The money payed under the table toward players obviously or did he get the boot by the FA for nothing
It was " Invested " illegally to a player for the purpose of bringing success " Illegally " to the club . If you have a player illegally at your club , your club is doing something illegal
There are reports at the time that the money paid to Buchan was to compensate him for his loss of his Sports shop buisness that he had in Sunderland and relocating costs to London. True that the rules didn't allow for that at the time, but it's nothing that wouldn't be agreed in personal terms these days. You trying to make out that Arsenal 'bought' their titles in the 30's on the back of this is quite frankly bollocks
I've only said that Arsenal bought titles from having the " Original " sugar Daddy , and also had Illegal activity regarding paying players under the table too . There is much for Arsenal to be ashamed of during the twenty's but lots to be proud of since . On a personal note , I thing Norris used his high standing for illegal activity a lot , just can't be proved a hundred years later .
Norris was no doubt a shady character, but Arsenal didn't 'buy' any of those titles. Norris wasn't even at the club when we won them. The misdemeanours that were brought to light, illegal payments to one player and having his hands in the till at Arsenal, he was rightly punished for.
The 15 million pounds was already pumped into the club , the success followed . Never mine how they made it to top flight ... shady is a fuking understatement of massive proportions
I'll take a ribbing for this Piskie , but there is a section in the book " Money and ( ahem ) Soccer " under " Sugar Daddies "
Got a link to that citation ? The reports I have read say that Norris invested £125,000 into Arsenal, £80,000 of which was to build Highbury. Norris was a property magnate and made his fortune from building and selling houses, it's no great surprise that he would have had this sort of money available to invest into the infrastructure of Arsenal.
Sorry Piskie , that should be 15 THOUSAND pounds I think I said 15 million doh .Quote out of the book " In Court , it emerged that Norris had pumped in 15,000 pounds of his own money into the club in order to achieve success " The equivalent to what a team spent for a whole season on players
15 thousand for an entire average team wages then represents 45 million now. Norris was some card in those days and should have been dealt with more significantly . The " Roaring Twenties " were very dark days in general for football in England , with the biggest " Shame " cloud over Arsenal without a doubt .
What you fail to take into account though is that the Arsenal team, along with many others needed complete rebuilding after the First world war, as sadly many players and staff were killed in battle. It was a period of rebuilding for the whole country and investment was needed, not just in football either. Many of the rules then were different to those now, as already cited when what Norris was pulled up for for 'illegal payments' would today simply be a normal part of agreeing personal terms with players. What you see as 'dark days' was actually a period of rebuilding and regeneration. As for the chip on your shoulder about Arsenal's 'shame', others see as a progressive and ambitious club taking steps to rebuild.
The "invicibles" eventually lost. And they kept on losing. Hence Wenger having his scrawny ass kicked into touch by the so-called Gooner faithful, such as Pixie. You couldn't make it up!
The invincibles weren't invincible though. They got knocked out the cups. And I'm sure they wouldn't survive a beheading, that's invincibility.
