Is time really up for the good old-fashioned English referee?

According to Keith Hackett, the former chief of English referees, the Premier League currently only has three world class referees.

He identifies these as Mark Clattenburg, Michael Oliver and Mike Dean. Prior to the recent Chelsea v AFC encounter, Hackett had previously included Martin Atkinson in this list. The solution, he suggests is the wholesale importation of ‘foreign’ referees to save the English game from the “shocking decline in correct decision-making which is ruining big games …”. (Source: Daily Mirror http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-league-only-three-world-class-4443385 ).

Here on PA we have long discussed the issue of referees wrecking games and it’s not my intention to (entirely) rehash previous posts on the subject.

I would say, however, that one of the big changes for me in the modern game compared to when I first started watching, is the degree to which my emotional reaction to a match is, as often as not, dictated by the activities (or non-activities) of the day’s match referee, the collective failures of his linesmen, and the seemingly evident non-participation of his so-called Fourth Official. I can even pinpoint the game when my absolute faith in the fairness of the supposedly neutral referee was steamrollered flat out of existence. It was, of course almost ten years to the day and Mike “Blimey O-” Riley’s horrific display in Arsenal’s infamous 49th unbeaten game at Old Trafford on the 24th October 2004.

I now only enjoy partial faith.

Interestingly, back then in 2004, as after the recent Chelsea match, off-pitch unrest was widely attributed to the performance of the man in the middle. And significantly, then as now, ‘Pizzagate’ successfully deflected attention of many from the referee’s performance and the ‘Battle of the Buffet’ dominated the headlines in much the same way Arsene’s more recent – and infinitely more enjoyable – square-up to Mourinho has done. One recalls discussion of the failure to dismiss Rio Ferdinand in Manchester that awful day was as conveniently thin on the ground as contemporary coverage of Gary Cahill’s murderous assault on Sanchez.

Ever since Old Trafford – as unforgettable ten years on as it remains shameful – I’ve been as likely to have been enraged by the ‘under’-performance of an official as I have by any cheating or other dubious activity on the part of opposition players.

And that’s a pretty sad state of affairs.

Admittedly, my own partisan, biased and hugely impressionistic take on the game has inevitably coloured my view of proceedings and, acutely conscious of this, I routinely make the effort to not believe the ‘evidence’ of my own eyes, at least in the cold light of the post-match day.

For a more dispassionate coverage of the lamentable state of our unloved refereeing stable, trawl your way through our friends at Untold Arsenal’s outstanding contribution to the subject. They created http://untold-arsenal.com/referees in order to more objectively investigate the questionable but largely unaccountable performance of the nation’s most senior referees.

Eye-opening, hair-raising, anger-inducing and ultimately, depressing reading it makes, too.

To my limited knowledge, Keith Hackett’s comments are the first and most damningly critical assessment of the state of our referees by one who, in theory at least, knows exactly how difficult it is to take charge of a match and has the seniority of his past roles to back up his comments. In other words, whilst few would be well-advised to listen to my take on any game, most would do well to sit up and listen when Keith finally blows his fuse on the subject. Or at least recommends a thorough purging of the English ranks.

But whilst Mr Hackett points towards the continent as the possible saviour of our refereeing woes, is it perhaps worth asking the question – why are our own home-grown referees apparently so bad at their jobs as to effectively be in little less than an ongoing unending collective crisis?

Is there any truth in the suspicion of a long-held north (refs) v south (clubs) bias? If so, if held for so long, why does it appear particularly noticeable now?

Is the Premier League, which is now one of the most watched leagues on the planet, also the most critically scrutinised? Are we simply finding more because we are looking more?

Has the current fashion for referees to ‘manage’ the game rather than simply ‘apply the rules’ come back to bite them? Players generally know they won’t get sent off for the first few tackles, no matter how outrageous or dangerous. They also know most referees appear to have no knowledge of the devastating impact on their opponents of the practice of rotational fouling. The bizarre habit of repeatedly warning some players and electing to book others for a first-time offence is one of the most infuriatingly unfair features of the current game.

Is there actual corruption in the game? Are certain teams getting more of the rub of the green than others due to the power of their club’s limitless budgets which enable them to literally buy off referees? Or is it the presence in greater depth of the best players in those apparently favoured sides being given more of the benefit of the doubt than opposition lessors? Prior to his retirement Howard Webb was long seen as favouring Manchester United, but Martin Atkinson’s record for Chelsea (23 wins, 4 draws, 1 defeat) is just as impressive. That neutrals find this so suspect isn’t proof in itself of any wrong-doing and if anything, it’s a reflection of too small a pool of the same individuals refereeing the same teams. But it just looks awful.

The bottom line is that regardless of actualities, the integrity of the game in this country is challenged on a weekly basis by the plethora of decisions by seemingly biased referees that can, at best, be described as ‘odd’.

