From goonergerry : winning is incidental
There is an increasing realisation that Arsenal is unlike almost all other football clubs- and not for the right reasons.
The hierarchy running the club does not share the priorities of either the players or the majority of fans.
Having the best team does not feature on the club’s agenda. It has been apparent for many years that Arsene Wenger wants to win with the worlds cheapest team-not with the best players- where he can claim the entire credit for success.
The truth is that for those running the Arsenal FC business- success is making a profit and the bigger the better-not winning trophies.
The CEO’s statements about winning on the field being all important is spin put out to pacify fans- usually immediately prior to ticket sale deadline-but talk costs nothing.
In reality, the Arsenal hierarchy are contemptuous of all but the Wenger sycophants.
They think players are overpaid and the majority of fans are total idiots, a view that Arsene sycophants encourage.
From David J : FA Cup Final
Am guessing it will be mainly AKBs going to the Cup Final, but just wanted to appeal to to any more sensible fans to hold some kind of Demo next weekend.
‘Kroenke out, Dein back in’ placards, held by every Arsenal fan, would be ideal please.
Seems increasingly obvious that Peter Hill-Wood’s main concern when Stan Kroenke’s name was first mentioned was that Arsenal might become a proper competitive football club with intent to win trophies.
Heaven forbid!
Once he got to know Stan, those fears must have been quickly allayed.
From Stuart Laws : bang bang managers
For all the dislikers of AW and what he has become…isn’t it a case of :Yes, he has not moved with the times, and although the club will have to eventually, isn’t the move to the current managerial situation at clubs rather depressing?
We talk about the creche like it’s a bad thing…the nurturing of players and letting them leave detrimental.
But isn’t that how all clubs should be run?
They develop players, accepth the flaws, mould them into a team and way to play, fill the gaps with a couple of signings, and off we go…cheering them on warts and all. I think every team in the league has the pundits saying they need 3/4 players every season….they are now saying this about Liverpool.
No ones says they need to blood the youngsters in pre-season, fast-track them and integrate them.
This is what Man City and Chelsea have bought. Instant success. Sack half the team and buy 5 more players.
We all despise this and the billionaire owners, and yet we want Wenger gone and Usmanov in spending millions.
Would we really enjoy being a Chelsea fan?
My first visit to Highbury as a kid…there was no game on…dad too me to show me the stadium. The guard on the door saw us peering in. He beckoned us in, and told us about the marble halls, Sir Herbert Chapman’s bust, and walked us down the tunnel onto the pitch.
So much of this has gone. I don’t see anyone out there who can keep the club special. Maybe DB10. We are Arsenal. When did you last hear that.
AW is the bridge to a NFL future.
It’s not going to be pleasant. We may become a superclub…but will we will miss what we were.
Myles says:
Nothing stays the same, Stuart
Today’s Arsenal staff would charge you and your dad £40 each for that tour.
What was once informal and sentimental is now monetised by a corporation that keeps charging more and more for an expensive product.
I heard last month that the directors had a huge row with Kroenke last summer because he wanted to put ticket prices by more than 3%.
But, of course, there is no way of officially confirming that story.
Please let me know if you’ve heard anything on that.
Football is a product at Arsenal, more so that at other clubs.
Why? Because you’re excluded from the process.
Want ask to a question at ther AGM? Submit it in writing six months in advance.
I recently heard that players have been told not to stop their cars to talk to supporters.
Outside the stadium it causes traffic problems, so they say. Outside the training ground at Colney, you’re not allowed to talk to the players or get autographs
Some players have disobeyed that diktat, I gather.
Ramsey,Podolski and Mertesacker, for sure.
So Arsenal is all very sanitised, soulless and Disneyfied.
Nigel, the guy who does pitchside interviews, used to work for Disney.
He is a really nice guy, I’m told.
Very good bloke.
Matchday staff live in fear of what they call the club’s “HR gestapo.”
Keen fans can buy framed autographed shirts from the club for £700 and framed autographed pictures for a mere £200.
Today’s football?
I’m really up for it.
Yesterday I didn’t think I would be.
I’m going to flick today, from Liverpool to Spurs and City.
11th May 2014