Arsenal and Saint-Etienne could now be embroiled in a costly legal spat for for the William Saliba deal and its all about petty bonuses.
If you are a paying Arsenal fan who has had to endure the almost farcical performances on and off the field, you will be acutely aware of Arsenal’s dire contract negotiations during the ‘summer of stupidity’ which included Sanchez, Ozil, and Arsenal talisman Aaron Ramsey.
Contracts were allowed to run down in some sort of dumb-ass cost-cutting exercise which saw two leave and one re-signed on a ridiculous wage. After that fiasco, we were assured that the process of waste and lack of direction was a thing of the past.
The management team structure of Raul Sanllehi, head of football, managing director Vinai Venkatesham and head of football operations Huss Fahmy were, as we were told, about to set Arsenal’s ship on a steady course but that ended when we discovered that they had managed to make a mess of William Saliba ‘s deal with Saint-Etienne.
Yes, it appears that not even the addition of Huss Fahmy, who sounds like a Star Wars character and happens to be the club’s new contract negotiator, couldn’t stop the club wasting even more money on the William Saliba deal.
Bad enough, they bought a player that they had to loan back to Saint-Etienne after forking out £27m. Worse still that they made that decision even with a defence as robust as a children’s jelly but now, that’s been made to look almost insignificant by another example of stunning incompetence.
According to L’Equipe (via GFFN), if Arsenal achieves European qualification, it stands to cost them €2.5m, and as unlikely as that seems at the moment, it could be done. They could also pay an additional €2.5m if William Saliba completes 17 starts this season in all competitions, something that seemed unlikely with Covid-19 and the frozen loan.
In a mess that would normally take months to achieve, William Saliba, now an Arsenal player, could play Coupe de France final against Paris Saint-Germain later this year, which makes Arsenal’s boomerang Frenchman a dizzy refugee of a half-baked contract agreement, presumably written by a five-year-old with a large orange crayon.
Who knows what’s going on, the Nicolas Pepe deal probably included shares in the club and the promise of marriage to actress Michelle Keegan. In truth, Arsenal are completely hopeless at closing loopholes, securing players, or executing credible financial remuneration and nothing has changed but the faces.
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Both Arsenal and Saint-Etienne could now be embroiled in a costly legal spat with neither wanting to lose funds or face in a period of uncertainty. Add to this a lack of movement and progress on re-signing of Bukayo Saka and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and it’s a piss poor show from a supposedly top-flight organisation run by a professional Sports Company (KSE).
Ummm, I appear to be constantly banging a drum and playing an anti-Kroenke or Sanllehi beat, but how can any of those in charge of Arsenal be trusted. They can’t offer a contract to a hot prospect (Saka), but they are prepared to splash out £8m on a player (Luiz) for possibly just one season. At this point, I’m shrugging my shoulders and scratching my head, seriously concerned by what’s going on in North London.