the emirates cup..how was it for you?

So first of all let me say congratulations to New York Red Bulls,,thats what you do when teams win a tournament i guess.
So after 2 days 180 mins what have we seen and learned?
First things first,,the emirates cup is a competition in name only,,yes we usually win it and when we do we are ridiculed for winning our own competition.
When the turnover of players is 25 approx over 180 mins,its a competition in name only.
When the suggestion that 1 of your former players plays 75 mins for the opposition and 15 minutes for you,,its a competition in name only.
Dont get me wrong i would have loved to have won the emirates cup,,silverware is hard to come by at the best of times ,but its acompetition in name only.
Defensively we have seen that Carl Jenkinson is defintely a player with potential,athletic,with a turn of pace and ability to get to the deadball line and whip crosses in,,,we have learned Armand Trarore has bulked up and maybe Juventus helped his development after all.
Unfortunately we have discovered Sebastian Squaillachi is this seasons Mikeal Silvestre,,and Johann Djourou has regressed and has issues with concentration and may actually be behind Koscelny in terms of squad place.
We have learned that Aaron Ramsey is relishing the chance to show us what a capable midfielder he can be and showcasing his shooting abilty,,we have learned Tomas Rosicky looks like the player we signed ...... 4 years ago,,that Gervinhio has geunine pace and is very direct and will score goals,,and looks like he will turn out to be a top top player.
We have found to our cost that when we make substitutions our replacements Vela and particularly Chamackh look lost and not up to it,we have found out that Arshavin looks to have enjoyed his summer off ,,looking at his waistline.
We have learned we are really in trouble if Robin Van Persie gets injured Arsenal up front will look mediocre.
What have we really learned to be honest,,well in a nutshell we have learned as a team and as group of supporters is that season 2010-2011,,has severely traumatized Arsenal FC as an entity,,when we go 1 goal even 2 goals up ,nerves kick in,,players get agitated,fans get agitated,,opposition no matter who they are sense weakness
We have learned the Emirates can become suddenly a very poisonous place when the chips are down and booing becomes commonplace at home far more than it does away,,unfortunately its at home when you need the groundswell of support more than ever.
We have learned that season 2010-11 is still not out of our system and ultimately at a time when we need to be solid as a team we seem to be like rabbits caught in the headlights,our early season fixtures offer no respite and there will be no hiding place in August and early September,the booing at the whistle today will seem mild if we end up losing to Liverpool and go out of the champions league qualifier within 10 days.
We have expierenced the good times but now is what being a true supporter means,,i fear rough times ahead
cya

man city...........time to take them serious...........now?

With the aquisition of Sergio"Kun" Aguero,,the Epl suddenly has a new figurehead at the top.
Sure Man Utd are reigning champions,,and they have spent big money,,De Gea,Young,and Jones..but with the signing of Aguero,,City have really thrown down the gauntlet to them and the rest of the Epl.
Where as last year they threatened "our" place in the top 4,,we arent even considered their nearest rivals this season.
Is this good or bad for Arsenal?,well obviously its a bad thing considering the way we finished the 2010-11 season,,bad also because it means Chelsea and Man utd can now no longer rest on their laurels.
Can we compete with city,on or off the field?
I believe certianly we can compete on the pitch and i didnt see any sign of an inferiority complex in either game last season,,we matched them play for play at the emirates and they disapointed me with their negative attitude primarily away from home.
If they had of applied their game and sqaud to the business of attacking certain teams away from home its quite possible we could have bene looking at city as 2010-11 champions.
I am not decrying Uniteds win as champions but i do believe certain teams threw the league away from certain positions,,and rather like the parable of the "hare and the tortoise"united just plodded on regardless.
Arsenal for obvious reasons played a part in their own demise,,but its City i beleieve should have more reasons to regret,,,from their 1st game away to Spurs when they contrived to bore us to death with the 1st NIL-NIL of the season.,,made all the more annoying that in their next game they completely obliterated Liverpool 3-0.
This seemed to be a theme to the their season,,good performance /bad perfomance,,,they beat Chelsea and then we went and completley destroyed them 3-0 at their place.
Their perfomances against Manchester United summed up their season,,0-0 at middle-eastlands,and a perfomance at Old Trafford ,,lit up by the shreks overjead kick and that was their sum total against the big 4 last year,,
In Summary there will be no excuse for them this season,,no excuse for the manager,,no excuse for the players,,no excuse for the fans(classless morons at best).
I beleieve Man city will win the league this season,,,in theory that leaves 3 teams and liverpool desparately trying to play catch up.
My heart says we will finish in 3rd..............my head thinks something else ,,and it aint good
cya

