Arsenal News Cesc – Barca - Sol & Nicklas
Cesc – Barca - Sol & Nicklas
Well, well. Not too much good news at the moment. First Sol Campbell. He’s reported to have signed a one-year contract with Premier League returnees Newcastle United, promoted back to the top flight as Football Championship winners at the end of last season.Â
This is a blow for us. I thought Campbell performed very well in the latter half of last season. We’ll also miss his steadying influence in the dressing room too. His performances were all the more remarkable when you take into account that prior to returning to us he only played one competitive game for Notts County away at Morecambe before bailing out of the financial house of mirrors at the world’s oldest professional football club. I can understand that he wants to play regularly in the twilight seasons of his career. He’s far more likely to do that at St James’ Park than at the Grove.Â
An audit of FC Barcelona’s accounts by international accounting firm Deloitte ordered by incoming club president Sandro Rosell shows that Barcelona lost €77 million (about £66.8 million) last season. Total income was €408.9 million (around £348.9 million). Outgoings were €477.9 million. Total debt now stands at €442 million.Â
You do have to take into account that FC Barcelona is a multi-sport club with major expenditure and income in other sports, particularly basketball, the second most popular team sport in Spain behind football and much more popular than it is here (there are two former FC Barcelona players currently playing in the NBA in North America).Â
All that said Barça managed to make a profit of only €11 million in the previous season when they won everything in sight including La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Champions League and the World Club Championship. They clearly are going to have pull in their financial horns as the new UEFA financial fair play regulations take effect.Â
All that should be good news for us as it will progressive limit the Catalans’ financial fire-power in their quest to poach Cesc Fà bregas from us. We’ll see. I suspect we’ll get to see him for one more season in our colours before he returns home. I’d hoped for longer but I always thought he’d go back to Barcelona at some stage.Â
On the injury front it appears the gremlins are working their malign magic yet again. It appears likely that Nicklas Bendtner will miss the start of the season with recurring groin problems. This is starting to become a big problem. Bendtner clearly wasn’t firing on all four cylinders for Denmark in the World Cup. Cesc Fà bregas (assuming he’s still with us) and Robin van Persie will also miss the start of the season as I predicted, not being due to return for pre-season training until 5 August. I think this is a smart move by the manager. I’d rather them miss a few games at the start of the season than run out of gas at the business end next February to May.Â
Whether we’re in contention for silverware then is an open question. We certainly need to strengthen. Another experienced central defender is required now that we know Sol Campbell won’t be with us. We also need to strengthen in goal. Manuel Almunia skippered the side in our latest pre-season win, after missing the first two friendlies. We shall see. I think we will struggle to do better than we did last season if we don’t. Last season was by no means a disaster but we weren’t close to good enough against the heavy hitters, against whom we picked up some comprehensive beltings.Â
Keep the faith!Â
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Comments
If not this season than there is next.....
Wenger knew Silvestre and Gallas were going he should ahve signed up Sol before the season ended instead they jerked him about and now he has signed for another club.
Bad decision
How did Wenger "mess people about"? Both Campbell and Flamini were offered contracts and chose not to sign them.
Flamini went to sit on an Italian bench and Sol hawked himself around half the clubs in England and Scotland before signing for Newcastle.
If anybody did any "messing around" it was the players not the club.
Same old Sol!
please dont give me that crap that I am not a real arsenal fan
Ideally he probably have wanted to tie everything up early, sadly in life nothing is straight forward, of course, you may be right that he is jerking us along but lets wait and see and in a few weeks time I'm sure there'll be plenty of abuse chucked around if the latter becomes fact.
Wow... you mean the transfer window is over already... I missed that.
you may end up being right but if he does spend in the next month then you'll look a real twat!
That's the simple truth, but I cling to my fool's hope that Wenger will actually spend the needed cash to get real quality players to the team. And please sooner rather than later. We need the team to gel well before the season starts, and in a dream world we would have been done with signings at this point. I guess in a nightmare world, we ARE actually done with our summer signings
I hold out my hope that we will sign Akinfeev (or Frey) for the goal, and someone like Mertesacker or Hangeland to strengthen our central defense. If those two positions are not strengthened, we will not stand a chance again the other big teams in the EPL. Also it would be great with another central midfielder of class, but I'm not greedy, and will settle for Akinfeev and Mertesacker!
