Good morning Positive Arsenal fans,
We enjoyed a marvellous, historic day yesterday. As I said yesterday morning on here it is a day that will be with me for the rest of my life, and will be a recollection of the best kind, warm and clear. The whole stadium paid tribute to an Arsenal manager, and probably a man, we will not see the like of again at the helm of our club. Everyone who was there yesterday was a Wenger fan, or at least seemed to be. Even Stan was there !
The humour on the afternoon came from the 3,000 Burnley fans who, after the usual run through about their Lancashire homes and “You’re Only here for the T-Shirts”, gave us a full throated rendition of “There’s Only One Arsene Wenger” – followed by a witty “You two-faced bastards, you got him the sack”.
Of the game itself we ran riot in football terms over Burnley, as we have against opponents in all but one home PL game this season. At the front Mkhi, PEA and Laca pulled the Burnley defence apart. Iwobi weaved and prodded and our new, soon-to-be-cult hero Dinos roughed up Barnes and his replacement Vokes with commendable ruthlessness. Five good goals, and Laca’s first just before half time a real Wengerball pearl. Just one save for Cech all afternon so dominant were we. Perhaps it was Jack’s last time on the Emirate pitch in red and white. He played well, and got a good hand when he was subbed, so we shall see. And finally we got to see the BFG whose every touch was cheered to the rafters. It certainly won’t be Per’s last involvement with the club but that opportunity to play a few minutes a final time must have been a tremendous burst of emotions.
The closing presentations and the speeches I am sure you have seen.
I was impressed that those final 20-25 post game minutes were efficient. Bob Wilson was exactly the man to provide the opening. The original gold trophy the right award, valuable in itself, and irreplaceable in the club’s history. Vick Akers was rightly cheered and Alex Scott’s presentation was followed by a few choruses of “You’ve won more than Tottenham Hotspurs”. And then on to Arsene. Nothing mawkish or soppy. Eloquent, dignified, a delivered with light humour. There was an excellent balance between affection, mutual respect between Arsene, the fans and players past and present, and typically his first words were for old Blue nose. The manner of his leaving matched the work that AW has done these past 22 years.
And I miss you Arsene, I really do.
“si monumentum requiris, circumspice”— if you seek his monument, look around you.”
Positively Arsenal 
Nice Andy.
A good day was had by all.
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Wonderful review Andy. Captured the whole atmosphere. Thanks. How great was that ceremony…i’m sure the crowd was larger than many games recently. Indeed worthy of a legend.
And how about the Chambo and Mavro combination? Sure there’s a chant in there.
A truly great day.
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The French Frank White with another line for the ages
‘Sometimes to make people happy is to go somewhere else,’
Man every word he say’s should be a hip hop quotable
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Perfect Andrew, just like yesterday
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Brilliant Andy especially considering the you did it while driving back to Norwich late last night. Great to see you and Steve yesterday and it was indeed a fantastic and emotional day out.
After Ivan said it will be a send off the PL would never forget I actually thought it was quite low key, maybe that was something to do with Arsene ever the understated wanting to get home and watch the video so he could prepair for the next match, after all his work is not yet finished and as we all know he does love his work.
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I admit that I shed a tear or two yesterday, oddly Per really got to me, maybe it was cos he looked so choked up himself, Arsene actually looked relieved, when he first announced he was going he seemed frustrated, as he has explained himself, he did not fully agree with the timing of the announcement, but accepted it, but that was a couple of weeks ago, and I’m sure as big a man as Arsene is, has come to terms with it all and yesterday he certainly seemed fully at ease with it all, well on the pitch and on the mike, but he did look uncomfortable in the tunnel waiting to be called out.
A wonderful team performance with 5 great goals, and many more near misses. We end our home BPL season with 47pts from 19 games, just the 2 defeats, only man city have better, they have 47pts from 18 games, man utd have 44 from 18, but will need a 7 goal win to surpass us. So as I said yesterday, its not hard to see why Wenger says that this squad has the talent, has the potential to compete for the title, 2 or 3 top signings and sort out the away form and we will be a force once again.
