Tag Archives: Arsenal FC

Nicklas Bendtner – Majestic Ninja or Toppled Turtle?

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Although the player is widely derided by most knowledgeable Arsenal fans, and probably rightly so, is it fair to knock a man for believing in himself, in his ability and his ambition?

Although eight years without a trophy at Arsenal cannot be blamed on the Ninja haired Dane alone, to quote another news article “the Danish international has been widely recognised as exactly the sort of player who has held the Gunners back.” And god knows Arsene Wenger has signed a few.

Now, true enough, he hasn’t quite set the premier league alight. He’s not really even been an average guff at a world farting competition. But he’s an established international and that must surely count for something right?

I admire anyone who has the guts and determination to strive to fulfil their full ambition and potential, but there can also be the dreamers who wish they could be the best and will never achieve their goal. We’ve all been over the park, pretending we’re Brady, Bergkamp, Henry or Wright. And there in that one sentence we get some sort of answer to the question. Nicklas Bendtner is NEVER going to be anywhere near any of the afore mentioned names. Donatello or Leonardo (The Turtle not the player) maybe, but never a world class player of their ilk.

We are always being told, and I quote Sir Ian Wright “If you believe in yourself and work hard enough, you’ll achieve your goal.” Now, that is easier said than done as surely you need to have the raw talent in the first place. I always believed that I would make it as a professional footballer. I believed I had what it takes, but in truth if I had trained 24/7/365 I would never have got so much as a sniff. I just never ever had the natural ability needed (Although I was probably better than the hapless Gus Caesar). Bendtner obviously had the minimum requirements otherwise he would not be a professional.

So who are we to mock the man’s ambition or self belief?

“How do you envisage continuing your career?” Bendtner was recently asked by Danish publication ‘Politiken’.

“At Real Madrid or Barcelona” came the instant answer. This despite being unable to find ANY club willing to pay him their ever so hard earned wonga to strut his self conceited stuff.

So I ask you all the question again, although I suspect I know the answer already. Is he a deluded Ninja-esque lunatic twat or should we just admire his egotistical self-aggrandizing?

You decide.

Wils

The Arsenal and Me – Bobby’s Story

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The Arsenal. How did it all start?

Well as a very young nipper my parents split and my mum relocated up north to West Yorkshire, near Huddersfield, so naturally I had to go with her.

So as I settled in I actually supported Liverpool, easy thing to do right? Seen as though it was around 1984. I remember my mum even buying me Dalglish Silver Puma boots around my 6th birthday, god I feel dirty thinking about that now. Luckily this folly was only temporary.

I used to see my dad back in Royal Oak every 3 weeks, and on this one occasion circa 1985/86, we had a conversation on my chosen football team. ‘Come on son support Arsenal like your dad’ my response ‘but Arsenal are rubbish dad, Liverpool are the best’. The conversation continued as we walked under the A40 flyover from Royal Oak Tube to which I said ‘alright dad, I’ll support Arsenal like you’. And that was it, the changeover was complete and didn’t take much persuading. A boy should follow in his dads footsteps when it comes to football, well in my opinion anyway.

So in the following years as I grew older as visited my dad, he’d often take me to Highbury (RIP) and the odd away game. Never forget going to Highbury in close season 1986/87 to the Avenell Rd club shop. As we walked up the road I had a peek though some of the exit gates on to the pitch, a very sandy one at that and low and behold someone saw us and invited us into the ground. So in we went and there was the Littlewoods Cup in all its glory, couldn’t believe my eyes!! Luckily my dad had his camera so we stood on the pitch facing the East Stand we had a picture of us holding the Littlewoods Cup, Christmas had come bloody early that year!!

Arsenal soon became a drug that I was totally hooked on, always on teletext for news, checking sports bulletins on the radio and being first to the door when next weeks Pools arrived so I could see who we was playing. As well as all the kits and tracksuits, late 80’s was a great and excited time to be a young Arsenal supporter.

