You Are My Gooners - Blog

May 13th, 2014

13/5/2014

A Long Awaited Final

a blog post by @DazzelChica10

The FA cup final is in 5 days and I can't wait!! The final nerves are also building with the excitement and the closer it gets to the match I know I'm going to be bouncing up and down like a loon and it will be torture. However I don't care, this is one of the greatest parts of being a football fan, the mixture of emotions before and during a final. Oh and of course after the game, if the result isn't exactly what you wanted then there is no feeling worse than at that moment.

Fans of other teams mock my enthusiasm, saying I shouldn't be happy that we could potentially win something after 9 years. I'm asked if I am happy about this trophy drought....am I happy? No I am not happy but I'm also not going to ruin this opportunity that has come knocking at our door. I will enjoy the final and our glory moment (if we should win it) and make the best of what we have been given.

Arsenal have had a long dry spell when it's come to trophies and finals. The last final we reached against Birmingham is better left unmentioned. I'm more optimistic about the upcoming final then I was about the Birmingham final....that was probably because I've never viewed the Capital One cup as a proper trophy.

The FA cup however is special and holds many fond memories for me. The first Arsenal final I really remember in great detail is the FA cup final in 1998 against Newcastle. I remember watching on TV at the young age of 11 and screaming my head of cheering the boys. The happiest moment being when Tony lifted the trophy for all to see.

I can't wait to sit down and watch the game and cheer the lads on. Even though it felt like we threw the league away on the final day of the season after City won it being top only 14 days whereas we were there for weeks! I will forget all the heartbreak during the last 9 years and concentrate on the final at hand.

If the result goes our way, it is safe to say I will be at the parade on Sunday!!!

What are your most memorable final moments?

Cheers for reading
Minnie

January 22nd, 2014

22/1/2014

Stillness and Speed- a review by @DazzledChica10

When I heard that Dennis had finally done an autobiography I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I’ve been waiting for years to get his insight as have many Gooners and neutral football fans.

Having read the book in record time, I have decided to try my hand at writing a book review. Please don’t be too critical of it as it is the first time I have attempted this.

So what is the book about?

Well it is pretty much what it states on the cover, it is Dennis’ story ranging from his childhood through to his playing career. It also talks about his family and touches on what he is currently doing.

There were many parts of the book that I enjoyed; my favourite however has to be about the Arsenal years. As a Gooner reminiscing about years gone by made me smile and relive some of the first Arsenal trophy winning memories I have. I was quite young when Bergkamp joined Arsenal so reading about the process was enlightening; prior to reading all I remembered for myself was seeing him revealed as an Arsenal player on the news.

Reading the autobiography was enlightening as it dwelled into Dennis’ life and what Dennis is like as a person. Throughout his career he has been a private person, one never to be in the public eye and kept himself to himself. This book allowed his fans to get to know him through himself and not through rumours or snippets of information that the media have managed to get their hands on. This came from the original source. After reading the book it is clear that Mr Bergkamp is a great person, he works hard and doesn’t take his skills or talent for granted. He has worked extremely hard from childhood to get to where he is today and he continues to improve his skills.

The one thing I admire about Dennis in this book is that there are periods of his career where he has not got on with managers or fellow players as well as one would like. However he does not slate them off in the book, he is respectful and even let’s said people air their views in the book. Dennis doesn’t necessarily agree with their opinions but agrees to disagree.

The book is a must read for any avid football fan, many of my friends whom are not football fans frowned upon my book choice when they saw what I was reading. Truth be told Stillness and Speed gripped me from the beginning and I couldn’t stop reading, I was starting to wish my commute to work was longer! The book could have continued for another 300 pages and I would have continued reading with such vigour.

Overall rating

This book is a must read for anyone who is interested in football. Whether you are young and weren’t around or remember Dennis as a player but have an interest in football legends and history then this is a book you must read. Or if you are of the older generation and watched Dennis play and enjoy football books then I cannot recommend this enough. Even if you are not an Arsenal fan, this book would still be interesting to anyone who follows the sport.

I would rate Stillness and Speed a 5/5 and urge anyone that enjoys reading about football and footballers to have a gander.

A Defining December

9/12/2013

A blog by @GoonerMV

Arsenal find themselves 5 points clear at the top of the league, in a strong position in a very tough European Group and have just been given an easy draw in the FA Cup, some team whose name rhymes with Hottenham Totspur. However, if we are going to shut up Alan Shearer and Alan Hansen, if that's even possible, we must come through the Festive period with flying colours. Here are Arsenal's games in December:

11/12/13 - NAPOLI (A)

14/12/13 - MAN CITY (A) (By the way this is on BT Sport, so you might want to give it a miss, or watch it on mute)

23/12/13 - CHELSEA (H)

26/12/13 - WEST HAM (A) (Also on BT Sport!)

29/12/13 - NEWCASTLE (A)

5 games. 4 away, 1 home. 3 on Sky Sports, 2 on BT Sport. God help us. Right then, now I've got you all unbelievably excited, I shall continue. Ideally, we would have beaten Everton and then we'd be 7 points ahead, ensuring that even if we lost to Chelsea and City we'd still be top. In my opinion, if we can get anything from the City game that'll be a great result because they've been immense at home so far. As for the Chelsea game, I'm more confident about that so if we can get 4 points from those two games that will put us in excellent shape. It could be argued, though preferably by someone more intelligent than me, that drawing both games as oppose to winning one would put us in a better position. The last couple of matches of the month are both away, but we should be looking to win both of those. West Ham shouldn't be much of a threat, and while Newcastle will be a very tough game, we should have enough to beat them. There are three vital areas (or players) that I feel will hold the key to our potential successes.

