Pure joy and life before Arsène

June 30, 2011

I watched the highlights of the Fairs cup of 1970 again last night on Arsenal player, was that really 40 years ago? I can remember that spring night as though it was yesterday.

For 11 years, ever since leaving school and starting our apprenticeships, my mates and I had stood in all weathers and shouted ourselves hoarse, as we won nothing. The modern-day supporter sitting in his comfortable seat, complaining of 6 years without a trophy. Would not believe the conditions we endured standing in all weathers.  Toilets? Do me a favour a wall, a trough and what was basically an open sewer was good enough for us.

Two managers had departed in that time, George Swindon our ex goalkeeper, had been followed by Billy Wright, ex Captain of Wolves and England, in his first attempt at club management, a universally acknowledged  nice guy, he was married to one of the Beverley Sisters a well-known female singing trio, who sat together every Saturday in the front of the East Stand dressed in identical Red And White outfits.

Billy never won anything for all his hard work and with his health suffering under the pressure,  he resigned in 1966. But the legacy he left,  was a  core of young players 6 of whom would be part of the first double winning side.

His replacement Bertie Mee, previously the team physio, was a major disciplinarian and hated by most of the players, he was anything but a track suit manager, cleverly leaving the coaching to the talented Dave Sexton before he left to manage Chelsea, then Done Howe and Steve Burtenshaw. It was Mee who moved Mclintock from right half to centre half and begun to shape the team that was destined to earn a permanent place in Arsenals history.

Two league cup final appearances at Wembley were to be reached and lost in 68 and 69. firstly against our archenemies at that time, Leeds Utd. A team loaded with skilful internationals, but ruthless and cynical under the leadership of Manager Don Revie and his on field lieutenants Billy Bremner and Johnny Giles. Matches between the two teams over the next ten years were no place for the faint hearted as we refused to be intimidated by them and adopted the same do or die attitude.

The ’69 debacle was even worse, on a Wembley pitch so badly cut up by the show jumping at the horse of the year show staged there a week previously amid torrential rain showers, that it now resembled a bogey ploughed field.

The team most of whom had been laid low by a flu like virus in the week prior to the game, were run ragged in the heavy conditions, by third division Swindon Town and a tricky little winger called Don Rodgers, who deservedly won  3-1 after extra time.

So all that baggage, expense and heartache was in the long-suffering supporters minds as we stood and watched the players run out on that May evening in 1970, to a morass not dissimilar to that Wembley horror.  But this time an hour and three quarters later it was all worth it.

Eddie Kelly one of the graduates from the reserves, a sort of Scottish Little Jack, scored to make it 1-0 at half time, John Radford then powered home a typical Raddy header and minutes later Jon Sammels so often the butt of the Arsenal boo boys, settled it,  hitting a sweet 20 yarder across the keeper  into the back of the net,  Highbury went mad and at the final whistle.  I and thousands of others sang and danced on the waterlogged pitch, our shoes filled with muddy water and we couldn’t give a monkeys, after 17 trophyless years, we had a pot.

The hoodoo was broken, allowing across the years, doubles and cups to follow. Bertie Mee’s reign lasted until 1976, since when he has been succeeded  by 7  managers or  caretaker managers, including the enigmatic George stroller Graham and the 1-0 to the Arsenal days. Before the arrival of Arsène  and his marvelous Wengerball, immaculate pitches and eventually a proud new modern stadium and training facilities.

But it all started, when Anderlecht were put to the Sword and a 3-1 away defeat was overturned on a rainy floodlit evening of unbelievable joy, at the famous old ground, that not even the first leg of the double on another wonderful night away at the Lane could equal.

Written by dandan

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Arsenal sign Baconario Sarnielli

June 29, 2011

Written by Jamie

I am brewing a pot of coffee, steam rising. I have bread product of some kind with Bacon. I’ll be honest, I’ve lost track which one. I still don’t know what is wrong with Bacon between two slices of bread but now it’s all focaccia and ciabatta and I couldn’t tell the difference if you laced one with a month old Estonian herring.

Another thing worth a question is this, when did butter become an optional extra when you are getting a bacon sandwich? Do you want butter? Of course I do, if it’s not too much trouble. No proper bread, optional butter, no red sauce, in future just do me a couple of rashers of bacon and leave it at that.

Of course I want butter, the greasier the better, dripping out of the side mixed with the red sauce.

Today, I dream of Spain, of America, or frankly just about anywhere where sea is lapping to shore. Where I can sit like Derek Trotter in a beach bar drinking more cocktails than James Bond.

