october 6th
You know what? For an international week there’s lots going on, which makes a nice change if you have to write an Arseblog blog every morning.
So yesterday saw confirmation of the Emirates Stadium deal, but instead of the £3m a year being quoted in some papers yesterday we’ve landed ourselves a £100m long terms sponsorship deal. The stadium will be called ‘The Emirates Stadium’ for the next 15 years, while from next season onwards and for another 8 seasons afterwards ‘Fly Emirates’ will take over from O2 as the shirt sponsors. It is a huge deal and while it does feel odd having them as sponsors the length of the deal will ensure their association will be more Arsenal than Chelsea. Sort of how it’s difficult to remember Sol Campbell as a Sp*rs player. As for the name of the stadium it’ll develop it’s own fan-friendly name in time, whether that’s Ashburton Grove, the Emigrants Stadium or something far wittier than that (which wouldn’t take much).
Bottom line is when you’ve got a £400m stadium and redevelopment project to take care of you have to ensure the finances are in place. I’d much rather we sold the naming rights to our stadium and allowed Arsene Wenger a heftier chequebook than scrimp and save and not be able to provide a team to live up to the standards of what’s going to be a fantastic new stadium. See what I said yesterday about money helping us forget?! It’s funny that had another club done this it would have been hailed as a groundbreaking sponsorship deal negotiated by clever businessmen. The Sun has Arsenal’s chiefs ‘defending the decision to sell out to big business’. Typical.
Even better news was the confirmation from Arsene Wenger that his new contract just needs a couple of ‘i’s dotted and ‘t’s crossed. It’s his vision for the club that sees us moving to a new stadium, his work with the players that’s turned us into genuine title contenders every season, his genius that’s developed players like Vieira, Henry, Cole, Toure and improved players like Pires, Campbell and all the others that came before. With the finances secure and the future of our greatest ever manager secure it all bodes well for the club. It’s expected the new deal will take him as far as the 2006/7 season and I’d imagine we’ll get confirmation of it at the AGM on Thursday.
Some more info came my way yesterday about the shirt that we’re going to play in next season to commemorate the last season at Highbury. Apparently it’s going to be maroon in colour, long sleeved (and the sleeves will also be maroon, not white) with either a button or lace-up collar. If it’s lace-up it’ll be like the shirt Brazil wore for the FIFA centenary game. Basically it’s going to be a replica of the old Woolwich Arsenal shirt from days of yore. So there you go. Then this picture emerged last night, so now I don’t know what to think. Update: This pic is apparently a fan made effort and not the real thing, but well done to whoever made it, it’s a nice looking shirt.
And speaking of FIFA, the nominations for World Player of the Year were announced yesterday. Two Arsenal players, Robert Pires and Thierry Henry, are among the nominations, which include some quite ridiculous candidates like Beckham, Owen, Raul, Roberto Carlos, Wayne Rooney and others who are just there to make the list marketable and nothing else. I suppose Thierry has a good chance of winning it, but no doubt it’ll be Oliver Khan or some other cunt.
Finally, don’t forget you’ve got a chance of winning one of these ‘Highly Fabregas‘ t-shirts. See the bottom of yesterday’s blog for the brain numbingly difficult question and the email address to send to. Good luck.
