Mixed Results For Arsenal U-19s’ And The Ladies
Feb 9th, 2016 by 'holic
Young Guns Pipped By Anderlecht
It isn’t just the first team who are facing an important few months. Those who subscribe to BT Sport would have been able to witness the under-19s’ slip out of the UEFA Youth League away to a strong Anderlecht side this evening (Tuesday), but they did not go down without a fight.
Jeff Reine-Adelaide was denied by Svilar, and Dan Crowley curled an effort wide as we opened brightly, but the first-half turned on two defensive lapses and the main beneficiary was Vancamp. The Belgian found himself free at the back post to head home Mangala’s chip from the inside-left channel in only the eighth minute.
Former Barca defender Julio Pleguezuelo came close to levelling the score but his flick from Dan Crowley’s free-kick went inches wide of the near post. Twenty minutes after going behind the Gunners defenders were caught ball watching as Vancamp lashed home a ball squared from the right hand side of the area. The Belgians were defending in numbers but quick to get bodies forward on the counter.
Arsenal did continue to probe but found the massed ranks of purple and white difficult to open up. While we had the lions share of the possession in the second half Vancamp was denied his hat-trick by two good saves from Hugo Keto. The best half-chances for us fell to Stephy Mavididi and Ismael Bennacer but it wasn’t to be our night.
Arsenal Ladies Thrash Bayern
The Arsenal Ladies notched up an impressive 3-1 victory over Bayern Munich in Seville on their pre-season tour of Spain. Jordan Nobbs opened the scoring with an absolute belter from distance. A video of the strike did the rounds on Twitter on Saturday evening and it is well worth checking out.
Five minutes after half-time Dabritz put the Germans on level terms, but that merely provoked a response from the Arsenal. In particular from Natalia, who on the hour mark converted Danielle Carter’s through-ball. Twenty minutes later she completed the job with a glorious twenty yard chip in off the bar.
Manager Pedro Martinez Losa spoke to Arsenal.com about that win, and his hopes for the season ahead.
“Beating a team like Bayern Munich, who are a top team in Europe, I think we will take a lot of positives from the individuals, from the fans and from the preparations. There is a lot of faith and belief for the future. The objective is to play good football, get the team feeling comfortable and have a clear idea of the dynamic in the team. It is really important to go game by game. You win the league by doing that.”
The FA Women’s Super League, now in its sixth season, will kick off on Wednesday 23 March with FA WSL 2 title winners Reading travelling to two-time winners Arsenal for their opener. It promises to be a great competition with the Arsenal attempting to reclaim the title from Chelsea.
115 Responses to “Mixed Results For Arsenal U-19s’ And The Ladies”
?
cheers hol
gonna watch
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2RYq1PLdT0s
.
.
.
helishafter in the sky
idiots
noisy fuckin cunts
arrogant
cos they know they won’t get shot outta the air
thankfully those days are gone
spaghetti
western
for me
🙂
any of ye readin
the dirty outlaws
is a cracker
trinity films too
django too
or
my name is nobody
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2RYq1PLdT0s
again
helicopter away
nice
assssholes
You aren’t nobody, cba.
You want pepper and parmesan on that? 🙂
basil ?
it’s a weird one hol
helicopters in the sky
20 / 30 years ago
.
walking home
and a helicopter with a brilliant spotlight
follows you
.
not fuckin right
Perhaps they were playing helicopter snooker, and you were in red… 😉
nope
i was green
.
sorry fer …………………….
yup
strange
If it wasn’t so dangerous
.
.
.
oooooo
Oooochecooo
my teenage years
70s
were dictated
movement-wise
by squaddies
i wonder if
any of the dressed in green
then
are dressed in red here now
Must have a been a verbose snooker game, I should say.
