Morning all.
On a morning when Sky Sports announced that Man City are about to trigger the £75 million get out fee for Erling Haaland and then pay him £500k a week, it’s ironic that The Daily have printed an interview with Steve Parish.
We have to remember we all love football because teams like us can get here – said Parish.
Crystal Palace is jointly owned by him and Americans Josh Harris and David Blitzer who are believed to be trying to buy Chelsea. If either/both are successful, they will have to sell their shares in Palace. But Palace will be fine says Parish as the club will carry on doing what it’s been doing. Signing good players and appointing the right staff, one who is Arsenal great Patrick Vieira.
It’s not like we were trying to buy our way into the top four and that’s suddenly going to stop. If some people choose to do other things, we’ll manage that. All the plans will carry on. We’re a work in progress, trying to move forward. We don’t have the money to just buy our way through. We have to put in the foundations and incrementally try to inch forward but football is a game of snakes and ladders. It’s very easy to hit a snake if you get cocky and think you’ve cracked it.
Back in the summer, Palace let go of seven players, all for free as they were out of contract and spent between £80-90 million according to TransferMarket. Just a little less than Arsenal. They brought in Conor Gallagher on loan too as well as picking up a couple of free transfers. I think it’s fair to say they’re doing well under Vieira. Yes, they’re below us in the league but if you were a footballing neutral, which team would you rather watch?
Parish also talked about UEFA and their latest ideas which The Mail suggest is to “further ease the progress of Europe’s biggest and wealthiest clubs into the Champions League”.
Most days it feels like someone, somewhere is trying to change the rules to disadvantage us. I still feel UEFA is an organisation that isn’t fit for purpose. It’s all about trying to promise the broadcasters, ‘We’ll get you all the top teams in the Champions League by hook or by crook, we will gerrymander it so you can give us a load of money’.’
Parish fears football has regressed into a pattern where the established elite become richer and stronger at the expense of the rest.
I think he’s right. The broadcasters and their pundits are all about the likes of Man City and Liverpool right now. Chelsea used to be in there with them but Sky have taken a step back since the sanctions on the on club’s owner. As each transfer window comes and goes, the focus is on who spends the most on which player, as if only spending mega bucks proves ambition.
The rest get criticised, sometimes even ridiculed as Arsenal did last summer for making the kind of signings they did. Arsenal might be elite as far as history goes but we’re not elite when it comes to ambition or transfer dealings. After all, we as a club wouldn’t pay Haaland £500k a week would we?
Honestly, I hope Arsenal never give out a contract similar to the one given to both Aubameyang and Ozil, let alone what City are reported to be giving Haaland. It’s ridiculous in my opinion.
Maybe we’re all stupid. Maybe we all get up every day and it’s all a waste of time, we’re never going to win anything, you should stay in your place – well, I’m not going to do that. I don’t see the point. I don’t think other clubs should be prepared to do it either. If you lose that idea that you can make a difference then you just bake in this stuff UEFA are talking about that if you win the FA Cup and you’re Tottenham you go into the Champions League but, if you’re Aston Villa or Nottingham Forest, you don’t. It’s never-ending. It really does feel like you’re besieged. We’ve got a lot of battles coming up.
I totally understand where Steve Parish is coming from because sometimes I feel that way too. Why bother with football these days because it’s become boring and next season, Newcastle will no doubt be emulating City, Utd and Chelsea by throwing more money at the team/squad so they can join the so called elite. For the rest, it’ll be about getting the best value for whatever money is available.
I include Arsenal in this group of clubs too because unless we secure 4th place, or Stan Kroenke signs an open cheque, money will have to be well managed I’m sure.
In August, will anyone be talking about a club other than City, Chelsea, Liverpool or even Newcastle to win the Premier League? Probably not.
A year ago, news broke about the Super League. The idea didn’t last long but I’m sure plans are still being discussed for something in the future. I hope it happens too, just not with Arsenal involved. Let the rich play the rich each week and let the rest of the football clubs who try and live within their means play the game we all fell in love with, but on a level playing field.
I’ll get my tin hat.
Morning Rico. There’s always FFP.
Morning Rico, you can trace the beginnings of our decline from the day Danny Fiszman sacked David Dein, the untimely death of Fiszman just compounded that decision, we’ve been treading water under Enos ever since despite the odd bout of optimism following an FACup.
Morning Adam, Kev.
FFP, what a joke that’s been…
I’ve come to accept the fact that Arsenal won’t make top four, it was a lovely thought, even the idea that we could pip Chelsea for 3rd, the club rolled the dice in January and after some encouraging if stressful wins the wheels have come loose, not off but loose.
Although it’s not just Arsenal, because Man Utd, Tottenham, West Ham and even Chelsea have stumbled in recent weeks, losing games we never expected them to, so although Arsenal are big news and the media go maximum on our every failure, it’s everyone in the Premier League, it’s a bloody hard league to dominate, there aren’t any easy games and in a way that’s a testimony to its quality both in playing staff and in coaching.
from yesterdays post :- I don’t often read Le |Grove all the contributors filling my phone with the race to be the first commenter put me off.
