Peter Hill-Wood has underlined Arsenal’s determination to return to the pinnacle of English football by stressing that trophies, not just Champions League qualification, are at the core of the club’s aims.
As the club revealed healthy financial results for the last six-months, the septuagenarian reiterated that the board, owner Stan Kroenke and manager Arsene Wenger have no intention of turning their backs on the path of self-sustainability.
Writing in his Chairman’s Statement Hill-Wood made clear:
“Whilst we have our sights set on a 16th straight season in the Champions League, our aims are higher; our ambition is to win trophies. No-one is more focussed on that than our manager Arsène Wenger, our majority shareholder Stan Kroenke and the Board and it is what we work towards every day.
“Our ability to compete at the top of the game here and in Europe is underpinned by our financial performance which gives the club strength and independence.
“Our desire is to make everyone connected with Arsenal proud of the Club. We know that comes through winning trophies but also through the way we do things and that will remain our constant guide.”
Arguing that ‘the Arsenal way’ is increasingly being viewed as the right way to run a football club, he continued:
“Central to our ethos is our self-sustaining model which gives the club strength and independence. The Board remains fully committed to this path and the rest of the football world is increasingly realising the strength of this model.
“As an early proponent, we welcome the development of Financial Fair Play rules in the Premier League, in addition to those adopted by UEFA. These new rules will be good for us, good for the Premier League and good for the game as a whole.
“It is important that we maintain the quality and level of competition if the game is to continue being a compelling spectacle and we believe the introduction of tighter financial regulation will assist all clubs to compete while remaining financially responsible.”
Naturally analysis of the latest financial figures, which can be read in full here, will no doubt provoke the usual debates about players sales, high ticket prices, meagre sponsorship deals and our enormous wage bill.
Arseblog News is well aware that such topics tend to get people a little hot under the collar…we request that when commenting below you do so with a modicum of decorum.
When will the Financial Fair Play rules come into effect? It seems it’s been talked about for years. I’m starting to think it’s all just made up to worry certain heavy spending teams.
Gonna say this and haters will bash me but it seems to me that in the recent couple of years, we are fucking the seasons up one by one in a marvelous fashion and then the big cheese comes and speaks highly of our aims, giving “hope” for next season. I mean what the hell? I am a true Gooner but I am not blind. As much as I love Arsene, I dare say his policies are not working out and maybe it is time for him to throw in the towels. We need change, a big fat fucking change.… Read more »
Arsene doesnt set the policy although he does abide by them. Changing manager will do nothing unless the board’s policies change, unless the new manager demands cash to spend and the board agree to change their ways. If things above Arsene stay as is, I dont see anyone doing a better job than Wenger tbh.
“A big fat fucking change?”
Yikes, hope you don’t mean the Walrus.
Honestly its all bollocks. When man city got bought out in 2008 (i think) by Sheikh Mansour he spent nearly £300m on new players alone.. add wages to that and you can imagine the amount of money they’ve pumped in over the last 5 years. The books then must have been heavily in the red with all these new expenses, and so they counter that with a £400m sponsorship deal with Etihad airways, which nicely balanced the books – but I think its worth mentioning that Etihad is owned by his family too… ooo shocker.. a loophole. *sigh*. If the… Read more »
It’s not so much about restricting spend however, its more about punishing those who spend outside of their means. It’s to stop things happening like what has happened to Leeds and Portsmouth. Leeds spent big to compete in Europe and fell through financially and find themselves where they are now and Portsmouth spent big to stay in the premier league and now find themselves less then strapped for cash. The Man City idea wasn’t so much a loophole either. From the news i have heard, it was a way of Man City’s owners of budgeting what Man City spends as… Read more »
And when Spurs decide to buy something like 5 attacking midfielders this season: Dembele Dempsey Sigurdsson Holtby etc… another overspending team that is not much talked about because a) the media only know how to wank themselves over hilarious Bale-Messi comparisons; b) they are kind of a small club
It doesn’t work like that. and the Etihad 400m is a 10 year deal so only 40m per year. The rules are very tight. audited fully and uefa has a “it’s only legal if we say it is” clause (like in F1). Citeh will either have to change it’s ways or it will not play in europe. I suspect they’ll add a little more flexibility in at the last moment but only if clubs really look like they’re trying.
