Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does » 2008 » February
Journalists try to cover their Arsenal / Tottenham errorLast summer the journalists did their regular thing – who is going up, going nowhere, going down. Everyone except Charlie Nicholas agreed – Tottenham were going into the top 4, and Arsenal were sliding into mid-table, going bust, having supporter walk-outs and all that stuff. Henry was gone, the club was on the slide. Since then the journalists have not said a word about their collective errors. But the supporters remember, and blogs and commentaries keep on reminding them. Tottenham for top 4. Oh yes. Now the Guardian and others have found a way back – the Tiny Totts really are a top 4 club only in disguise, and Arsenal aren’t really that good anyway. The Totts are big time because they won the little cup. Arsenal aren’t because – well no one quite knows why. The point is most journalists don’t bother with research. They don’t know about overseas players who are not in the EPL. They don’t watch up and coming kids. They don’t bother with the tactics. So they talk tripe. And then some more. But this one – Tottenham really is a big time club because they beat off the challenge of the Big 4 to win the Little Cup really is too silly for words. Man U had one of those crazy days at home to Coventry, just like Arsenal had away to Man U in the slightly bigger cup. Arsenal kiddies had another mess-up with the totts, but it was one slip among year after year of winning against them. So what does any of this prove? Arsenal, with a small squad can get down to a very modest number of players, and maybe ought to have a few more knocking around. And the Totts, putting out their first team all the team can beat a Chelsea team that doesn’t really know where it is going at the moment. Chelsea didn’t even play Mr A Cole – and we all know how wonderful he is because he told us. There’s not much solution, except stop buying the papers (and dont forget not to buy Carlsberg either – they are one of the sponsors of Birmingham City) Arsenal fans action against “Kick Arsenal” culture among EPL clubsThe idea that the only way to beat Arsenal is to kick Arsenal is widespread, and unless we take action to stop this it will spread further. It is already in place in clubs such as Blackburn Rovers, Bolton Wanderers and quite obviously Birmingham City. Sadly the mass media will give no support to the notion of stopping this destruction of football – not least because radio stations such as BBC Radio 5, and TV stations such as Sky Sports and Setanta Sports have made the “stop Arsenal kick Arsenal” call central to their “panel of experts” discussion. So it is necessary to take action ourselves – and the most obvious place to start is by taking action against the club sponsors. The first sponsor to target is Carlsberg – one of the sponsors of the thoroughly awful Birmingham City. If you care about football, if you care about Eduardo, please do not buy any Carlsberg product. It is the first step to try to recover our game from the terror that has taken it over.
“If that is football, it is better to stop”. Arsene WengerMany of us have seen it coming – the endless idea, propogated on BBC 5 Live and on Sky Sports, that if you want to stop Arsenal you kick Arsenal. It is said over and over, and players and managers come to believe it. We saw it when Sunderland attacked Diaby and now we see it again. Worse we hear Sky Sports maintaining their sickening stance by claming that there was not much wrong with the tacle – an approach they backed up by not showing the pictures which clearly reveal the intent. Obviously football cannot go on like this – and yet equally obviously the authorities and their paymasters, the broadcasters, are not going to allow anything to stop the current system. So in the end it is going to be up to us, the supporters. Wenger is quite right – we cannot go on like this. How many more awful, terrible injuries do you want?
Birmingham Arsenal: a total disgrace. It’s time for actionFor the second time in a couple of years we have seen an Arsenal player suffer the most awful injury inflicted mindlessly and pointlessly by a third rate player. Last time Diaby was taken out of the game for a year by Sunderland. Now Eduardo knows what playing against the minor teams of England is like. It is self-evident that the authorities in England are unwilling and unable to act. Every player of talent knows that when you play a fifth rate club your career could end at any moment. Given this state of affairs the only solution is for Arsenal to get together with the other significant players in Europe and start a European league in which the tackles that took out Diaby and Eduardo would not be permitted. This should be the good news that comes out of this awful game. Arsenal won it 70 to30 in terms of possession, and about 200 to 2 in terms of shots. What sort of football is that? It is more akin to Brazil playing Andorra. It is not football it is a farce. It should be stopped now. There’s more on www.emiratesstadium.info Why Arsenal will work hard to support Game 39The people against Game 39 have been clever in the way they have manipulated the story. Game 39 has been presented as something to be seen in isolation – a take it or leave it idea. If we all say “no” loud enough, then it goes away and that’s the end of that. But in fact Game 39 must be seen in the context of alternatives – because Game 39 is part of a package of alternatives concerning international football. Most importantly it is part of the fight back against the mindless stupid internationals that interrupt club football. International games were ok when most international teams were better than club teams. Now that is certainly not the case – it is hard to find any international teams that are better than the top 16 club sides in Europe. If Arsenal or AC Milan took on Brazil or Germany, there is no certainty who would win – but it could well be the club side. With most other country teams there is certainty – the club side would win. Arsenal v England… I can’t see England doing very well. Game 39 is just part of a drive to get us away from the mind-numbing stupidity of international football. International teams are not only worse (sometimes – as in the cae of the teams from Gt Britain – a lot worse) than club teams, they use our players at our expense. When players like van Persie get injured playing for Holland, it is supporters like us who end up paying the price. So part of the issue is, how do we throw aside the internationals? Now