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The Nineties – Only one side in it
As the nineties began both Spurs and Arsenal could face the future with excitement. The team from N.17 had recruited as manager arguably the best coach they have had in the fifty years or so since Bill Nicholson retired. Terry Venables was a hot property when Spurs acquired him in 1987, and he had a squad that had some stellar talents in Paul Gascoigne and Gary Lineker. Arsenal had failed to retain the title they won in 1989 but the team that took the title in 1990/91, while rarely compared with the Invincibles, came extremely close to going unbeaten through a season — and a very difficult season at that. They lost only one game, at Chelsea in February, and weathered the significant handicaps of having skipper Tony Adams ‘banged up‘ for several weeks for drink driving and having two points deducted for a brawl at Old Trafford in October.
Before the season, Graham had shown his ruthless streak by replacing John Lukic with David Seaman from QPR, who had probably the best season I’ve ever seen an Arsenal goalkeeper have. Arsenal also signed a mercurial Swedish winger, Anders Limpar, who the fans loved much more than Graham did! They strolled the league and were expected to do another double when they ran up against Spurs in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley. An extraordinary free kick from Gascoigne and two Lineker goals gave Spurs an unexpected 3-1 win. A hyped-up Gascoigne ended up destroying his knee in the Final and Lineker had a penalty saved but Tottenham added another FA Cup to their collection with a 2-1 victory.
It was at this time that Alan Sugar arrived as Chairman at the Lane. Bemused by what passed for normal practice in the football world, especially relating to governance given his corporate background, he crossed swords with Terry Venables who decamped eventually to become England coach. A court case subsequently ensued between the two men as Sugar sued Venables for libel after the publication of Venables’ autobiography in 1994. It was hard to run a football club successfully with all that going on….and Tottenham didn’t! Since Venables took the helm at White Hart Lane up to the present day, Tottenham have had 24 managers, not including some caretaker partnerships that probably few of their fans can even remember. In the same period Arsenal have had five! That tells its own story; but the lack of stability at the Lane was largely of their own making. There were bright moments: Ossie Ardiles took the helm in 1993 and seemed to favour five upfront. For a brief period it was exciting but over time it looked naive and Ardiles eventually went the way of so many other Spurs’ bosses.
George Graham, having built a killing machine of a team with an extraordinary defence and a fine attack, decided to sign Ian Wright from Crystal Palace, a brilliant and irrepressible goalscorer. But having done so Graham dumbed down the midfield with some of the dullest combinations ever seen in N5. Arsenal continued to accumulate trophies, winning a Cup double (both against Sheffield Wednesday) in 1993, getting revenge for the ’91 semi-final on the way to the FA Cup success. Their football was attritional, relying hugely on Wright to conjure goals (which he did regularly) and then shutting out the opposition with that superb defence. Arsenal took the Cup Winners Cup in Copenhagen a year later, against a very talented Parma side, with an Alan Smith goal. When Arsenal reached another Cup Winners Cup final in Paris the next year (losing to that long range Nayim goal) Graham had been relieved of his duties having been accused of taking a ‘bung’ from an agent for the transfer in of Pal Lydersen. He was replaced by Bruce Rioch, the fortunate benefactor of a decision (driven by Dein ) to sigh two bona fide world superstars in Dennis Bergkamp and David Platt. Rioch lasted one season, having fallen out badly with Wright, but his signing of Bergkamp was loudly criticised by Alan Sugar who suggested the trend to sign ‘any Carlos Kickaball‘ was ill-thought out and a waste of money. Tottenham nevertheless made one of their most successful forays into the transfer market to sign Juergen Klinsmann, the German striker! Bergkamp was undoubtedly a catalyst in turning Arsenal’s fortunes ’round although he was initially concerned by the firing of Bruce Rioch. A few years ago I nearly bought a house in Norfolk that used to belong to Rioch and the vendor told me some fascinating tales about Bruce’s time at the Arsenal. But I can’t consign them to print! Let’s just say Arsenal circa 1996 was not an easy club to manage!
