Ivan, you’ve got boxes to fill next season.
You’ve got Club Level to fill.
You’re advertising Arsenal v Bolton in The Times. Tickets available on Wednesday, January 6th ! Start 2010 with an Arsenal game !
Why the ad?
Why do Arsenal need to advertise?
If colossal and free TV/radio/ newspaper coverage can’t sell Arsenal tickets, where are we? Is demand now so soft that 20,000 Gooners are picking their games? Or do punters think no tickets are available?
We know that Arsene Wenger is phobic about debt. He’s allergic to debt and that’s why the board love him and keep playing him £5m+ a year to finish fourth.
Would he rather pursue his precious youth project, oversee a happy creche, win nothing, and leave the club in a strong financial position for the next coach?
Yes ! But he doesn’t want to leave the best job in world football, or the infrastructure he has created by doing 25 years of hard work in 13 years. He has never wanted to go. When you read that Arsene Wenger can’t rule out a move to Man City, what he’s really saying is : the board haven’t offered me a new contract yet. They’re waiting till the end of the season to see what I win / where I finish.
Last January Arsenal were linked with Arshavin and Shay Given. New CEO Ivan Gazidis joined the club when Fabregas was injured and wanted to sign Arshavin from Zenit and Given from Newcastle. He signed Arshavin but not Given.
The Irish keeper’s lawyer made a revealing remark at the time. If I can find that remark, I’ll put it on ANR.
A year ago it looked as if Wenger was willing to be railroaded into signing one player in January. But he wasn’t willing to be railroaded into signing two players. That would made it obvious that he was losing power. Having spent a lifetime accumulating the power he has at Arsenal, which is more power than any football manager in Europe, he did not want people to think his iron grip on Arsene FC had been compromised.
When the chance came to show Gazidis whose club it is, he took it. He dropped Arshavin for the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley and played Diaby and Diaby had a nightmare against Chelsea and Arsenal lost 2-1.Wenger said : I wanted this team to know they could win a big game. But it didn’t work.
Meaning: My team. I wanted my team to prove you all wrong. I wanted my team, that I created from nothing, to prove you all wrong.
That was arrogant, stupid, despicable and unforgettable.
That’s what I will remember from 2009. Nothing else. One mad, infuriating, stubborn, self-defeating decision. That FA Cup semi-final decision, to drop one of the world’s finest players, defines Arsene Wenger and defines 2009.
Now, as 2010 approaches, and the transfer window is opening, and the top two have surprisingly failed to break away, we’re told that Arsene Wenger had £35m to spend on wages and transfer fees in January.
But Hill-Wood thinks Wenger won’t sign anybody?
What does the CEO think about that? What does Ivan Gazidis think about having only two centrebacks? Is he aware that, since August, the entire Arsenal diaspora, from Vancouver to Hitchin, Hampstead, Cape Town and Sydney, is worried about Gallas and Vermaelen. If either of them gets injured, it’s over. Arsenal are one injury away from meltdown. Van Persie’s out for the season and the manager never plays Bendtner at centre forward. They are a team of mobile midgets who need a big, experienced striker.
Ivan, you have tell him, “Listen to Fabregas, he says you need a striker. Listen to Arshavin, he says you need experience and quality! Chelsea and Man United are wobbling, so this is an opportunity. This is a fantastic opportunity ! Let’s buy a proper striker, let’s get Gary Cahill from Bolton before Sir Alex signs him !”