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

Why we must applaud Tottenham’s plans for a new ground

Transforming yourself is important.  You feel down, but you have to go out and play football or sell computers or write wonderful pieces of literature – so you have to reinvent yourself – and then those around you.

The master at this art is Mr Leavy at Tottenham Hotspur.   The masters at not doing this are most Arsenal supporters.

Tottenham are now created as the Team of the Future who will win things this year, and march forward into a new stadium.  Arsenal are the failures of the present, unable to mount a sustained challenge for anything, doomed to an eternity of nothingness.

If we just pause and compare Tottenham’s plans for a new 60,000 capacity ground, with Arsenal’s there are some interesting points to note.

Tottenham’s great achievements of the past few years are a League Cup win, and getting planning permission for a training ground.  Oh and they also got into Europe 3 times, and sacked the managers who did it.

When Arsenal proposed the move to the Ems, they did so on the back of quite a bit of success (I won’t bore you with details of doubles and things) and quite a bit of research.  For example, in order to prove that they could fill the Ems they played Euro games in Wembley for 2 years – and packed it with 75,000 supporters.

They got planning permission, and then worked with the local transport system to improve access to the ground.

They also worked on the basis that if they got 50,000 average to each home game, and played in the Champs League once in every four years, they could pay the mortgage.

Tottenham have not done this sort of work – no point using Wembley because they don’t play in the Champs League.  No point building a “Champs League once every four years” in because they don’t ever play in the Champs League.

Arsenal paid for the ground on mortgage loans – like you and I pay for our houses.  This is money at low fixed rates of interest.  It is hard to get – and Arsenal only got the current deal after showing the lenders after one year that they could fill the ground for every game. So even with all Arsenal’s research and success they still had to play in front of full houses for a year, to get the terrific deal they now have.

And that was before the credit crunch.  Mr Levy of course will have none of that – simply because he can’t have any of that – there is no cheap mortgage money around for something as speculative as a new Tottenham groud.   His stadium will be paid for using “sponsorship” money.

So what about transport?  Arsenal has 3 underground stations serving it – and still permission for the ground went down to the very last health and safety meeting.  Tottenham meanwhile is a notoriously awful ground to get to.   And remember planning permission will only be granted if the police and safety authorities think that 60,000 nutters can be moved in and out of the area safely.

But the question the finance people will ask is exactly the same as Arsenal.  Will they get 60,000 for each game?   Tottenham says yes, because they have a waiting list of 20,000 people for season tickets.  I find that hard to believe, but let’s give them the benefit of that.   I think I am right in saying that the current ground has 22,000 season tickets, so that would mean that they could sell about 35,000 seasons for the ground (some always vanish when it is time to pay up).  But that would then leave them with no waiting list – so as fans drift away (for example after a poor season) they would not be selling out.

And then, how much of the remaining 25,000 would they sell each week?

A few years ago, during my divorce, I had to give up my season ticket as part of what we middle class divorcees like to call “financial restructuring”, and since then I’ve used my 2 silver memberships at Arsenal.   But I went back on the season ticket waiting list in 2000, and I am still waiting.  Even after much of the waiting list was removed by moving to the Ems I am still waiting.

I suspect that Tottenham in the EPL could get 40,000 a week, although in the Championship they would probably be closer to 30,000, dropping to 20,000 if it wasn’t going well or they were playing Barnsley.

And they are trying to do this in a very difficult market.

But what is so clever about it is that an away draw against a team whose supporters think they are having a naff season, and the announcement of an idea (the stadium is nothing more than that – the money is not in place, nor is the planning permission) is cleverly transformed into a reason to be cheerful.   The fact is that the ground is unlikely ever to be built, because no one is likely to lend them the money, and the transport system in that part of London is awful.

But even if they did, they wouldn’t fill it, and so they wouldn’t be able to pay for it.

So they would go bust, and vanish from the horizon – possibly emerging as TH (2009) Ltd, with a 10 point deduction and no new stadium.   I personally welcome this and so hope that they do build the new stadium as quickly as possible.

At Arsenal, total financial stability, the best ground in the country, sell-outs at every game, and a stunning young team results in moaning and groaning.

We, the Arsenal supporters, have done this.  We’ve written our team down, claimed disaster, said its all over.  Now the team themselves are doing it.

All that happened was that we drew with Tottenham.

That’s not disaster or the end of the world.  It’s simply a draw with Tottenham.  We’ve had them before and the world didn’t end.  (At least I don’t think it did).

And now something completely different

I started this blog as an experiment just around a year ago.  The experiment being to see if anyone was interested in following a different sort of approach to commenting on Arsenal – one that backed Wenger, covered issues that others didn’t bother about too much, including the financial background, and which maybe included a spot of humour.

The blog now has a monthly audience of between 50,000 and 60,000 people – that is 50-60,000 people read at least two pages of the blog each month.

I’ve only just begun to realise that this is quite a significant number – somehow I imagined that all the other blogs were getting 250,000 a month, and I, as the new kid on the block, was gradually picking up the pace.

Turns out Untold Arsenal is fairly much up there with the big boys – and getting an audience that others are quite interested in.

Obviously I write this blog for fun – and the fun is quadrupled by the comments I get in – both to the blog itself and directly to me.     It really does mean a lot when there are compliments – and I take note of the criticisms too – although the racist abuse I could do without.

Anyway, I’m writing this for two reasons.  One is because, as Bob Dylan would have said, in the aftermath of last night’s game, “I need something strong to distract my mind”.

The other is because I am looking to see if there are any other related projects that could sit alongside this blog.

One thing that is on the way is a book about the end of Woolwich Arsenal and the move to Highbury.   I don’t think there is anything around that is detailed on this topic (it is obviously covered in passing by all histories of the club, but the real detail is missing).   The research is more or less done, and I’m really into the book itself now – it should be available next year.  (Incidentally if you do know of a book that covers that period in detail do let me know.)

