“The home fans roared under the retro-yellow lights. “Stand up for the Boleyn Ground” rang out. The sense of an ending lingered behind it all. An ending that has always been coming, as it has in some form to almost all of London’s clubs in recent times. Greater powers than sport are in play here. This has always been a relentlessly commercial city, driven by surging tides of hunger and greed. Half an hour from here along East India Dock the Shard looms up, the financial district’s giant raised middle finger towards the rest of fleeing urban London. Upton Park was never really likely to stand up to this for too much longer. The same force that is flushing out this cramped ground will also flush out the local shops in time and many of the people. Bye bye then, Boleyn! Upton Park is now just a tube station.”

 

Barney Ronay (The Guardian 10th May, 2016)

 

This was the Boleyn Ground Ending as seen and described by one of the best journalists around, but I don’t want to dwell on the Gold and Sullivan’s bubble-blowing, even though when football did eventually break out on Tuesday night it proved to be the most edifying part of the whole violent sleaze-fest. Instead, what interests me most about the quote above is the London club ‘closure’ theme that has been running like an invisible thread through the very fabric of each and every EPL outfit…‘in recent times‘ as Ronay broadly date stamps the phenomenon. Hammers bring down Boleyn, Steelworkers sacrificed at Spurs, Bridge rebuilding over troubled waters and, last but by no means least on any timescale, Wenger’s World under serious threat of collapse. Ageing effigies all and loved in varying degrees, they may yet each succumb to the ravages of time, whether it be by virtue of too tempting a government handout (hardly a virtue, but possess it if you can), too generous a regeneration, too fastidious a facelift, or too outdated an outlook, but effectively endings in the making they are and the link, cryptically described as ‘greater powers than sports’, is supposedly the pursuit of hunger and greed, the embodiment of which is a relentlessly commercial city called London. 

 

That said, can the most singular and avaricious of chants -’there’s only one greedy b*****d’ - really encompass these four Capital clubs to the exclusion of the others? West Ham FC’s Vice Chairman Karen Brady, or Baroness Brady of Knightsbridge CBE as she is known to her close and often influential, friends, has her roots buried deep in commercialism and profit-making. So too Alan Sugar, her The Apprentice associate, aka Baron Sugar, business magnate, political adviser and ex-chairman of Tottenham Hotspur, whereas north London neighbours Arsenal boast both a tight ship, businesslike mentality at home, under the watchful eyes of Arsenal Holdings Chairman Sir Chips Keswick and Directors Lord Harris of Peckham, Stan Kroenke and his son Josh, whilst at the same time favouring the shelling out of million-pound dividend payouts abroad. Greed maybe, but in truth it is more evidence of one’s ability to influence in pursuit of power rather than the other way around and hardly [London] capitalistic by nature or design. 

 

Moreover, if Arsenal boardroom avarice is tempered by this argument (much to the frustration and annoyance of their own fans when it comes to buying players) what does it say about CFC’s situation, inexorably linked as it always has been with the Abramovich Era and the perception that he is the most powerful (therefore the worst) owner of them all? Well, the frenzied media barney that the mere mention of his name always creates isn’t even a consideration as far as this Barney is concerned. No sir (or Baron, or Lord) this journalist lumps Chelsea in with the others, like peas in a pod, despite Roman’s distinct lack of any profit-making, greed-driven, politically or commercially motivated tendency whatsoever. But let’s not allow reasoned argument to stand in the way of the Russian’s continual condemnation and instead make London Capitalism the cause, the effect being to imply a collective clamour to improve ground capacity at any cost other than a personal one. 

 

Except in Roman’s case that is exactly what it will be - financially onerous and fraught with difficulty - because he has no political or influential clout, either as an individual in his own right or vicariously through a boardroom presence blessed by patronage. No freedom from brickbat for this oligarch benefactor, even when he does pick up the tab for everything. Guilt by association with these other London clubs is his destiny, even when the best case scenario means he will only start to turn a Chelsea profit in old age. Meanwhile, Gold and Sullivan wipe away their crocodile tears on leaving Upton Park (or, as Sky keep telling us every half-hour or so, the Boleyn Ground) and over at the Lane their chairman is busy on the issue of naming rights, a key part of the financing, by putting the finishing touches to the bespoke packs to be sent to the targeted major institutions they hope will be interested. - better this than putting your hand in your pocket, eh Daniel?

 

Not that he’s worried by the threat of bad publicity, now that Spurs provide the England squad with youthful talent aplenty and are soon to have their interregnum occupation of Wembley confirmed by an ever-so-grateful FA. "We're a long way down the path on reaching an agreement." said Greg Dyke recently, and with new complex plans also approved by the Mayor of London (that is the revised version, updated during the hiatus in the compulsory purchase order saga last year) everything appears to be progressing at pace, no sign of hitch or hindrance on the horizon, a moveable feast, a pass over that, mercifully, has no Premier League title handed over with it as a leaving present. 

 

And turning to the Emirates, where words such as title, moving and leaving present, haven’t been associated with Wenger for a decade or more, it is obvious that the Ronay reasoning behind inclusion in his quartet can only be Arsene innuendo, as opposed to Arse-related, the Gunners having had the 60,000 attendance jump on their London rivals throughout this period. Decipherable or not, directional jibes such as these are beginning to wear a bit thin for Le Professor and it doesn’t help his stay-at-home-at-any-cost cause when a supportive guy like Kroenke fulfils his penchant for filching £3m pound silver spoons from what is left of the family silver before shifting them across The Pond at regular intervals. 

 

Quite frankly, it is this sort of behaviour that really should be exposed - the type of greedy capitalistic trait that Ronay only alludes to as he broad-brushes others into his bigger picture. He is right to refer to greater powers than sport being in play here, but endings are only justifying the means in the case of three out of these four capital clubs - West Ham had to go - what’s not to like? Spurs had to go - in the end their wheels were so well oiled both on and off the pitch there was no stopping them. And Arsene Wenger should go too - but he wont, because the influential Powers that Be at that club are in play and have become greater than the sport itself. In truth, that club would be much better off without him and without the arcane attitude their hierarchy has towards success on the pitch. 

 

No motivational greed, hunger, power, or influence, a rich benefactor like Alisher Usmanov really ought to be the readymade solution to Arsenal’s problem, as he would be for every other club in London, but, like his close friend Roman Abramovich, he is the new unacceptable face of capitalism in a relentlessly commercial city where the new football currency looks like being Gold… and Sullivan. 

.

 

Too many words for me and my attention span. 

Too many words for me and my attention span. 

 

Refreshing honesty there. 

 

 

I did read it, but I'm not clever enough to know what it means.

Refreshing honesty there. 

 

 

I did read it, but I'm not clever enough to know what it means.

 

I'll have a go tonight with a glass of red and my reading specks, makes me feel all intellectual  

I'll have a go tonight with a glass of red and my reading specks, makes me feel all intellectual  

 

Are you also going to be smoking a pipe while you are at it ? :P