Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea have all made big summer striker purchases (at the time of writing the Morata deal to Chelsea is still going through).
By the end of the season, we will know who has got the best deal, but looking backwards, which club has signed the best striker?
Keenos
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Arsenal maintained their unbeaten pre-season record yesterday with a penalty shoot-out victory against Bayern Munich on a hot and humid night in Shanghai.
In testing conditions, the Germans settled first and went close through James Rodriguez before they were awarded a penalty when Ainsley Maitland-Niles was adjudged to have fouled Juan Bernat in the area.
Robert Lewandowski made no mistake from the spot, but we responded brightly and came close to equalising when Mesut Ozil saw his shot saved after a raking move up the length of the pitch.
It may have been nearly eight o’clock at night, but with the temperature still touching 30 degrees, the players understandably took every chance to take on more fluids.
After one such interval, we restarted brightly and Alexandre Lacazette had a golden opportunity to equalise when played clean through – only to see his shot saved.
Bayern were always going to be a big step up in terms of pre-season opponents, and so they proved, twice going close through Rodriguez and again through Thomas Muller before the interval.
Petr Cech was the busier of the goalkeepers in the first half, and he was called into action once again at the start of the second period to deny James and then David Alaba.
Substitute Theo Walcott would go close in the closing stages with a curling effort that was well held, and it looked as though we were heading for our first defeat of pre-season… before a late twist.
Our injury-time equaliser came as the ball was slipped to Ramsey on the left, and he clipped the ball into the area to the onrushing Alex Iwobi who placed his header in to spark wild celebrations among our Chinese fanbase.
That was the last act of normal time, so the match went to penalties – with Emi Martinez the hero as he saved from David Alaba and Juan Bernat to secure us the victory.
The victory saw Arsenal lift a trophy at the first opportunity of the season. Although we are unsure what trophy it was. Probably one for being best dressed team as we wore our dazzling pink strip, customized with the sponsors name in Chinese.
Up next for the Gunners is Chelsea at the Bird’s Nest Stadium on Saturday. The game will be live on ITV, as Arsenal will look to win their second trophy of the season – as long as Vic Akers remembered to pack it.
Win Saturday and Arsenal will have a chance of completing a historic pre-season as they enter the highly competitive Emirates Cup – a competition Arsenal have had a lot of success in recently; winning 4 of the last 8.
All of this is good news in Arsenal’s attempt to keep Alexis Sanchez, who is reportedly motivated by trophies, not money. Whilst he missed out on the chance to lift the trophy last night, he will realise success breads success, and a pre-season treble, and even an unbeaten pre season, matching the Invincible’s of 2003/04, will be a sign of good things to come for the club.
Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC
Obviously this article is in jest. pre season is mainly about fitness, not winning. I imagine there are some idiots out there who will take this article seriously and say look at that AKB Keenos celebrating a pre season trophy. Well the jokes on you lads.
As Arsenal continue to move on the under performing players who’s time at the club has come to an end, the amount bought in through player sales and saved wages could breach the £130,000,000 barrier.
All going well, if Arsenal get the price they seem to be demanding for the players, Arsenal could raise over £100m from the player sales alone.
Arsenal would then save an additional £32m in wages from the outgoing players. To put that into context, it would save the club £621,000 a week.
There have been reports (badly investigated reports) that Arsenal could breach the new Premier League wage increase cap rules this summer if they end up offering Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil the bumper money they demand.
English top flight clubs are allowed to increase their annual wage bills by £7m under the rules, but in the event that the attacking pair finally declare their allegiance to the Arsenal cause, the FA Cup winners would see that wage expenditure double to £15m and be in breach of the Premier League’s short-term cost control guidelines.
Arsenal’s wage bill for the 2016/17 season was reportedly £200.5m. This would mean that Arsenal could spend £207.5m on wages for 2017/18. A surplus of £7m, not taking into account other players who have built in yearly wage rises.
But if Arsenal shift £32m in wages off the books, this leaves the club around £39m in wages to play with. That is a cool £750,000 a week.
If a third of that is given to Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, it will still leave £500,000 a week in the pot for new signings. And that is before any wages is offset by image right deals.
Alexandre Lacazette’s deal is at around £130,000 a week and Sead Kolasinac on £120,000 a week. This still leaves Arsenal £250,000.
For that surplus, Arsenal could easily sign their first choice attacking option (Thomas Lemar) and add depth in the middle of the park and still have some change in the kitty.
Whilst I know the dangers of talking about net spend, the fact that Arsenal could sign Lacazette, Kolasinac and Lemar for a combined total of less than the out going players (all 3 will cost under £100m) ensure that we maintain the model of being a self sufficient football club.
£130m+ for players no longer needed. It is good that we are going to clear the decks, but it also highlights how much wastage we have had in recent years.
Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC
