Arsenal: The Last Big English Club

As the news filtered through of the sale of England’s most successful ever football team this morning, something dawned on me…..

Arsenal are now the last of the big teams to be domestically owned.

Ok, so maybe ‘The last of the big teams’ is a little provocative, but the theory is still the same.

Out of the current top four of the nations Premier League, two are owned by Americans, one by a Russian, leaving only the Gunners who are run by English employers.

We, as Arsenal fans have suffered taunts & jibes at the hands of our rival fans because our ‘team is not English’ for around the same amount of time Professor Wenger has been at the helm in N5, but ironically, these self same fans are now supporters of clubs which should be considered ‘less English’ than our own.

Vital Arsenal, and 99% of other Arsenal supporting dudes have championed the ‘player over passports’ row for nigh on and ice age now, where as other fans (rather idiotically) believe ‘true English grit’ triumphs over ‘smarmy foreign skill’ seven days out of seven.

I find it amazing that these people believe it more important to have English players at their respective clubs than actually being English in the first place. When all is said and done, players come and and players go, they can be replaced when they get to old or if they simply aint good enough, but the core of the club changes hands rarely, if ever.

The board and the owners of a club bring their own traditions, thoughts and theories, regardless of what ever promises they make upon purchase. Boardrooms across the world are run in different manners from region to region, some like to be more hands on, some even like to pick the teams, but here in England the norm has always been to let the managers manage.

Roman Abramovich has already proved he’s only willing to play house Russian for a certain amount of time before he wants more. Shevchencko being a prime example, an example of how not to run a club in England.

We are fortunate enough to have a board who knows what we want, what their manager wants and what the players want. Peter Hill-Wood has already told of his ambition to make sure our club remains in domestic hands, and our glorious gaffer has spoken of the importance of English clubs remaining English.

The heritage we have at Arsenal is a fantastic one, everything we have we have earned through hard word & fantastic football. We have a team of people who know that their business is just that and leave the football to the football people.

So it is with a proud Gooner heart that I thank my lucky stars that Arsenal have become the last big ENGLISH club, and pray that my beloved Arsenal never ever fall into the dirty hands of the moneymen who seem hell bent on getting a piece of the action before leaving our national sport in a state of disarray.

The next time one of you rival supporters think about berating our ‘non-English’ Arsenal, take a quick look at the birth certificate of the name of the owner on the lease of the club you support.