And it is this fractured integrity that lies at the heart of a refereeing crisis that has been brewing for so long and which adversely affects so many.

Is it really time referees from abroad took over?

I personally think overseas footballers have largely enhanced the game (despite the downsides to the national team and certain other factors) so why not give overseas referees the opportunity? Assuming their grasp of the English language is as sound as many of our home-grown players (‘basic’ should suffice accompanied by plenty of arm-based mime) then that shouldn’t be an argument for not doing so.

But fundamentally I believe the problem isn’t with the passport but rather the pace, the power and the passion of the English game.

In other words, the very factors that make it an invaluable export to the rest of the world.

It is this that renders the game vulnerable to problems for the men running the matches and their colleagues running the line. The game, fuelled by immense fiscal reward is just so competitive, so prone to gamesmanship, diving, the dark arts and other forms of what we once called ‘cheating’ that it has been rendered largely beyond the control of genuine, consistent and fair rule by the men in black. And this, I venture, would be as true of a top, top referee from a Swiss Alpine village as it is of anyone emanating from England’s north west.

For me, Keith Hackett’s intervention is simply the latest step towards the recognition of the need for and the gradual, phased introduction of technology. Even Blatter’s blathering on about it these days (http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/11/sepp-blatter-video-challenge-managers-fifa) so whilst nothing is likely to happen overnight, it is, it would seem, inexorably creeping towards us.

By all means welcome the best refs from sunnier, non-English climes, but the long-term answer is likely to be digital in nature as opposed to anything more internationally exotic.
Not all will agree and concerns I know are genuine. Implementation is likely to prove challenging.

But this is something for which I personally have longed for almost ten years and for the sake of the reputation of our home-grown referees (who I understand are said to be broadly in favour of technology), as well as my personal sanity and enjoyment of the game, it can’t come a day too soon.

To once again have football conversations that centre on the skill of the players rather than the mistakes of the referees would be a marvellous thing indeed.

A guest post from  @Georgakos

“It’s business as usual for Cellino at Leeds” wrote David Conn in the Guardian on 8th October. “His ownership of the club continues despite the ‘owners and directors test’, operated by the Premier and Football Leagues, stating that people cannot own or run a football club if they have recently been convicted of a criminal offence “involving a dishonest act”. The definition of “dishonest act” in the leagues’ rules is: “Any act which would reasonably be considered to be dishonest”. Massimo Cellino was found to have had “elusive intent” and to have formed a “bogus corporate screen” to criminally evade €390,000 import duty on a yacht [1]. Poor old Cellino, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time because the FA Owners’ and Directors’ Test Regulations became effective from 1st August 2013 [2].

Not a problem for Roman Abramovich because his ‘dishonest acts’ occurred in the deep and distant past: The Times said that Abramovich “famously emerged triumphant after the ‘aluminium wars’, in which more than 100 people are believed to have been killed in gangland feuds over control of the lucrative smelters”[3].  In 2008 The Times reported that Abramovich admitted that he paid billions of dollars for political favours and protection fees to obtain a big share of Russia’s oil and aluminium assets as was shown by court papers obtained by The Times [3].

There are sadly but a few ‘lone voices in the wilderness’ that may barely be heard above the cacophony of football hackery and punditry. Here’s a recent quote from Matthew Syed in The Times: “It is not what is said that troubles me, however; it is what is not said. You see, I am not sure I have heard a commentator offer a word about where the money that has funded the 11-year binge at Stamford Bridge came from. I have rarely heard pundits, who are happy to talk ad nauseum about Chelsea’s transfer dealings, relate that Abramovich’s billions were gained in an episode described as “the largest single heist in corporate history”. This is not just an elephant in the room; it is a festering pile of manure” [4]. Syed goes on to say, “I have had a large mailbox from Chelsea fans over the years. A significant minority accept that the money bankrolling their club was corruptly gained (how could they deny it?). They say that they love the club, but bitterly regret the identity of the owner. This is a principled and dignified stance.”

And of course it is. I add, that I have the utmost respect for those Chelsea fans because that is the stance I would adopt should Arsenal be taken over by Usmanov or any dishonourable sugar daddy.  Syed continues, “The majority, however, get irate about any mention of Abramovich’s corruption….The most common justification offered by Chelsea fans, however, is also the most egregious. It goes something like this: ‘I watch football to switch off from the real life. It is an escape. I don’t want to get bogged down in thinking about politics.’ This is offensive because it goes to the heart of a wider malaise in football. It is the idea that football is subject to a different set of rules to everything else.”

Of course, a very similar story can be written with regard to Manchester City. In this case a despot, a dictator, guilty of human rights abuses [5] escapes the FA Owners’ and Directors’ Test Regulations.

