Bitter sweet is the only conclusion I can draw after yesterdays performance against a Birmingham side you can no longer call a pushover.
It was bitter because of the nature of the win. Chamakh took the ref for a ride when he dropped to the floor in a theatrical fashion to gain a penalty for our first goal. People are claiming there was contact. I’m not buying it. He made a decision to fall and he found contact at the very last moment of his descent. I hate that type of behaviour because it’s cheating. You can package it up however you want, but for me, it’s not the Arsenal way. It’ll encourage others to think we’re into foul play and it’ll no doubt cost us later in the season when there is a stone wall penalty and a ref isn’t willing to take the risk of giving it.
The second chunk of bitterness came from a late Jack Wilshere challenge on Zigic. After being roughed up a little during the game, he flew into a reckless challenge and crunched down on the giant Eastern European and nearly caused and ankle break. It wasn’t an acceptable challenge, he received a red card and a 3 match ban… luckily the Birmingham player didn’t break anything.
Wenger didn’t condone the tackle, nor did many Arsenal fans… so we can move on (The papers might not!).
As for the game, well, I guess that was the sweet part because we took 3 points. I’m not sure there will be too many that are crowing this morning. Again we didn’t perform particularly well and once more, we conceded a sloppy goal. The passing wasn’t particularly cohesive and we created very little in the way of end product.
We controlled the first half without really worrying Ben Foster. Arshavin had his shot saved after latching onto a Diaby through ball and Squillaci had a headed goal disallowed for offside.
We went one down after Birmingham managed to sneak a cross to the back stick where Zigic was on hand to leap the highest and nod back across the goal. The header was inch perfect and to my mind, Fabianski had no chance. JD should really have been closer to his man and did his reputation no favours with that defending.
The moment of controversy came when Chamakh looked to make his move on a loose ball, he saw a sliding defender, dropped and made hay. The ref fell for it hook, line and sinker and gave the most prolific penalty creator a 4th (I think) penalty of the season. Nasri stepped up, sent to keeper the wrong way and saved our first half blushes.
The second half was a bit more interesting. Diaby continued his very impressive game with some fine runs. Our problem again wasn’t in the possession, it was knowing what to do with it when Cesc wasn’t in the side. So many times the benefits of a fast counter attack were lost because of an unimaginative crab pass. It’s like the players salaries are directly related to the pass completion stats. There was hardly any willingness to take a risk. Sometimes, you just need someone to pull the trigger.
We did eventually find a way through, Song chipped the ball up for Jack who brought it down, slipped Chamakh in who rounded the keeper and slid the ball in for the lead. Typical that it would be him to score! Sweet all the same…
The game meandered on without too much excitement until the 90th minute when Jack flew into a reckless challenge that nearly made mince meat of Zigic’s ankle. It was a stupid thing to do, now he’ll pay with 3 matches. The same 3 matches Shawcross received for his second infliction of a bone break. Luckily for us, Cesc should be back for the bulk of those games and hopefully Jack will learn that being hot-headed like that doesn’t win your friends or influence referees.
What it might do is put the message out that the little man won’t be bullied and if you try it, you might have a little terrier giving you some back.
The Premiership has been warned, this wonderkid has a bit of Bergkamp nasty in him. I’m not ashamed to say I like it!
