https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/arsenal-52m-loss-ffp-transfers-smith-rowe-2930209
Romano also mentioned that what's delaying the Merino deal is because of our FFP issues so we need to work out a structure of payment with Sociedad
Arsenal Outs 2024
That article basically says we have no problems, though? Romano knows nothing.
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Clrnc yeah, that article says we're in a strong place. Since then we've recognised a year of CL revenue and sold ESR for a club record fee which is pure profit from an accounting perspective.
We probably wanted to keep some headroom which is why we did some window dressing with the Raya deal but we shouldn't be anywhere near FFP now. Meanwhile I wouldn't trust Romano with a calculator never mind a set of financials.
Coombs According to Swiss Ramble (estimated in April I think, but probably close to the mark) we've got about £94m leeway on PSR. It means no more nett spending of £200m on players in summers by KSE unless we ascend to the major trophy table.
At our current revenue I think we might be looking at a model of £50–100m incoming from sales, and an average £150m outgoings if we make the sales. But we've still got at least some wiggle room this summer.
Burnwinter That £94m figure seems about right from the way we're acting, interesting. I don't think that necessarily portends anything about the future though – we spent a ton on players without CL revenue in 22-23, and we should have a lot more room to operate once that year is dropped from PSR calculations.
Burnwinter but sales are booked all at once while purchases are amortized over contract duration, yes? So 94m can support 4-500m in purchasing, depending. Sure we've got ongoing schedules to deal with, but it doesn't seem like anything we can't handle, or that would meaningfully effect our business this summer when you factor in even just ESR's fee.
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CPM Yes, I think the perspective is that if we're going deep in the CL and obtaining the financial advantages of on field success, we can continue piling a lot of money in. However, the change in posture to requiring some money recouped from sales is no surprise (and no bad thing really).
Good thing if we can spend heavily, as United are about to build a 100,000 seat stadium and so on.
HomeSteak underwhelming fee. Hope there is a big sell-on clause.
2m euros?! 
No attacking signings for us then if we can’t get Eddie/Reiss out of the door
Edu coming up short on this end of the job.
Needs to clear out Lokonga, Nelson, and Nketiah minimum, and their sale prices shouldn’t be of major concern as all are on wages that will make them expensive to most clubs.
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MistaT That is something we still need to learn. Our idea of "preserving value" of players is not the correct one. We think that just by giving them a new deal we do that...but Edu needs to learn not to give 100k a week to 4 goal per season Eddie, and Arteta needs to learn that in order to preserve the value of a player...he needs to still play them, and maybe avoid the circus of the Ramsdale and "I will sub a keeper" shit we had going on last year.
For example, Ramsdale is the 5th best paid keeper in the league(he makes 3 mil more then Raya lol). Good luck selling him, ever.
Still think we will offload Eddie...just not for the 30 mil we were dreaming, more like 10.
Given Marseille came close to agreeing to a deal worth €30m, I'd be shocked/disappointed if we ended up selling for near €10m. I'm okay with us sticking to our guns in terms of player evaluation.
Let's see what happens but I agree that the wages we give out are problematic (and it's a problem we've had plenty of times).
The preserving value for these calibre players I don't get we've put them on to high wages wise and can't get any interest. Sometimes just cut your losses that are a waste of the squad place because they aren't anywhere good enough.
awooga83 100k isn't a high wage by our standards. TBH the club are right to value Nketiah at £30m. Similar players move for that and he still has a role here if we don't get the right price for him.
Still seems a little strange it collapsed when everything seemed to be very close. Its also weird that we were so hard nosed here but let Lokonga go on loan instead of selling. Probably still plenty of interest for Eddie behind the scenes.
awooga83 I don't really see how this could make sense. The bid we've received from Marseille is higher than what we would've got if Eddie left for free.
Eddie scoring 20+ in the Prem while Smith-Rowe gets benched by Bobby De Cordova-Reid. We will be there.
