Wigan Revisited

May 27, 2010

Posted by dandan

Strange as it may seem, sometimes being a football fan can be a very lonely business.

Although you are one of millions of like-minded souls if you support a major club like Arsenal, it is still possible to be terribly alone in your own home, perched in front of the TV. Watching moments of triumph and disaster unfold in front of you, particularly when your partner or housemates have no interest or real understanding of just how important these events are. The sheer joy of the interaction with friend or foe being an essential part of the football experience, win or lose the verbal interface increases the agony and the ecstasy and makes the moment unforgettable.

Blogs like this one help immensely if you are lucky enough to have access to the Internet at home. Indeed it was a chance remark from one of our poster’s today, that he goes to sleep thinking of the Arsenal that got me thinking about this.

In my working life I covered some 50,000 miles a year by car in this country alone, always listening to 5 live, I must have clocked up thousands of hours over the years as I drove on Autopilot through the 8 till 10 slot, night after night, heading for home or a hotel bed.

Supporting a club like Arsenal meant that I got more than my share of live commentary’s as we usually did well in all four competitions and were constantly on midweek radio. But still it was not the same, how often did I get strange looks from the occupants of the other cars as I yelled and cheered my way through city traffic. But that is the point, those cheers were nothing but silent mouthing’s to all those who saw me and though I knew the old stadium they were describing, like the back of my hand it still wasn’t the same I was not part of the action.

So where does Wigan come into this, well all you who rail and rant at the what you saw as the capitulation of our club that day, think of all those poor buggers who couldn’t see, but only hear at 70 MPH on some motorway and just how bad they must have felt and know how lucky you were just to be there.

Now one of our posters described it as Snatching Defeat out of the Jaws of Victory, which brought to mind this super poem by Peter Goulding, a real football fan in Ireland who saw his team cock up their run in and lose the last match of the season that would have gained them promotion.

Gloom upon gloom

Snatching defeat out of victory’s jaws,
We threw it away once again.
Draws became losses and wins became draws
And all we have left is the pain.

We thought for a while we’d get out on parole
And walk out, head high, from this jail.
But promotion remains an impossible goal
And suddenly we’re looking frail.

Condemned once again to spend twelve months or more
In this cold and despicable prison,
Staring at walls and the cold concrete floor,
While others in here have arisen.

Conditions down here defy human rights,
The rations decidedly meagre
The minutes tick slow in this cold, lonely nights,
When you’re sentenced to be a low-leaguer.


© Peter Goulding 29th November 2009

So you Gooners how would you be feeling today if that had been your fate. Be happy we have another year in the top flight coming up.


Winning is a Win/Win Situation

May 26, 2010

……….. but not at any cost!

I’m sure the supporters of Leeds, Pompey and Newcastle regret their club’s excessive spending in pursuit of trophies, but there is an argument that the powers that be at Arsenal have erred too much on the side of caution in recent years.

The benefits of winning are obvious:

Financial – prize money, increased TV revenue, boost in merchandising sales, more lucrative deals with sponsors.

Psychological – players gain valuable experience, develop a ‘winning mentality’ and are therefore more likely to be winners in the future.

Kudos – raised profile  – the chance of keeping our best players and attracting more world class players to the club is greatly enhanced if they believe they can win trophies.

Let’s just accept for the purpose of debate, that the football club is a business, the supporters are customers and the players are assets/debits on a balance sheet. Emotion, nostalgia and expectation are traits that characterise supporters but have no place in a competitive industry. All the above is true, but what about the old business tenet ‘you have to speculate in order to accumulate’?

Would a larger investment in new players over recent years have proved to be a shrewd business move? We will never know, but what we do know is that respected figures in the game including many ex-Arsenal players have repeatedly said we are only 2 to 3 players short of a winning side. We also know that the official line this summer is that we have money to spend althought the figures mentioned vary between £30-£60m and it is not known whether this takes into account any revenue from players sold.

Mourinho took a calculated risk when he bought 29 year old Diego Milito for an undisclosed but apparently hefty sum. He identified a weakness in his team and bought the best player he could to rectify the situation. He was lucky, the gamble paid off and Inter reaped rich dividends – the treble including the Champions League title.

