Arsenal and Their $1.5 BILLION Roster Lost to Fleetwood Town's $3 MILLION Roster in The Carabao Cup
Some are calling it THE BIGGEST UPSET IN ENGLISH FOOTBALL HISTORY. It's certainly the biggest upset I've seen. Not that I'm as plugged into the world of European soccer as much as, say, actual soccer fans are. But looking at these numbers, I can tell it's big fucking deal.
I can draw comparisons to college football. We don't always have the exactly NIL spend of every college football team, but when Notre Dame lost to Northern Illinois in 2024, that was approximately a $40M roster losing to a $1M roster.
Meaning Notre Dame lost with a roster roughly 40x more expensive than its opponent's. Arsenal lost to a team with a roster 500X less expensive. Woof. That's pretty bad, Arsenal. On top of that, Arsenal is 7th in the Champions League. Which isn't great for them. But compared to Fleetwood Town's 18TH PLACE in LEAGUE TWO. My goodness. For those who don't know, League Two is not one, not two, but three whole tiers below the Champions League. Arsenal is essentially 79 places above them in the standings. Fleetwood Town would have to win back-to-back-to-back-to-back championships to get on Arsenal's level (the Champions League) by the year 2030.
But as always, to tell just how devastating and embarrassing an Arsenal loss was, I have to check in with Zah. Barstool's resident Gooner. Maybe Arsenal was resting a bunch of starters or something. Maybe they didn't want to win this game anyways.
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Yikes. My apologies, I wasn't tuned into Stool After Dark yesterday. I knew Zah would be upset about the loss, but I didn't realize until I watched those clips this morning that he had staked his reputation on the line for -1000. I guess it was pretty bad then. I guess Arsenal was trying to win the soccer game after all. And they couldn't do it. Anyways, here are some highlights.
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Pretty cool upset. That's one thing soccer has going for it that I'm afraid college football is trying to do away with. Crazy fucking upsets. Nobody even wants the equivalent of games like this happening in college football anymore. Because 98% of the time it's a blowout. But if you ask me… something like Fleetwood Town over Arsenal, or Northern Illinois over Notre Dame happening once in a blue moon… that makes it all worth it.