Warning: get to the life boats, woman and children first

Posted on by WalterBroeckx

By Walter Broeckx

Yes it’s over. What is over? The season. Why do I know this? Ah because the experts told me so. Which experts? Ah the self declared experts on twitter and facebook and even on Untold they can be seen.

This is where we stand today. And tomorrow. The season is over because we had a 0-0 at Besiktas.

Definite conclusions could be made after this match. The unbelievable things I have read after that defeat is astonishing. As astonishing as the impressive performances of Chambers so far this season.

What I have read? We must sell Arteta, Cazorla, Giroud, Sanogo, Wilshere, Monreal, and that is only for starters of course.  I have seen each and every name mentioned.

Now let us for one nanosecond agree with these ideas. Let us now on August 21 sell those 6 players as the experts have told me. What would that mean? Well I can only have one word for it: complete and utter disaster.

But the experts tell me: we should replace them of course. And we should replace them by the mythical monster central defender. We should replace Cazorla with the German Giant (Reus to be precise and this is a language joke as reus in my mother tongue means giant). We should replace Giroud with that world class striker. No matter who and which Balotelli or Falcao or Cavani or whoever. Just replace him.  We should get another postman for Sanogo. We should sell Wilshere as he injures himself all the time and buy A. Nybody from FC Nomatter-Where. And Monreal should be replaced by any left back we need. We could ask Van Gaal to hand us Shaw maybe?

I will get back to some players later but can you imagine us replacing 6 players now? Just like that? What would it mean? It would mean you even wouldn’t make it to the life boats. The ship would sink before you can shout help.  Replacing so many players cannot be done. It will take at least one season before you get a bit of cohesion again. But that is something the shouters of ‘sell X and buy Y’ think about. Why? I can only guess because I have heard that in most computer games you can buy and sell and fit-in players with no problem at all.

But this is the real world and we talk about human beings. A small detail for the experts when they press the buttons of their computer or game console.

Now I do want to get in to a few of the most named players to be sold. Let us start with Cazorla. Is he in top form? No. Was he great against Besiktas? No. But do we have to sell him for not being great in one match? Or even in two? Or even in 3? Not that he was even bad in 3 matches.

But it just shows how short the view or memory of some people are.  Because if we go back only 3 matches we should still remember that Cazorla was the man against Manchester City who scored that oh so important first goal in the match for the Community Shield. And if we would ask them to think back 4 matches (I know I am stretching some “supporters” here) we should remember him scoring that oh so even more important first goal in the FA cup. That was the goal that brought us completely back in the match.

And now two matches after his important goals and excellent matches he suddenly is useless and worthless after two matches where he didn’t catch the heights we know he can have.  Sorry but this is just plain stupid to me.

And let me now go to the scapegoat of the moment. A bit like the flavour of the month but in a negative way. Giroud. Was he good against Besiktas? No. I’m not saying this at all. Was he good against Palace? Well I don’t think he was bad when he came on after one hour and oh that’s right it was him that won the battle in the air against the Palace defenders that lead to us scoring the winning goal. So well not bad for a player being half an hour on the field and actually contributing directly to the winning goal.

And let us think two matches back. You know once again the Community Shield. Two nil in front at half time, City looking a bit more dangerous in the opening minutes of the second half. And then the ball came to Giroud who killed the tie with a magnificent shot.  Not the match winner as in a 1-0 win but surely the goal that made City realise: ok, it will possibly be for a next time to lift a trophy at Wembley.  By scoring that magnificent goal he killed the last hopes  City had.

And again I stretch you to think one match further. Again we are at Wembley. And after coming on as a substitute it was that same clumsy, useless Giroud that laid the winning goal on a platter for Ramsey with a back heel.  But that is the past and doesn’t count any more for the Giroud haters. In fact I think they hate him even more because of Giroud doing this and exposing them as the moaners they are. Giroud made them shut up and look silly for a while.

