I can’t recall the last time I felt this unenthusiastic about football. The sport I grew up loving and playing is quite low down on my list of priorities. With the Ashes series up real soon I’m looking forward to an enjoyable distraction away from the game. The GP has made good viewing but that’s soon to be wrapped up for the year with just one race left in Abu Dhabi. Lewis Hamilton has already wrapped up the championship but regardless, I’ll be watching especially as I have family and friends flying out just to watch the race.
This weekend it’s the first North London Derby of the season yet even that doesn’t wet the whistle like it used to and that’s not because the Totts are a more exciting team to watch, or because I fear we’ll get roasted, it’s just because the rivalry between the two clubs appears to have gone, The fans will always detest each other, well, many I’d imagine and no doubt they’ll be a few scuffles before/after the game but as far as the manager and our players go, a NLD is nothing like it was when Tony Adams and co were fighting for bragging rights in north London.
Adams, our very own Mr Arsenal would have made it clear to everyone in the dressing room on match day and during the week before that this fixture mattered. It was about pride, the fans, the rivalry, the club, everything and it was not a fixture we would lose. More often than not, we didn’t either. But back then, players didn’t need to be told what a derby meant because they already knew and it showed on the pitch.
Who do we have in the squad today who knows what this weekend’s fixture means to us fans? Steve Bould will know as he’s played in a few tasty fixtures between the two clubs but I doubt he’s permitted to try and get the message across and as much as Arsene Wenger tells us he knows how important this game is, I can’t see him in the dressing room barking at the players about pride etc etc.
We don’t have any ‘Arsenal’ players these days. Yes we have a few coming through the Academy but will they have the same kind of passion for the club that the likes of Bould, Dixon, Keown etc etc had? I hope so. But players don’t need to be born in north London to know what Arsenal v Totts means after all, Henry, Paddy, Bergkamp Petit etc knew what it meant but that’s because they learned from the likes of Mr Arsenal himself. He drummed it into the players back then but today, there’s no teacher. There’s no passion, desire or pride. The Arsenal shirt means little to our lot these days, or certainly that’s how it seems and as much as Arsene Wenger dons his posh red tie and club badge on a match day, there’s little evidence that the club matters much to him either. He tells us it does, but if he did, he’d have done something about the crap his teams dish up each week….
Perhaps that’s why my interest in the game, especially Arsenal FC has declined. Still, I’m sure it’ll return one day.
When he’s gone….
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Money means more to today’s players, generally speaking.
Morning all.
Rico, I’ve never lacked confidence heading into a NLD like I do for this one.
I agree that the edge and bite has all but vanished from the NLD these days but I see the same thing in many big money sports. F1 especially, where Mercedes have all but crushed the life out of it.
I turn on the TV to watch football these days and find myself reading a book or fiddling with the iPad about 20 minutes later, bored that the mercenaries on show with their tattooed bodies and extraordinary hairstyles don’t give much of a damn what the outcome is as long as they get their money.
The Arsenal board, in one of the worst PR excercises I have ever seen, let the fans know in no uncertain terms that they couldn’t give a shit about their opinions. It was a pivotal and disastrous occasion and if there were any fans left with a real deep feel for the club and what it once represented, then they were certainly left in no doubt as to the sheer contempt they are now held in. Will the ST holders do anything about it? No, is my opinion and as long as the board can boast about having a full house while Wenger is still trotting out the same old crap every time, then we are stuck in limbo. The NLD is just another game that we will win, lose or draw but, as for any deeper meaning, I will let Wenger drone on about refereeing decisions and let the papers resurrect their stories about the shift of power in north London football.
At the moment, there is no ‘us’ where Arsenal are concerned. They are just another club with a load of players on the edge of asking for a transfer. Passion is a two-way street.
I think we’ll win Scott…
Agree re the Arsenal stuff Adam…
Rico, I think you jest 🙂
Though we do tend to play one or two superb games a season, so it could well be this week.
Nope, no jest Scott..
Why so confident?
It’s great to hear but even I’m worn down by it all lol
I’m not confident at all, just think it’s what this Arsenal team do under Wenger. Lose one, win won, lose another etc etc..
Yeah true.
They’re so inconsistent but can pull one out every now and again.