What was that about the youth and ladies?
nit
.
wit
Will have to remind my wife she’s not worth 4.9 billion.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3439501/Billionaire-NFL-owner-Walmart-heiress-wife-purchase-Texas-mega-ranch-listed-725million-bigger-Los-Angeles.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
Didn’t intend to offend anybody, cba. Name calling now?
cba, friend, star, life goes on. 😉
dunno
been a strange carry on
any fifty something squaddies
handsome gooner
in their sights
went
bang bang
‘hol
i apologize
i apologize to all the ‘holics
i don’t mean to be an arsehole
it just happens
.
my real life is out of this world for sanity
so
apologies
if
I’ve annoyed people
i do apologise
but
ye will never be as good looking as me
*gloats as usual*
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0uRd8CbX0As
yup
*stands on throats*
*dunks a digestive*
Wait till you are 65 CBA
if you are as fit and dapper,and good looking as i am,then good luck to you.
When i go for one of my daily runs that cuts through the Retirement village,you cannot move for the ladies on their Zimmer frames,all inviting me in for morning/afternoon tea. !!
Not one of them under 70. !!
And a raucous/cheeky/randy lot they are.
I love ’em. !!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J3zeDRBf85s
there’s only one
god bless you clive
yer a fuckin superstar
(ceptin of course ye played fer those daisies)
?
*moons*
i was a defender
shoulder charge
gaelic
and
a good one at the time
but
a useless thug in retrospect
?????
great excitement is afoot chez scruz: rumor has it our beloved club will travel to amerika this summer to take on the mls “all stars”. why does that generate great excitement? because the game is slated for san jose, hahafornia, a mere 3/4 of an hour from rancho cruz! this means I stand a good chance of seeing the lads in red…finally!
WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOO!
some body else
NIGHT NIGHT
I am Chalfont St Silly…Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa
For the dead drunk travel fast.
(brought to you by chimay)
Scruz – great news. Will you be extending a personal invitation to Arsene and the lads to visit the Mystery Spot? I imagine that they would jump at the opportunity (after demolishing the mls “all stars”).
All this talk of randy widows has quite perked up my day. But back to football!
Re the Youth League I am told by those who see the younger players that we have any number of very promising attacking players but are poor defensively . Bielik appears by common consent not to be a CB but it is felt he is being played there to hone his defensive skills. Reine Adelaide looks the real deal to me and I hear good things of Willock, Malen ,Mcguane and Dragomir. One or two of the Greek lads are expected to be released as they have not passed muster.
Looks like our new video scout ( what a job, watching football on video all day!) may have some work to do!
Interesting stuff Guvna. Thanks for the update.
So you are a Leprechaun, cba?
Top o’ da’ morn’ t’ye.
*tumbleweed*
Randy widows.
Leprechauns.
Tumbleweeds.
A news-averse day?
Alan Smith early preview sounds about right.
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11670/10162268/arsenal-face-defining-moment-against-leicester-says-alan-smith?
Rare image of Clive ‘taking tea’ with one of his Zimmer ladies:
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2008/05/13/article-1019266-0136AECF00000578-268_468x336.jpg
And, yes, bt8b, it is a quiet day. Too damn quiet….
10 goals for and 1 against Arsenal in the games Gabriel has started and finished this season, and 17 points garnered out of a possible 21. Coincidence?
http://metro.co.uk/2016/02/08/stats-show-arsenal-hardly-ever-concede-when-gabriel-paulista-plays-5667639/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3HKPJcyQpw
potsticker, i’m just hoping they don’t discover the mystery spot before venturing to the west coast…as it makes everything wonky…
oh, and adam johnson is a sick bastard. really.
Bt8
That is an interesting article on Gabriel. Overall I am impressed but he is not the finished article yet. He was turned inside out by Pugh and only saved by the pace of Bellerin on Sunday and he can be awry in his passing but overall he is a very good defender . As he showed at home to Bournemouth he can also be a danger at the other end.
