Arsenal News 24/7Writer: Lewis Wright 
Date:Friday April 15 2011
Time: 4:56PM
UK time is: 03:00:38
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When Tottenham walked off the field after being beaten 5-0 over two legs by Real Madrid, they walked off to the sounds of cheers, applause and commentators up and down the land praising them.
Henry Winter cooed in the Telegraph "Spurs celebrated an amazing European odyssey."
Phil McNulty joined the love in, describing Tottenham as losing "in great style." It was positive spin of Colonel Gadaffi proportions.
They were battered, to the point where, when Sandro wandered into the Madrid penalty area and promptly became another victim of the White Hart Lane sniper in the stands, Jose Mourinho was not angry, he just smirked, shook his head and laughed at the desperation.
This was no Leeds United in 2001, yet as a result of the run, Gareth Bale is the clear favourite to be named player of the season this year. The Welsh winger has certainly improved, but the nomination seems to be for one performance, against Inter Milan when he scored a hat trick. Whilst it certainly was a magnificent performance, so was Dirk Kuyt`s 3 goal salvo against Manchester United.
Bale has scored 7 goals and 3 assists, 110 fantasy football points, in this Premiership season. Andrei Arshavin has scored 6 goals and 11 assists, 130 fantasy football points in a season described by David Hytner of The Guardian as 'misfiring.` He also scored the winner against Barcelona. Bale didn`t play in Spurs` unbeaten games against Milan, but did when they lost so miserably to Madrid.
There`s clear media bias, and not just with Bale, but the club as a whole. The same Phil McNulty that waxed so lyrically about Tottenham`s season, where they remain outside of the top 4 and without the chance to win any competitions, has also given his opinions on Arsenal: "The evidence has once again piled up in the last two weeks that Wenger and his players can no longer be trusted to deliver when it matters." The same Arsenal that remain in the hunt for the title.
Redknapp, it would seem, is a nailed on certainty for the England job when it comes around after the 'miracles` he has performed with Spurs. That miracle involves 'rescuing` a season, when they were only 8 games in. Finishing 4th in one season and spending a total of £95 million in two years, including £10million on 2 right backs called Kyle; Naughton and Walker, who have 4 first team appearances between them since. Other highlights include buying Piscal Chimbonda for £3 million then selling him a £1million loss 6 months later, and spending £12million on club hero Robbie Keane, before only playing him 41 times and sending him out on loan. If he does get the England job, it`s a good thing he can`t make transfers.
Redknapp is right to point out the spending of Chelsea and Man City, as he often likes to, and so maybe it is that Spurs aren`t underachieving, but just that Arsenal are massively overachieving. Since Redknapp took over Wenger has made £24.2 million in transfer fees for the club and the club record transfer remains lower than Tottenham`s.
Whilst Spurs flounder in the courts to try and force through their rights to buy a brand new stadium on the other side of London, so they can demolish it and build another, Arsenal are enjoying the financial benefits that come with the late, great Danny Fizman`s vision made flesh; The Emirates.
It would seem that, as a nation, we feel a day in the sun bought with nearly £100 million worth of splurging, is a greater achievement than sound financial planning and years of hard word that lead to over achievement, year on year on year.
No wonder our economy is in such a mess.
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Your Comments
Cracking article, right on the money .... it's just a shame no-one outside the Arsenal community is willing to listen.
Rocky7
I,m listening but all I hear is ducks farting. What a load of utter *****e. Still when your season is over there is not much else for you Goons to write about. What have you won againg this year? Roll on Wednesday.
Horny Helen
The biggest load of drivel ive ever read. This was our first year in the CL and we did great. You and Man Utd took years to get accustomed to doing well in the CL - Mr Lewis i know youre an unbelievably blinkered Arsenal fan, possibly the worst one on here - But at least try give credit where its due. And we seriously had zero luck over both legs it was almost laughable. While id agree that Bale wouldnt be my pick as player of the year hes been great in almost ever game especially in europe. And as for the lack of Sun dream team points which by the rating you're scoring Arshavin over Bale, i think your players would have about 10 assists less each if you had a strikeforce consisting of a Giraffe and biting midget who have a combined premierleague tally of 6 goals between them.
