Thorpy
As midnight approached yesterday, thousands of Gooners up and down the country faced a big decision, to follow their hearts and renew their season-tickets or follow their heads and return it to the Denver Dough-Trouserer.
Through a night when we are dreamt of our money being spent on quality reinforcements and a title challenge, Mr Kroenke will have dreamt of his ever-increasing bank balance. The first of June each year sees the club in its richest position of the year, and Ivan the Terrible and his friends have two choices - bank it, or spend OUR money as we all want it to be spent. After all, it’s our club. We are the fans who have followed it through one-nil home defeats to Wimbledon and glory finals. We are the club.
We all hoped that, at renewal time, RvP would be tied to a new long-term deal, some quality reinforcements would have been brought in and fringe players moved on. As it is, we have seen the arrival of one quality signing in the shape of Lukas Podolski, but even that was an Arsenal special, a player who we could sign on the cheap with a year to go on his contract.
We are one of the richest clubs in the world and big-name players such as M’Vila still want to join us. We have the resources to sign such players but equally the desire to shop in the bargain-basement. On top of that, we are obsessed with doing business late. By the time we got to August 31st last year, the league challenge was already over. All this to save a few quid. It’s like going hungry all week and raiding the reduced-to-clear counter on a Friday.
To add to this frustration, it’s not as if it’s a new development. We all remember the bids for world-class players circa 2003 - £500,000 plus Sylvain Wiltord! This week, Chelsea’s capture of Eden Hazard is also another example of our scouting system being a total waste of time and money. Hazard is the latest example of a player we identified before anyone else but were too tight to go for the kill, instead settling for third-rate versions of the likes of Vela and Denilson.
I have spent the last week trying to convince a fellow Gooner to renew his season-ticket. The individual in question is a long-term committed supporter, yet he feels betrayed by the club he loves. He goes every week, pays into the club with the highest ticket prices in the land and all he sees is Mr Kroenke investing in a new car and a bigger swimming pool. I put it to him that it’s our hobby (we don’t collect stamps) and it’s like going to the cinema a few times a month. His response is simple. If he goes to the cinema, he gets to see superstars and the latest releases like Men in Black 3. When he goes to the E******s, he sees stars of yesteryear, promising youngsters and Gone With the Wind. When I continue the debate, he makes a compelling argument and one I find it difficult to argue with.
So do we go with our hearts and renew, or with our heads, and fire a warning shot westbound to Denver?
