Arsenal
Are Owners Ruining Clubs? Chelsea, Liverpool And Portsmouth Are Living Examples!
When Nigel Adkins took over as Southampton manager, they were 18th place in League One. The previous season they had finished one position below a play-off place, but the 7pt gap meant they may as well have been 4-5 places away, it would still mean League One football again for a club relegated from the Championship in 2009. Five seasons had now passed since The Saints last competed in the Premiership and the supporters were desperate to return to English football’s top table.
In 2009 the club had gone into administration, resulting in a 10 pt deduction. But for that penalty they would’ve finished just 2 pts off an automatic promotion place. Up stepped Nicola Cortese, an Italian banker who had brokered the deal to buy the club for Markus Liebherr, a German-born industrialist. Only after the purchase did Liebherr realise there was no senior management structure and so invited Cortese to take over the reins. Within a month Cortese had sacked Alan Pardew, who had just masterminded the club to only their 2nd major trophy when they beat Carlisle United in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. Under Adkins they didn’t score for three matches but soon found their form and finished 2nd to Brighton gaining promotion back to the Championship. A year later they finished 1pt behind Reading to gain their 2nd successive promotion and now Premiership football.
They won just 1 of their first 11 games and were 18th at the turn of the year, but as of 18th January 2013 they sat in 15th and 3pts above the drop-zone. But Cortese had decided enough is enough and the axe has fallen on a promising young English manager who had been getting results.
Cortese is not alone in making snap decisions to chop and change managers. On the first day of the season Tottenham, West Brom, Liverpool, Swansea, Norwich and Aston Villa all had managers taking charge for the first time.
Already this season we have seen clubs such as Chelsea, QPR, Blackburn, Nottingham Forest and Wolves toss aside managers in a desperate bid for improvement. These clubs all have owners who believe the answer to disappointing performances on the pitch is to immediately change the bums on seats in the dugout. Owners at Liverpool, Newcastle and Manchester City have already shown themselves to be ruthless in their pursuit of success.
But does this knee-jerk reaction ever really produce the results so desired?
Roberto Di Matteo paid the price for seeing his Chelsea side dumped out of the Champions League, a trophy he’d seen them lift barely 6 months before. Kenny Dalglish was sacked from Liverpool despite two cup final appearances and almost winning 2 of the 3 competitions they were entered in. Chris Hughton lost his job at Newcastle when they were mid-table in December 2010. Barely a week later Sam Allardyce was removed from his position as Blackburn manager when they were one place above Newcastle.
Tony Fernandes bought Bernie Ecclestone’s share at Queen’s Park Rangers in August 2011. By January he had sacked manager Neil Warnock with the club in the bottom 4. He replaced him with Mark Hughes and then just 10 months later, having allowed Hughes to spend big, he stopped the music again to bring in Harry Redknapp.
This reaction from owners seems to be worse in The Championship. Current Sheffield Wednesday owner, Milan Mandaric once had 5 different managers during a 12 month period in 2007 when he was owner of Leicester City. After one sacking, particularly early in the season, he defended his actions claiming if he waited until the end of the season to sack the manager, the club could be relegated and then what would he do? The fact that the club went down and probably compounded by the inconsistent actions of the chairman, seemed to be lost on Mandaric.
Meanwhile up at Blackburn, Steve Kean was appointed successor to Allardyce having worked as first team coach to Big Sam. Kean managed to survive in his job despite the club being relegated to The Championship. Blackburn were unbeaten in their first 6 matches in 2012-13 but Kean was ‘forced to resign’ after their first defeat. Owned by a subsidiary of the VH Group, a poultry and processed food company from India, Blackburn seems to lurch from one embarrassment to another. When the Venkys took over at Ewood Park they claimed money was available for transfers, but the £5m they provided would hardly pay an agent’s fees these days. Their poor PR handling and treatment of Steve Kean would hardly encourage any manager to go there.
At the City Ground the Al-Hasawi family bought the club in July 2012 and soon sacked Steve Cotterill and replaced him with Sean O’Driscoll. Boxing Day 2012 with Forest lying in 8th place, they come from behind to beat Leeds United, 4-2 and O’Driscoll is sacked.
Often this overreaction from owners just fuels the ridiculous demands of football fans who act like spoilt kids when their team loses. An example of this was at Liverpool when they lost the opening game of the season to West Brom, 0-3, and there were some fans calling for Brendan Rodgers head. After one match! This cry has consistently come out at every Liverpool defeat this season, but just goes to illustrate how little thought is given to the consequences.
Just imagine how you would feel in your own workplace if they kept chopping and changing managers all the time, and especially every time the customers called for it. Morale would be continually low and fairly soon there would be a belief the employees were in charge as they seemed indispensable no matter the performance levels. It is very difficult for managers to maintain any sort of discipline and control if the staff know he is unlikely to be in the job long.
