By the time you read this it is possible that Jamie Vardy may have been announced as the second major signing of the summer. If so it will be an almost Fergusonian transfer. Buying the star striker of a top four rival, spending big to cover a temporary injury problem on a player with only a couple of years left in the tank. Aggressive, positive and short term. Well, possibly – that is one interpretation.
Of course Vardy might simply prove to be this summer’s Higuaín. A steaming heap of click baiting baloney providing social media know alls and bloggers like me the opportunity to spout ill informed bollocks about something which was never going to happen in the first place.
I’ll be up front with you; I don’t give a hoot either way. Similarly the Suarez transfer never interested me in the slightest quite simply because it never happened and never came close to happening. It was as worthwhile a use of our time and attention as a discussion on whether or not the earth is flat.
I no longer get angry when people follow up on the journalist’s daydreams and discuss them in all earnest – after all like the flat earthers they do no one else any real harm. They’re entertaining a fantasy which engages and amuses them. So what? The real transfers happen in due course and all the stupid pointless arguments and debates about the hallucinatory targets and fees evaporate like the hot air they always were.
So it isn’t the existence of the Vardy rumours which interests me. It isn’t even the moral debate which signing such a player, even in merely hypothetical terms, has provoked among my friends and other contacts. What made me prick up my ears was a conversation with my wife, a person with less interest in football than I have in macramé, as we traversed the car park of our local Lidl.
I’d outlined the problems people were having stomaching the thought of cheering on a man who has proven to be of dubious moral fibre. ‘But you can’t control that’, she said, ‘you have no say in the players you support. Someone else hires them, someone else picks them. In any case they change every year until after a while the entire team has altered and yet still you support it. Heck the manager and coaches change, the kit and the badge change and even the stadium can change, and still you support it.’
Then came the sixty four thousand dollar question. ‘What exactly do you support? If The Arsenal is like some huge, complex Trigger’s broom, what is it you are actually throwing your weight behind?’ My mouth opened and closed a few times as I absently stowed a half dozen bags of cut price and highly tasty groceries into the trusty Hyundai Matrix.
We can kid ourselves it’s the ethical nature of the club and quietly overlook the scandal of allowing people to work in and around the stadium on match days for less than a decent living wage. We can point to our players’ avoiding the tabloid excesses of those from other clubs as if they were saints rather than simply well drilled and controlled. We can dislike the politics of someone from Leicester City and assume none of the current or past squad are raving right wingers in favour of politicians who’s sole aim is the destruction of all that is decent in our society.
We can make a big deal of Arsène Wenger’s decency, the unquestioned statesmanlike dignity with which he manages our club, but then what if someone like Jose Mourinho was appointed in his stead? We wouldn’t stop supporting would we? We’d perform like moral contortionists, make our excuses and go on cheering for the team.
We stand on feet of clay and I suggest we have no option but to find shoes to fit them. It’s distasteful sometimes but what can we do? The only option is to support someone else and good luck finding another team any better or more consistent with your moral stance. I suppose one could just give up following the sport at all, but where would be the fun in that?
So what did I conclude in the supermarket car park? What exactly do I support? If not the players, manager, owners, stadium, crest or shirt then what? In the end I decided all I was left with was the name. It seems that I support The Arsenal. And like my marriage I do so for better or for worse.
Positively Arsenal 
https://scontent-cdg2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13450824_10153994319202713_4598089502774375724_n.jpg?oh=432221e46663fa8d99c37d2d82acfeaa&oe=57DE9908
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AFCPressWatch™ @AFCPressWatch 47m47 minutes ago
Alexis set to make his 99th appearance for Chile tonight. A win will see him become the youngest South American to reach 100 appearances.
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Morning all, well with Chile’s historic victory over Mexico it looks Alexis will hit the 100 barrier which is fanstasic but what a contrast to the euros where we see the sad news that TR7 has a thigh injury that could possibly end his last ever competition for his country.