Game 39 won’t do this alone – but once the idea of club football being played on a broader scale is accepted, then the internationals lose their grip. Game 39 is just one proposal. Another is the European League. Another is Arsenal having a reserve team playing in Spain’s second division. Another it having an Arsenal on loan team playing in Colorado. Game 39 might not happen – indeed it is possible to argue that no one ever seriously thought it would happen. We need to be aware of the overall context, and the benefits it brings. I think given the choice most Arsenal fans would sooner have (for example) a 38 game English league, followed by a 14 game European league, instead of the current situation with all the international interruptions. Of course the bunch of crooks who run FIFA (see http://www.emiratesstadium.info/fifa.htm if you want to know more) will try and hang on to their internationals, their power, their money – but like all corrupt organisations they will eventually crumble, so that the clubs can fill the gap. The statistical reason why Arsenal played badly against Man U but well against MilanThe answer is incredibly simple. In the Manchester Arsenal FA Cup match 64% of the Arsenal players were reserves – not the players you would expect to be in the first team if everyone was fit. In the Arsenal Milan match however only 36% of the Arsenal players were reserves – 64% of the players on the pitch were the players you would expect to see playing in any game when they are fit. The point is that although Arsenal’s second string team is strong enough to beat most of the teams in the EPL they can’t beat everyone – that would be asking too much. Indeed if that backup team could beat everyone they would not stay at Arsenal – they would be looking for employment elsewhere. These figures reveal the minimum level of first team players needed to take on the top teams – around 7 or 8 of the 11 need to be our first choice players. When injury levels or rotation take us below that we can slip into difficulty. Obviously is some places we have problems – our reserve left back is very poor at the moment, although he was great last year. For all the criticism he gets Senderos has improved this year and can stand in for Toure. Eduardo has had some good games – but we really do need Van Persie back. Eboue put in some good movement and passes against Milan, but in terms of fouls and diving he is a liability and we need Rosicky. So it goes – the back up team is good – far better than most teams have – but it is not the first team, and we do need that solid core to hold the team together. What’s going on between Arsenal and Man U?“Sir” Alex Ferguson, as he likes to be called, is a strange sort of cove. By any measure he is a very successful manager, having worked miracles at two disjointed under achieving clubs – Manchester United and Aberdeen. His record in the EPL is second to none. So why does he spend so much time suggesting that the FA and its officials are corrupt, in that they favour Arsenal? And why does the FA and the EPL fail to charge him with bringing the game into disrepute each time he makes such an allegation. At the moment he is talking about a supposed assault by Gallas on a Manchester player. The authorities have said they have seen the film and see nothing to punish. “Sir” Alex has said that the authorities are corrupt and that they always give Arsenal an easier ride. He is quoted as still talking about it today, even though his time have a Euro game tonight. Now most governing bodies and sporting authorities will take immediate action against anyone in the sport who suggest that they favour one team against another. Indeed as I understand it, players who call refs ”bent” or “cheats” or “corrupt” are sent off. So why is nothing done about the man from Manchester? It certainly can’t be because the FA doesn’t know about it. A couple of years ago when the FA Cup Semi-Finals and the final were all played in Cardiff and both Arsenal and the Manchester team were in the semis, Mr Ferguson said that holding the semi-finals there was unjust and unreasonable, but it had been done because Arsenal had demanded it. The clear implication was that when Arsenal demand, the FA give. In other words, he said that the FA had behaved in a biased manner; they listened to a request from Arsenal and immediately done what Arsenal wanted without even consulting with Manchester United. The FA denied that Arsenal had made the request and said that they had taken the decision at the start of the season – but they did nothing to the Ferguson. So why do they let him get away with it? The answer is almost certainly that there is bias – but it is reverse. Manchester United seem to have worked out a system with the FA which allows Ferguson to say anything he likes at any time, and he will never be punished. Now of course I don’t have any hard evidence for this – I haven’t seen any documents or taped any conversations – but I would make one simple point. If this is not the reason why the FA never take any action about Ferguson’s complaints about the FA and about referees being bent in that they always favour Arsenal, what is the reason? I can’t think of anything. But why should there be an axis of evil between the FA and Manchester Utd. Maybe (and I stress maybe – I am just trying to explain the situation – because Manchester refuse to allow their English players play for England unless the FA does their bidding over “Sir” Ferguson’s outbursts. Again, there’s no evidence – but it is hard to find another reason. The Ferguson does not talk to various media outlets because of perceived injustices in the past, so he could easily extend this to international call-ups. It is interesting that in his international career the Giggs played virtually no internationals for Wales that were friendlies. One might wonder who arranged for him to be injured each time. It is all specualtion – but then in a sense so is what he says – he speculates about Arsenal being linked with the FA, I speculate about Ferguson being linked with the FA. It’s all a case of which one is true. Man U going bust, Henry returns, Cesc new contract, new Arsenal US team
