Today’s guest post is by Muppet
If it’s not the price tag, what is it?
Bang average. Taxi. Turning circle of an oil tanker. Clown. Barn Door.
Certain blogs pull no punches in their assessment of players. To be fair, it can go the other way:
Legend. Genius. Unplayable.
So what distinguishes a clown from a legend? Is it a matter of fan opinion? Is it fact? Can we measure it?
I tend to defer to the man, or woman, on the terraces, who has stood there for a long time, often in the cold. They can know their footballers. It’s hard to argue against those with an eye. Ask them exactly what it is about that footballer, and you’ll get answers like, well – “He’s class” or “Top, top class”.
But what exactly does that mean?
I thought about this the other day, and wondered how it was that Wenger persisted with Ramsey for so long? Wondered how Song could now be in a Barcelona shirt, when most on a certain blog thought he was destined for the championship. Wondered how it is that a manager is able to distinguish between a talented young player who will make it to the top, and one that will not.
So there must be some criteria, right ? I’m talking about at the top level. And let me point out I don’t have any top level experience. I’m a middle aged, overweight amateur – a has been. Actually, a never was. Tennis player that is. My best years well and truly behind me. My football experience was a couple of short years in the Sunday league, in goal. Makes me well qualified to discuss all this? No. But I can speculate, like we all do. I can even do a bit of research.
We all kind of know the attributes that make a good footballer. Got to be fit, right? Be a good athlete? Got to be well co-ordinated, have strength. Have good technique. Have vision. Have mental strength. Well, I’m beginning to sound like Wenger. As this is the stuff that he trots out in his press conferences – “Mental Strength”. We’ve heard it on a subliminal level for years. But what does it all actually mean? Fitness? I’m fit – me, I do circuits once or twice a week, and err, play some amateur tennis, so that includes me, right? And, err, technique. Well, I can kick a ball, and do kicky-uppy? Can’t you? And mental strength, well, I’m strong.
Ok, so let’s get serious here now. I thought it would be interesting to try and explore what we mean by good athlete? What do we mean by good vision? What do we mean by good technique? And what other attributes do top players need? And remember, we are talking about attributes often needed in combination.
FITNESS & ATHLETICISM
Sorry to bring in stats, but I read somewhere that on average, in 1970, a footballer would run 4 kilometers a game. In 2014 this has gone up to around 10k to 12k on average. Top level players have extraordinary levels of fitness. Some are extraordinary athletes to start with.
In fact, certain managers prefer athletes in their side now, which is probably why the term “luxury player” has evolved over time. Examples of this, in the 1986 World Cup, Hoddle was decreed a luxury player by Beckenbauer, one who would weaken England. Pundits believe Mata was sold by Mourinho because of his lack of athleticism, resulting in failure to track back and cover the game as well as Oscar and Willian.
The converse of this is the phrase “water carrier.” Of course, not all players are either water carriers or luxury players. However, it helps if athleticism and stamina is part of your armory. The modern day midfielder runs around 12k to 14k in a game, often capable of lung-busting runs. Basically, we are talking middle distance runners kicking a ball. Ramsey was the school boys champion in Wales at 800m. I don’t know his time, but I suspect it was around 2 minutes, maybe sub 2 minutes. Can you do the 800 in 2 minutes? I managed about 2 minutes 30, almost throwing up over the line as I came in last, when I was 14.
Modern day full backs have to be quick, possess copious amounts of stamina for bombing up and down the touchline, supporting attacks. The converse is true for wingers who have to do defensive duties. They too, run between 8k to 12k in a game.
Strikers? Some measurements have been taken of the fastest players in world football. The top 10 apparently come in between 31 kph to 35 kph. This approximates to around 11.6 to 10.2 seconds over 100m. Of course, you don’t need to do the 100 that fast if you have other attributes, like strength and hold up play, a la Giroud, and finishing of course. But strikers also need a fair amount of stamina to be the 1st line of defence and press the opposition. Difficult to do. Modern day football demands it. A player can quickly be dubbed “lazy” if they don’t do this, and we know one quite well.