1) Bendtner - You heard. The Samurai Warrior Nicky B himself. Yes, he might be as helpful as a bin bag with a hole in, but he could be very important in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, Giroud can't play every game and so Nicky B may get a run out, possibly against Napoli considering all we need to do is avoid a 3-0 defeat. If he can get his two legs to work in unison and remember why he gets paid however much a week then he could ensure that Giroud gets a rest and we have a half decent striker.

2) Our Defence - The transformation of our defence has been remarkable. Sir Chesney seems to have matured overnight, while Bosscielny and BFG have been rocks. Big rocks. Huuuuuge rocks. Ginormous rocks with a cherry on top. Too far? Thought not. Sagna has found some consistency, and in Gibbs and Monreal we have two left backs that can perform at the tightest level, with Monreal being particularly impressive this season. Especially against Aguero and Negredo, our defence will need to be as tight as a really tight thing, and if they can keep goals conceded to a minimum and keep a couple of clean sheets, we will be flying at the top of the Prem. Fingers crossed they won't be giving out any Christmas Gifts.

3) Theooooooooo - He's back! We have lacked genuine width in his absence and with his pace he can stretch any back line. We will need to counter attack very well in the coming games and who else would you want running at someone slow like Demichiles? He adds another dimension to our play and when he is fully back Arsenal will be even more dangerous. Let's hope he brings some Festive cheer to us!

Reading this may have been as boring as watching Stoke play, and unfortunately for you it wasn't as short as a video showing all of Spurs' goals this season. Hopefully though you've seen how crucial this month is and that if it all goes well, we will be in a fantastic position. Thanks for reading!
Matt

17 years and counting

28/9/2013

A blog post by @DazzledChica10

So this weekend marks Arsene Wenger’s 17th anniversary at Arsenal. When I first saw this I could not believe that it had been that long!

Where have the last 17 years gone?

For my latest blog piece I thought I would take a trip down memory lane and write about some of my most memorable moments during Arséne’s years so far.

The first thing that comes to mind are some of the players that Wenger has brought to our club. Thierry Henry joined us and went on to become a living legend; he will be remembered by present Gooners and all future Gooners. Wenger also signed the likes of Vieira. Petit, Overmars, Freddie and Pires and some others whom have all left a strong link to the club and still have a lot of love in many Arsenal fans hearts. We watched some of the best football ever played by the club during the time when these gems were in our team. Freddie will always remain very close to my heart and I promise you all it has nothing to do with his CK underwear ads he did.

In the current squad, Arsene has just completed a record signing of Mesut Ozil from Real Madrid; who so far has been nothing but a shining star. Giroud has also hit form after coming under criticism last season and came under speculation in the summer that he was leaving.

Arsenals have won the Premier League and FA Cup double with Arsene as manager twice in the 17 years he has been with us. I remember the first one in the season of 1997/ 98 with fonder memories as this was the first double I had seen Arsenal win. At the age of 12 it was one of the happiest moments of being a Gooner to date. I watched the FA cup final at my nans house remember her thinking I had gone crazy with all the noise I was making from the screaming and shouting.

The second double was very sweet as we won the premier league title at Old Trafford, with the arrogance of Alex Ferguson and Man United fans it made being champions all the better. It showed them that there was a more superior team and we could take their title from them from their home ground! The party began as soon as Wiltord scored his goal!

The season of 2005/ 2006 saw Arsenal reach the Champions League final. That is final I will never forget, going 1-0 up in the final against Barcelona when we were down to 10 men (I won’t talk about the sending off) was beyond amazing. I know final result wasn’t what any Arsenal fan wanted and I am not ashamed to admit that I did cry feeling heartbroken. The whole Champions League campaign that season had been like a dream, with every game we won and every stage of the competition we passed I wanted to dream of the final but was holding back thinking it was too good to be true. Once we’d secured our place in the final I was like a kid on Christmas morning waiting impatiently for my presents, I don’t think the smile came off my face in the weeks leading up to the final.

Finally, I've saved the best to last; how could I not mention the undefeated invincible season? Arsenal may not have won a trophy in 7 years but they are the only club that has broken a 115 year old record by going undefeated for 49 games. This is a feat not to take lightly it is something I am proud of and if I wasn't such a wuss and scared of needles I would get a tattoo to mark the occasion. All the clubs that have spent £100s of millions on players have not been able to accomplish this, Man Utd, Chelsea, Man City, Tottenham or even Liverpool have done this and they don’t like they will be doing it anytime soon.

I’m more than happy for Arsene to sign another contract and stay with us longer, after years of restructuring it seems the club is finally okay and getting the results we've all been waiting for. I'm also positive that we have trophies coming to us in the near future......it's definitely time for another trophy parade!

Leave some comments and share some of your fond Arsene memories with us!!!

7 reasons why Arsenal can challenge this season

21/9/2013

A blog post by @GoonerMV

Away Form

Arsenal's away form at the end of last season and the beginning of this has been brilliant, with victories at Galatasaray, Fulham and Sunderland already registered this season. With 7 consecutive victories on the road, the Gunners almost seem to prefer their trips away. The tactics of defending solidly, before breaking away with pace and scoring has worked very well, and if we can continue this form on the road, coupled with a decent home record we can be right up there come May.

Man United under Moyes

David Moyes. Does that name scare you like Sir Alex? Thought not. After a pretty average pre season and an ordinary start to the new season, with a dull draw against Chelsea, a defeat to Liverpool and a scrappy win at home to Crystal Palace, their invincibly is all of a sudden disappearing. "Fergie Time" is no more, teams are not scared of visiting Old Trafford and referees no longer have SAF screaming and chewing his head off on the touchline. The United midfield of Cleverley, Giggs, Zaha and Young isn't going to win games and so I don't see them challenging this season.