We have seen many players over the years held back by injuries but in Thomas’s case it has to be one of the biggest denials of talent to the footballing stage, I am truely gutted for him.
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its amazing that with all his injuries, Rosicky has still racked up 601 first team games, 497 at club level, and 104 Internationals.
He has scored 92 goals, 69 at club level and 23 international goals
but for injury he would surely have played over 1000 first team games, and easily managed 150 goals.
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TR sums up just about everything beautiful in the game, the most majestic of players
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Rosicky was Pires’ heir not just as a result of the timing of his arrival or his shirt number.
After his return from his trials he still managed to write his way into Arsenal folklore by becoming the tormentor in chief of Tottenham. When just a goal against the neighbours will raise any Arsenal player’s status, then it’s not too hard to understand why now there’ll be barely a quibble about this player. Sure he had his best years taken away from him, but he came back, and scored some truly Great and unforgettable goals, especially against Tottenham, not forgetting the rest of the midfield magic he’d bring onto the pitch.
Ryan Bertrand would be a better FB for England in this tournament in Gibbs’ absence (and lack of starts) there’s no doubt about that, and we have Rozza to thank for a undeniable and unarguable example for that understanding (RB is simply the better footballer then DR – and he even has the baubles to prove it).
It was when Rosicky was recovering from his trials we had uber-bloggers (I mention no names *coughs*) gibbering out of their Arsenal-holes (pardon me) that the player should be sold: that was the moment it became clear that these gallant podcastateers and associated hangers on know even less then the sweet FA when it comes to the footy.
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< Correction
Bertrand as well as having a Frenchy name had a mild niggle or knock in the build up to the tournament, so he's been unlucky there.
Perhaps Hodgson will be looking to swap his LBs as soon as fitness allows, perhaps a situation that is similar to his conundrum at CF where he was only starting Kane ahead of Sturridge for fitness reasons (not getting into the tragic Rooneh debate: there isn't a debate to be had!).
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no penalty
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one Arsenal player to be in the final of the Copa America, as Chile play Colombia in one of the semi finals, Alexis v Ospina.
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this is not going to go down well with the malcontents who say AFC need 6 or 7 more signings this summer
“We’ve already bought one player – Granit Xhaka – from Monchengladbach, because we’ve lost three players. We’ve lost [Mikel] Arteta, we’ve lost [Tomas] Rosicky and [Mathieu] Flamini,” he told Tencent Sports.
“So we’ve bought one midfielder and we’re still in the market to buy one or two more players.
“But it is not easy. It is not just buying. We also have to keep a good balance. If you buy too many players you destabilise your team. So three is the maximum.”
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InsideWorldFootball @insidewldftball 10h10 hours ago
Amazing photograph after Argentina’s win last night!
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Will Benn @WengerBoy1 4m4 minutes ago
Ozil is going to love Xhaka
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Well then,
Imagine if OG had been on the pitch for France this past 1 hr plus…
Wonder who they will have a go at fro missing all their chances now
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well TS one thing is for sure, Payet won’t get the blame, as he “knows where the goal is”, even if he missed it by yards
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Most Passes – Granit Xhaka. 90
Most successful Passes – Granit Xhaka. 83
Most Fwd Passes – Granit Xhaka. 60
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SUI had more shirts ripped tonight (3) than they’ve scored goals (2) at #EURO2016 (via @Squawka)
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god help hibernian with a clown like neil lennon as their manager
Neil Lennon (5-Live), “Xhaka reminds me of Charlie Adam, not been too impressed really.”
— ️ (@yaanuzaj) June 19, 2016
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Glad that OG didnt come on…
At least that improves his stat that they win games that he plays in… at least they score!
the work he does wearing out the defense is taken for granted!