Rioch was replaced by a little-known (in England) Frenchman called Arsène Wenger who had been working in Japan after a successful period in charge of Monaco. Wenger faced serious issues with Tony Adams admitting his alcoholism and Paul Merson acknowledging multiple addictions. It was a difficult environment to come into. But, armed with Graham’s back four, and able to harness Platt and Bergkamp and add his own signings like Vieira, Petit and Overmars, Wenger oversaw a revolution in the way the club was run and led Arsenal to its second Double in 1997/8. At the start of the season Ian Wright overtook Cliff Bastin’s record as Arsenal’s all time top goalscorer. But Wenger sensed injuries were marring his effectiveness and brought in a brilliant French striker, Nicolas Anelka to ultimately replace him.
Tottenham’s response was to hire George Graham, whose appeal to most Spurs fans was akin to a cup of cold sick, but Graham led Tottenham to the League Cup in 1998/9. Wenger, working closely with Dein, was transforming Arsenal on and off the field, but Sugar hadn’t helped Spurs to overcome the loss several years before of Glenn Hoddle…who had moved to Monaco to rebuild his career under Arsène Wenger!
Arsenal fans were amused as Sugar publicly berated Klinsmann when he decided to jump ship for Bayern Munich after a couple of personally productive but trophyless years. Sugar suggested he wouldn’t wash his car with Klinsmann’s shirt! When Klinsmann was re-signed a couple of years later on loan from Sampdoria it seemed that Sugar must have found another method of buffing up his Roller! But in his second spell, in a struggling team, Klinsmann failed to make the same impact.
As the new millennium approached Arsenal were a Champions League side engaged in a titanic contest with Manchester United for supremacy . The treble that United obtained in 1999 might have been an Arsenal double had Schmeichel not saved Bergkamp’s penalty in the dying moments of the Cup semi-final. As we moved into a new century, Tottenham still faced an uphill battle to regain former glories whilst Arsenal were about to reach possibly the most exciting moment in their history.
The Noughties – The Campbell cataclysm
A new century brought a familiar pattern to the positions of the two North London rivals. Wenger was building an Arsenal side that were still trailing Manchester United in the league and starting to adjust to the Champions League. The Champions League was a distant dream for Tottenham who eventually turned from an old Arsenal star to one of their own, Glenn Hoddle, to chart their path forward. Hoddle was a massively talented superstar and had become a moderately successful England manager. But he faced significant problems. He graduated to the role as Arsenal began to assemble a hugely talented team…and then he was hit with a blow so serious that it still resonates in North London.
Sol Campbell was the rock on which Tottenham’s team was built. As the expiry of his contract grew near there was feverish anticipation as to what his next move might be, with many of the Tottenham faithful hopeful that he would commit to a Tottenham renewal. Many of the biggest clubs in Europe courted him, as he was effectively on a free transfer. It would be wrong to say that he wasn’t linked to Arsenal but the enormity of what a switch across London would signify made such a transfer seem highly unlikely. But on an early July morning in 2001 Sol Campbell walked into a press conference (that most journalists felt was arranged to announce the signing of Richard Wright) to announce that he was signing for Arsenal! POW!
If there was one moment when the level of toxicity increased between the two sets of supporters it was this one. Not only had Tottenham’s captain switched clubs, inviting a hail of abuse and condemnation from his boyhood club, but he had moved to Tottenham’s deadly rivals..and for free! It was a sensational moment for Arsenal, who didn’t have a bad defence to begin with, adding Campbell at the peak of his powers. To rub a bucket of salt into the wound, Campbell’s first season (which had seen him return to White Hart Lane with effigies hanging from lampposts around the ground) ended in him completing the league and cup double — Arsenal’s third. If ever a move justified the huge personal cost it was that one. Nothing underlined the differing status of the clubs more starkly.
A few weeks before a poignant moment prior to a tense a North London Derby illustrated that some situations transcend rivalry. Just minutes before the 2001 derby at Highbury the tragic, early death of David ‘ Rocky’ Rocastle was announced to the crowd. I winced at the thought of a minute’s silence with thousands of Spurs fans in the ground but to our immense relief the Spurs fans observed it impeccably. They did their club huge credit. A week later the teams met in a third FA Cup semi-final in nine years, this time at Old Trafford. An early Docherty goal threatened an upset but Vieira, who was monumental on the day, equalised and Robert Pires scored the winner.
