₦airaland Forum

@Slim
Arsene said Diaby was injured prior to the Wolves game.

debosky:
Because we have to hold this thread to a high standard - meaningless posts are reserved for the scumtwat or totoham threads.

Who appointed yu high judge and inquisitor Debo? when yu show me the last player who was brought fresh from secondary school into a european first division club and settled in like Miyaichi then I'll accept what you say. Don't forget we also got RVP from Feyenoord as a 21 year old. This chap just clocked 18 in december.

debosky:
EVERY PLAYER whose career isn't over yet for Arsenal 'might' become the best signing ever. Even Rozzi, if he scores winning goals in the CC final and CL final this season might be called that.

Your comment is like seeing every newborn baby and saying he/she 'might' have the biggest head ever seen on this earth and jumping up and down in excitement.

In essence, it is a meaningless comment at this point in time - get some actual evidence beyond 2 games before you start hyperventilating.

Why then are you hyperventilating over something meaningless?  You need some of Iya Nasiru's shekpe.

debosky:
^^ You sure love getting carried away don't you?

Best signing ever because he's doing well for Feyenoord and after just two or three games?

I'm sure we've had players with more impressive starts than that who didn't amount to much - you really need to stay off Iya Nasiru's good stuff on Monday mornings.

I wish him well, but premature hype has ended the career of many budding youth talents.

Don't start any wahala again this morning joo, yu know the difference between 'might' and 'will'?

manmustwac:
Listen dumbo you associate the word white with cleanliness & neatness and you associate the word arse anal (which happens to be the team you support) with fvckin shite that comes out of your arse stooped eeediot  

Yeah, everyone shites but yur lane is our shiting place and your Jersey our toilet tissue yu rasclaat.

ritchboy:
^^ How long will it take Wellington to get a permit? The window of opportunity for Arsenal to sign Hazard is closing fast. . . I fear it might have closed sef if, say Madrid are planning to offer the boy bigger bucks than Arsenal.

Miyaichi is doing well but not Arsenal quality yet.

I fear Wellington might be the last to get a permit, Galindo already has a cap for Bolivia and I expect him to get more while Ryo is likely to get caps quickly too for Japan on the strength of his showing at Feyenoord but Wellington is not likely to get a cap for Brazil anytime soon.
Sure Miyaichi is not ready to start for us yet, but all that remains for the boy to learn is in the tactical department, imagine picking a boy just completing secondary school and throwing him into a first division team in Europe and he has this kinda impact?
Miyaichi might just turn out to be Arsene's best signing ever if he keeps going, all we paid for him was his agent's fees.

@Jencejyde
Song + Wilshere/Diaby vs Xavi + Iniesta will determine the outcome of this match. I will also prefer we start Arshavin and Nasri (if fit) as wide forwards with the option to bring Theo on later. The rest of the team picks itself.
The options Arsene has to decide on are Wilshere/Diaby and Arshavin/Theo (if Nasri is fit). Arsene knows very well that yu don't put square pegs in round holes when yu play Barca.

manmustwac:
the capacity is enough shite for you to eat four times a day for the rest of your life 

we no dey chop shite for Arsenal, na caviar dey boku for our menu. 
so yu sef gree say na shite full the place. 

manmustwac:
Niko Kranjcher who wanted to leave during the Janurary transfer window coz he can't even get a game because of Gareth Bale scored the winning goal in his second consecutive game. Don't bet against us not finishing fourth this season 

Na yam abi na beans yu call am? 
water get to find im level.
Just outta interest manmuswak, wetin be the capacity of shite hard lane sef?

slimshay:
Please people I have one quick question: Where is Ivan Gazidis.

Gazidis is very much around, been a lot going on behind the scenes with a government inquiry recently visiting Arsenal to learn more about how the club is run as well as the fanshare scheme to introduce fan ownership. Our way of running the club is really being appreciated and we are increasingly being held up as the model for others to follow. See a clip of one of such recent events where he spoke.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/free-video-mps-visit

You'll be hearing from him soon at the end of February when the Half year reports are due, word on the street is that we might be declaring profit below 25m this year for 2 main reasons:

