The Sweeper: Arsenal Creating History
Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium might still be shiny, but it lacks history and has been criticised for its soulless feel, a fact recognised by Arsene Wenger. “Highbury had a natural soul, because of the history,” said Wenger “We have to create history here at the Emirates.”
The club’s marketing department, under the direction of chief executive Ivan Gazidis plans to solve this in the short-term by plastering the stadium with visages of the past. Emirates will be revamped with the addition of pictures of the club’s greatest players, managers and moments around the stadium along with a “Highbury shrine”.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a club’s new stadium embracing the past like this (as long as it isn’t terribly cheesy), but this is an installation of heritage and not how a stadium really comes to feel like anything like a part of your “soul”. Of course, Wenger being smarter than his club’s marketing department, gets this: “You want to transfer the history of the club into the walls of this stadium but you want to create new history with results. We have maybe not achieved that at the moment. My job and that of the team is to create it on the pitch.”
Worldwide
- Fifa.com has its usual Monday world leagues roundup, looking at Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Australia and the U.S.
- Barry Moat’s proposed takeover of Newcastle United looks like it’ll come down to the wire; it’s not usually a good sign when a new owner has to stretch himself just to buy the club in the first place.
- Whisper it quietly, Spurs fans: title talk is on. In the Times, Matt Hughes reminds us that the last time Tottenham won the league 48 seasons ago, the team won their first eleven games of the season.
- It was another tough weekend for my hometown club, Brighton and Hove Albion, who lost 4-2 to Stockport yesterday to add to a 7-1 defeat to Huddersfield midweek. Manager Russell Slade somehow managed to find a silver-lining in those two results: “Stick by us,” Slade said. “Two games ago we hadn’t scored a goal. We’ve now scored three but we haven’t won a game.” Well yes, because we also conceded 11, Russell.
North America
- What must Juan Carlos Osorio be thinking? Just days after his resignation, the Red Bulls finally showed a little spine and broke their 16-game winless streak with a 3-2 win over FC Dallas. Meanwhile, you probably heard the rumour that Barcelona are planning to buy the Red Bulls. It was a reminder of the importance of that market that the colossal failure of that franchise over the years means sorting the situation out is reportedly #1 on Garber’s to-do list.
- We’ll have a longer piece on the amazing run of Sky Blue FC to the WPS title (see our preview for a summary of their remarkable, controversial Cinderella season), but what I’m most curious about is whether WPS will alter its playoff structure after the team that finished fourth of seven and a long way behind regular season champions the LA Sol won the title against a rather rusty LA. The system was apparently up for debate in yesterday’s long WPS Board of Governors meeting.
- How has the David Beckham effect benefited all of MLS’ bottom-line? This rough analysis (which looks crude but fairly reasonable as a supposition) concludes he’s brought in $6,558,000 in direct stadium to revenue to MLS clubs as a whole, excluding the Galaxy themselves.
- Finally, I was reminded of the power of this sport last night. My team, the Chicago Fire, were losing 2-0 in what just might have meant the end of the line for head coach Denis Hamlett, despite the team being well in playoff contention. Then came 3 Fire goals in twenty minutes for a remarkable comeback. A friend of mine had been particularly distraught by the score up until the third goal, as he’d been waiting for the right moment to do something important: following that goal, he got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend in the middle of the pandemonium of Section 8, at the stadium where they’d first met. She, of course, accepted.
The Sweeper appears daily. For more rambling and links throughout the day every day, follow your editor Tom Dunmore @pitchinvasion on Twitter.
Hah! Awesome story about your friend’s proposal. He couldn’t have had a better moment. Toyota Park has been that crazy since John Thorrington chipped Joe Cannon in 2007.
Brilliant win last night by the Fire.
But, Tom, I’m just curious about the statement “what just might have meant the end of the line for head coach Denis Hamlett”… to which we could also add not only “well in playoff contention” but 2nd place in our division and 3rd overall in the league. How/when did this sentiment arise?
Bahns — Denis has not managed to endear himself throughout the organisation at numerous levels from what I’ve observed and heard. A loss last night, on the back of the abject 2-0 home defeat on Wednesday night, just might have been enough, especially given he was one of the first coaches I’ve ever seen fined for a “confrontation” in a locker room with a player just two weeks ago (you have to say a public press release about it was a surprising move by the club and the motivation for that has to be considered).
I’m not saying I agree his job should be on the line, but it wasn’t far off in the sixtieth minute last night in my view.
I don’t disagree with anything you’ve mentioned, but I still think a move at this point in the season would be risky unless the Fire front office has someone lined up to take his spot.
Anything short of an MLS Cup appearance (and perhaps win) will likely see him out. The expectations for this club have been monumental this year – but I don’t think they are unreasonable, as this is one of the most talented squads we have ever fielded. If we fail to produce even one piece of hardware it must be considered a massive disappointment.
Well, we do have a Technical Director perfectly capable of doing the job on an interim basis, surely…
I agree expectations were high and an MLS Cup final appearance was a reasonable expectation, but you have to factor in the loss of players to injury/int duty throughout the year. We’re down to 3 fit defenders at this point for the DC game and our vaunted depth hasn’t quite been what was expected. A lot of that is not Hamlett’s fault. We also were penalty kicks away from a piece of hardware.
I think it’s just a matter of time. As Arsene says there results having been great since moving to the Emirate but once they have a few Champions League classics under their belt it will soon feel like it has more of a soul.
I think, despite last night (meaning despite the win and despite the terrible first half), that Hamlet will be in charge for exactly as many games as are left in the Fire’s season and post season. The writing is on the wall, but since the team sit in good position, those in charge don’t want to risk the upset from firing him mid-season. Barring a title, which looks highly unlikely, the Fire will have a new coach next season, but no sooner.
As for Newcastle’s sale, rumor is that they delay is designed as a chance to sell more high earners to lighten Barry Moat’s adopted load. Problem there, of course, is that he’ll have to go buy more players to get out of the Championship – assuming that’s the goal, of course.
Reminded me of this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrz92Z0SsDI
I think Johnny Rotten summarizes it nicely. I can’t really blame Arsenal for trying to keep pace in a world where commercial viability is priority one, while community is an afterthought.
Your point about being close to winning a piece of harware also must be follow by the note that we had two players who had just come in from the bench kicking penalty kicks and they both missed. Why would you put a player who has not gotten a chance to warm up in that situation? You have a young player like Banner who had yet to score on MLS at thta point kicking a penalty shot after playing 2 whole minutes, REALLY?? that’s a good move by the manager?? compound that by taking Nyarko, who score that great goal, out and putting in Mapp who has been playing with no confidence this whole season and put him in that spot??? a good manager would not have put those two players in that situation……
I don’t understand this anti-Hamlett business.
Anywhere you go, people have an idea for a better lineup. But I don’t see anyone with a better lineup than what Hamlett’s putting out every game. Consider that he plays only who is available, who isn’t on callup or injured, plus he also rotates in reserves.
I just don’t see anyone “magical” sitting on the bench.