Are we going to kill Szczesny?

Wenger's going to have to decide whether to kill Wojciech Szczesny.

In the past few weeks, we've been linked with Gianluigi Buffon, Igor Akinfeev, Joe Hart, Pepe Reina, Diego Lopez, etc,. If any of these rumours are true, we're going to invest a lot of money on a 'keeper who's going to be charge for quite a few years. If we get one of the young 'keepers, like Hart or Akinfeev, we might have one for the next decade. Young Wojciech might only be 19, but depending on who we buy, he may find that the door's slammed shut on his chances by the end of the summer.

If we manage to get a 'keeper of the calibre of Lloris or Akinfeev, I'd personally lead Wojciech out behind the shed and shoot him myself. We need a great 'keeper at the Arsenal, and I don't see the point in spending £20-£30m on a 3-4 year 'keeper like Buffon when we could get someone who could play for the next decade. There's no such thing as spending too much on a young 'keeper - they're like property, you know the good ones will appreciate with time.

Of course, we're likely to prevaricate, and wait for Wojciech to grow up. Another three, four years, and he'll probably be at the same stage as an Akinfeev, Lloris or Hart. Still, that means three or four more years of watching Almunia flap at corners and Fabianksi suffering emotional breakdowns on the pitch.

It's not going to be a pretty 3-4 years.

In other news, it looks like William Gallas is on his way out of the club. He was demanding a two-year, £80,000 a week contract, and Peter Hill-Wood told him (quite possibly literally) to fuck off. Gallas is likely to sign with Paris-SG, who can't pay as much as we can, but who can offer the attraction of not having to play in front of Almunia.

Peter Hill-Wood said:

“His demands are quite extravagant and I don’t think we are prepared to go along with it. We would very much like him to stay, but I think for one year, and not on the money he wants. He is a good player, but you have got to draw the line somewhere.

“If he can get the money somewhere else, good luck to him. We still hope he will sign, but if he doesn’t, he doesn’t. It is not that we are being bloody-minded for the hell of it. We have got to look forward and the cost of players isn’t just in transfers, it is in the salaries as well. And we analyse these quite carefully, because we don’t want to go bankrupt.”

It makes me wonder if Peter Hill-Wood is involved in transfer negotiations personally. It would explain why we failed to resign Cole, Flamini and Pires in the past, and apparently have now failed to resign Gallas. Someone should take Hill-Wood aside and quietly explain that the "take it or fuck off" gambit doesn't quite work when the player has better offers from rival clubs.

So on the 345th last day of my 20s, I skipped my run because it's been raining. I listened to The Cure and Jeff Buckley. I wrote a resignation letter, and I'm quite proud of it. Now I just have to decide when it's expedient to hand it in.

Had dinner with an old uni friend whom I haven't seen in months. Had a chat. He hasn't changed since uni. I suppose he's found his niche in life and he's just chilling. Then again, I suppose I haven't changed much, either.

I would never have thought it while still at uni, but I kind of miss it. At uni, you take the people you hang out with for granted, you think they're always going to be there. When you graduate, and go off on your separate paths, it's that much harder to keep in touch. And as Mary Schmich once said, you need to "work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young."

I didn't understand it when I first heard the song, but I'm starting to understand it now.

From the AGM

"We haven’t got $500 billion to put into the club, but I suspect that we will be challenging — but I don’t consider Tottenham and Aston Villa rivals. I am very confident and any worries about Champions League income are unlikely to be the case.”

- Peter Hill-Wood, who isn't worried about threats to 4th place

It was AGM night in England last night. And of the many splendored things that Peter Hill-Wood said that night, that quote was the one that really pisses me off. It's such a snobbish, stupid, smug, self-absorbed, self-satisfied thing to say.

I don't understand why Peter Hill-Wood is sneering at Tottenham and Aston Villa for spending money in order to improve the quality of their teams. That's what football clubs do, Peter. Just because Arsenal sell their players for large amounts of money and don't reinvest the funds, it doesn't mean other clubs do the same. For ambitious clubs, they seek to add players to their squad every year in order to improve it.

I don't understand why Hill-Wood thinks he's got a right to be superior. In case he hasn't noticed, we have finished 4th or 3rd for the past four years. We haven't won in five years. We've stagnated. What's worse is that there hasn't been any sign of ambition from the Club to achieve more than 4th place and a Champions League place. For a club the size of Arsenal, that's pathetic.

And finally, I don't understand how Peter Hill-Wood got it in his head that 4th place is some sort of "prize" that we should be celebrating. For a club of our size, 4th place and CL qualification is the minimum. Celebrating that is madness, like jumping for joy when you get out of the bathtub because you managed not to drown yourself. I had a look at the club's profile on the official site, and nowhere on the list of our Premier League achievements does it list our proud record of 4th, 4th, 3rd, and 4th.

The other significant news from the AGM was that Stan Kroenke was asked about his intentions with the Club and he said.... nothing. Under the rules of the Takeover Panel, all public statements against a future bid must be unambiguous, or he'd be prevented from a formal move for six months. I hope the following prediction is ambiguous enough for Stan's liking - in the next six months, we're going to see a giant bust of Kroenke in the Emirate's forecourt with a motorised mouth which speaks "In Stan We Trust", and flaming eyeballs which shoots flaming eyes at gooners who dare to suggest that 4th place isn't good enough for a Club of our stature, or that certain Wengerish transfers are a bit geriatric.