Such fantasies while frustrating are slightly more appealing than the alternative. Which is, in reality sitting at my desk getting neurotic about Arsenal’s transfer activity or rather, the lack of it.

If I were on holiday, I wouldn’t be sitting there doing that. I would be in a bar, on a beach, having lunch, exploring an old cathedral, doing a tour of a football ground.

I would even rather be in a Waterpark, Go-Karting possibly even at the same time but I wouldn’t be subjected to this.

If on holiday I would occasionally find myself looking at a two day old report from Steve Stammers in the Daily Mirror while consuming a big cake and cooling VAT looking at a magnificent vista. As if i were some amatuer James Richardson.

Instead, it’s Coffee, Bacon and a Windows vista.

Every TV show yesterday showed a beach, even the Grand Prix.

I look out over London Wall and the day looks lethargic. People move slowly in the heat outside the Museum of London, almost slow motion, Almost as slow as Arsenal’s Summer. A summer of big change, so we are told. Not one player in or one player out by 27th June and don’t give me any of that Jenkinson stuff, i mean players that will definately have an impact next season.

First we are signing Gervinho, then we are not, then we have signed him, now we haven’t even made a bid.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m right behind Le Gaffer but the time it takes for us to sign a player does gives me the ache.

Stars form and burst, giant pandas mate and we still can’t conclude a deal.

We are like a 16 year old geek of the class trying to get his next door neighbours phone number. The President of Lille says we made contact but made no offer. It makes it sound like we rang up and got shy, giggled, said “Gervinho” and hung up.

I watch a lot of European football and I have seen Gervinho play half a dozen times. However despite this and him having the most ridiculous centre parting since “Saved by the Bell” was on TV, a month ago I couldn’t have picked out Gervinho if he, Scott Parker, Chris Samba and Juan Mata had done a conga past me singing “The Locomotion”.

That isn’t to say that he is not a good player.

I watched reports from around the world on the news this morning. War, torture, famine and not one word about Arsenal, Not one word. Selfish BBC.

This summer however for Family reasons, some work reasons and some financial reasons a holiday in June or July or even August is out of the question.

There is nothing quite as frustrating as being told you can’t go to Barcelona when all you want to do is hang out on the beach in Barcelona. Ask El Capitan.

Last year I went away in late November, it wasn’t easy catching the games abroad in November. You invairiably end up in a back street Irish bar sat next to some guy who came for a holiday in 1982 and never went back.

“I had trials” he will say, then you are subjected to two hours of the “I could have been a contender, but the booze, the girls, knee injury, blah,blah blah” speech. By the time Wilshere pops in the fourth at Villa Park you are reaching for the Tequilas.

The overwhelming point is this. Summer is for holidays, Winter is for football.

Holiday resorts in November are full of sadness and storm clouds and sitting around looking at Newsnow in June doesn’t look a lot differnet.

It isn’t going to do you any good come the fixture pile up.

So if you can’t get away and I can’t, then get your sun tan oil and get to your nearest park or pub by the river, or your back garden. Pour yourself a Pina Colada and read a two day old copy of the Daily Mirror and for a moment, just a moment, you might be able to convince yourself that your not addicted.

So Happy Holidays even if they are, only in your mind!

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Arsenal’s Best Signing Ever

June 27, 2011

Who is the best player ever to have been signed by Arsenal?

Last summer I wrote a post about ‘Arsenal’s Best Transfer News Ever’. The point of that piece was to determine which piece of transfer news was the most exciting when it was announced, regardless of how that player went on to perform for the club.

So, for example, Clive Allen was on that list even though he never played a game in anger for Arsenal and so was Davor Suker, who was never more than a bit part player.

This time I want to know which signing (as opposed to home grown player) has been the best piece of business we have ever done.

You may want to weigh up factors such as what they cost, what their impact was on the team, what legacy, if any, they left behind, their achievements versus the expectations we had when they arrived and so on.

I’m not including anyone who has come through the Arsenal ranks from apprentice up, or has been recruited at too young an age to be considered a mature signing (so there’s no room for Cesc Fabregas).

For starters, here are what I consider to be some of the main contenders:

Cliff Bastin

Cliff was spotted by Herbert Chapman playing for Exeter away at Watford. Chapman had gone along to keep tabs on a promising Watford player but was so impressed by Cliff that he snapped him up at the end of the 1928/29 season. It was an inspired piece of business and was crucial to the Chapman revolution that led Arsenal to dominate English football in the 1930s. Bastin’s scoring record for the Gunners was not outdone until Ian Wright surpassed it in 1997.