Ratings
Fabianski: A solid performance in goal from Poland’s number 2. He didn’t really have to do much, but he kept the flapping down to a minimum and he didn’t drop any howlers. 7
Squillaci: He was captain for the day and was unlucky to have a goal disallowed. It was difficult to fault his overall game today, he didn’t have much to do. 6
JD: When you’re marking a player who is 6ft7, you make sure you get in close enough to at least put him off should a cross make it into the box. Sadly JD lost a yard on him, didn’t have the height to make the cross, now we’re talking about another game without a clean sheet. Not impressed. 5
Clichy: Lashed at a great opportunity in the first half that should have at least worked the keeper. I’m concerned that attacking wise he might as well not be there at times. He did well defensively though and didn’t give much to Birmingham. 6
Eboue: Slotted in seamlessly for Sagna. He put in a solid performance and managed to avoid the theatrics you’d normally associate with him being on the pitch. 6
Song: I thought he had a far more assured performance in the middle of the park and he started the move for our second goal. His game generally excels against teams who don’t put too much pressure on us defensively and I think he’s greatly helped by Jack and his work rate in the middle. 7
Jack Wilshere: Really does have everything in his game that Denilson doesn’t. He’s fast, tenacious and very creative. He wants to chase after every ball, he’s happy to much in and occasionally, he’s going to do something stupid and get himself sent off. That nasty streak excited me. All the greatest players have it. It gives them an edge. Jack has to learn to control it, but I’m thankful he has it. Bar the red card, a superb performance from out new midfield general. 8
Nasri: Another with a bit of spite in his game. He kicked out at one of the opposition in the first half which was risky. Our Frenchman had a solid game yesterday and oiled the cogs nicely. I sometimes wish he’d be more direct and take a lead in games like yesterday. He has the talent to but I sometimes feel he plays with the Wenger hand brake on. Great penalty. 7
Diaby: I thought his control was fantastic today and I really enjoyed his mazy runs. His speed of thought is short of where it needs to be and he has to give his game a more decisive edge if he’s ever going to hit the ambitous heights he has set himself. He speeds up play with his space, but slows it down with ill thought out passes. He has much to learn, but an encouraging game all the same. 8
Arshavin: He had an absolute stinker today and I believe he needs to move over to give someone else a chance whilst he rekindles his fire. A very anonymous performance from a player who is raking in a salary that dictates games like that should be the exception, not the norm. He needs to buck up his ideas. 4
Chamakh: In footballing terms the guy is a workoholic. He powers up and down the channels, tracks back and never gives up. Today he unfairly played for a penalty which I thought was poor. I’ll never condone that sort of behaviour. Ignoring that, he had a good game and got on the score sheet which was pleasing. 7
Subs:
Bends: Nice to see him get a run out. 6
Rosicky: Loves a cameo these days, very impressive. 6.5
P.S. I’ll be tweeting live from the AGM this Thursday. Tune in @Arsenal_legrove for info you’re not going to get from any other blog!
Zeus, there was no contact when he started falling… which your video nicely points out
I don’t know if anyone else has seen this or not, but its an interesting read.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1321186/From-home-Cotswolds-marketplace-Azerbaijan–extraordinary-story-England-legend-Tony-Adams.html
Does anyone have 2 tickets for Shakhtar Donetsk.
I have my 10 year old nephew here from Australia and am keen to further his Arsenal education.
Please email me at jrrgtdyahoo.com
hes earning a lot of money being there but to be honest its a waste of time and effort. what will he do out there thatll make people sit up and take notice? i doubt winning that league will land hima job at a decent european side. surely some english club wouldve taken a punt on him?
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11670_6450525,00.html
it’s about time he concentrated on winning trophies not what other people are saying.
Who’s changing their name? Anyone watch City game? Tevez and the Whore will start, Milner and Johnson will be in it too. Maybe he will play Silva from the start…
De Jong and Barry as DMs. Wish we had Jack for this game, it is amazing that out of all the players missing we actually may miss him the most. Rosicky and Cesc are not as good defensively.
Why would we sign Torres? He is always injured and would be no better than RVP. Even if we wanted to sign him we couldnt afford him. Cech is back to his best at Chelsea and will win them at least an extra 6 points this season while our keepers will cost us six points and that could be crucial in the end
I still think we’ll come 2nd. Key to whether we win will be whether RvP and cesc can both stay fit for a prolonged period of time.
Chamakh is ok and will do well against the average teams but he is not yet good enough in the big games but I hope he will improve.
I thought we would start the season strong then fade away in february but it looks like we are in trouble already and will do well to finish in the top four
That is a good read on TA…I think its phenomenal that he has gone there. Very very very few people who have had his level of success or fame would make such a move.
Am sure the foods fantastic and fresh too.
5 pts away from the top in Oct and you think we won’t finish in the top 4 TOM TOM?
