Morning all.
April 2017, Selhurst Park. Arsenal had just conceded a second goal. Sir Chips Keswick was watching on from the stands but as Yohan Cabaye began to celebrate, our club Chairman got up from his seat and walked out. He’d seen enough, so media reports suggested at the time. Sir Chips didn’t return to his sit which kind of supports the theory but who knows, maybe there was another reason behind his early departure.
Sir Chips has ruffled a few feathers during his fifteen years at Arsenal FC, certainly since he took over as Chairman. October 2017 at an AGM springs to mind but I guess now that he’s announced his retirement, the bloopers can be shelved somewhere in the history books.
It has been an honour to be the chairman of this great football club. Arsenal has always held a special place in my life and that will remain the case in the future.
I made my plan to retire at the end of this season clear to the board, before the global health crisis we are now experiencing. The club is in safe hands with Stan and Josh, the board and the executive team. I know Arsenal will emerge strongly from this situation and I look forward, like all our supporters around the world, to seeing the team in action as soon as possible.
Thanks for all you’ve done Sir Chips, enjoy your retirement.
My money is on Josh Kroenke replacing him but who knows. It’d be nice to think a ‘proper’ Arsenal man would get the job but in this modern world of foreign ownership, it could be anyone. Maybe Ken Friar or Lord Harris will shuffle sideways but neither are getting any younger, in fact retirement must be near for both.
Moving on. Project Restart seems to have left the world of Harry Potter to become a reality. That is as long as the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and government give it the thumbs up which I’m sure they will.
June 17th it seems to be and we’re off. To Manchester City to get our game in hand out the way. Then the festival of football will begin. 92 Premier League fixtures, all to be broadcast live on television for free on either Sky Sports, BT Sport, BBC Sport or Amazon Prime. Excellent news if you’re a football junkie.
Sky Sports, who’ll be broadcasting 64 of the remaining fixtures, report that new staggered kick-off times will be used for the remaining 92 matches.
Games on a Friday will kick off at 8pm, while on Saturday the slots will be 12.30pm, 3pm, 5.30pm and 8pm. Sunday matches will kick off at either 12pm, 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm, with Monday games starting at 8pm.
Midweek games on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays will kick off at either 6pm or 8pm.
Arsenal’s fixtures after the Manchester City game are:
Brighton A
Southampton A
Norwich H
Wolves A
Leicester H
Toots A
Liverpool H
Aston Villa A
Watford H
Somewhere in there might be an FA Cup fixture, or three with a bit of luck.
I was reading about how results have gone in the Bundesliga since the restart of the season and whereas playing at home was once proved statistically to be an advantage, without fans in the stadium, those statistics have drastically changed.
There have been only five home wins in 27 Bundesliga games played behind closed doors, which suggests home advantage is wiped out without fans. That ratio represents a 25 per cent slump for success on home soil since the league restarted and underlines how fans in the stands are the key component to home advantage. – Sky Sports.
Early days I know but even so, with many of our remaining fixtures being away from home, I hope the trend in Germany follows Arsenal over the next few weeks.
Stay safe guys.
Good morning, Rico… on yet another beautiful day…and not just because the football is back 👍
Another great post btw.. I’ve just been checking out the remaining fixtures. We have some tough games coming up, that’s for sure! Sky are saying Sheff Utd have the toughest run-in, hmm, I’m not so sure!
I had originally planned to go to the Leicester/Watford games…. maybe next season??
We won’t have time to binge on Netflix with all these games coming up 😄 Sky have said they’re showing 25 free-to-air and along with the BBC showing 4…I won’t miss out though as I have all of them – can’t be without the footy!!
So, the scousers really are going to do it 😩🥺 urgh……
Morning Sue, all.
I’d rather we are playing our away games without fans which sounds odd but I really think it’ll help us.
Tough run in nevertheless.
Good morning Rico and Sue.
I’m sorry to see the departure of Sir Chips Keswick someone who has supported and guided the club through some momentous changes. His integrity and business sense will be sorely missed.
From this morning’s Telegraph….