So now after having a bad match at Besiktas they use this to come out of the sewer once again and start their hate campaign all over.

What about instead of hating your own players and dragging them down after each misplaced pass you tried to support them when they have an off day? It can happen to all of us. In fact it happens to all of us. Or are you robots who perform on the same level each and every day in your life? I surely don’t. And come on be honest: you also have ups and downs.

I can hardly believe it that I am forced to write an article at this point in time. 4 matches (with something at stake) ago we won the FA cup. 3 matches ago we won the CS. 2 matches ago we won our opening home match in the PL for the first time in 6 or 7 years. And yes the last match we didn’t win. And some use this to pretend we ran in to an iceberg, all our staff is incompetent, our captain (manager) is useless, and Untold keeps on playing the violins till the ship goes down completely.

Why don’t some of you get a grip? And look a bit further than the last match or pass. We still have 4 players to come back to the team in the next days/weeks. A team that was top of the league most of the time last season. Remember? Of course you can’t. A team that without Özil even managed to get most points in 2013. Remember? How could you remember. You can’t even remember 3 or 4 matches ago.

So to put the dots on the i: in the last 4 matches we played we won 3 and had 1 draw. And in those last 4 matches we won 1 FA cup and 1 CS.  Terrible ain’t it?

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49 Replies to “Warning: get to the life boats, woman and children first”

  1. Thanks Walter.

    Can I just add one experience of my own from last night, while monitoring the comments coming in.

    There I was deleting a few comments in which “supporters” hoped that certain of our players broke their legs, a death threat and the normal range of comments that were just plain abusive.

    And then in the midst of it is a comment from a reader complaining because I called a certain banned Barcelona player a “vampire”.

    I must say it did give me quite a laugh and lightened up the evening.

    But some of the other stuff has gone too far so I did introduce a new set of guidelines for comments.

    I would say to anyone wanting to comment here for the first time, you can make yourself look rather silly if you don’t take account of exactly what this site is.

    Anway the new guidelines are on the home page under the links to our other sites at http://www.untold-arsenal.com

  2. How sad that Walter felt compelled to write an article such as this so early in the season but I am afraid that such is the mentality of some of our supporters that it had to be said.

  3. I’m looking forward to Liverpool players parading in defence of Balotelli’s latest showpiece headline. The t-shirt will read: “Why always us?”

  4. And that, my friends, is why Arsenal fans are regarded as the most fickle. To be fair though, when it comes to Giroud, it is wrong to call it fickleness. I will rather call it Giroud Derangement Syndrome (GDS). The irrational hatred towards the guy has got the point where a psychiatric analysis might be needed.

    Over to you Don McMahon or is it Billy the Dog?

  6. I could not believe the comments that I read. Each one trying to be meaner than the one before.

    It’s only our second game of the season. I am the eternal optimist and hold out hope that it was fans of other teams trolling.

  7. Unfortunately, nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the British public. Hence the mind boggling number of crass, offensive and just plain stupid comments we have to endure. Despite the fact that there are several sites which actively welcome the hard-of-thinking, there is as yet no real tool for preventing them from getting into the wild.
    Keep up the good work Gents.

  8. I’ve been looking at the previous couple of articles, and then at the comments. OMG! It almost seems that Ars haters sit around waiting for an article to appear, and then get on here quickly to repeat some stupid mantra or cut and paste something that the negati-wankers are saying.

    I think these posters (they’re certainly not supporters), should be moderated the **** right out of this forum. There are so many places for them to go and bitch. Why allow them on here?

    Remember, many people have come to Untold and expressed relief to find something different from the brainwashing football fans have been subjected to for a very long time.

    Does this majority of UA’s readers want to read well thought out articles only to immediately read comments from people who haven’t even read the article (and if they have, they clearly have no comprehension skills)?

