Guest Post – Flash Gordon Approaching In Arsenal Red
Dec 23rd, 2014 by 'holic
For a second week running Bergkamp the Man is back with a post that will doubtless stimulate as much debate as last week’s piece. He looks at the future and grapples with a question common to many I know. What part will we play in the future and where will we be watching our Arsenal next season? Thank you BtM.
So what does the future hold? What’s that picture beginning to form in the crystal ball? Is that Arsene Wenger I see holding the Champions League trophy aloft? Or is it that young thruster Thierry Henry frowning on the touchline as Arsenal plays the final game of the season needing to beat Wigan away to avoid relegation?
Either of these is quite possible and neither is dependent on the ghost of Arsenal past and red-tinted memories of the good old days when everything was ‘definitely better’. More than ever before, the game will be as much a money game as a football game. Irrespective of its source, from sugar-daddies to hard toil, the quid, the greenback, the lira, the peseta will drive the destination of silver.
The teams who consistently and repeatedly win trophies are distinct in one primary respect. They have more money than the majority. So they can acquire, retain and develop the cream of the players. Best players eventually comprise the best, winning teams. QED. And success can be bought ‘overnight’ in the style of Man City or Chelsea. So, that’s the way to go, isn’t it? “Spend, spend, spend some f*cking money Arsenal and we’ll all be happy and we’ll never bleat again and that’s a promise!”
But there’s the rub. That’s a fork in the road that we see emerging at the end of Holloway Road. Many of us are delighted by the prospect of Arsenal spending but distraught by the notion that an excess of that spend will be our own. The prospect of Silent Stan spending is great – but please, Arsenal, don’t ask us to pay more for seats, beer or foot-long sausages!
So for us fans, customers, clients, bum on seats, income generators (choose your poison) something has to give. The parting of the ways is nigh. There are two choices at different ends of a long red spectrum.
a) We can pay up and applaud as Arsenal grabs deeply into our wallets, justified by financial competitiveness and winning ways on the back of more buys like Ozil and Sanchez.
b) We move off and on. Either to ‘Arsenal Light’ or to watch clubs better suited to our wallets, be they Charlton, Stratford or Bishop’s Stortford.
“But there’s a half-way house” you say! “An idyll in which Arsenal wins, wins, wins and generously cuts the price of seats, beer and sausage to make us feel ‘warm and fuzzy’ again.” I don’t think that will ever happen, don’t hold your breath, but dream on if you wish.
So what does this Arsenal Light look like?
It involves absolutely everything we enjoy today and at a fraction of the cost, but with one exception. We never (or only rarely), go to the stadium – all recovering junkies need the occasional fix.
“So we never watch Arsenal in the company of other Gooners?”
We do, we just do it differently thanks to ever-improving digital media and telecommunications. Put differently, top-notch flat screens linked to satellites at our Gooner locals. Even 3pm kick-offs are available now through savvy publicans, slingbox technology and the likes. The beer’s cheaper and the sausages don’t cost eight quid a pop. Paint your own pictures.
“Hold on”, you say. “That’ll never happen. The stadium will be empty if we’re in the pub and then Arsenal will be forced to reduce prices.”
It won’t be empty. For every one of us who struggles to find the gate money, there’s an emerging Gooner with money to burn looking for a new venue to set the spark. On my first visit, Highbury was mainly an all-white male venue, dads and their boys. Compare that with the multi-cultural diversity of the Emirates faithful today. From a business perspective, that’s a jackpot waiting to pay out. Sign a Chinese, Japanese, Indian or Korean super-star and China Eastern and ANA will be flying weekly charters to Heathrow and sushi and dim sun will be de rigeur alongside Asahi Superdry (our new sponsor) and Suntory shots.
“You’re wrong, BtM, the stadium will be empty, there will be no atmosphere for TV, the networks won’t pay, the bubble will burst, YOU are the dreamer!”
Even if not a single sausage-eater turned up, the show would still go on. Just like sitcoms create atmosphere by exploiting canned laughter, canned singing (absent the cusses to upset Holic’s grandsons) would belt forth. Computer graphics would instantly fill empty stadia (in the style of Spartan warriors in the Persian War movie 300). But that won’t be necessary, the seats will all be full.
