Untold Arsenal: Supporting the club, the manager and the team
"I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art." A Wenger
Companies, like individuals, that are in trouble tend to be a bit circumspect with the truth when debating their situation. And so we have seen with the situation concerning Liverpool FC – and it looks like there is more to come. I reported that Liverpool’s finances are so awful that the banks that have loaned …
Dear Sirs, It has come to my attention that RBS is one of two banks that is lending hundreds of millions of pounds to Liverpool FC – a loan that you have just renewed. I wish to express my concern about the risk that you are running. As a taxpayer I am a partial owner …
Read More “Open letter from Arsenal supporter to Royal Bank of Scotland”
Clubs rise unexpectedly, and clubs fall equally unexpectedly. With hindsight it is easy, but for the futurologist it is tougher. Take Wimbledon – who foresaw their rise to the 1st division all those years back? Take Leeds – we might have raised collective eyebrows over their insane spending – but they weren’t the only ones …
Liverpool FC have survived for another six months, but only just – and their future remains very much in the balance. Their banks have given the club half a year to repay £350.5m – it was due to be repaid in full on 25 January to Royal Bank of Scotland (partly owned by all British …
In the end that is what is seems to come down to. Is Wenger, as I believe, not just a genius manager, but one who is able to adapt to changing circumstances BEFORE they happen, or is he exactly the opposite: a man so transfixed with his own vision that he can’t change. The negative …
Read More “Wenger: a cunning fox or the man who threw it all away”
I got the idea for that headline from the one that says Arsenal could lose Theo for just £400,000. That story is in the Mirror in its football news section. Now the word “News” has within it the word “new” which means, well, sort of new – as in not old. The actual story is …
Read More “Journalists could be sued for giving false transfer stories”
The Lord Wenger has done an interview in which he says that he still has no doubt that over time he will be proven right with his strategy of bringing through younger players rather than doing what Manchester Bankrupt have just done – which is yet again to splash millions of pounds on transfers at …
There was a moment in the Villa game yesterday where one of their players went down holding his head and the ref looked, and then played the game on. The commentator said “that’s not right” or something like that, and eventually several minutes later the game was stopped. I thought this a heart-warming moment. I’ve …
Read More “Football in turmoil, Villa rumbled, Liverpool as Emperors”
This Sunday is Yellow Day at the Ems. Don’t ask me why, its a Red Action thing, but those guys work their hearts souls and lungs out for the club while those of us in the upper levels mumble about it not being like this in 1927, so if they say we have to wear …
The owner of CSKA Fulham has gained some financial relief after the Russian government has loaned $1.8 billion to the steel company Evraz. But the situation is getting ever worse for the football club. Abramovich owns much of Evraz (having sold his interest in Sibneft the oil company). But Evraz, with debts of over …
Read More “Chelsea finances get worse as they fall to Arsenal yet again”
The Tiny Fantasists who inhabit a “football club” in Tottenham High Street, have been told by Office of Fair Trading that they should not ever tell their fans that tickets are non-refundable under any circumstances. It is a basic, and obvious point, and you don’t need to be a lawyer to know how wrong they …
Read More “Tottenham guilty; Manchester in court. Arsenal in the clear”
Two events yesterday brought home to me the distances we have travelled this year. First, Arsenal put out not their first time, not the squad members who back up the first team, but their third team – a team made up mostly of players who we only see at Barnet in the reserves. And this …
It seems utterly bizarre and crazy, but it looks as if of the top four in the EPL only one of the clubs could, if it so wished, rush out and spend £30 million on Johnny Foreigner (to use Mr Sugar’s memorable phrase about Dennis Bergkamp.) The Russians have announced that there will be no …
Read More “Only one big team can afford to buy without selling”
Well, that’s the theory. VAT comes down on Monday from 17.5% to 15% and there is, of course, VAT on ticket prices. So will we see a decline in prices? If Arsenal applied the discount then £50 tickets would be priced £48.94. Since they won’t do this then the club is in effect raising prices …
It was deeply shocking to find that some 800 seats were unsold for the game last night. Arsenal meandered into the knock out stages for something like the sixth year running, using mostly a reserve team (Ade, Sagna, Kolo, Eduardo, Rosicky, Nasri, Theo, Eboue… none of them could play). It does seem that it is …
This blog is about supporting Arsenal, deifying the Lord Wenger, and saying what a load of silly people all the other football teams are. (Apart from Torquay United, who I also support for reasons that will not become clear at this time). But of course a quick glance at the EPL table will suggest that …
Read More “These developments at Arsenal must be for the good”
Alisher Usmanov owns about 24% of Arsenal, which makes him close to being the biggest shareholder – Danny Fiszman has just about the same level of shareholding. Mr Usmanov is what the newspapermen (in that funny sort of shorthand way that they have) a “metals magnate” which presumably means he’s made of iron or …
When football clubs are run by money grabbing Americans who are intent on filling the club with debt while having no sense of what a British football club means to its supporters then two things happen. One is the club ultimately goes bust, but meanwhile while this is happening, it alienates everyone and the supporters …
By Tony Attwood So we’ve been thinking about owners of late, because they are the people who can make or break a club. And two bits of news have come up on the owners front. First, there is the story (completely unconfirmed of course) that Kroenke will make a major cash injection into Arsenal. That …
Read More “Where does Arsenal stand in the battle between UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar?”
