By Tony Attwood
We have this day – St Totteringham’s Day or St Totteridge’s Day – upon which Arsenal signify through their results that once again that they will finish above Tottenham in the league.
Now we now also have the song – “It’s happened again”. If you were there, you’ll remember it from this season’s St Tot Day.
But there is also a lesser known day to celebrate – the annual day in which Mr D Levy appoints a new Tottenham manager. It can happen at any time, it can happen once every two years or twice in a year, but it happens. And now it is about to happen again.
So, boys and girls, welcome to St Daniel’s Day.
St Daniel’s Day can happen because Tottenham have not got into the Champions League, or because they have got into the Champions League (as per Arry R).
It can happen because Tottenham sell their best player (we can forgive them that, it happened to us too) but then invest them money in seven new signings at once who not surprisingly fail to make much impact (not so good).
It can happen because St Daniel himself attempted to get Real Mad to agree not to sell Ozil to Arsenal, as part of the Bale deal. That wasn’t very saintly but I don’t think St Daniel does self-blame – so we have another St Daniel Day.
But as the awfully nice Mr Sherwood said, “How on earth did people think we would be title challengers or even make the top four? If you don’t know the game you could possibly think that they would all hit the floor running but it doesn’t happen, they need time.”
So Tottenham finished the season with 69 points, three less than last season’s club-record but 10 behind Arsenal.
Actually Sherwood did ok getting 42 points from 22 games. Extend that to 38 games and you get enough to enter to the Champs League. But St Daniel seems to believe that Tottenham should be higher – irrespective of the fact that the clubs around them do get better each year.
Of course this may not continue – Man City have failed FFP, and Liverpool will fail next year if the current manager’s spending is given free reign. What’s more Liverpool will come under intense financial pressure as they try to build New Anfield, and this will restrict the buying. But then Tottenham want to build New 748 High Road at some time (although we never quite known when) and that will hinder their activities unless the owner stumps up some more money.
And that means that rule one for St Daniel’s Day’s new appointment is “learn to shut up”. Neither Tim nor Arry learned that lesson. So, new manager, do not say, “Where we’ve finished in sixth is where we should be, it’s where we are as a club.”
Power is everything – and at Tottenham it is not with the manager. So we remember that when the journalists gathered on the steps of Highbury on Mr Wenger’s first day in office shouting “What about the rumours Mr Wenger?” (referring to the stories which soon became part of the standard Man U chanting every time Arsenal play Man U) the powers at Highbury told Wenger not to go out and face them. Wenger shook them off and went outside, and silenced them.
That single moment on 1 October 1996 established who ran Arsenal. OK, he’s been paying for it ever since with the journalists’ snide remarks and nasty commentaries, but he grabbed power and in that sense took up the mantle of Herbert Chapman who also stood his ground – in his case against Lt Col St Henry Norris, over who was utterly in charge. Wenger faced a different enemy, but the idea was the same. One club, one man in charge.
And at Tottenham we know who runs the show. That is why we have St Daniel’s Day.
But someone else will come along and take the job as manager – someone always does.
Here is the list of those managers who have come and gone since Mr Wenger signed for Arsenal. I’ve published it before, I know, lots of times, but I just thought I ought to keep up appearances.
- Chris Houghton 1997-1997
- Christian Gross 1997-1998
- David Pleat 1998-1998
- George Graham 1998-2001
- David Pleat 2001-2001
- Glenn Hoddle 2001-2003
- David Pleat 2003–2004
- Jacques Santini 2004–2004
- Martin Jol 2004–2007
- Clive Allen and Alex Inglethorpe 2007-2007
- Juande Ramos 2007-2007
- Clive Allen and Alex Inglethorpe 2008-2008
- Harry Redknapp 2008-2012
- André Villas-Boas 2012 – 2013
- Tim Sherwood 2013-2014
Happy St Daniel’s Day.
Meanwhile…
Today is the anniversary of Arsenal’s greatest moment. 15 May 2004.
The books…
- 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 FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
We have to be grateful, in a small way, to Spurs for condemning United (the noisy neighbour of the League Champions)to at least one season out of Europe.
(Unless of course the team go on a day trip to Calais and play footy on the beach) 🙂
Looking at that list you can see that only Graham, Jol & Redknapp stayed long enough to even have an attempt at team development. You’d think that by now Levy would have identified the flaw in his clubs lack of progress.
In a way I think that Levy is running Tottenham like the AAA would run Arsenal if they got it their way.
