The next few weeks will determine whether we make the Champions League spots (yet again)
If we do so, some supporters will consider it to be a real achievement; others will deem it a failure.
Before the end-of-season assessments are made, this feels like a good moment to canvas how we Arsenal fans are feeling about the current campaign.
The Poll below contains a range of words and phrases. Obviously they can’t cover every nuance of the current Arsenal experience but hopefully they reflect some of the prevailing tides of opinion.
All you have to do is select the THREE options that you feel best describe our progress (or lack of it) and fortunes (or misfortunes) to date.
You can select fewer than three if you can’t find enough that you agree with, but you can’t select more than three.
RockyLives
Arsenal News 24/7
arsenalarsenal.net 
Excellent
Something fun for me to mull over during my 367th meeting of the week.
Thank you Rocky
Where’s the “bloody exciting climax” button?
Three Words That Sum Up Rocky’s Posts This Season So Far.
The next few weeks will determine whether we keep him on, loan him out to Le Gr#ve, or …
Thank you for voting!
Inconsistent
Frustrating
Brilliant On His Day
Making Progress
Groundhog Day
Slow Decline
Transitional
Encouraging Signs
Partly Successful
Failure
Embarrassing
Punching Below His Weight
Less Than the Sum of His Parts
Successful
Partial Failure
Disappointing
Punching Above His Weight
More Than the Sum of His Parts
Clueless
Brilliant
You can select fewer than three if you can’t find enough that you agree with, but you can’t select more than three.
Micky. Do you live anywhere near Taunton (easy driving distance)?
Big Al,
Consistent
Brilliant
More than the sum of his parts 🙂
Hi Raddy
An hour, which in this neck of the woods is classified as local
Big Al, 🙂
A simple calculation of Rocky’s attributes arrives at an indisputable conclusion:
The sum of his parts * The blue of his eyes = A linguistic magician!
[N.B. This calculation does not apply to ‘voting/ballot boxes’!!] 😀
Three words? How about ‘Team almost complete’ or ‘champions next season’ or, to rivals, ‘be very afraid’.
Sav
“be very afraid”
I like that
Victory Through Harmony
Well said Raddy. Amen
Under “embarrassing”, can the same person have posted eight identical votes?
B-)
Cheers Rockstar.
‘Inconsistent’ is leading the polls currently with 81 votes and ‘Transitional’ in second. That says more about the players than it does about our manager…..well to me at least.
I am supposed to have one of my serious hats on today but I’ve been doing a fair amount of ROLFing thinking about the type of person who thinks our seaon is embarrassing.
They are either unbelievably successful or can only get off with absolute boilers
Cheers, Rocky.
I went for
Inconsistent
Unlucky and
Brilliant on our day.
Absolute boilers. 🙂
Unfortunately we have been a lot like some of our injured players, in and out of form and not always turning up. On our day though, can beat anyone (Bayern, City) – Check out our two-match bumber preview of Norwich and Everton to get you in the mood!
Thank you Rockmebaby.
Succesful – The signing up of our young talent will secure our future in the medium and longer term. This has been by far or biggest victory this year. It will act as the catalyst for future success.
Transitional- We have to make do with a very good team before we can become a great one, which we 100% will.
Frustrating- I know a great title winning side is round the corner but my paitence is continuosly tested by disbelievers.
Any one who does not believe we are on the verge of greatness is a namby pampy that i gladly chalange to a duel (that i shall not turn up for)
The Ghosts of The Thirties are Stiring
hahaha, have to take issue with you there Micky. Absolute Boilers are great. Never blow a gasket on you, dont over heat when you demand your dinner, and are very grateful when you service them.
No, the embarresing voters are those that would like an Absolute Boiler but cant get one. hahaha
Simple;
Keep The Faith!
Hellooooooo dear gooner brothers from far and wide?
Here’s what i voted
less than some of parts – i believe not all of our players are at 100% and if they ALL simultaneously stepped it up a full notch. . . i cant imagine how brilliant we’d be but we’d be better. The injuries further dent our prospects of having a 100% team.
encouraging signs – partly biased by our recent form. Our winning ways are better than the inconsistency during the periods before
transitional – undergoing a period of familiarization and gelling. Injuries haven’t made things easier but presently, most of the squad is fit. Summer tweaks should edge us a notch higher. Beware!
