I quite like this, since we started predicting it after the City group bought New York City FC, and Australian A-League side Melbourne City and everyone said the prediction was rubbish. What struck me in visiting Melbourne City’s ground was how similar it all looked to Manchester City’s ground. A real franchise, which is what Manchester City is now part of. Other clubs involved in being subsets of the grand collective are Japan’s Yokohama F Marinos, Club Atlético Torque in Uruguay, plus now Girona. It’s about 80km up the E15 from Barcelona, as far as I remember, and this is their first visit to the top division in Spain.
How extremely droll it would be if they actually started growing enough to challenge Barcelona, rather like Manchester City have done to challenge Manchester United.
For let us not forget that before City Group came along Manchester City had been a bit like Tottenham, having won the league twice, including being the only club to win the league (1936/7) and then be relegated (1937/8) straight after. The hilarious story of the bizarre end to that season in which Man C went down and Arsenal won the league is told in some detail on the Arsenal History Society site.
So it could happen in Spain.
Anyway the group has teams in the Premier League and La Liga, as well as having a team in Australia, Japan, USA and in South America. And Manchester City have an “agreement” with NAC Breda that involves their players being loaned to the Dutch club.
Next up the group want a team in China.
From the History Society
Arsenal at the end of the world: May to August 1914.
From Untold
I see hat Jon Toral’s sale to Hull has been confirmed. I hope that we inserted both buy back and sell on clauses as he has the potential to become a fine midfielder. He played for the U23s in their pre-season game against Borehamwood and caught my eye, I had forgotten how good he was. He came from Barca at the same time as Bellerin and was then rated the better player. Unfortunately he got a couple of injuries which hampered his development. Good luck to him.
Manc(owners) is doing business, and although we may be jealous of it, it is sound business sense, “owning” many teams and thus having players who can be moved(loaned) from one team to the other is genius and not illegal.
So where does this leave Arsenal?
If last season was a indication of the direction Arsenal is going, then it does look like we have slipped a little in business sense(maybe that’s why the rumours of bids to buy it?) and it is going to take some good business plans(meaning money) to gain ground and start to compete with the big boys(rich clubs).
We have also slipped in our quest to win CL, and being honest, EL/FA is about where Arsenal stand in terms of competition and quality.
I have no illusions that this is where Arsenal belongs at the moment, we have had enough chances to play with the big boys (even if not in monetary terms) and we just did not cut it(win PL).
So this is where our club is today, and as we know, there are only two directions to go from here, UP or DOWN.
So its up to the players to perform and work to move the club back up the ladder, but it is also up to the owners and coach and staff to do all they can to get this club back up there truly competing and not let Arsenal slip further down.
Le Prof in his today’s press conference says his attempt to sign Lemar for us this summer “is dead”. What a disappointment that announcement has turned out to be after raising our hopes we’ll have #LACALEMAR at the Emirates Stadium this season but only to hove them dashed at the end. But by who, Monaco or Arsenal? But how did Chelsea and Man City got the players they want signed from AS Monaco this summer, but Arsenal cannot get theirs or have they refused to pay above the odds to get him? Why didn’t Monaco close their door on Chelsea and Man City but Arsenal? Or is it that Le Prof decided to change his mind not to sign him after watching him in his performance outings for Monaco in Ligue 1 this season and not convinced he will be a top quality player for Arsenal and not a squad player which already they have them in surplus at the Ems? Well, what can we do? After all we are just loyal Arsenal supporters who want to see the Gunners win the Premier League title among others this season.
This the fellow?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemur
🙂
Para….the PL is NOT the be all and end all of Football, nor is the CL. Your paper cup almost empty view is NOT shared by the vast majority of Arsenal supporters (see UA’s polls and those done by AFC), but you are entitled to it,provided you can back up what you say with hard and reliable facts and not just personal opinion.
You take the ¨AFC are only as good as their worst game, performances, season, defeat¨as the absolute measure to judge AFC by,but why not try the reverse and look at their best games (the majority of games they play, best performances (too many to number here),best season (the ONLY EPL team since the modern era to go undefeated) and greatest victories (again too many to number here).
para
FA and community are not important until mourhno wins them.
Anyway theres no big gap btw manu arsenal and chelsea,liverpool,manc,tots.
we know u are one loss away from WOB.
The Mustafi rumour first appeared on Twitter during Confederation Cup.
The source for that rumour (usually very, very, very precise) claimed Dick Law has put Mustafi on the transfer list in order to sort out our alleged problems with short-term costs regulations. I found it a bit odd back then but Arsene didn’t deny the rumour during his press conference yesterday.
Mind you, the same source claimed back in June:
1) Alexis would stay & play at Arsenal this season (he is a week away from getting that one right),
2) Szczesny would be sold due to off-the-pitch reasons (he may have got the reasons wrong but he got the sale thing right),
3) Giroud would stay regardless of all rumours connecting him with a move to any of West Ham, Olympique Marseille or Newcastle United (he was right as well),
4) Gibbs would rather sit on the stands for Arsenal and receive a massive wage he gets until summer 2018 than to find a club where he would have a regular first team football (seems to be correct),
5) Ox would be a tough one to negotiate a new contract with due to his agent’s character (it seems to be truth).
Jon Toral, is a ways off being Prem class, a sell on Clause I’d have inserted, he can get there, closer to fitting into La Liga.
Lemar, is not the right buy.
Kolasanic was always going to be a good acquisition, anyone who can find a left back that good for free, hats off.
Mahrez fits because he doesn’t fit the Alex OC mould, meaning Alex doesn’t lose his RW birth. Unless you want him at Chelsea, because I feel nauseous every time I go past the stadium, which is regularly.
And City have the right Idea with the clubs on each continent, it’s what I do with feeders on FM!
City have acquired their targets because they have no problem spending way over the odds for any player. The ‘talent’ they’ve brought in is probably worth half what they paid for it, but we’ll see who stays and who moves on in the next two seasons. It means nothing to them. Chelsea have had an absolute mare in this window, and United are making all the right noises but virtually all of Mourinho’s first choice (and some seconds) have opted to move elsewhere or stay put. Neither Bale or Greizmann want to go there currently, the Perisic transfer continues to stall and the only reason they decided on Lukaku is because he shares the same agent as Mourinho and Pogba; don’t forget, they’d agreed to sign Morata until relations with Madrid broke down completely due to the tapping up of De Gea. Mino Raiola has made an absolute killing out of Man United over the last two years, totally turned them over. More money than sense (United, not Raiola).