HuddersfieldYiddo
Reading on it just gets even worse, when Harry took over we were in a perilous position and Levy panicked and gave him a wad to spend his way out of trouble. Now when you're in the relegation zone the likes of Nasri, Arshavin etc dont want to sign you so Harry went for players who we could actually attract to the club such as Keane, Palacios and Defoe. And guess what - it worked. In the summer just gone we had a net spend of £13m - £3m less than you and our kitty didnt involve Sebastian Squillaci.
HuddersfieldYiddo
First year in the CL after spending hundreds of millions of pounds to get there. Yes you did well in the tournament, better than I thought you would, but it's cost an absolute fortune to do it. It also looks like the run may have cost you a shot in next years competition too .... though I guess time will tell on that one. Needless to say it comes as no suprise that you Spurs fans are missing the point .... no suprising really, but the point is that despite what we've acomplished over the last 15 years, people look at the short term ALL THE TIME. It's why football is in such a **** state. People look at us and say "you haven't won anything in 5 years" and forget what we've built and accomplished on a shoe string. They look at spurs and say "Wow, look what they did in the champions league" (even a 5-0 white wash is some how deemed a victory), but forget about the massive fortunes you've spent to get there. Up until a couple of years ago Spurs were the third biggest spenders in PL history. Tells you everything you need to know.
Rocky7
95% of all the money spent by Spurs is made by Spurs, equally sound financially. I agree that some of Arry's transfers are way off the mark, but if you add up the transfer fee's of the players that played against Madrid you would struggle to justify your'e article.
mwatspurs2
It took the goons 8 attempts to get out of the group stages of the CL........it took us 1. when we wanted to win the milk cup, we won it. When the goons wanted to win the milk cup....they failed. NUFF SAID
LOL tell em Helen!!
DeezNuts
See you on wednesday mate, 6 points for Spurs off you lot!
vdv
wow.... a football team spent money!!! stop the feckin press guys, we got a scandal!!!
the only worrying thing here is a SPURS article on an ARSEnal Thread.....u guys are thinking about us too much!!. Havent you got a new Baron/owner and Cesc leaving to worry ya selves about???
Mupps
DeezNuts
Again ..... you're missing the point. Of course Lewis' article intended to cause a bit of uproar (presumably ahead of next weeks NLD?), but the point is that we're doing alright consider what we've built over the last 10 years. Doing better than you lot despite spending far less to achieve it. If FIFA brought in their financial fair play rules at their strictest level next season then we'd probably win the Champions League by default. "That's the only way you will win it" I hear you say, maybe so, but at least we've been doing things under our own steam. That's something we Arsenal fans on an Arsenal site should rightly be proud of.
Rocky7
You're obsessed with Spurs! So are we! Let's be friends :)
Stratty
Lewis Wright I have never had the pleasure, this is really quite funny. How many years did it take you to get out of the group stages iin the CL? Now that your season is crumbling you can find nothing better to do than talk about Spurs. I realise that only a few of your fellow goons share your inferiority complex so I won't taint all of them with your childish brush but you sir need to grow a pair! Oh and Huddersfield this was the funniest thing I have read all week.
"i think your players would have about 10 assists less each if you had a strikeforce consisting of a Giraffe and biting midget who have a combined premierleague tally of 6 goals between them"
SteadySpur
"it's just a shame no-one outside the Arsenal community is willing to listen.