Robert Pires had signed from Marseille and Thierry Henry signed the season before from Juventus. Henry’s signing didn’t thrill me initially because I saw him as a speedy winger but profligate finisher. Early signs were that this was a good estimate as he failed to impress, only scoring his first goal with the winner at Southampton several games into his new career; he disappeared for a while only to re-appear against Derby at Highbury as a much stronger-looking central striker. He was a revelation, and from then on his Arsenal career never looked back. He became the most thrilling attacker we had ever seen in an Arsenal shirt. Arsenal failed to win the Cup in a final at Cardiff against Liverpool where serial handballer Stephane Henchoz got away with murder and Michael Owen ran an ageing defence ragged in the last ten minutes after Arsenal had dominated and led the game.
Arsenal returned to Cardiff twelve months later with a stronger team including Freddie Ljungberg on fire, but were sadly unable to field Pires, who had ruptured his ACL a few months earlier at a time when he was the most exciting player in the Premier League. Ray Parlour and Freddie notched two second half goals and a few days later produced a performance of defiance and resilience to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford 1-0 to clinch the title. It was a delicious way to wrap up that precious third double.
Tottenham were not enjoying such a good start to the new Millennium. Their first five seasons in the new century saw them finish 12th, 10th, 9th, 14th, and 8th again. It was hard not to feel that Sol Campbell was a very good judge! In 2001 Alan Sugar gave way as Chairman to Daniel Levy. Levy has since been Chairman of Tottenham for 23 years. We will examine his record as we go through the Noughties and beyond. Hoddle gave way to Pleat, Santini (briefly) and then Martin Jol. We had returned to the sixties in reverse with Arsenal significantly stronger and St. Totteringham’s Day a formality, often occurring in early Spring. Arsenal won another FA Cup in 2003, and should have clinched another double but the zenith of Wenger’s reign was just about to occur, with Arsenal having arguably the greatest league season any club has ever experienced n English football.
Wenger had invited derision a few years earlier when he suggested that it was possible to go through an entire league season unbeaten. By this stage Roman Abramovich had arrived in English football, and as Dein put it ‘was firing fifty pound notes across our lawn!’ But in 2003/4 Arsenal were significantly stronger than any other league team, and their first target was securing the league title. The team contained some wonderful players, among the greatest not only to have worn the red and white of Arsenal but to have played in the Premier League: Ashley Cole, Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires, and of course Bergkamp and Henry, were genuinely world-class players. Arsenal had taken the decision to build a new ground at Ashburton Grove, within a stone’s throw of Highbury, but the realisation dawned that it would constrain the spending power of Wenger over the next few years. Some banks were only prepared to lend Arsenal money upon guarantees that Wenger would stay. He was the hottest manager in football and could have walked into any club job in the world. He chose to remain loyal to Arsenal despite working financially with one hand tied behind his back because of his loyalty to and love for the club, Arsenal were truly lucky to have had him at the helm at that time.
This stability and leadership contrasted sharply with Tottenham where Levy continually churned managers to seek success or at least some sort of parity with Arsenal. There are inevitably moments when the gap between rivals appears to be unbridgeable and this period represented one of the most difficult for Tottenham fans.
Arsenal didn’t race away in the ‘Invincible‘ season but they did steadily accumulate points and at times with the group of players that they had they were sublime. A slight stumble at home to Portsmouth where Arsenal trailed, that infamous game at Old Trafford where United got the sort of penalty at the end that only they got, after Vieira was sent off and Van Nistelrooy (Horseface for short) hit the bar — divine retribution served early. I remember watching the NLD at Highbury in Singapore in the early hours after spending the evening drinking with an exiled Tottenham friend. We trailed for over half the game after Anderton scored but Pires got his regular goal against the Spuds and a fortunate deflection of a Ljungberg shot earnt us the points on a day when Tottenham’s play had belied their modest league position. Arsenal tightened their grip on the league with a nine game winning run in the New Year, and had the opportunity to wrap up the title at White Hart Lane with five games to go. It was a game I barely took in at the time as my mother had been taken desperately ill, but it was a triumphant return to the glorious scenes in 1971 (although I am told the Arsenal fans there were in fear of their lives after the latter game). Two early goals by Vieira and Pires set us on our way, but a Redknapp goal midway through the second half was followed by a farcical ending where Mad Jens tried to poleaxe Robbie Keane and conceded a penalty which the Irishman converted to give Tottenham something to celebrate on an otherwise bitter day for the Lilywhites.
