Official Gooners Thread - A New Hope

[Billys Boots]

With Kildare knocked out I end up here, I'm definitely a sporting masochist   

And you have a Mayo grandmother. Jebus.

And Westmeath connections. Jebus²

And coaching a game with laws rather than rules. Jebus³

[Boycey]

Is this what Arsenal fans are thinking?  Don't know how reliable the Evening Standard is but interesting article.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/article-23976417-ive-full-respect-for-arsene-wenger-and-he-should-be-given-more-time-but-i-fear-the-end-is-near-for-him.do

On one hand you can get swept away with the whole trophyless malarky and say yes. At the same time, Arsenal are competitive every year - usually at some stage challenging for the title and doing well enough in cup competitions/CL - and we don't really know what the true financial burden of the Emirates is.

However, if there is no change to the defensive set-up this year and the same mistakes are made....

Arsenal is constantly put forward as the way to run a club but alls not rosy here either. The cost of going to a match is ridiculous, the manager is clearly being denied funds yet the Fizmans, Lady Bracewell etc are taking money out of the club hand over fist.


http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/apr/20/arsenal-stan-kroenke-board

Arsenal's board cash in from Stan Kroenke after 30 expense-free years

The Gunners' status as the club whose self-sustaining way all others should follow does deserve to be challenged


Cesc Fábregas's pointed questioning of the "Arsenal way" and the sudden outbreak of fans querying the club's direction are coming, in a neat coincidence, just days after Arsenal's chairman, Peter Hill-Wood, sang his and the board's own praises as they sold their shares to Stan Kroenke.

Arsenal's "self-sustaining business model", as Hill-Wood and his fellow directors have come to call it, has been paraded to the parliamentary select committee's inquiry into football and to Uefa as the embodiment of virtue, compared to the plutocrat-subsidised loss-making at Chelsea and Manchester City. In a nutshell it means that Arsenal spend what they earn, from the 60,361-seat Emirates Stadium and other income they make, and the directors or shareholders do not put their own money in.

It is the sensible way for football clubs to be run and what Uefa requires in its financial fair-play rules, but there are some serious problems with the fairness of the self-congratulatory Arsenal "model". Over almost 30 years not one director or shareholder of Arsenal has put a penny into the club itself, while they have made vast personal millions for themselves out of selling their Arsenal shares.

Hill-Wood last week said that as directors, "protecting the ethos and spirit" of the club was "a key responsibility", so they were selling to Kroenke because they are confident he will be a "safe custodian". Secure that they were doing their duty, Hill-Wood banked £4.7m for his shares, Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith £116m and Danny Fiszman, who was terminally ill by then and has since died, £117m for his family.

None of that money is going back into Arsenal, whether to buy and fund the wages of some senior experienced players Fábregas argues they desperately need – that would be contrary to the "self-sustaining model" – or to keep ticket prices the right side of extortionate. It is all for the custodians to keep.

Arsenal's self-sustaining model now apparently requires prices to rise again, 6.5%, at the stadium that already has the most expensive tickets in the Premier League – and therefore the world. Arsenal Supporters' Trust, managing creditably to campaign for the club's soul while diplomatically seeking an influence, is challenging what these price rises are to be spent on, while other fans are simply, angrily, objecting to forking out more.

Arsène Wenger's resistance to signing the kind of colonels Fábregas is calling for is said to be due to the manager's own philosophical insistence that he wants to win things with kids. Hill-Wood and his fellow board members, all senior citizens, appear to have left that to the manager over the years, using the club's money to pay down the stadium debt rather than buy players. While sensible, of course, to reduce the debt, that also made the trophy-less club, and the directors' shares, more attractive financially for Kroenke to buy.

Arsenal's status as the club whose way set an example to all does deserve to be challenged. It never was a "sustainable model", which other clubs could follow, if a 60,000-seat stadium, in the nation's richest catchment area – London and the south-east – is what football now requires to be competitive.

Now, though, the model appears to be to hit the fans with another 6.5% ticket-price rise, while the directors, who put no money into the club, pat themselves on the back as they put multiple millions into their own bank accounts.

[Dinny Breen]

Arsenal is constantly put forward as the way to run a club but alls not rosy here either. The cost of going to a match is ridiculous, the manager is clearly being denied funds yet the Fizmans, Lady Bracewell etc are taking money out of the club hand over fist.

The Arsenal board for the previous 10 years did not make one cent out of Arsenal they refused to take any dividends, that money was put towards the stadium. This year with the emergence of the Yank and Ukrainian who both wanted a ROI dividends were paid and some directors sold shares disgruntled the way the business model of the club was heading.

[whitegoodman]

Arsenal only need a centre-back, one will be signed. Wenger for all his stubbornness is not stupid, he wouldn't have bought AOC if he didn't have another signing lined up. If he didn't he would only be creating a bigger stick for the media and for the first time an increasing minority of Arsenal fans to hit him with.