I entered earth’s atmosphere in the 50’s. Two billion people lived on the planet then. If I can hang on in there till 2040, the population will have quadrupled to eight billion in my little lifetime. There’s good news, Stan. The market’s growing – but you’re no fool, you knew that all along. You didn’t buy Arsenal on a whim.
There is no shortage of future punters. Wise American and Asian entrepreneurs are investing in football clubs to make their future golden. Maybe we should club together, Holics and buy a club? Leeds United anyone? It’s a great brand, could it be a money machine? Well, there would be tough times and we’d need a brilliant manager to sustain major success at national and European level on a worn-out old shoestring. Do such people even exist? Aaaah, someone like Arsene Wenger, you mean? Maybe we could even get Arsene himself? Nah, if they’re in their right minds, Arsenal will NEVER let him go!
So where will I be in this brave new world, or even next season? Having been turfed out of Arsenal’s premium seats, assaulted and thrown unceremoniously down the stairs and out of the stadium from Arsenal Club, my enthusiasm has been ‘quelled’. I’d ‘save’ seven grand each year by relinquishing my two tickets, staying off the train and drinking and eating at reasonable prices – on home games alone. My local has an increasing appeal and the guv’nor is savvy (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).
But surely loss of real fans can’t be the answer for Arsenal can it? Creative restructuring of the Arsenal offer to cater better for different levels of wealth is a must. Equally, delivering value by delivering on the promise of the experience and not assaulting and insulting long-term old timers when in your care might be a reasonable place to start. Come on, Arsenal, you can do much, much better – IF you can be bothered.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
Le Professeur Competition Winner
Congratulations to Charles Singer, who correctly identified Tottenham as the team against whom Arsene’s Arsenal secured their third Premiership title. Thank you to those who entered. You can still buy a copy of the book via the Amazon ad in the sidebar.
66 Responses to “Guest Post – Flash Gordon Approaching In Arsenal Red”
Just posting what I posted as this opened
lobby
http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/38687?
Great article Btm. Very interesting to note how optimistic you are about future attendances. I think it may be the quality of future performance that determines them but as a London club Arsenal is a natural stop- off
Point for sightseers . We even had Dumb and Dumber prancing along the touchline the other day and they were greeted as the most natural of pre- match entertainment.
If Arsenal dips in profit terms Kroenke will sell and not be short of buyers whether it be Usmanov , a David Dein consortium or any number of other buyers we never dreamed of. But I see myself at home watching in the near future on my Arsenal Channel purchased from Sky watching myriad hordes of Scandinavians/ Americans and Japanese flocking into the ground.
But the cheering will be pre- recorded from the days when fans used to go and make a noise. So a bit of me will still be left at the stadium!
@ Zico in the last drinks,
Funnily enough, Groundhog Day was on one of the main
tv channels here in Oz tonight.
Coincidence? I think not.
UTA.
Results on the field have always been and always will be all that matters…
Fans will come to watch winning teams with great stars….
Nice article BtM. I think the Arsenal board will always exploit market forces and do whatever it takes to exploit the global growth in interest in the PL.
However as others have pointed out elsewhere, re-institution of a standing area would generate the same net income from more punters paying a lower individual price to fill the same space.
There are a lot of hurdles to cross there politically and it’ll take a few years but that would address your call for a wider range of accessibility.
Meanwhile, you have nailed it there, Aussie @ 4.
Aussie, am right there with you.
Canned laughter?
Like canned beer – nothing like the real thing.
Count me out. 😎
Btm I don’t like the sound of your futuristic Arsenal. There are those of us who suffer from an addition, we are just incapable of helping ourselves and it is us who will still be there until we are wheeled off to that fantasy stadium in the sky.
Winning teams are irrelevant as far as we are concerned. Idiots, all of us but we live in eternal hope.
Great post BTM. The inevitable march of consumer economy, once you are in it you are in it all the way.
There are certain small aspects in which I disagree, one of them being the idea of ever growing expenses and investment. Football is in a bit of a bubble, and there would be some destabilization followed by eventual recalibration. However the main points still stand.
However, I think the future of “top European” football 25-50 years from now would be something very different, and something most of us here won’t like at all. If time permits I will send my thoughts to ‘Holic and if he approves I would be delighted to have them as a guest piece.
