This week I was knot ear, being locked away in a modern prison cell with no public internet access and a firewall that steadfastly refused to allow access to Arsenal Arsenal. For three days, 18 of us from 11 different countries stayed cloistered in a huddle trying to solve a few puzzles which probably mattered to no one. Except that it earned each of us our keep!

Topic enough for a rant no doubt, but it got me thinking. It was not bad, was it! Diverse cultures, languages and accents, ways of thinking, mannerisms, preferences in food, drink and attire. It must be a bit of the same in Arsenal. It is beautiful on the field as well, when it clicks.

Arsene was in the news this week talking about this diversity.

“Most of the time, yes [I can tell where they are from],” Wenger told Arsenal Player. “There’s specificity.

“In Spain they are good passers with good technique, in Germany they have good mobility and efficient technique and in England they have a good fighting spirit.

“The emphasis is on defending well in Italy – they are well known for defending well and doing a lot of tactical work at the youth level in training.

“I don’t know why goalkeepers are so good in Poland but usually these Eastern European countries do a lot of gymnastics at a young age to develop flexibility and awareness of your body. Maybe when they go into goalkeeping they benefit from it.”

All of this is fine, except that our beloved team is almost like a collection of crocked crockery, not much use in cooking a great game, but a beautiful sight on the display cabinet. Till only recently, it was a decent alternate team, and is not that bad even now.

Surprising then, but also a matter of great honour I am sure, that we have 15 players called up for their national sides for the international games over the fortnight long international break.

6 for England. Calum Chambers, Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Theo Walcott, Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere have been called up to Roy Hodgson’s England squad for their Euro 2016 qualifier against Slovenia and their friendly in Scotland.

Joel Campbell completed 86 minutes in a friendly away to Costa Rica, setting up Bryan Ruiz for Costa Rica’s second goal in a 3-3 draw.

Yaya Sanogo captained France Under-21s in a 1-1 draw away to Italy Under-20s, and a game against England Under-21s awaits.

Wojciech Szczesny has retained his place in the Poland squad for their Euro 2016 qualifier in Georgia and their friendly against Switzerland.

Lukas Podolski played all the 90 minutes Germany’s 4-0 disaster against Gibraltar, and will likely feature in their friendly in Spain.

Aaron Ramsey has been named in the Wales squad that travels to Belgium for the next stage in their Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.

Alexis Sanchez is playing for Chile in their friendlies against Venezuela and Uruguay.

Santi Cazorla has been named in the Spain squad for their Euro 2016 qualifier against Belarus and their friendly against Germany.

And finally, Tomas Rosicky has been called up to the Czech Republic squad for their friendly against Iceland.

OK, we all understand it is a great honour to play for your country. And sometimes international games can be entertaining nail biting affairs as recently witnessed in the World Cup.

But, why so many friendlies? It is probably fair that, with an injury situation as scary as ours, the only nails we Gooners are probably going to bite is in the hope that the break passes off in an uneventful manner.

Whither the spirit of national pride and the celebration of national heroes? Under the circumstances, perhaps a NO THANKS, then?

Arnie.

They’ve done it in Formula 1, so how about doing it in the Premiership? Double points for the last game of the season!

Now before you all go bananas, think about it for a minute. It could add a bit of much needed spice to the final games of teams at both ends of the table. A lifeline, perhaps, for one of the bottom three? A late, late chance for a team to get into the top four, even the prospect of the Champions Elect falling at the final hurdle.

Can you imagine the look on the face of The Special One if his swanky team of millionaires got pipped at the post? Wouldn’t that be priceless?

Other changes could be made, we’ve all got opinions on the introduction of technology, some for, some against and, of course, some don’t know, so far I’ve been less than impressed by the changes made in the on pitch management of the game.

Two extra members of the FWWBU (Flag Wavers and Whistle Blowers Union) and the re-naming of Linesmen as “Assistant Referees” doesn’t seem to have done much to improve the standard of decision making, or lack of it in many cases. One thing I can’t quite understand is why the Assistant Referee and the extra one on the goal line are both on the same side of the pitch. Surely it would be better if they were on opposite sides so they would have different angles to watch for infringements.

Goal line technology was introduced at the start of the season, so far as I remember it’s been used just once so far in the Premiership, and that to only confirm what everybody already knew, the ball had crossed the line. A very big, and expensive, hammer to crack a fairly insignificant nut.

There are regular calls for the introduction of video replays to help the poor old ref get it right, oddly enough the very opposite is being demanded in Rugby Union, it seems that the TMO (Television Match Official) is becoming more and more involved, in more and more situations. In one case when asked simply if the ball had been grounded correctly, and a try could be awarded, the TMO took it upon himself to run back two or three passes in case one of them had been forward, he then advised the referee to disallow the try and award the opposing team a scrum.

