Tag Archives: Chelsea

Study finds Arsenal have “cheapest tickets in Premier League”

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I hate the BBC’s Price of Football.

it does not give a fair reflection of the actual price of football, and is often used by lazy journalists to bash Arsenal for season ticket prices.

My biggest gripe is that it ignores that Arsenal fans get 26 matches for their season ticket cost, whilst every other Premier League club get just 19. That is 35% more games. It is unfair to compare them.

You would not expect Arsenal to have equal season ticket prices to Tottenham, Chelsea or Liverpool when they get 35% more games.

When you break it down per game, Arsenal cheapest season ticket is actually cheaper than those previously 2 mentioned clubs.

What is also ignored is that you can pay just £26 for tickets to Arsenal games.

A Fulham fan recently did a study on ticket prices.

They picked “behind the goal” tickets and looked into the cheapest and most expensive. A seat behind the goal for Category C games at Arsenal is the cheapest ticket in the Premier League.

At £26, Arsenal’s cheapest ticket behind the goal is half the price of one for Chelsea. It is something that the media would not talk about as it would not get the hits, clicks and advertising revenue.

I have always been a fan of the way Arsenal categorise games.

The lesser games are Cat C, providing a cheap opportunity for people to go to games. The big games are Cat A.

It suits those who are happy to go to any game just to watch The Arsenal no matter the opponent. Anyone who pays game by game for every match pays an average prices. The only fans who are “punished” are those who decide only to go to the big games – Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City.

I am always of the opinion that you can not really moan about Cat A prices if you do not want to go to Cat C games. Go to both and the prices average out. Go to just Cat A and it is clear you only have an interest in big games.

Of course, the argument is easily (and rightly) made that Cat A is too expensive.

The research by the Fulham fan shows that Arsenal’s most expensive “behind the goal” ticket is £90 – although this is upper tier. The most expensive lower tier “behind the goal” ticket is £64.

I am all for reducing ticket prices. They are across the board, not only at Arsenal or in the Premier League but down through the leagues.

For example Arsenal’s £26 is just £4 more than it would cost to pay on the gate to stand behind the goal at a Colchester United game in League Two.

My personal opinion has always been that the Cat A ticket prices subsidise Cat C, the League Cup, etc. That without Cat A, you could then not have the cheap Cat C tickets. And if someone only wants to go to Cat A games; that is their problem.

Manchester United do not have category tickets. Prices are the same no matter the opponent – £36. An Arsenal fan, on average, would pay £40 a ticket behind the goal if they went to every Premier League game. A difference of just £4.

So you could (and many do) make the argument that Arsenal should scrap category pricing and just charge a stand price for all games – in this case $30 to sit behind the goal in the lower tier.

Personally I would rather keep our system, have Cat A, B & C and offer the cheapest adult tickets behind the goal in the Premier League.

Keenos

Chelsea transfer ban highlights Brexit issue for UK clubs

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Last week Cheslea were banned from signing players in the next two transfer windows for breaching FIFA rules in relation to the transfer of youth players.

Chelsea have also been fined £460,000, while the Football Association (FA) has been fined £390,000.

It comes following a Fifa investigation into Chelsea’s signing of foreign under-18 players, including former striker Bertrand Traore.

The world governing body says it found breaches in 29 cases out of 92 investigated.

“We welcome the fact Fifa has accepted that there was no breach in relation to 63 of these players, but the club is extremely disappointed that Fifa has not accepted the club’s submissions in relation to the remaining 29 players,” said a statement from the Stamford Bridge club.

“Chelsea acted in accordance with the relevant regulations and will shortly be submitting its appeal to Fifa.”

Fifa bans the transfer of under-18s to different countries unless they meet strict criteria. It brought in the rules to help protect children from exploitation and trafficking.

Under-18s can only be transferred abroad if:

  • The player’s parents move to the country in which the new club is located for non-footballing reasons.
  • Both clubs are in the European Union or European Economic Area and the player is aged between 16 and 18. Even then, the buying club must meet more criteria relating to education, training, living conditions and support.
  • They live within 100km of the club.

It is the second of those criteria that will cause concern for British clubs.

As it stands British clubs are able to sign player’s aged under-18 year old from other countries that are in the EU or EEA. That is how Arsenal were able to sign a 15-year-old Cesc Fabregas, amongst others.

Once Britain officially leave the EU on March 29th they will fall outside of this criteria, putting an end to sides being able to sign a footballer under the age of 18 from a club within the EU.

Buying players from Spain, Italy or Romania will then full under the same strict rules as signing a player from Burkina Faso.

It is likely British clubs will attempt to get around this ruling in the same way they get around rejected UK work visa’s – they could use a partner club within the EU to sign the player, park him there for 2 or 3 years before signing him from that club.

Leaving the EU could make it easier to sign senior players from outside the EU however.

Britain currently has very strict work visa rules for those coming from outside the EU. This is due to freedom of movement for EU states meaning that the UK Home Office have to apply stricter rules to control net immigration figures.

Once out of the EU, citizens from around Europe will not have a right to come to the UK to live and work. They will have to apply for a work visa alongside everyone else from around the world.

This will naturally see a reduction in EU players coming to England; which in turn could lead to visa’s being accepted for non-EU footballers who would have fallen below the previous visa rules.