Man City - New Manager/ Different team?

Manuel Pellegrini hasn't exactly made the best of starts to his life at City, and I can't see that pleasing their Royal Owners! A run of 3 games, Cardiff/Hull/Stoke, should have brought at least 7 points if not 9. Instead it brought 4, and their win against Hull wasn't quite a rout, was it. They spent £90 odd million over the summer, on Navas, Fernandinho, Jovetic and Negredo, and a few weeks ago they looked like 4 top-drawer signings. However, despite Negredo scoring a couple of goals coming off the bench, the other 3 haven't yet settled in. Joe Hart, "The Best Keeper in the World" is all of a sudden a bit shaky, with pressure building with every flap and slip. But the one problem I've seen with their defence is that without Kompany, they haven't looked solid at all, without his leadership in the middle they are struggling. While I wouldn't right them off at all, I still feel we can match them.

Spurs, the up and coming force. NOT!

This is probably a wasted of a point, as they are no rival at all. You're right, but there are still a few who think they can challenge, and I intend to put the record straight! They have spent nearly £111 million, and not one of those players has stuck their head up as top quality. Soldado was apparently amazing, with two goals against Palace and Swansea (both from the spot) making him a Golden Boot contender. After he disappeared into the pocket of Koscielny during the NLD, I think most of those people shut up. Capoue, Paulinho, Eriksen and whoever else they bought haven't really improved them, and can you really compare them to our signing of Ozil? No, you can't, and so for the 17th year running, we will finish above them, but hopefully that won't be our main achievement this season.

Aaron "Rambo" Ramsey

Need I say any more? What. A. Player! He has made a brilliant start this season, 4 goals already beating his tally from last season, and he has been a rock, both defensively and as an attacking force. He has suffered so much in his career; broken leg, stick from the fans, death of Gary Speed, and yet he has come back and been one of the leagues best so far. The Welsh Captain is playing with freedom, with confidence, and if he can keep this up he will bring goals, assists and tackles galore for us, and we have missed the type of a player for many years.

Oooooooooooooooooozil

Mesut Ozil. One of, if not THE greatest signings we have made in our history, perhaps only bettered by King Thierry and Dennis. Not only has this shown the world our intent, it has added genuine world class talent to that already great midfield, and he gave us a glimpse of that against Sunderland, with an assist after that stunning first touch. He's got the most assists in Europe in the last 5 years, why on Earth did Real let him go?! Tottenham's plan to delay the Bale sell worked really well didn't it! Thanks Spurs!!

Naaaaaa, Na, Na, NANANANANANA GIROUD!

Oh Olivier, you little (or rather, huge) French beeeeeauty! After a nothing short of exceptional Pre-Season, he has carried that form into the new season, with 4 goals in the first 4 games, leaving him joint top of the scoring charts with Sturridge. If he can stay fit, he can get 25+ goals this season with that midfield service. We have all known how good he can be in the air, and with a brilliant first touch and great movement, his becoming a force to be reckoned with. £50 million Superstar Torres vs £10 million flop Giroud as everyone sees it, despite the fact that Giroud has better his stats in every way, apart from misses and open goals misses! Keep it up Giroud.

So for these reasons, I think this season could be good for us. Yes we have a tough European Group, but we usually rise to these challenges and with a strong youth group for the Capital One Cup, this season can be the year when we break our trophy duck. Bring on May!

We have Ozil!!!

9/9/2013

A blog post by @CzechGooner54

We have signed Özil! We‘ve got a new shiny toy, a really bright one, what else should any blog this week contain! We all know what this signing means for us fans and we are dellighted, but what does it mean for Arsenal as a whole?

First it is really good signing, one of the best players in Europe no one can argue with that. Though some bitter Madristas would tell us he’s no leader, no game changer and was only a substitute option at Real. Blah, blah, blah. They‘re all just jealous because we signed their favourite player and they are left with Bale for a 100 millions Euros.

In fact his signing has solved all problem well at least at midfield anyway. With the re-signing of Flamini, who was very impressive and comanding against Tottenham, our midfield covered. We now have a very solid midfield that can have up to 5 players at any one time. Here are some combinations:

Arteta, Ramsey – Walcott, Özil, Cazorla
Flamini, Wilshere – Podolski, Rosicky, Ox
maybe we could make even third 5
Frimpong, Diaby – Gnabry, Zelalem, Ryo

The third one is weak, we can all see that but with the first two, we can beat anybody… and don’t get me started about Theo finishing Özil‘s through passes!!!!

Second and most important thing is that this should show the World we mean BUSINESS!

In my mind this is what Arsene intended to do the most. We know we have almost paid our beautiful new stadium off and there is some money available. However there were always some doubters and possibly some players probably weren’t convinced by the way club operated. A perfect example being some of the key players that have been allowed to leave.

Now we have Mesut and he is a world class player, he could attract other top class players to join us. I’m not saying from now on we’ll be signing players for 40+ millions Euros every transfer window. That’s not Arsene‘s way and it’s not the Arsenal way! We’ll still try for players to come through the youth ranks and that’s a good thing, BUT when we need to we can sign top class player and that’s important.

‘Arry expert from the car window‘ Redknapp says spurs have the best squad in the Premier League and they will finish above Arsenal. How many times have we hear that? I wouldn‘t be so sure ‘Arry. We have a very strong squad too, in fact I think it’s even better than Spurs, who don‘t have the best squad at all. Yes they have got some talented players, but they have lost one high-profile player whose departure will hurt them, we all saw this at the North London Derby. You may agree with me or you may not, but I think they’d beat us if they had Bale, because we had so many injuries.