Arsène has not been so lucky. Injuries and players not living up to expectation have been a feature of recent seasons and it is clear that he has been as disappointed as the ‘fans’ that are calling for his head. I believe he has it within his power this season to make the difference between competing valiantly and winning. The greatest test of his resolve will surely be demonstrated by his actions regarding the goalkeeper.

Should we be grateful for the level of ‘success’ we’ve enjoyed since the building of the stadium? – yes

Could any other manager have kept us in the top four under similar financial constraints? – almost certainly not

Should we just be content to pay our money for a seat at the Emirates and settle for what we’re given – NO

……..sharp intake of breath.

We’re not paid by ‘business Arsenal’, we pay them. We have a right to our opinion as paying customers, whether it be unconditional support or rank scepticism.

Many supporters suspect that if Cesc has decided he wants to leave, the club’s failure to bring in quality players with experience over recent years would be a major factor in that decision.

Success in the transfer market is about judgement, calculated risk, ambition and luck. Arsène must exercise his judgement. The club needs to show greater ambition. Ivan Gazidis should take responsibility for the calculated risk and for once, we need lady luck to smile on us and grant Arsenal a season with just average injury problems.

Ivan Gazidis is the unknown quantity. He is clearly 100% businessman so let’s hope he and Arsène are in agreement that we should take a few calculated risks and bring in the two or three players we need.

Irishgunner put it brilliantly on Monday when she  wrote ‘Wenger is a genius held back by his own stubbornness but in the end, if most coaches were as pragmatic as him, the world of football would be a far better place’

I hope his apparent ‘stubbornness’ was simply a by-product of his pursuit of financial stability and he will spend some of the money the club can now afford to reinforce the spine of the squad. If he doesn’t, even those whose ‘cup runneth over’ with positivity will begin to question his judgement.


The Truth About Cesc Fabregas and FC Barcelona

May 25, 2010

Posted by guest writer Deepak Israni*

The Greatest Club In the World? Apparently its FC Barcelona. Like butter wouldn’t melt, the club from Catalonia have everyone from Sepp Blatter to Alex Hleb verbally masturbating – and perhaps otherwise – over them. They are the saviours of football – a club who won’t let any corporation adorn their shirts. They play exciting football – apparently a new brand of team attack and defence (which Sacchi’s AC Milan team of the early 90s did to far better effect). Such is their standing in the world that they can get away with all but tapping up Cesc Fabregas for the past few seasons without even so much as a call to Mr.Hill-Wood – or so he tells us.

Well I say £^&* Barcelona and so too does today’s guest writer Deepak Israni. Deepak is a Madrista at heart but is an ardent admirer and supporter of the mighty Arsenal. Below he outlines why Barcelona really need to just come down a peg or two…….. or ten!

BREAKING NEWS: In transfer rumors, Barcelona are hell-bent on signing Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas.

Well that will never get old, now will it?!

This is the story every year, and now with the Catalans having their presidential election in the summer which sees Joan Laporta doing whatever he can in his power (which includes signing David Villa) to tip the scales in favour of his backed candidate so that he can move onto national politics and STILL have a say in what FC Barcelona does,  it was obvious that such rumors would only escalate in number.

The worst part about all this is that Cesc hasn’t done a single thing to calm the rumors, instead he is signing a little kid’s Barcelona jersey, adding fuel to all the rumors.


If Cesc does indeed sign for FC Barcelona, then Cesc is the biggest most ungrateful b1tch on the planet! And if you think that I’m being harsh on the Captain, then tell me, if bailing out on the club that gave him all the opportunities that he could only dream of at his childhood club, and made him the player that he is today in pursuit of more money and trophies isn’t acting like an ungrateful b1tch, then what is?

Cesc Fabregas despite being an Arsenal academy product……oh wait…….are you guys still living in a world run by FC Barcelona and believe that he is a Barcelona product?

Let me clarify. Barcelona themselves claim that Carles Puyol is their academy product, but in fact he was SIGNED at the age of 19, Cesc Fabregas joined Arsenal at the age of 15, if that doesn’t make him a product of Arsenal’s academy then what does? More can be learned from a team at the age of 15 than 19.

There are many reasons why I believe that Cesc Fabregas shouldn’t leave which include FC Barcelona being a dirty hypocritical institution unlike the popular image of them, created by them and their controlled media. But that might not apply to Cesc, because he’s a Cule by birth and he may already have made up his mind to return home. But I won’t let that stop me from pointing out what FC Barcelona are all about!

