In the midst of all the giddiness and joy among Arsenal fans at the prospect of a brand new, literally shiny, high profile manager taking over the reins of management from that wizened, grizzled old grand-dad we had all gotten used to, something just doesn’t ring true.
Don’t get me wrong. Although am a well known partisan for Arsene Wenger, I have nothing against Unai Emery and wholeheartedly welcome him to the club and truly wish for him all the success possible. He is young and handsome, a very telegenic face, around which the PR people at the club can only drool. Apparently, when unveiled to the media, he said all the right things which had the hacks in rapture as they pounded their keyboards, oiled their tongues for radio or were dabbed with makeup before video recording the usual clichéd segment for TV. Most of all he has a brilliant CV, starting in the boondocks of Spanish football taking a couple of clubs to promotion, excelling at Sevilla with 3 Europa League titles and, prior to Arsenal, managing one of the biggest-moneyed clubs in Europe ending with a quadruple of titles. Surely he is the perfect man for the job.
And that is what triggers my contrarian instinct. The script is just too perfectly written.
By the way, we all have a contrarian streak genetically coded into the deep reptilian recesses of our cranium, the one that tell us: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is”. But too often, most of us get suckered by our emotions, based on narratives fomented by the mainstream media, and forget to listen to our brains, not our heart.
Something is “too good to be true” with the narrative we are now being sold. According to almost all the usual suspects Emery will save us from the washed-up, stupid, old fool who only managed an Invincible year as part of 3 league titles, 7 FA cups and kept us in the top-4 for 20 out of 22 years:
“Emery will get Arsenal more organised than they have been”. (BBC)
“What they will be getting is a coach who is fully committed and, in his approach to preparation, a startling break from what they have been used to. If Wenger’s twilight years at the club produced a team that often appeared under-coached, then the reign of Emery will be the exact opposite.” (Independent)
“Where Arsène Wenger’s teams may have descended into the painfully one-dimensional, Emery’s outlook is one of nuance and precision, which may well suit Arsenal’s developing team rather more than the entrenched, haughty collection of Parisian stars.” (Guardian)
Disorganized, Under-coached and One-dimensional
So less than two weeks after Wenger’s final game the football media takes off the gloves; no more of the hypocrisy, flattery and lofty odes to one of the greatest managers in English football. His teams, in their own words, were disorganized, under-coached and one-dimensional. Thus the need to hire Unai Emery who it is predicted will bring glory to north London, apparently the type experienced by Sevilla and PSG. Mark you Sevilla last won the Spanish league title in 1945-46 and PSG has not even made the Champions league final since gobbling up hundreds of millions of the best oil money the sheiks of Qatar could throw at the club over the past 7 years.
Apparently things were so bad under Wenger, Arsenal’s last trophy of worth was the FA cup as far back as May 2017. Moreover, things were so bad in the 17-18 season, they had a mere 14 home-wins, the second highest in the league.
This is the same media (as well as most bloggers and podcasters) who choose to ignore the fact that since 2005, Wenger has progressively been outspent by three clubs in the premier league. In fact one news media, in their effort to downplay the magnitude of the disparity, characterized Arsenal as the 3rd strongest club financially in England. In other words, this liar and misleader, was suggesting Arsene should be consistently averaging 3rd in the league because of the financial resources available.
Clearly the new manager, who is currently being feted and glad handled, is already being setup. He is expected to outperform Wenger’s average 4th place finish over the past 12 years at a time when United and Chelsea are desperate to make up the difference with City, there being a gap of 19 points between 1st and 2nd at the end of last season. Moreover as was reported in sputniknews.com, Abramovich recently had his Tier I visa held up by the UK government, a privilege to freely travel back and forth which is tied to volume of his investments in the country. It doesn’t take an expert to predict he will make another handy investment in Chelsea in the next transfer window to prove his bona-fides.
Why this elaborate set up?
Why are we being sold such a grand story of failure by Arsene, so much so that the club needs a savior, a metaphoric David to rescue Arsenal from the Philistines? Isn’t it amazing that in 2 years, Arsene moved from being the most powerful man at Arsenal to being a has-been. Be reminded that the 16-17 season started with great optimism, the club having acquired Mustafi, Xhaka and Lucas Perez to supplement the group who came 2nd to Leicester the prior year. But at the start of the season and Mertersacker, one of the cornerstones of the central defensive partnership, suffers a season-ending injury. The new Koscielny-Mustafi or Koscielny-Gabriel partnership is unable to replicate the level of the old-firm. In October, Santi Sazorla, the mastermind of prior year victories over United, City and Chelsea also suffers a season-ender. To this day the combined ‘expertiste’ of the media makes no connection between the injuries to two of Arsenal’s best players and the club coming 5th that season. Instead there is a massive blame-game on Wenger. When he was offered only a two year contract, it was self-evident his future was in doubt.