  9. Point of interest. Dimechelis played for Manchester City on Sunday. Schurrle played for Chelsea on Monday. Mertesacker and Ozil watched Arsenal on TV on Tuesday. All were on duty at the World Cup Final. It will be interesting to see whether the former pair are lost to injury in the autumn through being ‘rushed back’.

  10. I am leaning towards Rantetta’s suggestion. Surely there are enough sites that cater to bashing all things Arsenal.

    If it’s this bad after two games; what will happen if we lose two straight?

  11. Santi is the new Arshavin. Better in the middle but still decent out wide. Wenger can ruin players sometimes. Giroud is not the best, but still above average for the PL. Again, he seems an example of someone who needs more discipline and finishing work. Passing on Cesc was just plain stupidity. No other way to see it as he went to a main rival/contender. Just dumb dumb dumb. But, our midfield is the best in the PL I think. Only guys I would want besides ours are Silva and Hazard. Both would be sublime in our system. Why we never bought Hazard a year or two before Chelsea, again just dumb. Chambers could be our solution to the DM problem. But why was TV never tried there? He was strong and smart. I don’t claim to be a veteran top level coach, but these bad decisions are all very poor for someone who makes the claims Arsene does! All we need now is health and a 20-30 goal striker who can make an impact in games, finish, and beat players 1 v 1. Sanchez looks very good and can get a ton of assists with Rambo, Jack, and Ozil if only they had the right striker. Even a Demba Ba type would do. I just can’t fathom why we haven’t snatched one up, just one time, taking a chance and spending the money. But, no, same old same old Monsieur Know it All sits on his hands! I fear another season of hopes turning into flames of failure. And lastly, for all those slagging off Jack, he was put into an injury nightmare by being overplayed, by who you say? That same “you haven’t worked a day in football” arrogant narcissist called our manager

  13. @Ben:: I know We have made 3 fantastic signings already but on the evidence of what seen this season and know from previous ones, We need a defensive midfielder desperately. There’s been talk of Khadira, Bender, Carvalho and more recently Rabiot but I can’t see Wenger signing anyone except another CB to replace Vermaelen. Some are now mentioning Song for a return but there’s no way he go anywhere near London for reasons that will never be published and was the biggest factor in him leaving in the first place and Wenger never takes players back unless it’s on a free contract otherwise he would have brought back Fabregas rather than letting him join the irritating little man at Chelsea. Just a point on Giroud, I noticed a few in here having a pop, don’t forget that he scored some superb goals last year and will thrive when Arsenal play a 4-3-1-2 formation which looking at Wenger’s purchases so far he must have in mind for some future games, more worrying for me was the lack of use made of Joel Campbell especially against Besiktas avoiding him being cup tied which makes me think that he might be offloaded before being given a chance.

  14. Mika you say you are not a veteran top level coach and then go on to pontificate as to what should happen, what Arsne who is a top level coach should do.

    You post reminds me of a director of a company employing over 500 people who one evening said this to me:
    “My secretary speaks very good English.” He said this to me at a party when he had had few drinks. I never met his secretary, so I don’t know her ability in English.

    I know this, this man did know a word of English, so how did he know his secretary’s ability in English?

    You by your own admission are not a ‘top coach’. So how do you know what a top coach like Arsene should do?

  16. @carim and the others This team, or any team for that matter, will not win a league or European cup with the striking options at the club. Sanogo and giroud would not be in any top premier strike force, let alone any top European team. Why are they in our team? No one can doubt wenger’s ability to develop players to their potential over the last fifteen years, but to lack a real out and out quality player in arguably the most significant position is extremely worrying. Pires, freddy and overmars (even parlour) have been quality, creative players under Wenger. Ozil and Sanchez should achieve the same honours as those players , but is it possible with the attackers they play with? For those of who seem to teach the mere mortals on this website about economics of the club, these multi million pound creative players in our team will not have the impact with the strikers in their team seems to be mind boggling. There is implication by many of the people on here who regularly post that it is naive to think purchases are a simplistic solution or that it is ignorant to question the decisions of Wenger is infuriating. As it stands, Wenger is, once again, making a shocking, obvious mistake by not getting a quality striker in. For people who argue that the window is not closed yet, well this has been the same situation for the last three windows. It’s not a case of arsenal loosing a superstar goal scorer this summer. That happened three years ago. It is very concerning that these individuals are our goal scoring options. All the economic arguments, or metaphor riddled posts cannot defend this. If top top clubs need someone, they go out and buy someone. Please let us follow suit. Arsenal have such a solid foundation to build from this year, not only on the pitch but also in the stands. Things are more positive than they have been for a long time. Our current striking options will erode this. Quickly.

