By Tony Attwood
As you have probably heard Tottenham have reached an agreement with the FA to play their Champions League home games at Wembley next season, exactly as Arsenal did in 1998 and 1999.
Having won the double in 1998, Arsenal were hopeful of doing well in the Champions League, but there was a bigger prize at stake – raising the money for the club to build the Emirates Stadium. To do this Arsenal had to prove to their bankers that they could get big crowds, and so showing that they could more or less fill Wembley for the six Champs League games they played there. And they did.
Tottenham simply need money now. They have the financial deals in place with their bankers; what they are desperate for is the cash to be able to pay the interest, and start the long grind to paying back the loans on the new ground – especially as next season the Tiny Ground will be even Tinier.
Arsenal’s time in the Champions League matches at Wembley was hardly joyful. Here are the results…
- 30 Sept 1998 Beat Panathinaikos 2-1 (Adams, Keown)
- 21 Oct 1998 Drew with Dynamo Kiev 1-1 (Bergkamp)
- 25 Nov 1998 Lost to Lens 1-0
- 22 Sept 1999 Beat AIK Solna 3-1 (Ljungberg, Henry, Suker)
- 19 Oct 1999 Lost to Barcelona 4-2 (Bergkamp, Overmars)
- 27 Oct 1999 Lost to Fiorentina 1-0
Of course we don’t know how Tottenham, who finished third in the Premier League last season, will do at Wembley. But their recent record since winning the League Cup hasn’t been very impressive. They lost a league cup final to Man U, friendlies against Celtic and Barce, an FA Cup semi to Portsmouth, and Chelsea, and then another League Cup final.
So the deal is financial – but it also secures Tottenham the option to play at Wembley in 2017/18, and not only that it seems they have got the rights to play there for both League and FA Cup matches.
This means that if the Tinies get to the semi-final and final it seems they will be playing at their home ground. Although there has been a mention of moving the semi-final if Tottenham are involved there is no way the final will be moved, thus giving Tottenham a significant benefit of playing all their home matches in the Cup and League at Wembley.
Tottenham also quote the notion that their waiting list for season tickets is over 50,000 long, and this may well be true, although there are several sources that say that their equivalent of Arsenal’s silver memberships are automatically put on the waiting list. At Arsenal the season ticket waiting list is quite separate, and a fee has to be paid to join the list.
There has been no mention of late as to what Chelsea will do if their own rebuilding programme goes ahead. They still have a long way to go vis a vis planning permission so this coming season was never an issue for them, but 2017/18 is the crunch time. Tottenham will need Wembley for the whole season, and it will be, under the present schedule, the first year of Chelsea’s three year rebuild programme.
Chelsea of course will have no financial issues, any more than State Aid Utd have financial issues over the building of the stadium. But it seems that Tottenham will face some years of restriction on finances as Arsenal did following the building of the Emirates.
Untold Arsenal has published five books on Arsenal – all are available as paperback and three are now available on Kindle. The books are
- The Arsenal Yankee by Danny Karbassiyoon with a foreword by Arsene Wenger.
- Arsenal: the long sleep 1953 – 1970; a view from the terrace. By John Sowman with an introduction by Bob Wilson.
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football. By Tony Attwood, Andy Kelly and Mark Andrews.
- Making the Arsenal: a novel by Tony Attwood.
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal by Mark Andrews.
You can find details of all five on our new Arsenal Books page
Careful Tony, you will be accused of being obsessed with Spuds again.
Are you guys ever going to get it?
Arsenal cocked up their finances badly.
Spurs haven’t.. It’s as simple as that.
£150M of the £400m for the stadium has already been spent and within the accounts of previous years so only £250m left to go.
Zero player trading costs in the last 5 years and half of arsenals wage bill.
A shirt and stadium naming rights deal that will pay off the remainder of the stadium bill inside of 5 years.
ZERO IMPACT ON TEAM FINANCES.
On the other hand Arsenal have spent over half a billion yes £500million more than Spurs on their team since moving to the new stadium and gone backwoods, it’s got nothing to do with Arsenal being prudent to pay off the stadium and everything to do with wenger not being able to rebuild a league winning squad after George Graham’s team was fully over.
Arsenal pay high wages to average players to boost their ego’s and it doesn’t work.
Well, let’s wait to see what the FA will do if Spurs reached the semi of the FA Cup in 2017/18 season. And if they eventually got to the final of the competition.