Rocky7"
As most neutral fans would say...Next. It's the poor us, nobody loves us approach from the Rockys of this world that are such a turnoff. Perhaps there is a reason other won't listen. I know tghe vast majoprity are not rerpresentative. Noi one on planet earth is reallyu interested in planet Denial.
oldun
******** obsessedddddd
hahahahahahahahahahaha
WhiteHartSpur
Rocky7 tell me who was the best run club in the 50's? 60's? No?? 70's maybe? Ok 80's then? No-one remembers who the best run club was, no-one cares if you have a nice bank balance. People will always remember Bale's performances in the CL. People remember moments of pure genius and trophies. You keep your rosy looking finances, we'll keep the sparkling memories from this years CL. See you wednesday ;)
SteadySpur
Funny how of all the ins and outs of Gooner footie matters, the Goons turn their attention to Spurs after our exit from the CL. Before, nothing. Now, that they can be sure that we won't progressed to the semi-finals, out come the snide remarks and comparisons to the Spurs. I can tell you straight off, that the Gooners have nothing to boast about, whereas Spurs have entertained the watching world with the plucky and stylish football the neutrals have come to appreciate. Throughout the tournament, Spurs faced the difficult clubs of Europe and raised eye-brows, just ask the italians! As for Bale, he is 21 years old and his spectacular performances were not limited to just the famous Inter vs Spurs, but also the following game where he totally destroyed a right-back considered no.1 in the world and made 2 assists towards the 3 goals scored on the night! Gooners will always be looking to the Boys from WHL, because they are envious and long may they continue to be so! We are the original geniune article! COYS!!!
Cyprusyid
Quite simple, plucky underdogs will always get generous coverage. A bit like when Wycombe Wanderers get to the semi finals of the F.A. Cup. Also, it didn't take us 8 attempts to get out of the group stages.
Little Dutch
Excellent article Lewis. I've been a bit stunned too at the press coverage lauding Spurs humiliation vs Madrid as a victory of some sort. Madrid never even got out of first gear in the second leg and the mighty Spurs still couldn't find the net. Too bad Spuds didn't win in a way- I would have loved to see them against Barcelona. Hell, maybe even some of that deluded bunch would have realized that we are still miles ahead of them. I guess we'll have to show them that on Wednesday- I really hope we do our part to ensure that their CL adventure is a one-off. I wonder if the Madrid dvd is out yet? The one that has the option of turning off the score and skipping over all the goals?
elbondo
I also wondered if any spuds see the irony of saying we are obsessed with them while they troll our site and leave lengthy, blathering comments?
elbondo
What the hell has a healthy bank balance got to do with football? Makes me laugh today these kids; they think having a good bank balance is something to be proud of. For over a 110 years, most fans couldn't give a toss about debit/credit. It's about the passion, great players, glory nights, sexy football etc.
Stupid article, stupid goons.
Terry Nutkins
Not too many glory nights at the Lane in the past 50 years, eh?
elbondo
..Had to look again to be sure I was on the VA sight. Great article, Lewis.
Naijagunner
I too have been annoyed at the blatant double standards in the media about spurs v. Arsenal - so on twitter I criticized Guillem Ballague directly for his hypocritical judgment on this. He only offered excuses for spurs while severely criticizing Arsenal after our game at the Nou Camp. He replied quite fairly actually. He said "good point" re the hypocrisy and then said "we just expect more from Arsenal, you're a better team". That's the real issue here. We gooners often complain about the media lovefest with spurs-glossing over their weaknesses & failures, patting them on the back patronizingly when they make horrendous mistakes while constantly sniping at Arsenal. But the reason they do that is that they just expect less from spurs and expect more from us. We are not on their level. We should never compare ourselves to them, we should always compare ourselves to United - which is why so many of us get so upset with our underachievement and AW's and/or our players' weaknesses-because we fail to be at their level. So the hypocrisy by the media is actually a backhanded compliment to Arsenal and esp. to AW who has kept us in the competition and in the top 4 consistently for 15 yrs. It's become so routine that they expect nothing less. That's an extremely rare achievement in football. But it's also why we get so much criticism and why there's so much discontent among some gooners. Our consistency at the top is quite remarkable but our consistency in failing to cross the finish line into winning silverware in an age when impatience & media scrutiny and pressure is far more intense than it ever was in the past makes us a particular target of criticism. It's just part of the deal until this team and our manager fulfills their potential. 20 yrs of 2nd place-as AW alluded to--will just bring more of this treatment. And if Gareth Bales wins POTY it will be a travesty. The guy has achieved nothing to earn it. If it has to be someone from the media darlings then Modric is clearly the choice. I'd vote for him myself, tho he wouldn't be my first choice. But he's certainly a more worthy candidate. Hell, Theo Walcott has achieved more than Bale. You can name a couple dozen players who've achieved more than Bale.