No longer being able to recruit your Paul Pogba’s, Cesc Fabregas’s or Gael Clichy’s will impact on English football. However it will also see young English lads get a chance to remain at the club until they are at least 18, instead of reaching 16 and finding their place in the academy taken by a foreign recruit.

It is one to watch.

Keenos

Arsenal to target Chelsea youngster

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I was trying to write a blog on what central defender Arsenal should target in the summer.

Kalidou Koulibaly has been many peoples long term favourite to join the club. He is also a favourite of fans of Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United. He will not join Arsenal.

Reality is he is coming up to 27-years-old and is at his peak – both in ability terms and financially.

In December, Napoli confirmed that they had rejected  a £95million bid from Manchester United for the defender. It should be noted that their owner Aurelio De Laurentiis is a film producer and has a reputation for fabricating stories.

Arsenal would be silly to spend the bulk of their transfer fund on a single central defender – no matter how good he is. This summer we need to sign a defender, a left back, a central midfielder and at least one attacking players – winger / forward. If we go all in on Koulibaly we will not have much left.

What we need to do is focus on signing the next Koulibaly.

This means going for someone a little less established. A bit more of a risk. A younger player. Think a 22-year-old Koulibaly when he joined Napoli; or a Virgil van Dijk-type signing when he joined Southampton for £13million.

What we will not be doing is buying the established Koulibaly or van Dijk.

So I set myself a task of looking for central defenders who were aged under 25-years-old. Players who are not fully establish as world beaters, but could certainly become one.

First on the list was AC Milan’s Alessio Romagnoli.

The Italian central defender is everything an Italian central defender should be. Just 24-years-old and already captain of AC Milan, he is the future of the Italian defence. However this would also mean that Juventus would also see him as their future. It is surely only a matter of time until they make their move to replace the ageing Andrea Barzagli (37) and Giorgio Chiellini (34).

Romagnoli will be top of their list. And like with Bayern Munich in Germany, Italian’s just do not turn down Juventus.

Like Romagnoli, José Giménez at Atletico Madrid is a fabulous player but also already too well establish. His team mate Lucas Hernandez is more likely and apparently wants out at Madrid’s second club.

I would be worried about whether Hernandez is physical enough for the Premier League. He reminds me of Calum Chambers. Not quite bit enough to play in the middle, not quite athletic enough to play at left back.

The next two fairly obvious names to look at were Matthijs de Ligt and Dayot Upamecano.

Both are clearly the two best teenage centre backs on the planet at the moment. And that is the problem.

They are superstars in waiting, which means they come with a press tag to represent their potential. De Ligt has already been linked with Barcelona, and Upamecano linked with Bayern Munich. There would be a lot of competition for the pair which would probably end up pricing Arsenal out. Upamecano perhaps the more realistic.

What would perhaps be a more realistic deal would be targeting Upamecano’s team mate at RB Leipzeg – Ibrahima Konaté.

A year younger than his fellow Frenchman, Konate is less polished and less experienced but his price tag would be more reasonable. Would he be ready to start week in week out however?

I then came across who I think would be the ideal candidate. Chelsea’s Andreas Christensen.

Arsenal were interested a then-15-year-old Christensen way back in 2012. He chose Chelsea.

He made his debut at 18-years-old before joining the mass ranks of Chelsea loanees for the 2015/16 season.

Unlike the other 30-odd players out on loan, Christensen quickly established himself as a regular at Borussia Mönchengladbach in the Bundesliga.

Playing 31 league games in his first season, he won Mönchengladbach’s Player of the Year. Chelsea decided not to break the two-year loan deal and left him in Germany for a second season, where he impressed again.

He returned at 21-years-old with over 80 first team games in Germany under his belt. He looked ready for the Premier League.

2017/18 was a fruitful first season for Christensen with Chelsea.

He signed a new four-and-half-year deal with Chelsea running until 2022, after establishing himself in the first team and was named Chelsea’s Young Player of the Year.

Christensen made 40 appearances for the Blues in 2017/18 before a back injury ruled him out of the FA Cup Final.

This season Christensen has made just 2 starts in the Premier League for Chelsea – with Maurizio Sarri preferring Antonio Rüdiger and David Luiz; both of whom have played 25 out of the 26 league games so far.

The Danish international has seemingly fallen out with the Chelsea manager, including an incident now known as pee-gate.

If Sarri remains at Chelsea next year, he is unlikely to stay. And even if the Italian manager leaves, Christensen might feel it is time to seek first team football elsewhere.

Arsenal would be signing a 23-year-old central defender with 3 full seasons of top flight football under his belt in both Germany and – perhaps more crucially – in England.

He is Premier League proven and was once labelled by Antonio Conte as the present and future of Chelsea:

“This player is a player for the present for Chelsea, and for Chelsea’s future for 10 or 12 years. He can also become the captain of this team in the future.”

With both Chelsea likely to want him out, and the player himself wanting to leave, he could be available for less than £35million, which would easily fit into Arsenal’s budget.

He would be able to stay in London and would walk straight into Arsenal’s first XI alongside Sokratis.

I am going to stick my flag to wall. Put a name out there. Andreas Christensen is the central defender I want Arsenal to sign this summer.

Keenos