SKILLS
It is sometimes deceptive exactly how skillful top professionals are. I used to practice with a ball in my back garden. That thing they do, easily, keeping the ball up on either foot, then flicking it behind their head – child’s play for them, for me – impossible. But this is meat and drink for a top footballer.
The skill that really can differentiate a top player is how they receive the ball, i.e. their first touch. At Sunday league level, the morning after a heavy session in the pub and Indian, players have eons of time to receive the ball, pick out a leisurely pass to their lumbering and still-over-the-limit teammates. Premiership level, no chance. You have a millisecond, and within then, you have to have already computed what you are doing with the ball. Once, at the end of the season, I played in midfield, and the second or so that I dawdled on the ball was adequate time for the opposition to come and take it off of me.
Some of the greats are capable of slowing down time, breaking down what they do with the ball like in a freeze frame. They say a fly is able to see us coming because time appears to them to be slowed down by several magnitudes. This is how it is with Fabregas or Hoddle. Watch how they maximise what little time and space they have, bringing the ball down or laying it off, and picking the right option.
So first touch is an innate skill. Others too are probably more inherited than manufactured. The ability to shoot, passing accuracy, the art of defending i.e. anticipation. Take a look at this YouTube video. Some say it’s fake. I’m not so sure:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dny2VxJufgA
TECHNIQUE
Aligned to skills, is technique. As this is an Arsenal blog, I have to mention that Wenger favours players with technique. In fact, it’s a pre-requisite. In an interview about coaching, in this link Wenger mentions technique:
http://www.soccer-training-info.com/coerver_coaching_interview_wenger.asp
Wenger states that it’s very important to teach technique to under 14 year olds. This is because if you are over 14, and you don’t have technique, it is harder to learn it in later years.
I think it’s fair to assume that top footballers must have worked very hard to achieve good technique, with countless hours of practice. Unless it is in their DNA. There are freaks like Rooney who come into this category.
VISION
Aligned with skills, most players need good vision. At the very top level, the ability to pick out a pass or read the game separates greatness from a run-of-the-mill top footballer. Mesut Özil encapsulates this exactly. He reads the game and can find his man with uncanny accuracy, resulting in assists that go off the chart. Some critics look at Özil and don’t see this as extraordinary, probably because he makes it look so easy. He also makes intelligent runs, dragging players out of their positions, then creating opportunities for unmarked players.
It was said of Fabregas that he picked the right pass whatever the situation. This is the hallmark of a great player. It is said that if you froze a game and then got a coach to pick out the best option for the team, Fabregas would pick the same option every time. It must be stated that this is an extremely rare ability. To do this requires a mental map, in real time, of exactly where all the players are on the field now, and anticipating where they are going to be by the time you have executed a pass. Some say that top level players can track the movements of 6 or 7 of their teammates and know where they are.
This attribute is not just needed in an attacking sense, but also to spot danger. Watch how Mertesacker and Koscienly have been patrolling the defensive line like a pair of sharks this season. Being in the right place at the right time is vital. Tony Adams was able to read the game and so possessed this attribute in abundance.
MENTAL STRENGTH
As all Gooners know, this is one of Wenger’s favourite terms.
What does it mean exactly? It seems to be a catch all for the competitive qualities necessary to win and succeed. I would surmise that you could have 2 young players of equal ability, but one has gone on to be a bigger success, because of having “Mental Strength”. This has probably happened on numerous occasions. The one that succeeded turned out to be more ruthless, more dedicated, more focused. They also say that what separates those at the top with talent, is those that are prepared to work harder with their talent to succeed.
There can be no doubt that this alone is a key attribute. A recent newspaper report estimated that out of 9,000 apprenticeships in football academies in the UK, only a handful progress to make the grade:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/4938593/Football-academies-kicking-and-screaming.html
Assuming then that you do become a Premiership footballer, and you are one of those handful, if we extrapolate that further, only a handful will go on and become top top class, say an Özil or a Wilshere. This means, obviously, that top class footballers are rare, which is why they are in demand, paid exorbitant amounts of money and idolized to a fanatical degree.
So is the price tag correct?
