By Walter Broeckx
Untold Arsenal has a few talking points that we have been exploring for many years. In fact ever since Tony started this blog. Things we have been saying for years and that have been brushed away or laughed away. We have been front runners in showing the media for what they are on many occasions. We have been showing the unacceptable low standards in refereeing for years. We have pointed at how rich sheiks and Russian owners have bought their way to success and how false their achievements are.
Now we know that when we have talked about the media in the past we have said that it looks as if they talk to each other and then set out the party line and then follow that same line. In an orchestrated way one could say. Webb misses a penalty in favour of Liverpool in an Arsenal match and the media jump on it and make a fuss about it. Completely neglecting the fact that in that same match a blatant penalty was not given for Arsenal. The line would be that Liverpool was robbed and all jumped in.
Since a few days we now see another example of this. This time it started when the first leaks about punishments for breaching the FFP rules came out in the media.
Suddenly the leading journalists (can I write what I usually write and use the word ‘whorenalists’? – Tony not around – not sure – Ok I will keep it decent) all started writing articles about how unfair this was for Manchester City. And the strange thing was that they all towed the same line. Now I’m not going to give their names or the names of their newspapers or link to their articles as I don’t want to get them one click coming from Untold Arsenal. So if you really want to read it yourself you will have to find it yourself.
But they all said how unfair this was to City and how Uefa should stop hounding them and more utter drivel. When these ‘journalists’ (wh*r*n$l$sts) advertised their drivel on twitter and advertised the drivel from their colleagues also a lot of Arsenal supporters (me included) challenged their words.
And what followed was a bit silly. In order to defend the limitless spending of City one even pointed at Arsenal and Özil. Can you believe that???? After years of prudent working and saving money for the future. After years of hard work behind the scenes to get more money Arsenal finally had the money and the opportunity to buy a world class player like Özil and now they do as if we are the same as teams like City and Chelsea.
The money we have used to buy Özil is money that Arsenal the club has made. Arsenal has got this money by working for their money. City and Chelsea have bought all those players because their owners handed them the cash. If a reporter cannot see that difference then what the hell can he see? He surely must be blind. Or blinded. But can you have any respect for a person who even dares to make such a point?
This can only be because you are an idiot or stupid and then there is nothing you can do about it of course and he can be forgiven. But would a ‘serious’ newspaper pay so much money and appoint idiots as their star football reporters (also known as wh*r*n$l$sts)???? Or are their owners also that dumb?
Another one said at some point that FFP rules are there to protect the super rich from staying at the top. Now there might be a side effect to the FFP rules that this could be the case in the short term.
But the thing is that the super rich clubs owned by super rich owners are the ones that they now are defending. Because if a club works slowly with a long term plan they can work their way to the top under FFP rules. But it will take time and patience to build it from the ground. A bit like the words that are written in the Emirates stadium: the deeper the foundations, the stronger the fortress. There is no rule that will stop a club that will bring this in to practice.
But City, Chelsea, PSG, Monaco and others don’t work that way. No, they have super super rich owners who just throw the money around, disturb the whole football world with their money and make it completely impossible for any other club apart from one that is owned by another super, super, super rich owner to get to the top.
So they stand up to defend the super, super, super rich persons and super, super, super rich clubs.
Well dear reporters I got news for you: FFP rules have been coming for many, many years. And you ignored them. And now you wake up and find they are at your doorstep. In the same way as Manchester City ignored them. Or even worse. They tried to get around them by making dodgy deals with companies from their owners. They tried to complied to the FFP rules you even said. Trying to comply by using dodgy deals that is. And you defend this?
Setting up false deals and the journalists think this is acceptable and honourable to do???? And they all find this acceptable and honourable.
Blimey, it looks as if they put something in the food that they get before, in between and after the matches at those super rich clubs they are trying to defend. I will not even think that those clubs as they are super, super, super rich will do more for these reporters of course. After all… if you don’t mind making false or dodgy deals for hundreds of millions…
As the expression is : If you lie down with dogs, you will get up with fleas. This sure seems appropriate for those … wh*r*n$l$sts.
For years they have been mocking Arsenal for doing things within FFP rules even long before they became rules. For years they have been making fun about Arsenal not spending. And now on top of that they openly start defending the cheaters of the system. Shame on you, I say.
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal
With Wenger only missing the champions league from his CV, I can’t help but think that these comments are a bit of a double edged sword, get rid of all of the FFP cheats and you are left with considerably less viable threats. He is though absolutely right, the toughest penalties possible should be introduced to stop what will inevitably ruin football….. false economies.
I couldn’t agree more.
City has been the worst offender when it comes to FFP which makes me wonder why so many UA regulars are only happy to see them win the league. Oh yea, I forget , Pellegrini is a nice man 🙂
Good article Walter and very timely. The media, like the parasitic agents seem to follow the sniff of money. Unfortunately far too much money is being misused within the broad empire that football has become, to the detriment of morals, fair play and fair reporting.
@Tom – I don’t think you are quite accurate in your summary of the views of “UA regulars” re City winning the league.
City have been the worst FFP offender – yes – but Chelski are the ones who pioneered market distortion and behind the scenes may be worse than City. Within the top 3 in the EPL, City are the least obnoxious, so within that group a City win is not as bad as a Chelski or Diverpool win.
The present media love in with Diverpool and to only a slightly less extent Chelski would put most neutrals off them in a big way.
Pellegrini is a nice man. I don’t know much about him – and after all he is an opponent. However, his behavior so far has been preferable to that of the Liverpool liar and the Chelski bus driver.
The world always preach honesty but when a rich man does something wrong the defenders are always at hand, it is ridiculous. I mean if you cant be honest in a sport, where will you be? It is surprising that journalists dont look at things in the long term basis and behave like beggars whose main aim is to please the moneyed. If FFP does not work, these moneyed people will just buy the league table, interest in football will go down,it will stop being profitable and the moneyed will look for another sport to venture into. I dont see anything complicated about this that a journalist cannot see.
Tom
Incase you missed it:
-Liverpool are the ones who constantly bring us to the attention of Hillsborough whilst, and at the same time live in denial as regards to Hiesel.
-Liverpool are the ones that have used this sad and tragic event to curry sympathy and favour for there football club for years.
-Liverpool are the ones that backed a racist to the hilt.
-Liverpool are the ones causing misery to folk as they run down local communities in an attempt to hound them out of there properties around there ground.
-Liverpool are the ones that blatantly lied about a players contract and called in to question the integrity of our Manager and our Club. “what are they smoking down there” I think was the big joke the media ran with.