That’s easy for me, because I earn my living as a writer.   But I’m also looking for anything else that could be associated with the web site.  This is not to say I am going to turn this into a full-scale shop – the whole point of the blog is that it is a blog.   But rather, instead of just having a couple of ads that lots of other blogs have on their site, I’d like to try and have different things, things that are original and which reflect the “difference” of this blog.

So, if you have anything that is not widely avaialble elsewhere and you are looking to market it, please do write to me (Tony at Hamilton-House.com).  I won’t be coming back and saying, “fine – you can advertise here, the cost is ££££”, but rather talking about a commission on sales or something like that.

Here’s one idea I have had: t-shirts with slogans on that are 100% different from what everyone else has.  I don’t have any background in t-shirt manufacture, but if you do, maybe we could talk.

Or indeed if you have an idea which you haven’t yet started bringing to market, we could talk about that, if you felt able to share it with someone you don’t know.

Overall, what I am trying to say is this.  Readers have kindly said over time that this blog is unusual and different.  So what I am thinking is – let’s go further.  Let’s try and develop not just a blog, but some products that are different and unusual, and which might appeal to Arsenal fans.   This site would then become the home of Arsenal seen from a different point of view.

Therefore just a simple rule: if the product (or something very much like it) is already sold in the Arsenal shops or on-line, that’s probably not what I am after.  But if it really is different, then maybe some of the readers here (who by definition like an approach that is a bit different from the norm) might like to buy them.

If you think that I’ve finally lost it, gone over the top and disappeared up my own backside, then fine – you are not alone in that point of view.  But if you see what I am rambling on about, and you have an idea, do drop me a line.

Many thanks for reading.  Last night was a bugger, but its nothing that a 16-0 victory against Stoke and a few glasses of red wine can’t put right.

At least we don’t have to buy a new team

This is not the only day I have felt bad about football.  Like when we lost to Wrexham in the Cup – I can still remember the feeling the next morning.  Took me days to get over that.

Or when we lost 6-1 to Manchester Bankrupt (or Manchester U as they were known in those days).   We were (I think) 1-1 after Henry scored, and then it fell apart, with Grimandi desperately being pulled out of all positions and having no central support.   Apparently Wenger went utterly spare at half time – and I suspect he did as well last night.

I felt just as bad when we lost at home to Leeds, and so lost the title.   That turned out to be one game before the start of the 49 run as far as I remember (contrary to popular belief I don’t sit at work surrounded by my Arsenal handbooks so I can’t look it up).

Strangely I had a similar-ish feeling when we drew 2-2 with Bolton in the Unbeaten Season itself.   Bolton were playing a terrible game of rotational fouling and Fat Sam was on the touchline just below my place, screaming as his players to get stuck in.

So, last night, it was the same.  Great joy turning to terrible sorrow – and the lovely article which I thought was a real scream having to be scrapped.

It was stupid playing – Clichy buggering about and falling over, Eboue thumping the ball up the field from whence it came back straight away.  You remember how Henry used to take the ball into the corner flag and hold it there – where’s that gone?

But on the positive side –

a) we have no problem scoring goals

b) we do have a solid midfield and defence

c) Almunia had a really bad time of it, but that is rare – he is a good keeper who has saved us over and over again.

d) What we lack is discipline and organisation – and if there is something that Wenger can instil in players in discipline and organisation.

So when it comes down to it, what we lacked was discipline and organisation, and those can be instilled.  Maybe it needs a bollocking and a half.  Maybe it needs a new captain.  I don’t know, but then I am not the manager.   But I can tell you, it is much better to be in this position than in a situation in which the obvious answer is that we should be buying a new team.

What we, as supporters, have to do is accept that we drew, try not to look at the league table for a moment, and ensure that we give them everything against Stoke, and then have another celebration of football in the Euro League.

What can we do with Eduardo?

In a couple of weeks time Eduardo will be back in the squad, possibly playing as a sub in the Wigan league cup game, possibly being a sub in a subsequent league game.

Either way, assuming none of the others gets injured in the meanwhile this will be our forward situation

Adebayor, Van Persie, Eduardo, Bendtner, Vela

With as backups: Walcott, Diaby (I still have to keep watching the video of the match in Turkey to believe it, but yes, there he was).

This is, by any stretch of the imagination an amazing collection of players – although it was interesting that last summer a number of commentators wanted us to buy MORE forwards on the grounds that

Adebayor was leaving, van Persie was always injured, Bendtner just wasn’t up to it (I know one moment doesn’t make a player but the pass from B. to A. for the second goal against WHU was a wonderful moment), Vela was unproven, Theo wasn’t a centre forward, Eduardo might not come back at all, and who is Diaby.

The problem is keeping everyone happy. Before the assault on Eduardo he was looking brilliant, scoring some extraordinary goals, and complementing Adebayor perfectly.

And now?

It will mean that from December onwards we can rotate players much more than ever before, and as and when Adebayor hits a non-scoring period we let him sit it out. But whereas Vela and Bendtner would have expected the leading role in the league cup they might not get it.

It certainly is fortunate that we didn’t go out and buy yet more forwards. And indeed the same could be said to be an emerging truth with the midfield – the ceaseless demand for one or two midfielders now looks a little misplaced with Denilson and Song both able to slot in next to Cesc, and Rosicky now scheduled to return in December. Bishchoff is making progress, and there has been wonderful contributions from Ramsey and Wilshere.

And then there is Diaby.  When I saw him, before the assault at Sunderland, I thought he was a magnificent, natural centre midfielder, but when he returned from injury he never quite seemed to have it.  I feared the worst for him after another injury at the start of this season – and that just shows what little I know.   The way he is at the moment, if Cesc got injured you could probably play Diaby alongside Denilson and have a very effective central midfield pairing.

You know, I think this is looking quite jolly.

