“So what have the Romans ever done for us ?”
Well for much of Arsenal blog world in recent days that should read
“What has Ivan ever done for us (that we don’t take offence to)”
Seriously, what on earth has Ivan said that could possibly offend these great minds and leaders of opinion, or the sheep that accept their agenda driven bullshit?
In case you missed it, Arsenal CEO, Ivan Gazidis, gave his usual pre-season interview to some media outlet or other, this time ESPN. I’m sure many on here could, without seeing it or reading it,give a good guess at what he had to say. Now that is not, like the malcontents claim, because we are some sort of cult, inducted into the mantra of Stan’s(or should that be Arsene’s) mouthpiece, and we lap up and repeat addendum. No its because most of us know the history of our club, not just the Wenger era, or the GG era, I go back to the Mee era, and by saying we know the history of this club, i’m referring to not just what goes on on the pitch, but in fact how the club we support, is actually run, and has been run in the vast majority, if not all its, long history. Arsenal is run, and has been as long as I’ve been a Gooner (almost 50 years), as a self sustaining club, that, does not do panic, that by and large, sticks by its managers, its players, and does not let the media influence or disrupt our plans, long or short term plans.
We would have expected Ivan to tell us that Arsenal are
behind our manager
still believe in him
believe in him, not for his history, but cos we know the work he is doing for us now, and that he still has the vision, the drive, the talent and the forsight that is good for the club,
disappointed that we did not win the league last season
top 4 is not good enough and we want to win the league
are continually upgrading all aspects of the club, not just the team/squad, but also analytical, medical, training, infrastructure, you name it, we are trying to improve it
we have, or to be more precise, we are working, to a long term plan
this long term plan is reviewed and amended where needed continually
we have lots of money
but others have more
we can not spend £100M on one player
so we have to spend our money intelligently
getting the right player, is more important than getting the most expensive player
just because a player is highly talented, it does not mean he is suited to our style of play or would improve us,
it’s getting the player that fits,
we buy big too,(Xhaka remains the most expensive player bought by a BPL club so far this summer) but we also believe in promoting from within
Leicester showed that there are more ways than one to skin a cat, and we should copy the best bits from them, just as we copy bits from other clubs as we see fit.
Guess what? Ivan did tell us all of it, – AGAIN, Ivan with the same as he said last year, and the year before, they say, totally missing the point, that we, just as he told them, again, this year, and last year and the year before, are working to a plan, a short term one, and a long term one. So why the feck would we abandon the path we believe in, we believe is right, believe is TRUE, to the ethos of the club?
Now a certain section of the fan base is up in arms, in fact they tell us they are offended, by Ivan’s words. These are the sort of people that like to tell us that Arsenal embarrass them, that they are ashamed to support the club, and on that note, many of them seem to have a very loose definition of what support is, as they never have a good word to say about anything AFC, they say they do not spend on merchandise, and loads of them (almost as many as claim to have been at WHL last game of 71 season, or to be more relevant to most of them, maybe I should say, almost as many as claim to have been at the league winning game at Anfield, in their favorite managers era, yes bung-meister himself George Graham) claim to have given up their season ticket(no wonder there is so much room for the “tourists”).
So the embarrassed and offended fans, don’t have a good word to say about Arsenal, don’t spend any money on it, and don’t go to games, but it’s the fans who back the club, the manager, the players, and agree with the club being run along the lines it has always been, are the ones holding the club back. Well, that is, after Wenger, Ivan, Stan, Per, Ramsey, Giroud, Walcott.
So I say to the offended, go on, be offended, that is your right, its also your problem, and yours alone, if you need Arsenal to help you in some playground dick swinging contest, and Arsenal are not interested, and this offends you, maybe you should have a good long look at yourself, and your reasons for being an Arsenal fan, and maybe, just maybe, it’s not Arsenal, but you, yourself, that the offence originates in, and yes, you should be ashamed, and offended, and don’t ask what has the Ivan ever did for us.
Thanks to Eduardo for today’s post
Positively Arsenal 
Thanks Eddy, hope you don’t mind me adding a few inflammatory words? I can’t help myself.
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I fear I may have misled some people with the headline, Oh dear me, bad luck, never mind.
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As you say, he said everything he’s expected to say. Unfortunately many forums have members who are ‘challenged’ when it comes to actual reading, so they skim the speech or fall for the clickbait headlines. They keep pointing out that X club spent 70m whilst we’ve spent 35m’ish, so Ivan told a lie. But what he actually said was basically that we’ve made the biggest single buy, not that we’ve spent more than anyone else (Quality over quantity).