What is most striking is how this was the opening for the chief executive, Mr Gazidis, to seize power away from Mr. Wenger. In the summer of 2017 we are informed the CEO has moved his offices from Arsenal House to London Colney, the training ground. In relatively short order Mislintat becomes chief scout and Sanllehi as head of football relations. As a famous denizen of this blog tweeted there are now 5 people doing the job Wenger performed by himself.
But while the corporate office has grown bigger and surely more expensive, Arsenal suffered on the field with points lost not only due to player inconsistency (at least 8 first team players from 2016-17 are gone) but also from a pattern of poor and biased refereeing by the PGMO. If the CEO and his team were campaigning for VAR in the executive suites of the Premier League it was a “silence of the lambs”.
The Coup
What convinced me that the Emery appointment may be just one big show is a piece in the Guardian by one David Hynter which suggests he was ordered to do a PR piece on behalf of Mr Gazidis. They are quick to highlight the following:
- Gazidis is responsible for signing Ozil
- Gazidis is, first and foremost, a football lover.
- Gazidis has long advocated a management structure that does not rest on a single point or employee because, when it fails, there is the potential for the whole thing to collapse. He has wanted a broader coalition of talented specialists greater than the sum of its parts and, for so long, his efforts were frustrated by Wenger, to whom the club’s majority shareholder, Stan Kroenke, was in thrall. Wenger had a hotline to Kroenke and he could shape or veto Gazidis’s ideas.
- Gazidis wanted a director of football but Wenger pushed his friend Dick Law into a position of executive-level authority.
- Gazidis wanted greater expertise in data and contracts and hired Hendrik Almstadt only for Wenger to say he did not want him.
- Gazidis oversaw the purchase of the data analytics company, StatDNA, but Wenger was not a fan.
Hynter concludes with a flourish:
“It was a meticulously orchestrated coup and Gazidis carried it off while showing all the respect in the world to Wenger, who has watched virtually all of his people leave the club. It has felt like a plot-line from Gomorrah, the Neapolitan mafia drama. Gazidis was not always the favourite to outlast Wenger. Now, his position looks stronger than ever.”
I could not have said it better than Mr Hynter. The evidence clearly points to a coup. He says it in triumph but I am disgusted by the lowball tactics that have been employed.
As an aside, while I arrived at a similar conclusion, by taking the available facts to their logical conclusion, because yours truly does not write for a big mainstream newspaper, I would be accused by the charlatans in the media (as well as the bloggers and podcasters) of being a conspiracy theorist for calling out Mr Gazidis for being Wenger’s Brutus.
Unfortunately, most coups fail because they are based on lies and the golpistas (Spanish) rule without the consent of the people. That is why I fear for Emery. He may think he is a big-time Charlie but he is just a chump in a giant con being played on Arsenal fans. The new manager will find the Premier League is made up of several merciless sharks; mainly the three clubs with giant financial teeth whom he cannot compete in the transfer market, the other big one being the PGMO whose job is to protect the big boys from being upset as the PL needs the external money to keep flowing.
I wish Emery all the best but the signs aren’t good. He is on 2 year plus one contract suggesting he is a placeholder, a short-term appointment. Does this mean Arsenal has ended its tradition of managers being long-term appointees with time to build a team that can compete for titles without busting the bank?
Am not predicting the future, but as much as most fans are optimistic that under his management it could get better for Arsenal, I am duty bound to warn my readers that odds are even and it could get worse. Be afraid, be very afraid.
Positively Arsenal 
Arrived here through unintended newsnow click. Had the patience to read through the whole article. Must say I liked it immensely! Looking at things behind the scene as reported any one connected with Arsene are being shown the door as if to erase his legacy. Petty minded and dangerous.
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Spirited argument. Purely going by AFC’s wage bill, fourth has long been a good finish in this environment, and there’s no reason why that should change. As for the competition, I don’t see Man City being remotely catchable, but we’re on the cusp of Mourinho’s third season, a muscular condition known as Klopp-itis is starting to spread at Liverpool, while Spurs and Chelsea are financing big stadiums. The required points tally could well come down to the low-70s once more, which could make things a little easier.
