By Walter Broeckx
Talking about twists and turns, the PL surely is living up to that for the moment. Since the moment we lost our key players at the same time and our PL title challenge was halted the media has ran at full speed in admiration of some teams only to see them hit the wall full on the face.
Two of the 3 teams that could still mathematically win it untill yesterday have been praised as if they were the best thing since football was invented only to see that team facing a sudden downfall.
Chelsea and their manager Mourinho were praised as if they came from another planet after playing 0-0 at Atletico Madrid in the CL semi final. Most neutral football supporters turned their head in disgust after that match and vowed not to see another match of Chelsea ever again. The media readily forgot that Chelsea wasn’t able to win against Crystal Palace, Sunderland and Norwich. We have beaten Crystal Palace and Sunderland both times and could do the same with Norwich next Sunday.
In a way it is amazing that there is not much criticism for the way Mourinho played in Madrid and going out at Stamford Bridge after the second match. Now of course Mourinho was ahead of them in making sure that he was out of the fire line by blaming things on Hazard for not defending enough.
Blimey, what has Mourinho been smoking all these years. If he would have read Untold he would have known that for a few years. I think I wrote about that one year before Hazard decided to follow the money trail to Chelsea. I warned that getting Hazard will be great in attack but he will not defend much.
I also find it a bit strange that earlier this year Mourinho was praising Hazard and taking all the credit for the way Hazard was playing. And now suddenly when things go wrong it is Hazard who is to blame. Has there ever been a more egoistic and ego-maniacal person in football than Mourinho?
I make no secret of it that just the thought of Mourinho ending up with nothing in his hands this season is enough to bring a big smile to my face. I don’t really like the Abramovich-Chelsea at all. But before that era I felt about them like I feel for Fulham or West Ham. No particular dislike in the way of my feelings towards Tottenham. But the money team that Chelsea has become cannot get much sympathy from me. And when they put Mourinho in the managerial seat, then I started to really dislike them. So seeing Mourinho fail is priceless. And now this has become a fact. Mourinho has won nothing at all this season.
Another team that was buried with love was Liverpool. After they won against Manchester City and with the two top scorers in the league in their team…what could go wrong. The Liverpool loving pundits in the media couldn’t praise them enough. The Liverpool champions t-shirts were printed and sold as I could see on some pictures.
For me personal I disliked Liverpool already before this season. I disliked them more than the original Chelsea if you want a comparison mark. Heysel caused that for a big part. And even a few weeks ago I have been discussing this on twitter with a Liverpool fan who pushed away all responsibility to everyone else involved in that but not them. He said that even my suggesting that they were to blame for killing 39 people and more than 600 injured was libel from my part.
Add this to the fact that they have someone who openly admitted to have lied about the contract of Suarez and you get the impression that Liverpool and some of their supporters (not all I want to confirm!) are lacking some class. Lying with the help from outside people who have made a fool of themselves is the start of a slippery slope and once you start slipping there is no escaping.
As I don’t watch any PL football any more unless there is really nothing else on TV I was watching a series on TV on monday night. And when there was a commercial break I switched to the sport channel and Liverpool was 0-1 up at Crystal Palace. At the next commercial break Liverpool was 0-3 up at Crystal Palace. So I thought to myself: Manchester City will need to win their remaining two games to win the title.
But to my big surprise when my program had finished and I looked to the final score on the internet Crystal Palace had somehow managed to make it 3-3.
So again the media love in to Liverpool seems to have gone wrong. And if Liverpool doesn’t win the league I will point back to one of my articles one year ago. The time of the Suarez clause or not-clause when we made the £40M+1 offer. I then pointed at the fact that getting Suarez was no guarantee to win the league. And even wrote that if we look at his history it was better not to get him.
Because amazing as it might seem but since he went to Europe he never won the league in Europe! Ajax have now won the league 4 times in a row but when he played for Ajax and despite him being top scorer they never could win the league. They could win a cup final but not the league. Is this history repeating itself now at Liverpool? If so, I can be the one to say: I predicted it.
