Shanked By Kroenke & The Saints

Arsenal bowed out of the Capital One Cup last night after a disappointing home defeat to in form Southampton.

As expected, Mr Wenger named a much changed side from the victorious Villa party and the changes highlighted and double underlined a glaring problem for Arsenal’s misfiring attack – overreaching.

It is hard to think of Arsenal as having too much competition for places when we only have 6 senior defenders and 2 of them are injured but up the other end of the field in attack, despite an injury to Olivier Giroud, there does seem to be an awful lot of competition. Welbeck, Sanogo, Sanchez, Cazorla, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Podolski, Campbell, Wilshere, Ramsey, Özil and Rosicky are all competing for 3-4 starting spots and are probably all too aware that Walcott isn’t far off fitness and Giroud will also be back in 3 months.

Competition is supposed to be good but in Arsenal’s case it seems to be a cause of our errant passing and lackadaisical finishing. Our attacking and creative players, overall, seem to be trying too hard to impress and are attempting Hollywood passes and neglecting the basics. We are losing the ball a lot because of this and our lack of ball retention – something our game is built on – is making us disjointed and the understanding the team forged last season look fragmented.

Arsenal turned over possession more times than I cared to count yesterday and it was the dominating facet of our game. Southampton took advantage of this and pressed us extremely well and ultimately deserved their win – Clyne’s spectacular goal was worthy of winning any game despite at first glance it looking like Ospina could have done better but slow motion replays gives him the benefit of the doubt.

There were positives to take from the game, Sanchez’s free kick, Hayden and Chambers performing admirably, and Bellerin getting some more game time because he doesn’t look quite ready for the Premier League yet.

Arsenal supporters are understandably disappointed in exiting the cup, especially as many believed it to be Arsenal’s most realistic chance of a trophy this season however I would say not to be too concerned just now because all of our title rivals have dropped points already and Arsenal are currently unbeaten. It’s far too early to write us off. I’m ambivalent about exiting the competition because as someone so eloquently put it on twitter last night – I’m sorry I can’t remember who you are – the League Cup is a competition you either want to win or exit in the first round because otherwise it’s unnecessary additional fixtures in an already stacked schedule for what is the least important competition you can be in.

Losing a match and exiting a competition, no matter how small, is disappointing and to make matters worse Arsenal fans have woken up to news that majority shareholder, owner in all but name, Stan Kroenke, has “taken” £3m out of Arsenal. I have mixed feelings about this.

The money was paid to his company for “services” and whilst those services could well have been legitimate it does stink of Kroenke taking cash out of Arsenal. The sum perplexes me slightly because he is an incredibly rich man, married to one of the richest women in the world, who has never taken money out of any of his other franchises so what difference would £3m make to him? The sum seems far too small, in his world, to be a dividend or ROI and it seems a little too large for consultancy services. It’s just weird.

It has definitely split the fans this morning, not evenly but there is a split. The majority are incensed that he would take money out of Arsenal whilst others are saying he is entitled to because Arsenal is a successful business – cue the argument about whether or not football is a business.

I think football is “in business” and that business is the business of entertainment. Arsenal PLC is quite clearly a business and a successful one at that, Arsenal FC is operated by Arsenal PLC and is not a business, or at least not in the accepted sense. However, they are intrinsically linked and whilst Arsenal FC has possibly not been as successful as we would have liked in recent years it doesn’t detract from the success of the PLC.

Where the issue lies for me is at what point it is acceptable for money to be taken out of the club, or rather, I should say, the PLC? Some will argue never and that surplus cash should always be pumped back into the team. My view runs dangerously close to that because I feel if the team has suitable provisions for additions and wages, the facilities are state-of-the-art, tickets are affordable and fair given local salaries and market rates and the team is competitive on the pitch then I see no real issue with shareholders of Arsenal PLC being paid dividends.

However, those conditions are open to interpretation and will vary. Kroenke didn’t load us with debt to buy us so in that sense I do not begrudge him earning some of his money back but I do loathe it being done when there are still other conditions to be met. Do we have money for new players in January and next summer? Do we have the necessary playing staff? Are ticket prices fair and affordable? The answers are don’t know, no and not really.

Will we ever have the right players in every position to keep the fans happy? No because we all have different views on what the team needs. Does Wenger have the players he wants? I don’t know but if he doesn’t then Kroenke shouldn’t be taking money out of the club. If he does then it begs another question which I won’t go into today.

In principle I have no issue with Kroenke or any other shareholder taking a dividend from a profit making and successful commercial business but in my own humble opinion Arsenal are quite a way off being in a position where people don’t care. And that is the problem right there. People do care and Arsenal and Kroenke’s job is to ensure the issuing of dividends is a peripheral concern.

It would be prudent of the club at this point to detail exactly what that payment was for because surely we’ve had enough fan unrest over the past few years and media outlets sh*t-stirring by linking it to the 3% rise isn’t helping. Come on Arsenal, do the right thing.

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