Tag Archives: Arsène Wenger

No noise, from the Arsenal Board

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It’s so quiet,
It’s so quiet,
It’s so quiet, over there.

Is this the Emirates?,
Is this the Emirates?.
Is this the Emirates?

The lack of noise that has come out of Arsenal since Sunday’s defeat to Brighton has been deafening.

On the South-Coast, not a single board member had the decency to turn up and support the team. They are not supporters, they are share holders, employees and leaches.

One director, Lord Harris of Peckham, has previously spoken about how football is not even his first love. Horse racing takes that mantle. And when I say horse racing, not the Ascot kind, but the gay kind where horses jump over pretty little fences.

Worth over £100m in his own right, having been the founder of Carpetright, Philip Charles Harris, Baron Harris of Peckham, has pumped millions into Equestrian and the Conservative Party, but does not even buy his own tickets for Arsenal.

I was not expecting much from this Arsenal board. I was expecting no vote of confidence, no statement. For too long, they have hidden behind Arsene Wenger. Allowed the Frenchman to take the blame – which has deserved – whilst sitting quietly.

The only time they were heard from was at the shareholders AGM. Like Peter Hill-Wood before him, Arsenal Chairman Sir Chips Keswick treats fans with disdain.

Back in 2007, Danny Fizsman declared that “the board…are the custodians of this club”. At the time, the likes of David Dein, Fizsman and others felt that they owned and operated the club on behalf of the wider Arsenal fan base.

The likes of the Hill-Wood and Bracewell Smith (and Carr) families had been custodians of the club since World War II. Their families were Arsenal through and through. Although as the generations went on, interest seemed to wane until Peter Hill-Wood and Nina Bracewell Smith decided to sell up completely. The Carr’s have also sold up most, if not all, of their shares.

In the early 1990’s, Arsenal were run by the Dein / Fizsman axis. There is no doubting either of their love for the club.

Dein and Fizsman bought success back to the club. Firstly alongside George Graham, and then with Arsene Wenger at the helm. They were key bringing the likes of Dennis Bergkamp to the club.

Both men were regulars over The Arsenal. Home and away. Reserves and ladies. It can not be a coincidence that Arsenal were successful when we had owners, board members and custodians that loved the fans like they were fans.

Fast forward to 2018…

The aforementioned Sir Chips Keswick was first appointed as an Arsenal director in November 2005. At the same time, his partner in crime Lord Harris of Peckham was also appointed to the Arsenal board.

For me these two are as culpable as anyone for the current situation of the club.

They are supposed to be the Arsenal men on the board, but clearly do not care. They drink their whiskey, smoke their cigars, and sit on their thousand pound oak chairs within the confides of the Arsenal stadium chuckling to themselves. Turning up to private members clubs in the city, for them being an Arsenal director is a status thing and nothing else.

Arsenal Football Club’s longest-serving director, Ken Friar OBE has been a mainstay of the Club for more than 60 years. His love for the club is 6 decades long but, at the age of 83, he clearly does not have the energy for it anymore.

Keswick, 78, Harris, 75 and Friar, 83, are simply not fit for purpose. They are not visionaries. They have no place in Arsenal’s future.

You then have the majority share holder, “Silent” Stan Kroenke.

It should not be a surprise that we have heard from him, we never do. He sees himself as a shareholder of the club, nothing more. No different to being a shareholder in Tesco or Toys R Us. He invests his money in successful companies, then allows the companies to keep operating the way they were.

On the pitch, Arsenal might not have been successful, but off the pitch the share price has trebled since Kroenke first bought his shares back in 2007. He will see his ownership as a success.

Ivan Gazidis’ silence is surprising. He is a man who has no Arsenal connections, but seems to understand the class and heritage of what comes with being involved in Arsenal. He has carried on many a tradition, and is seen at every game. His no-show against Brighton is a surprise.

He is not an investor, but just an employee. The club pay him over £2m to do his job. In the past, people have questioned what he does. Our commercial revenue is shocking, and even the resent “house deals” with shirt sponsorship seems below par.

We are nearly £200m down in yearly commercial income in comparison to Manchester United.

Compare Gazidis to Daniel Levy over at Spurs. One has raised a club up (although not won anything yet), whilst the other has taken others good work before him, and taken us backwards.

Lastly we have Josh Kroenke, the son of Silent Stan.

He joined the board of Arsenal Football Club in December 2013, and is rumoured to have recently moved to London on the long-term basis to oversee Arsenal. No one knows what he does, probably nothing. And he probably just fancied 6 months in London, see the Queen, etc.

It is no surprise that the board have gone missing, as they have been silent for over a decade. They are no longer the custodians of the club. They have let down the fans badly.

