Arsenal

[humdrum]

clicky clicky click bait.... (probably...)

 

 

[Gotters]

I've seen mention this morning that the Kroenke's value the club at around £2b !!

 

Populist move with those players but not like Henry or Viera demonstrated much ability off the pitch managerially. Fans made good like Ek are a nice idea but if successful in getting the club can be too emotionally invested to make the right calls.

 

Not sure the Kroenke's will sell mind, they've put up with hostile fans opposing them for years in the US, its part of the operating model seemingly. 

[Gabe]

Much like Man Utd, what is the incentive for Kroenke to sell? Isn't he extracting decent money out of the club for not doing much? I doubt he cares about any protests and won't until it starts hurting the bottom line.

[Gotters]

Just now, Gabe said:

Much like Man Utd, what is the incentive for Kroenke to sell? Isn't he extracting decent money out of the club for not doing much? I doubt he cares about any protests and won't until it starts hurting the bottom line.

 

I'd say his only reasons to sell now would be if he believes that football is at the peak of its bubble and he can get out for a tidy profit before it drops.

 

If he doesn't believe that you keep taking those management fees and let the club pay the debt you've stuck it with - it's free money on an appreciating asset. 

[Lucky]

So it's official, Balogun has signed the ting.

Get him involved on Thursday?

Might as well. 

Better option than Nketiah if you ask me.

[Gotters]

I've never seen Balogun play that I can recall so not sure about the excitement here, nice to not see another potential Gnabry I guess but he never gets the shout ahead of Nketiah even in dead rubber league games like Everton so I have to wonder wha the fuss is about. I know youngsters take a while to blossom sometimes, Smith-Rowe being a good example, but he has to get on the pitch now.

 

Not sure about the excitement over Ek, sure he's not Kroenke but if the club is financially fucked now imagine the state it'll be in if somebody has to pay £1.5b+ for it - unless you are getting some 0.0000000001% top of the tree multi billionaire doing an Abramovich or a sovereign wealth fund no club can service debt like that in a falling TV revenue environment. 

[Lucky]

Imagine playing Balogun ahead of Nketia before he'd signed a contract only for him to leave on a free. That would be a bit embarrassing and a bit shambolic.

Not to say Balogun is an answer right now but he should definitely be ahead of Nketia.

If Auba doesn't start I would go with Martinelli up top on Thursday and Balogun on the bench. It's a bit of a gamble but the unpredictability and energy of these two up top has got to be better than Nketia who doesn't quite do anything. 

 

Xhaka to continue at LB or play Saka there is also another question. Or should we even go with Cedric at LB to not lose Xhaka in the middle and Saka on the right of the three?

 

Thursday is a massive game.

I've been Arteta in all the way but he's really on thin ice at the moment. 

[Art Vandelay]

I feel a bit for Nketiah as he's clearly a very good player but he only scores one type of goal. If he was in City's team he would be putting up some serious numbers, but we create next to nothing inside the box so he is constantly isolated. Balogun where I've seen him is more all action. I guess more like Danny Welbeck in some ways in that he's always busy and does a lot of running about. They're probably giving Nketiah minutes as they want him shifted in the summer.

[g wings]

Some more from Daniel Ek:

 

"I have secured the funds for it and I want to bring a very compelling offer to the owners and I hope they hear me out. I certainly didn't expect this will happen overnight and I am prepared for this to be a long journey."

 

"I've been an Arsenal fan since I was eight years old. Arsenal is my team. I love the history. I love the players. And of course, I love the fans. So as I look at that, I just see a tremendous opportunity to set a real vision for the club to bring it back to its glory. And I want to establish trust with fans and I want to engage the fans again."

[Gotters]

Loss making Arsenal are currently valued at well north of $2b by their notoriously tight lipped and mean owner/investors - how do you pay this world record buyout fee for the club and still run it on a profitable basis ?