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Shotta my good friend.
Many people have been in denial of what happened on the pitch at times but the simple observable fact is that not even the Invincibles could win a match of Football on a tilted pitch. Not even if they had Sly Stallone in goal. That is not an opinion.
And that the first away match last season was a “statement of intent” but not from Stoke or the Gunners.
The comments across the leagues from managers as diverse as Guardiola and Emery and Wenger are there, and I don’t think that these people who know their game are liars.
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Excellent article, but let us all hope that things go really well next season.
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Shott of great significance is that AW chose to talk about the European super league in his final days at the club.
The old fourth place or late runs into the Europa league will be very very important over the coming seasons more then it has been. Which can help explain the change in the pattern witness led last season with the early onset of “game management” at Stoke, as we’d predicted in advance in our conversations.
One further rational and logical explanation as to why VARs is being delayed for as long as possible by Brand Scudamore.
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The Coup:
The undermining of Arsene’s role and legacy is a permanent feature in the British media. We know the reasons for this. Both economic and moral. I think it is not really Gazidis’ intent. It is just a convenient way for him to achieve his true target, that of being seen as the king(maker) of Arsenal now. I noted the way he was present in all the early promotional material the club put out on Emery. Nothing inherently wrong, but he wants the world to know that he’s the boss now and it comes across a bit…sleazy. But then he’s trying to thrive in the now solidified US corporate environment and become the face of the club after Arsene Wenger. Anyone would suffer in comparison to the great man.
A coup? I’m not so sure. There was no coup. Wenger was part of the change process. Disagreement between the parties, even dislike..That’s fine. But why do we think Wenger stayed if not to allow the club to hire Gazidis’ lieutenants to plan for his departure? And though he might have hoped to stay longer, finishing 6th (despite the reasons) would not have helped his position once the back end structures were in place. It’s not a coup. Wenger’s gone. Gazidis is just making an early claim to the throne. (Insert something about any man who needs to say he’s king…)
Emery:
I think Emery is no one’s patsy. He’s served at clubs with such a structure in place, and his comments about there being different bosses at different clubs (whether president, coach, or player) shows he’s a realist. At the same time, I believe he’ll fight his corner. I could be wrong, but I think he even said in the press conference that he’s been told he’ll get the players he wants. (I think that’s what I heard) If so, that’s putting the pressure back on Gazidis straight away. And this is when he speaks hesitant English. I don’t think the length of his contract is an issue. What was Wenger’s contract length back in 96?
Also, it is worth keeping an eye out if the club will back him by taking on the media (and refs) more openly like Gazidis did yesterday (to protect his own ‘process’)
The team:
Saying Emery can improve the team is not a knock on Wenger. If anything it shows how remarkable Wenger is to keep the need for change at bay for 20+ years. But a change in routine can help. If Emery can win the players around to his methods, and impose only a little bit of his structure/ideas, so as to not take away from the team they already are, but enhance them, I think the team could be very successful. Except..
The refs:
I believe they will initially give Arsenal an easy ride. No harsh decisions, no cheating against us. Especially if we buy some shiny new players. The purpose will be to say how bad Wenger was with this team.. Once we get used to this or start doing too well, they will revert back.. THat way they’ll say Emery is also bad (though first they’ll say spend more money) making it known that Arsenal are cheap, Emery is bad, Wenger was worse.
“Does this mean Arsenal has ended its tradition of managers being long-term appointees with time to build a team that can compete for titles without busting the bank?”
No. It just means that the purse strings and the long term planning is not in the coach’s hands.
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Nail on head. I think it’s the unseemly trashing of Wenger’s legacy and attempt to paint Emery as the Wenger antidote that is why I don’t feel comfortable jumping on the bandwagon yet. What he has done in the past is irrelevant to me. I’m waiting to see what he does here in the context of the EPL. I hope he will do well, but I’m not going to start with any expectations that just because he did something somewhere else that the same thing is going to happen here.
As for Gazidis, I’ve no idea if there has been a power grab and whether he’s trying to make himself the face of the brand. But if he is, all I can say is be careful what you wish for because being the punching bag is not as easy as the great man made it look.
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That gets the old grey matter working Shotts, way to burst my optimistic bubble.
