Arsenal Fans = Economists

[SantaPoldi]

What is it with fans of our great Club spouting on about "great business" and balance sheets? Was in a pub on Blackstock Road yesterday and could of sworn I was in a lecture theatre. How have people fallen for Wenger's spiel? The business we do doesn't even make good business sense. Selling your prize asset to a rival not only destroys your own value but aids the performance of your rival. Think about it. The new generations of fans worldwide are glory hunters. Asia, Africa and America - they follow who is doing well. Selling your prize assets for short-term cash ignores the long-term play and destroys the value of your own brand.

Anyway, I digress. Can we all become fans of the team and not our bloated balance sheet. Your assets should be on the pitch not in the bank. The banks are shysters so why make them more money than they have already.

[DarylAFC]

What is it with fans of our great Club spouting on about "great business" and balance sheets? Was in a pub on Blackstock Road yesterday and could of sworn I was in a lecture theatre. How have people fallen for Wenger's spiel? The business we do doesn't even make good business sense. Selling your prize asset to a rival not only destroys your own value but aids the performance of your rival. Think about it. The new generations of fans worldwide are glory hunters. Asia, Africa and America - they follow who is doing well. Selling your prize assets for short-term cash ignores the long-term play and destroys the value of your own brand.

Anyway, I digress. Can we all become fans of the team and not our bloated balance sheet. Your assets should be on the pitch not in the bank. The banks are shysters so why make them more money than they have already.

While I see the business side of our club as "good business", it doesn't excite me in the absolute slightest. Maybe these fans have substituted this for celebrating cup success?

Or maybe they ARE actually economists nd just get hard over profit margins

[mike_stefan]

I would put this down to the modern media. There is so much rubbish being published at the moment - not just on websites, but from bloggers, through Twitter / FB, you've got half a dozen sports channels etc etc. It's hard not to get caught up in the "information age" and go along with it. When you read / hear the same thing from 3 or 4 different sources you accept it as a given, even if all of those sources are wrong.

[DB10GOONER]

I would put this down to the modern media. There is so much rubbish being published at the moment - not just on websites, but from bloggers, through Twitter / FB, you've got half a dozen sports channels etc etc. It's hard not to get caught up in the "information age" and go along with it. When you read / hear the same thing from 3 or 4 different sources you accept it as a given, even if all of those sources are wrong.

[flash gunner]

I would put this down to the modern media. There is so much rubbish being published at the moment - not just on websites, but from bloggers, through Twitter / FB, you've got half a dozen sports channels etc etc. It's hard not to get caught up in the "information age" and go along with it. When you read / hear the same thing from 3 or 4 different sources you accept it as a given, even if all of those sources are wrong.

Freudian slip?

[DB10GOONER]

I would put this down to the modern media. There is so much rubbish being published at the moment - not just on websites, but from bloggers, through Twitter / FB, you've got half a dozen sports channels etc etc. It's hard not to get caught up in the "information age" and go along with it. When you read / hear the same thing from 3 or 4 different sources you accept it as a given, even if all of those sources are wrong.

Freudian slip?

Very.

[arseofacrow]

I would put this down to the modern media. There is so much rubbish being published at the moment - not just on websites, but from bloggers, through Twitter / FB, you've got half a dozen sports channels etc etc. It's hard not to get caught up in the "information age" and go along with it. When you read / hear the same thing from 3 or 4 different sources you accept it as a given, even if all of those sources are wrong.

Freudian slip?

Very.

[Barriecuda]

I like winning, I like trophies, and I like to see Arsenal Football Club succeed.

But being able to say we follow a club that is competitive (even if not as competitive as we'd like) that also makes smart business decisions is something to be proud of. The club isn't sacrificing the future for the sake of the present, which is what a lot of short-sighted owners do these days. They have run historic football teams into the ground through irresponsible spending because they constantly want to be winning things. Imagine how it feels to be a 20 year Pompey fan right now. Or the more obvious example, Rangers. Would you ever want to see Arsenal playing in League Two?

If the Arabs get bored of their little pet project in Manchester, or Abromovich decides he's had enough fun with Chelsea, those teams could easily capitulate under the weight of their debts. Right now, they are held afloat by the good graces of their owners, but if those guys cut-and-run they would be in serious trouble.

And let's look at United, too. They made something like 60m GBP on the Ronaldo deal, yet how much did they spend? They've obviously been hampered by their owners, but they've also spent themselves into burden over the last decade. There's a reason they aren't buying Berbatov's for 30m anymore - they can't afford it. The RVP deal could significantly hurt them. And when they're buying players from Vitesse Arnheim and Chivas Guadalajara, it makes you wonder just how secure they are for the next 10-20 years.

Like I said, I desperately want to see Arsenal succeed and I think we have made some poor decisions because we're overzealous with penny pinching. But I do give the club respect for being fiscally responsible, and not ruining the team for the next generation of fans. We'll be competitive for a long time, particularly as the Emirates debt declines and profits start coming in from Highbury Square.

Appreciating the economic work the club is doing isn't mutually exclusive from being a fan of that club.

