Yesterday, a little bit more detail about Chelsea and Man U’s debts has been revealed in the Guardian; it turns out that this year’s Champions League finalists collectively owe £1.5bn. The funny part of the story is Chelsea’s insistence (through Peter Kenyon’s rabid drivelings) that they don’t have any debt. Oops, I mean “outside debt.”

In a rather Orwellian manner, Chelsea are claiming that they have no debt because, as it turns out, all that money that Abramovich is pouring into the club is actually just “interest free loans.” Which isn’t really a debt right? So, while the Guardian maintains that Chelsea currently owe £736m, Chelsea says “we owe no external banks.”

Right, you just have bonds issued to the tune of £578m in the name of Roman Abramovich and payable within 18 months of his demand. David Dein once famously described Abramovich’s spending as “Roman’s sitting in his tank firing £50 notes at us.” As usual DD was wrong, because if you look closely at those notes, they are IOUs.

Debt? What debt?

The other interesting fact in this article is that both United and Chelsea are actually running annual deficit spending as well. So, not only do that have enormous, unsustainable, club killing debts, but they run nearly £80m in the red every year. And every year their debt gets bigger and bigger and the prospect of their wealthy owners ever earning a dime on their billions in “investments” gets smaller and smaller.

I can’t see any future for these two clubs that doesn’t lead to a financial collapse. If you look, the signs of crisis are already in the offing; United can’t even pay off their transfer fees from last year’s foray into the market. How long before teams stop selling them players on IOU? What happens to United if their banks demand payment on their debt (they currently can’t even pay their interest)? What happens to Chelsea when Roman gets sick of losing £100m a year and stops funding their unsustainable salary structure? Or worse, demands a portion of his £600m debt be returned?

There was a time, when I, like many Arsenal supporters, saw the free spending ways of Man U, Chelsea, and Liverpool and wished that we had some rich guy to help us compete in the market. I no longer have any lingering doubt about the course the Arsenal board is on.

So, whichever club wins, I hope they enjoy the Champions League final today; I’m sure the trophy will be for sale soon on Ebay.

Recently, I had a very feisty argument with a friend. He is a German and his favorite club is Bayern Munich. In England, his favorite club is actually Arsenal. But he essentially told me that Arsenal are a team of pussies and we will never win anything with this set of players. I obviously disagreed and we had quite an argument. He put forward some scenarios to illustrate his point

1. Gerrard converts penalty against Arsenal in the CL. Ballack converts penalty against ManU in the league. Ronaldo converts penalty on the final day at Wigan. When the stakes are so high, which Arsenal player would you trust, not just to step up to take the penalty but actually convert it?

My first answer was RvP, but he is injured often and not guaranteed to be on the pitch. The only other person I could think of was Eduardo.

2. Free kick for Chelsea against ManU, Ballack and Drogba are actually fighting over who takes it. Free kick for ManU against Arsenal, Ronaldo or Hargreaves can take it and maybe others too. If Arsenal get a free kick in a key game, who will step up? Will it be a case of you first?

Again, my first answer was RvP. I really couldn’t think of anyone else.

3. Torres’ 1:1 against Arsnal and Chelsea in the CL, Rooney’s 1:1 against Chelsea at the Bridge and Drogba’s goals against Liverpool in the CL. Which Arsenal player would you trust in a 1:1 in such a tight game?

My only answer was Eduardo. We all know Ade is not very good on 1:1s and I am not sure of RvP either.

There were some other examples, but you get the drift of it by now. My main line of defense was that you don’t come so close without having top players in the side. Just because we fell apart doesn’t mean we lack leaders and winners? There were lots of other reasons – injuries, bad referee decision, fatigue due to lack of depth, etc.

My friend also made some other comments. Living in Germany, he sees lots of Bundesliga games. He claims that not only is Hleb a big loser (something most of us know by now), but also that Rosicky is not much of a big game player. He claims that despite being captain of the Czech team, the big boys are Nedved, Poborsky and Koller.

Certainly the fact that we fell apart in key games at Anfield, the Bridge and OT does show a certain vulnerability. Is it simply a weak defense or do we need more leaders/winners in the team?