1. No major player sales apart from Eduardo
2. The property sales is finally winding down.

ritchboy:
If na play stop am!!!
Shoe get size

ritchyboy, yu know no one likes Hazard more than me but I'm beginning to think we might not need him depending on how Wellington and this Miyaichi boy turn out, within 2 matches Miyaichi's name is already being sung at Rotterdam and fans are already bringing Japanese flags to the stadium and bowing for the boy who up till he joined us had only played secondary school football, remember we also need to enter the Asian market, what better way than to have such a talent come through with us?
Here is a clip of his performance over the weekend.
[flash=400,400]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyyebqeCBE8?fs=1&hl=en_GB[/flash]

If anyone still has doubts over the technical quality of players our academy is now producing, go have a look at what Rangers fans are saying about Kyle Bartley's performance as a holding MF on saturday. They already want him back for next season on the back of his performance in just one game. 

Wordsmith:
^ he's busy servicing Gomez in the dressing room, with Van Gaal watching aptly. . .

I'm liking this Miyaichi boy, he scored and assisted for Feyenoord today after last week's MOM debut stormer, abeg make Japan cap the boy quick so we can bring him over in the summer, we might not even need Hazard anymore at the rate this boy is developing. For someone who has only played high school football prior to joining us, he has adapted to professional football so quickly.

Happy Birthday HNIC, thots of that RVP brace should spice up the celebrations.

Ifedisky:
My man of the match? Wilshere. That guyz got extravagant skills man

With every game he improves, to hell with Capello and his Jackelele moves, this boy looks like the complete package with each game and just does everything right, I can almost count his wrong decisions in about 30 games on my hands. He shld just work a bit on that right leg and he'll be unplayable. MOM for me again, HUGE player in the making.

Abeg Dr. Kit and Proudly stop being semantic checkers on the thread jare. Na anxiety cause am for jencyjyde, somebody should dash him some valium so he'll be able to sleep tonite.   

dayokanu:
How can van Bommel who left Barca immediately after winning the CL and captained the Dutch team who were world cup finalist be past his prime?

I tire for Gayyner reasoning sha

Why then have yu suddenly realised that he is past his prime now? it is not yet a year since the world cup.

@Switch

Na the bad belle wey he get for Arsenal dey perpetuate genocide for DK brain cells, him grey and white mata don dey become endangered species small small becos dem no agree with am.

If him brain GDP never drop, he go recognise say na all seater stadium dem get for England but dem Nazi matchday population still dey include the living, the dead and the living-dead wey go stadium dey standa like people for Oshodi.

Before the advent of all seater stadia in England (after the liverpool tragedy) Arsenal used to record attendance in excess of 90,000.

Very Interesting and illuminating Xavi interview, really sounds down to earth, yu almost wonder where all the noise in the press came from.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/feb/11/xavi-barcelona-spain-interview?CMP=twt_gu

portions that will interest Arsenal fans:

On Cesc Fabregas

[Quote] That's not what Arsenal fans want to hear and some have accused Barcelona players, you included, of stirring trouble. Last summer there were so many remarks supposedly coming out of Barcelona …

Really? I hardly spoke then. I imagine they wouldn't have liked that. [Xavi pauses, adding quietly, almost shamefacedly] You know, often footballers don't think. We're selfish, we don't realise. I also say it because I'm thinking of Cesc. He wants to come here. Barcelona has always been his dream. But of course he's Arsenal's captain, the standard bearer, a leader. This situation is a putada [bummer] for him. He's at a club that plays his style with Wenger who has treated him well, taught him, raised him. Cesc respects him. If he'd been at, say, Blackburn it might have been easier to leave. Look, the truth is: I want him to come here. Of course. Barcelona have a very clear style and not many footballers fit. It's not easy. But Cesc fits it perfectly.[/quote]On the UCL tie:
[Quote]
Last year, you beat Arsenal comfortably …

Yes, but this year they're much better. I think it's a disadvantage for us that we played last year. They had [too] much respect for us. It was as if they let us have the ball; we always had it, home and away. The game in London could have been a 4-0 we dominated so much – but it finished 2-2. This year will be different.

What was your reaction to the draw?

I was happy. I like the fact that we'll see a great game. Arsenal aren't the kind of team that come to try to putear you [piss you off, break up the game, destroy the match]. If it was Chelsea, you might think Madre mía, they're going to leave the initiative to you, wait deep, close up, play on the break with Drogba and Malouda. But, no, I think Arsenal will want the ball. There will be more of a game. As a fan I'd definitely pay for a ticket to see this game. Manchester United or Chelsea would play in a more speculative way. They would leave us the ball. Arsenal won't.[/quote]On comparisons between Arsenal and Barcelona:

[Quote] Next week you play Arsenal again in the Champions League last 16. Are they different? A kind of Barcelona-lite?

