So another season approaches, the summer awareness tours are almost completed, during which a zillion shirts and myriad memorabilia have been sold. We have travelled too and explored those new markets identified and targeted by the professional marketing team employed to reconcile our needs, with the desires of our sponsors old and new, while the drive to increase revenue takes precedence over the product the real fan is interested in.
Much is made of a foreign fan, who on his first viewing of the Arsenal bandwagon runs alongside the coach, long enough to be recognised as a marketing opportunity himself and is immediately whisked aboard among the players and filmed for immediate release to the media. He was then flown on a magic carpet of his dreams to appear and be presented to the faithful masses at the home of football. More dreams come true and a massive ahhh factor to the less cynical who follow our team.
But now the football, the thrill, the excitement our reason for being, is just over a week away. Yet still we anguish over the mega spend our leaders repeatedly promised which has not yet materialised. Meanwhile the battalions of the press have delighted in adding fuel to the fires lit by the already dissatisfied as the on off, will he wont he, Suarez affair unfolds.
Shameful they say, a disgrace, the dumbing down of a once great club, a lowering of standards and the surrender of our once proud heritage along with the reputation as the class club among clubs. Emphasised by the magnificent marble halls of Highbury and the beautiful ground we have vacated and which is now just a a memory, no matter that we have replaced it with the state of the art Emirates, the very fact that we chose to name it in the interests of money, emphasises they say all that has gone pear shaped with the club.
But yet true as the above might appear to be, when did you last hear the newscasts and if you like me listen to 5live late at night – the world newscasts are all being led by the Arsenal. The Times puts us on its front page as well as the back, indeed all the papers consistently berate us supporters and our club with regurgitated rhetoric, on a daily basis. Five live and Talk what’s-it mention the club continually on their half hourly news cast, whilst running discussion programmes featuring highly recognisable celebrity pundits at a rate advertising space sellers can only fantasize and curse their luck about.
Remember how often at the end of last season many were rubbishing our marketing and PR on blogs, this one included? Well gentlemen if you have heard a better awareness campaign than the one conducted this summer by our marketing team,it must have been a thing of genius.
Of course we aint finished yet, Suarez will still probably join and score a net full and I have no reason to suspect other players won’t follow. So a stronger team for the new season looks likely to be accompanied by the worldwide awareness that has increased our profile massively. Should the football team prosper as well as the Marketing team has done, get ready to celebrate as we are going to clean up this year.
Written by dandan
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Fenerbahce vs Arsenal *****
Arsenal son “los” mejores del mundo o Arsenal “es” el mejor del mundo.
Still, I like the sentiment.
Thanks for the read Dandan.
Ok Fenerbache is not the best but it could have been worse.
Thank you for the post Dandan. I am not sure what you are getting at though – are you saying that the whole incident with the running fan was staged?
I don’t think so. I thought it was a wonderful story and gave the fan a standing ovation at the Ems when he ran onto the pitch with his heroes. If it helped the marketing of the club – even better. Cannot see anything to be cynical about.
You are right, I can smell success this season!! I am ready to celebrate now, even before it all starts 🙂
I had a dream that the footballing season starts in a week!!! can someone wake me up?
titch – damn, I forgot 🙂
Nice one dandan
The tour will probably be seen as a success.
Football has changed and is never going back to what we all knew in our youth…
So if Fenerbahce get booted out for match fixing, does that mean we get a bye into the group stages of the CL?
Or do we end up playing whichever team finished one place below them?
Two things need to happen perhaps three :
1. Arsene Wenger: Arsene had taken us as far as he could during our ‘austerity’ period but I think now is the time to let him go.Arsene is stubborn fella and if reports are true that he is not answerable to anyone then we are in deep trouble if his contract is extended!
2.Silent ‘night’ Stan & Company: Stan and Ivan don’t seem to know what the real goal for a football team like Ours is. Recent events have made me think that maximising revenue has taken centre stage over the clubs ability to win trophies.Ivan promised that this club had cash reserves circ £70m which would be invested in the team.All we have done is sell the deadwood and brought in an injury probe player on the cheap( typical Arsene signing). Dick law is a poor negotiator when it comes to new players, remember this is the guy who spent close to three weeks trying to finalise a deal for a seventeen year old player in Costo Rica. Stan needs to pack up and sell to people who like to win.
