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by Walter Broeckx
In a perfect world we would win all our games with 3 or 4 goals. But as we have found out already this isn’t a perfect world at all. Things don’t always happen the way we want them to happen. And so instead of us winning against West Ham with a final score line of 3-0 we had to fight till the last seconds to get a 1-0 win.
What was the most pleasing thing today? Winning and taking the 3 points of course. That is the most important thing. Dropping points would have been a huge disappointment and we certainly did deserve the 3 points. We had some 20 shots on goal and West Ham had 6 in total. We played in their half for most of the time, we hit the woodwork twice and Green made some amazing stops. Once again he proves to be a goalkeeper that loves to play against us and a keeper who can play his best games against us. With another keeper and with a little bit of luck it could have been a high score line.
But lady luck was not on our side against West Ham so we had to work very hard for the 3 points. And that is just what we did. Some players did not have their best day in this game, and that happens. I have read in the mean while that Cesc was feeling something in his hamstring and you could feel that he was not at his best during the game. So maybe this was why he didn’t perform like we are used that he performs. Luckily Jack Wilshere is available again next week.
But as the statistics show we had done enough to win the game and so we did win it. How nice that Alex ‘not fit to wear the shirt’ Song was making us sing today. Another example of how right Wenger was and how wrong the AAA were all these years. And even before he scored he was man of the match at our home.
So we played our game and what did West Ham do? They did it all except that I did not really see them play football. I think Green has broken a new world record time wasting. As I was not in the stadium but had to see it on a stream on the internet I could not see it all but I think it took him more than a minute before the ball was back in play. Except the last 5 minutes as the West Ham players were running after the ball to bring it back in play at a tempo unseen for the first 90 minutes. I never knew they could take a goal kick so fast.
And when they had to take a throw in even Delap from Stoke cleans his ball faster with his towel than West Ham took a throw. So it was another “good” old performance of a team that was building a brick wall in front of their goal and just to be sure they had already parked their buss in front of that same wall.
But what can be better than to see that finally at the end of the game you can find that hole in the wall they had thought was going to keep us out. In fact scoring that late and punishing them so late on is maybe the best you can do. Imagine what a blow this must be for a team after showing all what can be ugly in football for 88 minutes and the find yourself with empty hands.
So at the end of the day they just got what they deserved for being an embarrassment for football: nothing. And maybe the way we won it will hurt them even more than if we would have won it 3-0. Now they can lick their wounds and we can celebrate a late victory and know that they all count even if a goal comes right at the end. I hope they have a few nightmares about it.
And for Arsenal 3 points in MIOU fashion in the last years so good points which could make a difference at the end of the season. Golden points.
- Give the most unusual Arsenal Xmas present of all time. Making the Arsenal: available from Amazon.co.uk but for a signed copy dedicated to whoever you want just order from the publishers (follow the link) and add details of the dedication wanted to your order.
- Arsenal History: Arsenal’s origins – currently telling the story of the game that never was: Arsenal v Eastern Wanderers on the Isle of Dogs in 1886
- Untold Arsenal on Facebook here
- Untold Arsenal Index: silly stuff, serious stuff, and stuff
- Arsenal Worldwide: supporting Arsenal from outside the UK
- Arsenal Independent Supporters Association show your support, be part of changing the club
By Tony Attwood (who I may assure you if you are in a dither about the headline has not gone utterly off his stevedore*)
It was once put to me by a publisher who was considering one of my early novels, that the difference between pornography and literature was that literature is about build up, anticipation and ultimately consequences, whereas pornography is about the event, with no previous or subsequence.
Thus it is interesting to watch a football team that is owned and financed by a bunch of pornographers who own such jolly things as Television X, the Sport newspapers, Ann Summers, Knickerbox, and the rest, and by a man who, when talking about possible retirement has said, “I wouldn’t know what to do with myself,” (a problem for all pornographers presumably).
Hence I ask, “Do the tactics of pornography move over to the football team, or not?”
On the evidence of the game at the Ems on saturday, no, since we had time wasting and rule breaking in the extreme from almost the start. The West Pornography keeper, who is roundly praised in most reports in the printed and TV media, spent much of the game breaking the rules.
Now I would have thought that worthy of a line or two, but seemingly not – and this of course is a good explanation as to why England does so badly in international football. In the EPL and elsewhere in England we are going down our own route of law interpretation.
Sitting, as I do in the Ems, to the right of the goal that Arsenal normally attack in the second half (as indeed happened against the Pornographers yesterday) I have developed the rather silly habit of counting the number of seconds a goalkeeper holds a ball for.
The notorious West Ham and England keeper hit 10 seconds on a number of occasions – double the allowed level. An equivalent would be taking a free kick awarded 60 yards from goal at a point 30 yards from goal. He also played the old boring game of kicking the ball from the opposite side of the goal to that from which he was positioned every time he got a goal kick – thus taking yet more time up.
This is now how it is in English football, and it is a sadness that teams like West Porno can get away with it, with the referees in a union agreement not to punish them. As Walter regularly says, a word early on telling the player to cut it out would solve so much of the problem, and actually give us our football back. But not at the moment I fear.
The only amusing point in all this was that once Song scored (not 2 minutes from the end as the print and broadcast media say, but 7 minutes from the end – we had five minutes of extra time) the West Porno keeper scuttled around his goal like a five year old running hither and yon, trying to get the ball back up the pitch.
WHP’s final sub, during injury time, was made at double quick time – quite the opposite of the earlier changes, in which the old “other side” ploy was used. With this the player to be substituted gets a signal from the bench, and dutifully trots across to the other side of the pitch – furtherest away from the tunnel, looking anywhere but at the changeover board. Then when eventually his attention is drawn to the fact that he is to leave he looks in astonishment – amazement even – points to himself as if to say “What me? Surely no!” and then ambles (because of a sudden weariness and injury only just discovered) towards the far side, which he reaches several minutes later.
Of course all of this could be dealt with if only the EPL had a mind to – by instruction the ref’s to take action on time wasting. But they don’t. I suspect the TV companies have asked for them not to so they can show more replays.
Driving back to the Midlands after the game, (and ultimately a rather enjoyable Halloween party on Saturday night which didn’t end until 3am BST (which of course wasn’t, because it was 2am GMT, but didn’t feel like it) with lots of blues guitar playing, and associated singing of “You can’t play the blues in an air-conditioned room” etc etc) I heard a little of 606 on Radio 5 – a lunatic discussion show in which people phone in to say they were “gutted” or “over the moon”. Apparently if you say neither when you phone the show and talk to a researcher, they don’t let you on.
Anyway, as so often happens, the Anti-Arsenal Arsenal got one of their number on, and he used his one minute of fame to say that Denilson and Diaby were rubbish, should not wear the shirt, and that Wenger was too stubborn and should ditch them. “Denilson,” this AAA said, “is the only Brazilian player who can’t pass a ball.”
Of course the BBC know that this is the AAA because they get the AAA on quite a lot, and it is clear most of the callers about Arsenal have not been to the game. (This one didn’t even know Diaby wasn’t playing). But it ended with amusement because Robbie Savage (who co-hosts the show, from the showers at Derby County) disagreed totally on the fairly sold grounds that he had played against these players.
A novel twist.
So, we beat the pornographers at our game, not at their own game. Cesc didn’t look right, but I note that the Lord Wenger has said he nearly took Cesc off at half time because of problems with his hamstring again. But even so, we won 19-5 on shots and 10-2 on shots on target.
Thinking forward we will have Jack back for the trip to foreign parts this week, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cesc not travel given that his replacement is in position, and Nasri can play forward, middle, full back, whatever you like.
And I still can’t get over this midfield that is about to hit us (injuries permitting)
Jack / Cesc / Ramsey / Nasri / Denilson / Diaby / Rosicky / Lansbury.
Couldn’t we just put out a complete team of midfielders?
Last point: did you see Lord Wenger’s comment about having too many good goalkeepers? Do you happen to know where that came from? More on that story anon. I’m now off to a lunch in the lovely Rutland village of Lyddington. Rutland. Smallest county in England, and home to a race of car drivers who habitually indicate left and then turn right.
* Stevedore = docker = rocker (slang for head) (Cockney rhyming slang as wot might not be spoke in the east end, stone me guv you’re a gent and no mistake). (Don’t worry its just a West Pornography thing).
- Give the most unusual Arsenal Xmas present of all time. Making the Arsenal: available from Amazon.co.uk but for a signed copy dedicated to whoever you want just order from the publishers (follow the link) and add details of the dedication wanted to your order.
- Arsenal History: Arsenal’s origins – currently telling the story of the game that never was: Arsenal v Eastern Wanderers on the Isle of Dogs in 1886
- Untold Arsenal on Facebook here
- Untold Arsenal Index: silly stuff, serious stuff, and stuff
- Arsenal Worldwide: supporting Arsenal from outside the UK
- Arsenal Independent Supporters Association show your support, be part of changing the club
By Walter Broeckx, the ref
No beach ball to see with ref Micheal Jones today so he couldn’t mess it up with that. But how did he do for the rest with the other decisions?
CARD: Ilunga gets the first yellow card. The ref let play continue first for an advantage but then comes back to the foul and gives the card. Ilunga came in hard. Correct decision. 1/1
CARD: Song gets a yellow card and no much to argue about it, he was late. 1/1
OTHER: Time wasting by Green was ridiculous. And as far as I could see it nothing was said or done by the ref. After the first half I think Green had wasted some 15 minutes of time. 0/1
OTHER/CARD: Parker fouls Denilson and the ref lets it go. This was a Dejongh kind of tackle. Like I have said some hundred times: when you take both ball and man it still is a foul and certainly when you come in frontal. This could have caused serious injury. No foul seen by the ref and so no card. 0/1 and 0/1
CARD: Parker with another bad tackle on Chamakh this time. And again no card is shown. Are they having some kind of affair the ref and Parker? 0/1 And this could and should have been his second yellow card at least.
CARD: Boa Morte is booked for bringing down Denilson. No way he could have played the ball. The right decision. 1/1
OTHER: More and more time wasting by Green and the West Gang at each free kick, throw and goal kick. I think Green has stolen some 45 minutes on his own. Okay this is a little bit exaggerated but again I didn’t see the ref making any remark on this during the whole 90 minutes. Again I was not in the stadium so maybe he did do something but I couldn’t see it. What I do know is that during each goal kick Green had to take they gave the replays off all the chances we have had during the game. 0/1
PENALTY: Arshavin goes down in the box at full pace. Da Costa put his hand on him and gave the impression that he pulled him a bit. But as I cannot tell if the push was enough or not I go with the refs decision on this. But if the ref would have given it, West Ham shouldn’t have complained as it is dangerous to put your arm on the other player. 1/1
PENALTY: Chamakh is being held by his marker when he tries to head it and can’t jump properly. This was a penalty for me. If this would have happened in the CL the ball could have ended on the penalty spot. He was clearly held so this is a foul. 1/1
OTHER: Theo is going for a shot and at the moment he shoots Chamakh is some 3 meters ONSIDE. Green saves and pushes the ball wide. Chamakh is first on to the ball and then the linesman raises his flag. Now I don’t know what that was all about. No way Chamakh was offside. I think the linesman was blinded by the light or so but it stopped another attack and gave West Hame some 4 minutes to waste more time. 0/1
CARD: Chamakh is booked for a shirt tug on Da Costa. The Moroccan is not happy with Da Costa who he thinks led with his elbow. These are the things you get as a ref when you don’t have the game in hand. Players feel this and do their own thing and don’t mind about what the ref is doing. But the card was correct, a blatant shirt pull but born our of frustration with so many wrong decisions. 1/1
GOAL: party time at the Emirates and correct goal. No offside at all mr. Green.
OTHER: Extra time 5 minutes. After a game in which 1 team has done all the time wasting you can try to give the other team as much extra time as possible. So initial 5 minutes was the right decision when they made that decision and I guess this was some 5 minutes before the end of the game. So I could give him a point for this and give him a good point. But I will come back on this further on in my article 1/1
CARDS: 4/6
PENALTY: 1/2
GOAL: 1/1
OTHER: 1/5
Total score: 7/14 (50%)
Now I do confess that I give these points but can change them if someone who was in the stadium tells me that the ref actually did tell Green to not waste time like they did.
For the rest it was what I would call a typical EPL ref performance. For some reasons refs in the EPL all seem to be remembered as a ref who doesn’t ref in fact. They don’t punish some dangerous tackles. They don’t want to punish time wasting. They don’t want to give cards when it is needed and instructed. They don’t want to stop the game. It is as if they are afraid to blow their whistle. Today was no different.
Once again a ref let a very dangerous tackle go even without blowing a foul (Parker on Denilson). So I expect us to see another few broken legs before we are champions at the end of the season. And this is for me a very sad thing. I hope it happens with other teams and that it is not Arsenal who suffer another major blow but if the refs keep on doing nothing about those dangerous frontal tackles it will happen. It is just a matter of time. I can only call on the refs to act and to prevent it.
I wanted to give my view on the MIOU – Spuds 2nd goal but I will give it in the comments section later on as I think it could take away some attention on the ref from today.
And a final note: it was the second visit from mr. Jones to the Emirates and last time he got 83% so it was a bad performance or the game (against Blackpool) was played in a very good atmosphere and with 2 teams wanted to play football.
By Billy “The Dog” McGraw, (ably assisted once again by his nurse).
—————-
I speak, in my headline, of course, about the line up for the EPL game or “clash” as the media like to call it, Arsenal vs Western Pornography.
I mean, what sort of shambles of a club gets into this situation? Two on-form goalkeepers, both fit, and we can only play one of them. What’s the point of that?
And if that is a nonsense, look at the midfield. Song of course will play, and the anti-Arsenal mobsters will quietly forget all their criticisms of him, and how they tried to remove him from the club.
But who else?
There’s…
- Denilson
- Diaby
- Cesc
- Nasri
- Rosicky
All vying for two places. Why can’t Wenger not just have the right players for the right places, instead of wasting all this money on salaries?
Then think of the forwards…
- Walcott
- Arshavin
- Chamakh
- Bendtner
At least Van Persie and Ramsey have the decency to be injured, and Wilshere is banned. If they weren’t all out we would be looking the absolute laughing stock of the football league.
But as it is we have five midfielders vying for two positions and four forwards trying to cram themselves into three. No wonder the rest of the football world is laughing. (Actually Billy it’s me that you can hear laughing – Ed)
Just look at our results!!! (and I use the exclamation mark advisably) We have only won two of our last two league games. In the league cup we have also only managed two wins and a miserable eight goals against nincompoops like the very tiny totts, and the incomprehensible north easterners who seemed to think (at least from their songs) they were at some kind of dog race meeting. I mean!
In the last three games we’ve scored 12 and let in one, which just about proves it to me that Arshavin is bloody useless – not least because most of the time he wasn’t even on the pitch. What sort of a player is that? Like that stupid Robert Pires, he only ever played an hour of each match and then trotted off.
So what are we going to do?