Man U going bust, Henry returns, Cesc new contract, new Arsenal US teamJust occasionally our good friends at Goonernews (www.Goonernews.com) don’t carry all our stories. There’s nothing sinister in that, its just that some glitch seems to come along and the story never goes up. It’s not really bothered us – except with the predictions – I mean, how can we say, “hey look we got that one right” when the original story didn’t get the extra coverage that a listing on Goonernews gives us. So to try and overcome it, here are three predictions that didn’t make it onto Goonernews, in the hope that this time they will Man U, and Liverpool are in serious financial trouble, and Chelsea are still utterly dependent on one man’s whim. Three of the “Big 4″ are in real financial trouble – and there’s no way out! All the Arsenal contracts are being looked at a again following a change in European law
Henry was courted by Wenger across the world before Henry came to Arsenal. And that close rapport is still there – meaning he will come back. We’ve been talking about Arsenal outside the UK for weeks – long before the Game 39 story, and now we can see which way it is going to go. Hope you enjoy the stories. More follow soonest. Three of the “Big 4″ are in real financial trouble – and there’s no way out!It is possible that you might have seen some financial statements recently purporting to show that the American club “Manchester United” has got huge profits this past financial year – £93 million in fact. These self same figures also seemed to show that the ManYans have shot up in terms of turnover – where they now claim an annual £245 million, having previously been smaller than Arsenal in turnover terms. So what are we to make of this. Has Arsenal shrunk? Has Manchester America grown? No to both. Accountants have a lot of flexibility in the way they present figures, and each club has gone about presenting its figures in different ways. Compare like with like and a very different picture appears. Huge sums were cut out of Arsenal’s figures by the accountant – for example £23 million that they have got in the past year from selling off bits of land that the club bought when they were buying up land for the Emirates, and which they needed in order to do the redevelopment, put the bridges in place, sort out access etc. They still declare this profit of course, but in a different section away from the football figures, because they say that it is a property profit, and Arsenal FC plc is a football company not a property developer. But still, with the work done, they were able to sell on the land – and that £23 million is pure profit. But the accountants set it aside as a one-off and so did not put it in the main accounts. Meanwhile the USA Devils were busy doing the opposite, pushing together every penny they could find that was positive, and pulling out all the negatives. So these wonderful accounts don’t in any way at all include any cost – no really, not a penny – for the interest on the £600 milliion debt that the Yankee owners have generously donated to the club. Now Red America like to argue that Arsenal have debts too – but those debts are being paid off at a stupendous rate – not just with the £23m from land, but also from the huge income that will come in next year from the sale of the Highbury apartments and the genuine profit Arsenal make on every home game, every TV deal and every European campaign. Red Football (and actually that is the name of the company not one that I made up) has been set up to hold the Manchester debt, so that the club’s figures look bright and chirpy. But Red Football will have to declare its accounts sometime, and when they do we will all see the extent of the disaster facing Manchester Untidy. At the very least they will be paying £42m from the club and over £27m in higher interest payments. What has gone wrong (and what has been kept very very quiet) is that the club’s attempt to refinance has run into trouble – just as Liverpool’s did – but in the Red Football case, they never found a way out and have abandoned the attempt. All of Manchester’s profits are going on interest – so every penny that Ol’ Rednose spends takes the club deeper and deeper into debt. One bad season, just one, and the club is in really big trouble. Chelsea and Liverpool are playing the same game. Chelsea’s turnover went shooting up, but that is simply because Mr Abramovich is still pumping money into the club – there is not the slightest hope of Chelsea ever making a profit under its current system, because they keep spending £30m a throw on players – money they don’t have. If Mr A got bored, or decided to go to a country with a nicer climate, the club would collapse. Liverpool Reds have got the problem twice as bad and then some. They have managed to get the money they need to keep going, the financial crisis is just going to get worse and worse. With none of the world-wide scouting of Arsenal they too are forced to pay over the top for players. So there we are – for Manchester, Liverpool and Chelsea, football is being played on a knife edge. This explains why Manchester don’t sort their pitch out, and why they demand that season ticket holders pay for cup games they don’t want to watch. Liverpool are really teetering on the brink, and Chelsea remain ludicrously in debt, with an eternal requirement that Mr A doesn’t think that yachting is more fun. Arsenal however are secure. Even without European football they would have enough to pay for the stadium year by year – and that is without taking into account the windfall of the sale of the apartments. Year on year the club make a profit from the transfer market – no one else in the EPL does that. One day soon, one of those wannabe clubs is going to collapse like the pack of cards it is built upon. Some of our recent stories. For a complete list go to www.emiratesstadium.info
Record crowd at reserve game confirms Arsenal & Manchester dominance of footballOver 70,000 people turned up at the Rowdies Superbowl to watch Manchester Reserves play Arsenal Reserves on Saturday. Both teams responded to the popular interest by including a few first team regulars, but most of the big names were missing. The large crowd can be explained in part by the fact that the Manchester club, now in significant financial trouble (a story that will be covered in more detail in our next posting) told season ticket holders that should they fail to buy a ticket their season ticket would be cancelled. The game was something of a PR disaster for the BBC who, despite clear warnings from both clubs, had chosen to broadcast the kick-around live, and had promoted it as a first team game. Prior to the match there were pictures from other Arsenal Manchester games in which the top players were playing, and pictures from other first team fixtures featuring many players not on display. By half time when it was clear to even the dumbest of the BBC “presenters” that this was not being