jaelle
* VA site*
Naijagunner
lol - CLEARLY havent even thought about the crap you have written and the bolox that Rocky is spouting!
* Apart from the fact that Spurs have spent MILLIONS:
how many millions? shouldnt we have a team the size of Alaska for that?
You forgot about all the player we sold too. Yep, we didnt actually spend much at all then. Buy some, sell some. Thats called business.
All clubs buy and sell so dont talk out yur @$$
* Oh but look what yu acheived on a shoestring! Acheived what? Fk all
Yur shoestring hasnt got yu fk all yet and yur still going on about building it - 5 years later!
So again, dont talk out yur @$$
And as for the CL - lol
Neither ARSEnil or Chavski have ever won it. Waste of time!
May as well not bother being in it for all the good it's done you.
No more CL heros than the other 16 Prem clubs that have never won it
So, for the last time, dont talk out yur @$$
Detjo
Do you accept then that Spurs might as well not have bothered being in the top flight for the last 50 years? You can try and dismiss our achievements if you must, but to do so is merely to ridicule yourselves, as your achievements have been far, far less. How's that stadium planning going? Found a borough that actually wants you yet?
Little Dutch
I point you to --------> http://photoshopdaryl.wordpress.com/ “ah, little Jonny with his club foot & wonky eye had made it past the 1st hurdle… Lets all give him a big hug and cheer” It is what it is, they did pretty well (Though not as well as Leeds) then got Smashed to pieces in Madrid and went out of the tournament with a record aggregate defeat for an English club.
iceman10
the Spuds are not just a team of nobodys [ sorry crawley town], they came to the champs league this season with a squad full on internationals and players with champs league experience. I have noticed the insane loads of media jizz on the spuds CL campaign. They became the first team in CL history to lose quarter final heavily, home and away, without scoring a goal. Its true that Arsenal shouldnt compare with spuds because Arsenal have more CL experience. But a team like spurs with all the money spent and the players available to them this season, should be appearing in the champs league no problem. The spuds squad is full on internationals and players with champs league experiences. Its a failed champs league campaign. Get used to it, spurs. Arsenal have constantly been accused of this. Why not the spuds?
49ers
You get more of a raw deal from the media because your expectations are higher. All you ever hear on Vital Arsenal is Amos and the like preaching the "my club is significantly better than yow club" bollox.. We do things the Arsenal way yada yada. You call Spurs fans deluded but its times like this where you have to look at yourselves. You're a bigger club than us now of that im certain especially with your current infrustructure. Thats why you can't have it both ways, the bigger you are the harder you fall. So when next season in March when your title bid collapses again the same knives will come out. You can't just then say "Well at least we're not Leeds Utd or Barnet" as the fact remains you bottled it again. Waiting for the next "My rich blood sucking foreign owner is better than yows" article which surely is on the way.
HuddersfieldYiddo
Also try give a little credit where its due. Vital Arsenal was full of praise from Spurs fans after you somehow managed to beat Barcelona 2-1 at home. You too were the media darlings before it went tits up and rightly so. Yet the sheer idea of Spurs getting praise in the media turns all your stomachs doesnt it! In the last 14 years we strived to re-establish ourselves as a top club again by spending fairly big. But what you arent pointing out is that we were self financed to a large extent, we have relatively little debt despite suggestions on here that we've spanked a fortune and weve recieved loads through player sales. Should all that spending behind us from different managers & different squads entitle us to criticism now on here? It has nothing to do with the current squads achievements.
