Football Is Hemorrhaging Too Much Of The Wealth It Is Creating
Jul 25th, 2017 by 'holic
It’s been a crazy few days which promise to get even crazier in the final month of the transfer window. Neymar to Qatar Saint Germaine at around 230m euros? Maybe with an over-priced Verratti making the reverse journey.
Real Madrid reported, falsely as it turned out according to Monaco, agreeing a 180m euros deal for the much sought after Kylian Mbappe. Even that rumoured sum takes us out of the equation, surely?
What that has done to the asking price for Thomas Lemar is anyones guess, and trust me there are lots of anyones out there having their own stab at it. All the while the shadowy agents are poised to snaffle their share of the deals they claim to have brokered.
Call me simple (although obviously I would prefer if you didn’t!) but I yearn for the days we went shopping in the lower leagues. George Graham may divide opinion these days, but with his management background with Millwall before ‘coming home’ to manage The Arsenal he pulled off some incredible deals.
Terry Neill beat him to plunder Ian Allinson from Colchester, but George would return to the Essex club to capture Perry Groves whilst also adding Lee Dixon and Stevie Bould from Stoke, then in the third tier. Nigel Winterburn was snapped up from newly promoted Wimbledon. They went on to achieve a fair bit with the club, I think it’s safe to say. We were tapping the markets that Liverpool trawled spectacularly as the biggest club in the land in the 70s and early 80s.
What was beautiful about seeing clubs improve by astute scouting in those days was the fact that everybody won. We took a punt on players ability to adapt to a higher level. The selling club got the sort of money they would not have been able to command from their peers down what has today become a pyramid, and were able to grow their squads accordingly.
Most attractive of all through these rose-tinted optical receivers was the fact that the money stayed within the game and was redistributed around our clubs from top to bottom. When I think of super agents hoovering up tens of millions from deals today (Pogba, anyone?) It leaves more than a sour taste in the mouth. I actually get very angry butterflies in the stomach when I think how much has changed, and where that money came from.
It hasn’t come from the clubs. It has come from you and I. Ah, I hear you say you don’t go anymore because you have been priced out of, or fallen out of love with, the game. You’re still paying for it. Even if you don’t have a Sky/BT/Foreign broadcaster’s package you are still paying for the internet by which you are accessing illegal streams (and I don’t blame you!). You are paying for it when you buy your leisurewear, aircraft tickets, your beer, even when you have a bet with your bookmaker of choice.
YOU ARE PAYING FOR IT!
‘You’re a fossil, ‘holic, it’s the modern way. Get on board or get off’, I hear some of you say. You have a point but believe it or not I do understand if you didn’t experience different times then today the game is what it is. It’s still the most popular sport on the planet. we still desperately want ‘our’ club to be successful, and we have to shell out to compete in today’s market.
I get that totally, and with not unreasonable reservations will still get to as many games as I can this season because this club is in my blood, a family inheritance that will always have the utmost importance in my life. Don’t tell me that what I have seen in recent days, weeks, months, and beyond, is ‘progress’. When the financial model sees more of the vast sums involved in the game today staying within football for the betterment of all, not just the select few, that will be progress my friends.
Have a great day, ‘holics.
89 Responses to “Football Is Hemorrhaging Too Much Of The Wealth It Is Creating”
Excellent stuff H. Remember all of those that said how financial fsirvplayvetc would see ticket prices reduced and Arsenal in top position when it came to transfer dealings?????
Well, I hate to say I told you so, but…….
Now for a major catch up.
Evening Steve.
I’m still trying to get my head around how you profit from paying 230m euros for a player. They will have to sell him halfway through his contract to get maybe half of it back?
That’s ignoring an astronomic salary. ?
I sympathise with you Holic. I’ve been talking with my grandsons today and at their young ages all they see are exciting deals for superstars. They equate spend with ambition ( they might be right ) but so much of the money goes into the pockets of Raiola and co. and not to the clubs who developed the players. These agents are leeches and they are far too high up the food chain.
The Neymar deal is utterly obscene as he is now trying to get PSG to sign his mates and keep Moura, . If we get Lemar we will have done well but to look at how tough it is to compete look at the Swampies. Levy was careful before their stadium was being built but now they are nowhere near able to compete. I’m surprised Kane and Alli are not being chased for silly money given the wages they pay.
