Happy new year you lovely Positives.
Sadly for you our Labo is excused boots today and you have your truly. Not the best start to New Year I know, but here we go.
At 3 p.m. we play Fulham at our home stadium, the team we beat/thrashed/took apart 5-1 at the Cottage. That might suggest a comfortable home win when you also consider that they sit 2nd last in the league table on 14 points with a -25 goal difference. A cake walk then? Oh that it was that simple.
To be honest, I feel our best chance is if they play badly as our recent form doesn’t suggest we will play well and blow them away.
We still have no idea if our best defenders will be fit enough to play and more of a concern to me , we don’t know if our best midfielders will play in midfielders and if our best attackers will play at all.
Unbelievable, I’m going to leave it at that. The Ramsey stuff , Ozil stuff, Cahill stuff and so on and so on, has taken the wind from my sails. Everything seems to be going in a direction that I don’t like and I don’t want to drag the rest of you into this dark hole I find myself in.
All the best (banned smiley thing)
Positively Arsenal 
Rich
January 1, 2019 at 10:06 am Edit
Happy new year, folks. (No hangover! Yeeeeeahhhh)
Start as I don’t mean to go on but probably will.
Just had a look at Twitter and had an unexpected reply from someone who was once the big cheese in pgmol world, Riley’s predecessor.
Confirmed that Derm Gallagher is paid by pgmol for his media appearances.
Nothing less than a sham then, in my opinion, that he is presented ubiquitously as an independent voice, billed only as an ex-ref.
Being directly employed by them quite obviously defines what his overall attitude is going to be. Poor of them-pgmol- to deliberately obscure the fact, but perhaps more concerning to me is the decision of the media to happily go along with it. What is their motivation for deliberately deceiving people?
Doubt it would even occur to anyone but obsessive, incredibly suspicious types like myself that he was anything other than an independent ex ref keeping himself busy and earning a bit of cash in semi-retirement.
Oh well.
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I thought I’d move you over Rich – I’d am a bit cautious about anything Hackett says as his interminable dispute with his replacement Riley has been going on since 2010 and he has not had a good word to say about the PGMOL or any of its members, referees he was largely responsible for recruiting with in charge, since.
I think we can safely assume that unlike Dermot that Keith is not on a retainer from the PGMOL and having to paddle his own media canoe.
You should have a chat with him on Twitter. He is quite happy to respond in my experience.
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Thanks George and let’s hope that what at the moment seems murky and unfathomable will clear as the year unfolds. Never having negotiated a modern football contract I wonder what is the situation with Aaron Ramsey right now. If as reported he signs a pre-contract but stays with Arsenal for the rest of this season what would happen to him financially should he get badly injured? It seems that every match from now on would be a high stakes game for him.
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Each pre-contract would be different I guess FH but the only way for either side to enforce it if it did not lead to a formal contract, for example if a player had a serious injury, their form or simply changed their mind, would be through the courts/arbitration.
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Gary Cahill? With what we are doing presently,I won’t mind having him in our defense.more so we are not being seriously linked with any better defender. The situation is so bad that I don’t jubilate whenever we score even in injury time.
I even don’t rate Socrates better than him.
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I think there are a few of us sitting on the edge of George’s big black hole, so to speak.
I DO think the reality of the spending restrictions that were an every day part of Arsene’s life is now being revealed to an ever widening cross-section of the fanbase.
And they really don’t like it.
The fact is, we are closer to the resources of Everton and Spurs than we are to City or United. And all this after how many years of club austerity?
People are confused and upset.
If we couldn’t beat Brighton in the past, that would have been confidently blamed by some on Wenger’s intransigencies, his stubbornness, his out of date-ness etc.
But when a young, modern and thrusting successor fails to beat the minnows of the league, well then we have something of an existential crisis on our hands.
Who, exactly, are we?
And what can we realistically expect of ourselves in the future?
Manchester City? Or Everton.
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Very interesting comment from Rich (thanks to Andrew for moving it over).
It certainly explains why they bend over backwards to back up the Match day referee.
And in so doing, lose all credibility as a supposedly independent observer, as Rich points out.
Not really in a great place at the moment, football, is it?
We even have the charade of the Premier League waking up to life without a Chief Executive, following Scudamore’s over-paid exit and the acutely embarrassing change of heart by his appointed successor.
Oh dear.