I think that after all the shit Arsene deflected Ivan had a duty, as do the rest of the board, to step up and make sure future first team coaches can concentrate totally on football and not on protecting the players and indeed the club from the media.
I would expect Ivan would be much more visible from now on.
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Boy. All of you make such great points so concisely. I feel embarrassed now..
I also notice that shotta went on a drive by shooting of likes and skipped me over. Hehe. Fair. finsbury saved me though.
fins. That’s an interesting point about European Super League. I think it is inevitable. (Like Wenger) They’ve rearranged the national team friendlies to make the Euro Nations League, apparently FIFA also has an offer to change up the Club World Cup format. If these are successful, I bet the next step is a Super League. If it had started 20 years ago, Arsenal would not have been included. Now it seems almost unthinkable that Arsenal would be left out. But yes, solidifying a place in the CL wil be important to be sure.
PS> Emery is at the training ground today. Is he just looking around or are some of the players there to meet him? Does anyone know?
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Great read Shotts, it’s hard to know exactly how to respond.
The bottom line (I think) is that Wenger would have left EVENTUALLY but the old-style management structure Arsene inherited is no longer fit for the purpose of top-flight 21st Century football. Therefore, Gazidis HAD to make structural changes to the running of the club prior to AW’s departure.
That the completion of this restructure coincided with arguably our worst defensive performances in a quarter of a century was Arsene’s great misfortune. The four 1/3(?) empty home games prior to his departure announcement merely speeded up his exit.
I’m not convinced he’d have been axed had our away form been anything like our home form. But the new structure would have been in place regardless.
And should the new coach ‘fail’, the disruption to the club will be but a relative small fraction compared to, say, Wenger leaving two or three years ago.
Arsenal had to change their structure not due to Wenger’s deficiencies but simply because the world has changed.
That we are now in a position of playing catch up with our fast-sprinting rivals, is only one side of the coin, and it’s the side of the coin naturally capturing the clicks, headlines and column inches. But both developments – structural modernisation and catch-up – are equally required at the club.
For what it’s worth, my own view is Arsene would have been perfectly capable of re-charging the squad on an infamously limited budget.
But I’m not convinced he could have actioned a management restructure. And in that specific sense, given his long-held resistance to the idea of a Director of Football or the relinquishing of control over transfers, for example, it makes sense for Arsene to now move on.
In the context of the changes required, Emery’s future success or failure will have relatively less relevance in the wider scheme of the club’s next phase of its development.
I will miss Wenger and the old ways of doing things in the same way I miss Highbury.
Sadly, both belonged to a gentler, less complex age.
The rebirth of AFC as an ultra-modern football club is now complete.
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95% of all Wenger criticisms stem from a concept called ‘ageism’. Hence this quote you mentioned: ‘Wenger’s twilight years at the club produced a team that often appeared under-coached…’
Great article by the way, and you’re right, but possibly wrong too. It probably was a coup (Arteta and Emery have the same agent by the way), and Wenger was wrongfully rushed out the door by the club and our pathetic fanbase, but where you’re wrong is that Wenger done such a great job over the years, it’s going to be hard to not win things with Arsenal.
So, like you, I’m backing the new guy, only I do think he can win trophies and is more than just a fall-guy.
Arsenal didn’t deserve Wenger anymore, that was for sure. So in that sense, this is good. But the corruption won’t stop, although hopefully neither will the trophies (whatever we can get!).
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ArsenalAndrew: A house built on sand, on lies and unethical behavior will eventually fall. That was the timeless lesson of Shakespeare’s, Julius Ceasar, which I used as a metaphor for Wenger’s denouement in my last blog. The Roman Empire went to pot after Ceasar was assassinated with internecine warfare between the ruling clans. Let us hope such a fate does not befall our beloved Arsenal.
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I can’t say I’ve noticed any ‘trashing’ of Wenger’s legacy Shotta – you knock about in some odd spots
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“I can’t say I’ve noticed any ‘trashing’ of Wenger’s legacy Shotta ”
I have, it’s different at the bottom of the barrel Andy.
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Hi Shotta
I am a very regular reader of this blog and I never comment on it because I don’t feel that I have much to say.
I feel that there are a lot of subtle signs that Wenger is not going to get the legacy he deserves. Somehow I don’t like the vibes coming from Ivan. I did not like how Ivan says 6th position is not for Arsenal but he never highlighted the cup wins or consistency of last 4-5 years to show that we are almost there.
The guardian article wrote this on the unveiling of Emery..