A very astute purchase by Wenger. I believe he should start against Vardy on Sunday. Vardy could marmalise Per if he plays. He got two at home against us in a game which we strolled.
what’s worse ?
a troll ?
or a drunken paddy arse
wi a bag o fuckin chips
on both shoulders ?
who knows
maybe i am a master troller
striding back and forth
in front of a head high fireplace
in a smoking jacket and cravat
in a leather bound library
inferno blazing in the grate
dictating my disjointed pearls
to a sultry lovely
in a tight pinstripe skirt
with secretary glasses
and a heaving bosom
bt8b@45: For the record, Per’s comparable numbers (this season, league only) are: scored 32, conceded 18; 34 points garnered out of a possible 51.
ttg: turned inside out? Well, only because Pugh was allowed to use his hand to take the ball with him. Rubbish refereeing, not Gabriel’s fault if you ask me. Which, technically, you didn’t tbh 🙂
Mary Pugh was nearly two when she went out of doors
She went out standing up, she did, but came back on all fours
The moral of this story, please meditate and pause
Never send a baby out in loosely waisted drawers
.
Spike Milligan
CBA- you’re on fire my friend. A very different perspective on Arsenal world . And a very welcome one. Slainte?
Ned @44
Thanks for nothing. !!
TTG @ 49
I would take issue with your last comment,that we strolled in when we won at Leicester.
If i remember rightly they hit the woodwork twice early on when they blew us away in the first part of the game.
So they could easily have been 3 up before we even woke up. !!
Games turn on those fine lines,and we benefited from it then.
Those same fine lines were in evidence at the Etihad last Saturday,when amongst all the hype about how well Leicester played,the game turned for me on the Zabaletta foul right on half time.
Replays showed it was on the line or just inside the penalty area,but the Ref chose to give it just outside.
Difficult decision,but on another day the Ref awards a Man City a penalty,and could easily have been 1 – 1 at half time,and a different game in the 2nd half.
Clive
We were flakey defensively early on largely because Mertesacker got run ragged by Vardy. But we ripped them to shreds going forward, we could well have got more than five and they couldn’t handle Theo’s pace or the know how of Sanchez.
My comment came from my friend who is a Leicester season- ticket holder and felt that we handed them a lesson . It is however a lesson they have taken on board astonishingly well. They were very open to our counter- attacks and kept pouring forward . They have got a lot cuter since and great credit to Ranieri for that.
Interesting how it took such relatively little effort by Liverpool fans to get the top ticket price reduced by 18 pounds. I guess the club can easily find the cash elsewhere.
Template plan for Arsenal ticketing?:
http://m.bbc.com/sport/football/35546090
bt8, they are charging this seasons cat A prices for every match next season. That is nothing to celebrate.
Cba – you are,quite simply,a legend.
Intelligent,articulate,funny and just the right side of nuts.
As an accident of birth,I find myself English.
Your diatribe understandable under the circs.
No complaints.
No apologies required.
As you were.
Indeed H. It looks like a sleight of hand equivalent to the highest quality card sharp. Quite in keeping with the now documented bluffing over the non-existence of a £40m plus buy-out clause in Sanchez’s contract. I wouldn’t trust the Fenway group one inch, but then they fit in quite well where they landed.
‘Holic@59: There is definitely some sleight of hand afoot, so to speak.
The LFC statement says that overall general admission ticket revenue will be frozen for the next two seasons at this season’s level on a like-for-like-basis (i.e. not counting the new seats in the Main Stand; the ones they were going to price at £77), and that the GA maximum ticket price will be capped at £59. At the same time game-categorization is being scrapped and a range of concessionary tickets introduced, some of which were previously planned. To make all that arithmetic work, “some individual ticket prices may move marginally from this season” as it is euphemistically put in the statement. My suspicion is that all marginal movements will tend to be in the same upward direction. Also to be remembered is that the new stand adds 8,500 seats, which at £59 a pop will bring in an extra £9.5 million across the course of a league season plus £500,000 for every home cup game — all of which is a nice top up to the club’s existing £50 million a season in match-day revenue.