-Liverpool are the ones who’s CEO has since mockingly bragged about the fact he lied.
-And to cap it all Liverpool are the ones that have flooded all platforms of the media with there sycophantic apologists that never allow a derogatory word to be said about them.
So excuse me for finding this excuse for a football Club not quite to my taste.
We all know about Chelski, there disgusting players antics and there narcissistic egomaniac of a manager.
So yes, despite the extremely distasteful financial antics of City they are indeed the slightly more acceptable Club of a rather nasty bunch.
A very good article.Perhaps the media would not be so keen if Man City gave ALL there players 500,000 per week,purchased the best players in the world and won the league in January every year.They could afford to do it.Limitless money.There owners make the Russian look like a punter shopping in poundland.
I do think FFP may start to bite.I hope so.
Jambug
“Distasteful financial antics”?
I believe the words Arsen Wenger used were in fact “football destroying ” and not distasteful but hey, whatever floats your boat.
Like I said many times before I couldn’t care less who wins it if Arsenal aren’t able to but if someone was conducting business in a way detrimental to my survival I would find it more than distasteful but that’s me.
Tom
Okay ‘disgraceful financial antics’ if that makes you happier.
But for the reasons listed, not quite as disgraceful as Liverpool.
As for not caring. I don’t really ‘care’ either as it makes not a jot of difference to us, but again for the reasons listed I would ‘prefer’ to see City win it.
Least abhorrent of a rather abhorrent bunch.
When Men Lie….
One day, while a woodcutter was cutting a branch of a tree above a river, his axe fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord appeared and asked, “Why are you crying?” The woodcutter replied that his axe has fallen into water, and he needed the axe to make his living.
The Lord went down into the water and reappeared with a golden axe. “Is this your axe?” the Lord asked.
The woodcutter replied, “No.”
The Lord again went down and came up with a silver axe.?
“Is this your axe?” the Lord asked.
Again, the woodcutter replied, “No.”
The Lord went down again and came up with an iron axe.?
“Is this your axe?” the Lord asked.
The woodcutter replied, “Yes.”
The Lord was pleased with the man’s honesty and gave him all three axes to keep, and the woodcutter went home happy.
Some time later the woodcutter was walking with his wife along the riverbank, and his wife fell into the river. When he cried out, the Lord again appeared and asked him, “Why are you crying?”
“Oh Lord, my wife has fallen into the water!”
The Lord went down into the water and came up with Jennifer Lopez. “Is this your wife?” the Lord asked.
“Yes,” cried the woodcutter.
The Lord was furious. “You lied! That is an untruth!”
The woodcutter replied, “Oh, forgive me, my Lord. It is a misunderstanding. You see, if I had said ‘no’ to Jennifer Lopez, You would have come up with Catherine Zeta-Jones. Then if I also said ‘no’ to her, you would have come up with my wife. Had I then said ‘yes,’ you would have given me all three. Lord, I am a poor man, and am not able to take care of all three wives, so THAT’S why I said yes to Jennifer Lopez.”
The moral of this story is: Whenever a man lies, it is for a good and honorable reason, and for the benefit of others.
That’s our story, and we’re sticking to it!
Lots of respect to Mr Wenger because of his brave opinions on hasher punishments to the clubs that breaks FFP rules,in recent days after the news leakage it seems no one have the nerve to give a comment about it,now everybody knows that with these rules to be respected rich sheikhs and russian owners will face lots of problem and thats why they provide whorenalists and lawyers with their filthy dollars to misled the thoughts.
That’s more like it Walter, a great, insightful article!
Arsenal and Ozil, I had to laugh at that one. The tw*ts in the media are complete jokers, the lengths they’ll go to put Arsenal down are just not believable. If there’s any club in this world that deserves to be ambassadors for being prudent with their finances, be a model on how not to run a club into the ground financially, then it’s impossible to look past Arsenal. I know they love accusing us of all sorts rubbish, but to accuse us of financial doping has got to be the most ridiculous thing they’ve come up with.
That’s classic Tom. He is an expert at nit-picking and making others sound or look less profound.
No one on Untold was rooting for Man City or any team for that matter until Arsenal were out of it. It shouldn’t even be called “rooting” but rather “preference”. But even after that, my grudging choice was Liverpool and it was because of Steven Gerrard. And I was on the side of Gerrard because of his life long loyalty to his beloved team. I don’t care for Liverpool and Gerrard is not my hero but I respect his steadfastness in an era when money grabbing is the norm. Wayne Rooney has milked Man United dry to remain at the club but I am not aware of any shenanigans from Gerrard. I respect him for that and hoped that he gets his just reward.
But as soon as it looked like Liverpool were going to win it, we started hearing some mind-numbingly ridiculous assertions about the genius of the manager of a team whose ability to make top 4 was in jeopardy only a couple of months back. All of a sudden, Rodgers was being used as a stick to beat Arsene Wenger up! “If Rodgers can do it, why not Wenger?” they asked. I immediately started having second thoughts. While I wanted Liverpool to win it out of respect for Gerrard, I wanted them to lose it out of the disrespect that was being directed to AW. It is satisfying that they imploded on their own without any contribution from Arsenal or our manager. You see, it turns out that winning the league is not that easy as Rodgers himself would find out the hard way.
Saying that one prefers one team over another in a set of three rivals does not imply acceptance of their conduct or philosophy. Of all the 3 teams, Chelsea are the most despised and for good reasons. I loathe Man City for buying glory and had Liverpool not imploded, I wouldn’t mind them winning it. I resent any assertion that it is untoward to pick one of 2 evils. Somehow, I think that Tom knows this but he’s got to be the antagonistic “only adult in the room” of Untold Arsenal.
Bootoomee
God damn! That’s a good post . Agree with 99% of it.
Never thought to live to see the day.
Bootoomee
Spot on. Many many many people I know preferred Liverpool to win, until the media fawning started; the justice for the 96 mantra, the parading of Luis Garcia before the Chelsea match, etc. Fair to say apart from Tom, and the few Liverpool fans I know, I’ve not come across anyone who is saddened by Liverpool’s collapse. The media ruined it for them. And true, it’s just a preference of a lesser evil given the choice, hardly ‘rooting’.
Sorry Tom, your last post came up while I was typing my own. Glad to see you agreed with that great post from Bootoomee 🙂
Very true.
The world is splitting up into two now. Im proud to be in the same direction as Arsenal at the moment. Huge thanks to Silent Stan, Intelligent Ivan and the great one, Arsene Wenger.