I’m not going to lower the tone of the conversation to insinuate the following but the vermin in my opinion if they score early could absolutely take the piss on Saturday…. Who will that hurt, will the players be upset and annoyed at all, will they spout the usual apologies after. The ones that care and hurt are the ones the club couldn’t care less about anymore, yep us the fans.
Rico, the sad fact is there are many fans who believe our biggest rivals are the Chavs and the Mancs… sad but true, an indictment of the support we now attract that they have no clue as to our history or the hatred for the swamp dwellers down the road, as for them lets just say those that know, know..!
Hi Wath. I can’t understand why any Arsenal fan would think our biggest rival is those clubs you mention as to be honest, they are not rivals as they’re leaving us standing right now. Certainly City and Chelsea.
You mean ‘customers’ surely… 😉
But yes, I get what you are saying…
Tone officially lowered hahaha
Nah Wath, your point is well taken.
If our guys can’t fire up for this game, they never bloody will.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5080903/Arsene-Wenger-like-manage-World-Cup.html
Go now old chap, you won’t be missed…
Kev, where the fcuk are you… get le frog to Heathrow pronto…. Destination… ANYWHERE but here…………………
The old fool will sign up to manage Italy! He’ll think that they will get through on a technicality? Or Holland perhaps they play some neat football…….sideways. Any country that comes in for him, now, please make him an offer he can’t refuse……pretty please. Break your contract Arsene you know you want to.
Shall we start an Avaaz or Change.org petition suggesting Wenger and Kroenke should do one? Half a million f…offs may have some effect.
And on that optimistic note I’ll go and get my lunch. The tea urn’s hot if you want a cup Kev? Long way for you to come, mind.
The weather’s picked up now. Sun is shining and we’ve hit double figures centigrade, 12c, to be precise.
Afternoon all.
It’s all about the foreign TV viewers and the TV rights money these days plus the big bucks sponsorship deals that this scenario provides for the likes of Syrupy Stan and co. These money merchants have freed themselves from what they discern as being the shackles of dependency on local supporters attending football games. As far as the foreign viewers are concerned, in places such as Beijing for example , the football games might as well be played on the moon and how can these ‘supporters ‘ be expected to get excited or passionate about NLD’s other than what the result is regarding their bets that they have placed on the outcome of them . Gambling on English football games is a big part of the attraction abroad for many who watch them . Also another big problem is that it is also an attraction or addiction for many in this country who play in them. Old mother Riley has appointed Dean to officiate the NLD no doubt all of Wenger’s whinging about ref’s decisions going against him in the City game in which Pep’s side totally outplayed Wenger’s helped Riley to make the decision. to put put the chief whistle-blower Dean in charge of Saturday’s high-noon shoot-out As I have said before Wenger gets plenty of dodgy decisions at home himself from match officials so he just makes himself look stupid when he whinges on and on…and yawn…on…. the ref clearly got the call wrong on a penalty incident v West Brom recently in Wenger’s favour at home the French whinger however supported him for making that call ! Had it been the other way around then…well we know what the answer to that is …Wenger is still claiming, despite the ‘forensic evidence ‘ proving otherwise, that Sterling dived in the City game . So the ref and hapless 4th official can expect plenty of stressed out abuse on Saturday when desperate Arsene will be demanding that every decision is made in his favour! You couldn’t make it up.
Cheers Wavy, I’ve had 3 mugs of char and now I’m almost ready to face the madhouse!
Rico/Adam the NLD hasn’t been the same since we left Highbury, actually nothing has been the same, we morphed from being a football club into being a franchise and that is our fate.
Wath/Scott I don’t think there’s any chance of Wenger ever being England manager, he cannot stand our press corps and he’s well aware of how vitriolic they are to England managers.
I guess that being the manager of France would come high on his list of international jobs or Germany even as he is almost as German as he is French, coming from Alsace.
His reputation is still high on the continent.
But it would surprise me to see him take on the Ivory Coast or some other French speaking African nation where he could indulge his passion in being a control freak.
Wath the engine is running….
I’ve actually got a ticket for this weekends NLD, although I’m going with the belief that Arsenal will lose, probably about 1-3 to a well rested Tottenham team, easily the best I’ve seen since the days of Waddle, Hoddle and Allen.