Interesting article on what we need to do to beat Leicester:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/12146823/How-plucky-Arsenal-can-derail-the-Leicester-City-juggernaut.html
13 months of negotiations with management failed to accomplish anything but 13 minutes of a walkout seems to have got their attention fast: http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/35548733
Not jugger?
Very much chimes with the piece from The Economist I posted a link to in the last drinks, http://www.economist.com/blogs/gametheory/2015/12/competitive-balance-football?curator=MediaREDEF.
That showed that Leicester attack faster than any of the other leading teams, moving the ball at almost 5.5 metres/second in counters where they get off a shot, against around 3.5 metres/second for Chelsea and Man City. We are about 4.4 metres/second.
In short, the way to beat Leicester is to slow them down.
Nostalgia time: The British Film Institute has just posted a collection of their old football films — 135 in all at http://player.bfi.org.uk/collections/football-on-film/
Includes some of the earliest games to have been filmed.
Here is us playing Leeds in 1929: http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-86-in-the-shade-1929/
Nothing to do with Arsenal, or football …
A groundbreaking, era-defining milestone in the history of science. And opening up of a new window to look at our universe
https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160211-gravitational-waves-discovered-at-long-last/
Woolwich Arsenal vs Liverpool 1911:
http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-association-football-season-begins-woolwich-arsenal-v-liverpool-1911/
13 months of negotiations with management failed to accomplish anything but 13 minutes of a walkout seems to have got their attention fast
Something that I doubt you will ever see happen at Arsenal
Thanks Ned.
Evening Cynic. I’m sure Arsenal would love to standardise on cat A pricing if they thought they could get away with it! 😉
I was thinking more along the lines of a fan walkout.
I find myself unable to watch the game on Sunday and far from heartbroken about it.
i’m in tears of joy…
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160211/club-announce-pre-season-tour-to-the-us
Just saw a trailer for Mr Robot on Sky and thought it was Mesut Ozil doing a trailer for the game on Sunday. FFS.
We are seeing a real clash of cultures between largely foreign- owned clubs supported by English fans many of whom supported the club from the terraces in pouring rain, while around them battle raged.
There is also a difference between London fans and those from outside the capital who possibly don’t generally have the same earnings level.
I had decided not to go to the Barcelona game if they charged the excess and my mate who rents the next ticket off me was also prepared to boycott the game. I’m also letting another friend have my second ticket next year. It’s not that I can’t afford it, I don’t think I should have to at the levels we are having to pay.
This last week has marked a watershed in fan / owner relations and many of the owners including our own , stand exposed as regarding their investments as businesses not hobbies.I’ve written that cynically but as a businessman myself we do need to think what a responsible club owner is. I think everyone has a right to make money from their purchase of and investment in a football club. As it happens I am unsure what Kroenke invests in Arsenal, it’s his cash cow but just because some people like Sheikh Mansour use their football club as a penis extension it’s unreasonable to expect everyone to. Kroenke could take dividends as opposed to a meagre ‘ consultancy fee’ but if he starts to do this it will really kick off.
Frankly I hope it does . I have little time for the man and would like a more engaged owner who is a genuine supporter. One would imagine that Arsenal of all clubs might have several potentially suitable owners keen to buy them.
Ideally I’d like a billionaire Holic who understands the culture , tradition and values of the club. You can buy Chelsea and not worry about this because they have little of any of those things but we are one of the greatest football institutions in history and I believe we should be in the hands of someone who wants to make the club great and is proud to own it for its own sake.
Board members or Wenger can pretend all they like about Kroenke’s commitment to the club but I refuse to believe it’s anywhere near as visceral as the people who frequent this bar and therefore Arsenal is wasted on him.
Rant over for the time being but I feel myself losing contact with the soul of my club since Kroenke bought it and that’s very painful . I know many here will share that pain
Thanks for the links again Ned. For those outside the UK, the Arsenal Liverpool game is on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=br5fIuCFsxo
Already quite the crowd in those early days…
@TTG: Just curious: what was so different before Kroenke? I remember people complaining about ticket prices from the Highbury days so I’m just curious.
