I'm away from home at the moment and it's a little trickier to get hold of the old world wide web, but I fortunately did have time to stumble upon this great little Arseblogger rantique. We can all probably get a bit too introspective at times, and it's easy to cross over that line between good natured discussion and over the top attacks.
We've made no signings and that's a fact, so we just have to get behind the boys and do as well as possible, maybe the lack of expectation will help, I certainly hope so. What never ceases to amaze me is the completely hypocritical behaviour of other clubs and their fans.
Spurs and Manure must be the biggest hypocrites of them all, certainly in this country, while they have both been very keen to speak out at the tapping up of their own players by other clubs, they have also been caught doing the most blatant of tapping ups themselves. For every Berbatov there is a Ronaldo, and for every Arnesen there is a Ramos.
The most pathetic thing about Spurs in particular is the ease at which their vocal whinging is silenced by a prompt cash pay off, if they really had any morals or balls for that matter, then they would put their complaints in writing to the authorities, rather than bending over and taking a royal shafting in exchange for a few sweaty ten pound notes.
As the recent Manchester City takeover has demonstrated, there are unparalleled levels of money in the game these days, and there is still a rich vein of hypocrisy running through Manchester, it may well originate from fergie's back garden. Over the last few days how many Manure fans have we heard accusing Man City of trying to buy success? It's more than a tad rich coming from a club whose success stems largely from yes money, the only difference being that Manu have generated their own money and not relied on rich investors.
I may only be speaking for myself here, but in this game that is becoming wrecked by the ill gotten gains of a few corrupt individuals, Arsenal are beginning to stand out as a bit of an exception to the rule. Arsenal FC behaves with a remarkable amount of dignity and respect in all its dealings, especially when compared to the Manures, Chelseas, Tottenhams and Liverpools of this world (not forgetting the Real Madrids and Barcelonas too).
Chelsea may have been more successful in the last few seasons, but frankly so what? Their achievement is comparable to a grown adult beating the shit out of a small boy in a boxing ring, and then being incredibly proud of his performance. Maybe Man City will be of the same ilk, who knows. All I know is that I am still incredibly proud to be a supporter of a club that has not, as yet Usmanov touch wood, sold its soul to the devil. It is not only what one does that is important, it is the way one goes about doing them. Money can certainly buy you sex, but it can't buy you love, something Mr Abrahmovich would do well to realise. Cheers Arseblogger et al.
12 comments:
Great article. Very insightful. I do think that in the next two years or so, the fig four will become the big five. With Man City seemingly possesing so much money now, they'll pull a Chelsea on us and go out buting everyone in the world.
By the way, if you have time, check out my brand new blog at
http://fab4arsenal.blogspot.com
I'd love to hear what you think.
Whoops, meant BUYING everyone in the world. Frankly, I'm saddened by how much money has invaded football. I didn't used to care so much, but seeing Man City and Chelski's actions, I am.
Good article 1979.
This is a very difficult area and I'm still not 100% on my own views.
Yes I do appreciate that Arsenal stands out from other clubs for doing things the right way in the transfer market and in the way the club is run. I am proud of that. However, the reality is that football, and in particular the Premier League, is changing rapidly because of the huge amounts of money going into the likes of Chelsea and Man City. We will not be able to compete if Man City buy Fabregas for £80m in January and then Ade goes to Barca for £30m in the Summer. Arsene is amazing at discovering new talent but he will not be able to put together a team that can win trophies if the stars are snapped up by the money-bags clubs. The sad part of this story is that I can see Arsene giving up at the end of the year claiming that money has ruined football and his desire to produce winning attractive football while balancing the club's books.
So the question that faces us Arsenal fans is what type of club do we want to support: a well run club that won't be able to win trophies, or a club run by a billionaire(s) who can? I honestly believe that this is where we have now got to.
Great article - finally a well balanced piece of writing!
From my perspective, I consider the buying of premiership clubs by big business to be a regretable situation. At the end of the season, only 1 club can win so it is likley that there is going to be a number of oligarchs, sheiks and rich americans who are going to be disappointed. Disappointment does not sit well with these people, they have no history with the clubs that they have bought, they will not last long on these vanity projects of theirs.
Arsenal are doing the right thing. Money isn't everything in football and arsenal were very close to winning a few trophies last year. In football, effort and attitude can go a long way in making up for natural skill. In Arsenal, if we get the attitude right and maintain it all season, we have a very good chance of getting trophies.
Final thought: how long will international superstars want to stay in dreary manchester?
