So the great new dawn is upon us. We have rid ourselves of Arsene Wenger and his gang of incompetents, and replaced them with high class people that can bring us the success we deserve.
It’s absolutely fantastic. The players are drinking water, smiling,training hard, young players are involved and the manager is hands on on the training ground. These things never happened before , now did they?
That there have been major changes in personnel is undeniable. That they are all top people in their fields of expertise appears to be the case, they are certainly experienced with good track records. Its more people with more individual responsibility and a coach with much less. Modern football? Or should I not say that because “modern football” is frowned upon by the “we want our Arsenal back” hoards. But I digress.
The point is almost every fan is happy, us included, the future looks bright. But what has actually changed other than our perceptions?
We have spent about £70m up until now, I suspect there will be outgoing and our net spend will be considerably less. So are we spending more? Is the new regime spending the money Arsene refused to? Seems not ?
Have we dipped into the £250m in the bank that should be spent on making the team as good as it can be? Seems not ? Perhaps that’s not for spending then, or not anywhere like that figure?
Are we competing for the likes of Marhez ,with City, or are we still buying from the second shelf ? It seems we are not and we still are ! So what’s the big change?
Have we tied Aaron Ramsey down to a new deal, or is it dragging on? Dithering?
Now here is the rub, the moment many readers start shifting uncomfortably on their seat, searching for an answer that doesn’t destroy all their hard earned narratives.
If you are happy with all things Arsenal now, you have a certain Stan Kroenke to thank.
Without spending any more of the clubs money, and of its reserves ,or dipping into his own pocket for a single silver dollar, he has given everyone what they wanted ? Without being a football man or spending time at the club he has granted the wishes of the permanently malcontent.
His useless puppet (Ivan) is now the dogs bollocks. We are Kroenke FC , being driven by Ivan, and he is the very image of a none football man.
So if everything is rosy in the garden, and I hope it is, then we should be very much KROENKE IN ? He has come through big time and perhaps all the hate was for nowt?
Positively Arsenal 
seemingly after the game today Arsenal headed back to Colney to do another training session
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That’s better George, I’m certainly Happy today.
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World Cup final tomorrow- team position – underdog or Giroud ?
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I shall be on behind the Croats obviously- fine bunch of lads – played football the right way.
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Croatia all the way, the poor war torn peasants.
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Tough call, but only because of Giroud.
What a culmination to the story of a guy who was a late starter and got a ridiculous amount of stick, while being a good player, for us!
But, then, Croatia is a better story than that!
Would be a very rare example of smaller team triumphing spectacularly with good football.
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Captain, My Captain
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Framce, but only because of Giroud, a man who wore our shirt so recently, up there with the recent Arsenal players I most admire.
Would love to see him score the winner.
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Enjoyable start to pre-season yesterday. Nice goals, nice zip to play, esp first half. Youngsters giving good glimpse of talent.
Can’t enjoy Nelson’s contributions completely at minute, with contract thing lurking. If 16 games for 17/18 year old didn’t do the trick, what would it require this year?!
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44821343
Modric facing charges back in Croatia after this WC. I have some sympathy, as with Obi Mikel you fear for his family.
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“Match fixing is not just a rumor”
https://amp.dw.com/en/the-dark-side-of-croatias-world-cup-success/a-44654466
“The criminal machinations of the Croatian FA are also driving a wedge between ordinary football fans”
“That Croatia has actually made it to the Wold Cup final is therefore almost miraculous. The team’s little known coach, Zlatko Dalic, has succeeded in forging a motley band of football mercenaries into a harmonious whole. They are hungry for the title. Dalic has only taken players to Russia who are ready to give everything for the trophy. Now, they are very close to making their dream come true.”
Reasons for and against wanting to support Croatia above.
But if it’s a choice between Redknapp and Mamic’s boyz and the big lump who worked his way up through the French leagues taking Montpellier above the petro laundrette club’s before going on to achieve more in his career then greater talents like RVP it has to be…:
Allez L’Giroud!
C’mon Larry!
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Shades of Italy in 2006 with this Croatian team?
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Lee Dixon sounds like he’s been reading the blog following his comments on Danny Rose!
