Arsenal Thread 2014/15

[Marvin]

I know the headlines are sensationalised, but maybe a "We don't talk about other clubs finances" would be a better stance and
could not be misconstrued in anyway.

Yeah perhaps, that's why i said perhaps he is a bit too open when talking about other teams. Journalists seem to really like him because he is very open & tends to answer all their questions without shirking them (especially if he's in a decent mood) but i can understand why that causes problems sometimes, & obviously not everyone will agree with it, (& as others have pointed out it can be a bit hypocritical at times to suit his agenda). I just think in this occasion what he has actually said isn't that bad.

I think everyone in general though is interested as to how this will work out. Correct me if I'm wrong because obviously i don't know as much as you guys but is it not MCFC that has a stake in these clubs, rather than their owners? So does revenue & expenditure get shown through MCFC's books? What do you guys get out of it? Brand exposure? Player Tradings?

Genuine questions by the way, as i don't know the ins & out's & cant be bothered reading through newspaper waffle when you guys will know your stuff!

I don't know what City get out of it. UEFA stopped City from sharing revenue, and I am not sure if global sponsorships which we have won for the City Group eg Nissan can be put through our Accounts

I think the idea is that it's easier to popularise the Ciy name worldwide by introducing and sponsoring local clubs in growth areas like the USA.

Utd's huge sponsorships are achievable because they can claim huge supporter numbers. I think City's management perceive this as the quickest way to grow the club's name.

City are supposedly breaking even, or making a profit now so I doubt there's any big push for any financial jiggery-pokery which perhaps what Wenger is wary of

It was Arsenal that were one of the clubs which forced UEFA to run with FFP and they have been very vocal in demanding that UEFA act strongly against City so anything Wenger says on the issue is treated with hostility

 

[GunnerGer]

Ah...cheers guys. You guys know i'm just asking genuine questions so appreciate that. It's a bit of a stupid transfer for everyone to get uptight on considering he was a free agent that could have equally been snapped up by City for nothing in the first place.

I like the fact that all the clubs seem to be using 'City' in their name, clever branding that.

Do the Red Bull owners not have a similar stake in a few clubs?

 

[aguero93:20]

Ah...cheers guys. You guys know i'm just asking genuine questions so appreciate that. It's a bit of a stupid transfer for everyone to get uptight on considering he was a free agent that could have equally been snapped up by City for nothing in the first place.

I like the fact that all the clubs seem to be using 'City' in their name, clever branding that.

Do the Red Bull owners not have a similar stake in a few clubs?

They do although it doesn't seem to have gone down too well in NYC. Melbourne Heart/City could still come back to haunt us I hope it doesn't, hopefully the project there will be a success and knock most of the bad feeling from the name and colour change on the head.

Everyone seems to be missing the point that we could have signed Lampard on a free and sold him to NYCFC for a sizable fee in January if we were trying to massage figures, but I guess that idea doesn't go with the message they've been putting out.

 

[uwe rosler 28]

Maybe if wenger would have thought/worried about his own team over the last 8 season's he might have won more than 1 trophy! To busy looking for excuses for his failures he should have won alot more over the past 8 seasons and he knows it!

 

[Rammyblues]

Wenger is a two faced lying bastard. Just found this on another forum, the cheeky fucking c"nt.

COMMERCE CITY, Colo. (Wednesday, January 29, 2014) – Arsenal midfielder Samuel Galindo will join the Colorado Rapids on trial starting this week, with the 21-year-old Bolivian international looking for a spot on Colorado’s roster. An Arsenal player since 2010, Galindo has made two appearances for the Bolivia National Team.


Arsenal: majority owner: Stan Kroenke
Colorado Rapids owner: Stan Kroenke

 

[RightTurnClyde]

My Name...is Arsene Wenger...and I am a nosey neighbour.

 

[Ronuja]

Maybe he shouldn't talk about other clubs as much but he was obviously asked a direct question & answered it with his opinion, that's why journalists seemed to like him.

However, the headlines are totally misleading to what he actually says. I've seen that he has 'slammed' Man City, & he's also 'Blasted' them, & is moaning "it's not fair"!



How they get that from those quotes i'll never know, but the headliners writers are certainly doing their job in reeling folk in?!!

I know the headlines are sensationalised, but maybe a "We don't talk about other clubs finances" would be a better stance and
could not be misconstrued in anyway.