The FA should move the semi-final to another venue if Spurs got to that level. But for the Final itself, the FA hand maybe tied as to move the FA Cup final away from Wembley if Spurs made the final.
Therefore, yes, Tottenham Hotspur will have the advantage in the FA Cup in 2017/18 if they reached the final. And after using the Webmley Stadium as their home ground for the 2017/18 season’s campaign in all competitions, Spurs will have the home feel advantage at Webmley should they play in the final.
Bazza, are you telling us that Arsenal have been squandering their money flamboyantly on high wage bills on average players? And on other spendings such as services rendered? And have they liquidate the banks loans they took to build our iconic Emirates Stadium?
The evidence is, the Gunners have not matched the colossal amount of the wage bill being paid to them with marquee performance on the field of play. They often play 2nd fiddle to their opponent rival top teams when it comes to winning the BPL title and the Ucl despite collecting huge amount of money from Arsenal.
In this underperforming status by some Gunners who I am sure know themselves as they have not given or have not been giving value for the huge money they’ve earned or are earning at Arsenal.
The Boss cannot be totally exonerated from this lapse at Arsenal as he has kept too long some Gunners who have past it or have gone unproductive due to unmanageable injuries in their careers at Arsenal, thereby making Arsenal to look as a humanitarian or philanthropist club. I think the Boss should divorce himself from this his over kindness habit and become more professional in his management of Arsenal FC.
Bazza,
When you say about Arsenal “going backwoods”, you surely mean going from 1st or 2nd to 3rd or 4th. Compare that with Tottenham, who are going to go from 3rd (once, and in a season when we finished 2nd), to, what? 4th, 5th? Your statistical average is way below us, so, if you want to make a fair point, present both sides instead of doing cherry picking.
According to Swiss Ramble, the total stadium financing is way above £400m – actually, the whole project is supposed to cost £675m to £750m. There is a gap of £300m to be filled from commercial deals – stadium naming rights, additional sponsorship on top of the existing deals. Even assuming the £15m/yr rent for Wembley has been included in the project cost, filling the gap is going to be a tough ask. Plus, the recent St. Totteringham hasn’t exactly been helpful. The ball is in your court.
Bazza, two points.
1) The stadium costs won’t be fully known until it’s finished, although AFC did make mistakes in their build and I’m pretty certain the Spuddies will have learnt from some of them, they’ll make plenty of their own mistakes in such a major project.
2) When Spuddies are playing CL football they’ll have to pay big wages to their own average players to boost their egos, assuming you improve your playing squad to AFCs level.
One point worth mentioning is that we pay top wages because we can afford to.
I don’t know if it’s the Mtn Nigeria network service that has been irritatingly switching my phone network service connection off whenever I am typing my comment for posting on any of the Untold Arsenal articles. It has happened severally in the past and it has happened twice today again.
Anyway, I think the Boss should change his policy of holding too long than necessary to the Gunners who have unfortunately pass it due to them to become injury proneners at Arsenal. Because this Boss over-sympathy toward them, has turned out to be counterproductive for Arsenal on the field of play per the team performances in titles winning wise.
We all know those who the Boss has over kept at Arsenal who because of the unfortunate big injury they’ve suffered at one time or the other which has kept them sidelined for a long time and will come back at them again in one form or other and just won’t go away from them to allow them to fully recovered for a season or 2 to reach top level form for Arsenal and thus consequently turned them to become injury proneners.
The Boss should hands-off from such a player or players at Arsenal and move them on after their remaining at injury level for 3 consecutive seasons at Arsenal. If not, this will tantamount to indulgence in keep deadwoods at Arsenal amounting to wasting of money on them in the form of paying their wage bills for no tangible service rendered.
I believe Arsenal want to be winning titles and because of over retaining some injury proneners who even when they shortly recovered cannot sustain their recover for a long time before they sustain another one. Thus causing Arsenal winning titles to dwindled which they ought to have won at least twice or even thrice in the last 4 to 5 seasons.
Bazza – do you ever celebrate St Totteringhams Day? It has a 20 year history in the ‘backwoods’.
Bazza…..come back on UA when you can learn to spell!
Ah …., they never fail to amuse us with their vanity and unintended humour !
And so in the same vain …, I meant vein ,here’s a tale of the best laid plans of men , mice and nuts !
