Arsenal have a new owner. He’s the same as the old owner but now he just owns the whole thing. E. Stan Kroenke borrowed a huge sum of money to buy the remaining shares from the Uzbeki guy who promised he would never sell Arsenal and now owns Arsenal football club outright, or at least he will very soon.
I can see from conversations on twitter that this is a highly charged emotional issue for many and I’d like to just remind everyone that we can disagree about the ideas in the comments section without being personal. I will ban you from my site, the one that I pay out of pocket to host, if you go after another reader personally. It’s one thing to say “that idea is wrong because…” and quite another to say “shut up, you stupid American”.
That’s actually the first thing I’d like to address here: “Americans”. I’m seeing a lot of anti-American sentiment around this takeover but I want to remind the world that only a TINY minority of Americans are billionaires like E. Stan Kroenke. I did not vote for Trump, I did not support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not support deportations, I believe in Global Warming, and I actively engage in politics both in public (protests, votes) and here on this site, to great personal cost.
“Americans” did not buy Arsenal football club. An American bought it, from an Uzbeki, who bought it from David Dein, and Danny Fiszman, and Lady Bracewell-Smith. The people of America are not to blame for the super wealthy. That is capitalism. If you would like to complain about capitalism, please do.
The second thing here is that Usmanov sold Arsenal despite telling everyone he was in it for the long haul. Why he sold right now is a bit of a mystery – he rejected a similar offer last year – but there are hints that because he’s on the FBI and MI6 watchlist, he (like Abramovich) is cashing out. It could also be that he will take the £400m in profits he just made and invest them in another football club. That’s what I would do!
What’s truly tone deaf about this whole thing is the timing. Headed into the first season without Wenger in charge, just a few days away from the home opener, and with Arsenal supporters already on edge about facing Pep Guardiola’s juggernaut, the timing of this announcement couldn’t have been worse.
The purchase now sets up what will be seen as “owner v. owner” in the opening match. One owner (Man City) has completely overhauled the club by investing billions of dollars in players and facilities; the other owner (Arsenal) just borrowed hundreds of millions of dollars to leverage a buyout, while running the club on a shoestring budget, and looking quite disinterested for a long time. We should be talking about the new players, the new manager, and the new way that we play football. But if we lose on Saturday, I fully expect “Kroenke Out” protests and maybe even boos.
There are also legitimate concerns about the purchase leading to a lack of transparency at the club. It could. We don’t know what E. Stan Kroenke’s plans are, but once the club goes completely private he very well could abolish the annual fan meetings (especially the AGM, which will no longer exist because he will be the only shareholder) and only publish corporate accounts through the corporations house. I don’t know how “accountable” Arsenal corp. was being held in those meetings.
But that does signify the end of an era for many folks who were shareholders and I empathize with them (except Piers Morgan). For some folks, their Arsenal shares have been in their family for a long time and being forced to give that up is pretty hurtful. I can see how that would feel like a death in the family.
I do want to caution about taking that sentiment too far (without invalidating your feelings). Kroenke bought the financial instrument that is Arsenal Football Club but he doesn’t own the Arsenal, we do. We own the history, the friendships, and the community of Arsenal. He doesn’t own your memories of 1989*, he doesn’t own my memory of Highbury, or of Patrick Vieira scoring at White Hart Lane (where we have won more Premier League titles than Tottenham), he doesn’t own my blog, or your thoughts on Arsenal. And he certainly can’t force me to watch Arsenal.
In a weird way, we own him. Simply put: if Arsenal don’t grow, he will lose money. But more pointedly: if Arsenal are shoddily managed, the fans will protest. If the fans protest a lot, he will lose a lot of money.
This is a huge club, with a massive fanbase all over the world. The club is situated right in the heart of one of the biggest cities in the world. The last thing a guy like Kroenke wants is a bunch of negative press about unhappy supporters of his most expensive investment.
Don’t forget, he doesn’t own the club, we do. He owns the right to make money off us but we don’t have to give him that money.
Which brings me to my last thing: the money. There is a lot of concern (which I share) about Kroenke “loading up debt onto the club”. This club operates at an almost breathlessly fine margin and despite being one of the most valuable clubs in the world we are always claiming poverty.
The way that this current instrument is structured, Kroenke has to pay out of pocket to the bank. He literally cannot use Arsenal to pay for that bridge loan.
It doesn’t look like it, no. He took out a personal loan, which he will presumably pay with money thats not from Arsenal (and for all of Kroenke’s many faults as an owner, he’s extremely wealthy). The below is from the 2.7 statement and Deutsche Bank is liable if its false: pic.twitter.com/yni9TIw2JR— GiantGooner (@GiantGooner) August 7, 2018
From what I understand, he had to take out a personal loan because otherwise he would have had to get approval from the board. But still, of course I’m concerned that he will just take out dividends to pay off the debt or just transfer that debt to “notes” on the club, or find some other way to get out of paying off that debt himself.
E. Stan Kroenke is highly leveraged at this moment: he’s got a billion dollar loan to build a stadium in LA and now this is another billion dollar loan. As far as I know he’s only worth $6bn and his investments don’t pay him huge sums of money directly, so this represents a significantly weird amount of debt that he is agreeing to pay back.
The thing about all that is this. It’s worrying but… If he drags the club down paying off that debt, the fans will push him out and there will be no shortage of rich people who would love to buy Arsenal. Especially if it came at a bargain price in a bankruptcy sale. That’s what happened to Liverpool and they don’t have anywhere near the intrinsic value that Arsenal have with our new stadium and premium location.
Anyway, that’s my piece on this. I hope that Kroenke doesn’t take a bunch of money out, that he doesn’t drag us down into mediocrity, and that the club continues to grow. But if it doesn’t we are the Arsenal, not him, and we can take our club back.
*I’m the only Arsenal supporter who wasn’t at Anfield. Real fact: Anfield used to hold 3,000,000 people and on that day all of them were Arsenal fans.
“ I hope that Kroenke doesn’t take a bunch of money out, that he doesn’t drag us down into mediocrity, and that the club continues to grow. “
“Mediocrity “ is such a vague term. Aren’t we already there , in the sporting sense at least?
The definition of mediocre would depend on your denominator. If it’s all clubs in England or Europe, definitely not. If it’s the ICC super G-league of moneyed clubs owned by billionaires then yes.
Just the PL then.
63 points and 37 points adrift from the Champions.
I’d say that’s pretty mediocre, unless you consider the last year an outlier.
How about the so called world class players( a highly contentious term, I know but still) in the squad.
Ozil is one for sure but you go down the list of any top twenty clubs in Europe and they likely feature more than one, not to mention our direct rivals in the PL like Liverpool, Chelsea and City.
Yeah the time is another thing that vastly shifts things. This is the first time Arsenal have finished outside the top 4 in, what, 20 years? No other club can say that.
“World class” is so subjective. I am looking at the top 50 players (arbitrary but probably as good a cutoff as any for really good players), Arsenal have 8 of them, if we count Alexis Sanchez, which I think is OK since he was replaced by Aubameyang. The others were Ozil, Monreal, Xhaka, Ramsey, Koscielny, Mustafi and Lacazette.
We added Lucas Torreira, who was rated by Squawka as the 10th best player in Italy last season, and Sokratis, who was rated as the 13th best in the Bundesliga. So that’s 10 players who project to be top 50 or so in the league, albeit probably none will crack top 10, plus I would expect Henrikh Mkhtaryian to be in that conversation as well after a very down season for him under Mourinho.
Whoscored.com largely agrees, with 7 Arsenal players in their top 50 before factoring in the aforementioned new boys.
