We have the 5th highest wage bill in Premier League again. We're absolutely not spending too much on wages. If anything we're spending too little. We're not willing to spend enough to maintain the good players, and the few exceptions to that rule are players we've generally gotten it wrong with, like Mkhi and Özil, so they are used as a strick to beat the club with. It's the wrong approach to take. There is zero reason for the fans to cheer when we're slashing the wage bill.
If we're not willing to spend we'll never be competitive. The club saving a few nickles by withdrawing the contract offer for Aaron Ramsey doesn't look like a genius move right now when any replacement would cost £30+ million in transfer fee alone, for instance. I read the interview with Dick Law where he said that we could easily afford Özil's wages since transfer fees and wages are amortised across the length of a contract, and in Özil's case there is no more transfer fee. That means the annual fee we're paying for him is not significantly higher than what we're paying for anyone who came here with a fee attached, like Leno or Lacazette.
It's not handing out big wages that is holding us back. It's the way we keep getting all our business wrong, whether it's buying players or appointing people. We just restructured the entire club, and there isn't a shred of evidence that the new people are any more ambitious or clever than the last ones. If anything it's been the opposite so far.