Arsenal are a great team. When I watch Arsenal, I see Barça. I see Cesc carry the game, Nasri, Arshavin. The difference between them and us is we have more players who think before they play, quicker. Education is the key. Players have had 10 or 12 years here. When you arrive at Barça the first thing they teach you is: think. Think, think, think. Quickly. [Xavi starts doing the actions, looking around himself.] Lift your head up, move, see, think. Look before you get the ball. If you're getting this pass, look to see if that guy is free. Pum. First time. Look at [Sergio] Busquets – the best midfielder there is playing one-touch. He doesn't need more. He controls, looks and passes in one touch. Some need two or three and, given how fast the game is, that's too slow. Alves, one touch. Iniesta, one touch. Messi, one touch. Piqué, one touch. Busi [Busquets], me … seven or eight players with one touch. Fast. In fact, [the youth coach] Charly [Rexach] always used to say: a mig toc. Half a touch.[/quote]

@Slim

No follow join o, yu keep some of us in check.   
The most important thing is for the boys to beat Wolves tomorrow, if they lose its got nothing to do with finances.

@Jencejyde

I agree there is a substantial amount of optimism in my forward projections, but then that is why I'm a fan. The flip side is to believe that we can't achieve anything except we go the way of the sugardaddy owned clubs but that is as well an equal or even more biased extreme of pessimism.
There is a middle ground to be reached and I believe we stand the best chance of getting there with Arsene at the helm.

As to the impact of the FFP rules, there will definitely be loopholes but it will definitely still put a rein on spending and bring some more sanity into the transfer market no matter how those loopholes are exploited. The easiest way to circumvent it that has been suggested is to put in money by inflating commercial deals through some fronts but there will definitely be a limit to what can be done. For example a 200m 4 year deal with City for shirt sponsorship when the next most expensive in value is a 100m deal some other company has with Barca will either raise more than a few eyebrows or cause a general upward pressure on commercial deals in general within the football industry.

At least he is better than Mark Van Bommel who wants to play for Tottenham.

I've gone through those financial statements at http://www.arsenaltrust.org/recent-news.php?article=332&id=&year= as the AST are those behind the fanshare scheme. The most significant portion of that statement IMO which yu've over looked is this.

[Quote]What is easy to lose sight of amongst all the fanfare surrounding Arsenal’s financials every time the  figures are announced is that on a football basis only, before player trading, Arsenal Football Club just about breaks even. In crude terms, football income and football costs are just about in balance. Player trading has generated the football profits in recent years.[/quote]another interesting quote from the report is below,
[Quote]It is of course the case that ‘sugar daddy’ clubs will out bid all competition and have a distorting effect on player prices. In contrast to this the funds now available to Arsene have been generated from within the Club albeit mainly from player sales which is all a part of the self sustaining business model that has been adopted.[/quote]seems yu didn't check out the other parts and only picked the part that mentioned 25m without a full consideration of what that 25m entails.

The 25m yu said was available is the amount in the TPA(Transfer Proceeds Accounts) which is a percentage of the balance available from player trading since the ring fencing between the property and footballing arm of the business was done. How exactly do yu think we got this money for spending? by Arsene's dexterity in the Market selling off the likes of Henry, Hleb, Adebayor etc. while bringing in young players who are expected to increase in value and bargain price quality players like Vermaelen and co. In the same time Arsene has been making this money others have been spending like no tomorrow and yu expected the same results?

Here is the full picture of what the AST thinks about this 25m yu claim exist:
[Quote]
One of the many financial covenants agreed to by the Club states that at least 70% of player sales proceeds has to be either spent on ‘squad investment’ or retained in a Transfer Proceeds Account, basically a bank account "charged" to the stadium lenders as additional security. Whilst it is clear that the investment in the salaries of the existing squad members will have accounted for some of this required ‘squad investment’ (with a new Sami Nasri contract likely to be the next significant investment), the AST believes that funds are available for player purchases in this window.[/quote]Note the use of the term "squad investment" and not transfer budget and when the AST says funds are available they didn't exactly specify how much. The specific details of the terms of this TPA is also not clearly stated as it also serves as additional security for some borrowings, no one will say for certain how much of the money needs to be retained and under what terms.
And when yu speak of squad investments, keep in mind that

1. all the youngsters we buy will also come from same acct, you can't rejoice that we've produced players like Djorou, Szczesny, Cesc and Song and then complain if the manager refuses to blow all that money just to buy a David Luiz type player when he can't even be sure that buying Luiz alone would guarantee a trophy.

