Kevin Whitcher
I have never attended an Emirates Cup game in the tournament’s history, normally watching Arsenal’s games in a pub in the vicinity of the stadium. I will be honest and admit that this year I could not even rouse the interest to do that. I half watched about 45 minutes of one of the Asian Tour games, but frankly, the pre-season matches so far this season have not interested me because there is nothing new to be seen, except the odd youngster flattering to deceive. These are warm up exercises, and I am never concerned about the results.
However, I got enough text messages after the Sunday game from Sami Steinbock to relay something of the afternoon inside the stadium. He wrote -
“Glad we lost. Time to wake up those players that were being silly complacent following the Asia tour. Once we get to the box we can’t do anything and we hardly ever apply pressure. Essentially we are not very good but we knew that didn’t we? Sum up for me was the final whistle. Wenger just going straight down the tunnel smiling. I personally will only smile when he f**** off. People can make all the ems cup excuses they want but as @DarrenArsenal1 summed up: I’d rather focus on the fact that THIS squad was deficient last season, and without decent arrivals will be deficient this season. Ridiculous how people are yet to turn on Wenger. How people seem content on the current situation and can be so stupid as to try to blame ANYONE else. Emirates Cup is as bad as everyone says. At least everyone seemed happy, as long as they got to partake in the Mexican wave!!! Hahaha”
So the conclusion from within was that Arsenal have returned to their shot shy ways. Outside it was interesting to see the crowd on both days. I was at the stadium organizing sales of the new issue of The Gooner .
It was a real family crowd. A lot of people who were probably going to see an Arsenal game for the first time. The advertising campaign to sell the tickets, and the relatively cheap ticket prices (in comparison with standard matches) meant that the club stated that both games were sold out. I have no idea of whether there were gaps in the stadium or not in reality. It was interesting to listen to Talksport after the Sunday game had been completed, with the ads offering tickets for the tournament now completed still being featured on heavy rotation.
It is certainly a viable financial exercise for Arsenal. People coming for the first (and sometimes only) time are more likely to buy in the club store, and purchase food and drink inside the stadium. They are certainly there for a much longer period, and many spend good portions of the first (non-Arsenal) game on the concourses. It’s Arsenal as a tourist attraction, which is how the stadium tours are marketed now. There was a certain irony in the weekend being advertised in the style of a circus, with ‘Drogba the strongman’ as one of the start draws (apparently not strong enough to stay on his feet, thus securing a penalty yesterday). It’s a far cry from what football used to be, but with outgoings as they are, chasing every pound going is understandable.
The frustration is that the club do not seem to be doing much with the money. The perception now is that the board want Wenger to buy star players to appease the fan discontent, but that the manager will not pay more than he believes a player is worth. And the market value of targets is more than Wenger’s perceived worth of his transfer targets. Someone told me Wenger put a bid of £13 million in for Wayne Rooney, although I can’t actually believe that. I have been told that that if more desirable targets cannot be acquired, Gareth Barry will come to the club for £4 million. And Wenger believes he can get Swansea’s Ashley Williams for £8.5 million. Whether German under-21 international Matthias Ginter, a midfielder from Freiburg is the more desirable option that discounts the signing of both Barry and Williams, I am uncertain. Given that the youngster can play in central defence as well, there is an element of Alex Song about him.
I am sure Arsenal have been actively trying to sign players, the sticking point is that they are not prepared to pay the asking price. It’s like a customer in Tesco hanging around the discounted shelves waiting for some prime cut of beef to be put on there before it will go past its sell-by date.
What is certain is that there is a hell of a lot of money to be played with. Pre-season friendlies have to be taken with a pinch of salt, but the fact that the players themselves have been expressing the need for new arrivals to strengthen the squad is telling. Arsenal were in a good position to do their business well in time for the start of the campaign, to integrate new arrivals and work out their best starting eleven. Granted, the early signing of Luis Suarez would have made little difference to the start of the Premier League, but there is the small matter of two qualifying matches to make the Champions League proper and if achieved, a couple of group matches before he is eligible for Premier League action. Liverpool are in no rush to sell Suarez and could certainly rebuff any unrealistic offer, especially if they consider they do not have time to secure a replacement. So if that deal is to be done, Wenger needs to cough up and conclude it soon.
Even though next weekend’s friendly against Manchester City in Helsinki is a final warm-up game, it will be a far more realistic workout ahead of the real thing, with, one assumes, the line-up likely to begin the Villa match seven days later. Arsenal have left their transfers late, but I have no doubt new arrivals will be announced. The real issue is whether, by over-haggling, the club end up with lesser quality than they should. As usual, we simply watch and wait.
This season’s first issue of The Gooner went on sale over the weekend, and can be bought outside the stadium before the matches against Villa, Spurs and the home Champions League qualifying tie leg. It can also be mailed to you if you wish to buy it online here.
DIGITAL ISSUES
The Gooner is also available in digital form, through The Gooner App on iPhones and iPads, the Exactly App for Android devices and now Kindle Fire owners can also get their fix by searching the Amazon App Store for The Gooner.
You can also subscribe at www.exacteditions.com and read it through your internet browser as well as receiving a code which will enable you to access issues on all the above devices.
All digital subscriptions include access to our digital back issue library which dates back to August 2010.