I love this article , and I am an Arsenal supporter until I die.. I have watched the matches with Chelsea ,and Liverpool ,etc, and I still believe that how Arsenal plays the game is the way it should be played , and the youngsters should be given a chance.. If we buy all this mega talent , no one will wait on a Walcott , or a merida , they will fall be the wayside , while we create mega wealthy superstars. The haves will murder the have-nots. Its time the emasculated FA step up to th eplate with a salary cap , as the nBA also found out that just watchin two " super" teams all season does not translate into good marketing revenue.. There are a lot of other supportes out there.. Its getting way out of hand.. Vive La Arsenal..Joga Bonita
k man,
you are right, there is a choice to be made.
personally for the time being, at least, i'd prefer to carry on as we are.
even with the credit crunch we appear to be doing very nicely financially and we do in fact have a lot of money to spend if the manager wanted to spend it!
in the end spending in an unsustainable fashion and then having an unsustainable wage will has the potential to kill any club, as the money will not be around forever
maybe I'll be wrong and Chelsea and Man City will be the biggest clubs around, for some reason I doubt it,
fashions come and go, the premier league may be the bees knees at the moment,
however things may well change on that front, and the money may well move elsewhere when it has gone or its spender has got a little bored,
i really wouldn't want to see us behaving like manure or chavski
In the short term, the teams owned by money boys are going to be more successful than they would have been without the cash.
In the long term the money boys are not going to make any money, and are going to place unsupportable burdens on the clubs themselves.
Football does not support the levels of investment being put in if they are not done with some prudence and realism. To some extent the ADUG investment is ideal, it shows to all other investors the pointlessness of it all - even trillionaires will lose money. So if you're simply a billionaire why bother wasting your hard earned (and more likely illegally gained) wealth.
For every Prem 2008, theres a Serie A in the 90's. Markets are cyclical, the money will dry up, and some are going to be hit very hard. We won't.
I find it all a bit bizarre to be honest.
I'm much happier with the way AFC is run compared to the other major clubs, but only at this point in time. If, in 3 seasons time we still haven't won fuck all - my opion will have changed to one of absolute vitriol about how the club is being run.
Reading that Pele said that Robinho needs to see a shrink by going to Man City instead of Chelski is funny as. 10 years ago Chelsea were a two bob club going nowhere. Although the infrastructure of the club was changing before Abro and his billions came into the equation, it was still a nothing club with fuck all in the way of a winning, big team mentality. Citeh, on the other hand are a big club, a sleeping giant so to speak. Well supported, badly run. Now they've got tonnes of wonga, just like Chelsea, no real difference if you ask me. Pele wants to read his history books before he starts sounding off.
Of all the premiership clubs who I would like to see get some major cash and stave off the usual bad luck that follows them around, Citeh are one of them, followed by Newcastle.
obs,
spot on, watching this space will be rather interesting................
If in 3 years time we still have won nothing, but are still self-supporting financially I will be disappointed, but not vitriolic.
We won't have had any shambolic manager merry-go-rounds, we would not have signed over-rated players for stupid money and payed them offensive money each week, and we will never have expected that just because we have cash we should win and will become a "big club".
A "big club" is more than having money. It's an intangible, that you earn after a century of playing successful football in your country and in Europe and thereby building a reputation. It is not about the size of the wallet of your fucking owner.
Chelsea are not yet a big club. They are an emerging club at best. When Roman leaves thy will wither and die.
Playing successfull footbal for a century, who are you talking about, Juventus?
Yo peeps. Great article 1979 - totally agree.
Lets remember that transfers increase every year. I read in the Malaysian press this week (Langkawi is great) that 500m was spent this summer in the premier league. A new record. So that puts the credit crunch into a little perspective.
Also, Blackburn spent their way to the league in 1995, Manure have been doing it for years, Liverpool, Spurs and the Toon are all trying to and failing. I'm sure there have always been financial bully boys in the game. Maybe the money is bigger now than ever, maybe players have more power now than ever. But I'm not sure, did Liam Brady really just move to Juve for the glamour of it? Surely money was a factor as well.
Money talks. It always will. I 100% agree with 1979, but lets not pretend that Arsenal are some hippy-centric collectic where everything is free and justic is for all.
The difference is simply that Arsenal's books balance at the end of the year. Chelsea's don't. But 95% of football clubs don't have our spending power and are envious of our balance sheet. Our wage bill was apparently the third
highest in the league. A wage cap will hurt us just as much as Chelsea.
We ought to be careful what we wish for.
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