One day soon people will be talking about Sanllehi and Emery. It wasn’t too long ago Dein and Wenger was on everyones lips. In todays footballing world, we talk about directors and owners as much as before when we spoke only about managers and players.
The dynamics took a shift when our previous owners brought in ground-breaking foreign involvement. This was a milestone for AFC. Other clubs have had foreign owners come along with little work done to the club in comparison to what AFC had done. The first foreign manager to win the league, team full of superstars and will be forever Invincible. But we plan for the long term, and just like a reliable bank, you can invest in long term. Its why, we should be proud of AFC as a financial project. Look at where we were, under Newcastle and now we are looking at our value being just £1.36 Billion behind the richest club of Man United at Number 1.
We sit 6th on this list, with Chelsea below and Man City above; but we know their true value isn’t what is shown. Because if you take out the money the owners have actually put in, its worth less. But these inflations are why money and football is as much about the ability to do a 40 yard volley off the floor into the top of the net and be paid £100k a week.
It also goes some way to explaining why fans have less time for player’s performance levels vs potential levels of output. More money, but less time… That’s another topic. But for this one, what we know, is AFC have won trophies, built a Brand and a Stadium at less financial cost output then Man United in that time and so, have increased the real cash value of our Club.
A lot has happened since Wenger has gone. New Manager, New Signings, An Increase in shares from Kroenke ,and Gazidis is off and we are 3pts from a Top 4 spot.
When the lines were drawn behind the club’s office doors, we had Wenger on one side – and the current system followers and change and new on the other side. You always have to be careful what you wish for. Gazidis wanted change but worked also with Wenger. When the flood gates of change came, Arsenal over employed. So in the end it was Sanllehi, with a CV boasting ‘international agreements for Nike across the whole of South America’ amongst other top experiences that meant Gazidis was on the chopping board.
What I hope we as fans can agree on, is the Board do get a lot of stick because we want to spend more and we don’t meet expectations of spending. But they also have made important decisions, and made another swiftly afterwards. Its that pace we feel is what we have truly lacked than the spending alone and now we are seeing it.
When it comes to the football issues Arsenal kicked off the start of a run of home games against Vorskla with a win. Only 2 players from our first 2017 Europa game played today. On top of that, our squad players in Holding, Elneny, Leno, Welbeck, Lichtsteiner, Iwobi and Mkhit got game time. Torreira is not so much a squad player (in the sense of his role) but a first teamer waiting to be ready to start. It’s exciting to see that these guys are a mix Their new Stadium offers them the issues we faced. Now we are in a type of build stage of new ourselves, and we have the people, we have the staff, and we have the plans to progress the first team.
We have always been the star makers, and now our new partnership of Sanelli and Emery will be the ones in the spotlight to do the making.
In a week of football with so much happening across the globe (Liverpool win a thriller, Spurs loss one, City missing De Bruyne… Mourinho can smile, Ronaldo Red card…), Arsenal found themselves able to bring on Ozil and Co off the bench for some training ground matchday practice against Vorskla (half way through our second half).
It continues on Sunday against Everton. 3 more points is required against the wounded Toffees all whilst an eye on future plans will continue to be plotting away in the back ground from the (we hope) new Dein and Wenger combo.
Tom