One person who has been surprisingly silent is Alisher Usmanov. He usually jumps on Arsenal’s troubles, writing letters to the board and the fans.

With his partner in crime Farhad Moshiri joining Everton, you have to wonder if Usmanov he has lost interest in Arsenal.

My bet is he wants out. He realises he will never own Arsenal, Kroenke will never let that happen. He now his eyes set on Everton. It perhaps shows he was more interested in owning a football club, than owning Arsenal. He often portrayed himself as a lifelong fan, but he was no more a fan than Roman was of Chelsea or the Sheik’s supported Manchester City.

Usmanov is between a rock and a hard place.

He knows that he will never own Arsenal. Kroenke will never sell to him. But he owns about 30% of the club, and they are pretty much meaningless.

At £30,000 a share, Usmanov’s holdings are worth over £600,000,000. No one is going to spend that much money to not have a say in affairs. Likewise, he is not going to find 20,000 individuals who are happy spending £30,000 on a single share.

The only possible buyer would be Stan Kroenke. But he has no need to buy anymore shares, as being majority share holder he can pretty much do what he wishes with the club.

Kroenke owns the club as an investment, he is not going to pay a premium on shares that could make him a loss.

This leaves Usmanov unable to sell his current shares, unable to invest properly in Everton. Unable to make Arsene Wenger Everton’s new manager.

His silence is because he just does not care anymore.

Even the journalists who are in Arsenal’s pocket have barely lifted their head over the parapet.

At times of crisis, the likes of John Cross and Matt Law have often been drip fed sound bites from the club, so that they can attempt to spin it back to pro-Arsenal; pro-Wenger. The club is under lockdown.

And a look over at the Twitter page sums it all up.

At the time of writing (15:20 on Monday afternoon), Arsenal have not tweeted for 20 hours.

Nothing from the board, nothing from the Arsenal journalists, nothing from Twitter. It is almost like everyone has been told say nothing.

There has been talk of an emergency meeting being held on Monday. But this is one of them “mates of a mate of a mate” things. Like the bloke who knows a security guard, or the geezer who works in insurance. It is all probably a load of ITK rubbish.

We have to hear from Arsenal by Wednesday, as that is when Arsene Wenger will hold his pre-game Europa League press conference.

Until then, maintain radio silence.

Keenos

 

10 reasons why going Arsenal is no longer fun

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  1. The club is rotten from the top – Against Brighton, not a single board member felt the need to turn up. We have a majority shareholder who does not see himself as a business owner, 2 directors who do not care, and an underperforming CEO.
  2. The manager can see no fault – Arsene Wenger does not want Arsenal to fail. But the fact is he can no longer come up with a solution to stop us failing. His comments are disrespectful to fans and his inability to shoulder any blame is becoming boring.
  3. The players do not care – Back in 1995, after the George Graham scandal, Arsenal’s senior players bashed each others heads together and drove us to the ECWC Final. They cared about the club. The current crop clearly do not care. They go home to their fortified mansions, lock themselves away and play FIFA.
  4. On the pitch – All of this leads to the situation that Arsenal currently face on the pitch. I love Arsenal, not just Arsenal with trophies, but it is becoming a struggle to turn up to games with a board, a manager and players who do not care.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

But it is not just on the pitch matters

  1. TV Companies – The likes of Sky TV and BT Sports only care about the fans who watch on TV. Of course they would, as that is their paid audience. But the Premier League allow them to dictate kick off times. Allow themselves to get bullied for a few billion pounds.
  2. Kick off times – This leads to kick off times really killing the game. We travel up to Newcastle on a Sunday for a 1.30pm kick off. We have not had a single Saturday 3pm away game this season. And just four 3pm home games on a Saturday. It is killing the day out that happens before and after the game.
  3. The police – The police really are turning into the fun police. Walking around pubs in Islington constantly on a game day with their body cam on, recording everything. My car got nicked a few weeks ago. The police have not even come around. Bet if I had an argument at a game, they would soon knock on my door.
  4. The pubs – Alongside the police wearing body cams, so do Wetherspoons staff. Both in the White Swan and the Angel. Why? Pubs are closing down left, right and centre on Holloway Road, and now the White Swan are banning people for having a sing son in the pub. Their policy now seems to be no fun, sit and drink quietly. I was informed during the League Cup Final that I was banned from the White Swan. The reason? Alex from the Angel did not feel comfortable serving you. I took a picture of him whilst he was filming me and my mates.
  5. Fellow fans – As if we did not have enough with the police and the bar staff recording us, fellow Arsenal fans are also constantly recording each other. All for a few hits on their YouTube channel, a little bit of attention on Social Media.
  6. Social Media – Anyone who follows me on Twitter will know I left \t the beginning of last year. I got bored of it. Attention seekers fighting for their 15 seconds of fame. The constant moaning and over analysis of everything. People living 24/7 on social media. It became depressing. It is depressing. What happened to a few beers with your mates in the pub, then get on with your working week? Now people spend every single day tweeting about Arsenal. And that just gets boring.