I, in common with some Chelsea and no doubt Man City fans, feel troubled by this. I even feel ashamed that this can happen in this country. How bad can it be? How about this:  “Ministers come under fire over claims the Government is too close to a Gulf State blamed for funding Islamist terror groups” [6].For heaven’s sake even Conservative MPs are concerned! Zac Goldsmith, MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston, called for a rethink of Britain’s relationship with Qatar. He said: “Here in the UK, we do big business with our ally Qatar, including in arms, and yet there are countless reports, until recently at least, of that country’s government actively courting key bankrollers of al-Qaeda and Isil” [6]. It gets better. In the same article we learn that “a Treasury spokesman suggested that the burden of proof required for a suspect to be designated a terrorist – and face sanctions and asset freezes as a result – was probably higher in the UK than in the US.” You see, we have much higher standards in the UK, habeas corpus and all that stuff. Hmmm, I wonder, but then I am naive.

So what, dear reader, is the point of bringing this to your attention? Well, I do this because I feel that it is a huge issue that not only afflicts our society and our role, as a nation, in world affairs but that we cannot ignore how this affects The Premier League and football in general. As Matthew Syed wrote above “It is the idea that football is subject to a different set of rules to everything else”. Well it shouldn’t.

The scale of the corruption involved is difficult for most ordinary folk to comprehend (analogous but not quite to the scale of trying to comprehend the enormity of zettabytes (1021) of data!). We must however, try to understand it when assessing the performance of any Premier League manager and Arsene Wenger, in particular.

It is not necessary to repeat the many accolades that this man has received for his achievements. I will remind you of a quite recent one. In January 2011, it was announced that Wenger was voted “World Coach of the Decade” by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS) [7].  The organisation aggregated the results from each year of the decade, and Wenger had narrowly beaten Ferguson and Mourinho for the honour. Now that is really something, I think.  So, I contend that we must somehow include elements of the above described ‘dishonest acts’ into any assessment of a manager and not forget that two clubs, perpetual top four rivals in the Premier League, are direct beneficiaries of such acts. I make reference to this so that those who are so inclined might compare the results of the IFFHS study with that of Mark Andrews [8]. The Andrews ‘study’ was referenced by a rather, grumpy, ‘Wenger Out’ man toward the end of the latest “A Bergkamp Wonderland” podcast featuring our own Pedantic George [9].  Our grumpy friend quoted a list of ratios of the number of trophy competitions entered versus those won, expressed as percentages demonstrating that Arsene Wenger is, in fact, one of the least successful managers in the history of Arsenal Football Club! Poor Arsene scored a paltry 11.11%! Compare that to Herbert Chapman at 23.52 and George Graham at 23.07%. At least he beat Bertie Mee at 9.09 and Terry Neil at 3.85%.  I was actually quite amused that our grumpy friend expressed the proportions to four significant figures. Maybe he felt the numbers were more ‘persuasive’ in that format. I wondered whether he knew that it was a valid way to express such numbers when the source figures are absolute (some pedant might want to research that last comment, but then you might be a sad bastard!).  Really, it was more than sufficient to round them up to three significant figures. Mr. Grumpy is so jaundiced that he said that he would remember only the ‘early’ Wenger years as a way of being ‘kind’ to him.

So, dear reader, I hope you agree that we do not live in football bubble. To deny Arsene Wenger’s achievements you must cherry-pick information or remain wilfully ignorant. In my opinion, Arsene Wenger has formidable mental fortitude and courage. How else can he remain steadfast in the face of cheap, cowardly and mercenary journalism which feeds the simplistic and lazy views of those ‘fans’ who try to rewrite the history of Arsenal Football Club?

[1] http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/oct/07/leeds­united­massimo­cellino

[2] http://www.thefa.com/football­rules­governance/more/financial­regulation

[3] Kennedy, Dominic. Roman Abramovich admits paying out billions on political favours, The Times, 5 July 2008

[4] http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/football/article4206708.ece

[5] http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/jul/30/manchester­city­human­rights­accusations

[6]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11156430/Cut­business­ties­to­Qatar­over­Islamic­State­ministers-warned.html

[7] http://www.iffhs.de/en

[8] http://thearsenalhistory.com/?author=2

[9] http://tinyurl.com/oej2grk

The debate rages on. Seven games into the league season, having suffered one defeat away to the title favorites. Is it time for Arsene to go?

It’s a fair question, asked by people who love the club and just want what is best for them.  Sorry, I meant “best for the club”.

The usual suspects, AKB’s like me, on one side, and the WOB’s on the other. Nothing new, same old entrenched arguments from both sides, just as you would expect.

Then there is the vast majority who are somewhere in the middle. These are the ones who slide up and down the spectrum between the two polar opposites. Some moving slightly and others flip-flopping from one end to the other.

The worst of the lot are those who say something like:

I’m not a WOB, I’m happy for him to stay if he addresses the deficiencies in the squad and changes his management and tactics.”  Big of them that, but let me say what I think these people are actually saying.

First let’s look at “I’m not a WOB”.

