Gunners U-turn over cannon

For more than 50 years it has proudly symbolised Arsenal's origins and powerful ambitions. But tomorrow the football club will announce that the cannon on its crest is to complete an about-turn.

By swivelling the cannon logo by 180 degrees, Arsenal will not just be tinkering with tradition but setting in place yet another money-spinning innovation.

After a nine-month consultation with a London-based team of designers, the club is set to announce the first change to its crest since 1949 at tomorrow's home game against Southampton.

The time it has taken might suggest a complete redesign, but the Evening Standard understands that the change is the relatively minor one of revolving the cannon so that it will point right rather than left (or "east" rather than "west", as the image consultants rather grandly describe their innovation).

This is not down to some kind of footballing feng shui but is the key to a very lucrative marketing plan. The redesign of the cannon, which symbolises the Woolwich Arsenal origins, will enable the club to copyright the logo, thus ensuring it can make even more from the sale of replica shirts and all the other branded paraphernalia eagerly consumed by fans.

Mark Kleinman, chief reporter of Marketing magazine, said: "This means all the existing merchandising that fans have bought becomes redundant and children will pester their parents to buy the stuff with the new logo. The logo change will add nothing to their plans for world domination but it will annoy their fans." It is likely to annoy some 350,000 supporters who own current versions of the Arsenal shirt, at a cost of around £40 each, which will soon be redundant.

Chris Parry, editor of independent website Arsenalworld.com, said there has been widespread concern about the change. "The attitude among supporters seems to be 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it'," he said. "The badge has been the same for as long as most of us can remember and we are all pretty deeply attached to it.

"With fans having to get used to the idea of move to a new stadium already, this is just another bit of change to put up with. We could really do without it. I'm doubly unhappy as it means I'm going to have to redesign all my pages."

Others supporters are more sanguine. Tom Watt, the EastEnders actor turned journalist, said: "You could say that by turning the cannon to the right it makes us more forwardlooking and symbolises our onward march to success. Or at least, that's probably what the design consultancy came up with to justify the first £20,000 of their fee."

He added: "I'm not too concerned. Without wishing to sound like an apologist for the club, I'm pretty sure the heritage is in fairly good hands so it shouldn't be too awful."

The redesign will be introduced at the end of this season, in May. It will coincide with the announcement of a new sponsor as Sega's contract comes to an end and an even more valuable deal is signed with a new company.

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