Arsenal will not look to appoint a new chairman following the decision of Sir Chips Keswick to retire after seven years in the role.
Keswick, who joined the club’s board in 2005 and was appointed as chairman in 2013, turned 80 in February and said his plan before the coronavirus crisis was to retire at the end of this season.
His departure represents yet another change behind the scenes at Arsenal, where there has been remarkable turnover in both playing and non-playing staff in recent years.
Keswick’s retirement changes little about the day-to-day governance and decision-making of the club, though, which is why there is to be no search for a replacement.
Under the ownership of Stan Kroenke, the club is led by those on the executive team such as Raul Sanllehi, the head of football, and Vinai Venkatesham, the managing director.
“It has been an honour to be the chairman of this great football club,” said Keswick. “Arsenal has always held a special place in my life and that will remain the case in the future.
“I made my plan to retire at the end of this season clear to the board, before the global health crisis we are now experiencing.
“The club is in safe hands with Stan and Josh [Kroenke], the board and the executive team. I know Arsenal will emerge strongly from this situation and I look forward, like all our supporters around the world, to seeing the team in action as soon as possible.”
The Arsenal board is now composed of Stan and Josh Kroenke, Ken Friar and Lord Harris of Peckham.
In a statement, Stan and Josh Kroenke said: “We would like to express our immense gratitude for everything Sir Chips has done for Arsenal Football Club as a board member and chairman of the board over the past 15 years.
“His extensive business knowledge and experience coupled with his deep love of Arsenal have made him the perfect chairman. It has been a privilege to work with him and he will always be a very welcome visitor when we return to playing matches at Emirates Stadium.”
Morning all, thanks for report Rico. Sound like Spuds away might be a neutral ground if police get their way. Even better! Arteta now has 3 weeks of training with squad before the off. Big leveller as everyone tries to get into a groove again, we were still adapting to a new manager and ideas before.
Morning Cicero. It’s a shame because he’s an Arsenal man but this club needs younger blood at board level imo but if the Telegraph are right, which to be honest, is rare, there’ll be no replacement. Although as said in the post, my money is on Josh.
Morning Andrew, yep, neutral group for the Toots game would be good.
Ten huge games for Arteta and the players. The same ones who were awful during last season’s final ten fixtures.
http://www.thefa.com/news/2020/may/29/emirates-fa-cup-rearranged-schedule-announcement-290520
Good morning to you too, Cicero! 🙂
Exciting news regarding the FA Cup!
Emirates FA Cup Quarter Finals will now take place over the weekend of 27th-28th June.
“The Semi Finals and Final will take place over the weekend of 11th-12th July and 1st August respectively.
I’m pleased re the FA Cup. Thought the FA might cancel it for the season.
Morning All, thanks for the post Rico…
I wonder if there’s been a statistical look at refereeing decisions without the influence of fans?
Empty stadiums may well favour the more technical teams as opposed to the more industrial, so Man City vs Arsenal will be even on that score, after that Arsenal will hopefully hold an advantage, including our trip to Sheffield Utd in the FACup.
As the role of chairman is just ceremonial now I think it would be a nice thoughtful touch to give it to Ken Friar, a man who started as an office boy and worked his way up to club secretary and then director.
Is thoughtful something that KSE aspires to, probably not?
Therefore daddy will probably give the chairman’s job to junior and another piece of what made Arsenal different and special goes down the shitter.
I haven’t seen one Kev but interesting point. Not that officials would admit it but the fans must influence their decision making once in a while.
Nice idea re Friar by the way but as you say, I doubt sentiment will enter the Kroenke mind.
Rico, from the Arsenal statement posted on the official website….Moving forward the board will be composed of Stan Kroenke, Josh Kroenke, Lord Harris and Ken Friar. No mention of a Chairman.
I don’t see that age is of any particular relevance when it comes to appointing board members to any business organisation. Integrity, ability, experience, business sense, and connections are far more useful than yoof appeal.
Well we have football in Portugal, Spain, England, Germany and maybe Italy.