HuddersfieldYiddo
Oh yeah that was it last week from this bitter author"Our ex player pundits are significantly better than yows pundits"
HuddersfieldYiddo
That's completely paranoid tosh HY. You're the one here shouting through our letterbox. I don't preach that our club is better than yours at all. All I do and all I need to do is remind those whose delusions need reminding that the records speak very clearly for themselves. But what's the point of your post? Sure our expectations, and the expectations others have for us, are greater than yours - but so are our achievements. That's the very simple point made in the article. I can't see what there is for you sensitive little souls to take exception to.
Amos.
Sorry to name drop you Amos as its the author of this article i find a pillock as this article is just - a load of bullocks. Its the financial stick that many Arsenal fans on here are hitting us with though that i have most beef with. Because weve spent a bomb in the past that we dont deserve as much credit as we're supposidly recieving. Well according to Deloitte football finance review "Spurs are ranked top in the country for effective cost management, calculated by the key performance indicator wages to turnover ratio" of course you'd never hear this on Vital Arsenal, only how weve spent a bomb on transfer fees. Look at your wage bill, its huge! Yes you're in a great position financially and you can afford to pay these wages, but you still spend nearly double what we spend on wages. We have a tight wage structure unlike yourselves where we also save a bomb. Personally i think yours has been the better policy clearly but guys just dont tarnish us as just some money spending crazed lunatics club a la Chelsea or City because its just not true.
HuddersfieldYiddo
Still being far too sensitive HY. It's a matter of record that you're the third largest net spenders on transfer fees in the 5 years since we've moved to the Emirates - behind only Chelsea and Man City - and only a couple of million behind Chelsea at that. You're also the 4th largest spenders on agent fees behind the same two plus Liverpool in the 2 years since figures were published. You manage your finances well enough but you have net debts of almost £80m while the equity in the business is only £76m. Arsenal has net debt of £135m but equity of £255m so our wages have to be seen in proportion to size of the business. Also the total wage bill declared by both clubs is for total staff not just playing staff. Spuds have 290 employees but as a much bigger business we have 416 employees. Our costs per employee is less than 15% higher than yours. However, the football revenue generated per Arsenal employee is some 30% higher per head than yours ergo we are a more efficient club as well as a more successful one.
Amos.
Author's response:
Firstly being told my article 'sounds like a duck farting' by 'horny helen' is like some sort of Jamie Theakston wet dream. Made my weekend.
I'm glad to see so many Spurs fans are taking an interest in the goings on at Arsenal.
The main point was about how we seem to celebrate short termism in this country and that attitude has led to real problems in the economy. It's a dangerous attitude to take in sport. Football led the way and I think it has a greater influence than we realise in country wide terms.
What message does it send to people, when their clubs are guilty of such reckless spending in pursuit of a brief high? No wonder the credit card debt of the country is increasing. If the club can do it, young people feel they can do it too.
The media are the most guilty of this in their reporting.
Interesting that most of the Spurs comments on here aren't constructive points about why I'm wrong, just calling me names.
The sun is shining and Spurs fans are angry - not sure my weekend can get too much better.
deaduncleted
HY there is no point you coming over here crying when VS have articles pretending to be Vital Birmingham for the day.
iceman10
All of my comments deaduncleted are how you are wrong. iceman10 fair point!
HuddersfieldYiddo
I love the constructive responses from the Sp*rs fans (excluding HY), name calling and mud slinging, very clever, bravo. Fact is we may not have the trophies, but we and everyone else know that it is only a matter of time. Can you say the same about your club?
LondonGooner
hahahahaha obsessed much. THE most pathetic article I have ever read. See you Wednesday!
JPspurs
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