Here’s a possible team
Fabianski
Sagna Koscielny Squillaci Clichy [Djourou, Eboue]
Song [Eastmond]
Cesc Nasri [Denilson, Rosicky, Lansbury]
Theo Chamakh Arshavin [Bendtner, JET]
So do you want to know what is wrong with that team? I will tell you what is wrong with that team. Just look at what those august people from the anti-Arsenal Arsenal Association of something beginning with A and quite rude (AAAAA) have said about these players. Then you will know what is wrong my friends…
- Fabianski – Flapianski. Probably ok in League Two
- Sagna – Too slow, poor crosses, can’t tackle
- Koscielny – A back up player nothing more. We needed a world class defender not an unknown
- Squillaci – Past it. We are totally exposed at the back
- Clichy- see Sagna
- Song – not fit to wear the shirt (that after the Fulham game about 3 years ago)
- Cesc – heart is not in it – his mind is already in Spain
- Nasri – Zidane? Don’t make me laugh. When did he last score a goal. Oh, well yes, but apart from that. And that. And that. And that.
- Theo – never developed, injury prone, won’t make it, can’t even make the world cup team, waste of money (that at the end of last season)
- Chamakh – good players don’t come on free transfers
- Arshavin – lazy, not interested and that stat about providing more passes for goals, as well as scoring a few, is just plain wrong. You can prove anything with statistics.
So there you are. A load of drivel the lot of them. They should have listened to me and bought Crouch.
[At this point medics arrived and removed Mr Dog from the 19th story at the Untold Empire and placed him in the dungeon - sorry basement medical centre. Time being short the editor was invited to conclude the piece].
So kiddiwinks, here we are. We’ll go with Mr Dog’s prediction shall we against the Ironsides? But to a slight degree the old allotment owner does have a point. With all those midfielders what happens with Jack comes back? The Jack / Cesc midfield combination is such a powerful force with beautiful passes being sprayed from all positions to all positions it is an art-work. In fact I demand an Art Council grant for those two. In fact Cesc+Jack should win the next Turner Prize. I shall set up a blog to that effect. Oh, actually I have. Well there you are, you never can tell.
But we’ll just have to wait a little longer for that amazing duopoly (eg Shakhter), and rest easy in the knowledge that as my old pal Ian said on the phone last night (after kindly checking that my health was up to speed once again and that Jane and I would possibly make it to the Auld “Right I want all you on the pavement now” Triangle for the Pornographers game) we had something like nine changes between the league game and the league cup game. And we still put out an awe-inspiring team.
It doesn’t affect the anti-Arsenal though – they’ll complain if Bendtner misses a shot tomorrow, and forget the two fabuloso goals in the last two appearances, and if Theo slips over or misplaces a pass, they’ll forget all the goals.
The big problem for the opposition is they won’t quite know who the goal scorer is they are supposed to mark. Chamakh? Nasri? Theo? Cesc? Arshavin? They will meander around a bit, and then seeing Arshavin looking bored, standing still, admiring the grass, getting up slowly, will think, well he’s not in it. And three point six seconds later he’ll either score or provide the cross for a goal.
I guess overall what will happen is that we’ll play one team today and another at Shakhtar, which seems fair enough. And that ladies and gents, is something that neither Man U nor the KGB in Fulham are quite able to do.
Makes me quite proud to be an idiot.
See you at the Triangle maybe.
(Irony = a manner of organizing a work so as to give full expression to contradictory or complementary impulses, attitudes, etc., esp. as a means of indicating detachment from a subject, theme, or emotion (esp. in contemporary writing)
(There’s always someone who doesn’t quite get it).
RefWatch: Mike Jones – Arsenal Vs West Ham 30/Oct/2010
By DogFace
- Referee: Mike Jones
- Assistant 1: Dave Bryan
- Assistant 2: John Flynn
- 4th Official: Keith Hill
This weekend we entertain Western side of the provincial hamlet of Ham in what promises to be a cracking encounter… probably. But enough of all that – the build up will obviously be covered with far greater élan by Billy ‘The Dog’ – I hear he likes a bit of ham… or likes to ham it up a bit (Careful – Ed)
Moving on…
…Watching, as it were, a referee in a West Ham game must be taken into context with what seems to be the incredible ‘luck’ that the hammers tend to get in the EPL; this is the sort of luck that ‘@ v end of v day’ doesn’t ‘even out’.
To the casual observer it seems that they get most 50/50’s, 30/70’s and, indeed 0/100’s in their favour in every league game they ever play (remember this time last season the 2-2 draw).
This coupled with the EPL’s refusal to dock points from the hammers for breaking the rules (off the pitch) such as those relating to transfers and insolvency makes it all quite remarkable that they still seem to bounce around the relegation zone every season… with, of course, the aforementioned illegal transfers given special dispensation to participate in these ‘relegation battles’.
Quite frankly it’s all getting rather embarrassing – shape up, pull your socks up or ship out!
But still, talk of the devil; let’s take a look at the Ref – Mike Jones:
Full name: Mike J. Jones
Date of birth: 18 April 1968 (age 42)
Place of birth: The footballing hotbed of Chester, England
Favourite Colour: Unknown
Mike Jones is fairly new on the scene, being one of the chosen three to be promoted to Premier League/European action last season; the other two being Stuart Attwell and Kevin Friend – so one would assume that these guys were ‘the cream’ of refereeing talent – the pick of the bunch…
Kevin Friend I’m currently undecided on as he has never pinged my radar where as Stuart Attwell’s fuckups are well documented (it would be, of course, my immense pleasure to collate and document them again should he ever grace us with his presence).
Our man Jones has also had his share of the media spotlight for the odd gaffette; and we’ll look at these now:
Mike Jones, if you recall, was in charge of the match between Sunderland and Liverpool where an outside agent crept onto the pitch (to wit, a beach ball) and gave Darren Bent the opportunity to demonstrate his immense skill of both football and snooker by getting an ‘in off the red’.
Correct me if I’m wrong (Walter) but should that not have been a drop ball on the edge of the area? It seems that the cream of the crop does not fully understand the Laws of the Game… well – either that or an ‘outside agent’ crept into his dressing room and deflected a brown paper envelope into his back pocket? Was it Wenger who once said, après mugging, that the ref must be either corrupt or incompetent? Wise words indeed.
Don’t get me wrong though – I don’t hate all refs… there are some very good ones like Walter and, closer to the EPL, Andy D’Urso – but they never get games! Promotion to the select group of English refereedom, in my eyes, seems to be entirely based on how shit you are i.e. the more you can be relied upon to cock it up, look the other way and randomise the result, the bigger the games you get. When I say ‘bigger’ I mean in terms of overall gambling liquidity – you know – sky games, sky bet, red button, in-play… etc.
Where was I… oh yes – I’m wrong. Mike Jones was eventually dropped, actually, (for one game) after totally mugging off Hull in Burnley’s 2-0 home win, in which he awarded Burnley a dubious (see ‘bollocks’) penalty and disallowed a Hull goal, that would have given them the equaliser, before sending off Geovanni for no apparent reason.
I know it’s only Hull and quite funny to see Phil ‘the power’ Brown fuming in his post match interview but one would still hope he used the time off over the summer hols to swot up on the old rules eh?
Has he learned his lesson, will we get a ‘home advantage’ – or will we just all end up chanting “you don’t know what you’re doing”…
…again.
Answers on a postcard please!
by Tony Attwood
In a recent piece (“In football we are running out of benefactors”) I gave a quick resume of the financial problem that seems to be hitting the game. In this article I want to try and get a bit further into how it can be that Man U’s chief exec constantly tells us that everything is ok and the financial fair play rules are not a problem, while to some commentators that seems to be miles from the truth.
Unfortunately any debate about Man IOU can get complex, so in a typical Untoldian manner I am going to start at the end with my conclusions – just so you know where I’m off to. Then if you don’t want to read the rest you can pop on to the Arsenal History site and read about 1886.
Man IOU can’t qualify for Europe under the fair play regulations because…
1: They make a huge loss each year and that is enough to stop them qualifying.
2: Their last lost would have been even worse if they had not sold Ronaldo and then held onto the profits. True, last year also had some unusual extra costs in it, but the two issues roughly balance, and there is worse on the horizon for the club.
3: The Glazers have no way out of their current position of raping the club financially since all their other businesses are in difficulty. They need the money from Man IOU each year, and can’t repay any debts.
4: Man IOUs squad contains several older players who must give up soon. Man IOU won’t get any money in sales for them, but they will save a little on salaries. However they will probably have to buy replacements, and that will throw their profits out even more.
5: Marketing and ticket revenues at Man IOU are starting to slip. They have been excellent at marketing in the past, but their brand image is tarnished, and there really isn’t much room left for expansion. The pride of wearing Man U shirts has been replaced in some minds with a dislike of being seen as a pawn of the Glazers.
6: The bond issue put restraints on what Man IOU can do, such as the need to keep vast sums in the bank. And when you are trying to fight your way out of a tough situation restraint on options is the last thing you need.
7: Selling is becoming less of an option, because most of the clubs who would look to buy Man IOU players, are themselves either under pressure from the banks (like Barca) or are desperately trying to reduce their losses so that they can qualify under the financial fair play rules.
So that’s the in and out of it all. But the problem is the last thing in the world Man IOU ever want to do is admit a problem, simply because that would make their relationship with the banks, their supporters and the anti-Glazer gang even worse than it is, and it would devalue the bonds.
Hence Man IOU’s spinners spin faster and faster in changing the story. They play games by talking about operating profits being over £100 million (operating profits are just a line half way down the balance sheet and you get them simply by not taking into account the payment of interest on your debts) and £164 million cash in the bank – all while failing to address the fact that this last accounting period they made a record loss of £84 million. The losses all come because of the interest they pay to the banks and the hedge funds. In fact by and large you could say that Man IOU and Liverpool Insolvency (now Liverpool America) has been instrumental in rescuing the banking sector in this country by giving them so much work and borrowing so much money.
Man U is currently paying about £40 million on player amortisation (ie decline in value of players in the accounts) as well as a further £9m depreciation on other assets like computers, desks, table lamps and other odds and ends. Then there is a further loss because the owners paid what is known in the trade as “goodwill” – that is they paid more for the club than the assets were worth. To be fair, that is not unusual in business – most businesses that look like they are doing well sell for more than their value, in order to account for future profits that accrue simply because they are there. This “loss” is paid off year by year as well.
So in short, Man IOU generates lots of money (the cash from the season ticket holders and TV firms) but then spends it all on players wages, interest payments, directors fees, loans to directors and stuff like that. Worse, the accounting processes will continue to work against them, unless they can sell some players for more than their value on the books.
Ideally they need an Adebayor. He cost (about) £3m, which by the time he was sold his value was reduced to zero on the books. But we sold him for £25m. So that is a straight £25m profit on the books. Man IOU need to do that quite a few times – for as we have seen the one off sale of Ronaldo was not enough to remove one year’s debts.
In fact it costs Man IOU around £40m a year just to pay the interest on their loans – and if they are to go into profit they need extra revenue to pay cover that loss.
There’s another point – or rather I would say a guess – that I would make. Man IOU have refinanced twice in the last four years, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them do it again in due course. Each refinancing comes because they need to shuffle money around because of the decline in Glazer revenue elsewhere – and each costs the club a small fortune (certainly over £40m).
Of course they won’t refinance next year, so they will save a lot of money then. But then they won’t sell Ronaldo next year, so that’s a loss. The two might balance out.
There’s another little detail which crops up in the serious analyses of Man IOU – the infamous PIK loans. These are the ones that the club always say are not Man U debts but Glazer debts. Except that the Glazer’s secured the PIK loans against Man U itself, so if they ever failed to pay the holders of the PIK loans could start claiming against Man U. The PIKS knock up getting on for £30m a year in interest, and the only place the Glazer’s can raise money (given that all their other businesses are making a loss) is by raiding the piggy bank at Old Trafford. That to me makes them sound like Man IOU debts, but the Glazer’s think otherwise.
So, to put it in a nutshell, Man IOU earn £40m a year more than Arsenal, but have to spend so much on interest and money for the owners, that each year they lose loads of money, while Arsenal make it. What’s more I have a suspicion that Man U’s marketing has peaked, while Arsenal’s is really starting to ramp up. I must admit that the Glazer’s were right when they said that the revenue at Man U could be increased greatly, when they first took over. But whether that will continue, given the harm they have done to the brand remains to be seen. They will get extra TV money this year, as this season is the start of a new improved TV deal, but whether it is enough to balance a decline in marketing income, ticket sales, decline in season tickets and so forth, only time will tell. But even stagnation would be a problem for the club.
Again on the positive side there will be extra money from overseas TV, and from a new range of sponsors who don’t seem to care too much about their image being associated with the Glazer’s, but then the wage bill is going up all the time – even when taking into account the retirement of the old brigade.
By now we have moved firmly into the zone of guesswork, but I would throw in one final point here. Man U have never before been restrained about buying players at top prices – just like Barcelona and Real Madrid. But suddenly the buying has stopped. To me the story from Sir F Word that there are no good deals to be had just does not ring true. That seems to me a fair bit of evidence that the economy of Man U is at breaking point, and the Glazers are simply not going to release money for players – especially as long as the club stay in the top four. When they drop out, it will be too late.
Of course one way out of all this could be the end of the Glazers. But the Glazers have a lot of shopping malls that are not only not earning them cash, but actually being repossessed by banks and the like. The Glazers need Man U because the Glazers have no other source of cash to pay for their defunct shopping malls with shops they can’t let. So no, they don’t want to sell, even if a credible company came along to offer them a way out. And as long as they don’t default on any debt, no one can force them out. The Liverpool situation does not apply, at the moment the banks love the Glazers. The Glazers pay the bankers bonuses.
So what will Man U do? They reckon that the current situation is a one-off with lots of losses due to special events. They will also argue that some losses (like depreciation of fixed assets) won’t count when the final tally is done. They think they will qualify for the financial fair play rules.
No one knows if that is right, but supposing it is – there is still the fact that just as the costs relating to the bond issue etc were a “one off” one might also think that the sale of Ronaldo (for which Man U was paid in one go) and the failure to sign anyone at a high price over the past year, was also a one off.
If Sir F Word starts buying again, but has no one he can offload other than those in the 35+ years bracket, then I think the decline in costs because of one-off events will be overcome by the need to pay higher salaries and buy new players.
And there is always the problem of Man U going through a transition. Arsenal’s five year transition to a point where we can go the Newcastle, put out a team with nine changes from the last league game, and it still looks like a phenomenally strong side made up of first teamers) has been done without slipping out of the Champs League. But no other club has done such a rebuilding progress and maintained such a status.
If Man U were to go out of the Champs league they lose say £50m a year. Which is what has just happened to Liverpool, and happened two or three years back to AC Milan (just as Flamini arrived, if you recall), has happened to Barca and virtually all the other top clubs. The Anti-Arsenal mafia decry the achievement of Arsenal staying in the Champs, but it is extremely rare for this to happen. Man U slipping out would be the norm during a rebuilding process.
Now we are in the realm of total speculation, and so it is time to stop. But I would say this. Arsenal’s model has lots of lee-way. We could still pay the mortgage on the Ems without selling out for each game, and without being in the Champs league ever year. And we have lots of cash around, because we make a profit each year.
Man U are on a knife edge, gambling that the special one-off payments last year were larger than the one-off rebuilding payments needed next year. Maybe so, maybe not. But one thing is sure. One slip, and it all falls apart.
Final thought: For the best in depth analysis of football finance do keep an eye on the excellent Swiss Ramble
By Walter Broeckx, the ref
Another great result from the Gooners at St. James Park with a comfortable 4-0 win against the home side. So let us take a look at ref. Marinner who was the ref on the day.