Just an anecdote: Every summer we hire a handful of the brightest students from the local University scene in Boston as interns to work with me. At lunch one day I was showing those kids photos of our three year old, wearing his Alexis shirt. One of them said, “Ah, I have him in my FIFA team.”, someone else said, “I mostly take players from Barca and Chelsea.”
I don’t think the day is far off when much of football experience would be virtualized, and then generated and eventually fully a simulated experience. Much of the world’s banking system has already moved into this hyper-virtualized simulation of the real where the “numbers on computer screen” have little tangible connection with the actual products and goods.
Same will happen to the “images on the computer screen.”
I say this most mournfully.
Brave new world?
Utopia?
Mytopia?
The other guy’s topia?
Heh @ bt8b
Dystopia? 🙂
Well first the good news BtM. At least you haven’t chosen to defend the bunkum of the first part that the “Wenger aht” and the “let’s have a bit of long-term thinking re pricing” groups are one and the same. Indefensible of course, so at least the failure to repeat it represents progress of a kind. That however is where the good news ends.
As for the rest, the usual mix of strawman arguments and speculation masquerading as fact that can be found from those on the outer reaches of any discourse that takes place online on any subject, whether it be Arsene Wenger, the price of tickets, or the rightful primary place of Speedoes in the fashionista world.
A few points …
1. First the strawman argument. As someone who was going home and away through much of the eighties, long before it was fashionable to do so, I have never referred to the past as the good old days when everything was “definitely better”. Nor, to my knowledge, has anybody else. That some things are better now is self-evident. The Football is better, Arsenal are better (despite what the bedwetters might tell you), and I could mix and mingle around a pub in Liverpool City Centre in a yellow and blue scarf (as I did on Sunday) without fear of getting a kicking. All much better than the past, and nobody has tried to tell you any different. All of which has nothing to do of course with ticket-pricing, but why should that stop you saying it does if it paints those in opposition to your marketeers view of the future of Football as misty-eyed romantics who can’t see the wood for the trees?
2. Many of us are delighted by the prospect of Arsenal spending but distraught by the notion that an excess of that spend will be our own.
As was pointed out by myself and others in response to your first post, in the brave new world of Football, gate income is not the difference between success and failure at Arsenal’s level and a 5% rise, for example, is a drop in the ocean as regards success on the pitch. Gate money has already been outstripped by TV money. That gap will be widened further by the new deal for Champions League next season. Sponsorship deals are catching up and will soon overtake gate money now that the long-term deals associated with the move are at an end. All of which is fine and dandy, as long as people continue to turn up. I note that the self-evident notion that TV money and Sponsorship deals are predicated on a full and noisy crowd has gone unaddressed. Of course it has. It is an unpalatable truism to the marketeer and is therefore best ignored.
3. There are two choices at different ends of a long red spectrum
This is what any extreme view will have you believe Ladies and Gents. My way or the highway. You’re for Arsene Wenger or you’re against him. Black or white and no shades of grey. It is of course nonsense. Just like anything else, objectivity and truth (insofar as they exist at all) will be found somewhere in the middle ground of any argument and not at the extremes.
There are many more than two choices. Of course there is a “halfway house”, there are actually many differing halfway houses and it is fatuous to suggest that there isn’t. Look at how the Germans do it and learn. It is not a binary argument, and don’t let anyone tell you any different.
4.For every one of us who struggles to find the gate money, there’s an emerging Gooner with money to burn looking for a new venue to set the spark.
Speculation at best. Simplistic complacency at worst. “They’ll come whatever we charge.” Wrong I’m afraid. No doubt Mr Daytripper and Mr Tourist will continue to turn up for as long as the team are successful, but a downturn in results for whatever reason, and they’ll disappear to wherever the gongs and garlands are being handed out. Ttg, as he so often does, nails it. The quality of future performance will determine how many of them turn up, and should there come a day when the attractions of elsewhere are greater, don’t expect their Arsenal seats to be filled by people who are there because they “have to be there”. They don’t have to be there, they’ve found other things to do because their parents couldn’t afford to take them when they were kids.
5… canned singing would belt forth. Computer graphics would instantly fill empty stadia (in the style of Spartan warriors in the Persian War movie 300).
