneny and Xhaka if we're thinking about bringing new midfielders in too, which would be a sensible move. At least one of them should be out the door anyway. Maitland-Niles' emergence means that having both of them around is pointless.

I'm guessing we'll see a structure that gives much more game time to youth players over average squadies too, which I've been advocating anyway.

Klaus wrote:

We'll be fine in the short-term, I think. Like the article says it's just a question of slimming the squad. It's about time we started to prioritise quality over quantity anyway. 

A man who speaks my language. The motion should be clear. I think that the players we typically see in our first 11 are fine, and I'm happy with them being part of our team in general. It's the second string guys that I think we can get rid of. So your list is mostly right - Giroud, Welbeck, Ospina, Jenkinson, Cazorla, Elneny, Mertesacker, your bff Debuchy, and loanees like Perez. I think the jury is out on who to keep amongst Ramsey, Xhaka, Wilshere, depending on formations and available midfielders. 

Then you buy a few super quality guys and keep the kids you really believe in like AMN, etc., and loan out other guys below 22 like Chelsea. But I'm a big believer in first focusing on a few super quality players, and then augmenting with kids and journeymen. 

We've shifted 11 first team players in two transfer windows - can't see there being a massive clearout in the summer.

This Premier League salary rule malarkey is just a patsy imo. A line peddled by the club to explain our lack of real investment in the squad. A proper big club would buy who they want and worry about the rest later.

6 days later

Interesting graphic, Monaco is absolutely outstanding at this transfer game.

Here's another one, Benfica is a conveyor belt of talents.

9 days later

Twitter rumours saying Adidas will take over from Puma in a deal believed to be worth £350m over five years.

Can't be accurate. United had to sign up with Adidas for 10 years to get the same money per season.

The Adidas rumours have been around for ages, I doubt there’s any truth to it. With this new chap form Barca being a former Nike exec I wonder if he can get us a good deal there.

That deal will be 4 years old by the time we renew and there is probably some sort of ratchet in it.

I'm 95% certain Adidas will be our next kit provider and the headline numbers will be huge.

Captain wrote:

I'm 95% certain Adidas will be our next kit provider and the headline numbers will be huge.

Are you Mr. X?

Rohit wrote:

Fantastic chart. I've never seen a clearer visualisation of the "tiers" of European football. It shows you very clearly that we've been bracketed with Spurs and Liverpool for a long time, separated only by the edge and good fortune of steady Champions League qualification.