Arsenal: The wage bill needs completely restructuring
The Arsenal wage bill is higher than it’s ever been before, so much so that they cannot afford Aaron Ramsey and are letting him leave. It needs to be restructured. Quickly.
One of Arsene Wenger’s key philosophies was to have his squad players well compensated for their work. Rather than shell out the big wages to the stars of the squad, Wenger preferred to have a far more even wage bill, in which the reserve players would be paid more and the stars paid less.
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It was a strange value to hold and one that consistently hampered Arsenal’s ability to challenge the financial might of the European elite when they tried to sign the very best players in the world. And it has led to a rather unbalanced and unhelpful wage bill now that he has departed.
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The Arsenal Supporter’s Trust are intending to write Chairman Sir Chips Keswick a letter expressing their concern at the significant operating losses the club is set to announce for the financial year leading up to May 2018. One key factor to the financial troubles of the past year is the inflated wage bill that is at a club-record high. Extensions for the likes of Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka, combined with the additions of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, have substantially raised the overall wage bill of the club — it is now more than £200 million a year.
The financial stretching of the wage budget is expected to severely limit the spending capabilities of Unai Emery. His transfer budget is thought to be as little as £40 million next summer, according to the AST, and players will have to be sold to manage the wage bill before any new replacements are brought it.
The problem comes when you look at the spread of the spending that stems from the Wenger era — I will note at this point that I am taking all the following figures from this article. They may not be totally accurate (footballer’s wages never are) but they do provide a nice snapshot and rough picture of the spending on wages.
Carl Jenkinson is earning £45,000-a-week this season. Mohamed Elneny will earn £55,000-a-week. Laurent Koscielny, who is no longer a starter, will earn £72,000-a-week. David Ospina, although on loan, is being paid £40,000-a-week and Bernd Leno is on £60,000-a-week to currently sit on the bench, though there are other, acceptable reasons for that figure.
Sead Kolasinac is earning £119,500-a-week, an astounding amount for any left back, nevermind one that isn’t actually very good and is not an assured starter — in Kolasinac’s defence, there was no fee to sign him, which likely inflated his wage. Danny Welbeck, whose contract expires at the end of the year, is earning £70,000-a-week. None of these players are starters. And yet, they are all being paid as if they are. This is where the inflated wage bill comes from.
The whole process needs restructuring. The Wenger method is outdated and ineffective. Emery is being hamstrung by overpriced reserves. It’s time to start over.