Morning all.
From Sportsmail:
Arsenal Football Club has unveiled eight pieces of what think is pretty good artwork. They will stretch around the Emirates Stadium, celebrating the club’s heritage, success and connection with the red half of north London.
The club have worked with legends, their families, esteemed artists – including Turner Prize-winning Jeremy Deller – and a cross-section of more than 100 supporters over the past nine months to design and bring to life the art that they hope will ‘transform the north London skyline and redefine the club’s home as a cultural landmark.’
Arsene Wenger, Jack Wilshere, Martin Keown, Ian Wright, Alex Scott, Tony Adams, Faye White, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Kelly Smith are among the dozens of Arsenal icons who will feature around the stadium, replacing the former artwork – which pictured 36 legends of the men’s team with their backs to supporters.
1)
Victoria Concordia Crescit – features players who embody the spirit of Arsenal, in the style of French revolutionary paintings, alongside the club’s famous cannons and Arsenal’s motto: Victoria Concordia Crescit – Victory Through Harmony.
2)
Remember Who You Are – brings to life memories and history from Arsenal’s former home, Highbury. Some of the club’s greatest players and managers are pictured in an evocative representation of the stadium’s East Stand.
3)
Invincible – pays tribute to two of Arsenal’s greatest seasons: the women’s Champions League victory in 2006/07 – part of a quadruple that also included the title and both domestic cups – and the men’s Invincible season of 2003/04.
4)
Come To See The Arsenal – will be visible from southbound trains arriving into London and hopes to ‘evoke Arsenal’s north London pride’
5)
Eighteen Eighty-Six – ‘symoblises Arsenal’s constant pursuit of progress’ from the club’s founding in Woolwich through to the move north and beyond.
6)
We All Follow The Arsenal – is a tapestry of 187 flags and banners belonging to supporter groups from around the world, including Lebanon, Ukraine and Morocco.
7)
Future Brilliance – ‘reflects Arsenal’s commitment to providing opportunities for young players to develop’ and shows kids running towards Islington landmarks and re-emerging as legends.
8) No photo but it’s called ‘Found a Place Where We Belong’ – it’s designed to illustrate ‘the importance of the Arsenal family’, with 721 supporters – who have given so much to the club and the community – patched together in one crowd. The name of this piece is inspired by Dennis Bergkamp’s quote:
When you start supporting a football club, you don’t support it because of the trophies, or a player, or history, you support it because you found yourself somewhere there; found a place where you belong.
He certainly found a place where he belonged and to have watched him play live was a privilege. He was and still is a rare commodity in my opinion. Many footballers move clubs because of money, many fans support clubs because they’re winning things at a time when they choose the club they want to support or because of a certain manager, player etc. I am one of those Arsenal fans.
Footballers, players and managers find their ‘happy place’ in the game but it takes time. Arsene Wenger found his place after moving to Arsenal, Granit Xhaka too it would seem although his time at the club has occasionally been rocky and despite not playing that much, both Rob Holding and Mo Elneny clearly love being at the club because they’ve stayed for so long. Listening to Mikel Arteta and the way he talks about Arsenal and the fans, I get the feeling he’ll be staying for a long time too. Unless results/performances dictate otherwise of course but all I see now is improvement, certainly in the Premier League. Gabriel Martinelli’s recent comments would suggest he’s really happy at Arsenal and I don’t think for one minute he’s the only one. My perception is that one would only need one hand to count how many Arsenal players aren’t happy and even then there would be a few fingers spare.
Having experienced an unhappy fan base as an Arsenal player, Mikel Arteta has brought harmony to The Emirates, he’s brought exciting young players to the club and good football onto the pitch. The lazy/lacklustre performances are no longer on sight with energy, hard work and togetherness replacing it. He’s brought the fans alive again because there’s now a reason to believe his group of players want to entertain, they want to play for the club and the fans, they want to perform for their manager and they want to win.
