Positively Arsenal

Once More Unto The Breach, Dear Friends, Once More.

Posted by steww on May 19, 2013 in All Posts

So here we are. About to bully off for the final chukka. The stage has been swept, the lights lit and the fat lady is preparing to gargle with her honey and lemon throat soother before the ultimate performance. Here we stand at the edge of the unknown about to witness the dénouement of what has surely been the most exciting season finale for many a year. Nothing, of course, can possibly match the Mickey Thomas moment (frankly I fail to see how anything ever will) but for sheer bloody determination to drag themselves back into contention this Arsenal squad has cemented its place in our hearts. They have given us thrills and spills and many a weak willed fan has bellyached but here they are in a three way fight, hoping for third but desperate to cement at least fourth.

Warren (a Liverpool supporting friend of mine) and I were chatting the other day about how massive and important an achievement a top four finish has become. We all remember not that long ago of course when his beloved side were breezily mentioned in the same breath as Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City as one of the big four. This despite the glaring fact that Arsenal generally finished above them and they were actually in the kind of situation that pundits and our own alleged supporters seem to think we are in. Wazza would love to see ‘pool fighting for a fourth place finish right now, and if they were he happily admitted all and sundry would see it as a major accomplishment. Remember Harry for Engerland? Remember the media furore surrounding the Spuds elevation to a team challenging for a top four placing? We both agreed it was funny how this target of a Champions League place is an enormously big deal, truly the mark of a fantastic manager and a great set of players. Oh, unless of course you happen to be Arsène Wenger and have done it every year for ever spending a mere fraction of that blown by all the others in the race. Warren could see it, you and I can see it but the football world that describes this as a remarkable feat for everyone else seems to see it as a failure for us.

Well yar boo sucks to the lot of them. It was a target, one of many, at the start of the season and it’s the last one left. Curiously it is a target which comes with a consolation prize. Unlike a runners up medal in a cup final the team to miss out today receives the opportunity to slum it in the Europa League, or Fairs Cup or whatever the hell they’re calling it these days. However, as Chris Tarrant has grown so fond of saying in his post Tiswas days, ” we don’t want to give you that!”. Because we cannot go into this game thinking of booby prizes or a season without the celebration of St Totts. Negative thinking will spoil your morning and ruin your enjoyment of the fun and games this afternoon. On that subject I’m intrigued to know how you all will play this one. I’m considering the split screen approach on my desktop pc with Arsenal v Barcodes full screen on one monitor and the Spuds match in a small window on the other. I could then keep half an eye on the Chavs game on my laptop. Or maybe I should just follow whoever the Chavs and Spuds are playing on Twitter for the day and thus keep up with their scores. The dilemma of the twenty first century armchair fan.

Reading that back, and thinking of Mickey Thomas and Liverpool, I realise just how long ago it was that I watched the remarkable scenes at Anfield that fateful year. Along with a group of like minded artistic friends (and a posse of more practical types we’d corralled for the purpose) we were organising a music festival in the small North Somerset town of Midsomer Norton. Yes they named that show after it, before you ask. Anyway on the Friday night with marquees erected and stages half built we had agreed to camp on the festival site as a kind of security detail and also as an outstanding opportunity to get utterly shitfaced in a field. But this particular bank holiday weekend of course was a little different from most. Not just because we were running an all day music and arts extravaganza on the Sunday but because the football season’s finale was, unusually, being broadcast live on television that very Friday evening. I watched it on a black and white portable , powered by a 12 volt car battery with a metal coat hanger as an aerial. In the middle of a field. Pretty spectacularly stoned and very much the worse for drink. As I said, how times have changed.

And so to today’s opponents. It’s probably a good plan to at least mention the match as this is a match-day preview. Newcastle have had an up-down time of late. Last year they were managed by the greatest manager who has ever lived as they briefly threatened to disturb the top four status quo. This year they are under the control of a sad hapless character, lying in thirteenth place and hoping to finish above the likes of Norwich and Stoke City. So goes the popular narrative. Actually as with all premier league sides (with the notable exception of Queens Park Rangers) they are a team highly motivated by vociferous partisan support, eager to impress in their last home game of the season and featuring some genuinely talented players. They’ve won two drawn two and lost two of their last six scoring four and conceding about a hundred and twenty goals. Roughly. So I think the best way to describe them right now is unpredictable. They can ship goals like a bow legged man trying to stop a pig in a passageway or they can grind out a result. I suppose we’ll know which Newcastle turned up by about six o’clock tonight.

When I hear Newcastle versus Arsenal only one name leaps immediately to mind. Supermac. Malcolm MacDonald. OK so that’s two names but you get my drift. Back when I was young enough and not driven to cynical despair by the transfer circus of these so called enlightened times, I would become genuinely excited by the arrivals of the likes of Alan Ball and Malcolm MacDonald. Exotic new faces from far away come to swell the ranks of my sticker collection. Malcolm came doon from the land of coal blackened faces, shipyards, Jimmy Nail and Lindisfarne in 1976, which was officially recorded as the year of the last ever British summer. He loved his time with us and when interviewed for Arsenal TVO was still visibly moved as he recalled the day the doctors informed him his Arsenal playing days were over. However, despite being a Londoner by birth, Supermac writes as if he’s a Geordie so maybe those were crocodile tears I saw welling in the corners of his eyes. Either way he has a timely warning for any complacent Gooners predicting an easy victory to match the six goal thumping Warren’s lot handed out on their recent visit to Tyneside. Writing in something called Chronicle Live he poo-poohs the idea that Newcastle have nothing to play for. In fact he comes up with the kind of stirring guff I might well be inclined to spew when describing our own glorious team. He says “My hope, the hope of every Geordie, is that, freed from pressure and worry, Newcastle go out and play football because, if they do, it will be a terrific match. Arsenal always play that way so we would have a spectacle on our hands.” and when asked if it’s true, as Pardew suggests that it doesn’t matter if Newcastle lose four nil because they now have nothing to play for, Macdonald nearly spits his false teeth into his Vimto crying “I’m not having it. Nothing at stake for United? Just their pride, their reputation. Just the need to repair the damage they have already done.” Well said Malcolm, now sit back down before you do yourself a mischief.

