The Green Gooner

There comes a time in your life when you know you must get off your arse and do something right. Such definitely must have been the case with the Nigerian Senate ammending sections of the constitution to empower Vice Presidents and Deputy Governors and should have been the case with John Terry simply apologising to Wayne Bridge after getting jiggy with his ex. I think he’s an idiot for that but like Arsene, I’m staying out of it. It’s 2am in the morning and my body rhtymn is still pretty much messed up, I’m wide awake and starving on the other side of the pond. What do you know, let’s write a blog eh?

From where should I begin? The boring stuff or the interesting stuff? If I start to bore you with news about the finances you’ll probably just moan and say “can’t we talk about the Stoke game” and if I decide to talk about the Stoke game and injuries you might say “I heard we made a profit of 35m quid, how true is it?” In life you can never please anyone so I guess I’ll take if from the top and work my way down to the bottom and who knows, there might be a surprise in there for one or two.

This morning, the club announced the half-year financial results which show significant reduction in group’s debt following progress at Highbury Square. You see I know what that does to your more having only repaid a significant portion of my own debts in the last month or so. That means more disposable income to the layman. Also, it also shows that the strong policy of prudence that has been adopted by the club in the last few years is finally paying off. I won’t bore you with too many details as you can do that yourself but here are the major highlights as reported on the official website.  

• Profit before tax of £35.2m (2008 – £24.5m) with increased contributions from both the Group’s football and property businesses.
• Sale of 261 apartments at Highbury Square generated revenue of £96.6m (2008 – £58.4m) with all proceeds used in repayment of the project’s bank debt. The Group’s property business recorded a pre-tax profit of £9.3m (2008 – £4.9m).
• Pre-tax profit from the Group’s core business of football increased to £25.8m (2008 – £19.7m).
• Completed first stages of a programme of capital investment in the appearance and “Arsenalisation” of Emirates Stadium.
• Further significant investment in determined policy of re-signing first team players to new long-term contracts.
• By 30 November 2009, the Group’s total net debt had been reduced to £203.6m (31 May 2009 – £332.8m). 
• Since 30 November, there have been a number of further positive developments in relation to the Group’s property projects:
• Of the 655 private apartments in the Highbury Square development, sales have now completed on 524 units with a cumulative sales revenue value of £217.0m.
• The balance on the Highbury Square bank loan has been further reduced, from £35.7m at 30 November, to £12.9m (31 May 2009 – £123.6m).
• Sale of part of the Queensland Road development site means that the Group’s other property activities are now debt free.

While Messrs Ajani, Atoki & Akanni might probably in a better position to analyse these results, allow me to point out my joys and personal observations.

Let’s not kid ourselves, Arsenal Holdings Plc is a business. End of story! The sooner the vast majority of fans understand that, the better for us all. Nevertheless, the group is involved in several business of note are the Football and Property sides. What many do not understand and find hard to appreciate is the fact that they both go hand in hand. Whilst an outlook on the results look thrilling, it is important to keep it all in perspective with our overall objectives. This is a view also held by CEO Ivan Gazidis. He said;

“The reason we run a responsible, profitable and self-sustaining business is so that we can deliver success to the Club and invest in the Club and ultimately deliver success on the pitch, something that our fans can be proud of. That’s what we’re after. So while we’re satisfied with the results, that’s not the end objective.”

That my friends is the reason for it all!  Sucess on the pitch ultimately results in better financials and a better financial state can more often than not end up in sucess on the pitch. I am cautious as I use those words as the standards for measuring sucess over the last few years have been skewed for many a football fan.

I’m also happy that the club is sticking to its policy of  reinvesting all revenue generated back into the club both in the existing squad and on the transfer market. I know it is the transfer market dealings that get most fans excited but we must give credit to the club for being able to offer our present squad improved deals and guarantee their long term future with us. At least even if we don’t end up buying, we shouldn’t lose the players that we already have. We’ve got tremendous talent available in our young squad but then I won’t go into discussing that just yet.