I would rather see all the oilers kicked out of the game completely, than any of them win anything. However I hope the clubs survive with a new scheme of ownership.
The FA have to create a rule limiting ownership to open market shares. Monopoly owners in any aspect of life are unhealthy for society.
Some satisfaction in Liverpool collapse, in view of media love-in over last few weeks, whilst remembering their points gained throughout the season by numerous penalties, some of which were highly dubious. Then there is the constantly objectionable behaviour of Suarez, which, in my view, devalues his obvious talent. Whilst The Guardian states that “Jack Wilshere broke his foot playing for England…”, let’s remember that Jack did not break his own foot and that the injury resulted from Agger stamping on it.
Chelsea have no redeeming features. Whilst Man City have undoubtedly bought their success, with no sense of responsibility to the ethics of the game as a whole, their manager does not behave in an arrogant or unpleasant manner like Mourinho, nor make silly remarks like Rogers … latest example; “if West Ham can beat Spurs at WHL, they can certainly win at Man City..”
Also, Man City do generally play decent football.
@bootomee Quality post. True to the last word.
@Bootoomee
Good post; can’t figure out the 1% Tom doesn’t agree with! 🙂
Tom, bootoomee
Let’s also remember that liverpool have been living off the largesse of their owner as well.
They have spent some 120m in the transfer market in the last 3 years, had their debts shifted on to other holdings of the owner and have still made huge losses. Around 50m last season i think.
So while city’s spending potential is damaging it isn’t like Liverpool have been handling their finances much better. They don’t have much of a moral high ground there. So yes, on balance I prefer City to win it.
CNN looks like they are trying to paint Arsenal as bad in this as well.
> “If Qatar can do it, why can’t Abramovich do it? And while we are at it, Stan Kroenke’s wife Ann Walton Kroenke can sign a sponsorship contract with Arsenal that will turn The Emirates Stadium into the Walmart Stadium for a cool €500m?”
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/09/sport/football/football-financial-fair-play/
@Anom he also has not won the carling cup or whatever it is called these days. Your point is?
A man sits next to a very attractive woman on an airplane. He asks her what kind of men she is interested in. Her top three choices are American Indian men, Jewish men and Southern men. The woman asks the man what his name is.
He smiles, “Well, my name’s Geronimo Bernstein, but my friends call me Bubba.”
Unfortunately he is an ugly bastard – so his LIE didn’t work.
He later died.
Good riddance.
I never could get that old saying that you can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.
Who wants a bunch of flies anyway?
So I think the whole thing is a bunch of bullshit!
HEY! Look at all those flies leaving the honey for the bullshit!
Hard to Fool the Experts!
An old farmer got pulled over by a young state trooper for speeding. The trooper, fresh on the job, decided to throw his weight around and started lecturing the farmer about his speed. He did his best to make the farmer feel uncomfortable but eventually got around to writing the ticket. As he wrote, he had to swat at several flies that were buzzing around his head.
“Having some problems with circle flies there, are ya?” asked the farmer.
The trooper stopped writing the ticket and looked up. “Well yeah, if that’s what they are,” he said. “I never heard of circle flies, though.”
“Oh, they’re pretty common on farms,” said the farmer. “We call ’em circle flies because they’re always circling around the back end of a horse.”
“I see,” said the trooper as he continued writing the ticket. All of a sudden, he stopped and looked up at the farmer. “Hey…wait a minute, are you trying to call me a horse’s ass?”
“Oh no, officer,” replied the farmer. “I have far too much respect for law enforcement and police officers to even think about calling you a horse’s ass.”
“Well, that’s a good thing,” said the trooper as he resumed writing the ticket.
After a long pause, the farmer continued. “Hard to fool them flies, though.”
Bjtgooner, Bootoomee, Jambug, Shard, John, and Al, Loved all your comments about the above article. It’s because of the well-thought comments you guys write that draws me to this website. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the noble people who produce this website that I enjoy so much. I also can live with Man. City winning the league. I believe they are the least Offensive smelling fish in the rotten fish barrel. I am not gonna get started on what I think of that piece of fucking piece of shit Mourinho and that nothing little club at Stamford Bridge. Their slimeball Russian owner started this financial mess that permeates the game today. I too have had enough of the cloying love the media has with Liverpool and Mourinho’s sycophant that is Brendan Rodgers and their lying douchebag Boston Red Sox owner. It stands to reason what a great feat our club and Wenger pulled off to be only seven points behind the biggest spending club of all time. And that’s with half our starting lineup out for quite a while. You are all correct in saying that as least Pellegrini conducts himself with a little class. If the Arsenal can’t be crowned champions, Let those Middle East oil motherfuckers win the league. Wait till next year, We’re gonna rip those motherfucking teams above us and below us that means you Man. U. a brand new asshole.
Good news – sorry off topic.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20140509/koscielny-signs-new-long-term-contract
Off Topic
Sorry guys, don’t know if anyone else have posted this Sundays Ref appointments.
Here are the Top4 team appointments:
Sunday 11 May 2014
15:00 Cardiff v Chelsea
(Ref) Michael Oliver
(Asst. Ref1) D England
(Asst. Ref2) D Bryan
(4TH Off.) R East
15:00 Liverpool v Newcastle
(Ref) Phil Dowd
(Asst. Ref1) S Ledger
(Asst. Ref2) S Child
(4TH Off.) A Marriner
15:00 Man City v West Ham
(Ref) Martin Atkinson
(Asst. Ref1) H Lennard
(Asst. Ref2) P Kirkup
(4TH Off.) N Swarbrick
15:00 Norwich v Arsenal
(Ref) Lee Mason
(Asst. Ref1) R West
(Asst. Ref2) A Holmes
(4TH Off.) A D’Urso
Any predictions? Dodgy ref appointmants? 😉
COYG!
BILL FROM MANHATTEN@5:14
“It stands to reason what a great feat our club and Wenger pulled off to be only seven points behind the biggest spending club of all time. And that’s with half our starting lineup out for quite a while”.
In that one simple paragraph you sum up why you, I, Boo, bjt, AL, Shard, John and the others, throw our whole hearted support behind Wenger.
We appreciate what a magnificent achievement it is to even be in the same ball park as those guys.
Somehow, sadly, shamefully, some don’t.
Great news about Kos 🙂
Liverpool winning the league will show Arsenal how its done…..