Rant over!
Rocky,
The decision will not be made until after the qualifying round, so our games will be played. Who knows what happens if we lose and Fenerbahce are disqualified, strange kettle of fish if you ask me,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Who has the can of deodorant?
dandan,
It’s hard to disagree about the success of the Asian tour, the marketing team have really upped their game.
It remains to be seen if our on field performance can be as good?
Squirt squirt…………..
Good day to you all.
Thought provoking stuff Dandan. I guess we have all got used to the machinations of the Marketing Men over the last few years. Gone are the days of a low profile pre-season training camp in the Austrian mountains. Now it’s a trek halfway round the world to play some meaningless games against some pretty mediocre teams in order to flog the merchandise.
In days gone by we had a red and white kit for most games and only changed strip to all white if there was a clash at away matches, now we have a minimum of two plus a training kit and of course all three change with a predictably expensive and monotonous regularity.
It will be interesting to see how sales of the new kit go at The Armoury now that “Austerity” is the country’s watchword and “Zero Hours” contracts are becoming the norm.
My advice to fans attending matches, stick to last season’s kit and, if you can’t last out two hours without food and drink, take a sandwich and a flask of hot coffee from home.
Norfolk,
Why would you recommend cutting off a revenue stream, what will that achieve other than giving us less money to operate the club?
Nice post, DD. On a similar topic, I see that Hull City are to renamed the Hull City Tigers, with the word “City” being omitted from the club’s enormous international branding efforts. Can’t say I like rebranding going that far, but a certain amount of marketing is of course right. Plenty of people in the Arsenal community didn’t like the rebranding a few years ago, when the badge was changed. Personally, I like the new badge better than the old one, but in any event, there’s always some change.
But how much marketing is too much?
Thanks Dandan, you are always the measured voice of reason.
Fantastic news about your brother.
Hi GunnerN5, you too are similar to Dandan in your holistic support, and the length of time you’ve supported, which automatically commands respect. But whether you accept it or not, Arsenal changed forever when they left Highbury, and many fans don’t like what they see. The under-achievement and constant obsession with making money at the cost of the on-field product is chief among the complaints.
You have plenty to say on all things Arsenal, including a very impressive historical catalogue of events that shaped our club, so
instead of continually asking for a can of deodorant, why not discuss things that you’re uncomfortable with, and put your point
forward about why all the doom merchants are wrong.
Rocky, I can’t pretend that this is absolutely right but a quick look at the CL Regulations suggests that Fener would be replaced by the next best team in the Turkish league (which would be Besiktas). That’s what Regulation 2.11 seems to suggest. But Besiktas are also going through a UEFA/CAS investigation into match-fixing.
The two sets of CAS proceedings (one for Fener, one for Besiktas) won’t conclude before the end of the month, i.e. after the qualifiers. So, I guess we will definitely be playing Fener, but if (please God, no) Fener were to beat us, they could still be chucked out a few days later. I think, but can’t be sure, that an adverse ruling on a victorious Fener would lead to us being reinstated and entered into the Group stage.
Of course, none of this matters, we’ll beat them comfortably.
Great post Dandan. The games in Japan and everything that went with them were fantastic. People talk about foreign fans as if they haven’t earned the right to support Arsenal. The Japanese fans I met know more about the team than most “fans” on twitter. They make great sacrifices to see game at ridiculous hours and know all the songs in English.
Regarding the transfer window it is a total mess as far as bringing players in.
Arsenal are a great club and always have been. Always admired you and in the 80’s when Palace were away I used to sometimes go up to Highbury and watch you lot. Rocastle and Wright are from the same estate in Lewisham that I’m from and a lot of the younger kids from around my way became gooners because of it. Lived in Holloway for a bit in the 80’s as well and so always had a soft spot for the boys from Highbury.
