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Arsenal List Kanu for Transfer
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Super Eagles and Arsenal striker
Nwankwo Kanu may be on his way out his London club
following the decision of the club's management to trade
six playerss as a result of the fall-out from the crisis
at broadcaster ITV Digital hits the elite of the English
game.
Among the six players listed transfer were Tony Adams,
Lee Dixon, Tony Adams, Nwankwo Kanu and Sylvain Wiltord
.
Kanu had before now been linked to having talk with
Juventus and Real Madrid, but with this new development,
the lanky player may adorn a new shirt next season
depending on which club accedes to Arsenal's demand.
Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood said the crisis has
become a period of retrenchment for football stressing
that Premiership players should not expect pay rises.
"I don't know how the clubs can go on paying what they
are paying. Arsenal are spending more on wages than ever
before but we're not bust. We pay our players far too
much and that has got to end.
This season, there are going to be no pay rises. Clubs
have been over-extending themselves, every club is
facing serious financial pressure," the Arsenal boss
stated.
"We might let half a dozen players go at the end of this
season. One or two players, like Lee Dixon, who is 38,
and Tony Adams, may not have much longer to go. This is
a period of retrenchment for football. It has got to be.
We've got to the limit of our spending. A lot of big
clubs are struggling."
Hill-Wood did not name other players who could leave,
but said top dozen players are going to get more, but
the rest of them will not.
Arsenal spent heavily in the close-season, splashing out
more than œ20 million on goalkeeper Richard Wright,
midfielder Giovanni van Bronckhorst and striker Francis
Jeffers.
Sol Campbell also arrived on a free transfer from
Tottenham Hotspur, but his weekly wages are around
œ80,000 a week and the England defender also pocketed a
huge signing-on fee.
Arsenal financial burden was recently expanded with the
cost of moving to a new ground, with the latest estimate
running at œ400 million for the development of Ashburton
Grove, due to be completed for the start of the 2004-05
season. |
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