What they are really saying is “I am a WOB, I don’t want this Arsene I want a different one. One that does things the way I want and manages the way I would.”

When pushed as to what they perceive are Arsene’s failings they will list the very same arguments that a bona fide full blown WOB would give you.

Tactics.

That’s always a favorite. They want him to change his tactics. Happy to ignore that he has changed the set up of the team several times this season already. What they actually mean is they want him to set the team up in a way that they would. Do what they would do. See the game as they do. Why oh why can’t he see what they do?

Team Selection.

He should pick the players they want picked and play them where they want them played.

Prioritise games.

This one is easy, he should play his best team for every game. Whilst rotating, of course. Quite how he does that is beyond me. Of course they will rubbish this until we don’t get the result they think we should have, then they will insist that rotation was wrong and the wrong players were picked.

Signings

This is my personal favorite. He should sign the players they have scouted, for the positions they have deemed to be key.

A DM was the priority, it’s negligence that we didn’t sign one – they squeal.

Now, looking at the team, it could be reasonable to say that DM is the weakest link. Well it might be now, but let’s look at what went before.

The moment Bacary Sagna decided to leave that was the priority. It was essential that we cover what in the modern game is a vital position. He bought Debuchy, and most think that was about as good as he could have gotten.

When Thomas Vermaelen was sold, CB became the biggest priority. Well he bought Calum for that gap. Now whether he was bought as cover for RB alone we will never know, but it quickly became obvious that he was more than good enough to be 3rd choice CB as well. Covering both will likely see him get more game time and develop quicker. Job done.

Last year the priority position was a striker and cover for Theo. Two priorities he covered with the signing of Alexis.

Next on the list of priorities was a Goalkeeper. Fabianski left and we could not go into a season with just one senior goalkeeper. So he signed David Ospina – sorted.

Then Giroud broke his leg. That quickly became the biggest priority position. Out he goes and signs Danny Welbeck. Not too many complaints about that one.

So although some people see the DM position as the priority now, there were actually five bigger priorities than that. All more than adequately solved. We know (or think we know) that we were interested in Carvalho and Schneiderlin, neither of which happened. It looks like Arsene was unable to get the standard of player he wanted and made a judgement call and passed on this 6th priority position.

We have no 4th choice CB! Well we don’t if you ignore Hayden and Monreal, which everyone seems happy too, but can it really be listed above a seventh priority ?

Funds not spent.

They say all available fund should have been used to fill the gaps they see in the team. Happy to ignore that those funds might be needed to buy the right player in January or next summer, when they might actually be available.

These people will insist that they’re not claiming to know better than our manager, whilst continuing to insist he has made mistakes by not doing what they would have done. Well you tell me, what is that if not thinking they know better?

Finally, I have to concede that these people might actually be right. They really could be better managers than Arsene. But really, what are the chances?

Thanks for reading.

pedantic george @Blackburngeorge.

Its easy. What we need is a manager than can overcome the financial disadvantage we are at compared to City, Chelsea and United buy buying the right players( you know the ones that cost less than theirs ) and getting them playing with a better spirit.

Teams like Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Montpellier have done it ! Why not us ?

Well, if its that simple why don’t Liverpool do it ? Spurs ? Hull perhaps ? Why not ? Or is it just Arsenal that should manage this ?

What makes Arsenal the club that can do what no other team in he history of the Premier League has done?

“What do you mean the Premier League George , football didn’t start in 1992” I hear you sequel.

Well because that is when the face a English football changed beyond recognition. The money that was pumped into the game altered everything. And the adding of two super wealthy clubs has compounded matters, perhaps an even bigger change.

How so you ask?

“Nottingham Forest won promotion to the top division at the end of the 1976–77 season after finishing third in the Second Division, but no-one could have predicted how successful Clough’s team would be over the next three seasons. Nottingham Forest became one of the few teams (and the most recent team to date) to win the English First Division Championship a year after winning promotion from the English Second Division (1977–78 season).”

Can anyone seriously think that would be possible today? Did anyone consider Burnley title contenders this year? If you are saying “no”, then why not?

Of course if you do think its possible then I cant help you and you should probably get whoever is reading this out loud to you , to stop.

The teams mentioned at the beginning stand out because they are exceptions. But really they are irrelevant anyway. Its not the same League . Which means the conditions are completely different. In those leagues the competition is much weaker, almost cannon fodder in most cases for the best teams. So if a decent team appears, once in a blue moon, it basically comes down to a two game shoot out. The winning of the league becomes like a cup final run, where just a few key games make the difference. And we know that anyone can win a cup very occasionally. Even Spurs.

Clough himself said “ tactics don’t win games,players win games”. 

So first and foremost a club has to have the required quality of players. If you are City, you can do this by simply going out and spending a billion pounds . Buy 25 top class players and you will have a top class team. Its fantasy football without the a limit.