We’re all frustrated in the same way we have been for years (I go back to ‘Mee’ as well) because the club doesn’t do it’s transfers in public and is very guarded about any comment concerning transfers. But that’s part of my club and I completely understand why it’s like that. Regretfully many aren’t bright enough to understand this and take it that public silence by the club means inactivity.
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It’s just a PR statement. Why anyone would read it or care about it in a negative or positive way is beyond me.
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Very well said.
As for Ivan, what do some expect him to say? Some sites are suggesting he is a liar or spin master…….such measured words do not sound like lies to me. If anything, maybe he has been slightly understated, but surely that beats the hyperbole that the media and their fanbase allies seem to demand these days. Ivan is a serious CEO at a serious club, not someone trying to run for presidency at some Spanish mega club.
But it does sound quite promising for those of us who rate our manager and would like to see him in a position to continue his work. And I guess that is the crux of what is upsetting some.
The club has moved on from the perceived sunny days at Highbury when you could have a pint with some players after the match. It had to. If some cannot accept that, and they want more of a stake in a club, they really should move to supporting a lower/non league club for their own sanity and enjoyment.
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Good job Eddy. As you said the problem is not Ivan, it is those spin-meisters and click-baiters who are constantly seeking a reason to bash the club they claim to support.
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Believably the dysphoric maniacs are also blaming l’dictator for Adams not becoming an u18 coach at AFC. Because “he doesn’t like alternative opinion.”
Wexit 16/17 campaign is in full drive.
What these experts (who never mention the club’s transfer policies) on the Arsenal have been propagating for years and the disingenious meme that is a partially crumbling partial foundation to much of their gibberish is their choice to believe as an article of their faith that an individual like Steve Bould is afraid to speak his mind. Whilst ignoring the hard yards that Pat Rice and Steve Bould had to put in before they worked their up the club. Steve Bould is afraid to speak his mind. I know, a most strange beliefs, but they have chosen to not only adhere to this belief but propagate it to the best if their meagre ability.
I think we can, with some confidence, file that bollocks alongside their recommendations to sign Cana, Melo, M’villa etc. as the saviours of AFC.
Think I’m starting to spot a pattern here.
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george 9.06 post – its only fair you add some comments to it, as that is exactly the game the blogs referred to in the opening bit have done to Ivan’s comments. Unlike them, you have not distorted the meaning of the piece.
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Mandy I met a big Palace fan involved in their supporter associations.
Very nice they were too.
He used to hang out in the players’ areas after matches after home games. When their club were in the championship. Now they are established in the PL that kind of thing doesn’t happen. He doesn’t blame Venga thank **** for that!
But he still talks to and meets with the club chairman on occasion, socially and regarding the club. I think it helps that he didn’t take the clubs money, lose it, whilst consistently and without evidence or logic or reason been attacking the club he says that he supports, that gave him said money. That would be, weird behaviour. Very weird.
What does the above tell us all about the adults who follow an opposite aggressive and sociopathic path in the their own conduct yet expect similar results ( forget about the access at a massive modern CL club)?
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I posted most of this on the last thread, but think its relevant here.
I seen some on anther arsenal site admit that if it were not for the fact that changing ones club of choice is not the done thing, they would consider supporting another club. Of course this is Arsenal’s fault, the dick swinging contest is not going well for some of our fan base. I wonder would Sigmund Freud alter his penis envy theory if he had studied the Arsenal malcontnets
I would be interested to know what those that made such a fuss only 2 years ago, about how the special one had built the finest squad ever seen in the BPL, think of CFC’s new manager, Conte, saying that he needs at least 7 new signings if CFC want to compete for a top 4 finish. Who has it wrong, Conte, or surely not, those gooners that bigged up mourinho’s squad. Of course none of them would ever contemplate admitting they got it wrong, and in fact know far far less about the game than they like to pretend.
I’ve said it many times, its laughable, how the malcontents constantly talk about and use it in their arguments against the club, the price of Arsenal match day tickets, yet they don’t go to the Cat C games, or the £10 COC games, but will pay over the odds for a ticket to see us take on Barcelona, in a competition they say we can not win. And if one was to go by number of fans who whinge about our expensive tickets, you would think we have 200,000 season ticket holders, all with the most expensive season tickets too. Maybe many of them are confusing Arsenal season ticket prices, with SKY sports subscription fees. When they say we have the most expensive season ticket in the world, what they really mean is Sky Sports is the dearest satellite provider in the world, and for the price I pay them, Arsenal should spend more.
