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Daniel Levy - Chairman

Question RE our wage structure, plus also some of the things Wenger was touching on in the build up this week, and also with some of the Walker rumours.

The Walker stuff made me worry as if one player I thought was super loyal to Spurs and Poch, playing the best football of his career etc, could want to leave then it may make other players turn their heads too. Plus Wenger was saying that were coming up to a period of tough finances because of our stadium (as if we're competing financially at the moment anyway...LOL), but also Jonathan Liew writing in the Telegraph that players will eventually leave because they are making far less money than elsewhere - e.g. Kane supposedly on 80k according to him.

I don't agree with the Wenger thing, because we don't really need cash lying around that we won't spend, we need a bigger stadium for a bigger wage structure, so that will surely help. But I was also thinking, we must have sold this squad a vision of helping build this club into the new stadium, with a promise of greater wages once we get there, surely?

I guess what I'm asking/hoping/assuming is, good players won't be earning that much less here. We must but a heavy bonus component in our players contracts so that if they perform, they get paid well for it. Otherwise, I don't think any player would stick around just for the love of the club or the manager or the new stadium, and I could understand Walker wanting to go if he felt like he was about to hit his peak years. Because there's no way our players would work harder, run harder etc and achieve way more than their peers for half the money. Just wouldn't happen.

What I'm trying to say is, I think it's been clever by Levy. Young players will take lower basics, but we've shown we'll reward them fairly and proactively with increases the more they improve. And I can only imagine our bonuses must be comparably higher than other clubs to get around this idea and make sure players are fairly rewarded. Win bonuses, goal bonuses, league placing bonuses, clean sheet bonuses, I bet we put it all there and as such give the players another incentive to perform. We probably pay Sissoko quite a high base, but I bet Alli, Son and Eriksen make way more than him this year because they've been the performers.

And if we do that, we really don't have to worry about losing anybody, certainly not domestically, and only really if Real decide they need a galactico (and even Man United aren't immune to that). Which, if we do, we get a boat load of cash from to hopefully invest more wisely this time!
 
No club is gaurunteed to win this league, we look as likely to win it next year as anyone.
So if that's not enough and playing in front of a crowd likes today's and the Wembley crowds from earlier in the season then they can leave.
 
The scum were not financially doped. But they have had extra tens of millions per year to spend. When Levy took over, even our identity was lost. We were stuck with the negativity of Graham, who was associated with 1-0 to the scum, and they had a manager who played attractive passing football.

It took Levy a while, but on today of all days, you have respect his work.
 
Question RE our wage structure, plus also some of the things Wenger was touching on in the build up this week, and also with some of the Walker rumours.

The Walker stuff made me worry as if one player I thought was super loyal to Spurs and Poch, playing the best football of his career etc, could want to leave then it may make other players turn their heads too. Plus Wenger was saying that were coming up to a period of tough finances because of our stadium (as if we're competing financially at the moment anyway...LOL), but also Jonathan Liew writing in the Telegraph that players will eventually leave because they are making far less money than elsewhere - e.g. Kane supposedly on 80k according to him.

I don't agree with the Wenger thing, because we don't really need cash lying around that we won't spend, we need a bigger stadium for a bigger wage structure, so that will surely help. But I was also thinking, we must have sold this squad a vision of helping build this club into the new stadium, with a promise of greater wages once we get there, surely?

I guess what I'm asking/hoping/assuming is, good players won't be earning that much less here. We must but a heavy bonus component in our players contracts so that if they perform, they get paid well for it. Otherwise, I don't think any player would stick around just for the love of the club or the manager or the new stadium, and I could understand Walker wanting to go if he felt like he was about to hit his peak years. Because there's no way our players would work harder, run harder etc and achieve way more than their peers for half the money. Just wouldn't happen.

What I'm trying to say is, I think it's been clever by Levy. Young players will take lower basics, but we've shown we'll reward them fairly and proactively with increases the more they improve. And I can only imagine our bonuses must be comparably higher than other clubs to get around this idea and make sure players are fairly rewarded. Win bonuses, goal bonuses, league placing bonuses, clean sheet bonuses, I bet we put it all there and as such give the players another incentive to perform. We probably pay Sissoko quite a high base, but I bet Alli, Son and Eriksen make way more than him this year because they've been the performers.

And if we do that, we really don't have to worry about losing anybody, certainly not domestically, and only really if Real decide they need a galactico (and even Man United aren't immune to that). Which, if we do, we get a boat load of cash from to hopefully invest more wisely this time!

If you look at our total wage bill compared to the richest five clubs in the league, it is clear that we are paying significantly less than our competitors. We cannot hope to compete with them on this.

The question is, does bringing in young players and getting them to develop with us, develop a bond between them and the club/manager that they are reluctant to break?

I am sure that we will see some players chase the money but as long as we keep the core of the squad together, get decent money from sales and spend it well, that may not be a hindrance. Some refreshing of the squad can be a good thing because it keeps players on their toes.
 