the king is dead long live the king..

Unless your head has been stuck right up your arse since May,,the longest running saga of this(and every summer)shows no sign of abetting.
The saga of course is the will he wont he,cesc to Barca daily serial.
Now cards on the table ,,i think it will happen,,and I WANT IT TO HAPPEN,,now i would be more than happy to see him stay but i believe after the cycle of 5 years maybe we need to look to the future.
Ceac is a brilliant player,,has been 1 of my favourites,he will go onto better things,,but will he displace Xavi,or Iniesta,,who knows.
There can be no doubting the seminal reason for cesc wanting to go back to his hometown club,,and i geuninely beleieve that Arsene Wenger has promised him this,,based on the proviso that Barcelona pay the fair market price for him.
There are no innocent parties in this drawn out pantomime,(a)arsene wenger,,is at fault for allowing this to happen season after season with player after player,,(b) Barcelona,for their classless stalking pursuit ,breaking every taboo in transfer tapping up terms in a daily relay of vomit inducing comment from players being used as media pawns to declare love for cesc and to give biological information on his D,N.A. (c) cesc fabregas,you can never serve 2 masters,,his love for arsenal seems sincere,,his love for barcelona is unconditional,,but from a cold and business perspective,,,cesc signed a 6 year contract less than 18 months ago,,(d)the media,,which for all their pontificating have derided the transfer policy of arsene wenger and continually print the garbage associated with the saga,,i have counted 3 occasions this month alone on "exclusives" that cesc will sign for barca within the next day/week/minute?,and daily updates on what cesc has "told them excluisvely"(GRAHAM HUNTER)you know who you are.
A simple and salient fact is that since we have played cesc as the fulcrum in the team as the leader and goto man we as a club have won nothing in 5 years,,,Sometimes radical surgery IS needed,,Jack Wilshere is 2 years ahead of potential and was always seen as cescs potential successor,,,,Alex Song,,although improved impressively over the last 3 years,,has slightly regressed,,but is considered 1 of the best holding players in the EPL,and then there is Aaron Ramsey,,,when he was bought by Arsenal he was courted by Jose Mourinhio and ole whiskey nose,,he was considered the best british propsect in years,,strong,brave,,classy and a deft touch with an eye for a pass,,he began to show signs of his abilty in his first season,,the goal he scored at fratton park a glimpse of what was to come,until that FATEFUL day.....
With that triumverate,,we are served pretty well in midfield,,,we have strength, we have pace,we have goalscoring ability ,we have tenacity,we have youth,we have creativity.
What we dont have is a proven winner,,a trophy laden genius,a man with medals,,if we could incorporate someone of that ilk,,in their early 30s,,prefered if he was tall also to add to the physical aspect,we could be onto a winner,,,my personal favourite would be BASTIEN SWEINSTEIGER or MARK VAN BOMMEL type.
If cesc stays we will play brilliantly but i fear we may come up short again,,by changing it we might not win the league this year,,but we will and sooner than people think
cya

who remembers George Wood?

