Untold Arsenal: the stories no one else runs » 2008 » May » 15

15/05/2008 by Tony Attwood.

WORST SUPPORTERS 2007/8: ASTON VILLA

As usual there were votes for Man U with their dreadful pedophilia song, but for sheer awful bad taste and managing to get the whole stadium against them within 30 seconds, the winners must be Aston Villa.

They played Arsenal just after the dreadful assault by Birmingham City on Eduardo, and chose their visit to unleash a disgusting piece about the event.

Within seconds the whole stadium rose in a howl of disgust, and even the dozy stewards realised that what was happening was far beyond the normal level of singing. A significant number of Villa creatures were removed, and the song was not heard again.

It is difficult to imagine anything more appalling or distasteful than those 30 seconds of singing, but it is possible that next year Man U will regain their regular place at the top of the league.

15/05/2008 by Tony Attwood.

We saw last week how the government had manipulated the situation to ensure that Arsenal’s bid for a UEFA cup final at the Emirates would fail – and then changed the rules again so that Wembley’s bid would succeed.

Now they’ve gone much further.

A bunch of MPs that make up the culture, media and sport select committee yesterday told the European Commission that its white paper on sport was unacceptable. They said that national governing bodies (meaning the FA) must be ableto decide how their sports should be run.

Decoded this means, if the FA wants quotas restricting overseas players, they should be able to have them, irrespective of whether this breaks lots of European laws.

The EPL remains against quots, but the FA, with its warped view that quotas will help England actually get into a final of some international tourney or other is against the EPL.

Any such reversal of the law will affect Arsenal, which is built on the famous World-Wide Scouting model invented by Arsene Wenger, through which the club attracts the very best players from across the world. FIFA are also trying to undermine Arsenal’s approach which values quality irrespective of race, colour or accident of where your grandmother was born, but their approach is different from the new FA/government stance.

FIFA’s argument would make players registered to play for Wales count as “foreign” in England – and vice versa – which would make life difficult for Cardiff and Swansea, whose sides are usually packed with Englishmen. The FA however are trying to introduce a rule that treats the whole of the UK as one – while separately keeping the two individual countries, the principality and the province, as separate footballing “nations”.

If the FA and FIFA get their way, football (especially the EPL) will decline as clubs are forced to bring in second-rate English players to replace the top players from around the world that we currently see at Arsenal.

15/05/2008 by Tony Attwood.

Way back in January and February we wrote about the developing links with the  Colorado club owned by Stan Kroenke.  Mr Hill-Wood the Arsenal chairman threw a bit of a spanner in the works, but those working on the club’s future took him to one side, calmed him down, and the progress continued.

Many of us saw the visit of the Colorado team to a match at the Emirates this season (their players spent a hell of a long time in the shop) and the link that goes back to the time when Gilles Grimandi – now head scout in France – played there briefly after leaving Arsenal.

There are numerous aims to the link.   As we’ve all known from day one, Stan Kronke is a much better deal as a part-owner of the club than the Russians, so it makes sense to say to shareholders, sell to America if you have to sell, don’t sell to Russia.  But also Arsenal needs a position in other countries if the marketing is to continue – and America is far more than just “another country”.

Having strong links with other teams however means far more than marketing – because  partner clubs in lesser leagues means that our players can go and play elsewhere, get first team experience and be watched very closely by the Arsenal staff in London.  A player of interest can be transferred to Arsenal Colorado, given a chance to develop, and then come to Arsenal if he develops the right potential.

There is even a benefit to the Arsenal Ladies team.  Women’s football is much stronger in the US than in England, and the opportunity to train in the US could be a great benefit too.

This week Mr Hill-Wood was told it was time to speak again on the issue of Colorado and he duly issued his statement, apologising graciously for previous remarks and setting the records straight.  Of course the media presented it as a U turn, but that is just the media.  It was a far more sophisticatd move than that.

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