As a result they have no time to build. In both ways. Bricks and the players on the field. Just buy, buy, buy and then throw them all together with a new manager and hope it works.
Indeed Jax and it were Jol and Redknapp who came closest to a top 4 spot (and even getting it).
So let us not make Levy aware of that 😉 Let him continue his hiring and firing politics…
I think the main reason for Tim to get fired was that he showed his Arsenal tattoo to Levy late at night in the bar when being a bit drunk…. 🙂
I’ve just added a little extra note at the foot of the article – today is also the most important anniversary day for Arsenal.
There is also a new article on the subject – http://www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk/archives/10250
Levy is desperate for another Wenger, and the longer he goes without one, the more trigger happy he gets.
Surprised no comments that we are obsessed with Tottenham yet!
That is a long list…..and at least three of them are Gooners!
Tony,
Allow me to quote from your Invincible anniversary post:
“Then on 66 minutes Bergkamp did that wonderful thing he liked to do – he stopped, with the ball, looked up, looked around, considered the windspeed, noted the temperature, checked for any gravitational anomalies, measured the gradient, took into account the inward gasps from the crowd, re-checked who was where, noted the position of the sun, made sure the cameras were rolling, rounded a divot, and simply passed an impossible ball to our Patrick who had about 25 square miles of space through which to walk the ball around Ian Walker. 2-1 to the Untouchables.”
And that is why Bergkamp is God.
Of course you know this you old dog; my note is for the younger Gooners out there who might be wondering why a faithless fool like me would ever call a man God. Please, any idea who else in football could or can do this?
It gives me so much satisfaction to retell the feelings of seeing Dennis Bergkamp play live on TV. I can only imagine how great it must feel for you to see him do his thing in person every other week or so.
Oh dear Dennis, please hasten your return. We the faithful are eagerly waiting!
Apparently they want Rafael Benitez next.
Wonder if he will bite.
“Levy is running Tottenham like the AAA would run Arsenal”
This could explain why the AAA propaganda last Summer, which due to the volume of repetition unfortunately fooled some Arsenal fans, stated that “Levy knew what he was doing” etc. Comical as that may be given the unequivocal evidence available to all, it was what they believed. Unfortunately these self-declared football experts chose to ignore the obvious: “If you don’t know the game you could possibly think that they would all hit the floor running but it doesn’t happen, they need time.”
Lest we forget the next move by the AAA after the end of the Summr window and the humiliation of Levy at Arsenal was to declare the Özil signing, and I quote, “a fluke” in conjunction with their odious allies attacking the player in the press whilst ignoring the genuine and shocking (considering the fees paid) failures at other clubs: Lamela (£30,000,000 odd) Loldado (£25,000,000 odd) under our friend Levy and of course the D**M we all wanted Fellaini (£27,000,000 odd) signed by the AAA’s previous nomination for Next Arsenal Manager (following on from Owen Coyle etc.).
Psychotic levels of disingenuity are involved in churning out this consistent garbage against the club. Or have we been witnessing an attempt at a hostile corporate takeover?
One other consideration would be that Levy has been very happy to have been losing all that Wonga…
*coughs*
Baldini has done well 🙂
Who needs the Capello Index.
I have to say that I was one of those who thought Levy was on fire last summer. I even said perhaps we could swap CEO’s. I’m hoping that by admitting my crime I’ll get a reduced sentence. “I’ve learned the error of my ways.”
Jax,
you are forgiven my son. BUT DON’T DO IT AGAIN!!! 😉
Jax,
Maybe you should take a step back in future and support your club and its manager rather than follow the crowd in parrotting the media’s often poorly thought out memes.
Kudos to you for at least fessing up, something that most other wrongaholics would never do.
@finsbury
My view, for quite some time now, is that some of the media propaganda and some of the AAA comments are part of an attempt at a hostile takeover – or at least are trying to create conditions favorable for such a takeover. This is why I categorize the AAA into two groups, the sinister AAA who initiate comments designed to damage the club; the brain dead AAA who merely repeat any anti Arsenal propaganda, but while neurologically undirected their multi repeats add to the overall damaging and corrosive effect.
Bootoomee
Yeah I know. I just thought, “they’ve spent all this money and we haven’t started yet”. Just shows how much I knew doesn’t it. I’m not ashamed to admit it anyway. I’ll always be behind Arsene whatever else goes on.
btj
I too have come to the same conclusion, possibly inevitable given the evidence.
According to Clive Allen – who should know because he works (worked?) for Tottenham – Daniel Levy ‘is not a football man’.