So after the media love in with Chelsea/Mourinho and with Liverpool/Rodgers will we see the third dog running away with the bone or the title in this case? Things look good for Manchester City. They have things well in their hands.
And at least they have a manager who doesn’t poke at the eyes of opposite numbers. Sure they are an oilers team and will have bought their title. But at least their manager isn’t a liar and an ego tripper. So I will not like the sight of them lifting the trophy but it will be better to see Pellegrini with the trophy than Mourinho or the classless people from Liverpool who think a contract is a piece of toilet paper.
So for as things stand now we predicted that Hazard will not defend ‘as if his life depended on it’ and Suarez usually fails in winning the league in Europe. Wait till the truth about the refs comes out….another thing we predicted
these reporters are idiots. i was watching the sky sports yesterday these muppets had got hold of Louis Van Gaal and were asking him stupid questions. but the most idiotic of them all was from BBC. He asked Van Gaal “what do you know about Manchester United? I know you have played against them, but what do you know anout them.” did you know what the answer was? Van Gaal said “this is a stupid question, what do you mean what i know about Manchester United? they are one of the biggest clubs. what a stupid question this is”. i heard this muppet muttering something like “i am sorry”.
could not help laughing and some of us read the shit the dish out and believe in it.
Well he’s gone up in my estimations already.
“what do you know about Manchester United? I know you have played against them, but what do you know anout them.”
How is van Gaal supposed to answer that question? I love his answer by the way. Got to say that I am now looking forward to him working here. Be nice to see someone smack the idiots around as they deserve.
Jeez Walter that’s amazing !
So many similarities:
1. Mourniho is anti-football, and probably an anti-human-being. To blame your ONLY good player, with that defeat, the only player who won so many games for you – is beyond ungratefulness. Hazard does not need to defend, he needs to create and score. Mourniho got rid of the only OTHER creative guy he had – Mata, and now he aliented himself with the other one. A specialist in failure he is, albeit with a 360 million squad at his disposal (and the “injured” team that got raped by Atleti was “only” 6 times more expensive than the whole of Atleti squad).
2. Loserpool, their fans, god they made me upset. If not us, I would sadly admit that I prefer Loserpool to win it rather than Shitty or KGB, but god… the English people and English media drive me insane. It’s fuckin FC Suarez bloody admit it. Henderson is SHIT. Flanagan is SHIT. Stevie G was good a few years ago, but he is old and SHIT now (and excuse me all of those who talk about his defensive contrubtion – Liverpool had SHOCKING defense this season). Sterling and Sturridge are good, but not great, and frankly Suarez makes everybody around him look good. My point is that everybody loves “ENGLISH ENGLISH” liverpool but in my humble opinion it’s a one man show, and that man is hailing from Uruguay.
3. Monday, night, coming back from yet another BBQ (I’m such a great grill man, really) I opened up the TV. It’s 2-0. Watched it for 10 more minutes. It’s 3-0. On to the recorded Game of Thrones episode 5 … only to check my iPhone later on and see that it ended 3-3. LOSERPOOL.
4. I don’t like City. I don’t like them because they are truly the first money bullying team. And by being a money bully I mean a team who would buy a good footballer player and let him sit on the bench for most of the season. You cannot have 4 great strikers. Jovetic paid the price this year, I believe Negredo will pay it next year. It happened when they had Tevez and Balloteli. It will alawys happen. And the only irreplacable guy they have is Yaya…
Imagine what the headlines would have been, had it been Arsenal to lose a 3-0 lead in a title run-in!
I am quite surprised that Liverpool would throw their banana skins on the pitch. Gerrard found one. Terry found one at the bridge a season or so back. That’s the problem with untrained monkeys.