But now we have a very solid squad, maybe we lack numbers in attack, but Sanogo, Podolski, Walcott, Akpom and even Bendtner can be played!

What do you guys think about Bendtner getting some game time this year for Arsenal? I think he’s a solid striker and has Premier League experience. His behavior is shocking to say the least and his fitness level now is‘nt very good, but if his statement is true and he is willing to work hard, he could be decent striking cover for Giroud. I have always rated him well, better than Chamakh that‘s for sure.

One Arséne Wenger

8/9/2013

A post by @PR_WhoRU

If you can keep your sanity and Twitter anger low,
     As others as losing theirs and blaming In The Knows;
If you can trust John Cross when rival fans doubt you,
     But make allowance for your doubting of OpinionDan too;
If you can wait for Ozil on SkySports and not be tired by waiting,
     Articles of Michu in the Mail, don’t deal in lies;
Or being bated, don’t give way to Durham’s Baiting,
     It doesn’t make him look good, nor does he talk too wise.

If you dream & don’t discard articles on Suarez down the bin,
     If you don’t tire on Jovetic memes that are simply lame;
If you can reads stories by IndyKalia and AgentJim,
    And threat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth GeoffArsenal’s spoken,
     Of a £40m and 1 pounds bid that makes us look like fools;
Knowing we’re buggered if Giroud pulls up, broken,
     Worried about our lack of goal scoring tools.

If you can stomach a Q&A with Gazidis being mean,
   Talking about selling off the utter dross;
So he can start again, bringing in Higuain,
     And never breathe a word about Squillaci’s loss;
If you didn’t tweet WengerOut after the Villa game,
    Not thinking it may have been a season-ticket con;
Worried they’ve spent mad cash up at White Hart Lane,
   & Podolski in defence didn’t make you think “Hold on.”

If you can Tweet with AKBs and WOBs and keep your virtue,
     Or be retweeted by Arsenal and not lose the common touch;
If neither audacious stunts or failed bids hurt you,
     And talk of Lars Bender doesn’t get you carried away too much.

If you can hit refresh F5 every second minute,
     Up until the second deadline day is done;
Yours is the Emirates and everything that’s in it,
     And – which is more – you’’ll be an Arsenal fan, my son!

The North London Derby. It's now boom or bust

1/9/2013

A blog post by @PR_WhoRU

So for me as ever it’s Friday afternoon and for you it is probably Sunday morning but for the both of us: it is upon us. The single most important day of the calendar year; today holds all of the power to either transport us into a unified and monogamous moment of common ecstasy in which most of life’s troubles seem irrelevant or to utterly crush us into one great big stinking pile of depressed. Whilst Arsenal had met Spurs a couple of times before the very first ‘North London Derby’, including a fixture which was called offwith a matter of minutes remaining due to weather conditions, it wasn’t until 1914 at White Hart Lane that London’s most intenserivalry was first compounded. On the 22nd of August 1914, the plucky second division team from Islington stormed N17 andrampaged their way to 5-1 victory. Whilst I am not convinced that supporters of Arsenal back then celebrated in quite the same fashionwe did after last season’s 5-2, I am sure they felt theuncompromising pride of ruling North London that season.

Arsenal and Spurs enter the match in diametrically opposed cycles of the transfer window (at the time of writing). Whilst Arsenal haven’t sold any big name stars this summer, a common theme that has plagued our recent transfer windows, nor have we strengthened using our “escalation of financial firepower” whilst Spurs have significantly improved their squad and look set to continue to do so. Despite the impending loss of their most talented player, Spurs have already replaced him and improved the overall ability of their teamdramatically, the opposite tactic employed by Arsenal that, in 2011,first sold Fabregas and Nasri before brining in Arteta and Benayoun to replace them, netting roughly £49m.

A Few Key Stats going into the game:

•Since they began, Arsenal have won 42% of North London Derbies compared to Spurs’ 31%. 27% have resulted in draws.•Arsenal have scored 277 goals against Spurs, 40 more than conceded which averages out to 1.6 goals scored by Arsenal per game.
•Since the formation of the Premier League in 1992 and until the end of the 2012/13 season, Arsenal had picked up a total of 1,522 points which is 364 more than Spurs.
•Roughly speaking, that means Arsenal have won 121 more games than Spurs since 1992 whilst, on average, finishing the season 17 points ahead.
•The biggest points spread difference in the Premier League era occurred during the 2003/24 season when Arsenal doubled Spurs’ points tally by 90 to 45.
•During the Wenger era in years that Patrick Vieira played for Arsenal, Arsenal finished 31 points, on average, above Spurs. Since Patrick Vieira left Arsenal for £13.7m to Juventus, Arsenal have finished only 10 points, on average, above Spurs.
•Spurs have finished above Arsenal only twice in 21 Premier League attempts.
•The points spread between and Spurs has narrowed to only 1 point in the last two seasons.

For me, the above chart doesn’t simply portray the increasing strength of the Premier League and the development of Tottenham under Daniel Levy’s successful chairmanship, but, more importantly, the imperative need for Arsenal Football Club tore-strengthen its squad sufficiently to maintain their Crown as Kings of North London given the moving out of an austerity era.

