And since when have AFC become a selling club…..shouldn’t they harvest the youth for their own first team?

Or does a 16 year old Spanish youth player not classify as youth?

Ashley Cole?
Or does the fact he left the club mean his career is over?

How many others who’ve had successful careers after starting at AFC over the last 13 years?
Isn’t that the whole point of a youth system?

And Wolves won today 2-0, so I think McCarthy definitely got it right for his club.

Maybe I relied a bit on the things that came up in the press in my country and what the reporter on TV said during the game.

After the game he said this & I heard him say it:
“They were all first-team squad players who played tonight, not reserves and I have to say there were some really good performances”

No one has a 1-11 these days, it is not possible.

The CC has been of huge benefit, Sean. There have been plenty of difficult games home & away, with plenty of the current squad getting valuable experience as youngsters or new to England. 10 or more of the squad for tomorrow I would guess.

In any case, there are no easy games.

Frankly, if he keeps Wolves up it will have been the best decision for his club.

“I gave my opinion and there is nothing personal in it and I completely understand other managers might have another opinion,” Wenger said.

“I am one of the few who really says what he thinks. I am not scared. I give my opinion without any aggression.” skysports dec 18

Is it just me, or is that the most beautifully arrogant check mate ever heard. That of course referring to Pulis just loosing his temper and head butting Beattie

commented in the last blog by mistake

(maybe it just happened w/ the CL league draw…hmm…)

The discussion about ethical behaviour in a league that is a precursor to a knockout was vigorous in bridge in the seventies. Immediate knockout would result in half the teams being eliminated after one match, so it was thought preferable to organise competitions in a similar manner to the Champions League. Many people were of the opinion that if you were in a position where, towards the end of the round robin, you were certain to qualify for the knockout, it was mandatory that you would do your best to make sure that the other team that came out of your section was weak. (Play your best against a strong team; throw the match to a weak team). That gave you a better chance of winning the tournament, and was, therefore, the right thing to do.

However, if there are rules they must either be enforced or changed. In this case Wolves are clearly in the wrong and must be punished.

The situation towards the end of the season is more difficult. How do you motivate a team that is going to come 9th, win, lose or draw? If they are playing against a team involved in a relegation or promotion battle, that is “unfair” to the other teams that may be effected. The problem is systemic and cannot be solved. This means that the current rules are unworkable and should be changed.

The spirit of the law regarding fielding a full strength team in the EPL is that every game is treated competitively.

I agree with Flint to some extent. Arsenal have virtually two A teams. Who is to say what is a full strength team?

But if a game is apparently ‘thrown’, then you have a problem, because that brings the game into disrepute.

I dont think that Arsene is angered due to rules. He is angry that by placing a reserve team against ManU we are allowing them an unfair adavntage. But I find the logic equally bad for ManU by playing a bad team last year. And both of them are equally wrong.

But I believe that things should be followed in spirit first. And if we deprived some team of fair competition by playing a weak team we should not complaint about it too. But I have a feeling that even Arsenal would have fielded a second team if we had won the PL and had CL finals in 3 days.

Going against Tony and Wenger in a day. I never thought it would come.

McCarthy has a squad of players, who is to say what his best 11 is on a certain day. He may have taken the team, that put a lot of energy into beating Spurs, to OT & got spanked 6-0, who knows. Either way he did what he thought was best for his club, as I am sure AW always does.

No doubt AW was asked the question, but having put out a virtual youth team, a week ago, in a league situation, he was on very thin ground to criticize. What will we do if a fixture at the end of the season is meaningless to us, but not to us, & we have a CL sf coming up? No you do what is best & if you have a squad then everyone should be at 1st team level.

Again on the fixtures, although he was absolutely right, but he would have been better to have kept his own council, because it gives ammunition to his many desperate detractors, as well as a pep talk to Hull, who will be delighted to know our players are feeling the strain. This is one of AW’s major weaknesses, he needs to say less about his team being tired. Certainly in the old days (sorry about that but still relevant I feel) the players always used to prefer playing midweek to training. They have to be strong enough to cope because all the other teams in European competition have the same difficulties.

The fixtures are strange though. I counted that, as they are set out for the remainder of the season, we will have had 5 sets of double away games against 3 of double home games.

I think the key point is the rules of each competition. The domestic cup competitions in England (and Wales for the FA Cup) have no rules that I know of about putting out your strongest team.

The Champs League has a rule that you nominate a set number of players, but that in addition you can put forward all your under 21 players (or something like that – sorry I normally look these things up to check, but we are short at work today because of snow, so I am doing this quicker than usual).

So the Champs League is set up to allow clubs – almost encourage clubs – to include the youngsters in the squads. Why they have that rule I don’t know – but they do, so we are quite right to use it.

But the EPL and the other English leagues have the rules about playing the strongest side. And while of course it would be stupid for them to say – Arsenal cheated, because they did/did not include Walcott or someone – the wholesale changes that Manchester U put in at the end of last season, and that Wolverhampton W did this week, is clearly and obviously a breach of the rules.

What worries me is this business of rules that are sometimes invoked but not always. This was the whole problem with Eduardo and the dive allegation. That rule had, I think, only been used once before – and has not been used since. That is ludicrous. The rule is either used, or it is withdrawn from the book.

So I think there is logic in Wenger’s comments – there is a rule for the league, and if there is a rule it should be applied. There is no rule for the Cups, so we abide by the competition.

Tony

“In every league match each participating club shall field a full strength team.”

Its a bit meaningless though, because you can argue that all your squad are at the same level.

There is another law about “bringing the game into disrepute”.

If a team went out and made no effort and lost 12-0 you would say that they were bringing the game into disrepute.

AW has apoint of course, because if every team did a MM, then MU would have no serious games to play.

The FA is a Law unto itself, docking points on a whim, and capriciously investigating rogue divers, so there is nothing to stop it
throwing the ebook at MM.

Anyway, I still believe that ManU will suffer a comeuppance somewhere down the line. Anyone remembers the year we were ducked 2 points for some agrro against ManU? They thought that it would stop Arsenal’s progress, but it backfired and Arsenal won the league that year. Who says it cannot happen again?