Tag Archives: Barcelona

Arsenal most followed Premier League club – Full stats revealed

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At the weekend, Arsenal passed 3,000,000 followers on Twitter, making them the first Premier League club to pass through the milestone. This surprised me when I see Mesut Ozil has over 4,000,000 and Justin Bieber has 46,000,000. I thought I would explore how many followers the rest of the Premier League have;

Premier League – 3,014,009
Arsenal – 3,005,680
Chelsea – 2,970,819
Liverpool – 2,086,130
Manchester United – 1,296,966*
Manchester City – 1,275,000*
Tottenham – 689,142
Newcastle – 304,220
Everton – 267,676
West Ham United – 228,383
Aston Villa – 221,244
Fulham – 177,848
Sunderland – 176,191
Swansea City – 171,814
Southampton – 156,853
Norwich City – 155,216
Stoke City – 148,038
West Browmich Albion – 104,770
Cardiff City – 79,997
Crystal Palace – 67,720
Hull City – 59,577

Now a lot can be made from the above data. You could argue that it is a cross-section of society and therefore indicates the level of support of each club throughout the world. But it would be ludicrous to claim that Manchester United have less supporters throughout the world than those above them – their amount of followers was surprisingly low.

What it does show is, Manchester United apart – Arsenal still have a strong world-wide supporters base, still above the nouveau clubs Chelsea and Manchester City. Although Chelsea have shown the amount of fans you can gain through success. Are they now supported more throughout the world than Liverpool? Perhaps.

What is certainly shows is Arsenal’s online presence. For a long time, it has been a belief of mine that Arsenal have the strongest online presence in the UK. We have the most and best blogs & podcasts. We eat up social media. It is why media outlets write so much about us, as they know writing about Arsenal will get more online hits then any other club.

And how does Europe compare?

Barcelona (English) – 10,438,412
Real Madrid (Spanish) – 9,318,902
Barcelona (Spanish) – 5,604,562
Barcelona (Catalan) – 3,898,654
Galatasaray – 3,238,592
Arsenal – 3,005,680
Chelsea – 2,970,819
Real Madrid (English) – 2,734,033
Fenerbache – 2,490,906
Liverpool – 2,086,130
AC Milan – 1,560,114
Manchester United – 1,296,966
Paris Saint-Germain – 900,593
Juventus – 836,397
Olympique Marseille – 774,761
Bayern Munich – 714,642
Borussia Dortmund – 611,246
Atletico de Madrid – 518,833
Inter Milan – 403,667
Valencia – 322,284
Ajax – 277,414
Celtic – 189,556
Olympique Lyonnais – 187,281
FC Porto – 134,317
Benfica – 132,109

A few things jump out. Firstly the popularity of Barcelona & Real Madrid. This clearly shows them as the two biggest clubs in the world. But also shows a fascination with both clubs outside of Spain. The fact that Barcelona’s English account is has the most followers shows the fascination with them outside of Spain, and in the UK itself. Real Madrid’s English account also being high shows the unhealthy fascination with Spanish football and El Classico within the UK.

The second thing was how high Galatasaray and Fenerbache were. this perhaps shows why the ‘Arab Spring’ spread so fast throughout Social Media such as Twitter and Facebook. Twitters popularity in the ‘middle east’ and surrounding area is interesting – and not really for a football blog – but the popularity in Turkey is likely to also be the reason why Mesut Ozil has 3,000,000 followers.

Lastly is the lack of followers both German clubs and other Central European sides have. Which shows more how little Twitter has taken off in Central Europe.

A lot of opinions can be made about Twitter, including size of football following, Twitter throughout the world, and popularity of social media throughout the world. Or you can just say this was boring and pointless.

Either way, I found it interesting

Keenos

*Manchester United also have an Official Indonesian account (93,747), Spanish (31,891) & Malaysian (9,551)
*Manchester City have an additional 9 foreign language accounts totaling 33,202
*All at time of writing, Noon on Sunday 3rd November

The League Cup – A Review of the Youngsters

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As always, the League Cup has allowed Arsenal fan’s and Arsene Wenger to see how the next crop of players do against a Premier League side.

Carl Jenkinson

Despite his experience, he is still just 21. A solid performance by him showing once more he is more than ready to play in the Premier League. Then again, we knew that already. Futures Bright

Isaac Hayden

He looked like an 18 year old centre back playing in central midfield. Which is exactly what he was. Despite him starting his youth career in the middle of the park, he has more recently been playing in the heart of the defence. He looked off the pace and was lucky to not be sent off after numerous yellow card worthy challenges in the 1st half. Expect him to be in the side in next years 3rd round, but playing at centre back. Jury Out

Thomas Eisfield

A make or break year for the German. Has looked good in the youth team and reserves, but he turns 21 in January so is very much a ‘senior’ youth player. Despite his goal, he was very quiet and failed this test. Would not be surprised if this is his last year at the club. Futures Elsewhere