As it stands, projecting the future of the Premier League remains one of football’s most difficult tasks. Clubs like Chelsea, Man City and, to a lesser extent, QPR have re-shaped the landscape significantly with their heightened pools of financial capital to improve their horizons. If we simply take Arsenal and Tottenham, however, over the last 5 seasons: Arsenal, in 2008/09 finished on 72 points which is 1 less than in the 2012/13 season whilst, deviating, on average, 2.7 points per season. Spurs, however, finished the 2012/13 season with 72 points which is 21 more than they achieved at the end of the 2008/09 season whilst deviating, on average, 8.6 points per season.

Spurs scored 66 goals in both the 08/09 season and 12/13 season, however, conceded 15 fewer in the latter. In the 2012/13 season, on the flipside, Arsenal scored 2 fewer goals and conceded 6 more than in the 07/08 season.

That sort of mathematical modelling doesn’t make for a great trajectory eh, Gooners?

No, it does not.

The plus-side?

At time of writing, 78 hours and 20 minutes remain in the transfer window and spending £100m of Arsenal’s untapped Bank account would still leave the Club with a more than a reasonable amount of money to meet their obligated short-term debt requirements for the year ahead. I can’t stress enough how, in my humble opinion, it is of the important imperativeness that Wenger, Ivan and Dick take bold steps to strengthen the first team with the signing of 3 World Class players. Whilst recent history has flown in the face of the conventional grain, simple mathematical theory suggests that, unless Arsenal move to strengthen, we will simply fall behind Spurs in the years ahead.

Perhaps it isn’t the most important 78 hours in the history of the Club, but it is certainly up there. We fail to land big names this summer and what’s to stop our top stars like Cazorla and Koscielny itching for a move away next summer like other big names before them?

That’s the thing with most major global businesses. They equip themselves with management of the capability that can either fulfil the operational requirements at the time, i.e. austerity managers being replaced by boom managers in the up-years and vice-versa, or those that are flexible enough to meet the requirements in both eras.

Highbury for the North London Derby in 1934

Arsene Wenger has certainly proven himself to be an exquisite manager in the austerity years and has, once before, proven his pedigree in the boom years. Those boom years were in a different era of football completely, however. The entire operating model has been blown so much so out of the water that Clubs like Leeds and Portsmouth have drowned trying to stay afloat in a sea of Oligarchs and Saudi Arabian royalty. I am proud and do take great merit from Arsenal’s pioneering vision to raise money in a self-sufficient manor, playing football in one of the World’s leading stadiums and acting with dignity and class, but we’re still only on the cusp of a new era of greatness. The debt, whilst not anywhere close to being paid off, is now manageable, sponsorship deals now represent major value to Arsenal, we have almost a monopoly on corporate entertainment for football in London and a property projects which should further deliver capital gains for the Club.

In my humble opinion, this is the most crucial summer for the Club since the appointment of Arsene Wenger 17 years ago. Arsene, I feel, has 78 hours to prove he is still the man to drive Arsenal Football Club out of austerity and into a boom of silverware. And it isn’t just my opinion, it is clear that the majority of fans are now becoming restless, but also World Class players and agents need convincing that Arsene can deliver success before joining. For all the greatness he has brought the Cub such as winning the title in the backyard of Spurs and United within the space of 2 years, greatness we should never take for granted or forget, we should likewise never forget that we are The Arsenal. Arsene knows this. The standards set by the historical success are so high so that accountability can never be dropped. Not by the fans, not by the press and certainly not by the owner.

Please, Arsene. If, on the miniscule chance you’re reading this, just press that secret red button on the underbelly of the table in your Colney office and release the funds to Dick Law. Don’t manage yourself out of a job out of stubbornness because Ivan will let you. Please, Arsene. Don’t let it end this way.

My only solace is that the window in near over. To date, it has been a torrid time for Arsenal fans. The abuse at work is daily and constant and these press stories of Arsene Wenger walking away from deals set by Ivan for World Class players only make it worse. I don’t claim and never would claim to have the ability to manage Arsenal. Arsene Wenger is a great man who has forgot more about football than I’ll ever know but that doesn’t render mine or other’s feelings are redundant. We all want what’s best for the The Arsenal.

Let’s get right behind the players today. They need our support just as much as we need them to be on their game. Hopefully they can deliver us some mental relief going into the last 24 hours of the transfer window ahead of hopefully three shiny new World Class players being unveiled by Arsene.

I’ve banged on a bit today about the shifting of eras, from austerity to boom, in the fortunes of Arsenal Football Club so I want to sign out with a North London Derby story that I think is very fitting.

The early to mid 80s, after FA Cup success of 1979, were distinctly grim austerity years for the Arsenal. Before George Graham’s appointment on May 14th, 1986, Arsenal hadn’t won anything for 6-7 years and the quality of football had been dropping with attendances following suit. In George’s first full season in charge, however, Arsenal had reached the two-legged semi final stage of the Littlewoods Cup and had been drawn against their neighbours up the road who had already won the FA Cup twice in the earlyEighties. The first leg resulted in a disappointing 1-0 loss at Highbury and as the boys went one down in the first half of the second leg, Spurs were full of hubris. At half time during the second leg, the tannoy announcer at White Hart Lane infamously informed the home crowd how they could now buy tickets to final. Backs to the wall, this incensed the disheartened Arsenal fans who roared their hearts out for the remaining 45 minutes as goals from Anderson and Quinn gave Arsenal a 2-2 draw on aggregate. The managers met at the end of the game to decide on where the deciding 3rd match would be played. On the second coin throw, the first attempt saw the coin getting stuck in the mud, George turned to the Arsenal fans from the centre circle and he pointed to the grass below with aplomb. The away fans roared louder, basking in that common ecstasy. Not only did Arsenal go on to beat Spurs in the decider but they ended their trophy drought that year in the final against Liverpool, to boot.

