State Aid Utd does something odd at Tax Payer Stadium while the media looks elsewhere.

By Tony Attwood

Once upon a time newspapers were there to print the news on paper (the clue is in the name).  Now their prime purpose (at least in terms of football) seems to be to insult.  Take this as an example…

Thought Manchester City fans were bad? Sheffield United supporter lays into players on lap of dishonour

And if that were not enough we now have

Premier League review: Lucky Louis van Gaal gets away with reckless gamble 

Same newspaper same day on its website.   Bizarrely it hadn’t finished as it then popped up with…

Manuel Pellegrini offers bizarre explanation for Samir Nasri omission

Well, you might think that was enough complaining and knocking for a day, but no, next we have

Ronny Deila says nothing he did at Celtic would have been good enough

Moan, moan, whine, whine.  And still I struggle to find the really interesting story.  Peeking around the corners I find (same newspaper, same day)

Arsenal fans aren’t angry really, they’re just bored

And here we will pause for a moment before I do reveal what seems to me, this evening (at least this evening where I live) what the most interesting story of the afternoon was (and it didn’t turn up in the Telegraph)>

This “Arsenal fans are bored” story is by Charlie Eccleshare, who is called a “digital producer” for the Telegraph.  He is the guy who gave us, “Millions spent on players and marketing but no discernible style and very few trophies: Just what is the point of Real Madrid?” and “Are Liverpool about to be in a full-blown crisis?” and on and on.

And to be clear this guy isn’t some work experience fellow whose just won a scholarship in writing school (in the style of J. Liew, also of Buckingham Palace Rd).  No he used to work for the Mail.

In today’s piece he tells us that Arsenal are in a “stronger position” than Liverpool “on the face of it”.  Just a point is needed for Champions League football for the 19th season, and that leads to doubt?

“And yet, there are many Arsenal supporters who would almost rather be in Liverpool’s position, because above all, many of them are not angry or disappointed, they’re just bored.”

And so I ask, as so often before, “how on earth does he know this?”

Well not surprisingly (for a newspaper that prints PGMO press releases wholesale), evidence does not form a part of the Telegraph football reporting.    He leads the way that many others like to follow – I’ve looked and made up my mind.  That is enough.

I have no objection to a Telegraph employee knocking out this sort of twaddle, and the Telegraph paying him to do so.  But why on earth can’t people acknowledge that when something is their opinion it is their opinion?

He then writes about the “ennui” at Arsenal, (a feeling of listlessness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of occupation or excitement, it says in my dictionary) and they print a staged picture of a guy lying across three seats to prove the point.  And again, the evidence?  I haven’t seen any.  I’ve heard a lot of noise, and seen rivals on the question of where the club should go, come to blows.  We’ve had people come on here complaining that pro-Wengerians tore up their banners and abused their children, while I’ve witness the anti-Wengerian who sits behind me get so angry with Wenger that it was only the likelihood that he was about to have a heart attack that caused the stewards not forcibly to remove him from the ground.  Ennui?  Not a chance.

Of course Charlie E is not all bad, for he admits that “Liverpool, as well as many other clubs, have spent a fortune in the last two decades desperately trying to achieve Champions League qualification” before going on to say that Mr Wenger is “rightly mocked”.  (The paper then ran one of their instant polls on whether you would have been happier supporting Liverpool or Arsenal this season, and Arsenal were clearly winning the day when I voted).

But the knocking copy goes on and on.  Try this one for size: In the last home match against Norwich, the majority were not mutinous – they could barely summon enough interest to revolt.

If that is what he saw… oh no hang on.  He wasn’t there was he?

Anyway, all this is sad because there is, as I said, an important story around and it concerns State Aid United.  Now the Telegraph will not speak a word against the old pornographers, and to prove it have wheeled out Arry Redknapp to write a piece for them.  It is headed

Leaving Upton Park will be sad for West Ham – but the future is bright 

This is an interesting twist on a day of such multiple negativity, because what Arry says is as dull as two litres of ditchwater than have just been recycled through the something incredibly dull and ditchwater.  But what has got me exercised is the fact that State Aid Utd have announced they have sold 50,000 season tickets for their 60,000 capacity Tax Payers Stadium next season.

Now that is interesting when you consider these figures.  First, there is no limit on how many season tickets can be sold, save that it must be less than 90% of the capacity, because PL rules say that 10% must be made available to visiting supporters, unless they can’t be, for safety reasons.  If they don’t take up the allocation then those tickets can be reallocated to home supporters – if the barrier between both can be moved.

As a result of this ruling, we can see that Man U have 72% season tickets, 10% for away fans and 18% sold on the day.  Arsenal sell 15% to members with Silver or Red membership.  But West Ham are going to reduce their tickets for the day to 5%.

This is going to fill the ground for most matches, but it is also going to cause a problem.  Most season ticket holders hold onto their tickets, and most clubs find that their season ticket population is ageing, with fewer younger people getting into the ground.   That is why Arsenal stopped at the lower number of season tickets, and have the silvers and reds for sale for each game.

This in turn means good news for State Aid for the first few seasons, and a good insurance if State Aid Utd slip back to their spiritual home – the second division (unless of course a lot of people give their season tickets up there and then).

But this is not a plan for the future – not a plan that will encourage young people to become part of supporting the State Aided club.  The club will pay just £2.5m in rent, while the tax payer pays for all the running costs of the stadium.

So what are they up to?  The stadium costs them so little, they can’t be desperate for cash.  They won’t have any of the hiatus years that Arsenal have suffered and Tottenham will soon start seeing, as they build a stadium.   Virtually everything is being paid by British tax payers, whether we live in London or Shetland.

However throughout the suspicion has been that the owners wanted this deal, in order to sell the club with the deal in place.  Now being able to sell it with 50,000 season ticket holders, the sale should be assured, if that is indeed what they intend to do.

Of course I have no direct line inside the murky world of State Aid Utd, but this is certainly an issue worth contemplating.  The Telegraph could even have put someone onto the story.  But no, it doesn’t really fit with the Arsenal bashing mode they are now stuck in.  And besides, Arry wanted to write about the club.

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