The first and foremost reason that I believe Cesc shouldn’t leave is the lack of opportunities. He joined Arsenal for the same reason, and him leaving to be a bench player for Barcelona when he is already the captain of one of the most prestigious clubs in the world, is odd.

There is no way he will get a starting place in the Barcelona midfield. The Blaugaranas play Xavi Hernandez in Fabregas’s position, there are rumors about them selling Xavi Hernandez but it seems highly unlikely. Then the second position is of Seydou Keita, ain’t no way in hell Barcelona will remove their insurance policy in the middle, Cesc is just not big enough. The only one he can replace is Sergi Busqets who is a good enough ball winner, and has the Plan-B of winning the ball back—which is, that he’ll go down like a sissy whenever he loses the ball so that the play of the opposing team is broken down and Barcelona get the ball back. They like to play two DMs, they want all the protection in midfield they can get, Cesc isn’t cutting into that team.

The second reason is that Barcelona play like sissies though they might advertise that they play the most beautiful football in the world and that Arsenal try to copy their style of football. Those who have watched Barcelona play know that they roll the ball around between their back-line and sometimes the midfield and then take it back to their defense again, who would chuck one up for Messi or Ibrahimovic, hardly beautiful.

Their play is a different version of negative football which includes ball-hogging doing nothing with the ball so that the opposing team can’t do anything. Why leave a team which plays beautiful attacking football where you are an integral part of the system for a crappy ass team where you’d be stacking in a high number of passes and would be looked at in awe on Sportscenter, but in reality you’d be passing to the defenders!

And now the last, but not the least, and probably the most important reason why Cesc shouldn’t leave is that Cesc probably wouldn’t have the same satisfaction in winning a trophy where the success is bought. The Blaugaranas might claim that it’s only their rivals—Real Madrid who do all the spending –  but we all know it’s all false.

Their sheet is as splattered with big money transfers in the recent years as Real Madrid’s. Dani Alves, Arsenal’s own—Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic (second highest money transfer—€85 million = Eto o’ + €45 million), Dymtro Chyngrinsky (who’s apparently a waste of €27 million, a bench player), Eric Abidal (similar amount to Arsenal’s biggest signing—Andrei Arshavin), Gabriel Millito (€22 million, for a player who remained injured for the major part of two seasons, and this was his third season at the club), Seydou Keita and now the first signing of the summer—David Villa (€45 million).

The expenditure (money spent in purchasing players – money recouped by selling players) of FC Barcelona in three years is more than Real Madrid, yet they proudly say that they don’t spend money and “make” their players. It’s nobody’s fault but their own that they sign expensive players that they don’t really play and make it look like they use their own academy.

Arsenal are pretty close to a title now, actually they always are, last season showed how the Gunners have matured but the injuries to key players are a major problem, the new training regime might lessen that. With Arsene Wenger finally diving into the transfer market to sign replacements, this might be the year of the Gunners, which partly depends on whether Cesc stays or goes, if he stays good, if he leaves, then it depends on who is going to be his replacement.

It’s all up to Cesc, he can choose to be Captain of Arsenal or he can leave to sit on the bench of FC Barcelona, but need we remind him of a certain Alexander Hleb, who is still picking the thorns out of his ass!

Cesc can choose to do whatever he wants, Arsenal will be happy either way, they’ll be happier to see him stay but won’t be disappointed to bag whatever is remaining of the €60-70 million after buying his replacement.

* All at Arsenal, Arsenal would like to thank Deepak for taking time out to write up this post. If you liked what you read you can find more at his own blog on Real Madrid called “Football Through the Eyes of Real Addicts”


One more year please Cesc …. or we’ll never know

May 20, 2010

Written by kelsey

I see no reason why we can’t continue to debate all the hearsay about Cesc, even if our club is not making any statement at the moment, which is only to be expected as no deal has been negotiated.

Cesc is our best player. It may be an overstatement to say that the team has been built around him, but certainly his creative style of football epitomises the way we want to play. The belief is that this summer, we would add to the squad, a few missing pieces in the jigsaw, and see the emergence of the balanced team that would get us to the top once more. It would be such a shame if Cesc left and we never get to see how good it could have been with him surrounded by players worthy of his talent. Give us one more year Cesc – Barça don’t need you yet.