I agree with poster. This marketing malarkey that big clubs are so keen on doing is killing the modern game in England. You are lucky enough to get exposure on foreign tv channels and hence get the extra fans. Footballing success in England is now dependent on who fans in Asia, Africa and America align themselves to. I’m resigned to palace getting relegated this season but even a club like Swansea will never break into the closed shop that the big clubs have made because they will never get that exposure, and hence revenues, internationally that the big five sold themselves out for back in 1992. Your Asia tour is all about ‘increasing brand image,’ ‘ capturing the market’ etc. Why has such corporate aims entered the aims of a FOOTBALL CLUB. The author of this post makes a pertinent point. Why is the club of the marble halls and golden cannon so crassly sold its stadium name of all for the sake of ££s. FFP and all that pony is something that the big clubs ie you and United want so that you will close the shop to everyone else. So while you lot rage against the evil sugar daddies you have to realise that it’s thanks to Arsenal, amongst others – Utd, Liverpool, Spurs and Everton, that ppl need sugar daddies to compete.
I wouldn’t feel too chuffed about the marketing success and your international brand awareness. All it’s doing is killing the domestic game. Can you honestly see any club breaking into the top 4 in the next five years that’s not Liverpool or Tottenham in the next five years. The Premier league is a poisoned chalice in my opinion. So Congrats big five. English football is ruined! Look at the CHampionship, there are at least ten teams that could realistically win it this year. That is what a league should be. An open exciting, unpredictable competition. The top flight is not. It’s a closed shop at the top, and has been since 1992.
Who gives a stuff about the pre-season friendly at Barnet eh. Locals can go to hell, as long as the Arsenal flog a few t-shirts abroad? Hope Arsenal win the league though. Not for your football or your self righteous manager. But for all the good people from the estates around Holloway and Islington I used to know back in the day. The people who didn’t give a stuff I was black, and not even an Arsenal supporter but just had a bit of banter with me. Highbury is the only London ground I never got threatened at or stick at. Can’t even say the same for Selhurst. That was made Arsenal truly classy to me. Ever wonder why you lot got so many black fans from South London. It’s because at Highbury they felt safe and welcomed. That’s something I always remember, so for those gooners who welcomed them with open arms, not the fickle ones in markets Arsenal now seek to ‘capture’ I hope you lot win.
Aaron Ramsey was asked: “In one word, what do you think of Spurs?” He cheekily replied “Fifth.”
Evonne, i would not laught at Spurs as next season we could finish below that if Arsene does not buy any players with the £70m he is reported to have by that bald chap.i feel bad saying this but sp.rs have bought well in this window.
Herb,
It’s very easy for me to talk about things that make me uncomfortable and I never shy away from being controversial as can be verified by many AA regulars.
However the one thing that makes me the most uncomfortable is redundant repetition and people who spout “facts” that are simply fabrications that are used to lend artificial credence and support to their own jaundiced points of view. Those same people, when challenged about their, ridiculous, unfounded statements do nothing more than create more diversions to support their utterances.
Stand up Herb.
And you have the gall and temerity to ask me to put my views forward to support my disagreement with bloggers like you?
Why would I waste my time?
Herb, I stopped pissing in the wind over 65 years ago – you see some of us know when enough is enough.
A lot of really excellent comments from LewishamPalace boy. Not sure there’s a solution, but, for all the beauty of watching players like Henry, Zola, Aguerro, Drogba, Bergkamp, Pires etc, players we wouldn’t have seen come to England in a previous era, we all know there are some serious problems with the way the game has developed.
By educating people, and allowing them to see the same Arsenal that you see, means they become far less annoying.
The sheer volume of Arsenal Blogs speaks for itself in respect to the stature of the club, and you’ll find a whole range of extreme opinions – not to mention language – pitting supporters against each other until keyboards are steaming with vitriolic poison. It has spilled over into violence at The Emirates, and threatens to get worse.
A club’s strength and fortitude comes from having its core support all singing from the same hymn sheet, right now you hardly get two Arsenal fans agreeing on what day of the week it is.