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what you guys make of 16 year old Arsenal goalkeeper Joao Virginia being named in teh Portugal for the Olympics
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Kelechi Nwakali is expected to complete his transfer to Arsenal this week, with his international commitments, for the summer,with Nigeria coming to an end over the weekend.
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what has Ramsey started
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Here’s a review of the recent Test Cricket:
First Test, a close contest between two evenly matched squads, one at Home therefore they carry the advantage however the First Test is at Lords the home of cricket and as consistently see in North London playing at the Home of Football can bring out the best from visiting opponents. So, the game went as follows:
Outstanding start by England, an early wicket goes down and it could’ve been crucial but then their two best batsmen were at the crease and played with great discipline and focus and a little luck too, errors from the opposition. And on these tight tight top elite level sporting contests the margins are so tight the opposition errors looked to have given England the advantage. But then an error from Root flipped the innings, not immediately but it gave enough hope to opponents to give them a boost and again in these tight contests it was enough of an error to swing the entire match (given the context of the second innings, England’s first innings and the consideration they’d be battng last etc…normal sporting stuff I guess) into the favour of the opponents.
Think of the first leg of last years Arsenal Barcelona tie for comparitive football context. It was only when AFC started to really go for it egged on by a buyout crowd who’d seen their team have the better of it that they lost their shape for a fraction after having been the better football team on the football pitch for sixty five odd minutes with the best chances etc. emotion overtook them as it did for Root in that first test.
An error that was small, usually insignificant, yet enough to gift the tie to Barcelona (Away goal etc advantage etc.) Top, elite level sport.
The England cricketers as witnesses by by Cook’s post match interview get exasperated by simplistic media memes but they don’t have it even a fraction as bad as the arsenal’s coverage.
Second Test:
Pakistan get a crucial early wicket, this time England batting first. Yet the luck in this second contest holds for England and not the opposition. Pakistan can’t hold their catches a crucial error at any level and this time England’s two best players make sure they capitalise and consequently they’ve gone on to win the match.
Both Tests were similar contests, yet a wildy varying results and sequences of events.
Decided by tight tight margins. Small moments. That is top level sport. And it’s why we love to play (as best we can!) and to watch.
Standard Arsenal Expert Blogs review of the Football:
Arsenal conced a goal. They’re shit!
Arsenal scored a goal. They’re great!
Players have good games if they score a goal, hardly if they don’t.
Etc.
We know part of the poverty of the football coverage stems from footballs unique economics and the role of agents and even worse in the studio (same broadcasters do provide legible non-risible coverage for other sports although practising athletes will always have conflicts with pundits) , but what excuse can the self-declared arsenal expert blogger use for spending so much time writing so much crap?
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AFCPressWatch© @AFCPressWatch Jul 23
AW: “[Adams]’s not settled: does he want to manage senior players? Young players? It will be a good experience to see if he likes it or not” “We give him a choice to see if he likes it [coaching] or not, but nobody questions his knowledge and his ability.”
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I hope the young keeper got the call up on merit and not because of his connections with the Portugeezer (no idea who his agent is, not sure I care…).
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Eds
In order to admit the above they’d have to acknowledge what wa obvious to all observers at the time, which is why so many were laughing so hard even as the Stoke Bet365 keeper who went on to sign for Maureen threw the ball into his own net to help the Gazprom squad stutter towards a title: Mourinho is a specialist in signing up players signed to special agents. Nothing more. Nothing less. He’s very good at signing mules from specific stables to be fair to him.
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this made me chuckle and almost chuck too:
Deadwood
https://mobile.twitter.com/GoonerGimli/status/757178909519704064/photo/1
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Great post Eddie…
It’s a known fact when those cynically inclined can’t refute anything being said, introducing a host of red herrings is their general response.
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Good afternoon all and a trenchant review of the latest media inspired nonsense concerning Gazidis and what he said, didn’t say, meant, or did not mean. As Eddy says the chronically offended sucked the life out of every word in their inimitable panic stricken way, revelling in the sheer discomfort of it. I can almost see them inserting a fresh nettle into the boxers to prolong the thrill.
Ivan may have all sorts of useful things to say about CEO’ing and how his day to day office job is interesting and how he spends his time. Fair play to the man he has doe the job for long enough.
To be brutally frank however I do not care what Ivan Gazidis says, or does not say, etcetera. It would not matter to me if he came down from the mountain bearing two tablets of stone – because he is not a footballer, and more specifically he is not an Arsenal footballer. He cannot tell me anything I don’t know or have not heard. He cannot show me anything I have not seen.