[T.S]

What is it with fans of our great Club spouting on about "great business" and balance sheets? Was in a pub on Blackstock Road yesterday and could of sworn I was in a lecture theatre. How have people fallen for Wenger's spiel? The business we do doesn't even make good business sense. Selling your prize asset to a rival not only destroys your own value but aids the performance of your rival. Think about it. The new generations of fans worldwide are glory hunters. Asia, Africa and America - they follow who is doing well. Selling your prize assets for short-term cash ignores the long-term play and destroys the value of your own brand.

Anyway, I digress. Can we all become fans of the team and not our bloated balance sheet. Your assets should be on the pitch not in the bank. The banks are shysters so why make them more money than they have already.

Dunno mate, but there's a bloke on Twitter who adopted the name of a regular poster on here who I reckon you'd get along with really well. Be careful though - he's been rumoured to suffer from multiple personality disorder...

[SantaPoldi]

What is it with fans of our great Club spouting on about "great business" and balance sheets? Was in a pub on Blackstock Road yesterday and could of sworn I was in a lecture theatre. How have people fallen for Wenger's spiel? The business we do doesn't even make good business sense. Selling your prize asset to a rival not only destroys your own value but aids the performance of your rival. Think about it. The new generations of fans worldwide are glory hunters. Asia, Africa and America - they follow who is doing well. Selling your prize assets for short-term cash ignores the long-term play and destroys the value of your own brand.

Anyway, I digress. Can we all become fans of the team and not our bloated balance sheet. Your assets should be on the pitch not in the bank. The banks are shysters so why make them more money than they have already.

Dunno mate, but there's a bloke on Twitter who adopted the name of a regular poster on here who I reckon you'd get along with really well. Be careful though - he's been rumoured to suffer from multiple personality disorder...

I'm confused. Is wumming by a Mod allowed on here? Please explain the relevance of this comment to this thread. If you have something to say use PM.

[augie]

I too hate the profit based club we have become but 15m for song is great business and there is no way to avoid that. where you are getting caught up is in our tendency not to invest the money bringing in quality replacements with that money but doesnt detract from the good business of the above deal. Btw would you not agree that getting arteta at that price was good business for the club ? Good business can be incoming deals as well as outgoing deals and should be judged on individual cases

[DB10GOONER]

I too hate the profit based club we have become but 15m for song is great business and there is no way to avoid that. where you are getting caught up is in our tendency not to invest the money bringing in quality replacements with that money but doesnt detract from the good business of the above deal. Btw would you not agree that getting arteta at that price was good business for the club ? Good business can be incoming deals as well as outgoing deals and should be judged on individual cases

Agreed 100%. Some people get so carried away with the negative aspects (and there are many negative aspects) surrounding our business that they can't (or won't) see that sometimes we get it right too. Arteta was great business too. I'd even say Bennyoooooon was also good business to a certain extent.

And also agreed, the real problem is that we very rarely seem to invest that money from good deals (like Song's) in bringing in new proven talent. £15m for Song is outstanding. I would have been happy if he left on a free tbh, but to net £15m for a very ordinary (at his best) player is just incredible.

[Red Member]

I too hate the profit based club we have become but 15m for song is great business

no it is not when the club would have to spend that £15M to get an adequate replacement.
also would you rather have RVP or Podolski and Giroud up front?

[arseofacrow]

I too hate the profit based club we have become but 15m for song is great business and there is no way to avoid that. where you are getting caught up is in our tendency not to invest the money bringing in quality replacements with that money but doesnt detract from the good business of the above deal. Btw would you not agree that getting arteta at that price was good business for the club ? Good business can be incoming deals as well as outgoing deals and should be judged on individual cases

I would contend that it is difficult to judge our deals on an individual basis as it seems that they are all connected by the need and wish to come out of a transfer window in surplus (fees plus wages). So the decision to do one thing depends on a multitude of factors, with the need to build and improve being low down on the list.

Getting £15m for song is great in isolation, but means little if a driving force behind it was to balance the books and not furter extend the club.

[T.S]

What is it with fans of our great Club spouting on about "great business" and balance sheets? Was in a pub on Blackstock Road yesterday and could of sworn I was in a lecture theatre. How have people fallen for Wenger's spiel? The business we do doesn't even make good business sense. Selling your prize asset to a rival not only destroys your own value but aids the performance of your rival. Think about it. The new generations of fans worldwide are glory hunters. Asia, Africa and America - they follow who is doing well. Selling your prize assets for short-term cash ignores the long-term play and destroys the value of your own brand.

Anyway, I digress. Can we all become fans of the team and not our bloated balance sheet. Your assets should be on the pitch not in the bank. The banks are shysters so why make them more money than they have already.

Dunno mate, but there's a bloke on Twitter who adopted the name of a regular poster on here who I reckon you'd get along with really well. Be careful though - he's been rumoured to suffer from multiple personality disorder...

I'm confused. Is wumming by a Mod allowed on here? Please explain the relevance of this comment to this thread. If you have something to say use PM.

Apologies SantaPoldi. Didn't mean to wind you up (although I'm not sure why that post would have wound you up). It's just that your posting style bears a striking resemblance to another poster who was recently banned from here and another Arsenal forum, if I'm not mistaken. Was merely commenting on that - a bit like how people commented on how the styles of Babatunde and USMartin were so similar.

Again, sorry if I hit a nerve. I will keep it strictly business from here on in