2. The money for contract renewals is also part of this and will guarantee that we don't lose these players on frees or having to sell them ridiculously cheap when their contracts are running out like happened with Pienaar at Everton.

My summation of how Arsenal operates at present is simple,

1. No money is coming in from the owners pockets.
2. Commercial revenues are hampered (mostly) by commitments due to borrowings for stadium financing.
3. The board know about these constraints and have given Arsene the task of running the club sustainably as the first priority but I'm not sure if they can divert money from the property arm during desperate times as was rumored to have happened during the Arshavin transfer saga.

It is also my belief that things will improve with time for the following reasons

1. Each passing year brings an improvement in finances (depending on how we perform mostly in the PL and UCL) debt reduces, money becomes available for investment and yes maybe some of us will finally smile to the bank with dividends even if its just 50p to stick in a vending machine. 
2. Our talented but young squad continues to grow (and we've recently stopped bleeding quality cos we no longer need to), we also have a productive academy and scouting system which continues to produce players for use and for sale.
3. As we progress our opponents lose steam and will be greatly hampered when the FFP rules come into play

@proudly

Where I depart from most people is this belief that Arsene has money and doesn't want to spend it is not true, this is not a simple decision about making a choice between buying a Carina or Yerimbeto, in organisations there are different types of long term strategic plans. The only person who can convince me that Arsene is only stubbornly holding on to money is somebody who has access to the accounts and can come up with his own alternative plan as to how he believes the money would have been better spent, anything else is just hot air and uninformed views.

If Arsene wasn't meeting up to the metrics of the strategic vision he wouldn't have lasted this long. Follow any news report anywhere and yu'll see they all sing from the same hymn sheet, Gazidis recently said that Arsene is allowed to attend strategic board meetings and make input, I'm not sure even Fergie is given that opportunity at Manure which is owned by the Glazers. The buzz word in Arsenal now is sustainability, some may disagree with the principle but I agree with it completely.

Adieu Claudia Aderotimi, yu found out in the wrong way that Industrial Sillicone and blood don't mix. That doc should go to jail for manslaughter or murder.

And Van Bommel wasn't past his prime when he played for Bayern last season?

@proudlynaija

Give the man a break naa, him title na professor no be omniscient, if yu want 100% assurance go employ T.B Joshua.

mystikal:
Walcott crying blood for England

That will make dem like him more, na those kain things dem dey like pass skill on the ball, they'll say he showed grit and determination to pass the ball first despite blood in his eyes

See Jackie boy looking like a legend already. 
this shld renew the interest of many Arsenal fans in the 3 Lions but this Capello of a man should stop that rubbish about Jack being an holding MF abeg.
No wonder why England fumbled so badly in the world cup, the baba is sounding clueless these days.

mystikal:
Rosicky scores for Czech. . . . . . ._{Eduardo on score sheet too for the Croats}

Ope o, lets all hope that the jazz on his legs messing up his shooting has finally been removed. 

debosky:
So you’re talking about 20-30 years before the ‘machine’ will get into full swing? Jesu Christi!

I have not said that it will take 20 years, Barcelona had an academy for a long time  (just like Chelsea/Liverpool also have academies) but their periods of success have dovetailed with the times they've been able to get players through to their first team from their academy and B sides. In the periods they've been unable to do that and gone H-2-H with RM in terms of expenditure on players, they've been trounced thoroughly because Madrid will always outspend them.

debosky:
Na wa oh, so you’ve joined your uncle in redefining English? Conservatism is refusal to spend, even when needed - simple.

Conservatism is an attitude that opposes or resists change, I see the prevailing disposition in football and particularly the EPL as one which encourages throwing money at problems to solve them but see the academy system as one which aims to show there is a better and more sustainable way.

debosky:
Wenger IS conservative to the extreme - I agree with not overpaying as a habit, but when you have an individual case where the potential benefit to the club far outweighs the cost, Wenger will still tend NOT to spend.

