Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger in all he does » 2008 » December

Arsenal memberships withdrawn over black market tickets

 mentioned in a post a few days back that AISA have put out some interesting information of late.    The information below also comes from AISA and relates to ticket touting.

I have to admit I am utterly biased on this – I completely dislike touting, and would be much happier if there were none.  I appreciate I am in a position of privilege having purchased two silver memberships at the very start of the scheme (when it was the ticket registration scheme), so my partner and I can get to each game we want to.

But I’d like to think that I would have the same view even if I were not a member – tickets are expensive enough as it is, and the thought of genuine fan paying really high fees to buy a ticket from a tout is frustrating in the extreme.

So I read with interest that there have been 8 arrests for touting so far this season, and 7 bans from the area on match days have been handed out in court (of which some were hangovers from arrests last season).

According to AISA the police are now looking to seize the assets of touts, as well as getting banning orders.  This could mean in theory that the police could ask the court to seize the car or house of the tout, although this would only be in an extreme case. 

That number obviously is small, and clearly on the walk from Arsenal tube to the Ems there are still touts around.   But more to the point 400 memberships have been cancelled so far this season alone, after being linked to touted tickets; many more than in the past.

Now that is something else.  It means that the supply to the touts is drying up, and 400 more genuine supporters can get the right to tickets which were previously going on the black market.

According to AISA, “The new customer services and IT infrastructure is helping to create a “web” of intelligence on touts – linking memberships, addresses, credit cards and the like, and allowing more tickets to be stopped at the source.”

Long may it continue.

Denilson: brilliant or a waste of space?

Jonanthan Brown wrote to me directly, rather than via the blog, on the issue of Denilson, and I would like to pass on his thoughts.

To declare my position: I think Denilson is a sensation, but that he suffers as Gilberto did in the fans’ eyes.  If you remember, Gilberto was often thought to be the weak link in the team – until he had a year out with the back injury.  When he came back the roar was huge – everyone suddenly realised what we had been missing.  The “invisible wall” really was fundamental to the way the team worked.

So it seems to me it is with Denilson.   But now it is not just my word for it.

Jonathan has searched the Actim Index stats page – the stats used by the Premiership to grade players. Under the midfielders tag we find Denilson lying in 6th place with 230 points, behind Lampard, Ashley Young, Gareth Barry, Stephen Ireland and Mike Arteta.

As Jonathan says, “By my reckoning this makes Denilson the second best defensive midfielder behind Gareth Barry.”

This is confirmed by the Guardians Fantasy Football stats that has Denilson as the best Defensive Midfielder with 277 points. Played 19 games with 3 goals, 5 assists, 71 interceptions, 11 clearances, 56 tackles won.

I am not suggesting anyone who is a convinced anti-Denilson person will be persuaded – but for anyone who has watched the game and thought, hang on, there is more to Denilson than meets the eye, you will find the stats are with you.

Which raises the question – given that the Lord Wenger has said he will buy someone to play in midfield, the issue is, what will the new midfield look like?   My suggestion is that Denilson will stay, and we will have someone in who can play alongside him, or replace Denilson in the event of an injury, thus giving us the midfield of Nasri, Newman, Denilson, Diaby or Eboue or Walcott or Rosicky.

Arsenal/Everton fan trouble: the police report

At the time of the game I made some comments on the trouble at the Arsenal / Everton match – something I saw from the vantage of the upper tier a little way along from the place over the away fans – towards the half way line.

My thought at the time was that the biggest problem was the policing of the away fans – as the problems started it seemed that we were back to the old problem of police and stewards not being able to handle the matter because they were in the wrong place and had no way to get at the problem.

Immediately after a number of Everton fans wrote to the blog, daring me to print their comments and saying I wouldn’t; but of course I published them as I do 99.999% of comments sent in.  Their argument was that they were under attack from fans above – something that I couldn’t see – but I was also trying to watch the match.

Now the police report has been released via the Arsenal Independent Supporters Assn and it states that there were some instances of Arsenal fans spitting onto Everton fans, confirmed by Arsenal stewards in the away section. A programme and a burger also came down from upstairs onto the away fans – which of course could have been deliberate or simply someone mucking about and being silly – or a deliberate ploy (although it seems a bit of a waste of £6 to me).  Would you use a programme as a missile?

AISA says, “The vast majority of the objects that landed on Everton fans (as seen in the YouTube videos of the incident) were in fact thrown up by other Everton fans, trying to reach people in club level. Merseyside police confirmed that Everton fans have “previous” for doing this – trying to throw objects up, and ending up hitting their own fans.”

The police’s view of the incident was that it was “something and nothing”.  Some Everton fans rushed across the away section to get involved in an altercation across the barrier; a number of Everton fans were drunk and “lively” that day. 6 arrests made, all of whom are Everton fans and are going to court.

So there we are – a lot of pushing and shouting and the like and not nearly as much as it might have seen at first go.

I am most grateful to AISA for putting this report out – it helps clear up a situation on which we had some very contradictory comments.

Arsenal 11 Tony Adams XI 4 (announcer sent off)

There was a moment right at the end of the game against Portsmouth in which Papa Bouba Diop committed what looked like a dreadful foul on (I think) Denilson.  From my position in the upper tier quite some way along from the incident I didn’t have anything remotely like a perfect view, but it looked dreadful from where we sat.

After what seemed an age of hand waving the men came on with the stretcher and carted Diop off.  But long before that the Portsmouth sub came on.  Now I know it is only a technicality, but you really should not have a sub on the pitch at the same time as the player going off.

Then, to add to the fun the stretcher party couldn’t work out how to proceed, going one way then the other, and then trying to walk across the whole width of the pitch – before the ref said, “it is three yards to the touchline, go off that way”.

Then, to my surprise (and if I have got this wrong, I apologise – it was three quarters of the pitch length away), there was no card for what looked like a terrible tackle.

And all that came after one of the oddest afternoons at the Ems, wherein Mr Microphone who whips up the audience to a frenzy (well, a bit of shouting) was not there and the stand in sounded as if he had never seen a microphone before, let alone a football match.  He had the Portsmouth fans in stitches with his mispronounciation of the team, he couldn’t find the names of the mascotts, he suddenly shouted “are you ready” and then went dead quiet.  It was an utter shambles.

What is remarkable is that an event that brings in the club £3 million should not bother to have a back up presenter.  You’d have thought… well, no, perhaps not.  After all it is just football.

Still, six without defeat, which is the best run of the league season, so at least we drove to the wild and wintry midlands quite happy.   Then on 606 came that utter imbecile prat twit nutcase bully ranter berk Allen Green who spent most of the match he was burbling about complaining about the fact that all the games were at 2pm not 3pm in the EPL.  Why? he shouted.  Why?  And in case we hand’t got it, he repeated himself 13 times.