7 major trophies followed suit from 87-95. An austerity era arguablyspurred on by that great night at White Hart Lane.

Get behind the boys today. Lose yourself and cheer your heart outfor 90 minutes because not only does winning the North London Derby help us feel like the Kings of North London but it can significantly influence the outcome of the season and an era in the history of the Club.

Does Arsenal still represent money for shareholders, for sponsors and for fans

25/8/2013

A blog post by @PR_WhoRU

So it’s Friday again (Sunday for you) and I’m sat in my company’s Canary Wharf offices, musing away. Fortunately I am less hung-over than when writing last week’s blog although the gym still beckons. For me, tomorrow, and for you, yesterday, our lads visit Fulham and, whilst I am going to be watching the game in the countryside, I can only envy those arriving in style down the Thames on the boat kindly arranged by the BSM team. Whilst most of you probably didn’t end up watching re-runs of Arsenal’s defeat on Goals on Sunday in luxury as I had predicted, I hope that last week’s loss only makes your Sunday hangover semi-bearable after yesterday’s demolition of The Cottagers.

There’s so many topics being discussed this week: the loss to Villa, the win at Fenerbahce, Chesny’s insistence on short-sleeved tops, the modicum of backlash against the AST and BSM from non-affiliated fans, that interview by Chris on ArsenalFanTV, a £40m reported bid for Benzema, Wenger’s new jacket and lofa combination, the rise of Aaron Ramsey, Ox’s injury, John Cross missing his podcast commitments...

But, that aside, it leaves us with the obvious: the huge wads of cash sat in a highly protected account somewhere in deep Switzerland with a note that reads: “Arsenal’s money: do not nick, smoke or spend.”

In finance, there are two terms that Investors largely use and, perhaps, commonly over-use: ‘added-value’ and ‘risk’.

Investors fascinate over the concepts of value (simply benefits-cost) and the ratio of risk above risk-free return (added-value). Given that Arsenal Holdings PLC is listed on the iCap Securities and Derivatives exchange with a market capitalisation of ~$1.49bn, institutional investors like Stan Kroenke are, of course, concerned by such ratios associated with Arsenal’s equity.

But it isn’t just shareholders and investors concerned with shareholder ‘value’. We too, as fans, are concerned by basic value for money, tickets aren’t cheap and who wants to pay £66 for a shirt with Park on the back? I’d rather spend £66 on handcrafted poo-sticks and watch them float from one side of Richmond Bridge to the other. All the while, sponsors and corporates that plough huge amounts of money into sponsoring kits, buying up billboard space and using boxes to impress their clients are likewise concerned with the added-value Arsenal can bring to their brand equity.

For me, this poses the question: Does investing in Arsenal still represent value for money?

From Ivan Gazidis’ perspective, in order of relevance the three most important stakeholders in Arsenal are: the shareholders (namely Stan), the sponsors and corporates and then, I’m afraid, the fans. As the CEO of Arsenal, his number 1 task is to ensure that the operating strategy of the business provides stakeholder value and, in-return, generates revenue and maintains the club’s Enterprise Value.

Shareholder Value

When investing in assets, be that company equity, company debt (bonds) etc, an investor will always want to forecast an expected level of Alpha. Alpha is simply the extra return an investor would generate by investing in an asset above the return a benchmark offers (usually risk-free). This, in theory, is added-value as the investor has actively managed his portfolio, assuming risk, to generate an active return.

As I published on Twitter this week, an investor who purchased Arsenal shares when they floated in 2001 can hardly complain at the active return level given that return on shares in Arsenal is 637% higher than what it would have earned an investor had they invested in a fund that passively tracks the FTSE 100. We know that some extremely wealthy men have further increased their net asset value by investing in Arsenal. Alisher Usmanov, alone, has made an approximate £65m return on the ~9,000 shares he bought off of David Dein. Bear in mind the Russian now owns 18,665 shares, and I don’t think it is unreasonable to assume he has generated more than £100m active return in his investment in Arsenal Football Club.

Not bad, eh?

AFC:ISD vs. The FTSE 100, 2001-2013 (source: Thomson Reuters)

With these sorts of returns over the past 13 years, and the value of the shares still anticipated to be trading at a market value at least 25% below their fair value, you’d probably ask yourself why do more hedge funds, asset managers and pension funds not invest in shares of Arsenal like they do in Man United? If you look at the top 5 investors in Arsenal you have Stan Kroenke, Alisher Usmanov, Evelyn Robin, Nicolas Hadjiannou and Polys Hadjioannou; 5 individual investors. It isn’t until you get down to the 10th largest investor, an American investment advisory firm – Nelson Roberts, which has interestingly ramped up on its ownership of shares in Arsenal and now owns approximately 19, worth £285,000 – that any institutional investor owns shares in Arsenal. Compare this with Manchester United and Borussia Dortmund in which 8 out of the top 10 investors (both Club’s individual top 5) are institutional asset managers and funds with financial service companies like Morgan Stanley, BlackRock and even Landsdowne, a hedge fund which bought shares when Arsenal originally floated, all have significant investments in the two Clubs.

So why do scores of highly educated, usually Oxbridge or Harvard educated, financial boffins throw their company’s money at Dortmund and Man Utd, despite knowing of the huge returns available at Arsenal, whilst our Club is predominantly owned by a couple of multi-billionaires and fans?

The answer: Value, risk and reward.