The game is sick and will lose its grass roots appeal. Those days of signing Perry Groves and co are light years away. And they will never return.
Been ridiculously busy at work recently so way behind. Will call catch up later.
Your report above H is the main reason I will be attending a few at most, home games this season. I have been mocked by some on here for says by that I’m now treated as a customer and not a fan. Get it yet boys? Personally, I hate it. I hate it with a passion.
The figures quoted today confirm that I have no connections with the modern day game. It is not something I can relate to anymore. It is just one massive, obscene money making machine. £50 million just seems to be a starting price these days. I mean, if Kyle Walker is worth £50 million then I reckon I still have a price in the modern day market. I dread to think how hard a bargain Clive is going to drive if anyone wants to secure the services of any of the Ramblers? That includes the ones still banged up.
I can not relate to a game where players demand hundreds of thousands every week just to wear the shirt, only to fail to turn up on a Saturday afternoon. Or a Friday night. Or a Saturday morning for that matter. Or a Sunday Morning, afternoon or evening. Or a Monday night. Or, well, whenever it makes the club’s and the TV companies more dosh. To be frank, I’m just bored to death of it all.
It genuinely saddens me to see the way the game has gone. That’s why my attendance will be elsewhere this season. I’ve had enough of being a customer and of just helping to make the rich even richer.
Big love and hugs to you all. A pint of the excellent Adnams Ghost Ship is on the bar for anyone in. It really is an excellent brew. Raise a glass and toast Lars. After all, it is his birthday.
Go Sarries.
In a season of Thursdays and Sundays, Steve, I am opting for more away days. Good folk have sorted me for Chelsea and Watford. There will be others.
Evening TTG. As ever, valuable contributor. ??
Good read, Guv’nor. But before your rose-tinteds mist up completely, it is worth remembering that Herbert Chapman smashed the transfer record in 1928 when he paid the first five-figure fee (£10,890) to bring in David Jack from Bolton. And that was only 35 years after the first £100 fee and 23 years after the first £1,000 one.
Separately, I don’t think clubs like PSG run on a traditional trading-profit business model. If they did they’d be Arsenal.
They run on something more akin to the tech venture capital model, which is all about the valuation tomorrow and has precious little to do with making a profit today.
SG in the previous drinks, this fell below the chevrons:
I don’t disagree with you, at all over Chambers vs Holding. I have seen Chambers play for us only (and then not in the flesh), and not for Boro. There was a player in there somewhere, but not fully formed. Holding, too, is a work in progress, but I think the intangible he has that Chambers doesn’t is not so much a natural endowment as a player as that presence that all top defenders have. I think both of them will become top-class players, but Holding may turn out the better of the pair.
You raise an interesting point about the development value of a loan to a team like Boro. Chambers got 25 Premiership starts, minutes he wouldn’t have had with Arsenal; Holding got nine starts. Games under the belt is obviously the purpose of sending a young player out on loan, but playing in a poor team like Boro’s last season, would Chambers have picked up more bad habits than good?
Woj’s two years on loan with a good Roma side appear to have benefited him greatly (shame Juve will reap most of the dividend from that). Hard to think of many others that could be said of.
Steve T@4: When the Ramblers dipped into the transfer market, it was only with offers you couldn’t refuse.
H. Thursdays and Sundays already clash with other events and will be extremely difficult. It’s a ridiculous ball ache. I have already off loaded my tickets for Brighton, Leicester and West Brom. Bournemouth are next. I didn’t bother with the charity shield. I have no plans to make the effort to get to any game that is being televised. I can’t see the point. My first game might be Newcastle on 16/12. But that will have to depend on the TV schedule and other fixtures.
Enjoy your away days. They are always good fun. I look forward to the reports after those trips.
Evening Ned.
I’m sure you are right. The Ramblers would have had more than one enforcer.
First home for me this season will be Bournemouth. Luckily the grand’holics are coming too. Bollocks to a Friday night opener. How do they think supporters outside the home counties can make those games? Bollocks to Sky and BT.
Evening, ‘holic. You’re bang on the money(no pun intended) with all tha, especially about the times the money stayed in football and helped smaller clubs improve.
Some people seem convinced the bubble will burst soon enough, I’m not, but I really hope they’re right. For all our sakes.
