Farewell PHW & Rooney Spotted At Colney
Yesterday it was announced that Peter Hill-Wood would be stepping down as Arsenal chairman and would be replaced by Sir Chips Keswick.
When questioned about our board in a recent Q&A, Ivan Gazidis said:
It’s no secret we have an ageing board, they understand and acknowledge that too. This is something we are reviewing.
Replacing a septuagenarian with another septuagenarian isn’t really addressing the ageing board issue but I assume the position of chairman is largely a ceremonial position similar to the roles of the Royal Family. For example; the Queen is Head of State but she doesn’t really have any power, or at least any power she would exercise. I think the board could do with some fresh faces, younger faces, but if I am honest I don’t really care how old the person on the board is as long as they are truly a supporter of Arsenal Football Club.
We are a club of great tradition and although the halls of power are roamed solely by one man these days we have lost a real supporter in the boardroom. Peter Hill-Wood may not have been the most popular man nor could you say he could be related to by the average supporter but he was Arsenal through and through. He understood what legacy means and so does the rest of the board. They have their faults but their grasp of legacy and desire to set Arsenal up for the long-term is something I could never criticise them for.
I’ll certainly miss Peter Hill-Wood as much for his family connection as for his comedic value. As I said, he may not have been the most popular man but he could be trusted to say something outrageously gob-smacking, and at times downright embarrassing, or he would say what we were all thinking.
Farewell Peter Hill-Wood, I wish you a healthy retirement and look forward to some quips and remarks in your Daily Star exclusives.
So, on to my other “headline”- ROONEY SPOTTED AT COLNEY
Sorry!
I apologise if I got your hopes up but it’s silly season and I guess it’s getting to me a little. The constant tweets and headlines I see with “THIS PLAYER SIGNING” “ARSENAL TO SPEND £££” “EXCLUSIVE” “OFFICIAL” are really frustrating me. I expect if from some sites but bloggers and tweeters are getting in on the act now and it’s just a straw too many.
The main purpose of that headline was to grab your attention so I could implore you not to fuel these hit loving attention seekers by clicking their links. I realise this sounds quite hypocritical with my own headline but I hope to redress the balance by passing on some of today’s readers to sites that are more deserving such as Armchair Gooner, Poznan In My Pants, Goonersphere, Suburban Gooners and Positively Arsenal.
And the other thing that irks is the moaning. It’s still early days as far as the summer goes and illogical thought-processes of the incessant moaners is almost unbearable.
The complainers grumble that we haven’t done any “big name” business yet and lament Arsenal being linked with young unknown players. The big picture is being completely ignored by these people.
We let 16 young players go so naturally we will look to replace some of them with external talent and possibly supplement the first-team squad with a few choice youngsters like Sanogo. This doesn’t mean we aren’t interested in “big name” players.
My wife bought eggs today. This must mean I won’t be having chicken for dinner. #TwitterLogic #Sanogo #Arsenal
— Daniel Arsenal Cowan (@thedanielcowan) May 17, 2013
Signing well-known players takes time – it can’t be achieved in a few short weeks. Take the signings of Cazorla and Podolski for example. Cazorla we tried to get before he went to Malaga and then had to wait for the situation to ripen as Ivan said in order to extract and complete the best deal. Had Malaga sorted their money problems I doubt they would have sold Santi.
Podolski’s signing was announced early but from what I can gather, Arsenal were in talks for Podolski as early as November 2011 before the signing was officially announced in late April 2012.
Deals for gems like this aren’t done overnight
Signing a player can be made easier by a number of factors apart from money and those reasons can be prestige of the club and level of competition. Arsenal ticked the first box with aplomb and the second box couldn’t be ticked until the last day of the season.
If we couldn’t start serious talks with top players until our Champions League future was secured (or at least partially secured) then we may only have been in talks with players and clubs for around a month.
I’m sure the club wants to do business as early as possible and ideally before our pre-season tour kicks off with is almost 4 weeks away. 28 days in football can be a long time so lets not get our knickers in a twist if we hear Arsenal are signing Un No Nyungsta from Korea or Den Ekspeavy from a French-speaking African country. I am absolutely certain we will make significant additions to the squad.
For what it is worth I genuinely do think we have an interest in Rooney. Following up on that interested is an entirely different thing though.
On a final note I want to mention two sites.
I want to sent out a massive shout out to Fan Frames who sell a superb collection of Arsenal glasses and sunglasses at highly reasonable prices. I’ve just got a pair from them and I’m so chuffed with them I felt obliged to share.