Ryo Miyaichi

Ran down a lot of blind alley’s. Crossing was poor. He certainly did not light the game up. An injury last year hampered his progress, but he does not look Arsenal class. Bit like Eisfield, this was his big chance. He did not take it. Futures Elsewhere

Serge Gnarby

Similar display to Ryo Miyaichi, but a bit more impressive. Looked to take his man on at every time, but as with the 1st half against Stoke, always seems to look inside. Played in well by Jenksinon in the 1st half. He is someone to be excited about, having just turned 18. Good performance and will surely build on it as he plays more. Could do with a loan out to a Premier League side to get regular play. Futures Bright

Chuba Akpom

Stuck out on the right. Would of preferred to see him of come on for Bendtner in the middle. He would have scored that chance when clean through in the 1st half of Extra Time. Failed to do much on the right wing. Was not a good performance, but he can not be blamed for that. Would of liked to of seen him down the middle. Jury Out

Kristoffer Olsson

Replaced Hayden, but was equally as quiet as Eisfield. This was perhaps a year too early for the young Swede who has just turned 18. Expect him to be in the 1st XI in this competition next year, where we will really see if he is good enough to step up. Jury Out

Hector Bellerin

Showed his versatility by coming on for Arteta in the middle of the park. Whilst his future lies on the right, he showed the technique and ability on the ball that all graduates of Barcelona’s La Masia have. A few wild shots towards the end showed confidence, if not brain. I look forward to watching his development. Futures Bright

The next generation of Arsenal stars do not look good enough (excluding Gedion Zelalem). The 20 year old’s (Eisfield, Miyachi) did not look good enough. This game has come a year too early for those who are 2 years younger (Olsson, Bellerin, Gnarby), but even still, there are now 18. What is for sure is there is not a Cesc, Wilshere or Oxlade-Chamberlain amongst them. I wonder if there is even a Denilson, Aliadiere, Bendtner or Vela, or even a Quincy Owusu-Abeyie or Lupoli.

Ps: Hats off to the 3 18 year old’s Gnabry, Olsson & Akpom for stepping up and taking penalties under the pressure.

Keenos

Mesut Ozil brings end to Cesc Fabregas ‘homecoming’

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Ever since Cesc Fabregas left Arsenal to go home to Barcelona, there has been talk of his return to the Emirates.

This has been fueled by his wife and daughter still living in London and his inability to establish himself in the Barcelona first team. Reports are that his dream move back to his childhood club has not been the dream he expected, with fans continually getting on his back. It was supposed to be the prodigal son returning. But it ended up just reminding the world of why he left to begin with – Xavi and Iniesta blocking his progress.

With Barcelona currently in the middle of a financial crisis, up to their eyeballs in debt, they struggle to finance future transfers. This year saw them sign one player, Neymar. He was financed by the sales of David Villa and Thiago Alcantara. This lead to a net transfer deficit of €26 Million. It also does not take into account how much of the Neymar transfer was paid by Nike. The mathematics are simple, Barcelona need to sell to buy. And with Cesc Fabregas, he is certainly 1 player who is surplus to requirements, alongside Alexis Sanchez.

Reports this summer indicated that Fabregas was on the market and Barcelona were willing to listen to offers for him. This lead to Manchester Uniteds £40 million pursuit of the Catalonian midfielder. It was Cesc’s reluctance to join Manchester United rather than Barcelona’s reluctance to sell which lead to a deal not happening.. Cesc Fabregas is most definitely on the market.

So why has he not yet joined Arsenal? I hear you all ask. Well the response is simple, the signing of Mesut Ozil.

The signing of the German puts a halt on any possibility of Cesc Fabregas returning to the club. Cesc’s favourite position is in the number 10 role, where Ozil will play. Alongside Cazorla, Rosicky and Oxlade-Chamberlain, we are now well stocked in the number 10 position. To now buy Cesc would be unthinkable.

Mesut Ozil is 18 months younger than Cesc Fabregas. Despite him seemingly being around for years – he first came to prominence when named man of the match in a 4–0 win over England during the 2008 U-21 European Championship final, before staring for Germany at the 2010 World Cup at just 20 – he is still just 24. Cesc is an old man at 26!

Even Fabregas himself admits that Ozil will shine in the Premier League, stating in Al Primer Toque;

“His style is nailed on for Arsenal. It’s a league with a lot more spaces and he is a player that, with [such] spaces, can kill you. We have seen it with Real Madrid. He has a brilliant final ball and in the Premier he will enjoy it a lot.”

So with the signing of Mesut Ozil, there is no longer space for Cesc Fabregas.

There is a possibility that he could play deeper. But with Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere both capable of playing there, can a £26million investment in Cesc Fabregas be justified? Probably not. Especially when we have other area’s of the team that still needs to be improved on.

It leaves Cesc in a little bit of limbo. Arsenal no longer need him. Barcelona will listen to offers for him. So where will he end up? Or do we care?

I don’t, because we’ve got Mesut Ozil.

Keenos