Hearing this for 3 months now. Liverpool are nowhere close to us. We had the balls to invest in such a brave project. Fund it all by ourselves. And repay the loans with our income. And now invest in players like Ozil. All our hard earned money. No pocket money here.
People who think liverpool will achieve (if they win the league ie) what ARSENAL intended to, they are stupid.
I want Arsenal to win the league (and everything else!) that is my default position. I also want Sp*rs and Chavski to win nothing, and am fed up of United winning. Beyond that?
Fair play to both Citeh and Liverpule..they have played possibly the best, most attacking football this season (outside of us) so I can live with either winning.
Is football financially doped? Yes
Does this matter? Yes
Will anything change? I doubt it
But with this talk of FFP and our gripes spare a thought for nearly every team below the PL and especially all those hundreds of non-league clubs (many of whom Tony and I have seen this year) who struggle to stay in existence let alone spends millions on mega stars. Take a reality check folks!
@ blacksheep,
sometimes i wonder if youll begin to have larger attendances at lower tier games in the future. as ticket prices rise, many working class people arent able to attend the top games and may begin to turn towards lower divisions.
also alot of non-league and lower division clubs have followed the model set by the big money clubs much to their own detriment. rather than work at a grass roots level with intelligent academies to produce local talent and smart networking in order to connect with the local community, many have spent what little money they have buying players, loaning players from larger clubs, changing managers etc.
i think its time everyone in football learnt to live within their means and quite frankly i believe the small clubs are just as guilty of this. i hope FFP will push things in that direction.
@Gunz
I had posted just the referee part in the DILEMMA thread yesterday, as well as Lawro predictions, and my reading of the UntoldArsenal bias reports on the referees.
Well, except for Arsenal. Andrew does a comprehensive job on that.
@BJT
You missed one. Well, an academy player signing. Lwobi signed terms as well. Will he be pushing Theo, Ox, Podolski, and others for positions next year?
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20140509/alex-iwobi-signs-professional-contract
there seems to be an attitude in football these days that the only way to improve is by spending alot of money i.e to buy more and better players at higher wages. when in actual fact the best way to improve your club is by better coaching, harder work and developing improved connectivity within the team.
a large part of our improvement as a team this year was;
the personal and individual improvements of ramsey, woj, gibbs, theo, giroud etc.
the better connectivity within the team as our backline had a year together under their belts and the likes of giroud, podolski, arteta, mert, carzola etc are more settled and used to each other.
those incremental improvements are down to good coaching and hard work and cost arsenal nothing. think back to the leaps and bounds players like alex song and now ramsey have made.
i think mid table and smaller clubs in particular would do well to remember that, and focus more on the internal aspect of improvement.
@Gord
Thanks for that info, lets hope he is a good one!
As I mentioned before, a very good article.Prefer City to win it because of their Manager.A nice guy, also the media are not keen on him as he is not media friendly.Wonderful!
@Gord
Thanks 🙂
Allardyce says his troops will give everything to beat City and do it for Steven Gerrard. Fair enough, but curious if they’d still be giving everything were it them playing Liverpool instead of Newcastle, and Gerrard’s title hopes still relied on that result, with that attitude. Strange for a manager to come out with stuff like that.
boo, why do you always speak my mind on most articles? You always leave me with nothing else to say than to agree with yours 100%
Liverpool should blame the media for their failure to win the league this season.
Chelsea should blame “the bus driver” for not growing past being a small horse.
Arsenal ….. Injuries really cost us the league.
FA should weep and wail cos the EPL will soon lose its flavor due to the dealings of Mike Rilley and Co.
Al, I smell match fixing
Bootoomee,
R your respect for Steven Gerrard, it would be interesting to know that after the CL final they won in 2005, he signed a new contract worth 30mil. Basically all the money Liverpool made from winning the cup went to Stevie Me. In my eyes he’s not much better than all the others that switched sides for a fistful of dollars.
Yes Soglorious. Doesn’t sound right, especially when Rodgers came out earlier saying if w/ham can beat the spuds at the lane then they can win at City. Wonder what Pardew is thinking. Collusion afoot?
Interesting about the possibility of a fix…
I am reminded of the first time I considered a fix in football. May 2008, the final day of the season. ManU were ahead in the race and simply needed to better Chelsea’s result to make sure they won the title. Arsenal were out of it due to bad luck (as I saw it then) and I preferred ManU to win over Chelsea. What happened in that ManU-Wigan game to ensure they won was simply unbelievable. I watched the game hoping for a result I got, but was left absolutely disgusted by what I had witnessed. Since that day, I have been increasingly cynical about the refereeing in the league.
When I saw first time I considered a fix in football, it isn’t entirely accurate. I absolutely thought of a fix in South Korea’s run to the semis in the 2002 World Cup. Especially the way they won against Italy.
Florian,
I beg to differ with you on Gerrard. You throw out £30 million out there with no mention of the length of the contract. I don’t know long it is but I believe he was given the contract at the time because he was the hottest English talent then. I cannot recall him holding his club to ransom to get the deal or anyone complaining that he was robbing his club.
My respect for Gerrard stems from his decision to stay with Liverpool as they flounder season after season in their quest to win the premiership. I wasn’t looking at him from a monetary point of view at all. Many were encouraging him to move on then so that he could win the title but he remained with his boyhood club. I wanted him to win this season after we got out mathematically because of his loyalty. You see I appreciate that very much in human beings.
I understand that every footballer have some fan somewhere who cannot stand their guts. It appears that for Gerrard, you are one of those 🙂
I stand by my comment though as Gerrard is one of the very few non-Arsenal English players that I like personally.
AL & Soglorious,
You need to stop worrying. Man City just need a draw and frankly, I can’t see West Ham stopping them. The comment from Allardice shows what a moron he is. Even if he wanted to win for Gerrard, why say that for the world to hear? So, but for Gerrard he would have ordered his team to lie down for Man City? This is the kind of talk that you will never get from our great manager. It is the reason why we love him and the moronic media despise him so much.
I know Bootoomee, it brings the whole spirit of competition into question. Like you say, if Gerrard wasn’t close to winning the title then what effort would w/ham put into beating city? I don’t really think there’s a lot that tin-pot allardyce can do, but rather the message this sends out to refs, fans, everyone.
Shard, I recall that game at Wigan too, some diabolical refereeing from Bennettthat day…
Bjt, great news indeed on Kos, a great player, and one seriously in demand. If you believe some sites, we have no scouting network, we got Kos for what…eight million? The man is pure class.
On another subject, votes for player of the year on the official site…..every one should do their duty.