treated that seriouslythe studio guests pulled a final stunt by suggesting that the Arsenal manager would now get angry with his team’s performance. Nothing could be further from the truth. M Wenger had used the game to re-introduce to football two players who had been in Africa for a while, and it was clear that both were very much off the pace and lacking in the skill and understanding that is a pre-requisite for EPL games. It is hoped that with training they can quickly get back to their old abilities – although it will be hard for Eboue who was stupidly sent off for a silly tackle. Quite what these games add to the football year is hard to tell, and the suggestion that in future they might all be played in the USA while the EPL continues in England is probably the best solution. Cesc, the contract, the prediction, the denial, the truthYesterday Cesc said he was negotiating a new contract, just one year into his current 8 year contract. Today M Wenger says that is not true. Now no one in their right mind sets aside the words of M Wenger lightly, but on the this occasion there is reason to look a little behind the curtain. As it were. In the article that appeared on this blog a couple of weeks ago (see link at the end of this piece) we commented that all long term Arsenal contracts were being re-negotiated. We particularly mentioned the contract of Cesc in this regard. Now Cesc himself has agreed with our prediction. That prediction caused a bit of a stir. No other blog, or website, or newspaper followed it up – we were on our own. And in fact the story seemed so far out that even the venerable Gooner News which carries almost all our stories failed to put it up. The fact is that we are getting good at predicting. We predicted one week in advance that Ferguson would react badly to having to play Man City on Munich Disaster Day. We predicted that Arsenal were looking to play games overseas a week before Game 39 hit the headlines. And more and more – you get it here first. Any way the Cesc contract story is on http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/2008/02/07/all-arsenal-player-contracts-to-be-reviewed/ You can read all our past stories via www.emiratesstadium.info Henry is coming back to ArsenalAs everyone knows Thierry Henry was given his chance at Monaco by Arsene Wenger when he was 17. In 98 he went to Juve, was a flop playing just 12 games and getting 3 goals. During the period when Wenger was in Japan and Henry was in Italy, the two spoke regularly on the phone and, so the story is told, Wenger helped Henry through his difficult times. Having sold Henry to Italy for £17m he bought Henry to Arsenal for £14, and Henry went on to fame and fortune, before being sold to Barca. As I said, everyone knows that. So what’s new? What’s new are two facts. One that Henry has said that his heart will always be with Arsenal, and that he wants to return in some capacity. The other is that Henry is in regular touch with Adebayor. Putting 1 and 1 together is not difficult. If he is in touch with Ade Henry will certainly be in touch with his absolute mentor – Arsene Wenger. And just as Wenger brought Henry out of the cold once before, he will do it again. Not in a playing capacity of course, but either as a coach or as a scout. Times are not good at Barca. Henry doesn’t manage that many games, he comes on as a sub or makes way for a sub. His back is playing him up, and he doesn’t score anything like the number of goals that he did at Arsenal. So why did Henry go to Barca, and why indeed did Barca want him? Henry had problems in London – not least of which was his divorce. Also he knew he was losing it – the back was playing up, and for two years he had been way off the pace. He also knew – long before the rest of us knew – that Ade was going to make it big, and that Wenger had found in Eduardo a player of extraordinary coolness and promise. Barca needed Henry because the president Joan Laporta needed a dramatic move at that moment. Barca had lost the league on the final day of the previous season to Real Madrid – the worst possible outcome. Barca had been trying to sign Henry for years and had always assumed that Arsenal would need the money. What they hadn’t reckoned with was the fact that most players would do anything for Wenger. So the enquiry for Henry was made more in hope than expectation, and Barca were surprised when Henry was immediately made available. Suspicious, Barca checked the health records and found the problem – the back injury was slowing down the pace, and without the pace Henry was losing it. Nevertheless Laporta needed something to keep the fans happy – and so the deal was struck. Henry was signed in the first week of the transfer window, but for a knock down price of £16.5m, with additional payments if Henry played a certain number of games, which could take the price up to over £22m Just how knock down the initial price was can be seen by the fact that a few weeks later Tottenham Hotspur paid £16m for Darren Bent!!! It may take a season or two, but the likely scenario is that Henry will retire rather than let himself slip down the league. He’ll leave Barca to retire, and then join Arsenal. Of course he is not the first superhero to do this – one thinks at once of Liam Brady who also left Arsenal to play overseas – and who then finally return. With Henry the return will be quicker – he will once again be a huge asset to the club. To pick up details of some of our other recent stories go to www.blog.emiratesstadium.info Over 2000 readers a day. Arsenal Colorado deal back on – an Arsenal 2nd team in the USA in the makingStan Kronke is coming to Arsenal in order to discuss the much delayed deal with his Colorado team. A year ago it was stated that Colorado Rapids would change its name to Colorado Arsenal, and that there would be a formal link between Arsenal and the Colorado team that plays in the Major League. Gilles Grimandi, now the chief French scout, and an increasingly powerful figure at Arsenal, played briefly for Colorado. Kronke owns 12.19% of Arsenal – about half the amount owned by the Usmanov group which includes David Dein, and neither Kronke nor Usmanov has signed the lock down agreement about not selling shares. However Usmanov in particular is unlikely to sell since his shares are now worth only around 80% of what they cost him. It looks like the Colorado deal will now go through, and within it will be an agreement that Kronke will not sell his Arsenal shares without first offering them to the Board. Arsenal will then use Colorado as part of its growing