Because as I see it from afar, best a club can have these days is an owner that stays remote as opposed to the Abramovich and Ashleys.
@scruzgooner: well now you too can join the complaining about outrageously overpriced tickets 😉
Matt
When I bought a bond in 1991 I sat in the North Bank for a fixed £250 or thereabouts for ten years.
When we moved to the Emirates the focus changed to a higher ticket price but in the last few years the money flowing in to football has meant that ticket prices are a relatively small component of the total revenue stream ( ever week we get a new tyre or social media partner in Namibia or Kazakhstan or somewhere). I don’t think pre- Kroenke that Fiszman would have pulled the Barcelona stunt
Doc Faustus at 68. Thanks very much for that link – it was an excellent read.
Our ability to detect these will add a whole new chapter (at the very least!) to observational cosmology.
Fine piece TTG@75.
I share your pain and am weighing the value to me of my pair of STs.
For those who wonder where the money goes???? Good old Stan.
http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/35541353
DrF @ 68,
Both generally and relatively speaking – I blame Stan, at least in theory anyway.
TTG@75. Absolutely spot on. An excellent post and one I whole heartedly agree with. I know exactly how you feel.
Like Bath, and many others I guess, I am asking myself if I really want to continue to feed the greed machine. The recent Deloittes figures showed that we made more than any other club in the world in match day revenue.
The new media deals will increase revenue even further. Massively further. I remember reading in here those who thought that this might lead to a cut in ticket prices. Not a chance. All that will happen is the rich will get richer, an extra zero will be added to transfer fees and fans will be faced with more and more ridiculous kick off times.
The Bayern Munich chairman Uli Hoeness said this in July 2014 when talking about their cheapest season ticket of £104. “We could charge more than £104. Let’s say we charged £300. We’d get £2 million more in income, but what’s £2 million to us?
In a transfer discussion you argue about the sum for five minutes. But the difference between £104 and £300 is huge for the fan. We do not think the fans are like cows, who you milk. Football has got to be for everybody. That’s the biggest difference between us and England.”
The constant greed attitude in football is something that I find deplorable. We are no exception. Like TTG I have no faith or trust in our current leadership. As I’ve said many times before, I believe that the clubs view of success and how the fans view of success are vastly different. Again TTG is right when he talks about the soul of the club. The fact is that for me we have sold our soul, and frankly, I don’t like it one bit.
The TV schedules mean that I now can’t make the Leicester match on Sunday. Next week we play Hull at home in the cup. Again the TV complaines mean that for me to make the game it will involve a great deal of effort. As a result I have already given away my ticket. To be honest, I can’t be bothered to make the effort. Years ago I would have broken down walls to ensure that I made kick off. At the moment we have scheduled 9 more home games this season. This includes Barca and Hull. At the moment I am struggling to make more than 3 of them. At this moment in time, I couldn’t tell you that I’m that bothered by it anymore. It’s gone on for so long now.
Will I be renewing my ticket next season? At the moment it really is in serious doubt.
TTG@75,
I’m pleased to see that you’ve been thinking about your attitude toward Stan.
As far as I can make out, you’d like the club to be owned by someone who would enjoy owning it for its own sake, and you would be happy to see them taking a reasonable profit from it. I probably agree with you on that. In my case, however, until Stan does something unacceptable – and taking a “consultancy fee” isn’t sufficiently unacceptable, to either of us apparently – I’m content that he should own it, despite his evident lack of emotional involvement.
I’ve said before, the fact that Stan is only in it for the cash is an enormous consolation to me as I understand why he’s doing it. I have absolutely no idea why Abamovitch continues to own Chelsea – the only idea that springs to mind is libellous. Mansour is in it to try to win hearts and minds over the really long term. I think the Americans at Liverpool, Manchester United and Villa (and probably other places – I don’t really follow ownership issues that closely) are also trying to make money on the deal – it says something about Arsenal, and probably also about Kroenke, that he’s doing it so much better. Is there an example of an emotionally committed owner at present? Ashley? The last I can think of was Walker at Blackburn Rovers.