*and yes Dr Fins – dysphoric is the diagnosis
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Red Membership safely renewed
Rest easy Ivan
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is that messi or Ramsey?
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jose moureen complaining about the bad state of the pitch in china. the same moureen who always asked chelsea groundsmen not to maintain the pitch of even damage te pitch anytime thay are to play barca or arsenal in order to hinder free flowing football. what an irony.
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A5, Only red! I take that makes you one of those Jonny come lately fellows. No wonder you are a major contributor on here with the rest of us also-rans. Not a proper supporter amongst us.
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Team spirit,
Parlour – the Romford Pele
Ramsey- the Celtic Messi
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I know – I’m part time armchair scum, a disgrace
And when the box came up saying would I invest £4 to secure a place on the ST list ( a new little cash raising wrinkle I see) I admit it …….
I said no (banned appalled looking smiley) !
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reports that Ospina has handed in a transfer request. Been rumored for a while that he wants out so he can be first choice elsewhere. Emi Martinez stated in an interview last week that Ospina wanted to leave Arsenal, and several clubs are said to have been in for his this summer. A fee as low as £3M has been mentioned, which seems on the low side to me.
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Good work Eddy.
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arsene wenger had several times in the past turned down lucrative offers from madrid, city, bayern, psg and recently, england to stay with arsenal. thierry just abandoned his job with the youth team for his skysport job. and now tony adams has rejected the chance to coach the arsenal for a lucrative offer in china.
so, who then is my arsenal among the three?
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I can’t attend matches (for personal reasons into which I’d prefer not to go) but I do occasionally get offered a ticket by some extraordinarily kind and thoughtful people. Here’s my question. Should my personal circumstances ever change can I just rock up, accept the offered ticket, and walk in through the turnstiles or do I need one of these coloured memberships I read about in other people’s posts?
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Pundits and especially ex-player pundits have a role to play but all too often they follow a destructive agenda which ends up being unhelpful. All too often they bring out a mixture of homespun philosophy, hindsight and a firm belief that things were much better when they were playing and that no current players or coaches are fit to lace their boots. All too often this ends up with them discrediting current best practice. Zonal marking would be one such (and the desperate search for strikers suggests that it is mightily effective), not enforcing the follow on another. I could think of three very good reasons why Alastair Cook (who is a seriously intelligent young man – and a concert level musician to boot) chose to bat again, but none of those were much explored on the radio yesterday. Instead the collective verdict seemed that he was a selfish and lazy half-title. This matters because over time the powerful voices in the press room or studio convince the public that no body is much good and when things do go wrong, as they always will given the nature of competitive sport, much less slack is cut the player or coach. I do find it quite extraordinary that at a time when sport has become such big business and when so much expertise is poured into analysis, coaching, diet and fitness so many old.players are revered for their astonishingly out of date opinions.
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foreverheady
That’s a great point. But I think it is more of an English problem. I remember listening to an interview with Phillipe Auclair and he was talking about how in Italy for example, it is journalists who are the main analysts while footballers are only employed to give their perspective, such as how a player views the game, what it feels like to play in certain situations etc. Not as the definitive analysis of play,and certainly not to analyse the workings of a club. This fits in with what I’ve seen of Italian football coverage. Also, the French coverage where they employ Wenger or others of that ilk to commentate suggests that their coverage is better.
In US sports, at least the NBA, the commentators have their own problems, still work as agents to promote the league and certain players, but they are a lot better at not following a script in terms of analysis of either games, or a team’s workings. They don’t confuse strategy with fan opinion, and though they point out pros and cons of a different ideology, they don’t denounce it as an inherently bad thing, It is just a different way of functioning based on a reality which comes with trade-offs.
It is England which employs these ex players, and puts them on a pedestal. English footballers particularly, usually come across as a bit stupid to me. There are exceptions of course, but those guys are very rarely employed by TV because their aim is to sell to the lowest common denominator, rather than to enhance the public’s understanding. This is also borne out by how little of the stats that TV and Press get for free, are shared with us. We are spoon-fed parts of it (usually to fit an agenda) rather than given to examine and understand fully. (which is unlike the US where the public gets tons of stats)
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Tim, an expansion on your last post would make a great article. Genuinely giving an insight that other miss.?
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I agree with George.
The point I would add to what Shard and Tim says is that it is useful to distinguish between pundits and journalists. Pundits are. for the most part, ex players who by dint of their celebrity (and only their prior achievement on a football field) are recruited by broadcasters and the mainstream media to give a bit of colour to programmes or articles, to create a headline where none exists. As a consequence most of their output is the first thing that comes into their largely empty head and in Merson’s case his entirely vacant skull.