And Arsene Wenger spoke about his confidence that we're going to win something this year:

“This year I am convinced we will win a trophy. It will come down to how resilient, consistent, intelligent and united we are until the end because there will be tough times. There will be periods when it will be difficult, but we have to show our strengths that have always made this club special. This team is now ready to go for it and I am convinced we will perform throughout the season.”

We've heard this before, Wenger. Why don't we just get through Christmas before we make any rash promises, hey?

PHW's "relaxed" about a takeover

"It does look like he is edging towards a takeover, which I would welcome. I have not asked him if that is what he plans to do, but I am very relaxed about it. If it was to happen, I don't think you can expect any big changes because he seems to like things very much the way they are."

- Peter Hill-Wood, about the prospect of a takeover

A couple of days ago, Kroenke bought another 90 shares at £8,500 per share, taking his overall stake in the Club to 28.9%. He's edging closer to the 30% needed to trigger a mandatory compulsory takeover. As Myles Palmer said "he now needs only 645 more shares to take him to 29.9% . Then Stan will probably stop buying shares till the end of the season."

In light of this news, Peter Hill-Wood is "very relaxed" about the idea of Kroenke buying the Club. He "doesn't think" there will be big changes because Kroenke "seems to like things" the way they are. He's being very nonchalant about the future of the Club. In other words, he's telling us that if it happens, when it happens, how it happens, whatever happens it'll be sort of, maybe, probably okay.... he thinks.

To me, it's not a particularly reassuring statement. It came from a man who, two years ago, famously said that "we don't need his money and we didn't need his sort" at the club. Hill-Wood doesn't mince words when he speaks to the media. He says what he likes, how he likes - even if some of what he says is xenophobic, inane crap.

So why has he changed his stance?

Why is he prevaricating and qualifying his statements?

I think it's because Arsenal is being eaten alive by two very hungry billionaires, and Peter Hill-Wood has woken to the fact that there's sweet FA he can do to prevent a takeover. And the Board's anointed Kroenke as the lesser of two evils. And Hill-Wood's just realised that, after insulting Kroenke in all the major papers two years ago, Kroenke might not be too well-disposed to him when he's in charge. So Hill-Wood's decided to say something like that to curry favor with Kroenke so that he can retain his honorary Chairman of the Board title in the event of a takeover.

All hail our new insect overlord.

Personally, I think it'll be a shame if we were bought outright by one person. I like Kroenke and think his presence on the Board is of great benefit, but I wouldn't like to see him owning the Club outright. I prefer the status quo, with a group of major shareholders (some with a long association with the Club) running the Club. It gives us the assurance that if one person decides to sell, we've still got some continuity at the Board level. If Kroenke buys us outright, then sells us us in five years' time, there's no guarantee that the next owners will be competent custodians of the Club.

But then again, as Peter Hill-Wood has learnt in the past two years, there's sweet FA we can do about it. Kroenke and Usmanov are eyeing the Club, have the money to buy it, and are going to make a bid when they think it's time. All we can do is put on some lippy and a nice dress, cosy up with our new owners, and hope it's not going to be too bad.

The Horse's Mouth

I hate Peter Hill-Wood almost as much as I hate injustice. That's a picture of him above. For a man in such a lofty position (right-hand side of Wenger, no less), he makes some incredibly stupid remarks. And here's the latest from the horse's mouth:

"That is not strictly correct. We have never denied Arsene any transfer requests. We spent a lot of money on Andrey Arshavin at the beginning of the year and the money is there in the summer, if he wants. I'm not going to say how much thought, because that would not be helpful to us."

This is, of course, not strictly correct. We know Arsenal's been on a strict transfer budget. It cannot be coincidence that outgoing and incoming transfer fees have been almost exactly equal for a number of years. We were given £30 million last year for transfer fees AND wages, which makes for very little pocket change for new players. 

The money is there, but it's not sitting in a Scrooge McDuck-type money vault somewhere on a hill. The money is in a "transfer facility" which we can tap if required. We tapped it during January when it looked like we were going to miss out on a Champions League spot. There can't be that much money in it. We all thought we'd buy at least two players (a creative player and a defensive midfielder), but we ended up haggling over £2 million for Arshavin over the entire transfer window while our team drifted. If we really had a lot of money to spend, we would've spent much more in January. 

Furthermore, Hill-Wood seems to think that £15 million is a lot of money. He's been living too long in the real world, and not the football one. £15 million for Arshavin will go down as one of the bargains of the decade. We'll never see a deal like that again. If Hill-Wood sweats over £15 million, I'd hate to see his reaction when told how much David Silva would cost. 

He goes on to say:

"Arsene's future is not in question.. he has another season left on his contract and if he was to ask for an extension we would be delighted.... There are other things to think. He is a long-term person. He is not into trying to have a quick fix."