With your wider sources close to the club do you get the impression that signings are still desired and are actively being sought or should we expect the usual rhetoric from Wenger of 'trusting the youngsters' that we get each closed season when it's obvious that our business is done and he wants to further the 'project'?
nice faith in the club. and the manager.
season not even started and the whinning begun.
thats right kiddies, its as easy as fantasy manager fifa. splash cash, buy buy buy, yip yip yip.
fack off the lot of you.
compared to last season's available players we have lost 3 centre backs (gallas, campbell, silvestre) and gained 3 available centre backs (koscielny, djourou, nordveit). So I think numbers is not lacking and nor is quality. What we lack is experience and consistency. We may get consistency with Koscielny but I would say we need 1 more centre back who has lots of experience who is in his late 20's or early 30's. Don't ask me who, I am not a football scout or manager.
We just need to be sensible and not risk rushing players back because we don't have any cover, that all depends on what the medical staff think i guess and what AW sees in training.
As for the Futbol de Barcelona, it is KMPG who checked Laporta's end of term summary. Lazy or lousy journalism. Deloitte are the auditors for Barcelona and Arsenal Holdings Plc., different partners being responsible. The audit for Barcelona's 2009/2010 accounting year should be in full swing, Arsenal Holdings should be completed by now.
Barcelona owed €60 millions of Income Tax from way back, this was paid off by borrowing, so Barcelona still owe somebody else €60 millions.
The Nike contract for Barcelona runs from 2008 to 2013 with a five-year option to 2018. The €250 millions now left is guarantee for the money Barcelona have borrowed. Real Madrid, BarÇa and Manure do overseas tours to help pay the interest on their borrowings.
The muppets who wish to spend more than they earn, should support teams that do that like Spuds, Pompey, Soton and the 'ammers.
or a d t h e
both will have the games for free on the internet
Why would Fabregas be likely to run out of gas before the end of the season? He only played a total of about one hour in South Africa, I should think he would want to get a few games under his belt as soon a possible.
As for RvP, the chances of him staying fit long enough to get worn out are, on past experience, as likely as President Obama awarding "Most Favoured Status " to British Petroleum (that's BP to the rest of the world).
@ Waz - my sources tell me that we're still in the market for players. With the new PL squad restrictions and UEFA financial fair play regs starting to bite this coming season we're going to be in much better shape than many in a couple of seasons. Many are going to have to really jam on the breaks and lose players. We nned a couple of players now though in my view.
We shouldn't be mugged off either for fees or salaries but we can more than afford a couple more players, You only have to look at the accounts to know that. Sol Campbell, William Gallas, Mikael Silvestre, Eduardo and Philippe Senderos (although most of his salary will have been covered by Everton last season) have all left and only two have joined so far, so there's room in the salary budget.
A good deal of that room will be taken up by players being offered new improved contracts but income should be up too with the new PL broadcasting contracts, assuming gates and ommercial income hold up OK.
In summary, there is money to spend, several tens of millions of it (on wages as well as fees though). I think AW is still in the market from what I hear. I just don't think he's as convinced of the necessity of reinforcements as many Gooners, including me, are.
HOW can Deloitte now claim their previous audits were rubbish. Why should they make a statement as reported, before completing the audit.
I have checked out the FC Barcelona Press Room, surprise, surprise, not a mention in any shape or form.
The Annual Report 2009/2010 will be interesting to see how the numbers have been juggled.
I, myself find the El Punt more subtle than the Sport types. The AS and Marca are best for the punters' views on various topics.
Neither Real Madrid or Barcelona are examples of supporters' ownership. Exeter and Brentford oerhaps!
Arsenal are linked up with many players so let's hope at least will become one of the Arsenal players!
He commented that the reason for Arsenal's lack of trophies is too many experienced players leaving the club too quickly.
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