network of training clubs. Last week we were looking at the possibility of Arsenal finding another team with whom they can place the players who are just outside the first team squad. One option was to run a team in Spain – but it looks now as if Colorado is going to be the route taken. Read the daily analysis of football’s insane activities in The Stupidity Files on www.emiratesstadium.info Please can we win the league twice?The huge difference between today’s team and the Invincibles of 2003/4 is that this team is young and unproven, that team was made up of players who were reaching their peak. Pires, Vieira, Henry, Campbell, Lauren, Ljungberg – this was their moment, and although they didn’t vanish at once, in retrospect we can see that this was it. Even the subs had the look of the old guard – Keown, Parlour, Wiltord, Kanu. Only Clichy stands out as a promising youngster. Dennis Bergkamp was in and out – an utter genius, but unable to play game after game. We all know that hardly any of the old guard are left – but the repetition of the fact that Toure, Gilberto, and Lehmann are just about all that there now is of that wonderful team hides the fact of how much longer this current team can run. Which means that this team should not just deliver the league title once – they should be able to do what M Wenger has yet to do – deliver it twice in a row. That would be rather nice. Although the match this week showed us reduced to getting ill players out of bed, it is a fact that there are more youngsters fighting for a place in the team than ever before. The great worry this season was that during the Theft Period, when 3 of our players were removed to play “internationals” while Arsenal had to pay the salaries and take the consequences, we would slip back. We survived, and that’s why it all looks so promising. I didn’t think I would welcome Eboue back – but with the injuries we have, everyone is welcome. Incidentally, during the Unbeaten Season we could only beat Blackburn 1-0 at home. Things are looking up. Untold Arsenal is read by around 2000 people a day. Here’s some of our most read stories of recent weeks. What is the simplest way to stop Game 39?Game 39 is the additional game that the Premier League moguls want to have played outside England. If you want to stop them, the answer is very simple indeed. Boycott the sponsors of the Premier League. Just stop buying the products and services of… Barclays, Budweiser, Lucazade, Nike and Wrigleys. Certainly if you continue to support those firms you will, with every transaction, be saying YES to Game 39 played in a stadium somewhere a long way from you. If you, and lots of others, stop buying their products, you will be hurting the Premier League. Commercial organisations will quickly learn that association with the EPL means a drop in turnover – and they will pull out. If you want to go one better, send this message on to someone else. It doesn’t matter which team they support – we’re all in this one together. Arsenal 5 Blackburn Rovers 6The 5-6 scorline is an important statistic, because it marks a significant change in the approach of the “Rovers” – and in many ways completes an extraordinary transformation for the “club”. There was a time, 3 years ago, when the only statistic you could measure for Blackburn was kicks. It was so bad that it led to the creation of the phrase (by none other than yours truly) “rotational fouling” and resulted in M Wenger saying of them (after the notorious FA Cup Semi Final in Cardiff), “we just had to hope they got tired of kicking us.” Now Blackburn have moved on – as witness the “6″ in the headline – which relates to shots off target. Of course you don’t score goals with shots off target, but considering where the club has come from we must congratulate the manifestation known as “Hughes” who seems to lead the club. Quite a transformation. To be fair Arsenal were, for a lot of this game, not at their best – we had a spell at the start, and a re-statement of aims half way through the second half, but for much of the time the swift passing was a case of passing into spaces that no one in particular was likely to occupy or even looked like they wanted to occupy. But you get games like this – we had games like this in the Unbeaten Season too – and the big news is that for the remainder of the season we will have a bigger choice of players – 3 returning from “distant shores”, plus Thomas and Robin. Six shots on target was ok, but against a non-kicking Blackburn (I never thought I would say that) we would normally expect about 15. How the fans can take control of the Premier League The Stupidity Files: www.emiratesstadium.info How the fans can take control of the Premier LeagueThe one thing most of us lack , as supporters of one of the world’s biggest teams, is power. Support a little club and you might well be able to chat to the board members. You might even be able to influence the Trust that runs the club. But with clubs like Arsenal you have no chance. Of course at this moment most Arsenal fans couldn’t give a toss about influencing the club too much – we’ve got M Wenger – what else do you want in life? But still, the issue of playing abroad is unsettling, and it has given rise to the first significant uprising of supporter power in a long while. (And I do know about, and admire, the work of fans of Man U and Wimbledon who went off to form their own clubs – but neither really affected the clubs they left behind. I’m talking about having a real influence on a big club.) The solution, proposed today, is to invert the concept of sponsorship. In this case it is in relationship to the EPL. Whoever sponsors the Premier League is now contemplating a sales fall rather than rise because of their involvement with the hated 39th game. That is power – real power. If the fans can make that happen then it will be fans that will take control – and what a turnaround that would be. Other articles you might enjoy…