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take your mind off the corrupt pgmol and let there be rock
https://www.spreaker.com/user/cavanonlineradio/the-yorkie-show-1st-january-2019
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I vaguely remember Gazidis a few years back that AFC’s finances and capacity to sign players was not dependent on the £30-£40 million that our qualification brought in. If we missed out he said there would still be funds available to invest in the squad to ensure we got back in the following season.
Well the funds being available was right as we spent heavily over 17/18. The “getting back in the following season” bit did not happen.
Two years with no CL – so maybe nowadays £80 million over that period if you knock off the Europa pennies is where the shortfall is. We are still a wealthy club but for the immediate future it is Lidl’s aisles not Harrods we will be wheeling our trolley along. No bad thing, a little cleansing of the palate.
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Andrew
Good to hear the Wobs at the blogsphere are now realizing that we were better off under Wenger with limited spending than we are today even with a bit higher spending after 20I7/18 with the purchase of Laca .n Auba.if These idiots had kept off Wenger’s back when the great man started rebuilding the team after austerity period maybe we would have finished in top4 in the last years of Wenger’s era as, well. But these idiots only wanted to win the league and the CL less than that was a faliure for these folks. These idiots split the fanbase with there evil motives and tarnished the club.
I still have no hopes for these evil minded bloggers they will keep spewing hatred towards the club management & will never learn. Let them burn in there egos and desires.
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Pretty damning Rich, an ex ref paid by the current refs body who are in turn controlled by the EPL rather than the countries, rather useless at times, football federation.
Not a lot of true independence in that chain of command.
As for the club, we are told the budget will rise again this summer, with some implication we have over reached our means? As pointed out, all this after years of austerity, who knows what would have happened if we had bought outfield reinforcements in Leicester’s year, been able to bring in defenders or forwards to help during various winter crisis. Much was put at Wenger being tight or dithering, but those who believe he was such things should maybe delve further as to why.
It’s clear Kroenke and co are determined to reduce the wage bill and other outgoings, last winter was expensive and players were bought this summer with nobody to really sell, tho when I last looked , it was at a respectable 55% of turnover, there is worse out there.
Ornstein says the club dont want to breach FFP, well how come few else give a flying?
In the same bracket as Everton? I have a feeling their funding might well be far more generous than ours, as might that of the likes of Wolves owned by a super agent..
Whatever our future is, we have supposedly good people at the helm, think we all understand projects, or as they are now termed, “process” takes time, and look forward to seeing youngsters in the team, where Cahill and Benega fit in, anyone’s guess if such stories are true.
Losing Ramsey, one of our best, most loyal and versatile seems a tad wreckless to me. His reported wage demands in Europe don’t seem that outrageous, tho he will get a sign on fee
But not sure I like a few ,perhaps subtle ,to my paranoid mind, implications and briefings that the past regime fucked up a bit.
Anyway, could do with a straight forward win today, if such things are possible at the moment.
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Yep – my recollection is sound – here is Ivan in the Telegraph February 2012;
“We cannot gear our entire financial model around that [Champions League] expectation because that would place the club in jeopardy if we did not qualify,” said Gazidis. “So we have always got to keep something in reserve. I can assure fans that we would be able to be resilient and reinvest in the squad if things didn’t go our way so that we get back into the competition in the following year.”
Perhaps that final line explains why both AW and IG are no longer at the club ?
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and one more thing, it’s Fulham, with respect, like us, they have a leaky defence over the season, can Lacca start today please, don’t want to start looking over my shoulder with him as well, that would be too much
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Interesting An5
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Assuming his poorly knee is recovered I have to fancy Ozil to start today as Fulham are exactly the sort of team he should be able to pick apart at home. And no Calum Chambers who has been playing in midfield and well recently. I was surprised to see Scott Parker, that old friend of the Arsenal, is said to be the reason he moved into the middle of he park after a string of dodgy performances at the back.
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Ozil and Lacca, that would be perfect, no stats but done we generally do ok when they play for,a,significant part of the game?
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I think our hive is still full of honey, and heres to a NY out and away from the black hole, I think that really regarding AFC our hearts are higher than a hawk, deeper than a well?
Anyway, whip crack o way whip crack away whip crack a waaayyy!
COYG!
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Mandy the Ramsey wages being reported from Europe is after tax, so makes them seem much smaller than they actually are, while normally here it is overall wages that get reported.
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“Mandy the Ramsey wages being reported from Europe is after tax, ”
How does any KNOW this ? That is not directed at you eddy but who, anywhere, has the alleged €€€ figures being negotiated in their future contracts waved across the internet netto or grosso ?