Well at least you’re honest as to where this all ends. The marketing (wet) dream, right there, in all it’s glory. Forgive us if we can’t share your enthusiasm for such an outcome.
6. … the population will have quadrupled to eight billion in my little lifetime.
When you’re reduced to detailing world population figures then it’s time to consider the paucity of your argument.
So then, buy into the vision propounded above or be characterised as a “bleater” if you dare swim against the tide. We were once told that a mars a day “helps you work rest and play”, and that a coca cola “can teach the World to sing in perfect harmony”. Turns out the first makes you fat and gives you spots, whilst the second rots your teeth and makes you fatter. Be areful of what they tell you. The Emperor walks amongst us with no clothes and the more people that stop, stare, point and giggle at
, and the
… them the better we will be.
Baaaaaaa.
*Apologies, hit the submit button a bit prematurely there.
Happy Xmas all, dressed or undressed! Up the Arsenal.
I wrote these three some time ago intending to send them to our overburdened barkeep to help ease the ‘Goonerholic’ load during the last ‘interlull’ and add some spice then. In the event, I was distracted by the arrival in my life of the most beautiful little girl imaginable, ever. Consequently they litter the sparking pathway to Christmas like tarnished baubles that have all but fallen off the lower branches of a tree that’s already beginning to shed its needles.
Thanks for taking the time to read them and thanks for taking the time to comment. I enjoyed the entire spectrum of opinion from violent agreement to violent disagreement. There is no better place in these embittered times than the Goonerholic bar for thoughtful and considered commentary of the calibre that the majority here deliver.
I enjoyed the humour too. Flipper the friendly porpoise’s contribution was epic. The pantomime horse, straight from the matinee of “Flat Earth at Christmas” left me laughing hardest. It isn’t easy to drop your strides, stick your head in the sand, stink the joint out and howl at the moon all simultaneously.
I also admire the unbridled optimism of many. The notion that “I’ve been a ‘real’ fan for thirty years, so give me a break and cut the price of your product to me, even although others are clamouring to pay full price” is one that I feel duty bound to try out at my local Aston-Martin franchise tomorrow. Sadly, I’m not holding my breath that a shining DB9 will be sitting on my drive on New Year’s Day though.
In a nutshell, I’m convinced that Arsenal is pursuing effectively and correctly the business strategy that will lead to sustained success measured in terms of what most crave – trophies. That success is coming at a high price though and at the cost of a very strained relationship with many fans.
From a personal perspective, the experience I reprised in “In The Club” served to tarnish, in fifteen minutes, a passion that has burned brightly for many years. I don’t expect to be renewing my season tickets next year. I’ll foster ‘Arsenal Light’ and enjoy that. (I’m not too proud and I’m not insulted by the prospect of Bishop’s Stortford at 3.00pm followed by Arsenal in HiDef at 5.30 or vice-versa in XXXXX’s Pub). Do I have a single doubt that Arsenal will sell these tickets in a heartbeat to the next-in-line? Not one.
Driven by the antics and rhetoric of the likes of LeGrash (Fact!) and the Swansea flag-wavers, feelings of nausea are seeping and diminishing my enthusiasm for social-media contribution. My inclination is to sit back now, spectate from the touchline in harmony with my old friend The Sweeper and defer to those two young pillars of sound good sense and honest reason, N7 and Lars. Take it away, gentlemen. I shall enjoy reading what I would have written had I taken the time 🙂
Finally, thank you, ‘Holic once more for another excellent year. I applaud your skill in finding just THE right phrases for every occasion irrespective of circumstance. I admire too your ability to foster trans-global virtual friendships and debate of the highest order in one of the few remaining worthwhile Arsenal ‘hostelries’. Lang may yer lum reek.
The chestnuts are roasting on my open fire. The claret bottles are uncorked and fragrant. Stella Mae’s party dress is pressed and ready for that angelic young lady’s first ever Christmas. What more could a Gooner ever ask at Christmas???
Well, wins at QPR and West Ham would be nice for a start 🙂
Have a fantastic Christmas and a Guid New Year, all you ‘Holics.
Ah, my work is done. It’s taken over eight years but finally a debate about the issues without reference to the manager or player x.y. and z being lady parts.
