Tag Archives: Premier League

Ramsey, Mertesacker, Ozil, Cazorla and More

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So just a few thoughts this morning on a few things Arsenal…

Aaron Ramsey

I have already professed my admiration for Aaron Ramsey in a previous blog where I made the claim that he is a future Arsenal captain. I will not go over old ground again, other than to say he is continuing to progress and, with 5 goals in 6 games, is now adding the much missed goals to his game. I remember when he played against England and dominated Frank Lampard & Steven Gerrard. Were Ramsey English, there would be plenty of hype around him. With the goals now added to his game, if he continues his progression, he will become a better player then Lampard and Gerrard.

Per Mertesacker

‘He has no pace’ people moaned. ‘We can get better’ they complained. ‘He is awful’ was the consensus by man. However, you do not win 93 caps for a nation such as Germany  at 28 by being a poor player. Anyone who fully understands football could see he is a brilliant player. Positioning and leadership. Who needs pace if you are impossible to get around? It is often said you only realise how good a player is when he is not playing, and the talk on the train after Sunderland was how much we missed the big man. The defence lacked organisation and leadership without him. With Koscielny giving away is 53rd penalty in an Arsenal shirt just highlighting that Per Mertesacker is head and shoulders above any other Arsenal centre back. In my opinion, he is the best defender in the league. Make your judgement on watching him play, not on playing with him on FIFA.

Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla

Against Sunderland, we got a glimpse of what Mesut Ozil can do. Always in space. Always ready to receive the ball. A brilliant touch. Brilliant vision. A fantastic assist for the 1st goal, and well involved for the 3rd. He might of tired towards the end but he showed what £42.5million gets you. Now add Santi Cazorla into the mix and the excitement is mouth watering. These two could propel us to the title. They will set up goals for fun. And with Oliver Giroud now having the confidence to go alongside his ability, he would get 30 goals plus. For me, we now have the most creative midfield in the Premier League.

Theo Walcott

Theo got a lot of criticism during the Sunderland game. Two missed chances (I will not count the header) and people were on his back. Let me get a few things straight. Neither chance was clear cut. The angle was against him and Westwood made 2 good saves. Last year, Theo Walcott got 21 goals and 14 assists. He is a very good player. After criticism playing for England, we as Arsenal fans need to back him. He is a massive confidence player. Get off his back. Sing his name. And he will start scoring again. Look at Ramsey as an example. Part of the reason he is improving is confidence. Let us not get on Theo’s back. It will not help him, it will not help Arsenal. Leave your boo’s and criticism to the pubs after the game.

British Transport Police

Brilliant job by the British Transport Police on the train back from Sunderland yesterday. There was no hint of anything until they came along. Then in their own special, antagonizing way, created an issue and tension where there was no need. Do they have a quota to fill? Do they have to show they have stopped and searched a certain amount of football fans on a game day? Getting told to stop signing is ludicrous. It is not illegal to sing. Chap on our train was right, rugby act worse. Are noisier. Drink more. Yet the police do nothing with the tarquin’s. Renditions from us of ‘Swing Low’ and The National Anthem did not go down well. The hour of singing Christmas carols was hilarious. But any policeman reading this. Why? Why do you need to act the way you do? Stopping young men doing nothing wrong except enjoying themselves? Football fans, victimized. On a side note, met some good lads on the Sunderland train! 5 hour journey, plenty of beer, some good laughs. Enjoy Marseille to those that are going!

Title Contenders?

SAY WE ARE TOP THE LEAGUE, SAY WE ARE TOP THE LEAGUE

We are a title contender. I do not care what the boo boys say. What the press say. We have the best defence in the Premier League and the most creative midfield. When we compare to other Premier League sides, I do not see why we can not win the league. We have a better 1st XI then Manchester United – I also think we have a better squad, and Moyes does not have a clue!; Chelsea are strong, both in 1st XI and squad, but there defeat against Everton shows they are not unbeatable. They could suffer from not having a consistent 1st XI. Manchester City have not gone forward this season. Poor signings in Fernandinho and Navas, and unneeded signings in Negrado and Jovetic. With the likes of David Silva and Sergio Aguero, they will be a threat. But we can compete. As for Liverpool and Spurs. They are of no threat.