We predicted what “Sir” Alex would say… you didn’t believe it, but we were 100% rightOne week ago this august blog ran the “Sir” Alex Ferguson diary predicting what Mr Red Nose would say about the Manchester City game on 10th February. And we got it utterly right. On 5 February in this widely read and supremely revered commentary on all that matters in the known universe and elsewhere (see http://tinyurl.com/yv2sdw for the exact details) we predicted the old fella would, “ Instruct solicitors to demand Premier League re-writes match timetable. It is impossible for us to play Manchester City on Saturday in the middle of our prayers for those who died at Munich, while Arsenal do not play under Monday. Demand Arsenal match be awarded to Blackburn Rovers. Hughesie calls me to say he agrees.” OK we got the day of the week wrong – but this is the slightest detail. For on 9 February “Sir” Alex expressed his horror at having to play Manchester City on the 10th. We are grateful to “Sir” Alex for reading our well-planned and carefully thought through commentary on football, and acting in accordance with our predictions. As soon as we have had time to make up some more, we’ll post them. Here’s some of our other masterpieces of commentary and prediction…
Arsenal / Man U audience was 8 million not 1 billion!A research report by independent analysts Initiative Sports Futures shows that the total world-wide in-home audience from the Arsenal / Man U match was 8m people not the 1 billion that was widely reported by Sky at the time. The match was available in 203 countries and territories, and if everyone who could have watched did watch it would hvae reached 611m homes. But of course only a tiny tiny minority watched. Official figures for the UK from Broadcasters’ Audience Research Board show the live audience was 1.477m people on Sky Sports. So what about this crazed idea of playing matches outside England? To reach all the people in China who want it? Well actually the Premier matches in China are on a cable system that only has 300,000 subscribers. The fact is, if you want to know who to blame for this rubbish about going abroad, it is the owners of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Derby County – the foreign owned clubs. These are the clubs whose owners have paid high levels of money for shares and now want to maximise the profit. And they have hit on the perfect money making method: taking the game out of England. Knowing who is to blame does not solve the problem – but it makes me feel better. What will solve the problem is Blackburn 0 Bolton 0 – match abandoned through lack of quality. No solution yet to Arsenal player problemAll EPL clubs have big squads – the trick has been in the past to have a mix of first team regulars, those who can step up, and those who know they will hardly get a game but expect to be there in a year or so. The problem at Arsenal is that M. Wenger has been so successful in bringing incredibly brilliant players forward that by next season there will be too many players competing for places. One step was taken seven years ago when the manager began to use the Little Cup to play lesser players. The next step has been to use the FA Cup in the same way. This season we have seen some lesser European matches used like this. But from next year this will not be enough with the club having 6 or 7 strikers in the first team squad. Judging by the manager’s comments a new opportunity is needed – for he has often bemoaned the fact that the reserve league is too easy for players of the skill seen at Arsenal once they reach 18 or 19. In Spain that opportunity is present, as clubs like Real Madrid play their squad players in the 2nd division of the league – with the rule that if they win the league they cannot be promoted. However the FA has turned this option down – even though it would add greatly to the crowds in the Championship. Which raises the interesting idea of Arsenal gathering all their on loan and some of their squad players to play for a lower league club in Spain. The move to extend the number of players on the bench next season can be seen as a small way to try and head off such an idea – and it is more than likely that more such deflective ideas will appear in the coming weeks. It is a great shame for an Arsenal team playing in the Championship would give many more people in England (including many supporters who can’t get a ticket to the Emirates) a chance to see Arsenal. A much better solution than playing one match a year in China. I absolutely bet you have never seen insanity in football like this.The web site behind this blog: www.emiratesstadium.info is best known for housing “The Stupidity Files” – a collection of articles celebrating the total insanity and idiocy of those who play, manage, control and write about football. There’s hundreds of articles and stories on the site – but in all the years of collecting them none of us who run the site has ever seen anything like the events in the semi-final at the Africa Cup of Nations 2008. Andrew Bikey of Cameroon was sent off in the 90th minute for attacking the medical staff as they were about to help his fellow player Rigobert Song from the pitch. Yes, I know you don’t believe it, but he really did launch a significant attack on the medical team. The stretcher was driven on to the pitch – like they do – and Bikey rushed across and pushed one of the medical staff to the ground. Then he waved his arms around a bit and wandered off into the middle distance. Eventually the ref got there and sent him off, at which point Bikey flung his arms around a lot more, took his shirt off, and eventually walked off the pitch. It really makes you proud to have Arsenal players taking part in this very important tournament rather than playing for the people who actually pay their salaries. Personally I think all players who play for their country should hand their salary back to the club when they take time off. If injured in an international they should continue to hand back their salary until they are well again. Some recent stories you might have missed
Arsenal v Wigan in ChicagoThe BBC is reporting that at a meeting in London all 20 EPL clubs including Arsenal agreed to explore a proposal to extend the season to 39 games. The new games would be played at around the world, with cities bidding for the right to stage them. The additional 3 fixtures would be fixed by a draw but that the top-five teams could be seeded to avoid playing each other. So for the extra games Arsenal could play Tottenham in Thailand, while Manchester United might play Derby County in New York. The imbalance could be overwhelming with one club travelling for 4 hours across just two time zones while another passes eight hours and eight time zones. While clubs like Chelsea and Manchester United are well known for their “go anywhere if you pay” attitude, Arsenal has always shunned his approach, and it is extraordinary that the club should change its position now. Manchester United were widely criticised for going to Saudi Arabia – a country where a brutal government routinely chops off limbs for minor offences – and prancing around with knives. Worse the games