If you look at our total wage bill compared to the richest five clubs in the league, it is clear that we are paying significantly less than our competitors. We cannot hope to compete with them on this.

The question is, does bringing in young players and getting them to develop with us, develop a bond between them and the club/manager that they are reluctant to break?

I am sure that we will see some players chase the money but as long as we keep the core of the squad together, get decent money from sales and spend it well, that may not be a hindrance. Some refreshing of the squad can be a good thing because it keeps players on their toes.

No doubt we aren't going to compete on wage bill, but what about bonuses? Is this ever taken into account? There's a good chance we'll pay higher on bonuses to level it up as much as we can. Not saying that means we pay Real Madrid money in reality just that I'd think it narrows the gap somewhat to the other clubs in our league. Otherwise I just cannot see why Eriksen would sign something for 75k per week.
 
No doubt we aren't going to compete on wage bill, but what about bonuses? Is this ever taken into account? There's a good chance we'll pay higher on bonuses to level it up as much as we can. Not saying that means we pay Real Madrid money in reality just that I'd think it narrows the gap somewhat to the other clubs in our league. Otherwise I just cannot see why Eriksen would sign something for 75k per week.

Bonuses would be shown as salaries in the accounts. This is where the wage bill comparisons come from. We are way behind and cannot close the gap anytime soon.

We will pay Eriksen more than most clubs in Europe can pay. What is scary though, is that until he signed his new deal, we were paying him less than Chelsea were paying Rufus Loftus-Cheek.
 
I think we'll see that wage difference narrow in the next few years - it wont be closed but I think the difference will narrow. Look at all the new contracts which we've signed in the last 12 months - they'll all have pay rises included in them.

Our modus operandi also means our wage bill is naturally going to be lower - we rarely sign players in the say 26-30 year old range when players are at their peak and can demand huge wages when moving to a new club. All the other top 6 clubs do sign players like that so will have higher wage bills
 
The problem with footballers, and any athlete for that matter, is that their careers are very short, so they need to earn as much as possible in a short period of time. Visions, camaraderie, etc. will be almost always be trumped by that, unless the player is earning a good chunk of his money outside of football (endorsements). So we have to increase our wage bill, if we want to keep a team intact for many years, and even that won't guarantee our top top players will stay.
 
I think we'll see that wage difference narrow in the next few years

I think that is unlikely

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@BoL

Don't forget that lower wages can perversely work in our favour i.e. Ozil is seriously underperforming for the Goons... but in commentary Lee Dixon said Ozil likes living in London and is happy pocketing a massive salary regardless of how much he tracks back, so he has become complacent and the Goons are stuck with him.

And we only retain the truly hungry, hard-working players rather than mercenaries.

But yes, the gap is too much at present and players can certainly have their heads turned as soon as Poch leaves or results start to slide.

It will be a shame if we pull in another £100m in gate receipts each year and it just goes directly into the pockets of agents and players... those that are already here... it would be easy to spend a LOT of money and not achieve all that much comparatively speaking.
 
I still think we're moving towards a flat wage structure where first team players get a certain wage and squad players get say 30% less, and so on. With people knowing each other's wages so it's the carrot and stick

I believe in America it's the normal way to declare who earns what publicly And it drives competition (probably good and bad)

Some players will depart for more money but if we're sensible and take the right steps (which so far we are) we can be like Dortmund and atletico in that we're very very competitive without mega money turnover and wages
 
Question RE our wage structure, plus also some of the things Wenger was touching on in the build up this week, and also with some of the Walker rumours.

The Walker stuff made me worry as if one player I thought was super loyal to Spurs and Poch, playing the best football of his career etc, could want to leave then it may make other players turn their heads too. Plus Wenger was saying that were coming up to a period of tough finances because of our stadium (as if we're competing financially at the moment anyway...LOL), but also Jonathan Liew writing in the Telegraph that players will eventually leave because they are making far less money than elsewhere - e.g. Kane supposedly on 80k according to him.

I don't agree with the Wenger thing, because we don't really need cash lying around that we won't spend, we need a bigger stadium for a bigger wage structure, so that will surely help. But I was also thinking, we must have sold this squad a vision of helping build this club into the new stadium, with a promise of greater wages once we get there, surely?

I guess what I'm asking/hoping/assuming is, good players won't be earning that much less here. We must but a heavy bonus component in our players contracts so that if they perform, they get paid well for it. Otherwise, I don't think any player would stick around just for the love of the club or the manager or the new stadium, and I could understand Walker wanting to go if he felt like he was about to hit his peak years. Because there's no way our players would work harder, run harder etc and achieve way more than their peers for half the money. Just wouldn't happen.

What I'm trying to say is, I think it's been clever by Levy. Young players will take lower basics, but we've shown we'll reward them fairly and proactively with increases the more they improve. And I can only imagine our bonuses must be comparably higher than other clubs to get around this idea and make sure players are fairly rewarded. Win bonuses, goal bonuses, league placing bonuses, clean sheet bonuses, I bet we put it all there and as such give the players another incentive to perform. We probably pay Sissoko quite a high base, but I bet Alli, Son and Eriksen make way more than him this year because they've been the performers.