I am probably the only Arsenal supporter hoping that he is right. I don’t want them to play with one eye on the flip flops and the Timothy White’s sun cream. I want them to come out and make a game of it. I want open spaces for Theo to sprint into and if it means we have a few scares at the wrong end then so be it. We can take it. The nervous, nail biting buttock clenching is all part of the fun. Not, you understand, that I’d say no to the four nil of course. I just want the season to end on a fittingly exciting note.

How ever and wherever you are watching, it’s been a hell of a ride and I hope you enjoy this final go round before the roller coaster closes down for the summer. I’ve loved sharing the games here on Positively Arsenal in a properly passionate, supportive and intelligent environment, so thank you, and I hope you all enjoy the close season, whatever this afternoon may bring.

Tags: Arsenal, epl, final countdown dada da da, football, necastle, supermac Permalink

33 Comments

All Gooners Together ? Pfft.

Posted by pedantic George @arseblagger on May 18, 2013 in All Posts

You can judge a man by the company he keeps.

This generally holds true in life and also in the Gooner world.

Birds of a feather flock together

That’s another one that’s rings true.So why does this next one annoy me so much?

We are all Gooners together.

How often during a heated Blog or Tweet discussion does some do-gooder pop up and tell us that?

But just how much are we expected to accept from someone ,simply because they wear the same replica shirt?

Whether its right or wrong,we usually judge people by our own standards.

In my previous life there were some famous “hard men” about town.They were actually no more that bullies and braggarts.They built a reputation by beating up some poor blokes who they knew before hand had no heart for violence.

You could see them all shaking hands with each other,back slapping each other following their latest act of wanton thuggery.All pissing in the same rancid pot of life.

On any occasion I found myself in their company ,I never spoke to them.If they tried to engage me I would make a point of simply turning away from them and talking to someone I found less objectionable.They hated this mark of disrespect ,and I knew it.Which of course was why I did it.

I lost count of the times I was asked why I would not speak to these people.My answer was always the same “He is a bully and a piece of shit”

Now if you are wondering where I am going with this ,we are getting to it now.

Next they would say,”But he is always all right with you”

And I would say”Fuck him”

The reality was that I felt by simply talking to him I was endorsing his behaviour.I was saying it was fine for him to treat other people badly as long as he was Ok with me.

So way are we expected to accept crass and bullying behavior towards our players and manager,by some piece of shit ,because he is ok with us?

If someone is just being cunt about the team ,manager or player ,don’t engage them at all.

We have all seen discussions about who are better fans.Actually its an irrelevant question.Better to ask who is the better person.

Are you a better person because you have more money or a better education.Well of course you are not

Are you a better person because you live your life to a higher standard of morality,hold yourself to higher standards? Yes,chances are that you are.

So would you want Wayne Rooney at the club?

Would you want his brand of aggressive,petulant and egotistical behaviour ?

“one bad apple ” as they say.

The argument that he is better than we have ,or that he is a winner ,matters not a jot to me.

Someone like him (a man who refers to us as Arseanal btw) is going to become a big part of my life if he plays for Arsenal.I don’t want that,no thank thank you.

I know that in this case it will never happen anyway.Its as ridiculous a proposition as I have heard in a long time,but the principal is important.

When it came out that RVP had released that statement to “you guys” ,many people were saying we should bow to his demands,That because he was such a good player we should put up with his treachery .I immediately said “Why should we accept behaviour for him that we would find unacceptable in any other walk of life,just because he can bang a few goals in “

How far are we prepared to go to add to our points tally?

What is important to you.The principles you live your life by,or a few extra points come the end of the season?

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38 Comments

All Hail the BFG!

Posted by Adi on May 17, 2013 in All Posts

A guest post by @GBVishJourno

“He’s slow”. That he is, I agree.

“And that’s why he sucks.” And that’s where you are wrong.

Just because Per Mertesacker is slow does not mean he sucks. What is that they say about Occam’s razor? That the simplest solution is always the most obvious one?

Arsene Wenger often drops nuggets of information that are more precious than gold. What not gold nuggets, no. That would cheapen his wisdom. Even comparing his life lessons to veins of platinum wouldn’t suffice.

“We have moved from a thinking society to an emotional society and we have to live with that” was what he once said.

Add the words of Mister Occam and Le Professeur and you get exactly why a majority of Arsenal fans – nay, football fans – are annoyed with Per Mertesacker. In a word where we seek instant gratification and overnight results, we fail to take a step back and see the bigger picture.

Newspapers, pundits and websites only add to this emotional side. What comes to mind is Goal.com’s post-match player ratings of Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat at home to Manchester United at the back end of last season, when Daniel Welbeck and Antonio Valencia scored for United and the gek azel (do pardon my Dutch) who plays for them now scored for us.

During this game, Welbeck was put through on goal and had well beaten Wojciech Szczesny and was about to get the ball under control and stroke home, only for Mertesacker to intervene.

The score at the time was nil-nil.

And how did Goal.com report this particular incident? They said Mertesacker was ‘running in treacle’. To them, describing what Mertesacker didn’t have was more important than actually acknowledging that he had actually saved Arsenal’s blushes by putting his body on the line.

Sure Mertesacker doesn’t have pace. But since when was pace alone the yardstick for measuring the ability of a good defender?

When was the last time Arsenal had a defender who was as technically skilled as the Big F*cking German? Before him, we had Thomas Vermaelen and Laurent Koscielny as first-choice. Both players who have playing styles that are very similar to each other. Both of them are aggressive players who are a lot more sparky than six-foot six inch Per.

And how have they performed this season? Vermaelen has been inconsistent at best while Koscielny has been relegated to the bench more often than not this season. Of late, he has featured ahead of Vermaelen in the pecking order and one of the reasons for that is that the Belgian’s form and mental conditioning has been bad of late.

Of course, you can’t remove the captain of a side, so you remove his partner if you want to play both Vermaelen and Koscielny. But Wenger has always stuck by Mertesacker. That shows not just how much Wenger believes in him.