The FA will not intervene with clubs making financial deals. They made their bed with the poor and ambiguous wording on top of a history of being spineless. Talk of “within market rates” is meaningless. If they allowed the Etihad deal, anything goes. They missed the chance for FFP to make its mark. Being barred from plaing in the CL is the last of a long list of sanctions, not least because they want the biggest teams in the the most prestigious competition. City will be playing Cl football, regardless of their bank balance, for years to come. FFP has… Read more »
AgentITK says: February 26, 2013 at 10:59 am The FA will not intervene with clubs making financial deals. I think you’ll be shocked by the effect it will have. It’s probable that they’ll soften it at the last moment for clubs making a serious effort but the PSG deal is pretty much a guarantee they’ll be used as an example and kicked out of european football for a few years. They wanted to ‘string up’ an EPL team (as they’re french and hate the EPL) but PSG may have save Money Citeh, provided they make an effort over the next… Read more »
@AndyMack: I would love to be shocked by seeing the FA act decisively and consistently to enforce FFP, a strong decision on PSG would be a start, but I just cannot see it. It may prevent teams from doing what City have done in the future (Hundreds of millions declared in loss over one season) but that will suit City and Chelsea down to the ground, they’re already league and european champions. As for any other decent sized club, the notion that they FFP means they spend within means is all well and good but they’re not even close to… Read more »
AgentITK, It’s not the FA yet. That’s to come but Uefa comes first and Platini is not gutless. You aren’t far off the truth with tha Chavs and Citeh but despite already being champions, they have problems generating enough cash with their present small stadiums. The city of manchester stadium holds around 47k and their supporters don’t like paying expensive ticket prices. They’ve reducted their loss to 93m (IIRC) this year. Halve that, add new TV money and it’ll be difficult for them to meet the FFP and get new players (keeping a few of the exiisting expensive ones may… Read more »
interestingly someone on the arses pointed out that without the sale of our last world class player we would have made a whopping great loss !
as there is no one left to sell and with a huge wage bill, will it make us a little vulnerable to the ffp rules ?
No.
They won’t able to tempt our players away with ridiculously high wages. This is the whole point of FFP (I hope anyway), clubs have to earn trophies, not buy them. Whether or not anything is implemented is anyone’s guess, its been spoken about for far too long and could well be brushed under the carpet as Goal Line technology has been for so long. There are some very cowardly and greedy people running football, its clear for everyone to see.
look at financialfairplay.co.uk for info
it’s fuck all. this is the same shit we hear every season.
whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatevah…
*sigh
The owners of PSG, Chelsea, Man city can inject money into their club through sponsorship deals. For example- PSG signed 150 million a year deal. So they can continue to spend like they are doing now. I don’t think FFP would have any influence on big spending
The FFP rules have a ‘market rate’ rule for sponsorship, so only a portion of any unrealistic deal can be used to count towards complying.
I don’t know the background of PSG’s deal, but there is no way that could all count if it is a straight up £150m per season, as it wouldn’t represent what a comparable club could earn.
goon92, you’re wrong. It will have a big effect on PSG more than anyone, as they bought and invested in the club too late. If they’d done it 5 years earlier then they may have got the initial spending out of the way like the chavs.
Uefa has a ‘it’s wrong unless we tell you otherwise’ clause like in F1, and 150m per annum will not get through.
PHW talks absolute nonsense. It’s been clear for some time that the aim is to make a profit. Except you’d have to be an idiot not to see that such a model means less profit in the long term because a) people won’t pay for tickets and merchandise associated with a team on the decline, and b) companies won’t strike lucrative sponsorship deals with a team on the decline. The way you make a club profitable is to FIRST make the team a winning one. And you don’t do that by a) selling your best players every season, and b)… Read more »
“The way you make a club profitable is to FIRST make the team a winning one”
They did that and then they built a mega stadium. When they have the stadium cost under control they’ll go back to concentrating on the winning bit.
Actions speak louder than words, its a bit late this season but start proving it 13/14
We’ve said this for the last 3 years. Every transfer window.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BD-r4v6CQAAqT1D.jpg
The one thing i hate about being an arsenal fan is not knowing who to blame for our trophy drought. Dont get me wrong, i’m not a glory hunter or anything i’m arsenal till death NO MATTER WHAT but its very frustrating not knowing whats going on behind the scenes. So who is it, the board? The manager? The physios? The players? Other clubs being taken over by sugardaddies?
And lastly, what are we doing to compete for said trophies?
