Hello and how are you?
Good summer so far? Mine has been an oddball; wiping away the pooled tears from the champions league final loss, rankled by refs at the World Cup, more demise in the family, a freak pulling a gun (are you sure, it’s says here gub?) out on me in the park, some mad-hippy-oddball proclaiming to all and sundry in ear-shot that we are all going to (fkn) die ( hey man, whoa man, thanks man!), boiling weather, more boiling weather, even more boiling weather with extra humidity and high dew points, Ed Gein lookalikes in the park who look they might do an Ed Gein on yer grave, getting chewed up by the gosh darn skeeters( thanks coming over) and spending ages listening over an over to the Small Faces Immediate years, especially Ogden’s Nut gone flake ( the anniversary version with the Fly on it), and making a wrong turn and heading down bad-timey memory lane and having to do a quick three point thought turn and mosey on out of there and back to the land of normal and of course, wishing it was cooler.
What did you guys get up to?
Amazing how quickly that world of the Small Faces vanished, yet at school we were not taught even the most basic facts concerning how elements of life operate, and a major one of those is the constant state of flux and mutation we are in. Sometimes if we were prepared, or had some even tiny understanding, it might help, when one day you wake up and the worlds totally different to that which you were born into? “what the fork am I doing here?”
My first Community Shield was the Charity Shield ( and I suppose it always will be, just as it will always be the league cup) back in 1979.
The Alan Wunderland (as the Match annual later christened him)-led Arsenal, the 1979 cup final winning team, and took on super-star, mean-machine League winners Liverpool. I didn’t see the game; the kid next door I think was a Liverpool fan and he had a copy of the programme or got hold of a copy. I was really jealous at the time, as it had some fantastic pics of the lads, and I can still remember the captions from when he showed me, Pat ( Jennings) with the ball, Pat (Rice) with the cup, and some top images of Liam Brady with the lid of the FA Cup. I have a copy now and it’s still a favourite in my collection.
In our image-laden, spoilt, minutiae-covered times, this all might seem daft but, in those days, there just wasn’t access to endless photos of your favourite players, even if you bought Match or Shoot! Nor was there 24hr Arsenal news from thousands of outlets. Somehow as a fan you wanted to see more pics, more action, I mean there wasn’t even much football on the tv in those days, what were they thinking? They ( the powers that be) already knew where there’s Polloi there’s brass, having milked people dry for years. I suppose for good or bad we are now in the antithesis of that time? Still being milked of course.
Anyway, The Gunners got mashed 3-1, and went on to play fifteen thousand games that season and came out empty-handed at the end of it, and to make it worse, we waved Liam goodbye as he searched for glory in other climes. Strange how that game stayed in my mind, I can even remember seeing the highlights for the first time. It could have been a really high scoring game, it really could.
I’ve only ever seen one Charity Shield in the flesh, Liverpool v Everton (dang I can’t even remember but it must have been 84?) it was a pile of shite, we had got tickets for the Milk Cup final in 84, as our mates dad was a milkman, and that was a top day out, as we were in the Everton end. For the Charity Shield we were in with the Liverpool fans (wii golf bad shot sound). Plus, the bloke who got us the tickets had to bring his old man, who was a tool. He’d caused me some real poop a few years before for not addressing him as Mr. so, I gave him the old no speak. Up yours Mr. Even his son thought he was a tool.
Naturally like you, I watched every Community/Charity shield each year, but they now seem a massive blur. Digging out some on You Tube and the memories come flooding back, my memory needs a jolt these days, it took me three hours to remember my brother’s mate with whom we went to Sunderland -Arsenal with back in the 90s, so maybe it’s just older age. Or being thick as dung?
Of course, it’s an odd game, maybe the oddest of the year? Thank the stars that play with Sams laughing dice, that it’s not called the Super Cup in some cheesy, unnecessary rebrand, that just irks the old folk. Anyway, it is odd; you win and we all celebrate, you lose and out comes ye old excuses ” who cares, it’s just an over glorified friendly!”…
Should a team play hard to win or take it easy like Seaman did with the worst penalty ever taken in a charity shield game? Some say he’s still laughing about it. What can a girl do? Me no know.
Of course, to make matters worse, it’s against Man City, who must be still holding onto a case of the old green-eye after watching us win the league. Plus, there will be massive speculation as to whom plays, the stars that went the furthest in the World Cup still haven’t rested, so any shuffle around might bring some interesting variations for both sides?
Later, I knocked on the door of Statto HQ in hope of getting some figures, and they had pinned a sign up saying: “gone fishing”. But there was a ‘post it ‘next to it claiming that the Mighty Cannon has a 37.2 % chance of winning, and Man City with a 35.4% chance of taking home the shield.
Next up, the season starts, as we host a Friday-night fling with new boys Coventry City. Till then, COYG!