As we look at the crystal ball for the coming season,i have decided to try and see were in particular we could rise and fall in terms of our playing roster.
Starting at the back,,the very back,,back behind the backs........in goals,,the nets,,fecking goalkeepers
I am old enough to rememember the days when i read or heard that Pat Jenings was injured or dropped(it seemed to happen a lot)way back in the 80s.
His replacement was a scottish guy by the name of GEORGE WOOD,,GEORGE,wasnt a particuarly bad keeper,,in fact he was solid,,but in truth we always felt much better when BIG PAT was there,,hands like shovels,,agile as they come and braver than any man alive,,despite coming to the last 25 years of his career.
Pat had presence,,snce then we have had a variety of luck with keepers but i would prefer to concentrate on the ones that will face the season head on as we speak.
Vito Mannone,,has all the attributes to be a top keeper,,tall ,lean and an incredibly good shot stopper,he has already endeared himself to Arsenal by putting in an incredible perfomance away to Fulham 2 seasons ago,,he was cat like,brave and made several 1 on 1s away in a tight 1-0 away win,,he was at that stage a 3rd choice keeper.since then Vito seems to have stagnated ,,although never getting within an asses roar of the 1st team in 18 months can do that to you,,Vito i beleieve likes playing,,simple as that,,and he certainly didnt do himself any harm when he was loaned to Hull City last season and looking at highlights apparently did ok,,.
My feeling is that Vito can certainly progress in his career but maybe not at Arsenal,,possibly a future EPL number 1.
Next up is Luckasz Fabianski,talk about dividing opinions,,Luckasz is by defintion "impulsive"he gets bored,,he doesnt like having nothing to do,there is no denying is athleticism,,he is ncredibly agile,and some of his saves have been incredible,,Man City away,early in the game,,Chelsea away despite a loss he was brilliant,,a great stop from Malouda springs to mind.,the common thread among supporters is that Luckasz biggest problem is decision making,,he comes and wants to get involved,,his attemps at coming for crosses in the early days were nothing short of woeful,away at the Polish side pre-season in a 6-5 win(the score gives it away),was laughable,,injuries had come at a bad time but the 1 thing Lucasz has is character and some incredible but "maybe misplaced" confidence.
.....Manuel,Manuel,,,at the risk of sounding cruel and derogatory,,i shall try to be brief,,but in the hard nosed world of EPL goalkeeping we need to be objective.
ALMUNIA was never up to the job of Arsenals number 1,,the amount of genuine match costing mistakes he was involved in fed into the myth he was worse than what he was.
Manuel to me was "average",unfortunately "average " is not good enough,,Manuel didnt excel in any particular area of goalkeeping and i think this will be 1 of Arsene Wengers worse ever blind spots,,,,the west brom game away when we were at a low point and needed calmness and solidity was the final straw,,,the 2nd goal to this day will haunt me,,,and any goalkeeping expert will be entitled to ask what was ALMUNIA doing outside his goal,,40 yeards form his goal.........I wish Manuel well,,i just wish him gone.
Lets call him "CHEZ",,he is blessed with incredible physique at 6,5,,and an arrogant personality to boot(ALMUNIA was 6,1 and devoid of arrogance),,Chez,,dominates his box,he comes for crosses,,not always right but he comes,he punches he catches,,he clatters......(remember his collision with Gareth Bale at the Lane)stupidly brave,he is a respector of nobodys reputation and i have to admit i like him.
He gives you a safe feeling instead of the heebie jeebies Almunia and Fabianski(early days) used to instill in us.
Im not saying Chez is the finished article but he does and hs saved us the angst of searching for a new potential NO.1,,for the record i rate him a lot more than i do SCHWARZHER,
It used to be a position that would give us nightmares but as we head into 2011-12,,its a position that we can look forward to with renewed confidence........touch wood??George Wood
cya

kaba who?