H. Spot on. The fact is that I can actually make it. I just can’t be bothered.
How sad is that???? For me, that is what it had come down to.
I’m sure the Grandholics will have an awesome time. Always special moments.
Football have created nothing but sickly rich oligarchs and Arab sheikhs who can splash whatever cash they wish for.The money spent are fictional in a real world,Gylfi sigurdsson for 45 mil give me a Break then Walnut would be a 90 mil player,it is absurd and even a fine club like Everton is getting on the train,sadly.And Mourinho have the smugness to call all other clubs for creating a false transfer environment while he goes and pays 75 mil for a one legged cart horse the man is the biggest hipocrit in football.
Raises one to toast the birthday boy, as well as Steve T and GH for their excellent critiques of the corporate greed we see rampant in today’s game. And yet, it was just 15 months ago that Leicester City overcame all the sheiks and oligarchs to win the league on a relatively minuscule budget. My fear is that such an ocurrence may not have a chance to happen again in my life time with all the money pouring into the richest clubs.
Now. Have we signed Lemar yet?
Evening H
Fine,but very sad post.
I think any of us that were told 5 yrs ago,that in 2017 players would be on the market for fees in excess of 150 million quid,would have scoffed at the thought.
Yet here we are.
When you look at what City/Chelsea and Utd are prepared to pay for players,it makes Pool/Spuds and the Arse look like Paupers.
There are still over 4 wks left in the transfer window,and i am sure there will be even more obscene figures splurged on players,by Clubs desperate to stay competitive with their Trophy chasing rivals.
As one of the few fiscally responsible managers left,Arsene must be shaking his head in disbelief at the money being thrown around with gay abandon.
Where does it end.
Then the supporters get shafted with ever increasing costs to attend games,and you end up with the sad spectacle of life long stand up Geezer like Steve T,telling us he is so disillusioned with it all that his first live visit to the Ems might be the Newcastle game just before Christmas. !!
The old Rambler crew,those of us still free that is,are completely baffled at this turn of events.
We played for nothing other than the sheer pleasure of kicking seven bells out of each other on a Sunday morning.
How times have changed.
See you soon holic me old mucka
What annoys me is that Sky have rejigged their sports packages but the potential savings are not being passed on to cable customers. Football is in a shit bucket of its own making where money is concerned and Sky are fucking us all over.
At the risk of annoying the locals,as it seems they would be the only “stakeholders” disadvantaged with rescheduled matches, odd kick-offs etc. football is merely following corporate globalization. European football, in the 90’s Italian football,and in the last decade and a half, English football, have attracted the best players and with it highest viewership and of course shrewd business people….and the cycle keeps repeating itself as long as there are new markets to exploit, e.g. latest Asian and Australian tours. Unless there’s a big event (maybe a huge scandal or corruption in the game) the trend is likely to persist.
And because new supporters/fans/consumers (sorry) are not choosing a side because it’s from their city/town they are most likely to support one of the “big” clubs. They will buy their jerseys or their games on pay-per-view, internet etc making the big clubs even more profitable. The big clubs start attracting the cream of the players and buying from smaller/lower league clubs but still at inflated prices therefore still benefiting the smaller clubs, as was the case in the “old days”. Price and salary records are smashed just as they were smashed in years gone by. The players are still handsomely paid (relative to ordinary man/woman like us) because they have a skill we don’t have and are willing to pay to watch.
I’m short, I am trying to say I have resigned myself to this trend, it’s been in the making for yrs and will persist for a while to come. If as a supporter you want your club to “spend the money” on best talent do not bemoan the fact that the sport is globalising, it’s the funds from the globalization that enable the spend.
Local fans may choose to give away their season tickets but at the same time there are more international fans waiting for opportunity to watch their favorite club play and as long as EPL is as well marketed and more and more people can afford to travel, there will be fans in stadiums.
Maybe too long a post but I find topic interesting, apologies.
PS. Not sure how agents’ fees and remuneration structures have changed over time but if they are getting percentage of player price or contract as it was in yesteryears then they can’t be accused of spoiling the game either. Maybe someone can educate me, thanks in advance.