To beat them a team has to have players near enough that level for the manager to be the deciding factor. And that means developing younger players, improving good players into very good players and spending big amounts on key players that make the difference. But that’s three problems a manager has ,rather than one.

All City and Chelsea have to worry about is buying the right players. And even if they get it wrong it doesn’t matter, other than very short term, they can just go out and buy others. Other teams don’t have that luxury . If a team other than the 3 mega money clubs, buy a Torres, Carroll or Veron, they have dropped a huge bollock.

Time and money can be invested in a young player and you get Aaron Ramsey. Equally you can end up with David Bentley. Its massively difficult to get a young player and him become one of the best players around.

A good player like Gervinho can be bought, hoping he will flourish and the step up isn’t made. Again, that’s not a problem those three team have.

So basically if you think a team should, by good management, overcome these difficulties, think again.

Its hard , and the only way is to do it the way Arsenal are trying. Even if we change the manager,the new one will face the very same problems.

Playing the same way as other teams, having the same sort of players that cost less ( and therefore are not as good or ready ) will never see us being their better.

That’s what I want. I want us to be better, play better, look better and behave better. I don’t want to be a budget Chelsea. Bollocks to that.

What people are asking for is someone to do a “Clough like” miracle in the modern game. Its not going to happen. Not to Arsenal or any other team.

Thank for reading this load of old tosh .

pedantic george ( @Blackburngeorge )

A guest post from @anicoll5

Good morning from a sunny and mild Norfolk morning. Very pleasant.

A fixture we had all marked in our diary has finally arrived, and for that I am thankful.

Reading the media this week, and dipping into the frantic noise that makes up the sporting social media, I was struck by the Chelsea v Arsenal game broken down by contributors into a series of contests, the gigantic and the personal. The final Clash Of Footballing Civilisations, Good v Evil, The Oligarch v the Self Sustainers (Roman v Stan), Loyalty v Lucre, the beautiful football of Wenger pitted against the pragmatic brutalism of Mourinho etc. And then of course there is eternally circular the Fabregas/Smabregas theme.

Underneath the avalanche I sense a whisp of fear among some Arsenal fans, still reeling from the lashing of the 22^nd March. I spy with my little eye a Chelsea quietly confident that they will sit nine points above us by  4 p.m. today

Resist this nonsense if any exist among you Positivistas, put aside anxiety.

Two very talented football sides will take the field this afternoon, both packed with players from all over the planet who have developed and perfected their skills for just this day. And each player knows he will have seconds, literally just seconds over the 90 minutes to display their talents. Chelsea are the bigger, the muscular, of the sides, but with the ugly rapier of Costa as their weapon of choice (hamstrings permitting). We have the speed and the quality of sharp passing, sufficient to open the lock on the gates of St Peter. Eight goals on our previous three games suggests that we know where the goal is. Two strong defences, two good keepers, little to choose between them.

Where will the contest be decided then ?

It will be decided in  the collective mind, among the players who temper the quality of their play with discipline, who take the fleeting opportunities that will come their way, and chances will come as they always do for both sides.  And should misfortune come their way,  a stray pass intercepted, an ungiven foul, even worse a goal conceded,  it is the side that ignores that setback, does not panic or lie on the ground waving their arms and yelling at Fate, or Martin Atkinson, that will prevail this afternoon.

“There are no tricks in plain and simple faith.” 

So let that brotherhood of thought and mind be Arsenal this afternoon.

Enjoy the game !

So that’s it, we’ve lost him. The best of the best, ZimPaul has passed, aged just 56.

I honestly don’t know what to say or how to say it. Paul was so great with words it seems to me that the least he deserve is someone better than me to pay tribute to him. He was among other things a supreme wordsmith. He was eloquent, funny, respectful, knowledgeable, in short he was everything that all of us should strive to be.

Paul lived a life so full that most of us could barely imagine it. Including being a spy. Yes a real spy.

I first came across Paul when we were resident on A Cultured Left Foot. I agreed with everything he said and he with me. The difference though was Paul never got personal, he spoke his mind and it was based on his love for the club and his understanding of football. He was civil to everyone, no matter what their opinions. Of course he didn’t have to be rude, he was smarter than all of us, he had an unfair advantage.

When we set up camp at Positively Arsenal he came with us. Supported us, helped me and advised me. His comments were so good that each one could have been a blog post in itself. In fact quite often I would delete a post of his only to publish it the next day as an article.

Here again is the last post he made

“ZimPaulSeptember 6, 2014 at 7:08 pm Edit

How hard can it be?

Come on Arsene, just spend the money!

You’d think from the views of some that this should be the easiest thing in football.  But interesting recent remarks from ‘Swing’ in the PA comments section regarding Chelsea’s former defender David Luiz made me think further on the subject. Swing eloquently highlighted how Luiz appears to be thriving since departing these shores from a team (or a team set-up/manager) that was evidently ill-suited to him.