Many Arsenal players and Arsene Wenger have shared how difficult it was to motivate themselves to go unbeaten in the last four games and we trailed for a while in a sticky game at Portsmouth until Jose Antonio Reyes, a surprise January signing, equalised. We even trailed to bottom of the table Leicester in our last game at home but an Henry penalty and a beautifully worked move between Bergkamp and Vieira gave us victory. The only sadness of that season was that we exited the Champions League in the quarter finals to a Chelsea team we had beaten three times previously, having drawn with them in the first leg at the Bus Stop. If ever an Arsenal side should have won the Champions League it was that one. It would have been a fitting accolade for a quite wonderful side. Much was made of the attacking brilliance of that side, but we only conceded 26 goals all season and only conceded two goals in a game three times that term.
That era must have been utter misery for Tottenham, although they regularly produced spirited performances in the North London Derby including a 5-4 defeat at the Lane the following season . That season Arsenal won the Cup fortuitously on penalties against a United side that had earlier kicked them to pieces in a shameful game at Old Trafford that saw the end of a 49 match unbeaten run. Conspiracy theories abound about the game that ended in ‘Pizzagate’.
Martin Jol moved into the hot seat at White Hart Lane and started to improve the quality and resilience of the Tottenham side but again envious glances were cast towards Arsenal in 2006 when Arsenal reached the Champions League Final in Paris. Arsenal’s team was changing. Vieira had left, Pires was about to and there was speculation about Henry and Cole’s futures. We set an amazing defensive record of fourteen clean sheets with a defence of Eboue, Toure, and Senderos, with Flamini as a makeshift left-back. Much credit was given to Martin Keown, who drilled the defence that season. Ten minutes or thereabouts from glory with ten men after Lehmann’s dismissal, we took an unlikely lead through Campbell and had great chances to make it 2-0. That game still creates an ache in my heart as it did in Dave Faber’s. The Cup with Big Ears still eludes us.
Arsenal had closed Highbury in an emotional ceremony a few weeks before the final after a season where Spurs threatened to deprive them of a Champions League place. On the last day of the season Arsenal played Wigan in the Highbury farewell whereas Tottenham travelled to West Ham. No Arsenal fan could have chosen a better team to confront them with and their hopes were hit even further when it emerged that their team had been hit by a stomach bug. ’Lasagnegate‘ lives on in North London football folklore and has again spawned conspiracy theories that suggest foul play on behalf of a devious Arsenal chef. Whatever. Tottenham lost 2-1 and as Highbury closed it was incongruous to hear the Highbury North Bank singing ‘ I’m forever blowing bubbles’ whilst the Bobby Moore Stand at Upton Park erupted in ‘Good Old Arsenal‘. Two old football citadels that no longer exist.
Tottenham’s much improved season pointed to a brighter future and a team that possessed quality and potential. There was a real battle for supremacy again even though Jol left in 2007 to be replaced by Juande Ramos. Tottenham were now genuine contenders for the Champions League and Arsenal were feeling the pinch after moving into their new stadium. They had to sell Henry to Barcelona after he had overtaken Ian Wright as Arsenal’s record scorer. Every Arsenal fan had a heavy heart after that deal even if they recognised the financial imperative of the deal. The thought that Henry had played his last game for Arsenal and scored his last goal was too tough to bear.
The struggle to remain competitive whilst under cash constraints did not cow Wenger, in fact it was one of his greatest achievements: to build a vibrant young team around the young captain Cesc Fabregas, who had joined from Barcelona and made his first team debut for Arsenal at 16. Juande Ramos did not have a stellar career in North London but he did win the League Cup, in 2008 beating Chelsea 2-1 after extra time. It was the last trophy that they have won and remains Levy’s only trophy during his tenure but Tottenham were at last on a playing par with Arsenal and very close to elite European qualification. It took a change of manager to achieve it with Harry Redknapp taking over the reins but in 2009 Peter Crouch notched the goal at the Etihad that took them into the Champions League where they acquitted themselves capably.