There is talk that Cesc has been tapped up by Barça, but the law in Spain is quite different to that in England, and if that was the case, it could take 3 to 5 years to go to court, and even then it would be extremely complicated and with no definite result gained.

I have no doubt that Cesc will leave, if not this summer, then next summer, it’s the worst kept secret in football. If he stays, how would you  feel if having  played the season for us fully committed,  regardless of how we do, he waived goodbye? In addition would Cesc be able to turn his back on a winning side?

The scenario is different to Henry and Vieira latterly, as they both had given us several years (as Cesc has done) but in a winning side.

It is difficult to express what I mean by writing as opposed to having an actual conversation, but personally however great a player he is, it would leave a bitter taste in my mouth if he stayed, went on to have a great season, even won something for the club and then at the age of 23/24 left.

Apparently he says he wants ‘his future settled’ before the World Cup, so surely the onus is on him to make a statement. Obviously if he is leaving, and every aspect seems to  have been discussed,  the small point as to how much we would get for him is still unknown. Barça have just spent big on David Villa – do they have the money to pay us what we think Cesc should be worth?

I think Wenger would like to keep him one more year, whilst grooming his natural successor in Ramsey, but he is still so young, and no-one can predict how he will bounce back after the injury.

One thing I am sure of is that there will be much more activity this summer with more players leaving and arriving than in the previous four years, but then again Arsène has stated that the team doesn’t need a massive overhaul ….. the torture continues.


To Think, Two Irishmen Could Have Won Us The League!!

May 12, 2010

If ifs and buts were pots and pans The Arsenal’s cupboard would be full to the brim and I’m about to add my own set to push it to bursting point.

This season’s Premier League was more exciting than most, I don’t think anyone will argue with that. However, it has also been distinctly average. Chelsea were the best of a bad lot, there is no two ways about it. They had the best squad on paper but often times turned up as if they had the game already won and ended up losing to the likes of Wigan – hardly the sign of great Champions.

Manchester United are not a patch on their former great teams. Rooney carried the weight of the team (as he will do with England) that for a finish his body broke and he could do no more. Nani is an overrated acrobat, Carrick is a hyped up English player (again) and Giggs and Scholes are coming to the end.  They hung on in the title race by virtue of Chelsea dropping points – a bit like us really…

Thing is with the signing of two players Arsenal would not only have hung on till the last month, I actually believe we would have won it.

Meet my pot and pan.

"Richard, I don't want to be the pot"

"Richard, I don't want to be the pot"

Now, we’ve all known for some time that Shay Given had been wasted at Newcastle United. He gave them many years of his career with little to show but lucky for him a goalkeeper normally has a longer career and he could move on for another challenge. Like most players that would be the Champions League. Now what team that constantly hovers around the Champions League could have done with  a top ‘keeper over the last few seasons?

Congrats you win the Tupperware, it is of course Arsenal.

Watching Flappy One and Flappy Two flap about in goals all season was a joke. To make it even worse its not like this is a new problem. Many, many, many of us said at the time that Shay Given should have been signed. He had been a top player for Newcastle for years and with them heading for the Championship he was always going to seek a top team. Despite their riches, Citeh had to fork out relatively little to get their man.

Just as at Newcastle, Given often saved the bacon of the City defenders this season. It must be a sense of deja vu for poor Shay to see such a mediocre bunch of defensive players in front of him. Imagine how much happier he would have been at Arsenal and how much happier we’d be to have him?

City’s defence was an insult to the deepening economic crisis. Kolo Toure was past his prime – we knew that. Lescott was carried for many a season at Everton by the talented Jagielka – he got found out. If I wrote down how much they cost together I might vomit…

The hilarious thing is that Citeh made way for these two by selling my pot because he didn’t have a “global” name.

Yes, Richard Dunne might not be everyone’s favourite player but I think the guy is a class act.  Before the desert dollars, Dunne was City’s best player and as soon as the money came he was dumped. He reacted though as the best do – by having the season of his life. Villa may have fallen away towards the end but Dunne was immense for them throughout the campaign.

Along with Vermaelen, he has been one of the buys of the season – now imagine if both had been in the same team with Shay Given behind them!

Not alone would we have two experienced players, we’d have had two players who know each other very well through playing for the Rep.Ireland, a Rep.Ireland whose ship Trapattoni has really steadied.

Arsenal’s problem this season wasn’t our inability to score goals, it was our crass stupidity at defending that cost us so we ended third with no silverware.