For most of my time as an Arsenal fan, we were a top heavy club with 2-3 fantastic players and then not much after that. We have the opposite problem now; a solid middle class but no crown jewel to tie it all together. I wouldn’t call that mediocre per se but I can understand the sentiment.
You meant the second time Arsenal finished outside the top four in 20 years right?
Ozil and Aubameyang(maybe). We’ll se how he does in his first full season in the PL, but based on his Bundesliga stats, for sure.
Others you’ve mentioned I would takes strong issues with.
I’m not saying all those guys are world class, just that statistically they are among the best players in their league. It’s just an objective way to evaluate what we had in the squad last season and I do think it’s more meaningful when we are trying to assess the strength of the squad as a whole than ticking off who, in our minds, is “world class.”
He can take out money from the club. He could have done that before too. (Usmanov even demanded dividends be paid) He’s more likely to pay into the club if he ever had any intention to, now that he owns (or will own) all of it.
If fans want to protest this and ruin the start of Emery’s era, then that’s on them. Kroenke had a chance to outright own the club and he took it. Nothing wrong with that.
In terms of ‘owner vs owner’, I think we should be looking towards Liverpool. Similar profile of an American sports club owner who bought a traditional English big club. Kroenke bought in while we were in the middle of our transition, and now finally has complete control. I’d like to see how we operate in the transfer market going forward. Whether we risk/invest more. Or if we stick to the risk averse way we approach things.
The Rams took a risk in trading up for the No1 draft pick last year, and then hired a new coach and though I don’t follow the NFL much, what I’m reading is that it isn’t considered outrageous that they could go to the Superbowl soon (maybe I’m wrong) The Nuggets have been making ‘ambitious’ moves too. If that pattern continues, we should see Arsenal change up a little. But I wouldn’t expect him to start paying in money (Unless someone like Mbappe is a possibility)
Wasn’t Kroenke worth a lot more than 6 billion? Anyway. Doesn’t matter. We should be talking about the new players, the new manager, and the new way that we play football, as you say.
“I did not vote for Trump, I did not support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I do not support deportations, I believe in Global Warming, and I actively engage in politics both in public (protests, votes) and here on this site, to great personal cost.”
You follow soccer and call it “football”. In my eyes, you are a real European.
This was a funny disclaimer. Saying “I believe in global warming” is a bit like saying “I believe in evolution” or “I believe that the Earth is round” although there are Americans who would disagree with either statement 😀 😀
There’s a certain segment of population in any nation that’s just plain nuts.
These are the conspiracy theorists of all sorts, people who pour hot water on sleeping friends for pranks, or get out of moving vehicles to do some crazy jig and get hit by an oncoming traffic.
Those can’t be helped but you do hope they can be contained to 20% or so of population.
It’s another segment that’s more worrisome, the one that can be talked into believing in things like trickle down economics, global warming a hoax, Republican Party representing the little man and so on.
Some 70% of Republicans believe Obama was born in Kenia. This may or may not be provoked by racism but rather simply because that’s the message the leadership of the Republican Party was sending over the years.
When Obama considered air strikes in Syria 32% percent of registered Democrats were in favor while only %20 Republicans aproved.
Fast forward four years and when Trump ordered the air strikes virtually the same number of Democrats were in favor while amongst Republicans that number jumped to over 80%.
Russia, friend or foe?
Again , Romney told them Russia was our biggest foe and they agreed.
Trump says the Russians are our friends and the lemmings on the right just keep on tumbling over that cliff.
Hard to believe that being a “flat earther” is a thing.
The perception in Europe is that “Americans” don’t believe in science and for good reason: 40% of Americans don’t believe in man-made or man-contributed global climate change,
I also believe in evolution. In non-god guided, just fucking purely random, holy shit we were super lucky to have that happen but it was bound to happen somewhere in the universe, evolution. Which is only about 32% of “Americans”.
Not worried at all about Kroenke being American and it’s good to call out that rubbish narrative.
It’s the Republican “fan of big game hunting” side of him that weirds me out.
Super lucky? I guess you mean “lucky” in the sense that the probability was super low and it happened to our species, but I would say consciousness is more of a curse than a gift,
I don’t like to wade into the political discussions because I recognize that my views are in the extreme minority here on this site.
That said, what’s missing from the whole “I believe in global warming” is nuance – just like most discussions in modern life.
There are four basic questions in the global warming conversation;
Is global warming happening?
Is it man-made (anthropogenic)?
Are the effects of global warming going to catastrophic?
Can government do anything about it?
I find the debate gets bogged down in us versus them because if you don’t answer “yes” to all four questions then suddenly you’re a Denier, an evil piece of oil-lackey, science denying filth.
I believe that global warming is occurring and that human activity is at least partially responsible for the rate of increasing temperatures. Where I deviate is that virtually none of the IPCC’s climate catastrophe predictions starting in the late 1990’s have come true (in 2003’s report they said the Himalayan glaciers would be gone by 2013) and I certainly don’t see it as a human extinction event. And oodles of studies have shown that even if it were possible, if we dropped to zero CO2 emissions tomorrow we still could not reverse course, so then wouldn’t it be better then to spend billions of dollars on mitigating the impacts (as they arrive rather than trying to predict them)? This is an opinion supported by a number of respected academics, like Bjorn Lomberg or Ross McKitrick who never get any press because it doesn’t satisfy our thirst for climate disaster porn.
But my position I find lumps me into the “denier” category and makes me an ignorant anti-science buffoon. So be it.
All I’m saying is we all need to start looking for nuance in positions like climate change and stop drawing lines in the sand and making every issue into an us vs. them. That’s the path to civil war.
Just a quick note…
I don’t know anyone who would call you a “denier.” What i think is happening is that food and water scarcity are coming also fire season is getting longer and more intense.
The questions then is what do we do about it.
Do nothing: migration problems will continue, water and food resources will become scarce, wars, famine, and ultimately billions will probably die, which will reduce carbon emissions. (The Thanos Plan)
Find some climate mitigation solutions: this raises the questions of who will get these solutions. Generally speaking I think the rich countries will get more and the poor countries less. Even more specifically, I have been recently hearing that the super wealthy (Tesla, etc) are starting to plan strategies for the post-collapse society. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jul/23/tech-industry-wealth-futurism-transhumanism-singularity i think they are going to refuse to pay taxes, refuse to participate in the solution, and hoard all the solutions to themselves.
I think there is a plan and it’s been plan 1 from the very beginning.
Is food scarcity growing? I was under the impression that the situation is improving. The world is producing more food. Or is it just that it will be related to water scarcity? Because yes, I’m certain we’ll see civil war in the poorer nations over access to water. which will also lead to migration.
The problem I have with climate change is exactly that the solutions are geared towards industry rather than wholistic change. Coal is bad, add hundreds of millions of dollars worth of solar panels. Who cares if you increase the albedo effect thereby increasing global warming, destroy bird and insect life, and take up all this land. It’s apparently ‘clean’ energy. Similarly with electric vehicles and batteries. Or removing old cars and selling new ones. It’s all driven by money, rather than by what is needed.
Unfortunately, I think you’re right about the Thanos plan. There’s a conspiracy theory that ‘they’ fear that there are too many of ‘us’ to control and want to wipe us out through wars, biological weapons, famine etc. That’s on par with Lizard people. But the truth is, they/the system/those who run it really don’t care about us. The rich nations misreport/misuse climate data to keep the poor in check. And the worst affected will be the poorer nations first. The chaos will allow the rich nations and the rich people to outline a plan to ‘solve’ this, and that plan will be geared towards their interests.
See, I see this type of catastrophic hand-wringing as silly. And conspiracies about the super wealthy…. Alex Jones goes on about the global elite, the Bilderburg group et al, all the time and he’s a grade-A nut job.