One of the more almost endearingly simplistic traits of our Goner friends is the tendency to hop from player to player in a kind of footballing flavour-of-the-month perpetual merry-go-round of helpful suggestions of those who might strengthen our squad and whom Arsene has clearly, albeit inexplicably, so far not spotted. Trouble is, it’s a bit of a kiss of death as a disproportionately high number of these ‘helpful suggestions’ go on to see their careers dip and in some cases dry up altogether in the months and seasons that follow.

There are two reasons I found Swing’s comments particularly interesting.

Firstly, in how they might apply to our own Lukas Podolski, a lovely guy with first class PR and disposition, 118 caps and 47 goals for Germany since 2004 but who carries a faint aura of disappointment around with him when it comes to his AFC career (55 appearances/19 as sub and 28 goals) since 2012. Very roughly, he’s appeared in approximately half of the games played and scored in half of those.

It’s not really for me to judge how successful Lukas has been – certainly not a disaster for Arsenal (not to mention a Germany mainstay) – but the frequency of his 70th minute substitutions only contribute to the vision of a player who appears past his ‘bedding in’ period but who is still not slotting in seamlessly to the squad. Could Lukas, like Luiz burst more fully into footballing life in the ranks of another club?

Secondly, and using LP as a very crude example, this is precisely why AW can conclude a summer’s transfer window with apparent gaps in the squad – Arsene knows he could well have picked up x, y, or z player – we had the funds, clearly, although it’s by no means a given that all potential buys would want to come to the club given the appalling reputation our own fans have earned for themselves. So Arsene might have adopted a robust buying policy but what if he had not had the confidence all the newbies would slot in in the way that, say, Chambers and Debuchy have?

Players may well grow on trees and the buying process might indeed be very simple (as we are repeatedly told by the ‘just do it’ brigade) but make the wrong purchase and you will have a player on your hands who will sit somewhere on the spectrum defined by the Chelsea version Luiz at one end (laughing stock) and Arsenal’s Lukas at the other (decent but ‘enigmatic’).

Start to fill your squad with such purchases and the resulting mixture can give you a team on a second spectrum defined, perhaps, by Newcastle – ‘laughing stock’ – and, say, Spurs, theoretically challenging for honours but always falling well short of their targets (and laughing stock). We’ve seen time and again what happens to teams attempting to stuff themselves with new players – Liverpool and Man u being current examples following on from 2013’s epic big spenders, Tottenham. The Suarez swag, like the Bale bundle before it, has proven to be a double edged sword. An ephemeral cash weapon which, in the wrong hands can prove to be a blunt – and potentially ineffective one – at that.

So, Arsene – just spend the money (but go easy with it, eh?).

***

So on to tonight – and on the exact 18th anniversary of the start of Arsenal’s golden era with Arsene celebrating in his usual low-key fashion, a tough game awaits us against a Turkish side likely to be very well supported and also in urgent need of three points.

As well as reeling from the loss of Ramsey and Arteta, but with the safe squad return of Jack, Arsene knows the Turks’ main threat may well come from Burak Yilmaz breaking on the counter. This will be no walk in the park for either team but should prove one of the more watchable – and enjoyable – of the week’s European encounters after yesterday’s dull affairs involving Chelsea and the misfiring City.

Up, as they say, The Arsenal – and congratulations, Arsene!

18 years to the day of outstanding service and so many incredible achievements.

Here’s to many more.

A guest post by Double Canister (stolen from the comments section)

All I heard last night from leaving the stadium to the pubs was whispers and guesses slowly becoming cast iron established facts as the pints went down and the tweets and blogs self referenced each other. ‘ 1-4,1-4 formation ain’t work in’ ‘Alexis should have come on’ xxxx player is shit for arsenal’ . I hardly heard a word about Arsenal’s attacking play constantly ripping apart the spuds, nor anything about the effectively Josesque game plan from the spuds. Nobody gave Arsenal any credit for having to change the whole game plan when our two leading midfielders were forced out of the game so early on.

Anyone who thinks or says that the game wasn’t a complete rout for the Arsenal is talking bollix. The goals didn’t go in, that’s the only thing, and a keystone kops episode at the back cost us all the points. Szez needs to wake up, a terrible pass out to a man in danger, who then passes it to the next player – also covered by a tottenham player. There is no point going overboard about this yet, there is a myth doing the rounds that Arsenal have one of the weakest defences in the league – in truth it’s far from it. We have conceded 7 goals in six games which is not ideal but a look at the table shows that City, Tottenham and Chelsea have also let in 7 with Liverpool and Man Utd. Have shipped 9 each. Early days of course, but it is only Arsenal’s title credentials that as are being written off.