Had I not been driving I might have been tempted to point out that it was a Sunday after Xmas, and that many rail services were curtailed and maybe it had a bit to do with helping away fans get home.  But of course he wouldn’t know about stuff that concerns mere ordinary supporters.

And then still it was not over because then we had Harry Houdini not only wondering why his magic tricks don’t work at the Tiny Fantasists, but also complaining endlessly about the ref.   It gives yet another chance for the EPL and FA to show how pro-tiny tott they are.  Remember their actions over the abuse Sol Campbell got when Tottenham played there, and how all they managed to do was put up a little range of pictures – out of the thousands giving racist and homophobic abuse that afternoon.   I suspect nothing will happen to Harry H, except a meaningless tap on the wrist.

The 11-4 score is the number of chances during the match recorded by the Guardian.  Tony Adams got his proper respect from those of us old enough to have watched his first ever game, and the Lord Wenger has said that he was ready to buy one player and now might buy two.

So possibly everyone could be happy.   Hope so – the comments these past couple of days have showed not much Xmas spirit, (or maybe too much Xmas spirit), and I want to make a suggestion.  If someone comes on with a load of abuse about me, or another correspondent, or the Lord Wenger, or anything else in the Arsenal Universe, why don’t we all just ignore it, and carry on as if it had never been said?   I must admit to being as guilty as anyone at replying – particularly when I was endlessly called a racist earlier this year.   But maybe silence is better.

Finally, finally, finally, a point from the game.  I thought Carlos Vela was brilliant.  Every ball, every touch… while others couldn’t make it happen, he just brought the whole thing to life.  I really do hope we can hold onto him.

The past was not as good as some imagine

So, five league games unbeaten.  Not perfect by any means, but certainly better than the two defeats that preceded the change of captaincy.   And certainly not bad when the run includes three of the teams currently above us.

And even more so not bad when you remember that the heart of our team has been ripped out of us either by wreckless insanity, a kick around on international “duty”, insane yellow cards and the inevitable sheer bad luck.   Eduardo, Rosicky, Walcott, Fabregas, Adebayor, Clichy – these are the people who make a champsionship winning team and none could start against Aston “if you go down and they’ve got the ball, hold your head” Villa.  Take out the young up and coming players like Djourou and Song, and you can see how far back we are being pushed.

Two things occurred to me last night as I thought over this.  I happened to glance at the Championship league table, and saw Charlton preparing themselves for the drop into League One.   That reminded me of the time when Charlton were punching way above their weight, challenging in the top half of the EPL.    But after the club failed to get into the Champions League, after challenging for a place, the muttering started.  The common phrase was “Curbishley has taken us as far as he can – time for someone new.”

Curbishley eventually had enough, left the club, and they went into freefall – and now look where they are.

The other thought arose from reading “Arsenal: The Official Biography” which I was given for Christmas.  It made me think, following all those endless “best 50 goals” type DVDs, just how easy it is to forget.  Somehow the past is an eternal Unbeaten Season, in which Henry scores a wonder goal in every game, and Pires gets a tap in.

But just read the ups and downs of 1999/2000, as an example, and you’ll see what I mean.  It was not all wonderful – it had its ups and downs – but ultimately Wenger delivered everything he promised and more.

There is a danger. a danger that the mumbling and muttering of discontent will eventually make Wenger think, “I’ve had enough” and go on to take any one of the million other jobs he could walk into.  It would give me no pleasure to watch the subsequent decline.

Why we should never forget George Leavey

There are three big reasons why most football commentary is negative.

First, it is easier to write negative than positive commentaries.  I remember the classic moment 20 years back when we beat Liverpool Not-yet-insolvents in the last game of the year.  The fanzine “1-0 down 2-1 Up” celebrated that with a series of articles at the start of the following season.   Naively I expected the mag to be full of positives.  Instead it contained a whole string of make-believe articles considering what might have happened… if we had lost.

Second, journalists write negative all the time simply because most people don’t support Arsenal, Liverpool Insolvents, Manchester Bankrupts or the KGB in Fulham or any other team you can imagine.   (Incidentally that is why sponsorship of any particular team is always pointless from a commercial point of view.   Would you ever buy Crown Paints or Holstein?  Sponsors lose far more trade than they gain through their sponsorships.  It is all vanity for the top dogs.)   So if a JIP (journo in pub) writes a scathing attack on Arsenal, they are pleasing most of their readers, because most readers are anti-Arsenal, and that is good for sales.

Third, no matter how good you are, you could always be better.  (Even Arsenal Ladies have this – true they win every league match, but they have just lost Julie Fleeting, and they have been knocked out of Europe…) – which make criticism so easy.

So negativity is what we get.   You may have noticed how jolly the JIPs were over Cesc’s injury, and how they poke fun at the Lord Wenger when he gets annoyed on the touch line… it pleases most of their Anti-Arsenal readership.

The only consolation is that JIPs do it to every club.   Just today (24 Dec 2008) there are stories about Liverpool’s failure to get the money for a new stadium, about how Scholari is demanding money and  the club ain’t got none… so it goes.

Hence my thought as I get ready to go to my partner’s house for Christmas… a true supporter supports.  That’s the deal.  To peoople who say they are “Arsenal” but moan a lot about Arsenal my answer is that they should have a bash at being a supporter of a team that doesn’t win stuff, ever.  Like Torquay United.   Small ground, in need of repair, small crowds, relegated to the Conference, no reason local concern or feeling for the club, got to one Wembley final only to lose…   Go there and try supporting them every week. Then come back after three years and realise just how blessd we all are to have had Arsenal chosen for us by our families, our heritage, and our background.

Just under 99 years ago, Arsenal went bust, and were on the very edge of being taken over by and ultimately merged with Fulham.  Because of the dedication and determination of George Leavey, the chairman, who despite not being a wealthy man, selflessly put his own money into paying the players during the summer of 1910, Woolwich Arsenal survived as an independent club, and when the move away from the declining Plumstead area did come it was a move that brought growth and maintained independence rather than bringing closure and oblivion.

In 1910, first division Woolwich Arsenal were struggling on crowds of around 10,000, and criticism was everywhere.  We no longer remember how everyone at the time was a critic of Arsenal, but those who really know their Arsenal history do remember people like George Leavey.  He never got his money back, and no one ever really thanked him for saving our club, he is not honoured with any plaques or busts, as far as I know.  But I believe we would all do better to remember him, than spend our time sniping at Wenger, the board, the team, or the club.

Thank you for reading my ramblings.   Have a great Christmas.

Tony Attwood

The next big team will be…

…. the team that is built around the ability to beat anti-football.

It is now 243 years 38 weeks, 4 days, 5 hours, 23 minuutes 3 seconds since one of the big four won a league match, and time is starting to run out for these top clubs.