Journalists should be trained in their trade of being able to research, analyse and sort out different ideas, and be capable of expressing them in an intelligible way. Sadly the 24/7 demands of sports news means that the trade of journalism is at risk, with no time and no incentive to inform or educate the audience.
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Great discussion folks….
Yesterday my wife mentioned something rather interesting (yes it happens even after 31 years!). One of her friends claims to earn about £1000 a month clicking on on-line advertisements…a click whore! This is what a large part of journalism has become just a means of marketing…
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good point anicol about journos should be able to research and analyse, clearly highlighted only yesterday by a few of them getting taken for a ride by the trolling of afc fans by a chelsea fan on twitter, over the possible transfer of Mahrez. the troll mocked up a photo claiming it to show Mahrez shirts for sale on the CFC/addidas website.
even the slightest bit of research would have shown it to be what is was, a poor attempt at trolling, but several media outlets actually ran stories claiming cfc/addidas had cocked up and had revealed the signing by cfc of Mahrez, before it was official. Now I ask who cocked up, cfc/addidas, or the media outlets. Oddly enough the answer sadly is neither, firstly cfc/addidas did not actually put up any such shirt sale so they can hardly be said to have cocked up, so many would assume that the journo and his bosses cocked up by printing fake stories, but no, how can it be said the messed up, when they got the exact results that they aimed for, clicks, clicks, and more clicks. It exactly the same method used by the malcontents on twitter and on their blogs. Facts come a distant second to a good headline. As I was once told by the boss of another arsenal site, while writing a lead article, “mention transfers in the headline, it gets way more views(clicks)”. Sadly even mainstream media are now all about soundbites and eye catching headlines, and less and less about substance and facts. Now is that the fault of the authors and editors, or is it the fault of the readers who don’t want to have to engage their brains, I think its clear where the fault lies, the customer is getting what they want and what they deserve.
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Kolo thinking how did it come to this
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Mertesacker out of USA tour, due to a knee injury
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so no Koscielnly, Mertesacker or Gabriel on the usa tour, leaving us with Chambers, Holding and Bielik as the CB’s in the squad for the two games.
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What a strong midfield, considering who is still on holiday!
I can understand with just two games and a lot of travelling why Arsene would not bother brining a player with even a slight injury.
I would like to see Chambers get as much experience in the US as possible at centre back as, presumably, he is the most obvious first back up for the first choice three CBs of Per, Kosc and Gabby. Monreal is also an option to fill in and give a bit of experience if required although I hope he will not be required other than to improve his fitness at left back.
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didn’t Chambers and Holding form a good cb partnership for England U21’s at the Touloun tournament a few weeks back. Not the worst thing for the new boy to have for his first couple of games a partner he has already played with
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Stew – On your matchday ticket question if you are given a ‘ticket’ ticket it will have a bar code on which you just place into the turnstile scanner and hey presto you are in.
If they offer you a seat but no physical ticket then usually you will be given someone else’s membership card to get in and to which the seat is officially allocated.
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we could see a team something like this
Cech
Bellerin Chambers Holding Monreal
Xhaka Cazorla
Oxlade-Chamberlain, Wilshere, Iwobi
Walcott
and still have
Ospina,
Debuchy, Coquelin, Bielik, Gibbs
Elneny, Zelalem
Campbell, Reine-Adelaide, Willock
Akpom
and 3rd keeper Martinez
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8 English lads in the squad, and 11 of the squad have come through the youth teams at AFC
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why hasn’t some top club snapped up Stuart Pearce as their manager, with foresight like this who could doubt his knowledge
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I could be doing Stuart Pearce a disservice, he might actually have selected that team, on the basis that he thinks big fat sam is an idiot, and would pick said team, and really who would doubt it.
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reports in Italy are suggesting that Mauro Icardi is joining Napoli, cos the Napoli owner has promised a leading role for Icardi’s wife,(and agent), Wanda, in his next two movies.
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THREE GUNNERS SELECTED FOR OLYMPICS
Takuma Asano, Serge Gnabry and Joao Virginia have been called up for this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
New signing Asano will be in action for Japan, while Gnabry and youth goalkeeper Virginia will feature for Germany and Portugal respectively.
Sixteen countries will compete for gold, with Mexico the current holders of the title following their victory against Brazil in 2012.
Copyright 2016 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source
Read more at http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20160725/three-gunners-selected-for-olympics?#Fb0rluhLVrMz88Cj.99
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