You can read all viewpoints and make your own minds up without being blinded by bile. To those who say this is a church with a single vision note two of ours fundamentally disagreeing but not claiming to represent “the majority”.
I shall sleep the sleep of the just. 🙂
And there we crossed.
Don’t depart here yet, sir. That might well be the final signal.
Let’s enjoy the holiday and see what happens next.
merry christmas, btm. enjoy the little lass, they grow up too quickly (my 16yo is driving and taller than my wife, who’s 5’10”, just yesterday he was wearing my shoes and pretending to go to the office).
dew drop inn more than not, if possible.
and, holic, merry christmas to you, and thank you for this place you’ve created. i certainly hope it’s not the last christmastime we’ll have to spend here.
Thanks scruz. I hope not too.
Oh, and if you aren’t sick of me.
Tomorrow, Midnight,
@TheAFCPodcast Invincibles Xmas Special 🙂
@AFCfreddie8
@The_GFP
@arseblog
@TheGoonerholic
@gazmanjones
Merry Xmas to one and all.
Thanks, Holic, for another year of the best football blog on the planet. Arsenal would not be Arsenal without this bar, and your level-headed approach, which cannot always be easy to maintain, is much appreciated.
Thanks also to BtM for the guest-posts, and the kind words. Please do keep writing, you’d be badly missed round these parts if you were to go radio-silent. Hope you enjoy Xmas with the little one, kids really do take the holiday to a whole other place.
Hope all the regulars have a great festive period, whatever their views on the price of fish. As ever, more unites than divides us, and hopefully 2015 will give plenty of cause for smiles all round.
COYG
Have a great one N7, and thank you for your contributions, always enjoyable, and always make me nod.
UTA
At last a detailed investigation on what we all believe to be true – that we suffer the most injuries, whether calculated by the number of players injured, the number of injuries or the number of days lost to injuries … http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/11308606/Revealed-The-truth-behind-Arsenals-terrible-injury-record-and-how-your-club-shapes-up.html
Is it any wonder we struggle compared to the Chavs! Especially when you add in the astonishing stats posted by Ttg in #1.
Also includes the observation I have made here on occasions, that we need to question the wisdom of continuing with players such as Ramsey, Wilshere, Walcott, Rosicky and Gibbs (much as we love them all) when they are so regularly multiply injured. Never mind Diaby!
Öskar
Treat yourself to a new motor for the new year, H. Current owner is a chap you quite admire…
http://www.coys.co.uk/auction.php?itemID=5716&auctionID=50
Thanks to all the regulars and Happy Christmas. 🙂
Dear dear Oskar. “We all believe” 🙁
Blind faith in a newspaper report?
http://untold-arsenal.com/archives/39789
Now you can evaluate and come to a conclusion. 😉
Nobody speaks for everyone. Please remember.
Thank you.
Yay Cynic,
If only my lotto numbers would come in. 🙂
Thanks bt8bbgfg 🙂
You should become a PAID media whore instead of giving it away for free 😉
Btm = do you live in Stortford? I was born there…..tim
My thanks to you too Holic for presiding over such a worthwhile and balanced blog where strong disagreements don’t usually become terminal and where the key thing generally is a love for the Arsenal.
Recently I detect a bit of an end of the era feel with a number of us contemplating giving up the live experience. I don’t think any club can want that to happen but inevitably anno domini and cost will take its toll. Let’s hope the lads can restore our spirits over Christmas and make it harder to give those season tickets up.
Merry Christmas to all Holics wherever you may be!
Having back-read…
The Wenger years have been, without doubt, the best in our history – trophies, a new stadium, wonderful international stars, and regularly televised (for us exiles at least). And all of it in seated comfort and glossy colour on immaculate pitches, fast playing surfaces and rarely a fleck of dirt to remind us of the days when mudbaths made it difficult to tell which side was which, never mind recognise individual players.
I have no idea what football will evolve into, nor do I care much. It will belong to today’s generation, or tomorrow’s, not to mine. It’s for them to judge its quality according to their perceptions, standards, expectations and where it fits in their fast-changing world. The world has always changed through history of course, but imperceptibly most of the time, never at a rate so clearly observable by those living in it as it has in my life. And it won’t be slowing down.
