UNTOLD ARSENAL: The stories no one else covers
05/06/2008 by Tony Attwood.
I loved Freddie as a player – he had everything I wanted when watching Arsenal. And I remember him returning this season with WHU – he got a huge roar of support, and blew kisses to the crowd when he went off injured.
So was it the slightest bit likely that he said all that rubbish about Arsenal and Wegner?
No of course not. Now he has said that he never even talked to the Russian magazine that printed the story. We never imagined he did.
Another bit of made up gibberish. But there is an interesting story underneath. It is this: why did all these newspapers, TV stations, radio stations and blogs not bother to check on what Freddie said.
OK, I recognise that some blogs don’t have the resources that Untold Arsenal has – we are very lucky in that regard. But for everyone else, all they had to do was to phone Freddie’s agent and say, “did he really say that?” Or, phone the Russians and say, “when and where did you do that interview?”
Either approach would do. But did they bother? Did they heck. Another mindless piece of gibberish with no foundation. It goes on day after day after day – organisations that once did pride themselves with being at least 5% accurate, now have abandoned even that smattering of reality.
Everyone from Sporting Life to the Daily Mail ran this rubbish. If they had any guts they would at least issue a wholesale apology for not bothering to check, or at best stop publishing, but of course they don’t.
05/06/2008 by Tony Attwood.
UEFA are hotting up their attack on clubs that have insane levels of debt. UEFA were deeply affected by the story that swept around the world that the two finalists in this year’s competition had debts of over £1.5 billion. The situation was made worse with the revelation that Manchester U are unable to pay the interest on their debts and so are letting the debts rise. Chelsea meanwhile have revealed that should their owner call in their debt, they would have to pay him back everything within 18 months – a clearly impossible task.
Today UEFA moved for the first time on such financial issues, as Bulgarian champions CSKA Sofia were excluded from the Champions League 08/09 after failing to meet financial criteria.
CSKA won the Bulgarian league title this season and took a place in the Champions League’s third qualifying round but because they owe money to the National Social Security Institute, National Revenue Agency and creditors they have been removed.
UEFA are waiting for the EPL to take a similar hard line if any of the EPL’s mega-debt institutes (Manchester U, Chelsea, Liverpool) get into the same situation.
05/06/2008 by Tony Attwood.
At one level I have no time for Tottenham Hotspur, but like any reasonable supporter who has been going to matches for years and years, and who used to live in the vicinity of the two grounds, I know some Tottenham fans. Sometimes we even manage tp set aside the sarcasm and what passes for wit, and do have serious discussions about the issues facing our respective clubs.
It was on the basis of setting aside the normal “let’s laugh at Tottenham” approach that I was seriously troubled to hear that the THST (that’s the Tottenham supporters trust) are reporting that the local police force have been stopping people as they walk towards White Hart Lane for games and citing Section 44 of the Terrorism Act (2001) as their reason for doing so.
Now of course if there is a terrorism issue lurking around I want all the authorities to take action and get the terrorists and their bombs out of the way at full speed. But there have been many reports that police will use the Terrorism Act as an excuse for anything.
We all know at Arsenal that getting out of the Emirates is a mess, and individual members of the police can start acting in less than reasonable ways on occasion. But we also know those streets and the underground stations are simply not built to handle 60,000 people leaving the ground with modern safety in mind – a bit of give and take all round is needed.
Maybe this Terrorism thing is just a Tottenham issue – but maybe it is reflective of a problem that we could face. You are walking to the ground, making a spot of noise, and the next thing you are arrested under the Terrorism Act – which means you can be locked up and held for a month or so.
If you have any experience of any police officers using the Terrorism Act as a part of normal policing of football crowds anywhere, I would urge you to get in touch with whatever supporters group you belong to, or to write to every blog you can find, and to the club, and find out what is going on. It could all be perfectly correct, and there could be a reason to act in this way – but I do have a suspicion that sometimes this Act is being used as a simple way of having a go at someone who is just acting a little bit out of line.
04/06/2008 by Tony Attwood.
Choose one club from four:
Club A has debts of £700 million and no obvious way of paying them. Indeed although they declared a profit of £40 million last year, all that had to go to paying off interest charges – and still they were short of money to pay the banks and lenders. As a result the unpaid interest was added to the amount due – taking the debt up even more.
There is no obvious way of this club expanding – it already sells out each game and does meaningless tours to Islamo-Fascist states such as Saudi Arabia just for the money.
One of its star players has just been found guilty in court and ordered to pay considerable sums in damages, while the other top star (who made all the difference last year) is making it clear he wants to leave. The manager who has been a major part of the club’s success of late, has said he will go in two seasons time.
Club B has debts at the same level as Club A, but their position is even worse since all the money is owed to one man. Although no interest is being paid the club will have to pay it all back within 18 months should the owner so decide. If that were the case the club would fold.
This club has no manager at all, and an ex-manager is trying to buy up one or two of their star players. The actions of the owner in sacking two managers in the past year just because they only came second is putting off a growing list of top managers who fancy something a little more secure, with an owner who is a little less hands on. Managerless and with most of the backroom staff gone, there is no activity on the transfer front.