Their shining star was Gareth Bale, a converted Welsh left back who became a superstar, and seemingly the go-to player who could win games single-handedly as evidenced by a brilliant hat-trick against Inter Milan. Redknapp liked to play the incorrigible old rogue but he shouldn’t be underestimated as a tactician and he improved Spurs largely because he persuaded Levy to invest in players like Van de Vaart, Modric, and Defoe who allied with Bale and the underestimated Ledley King to give them more than a veneer of class.
Tottenham felt rightly that they were now among the elite of English football. Arsenal were still regularly qualifying for the Champions League and had both established stars like Fabregas and Van Persie, augmented by rising stars like Wilshere and Ramsey, but there was a feeling that the price paid for the move to the new stadium was handicapping the investment in the team and behind the scenes there was a power struggle at Arsenal.
David Dein had introduced Stan Kroenke of KSE to the board as a potential investor despite a vitriolic response from Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood. Kroenke became a director in 2007 and steadily began to buy shares. Dein then had a change of heart and backed Alisher Usmanov, the now disgraced Uzbek oligarch. Tensions rose on the board, and Dein left after stellar service for which he was very well remunerated by the sale of his shares. There was no doubt that Arsenal owed a huge debt to Wenger in helping them to stay competitive but at the same time it was hard to imagine Arsenal challenging for the title again. Losing his great confidante and sounding board, Dein, undoubtedly affected Wenger who never seemed quite as authoritative again. Tottenham felt, with some justification, that they had Arsenal in their sights and could overtake them.
In the final part we will see what happened as Tottenham assembled the best side they have had since that 1961 Double side and found a manager who helped them to re-connect with the traditional football style they were associated with. Arsenal fans began to turn against Wenger despite his continued ability to win trophies. And we will try to decide what the future will hold for the two North London giants.
Enjoy the new season playing the Goonerholicsforever Prediction Contest, in aid of the Willow Foundation!
Can you harness your inner Mystic Meg and out-predict defending champion Pangloss in foreseeing the final Premier League table for the 2024-25 season?
Will you be more clairvoyant than CER and GSD were last season in predicting the FA Cup winner? Or TTG and Uply when it comes to the League Cup?
What’s your bet on the first manager to get the tin tack this season? Have you got a better inside track or insight than Dr F. Jnr?
You can only find out by entering the 2024-25 edition of the GHF Predictathon.
Again, the purpose of the contest is twofold. Firstly, it is to increase your enjoyment of the upcoming season by providing a degree of light-hearted competitive rivalry as the season progresses. Secondly, it will enable us to support the Willow Foundation with a further source of charitable funding.
Check out the “GHF Contests” tab at the top of the page for The Rules, the entry blank and information about how to enter the contest, and how the contest will be scored.
Good luck!
Thanks TTG for your excellently written, researched and remembered piece on a time frame that encompasses my actual memory, being a long-time Arsenal supporter from afar who has only gotten to follow the club on a weekly basis due to the internet and multinational corporate TV contracts that put me in the room. By the way, I downloaded my entry form for the predictathon, and sent in my entry fee contribution to the Willow Foundation, citizen of the world as I am… or something like that.
Ollie Pope is a Gooner and a mate of Aaron Ramsdale. https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/articles/c51yqzzy49eo
Now to read part two…
Magisterial piece, TTG. A worthy tribute to that era.
Great stuff again TTG, quite agree that Sol’s moved raised the level of bile though I guess it was why he moved that must have hurt the most, he perceived us as winners and the spuds as losers. I am not really gloating, RVP did the same to us with his “letter to the fans” bollocks, which actually stuck in my throat more than Stapleton’s “greediness”.
Excellent read, TTG. This is turning into a stellar series.
You are right to highlight the importance of the Wenger-Dein relationship. Once broken, things were never the same for AW, reminiscent in a way of Brian Clough after losing Peter Taylor.
Brilliant, TTG !
A superb summary of that era, masterfully distilled into a memory jogging, interesting and thoroughly enjoyable read. And there’s more to come ! A fantastic effort over this close season. Many, many thanks !