Enough said.
bjt and Finsbury,
I must say that one of the ‘spokepersons’ of one of those moaning organisations once admitted on twitter that he knew the businesspartner of Usmanov (his name escapes me for the moment) ‘a bit’.
I know some of the AKB have asked him to explain this a bit better but as far as I could see he refused to do so. And he refuses to answer that question. Or I have missed the answer as I don’t sleep at twitter. 🙂
So you might be right about some part of the AAA…
Apart from publishing Untold and the history blog I write for a living. And writers, like bricklayers and aeroplane designers, are prone to looking at their work occasionally and thinking, “hmm that’s not too bad”
As a result of Bootoomee’s note above I have gone back and re-read that description of Bergkamp’s pass to Vieira, and actually I must admit, on looking again, I think, “hmmm, that’s quite good”
Of course the next thing I write will be a load of old tosh, but even so. Not bad that one.
The tone of this article and also Tony’s family recollections in the history site link above ,inspired me to post this e-mail I received today . I’m sure it will also move you too !
As only the Irish Can Tell A Story!
Paddy had long heard the stories of an amazing family tradition.
It seems that his father, grandfather and great-grandfather had all been able to walk on water on their 18th birthday.
On that special day, they’d each walked across the lake to the pub on the far side for their first legal drink.
So when Paddy’s 18th birthday came around, he and his pal Mick took a boat out to the middle of the lake, Paddy, stepped out of the boat … and nearly drowned!
Mick just barely managed to pull him to safety. Furious and confused, Paddy went to see his grandmother ..
Grandma he asked, “Tis me 18th birthday, so why can’t I walk across the lake like me father, his father and his father before him?”
Granny looked deeply into Paddy’s, troubled eyes and said, “Because ye father, ye grandfather and ye great-grandfather were all born in December when the lake is frozen,and ye were born in August, ya fekin idiot!”
Happy Hour Talk
When you are in love,
Wonders happen.
But once you get married,
You Wonder, what happened.
Philosophy of marriage :
At the beginning,
every wife treats her husband as GOD..
Later, somehow don’t know why..
alphabets get reversed..
Secret formula for married couples…
“Love One Another”
And if it doesn’t work,
bring the last word in the middle.!!!!
A woman finds Aladdin’s magic lamp.
She starts rubbing it and a , Genie comes out as usual.
The woman looks at the Genie and asks him to grant her wishes:
– I want my husband to have eyes only for me
– I want to be the only one in his life
– I want him to sleep always by my side
– I want that when he gets up in the morning I’m the first thing
he grabs and takes me everywhere he goes.”
The Genie turned THE LADY into a SAMSUNG GALAXY S4
A drunk man arrives late at home.
He knows his wife won’t open the door,
so he decides to pretend
he bought her flowers & knocks at the door. .
Wife: ” Who is it ?”
Drunk: ” I bring flowers for the pretty lady. ”
Wife opens the door & says:
“Where are the flowers ? ”
Drunk: ” Where is the pretty lady ? “
The wrong number ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxcAoIBDALg&feature=youtu.be
Tony and Walter etc.
As a newbie on this site, can I congratulate you on a fantastic blog. Great content and it is refreshing to see excellent levels of respect to each other. (And a level of literacy that compares starkly with other blogs I have viewed). You treat the manager with the respect he deserves (and has earned)and to be honest you have restored my diminishing faith that Arsenal fans are a class above.
The moaning
Not sure if it is my age, 51, but I don’t understand this constant moaning and abuse aimed at the club, the players, the manager and fellow fans. This is a club like no other, top top class and one which the media love to hate. Like you chaps, I love Arsenal, its like family. I support win, lose or draw. Sure I get upset, criticise signings, substitutions etc but that’s just being a fan, I would never abuse any of the boys wearing our shirt or the manager. I honestly do not understand it at all, what kind of fans are they? They abuse our players, Giroud gets daily abuse, Diaby gets it for being injured, the Manager gets called disgraceful names and rounds on fellow fans who disagree with the AKB weapon. I do not get it, somebody needs to explain this to me. And what is PW’s agenda? How can he slag off the club and everything about it daily, create an AKB insult and allow some pretty disgusting name calling of the Manager and then get invited to watch training yesterday?!!!! What is that all about? Shocking.
Anyway, I am waiting on confirmation of a ticket for Saturday as I may have been lucky, fingers crossed. Very confident we will not only win Saturday but put in a very strong performance.I think we will win by at least two clear goals.