Stan Kroenke isn’t at Arsenal to win trophies, he is there to make money, none of his American teams compete, and that has taken over Arsenal’s whole mentality.
Real working-class fans want to see the club make football its first priority, because when the product on the park is right, everyone’s happy and everything else falls naturally into place. There’s plenty to celebrate and get excited about if you’re a mathematician who loves crunching numbers, or you’re an accountant who wants to tell the world what a huge financial success we are, (and that every other club should play by our rules), but it’s not football success.
Isn’t that the fundamental reason for supporting any football club?
Nice Post, DanDan, 🙂
In essence, if I understand what you are driving at, we have become more aware of media ‘opportunities’ that give our club a higher profile in the world sporting arena.
That profile inevitably attracts more fans, at home and abroad, so they identify with the team and others and therefore decide to support Arsenal and this generates more commercial income which goes into the Arsenal ‘pot’, and allows some, if not all, that extra revenue to be spent on new, quality players, who will hopefully bring home the bacon — or trophies, if you will, which will generate yet more income and so on.
A sensible, intelligent and well executed strategy for which the marketing and commercial departments deserve kudos for doing their work well.
I should be shocked, yet sadly I am not, by the sour and rather belligerent comments of the disaffected who say that Arsenal are consumed by making money at the cost of on field success.
We have been down this particular road many, many times, and the reluctance of some to accept that the Arsenal shareholders do not take dividends out of the club, and the directors either are paid a notional sum as remuneration, or in the case of the CEO, Gazidis, take an industry standard salary package, is simply dismissed as ‘accountancy smoke and mirrors’.
All monies earned by Arsenal over the past few years, from whatever source, have gone into paying down the stadium debt, or has gone towards the smooth and efficient running of the club.
We have now entered a new era after getting through the financial mountain of debt that faced the club, and more of the money from increased commercial income will be made available to buy players, and this trend will continue over the coming years.
Seriously — what is so difficult for some to understand that simple analysis?
Being patient with fellow bloggers is right and proper, but the constant, self justifying and unrelenting carping of some of these fans is like having acid slowly dripped on the brains of those fans who do not like wallowing in the self administered misery these guys seem to enjoy dispensing. Stop it — we have heard enough!
For the sake of clarity DanDan, I have used this response to your Post to make a plea to those who keep bleating their clarion call “Doomed, doomed, we are all doomed” at us, to sod off and tell someone else! 🙂
Failing that, I will sod off and leave these harbingers of doom to it.
dude – it will never come to that, trust me
WATH: “Real working-class fans want to see the club make football its first priority” – ignoring class as an issue (my Marxist dad would be shocked at that one), of course football is the priority – and making sure the club is solvent and able to compete financially is part of that.
You can read what you like into the events of the past seven years, but everyone, including Kroenke and the Board, wants us do as well as we can on the pitch. The idea that people who want the club to be financially stable and strong don’t want trophies is ridiculous.
I think the behaviour of some fans, who bleat on about Wenger not wanting to spend money, while the club is on the record as having bid £40m for a rival’s best player, is about the biggest joke around right now.
Bizarre to see the leader of the players’ union again publicly undermining the desire of one of its members to move clubs. If I were a member, I’d be asking for Gordon Taylor to be sacked for that.
26,
WATH is a blogger who frequents another site. 🙂
I think you are referring to WATA.
Pedantic? Who said I am pedantic?
Look, I once asked a girlfriend if she would like to split a cake between us. She asked if it had a chocolate topping. I said, yes it had, and she replied that she would have the biggest half.
When I started to tell her that if it was the biggest half – it wouldn’t be a half – she gave me a look which I knew meant I had blown it — the relationship. 🙂
Oh, OK — WATH, then! 🙂
26,
I am surprised by Taylor’s reaction, because as you have said he has publicly undermined a member’s negotiating position, but also in other circumstances he has been an unctuous, mealy mouthed s*** steadfastly defending the indefensible and turning somersaults on behalf of certain well known footballers.
I don’t know why I keep writing WATH! Something going wrong in the brain….
My wife has spent 15 years in the same state of contempt as your ex girlfriend.