A doctor at an insane asylum decided to take his patients to a baseball game.
For weeks in advance, he coached his patients to respond to his commands.
When the day of the game arrived. Everything went quite well. As the national anthem started, the doctor yelled, “Up Nuts”, and the patients complied by standing up. After the anthem, he yelled, “Down Nuts”, and they all sat back down in their seats.
After a home run was hit, the doctor yelled, “Cheer Nuts” They all broke out into applause and cheered. When the umpire made a particularly bad call against the star of the home team, the Doctor yelled, “Booooo Nuts” and they all started booing and cat calling.
Comfortable with their response, the doctor decided to go get a beer and a hot dog, leaving his assistant in charge. When he returned, there was a riot in progress.
Finding his missing assistant, the doctor asked:” What in the world happened?” The assistant replied: “Well everything was going just fine until this guy walked by and yelled, “PEANUTS!”
WINDOW CURTAINS –
A blonde enters a store that sells curtains. She tells the salesman ,” I would like to buy a pink curtain in the size of my computer screen .”
The surprised salesman replies , ” But lady ,computers do not need curtains .”
And the blonde says , ” Helloooo – I’ve got Windows !”
Wenger is a gentleman! Acclaimed by players, collegues nd all;dis virtue is d foundation of d Family bond in Arsenal nd wich makes d club unique;however, I tink its tym AW shuld begin to reconsider his loyalty to underperforming nd injury proned players,henceforth he shuld nt give 2nd thought to such players bcos its affecting d overall performance of d team nd d title chase wich has bin d cause of d crisis of recent seasons; much as I give it to AW wit regard to knoing wat is best for his team, I urge him to do away those. Underperforming players like d Ox, Gnbary even Walcot,let go nd free space for d likes of Jeff, Toral et al!
Some fine lines supposed to be written by Andy Rooney, a man who had the gift of saying so much with so few words. ………Enjoy………
I’ve learned … That the best classroom in the world is at the feet of an elderly person.
I’ve learned …. That when you’re in love, it shows.
I’ve learned …. That just one person saying to me, ‘You’ve made my day!’ makes my day.
I’ve learned …. That having a child fall asleep in your arms is one of the most peaceful feelings in the world.
I’ve learned …. That being kind is more important than being right.
I’ve learned …. That you should never say no to a gift from a child.
I’ve learned …. That I can always pray for someone when I don’t have the strength to help him in some other way.
I’ve learned …. That no matter how serious your life requires you to be, everyone needs a friend to act goofy with.
I’ve learned …. That sometimes all a person needs is a hand to hold and a heart to understand.
I’ve learned …. That simple walks with my father around the block on summer nights when I was a child did wonders for me as an adult.
I’ve learned …. That life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer it gets to the end, the faster it goes.
I’ve learned …. That we should be glad God doesn’t give us everything we ask for.
I’ve learned …. That money doesn’t buy class.
I’ve learned …. That it’s those small daily happenings that make life so spectacular.
I’ve learned …. That under everyone’s hard shell is someone who wants to be appreciated and loved.
I’ve learned …. That to ignore the facts does not change the facts.
I’ve learned …. That love, not time, heals all wounds.
I’ve learned …. That no one is perfect until you fall in love with them.
I’ve learned … That life is tough, but I’m tougher.
I’ve learned …. That opportunities are never lost; someone will take the ones you miss.
I’ve learned …. That when you harbor bitterness, happiness will dock elsewhere.
I’ve learned …. That I wish I could have told my Mom that I love her one more time before she passed away.
I’ve learned …. That one should keep his words both soft and tender, because tomorrow he may have to eat them.
I’ve learned ….. That a smile is an inexpensive way to improve your looks.
I’ve learned ….. That when your newly born grandchild holds your little finger in his little fist, that you’re hooked for life.
I’ve learned …. That everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing.
OF FAITH AND TRUST –
This event was supposed to have occurred in 1988.
Samuel and Danielle sent their young son, Armand, off to school. Samuel squatted before his son and looked him in the eye. “Have a good day at school, and remember, no matter what, I’ll always be there for you.” They hugged and the boy ran off to school.
Hours later, a powerful earthquake rocked the area. In the midst of the pandemonium, Samuel and Danielle tried to discover what happened to their son but they couldn’t get any information. The radio announced that there were thousands of casualties.
