Here we have a situation where a still-young, still learning left back (for goodness sake!) is unhappy with earning a £40,000 or even £55,000 weekly basic salary (not including bonuses and endorsements, let's remember) at a successful club he has been affiliated with since his childhood. Thanks to a few relatively simple machinations from an agent whose very fee structure effectively ensures he is contractually obliged to seek money-spinning transfers for his client and a club that is simply impervious to financial sanctions from the authorities, it is almost certain he will leave Arsenal this summer.
That can't be right. And it seems Gooners preoccupied with what Ashley himself wants or feels are missing the point somewhat - it doesn't actually seem to matter!
As fans, does it now mean that - unless we support Chelsea, in which case it doesn't matter because Chelsea can and will buy the best every season - we can never ever believe in an individual player and his loyalty again? First "Once a Blue..." Rooney, now Ashley "Junior Gunners" Cole...
The combination of agents earning a big payday everytime their client moves club and someone like Abramovich being able to buy whoever he wants for whatever sum he wants with zero fear of any fines for wrongdoing does seem to mean exactly that to me.
Freaks like Thierry who seem to want to stay with Arsenal against all obvious financial and silverware-prospects logic are surely going to be a rarer and rarer commodity? Who could really blame him for wanting to leave? I couldn't, far less than Ashley that's for sure...
It also places Arsenal in an impossible situation. We either atrophy at Highbury and become another Everton - a great club with a fading if beautifully traditional stadium that is effectively a feeder for the big-boys or we almost bankrupt ourselves in an ultimately futile bid to keep pace with Chelski, losing all semblance of class and stability along the way and converting ourselves from a "club" to a (not particularly convincing) "brand" where prices, seating allocations and the entire "matchday experience" reflect the superior importance of television, corporate matchday attendance and the American and Asian markets at the expense (literally and figuratively) of the traditional supporter.
Can anyone seriously tell me I'm wrong?
That can't be right. And it seems Gooners preoccupied with what Ashley himself wants or feels are missing the point somewhat - it doesn't actually seem to matter!
As fans, does it now mean that - unless we support Chelsea, in which case it doesn't matter because Chelsea can and will buy the best every season - we can never ever believe in an individual player and his loyalty again? First "Once a Blue..." Rooney, now Ashley "Junior Gunners" Cole...
The combination of agents earning a big payday everytime their client moves club and someone like Abramovich being able to buy whoever he wants for whatever sum he wants with zero fear of any fines for wrongdoing does seem to mean exactly that to me.
Freaks like Thierry who seem to want to stay with Arsenal against all obvious financial and silverware-prospects logic are surely going to be a rarer and rarer commodity? Who could really blame him for wanting to leave? I couldn't, far less than Ashley that's for sure...
It also places Arsenal in an impossible situation. We either atrophy at Highbury and become another Everton - a great club with a fading if beautifully traditional stadium that is effectively a feeder for the big-boys or we almost bankrupt ourselves in an ultimately futile bid to keep pace with Chelski, losing all semblance of class and stability along the way and converting ourselves from a "club" to a (not particularly convincing) "brand" where prices, seating allocations and the entire "matchday experience" reflect the superior importance of television, corporate matchday attendance and the American and Asian markets at the expense (literally and figuratively) of the traditional supporter.
Can anyone seriously tell me I'm wrong?