I’ve always disliked Gordon Taylor, who gets fabulously well paid (he’s alleged to be the highest paid union official in the world) for doing bugger all.
26,
Your Mrs has been contemptuous of my pedantism for 15 years?
OMG. 😦
Before I depart, 26, I wonder if you know the answer to the following question.
I keep reading that Suarez had been banned to train by himself for having the temerity to stand up for himself – however mistakenly.
At the back of my mind I am pretty sure that it is against the Human Rights legislation for a player to be ostracised and punished like this – or it might be an EPL or UEFA rule.
I seem to recall that when a player was suspended by his club and forced to watch home games from the stand this was rapidly over-ruled, and it was also said, as an ancillary comment, that there needed to be at least two other players present at training with a player punished like Suarez, otherwise the club would be in breach of contract for either punishment.
Do you have any knowledge on this?
RA
You’re right that there are rules around the way clubs treat players, I just can’t recall the detail. But essentally, a player who is denied the chance to play can, at least after a period of time, either declare his contract to be revoked or buy it out for a small sum. Sorry for being hazy about it, I just can’t remember precisely how it works. I doubt that LFC will have a problem sticking Suarez in the reserves for two or three weeks but I do think there would be real danger in allowing it to go longer than that.
When I get some time, I’ll try to look up the rules on this – unless someone else remembers first.
dandan,
Sorry to get techy on the day you post – I was going to ignore Herb but unfortunately I couldn’t let his comment go by without a rebuttal, but from now on I will ignore him.
Thanks, 26, 🙂
Don’t go to too much trouble about it — it would be a piece of info to stick into my memory banks for future reference, and to be able to speak with a certain authority on it rather than the hazy recollection I mentioned above.
A lot of food for thought today. Thanks Dandan and everyone.
Still suffering from indigestion from my “class/ classy/ working class” a couple of days back, plus working from the US MidWest at the moment, and running very late today, so have to be quick. Just one quick question.
What happens if Fenerbache win, and then are thrown out, and Besiktas go to court arguing that they should have played instead? What fun ……..
Hi 26May,
I’m prepared to agree with you that people such as Sir ‘Chips’ Keswick want us to do as well as we can on the park, but as Kroenke has no natural affinity to the club, I’d say it doesn’t matter as much to him as long as it has no negative effect on his investment.
As I pointed out the other day, Arsenal are a big club, but they lack either the intelligence or desire to be part of the elite CL winners.
There is currently nothing about Arsenal that scares/worries our rivals, nor has it for a while.
My stance has nothing to do with whether or not we have money, it’s an endless ‘chicken-egg’ argument with no satisfactory agreement. All I’ll say regarding that, is a lot of money has been mis-spent.
No, 26May, the problems at the club are emanated from the product displayed on the park. We had the most possession in the PL last season. Why? To what end? Arsenal’s football has no urgency, a distinct lack of pace, and absolutely nothing to worry those above us. And if we did have anything that worried them one of them would buy him from us, which is a loop we’ve been stuck in for a few years.
Our style of football is tactically flawed, and the club’s problems will remain until that is fixed,
Yes
Apologies for my late arrival. Thanks for the post dandan in your own inimitable style 😛
I agree our commercial deals are very important for our future. The deals sealed to fund the stadium were less impressive because we needed the cash up front, the new deals seem a lot more lucrative.
Is part of your message ‘there is no such thing as bad publicity’? You mention the fact that we are all over the media, but with mainly a negative spin – is that good for the club … I don’t know.
WATA:
Even if I disagree with your opinions/ observations/ interpretation at several points, I think it is a very honest, valuable and consistent point of view. They make exciting read as well! May discussions/ arguments in AA continue unabated!! Good fun!!!!
Sorry I have been away everyone, thanks for your comments,
Rasp of course there can be bad publicity, but I do not feel we have sinned at all in this case, so can take the moral high ground.
The constant highlighting of the clubs name has increased the awareness substantially and people are able to make up there own minds as to whether the press treatment of our involvement in what is basically an argument between an employer and their employee is our fault or not.