By having successfully evolved ways of disrupting all real football without engaging the wrath of the refs, the FA and the EPL, the anti-football clubs have endeavoured to aid their own survival.  The result, as we can see, is a bunching of lower teams together in the bottom part of the league.  Two defeats and you are in the relegation zone.  Two wins and you are “challenging for Europe”.

In the short term ultimately someone at the top is going to win a game, but the way it looks at the moment it is either going to be a victory in a game between two of the top four, or it is going to be because of a moment’s luck.

But what of next season, and the one after?  Having found their solution, the lesser clubs are certainly not going to give it up.   You can’t imagine Aston Villa, having found success with their approach, then stopping it and starting to play free-flowing open football.   Likewise you can’t imagine the FA, or EPL, doing anything about all the tricks of anti-football.   That is not their style and besides if they were going to do something, they would have done it by now. Rotational fouling has been around for five years, and there has not been a single move against it.

Which means in the end that the solution has to come from the one of the top four clubs that has imagination: Arsenal.  The only question is how long will it take to find this solution.

There are moments when I watch a game that I think that the answer is just around the corner – and then along comes another major injury and we are set back again.  Three really influential players – Rosicky, Eduardo and Walcott have now been joined by Cesc out of the game.  It is creative players like that who will find a way through, and those are the ones we are missing.

But there is a ray of hope.   It is clear that in the coming years the players who are going to join the Arsenal first team squad will have been around for a while.  They will have been brought up on anti-football as the norm, and they will, as part of their upbringing, seen how to overcome it.   I suspect that by the time Jack Wilshere is striding across the turf game after game, anti-football will be beaten, eaten both by its own desire to negate everything that is good in the game, but also by a new round of utter brilliance.

Bergkamp II

The message cannot be clearer – with the injury to Cesc now, and the clear signs that Liverpool are still be protected by referees in a way that other teams are not, the Lord Wenger will know exactly where we stand for the second half of the season.

Back comes Eduardo, followed somewhat later by Rosicky and Theo.  Out goes Cesc for a while, plus anyone from the kiddies’ side who wants to go off on loan.  Hovering is Jack Wilshere who the lord Wenger described last week as Bergkamp II.  (That’s interesting because about a year ago Wenger said that if there were another Dennis out there, he couldn’t find him).  Bergkamp II.  Can you imagine?   And he doesn’t even have a fear of flying.

If he is unsure as to whether the baby team will be able to step up and do their stuff, the Lord Wenger can go and buy anyone he wants.  Real Mad have already spent their dosh paying  several hundred billion for Lasagne Diarra – which is ok because it gets us more money, and it gets money for Portsmouth (and it is hard not to feel something for Portsmouth given who now runs the show, and who is in and around the team).

Virtually everyone else is bust – BarBarBarcaSheep could buy someone as could one or two Italian clubs, but it is going to be a very thin market – which means Arsenal can get whomsoever they wish.   (And that’s leaving aside the fact that by and large most of the people we buy are not on other team’s shopping lists anyway).

I haven’t a clue whether we should buy anyone or not – time and again I have been amazed at what he has conjured up from the realms of the outer darkness.  I’m the one who wondered what the hell he was doing with Henry who didn’t seem to know where the goal was for the first two months.  (I also thought Dennis was over the hill when we bought him.  Shows what I know.)

With that in mind, I was heartened by Sunday, and as each game goes along I think that Denilson is not just a great midfielder, but is getting that inside knowledge that Gilberto had – that “invisible wall” stuff that made him so valuable.  I do recall how, when Gilberto got his year-long injury, there was a general feeling that he would not be missed because he really did nothing.   When he came back he got an overwhelming reception – everyone knew by then why he was in the side, and what we had missed without him.

So, now its Villa.  If you thought Liverpool were play-acting (as they were), just wait until you see the “go down and hold your head” approach they have been using.

Football in turmoil, Villa rumbled, Liverpool as Emperors

There was a moment in the Villa game yesterday where one of their players went down holding his head and the ref looked, and then played the game on.  The commentator said “that’s not right” or something like that, and eventually several minutes later the game was stopped.

I thought this a heart-warming moment.   I’ve never really wanted players to be injured (well except for Ince, I suppose, and Souness.  Oh and Keane, and…  )  Well, ok, I’ve not wanted that many players to be hurt, and that’s not what I was after this time.  It was just clear that the ref had rumbled the Villa game: “if you go down son, and they are attacking, hold your head.  It will get the game stopped”.

We saw it at the Arsenal Villa game where a player did exactly that and then came off for treatment on an ankle injury – and maybe the refs have caught on.

Which is good, because the rest of football is upside down.  Arsenal board are, according to the Observer, talking to Usmanov not, (as the headline claims) to get him on the board, but just to try and stabalise the club.  I’ve only been in one company where part of the shareholding was out of favour with another part, and believe me it does not make for stability, so maybe this is good.  Maybe this is the shakeout that has been needed  for some time.

(Or maybe it is like that moment in “1984″ in which we are at war with Eurasia, and then half way through a sentence everything changes and Eurasia is our ally and we are at war with Eastasia.  If you haven’t read it for a few years, read it again – you’ll be amazed how close we are to what Orwell was talking about – and he wrote it in 1948).

What was interesting was that our man in Switzerland did emphasise that the sustainability financial model of Arsenal is at the core of everything, Usmanov or no.  The problem of course is if Usmanov wants to use the club as Liverpool and Manchester have been used – as a way of playing with debt.  On that score we have no knowledge and that of course would be a disaster.   But if he sat there like a good boy, and stopped issuing writs to people who say nasty things about him (for God’s sake Mr Usmanov, a lot of supporters call me a total tosser, and I don’t go round suing them) then maybe its all right.

Still, it is good that after weeks of the JIBs (“journalists in bars” in case you have not been paying attention) not talking to the PAs (“players agents”) we are back to business as usual.    So we are going to buy Arshavin (Mail on Sunday) and Tevez (Mirror), Wenger is going to Real Mad (News of the world, so it must be true), and we are being taken over by a consortium from the Middle East (Sunday Times – ditto).

As for Chelsea, that Scolari fella has “branded” (press word) “liars”  some other fellas he calls “unscrupulous individuals” (PAs talking to JIBs), whom are “leaking untrue stories to newspapers in a bid to unsettle players and the club.”   Oh my whatever next.  I’ve never heard of such a thing.

The Observer says, “The statement comes at a time when there are concerns at Chelsea about players’ representatives and their relationship with the media”.  Goodness.

So finally on to the truly odd Liverpool Insolvency.   We know that the Yanks who own the Insolvents have got a £350m loan they have got to restructure by 25 January 2009, and they have no money to do it, and those awfully nice bankers who have just wrecked my pension fund won’t give them any money.