First of all the man who i responsible for our defensive misfunctions for 5-6 years, and who allows it to get constantly worse. That’s the first pillar of our failures, as in 2010 when we had Cesc, Nasri and van Persie we still didn’t win anything, mostly due to the fragile defensive, secondly due to the lack of proper squad (which can be blamed on more parties).
Our useless defense that is the defense which is currently the the second best in the PL and the 3rd in the list of clubs with clean sheets 9.
i genuinely understand your frustration. but it could also be that there’s no-one to blame – arsenal can’t compete financially with corrupt russian oligarchs and dirty oil money. and yes, the equally hideous manchester united do not fall into either of these categories, but they are a freak of nature.. a one off, financially and in terms of marketability. most football supporters of most clubs win nothing. we’ve won a lot in the last 15 years and had an incredible amount of success. right now, it’s just not our time. whose to say it won’t be within the next few… Read more »
Surely constant decline and lack of definsive knowhow are not dictated by financial constraints.Just put the financial aspect to one side,and take a good look at what is going on the pitch and has been for years. Somebody is to blame,any suggestions?
I know I’ll get numerous thumbs down for this but the heavy spending of Chelsea & Man city is not the sole reason for our lack of recent sucess & we know it!
We consistently lose to teams much worse than us with even less financial muscle.
Defeats to Hull, Swansea, Wigan, Bradford, Norwich, Blackburn etc has nothing to do with the spending of Man city, Chelsea etc.
You can just blame Wenger, players or the board.
Its a combine thing everyone has to have the same goal and that is to win and sadly with the debt we are trying to win and make a profit each year and with Rubbish Sponsorship deald we have had to sell our best players.
So hardly a good environment to build success.
@Kenyangoon, If the press were here the headline of your post would be a manipulation of your comments to say: EXCLUSIVE ‘I HATE BEING AN ARSENAL FAN’ – KENYANGOON All jokes aside, I think your frustration is shared by most Arsenal fans, I think the biggest factor is the mental side of it. Although many other factors are now adding to it, it is purely a confidence and mentality issue. Prime examples are: Torres – Set the Prem alight. Considered the best strike in the prem and one of the best in the world at the time, just falling short… Read more »
Same old rhetoric there isnt enough continuity with the better more established members of the playing squad instead a steady dilution. Only when this changes and iur defensive deficiencies properly rectified will we be the force we once were.
The title made me chuckle in itself, arsenal, win trophies!?….
the title just made me question…WHEN?????????????????????
man sollte es mal mit hallenfußball versuchen !!
What is a title? Is it that thing that other clubs win?
You have won a few in your lifetime, surely you haven’t forgotten. You have been at the top for 30years!!!
I sold the rights to Arsenal winning trophies to a Rich fat Russian. If you bring him onto the Arsenal Board you will get it back! Or else I will get my agent son to get your best players to leave. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (evil laugh)!
i’m going to call bullshit on “no one is more focused on (winning trophies) than AW and Kronke.” I think I focus more on the trophies than Kronke. In fact my nan does.
“No-one is more focused on winning than Kroneke”
Thank you Arseblog for adding “we request that when commenting below you do so with a modicum of decorum”, it saved me a long long post, lol.
Also brief (let someone else do the talking), but Stan doesn’t care about winning at all.
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/45237/is-this-man-ruining-arsenal
So, $120m in cash reserves? That’s more than a small country!
If this was monopoly, AFC would be the undisputed champions. It is great that $40m was spent on new players and contracts, can we have a few more though please.
CYG!
Nice tie.
It doesn’t directly say it but (if i’m reading it correctly) it also suggests that we still own around 200m for the stadium. But together with the other new commercial deals comming on line, I think 40m plus is a genuine war chest for a change. I beleive that previously it’s been more a case of ‘if a real world class player comes up at a sensible price we’ll refinance to make it work, but market prices aren’t sensible’.
Agreed!
Also I think we are one of the few teams who can pay a fee there and then, rather than Barcelona style installments (which rely upon success).
I genuinely think all this financial stuff and sponsorship will allow Wenger to focus more coaching and football and less on wages, contracts etc. It would be great if he can say he wants a player and we can get him with no hassle. I wonder how far down on Arsene’s list his last 10 signings were?
What we also need in this summer is a world renowned psychologist to boost our first half mentality.!
please add…world renowned eye surgeon for the fucking scouts of Arsenal FC
Psychiatrist to brainwash them may do the trick…
“You are successful, you won a trophy last year”
“You are successful, you won a trophy last year”
“You are successful, you won a trophy last year”
Players go out on the pitch in 2013-14 unbeaten! Simples as the meerkat would say.