This leaves me sweating. It means that Wenger's going to keep buying kids until he comes across 11 who are capable of challenging for trophies. It's kind of like that monkeys on typewriters experiment, only with football. And he'll be urged on by Peter Hill-Wood and his band of Etonian cronies, who are high on a hill somewhere and swimming Scrooge McDuck-like money vault. 

There is a ray of light, though. Kroenke and Gazidis have arrived, like two reverse conquistadors ready to bring the whole in-bred, upper-class, Old-Boys Arsenal boardroom network crashing to the ground. They're here to overthrow the empire, crack open the fabulous wealth of the Arsenal and splurge on players, Japanese fighting-fish and defensive coaches. Do we need their sort at the club? 

Hell yes. 

N.B. Just want to clarify my position - it's not that I think Arsenal don't have access to fabulous wealth (the two largest shareholders are billionaires, after all), I just think they'd rather not spend it on the non-essentials - like the football team...

Arsenal 3-0 Portsmouth

"We dominated completely the first half, we were sharp and composed with a great attitude and and our two-nil lead was well deserved. In the second half we struggled for 20 minutes but when we scored the third the game as over."

- Arsene Wenger, chuffed at the win

Beautiful things happen at night. The stars come out and the moon gives everything a silvery sheen. Your senses become heightened and the smell of roses quickens the heart. Possums crawl up power lines and electrocute themselves. And the Arsenal thump Portsmouth 3-0. 

It's one of those games that leave you wondering what could've been. We play great football at the strangest times. Around November, we beat Man Utd 2-1 in the Premier League when our season looked shot, and yet last week we lose insipidly at Old Trafford 0-1 when we're playing for a spot in the Champions League final. We play well against Portsmouth, Middlesborough etc., at the end of the season when we're 4th, while we were dropping those matches earlier in the season when we were still challenging for the title. 

It does your head in. 

Still, a 3-0 win is a 3-0 win, and let's not look a gifthorse in the mouth. It secures 4th place. It increases our unbeaten run in the league. It gives Bendtner his first goals in ever so long. And it boosts our fragile egos and gives us hope for the second leg tie against Utd, which is most important. Despite our fabled "mental strength", we tend to fold like umbrellas on a windy day. 

Let's hope the Arsenal can replicate this form on the Tuesday. And we should seriously consider splicing Arshavin's head and spinal cord to Diaby's body for the game. An Arshaby monster would still be 75% Diaby, so he wouldn't be cup-tied, and we'd have the Owl's brain pulling the strings for the Arsenal. 

In other news, Stan Kroenke's increased his stake in the Arsenal to 28%. He's now the largest shareholder at Arsenal, and in conjunction with Danny Fizsman's share, has the majority share. It's good news, because Kroenke's a serious businessman and in it to make Arsenal successful and wealthy - unlike Peter Hill-Wood, who's only in it for the free champagne and padded seats at the Emirates. 

So even if we do go out of the Champions League on Tuesday, at least we'll have something to look forward to - an Arsenal that's not run by cigar-chomping, embarrassing Etonian toffs who don't have a clue about running a modern football club. And what's gong to happen to Peter Hill-Wood? Well, we don't want his sort here. 

Myles Wrote A Good Article!

"Unfortunately, Hill-Wood's attitude is : We are Arsenal, we have more integrity than other clubs, we've never renegotiated a contract with anybody in our history. That policy is old-fashioned, snobbish, and self-defeating. It's complete bollocks. Arsenal is a modern business like any other. And that's why they need a worldly CEO with some balls, rather than an administrator like Ken Friar."

- Myles Palmer, Arsenal News Review

I'm spending most of my time reviewing other Arsenal blogs. I really should rename this site "Fucking-Arsenal-Blogs", at least during the off-season. Observing how gooners react to Arsenal news is much more interesting than Arsenal news itself.

Myles Palmer has written a couple of really good posts lately, entitled "Arsenal: the big picture", about the finances behind the rather bizarre antics of this off-season. I don't presume to understand the credit crunch, or London property prices, or how a jittery financial market affects our 260 million pound loan. But it is interesting to read about it.

The above quote comes from the assertion that we're being shafted by our Emirates shirt deal. We're getting 6 million a year, compared to 14 million by Man Utd from AIG and 16 million by Chelsea from Samsung. We've got an shirt deal with an equivalent monetary value as Ajax's.

Moreover, we've negotiated a bunch of deals with a bunch of companies to finance our stadium deal. We've been shafted in the long-run, but we got the money upfront. And we're paying for it now because of the housing slump, because of the finanical meltdown, because Highbury Flats won't sell and we've got to put every pound we earn from the stadium back into the loan.

Problem is, we're being run by an idiot. Peter Hill-Wood is an idiot. There's no beating around the bush on this one. He's the scion of some very talented people, and he's got by on his connections, his wealth and his name. And he's the figurehead of a club that could become the biggest in England, but which is languishing behind Man Utd and Liverpool in terms of global reach, and which is being hunted down by a hungry, ruthless Chelsea. Isn't it weird that, for a supposedly big club, our three super-stores are all located in London?

We need Stan Kroenke. Not for his wealth, not for his connections, but for his business skills.