Arsenal have produced a very nice little slideshow of their most successful managers – Chapman, Whittaker, Mee, Graham – to go with this appointment, but somehow forgotten to include Wenger .
I also saw a tweet of Arsenal where the new chapter with some manger is mentioned but shows no highlights from Wenger..
I don’t know why I am feeling so bad.. Maybe I have not yet accepted anyone else as manager and hence just making an issue out of nothing but I am missing Wenger for sure…
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The Roman Empire was created following the assassination of Julius Caesar and under Augustus enjoyed a golden period of growth and prosperity Shotta. It therefore did not go to pot, without the Ides of March there may never have been a Roman Empire.
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So strange how things happen. I was only today thinking I should finally get to reading the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. It’s been on my bookshelf for ages but never got round to it. And here we’re talking about the fall of the Roman Empire.
I agree with Andy. Short term upheavals notwithstanding, the Roman Empire grew. In fact it lasted much longer in the East, even after Constantine. In spirit, if not in fact.
(PS. There was a temple to Augustus at a Roman trading outpost in Western coastal India in the 1st cent AD)
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I would have loved if Mr Wenger stayed at least one more year.
But I’m wiith Shard
I don’t see a coup, I saw a gradual dissolution of power by a guy who has had to wear his scalf heavy coat and hat because the shadow of Mr Wenger was so large.He has had really expensive large chunky watch he wants to show off
Thanks to Mr Wenger he has elevated Arsenal Football Club profile throughout the world and Arsenal are on of the jewels of the Premier League, a team that provide content and attract eyes from the four corners of the world.
The Scudamore cabal(Popular phrases in conspiracy land) realise Arsenal are valuable to the Prem and the could not be easily replaced by Celtic or Rangers.
Mr Wenger has done enough to cement his place in Premier League and World football no amount of revisionisim can change that.
I’ve heard and seen United fans say ‘Hated,Adored but never Ignored’ I have always felt that says so much more about Arsenal than it ever could about United.
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I can attest to that Anicoll5, though you don’t need me to tell you. My classical knowledge is meagre, but I’ve been reading SPQR very slowly this spring, Egypt for instance only became a Roman province after Octavian/Augustus beat Antony and Cleopatra..
Not to score any points, just a small point of order.
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That answers (a bit) my question about players at the training ground.
I had to roll my eyes at Gazidis being framed in this picture as well though.
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Fuck me, I wish I had read Shakespeare now rather than watching Breaking Bad.
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Interesting read. Napoli Camorra, now thats quite a comparison.
Coup is an emotive word, but I dont doubt for a moment that Ivan was ready to seize his moment, and possibly had been for some time. There were reports last season of boardroom splits, we dont know if they were true or not, but surely not beyond the realms of possibility.
But ,as an optimist, I choose to believe Ivan and others have acted in what they believed are the the interests of the club as opposed to personal power or glory, though maybe that is a little naive. If they really did, hope , and would assume they know what they are doing.
I am sure Wenger was well able to manage change, but would he want to after all these years? if it meant getting rid of his trusted and loyal lieutenants (who are now virtually all gone), working under a hugely changed structure – DOF, even changing the way the team plays.
As wenger has said recently when this catalyst for change thing peaked, he works with evolution, not revolution. From what has happened since, it is clear revolution was in the air, not gently evolving to improve the defence, away record, home attendances, ref decisions, league position, or the club catering facilities. A revolution possibly inspired by an Ivan emboldened by his two wise men and even Josh K.
As much as I will miss Wenger, perhaps , almost humane to let him choose to go with dignity in that kind of changing environment
That said, very optimistic about the new man, but the question is, if he really is So different in his approach to Wenger, and I am not saying he is btw, how will the players adapt to such change?
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Post Julius Caesar: I am no expert at the history of the Roman Empire and will accept the Imperium may have thrived for many more years after Caesar. But it is a well know fact there was confusion and internecine warfare after Julius’ assassination. I refer reader’s attention to this piece of history: https://www.unrv.com/fall-republic/aftermath
Is that the fate that awaits our beloved club?
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SG, this is only an oblique point, but one thing I’ve gathered from Roman history is that those guys had civil wars and revolts for fun. Sorry to use wikipedia, but check this shit out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Roman_wars_and_battles#1st_century_BC
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Don’t feel “breaking bad” about Shakespeare George. I was bored to tears while in high school. Only when I was much older did I understand what the fuss was all about. Human nature hasn’t changed through the centuries which explains the conniving and plotting over the past 20 years in the Arsenal boardroom and corporate offices. We had David Dein, Fitzman, Hill-Wood and now dear Ivan. Wonder which of them have put the interest of the club ahead of all else?