Pellegrini is a gent so if he wins I’ll be glad (i still don’t have any respect for the greedy ex-Arsenal players).
Every one of the Liverpool forwards dived for penalties this season. PGMOL ignore it; media praise it; FA do FA; Rodgers gets rogered and life goes on.
Maureen sees a hazard specialist too late and has opened himself up for some abuse for failure – I hope Wenger just keeps him waiting ………and waiting ………and waiting .. it will really hurt.
menace
And the City supporters (apart from a couple of ugly so called celebrities) aren’t a bad crowd. At least they’re mostly from Manchester, and as you say Pellegrini’s a decent bloke.
@menace & Jax
I agree with your general preference for the Oilers over Diverpool. I don’t like duplicity, twisting and lying and Diverpool have shown themselves in a very bad light telling lies about the Suarez contract and then later telling everyone how clever they were for telling said lies.
The dives by the Diverpool forwards have on occasion been rewarded – I can’t remember if the 10 or so penalties scored by Gerard were from dives or legit fouls, but if Arsenal had received the penalties wrongly denied to us this season we might still be leading the league.
While I don’t like the way City have thrown money around, they are probably the least obnoxious of the present top 3 in the EPL.
@TommyGun
I can understand you describing City as “truly the first money bullying team.”
However, in a slightly different way to the one you have described, Chelski have gazumped the purchasing of players by other clubs, Hazard & Willian come to mind, so in that sense are Chekski not also a money bullying team? As RA came on the scene approx 10 years ago and spent a lot of money almost immediately, is there any evidence to indicate money bullying by Chelski predates that of City?
@ BJT – your comment makes a lot of sense, I admit that choosing between City and Chelsea is very hard. For sure, with Bunkerinho the bus driver as manager, I hate Chelsea a lot more. But if you look at money spent over time period, you would easily see that City are worse.
They are doing it from the springboard.
[me doing a brickfields]
Little Johnny came back from summer camp in the middle of the day, crying, and said – “the teacher told me I had to go home!”.
So little Johnny’s mum calls the instructor, who said – “your son peed in the pool”.
Johnny’s mum replied – “well he is only 7, they all pee in the pool in that age!”
And to that the instructor replied: “Madam, your kid peed from the springboard”.
Walter, you are so correct in quoting the Heysel tragedy.
The victims of the Heysel tragedy, have been forgotten, swept under the carpet. The Liverpool thugs who caused the mayhem, are now all free men?
Who can sue who, unless a person is named? The Liverpool thugs have been named and shamed.
RIP, some of us remember.
One has to look at the Standard Form of Contract (Form 13), to know that players in the EPL, live in a gilded (cage).
@bjtgooner
The most infuriating thing regarding the Suarez release clause lies is the way it was reported by our noble media gentlemen. They just fell short of actually congratulating Liverpool for getting one over on Arsenal but I always had the feeling they enjoyed the whole dirty business. The whole tone of their reporting seemed to point to general approval and jollity at the idea of Wenger falling victim to such a ‘prank’. I hate to think of the outrage had the situation been reversed.
Well firstly, Mourinho. What a despicable persona he has created for himself. Luckily, this season, despite the attempts from the English press to continue the Maureen love-in, many people have started to see through him and are tired of his bullshit.
I was absolutely amazed that the media was praising the 0-0 at Atletico to the high heavens. Not just because it was dire football (not a ‘masterclass’ as every Mourinho victory is inevitably dubbed), but a 0-0 away from home is not a good result. My one other thought from that match was that before the match started, there was applause for Tito Vilanova (I’m sorry but i don’t know who the other person was) and Mourinho, the man who snuck up behind Vilanova and poked him in the eye, was standing there applauding. I couldn’t help but feel some revulsion right there.