would not be friendlies, and would add to an insanely large legaue table. At a time when many of us are trying to get the number of internationals reduced our arguments are undermined by this crazed attitude by the clubs. However it might not be all bad news. With Arsenal already looking to put a team into the 2nd division in Spain, and discussions continuing about a European League this might be the final straw that pushes the bigger clubs into getting together to discuss a sensible use of their resources. All Arsenal player contracts to be reviewedAll the contracts of Arsenal players must be reviewed after it became clear that many of them (including the 8 year contract that Fabregas signed) are completely unenforceable under a new EU wide legal ruling made on 30 January 2008. The new ruling puts the name Andy Webster alongside that of Jean-Marc Bosman. From now on you can say the names together for they both have a significant impact.The Court of Arbitration for Sport on 30 January 2008 issued a landmark ruling that means no players can be held to their contracts for more than three years. For players who join clubs or renew their contracts after their 28th birthday that comes down to two years. Webster left Hearts for Wigan in May 2006, having spent three years of a four-year contract in Edinburgh. In leaving the club he was the first player to use article 17 of Fifa’s transfer regulations. Fifa awarded Hearts £625,000 but the Hearts wanted £4.6m and challenged Fifa’s at CAS. The court went totally against both Hearts and Fifa and compensation was actually cut right down to £150,000, which was the value of the remaining term of his contract. The court rejected claims from Hearts that they had trained him, that his remaining contract had a value, and that he would not be the player he had become without all the work Hearts had put in. Tony Higgins of Fifpro, the European players’ union said, “The Webster case allows players, after a set period of time and if they so wish, to decide who their future employer will be. We now have a degree of certainty about what the value in question will be. Clubs have to re-evaluate their strategies in dealing with players on long-term contracts. If they are on four- or five-year contracts and fall into the relevant age bracket, clubs may now have to renegotiate after two years. “It is a bit like Bosman. There will be worried clubs and clubs saying that this will ruin the game but after a period of time people will understand what their strategy will be and take due consideration. Once the clubs redefine their thinking, they will cope with this.” So, clubs and players, can terminate contracts and player contracts now depreciate over a maximum of three years for players under 28. So that means means that the 8 year contract signed by Cesc Fabregas has just become a 3 year contract. That doesn’t mean Cesc will leave after 3 years – it just means that if we wanted to get up and wander off, he could do. Three years is it. Nothing beyond. Quite a change. There is a mountain of articles on Arsenal on www.emiratesstadium.info, plus the Stupidity Files, covering the antics of many other clubs. All the words you can’t call a Tottenham supporterIn case you have missed it, the forces of darkness have been out in, well, force. Our club has been threatened with legal action for failing to cut out anti-semitic chanting. The most prestigious Gooner web site has been closed following threats of legal action. And there have even been threats against one of our most treasured discussion groups of, yes you got it, legal action. All of this seems to relate to the use of what aficionados of the situation call the “Y Word”. Now the “Y Word” is a bit like the “F Word” that they mention on the BBC. However, as from tomorrow we won’t be able to say the “Y Word” either. If you do you will be personally be closed down. So now we have to find another word. Such a search for letters and words has a long and honourable history. The fascist dictatorship of generals that ruled Greece in the 1960s first banned the “Z Word”, and then finding that wasn’t enough, banned the letter “Z”. There was a great movie made about it, called “Z” – catch it if it comes around again – quick before it is banned. Thomas Pynchon – arguably the greatest American writer of the second half of the 20th century got it too – with his novel “V” – in which it is suggested all the evils of the world stem from the letter V. He wrote that in 1961 – we knew a thing or two in the 60s. Anyway, the Y word is now out, closely to be followed by “Y”. So we must quickly find another word for supporters of the Tiny Totts – a word that we can use, and which they can use (remembering that they too use the now banned “Word that starts with a letter between X and Z”.) One idea that came up early on was to call all fans of the Tiny Totts, “Do It Yourself”, and everyone seemed happy with that, until someone took the initials, turned them around and didn’t like the result. There have been other attempts that leave out the forbidden 25th letter of the alphabet – such as Biddo, Siddo, Diddo (that being objected to, because an “l” got added, and so that word was banned). Moving on we have “Folostalplug”, a word that seems to express at once the extreme silliness of both the Tiny Totts and the campaign. I quite like “Folostalplug” – as it doesn’t include the penultimate letter of the alphabet, and yet seems in just four syllables to show exactly what the “club next to Leyton” is all about. But it didn’t catch on. (Can’t think why). After that we found “Pleat-o”. Now I really did like this. As you may recall the Tiny Totts manager was cautioned for kerb crawling near Kings Cross, and the Sun ran the story on the front and back pages. The following Saturday almost every Arsenal supporter at Highbury wore David Pleat t-shirts – oh how we laughed. So “Pleat-o” does seem to work. It means that “this is a club that employs a man who could get himself into the position of being cautioned by the police for kerb crawling at Kings Cross while being manager”. Which is quite good. And it means, “in saying ‘Pleat-o” I am actually saying a word that the powers of censorship will not allow me to say, but I’m thinking it anyway and what are you going to do about that? But just as we thought there was going to be a settlement of the issue, along came another idea. After the very first outing of “Pleat-o” the chant got transformed. (This is not uncommon – the Ade song got changed from “Give him the ball and Ade will score” to “Give him the ball and he