BUILDING PLANS CANCELLED
ARSENAL FANS, can we, for the love of Bergkamp, focus on Arsenal for at least 5 minutes? I’m sick of talking about the other monster story going on at the moment, the whole thing does make me a little sad. I feel like I’ve missed out on wonderful experiences with you all because of it… but instead of being a victim about it, we should cherish that Arsenal triumphed against the odds last season and that will always go down as a monumental sporting achievement.
Let’s have a chat about the haaaawt news. Arsenal are not investing in a stadium expansion. The numbers have been crunched and they just don’t work.
“We shared a commitment to the continued evolution of Emirates Stadium, rather than a huge-scale masterplan, building on improvement we have made to date in partnership with our catering partner, Legends, the introduction of safe standing (this season in the Clock End, and next season in the North Bank), improving hospitality and retail experiences, and upgrading visitor experiences.”
The same article cites that Mikel Arteta didn’t want to disrupt his run as the best manager in the world, so they seem to have acquiesced around the idea of upgrading higher-end experiences, and keeping the club moving up the scales revenue-wise that way.
Am I disappointed? No. Why would I be? You think I’m some sort of stadium expansion freak? No way. I like the idea of upgrading what they have.
Extremely wealthy clientele ready to pay big money during our winning run.
A food hotspot on a global scale. Bring some of that to the stadium. Make it worthwhile for luxury clients and the normies to come to the stadium early and spend more money.
Remember why people like going to Arsenal more these days… the atmosphere bangs. So make sure you have space for the noise makers and the fans who want to enjoy the game in a more traditional sense.
Moving to Spurs’ stadium for 18 months would have been diabolical. I also wonder whether there’s a shift in thinking on many fronts now Manchester City will be out of the picture for a while. If they are gone, our chances of winning have improved, and we really could make more of the next 5 years. Quite exciting if I’m honest.
The injury news hasn’t been kind to Arsenal. The latest casualty is Christos Tzolis, who looked like he was downed by a pinged hamstring. Alarming because he’s already succumbing to soft tissue injuries, despite having a fairly unblemished injury record in Belgium. Hopefully it’s not too serious, but you know Arsenal players, it’s usually worse than you expect.
Now we’re in a bind. Our left hand side is basically Eze, who isn’t really a winger, and Madueke, who gets parked there when we’re short. What do I ALWAYS say? If there is a weakness to be exploited in an Arsenal squad… it WILL be exploited by the footballing gods.
I do wonder how Max Dowman figures in all of this? Bukayo Saka has floated to the left countless times this season, overloading the right with wingers and having Kai float the right has been a thing… could Bukayo on the left and Max on the right ever be a consideration?
The biggest worry is the news on Kai seems fairly standard hamstring stuff… the question of Gyokeres and his viability moving forward will be asked. Does Mikel opt for more of him now he’s scoring, or will he put Merino there who offers quite a lot as a forward, and is categorically far better for making those around him perform?
Many big questions will be answered and the worst part? There’s still 10 days to go. Martin Odegaard has been playing with an ankle issue and our Brazilians have been in India and Australia! Wild stuff.
Ok, short post. From here on in, it’s all about Arsenal. x