Yearly Archives: 2015

Wojciech Szczesny a target for Premier League rivals?

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It seems now, after months of speculation, the Wojciech Szczesny could have played his last game for the club.

Back in January, after the smoking incident against Southampton, Arsenal legend John Jenson said on Danish TV that Szczesny’s Arsenal career was pretty much over. At the time, many scoffed, questioning how the former Danish International would know such information. Zero Premier League appearances and a Petr Cech later, it appears his Arsenal career is over.

At the time of signing Petr Cech, it was expected that David Ospina would be the goal keeper who makes way. With Sczcesny given the opportunity to be understudy for the form Chelsea keeper and be given time to develop and learn from an experienced senior player – something which he has never had in his career.

But it now seems that it will be Sczcesny who is moved on, rather than Ospina. According to current reports, his likely destination at the moment is Italy, Roma to be exact. A loan deal with an option to buy. However, there is a very good chance he could end up at one of Arsenal’s Premier League rivals. Manchester City, Liverpool, Manchester United or Chelsea. Here me out.

There is only one reason Arsenal have not already dumped Sczcesny. He is home grown.

We have seen this summer how important having enough home grown players in your squad is. Manchester City have spent an extortionate amount on Raheem Sterling. They have also reportedly given Fabian Delph a £100,000-per-week deal.

You then have Chelsea. Set to offer £30m to Everton for John Stones. A lot of money for someone who has only started 38 Premier League games. It will be a transfer which will exceed the £29.1m Manchester United paid for Rio Ferdinand, who at the time had 171 Premier League appearances and been part of a Leeds side that had recently made the Champions League semi-finals. And he had 28 England caps.

There are many other examples of the ‘home grown’ levy. Luke Shaw to Manchester United, Calum Chambers, Theo Walcott & Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Arsenal. Andy Carroll to Liverpool. The wage being paid to Milner. English players, especially young talented ones, are expensive.

When you think that Arsenal signed Per Mertesacker for under £10m, a centre back who at the time had 70+ German caps, and then signed Calum Chambers for nearly twice as much, a played who was not even a Southampton regular, it really opens your eyes up.

The issue obviously stems from a lack of decent home grown talent. The top clubs are not developing their own players, and those clubs further down the chain are not developing too many more. Just look at England’s poor showing at the recent Euro U21 tournament. With both the Premier League and Champions League quota on home grown players, it creates a massive demand for top home grown talent, but without the supply.

So what does all of this mean for Wojciech Szczesny?

Despite being Polish, Szczesny is considered as home grown, having joined Arsenal at 16 – the home grown rules dictate that a player must have been at a club for 3 years before he was 21. This means he is a valuable asset and worth a lot more than he would were he not home grown.

Added to him being home grown, he is still a decent goal keeper. Easily good enough to be 2nd choice at any of the top Premier League sides. At just 24, he could still become a first choice, but at worse, he has a decade ahead of him.

With Manchester City and Chelsea desperate for home grown players, Liverpool after a back up keeper for Mignolet, and Manchester United looking for a De Gea replacement, Szczesny would have plenty of potential suitors on the UK market. And with his home grown status, his value rockets.

The reports are that Roma will have a £3.5m first choice on him. This would be a silly move for Arsenal. In the current market, were Szczesny’s value is increased, Arsenal could receive a fee closer to £20m.

If Arsenal were to sell him to Roma, it would not surprise me if within 2/3 years he is back in the UK, with Roma making a big profit on him. Home grown is that valued.

If Arsenal are looking to move Szczesny on, selling him to a Premier League rival will be the best deal for the club.

Keenos

 

Is Olivier Giroud worth £130k a week?

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Last night is was announced that Olivier Giroud was on the verge of signing a new contract with Arsenal, paying him an astonishing £130,000 a week. The first thought is “Wow! That’s a lot of money” and it is.

But is he worth it?

In football, players are a stupid amount. They are all on too much money. But that is life. When TV revenue is as high as it is, and the TV companies are paying for those footballers on the pitch, the money will always flow down to those footballers. Every time a new TV is signed, agents up and down the country knock on the managers door of their clients and demand a bit of a slice of that pie. And more often than not they get it.

You only have to look at James Milner. He is on £150k a week. Raheem Sterling has just signed for Manchester City for £200k a week. When Manchester City signed Adebayor, they paid him £170k a week. Nasri £185k.

At Manchester United, Wayne Rooney earns a reportedly £275k a week. He has scored 49 goals in the last 3 years. Olivier Giroud has scored 58 goals in the same period. The previously mentioned Adebayor also got 58 goals in his 3 full seasons at the club.

Many Arsenal fans want the club to sign Karim Benzema. He gets paid around £240k a week. Olivier Giroud keeps him out of the French national side.

The money footballers get paid grossly high. Rather than compare Giroud’s £130k a week to that of the normal man (or soldiers wages) it should be compared to his contemporaries. You do that, and you realise that £130k a week is probably right for someone of his talent. A first choice international striker, playing for a top European side, scoring consistently.

