ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Arsenal 4 Portsmouth 1: YOU CAN almost hear the gravelly tones of the voice-over from those epic Hollywood movie trailers. "In a world where football is king, something is stirring at Emirates Stadium. The faces of the past have risen to inspire the quest for glories in the future. It's like nothing we have seen before. It is . . . . Arsenalisation."
The marketing boys are doing a number on Arsenal or, more precisely, they are making over the club’s stadium which, for its three seasons to date, has resembled one of those riverside new-builds: super-slick and modern, with nothing out of place but lacking that lived-in feel.
Arsenalisation aims to change that. “Highbury had a natural soul, because of the history,” said Arsene Wenger, the manager, who has already given us the term “footballistically”. “We have to create history here at the Emirates, first by winning titles but also by making the place warm and somewhere that you can feel the history of the club.”
The scheme is the brainchild of Ivan Gazidis, the chief executive, who has a background in marketing. It will see pictures and displays of the club’s greatest players, managers and moments erected around the stadium while there are also plans for, among other things, a Highbury shrine and images of 32 Arsenal legends to be mounted around the outside of the ground “leading to the cumulative effect of them embracing the stadium and the fans”. The elements will come together over the course of the season.
“I believe this is always an issue when you move stadium,” said Wenger. “It takes some time. We left the history of the club behind in a different building but in this new place, it’s important that the values created by the club and the history of the club remain alive.
The question of atmosphere at the Emirates, or the lack of it, has been a subject for intense debate. For Saturday’s visit of Portsmouth, the home fans were given old-fashioned red and white scarves which they waved above their heads at kick-off time. All very nice and visual. But as Wenger noted, “in a city like London, the team has to get the supporters off their seats. You want to transfer the history of the club into the walls of this stadium but you want to create new history with results. We have maybe not achieved that at the moment. My job and that of the team is to create it on the pitch.”
Wenger is convinced that his squad are primed to do so this season. They had too much for Portsmouth and even the loss of the captain Cesc Fabregas to a hamstring injury did not dilute the burgeoning sense of optimism. Fabregas will not play against Celtic in the Champions League play-off second-leg on Wednesday night and Wenger said that if scans were to show a muscular pull, he would be out for three weeks. Arsenal travel to Manchester United on Saturday.
Portsmouth are in the throes of Portsmouthisation. After the lavish spending of the Harry Redknapp era that has taken them to the brink of financial meltdown, they are returning to live within more modest means. Peter Storrie, the chief executive, says that an as yet anonymous Middle Eastern investor will complete a takeover of the club this week, in time to meet a loan repayment deadline next Monday of about €27.6 million.
Manager Paul Hart has overseen the departure of a slew of players since the end of last season and needs to reinforce a threadbare squad. “I’d be lying if I said that more players leaving wasn’t a worry because we are in that sort of situation,” said Hart, who faces an anxious wait for the result of a scan on the goalkeeper David James’s latest knee injury. “But I’m hoping we’re going to add to the squad. It may be that we have a little bit of money to spend.”
Guardian Service
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