On match fixing this weekend, nothing would surprise me, but city have a very strong team and probably even more formidable lawyers. Can’t see it. Theowers that be clearly tried to hand it to Liverpool, thirteen penalties and a media and pgmol coverup over one of the biggest cheats in world football….but looks like they did not take from the gift horse……but we shall see. Looks like scudamore will have to live with an FFP violator as the champions of his league….not that Liverpool are squeaky clean on that front
@Mandy
It has been a while since I checked, but Arsenal.com tends to only recognize Windows and Apple. If they want me to vote, they should start supporting Linux.
There’s something really two-faced in Liverpool’s mentality. The Hillsborough Police lie and it’s wrong. John Henry lies and that’s ok.
Sorry Liverpool every lie is sick and no different from the other.
RIP those innocent fans.
Am I missing something here? A fix? What fix? God almighty get real! There’s no effing fix!
Gord, you should let em know….every vote counts! Some outstanding candidates
Fixes happen Jax,have a nasty feeling the World Cup could be amongst them. One of the many reasons I will give the whole thing little attention. but don’t think it will apply to this weekend. Having said that, Liverpool have had some serious help along the way, in fact they could not have had more help
We just cant blame some people for believing what the media say. They just too poor to purchase a media material other than rumours from nearby banged up mouth. And such poor people fill up their free time by banging up their already big mouth to others. It just take a few articles from bias and lazy so-called journalists to influence millions. Thats the power of media in third world countries and undemocratic countries. The chain of effect is very big. Perhaps we should promote untold arsenal in the same way to save our humankind.
Ooopps ! Sorry for the unintended ‘add ons ‘
THE ‘Y’ CHROMOSOME
People born before 1946 are called – The Greatest Generation.
People born between 1946 and 1964 are called The Baby Boomers.
People born between 1965 and 1979 are called Generation X.
And people born between 1980 and 2010 are called Generation Y.
Why do we call the last group – Generation Y ?
Y should I get a job?
Y should I leave home and find my own place?
Y should I get a car when I can borrow yours?
Y should I clean my room?
Y should I wash and iron my own clothes?
Y should I buy any food?
Butt perhaps a cartoonist explained it most eloquently below…
http://www.usacarry.com/forums/attachments/off-topic/5756d1337523679-y-chromosome-explained-att00378.jpeg
Just thought you might want to know “Y”
Its not my fault – my mouse was abused !
http://funny-pics-fun.com/wp-content/uploads/Pc-Mouse-12.jpg
Mandy
I wouldn’t disagree with you over a WC fix, we all know about alleged FIFA corruption in the awarding of tournaments to Qatar & Russia, so I’m with you on that, but I don’t see any evidence of a fix going in on Sundays matches. It’s all too far fetched for me to even consider such a thing is possible.
@Jax, it’s all fixed mate. Until we win the league of course and then it’ll be totally clean. 🙂
Jax
I’m afraid the attitude that a fix could happen at the world cup but not England is the same with others like diving is a foreign thing, match fixing happens elsewhere but not in England,etc. It’s naive to think that way, especially after some players were arrested this season for in england for spot betting or fixing matches. What more evidence do we need?
Match fixing happens at different levels like; from a corrupt official, a manager fielding a weakened side, a corrupt player, etc., all things that can tilt the result. It doesn’t always have to involve money all the time or some shady Asian characters to be called a fix. I consider Mick Mccarthy’s fielding a virtually second string side at united a few seasons ago as match fixing.
Having said the above, we have every right to suspect that results can be influenced in a league where;
1. A ref will lie that he saw a player stand on another player’s leg and didn’t do anything(Pawson), presumably to avoid the offending player getting banned retrospectively.
2. A ref lies he didn’t see a player aim a stamp on another player’s head despite being less than a couple of metres away (Webb), to have the offending player banned retrospectively.
3. A ref lies that the decision to award a penalty for handball, after initially awarding a corner, and then send the wrong player off (Marriner) was entirely his and his alone (despite talking into his earpiece for a minute or two before the sending off and the guilty player pleading with him that it was him who handled).
There are other things obviously like how certain players seem to never get sent off despite clear offences, certain teams get decisions for them all the time, etc. Those may be interpreted one way or other by different people so we shall not dwell on them, but the ones above stand out as deception, from people who are responsible for delivering unbiased performances to protect the integrity of our game.
If you can explain these then I might be tempted to think that talk of corruption in the PL is far fetched.
How can a manager rally his players to give 200% so they get a result that suits another team, are we supposed to believe his team would still give 200% were they playing against the team he’s trying to help? That he’s trying to help Liverpool by fighting as if their lives depended on it also suggests he would be willing to help Liverpool by doing nothing, if the outcome would suit Liverpool. Isn’t there a problem there?
Rupert
Yeah I know, all this silly conspiracy nonsense again. I was drinking with a West Ham supporter last night and he thinks it’s all been sorted, but can’t say how, just rubs the side of his nose.
Rupert
How has this got anything to do with Arsenal?? People are just talking about possible collusion to have results go one way or another, between teams that have nothing to do with our team, and you still drag Arsenal into it. So say if we see something obviously wrong with a match at this summer’s wc (as Jax alludes to being a real possibility) we shouldn’t talk about it because it will be construed as a conspiracy by paranoid Arsenal fans? We can’t debate a position in football without it being related to Arsenal? Weird.
@Jax, yes rubbing the side of your nose is inarguable evidence of foul play.
@Al, we can discuss anything we like whether it’s Arsenal related or not. My comment is in regard to so many on here forever blaming all our woes on match fixing.
I’d be interested to see what would happen if Kronke and Usmanov had a truce, joined forces and used their vast wealth to splurge on the team. How many on here would be complaining then?
Just wondering.
I hope that hell has not just frozen over but I am going with Jax and Rupert Cook here although I resent Rupert’s sarcastic tone. Hey Rupert, smileys don’t excuse dickish comments 🙂
I have not seen any kind of evidence to convince me of any kind of conspiracy to fix matches either in England or at the World Cup. Are there biased and incompetent officials? Yes. We all saw South Korea vs Italy and Spain in 2002. But no one is sitting somewhere plotting for one country to win the world cup over another otherwise, South Korea would have been ‘helped’ win the damn thing. Neither do I believe that one club in England is being DELIBERATELY ‘helped’ to win the league. Doesn’t the crazy and unpredictable nature of this season tell us otherwise?
Maybe there are indeed fixes, maybe there aren’t but shouldn’t we thread cautiously about making accusations from mere suspicion?