It appears that this is the third time Liverpool have been embroiled in arguments over break clauses in contracts so they know well where they are, re knowledge of the contents of contracts. Football has long been a world of open secrets as far as contracts are concerned. “Methinks they doth protest too much”
GN5 never worry on my account about getting stuck in, its the prerogative of seniority 🙂
Red Arse thanks for the clarification for Evonne I am sure your interpretation helped her.
A trusted DD post to read before bedtime, cheers.
In other news Miquel to Leicester on loan……so thats 2 fit centre backs to start the season. Surely we are just waiting for a swathe of new arrivals?
Rasp the media have been negatively spinning us for years so its no real biggie e.g.:
2012 Summer Window:
Media – “of course RvP should go to ManUre, of course SAF wants him and try to get him for cheapest price, of course he should ask to leave, it doesn’t matter how much Arsenal have supported him whilst injured”
2013 Summer Window:
Media – “Suarez extrememly disloyal to Liverpool, Arsenal should just pay what he is worth, Arsenal clearly tapping up”
I even heard Durham try to intimate that there was a rift building between Wenger and Wilshere over International duty, apparently Jack expressed on twitter his joy and looking forward to England join up, but Arsene expressed disappointment that he was called up.
I haven’t the time to waste talking or correcting Durham, but if anyone can show me Wenger blocking players going on International Duty I’d like to see it, and is anyone really surprised at Wenger’s disappointment given the half fit Jack we saw last week in the Emirates Cup?
Dandan – yes, Evonne understands now 🙂
And that gave me a great idea. Next summer I will buy one way ticket to wherever the team is going, do something amazing and will be flown back to UK with the whole team and Arsene on board!! Genius!!
The thing is I cannot come up with anything amazing I could do 😦 I couldn’t run 8 yards, let alone 8km…no, it has to be not very physical. Too old to use any physical attributes….maybe I will knit little hats for each player with his name on it?
Late to the races but thanks dandan for a nice thought provoking post. I don’t really know whether the current constant publicity is a positive or a negative thing. Much of the media are trying to turn our pursuit of Suarez into a negative with angles about us having no plan B. Some (mostly Arsenal fans unfortunately) even feel it is all an elaborate hoax by AW who all along knew he could never get Suarez but did it just for show with the intention of leaving the money in the bank all along. I just can’t believe that and feel AW is genuinely in for one of the few world class players out there that could really make a huge difference to us. Whether we get him or not is another matter but you know AW will receive the wrath of some fans if he doesn’t and no other striker arrives.
The problem is that outside of Rooney, Suarez or Lewandowski I don’t see many other options that would significantly improve our front line beyond what we have already so should AW just buy anyone purely to appease some sections of the fan-base?
I have read through most of the comments and although he was briefly acknowledged by one other blogger can I say what an excellent comment we had from LewishamPalace boy at 1.57, which was worthy of a guest post in its own right. I think it puts much of the current doom and gloom that seems to be infesting many fans into perspective, and should make us all realise how fortunate we are to have found ourselves supporting Arsenal.
Evonne, do your knitting skills extend to Red and White woolen budgie smugglers?
GoonerB – I cannot knit at all, but I would do anything for my team 🙂
How the hell do we end up facing a big team like fernabache and bloody celtic end up with some village cloggers from Kazakistan???
Surely we should have a much better co-effiicient than them as its based on what 5-6 years? Even with their lucky run last year they should be matched with bigger teams than we have to face!
Because of the champions route and non-champions route separation of the draw.
The Kazakstani village cloggers are champions of their country as are Celtic.
Fenerbahce finished 2nd and us 4th.
Neamann its something to do with the Champions pot i believe, Celtic as Champions got a slightly easier draw I believe.
Well done Perry, much better explained than me
Thanks for the info guys but it doesn’t seem fair.
celtic were handed the title and we had to work hard to get 4th.
Neamann I agree, but I think Platini is committed to teams from the smaller nations getting through to CL proper hence the Champions Route.
