Arsenal “lied” to the fans. They said we would be as big as Bayern Munich. They said we would be able to compete financially with any club in the world. Blah, blah feckin blah.
How many time have you seen or heard such bollocks? It is said, repeated and accepted by the brain dead all over the Arsenal fanbase. It can be only one of two things that allow this ignorance, either those saying it, and believing it, are genuinely stupid, or they are choosing to pretend to be stupid.
Arsenal now they make more £££ on matchday than any other football club in the world. When the stadium move was planned, that was the goal. It’s an incredible achievement that it has now been realised.
However when the move was being considered, matchday income would have made up the vast majority of income. So had the circumstances remained the same, we would actually have been one of the biggest clubs in the world, right now. The problem is that “right now” match day income is less than 25% of the income of big clubs. The rest comes from commercial sponsorships and TV . So that means we are still considerably behind the really, really big boys.
Of course people will then ask why our commercial income doesn’t match theirs ? They will insist “we should be doing better”. This insistence is made from a position of total ignorance and lack of understanding.
Commercial deals are given on the worth of the brand name, which more or less comes from the global standing of the club based on recent and historical success. That is where Arsenal fall down, historically we were miles behind Liverpool and United, at least in the terms of global support. So when the worth of kit deals etc. are calculated, we are in the queue behind them. You know 5 Champions Leagues and all?
The rise of world wide popularity of the Premier League also means the most successful PL teams are ahead of us there too. City and Chelsea are at an advantage because their owners have chosen to buy them domestic (and in Chelsea’s case European) success. Sponsors not only know about the recent success of these two pretenders, but they know that their owners will continue to plough money in, in order to get more success , over the term of any deals struck. That makes them a more valuable investment than Arsenal.
The only way to make us more valuable, to sponsors, is to win more. But in a league where at least three teams can massively outspend us, that is no easy task. It’s not as easy as saying “we should be doing better”. The fact is we are doing better, a lot better. But the other clubs not only have the advantage in buying players, they also have the advantage when it come to being sponsored.
All this is before we even consider that the petro-fuelled clubs also sponsor themselves.I think City’s training kit is sponsored to an absurd extent by, basically, Mansour’s brother.
So before we accuse the board of “lying” we should consider that they have in fact achieved the goal they set out too. They just failed to see into the future , just like every other board in the world. No one could have foreseen the change to the football landscape, especially the serial moaners within our fanbase.
The reality is that our board has done remarkably well, given the changes in revenue streams and the global recession that they encountered, and in the midst of a property development based stadium move. So let us celebrate the good work they have done rather than ignore the difficulties and demand, that somehow by magic, we achieve par ( or better) with Real Madrid.
P.S. This was published last night, but this reply from our own Arsenal Andrew should be read with it,as it perfectly sums up why certain misconceptions were allowed to exist.
In terms of the so-called ‘big picture’, Arsenal clearly ARE now competing with the biggest clubs for the biggest trophies and the best players football has to offer.
That the club told PR-led porkies at certain points in the journey is largely beyond dispute but the price we may have otherwise paid in a collapsed credibility and an impaired ability to attract the best young talent during these years was potentially catastrophically high.
To any of us who turned up for Bergkamp’s summer testimonial, the sight of the bare bones of a stadium greeted us around about the same time the club told us we had money to spend on replacing players like Vieira and his ilk.
The reality was that at one point we were struggling to pay the players’ wages and years of austerity lay ahead of us.
Actually winning stuff was the least of our worries; the possibility of ‘competing’ was the height of our ambition and even that rested on Arsene’s extraordinary abilities to out-perform every other coach on the planet in terms of £’s spent for points/league places gained.
When Arsene re-signs at the end of this season it’s likely that The Wonder Years could really be upon us, as an already mightily strong squad continues to strengthen and compete and yes, win, at the highest levels.
But those first 6 or 7 post-Emirates seasons will go down as The Miracle Years. It turns out we had not a bean to spend, contrary to the club’s official position. THAT was the Board’s lie, but frankly, my dears, who gives a damn?
Some of us, at least, could see the bigger picture. Some of us could see what we are about to become.
That others chose not to support the manager or the club during these extraordinary times will be a matter for their conscience alone.