Sometimes the transfer windows and transfers in general really do make you sit up and go wow?how did we get him?
I rememember the suprise and excitement when i heard we signed Dennis Bergkamp,,and boy was he worth the money,,i can recall the day we signed on the double,,with Davor Suker and Thierry Henry,,and remember looking forward to seeing the croatian more than i wanted to see Henry.
I genuinely remember the suprise and gasping when we signed the much sought after Jose Antonio Reyes,,,i rememeber we were top of the league and it reinforced the idea we were a team with strength on a roll.,,i used to love the way his anme rolled off the tongue and when commentators said it at the end of a spectacular move.
I can recall the "oohs and aahs" when we were introduced to Stefan Malz,,,,,can i f**k,,yes this is 1 of the many suprises Arsene has sprung on us over the years,,a journeyman footballer who i cant recall the reason why he was signed ,he was a midfielder who came from the german first division,but was the wrong side of 20 ,not fast but tigerish in the tackle..,,1 season he lasted,,i seem to recall him doing well in the early rounds of the FA Cup 1 year.
We signed a Paraguyan called Fabian Cabellero ,,1 game he played,,scored the 4th against Preston also in the FA CUP 1999,,,he was more famous for beng pictured on the bench against Nottingham Forest at the City ground ,,when Ron Atkinson sat in the wrong dugout.
I recall a guy called "Juan",he played in a cup tie possibly against Cardiff or Stoke around 2000-2001,,he was Brazilian,,,probably had the same kind of "passport" as Edu,he was an attacking left back ,wonder what became of him?
Possibly 1 of the most famous of the obscure footballers playing for the Arsenal was the famous Kaba Diawara,,recruited as was ARSENES modus,at the end of the 1999 season.
The thing about being obscure is generally you tend not to do much to be noticed but in fairness to Kaba,,he came in to a game against Leeds at elland road,2nd last game of the 1999 season.
Kaba was a forward and to this day ,,i cant work out whether he was totally shite or the most unlucky forward i have ever seen,,my recollection of the proceeedings is of Kaba being 1 on 1 at least twice with the keeper or getting rebounds in front of goal and hitting the woodwork on at least 3 occasions,we needed goals,,we didnt get them,,,although jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink put us out of misery 3 mins from the end,effectvely costing us the league.
KABA DIAWARA ,probably played during the close season of that year,but i cannot recall him playing the following year,he drifted away as he drifted in,,silently but leaving more than impression than an obscure player should.
As a footnote last i heard of Kaba ,was when WEST HAM signed him on a temporary basis for a few games about 5 years ago..................he never scored for them either
cya

ssshhhhh..........

While we shuffle throught this transfer window,,checking every website to see if we have signed hector overheadkick from san quentin asswipes,,i hark back to a couple of seasons ago when Arsene really did fulfil our wishes.
Janurary 09 was a snowy month,,blizzards,wind and rain,,and the usual bluff and bluster for Arsenal in the transfer window.
We had heard rumours and murmurings of this russian guy with the funny name,,Arshovel,,Arsegoblin,Arshavin,,,yes Andrei Arshavin,i remember him,,i remember him from EURO 2008,,,
He was a seemingly mythical character ,someone who played for Russia but who was suspended for the first 2 group matches,,someone who was petulant,but we were told worth waiting for,,he was inconsistent we were told but it was his perfomance against a very talented Dutch side,,van de sar,van persie,hunntelar,robben etc,,but it was the russian dynamo,5,4,or 5 that completly outshone them all.
His dribbling was mouth watering,,his shots with no backlift were incredible,,his array of passing was superb,he ran and ran,he tackled he annoyed the dutch he annoyed the dutch,,but it was the aftermatch punditry of GILES AND DUNPHY ON RTE,who really made my mind up about him,,they said he was a luxury player,,who would make you tear your hair out,a team player? i dont think so,,BUT a mercurial genius,who any crowd would love "a typical Arsenal player"
Did GILES say that" a typical arsenal player "wow,,,,,,,,,anyway EURO 2008 came and went,,lol the russians didnt win of course and we moved on...
...fast forward to January 09 ,and the rumours gathered,,we were in for Arshavin,,but he would cost too much?he wants to come to the emirates?he would much prefer the spanish leagues?....ah no.
Then the you tube videos started to leak,,,all accompanied by this
russian hard rock thrash metal soundtrack and there was Arshavin,,,he was volleying,he was dribbling,he was backheeling,,he was volleying(again).
It was incredible ,we wanted him,big time,
But ARSENAL being ARSENAL,,dont do simple,,other clubs were in for him and his agent who i felt i got to know a fella called Dennis Lachter,seemingly sold him to about 5 clubs at once
Could we afford him?Could we afford to pay his wages?
Jnauary drew to a close,,were we still in for him?...Finally Arshavin claimed he would love to sign for Arsenal and would come to London,he arrived,but no sightings,...deadline day arrive and the scottish fella on SKY was goin into over drive in regard to every club apart from Arsenal
Was arshavin in London?no ,yes maybe,,maybe them bastards Chelsea would get him with their fuckin roubles,,the deadline hour was apparoachin,,no arshavin..........but wait,,wait,,the yellow ticker on screen,,ARSENAL agree fee with ST PETERSBURG,,and finally 2 hours after the deadline was passed Arshavin was introduced and in his pidgeon English announced "i am gooner" thats what deadline days are all about.
Although he has never consistently played to his top level ,,he is still proof of the times when Arsenal did sign bona-fide european superstars,,,,,the 4-4 at anfield was well worth the deadline day constipation.
cya