Essentially he said in much more genteel terms when hacking into the Arsenal on behalf of his employers that Rose is not good for much else apart from kicking opponents on their blind side and mindlessly rushing about the pitch (kick and rush!).
I can belatedly appreciate the reason behind the second best LB at the neighbours (behind the Welsh bloke) making in the squad ahead of footballers like Bertrand.
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Kante’s journey and development is also a fascinating story.
If only he’d chosen less bucks and signed for the Gunners over Chelsea, like Giroud did when he first arrived…
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rumors that Chelsea are looking to sell Giroud this summer, they want to replace him with Higuain
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Croatia in the final, didn’t they send one of their squad home after the first game cos the lad was in a huff about not being in the starting 11 and refused to come on as a sub in that first game.
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Aubameyang wide left and Chambers DM,
fucking Emery, always playing players out of position, why can’t he just buy proper players for these positions, its not his money.
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Yes ed. Kalinic.I hope he feels like the total idiot he is.
Chelsea are set for some major upheaval this summer by the sounds of it. Courtois and Hazard apparently both off to Madrid. For a combined 200m or so. Kante to Barcelona is a possibility in a cash plus player (Andre Gomes) deal. There’s even talk of selling Willian to either Barcelona (unlikely) or ManU.
They’re bringing in Jorginho. Sarri will probably want to play a different style of play so Giroud might be off. (To Dortmund? They wanted him last season, and have a French coach) and they’ll play Higuain and Morata. I wonder if they’ll buy a lot of players or are just selling and will finally play the youth. (Also interesting from the Abramovich – UK standoff PoV)
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Think that Jorginho signing puts to bed idea Abramovich losing interest. Can only imagine money at heart of whatever enabled them to beat City.
Be extremely surprised if either Hazard or Kante are permitted to leave. So little precedent of them losing anyone they want to keep in Abramovich era.
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Anyone au fait on that premier league rule which only allows wages to rise a certain per cent each season?
Often discussed as a constraint for us, and not sure I’ve ever heard it as an issue for others. West Ham are this year’s Everton on that front. City’s accountancy magic not even worth thinking about.
Yarmalenko, Wilshere and the new Brazilian must be on big money, Fabianski won’t be cheap, the free signing Fredericks will get a good wage, new Paraguayan brought in. Can’t think of many outgoings…
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rich I think its a £7M per season rise
its seems that loyalty bonus’s, image rights payments and signing on fees do not counts towards wages, although they do for the tax man.
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I think it’s 8m on top of any increased income from commercial deals.
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Even the allowed increase goes up every year I think. Periodically at least. It was 7m last season. Maybe it’s 8 now. And as george says that is outside of commercial income increase.
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Well you’re probably correct about Chelsea, Rich. Courtois apparently wants to go live in Madrid because that’s where his family is, and he’s in the last year of his contract. I think he’ll leave. But they’ll probably sign Allison so yeah, no sign of spending stopping.
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Good start from Croatia
Will this be a contest where they need to score the first goal?
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Good game! Just needs a goal from Giroud.
Kante on an early yellow. Are France missing some creativity in the c.circle?
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Why are the BBC pundits saying it wasn’t a penalty? I thought it was after seeing the replays, even before the referee made his decision. This is just propaganda against VAR.
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Pundits on both channels are going mad because the Ref gave a legit penalty, using VAR
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The Pog has risen
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The water carrier coaxes the midfielder out of Pogba and on a consistent basis. Stunning third goal.
Two wonderful goals in this half now.
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Spursy?
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You can take the goalkeeper out of Tottenham…
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Last year Mbappe £170 million at 18 years old was under valued
Sounds crazy but it is true.
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since England won their one and only major championship, the WC in 66, France have won 2 WC and 2 Euro Championships and been runner in in a WC and Euro final too. I do wonder what it is or why it is that English journos and pundits and many fans seem to have the notion that England are by far the superior football nation, or have more of a right to win the top trophies.
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Congratulations France, Giroud, and Kos for helping them on their way.
They have won something my home nation have never won in my lifetime, and with the powers that be and their status quo, I doubt if they will win within the expectation of my life expectancy
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Well that was interesting. WC finals are usually not the best of games with both sides running on empty. As the pundits say over the course of the tournament France the best team. On the day though I thought Croatia were better but when you’re luck is not in then that is your lot. Football eh.