Of course in those days we took it to them with the likes of Rocky, Adams, O’Leary and Quinn, who never took a step backwards, unlike a Mesut the Unready and his chums.
Ok off to join the A13 banger race into the Smoke.
Things won’t change on the refereeing front until Riley and Wenger are history. This is not a sudden happening the grudge goes back to the end of the 49 run when Riley oversaw the biggest robbery in football history.( rivalled only by Dowd at Newcastle ) There has been no love between them since then. It’s ongoing Wenger complains and Riley appoints to spite him.
We are not stupid we know referees and which ones allow different things and the ones that clamp down on others. No surprise then that we get the “it’s a man’s game “refs for the matches against physical sides , We see it but it seems that Wenger doesn’t and seems not to prepare his players to combat them.
Money from abroad is now the mainstay of the Premier League , match going supporters are less important and as the old skool ones die off the emnity between the club’s fans disappears by proportion . Football has become sanitised . I am not saying that we need to go back to the 70’s and 80’s but there was more passion on display then.
Not to mention all seater stadia. That more than any other outside influence had more effect on the crowd’s behaviour. No more jostling, jumping, falling community shouting and a general feeling of us against them, sometimes in the same stands. It was war, not lethal but always less than good humoured. More often than not there were afters in the streets before home time! Largely this, often unsavoury behaviour, as it was, added a certain spice to the occasion. Now the stadia are so controlled, policed and sanitised that our ‘library’ nick name is not unfounded! The Emirates on the few occasions I’ve been there has been like a morgue!
Sadly I think, unwittingly the powers that be have created a passivity in the crowds that has lead or is leading to a total disconnect between club and fans. Eventually, the grounds may fill from week to week but the audiences will have a greater link to the visitors to the Royal Opera House than ever they did to the working man’s Saturday pleasure, down the Arsenal! The audience at the Opera has no loyalty except to the music and perhaps one or two of the cast, so it will be at the football. Just another ‘show’.
In the mean time the game of football is a little way into the act of self destruction. Like Babylon the walls will come crashing down and nobody will know how it happened. Hope I’m wrong but it’s the way I see it, albeit not for a few years yet, but I’m sure it will come to pass.
So so true rico, I’m already looking forward to the next International break in March !
I have long believed that football like Topsy will grow and eventually eat itself.
Evening guys..
Kev, funny though eh as leaving highbury was going to move the club forward, make us winners again, blah blah blah..
Micko, you gave me the idea…
Incredible really rico, 11 years on and we’re going backwards.
Rapidly Micko, rapidly…
Evening all and thank`s Rico.
I think there are a few of the current players who knows what it means to us fans and I`m sure Wenger does aswell as he must have learnt something in his 20+ years of dictatorship !
For me personally there is no bigger game, no bigger joy than to beat the scummy ####`s, flip side, no worse game to lose or draw !…………………..I cant without a profusion of expletives express how much I honestly hate them, so knowing me by now I`ll use something completely disgusting to define it !………………………………I hate them more than Kroenke !……………….apollogies if anyone was offended by such filth !.
As for Arsene going to manage a national side soon, I say lets give him as a present to our Aussie boys !……….send him downunder !…….yes, I know there`s a few on here who I shant name, but you know who you are Lee who would like him 6 foot down under ! hahaha
The Wenger of Oz !
Arsenestralia !
Bruce Wenger and his Sheilaroos !
You know it makes sense .
😆
Tell you what !……………….being an atheist, If someone could quickly convince me there was a footballing God, I would make a sacrifice of my wife at the altar of Lord Dennis for a win on Saturday !
What are you smoking Lc? ?
1.24 Potter, spot on…
Ten minute plank………1000 situps and 40 mins on the spinning bike, Rico………………..my endorphins are ready for a lunar landing ! hahaha
Sounds riveting Lc…
Really, Rico !……………………………….I could discuss it in great detail if you wish !
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Anyway, what riveting games we got tonight ?………………………….I`ve got plenty on the planner, what`s it to be ?…………Walking Dead first ?
You’re a weapon. LC hahaha
Word has it Wenger is retiring in Cornwall, the last stronghold of undying support he holds 🙂 🙂
Morning all.