However having read it today one line stood out to me “” That means you have to hire innovators.”””
it’s what we had and what we lost as we sank into the spiral of descent after the highly conservative board got rid of David Dein .
Sure the man had his faults and some of his ideas were a bit hairbrained and he got opposition from long term supporters group when he proposed the rebuild of the North Bank and the way he funded it .
But he was innovative and correct .
His capture of Wenger was correct as well but then once things looked to be on the up and their futures were secure then all of a sudden he wanted to distabilise things and went looking for investment . He saw Abramovic , he foresaw Mansour , he saw the way football was going whilst the rest of the board looked away and the .mandarins behind his back went for the ” et tu Brute ” solution .
You can query his choices but he was getting desperate and fighting for his life and even as he went he persuaded Wenger to stay putting the club first.
The Arsenal Way is looking for a clone of that man , a person that looks and plans ten years in advance , quite where they find him is the conundrum . Is it mission impossible ? but that’s their task if they wish to accept it.
Kev, did you ever really think we might? 😜
Yes I did Rico and most certainly before the Interlull because before then we only had one injury in Tomiyasu but we’ve suffered injuries to key figures in our team players we have no adequate cover for and as Liverpool discovered when they lost Van Dyke last season it’s not easy to replace those players.
Morning Rico and all
I am starting my own conspiracy theory if Josh Harris and David Blitzer by Chelsea they will loan or sell there second best players to Palace very cheap to help there mate to get his club into the top 4 spots
It used to be the big six , not now though it’s the big four that scramble for the Champion’s league spots and then comes the Arsenal , Manchester United and Spurs hoping that one will stumble and the West Ham’s and Wolves trying to crash the party for the Europa league .Then a group of aspirational clubs trying to get on the top 7 or 8’s coat tails and the rest trying to survive .
It’s no longer about football it’s money pure and simple..
it is an accepted fact that with the parachute payments Norwich have a policy of yo yo ing . one or two years at the bottom of the league and relegation , get the parachute payment, sell a couple of players ,keep the mainstays of the team and have a successful season , be promoted and rinse and repeat.
Financially it makes sense and the fans get a couple of winning seasons in ever 5.
We had aspirations ourselves when we left Highbury , we were going to challenge Bayern , Barca , Real and Juventus but really we are about Olympiakos , Sparta Prague level . Anything better and we are well short.
I can understand the disillusion of some fans but they have to realise the facts of life and we don’t have an oil well in Finsbury Park and our money comes from within the club or from a cattle ranch 3 or 4 thousand miles away.
We have our level and no end of premier league , Eufa or Fifa tinkering will change that
What is true is that it wasn’t Stan who decided to destroy our midfield by taking out the one remaining experienced player and shifting him to LB and replacing him as a sole CM with a rookie, thereby doubling down on the problem. To name but one of our injury-led issues.
I didn’t Kev, not wholeheartedly. A glimmer of hope at best.
Morning Geoff. Can’t see that happening, why strengthen a potential rival.
Considering the amount of money the club have spent since Arsene left, surely top four should be a minimum expectation by now?
I don’t think Arsenal’s problem has been about lack of money, just lack of common sense when spending it.
We have brought and promoted some good players for the future but what we need is a really captain that the younger players can look up to when things go wrong.
Many years ago I was right behind the goal at the clock end when our striker, Joe Baker, completely floored the Liverpool center half, Ron Yeats. They were both sent off though I hadn’t seen what Yeats had done.
I was reminded of this because it may have been because of this we didn’t have a striker. Billy Wright’s attempted solution was to play our tall gangly center half up front for a couple of games. I supposed he had done this because Brown could at least head the ball.
I was reminded of this because someone suggested that we have no problem crossing the ball, but no striker.
Gabriel was once a striker Dick. Lol
Laurie Brown .I remember him well , I was on the North Bank that day , it was after Shankly had paraded Yeats as an indistructable force the quote was take a walk round him he is a colossus.
I also hoped to finish in the top 4, hell even pip Chelsea.
After the shameful home draw against Burnley (when Partey was suspended after being sent of against Liverpool on the same day he landed after the AFCON, and Xhaka wasn’t available either) we managed to win 5 in a row including some confident victories against strong teams like Wolves (2x) and Leicester; it seemed like we can defeat – almost – anybody. And after the inevitable home loss against Liverpool we bounced back and beat Villa at their own turf (19.03). Everything looked bright back then. A whole month have passed since then and we didn’t collect a point and scored only a single (deflected) goal. Now it’s hard to believe in the top 4, yet if we manage to win the remaining games, it will be easy. But when you cannot defeat Brighton at home, how can you expect to win against Chelsea, West Ham and Tottenham in their own stadium?