A few years ago one of the greatest contributors to this site, Stu Black, wrote a lyrical piece about the end of the season and the onset of summer. ‘Goals dismantled on recreation parks, bare pitches turned fallow, thoughts turning to days of ease.’ His message was clear: time marches on, seasons come and go and the rhythms of the year lie just under all we do. If players need a break to allow spent bodies and minds to recover, then so too do football fans. And for me, never more so than the end of what is now thankfully last season, a season that initially promised much, but ended up under-delivering.
There were some exciting moments, of course, but also times of frustration, disappointment and downright bewilderment. The first year after Wenger was always going to be a difficult one, for players and fans alike: some couldn’t wait to usher in the new, some couldn’t imagine life could ever be as good again. It must have been hard indeed for Emery to impose himself on a dressing room full of senior players who had learnt to play the Arsenal way, but hard also for players learning to dance to a different tune. The answer to begin with seemed to lie in hard work: more training, more running, more pressing, more tactics. And up until Christmas, that approach seemed to be working in terms of results, even if the strong suspicion lingered that at times we were unsustainably lucky. And so it proved, the turning point the away trip to Southampton where old familiar weaknesses resurfaced. And that was pretty much that, for despite the promise of an Aaron Ramsey-led revival in January and February, that too fell away, and the final stages of the season were dire. I felt that the players by then were exhausted (all that early pressing maybe), bewildered (by constant tactical tweaking) and disheartened (as the goals dried up). It was pretty dismal, and by the time the league season finished I had had enough. Unfortunately, so too had the players, failing to turn up for the second half of the Europa Final, having squandered reasonable chances to put the game to bed in the first half.
And so I turned my attention to all the other things: family, dog, work, reading, cricket, netball, holidays. And I did wonder whether football (and The Arsenal) would come back into focus, and all the more so when I realised that the Transfer window was open and that I had never heard of the players I was told we had to buy, apart from Zaha, who was always going to be too good to be true (and what would be the point of signing a suspected diver when we don’t get penalties anyway?).
And I’m still not entirely sure to be honest, but fortunately I (or was it Stan, or Josh) was asked whether I cared, because apparently lots of people who have behaved quite despicably in denigrating the club, have now decided that, after all, they do care. And perhaps they do, in their own way: perhaps they do want to get whatever version of their Arsenal they hold most dear back; perhaps they do want to win all the trophies; perhaps they do want the shiniest new players to win them bragging rights once more. Perhaps they even want to cement their positions as the most important of all the fans, but goodness me, what a strange route to fame and fortune that is. And I guess that that is fine, and it is not for me to judge, as we all have our different reasons for doing anything, let alone for supporting a club whose fortunes we absolutely cannot influence.
But I realise that I do care. That I do want it to be the start of the season again (though not quite yet), that I do want to catch the train and then the tube to Holloway Road. That I will want it to be November with the smell of bonfires and burgers. That I will want to have my heroes. That I do want us to be the greatest team the world has ever seen and that I will be Arsenal ‘til I die. In short, that I will allow myself the temporary madness of belief and hope and love, with all the heartache and the joy that comes along with oohtobeingagooner.
Now, what about those signings then? After all, we’ve got a League to win.
Tim Head
@foreverheady
Positively Arsenal 
A note to the Wob blogs and all their petition chums:
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If Payton reckons he represents the fans and wants to go on the board, then he should know he doesnt represent me. I want and nominate Pedantic George for a place on the board then as he would be the closest candidate to represent me (us?). Im not taking the piss either.
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payton is a bigger cunt than any of the AFTV knobheads
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Redouan Taha el Idrissi of FC Twente who has played two games on trial with the Arsenal u23s
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Its weird Ed when you look around on line at what Arsenal has become. Amazing how many people run vids about transfers yet in truth havent a clue about whats actually going on, look at the papers or sky sports or make it up.
Tbh if it wasnt for you guys here, I think I would retire.
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Mills look at the reaction of the pretentious petition guys, disagree with it and all sorts of knobheads will attack you online. Yet some of these idiots are still claiming its about uniting the fan base, its not, its clearly just another vehicle to get certain blogs and “influential” twitter accounts (the influential word is what the media called them, says it all, they are looking to influence people to their point of view), to whinge and gripe and attack the club, and of course its a happy accident that all of this will direct more traffic to their certain blogs and influential twitter accounts. But its not about the attention, why would anyone think a media whore like Tim Payton and the AST would be looking for attention, never mind scum like le grove and others.