A warning before you start reading: In Belgium we had to see the game on a very bad stream on the internet and could have missed a few things. We missed the 2-0 and only could see it in the replay. And also I must say that even the images from arsenalTVonline doesn’t seem to work properly on the computer I am sitting on for the moment. So if you don’t mind I will give it as I have seen it for the moment but will come back to it later when I see it again and in case I have missed something.
I will start with the first half hour and the things that happened at my home when I was watching the game with my sons (one also a ref).
OTHER: In the first quarter we (2 refs) said on several occasions that the ref didn’t punish some dangerous frontal tackles. This happened on a few occasions. Just before the half hour mark we (again the 2 refs) had been shouting at our PC screen (and through that at the ref) that he should take action and stop those tackles and pay attention.
I had just said that this could end badly for one of the players and Eastmond then came in hard and hit a Newcastle player. This could have gone totally wrong in the first half at that time and it is just down to luck that no one was carried off with a serious injury. I really felt the need to mention this and to deduct from his points total. 0/1
PENALTY: A Newcastle defender comes in with an outstretched leg to kick the ball, misses it and then blocks the ball with his arm away from his body. I think this should have been a penalty. His arms were not in line with this body, you must keep your hands close to your body in the penalty area. 0/1
GOAL: Well I have seen some strange goals in my life but his certainly was one of the most bizarre own goals I have seen. Almost a one-two between the keeper and the defender. But it all was very much within the rules. 1/1
CARD: Yellow card against Smith for a tackle from behind on Walcott right after the start of the second half. Has the ref woken up during the interval? Correct decision. 1/1
GOAL: (picture will be uploaded later on! I hope!) Walcott is in my opinion offside when he races on to a long ball and scores with a nice chip past the keeper. I have a nice picture but as I am not on my home computer I cannot show it for now but believe me if the lines on the field are right it looked as if Walcott was offside.
I know that the right back at the other side of the field could have been level but on the images I have seen I have the feeling Walcott was just a bit further up field. And the linesman was in a really, really bad position when the ball was played on from Djourou.
So although a lot was made of the incident with Bendtner in fact it should have been nothing to talk about if the linesman would have been on the same line with the last defender. He was meters away from it. Mind you I cannot draw those fancy computer lines on my computer so I judged my opinion on the lines visible in the grass.
So the talking point: was Bendtner in a punishable offside position and should the goal have been disallowed? This is somewhat irrelevant for me but I will try to answer it as if Theo was not offside as given by the assistant. To be honest my first impression was that it should have been disallowed. My first impression, on the dodgy stream, was that Bendtner didn’t go for the ball but he brought the defender down that was trying to chase Walcott. By bringing the defender down he was interfering with play and so the goal should have been disallowed.
BUT this was my first impression at a moment when the connection stopped for a few seconds and then went on seconds after that. Later on they gave another replay from behind a goal and more in line with what the ref saw and then I saw that Bendtner did not reached for the defender but it was the Newcastle defender that pulled Bendtner with his arm and both went down after the Newcastle defender dragged himself down in fact. So the goal should not have been disallowed for the Bendtner incident in my opinion. But for me Walcott was offside so should have been cancelled 0/1
CARD: Sagna gets booked when he brings down a Newcastle player on the edge of the penalty area. A deserved yellow card is his part. 1/1
GOAL: What a strike from our Dane to make it 3-0. Nothing wrong with that goal. 1/1
GOAL: Theo is back! And how! What a cool finish once again. Nothing wrong with that goal. 1/1
OTHER/CARD: Newcastle has brought on a person whose name I will not say aloud or write it down as I always have to wash my mouth and hands with soap after saying his name to clean my mouth and hands. But I will call him J.B. He goes in over hard in the back of Eastmond and I cannot read minds but even on my bad stream I could see that he only wanted to do one thing: hurt a player. Eastmond needs treatment and the ref let play continue.
WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!! A foul and a card was the only correct thing. 0/1 and 0/1
OTHER/CARD/CARD: That same person J.B. is looking for another victim and he has a go at Cesc. This time the ref sees it gives a foul and a yellow card. But this should have been his second card. This is a perfect example of the fact that as a ref you must know your players on the field and when you see Barton come in against Eastmond you must punish him with a card to stop him. This should have been the second yellow card for Barton. So for spotting the foul I give the ref 1/1 and also 1/1 for the yellow card but a 0/1 as it should have been his second and thus a red card.
So what is the final score for the ref:
Goals 3/4
Cards: 3/5
Penalties: 0/1
Other: 1/3
This leaves us with a total score : 7/13 (54%)
So despite us winning with a big score line I really was not happy with the ref and the way he handled the game.
He allowed a few possible dangerous tackles in the first half which could have caused a serious injury. Players were flying in too much and were allowed to do this. I think the Gibbs injury could be down to the fact that some players felt that they could go in as hard as they liked it. I’m not going to blame the ref totally as it looked just a bad collision on my (bad) stream but Eastmond could have caused a serious injury later in the first half. This was all down to the ref not stopping frontal tackles.
And then I come to the most despicable person I know that still is allowed on a football field in the EPL. J.B (I really cannot speak his name without feeling sick) is a disgrace for football in England and a disgrace for a club like Newcastle. And to think that I like Newcastle as they always play a song of one of my all time favourite bands (Mark Knopfler/Dire Straits) before the game. Every time I see J.B. coming on the pitch against us I know he will kick as much as he can. And every time I hope that the refs stop him but this is almost never the case.
That J.B is not a football player. He is some kind of criminal mind, a serial kicker, with only one intent: to hurt as much opponents as possible. And the refs and the FA just let him on the field again and again and again. How on earth the ref let him get away with his brutal challenge from behind on Eastmond is beyond me. And then he just runs on the field to give a kick at Cesc. Cesc who was very unhappy about it and rightfully so. A total disgrace is this J.B. and I only can hope that he doesn’t make any more casualties in football.
Sorry for this rant but I really cannot stand the sight of J.B on a football field anymore.
Editorial footnote. There’s a sponsored link below. It’s not to do with the article or with Walter’s problems with his computer in viewing the game, but if you take a look you will help contribute a little something towards the costs of running Untold. And you could find it interesting.
By Tony Attwood
Sometimes there is a moment to sit back and reflect. To look at the finer points of detail and say, well, yes, while the broad outline is vital the exact issues are important. Perhaps even to admit that occasionally one doesn’t have to say, “Cor blimely guv that’s a turn up an no mistake”*
I speak of course of the minutiae of writing a column on a forthcoming game 10 hours or so before the match itself kicks off, whereupon one focuses on the players and indeed their identities, the numbers on their backs, and so forth.
Now I doubt that you will recall such petty detail, but for the sake of form here is what I wrote in my column of yesterday morn…
The team, I proclaimed, would be…
Wojciech Szczesny
Eboue, Djourou, Koscileny, Gibbs
Eastmond
JET, Lansbury
Walcott, Bendtner, Vela
Although I also added the caveat…
“Denilson might get another game,”
And lo, behold, to wit, viz, forsooth, what did we get? It was exactly my team as selected, apart from where it wasn’t (as in Rosicky and Denilson – whom I semi-selected) played in front of Eastmond.
9.5 out of 11. Not bad eh?
Praise and congratulations are, I think due, and in receiving them I will be modest, retiring and deferential in my normal manner. You may form an orderly queue at my door.
What I particularly loved about the game played on the Newcastle Riviera (which according to Rhys in his commentary on my preview of the game, is the hub of civilisation and reconstructive thinking), this game was the way Arsenal demonstrated on their own the two different approaches to football. There were the usual 25 passing moves, swinging it around from side to side of the pitch, and then, just for contrast, just for fun, there were the little bits where every time someone got the ball he gave it back to the Beachboys.
There was also a couple of very droll sections where every time Eastmond passed the ball to anyone they passed it straight back to him. But he was cool, sanguine, as he gave a look as if to say, “Are you taking the young lady?**
But above and beyond it all Bendtner has scored two crackers in two appearances since his reconstruction, and Theo has now scored something like 345 goals in 5 appearances (although my calculator does seem to be a little on the blink so that might not be quite right).
It is exactly as I have been saying all season. We just have far too big a squad. How do all these players fit in? There will be rebellion in the ranks. Who will we play in the front line against the pornographers of Western Ham? Could Bendtner and Chamakh both play in a game together (I am not quite sure how, although I suppose you can put Bendtner on the wing). Theo must play surely after displays like last night.
The midfield of Nasri, Cesc and Song seem to pick themselves, unless you want a second defensive player like Diaby there. (Incidentally where is Diaby?)
Then there is the issue of Arshavin, who puts through more people for goals than anyone else in the league, and who also plays the game of looking disinterested so often that he not only fools the opposition but also our own supporters…
Oh it is so tough.
I really have to say that I loved last night’s game, from the moment Bendtner took three pot shots at the keeper, as if to say “Look you silly bugger if you keep stopping these I am going to keep kicking them at you”, through the Theo’s ability to run at the goal, put the ball 0.5mm from the keeper’s leg and score. And their goal was a cracker.
So, with 1-4 against the very tiny totts, and the 0-4 against the beachboys from the Newcastle Riviera, what next? The sequence demands that our next opponents score minus 1, which would be something of a new development. Imaginary numbers meet Association Football. Now there’s a thought and a half.
* Cockney rhyming slang – without the rhyme.
** And with the rhyme – young lady = miss”
Untold Arsenal - refined, selective, to the point
Making the Arsenal - the world’s greatest Xmas present
Arsenal History - not quite as you imagined
By Tony Attwood
That headline (or at least the first half of it) comes from the magnificent Football Management web site in an article that points out that the message of Portsmouth and other clubs has not sunk in anywhere in football. Everyone thinks – that was them, it won’t happen with us. Just as Liverpool fans believed that when the last load of American owners came along, having a history of leveraged buyouts (for example at Weetabix) they would not use the process at Liverpool, because the Manchester United scenario couldn’t happen at Liverpool. And anyway they said so.
As Football Management says, “Just how many Premier League clubs to teeter on the brink will it take before Chairmen get a grip on club finances, before they take Mr McCawber’s advice. Unless spending is reined in to the extent that the business model becomes sustainable, we live in danger ultimately of only having a weekly exhibition match between Mansouri City and Abramovich Globetrotters to tune in and watch.”
And that’s the point. If the big bully arranges matters so that he wins every game on the street, he can hardly expect to have anyone as opposition except the big bully from the next street, and he can’t expect to have much of an audience except for a load of sycophants who are paid to attend and say how good it is.
The benefactor system that the football world (including Arsenal in the Norris era) lived on, only works when there are lots of benefactors around. When being a benefactor meant doing what a lot of people could do (if they had a mind to) then the model could survive, but now, with benefaction limited to multi-billionaires, life’s not to simple.
We are running out of benefactors.
And I write this as we find (according to our pals at Companies House in Cardiff) that Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan’s has just topped up the petty cash by another £80m in Manchester Arab* by purchasing 37,547,169 new shares in the club on 30 September, at £2.12 a smack. That makes it £573m and a bit since 2009.
The much discussed financial fair-play regs say that each club must not make an aggregate loss of more than €45m from 2011/12 to 2013/14, or it won’t be let into the European competitions.
This regulation, and comments from Garry Cook, the chief exec of the Arabs* saying “Clearly our intention is to comply. Our two-year plan was to take a budget and build a competency to compete at the highest level, not forgetting the need for succession planning in every position. We are pleased with how that worked, and will not be signing players to the same level of intensity in the next transfer windows. Financial fair play is on our conscience, we talk about it at every board meeting, and it’s part of our long-term plan.” This has led some commentators to say the club has found a way out.
But as we have said on this site time and again, the exact moment when the money is paid across for players doesn’t matter. Amortisation works for all clubs in the same way and the value of the player diminishes year on year so that by the end of the initial contract he is worth nothing. Buy him for £1 today with a four year deal and he is worth 75p in a year’s time and 50p the year after, no matter how well he plays or what the market is doing.
At the end of last season the amortisation charge was £71m - that is 57% of the turnover (and that is before that troublesome little matter of salary which was £133.3m last season.
The Guardian in an article recently said that “it is safe to say that their 2011-12 amortisation charge will be close to £90m”. Salaries could be £150m. If they get into the top four the bonuses will take this up to £170m.
So we end up with player fees and salaries of £250m a year on an income (including Champs League money, assuming reasonable success) of £150m a year. And that’s not including the diddley rent they pay Manchester council for the stadium, in what must be one of the most humiliating public give-aways of an asset of all time.
To overcome this ongoing deficit, what the club must do is turn the player losses into a player profit of about £30m a year. They can do this by selling players at a profit (as for example Arsenal did with Henry, Vieira, Overmars, Anelka, Adebayor, Toure and the rest), or by taking the £125m a year turnover of the club up to £290m a year (more than Man U in fact) within two years. That is a lot of shirt sales.
One idea posted on Untold in an earlier discussion was that it was simple – Etihad airlines (part owned by the owner of Man City) could simply increase its sponsorship money, or buy billions of shirts at ludicrous prices. But the financial arrangements are not quite so simplistic, and do include restrictions on what “related companies” such as firms largely owned or influenced by the club owner, can do. “Market rates” apply.
Interestingly, if Man Arab* really are interested in getting into Europe again (they play this year in the Dinky Winky Cup) then would never have had an interest in buying Rooney, because they are already unable to qualify for Europe. Would Rooney have gone there knowing that his transfer would have meant the end of even the slimmest of chances of his new club playing in Europe? Perhaps not.
But maybe it was all about the cows, as Sir F Word said. As it is, Manchester IOU now have Rooney’s extra salary to cope with (although of course no transfer fee, that already having amortised itself to death) as they in turn try and balance the books (which is tough when they have to pay out on all that debt interest).
In fact, Rooney staying means Man IOU have to find another £4.5m a year to cover the cost of keeping the old potato. David Gill, the man who famously opposed the Glazer’s and now loves being in bed with them, says the IOU have £150m in the bank, but then they have to keep at least £70m in the credit account – it was in the bond issue regulations.
So can the Manchester clubs actually get into Europe in the near future? Maybe they have another trick up their sleeve like building profitable conference centres as Swiss Rambler suggested. That would work, but first they have to build them (that cuts Man IOU out since they don’t have the land nor the cash to pay the builders) and they have to make money out of them (more difficult in the current climate, and besides they’ve only got a couple of years to do it, make the money, and cover the losses.)
As things stand I still can’t see how either club is going to get anywhere near the financial regs, and I really don’t think that simplistic “buy a million shirts” will get past the regulator. Give the regulator a few million pounds – that might do it, but we shall see.
Meanwhile, what is interesting is that the media are for the most part carrying on as if the financial regs don’t exist, with mega transfers being talked up here there and everywhere. The only places where sense is being talked is on sites such as Swiss Ramble and Football Management – and (every now and then, between the twaddle about incandescent light bulbs and the beach at Newcastle) here.
* The last time this site had an article that called Manchester City “Man Arab” we had a couple of people write in and say this was racist. I don’t believe this is true, and I challenged both writers to explain how their definition of racist to cover the word “Arab” worked. Neither replied. I will be publishing an article in the near future on the whole issue of racist name calling and the growing tendency of throwing out the claim “you’re racist” against blog writers on very limited evidence.