 

Take with a pinch of salt but Forbes lists the value at $2.8b, its a big number and I believe Kroenke paid over a billion quid to get full ownership and would want a major return on that.

 

We're also possibly in a declining TV rights market domestically and whilst on pitch success and getting back in the CL every year would raise a lot more income it wouldn't be enough to cover such a huge debt, which would dwarf what the Glazers have done to Utd. 

 

I get the appeal of anyonebutkroenke but unless its some Abramovich type billionaire doing for a laugh its hard to see the numbers stack up commercially.

[Gabe]

Plus Ek would just be the figurehead of the ownership, he wouldn't be buying outright. You'd have all those other voices wanting to find ways of getting returns on their money, and for such a big outlay they would need to monitise everything.

 

I'm not sure how it would be much better than what you have - and could actually be worse. 

[Art Vandelay]

The way he's gone about it certainly isn't filling me with confidence and it just seems like a load of PR from where I'm sat. I find it very difficult to believe Vieira and to some extent Henry would be part of it too. Big Pat has been firmly part of the City machine in his post-playing days and incredibly distant from the club, and Henry wants to be a head coach so it makes zero sense to be on this theoretical board at Arsenal. Swapping one billionaire for another shouldn't be anyone's ambition because there's looming problems for all clubs that it won't solve. In any case I think Kroenke would sooner use the ground as a mausoleum for his withered corpse like that nutcase Nicholas van Hoogstraten than sell it.

[SeanR]

 Bawbags...

[Art Vandelay]

Fuck me have this lot being doing glue on the bus.

[Gotters]

That shot wasnt in the corner, Leno jumped over it

[SeanR]

Bunty  collocks

[Art Vandelay]

Good ebening.

[SeanR]

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure bad to worse was possible...

[Gotters]

More terrible ingame management (or total lack of) from Arteta. You could see Ceballos was getting another yellow and was lucky at start of 2nd. 

[Gotters]

Saka bought that, never a pen.

[SeanR]

Slip n slide

[Art Vandelay]

All worth it to see that Spurs reject getting a red as they’re stretchering his old arse off the pitch. Would watch again.

[KRP]

Well this is as bad as I have seen us all season

[Art Vandelay]

Good thing this isn’t a European semi final or it would be really sad.

[SeanR]

i dont think I never not seen partay lose the ball

[hauk]

If the team had played their hearts out and missed chance after chance I'd be gutted, but we were shit the whole game and created next to nothing. I was all for giving Arteta another season, but honestly with performance's like this what's the point? Even more depressing is the owners do not give a shit so nothing will happen.

[Art Vandelay]

Absolutely pathetic to the point of being almost funny. Just need to limp through to Christmas before putting Arteta out of his misery now.

[layten]

Wenger in.

[wev]

Its very easy to not give a shout about Arsenal these days, what with how performances have been and the stuff that's gone on in the wider scheme of things.

[Art Vandelay]

I remember being genuinely nervous all week leading up to these sort of games in the past and I really miss that. I think the knowledge that we were almost certainly going to go through the motions like we did last night, the contempt the club has for its fans, not being able to go to the ground and the lack of direction we have in general just makes it impossible to get emotionally invested in it. What if we did win it? We'd only waste all the money anyway. Arteta and Edu's recruitment has been dreadful and KSE haven't the first clue about how to run a football club. 

 

It's easy to look back and criticise, but every major decision we've made as a club in the last 15 years has been wrong. Clung to Wenger for too long and missed out on the next generation of elite manager as a result. Terrible squad management and recruitment. Went all in on sterile Pep-lite possession based football which is completely out of fashion. All the while taking a big shit on the fans by expelling them from any semblance of ownership of the club and coming up with such wit as "thank you for taking an interest in our club." Honestly, the biggest emotion I have is just sadness. 

 

Arteta can stay or go, who really cares? We're at a point now where the spiral is almost irresistible. Through years of mismanagement we've practically made it impossible for ourselves to compete again. I'm just a bit insulted that the club expects me to still care.