Just Arsenal News

Well done Arsenal. Now the serious work begins… by FD

As the dust settles on another Premier League campaign, Arsenal fans can look back on a satisfying final third of the season. While it may have been a little strange watching the celebrations of the Arsenal players at winning fourth place, with memories of the Invincibles still etched in our minds, we shouldn’t begrudge them their plaudits. The turnaround since the derby defeat has been remarkable, and gives the team a defensive stability to build on for next season. .......Read the full article here

Arsene Wenger has had a fair bit to say recently about the short term thinking displayed by a lot of football clubs these days, while trying to end the speculation about his own future as the Arsenal manager. We know that the Frenchman is a man of principles and will stick to them, although the Arsenal fans wish he would be a bit more flexible sometimes.

There has been speculation about his future at the Gunners for most of the season, more than ever before from the club’s own fans after the worst ever start under Wenger. Following a great improvement as the season has progressed, culminating in a run of nine games unbeaten that has put Arsenal above Tottenham and into the final Champions League place, the talk has been more about whether Wenger would decide to move on, with PSG the most keen suitors. .......Read the full article here

The former Arsenal and England striker Alan `smudger` Smith has been writing about his memories of the Gunners and his thoughts on the current Arsenal team. Smith left Arsenal shortly before Arsene Wenger took over in 1996, but he has always followed the Gunners and has suggested that the Frenchman is at a pivotal period in his Arsenal reign and could maybe do with being a little more flexible in his methods.

The Skysports pundit recognises that Wenger has done marvelous things for the club, including keeping them in the Champions League with hardly any money for the past eight seasons. He does think, however, that Wenger needs to be more open to new ideas if Arsenal are to achieve great success again. He is friends with Wenger’s assistant Steve Bould and the subject of Bould’s influence in training came up again. .......Read the full article here

Are Arsenal doing the right thing with their money? by SS

Everybody knows that the club rarely spend money so they end up making a profit during a transfer window, but is this tight spending the reason there is no success at the club anymore?

Financial fair play rules have been introduced by UEFA which should stop clubs from spending a lot more money than they earn in a season. The biggest offenders of this rule are clubs such as Chelsea and Manchester City who have spent over £150 Million in past transfer windows. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal will have to nearly double their transfer record if they want to sign Stevan Jovetic from Fiorentina this summer. The Montenegrin international is believed to be one of Wenger’s principal transfer targets for the summer, but the Frenchman is not known for spending money and I cannot see him agreeing to this price.

According to Talksport, the Serie A club has set this price because of the widespread interest in their star player, with Juventus and Manchester City being strongly linked. It was looking good for Arsenal a few days ago, as Jovetic himself spoke of his `affinity` for the Gunners and a FIFA agent told the Italian media that the 23-year old had agreed to join and had spoken about his personal terms with somebody from Arsenal. .......Read the full article here

Although there has not been an official offer made to buy Arsenal Football Club from the major shareholder Stan Kroenke, the plans are in place, apparently. There has been on official statement from the American billionaire, but there have been murmurs from `sources` close to him that he is keen to remain at the club for the long haul.

Mr. Kroenke needs to think carefully about what he is doing, however. The valuation that this Middle Eastern consortium of investors has placed on the club, which is around double what it was just a few years ago, might make Stan think that he is doing well in charge of the Gunners. This value, however, will not last. .......Read the full article here

This news, if true, could have a massive impact on the future of Arsenal Football Club. The current owners, or major shareholders, of the club have come under a lot of criticism for the way the club is being run, with most fans feeling that profit is much more important to them than the pride of the fans and the team or the occasional trophy.

A consortium of investors, including some from Qatari and the Arab Emirates, have been preparing the bid for months, according to the Sun. They plan to offer Stan Kroenke £20,000 per share, which would amount to a profit on his investment or around £350 million. They apparently want a complete takeover but may not mind working with Usmanov. .......Read the full article here

There are a lot of people who admire the way that Arsenal Football Club is run, and hold it up as the correct business model, especially in the middle of this global crisis. The massive debts and subsequent problems for clubs such as Portsmouth, Leeds United and Malaga are the reasons behind Uefa bringing in the new Financial Fair Play rules.

The rules are intended to stop clubs spending wildly on player’s transfer fees and wages, and Arsenal fans are hoping that it will stop the spiralling of wages to ridiculous levels that Chelsea really kicked off, and Manchester City have picked up the baton and ran with. Arsenal, being a globally popular club with huge revenue but with owners who are unwilling to spend their own money, stand to be a major beneficiary of the rules. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal fans heard again this week from the chief executive Ivan Gazidis about what a good financial model Arsenal have and how we are going to be able to challenge the big spending clubs any minute now. A couple of recent stories have made me question the wisdom of this approach and wonder whether Arsenal are in danger of falling too far behind clubs like Chelsea, Man City and Man United. .......Read the full article here

Arsenal have released their accounts which are looking pretty good, showing that Arsene Wenger should have a decent war chest to spend in January. Another interesting thing apparent from the figures is the news that the club have given up any hope of ever selling the South Korean international striker, Park Chu-Young.

Park signed for Arsenal last summer just before the transfer window closed, and this is one panic buy that did not go well. The young (get it) Korean was half way through his medical for Lille when he heard about interest from the Gunners and cut short his tests. He may now wish he had gone through with it after making one single solitary league appearance as a substitute for eight minutes in his Arsenal career. .......Read the full article here

Chelsea managed to just about beat Arsenal this weekend, but the front four of Torres, Mata, Hazard and Oscar cost around 125million, an amount which would send most teams bankrupt in double-quick time.

Arsene Wenger has always been at the forefront of promoting UEFA’s call for Financial Fair Play and it seems that his Chelsea counterpart Roberto Di Matteo is in full agreement that the rules are neccessary to stop so many clubs going out of business. He said: ‘We as a club are in favour of Financial Fair Play,’ .......Read the full article here

If he was trying to wind up his opposite number in the build up to today’s match between Man City and Arsenal, then Arsene Wenger seems to have succeeded. Roberto Mancini has complained about the way other managers discuss the massive spending of City and mentions Arsenal in particular.

“All the managers talk about the money we have all the time, but we have 11 players just like all the other teams.

“I don’t know why we should only talk about the money.

“There were a lot of teams in the past spending money for big players, including Arsenal.” .......Read the full article here