“…because they have a skill we don’t have…”
I have a skill they don’t have…
SKILLS
On a cheerier note, here in NZ I was on the point of having to economise by ditching Sky’s Sport Channel and just keeping Bein Sports which has all the football that matters … when Vodafone came up with an offer that includes free Sky Sport for a year and free Mysky box for as long as I stay with Voda. That’s a net NZ$45 per month saving for the season. Or an actual cost of NZ$65 (£30 approx) per month for all Arsenal Prem, Europey, FAC, League Cup, Com Shield games. Plus CL and all other sports and Sky Basic programmes of course.
The answer is obvious. Come to NZ. You’ll soon get used to the earthquakes… 😀
Lemar in? Alexis and Mesut staying? Lacazette in. Plus OG and Rambo, even Theo if he gets a look-in. That’s a powerful looking attack with a lot of goals in it.
I’m feeling more confident by the day.
Guys you are taken aback at the transfer fees in football. Have you seen the contracts NBA players are signing this off season. Steph Curry just signed a new 5 year basketball contract for $201M. In addition to that he probably makes $20M + year to wear Under Armour shoes.
The money is just insane in the NBA.
https://www.si.com/nba/2017/06/30/warriors-stephen-curry-contract-nba-free-agency-signing-kevin-durant
http://www.businessinsider.com/top-nba-free-agents-2017-2017-6/#gordon-hayward-sf-3
Cent@12, Steve T and others: The mad money for transfers will last for as long as there is mega television rights money and that will last only as long as TV gets an audience to pay for those rights. If you want to get the money in the game back to sensible levels boycott the TV not the grounds.
However, Soweto Gooner@19 is correct about the changing economic underpinnings of the game, and that there is still a long way to go before new audiences/markets for the TV companies in emerging countries are exhausted.
Now that the link between geography and fandom has been broken, the logical consequence is that clubs no longer need to be based anywhere. The entire Premier League could be played in a low-cost, offshore stadium and the games then fed out over the season on TV with the crowds green-screened in.
Dizzy? Mate, I am so chuffed to see you here. Top, top man. ??
Tapera@23: A difference with pro sports in the US and Britain is that it is all salary in the former but transfer fees and salary in the latter. If there is one player in any sport arguably worth that sort of money, it is Stephen Curry, a serial championship winner, the foundation stone of a basketball dynasty and someone who has changed the way the game is played. Not many football players of which that can be said. Interesting case study in salary caps, though. All four of the major league sports in the US have them, but $201 million five-year contracts still happen. Did anyone mention FFP?
When the dust settles on any Neymar to PSG transfer, Tapera, the total cost (transfer fee plus salary) will likely double Curry’s US$200m. In addition Dennis only knows what commercial add-ons Neymar will receive – rumours say a percentage of the income from hotels PSG own plus a private jet to whisk him off to Brazil any time he likes. And that’s before mundane things like clothing and footwear sponsorships.
Remember the emerging generation who see this behaviour as normal nay exciting. I read my grandson’s magazine yesterday and it was literally all concerned with transfer activity real and imagined. Big sums are equated with desire to win.
It’s the older types like us on here who see it in a different perspective. The conflation of a TV and transfer fees , the total supplication of dates and kick- off times to TV schedules are exacerbated by record ticket prices at Arsenal. Away fans are an afterthought, or not thought about at all.
This acceptance of the ‘ glamour’ by the youngsters is unhealthy but they are not to blame . They know no different but one wonders if their love for the game and it’s essence is the same.
The antidote to all this swimming in cash is grass roots football.
Spending an afternoon collecting grass cuttings off the pitch, with a volunteer in his 70s, because the club can’t afford a grass box for their mower, reminds you of what it’s all about.
Neymar is a good player but not in the same class as Messi and
Ronald, in fact no better than Suarez, Bale, Sanchez and a few
others. Potential to be better is there but fucked if I’d pay
that much for him even in today’s market. An imagined brand value
decision to me and not a football one.
Soweto Gooner – a very fair summary I thought. As an exile in Japan the schedule changes sometimes help me when they move earlier and sometimes not when they move later. As an away supporter for many years before I moved here, I know it would have annoyed the shit out of me. I loved going to away games but I think sadly the
days of a strong away support are numbered, it’s not needed for the
behemoth to roll on and Sky or whoever will just can the atmosphere if they need to. Sad as the supporters were the only relatively clean people left in football, but it’s as you say – you have to accept it or not. I just feel it’s a lot easier for me to accept from 6,000 miles away than if I was still in London and it was up close and personal.