Ronnie Rooke

Arsenal’s dominance in the Chapman era was ended not by any other team, but by the Second World War. When football began again afterwards we returned as a severely weakened side and narrowly avoided relegation in 1947. But the following year we bounced back to reclaim our crown – and the vital ingredient was a tough, experienced centre forward called Ronnie Rooke. He was nearly 35 when we signed him from Second Division Fulham and he had never played in the top flight – so he was a real gamble. However, his 21 goals in 1946/47 helped stave off relegation and he followed that with 33 more the next season as we marched to the title.

Frank McClintock

Our Double-winning hard man was brought up in the Gorbals area of Glasgow, which explains a lot. He was signed in 1964 after seven successful years at Leicester. Starting off in midfield before moving to the CB role (and the captaincy) he was a rock throughout the relatively fallow years of the late 1960s and, of course, led Arsenal to the Double in 1971.

Alan Smith

Another Leicester stalwart, signed in 1987. “Smudger” was an awkward-looking, ungainly centre forward, but there was no-one better at holding up the ball and bringing others into play – skills that, along with his eye for a goal, proved to be vital in our title-winning seasons of 1989 and 1991.

David Seaman

After winning the league in ’89 most of us were happy with John Lukic between the sticks, but George Graham decided that he wanted the best and went out and got Safe Hands from QPR in 1990. It’s no exaggeration to say that Seaman was an essential ingredient in every subsequent success achieved by the club during his time with us.

Ian Wright

Although he would not win a champions medal until 1998 and the arrival of Arsene Wenger, Wrighty was a mainstay of the Arsenal team in the later George Graham era, when we stopped winning championships and started winning cups and when our flamboyant attacking midfield was replaced by pragmatic journeymen. Arguably, without Wright’s goals during that period, we might really have struggled.

Dennis Bergkamp

I’ll admit to being biased here. Dennis is my all-time favourite Arsenal player – but what a signing he was in terms of ambition and imagination. Bruce Rioch was the boss when Dennis arrived in 1995 but his signing is widely attributed to David Dein. The English league did not have much in the way of foreign superstars at that time (Eric Cantona apart) and Dennis showed the way forward for many of the great foreign players that followed. His touch, vision, passing and reading of the game was a damning indictment of the type of players being produced by English clubs in the Route One era.

Sol Campbell

Sol’s signing from the N17 knuckle-draggers was the sensation of the close season in 2001. The fabled Adams-Keown-Bould back three was near the end of its days and a significant reinforcement was needed. You don’t get more significant than Big Sol, who went on to become an immense figure in our defence, even if he did go a bit loopy at the end.

Patrick Vieira

Signed in 1996 from Milan, Paddy took the EPL by storm and is arguably still the greatest midfielder to have strut his stuff since the Premiership was formed. Arsenal captain, Arsenal legend, fearless, tireless, gifted… what more is there to say?

Thierry Henry

After Arsene Wenger’s first Double in 1998, we were all gutted when young goal machine Nicolas Anelka was persuaded by his greedy agents (his brothers, no less) to walk out on us the following year. But we need not have worried. Arsene went one better, bringing in Thierry Henry fresh from France’s 1990 World Cup triumph. He was a winger with va-va-voom, but Arsene converted him into the deadliest striker the Premier League has ever known.

That’s it.

My choice would be Dennis, because he completely transformed Arsenal and helped transform English football. He also stayed with us until the end of his career and is clearly still a devoted Gooner.

What do you think?

RockyLives

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Arsenal – Do You Remember The First Time?

June 21, 2011

Written by Jamie

Arsenal vs Manchester City (H) 3-1 (Attendance:21,604)
28th October 1986 – League Cup 3rd Round Tie

Scorers:
Rocastle, Hayes(pen), P Davis

Team:
Lukic, V Anderson, Sansom, S Williams, O’Leary, Adams, Rocastle, P Davis, Quinn (Allinson), P Groves, Hayes

I asked if I could write a guest article for Arsenal Arsenal. I then thought about it. What do you write about in the closed season?

I had two things to avoid.

1) I could talk about transfers? I don’t know about you but speculation doesn’t do anything for my nerves even if I do think that this might be a good summer for the Arsenal.

2) Avoid embarrassing typos. I noticed on a recent post that I suggested that Haines wouldn’t be a bad replacement for Clichy should he not re-sign. It might be a bit late for that.

So I decided on a nostalgia piece to open a debate on the first game you ever saw. Was it really the way you remember it?

In 1986 I was six years old, I had three sisters. I think my Father had begun to worry that I was going native. I remember sitting with my elder sisters attempting to drive the toy A Team truck over one of their favourite toys and my Father’s head popped around the door “your mother wants a word” he said, in that stern way that your boss talks to you if you are about to be made redundant.