Levy, as ex very short spell Gooner Clive Allen once said….is a businessman, not a football man….though recent business doesnt look so good either.
If being objective, you could say They punch around their weight, but Wengers shadow maybe makes things look worse for them, especially in a Tott treble season! This seasons exploits by the likes of Martinez cannot help either.
But in fairness to most Spurs fans I know, they have more respect for Wenger than some of our own….if you catch them on a non tribal sensible day
Lost in translation …..
Two buddies are fishing, but they haven’t caught anything all day. Then, another fisherman walks by with a huge load of fish.
They ask him “excuse me, but where did you get all those fish?”
The other fisherman replies,” If you just go down the stream until the water isn’t salty, there are a ton of hungry fish.”
They thank him and go on their way. 15 minutes later, one fisherman says to the other “fill the bucket up with water and see if the water is salty.”
He dips the bucket in the stream and drinks some. “Nope. Still salty.” 30 minutes later, he asks him to check again.
“Nope, still salty.” One our later they check again. “Nope. Still salty.”
“This isn’t good,” the fisherman finally says. “We have been walking for almost two hours and the water is still salty!”
“I know,” says the other. “And the bucket is almost empty!”
On gravitational anomalies.
I started reading a new (to me) technical article by a physicist on solidification today. In an effort to minimize convection at the solid/liquid interface on cooling a melt (a kind of solidification), some experiments were done in the microgravity of space. It turns out that the experiments were sensitive enough, that the change in the gravity field caused by astronauts moving around the spacecraft had to be accounted for (and minimized). Called g-jitter.
Mandy, I echo your comments. Whilst Spurs fans have long over exagertaed their standing as a big club, they recognise what we have achieved.
While Spurs go through managers at a rate of knots Arsenal have had stability. Whilst the media and some of our fans are unable to recognise a true achievement from a plastic one, Spurs fans acknowledge what we have built. They may not like us or our manager but there is no question that they respect both. We may have had no trophies for 9 years but in that time we have moved into a 60,000 state of the art stadium, renegotiated lucrative sponsorship arrangements and obtained Champions league football every season. What have Spurs achieved in that period, yet we get all the abuse and ridicule!
They will acknowledge that this was achieved through stability and with Manager that remained loyal and to who the club remained likewise. When I speak with friends who support rival teams, not one single one dismisses what we have built and the qualities of Arsene Wenger. They may not like him, they may not like us but they have an ability to put their prejudiced views to one side.I
It seems rather strange but those who are the most abusive and keen to pour scorn on our achievements are claiming to be Arsenal fans! They congregate on that blog and spend every day discrediting the club and picking holes in the players, the scouts, the physios, the board and primarily but not exclusively, the greatest manager we have ever had. And the names Arsene Wenger gets called are disgusting and reflect badly on the egotist that runs that blog. He claims he is a big fan, gloats about his invites to training sessions and yet he never has anything but bad words to say about the club.
In a fight between Good and Bad, Arsenal Football Club are the White Knights. Unfortunately, the media and the moaners prefer to worship our rivals and hold Chelsea and Man City aloft, as some kind of example we should follow. I find it all very bizarre because these clowns do not know how lucky they are to be Gooners.
Jax, my respect for you shoots up for the humility showed in apologising for previous “not-too-good” words. You are a true gooner pal.
Proudkev, you are welcome to the BEST blog on things related to Arsenal. I bet you won’t miss a day checking on here. As your friendly and positive comments are welcomed, always look out for Bricksfield’s jokes, your testimonies will not remain the same.
Tottenham – forever in our shadows.
Andrew and I found out two weeks ago that there are still Arsenal supporters who don’t know Untold. Of course some will stay away from the internet as much as possible. Maybe after visiting some blogs who would blame them 😉
@ Proudkev 4:59
Welcome,
A very nice post. Agree with every word. 🙂
You will find that as well as Tony and Walter there are some magnificent posters here.
On a bad day come here and share your love of Arsenal. Despite the neg heads that insist on imposing there warped views on us this is still an oasis of reason, perspective and positivity.
Enjoy.
Nice one proud kev, have always enjoyed your posts on positively arsenal as well as untold
Good to see an additional positive viewpoint.
I would love it if my club had a manager with the principles and staying power that Wenger has.
I would love it if my club had qualified for the CL at all.
I would love it if the people running my club had any idea what they were doing.
I would love it if my club had a state of the art stadium
I would love it if my club could get through a season on one manager.
My club? Spurs
Jambug, Walter, bjt and Mandy – thanks for the comments.