It’s Occam’s Razor every time for me. If there’s a simple explanation for something, 99% of the time that’s the explanation to run with. Migration from downtrodden countries are down to two major issues – conflict and corruption. Not climate change or a scarcity of resources.
If you read Steven Pinker’s Enlightenment Now the world is not in as bad a shape as we think. The middle class is growing world wide. Compared to even 50 years ago we have far less child mortality, poverty and famine. Even violent crime is down despite all the mass shootings. And based on birth trends the world population will peak in about 2050 and then start falling so that by 2150 we may be down a couple billion people.
I won’t buy into any doomsday scenarios and that includes the climate alarmism. I’m more or less hopeful for the future of humanity.
Jack
Conflict and corruption? Even if we go by that simplistic understanding of the downtrodden countries, what do you think makes people leave their homes as a push factor if not a scarcity of resources? Corruption means the super wealthy control most of the resources (often created and backed by the developed world lest you think its a uniquely third world problem) Conflict is war and all the dangers. Do you think these will reduce if and when water runs out.
I generally share your outlook on the future of humanity. But I also see where most of the fresh water resources in the world are, and how ground water levels are falling, and chemical pollution growing. There will be conflict, and a war for resources, and it will lead to migration and further conflict. (The war on Libya was also about capturing fresh water resources by the French, and it’s led to conflict over migration all over Europe)
The uber wealthy not caring about the rest of us is pretty straightforward I would have thought.
It’s not that we’re worse off than before. But we’re way more unequal than before. And while you can argue that the former is a result of the latter, I bet most people don’t see it that way. Right or wrong, it is a cause for conflict too.
Shard
It’s pretty much indisputable that the majority of migrants into Europe are coming from conflict zones such as the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. Most of the migrants into the US and Canada are from Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Belize and Haiti… all poor countries with systemically corrupt governments and not immune to conflict either (mostly from drug cartels).
I know invoking Israel in any argument is going to be a problem, but there’s a country with little access to natural water, yet they lead world in desalination, agricultural science and irrigation practices. Water scarcity is a problem only when you have corrupt governments incapable of building desalination plants or promoting sustainable agricultural practices.
I stick to my argument. The problem is bad people running things in the third world, not climate change. How we get rid of them is another debate.
Israel is a very very special case though. (And they steal Palestine’s water)
Forgive me for presuming, but I think your understanding of underdeveloped countries is more academic/bookish and from a specific lens, than realistic. There are far more complex issues than corruption and bad people in power at play.
Corruption is a systemic rather than a personal issue anyway. Getting rid of said/presumed bad people will not change that. Might even make it worse. Besides, legalised corruption is a far more pernicious form of corruption than the unsophisticated system of rents/bribery, and even violence.
A denier to me is someone who either doesn’t believe the Earth is actually warming (this is a very fringe position) or someone who believes the warming we are observing has nothing to do with human activity (this is sadly much more common). It sounds like you have a very nuanced understanding of the subject and I wouldn’t think you’d be lumped in the denier category outside of internet fora.
“All I’m saying is we all need to start looking for nuance in positions like climate change and stop drawing lines in the sand and making every issue into an us vs. them. That’s the path to civil war.”
This is totally great and climate is just one issue where the nation is becoming increasingly polarized. I don’t know about civil war but dysfunction, mistrust and stagnation? We’re already there and both “sides” are to blame.
Well, I wouldn’t exactly say the no warming is a lunatic fringe. I bet 10-20% of the US population would believe that. The bigger problem is that there’s another good-sized chunk that doesn’t think it’s human caused in major part, or even if it is, that we shouldn’t do anything about it.
On the Kroenke front, I think at this point, about all we can do is hope that he eventually ends up more like FSG than Mike Ashley. I think if Arsenal went the direction of Newcastle he’d eventually have to sell, but that could be after 10+ years of disaster.
@steveinslc
I think there’s little chance of Kroenke’s Arsenal looking anything like Ashley’s Newcastle, mostly because of the respective starting positions of each club. Also, an owner would have to try pretty hard to bungle things as badly as Ashley’s done.
Honestly I really can’t be bothered with all the boardroom intrigue. Maybe that makes me a bad fan, I don’t know, but I could care less who owns what percent of which shares as long as the club is being run well. I know that is contingent on the owner in some respects but I also haven’t seen anything about KSE that makes me think the club is under any tangible threat to its existence or continued semi-elite status in football circles. There’s a lot not to like about Stan and his operations but then again, in the world of billionaire capitalist sharks he’s about as benign as they come and in England if your club is competitive then it is because it’s owned by a billionaire capitalist shark. I’m not saying love it and don’t protest, I’m just saying I can’t be bothered because there’s nothing I can do about it. If the situation gets dire, I’ll happily participate in boycotts and petitions. Until then, just run a competent operation and give me my football and I’ll be diverted and happy. Sorry if that disappoints people.
My problem with Kroenke stem from an interview he gave to the Evening Standard and printed on Sunday March 13th, 2016. In it he confirms that winning Trophies is not a priority, so he won’t speculate to accumulate trophies. And, he then goes on that he can use our love for Arsenal for personal gain.
Why Arsenal supporters ignored these words from the sole owner to be of our club is a mystery to me! Read the article and see we really own Kroenke rather than Kroenke owning our club’s future!
to read it in full follow this link: http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/stan-kroenke-i-didnt-buy-arsenal-stake-to-win-trophies-a3202046.html
I would say relax. There’s the two clubs owned by Middle Eastern countries that can spend their national GDP on players and then there’s the rest. We’re in the rest. Kroenke will extract what he needs to pay off this loan, that’s his right. He’s not completely daft and will understand there’s a lot more money to be made at the upper reaches of the Champions League than just slugging it out for 5th and 6th place in the Premier League. He’ll maintain the sustainability model which incidentally puts us ahead of the curve vs. 90% of the rest.
There’s bound to be a major correction in the next few years. Outside of City & PSG, there are a lot of major clubs carrying heavy debt, unsustainable business models and facing revenue models that have passed the point of diminishing returns.
Kroenke is in it just for the money. He doesn’t have a passion for the club (any other of his “franchises” in the USA). His business model is based on making money with minimum risk and winning is not on his agenda. He will never be loved by the fans because he does not understand the passion that makes someone a fan. The only thing that will make him sell Arsenal will be losing money. I have not been at the Emirates for 10 years, have not bought a shirt or any merchandise and I do not plan to spend a single penny while he is the owner of the club.
I would swap Stan Kroenke for John Henry right away. One owner shows ambition, the other doesn’t.
I don’t really care if the owner has “passion” for the club. I want the owner to make good decisions and keep my club competitive. Mike Ashley is a passionate “man of the fans” type of owner and it didn’t do Newcastle any favors. Similar story with Peter Risdale at Leeds. You don’t want fans running a club. You want someone dispassionate with a track record for doing good business.
“I don’t really care if the owner has “passion” for the club. I want the owner to make good decisions and keep my club competitive.”
Levy and Henry are both passionate and have made good decisions for their clubs. In fact, they have made Spurs and Liverpool more competitive than Arsenal although they both have less money.
“You want someone dispassionate with a track record for doing good business.”
You will love Kroenke then, because he does good business. The problem for a lot of Arsenal fans is that he doesn’t get good results. Remember the season Arsenal could have challenged for the title with Leicester? They only signed Cech that year. A passionate owner would have pushed for more signings. But who cares, that was good business, right?
Just realized I fell into the trap of the ‘straw man’ argument. I said ambition, not passion, in my original post. Does Mike Ashley show ambition at Newcastle? Not at all.