Maybe there are examples of clubs owned by a genuine fan succeeding over the long term. I’m hanged if I can think of any.
People please understand that Stan has a vast amount of wealth which he drives from other sources beyond AFC. I am sure we can all understand that his “ownership” of AFC among other ventures is not a charitable endeavor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Walton_Kroenke
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Kroenke
If you Googled “Kroenke” and “fame” and “removal” this is one of the things you would find:
http://www.westernmassnews.com/story/30947695/missouri-sports-hall-of-fame-mulling-kroenkes-removal
At the end of that article you get to issue an opinion on whether Kroenke should be removed from the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame. The results so far have the pro-removal side leading by 94% to 6%. What a guy.
Much Fear i see.. Fear leads to Anger… and Anger leads to Hatred .. and Hatred leads to Suffering.
🙂
Pain is mandatory at times.. but suffering is optional.
😀
POV – stick to making wank fantasies mate.
SteveT – got no love for the current ownership myself, however the ‘ranch’ thing, which has been doing the rounds on social media for days, is just cheap, lazy rubbish. He’d have to take a lot of annual £3.2m fees out of Arsenal before he could even pay for a 1/10th of that Ranch, at that price. People forget he and his wife, were seriously wealthy before any involvement at Arsenal.
TTG – your preferred model sounds suspiciously like what DD had in mind. He’d run the club as a dedicated ‘fan’ using oligarch’s money to fund it. Danny Fizman in his wisdom, which I trust implicitly, said – no fucking way jose!
Football is where it is. Arsenal is but one club whose supporters feeling increasingly disenfranchised from the club they grew up supporting. This was set up by the FA’s complete sell-out in 1993 and has only accelerated as foreign owners have flocked towards the opportunity to print money.
Its stinks. However Stan is not responsible, he’s just using it while he can.
It doesn’t affect me because I don’t buy tickets, but I think what sticks in the craw most is that the fans have never been milked so hard and yet football is richer than it has ever been.
Clubs should be cutting prices but as long as there are people willing to pay they do not care who they are, as long as they are there. If you have someone who’s been going for 50 year who can no longer afford it, but a guy from New York is prepared to fly over and take his seat, there’s no need to reduce the price.
After all, who needs the loyal fan if the money is still there?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3442567/If-Arsenal-fans-protested-against-unfair-ticket-prices-like-Liverpool-supporters-did-d-join-MARTIN-KEOWN.html
😀
Nutshell, Cynic @91.
Ticket prices are a touchy issue. What joy is there to the game without fans yet the same fans need to realize the sport is no longer a game but more an enterprise. If Stan invests on the club, he will expect returns as for him this is mainly business.
Back to the game and the press conference suggests we may play the same team that featured against bournemouth. Isnt that disastrous considering it will be flamini again. What has happened to coquelin? whey is he deemed fit yet not played?
Leicester have played the counter attacking football brilliantly but come sunday i expect them not to concede possession and instead come at us hard in the opening few minutes. If they score first then they know we will go all out to score and that falls right into their hands. The point here is we need to score first and more so manage possession better than try our hollywood passes at times. I love you Aaron but you need to cut down the flamboyance and stick to basics and also offer support to that liability called flamini. Sorry no offense to mathieu but he should not be playing for us.
City spurs as well after us, draw ideal or i rather see city win.
Esso. Perhaps I phrased it wrong but my main point was about priorities and where they lie. It’s purely business to Stan. Nothing more and nothing less. I don’t think for one second that he gives a monkeys about anyone that pays and turns up for a match day. As long as the numbers add up then why would he?
Some good posts on this subject.
Synthesising them I sense, understandably , that those who go to matches and are forking out these very large prices are the most annoyed by the situation.