Samuel then grabbed his coat and headed for the schoolyard. When he reached the area, what he saw brought tears to his eyes. Armand’s school was a pile of debris. Other parents were standing around crying.
Samuel found the place where Armand’s classroom used to be and began pulling a broken beam off the pile of rubble. He then grabbed a rock and put it to the side, and then grabbed another one.
One of the parents looking on asked, “What are you doing?” “Digging for my son ,” Samuel answered. The man then said, “You’re just going to make things worse! The building is unstable,” and tried to pull Samuel away from his work.
Samuel set his jaw and kept working. As time wore on, one by one, the other parents left. Then a fire-fighter tried to pull Samuel away from the rubble. Samuel looked at him and said, “Won’t you help me?” The fire-fighter left and Samuel kept digging.
All through the night and into the next day, Samuel continued digging. Parents placed flowers and pictures of their children on the ruins. But, Samuel just kept working. He picked up a beam and pushed it out of the way when he heard a faint cry. “Help! Help!” Samuel listened but didn’t hear anything again. Then he heard a muffled voice, “Papa?”
Samuel began to dig furiously. Finally he could see his son. “Come on out, son!” he said with relief. “No,” Armand said. “Let the other kids come out first because I know you’ll get me.”
Child after child emerged until, finally, little Armand appeared. Samuel took him in his arms and Armand said, “I told the other kids not to worry because you told me that you’d always be there for me!”
Fourteen children were saved that day because one father was faithful.
Friends, whether trapped by fallen debris or ensnared by life’s hardships and struggles, we are never cut off from our Source. Faith and Trust are our connection to the Source.
It’s a PRIVILEGE being a parent, ENJOY each moment of it.
It’s a RESPONSIBILITY being a parent, DO YOUR BEST.
Brickfields
I liked your Nuts story. I suppose a search on the OED for *nut* (or *nuts*) is in order.
Computers running Windows don’t need curtains. Bill Gates gave them BSOD.
I hope some of the learning things are wrong.
Will we ever move out of “interesting times”?
Some cooking in return. I recently bought some Quaker Oatmeal muffin mix. I thought oatmeal was a little plain, so I bought some unsweetened coconut as well. A batch (1 dozen) is half a bag of mix. And an egg. And too much water. How you can have too much water, after adding 100g of shredded coconut escapes me. So, I added a couple of heaping tablespoons of multigrain bread flour.
After putting all the dough in the muffin tray, I tasted the dough. Far too sweet.
Quaker is now owned by Pepsi. I found the recipe watery and too sweet. Hmm, I wonder if there is a connection to the owner?
Try 2. Add 300g of unsweetened coconut. Add 4 heaping tablespoons of multigrain bread flour. Add water until the dough has the correct consistency. (You can spoon it into the muffin tin.)
I recently put up a note about candied bacon for Walter. I had made some candied bacon using cocoa butter as an oil in rendering strip bacon (and then cutting off extra fat). No taste of cocoa. I rendered some more strip bacon using coconut oil, and again trimmed excess fat. No taste of coconut. Maybe my taste buds and nose were on strike? And I cooked some backbacon slices in bourbon and cacao, and then baked them with cocoa/sugar sprinkled on them. And reduced the bourbon/chocolate with more sugar to a syrup, to candy the strip bacon pieces.
But, at the end of this, I had some leftover fat. A mixture of cocoa butter, coconut oil and bacon fat. So, I added some cocoa and sugar and made home-made chocolate.
Half of my coconut-oatmeal muffins got a single walnut in the centre. The other half, got a piece of this coconut/bacon chocolate in the centre.
The muffin by itself, is now much better. Not too sweet. And the bacon/coconut chocolate, just makes it so much better.
Gord -May 30, 2016 at 7:45 am – I don’t think that I’ve eaten Quaker Oats for more than 40 years . Felt a bit guilty as it was supposed to be healthy . Apparently not , at least not in some regions .You’d probably be eating that very healthy Canadian stuff .
Taiwan Recalls Quaker Oats Products Imported From U.S. After Detecting Glyphosate.
https://ecowatch.com/2016/05/27/taiwan-quaker-oats-glyphosate/
Tottenham may well have an advantage, but in the end they too are victims of:-
Concerning food:-
Most of it contains MSG(Monosodium glutamate) in one form or another. And, the law says that it does not need to be labeled as MSG, so we see they put “sulphate”, “natural flavour” and any other names that does not identify it as MSG on the packet.