A very difficult task; could have used most every combination of all items on this list at different points in this season. My three are:
Most descriptive of the results: roller coaster
Most descriptive of feelings: frustrating
Most encompassing term: transitional (though at this point can’t be sure of to what and to where….)
Here are a couple of other terms: confusing; bewildering
I went for SUCCESSFUL – because when you look at the money Man Ure and Chelski and Man City Spend compared to us you have to say finishing close to and or behind is a success, coupled with the fact we lost a (ahem) world class stiker.
Then DISAPOINTING- well despite the above argument it is still disappointing that we are not in a position to do better.
And finally PUNCHING ABOVE OUR WEIGHT- see argument for successful.
Mr Rock – I do like a good poll and this is certainly one of them. Of my 3 choices 2 were in the top 5 yet the 3rd was nowhere to be seen, namely “being less than the sum of our parts” as at times we’ve played as a team at a less than stellar level that’s baffling considering the talent in the squad.
On to other business, let’s all larf at Tottenspuds:
Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha…!
And especially Adebarndoor’s hilarious effort and his grinning “I don’t give a sh$$” expression after he shanked it high, wide and (not so) handsome.
Cheered me up no end last night 🙂
Rollercoaster x 3 for me
Guys – how are the new TV rights sold to BT and BSkyB going to effect us? does it mean more live games being shown on TV?
Thanks for playing everyone.
It was really just a place-filler in a quiet week – but I think the answers are fairly interesting (and the fact that 500+ people have taken the time to vote makes it a decent sample size).
I voted before looking at the results (so far). My three were in the top four! (inconsistent, transitional, encouraging signs).
Obviously some of the answers represent a kind of duplication (is there much difference between “inconsistent” and “roller coaster” or between “making progress” and “encouraging signs.”
Perhaps someone can deconstruct the answers at some time into broad groups!
If I had to describe the overall tone of the answers, I would say people are feeling a bit frustrated (particularly with our inconsistency) but feel hopeful for the future…
Other opinions, of course, are available 🙂
I bet fans of other teams, especially chavs and Scum would vote for less positives 🙂
Something to think about for all those who hate Mourinho:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/real-madrid/9988996/How-Jose-Mourinho-gave-a-Mexican-cleaner-the-most-special-ride-of-his-life.html
we might be 3rd from tomorrow till at least Wednesday night, all we need is 3 points
aahhhhhh, isn’t Mourinho just great?? No, he isn’t. you would have done the same Rocky
evonne
you’re so right!
my office right now is full of Mexican-American cleaners sitting around nicking “memorabilia” 🙂
Haha – just checked the Poll results and the only word/phrase that has zero votes is “well organised” 🙂
No! Evonne. We WILL be third from tomorrow ’till at least Wednesday night, as we ARE going to get three points.
Not any longer Rocky! Heh Heh Heh.
Rocky, that Moaninho and Rodriguez story was amazing. All up until the end that is, when Jose didnt even wait to shake his hand or say goodbye. Seems like it was all just a bit of medicine to fuel his ego. Would he have paid his way if it was coming out of his own pocket? Doubt it, great story, still despise the b**stard 🙂
Sounds like more good ol’ Maureen self promotion to me, Rock-ingham.
If the Mexican guy who had been sitting on his ass in the snow for 5 hours, had told the papers of his gratitude, that would be one thing, but as he hasn’t – it begs the question, does the guy exist, or is he embarrassed about being such a dork?
Maureen’s story, unlikely as it sounds, is possibly true — but, it bugs me that none of the tabloids believed me when I reported a giant man-eating canary that was terrorising my neighbourhood, so I had to employ a giant, giant canary-eating cat to catch it, and then had to set my giant cat-eating dog onto the giant, giant canary-eating cat that had eaten the giant man-eating canary.
They said it was unlikely because there were no giant men living in my area — well, duh! — that was because the bloody, giant man-eating canary had gotten them all, before the giant, giant canary-eating cat got the giant man-eating canary, which was then dealt with by my giant, giant canary-eating dog, who is lying down at my feet burping!!