It seems to me that it’s not the price tag that should be the primary measure of how good a footballer is. The modern day Twitter armchair talent spotter gets excited by a couple of things – seeing a player in a YouTube clip, combined with a massively inflated valuation by a hopeful agent. But it seems to me that football clubs, of which we are one, would be acting with folly if they didn’t do their research and pay due-diligence. Amazingly, some clubs have bought players on the basis of just video evidence. And we know also, that some have paid hugely inflated transfer fees, way over the odds. So it seems to me that the science of evaluating a player, and estimating their worth, must be best practiced by the experts.
One of my favourites is Arsene Wenger.
You can find Muppet’s price tag on Twitter @MuppetGooner
Positively Arsenal 
Jeepers. What an article, and what a way to start off a new PA year. Fantastic read. This takes muppetry to a new level. Looking forward to the debate that this will inspire.
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my very favorite is AW.. no one else comes close
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We can see from Muppet’s fine post ,just how complex buying the right player must be. Sadly this is not simple enough for the simpletons in the press and the simpletons who follow football.
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Yep, it’s a rag tag article this one.
Agree throughout, very interesting and quite exhaustive; a couple of further points.
Speed and acceleration are a little different, the latter being more important in modern football. Quite a few players have acceleration on (or off) the ball, but are not “speedsters”. Acceleration with ball in control is one hallmark of technique.
Technique: 30 years back Andy Carroll would have been fabulous super-duper, because he can do one thing, sometimes two, exceptionally well. That was football. I somehow doubt Technique now requires any top footballer to do (almost) every basic football skill exceptionally well, both feet usually (AW loves two footed players), and 3 things in stratosphere according to individual attribute/role. It’s a bit like cricket, or that’s a good comparison. Gone are the days of the 2-great shots player, even a tail-ender needs to play some shots, and a middle order batter needs every shot, leg and off side, and a few to boot. Nacho is a good example. His defensive work usually is strato-level. But he can dribble, pass exceptionally and in small spaces too, carry the ball fast at his feet, dribble a bit, use both feet, shoot, head, and play keep ball; all as a left back.
Mental: like the Brazilians, or differently, in another way like the Germans. For me, mental strength means knowing how to psychologically destroy your opponent over the entire 90 minutes. Many Brazilian games, in sunny days when they were on the top of the world, they would seemingly fart about having a bit of fun, looking a bit rum-soaked, Sunday soccer-style. Oh my, danger lurks in an instant for the unsuspecting team giving it their all, imagining they are out-playing Brazil at that point. So suddenly, from one pass emerges one move like a giant, fluid predator moving at uncanny speed with precision and the goal is scored, just like that. There goes your game plan. Mental strength. Many an English team over the years has gone to default and decided maybe they can out-muscle Brazil a bit, at least the little guy (since you can’t outplay them), with disastrous results. Mental strength. Arteta = mental strength.
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I was going to say, I somehow doubt David Beckham would make the very top teams today. Very much a player of his era, and a “world class” player of the time. Those long passes, and crosses! Those spot-kicks! Corners to drool over, whipped in, dipping fast. And yes he could play in the middle, pass well, but I suspect he would be the luxury player of today, and something of a liability.
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fantastic article muppet, ramsey doing the 800m in 2 mins …i think he was doing the pentathlon…….or was that carlos?
“You have a millisecond, and within then, you have to have already computed what you are doing with the ball.” …. snooker players….
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and the simpletons who follow football.
opium for the people
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oooojose ….and his black & decker to destroy the wall…ahahhaa i missed all that last night…time to catch up… love it….big sam!
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What an exceptional article and I will have to come back to it again to read it carefully as one review does no do it justice and the work that has gone into it. Bravo M’pet !
On a small point where did the stat that players averaged 4km a game in 1970 come from ? My alarm bell rang !
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And what about Sam “the missing link” Allardyce parking the bus and Maureen goes into prima donna hysteria mode “Ooh, it’s soooo unfair, no, no, no … we are Chelsea Daves, we are wondrous, pedigree dogs and they play football from a century ago!”. I think he fits Chelsea perfectly, long may they remain entwined in mutual agony.