And a world renowned someone for whatever Dick Law does!
Lol if there ever was a story to post up to get the fans going. 😀
Arseblog,
That’s not fair!
You mentioned everything I wanted to comment on in my post
What’s point of leaving comments if you are going to steal the show
Few more things
The definition of Arsenal way is different for three main stakeholders
Club: to sell as many super stars as you every year and spend that money on dross like we have.
Shareholders: to sell their shares for as much as profit they can and laugh their way to the bank. That includes PHW, Dein, Late Fizman, Lady thingy etc
Fans: keep forking out cash as much you can afford till you go broke
Players: Play nothing, take away 50K a week at least
I’m not pro PHW but I don’t think he has many shares anyway, no where near the others mentioned.
Same old rhetoric from the board and its getting annoying now. How in any way can we compete to win trophies starting from next season. We are so far behind the likes of Man. U, Chelsea and City that there is no point even remotely calling them rivals anymore. We as fans pay the highest ticket prices in the league and its a complete insult to us that we are still nowhere near winning a major trophy. I’m not interested in ‘the arsenal way’ that’s nothing to be proud of. The board are so detached from the fans it’s untrue.
The last sentence if the truest ever stated on here. It should be set down in concrete the size of the vArsenal sign and dumped outside ‘Highbury House’.
I am really starting to loathe Hill-Wood for his condescending verbiage, every time these yearly/half yearly statements come out.
FFP will only effect at the margins and the idea that Real Madrid or Chelsea will disappear to make Hill-Wood seem vindicated, is cretinous.
Still Gazedis should be in line for another bonus on the back of this so there’s something to celebrate, isn’t there ?
I think the worst thing about them is they behave like politicians, or villainous corporate folk. You get little feeling that they feel about Arsenal the same way you do.
No one has said that RM or the Chavs will disappear. Unfortuantely RM are the biggest club in the world (followed by Barca and manure) and have more than enough income to rule FFP however the Chavs will have to change their way. They’ll still be a big UK team but unless they move to a much bigger stadium they will not be the big european club that they want to be.
I keep hearing “trophies”………
What is this mysterious word that you speak of?
*Deep breath*
Oookay, keep calm. Be brief.
Ahem.
“What a load of bullshit.”
Cut the crap Hill Wood.
Are we or are we not going to continue with the 2 4 5 pie and a pint deal next season? Yes or no?
I warn you, if it’s a no you can whistle for my fuckin season tickets money, sunshine.
Bollocks!! Modicom enough?
I know this isn’t the Untold Arsenal blog but can we have an article about the BBC’s frontpage exclusive today.
I’ve had quite about enough of them. The article is so embarrassingly dishonest that they neglected to note an author.
COYG.
What was that?
‘Arsenal Can Finish Second, says Arsene Wenger’
Followed by 600 comments about what he might be smoking.
Wish we took more notice of how everyone hates us – to me that has been our biggest failing. These cunts divide our fans.
I absolutely agree with you – we can look at how our club/board lacks ambition however much we want but a more insidious factor is that the media have been getting the masses to hate us since forever.
And its a violent, almost far-right sort of hatred – remember the reaction to Ramsey’s leg break “poor Shawcross!”. I don’t know what they want. A Hillsborough-type accident?
The BBC seems to be hit-whoring with their headlines at the moment.
If you look at the top rated comments on today’s Wenger article, they all just slate the BBC.
Peter Hill-Wood, Arsenal’s very own Duke of Edinburgh. Old, senile, mad as a hatter. Old cunt has sat on his fat fucking arse puffing on cigars and talking shit for about 50 years. The disrespectful cunt ganged up on Dein and Edlemann etc., who did more for the club that than twat could do in 10,000 years. Time he fucked off for good.
He’s family has done more for Arsenal than you and all the other moaners will ever do.
Peter Hill-Wood of the famous Hill-Wood family, who have been on the board/chairmen of The Arsenal since 1962? That Pete Hill-Wood?
Yeah I hate that True Gooner.
You Muppet.
Actually a Hill-Wood has been on the board since 1929. Does that qualify him for the sobriquet “True Gooner”?
Never a truer word Future.
Who woke that old cunt up anyway?
And all of those who thumbed this down – get a reality check FFS
I know i’m going to get battered for this but….Are we REALLY that far behind Chelsea and City? Look at the league table…And i have to agree somewhat with PHW, the “Arsenal way” is the way forward, as long as we spend a big chunk of that money in the summer, which i think we will (i know), we (the club) have been planning for 2013/14 for years now, and in the summer us fans will really see the true direction and ambition of the club.