Keenos

A poem for The Arsenal

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Arsenal, my Arsenal, oh what have you done

You’ve turned the love of my life, into something not fun

We used to be one, now there is one great big split

So what happened to our, ‘Victoria Concordia Crescit’

For me it started when you ditched our great crest

Our emblem, our history, the badge we wore on our chest

Our left facing Cannon, was now pointing right

But at the time we were successful, and the future looked bright

So next came the news “we need to move to compete”

“Highbury’s too small, can’t take any more seats”

as things were good on the pitch, with our Double – Double Team

we all bought in, as you sold this new dream

So we finish at Highbury, and we all shed a tear

But your promise of bigger things, made us leave with a cheer

But by selling Invincibles, you were just getting set

to soften the burden, of our Emirates debt

So we move in to our new stadium, and to be fair it’s a beaut

But we realise that quite soon that someone’s hit ‘mute’

No real atmosphere, as our heart’s up the road

and a hoiyk-up in prices, gave club coffers a load

We’re told that “in a few years the Stadium’s paid”

And when that is so, we’ll give the transfer market a raid

So we accept at that time, title challenge no more

And make our seasons aim, to target top 4

Then comes dear Ivan, the club’s lying hound

“By summer 14, we’ll have paid for the ground”

“we’ll soon be in position, to compete with best”

“On and off the pitch with Europe’s elite”……….yeah right, and the rest !

While all this goes on, our stars walk out the door

We hear ‘keep faith in Wenger’, as we reach the top 4

Now credit where due, to Arsene’s Champions League run

With the likes of Denilson, Squillaci, Chamakh……… no one else could have done

But we start to get thumped, when we play all the best

Money still pores in, and you feather your nest

A rift between Gooners, some claim AKB

The WOB s know time’s up…….born is AFTV

Media add year on year, counting our trophy drought

And to deflect from the failings, the excuses come out

On field failings are Arsene’s, but what does he blame

Poor Officials, us Fans, or Financial fair play

The cycle continues, more years of groundhog,

But the FA Cup gives success, and a lift from the fog

3 in 4 years, Wenger should have gone then

With a bow out of success, we could move on again

But he decides to stay on, despite the media knives,

The Shadow Dwellers get it together, and things start to dive

The emergence of Tottenham, to ‘put pressure on’ 😉

Would you adam n eve it, our “4th place is a trophy” has gone

Then Ivan again spouts his “catalyst for change”

But within 9 months, the sale of Sanchez arranged

The downward spiral, it begins to get worse

Everyone in football knows, Arsenal’s bubble has burst

But the stubborn old fool, still won’t change his style

any half decent defence, sees it coming a mile

All this pass pass pass sideways, then through the eye of a needle

Its failing, Is he winding us up ?…… Where’s Jeremy Beadle ?

Continually spanked by the big boys,  time after time

Europa League & a Cup run, you tell us that’s fine

The odd signing is made, to keep us believing

But according to Ivan, we’re “over achieving”.

Given your promises, you’ve come up well short

So why not make changes ? ….. Project Wenger abort

So many insipid performances, means our league challenge over

How can ‘compete’ mean, we’re out the race by October

You treat us like punters, we’re pounds, shillings and pence.

Put some of that money, into coaching defence

From our point of view, you just don’t give a toss

As long as turnstiles keep clicking, to come watch this dross

We are not fucking customers, you sold us a dud

A customer goes elsewhere, but this club’s in our blood

You know we can’t do that, we cannot resort

But in truth you are nothing, without our support

So as we stand now, our club has gone stale

and generations of Gooners, are starting to bail

But no change from the boardroom, they don’t think like a fan

Coz share prices are up, to fund a new Ranch for Stan

This season for many, is the final straw

30 points behind Leaders, and our football’s a bore

We’ve gone like this for too long, it’s time for a change

That City Cup Final showed the world, we’re well out of range

Our match support wains, so many empty seats

My boy won’t go anymore, it’s the same old repeats

We look at the crowd, and wonder what the amount

You announce 58,000, do you think we can’t fucking count ?

What next for our Gunners, we really don’t know

But one thing’s for sure Arsene, it’s passed time to go

The Board have put Gooners, at fan civil war

as ‘The Arsenal’ we fell in love with, is sadly no more

But we cling on in hope, that our Gunners pull through

will Kroenke and board, appoint a boss with a clue ?

One day ‘the Syrup’, Gazidis, and Wenger will exit

then perhaps we’ll get back to, Victoria Concordia Crescit

George