In the former’s case, the Board stated that they had liaised with the Arsenal Supporter’s Trust, but to this day, nobody knows who was on that decision panel. The new crest famously did away with the club’s motto ‘Victoria Concordia Crescit’ and turned the cannon round facing the opposite way from which it was originally conceived. If you’d like an analogy of what this means or symbolises, imagine changing the colours of your flag? Or turning a national monument upside-down?
Both incidents – and more – have indeed alienated some fans from the club either by being priced out of watching the club they support as mentioned above or disappointed that the vast sums of money that they pay through club merchandise or indeed ticket sales is not reinvested in the team.
Another issue that seems to cause much derision is the “self-sustaining model” that the club swears to. While, to the purist, this seems all well and good in terms of keeping true to how a football club would ideally be run, there needs to be more disclosure in terms of how much the club has or how it conducts its business. For a detailed analysis on this, I’d suggest reading the blog entry ‘Arsenal’s Transfer Budget’ from the excellent ‘The Swiss Ramble’, which generally details how finances are carried out in football clubs – a must read.
A worrying snippet from that read had to do with how Arsenal’s commercial deals were negotiated in order to finance The Emirates Stadium where the likes of Manchester United and AC Milan enjoy significantly better deals from kit sponsors despite Arsenal sharing the same sponsors, namely Nike and Fly Emirates.
It is obvious that the Board needs to do a lot of work with regards to the discrepancy between fans and the Board itself, the manager and even the playing personnel. It is thus up to Stan Kroenke and co. to make their strategic intentions clear to the suffering fans in order to bring much-needed good news to the club in this time of doom and gloom.
Various club movements are in force that oppose the controversial decisions of the board, one of which is www.wherehasourarsenalgone.co.uk. Sign up if you share their views.
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To tell the truth, the way the club is run is perfect. Football fans in general are too thick to run their own lives never mind a football club. They NEED to be told what to do. Democracy is a stupid notion which only perpetuates the myth of selection and choice in all walks of life. At least the Arsenal board doesn’t pretend the plebians matter beyond paying for their tickets, and lets face it, given the current waiting list for tickets, the disgruntled spoilt bastard who keep moaning won’t be missed and are quite expendable.
Hmmm, very personal, defensive response. Arsenal board member by any chance?
“stars” and the names Clichy, Nasri and Walcott can’t be in the same sentence unless it is to say.
former potential “star” Clichy
or
developing “star” Nasri
or
future “star” Walcott
given your lack of forsight on this I could not read on as I see no point in reading another version of doom and gloom based on so called “media reports”…
have fun drowning in your misery ^^
Despite everything ugly been said against Arsenal by the Media and X pro’s currently, all this can change and blow over in an instant, by the Club using the transfer window very effectively.
Should Arsenal do some decent business in this current transfer market, the Club, Manager and new owner will earn themselves some respect and Brownie points + the other unsettled players will regain confidence in the leadership.
Wenger must set out clear goals for the coming season and make certain he has the personal to see this true.
So far The Bear has not seen anything to raise his confident. It is back to the Honey!
exodus? what exodus? you mean Clichy? and when and where did Van Persie and Walcott voiced their discontent? what a load of horsesh*t!
Im 64 years old now, and been an Arsenal fan since 1955 when my dad and uncle who lived in Birmingham took me to St Andrews to see The Blues play Arsenal . Though I live in and grew up in Oxford I used to travel to Highbury to watch the club I loved, in the days when you could roll up to the ground and buy a ticket at the gate. now these days are gone I can no longer afford to go, so I have to rely on Sky.So I feel for those who are struggling to afford their season tickets. I also can’t bear to see whats happening to a once proud club that players, thought it was an honour to play for. I was hoping the new owner was going to bring back David Dean, because it seems to me the clubs been on a downward spiral since he left, winning nothing and now one seeming able to tie up transfer deals, and renew players contracts before they run out.
NAM how can you say the club is being run perfectly??? We pay more for tickets than ANYBODY ELSE IN THE WORLD yet we are fed average players and a club with no ambition to win- only to get champions league qualification to make more money. The only thing that this board do perfectly is line their pockets. It’s disgraceful whats happened to our once great name.
another piece of silly crap, written by a glove puppet.
The Good name has already been spoilt by Wenger and the clueless board. I have never seen a group of football administrator’s that lack ambition. It is left for the fans to strike and let them understand who has the power. With out the fans, the club is no where. If the current trend is not checkmated, we fall in danger of slipping out of the top four, which appears by all intents and purposes to be Wenger’s ambition. Too bad for a once glorious club.
I was at the game when the new Arsenal Logo was unveiled and paraded around the ground. It was hilarious, everyone was screaming “what a load of rubbish!!”. But Wenger subtly explained on next weeks club programme, that it was in order to solidify the copyright of the logo as every scum bag del roy was selling the image for themselves in merchandise. The powers that be do look after the fans, they just have to use their business acumen to keep the ship afloat, even if it pisses off the fans. What grinds my gears, is that they cant get rid of the obvious worthless talent in the squad. you know who im talking about. Coaching staff Don’t.
Wrong.
With the unloading of foreign mercenaries (keep the one’s who want to wear the shirt) the good name of AFC will actually be restored.
If you could live with the likes of Adams, Parlour, Merson and other greats with poor off-field habits then you should welcome with open arms the likes of Barton, Samba and the like.
Men who play for the shirt with pride and defend its honor. Get rid of these crybabies and maybe we can get rid of the Moronic Bag of Shite so called fans who worship their every move.
We have wom F all with them. They have failed.
U guyz shuld try 2 make sence.wen we start winin we get praises wen we loose evry1 turns dier back.we shuld all b optimistic we will do well. it is wat we tink dat smtimes hapen 2 us.
Im more disgusted tha a Paul Devonshire supports arsenal ffs
Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It if truth be told used to be a enjoyment account it. Look advanced to far added agreeable from you! By the way, how can we keep in touch?