Good stuff TTG
I would be interested to hear more of the Rioch diaries but I guess that we would then have to shoot you. Looking forward to the final chapter.
UTA.
Noosa
All I am willing to reveal is that I have a lot of sympathy for Rioch . While I have great regard for Dein he was very close to the players and that made it difficult for Rioch to impose discipline . Rioch’s nickname among the players ( which he knew ) was Dagenham, because he was ‘a stop beyond barking!’He had a regimental style which did not sit well with the sort of characters Arsenal had then. Wright came very close to joining Chelsea during Rioch’s tenure
Cheers TTG. I didn’t like the end of the article so much this time. 😬
Wow, just wow TTG! Excellent read. A lovely summary of that era. And yes that final against Barcelona still hurts. Same as seeing RVP going to Manure.
COYG
No Rammy or Raya for the US tour so it looks like we will see Hein and the two young keepers we signed,
No Charlie Patino, Brooke Norton Coffey or Khayon Edwards in the US travelling squad, either, so presumably, they are all off to other clubs.
Apparently, Big and Middle Gabis will join the party mid-tour, along with Havertz.
Tomi has gone in the knee, joining KT in that special part of Colney reserved for crocked left-backs, so he is not going to the US and will likely miss the start of the season.
The full list of Academy players making the trip:
Goalkeepers: Tommy Setford, Lucas Nygaard, Alexei Rojas
Defenders: Josh Nichols, Ayden Heaven, Omar Rekik
Midfielders: Michal Rosiak, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Ethan Nwaneri, Salah–Eddine Oulad M’Hand, Jimi Gower
Forwards: Charles Sagoe Jr
Very sad to hear Ned about Tomiyasu’s new injury. Hopefully it will not be a lingering one but it sounds like it could be an increased opportunity for Calafiori and Timber to make an immediate impact, assuming that they will both be available and ready to impress.
bt8@14: Worryingly, Tomi is getting a touch of the Tierneys when it comes to being injury-prone. Maybe that is why Arteta likes playing an inverted left back, to get them away from whatever pestilence it is that lurks on the left corner of our defence.
Tomi is out for the once dreaded 3 weeks according to reports.
However, if the signing of Calafiori is going ahead we will be
further stacked with full backs who can double as CBs. I like
Tomi a lot as a player but the competition will be fierce just to
make the bench.
I will of course trust MA/Edu on his quality, but Calafiori’s price is
10 times higher than a season ago and his injury record iffy. I suppose
there is no point persevering with players who aren’t good enough just
because they are rarely injured,
It seems that Calafiori had to have one of his knees rebuilt by an American surgeon after having every ligament therein torn in a tackle when he was a youth player with Roma – somewhat more than just your common or garden ACL tear: ACL, PCL, lateral and medial ligaments to boot! To have made his way back to where he is now shows great character but that kind of injury will surely catch up with him in time. Availability rather than loyalty seems to be the issue at LB for the Arsenal these days. Can we manage with three crocks rotating when available and Kiwior as fall-back?
I guess it’s fingers crossed time.
If the reconstruction was done immediately – which you assume it was, having been caused by a single tackle – and there was no real cartilage or bone damage, he might have gotten away with it.
He’s obviously reached his current level since and a thorough MRI / CT will show the current state of affairs.
Have to be positive at this stage 🤞🏻🤞🏻
Current gossip from ITK journalists woukd suggest to me that we will see going- Nketiah, Nelson, Tierney , Ramsdale, Patino and we may see also the departure of ESR and Partey
If we lose that many players we will gain a healthy influx of funds having also sold Tavares and Biereth . I hope we can sell Ramsdale. The logic of loans is lost on me – the loan fee doesn’t usually cover depreciation and one year on you are in a worse position to sell a player with less time on his contract .
Assuming Calafiori signs, my guess would be a back up keeper ( Bentley ) , Merino and a winger .Someone like Eze would double as a midfielder and wide man . We might even make a net profit on transfers
Next season, my interest in French football will mostly be limited to National.