Talk about the glass half empty…
We really really need to win at Eastlands…that is a vital game. I hope Cesc is back for that, although it may risk him for later coming back too soon.
Otherwise play Song, Nasri, Diaby in mid with Arshavin, Chamakh/Bendtner, Theo.
Who cares whether he started falling before or after contact? What does it matter except as some kind of witless esoteric debate on the nature of gravity and human balance?
The fact is that a premiership defender decided to swing his leg in the penalty box at an attacking player when he had absolutely no chance of getting the ball and having swung his leg made contact with our player (let’s not forget that Dann is lying about not making contact)… and for those moaning at Chamakh I’d suggest you actually read the rules.
There’s a weirdly masochistic flavour to this website which appears to encourage the most ridiculously facile criticism of the players and manager sometimes, as if Arsenal are supposed to aspire to inhumanly holy standards that other teams are not subject to in the same way. Chamakh was kicked and he went down… a dive, strictly speaking, is when a defender makes no contact with the opposing player whatsoever… Dann made contact and that is that… and I’d say the same if any Arsenal defender is stupid enough to do what Dann did..
I just think we look weak and still have the same old problems in defence. We probably will finish in the top four but we wont win the league. We have two quality players that are injured most of the time and the rest are average at best. Wenger also makes alot of mistakes tactically. The best players in the world are not interested in joining us as money always talks.
It is not a dive, a better word for it is simulation I think. A dive is what you correctly defined their Jacob, a blatant fall with no contact. So perhaps Chamakh’s action started out as a dive because he was going down before the contact but ended up as simulation since there WAS contact on the way down.
Simulation has been part and parcel of the game forever, it is a way of making sure the decision is given by the referee because it exaggerates a foul. And quite honestly can you really blame the players, with such a fine line between success and failure and such a high margin of error for referees they feel they have to do what they need to win. Until FIFA and the FA get their collective heads out of their rear ends and make some bold changes to the rules in regards to video technology these things will ALWAYS happen.
If the rest of team are average at best how come we’d finish in the top 4 according to you? How does that work? if the players are average at best we should be finishing mid table shouldn’t we? Or does average mean something entirely different in Groveland?…
Who cares if he started falling before contact was made? Are you serious Jacob? If a player falls before he gets any contact then he is cheating,very simple
Great players win things but we have alot of average players that are juat about good enough for the top four but when the pressure comes on they fail
So everyone apart from Cesc and VP is “average at best” at Arsenal?
I reckon you ask that same question off the players, managers and fans of all the rest of the PL and their answer will be vastly different.
I suppose it is amazing year in year out we are routinely one of the top five or six clubs in Europe with so many average players.
Yes Lazer can you name one other world class player we have that shows his class week in week out?
Average players just about good enough for the top 4, that’s the groveland definition you were looking for Jacob.
so you are happy with what we have? We are frustrated because we think if Wenger invests in new players we can win things but it looks like we are going backwards the last few years
I agree one hundred percent LAzer. The problem is that there’s this macho distaste for so-called diving or simulation but players only do it because referees do not give penalties if attackers stay on their feet no matter what the defenders do.. if an attacker stays upright he rarely if ever gets a penalty.
Me I have no problem with a smart attacker making a mug of a dumb defender.. defenders pull shirts, block off runs, stand on attackers toes at corners and basically do all sorts but no one objects.. but should an attacker exaggerate a fall.. Oh lordy! it’s a crime!!! Makes no sense to me to be honest. Chamakh did nothing wrong… if Dann had not swung his foot I’d have something to say about Chamakh and he’d have got himself a yellow card and well deserved reputation for diving. Dann did swing his foot and he did make contact… therefore PENALTY. Case closed.
Name them on any club TOM TOM…
Drobga, Fat Frank, Essien
Ferdinand, Giggs, Rooney
…and btw no player in the world shows is class week in and week out…everyone loses form, has bad patches, lean spells, rough games so that is a silly way to quantify world class/great.
I consider Vp, Cesc, Arshavin in that bracket btw.
