29 Mar 2026 00:44:28
Why we should have sky-high expectations:
2nd highest wage bill behind City.
Arsenal's Five Highest Earners
Player
Annual Wage
Bukayo Saka
£15,600,000
Kai Havertz
£14,200,000
William Saliba
£13,000,000
Declan Rice
£11,700,000
Martin Odegaard
£11,400,000
Net spend over past 5 years
1) Manchester United five-year net spend: £-684.61m.
2) Arsenal five-year net spend: £-675.77m.
6) Liverpool five-year net spend: £-423.75m.
7) Manchester City five-year net spend: £-397.78m.
Ridiculous how expensive Kai is Vs Talent and points contribution.
Noting he wasn’t cheap either. How is he more on that much more than Rice - criminal.
"In net spend the last five years we are seventh, " Guardiola insisted.
Why shouldn’t expectations be high - huge wage bill and huge investment.
We haven’t sold a player for over 30m - we’ll run club? Really …. that’s poor.
My expectations are high due to the Club I follow but with patience, wages and investment we should see silverware and decent football to boot. It’s not a nice to have - it’s failure otherwise….
30 Mar 2026 06:34:10
You'd expect the trophy cabinet to fill up quickly looking at that. The return we are getting from Kai is laughable, really. Declan needs a new agent, I think.
30 Mar 2026 11:14:23
On the back of that, go and look at how much we sold Henry for. shocking
30 Mar 2026 14:41:04
In my opinion, your figures etc are, while true, don't tell the whole story.
When Mikel Arteta took over, again in my opinion we had a dreadful squad, which has totally been overhauled; only Saka and Martinelli remain, and kudos to the owners for allowing it to happen. It is taking a while, but we are nearly there. If you took our squad now, I would wager Saliba, Gabriel, Raya, Timber, Odegaard, Eze, Saka, Zubimendi, etc etc would be worth at least, or all but, £60 million on the open market. How have we got this situation? Ah yes, by spending a fortune. I have said this on multiple occasions, but between roughly 2012 - 2019 (when a lot of the 143 charges were also committed) City spent, and brace yourselves, a billion pounds more than Arsenal. Yep, 10 £100 million players. And Chelsea literally were cheating their arse off under Abramovich, and he's heralded a hero! I commend our club for sucking it up, competing with the oil money and Russian dodgy roubles.
Again, just me personally, but I'm proud of our club and the way we do things, as I'm sure I would feel just a little bit tainted with the way certain clubs achieved trophies. I have a respect for Liverpool for the way they do it, and Man U, as they try and do it the right way. City and Chelsea history is sketchy, trophy-wise, until the big bucks flowed. So our net spend vs City net spend is just taking into account the last 5 years, not the last 14 or so years, which has a massive bearing on sell on values. Pep is talking the truth, but not the whole truth as well, he knows. I really like Kai, but his agent played a blinder and Deckers should fire his, although the next contracts will be different, I would think. COYG.
30 Mar 2026 20:12:57
Hi Sussex,
2012 - 2019 financial steroids harmed Wenger's trophy haul & made his life tougher than it needed to be. Not sure if it impacts Arteta too much - Arteta decided to sell plenty of players he couldn't manage for no money. The club had spent a fortune in both wages & fees, which demand a return in style & trophies. The club have also given him plenty of time too.
I'm glad you like Kai. Not sure what his position is, as he's certainly not our goal scorer or the striker we need. His speed, touch, and goal prowess show that.
We got ripped off, and both wages / fee were ridiculous. Someone should get fired over that deal. The biggest issue was we needed a striker & we signed him. But same issue with Vik - needed a striker but signed him. He's not quite good enough.
Not sure looking at City spend over the last 14 years counts - why would money on KDB impact the past few years? His wage is in the numbers & his replacement would be in the numbers with no offset of fee received.
I agree about City & Chelsea - hate the cheaters. My point is, look how much we've spent.
30 Mar 2026 20:40:54
Hi Sy, hope all good! Main reason I disagree is City spent a billion, yep a billion more than us, so they are assets which mean they have a less net spend over last 5 years! Incredibly relevant, as I'm not sure if I've mentioned it, they spent a billion more than us and cheating while doing it.
Let's hope we stick it to them in the league. I'm sure it will be even more satisfying COYG.
31 Mar 2026 20:07:49
Yep - a real good sticking please.