We all saw yesterday how the Telegraph had estimated Arsenal’s transfer budget at £50m. Whilst this figure is no more than a guess, when you look at the accounts, it is probably not too far from the truth.

With the amortisation of transfer fees being able to be spread over the length of a contract for accounting purposes, plus how deals are structured, annual wages and agents fees, coming up with a £50m budget is always an article for hits. Click bait. We will probably see other figures banded about before the end of the transfer window.

What is for certain is, unlike years gone past, Arsenal do not need to sell to buy. The club is now making decent profits – all of which can be put into player transfers. What this means is funds raised through selling players can go straight into the transfer pot, rather than being used to offset stadium debt.

So earlier in the week we discussed the 10 players who are likely to follow Wenger out the club. Our guestimate is that these players could raise up to £100m for the club. All of which will go towards buying new players.

Now obviously the transfer fees are pure guesswork, like World Cup betting, but I do not think they are too unreasonable. I would be very surprised if we get anything lower than the “low” column, and would imagine they are closer to the “high” column.

Some players leaving do depend on those who come in. As mentioned in yesterday’s blog, I can not see us letting Mustafi leave unless we buy two centre backs.

As for the wages, I have left the loanees deliberately blank. This is due to things not being clear who is currently paying their wages – Arsenal or the loan club.

If the loan club is paying 100% of the wages, they will not be declared on the current wage bill and therefore Arsenal make no saving.

By moving these 10 players on, Arsenal save in the region of £400,000 a week. Enough to cover the salaries of 2 or 3 top drawer players to replace them.

If you remove Mustafi from the equation, players sales will raise between £34m -£70m. You add this to our expected profit of the year, and things are looking healthy.

I would not be surprised to see Arsenal end up spending between £100-£150m this summer For this we should be able to get in the goal keeper, centre back, defensive midfielder and attacking midfielder we desperately need.

All of this is back of a fag packet stuff.

Keenos

 

If a new manager coming does anything to galvanise the fan base, the first stage will be to change the mind set of a lot of our fans.

Many of our fans are in a negative mind set. Partly due to their hatred for Arsene Wenger and the club they support, and partly because they just clearly like to moan. Hopefully a new manager coming in will make them look on the bright side of life a little bit more.

There are some fans who seem to only look at the negative aspects of the team as soon as any Arsenal related news is out. Personally I would hate to be one of these fans. Football is supposed to be enjoyed, an escape from reality. But how are you enjoying the game, the team you love, if everything you associate with them is seen through negative eyes?

At the weekend against Manchester United, we player a B team, with a load of youth team players. This should have been seen as a positive for two reasons:

1. It meant that we were finally prioritising the Europa League
2. It was a chance to see some of our successful U23 players get some game time

Now these negative nancies who moan at everything have spent the last 5 years complaining that Arsene Wenger does not blood youth players. That we do not give young local kids a chance.

Against Manchester United we started the game with Alex Iwobi, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Riess Nelson. 3 young English lads who have been at the club since they were kids (yes, I know Iwobi now chooses to play for Nigeria, but he has been in England since he was 3, he is a local lad).

Also in the starting XI was Konstantinos Mavropanos, the young Greek lad signed in January. Add in Calum Chambers and Hector Bellerin, it was a starting XI that contained 6 players that could have started for our table topping U23 team.

The bench also contained the likes of Joe Willock, Eddie Nketiah and  Jordi Osei-Tutu. . Two 18 year olds and a 19 year old to add to 18 year old Reiss Nelson who started.

Add in Danny Welbeck and Rob Holding, our match day 18 man squad contained 11 players who the Premier League class as “home grown”.

Instead of embracing this fact, the negative nancies went straight to moaning.

Rather than being excited about getting to watch Maitland-Niles and Nelson play, they used the blooding of young local lads to highlight how “weak” the squad were.

So they have moaned for years young English lads do not get a chance at Arsenal. Now they moan that young English lads are getting a chance at Arsenal.

The default setting is to moan. Moan about everything. Even if you have previously moaned about the complete opposite.

These people’s glasses are most certainly half empty.

Granit Xhaka was captain against Manchester United. Only Hector Bellerin had played more games for Arsenal in the starting XI. Having been captain of his previous club, Borussia Monchengladbach, Xhaka was probably the right choice.

But all Xhaka being captain did was give fans another chance to moan.

“Why is Xhaka captain?” they cried. “Worst Arsenal captain ever” One stated.

I would understand this if Xhaka had just been named Arsenal captain for the season, but he had not. It was one game. A game which had a load of youth players and he was one of the most senior on the pitch.

Per Mertesacker, Laurent Koscielny, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Petr Cech &Nacho Monreal have all captained the club since Granit Xhaka joined the club. So Xhaka is basically 8^th choice captain.

There are plenty of things to moan about at Arsenal, but who is 8^th choice captain should not even be a subject. It just shows the negative mindset of some fans.

I wrote an article yesterday stating that despite the result, the performance of the youngster should be something to be pleased about. I mooted the idea that the likes of Maitland-Niles, Nelson and Mavropanos should play every game between now and the end of the season.

Instead of embracing giving youngsters a chance, I had a comment which highlights the negative mindset of some fans:

And play them for the rest of the season even if we lose on Thursday?

So the first team squad get paid in full to take an early holiday and the supporters shell out too money to watch the kids!

So the immediate thought on reading my blog was “we are going to lose on Thursday” and “lets not play youth players”.

It really does highlight the negativity of some fans. That they will look for any reason to moan.

My hope is that a new manager will rid the club of this mindset. That fans will start to look at the positives of decisions made. Not the negatives.

And if after a new manager comes in, peoples minds still go to the negative first, it simply highlights that they are the problem with our fan base. That they will be negative no matter what. And that they should probably just give it up.

If you are unable to be positive about a new manager, unable to be positive about young local kids getting the chance, please stay away from Arsenal, from the ground, the pubs and social media. Your mindset adds nothing. It is not supportive. You are not a supporter.

Positive mental attitude. PMA. That is what we need from the fans going into the new era.

Keenos

Follow @KeenosAFC

PS: I know some will have a go at me for “digging” out fans. The majority of these people have also spent the last few years digging out positive fans and labelling them with acronyms. Conclusion: the majority of fans who moan all the time are also hypocrites…