It also shows how much Wenger trusts him.

But what about before Vermaelen and Koscielny? There was Kolo Toure and William Gallas, players who were once again very similar in their style of play. Gallas ultimately ousted the last main Invincible from our beloved club.

And before that were the forty-niners. Toure was there and he was protégé to one Jeremiah Sulzeer Campbell, a man-mountain of a centre-back who was not afraid of getting stuck in and doing what had to be done to ensure victory.

But Mertesacker does not fit the template laid out by all these centre-backs. He does, however, match one that was last filled by one of Arsenal’s greatest ever.

Tony Adams, Mr Arsenal himself.

Like Adams, Mertesacker displays that deceptively languid quality that automatically makes strikers lower their guard when they approach him. Beneath the surface you have a player who demonstrates an excellent reading of the game who possesses the anticipatory reflexes that prompts football clubs to fork out millions for predatory strikers out there. Vermaelen may sport the captain’s armband, but it is Mertesacker who possesses that calm authority that shapes a leader.

That was very evident during Arsenal’s recent games against Bayern Munich and Swansea City. Mertesacker was like an orchestral conductor, waving his arms this way and that as he marshalled the Gunners to two back to back clean sheets.

Arsenal have kept twelve clean-sheets this season. Mertesacker has played in every one of those twelve games.

But as it is with defenders, their prowess comes from qualities that are not discernible at face value.

And maybe that is why Mertesacker is being given so much stick. The one-size-fits-all approach that a significant number of modern-day football fans resort to when it comes to sizing up players does not quite do Per justice.

As early as 2006, when Mertesacker was only 21 years old, he was first choice for Germany at the World Cup, then paired with Christoph Metzelder. His antics with Germany – who finally finished third – earned him a move to Werder Bremen soon after the Weltmeisterschaft in his homeland. Thomas Schaaf was quick to praise his new recruit at the time:

“Per was convincing at the World Cup and anyone who plays such a strong tournament at such a young age can strengthen us. He has enormous potential.”

He is now realising that potential at Arsenal. It is also small wonder that Bremen’s rise up the table corresponds with Mertesacker’s time at the club. Of the five seasons he did spend in the north-east of Germany, Bremen finished in the top three on three separate occasions. They also reached the final of the 2008-09 UEFA Cup, where they lost to Shakhtar Donetsk. During that run, Mertesacker was a constant presence at the back until he was forced off in the semis due to injury.

As I sat down to pen this article on Thursday, a fellow Gooner told me that nobody on this site had dared to write on Mertesacker in the past. Keeping that in mind, permit me – as blasphemous and sacrilegious as it may seem – to borrow the motto of Tottenham Hotspur FC.

Audere est Facere does not mean to dare is to do, but rather daring is achieving.

At a time when there are several Facebook groups peppered with diatribe towards Per and a number of Twitter accounts which tend to write him off rather quickly, I dare to stand out in praise of our Beloved Fantastic German who has been brilliant this season.

You don’t have to believe me now. We may be eating humble pie at present, but the taste of the pudding is in the eating. Methinks it’s gonna taste like German chocolate cake in the future.

You?

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41 Comments

The Bradyesque7 Weekly Round-up

Posted by pedantic George @arseblagger on May 16, 2013 in All Posts

Hello and welcome this week’s round-up.

The Arsenal community got their glad rags on to attend the Arsenal Foundation Ball this week. The ‘British Core’ were enjoying their weekly vogue and looking like sharp, even Alec Oxlade-Chamberlain who clearly misread the dress code and went as an ‘80s radio DJ. The players weren’t shy about flashing their respective fortunes and raised a lot of cash for some worthy charities. Jack Wilshere spent £5,000 on a signed invicibles shirt while Theo Walcott and Aaron Ramsey are said to be looking for two more people to pay £250 each for a round of golf in Gleneagles. Arsene Wenger donated £25,000 of “his own money” but nobody likes a show off. Who else’s money was he going to donate? The Black-tie/Jimmy-Savile-suit event also marked an important night for Liam Brady, Martin Keown, Robert Pires and Bob Wilson who were announced as ambassadors of The Arsenal Foundation.

A huge step was taken on Tuesday in the race for Champions’ League football. A convincing win against Wigan has taken us above our neighbours and left us with a hope of stealing third for automatic qualification. It was obvious how this game would play out, in hindsight. We were too good for them but they were fighting for their lives. We went one up in the first half, as we do, and then the fight-back came. Their equaliser was soon followed by the save that reminded everyone of the script and the Arsenal boys went to work. Wigan were never going to last having emptied their tanks in their cup triumph while we’d spent the best part of the week in bed. The levy broke and it finished 4-1. A somewhat paradoxical situation now has arisen for the optimistic Arsenal fan. While having full faith in David Moyes’ inevitable failure at his new job, we know that Moyes is the man to get one last performance from his team and get a result on Sunday.

Newcastle away will be the last game in what has been a roller-coaster season. Mikel Arteta is a doubt for the game having limped out of the last match with a calf problem. There has been some debate about who or what has been the catalyst to our current form and we’re all hoping that we’re not about to find out. On the plus side, Newcastle have won one game in their last six and that was against an already relegated and hilariously dismal QPR. They have won twice in their last ten. They won’t have notorious hardnut Joey Barton to bully our strikers this season, which will settle a lot of nerves among the players. With their minds already on crushing grapes in their bare feet, wearing and/or eating garlic, frogs legs, and sailing a boat down any river in France to suit this horribly offencive generalisation, our superior ability and sheer determination should be enough. It will be enough. No alarms and no surprises please.

The Europa League final was played last night and although the better team didn’t prosper in the end, it was a decent enough game and a good advertisement for matches of this kind. It certainly opened my eyes and I will now watch at the Championship Play-off final with a more open mind.

Jack Wilshere will have a pin removed from his ankle in surgery which will keep him out of his country’s international frendlies against Brazil and Ireland. Wilshere will be disappointed to miss the opportunity to test his skills against the likes of Neymar and Glen Whelan but this most miniature of procedures must go ahead. “Small, small, small” was how the manager allayed any fears of another setback. Jack is hoped to be back for pre-season and the Emirates Cup in August when he can begin his effort to battle his way back into the starting eleven.