Correct. And he has a track record of using the rather loaded term "financial doping", in the light of which it's pretty obvious what he thinks. I've always found this very interesting in the light of the fact that he forged his managerial reputation at Monaco. See his comments ahead of Arsenal's pre-season game this weekend against his old club. He talked of "wonderful memories" of his time here, and said:

When I arrived there, AS Monaco had never passed the first round of the European Cup and we went to the final of the Cup Winners’ Cup and the semi-finals of the Champions League. These are big memories because before it was a club who was non-existent in Europe.

[Source - the Arsenal official site, here: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20140801/wenger-my-wonderful-memories-of-monaco" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archiv ... -of-monaco</a>].

Now, he was in charge at Monaco between 1987 and 1994, During that period, the highest average attendance the club managed was 6,621. In no season were they ever higher than 18th in terms of the 'league table' of attendances in French football; more often they were below 20th place.

[Source for attendance information - the European Football Statistics (EFS) site at: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn.htm</a>]

By way of a comparison, in 1987/8, the season they won the title and achieved that average of 6,621, the following clubs in England had very similar crowds: second division Hull City - 6,674 (the 43rd biggest average gate in English football that season); second division Huddersfield Town - 6,617 (44th); and third division Bournemouth - 6,611 (45th).

[Source again the EFS site]

Wenger has a degree in economics from the University of Strasbourg so he's not a stupid man and he's well equipped to understand financial issues. So he presumably knows that what he now derides as "financial doping" is the only way a club with a support to match Huddersfield and Bournemouth could have competed with the biggest French clubs, and how they can prosper in Europe against the continent's elite.

Nonetheless, he continues to make adverse comments about us in the context of FFP. However, he equally is prepared to laud his own achievements at Monaco at a club reliant on external financing to facilitate the success over which he presided.

He's just a hypocrite of the first order, I'm afraid. Someone in the press should really call him out over it, though I expect it won't happen.

I find your use of tense a little confusing here. Are you saying that AS Monaco engaged in financial doping while Wenger was in charge there, or that they do so now? Since the takeover by Russian billionaire Rybolovlev they've obviously been able to spend huge amounts, but after a little cursory research I haven't been able to find anything about the sums they spent on players in the past (admittedly I haven't looked for very long). Since the rest of your post is so impeccably well research I assume you couldn't find anything specific about this either?

Here's my alternative hypothesis: as this article mentions, (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/sep/20/monaco-money-ambition-not-many-supporters" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... supporters</a>) Monaco have never had much support, but that does not mean they haven't enjoyed success, with more than 5 domestic titles, 5 domestic cup wins and two European finals appearances (<a class="postlink" href="http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/clubs/club=30983/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/clubs/club=30983/</a>). The Guardian's article suggests that because of it's location - Monaco is a tiny principality where Europe's super-rich escape to live free of tax- and the disposition of Monacans (is that the right word), the club have always struggled for support, despite their considerable success. Now, I don't know if they have relied on huge injections of cash in order to buy quality players, but I think it my be the favorable tax laws which are at play here. Foreign players are exempt from paying tax on their huge wages if they play for Monaco while still competing in the French Ligue 1. Perhaps that has helped them in achieving so much success in their pre-takeover history? Now does tax exemption on wages constitute financial doping? Maybe, I could see that argument.

With regard to Wenger I guess it is a matter of the scale of hypocrisy. On the one hand he does complain about financial doping a lot, so it would be outrageously hypocritical if he engaged in exactly that during his time in Monaco (i.e. utilizing huge cash injections to purchase players in order to be competitive). On the other hand it does seem a bit odd for him to speak so fondly about his former club when it is the prime example of financial doping in the present, although I think this is clearly less hypocritical. than if he himself had been in charge when that financial doping was taking place.

 

[jimharri]

What we, or Chelsea, or the vermin, or the mickeys do re. transfer/financial dealings is none of Wenger's business. When the media look for his opinion on these matters, he should respond with something like ''How they conduct their business is their concern, not mine. I am only interested in making Arsenal as strong as I can''. How difficult is that?

 

[I'm no cynic but...]

What we, or Chelsea, or the vermin, or the mickeys do re. transfer/financial dealings is none of Wenger's business. When the media look for his opinion on these matters, he should respond with something like ''How they conduct their business is their concern, not mine. I am only interested in making Arsenal as strong as I can''. How difficult is that?

Very difficult for a curtain twitcher.

 

[jimharri]

What we, or Chelsea, or the vermin, or the mickeys do re. transfer/financial dealings is none of Wenger's business. When the media look for his opinion on these matters, he should respond with something like ''How they conduct their business is their concern, not mine. I am only interested in making Arsenal as strong as I can''. How difficult is that?

Very difficult for a curtain twitchernt.

Fixed that for you.