We are title contenders. Our players are good enough. We as fans just need to make sure we are the twelve man every game. To cheer the lads to victory.

Arsenal Football Club – 2013/14 Premier League Champions; Why not?

Keenos

Arsenal no longer most expensive Premier League club to watch

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The BBC Sport Price of Football survey has been released today with great fan fare, and once again, Arsenal have been labelled as the club with the most expensive season ticket. This will be used once more by papers and radio stations to bash us and criticise us. Lets not forget last season, the press hyperbole resulted in the ticket price protest by City fans at the Emirates last season. Which then in itself was used to bash the club further.

Whilst I am not going to attempt to justify our season ticket price, it is too high and prices out the man on the Clapham Omnibus, what I hate is when my club, our club, Arsenal is attacked by all and sundry. Whether it is the press highlighting our disciplinary record, our lack of Englishman, our trophy drought, or our ticket prices. This is then picked up by opposing fans, who then continue to attack out club using what they have read in the papers or listened to on the radio. It is every man’s duty to defend his club.

The headlines from today’s survey will end up getting written as ‘Arsenal have most expensive Season ticket price again.’ Whilst based on the grand total of the season ticket, it is true, we are the most expensive, when you break it down to what we get, the headlines are simply a lie. Spun to bash The Arsenal. Lets look at some FACTS.

  • Arsenal’s season ticket covers 26 games. The 19 league games and the first 7 Champions League/FA Cup games. No other Premier League club does this.
  • This means our cheapest season ticket price per game is £37.88, and most expensive is £75.19
  • Tottenham Hotspur’s cheapest season ticket per game is £39.21, their most expensive is £99.73 – Both more expensive than Arsenal
  • A season ticket for the Shed End Lower will cost you £39.47 per game, Chelsea’s cheapest
  • At Liverpool, their cheapest ticket per game is £37.36, although this is a restricted view. Their cheapest unrestricted is £38.15
  • Liverpool’s cheapest individual ticket is £38. £12 more then Arsenal’s at £26

Again, to re-iterate my point, I am not justifying Arsenals ticket price here. What I am pointing out is we are not the most expensive club to go and watch. We sit 4th behind Chelsea, Tottenham and Liverpool.

What the above shows is that Arsenal should offer two tiers of ticket prices. An idea first bought up by the Black Scarf Movement, a ‘Season Ticket Lite’ where cup games are not including would make tickets a tad more affordable. It would bring our cheapest season ticket down to £720. Whilst the average ticket price per game remains the same, fans make a huge 20% saving on their season ticket purchase in July.

Whilst doing this research, I glanced over various rival club’s websites to pull the data of cheapest and most expensive ticket prices. I ignore Manchester City as, whilst they are very cheap – they offer the cheapest in the Premier League – they do not rely on match day income to buy players and strengthen their squad. If FFP comes in properly (it won’t) there prices will soon sky rocket. One club did surprise me, however. Manchester United.

Manchester United’s lowest season ticket price works out to £28 per game (£532). There most expensive is £50 per game (£950). Now I know Old Trafford has 75,000 seats, therefore meaning that they can offer slightly lower prices to other clubs, whilst still maintaining high revenue, but these prices are very much affordable. Manchester United also supplement match day revenue with a lot of very good commercial deals.

So over the last few years, Manchester United have had affordable ticket prices and success. Surely this should be the model every club should be striving for? Hopefully as we continue to pay down our stadium debt and increase our commercial deals, we might see ticket prices starting to drop, as we no longer become as reliant on match day revenue.

A final thought, ticket pricing justifies our move to the Emirates. Whilst some might see this as controversial. Look at Tottenham. They are in a tiny stadium and are unable to compete in the Premier League due to a low match day revenue. This is forcing them to continually put their season ticket price up as the only way to increase revenue. For a team who has not won the league in over 50 years to have the countries most expensive ticket prices is shocking, and should be highlighted in the press (it won’t). Had we stayed at Highbury, our season ticket prices would have been much, much higher.