Top 10 owners in Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal and Manchester United (Source: Thomson Reutrers)

Whilst funds want to obviously make more money for their clients than if they were to invest in the FTSE (or chosen benchmark) by assuming risk, there’s a limit. As I said last week, standard deviation in shares in Arsenal is above 5.5%. That means, with any one stock trade, Stan Kroenke can readily accept to lose $49,788,350 in his wealth because of the illiquidity (i.e. the liquidity risk) of the shares. The big problem for Stan Kroenke, and for Arsenal, however is that people in finance genuinely only tend to calculate Alpha over the last 12 months.

The last 12 months eh?

The last 12 months during which period, the American owner has lost just shy of £105m of his net asset value in Arsenal and the value of Arsenal football club has fallen by £155,542,500.

Stan’s lost £103,927,500 (according to my calculations which disccount the two shares he has recently purchased) in Arsenal, just over 3.2% of his overall personal net asset value in the last 12 months, to be more precise. But, hey, who is counting?

Instead of buying Arsenal, you could use the same money to add Celtic AND Borussia Dortmund together and buy them together 4.2 times over. (Source: Thomson Reuters)

Now, if Stan were to pile the same amount of money into, let’s stay 12 month LIBOR (the exchange rate at which the biggest banks in London lend to one another and therefore “risk-free”) he would have made a return of about £4.8m. But instead, he has lost nearly £100m more than what he could have earned? As Robbie, of @ArsenalFanTV, said: “I aint [SIC] no money man”, but, yet Robbie doesn’t have to be a money-man to know that simply isn’t good business.

So why is shareholder value dropping when equity analysts are clearly indicating the value of the share price should be going up, not down? Why is someone willing to sell a share now for £2,500 less than what they would have received 12 months ago and why is someone looking to buy demanding a 14.2% discount?

Hey Ivan! Where’s my money going?

Don’t get Stan wrong, he’s a shrewd investor, a ruthless businessman and, like Ivan Gazidis, is of impressive intelligence. Worth $5bn and the 248th richest man in the World, he once allegedly bought the infamous Screaming Eagle vineyard and then poured away 550 cases of fine wine (Napa Valley cabernet sauvignon), worth $3.3m because he didn’t feel it was up to standard.

Bendtner, you’ve been warned, my son.

There has been an excellent article published this week by Matt Scott, formerly of The Guardian, suggesting that the American is happy for Arsenal to maintain cash reserve assets high in order to bring down the overall gearing of his KSE empire. Gearing is a simple ratio of calculating assets divided by debt (leveraged bonds, for example). If you have a low gearing, such as Arsenal which has a debt to equity ratio of 0.79, it makes it cheaper to raise debt with investment banks. This, in simple terms, is just like how it is cheaper to borrow for a mortgage if you have a higher deposit, for example, as it is less risky for investors to buy your debt so they ask for less compensation.

The thing is, and if this is true, then there has to be a limit. There is always a limit. Stan must have ambitions of an extremely large capital project or leveraged buy-out of an asset if he’s willing to assume an annual equity asset loss of ~£105m just so that he can finance cheaper coupon payments on debt.

There is also a popular theory by Arsenal fans that Stan Kroenke wants to start taking dividend payments from Arsenal so is happy to see cash piles increase. We must remember, however, that dividends payable come from profit and not revenue. Given that Arsenal Holdings PLC reported profit of £29.6m last year, if we were to take a reasonable figure for a dividend payment, say 25% that means Stan Kroenke would have received a dividend of £4,945,420 (relative to his 66.83% ownership) – hardly worth losing the best part of £105m over, then?

So, leaving the theories behind, at what point does Stan Kroenke say enough is enough, I want my value back, because, frankly, he is not currently receiving it like he used to at Arsenal. Something, clearly, is not right here.

I also wonder what Alisher Usmanov, the world’s 34th richest man, with a value of $17.6bn thinks of it all?

As the parody video of Stan Kroenke singing Eminem’s ‘Stan’ to Arsene Wenger goes: I’m just like you, I don’t like losing money either, but sometimes you’ve got to the speculate to become the market leader.

Brand Equity Value

And then, what do the sponsors think? What do the large international sell-side investment banks which pay through the nose for a box think? I’ll tell you what they think as I took the below picture on Saturday against Villa where you can see at least 40-50% of boxes in the sample photo are empty and the expensive Club level season ticket seats are only at about 65-75% capacity.

Picture of Club level and the boxes in the East Bank against Villa on Saturday

@Timpayton, spokesman of the Arsenal Supporters Trust (AST), Tweeted an interesting stat the other day that he had heard the Club are losing roughly £5m in revenue on last year from the sale of boxes and Club level seats, alone. ALONE!

As I said last in last week’s blog, things that put bums on seats are World Class players, trophies and attractive football. The same applies to very rich bums in boxes and in the most expensive seats, too. The events teams at the huge international companies occupying boxes are given annual budgets to spend on corporate entertainment. Clients start to moan that they don’t particularly want to go to watch Arsenal or are becoming less likely to want to develop business relations in a box whilst watching Giroud and Theo upfront, with all due respects, than what they were when Fabregas was playing inch perfect balls to Van Persie, guess what? That budget gets re-allocated to tickets at Centre Court, the Royal Albert Hall and Stamford Bridge.

That’s just how it is.

These companies do not support Arsenal. They’re there to make profit and, if having a box at Arsenal no longer represents value, i.e. the cost outweighs the benefit, they’ll scrap it.

It is as simple as that.

And what of your Nikes and Fly Emirates?

As a certain famous podcaster now living in Poland, @LordHillwood, said to me, they’re of course going to be seeing Arsenal fans like Chris on Arsenal TV calling for management and boardroom changes worrying that their brands are being linked to a sports club on the down. And what do they do when they see this? They immediately phone a certain Portsmouth-supporting South African businessman who is the CEO of Arsenal and lobby him to ensure he protects their brand equity value.