It is not just footballers that have crazy salaries though. Lewis Hamilton is paid £32m a year (£615k per week) to drive a car round in circles. Top cricketers in the Indian Premier League can earn over £1m for just 6 weeks work – £166k a week. And then we have America, where NBA, NFL and baseball stars can earn into the hundreds of millions throughout their career.

Sport has become such a commercial vehicle, TV companies and sponsors are willing to pay billions to be associated with it, and these billions end up in the players pocket.

So is Giroud worth £130k a week? In the inflated, bloated, cash rich would of football, you would have to say that is his par salary.

I agree, it is sickening.

Keenos

Could Arsenal follow Swansea and subsidise away fans?

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Recently, Swansea City announced that they will be subsidising their away fans throughout the upcoming season, ensuring that they pay no more than £22 a ticket.

For a long time, we at She Wore have been huge supporters of the Twenty’s Plenty Campaign. A movement set up by the Football Supporter’s Federation and backed by most team’s supporter group’s to restrict away tickets to just £20.

Swansea’s move to subsidise their tickets is a brilliant move, and hopefully on that other clubs will follow. What is surprising (or not if you have half a brain) is how little it costs. Reports are that it is only costing the club around £300,000 a season. Taking into account that the Premier League has recently signed a new £5.1bn deal, which gives each club around £81m a year, £300,000 is peanuts.

Arsenal could, no they should, look at introducing a similar deal. Every club in the Premier League should.

Now I know what critics will say. Those people who when another club introduces something good, attacks them by saying “it wouldn’t work at Arsenal” and bring up a load of differences rather than simply say “good on them”.

What these critics will state is that it would not cost Arsenal £300,000 a season. It would cost a lot more. Swansea are never Category A for away games. Therefore, away tickets are cheaper. It has been reported that Swansea away fan’s paid an average of £33 last season. Meanwhile, Arsenal averaged £45.

On top of that, Swansea rarely sell out their allocation, often taking the lesser amount of tickets at away games. Whilst Arsenal take the maximum possible.

The cost for Arsenal to subsidise tickets for away fans would be a lot more than Swansea.

This is bollocks.

Yes, Arsenal would have to pay more in subsidies, and subsidise more tickets, but the amount it would cost the club would still be negligible.

My (albeit poor) maths show that tif the club decided to subsidise the away fans, mirroring Swansea to £22, it would cost around £1.25m.

Now in our mortal world, £1.25m is a lot, but in the football world, it is nothing. This season, Arsenal will make over £125m from Premier League and Champions League TV revenue. So it would be c1% of TV revenue going back to fans. £1.25m is a £25k a year salary to someone. It is Joel Campbell, or half a Flamini. It is nothing to the club, and even less once other revenue such as match day and commercial comes into it.

Arsenal could easily afford to subsidise away fans to the tune of £22 a game without it affecting anything.

Of course, another obstacle faced by the club would be the internal fighting between fans. If Arsenal decided to subsidise away fans, two issues would arise:

  1. Home fans would complain that they do not get a subsidy

The away fans are the heart beat of the club. A small group of fans who continually go above and beyond following their side. They are the ones who get a 5.30am train to Newcastle for a 12.45 kick off. Change their weekend plans at the last minute due a late scheduling change. Stand on the side of the M1 for 3 hours missing the game due to their mini bus breaking down. Return home at 2am on a Monday morning and having to get up for work in a few hours. Spend hundreds of pounds a year on rail tickets.

To home fans complaining, i would like to say this is a start, if clubs like The Arsenal can see that by reducing prices for our away fans has no real loss in revenue, they might think again about the home ticket prices, ok they will never reduce them as long as demand is as high but they might think about a needless increase to ticket and membership prices in the future. do not be selfish and complain about others benefitting because you do not yet benefit.

Many away fan’s also have home season tickets. Last year I spent around £4,000 following the club, home and away. It is an expensive hobby. Yes, it is my choice, but only an idiot would begrudge an away fan saving a little bit of cash.

  1. More fan’s would buy tickets and not go

In recent years, due to FA Cup Final credits, we have seen an increase in fans buying tickets and not going. Either attempting to sell them on via twitter (other social media platforms are available) or worse case scenario, taking the hit and not going.

One thing that stops this happening more regularly is the cost of ticket prices. Why pay £50 to buy a ticket for Norwich away just for an away credit and not go. It is something that many people can not afford.

However, reduce that to £22 and it becomes a bit more affordable. More fans will buy tickets just to get credits and not go. This will keep those with a lot of credits at the top, and reduce the amount of tickets available to those who do not have credits – often those without credits can only get away tickets to the expensive, middle of nowhere, on a Saturday morning games.

Whilst this is a bit more of a valid argument against dropping tickets, it is again something which should be disregarded.

Yes, some more fans will purchase tickets and look to shift them on, but this benefits those that they shift them on to (as long as they are charging face value) as the buyer then gets a cheaper ticket. So everyone benefits all round.

 

I applaud Swansea for taking proactive steps to reduce ticket prices. Anyone who puts up obstacles as to why Arsenal could not do similar need to take a long hard look at themselves. It is those people that allow the club a free ride, those people who will stop the pressure increasing on clubs and continue to accept the poor way that clube treat fans.

Well done Swansea, hopefully Arsenal and all other clubs follow suit.

Keenos