There's an AST meeting on tonight. Will post some of the updates from @PR_WhoRu.
AST calculate that, without CL and before any more player sales, the Club are running at an annual rate of £30m cash for transfers.
Still cash in Bank but gets eaten by standard cash flow.
Spent a lot of existing squad, valued in books at £520m with £230m on transfers.
If Arsenal don’t get 6th, things could get very bad. With EL qualification this year there could be £70m available but Arsenal need to now be a lot more careful, especially as new wages will eat into future cash flows.
Lee Dixon says it’s not a coincidence that Arsenal get beat to Swansea and Brighton away. He says the players are talented, but uses the term loosely. Says the players being signed are “quite obviously not good enough” and “rudderless”.
Lee Dixon says Wenger surrounds himself with people who don’t say anything to him and that’s not healthy and nor does it work.
Recruitment: Dixon says he’s always willing to give players as a chance as he himself wasn’t good enough when he first signed. Says he was lucky George Graham coached him & that Wenger is a “loveable intelligent man, but he’s not a coach”.
Dixon says Wenger doesn’t coach the players and nor does he stop players in training to tell them when they’re doing something wrong “that’s not his skill-set”. Points to Wenger’s initial skills in knowing French League & adding that on top of George’s base.
Dixon says that Ashley Cole turned into the best left back in the world under Wenger but that Wenger barely coached him and that it was Tony Adams who gave Cole the one on one coaching that made him the best in the world.
Dixon says Wenger is a “preparer of players” & that under Arsene he’d never been fitter and more prepared from stretching: “that’s Arsene’s skill-set”. Says Arsene needs helps in other coaching areas but will never accept it & he will never change - and that will be his downfall.