We are so back with this
Yup. No need to panic. The transfer window hasn’t got going yet - apart from the madness at Stamford bridge
They just got a huge wad from Spurs as well , tell them £40 million
Hope we haven't fucked up with Nketiah. He needs to go this summer.
HomeSteak Edu needs to learn not to give 100k a week to 4 goal per season Eddie, and Arteta needs to learn that in order to preserve the value of a player...he needs to still play them
This is it. There needs to be greater alignment on the wages that are offered and the rotation of the players. We said this all years ago when we were failing to offload guys like Tierney.
More blame for this has to go to Arteta than Edu. No doubt Arteta's telling Edu he needs players who then rarely play. He's been slow-cooking himself as we're now short on PSR wiggle room. It's a symptom of inexperience.
The Raya–Ramsdale tale isn't over yet either, and every year Ramsdale sticks around it's a negative of closer to £30m, plus Ramsdale's generous wages, on stretched books.
Also confirmed by Orny:
Nketiah is on Bournemouth's list of options to potentially replace Solanke and Nelson is available for a transfer
QuincyAbeyie was it a bid though? I thought I read the sticking point was the obligation to buy which suggests that weren't fully sold on that.
I think my issue with signing them is it was already clear Eddie and Nelson just not good enough and yet we invest more in them I don't understand that. If we shift them this summer then fine but otherwise we should have let them go.
If we hadn't given Eddie that new deal we'd have either sold at a very cut price or lost him for nothing. He's been useful depth in that time and would have had to be replaced immediately if sold. It made sense to give him the deal.
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awooga83 you don't just lose Nketiah, you still need to get that body in the squad from somewhere. Nketiah played 1,400 minutes for a strained frontline and gave us 7 G+A.
We basically would've had to lose Nketiah on the free, and then go spend another £20m or more on another player who could give us that output. Whatever, happens, you still need to pay salaries etc.
And then there is the FFP/FSR impact he has with a sale which is significant. You don't just release an Nketiah
Claudius I don't think you need to replace him in the squad. Worse case scenario you play Trossard and even Martinelli there, and they would get that stat line and more. Eddie scored in the first game of the season, then vs Fulham(very important goal), then he went on 7(started 6 of them) game non scoring run, he then bagged that hattrick, then he went on a 15 game non scoring(only started 3 to be fair) until the end of the season.
Just get as much as you can from him, save the wages and move on. He brings nothing, lets be honest.
HomeSteak how many minutes was he getting in those games? Eddies stats aren't amazing but in the league he outscored Jesus in around 2/3s of his minutes. One less than Martinelli in half his minutes. You can't just get rid of players like Eddie and not replace them. Martinelli missed big chunks of last season and Trossard was already covering midfield and striker on top of his left wing duties. There is a reason clubs are interested in Eddie for pretty big money. You don't just let that value walk out the door.
Qwiss Trossard is bad in the middle, hit and miss on the wing and at his best as a striker. He can replace what ever Eddie is giving us, easy.
Again, Eddie contributed with goals in 3 games. He scored 2 goals in august, and the hattrick in October and nothing else. He went on a 15 game run of not scoring and a 7 game run of not scoring, in the same season. We will not miss him even if we don't buy anyone, never.
Once Havertz made his move to striker...it was over for him at Arsenal, in the last 16 games of the season he got 45 minutes of game time, all together, and was not used for 10 games, including the last 7 in a row. Arteta is done with him.
Nobody is saying give him out for free, but I'm ok with selling even if we do not bring anyone in, and I'm pretty sure Arteta is as well. If he stays here, he gets 200 minutes of game time next year, tops.
In terms of contribution all 3 you mentioned were bad.
Eddie got 1072 minutes and 5 goals - 2 assists, Jesus 1483 4 goals and 5 assists and Martinelli 2029, 6 goals and 4 assists. The thing is, Martinelli and Jesus had the worst year of their careers and Eddie...well, he had his best ever, and he was still worse then them.