Imagine the signing of an Irish pot and pan could well have changed all that!

Now the question must be asked as to who this season’s pot and pan will be…


May 2010 – A Team Chasing Shadows

May 4, 2010

Sadly, I remember London saying how difficult it was to write the match report after the 2nd defeat by the chavs earlier this season.  Yesterday’s game is not deserving of a match report – if someone else wrote one I probably wouldn’t read it –  and as a result of that poor display, I’m going to have to wrap my Arsenal heart in cotton wool for a few weeks and probably not talk football as I’m not sure that I can make any sense of the last three defeats we’ve suffered.

In all three games against the spuds, Wigan and Blackburn there was a team wearing the red and white of Arsenal but they didn’t seem to be Arsenal footballers. Obviously they were getting paid to be Arsenal footballers but somehow they didn’t really know what they should be doing. They were, by and large, a collection of not very good footballers who weren’t trying very hard to play the Arsenal way. A couple of exceptions in van Persie and Sol Campbell who seemed to be the only Gooners on the pitch yesterday.

Why is this Arsène? When the Carling Cup team of 1st team elect players comes up against a premiership side they pull out all the stops and play with freedom and no fear. Some will argue that yesterday’s team was part Carling Cup team of old and possibly it was but where was the passion? where was the desire? It was embarrassing to watch.

Arsène complained about the pitch, complained about the treatment that was metered out to Fabianski, complained that we could have had a penalty. Blackburn’s captain Samba stood head and shoulders above  everyone in our penalty area – why was our goal-keeper muscled out of the way, why was he sitting in his goal when Samba headed home the winner? Because he’s not big enough and not strong enough. Arsène, if you think that we can go another campaign without a world class goal keeper then I’m sorry for you because you must have contracted a very strange illness that stops you seeing what thousands of Gooners see.

Most of us accept that a player can have an off day, that players returning from injury are not going to be sharp or match fit but at least if they try, if we can see that they want it, that they’re disappointed for the team when things go badly then on the whole we’ll be forgiving. A defeat is always hard to accept but yesterday’s game wasn’t even two teams competing. We are pale shadows of the Arsenal team that existed 6 years ago and the small nimble players we have now cannot compete against the big lumps of Blackburn or figure in the ranks of most other Premiership sides.

When we come up against a team that wants it more than us we have no answer and no bottle for the fight. Our ‘clever passing football’ appears incapable of penetrating a 10-man defence and no-one seems to have the ability/desire/confidence to shoot from outside the box.

We looked like a team of school boys out there yesterday, no sophistication, no slick passing game and no ideas. Your put these players in Arsenal shirts, you have shown faith in their abilities but when are you going to admit that they aren’t capable of repaying your, or our patience? Sometime soon please Arsène.


Arsenal Apocalypse: Reasons to be Cheerful, Part 3 … edited version

April 19, 2010


When Peaches suggested I write today’s blog my first reaction was: “Thanks: that’s like asking someone to DJ at a funeral, or sell futures at the OAPs’ home.” But here we are. Given how furious I was after yesterday’s game I was going to have a rant but, let’s be honest, you can find rants all over NewsNow today.
Instead I took inspiration from the title of a song by Ian Dury and the Blockheads, called Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3. If you’re too young to remember Ian Dury, then shame on you: you should have been born earlier. But don’t despair – go and see Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll, a fantastic biopic of the Dury story, with Andy Serkis (he was Gollum in Lord of the Rings) playing the great man. This is not the place for a beginners’ guide to Ian Dury, but suffice to say he was disabled most of his life from polio contracted at the age of seven and died of cancer in his fifties. In between he produced an amazing, eclectic catalogue of songs full of wit, humour, irreverence, obscenity and an unquenchable lust for life.
One of them was called Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3 and was a list of things that made him happy. The ‘Part 3’ bit felt particularly apt as this is my third post on Arsenal Arsenal and the first two were relentlessly optimistic. So here goes, reasons for all we Arsenal fans to be cheerful:

  • Arsene may not see much, but he isn’t blind.
  • The recent defeats remove any illusions Arsene had about his squad.
  • If Fabianski had played brilliantly ‘til the end of the season AW would not sign a new GK.
  • Robin VP is back.
  • Cesc will be back.
  • Ramsey will be back.
  • Chamakh is coming and looks shit hot.
  • We have a +11 goal difference over Sp*rs.
  • Blackburn have nothing to play for.
  • Fulham have nothing to play for.
  • Adebarndoor’s coming to town.
  • The club finances are better than they have been for years.
  • PHW says we have money to spend.
  • PHW is a comical old duffer.
  • Arsene says we have money to spend.
  • Arsene is comical when he flaps his arms.
  • We don’t have to play Barcelona again this season.
  • Sol. Nuff said.
  • No takeover of the club while the volcano is keeping Silent Stan in the USA.
  • Spain might win the World Cup playing BarcaBall (it’s like Wengerball, but with shiny silver things at the end).
  • Cesc and Ramsey are a shoo-in for the Three-Legged Race in the Colney end of season sports day.
  • Arsene doesn’t twitch.
  • We would never celebrate one derby league victory in 11 years as if it were the Double, Treble, Champions League and World Cup all rolled into one.
  • No matter what happens to Arsenal, even if we get relegated to the Arkwright’s Pistons League South and the Emirates stadium is turned into a cycling velodrome, we’ll still always have more class than those spiteful, embittered, inferiority-complexed, chip-on-shoulder, thumb-sucking gibbons from N17.
    We won the league on Merseyside.

  • We won the league in Manchester.
  • We won the league at White Hart Lane.
  • We are the Arsenal so f**k off the rest.

· Footnote. When I was in rant mode, I was planning to run through the merits (or lack of them) of the players responsible for that sickbag of a performance at Wigan yesterday. I was going to use a line from another Ian Dury song (Plaistow Patricia) as my inspiration: it’s the opening line and goes like this: “Arseholes, Bastards, F***ing C**ts and P**cks.”
Keep the faith folks.
RockyLives


ARSÈNE WHO?

April 17, 2010

Written by dandan

I remember Arsene Who’s? arrival at Arsenal, an urbane educated man, with a working knowledge of 7 languages including Japanese learnt in the 18-month period prior to him joining the club. Whilst coaching Grampus eight, he managed to get the club from the bottom to runners up in the Japanese J league and collected the Presidents cup on the way.

He arrived with the club in turmoil after a year of Bruce Rioch and Stewart Houston following the sudden departure of George Graham for playing with brown paper bags.

Wenger’s pre-joining gift to our club was a gawky leggy young midfielder with the temerity to kick back with alacrity the resident hard men of the premier league, earning the respect of players and the everlasting love of Gooners, along with a collection of red cards from referees blind to the constant intimidation he was subjected to.

Wenger’s marriage of the young Vieira to the resident maestro Dennis Bergkamp and the existing Arsenal back four, was to take us to third in the league and with addition of more foreign players, to the league and cup double in the following year.

I give this history lesson for all those Gooners who currently call for his head, this is the man they say doesn’t value older players, wont buy and is only interested in young players.

His record speaks differently. What he actually does is buy quality and sells at the top of the market. That much we know.

What we don’t know is how much money he has had available to continue this philosophy. We have moved to a new ground and somehow managed to do it on a manageable debt. How much was spare for players no one knows.

Even so, AA, TV, Rosicky and Nasri have been added to the squad and a number of dissatisfied, disaffected and troublesome players have been sold for large profits or left at contract end. Whilst the never-ending stream of talent scouted by Arsene’s unrivalled worldwide network, has flowed on bringing the cream of young players from all over to our club.

Through all this change we have continued an uninterrupted run in the champions league reaching semis and finals along the way, to do this we have had to finish 4th or above every year in the most competitive league in the world. This is in my mind a miracle given the circumstances and strictures with which Wenger has dealt.

But it’s not enough for so many Gooners. These guys, mainly Johnny come lately fans, unaware of just how astonishing Wenger’s achievements have been, can only say we have won nothing for 5 years. Many of these fans are products of the now generation, the instant society in which, we sadly now live. Play station football managers whose own reality is the digital world that surrounds them;

No one minds honest reasoned criticism providing the facts have been carefully weighed, but this mindless spend at all cost philosophy is way beyond the realms of reasonableness and a recipe for disaster.

So we finish third this year, we qualify for the Champion’s League again, but unless we buy half the stars of the upcoming world cup then Arsene and the board have failed. Unbelievable, thank Christ the board have more sense and value the talents of Mr Wenger more than the collective wisdom of these deluded shop-aholics.

.