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a_o_b I agree that I felt it was a bit of a let down if we take Ivan’s promise into it, maybe I’m not giving enough prestige to the Gold Trophy, a one of a kind, probably the clubs greatest achievement, so no small gesture to give it away.
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Well said Andy!
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Well by this day week, Wenger will be gone, and we might even have a new manager announced for the first time in 22 years.
Arsenal.com done a gif yesterday with Wenger hugging Vieira, some jumped to the conclusion that this was a hint by the club that Paddy will be his replacement, maybe it is, I’m not sure, but I could see him come in and have Bould as his no.2 and Bandfield as one of his coaches too. Minimum disruption. I think from yesterday’s presentations that by his omission that it might be safe to say that Steve Bould is keeping a job at Arsenal, and rightly so.
For me if PV4 was to come in this summer, I would actually prefer if it was as assistant to someone like Carlo Anchelotti, with the long term view being he would take over from him in 3 or 4 years time.
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I know this is a safe space to say it, so here goes, I’m getting a lumpy dryness in my throat all over again. Yesterday was just perfect. Few social-media elements had their predictable attempts to try to spoil the mood but their attempts were shot down very quickly. Even Piers Morgan got put in his place from many fans of other clubs simply telling him that “today is not the day”, as they too want to give respect to one of football’s greatest minds and gentleman. * as I wipe away a tear *
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An excellent day out. Sorry to have missed you by seconds, in the pub, Andy.
Met a drunk chap on way to my train who showed me his programme with a scribble on front. Having seen a few, Per & Aaron among them, sign the odd thing post match, I said … “nice one mate, who is it? Mertesacker? Ramsey? Arsene?!”
“Nah” he replied “Sean Dyche, he was in the Pub after the game”
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Seaman, Adams and Dixon missed the game yesterday as they were in France at Lee Dixon’s wife’s birthday party.
There was no sign of Parlour who is normally at most games.
Henry chose to do sky work in Manchester.
some others like Overmars and Vieira were working for their clubs.
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Only thing that could have added to it would have been superb turnout of ex players, with any nursing any strange grievances putting them aside for the day and forming part of the guard of honour.
A large number may well be ruled out by work commitments- Paddy, for instance- but still I hoped to see a few more. Seeing Bergkamp back would have blown me away.
Still, I don’t believe any of them have been unfairly treated since they left and so it must be something in them that stopped likes of Adams, Seaman, Dixon, Winterburn being there.
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Rich I explained where Adams, Seaman and Dixon were, but I forgot to add that Adams tweeted that the birthday party had been arranged before Wenger “was SACKED”. Adams really is a fucking clown with a very large chip on his shoulder.
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seen a bit about Ozil missing yesterday’s game, reports AW as saying Mesut played v Atletico Madrid injured, and he wanted to be on the bench yesterday but medics ruled it out, and that he is unlikely to play in our remaining games this season. But Martin Keown says Ozil couldn’t be arsed to play, who to believe, his manager, or a pundit who took exception to Ozil calling out our former players for not supporting the club, its a hell of a difficult choice.
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IslingtonGoonerAFC
@Born_a_gooner
2h2 hours ago
PL goals scored
Salah 31
Kane 27
Aguero 21
Raheem 18
Vardy 17
Lukaku 16
Firmino 15
Lacazette 14 – played with injury for months, then missed 2 months after operation
Jesus 12
Hazard 12
Morata 11
Sanchez 9
Aubameyang 8 – only came to BPL in January
Not shabby for Auba or Lacca
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I expect melting down the Adams and the Henry statues to produce a really big Bob Wilson statue would probably meet with a fair amount of approval eddy – so much more involved in being a ‘legend’ than what you do on the pitch
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yes andy, i’ve said that today on twitter, and not for the first time, people need to separate legendary or world class player, from the man they are now, and how they treat the club, Bob and Pat are the very epitome of what a Club Legend is and should be. Nothing but pure respect for the club, if they can’t say something good about it they will say nothing at all.
Look at the Liverpool, utd, spurs and chelsea legends, they will defend their club to their last breath, look at our so called legends, henry, dixon, adams, keown, merson, etc, going out of their way to attack the club. Legendary players they may very well be, Arsenal club legends they certainly are not.