Examples where sticking with managers has worked can be shown in 1974 when Manchester United were relegated under Tommy Docherty. They came straight back up the following season and Docherty took them to two Cup Finals in 1976 and 1977. In 1978 Tottenham were relegated under Keith Burkinshaw. He kept his job got them back up the following season and they went onto win the FA Cup in 1981 and 1982 and the UEFA Cup in 1984.
During the late 90’s, Charlton Athletic were desperate to get in, and stay, in the Premier League under Alan Curbishley. They won a dramatic play-off final against Sunderland in 1998 to gain promotion from The Championship but went back down the following year. Curbishley then took them back up as Champions in 2000 and they managed to establish themselves as a Premier League club for the next 7 years before Curbishley left and they went back down.
At Newcastle it will be interesting to see how the owners intend to honour the 8-year contract they have given Alan Pardew if they go down this season. All this changing of the man in charge just makes the new incumbent’s job so much harder. They have to try and get immediate results with somebody else’s playing staff and then are not given any time with the new signings they make themselves.
Two examples of good ownership can be found at Middlesbrough and Everton. Steve Gibson is renowned for his support of managers, when others would have kicked them into touch long ago. This has resulted in a relative period of stability at the club as both fans and players know the manager is unlikely to be the scapegoat for poor performance.
Moyes and Everton are one of the better examples
Bill Kenwright at Everton is another who has given support to his manager, David Moyes who has been in charge at Goodison for almost 11 years. Without spending vast sums of money, Moyes has been able to build teams at the club in the full knowledge he is in for the long haul.
But is this all just a reflection of society these days? You can quite easily stop and start a game on Football Manager or FIFA and play it again till you get the right result, so does that just create an unrealistic ambition of your own experiences? Do we just want too much too soon and are we totally unprepared for something which is seems to be in short supply these days – patience?
If football clubs were run as public companies with shareholders, owners would get to understand how much the share price drops on any uncertainty as to the future direction of the club.
Perhaps this is why so many poor businessmen are able to take over football clubs when they would get found out in the corporate world. Or should we be more selective in who takes over our clubs? The ‘Fit and Proper’ test does not extend to checking whether the incoming owners actually have the money to buy the club, but then in a free market surely an owner can sell for whatever price they want accept – i.e. Ken Bates? Is this all just a necessary by-product of the popularity and financial worth of football itself? There are good and bad business owners in every industry but not all of them have their activities played out so publicly as they do at a football club. Plus, customers of businesses in other industries can just vote with their feet, but at many football clubs support comes at the price of freedom of choice.
The examples at Chelsea and Southampton may well be the worst examples of profligacy in football ownership and they may well not be the last, and I am to conclude that none of this is any good for the game. Of course, the mismanagement at Portsmouth Football Club which has put the club on the verge of extinction, will probably take some beating and football really needs to decide whether it can be run as a business or as a sport.
Swindon fans had to consider the possibility of administration as their owner no longer wished to finance the club anymore and selling players was their only option. This then lead to them losing their talismanic manager, Paolo Di Canio and risking the progress they’ve made in the last few seasons?
Chelsea fans should take heed. What would happen to them if Abramovich ever withdrew his money – assuming, of course, it was ever his money in the first place?
It’s been one of the summer’s most intriguing transfer battles. Viktor Gyökeres, the Swedish sensation who’s been banging in goals left, right and centre for Sporting CP, had his pick of Europe’s elite clubs. Manchester United, with their new boss Ruben Amorim – the very man who transformed Gyökeres into a goal machine – seemed like the obvious destination. Yet here we are, watching Arsenal close in on a deal for the 27-year-old striker.
So what went wrong for United? And more importantly, what made Arsenal so appealing that Gyökeres was willing to risk disciplinary action at Sporting just to secure his move to the Emirates?
The Reunion That Never Was
The story begins with what looked like a perfect match. Ruben Amorim’s appointment as Manchester United manager in late 2024 should have been a slam dunk for the Red Devils to secure Gyökeres’ signature. After all, it was under Amorim’s guidance that the striker transformed from a decent Championship player into one of Europe’s most prolific forwards, smashing 97 goals in 102 games for Sporting.
But according to multiple reports, Viktor Gyokeres ‘rejected’ Man Utd as the Sporting striker snubbed a reunion with Ruben Amorim in a major boost to Arsenal. The decision wasn’t taken lightly – Gyokeres communicated his priority to move to Arsenal to Man United, essentially closing the door on Old Trafford.
The Arsenal Appeal
So what made Arsenal so irresistible? The answer lies in several key factors that aligned perfectly with Gyökeres’ career ambitions.
First and foremost, the priority of Viktor Gyokeres is to go to Arsenal – he would love to go to Arsenal for several reasons, including obviously Champions League football. While United have been struggling to consistently qualify for Europe’s premier competition, Arsenal have established themselves as Champions League regulars under Mikel Arteta.
