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Arsenal fans speak up

Comment: 0 February 21st, 2012 by: admin

The Gunner faithful are asking manager Arsene Wenger to show them the money.

The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, the club’s official not-for-profit organization, are demanding an explanation on why their long-time manager has failed to touch on the £50-million budget during the transfer periods. General speculation suggests that the funds could have helped them avoid a seventh season without a trophy.

AST, consisting of 3,000 members, held a meeting yesterday to list down all their concerns and findings regarding the outfit. The group is set to forward the list to the management at the Emirates Stadium when they meet on Wednesday.

The group widely believe that aside from the withheld funds for new players, Arsenal’s most pressing issues are the club’s overall performance, and the future of manager Arsene Wenger.

However, AST claimed they will not raise a vote on whether they want the French manager to go or not. They insisted that they will continue to support the whole outfit throughout the remainder of the season.

They are also voicing out concern over the 6.5 per cent rise of ticket prices despite an apparent lack of investment coming in to improve the squad.

“[The meeting] was lively, passionate and concerned. Arsenal fans are not happy and they showed a lot of spirit,” said AST member Tim Payton.

“We will ask at the end of the season if Arsene Wenger is the right man for the job but during the season we will always back the manager and support the team. That is our philosophy and that will never change.

“But questions need to be asked. We had a summer profit of £50m on player trading, lots of money in the bank and figure out whether there was money to invest and where we might be going.

“Last year, there was a collapse on the four trophies then straight after there was a 6.5 per cent rise on top of the most expensive tickets in world football.

“A worry for next year for the fans is that next year they will be paying for Thursday night football rather than the Champions League they’ve been used to.

“We spend so much on wages. This year we’re going to spend 40 per cent more than Spurs, it’s £130m wage bill. Are we overpaying a lot of players that we then can’t move on.

“Our business model has fallen behind. Our sponsorship is not up for renewal until 2014. We can’t compete for the very best players.”

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