I was responding to Dimitar’s post. I don’t really want to get drawn into a comparison of Henry and Kroenke’s respective ambitions.
As far as the Leicester season thing, Wenger got that one wrong in hindsight, and the Arsenal board let it happen, so I guess you can blame KSE but I don’t think they are making those football decisions, nor should they.
Yeah, this.
I just can’t get over how poorly we’ve handled the transfer business of this club the last 3-4 years. Liverpool have bought smart, extravagantly and also sold smart and extravagantly. They’ve tied their players to good contracts and sold the players who needed to be sold.
They got a ridiculous sum for Coutinho. We got a bag of magic beans for Sanchez. They sell Danny Ings for stupid money, we can’t give Lucas Perez away. We are a more lucrative club than they are and this is where we’re at.
I bring this up all the time but Liverpool of the Klopp era really puts paid all the crying poverty nonsense from Arsenal in the post-stadium debt era. We are just a really, really poorly run club. I thought that was mostly attributable to Wenger but its the same story this summer.
I understand from AST POV their concerns about the lack of transparency and accountability when Kroenke completes his buyout of Usmanov and the mom & pop shareholders. There’s nothing to be done on that front.
My concerns are that we continue to bring in /develop the talent we need to be successfully competitive in the league and in Europe for both men and women. That this private ownership does not result in debt being accrued by the club.
My final concern is who is going to have the know-how and vision to run Arsenal on a day to day basis and making any mid-course corrections if and when Gazidis departs.
Did Ivan Gazidis catch a whiff of this? I wonder. Great read, Tim, and the headline nails it. I honestly don’t know what to make of it. Except to say that people who opinions I value think it’s an awful thing. And the Glazers at United don’t inspire confidence. A year from now, I guess we’ll know definitively.
This will be hardest to take for those fans of a certain age who grew up with the club in the UK. For (most of) the rest of us, I imagine the KSE takeover will fall into the “c’est la vie” and “pretty much inevitable for a top European club in the modern game” categories. At least, that is what it is for me.
KSE could do what it wanted before, and it will do what it wants after the takeover is complete. The only thing that will change is transparency, but I’d be very surprised if that in itself means the club will be run any differently than it has been for the past decade. And barring a sugar daddy model, what would we change? In the past year we’ve spent £100m on two strikers. If you’re disappointed that Arsenal didn’t bring the figure up to £200m by spending another £100m on a defender or two, then yeah, I think you’re disappointed that we’re not City, Real Madrid, or Barcelona. But Arsenal under KSE has hardly been parsimonious, and they’ve also just overseen a much-needed overhaul at the level of coaching, something most of us have wanted for ages. I don’t think they’re the devil incarnate (yet!), and, as Tim says, we can, if we desire, make our voices heard should we feel they are. All the same, a part of me hopes they see the mourning of some fans over this (the AST, for example), and placate us with the signing of Dembele this week! JK. jk. sort of.
At any rate, I’m not that bothered by the takeover. What I AM bothered about is the timing, though I suspect the timing was not entirely up to KSE. Usmanov was also part of that. It’s not ideal, but it’s all part of what is a massive transition year for Arsenal. Let’s rip off the band-aid in one go, sure. Like I’ve said before, my expectations are fairly low for this season.
Next season, when things have settled both in terms of the coaching staff and board room, I expect we’ll find out the true measure of the club’s structure.
Yeah Bun, this is pretty much we’re I’m at. I’m one of those Londoners who grew up with the club so not reading too much into the extreme reactions today. People are gonna need a few days to vent, but not much will change in the short-term.
ESPN has published the EPL luck index which they show how lucky or unlucky teams were this past season with poor referee decisions and how that affected their point totals and money distribution based on the positions they finished in as a result.
http://www.espnluckindex.com/?rand=ref~%7B“ref”%3A”https%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FI8OwW2OOkb”%7D
Arsenal would have gained more away points and would have finished 5th in the adjusted table.
My problem with the piece is that the referee arbiter was just Peter Walton and not a panel who could have arrived at a consensus on questionable calls or non calls. We saw in the WC that VAR can ‘miss’ or whiff on critical calls (Greizmann PK, the Switzerland and German games where defenders were not penalized for impeding the CFs who were threatening to break in on goal) but I would say that VAR would reduce luck in the equation and should be used in the EPL
Meh.. the inevitable happened and I don’t think there is some big change in the front office. I guess the full ownership bothers me less because I don’t have any of the “holy sh8 our club is now fully in control of an American” sentiment. Kroenke pretty much did what he wanted before. It wasn’t as if we had some great checks-and-balance system in place with Usmanov heroically warding off Kroenke from having his way with the club. He had been marginalized by the board long time ago anyway and hardly had a say in anything. For me, the concerns with Arsenal are the same today as they were yesterday. But of course, being Arsenal fans, we just need to find one more reason to be miserable.
Tottenham, Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, etc etc, all have ‘owners’ and it hasn’t been the end of days for them.
Maybe we should wait and see what Enos does before hyperventilating.
There’s been plenty of awful owners of football clubs in England and everywhere else for that matter in recent years, and strangely enough the majority of these awful owners haven’t been Americans and also I don’t see why any American should have to apologise for being from the United States?
The world is full of wankers and most of them aren’t Americans.
Now we shall find out.
Was Arsene Wenger a protective shield?
Is Ivan Gazidas jumping in advance of being pushed out by Josh?
Will the debt be lumped on the club?
Will anybody call out the soon to be defunct AST on their hypocrisy given that they sold 50 of the Fanshare shares to Kroenke?
If Arsenal pull a Dembele out of the hat and pull off a win against City, will politically motivated fan groups and profit seeking click whores still try to lead self serving protests?
There is a lot of moving parts to this and I look forward to seeing it all unfold live at The Emirates for Arsenal V Man City. I suspect the crowd will be lively but I hope they spare some energy to cheering on the team and showing some love for the new manager.
Does Unai Emery have a song yet?
Probably not. Too much time spent on self promotion from the fans to come up with anything original. They will probably recycle some old crap on the fly.
I just logged back on and was struck by very Rorschach (from Watchmen) that headline is 🙂
Bloody hell, when I first heard rumors about Gazidis becoming AC Milan’s CEO, I joked that it meant we were buying AC Milan. Didn’t think we’d end up owning a whole Kroenke instead.
Our club really has a gift for poor timing. Eff you very much to everyone involved in making this day possible just a few days before the season kicks off.
Well I for one am glad about Arsene leaving but I generally agreed with the Blog , Kroenke needs to make this work, i.e. keep winning and making Arsenal competitive . Arsenal has grown this big thanks to Arsene early years and I for one am grateful to him but we all kind of agree it is time . Going forward to maintain and expand the fan base ( the only way Kroenke can actually make money from Arsenal as a growing concern ) , The Arsenal needs to keep winning FA cups , EPL titles ,Europa and etc etc. then only the fan base will grow. The present fan base needs to hold him accountable and if he starts taking on more debts and hence fail to sign and develop good players for the Arsenal to compete then we boycott to hit him where it hurts most , the money and make sure he lose a bunch of money from his investment . Yes we own him provided we act in the way to make him accountable to us and to the great tradition of the Arsenal
Woo boy. We send Chambers on loan, and are looking to bring in Vida, while Soyuncu is apparently on the verge of joining Leicester (to partner Evans), which means Harry Maguire will join ManU. SMEG not looking that great at the moment.
How long before fans want their Arsenal back, meaning Wenger and not Graham? My guess is a couple of years.
Shard , you need to allow Emery at least 2 years that I agree but we gave Arsene 10 years winning hardly anything , just saying
It’s not what I think should happen. Just what I think might happen.