Those opposed to the technology are convinced that the integrity of the referees is being called into question while the game is becoming disjointed, the players and the crowd are frequently bewildered by the shenanigans going on between the TMO, the television director and the ref. The sight of thirty sweat soaked blokes standing around in the cold and rain while the TMO studies videos from half a dozen cameras does little to enhance anyone’s enjoyment of the game.

There has been innovation throughout football’s long history, the introduction of shirt numbers, names on shirts, red and yellow cards, tinkering with the offside law, which still confuses some players and pundits alike, banning back-passes to the ‘keeper among others.

Oh! Just one more, a player who needs treatment for injury on the pitch, must go off and is not allowed to return until play has been resumed, except, in the case of a goalkeeper, now why is that? Why do ‘keepers get special treatment?

How do you feel about “technology”? Should we have a “Sin-bin” system? Video replays? Even more members of the FWWBU? Or should we just leave the ref to get on with the game?

Written by Norfolk Gooner.

I have noted with interest Shard’s views on Chelsea vs Arsenal spending and how Chelsea have gone about it.

With Chelsea it’s the reverse. They spent years hoarding all the talent they could find, and even used the loan market to manipulate the league as much as they could, precisely as a result of their high spending. The reason their wage bill is now lower is because they used those hoarded, bloated assets to finance their current assets.(with a little wink wink, nudge nudge from PSG too) Basically, Chelsea could not be where they are at this moment in time without their extraordinarily high spending. They did plan for FFP very well. All the same, they can’t do the same thing again if FFP works, which is good.

So yeah, say Arsenal have a higher wage bill than Chelsea’s, but it takes time to make the money count. It isn’t a situation unique to us either.

Mourinho has made some big decisions about losing certain big players (Mata and Luiz) to get the balance he wants in the side. He saw a surplus in certain areas and deficiencies in others and looked at what he could reclaim from selling off players in positions that they are already well covered in. It was smart business and basically funded Cesc and Costa.

My question is have we got surplus areas where we could secure extra funds to add to the transfer budget to get the world class players we need in other positions? I think on players like Podolski and Campbell and possibly even Santi. With the former 2 likely to leave anyway IMO I would also I would ask have we waited too long to get maximum value from said players? Was the summer the right time to sell some of these players to get maximal funds back?

Even with our new spending power I still don’t see us as a club that can lose significant transfer funds on player sales and I wonder if we have not played the market properly.

Written by GoonerB

Once upon a time, if you wanted to watch a football match you put on your raincoat, put a pork pie in your pocket, queued up at a turnstile, put down your cash and elbowed your way onto your favourite bit of terracing.

You watched the game as you swayed with the crowd, stamped your feet if it was cold and joined in the cheering and jeering. If you blinked when a goal was scored, tough luck, no replays on the big screen and no pundit to tell you what you had missed.

By the time you got home, if you lived in London that is, the classified editions of The Star, The Evening News and The Standard were on sale so you could check the score and scorers and read a brief description of the game, which had probably been written by some drunken hack who had passed out at half-time.

Nowadays every move, every foul, every goal, every incident is shown and repeated as nauseum. There are a host of ex-players, in sharp suits and drawing huge salaries, just bursting to tell you what you had already seen for yourself.

Referee’s decisions are examined in forensic detail, frequently by pundits who themselves are less than au fait with the laws of the game. Players are castigated for making what these “experts” perceive to be the wrong decision even though that decision is made in a split second often under immense pressure from the game situation as well as from opposing players and in the full knowledge that it has been recorded for posterity by half a dozen or more cameras.

Everyone is an expert, everyone can demonstrate their “expertise” on the many and varied blogs that abound on the internet.

Journalists actually use information and opinions garnered from those blogs in their own columns and for their own ends.

A whole new industry has sprung up around football, there seems to be a compulsion for fans to know every little detail about their club, it’s ownership, it’s finances, the manager and players. When Harry Redknap made a throwaway remark about the weight of one of his players it was instantly “news” and plastered all over the back pages of the tabloids for the delectation of “The Fans”.

In the past a player could go out after the game on a Saturday, have a few beers and a game of cards in the smoke filled back room of his local and nobody would be the wiser or worried. Nowadays a player photographed falling out of a nightclub with his trousers at half mast is given the full back page treatment, his morals are questioned as is his commitment to his club, “insiders” will be ready with rumours about the punishment inflicted by his manager and his agent will be salivating at the thought of a possible transfer and his own share of the inflated fee that will eventually be forthcoming.

Are we as football fans better served by the Information Age? Are we better informed by the opinions of the uninformed? Or would we all actually enjoy the game a little more without the existing level of insight?

Somebody once said “Football is a simple game”. Couldn’t we simply enjoy it for what it is? Shouldn’t we simply enjoy it for what it is?

Written by Norfolk Gooner