Walter, I found Untold because it was being criticised on another blog, no better referral than that! I initially went onto positively arsenal which I like too but it has less traffic but good commentators.
I like reading positive stuff about the club generations of my family have supported. The content is refreshing and the celebrations of our past successes make great reading. I get into trouble fir saying it but I believe there is a difference between a supporter and a fan. Untold appears to be a blog for Supporters of this great club.
soglorious
Thanks for the support, which is very much appreciated as there are one or two (or three) on here who don’t care that much for my occasional left field views.
Not quite right Jax, it always good to see someone come back from the dark side of the force – but to the light side can you stay? Lets hope so!
See what I mean?
I am trying to calculate the resale value of the 7 new spuds.
Well, easy come easy go. Bale’s astronomic valuation rise is negated by the astronomic devaluation of the lot.
Whats up, guys?! I got laid last night. The best one ever. All I did was I said im a die-hard Arsenal fan. Chicks dig gunners! Im going for a prowl tonight again.
@ proudkev – a very welcome to you from a fellow AKB – yes , one of those allegedly ,deluded and insane Arsenal/Arsene supporter who patiently awaits for future great tidings as is our due .
I may have posted this before ,but still a good read and to reflect upon.
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=forums&srcid=MDIwMTQwODA1MzcwMzU2MDE1ODIBMTU3MDUzOTc2MDM5MjU0MjQ5NDMBX1VZeXRQbzNoc2dKATQBAXYy
Jax
Don’t get mixed up with ‘appreciated’ and ‘agreed with’.
Personally I think you stand out as a definite ‘supporter’ but with some serious reservations regarding the way our Club is run. Which is fine, but I often disagree with you and say so. I also agree with you on certain things, and say so.
I think sometimes you contradict yourself, which can make debating with you difficult. For me anyway. You may think the same of me.
And for some reason you often align yourself with the likes of Rupert Cook, when in reality you have very little in common with him, as he is not a ‘supporter’ in any way shape or form.
I have said all this because I have very little doubt that I am be in the group you suggest don’t ‘appreciate’ you, which is wrong.
As for often not agreeing with you on the other hand……. 🙂
Proudkev,
you said: “I believe there is a difference between a supporter and a fan. Untold appears to be a blog for Supporters of this great club.”
You got the nail right on the head I think with that. Tony and I see ourselves as supporters of the club. So we will support even when things went horribly wrong. Be it for a player, manager, the club in general when things go against them we will support them.
And yes over here most of our regular writers and people who comment share this view. Support our club and defend it against any attack. That is what we stand for. And try to do.
jambug
I didn’t mean that I’m not “appreciated” on here or that I even expect to be, but that I myself appreciated soglorious’ support of my “owning up”, and of course people regularly disagree with me, which is fine as that’s what debating’s all about and Untold encourages this.
Actually I’ve know Rupert for some 20 years or so (hence my support for him), and he is a genuine Arsenal supporter in as much as he gets to games when he can and pays money “through the turnstile,” but we don’t share the same views on all things Arsenal.
@jambug, As Jax has known me for twenty years and you know fuck all about me I think he has a better idea of whether I’m a supporter or not.
Yes me and Jax have different opinions about the club but we debate these things and don’t call each other infantile names. It’s what grown ups do.
Rupert
You’re not supposed to be here today, your lap top’s broken
Is it an ALL (anti Laptop Laptop)?
Bjt
Not yet another acronym. Very likely is ALL though.
Rupert Cook.
Calm Down.
No I don’t know you. Wouldn’t want to. I do hope that’s mutual.
But what I do know is what you say on here.
As that’s all I can go on, that is all I’m commenting on, and going by that, my opinion is you don’t sound like a supporter to me.
What name did I call you by the way?
I’d like to know because as it seems to of upset you so much I might want to use it again.
Jax @ 11:09 AM
“I didn’t mean that I’m not “appreciated” on here”
See what I mean about contradicting yourself.
If you didn’t mean it, why did you say?
We all do it once in a while you do it all the time.
jambug
I didn’t say it though did I? Read my post at 12.05 am where I actually said “thanks for the support, which is very much appreciated”. How on earth can you make that into “I’m not appreciated”, your words not mine and only repeated by me when I tried to explain it to you at 11.09am. How do you make a contradiction out of that?. Are you sure you know what a contradiction actually is?
jambug
I’m going to have to add disclaimers to all my future posts to the effect that I refuse to accept any misinterpretation by jambug
http://jhscomics.com/bc/2014/01/29/wednesday-january-29-2014/