Arsenal fans pay more money than any other football supporters on the planet.
The Gunners have offered Jack Wilshere a pay cut of around £20,000 per week. It comes when the club are poised to sell Alexis Sanchez to Manchester United.
Teenage sensation Reiss Nelson is also attracting Real Madrid and PSG’s interest.
With Theo Walcott almost gone too, fans will ask if it’s worth the £74.09 a match?
You would have thought a club as rich in tradition as Arsenal would look after one of their own. Clearly not. Wilshere has found that out to his cost.
In a publication in dailymailonline.co.uk, those Arsenal fans exasperated by the offer to Wilshere surely have every right to be. A recent UEFA report establishes that Arsenal earn more money per fan than any other club in Europe.
On average, the Gunners rake in £74.09 per fan, per game. Chelsea are second in the study, making £68.71 per game.
Value for money? A growing section of Arsenal supporters will beg to disagree, with their team failing on the pitch while the club sell their best players and undercut current stars.
Wilshere’s new offer is worth a basic wage of around £80,000 per week, his existing basic salary is worth close to £100,000 per week.
Arsenal will point to a lucrative incentive package attached to his pending new deal, which will allow Wilshere to make up some of the shortfall if he stays fit and leads Arsenal to success.
But Wilshere will point to the fact his existing deal is already substantially incentivised. Wilshere can earn in excess of £120,000 per week if he meets his targets.
Wilshere is said to be far from happy with the offer. Can you blame him? Indeed, recently-appointed contract negotiator Huss Fahmy cannot say he wasn’t warned.
As news leaked out at the club’s London Colney HQ about Wilshere’s offer, members of staff predicted the midfielder’s reaction and recommended that Fahmy improve the deal.
Arsenal’s money men will point to Wilshere’s injury record as to why the heavily incentivised deal makes financial sense. They have a point.
But with the club about to sell their best player Alexis Sanchez to direct rivals Manchester United, what better time to cement the long-term future of one of the club’s favourite sons?
It won’t make up for losing Sanchez, but it would certainly soften the blow.
Wilshere is desperate to stay but now faces a dilemma.
Arsene Wenger admits he doesn’t know if Sanchez will go
What’s for sure is that the England player, who can leave for nothing in the summer, will have the backing of Arsenal fans.
Not that contract disputes are anything new at Arsenal. Sanchez’s decision to leave the Emirates is, in part, down to the club’s refusal to meet his wage demands.
There is renewed optimism that the Gunners may be able to persuade Mesut Ozil to sign a new deal but again the club are playing hardball with the German.
Another contract crisis is looming for their teenage forward Reiss Nelson, who is attracting interest from Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.
Nelson, 18, is out of contract next year and there has been very little progress made to negotiate a new deal.
Likewise, there are growing concerns that renegotiating with Aaron Ramsey and Danny Welbeck whose deals expire at the end of next season will be far from easy.
Fahmy, who only joined at the start of the season, certainly has his work cut out.
Arsenal’s failure to qualify for the Champions League was always going to have a financial impact.
It is understood cutbacks have even been made at the training ground canteen this season, with a number of players privately moaning about the lack of choice on offer.
Off the pitch, the club are doubling their commercial efforts to ensure Arsenal remain on a firm financial footing.
It is understood negotiating a new shirt manufacturer deal is towards the top of the agenda, with their existing Puma deal due to expire at the end of next season.
Adidas and Nike have both expressed a firm interest but there is concern over the level of investment the sportswear giants are willing to inject into the club due to Arsenal’s fall from grace in recent seasons.
In reality, where is the value in pumping millions into a football club who are not in the Champions League?
In the meantime, the club continue to replenish their coffers the best way they know how: selling players.
Theo Walcott will join Everton this week in a deal that will bring in around £25million.
Sanchez will almost certainly be next out of the door in a move worth £35m. Arsenal fans will be asking themselves if all this is worth £74.09 a match.