More on Man City from Football Management here
More nonsensical nonsense in a wholly nonsensical manner here
Or here
Sometimes it gets a bit clearer here
By Tony Attwood
Newcastle v Arsenal is a repeat of the first ever league game Arsenal played in September 1893 in the second division. In fact there’s a whole series of articles about the game, including newspaper reports and an article on each and every one of the Woolwich Arsenal players who take part in the game. There is an index to the celebration of our first ever league match here
So what of this game 117 years after the first?
Newcastle has gone down a bit since those days when in the 19th century, when it was the powerhouse of the revolution, building ships, engineering all sorts of stuff, developing the safety lamp, the first railway engine, the electric light, the steam turbine…
These days the main industries are night clubs of a highly dubious quality, the Paul Gascogigne industry, the let’s-wreck-a-famous-club business, and unemployment. Oh and big statues alongside the A1.
So on to the teams. Predicting a bit of a shuffled team is not really very clever for this fixture at the pleasant beach and spa resort, since the Lord Wenger has made it clear this is what we will see There will be…
The kiddiewinks
Henri Lansbury, Jay Emmanuel Thomas, Wojciech Szczesny, Eastmond
The returnees just back from the land of injury
Waclott, Bendtner, Vela, Koscileny,
The subs
Gibbs, Eboue
Put that lot together and you have ten out of eleven – so where do they fit in?
Wojciech Szczesny
Eboue, Djourou, Koscileny, Gibbs
Eastmond
JET, Lansbury
Walcott, Bendtner, Vela
Maybe, maybe not. Denilson might get another game, but otherwise it is going to be a surprise. Maybe Tom Cruise, Chucks Aneke, Gillese Sunu, Benik Afobe, Connor Henderson…
And of course putting a list like this means I don’t have a clue.
Whatever happens it can’t be worse than the first half of the Man U Wolverhampton game on Sky on Tuesday night, which was shocking. Not just shockingly bad in terms of quality, but also quite shocking to see whole swathes of the Very Old Trafford ground closed off (most of the upstairs in fact). An interesting comparison with the way the Ems always fills up even when it is a totally reserve team that is put out.
I suppose it is due to the fact that in the past Man U season ticket holders were forced to buy tickets – maybe they don’t do that now.
Anyway, back to the team – Scsczcszy is in goal who is the sub? Shea perchance?
Newcastle beat Chelsea 4-3 in the last round and Accrington 3-2 in the previous round. In the four games since the Chelsea game they have won one (WHU), drawn one (Wigan), and lost two (Stoke, Man City). They are 15th in the league, two points above bottom club WHU.
There is a suggestion that they won’t put out a full first team. On Sunday they play Sunderland, and the week later they have us again at the Ems, so they might well be trying to get something from those games to avoid a return to the lower levels – although WHU, Wolverhampton and Liverpool are doing their best to ensure that Newcastle stay up. So, yes, maybe they will relax the squad a bit and put in some reserve players. (It is after all so horribly embarrassing when Arsenal Youth beat your first team).
Nasri: Demi God or just ZZ in disguise?
On the history site: Arsenal did not start where we thought they started
Untold: The Index to All Things
By Walter Broeckx
Are we witnessing another young player getting matured? This is the question I ask myself when I see Samir Nasri doing his job since he came back after his knee injury and at the start of the season.
Well he was already doing a great job before his little injury in replacing Cesc who still was recovering from the World Cup. But then he was out for about a month and as we have seen before: it’s not always that easy to find your best form back after an injury.
The way Cesc has been performing last season it is sometimes difficult to forget that Cesc hasn’t been that cool in front of goal. No it was only until last season that he was strong enough to score goals. Creating goals and giving assists never has been the problem with Cesc. But when it came to goal scoring it was sometimes hard to believe that it was Cesc who missed too many chances. But last season he was just banging them in from all angles and looked at times as confident as only the best strikers are in front of goal. But I remember that when I first came to the Emirates and when Cesc scored our winning goal it actually was his first goal in the EPL that season. And it was in April! I remember people criticising Cesc for not scoring enough.
But I do believe this is all part of a learning process that a player and certainly a midfield player has to go through. I think no one will doubt the fact that Cesc is an exceptional player but even he had to learn the job. Even he had to learn to score goals. It has a lot to do with confidence. And it also has a lot to do with staying calm when you get a chance. And about taking the right decisions when you get a chance. Do you go for force? Do you just pass it over the line? Is there a better placed player? Something that you have to learn, not only on the practice field but most importantly in the games you play.
Last year Cesc finally got this right and it took him rather a few season to get that far and remember that Cesc is a world class player and that even for such players it takes time to develop in to the player he is now. And now when I look at Samir Nasri I get a feeling that he might be doing the same thing this season like Cesc has done in the last season.
I have seen Nasri play in France before he came to Arsenal and I had seen some great potential. He was named the new Zidane, but that is a nick name all good young French midfielders get. You could see that he had the potential to carry a team and to be the central player in a team. But for reasons we all know (Cesc) he doesn’t get this role at Arsenal when Cesc is fit. Understandable I would say.
So since his arrival from France Nasri is playing in a different position then he was used to. He had to learn it all in this position and it could well have been that this affected his overall play and most importantly his goal scoring ability. We had seen early on that he could score goals (winning goal in his first EPL match, his goals against United), so yes we knew he could score but he didn’t score much.
But now this season he has started scoring and he has made the final step in his learning process. A process which has been hampered last year badly with a broken leg in pre-season. I think it held him back for one season. But now since the start he has been on the score sheet in many games. In fact he started 9 games so far this season and he has scored 7 goals. And even a cartilage operation couldn’t stop him as he just went on after that as if nothing had happened. Those are great numbers if you ask me. So far this season he has scored as much goals as in his first and best season so far. And we are not even November.
And his goals show he is class all around the field. His goal against Shakhtar with a confident and hard shot with his left foot. Yesterday his close control and coolness to lift the ball over the keeper who anticipated a low shot. It all is looking a lot like the way Cesc was scoring goals for us last season. And doesn’t this look great for Arsenal to know that yet another player has taken that step from being a player who can create in to a player that can finish as well?
And just imagine the opposition manager who is trying to warn his players for our goal scoring players. Well I think that he has to warn his players for all our players except our keeper, Clichy and Sagna. But the rest all can score a goal and some of them score very easy.
And a final thought is that if all goes well we will see this development also with Jack and Aaron and doesn’t this sound great? The best is yet to come and the present is already looking great.
______________________________
Manchester Arabia v Arsenal: the full story from start to end
Prelim: What might we face from Mr Clattenburg
Existential nonsense: Songwriter Paul Simon, and the Professor of Philosophy, University of Frinton on Sea, discuss the game with Her Majesty the Queen
But seriously: Sunday’s preview: the game, the tactics, the team, the result
The result: We predict everything correctly, apart for the bits we got wrong
The ref review: You are just not going to believe the score that Mr Clattenburg got in our regular referee analysis
On the history site: Arsenal did not start where we thought they started
Untold Injury Index – Gameweek 9
By Dale Higginbottom
Nine games in, as-near-as-dammit a quarter of the season gone; second in the league and (at present) a level of injuries that is manageable. Gameweek 9 injury figures.
Man City Vs Arsenal
Man City (4 injuries)
- Goalkeeper, midfield – No injuries reported
- Defence – Kolarov (8), K Toure (1)
- Attack – Tchuimeni-Nimely (6), Jo (1)
Additional issues: Balotelli was a second half substitute after being out for seven weeks with an injury. Tevez could only play 52 minutes, coming off with an injury. Yaya Toure was a doubt but started the game and played the first half before coming off due to a tactical change.
Arsenal (5 injuries)
- Goalkeeper – Almunia (3)
- Defence – Vermaelen (6)
- Midfield – Frimpong (8), Ramsey (9)
- Attack – van Persie (6)
Additional issues: Koscielny was an unused substitute as he returns from a spell out injured.
Stoke Vs Man Utd
Man Utd (7 injuries)
- Goalkeeper – No injuries reported
- Defence – Evans (1)
- Midfield – Hargreaves (9), Valencia (5), Park Ji-Sung (2), Giggs (2)
- Attack – Rooney (3), Owen (1)
Additional issues: No additional issues reported.
Chelsea Vs Wolves
Chelsea (4 injuries)
- Goalkeeper, attack – No injuries reported
- Defence – Alex (2)
- Midfield – Lampard (6), Benayoun (4), Ramires (1)
Additional issues: Kalou came on as a second half substitute after a short spell out through injury. Drogba played 90 minutes, returning after a virus.
Tottenham Vs Everton
Tottenham (4 injuries)
- Goalkeeper – No injuries reported
- Defence – Dawson (6), King (3)
- Midfield – O’Hara (9)
- Attack – Defoe (7)
Additional issues: Woodgate, not in the 25-man squad, is not included in this list despite being injured. Kaboul returned from a spell out and played 90 minutes.
Liverpool Vs Blackburn
Liverpool (3 injuries)
- Goalkeeper, midfield– No injuries reported
- Defence – Agger (3), Johnson (1)
- Attack – Kuyt (4)
Additional issues: No additional issues reported.
For the first time in a while Arsenal are not top of the injury standings. Just five players missing this time is something that we were hoping for before the international break. The totals this week seem a bit more even across the teams but Man Utd have shot up to top the injury table.
Man City Vs Arsenal was not a game ruled by injury concerns. Both teams were able to field strong teams with a selection of strong substitutes available on the benches. City missed Kolo Toure who was unavailable and Tevez for most of the second half but then Arsenal also were without Vermaelen and van Persie so honours even there.
The return of Cesc Fabregas seemed to make a difference this week. However, whilst he put in a good shift it was in fact the team around him that showed that it’s not just about one player. There is a feeling of optimism at the moment that as long as one or two of our key players are available, the rest of the squad can fill in and make up for the other missing players.
Fabianski is now showing that he can be more than capable between the sticks. Eboue and Gibbs have proven over the past season or two that they can step in comfortably at full-back. Djourou has come back from last season’s injury and showing the form that he showed whilst on loan at Birmingham City a few seasons back. Squillaci has made the odd mistake but is settling in and has great experience at the top level. In midfield Wilshere is proving to be ready to step into Cesc’s position when he’s out and if Ramsey can do the same when he returns, we’ve got great replacements in midfield.
Finally upfront, Bendtner and Chamakh are more than capable at providing firepower in van Persie’s absence and Walcott, Rosicky and Vela have an abundance of quality that impact on games should Arshavin or Nasri be unavailable.
Onto the rest of the games.
Man Utd showed that they can do it when Rooney is not there, winning their first away league game of the season. They did make it difficult for them selves but given the week they have had it was a good result for them.
Chelsea had a somewhat easier task ahead of them after their mid-week win. Despite missing a few players in midfield they managed a fairly comfortable home win against Wolves largely down to the return of Drogba and Kalou.
Liverpool finally got their second win of the league season. This was long overdue considering their injury record. I still get the feeling Torres is not fully fit and as he gets back to 100% they should start winning more.
Spurs had a tough return from their midweek defeat with a home tie against Everton. A 1-1 draw was a fair result but considering the relatively few injuries to their squad compared to previous games these are the sorts of games Tottenham should be winning if they are to challenge for the title.
Last week Arsene Wenger said that he believes that the injury record is down to a combination of bad luck and bad tackling. He said that he does not believe our injury levels to be significantly higher than our rivals and that’s exactly what these reports hope to show.
Maybe it could be argued that he is sometimes over-cautious when it comes to return dates and playing players straight after injury. There’s no true way of identifying whether this is the case as it is difficult as an outsider to truly know the level of risk involved when making decisions on player fitness. It seems to this outsider that maybe Wenger is sometimes on the cautious side but if I am right in that assumption is there good reason for it?
It is by no means a bad thing to be cautious. December last year Fabregas made a cameo appearance against Aston Villa and single-handedly won the game. He was just returning from injury and as a result of playing picked up a knock that put him out for three more games. Do events like this influence decisions? Certainly. Will it make the manager think differently when similar decisions have to be made? Maybe so.
In the case above we dropped 2 points against Everton at home that we may not have done had Cesc been playing but gained three points from the Aston Villa game which could have easily been just a draw. It might not always work out like that and so it could pay to be on the cautious side, particularly when the squad depth is such that it allows players to be fully rested before their return. Arsene has been slowly building this squad over the past seasons and it is now showing, particularly with Sunday’s result, just how much strength and depth there is at Arsenal.
Manchester Arabia v Arsenal: the full story from start to end
Prelim: What might we face from Mr Clattenburg
Existential nonsense: Songwriter Paul Simon, and the Professor of Philosophy, University of Frinton on Sea, discuss the game with Her Majesty the Queen
But seriously: Sunday’s preview: the game, the tactics, the team, the result
The result: We predict everything correctly, apart for the bits we got wrong
The ref review: You are just not going to believe the score that Mr Clattenburg got in our regular referee analysis
On the history site: Arsenal did not start where we thought they started
by Walter Broeckx, the ref
Before the game it was as if we went back in a time machine one year. The same clubs on the field, the same ref (that is the ref who last season wasn’t exactly the best man on the pitch as he missed a few things like Adebayor trying to make a mark on the face of Robin Van Persie.)
So let’s see how he did today.
CARD : Red card for Boyata. He brought Chamakh down as a last defender and then it doesn’t matter if it is the first or the last minute of the game it always should be a red card. But for the ref this was a major decision. He knew it would/could change the game but at the end of a few seconds thinking he did the only thing he could do and give the red card. I think he also took the time to consult his assistant to make sure he was 100% right and that this was the reason for him waiting a few seconds. They are very handy those communication devices. 1/1.
CARD: Booking for Denilson. The ref had no option then to give him the yellow card. 1/1
OTHER: Fabregas brought down by De Jong. Another strong challenge and the ref doesn’t give a foul. De Jong did not play the ball, it was Cesc who played the ball square and De Jong only took out Cesc. Mistake from the ref and a card should have been given. 0/1
CARD: Barry comes in late on Fabregas and gets a yellow card. He was coming from behind. I think the ref saw this also as some form of rotational fouling and gave a yellow card. Correct decision. 1/1
OTHER: Song comes in a bit late on Silva who rolls over and over as if being hit by a car. The ref does not give a card but lectures Song. Good decision as he didn’t let himself influenced by the rolling of Silva. It was a foul trying to play the ball so just an ordinary foul. He did not listen to the crowd so good marks for this. 1/1
GOAL: Samir Nasri scores and nothing wrong with that goal. 1/1
CARD: Booking for Fabregas. He was late on De Jong and goes into the book. And he ref is right. 1/1
CARD: Song gets a booking. He was warned before by the ref so again good refereeing. 1/1
CARD: Another booking and this time for Djourou for a foul on Tevez. He came from behind and I can understand the ref for this in this game. He had to keep things very tight from his point of view and hope that at half time things will calm down. 1/1
PENALTY/CARD: Fabregas brought down by Kompany right in the corner of the area. A very stupid foul from Kompany but who cares? The ref has no option to point to the spot. It doesn’t matter if there is some goal danger or not, a foul in the penalty area is a foul and a penalty. And the ref is right about not giving a card. As for handing out a card you must have a situation where the player is heading for the goal, or a very hard tackle. It was just a tackle for the ball which was late so no need for a card. 1/1 and 1/1
GOAL: Song makes it 0-2 and nothing wrong with the rule book. 1/1
CARD: Kompany booked for a block on Sagna. Correct decision. 1/1
GOAL: Bendtner makes it 0-3 and a nice finish and no offside. So again all is good. 1/1
So these are the facts now let us see what this gives us in total:
Goals: 3/3
Cards: 8/8
Penalties: 1/1
Other: 1/2
TOTAL SCORE: 13/14 (93%)
Well if I was full of praise during our midweek game over the Norwegian ref, what should I say today? In can only say: WELL DONE, ref Clattenburg.