The second site I want to mention is NLIR’s sister site – Goonersphere. There is a great collection of writers over there, all offering different views and opinions, that you will all hopefully enjoy. Keep and eye out, you may even win a pair of Arsenal sunglasses over there in the next few weeks.
Thanks for reading! Please comment on this post, subscribe by email, share with friends and follow me on twitter (@thedanielcowan). Please check out the official NLIR Facebook page http://facebook.com/northlondonisredblogfor news, views, freebies and more.
Advertise your business here! Click here for details .
Share with others:
Pls sir we the arsenal funs Ghana (Africa)
Are happy,becos our friends are always making
Fun of us,that we don’t win trophys, pls sir
We need big players
So we have swapped one prehistoric dinosaur for another one. “Chips” – is that meant to appeal to the American love of stupid forename’s e.g. “Buddy” “Skip” and so forth ? On another note I am very very impressed by our splurge into the transfer market thus far. I know Wenger’s strategy – wait until Man City, Chelsea et al buy all of the good players then right on the last day of the tranfer market put in hugely inflated bids for the players no one else wanted and tie them onto huge, lucrative contracts so when they fall on their arses and prove themselves to be utterly useless a la Santos we won’t be able to offload them because no one will want them – the Wenger way !
Firstly i can not comment to much about the chairman other than he comes with a very good track record. As for Wengers spending I think you completely wrong take last year we bought Podolski,Giroud and Cazorla would you class any of them poor signings.
Also as the writer of the main article says it takes months not weeks or days to sort out transfer/contracts especially as players are away on tours etc.
Having owned a small company some of our contracts took anything from 2months to 2 years
I feel your pain there. I had one contract take me 3 months to agree final terms with a client and they insisted on 90 day payment terms and 180 days 100% rebate. Luckily the rebate clause was never invoked but it still took the best part of a year to agree terms, deliver the service, get paid and wait for the money to “clear”. Contracts aren’t easy things and I think a lot of people either forget that too easily or just aren’t aware of how difficult it can be in the first place.
please sign Higuan and Fellaini.Am Riitho James from Kenya
Hey gay it seems u r sick in the head,do u think we are ur fools to be fooled around by u, pliz if u wanted money try to look for the best way of getting it,rather than cheating around people one day u will hav it rough.
wenger will never sign agreat world class player like roone/higuein. may be fellaini who is not a wirld class rather a firty physical man- remember what he has done to showncross early last season 3 times and the officials didnt see. when he plays for aresenal the officials will seee quickly and he will be suspended many times. alier cannot justifies his point by lieng more. so rooney wasnt soported at our training ground. you futher bluff by saying deals dont happen overnite- rubbish- arteta’s deal took less than 24 hours and he is abetter player than fellaini. so you actuslly wrote this article to tell us what??! because we know p.h.w is gone. you have not increase my knowledge but exposed your frugal and thriftyness. come with good i deas next time and keep to truth and objectivity.
Wrong buddy. Arteta deal was on for weeks before it happened and despite being a superb player he doesn’t fall into the big name category.
So u make a point about people trying to get hits on their sites by putting misleading or fake headlines on links by a putting misleading headline on your site. Will not be reading this site again!
Oh no please don’t say that! You obviously didn’t read it properly the first time.
Very good post, agree with whole transfer policy and ignorant fans
Wenger Out!
Thanks for an intelligent and nicely-balanced post. As you say, there are many factors involved in a trasfer, so of course it all takes time. One aspect that tends to get ignored is the effect a transfer may have on the rest of the squad. Will player x to Arsenal affect player y’s ego? Will it make him dissatisfied with his wages? Will it jeapordize his friendship with player Z? Will it make him feel that the manager no longer really loves him? I am sure that the very best managers take all this into consideration when adding to their squads. Let’s hope that AW is able to get the players he wants, for I am sure that he feels that The Arsenal are on the brink of something special.
the whine and all this blogging is really sickening to the diehard fans.though it takes time to make a good signing,the earlier transfer policy has and must be scrapped off to pave way for a more lucrative one.i do nt want see an arsenal fan walk out of emirates head down in the 80th minute when arsenal is dearly downed by michu if he doesnt come to arsenal
People who walk out of games don’t deserve their seats.
Let wenger and his technical crew start on time in signing those players they are targeting b4 they wil loose them,lik wen it hapend wit juan mata,edwin hazard.etc we need players lik rooney,fellani,jevotic etc as soon as possible to end d unpleasant past record.