Arsenal Fever
Latest News,Podcasts and Radio related to Arsenal Football Club.Archive for February, 2007
I’m sorry – Toure
Kolo Toure has apologised for his sending off at the end of the Carling Cup Final on Sunday.
He was the captain on the day and clashed with John Obi Mikel in the dying seconds of the match at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff. Referee Howard Webb decided to show the red card to both players, Emmanuel Adebayor also went for his part in the resulting melee.
“I apologise for this moment,” said Toure afterwards. “I regret my actions.
“Chelsea were winning and were starting to waste time. I was not happy with that, which is why I went to Mikel and had some words with him.”
Toure is likely to pick up a three-game suspension but is hopeful his barely blemished record — one red card in over 200 games for Arsenal — will count in his favour if further action is considered by the FA.
“I do not think so,” replied the 25-year-old when asked if he should get banned. “When they look at the tape, they will see I have done nothing wrong. I have had a lot of games, but do not choose to do that type of thing.
“The people who run football know who is bad and they know that I am always trying to do my best for the Club, the team and the fans as well.
“It can happen to anybody, though. You can make a mistake in any job, or do something bad. That is why you need to apologise, which I have done. You do not need to make it bigger.”
Rivals Beware!
Cesc Fabregas has warned the rest of the Premiership that Arsenal are only going to get stronger.
They lost 2-1 to Chelsea in the Carling Cup final on Sunday but the young Gunners again caught the eye.
Theo Walcott scored his first goal for the club to put Arsenal ahead, while the likes of Abou Diaby, Denilson and Armand Traore impressed throughout the entire Carling Cup campaign.
Fabregas believes Arsenal could be the dominant force in English football within three years and thinks the competition should be very concerned.
“If I was in another team, I would be scared if you could see all the young players who are coming from this Arsenal team,” said the Spaniard.
“You can see that if we keep playing for three more years together, then we could do something really big for the club.
“We have shown great talent here. I am also young and just try to do my best for the team.”
Fabregas felt Chelsea had luck on their side in the first half at Cardiff.
“In the first half we should have been 3-0 up. Manuel Almunia was doing nothing in the goal,” said Fabregas.
“In the second half, Chelsea tried to push a little bit more, and credit to them because they are a good team.
“However, their first goal was clearly offside.”
Emirates can be international host
Keith Edelman expects Emirates Stadium to become a regular host for prestigious international matches – and even a major European final.
Brazil have already played two friendlies at Arsenal’s new home and the Club’s Managing Director believes that the success of those fixtures against Argentina and Portugal proves Emirates Stadium can also house pre-season tournaments and even a Champions League showpiece.
“We are looking at those kind of options,” Edelman told Arsenal.com. “It may not be this year but hopefully in future years we will be holding more competitions and more matches.
“We will think about putting our name forward for a European final. Now we’re confident we can operate it, everyone can see we’ve held the finest international matches that you can see in the stadium, and I think it’s a great product so yes we will review that course of action.
“I think we’ll see more international friendlies too. It’s a fantastic venue, we’ve got a good operation here both in terms of running the stadium and in terms of selling tickets and filling the stadium. Both [Brazil] games sold out and that’s good for Arsenal because we make revenue from that.
“We have a fine facility which was expensive to build and the money we generate from that can be recycled back into the squad and also in terms of holding ticket prices.”
Source: www.arsenal.com
Gunners half year turnover increases to 10 million GBP
Group turnover increased to GBP100.8 million (2005: GBP57.0 million) as a result of higher gate and match day revenues at Emirates Stadium and sale of a property development site at Drayton Park.
- Operating profits before depreciation and player trading increased to GBP20.0 million (2005: GBP8.0 million).
- Profits before net finance charges and taxation increased to GBP19.6 million (2005: GBP14.3 million).
- GBP210 million of fixed rate bonds and GBP50 million of floating rate bonds issued in the period to refinance all of the Group’s stadium related debt. The refinancing provides a stable financial base and significant reduction in annual debt service costs for the long term. One-off, exceptional costs of GBP21.4 million associated with the refinancing result in the overall result for the period being a loss after taxation of GBP6.2 million (2005: profit of GBP9.6 million).
- The redevelopment of Highbury into over 700 residential units has commenced and the demolition work has now been completed. Approximately 90% of the units released for sale at Highbury Square have already been pre-sold.
Commenting on the results for the half year Peter Hill-Wood, non-executive Chairman, said:
“As well as providing improved match day facilities and tickets for a far greater number of the Club’s supporters, the Emirates Stadium project had an objective of providing Arsenal with the financial strength and resources to compete at the very highest level in all competitions. I believe that the results for the Group’s first period in its new home demonstrate that we have already achieved this milestone.”
The six months to 30 November 2006 has been another very successful period for the Group marked by the opening of Emirates Stadium in July 2006 and the commencement of the redevelopment works at Highbury. At the end of October 2006 we were very honoured to welcome HRH Duke of Edinburgh for the official opening of Emirates Stadium.
In November the Emirates Stadium / Arsenal on the Move project collected two awards at the 2006 London Planning Awards — “Best Built Project Contributing to London’s Future” and the “Mayor’s Award for Planning Excellence”. The project has also won “Best Mixed Use Regeneration Project” at the 2006 Regeneration Awards, a commendation from the 2006 Structural Steelwork Awards and has been nominated for the “Major Project Award” at the Quality in Construction Awards.
We have set ourselves very high targets for the standard of match day experience which we want to provide for all of our supporters at Emirates Stadium with its increased capacity, use of technology and significantly expanded corporate and hospitality facilities. This has been a major challenge and although we have been very pleased with the progress made to date we do not expect to reach our final targets for operational efficiency until the end of the season. The feedback from supporters has generally been extremely positive. Emirates Stadium has also proved to be a popular venue for conferences and other non match day events.
In addition to the Club’s own home matches, Emirates Stadium has also played host to two prestigious international friendly fixtures; in September Brazil played Argentina and earlier this month Brazil versus Portugal. We hope that international matches of a similar stature will become a regular feature of the Emirates Stadium calendar.
The redevelopment of Highbury into over 700 apartments and penthouses commenced as soon as the first match had successfully been staged at Emirates Stadium. We have again appointed Sir Robert McAlpine as our main contractor and they expect to have some 800 workers on site at the peak of the construction work on the 3.5 hectare site. The demolition work has already been completed whilst at the same time retaining the facades to the listed East and West Stands. The level of pre-sales of the residential units remains very strong at approximately 90% of the units released for sale.
The financial results for the period are covered in more detail below – the Group’s turnover for the period has exceeded GBP100 million and profits, before exceptional costs of GBP21.4 million and taxation, were GBP12.8 million against GBP14.6 million at the same stage last year.”