So Jacob do you think Rooney was right to dive when he won the penalty that ended our 49 game unbeaten run?
TomTom I think you need to realise that there are a hell of a lot of players who are much better than average, but not world class.
If any player who wasn’t world class was “average at best” then the premier league has less than 10 players who are better than average.
Actually I think apart from the Flamini year we have been going forward since the invincibles left and we moved stadiums. When Cesc leaves it will be a backwards step no doubt though.
Lazer I don’t agree about Arshavin, not world class….
imo Cesc and VP are our only world class players, but I wouldn’t class Rooney or Torres as world class now, it’s becoming a bit weird.
Players always have dips in form etc, but how shite Rooney and Torres have been for a real sustained period of time is pretty much unprecedented with top players. No way Giggs is world class anymore either.
In fact I wouldn’t say that currently Utd have a single world class player! apart from Evra, and Vidic is borderline.
Ok maybe average was harsh but we have alot of players that are not good enough if we want champions leagues and league titles.
So how are we defining world class?
I think Rooney and Torres are class but have suffered with injuries lately.
I am going more on what they have meant for their respective clubs over the course of playing career…
Rooney has been a streaky player his whole life, Torres has had huge injury problems similar to VP. For me I would still put them near the top, not inclusive of injury time off etc..
Vidic only had a good season or two, much better CBs out there I think. Evra I could agree on but Cole is a better LB still so if anyone I think he would get that tag as much as it hurts to say it.
Tom Tom… invests how much? Liverpool have invested over 200m look at them? I’m sorry but some of the moaners on here get on my wick… people calling for Van der Vaart? This is a guy who has basically started as if on fire everywhere he’s been only to fall off… and where would we play him anyway?? People talking as there was any realistic chance of Liverpool selling Alonso to us.. it’s all infantile muppetry. we didn’t have the money and Liverpool and Benitez wouldn’t have been that stupid
The sort of player we’d need to improve this team would cost us at least 30 million plus wages and even then you’re guaranteed nothing. Who’s been our worst performer, in some ways, this season? I’d say Arshavin… who’s our most expensive player? Who was the player that most people considered a snip at 15m plus massive wages?… I’m sorry but some of you haven’t got a clue as to just how difficult team building is, this ain’t championship manager mate, this is the real world not EA sports world…. except you are spending City or Chelsea type money you are guaranteed NOTHING and we don’t have City/ Chelsea type money… We can’t afford Lucio or any of the top, top quality players… not without shattering our pay structure with obvious Liverpool-like consequences. That’s a fact.
I don’t see Arshavin as world-class. He could very well be if he could be arsed. He blows hot and cold way too much for me.
Rosicky over him for me at the moment.
World class imo means doing the business in the big games at the important times of the season.
Thats probably the more important question Honest Bill…
The definition we go by will lead to a better list probably.
So for you it is about consistency Rohan, same with what TOM TOM said. For A it is about current present time, for me it is about the course of the playing career and the impact they can make at any given moment. I agree with that you say TOM, world class has got to be about “doing the business in the big games.”
A fit and firing van Persie is better than both Torres and Rooney as far as I’m concerned. I just fear as he is entering his peak now, we just may nver get to see him at his peak. A real pity really. Same with Rosicky.
Thats fair enough Jacob but Wenger wont even spend money on a new goalkeeper or strong centre back or defensive midfielder. At least sign a good goalkeeper when its obvious that is a massive problem
Do you think Arshavin is having sufficient impact upon us to consider him world-class. Yes his stats aren’t that bad but he isn’t doing it for me. I’d play Rosicky instead of him and give us and Clichy some defensive stability.
I noticed the last few seasons that when things get serious and the big games come along its always the same top quality players that win the big games. Probably only 10 players in the world that can do that
Sorry LAzer but Groveland standards then make no sense whatsoever in fact they are positively cuckoo… you lot are effectively demanding a Championship winning team on 1/10th of the budget of our main rivals… with a little bit of extra spending. That is certifiably nuts. Arsenal finished 12th in the league under Graham in ’94 and finished 10th in 1992, and 5th 1995.. so on what historical basis is this Groveland standard based? Or is it just a Wenger era induced delusion of grandeur?
