Tag Archives: She Wore a Yellow a Ribbon

Arsenal Legends – What do they do now?

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Arsenal-Legends-v-Milan-Glorie

A lot of fuss has been made recently over Arsenal not employing the likes of Thierry Henry, Tony Adams and Dennis Bergkamp. It got me thinking whilst watching the Arsenal Legends match…

What do the Arsenal Legends who played doing now?

Works at Arsenal

Freddie Ljungberg – Arsenal Under-16s coach.
Robert Pires – Arsenal Foundation Ambassador. Hangs about the training ground.
Gilles Grimandi – Arsenal scout.
Luis Boa Morte – Arsenal scout.

Works in Football (Not at Arsenal)

Gilberto Silva – Panathinaikos Technical Director
Pascal Cygan – Assistant coach at Belgian Second Division side KSV Roeselare.
Marc Overmars – Director of football at Ajax Amsterdam.

Still Plays

Kolo Toure – Still playing semi-professional football in the Scottish Premier League for Celtic.
Justin Hoyte – Let go by the Daggers over  the summer.

Charity

Nwankwo Kanu – Founded the Kanu Heart Foundation which helps young African children with heart defects. Kanu is also an ambassador for UNICEF. Founded his own soccer school based in Canada.

Media

Nigel Winterburn – Works as a freelance pundit and has provided analysis and comment on Sky Sports and talkSPORT as well as in print for publications such as the Daily Star.
Emmanuel Petit – Works  across many global stations, including ITV, as a pundit.
Ray Parlour – Sunday Times top ten bestseller.
Martin Keown – BBC Match of the Day pundit.
Jens Lehmann – Pundit across very networks including RTL & the BBC. Does a lot of work for The Willow Foundation which was set up by former Arsenal goalkeeper Bob Wilson.

Businessman

Anders Limpar – Currently co-owner of Swedish plastic box company Super Lock and he also works as a distributor for nutritional supplement company Kyäni.

Fishing

David Seaman – Fishing

Keenos

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Arsenal’s £200m War Chest – The Truth

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So Arsenal director Lord Harris of Peckham has announced to the world that “there’s over £200million in the bank.” As expected, this has led to the usual Twitter brains demanding we “spend some F’ing money” and the usual lazy journalists leading with headlines such as The Expresses  “Arsenal’s £200m War Chest.”

The fact is, Arsenal having £200m available for transfers is a big myth. We do not.

Yes, it is correct that we have £200m in the bank, but this is not unusual for this time of year. Season ticket money has just been paid, alongside lump sums of sponsorships and other incomes. I bet if you look at every club throughout the Premier League, they are all cash rich at the moment – bar Liverpool who have spent everything.

Now every adult will know, having money in the bank is very different to having money to spend.

For those who get paid monthly, you will be aware of this scenario.

You get paid on the 31st of the month, it so happens to be a Friday. You have £2,000 sitting in your bank account. Your bills go out on the 1st of the month – your mortgage, your car lease, your TV licence, your Sky Subscription, your utilities, your monthly travel card, etc. As the 1st is a Saturday, these bills will not come out of your bank until the Monday. These expenses come to £1,500.

So what do you do? Go out with the work mates on Friday? Sit in the sun drinking all evening, before heading to Rainbow’s Sports Bar on Shoreditch High Street. Wake up Saturday morning, round of golf with the lads, before an all day session leading to you ending up buying Champagne for everyone in a bar in Islington, getting home 5am Sunday morning. Sleeping off the booze, having KFC for lunch and a Chinese for dinner.

Throw in a few taxi’s and that new driver you bought playing golf, you have had a turn out, of a weekend, a stag do of a weekend even.

You check your bank balance on Monday morning. Your bills have gone out, and then it hits you, you spent a little too much over the weekend. Your bank balance currently sits at -£245. And it is another 27 days until pay day, and you have not bought any food yet.

Looks like you will be leaving off rice and ketchup for the month and not going out again.

The fact is, despite their being money in the bank, this does not mean you have all the money to spend. You have outgoings as well as incomings. You need to budget for those outgoings. Whether it is short term like your phone bill, or long term like saving for Thailand next year. And this is the same with business.

Lord Harris sells carpets for a living. When he sells a rug, does he go off and buy cocaine and champagne to celebrate? No. Because he knows he needs that money as he has a bill to pay to his rug suppliers for the latest delivery. The £199 he got for that gastly Persian rug is already earmarked for other things.

And football is also the same.

Arsenal might have £200m in the bank at this moment in time, but from that money, they need to budget, not just for the month, but for the year.

In the 2013/14 accounts, Arsenal’s operating expenses were £250m. This included £166m in staff costs. Also known as wages.

So Arsenal are sitting there, with £200m in the bank, but know they have to pay out £166m in wages over the next year. And in other costs associated with running the club, such as ground maintenance, policing costs, and buying the tea for the tea lady to serve, that £200m soon disappears.

Obviously Arsenal still have more money to come in, mainly from sponsorship and TV – the turnover (ie money in) during 2013/14 was £300m, This will cover further costs and leave money left over for transfers.

Arsenal know what they have to spend in their bank on transfer. They are not stupid businessmen. They run FTSE 250 companies, they have been Director’s of the Bank of England, they are self-made billionaires, they are Oxford educated. They know what they are doing.