But it goes deeper than just European football. The 27-year-old striker ‘sees Arsenal as the perfect platform to take the next step in his career’, and there’s a compelling reason why. Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has managed to convince Viktor Gyokeres to snub a move to Manchester United, reportedly through promises of a central role in his system and the club’s long-term vision.
The Mikel Arteta Factor
While Amorim knows Gyökeres’ game inside out, it’s Arteta who’s painted the more compelling picture of the future. The Spanish manager has been building something special at Arsenal – a young, hungry squad with genuine title ambitions. For a 27-year-old striker hitting his prime, the promise of being the final piece in Arsenal’s puzzle is more attractive than being part of United’s ongoing rebuild.
Arsenal’s tactical setup also suits Gyökeres perfectly. Unlike United’s recent tactical confusion, Arsenal’s system is well-established and tailored to maximize attacking output. The prospect of playing alongside creative talents like Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka, rather than trying to fit into United’s disjointed attack, clearly appealed to the Swedish international.
The Sporting Standoff
Gyökeres’ determination to join Arsenal has been so strong that he’s been willing to take drastic action. Viktor Gyokeres was due back at Sporting for pre-season on Friday after the club gave him permission to delay his return, but his continued absence has created a disciplinary crisis.
The striker’s actions speak louder than any agent’s words. By missing training and facing potential sanctions, he’s sending a clear message that Arsenal is his preferred destination, regardless of the consequences.
Read More: 5 times Arsenal players were harshly treated by English referees and VAR officials
The Financial Reality
While both clubs could afford Sporting’s asking price, Arsenal’s approach has been more strategic. Arsenal are close to agreeing deal for Sporting striker, with negotiations progressing steadily despite the valuation gap.
United’s chaotic transfer strategy in recent years may have also played a role. For a player looking for stability and a clear pathway to success, Arsenal’s methodical approach under Arteta and sporting director Edu presented a more attractive proposition than United’s scattergun transfer policy.
The Final Verdict
Viktor Gyökeres’ decision to snub Manchester United for Arsenal isn’t just about Champions League football or tactical fit – it’s about joining a project that feels destined for success. While United offered familiarity with Amorim, Arsenal offered something more valuable: the chance to be the missing piece in a genuine title-challenging team.
As the deal edges closer to completion, it’s clear that Gyökeres saw something in Arsenal that United simply couldn’t match. Sometimes, the grass really is greener on the other side of North London.
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After months of speculation and negotiations, Arsenal are finally on the verge of completing one of the summer’s most anticipated transfers. Viktor Gyökeres is set to become the Gunners’ marquee signing, with the club inching closer to finalizing a deal that could transform their attacking fortunes under Mikel Arteta.
The Swedish striker’s move to the Emirates has been anything but straightforward, with multiple rounds of negotiations and rejected offers creating a fascinating transfer saga. But now, with the deal entering its final stages, here’s everything you need to know about the contract and fee structure.
The Transfer Fee Battle
Arsenal have agreed to pay around £55m to sign Viktor Gyökeres, though the road to this agreement has been bumpy. Mikel Arteta’s side reportedly had a formal offer of €65 million (£56.2 million) in guaranteed money and €15 million (£13 million) in add-ons rejected earlier in the negotiations.
Sporting are thought to want £69m including add-ons for the 27-year-old, creating a valuation gap that has required careful negotiation. The Portuguese club initially pushed for an initial fee of €70 million (£60.5 million), but Arsenal’s persistence has seemingly paid off.
What’s particularly interesting is the structure of the deal. While the clubs aren’t too far away from a compromise on an overall fee, it’s thought how much of that fee will be guaranteed is key. This suggests Arsenal have been clever in their approach, front-loading the guaranteed portion while keeping add-ons achievable.
Read More: How Viktor Gyokeres Would Transform Arsenal’s Current XI
The Contract Details
The personal terms have been the smoother part of this transfer puzzle. Arsenal aim to seal the Viktor Gyökeres transfer in the coming 48 hours with a £200,000-a-week contract agreed with the striker. This five-year deal would make him one of the highest-paid players at the club, reflecting his status as Arteta’s primary target.
The £200,000-per-week salary represents a significant investment from Arsenal, showing just how highly they rate the Swedish international. For context, this would put him among the club’s top earners, alongside players like Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard.
The Gentleman’s Agreement Controversy
One of the most intriguing aspects of this transfer has been the disputed “gentleman’s agreement.” Sporting president Frederico Varandas disputed the existence of a ‘gentleman’s agreement’ with Gyökeres’ agent that would allow him to leave for a fixed fee of £50.8m (€60m) plus £8.4m (€10m) in add-ons.