In an era when cgi makes it increasingly difficult to tell reality from the brave new ‘virtual’ world, why stage actual football matches with actual players at all? Why not pit opposing computer geeks against one another manipulating virtual teams playing the kind of spectacular football DB10 and TH14 could only dream about? Bung it on life-size holographic screens in glorious close-up and who’s to say it wouldn’t be more popular than those daft days when you had to travel long distances to stand in winter rain watching real people chasing real balls in the middle-distance? You will still support your club but all the skill will be vested in geeks who will be tomorrow’s Messis and Ronaldos in the way DJs are today’s music maestros.
Trust me, anything is possible. I once had the pleasure of presenting Neil Armstrong at a convention in 1989 just 20 years after the moon landing (arguably the greatest technological achievement of the 20th Century). He was comparing the technology he had at his disposal with technology as it was in 1989. According to Neil they had three computers aboard Apollo II including, for complex calculations, a 30-kilo 16 bit machine with 36k of ROM in woven rope chords, 2k of erasable, a cycle time of about 12 microseconds and a keyboard with 19 keys and three 7-digit registers of info (2 digits for ID and 5 for data, all numbers, no alphanumerics). We laughed at that in 1989, while dragging out our latest Motorola MicroTac mobile phones that had set us back around £1800 to tell friends what he’d said (assuming we could get a signal). And if you think that 20 years had brought some change (as we did) 1989 is now 25 years ago.
So no point speculating, imo. Que sera sera, and vivre le difference say I. And good luck to all who sail in the good ship Future. Just so long as I can still get my hands on Highland Park 18 whisky and Delamain Vesper cognac I’ll be happy – for as long as I’m a part of it.
Öskar
Do we not all (or all the sane holics anyway) believe our physio room has been the busiest in the past decade, ‘holic? Don’t both the Telegraph article and Untold Arsenal agree with that? Isn’t it the causes which are in dispute, and I made no comment on them.
I found the Telegraph article in the Beeb’s Football Gossip column today, and I’m impressed how quickly Untold came out with theirs.
Öskar
“It won’t be empty. For every one of us who struggles to find the gate money, there’s an emerging Gooner with money to burn looking for a new venue to set the spark.”
You could not be more wrong in my opinion. The current pricing of tickets and the way fans are treated will see a whole generation of fans watching games from the comfort of the pub or their lounge. Tabs at 4 is spot on. The average age of the regular attendee I would suggest is on the up. The club is alienating a whole generation. As Tabs said, you will always get your tourists but I fear for the younger generation.
Festive greetings to one and all.
First things first,
Holic,
Thanks for another year of thoughtful, measured pre- and post-match analyses and, of course, the unmatched history posts.
Hope you enjoy a wonderful Christmas with those that matter most to you. See you in the New Year both virtually and really.
Ttg – amazing table from Untold Arsenal in the previous round of drinks.
Aussie – also from the previous set –
if you are going to attribute comments to me, could you do me the favour of at least referring to something I have said.
BtM,
actually surprised and disappointed at the responses to some genuinely expressed concerns following ‘Part 1’.
Following the advice to “go down the road to Charlton or Stratford” if you can’t afford the prices at Arsenal, we were treated to more advice to not be too proud to enjoy a day out in a cheaper seat.
Actually to “know where to look and get over yourself”.
Saying things like that to life long true supporters, just because they don’t happen to be as comfortably off as yourself, is nowhere near worthy of you.
Now for ‘Part 2’ …………
So, having read Part 2, BtM, I’m hoping your own true feelings are exclusively contained in your final paragraph.
The views expressed in the paragraphs above it are simplistic, arrogant, disdainful and, as some of those aired in Part 1 were, insulting.
There seems to be some sort of wish to refer to the “old timers” as “sausage eaters” for the paradoxical reason that they will no longer be able to afford to buy them.
I’m a bit perplexed by the whole piece. The misguided notion that the game will survive purely on tourists and day trippers from China, computer graphics and canned crowd noise is clearly ridiculous.
If football is indeed to become a sport that treats it’s supporters in the way you suggest then I, and I suspect most others I know, will certainly be getting over it pursuing other interests.
I can only hope that this marketing man’s fantasy is written with the author’s tongue riveted firmly in his cheek.