This never eased off as grew into my teens. I started going more with my mates and then my love for the clobber and a few matchday drinks soon took hold, the matchday view took a new but just as excited turn.

Now I’m in my mid 30’s admittedly I don’t go anywhere near as much. I have a young family to bring up and add to that, that Highbury is no more and plus sky high prices. It doesn’t leave my with the urge to go, I’ll always love the club like I did back as a nipper but going just isn’t the same anymore.

But next week for Southampton my next chapter supporting The Arsenal starts, I’m taking my 5 year old son to his first ever game. I’m not sure who’s giddier, me or him?

So the Arsenal journey starts all over again….

Thanks for reading.

Bobby


If you would like to tell your Arsenal story, click here 

Arsenal could charge as little as £21.25 to ALL fans

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In a follow up to the last couple of articles about ticket prices, I got to thinking (I know, it’s dangerous).

One of the interesting parts of my article yesterday was that if Arsenal offered all fans – both home and away- tickets for £20, they would have a deficit of arround £60,000,000 in gate receipts over the season. A big number. A number enough for the club to be greedy and boycott the Newcastle offer. What got me thinking though was ‘what would Arsenal have to charge to break even in terms of turnover, taking into account the new TV deal hitting the clubs this year.’

The magic number we are looking for is £100m, which was approximately Arsenal’s most recent published match day income. To try and achieve this, we need to break down (using approximations from when the stadium was 1st built as the club does not release full breakdown’s) the stadium, to ensure we do not include those club level/box seats.

Club Level generates around £18.5m per season
Box Seats generates £13.8m per season
Diamond Level generates £1m

So ‘non ordinary’ seats generates £33.3m a season (I am going to round it down to £33m). That leaves £67,000,000 in revenue to find from both the new TV deal, and the 53,000 ‘ordinary’ seats.

This year the Premier League Champions will likely get £40,000,000 more in TV money then Manchester United got last year. The increased difference between 1st and 20th is around £1.5m per place. Therefore, if Arsenal finish 4th, they will receive around £35.5m more then they did last season. Remember, we are attempting to find £67m. We have already found £35.5m in increased gate receipts. That leaves us with just £31.5m for Arsenal to match their most recent turnover with the TV deal taken into account.

So using similar maths that I used yesterday, that Arsenal will play 28 home games, how much would a ticket cost for Arsenal to match the previous turnover? Well the equation is simple.

£31,500,00 is what we are trying to find. Divide this by the total seats available – 53,000 – we get £595. Based on the 28 expected home games, Arsenal would need to charge every man, woman and child £21.25 per game to match the total turnover. Nearly Twenty’s Plenty hey!

To ensure I have got it right, lets work backwards. £21.25 times the 28 games is £595. Over the 53,000 ordinary seats we get £31.5m (and change).

Ordinary gate receipts + increase in TV money + executive seats = ?
£31.5m + £35.5m + £33.5m = £100.5m

In summary, the new TV deal should be making things cheaper for football fans. With all things taken into account, Arsenal could reduce match day tickets to a standard £21.25 per game throughout the ordinary seats, and still turnover the same amount as they did in 2012.  Sadly, when the new cash from the TV comes in, the leaches will come out and the money will go into the pockets of players, agents, and hangers on.

Writing this has made me feel a little sick. Tickets could be nearly halved and revenue remain the same. But greed will take over. My only hope is my maths is wrong, but I feel it is not. If it is wrong, I will apologise.

The Twenty’s Plenty is something I back. Not just for away fans, but for all fans. And my basic workings out shows that Arsenal’s revenue would remain the same, even with a reduction to £21.25. I imagine across the Premier League, all clubs could charge a similar amount, and revenues remain high.

Greed is killing our game. More fans get priced out every year. We can all dream. My dream is that next summer, with the money from the new TV deal coming in, Arsenal will announce season ticket prices of £550 and single match day tickets across the board of £21.25. A man has to have a dream.

Keenos