And this games showed on how important it is for a ref to get your first decisions right. Believe me, so early in the game (should make no difference in fact) but to give a red card is the last thing a ref wants to do. You don’t go on the field with the intention to give a red card in the opening minutes. But he did what he had to do and this made him strong because he knew that he made a brave but right decision. And I can also tell you that as a ref you know this and you get a shot of confidence from this.
What I didn’t like was the fact that a few Arsenal players came to the ref before he gave the red card. Just leave it boys, let the ref get on with his job and his decisions. And I have seen the City players trying to do the same but the ref waved them away on both occasions. So again good work from the ref. He showed the players he was the boss on the field and that they didn’t need to come over to him.
And the only thing I could criticise him for is for not giving a yellow card against De Jong. His first hard tackle on Cesc was not seen and later in the first half just before half time the made another tackle from behind. Again De Jong escaped from a yellow card at that time as it was again a clear tackle from behind. So maybe the ref has a soft spot for De Jong somewhere?
But then again this is just the difference between a very good game and a perfect game. But no player manages to never lose the ball in a match (apart from Denilson last season against West Ham) so I can forgive the ref this and look at it as a little mistake in the whole of the game.
Because don’t forget, it was a difficult game with some history in it, with a furious opening 15 minutes with a lot of fouls and cards but he kept his head, kept cool and produced a magnificent game on the day. So he can be a good ref and so I only hope he keeps away from the things he got involved in in the past.
So at the end of the day I can only congratulate Mr. Clattenburg for his match and I really hope that he can keep up this standard of refereeing in his career.
————————-
On the Arsenal History site: how the official story of the origins of Arsenal has got the first match completely wrong.
On Untold Arsenal, the Man City game from an analysis of the ref’s history, via predictions to post-match review
And on Arsenal Worldwide, the Man City game seen from abroad
How did we get here, where did we come from, how long did it take, why did we go that way, where were we before we arrived, how long did it take, and did we have a clue where we were going before we got there but after we left? Confused? You will be after Making the Arsenal
By Tony Attwood, sitting in front of the tele (with the fire on; it is cold in the midlands)
Yes, ok, in Phil’s preview of the game Man City I listed them as having 12 players on the pitch. Some said that was a silly mistake, but it was in fact a clear sign (for those who know how to read such things) that these northern fellows are cheating bastards who will stop at nothing to get one over us.
In effect Sheikh Yerbooty’s team ended up playing with 10, and I am sure much of the press will use this as some kind of excuse for the score, although I think it is a just outcome after they tried to cheat in such an unseemly manner.
Besides which some of their players were bigger than ours.
In reality we done great, we played great and we dominated possession, shots, shots on target, running around a bit, and everything else that we are required to do.
I would pick out Fabianski, Nasri, Fabregas, Song… actually I could go on and on and end up listing the whole team, but that would be silly. So, my four…
Fabianski: was it three or four great saves – including the shot in the first couple of minutes which set the scene. He looked commanding, as he has in recent games, and there was no doubt that as each save was made there was a growing feeling that the confidence that has been seen to grow over the last few matches is now deeply embedded in the team. Confidence is what the Arsenal style is all about – the confidence to pass and pass and wait for the moment, the confidence to do the flicks, and know that even if they don’t all come off, you can get the ball back and go again later… And irrespective of how well the keeper is playing, if the team don’t have full confidence in him, then everything wobbles.
Nasri got a terrific goal and dazzled his way around the pitch. What commentators often don’t pick up is that he spends a part of each game playing at right back, fitting in and covering when need be. It wasn’t just this game, it is every game. But in addition the goal, when it came, made everything else take on a different perspective. Even with Manchester Money throwing everything at us in the first half, they had to watch and watch him because no one was quite sure where he was going to be next.
Fabregas – from the opening passes, right the way through he was supplying the passes, and like Nasri the opposition couldn’t take their eye off him, because everyone knew, the next pass could be definitive. There was no Jack – and it could have been even better had there been – because watching the pair of them playing together on Tuesday last (although against undemanding opposition) was a revelation in itself. If we do play both of them then then puts Nasri out wide with Arshavin and Chamakh in a forward line. But when Van Persie comes back do we play him and Bendtner? Complex isn’t it, when there are fewer injuries.
Song. Included here not just the goal, not just the interceptions, but just the way he has grown week on week over the past two years. The number of fouls is down on last year, the number of retrievals is up. Remember Alex Song started as a player who was booed by the Anti-Arsenal Arsenal and was said to be “not fit to wear the shirt”. (I like to keep rubbing that in, not just because it shows how stupid the AAA often are, but also because a couple of years back at the start of the season I had Alex Song as my tip for the young player who would make it. I don’t get that many right, but I still like to mention just in case people forget).
And maybe a word too about Bendtner. He is still rusty and I know he’s another player that the AAA have had a real go at, but that final goal was not a simple tap in, and he’d only been on the pitch a few minutes. It is really good to have him, and Theo, back in the squad. And maybe next month we might see Ramsey too.
As for this coming Wednesday, Lord Wenger says that he will put a strong team out, including some of the players who were in this game. He also mentioned that “some players need games”, some that would suggest Koscielny, Gibbs, Eboue, Denilson, Theo, Bendtner… Maybe Almunia will be back, knowing that his position is now under threat from Fabianski… (I take it Wilshere is banned from the league cup match as well as in league games, so that means the Newcastle game will be match 2 of his ban, and the pornographers will be match 3 next weekend).
I think we might also see Jay Emmanuel Thomas and Henri Lansbury for the Newcastle game. JET scored a hat trick for the reserves this past week, and Lansbury look worthy of his place in the smashing of the Tinies in the previous round. (Incidentally I hear the Tinies have now issued the DVD of Inter v Tottenham: the second half, along with free celebratory mug of the victory (in the second half).
Thus, we are second, when a reversal of the result meant that we would have been drifting down the table and the AAA would have come out from under their cushions and screamed more abuse at Lord Wenger. Good news all round, and I’m already looking forward to Wednesday in front of the TV, plus next weekend a really amusing little encounter against West Pornography Olympic.
PS: Mr Adebayor didn’t look up to much did he?
Woolwich Arsenal – the index
Untold Arsenal –
Making the Arsenal - the origins of the day reported above
by Phil Gregory
With Chelsea eight points clear after their win against Wolves yesterday, Arsenal travel to Eastlands to play Manchester City. City themselves are three points clear of ourselves with slightly inferior goal difference. It goes without saying that three points are what we want against a team with title ambitions, but our away form hasn’t been up to much this season, so expect a nailbiter!
Koscielny is given a 20% chance of appearing against City, while Almunia is “close” to a return but out of this game. Vermaelen is also no nearer to appearing on the teamsheet. Long termers, such as Van Persie, Frimpong and Ramsey are out.
City could well line up in a 442, after Adebayor’s hat trick in the midweek, or their usual 433:
Hart
Boateng Kompany Lescott Bridge
Milner De Jong Yaya Barry
Silva Tevez Milner
or
Hart
Boateng Kompany Lescott Bridge
De Jong
Yaya Barry
Silva Tevez Milner
Formation wise, if they go 433, the two teams will largely cancel each other out. De Jong will pick up Cesc, with Song doing likewise to Toure and the game will come down to the individual 1v1 match-ups. If City go 442, then it gets interesting. That would give us a man advantage in midfield, while they’d have two strikers versus our centreback pairing. Personally, I’d welcome City playing 442, as I always lean towards going for a man advantage in midfield as it helps you secure the lions share of possession; never a bad thing. That said, with our defence consisting of third and fourth choice centrebacks, perhaps our opponents will smell blood and put two up front versus them.
On the whole, will City change their successful formula of the back of one hat trick from a generally misfiring striker? I can’t see it, so I’m going to presume we face the 433.
The biggest weakness that I see in the potential City lineups is at fullback. While Boateng played at fullback for Germany at the World Cup, he’s only ever a centreback playing fullback. That gets you defensive solidity but for a side like City, you expect an offensive outlet from your fullback. We can exploit that. They’ve got some excellent wide players in Johnson and Silva, players who will certainly be able to go damage going forward. However any wide player going forward is hugely benefited if they have a fullback offering an option on the overlap.
Think about it: Silva for example will look to cut into the space between the fullback and the centreback. The fullback is drawn in, leaving acres of space out wide that an attacking fullback exploits. If they don’t have that attacking fullback (or they’ve got a player who isn’t great shakes in the final third) then we are that little bit freer to track their wideman’s run with the fullback. That limits the impact of the move on our centrebacks’ positioning, which of course is one of the aims of cutting into that space in the first place.
In particular, their options at leftback are fairly limited. With Kolo Toure likely to be out, I’d expect them to shift Lescott back across to replace him, with Bridge (or perhaps Zabelata) coming in at leftback. Neither of them are fantastic leftbacks (Zabelata is really a rightback) so this will certainly be an area we will target.
Could Bendtner get a start at wide right to utilise the height mismatch there? Perhaps, and if his fitness isn’t yet up to 90 minutes Theo is usually fairly effective coming on as a sub…
City’s midfield is fairly interesting, with Yaya playing as the most creative of the three central midfielders, despite being considered a holding player for Barcelona. It is, however, a role he plays for the Ivory Coast and he certainly has ability. That said, they don’t come close to us in terms of creativity in midfield thanks to Fabregas. What it is however is a very powerful midfield. Barry, De Jong and Yaya Toure are all physical players, so it’s important we move the ball on quickly and don’t allow ourselves to be drawn into a battle.
Fabianksi
Sagna Djourou Squillaci Clichy
Song
Fabregas Diaby
Nasri Chamakh Arshavin
After some solid performances to date, Fabianski continues between the sticks. Sagna returns in what is a timely boost given City’s offensive riches (in both senses!), while the rest of the back four is very much as you were.
Song shields the back four, Fabregas steps in for the suspended Wilshere and I expect Diaby to come back into midfield. While Bendtner and Walcott are now fit, I’m going for Nasri wide right, with Chamakh in the middle and Arshavin wide left.
There is certainly enough quality in that team to win the game, but I would be happier if Wilshere and Vermaelen in particular back in the lineup. We have been fairly fortunate in terms of returnees, with Sagna and Cesc ready to go. In terms of prediction, I don’t think we can really expect much more than a one goal margin to us given our away form, neither do I expect a clean sheet, given a couple of defensive injuries. 2-1 to the Arsenal seems a reasonable enough prediction, though I feel we are the underdogs going into this one.
Arsenal: Untold
Arsenal: 100 years back
Arsenal: the last tango in Plumstead
By Billy “The Dog” McGraw, Professor of Post-Postprandial Philosophy, the University of Certain Things, Frinton on Sea.
Arsenal travel this weekend to the Manchester Riviera for a game next to the sand dunes and beaches of the exotic ShipCanal on Sunday.
It is a game of some significance for me, as I have been invited to spend the weekend with Sheikh Yerbooty, owner of the club, and indeed owner of the local holiday resort with which it is so famously and closely associated, six fish and chip shops in Blackpool, a gala festival holiday camp in Skegness, and a rat catching agency in South Kensington.
Indeed it is a fine example of the esteem with which the Sheikh holds Untold that I found myself mingling on Friday night with the great, the good, and a handful of elemental representatives of the riff-raff as a guest of the Sheikh and his entourage.
The topic of conversation was, perhaps inevitably, Wayne Rooney. “It is obvious, your graciousness,” I ventured, as I used the silver tongs to lift another pate sandwich from the tureen and dip it in the pot of rarely cooked steak a la steak du bon steak, “that Mr Rooney has been bought by a gang of petty crooks and tyrants, who between them own several of the lesser known states of northern Europe and several milliners in the Old Kent Road.”
The Sheikh waved aside the attention of one of the serving wenches and replaced her with another, urging me to continue my discourse.
“The imminent attack on our security by cyber terrorists has surely been brought closer now that Rooney is under their control, uttering their words, and using his club for money laundering purposes. Stalin, that fellow who ran Cambodia, Lee Harvey Oswald, Michael Heseltine, John Major, Norma Major, and Arry Redknapp’s mother – they are all involved, although I fear it is the historian of the future who will dictate to coming generations which is to be seen as the greatest tyrant of them all.”
His overlordship graciously nodded once more and indicated with a crook of his little finger (of the left hand, mark you, not the right) that the subject was exhausted, and we would move on.
Matters were then progressed by Mr Paul Simon, who apparently is quite a fan of Manchester City. He offered me a joint. I declined.
“You don’t partake?” said the writer of Homeward Bound and Bridge over the River Tyne.
“I do not,” I replied with some verve.
“What you never smoke?” asked the composer of You can Call me Al, and Fifty Ways to Leave Crewe Station.
“Only when I think of the sadness that has come over post-modernist football following the advent of insane levels of money introduced by the obscenely rich which disrupts and destroys our ‘winter game’ and uproots our clubs from their great and glorious past as they build careers upon ideas and invent a new future which has everything to do with the rape of the poor and the aggrandisement of the insane, and nothing to do with honour, hard work, devotion to duty, and the equality of women. No offence your highness,” I added as I forwarded a curt nod in his direction.
“But surely in your hunt for a return to the pre-post-modern world,” said the world’s greatest songwriter and friend of the inventor of the Italian restaurant, “you stop football progressing. But on the other hand maybe I should give up smoking too. Cup of tea?”
I accepted with a kindly nod and conversation turned, as it does. “Where do you stand on the issue of the blind man?” he asked, and we chuckled knowingly in the way that great philosophers and thinkers of our generation do when they perchance to meet, and having established their contra-temps engage in a moment of frivolous back slapping. We know a conundrum when it hits us in the face like a damp fish thrown by a Chinaman on a wet tuesday night in Hull.
“Unresolved, unresolved,” I said, and of course he at once got the quote, the source and the meaning, and patted me on the back, recognising my verbal dexterity and mental well-being.
However, private though it was, our conversation was overheard, for unknown to us, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who was (I forgot to mention) also at the table, had caught our jolly verbal cantering, and forcibly interrupted the giggles. “One doesn’t get it,” she said, and we both uttered deep words of sympathy, until an aide whispered that Her Majesty meant to imply that she required an explanation of the ‘blind man’ puzzle.
“Ma’am,” I rejoindered. “It was first proposed by that noble philosopher and outside right for Reading, Rowan Atkinson, who upon trying to hold a conversation with Harry Redknapp suggested that it was rather akin to a blind man in a pitch dark room of infinite size, searching for a small black cat that isn’t there.” And the good Lady of State nodded profoundly, before adding, “so what of the teams?”
“For the Beachcombers of Manchester Arabia I cannot speak,” I said, “for they are unspeakable, although I hear Mr Adebayor may or may not play. But for us, I suspect Fabianski will command the goal.