Don’t really know what the point of this post is 🙂
Just thought Soweto’s post was good and deserved a reply.
And as if players do not get paid enough. In the US when they play away from home, they also get paid pier diem. Imagine that.
Plenty of chewy cud there ‘H, ta. Some right tasty follow-up contribution thingies an’ all; I feel better informed already, in me faraway foreignish field.
Up The Arse Foot Corp!
Wouldn’t they rather get paid in dollars? 🙂
During establishment discussions for the Premier League, Lordy Lordy Alan Sugar advocated partitioning revenues and directing a portion to the English game’s grassroots. When outvoted by fellow club chairmen, he retorted “That means we’re going to piss an awful lot of money up against the wall in player salaries”. Sugar was correct, but I suspect even he wouldn’t have anticipated the advent of the £400 pw player; the £12M pa Manager and the £40M pa super agent.
Given that players, managers and coaches are an important part of the game, hemorrhaging is internal as much as external. Arsenal’s balance sheet reveals that the majority of £350M pa revenues goes on salaries (annual profits are miserly). More interestingly, comments I read indicate that many are very happy with the first. “If it takes £400 pw to keep Sanchez, pay it, he’s worth it” and “If we need to stump up $12+M for a better manager than Wenger, go for it” are daily fodder.
It’s unlikely, however, that many are equally satisfied with the money that floods externally into the swamp of hangers on; directly to agents like Jorge Mendes or indirectly to pundits like Lineker on £2M for 30 hours of MOTD.
The Premier League is a money machine, which, in addition to owners, players and coaches brings great satisfaction to many. SKY is very satisfied. Their revenues have blossomed to £11 Bn yielding annual profits of £2Bn with much growth to come from global expansion.
The good news? As sports fans or customers (we’re both actually) we are all allowed to choose from the vast array of options on offer. I’ll be watching the Dundee Derby on Sunday afternoon for £12 (senior – result!). There will probably be about 12,000 fans in the ground and the atmosphere will fall far short of the good old days of 45,000 packed into Dens Park to see Dundee unbeaten at home by the best in Europe in their 1962 European Cup run.
Ironically and sadly, without the influx of BPL cash, the game in Scotland is struggling. I’ll enjoy the day out, but I don’t expect the experience to match our home game vs Leicester for which I’ll choose to pay more.
Choose wisely and enjoy. Kicking back against the avalanche of cash flowing into the pockets of the few is unlikely to do much other than raise your blood pressure.
Thanks for the post, Holic and some great contributions from Ned in particular. And Happy Birthday, Lars.
Thanks for response Oskar, Ned and all…..seems like we all agree there’s little we can do about the situation, it benefits global fan but not the local (home or away supporter).
Can’t wait for the weekend and start of season…..UTA!
I have to say that sometimes i’m genuinely torn. I love The Arsenal – they’re in my blood, I still love the buzz of a matchday, I still get excited like a little kid when we’re playing (even friendlies) and I spend an inordinately high amount of time following them in all forms (be that watching games or reading great sites like this one). But I can’t say that i’m not envious of those fans who support lower league and non-league clubs and their detachment from the money-is-everything world of the Premier League.
I don’t live a million miles from Swindon and occasionally go to their home games if The Arsenal aren’t playing and I have a free Saturday afternoon. What I see is people enjoying their football in a decent ground, paying reasonable-ish entry prices and with none of the celebrity-fan, Arsenal-bashing culture that you get in North London. I have similarly enjoyable experiences when I venture a bit further to Wycombe or Aldershot.
However, in terms of George’s lower league signings, let’s not forget Craig McKernon, Jimmy Carter and Eddie McGoldrick – it wasn’t all rosy!
Good rant, H. It’s all utter madness. Cynic knows.
But I keep shelling out. It’s n addiction and somewhat more legal and less destructive than most.
Thank you ‘Holic for beaming the spotlight on a topic that has given me considerable discomfort very recently.
Football is meant to be a game. The game actually, The Beautiful Game.
What it’s become is a hydra headed corporate monster that has started feeding on itself.
We have come a long way from the days of innocence, when we considered football on only it’s aesthetic merits and embraced it wholly as the great equalizer and unifying tool it was.
