An Ugly Thing

Top of the morning to y’all

It’s been a very dull couple of days at Arsenaldom and there have been few things worth reporting but yesterday though, the club announced the away kits for the new season. the kits are a regal purple with black hoops for the outfield players and a very bright pink one for the goalkeepers that reminds me of the bright orange kit that Chelsea goalkeepers wore a couple of seasons ago. Each kit has also been made from 13 recycled plastic water bottles making it the most environmental friendly kit in the world. Blah blah blah, like I said before, until the kit can emit some intoxicating gas that would incapacitate our opponents during a game, it’s just remains another beautiful shirt or maybe the referees association will appreciate our efforts at making the world a better place for them and their children, ask their members like Howard Webb, Mike Dean and Chris Foy to award a penalty each time as Arsenal player goes down in the penalty box and look away if it’s the opponent that goes down in our box, then we can rejoice.

Reports this morning claim that AC Milan has accepted a bid of about 51million from PSG for the services of Thiago Silva and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. I couldn’t help feeling disgusted about that. What on earth is football turning to? A player like Ibrahimovic that has won league titles in Holland, Italy and Spain and Silva who is one of the most sought after defenders in the game signing for PSG. It shows how decadent the game has become. How money driven players have become and really it’s disgusting.

These days, players don’t strive for excellence in their games anymore. They have become mercenaries to be bought by the highest bidder. They have sold out their allegiance to money, they don’t have a cause anymore but their fat bank accounts and seriously, it sucks. For a team like AC Milan, one of the power houses of European football, to sell its best defender and best striker to PSG is absolutely ridiculous and points to a very troubling time ahead for football where if clubs don’t have sugar daddies, they can’t sign good players in the market. We are going to an era where players will hold their clubs to ransom solely for the purpose of money. Did I say ‘we are getting to’ or ‘we are already there’ and it can only get worse.

Arsenal seem to be one of the clubs that has been most hit by this juggernaut of oil money into football. Key players have season in season out opted for the oil millions on offer at clubs that are bank rolled by oil millionaires and this season is no different with van Persie who most people including me thought was different announced that he was not going to renew his contract to jump on the oil money bandwagon.

These people, clubs and players alike have forgotten that oil is a non-renewable resource and one day in the future, all the oils of the world will dry up. What will happen to these clubs? What will happen to their players and their fat wages? How will it affect football when the sugar daddies can’t fund them as much as they should anymore. Football will be the ultimate looser.

The Financial Fair Play has been put in place to curb these excessive spending but it doesn't seem to have done that at all as these mega rich owners are finding new ways round the regulations. The Etihad Stadium naming rights announced by Man City is a proof of this and there will be more corners cutting by these clubs and UEFA should ensure that clubs are allowed to spend only what they earn or else the monster they have created might just turn round to consume them.

On a happier note, Arsenal will play the first of its pre-season games tomorrow against RSC Anderlecht and Southampton tomorrow in the Markus Liebherr Memorial Cup tomorrow. The tournament is a 45minute per game tournament and the two games will be played on the same day with Anderlecht first at 6:45pm and the second game at 8:00pm. I will be looking out for the highlights from that game.

That's all for now folks, be right back on Monday for another one.

God bless the Arsenal Iree o