"i d be better suited to managing ac milan or real madrid"

Not my words but 1 Samuel Allardyce,one of the most detestable creatures involved in football in my humble opinion.
West Ham and fat sam are well suited to each other,mutually loathsome to be honest,and both in the league that should convey their talents at the appropriate level.
Whenever Bolton came or we went to Bolton,,the fat walrus always turned the match into some form of vanity excersise related to whether he was always overlooked in terms of international jobs and how Arsene got lucky with his job opportunity and poor sam had to scrape around in the lower leagues ,demonstrating his talents .
His teams defintely represented the personality of the man in charge,big hoofed,kick and rush and defintely ugly,,with ugly players,,,kevin davies,abdullah faye,ivan"the ghoul" campo.
it might seem like sour grapes if i wrote this after a bad result but with hindsight i have no agenda rather than my memories of games and results and the smarmy post match interviews fat sam used to give to the fawning SKY reporter who had to climb backwards out of sams fat arse .
"Sam that move for the kevin davies goal was amazing,,jussi jasskelainan really is superb at kicking the ball high into the sky for davies to voley in of his shoulder" fawns the SKY anchor
Big Sam"yes thats a move we practice day after day after day,we see no need for midfielders or forwards just big defenders and kevin davies,,,why dont i get the england job?
5 years later my opinion on what he spawned in the game was hopefully extinguished by the Barcelona perfomance in the champions league final against United.
It doesnt escape the fact for 5-10 years many kids throughout Ireland and England probably got pissed off watching or playing because they didnt fit into the sterotypical physical specimen that Fat Sam and his cronies believed in being the future and future winners of the game.
Football should be a game made up of styles and everybody is entitled to an opinion ,it just amuses me then when the style of Arsenal is demeaned.
Fast forward to the year 2011-2012,,Owen Coyle is the new man in charge at the reebok and has instilled his own brand of football up there,,very watchable and indeed not unlike a style very close to home,,,proving the players were pawns in SAMS vanity project the pivotal man in Coyles gameplan is none other than the despised Kevin Davies,,ask any Bolton supporter what style they would prefer to watch?
Come to think of it ask any Bolton player what style they would prefer to play?
The 2011-12 incaranation of Fat sams rabble is none other than Stoke and their circus act under Tony Pulis,,for KEVIN DAVIES,,see RORY DELAP,,a footballer more famous for his throw ins,than when the ball is at his feet.
A truly odious team,of odious characters,,summed up by the following anecdote heard 1 day at the "brittania stadium"
Rory Delap comes hobbling over to the bench late in the game and shouts"i gotta come off i think my hamstrings gone"
A voice from the bench shouts back "well its not your fuckin arm so stay where you are" sums them up
Oh yeah guess who was Big Sams assistant back in the early days ,,PHIL BROWN
cya