Well, on today’s BBC teletext it says, “Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez will have to sell before he can buy next month”.

I thought at first they were talking about players – but then I realised, that is not how Liverpudlians think.  To them the north west is the centre of the universe, rather than a run down port that was once part of the slave trade.  What that sentence actually means is that Liverpool want to buy January.  That is they want to buy the month.

Just like the emperors in Rome used to rename months after them – and then extended their month to have more days than another month named after any other emperor (August is named after Emperor Augustus etc), so Liverpool want to rename January as “Liverpool” thus making the year “Liverpool, February, March etc”.

You don’t believe me?   Shame on you.   And yes, to the gentleman who wrote in and said, “that wasn’t you on LBC on Friday afternoon was it?” yes it was – so there.  If I am on LBC, I must know about Roman emperors, Liverpool and months.  Stands to reason.

Right.  Into the Cortina and off to the Ems.

Is this a new Bankrupts ploy, or are they out of control?

This week’s game in the press has been to suggest that Arsenal is falling apart because there have been changes at Board level.  My guess (which is of course just a guess) is that the change arounds can only be for the good of the club.  They will have no effect on the short term, and will have a very positive effect next year.

What is interesting though is that there is little on the way in which the management of Manchester Bankrupt seems to be following the finances of that illustrious club.

We have had an extraordinary outburst from Sir Alex F-Word about Real Mad, which was very neatly side-stepped by Real Mad’s top dog who calmly said “we’d never talk about anyone in such a manner”.

We also had the outburst about Evra who clearly did something a bit dodgy at KGB Fulham.  We then had some very ill-judged criticism of the FA which led to the FA replying (for once) by publishing the hearing’s full findings.  What was interresting about those releases were that they said that the Bankrupt’s assistant manager Mike Phelan and fitness coach Tony Strudwick were “unreliable witnesses” which is legal shorthand for saying they were liars.

So instead of letting this slip away into the Christmas piss-up that Manchester Bankrupt always have the Neville character (who according to the report behaved in an abusive and provocative manner” in the KGB affair launched another assault.

Everything about this looks like the Bankrupts have gone out of control, except for one thing.

Supposing they have invented a new rotational system – rotational press releases, or I suppose you could call it, rotational abuse.

They work their way around the club each one abusing the FA, another club, a ref, the EPL, anyone you like, and no one gets done because it was just a one off incident.

I am not sure if Manchester Bankrupt staff are that clever to organise such a process, but it would but quite amusing if they were.  Having failed to deal with rotational fouling and rotational time wasting, the FA and EPL are hardly likely to deal with this which means they can get away with anything they like.

What really is happening at board level

So, I read the situation quite wrong in my earlier blog, and the member of the board who got up and walked away was not just bored with the talk, but annoyed that her arguments were not listened to.

At least I had the sense to suggest I didn’t have any inside knowledge on the goings on in the corridors of the Ems, but with Lady N’s commentary we now know a lot more.

The Lady says that she was fed up that the board was run along the lines Frizman said, rather than anyone listening to her, even though their shareholdings were nearly equal.

This is certainly odd, and for once it does venture into an area where I have a clue what I am talking about (me being the chair of a plc and all).

Every board of directors that I have been on is dominated by argument and debate which has nothing to do with the number of shares you have.   You are on the board because you have something to contribute to the development of the company, not because you own the company.  Quite often you have a mix of share owners and those who have zero or few shares.  I have never ever known anyone be so crass as to mention their percentage ownership in relation to board policy.

Imagine this scenario (and I take out the names so as not to make it too personal)

Member A argues for a new stadium, and presents statistical analysis about the ability to fill it, figures on costs and the like.  He refers to the waiting list for tickets at the current stadium.

Member B says, “just because we have a waiting list we don’t know they will all turn up if you give them tickets.  People say they will do all sorts of things, and they don’t.  Supposing 38,000 is all we will get.”

Member A says, ok, I don’t think much of that argument, but I tell you what, let’s play our European games at Wembley.   If we can get 75,000 there, then I reckon we can get 60,000 to a ground just round the corner from Highbury.   So they do that, prove it and the plan is back on.

Member B: I still don’t like it – Highbury is our home.  We’ve been there since 1913.  It’s home.  I don’t like all this modern stuff.

Member A: That’s an emotional argument.  Emotion is important, but I can show facts and figures on how, if we don’t move, we will slip down the league because we won’t generate enough money, and top players won’t want to come here.

Member B: All these facts and figures.  You can make statistics say anything…

And so on.  I’m sure you have come across this sort of thing before – one person arguing emotionally and one arguing with stats and logic. Of course I don’t know if anything remotely like this happened in the board meetings at Arsenal, but it would be unusual if it did not.  I’ve certainly seen it many times – and normally the best thing is to get that person off the board, or simply to ensure you out vote that person each time an issue arises.

If (and it is pure supposition on my part) this is what has been happening at Arsenal, then the upheavel of recent months has been in a good cause.  A complex operation like Arsenal needs minds of the highest calibre on the board, and maybe that has been something that has been missing of late.

Oh joyful day

What a jolly day for news this is.

Take that bunch of loveable rogues the Tiny Fantasits form White Hart Lane.  On the last day of the last January transfer window they sign Gilberto from Hertha Berlin.   He plays a couple of times in the space of a year, and after that the fantastic man-manager that is Harry Hedgehog says, “that’s the last time he’ll play for us”.

What a wonderful way to deal with your team.  Gives a real sense of togetherness.  And a sense that anyone has any idea what is going on.

Then there’s that bunch in Spain and Italy.   What is supposed to happen just two weeks prior to the transfer window being wiped down and creaked open is that Cesc is supposed to go to BarBarBarcasheep and Ade goes to Milan.  That’s what always happens.

But instead, Real Mad are mucking around with Sir Alex F Word and I don’t really know what Milan are up to at all – they seem to be broke.  No one is making calls on our players.

I demand an explanation.  Are our players not good enough all of a sudden?

Still, there is always jolly West Iceland.   Totally bust following the collapse of their owner’s bank, up for sale at a knock down price and without bidders, Eggert Magnusson who used to own some of the club is suing Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson who does own the club but wishes he didn’t.

Magnusson wants 200m krona (£1.1 million), and a bucket of wet fish because he didn’t get all his severance pay.  It’s tough up north.

They are even crying buckets of tears at Birmingham, where they possibly think it is safe to come out of the closet now that Eduardo has played half a game.  But the dustmen are about to come and I haven’t put my bins out yet so I must dash…  more on that story later.

It is time to start fighting back

The problems that arose at the Everton game worried me.  Not just the fact that Arsenal supporters (in the most expensive seats it turns out) took it upon themselves to throw stuff on the away support below, but also what appeared to be the inept response of semi-trained stewards who did nothing but attack the supporters who were underneath the objects being dropped.