Hope Arsenal reach is goals.
it is a much more injury-prone time. I hope it don’t attack us.
I realised Cicero when I read the club statement this morning. I was just agreeing with that it’d be a nice gesture. Josh will possibly carry out the role Sir Chips played unless they decide otherwise later in the day,
Twitter can be such a horrible place – lots of reminders of what happened a year ago today – that horror show in Baku 😩
Just had a glance at NewsNow, it’s my last port of call when there’s nothing else to read and although it’s predictable I still give it a go, but as I perused the inverted commas I didn’t find anything worth clicking on (except Highbury House of course, phew).
Therefore as I studied the headlines this is what is I saw, ‘Arsenal fans rave’, blimey I thought is there a riot going on outside the Emirates, what on Earth has happened and is it connected to the resignation of Mr Chips?
Then I thought is it a reaction to the new raspberry ripple away shirt for next season. One can only guess but headlines like ‘fans are angry’ and ‘some fans can’t get enough’ left me feeling confused…
Thankfully transfer speculation saved the day as I read that ‘Arsenal are primed to pounce’ that’s right we’re not just interested we’re ‘pouncing’ now even though we’re skint, how on Earth did Raul pull that off, he may look dodgy but he’s really a genius.
Could it be the ‘PSG wonderkid’ who we’re about to ‘pounce’ on and what is a wonder kid? What wonderful powers do these kids have, luckily we also have ‘Arsenal wonderkids’ so that’s a relief?
Arsenal are ‘still in contention’ it states and simply ‘Arsenal are keen’ in other reports from the school kids that write this crap and could all this contention and keenness be connection to ‘Arsenal linked powerhouse can leave’ and who is this powerhouse and what does it mean and can you be a powerhouse wonderkid at the same time?
My head was spinning, but then I saw that Arsenal ‘lose a staggering amount of money’ and my knees went weak, I had to sit down, luckily I already was sitting down, but I had to ask myself are Arsenal the only team in financial difficulties?
Well if News Now say it then it must be true!
I felt better when I saw the ‘4 players Arteta is targeting’ – how did they know all this and how could we sign 4 players after losing not just money but a ‘staggering’ amount of money.
It just didn’t add up.
Finally I saw ‘Arsenal drop a scouting bombshell’ – wow a bombshell, that really is serious and what does it all this mean and is it connected to losing a ‘staggering’ amount of money and is it why the ‘Arsenal fans rave’..?
It’s all too much for me I’m off to have a lay down…
Oh come on Kev, don’t leave us in suspenders, what are our fans raving about? Who is the wonderkid? I like raspberry ripple. Has Ken Friar lost the petty cash down the bookies? Any news on the water shortage? Is the end of the World nigh?
Kev.. looks like you need some of my salt… a lot of things covered on NN are to be taken with a pinch 😜 Oh and btw, that shirt is horrible. Looks like something from The Walking Dead!!
Kev. I’m shocked at your cynicism where NN are concerned. As you know, it’s my Bible for all things Arsenal. I’d remind you that it was NN who broke the news we had signed Darren Bent.
On at least 5 ocassions.
Bring back David Devin.perfect for the role.Though he’s knocking on a bit now.still younger than chips.Of course there’s absolutely no chance of this happening.So on we plod with the yanks.Will prob give it to TRUMP!
Cicero, I’ve never been judgemental but you in suspenders is a worrying concept.
But as we’re on ice cream, I’ve gotta confess that I’m a Neapolitan man myself.
Although a bit of raspberry on a cornet is quite nice, with a flake.
It’s ok Sue, I went into the garden and painted some fence panels but Cicero talking about suspenders has got me raving again.
It’s all to much…
Adam, I must apologise for my cynicism, I think I’ve never been the same since the £5 on the floor bombshell…
Yes Darren Bent, Kalou and Benzema were a wonderful attack for us mate, I have great memories watching them destroy the opposition with Allegri cheering them on.
We’ve sign George Lewis apparently. The young winger who’d be on trial.
NN, where would we be without it…. 😆
Morning all
New post up now