If not, I wish you joy waving your scarf alone in a Club Level singing “We love you Arsenal” in Cantonese.
Great posts by tabs and Oskar alike..
Thoroughly enjoyable from start to finish..
Apologies trev for any misquote reference.
The club does belong to the now generation and the now generation of fans supporting the same team is made up of old and young alike just as it is made up of rich and poor alike….
How you choose to spend your hard earned depends on your viewing preference as a fan and the most suitable option for your lifestyle.
Good on those who choose to put there last pound into attending matches live and equally good on those who choose to pull up a seat in a pub or relax in the comfort of their own lounge at homes.
For me you can’t beat the excitement of a live match experience even when the experience is not a win.
Even live on TV at ungodly hours of the morning seems more live then a recording…
Either way I hope we see the arsenal go all the way in the champions league in 2015…as that seems Arsenes last chance to show the world he still has what it takes in this second half of his career.
All great leaders know how to move forward with the eventual changes in style and approaches that are a normal part of life..
All great leaders also know when it is time to change a previously successful approach or style that no longer fits a market or a team or a business.
I hope arsene realises it is now time to show what a great leader he once was and move and adapt and change with the current times…
So far he does not look like or sound like he wants to change it needs to change and in the end he will be judged on his results and his results alone..
He will not have the luxury he hopes for to be judged on what circumstances stopped him from winning more..
I hope arsene bows out gracefully and with dignity, but sadly I don’t see him doing that…he has devoted his life to football and arsenal and his most recent match results in the second part of his career simply don’t match his efforts or passion…
Our current injury woes have lie directly at the feet of arsene wenger and his management style and he must accept that something in his approach must change now, not later, if he wishes to be remembered as a great football manager of both past and present times.
His stubbornness may see him bow out as a great football manager of the past times only due to his unwillingness and inability to want to adapt and change with modern current methods.
Season’s Greetings and (early) Happy New Year to everyone! May there be many many more years of this wonderful site that maintains a balance between honest disagreement of opinions and unity of spirit that is rare not only in sports blogs but in much of the Internet.
We can all try to guess what the future of football would look like, but the only thing predictable about the future is surely its wild unpredictability. 🙂 Fifty years from now the cultural archaeologists of a new discipline called “Simulated Mass-Activity Obsession” would probably chuckle reading our wildly off the mark speculations …
In 2015, however, we have all the chance of starting up our FA Cup defense at home while positioned neatly in the top four, chasing the 3rd position by a couple of points or so, having already qualified for the CL Round 2 for the umpteenth time, drawing a relatively more manageable opponent in Monaco, with many injured players coming back.
To that I will drink and share with you all my stock of Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin demi sec.
I love this club!
Merry Christmas Holic and all the other patrons of the only Arse bar worth visiting. Long may it reign.
UTA.
Butter cookies made and only one out of every 20 eaten. Successful Christmas so far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1lO_nFqvPk
Just keep an eye over your shoulder. He’ll knife you in the back sooner or later.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/30591980
Seasons greetings all of you lovely gooners!
I hope you all have a great day filled with lots of warmth, presents and good cheer. I haven’t been able to post in these drinks as much as I would want to over the past few months (I blame joining Twitter and trying to draw more in my free time) but believe me when I say I would be a far less saner individual if it wasn’t for this bar.
From my days as an English teacher, where I had so much down time that I used to spend most of the day searching for Arsenal blogs to read, to now, I have always enjoyed the discussions, debates, and comedy to be found in here. The owner and his patrons have always made me feel right at home, and despite the fact that most of my posts pop up when everyone is sleeping and tend to be ignored, I do enjoy being a part of this place, drinking my Guinness in the dark after hours with the opinions of absent gooners to mull over if you will.
Long may it continue.
To all of you Arsenal supporters, I say “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!”
May we all live to see many more (along with more trophies and a restructuring of ticket prices, which are not mutually exclusive).
Sincerely yours,
CoR
What’s the best whisky that you’ve ever had?
Good topic of discussion! A change from the usual no doubt!
😀
Trev, Just to let you know that BtM wrote both pieces a couple of weeks ago so was unable to respond in the second to the critiques of his first.
… and a joyous, peaceful and happy X’mas to one and all!
🙂 😀
Seasons greetings everyone!
