UNTOLD ARSENAL » Blog Archive » News of the World runs Untold Arsenal “Cesc leaving” story today

It started as a little joke – but got more comments than most posts on this site: a list earlier this week predicting that everyone would leave the club this summer.  Exactly the sort of rubbish the charlatans who write newspaper football columns write.

And would you believe it, the News of the World jumped straight in and have today (29 March) run a story which says that serious doubts have been placed on the future of Cesc at Arsenal and that he is off to Spain – exactly as we said.

Well all right not exactly exactly, but not far off.

Being a little child at heart I have left a comment on the NOW page thanking them for running the story (which happened to appear on Untold Arsenal first).  They apparently moderate everything so the question is, is there anyone at the NOW who understands irony (the concept that has been so much on the minds of some of us of late).  But if you think it funny, you might care to comment on their site.  If enough of us did it, it might just make them think before doing such a story again.

Anyway, moving on, so far there have been no suggestions regarding injuries to Arsenal players on Insanity Day – although one of the big problems is that international managers tend to hide injuries in order to keep players going for the mid week game.

This arises in part because they know they can hand the player back to the club and say “here you fix him – make sure he is ready in time for the next round of internationals” and also because managers of countries are on fixed short term contracts – so they have no long term interest in the well being of the player.   If a player comes back and does well for the next manager, no one looks at the last manager and says, “it is all down to you”.

(There is also the fact that FIFA have rejected the proper drug testing systems of WADA so I start to wonder what drugs international managers are using when the players are away from their clubs).

Last thing today, I am struck by the change in mood among some Arsenal fans of late.  The change from “Wenger has lost it” and should be replaced to “we are on the edge of seeing Invincibles II” has been extraordinary, not just for the size of the change, but also its speed.

Of course many people still take the view that the Lord Wenger is destroying the club, and should be removed, just as there are some who, like me, believe that he is by far the greatest manager  since the 1930s and that he is about to bring us a new team that will surpass everything seen before – while around us clubs go bust.

But I don’t think I have ever seen such a fast change of opinion among some fans as we have seen between the 0-0 draws and the current run of success.  It’s all rather good.

(c) a rather amused Tony Attwood, 2009.