On Arsenal and "Financial Prudence"

If only someone paid me every time someone in the Arsenal board or Arsene Wenger himself extolled the virtues of ‘Financial Prudence’, I’d be quite rich by now. If the quest for a self-sustained business model was a religion, Arsenal Football Club would be its proverbial Mecca. It is here you will find the people who matter nodding their heads thoughtfully and uttering with practiced conviction – ‘We believe in a self-sustained model and financial prudence’.

Yes. Yes, we do.

Us Gooners can be quite a bitter bunch. We’re usually one of the first to pounce on the outrage of player wages, inflated transfer fees and owners with bottomless pockets spending every Euro they can muster. We’ve spent seven seasons now shaking our heads in disappointment, but turning our noses up at our rivals with a misguided sense of taking the moral high ground - “Sure, you won the Premier League, but look at all the money you spent. Ha!” A few more seasons of that, and we might start sounding like our counterparts in Liverpool clinging to their (undoubtedly glorious, but outdated) history.

The truth is, we’re upset. We’re frustrated. We’re envious. We love this club, and it pains us to be so habitually out of contention. It is this state of mind, which has most of us screaming, if not kneeling and begging, for Arsene Wenger to ‘splash the cash’. I’d love to see that myself, personally. Let’s face it though- it’s just not going to happen.

Hazard: 30-million player

We aren’t, anytime soon, going to be a club spending 30 odd million on a single player. A 30-million player, requires a 30-million player’s wages. Arsene Wenger and the board would never hear of it. So forget about one 30-million-player, let alone the “3-4 top quality” players we supposedly need. This club isn’t going to add a few hundred thousand pounds to the weekly wage bill.

Why? Simple – Financial Prudence.

While I’m willing to accept the path chosen by the board to maintain a positive cash flow, I find some things very hard to stomach.

1) Wouldn’t financial prudence require you to make sure your best players are never close to a year remaining on their contracts?

Any negotiation is about leverage. The lesser time a player has on his contract, the more leverage he has over a new deal if the club wants him to stay. It’s not rocket science. It’s obvious. What manner of ‘financial prudence’ allows us repeatedly let our best players fall into the last year of their contracts? Flamini, Nasri, Walcott and van Persie. We’ve been repeat offenders in this department and that has to change.

2) Wouldn’t financial prudence dictate not paying inflated wages to squad players?

I would stand by the club’s decision to not go for a Eden Hazard for 100k+ a week (assuming he even wanted to come). If that is the stand they choose to take, I’m willing to accept that and even go so far as to endorse it. What I will not stand for, however, is the justification for why squad players are paid inflated salaries already.

Denilson, who probably had his fate at this club sealed a couple of seasons ago, has a contract running up to 2014. No reason for him to be in a hurry to pack his bags. Johan Djourou just got an extension (albeit as a result of a clause in his previous contract). Nicklas Bendtner is also on a reported 40k-50k per week. I’m not singling anyone out, but I do feel this is the general policy the club has. This needs to change.

3) Wouldn’t financial prudence require us to win trophies?

Trophies don’t just come with a warm, fuzzy feeling of accomplishment (which I seem to have forgotten). It brings increased stature, popularity, merchandise sales and plenty of cold, hard cash. Wouldn’t it be ‘financially prudent’ to invest enough in a squad worthy of challenging for a trophy, and give control of that squad to a manager capable of leading that squad to glory? He’s done it before and there’s no reason Arsene cannot do it again.

The squad in it’s current form, though, is not good enough. A squad is built on more than a First XI. Building a strong first eleven, can be accomplished by our way of business. Building a strong squad, needs more than our current, rather convenient definition of ‘financial prudence’.

I’m not suggesting going on a mad spending spree. That’s not going to happen. Even with two billionaires holding large stakes in the club, the cash-shy one holds all the cards so a 30-million-player is a long way off. It is clear though, that if we do believe in this ‘financial prudence’ we brag about, things have to change. Our basic methods of doing business as a club have to change. That would make our manager’s and our board members’ sermons on ‘financial prudence’ far more believable.

At the moment, ‘financial prudence’ just seems to be a very misguided curtain to hide behind. Well, misguided or ill-intentioned. I just hope it’s the former.