And finally, this is a big week in the Arsenal calendar with the anniversary of the birth of the one true deity and of course the ninth anniversary of The Invincibles lifting the Premier League title in their unrivalled feat of magnificence. Celebrations may be cut short, however, as allegations emerging from one well known supporters’ club claim that Silent Stan Kroenke arranged for Bergkamp’s birthday to coincide with fans’ membership renewals. We’ll bring you more on this as it unfolds.

That’s all for this week, thanks for reading.

Up the Arsenal!

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78 Comments

No Goblin Nor Foul Fiend

Posted by steww on May 15, 2013 in All Posts

From the moment Theo shoulder barged some geezer three times his size right off the pitch and into the advertising hoardings you received the impression that we were in for a treat last night. Even when the inevitable Twitter meltdown greeted Mike Dean’s goal there was never really any reason to panic. You see, like Theo, this squad has come of age. Our number fourteen won’t be pushed around and knocked over, his double shoulder injury is behind him, and I believe his change in fortune is neatly analogous to the development of this Arsenal team. A team that has learned not to expect anything from the authorities, the football establishment, the media and even a sizeable minority of it’s own support. This is a team which goes on proving that if they have to beat not just the opposition but the corrupt and/or incompetent officials trying their best to help the other side, then so be it. I’ve felt for a little while now that once partnerships and understandings are built between the players and a balance exists then the raw courage and determination to overcome apparently insuperable odds are there in abundance. Would it be immodest of me to suggest that the events of last night indicate I might have been on to something?

If Theo out muscling his man in defence was a portent then the performance of Aaron Ramsay was little short of a revelation. I know we all have our favourites. Tomáš Rosický is mine. This favouritism makes us biased towards certain players and yet simultaneously raises our expectations of them. I thought TR7 was relatively quiet last night but then he was playing high up the pitch and faced a wall of Wigan players fighting for their lives. Aaron who is fast becoming my favourite player (we are talking full on man crush here, believe me) was, on the other hand, starting deeper with some big green spaces to run into. Apart from a couple of wayward passes I thought he was sensational. I put the first goal down to him. He harried Wigan in possession, he tackled fiercely and instigated the counter which led directly to the corner from which Lukas stooped to score.

Surely it is Arsène who should take a bow for his careful handling of the former Welsh captain. He clearly knows which players become stronger when forged in the fire of competitive matches and which need to be eased back into the fray. Aaron has grown harder, seemingly taller, and more confident with every game. When he scored, a goal of which any striker in the league would have been proud, he did more than simply usher in the demise of a celebrity. Think about it. Think about the near misses from him lately. There was one in this match, also a toe poke that went tantalisingly wide a few weeks ago. But nothing fazes the boy. He shrugs off his mistakes and gets on with it. The cool, unhurried calm with which he put that ball away was for me the final piece in his jigsaw of recovery.

I didn’t want to single out any individual player from last night’s performance. Honestly this isn’t supposed to be the Aaron Ramsay show, I genuinely thought everyone fought hard from start to finish. I apologise – but I am an emotional guy and after the hell that young man has been through I think he deserves every bit of credit I and everyone else can give him. Having said all that, indulge me while I single out one other moment and one other player. I’m referring to Laurent Koscielny’s ridiculous acrobatics with the score still at 1 – 0. Would you call it a tackle? Interception? He picked the ball out of the air at about seven feet off the ground whilst seemingly sandwiched between centre forward and out rushing goalkeeper. And he did it not with his head but with a deft flick of his size twelves. He plucked the ball from the sky with the apparent ease of a boy scrumping an apple from a low branch, he made it vanish like a conjurer. It was part martial art, part ballet and all genius. Again I pick out these players and these moments as metaphors for the development and growth of the team as a whole.

Compare Kos and Szezzer’s decisive, no nonsense intervention in that instant with the hesitant, disastrous league cup final moment. Just as those two have come of age, just as Theo looks like a man and no longer the unsure little boy of yore, and just as no demonic referee can dent our determination to overcome all odds, so has the team grown, hardened and learned the habit of not getting beaten. Make no mistake these are the qualities we shall need next season. We need a settled summer, we need niggling injuries sorted out and first and foremost we need to win our last game on Sunday. Then this set of players will know how it feels to put a long run together. That’s what wins you titles. Consistency and belief. It gives you the edge and conversely seeps into the other team’s psyche acting like a goal head start. Remember how Tony Adams used to say he could see the other side’s shoulders droop if Arsenal scored first in a match, because they seemed to know they would never get back into the game? You can’t teach that feeling on the training pitch. It comes from doing it week in week out whether at your best or not. That is what the team have been doing ever since we went to Bayern and bearded them in their lair.

OK that’s enough from me, how about we end with a song? When I was a boy I was sent to a religious primary school and there was necessarily a whole lot of hymn singing. There is one anthem that came back to me when I thought of Aaron’s courage and Arsene’s single minded determination not to be ground down by the naysayers. If you’ll allow me, I shall share John Bunyan’s words with you now. For twas he who penned the lines which came unbidden to me from the long lost days of my callow choristry. If it helps substitute the word pilgrim. Think ~~winner~~ gooner instead and it kind of works. In fact I’ll go further it should be the club hymn. Wait, clubs don’t have hymns do they? OK strike that. Anyway most of my early my religious education left little impression on me but these words hit the spot right now.

Like I said , I’m an emotional guy.

Who would true valour see,
Let him come hither;
One here will constant be,
Come wind, come weather;
There’s no discouragement
Shall make him once relent
His first avowed intent
To be a pilgrim.

Whoso beset him round
With dismal stories,
Do but themselves confound:
His strength the more is.
No lion can him fright;
He’ll with a giant fight,
But he will have the right
To be a pilgrim.

No goblin nor foul fiend
Can daunt his spirit;
He knows he at the end
Shall life inherit.
Then, fancies, fly away;
He’ll not fear what men say;
He’ll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.

