Although this column is about Arsenal, a central part of our thesis is that much of the problem in football is caused by the way certain journalists and their editors report the doings of football clubs – in particular Arsenal. The malicious twisting of the stories about Arsenal’s finances are a case in point.
Thus it is with much glee and delight that I can report that The People (which although not a newspaper likes to pass itself off as one) has has suspended its sports editor.
Of course I have no insight into the situation, and know nothing about the rights or wrongs of the case. But since most sports editors know nothing about the rights and wrongs of cases and that doesn’t stop them commenting like mad, so I’ll say a word or two.
It is, it seems, all about “financial irregularities”.
What could this mean?
I leave it to you to guess. Journalist. Financial irregularities.
Hmmmmm
Payment of money for stories maybe?
One interesting point is that the journalist concerned, a “MrHorton” is known to be a fan of a so-called “football team” known as “West Ham”
Say no more.
Thought you’d be interested in the following twaddle from F365 reader comments. David Garner I salute you and your unpleasant, sanctimonious idiocy.
“ManYoo Have Done All This…
Ssshhh. Hear that noise? That one. Yep there it was again. And again! You know what it is? The sound of pennies dropping, that’s what. And those pennies are landing like missiles in Islington and Highbury, as north Londoners realise Arsenal are on the brink of signing absolutely nobody of significance and are already resigned to making up the numbers this season. Just another small step in their delicious demise from Invincibles to Imbeciles then.
As a lifelong United fan of all things red I feel duty bound to bring the following point to the attention of the developed world. I’d hate it to pass under the footballing radar, really I would.
The demise of Arsenal football club has been caused by Manchester United. And just to emphasise the point, United are on the brink of repeating the trick, this time shagging the hated Liverpool right where it hurts too.
Consider; Way back in the annals of time, well 1996 actually, United completed the development of their mountainous North stand, towering darkly like K2 and almost as steep. It took the capacity of Old Trafford up to over 55,000 and sent palpitations through English football, in particular a Mr Danny Fiszman, then director of the Arse. He rightly identified the gap that had opened between his beloved Arsenal and United was threatening Arsenal’s competitiveness. Highbury held 38,000 and now the Red Devils had extended Old Trafford the gap was a colossal 17,000 for every home match. That equated to around £500,000 additional revenue per match and that financial gap was too large to bridge. Reluctantly Mr Fiszman began to think the unthinkable. In order to compete with United over a longer term strategy Arsenal had to leave their beloved Highbury.
Now fast forward to today, and what have we before our eyes? Why, the Gunners have indeed moved house, and to a truly exceptional residence too. Utterly superb and pretty as a page three model, their new pad is all any Arsenal red-blooded bachelor could wish for.
All they have to do now is pay for it.
And in that single sentence comes the, well, payback. For as splendid as the Emirates is (and at this point I can’t help but speculate at the stick and derision that would have been heaped on ‘greedy United’ had they ever sold the naming rights to Old Trafford in honour of a middle-eastern airline) the plain fact is that the financial burden of that move has shagged Arsenal to the point of competitive collapse.
They have to pay for that beauty of a stadium, and now can’t afford anything like the player transfer outlay of United, the very club whose successful investment in their own stadium forced an eviction notice on the Gunners, in the process reducing the legendary art deco Highbury stadium to a block of flats.
You want proof? United buy Hargreaves, Anderson, Nani, Carlos Tevez, and perhaps Berbatov. Arsenal get Amaury Bischoff.
And how is Old Trafford after all these years? Why, we now have a capacity of 76,000, which is virtually the same 17,000 difference from all those years ago when Arsenal launched their response to an ever-bulging Theatre of Dreams. Running to stand still, Gunners? But whereas the jaw-droppingly pretty Emirates is finished, Old Trafford surely has yet more development up its intimidating, brutally beautiful sleeve. A final capacity of 96,000 anyone?
If this isn’t a juicy enough snack for gluttonous Red Devils to gorge on, consider the Michelin-starred main course that’s being prepared for roasting right now. Liverpool. The once-mighty rivals that have conquered Europe more times than any British club are now a parody of their former selves. Comparatively obsolete on the field and belittled by owner in-fighting off it, their quandary shows signs only of getting worse before it gets better.
They are hurting.
They know they’re miles off the pace with Anfield and are just about maintaining their dignity whilst their home is being outclassed week in, week out. Small, impossible to develop, financially not at the races and despite their self-absorbing tosh about the ‘Anfield effect’, anything but a fortress. So they have to move too. Just consider the implication of that for a moment. Manchester United have forced firstly Arsenal and almost certainly Liverpool to leave their beloved ancestral homes, purely to hang onto the expanding Old Trafford coat tails. I like it. I like it a lot.
If that forced move was painful enough for Arsenal, Liverpool are in even more agony. Their stadium project lunges from take one to take two, back to the drawing board again and now is scaled down to something not wanted but what will have to do. All that and with considerable credit crunch doubt as to if it will ever occur at all. Don’t move, and they’re left behind. Leave their beloved home of over a century – painfully evicted by Manchester United no less, remember, and the financial strain will place Liverpool in exactly the same position of years of utter non-competitiveness as Arsenal.
Delicious.
David Garner, United supporter since birth, attending Old Trafford since 1973. “
What a d*ckhead!!!
Does he understand that Arsenal’s debt has been rolled into a 25 year bond with an annual interest rate (or “coupon” to those in the know) of 4.5%, which leaves the Club with an annual payment of GBP 20,250,000.00 per season?
Or that Man-Ure (his club) are in debt to the eyeballs (approaching GBP 1 BILLION!!!), and that in the last two seasons they haven’t even managed to earn enough money to pay the interest on their loans?
I want to see what this d*ckhead will be saying in two years when his club are doing a Leeds…
David Garner, you are a tool.