Before we start coming across as kooks and giving people like Rupert Cook undeserved ammunition for their own agenda, may I plead that Untold regulars limit our criticisms of the governing bodies and officials to things that we can prove or have evidence for rather than blanket accusations of corruption and match fixing that we have no evidence of.
@AL
Great post at 9.06am.
I will agree and disagree with some elements of your last post Bootoomee. I agree that Rupert has an agenda he’s trying to drag us to, as evidenced by his 9:23 post where he goes on a tangent and starts talking about kroenke, usmanov, spending some money…completely not what we’re debating here.
Where I beg to differ is when you say you don’t think one club is helped to deliberately win the league. May not be so obvious this season but in years gone by I believe this has certainly been the case with united. Anyway, match fixing can be done for several reasons, which include;
– Making money from one particular match without regard to outcome of whole tournament. I could fix a match between a small footballing nation country A against a powerhouse country B, to make myself a ton, whether country A gets eliminated in next match or not is neither here nor there.
-Having one’s favourite team get a desired result, no monetary value here
-Have a result that will help team B over team A. Again no monetary value here. I know when we here of match fixing the first thing that springs to mind is money, but not necessarily always the case.
Like I said in an earlier post, influencing results to go one way or another, for whatever reason, is cheating and should rightly be labelled match fixing. I think we have seen plenty of this in england from dubious ref appointments, teams rolling over whenever certain teams come to town but turning into terriers the next time a different team visits, fielding weakened sides…
I hope someone (perhaps Rupert?) was not holding a gun to your head in your last post Bootoomee 🙂
@Bootoome, nothing “dickish” about that smiley. If we win the league I doubt there’ll be anyone on here who thinks it was fixed. If someone suggested so there’d be a storm of outrage. Of course if anyone else wins it it’s suspicious.
What proof? Very few people on here present any proof for anything they say. It’s just a feeling they have, to borrow a phrase from Theresa May.
@Al. I swear that I don’t have a gun. If I did I wouldn’t waste bullets on Bootoome, there are plenty of petty tyrants running, or ruining, countries that would be worthy of a bullet or two.
I see you get all defensive the minute I suggest that should our rich owner get friendly with Usmanov and they delve into their deep deep pockets and invest it in the playing squad and the team become another City, well then what would you say? I’m wondering where you’ll stand then.
Jax/Rupert.
It is just as ‘silly’ to dismiss the possibility of a ‘conspiracy’ or a ‘fix’ as you suggest it is to believe in them.
As AL says, it is naïve in the extreme to think it hasn’t happened before and won’t happen again.
Okay I agree sometimes on here we see devils where there are none but it doesn’t help matters when a manager in charge of a team directly involved in the final days outcome comes out in the media and expresses a preference for whom he wants to win it. Surely you can see how it opens up the possibility as to whether he would of prepared his side in quite the same way had they been due to face the team he has publicly proclaimed he would like to see win it. It is just plane wrong and he should receive at minimum, an FA Reprimand for undermining the ‘integrity’ of the game.
But you and I know he wont because every man and his dog, including the FA (and Boo 🙂 ) want to see there darling Stevie G lift the title.
So dismissing theses ‘theories'(and that’s all they are) out of hand, as if the ramblings of some demented conspiracy theorist, is blinkered in the extreme.
I wouldn’t like to feel Theresa May
Bootoomee
I’ve got to be honest, I like a good ‘Emoticon’ 🙂 I even like the word…Emoticon !
Oh well each to his own I suppose my friend 🙂 (shit there I go again, I just cant help myself. 🙂 …..Nurse !!!
@jambug, what manager has expressed a preference? I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m wondering who you mean. I don’t spend much time reading media comments or listening to Talk Sport.
Of course there maybe conspiracies but to suggest that someone, the refs, media, the Wizard Of Oz, decides who wins the league at the beginning of the season seems just too involved. Just how many people would be involved in such an intricate scenario?
Rupert Cook
Al @ 8:25
“Allardyce says his troops will give everything to beat City and do it for Steven Gerrard”
Jambug @ 9:58
“but it doesn’t help matters when a manager in charge of a team directly involved in the final days outcome comes out in the media and expresses a preference for whom he wants to win it”
Rupert Cook @ 10:05
“what manager has expressed a preference?”
I suggest you read the posts before posting.
I note that Liverpool wasted the same amount of money last season on 4 players who hardly played for them, or when they did they proved to be grossly inadequate.
Seems to me Arsene wasted about the same amount on worthless Ozil.
Don’t make me laugh.
jambug & AL,
Guys, please don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying there are no fixes in the game. I am saying that we shouldn’t be throwing the allegations about willy nilly as it gives Untold a conspiratorial outlook that is undignifying for the site.
I may be in the minority here but I don’t think that Man United’s titles were won because the FA and PL deliberately fixed the results for them. Man United under Alex Ferguson, a confirmed bully, took his persona to their games against middle to smaller teams in the league and beat the living daylight out of them. Man United won most of their titles through their consistency, especially against weaker oppositions. They would often lose home and away games to their title rivals and still win as they did in 2006/7 and 2008/9 against Arsenal and Liverpool respectively. I think the refs and the media were in love with Man United and there is clear bias for them in coverage and sometimes in officiating but I won’t lump bias with deliberate corruption which is what ‘result fixing’ is.
This is one area where I have always differed with the rest of the Untold gang, I just don’t voice it much as I wouldn’t fixate on a single issue with a group that I agree with on most of others concerning Arsenal and the game.
I think people have the right to be suspicious but I am uncomfortable with accusations and allegations without concrete evidence. Most of what I read are mere conjectures and not facts. When we get evidence of an official being paid to swing a result or results, then I’ll happily join chorus asking for probes.
Maybe fix is a strong word, but Liverpool, and for that matter city have had some serious help, the sort of help we just do not get. Perhaps as some astute commenters say in here , it is media driven?
I cannot provide absolute proof, if I could i would blow the whole thing open, but what has happened to Utd over the years, especially last year must be close to proof. Even scudamore laments their fall from grace. Even if it was not fixed , the fact that refs were scared to do their job with Utd, the fact that their boss would not back them up if they went against Utd, the fact that same boss is hugely biased to Utd, and the fact that Utds manager could openly influence referee appointments, all this without a peep from the media is tantamount to corruption to this simple soul at least. And I have not even started on insider trading…..
jambug,
There is nothing wrong with using emoticons. I use them too. It is the usage after dickish and snide comments that I detest.