City, ah. Spurs, oh. Well, that’s what you get for counting on Spurs. Mark my words, City will have a little unexpected stumble, 2-3 games is all it takes, before the die is cast. It’s the Pellegrini archilles heel. Marvellous coach actually, for fast attacking overwhelming football and goal sprees. It was always going to be thus. But there will be games, the gritty shitty ones where they don’t get the bounce, it hits the bar, and then when they least need it a superb long-ranger, corner, a deflection goes in their goal.
Wenger’s emphasis on consistency is the stronger.
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toni kroos at united??? no fuck this …they are supposed to die and go to second division…why are people helping them?
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ZimPaul
January 30, 2014 at 10:55 am
at some point lady luck and the universe will need to course correect themselves and fuck jose in the arse for all the dross we have had to endure from his teams the last decade or so. for all his comments..for all the times he sent out 30m and 40m value players to kick and sit back and generally for being the cunt he is. if that dont happen i have no hope for the world. cunts need to be punished like in the movies.. catharsis. i eagerly await the media to mock him just like italian and spannish would…….
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great post you’ve thrown up a million literal clay pigeons and now its up to rest of the P.A crew to fire them home.
Pires was ultimate example of someone who seemed to be slow until you put a ball at his feet and then he could out run anyone.
As far as Mental strength is concerned a great example is our own Nico. Although he has just left us and didn’t make here he was full of mental strength. All the way through many youth teams he repeatedly made it to the next level when the more skilful were falling by the wayside. The few appearances he did make were down purely down to hard work and I have no doubt he will go on to make a good career in the lower leagues.
Natural technique is probably best highlighted by our own Dennis who was truly world class and a technical magician but even he would practice feverishly.
The one true aspect of picking out which players have enough from all the pots to fit in with a side already regular in the top four in England and top sixteen in Europe is that is it would be difficult enough if you had first pick but when your paddling in small pool and your behind several fat mums trying to get wet becomes a nightmare
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and steve bould too… in stamford bridge…..once weve won the game to go and laugh in jose’s face provoking him…i doubt jose will raise a finger like he did with vilanova….he ‘ll run away asking for roman to send down his bodyguards…
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for mental strength…commitment focus professionalism etc …our players can learn from another sport too…other legends…one drazen petrovic…scored 40+ on jordan…serious competitior winner …serious mental strength…. too sad for the accident.
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Damn! This post is “top, top quality” and I mean it sincerely. It is the kind of writing that shows Muppet gave this great thought, did his research and took his time writing it. Should be required requiring for all these wannabes that spout endless nonsense about the type of player Arsene must buy (see NewsNow for example). But of course those blogs and on-line outfits trolling for hits so they can sell on-line ads via Google have no interest in objectivity. They simply exploit the emotional weakness and immaturity of the average fan who believe a so-called £100 Million “warchest” is something to be loosely thrown around by a self-sustaining club, still paying for a stadium. £100 million is nothing to a State backed oil-financed Manchester City who have already splurged £1Billion, half of it on players, in a relentless drive to make their club a political vehicle for international credibility while migrant labour perish in conditions akin to slavery in that Caliphate democracy.
This post touches on a thesis that buzzes in an out of my brain constantly, which is, Arsenal can only compete by outsmarting and out-negotiating the City’s and Chelsea’s of this world. It is a given that they can outspend us, paying at least a 25%-50% premium on any player they covet, e.g. PSG reportedly paid a cool £19M for Cabaye while AFC’s initial bid was £10M. This, amazingly is for a player whose transfer fee was £4M two years ago. No wonder therefore in this era of inflated price, the AFC is willing to negotiate, down to the wire if necessary, to get a player at a price that is more affordable to the club. Arshavin, Arteta and Ozil were signed almost at transfer deadline. What the transfer whores fail to disclose is that the reported fee always excludes numerous add-ons, agent fees and ultimately the future costs of the player in terms of wages that are easily exceed £30M over 4 years for a player on 80K per week. As Tip O’Neill, a former chairman of the US Congress quipped, a million here and a million there and soon we are talking real money. As Muppet said it is not the price tag baby.
One day, we can give some more thought on these pages to out-smarting the feckers. Got to go.
