Like me, you may have been under the impression that Arsenal could lose a fair bit off the wage bill this summer, but looking at it I don’t think that’s the case. Here’s a list of the current contract end dates I’m aware of for the first teamers. Those I would consider surplus to requirements – ie we could lose them and it wouldn’t make a blind bit of difference to the team – are marked in grey. 
You could argue that Gervinho is not surplus to requirements as he sometimes plays, but I’d argue that if you watch him play he’s generally surplus to requirements. There are others I would lose quite happily if they were replaced, because I think they could be improved on without too much trouble, but I was just looking at where we could save without affecting anything else.
Diaby is a good player, who if fully fit would be useful. However, I’ve given up on him. It ain’t going to happen.
A proportion of the loanees’ wages will be being paid, but the problem is that no one wants to buy them until the contract actually runs out, as that would mean matching their ridiculous current wages. So despite the likes of Bendtner being laughably valued at about £7m on transfermarkt, we won’t get a penny for him. Ditto all other surplus players, and as happened with Almunia. He just hung around like a bad smell until his contract expired, then found his true level in the Championship.
Lucky we’re getting all that extra sponsorship and TV money coming in soon, because the wage bill is still only going in one direction, and our habit of raking in £25m each year to sell a star player seems to have reached a natural end.
Twitter: @AngryOfN5
angryofislington 
Hi, I agree with you on most players. I would not care if Gervinho stayed or not. He offers something, however, I would rather The Ox played when he did.
I have 2 questions for you.
1) The 2013 players will go that’s for sure. Why cant we buy out the remainder of the contracts for the 2014 players?
We may even get offer for Gervinho, Johan & Santos. Diaby is something we will have to suffer.
2) And what would the different groups 2013, 2014 and 2015 save us on wages?
Thanks
Gervinho Gervinho is basically the only forward we have who is can consistently break through defense on the dribble to create chances for others.
Cazorla can do this a bit but not nearly as well. Walcott and Podolski? Forget it.
This is not a trivial matter, as it is one of the reasons that we struggle to beat lesser teams at home – they are the ones that pack it in. Gervinho actually started off the season this season I think it was for a while with the highest dribble completion rate in all top European leagues!
As such Gervinho isnt “surplus” – he is essential.
But it’s no surprise Gervinho is getting this treatment from supposed Arsenal “fans”. It’s not so long ago we had another African who was phenomenal at creating chances off the dribble. Like Gervinho he was extremely team-oriented and willing to play anywhere the manager asked – without any whining or back channel whinging to the press. Did the Arsenal fans support this guy and build up his confidence. No, they destroyed it. Potentially an epic full back and they savaged him all the way to the end of the bench.
That’s what’s being done to Gervinho right now. Fan looking at a potentially lethal weapon and just savaging him for no good reason, when he cleary needs support and fans to boost him into what he is capable of being
You people dont deserve honest dedicated players. . That’s my conclusion.
Yeah, it’s quite funny to hear that all fans want is commitment to the cause, and yet the two most abused players this season have been Gervinho and Ramsey. Two players who give their all on the pitch.
However, I sort of disagree with you about Gervinho. His dribbling is very important to us and no one else in the squad can quite do that like him,as you say, but his decision making, and his crossing, is generally poor. His finishing is not good either. I hope he’ll come good because he has all the tools to be a great player, if he can get his mind right.
However, I think that he can be replaced. There’ll be other players available who have the same skill set, and probably aren’t as high maintenance in terms of having to be coaxed along.
I completely agree that Gervinho’s finishing needs to improve – but its not as if he hasn’t been good at that before. When he won the league with Lille he racked up double digits in goals while also leading the league in assists.
I dont know why Gervinho is any less essential just because he is misfiring, At the end of the day he has unusual skills that we need. Same as Vermalen has unusual skills we need – and Vermalen hasn’t really been delivering consistently. Like Gervinho he has been benched even, Yet no one is writing Vermalen off as non-essential.