People like you make me sick. Every year the same, compete for nothing, bin it and hope and pray Wenger changes his ways, which he never does and never will.
When are you going to get it into your head, he’s not the man he once was?Nothing like it. The players CLEARLY don’t believe in him and he’s completely out of touch with modern football – especially tactically. Tactically he’s so clueless it’s painful to watch. If he had Man Utd’s squad, they’d be 5th and out of the CL.
If Wenger had Utd’s squad, he would have the Dutch skunk, and doing a lot better than fifth…
You are not the future you are waste of of my time it took to write this comment.
Never mind the future, you just wasted 15 seconds of my present.
Are we really that far behind Bayern?
Nah, just two goals. 😉
Usually the best teams set the quality standard, and Chelsea and City are clearly not the best teams. I keep saying that other ‘big’ clubs being shit is no excuse. We are not so far behind them, in fact we might be better than them, but, quite frankly, we’ve set the bar too low. Look at United, Barcelona, Real, Bayern, Juventus and other teams who have done remarkable things. Their achievements completely overshadow City’s and Chelsea’s recent success.
I am conditionally backing the leadership of the club: –Mr Wenger has spoiled supporters over the past 16 years- one need only look at the EPL competition- a collection of ambitious clubs falling into debt or relying on petrodollars for success. I cannot dislike the man, and hope he resigns for the club. –The new sponsorship deal looks promising and the kit deal better be in line with the upper echelon of English clubs, or we’ll have missed a golden opportunity. That is one condition. –The shareholders continue to not pay a dividend and funnel the money into the functioning… Read more »
I think you got it other way wrong supporters have spoiled the club and board. Just answer one question Who is paying the most expensive ticket prices in the world and who has walked away with millions worth of cash (and that includes Mr Wenger himself commanding over 7 million a year It’s wishful thinking that other clubs will fall away. You keep on waiting and dreaming like that forever. The problem is that the manager can’t even make the best of it’s available resources. Look at the number of trophies players have won after leaving Arsenal and look at… Read more »
Arsenal charges a massive amount in tickets relative, as I hear it. You’re right on that. When Blogs and Mr Stillman are decrying, that’s strong proof of discontent. I am a fervent hockey fan and I refuse to attend an NHL game due to exorbitant ticket prices. I don’t wish that upon you, sir. It must be given more consideration, and the capitalization of AFC should be as much in sponsorships and advertising as off the backs of fans. But, let *me* ask this: the players get a salary, the manager and his team get a salary, but what money… Read more »
And where have those players gone to win trophies, Chelsea and Man City, the two richest clubs in England, as for your question “who pays for the most expensive tickets in the world, the answer is, only those that want to…
I see you have bought in to the lies in the press that our season ticket price is higher than sp*rs that’s true but add in the 8 cup games that you get with an Arsenal season ticket that you don’t get with a sp*rs season ticket. If you do the maths individual match days are cheaper. But if you can’t get your facts right you can just spout bullshit if your going to rubbish Arsenal at least get the basic facts right. One more point if Chelsea and man city charge what it cost to cover there losses there… Read more »
“The rest of the football world is increasingly realising the strength of this model.”
The stength on this model is solely based on Wenger selling the clubs best players to make a profit each year.
Hardly a strong model by any means their lucky no other Manager would put up with it.
Not to worry. Once I finish zipping up my coat, I will begin to scout top, top, top quality players who can strengthen the squad.
I believe you LOL
Make sure you keep them 😉
Fair play to Hill – Wood. Arsenal is a very well run EPL club.
Great stadium strong fan base and financially sustainable.
However although we are always promised trophies we don’t win any.
City and Chelsea have sugar daddies and United have the best manager in the world. I believe most Arsenal fans realise with our budget 3rd or 4th place in the EPL and finishing above Spurs is the best we can do. This summer though we will have more money to buy quality and depth. I believe next season we will finally seriously challenge for the premiership.
