02 Sep 2014 07:00:20
It is what it is. To be fair and I know I made some negative vibes about Welbeck but I think I was caught up in the emotion of the day. Like most of us a bit dissapointed that we couldn't spend on a couple of big name players.
But in saying all that I don't think Welbeck is a bad player at all. I agree with a lot of what I'm reading on here Welbeck had been played out of position and as any players will tell you from amateur to professional you need consistency.
That said we now have 2 weeks for him to bed in with the team what with the Internationals coming up and hope he doesn't get injured. On the Falcao disappointment I'm hearing he is going to get £340,0000 a week! at United.
Would we really have paid that? No, not in a month of Sundays and I don't blame Arsenal at all.
Just goes to show what I have been saying for ages top players want to play in the Champions League unless they get offered money that is so ridiculous they can't turn it down. Now United have 2 new players that are there for the money and not for anything else I think it works out between Di Maria and Falcao around £550,000 a week! getting on for £2.4 million a month! for 2 footballers I don't know if that's without bonuses but none the less it's obscene. Matter of fact I sometimes have to detach myself in supporting a sport that endulges in producing people that end up being treated like demi gods its a bit ridiculous when most of us can't even afford to go and watch a live game. Something is seriously not right with that.

{Ed025's Note - im with you golds, its obscene the amount of money some of these players are getting, some hard working people are having to use food banks to eat, and cant afford to heat their houses, never mind the ones that dont have houses and thats just this country!..there are people dying of starvation in this world and a football player is getting a reported £340,000 per week, its disgusting!...rant over..

1.) 02 Sep 2014
Well said gentlemen! will still fork out for my boy's new kit though. ho hum

2.) 02 Sep 2014
Ed025.Question is where will it all end.?
Will it be when the presence of the ordinary working man is no longer attending the live games and the stadiums become fully corporate seats.
Then the attendance in the stadium plummets because corporate seats are being given away as freebies to clients to drum up business where most of them only go for the pose anyway and haven't got any interest in the football in the first place.
I can see that happening. Otherwise all you will see on the pitch will be tumbleweed. What ordinary football supporter can honestly afford a couple of season tickets year in year out. What is it at Arsenal £2200 for a pair of the cheapest? Work that out per game. Madness.

{Ed002's Note - Long gone are the days of the cloth-capped, hobnailed-booted, chimney sweep making his way, rattle in hand, to cheer on his team at the Emirates on a Saturday afternoon. I have explained before that there will be changes, probably within the next 10 to 15 years, which will force the restructuring of all of the leagues in Europe and likely do away with the likes of UEFA. You will have the opportunity to see the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus and the other major European sides play in week-on-week regular competition at The Emirates, Stamford Bridge etc.. You will have the opportunity to visit Milan, Barcelona, Monaco, etc. every couple of weeks to watch your team play - if they make the cut. If you want to don your cloth cap, have a pint of wallop with your chums before going off to the local match, perhaps one of the sides from the suburbs will have survived so you can go and watch them?}

3.) 02 Sep 2014
Ed that's a brilliant reply and a reminder to us all that in the grand scheme of things yesterday was that important at all.
For most of us football is an escape from the harsh realities of the world and let's face it people need distraction to stay sane these days.
Bankers footballers to name but two groups want more and more of the world a wealth and every time they get it someone less fortunate has to take less to make it possible.
The cake is only so big and while the minority insist on taking an ever growing slice the masses have live on less and less.
Ghandhi was right about western civilization, it really would be a good thing

4.) 02 Sep 2014
I once read a book called the 'The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists' By Robert Tressell.
This is all sounding so familiar.

5.) 02 Sep 2014
02 Sep 2014 10:08:39
Anyone else think that an all day pub session with ed002 explaining more details on things like this would be fascinating?

6.) 02 Sep 2014
With half empty stadiums as you won't find 60,000 millionaires who are football fanatics to fill the grounds Ed002, once its beyond the masses football is finished, it needs the paying public more than they need it.

{Ed002's Note - You have a shock coming. There will be a pan-European breakaway. Discussions were held as recently as last Wednesday.

As for the masses, qu'ils mangent de la brioche.}

7.) 02 Sep 2014
02 Sep 2014 10:42:46
Good thinking croydon. Ed002, when should we meet at the Monte Carlo marina to board your yacht? Can't wait to hear your thoughts on football, politics, philosophy and quantum physics.

8.) 02 Sep 2014
'You will have the opportunity to see the likes of Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus and the other major European sides play in week-on-week regular competition at The Emirates, Stamford Bridge etc. You will have the opportunity to visit Milan, Barcelona, Monaco, etc. every couple of weeks to watch your team play'

And here IMO would be the death knell of football. Lovely places to visit for a holiday but who cares a t*ss about those football teams. Who wants to sit in a ground with only a home set of fans, and never going to an away game apart from a few hardy travelers who can afford to travel across Europe every other week. If I want that I might as well go and watch American team sports. It still beggars belief how we have managed to allow a Swiss organization to control OUR game, and the thought of a european wide league, no doubt under FIFA control, would just about put the nail in the coffin for me.

{Ed002's Note - Actually it would be far from FIFA's control and could eventually spell the end for FIFA as well as UEFA. You may want to live an undisturbed future but that is not going to be the case - things move on. Arsenal left Highbury for the Emirates. Bigger and better. Football is big business, like it or not. We have seen elite leagues be formed in a number of countries already - we have seen the growth of the Champions League, we have seen revenue from television make an enormous difference in some countries, we have seen owners come from Russia, the Far East, the Middle East, the United States. It is changing and will continue to change. And Arsenal will be part of that change as new opportunities and new revenue streams become available.}