Bloody, Maureen, just because he looks like a smarmy, snake oil salesman, everyone believes him — now, where’s my giant, Maureenio-eating dog gone ……
‘Course, as an ex-journalist, you will know that the real reason they did not want to know, was that no journo knew how to punctuate the piece and get the commas in the right places! 😀
i could never be friends with Morinioh. Firstly he has said to many nasty things about Arsene and secondly hes a big twat.
That mexican cleaner is a mug. If that was me i woud have used my marigolds as boxing gloves, chinned him with my mop, and poured detergent down his trousers.
No pleasing some. Great story about Mourinho.
If Mourinho became the next Arsenal manager I would be thrilled with the appointment, but as he won’t, let’s not fall out about it.
I’m in the BR camp on this one. Sorry Tel and PPP 🙂
Evening all, family things keeping me off the blog, I went inconsistent, brilliant on our day and unlucky and reading the comments it seems I am in the boat with the duck, no bad place to be 🙂
Evonne, re the TV rights I was speaking to my cousin (who works for BT) and he said that the reason fibre roll out, because they will only broadcast live through Internet (the only way BT vision works). However he also believed to make it viable they may sell their games on to other media (ITV, BBC, Ch5 etc) we will have to wait and see.
I know one thing, ESPN is coming off my sky subs in 7 weeks 🙂 maybe earlier if Arsenal aren’t live on there between now and end of season.
632 votes. 40 comments. A mazing
GIE,
I think you will find that BT will use the Sky platform, and they are currently negotiating with Sky about the wholesale cost.
Basically, BT has bought all the ESPN programmes and I suspect that you will be able to swap your ESPN subs for the BT one.
That said, I know sod all about this, just using some logical progression!! 🙂
I cannot recall what I ‘voted’ for but it sounds nothing like what the wise and worthy regular AAers have mentioned. Oh, dear!! 🙂
GIE,
Don’t say I do not work my fingers to the bone for you!! 🙂
The clash between BT and Sky over the future of live football on TV is intense.
The two broadcasting giants have been entrenched in talks for months, but are now deadlocked.
The 2013-14 season does not kick off until August, but with just weeks to go before Pay-TV prices are set and advertising campaigns start, the two media giants cannot agree how to complete their carve-up of TV rights.
They are squaring up for a battle in TV sport’s lucrative pubs and clubs market.
The face-off follows last summer’s auction of TV rights, which saw Sky pitted against BT for the first time. But in the tangled world of broadcasting, the game is far from over.
Sky holds the broadcast rights to the vast bulk of the 154 Premier League matches shown live each season after paying £2.28 billion for 116 matches for three years, starting from August. It was forced to stump up 41 per cent more than last time after BT put in a bid.
BT won the rights to 38 top Premier League games, paying £738 million, which it will show on its pay-TV station BT Sport.
Under a competition ruling, Sky must sell access to its matches to BT at a regulated rate. This means BT will be able to offer all 154 matches, albeit after paying a sizeable fee to Sky.
BT has said it will sell direct to Sky customers via Sky’s TV service, but Sky wants to buy the matches wholesale from BT so it can sell the complete season to its own customers at its own prices.
BT faces a tough choice – should it sell to Sky or not?
BT fears that if it does it will simply be a reversion to Sky’s previous dominance. In particular it fears that Sky will then be able to convince BT broadband customers who watch Sky TV over BT’s wires to abandon BT altogether, not just for TV but also for broadband internet access. The alternative for BT of charging Sky customers extra to get BT’s channel through their Sky box would mean asking Sky Sports customers to pay two subscriptions.
The main issue has been over wholesale rights. BT does not want to give them to Sky since it wants to use BT Sport to lock in two million of its customers who watch Sky on BT broadband,’ said a source close to the talks.
Sky, meanwhile, wants to convert the BT broadband customers to Sky broadband.
But the battle between the broadcasters is not restricted to homes. The two are also facing off in Britain’s pubs and bars, a highly profitable market for football viewing.
Here, Sky is under no obligation to share its matches with BT and they are squaring up for a more traditional battle.
As well as football, BT is hoping its other sports will draw customers. It has spent about £152 million acquiring the rights to rugby matches, women’s tennis and overseas football games.