My biggest joy is the fact that we have been able to significantly reduce our debt on the Higbury Square project  by about 80% in the last 9 months. Note that the balance has shrunk from £123.6m as at 31 May 2009 to £35.7m on 30 November and now it stands at £12.9m. That to me is the biggest achievement of the club and the fact that this was done without jeopardising our success on the pitch shows that we indeed have a tremendous squad which when the time comes to add to it will definitely be world beaters at any level in the not too distant future.

In the light of our financials, and the high level of prudence observed at the club, I stand at a  cautious distance to mourn over Portsmouth who have just become the first Premier League club to enter Administration. It is a sad day for football and I cannot imagine what hurt and pain Pompey fans will be experiencing at the moment. They’ve gone from the highs of winning the FA Cup and European Football to the lows of battling against relegation, four different owners in a season and now administration. They will be docked 9 points and will certainly be relegated at the end of the season. I wish them all the best for the future and truly hope that the will be able to pick up the scraps of whatever is left of their football club.

I leave you with the words of Arsenal Chairman Peter Hill-Wood in response to the recently released financial results.

“There has been remarkable progress at Highbury Square over the last twelve months and it is clear that the next couple of years will see our property activities delivering surplus cash. This is very good news, although I would not want to speculate on the exact quantum or timing of this.  How we will use this surplus remains undecided but, in addition to investing in the team, I think we will examine investment in Club projects and infrastructure, both in and around Emirates Stadium, which will provide a long lasting benefit to the Club and our tremendous, loyal supporters.”

I leave you to speculate for PWD on that.

Till later when I do the regular blog …Victoria Concordia Crescit.

I won’t speculate on what I didn’t see. I didn’t watch the Sunderland game. While the Gunners were battling to a 2-2 draw with Sunderland, I was busy trying to stay awake at my Marketing seminar. Bummer, I could have followed it on my mobile, but I’d used up the battery all morning making notes while I was better writing on the free printing paper in the lobby. I’ve seen the goals and with the reports I’ve seen, we should have buried it early. Still it’s another three points in the bag on a day when Man Utd lost to an in form Everton side leaving us with the thought that them playing Chelsea and Livepool later on in the campaign makes it look like we have a shout at second spot and *** Who knows?

I’ve seen the goals and Eboue was brilliant in the build up to Bendtner’s goal. Cesc’s penalty late on took his tally for the season to 15(12 League). Apart from that, it was pretty much a fair result given the possession we had throughout the game.

Now I’ve just seen Andy Gray on Sky and I’m furious. I guess I have to take back most of the things I said about Lukasz Fabianski and agree with Arsene Wenger that referee Martin Hansson was sh*te in his build up to Porto’s second goal on Wednesday. Replays actually show that Fabianksi did make an attempt to hold on to the ball at first by refusing to give it to the Porto player then relinquishing it to the referee. He then proceeded to attract the attention of the assistant referee whilst running back to his position. It then shows Thomas Vermaelen call out for a wall only to discover that the referee had dropped the ball for the Porto player who wasted no time to square for Falcao who easily found the net for their second. All this happened while the referee was obscuring Sol Campbell’s path and before he raised his hand for the free kick. You can find a link to the video here…I can’t shout!

An interesting thing though is that only one point separates 4^th and 7^th place in the league. With the Premier League considering a radical play off system for the Champions’ League, our best bet is to pull away from the pack, not just now but all the time just in case that crazy idea manages to go through. We are now two points behind Manchester Utd and six behind Chelsea. My take is that we take the games as they come especially our crunch tie against Stoke on Saturday. I wonder where I’ll be able to see the game given that by then I’ll be on the other side of the pond. . .

Till then…Victoria Concordia Crescit!

I’m wondering where to start from this morning. I really shouldn’t be doing this but hey, I can. Maybe it’s because I haven’t yet summoned enough courage to brave the cold outside. Its freezing and I can’t check in till 3 so I might as well speculate on our the future of Arsenal for a bit. What do you say? Maybe I’m suffering the ill effects of a long haul flight without any inflight entertainment added to the -4 degrees temperature!