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This post touches on a thesis that buzzes in an out of my brain constantly, which is, Arsenal can only compete by outsmarting and out-negotiating the City’s and Chelsea’s of this world.
and thats the case even when stadium is fully repaid..which goes to show how winning the title with the cescs denilsons etc would essentially mean knicking it under their noses, instead of our fans expecting our young team to dominate and beat them comfortably and “why oh why have we lost a big game again? we are soft blah blah”
and say ok we managed to nick it once……is that sustainable? would it not be a firework…we wouldnt be able to add on it…we were repaying..players being sold etc….
clueless fans…utterly clueless….
and even so….we nearly did it. had it not been for the assault on arsenal in 07-08 …cunts..
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Difficult to see who going to be left to play in the next round of the U21 PL cup, after beating chelski, Benik has been loaned to Sheffield Wednesday and Daniel Boateng loaned to Hibs and there are more loans to come.
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https://vine.co/v/MzzMdZ39g2m been pissing myself at this all morning
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Can’t do justice to the article in just a few words but wanted to say how much I enjoyed reading it, masterful stuff and looking forward to more Muppetry, hopefully in the not too distant future.
Brilliant – thanks Muppet.
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Mind you, it’s a lot easier to choose a player from Youtube and offer a price gleaned from the media. I mean it’s not his money (the coach). Just saying. And then give him a zippy shirt number and tell the players to figure it out on the training ground.
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Muppet, you didn’t make mention of all the great players Wenger has missed out on, usually a good 45 of so per off season, and almost always because he only wants French players or juveniles, or at least players no one heard of. Doesn’t that count?
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Thanks Muppet. Great comments too.
Something I’ve been thinking about is demographics. There are a lot more kids playing the game today then in 1970. Millions and millions of more kids. Except here in the UK where numbers of participants have started to decrease – see FA cuts to grassroots football, Keown’s research and articles etc. if you really want to scare or amuse yourself take a look at Scottish football, the demise of Rangers…so this trend makes scouting for a club like Arsenal that competes with several London clubs for kids even more important.
As with cricket more people playing the game does not mean that there will be more players produced at the very very top top level, but at a level below there will be plenty of athletes and players with good technique to filter through. The coaching and alchemy required to produce the very best will always be tricksy. Whether having more players in the game compared to twenty years ago makes it easier to find and polish/train the very best, I have no idea, though ze Germans are starting to scare me! And I bet the agents love it. I have met Londoners that went to work as agents in France, better coaching + more players = more wonga! See Newcastle’s cunning business plan of late: Buy frenchies who haven’t been picked up yet, then polish ’em and flog ’em on. Lurvley jubbly.
My best guess is that beyond a certain point or level it’s as hard as it ever was, scouts have more players to assess when judging whether a player can make that last step, maybe it is harder to spot the best these days?
All the more reason to know your stuff before burning £35M on Carroll who with the best will in the world is not as good as Bendtner, he’s not! (but then that must have been obvious to all…perhaps Dagleish was inspired by the KLF?)
All the more reason to spend some farking moolah on your own data analytics department producing your own software, forget about the data! All the club is missing is one of those hydraulic treadmill jobbies in the gym, we can’t leave Andy Murray training with Gazprom…
Theo Walcott is a fascinating modern footballer. A late starter who came to the club with good but inconsistent technique. If you watch his comps. he has always had “mad skillz” but it’s the consistency. And to be fair he has worked very hard on other stuff and this season he was taking another step up, there were more skills, tricks, confidence and finishing technique on show *sobs*
Jenkinson came to the club at a later age, but we can see, as with the Ox and Wally that they are being kept ‘in house’ for a reason. Good stuff.
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Thanks for kind comments all.
@Zimpaul – 1.14 – haha.
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Top quality article oh Muppet.
It’s been a while now that I’ve been thinking about how well researched and informative articles such as this are what we need for reasonable, evidence-based debate, even for football. I’ve been thinking about emailing Adrian Clarke with a suggestion to perhaps have a focus on sports medicine and physiotherapy. Have an expert on the Clock End to talk about these issues and to answer callers who question the medical staff at AFC, the training schedules and to address the recent comments by the controversial Dutch fitness coach Raymond Verheijen.
Excellent stuff”!!!!