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Hadn’t seen your post Ed.
Keown eh. I’ve never sensed he is malicious , petty or egoistic like some of the others, and I do get sense his love for the club is real.
He just…has some rotten opinions. Latest being we should sell Xhaka. He seems very influenced by latest prevailing thoughts in media and definitely has a weird thing going on in terms of struggling to analyse players who aren’t basically a version of himself in terms of aggression, visible passion, etc.
Maybe the latter is not so weird. It’s how he understood the game, what he had to do to bring a lot to the table. How he’s wired even. Still, seems to lead to faulty analysis.
Less excusable is some of the rubbish like his latest ‘There was a time when an Arsenal player could make one or, maybe, two errors and then he would be replaced.’
Really? Real Madrid don’t even operate like that. No team ever has as it would be too stupid for words and you could end up lower than 12th even with good players.
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“Less excusable is some of the rubbish like his latest ‘There was a time when an Arsenal player could make one or, maybe, two errors and then he would be replaced.”
That is why we loaned Martin to Brighton and then sold him to Villa – George did not think he was up to the mark (banned smiley)
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On Xhaka- I just bloody love the guy.
Has assumed fanboy proportions to where I was looking at him yesterday in guard of honour and seeing the look of a proper leader absorbing it all in a meaningful way to help down the road.
Has fight in abundance, has shown brains to adapt well to refs, and most importantly has become vital in how we try play. Makes us flow and can produce dozens of clever moments and skilful intelligent passes in a game.
Find it amazing that there are hordes out there who apparently watch a lot of football and yet truly believe he is a poor or awful player. Clueless, and missing out on a lot.
If his contract was for four years, I’m very eager to hear he has signed a new one. Easy to imagine likes of Bayern and Guardiola rating him and keeping an eye.
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Keown did say recently that “Ramsey is not a proper midfielder”,
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Thanks Andrew.
Still hard to shake the feeling that this is a Newcastle/Robson moment. Potentially. Because the vampires & hyenas around the club have been baying for this moment as this is their chance to suck even more blood and silver from the club.
Will Keonke now hold to the deathbed haggle?
Or fold?
That is the 24/7 bazilliondollar question that none of the transparent partners of the Agencies ever discuss. Ever.
Consequently as a result of this big swerve in their Narrative for over a decade these shining experts, leeches and blaggers have left the footballing equivalent of a huge gap between bat and pad*, we can see the wicket and even get an esoteric LBW call if required with the mystical aid of VARs broadcast to all viewers and people at the ground (these past thirty years! Ok, ok, sorry, maybe it’s just 20 years…my bad eh?).
*the report commissioned and buried by the AST on value for money was the equivalent of a beautiful inswing yorker or a Harry Kane own goal against a part time team of Flemish farmers (which is of course his biggest goal to date…)
Perhaps IG has lined up the footballs to allow the gaffer to return to the club in a short time in some capacity, hopefully alongside the Great Bob. Whilst smuggling Arteta away from the fumes he’s been inhaling at the Petro City celebrations. You need such heavy artillery in battle. I’ve always had some hope in IG as I’ve heard he actually likes to play football, which is rare for people in his position.
We shall see.
UTA.
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< in short. I hope that after the end of this season that we might see the gaffer back "soon".
The club and manager may have always agreed to give the next manager some space and a break for the old one.
if the club lose AW's expertise and contacts to a Petro-rival it will only harm the interests of the club long term. And whatever else people think of IG, I don't think anything myself, fair to say he is not stupid.
I like to imagine that they have a plan.
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Rich
May 7, 2018 at 12:31 pm
Totally agree re Xhaka – the idiots who don’t rate him made up their mind after his first few games while he was adapting to a new league. They now refuse to admit they were wrong so instead choose to focus on his rare mistakes to suit their confirmation bias. The other thing I liked about him yesterday was the way in which he congratulated Iwobi after scoring. He looked like a real leader and team player who recognised how important that could be for Alex’s confidence.
