Morning all.
If that’s the best Everton can produce when they’re fighting for Premier League survival then perhaps they deserve to be relegated. It’s possible too because there’s not many points separating bottom place Norwich City with 17 points, and 16th place Leeds Utd with 23 points. Everton are 17th with just 22 points won this season so far. I still can believe that 3 of them came against us! Like Arsenal though, Everton have at least one fixture in hand over the clubs around them.
This weekend, Arsenal play Leicester City at The Emirates, Totts, who I think are our biggest concern as far as finishing in the top goes, travel to Old Trafford. West Ham are at home against Aston Villa.
The Daily Mail are running a story which suggests that if, and it’s remains a big if in my opinion, Arsenal secure a top four finish, the players will receive a financial bonus which could be as much as £500,000. Not only that, The Mail writes that a top four finish would see a clause in certain players contracts which triggers a pay rise. Who those players might be is not mentioned, neither is their source. Pinch and salt spring to mind, after all, The Mail aren’t an outlet known for spoiling a story by including an element of truth within it.
Financial bonuses are a thing though in all walks of life. They’re an incentive to do well which for many of us is probably greatly appreciated but for a footballer in the Premier League, even a staggering £500,000 is just a few weeks work. Not that I consider playing a sport one loves, work. Personally, I don’t think footballers should be given a bonus and certainly not any players at Arsenal, even if the club does finish 4th because basically, they’d be rewarded for winning nothing, which regardless of where we finish, will be the case. Don’t get me wrong, it’d be fantastic should such a young team, many of whom are in their first season at a new club, to secure a Champions League place, but keep the rewards for when they win something.
I saw a headline on Sky Sports, “Is top four Arsenal’s to lose?”
Very different circumstances I know but the very question reminded me of when Man Utd were sitting top of the table with Arsenal seven points behind them but with three games in hand. Fergie’s mind games began as he said points on the board were better than games in hand. With Arsenal heading to Old Trafford for a fixture dubbed as being the title decider, Marc Overmars scored the only goal. Fergie still believed, suggesting it was inevitable that Arsenal would drop points in the remaining fixtures. You know the rest…
The top four race is far from over, even for Wolves and fourth spot is certainly not Arsenal’s to lose. A run in similar to the one under Arsene Wenger in the 1997/98 season would pretty much guarantee 4th place but there are so many tough tough fixtures to get through, for all those involved in the battle, 4th place is there to be won, not lost.
It’s National Women’s Day today so I couldn’t resist posting this YouTube clip of Radio/TV sports pundit and big Arsenal fan Laura Wood going toe to toe with two male colleagues.
Excellent.
See you in the comments…
Morning Rico and all
Great video Rico they look like 3 good mates having fun at work
Well done Laura. McCoist needs to cut out the whiskey and O’Hara needs to crawl back under that stone! TalkSh!te Radio
Morning Geoff, Pete and all.
McCoist being a Chelsea fan and the stick he got made me chuckle.
Good morning Rico as it’s National Women’s Day, it’s worth pointing out that while Ronaldo is reported as being payed £775,000 per week only a handful of the top players in the WSL are earning as much as £250,000 per YEAR.
A little levelling up required?
Morning Cicero, seriously, is that how much he earns? Obscene.
Some levelling up is definitely needed but I think it’ll take a lot of time and campaigning before we even see a woman earning what the “low level” footballers earn.
Rico, the average wage of women players at Birmingham, who we beat on Sunday, is reported to be £20,000 per year.
It will be some time before any significant levelling up will take place. One of the problems is the small crowds attending matches. On Sunday I watched some of the game at Meadow park (capacity 4,500 (1,700 seated)) Even though it was a “home” game the crowd was well below capacity.
I doubt if the match day income even paid the cost of renting the ground from Boreham Wood FC.
Happy National Woman’s Day Rico, now go and make me a cup of tea.
Tin helmet, offski…. 😁
Indeed, top women players earn about half a mil annually, which is about 2% of the top male counterparts who might make the same amount in a week.
https://sportmob.com/en/article/877735-Highest-paid-female-soccer-players-in-2020
Nevertheless this seemed like a market-enforced wage level, and there are a lot of major differences between men and women football that should prevent direct comparison.
Anyway, happy National Woman’s Day! Is Rico in fact a lady (Kev’s past comment confused me), or shall we reserve our best wishes to Sue?
England carrying on in the West Indies where they left off in Australia, 49 for 4 before lunch on day one of the first test. 😢
We agree Cicero. Don’t think we’ll see much change, certainly not in the way tennis changed for example, and the WTA had BJK behind the cause.
😂 Kev.
I am Pbarany.
The test cricket team has really declined Cicero. Not good at all.
Modern crash bang wallop cricket has destroyed the use of a straight bat.. Test cricket was always about not losing . If you could.nt score off a ball you just made sure that it didn’t beat the bat. . Now they swing at everything ,don’t know where to put their feet and have no clue how to make bowlers work for their wickets .A touch of Boycott , Gooch Edrich and Close would not amiss , in fact you could add Amiss to that list as well.
The question of gender pay equality in different sports is a thorny one . Tennis is a travelling circus and the same crowd sees matches featuring both sexes on the same day.Until both sexes take to the field in the same teams then there will be a disparity based on the income generated.
I love the crash bang wallop game though. Wish T20 was around when I played.
Bloody hell, Rico – football, cricket – any others you played/excelled in?
About the video: Chelsea-Totts and Arsenal?
The Lady is a Arsenal fan! 🙂
Not so sure about excelled Sue, but yes, I played golf, tennis and hockey too but not for as long as the other two. 😀
New post up