So what is going on with Jack?
His halo has slipped somewhat, in fact its fallen off and has been replaced by some little red horns. Well it has if you listen to many experts in the media and our own less than tolerant fickle fans.
He has been caught smoking, drinking and worse of all, keeping company with players from other clubs. The little scoundrel that he is.
He has gone from being
- PFA Young Player of the Year: 2010–11
- PFA Premier League Team of the Year: 2010–11
- Arsenal Player of the Season: 2010–11
To ………….well , that’s the problem, where has he gone?
He was the darling of Arsenal fans in 2011. Being hailed “world class” by all and sundry, and the future of English football.
When he got injured people were moaning like drains , saying stuff like “he’s our second best player” . It was a tragedy to his adoring fans.. I wonder where he would rate now in order of bestness? Mid teens if would hazard a guess at.
Now, here is the thing. He was never that good. He was very good, but world class? Never even close.
People make mad statements like “he dominated Barca when we beat then 2-1 at home” Well, he didn’t. He played very well that night and was as good as any of our players or indeed theirs. But dominate he didn’t. In fact, as I recall, for the most part our midfield was the one being dominated.
Somehow during his unfortunate extended absence he managed to take on a sort of cult status. People seemed to remember him as being a lot better than he had actually been.
Personally I always though Aaron was a cut above him. I always thought we were expecting too much from him. But that’s just me.
The hope is that he can take a Ramsey like leap when he finally has a run of being full fit. His long term injury is blamed for his lack of progress (and rightly so ). But his injury doesn’t make his run into a pack of opponents with no chance of not losing the ball. It doesn’t stop him from completing the simplest of passes. It doesn’t make him smoke, drink and behave like a bit of a yob. And it doesn’t give him a suspect temperament and make him think he can be a hard man enforcer like Roy Keane or Joey Barton.
He is at a crossroad and I’m just not sure he is smart enough to choose the right road to go down.
However, he has tremendous potential still
He is only twenty two and a half years old.
He loves Arsenal.
Arsene loves him. He gave him the number 10 shirt and told him he believes in him.
And look at this 44 seconds in, Andrey Ashavin has a little something to say about his ability and spirit.
My advise to Jack is – Ignore idiots like me, and listen to Arsene and Andrey.
Positively Arsenal 
What I got from that Mou interview is the fact that Roman is not letting him splash the cash and he’s not letting him treat the academy as a red headed step child.
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Zelalem with an inch perfect pass.
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Just to clarify.
I agree that Alabama and Passenal should take offense. Women should be treated with respect.
However, I do not agree that Hunter should be vilified for offhand remarks.
And furthermore, what is sexism? If this is an enlightened blog, what is sexism? If you want to debate non-football topics, what is equality? I have lived life with discrimination with no one to cry my case. I have seen children die by the wayside with no one to hear their case. Ask yourselves, where do your words fit in this context?
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Gingerist
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Good article, food for thought.
* * *
@ Mickey Finn July 18, 2014 at 1:33 pm
“I think he just got into bad company: the English national side.”
Ha! Yes.
But to be fair to him, he is not caught up in his own myth. He just has to work out how to fulfil his potential and listen to the right people.
****
I agree with G69, Passenal and Team Spirit. Decades ago, people used to see nothing wrong in making jokes about black people. Those who objected were accused of being humourless or over-sensitive as well.
@ Limestonegunner
You cannot compare what you call “infighting” to racial prejudice, homophobia or sexism. The arguments that go on between Arsenal fans are more akin to those within political parties. People on both sides mock each other for the views they espouse and the character traits they display. The animosity is based on the actual behaviour or those people. They may be wrong about the detail of the views or the personalities of those they insult, but that is a different matter.
The reason why sexist insults are wrong is that they are unfair and unjustified negative judgements about a whole group of people who are members of a class – whether black, gay, female etc. Like Richard Keys and his mate attributing what they thought was a wrong decision by the fully qualified referee’s assistant Sian Massey to the fact that she was a woman. In other words, saying explicitly or implying that a person is stupid or ignorant or something else *by virtue of the fact that she is female*, is a sexist insult.
As to offhand remarks, well – there’s a lot of casual sexism going round in football and society in general, so we pick our battles.
***
This friendly is like Germany v Argentina all over again…
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A nice Australian viewpoint there.
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Commentator on Arsenal Player, ” Are we now gonna part the bus and stick with one-nil.” ffs it’s a friendly against Boreham Wood, not the CL final . Laughing my fucking head off
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That was fun.
That Kris Olsson has filled out.
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Bellerin looked very promising, Akpom a beast and Diaby…. looking quite fit
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Hector Bellerin, Chuba Akpom and Kris Olsen were very impressive young guns. Diaby looked good. Nice start……
Sav from Australia sounds like he has an interesting life experience…..would like to hear more about this but it doesn’t sound much like football…..