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P.S. and the other thing about Xhaka is that I don’t think a lot of people understand his role in the team. I’ve had this ‘debate’ with people at the stadium who seem to think he is a DM and get worked up about him not playing like one! Correct me if I’m wrong, but surely he is more of a deep-lying play maker? As he has adjusted to the speed of the PL he is now starting to position himself better on the field so he does not have to run around so much to make those last-ditch tackles that get him into trouble with the referees who are only too keen to issue cards.
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Xhaka is simply getting the good CM treatment that good Arsenal CMs get from the pgMOB officials, the media etc.
The usual, we know this pattern.
He’s settled into the league, over the last six months he’s shown the complete hand of a very good midfielder including injuring opponents whilst being fouled, Sagna levels of strength – even the strongest bones couldn’t protect him from the pgMOB ‘game management’ in the end.
About to hit his peak years as a midfielder. Settled and confident at the club and league.
AMN breathing down his shoulder (Wilshere is sweating). Perhaps he is at the perfect stage to help mentor and accelerate AMNs development, perhaps Arteta is the perfect manager for this player, heh!
Not forgetting the greek kid the manager gushed over back during Xmas and after a few months training with the coaches and physios as per the usual with new young siginings has now unleashed him upon a league that perhaps is not yet ready for him, and preparing him for life next season in the first team squad! Perhaps the club don’t need to spend £75M on finding a new CB to take up Koscielny’s mantle. Comprehensively handing over a stronger squad then the gaffer had at the start of this season.
The new manager is a lucky lucky boy.
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“The new manager is a lucky lucky boy.”
I just hope he appreciates it and does not come in too gung-ho in wanting to throw the baby out with the bathwater!
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Passenal,
Somehow i don;t think this club and the people in the backroom are as comically stupid as the people that marched into Man Utd and got rid of the title/league winning backroom staff who had been doing all the work whilst Ferguson was nursing his bad hip and a glass of vino in his office.
Though to be fair from the point of view of those who made that insane and comical decision that has never been commented upon in any great detail by any of the hacks out there, or their sychopahntic blaggers, they must’ve of done alright from those signings of three LBs in one window at the quivalent of £100M plus in this summer’s market. So we can understand why they wanted to get rid if the Football staff. Makes perfect sense.
Hopefully we will not witness a refelection of Utd’s transformation from Ferguson’s genuine football team (at least he understood what Carrick did on the football field…he wasn’t a DM haha!!!!) into the Damned Utd occur at AFC.
Though that is the palpable desire of Ian Wright and his associates.
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Passenal
I’ve never found perfect definitions of what a defensive midfielder is anyway.
In my mind they are more concerned with, and more adept at, thwarting opposition attacks and protecting defence than they are in building our attacks. I’d say they are both excellent at spotting a weakness with an opposition attack and with spotting where our own play could break down.
Within defensive teams they are pretty easy to recognise. They sit deep not too far from defence and aim to disrupt play and make it hard to go down the middle especially.
There are plenty of variations though. Schneiderlin, whose ability I badly misjudged, seemed a demon of a defensive midfielder in his late Southampton days, catching my eye frequently with the way he would launch into action when opposition received ball near centre of pitch.
I’m pretty sure it worked as well as it did because the whole team was drilled exhaustively in terms of co-ordianting when to go. Moral being if you take a player out of a highly regimented set up, playing in a very specific way, which is good enough for meeting ‘their’ expectations, etc…not only can you not expect him to play the same, that player actually can’t play the same, as the team is set up in a completely different way.
In the normal run of things, with our way of playing, there are long spells of games where a traditional defensive midfielder, especially a screener sitting deep, is almost an impossibility- the defence isn’t back there to sit in front of, the opposition aren’t back there to stop.
Interesting thing is trying to marry that with a way to limit threat of counters and be able to defend well as a midfield when we are pushed back or if we choose to sit deeper.
At present Xhaka is for me the most defensive of our midfielders, without a doubt if Elneny isn’t playing, but he is also the most important midfielder to our attack at the same time.
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Utd’s de-evolution into the Damned Utd = why some Utd fans created FC Utd.
