Arsenal v Tottenham: next season’s new transfer regulations and tonight’s team

 

 

• Tonight’s game: Why Tottenham’s manager’s “my way” approach doesn’t work
• Warning for the Arsenal/Tottenham game. 
• When it comes to Arsenal v Tottenham, it really is all going Arsenal’s way

By Bulldog Drummond

Day after day we see articles in the media saying Arsenal are looking for player x, y or z, and rarely is there any mention of Arsenal’s place within the Premier League’s  Profit and Sustainability Regulations and how such a transfer will affect Arsenal’s ability to stay within the rules.

But the fact is clubs cannot go on spending and spending on anyone they wish – they are restricted, and indeed it is the way in which Manchester City sought to get around these restrictions that has caused so much aggro between ManC and the rest of the league.  Which of course is still ongoing – those 115 charges still stand.

Indeed as a result of all this hassle, the League has voted for new spending rules from next season, which will of course affect Arsenal as everyone else.   And because Arsenal are close to the limit on their spending for this season, they can’t rush forward purchases that were planned for the summer.

Put another way, it is all very well for Burt Iknowalot to write in the Daily Tripe that if Arsenal fail to sign Herbi Maneater Arteta should be sacked at once, but quite possibly the whole situation has nothing to do with the manager.  Arsenal are bound by the financial rules just like most clubs (although some do simply ignore them).

Clubs that don’t make it into European competitions for next season (which rather amusingly looks like including Tottenham Hots and Manchester U) can spend up to 85% of their total income from all sources on player costs such as salaries, transfer fees and agent fees.

For the clubs in Europe, and that we all hope means Arsenal, the total spend is 70% of income on squad costs – and this has been laid down by Uefa.

But to stop clubs like ManC which have potential income far in excess of anyone else, through being owned by an oil-rich state, there is a limit on how much the richest clubs can spend on wages, transfer fees and agents’ fees, and this is based on how much the club with the lowest income gets from TV.  So if the bottom club gets £100m from TV and the “anchoring multiple” is four, then the spending cap on salaries and transfers for all clubs would be £400m each.   There is also talk of the anchoring multiple being 4.5 but I don’t think anyone is suggesting more.

Of course it is still possible that clubs with their eyes on fortunes from owners will object, and this probably includes Manchester United, Manchester City, Aston Villa and Chelsea.  Everyone else is in favour, and it is certainly possible that if the dispute over the 115 or so breaches of the regulations by Manc is ever resolved, then there will immediately be another dispute between ManC, ManU, Villa and Chelsea on the one hand, and the rest, on the other.  The argument will of course be that this is bad for English football which likes to portray itself as the world-leader.

We shall of course see over time, but for now, I’m not getting too excited about possible purchases this month, and anyway we have the little matter of the tiny totts playing at Arsenal.

For tonight 90Min give us a team of

 

 

 

Raya;

Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly;

Partey, Rice, Odegaard;

Sterling, Havertz, Martinelli.

For the Tiny Totts they suggest

Kinsky;

Porro, Dragusin, Gray, Spence;

Bissouma, Bergvall, Maddison;

Kulusevski, Solanke, Son.

The Standard come up with the same Arsenal team, and that certainly does look like the obvious line up to me.

So we shall see.  We are as usual travelling from the Midlands to north London, grabbing the train in to Finsbury Park, and then if the timing works getting some food and a drink.  Leaving about 3pm, getting back after midnight.   But throughout the day and night you’ll be very welcome to post comments.

And as a final thought about club finances… in case you are wondering where the ManC 115 charges case has got to, the hearings on that one finished just over a month ago – on 6 December 2024 to be exact.   The last thing we heard was that there may be a decision some time around March.  Or not as the case may be.

Yet even that might not be the end of it.  If ManC walk away free, or with just a money penalty (which of course they can instantly pay via their owners) it is possible that the rest of the League will start plotting a new league of their own with stricter regulations.   If ManC lose they will up the activity on their existing legal case against the rest of football, and probably start another one and keep going until everyone else runs out of money – or goes to form another league.