Through my youth he would often ask my mother to discharge news I wasn’t going to like.

I entered the living room and my mother delivered the news “Your father wants to take you to a football game”. This was a latest of many ill fated attempts to get me a hobby, which included board games, an Atari games console and most bizarre of all stamp collecting.

Two weeks later my father took me to the game. Just the two of us, which to be honest would be a rarity over the next twenty years as Sisters, Cousins, Grandads and an Uncle just to mention a few would all make regular appearances on my Saturday afternoons and Wednesday nights. He bought me a scarf and a badge and sat me in the back row of the East Stand. My father looked at home at Arsenal and loved being back with his hero of the 1971 double team in charge.

It seemed too dark to watch football and a long way from the pitch. I was way behind the crowd’s reaction for every piece of action and missed most of the game. I was looking around obsessed by the amount of people in one place. It seemed packed, but the record books show it wasn’t as you can see from the attendance above.

I know that Martin Hayes played well, he scored a penalty. I missed how he won it and him scoring it. I remember Rocky being Rocky and a remember thinking that Niall Quinn looked like he had about as much of a clue as I did.

My father later recalled that this was not one of Quinn’s better nights in the number nine shirt. Big Niall always had more of an idea with Charlie Nicholas alongside him.

One thing I couldn’t have missed that night, nobody could, was Arsenal’s physical superiority. They were bigger, faster and hungrier than the opposition and at the start of a long run that would eventually lift this great old club out of a bleak period in their history. A period of course of which I knew nothing back then.

That physical superiority would be evident over the next few years as Arsenal were often dominant. As the team got older they learned how to win, how to close out games, they added craft to the graft. They knew how to comeback, sometimes with second halves where goals would fly in. Arsenal often scored more League goals in the Graham years than in the years where our football was apparently socially acceptable. We scored 72 this year.

1989 = 73 Goals
1991 = 74 Goals
1992 =81 Goals

Second halves were a must see. Especially from 89-92. No opponent too tough, no deficit too big. Adams, Thomas, Rocastle, to which Winterburn, Dixon and Smith were added and of course magic Merson. Titles followed.

Despite the off the field antics of which there were too many to recount, these were the heroes that you should grow up with. These are the people that got you in to football. These are the players that define us. My father incidentally feels the same about the 1971 Double side. We should all have heroes like that.

So my parents got me in to football and thank god they did!

It has been there every step of my life since and it was certainly more exciting than stamp collecting.

On the way home that night, my father played House of the Rising Sun on the car stereo. I had never heard anything like it. Bands with Guitars would form the other part of my youth. All in all, it was a good night’s work.

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

June 20th Is A Massive Day For Arsenal

June 20, 2011

As Arsenal supporters we have many great anniversaries to celebrate.

There was May 26th 1989 – Micky Thomas scoring in the closing seconds to clinch an improbable title away at Anfield. The sight of 40,000 thieving Scousers whining about being robbed was karma on a cosmic scale.

Or how about May 3rd, 1971, when a Ray Kennedy header made us champions of England – an achievement made all the sweeter by the location of our triumph: that’s right, that large public convenience in N17. Where better to take the piss?

Or Christmas Day 1886, when the Royal Arsenal football team was formed in the Royal Oak pub in Woolwich. Bells rang across South London that day and angels in choirs sang songs of praise. Some people thought they were celebrating the birth of a baby who would save mankind from sin. In fact they were celebrating the birth of an almighty team that would save mankind from T*ttenham. Same thing, really.

But I want to propose June 20th as the most significant day in the modern history of Arsenal?

Why? Because that is the date in 1995 when Dennis Bergkamp joined Arsenal FC.

I’m tempted to say he descended among us in a cloud from on high, but in fact I think he arrived on a ferry at Harwich.

That audacious signing (we snaffled the Dutch maestro away from Inter) came under the stewardship of Bruce Rioch, although David Dein is generally credited as being the mastermind behind the deal.

And, to my mind, it started a chain of events that has led Arsenal to its current position as one of the most successful clubs in Europe.

My theory is that without Dennis there would probably have been no Arsene Wenger. Imagine how much easier it must have been for Dein to lure Arsene to our club with Dennis Bergkamp already on the roster.

Even if Arsene had arrived and we did not have Dennis,  he may well have struggled in his first couple of seasons and his tenure may not have lasted.

And without Arsene we would almost certainly now be a struggling mid table side or a permanent wannabe like the Spuds.

So for me, June 20th represents the birth of Arsenal as a major player in the new Europeanised world of top football.

To you all I say: “Happy St Dennis’s Day.”