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He (TP) seems like another person who just doesnt know what hes going on about or seems to have any idea of the consequences of what he says Ed. The have no shame at all.
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yet the AST keep picking him as their leader and mouthpiece, tells you all you need to know about those idiots
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Weird how they think they know what right and also see themselves as the real deal. The voices of Arsenal. Well, the situation we’re in is because of those peckerwoods…
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seen a twitter spat between Payton and another petition signature Keenos, laughed when Payton couldn’t respond to the claim he has not stopped attacking AFC ever since the club “stopped funding the loss making fanshare scheme”
Payton never likes it when little facts like this are thrown at him, yet he still has the cheek to keep telling the club how to run their finances, laughable really.
would also point out that this is not the first spat I’ve seen between organizers of the petition, it shows there is actually no consensus and explains why their statement is so fully of contradictions and is worded in such a way as its meant to be all things to all men. When in reality its bullshit.
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the guy from the gunnerstown blog claims he bumped into Stuart McFarlane and David Price (Arsenal’s club photographers) in Downtown Charlotte.
and he asked about transfers and was told by them, “ There will be 1 or 2 next week, maybe more”
Arsenal return to the UK after the game v Real Madrid on Wednesday, and reports in France claim William Saliba is due to undergo his medical and sign for Arsenal after his club return from the USA on Tuesday
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I agree Ed, even in the wording they didn’t seem to have a clue about what they wanted or were hiding or trying to hide their agenda. They just dont speak for me and assume they do.
Saliba is weird in that it will be forgotten until next year in a few weeks, I don’t know why they bothered to make it public until next year, might have been better?
We shall if the gunnertown bloke is really in the know.
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eddie makes it 1-0 to the Arsenal after 15 minutes
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eddie just cleared one off our line
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HT: 1-0 to the Arsenal
Eddie Nketiah with our goal, about the only good chance we created, of course it was a kolasinac cut back, as our main attacking tactic is to get it wide to Kolasinac and Jenkinson, awful stuff. Kolasinac was even offside twice in that half.
We are being overun in midfield with Martinez bringing off several very good saves, Eddie clearing off our line, and them going close with a few more efforts. Not sure how we are still in the lead.
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Leno on for Martinez, and Lacazette on for Kolasinac, seems we have gone 4 at the back with Monreal going to left back
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leno with a good save
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there goalie booked for handling the ball outside the area, freekick in the d for afc which lacca fires about a foot over the bar
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60 minutes, chambers, olyinka and saka off, sokrtis, willock and mkhitaryan on
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Eddie Eddie 2-0 to the arsenal
good play from jenkinson in the build up, but some controversy when one of their defenders ran into him as Mkhitaryan got in round the back to pull the ball across to Lacazette 8 yards out, and lacca unselfishly laid it on to Nketiah six yards out to fire home easily
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we’ve been much better this half, really got a foothold in midfield since we went four at the back.
must say, apart from his crossing, I’ve been very impressed by Jenkinson’s performance
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the crowd are chanting “we want ozil”
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this ref is a bit of a joke, letting far too much go
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Medley, Thompson, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles, Martinelle, Ozil on Jenkinson, Monreal, Mustafi, Burton, Nelson, Nketiah off
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fantastic run by martinelle but his shot is inches wide
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Willock makes it 3-0, lacazette plays him in, he controls it with his right and fires home with his left
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FT: 3-0 to the Arsenal
Eddie with 2 and Willock with the 3rd. We struggled big time in the first half, but controlled it in the second half as we changed from a back 3 to a back 4. Eddie very clinical, Lacazette set up two goals when he came on. Jenkinson and Chambers impressed me. Some great flashes of skill from several of our players, really liked Martinelle’s little run where he nearly scored, and Ozil with one great piece of showboating.
Martinez impressive with his many saves in the first half.
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It appears the rumours are true that Yunus Musah is joining Valencia, he played for their youth team yesterday. He turned down scholarship offer by Arsenal, after having played lots of games for our U18’s last season while still a schoolboy, but that won’t stop many in the future blaming AFC for not playing him if he turns out a success at another club.