On second thoughts, I have no time to speculate. There may or may not be a match preview later today or early tomorrow. I’ve got an early start to take care of business so you may be disappointed. Nevertheless, keep your fingers crossed Gooners, I have crossed the pond.

Till then. . .Three points to the Gunners against Sunderland

I’m sitting at the departure lounge of Lagos Airport staring at some dude who strangely resembles Julius Aghahowa and I’m wondering what Gooners around the world have done to deserve the comedy of horrors that was on show last night at the Dragao in Porto where two clangers by Lukasz Fabianski led to Arsenal losing the first leg 2-1 to Porto.

By now if you didn’t see the game, you will have probable read or heard the match report. By the way it’s Julius Aghahowa and if Wikipedia is right, he played for the Police Machines at 11…what a prodigy how come I never heard of him back then…lol

I was in no way disappointed by the loss. Rather, what was painful was the way in which we conceded both goals. It’s strange to think that in his last three crucial cup games, poor old Fabianski has been involved in down right howlers.

Need I refresh your memories; Chelsea, Stoke, maybe Citeh and the Porto game. The funny thing which I must point out is the fact that while he seems to be a pretty decent short stopper, he seems to have a penchant for clangers and last time out was no exception.

Poor positioning of a goalkeeper is bad enough but is yet forgivable. What is unacceptable and highly disappointing is the fact that a 24 year old did not know better than to pick up a back pass however accidental as it may have been.

We can go on and on about how Porto were unfair and took a quick freekick but we’ve profited from situations like that in the past. I do remember Thierry sneaking one past Cech and or Van der Sar a couple of years ago.

Whilst we can argue that Sol’s path was obstructed by the referee, our goalie should have at least tried to hold up play and prevent Porto from taking the free kick even if it would most have probably resulted in him getting booked.

Sometimes, you need to take one for the team and on that occasion, I’m wondering where everyone else was…still smarting over our shouts for a penalty a few seconds earlier? Replays show it was a stonewall penalty, but these things happen and there are no what if’s but only then what’s! I doubt it if most of the other players knew what was going on as even Cesc admitted to being about 30 metres away when he happened. Tis a shame!

In my honest opinion, our best two players on the night were Campbell and Diaby who apparently is injured again. What is it with the French man, I’d wager the fact that he couldn’t stay fit to keep himself alive. What is that?

So what next for us? With what I saw, Porto don’t stand a chance at the Emirates, and I see us running out winners by 2 or 3 clear goals. Yes, you can bookmark this post. I think I’ve watch the Gunners for long enough to know what they are capable of. It also looks like Song and Almunia could return for the game at the weekend for a game which we can and must win at all costs.

I’m away from the Greenland for three weeks, but as always I’ll have Arsenal in my heart.

Oh there goes Governor Saraki; let me get an autograph!

Till next time…Victoria Concordia Crescit

For the first time in a long time, I think we are gonna lose tonight.

I have very low expectations given our injury situation and if we end up earning a draw, it would be a fantastic result in my opinion.

Gallas, Almunia, Eduardo, Song, Arshavin. . . scary!

My head is spinning when I think of the prospect of having Fabianski in goal tonight. Arsene rates him highly but his last performance against Stoke left a lot to be desired about his abilities.  We’ve got Sol Campbell in line for a first start in Europe for Arsenal since 2006 and Carlos Vela is available after 45 years out injured.

Still, my lone desire is that by some freakish design, Bendtner gets on a loose ball and scores from an impossible angle to end the tie 2-1 to the Arsenal.

I’m braced for the worst. Should we lose, I shall not be disappointed.

You can preview the game on Yahoo, BBC Sport or at Arsenal.com

During the game, you can also follow me on Twitter or join the debate on Nairaland.

Irrespective of result, I shall be bare my thoughts on what Arsenal did next!

Till then. . . Victoria Concordia Crescit.

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