FA action against Nottm Forest, SFA against Rangers, and then Tottenham

There are two interesting reports doing the rounds today.  One is that the FA have put out a statement about chanting by Nottm Forest fans against Dave Jones who is manager of Cardiff City.  It says, “We strongly condemn any chanting which contains foul and abusive language or is of a homophobic or discriminatory nature.”  They say they are gathering information.

Then there is the story that the Scottish FA has warned Rangers that points will be docked if there is more inappropriate chanting by their supporters.   By this they mean the Famine Song which is about the Irish potato famine of the 1840s and includes the line “The famine is over, why don’t you go home?”

George Peat, the SFA’s president, is talking with the SPL and the police.

Uefa have already punished Rangers for the supporters’ “poor conduct” at Villarreal.

Now let us turn to the action by the police, UEFA, the EPL, Portsmouth FC, and the FA in relation to the appalling behaviour by Tottenham supporters at Portsmouth.   Here it is…

(Quiet isn’t it).

Mr Leavy takes action to save the club’s success

Making some sort of sense of what these Tiny Tott characters say can be a bit of a time-consuming job. Indeed I’ve been working at it all day and I still can’t quite make it work.

Mr Daniel Levy, that jolly nice fellow-me-lad who “runs” (I use the word lightly) one of the more minor footballing clubs in the north of London, said this..”We have achieved too much over the last seven years… to allow this to be overtaken and thrown away overnight.”

So, seven years worth of achievement.   That must be…Well fortunately Mr Levy gives us some clues.  It includes 3 entries into the European Diddly widdly cup for clubs what don’t quite make it into the Champs League (like Milan).  Winning the UK cup for reserve teams, which the Tiny Totts cheat at by putting out their first team (and then holding wild all-night parties because their first team manages to beat our under 9s team in the semis).  Oh yes, and training centre planning permission.

I kid you not – Mr Levy actually quoted “training centre planning permssion” as one of the “achieved so much” things worth noting.So there you have it – 3 trips to Europe, winning the Little Cup, and planning permission for a training centre.   That’s it in seven years.  It is success.

All except one little thing.  It is a detail and I hardly dare mention it, but just for completeness you understand I thought I really ought to add.   You see, the jolly fellow under whose leadership most of this happened – the Euro qualifications, the building of the team capable of beating Arsenal’s children, and so forth – was Martin Jol.  And he was sacked by… Mr Levy.

Anyway, makes you think about Arsenal’s achievements over the same period.   Unbeaten Season, that sort of thing.   Still better not boast.

North London disturbances brought under control by police

Police services report that most of North London is now back to normal following a night of disturbances.  A senior officer at the Met apologised to local residents and said that his officers were taken by surprise.

“Two sets of celebrations took place at once, and we really hadn’t expected it,” said DCI Yard, of the Yard.   “On the one hand there was a bunch of supporters of one of the smaller football clubs in the metropolis celebrating the fact that their club had reached Derby’s total of wins, as established last season.

“Unfortunately this event coincided with the annual Sack a Manager Day in north London.  A lot of people got rather excited by this, even though it is a very regular event,” said Mr Yard.

He also assured those living locally that there will be more police on the streets next October when “our ‘Ary” is shown the door.

Elsewhere with round about one quarter of the season gone we can reflect on the curious finding that only one of the Big Three clubs is in the top three – CSKA Fulham.   The other two places being taken by clubs that have never won the EPL: Liverpool Insolvency and Hull.

Arsenal are above Manchester Bankrupt (and will stay above them even if the Bankrupts win their game in hand), one point behind Chelsea and four behind Liverpool I.  With 75% of the games still to go it is not too bad a position.

Considering the multiple grindings of the teeth and general fedupness of Arsenal supporters throughout the summer, where the demands were for the signing of 2387 mid-fielders and another five strikers, Arsenal have managed to leave out players such as Van Persie in Turkey, and Denilson and Adebayor in the east end, and still get results.   With the return not just to fitness but to form of Diaby, and with Eduardo, Bishcoff and Rosicky yet to play at all this season, the flexibility of the team is looking reasonable.  What’s more Ramsey, Vela and Wilshere are all just slowly emerging, and have much more to give.

There is a story that Eduardo is going to come on as a sub in the diddly widdly cup against Wigan, which should add to the fun.  Bischoff is playing in the reserves, and is now up to playing a full game, and Rosicky should be seen again after Xmas.

In fact rather than there being a shortage of players, it now looks as if there are too many.  Still the situation of that rather amusing Mr Bentley should be quite a lesson to one or two of the more excitable junior members of the squad who might think of leaving if they don’t get to play every weekend.

(Isn’t life just that little bit nicer when we beat the little London teams?)

Tiny tott managers: a comparison

Points per game for best tiny tott managers  

• Martin Joll 1.51
• Francis 1.39
• Ramos 1.17

Points per game for Harry

• West Ham = 1.31
• Portsmouth first time round = 1.18
• Southampton = 0.91
• Portmouth part 2 = 1.42

So we can see that Mr Rednapp is not quite up to the Martin Joll standard although he is better than most Tiny Totts..  He did one win the FA Cup and keeps signing P Crouch esq.

“Relegation is our aim”

So now we can guess why Portsmouth failed to push the case against the Tiny Totts over the behaviour of the Tott supporters who used racist abuse against Sol Campbell.  It looks like Portsmouth were in negotiation with Tottingham over the manager’s job, and sending a file to the police would not have helped the whole process along.

Of course I can’t prove that at all, it is just speculation, but still…

What of ‘Arry.  Up to the moment when he refused to take up Sol’s case I thought he was ok, average sort of manager.  Suddenly walked out of West Ham on a whim, if I recall, was utterly useless at Southampton after he left Portsmouth very suddenly, was sacked by Southampton and went back to Portsmouth where he did his one great trick of pulling them out of relegation.

One interesting bit is that Comolli has gone along with Marcos Alvarez and Gus Poyet.

It is also interesting to remember how Ramos was taken from Sevilla, and how Jol was turfed out, only to become manager of a team at the top of the German League.