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Discussion: Now that AW has Sanchez and also Debuchy to cover the loss of Sagna, will there be any need to spend more?, apart from a GK to replace Flappy, if he keeps Verm, relies on Diaby, has Campbell coming back, Akpom looking good, Gnabry and Sanogo and then Theo back from injury in August/October. Will AW now keep £50m back for a riny day in january?
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When Tomáš Rosický gets the ball you can see the real quality in his play.
My MoTM
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riny = rainy
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NB, Tommy V is history I think.
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Sav: “And furthermore, what is sexism? If this is an enlightened blog, what is sexism? If you want to debate non-football topics, what is equality? I have lived life with discrimination with no one to cry my case. I have seen children die by the wayside with no one to hear their case. Ask yourselves, where do your words fit in this context?”
Words normalize it. And within that normalization is where all the nasty stuff happens.
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I wonder whether our neighbours have been the victim of a practical joke ?
As a keen enthusiast of football you may have noticed the launch of the new Spuds away shirt this week, an unimaginative black number.
The blurb that accompanies the shirt launch highlights the 11 narrow yellow streaks on the shirt, and alleges they are there in ‘celebration’ of the number of trophies Bill Nicholson won with THFC, before his sacking in 1974.
I know what 11 yellow streaks on Spuds club shirt means, and it has nothing to do with Bill Nicholson.
I suspect a sly designer of the Arsenal persuasion.
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Fungunner: “That was fun.
That Kris Olsson has filled out.”
He had some good touches as well. At times I couldn’t tell the difference between Olsson and Rosicky.
The first half was flat. I thought Yaya was not very good. Coquelin, Nacho, Ramsey, Toral, Zelalem and the two centre backs did pretty well. Jenko looked a step slow and the kid playing down the left was invisible. I really like Carl, but Bellerin looked a proper RB when he came on. However, it may have to do with the fact that he had a much stronger midfield to run off of. Chuba looks the business.
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Somewhere I read reference to Wenger interview mentioning two more or less distinct teams to field this coming season, but is this more than before? I thought, up to last season, and then to an extent and mainly at the tail, we typically had 7 or even 8 changes between the various cups anyway, so in effect 2 separate teams. I wonder what was meant, or is it just the usual make believe lazy punditry. Still when you start thinking 2 ‘types’ of sides, yes, that gets interesting, specific mention of 4-4-2 and 4-3-3. I wonder what the man has cooking?
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A little nervousness as Diaby took a shot first with his left, and then his right, but he came through ok! Good stuff.
Akpom impressing just as he did last pre-season.
I think there is a fair amount of evidence that since the time Chamberlain came in that the coaches are training up the teeny boppers for longer, beefing them up, tika-tactical stuff (as with Chamberlain) and exposing them to less hacking. I like football cliches, and if they’re good enough etc. but, well, Chamberlain was good enough. Campbell’s loan to Greece was the astute piece of stewardship that it was, unfortunate with Chambo and Walcott lost but with eight CL games, a full season etc. it was a job well done, props to the player too of course.
I could be wrong, but it all looks like a plan to me.
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I hope this new midfielder coming in does not reduce the minutes for Rosicky.
Vengerrrrrr…
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I really liked the looks of Toral. I’ve been keeping tabs on him ever since he came to the club and I think he’s an immense talent. I think he belongs in the same group as Zelalem, Gnabry and Akpom, which are fighting to break in to the first team.
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Mesut Özil @MesutOzil1088 5h
first game. first win.✌”@Arsenal: FULL-TIME: Boreham Wood 0-2 #Arsenal. Goals from Olsson and Afobe secure a winning start to pre-season.”
This says a lot to me about how Ozil feels about Arsenal. He’s on holiday after a tough world cup campaign, but still takes time to follow what is happening with the club during pre-season. Amazing!
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Jack to me is at a crossroads, either he wants to play like an England International or he plays Wengerball. I noticed subtle changes in his game during the last preseason. I think Zimpaul’s earlier post hit the nail on the head. A couple of seasons ago, Jack showed promise in many areas and looked like he would excel in all.
A number of injuries later, a lack of professionalism in terms of respecting his talent and looking after his body has meant there is a question mark hovering around him. Instead of calling up Paul Scholes to ‘have a go’, he should of been asking the coaching staff how to improve, other players like Rosicky and Per how they manage themselves through injury.
Zimpaul said he’s an instinct player, more than technical which is spot on. As the team personnel changed, the quality upped and team ability more tactical, Jack’s suffered. Each time he has returned from a lengthy injury, he has been more out of step with the collective. He hasn’t been bad – just not brilliant. He’s not developing with the team which has resulted in him losing starting spot.