To avoid doubt my ideal Arsenal owner would be a genuine fan and Arsenal seem to have more celebrity fans than almost any other team. It’s important that the owner uses his or her own money rather than using an oligarch or sports impresario like Kroenke to fund a purchase.The motivation of the owner would be the success of the club on the field and I would entirely understand that it is not a charitable endeavour but neither is it as some clubs have experienced, an asset stripping opportunity or a chance to borrow significant sums against the security of the club.
So far Kroenke has been the most passive of owners and this is where I would depart from Pangloss, who if I understand correctly is content with the status quo as long as this is not harming the club. I hope I attribute that view fairly.
My response would be that the current ticketing ethos is alienating many fans and a perusal of this board would confirm that. But further still I want someone to own Arsenal who regards it as his prime focus, not part of a portfolio of assets, something to be nurtured and cherished . Imagine a club owned by the man who runs this board or many of the contributors to this debate , the addition being enough billions to afford the initial purchase .
Esso makes a great point that Dein was a fan but didn’t have the cash to fund the sort of activity he deemed necessary to drive the club forward. His choice of Kroenke and subsequently of Usmanov were not popular with Arsenal fans, the former for reasons we are debating and the latter because of concerns about how the Uzbek’s fortune has been derived and because if we import foreign cash indiscriminately we are just following the same route as Chavski.
Usmanov would probably be a more hands-on owner and would almost certainly try to curry favour with the fans , so we might expect the purchase of Messi or Ronaldo if he came. It’s just that we don’t trust what he might do to the reputation and image of a great club.
Abramovich had little to ruin at Chelsea but Arsenal’s standing and reputation is something I think most of us take great pride in.
If the Steve Ts , Baths and other regular attenders are driven away by the cost and principle of ticket distribution they will undoubtedly be replaced , probably by newbies Sarah and Tarquin from Wapping , who aspire to Club level and enjoy a Chablis at half- time.That’s probably a much more appropriate customer as far as Aresnal’s marketing department is concerned.
But how genuine will their support be and what will it do to the atmosphere in the ground and the long- term legacy of support that has been so preciously inculcated by us and our dads and grandads?
I see Wenger has defended the ticket prices in his presser today.
AW made a valid point against comparisons with German and French clubs which we all hold up as examples of fair play. Bayern paid one Euro for their ground. Ours cost £200m and that has to be paid for. French clubs pay nothing for their grounds and nothing for their maintenance. We fund all of our maintenance costs.
His comparison of our prices with other London clubs was also news to me. We have the lowest priced seats in London. Our most expensive seats are marginally the top price in London. However our most common price is lower than the most common price in London. Our average price is amongst the lowest in the country.
Interesting that this is not the spin we get in the Press.
*Chips the ball into the box over the massed ranks of Leicester defenders.*
Runner?
Don’t think many Los Angeles Rams fans over the age of 50 will be too excited about the “return” of “their” team to the city. More likely they will be wondering which city the team will be moved to next.
Well in btw, even if it was unconsciously scored off your large arse. 🙂
True that about LA fans in general. Occasional flirtations with the Raiders and the Rams suggests that they should simply establish a new ‘franchise’ called the LA Wanderers.
bath is or is not spouting nonsense @98 but if he is accurate My perspective is changed.
Apropos my learned colleagues allegation @102, I submit exhibit A:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/sport/video-1252112/Wenger-risks-PR-goal-defending-ticket-prices.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
He still fucked up defending the prices the way he did though. He basically said what we all know, that they’ve got those who attend by the balls because they HAVE TO GO, but he didn’t have to say it or try to justify it all.
Or put another way, if we’d won the league for the last few years and had spunked gazillions on top top players, instead of paying over the odds for people like Chambers and Welbeck, he could justifiably say, “We’ve milked you until your tits ache, yes, but you can’t really complain because we’ve won four league titles in six years and we’ve got Messi and Ronaldo. Shit gotta cost”.
Love that, Cynic.