I know that Brits are conditioned to discount the competence of any one African, but Gervinho came here with a solid record – it’s not like he turned up here on a whim because Wenger wanted a cheap player. He wasnt cheap – and that’s because he was commanding that market value among other teams.
Struggling or not, give the guy his due respect – we are not talking about faint hopes that the guy might make something of himself – he has previously proven qualities. The Gervinho that helped Lille win the league would frankly be a deadly weapon on our side when teams pack it in. He just needs confidence to get back to the level he has shown before. If Arsenal fans cant help with this, I dont know what fans are for – other than eating whatever the Emirates equivalent of prawn sandwiches are….
I’d somewhat agree here. Gervinho is indeed one of the guys who can beat someone on the dribble and he tracks back. He is a good squad player and should be kept unless we are going to replace him with someone who is better and can also beat a man on the dribble. My only beef with Gervinho is probably the same with Walcott – at times can appear to be brain-dead and predictable. Not sure if that is down to ability or coaching though.
I’d love it to the be the Ox to be the player that replaces Gervinho, but he doesn’t track back either.
Wenger is responsible for all the dead wood .When he buys any player he shd know 100% about the player and play him in his favoured position. He has a habit of playing guys out of position eg Ramsey,Gervino etc.
If Arsenal fail to beat Wigan and fail to get 4th,that shows he has really lost the plot. Any manager of his status shd be able to get the better of teams like Wigan 70% of the time. He has choked at critical stages of the past few seasons and I for won’t surprised he were to faletr again.
Absolutely agree with ZIONTRAIN. Gervinho is frustrating as per his finishing but anytime he is on our team creates chance after chance as he brings everybody into the game. He may miss a sitter a game, but I will take that over a Theo Walcott who scores one fluke and keeps the team on the backfoot for 89minutes. There are too many players that needs to go before we get to Gervinho, way too many.
Deadwood. Deadwood that kept us in the top 4 all along. They made par for the course. Not all of them worked out as could be hoped for, but in a situation of constant flux to the squad, they helped us maintain stability, and paying them wages on potential was a part of that. Otherwise we wouldn’t have lost just the 25m star players, but also the 10-15m squad players who would be tempted by higher wages on offer elsewhere.
I get that the situation is frustrating, but let’s not demean all that those players were a part of. 4th place is not good enough. But it’s still good, and it’s helped us lay the platform for a better future while we have been living with financial constraints. Those ‘lucky’ sponsorship deals might not have happened otherwise.
I agree. I think the situation we are in (which is no disaster) is due to many factors from outside the club as well as within. The last few years will be remembered in years to come as a massive era in our history. And these players are part of that.
Yet another example of how badly AFC has been run. The accumulation of deadwood is the inevitable result of a fatal austerity strategy whereby the sensible incremental addition of quality signings was replaced by the cheaper (!) alternative of replacement from within.
I keep hearing this phrase about how badly run AFC is. Can someone give me an example of a well run club that wins the big pots year in year out because I want to know what we should be aiming for.
For the record I don’t think we’re run that badly and I’m fully behind the manager. Some things need to change and I’d prefer more fans owning a piece of the club (not sure how many individuals on shares/fanshares) but in the grand scheme of things are we that badly run compared to all other teams in PL?
How about the subject in hand – the accumulation of deadwood? How about giving Man U the PL title on a plate by selling them Robin? There may indeed be other badly run clubs – but who cares, let’s stick to Arsenal.
We have an abundance of deadwood,all brought in by our deadwood manager,
“Arsene Plonker” while Arsenal have got Wenger we will win nothing,the guy hasn’t got a clue.
you have not a clue go support man utd
While “Arsenal have got Wenger”, we have won a couple titles, several domestic cups and have been in the Champions League final. Clearly the guy “hasn’t got a clue”.
Since you know far more about football, than this dolt, you must have one hell of a CV in game yourself. Tell us who you are please? SAF? Arrigo Sacchi? The ghosts of Rinus Michels, Matt Busby and Bill Shankly reincarnated as one? Pray tell…..