I am not suggesting that Everton supporters were blameless that day – there are many reports of fighting beyond the stadium – but there is no doubt that police and steward activities can still revert to a form of behaviour that should not exist within our ground.

I was mulling this over when I got details of Watching football is not a crime! – a programme launched as a direct reaction to recent instances of police officers using Section 27 of the Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 as a way of stopping football supporters, usually in pubs, from attending matches.

It is not the same thing – but it is part of a wider issue – the fact that just as we as supporters have a duty to behave in a reasonable fashion, so our police force and our clubs stewards have the same duty.  I mentioned this ages ago when it appeared that supporters going to White Hart Lane were being stopped under the Anti-Terror legislation, but never charged, and no terror threat was ever reported.  It is not an acceptable way for policing to be done.

This new campaign brings together supporters and Liberty, the civil rights movement.  It aims to

• To stop the use of Section 27 legislation as a strategy for policing football supporters.
• To inform supporters that this is happening with previous examples and steps to take if you are a victim of Section 27 legislation.
• Prosecution/compensation – to establish whether or not use of Section 27 legislation by police on football supporters in this way is lawful, and if not, to take appropriate legal action to compensate as many of the victims of this tactic as possible. Specifically, we will strive to achieve the following compensation for innocent fans: refunds on travel expenses and match tickets, deletion of any records of incidents held on file, and a written apology.

Below is the message from the campaign…

To do this we need your support, solicitors cost money. You can do this securely online or send a cheque payable to the Football Supporters’ Federation, Fans’ Stadium, Kingsmeadow, Jack Goodchild Way, 422A Kingston Road, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 3PB.

The suggested donation is £2.70, the approximate price of a pint, although we obviously welcome larger donations. We’ve set it up in multiples of £5 and £10 on the site, or you can purchase a membership-donation combo for £20. This means you get a year’s individual membership (including six copies per annum of our magazine – The Football Supporter) and feel extra good knowing you’ve contributed a fiver to Watching football is not a crime!

We also ask that everyone who reads this sends the link on to five people. The more people who hear about this, the more evidence we build up of Section 27’s unfair use. All money raised in this campaign will be spent solely on the campaign while it runs. If we are successful in overturning the use of Section 27, any surplus will be used for future legal challenges on behalf of football fans.

FAQs on Section 27:

So what is Section 27?

How can I help challenge Section 27?

What can I do if Section 27 is served on me?

Section 27 has been served on me!

Yellow Sunday

This Sunday is Yellow Day at the Ems.  Don’t ask me why, its a Red Action thing, but those guys work their hearts souls and lungs out for the club while those of us in the upper levels mumble about it not being like this in 1927, so if they say we have to wear yellow, yellow it is.

Meanwhile Lasagne Diarra is going to Real Mad for £20 million, and that really is real mad.  The jolly news is that the Lord Wenger wrote a clause in the contract saying that if Harry Hedgehog as was ever sold him on the Lord Wenger would have 25% please.  Also jolly amusing to note that Diarra isn’t going to get that many games for Real Mad, which was what he complained about before.

Meanwhile again, the Board at the Ems is changing. Ivan Gazidis is joining the board as Chief Executive on January 1 as we know.   Richard Carr has left the holding company board where he has been for 27 years but is staying on the Football Club Board where he has been responsible for the Academy and Youth Development department.

Lady Nina Bracewell Smith has left the Board completely, and that seems to take her out of the lockdown agreement, and so means she could sell her shares.

I am not quite sure this is the moment to panic however.  First, the Bracewell Smith family has been long term supporters of the club and there is no sign of a rift.  Second, time marches on for all of us, and there comes a time when attending board meetings is not the thing one wants to do (remembering that directors have legal responsibilities in terms of knowing what is going on in the business).  Third in the olden days the board meetings at Arsenal were like an old boys club – sherry, biscuits and a quick review of what’s what.  Now it is big time negotiations over millions and billions, and that is not everyone’s cup of tea – especially as the year’s pass.  (I write this with certain feeling as one who is approaching retirement from being chairman of a plc – there are times when I just don’t want to sit through any more sodding meetings).

Fourth, capitalism has collapsed.  As from next season the entry price to the Ems is going to be 3 goats and a traffic cone.  If anything the price of shares will decline in football as they have in my pension fund, so why buy up now, at high prices, whoever you are?  If you are a football predator with money that was not in Iceland, you buy after you see the size of the bids in the next round of TV bidding.  If, as expected, the price collapses, then you buy at half price.

Of course everything I ever say here is a guess and an opinion, but for what it is worth I would not expect sales of shares as a result of this, but I would expect exciting times following the arrival of Gazidis.

And just to prove that look at this goodie from the Lord Wenger himself.  The club site says,

“Arsène Wenger thinks that a January signing is “feasible” but insists that developing his current crop of players is still the primary ambition.

Wenger’s young side have suffered five Premier League defeats already this season leading some to lament the lack of experience in the squad. And, with the transfer window due to open in under two weeks, Wenger has hinted at possible activity in the new year.

The manager insisted that he is on the look out for “something special” to add to his team but also revealed that he is no closer to finding it yet.

“I cannot say something will happen, but you never know,” the Frenchman told Arsenal TV Online. “It is feasible that we can do it and sometimes a [new] player can give some extra belief to the squad.

“If it appears we can make something special, then we will do it – but at the moment I can sincerely say we have not seen anything special that can really convince us we will be much stronger.”

So there we are.  Yellow on Sunday please, no panic about shares, I’ve nearly got over my man-flu, and oh yes, a fat slug has been given a job in Blackburn.

Eduardo, Mad Maria, and Francis Coquelin

It was a jolly affair all round, and with quite a few unexpecteds.

You’ll know about Eduardo’s contribution: solid, modest, and a couple of chances.   It was just good to see him.

But whereas I expected the see an amazing display of through passing from the midfield for Eduardo to run onto, it didn’t happen.  Ramsey had a bugger of a game for the most part, and Wilshere and Merida didn’t quite get it right until well into the second half.

Strangely the star of the show was Francis Coquelin, the defensive midfielder who played full back.  He was quite exceptional – even more so because he was playing out of position.

Think of a player who was discovered playing in a lower league team in France, and you’ll think of a current full back – Coquelin comes from the same vintage.   First time we  saw him was in the first of the friendlies   and he looked good then.  Now he looks even better.  You want a defensive midfielder for next season?  Here’s one.

The other star – at least in second half – was Fran Merida who finally did make it happen right with a wonderful through pass for the first goal – Cesc eat your heart out.

