- How the media’s hypocrisy over VAR is both astonishing and shameful.
- After the Everton case what happens to Chelsea and Manchester City?
By Nitram
When it comes to the possible transgressions of both Chelsea and Manchester City, there is a lot of talk about the possible sanctions that could be imposed upon them. Now that Everton have been given a 10 point deduction for what seem to be much less serious breaches of Fair Play rules, the sanctions could be enormous.
Given the precedent set in Scotland with Rangers, for example, demotion to the lowest tier of English football wouldn’t seem beyond the realms of possibility, depending on the level of guilt of course. Although as that level of sanction may seem reasonable in the worst-case scenario I simply couldn’t see that happening, but you never know. Only time will tell.
Now if, and I repeat if, Chelsea and Manchester City are found guilty, I believe their punishment should be at least demotion to The Championship, possibly lower. But whatever happens to them, nothing will give back to the other clubs what their shenanigans potentially took from them, and THAT may turn out to be an even bigger issue than the punishment Chelsea and Man City may or may not receive.
How do you even begin to calculate the effect those two clubs had on everybody else? And make no mistake, they affected every club they played, and every club that ever played in the Premier League.
It’s not simply about the loss of one or two positions in the table that may or may not have resulted in the loss of a title, a Champions league place or contributed to a relegation. It’s about more than that. These are actually quite tangible, visible, equitable losses, but there are other, less obvious, much more subtle, but arguably even more damaging issues to be considered.
Take our own club for example. The effect the rise of those two clubs had on us was much more than just the loss of ‘a couple of places’ in the table. As I will show, it was/is incalculable.
The first thing that happened was to our players. It didn’t take them long to realise winning the PL was now going to be almost impossible. That led to them getting unsettled which eventually led to many of them leaving. Not only leaving, but very often moving aborad or to those two teams directly, so not only weakening us, but strengthening them.
The second thing was the problem of attracting elite players that may have otherwise come to us. Not only were we under the financial restraints incurred by the building of the Emirates, but potential signings could see the limitless funds available elsewhere. They could see what we were up against.
If it hadn’t been for Wenger’s genius in maintaining Champions League football season after season, we really would have been in serious trouble attracting anyone.
The third, was how the above two scenarios turned the entire media against us. Not only the Club in general, but our players only had to appear a tad below ‘invincible’ and they were slaughtered. And then of course, as we all know, Wenger was on the end of endless abuse, despite the aforementioned miraculous achievement of maintaining top four finishes on a zero net spend.
And last but not least was the effect all this endless abuse and criticism had on our fan base.
It turned way too many hitherto loyal fans completely against their own Club, manager, and players. It has taken an absolutely Herculean effort from the club in general, and Arteta and the players in particular, finally to win back those fans.
And to be clear, this re-engagement of the fans has nothing to do with ‘success’ per se. In Wenger’s last five years he won 3 FA cups and on the back of that three Community Shields. Finishing second once, but that didn’t stop the abuse for more than an afternoon.
Arteta has won one FA Cup, with Wenger’s team I may add, and come second once.
Now of course I’m not knocking Arteta, I think he’s doing a fantastic job. But you have to take into account he has spent more in the last 2 seasons than Wenger in his entire tenure. It is to compare chalk and cheese. And yes I accept that in Wenger’s last 18 months, things had taken a turn for the worse.
But my point is, the anti-Wenger bandwagon, and anti-everything Arsenal bandwagon in fact, had been at full throttle for over 10 years, and it all started with the arrival of the oil money and the massive detrimental effect that had on our football club.
I don’t believe any other club was affected to the level that Arsenal Football Club was. Not only in the overt loss of two places in the League table simply due to the arrival of those two teams in the top four, but in the even bigger, but more subtle losses such as:
- Loss of value of our club
- Ability to keep players
- Ability to sign players
- Tthe enormous detrimental effect on our fan base
- And last but not least on the back of all those, the loss of Arsene Wenger
The enormous loss to Arsenal football club due to the massive, possibly illegal spending of those two clubs is incalculable.
I suspect many other clubs and their supporters will feel similarly disadvantaged.
Apart from the demotion expected to both Chelsea and more so Man city, do they have to give back the “league position prize money” and “Euro qualifying prize money” they earned during those corrupt years?
OH boohoo – poor Arsenal – what a one sided article – excessive spend alone does not guarantee winning the premier league
ALL results would have been different ( bear in mind that Arsenal improved by Arteta, Jesus and Vinokurov moving fron Man City – this would not have happened ) The club most affected by this abortion of FA control was possibly Liverpool – but this is all speculation and you cannot definitively prove any off the hogwash you write – best thing the FA can do is scrap all the leagues and start again
Paul Orlando, I don’t think you quite understand what the article is about, so I’ll try and spell it out.
