ROY KEANE will never be counted among my favourite players of all time, but I had to agree with him when he railed against the type of fans who were watching top-flight football.
It is a fair few years since Keane ranted about the ‘prawn sandwich’ brigade who frequented Old Trafford – in the meantime he has managed at Sunderland and Ipswich Town – but his warnings about the ordinary punter being turned away from the game have certainly come to fruition this week.
Never mind the prawn sandwich munchers of Manchester, now Arsenal have taken a huge step to turning the Emirates into a no-go zone for partakers of pies and pitched their future firmly with the lobster thermidore echelon.
A season-ticket price hike of 6.5% means that from next season the cheapest price to watch the Gunners is a mere £951.
Even more worrying is that the club are seemingly unapologetic about the change.
Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis said: “Ordinary fans are increasingly being priced out of football.”
While he admitted this could be bad for football in the long term, there were no signs of the Gunners back-tracking on their decision.
And one can only assume that, for the time being, they are quite happy to price the great unwashed out of their stadium, filling it instead with yuppies in suits who probably don’t have a clue who Charlie George was let alone such marvellous Gunners’ legends as Peters Simpson and Storey.
For Gunners fans who have faithfully battled through the move from Highbury and the increasing costs of following their team, they must almost be wishing that the club would at least just take them for granted for once, and freeze season-ticket prices rather than essentially working on the premise that supporters are there just to be fleeced for every penny they have got.