RockyLives 

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Revolving Doors at the Emirates…………??

June 19, 2011

Written by Harry

Well, as the summer transfer window widens and the pace hots up with Arsenal supposedly just about hanging on the tailcoats of the rest as they build super squads that we cannot hope to compete with….. What will Wenger do?

Both Arsene and Ivan Gazidis have more than hinted that there will be a good turnover of players: At the recent Q&A with the Arsenal Fans Forum, Big Ivan said:

“It is very clear we had some shortcomings and in this close season we are going to see some turnover of players. Some new signings will be coming in and some of our existing squad will be going out. As Arsène has said, it will be a busy close season for the Club.”

 

In the article I waffled through last week, I ran the rule over the squad and came up with my list of goners, these players have been identified by me {IMHO} as on their way, most agreed, some wanted others to join the list…….

“Almunia, Clichy, Squillaci, Denilson, Bendtner, Eastmond and sadly Fabregas”

But we have to be pragmatic and realise that a greater turnover of players, more than say 7 / 8 would cause too much disruption…….And of the 7 above, only 2 are first team starters…..So for me that would be enough……..

The biggest issue we have currently is the Nasri-Fabregas situations, as I have said before we have to be careful that we don’t lose both of these world class players. Should we concentrate on one? And the let the other leave?

Even though Fabregas said he won’t ask to leave and that it’s all down to the boss, he might as well have said and spoke the truth, reading in between the lines, his inner desire is to play for his boyhood team, which we all can understand. All I want is a committed player; will he be if he stays? Ok injuries affected him last season, but was he totally focused?

For me he is off…….I’d be stunned if he stays…

So in that case, lets give Samir a new contract (long term) and bring some new players in to compliment what we have……..

So what do we need?

Goalkeepers:

Personally for me I would start with Wojciech as Number 1 with Lukasz pushing him all the way. With Almunia off, Vito Mannone would come back in as number 3.  So we don’t need a new one……..Maybe a big call, but truly what’s out there at the moment? Reina is now committed to Liverpool, so lets go with our young poles, competition between them will be good for them and us……..

Defenders:

The priority for me is replacing Clichy, I would bust a gut to get hold of Leighton Baines from Everton. Positionally sound, has pace, can cross, solid tackler and fighter. Cracking free kicks and penalties as well….

The rumour this week has been that Wenger wants Samba and Cahill, that would be a massive surprise, Squillaci must move on, so there is only one place, unless Wenger sees either Koscielny or Vermaelen moving positions, both are capable of holding the midfield anchor slot, so Cahill would add real depth, just cannot see both coming in…..

Out of the two, I really want Samba, has real grit and strength, a powerful dominant beast of a defender, who puts his body on the line, this would be his big chance and I feel he would give his all, would really be a leader when needed…….

And we have brought in already young Carl Jenkinson from Charlton, Wenger sees him as a very good player who is making big strides, so I see him as an understudy to Sagna, with cup games surely  his aim for this season.

Baines would be perfect at Left Back……..

Midfield:

Well hopefully, Gervinho is finally signed this week, like most of us, don’t really know alot about him, but the highlights and reports I have seen lately look promising, he seems to be a typical Arsène signing. Importantly he has an eye for goal, with incisive movement, tends to cut in from the right, and has strength to hold players off, pace with ability to hold onto the ball……

Matuidi has been mentioned again as previous seasons, as has Willian from Donetsk. Both would be interesting signings, but just don’t see that we need them that much, surely we have enough in Midfield, as long as we only lose one of Fabregas or Nasri.

I really want Lansbury to break into the squad this season, the other one would be Ryo, but he still has issues with the permits, so will have wait. Ramsey has a big season ahead of him, really looking forward to him getting back to his best…..

Oxlade-Chamberlain supposedly was close to signing in the mid-season TW, but Southampton refused to let him go. He seems to want to come and his Dad is in favour. I would like to see him come in and would be disappointed if we lost out just by a few pounds……

Attack:

I would give Chamakh another season and let the Danish Pele with his pink boots move on, he might turn into a star at some stage, but I just feel he has run out of chances at the Emirates, although he has been played out of position a lot……

So for me we need a goal scorer, Defoe has been muted this week, unlikely to happen, would be interesting if on form and consistent, but generally he is not.

I would love to see a true superstar to come in, like Falcao from Porto or Vucinic from Roma as more of a statement of intent in a way, but would also be happy if we managed to nab hold of Connor Wickham from Ipswich, he was such a handful in the Carling Cup Semi last season, powerful pacy and a good energy about him, he would be an excellent signing and RVP remains my main man so would a true superstar be too much?