Arsenal’s only real ‘problem’ at the moment is in goal scoring, we have yet to find the most effective way of combining our new attackers with the usual direct drive-on play from our midfielders. This I’m sure will come together soon. We had 16 shots on target most of which were snatched at, weakly scuffed or straight into Lloris’s hands. I’m also beginning to think defending teams against us deliberately kick the ball out for corners when under pressure; such is the poor quality of execution from Arsenal, and never mind the usually inevitable sprint counterattack. The Spuds conceded 15 corners and had 30% of possession, most of which was from very slow kick outs and restarts.They had 6 yellows and only the ref can explain why he didn’t hand out a red. It a frustrating to drop points and especially so when your neighbourly team’s only intention was to limit the damage to themselves.

If Giroud was playing instead of Welbeck, we would have destroyed Tottenham. No offence to Danny but he doesn’t do the same runs to the near post our attack system needs.

Watching Adebayor last night shows that the spuds are going to be in real trouble, what a lazy overpaid disloyal (to his current employers) nicking a living useless shitehawke that he is.

Football has always been about opinions.

In the olden days we would sit around in small groups and moan about certain players. We might also blame the manager for poor form. It was always thus.

Now though we have taken moaning to new levels. There are those who have taken to attacking everything at the club to professional levels.

There are those that write blogs, tweet and podcast that have large followings and they have become Uber-Fans.

Based on what?

You might well ask!  Well in most cases it’s based on no more than their mistaken belief that they are experts on err, umm err… well, everything really.

If you listen to podcasts, follow twitter or read blogs, they’re full of annoyingly pretentious ill-informed pillocks seeking to impress the gullible and the equally ill-informed. They pontificate from a position of ignorance on all matters relating to the club.

So now instead of it just being a few of us moaning about what our eyes have seen, it’s thousands moaning about things they know bugger all about.

These Uber-Fans are like contestants on The X-Factor who are prepared to make absolute idiots of themselves simply to become a celebrity. They seem intent on showing how smart they are at the expense of the club.

The problem being – they are not that smart at all. They are just loud.

Of course, I don’t want to tar everyone with the same brush. There are those who know a lot and talk a lot of sense. Every week I look forward to reading The Tim Stillman (@LittleDutchVA) column on Arseblog. Tim offers ideas on tactics, players and the manager that I find both interesting and even educational. However, he does not preach or insist that his ideas and opinions are definitive. In short, he doesn’t profess to be a know-all. I might be wrong, but it looks to me that he also understands that he has a responsibility to be balanced. There are others, but they are thin on the ground.

The tone of many bloggers, tweeters and podcasters is provocative, snide and almost bitter. You might think winning the FA Cup, signing the likes of Sanchez and Ozil, or even the appointment of a new fitness supremo would have mellowed the tone of these uninformed experts, but no, none of it. Everything from tactics and formations to the timing of substitutions and how many sugars Doris is putting in the tea, is savaged and rubbished.

Here are some words from our own Arsenal Andrew:

“There is an irony not lost on many of us here in having a man with the brilliance of Wenger hounded by the likes of those for whom the lights may appear to be on, but who quite clearly, are no longer at home.

The genius of Wenger is conversely offset by the rank stupidity of a noisy band of barackers, modern-day hecklers who long ago forgot what it meant to support, who today visit upon the club as disconnected strangers sadly oblivious to the maxim of supporting through thick and thin.

Together this limp collection of disbelievers rally together with the single hollow bond of those claiming to love the club to the ends of the earth, but who in reality, as Bergkamp memorably observed, love merely the version with trophies.

They lightly skip, trip and stumble over what they would have us believe are the issues of the hour. Meanwhile the club grows and develops, moving purposefully and with grace, ever forward towards a goal and a destiny born of breathtaking ambition.

A destiny in which we, the fans, had just one job.

We just had the one job.“

I was hoping that the fight was over, that the clear and present improvement of the club would allow us to just get on with that one job.

Seems I hoped in vain.

By pedantic george aka @Blackburngeorge

Now. Part 2 from Andrew @anicoll5

What used to be bizarre to my sight to the approach of the Uberbloggers and their flocks of credulous sheep was the incessantly changing targets of their dissatisfaction. As Tim has rightly said above yesterday it was Stan paying £3m out of funds of the club he owns, in relation to work he is entitled to for services rendered, into another business that he owns and which performed that service. The day before it is something else, the day before that some new perceived calamity that Arsene or the cub or some poor unfortunate player has maliciously heaped on the poor suffering fans, blah, blah, blah.

Gaze backwards a few months. The Uber bloggers whine was “Spend some farking money’ “Sign a farking forward” ” that Giroo is farking useless” “that Thomas Vermaelen is deadwood – get rid ” Their sheep baa’ed the message they had been fed loudly across the digital world, the phone in lines buzzed with self important discontents.

But we know the club gets on with its business buys and sells players. The strikers are bought, damn fine players. Do we hear any jot of pleasure or contentment from the Uber bloggers and the flock ? Not a bit of it. Now it has moved on to “Sign a farking central defensive beast” “Sign a farking defender’ “Why did you let Tommy V go for fark’s sake” etcetera etcetera etcetera.