Dream on zzzzzzzzzzzz
We know that the people in charge of this club arent stupid and have plenty of stats, info and advisors to help in their decisions, I have this feeling that they have been planning their particular strategy for some years in order to build the stadium, training facilities and improve as many aspects of the club as possible whilst remaining competitive knowing the fact that we are a weaker team man for man against are rivals but hope that are youth, skill in the market and way that we play will still give us a slight chance. I think they… Read more »
@Future And people like you make me laugh, just because Arsene gave us the most successful and glorious period in our clubs history, now we have not kept at that level you want him out, ffs grow up, we have no devine right to win the title or to go through the whole season unbeaten, just because we did it a few years ago doesn’t mean it will happen every year. Look at the money available to Chelsea and City, how are we supposed to keep up with them when you take into account their spending power?? We are doing… Read more »
Typical pro-Wenger bullshit. DId I say I expect us to win titles every year or go unbeaten? We don’t even challenge for the poxy Carling Cup anymore you stupid cunt. We get beaten by shite like Bradford and Blackburn. We can’t get anywhere near competing for PL or CL. There’s winning, there’s competing and there’s falling off a cliff. If money means everything how come they came 6th last season? Behind Spurs and Arsenal! That proves it’s not all about money. You talk shit about financial restrictions when our two shareholders can outdo Abramovic. You haven’t got a leg to… Read more »
Why do you mention how rich our shareholders are – that proves you have absolutely no understanding of how the club is run – how much money they have is fuck all to do with the way the club is run. And on your Wenger is useless rant, you seem to have ommited to mention who you would like him replaced with, or didn’t you think that far ahead, you just jumped on the Wenger out bandwagon like all the fucking twats….
@Future, fuck off. Not typical anti-AW BS, just plain BS from you. We are not winning, we are not falling off a cliff. So that just leaves the idea that we are competing. We are underperforming, but with our resources, we are realistically only competing for 3rd. So we are currently underperforming because we are not in that position, not because we are not champions.
Who cares whether we win a trophy or not you fuckwit? Its the fact that we don’t even compete that pisses me off. We don’t compete because Wenger cant motivate, mentor or coach his players. These are players he has chosen, bought and rewarded their failure with extended and enhanced contracts.
We don’t need 100 million to compete for titles. We just need to change ‘the socialistic wage model’, keep our best players and add quality players. If we kept RVP, Nasri and Song and added Cazorla, Podolski and Nacho to that team, we’d have been competing for titles
Realistically if we are selling players each year to avoid making a loss then ofcoarse its very unlikely Wenger is going to get big money to spend.
It defeats the purpose of selling the players in the first place.
Casper…..err, what? What are you trying to say? That didn’t make a lot of sense! Most of you lot will probably rage at me but I don’t mind the current situation. The petrodollars can’t last forever and the financial situations of most of our “competitors” – shitcunts the lot of them – are completely unsustainable, fair play or not. That is economic fact. I don’t want to support some fucking wanky club like Citeh or the west London chavvers. They’re tragic. We’ll win things again. And I tell you what, my first game was in 1986, so I’ve seen some… Read more »
@Rocky, quite sorry. I thought I was pretty clear- I haven’t found reason to give up, I do not intend to give up, and with Wenger at the helm we’ve had a pretty substantial run, especially considering the rise and fall of a number of other clubs. Oddly, you seem not to get me, but I agree with you- the other models aren’t sustainable, the other clubs are supported by society’s dregs, and we will see this through to success. If the conditional aspect was the unclear part then here it is: I support the club because I have not… Read more »
I second that sir!
Since when did PHW want to make the fans and everyone connected with the club ‘proud’? Although I agree with the points being made what were seeing on the pitch and at board level doesn’t back up these statements and hasn’t for many years. Less propaganda more action required
Did Gazidis right the statement for PHW, it reads way too corporate and inoffensive for old-hatter Hillwood
is anyone else sick of hearing our management talk like this and do fuckall about it?
Nope, it makes perfect sense.
The usual bollocks and bullshit. What PHW, Kroenke and the others are really interested in is making money out of the club – which, to be fair, they are very good at. If they were really so keen on actually winning trophies then they would be asking hard questions of Wenger, demanding to know why he has spunked up more than 140 million quid of wages on a second-rate squad which may not even finish in the top four. We won’t start winning trophies again until we sort out the crisis of senior management that exist at the club right… Read more »
How are the shareholders making money from the club? There’s no dividend. Share trading is nothing to do with the clubs money. Perhaps someone can explain how the clubs board/shareholders are fleecing the club cos I hear it but don’t see it. Really wish people would stop banging that drum…
Surely it’s in the interests of the shareholders, and ultimately their main aim, for the club to be successful, which will mean the shares will increase in value, then should they want to sell they will get a better return on their investment..i thought that was how it worked, unless i missed something??