Mandy Dodd,
Those are fair questions to ask and I don’t think that we should ever stop asking them but until the issues are addressed. But asking questions on what we believe is wrong is better than making accusations which is where I draw the line. I hope Untold Arsenal and the regulars do the same.
True Bootoomee, questions need asking until we receive fair and equal treatment to some of these clubs, sadly, for whatever reason, I cannot see that happening while Wenger is in charge…but of course I may be wrong…..
@Tony – very good article. I was amazed to open my paper and find the line was ‘poor Manchester City, getting picked on by FFP’!
@Mandy Dodd at 10.47 am – well summed up!
Blimey I congratulated Tony and it was Walter wrote the article! Sorry, Walter – thanks to you instead. Just shows how consistent the Untold view has been on FFP! I think I got confused because I had just read Tony’s great article about Gilberto.
I’m with you Bootoomee. To be fair, this whole thing started with highlighting allardyce’s motives as questionable, not wholesale accusations of match fixing etc. It was only when some scoffed at the idwa the PL could be bent and dismissed any notions there might be something untoward as fallacy that the whole argument was taken to the next level, as we had to defend our view that something is not right. I never, and I’m sure so did others, for a minute doubted your stance on matters affecting our game 🙂
As Mandy has indicated “fix” may well be a strong term, an unproven accusation of a “fix” is not a good play.
However, there is something strange in the way some ref decision patterns have appeared to favor certain clubs to the detriment of others and the way the media appear to have excused or covered up these decisions. Is there, or has there been a campaign to influence the title chase? There may be suspicion of strange happenings, but there is unfortunately not yet sufficient evidence for any of us to take a supposed guilty party to court with the slightest chance of success. Although, I would like to see the PGMOL explain, under oath, some of the ref performances.
In addition, with regard to Arsenal, we have not just the media showing bias against the club – but supposed sections of the fan base doing the same thing – the sinister AAA. Are they all working together, are they being directed in a campaign “fix”, is it coincidence – well as Bootoomee indicated – each of us will call it where we see it – but we cannot accuse anyone openly without proof.
Match fixing is something I always associate with betting and in particular unusual betting patterns – this has happened in many sports including football. Sooner or later evidence will turn up to show fixing or attempted fixing within the EPL. The initial evidence will probably come as a surprise out of the blue and could well open a major can of worms.
I believe I am to blame for letting this discussion get out of hand.. I think I used the term ‘fix’. Now we can argue semantics over whether the word ‘fix’ is entirely accurate or not, but then I need to counter that by saying I never said there was a fix.. I said it made me think of there being a fix.
The suggestion that World Cup matches can be fixed, the Italian league can be fixed, the German refs can be gotten to, players in England can be arrested for fixing, but the PL is entirely above board, especially when there are so many issues in the game which create the conditions where a fix would be entirely possible, is what I call silly..
As for Rupert and his trivializing the argument to make it seem outlandish.. How many times do you need to be told that is the reason you are seen as being ‘dickish’. Not the fact that you disagree. Give Arsenal 10 undeserved penalties in a season which earn them 15 extra points, see Arsenal players get away with some blatant red card offenses, and be given extra extra time whenever they are trailing, (leaving aside fixtures and ref appointments) and I will absolutely say that Arsenal didn’t deserve to win. If they do that is.
Just to add this whole thing about using the word ‘fix’ came about as those that were dismissing the anomalies we see kept bringing it up; I kept using collusion to be exact. Of course if the person you’re debating with keeps referring to one term then in the end you use it too.
Shard
You’re innocent, it was Soglorious at 9.04pm yesterday
Haha..Thanks for exonerating me Jax.. Your eyesight is better than mine, and a whole lot better than Marriner’s 🙂
I just do not want Liverpool to come and win the PL before we do it again, this is why i prefer Manc. Chelsea was a no no no anyway.
I am looking forward to summer signings and our team ALL coming back without injuries(Wish wish).
We will start PL with our upcoming players(WC players rest period), and they will get a good run in pre-season i hope.
Next season is the one people, this is what we ALL want, so every night before you go to sleep, picture it in your mind the things you want for Arsenal next season. Just picture the lifting of any cups you want us to win, then drift off into sleep. (Make sure the other half is not in a sexy mood to distract you, or do that, if you must, before. Actually, just after, when you are in the after sex glow is probably the best time to picture the lifting of the cups, then sleep).
Arghh, months of world cup before we see us play again after next week.
Bootoomee.
We are singing from the same song sheet as usual.
I personally don’t think games are ‘fixed’ so to speak, that often, although I don’t doubt for 1 minute it happens.
But I have always said that the media set the agenda as to whom they want to win the league and the PGMOL follow meekly in there wake.
I am on record on here as saying that, if by some miracle Arsenal suddenly became the medias flavour of the month, we would almost certainly see a substantial upturn in refereeing bias towards us.
I have also said that we do have to be careful as to not see devils at every turn.
Over the last month or so we had a couple of refs in charge that where expected to turn us over big style and the didn’t, and I said as much. Whether or not that was because the opportunities to do so just didn’t occur is of course open to speculation but as I say you can only judge on what you see.
So no, by and large I don’t believe it’s some kind of coordinated REFEREEING conspiracy against us.
But in contrast to that, I DO BELIEVE it is a MEDIA conspiracy against us which the PGMOL and there referees are happy to fall in line with.
Know we’ve beaten this to death, but just noticed Henry Winter has an article on the Telegraph titled Civilised City Deserve to Win the Title. In it he mentions that most neutrals would like Liverpool to win, but he adds “Many neutrals would probably prefer Liverpool to prevail, citing the 24 years since they last won…Rodgers has done so much with a smaller squad and budget to City’s…..Yet City will be worthy winners. Their manager, Manuel Pellegrini, is a civilised and enlightened addition to Premier League dugouts…”
Many of us here have been saying we don’t mind City winning for exactly the same reason he mentions in the last line; Pellegrini is a civilised human being. Amazing how a little humility can make such a huge difference.
AL
Henry Winter’s is talking bollocks, most civilised neutrals would rather a classless club like LFC did not exist!
City for the rights and wrongs have acted more humane than shit-pool.
I know Dan, just felt he wanted to.placate Liverpool fans. I found use of the term ‘civilised’ telling, as that’s not a word one would usually expect to associate with Liverpool 🙂
AL
For me I find the manager of a team has a marked influence as to how much I like them.