What this looks like is a club run by the players – never a clever idea.  they have been criticising the manager, and his methods, style and approach.

So he lasted a year, which is about right for Tiny Totts.

A  Warlock speaking on behalf of CURSE OF ARSENAL said, “We can’t really do much more at the moment.  Since the Curse was put on the club they’ve lost the matches, had 3 players sent off in 2 games and lost their manager and 3 backroom staff.   Not bad going.  There might be a rebound today, but we’ll obviously be in for the long term, and relegation is certainly our aim.”

How the Curse of Arsenal is affecting Tottenham

The Curse of Arsenal was placed upon Tottenham Hotspur (the Tiny Totts) following the appalling scenes at the Portsmouth vs Tinies game in which Sol Campbell was abused.   The failure of Tottenham to take any serious action over the incident resulted in the Curse being made official.

As we saw last season (when Birmingham and Milan were cursed) the curse can have dramatic effects, and already this is the case with the Tiny Totts.

Consider first their results

Drew is Wisla Krakow (ok we weren’t really paying attention and hand’t quite got ourselves together by that point.)

The defeats against Hull Stoke and Udinese.

But that’s not all.  Despite having a team low on morale, and a lack of players in suitable positions, David Bentley decided it was a good time to come out and criticise the club (his comments were reprinted in this column a few days back.)  He was dropped completely from the Udinese match.

The Woodgate came out and said that this Tinies team is worse than Leeds, and Leeds went down.

All this – 3 defeats and 2 rebellions – since the Curse was put on Tottenham.  Certainly if the success we had against Birmingham (directors arrested, club up for sale, allegations – totally unproven – of sexual misconduct and financial impropriety, relegation etc)  are anything to go by, this is going to be a fun season for the Tiny Totts.  With Milan we got a couple of defeats that meant that the club are not in the Champions League, and Mr Flamini finds himself spending quite a bit of time on the bench rather than playing (which is what he said he always wanted.)

So there we are.   With a bit of luck the fun is about to start.

Stop making sense

Sometimes the Lord Wenger says so much that is right, and so many things move in our favour, it is almost tempting to ask the Lord Wenger to stop talking and the world to stop spinning so we can take it all in.

Just think of yesterday (you remember yesterday, that was the day when the sun came up the time before it came up today).

First, Lord Wenger gave us reasons to be cheerful.  “I would like to give you some reasons to cheer up and be optimistic and to share my optimism with you. I feel the club is well managed financially and I am very proud that we live within the resources we create from our own business.

“The structure of our team is fantastic but very young. That means that tomorrow will be better than yesterday. But today, when you have such a young team, you have to be intelligent. Instead of showing resentment we have to believe in our team more than ever because this team will deliver. But the younger you are the more you need support, and I ask you as well to be proud of them and to show your support.

“At the moment I do not feel that either from the media or our supporters that this team gets the support it deserves. That is why I think they need a stronger guide than ever and I want to get this team to deliver not next year but this year.”

Oh how I agree with that.  Ever since the “we must buy lots of players for lots of money” brigade took over the blogsphere, with their allies, the daily paper journalists, last summer, Arsenal has been on the backfoot – and quite wrongly in my opinion.

Second, as I revealed exclusively (well not quite exclusively, but me and about 100 other blogs and newspapers revealed exclusively) thatDennis Bergkamp wants to come back to us as a coach.  “People ask me the question if I could come back to England one day to coach and I say yes,” he said.   He added that he didn’t want to be manager – just one of the coaching staff.

Third, Eduardo is 3 weeks away from normal training in the team, as 8,498,248 different blogs revealed simultaneously or more or less.  Trouble is, our forward options now include four internationals who can all score lots of goals – and at this moment all four are fit.  Who is going to move aside for the Wonderman.

And if all that weren’t enough we went for a little stroll around a part of Turkey Twizzler Land  that apparently is an invincible fortress, and came out with the goods, while our dear, dear, friends from along the High Road, sort of lost 0-2 in Italy, had that lovely Mr Bentley say that they were a load of turnips (and so didn’t even make the bench) and that fascinating Mr Woodgate say that they were worse than Leeds when they went down (with him).   Oh and they have had 3 players sent off in two games.

So Tottenham are the new Leeds, just like Everton are the new Bolton and life is looking rather jolly ahead of this weekend.

It’s no good, I can’t take all that at once.  And yes, I know we lost two games we should have won, but I still think at this moment this is looking rather good.  I’m sure all the people who thought that we were going to struggle to be 4th this year are pointing at our league position and will be saying, “5th more like”, but to me, this is all looking great.

And I certainly didn’t boo the team against Everton on saturday.

Oh please yes please yes yes please please (etc)

If you have been supporting the Arsenal for more than 12 years you’ll remember the dark days.  I mean the really dark days.

Days so dark that you couldn’t even see the tunnel let alone the light at the end of it.

I speak, of course, of the year of the Rioch.

That dreadful year when Ian Wright Wright Wright handed in a transfer request on the not wholly unreasonable grounds that he was a centre forward not a right winger.  The year when Dennis Bergkamp hadn’t quite yet got it.  The year when the magic back four didn’t quite know how to get the defensive line right.

It was all just an awful muddle and we didn’t even know until the last day of the season whether we would be in the European twiddly widdly diddly woddly cup or not.

So what made it all so wonderfully different?

Of course the big change – the change that overshadows everything – was the arrival of the Lord Wenger.

But let’s leave that aside for a moment and think about the changes that we would also acknowledge as part of the Great Revolution.

With Lord Wenger miles ahead in first place, the second Big Change would come with the introduction (by the Lord Wenger) of world-wide scouting, several hundred million centuries before anyone else ever thought it could be done.

And the third great revolution was the insistence on filling a lot of key roles with ex-Arsenal players.  Like Steve Bould, Liam Brady, Pat Rice (who actually was our manager for an historic unbeaten run at the start of the Lord Wenger’s first season), Steve Gatting, David Court.