Tom Tom… we all basically want the same thing which is a competitive team that can win… my point is that you cannot guarantee anything with spending more money not unless you are willing to just keep spending and spending like Chelsea and Shitty.
The goalkeeper issue is a complicated one TBH… Wenger believes in Fabianski and most people rate young “Chesney”… if Wenger believes in Fabianski I think that the man has shown enough nous to play his hunch… after all a lot of us would have sold Song and Denilson and Eboue and not a lot of us would have signed Vermaelen. I think that some of the negativity surrounding the team is just plain daft… but it has always been like this. I remember people blasting the likes of Henry, Pires, Lauren and Gilberto now they are all club legends. I remember being told that Flamini was nothing but a journey man… and so and so on and so forth. when this team wins everyone would jump on the bandwagon once again and claim that wenger did what they wanted even if the evidence suggests the exact opposite. It’s just life as an Arsenal fan…
Can i say something? ….GOSH I HATE HOW SOME OF YOU BANG ON ABOUT CHEATING!!! GOOD GOD! Chamakh did what was necessary to win games. Spain did it, Chelsea did it, Man U did it, we have done it time and time over. Get over it! Like i said earlier, it appears this issue bother British football fans alot than it bothers the whole world. Can we start talking about defenders who pull shirts, shove at set pieces, playing free kicks not at the exact contact or throw in spot, or quickly playing a free kick when the opposing team isn’t looking etc all these ridiculous moaning about diving…there is a line, if Chamakh fell without that liar OBVIOUSLY KICKING OUT 2ce to halt him in his tracks then we can moan. Sometimes it is necessary to make the ref aware that some of the defenders are cunts who cheat to stop the attackers from scoring..moan about that instead. Now last game was a clear penalty, Dann kicked out not once but twice, Chamakh felt the first kick as a miss and was on his way down (who knows the rate he was going he might have lost balance from the first shove) and the muppet kicked out a second as Arshavin and Chamakh were sure to blast the ball to goal. Lets be rationale here and get of our morale high horses. PLEASE !! Pedro and all.
Jacob i share some of your sentiments about some people and how they perceive the players…BUT are you and AKB by any chance, cause when you use words like “Groveland” you are lumping everyone n with people like Jaguar, DDM and sometmes gambon
But Wenger sure makes us look like morons when he makes comments like these:
“I don’t believe we are too soft. We showed that at Chelsea where we were not dominated physically at all. On the contrary, we dominated that game physically, so we are not too soft.
A game we lost and still have no answer o Cheslea…..sigh
There’s a weirdly masochistic flavour to this website which appears to encourage the most ridiculously facile criticism of the players and manager sometimes, as if Arsenal are supposed to aspire to inhumanly holy standards that other teams are not subject to in the same way.
Following on from my earlier comment about getting Nuer, Capoue and Dzeko.
Currently Nuer’s team are lying in 18th position in the Bundesliga. 8 games, 32 saves and ZERO clean sheets. Good or bad? (though we don’t know the circumstances of those games.)
Toulouse are in 8th. Capoue played so far 8 games, 23 fouls committed, 1 yellow card, ZERO red cards.
Wolfsburg in 12th. Dzeko, played 8, 5 goals and 1 assist.
@jacob – it is specious to compare Arsenal now to Arsenal under Graham. For several reasons:
1) We were a smaller club then, both in terms of comparable income (both domestically and internationally)
2) We didn’t have the most expensive season tickets in the country
3) The EPL did not have the financial and reputational dominance compared with other leagues.
Despite this, I think off the top of my head, it was only two seasons in his whole tenure with Arsenal, when GG failed to win a trophy: if you want to point at our history as a “smaller” side then I suggest you look at the nine years before GG where we failed to win a thing. If you go by league placings alone, then I think you miss the point.