MSG causes random neuron firing in the brain. This means that everyone has at one time or another taken in heaps of MSG, that is if they have ever eaten.
Even the remote places that were once safe(my home land with it’s fresh grown food for instance) now have the global supermarkets, take aways and eateries all installed, feeding the once healthy population this poison.
We are so stupid allowing a global market for food where the same people produce and distribute food worldwide. Talk about putting “all our eggs in one basket”.
Basically, MSG disrupts the activities that our amino acid neuro-transmitters carry out. Amino acid neuro-transmitters are the chemical messengers carrying news from nerve cell to nerve cell inside us. MSG stimulates the pancreas to produce insulin. The body changes excess glutamate to GABA. GABA may be addictive. It is calming and affects the same receptors in the brain as valium.
And they say that MSG is virtually harmless.
For those interested:- Hidden names for MSG
Glutamic Acid (E 620)
Glutamate (E 620)
Monosodium Glutamate (E 621)
Monopotassium Glutamate (E 622)
Calcium Glutamate (E 623)
Monoammonium Glutamate (E 624)
Magnesium Glutamate (E 625)
Natrium Glutamate
Yeast Extract
Anything “hydrolyzed”
Any “hydrolyzed protein”
Calcium Caseinate
Sodium Caseinate
Yeast Food
Yeast Nutrient
Autolyzed Yeast
Gelatin
Textured Protein
Soy Protein
Soy Protein Concentrate
Soy Protein Isolate
Whey Protein
Whey Protein Concentrate
Whey Protein Isolate
Anything “…protein”
Vetsin
Ajinomoto
For those who want a list of foods to avoid(virtually EVERYTHING) see http://www.msgtruth.org/avoid.htm
think most financiers agree we got a very good deal on the payment of the stadium.
Where our Spurs supporting friend may have a point, our commercials were not the best…but they ended up having to get the money in fairly quickly…would also add that the worst recession for seventy years probably didn’t help much either with selling the properties.
if I could criticise us, I would say they board maybe could have found more money to help Wenger…..they did pocket rather a lot, Dein seemed to realise this, and tried to bring outside oligarch investment……but if this really was his aim, he bought attracted the wrong guy…..to this end any way.
Yes, we did have to sell our best players, and yes, we did pay some very high wages to…..not naming names, but perhaps some who did not merit such remuneration…..but most teams do that.
Conclusion, if you are an Arsenal fan, thank whatever God you do…..or don’t believe in for having the frankly, quite amazing Arsene Wenger during those tough years….and hopefully a few years longer. If Pochettino keeps Spurs in the top four for a fifth as many years in a row as Wenger did under austerity, he will go down as a Spurs legend, and the WOB/ media will embark on an eternal wankfest at his achievements.
Para,
While mentioning foods to avoid, don’t forget GMO’s, Aspartame and fluoride. Neither of them very good for your health.
Mandy,
Yes, indeed aren’t we lucky to have Wenger, who knows what would have happened without him to steer us through during those times, and like you, I wish he will stay for many more years to come.
Glutamate is the conjugate base of glutamic acid, an amino acid.
Glutamic acid is not necessary in the diet, because our body is capable of making glutamic acid from other things in our diet. Which probably means that other organisms can also make glutamic acid from things they eat/metabolize. Which pretty much means glutamic acid is a common part of our diet, as most of the things we eat either take in glutamic acid, or make glutamic acid.
For many years, it was believed the tongue had 4 senses: sweet, salty, bitter and sour. We have since come to believe there is a 5th component (umami). Sweet is nominally sugars, high energy food. Sour is nominally acidic, the presence of a low pH or high acidity. Salts (the product of reacting an acid with a base) are a necessary part of our diet for making our nervous system work. Unfortunately, it is easy in today’s world to get either too much NaCl (a specific salt) or too much sodium ion (a family of salts). Bitter is often the indicator of poisons, the alkaloids. So, 4 senses all with a use in helping us have a balanced diet.
Is there anything missing? Yes, we need protein to survive. Which in a sense is meat. And umami is that system. What umami indicates, is the presence of glutamic acid.
But para and chrissie, please do avoid any and _ALL_ foods which either contain glutamte, or can be metabolised to create glutamate.
@ omgarsenal
Such a petty and poor man’s comeback is using spelling to make a point on someone’s opinion.