Paul Skinner
I have had enough of this now. I have already renewed my season-ticket and, to be honest, I will be interested to see how we fare without van Persie. It is a big challenge for Arsène, whom I have always supported, but the season after that is it.
In my last post almost a year ago, I supported Arsène and the Board, basically saying that we need to completely eliminate the stadium debt before we move on and thus supporting Arsène’s focus on player development, but now Kevin Whitcher and others have convinced me, not that Arsène is now an incompetent manager, although I do think he has flaws, but that the board have no real interest in sporting success.
I still don’t want our club turned into a rich boy’s train set - I still think that is ultimately destructive - but then I also don’t want it as it is now, a rich boy’s pay-packet. Times are hard, and I am as strapped as the next man. I had to borrow the money to renew my season-ticket this year and so I don’t just want that money used to furnish a lavish lifestyle for a fat cat in Denver.
It is sad, but I am not interested in this transfer-circus any more. I thought there might be a slim chance that RvP might stay because I thought that he believed in Arsène, but I don’t blame him for going. He is an outstanding player and should at least have a chance of winning one meaningful medal before he retires. Don’t get me wrong; I think Podolski and Giroud are good buys, but it looks like to me that the board were going to stick on Podolski, that added to RvP’s dissatisfaction and so they bought Giroud as a replacement. We should get at least £25 million for RvP, so that means overall the club should show a profit - nice for Stan and Ivan. I hope they enjoy it, but, aside from getting rid of some of the players that didn’t fulfil their potential, don’t expect any more activity this transfer-window.
If we are to be run as a selling club until the debt is completely eliminated and we were only doing that with a view to push on once we were in the black, that would be bearable if the sales you make were being used to finance the overall squad development, but it really does seem to me now to be one for the pot, two for Stan, one for the pot, two for Stan. On top of that, it is one money making scheme after another that we get from this club, I have chosen to ignore all of them, but others have not so where does all this money go?
Owning a football club is a privilege and only for the very rich, but it should be owned by people who are actually interested in and care about the game, not by people who either ONLY want it for bragging rights with their other oligarch mates or by someone to add to their fast buck portfolio.
Anyhow it is only a few weeks till the season starts, and then we can forget all this transfer-baloney. If Arsène gets fourth this season, he would have worked a miracle and I will be supporting him and the team all the way, but the season after I will be doing it from my armchair at home; unless, of course, we start to see some change in personnel, attitude or direction from the people at the top.