I won’t bore you by taking you through fifty other examples of whining about commercial revenue streams, sponsorship, players signed, players not signed, deadwood kept, deadwood not kept, we have to win a trophy, oK we won a trophy but that don’t count. It is a constantly changing target of unhappiness and dissatisfaction. Nothing Arsenal football club does is ever good enough, there is no joy or contentment in these people’s lives. They live to moan.

And then the mists cleared and I understood.

Now I suspect there are some Uberbloggers who are literally farmers of this discontent, and who understand that they can make a living by peddling material that attracts hits on their websites and £k’ching in their accounts. In a sense I admire them. They have identified a market and have devised, over time, a service product that satisfies and earns them a reward for work undertaken. They supply the sheep with a constantly changing themes of the wrong that Arsenal football club is doing to their fans, a daily diet of alleged crimes to top up their grievance levels. Peyton and Le Grove etc are service providers.

And the sheep themselves, this great baa’ing credulous mob prepared to turn on any player, any manager, any fellow fan who fails to join their abuse of the Club, who engage in strange clothing rituals of black scarves, like some form of jihadist sect! Who are they ?

Well I suspect a significant proportion of them are suffering from a mild form of a condition called “dysphoria”. That is a state of mind in which the individual is pathologically unable to enjoy or to even gain contentment with their circumstances in life, or in this case with the football cub they believe, and probably sincerely believe, they “support”. Those suffering dysphoria externalise the mixture of anxiety and depression they experience. No matter what changes in the external world however, how their personal circumstances might improve materially or emotionally, they will not be happy because that healthy psychological response is not open to them. Even if a long term demand is satisfied today, by tomorrow morning a whole new set of dissatisfactions will have been created, or as I explained above, been provided by the “service providers”.

So no George these people are not out to destroy Arsenal , the people are sick.

Football has always been about opinions.

In the olden days we would sit around in small groups and moan about certain players. We might also blame the manager for poor form. It was always thus.

Now though we have taken moaning to new levels. There are those who have taken to attacking everything at the club to professional levels.

There are those that write blogs, tweet and podcast that have large followings and they have become Uber-Fans.

Based on what?

You might well ask!  Well in most cases it’s based on no more than their mistaken belief that they are experts on err, umm err… well, everything really.

If you listen to podcasts, follow twitter or read blogs, they’re full of annoyingly pretentious ill-informed pillocks seeking to impress the gullible and the equally ill-informed. They pontificate from a position of ignorance on all matters relating to the club.

So now instead of it just being a few of us moaning about what our eyes have seen, it’s thousands moaning about things they know bugger all about.

These Uber-Fans are like contestants on The X-Factor who are prepared to make absolute idiots of themselves simply to become a celebrity. They seem intent on showing how smart they are at the expense of the club.

The problem being – they are not that smart at all. They are just loud.

Of course, I don’t want to tar everyone with the same brush. There are those who know a lot and talk a lot of sense. Every week I look forward to reading The Tim Stillman (@LittleDutchVA) column on Arseblog. Tim offers ideas on tactics, players and the manager that I find both interesting and even educational. However, he does not preach or insist that his ideas and opinions are definitive. In short, he doesn’t profess to be a know-all. I might be wrong, but it looks to me that he also understands that he has a responsibility to be balanced. There are others, but they are thin on the ground.

The tone of many bloggers, tweeters and podcasters is provocative, snide and almost bitter. You might think winning the FA Cup, signing the likes of Sanchez and Ozil, or even the appointment of a new fitness supremo would have mellowed the tone of these uninformed experts, but no, none of it. Everything from tactics and formations to the timing of substitutions and how many sugars Doris is putting in the tea, is savaged and rubbished.

Here are some words from our own Arsenal Andrew:

“There is an irony not lost on many of us here in having a man with the brilliance of Wenger hounded by the likes of those for whom the lights may appear to be on, but who quite clearly, are no longer at home.

The genius of Wenger is conversely offset by the rank stupidity of a noisy band of barackers, modern-day hecklers who long ago forgot what it meant to support, who today visit upon the club as disconnected strangers sadly oblivious to the maxim of supporting through thick and thin.

Together this limp collection of disbelievers rally together with the single hollow bond of those claiming to love the club to the ends of the earth, but who in reality, as Bergkamp memorably observed, love merely the version with trophies.

They lightly skip, trip and stumble over what they would have us believe are the issues of the hour. Meanwhile the club grows and develops, moving purposefully and with grace, ever forward towards a goal and a destiny born of breathtaking ambition.

A destiny in which we, the fans, had just one job.

We just had the one job.”

I was hoping that the fight was over, that the clear and present improvement of the club would allow us to just get on with that one job.

Seems I hoped in vain.

By pedantic george aka @Blackburngeorge