This is where we disagree, I do not accept that Wenger will not pay where the potential benefit outweighs the cost, some would come on here and say Theo was overpriced and some are already complaining about the 10m we were supposed to pay for Chamberlain, infact there is a slight contradiction in terms in that statement Debo, it is not overpaying if the potential benefit outweighs the cost.
Arshavin, Vermaelen, Hleb, Koscielney and a rapidly improving Theo are clear examples that do not fit yur assertion.

debosky:
Breaking a wage record to sign Sol on a FREE TRANSFER is a no-brainer. Before Arshavin, the last ‘big purchase’ was Wiltord/Reyes for crying out loud. Since 2004, Wenger only signs ‘big’ when the team is in danger of imploding, instead of signing big on the verge of success to take things to the next level. That is conservatism of the highest order.

This is our point of disagreement, yu can 'overpay' to take things to the next level as yu say and as chelsea have shown and Manure to a lesser degree making losses year upon year despite considerably higher financial muscle and better results in silverware, if there are reasonable buys there to take us to the next level I trust Arsene enough to find it as he has shown with his purchases. If Arsene doesn't buy, its either there is a prospective internal solution, the cost doesn't justify the benefits or the club simply cannot afford it. I judge the man on who he buys not who I think is available based on figments of reporters and pundits' imaginations that can easily be spouted out without any research.

debosky:
When will this system get into full swing?? How will it ever reach such a point without the additional spending to take you over the hump of not winning? Without that, you will be in perpetual rebuilding mode.

The guiding principle for the club is to follow its principle of sustainability and trust it into the hands of a man they feel is best at pursuing it, I doubt that a time limit was set on this strategic direction when they set out with it, if there was  it is either being reviewed as circumstances change or in line with improvements in the financial metrics of the club.

debosky:
We are in this situation because we keep selling the players who were bought and cannot replace them. It is more by necessity rather than by choice.

You are right about the necessity to sell players, I did allude to that when I mentioned that one of the places where we were making profit is in player transfers, I'll also want to point out that it should be clear now that the tide is changing. We had 2 players we could have sold for nothing less than 25m each in the summer (Cesc and RVP) but none of them went, we could also have sold and we may still sell any of Bendtner/Denilso/Vela for anything between 8m to 15m but make no mistake about it the presence of so many home grown players in our Team is not by mistake, it is the outcome of a carefully implemented strategy.

debosky:
Absolute rubbish - they paid 40m for Villa, and a more ridiculous figure the year before for Ibra. Barca simply believe their initial attachment to Cesc entitles them to a cheaper price, and not based on any financial limitations.

I know which to believe between yur assumption as an onlooker and a press statement by an official of the club, I leave others to make their own judgements.   

The issue is that there is a time for everything. There was a time we were selling our top talent cos that was what the times and the conditions in the club demanded, now we are no longer doing that.
We needed time for the youngsters to grow, even now you would accept a good number of them have now grown and have ample room for improvement still.

From Barcelona's history, they had a period like this despite having started their La Masia program a long time ago (late 70s or early 80s according to their history), they still needed to fully commit to it for a lean period to bring through the likes of Xavi and Iniesta and the production machine is still in full swing while they now use their attractive brand and history to attract quality players for less (e.g. buying Affelay for just 2.5m)

I don't share this belief that Arsene is conservative, no way. The man who broke a wage record then to sign Sol Campbell is not conservative, infact the entire youth arrangement is the very opposite of conservatism. Conservatism in my opinion is believing that you can just throw money at a problem to make it go away (The Real Madrid/Chelsea way of doing things) I have seen that road and the end isn't usually good.

In the grand scheme of things, I believe the 5 year lean period will become insignificant once our system gets into full swing, The set of Giggs/Scholes have shown that once yu have a core of players, they can serve for quite an extended period with just a little pruning and grafting.

I have asked severally for anyone to point out 3 teams both in the PL and on the continent that have as many home grown players making up the core of their squad (about 50%) as we currently have and competing at the top end always but no one has been able to answer (The only ones that have a semblance of what we do are Barca, Lyon and maybe DK's lot).
Ajax who initially showed such a system could work have been severely hampered by the financial limitations of the Dutch league. The next logical step is to start winning and I know it will definitely happen.

