- Why is the media ignoring Arsenal’s dramatic tactical change?
- After seven games in the League, are Arsenal advancing or declining?
By Tony Attwood
How much money do clubs make out of us – the regular fans on match days? It is an interesting question, given that Tottenham fans have written to this site saying that Tottenham has the most profitable ground in the league.
It is not a question that the media like to tackle very often but Give me Sport did it earlier this year – and yes they agreed that the unsponsored stadium takes £115.44m each match day, giving an average yield to the club per fan of £78.67.
That compares with Arsenal who take £100.90m per match day equal to £70.97 per fan. So yes, despite having an owner who was sentenced to three years of probation and a $5m fine in the US for doing naughty things, the average Tottenham supporter in the stadium is spending £7.70 more per fan than Arsenal per match, in return for seeing fewer goals and fewer home team wins. (Tottenham had a 21 worse goal difference at home compared with Arsenal last season).
The Tottenham debt is in fact now close to that of Barcelona. Meanwhile Arsenal’s take per fan at a home game is the same as Real Madrid’s.
So to clear the debt Tottenham needs to charge, but although Tottenham is taking most money off its fans it still has a problem. Its debt is £851m and Tottenham will be paying for the stadium until 2051.
On 1 May this year the Mail published an article that read “As calculated by financial expert Kieran Maguire, Spurs make €5.6m (£4.8m) every matchday when taking into account gate revenue and money spent by fans at games, while also deducting how much it costs clubs to host matches.”
Of course the stadium is always full and there is a general assumption in football these days that stadia will stay full. But that is a little bit of a risk… Here is the table of the “big 7” clubs.
| Team | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 7 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 13 | 2 | 11 | 18 |
| 2 | Manchester City | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 17 | 8 | 9 | 17 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 15 | 6 | 9 | 17 |
| 4 | Chelsea | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 8 | 8 | 14 |
| 7 | Newcastle United | 7 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 1 | 12 |
| 9 | Tottenham Hotspur | 7 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 14 | 8 | 6 | 10 |
| 14 | Manchester United | 7 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -3 | 8 |
The point is of course that to earn the big money the clubs have to be in the Champions League, and on present form Tottenham look unlikely to make the top four. But they might have a lifeline in that two bonus spots in the Champions League for 2025/26 will be awarded to the domestic leagues whose teams perform best in Europe in 2024-25.
It is not absolutely clear from the regulations but I don’t think those two bonus teams can be from the same country, so the most likely positive outcome for the Premier League would be the fifth team in the PL this season might qualify.
Because of the general “Spursyness” of the media there seemed to be a complete expectation that Tottenham will get there, and as part of this would win against Brighton; Tottenham had won five games in a row after all. But in fact what we got was a perfect example of sheer lazy journalism. Tottenham, a big club, winning games, Brighton a little club who lost their last game.
But a little bit of looking at the Tottenham record would have revealed that their four wins since the home defeat to Arsenal (remember that?) were hardly matches that should have promoted a sense of well-being. Starting with a win against Coventry in the League Cup, (Coventry being 20th in the League with two wins out of nine games.)
Then a win against Brentford who had won four out of six. But those four were against Crystal Palace , Colchester United, Southampton, and Leyton Orient.
Then the mighty FK Qarabag who are second in the league in… Azerbajhan.
And then marching on once more with a win over the mighty Manchester United in the league. ManU who have beaten Southampton and Fulham and… well actually no one else in the league this season.
And so finally the media realised their own pathetic stupidity and changed their tune saying, “This was the 10th time Spurs have lost a Premier League game having been two goals up. No other side have done it on more than seven occasions.” (The Guardian).
The problem is that although income grew last year it will decline again this year without the Champions League, it turns out that their stadium costs a fortune to run, profit from player sales was tiny (£16m in fact), and they paid getting on for £50m in interest on their debts.
And remember that loss was achieved by being in the Champions League which generated over £340 from broadcasting and match day money.
So hewe have some clubs that are making huge losses: Tottenham, Aston Villa, Chelsea, Leicester City and Everton. And losses don’t matter too much unless fans feel they could do with a few more decent players. Then the problem arises.
To me Spurs are a quandary.
First off, we have the natural human condition. They are our bitter local rivals, therefore it is ‘the law’ that you have to hate them. Well, maybe that’s a bit strong, but you certainly don’t want them to win anything, and in that sense Spursy are very obliging. They certainly give us very little to be jealous about, if indeed anything.