The usual bollocks and bullshit from someone who professed a desire for our team to lose and miss out on CL qualification.
I will keep it short.
Fuck off, Fats.
Thumbs up if you think the mad old bastard wrote that himself!
Yay! The CL qualification trophy!!!
Annoying to read that Wenger still having major support up there, it’s been 8 years already and there is no pressure, just quotes of trust and faith over his poor work.
Because they, quite rightly, realise that he is doing well with the resources available and that if we start sacking managers that don’t win the league we will soon become a liverpool or worse.
Thankfully, the board are not so short-sighted as you and are thinking of the future.
Very succinct of you gaffer
You missed something Wenger-ass-kisser: Wenger’s also not won the CL, Carling/Capital One cup, FA cup and the pre-season shields for 8 years – that’s five opportunities of silverware a season, over 8 years makes 40 chances he’s blown.
When you don’t even win 1 in 40, there’s something majorly wrong with the man or his strategy.
You need the glasses for short-sightedness as your continued loyalty to this once great but now past-it man and the board is part of the problem that is dragging our once great club down. Wake up.
Fuckin twaddle. FFS wrap up
Unsurprisingly todays announcement inevitably brings out the whingers and moaners. While there is a massive points gap to Man U, there is another “gap” that is worthy of consideration. If the league position were based on goals conceded then on the basis of away goals we would be top of the league whereas based on goals conceded at home we would be 14th! This suggests to me that our defenders are capable of defending contrary to the abusive bile uttered on the internet. In my opinion a major contributory factor to the relatively poor performance at home is the abusive… Read more »
It’s all these fucking “Johnny come latelies” who only started supporting the club cause we were doing the double or going through the season unbeaten, they thought it was the norm, now it’s not happening they get confused and start booing the players and shouting Wenger out!!!
The 123m cash reserve cannot all be used on transfers, people need to understand that. I’m tired of us selling our best players in order to stay afloat. Wenger has done superbly to keep this lot in the top 4. Hopefully he will spend the new sponsorship money. We need to show some ambition. We can’t compete with Chelshit and Shitty and the two Spanish teams, but we sure as hell can attract 99.9% of the other players. We keep hearing about how we “use our own resources”.., well, we don’t. Instead of “Spend some fucking money”, the board should… Read more »
“By all accounts Arsenal could easily spend £75m with no financial consequences. If we can’t then someone is cooking the books”
Provided you completely ignore the money owed on the stadium, you’re 100% correct.
THE DIRTY STINKIN SPUDS ARE LOSSING!!!!
I’ve always said that Joe Cole was a top player 😛
Apologies for the emote thingy.
2-1 peoples. yee ha !
2-2 West Ham hanging on….
how can we take a statement like this seriously ? If you keep selling your best players every year to make a profit how can you compete for any trophy ?
it clearly doesn’t add up
NOOOOOOO somebody has to assassinate this dirty money we call Bale.
Fucking monkey boy wanker….when will teams fucking learn, stop Bale and you stop spurs, ffs..Arrrgggghhhhh
Hate to say it, but Bale is world class right now. That winning goal was sensational, and his first strike was pretty special, too. He is the difference between a mid-table Spurs side and one which could finish in the top four. The good thing is that he won’t be at White Hart Lane next season: a team in Spain or Man City will be paying his wages. Sunday’s game is now crucial. If we lose then I can’t see us catching Spurs: seven points clear with just ten games to go – and playing like shit as we are… Read more »
Seriously dude, piss off… What are you even doing here if you can’t look forward to going to your rival’s place, beating them and closing the gap to a single point before they even begin their scheduled late season collapse?
The difference between troll and tool really is ever so slight.
Come on Fats, i can’t fucking wait for Sunday, give them cunts a kicking in their own back yard, if Ramsey can mark Bale out the game, man for man we’re miles better than them, bring it on..COYG
Open your front door. Light up a cigarette. Walk for 10 minutes. If you’re fortunate, you’ll probably see a major road. Stand there, right in the middle. Pray you get spotted by a large animal who’s lost and hungry. Preferably, a radioactive fucked up rodent.
You silly fuck. It’s one thing the spuds won today, another their best player scored and I can live with if you acknowledge your opponent but ffs, do not ever glorify those bastards.
I really wonder you’re a troll or not. Either, it’s a post from a legit cunt.