No thanks Lc…
Night guys.
Cocker, when your at the gym, do you wear a spandex leotard..?
Oh well……….they do say every cloud has a silver lining, maybe just maybe Christian Eriksen will have to sit it out with jet-lag this weekend !!!
Absolutely Kev !……………………………….
This was me today .
🙂
https://scontent-sea1-1.cdninstagram.com/t51.2885-15/s480x480/e35/13423677_970569026397503_162776397_n.jpg?ig_cache_key=MTI3MDI4ODQ4NzU0ODQwNDU0Mw%3D%3D.2
Cocker, does that mean that I can call you Ginger now…? ?
Or Ginger Cock…? ?
Shussssssshhhh… 🙂
Morning..
Morning all.
🙂
Our Aussie boys are either still realing from my prediction of Wenger becoming Australia Manager or they`re watching the Socceroos about to qualify for the WC !………..2-0 with 9 mins to play……………….
3-0…….Jedinak hattrick !
Return of the Jedi…….nak
LC, Jedinak is a warrior and a leader.
He’s not the most technically gifted of footballers, but he’s a no fuss player.
Arsenal should’ve grabbed him a few years back because we could have used that type of player-still could!!
3-1 it ended up.
We are there 🙂
Oh well…….only two British teams qualify…………England and our penal colony !
😆
Seeing that England will probably contain possibly 4/5 Tottnumb players in the starting XI and no Arsenal players………………..I`ll stick with the Penal Colony !………………..seriously, I cant stomach watching Englands full of Spuds !
Hahaha LC.
Fonrhe Aussie lads 🙂
We will struggle over there-we don’t have a striker.
Opponents will know they’ve been in a contest, though.
Evening rico1 & all,
I’ve just got the word that if The Arse lose to Tottenham, Arsene Wenger is gone. Does it have legs or just wishful thinking? If it does have legs ….. no I won’t say on an Arsenal blog?
Oh, & btw, Oz is thru to Russia 2018. Probably seeded 32, but we are there?
Hi Gg, where did you hear that about Wenger?
As much as that would be nice………..I dont believe it as he wants to win a european trophy and we`re favourites for the second biggest trophy in european football !
🙂
Is Kroenke`s lungs still working ?
The syrup? In an iron lung??? On a high dependency ward??? Nah, I doubt it. A pity but there it is!
Football…..? Pah!
Right miserable here. Drizzling a bit and really gloomy………just like Cornwall.
Afternoon Rico, great post… ?
Welbeck and Wilshere to start this Saturday?
And Lacazette…
Mustafi late test, but probably on the bench, Kozzer will be bandaged up and sent out as Wenger needs a result, big time…
If he starts Ozil then he deserves all he gets.
Only wet stuff here recently is the stuff the surfers use !
🙂
Cornwall would be an Aussies home from home , it`s surrounded by coastline unlike you landlocked lovers !………we`ll get Arsene down here so he gets used to bronzed surf duds before he takes the Aussie job !………..I may even teach him how to use a barbie ! hahaha
Barbie Q or doll
Ever tried a Bulgarian Split Squat, Kev ?…………………..and I dont mean you kidnap a Bulgarian and splitting him in half then using him as dumbells to squat with !………..I mean that could get bloody in the back of your cab and probably be against european employment laws ! hahaha
Anyway, I hate them………(not Bulgarians )………but they do pump up the thighs !………………….gives you an appetite afterwards !………………………I wonder how many bagels I could fit on my bar ?
🙂
Either, Potter, Im` an expert on both !
🙂
Lc you’re not Ken in disguise are you? I mean, you’re about the right age, Ken 60ish now I think and still a bronzed tiger!! And, how is Barbie these days??
Land locked? We’re in a prime spot here! There’s the Trent bore, well there’s a man who tells old tales about the Trent and he’s pretty boring!? I suppose we could surf on him! You right though we have very few beaches locally. The nearest I think is at Rutland Water and they do Barbies there too, loads of them! So there…….,!
Who cares about football………any more?
Very few that post on here now. Seems anything but.
If we go by what you and Kev think then Wavy, then I`m a bronzed Ginger Ken surf dude from Bude !