Tags: Aaron, Arsenal, Arsene, football, John Bunyan, Koscielny, Please let it be Piers Morgan, Premier League, Seriously?, soccer, Theo, wigan, Yes John Bunyan Permalink

127 Comments

Yes. We. Can.

Posted by steww on May 14, 2013 in All Posts

As fans, this is the kind of day that we live for. The alarm shrills, sleepy fingers grope for the off switch and the first coherent thought to form through the fog of recently departed sleep is ‘Arsenal. It’s tonight’. This is the big one folks. Our nearest rivals have done all we could ask to ensure the pressure remains fully over in the red and Arsene has done all he can to prepare the players to work within that pressure. You can feel the expectation, tension and excitement vibrating in every Arsenal fan you meet, in every tweet and every status update the nervous thrill as our penultimate ‘cup final’ approaches.

I want you to put your hand on your heart and tell me: Did you truly believe we’d get through the first eight of these ten games and only draw two, losing none? When Arsene cranked up the tension with his ten cup final speech, how many of us thought ‘that’s a big ask’ after a sometimes infuriatingly inconsistent season? I knew we had the ability to do it, and in public I sounded resolute, but that little voice inside me kept chipping away. Long unbeaten runs in this version of the premiership where squads packed with first choice internationals can get easily relegated are so very difficult to establish. It is as George pointed out in a recent post a much, much tougher league than it used to be.

And yet here we are. Tantalisingly close. Like that bloke and his ginger girlfriend off Game Of Thrones trying to climb the impossibly tall ice wall, just a couple of last gasps from the parapet. One false step and they plummet to the eternal winter of the Europa league, two more herculean lunges and they are gazing down over the meadows and rich pastures of the UCL. So what then of tonight’s ice wall? What of Wigan? What, I wonder, will they bring to the table ? We have all been attempting to read the tea leaves after their heroics against the Oil Barons on Saturday. It’s as if everyone is reading the same thriller and trying to work out where the plot is leading them. Will Martinez have kept them away from the champers and go go girls? Will they be hung over or inspired by Wembley? Did Macmanamanamanam have the game of his life or is Kieran in for a roasting like that his predecessor endured?

Sorry to disappoint you but I’m not in the business of making predictions. Go to Blackpool and visit a fortune teller if that’s what you want. Who predicted Wigan to beat the oil men, Bradford to beat us, or us to utterly humiliate Bayern away from home? Who on earth thought the Spuds would, after their customary end of season capitulation, find the inner strength and belief to cling, no matter how tenuously to their top four ambitions? The point is none of us know. I’m sick of bloggers pretending they do. Remember when Theo had a temporary contract extension as his people and our people got round the table to thrash out a deal? You all read as I did countless bloggers airily asserting that “Walcott is already gone, we all know that” and “Of course everyone knows we have lost Theo, we need to ask who if anyone will be brought in to replace him” that kind of pathetic, self serving egotistical drivel that passes for amateur journalism. I challenged one prominent blogger to make a full and public apology if and when Theo re-signed but I had just as well piss in the wind. As far as I can see these people have their negative agenda whether conscious and deliberate or innate and unacknowledged. They like the sound of their high pronouncements with the clear implication that they somehow know the future. Well they don’t. And nor do we. We haven’t a clue. The form book, the squads, the manager’s experience all point to us winning. But no matter how much I expect us to I don’t know and nor do you so lets leave predictions to Eileen Drewery and just try to enjoy the match.

My mate Wilb, when asked what result he wanted if watching a match as a neutral always answered without hesitation “Extra time and penalties”. He wanted as many minutes of football entertainment as the two teams could give him. I am enormously out of step with many of you I know because for all the edge of the seat nail chewing, for all the times the dog has slid from the room on her belly emitting toxic farts of terror as I scream at the screen and bite the furniture, I am actually thoroughly enjoying the fact that this season is going to the wire. Like Wilb I want as much as I can get out of this thing. Yes I hoped both Spuds and Chavs might lose at the weekend because like everyone else I’m conscious that it would buy us leeway should we have ‘one of those days’ either tonight or on Sunday. But they didn’t lose and so we get to go to the very end of the season still needing to win our games to be certain, still hoping the others slip up and help us. It is squeezing the season until the pips squeak and I’m loving every second of it. My hopes are that we stay unbeaten to the end and kick off 2013/14 with something already to defend. I pray we finally see a summer with none of the usual upheaval (please God no transfer activity to further disrupt us) so that the squad defending that nascent unbeaten run will be the ones who earned it.

Of course to realise my dreams we need to stay focussed and keep defending like we have been lately. We have at last a settled defensive partnership which breathes calm and stability and provides the perfect foundation for our more advanced players. We have a midfielder in Aaron Ramsay just coming of age and putting in the kind of dynamic never say die performances that are little short of inspirational. With the experience and guile of Tomas, Santi and Lukas and a proper captain at last I think the side looks as balanced as I can remember. When you factor in the youngsters like Wilshere and Oxelaide-Chamberlain who are hammering on the door wanting their place the future is very bright indeed.

So yes I think we can. Heck I know we can. Will we? Let’s just say I bloody well hope so.

Tags: Arsenal, blackpool, dennis healy, eileen drewery, football, premiership, soccer, wigan Permalink

41 Comments

Silent Stan.

Posted by pedantic George @arseblagger on May 13, 2013 in All Posts

I am confused, it’s not that hard to be when discussing religion or politics, but when it comes down to football and especially Arsenal Football Club I usually do well. I struggle with the nitty-gritty of finance, but overall I think I have a good balanced view of the club and how it is run.

So what am I confused about?

I am confused about fans’ attitude to ‘Silent Stan’, a man who has spent a fair bit of money on buying shares in the club and in the grand scheme of things has had little influence on the running of the team. As far as I can see, he has not interfered with the way Wenger runs the squad, unlike a certain ‘Russian’ down the road he has not demanded this or that be done like the said ‘Russian’ wants. He has let Arsenal Football Club run itself and surely that is what we want, an owner who takes a back seat, one who is there if push comes to shove.