Let’s just hope for a better run for the second half of the season and of course, at least qualification for the Champions League!
Victoria Concordia Creset!
🙂
Overall, I thought the debate was compulsive. And I thank the regulars for their thoughts, time and entertainment.
What troubled me most BtM in your posts was that I found it difficult to understand how you could put forward an argument supporting the clubs strategy after being treated so disgracefully at the Gala game? I thought you alluded to that ‘Head v Heart’ feeling at the end of your first post.
And ultimately, from your post @ 15, you appear to have gone with your heart. And for what its worth, I think your absolutely right to let your season tickets lapse given how you were treated. In doing so, I think your actions are somewhat contrary to the business strategy you’ve described and crystallise the points made by Tabs and Trev. Fans matter, because football is a personal experience. No business strategy should displace that or seek to treat fans like they’re consumers of a product. But unfortunately, it has! And I think there will be repercussions in the longterm.
BtM has stimulated an interesting debate in the bar over the last 24 hours.
There are a lot great posts above containing a lot of truth.
The top truth being that this bar is one of the best places on the planet.
A case of HP18 is open on the bar. Help yourselves Holic and Holics.
‘Merry Christmas’ to one and all.
Personally speaking, I think the ticket prices is a massive issue and IF the club wanted to improve its relationship with its “core” support, it would not only seriously consider, but actually reduce the prices of tickets, food, but most importantly, beer.
Hello Joe. All 3 BtM pieces were written at the same time and I may not have published them in the order intended. The Gala post was first for me because it tied in with the away fixture.
Before I forget, one of the regulars offered a guest piece in the drinks recently but now I cannot find it. Please do feel free to send it over to goonerholic(at)virginmedia(dot)com. Thanks.
Off to the Black Country. Have a great Christmas all, and play nicely. 😉
I am finding it difficult to take seriously, Wenger’s comments about how Chambers has had to play too many games to be honest. The reasons why he has had to play are 100% the manager and board’s fault (not sure who entirely is to blame, so have lumped em together).
Then again, the fact he didnt replace Vermealen when he blatantly said he would, can just be added to his utterances about how a midfield general was his priority signing last summer, erm and the one before that… well, more accurately would be since Gilberto was let go… probably.
How does the Glendronach 21 compare with the HP 18, anyone?!
😀
Great piece BtM!
Holic Merry Christmas to you and your family, there is no better Gooner blog out there, this obviously includes all the Holics too without you this place would certainly not be the same!
Merry Christmas to you all! God bless you all!
🙂
BB, I don’t personally know Glendronach at all but I am sure the 21yo will be very nice. I do think HP18 is the best you can get below £100/bottle but it is all a matter of personal taste. 🙂
@bathgooner
Many thanks for the reply, personally never met a HP i didn’t like. Saw an opportunity for the Glendronach 21, but have not tried any before so am fishing for opinions.
May your glass be full and may arsenal at least get a cup! (bad pun .. i know!)
😀
Cheers BB.
If it appeals, go for it. At worst it’ll be a pleasant addition to your palatal experience. You can then share the knowledge with the rest of us.
CoR @43. You seem to have given up on the shameless self-promotion so I’ll do it for you. Best Arsenal cartoonist on the planet, even if you live on the other side of it. 🙂
http://arsenalcartoons.com/xmas-stuff.html
Was going to say something about cause and effect of your posts being made while most of the rest of us are asleep but then thought I’d be nice. 😉
All I want for Christmas is maximum points.
And Sergio Ramos.
Thank you.
BB,
Glen Dronach – lovely fella !
Oh yes he is !
Just in from the panto – in case you wondered …… 😉
Hehe, thanks 8ball 😀
@Trev
Many thanks! May you always have a dram or five within easy reach!
Which is a must if one supports Arsenal I am told.. 😀
What alarms me most isn’t the fact that we conceded a goal deep into injury time from a set piece against ten men, it’s my total lack of an emotional response to this.
It’s as though I’ve been conditioned to expect such an event by the manner in which Wenger has managed the club over the last 8 or so years.
It’s almost as if a tiny bit if me doesn’t care anymore. That is frightening as this club have enriched the very fabric of my life for well over 40 years.
Happy X’mas to all Goonerholics!!
🙂
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