- What improvements must Arsenal make to win the league this coming season?
- How we can stop the regular violence at international games?
By Sir Hardly Anyone
Although the media find it impossible to grasp, not all real football supporters (by which I mean those who actually go to games throughout the season), are totally obsessed by the internationals going on at the moment. Obviously, a lot of people are interested, as the TV audiences show, but some of us instead retain our interest in the club we support.
So yes I take in the information that in the Copa América there has been a bit of a bust up between Uruguay players and their fans – something that is becoming more common in various locations as fans supporting their national team expect and DEMAND trophies as a right.
I don’t think that has quite happened in Luxembourg, Gibralter or Andorra, but it surely can’t be long. Everyone now seems to have a sense of entitlement.
I suppose the reason is primarily the approach of the pundits in the media who endlessly claim that they can see what is wrong with a team that doesn’t win, and if only they were in charge they would put it right. And so if someone on the tele can do it, why not the guy raging at the match on the tele?
After all as we well know, at least half the managers in the Premier League are failures each season, in the sense that their club did worse this season than last.
Actually that last point can only be argued so far, since when Arteta took over at Arsenal we had two seasons ending up in eighth place, but then given the fact that we had people here arguing that Arteta should go, even when Arsenal were top of the league, maybe demanding the manager leaves is just an eternal element of football as seen by the ignorant…
What certainly is escalating are confrontations between players and fans – as in the Colombia v Uruguay Copa América semi-final which concluded with what the media likes to call “ugly scenes”. [Where do they get these journalists from?] Not because the crowd confronted players on the pitch but because half a dozen players entered the crowd to take on some fans. It was later said that this was in retribution against some Uruguay fans were threatening family members of the team.
Still, we do have players back at home – including of course people like Martin Ødegaard – who has the fortune or misfortune to play for Norway who don’t qualify much. He’s now had his break and is doing interviews saying he has been having a good rest but he would sooner have been at the Euros.
He also took up Untold’s theme (although I’ve no evidence that he reads us) that the new financial regulations in football mean that the chitchat about signings is probably even more irrelevant than ever.
What I particularly liked was the fact (ignored by most papers and blogs) that Ødegaard questioned whether Arsenal need a new centre-forward given the way Havertz played in the latter part of last season for Arsenal and for Germany.
But meanwhile, there is no getting away from football and alcohol, as the Mail reports that Declan Rice vows to drink his first EVER pint of beer if England win Euro 2024.
Elsewhere, from Switzerland comes the news that FC Aigle of the second division who won the Coupe Vaudoise will be banned from the competition for three years because of the behaviour of their supporters during the cup final last May.
Can you imagine the outcry if England had been banned from the Euros following the chaos at Wembley at the 2020 final? But of course no, that sort of action would not have been taken, because, well, it was England, and England is the home of football.
Anyway, for everyone who likes international football and who supports England I hope you have a jolly time on Sunday. And maybe one day football might wake up to the fact that some of us spend a lot of time and money supporting our team, and actually don’t really care about the national side. So yes of course cover the England games on English TV and the media, but just don’t assume that we are all interested, just because we support a team that plays in the Premier League.
And by the way if Arsenal do sign the defender Riccardo Calafiori from Bologna and Raphinha the winger from Barcelona, (according to the Standard) while selling Jakub Kiwior (Daily Mail), don’t expect to see that covered much either. We’ll take a good look, but I can’t be sure anyone else will. What with the international being on.
I hope we don’t sign Raphinha. He reminds me of Dembele. Looks great until the final 5 yards.