When you look and see that three from Lyon, Sociedad, PSV, Milan, Fenerbache and Arsenal will not feature in CL group stages you have to wonder if UEFAs rule is not actually devaluing the competition. Especially when you think about how easy done of the groups are due to the Champions Route.
I tell you what devalues the Champions League
1. Non Champions.
2. Seedings.
3. Groups.
I can tell you what devalues great sites……….
Just look above,,,,,,,,,,,,
Nice post Dandan. AS a fan from India, we get to watch most of the Arsenal matches Live. But on tight fixtures, we could get only Replays.
IF we fail to finish on the very top, it is only risking lesser attention to International fan base. Those of us already addicted to Arsenal will never change, but if there is less opportunity to wath our games, it would mean fewer new fans from overseas.
We can ofcourse go for online subscriptions if the current Televsion channels prefer spuds over Gunners next season. Yes, there will be growing competition among Clubs to tap into potential markets. But I just hope that Wenger will consider the larger group of fans in his plans.
Good Morning.
Interesting post from our Crystal Palace fan and extremely well balanced and that is why Arsenal have the biggest following of ethnic supporters in London.
I have been reading many comments on various blogs some are just plain stupid and the poster hasn’t a clue about our club but many put down their opinions as if they were facts and many express their opinions as if they were high profile managers at a top club.
Let’s look at the facts or at least accept that we have more money to invest in players this Summer e.g. a 40million bid for Suarez regardless of the outcome yet we haven’t sold a a pivitol plarer but have had a cull never seen before in the Wenger years. Why I ask myself. Are the players not of the standard required by Wenger or /and it is having a dramatic affect on our wage bill. Chamakh is now also off though it is not clear as yet if it is a sale or loan, and I have read several reports that Park’s contract has been torn up and that leaves Bendtner who may turn out to be the most difficult one to move on.
This is a dramatic change of policy with players like Santos and Gervinho being sold after a reasonably short time at the club compared to previous seasons when certain players like Senderos seemed to be with us for an eternity.
Has Wenger suddenly become ruthless or has he been instructed to reduce the squad (wages) and now fringe players are also being released, so quality players who are few and far between can try to be obtained.
We all know we can’t complet with the top three financially and negotiatons appear to get harder season by season.
I am sure AW has identified several players and either for one reason or another transfers haven’t materiliased or it’s a waiting game to see who makes the first move, and then it will be a last minute hive of activity.
I honestly am baffled by the whole thing but like it or not we just have to beat the Turks first to retain our CL position and that IMO will form the basis of strengthening our squad.
I’m with you Kelsey, I can understand the cull, it was necessary to an extent. But I fear there is a baby going out the window with all the bath water.
It almost seems that without a star player to sell Wenger is being forced to reduce the wage bill to be able to sign anyone. That lost player sale revenue is being more than made up for by this cull, if we don’t see a big influx of players I think we can decide who is holding the spending back, and I don’t think anyone will be able to point the finger of blame at Wenger anymore. Does anyone think Wenger really wants to go into the season with such a thin squad?
I stll am worried about our defensive cover Vermaelen had a poor season but that doesn’t make him a bad player,yet he will miss 6/8 weeks of the season.
Kos was immense last season but if he got injured we really are thin on the ground.
Jack will get stuck in but is he ready yet to do battle week in and week out, I fear not.
Young jenkinson will hold his own with some but not with others and to me a real mark of improvement was not our good run in last season but to improve or miserable points tally against the other top 5 clubs, that will be the real test, together with a better Home record which by my estimation cost us at least 10 points last season.
Morning all, I’ve just amended the IN/OUT widget to include Gerv and Miquel. I can only conclude we are definitely going to buy a CB or LB if Sagna is going to provide cover as a CB.
What I don’t understand is that such a player is going to be less than £10m- probably less than £5m – why haven’t we got on with it?
I know folks are unhappy with comparison with the totts, but they have already secured 3 quality signings
Morning Rasp
I can only assume that Spurs have spent that money knowing that Bale will be off regardless of what levy says and they will still have considerable funds left over.
Hi kelsey, you may be correct, but they’ve acted on the £85m + they might get whereas we haven’t done anything when we’ve apparently already got circa £70m at our disposal.