This gives us great continuity, and this approach has continued with Remi Garde and Gilles Grimandi (for example) doing their stuff as scouts – leading to a position where anyone who is anyone in France, looks first to Arsenal.

We obviously also pick up the best of the kids in the UK – I need only mention Ramsey, Wilshere and Walcott to prove my point.

So imagine a situation in which one of the truly great, great, great players from the Netherlands, who played with such overwhelming majesty for us, also came back in a coaching role.   Just think of what that would do to our scouting options in Holland.  (Which incidentally are not bad anyway considering we got Van Persie for £2 million.)

I speak of course of Dennis.   And I speak of him because on the way home tonight, Dennis popped up on Radio 5 saying that he is doing his coaching course, and when he’s done it and passed the tests, he would love to come and coach at Arsenal.

Now if you recall Dennis B when he was with us, he always spoke carefully, never going over the top, never saying stuff that should not be said.  He was forever treated with respect by every other player here – even Henry seemed to realise that here was a God from another dimension.

And that respect still exists for him throughout football.

Especially in the Netherlands.

Bring him in as a coach, and the world of Dutch football, with all its wonderful glorious players opens up to us.

Dennis, yes, please do come back as a coach.  Bring the magic you gave us on the pitch into the world of the players you coach.  I’m sure I will never have the honour to meet you but if I ever did I guess I’d just bow my head and say one almighty “thank you”.   What else is there to say?

Bentley speaks about life at Tottenham

“It’s been shocking.”

“It’s been a bit shit.”

“It has been a bad start to the season, especially for me.”

“We have not been together.”

“We have not known where we are running or what we have been doing.”

These are the statements of that ex-Arsenal player who left us to play in the highlife and wild excitement of Blackburn and left them to reach the top four with the Tiny Totts. These comments all come from an article in the Guardian today.

It’s funny because there were 38,000 people at Highbury for each game who could have predicted where his departure would lead him.

Still, if players want to leave and go and take a wander down the Lane, that must be up to them.

Funny old world, isn’t it?

Oh Thierry, what have they done to you

There’s this advert running on Arsenal TV in which they show the Henry wonder goal against the Tiny Totts, wherein he runs more than half the length of the pitch, beats the entire Tiny defence and scores, and then runs all the way back to go on his knees in front of the Tiny supporters who are calling him a wanker.

After that he talks about the goal, and how he felt – its a good interview.

I watched the second half of Basle vs BarcaBlackSheep last night, there not being much else on, and there was the self same TH14, playing as always these days as a substitute.  And it is fair to say he is nothing like the man he was.

There are moments of course – but mostly they are reflections of what the great man could do – as if some new player had inhabited his body.   A new player who knows he has to sit on the left wing, who knows the body language – so instantly recognisable – but who doesn’t have that amazing ability either to score or to lay the ball off to others.

There was one other thing.  Basle, at home, got thumped 0-5.  You might expect the ground to be half empty by the end – but no.  Everyone stayed, waving the flags, jumping up and down, just supporting the team.  They were utterly out of their depth, but none the less the crowd still said, “yes, this is our team.”

That was a joy to watch.  But to see our Thierry… that was sad.  He is not a bad player – not at all.  Most clubs would want him in the team if available.   But when compared to the genius we had the honour of watching, it is sad to see this.

I never felt with with Bergkamp.  Somehow, playing under Wenger, even though he lost lots of his touches and speed towards the end, he could still on occasion (usually the right occasion) pull the rabbit out of the whatnot.   That’s what Thierry seems to have lost.

Incidentally Hleb was playing too, and he also looked rather a shadow.  All those tricky dribbles – they seem to have gone out of his game.  Funny how players change when they leave us.

This problem with the midfield

On Tuesday 21 October Arsenal Reserves played West Ham Reserves.   The Arsenal team included Bischoff and Merida, two midfielders looking to break into the first team.  Coquelin was there as well.

They couldn’t call on Jack Wilshere because he was playing for England in a tournament, with the … Under 16s.

On the same evening Arsenal played away in Turkey, and not only had their normal midfield of Nasri, Walcott, Denilson and Fabregas, they also had Diaby on the pitch.  Later on just for fun they brought on Ramsey.  Song also moved into midfield later on.

The desperation felt earlier with our midfield has gone.  (I don’t ask you to say, “yes you were right” and I know you can still make all sorts of arguments about the quality of the midfield at the moment, but allow me my evening of fun).

I know I am in a minority, but I have always felt Wenger was getting this right – and the midfield we have is very good.  And because it is a young midfield it will get better.

Certainly Ramsey looks a sensational buy – especially if you include that goal for Wales against England.  Not to mention tonight’s.   Song – derided beyond belief for his game against Fulham last season – is growing in confidence.  He’s not right yet, but he’s getting there.

And Denilson – as I said before, just because we had Flamini we didn’t need Flamini II.  Denilson is playing every game, just as Gilberto did, quietly, calmly, getting it right most of the time, influencing the game in a way that was often hard to see.  (Remember how he was disliked in the early days – and it wasn’t until his year out injured that we realised how brilliant the Invisible Wall actually was.

Of course we could have gone out and bought a whole load of players last summer.  We had the money (incidentally we have even more money now the apartments are being sold – and none of that money has been accounted for in the figures.)  But for me, personally, I would sooner see Song, Denilson, Wilshere, Ramsey, Theo, Cesc all coming through from their young days, and really turning it on.  Of course Nasri is brilliant, just as Pires was before him, but seeing the kids make it has a little bit extra in it.

Last time I changed channels to watch the Reserves game they were losing.  I am sorry about that – but I really did enjoy tonight.

Can we play them every week?

Arsenal/Everton violence – broader perspectives

Below is an email that has come into the blog.  Although it appears in the replies column as normal, I thought it needed a wider coverage because to me it does reflect where we seem to have got to on the Arsenal / Everton game.