I’m just glad and proud that my conscience – and that of the friends I found during this era – is as crystal clear as the day I started supporting Arsenal Football Club.”
Positively Arsenal 
Mark Clattenburg will referee the North London Derby
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Looking at those new age fancy Dan passing maps it looks like Bayern played out through their FBs?
Tottenham usually make sure to try and double up on the Arsenal FBs under MP, though they usually need to have someone indulge a bit of fouling whilst whistles blow in the other direction in order to pull off that Iceland defeating tactic (not technique 😉 ).
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Looking at those new age fancy Dan passing maps it looks like Bayer played out through their FBs as they beat the noisy neighbours??
Tottenham usually make sure to try and double up on the Arsenal FBs under MP, though they usually need to have someone indulge a bit of fouling whilst whistles blow in the other direction in order to pull off such Iceland defeating tactics (not technique 😉 ) such as at the previous encounter at WHL (Dier /Coquelin contrast etc.)
Gibbs starting will have some fretting but he scored the equaliser in the corresponding fixture last season? He’ll be on his game if fit and starting.
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^Oops
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Used to while away the hours classifying people in this order:
Tosser
W*nker
See you next Tuesday
Shit.
The last being the worse as something knowing and planned in their behavior, whereas the penultimate just couldn’t help themselves.
If Sherwood is the first, who would fill the other managerial positions?
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is there any chance that Steww’s preveiw could go up tonight as the 12 kick off gives me little time to get up have a shave, have me breakfast, walk the dogs, get dressed in Lucky ARSENAL shirt and lucky pants and generlly tidy up before seeing the team and then reading the whole of Stewws excellent work and commenting.
I dont want to put extra pressure on but well come on get on it Steww!
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HT: West Ham U18’s 0-1 Arsenal U18’s
Nketiah scored right on the stroke of half time
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FT: West Ham u18’s 1-1 Arsenal U18’s
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Jessica LemariéPires @JLemariePires 16h16 hours ago
Proud 🙏 @piresrobert7 #theo
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I hope the Pires boy realizes his destiny.
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isn’t it odd now that boro come from behind to draw at city, it is heroic, and based on an outstanding goalkeeping performance, and not on city having failings and missing chances or not having a plan B, like it was Arsenal’s weaknesses that allowed boro get an 0-0 at the Emirates.
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chelsea going top of the table tonight.
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no sign of Cazorla in the training photos from today or yesterday.
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some big CL teams dropped points today in league games, Atletico lost, Bayern Munich drew at home to Hoffenheim, and Man City drew with Boro. Something similar happened after last round of CL games too.
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Get French Football @GFFN 4h4 hours ago
Emmanuel Petit: “On the same day I met with Tottenham & Arsenal… Is it true that Tottenham paid for my taxi to join Arsenal? Yes.” (SFR)
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I see after kicking lumps out of Arsenal last week, Pienaar got sent off today
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Chelsea now ten points clear of jose’s man utd.
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Did the board lie….there are many types of lies for different situations, lies can be told to protect the brand, to attract and keep players, for commercial/economic reasons.
I am sure they indulged in white lies, half truths, withholding of information, encouraging creative reporting, and I am sure they had their reasons. i am pretty sure Wenger himself is well able to deceive, withhold, spread a little mischief, but only for the benefit of the club
But ultimately, what the club says only matters so much, when it comes to this great club, many are just interested in the lies peddled by the media anyway
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now I’ve just seen an article on newsnow titled – “This is possibly the biggest North London derby in history: here’s why” – I have not clicked on to it, so have no idea what reasons they give, but anyone with even a passing interest in the history of NLD, as anyone who takes it upon themselves to write a syndicated article on the topic, should know better than to even try and claim a NLD at the 11 game mark of the season could never under any circumstances come close to our two title winning NLD at the lane. How the fuck could it. Its idiotic shit like this that sadly now passes for football writing.
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Indy Football @IndyFootball 23m23 minutes ago
Harry Kane and Mousa Dembele passed fit to start north London derby, reports @JackPittBrooke http://ind.pn/2eAtraD
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Eduardo – who took the photo of the Ems firework? And when?
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