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arse_or_brain
January 30, 2014 at 12:47 pm
karma?
hehehehe …now time for the media to ridicule him like theyve done to others.
champagnes and shit….fuck you jose..
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Biggus Sammus’ full press conference is very funny.
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Mooopet… Always nice to read from you… well written…well done… Nice start to the PA new year!
You guys have still not searched out frank and Stew?
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Hahahahahahahahahaha. I was so certain Chelski were good for the three points against West Ham, I didn’t even bother checking the scores yesterday. I will read about Jose’s moaning with much delight. Again, hahahahahahahaha!!!!
Spuds were robbed yesterday. First, Yaya made an awful challenge on Dembele which took him out of the game from that point forward. He should have been red carded. The penalty against Danny Rose was the product of an awful dive by Dzeko. The sending off was an awful decision. The good news is, Aguero is likely to miss the game against the Chavs.
Great read, Muppet.
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Top work on the article, Muppet. This is one part of football ive never been very interested in. For others it seems to be funner than watching the actual game. Sad state of affairs really. Down with the armchair managers! Or as they say here in the states “Monday morning . To hell with all of em.
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*monday morning quarterbacks
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Oh and if there is a god please bless that man Sam Allardyce. What a legend. Boringho didnt like the taste of his own medicine did he. Lmfao
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Gains – just couldn’t be bothered to comment on the Spuds/Citeh encounter, such was the predictability of the whole thing going city’s way with the help of a friendly ref. Sure, the scoreline looked bad (funnily enough, as it did for us) yet it took major official intervention (as it did for us) to deliver the initial breakthrough for the blue mancs.
Every refereeing howler or 50:50 goes in favour of Citeh every time, time after time.
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Thanks, Muppet. A football article backed by some facts? Whatever next?!?
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One further random thought is that considering how pampered players are these days I very much approve of AW passing on as much responsibility to his players on the pitch as possible. Some make not like the pros and cons of that path but it makes sense to me.
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Glad to see Giroud getting some credit for his sublime finish the other night on the tabloid sites.
Is he another mature player, alongside he younger britpack, who has come to the club and improved his technique? I don’t know, I didn’t see him play that often for Montpellier! but I was there to see him copy Carzola’s back heel last January as Arsenal burst the tyres, smashed in the windows, stole the stereo and poured petrol all over Big Sam’s bus. Let’s not kid ourselves, if you’re playing every day with Carzola and Rosicky you’ll end up being a better player.
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Jose is cracking under the pressure of trying to win something with a team which has been in decline for three seasons now. A confident Mourinho would have given credit to Fat Sam and have been done with it. His comments make him sound like the excuse maker he became in Spain. I would love it if Arsene reminded Jose how he parked the bus at the Grove, in order to put pressure on Chelski ahead of their meeting with the Arabomancunians.
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Thanks for the article, Muppet. Really enjoyed it and I fully agree with you. A modern footballer is such a complex being that trying to link his quality to his price tag is completely pointless. There are so many aspects to consider and very few of those are as prone to fluctuations as the price tag which can probably change by several millions in either direction for a player based on form, the business acumen of the buying/selling club etc.
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@Gains
One man (I wouldn’t necessarily call him a wise man) once said “A team that plays at home and doesn’t score a goal is boring”. I do wonder what that same man would have made of Chelsea’s performance yesterday. Unfortunately that man is an utter hypocrite so I doubt he would describe Chelsea as boring.
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In a plot twist that will absolutely shock no one, details have emerged which paint a picture of Chelsea that shows them to be a rather corrupt club known for engaging in shady activities: http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jan/30/chelsea-links-third-party-ownership
Honestly, who would have guessed?
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Excellent work Muppet – very impressive
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right ok this is totally unrelated but ive just finsihed watching the walter white saga…….fuck…. it was good….anyone? opinions?
evil and gains69 i dont understand you two? what would football be without this magnificent talent…this charismatic arsehole …the charlatan of the dugouts … tactics babe ..its all about the tac -tic ..
mmmm so walter white huh …mike was right..we had a good thing going and you fucked it up.. haaaa
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What a terrific and informative article, Muppet. Thanks for taking what must have been a significant amount of time to write it. I make no secret of the fact that I’m still learning a lot about the nuances of this game, and I’ve learned so much here at PA. This is just the latest in a long line of well-written posts from contributors to this site!