At this point, the head coach is identifying the players he wants. He doesn’t want Soyuncu.
(and I prefer the acronym GEMS 🙂 )
I had started with that, but was overruled by fans of Red Dwarf who decided SMEG was hilarious, and here we are.
Yes, this is stupid transfer business with the CBs. Should never have brought in Sokratis. If Chambers isn’t good enough then why not sell him outright? Why isn’t it Holding who goes out on loan? And Vida is a bang on average player, why not bring in Soyuncu who looks like a stud in the making?
And now we’re going to blow next year’s transfer budget on Dembele? I mean, I’m all for bringing him in, but we clearly have a trouble moving players out.
agreed 100%, jack.
All this talk of expectations has me wondering if we even know what we expect.
I’d like to know from the commentariat: what average position in the league SHOULD Arsenal be at for the next 5 years given our stature, resources, etc. etc.
This does not mean where you WANT Arsenal to finish, and not even where you think they will finish.
So how high? By my calculations, we are clearly behind the two Manchester clubs, the former because of their enormous endorsements and gates and the latter because of their enormous external funding. We seem to be just about on par with Chelsea these days and probably a smidgeon ahead of Liverpool while clearly outpacing Tottenham, who have punched above their weight these past few seasons and won’t sustain that. So for me, that pegs us in a dead heat for 3rd with two other similar clubs, and we should expect Arsenal to finish, on average, 4th. Of course every season is unique but on average, that’s what I’m expecting. This season could be special with the implosion at United continuing apace and City coming off of a notoriously difficult to repeat championship season while Liverpool has loaded up to go the distance, but on average I would expect the above power structure to more or less bear itself out in the coming seasons.
I think we are going to finish 5th or 6th as the teams that finished above us are still better player wise. We really didn’t buy well enough to leapfrog anyone imo.
Chelsea is the only team we can catch but only because of a change of manager just like us.
City
Liverpool
Man U
Spurs
Chelsea/Arsenal?
The only way I can see us getting back into the CL is by winning the EL. My gut feel when we got Emery was that he was brought in to get us into the CL that way. The fact that we bought the players we did really cemented this for me.
Thanks for the response! I was more after an estimation of where Arsenal should rank in the PL beyond this season, but it’s also valuable to talk about this season. I think the Manchesters are both in for a down year, though in City’s case that may still end with the title. Chelsea will rebound and Liverpool will be strong, but football’s a crazy sport where luck plays a huge part and Arsenal’s got nothing to be ashamed of ourselves. If Emery can get the boys to play hard and play together week after week, we’ll be there or thereabouts.
When it comes to 5 year projections I think we are at an even bigger disadvantage. Our key players are old and we don’t have valuable young players we can flog for £100m at a time.
I doubt we get top 4 via the league in the next 5 years. Essentially we are where Liverpool were a couple of years ago.
I think 4th is about right. But we need to get back into the CL. That is crucial to us keeping at that level. A few more years of Liverpool and Spurs regularly making the CL at our expense and we’ll be playing catchup for a long time.
We had a very very good home record last year. This team has enough quality to make top 4. They have missed something else. An intangible almost (I said almost. Some of it is tangible, such as conceding less goals)
I agree that we may not have improved sufficiently in defense. Loaning Chambers seems mad to me. But we’ll see. Maybe the plan is to buy/loan a LB and use Monreal as emergency CB if required. Looks like the Vida deal is off. Thankfully.
I think while we can accept not making the top 4 based on how the season unfolds, we should still be disappointed if we don’t make it. Should be a minimum target.
Even if we have the same good home record and win 4 more away games we still end up on 75 pts which was what Liverpool ended on.
I really hope I’m wrong and we get so much better under Emery that we get top 4 and a few wins away vs the top teams
Dr Gionee Arsenal needs to at least be challenging for Champions League place . That is if we are to keep our fan base let alone be expanding it . As for the Spuds I am sorry to say under Wenger they have caught up and I am mad as hell this has been allowed to happen. We absolutely need to catch up . For those who disagree there is an old saying no the table does not lie.
I meant Dr Gooner typo sorry
Next to Spurs catching us my biggest issue with Wenger’s last few years was Leicester winning the league over us. I really lost faith in him after that and couldn’t stand his no money to spend rhetoric
Not one for self-promotion and all that but we spoke to Matt on our podcast who is a mergers-and-acquisitions expert. He gives really good insight into this subject and is worth a listen.
https://www.arsenalvisionpodcast.com/episodes/2018/8/7/episode-226-live-show-the-stanpocalypse
Tim, if I’ve overstepped the mark here, you can delete this no problem, just thought it was worth sharing.
I just finished listening to that episode, and it was very informative (and helpful, given some of the hyperbolic negative reactions to the KSE takeover). Much appreciated, and keep up the great work.
Thank you Bunburyist!
And just to jump on this again (but yes, everyone should listen to that podcast (and Arsenal Vision generally (their shows and Arseblog’s Arsecasts are essential listening for Gooners)): while I get that everyone is entitled to feel what they want in reaction to the KSE takeover, I think it’s ok and desirable to think critically about how some opinions are formed.
It seems to me that the really angry responses are driven by people like Ian Wright. Wright is, let’s admit, a club legend and a mostly harmless, entertaining character, but that’s about it. I’d be willing to bet he knows the square root of f**k all about how these mergers work, what it means for KSE and Arsenal, and what it means going forward (in any nuanced or informed way). Like everything else about Wright, it’s just pure off-the-cuff reaction, designed to ignite the lowest common denominator, which it does spectacularly well.
And then there’s the AST. I have a lot of respect for those folks, and I have time for how they’re processing this takeover. However, mourning the loss of a “people’s club,” or using the etymology of “club” as an emotional appeal, is a bit like waxing nostalgically about the steam engine. I don’t imagine a single AGM meeting ever changed Kroenke’s vision for the club. Transparency (AGM or otherwise) was a comforting illusion before the takeover, and its potential loss only brings us to a reality that’s been there all along. It reminds me of (if you’ll forgive the esoteric, but not, I think, inappropriate analogy) one interpretation of Bakhtin’s theory of the carnivalesque: Power lets its subjects “talk back” once in a while, which is itself a means to ensure power remains. (In a nutshell.)
The AGM is little more than a pressure valve…but, to continue the metaphor, the lid is still locked. To imagine that a tiny percentage of shares gave anyone a voice in how things operated, or that having access to the books three months sooner than private companies was at all meaningful, or that asking tough questions in an annual meeting would have any impact other than personal catharsis is, I’m sorry to say, naive.
Is it symbolically relevant? Sure. And maybe the takeaway of my comment is that I have little time for symbolism in this situation, particularly when, in effect, it’s been empty for so long.
KSE will look out for itself — always, always, always — and it’s never mattered a fig what Usmanov thinks, let alone the minority shareholders and the AST. The hope, of course, is that KSE looking out for itself coincides with what fans want for the club, and it’s worth keeping in mind that a poorly run, languishing investment is not in the interest of the investor. Looking out for itself should mean looking out for Arsenal. At least, that’s a far more reasonable assumption than the narrative about they’re going to fleece the club to finance the Rams, etc.
If things go south, by all means let supporters get angry and vote by abandoning their seats, but I simply can’t get behind a pre-emptive (and largely blind) rage.
“using the etymology of “club” as an emotional appeal, is a bit like waxing nostalgically about the steam engine”
Nailed it. I think Americans long ago reconciled themselves with the idea that sports teams are a business first. I have no love for Kroenke, but I also know that it’s in his interest for Arsenal to remain a top-tier club. How the team performs impacts its ability to generate revenue in tv, kit sponsorships, merchandise et al.