BT has recruited former Sky executive Bruce Cuthbert to head its marketing drive in this sector. Cuthbert said: ‘There are about 50,000 pubs in Britain, about half show free-to-air sport of some kind like Champions League or Europa Cup football, or rugby. About 20 per cent don’t show any kind of sport. We can offer them something that is more than free-to-air, but not the whole hog in terms of football.’
Pubs and clubs will still need a satellite dish and a Sky box to take BT’s service since its sport offering for pubs is via the Sky platform.
One pub industry source said: ‘We hear there is a lot of interest from pubs who are considering leaving Sky to go with BT and it’s really forcing Sky to up its game. We think it will be to everyone’s benefit. Sky has had the monopoly for far too long.’
Sky has dominated TV football for 20 years and has more than ten million subscribers, with the majority of those subscribing to Sky Sports 1 and 2, which carry live Premier League football. The satellite broadcaster has always been coy about revealing the exact figure.
But little by little that dominance has been eroded, mostly by regulation.
Rivals, including most recently America’s ESPN and Ireland’s Setanta, have lost out to Sky’s willingness to put its hands in its very deep pockets to pay for the best games. But this time it is different.
BT won a strong package of matches, including Saturday kick-offs featuring top clubs, and the first game of the season, kicking off at 12.30 on August 17.
Sky has long been accused of having unfair dominance of the TV sports market. In reply it has maintained there is plenty of room for a serious rival such as BT to provide a real challenge.
This year it might just be proved right.
So hold tight for a bit longer!! 🙂
Redders
I did think of putting some more unusual words/phrases in just to tempt you…
Discombobulating
Commoving
Execrable
Fly-bitten
For example 🙂
Back to blog fartimus. Ta ra.
Rock-hampton,
‘Delectable, excoriating, admirable’, all have a mellifluous feel to them. 🙂
It’s me and you Redders – the Blogfart Twins 🙂
Everyone else can be described as fair weather bloggers, Rocky! 😀
Especially that GIE — what will he be like when he has 2 bambinos!! 🙂
Even Sheepy has gone AWOL. 🙂
On the ‘other’ site I am struggling to keep up with the young bravehearts!! 😀
I guess I should go, so see you tomorrow for more exhilarating Blog Fartisimae. Ciao. 😀
No comment for 3 hours that’s one big fart! :d
Thanks for the blow by blow Redders.
I knew BT had stronger games than ESPN have had, all this other stuff is a bit unwieldy, ESPN was a good fit, BT in the market causes too many dilemmas for the consumer (IMO).
I certainly won’t be taking BT Visions box, I trialled it when it first came out and I was their customer for everything and it was all a bit poor. (Menus etc).
However the other consideration is Virgin Media who have a large user base, are BT going to sell content to those customers as Sky do?
Do we the consumer really want football packages split between multiple broadcasters? ESPN having rights cost me more per month that doesn’t benefit me…..
FA semis weekend! So? who cares when the Mighty are in action again!!! Match day, hip hip hooray!! Come on you Raddy!
GiE – I have BT vision package, including internet, and must say it is much better than Virgin provided services
I prefer virgin provided services myself.
Only once chas
Morning All
Game Day. Deeply envious of those going to the game and enjoying a pre-match drink and Turkish.
Indeed a Turkish sounds appealing right now. As does Matchday for which (for any superstitious folks) the chance of winning is improved greatly by the attendance of Exile Seniors. 🙂
Bless them they’ll be travelling there with Norwich fans on the train, hope they get to see glum faces on way home.
Good morning all. Nice post from yesterday Rocky. I went with transitional, making progress and encouraging signs. I have had a slightly protracted absence from bloggers world recently, but hope to resume normal service over the next couple of weeks.I may be at the Tavern later and if so I hope to catch up with a couple of you.
Good Morning, Folks, 🙂
Where have you been GoonerB Good? 🙂
GIE’s parents attending. Fits well with my theme today
Morning Raddy, I assume ‘booked’ was meant to read ‘boked’ in your last line?
Morning all, the sun is shining, today we can go 3rd, and a Raddy masterpiece awaits 😛
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