And then there was Mad Maria of Malta.  I’ve no idea if that’s anything remotely like her name, but I used to hear her all the time at Highbury – a one woman chorus with her own chants and shouts of “All together now” which no one ever picks up.  You’ll know its her if you hear her – no one else has a voice like hers, and she uniquely sings about the Arsenal Girls (as in “Hello Hello”) and “Go go Arsenal”.

Since we decamped to the Ems I haven’t heard her, even though I wander around the upper tier with my silver membership.  But there she was loud and clear last night.

The Mad Maria tag came from a reader on the RedAction news group when I once enquired there if anyone knew about her.   Everyone seemed to have heard her, sometime or another.

And Maria – if you are reading – no offence.  Your support and determination to cheer on the boys are never in doubt.   I just don’t know how you keep it up.

Eduardo at Barnet; Tottenham in a muddle

So today is the day – Eduardo is back. The Croatian media have block booked the press box, and there could be a larger than normal crowd… at Barnet.  Yup, its reserve football time – and it is live on Arsenal TV.

The Lord Wenger says Eduardo has been brilliant in recovery and could come back even faster than before, and with all the skills that made him so special. But he also said he still needs another six weeks to put him at the top again. Hopefully those six weeks will include some cameo appearances for the first team.

Meanwhile The Tiny Fantasists did what they do best – made utter fools of themselves. At their AGM everyone was saying how wonderful the plan for the new 60,000 stadium is (ignoring the fact that they have double-counted the number of fans that they have waiting for tickets, as we discussed a few weeks back).

It was all slap-each-other-on-the-back time until bubbling over with bon homie and enthusiasm Mr Leavy asked Mr Red Napp to give a quick run down on how the team was doing.

The manager said, if you are asking if this team could get into the top four, the answer is nothing like. It’s relegation material.

Of course everyone knew that – but Mr Leavy had actually said just a few minutes before that there was no money to buy new players in the January transfer window.

Bit of a problem then.

Still, Eduardo at Barnet. That’s more like it. Bischoff on the wing, a run out perhaps for Wilshere, Merida playing at being Cesc in the middle… Looking like quite a team

Football in England starts the journey into decline

There was a time in the 1990s when Italian football was king.  WC Milan (then known as AC – before they started playing silly buggers) in particular had the most stunning side that played fluent exciting wonderful free-flowing football.  It was Total Football II.

In those days it was all so good you could watch the matches live on Channel 4, and everyone was talking about the Italian game.  English football looked about 2 centuries behind.

Today Italian football can hardly get itself a TV deal in Italy let alone in the UK.  A year or two back it had the ignominy of being dropped half way through a season by Bravo of all channels.  The grounds have emptied, and no one talks of the “big 3″ of Euroland any more – its all England and Spain.

So what went wrong?   And could the collapse of Italian football as an exciting game happen here?

The answer to the second question is certainly yes – because of the answer to the first.

What went wrong was that the smaller clubs who could not complete year or year with Inter, AC Milan, and Juve, came up with two strategies.  For a number of years they  imported players of brilliance to see if they could take the team up – flamboyant purchases such as Brady,  Gascoigne, Maradona some of which worked some not.  But where they couldn’t do that, or the money ran out, they returned to the earlier era of grinding out draws.   If you want to survive, sit back, hold on, go for the point.

And that is what we have here now in the EPL.  Just look at these results…

Middlesbrough 3 Arsenal 11

Tottenham Hotspur 6 Manchester United 12

Liverpool 9 Hull City 3

These are actual figures from yesterday’s games – the number of on-target attempts.  In each case the team you might expect to win from its position in the league won the goal attempts on target, but each game the result was a draw.

So it goes week after week, because the lesser teams are holding back, holding back, holding back, and waiting.

There is a way to stop this – by banning such tactics as rotational fouling, rotational time-wasting, the push in the back and so on (I did a list of these a little while back).  But of course the EPL and the FA and those idiots at UEFA won’t act.  (Did you see this week they fined a player twice as much for deliberately getting himself booked as they fined Croatia for its fans’ racist activities?  You can’t expect any sense from that quarter).

Thus it is that the spiral has started and is quickly heading down and down.  Give it five years and the money that any TV company will want to put into football will be about 25% of what it is now.  Of course that will benefit Arsenal, as the only major team that is solvent, but it won’t do much for football.

It wasn’t like this in the 1930s. Actually it was.

Like many gentlemen of a certain age whose fathers have now passed on, I find myself wishing I’d listened to my dad a bit – especially on the subject of Arsenal in the old days.

My dad went to the Arsenal through the 30s and again in the post-war era, and saw the great teams.  What he did tell me one time was that even when the club was doing very well, the crowd would often jeer and boo the players for missing the ball, slipping over, miskicking and so on.  A player could score a screamer one minute, and be laughed at for an error the next.  That’s how it went.

It was, we agreed, a bit like the theatre must have been around 1600 (not that either of us was there then I hasten to add) – wherein the event was a chance for the crowd to shout and boo and jeer – and of course applaud the things they liked.

Today we seem to have slipped into a different way of doing things – supporting our club and our players, and heaping vitriol on the other side, and booing is absolutely not the done thing.

All of this came to my mind because these explanations as to why people boo Eboue never have any historical context.  If the booing occured just because we have moved to a bigger stadium and brought in lots of new supporters who couldn’t get in before, then there would have been no booing during the Wenger years in Highbury – but I can certainly recall it after a disappointing 0-0 draw.   Just as I can remember it in the Graham era.

No, its got nothing to do with the stadium or the size of the crowd, or the income of the players or the cost of a ticket.  It has got everything to do with the fact that football is an evolving emotional game – just as everything is in our society.

The cause of the current problems undoubtedly focuses on the fact that a growing number of teams have evolved playing systems that do nothing for the good of the game – rotational fouling, and systematic time wasting, for example.  It makes football negative, unless the more positive team can get a couple of goals early on, and then has the will to keep moving forward.   And failure to get those early goals is not just an Arsenal failing of late – look at the recent record of Liverpool Insolvency, Manchester Bankrupts, KGB Fulham.  They have all had the same problem.  0-0 draws, desparate defending from the first second to the last.
What is needed now is a new way of playing against this which radically transforms the game, and breaks down the anti-football tactics.  Arsenal v Manchester B will be attractive because despite being bust Manchester play interesting football.   Aston Villa, Fulham and clubs of that ilk, don’t.

Drawing all  of that together, I guess I am saying that the booing comes from the frustration of not being able to deal with the recently evolved tactics of the little clubs more quickly.  Tension builds, someone makes a mistake, and booing starts.

It’s just an evolutionary thing – eventually someone will work out how to kill of little clubs quickly all the time, and then we’ll move forward.   For a while.

Sometimes you just have to laugh (at Chelsea)

Sometimes you just have to hand it to the Evening Standard.  This week David Mellor ran the story that “the Soviet Union is alive and well and living at Stamford Bridge.”