When the team’s performance started to suffer, and Wenger Out banners appeared, and seats were empty, he knew it was time for change, and took action. Will we be winning the league? That may not be the case. But I suspect he will want the team regularly in the CL, and will continue to make changes until that happens.
Plus – the growth and success of the Rams will actually help Arsenal. As that team improves and generates more case, the money can flow back in Arsenal’s direction, too. It’s not a one way street, as so many gunners seem to be suggesting.
Nothing has changed in the store, but how things work in the warehouse is different. We should absolutely hold KSE accountable going forward, but the teeth gnashing is ridiculous.
Well, I think it’s being too dismissive of their point. The state of things in American sports and the PL that poisitions clubs as billionaire playthings and corporate assets is not natural in any way, it was choices that led things down this path and it’s absolutely worth pointing out that things don’t have to be this way, be it largely symbolic. Especially considering that there are other ways of handling things, see other countries for example. Granted, things were set in motion a long time ago which makes the outcome today irreversible but still. They are clubs, with history, with communities that are dear to a lot of people and not cynical cash generating “franchises”.
Man, the raMs are just one down business cycle from a complete crash, along with the infinite costs that CTE will cost the league. American football is even being legislated out of existence in under 14’s as we speak. So, sTan the man’s business optimism could get crushed in the next few years, and then all shall see how much he really cares about his investments. Will he invest in down cycle, ie price of whatever is cheap, fold, or hold? I have a strong feeling that all his franchises will just barely float above water….
The NFL has weathered several down business cycles, and franchise values have done nothing but climb. That said, American football does face unprecendented challenges with the CTE and ALS claims. I’ve personally been put off NFL football, and the wobbly tv ratings indicate I’m not alone.
But a downturn like that doesn’t happen overnight. So a complete crash for Stan and Co. is highly unlikely. And he will have a giant new stadium as an asset to help him mitigate downturn risk.
I was not sure about how I felt about this initially, but as some gooners here have shrugged off the effects of a Kroenke full takeover, I’ve come to empathise more with the AST. Like traditional bookstores versus Border’s chains, it’s perfectly understandable why longtime Arsenal fans would bemoan the loss of a special bond. Clubs grow out of their neighbourhood. And while, in 2018, the neighbourhood is global, Arsenal’s heart will always be Islington and Stoke Newington, unashamedly socialist and progressive, and which Arsene embodied for a long, long time.
Those socialist roots have created an expectation of egalitarianism. Even before globalisation, gooners on game day flocked to Highbury and the Emirates from all over London and the UK. True, AST’s seat at the table was effectively a courtesy, but fans having a voice is not a small thing to them. Once a week (now 3 times a week), you could forget about the fact that Carl Jenkinson gets paid more, in a week, than you do in a year, and be an important part of the club through your support asa spectator. With globalisation of support and TV, the paying fan no longer had a monopoly on that. But a club’s neighbourhood, its neighbourhood characteristics and what it stands for will always remain part of its makeup.
That is where, deep down, all of this is coming from. And it needs to be understood, particularly by gooners in the wider diaspora. Gooners wedded to the old romance of Arsenal football support have always been suspicious of and have never liked Kroenke. It’s understandable that they’d be aghast that the club is now under the total control of a parsimonious, absentee American billionaire who doesn’t appear to share their ideas and values about progression, team investment and what constitutes a successful club. And having a seat at the table is important. Kroenke should know by now that a British football club is a different creature from an American football franchise. He’d be wise to preserve Arsenal’s complex, inter-dependent ecosystem.
AST is right to be concerned. But it’s also correct to say that the world that they knew is long, long gone.
I was not sure about how I felt about this initially, but as some gooners here have shrugged off the effects of a Kroenke full takeover, I’ve come to empathise more with the AST. Like traditional bookstores versus Border’s chains, it’s perfectly understandable why longtime Arsenal fans would bemoan the loss of a special bond. Clubs grow out of their neighbourhood. And while, in 2018, the neighbourhood is global, Arsenal’s heart will always be Islington and Stoke Newington, unashamedly socialist and progressive, and which Arsene embodied for a long, long time.
Those socialist roots have created an expectation of egalitarianism. Even before globalisation, gooners on game day flocked to Highbury and the Emirates from all over London and the UK. True, AST’s seat at the table was effectively a courtesy, but fans having a voice is not a small thing to them. Once a week (now 3 times a week), you could forget about the fact that Carl Jenkinson gets paid more, in a week, than you do in a year, and be an important part of the club through your support asa spectator. With globalisation of support and TV, the paying fan no longer had a monopoly on that. But a club’s neighbourhood, its neighbourhood characteristics and what it stands for will always remain part of its makeup.
That is where, deep down, all of this is coming from. And it needs to be understood, particularly by gooners in the wider diaspora. Gooners wedded to the old romance of Arsenal football support have always been suspicious of and have never liked Kroenke. It’s understandable that they’d be aghast that the club is now under the total control of a parsimonious, absentee American billionaire who doesn’t appear to share their ideas and values about progression, team investment and what constitutes a successful club. And having a seat at the table is important. Kroenke should know by now that a British football club is a different creature from an American football franchise. He’d be wise to preserve Arsenal’s complex, inter-dependent ecosystem.
AST is right to be concerned. But while I feel the steam engine analogy is a tad too dismissive of the concerns, it’s also correct to say that the world that they knew is long, long gone.
I was not sure about how I felt about this initially, but as some gooners here have shrugged off the effects of a Kroenke full takeover, I’ve come to empathise more with the AST. Like traditional bookstores versus Border’s chains, it’s perfectly understandable why longtime Arsenal fans would bemoan the loss of a special bond. Clubs grow out of their neighbourhood. And while, in 2018, the neighbourhood is global, Arsenal’s heart will always be Islington and Stoke Newington, unashamedly socialist and progressive, and which Arsene embodied for a long, long time.
Those socialist roots have created an expectation of egalitarianism, hence AST members grilling Wenger and Gazidis. But that started to change long ago. Even before globalisation, gooners on game day flocked to Highbury and then the Emirates from all over London and the UK. True, AST’s seat at the table was effectively a courtesy, but fans having a voice is not a small thing. Once a week (now 3 times a week), you could forget about the fact that Carl Jenkinson gets paid more, in a week, than you do in a year, and be an important part of the club through your support as a spectator. With globalisation of support and TV, the paying fan no longer had a monopoly on that. But a club’s neighbourhood, its neighbourhood characteristics and what it stands for will always remain part of its makeup.
That is where, deep down, all of this is coming from. And it needs to be understood, particularly by gooners in the wider diaspora. Gooners wedded to the old romance of Arsenal football support have always been suspicious of and have never liked Kroenke. It’s understandable that they’d be aghast that the club is now under the total control of a parsimonious, absentee American billionaire who doesn’t appear to share their ideas and values about progression, team investment and what constitutes a successful club. And having a seat at the table is important. Kroenke should know by now that a British football club is a different creature from an American football franchise. He’d be wise to preserve Arsenal’s complex, inter-dependent ecosystem.
AST is right to be concerned. But while I feel the steam engine analogy is unnecessarily dismissive of the concerns, it’s also correct to say that the world that they knew is long, long gone.
Not able to post my (tad too long) piece in support of AST concerns. No idea why. Not a hint of cussin or controversy….
Oh how the tables have turned 😀
How much of this has influence on our on-field success is anybody’s guess. Nothing much has changed. The AST were irrelevant before KSE’s now almost complete takeover. The AGM was a dog and pony show with a sometimes interesting and entertaining Q&A with Wenger, nothing more.
There’s that one stock photo of Kroenke that keeps getting published. The one with the dark sunglasses and the dour expression that reminds me of a Borg unit from Star Trek TNG. We have been assimilated.