Fair play.
Our ‘true fans’ created AFTV. Claude is unwell, but he is hungry or greedy, and so are the people exploiting his ill health as a clown in their circus.
The contrast is there for all to see.
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Carrick was the only CM in the squad during AF’s last title winning season!
Think he covered all the CM roles too…
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…though that still did not get him recognition in the England team.
…
I’m not expecting the hacks and their hangers on to start singing Xhaka’s praises anytime soon! That would require them to discuss and desribe the Football! L.O.L.
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Well I can tell you all honesty it was a Chardonnay of a particularly inspiring and moving(I had to sit down) quality that brought a tear to my eye yesterday afternoon.
And I am sticking to that story
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He was absolutely fantastic yesterday. As he has been for some time.
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Keown, Henry et al, being paid large amounts to be pundits, cannot be seen to be pro one team.
Therefore, in order to be seen as impartial, they veer to the other extreme.
Alan Hanson, on the other hand, never had any such difficulty, as he always showed his partiality to Liverpool unashamedly.
The mistake they make is that whey they make inflammatory soundbites of a negative nature, they think they are doing their job, when all they are doing is showing what ingrates they are.
You can comment and criticise, but insults or unnecessary negativity are simply out of order.
I doubt if Henry and Adams were missed yesterday.
For Henry, in particular, to prefer being at a meaningless match instead of this one, to show his gratitude to the man to made him what he is, is, in my view unforgivable.
I simple do not believe that Sky forced him to be there.
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I will miss him. I think more than I realise. It’ll be so weird seeing someone else on the sideline, in press conferences etc as the face of the club. No man could be expected to compare to the class of Arsene Wenger, but I hope he, and the club, do try to preserve the values that mean so much to Arsene, and so much to us fans.
I think they will because they realise the material benefit of those values too (Including in transfer negotiations) And hopefully they’ll keep and add more Arsenal people who understand the importance of those values.
I was actually more emotional yesterday before the game than after. At the end it all seemed more nice than emotional. Probably because Wenger himself kept it low-key in typical fashion. (Never have I envied a kid more than yesterday though. I would steal candy, well the tie, from that baby.)
I was glad for the ex-players that showed up. I had nary a thought about the ones who didn’t. It was only later I realised that they weren’t there. Was Ian Wright there? I didn’t see him. I hope he wasn’t. It’s better this way. People should be there because they want to be. I’d rather the likes of Wright and Henry didn’t show because they’d just ruin it later. The ones who did show up looked dignified and happy to be a part of the celebration of the great man.
The club did well to bring out Bob Wilson and Pat Rice. And to give Arsene Wenger the golden PL trophy. A unique trophy for a unique man at a unique club. And long may that uniqueness last. Arsenal FC. By far the greatest team the world has ever seen. One Arsene Wenger. A match made in heaven. And for 22 years, we lived it.
I loved that after John Cross (ugh) presented that wine to Wenger, he told them what he thought of them. Still in his classy and subtle way. But to say he knows the compulsions of the media business and that all of them could not always write what they wanted to, says a lot. The agenda is real, and the journalists themselves are only the foot soldiers. Arsene Knows!
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All Arsenal midfielders are cursed because they are compared to Vieira. Even Vieira needed Petit and Gilberto/Edu next to him though. And even they needed Adams/Keown, or Campbell/Toure behind them.
All excellent footballers apart from being great athletes, at least the ones Arsene bought.
I just thought of something. Arsene Wenger was just ahead of his time. This helped him win the PL thrice, and harmed his chances later as the league became more commercialised, and his success became a source of annoyance. The lovely football that Pep is being lauded for. We saw it in the Project youth built around Cesc Fabregas, Hleb and Rosicky. Even today Pep and City face the risk of broken legs. But who really paid the price for that was Arsenal. How dare Wenger attempt to revolutionise football in the country TWICE?? That too without adding to the gravy train of transfers? No.. We’re too ‘conservative’ for that.