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Never let a day go by without having a dig at English football eddy
Good on yer sport
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yeah anicol as usual you complain about the point raised but make no attempt to actually answer the issues raised,
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I’ve been watching the World Cup Final between Croatia and France eddy – a game full of incident and excitement – if you want to crack on and whine about English football this afternoon when I have not heard or read anyone mention “England” that is your right. Good luck to you – let it out rather than bottling it up.
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ha ha ha, liam brady just said that he hope Modric can now help clean up the corruption in Croatian football, – Modric has been charged with perjury at the tax fraud trial of Zdravko Mamic, a former executive director at Dinamo Zagreb.
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Lloris lifting the trophy – smh
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yeah anicol whine about the points I make, but keep ignoring it, best not to actually address the points, better to attack the man mentioning them. Keep it bottle up, don’t shine a light on the issues at all, after all its coming home, football’s coming home, again and again and again.
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an interesting final, think
ref was conned by Griezmann for the freekick for the first goal,
ref got penalty call correct with the help of VAR
Kante is a great DM but is a very limited player
Pogba had a fine game, if he can continue to keep his game simple he could fulfill his potential
Giroud I believe has not had a shot on target all tournament but still played a big part in France winning it. France will need to have a young pretender to his crown coming through the ranks.
France have a lot of very talented young guys in their squad, enough young guys who should still all be around in 2 and 4 years time, some like Mbappe could have another 3 world cups in him, at his prime.
Overall the world cup has been good, not great, VAR has helped it too. Like all these tournaments, lots of stale games or poor quality games. Still no sign of the much awaited breakthrough from an african nation
next world cup is Qatar, and will be played in November and December 2022, will be odd having a World Cup final close to Christmas, will take a bit of chopping and changes to the European leagues over the next four years to lessen the disruption to them.
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I thought the final was an entertaining game of football which cannot be said for most of the games that I watched.
I wanted France to win but Croatia wete by far the better team.
I began to favour Croatia after the cheating got France their first goal.
It simply goes to show, as we have seen so many times with arsenal, that the better team does not always win.
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Lots of anti French feeling on English social media, maybe the right time for change to Manuel
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only one 0-0 game in this world cup
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Yep, good but not great tournament, I agree.
Think it delivered well on drama, in large part because of way groups unfolded, with early losses or draws for bigger nations meaning big tension in second and third round of group stage. Germany, Argentina, Portugal, Spain, even Brazil under threat.
Often a case of having to wait till latter stages of games for the big drama pay-off. but that’s prob nothing new and I can’t imagine it being different for tournaments ahead.
Absolutely thrilling games, end to end ones with both sides with a lot of attacking threat, extremely high quality games, with attacking to fore…probably not enough of that to qualify as great.
I enjoyed it,anyway. Plenty of games that were well worth the watching.
2nd half of Japan Belgium maybe the most thrilling. Belgium Brazil maybe the best high quality game? Switzerland Serbia was a big favourite of mine. Respective points for each side encouraged them to go for it; very competitive; each side with some quality.
Argentina France some crazy fun until 4-2. Mbappe showing we could drive ourselves crazy on the question of how close we came to getting him at any point. Though maybe it would be worse if we truly knew the answer and it was extremely close.
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cheers for answers on that wage increase question.
250 per week rise is apparently (aye, i don’t trust my maths) 13 million a year and surely they are pushing more like 500 grand per week (just Collins, Evra, youngster Burke and Joao Mario end of loan out).
Be surprised if any of the 7 big signings are on much less than 40-50 grand and three or four of them must be a lot more, pushing 100 mark.
Maybe they’ve got some great commercial deals (Usmanov chucking them 20 mill to sponsor the owners dildo factory or something).
Just weird in that it was mentioned so much for us and, I’m guessing, with justification, and yet heard little or no mention of how it impacts others.
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I don’t think the referee got the penalty call wrong (with the help of VAR), but certainly missed Griezman’s dive for the free kick that led to France’ first goal. Too bad they were unable to use VAR on that as I believe that under the circumstances the dive would not normally be considered a game changer (even though it was).
VAR has not to my knowledge been at fault at any time, but the way some reviews may have been controversially interpreted proves it’s not yet the finished article, but it’s getting there.
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