So to sum up the players who should come in:

Baines, Samba, Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wickham. If Wenger did surprise us and pick up Cahill as well happy days, but that lot would be seen as some cracking business if all tied up…..would it not?

My starting 11:

Wojciech

Sagna Koscielny Vermaelen Baines

Song

Wilshere Nasri

Walcott         Arshavin

RVP

Bench: Gervinho, Ramsey, O-C, Wickham, Djourou, Samba and Fabianski…….

I would be well happy with that……………….

And just think of the players I haven’t mentioned yet still in the squad……….Chamakh, Jenkinson, Frimpong, Lansbury, Diaby, Eboue, Gibbs, Miquel, Bartley, amongst many others…

Would that keep Nasri and the rest of the Gooner’s out there happy?

Written by Harry

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

DESERT ISLAND ARSENAL.

June 18, 2011

Written by MickyDidIt89

The moment has arrived. Its gloomy, it is Saturday, and the transfer news is slow. What to do? I popped out for a thoughtful cigarette, and I believe, came up with a brilliant idea.

Most of us will know of Desert Island Discs. For those who don’t, it is a radio show where guests are invited to take one or two things to keep them company on said desert island. The idea is to focus the mind.

So, I give you my version: Desert Island Arsenal.

1.      Which ten minutes of your Arsenal existence would you most like to relive?

2.      You can have ANY one piece of Arsenal memorabilia. What would that be?

3.      An hour with anyone from any era associated with Arsenal. Who and Why?

Well then, to get the ball rolling, here are my three:

1.       Here we have a straight fight between my first game with my Dad. Arsenal Leeds, evening game, August 1973, and the moment the majestic arena unfolded before my eyes two minutes before Kick Off. The full house, the emerald green surface and the rest you know. In the other corner is the Mickey Thomas goal. The Long Ball Forward, and again you all know the rest. This is very tough, but I will opt for ’73.

2.      It would be The Marble Halls. Yip, the whole thing. What would I do with it? My dream is to one day build my own classic English Garden. Big style. I like trees, water and follies, so we are talking Stourhead. My folly, Palladian Style, would be set high on a hill overlooking my work and within it would be The Marble Halls, where I could contemplate the Great Arsenal Moments, The Meaning of Life and other stuff.

3.      Again, mighty tough this one. I have always wanted to ask John Lukic what the bloody hell he was playing at when,  a minute into extra time at Anfield, he thought it would be a good idea to roll the ball out to Dixon rather than “hoof” the thing. However, this would not take an hour, so for me, I would opt for an hour with whoever came up with the idea of binning our Club Crest, a length of rope and a blunt knife!

Frankly, change the questions, and we could play this game every time some tool fails to deliver on a quality postage!

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Arsenal were Top of the Premier League Post last Season

June 17, 2011

Written by 26may1989

A few days ago, someone called JRS put up a link to a Twitter page operated by Opta, the collectors of statistics for all matters football. See http://twitpic.com/4t9shh.  I hadn’t seen it when it was published, but it had a table showing what the Premier League table would have looked like on 1st May had all shots that hit posts and crossbars actually resulted in goals.  And the impact was incredible.

The top six places on 1st May were transformed from this:

P

W

D

L

GS

GA

GD

Pts
1 Man Utd

35

21

10

4

71

33

38

73

2 Chelsea

35

21

7

7

66

28

38

70

3 Arsenal

35

19

10

6

68

36

32

67

4 Man City

34

18

8

8

53

31

22

62

5 Liverpool

35

16

7

12

54

39

15

55
6 Tottenham

34

14

13

7

50

43

7

55

…. to this:

P

W

D

L

GS

GA

GD

Pts
1 Arsenal

35

27

5

3

89

38

51

86

2 Chelsea

35

22

8

5

86

38

48

74

3 Man Utd

35

22

7

6

82

43

39

73

4 Liverpool

35

19

2

14

64

44

20

59

5 Man City

34

15

11

8

66

43

23

56








6 Tottenham

34

14

14

6

64

54

10

56

Of course, looking at the staggering 19 additional points we would have got in this Alice-in-Wonderland scenario of shots hitting the net instead of hitting woodwork, my first thoughts were “If only”.  After all, that magnificent victory over United on 1st May would have seen us crowned champions with three games to go.  But thinking that way, of course, is pointless; this is a completely artificial analysis and United deserved to win the title because, in the real world, they did better than us, and better than anyone else.