See what Barcelona officials are now saying about buying Cesc and compare that to what Madrid did with CR9 and you will see the difference in philosophy that I pointed out:
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2011/02/09/2344800/barcelona-can-only-afford-to-pay-34m-for-arsenal-captain

Abi o, na condition make crayfish bend and rich man com dey mess anyhow. Dem no suppose mention Chelsea and Liverpool for the same sentence. Na Gillette and Hicks wreck that great club.

dayokanu:
Lets count how many coaches from germany have won the world cup, Euro cup and compare it to England.

The Galactico reign of the late 90's and early 2000 was started by a german coach Juup Heyckenes.

The greatest upset in football history where Greece won the Euros was done by another german otto Rehhagel, Tell us what any Englishman has done in modern football

ambient noise 
Sir Alf Ramsey also won the world cup and the likes of Nigel Clough have won the European cup severally but are we talking about then or now? 
There are all sort of nationalities (French, Spanish, e.t.c) as coaches in the currently best league in Europe but there is no German there.

medjai:
Actually, German league is the most profitable in Europe. They make more money than the EPL.

https://www.nairaland.com/nigeria/topic-460932.0.html

Profitability and Revenue generation are 2 different things, surely you know that?
being more profitable simply means they are managing their money better but they definitely do not make more money. We all already know transfer fees and wages are way out of control in the PL with the financial doping by Abramovic and co. The massive difference in wages of about 700m already more than accounts for why they are more profitable and that is why  Van Bommel wants to go to Tottenham.

I agree it could be better, to say that all things are perfect is to assume yu've reached a Zenith and can go no further.

Yes, not all useful transfers have to be expensive ones, but in recent times how many managers have gotten better value from the market than Arsene? even Popeye Mr. Wheeler Dealer himself couldn't get anything this window.

Arsenal's most recent buys have been Theo, Arshavin, Vermaelen, Koscielny and Squillaci all less than or equal to 10m apart from Arshavin and then compare that to Luis Suarez for 21m, Carroll for 35m, Torres for 50m, Suarez for 21m, Bent for 24m or the prices being quoted for Gary Cahill? apart from Squillaci perhaps all those players bought by Arsene have at least 10m - 15m resale value.

I do agree that our squad is stretched thin atimes but I think it is self explanatory why a manager who spent 10m to buy Vermaelen and knows what impact he had in the team would choose to give Sol Campbell a 6 months contract rather than buy Jagielka/Cahill as being touted by some at the time and then later buy Koscielny in the summer for 8.5m. We have an eye on the long term but some clubs don't, we have to live with it.

It is the same reason why this same manager refused to buy Hart, Given, Lloris or Buffon when people like Debo himself agitated for such a buy last season, we would not only have probably lost out in buying Koscielny if we did that but we would also have failed in developing both Fabianski and Szczesny that everyone is now raving about.

Yes, there are gaps in our team as there are in every other team, but to point to Arsene as the problem preventing us from winning trophies is stretching the truth quite a bit, I rather believe that he is the reason why we are still thereabouts at the end of every season.

slimshay:
Debo I beg you in the name of Baba Ijebu's water bottle, do not reply. No beef oh Dudu, abeg don't make this interllul longer than it should be.

Don't think it will be Slim, the difference in philosophy is clear, take Liverpool for instance they bagged 50m Torres money and spent it on Suarez and Carroll and everyone is on a high with some transient turnaround in fortunes (note that the turnaround is not currently directly attributable to the expenditure but an internal reorganisation of what they already have in playing Meireles in a more advanced role ahead of Gerrard), but could someone have thought a bit deeper to give Ngog an opportunity to develop? buy Suarez while holding on to that extra 35m to do a prolly better deal in the summer?
One could probably forgive them cos they do need to get into the UCL and 35m expenditure to get about 45m - 70m of UCL money next season looks a fair trade but the questions most will overlook are:

1. What if they still don't make the UCL?
2.What happens to Ngog and the investment already put into his development?
3. Could some of that money have been used to get brilliant prospects like the Cesc, CR9, Song, Djorou who in turn become assets and increase the value of the club?