“In front of him we will see Sagna, Djourour, Squillaci and Cliche who are becoming something of a standard in the back four department, if you catch my drift, ma’am.”
She caught; I proceeded.
“For the midst of the game Jack is sadly unavailable, so we have Fabregas and Narsi ahead of Song – but not your kind, Mr Simon,” and he again agreed that he has seen the vigour of my debate, and showed with a shrug of the shoulder that at this juncture he would not be seeking to counter the thrust.
“And thus to the line going forward. Chamakh is a cert for the centre, as is Arshavin, leaving a spare place for Walcott, with perchance Rosicky instead. Or Denilson who could play with Song in defence (if you get my drift) leaving Theo on the bench and putting Nasri further forward. In reserve aside from those mentioned there is Vela, Jay Emmaneul Thomas who scored a hat trick for the reserves in mid week, Eboue, Gibbs, and maybe once more the Danish Prince.”
“Hamlet?” said Her Majesty.
“Quite so,” I demurred since it is not good to argue too much with one’s Sovereign in case issues of the Tower, the gallows and the oil on the boil, come to mind. Satisfied she moved on with a genteel wave of one hand and a bottle of stout in the other.
“I fear I cannot agree,” said Rhymin Simon. “I would play…
Auguste Comte
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, René Descartes, Heidegger
Jean-Paul Sartre , Albert Camus , Simone de Beauvoir
Alain Badiou, Jean Francois Lyotard, Claude Levi Strauss
There was a sudden hush in the room, as everyone waited to see how I would respond to such a suggestion which challenged not only my team sheet, but the entire philosophy faculty of my university at Frinton. I took a deep intake of breath.
“Alain Badiou on the right?” I asked, and there was relief that I was not going to shoot the songsmith, or at least demand his being thrown to the sharks that the Sheikh famously keeps beneath the kitchen floor. “But yes, a post-structuralist forward line – I can go with that. Although I feel sorry for Heidegger – does he speak French?”
“English only on the pitch!” said Mr Simon, and we smiled once more. I let it go. But really… Lyotard leading the attack? No wonder the world of American songwriting is in such decline.
Arsenal: Untold
Arsenal: 100 years back
Arsenal: the last tango in Plumstead
Ref Watch – Manchester City v Arsenal – 24/10/2010
By DogFace
I’d like, if you good people of the Arsenal blogosphere are willing, to drop in occasionally to bring to your attention some Arsenal news of the ‘Untold’ variety. I warn you I’m an old cynic… but please bear with me as I mean well.
This is a new feature I’d like to call RefWatch – bit like BayWatch but with bigger tits… I jest – I’m actually attempting to sound a warning siren as to any shifty shenanigans and share with you any suspicious trends, I casually observe, that blight our beautiful game.
So where do I start with RefWatch this weekend… and why pick this particular weekend? Well – it’s a biggie as the City of Manchester (blue) face the mighty Arsenal – one might say that they [Citeh], having played last night, are going to need help were they to get a result… and I, for one (plus many a pro gambler), believe they could well get it.
If you recall the last time we faced Manchester City under Clattenberg’s watchful gaze he allowed the game to degenerate into a bit of the old ‘ultra violence’ thus removing such advantages like ‘skill’ and ‘creativity’ as relevant factors, for consideration, when ‘picking a winner’. To be honest – it could be (and I hope it is) that Marky C will get swapped out last minute by the PGMOB (which is their want and frequently happens) just to [coincidentally] screw up the spreadsheets of the aforementioned gambling fraternity – who knows?!
Anyhoo, let’s have a look at his profile:
Name: Mark Clattenberg
Date of birth: 13 March 1975
Place of birth: Consett, County Durham, England
Other occupation: Qualified electrician
Favourite Colour: Sky Blue
Ok – I made that last bit up… but it could be true and you’ll see why when we have a wee gander at Mr. Clattenberg’s record with the sky blues throughout his career:
13/11/2004 Manchester City 1 – 1 Blackburn Rovers
20/08/2005 Birmingham City 1 – 2 Manchester City
04/12/2006 Manchester City 0 – 0 Watford
26/12/2006 Sheffield United 0 – 1 Manchester City
19/08/2007 Manchester City 1 – 0 Manchester United
12/09/2009 Manchester City 4 – 2 Arsenal
12/12/2009 Bolton Wanderers 3 – 3 Manchester City
13/02/2010 Manchester City 1 – 1 Stoke City
01/05/2010 Manchester City 3 – 1 Aston Villa
23/08/2010 Manchester City 3 – 0 Liverpool
11/09/2010 Manchester City 1 – 1 Blackburn Rovers
So out of the 11 games that Mark Clattenberg has been involved with Manchester City; it seems that they have never lost a game:
Wins: 6
Draws: 5
Losses: 0
The more observant of you will have noticed that there is a little gap in his career – and those with longer memories than the average arm chair dwelling self-harming ‘fan’ will point out, to the more observant of you, that Mr. Clattenberg had to take a season off from the old refereeing lark as he was banned for… hmm – well it could have been the suggestion of violence in an email to a business partner’s family (to whom he allegedly owed money) – although the email isn’t alleged and here it is:
“Check you can use our companies (sic) money to fund your legal crusade against me. If not, taking me to court might cause your family some pain.”
Or it could be for the failure to explain adequately to the PGMOB why the police had found evidence of numerous visits to gambling websites on his computer when they confiscated it?
It was quite a fall from grace for Mr. Clattenberg who was at this time swanning around the pitch as the Air Asia poster boy… funnily enough, as an aside, Air Asia (who sponsored the PGMOB) was part owned by Shin Corp – which, in turn, was run by the alleged ‘corrupt to the core genocidal maniac’ or ‘Fit and Proper Person’ (depending on how you look at it) Thaksin Shinawatra who then, when the heat was on in Thailand, sold up Shin Corp and bought into… oh look, what a coincidence, Manchester City!
Stike a light – who’d ‘ave thunk it guvner?!
Still – he didn’t waste his year off (with full pay) – he got what appears to be some nice hair implants… and probably an all expenses paid Air Asia trip to Thailand for a back/sack/crack wax with a happy ending thrown in for good measure?
But forget all that – you don’t need to see his identification and these aren’t the droids you’re looking for, let’s all just trust and ‘Respect’ him like the campaign suggests we should and hope with our credulous working class hope that someone up there in the echelons of football and/or sports journalism is paying attention and perhaps had the good grace to tap him lightly on the shoulder make the suggestion that he might like to do a good job at the weekend.
On the bright side… and I like to end on a positive – Arsenal’s all about breaking records – we had the season unbeaten, we beat AC Milan on their own turf and we just got the most goals scored in the first 3 CL games ever… so maybe – just MAYBE we can break the unbeaten record held by Manchester City under Mark Clattenberg?
On The History Site - the newspaper report of our last game at Plumstead
In “Making The Arsenal” – how we got into the state reported on the History Site
On Untold Arsenal - everything you ever wanted to know and a lot more
By Walter Broeckx
There are a few interesting things in the media about the relations between the clubs and the national teams. And maybe a development that could be important for not only Arsenal but for the future of club football versus international football.
Let us start with the argument between Bayern Munich and the Dutch FA (KNVB). It all started a few weeks before the world cup. Arjen Robben hurt himself in a friendly practice game just before the world cup. The doctor his verdict was a muscle tear. Bye, bye world cup for Robben. But no, the KNVB found a quacksalver somewhere who could do some magic and who could get Robben fit.
Bayern Munich said they didn’t like it very much but they trusted the Dutch medical staff. And look our friend the quack did what he had promised and by some magical trick he could make Robben ready for the tournament. Robben played, visibly not at his best and Holland nearly won the world cup. So far, so good and everybody happy.
But this changed when Robben went back to Bayern Munich and the doctors discovered that the injury was not healed at all. No they found out that the initial tear was bigger than first. They described it by saying that Robben had a hole in his muscle.
So Bayern was not happy at when they found out that it would take Robben some 5 to 6 months to recover from the injury. So Bayern complained at the KNVB, as we had done before, and they asked a large sum from the KNVB to cover the loss Bayern is facing because Robben is not fit and they still have to pay him his wages. But the KNVB brushed the Bayern claims away. They did not want to pay any money to cover the loss for Bayern.
Some negotiations have been held in the past weeks but the KNVB is sticking to ‘we don’t pay you one eurocent’.
Bayern has said that if the KNVB doesn’t want to pay anything they will go to court and try to get their money through court. And like Rummenige, from the Bayern board has said: if we win this, this could be a case that changes the relations between the clubs and Fifa and the national teams.
Now clubs can only let their players go and hope they come back in one piece. And if they come back in pieces, its up to the club to pay the bills and to find a solution. So the international federations are having the upper hand in relation to the clubs. But if a court would declare that the international federations are responsible for the players they borrow from the clubs this could change. And also it would change the mindset of the international federations. They would say to the coaches: Now wait a minute, if you know a player is injured you can not let him play because otherwise we will have to pay his wages for months if he cannot play for his club”.
Because those coaches are employed by the countries they don’t care if a player cannot play for his club for a while. Look at Van Persie who could be recalled for a friendly if he would be fit to play for us in the next weeks. You got to be joking there, Van Marwijck.
Another example seems to be Thomas Vermaelen. As on Monday we have a talk show about football in our country and there was a strange quote. Now I must say that I did not see it myself but I was told about it by a fellow Gooner over here. So I really cannot stick my neck out on this but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if what follows is the truth.
In that talk show on TV the assistant coach of the Belgium national team was talking about the Red Devils, as they are called (much red an just a little bit of Devil in fact). And he was talking about how much the players do like to play for the team. The players even play with an injury he added and then he said: ‘like Vermaelen did’.
When I was informed about this by our fellow Gooner I nearly threw away my computer. I was gutted, I was frustrated, I was furious. Because he just said in fact that Vermaelen was injured before he started his last game for Belgium. And apparently Vermaelen, as a captain usually does, wanted to play. Well not much wrong there as every player wants to play.
But the Belgian FA (KBVB) knew he was injured on his Achilles and they took the gamble of playing him. And every doctor knows that playing with an injury on an Achilles can cause a lot of long term trouble. You have to rest from the moment you have troubles in that part of the body. But now the doctors let Vermaelen play despite his pain and injury and now we can pay the price.
So maybe we could hope that Bayern Munich goes to court and come out as the winner. It will make coaches and national football federations think before risking a player to be injured for a long while. And maybe doctors will be instructed to not risk a player any more for an international game as it could be that the price they have to pay would be that high.
Footnote: in the interest of international harmony Walter and Tony have agreed that in future Untold Arsenal articles should aim to use more words that are Dutch terms which have come to England, or English words that have gone Dutch (as it were). Today we introduce quacksalver – a Dutch word that moved into English in the 16th century (it’s on Dictionary.com – honest). You don’t get this sort of education on other blogs you know.
Untold: you read it here first, unless of course you didn’t
Woolwich Arsenal: where we came from, and why we went there
Making the Arsenal: and how we nearly went somewhere else instead
Arsenal Worldwide: for those who are already there
by Tony Attwood
Who knows what lies behind the mask
What do players do when they retire? Apart from making idiots of themselves on the media, where can they go? What will Henry do when it is all over? Come to that what is Bergkamp doing apart from painting the walls of his houses in just a perfect shade of white…
It is not as if they can turn to another sport where age is less of a barrier. Even in an earlier world when cricketers played football, and vice versa, the ability to get it right in more than one sport was rare. We remember Andy Ducat from the Woolwich Arsenal days, and Dennis Compton too, but few others.
So here’s an oddity: players who have actually moved from football into card playing. And before you say Paul Merson, let me say that I am not thinking about people who get hooked on gambling (and we all know about Paul’s fight against his demons) but professional card players who make a living from the game.
Now from this point on this is going to be something of an unusual story – but stay with me, because it does have its moments.
Part one of the strangeness is that I am going to write about Teddy Sheringham – not the sort of topic that one might normally cover here (at least without a range of sarcastic overtones and general derisory whatnot), but it turns out the old fellow has an interesting second side to his personality. Part two of the strangeness is that this is about poker.
Sheringham, you will recall, played for Millwall, Nottingham Forest, some club I won’t mention from the dirty end of the Seven Sisters Road, and then another bunch up north who are currently having a spot of difficulty with their centre forward who doesn’t like them any more. Except maybe he does.
Anyway, he moved on, as players do, going back to the Tiny Totts, before playing for Portsmouth, West Ham and Colchester. He was notable for playing professionally into his forties. He also got an MBE.
And then came poker playing.
Sheringham, it seems, began his poker playing career much like many amateurs, playing either in games with coaches or in back room poker games. Apparently he also spent time looking up Texas Hold em poker websites for cash games online.
Reports suggest that over time he “honed his skills” (as they say) and started playing in live casinos and eventually some professional tournaments.
Now I picked up on this when Sheringham was featured on the Poker Million on Sky Sports in 2008. I am not a card playing or gambling man, but I was just bemused to see this guy to whom I had given my share of abuse over the years, actually transformed into something utterly different.
Apparently he finished 2nd in a charity event at the EPT Grand Final in 2009. Then he went on to the 2009 WSOP Europe and that, according to reports, is when he started to become a big time player.
The World Series of Poker Europe is an extension of the World Series of Poker held every summer in Las Vegas, NV. Professionals, and Ultimate Bet amateurs, from all over the world and Europe turn out for this event that awards the same gold bracelets as the events in Las Vegas.
Sherringham put up the £10,000 buy-in and took his shot at £801,603. All of the big names of poker were in this event that paid only 36 out of 334 players. Sheringham would eventually make the money of this event and finished 14th in the event, outlasting pros David “DevilFish” Ulliott, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Doyle Brunson. While Sheringham’s £40,481 was well short of the £801,603 top prize, it put the poker world on notice that he had game.
Sheringham has also proven to be a force on the European Poker Tour. So far, he has three EPT cashes, including a recent final table at the EPT Vilamoura. He finished 5th in the event and took home €93,121 in prize money.
And now the really extraordinary bit. Sheringham has a grand total of $259,272 in career tournament earnings as a professional poker player. He also ranks 181st on the England All-Time money list for poker. Quite an accomplishment for someone really just getting started in the game and who spent his time playing for clubs like Tottenham and Man U.
Teddy Sheringham has taken his game from the pitch to the felts of the poker world. Of course online Texas Hold’em poker site feature virtual felt, so you can say he went from he pitch to the computer screen online. While he may not compete in front of 100,000 screaming fans, he has begun to make his name in a sport that has taken the world by storm.
So what’s my point? Well, nothing much – except it just goes to show that watching a player on pitch never really gives a total insight into what the player is like underneath. Quite probably in the current Arsenal team we have a player who will go on to write a novel that will win the Booker Prize, and another who will play devote his retirement years to working for the homeless. Who knows?
Untold Arsenal: The Index
Woolwich Arsenal: the end of the line
Do we really win more games when Cesc and Van Persie play? Part-2
By Dark Prince
Last week, many had argued that the stats which had been presented in the first part of this article did not show the true picture for Arsenal in the presence or absence of Cesc and Van Persie. So by the popular suggestion, I went a step further and collected the stats for Arsenal’s performance against the top 6 premier league teams, excluding Arsenal, of each season and also Champions League teams since 2006. And what I got was some interesting results.