Tony

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I have to say – though I enjoy this blog very much and agree that we have to accept that it is unshamedly biased there also has to be room for holding your hands up when something is clearly just wrong.

Having seen the you tube footage for the first time let me say this: The stupid cowardly f*ckers who threw coins and whatever else should be identified, where possible, and banned fom attending all future Arsenal games.  There is no excuse for this behaviour and for one I am ashamed to have such cowardly fans at our club.

I do think that, on the whole, this behaviour is not representative of Arsenal fans.

The lead to tackle something like this must come from the people who run the game and the media.  But as usual they do sweet FA.

That said it is no good Arsenal fans complaining about Spurs chanting if they take no responsibility for their own fans behaviour.

I watched MOTD and, disgracefully, there was no mention of any flare ups at all.  I read a little the next day in the paper but there was no mention of the crowd trouble.  Why?!

If Arsenal choose not to act (which, lets face it, would almost certainly be the position of any club given the choice) and the media ignore that it even happened that should NOT stop the FA looking at the youtube evidence and forcing the issue to be investigated and acted upon.

I think we can all agree that the people who run our game need to be brought to count for allowing stuff like this to happen unpunished – whether it is The FA, FIFA or UEFA they are, uniformly, a pathetic disgrace.

A sack of bloated, profiteering bastards with a lengthy tenure of unremitting tolerance with regards racism, homophobia and minor crowd violence.  If any of them ever found a moral compass they wouldn’t know what to do with it – except perhaps sell it to the highest bidder!

Johnny

I met this really kinky girl last night…

Juande Ramos, shortly after another training session, comments to the head groundsman at White Hart Lane how impressive the pitch is looking. “It ought to,” replies the groundsman. “We put 70 million quid’s worth of manure on it every week.”

There’s tons more like that available if you want.  Just click here

The FA could deduct points, and Everton fans speak.

Lucy Faulkner, the head of equality and diversity at the FA has confirmed that it is possible for the FA to deduct points from Tottenham for their racist and homophobic treatment of Sol Campbell at the Portsmouth Tottenham game.

However there is absolutely no sign of action – not even after the FA held a conference on the problem.  There were lots of statements about stopping to the problem, but absolutely zero action about the worst outbreak that there has been recently.

Meanwhile, a number of Everton fans have written in complaining about the articles on the Everton game – which is unusual, but I’ve no problem putting their comments up.  Except one, which in my own personal opinion was irrelevant to any sort of discussion.

Reading the various blogs etc yesterday the overwhelming majority were against all violence and assault, and that’s certainly where I stand – which of course is irrelevant in the broader scheme of things but I just thought I’d say it (given the quickness with which one can get blamed for anything).

In terms of the bias of the report of the match – of course it was biased –  that is what this blog is all about.  There are hundreds – perhaps thousands of blogs by Arsenal supporters which complain endlessly about the team – this blog is positive and sees the good in the team and criticises the rest.   That’s simply what it is.  Complaining about my bias in favour of Wenger’s teams is like complaining that the Socialist Worker doesn’t give a good press to the Conservative Party.

Curse of Arsenal strikes again

 There’s no doubt that they didn’t quite see this one coming.  When the Tiny Totts played Portsmouth and their supporters engaged in racist chanting against Sol Campbell, they probably thought they could get away with it.  The police wouldn’t act, the FA wouldn’t act, Portsmouth wouldn’t act, and of course we all know that Tottenham H will never act.

So it was probably a bit of a shock that they then got hit with a Curse of Arsenal.  In case you missed last year, we cursed two clubs – Birmingham City and WC Milan.  Following (and I stress following) the Curse being put in place Birmingham had two raids from the fraud squad, the arrest of senior people in the club, the arrest of one director following an allegation of sexual misconduct by a lady from Essex, and relegation.  There is no suggestion that anyone associated with the club did anything wrong or illegal.

Following the Curse hitting WC Milan and Mr Flamini, WC Milan lost its matches, and failed to get into the Champions League (which it had fully expected to do), and Mr Flamini found himself not only not playing at the top table, but no longer the regular starter in matches, as he had been.  Instead he found himself a bench warming sub.

Since the Portsmouth game, when the Totts were cursed the results have been simple – they have lost both their league games, got to their worst start ever, and are in such a dire position that only one team has ever escaped relegation after a start like this.

But we don’t just hit the results.  As with Birmingham City last year we like to get at the club and its staff.   Today for example we hear that “fans” of the Tinies will launch a protest calling for chairman (a Mr Daniel Levy) to resign.  This will happen at their next home game against Bolton (“Notlob”) on Sunday next.  25,000 leaflets to be handed out at White Hart Lane before the match, which demands that Enic (owners of the Tiny Totts) must sell its majority stake to new investors.

The Curse is only put on clubs and people after due consideration.  Birmingham got it not because of the awful fowl that crippled Eduardo, but because of the way the club tried to minimise the issue, and claim that the tackle was nothing particularly untoward.

Meanwhile, Goonernews is having one of its occasional breaks from reality (at least in terms of this site) and not listing all our terrific articles of late, so here’s a quick link list.

Cesc refuses to sign contract, Russia invades Leeds

On the Arsenal web site this morning (20 October) there is a lead story about Fabregas’ contract in which Cesc comments on a piece in a Sunday paper, which says that he has refused to sign a new contract with the club.

The fact is that Cesc hasn’t refused to sign.  In fact there is no new contract to sign.  The whole thing is made up.

Meanwhile in the more serious press today, there is a story aboutOleg Deripaska, a man who was once tipped by the  press to be about to buy Arsenal FC.  He is a friend of Lord Mandelson.   What this guy did was set up a scheme to discredit Michael Cherney, who is suing Deripaska for a share in one of his businesses worth some $4bn (£2.3bn).  (This is what Russian rich folk do these days, they sue each other).

Deripaska ran a press campaign against granting Cherney the right to entry into the UK.