£25million for Nketiah would be a good deal for all parties. I'd back him to score 10-15 goals for Bournemouth next season.
I like that we are holding out on the price we believe Nketiah can fetch. Hope it doesn't backfire on us.
HomeSteak he then bagged that hattrick, then he went on a 15 game non scoring(only started 3 to be fair) until the end of the season.
With every contract there's the benefit of hindsight. Some come good (let's say Trossard who cost £27m and has 18 goals and 12 assists in 62 appearances). Some like Nketiah don't. All our renewals of proper starters have been excellent value for money compared to what we pay name signings like Jesus and Havertz.
It's generally good to punt on players we already have since there's no £27m fee. £27m is comparable to a fringe player's whole five year contract. We just need to better de-risk the scale and timing of contracts offered to fringe players.
In Nketiah's case we got the gamble about right. He's rarely played due to our other options, but it seems he'll move on at a fee.
In Ramsdale's case it was foolish to re-sign him on wages boosted from £60k per week to £85k per week in May 2023, just weeks before we signed Raya and benched him.
Ramsdale is making 50% more than Raya or Ederson without playing. The money we lay out to keep Ramsdale off the pitch heightens the impression he's a second tier talent, and puts us at the mercy of lowball approaches.
It appears that due to issues like Ramsdale's inertia we're now stuck holding out for sales. Likely because getting Merino in at a fair price isn't worth ending up snookered by PSR putting a €50m ceiling on our nett spend in summer 2025.
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HomeSteak Once Havertz made his move to striker.
So what?!! Havertz has been striker for the last 6 months. What was your plan before that? you say play Trossard there, fine then you have to spend on a winger. Whatever way you slice it someone would have had to come in. You'd be letting him go for less than his worth, being stuck needing a replacement and ended up with someone else not quite a starter who poses the same issue. That people say we should have let Reiss go at the same team is even more myopic as we'd have been losing wing and striker cover. You need a squad.
Most of all though there is zero financial argument for not giving Eddie that contract. We could have sold him last week for £25m. Thats loads of profit.
Qwiss I assume the plan was Havertz at 8, that did not work. The plan in attack was to play Eddie, that did not work, as Eddie was dropped and never seen again, as he was not good enough.
Yes, play Trossard there, he is better, why is that so hard to imagine lol? And yeah, I agree, we needed a winger last summer, not Eddie in the squad, we still need a winger this summer, and Eddie not in the squad.
Again, not saying let him go for less then he is worth. We could not have sold him last week for 25, as you see..by you know, not selling him last week for 25 mil. We asked for 25-30, they said no.
I agree also with what we did, the whole when there are 2 years left, sell or extend. But don't give them huge wages and then banish them to the bench, then you do not sell well. I think we will sell Eddie this summer, but it will be for around 15-20, what we would have gotten last year as well.
And with Reiss is hard to make the argument, that you are trying to make since...well, we re-signed him, gave him 200 minutes in a full season, half of that on the left wing, and Arteta played both Jesus and Vieira before him on the right, and of course...played injured Saka more then him lol.
HomeSteak Yes, play Trossard there, he is better, why is that so hard to imagine lol?
I never said that was hard to imagine. We've seen it. I said selling players or letting them walk like you want requires new signings.
HomeSteak Again, not saying let him go for less then he is worth.
Its exactly what you are saying when you complain that we gave him a new deal. The only other options at that point are a cut price sale or let him walk.
HomeSteak I agree also with what we did, the whole when there are 2 years left, sell or extend. But don't give them huge wages and then banish them to the bench, then you do not sell well.
Eddie wasn't banished to the bench. He's played his fair share.
HomeSteak And with Reiss is hard to make the argument, that you are trying to make since..
I didn't make an argument for Reiss. Didn't rate him when we gave him that deal. He's worth a lot less than Eddie.
Honestly, there are some arguments that make absolutely sense, and one of those is questioning why we gave contracts to Nelson and Nketiah when they were about to walk on a free.