2011

[Trilogy]

I can't for the life of me understand how Kalou finds himself in the starting XI so often.

At least Villa-Boas cut the cord pretty quick there. We looked better after he came off.

[Ill]

This is painful to watch.

[Ill]

Lucky deflection for Anelka but thank god.

[5DOM]

2-1 whew.
Must say Bosingwa looked much better in the second half.

[Slava]

I think it was Phil McNulty that said Shane Long might be the signing of the season. Nostradamus!

[Slava]

Don't know what Arsenal's starting X1's average age was today but on Monday we might field the youngest ever.

De Gea

Smalling - Jones - Evans - Fabio
Nani - Anderson - Cleverley - Young
-----Rooney----------Welbeck-------

Only Young, Rooney and Nani are over 23.

[bryant08]

^I thought Evra was supposed to be back for Monday.

[Slava]

But I wonder if Ferguson will put him right back in from the start.

[Don Draper]

Daglish cannot play Kuyt and Carroll together again. No width at all. No deep runs. Too little creativity. I hate that this team has to play 4-2-3-1 because of their lack of pace.

[J.Kim]

Liverpool is a different team when Suarez and Meireles are on the pitch.

Not to take anything away from Liverpool, but I bet all the top-tier teams are going to look amazing vs. Arsenal regularly fielding basically 5-6 fetuses to play against top tier talent in the EPL.

[J.Kim]

I'd like to think of myself as a pretty loyal guy. And for what Arsene has done for Arsenal in the past (3 EPL Titles, 4 FA Cups, Champs League Semi Finals, fun tactical play recently, great transfer management and understanding of player values), I'd like to see him remain in that seat as manager for as long as he wants to be there. However, with each passing day with no players bought and seemingly no contingency plan, I can definitely see (and could relate to) why other Arsenal fans want to see him gone.

[kdawg32086]

It's just annoying when you hear Arsene commenting that teams are refusing to sell their players and then you see Man City, ManU, Chelsea, Liverpool, etc getting them like a week later.

[5DOM]

But is it Wenger or the Board who's making the decision to buy/sell?
And if it is Wenger, why the hell is the Board not interfering to save the club?

[Don Draper]

Liverpool is a different team when Suarez and Meireles are on the pitch.

Not to take anything away from Liverpool, but I bet all the top-tier teams are going to look amazing vs. Arsenal regularly fielding basically 5-6 fetuses to play against top tier talent in the EPL.

Agreed. Plus they had 10 men at that time. Liverpool didn't play well. Carrol was ineffective. You could barely tell Henderson was playing. Adam didn't do much. Enrique shut down Walcott. Downing was okay.

I would say Liverpool basically played to a draw against Arsenal's reserve team until the red card. Regardless I'm giving this team a month or so before I draw any concrete conclusions.

[Don Draper]

People can say what they want to say about Arsenal but I respect them for being financially responsible. Fans are unreasonable. They want clubs to spend yet they get upset when they realize the club is debt. Buying an expensive player doesn't assure you success and not every club has deep pockets like Chelsea or Man City.

I don't know much about Arsenal's debt situation but Steve McManaman was saying today that their debt is very manageable and in a few years he expects them to be the richest club in the world.

[5DOM]

IIRC their tickets are by far the most expensive in the world, so it's kinda understandable that the fans are not satisfied.

[Slava]

Arsenal aren't going to be the richest in the world and they are not going to go broke either. They play in London and charge the highest for seats so the spectators want to see a real premier league team and not an U-21 side they can pay half the price for.

They got decent revenue from selling real estate at Highbury so its not like they don't have cash in hand to care of debt if they do have some.

Even if Wenger re-invested the money he gets from player sales, they can be really good. You cannot expect to poach a Fabregas every time from a foreign club, for every Fab you sign you'll sign a Denilson and Bendtner too.

[Don Draper]

But is it Wenger or the Board who's making the decision to buy/sell?
And if it is Wenger, why the hell is the Board not interfering to save the club?

These are the two questions Arsenal fans need to be asking.

[J.Kim]

People can say what they want to say about Arsenal but I respect them for being financially responsible. Fans are unreasonable. They want clubs to spend yet they get upset when they realize the club is debt. Buying an expensive player doesn't assure you success and not every club has deep pockets like Chelsea or Man City.

I don't know much about Arsenal's debt situation but Steve McManaman was saying today that their debt is very manageable and in a few years he expects them to be the richest club in the world.

I don't know who it was that posted it on here (fairly sure it was IronChef)

But here's Arsenal's debt situation in 2010 and in the past 5 years (via SwissRamble):


Net Debt is down to its lowest levels in recent years, and considering that most of the debt is tied to the stadium deal and the fact that the stadium debt repayment is on a fixed schedule, they should have no problem using some of the incoming cash in previous years through Champions League (share of TV revenue and etc) and through sales of high-profile talent.

Just a cursory glance through their Financial Statements and what the Swiss Ramble wrote, Arsenal should have a little wiggle room (at the very least) to spend on talent. But it hinges on the next match-up with Udinese in CL 3rd round and there's a very likely chance that Arsene Wenger is waiting on the result of this match to pounce in the transfer period. Considering there's a hefty share of TV revenue waiting to be had for teams who advance to group stages and also a considerable sum of money for each Win/Draw (€800,000 for a win, €400,000 for a draw), it makes sense for Arsene to wait until the match with Udinese is done and take action then because there's still 7 days left in the transfer window. Winning means, being able to re-fill the coffers, pay down the debt and also pursue talent. Losing means pursuing other means of staying afloat (they've spent/saved up prudently over the past 5-6 years so they wouldn't be in immediate trouble however, it would be some lean years watching fetuses play on the pitch and being satisfied with watching them developing, while they pay down the debt, I'd imagine)

[J.Kim]

But is it Wenger or the Board who's making the decision to buy/sell?
And if it is Wenger, why the hell is the Board not interfering to save the club?

I think it's a mutual decision by both the Board and Wenger (Not based on anything I've read... I'm taking an educated (?) guess)

The board and Wenger probably both realize that a lot of their operations hinge on Champions League money and they both probably realize that it's much more prudent to wait to see how they fare against Udinese and spend later rather than make a splash signing and rack up debt only to see themselves fall out of Champions League.