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Paddy @IsMisePaddy 6 Jun 2015
I prefer the vine version of pogba, this full match version is a bit shite
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was koscielny’s booking tonight his second of the tournament, and mean he misses the next game for France
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Wenger “Xhaka Can cut trough The midfield with The quality of his passes. He is solid physically He has A Great technique”
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Lauren Etame Mayer @Lauren12arsenal 3h3 hours ago
Granit Xhaka dictates play brilliantly from the heart of the midfield, displaying excellent physical & technical attributes He reads the game really well, slowing or upping the tempo as and when needed.
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The more I see of Xhaka the more I like. We have one hell of a midfield now. If it remains injury free this is an awesome prospect.
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The little I have seen, he plays like a physical Arteta (the way he played for us). Hopefully that means even the wobs will get behind him (as they didn’t for Arteta) because a tackle here and there will always appeal to the grunts.
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with the Euros on this summer, our build up to the new season could well be affected, especially if any of our players reach the semi final stages of the Euros, as this would mean them not returning to Arsenal till August 2nd, giving them only 11 days before the season starts,
The Copa should not affect us as its already at the semi final stages and so both Alexis and Ospina should be back with AFC by this day five weeks.
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LCFC bid £30M for Troy Deeney of Watford
why are Arsenal not all over that deal
only joking, but I bet some malcontents are saying it for real.
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Well Mesut might get a semi final game, and Giroo and Kosc though I see our French defender managed to get himself banned for the QF.
Jack, Granit and Aaron ? It’s not totally impossible, and the same goes for Hector and Santi but I doubt it.
No I think we shall be ok
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Ramsey and Wilshere starring for both teams so far, Ramsey with the finish, Wilshere with the kind of pass (to Vardy hehehe) thatvthe plundits attempted to praise Rooney with although he didn’t make any like that!
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Did Santi make the squad?
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TS the Marquis said Santi was not picked due to his lack of matches/full fitness
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JW still shy of the sort of sharpness he’d have after several starts.
“He’s having a great game for Wales is Aaron Ramsey” John Hartson at HT
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Good point
Watching England is hard tonight – 67 minutes and it feels like 3 hours
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I think it seems longer because of the mind-numbingly boring drone from the supporters. Thank goodness for the mute button.
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My Jose to be manager of Russia plan is progressing nicely – Slutsky will be claiming asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy after this debacle.
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I suppose the basic difference between England and Wales is that Wales have a Galactico and England don’t. If only Ramsey were English. . . . .
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its sad that so many arsenal fans don’t rate Ramsey, and no matter how well he plays, they just refuse to see it, or accept it.
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I see the english media have all gone big on the Wilshere is awful and reason England failed tonight, agenda, amazing that all these journos think Henderson had a good game, but Jack was shit.
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Squawka Football @Squawka 51m51 minutes ago
Aaron Ramsey’s game by numbers:
6 chances created
6 crosses
1 goal
1 assist
Top performance. #EURO2016
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Paddy @VieiraPaddy 2h2 hours ago
Henderson and Alli in midfield. First touches like catapults. Shambles.
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For all the hurly burly being thrown towards JW for playing when it fully fit he still pulled off passing then Rooney has achieved in the tournament to date. In fact when Rooney came on his quality of passing was a significant level below what JW had showing.
It’s simple exercises such as watching the actual footy that help us to differentiate the gibberish from the chaff.
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Jack list tge ball in dogey areas about 3 times thats what ppl were judging him on not his creative output. First half 7 attempts and then when we took Jack off we only had 2 attempts . Rooney’s first two long passes went straight out of play and then he was moved further forward.
Henderson should have gone off instead of Jack and England as a whole needed to widen the pitch by having players who could hug the touchline.
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As far as I could see Jack did fine and Rooney did fine, Henderson was pretty crap but we all knew that.
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Muller could do with lessons from Ramsey on how to finish a one on one
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FFS, now Gomez fucks up a great ozil pass, it seems the Germans don’t want to convert all these good chances Ozil is creating
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Ramsey v Russia
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DyjLzQQ8Nw8&feature=youtu.be
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