There followed an article in which Mellor points out that when the club publishes transcripts of question and answer sessions with fans (all part of the Chelsea openness) they then edit out the questions and answers they don’t like!

So when Scolari answered fans by saying he needed one or two more players in January, that whole section of the Q and A was removed.

Great stuff, and exactly what we would expect from CSKA Fulham (perhaps now to be renamed KGB Fulham), who last year re-wrote the official club’s history to remove virtually all mention (and certainly all mention in depth) of Ken Bates’ time at the club.  Since it was the Bates character who sold the whole wobbly edifice to the KGB crowd, that seems a bit rich.

Anyway, the Standard ran the story denouncing the KGB style tactics at Chelsea – on the same page as the ad saying “Lunch with David Mellor at a Chelsea Match”.  I am not sure which bit of all that would be the hardest to swallow.

Meanwhile Scolari himself joined in the rewriting of modern history “1984″ style by saying that it was quite untrue that his start at Chelsea was worse than the 3 previous managers.   When given the facts by journalists at a briefing he said no, the stats, were wrong, and that everyone should go and check again.  He would not back down, despite figures about wins losses and draws were all given to him in blue and white.

And just to make the old communists wriggle even more that likely lovely cheerful chappie from the East End of Europe,Avram Grant, has now said that it was he and he alone who transformed the club after the pouting Portuguese Moaning Mourinho (sorry I should stop reading the Sun, I’ll try this again) Mr Grant says KGB Fulham was in a bad way when he took over and he made it right and that everything nasty he has ever said aboutKGB Fulham was taken out of context.

To prove this he added: “Some of the players there have problems that you can’t find [in] a children’s team”, he said (honest – I didn’t make that up – its in the Guardian.)

Here’s another good Grant-ism.

“Roman thought that I should stay but in this team the owner does not take all the decisions – and I did not want Nicolas Anelka.  I didn’t really need Anelka last season and I told him so.”

What fun to see such a harmonious group, past and present, all working together, re-writing reality.   George Orwell couldn’t have made any of this up; Stalin must be so proud.

FA double standards there for all to see

There is that thing that Sir Alex F Word does when his team plays badly – instead of considering the poor quality of the performance (as the Lord Wenger did openly and honestly after the defeat in Portugal) the manager of Manchester Bankrupts rails and rants about the referee.

Since he refuses to be interviewed by almost anyone these days, his railing and ranting is just run as a statement in the media that kow-tow to his every word, and that’s the end of that.

It is not a very edifying approach, and one would only expect individuals and organisations of the lowest level of concern for those to whom they speak to indulge in it.

Which is why it is no surprise that the Football Association have started to do the same thing.  Having failed so utterly to do anything at all about the hundreds – possibly thousands – of Tottenham Hotspur fans who taunted Sol Campbell in the Portsmouth match recently, they have instead “condemned the leniency of a Teesside magistrate who failed to ban a Newcastle fan who pleaded guilty to racist chanting at the striker Mido.”

We need to get this quite clear.   The approach of the Tottenham Hotspur supporters was so consistent and involved so many people that the police felt unable to intervene at the time in case it started a wholesale riot.   On that issue the FA has done nothing at all.

The situation they comment on is the arrest and charging of one person.

Of course I know nothing of the situation involving Mido incident and it may well be that this was quite awful, as theTottenham affair was.  But it is still noticeable that the FA have not got involved.  Neither Tottenham nor Portsmouth find themselves having to answer to the FA.  Nor have the FA asked for meetings with the police to find out why they were unable to maintain law and order at a football match where criminal offences were being committed wholesale.

Yes, two Tottenham Hotspur supporters have now been questioned, but that is not many when one considers what actually happened at Portsmouth.

But then the FA express “concern that their hard-line policies had not been supported” by the court in relation to the Middlesboro game.   Quite probably that was either because

a) the courts are independent of pressure from self-appointed groups of busybodies – that has something to do with our constitution and is probably mentioined in Magna Carta

b) the FA is so full of double standards on this issue that taking any notice of their claims would give the man who was fined for abuse in the Middlesboro game grounds for appeal.

An FA spokesman said: “It is important to send out a strong message that racist and discriminatory chanting is totally unacceptable.”

Maybe they could explain their position on the Tottenham activities in that case.

16 is pathetic but it is a start

Police investigating the activities of Tottenham Hotspur supporters guilty of homophobic and racist chanting at Portsmouth have finally, after months of pressure from this and other blog sites, released pictures of 16 suspects today.

That the event took place on 28 September and that only 16 of the hundreds – perhaps thousands – who joined in the chanting have been identified shows how pathetic the attempt to deal with this has been.

  Superintendent Neil Sherrington said: “As part of our investigation into indecent chanting at Fratton Park, we have identified 16 people we would like to speak to.

“Our inquiry is aimed at identifying and putting before the court those individuals who engaged in unacceptable behaviour at this public event.

“Their abuse caused distress to some supporters and was targeted at an individual.

“We want to send a clear message that abuse of this kind will not be tolerated and that we are taking robust action.

“I’d urge anyone who recognises these people to contact us as soon as possible.”

 The offence of indecent or racist chanting at a designated football match under the Football Offences Act 1991 can be punished by a fine of up to £1,000 and can also lead to ban on attending matches.

Anyone with information should contact Operation Decorum on 0845 0454545 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

Anyone who can identify any of the hundreds of thousands of other Tottenham Hotspur supporters who joined in the chanting should also contact those numbers.

The pictures comes from the Hampshire police.

From mental strength to paranoia: another day in football

Paranoia is the stuff of jokes, but for those who suffer from it, it is a totally debilitating condition.

This past weekend the Ince character said in every newspaper that would give him space that “people are out to get Keane and me.” I would have thought most people couldn’t give a toss about either of them, but maybe it is all a matter of perspective.

The situation regarding the mental state of those in the football game was also taken up by the owner of Sunderland (Per Magnus Andersson) to the effect that he was really glad that Roy Keane had left since he had an unstable personality that made him unsuitable for football.

There was nothing much new here. Ince’s demand that everyone call him the Guvnor, and his rejection of that fact (despite the fact that he has or had a numberplate apparently that somehow twisted its letters and numbers to spell Guvnor) suggests an over-excitable view of himself.

As for Keane, we have all seen him play, and despite all the obvious talent it was always clear there was something ticking away inside that was at best not right and at worst downright bloody dangerous. The famous line from his book “I’d waited long enough. I fucking hit him hard. The ball was there (I think). Take that you cunt. And don’t ever stand over me sneering about fake injuries,” was enough to get him a slap on the wrist and a fine of 3 seconds pay from the FA. They’re tough these kids from the FA.