You call our writing “hogwash”, and then suggest we cannot prove it, when in fact the very headline of the article includes the phrase “possible transgressions”. May I repeat that for you: POSSIBLE transgressions.
Now I must admit I am not at all sure how to prove something that is “possible” it is a conjecture, not a statement of fact.
I am sure you are infinitely more intelligent than I, but really I just don’t know how an article with the headline “possible transgressions” is going to be proven. How do you prove the consequences to something that you think might be possible? All you can do is speculate.
So sorry, you lost me totally there.
Paul Orlando
I agree Liverpool were arguably the 2nd most affected team but nowhere near as badly as Arsenal.
When Wenger arrived at Arsenal on 1976 we finished 3rd in 1996/97 then for the next 8 seasons up to and including season 2004/05 we finished either 1st or 2nd.
Abramovic arrived at Chelsea in 2003 and he immediately started spending enormous amounts of money. Chelseas Net spend over the following 10 years was around £50 Million per season. Arsenals was zero. Now that is not Chelsea or Man Cities fault, but even if we were not committed to the Emirates stadium there is no way we could of matched anything like that level of spending. . It took about 2 years for the effects of that spending to kick in. Then of course the oil money arrived at Man City in 2008, meaning we now had 2 clubs spending in excess of £50M net person on players. Often on OUR players. From 2006 onwards we would not manage a top 2 finish until 15/16. Instead of just Man Utd, who were already able to significantly out spend us on players (hence why we were building the Emirates in the first place), we now had 3, 2 of which it now transpires could, I repeat could, of been cooking the books in order to do so.
So, in a nutshell, prior to the Abromovic money arriving in 2003, between ’97 and ’05 we finished:
3rd – 1st – 2nd – 2nd – 2nd – 1st – 2nd – 1st – 2nd
The 10 years after the money arrived between ’06 and we finished:
4th – 4th – 3rd – 4th – 3rd – 4th – 3rd – 4th – 4th – 3rd
So basically 8 years of 1st and 2nds, the money arrives at Chelsea and Man city, followed by 10 years of 3rds and 4ths.
The direct correlation is absolutely undeniable, and if, again I say IF, Man City and Chelsea are found guilty, it means their illegal spending would of cost Arsenal MILLIONS of pounds, of that there is absolutely no argument.
Corr: Wenger 1996
who is Vinokurov that Paul mentioned moving to Arsenal?
Ben : Vinokurov ? Hangover cure ? Or more likely it’s Zinchenko , clearly Paul was just hitting random keys and are supposed to glean something from it . Sure sign of guilty as charged panicky ManSour fan.
Arsene Wenger is and was a great man but he kkwas sacked as manager of Arsenal in 2018. maybe that was unfair and I mean maybe. Isn’t it time you
Moved on? That is if this is an Arsenal fan pldace.
The obscene levels of corrupt finance introduced into the corporate operations at Chelsea and Manchester City have greatly unbalanced and diminished the “sport” of football.
The resulting negative outcomes have rooted and threaded throughout; into every corner; particularly at the highest levels of the “Game”! Not just in England!
Yes some of the greatest names in football have suffered diminished returns in these past 20 years; Arsenal being one of many.
Maybe Liverpool, also, might feel poorly used? A great club: however one with perhaps some questionable earlier history in regard to transfer dealings? After all there was at one time a certain integrity in the bigger clubs who tended to buy in players from the lower echelons; thus funding the overall league structure. The amazing Liverpool teams of the 70’s and 80’s found many of their greats from other top league sides, thus adding fuel to their own success : this whilst ensuring slightly diminished results (even relegation) in their direct opponents!
If we have learned anything it is that money trumps sport. We are all losers; none more so than the real fans who are financially excluded unless paying unaffordable stadium and TV prices: often to witness what turns out to be a cheats charter.
My first Arsenal watch at Highbury was in 1953 (Arsenal v Portsmouth). It was a privilege also to see many of the pre Munich greats at Wembley in 1956 beating Brazil by 4 goals to 2.
A ten match season ticket (£3 /17shillings/ 6 pence) purchased in advance of the 1966 World Cup resulted in the honour of being present at all 9 Wembley games including the unforgettable final. An entertaining third and forth place play off at White City being an entertaining extra.
The high levels of the game today would be so much better received if football was more sincere, with higher integrity, more widely accessible, less monied and free of corruption.