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Oh My Goodness, What An Article. I’m creaming myself here (well, Cooking, actually).
Muppet, you gotta write more, in this way. Whilst Twittering may be your usual way (and somehow a shoe-in for someone with your monika), I’m not into it. (Failure to catch up with the real world, perhaps).
I note the deliciousness of the comments, too. Thanks Muppet, thanks all.
I’ve got my own take on “Mental Strength”, despite my agreeing with everyone else’s view on the subject:
I believe the mental strength Arsène talks about is directly related to overcoming the myriad cheating and utter disparagement meted out to this astonishing club.
Week after week, year after year, we see The Arsenal and Arsène Wenger reported on and treated with utter perniciousness. (Fill in your own 1 – 10, if you can be arrskèd).
Imagine going into many games knowing that if there’s a chance – you’ll get screwed as a team or injured as an individual player. What’s a foul for Arsenal and what’s a foul for the opposition, or offside, or penalty, or fixture shenanigans?
One needs mental strength to see and feel so much shite, yet still give All to produce the goods.
Imagine the squad sitting together in a room, watching a re-run of the previous match. Surely our players are thinking or saying, “Aw, the ref ****ed us there/That lino was determined to allow ? to hack off my leg”. You know, that kind of thing. And despite Arsenal’s players being intelligent and of good character, the previous games’ opposition – intelligent or not – also watch the game. Indeed, surely all Premiership players watch Arsenal, and they know what they can get away with, cos they see it in front of their eyes, and then take all of that shit onto the pitch – and have a field day. (The shitkickers know… their foul count against Slurgy’s team was entirely at odds with the way they ‘played’ anyone else. Pushing and shoving, hacking and elbowing, ****ing cheating, yes. How about the way the pluditocrasy describe all things Arsenal?
Arsène has had to deal with various shite throughout his managerial career. He is the epitome of consistency, footballistically or otherwise – he ain’t cheatin’ – and don’t the authorities just love ‘im for it? He’s in the best position to know how to encourage mental strength, not only in Arsenal’s player’s, but, I believe, to the population at large. Look at how he deals with setbacks, hacks, the authority’s, et al. He may well be talking to the players – in most things he says to the public (answering stupid hack questions/allegations).
“I believe the team have mental strength”. Damn right! (Including other definitions expressed on here).
Tennis? I think I’m largely in a similar position to the writer. Perhaps we could meet up when you’re in London so that I can administer the “thrashing you so richly deserve”.
(Guffaw-face)
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Superb post Moopay. This blog has really attracted some excellent posters (and commenters).
Reading one of Muppet’s more ‘serious’ posts reminded me that we have not heard from OneOfUs (Big Al) for a long time. Has anyone seen him on t’internet lately?
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dupsffokcuf at 1:26 am
He’s a regular on ACLF
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Thanks for comments again, all.
Rantetta,
I live in Cambridgeshire if you want a game :).
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A Marvellous morning Positivistas – mild weather, snowdrops everywhere and just 14 hours until the transfer window slams shut. Oh joy.
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Fiddlesticks.
Confirmation that Ramsey is out for a month, add a few weeks on for him to get back to speed.
This could mean we might see a midfield of Arteta, Rosicky & Ozil when Rozzer’s legs will let him. When not Carzola moving in to the centre or Wilshere with Özil and Arteta? I have to admit, that thought does not depress me.
Some possible variations in the next few games with Flamini out:
LF: Plodders/Chamberlain/Carzola – CF: Giroud/Özil/Gnabry?/Bendtner/Podolski- RF: Rosicky/Gnabry/Chamberlain/Carzola/Wilshere
CM: Wilshere/Rosicky/Carzola/Chamberlain – AM: Özil/Wilshere/Rosicky/Carzola- D**M: Arteta/Chamberlain
D**Med!
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I have it on good authority that every player were going for is shit and ever player we’ve supposedly missed out on is world class
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heehe welcome miroslav !!! chief scouter hunter
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