Thinking on these events of the last few days I wondered about Eboue. Everyone’s talked about the booing, so you don’t need another word on that from me, but I found myself more interested in the events before that. He played poorly – very poorly near the end – and Wenger substituted him, quite rightly I thought.

Players need to have incredibly resilient personalities to stand such situations – to come on as a sub, play poorly, and then get substituted – certainly a lot stronger personality than I have ever had. But as we see with Ince and Keane, it is but one step on from there to become paranoid or aggressive to the point of being criminal.

I remember Martin Hayes getting booed regularly – despite the fact that he was our top scorer one season with over 20 goals, and eventually he was sold because of the way the crowd got onto him. He was not liked by some twirps at Highbury because he came across as a shy and retiring character on the pitch who didn’t seem to interact with the crowd. Even when he once ran the entire length of the pitch, dribbled past 8 of the Leicester team and then scored the goal of the season, he could hardly raise his hand in celebration, and just trudged back to the half way line with his head down.

As with all situations where the individual appears in public, it is not just skill that is needed, but also what Wenger always calls “mental strength”. I have no idea whatsoever if Eboue has that, had it and lost it, or what, but that’s what is needed.

I’ve never had the football skills nor the mental strength to play football at anything other than the most mediocre level, so I can’t imagine what it is like. I can get upset if a publisher rejects a book of mine. Goodness knows what I would be like if I was playing in front of 60,000 people as a sub, and then I got subbed.

Chelsea finances get worse as they fall to Arsenal yet again

The owner of CSKA Fulham has gained some financial relief after the Russian government has loaned $1.8 billion to the steel company Evraz.  But the situation is getting ever worse for the football club.

Abramovich owns much of Evraz (having sold his interest in Sibneft the oil company).  But Evraz, with debts of over $10bn was on the edge of going bust – taking much of Abramovich’s money with it, when the government stepped in to save him and it.  Mr Abramovich is thought to have paid over $3 bn for his shares in Evraz.

The Abramovich media men who place stories in the press say that although there are huge cuts going on at Chelsea in terms of its budgets, this is quite a separate matter from how the owner is trying to dig himself out of his financial difficulties.

I’ve mentioned one or two points about CSKA Fulham’s financial situation, such as the fact that they can’t have any more Abramovich money, and the entire department of 15 scouts which aimed to emulate Arsenal’s World-Wide Scouting empire have all been sacked.  Additionally the Observer has been reporting that “several major capital projects” have been cut part way through, they have “introduced savings on club equipment and publications and are considering charging players for meals.”

Another area of development – their ladies team – looks also to be hitting the buffers.  In the summer they signed two of Arsenal’s England stars (Sanderson and Asante) and  Arsenal’s reserve team coach Steve Jones, and declared the aim to have the England  international team playing for them shortly.

Chelsea then said,  “These great signings (of Sanderson and Asante) will tell the women’s football world that this could be the place to come and play your football.”

Just to show how far CSKA Fulham Ladies have come was seen yesterday as Arsenal sauntered past them 4-0 in the league cup semi-final.  It seems fairly likely that the cuts that are sweeping around Chelsea will also include the ladies team shortly, leaving those who joined the “place to come and play your football” wishing that they hadn’t moved.

More than meets the eye at Arsenal

A day or two back JBH wrote a really interesting piece on Denilson in the comments section of this website.   I strongly recommend it as a piece of interesting reading – especially the summary of the stats.

Take a look at this – and remember we are talking about a young player doing his first full season as an EPL regular…

Premiership: All Midfielders:

Denilson 3rd in Total Passes, 2nd in Pass accuracy (86%), Successful Tackles 45 (7th) with a tackle success rate of 75%, Attempts Created 21 (21st), Shots on Target 10 (13th), Assists 4 (4th), Goals 2 (12th), Fouls won 25 (9th).

Tackling is particularly noteworthy, no other midfielder in the top 4 comes close (none in the top 20).

All the others in the top 10 tacklers are from the low end of the table. In all these categories he is performing better than Obi Mikel, Alonso, Mascherano and Gareth Barry.

In the Champions League his form is even more impressive:

Midfielders: Total Passes (4th), Pass accuracy (3rd), Successful tackles 17 (3rd) with success rate of 85%, Fouls won 13 (10th).

It was with this in mind that I watched Denilson even more intently than normal during the Wigan game.  Without seeing the stats I’ve been feeling more and more we have got a gem and a half here.  But watching one player intently – trying to see where he is going rather than watching the ball etc – it becomes even clearer that this is an incredible player.

And of course he is still being trained and developed.  This is the game that he has now – another year and his game will be further advanced.

Of course many don’t agree.  The guy on my left (who arrived late, wandered out for half time three minutes before the whistle, came back ten minutes into the second half and left early at the end – just my kind of supporter) spent much of the game berating Denilson for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I didn’t see it that way at all – what I saw was a player who knew exactly where he should be and how he should play – even though he was playing out of his more favourite position alongside Cesc.

Cesc meanwhile remains the most successful permanent Arsenal club captain of all time, having a 100% record in the matches he has captained.  Let’s hope it continues.   (Actually did you know our most successful manager of all time as also in the ground – Pat Rice who as manager between the end of the Rioch fiasco and the start of the reign of the Lord Wenger, was utterly undefeated.

(c) Tony Attwood 2008 with most grateful acknowledgment to “JBH”

A tragic error, a bad move, a spot of cash…

Nearly a year ago the major football clubs in Europe agreed to drop their legal case against Uefa and Fifa over injuries sustained by players while playing for countries rather than clubs.

As a result the clubs now get some money from the countries when there are international tourneys.  But as we have seen the money doesn’t cover the destruction of players such as Walcott during an ill-managed training session.

Following this year’s muck about in Europe Arsenal will receive around £745,000 after supplying players to five teams. CSKA Fulham will receive £715,000, Liverpool Insolvency £615,000, and Manchester Bankrupt £450,000.

The money starts two weeks before the country’s first match, and stops the day after the country is knocked out. Uefa made a profit of £215 million from the three-week tournament out of a turnover of over £1 billion.

Uefa will pay clubs £4,350 per player per day at the next Euro runaround in Poland and Ukraine in 2012.

Werder Bremen got the most blood money – £1 million – after giving over four players to the German team plus three others.  Lyon and Bayern Munich (which actually should read Bavaria Munich or Bayern Munchen) will also get over £900,000.

Not much for the risks involved to players, who not only play but also train (see Theo for the dangers of that) and miss out on the needed rest between seasons.  Kowtowing to the likes of Fifa and Uefa is always an error in my humble opinion (as I prepare for breakfast afore getting out the Morris Minor for the 100 jaunt to Arnos Grove, and thence the Underground.

See you there.   I’m the guy with the red and white socks.