Never mind that the PL became the global phenomenon it is in no small part due to Arsene Wenger. No Wenger and people would largely choose to watch the Spanish or Italian Leagues (We forget how good Serie A was in the 90s- early 2000s) No Wengerball, no answer to ManU, no global coverage, no Abramovich seeking legitimacy, and no State Owned teams. But no good deed and all that.
Anyway. On Xhaka. I really like him. I love what he brings to the team, and I think he is improving at what he does less well. His positioning has improved. His defensive awareness/anticipation still needs work. I’m quite confident that he’ll get there. He seems to have the right character for it. (Even though his story of being left the keys has become a bit of a joke, I think that it impacted him enough to recount it means he takes responsibility seriously)
I hope we get his and even more importantly, Ramsey’s contract sorted.
PS. I forgot to mention Vic Akers in the last comment. A legend in his own right and again, it’ll be strange not seeing him on matchdays. As for our BFG. What a player. And what a man. To talk about the mental issues that come with being a professional footballer took courage. I’m glad he got to play and was rewarding by such loud cheers every time he touched the ball. And I’m glad he’s staying at the club in his new role. For me, he has to count among the best signings Wenger’s ever made.
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*rewarded
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https://mobile.twitter.com/SolManOfficial/status/993475496464867329
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jigsol why would ex arsenal players be required to be the only pundits not bias in favor of their old clubs, none of the liverpool, spurs, chelsea utd or spurs pundits have any such conditions attached to them, in fact it seem very much the opposite.
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rich, passenal etc Re: Xhaka
I can’t believe that you all are ignoring that he is a liability, that is always getting sent off,
alright I know that his first sending off was for a new rule that did not exist and his second one was for the sort of tackle that no other BPL players would see more than a yellow for, but what about all those other sending offs in his two seasons with Arsenal,
what you mean he has only those two Reds, that can’t be true, can it.
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Xhaka’s definitely improved, I think starting around Brighton away. So that’s two months of good performances. While it’s churlish to complain about him again, it’s worth pointing out that we went through how many months in the league without back to back wins?
Five? And all that time he was an ever-present. And a lot of that time the same problems were manifesting over and over; put him under pressure and he’s either negated as a creative force or makes a dangerous mistake (either by misplacing a pass or giving up his position to try to recover the ball). Since he’s the team’s first passing conduit we’d deteriorate to that sludgy, nothing football you get when AW’s teams are in the doldrums.
The point here is partly about AW. One of his great qualities is the amount of faith he invests in his players when he identifies something they can build on. It can take longer in some cases. Two years before Ljungberg was consistent if I recall. Hleb and Nasri? Two years each as well.
But in Xhaka’s case, at what expense? His own job? It looks to me like AW’s football depends on that whole technical platform or whatever he calls it. Which makes Xhaka’s role crucial to create space in other parts of the pitch so that players can start to express themselves. By god, we know that Ozil’s much happier when he can drift into room. So is deepest midfield an appropriate part of the pitch for a project?
Looking at this this way it’s sort of ironic. One because the thing that makes AW great may be what took him down. But also because he was probably right about Xhaka all along.
On a side-note, the model for him would be someone like Xabi Alonso and never Busquets, in that Xabi Alonso never had deft footwork or an amazing touch, but knew how to position himself for an extra half-second and a better passing angle. Hassling Busquets is like hassling Cazorla; he’ll just work space for himself.
Xhaka can’t do that, but it looks like he has learned to avoid getting into difficult positions.
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Because Liverpool, Chelsea and ManU play the game. Not football. But the actual game that those who run the show care about.
Spurs..I am not sure how they fit into that category anymore because they don’t spend as much. But maybe the hugely escalating costs of the stadium have something to do with the real game too.
If Keown, Henry, and Wright want to further their media careers, they have to take an anti-Arsenal line because Arsenal are anti-establishment. Revolutionaries for simply doing things the stated right way instead of the actual right way. (It’s all a point of view)
The good thing is that this opportunity is open to all classes. Ian Wright might call you a fool for not having played football at the top level, but the showmen will give the plebs like LeGrove and the Aftv legitimacy and disproportionate coverage. So, get cracking and you can make it too! It’s the dream job. Making money while talking (shit) about Arsenal. (They pretend to be revolutionaries, but they are either the most cowardly and/or the most stupid of establishment stooges)
PS. How bad must LeGrove or even Tim Payton feel that after years of putting in the shift, they have been overtaken by Robbie and co as the recognisable face of the shit stirrers?