Football is no longer just a game, it’s a multi billion dollar industry as vicious as any other.
And as with most major industries the overwhelming consideration is one of profit to the general detriment of everyone and everything else.
The level of greed and iniquity being demonstrated on an ever increasing basis is unbelievable.
Unfortunately there is no end in sight as NBN@24 and BTM@34 expound most succinctly.
I find myself losing more interest in something I truly love everyday.
Will always love and support The Arsenal but it is no fun being on the path of disillusionment.
NBN@7 – I agree with you in totality. It’s always bothered me when players are sent out to teams where coaching standards and facilities are not commensurate with what the player is used to. Gnabry to West Brom is still a head scratcher for me.
Ordinarily a laid back type that isn’t easily riled but this was the pits –
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/07/23/ronald-mcdonald-lovin-leads-man-utd-real-madrid-players/
That rubbish is part of why we are where we are. Fucking instant gratification.
May The Arsenal never plumb those depths.
never been into football forensics
leave that to the glut of Quincy MEs
?
it is still possible
should you choose to accept this mission
to roar shout and cheer for The Arsenal
from o’er whatever sea at whatever tv
without giving a monkey’s fuck about
what’s going on under the corporate bonnet
.
easy to say i know
when ye aren’t being fleeced for a ticket
and fuck i’m more than aware the wallet rules
every aspect of the modern game
but
i choose not to let that creep
into the excitement/frustration
i’ve always had watching a game
.
call that approach anything ye want
i don’t give a fuck
*blows raspberries hither an thither*
never liked ye anyway ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dvWwUT-mfc&index=1&list=RD7dvWwUT-mfc
Kodi box owners look away now
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-40727972
wank and bluster
cynic
bluster and wank
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEXW4sjcPMc
I can do one but not the other cba
you are as the lord made you
He had a fucked up sense of humour then 🙂
well
i just bought our made up protector a jar
boy done good
there’s only one
half ton
?
A jar of what, swarfega? 😉
BTM@34, SG@35 and Solid Gooner@38: At your service.
Thanks for your input Soweto.
Good to see you BtM. ??
Cynic and cba, cuddlin’
All, thanks for some excellent responses.
All’s right with the world.
After a long hiatus,punctuated by short and sharp phone posts to the Bar,we once again have an excellent lengthy epistle from the post match fish and chip supper man himself.
Now if only Lars [ happy birthday }, H2H and a few other ex bar patrons could shake off the shackles and get typing,this place would be back to the halcyon days of yore.
Can you imagine, Clive, what sitting/standing/floating next to BtM at a Cup Final win over the bus stop in Fulham is like.
I am lucky fella. ?
H2H?
Hippy to Holland
California has Disneyland
and Blackpool has a Funland…
and
Thought it was about half ten, got some chips and a cuppa, realised it was 1am.
Shit.
Who wants a bite of my butty?
Well?
The BBC has apologised after Jeremy Corbyn was called a “twat” in a Radio 4 interview by Charlie Mullins, the boss of Pimlico Plumbers and a Conservative party donor.
They said the word he should have used was c…. ompletely unacceptable as well.
🙂
Nighty night
Australia’s finest singer died this week, age just 46 … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8-YMpYbRqY
RIP Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu.
Note Yunupingu plays ‘upside-down’ guitar in the above.
Can’t leave it at just one. Here he brings out the very best in another great Aussie … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi6zbPjtO6I … singing one of Yunupingu’s best known anthems, Bayini.
Not to be confused with his uncle Mandawuy Yunupingu whose band Yothu Yindi recorded the international hit Treaty in 1991 … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf-jHCdafZY
The young Gurumul played keyboards for Yothu Yindi.
Cheers H!
Late to the party reading this one – every fucking word mate.
I’m going Bournemouth at home September 9th – *Klaxon alert* SATURDAY 3 O’CLOCK KICK OFF. After that – I have no idea, or plan at the moment.
Great to spot a brief Dizzy appearance as well.
What Clive said @54.