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Yup BK. As I just alluded Arsenal has had its fair share of internecine warfare just as they did in Rome.
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I did not get a chance to say thanks to Tim for his short but excellent blog yesterday. I, too, am very optimistic going forward.
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SG, but I suppose you could say that all this preceded the Conquest of Britain.
Though I do hope it doesn’t take another 10 centuries.
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Wtf, that was meant to be one century! Ten decades!
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Shard,
Reading it proved only half, maybe a lot less, of the battle for me. Read it ten years ago and can’t remember a bloody thing. Don’t think the writing itself gripped me.
There’s always that vague hope when struggling through a renowned classic that something will stick, even enough to let you answer some quiz question in twenty years, but it looks like zero for this one. Oddly pleasant if a little alarming to have it confirmed.
Ah, what else has amounted to nothing?
At least I remember Adam Smith talked about wheat a surprising amount, and said something notable at the end about rich business people being totally untrustworthy and unsuited (for society’s sake) to govern themselves *
*Good people from the Adam Smith Institute seem like they totally ignore that bit.
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Urm…Rome was at war with various empires in her times, Carthage, the Greek states of which Egypt was one after the time of Alexander the Great.
Yes Egypt was added by Octavian. And Trajan had a waltz through modern day Iraq. But if you measure the square meterage of area added to Rome’s Empire when it was a Republic as opposed to Imperium: how great is the difference?
What does the data tell you in relation to the timeline?
Was it wise to add the Rhine and Danube as frontiers, many historians not called Gibbon argue that it wasn’t! (Please refer to Cyrus’ , the proto-imperialist par excellence, his march against the barbarians and how that ended!!!!)
If you’re going to start praising the Imperium best to not forget that for half it’s life the growing and developing half as opposed to the other side of the curve, Rome was a republic and not an Imperium ruled by an imperator.
And that peak years of the empire lasted up to about two hundred years though Diocletion might have disagreed then again he had to cut the Imperium into four provinces or was it three in order to keep the collapsing patient alive so I guess it was a republic of sorts again by about 250AD, so the Imperium really covered about a quarter of Rome’s imperial history before Rome was no longer the capital, the four provinces were weaned down to two, the empire was split and eventually ruled again by a Caesar not an Augustus from Constantinopal which is called the second Rome and the Empire of Rum as the west Asians called lasted under a Caesar from about 300 AD to 1500AD, again a longer more durable record then the Augustians, and finally we have the Tzars or Caesars of the Third Rome as they like to refer to it out in the old Byzantine cultures: Moscow.
So the Caesars did alright, and many people not called Gibbon feel that the most interesting years of the first Rome were before Augustus. Hadrian built some nice stuff, but after him that was about it!
None of the above is my opinion.
Cheers one and all.
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< Constantinople.
Fascinating place. Fascinating history. Lasted longer as the capital of the Roman empire then Rome. And it's birth signified the end of the cults worshipping Augustus etc.
for the best part of the last two thousand years the heirs of the first Rome have preferred to refer to themselves as Caesar.
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Every football fan and Arsenal supporter with a Twitter account should read a bit of Tacitus – he comes out with some stuff that stands the test of time;
“Men are more ready to repay an injury than a benefit, because gratitude is a burden and revenge a pleasure”
oooh yes – back of the net
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Correction: not a historian and it gets confusing whether the rulers from Constantinople called themselves Augustus of Caesar.
Constantine who spent some time in York was definitely a Caesar, one of many Caesar’s in the provinces created when the empire was first split up. And he definitely wasn’t into the emperor worshipping cults from Augustus’ times, that came to end about 300AD – the Catholic sect is not the same as the Orthodox root and didn’t appear for a few hundred years thereafter.
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I take pleasure from gratitude.
Maybe that’s where it all went wrong…
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Always knew fins was a scholar.
My knowledge of the Roman Empire (misnomer though that may be) is limited. Especially the political part of it all. My interest in reading it is mostly to do with the ‘decline’ phase. Gibbon may be focused on the Western Roman Empire and that’s ok. I think it might make it even more relevant today.
I really enjoyed a book on the Chengez Khan (why is this spelled as Genghis in English?) and the Mongols. I think that is relevant today too, in some surprising ways.
