I'll PowerPoint this so I don't go on a long winded semi-rant. * Ozil on £300k per week at Arsenal * Ozil leaves on a free so no transfer fee involved * Ozil joins Turkish club * They are reportedly 450mill in debt * Club announce this marquee signing * Then proceed to launch a text line so fans can send money to them to fund his wages IS IT JUST ME ?!?
I've just heard about the Ozil crowd funding thing. Sheer and utter madness. The club have clearly promised him a contract they can't honour, and then are literally asking fans to pay for it. How out of touch can you be. It certainly wouldn't go down as well in this country, that's for sure.
Fans pay for the contracts of all players, it’s just not quite as direct as the Turkish model! Wether it is through gate receipts, TV money or sponsorships the fans ultimately pay.
What makes my eyes water most is his Arsenal contract (if that figure is true?). Over a million pounds every month and he barely played for them!! I don’t care how big a club Arsenal are but that is just obscene. Another example of how detached from reality the Premier League is.
I agree. However, at the time of Ozils contract renewal, he only had a short period left on his original contract, they had just lost Alexis Sanchez to Man Utd for peanuts and Ozil was left as their best player. He and his agent had the club over a barrel, give him what he wants or the fans go into complete meltdown. With hindsight, the club should have offered a decent, but not obscene, contract, and then be prepared to let the chips fall. Bad management from Arsenal to allow the situation to develop in the first place though.
Yes, he was allegedly on around £350k a week (I really wish the media would report monthly or annual salaries, just to show their absolute obscenity). The backdrop at the time was they were losing their best players repeatedly and a lot of players were all coming near the end of their deals. Oxlade Chamberlain left for Liverpool and Sanchez went to Manure. 2 players Arsenal badly wanted to sign new terms. So in a desperate move to show they could keep their better players, they went absolutely mental and offered Ozil terms that completely broke their wage structure and the rest is history.
You have to wonder what his team mates think about things like that, assuming they know the details. I mean, you’re in the first team, scratching along on a measly £100k a week, and you wonder what this guy has done to warrant a pay cheque like that. Football squads are supposed to run on cameraderie, team work etc etc so how do they cope with a cuckoo like this in their nest?
Allegedly 1 of 2 players who refused a deferral of pay too. The rights and wrongs of deferral are another conversation.
Oh I don't know... One or two of us might have chipped in to get George Williams his extra £100 a week.
Football is completely broken and so far beyond sense, reason and sanity its hard to comprehend. £350k a week BASIC before tax is £18.2m a year. The paltry £100k a week is £5.2m a year. You look at some of the wages our ex players have gone on for at around £25k a week, that equates to £1.3m a year basic. £10k a week is £520,000 a year. Meagre sums of £4k a week are £208,000 a year. And such players would likely be considered average or below average, certainly at championship level. Compare that with the average wage of a typical Brit and it really ought to jar more than it does. And yes, i'm sure there was likely discord in their ranks, but I suspect there was a significant uplift in likely salaries for new signings thereafter. I think Ramsey wanted parity and he looked like he was going to get it until it was pulled right at the last minute.
I struggle with football and the massive wages. But the plus side is at least it is one industry where the workers are actually rewarded for their work rather than the managers or owners.