The story seems to be (and I say seems because obviously I don’t have inside info on the doings of Russians) that Cherney, who part-owns Levski Sofia, wanted Leeds Utd.  The aim was to start a public debate about him being a fit and proper person and result in lots of slagging of Cherney on football web sites.

The story would then be fed to the press who would run it, largely because they are forever making up stories and to have one given to them from the outside would save them having to make anything up and allow more time down the pub.

It worked and Leeds fans got very worked up (in that funny northern way they have) about Cherney.  (Actually I think they got even more worked up when it all turned out to be untrue and they got Ken Bates instead, but that’s another story.)

All this came to light because of a court judgement on a case involving Cherney and Deripaska.  LordMandelson has denied any impropriety.  The judge said that the documents he inspected seemed to be real, giving that much credibility to the tale.

So what connects our Cesc with all this nasty Russian stuff?  Simply one fact: both were based on invented stories.  Cesc has no new contract to sign, and the Russian never wanted to buy Leeds (I mean why would anyone ever want to buy Leeds – either the club or the city?)

But – and this is the big point – in both cases people who ought to have known better started to believe it and got worked up.

All football supporters have a choice – you can either believe what you read in the papers, or you can think, “this guy just made this up”.   The Cesc story was made up because the paper had no news and needed to fill a page.  The Russian story was made up because one person wanted to get at another.  The motives vary but the result is the same.

Don’t believe the tripe.   If you do it only encourages them.

Everton are the new Bolton

It was there for all to see. All who have eyes that is (which naturally excludes most of the “professional” media, naturally.)

Rotational fouling and institutionalised timewasting. Exactly as perfected by Notlob under the Allerdyce manifestation, and developed further by the Oooze at Blackburn before he wandered off to Manchester Arab.

Rotational fouling is the sourge of the game – player A does a nasty little foul, then player B, then player C… and so it goes on. There is nothing in the rules against this – each foul is the first by the player and the ref lets the first go – it is not bad enough to be booked for. Indeed many of them are let go.

Then round a second time, then a third, by which time we have had 20 or more niggling fouls, and we are only just starting to get to the finger wagging stage.

Meanwhile there is the timewasting – in which the goalkeeper (the player least likely ever to be booked by any referee) suddenly feels the need to argue with his defenders rather than take the goal kick just awarded, or holds the ball when it should be released. Howard held it at one stage for 17 seconds, which is somewhat excessive even in these lackadaisical days. The referee either didn’t know the rules, didn’t have a stop watch, or just didn’t care a toss. I suspect the latter.

Even the manager got involved – deliberately kicking the ball away when it landed at this feet, making the Arsenal player scamper after. It was just so… unnecessary. So childish. It summed up Everton.

That the violent attack on Denilson by Hibbert happened just showed us what rotational fouling leads to. The FA have refused even to consider it an issue. They’ll probably charge Arsenal and deduct 2 points because the Arsenal players were justly outraged.

As for the violence in the visitors’ section – ultimately I despair. The sight of police wielding battons leaning into the away section thumping anyone on the head who gets within range is something we like to pretend only happens in foreign parts. But Liverpudlians have a long tradition of violence at football games, and this was at least just a minor spat compared with what they are capable of. What are they doing? Just because racist and homophobic chanting, combined with threats of violence and attempts to get at the home supporters are accepted at Portsmouth when Tottenham play there, it doesn’t mean it is accepted at Arsenal.

It is hard to know what should be done with these supporters from Liverpool – or come to that their team, which is now, deservingly, sinking into the depths.

We had 22 goal attempts to 7, (14 to 3 on target) which shows just how far ahead we were. We were caught offside five times – but read one newspaper today and if you were not there it would look as if Ade spent the whole game sitting on the goal line behind their keeper. His runs were not perfect, but as a tactic for unnerving a defence that was pushing further and further up to the half way line, it wasn’t a bad idea.

One more thing: Denilson has played every game, and is growing in stature and ability by the second. If we had bought Flamini II we would have missed this – in fact I suspect a lot of supporters have failed to see just what Denilson is doing. There is something quite remarkable happening to that young man, and it is a joy to watch.

We must not get carried away

 There have been many previous false dawns where we have thought, “yes, this is it.  This is going to be THE SEASON.”

And then, sadly we have been let down. The lads have not quite been up to it.  They have tried, we have urged them on, but in the end, failure.

However this season, it might just happen.  I really do believe that.  This could be the year to end all years.  The great moment.

I speak of course of the relegation of the Tiny Totts into the Championship.

I did not dare to think it possible until I watched their game against the might of Stoke City in which, true to their current form, the Tiny Totts lost.   There was no doubt the usual racist and homophobic chanting from their supporters, and that will of course be ignored by the FA, the police, and the Tottenham club.   They are supposedly reacting this time to  the coin throwing that is also often associated with north London’s third team but I doubt much will happen.

But let us turn aside to broader issues.  This game was the “turning point” – the moment when the great drive towards a Top 4 finish, and a gallant move into their “spiritual home” of the Champs League would start.

But, it went a bit wrong.  It was defeat number 17 for Ramos, the great play maker, the great inventor, the great manager.   Mr Bale, apparently one of their “best players”  (I use the phrase outside its normal meaning) was sent off.   A Mr Dawson was also sent off, and a Mr Corluka collided with his own goalkeeper, Mr Gomes and had to be taken to  hospital.  We wish him well.

Stoke hit both posts and the bar time and time again, and in the end Tottenham now have their worst start not just in the EPL, not just in the top division, not just in this century and the last, but ever, ever, ever.

If only the FA would look into the racist abuse handed out by their supporters and give them a 3 point penalty, we could see them with negative points.

Generally speaking on a sunday evening (as I write) the Tinies sack their manager, so this is now a real possibility.

The game’s afoot.

Fun, isn’t it?