Reading Twitter and a few blogs and forums you would have thought he was Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot and Simon Cowell rolled into one. Killing the club slowly and taking all the money out of the club. Apart from taking a wage that he is fully entitled to has he taken any other cash from the coffers?

What exactly has he done wrong for Arsenal?

I hear many quotes saying it’s his fault that Arsenal are in the doldrums, but why?

Has he not backed Wenger in the transfer market?

Yes Arsenal have had to buy to sell, but is that more a condition of regaining financial clarity after the move to the new ground, is he being blamed for Arsenal being broke when they moved ?

Has not his silent influence of the Arsenal marketing department been seen to work over the past six months? Two new shirt deals and a couple of other sponsorship deals and rumors of more to come. Arsenal are looking at having a marketing strategy and a wage strategy like the one at Old Trafford to help reduce the wage bill by using sponsorships in this area.

Has he not listened to fan groups who have rightly or wrongly questioned him, the board and other members of the backroom staff’s leaderships with ticketing, etc.?

The biggest bugbear I can see with fans’ attitude towards ‘Silent Stan’ is that he has not done an Abramovich. He has not come in and gone there you go have one billion pounds spend it how you like (or as ‘I like’ as it’s turned out).

Day after day I read how Arsenal are not like Bayern Munich and how Stan’s teams in American sport are not doing well. American sports clubs are run differently so it holds no comparison to English football and as for the German model, it would need a change in the set-up of the EPL for it to take effect here, which is not going to happen.

Stan probably does see Arsenal just as an investment and not a love or passion thing, but can that not be a good thing?

In a league with teams backed by unlimited funds, is running a club with sound business practices not a good idea? Should not all clubs be self-sustaining to a point using TV money, Sponsorship deals, ticket money and the selling of players to fund the clubs?

Running football clubs is not as obviously easy as some make out, look at QPR, Blackburn and Aston Villa, three clubs all run differently, but all struggling. To me that shows that how you run a club is specific to your club.

Arsenal have in my mind,since the late nineties,set out on a path that Stan has bought into and is continuing with.

It is not reliant on one man’s wealth.

It has up to this point been reliant on one man’s managerial skill, but looking to the future, the club, Wenger and Stan are trying to make it so that when one or both leave the club we will be in a strong financial position to help it survive in the world of football that we now live in.

Stan may very well leave a richer man, but if his silent running of the club allows Arsenal Football Club to be competing in this highly competitive market than is that not a good thing?

@Swales1968

Stephen has agreed to write for us.He was “tapped up” in other words.

I would like to add that yesterday,Gary Neville said

“the best thing about the Glazers,is that they don’t interfere with the running of the club”

How odd , that seems to be exactly what many of our fans don’t want from someone who is not an owner,just a majority shareholder.

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65 Comments

Anyone for An Olive Branch?

Posted by pedantic George @arseblagger on May 12, 2013 in All Posts

An olive branch yesterday, just outside Blackburn.

Earlier this week I read a post in our comments section from GoonerKam, which got me thinking. Sadly that means you are going to have to read my incoherent ramblings on the subject. But have a read of his post before we meet that challenge:

“At the pub this past weekend there was no room to sit so I asked to please share a table with three other Gooners.

They were kind and told me to bring a chair and share the table with them. Very nice guys, all in their red/white copies and spirited too. The early early goal relaxed them a bit and the high fives were flying left and right. The conversation started at half-time and they were talking about AW, Stan, Ivan and the team – individual members and as a collective.

Dear me, all in all they shared the same opinions on most topics. AW’s last year, more investment, Stan-not-the-man, yarayarayara. I kept my cool and stayed out since it was just the media BULLSHIVEK being repeated and rehashed. Like Stew I have run my course and have no patience getting into this line of talk again and again.

Then they asked my opinion on things discussed. They were amused then shocked and interested to here more. To make a long story short by the end of the game they were not talking the same bollocks. All three were saying what I said made sense and they left the pub uplifted by the win and more hopeful than when they had come in. They had a different perspective on Stan, Ivan and AW; they are looking forward to the future and a successful run at winning titles. The black cloud around their heads had lifted significantly. All it took was a little talking in a logical and calm tone and all the crap they had been reading was suddenly not the gospel any more. There were other versions of goings-on out there.
Made some good friends and they got me to promise them that I’ll watch the last game of the season at that pub on the same table with them. So all I’m saying is they are not diehard moaners and born doomers. They had learned this way of thinking and they are now on the way of unlearning what they had read and accepted as the truth. I’m so glad I met them and changed their thoughts on things.

Especially regarding Sagna. I mean, all three wanted to sell him in the beginning. Not any more.
Keep the fight alive… Tnx PA.”

Whilst in the process of deliberating what Kam had said, I happened to be on the phone to Stew, he mentioned that he too had seen this post. I would like to say “great minds think alike” but I think that would be piggy-backing Stew’s mind somewhat. But still, it indicated that I was right in thinking the subject should be explored.

For some time now the battle lines have been drawn. On one side the righteous, clear thinking, informed and enlightened( that’s is us in-case you were wondering). On the other, the ill-informed stupid idiots.

Right there we have the problem. That is how I have seen it and how I think of them.

All I know of these people is what I see and hear in the media, in blog comments and on Twitter. I don’t like them, in fact I dislike them. I have no time for their ignorance and stupidity and I tell them in rude and no uncertain terms. Anyone who knows me, knows I would say the very same to their faces. A characteristic that has led me down some paths I wish I had never trodden.

The problem with this is I don’t differentiate between outright idiots and the misinformed. My first response is to treat them all the same.

Kam’s post suggests that I am making a mistake in doing so.

Other than ourselves and Untold Arsenal, I am struggling to think of any constant source of support for the club. I can on the other hand, sadly think of a multitude of outlets that seek to de-stabilise and stir up trouble for the club.

Of the two extremes the negative camp greatly outnumbers us.

The problem is that the vast majority of fans are occupying the middle ground.

If politics has shown us anything, it is that you must take the middle ground if victory is to be achieved. Every party is fighting for this middle ground.