And if we do that, we really don't have to worry about losing anybody, certainly not domestically, and only really if Real decide they need a galactico (and even Man United aren't immune to that). Which, if we do, we get a boat load of cash from to hopefully invest more wisely this time!


I think this is pretty close to bang-on.

Our basic wage is likely no more than average, but our bonus systems are lucrative and leave players earning a whole lot more than it looks on paper when the performances are strong. In fact, it is an excellent way of doing it, the right way IMO...I understand, however, the problems involved...
 
@BoL

Don't forget that lower wages can perversely work in our favour i.e. Ozil is seriously underperforming for the Goons... but in commentary Lee Dixon said Ozil likes living in London and is happy pocketing a massive salary regardless of how much he tracks back, so he has become complacent and the Goons are stuck with him.

And we only retain the truly hungry, hard-working players rather than mercenaries.

But yes, the gap is too much at present and players can certainly have their heads turned as soon as Poch leaves or results start to slide.

It will be a shame if we pull in another £100m in gate receipts each year and it just goes directly into the pockets of agents and players... those that are already here... it would be easy to spend a LOT of money and not achieve all that much comparatively speaking.

Agreed, good point, and there's something to be said for not giving young players too much too soon. McDermott said some good stuff about this as regards to our academy, but we do need players that are driven by mission, desire and a greater purpose other than just money.

But I do think we need to find a way of paying our top players in such a way that isn't so much of a big difference compared to our rivals. Who knows, maybe we already do with bonuses etc. Otherwise, I can't believe Lloris and Eriksen for example are going to hang around. There's a point where players will likely think they should start earning money and they've improved enough for less cash.
 
I still think we're moving towards a flat wage structure where first team players get a certain wage and squad players get say 30% less, and so on. With people knowing each other's wages so it's the carrot and stick

I believe in America it's the normal way to declare who earns what publicly And it drives competition (probably good and bad)

Some players will depart for more money but if we're sensible and take the right steps (which so far we are) we can be like Dortmund and atletico in that we're very very competitive without mega money turnover and wages

I don't think that we are. The only club in the league with a model like that is Arsenal and I don't think that it has been a success there.

Our model seems to be frequently offering new contracts with improved terms to reward good performances.
 
I think this is pretty close to bang-on.

Our basic wage is likely no more than average, but our bonus systems are lucrative and leave players earning a whole lot more than it looks on paper when the performances are strong. In fact, it is an excellent way of doing it, the right way IMO...I understand, however, the problems involved...

Those bonuses are included in the wage stats that are included in the Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance though which is where most of the salary comparisons come from. Even with the bonuses, we are paying well behind our competitors.
 
I don't think that we are. The only club in the league with a model like that is Arsenal and I don't think that it has been a success there.

Our model seems to be frequently offering new contracts with improved terms to reward good performances.

Arsenal pay crazy money for mediocre players

They had the bentdner on £65k and he changed his number to it... Their wage bill is over a Mill a week more than ours

I'm thinking more of everyone on £100k which sounds crazy for now but is very palatable in the new world
 
Those bonuses are included in the wage stats that are included in the Deloitte Annual Review of Football Finance though which is where most of the salary comparisons come from. Even with the bonuses, we are paying well behind our competitors.

But if that salary data is concentrated heavily on the top performers, there's probably an idea there that bonuses are playing compatibly more of a part? Overall, we may not be spending much relatively speaking, but as with my Sissoko example, he's probably taking a 75k base but whose to say Alli hasn't been pulling 150/200k a week on average including bonuses this year when it's all taken into account? I may be totally wrong, and maybe it wouldn't be sustainable, but that's a way of paying only our real top performers the top wages that can compare. Similarly Kane must also get an absolute wedge which moves him up there, and I imagine Toby and Jan must get a heavy amount for clean sheets plus wins. We can do this because the likes of Trippier, Lamela, Sissoko, Wimmer, Janssen, Winks, CCV, Davies, Vorm, GKN are probably paid comparatively a lot less. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised to hear Vorm getting a comparitively high base compared to lots of other members of the squad because he has less chance of making appearances for example.

Maybe someone with the time and inclination could look into our last accounts and see if that works? Of course, there's no reason why a Man United also couldn't offer heavy win bonuses, but they will also have a squad with more experienced players that can realistically demand it be higher. As long as our young players are consistently rewarded with new terms, key roles, constant improvement and more money through bonuses than they've ever dreamed of, they're probably very happy. When they hit Walker's age for example maybe they start thinking about the money (although guys like Toby, Jan, Mousse and Hugo don't seem to mind) maybe we will move them on, but only after we've got the best out of them and probably when their inclination to run quite as much or focus too much on the 'system' is reduced.
 
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