@A Yank: Sorry, Old Buddy, but you Americans just don’t get how tribal football – or “soccer” – is in this country (that’s England). Arsenal Football Club under Arsene Wenger over the last four years has been a slow-motion car crash. And I fear that Sunday will be the moment of impact. For us real, LONDON, Arsenal fans, losing to Spurs hurts like hell. Seeing us usurped as the best side in the Capital hurts even more. We are playing like shit. I fear a tonking at White Hart Lane on Sunday. And it’s very, very frustrating watching us go… Read more »
Instead of going through life as a miserable bastard, why don’t you just save up a bit of cash and pay for a brass?
@Fatgooner: I lived in London for almost three years, so I’m pretty sure I can ‘get’ how tribal football is in England. Still having spent time there, I’m certain that simply being in London doesn’t make you any more of a REAL fan. Shit, Gunners in Oz or New Zealand have to wake up in the middle of the fucking night just to watch games. Would probably cost them upwards of $5K just to make it to a match. That takes way more fucking commitment than hoping on the tube and walking two blocks up the road. But since you’re… Read more »
less lies more action please.
Fuck off West ham, your defending is abosolut shit.
Real madrid get your thumb out of the arse and get that cunt of the spuds so they can crawl back to their 6th place.
Where the fuck was Maroanne Chamakh? I was expecting a fooking hattrick from that overpaid, shisha-smoking, mongrel with shit-hair!
[…] Read More Here: Hill-Wood: Our aim is to win trophies […]
Between having to read this load of bollocks and the utter pain of the Sp*rs result…..and top that off with the fact that its Monday. I have to say this day qualifies as an extremely high on the sucking scale.
For fuck sake.
Just got back from a long fag brake to calm down.
I simply cant belive the jammy bastards came back and won that.
I hope we snap bale Sunday and end his season resulting in the Spuds finishing 9th.
They will finish ahead of Stoke tho their not that shit.
I cant wait until Bale is sold and sp*rs fall apart. hopefully this summer?
The one question people need to ask is why did stan get involved in arsenal in the first place. When you answer that logically you will then realise why we are unlikely to be competing for either the premier league title or champions league at anytime whilst he is here.
Why?
Obviously wants to make money… granted. But a successful team makes more money, so surely he would want a title challenging/cup winning team??
Explain please?
Jjb. I see it like this and see if you can refrain from calling me cunt for having an opinion that may differ form yours. Stan is a multi billionaire and is unlikely involved in arsenal because the little boy in him said it was a good idea. We both agree that it’s probably for the money. A few million here or there is hardly worth the bother for a man as rich as him, I can’t see it’s worth the aggravation tbh. Arsenal have not won a trophy for 8 years but are still one of the most successfully… Read more »
“Voldermort says: February 26, 2013 at 3:36 pm Jjb. I see it like this and see if you can refrain from calling me cunt for having an opinion that may differ form yours.” I think you’re under estimating the value of a winning club. The commercial deals you are referring to would be much much more for a really long term winning team and I don’t think stan is in it for a quick few million. If this team wins and all the deals come together then he can be talking about doubling his money. He’s easily got enough already… Read more »
Not sure about he relevance of the voldermort says sentence. But maybe your right and stan is in it for the long term and will invest to enable us to compete for the premier league etc. it’s about opinions and mine differs from yours. I suppose this coming season will tell us a Little bit more about the direction that he board is taking he club. Not underestimating the value of a wining club, it would obviously be worth more in a commercial sense. But to get us thier could cost us a lot of money and we are already… Read more »
Voldermort, I don’t think he is necessarily the white knight but he’s certainly not the short terms scammer. I don’t expect them to suddenly have mega wedge but they’ll have more each year whilst others have less (not necessarily less than us but less than they did and that’ll be new for them).
Gareth Bale is fantastic lets just admit it. Shame we did not buy this top quality player when we coud have as a youngster. . We have had several years to buy him when we have been in the champions league. But we bought Gervinho, Bendtner Arshavin, Squlacci, Shamak, Park. and hung on to Rosicky and poor old Diaby who hardly play either. Our talent scouts have not bought much quality for years. Hopefully next season we will buy real quality. Bale would be a great start. Still think we will win on the weekend. CMOYG
Developed it for sometime now. We can now finally stop bale. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BD-_BksCYAIZ8xv.jpg
Arsene Wenger
I literally cried when i clicked on that link couldnt stop laughing
Fair play you have made my day LOL
There’s something you don’t hear everyday in comments: “Arsene Wenger you made my day.”