may 1st
08.59 – Welcome to a brand new month here on Arseblog, and all you socialist workers have yourselves a great day today, ya hear.
We’ll start today with some financial news. Arsenal have announced losses of £9.75m – which is an improvement on the last set of figures when we posted a loss of £15m. Obviously there’s lots going on with the new stadium (now due to be made out of balsa wood, old toilet rolls and sticky back plastic), and the club’s turnover has actually increased 28% to £43.6m.
Still, it looks as if a summer spending spree is pretty much out of the question, and more significantly, Chairman Peter Hill-Wood is talking about having to cut the wage bill further. He says “In our 2002 annual report, I referred to the control and potential future reduction of our player-wage bill and this remains an objective. However, it is one we can only progress, in the light of market conditions, as new players arrive or existing contracts come up for renewal.”
It means that players will have to leave in the summer. The Guardian speculates that Kanu will almost certainly go, Dennis Bergkamp may not get the new contract he’s looking for, and Ray Parlour and Francis Jeffers’ positions may be under threat. I would imagine players like Oleg, DS1, Keown and Gio van Bronckhorst will have an anxious summer as well – there’s £120,000 a week saved right there.
Certainly there must be the temptation to clear out a few of the high earners and let some of the kids come through – not only because it would freshen up the squad, but because their wages would be tiny compared to some of the senior players. Anyway, we’ll see – but the latest figures show the financial gulf between us and Man Utd whose turnover was recently announced at £165m+. It looks like the only way for AW to buy is to sell, and once all the football is done and dusted, we’ll take a look at who could go and at what price.
Thierry Henry scored two and Robert Pires one during France’s 5-0 win over Egypt. I have no idea if they played the whole game, half a game or what. Knowing the French FA, they probably played 90 minutes, then 30 minutes extra time to raise a bit more cash.
Leeds United keeper Paul Robinson will reject any move to Arsenal during the summer because his two dogs would hate it in London. That’s according to The Sun. Apparently the two boxers sat him down and expressed their fervent desire to stay ‘oop Norf’. He’ll play for Man United next season I bet.
Interesting or favour currying old crap from a Chelsea fan? Finally for today, the BBC is doing a feature on the worst football kits ever – and number 9 features Anders Limpar in the 1991 away monstrosity. I know there was a site which had pics of the old Arsenal kits, but I just can’t find it – there was a mostly green away kit at one stage if I remember correctly. *Bleeurrgh*