However, there is still something interesting about the OptaJoe table, it still says something.  Specifically, it illustrates the significance of luck in football.  Of course, skill accounts for some of the difference between shots that hit woodwork and shots that hit the back of the net.  But the sheer scale of Arsenal’s 21 hits (and Chelsea’s 20) as compared with United’s ten hits take it beyond a question of skill.  The point is only underlined when one looks at the number of goals that would have been conceded (something that must be even less controllable, since it is a question of the opponent’s accuracy): United and Chelsea would have conceded ten more goals each, but Arsenal would have conceded only two more.  Less accurate shooting is one factor but, with these margins of difference, luck must also be an ingredient in the mix.

It’s not sour grapes to talk about luck; anyone who succeeds in sport depends, to some degree or other, on luck.  Last season, United were lucky and we were unlucky, but in the years when we succeeded (remember those?!), I’m sure we got the benefit of plenty of luck as well.  And who can argue that our epic league win back in 1989 was anything other than the pinnacle of good luck?  Beautiful, dramatic, fantastic: yes.  But also very lucky.

Quite simply, there are too many variables that cannot be controlled by individuals for luck not to play a significant part in sporting success.  It is an ingredient in sport, always has been, always will be.  In cricket, there are the dropped catches or even the occasions when a ball hits the stumps without dislodging the bails.  In horse-racing, there are the horses that collapse or trip while clear in the home strait.  The hope is that luck is not the dominant factor in deciding the big issues in sporting competition.  But in the words of that titan of philosophy, Larry King: “Those who have succeeded at anything and don’t mention luck are kidding themselves.”

Many factors contributed to our abject failure in last season’s run-in: personnel, tactics, refereeing decisions and player psychology, all played a part, of course.  But what the OptaJoe table underlines is the importance of luck.  The existence, nature and sources of luck (good and bad) have been the subject of philosophical and religious debate for millennia.  Buddhists, for example, dismiss the idea of luck, saying that there is a cause behind every event, even if that cause is moral in nature (karma).  But for my money, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th President of the US and a five-star general in the US Army, was closer to understanding the capricious nature of luck when he said “I would rather have a lucky general than a smart general. … They win battles, and they make me lucky.”

Perhaps Eisenhower would have shown Wenger the door for being so unlucky last season.  But I’m glad that’s one American who can’t influence our club.  We need the 2011-12 season to be different in a number of ways.  Here’s hoping one of the differences is that we’re luckier.

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Arsène makes greatest signing of the transfer window – Guess who?

June 16, 2011

Written by Wigan Gooner

I’ll not muck about – it’s Pat Rice.

My reasoning for this statement is as follows, Arsène is facing a summer of upheaval like he has never known at Arsenal. There could be more player movement at Arsenal that I have ever seen in all of my years. Add that to even more expectation, pressure and a new pre-season routine and it is a very different Arsenal for 2011-2012.

The biggest signing was to retain the services of Pat Rice for another year because even if he is known (in some quarters, not my own) as a yes man he has vast experience as No 2 at Arsenal and he has the respect of the squad.

If I can build on that for a second, Arsène is a hands-on coach. He likes to tweak, push and work with his player’s every single day. Every day working to iron out their imperfections on the training pitch and working like that with a squad of 30-odd first-team squad player’s is a massive drain on resource and he would be unable to complete a single training session like that.

Pat Rice and Boro Primorac let him do it because whilst he is working and talking with the player’s they are running the drills and setting up the practice matches. Arsène is their Father, with Pat Rice and Boro Primorac the coaches.

Whilst we can all see the potential improvement a shake-up in the backroom staff might bring, can we afford the upheaval? Haven’t we got enough going on? The settling in period and changes of routine when we are already shaking the Arsenal Castle to the very core foundations? When star players are considering leaving for a few thousand pounds?

He will be buying in fresh players and these players need a steady stable ship to join. Stability aids adaption and London Colney is certainly different to most clubs. Pat Rice is one massive, all-important cog in the Colney machine and without him, I think Arsène would be in more trouble than he’d care to admit.

WG

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Posted by peachesgÖÖner

Arsenal Fans Are Being Misled

June 14, 2011

Here are some facts:

  • Arsène Wenger is dithering in the transfer market.
  • He is paralysed by indecision because so many top players are threatening to leave.
  • Arsenal’s main rivals, by contrast, are acting decisively and boldly.
  • Highly rated players will not join Arsenal because we have not won a trophy for six years.
  • Arsenal will never spend ‘big’ money on a new signing.

I know that these are facts because I have read them in the newspapers. The Mail, the Express, the Sunday Times and of course the down market tabloids. They have all published variations on all of the above statements.

The journalists responsible are professional reporters. They’ll have done their journalism training at Darlington, Cardiff or Westminster (the most established journo training centres) or at one of the in-house schemes run by some newspaper groups.