@Debo

The time for 'big signings' will come though I still believe we'll be prudent at it but can yu compare Real Madrid's spending at present to Barcelona's. Our vision is not half way, it is obvious yu cannot build all the players within or else there will be no transfer market but it makes so much sense if yu build a base of very good players with yur playing philosophy and then cream it up with really exceptional talent. Compare how much Madrid had to pay to get Ronaldo, Ozil and Khedra with Barca not paying anything for Messi, Pedro and Iniesta.

We will definitely have to spend over time though I think not in the range of Chelsea's current spending as the club intends to be self sustaining and will always seek to have a balance between Turnover/Profit and Wage/Tranfer expenditure, if however our Turnover increases as is bound to happen over time then who says we cant?  

If there is any ambiguity as to the difference in philosophy, read what Frank Arnesen had to say:

[Quote]Chelsea's sporting director Frank Arnesen last night declared that spending money was the only way to win trophies and suggested, comparing his club with Arsenal, that investing in youth alone was a strategy for clubs who "don't want to win trophies but want to be involved in the Champions League".

Arnesen, who will leave Stamford Bridge at the end of the season, has presided over Roman Abramovich's £60m plan to build Chelsea through youth development but the club's vast January outlay on Fernando Torres and David Luiz suggests the Russian has reverted to spending his way to success. Arnesen told BBC Radio 5 Live his pledge to Abramovich had been to deliver one genuine first team player by 2010, but said the overriding Abramovich philosophy was winning, which meant spending.

"The most important people are the people at the top of the club, who own it," Arnesen said. "They have the philosophy. Arsenal have their philosophy and we have ours and we stick to it. [Abramovich] believes in [youth]. But he demands that you will win so you have to sign players from outside. If you want to be top you need to hire the best players from outside. If you go with the youth you will probably not win a lot of trophies. If [you] don't want to win trophies and want to be involved in the Champions League, then OK, you go with youth."[/quote]The point at which our philosophy departs from Arnesen's view is that we still demand to win despite our youth policy, the feeling shared by the board and Arsene is that 'IT IS POSSIBLE' to win with this philosophy, they however understand the constraints the manager faces which is why people think they worship him, they also understand that it will take time though I doubt that even they imagined it would be this long when they set out in that strategic direction with the move to the emirates.

It is a fact that the club has been declaring profit majorly from 2 sources:
1. Player trading
2. The property business of the old highbury flats

You rightly pointed out in that Swissblog guy's write up that we are lagging behind in earnings (mostly due to the long term commitments to get funding for the stadium, a condition that is likely to be with the club till 2014 despite the dedicated commercial department's attempts to boost revenue). We have a relatively high wage bill in order to protect our investment into our developing players or risk losing them to free transfers like Flamini.

If you looked at the accounts for last year, football related profit did not actually exceed 10m and an analysis of the accounts showed that yes Arsene had about 40m available to spend but what most people did not understand was that this included money for incoming players as well as contract renewals et al, some complained when Denny and Eduardo got new contracts but failed to realise that we cldn't have sold Eduardo for the reported 8m if such renewals aren't negotiated early in the contract lifecycle.

Arsene's frustrations come from the fact that most people fail to realise what he has to contend against, for example He made about 28m profit on player trading in last year's accounts, at that same time Chelsea made a 70m loss, behold the coming of the transfer window and who has the means to spend 70m again?  

The simplest analogy I can make is you earning yur wages and competing with Dangote's son on who buys the best car. People should be smart enough to realise that yu should not spend all yur hard earned wages on buying a 20k+ car only to end up being unable to fuel it at some point in the new year or ultimately have to put it on the market for less than 20k if God forbid you lose your job when Dangote's son does not have to worry about anything when papa's wallet is a bottomless pit.

The smart thing to do is to do your own version of greased lightning and get Xzibit and co to love-vendor it up for you and if possible put in some solar panel innovative thingy (which yu must remember to patent) so you won't need to fuel it and hope fervently that some day your innovation will catch on and yu end up making 20000% profit on sales, thereby catching up with both Dangote and his son. If you can come up with a better alternative as to how to compete with Dangote's son that doesn't involve robbing a bank or carrying out some land reforms like Mugabe, I'll gladly listen to you.

The one thing this board will never do is go gung-ho in the transfer market as they always prioritise the long term future of the club above any other thing, as long as this board remains that is the philosophy of this club whoever the manager is. I am happy that Arsene is one of the few who can actually make anything meaningful out of this system and the worst of it is actually already past. It can only get better from here.