Comments on: Man United 2-1 Arsenal: Same Old Story from Gunners

By: The Scout

The Scout — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:43:43 +0000

Found the info on top earners and have posted it here:

http://www.epltalk.com/top-money-earners/1843

By: Top Money Earners | EPL Talk

Top Money Earners | EPL Talk — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 18:43:15 +0000

[...] reading a thread here on the site, I did a bit of research to find information on the top paid players. No one on Arsenal’s [...]

By: tampasoccer

tampasoccer — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 15:43:52 +0000

How Arse managed to lose yesterday, is beyond me.
They dominated the game for at least an hour. Gallas: what a leader, huh? He should go. We all remember how he reacted to Clichy’s mistake in stoppage time v. Birmingham. His handball yesterday was idiotic, to say the least.
Eboue can not and should not play as a midfielder. Flamini is sorely missed: yes. Gilberto is too old: he committed the faul for the winning goal.
Walcott: I can see Wenger wants to use him sparingly and provide pace for the later stages of the game, but I believe he will be more than a part player next season.
Adebayor’s goal was a blatant handball, but he should have had a hat-trick.
United is on course of winning big this season, but can Ronaldo, Rooney, Tevez, Anderson, Carick mask the team’s deficiancies? they miss Vidic bad. Brown is attrocious. Pique’s debut was ok, at best, but you can’t expect much. Rio was all over the place, and almost scored an own goal.
All in all, it was a very strange game yesterday. United got lucky: very lucky. But, Wenger must take responsiblity for his team’s collapse since February. Maybe the teams needs a shrink…

By: Adam

Adam — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 04:39:06 +0000

I think Arsenal have a self-imposed salary cap of 50,000 per week. Only special players (such as Henry in recent seasons and now Fabregas get more). The difficulty is that once Flamini is put up to 80,000 or so, then what is Hleb worth, then Adebayor etc. It shifts the bar for every player in the squad. This is why Wenger plays hard ball on it. And to be honest, Flamini, though outstanding this year & integral to Arsenal’s best moments during the season has only produced one outstanding year. On the other hand, he would leave on a free and to replace him with similar quality would cost up to 10 million so the economics speaks for itself.

I think both sides are playing hard on the negotiation (as most commercial contracts are) but I think it will sort itself out. Perhaps a long term performance based contract?

By: Ivan

Ivan — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 02:51:48 +0000

Wenger has already said he will look to buy one experience footballer in the next transfer window. I agree with the notions that Arsenal have enough quality but depth is an obvious issue. I wonder what Wenger will do if indeed he does lose Flamini. I rate Lassana Diarra very highly… i don’t know whether a loan deal to Pompey would have been a better result rather than selling him…

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 01:36:32 +0000

Yeah you’re probably right. I’m a follower of the World Soccer Daily podcast and on a recent episode Kenny had a list from some internet site of the top paid players in the world and according to the list no Arsenal player is in the top 50. Hopefully that changes if Flamini signs.

By: Michael

Michael — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:05:18 +0000

I had heard Flamini was on somewhere between 25-35,000 pounds a week..not sure if that’s true or not..

Also not sure where actual figures can be found; I assume the info is out there somewhere but I wouldn’t be surprised if some clubs don’t release that information.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:53:41 +0000

Thank you Michael. I know Arsenal doesn't pay it's players very high, but does anybody know any actual figures they're dishing out? I've heard Flamini wants 80 grand a week, which I think is reasonable because he's integral to the squad. We've obviously got the cash that's accumulated from the stadium and the profits of last summers transfers (and from the prior two seasons in fact) so a couple dozen grand a week shouldn't be that bad.

By: Michael

Michael — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:33:45 +0000

Well said, Mike.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:31:37 +0000

I agree with some of Alex Hleb’s points, but we definately need to improve in each department. When we had one or two players out of the starting back four, it hurt us alot. Senderos filled in well eventually but he started off badly, he needs a string of games before he pulls of something like Titus Bramble. Hoyte does not look confident and doesn’t seem up to the Arsenal standard. I have faith in Traore but even he can be susceptible at times (Man Utd in the FA Cup). I think a solid and proven center back would help.

As you said, we need wingers. Arsenal have NO out and out wingers. Hleb and Rosicky are center attacking mids, Walcott and Van Persie are strikers, Diaby is a center mid, and Eboue can’t decide if he’s a full back or a midfielder (i hope he goes in the summer, I can’t stand his acting and crying). Hatem Ben Arfa would be a good buy and maybe even another winger would help. We need wingers that run at people and go to the endline who can cross in for Adebayor.

You also have to remember that Eduardo is going to be out for a good portion of the season too. I don’t know if Van Persie will be able to handle a whole season uninjured so that leaves Ade, Walcott, Bendtner and Vela (if Wenger decides on playing him up front) as strikers. Adebayor is the only one who has scored more than 10 prem goals. We need someone who can score when counted on so Ade can relax more and not be relied on so much.

In short, we don’t need a revamp of the squad, just a few patch ups to keep the squad from being thin so they can handle the season. We’ve got the backbone set up, the cash to sign players, we just need to keep Flamini and buy a few players.