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In the same manner that the three or four if we include Giroud legendary “Panic Signings” well crafted signings, we were able to identify with the benefit of hindsight after the Xmas window that a transitional rebuild was underway and had been planned following the earlier then hoped for loss of Koscielny & Cazorla (lost Arteta a season or too early as well), alongside the BFG and Giroud you can see it’s now a different squad to the one that just bought home three cups and came second in the league.
I don’t think the signing of Xhaka is what I’d be critical of. Or being nipped to other targets Iike Kanye by a Petro Club. Perhaps you could say Xhaka could’ve been signed a season earlier, that perhaps he could have played ahead of Flamini!!!
But we don’t know the particulars there so I’d just enjoy the sunshine for now.
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I get your point birdkamp, but I’m not sure I can agree. Arsene was brought down by a relentless mainstream media campaign of negativity, amplified by a few empty vessels who were given disproportionate attention to foster the view that the majority wanted him out. Oh and lets not forget some of the ‘strange’ refereeing performances against us. Players must see what some of us see and imagine how disheartening that must be.
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Passenal, If I had to say what brought him down it’s that players didn’t improve as dramatically as they did before. Bellerin and Iwobi, who both have undoubted talent, seem to have plateaued, or only show their best in bursts. The same at the back with Holding and Chambers. Going by the timetable other squad players followed in the past, at least one or two of these players needed to be more reliable than they’ve perhaps been this season.
I think there are a few young-ish players in the squad now like these who may make Parlour-like leaps under the right manager. I don’t doubt AW’s ability to spot what few other people can see, but it might be that he couldn’t coax it out as easily as before. I was never going to call for his head though.
Now, the refereeing/doping/lizard people (joke) stuff are all non-starters for me.
But there will always be journalists trying to stir the pot, as that famous Sun headline about a fan protest at AW’s appointment in 1996 shows. AFTV sadly isn’t going anywhere, and many of the middle-aged men populating the stadium (by no means all) will be lost to nostalgia for the George Graham days and never satisfied again.
And as for social media, it’s turned lots of things into a cesspit.
If these are big influences on player confidence (which I’m now sort of undecided about), and the youngsters’ development has suffered because of it, the only effective way to combat it is on their end. I dunno, make plain that this isn’t going away. Encourage them to go incognito on social media, find out what research is being done on how people cope under this new sort of scrutiny.
Actually, on that point, just by being on twitter, and Man U being the most popular team. It’s interesting how in the space of a few months a player will trend for completely opposite reasons. Months ago you’d have thought Lingard was a clown. Then he could do no wrong, and now he’s a joke once more. I imagine the truth is that his performances have been largely steady throughout.
It’s not right, but it’s pervasive now, and other teams seem to cope.
Sorry, that’s over long. I know this is the opposite of preaching to the choir. What’s the opposite – preaching to the nave?
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Perhaps this could have been saved for a few weeks as it’s not really how I want to think about him, especially while he’s still at the club and gave that speech yesterday.
That’s another thing about social media; yesterday’s events feel like weeks ago. But if ever there were a time for quiet and rumination it’s in the wake of AW’s departure, or announcement of it. I’m still processing it to be honest.
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The home record since the turn of the year, the goals count, espeicallty with Aubu and Miki on the pitch is there for all to see unless they don’t trust the data 9goals and results).
So what was so different with the Away form? the matches are all available for viewing o the website, including the turgid grueling spell post new year, which needs no second viewing.
I’d kindly suggest that any description of being brought down is an inaccurate term to use in this instance.
He’s always shown great faith in his players and, it’s been his biggest strenght therefore I can’t be critical of wanting to give Koscielny (and as back up the BFG) one more season each, when as the season progressed it was clear that in many games Kozza wasn’t all there. You can’t have your cake and eat it! Or can you…if your name is Robbie?
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