  17. Sorry Walter that the ‘gods’ made you write this.

    Imagine you insulting their intelligence with…”It can happen to all of us. In fact it happens to all of us. Or are you robots who perform on the same level each and every day in your life? I surely don’t. And come on be honest: you also have ups and downs…” No they don’t.

    Like I said in another thread, they are perfect 100% in their private lives. So while your ‘Titanic’ logic is ok, remember that ‘The gods are crazy’ 🙂

    COYG

  18. Colario,
    The man is a troll. Don’t engage. Eventually he will go away and bore another sites readers with his self-declared omniscience.

  20. Ummm…let’s see.. Liverpool had a 31 goal scorer [Suarez] and a 22 goal scorer [Sturridge], all strikers by the way. Yet lost the League to a team with a midfielder [Yaya] scoring 20 goals, of which 5 were penalties!
    Aguero finished with 17 goals, Dzeko with 16. Guess how much our good for nothing Giroud finish with? 16.

    Another thing; this notion that Higuain is sooo much better than Giroud is not borne out by the FACTS.
    Higuin cost about £32m and scored 24 goals for Napoli in all competitions [44 appearances]. Our useless Giroud cost about £10m and scored 22 goals in all competitions [52 appearances]. two more goals for about £22m? Some return on investment eh?

  21. Well said, Walter.

    The manager of Bestikas has more respect for Arsenal than some supporters.

    But these trolls – well at they’re earning a living, a rather perhaps, stealing one.

  22. Not forgetting Higgy’s ongoing injury/fitness concerns. If the AAA were recorded and seen to groan at a player like the Dutch Skunk, and his “glass ankles” for years then I can’t imagine that they’d give the oft absent Higuain any slack if he played for the Arsenal.

    Just another excuse to Groan. Because after winning the cup, the shield, beating Palace and drawing Away in Turkey it’s clear that AFC are indeed D**Med. Especially without a DM.

    D**Med I tells ya,
    The bells, the bells…

  23. …I remember when Song and Diaby played together in CM. The dormers would still D**M, but they’d simply switch to another meme instead of the DM, what with them being PR experts as well as football and accounting experts.
    So you’d hear in the past constant “glass ankle” jibes on the internet at say The Dutch player, and others like Rosicky and Eduardo would get blamed for their unfortunate injuries which obviously affected a squad not built from gas or other dead and decomposed matter, what with them being two of the seniors brought in to shepherd that previous squad.

  25. Tony
    Re your post at 1.01pm, and the guidelines. You rarely (if ever) appear to stop abuse between commenters ( most of which amounts to bullying ), some of whom do it continuously with impunity, and also nothing seems to get done about commenters who regularly go off topic.
    I hope that now that you’ve made a point of emphasising it there will be some changes, because many of the regular posters here trample all over your blog.

    I

  28. Ben,

    The club made a typo (Ramsey also 10 goals in the league), so what’s your point? You will need to try harder to look for another issue to criticise us over.

    Why not just write them about the error if it bothers you so much? I don’t see how posting it here and making snide comments about it helps you or anyone for that matter.

  29. oldgroover,

    Stop whining about the regulars while sucking up to the AAA when they show up.

