As Arsenal enter their third season at the Emirates, the time for settling in is over and the club have now decided to start the Arsenalisation of the stadium.
The aim of the process is to turn the Emirates into an Arsenal stronghold through the installation of a whole range of new effects including a ‘Highbury shrine’ and a signing wall for some of the legends of the club.
If you take a look at English football’s movers and shakers, almost all of them have one thing in common – masses of money to spend. It seems every club from Manchester United to Notts County is either in the hands of a rich foreign owner or in takeover talks with one. These people often bring short term success but very rarely concern themselves with long-term fortunes.
Arsenal are just a few days away from their biggest game of the season after drawing Celtic for a place in the Champions League group stage.
The Gunners will have been hoping for an easier play-off tie after being seeded for the draw but now face a ‘battle of Britain’ clash, just to make it past the qualifying stage.
Arsenal may now have sold two major players, following the completion of Kolo Toure’s move to Manchester City, but manager Arsene Wenger is showing no signs of concern and says if he does spend it will be “in the right way”.
The club have funds available following the departures of Toure for around £16million and striker Emmanuel Adebayor, who also signed for Manchester City, for £25million.
The Emirates Cup returns for its third instalment this summer and will provide Arsenal’s pre-season preparations with a “final firework” according to boss Arsene Wenger.
The mini-tournament serves to highlight one of the many financial benefits of the new stadium and should give the club’s coffers a boost as Wenger finalises his squad for the 2009-10 season. While the club still has around £240million worth of debt that was incurred to fund the new stadium, events such as the Emirates Cup should ensure that in the long run Arsenal will be able to compete financially with the rest of Europe’s leading lights.
Arsene Wenger has reportedly been interested in Brazilian holding midfielder Felipe Melo. The Confederations Cup winner has been tracked by Wenger throughout his career in Europe whilst plying his trade at Mallorca, Racing Santander, Almeria and currently Fiorentina.
Thomas Vermaelen completed his switch from Ajax to Arsenal on Friday reassuring fans that Arsene Wenger has noted a weakness in the defence this season. It is believed the fee for the 5ft 11 ½ defender is around the £11million mark which is deemed good business by Wenger, once again.
It looks likely Manchester United’s transfer funds may be increased to
well over £80 million with the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real
Madrid and Manchester United will be losing possibly the best player in
the world.
However, with such a ridiculous fee being transferred from
Madrid’s coffers to United’s it may cause concern for Arsenal and the
rest of the English Premier League.
This time of the year can be very tedious for supporters throughout football. Rumours and gossip about potential transfer targets are rallied around whether they are serious or not. Manchester City seem to be getting linked with every footballer who has two feet and a desire to earn double they would at any other club.
Barcelona won the Champions League on Wednesday playing a brand of football that Arsene Wenger would love to emulate at the Emirates.
There is no doubt that Barcelona’s free flowing possession football against Manchester United in Rome would have put a smile on Wenger’s face. At times this season Arsenal have been some way off the Catalans’ high standard and this needs to be rectified.