I should, in the balance of fairness, point out that Arsenal’s most recent deals with Fly Emirates and Puma are, on paper, extremely well constructed by Ivan and Tom Fox, but we are yet to see what will happen to their value if Arsenal were to miss out on Champions League for a season, for example.

Value for Money

Last, and sometimes it feels like the least, we fans. Are we seeing value for money? £1,000+ season tickets, £7 hot dogs, £66 for a football shirt with a name on the back? Is that really value for money?

We, of course, pay a London premium, as 5 out of the 6 most expensive season tickets, are for London Clubs. The most expensive season ticket at Arsenal is £1,955 for 26 matches. According to City AM, this is £10 per game more than Chelsea, 50% more expensive than at all but 2 other league Clubs and more than triple the most expensive season ticket at 2 Premier League Clubs.

The most expensive season ticket at Arsenal is more than £1,000 more than the most expensive season ticket at Manchester United, the Champions! The Champions!

The plus side? Spurs’ most expensive season ticket works out even more expensive at a whopping £90.24 per match. Imagine how annoyed they’re going to be when Bale leaves, eh?

Despite being more expensive overall, Spurs are more expensive per match than Arsenal

I guess this is where it boils down to you and whether you feel that you receive value. As I said, benefits – cost = value, but sometimes the benefits are not always monetary, especially with football. If you’re willing to pay £60 a week to cheer on the team you love, roar your heart out and lose yourself for 90 minutes, as I hope you did yesterday at Fulham, you perhaps feel you received value for money.

As one Arsenal fan said on @ArsenalFanTv last week: “You get what you pay for in life, unless you’re an Arsenal fan.”

I can emphasise with him. We have an incredible sum of money in the bank, we have shareholders assuming large risk whilst losing asset value, boxes not being bought, fans storming Twitter calling for the manager’s head and yet, as a Club, we have spent all but nothing this Summer. Are Ivan, Chips, Ken, the Lord Harris of Peckham and Arsene giving value back to the people that gave such value to Arsenal?

As Chris said to Arsene and Ivan: “You better f**king shape up or get out, because you’re letting down the fans.” It isn’t just the fans you’re letting down Arsene and Ivan, but the sponsors and shareholders, too. And, if they go, so does your handsome pile of money in that salubrious Swiss account.

I can’t help but feel the introduction of two to three World Class players would put value back into the business for the three main stakeholders. My fingers are firmly crossed. There's just over a week left in the transfer window so let's show some faith in Ivan and Arsene and pray. Pray hard.

Anyway, you can get back to nursing your hangover now as I appreciate figures and stats aren’t always the best cure. Let’s hope the week ahead brings us some exciting transfer news, a comfortable win against Fenerbahce and a decent 3rd round draw in the league cup that will present our younger lads with a challenge. Until next time, I’ve been @PR_WhoRu – agree with me, disagree with me? Feel free to let me know in the comments below. Keep it clean and don’t be mean.

*All figures quoted are either from Thomson Reuters, City AM, Bloomberg or are from my own proprietary equations.

NB: Figures do not account for time value of money and do not take into account the exchange rate for Sterling/Dollar. This is an opinion piece, you can agree or disagree. I put forward my opinion, nothing more and nothing less and do not claim it to be fact.

Taking a step back to reality

21/8/2013

A blog post by @DanPinder_

A lot of talk about Arsenal this season, saying that it could be their year to win the Premiership with the manager merry-go rounds at Chelsea and both Manchester clubs, all they needed to do was add a couple of world-class players and they could challenge again.

After their opening day defeat to Aston Villa at home however, they need to take a step back and really assess the situation, can they win the Premiership? Can they even get top 4? Will they beat Fenerbahçe and get to the group stages of the Champions League? If they had spent big and got their signings before the season started the answer could have been yes to all of them. Jovetic, Higuain, Julio Cesar, Luis Suarez, Wayne Rooney and Lars Bender are just a few of the big names that have been linked with Arsenal. The eighth week of the transfer window and the only incoming player has been a free signing in Yaya Sanogo from French Ligue 2 club Auxerre.

Arsenal play Fenerbahçe in the Champions’ League group stage qualifiers on Wednesday, with a squad of only what is rumoured to be 8 fit first team players. Fenerbahçe can’t be taken lightly, they have the likes of work horse Dirk Kuyt, ex-Lille striker Moussa Sow and ex-Newcastle and Inter Milan midfielder Emre.

The argument amongst the Arsenal fans is they know that the money is there to spend, after nearly paying of all their debt for the stadium, yet the board are more interested in having money in their back pockets and the interests of the Arsenal football club aren’t in their best interest. Week in week out the Emirates near enough sells out every game; fans pay a lot of money to see them; and many fans, including me, are priced out of watching them. After Aston Villa scored their third goal; the Emirates crowd soon turned to the board and choruses of “Spend some ****ing money” where heard around the Emirates.

What needs to be done?

These next two weeks are big for Arsenal, firstly they have to be focused on beating Fenerbahçe on Wednesday and an away goal is key at the Surku Saracoglu stadium. Arsenal then have Fulham away on Saturday, which is never an easy game, before their second leg against Fenerbahçe. In that time Arsenal still need to sign players. Today’s papers have linked us with Paul Pogba, Yohan Cabaye and Ashley Williams. Yet you have to wonder why we didn’t go for these players before the season started to give them time to gel with the squad. You have to wonder now though, will Arsene Wenger be panic buying?

The answer to that is most definitely a yes.