Liverpool. WOuld have been the team I backed, if not for their horrible attitude in the summer. Not just that they lied about the release clause (I was among those that didn’t really want Suarez at Arsenal, though I recognised his talents) but that they were using the media to talk shit about Arsenal, knowing full well that Arsenal are hated, and Liverpool are loved. That was cowardly, and in poor taste. Rodgers himself doesn’t come across as a very principled person to me (going for Allen after saying he wouldn’t sign any Swansea player) and I just don’t like how they’ve behaved, even earlier with the whole Suarez racism saga.
City, despite their money, by and large behave respectfully. They certainly aren’t obnoxious (although as happened with Chelsea, a few fans seem to have lost their heads) and I feel they have played the best football over the course of the season (not Liverpool)Pellegrini is also a manager I have liked since his Villareal days. I went so far as to suggest him as a potential short term successor to Wenger if Arsene were to leave (Thankfully it looks like he’ll stay)
All in all, I’m satisfied with a City title win (if they manage it) since Arsenal weren’t able to.
PS I have been constantly surprised in all my years of following football how little is made of Heysel in the English press. I know the English media are often very insular, but not only did people die, English football suffered through the European bans. Surely it deserves more of a mention than it gets? Is it brushed aside only because Liverpool fans were involved? I wonder..
Shard, Well said, Couldn’t have said it better myself on each and every point you made, The only thing I would have added would have been some timely Expletives. HA HA HA. Enjoyed it immensely.
Shard
So many good points.
I found myself getting angrier and angrier as I read through it.
@Mick
Agree fully with your comment.
@Shard
Very well put, although it might have been (even) more entertaining if Bill had composed it!
@jambug
If you are getting angrier and angrier – you might try Bill’s anger therapist! 🙂
Bill.. I wish I had the knack of adding the expletives with such perfect timing. I agree with bjt that it would be more entertaining to read the BFM version.
jambug, that’s good. More Buffalo Bill (Manhattan Bill doesn’t have the same ring to it) style tirades would make for good reading, just as long as they aren’t directed at me that is 🙂
bjtgooner
Thanks for the tip, but having read all of his posts today I fear his therapists is, well…..A FUCKING USELESS ARSEHOLE MORON………………NURSE !!!!
Jambug, I’ve said it before, You are one funny motherfucker, Love reading each and every one of your comments, the serious ones and the absolutely hysterical ones. You, Bootoomee, Shard, Bjtgooner, Al, Brickfields, and all the rest of the pro Arsenal and Wenger supporters too numerous to mention have my complete and upmost respect. All those other AAA asshole idiot moron motherfuckers can kiss my motherfucking Manhattan bred ass.
Buffalo Bill 🙂
Bill – I’ve missed you!
The only team derserved the title this season more than Arsenal is Man City. Their manager is a class act and in very good terms with Arsene Wenger. Mutual respect I say. Since disposing Balotelli and Tevez, their players have become true professional. Not all the time but the occasional Flamini moment. Their attack is their biggest strength and they fully utilized it this season. Kolarov is the league’s best leftback in my opinion and that midfield of Nasri, Toure, Fernandinho and Silva is incredibly effective. Zabaleta is though continued to be underrated in EPL. How many managers has he played for at Man City? Still the first choice. A worthy opponents for Arsenal next season.
OT
A different news article. Theo Walcott is going to help Prince William pick a mural to commemorate the football games played in WW-I at Christmas.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world-war-1/474837/Prince-William-to-head-WWI-Christmas-football-truce-memorial-for-children
Mourniho do have some tricks in his box so when he is first on he become big but then he is around for such a long time. Everyone knows what he does.
I do not blame him for parking the bus when things are a little risky; however, other teams will learn to park the bus against him and he does not seem to have a solution to it either.
He might have better times in Italy where they really “defend” without a bus and in Spain where they do not like defending, not to mention parking a bus.
In EPL there are plenty of teams that are bus drivers and some play ruby.
Sooner or later, every team will park the bus against Mourniho. (May be not Arsenal…) He can’t win this league with that sort of game filling the calender.