Fifty years ago, when I could stand on the terracing of the old North Bank for a few shillings, the team for the home league game against Leicester was Furnell, Simpson, Storey, Ure, Court, McGill, Walley, Armstrong, Eastham, Radford, Neilson. Highbury was half empty for much of the season — only 8,738 turned up for the West Brom game — and we finished 14th, with a goal difference of minus 13 and only four points off relegation. No European football, of course. And fans demonstrated outside the ground for the manager (Billy Wright) to be sacked, the team was so bad. A line up of Cech, Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Monreal, Ramsey, Coquelin, Theo, Ozil, Sanchez and Giroud, pushing for the title, defending the FA Cup and in the last 16 in the CL doesn’t seem so shabby in comparison, even if it does cost an arm and a leg to watch these days.
I’ve been watching many of those BFI clips of old games to which I posted a link earlier. Lots of players that I remember from my youth. But it seems like a different game. And what happened to rosettes and rattles? The past really is a different country.
Too right Ned @106. And where have all these geezers with a great sense of humour gone?
There’s a ticket lottery for MLS All Stars vs Arsenal in San Jose on July 28:
http://www.mlssoccer.com/all-star/tickets
No word on pricing 🙂
There are truly some interesting reads on Stan and company. Unfortunately I have learnt that any sport today that has any mass following is nothing more than media content/entertainment that can be monetized via ad revenue. If anyone is really interested in understanding this please read/watch the following links:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1E06982C51D22DAE
http://www.forbes.com/sites/sportsmoney/#7ca2e7bf69b2
Or you can just search [Google] (another ad platform) for Forbes Sport Money to have an understanding of this sports money game.
I was there Ned. It’s impossible to compare that period which was awful to nowadays but I suppose one might say we watched the Fairs Cup Final four years later for much the same price and that was a very much better memory .
I want to try to focus on the game on Sunday because that could be a launching pad for a great end to the season. All this moaning creates the sort of negative vibe that may ultimately affect the team. So I’m forgetting about my beef with Stan until after the match. After all it’s the football that really matters.
NBN @ 106 classic stuff!
But remember and never forget (in th eyes and minds of many) football wasn’t a business then and we weren’t ‘just customers’, we were FANS and life was much better, golden even, and if you were lucky you got to stand (not sit) out in the rain and some bastard pissed on you from behind and you got real rat or cat in your pie, not the piss poor mince that Arsenal serves up today. Because these were the days before Silent Stan stole (yes he did, don’t argue, I’ve heard it said and seen it written, so it must be true) $3M from us fans! (and that sort of thing never happened PS – pre-Stan)
Where’s my time machine and where’s my rattle? Take me back, old timer (room for you too in the back, Bath) 🙂
I must say that over the years I’m becoming sympathetic to Steve’s perspective. Football clubs have become international brands who for the most part have lost their local anchoring (bar a few exceptions), not to say their soul and certainly their working class roots.
I went twice to the Emirates, each time costing me a season ticket. Next time will only happen if there’s another reason for me to be around at the right time to attend a game. Actually I’ll try to attend an away game, to be honest I was underwhelmed by the Emirates experience the second time.
Looking at what’s happening at Manure I’m even starting to wonder how much passion left I’ll have for Arsenal once Arsene is gone.
@Esso & Steve: Here’s an interesting twitter timeline from a financial columnist: https://twitter.com/Matt5cott?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
Yes Kroenke borrowed to buy Arsenal
Yes Kroenke can borrow more if Arsenal hoards money
Yes Kroenke buying his half-billion ranch is directly linked to Arsenal not spending
@BtM/111: most were not fans, they were supporters. Players were local lads and every supporter knew one of them or someone who knew one of them.
At the same time one only needs to support a lower league club to be back in that era. It’s not only money but also success that’s causing the rot. It attracts a lot of people and among them too many glory hunters.
BtM @112. Dens Park sounds like it was a terrible place in the 60s/70s. Glad I never went there. It sounds as bad as Ibrox or Parkhead.
Much more refined at Todders and Firhill. The mince in the pies was kangaroo meat or superannuated mutton. The Chinese restaurants got all the cats.
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