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“Freddie helps Unai know who we are, tells him our strengths and weaknesses and comes to us individually and tells us what we need to do from Unai.
“Unai does not have to speak to us directly, Freddie comes to us and tells us what we need to do. It makes the transition from the academy to the first team much smoother.”
Didn’t he get the job because he knew everything about all of our players and the youths? Not sure about him not speaking to them directly either.
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latest rumor is that Koscielny is looking to buy out his contract so he can join Bordeaux
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Unai Emery says he would like us to bring in “three or four players” this summer – but only if they improve the squad.
William Saliba’s name came up at Unai’s post-match press conference in Charlotte, and here’s how he responded:
“I am patient because we want to choose the best solution.
“Some players are very expensive and we are waiting for this possibility because we don’t want now to go to the second line of players. We are waiting and really we have very good young players.
“We are aware we also need to improve some areas in this squad. But I only want to sign three or four players only if we can be sure they are coming to improve our squad.
“There are a lot of names and the club is working. Edu is very close to me every day and also with the Kroenke family.
“I want to send a message to all our supporters that we want to [build] the best squad possible.”
Copyright 2019 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to http://www.arsenal.com as the source.
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Raul Sanllehi has flown back to London from the pre-season tour of the United States as Arsenal looks to step up activity in the transfer market
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re Emery’s comments on transfers, he basically said what Wenger was slated for saying many a year, that we will only sign players we are sure will improve us, otherwise no point in signing them. But unlike Wenger’s comments, these by Emery have been met with universal approval
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so Real Madrid are selling Gareth Bale, should Arsenal be in for him, he is an outstanding player, even if injury plagued
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and this quote by Iwobi has been reported as – “if AFC sign Zaha I will leave”, bloody disgraceful how its been twisted, and of course swallowed by so many of the we care crew
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latest reports from france say Koscielny has agreed terms with Rennes, and that Rennes have arranged a press conference for tomorrow. Koscielny’s reps are said to have held talks with Arsenal through the night to sort out the move. Raul had returned from the USA to deal with transfers.
The reports suggest Arsenal want Koscielny deal sorted before the main squad return later in the week,
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Illegal streaming of Premier League soccer to be blocked before new season kicks off
Man City won the Premier League last season
Man City won the Premier League last season
Tim Healy
July 16 2019 2:30 AM
Irish people will find it much harder to locate illegal TV streams of live English Premier League football matches when the 2019/20 season kicks off next month.
Yesterday in the Commercial Court, the Football Association Premier League Ltd was granted Ireland’s first order compelling internet service providers (ISPs) to block live streaming of matches.
The order is against Eircom/Eir, Sky Ireland, Sky Subscriber Services, Virgin Media Ireland and Vodafone Ireland. The ISPs were either supportive or neutral over the application, Mr Justice Robert Haughton was told.
Under the order, the content provided by the illegitimate servers or hosts, using streams from legal broadcast outlets, will be targeted in real time for disabling using the latest advances in technology.
It will be possible to block in one blow “unofficial streams across several platforms and apps such as on phones, computers and set-top boxes “.
The internet protocol addresses of the streaming hosts will be updated at least twice during match time so that the blocking can be enabled, said Jonathan Newman SC, for the Premier League company.
It would be possible to respond “within minutes” to the illegal streaming, he said.
The court was told similar blocking orders had been obtained last year in the UK where a court heard the problem of illegal streaming of the games had become ubiquitous. It was no longer just “a student on his couch with a laptop”, but had become so overwhelming that the bulk of infringements came from people with “set-top boxes” plugged into TVs, counsel said.
The technology did not allow the identification of end users but the blocking technology was similar to that used when Ireland became the first jurisdiction to enable blocking of copyrighted music and films.
Mr Justice Haughton said he was satisfied to grant the order and noted from the UK case brought by the Premier League that the judge there said continued illegal streaming undermined the value of the football TV rights. If unchecked, it was likely to have an impact on returns for the football clubs and wider sporting community.
Irish Independent
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Ed, you been watching Mark Mcguinness at u19 Euros?
Think saw comment from you other day saying he had played well. Didn’t tune in today as i thought they were out but they won and are into semis.
Had hopes for him after seeing him play as one of youngest in that Futures cup tournament we won few years back, and seems to be doing well again now after tough time with injury.