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Soon be the weekend, Potter, then it`s …….The Game………which to me is more than just about football, believe me,….. I will be bouncing off the ceiling or a blow up barbie doll if we win !
🙂
Sadly Potter what we have to say about our team and its football, not to mention the manager and the rest of the staff at the Arsenal has been said a thousand times before. More of the same or the same old over and over again! I think we deserve a little light heartedness, if only to divert us from the pain that is almost certain to visit s all at about 2.30 on Saturday afternoon!
I think I’ll return to football after the final whistle. Presently I don’t think they’ll be much in the positive to hang on to, so more of the moaning I’m afraid!
Any more of the poetic stuff, LC and you’ll be a contender to unseat Carol Ann Duffy, and she ain’t no Barbie, not in any respect!
Afternoon Rico and the House.
Very gloomy down Southjust like every thing else in the UK.
Just getting over a hasty bug given to the family by Granddaughters 7 Year old ( caught at school).
Word is going round that we are talking to Sven Mislintat of Dortmund to replace Rowley as chief Scout.
Wonder who found him/
What I wanna know Ken/Ginger/Cocker is do you have the hands that grip things, you know, implements and do your eyes move from side to side?
Luv the haircut btw.
Bulgarian barber?
Afternoon Kev, Rick and all.
Doesn’t the silence on here speak volumes….
Kev, I’d start both, they know what a derby match is about and Jack hates the Totts… only thing is, they’ll probably target Jack and Dean will do nothing about it…
Sounds interesting about Sven Rick..
All that and more, Kev`!……………………….my legs bend at the knees and have removable shoes and just so I can jump in bed with Barbie at a moments notice my clothes have velcro fastners !…………also have that glazed look of ……the lights are on but nobodies home !
:This one………..
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Bet it wont be silent on here if we get beat badly on Saturday ………………….
🙂
Common sense dictates we get the scout from either Dortmund or Monaco, as these clubs just keep producing the goods when it comes to young talent.
Let’s hope there is a touch of common sense, which isn’t that common, at the Arsenal!!!!
Morning all.
Well Cocker, never you mind what Potter and Wavy says, I think you looked very nice in your one-piece spandex cat suit.
You should chat to Wath when he’s on here next, he’s very big into rubber…
Surely though Scott, Stan wouldn’t allow common sense to prevail and snap up a proper scout…?
Life is full of coincidences.A few years ago after Eboue fouled up against Liverpool I had a,heart attack was taken into hospital and missed our match against Totteringham.So guess where I will be on Saturday ,they are doing something about my legs. We lost last time hopefully not this time.So if anyone is watching it,let me know if anything interesting happens.
Your be too busy chatting up the nurses potter !
rico, we’ll probably end with a plastic scout from one of those cheap Christmas crackers, you wait and see.
rico
Re Arsene Wenger gone if The Arse loses to Spuds:
Via the season ticket holder i got my seat from @ The Emirates. Its probably just the general growing consensus, with him now included. Kelsey seems to have a bit of an insight into the ‘marbled halls of Highbury’ (behind the scenes)?
Hope all goes well for you Potter..
Gg, shame, I thought there might be something more concrete in the story..
Morning all..
Or his hut Micko…
It seems that Iwobi sees himself as a target for the Emirates boo boys. I thought that Ramsey or Walcott ,Giroud even Ozil and Sanchez get their share too.
Is there,a case that. with the manager complaining as well,a there is a mollycoddling atmosphere around the club or is it really the ungrateful fans fault.
Mollycoddled, the lot of them I reckon…
rico
I’ve gotta say, I’m holding out for a change of manager these days. Mind you I did also hear, not concrete tho, that Foxtel were in for the PL telecast rights next season down here. I’ve missed my 10 live game a week since Rupert let it slip.
Gg, aren’t we all….
Xhaka has misplaced more passes than any other PL player…. 153 so far this season apparently!!!
Another quality buy from Wenger it seems!
Morning Rico, Brudder and all. Xhaka is a strange one. Given time he can hit a 50 yard cross field ball with uncanny accuracy and yet, when he hurried, he flounders with an 8 yard square pass. And he has become very square in his play since joining.
Morning Adam.
I read that too Lee, not a good record to hold..
New post is up now..