I am sure they know a darn site more than an unemployed benefit claimant on twitter shouting ‘Spend some F’ing money’ who is probably up to his eyeballs in debt due to over spending and not having a clue about budgeting. Or the fan who lives his life online, bought Karim Benzema for Arsenal from Lyon on Football Manager 10 years ago and does not understand why Arsenal do not simply offer £100m for a player, and when it comes to negotiating the contract, click the players name, change the big to £0, click back and offer the player the contract. Messi on a free, it’s easy on a computer game (is this glitch still on the game?)

Arsenal have £200m in the bank, that is correct. But they do not have £200m to spend. The figure, according to the Arsenal Supporters Trust,  is closer to £60m. Yes, we could debate why that money has not yet been spent, but that is another blog for another time.

In summary, ignore the sensationalist headlines, we do not have a £200m war chest, and if you think we do, enjoy eating rice and ketchup every month.

Keenos

A deep future ahead for Santi Cazorla?

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After yesterday’s victory against Middlesbrough, I had a brief exchange with GC about the future of Santi Cazorla. This got the old brain cogs going.

Santi Cazorla, Alexis Sanchez, Mesut Ozil. all brilliant players, but how do you get them all on the pitch, at the same time, in a formation that get’s the best out of all of them?

I imagine Arsene Wenger’s original plan when he bought Alexis Sanchez was that he would play as a striker. With similar attributes to Luis Suarez (without the violent, biting, racist tendencies), it looked like a role which could suit him. That would then enable Wenger to play Cazorla, Ozil & Walcott in behind. But Sanchez looked lost upfront.

The next solution was 4141. With injuries (to Walcott) at the time, it meant there was even enough space to put Ramsey and/or Wilshere in the side. Again, it did not work.

In recent games, however, there have been signs of a new tactic, new positioning, which is showing signs of working. Playing Santi Cazorla deeper.

I first noticed this in the victory against Manchester City. Whilst he was supposed to be the more advanced of the 3 man midfield, he put in a tremendous defensive shift. He got a goal and an assist, but it was his ability in his own half that impressed me.

Tackles, clearances, interceptions, blocked shots, passing out of trouble and running the ball clear. He was an all action midfielder. He showed the attributes required to play in what I call the ‘Waterboy Role’. The man to carry the ball off the defence and defensive midfielder, and link in with the attacking players.

Yesterday against Middlesbrough, he once more played the role, and yes, I know he was up against a Championship side, but it worked.

His ability to play out of danger is impressive. Being two footed, it means he always has a pass on. He also has the ability to beat a player, opening the pitch up more.

Whilst he does not have the pace to play on the wing, meaning that his ability to beat a man is negated as they get straight back on him, in the middle of the park, his skills give him the extra half second to then play the right ball.

With his natural ability, he rarely needs to boot the ball clear. He always creates a situation where a successful pass is on.

Against Middlesbrough, he attempted 114 passes at a 91.2% success rate.

He also showed plenty of signs of linking up with Mesut Ozil ahead of him. Ozil’s stats were similarly impressive. 97 passes at 92.8% success. With the pair of them in the middle, you feel we have the opportunity to pass ourselves out of any situation.

With Cazorla playing deeper, it would also allow us to spring onto the counter attacker quicker. He is a better passer than Aaron Ramsey, and plays the ball quicker. Rather than Ramsey getting the ball, than having to play it to Cazorla or Ozil ahead of him, which slows the play down, it means we can launch the ball from deeper, and go both way’s. Especially with Mikel Arteta currently out, Cazorla adds the extra passing prowess to build from the back.

Of course, there are some down sides. Cazorla is not naturally defensive, and his slight frame could leave us exposed. These would both be solved if we went and signed a bully of a defensive midfielder to play in behind him, to protect him, to do the work of 2 men allowing Cazorla to be a bit free’r.

And obviously, it was just Middlesbrough. Could we play the formation against a better side who could possibly expose a defensive weakness? Probably not. But that is where tactical flexibility comes into it.

At home, against 70% of Premier League sides, we have most of the ball and dictate the play. We could play Cazorla deep, with Ozil in ahead, as we do very little defending. Against the better sides, where we might not have as much of the ball, you change it round, dropping either Ozil or Cazorla for someone a bit more physical, a bit more defensive.

In the past, I have always felt Cazorla performs better deeper. It allows him the freedom of the pitch, opening up a lot of grass for him to play into. Whilst he is dangerous around the edge of the area, playing deeper allows him to build up with the play.

Where this tactical change would also leave Ramsey and Wilshere is also questionable. Before, it was a case of these two fighting out for the Waterboy Role, with Cazorla and Ozil fighting it out for the Number 10. Moving Cazorla deeper, on a more semi-permanent basis will reduce their playing time.

Then again, both Wilshere and Ramsey spend so much of their time out injured, it would not create a massive issue. And with Wilshere being just 23, and Cazorla now 30, it could be a simple case of Wilshere being Cazorla’s successor.

What is for certain is playing Cazorla deeper allows us to play Ozil in his natural position, with Sanchez one side and Walcott the other.

All we need to do is buy a top defensive midfielder to support him.

Keenos