There are so many supporters who continue to see Arsenal as a small club and this is holding us back. We are not a small club any more. It is largely thank to Wenger of course that we are where we are, however that is no reason to put up with 6 trophyless seasons and a team of bottlers and overpaid kids with big mouths and small hearts.
You don’t pay a grand a bottle to drink cheap plonk. the game of football in the UK has changed and we need to change with it or get left behind. Starting with our thinking…or else we will be left behind – the big club with the small support.
Tom Tom …
Rooney didn’t eff up our 49 game run at OT… Old mother Riley the ref with a tapeworm for a spine did. Rio should have gone with a red for his tackle on Ljungberg. Gary Neville should have been booked in the first minute… and it was his decision to give the penalty against Sol which sucked so much because of what that creep allowed United to get away with.
Furthermore I don’t recall United blogs going with headlines proclaiming Rooney a cheat after their win… but then again they’re mostly normal folk who enjoy their wins not masochists who appear to enjoy beating up on their own club, manager and players.
Nonsense… it is not at in anyway specious to compare the club today with what it was just before Wenger fetched up… it’s entirely reasonable and correct to do so. You can’t have people banging on about what is “Arsenal class” and “Arsenal quality” if they are only referring to what Wenger himself has achieved …. WHILST SLAGGING HIM OFF. That is mental.
1.If we are bigger club now our rivals are outspending us by an unprecedented amount. You cannot have it both ways. It’s not just our size that matters but what our competitive environment is like… If wenger had the clubs around outspending him by a mere factor of 2 or even 3… which is still a huge advantage to the other clubs we can be sure that he’d be winning titles as we know he did when united was out spending us by similar amounts.
2. If you are unwilling to pay for your tickets give them to someone else who would happily pay what is a decent price for premium entertainment. We have a stadium to pay for and we have a team playing some fabulous football… if that ain’t enough for you make way for some one who’d appreciate the product on offer
3. You are contradicting yourself with your 3rd point… the financial reputation that you talk about is fostered by Sheiks and Oligarchs with very, very, very deeeep pockets buying up English club and throwing wads of cash at them… how else do you expect to compete except by either doing exactly what we’re doing or doing what Chelsea and city are doing. And how many Arsenal fans want their club in the hands of an oligarch or Sheikh?
You on the one hand tell us that the competitive environment has changed and then bring up the fact GG always won trophies … give me a break. The trophies that matter today are the Premier league and the ECL… no one would it find acceptable to finish 12th or tenth and play Fulham in the Europa cup final and win the FA Cup… that is total nonsense. No sane Arsenal fan would swap winning the Carling Cup or even the FA cup for a QF against Barcelona or Real madrid in the ECL.. why would they?. GG did what he did and I’ll always be grateful to him but Cup winners cup doesn’t even exist any more! and we are playing our youngsters in Carling Cup to great acclaim. The VALUE of trophies won is what matters otherwise we can count the Emirates Cup and Kings College hospital cup or whatever like Sp*rs do.
Like I’ve said already if you feel cheated by the product at the Grove hand back your ticket or organise a protest… You are not drinking cheap plonk at arsenal… not by today’s standards and not by historic standards either. Just because you say doesn’t make it remotely true
http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Roger-Johnson-has-labelled-Arsenal-an-embarrassment-after-Marouane-Chamakh-s-perceived-diving-and-Jack-Wilshere-s-dirty-tackling-in-their-2-1-win-over-Birmingham-article602951.html
The day football listen’s to moron’s like johnson and his thug manager is the day il take up bowl’s!!
!!!FUCK RIGHT OFF YOU TALENTLESS MUG!!!
Good morning all!
Come Sunday we could as well slide down to fifth in the table.
Weight off my chest, sigh!
… Oh, the optimistic side of me just saw that we could climb to Second
Heard this pearler yet?
I’ve got nothing against foreign managers, they are very nice people. Apart from Arsene Wenger.
-Tony Pulis.
What a fucking wanker. hahahahahahahahaaha.
Pulis is right about the wanker,the only time he has said some truth.
WOW!!!!!! That coming from the SAME CUNT that elbowed Chamakh in the face. Its a pity that 10 teams can’t get relegated at seasons end really.