Tall guy and also seems to have big leap to go with it. That alone is enough to get me intrigued.
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Rich he was good again today, the Ref may have fucked up Ireland’s chances in the semi final when he handed out two very soft yellow cards to two of the star players, in stoppage time, which mean both miss the semi final, the one for the striker was beyond soft, in fact I’d say it was a mystery.
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well fuck me i’ve just seen the title of a blog that not only tells you all you need to know about the amount of fucking cunts we have in the Arsenal fan base, but also in the we care do you outfit, as the blog in question is one of those signed up to it. The title of the article in question is
“I wonder should we lay off Mustafi?”
There is no fucking wonder about it, he is an Arsenal player, you fucking shower of stupid cunts.
We care do you, what a fucking laugh, what the fuck do they really care about when by the title of the blog alone, they admit being on Mustafi’s case, fucking pretentious shower of attention seekers.
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I did not read the article I mention above, why would I, who in their right mind would give a click to any cunt who wonders if they should lay off one of the Arsenal players, its like something a fucking spurs fan might ask when if they thought the abuse aimed at an Arsenal player had gone too far, not something any Arsenal fan should ever have to ask, about any Arsenal player, never, ever, well not if they really care about Arsenal.
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Shame about those bookings then Ed but glad to hear Mcguinness doing well. Think I heard a few good players were pulled out of Ireland squad by clubs, including very highly rated Spuds striker.
Hopefully be good for Mcguinness working with Bould, who in last spell as youth coach brought through Ayling and Bartley. Along with Hayden, they are the only two academy centre backs I can think of playing at decent level last 10-15 years.
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We’re cutting it fine, eh. See window closes Thurs Aug 8th, so that’s 17 full days, including today (Mon 22)
Only way I see 2-3 good signings now is if they are extremely close to being done. If we’re competing with richer clubs, prob won’t happen. Likewise, if we are far apart on any valuations, and hoping seller’s relent, that also probably won’t happen.
The suspense,eh
By way, bit confused by couple of anicol’s tweets in recent times, saying stuff like ‘day 18 of transfer window’. That was couple days ago. It opened on May 18. I know he doesn’t have much time, with justification, with lot of transfer window fan behaviour but don’t know what he’s getting at there.
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rich isn’t it a 5pm end to the transfer window on the 8th, no 11pm this time around.
would expect some deals concluded this week.
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Yeah, think it was 5pm.
See Liverpool playing against a dirty Sevilla team. They just had man sent off for a nasty kick on a young Pool player.
Looked him up and his wiki has been updated within ten mins of it happening.
‘On July 21st he was sent off against Liverpool during a preseason game in Boston, after a disgraceful tackle on an opposing Liverpool player. The tackle resulted in the reds player leaving the field on a stretcher, amid concerns he might have suffered a fracture.’
Liverpool fans ey
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Rich, Andy Nic can tweet what he likes. He is someone that constantly backs the club and players.
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Course he can tweet what he likes. Was just confused by that. Should have just tweeted him myself to get clarity on it. I know how strongly he backs club and players.
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and don’t forget his blindly backing of the PGMOL
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little over two weeks of the transfer window left and the only deal AFC have completed is the signing of an 18 year old lad from Brazil’s 4th tier of football. Gabriel Martinelli. AFC heavily linked with the following
William Saliba – said to be set to do a medical in coming days, but then to be loaned back to his club in France for the season
Kieran Tierney – said to have put in 3 bids in last month or so, none to Celtic’s liking.
Wilfried Zaha – latest report is that we have offered CP £65M plus Carl Jenkinson(valued at £5M and Reiss Nelson on loan for the season, but that CP see this as not nearly enough.
Dani Cellebos – latest is that Real Madrid are willing to let him go to either us or spurs on a season loan
now imagine if that was the state of our transfer business 2 summers ago, under Wenger, well fuck me an unknown boy from Brazil, an unknown boy from France that we aren’t even taking till next summer, a left back from a second rate league and we still can’t agree a fee, an over rated diving cheating cunt who flopped at UTD and we are going to pay how much, and a 23 year old who can’t get his place at the worst Real Madrid team in decades. And despite all that we are dithering and won’t spend the fucking money to get it done, fuck off Wenger its not your fucking money you tight French senile old git
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