Secondly, their fans. Being born and bred in Hertfordshire I grew up with a lot of Spurs fans. A lot of Spurs supporting friends. And to be fair, then as now, I have always found them to be a reasonable bunch.
Thirdly, I have actually liked a lot of their players over the years. Greaves (yep I am that old) Gascoigne, Hoddle, Waddle, Ardilles, Perriman to name but a few. Not to mention of course Pat Jennings, Willy Young and Sol Campbell😉
Fourthly, I actually admire them for going down the self sustaining route and not getting in bed with the oil money. Lets be fair, if they wanted to do that they most certainly could and the thought of having an oil state sponsor rock up down the the road is not one that fills me with joy. It would make life very difficult for us.
The issue I have with Spurs, is not Spurs, or even of their making. The issue I have with Spurs is the media. The love of Spurs knows no bounds. Okay, they are getting some stick now, but we get stick when we are winning things. Spurs deserve a bit of stick at the moment, especially this morning. I watched it yesterday, and when they went 2 up it was coming. Brighton are a very good team, as they showed in the second half, but Spurs were making them look pretty awful. Then they just capitulated. No fight. No spirit. Is it the players? Is it the coach. I’m sure I don’t know, but somethings up as they can go from looking unplayable to looking like they cant play, in a matter of minutes. Very odd. But back to my point. Spurs will only need to win a couple of games and they’ll be back to flavour of the month. No matter where they finish THIS year, rest assured NEXT year will be their year. The media simply cant help themselves when it comes to Spurs.
Why is that? Is it really all about just loving Spurs, or is it that the medias hatred of Arsenal is so deep routed, so profound, that they a re just hoping with every fibre of their body that they finally ‘put Arsenal in their place’?
Of course it’s fun to laugh at Spurs. It would be rude not to. But deep inside I actually want them to do okay. Not as well as us, but okay. Just to show once again to those oil sponsored clubs and their gloating hoards, that it can be done ‘properly’. You do not have to flirt with 115 rules and employ the best lawyers in the World so you can go sailing on serenely buying up trophy after trophy.
Yes, they have got themselves in a bit of a pickle, but as they are finding out, competing at the very top whilst paying for a shiny new stadium is not as easy as perhaps was suggested when we were in a similar situation.
Personally, and despite yesterday, I think Spurs will finish 4th or 5th.
Feels like an eternity finished article. That sense of someone telling a story then stopping mid sentence and walking away.
MOTD last night.
Chelsea were involved in yet another pitch brawl. Serial offenders of the highest order. Yet during the brawl the commentators were actually giggling. No outrage. No talk of shame. No mention that it has to be looked at. Nothing.
But that’s not the worst of it, as they didn’t even feel the need to mention it during the post match analysis.
Can you just imagine the difference if it had been Arsenal?
‘Satanic Arts’ maybe!!!
And talking of Arts, The Mail are still banging on about those pesky ‘Dark Arts’. They spotted some notes Arteta had on a piece of paper and have drawn the following conclusion:
Revealed: What was written on Mikel Arteta’s ‘dark arts’ notepad after Arsenal boss was spotted checking over tactics during Southampton win.
So what exactly was revealed:
“However, the exact notes on that piece of paper were hard to decipher. On the other sheet, one of the three principles read: ‘Force AR 6 yard’. This likely makes reference to former Arsenal goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale and a plan to make him play out from his six-yard box.
Below that, it read: ‘Force our…’ with the rest of the message hidden by Arteta’s hand.
A third and final bullet point noted: ‘Avoid switch…’
And that’s it. Those are Arteta’s Dark Art notes.
In other words, nothing ‘revealed’ at all. Simply an excuse to keep the ‘Dark Arts’ and wagon rolling on, lest the World forgets what a bunch of cheats we are.
Drip Drip Drip.
I see the despicable Brighton cheat Veltmann who deliberately managed to get Rice sent off was up to his tricks again yesterday dramatically throwing himself to the ground after a coming together with Madison. He was not even touched but escaped with just a word from the ref. Fortunately the ref didn’t fall for his cowardly, snidey antics but how does he get away with it, he should surely have got at least got a yellow card.
I don’t understand how you can get a yellow card for waving an imaginary card at the ref or for taking your shirt off but not get a card for deliberately trying to get an opponent sent off.
Just to make it worse some of the pundits thought Veltmanns performance was all very amusing and good clean fun. I bet they wouldn’t have found it so funny had it been an Arsenal player.