They’ll have started out with great dreams and ideals of being a top sports writer. They’ll have worked their way up, for the most part, through local papers and news agencies, covering non-league games on rainy, windswept pitches in front of tiny crowds before moving on to the lower divisions and finally getting their big break in Fleet Street, writing about the EPL.

And now they produce these ‘facts’.

For crying out loud, they should be ashamed of themselves.

If these are facts, they’re the sort that would do Joseph Goebbels proud.

Goebbels, for those who don’t know their World War Two history, was the chief propagandist for the Third Reich. Up until 1939 his main narrative was that Germany’s intentions were entirely peaceful. And we know how that turned out.

That’s what propagandists do. They develop a narrative and stick to it. Every event, every outcome, every statement is re-positioned so that it fits the narrative, even when it patently doesn’t, until the narrative has served its purpose.

Arsenal may not exactly be facing the forces of Nazism, but we are facing a propaganda onslaught orchestrated by Fleet Street and other media outlets like TalkSport.

At the start of last season the embryonic idea took form that Arsenal were headed for continuing failure under Arsene Wenger (not least because he allegedly hates to spend money on quality players). As the season wore on this form solidified and became accepted wisdom.

The fact that Arsenal’s transfer activity was severely curtailed for five years because of the cost of the new stadium (and that the manager miraculously kept us competitive in that time while making a net profit on transfers) was gradually written out of the story.

Instead the ‘facts’ became that Arsene was a skinflint; that he was scared of buying established stars in case he couldn’t control them; that he persisted with bringing through young players not because of financial constraints but because he was ‘obsessed’ with ‘project youth’.

There may even have been grains of truth in some elements of this (certainly Arsene has seemed attracted to the idea of creating a squad of young players who grow up together playing a particular brand of football). But essentially a position that was easily explained by the circumstances (lack of money due to building a new stadium) was reframed as being about something else – namely the supposed character flaws of the manager.

The team’s implosion in last season’s run-in added further fuel to this narrative, which is why we have arrived at the point today where our summer transfer activity has been written off by the press before it has even begun.

Barely a week into the transfer window (and with more than two and a half months still to run), the Fleet Street concensus is that we’ve blown it. They tell us that because we haven’t gone out and hurled 15, 17, 20 million quid at whichever over-rated English player the journalists have decided is this week’s great big hope, we are dead in the water.

Let’s not bother turning up next season because these professional reporters have already decided that we’re heading for mid table.

Here’s just one small example of the reporting. I don’t mean to single out Rob Draper from the Mail, but it happens to be the most recent one I’ve read:

“Equally, should Fabregas eventually move, Wenger’s tactics in the transfer market will again come under the microscope. While Manchester United and Liverpool were swiftly into their squad-strengthening stride and Chelsea are poised to pick up the pace, Wenger risks being left standing in the stalls again as the big names head elsewhere.”

The bit that makes me laugh the most is “…and Chelsea are poised to pick up the pace…”

This illustrates exactly the issue of fitting the facts to suit your preconceived narrative. Despite Chelsea winning nothing and despite their manager having been sacked and despite them spending 50 million pounds in January on a striker who can’t score and despite the fact that they have done less than us in the market so far this summer, there is no suggestion that they risk “being left standing in the stalls again.” Oh no. They are “poised to pick up the pace.”

Make the facts fit the narrative. There is no anti-Chelsea narrative at the moment so their transfer inactivity can be overlooked.

Frankly it’s just lazy. As was all the triumphalism over Man Utd beating us to Phil Jones’s signature and supposedly proving that promising young players would rather go to Old Trafford than the Emirates… oh, wait a minute… that deal is not even done. Top quality reporting there, lads.

Unlike many Gooners, I don’t believe that most of the sports hacks have an agenda against Arsenal (although some surely have). It’s just that the media move like a school of anchovies. When they change direction they do so as one and it happens in an instant. Pack mentality, if you like (apologies for the mixed metaphor).

But the result is the same: we, the supporters, are being misled by what these journalists write.

So what conclusions can we draw? Well, for me it’s a simple one: let’s not swallow this slapdash, thoughtless reporting and regurgitate it in our own forums. Even when it’s incorrect it can still cause damage and there is a real danger of the narrative becoming real if it’s hammered home hard enough and if enough people fall for it. That is the aim of propaganda.

And finally, I would ask those reporters who find themselves in the privileged position of being able to write about our national sport for a living to remember the ideals with which they entered their profession.

Don’t give in to the laziness; don’t just follow the pack.

Stand up and say: “I am not an anchovy.”

RockyLives

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