Klaus wrote:
Anzac wrote:
Whilst I remember him saying that one of the criteria he had was to generate 20m every season re debt, IMO AW wasn't being quite honest when he made that claim.
Based on more than conjecture and dislike for the man I'm sure.
I have no idea if we absolutely HAD to do it, but the records are crystal clear on one thing: we've always generated funds through sales. Even in Wenger's last year we managed to make a profit despite bringing in Lacazette, Kolasinac, Aubameyang and Mkhitaryan. It's insane to think Wenger self-imposed that restraint on himself. It came from above.
It came from the bloody self funding sustainable financial model we self impose upon ourselves, and that apparently is also part of our traditional beliefs and values that we won't dare take a look at revising how we apply it, because it's set up to generate profits. There was a comment made in the last couple of years regarding our transfers, that had DD telling the scouts that we could make a 20m signing every season post the move if we wanted to do so as we had the money.
The only reason AW generated funds via sales was because we lacked cash flow with all our commercial deals being front loaded re the initial stadium financing, and the bloody BoD refused to accept the market had changed and also refused to diversify our revenue stream by increasing our commercial deals. For decades the role of the BoD was simply that to administer our finances based upon the operating model, and they did not see it as being their role or requirement to do anything other than that because they weren't getting anything more than a basic payment for their position. This was part of the arguments going on when Kroenke became our largest shareholder and Usmanov was trying to get a share float to generate a war chest & he was offering to underwrite the proposed 500m from his own pocket. Yes he would have gained all those shares had he done so, but he would have been putting his money where his mouth is directly into the club, which is more than can be said of any of the other shareholders or our current owner.