Liverpool fails because they really got 3 players but they constantly lose money on the financial end so I am thinking what are the management smoking over there. Throwing money into the landfill?
Micheal Ram: City is a real team this year and in a way they deserve the to be no.1 but they spend a lot more. Taking that into account, we cannot really say they are that good.
They are there to remind us that you need more than money to win.
NW,
Man City spent the most every season but not every season they win the league. That alone shows money wont necessarily guarantees success. What Pellegrini has done this season is to create a well balanced team with winning desire. They scored 100 goals and all the first choice, rotational and fringe players contributed equally in their success. No dramas, no primadonnas. Just one efficient engine. His blue print at Villareal. I might praise him out of order but he conducted himself with class and humility wherever he manages. A similar trade shared with Arsene Wenger. Pires has once said Wenger and Pellegrini have the same DNA. And given the huge pressure he was in earlier this season, he never lost the plot. Money gets you wonderful players but titles are won with wonderful team. We have to give credit if its deserving. The Oilers got a gem in their hands now.
Michael Ram
Not just Pires, but Nasri recently said it too. Cazorla rates Pelegrini as the best manager he’s had. The media portray that as a slight on Wenger, but it is only a compliment to Pellegrini who managed him at Villareal and then Malaga.
I like Pellegrini and he conducts himself with dignity and respect. Also, regarding City, when Kompany was on Motd last season, he refused to go along with their agenda of saying how useless Arsenal are. He said ARsenal were the best team City had faced till then in the season. Sure, they’ve used their money to take our players away. (And I do not like the way they have spent money) but they don’t act like…well..like Mourinho does. Which is what makes them not completely unlikeable.
All this talk of if the season is successful or not is pointless. We are just over a week from the fa cup final for crying out loud. Let’s embrace that. It’s a huge game with a huge prize at the end of it. And let’s show some humility. We haven’t won it yet. Have some respect for Hull. We need to turn up on the day and win. I have my ticket – at least I will when the postman brings it and I for one cannot wait. For me, there is absolutely no room for sentiment. Best team has to play to try and win the cup. Ches in for flappy. Ground in for Sanogo. We are trying to foster a winning feeling in the group and to not make Ches part of that would be ridiculous. He is at the nucleus of our future and Flappy is leaving. Don’t do it Wenger (but I know you will with your at times wrong placed sense of loyalty). Wrap Ramsey and Oz up in wool for Norwich. Let Sanogo, Jack and even Diaby have serious game time. Come on you Gunners.
jim,
You lost me when you start calling our players insulting names. And who around here is celebrating or not showing humility? You are not fit to lecture anyone here about supporting Arsenal.
Shame on you for using that stupid epithet for Fabianski. We are in the FA cup final because of him as we would have conceded 2 goals against Liverpool before we scored had it not been for him. He is playing in the final and I am just glad that Arsene Wenger is a not a shortsighted ingrate like you.
Ground? Que?
jim
At the risk of plagiarising our American friend, BILL FROM MANHATTEN:
Why don’t you just crawl back under the rock from which you came you:
ARSEHOLE IDIOTIC MORONIC DIPSHIT MOTHERFUCKER…………………..NURSE !!!!!
I suspect Walter was the one who first mentioned that there was something fishy about SAFs record in the EPL.
I built up an artificial distribution of the position a “top” team finishes in the EPL. And part of that artifical data, is all 21 years of Liverpool in the EPL. Another source was Chelsea, pre-Abramovich. Another source was SAFs record at Aberdeen (7 years?). No, it’s not EPL, but probably relevent.
It is obvious to all, the SAFs record in the EPL is exceptional. It is obvious to all at Untold, that Wenger is an exceptional manager. So, neither of those were part of the artificial data.
I may have to redo this (1 day of computing), because there seems to be something fishy about Liverpool, which means I may have to remove some of my artifical data, which will adjust odds a bit.