    And yes, I don’t care if you call this bullying but this is a no bullshit zone. Tony set up his blog for people like us (the ‘bullies’) not some Arsenal-hating doom mongers and their apologists.

  30. Bootoomee
    Yes you were one of the people I had in mind, and for someone who’s privileged to write articles on here I think you could set a better example.
    I don’t know about me sucking up, I jut don’t like cyber bullying ( it’s so cowardly ) and will always support victims. It’s probably a legacy of my previous employment and various HR & equal ops. courses I’ve attended.

  31. Thanks Walter,I also can’t believe we are back to the same old same old (or is the old same old same?) before things have even got going.You can just see it, the Arsenal go unbeaten for a season(again)win all domestic competitions, win the CL and still there would be groaning about something.Anyway, Wenger out!etc..(yawn)
    COYG! Aha and Amen!

  32. Walter,good article. They want us to sell 6 players, and then call us a selling club if we do. Anyway, that’s assuming the players were rubbish, which they’re not.

    I said Giroud gives us something that not many players do; a physical presence, as you highlight, his presence led to the winning goal against palace.

    These whingers are sick people, let’s not worry too much about what they say. Even if we signed Messi they’d still be here moaning about his failure to score 4 hattricks in a row, and questioning why Wenger continues to pick him instead of selling him. Losers.

  33. oldgroover,

    Of course, I know I am one those bullies that you so desperately despise. Here is the difference, I am not going anywhere and neither am I changing the way I lay unto the retards who come over here to abuse our players and manager. I have been here for years, you are barely here for a few months; you don’t get to run to Tony to give protection to posters who are only here to cause disaffection. I don’t go to Le grove or hundreds of other Arsenal blogs dedicated to that stuff but if I go and post pro-Wenger stuff there, I’d get hammered and I’d deserve it.

    My point: stop playing the blog snitch by always running to Tony to instigate him to deal with us ‘bullies’. He knows us and he knows where we stand. He reads the blog too you know.

    On me behaving differently because my articles are published here: well, I have heard that many times before but here is the thing:

    1. It isn’t really about privilege to have your opinion published as an article here. If you put words together in a manner that meets the site’s specification, it will get published. It isn’t exactly an exclusive club. It is for like-minded Gooners WORLDWIDE!!!

    2. My articles are my opinion and having them published here does not affect how I interact with other commenters. Sorry but I have had these sorts of battles around here A LOT! I say it as I see it and of course, I lay very hard into the AAA. I enjoy doing so and I am not about to stop.

    You just enjoy the blog and let Tony run it as he sees fit.

  34. Bootoomee
    Snitch now am I? That’s a new one.
    Well, I’ll leave it to better people than you to judge me on that.
    Also, I’ve been on here for around three years, ask Tony.

  35. The article and comments were great until the trolls arrived. Don’t give up the fight, Walter.

  36. Was all happy about the new season starting again.

    Our last season’s important players all stayed, well except for Sagna, but Debuchy is like for like.
    Got Sanchez, who is one of the best in his position, and only adds more quality to our already quality first 11.
    And then added aswell Chambers, Ospina, Sanogo and Campbell as replacements for Vermaelen, Fabianski and Bendtner.

    So for once I was hoping our so called fans would stand behind the team, but somehow the media still managed to turn our fans heads, needing the infamous monster DM, a killer striker and whatnot.

    It’s already bad enough having to listen to shitty commentators, seeing the ref making a whole mokery of the rules, reading newspapers (only 1 I still read is the guardian, but hopefully not for long anymore, the comments are allright though :-))

    But seeing so called fans of the same team I support behaving like total doomers/spoiled brats/naive kids going completely OTT is even worse and that on 1 of my 2 only blogs i still read.

    It’s bad enough referees screw us over and over and opponents knowing it and using it to their advantage.
    And it’s also bad enough everyone’s against us.

    So can’t we just please all stick behind the team, support the team and see what happenes come end of the year?