For example I find it difficult to root for any team that has Rednap, Pardew, Hughes or Pulis (although I am not stupid enough as to not appreciate what a fantastic job he has done at Palace) in charge.
Contrary to that I find myself liking teams managed by Bruce, Martinez or Ince.
Agree jambug. For that reason I’ll always struggle to like any teams managed/associated by the poisonous Mourinho 🙂
AL
I thought Mourinho was too obvious to mention 🙂
D’oh! 🙂
AL
Do you recall the same media darlings sticking it to the Arsenal? Henry Winter (Wiki) – He ghost-wrote the autobiographies of Liverpool FC players Kenny Dalglish, John Barnes and Steven Gerrard, I wonder why?
And as you stated Mr Winter’s article regarding civilised neutrals, far from it is our man Winter’s!
Dan
Yes Winter is no angel, but just thought he touched on something that many identified with.
jambug (@ 2.46 pm),
If our opinions get any closer than that, I’ll have to describe us as telepathic 🙂 You nailed it down to the tee again my good friend!
I know that you have always commended refs who are fair to us or not very biased. I do the same. There are instances like the Anthony Taylor show against Aston Villa that unite Arsenal and all fair minded fans but there are times when many at Untold also overreach in their criticism of officials. While I have no doubt that many of them are biased against us, I don’t think that they are as bad as they are often portrayed here.
As I said earlier, I agree with most here and I never want to fixate on this one area where I differ. Untold is still by far the best Arsenal blog on the Internet and I am proud of what Tony and Walter have achieved with the site.
Bootoomee
I know Boo, pretty spooky aye.
Without putting too finer a point on it Boo, it’s the fucking media that screw us over, every time !!!
jambug,
Of course!
To paraphrase Bill from Manhattan: IT’S THE MOTHERFUCKING MEDIA!!!
Boo,
Rest assured we are not alone.
BILL, bjt, AL, John, Shard…and many more…….!
Certainly agree with you guys on the role of the Uk media in all this. One only has to lower oneself to checking certain publications, or watch the odious Alan Hansen and the sub imbecilic Alan Shearer on Motd. Much of the uk media thinks there are no proper teams south of Stoke, tho some make an exception for Chelsea, and the London based media love the spuds. It is not easy breaking the power base of northern clubs, you either have to be bloody amazingly good….eg wenger, or amazingly good and rich…eg Chelsea.
But I would also point out we constantly get these dodgy refs in Europe as well. Barca, Braga, Napoli, Milan to name but a few. I don’t think that is media driven, that is something else. Almost as if wenger , in the distant past did something to upset UEFA….like be part of exposing a corruption scandal of a side that had won the CL….a scandal that UEFA went to great lengths to keep a lid on.
Of course far too simplistic and conspiratorial to suggest the role of wenger and primorac in this is following them to this day…but in football, and crime in general, nobody likes a whistle blower, Omerta is the preferred option ….arsenal have two major whistle blowers on their payroll.
I remain convinced we will have to put up with this at least until wenger leaves.
Mandy Dodd
This European intel is all news to me.
Apart from the Liverpool debacle and RVP sending off I’ve never felt quite so ‘screwed’ in Europe as at home.
Maybe I should be even more paranoid than I already am 🙂
Yes, we certainly get our fair share in Europe too Jambug….unfortunately. Not sure if it’s as proportionally bad or not.
The role wenger and much more so primorac played in bringing Marseille and their owner to justice is only a pet theory, cannot prove anything of course, but human nature being what it is,people have long memories…..as do organisations.
jambug
There was the Porto ref who gave the backpass and then allowed the quickly taken free kick. Liverpool beat us in 2008 over two legs with at least two clear penalty decisions going wrongly in their favour. There was a game against Braga where Vela was booked for a dive when it was a penalty..
In my view, the refs have been poor for us in Europe,(including ref appointments. We get a homer for away games, and a strong ref for our home games) but I think that generally it is true that owing to the quality of the sides being higher, the ref influence is a much lesser factor in the final outcome.
Look at it from the other way around: Why would the media go against the money lords? They never do it in all other aspects, so why should it be different with sports?
When banks charge us too much with commissions; when food prices are too high (and you have to go to german food shops in order to buy cheaper food); whenever we pay more than we have to pay to the markets’ giants, the media say FUCKIN SHIT. Because media, and journalists, and I’m sorry if anybody here is a journalists, are in my humble and (maybe biased) opinion are 1,000,000,000,000 worse than lawyers.
At least I know that when I say I’m a lawyer, people say – he’s a dishonest, lying git. Maybe us lawyers earned that, but at least it’s out there on the table. Journalism is “democracy’s watchdog”. That’s such bullshit. We know they have editors, they have people who advertise with them, they have their scandals (BBC anyone) and hiding sex offenders (hmm BBC again) and biased political views which are portrayed as neutral opinions.
FUCK I hate journalists!
So yeah I’m not surprised a bit by this cocksucking bunch. And you shouldn’t be either.
TommieGun,
I may be the first non-lawyer to ever say this to you but here it is pal:
Journalists are worse than lawyers. I hate the media with a passion and it is their “we set the agenda” attitude and mission that I hate most.
The media is disgraceful for supporting City’s cheating. City tried to cook their books with inflated sponsorship money – the Sheikh effectively paying himself and moving money from one account to another to avoid the rules of the game. That is cheating no matter which way you look at it. The fact that City now have larger ‘commercial’ revenues that Manchester United should be enough for the media to realise that this is cheating of the highest and most blatant level.
Whilst I think Arsenals approach is flawed at least we can comfortably claim to be fair. We have not cheated our way to success.
Journalists are incurable infested information whores. Lawyers are blood sucking leeches…..but perhaps not if they are Arsenal supporters. Referees are great when they apply the Laws but absolute sh……… when they cheat. Football Associations have become money grabbing ‘clubs’ of evil male dominated fucks.
City have done well winning the EPL in the most costly manner. They have spent several thousand barrels of crude for a small silver plated pot. Sheikh Rattle & Roll would have made a lot more money if he bought a string of night clubs.
I’m just glad that Brendans smirk is not plastered in the media. Where’s your trophies Jose?
Don’t expect much from these media
1) they are glory hunters
2) the mass are mostly glory hunters (ie media sell to glory hunters)
3) rich clubs can provide much more benefit to the media
by the way… you guys forget about one thing
TICKET PRICE
Arsenal got money from ticket earning which means the fans are putting their money up to fight the sugar daddy.
This is the line they should take.
Everyone else just expect someone to come and buy them entertainment and glory.