There are what, 7 billion people on Earth now? Okay, I was trying to do 3 experiments at the same time, with a total number of trials of 1 billion. In order to get those 1 billion trials, I generated about 6.7 billion random numbers. Sort of like counting every person on Earth.
The number of trials for Wenger (17 years) and for SAF (21 years) are about the same, at about 250 million. About 1.2% of the trials for Wenger resulted in generating the same number of 1,2,3,4 finishes that Wenger has had with Arsenal in the EPL.
In trying to generate the same number of 1,2,3 place finishes that SAF has had in the EPL, I found that only 0.00575% of my trials could duplicate that set.
Wenger is exceptional. SAF is 209 times more exceptional than Wenger? (Sorry, that is a horrible way to word that.)
Should we embrace the FA cup or is this a case of getting the so called monkey off our back? In one sense it’s nice to win a trophy but with the media/fa/pundits hating on us at given any chance, a part of me thinks they can stuff the cup where the sun doesn’t shine. Like pricks say for us qualifying for the CL is a cup!
Even if we lift the cup the media along with ex player dip Shit pundits will only mock us for achieving the bare minimum. Next season as always Arsenal will be hated, whilst the classless scum cannot do no wrong.
dan
You are not wrong.
When certain sections of the media still denigrate the invincibles, what chance have you got of being praised for an FA Cup ?
jambug
Well, in truth the CL adds a certain prestige, the FA cup Wigan lifted that, need i say more!
dan,
And Red Star Belgrade once won the Champions’ league. Does that make the trophy less glorious. Hell, even the Chelsea team that came 6th behind Newcastle United in the PL won the damn thing a mere 7 years after a 5th placed Liverpool. What does that say about the CL?
Every now and then underdogs win cup competitions. This should add to their glory and unpredictability rather than make subsequent winners’ achievements something to scoff at.
Some of the more extreme critics amongst our fans, you know the types that don’t want us in the top four….and a few elements of the media are already saying things to effect that the FA cup doesn’t really count as a trophy even if we do win it, the very same people who will crucify the club for the coming years if we don’t win it…..guess some always want things their way…..
Peeps please do not get dragged into the negative bullshit that is being spouted by those that are so jealous of Arsenals beautiful success. We have the best manager, longest serving and super successful financially. We have the best stadium in England a superb training facility. We have a quality team that in spite of being fouled of the park get to the top…..and then get robbed. We do not give up. We play the Arsenal way. We pay our way and no ‘one’ owns us. We know the Laws of the Game and isn’t it a shame that the FA don’t. So we haven’t won a trophy in a matter of years like many of our peers.
Yet we transcend your competitions to remain truthful and profitable. You complain of lies and then you praise liars. You want Financial Fair Play but fair play must also be on the pitch. Fair has to be open to the public to query and to question. For you fair is misbehaviour in hidden rooms. Fines for honesty and no accountability.
We are The Arsenal and we are the best. We will win in spite of your quest.
I find it more interesting that the media have felt it necessary to slate Ozil at every opportunity, despite one of the best first seasons for a creative midfielder in the Premier League era. Its a very difficult position to play in the PL when it is your first year. Just ask Hazard, Silva, Navas, Nasri, Mata, I could go on… Take a look at their first seasons… not as good as Ozil’s. In the same breath these media morons wax lyrical about players like Hazard whether they play well or not. Hazard had an average first season (being very kind) and a few good spells in his second. Silva has come through as a great player, but it took him time. Mata ended up being transferred and has been a HUGE flop at Utd since leaving (how is he getting away with that in the media???).
It would seem that pencils are sharpened and ready only when it comes to Arsenal players. It’s funny though, because it is always good to see the media humiliate themselves. Remember them with Bergkamp?… ‘Hartle-fool’… such idiots. I have tried a few times to find out who wrote that piece but can’t track it down – I always wonder how humiliated he felt about writing that.