Kick Off Merchants

The narrative this morning seems to be “It was a foul, but as it is Arsenal the goal should have stood” Had Arsenal scored a last minute goal in these circumstances and it be given, everyone in uproar now that it was disallowed would be in uproar that it had been given

“Arsenal have not played well in the knockout stages” is an odd narrative 3 goals conceded in 6 games Bayern Munich & PSG conceded more goals in a single game (“best ever CL game”) Arsenal have defended better than any other team You don’t need to score 5 if you defend well

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For me, a weak league is when a team runs away with it and gets 95+ points, and those at the bottom are barely getting 30. That shows there is a huge gulf between top and bottom Arsenal or City winning with 80ish is not a sign that they poor, but a sign that the rest are good

I keep reading this is a “poor” Premier League. But… The PL has 4 semi finalists across 3 European comps. Its not unrealistic that English clubs could do the clean sweep 18th has 36 points. Could get relegated with 40+. That shows how strong those relegation fighting clubs are

Goal of the season!

This creates a huge advantage at the business end of the Champions League Top English, Spanish and Italian teams can not afford to rotate their squads so much as the strength in depth so much greater Add in Ligue 1 rearranging games….

This is the advantage of playing in a one team league, where the team is so far ahead of the rest financially. It’ll be the same for Bayern Munich in Germany They can dramatically rest and rotate knowing that their 2nd XI is superior than 70% of others 1st XI

Train companies: ‘Buy your tickets as far in advance as possible for the best possible price.’ Hotel companies: ‘Book your room as far in advance as possible for the best possible price.’ Your employer: ‘Book your time off as far in advance as possible to get it approved.’ Sky/TNT/The Premier League: ‘Yeah bollocks to all of you we’re rescheduling with very little warning. Dave sat on his arse at home might miss the game otherwise.’

And for those criticising. Ask yourself. Whether you would be able to drop another £4-6k in football across a decade having already committed over £10k in spending. It’s a lot of money But it’s easy to criticise when you watch in a dodgy stream and don’t spend a penny…

Throw in the £1000 for a season ticket. Food and drink at games. Away games. European trips. European finals. It all adds up. And that’s before the family holiday, Christmas, etc We are in a period when everyone has less money in their pocket. Everyone has a breaking point

I always find the criticism of Man City “not selling out” laughable It’s ironic that much of the criticism comes from online fans that never themselves go to games This is a club who were averaging nearly 30,000 in the 3rd tier of English football The have a loyal core fanbase

@ConorOSwerdz @BorislavBozovic @DavidLy45306584 @NorthBankNadim Marc Guehi costs City approx £21m a year (salary + amortised fee) Ricardo Calafiori costs Arsenal approx £13m a year (salary + amortised fee) But on net spend tables, the Arsenal man is £13.6m more expensive! And then we add in agent fees, etc Net spend is just one player cost

@ConorOSwerdz @BorislavBozovic @DavidLy45306584 @NorthBankNadim Bukayo Saka costs Arsenal approx £15.6m a year (his salary) Noni Madueke costs Arsenal approx £17.5m a year (salary+ amortised fee) One is represented in “net spend” tables. The other isn’t. Despite costing ther club about the same a year

Funny… I don’t see Arsenal on this list… And yet all I hear about is how much Arteta has spent…

Reading between the lines, it looks like the Saudi’s are no longer going to be throwing money at sport with no return, with their new investment strategy no longer prioritising sport. What is the impact of this on Newcastle United? bbc.co.uk/sport/golf/art…

Also, the bigger issue is the hiking of prices when football is in town. Arsenal fans paid £600-700 to go to Lisbon. Next week, return flights are £150. Train companies, hotels, airlines and more profiteer off football fans loyalty.

Chartering a plane for a a European away is not unusual. Shows how out of touch these sort of accounts are that they think this is something special. More interested in reposting news for hits than actually enjoying the beautiful game.

Should not play for the country again if they cannot respect international duty in a a World Cup year. Pathetic. Madueke gets a pass. He is actually injured. But the other 2? Disgusting, disrespectful.