Hint that Reiss Nelson will join the first-team squad?
https://www.arsenal.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/images/775011587_SM_2991_1A5E2A5DDB6F0620F5A213AB2B73573F.jpg
No sign of Gibbs or Debuchy in these latest training photos, but Wilshere, Chambers and the Ox all in evidence.
https://www.arsenal.com/news/bellerin-chambers-holding-and-wilshere-return
I hate this silly season… 🙁
Ned, Debuchy and Gibbs are reported to be in the U23 squad to play at Borehamwood tonight.
cheers chris – had these blaring earlier on
enjoyed by all here
though
first didgeridoo music
now this fella
i hope
herself who has something of a birthday coming up
isn’t taking these as some great hint dropping exercise
from me re. holiday plans
mind you , she’s met me ?
.
morning all
?
On a more somber note,
This is the 4th anniversary [ how time flies ] of the passing of one of the Bar’s favorite Gooners,the Caribbean charmer Terry Adams Williams.
I still have fond memories of his cheeky grin during our Skype conversations in his final months.
Much missed by all those who loved him,and by those who were lucky enough to know him.
Walking in the sky now.
wee wave from herself
.
cheerio again
nice one clive
gooner T – proper goodun
god rest him
Thanks for the reminder, Clive. I’ll raise a glass to Terry and his family tonight.
Four years, Clive? Time does fly. A glass raised to a class Gooner who endured his last days with courage, dignity and no little humour. Terry, you are missed.
Crazy money makes you where the game is headed towards.180 million for an 18 year old? 50 million for an over hyped full back? crazy money for neymar, Bale could yet move for an astronomical price, god when will this end.
In all this we aint saints but we still hold the morale high ground of how to go about it. Maybe this high ground is the reason we end up not getting so many of the players we should. Lemar could be one more case on the same lines.
Alexis to report back to the coloney sunday says the reports. I wonder why do we always keep it so late, sell him, keep him or whatever, let us just get on with it.
We need a cm in more ways than one. Santi is done, jack unlikely to stay or last a full season, Ramsey is too attack minded and Xhaka alone cannot be the answer. Seri/Carvlaho etc are the names touted but we should have bought anyone of them by now. Again this dilly dallying is costing us so many times.
On to the emirates cup and looking forward to dear Arsenal playing. We are outsiders for the title again but then what is life without hope and Arsenal. COYG.
Gooner Terry gone but certainly not forgotten. A splash of Caribbean sunshine who brightened up my day on many an occasion here in the drinks. 4 years of remembrance shows he still has a lot of staying power. 🙂
Holic, Ned, Soweto, Solid Gooner, BtM, Steve T, Bath,
spot on, fellas.
One line stands right out for me amongst all those excellent contributions –
“It is sad to find yourself becoming more disillusioned every day with the game you love.” (Apologies if that is not word perfect but it was a way back. – by Solid Gooner, I believe).
The ridiculous amounts of money in the game – and being charged to watch the game – find it drifting further away from me.
I wish it did, but I’m sure my support means nothing to the club.
Perhaps it never did, but paying a quid to stand on the North Bank and sing your head off for an hour before kick-off at least made you feel a part of the effort.
If I turned up an hour before kick-off now and sang my head off, I’d probably be escorted from my seat for unruly behaviour !
Still, nothing a couple of good wins won’t sort out. ???
All my very best wishes to Terry’s family if they still drop by this here watering hole.
8ball ?
my night walks home
in the dark
up to near now
tune powered
usual King Tubby
thought of gooner T
.
good people get remembered
cunts do too but that’s not germane to the point i’m making
cynic -yer dumped
my heart belongs to trev
?
don’t get too excited trev
i’m a right fuckin tart
two nice words from thunder T
and i’ll be throwin’ him me glad eye
Thunder T,
Where are you when I need you ….?
?
EXACTLY !
.
*febreze’s oxters*
Lemar might be the most painfully left-footed player i’ve seen since Rivaldo, Robben n RVP. Is he worth the hassle?
Disappointed we did not get Fornals. Remember this tune.
Remember this tune
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s70y40ba7k8
Fornals was our CM/next Santi answer. Dont know any other CMs at that height with such touch and tackle. Go figure why Viera/Petit worked so well. Size & Vision.
Not sold on Carvalho yet, but good thing we still have honest Mo in the mid.
To a wonderful man. ?
Trev@81: 🙂
‘Holic @86: ??
I got the early tip-off on Arsene’s pre weekend Arsenal Player info…
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