1 or 2, not sure yet. 🙁
Re: the recent growth in the women’s game in England, Swiss Ramble (I think it was) reported this: “ the leading clubs in the WSL have seen significant revenue growth in recent years. The highest year-on-year increases in 2022/23 were at Arsenal £4.1m (60%), Chelsea £2.4m (37%) and Manchester United £1.9m (37%).”
Sorry about the uncertain source. I had two windows open, the other being an article in The Athletic, and they both closed on me. I used to know how to find my search history, long ago now …
bt8@21: This is from the Swiss Ramble:
WSL clubs generated total revenue of £48m in 2022/23, which was an increase of around 50% on the previous season’s £32m. This means that revenue has more than doubled in just two years, though the £20m in 2020/21 was adversely impacted by the COVID pandemic.
The growth is mainly driven by an improvement in commercial and match day revenue, though the English clubs playing in Europe also benefited from higher prize money thanks to their good progress in the Champions League. It should also be acknowledged that support from the men’s team has also greatly increased.
All the leading clubs in the WSL have seen significant revenue growth in recent years. The highest year-on-year increases in 2022/23 were at Arsenal £4.1m (60%), Chelsea £2.4m (37%) and Manchester United £1.9m (37%).
I hope all the chatter around us being interested in not one, but two left-sided defenders in Calafiori and Guehi is a smokescreen for serious work being done by Edu in getting deals for a Rice cover/Partey replacement and a right winger to back up Saka over the line.
Ned,
Yes, I would like to see reinforcements in midfield / attack though priorities depend a little on who Edu / MA plan to let go in their secret plan for world domination.
A bit on what Calafiori will bring in the grauniad today
https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jul/23/arsenal-left-back-last-season-riccardo-calafiori-mikel-arteta
Having read the story behind the link OM offers @25, I went on to this Guardian story. which may be a bit of an eye-opener for non-US-based ‘holics:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jul/23/you-cant-have-barriers-is-pay-to-play-having-a-corrosive-affect-on-us-soccer
Thanks Matt and thanks Ned for posting those two links. Calafiori caught my eye in the Euros before any link with Arsenal interest was announced and clearly MA8 believes he will be a step up on the medley of left backs who were played last season with added versatility to cover at LCB to boot but then, whither Timber? Is he to provide cover for or perhaps even replace Partey/Jorginho or….is, as I have seen elsewhere, Calafiori seen to be so versatile that he is to be converted, as was Petit, into a holding MF-er.
That is indeed an eye-opener though the commercial nature of US ‘soccer’ should, I suppose, not have been, given the ‘industrialised’ nature of other more longstanding major US sports. However I did not imagine that they would make an exploitative business out of kids’ desire to play the game. Unquestionably, that approach will blight talent which in the UK, at least, more frequently appears to come from the streets than from the well-heeled.
@27 Back in the day the well-heeled traditionally played rugby and cricket though I have no idea if that’s still the case. I remember Stewart Robson being thought a bit strange as he was a public schoolboy (now he’s thought a bit strange for a different reason). As the well-heeled represent a small proportion of the population I suppose they have a negligible effect on the talent pool available in the UK or other countries with a similar approach.
On paper that’s better for development though I must admit the figure of a billion for grass roots sports was also an eye opener for me! That’s a lot of oranges.
I should mention that in a small way our own club, like many PL clubs, has its fingers in this particular honey pot. It runs 5-day, non-residential summer soccer camps for youngsters ages 7 – 14 (in nine locations in the New England and Mid-Atlantic states this year) at a cost of $599-$699 a head.
It is also worth remembering the central role that colleges and their sports scholarships play in developing athletes for professional sports teams in the United States. It is a system quite unlike in Europe. The biggest of the hundreds (if not thousands) of US soccer development academies develop youngsters who will make the high school teams from which the best colleges recruit players. It is from those colleges that the MLS clubs draft players. At a top soccer college like Duke, Stamford or Wake Forest, a sports scholarship is worth around $250,000 over the four years of college and gives you a shot at a professional career. ‘Investing’ in the fees of a soccer development academy makes some sort of financial sense in that light. Equally, you can see why US investors in European football clubs arrive fully imbued with the notion of the game as a money-spinnng business.
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This has been shared before but it seems particularly appropriate to have under TTG’s fine posts. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7wCfttJVnQ
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