This disagreement has clearly complicated negotiations, with Sporting holding firm on their valuation while Arsenal believed they could secure him for less. The eventual compromise suggests both parties have moved from their initial positions.
The Player’s Determination
What’s made this transfer particularly compelling is Gyökeres’ own determination to join Arsenal. Viktor Gyökeres was due back at Sporting for pre-season on Friday after the club gave him permission to delay his return, but his absence has created disciplinary issues with his current club.
The striker’s actions speak volumes about his desire to move to North London. Missing training sessions and facing potential disciplinary action shows a player willing to push for his preferred destination, even at personal cost.
The Final Push
With negotiations now in their final stages, Arsenal fans can finally start getting excited about welcoming their new striker. The deal represents more than just a signing – it’s a statement of intent from a club determined to compete at the highest level.
After years of searching for a reliable goalscorer, Arsenal appear to have found their man. The combination of proven pedigree, perfect age profile, and burning desire to join the club makes this a transfer that could define Arsenal’s next chapter under Arteta.
Read More: Viktor Gyökeres’ Mask Celebration: The Real Meaning Explained
It’s impossible to watch Viktor Gyökeres score without witnessing his now-trademark celebration – the interlocked hands placed firmly over his mouth, creating what looks like a sinister mask. The Swedish sensation has been banging in goals left, right and centre for Sporting CP, and with each strike comes that haunting gesture that’s had football fans across the globe scratching their heads.
With Sporting CP, he won two back-to-back Primeira Liga titles in 2024 and 2025, winning the Bola de Prata as the league’s top scorer in both seasons. But as the summer transfer window reaches its climax, that celebration might soon be gracing the Emirates Stadium – Arsenal are close to agreeing a deal worth around £55m (€63.5m) plus add-ons for the Swedish striker. While his goalscoring prowess is undeniable, it’s his celebration that’s truly captured the imagination of supporters worldwide.
The Villain’s Mask Theory
For months, speculation ran wild about what the celebration actually meant. Initially, his former Coventry teammate Josh Eccles joked that the celebration could reference Hannibal Lecter, the notorious character known for his dark traits. The theory gained traction, with many believing the Swedish striker was channeling his inner villain after each goal.
The Hannibal Lecter connection wasn’t entirely far-fetched either. “Hannibal eats people, and Viktor destroys defenses,” Eccles said. It was a cheeky comment that resonated with fans who’d watched Gyökeres systematically dismantle opposing backlines with his clinical finishing.
Others suggested it was inspired by Bane from Batman, given the way he covers his mouth with both hands. Gabriel’s variation, placing his hands over his eyes, was widely seen as playful when the Arsenal defender mimicked the celebration recently, showing just how iconic it’s become.
The Truth Behind the Mask
But here’s where it gets interesting – the real meaning is far more personal than any comic book villain reference. The meaning behind the former Coventry City star’s celebration has finally been revealed after he made a promise to his old club. In typical Gyökeres fashion, he kept fans guessing for months before finally putting the rumors to bed.
However, in an Instagram post, Gyokeres put the rumors to bed when he shared the actual inspiration behind his celebration. Rather than channeling fictional villains, the mask represents something much more meaningful to his journey as a footballer.
The celebration has become so synonymous with Gyökeres that it’s almost impossible to separate the man from the gesture. This signature move has sparked curiosity and quickly gone viral, with fans imitating and speculating about its meaning. From Sunday league pitches to professional stadiums, you’ll find players attempting their own version of the mask celebration.
A Symbol of Success
What makes this celebration particularly compelling is how it’s evolved alongside Gyökeres’ career trajectory. The “mask” celebration, however, continues to be a compelling symbol of his rising profile and impressive goal-scoring prowess. Viktor Gyökeres is a Forward who have played in 33 matches and scored 39 Goals in the 2024/2025 season of Liga NOS in Portugal.
The timing couldn’t be better for such an iconic celebration. With Arsenal in advanced talks and personal terms already agreed on a five-year deal, Gyökeres has become one of the most sought-after strikers in world football. The transfer saga has been anything but straightforward – the Swede was due back for pre-season training on July 12, after Sporting gave him permission to delay his return, and he’s now facing disciplinary action after missing training amid the Arsenal interest.
The 27-year-old has given up €2m (£1.7m) of his Sporting salary to help facilitate a move to Arsenal, showing just how desperate he is to make the switch to North London. Every goal he scores – and every mask celebration that follows – only adds to his growing legend and Arsenal’s determination to secure his signature.
Whether you love it or find it slightly unsettling, there’s no denying that Viktor Gyökeres has created something truly memorable. Arsenal fans will be hoping to see that haunting mask celebration at the Emirates very soon, as Mikel Arteta finally gets his proven goalscorer. In an era where goal celebrations can feel manufactured or forced, his mask gesture feels authentic and personal. It’s become as much a part of his identity as his lethal left foot, and frankly, long may it continue.
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