And Rich, I think therein lies the key to reading and remembering history. You have to make it a story relevant to today. Like shotta’s done with Shakespeare, who himself used history to speak to the people of his time.
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Tacitus
Another French Frank White
Everyword he said should be a hip-hop quotable
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Chengez Khan (why is this spelled as Genghis in English)
It”s a pronunciation thing ,in English we don’t recognise C pronounced as a G.
So on hearing the name , they wrote home in dispatches Genghis and it stuck.
There are several instancies in history like this.
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Shard that’s Mughal not Mongol to me hehe (and Tartar to the Tzars of Russia!).
I confess I’m a fan of the partial descendant of the Hagia Sophia that they built over in Agra: the Taj Mahal (some of the engineers were from Anatolia, an early example of the application of differential calculus upon that famous onion dome).
Yep the best thing the Imperial Romans ever did for us, hehe, was to build the Pantheon.
And that building was superceeded by the cathedral in Constantinople, a bit like Highbury then.
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fins
Any time you’re planning to visit the Taj Mahal, let me know. I’m about 3 hours away from it.
Wwwb
Of course I know the different pronunciations across regions. (My favorite is Chandragupta becoming Sandrocottus in Greek) But I do not understand how this one came about. What do you mean C pronounced as G? It’s not. It’s pronounced as Ch. Except when the name travelled West. (Or is the Eastern form the distortion? Unlikely)
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Barcelona legend Ronaldinho ‘to marry two women at the same’ time after living with pair since December.
Look at the shit you can do when you got talent.
‘Shaggin em is a lot different to living wiv em’
Tacitus
(witten under a bridge in Nice 85AD)
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Shard
In my dealings with people from that region the name starting with C tend to be pronunaced G. For instance I have a friend from Turkey who name is Cem but it is pronuonced Gem or even Jem as we would say in England.
He is not the only one it is the pattern I have noticed.
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I took pleasure from the opportunity afforded to Pat Rice & Bob Wilson to show their gratitude towards the greatest manager in the history of Arsenal Football Club.
Shotts, we’ll find out in time what Ivan’s hand was, maybe his mandate from the beginning was to prep the club for a head coach model and that was always with the agreement and understanding of AW and maybe that’s why Arsene & Vic stayed on this season (as some believe that to be the case)?
Whatever it is that time will tell for the rest Ivan got the gratitude bit right, and he had short shrift for the hacks’ narrative in the press conference yesterday. But where had that been in the past!
Perhaps his job from the very beginning was to oversee this process the club have just gone through, but the question remains if he is willing to take the heat off the head coach in the future why not before? He can’t suddenly flick a switch and then start to act like David Dein.
I had some big worries that have receeded. As with Xhaka we need to ask the questions and we also need to allow for some time to pass before we can see more clearly.
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Our brains hear it differently. I still hear the Ch more than the G/J, but I now know what you mean. Makes sense. Thanks.
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Oh shotta. Forgot to say, I think you’re spot on that Abramovich will be pouring more money into Chelsea. Justice in a way, but still, not good for us.
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Shard
When I was in school, I was taught French, I just did not get it I could not hear it(WIP to be honest, I’ve had to learn it in a slightly different way), long story short , I learnt Italian which led me to Spanish. They way I tend to learn a language is to look for the patterns in words and sounds .
I presume English is not your mother tounge?
Understanding what you hear is fasinating to me as a lover of languages .
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Wwwb
English isn’t my mother tongue, but is not a second language to me, if that makes sense. If I focus on the J sound, I hear it, but if I would just listen without paying attention, I just hear the Ch. Maybe because that’s what I expect to hear. That is the name as I know it.
Ps. Emre Gan just reads wrong. (banned smiley)
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Shard
I was about to produce the same clip
I have had to learn French in a different way to Italian and Spanish , because I really struggled to hear it .
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Other than on this fairly exclusive site obviously;
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“Best back five in Europe” that came 12th in the league.
That’s a good one!
Mental innit. The amount sh*te written about the club. Incomparable elsewhere and worthy of anthropological reflection. It can’t be just dysphoria. Though I wish it was. When media of a certain genre attacks so consistently that’ not what it is.
From Pat Rice the cone man who taught Rocastle and others how to be the men they were to Arsene losing his touch whilst players like Cazorla and Ozil say to the cameras that they literally fell in love with him (as a coach!).
Please Support Arsenal.
Or fuck off.
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