    This year I think we finally really make a chance, We have enough to overcome bad refereeing, bad injuries (due to the bad refereeing) and bad scheduling.

    Just look at these names below, got backup all over the place and can play all kinds of different styles, and once they gel, and that day is coming, its gonna be fireworks galore.

    GK: Szczesny, Ospina, Martinez
    RB: Debuchy, Bellerin
    CB: Koscielny, Mertesacker, Chambers, Miquel
    RB: Gibbs, Monreal
    2 sitting back: Ramsey, Diaby, Arteta, Wilshere, AOC, Flamini, Coquelin
    AMC: Ozil, Rosicky, Cazorla, Zelalem
    LW: Sanchez, Podolski
    RW: Walcott, Campbell, Gnabry
    ST: Giroud, Sanogo

    Cmon ARSENAL! In Wenger we trust!!!

  37. The so called fans who keep attacking our team and manager on the slightest pretext, real or imaginary, are just not fans.

    They have a collective purpose in undermining the team, club and at this stage, particularly the manager.

    There are probably two groups of these so called fans – the sinister AAA – who work with the media and bloggers to initiate anti Arsenal propaganda, the second group are the brain dead AAA – who mindlessly repeat any toxic drivel they come across.

    Both groups can be categorized as AAAA (thanks Brickfields): –

    Group 1: – Asinine Anti Arsenal Arsenal

    Group 2: – Anti Arsenal Arsenal Arsehole

    We could have a third group – the trolling apologists – these take a variety of forms – usually subtle, always anti club in some way and latch on to the views of any other anti Arsenal reprobate they can locate. When challenged – the response is to cry unfair or bullying – typical trollish cowardice.

  38. Bootoomee……..no need for any analysis or psycho-evaluation for the moaners. It is clear that we are faced with the following inescapable elements:

    1) We don’t know these so-called AAA crew at all….they could be one person with multiple personality disorder using multiple e-mails, or many people who all suffer from delusions of grandeur and a narcissistic or dissociative disorder….thus the inability to focus on the real.

    2) We can’t be sure they are genuinely AFC fans….they could be aliens with wigs, Spuds trying to get a life or even pre-pubescent transexuals searching for approval….or whatever.

    3) We can be sure that many of them will pontificate from profound and astounding depths of ignorance about all things Football and specifically anything Arsenal, will often display atrocious grammar and syntax (a result of their poor upbringing/education) and inevitably twist themselves into logical conundrums befitting the mildly mentally challenged.

    Personally, their most consistent characteristics are indecisiveness, poor confidence and a blinkered negative view of things they are pretending to care about. These are all signs of a flawed and failed character development as well as immaturity consistent with arrested development and a seriously underdeveloped sense of worth.

    so no need for an in-depth clinical analysis when the truth is so self-evident!

  39. Tony the Kane,

    What an uppercut of a bashing! Ouch! Can’t wait for more of this, please…

  43. Btj, Brickfields, OMG, and everyone else

    Without doubt most people with two football brain cells to rub together would have the understanding the cyber attacks that forced the people that run this well respected football blog to change the domain name (no probs!) were an attempt(failed) at “bullying”

  44. True, bullying isn’t just relentless trolling of someone who’s views you disagree with..

  45. Dear bjtgooner, pray, enlighten me, does AAA mean Anti Arsenal Army, Anti Arsenal Apologists or simply Arsenal ‘Aters Alliance? Or is it Averse to Arsenal Association? Trying my best to figure it out while awaiting your response…

  46. Stan The Man,

    It originally meant “Anti-Arsenal Arsenal” as coined by Mr Tony Attwood. Since Brickfields Gunners started tinkering with it, has now taken different versions including AAAA. I think all your suggested meanings apply. I kinda like “Arsenal ‘Aters Alliance”. Sounds like the name of the bad guys in a super-hero movie. I like it very much.

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