The scoreline didn’t reflect the result

According to 85.846% of all blogs that mention Arsenal today (including those that appear on sites in the north western port and home of slavery, Liverpool) Arsenal have got an INJURY CRISIS.

Apparently half the team have broken limbs, broken noses and headaches.

Which means that we will put out a very weakened team of Silvestre instead of Gallas, van Persie and Adebayor up front, a midfield of Nasri, Fabregas, Denilson and Walcott, and Cliche and Eboue at full back.  I hope Ramsey might get a look in, following his mid-week performance and maybe Jack could get a run out when we are six nil up midway through the second half.  Oh and Diaby will be on the bench.  And Carlos Vela.  And Djourou.

But back to the squad.  And on reflection I have to say…

My goodness that looks terrible.  An absolute CRISIS.

In reality the reason why we have lots of people around who can kick a ball a bit is becuase the idiot Trotsykist fake revolutionary national socialist scumbags who run the Sweet FA insist that we are part of the international circuit and so our players have to go and get injured regularly playing for organisations that are not Arsenal.

It seems that the rule is that 3 of them have to come back injured each time or else the international round has to be played again.

In fact is the FA ever wanted there not to be a Big Three as there is in England they could get rid of the internationals.  Then we wouldn’t get so many injuries, and then we wouldn’t need so many players.

Personally I can’t wait to see what the editor has done with my stupendous new Theory of Everything that appears in Highbury High which of course is out on Saturday for £2. It includes everything you wanted to know about tin mining in Cornwall, and the death of the president of the Warrington Elvis Look Alike Society from an overdose of hamburgers.  If you are still unable to get that return flight back from the planet Zorg  you can order by post from Highbury High, 11 Tannington Terrace, London N5 1LE

“The scoreline didn’t reflect the result”  Marcus Buckland

New attempt to stop internationals

A significant new initiative is being launched to stop all future internationals involving France (or Equipe F as they would be called if they followed the British way of speaking adopted during the Olympics where the UK became Team GB).

The French President Président de la République française one Nicolas Sarkozy has stated both categorically and without fear of any contradiction that if anyone dares to booooo the French National Anthem La Marseillaise (dum de dum dum dum dum dum…. de dum, dum de dum dum, dum de dum) at an international football match then the match will at once be abandoned.

What will happen then is that FIFA will deem the action of the President as an intrusion into football by governmental forces, and so will throw France out of all competitions and so there would be no more injuries to our boys (nos garcons) and we could get on with the real stuff of playing. Holland and Denmark can be dealt with separately.

The only things that could go wrong with the plan are

a) although boooooing the national anthem is not a crime in France that would not stop the Sûreté Nationale from locking me up for a week. But this is a price I am willing to pay for such an important step forwards. I am under a little bit of a handicap in that although I speak French I actually learned it in Algeria, and so am liable to be seen as an even more undesirable being, but I am sure they will let me out after a few years.

b) Although it is hard to imagine, it is just possible that FIFA might not stick by its own rules and might actually lie, lie and lie again (as the American judge famously put it when FIFA’s perfidy in its commercial dealings were revealed in court in December 2006). But no, I am sure that awfully nice Mr Blatter will do the right thing.

(Just to make it clear, I don’t have anything against France, or National Anthems. I just don’t like international football. Or FIFA. Or UEFA. Or Mr Blatter. My idea is that we should either stop country against country football totally, or else even it up a bit. We could have 12 teams for example, and the players in each team are selected according to their star sign. So there would be Cancer vs Capricorn etc etc. It would still give us international games, but at least they might be a bit more balanced.)

There’s more where this came from in my astonishing article in the new edition of Highbury High which of course is out on Saturday for £2. It includes everything you wanted to know about rock n roll, and the development of the remarkable sound of the Dandy Warhols.   No, sorry, that’s the other magazine I do bits for.

I won’t see it til I pick up my copy on saturday, but if you are not going you can order by post from Highbury High, 11 Tannington Terrace, London N5 1LE

“Oh my aching heart” (and if you know what song that line comes from – over and over and over again, you ought to get out more even though they are one of the most stunningly brilliant bands in the known universe).

A broken nose

Quote of the day: “After that goal, Scotland have the bit between their legs… I mean their tail between their teeth.”  (Radio 5).

Injury of the day: Cesc has broken his nose playing for Spain.

Injury of a few more days: Djourou is injured and couldn’t play for Switzerland

Injury maybe maybe not: Robin VP played for a bit of the Holland game

Annoyance of the day: Ever since I started writing little quotes as the headlines Goonernews has stopped running all my blogs – including the much more serious one earlier today about the FA and Sol Campbell, which didn’t even have a joke in it.  Except that it mentioned the FA who are a joke.

Excitement of the day: Football starts again in 2 days.

Extra excitement of the day: Highbury High appears on the streets on saturday and the editor assures me that my 272 chapter analysis of the fact that the Lord Wenger is in reality a Time Lord is being printed word for word.   Apparently each copy of Highbury High now weighs 27 stone 12 lbs 4 oz, and special troops of vendors are being drafted in to sell it.  Backup troops of wheelbarrow merchants will be on hand with, er, wheelbarrows, so you will be able to cart the mega volume away.  My piece is called “A sound bite is not a tactic” or something like that.  I can’t remember exactly, what with the excitement of football being just almost nearly upon us, as it were.

Another quote of the day: “Many of them have developed muscles on parts of their bodies that they have never had.”  Fulham FC Website.

Scandal of the year: the treatment of Sol by the FA – in that they have done nothing about the Tiny Totts.

Game of the month: Make up a statement by a player.  Make up a player.  Make up a club that the player does not play for.  Mix them up.   Phone them to a national newspaper.  Claim to be an agent.  Tell them the names.  Tell them a transfer is going to happen.  Tell them its true.  Watch it turn up in the news.   Fun eh?

Player of the week: Aaron Ramsey.

Time of day: 1.18pm

Colour of my eyes: blue

Colour of coats of men who have just come through the door: white