I am of a mind that rather than fighting with the utter idiots, we should do a Kam. Educate the reasonable people who have based their opinions on what they have been told by the halfwits. They can be persuaded. The people like Le Grove can not. So why bother?

Easier said than done for an argumentative old curmudgeon like me, but try we must.

Also we don’t have any personal relationships with these people, so our level of of tolerance is reduced. Take John Cross for example. He comes out with some things that had someone else said them I would go straight into attack and abuse mode. All the usual tools, bad language, mocking sarcasm – all would be brought to the fore. But because I like to think I have some sort of a friendship with him, this never happens. We debate and disagree. I have to think that more would be achieved if I remembered that disagreeing with me does not make someone a bad person.

If you need some pointers on how it should be done follow @GeoffArsenal. The man is informed, knows club business that we don’t, and is unbelievably patient. He engages with both ends of the spectrum and all stops in between. I now feel that this is the way forward.

If we stick to a combative tone, the middle ground will simply see us as a bunch of extremists. Which of course some of us are.

We are outnumbered by the negative sources and if we don’t adapt, the battle will be lost, and Arsene with it.

History proves that once the majority of fans are against the manager, he is for the off.

It’s up to all of us to turn the tide while we still can.

So my disciples. Go forth and preach my word.

I really have to get out more.

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46 Comments

Famous Fans and My Favourite Player

Posted by steww on May 11, 2013 in All Posts

Matt Lucas was the star turn at the Arsenal foundation ball earlier this week. The porcine baldy is of course a fan of the club and his presence allows me to steal a march on Mel for once. Obviously being an ex publican I cannot compete with a Lahndan cabbie for “guess who I had in the back last night” stories but I did have Matt Lucas in my cellar way before any of youse lot ever heard of him. We ran a comedy night called The Bright Side featuring 5 minute slots from wannabe local comedians, a regular compère and headline acts from the national circuit. Being a tiny bar in the absolute back end of nowhere we were always surprised when anyone any good deigned to grace us with their presence. Matt had just picked up a bit of telly with Vic and Bob and his agent told him in no uncertain terms that his career and image must as of that day not be tarnished by association with the likes of us. Yokel underground comedy clubs in darkest Somerset holding about thirty five people simply didn’t fit the profile he needed to build if he was serious about breaking into the big time. Matt, bless his shiny domed pate, told us if we snuck him out after a more prestigious show he was doing in Bristol and drove him over he would be delighted to perform for us and bugger his agent and all who sailed in him. A lovely, quiet unassuming Gooner, who had to change into his stage clothes in our tiny beer store and did so without complaint, he delivered the funniest set I’ve ever seen, almost all of it improvised.

The problem of course with celebrity fans is they aren’t all going to be as nice as Matt. I’m often reminded of the fact that Hitler was a vegetarian , usually when I find myself wondering about the mental health of anyone who can bring themselves to eat the decaying flesh of a dead animal and call it food. Lunatics the lot of them, whereas all veggies are thoughtful, caring, loveable and cuddly. Right? Hitler? Doh. So it is with famous Arsenal fans. For every Lucas and Lofty there is a Bin Laden and a Morgan. I suppose we must also accept that in our fame obsessed culture even ex players come to be considered celebrities these days. But again, for each Thierry there is a Wrighty. A world of contradistinction and paradox will provide many pitfalls for the unwary simpleton.

There is one man who straddles the worlds of ex player and celebrity with an avuncular comfortable ease. A stalwart servant of the club both on and off the field and a televisual personality to boot, a man with a floral name who had to play for a country in which he was not born but overcame these problems to cement his place in every fans heart. And a man who sent me his autograph when I was a mere strip of a boy. On Wednesday evening it wasn’t all Bubbles Devere and Vicky Pollard, ther was some serious business too. We learned that Bob Primrose Wilson, after fifty plus years of devoted service, has not yet finished with us, not by a long chalk. Bob is to take up the role of ambassador for the Arsenal Foundation and the club has also set up links with his own charity The Willow Foundation. What a guy. As a boy I used to marvel at him and the way he would fling himself at the feet of an onrushing forward. Remember this was in the days when football boots were constructed like the type of footwear one wouldn’t expect to see now unless attached to the feet of a deep sea diver. Also the rules on kicking people up in the air were, shall we say, treated with a certain relaxed sang froid. But it didn’t prevent Primrose basically tackling the centre forward with his outstretched hands, despite the fact that his face was following as fast as Bob’s dive could carry it. I’m not sure keepers do that any more. They seem to spread their arms and legs and assume a half crouch as if warding off evil spirits whilst simultaneously practising an obscure marshal art. Bob’s keeping was always more proactive. Rather than saying ” Hah! Look at my muscular thighs, see my huge arms, quail before my monstrously outsized gloves and see if you can get the ball past me” Bob would just launch himself and punch the thing away or often grab it and snuff out the chance.

I suppose coaching methods evolve and change but I’ll lay odds that the unpopularity of the Wilson technique has much to do with two things. Firstly the penchant for forwards to ‘win’ a penalty. This has become so accepted a part of our modern version of the game that commentators sometimes speak with great respect of players who can do it well. The second thing of the two things I referred to just now in my opening sentence of this paragraph is that it’s a bloody difficult technique to pull off and pull off well. It requires a frightening combination of phenomenal timing, enormous skill and quite terrifying bravery. Primrose brushed it all off in his famous quote about having to be crazy to be a goal keeper. For proof of his courage look no farther than a game against Spurs in the late sixties. Bob was knocked out cold on the pitch but his aggressive approach to keeping never faltered. If anything he became more determined . I think another Arsenal keeper summed up the attitude he and Bob shared. Jens Lehmann is supposed to have said when asked about his, ahem, pumped up attitude to competitive sport “If I have a lot of adrenaline in my body, that is helpful because I feel less pain”.

That Bob is still such a tirelessly positive guy after the pain and trauma he has suffered in his family life is a lesson and an example to the rest of us lower mortals and I wish him all the luck in the world in his latest role at the club. I should add that Liam Brady, Martin Keown, and Super Bobby Pires also accepted invitations to work as ambassadors for the charity and it is so good to have such men still doing their bit for the club. On a night when a collection of multi millionaires, for such are our players, managed between them to raise £75,000, the most important man among them, less well paid and yet more cerebral, dignified and modest than any number of his players combined, Le Boss himself, quietly popped twenty five large of his own into the collection plate.