The club has been widely criticised for its style of play, the inability to fill a moderately sized stadium, and their lack of style in dealing with the media and the fans.
Club C also has debts – of £400 million, but £150 million of these are about to be paid back from property sales, and the rest is secured on a 23 year mortgage and very low rates. The stadium sells out for every league match, and even some league cup games have sold out despite the fact that the reserves are often played. Even a youth cup game got over 30,000 and a womeen’s league match recently sold out its allocation.
Two new players have already arrived, and a very talented centre forward is due to return from a crippling injury. One player has left, and one might leave, but the rest of the squad is very young, very settled, and as always three juniors will make the transition to the first team this summer.
The manager has been here ten years and looks like staying another five. He is expected to sign three players this summer to strengthen an already strong squad.
Club D not only has debts of around £500 million (caused by the purchase of the club by foreign interests) it has owners who are at each other’s throats, with another middle east group looking to buy in. The club wants to move from its modest sized old ground to new premises, but can’t raise the money. Despite doing worse last season than the season before the manager has claimed 07/08 represented progress. He spends £30 million a year on players, and will probably do so again, but the club has never won the EPL, and although it does quite well in cups, never really challenges the top 3 for more than one occasional year.
Club E: New to the league this year for the first time in their history, having risen from the 4th division in about five years, they have no great backer, are certain to go down again, but look like they will sell out, as Derby did before them, and just enjoy the ride.
Club F: Last year they proudly announced that they were going to “break into the top four”. In fact they spent much of the year in the relegation zone, they sacked their manager, and never managed to get out of the bottom half of the league. They did win the diddly widdly doddly cup, to wild and ecstatic celebration. Spend £30 million a year on players, but always claim to make a profit – although no one knows how. They would love to have a new ground, but can’t raise the money to do it. Their new manager – the 132nd manager in the past 3 seasons, is untried with a club with this sort of bizarre expectation.
You can choose a club to support and one other club that you look kindly upon.
04/06/2008 by Tony Attwood.
He is 17, he is Welsh (so he wouldn’t qualify under any odd FIFA 6+5 rule) and he knows how to pass the ball. He plays in central midfield – and he has that same sort of sense that Fabregas has which involves knowing where the opposition is, and where your team mates are. All the time.
Why he doesn’t have is the Arsenal trademark speed, and he is not that strong either. So in those regards he is not Arsenal material – but if Wenger is bidding then it is because he believes Ramsey can get a lot quicker and a lot stronger. Certainly he works and works and does none of the Bentley style preening.
He is certainly not the ready made article – but he could become a very good central midfielder, given a year or so of Arsenal preparation. Of course he might not come our way – if he goes to Manchester Bankrupts then he is most likely to be sold on after a year or so to pay the interest on the bank loans, and most likely he will drift through life as a player who is good – but could have been better.
03/06/2008 by Tony Attwood.
I don’t know about you, but I tend to read the Arsenal news, and then maybe bits and pieces of news about other clubs.
So yes it feels like we are in a mess in the transfer market – but if I do go and read the stories about other clubs – they are no different. It doesn’t matter who you support, there are stories of players leaving, player demands for more money, players who the manager wants who don’t want to play, and more and more – they are everywhere for every team. For a Man U supporter there’s Ferguson leaving in 2 years, Ronaldo clearly unsettled, several members of the squad getting that bit too old – where’s the good news there? For Chelsea, there’s no manager, clubs saying “no you can’t have our manager”, players leaving, The Special One moving to Inter and so likely to be trying to buy, or certainly unsettle every Chelsea player imaginable.
Same is true everywhere – same is true for us.
We are not in any worse state than any other club. In fact we are in a better state because (sorry I am repeating this, but it seems so important to me) we HAVE signed
Carlos Vela and Fran Merida
Plus, we have effectively got a new player in Theo who suddenly came to life against Liverpool
Plus we surely have a right to expect that either Robin V P or Eduardo will stay injury free this year – or at least not both get injured at once.
Plus we always get one or two youngsters coming through each season, and if you have looked at any of our youngsters from last year you will know that we have Randall and Barazite and Gibbs coming through – ok not first team all the time – but good solid back up that could ensure we get an even better run in the Little Cup this year. And you never know…
Plus Alex Song – much derided and laughed at – is a bloody good player and stops us having to rely only on Senderos if a centre half is injured.
Plus the fact that the transfer window ISN’T EVEN OPEN YET
And one more plus. As we all know, players hit their absolute height of ability at age of 28. So, Cesc is still miles from that, but he is one year on, one year better – so is most of the team. I’ve suggested before that I retain the highest affection for Pires and really think he was a significant part in Henry’s ability – but I remember his first season with us when he was very ordinary, and I wondered why Wenger played him. He then went off to the Euro Championships, and came back an utterly different player. He suddenly developed that amazing ability to take the ball on a wander across the pitch, waiting and waiting, turning from tackles and then suddenly unleashing THE definitive pass to Henry. He really did not have that in year one.
Someone this year is going to return in August with the most astonishing extra dimension to his game, and that in itself will be like a new player.