Czarnikjak

Yes they've gotten nowhere so far, but not for lack of trying. To call them "Dead Club" while they investing in new stadium is ridiculous.

Far from it. In Moshiri and Usmanov they have very commited and very resourced owners. They just started construction of £600m 52k seater stadium. Current reduction in spending on players it's not due to lack of commitment from the owners but due to over investment in last few years and pushing FFP limit. Once they remove some deadwood from wagebill they will be in position to makes some more expensive signings again. Overall their owners appear to be just as ambitious and willing to invest as NSWE, but they struggled with execution so far. If they can improve their execution they will be fine.

Moshiri (Everton owner) said before appointing Ancelotti that they need a Hollywood manager. His attraction to big names explains this appointment

What is the right price though? Burnley will demand £40mil

Aren't they all rubbish? Name me one "itk" account that isn't full of rubbish

They spent heavily over last few years and struggle to stay within FFP limits. Free transfers while they trying to offload some high earning deadwood. Bernard for example, who hardly ever plays for them, is on 120k per week, same as grealish!

I think we are trying to emulate it to a degree by hoovering every talented 16 year old In the country. But we are not there yet and it will take few years to build up the rooster and the reputation required to pull this off.

It was Chelsea who had an option to extend his contract. They obviously must have known at that point that Milan want him. You are right £2m is not much, but better then nothing. Nothing wrong with it.

Its frightening how easy Man City are able to generate profit from selling their fringe players that never even kicked the ball for them in anger. Sales this summer alone (so far): Angelino - £16.2m Harrison - £11.5m Nmecha - £7.2m Sancho - £11.2m Thats staggering £46.1m from FFP balance freed up for new signings (plus another £12m of Aguero wages off the books). For some context, signing a "hypothetical" £100m player on 200k per week wage costs £30m per year from FFP standpoint (£100m fee + £50m wages = £150m divided by 5 years contract lenght equals £30m FFP cost per year)

Can you link the source where it says they paying whole White fee upfront? I would be surprised if this is the case, nothing unique to arsenal, but vast majority of transfers nowadays have payments scheduled in tranches.

A lot of myths is circulating around Arsenal and their debt, spread by people who don't fully understand the situation. Not all debt is a bad debt. Most of arsenal's debt is long term and low interested. It's perfectly serviceable given their revenue. Let me give you an example, most people in this country have mortgage that exceeds 5 times their yearly income and they are perfectly capable of paying it back and still spend on other things. Arsenal's debt is about 2-3 times theirs yearly revenue. Interest payments according to last published statements are only around £20mil. This is small in comparison to revenue of £350 mil. They are able to service it without a problem. Their cash position at the end of the season was about £100 mil cash in the bank, that will be reinforced by now by resumption of season ticket sales again. They were hit hard by covid, but the worst is behind them now with the stadium opening again.

Don't know who we end up getting but Dwight Mcneil is a potential target, Smith rates him highly apparently (i am not convinced by him but I will trust our scouting). I think what will transpire is that if we get upgrade at LW, Jack will play in the middle. And if we get upgrade at CAM ( like we tried and failed with ESR) Jack will play LW. Just depends who we can get.

Lol, we would all trade Wesley and Davis for Tammy...problem is nobody will take Wesley off us until he proves his fitness again. Davis is worth 3 quid and Josh onomah. You are right, it is a gamble to rely on Wesley as a backup to Watkins, but we have Taken a calculated risk on it. Spending £40 mil on another striker and thus not being able to reinforce wings/midfield sufficiently looks like a bigger risk to me.

I think we all agree that Tammy would be good addition and we all would like to see him here. The problem is that we have more pressing issues to address in other positions and simply can't spend another £40mil plus big wages on a striker. We already invested over £50mil on strikers in watkins and Wesley. Money is being spent and will be spend on midfield, wings and defensive cover.

The are certainly the weakest link of the Sky 6 right now...especially with the Covid blow and lack of European football. But they did manage to offload some big earners recently ( ozil, mustsfi, Luiz) that will give them some breathing space to refresh the squad. Their academy is also producing good talent (saka, ESR) so they won't drop off the cliff suddenly. We just need to chip away slowly and try to reduce the gap.

The average interest on their stadium bonds is about 2.5%, which equates to about £25m interest each year. Most of those bonds have long maturity well into 2030s. I don't actually expect them to repay this debt in full at that time, when the existing bonds near expiration they will simply refinance and keep paying interest. This is standard practice. Overall it was an excellent investment for them. They didn't spend a single penny of owners money to increase their revenues by about £100m per year at a cost of £25m yearly interest.

We need West fit again and playing some matches, even if he is not part of our long-term plans anymore. Otherwise we won't be able to shift him and recoup any of the £22 mil he cost. Hopefully he recovers fully and proves useful squad player for the future ( although my gut feeling is that he will be sold after regaining his fitness this season)

VillaTV Premium package was announced at the last meeting: £34.99 for access to all the Friendly matches plus 12 months VTV Premium (includes U23,U18 live matches and full reruns of 1st team matches). Good Deal? Any takers?

Hi MWARLEY2, Stadium operating costs are carried by the club and do count as a FFP expense. Additionally, as per club accounts, we are "paying" ourselves £2.6 mil yearly lease for the stadium. This also counts towards FFP. Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but there is no such thing as a Free FFP Lunch You can find the Lease details in the last published accounts - https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10176070/filing-history ( Group of companies' accounts made up to 31 May 2020 - its on the very last page, point 28 ) Regards

Hi, I am a football and Villa fan living in sunny Glasgow. looking forward to the new season. interested in the beautiful game and also the financial aspects of it. Thanks.