You know what? With men of the calibre of Bob Wilson and Arsene Wenger working for our great and historic club, I can just about live with being associated with the likes of Osama and Piers.

Tags: Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Bob Wilson, charity, football, MattLucas, Midsomer Norton, sports, The Bright Side, The Only Gay In The Village, The Wunbderbar Permalink

52 Comments

Tossers At The End Of Term

Posted by steww on May 10, 2013 in All Posts

“…men may rise on stepping-stones
Of their dead selves to higher things.”

One of my favourite Tennyson lines and one I’m sure you will all recognise more readily as a favourite of PG Wodehouse, often quoted by the hapless Bertram among many others. I was put in mind of Alfred The Lord T and his immortal words as the contemplation of the novelty of next season’s campaign begins to sink in. Can we as fans truly climb on those stepping stones of all we’ve experienced and learned over the past few seasons? More to the point can the club? In two games time this whole nine and half month’s of madness will be history. Deader than flares, and many of us fully believe it will prove a stepping stone to higher things, after all haven’t there been portents this week?

We’ve been through one of those curious weeks where one can almost feel the wheels of history turning, and the events off the pitch are certain to cause a lot of head scratching throughout the summer. Firstly let’s consider what impact will Arsenal’s new financial muscle have? One unwelcome result of the record breaking shirt deal, reported by John Cross in The Mirror, reared it’s revolting head immediately the news was disseminated. Cross was at pains to point out that none of this has been confirmed and that the story was anything but factual (the only quote in the entire article is from ‘a source close to Nike’ which is of course meaningless) and in any case even if it were true it wouldn’t kick in until the end of next season. This of course didn’t stop the immediate opening of internet floodgates as those who love to indulge in the hideous sport of Transfer Tattle (a pastime separate and entirely distinct from football) went into overdrive. They remind me of a teenage boy twitching frantically under the bed covers , the Andrex runway lying on his abdomen, Action Man torch and Rothman’s Football Year Book held awkwardly in one hand, as he gazes feverishly at the statistics of players from any club other than our own . These people must have to wipe the spittle from their computer screens as they drool at the prospect of new ever more expensive and of course utterly fictitious transfer targets. I loathe, with a passion more appropriately reserved for right wing politicians , the whole nonsense of the transfer go round and boy it has started early this season. So called Arsenal fans, with nothing better to do, wanking themselves dry over men and boys who earn their corn at other clubs. I ask you, what on earth has that to do with cheering our players over the line in one of the tightest three way finishes in memory?

The other news certain to occupy our minds over the coming months is the retirement of one of Arsene’s main rivals during his time in England. While it is always a joy to contemplate off the pitch upheaval at any other club, and I know many people will predict a fall from grace with the end of the long serving patriarch, to be honest, now it’s finally happened it all leaves me a little numb. The problem is that we’ve been here so many times before. OK maybe not with that particular club but so many of our rivals change their manager more often than General Melchett changes his shirts. Sometimes they shoot themselves in the foot as Chelsea undoubtedly did and sometimes they get lucky as Spurs unquestionably have with AVB. Make no mistake whatsoever, any manager who can propel a team to challenge us for the hallowed top four place with a midfield duo of Scott Pigeon Parker and Tom Hundredstone Huddlestone is a serious managerial force and one with which to be reckoned. So the changes up in Manchester may or may not work in our favour. As with potential transfers it may be something you enjoy speculating upon to while away the long boring football free summer months, but ultimately nobody knows what will happen until it happens.

The third event this week is the most immediately significant. The fun and games at Stamford Bridge taught us a few things and raised more questions than we can satisfactorily answer. We saw once again that under AVB these Spuds are a more resilient crop than the ones we are used to seeing chipped and fried long before May arrives. The comeback against Oil City and now against a frankly nervous and messy Chelsea side suggests they have learned to play to very end. But even so they’ve used up their games in hand and have failed to catch us. Chelsea had the opportunity to go beyond us in all but mathematics but did not grasp it. While I didn’t cheer the Spurs’ equaliser (a bridge too far) I was quietly happy with Rafa’s bewildering substitutions as it made the result we all needed far more likely. One more slip from Chelsea and we have our destiny wholly in our hands. I don’t expect it to happen but at times on Wednesday night they looked ragged, so you never know. There was a schism between some of us who were persuaded the draw was the precise result required and those who were not so sure. George and I had a hell of a ding dong over this and the character limit of Twitter prevented me from producing a coherent argument so, if the rest of you will indulge me, I’ll pop one in here. Not, you understand, that I’m really offering you much choice because whether you want it or not here comes another one of my great and well thought out theories. Those who wanted a Spuds defeat at any price are in my opinion a bunch of lilly livered lightweights happy to scramble into fourth place, slam the door closed behind us and breathe a massive sigh of relief before toddling up to bed with a cup of cocoa. Those of us who wanted a draw on the other hand are only looking forward. We want the best the season can give us and that appears right now to be overtaking Chelsea at the finish line. Yes a draw meant the Spuds might catch us, but so what? Let’s not gaze nervously over our shoulders. Let us rather look to the future with a steely glint in our eye and throw the dice just twice more before the dust settles and the battlefield falls silent.

All of which leaves us contemplating a football free weekend. Or put more accurately an Arsenal free weekend. I’m sure many of you will be glued to the lunchtime fixtures on Saturday and Sunday hoping for yet more dropped points. It’s quite good fun this end of the season neck and neck business isn’t it? You find yourself rooting for the most unlikely teams. We’ve been Man U fans, Chelsea fans and now we will be hollering and whooping at every Stoke and Villa goal. Crazy end of term baloney which for me is the perfect finale to a fascinating season. Just remember whatever the outcome all that is past is prologue and come August we’ll be rising on Tennyson’s stepping stones, and maybe, just maybe well be starting out ten matches into a record breaking unbeaten run.