Arsenal’s PR machine is cranking up a gear in response to renewed speculation regarding Orangutache Ltd and Bernie Ecclestone and probably the Queen and possibly half a dozen more by the end of the week.
Keith Edelman has insisted Kroenke is welcomed as a shareholder but that’s as far as it goes. He reiterated the commitment of the current board and made a declaration about the ability of the club to buy players. I think, personally, that a lot of support for a takeover comes from a desire to see the club handed a warchest with which to splash in the transfer market. Fun in the short term though, who can’t see the attraction? Arsenal, at the moment, are perceived as being short on cash to invest in the squad. Therefore it was interesting to read Edelman respond when asked if the debts which the club has surrounding the new stadium were meant we had less to spend:
The way it works is that we get a substantial amount of extra revenue from Emirates Stadium. Obviously some of that extra revenue has to go back in to paying off the debt. But having paid the debt payment we’re then able to invest the additional revenue into the squad. If you take the extra revenue and subtract the debt payments then we are producing surplus funds to invest in players.
I think what he’s trying to do there is assure fans that there is money for Arsene Wenger to spend despite the debts which must be serviced and the costs involved in the new stadium. And when you look at the business done since January we’ve recieved something like £22m for players (Stokes £2m, Larsson £1m, Muamba £2+, Aliadiere £2.5m, Henry £16.5m) you have to think there’s got to be more for the manager if he wants it.
Now, the difficulty Edelman has in this situation is that we’ve heard this talk before. And unfortunately Arsene Wenger is not a man to spend money for the sake of spending it. He won’t make a trophy purchase just because fans want it. So we could have a pot of gold and if Arsene chooses not to buy anyone then nobody’s any the wiser because Mr Wenger is never going to show his hand and tell people what he’s got in the bank. Just makes me wonder if there’s a planned signing because the proof of what Keith Edelman says will have to be seen in a red and white shirt before a lot of people accept it as the truth. And I think he must know that.
Other than that the two parts of the interview on Arsenal.com make for interesting reading, for various reasons. I think it’s good that the board are trying to combat the constant negativity that is published in so many newspapers. ‘Arsenal in crisis’ is a lovely story. ‘Arsenal in things aren’t quite as bad as we seem and can get a lot better’ isn’t.
On the other hand the comments about ‘harder’ stewarding don’t make easy reading (“Sit down!”, “Sing up!”, “No leaving before the end!”), again the assumption is that sanitized is best. Do we really want a generation of kids growing up without that ‘I remember my Dad taking me to the football and I learned about 50 new swear words!’ story? That’d be sad if that’s the case. And maybe it’s just me, and I need to get with the times, but stuff like ‘brand value’ when talking about the type of football we play just seems off. Like I said, maybe that’s just me though.
Overall though it is good to see the club be a bit more open and communicative, especially when people like to believe everything they read these days. I know we’ve been down the road of hoaxes before, and Arsenal Shorts has said sorry for people taken in by it, but look at what happened on Gunnerblog the other day. He ran a story rubbishing the Palacio rumour, then used the exact wording of that story from the Boca blog to see we’d bought some Mexican. Obviously a joke. Obviously. Didn’t stop him getting about 20 emails from people looking for more information about the great new signing we’d just made. Honestly, you’d despair.
The Sun picks up on the Freddie Ljungberg story saying he’ll complete a £3.5m move to West Ham today. The Swedish press are running with this story too and have more or less confirmed the sale. 
Away from all that, Arseblog’s Styrian correspondant has been in touch with news of the training camp. Seems there was a bit of a crisis yesterday as William Gallas lost an earring and rounded up a search party to help find it – click the pic for big. Apparently it was the diamond part that he was most concerned about. The outcome, I’m afraid, remains a mystery.
And yes, he is really looking for an earring.
Not much else happening this early so I’ll be off and get myself packed. I’m here with you tomorrow then you’ll have the pleasure of Tom’s company for a week.
Until then.