He is stupid enough and pigheaded enough too.  He has need one for at least 2 years now and still hasnt bought one.  He would have won at least 1 more title if he had of invested in his defence.

He is going to start the league with Djourou ( excuse the spelling ) at centre half who wouldnt get on a good pub side whilst he had 2 months to buy a decent centre half and have them settled in and ready for the start of the season.  Utter madness imo

[Denn Forever]

Is Vermullen back fit this year?

[ross4life]

Arsenal only need a centre-back, one will be signed. Wenger for all his stubbornness is not stupid, he wouldn't have bought AOC if he didn't have another signing lined up. If he didn't he would only be creating a bigger stick for the media and for the first time an increasing minority of Arsenal fans to hit him with.

Arsenal need more than just a centre back they need to improve the squad depth, last year when they got a few injuries they couldn't cope.

[CorkMan]

Is Vermullen back fit this year?

Yep,  he was one of Arsenals best players at the Emirates Cup.

Fabregas and Nasri have been named in Arsenals squad for next weeks CL game.
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/fabregas-and-nasri-in-arsenals-euro-squad-2844079.html

[gerry]

naming the two players in next tuesday team has moved things on today

[gerry]

[screenexile]

bbc.co.uk/sport

Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas on verge of Barcelona move


By Dan Roan
BBC sports news correspondent Cesc Fabregas Fabregas started his career with Barcelona at the age of 10

Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas is close to signing for European champions Barcelona for a fee believed to be about £35m.

The transfer, one of the most protracted in Premier League history, is yet to be completed but Arsenal expect it to be done by the weekend.

According to a senior source at the club, all the funds generated by the sale will be reinvested in new players.

The Gunners have been linked with Scott Dann, Phil Jagielka and Gary Cahill.

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger looks intent on strengthening his defence and reports have suggested centre-backs Dann of Birmingham, Everton's Jagielka and Cahill of Bolton could be targets.

Fabregas, 24, would be unable to feature for Barcelona in the Champions League if he plays a part in Arsenal's match with Udinese on Tuesday, motivating both clubs to complete a deal before that game.

The BBC understands a fee of £30m, plus over £5m of additional performance-related payments, is close to being reached for Fabregas.

It is believed that, if he is sold, the Spaniard will be due £4m in compensation - £1m for each year of his contract he did not complete - but may be prepared to forego that payment in order to facilitate a deal.

Negotiations have been conducted by Barcelona's Vice-President Josep Maria Bartomeu and is believed to be a final take-it-or-leave-it offer, leaving Arsenal having to sell one of the major assets or keep a player who has his heart set on a move.

The transfer fee is significantly less than the £40m that Arsenal had been holding out for and suggests that the Gunners felt they had no choice but to sell a player who wanted to leave.

Fabregas, who has 58 caps for Spain, joined Arsenal from the Catalan giants in 2003 and, since making his name in north London, has been persistently linked with a return to his boyhood club.

Wenger will now turn his attention to keeping Samir Nasri at the club, who has refused to sign a new deal at the Emirates amid speculation of interest from Manchester City.

If the Fabregas deal goes through as expected, he will become Barcelona's second major signing of the summer following their £23m purchase of Chilean forward Alexis Sanchez.

[Dinny Breen]

Closed till Saturday in a social experiment, hopefully a centre-back will be signed and it will be all the best to the Cesc Bomb and hopefully he'll stay fit for Barca and fulfill his undoubted talent, the kid has a touch of class and demonstrate that it's not always about the money....

[Hoof Hearted]

Any truth in the rumour Wenger wants the league to be called over now, not sure why.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Barclays Premier League table
Friday, 12 August 2011 12:39 UK

       P   GD   PTS
1   Arsenal   0   0   0
2   Aston Villa   0   0   0
3   Blackburn   0   0   0
4   Bolton   0   0   0
5   Chelsea   0   0   0
6   Everton   0   0   0
7   Fulham   0   0   0
8   Liverpool   0   0   0
9   Man City   0   0   0
10   Man Utd   0   0   0
11   Newcastle   0   0   0
12   Norwich   0   0   0
13   QPR      0   0      0
14   Stoke      0   0      0
15   Sunderland   0   0   0
16   Swansea   0   0   0
17   Tottenham   0   0   0
18   West Brom   0   0   0
19   Wigan   0   0   0
20   Wolves   0   0   0

[ONeill]

Szczesny,
Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs,
Song, Ramsey, Rosicky, Arshavin,
Gervinho, Van Persie

[the Deel Rover]

Szczesny,
Sagna, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Gibbs,
Song, Ramsey, Rosicky, Arshavin,
Gervinho, Van Persie

How much did it cost Arsene to put that starting team together out of interest

[ONeill]

0m
6m, 10m, 10m, 0m
1m, 5m, 7m, 15m
10m, 3m