Only ridding ourselves of a couple of the arseholes at a time is unbearable.
Saw Blackpool yesterday. Genuinely hope they stay up.
Jacob, what a strange way you have of looking at the club.
If Arsenal want so much to be run like a business, rather than a football club, then they need to deliver on the pitch, or at least look like making progress. The debt is not being paid off for the fans but for the shareholders. And all we seem to get now is bargains, frees and panic buys.
There are very few calling for massive Man shittyesque levels of spending. Just a reasonable balancing of our team. A few million for a non-shit gk, for example. My point is that, if a business makes huge profits as does Arsenal, then it has a responsibility. The old argument of “if you don’t want your ticket then somebody else will take it” really doesn’t wash. Blind loyalty is how these clubs get so rich in the first place.
My point is that, if a business makes huge profits as does Arsenal, then it has a responsibility.
—
IMHO, current year “massive” profit is one off, and we will be hard pressed to show profits of even 10 to 20 million next two years.
People I think I’ve found something that’s better than Snow Patrol.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmGr4yfXBCg&fs=1&hl=en_US]
bnsb, salaries have to fall, and i think they will, even in the gilded lilly of the football industry. The ridiculous amounts these players earn is out of all proportion to everything around it.
I agree that profits like ours will be short-lived, and as clubs start to be put in administration, the effects will be felt throughout football.
However, my point is the same: are we a business, as the directors seem to want to be – a worldwide franchise – or are we a football club funded largely by the humble fans as opposed to the corporates? A business engenders less loyalty in the long-term – just watch fans across Asia and the US swap from supporting Man Utd and Liverpool when those teams start falling away to the upcoming teams.
At the moment we are a bit like a hotel which is charging its guests double to pay for ongoing renovations which will improve the facilities for future gusts.
Moray, You are entitled to your view which you have put up admirably. IMO the wages wont come down any soon, what Chelsea did and City are doing would come up elsewhere. Liverpool? Blackburn?
There has to be a point at which the bubble will burst. I don’t think wages can increase at the rate at which it has in the past decade or so for an extended period of time. We will see more and more clubs struggle with financial difficulties, more and more ‘Pools and Portsmouths..
Rohan, Wage parity is what we wish “idealistically”, but would there be? IMHO not too soon.
I guess the goalkeeper issue is a complicated one TBH… Wenger believes in Fabianski and most people rate young “Chesney”
I’d like to read more and find out about the proposed effectiveness of UEFA’s Fairplay Rules. That will be a key factor in the future of football as we know it atleast in financial terms. In that sense, marketing becomes ever more important and I’d like to see us do more in that sector.
bnsb, I hope they do. I think high wages are strangling football. Transfer fees are one thing, but some of the wages even journeymen players are on is crazy. In many industries, you can expect the top performers to earn a good crust, but we have young kids on several grand a week who probably think it’s a good idea if they like a girl, to expose themselves to her in a busy nightclub, or drive their ferrari into a wall.
The global rich are just looking at new places to invest their cash, now that interest rates around the world are staying low and property bubbles are long overdue for bursting in many countries. I’m sure they’ll soon realise the EPL is a pink elephant, or as the scots say, all fur coat and no knickers.
It is all a bit depressing nowadays. Just look at the national side – not many of them really care any more. so long as they can bend one in to each others’ wives and girlfriends.
On your point about Blackpool, I wholeheartedly agree. It’s great to see a side with a good style and some cojones. I remember the time Wenger regularly used to take off a defender and lump in another attacker with ten minutes to go when we were behind.
Is that really what the Scots say?
Agreed, Moray except Wenger still puts on attackers instead of defenders when we’re behind. WBA comes to mind.
Morning all, Moray, I agree with you but I can’t see it stopping.
Rohan putting forwards on is the way I would do it, I would however make sure the defenders and the keepers are good enough to stop teams like West Brom scoring in the first place.
Rohan: yes, but it used to work then!
Ian Holloway for England?
Ian Holloway for Arsenal?
NEW POST!