Before I present the stats, I want to say that the top 6, excluding Arsenal, of each EPL season has been different since 2006. Also for the Champions League fixtures, I’ve only accounted for matches of the knockout stages, i.e the group stage matches have been excluded, and that is because, as many would agree, there has been hardly any competition for us in the group stages in the last 4 years.
Starting off with our performance against Top 6 EPL teams of each season since 2006-07, i.e 12 matches each year which gives a total of 48 matches upto the 2009-10 season.
Cesc has played 39 matches of the total 48 matches. Arsenal’s record when Cesc plays is as follows,
With Cesc -
P- 39, W- 15, D- 13, L-11
Success rate- 38.5%
Goals Scored – 58 (1.5 per match)
Goals Conceded- 53 (1.4 per match)
The first thing that comes to my mind is the low success rate we have against the top 6. Arsenal’s success rate being 58.1% in all competitions in Lord Wenger’s era. Also though we are scoring a good number of goals, we are conceding almost the same amount. We did have 10 clean sheets among those 39 games but we still conceded a lot in the remaining 29 games. The commendable part is that we lose only 28.2% matches against the top 6 when Cesc plays.
So what happens when Cesc doesn’t play?? An obvious answer,
Without Cesc -
P- 9, W- 2, D- 4, L-3
Success rate- 22.3%
Goals Scored- 8 (0.9 per match)
Goals Conceded- 10 (1.1 per match)
Ok, I admit, against the top 6, we need Cesc to perform better. The success rate drops to 22.3%, goals scoring rate drops to less than a goal per match, it seems bad. Though we still only lose marginally more, 33.3% of those matches.
In conclusion, I can say that Cesc definitely makes an impact, a winning impact. But still Arsenal must try to improve on their low success rate against the top 6 to increase their title winning chances.
Now coming to Van Persie, we all read last week, the large number of matches he has missed since 2006. Its pretty much the same case against the top 6. He has only played 23 matches out of a possible 48 since 2006.
With Van Persie-
P- 23, W- 7, D- 9, L- 7
Success rate- 30.4%
Goals Scored- 31 (1.3 per match)
Goals Conceded- 27 (1.2 per match)
Well, our record isn’t as good when Van Persie plays. Success rate is low but we only lose 30.5% of the matches. Thats just marginally more than when Cesc plays.
So the stats should be worse when Van Persie doesn’t play, right?? Surprisingly no…
Without Van Persie-
P- 25, W- 10, D- 8, L- 7
Success rate- 40%
Goals Scored- 35 (1.4 per match)
Goals Conceded- 36 (1.4 per match)
That’s really interesting. We win more matches, score more goals without Van Persie. In fact, when Van Persie doesn’t play, we lose marginally fewer matches – 28% of our matches. Also our goal scoring rate is better without Van Persie. Quite interesting, eh?
Till now it seems as if, we can handle it better when Van Persie doesn’t play but Cesc remains an important part.
So what happens when both Cesc and Van Persie play together??
With Cesc and Van Persie-
P- 16, W- 7, D- 5, L- 4
Success rate- 43.8%
Goals Scored- 26 (1.6 per match)
Goals Conceded- 19 (1.2 per match)
Unfortunately, out of 48 matches against the top 6, Cesc and Van Persie have featured together only in 16 matches. That’s very low. But with both of them playing together, we have a very good success rate of 43.8% and our we lose only 25% of our matches. Our goal scoring rate too is at its best at 1.6 goals per match and we concede rather less.
It is sad that we don’t see both Cesc and Van Persie playing together a lot. Every title winning team has had a lethal combo of a midfielder and striker, eg, Viera and Henry, Ronaldo and Rooney, Lampard and Drogba, Kaka and Shevchenko, etc. We too have one but they hardly feature together because of their persistent injuries.
So apparently, we should be performing the worst when neither Cesc nor Van Persie play. Or is it?
Without Cesc and Van Persie-
P- 2, W- 2, D- 0, L- 0
Success rate- 100%!!
Goals Scored- 3 (1.5 per match)
Goals Conceded- 1 (0.5 per match)
Arsenal played only 2 matches which featured neither Cesc nor Van Persie. But both of them were won. A 100% success rate, sounds nice, doesn’t it? I know, its just 2 matches, but we did win them, it cant be ignored. This really gives us a hope that Arsenal does have a squad to beat the best teams without its best players.
The Chelsea game a couple of weeks before was the first game that we lost against a top 6 side (in this case, a potential top 6 side) since 2006 which featured neither Cesc nor Van Persie. But we did dominate that game and almost killed that game in the opening stages.
Now lets look at the stats for the Champions league knockout matches. What we get is an almost complete opposite result for Cesc and Van Persie.
In total we have played 16 knockout matches in Champions League since 2006. But Arsenal has won only 4 out of it. Yes, you heard it right. A success rate of only of 25%. And out of 16, Arsenal has lost 7 matches. Really disappointing. To be the best European side in the world, we have to perform better than that.
So does Cesc make a difference for us in the Champions League??
With Cesc-
P- 12, W- 2, D- 5, L- 5
Success rate- 16.7%
Goals Scored- 14 (1.2 per match)
Goals Conceded- 16 (1.3 per match)
Can you believe it? Arsenal has won only 2 out of the 16 European knockout matches when Cesc plays. A very low success rate of 16.7%. Loss is at 41.6%. We may score goals but end up conceding more also.
So what happens when Cesc doesn’t play?? The complete opposite…
Without Cesc-
P- 4, W- 2, D- 0, L- 2
Success rate- 50%
Goals Scored- 7 (1.8 per match)
Goals Conceded- 5 (1.3 per match)
Now though we have played only 4 matches without Cesc, we have a better record. 50% success rate is quite good, though the loss rate is also 50%. So would you prefer resting Cesc for the knockout stages of Champions league??
Van Persie’s European knockout stats are quite different from his Top 6 EPL stats. Though one thing remains the same and that is his absence from majority of the matches.
With Van Persie-
P- 6, W- 2, D- 1, L- 3
Success rate- 33.3%
Goals Scored- 8 (1.3 per match)
Goals Conceded- 9 (1.5 per match)
Now its Van Persie’s chance to shine. Van Persie’s success rate is double of that of Cesc’s. Though loss rate is at 50%. We are still conceding lots of goals.
Now without Van Persie for European Knockout matches.
Without Van Persie-
P- 10, W- 2, D- 4, L- 4
Success rate- 20%
Goals Scored- 13 (1.3 per match)
Goals Conceded- 12 (1.2 per match)
So without Van Persie, we perform poorly in Europe. 20% success rate is low, though still its better than Cesc’s. But we can still see that we do score goals without Van Persie.
So now the question arises…does the Cesc and Van Persie combo as effective together in European knockout matches??
With Cesc and Van Persie-
P- 4, W- 1, D- 1, L- 2
Success rate- 25%
Goals Scored- 7 (1.8 per match)
Goals Conceded- 8 (2 per match)
Now lots of talking points here. First of all, as usual, Cesc and Van Persie have played together only in 4 out of 16 European Knockout matches since 2006. A very low figure. Secondly, our success rate isn’t good enough even when both play together. Loss rate is at 50%, which is also disappointing. Also both goal scoring and goal conceding rate is high.
Now coming to when neither Cesc nor Van Persie plays. And yes, Arsenal again, surprisingly, performs better without both of them.
Without Cesc and Van Persie-
P- 2, W- 1, D- 0, L- 1
Success rate- 50%
Goals Scored- 6 (3 per match!!)
Goals Conceded- 4 (2 per match)
Yes, we scored 6 goals in 2 matches without either Cesc or Van Persie. We have a good success rate of 50%, though we played only 2 matches without them.
Maybe we all remember those two matches. Both happened last season. The first against Porto in the round of 16 which we won 5-0 and the second against Barca in the quarters which we lost 1-4. Though it required Barca’s best player to produce his best performance of last season to beat Arsenal without its best players. But we all know how we performed in the opening 20 minutes of that game in Nou Camp. That’s the potential we have even without our best players. Though we have be more consistent on that performance.
The stats for Arsenal against the top 6 EPL teams and European sides shows us where we need to improve. In both cases we are conceding a lot of goals. In both cases, our best players have missed a lot of games. But we have lots of positives as well, such as, in both cases, we score more than a goal per game. In both cases, we score lots of goals without Cesc and/or Van Persie. And also in both cases, we have performed better when neither Cesc nor Van Persie plays.
I think, as Arsenal Fans, all we need to do is to keep the faith, not only with Arsene Wenger, but also on each player that plays for us. All of our players may not be as visionary as Cesc or as clinical as Van Persie, but all of them are as important to the team as Cesc or Van Persie.
Every player has his own importance. And everyone gets a chance to prove his worth, and believe me, almost all of them live up to their promise and easily gel into our team. That’s why we have so many different goal scorers every year and probably thats why Arsenal as a team, has been one of the best in the world.
The best part is our squad is still young and can only improve each year. Players like Song, Diaby, Fabianski, Nasri, Walcott, Bendtner have improved a lot over the last couple of years and there is still lots of room for further improvement. The rest too will improve with time and experience. And with such a vastly improving squad, it wont be long when Arsenal start winning trophies, lots of them.
Keep the faith Fellow Gooners!! 
Plumstead: the very last game. What happened as Arsenal got ready to pack up and head for Highbury?
How could Arsenal have gone bust? The full story.
I want to be in contact with my fellow gooners outside of the UK
I want I want I want I want
By Tony Attwood
As the media circus hang on to and reprint every word of Sir F Word (apart of course from the F-words) and as Manchester IOU go into emergency session to decide what to do about the Potato Man’s agent (who seemingly pulled exactly the same trick on Everton when his guy moved to Man U five years ago), there remains the issue of cows and fields.
To put it particularly: would anyone actually want to buy the young fella-me-lad? (Or in the case of Sir Alex, would you buy a pint of milk from this man?) (see footnote for more data).
There is an assumption that Rooney is a player of such talent that all the world and its dog will be after him. A player for whom the market would fall apart at the chance of a purchase. And thus by implication, he will go. 2+2=7, ergo, viz, op cit, point proven, point taken.
But I think maybe Man U can hold onto the Potato although not for the reasons that one might imagine.
First, I am not sure that everyone will put in the bids that are expected, simply on the grounds that for quite a few months the warm glow of the delicious apple on a sunday afternoon has deserted the poor mite and he has not looked like the great player he clearly once was. This can’t all be down to the issue of Sir F Word – after all Rooney was fairly awful for England too in the WC (world cup).
Second, his agent’s reputation is now so low, having pulled the same self-enriching stunt twice that everyone knows Rooney will come with contractual baggage. He is after all the man who proved to the unthinking classes that the light at the end of the tunnel is the express train travelling in the opposite direction.
Third, there’s the delicate issue of Uefa’s spending rules. Apart from Arsenal very few clubs are actually in a position where they can say to Uefa, come and look at us, we pass the test. I know that the Tinies are doing this, and it might be that Uefa will be so inept that they won’t actually think of looking in the Virgin Islands, or even wondering where all the funding comes from.
But as for Man City, Real Mad, WC Milan, Barca and Inter, there is no preparedness for the new regulations, and although there is still time to get it right and hide a fair amount of the debt under the mattress, every major purchase makes it harder to get the figures to make enough sense that someone might actually believe them.
Fourth there is the issue of cash. The fall-out from the Liverpool Affair might be more or less over as far as football journalists are concerned, but not as far as the banks are concerned. RBS got their money back and indeed made a fat profit out of Liverpool – but there were times when this was by no means certain. The number of banks willing to lend to clubs for players is getting smaller by the day, and indeed the number of banks willing to have anything to do with clubs is getting smaller.
Remember Barca in the summer and the way they failed to pay their players on time. This was not a technical hitch, but a situation in which the club had run out of sources of money. The banks said no to any further loans, and even the loan sharks looked the other way. And that was just to keep the old con-artists in business – not because they wanted to actually buy someone.
So the rule is sell before you buy, because there is very little cash on offer – but what Man U want is cash. Any deal will have to be front loaded – meaning a lot of the money as the player is handed over. Less than that will not help the Glazers out of their little local difficulty with paying the rent on their shopping malls.
Fifth is the problem that Rooney is English. While I am more than happy to get the Eurostar to Paris, stroll across Lafayette and argue the toss with the man in charge over whether his ticket machine is working properly or not, not all Englishmen have that certain ability in the old foreign lingo. And as we all know, Brits don’t travel well when it comes to football. The number who have done ok on foreign soil is tiny, the number who have not is huge, from Gazza to Rush (and back again).
The ability of players to fit into a new country is a significant issue for all managers to consider – you only have to think of Reyes to see a potentially brilliant player who just could not hack it in foreign parts.
Part of Rooney’s problem will be that of his wife. She is apparently devoted to her disabled sister, and the thought of moving the sister is (so the media says) causing her some distress. Mrs Rooney always seems to come across as a genuinely good person (and of course I have no insight in this and am just repeating tittle tattle), and she may well not be that excited by the move to a country where neither she nor her hubby speaks a word. (Mind you Rooney doesn’t do very well in English either, so I suppose that is a start).
Sixth we come back to Mr Potato himself and his agents. There will be salary demands far in excess of the £7.8m a year that Man IOU were thinking of offering him. In the past we have always assumed that foreign clubs pay more than the English, but English clubs earn more in revenue than a lot of foreign clubs and they are struggling. True the President of Italy might stump up a few quid to help AC Milan buy him, but then that just makes life harder under the Uefa deal. The KGB in Fulham, and the oilmen in Manchester could afford anything – but the former are trying to cut costs, and the latter must start thinking about the Champions League some day soon.
So ultimately we are back to the transfer fee. Manchester United will need to replace the Roon with another good player. Sir F Word has mumbled about his brilliant crop of 14 year olds, (in between discussing the milk yield of cows in fields) but we know at Arsenal that a brilliant 14 year old is not always a brilliant 15 year old. Does he really have a shedload of Wilshere’s lined up to replace his ageing team? I doubt it.
Already they are wondering how the hell they replace Giggs and the other old timers. To replace Rooney as well, will mean a need for more and more money. And that really is where we started. Who is going to pay?
Of course if they don’t sell the Roon, then he walks. But with the KGB apparently offering just half the price Man IOU might expect, life is not going to be simple. Rooney could well fetch only a fraction of what Sir F Word really needs.
Footnote: this is Sir F Word’s entry for the Nobel Prize for After Dinner Metaphors, as taken from his new play, An Absence of Forewords, currently running at the Notional English Theatre of Commerce.
“Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it’s a better cow than the one you’ve got in the field. It’s a fact, right, and it never really works out that way. It’s probably the same cow and it’s not as good as your own cow. Some players like to think there’s a better world somewhere else. It never really works.”
Yup. That’s about it.
“Making the Arsenal”. The story of Arsenal in 1910. Not a cow in sight. “Brilliant, the best book ever in the history of history” (Untold Arsenal)
The Index. An analysis of recent articles, and links to other indexes which cover other things. “Brilliant. The best index ever.” (Untold Arsenal)
“The Arsenal History site.” Everything about Arsenal’s past. “Brilliant. More history than you can shake a stick at.” (Untold Arsenal)
By Walter Broeckx
One of our readers said that the problem with time wasting is not the rules but the refs who for some reason don’t enforce the rules on the field. And I could only agree with this. I must say that I sometimes feel like doing a crusade against dangerous tackles on my own. And then I get to hear sometimes : “other refs don’t do it like that”. And there is a very big problem for refs. We all do our games from our own point of view. We all have our own past that we bring in to the game, we all have our own points of attention and things we find less important.