Yes, our most expensive single game ticket at £126 is disgusting, the club should get credit for having a cheapest ticket now at £26. This now means a father can take his two kids for less than £100. Fairly affordable! OK, he can not go to watch Manchester United or Spurs at the Emirates for this, but he should be teaching his kids that it is Arsenal that is important, not just the big games.

This information by no means justifies our ludicrously high season ticket prices. And the higher prices go throughout other clubs, the more it will be to go away. However, the aim this article is just to put some sensible talk out there against the media bashing who continually criticise our ticket prices, but do not criticise those with more expensive tickets then us.

Ticket prices throughout England are too high. They need to come down. Not just at Arsenal, but at every club. We need ‘joined up thinking’ to ensure all clubs drop prices. If one club did it, and others did not, it would put them at an unfair disadvantage. High ticket prices is not just Arsenal’s problem. It is England’s problem.

Prices need to drop. Not just be frozen.

Keenos

Don’t Let Club’s Get Away With Tesco Tactics

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This week a BBC study revealed that football ticket prices among 164 clubs in the top 10 divisions have fallen by 2.4% over the past year. The sports minister Hugh Robertson welcomed the study as ‘good news’.

So is this finding something to celebrate? No, let’s get real – even a price reduction of 20% would be nowhere near satisfactory bringing back football as a game affordable for everyone and offering value for money. Malcolm X once said “If you get stabbed with a nine inch knife, and you pull that knife out by six inches, you should be wary of celebrating your progress.”

A 2.4% reduction in football ticket doesn’t even pull the knife out by an inch.

I’m an Arsenal supporter who stopped going after twenty years of being regular, because prices rose to a point that I couldn’t justify paying. It’s not just home games where fans of a club like Arsenal are hit hard. For every away game they’ll be charged grade A prices and expected to fork out somewhere in the region of £50; normally for games against teams who are categorised grade B or C when they travel to Arsenal. For away fans like these there has certainly been no 2.4% decrease in price, quite the opposite. But even if there was, big deal – you wouldn’t even be able to buy a pie in the stadium with the ‘saving’.

It’s vital to have a sense of history when discussing the issue of ticket pricing, in order to be aware of just how hard fans have been hit in the past twenty years. I’m not picking on Arsenal here because most clubs are guilty, but as they’re my team I’m 100% familiar with the rise in pricing so will use us as an example. In 1986 a seat in the East Stand Lower at Highbury for any game was £4.50 along with the option of standing in the terraces for around £3. In the space of just twenty years, that same seat went up to £39, which was way above the average growth in wages during that time, which did not even triple. In 1995 you could still get in to any game at Highbury for £10. From £3 to stand at any game in 1986, to £63 for the cheapest ticket at a grade A game is a breathtaking change and one that comes with massive consequences to maintaining a traditional fan base and atmosphere.

Reduction in football ticket pricing will typically be in line with the supermarket tactic of perceived cost reduction. In other words, hike up prices – then put them back down by a fraction and pretend the customer is making a saving. A perceived or flimsy price reduction is something we should be very wary of, and the FSF’s ‘Twenty is Plenty’ campaign should be used as a benchmark for fairness in ticket pricing. Twenty is most certainly plenty, especially when you consider the millions that Premier League clubs generate from television, advertising and merchandise. The team in the Premier League who finishes bottom will still be £60 million better off than they would have been a year earlier in the same position. Spin and false perception are simply not satisfactory and fans need to demand significant pricing reductions in order to see a return to the ‘People’s Game’.

Fan power is a weapon that is underestimated. This summer I attended a meeting with four other football fans in the offices of the Premier League, where we discussed ticket pricing with Richard Scudamore. Outside the building 300 angry fans from clubs all over the country were protesting and making their voices heard inside the building. From what I could see, the officials inside were a bit shaken up by what was going on outside in the street. They do not want any bad publicity to harm their corporate friendly product. Can you imagine if the percentage of protesting fans outside rose by the same figure as ticket pricing has in the last 20 years? If that were the case then the thousands of fans would really give the chaps in the Premier League offices something to worry about.

Matthew Bazell

Matthew Bazell is the author of Theatre of Silence: The Lost Soul of Football

TOS