What Can We Actually Afford?
Friday, 09 January 09, 12:36 PM
Most Arsenal fans (me included) realise we need one or two players at the moment and there is a groundswell of opinion (anyone know where that expression comes from) that we have to spend some dosh to get the quality in. However, I listened to a Radio 5 podcast today with three (relatively) wise men talking about how football, in particular, will or can react to the general financial crisis. John Madejski and the man of the crisis, Robert Preston, were talking about Corporate revenue and at Reading it's down 30%, mainly in hospitality but boxes are starting to suffer.
It must be quite hard for a company that is losing 10,000 jobs to justify swanning around at a Premier League ground drinking champagne at ridiculous prices. So although the move to the new stadium was based on this executive income it might just be feeling the pinch now - we don't really know how long the contracts are on each of the boxes and there may be clauses to get out. If we add in the need to sell property at Highbury am I the only one who can't help thinking there was more to Arsene's recent statement than he was letting on. If it is the case I would rather not spend, not win a thing and still be here in 10-20 years time than do a Leeds.
So yes we need players and we can spend some money but let's not kid ourselves that spending money is not without a much bigger risk, that of ensuring a real decline for the club. The main issue here is whether players and agents are also starting to realise that the crisis means they have tobe more realistic too...
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