will score.” So as fast as it started “Pleat-o” came and went, and has been replaced by “Pink-o” Don’t ask me why. “Pink-o” is what it is. So from now on, expect to hear the long, winding chants of “Pink-o, Pink-o, Pink-o” with that singular descending minor third over the o. Does any of this matter? Well, yes it does. I personally never have and never will chant the chants that incorporate the letter that comes two after W. I’m not Jewish – I am a Pastafarian (look it up on Google if you don’t know what that is), and the whole thing seems too daft for words, because it is about words. But before anyone suggests I don’t know what living in a culture in which one is an outsider, and in which rocks are thrown at one on the way home from work – yes I know, been there, done that. Not all my life but for a year. I still remember. I still feel the scars. Words, I repeat, are not the issue. Thoughts are the issue – the thoughts that led to the manager of Spain calling Henry a “black shit”. The thoughts that led to Spaniards dressing up in monkey suits when Hamilton drove his car. The thoughts that make sports officials in Spain think this is all ok. The thoughts that mean Spain is still allowed to play internationals, and that F1 will continue in Spain after a little tap on the wrist. That is the battleground. That is what matters. Thoughts. Not words. The Tiny Totts supporters call themselves by the name Arsenal fans use. Arsenal fans use the name the Tiny Totts call us. But now none of us can say one word any more. It has always been the case – restrictive regimes always do this type of thing. “Z” is what I say to you. “Z”. My greatest sadness is that on the first friendly of this season, at Barnet, a little group of Arsenal fans started singing a song about Jews and gas chambers. It is a song of the same repulsiveness and stupidity as the thing that Manchester United fans sing when they play Arsenal– utterly unnecessary, offensive not just to a few but to the vast majority. The difference between Man U and Arsenal is that whereas Man U supporters in general just snigger, in response to the Barnet incident a significant number of Arsenal fans turned on the group singing in this way and shouted at them to stop. When the singers didn’t, action was taken. I don’t condone violence, but I was glad on this occasion that direct action was taken. Most people, and most clubs, would have thought that this was a positive move. They might have thought, “we don’t actually like the use of the word that starts with the letter that is two before A if you make the alphabet a circular experience – but these guys were honest and straight enough to take on the fans of their own club and point out that this was going too far. Let’s work with the positives.” But no, they couldn’t let it be. The word that begins with the letter that in capital form looks like someone standing up holding his arms left and right has been banned. How crazy is that? Banning the use of that word is not a Jewish thing, and the small number of Jewish people I know just shrug and let it pass. They don’t like it, but there are bigger issues to worry about. It goes. Unfortunately a tiny miniscule minority don’t think this way. So “Pink-o” it is. I hope everyone involved in this childish campaign is satisfied. And don’t tell me I don’t know what it is like to have relatives destroyed by Nazis. It’s irrelevant. It’s also untrue. Would you let a bunch of mindless twirps have access to your most valued possessions?It is the most nerve wracking day of the season. A vast array of mindless pointless “international” friendlies in which our players can play and be injured. There’s no benefit, nothing happens – except hamstrings go, knees get knocked and the Spanish practice their racial taunting. In one way we can feel pleased for Clichy and Flamini entering the international arena – and for them to appalling awfulness of the scenario will not yet be apparent. They will have seen van Persie’s season destroyed by an “international” but just how career sapping this can be won’t come home to them until they too get an injury while on what is laughingly called their international “duty”. Meanwhile England play. But of course it isn’t England. It is a group of guys who either were born in England, or who have lived in England for five years, or one of whose parents were born in England, or one of whose grandparents were born in England. So it is quite possible that one of these great “sons of England” was born in Bolivia of a mother who was Peruvian and a father who was Dutch, but whose grandmother on his father’s side gave birth in England because her plane back to Germany was delayed, the contractions started and she was rushed into hospital. That’s how English you have to be. What’s worse they are going to play on a pitch that has been so utterly awful that the notion of passing along the ground is quite impossible. OK it may be better today – I won’t know because I shall be going out for a dance rather than wasting any time watching – but certainly in the past it has been a disgrace. However there is a solution to this “England” tripe. England games attract supporters from lower divisions. So why not introduce a rule that says that to play for “England” you not have to have at least one distant relative who happened to stop over in England, you also have to play in the Championship, or a lower league. What this would do is raise the profile of the Championship, encourage wanna-be Englanders to play for Championship squads, and maybe even reduce some of the insane hysteria that surrounds the matches. If other countries follow suit then those of us who quite enjoy the Champions League can get on and do so, while those who like to watch England being beaten by countries about one twentieth of our size, whose players play outside their country, and whose league is really rather dull, can go and watch England. I hope Senderos doesn’t get hurt cos we are short of centre halves. Thanks to the lovely people at www.goonernews.com for helping us to build this daily blog. Yesterday over 2000 different people came to the site – not bad for a blog that’s only been going three weeks. If you would like to read about the criminal activities of the people who run England go to http://www.emiratesstadium.info/football_association.htm Or if you want to know just how incredibly amazing our predictive ability is (and I mean that without the slightest element of irony) go to http://blog.emiratesstadium.info/2008/01/page/7/ |
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