Does it mean the end of civilization in North London as we know it? We’ll never know until the end and everybody’s got a bomb and we’ll all die anyway. So tonight I’m gonna party like it’s 2018 and the dawn of another season of possibility. COYG.
That’s 500mg of optimism to my mind..thanks!! COYSG!!
“everybody’s got a bomb and we’ll all die anyway”.. like this one! We get to respawn but Stan doesn’t!!
“Everybody’s got a bomb, we could all die any day
so tonight I’m gonna party and dance my life away”
“1999”, Prince
Tim gets to the spirit of what being a supporter is all about. Ownership can’t take away the memories, the community, or Graham or Wenger. The Newcastle goal will always be OUR Bergkamp scoring one of the greatest goals in Arsenal history. Let the new chapter begin!
A very sensible article – one after my own heart.
I have received Whatsapp messages from some Gooner friends about the doom and gloom of Kroenke taking over.
My reaction was exactly the same – what has actually changed except for the largely symbolic opportunity of asking some uncomfortable questions off the board during the AGMs? Surely there are other ways of protesting if the fans want to? And what did these questions in the AGM achieve anyway?
In terms of being excessively levered and taking out dividends – what stopped Kroenke from doing so while he had 67% control of the club? He could still do it with the 67% of the income attributable to his share? But he didn’t and kept the money the club generated within the club.
Look, I’m not saying that Kroenke would overnight turn into a Shaikh Mansoor or Roman Abromovich and spend 100s of millions of his money on inflated transfer fees. I have no moral justification to ask him put his hand in his own pocket so that I can earn some bragging rights over my neighbours, because that level of spending is what is needed if Arsenal were to (almost) guarantee winning consistently winning titles.
However, so long as he doesn’t asset strip the club, and keeps the club competitive in top 4 in most if not all years, maybe winning a few cup competitions and occassinally flatter to be involved in the title fight. I am not complaining. Any less, as you rightly said, the fans have the right to vote with their feet (and TV subscriptions) to make him comply to the fans (reasonable) wishes!
On the contrary, I think Kroenke may now have more of a case to make heavier investment in Arsenal – that any benefit to the value of the club would accrue only to him and will not be shared by Usmanov.
So here’s hoping for a better time ahead for the club and the fans!
PS: I also want to place on record my unhappiness at capitalism. Particularly, the American form of capitalism which is a bit extreme. But given that I don’t know of any other alternative since Socialism failed so miserably, I begrudingly accept the status quo until an alternative is found
PPS: That makes three of us Gooners, Timothy, to have not attended the Anfield game. You, me and Squeegly (my pet worm).
Interesting to see Yerry Mina going from Barcelona to Everton on deadline day. Says a lot about how he’s viewed by those who are actually “in the know” about youth players around Europe that no big club, including his parent club, got carried away by the outstanding world cup that he had had. Instead they did the sensible thing and sold high on him to the most desperate bidder, and boy are Everton desperate. It’s a classic veteran move by Barca.
Otherwise, I’m thoroughly entertained by the fact that Mourinho has been personally rejected by not one but two central defenders in this window. I will stand and applaud Diego Godin and Jerome Boateng for showing eminent good sense and for making sure we are all aware that Mou has been jilted. I love it. The patented 3rd season meltdown is progressing apace.
Finally, the goalkeeper merry go round at Stamford Bridge is somewhat nauseating. Courtois over Navas is not some huge upgrade, so basically Courtois got out while he could, but who knows whether “Kepa” is actually any good? It’s the first time most of us have heard of him, and BAM, he’s the most expensive GK of all time. Smacks of some desperation from the Fulham Rovers and suggests a bit of dysfunction which is most welcome from our view on the North side.
Mina was unhappy with lack of game time and trust from Valverde. Barca apparently didn’t think he was good enough with the ball at his feet. Plus, he was taking up a non-EU spot and they needed rid. Everton have overpaid I think, but equally could have a good player once he develops further.
ManU’s troubles in the transfer market are funny. Like here’s this great club who pay great wages and their pull is being ruined by Mourinho. Just lovely.
Spurs not signing anyone and the media talking about their stadium and their LANS is annoying. Like where was that for Arsenal? It was always spend some effing money and trophy drought. Everyone thinks Spurs will make top 4, but I’m not so sure. I think they’ve just about peaked. (Though no VAR will always help them)
Chelsea. In disarray though they are, I think will be good. They will take some time to get used to Sarri’s ideas, but they have a solid team. Jorginho and Kovacic make them one of the strongest midfields, and if they keep Hazard, they’ll cause problems. Plus, maybe they’ll finally give their youth some chances. They’ve dominated youth football the past many years.
So, you’re Emery sitting at Wembley watching the match between City and Chelsea. What do you see, and what are your plans?
Defense, doc. Defense. Positional awareness, honing our offside trap, covering our CBs adequately. Not getting caught out in the opposition counter. Development of the press on which Emery seems to want to hang his hat.
Guardiola’s side already looks to be a buzz saw. Leroy Sane is licking his chops right now hoping to get a shot at us. So what’s really changed? We’ll begin to find out around 11 eastern time.
If we play like we did against Chelsea, it’s going to be a bloodbath, but I don’t think we will. Lewis Ambrose has a nice expose of the tactical changes evident in Arsenal during preseason and Adrian Clarke looks at this a little bit in his Breakdown over on the .com too. Both worth a gander.
Hi Shard, thanks for that added insight on Mina. I think it’s telling that everyone is looking for quality CB’s (United, us, etc) and he still ended up at Everton.
Chelsea are due a bounceback season and there’s always a honeymoon period with a new coach, but a lot depends on how happy Hazard will be with what Sarri expects him to do and how functional that midfield will be in practice. I’ll defer to others who know more about Jorginho to project his impact but it feels like a signing they had to make because of a dearth of quality passers in their prime rather than one they really wanted. It feels also like there’s some staleness to their squad and several stalwarts may be aging out of their primes (Cahill, Willian, Luiz, Cesc, Pedro, etc), plus they’ve made a hash of recent transfer windows with huge whiffs on the likes of Drinkwater, Barkley and Morata. There’s a good team in there somewhere but for me they are a lot like Arsenal right now, trying to rediscover a unity and identity that was lost while contending the need to overhaul the squad. They also have the added variable of Hazard and his moods. I think we’re going to be neck and neck with them this season.
To answer your question at the end there, if I’m Emery, I’m taking the long view. The most important thing is not who the opponent is or even winning the game (though that would be great) the important thing is to find a balance in the squad and get the team playing organized, efficient, energetic football that I want. If I can do that, results will follow. In the short term, I’m going to set my team up to play the way I want but be a bit more conservative given the strength of the opposition.
Jorginho joined because of Sarri, rejecting Man City in the process.
Jorginho reminds me of a cricketer from Pakistan called Inzamam. A big, slow looking guy who always seems to have time. Never looks rushed. Cesc was similar in that he was never speedy, but was always quick.
Xhaka and Torreira are at the moment, a poor man’s version of Jorginho and Kante. True about Chelsea’s age and identity and Hazard’s mood. They might also struggle for goals. But the set piece stuff will suit them. Yes, neck and neck with us sounds right. If ManU collapse we could be 3rd, if we don’t play well, 6th-8th is a possibility.
According to Forbes, Kroenke’s net worth is estimated at $8.3 billion. It’s also worth mentioning that his wife, who’s a Walton (i.e. Wal-Mart), is worth around $6 billion or so herself. I think it’s still right to be concerned about the loan and how he’ll pay it, but in that context Kroenke probably isn’t quite so highly leveraged as it first appears.