I have no doubt we will bring in some players, but we appear to be playing the waiting game in order to get a good deal at the expense of integrating them into the squad early.
It is likely that some if not all of the new players will arrive post the start of the season and CL qualifier. I wonder at what stage we have to register players for the CL?
yes Kelsey, they are going to use the money to pay for the training grounds (some £45mil); good business all right. They simply struck the pot of gold. 2 seasons ago they wanted to get rid of Bale, who was deemed useless.
Also my hairy friend – the Torrez rumour is on again. You might be right after all 🙂
The reason evonne that I think Torres is a possibility is that Abramovich holds all the purse strings and I am sure Mourinho will have a stronger say in matters and will still buy and therefore if chelsea lose 20 odd million on Torres it’s no big deal and his value will also have been marked down in the accounts and that would be a more comfortable fiqure for us and still leave room for a player like Williams (just as an example)
This is what Arseblog has to say on the subject in relation to our PS friendly against city today ……..
…….. Despite pre-season not meaning very much, today could tell us a lot about where we are, how ready we are, and how likely we are to compete. If you look at the two teams, the summers couldn’t have been more different. City changed manager and without too much fuss, and a fair amount of efficiency, brought in new players.
They’ve added to their forward line with Jovetic and Negredo, brought in a new winger in Jesus Navas, and spent big on Fernandinho, a Brazilian central-midfielder. Those deals were done early, allowing the new guys to get their bearings, settle in, meet their new teammates and, crucially, play some football with them before the start of the new season.
Arsenal, on the other hand, well, you don’t need me to tell you it’s been almost the opposite. Sanogo has come on, loads have gone out, and at the moment this is a squad which looks threadbare when you give it any real consideration. Two fit centre-halves, central midfield options which look dangerously prone to injury, still lacking a striker who can make the difference at the highest level, and there’s a dearth of creativity in the side which I think is still a real issue.
For those who don’t know,we play Manchester City in Finland at 3.p.m. UK time today.. I believe rosicky has a slight injury.
Morning people, 🙂
Kelsey, I totally agree with your 6:13, well said and well written, hairy one! 🙂
For those who don’t know this either, the Arsenal v Citeh game is not on any UK TV channels today.
BUT, if you go onto MCFC.co.uk at 5 p.m. you can see a delayed broadcast of the game.
(Don’t know if Arsenal are doing the same??) Kelsey? 🙂
Looking at the ‘Outs’, we should have reduced the wage bill by about £350k a week = £18m a year
Rasp,
Even someone like me, a self confessed cynic, who just switches off from the TW bollix, I also agree with the Arse.blog comment, and as I said yesterday, how difficult can it be for Arsenal to multi-task and buy the CB, Winger, CM and backup CF that we need while farting around waiting for the Suarez nonsense to pan out — and that looks doomed anyway, as it has developed into a testosterone charged ‘my club is bigger than your club – and my todger is bigger than your todger, too’ contest.
Petty cash to Kelsey, Rasper! 🙂
Liveonfooty is showing the game live Red Arse if you can spare £2.00 🙂
Did you say well written. Cor blimey 🙂
Hi DanDan, 🙂
I do not suppose you are around, but I have just read your 8:13 p.m., and at a risk of digging a deeper hole, by ‘clarification’ I was just trying to use a form of words that you could distance yourself from, if you disagreed with my own understanding of what you had written.
Too often I have fallen on the sword when the old adage bites my arse: –
“I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant”. Ooer! 🙂
I tell you that Shankley would turn in his grave and would never have let this situation with Suarez be so public or drag on.it will all end in tears for either liverpool, us or whoever but especially Suarez himself.
Right,off to bed.
Thanx, Kelsey, I will try and rustle up the necessary loot. 🙂
And yes — it was very well written — but you took 10 times as many words as I would have done – of course!!!!!!!! 😀
Morning
Can someone give me an exact link to Liveonfooty, different sites with that name are coming up.
Thanks
I think Kelsey may have meant ‘LiveOnlineFooty’.
Morning all
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