And one of the big issues that we hear every year on our annual course at the start of the season is that our FA is trying to bring all the refs in one line and to have the same decisions from all the refs week in, week out. And to be honest I think this will never be achieved because of what I said in the last paragraph.
But does this mean we just have to accept the differences? Can nothing be done? As an ever optimistic person I think we could do something to help everyone in football. And in fact it is something so simple I really cannot believe that no one ever thought about.
Sure Fifa and the local football associations have come up with some initiatives to bring some problems under the attention. Like the racism and about being equal. And even at some time when refs were abused by players and managers they brought up this theme and started a “respect” campaign. Now this is all very nice and fine but I think Fifa should take another step and make sure that we all get some better knowledge about the game.
I think Fifa and the local Football Associations should choose each month a theme which they want to focus on and bring under the attention of all people involved in football. And as a normal season takes about 9 months time I took the liberty to chose some themes myself as an example and what could be done with it.
So we could have the month of the “Fighting the dangerous tackle”. At the start of the month Fifa should start with a video clip to be shown before the start of each half of each game when that game is being televised. A clip with horror injuries and with the clear message “NO” on the screen.
They should send a memo to ALL referees with clear instructions to focus on those tackles and to ban them with red cards. Better one red card too many than one leg broken should be the message towards the refs. They should send the same memo to all the clubs and instruct the clubs to pass the message to the players and the manager and to tell them that there will be a zero tolerance against dangerous tackles. And the public should be informed with the same video clip on TV and also before the game in the stadium itself.
(Oh yes on a side note: please give severe punishment to players who kick other players off the field with a serious injury. I would suggest if an injured player is out for less than 10 weeks the offender should get the same punishment and is banned as long as the other player is not fit. If longer than 10 weeks out a minimum ban of 15 weeks could be a nice one. And if a player never comes back a ban for 3 years would be a very nice gesture I would say.)
Now I know as a ref how important it is to be reminded on a regular base to some parts of the laws in football. The rulebook and instructions are some 140 pages (A4 format) and you can always forget a detail and you can always benefit from reviewing the law book at regular times. So if all the refs would get the same message each month at the same time the chance that the refs will act to this letter is much bigger. So you could get the same decisions in the same scenarios on different fields. Something we all want I think: everyone being treated in the same way.
So you also could have the month of “Banning the elbow” in which you warn the players for being careful with their elbows and instruct the refs to throw the serial elbow offenders out of the game.
And after that the month of “Stop the time wasting” in which the refs pay extra attention to the time wasting tactics and also the illegal drying the ball tactics which cost a lot of time.
And then you can continue with “Make an end to shirt pulling” and not only in the middle of the field but also in the penalty area.
And what about the month: “Get rid of the tackle from behind” which speaks for itself I would say.
Lets have a “Stop the assault frontal tackle”-month. In which players will have to be very careful to avoid red cards for this dangerous type of tackle
And also you could have a theme “Respect for the ref” and in this month you better not go to a ref and surround him and dispute his decision as it will cost a yellow card for each player who comes to the ref.
Next you could have a theme ‘Respect for your opponent” where you try to focus on looking at each other as colleagues and not as enemies whose legs should be kicked to pieces.
And finally a month with “Respect the spirit of the game” in which you focus on the fact that if we all try to play the game in a fair way and with respect for each other and the laws football would become even more attractive for the spectators and more enjoyable for the players. Focus could be turned to not cheating with diving to gain fouls just to give another example.
And these themes should come back each season. So it would be a reminder for all of us each year and by doing this we will not forget that easy. No one will have an excuse that he didn’t know it. The refs will have no excuse when not doing what the memo is telling them to do and should be punished by the local Football associations. This punishment could be by setting a ref back a few leagues and only let him come back when he has shown signs of improvement. And it speaks for itself I would think that after the month the instructions are still valid from the months before and will be followed by the same punishment for the rest of the season.
Fifa and the local Football associations should be condemning players and clubs who are not working on the themes in public. The media should be asked to help Fifa and the local Football associations and to back up the themes in their football shows and programmes.
I really do believe that if Fifa and the local Football associations would make an attempt in this direction that it would have its effect. And I really do believe that if players know what they risk they will think twice before doing stupid things on the field.
And to have the best effect it should be repeated every year. Because as the Latin idiom goes: Repetitio est mater studiorum (repetition is the best teacher). To keep football clean is a fight that has to be done day in and day out, week in and week out, month in and month out and year in year out. You may say that I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope it anyway.
Dreaming and dreaming, the untold way
Dreaming about life 100 years ago
By Tony Attwood
What would you change about Arsenal? Since, as you know, I am a devotee of the mighty Lord Wenger, not much. And it is not normally a question I would even contemplate. But this advert from Football Manager 2011 turned up and it was full of the WHAT WOULD YOU CHANGE ABOUT YOUR CLUB thing.
Their article rather mirrored the last piece by the gracious and eternally eternal Bogus Cheese, in that it was suggesting that if one supported the IOU then one would dismiss the troublesome potato man and bring in some kiddies.
Except, oh dear, Man IOU don’t have much of a youth policy since the youth academy was turned into a shopping mall courtesy of the owners.
Anyway it seems that the whole Football Manager thing involves making changes to one’s own club and then seeing how you get on, and for Mirror Football fans it can all be done in advance. Indeed the announcement says that Mirror Football readers will have access to the game before everyone else on Thursday 21st October which must be rather jolly. Apparently within this context www.mirrorfootball.co.uk has some sort of deep meaning.
But anyway what would I change? Well, first off, I would get the club to improve its “move your season ticket” facility since then I would be able to get away from the moron who sits behind me and slags off Bendtner all the time. I think for his age the young man is brilliant, and what we want to do is keep him, not complain about him.
Next up I would ensure that the “remove the top from your water bottle” auto reaction among the catering staff is brought permanently to an end. We debated this at an AISA meeting recently, and it seems that 99% of people who buy water in the ground bring their own bottle tops anyway, so the whole policy, apart from being insulting is also rather pointless.
For the game against the Time Wasting Killers from the midlands they seem to have stopped this policy, so that’s good.
Oh and I would set up a team in the third division of the Scottish league, and another one in the Conference south (or failing that Belgium) so we could watch the reserves play competitive matches.
So it seems that with Football Manager 2011, you can play out these scenarios although I am not sure about the water bottle business. Nor about removing the guy a few rows behind me. But hey, if you can with Football Manager even better, I’ll buy one. Must ask Bogus about that, she probably knows. (Actually she wants cheddar on sale in the ground, and I am not sure if that is in Football Manager.)
What else? Well it seems there is Mirror Football Goals – A free Facebook fantasy 5-a-side football game in association with Renault. Pick your team, set up your mini-league and invite your mates at: www.mirror.co.uk/goals
Now here’s an interesting bit. If I include these images I get a free ham sandwich.
Tell you what I would also like to change – midweek league matches, because Jane can’t get to those. That’s a pain. And matches played when it is very cold, or snowing (I missed one home game last season because of the snow. They shut these railway lines down in a trice in the midlands. Any excuse. I think Midland Mainline is run by a load of junkies in Nottingham, but perhaps that is another story).
The problem is they just appear to be blobs to me, but maybe they’ll all come out in the wash.
Is that all right guys? Do I get the $25,000 now?
Mirror Football
Mirror Football website
Football Manager in advance with Mirror Football
Sponsored Post
By Tony Attwood
Living almost 100 miles from the Ems, I don’t get back home after mid-week games until after midnight, at which time I fall into bed, and just hope to wake up in time to get to work the next day. (Us oldies are not so good in the small hours).
So I have not seen what TV did to the match last night, but for me it was a very particular occasion.
It wasn’t the atmosphere in the ground - that wasn’t particularly good (although I did at last manage to hear the “We’re the clock end Highbury” chant from where I sit in the north bank), but it was the events within the game, and then one response from the crowd, that made this so special.
For a start there was no time-wasting, no faked injuries, and nothing remotely like the normal level of kicking, arguing, pushing, elbowing, pinching, punching and every other -ing you get to see when we play Blackburn, Bolton, Birmingham and the rest.
The opposition were not insipid, and there were a fair number of free kicks, but what we did not have was rotational fouling. Goal kicks were taken quickly, the keeper did not pause for a drink each time, and overall I got the impressioin that Shakhtar wanted to make a game of it. No ,matter what.
So too did their bunch of fans on the opposite side of the ground from me. They were jumping and singing throughout, despite the obvious fact from early on that they were not going to get anything out of it. And they never stopped.
And then late in the second half there was the defining moment. It wasn’t that some people applauded Eduardo’s goal. It was that the entire stadium stood, the applause spread round the ground, and it kept going.
And when after what seemed an age it finally stopped the Eduardo song (“Hi ho Eduardo Silva”) started up, with as much vigour and force as it ever did when he was playing for us.
It was a moment that made me proud to have spent my life as an Arsenal supporter.
There were of course other issues. The Wilshere-Cesc combo was something else – and not just in the way they operate close together. It is in the way they operate when far apart – which possibly is not always seen on TV.
Cesc, as you will probably have seen, was playing as a forward, leaving Wilshere and Song behind. (Actually Song was playing as a forward some of the time, but I think he was getting a bit light-headed having scored).
So sometimes we had Cesc and Jack close, sometimes far apart. But since each has the ability to pick out staggering passes, it was wonderful to behold where ever they were – because when far apart they can still find each other, or anyone else. Each has wonderful positional sense, so even when not receiving the ball each is dragging the opposition defence all over the place. It is quite something.
As the game ended I ruminated (as one does) on the fact that Jack now has a three match ban, and what a problem that is for us – or maybe not. Cesc needs to re-establish himself as the central cog in the whole machine, and maybe playing games without Jack might just help a bit to ensure that his standard game returns.
I also fully admit that I never saw this coming. I had seen Jack in the reserves, and noted the quality, but not imagined he could be this good – and certainly not this quickly. But by the end of this season he will be worth what? £30 million? More? If Cesc does choose to stay beyond the end of this season, or if Mr Wenger chooses to say “No!” once again to the mindless morons of Lower Barca, we will have ended up with midfield double act that surpasses Vieira and Petit. Not in any way the same as those two legends, but better in terms of ultimate effectiveness.
So there we were, with a forward line of Chamakh, Cesc and Nasri – I wouldn’t have predicted that either, but it certainly worked, and with one or two of the long term dead coming back to life. There is a possibility here, I believe.
But mostly I will remember Eduardo, and the crowd. Maybe a returning hero has had such a reception elsewhere before, but if so, I wasn’t there. It was a privilege and an honour to be there last night.
The best refereeing we have seen all season
By Walter Broeckx, the ref.
The ref in our CL game against Shaktar Donetsk was Mr. Moen from Norway. Well let us just see how he did.
OTHER: Wilshere comes in late and hits his opponent. The ref gives him a lecture. He could have given a yellow there but later on it turned out that by doing this he warned all the players and no serious fouls were committed. So I credit him with a good point looking back at the game but at the time I would have given a yellow card. But the ref showed that he would not tolerate anything more like that. And this is a perfect example on how to do a game and how to build it up. A lecture for the first foul that could result in a booking can do the trick but you have to be sure of yourself to do this. Nevertheless, a good point to the ref 1/1.
GOAL: And for those who were in the Emirates this might be a surprise but this goal should have been disallowed. No there was not a foul on the goalkeeper and the ball was not under control by the keeper when Djourou pushed it forward. BUT Song was in an offside position when the ball was played forward to him. There was only one defender behind him so he was offside. I know the ref is not really to blame for this but he gets the good and the bad points from his assistants so sorry ref but you were let down by your assistant on this occasion. 0/1
GOAL: No remarks on the second goal this time. Well taken if you ask me. 1/1
CARD: against Hubschman for a foul off the ball on Cesc. It was not his first like that and the ref had enough of it. This was an example on a few fouls by the same player that added up to a yellow card. Again well done from the ref. 1/1
OTHER/PENALTY/CARD/GOAL: A lot to talk about. Let us start with what the ref does before the free kick is taken. The defenders are holding the Arsenal players and preventing them running. The ref acknowledges this and calls a few players over to warn them that he will give a foul or a penalty if needed. Perfect according to the rule book and the instructions. 1/1
The ball comes in and Djourou is held firmly and dragged to the ground and also Song has been held and he also goes down. The ref gives the penalty he had promised the defenders he would give. And I am typing this standing up and applauding the ref(sorry for any errors) for this, as this part is mostly forgotten by most refs. Our ref today showed character in this situation. 1/1
He also gives a card. And this is something he did to stamp his authority even further on the players. He smothers any attempt to come running to him to protest his decision and he also tells the player that made the foul that if the ref warns you for not making a foul and you still do it you show disrespect to the ref and you must get a yellow card. 1/1 Cesc scores the penalty and nothing to report on this. 1/1
GOAL: Nothing wrong with the goal I would say. What a lovely move. 1/1
GOAL: What a strange goal this one. Chamakh was so surprised that the flag stayed down he stopped for a split second took a look at the linesman and then he shot but because of him looking to the linesman he almost missed. And Marouane next time just shoot at first sight and then look at the linesman please. And the linesman had it right as at the left back position a defender was playing Chamakh onside. 1/1
GOAL: Well I think this will be the goal in Arsenal history that will live in memory as the goal that was applauded by all supporters in the stadium and a goal against Arsenal. Eduardo scores his goal and all well within the rules. 1/1
So let us see what we get in total for this ref:
Goals 5/6
Cards: 2/2
Penalties: 1/1
Other: 2/2
A total score of 10/11 or 90 %!
When I started this review I said that a ref that would get a score of 90% he would have a almost faultless game. And this is what I have seen tonight. Our match commentator said that the ref was only 31 years and I must say that if he keeps performing like this he will be a great ref. This really was a top, top performance and I must say one of the best I have ever seen. And the only point I took away from him, he is not directly to blame but his assistant is to blame.
This was in my opinion a perfect example of a ref who felt that the game was played in a good spirit and when the first real contact was made he lectured the player. The players felt that he was not going to throw with his cards around like a madman but he made it clear he would give the next player a yellow card if he would go in hard. No one did after that for the rest of the game. I can only congratulate him on this.
I also would like to point out that I think that the penalty was some great team work between the ref and the 5th assistant. I can imagine that the ref said to the 5th assistant after he had called the players over and told them to stop the holding and pulling to keep an extra eye on this. He even changed his normal position where he should stand when a free kick flies in from there to have an opposite view of the incident with his 5th assistant. Great, great teamwork.
I really hope that other refs take a good look at the way he performed tonight and try to learn from him. You can always argue about some minor decisions in a game but I really felt he had the game in total control from the start to the finish. He wasn’t influenced by the shouts for a first penalty from the crowd, he did what he had told the players he would do. Okay, I will stop here as I think it is clear that this was the best performance of a ref I have seen in a long, long time.
Arsenal v Shakhtar
Arsenal vs Shakhtar – the serious preview
Arsenal vs Shakhtar Donetsk: the team, the score, and the bomb
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