I’ve no idea if we’ll win the League, the Europa Cup or FA Cup this season but at least, after so many years of watching an Arsenal team plod through a season, we know they’ll be giving their everything as they try.
The first picture says so much about Arsenal’s past but I think it’s a sign of our present and future too.
Transfers:
Arsenal CEO Vinai Venkatesham has spoken exclusively to Sky Sports about the club’s continued pursuit of improving their squad:
We’ve got a very clear plan, headed up by Edu, in terms of what we want to do to strengthen the squad. Every transfer window of course, we’re going to look to see what opportunities are out there. If something makes sense from a technical perspective and a financial perspective, of course we’ll look at it but we’re happy with the squad that we’ve got. We’ll have a look around like we do in every transfer window but we’ve got a long-term plan.
Needless to say, when asked about Mykhailo Mudryk, Venkatesham said nothing.
Catch up in the comments.
Vinai keeping schtum is the logical way to go . Don’t give the impression that we are desperate and go about the business away from the glare of the media . Very like it used to be, Remember all the fuss in the papers before Bergkamp , Platt , Petit and Overmars joined ?
No neither do I.
As for the stadium . It was looking tired and needed an uplift , hopefully it will be kept up periodically and not all in one go again and nice to see that the players of the past are not forgotten as they embrace the present and future.
Morning Rico.
The artwork looks good. The one next to the railway should be particularly impressive. It’s hard to miss on the way into London as there’s very little else that stands out before you get to Kings Cross.
I’ve been sat on a train opposite a Spurs fan who felt the need to stick his fingers up at the Stadium, so it definitely will be noticed.
Morning Rico and all,
The pictures around the ground do look good.
Great respect to Dennis Bergkamp but in my experience you support a football team because your Dad or your brother or an uncle took you and that’s the connection, family, I used to go to Highbury with my Dad, 2 uncles and 2 cousins, we all met at my Aunts flat in Shoreditch before the game and afterwards, the most important thing is family, it’s why my two sons are Arsenal fans…
Absolutely agree Potter, Big Sol and Rosicky were nice surprises.
Morning Pete, Geoff.
Yes, the artwork is good. The Emirates is certainly having a facelift.
I’m kind of talking about fans/players who have not had that kind introduction to the club Kev.
I get that Rico and we have Charlie George to thank… 😉
Indeed Kev..
G’day all.
I hope they’ve left room for Beth Mead and Viv Miedma.
All checked in, last few bits and pieces to pack before departing in the morning. Sharm el Sheikh here we come.
Have a great time Cicero. Hope there’s a TV showing the NLD somewhere. Lol
The holiday is intended to be a stress free period, so I will not even try to find a TV showing it, Rico.
Enough stress checking in on line, to enter date of birth I had to click on the calendar icon and then click backwards through every month from January 2023 to May 1943, that’s aprox 79 x 12 clicks… then repeat the process for my wife.
😂 Cicero.
I see that David Coote is now getting us charged with intimidating him in the Oxford game. Is this a new PGMOL tactic to derail The Arsenal.. Afterall when we surrounded the ref against Newcastle there were 8 of ours and 7 of them but the complaint only went one way and now Coote has joined in.
The FA should enjoy reviewing the aftermath of Nottingham Forest v Wolves last night. It’ll be interesting to see who gets the bigger fine.
Can’t believe Coote is complaining after the Oxford game. Perhaps Arsenal should be complaining about him because he was useless..
Evening all, good start for Felix! Fulham 2-1 with six added minutes to go.
If FIFA and its affiliated partners don’t want the players to gather around the referee then change / reinforce the rules and make it only the captain can approach the ref during the match, and also take more action against the referee if they make too many mistakes or if they miss a clear and obvious decision including VAR.
We dodged a bullet in not getting Joao Felix.
According to the daily mail Chelsea are paying him around 714,286 pounds per game and he gets a red card for a dangerous tackle in his first match.