Global fanbase, money, signings and Arsene Wenger. by KM
Hello folks. Apologies for somehow missing Arsenal’s Singapore trip in my last article. So another Asia tour is on the way. I get the idea, it’s a huge market that generates a lot of income. If you want to be a modern super-club you need to pay attention to all of your fans.
Big clubs get their biggest advantage over smaller ones with the mass of shirt sales. Real Madrid buy a player, sell a million shirts the first day and ‘boom’ his fee is paid. Fans can be passionate about their club from whichever part of the world come from. Not all Arsenal fans are North London based but still even in the far-east people will come to the airport early in the morning just to see their beloved Arsenal heroes in person.
The only problem I have with that tour is that players get absolutely destroyed throughout the season. Wenger doesn’t help much with the fact that he doesn’t like rotating too much, and he rarely believes in a big squad. But football like sport in general has become very result oriented. The better the results, the more the fans, the more the money!
The football balloon is so inflated it’s scary. Player prices of 30 million seem like bargains if he returns 20 goals a season. Wages of 150k per week also seem normal if you are at the top of the game. When in fact, most of the people who fuel those wages (the poor ol’ fans) hardly earn such money over the course of a year.
Anyway, Cech will be on the trip to Singapore which is nice. A chance for him to meet his new pals. He’ll be wearing number 33 – “the number of Chelsea fans there were before Abramovich”. Hilarious stuff. Lots of funny tweets about his number. I hope the Asia trip doesn’t disrupt our transfer policy. We’re close to a complete squad, but a few more additions wouldn’t hurt us.
One of the few rumors that was flying round was Johny Evans. Now we could use another CB but I hardly believe he is the one. I get that Wenger is somehow trying this English core stuff, and that buying from a rival team gives extra motivation but I really cannot see this happening.
I hope Dick Law is working on that DM. Other teams are making interesting moves. Schweinsteiger to United is an interesting transfer. Van Gaal is completely destroying what Fergie build over the years. Schneiderlin, a player we could’ve utilized is also going there. Their midfield was in a bad need of repair and it could turn out to be actually exciting or it could seriously backfire.
There were a few posts, about us trying to buy Di Maria. How absurd is that? He would no doubt improve our squad. We don’t have too many proper wingers. Players who don’t want to move to the middle now or in some point in time – sooner rather than later. He’d bring characteristics not typical for our game plan, but again why would they sell him? Even if they do the price would be sky high and i don’t think we’d pay it.
Does Wenger have a major signing in mind? Coming off the back of our last two transfer windows I wouldn’t rule one out. Quality attracts quality, and quality is available. Players fall out of favour with managers and they get sold. Ozil, Alexis and Cech is a great start. Add one more stellar name and suddenly people will start to think that playing at Arsenal means playing with the best.
We’ve added 2 trophies in 2 years so we’re on the way to being a trophy destination. There’s still work to be done, but it looks positive. Is Wenger actually ready to dump his old approach and beliefs in favor of the short term? He is at the end of his managerial career. Two years left on his current contract. I believe he wants to go out with a bang.
Modern day football is an extremely hard place for success. There is so much money and pressure on you to win – plus the ambition of the smaller teams to prove themselves among the elite. Short term planning wins trophies. Fergie bought Van Persie and even though he is now off to Turkey, he did help United on to a league title.
We have shown signs of improved over our last two seasons. Money have been spent, trophies have been won and we’ve shown glimpses of tactical preparation. Until we win the big prizes – the Champions League or a League title the jury is still out.
Have a supreme week!
Konstantin