Mills
Positively Arsenal 
ah Match, Shoot, Football Monthly and several others I can no longer remember the name of, spent nearly all my pocket money on them as a kid(who am I kidding, long in to adulthood). Here is one for ya, I had known the name David Rocastle for months from match reports, but got a big surprise when I finally seen a photo of him and he was black. Oddly only a few days later RTE showed an Arsenal game live and there he was and boy was he was a special player.
On the topic of black players back in the, our 3 degrees, Chris Whyte, Paul Davis and Raphael Meade.
Chris Huggy Bear Whyte had an odd Arsenal career, in fact he had an odd career, off the field stuff derailed him for a while but he sort of fulfilled his potential at Leeds. Remember when Arsenal used him as striker for a while and it looked like for a short while( a very short while) that he would make a go of it.
I really rated Raphael Meade, but he was a confidence player, and at that time we hadn’t a good enough team to give a young lad confidence, he used to score in batches, and I remember him scoring 2 v Spurs in I think a 4-2 win, and he done the same v Watford the same season if I’m not mistaken. But injuries seen him in and out and off he went and I used to see his name pop up as a scorer on a more regular basis in the Portugal leagues.
Paul Davis, oh what a player, oh what a upper cut. That punch probably cost him an England career. but probably worth it to smack that racist twat from Southampton. I always wondered what the black players at Southampton thought of the cunt and having to share a dressing room with cunts like that.
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Arsenal today linked with Galatasary right back Wilfred Singo, the 25 year old Ivory Cost International, seems we want him on loan with an buy option but Gala only willing to do permanent deal
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reports in Italy say Martinelli’s agent is there at the moment for talks with Napoli, who are also interested in Gabriel Jesus.
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Ismeal Kabia has joined St Mirren on a season long loan
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i remember the PD left hook Ed, bloody Case should have gone, I recall him booting PD after the penalty, he even took a long run up. Raphael Meade and Chris Whyte did us proud in those days. COYG!
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Raya
WhiteMosqueraGabrielCalafiori
Bruno GMLSOdegaard
MaduekeHavertzTzolis
subs
KepaHincapieZubimendiMerinoRiceEzeDowmanSakaGyokeres
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Nwaneri along with Martinelli, Jesus and Vieira don’t make the squad, is that the clearest hint that they have no future at Arsenal
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reports that Saliba will be out for 2 to 3 months without an operation, but if its deemed he needs the operation it will be another 5 to 6 months after the operation.
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Mills wasn’t it Glenn Cotterill that Davis chinned
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26 seconds in and its 1-0 to the Arsenal, Calafiori with the goal, MLS with the assist
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yes it was Ed, busted his jaw in two places from what I recall, stopped his England career as the FA was trying to clean things up. No one seems to have talked about it, but I think Glenn was in Pauls poop during the game but the ref wasnt giving anything, but he had said something vile to Rocky and the rest was Rocky 2!
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Havertz makes it 2-0 to the Arsenal, Tzolis with the assist
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Calafiori booked for diving
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HT: Arsenal 2-0 Man City
Calafiori and Havertz with the goals
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3-0 to the Arsenal, Odegaard
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can we get five?
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Tzolis had the assist for the 3rd goal
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Sounded pretty good. COYG!
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Well that was fun
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sure was George, kind of unexpected? COYG!
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seems Rodri is joining Barcelona
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I see many fans demanding Arsenal sign a couple of forwards, namely a left wing and a striker, but looking at the squad as it stands our biggest need at the moment is right back and right central defender. Timber and Saliba are out, it is not known when either of them will be fit, and in the case of Timber we can’t rely on him staying fit with his track record. Ben White can cover right back and right central defender, but he can’t play both at the same time, and with his injury record we can not rely on him to stay fit either. Do we really want to see Declan Rice at right back or CB for an extended period of time.
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as for bringing in a top class left wing I think Arsenal should be contacting PSG and making a bid for Kvaratskhelia and if they don’t want to do business then make a big offer to them for Doue. Both for me are better than Barcola
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you what might work and not cost a fortune to do for RB and RCB, a double swoop on West Ham, Wan-Bissaka for RB and Mavropanos for RCB, both solid experienced players who should not cost massive fees and we’d still have White and Mosquera ahead of them or fighting for the positions with them.
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im not sure they will let Mavropanos go Ed, especially after todays result? Hes a good player for sure…also would he want too come, he would only be a cover while at WH he will play every game possible.
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Mills there were rumors he wanted out of West Ham once they got relegated, also I’m sure our wages would tempt him. There is also the thing were a player like Mavropanos should back himself to win his place or at the very least get himself regular game time. Top clubs have a long line of players who were happy to be bit part players and win the medals and of course get well paid for playing very little.
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