Not to mention that I don’t think wants to develop his game in the way that AW want’s to use him. To me he’s now best suited to be a deep lying midfielder, who should be Arteta’s heir, but he sees himself as the complete all rounder that Aaron Ramsey is. His doggedness to fight for balls and distribute are areas he should focus on developing but he thinks the main area of his game that needs work is scoring goals. Don’t get me wrong that Norwich goal and CL goal were things of beauty, but they also papered over the cracks.
He looks like he’s auditioning to be West Ham captain and not part of the coming golden age of Arsenal FC. He does hold on to the ball too long when his passing should be sharper and quicker into useful space. He runs into central traffic, gets stripped of the ball and then as he tries to recover it, puts in strong committed tackles. These are what I team ‘doing a Scott Parker or Frank Lumpard’. They are brave but long term take their toll on the body.
Anyway – who knows, maybe my gripe is that Jack should of made the number 19 iconic and the number 10 should of gone to Ramsey. I never said I was impartial haha!
Great article!
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I really hope we get Cup runs against non Premier teams this season, to give the kids a decent chance to impress.
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As for Maureen – when he sees Arsenal, he has ‘nam type flashbacks’. He sees Barca who to this day make him feel small and just like a insignificant interpreter. He’s always lashing out and has been warned off continually firing shots directly at Arsene Wenger and so has gone for the club and players. As long as John Terry is at Chelsea, I am not having lectures about role models from him (even if it might be true).
Brendan Rodgers got it wrong, Cesc joined Chelski because of its London location and its willingness to pay him a lot. Not Sanchez – who joined Arsenal because we are..well Arsenal (Liverpool offered more wages allegedly). Top players don’t want to play for him, the club even with CL football on offer now. Loic Remy is a good fit for Liverpool and they have to pay over the odds, not negotiate.
Fact is Cesc is now a Barca and Arsenal reject and not the upsetting summer headline coup for Chelsea he was designed to be. Maureen is no longer the king that agents want to court as FFP and Chelsea board have put him on an allowance. He’s spent most of it already so we will see if the current squad are title challengers under his management. I would of thought he needed more additions to his team, but I hope he doesn’t get them.
Diego Simeone submitted his CV ages ago when he won La Liga and reached the CL final for the Chelsea job. Maureen must hope that Blanc fails at PSG so he can get a job elsewhere. The season hasn’t started and he his falling apart. I think he should stick to talking about little horses or ponies or whatever strange analogy it was. I wonder if bookies are still taking bets on his 2nd time sacking.
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Political correctness is often taken to extremes, which harms many a good cause. It’s one of the reasons, for example, why a lot of people in favor of equality often begin by stating ‘I’m not a feminist, but….’. However, I totally agree with FunGunners take on sexist insults. The fact that there are greater problems in the world doesn’t make them right. I also think it’s great that these questions are discussed on a football blog.
The infighting among fans I just find tedious. It’s the other main reason why I haven’t been active on Arsenal blogs, lately (the other being that I’ve been busy as fuck). After the Sanchez deal, even Le Grove seems mainly pro-Wenger.
Victoria…
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Wow, some top comments from Goona Gal……more please…..
Great point from Mickey Finn…..
PA could also be named Positively Erudite…..
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Odds on Jose to be the first manager of a PL to leave his job this season 50-1 , the same as AW, LvG, Rodgers and Martinez
Given the volatility of the owner and of Jose an interesting bet
If I were the PL I’d keep my eye on the market, Arry is 6-1 second favourite, (wink wink twitch twitch)
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George, my Sunday supplement has been published.
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anicholl
I reckon he’ll be sacked before the end of the season. Maureen that is.
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Thanks Gooner Gal,
Great post and we are finally back to talking about football.
My take on the Liverpool problem with attracting top talent is that after reneging on a contract buy-out clause is Suarez’s contract (opps sorry to be mentioning him again) and publicly humiliating him into apologising for wanting to leave and forcing him to stay for the season, a lot of players and agents must have taken notice of the perfidious scousers way of doing business and would become very wary of dealing with John W Henry and Rogers in the future.
This is exactly what I predicted would happen, as exclusively revealed on PA. (Starts coughing a lot).
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Post the link then Northbank.
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Sorry George, I’m a bit hungover this morning: http://wp.me/p4FeF9-bc:
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We have moved to http://wp.me/37nXa
Great read again NB.
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PG, I did wonder at NB and his view that bygones should be bygones! Those fraught times of July and August 2012.
I finally caught up with NB, July 20th, 2012 at 10.04 pm, per ACLF archive, may I stress.
Your reply, PG at 10.10 pm enlighten me to NB’s problem?
PG, your further response at 10.10 pm (same day), entitles you to a sellers’ commission?
Northbank, I was unaware of your qualities. You do seem to be increasing the number of your gossips, on that other site.
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