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You are right Dave, this will get us away from the abyss;
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LOL! and a mass of banned smileys! COYG!
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yes anicol its very likely bullshit as none of those reporting on the wages have a clue really, i was just pointing out that any time a story with its origins in Italy or spain mention wages, its normally after tax, while in the UK wages would be pre tax,
I only mentioned it as some of the Ramsey haters are using the reports figures to claim he is willing to take less from Europe’s big clubs than what AFC offered him, which when comparing the actual figures is untrue.
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ah deadwood, its an Arsenal phrase back in vogue, I was actually blocked on twitter yesterday by someone who was describing Xhaka, Mustafi, Iwobi and more starters as deadwood, he did not like me asking what that makes those that can’t get in the team ahead of this deadwood
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tbh Ed maybe its ok to be blocked by those people who think X,M and I are deadwood? Those are all great players. Sounds like the twitterers minds are deadwood. They are the kind of people that could not get a team flowing, which is no easy think to do-as Im sure you know.Its taken many seasons, and no trophies for Klopp to get his lot operating like that, and he knows the Reals and Barcas are looking in, one or two players gone and its difficult to get up again. As much as I dont like the Old Toileters, SAF could keep things flowing over a long time. As could Mr AW.
COYG!
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we’ve gone 3 at the back v 19th placed Fulham, not the sort of bravery I wanted to see from our head coach. what was it he said about rather win 5-4 than 1-0
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Hmm – three at the back, AMN and Sead raiding and Iwobi to give width …. Torreira rested after his exertions !!
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Ah Doris Day. Thanks Andy, that was fun. (banned smiley)
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Today 1-0 would be just fine. I doubt I can face a 5-4 nail-biter although with three at the back we cracked in 4 against the mighty Totties
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96 years old Kelly and still going – a warning to us all.
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Happy new year!
COYG!
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Happy New Year everyone,
We start the new year with alot of what weve known on here for years being confirmed.
Yes the PGMOL are bent especially against us
Yes our model means weve limited spending
Yes when we have injuries our style of play means we are vuneral at the back and thats more about the system than individual players.
The best defender in the world would look poor in some of our sides, An average defender looks good when were organised and playing well.
Three at the back is fine today considering our personel availiable and Sead, AMN will power forward today.
Have to watch out free kicks today but we have power going forward from all over the park and so we shoukd be confident COYG.
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Andy
Just read your 10.27 (and cheers for bringing the comment over!)
Feel a bit too shamefaced to try speak politely to the fellow as I fired a tirade in his direction around when Holding got injured and soon after Hackett was asking for punishment- disrepute or something- against us when we had the three diving bookings.
May have brought up that it was probably him who appointed Riley to game 50, and something about protecting players being an even more important issue than diving, and something he completely failed to do for us.
Oops.
You’re right of course that his usefulness as an authority on Riley’s pgmol is compromised if there’s been acrimony between the two for a long time, as seems the case.
But whatcha gonna do?
Anyway, there’s a game on. COYG. More talk later perhaps!
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Aubameyang don’t half miss some good chances
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luckily Fulham do too!
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good god we are so open at the back, fulham with a great chance there and it was just a simple through ball, we were trying to play offside on the half way line
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phew lucky again then,bloody Fulham keep sneaking through.
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number one!
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Deadwood strikes again!
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YaXhaka !! First of many I am sure.
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xhakkaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa he runs free to six yards out on to an iwobi pass takes one touch to control and a second to slot past the keeper
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we got away with that again! Phew!
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good god we are so timid at the back
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bad miss from xhaka
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aubameyang goes close with a header, then lacazette brings a good save out of the keeper, but he really should have squared it to the unmarked aubameyang
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xhaka down with a knee injury
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HT: Arsenal 1-0 Fulham
Xhaka with our goal, we could have had three or four, but Fulham could easily had a couple too.
we are very open at the back, but are causing Fulham problems at the back
next goal could be vital.
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HT a few worries, but plenty of good attacking play. More of that and the goals will flow.
COYG!
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I dont normally look at twitter, but bugger me theres some conceited turds on there, everyone from UA to Auba gets a slagging. Its weird that something as complex and really difficult as playing in the PL top end level, gets reduced to peoples false memories of playground football. Grrr! bah!
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UA? UE! Duh.
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Torreira on for Mustafi
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