2bn of that is Rams, 2bn of that is Arsenal, half of his total “wealth” is tieed into two teams on which he owes 2bn in debt. 1/4 of his supposed wealth is owed to the banks. that feels really weird.
For Arsenal, the last month of the transfer window illustrated the level of stagnation on recruitment and contracts under Wenger and Gazidis. Average, hard to sell players on wages they wouldn’t earn elsewhere. Dick Law spent an awful long time in San Jose trying to sign Joel Campbell, at a time that DM needed fixing. Now, we don’t even give him a squad number till it’s clear that we cant move him on. How on earth was Lucas Perez on 80k/week? His low price at West Ham must be that we had to do a payoff to get him off our books. And oh, Campbell and Jenkinson are still Arsenal players. Don’t blame ’em for staying. Nice wages are hard to come by.
Disagree with Doc on both Mina and Courtois. Yerri Mina possesses something that is a solid currency in the EPL — aerial prowess. 20-something million for an imposing 23 year old defender could turn out to be very astute business by Everton. 3 headed goals in 4 world cup games is pretty remarkable. One of those goals came against England, arguably the best aerial defence in the tournament. Add up price, age and potential, and it’s hard to see how they lose in that deal. Sometimes your face just doesnt fit in a club or a league. Ask Patrick Vieira. And if it’s Barcelona, the learning curve is precipitous. The blot on Mina’s copybook is that he didnt even last a year.
Courtois is a significant upgrade on Navas. He’ll march straight into the starting XI, once he gets over his holiday rustiness.
For Arsenal, the last month of the transfer window illustrated the level of stagnation on recruitment and contracts under Wenger and Gazidis. Average, hard to sell players on wages they wouldn’t earn elsewhere. Dick Law spent an awful long time in San Jose trying to sign Joel Campbell, at a time that DM needed fixing. Now, we don’t even give him a squad number till it’s clear that we cant move him on. How on earth was Lucas Perez on 80k/week? His low price at West Ham must be that we had to do a payoff to get him off our books. And oh, Campbell and Jenkinson are still Arsenal players. Don’t blame ’em for staying. Nice wages are hard to come by.
Disagree with Doc on both Mina and Courtois. Yerri Mina possesses something that is a solid currency in the EPL — aerial prowess. 20-something million for an imposing 23 year old defender could turn out to be very astute business by Everton. 3 headed goals in 4 world cup games is pretty remarkable. One of those goals came against England, arguably the best aerial defence in the tournament. Add up price, age and potential, and it’s hard to see how they lose in that deal. Sometimes your face just doesnt fit in a club or a league. Ask Patrick Vieira. And if it’s Barcelona, the learning curve is precipitous. The blot on Mina’s copybook is that he didnt even last a year.
Courtois is a significant upgrade on Navas. He’ll march straight into the starting XI, once he gets over his holiday rustiness.
Having issues posting here since yesterday. A couple have vaporised. Nothing that’d filter them (cuss, argument, personal abuse etc). Is the filter on this post being particularly sensitive, Tim?
For Arsenal, the last month of the transfer window illustrated the level of stagnation on recruitment and contracts under Wenger and Gazidis. Average, hard to sell players on wages they wouldn’t earn elsewhere. Richard Law spent an awful long time in San Jose trying to sign Joel Campbell, at a time that DM needed fixing. Now, we don’t even give him a squad number till it’s clear that we cant move him on. How on earth was Lucas Perez on 80k/week? His low price at West Ham must be that we had to do a payoff to get him off our books. And oh, Campbell and Jenkinson are still Arsenal players. Don’t blame ’em for staying. Nice wages are hard to come by.
Disagree with Doc on both Mina and Courtois. Yerri Mina possesses something that is a solid currency in the EPL — aerial prowess. 20-something million for an imposing 23 year old defender could turn out to be very astute business by Everton. 3 headed goals in 4 world cup games is pretty remarkable. One of those goals came against England, arguably the best aerial defence in the tournament. Add up price, age and potential, and it’s hard to see how they lose in that deal. Sometimes your face just doesnt fit in a club or a league. Ask Patrick Vieira. And if it’s Barcelona, the learning curve is precipitous. The blot on Mina’s copybook is that he didnt even last a year.
Courtois is a significant upgrade on Navas. He’ll march straight into the starting XI, once he gets over his holiday rustiness.
The transfer window just closed today for buying not selling. I can’t imagine will be sitting here on Sept 1st seeing Ospina & Campbell not shifted out to a continental side. As for Jenkinson, today’s window close doesn’t apply to the Football League. The transfer changes were PL only so the club will have 3 weeks to find himself a championship club to be loaned too.
I’d imagine Welbeck (seen reports he’s on £115/week which now might not seem like all that much but from a deadline deal way back in 2014 appears to be another overpayment to me) gets quickly re-signed to a long term deal to prevent him leaving on a free. More poor business done by the club to add to your list.
I think Barca did brilliant business tripling their money in 6 months on a player who struggled to adapt & their coach clearly didn’t rate. Not too mention, including a buyback clause caps any upside for Everton. That might be one way in the future they lose out on this deal. They also put a down payment on any future Pogba deal by shelling out £50m this window to Barca. Also hought it was rather generous of them to offer a healthy loan fee & cover 100% of the sizeable wages of Andre Gomes who Barca reportedly offered to just about every big club in Europe to get rid of him.
“I think Barca did brilliant business tripling their money in 6 months on a player who struggled to adapt & their coach clearly didn’t rate.”
👆🏽My thoughts exactly. Brilliant business for Barcelona on both Yerri and Gomes, while hedging on Yerri. I think it’s win/win. Yerri, given his attributes, more likely than not to do justify Everton’s purchase Barca getting nearly a 200% ROI on transfer fee.
Claude, it has nothing to do with my personal evaluation of him, and I absolutely agree it was a good deal for Barcelona; a veteran move by them, as I said. I just think the player himself must be disappointed that this ended up as his destination, don’t you think? It’s a bit of a similar story as the once feted Jen Michel Seri who is now a Fulham player after almost signing with Barcelona and being linked with nearly every big club out there. I suppose the alternate explanation to scouts and analytics not rating him is that big clubs simply don’t have the money, but then Arsenal spent a little less than that to get Sokratis and United tried to get Godin for 25… hard to make a case that anyone at the top really wants him.
But his worth shouldn’t be defined by the question of whether “anyone at the top really wants him.” That’s kind of an arbitrary measure. His attributes suggest that be could succeed in the EPL, whether that’s with United or Everton. He didn’t work out at Barcelona, but not only was he good enough for United to look seriously at him — he was good enough for Barca to buy him, at what was a high price for a relative unknown playing in Brazil. I think he’s a raw, exciting talent of the kind that we used to uncover on the cheap. And honestly, I would not have minded if we got him. I much prefer him to the Croatian zombie. I kind of wish that the player we had contacted Barca for a realistically gettable Mina and not an unrealistic Dembele. We needed the former more than we did the latter, as superb a talent as he is. And it so happens that they threw Andre Gomes into the mix. I think Everton had a storming transfer deadline day.
If you can be aerially dominant both defensively and offensively, this might be the league for you. Mina is 6’5″, and has already shown that he can be threat in both boxes. As I’ve said before, the thing that worries me about our central defenders is that they are are comparatively small, and in this league that’s a minus. I don’t like the way we get bullied on set pieces.
The PL squads on paper at least are crazy strong. And there’s some very good coaches involved too. This will be an interesting season.
We know about top 4 predictions. But I was at a total loss to figure out which 3 clubs will go down. Fulham seem to have bought well. Wolves are stacked. So who goes down?Huddersfield? Cardiff? Brighton? What about Southampton?