Watching the Cup with one eye closed

By Tony Attwood

Getting older is a bit of a pain, especially when bits of you start going wrong.  With me of late it is the eyes – but fortunately all can be fixed with cataract surgery. Thank goodness I live in the 21st century. Except, there is a period after the operation is done, but you can’t get new glasses to get your newly refreshed eye to make sense of the world.  (No eye tests until six weeks after the surgery is the rule in the UK).

That’s where I am at the moment – the first cataract operation was last Friday, the next this Friday.  The first was a success, but now my glasses are useless and I’m left peering at things with one eye shut trying to work out if it is best to sit six inches from the TV with glasses on or go outside and watch it from a distance with glasses off.

It also makes looking at a computer screen a real pain and a half, and not to be done for more than a few minutes at a time – hence my wild load of YES’s yesterday written in haste after 95 minutes of peering at the game with my glasses off and on alternatively relying on a commentary that in the first half was utterly biased.  Indeed had I not been able to make some sense of the picture I might have believed it was Man U v Man U reserves with their reserves not doing very well.

Still, I did make out most of it, and I am fortunate in being able to touch type and so can type up thoughts without too much screen looking.

What  really struck me yesterday from what I could see, and from the commentary that the BBC gave me is how resolute the media can be in cutting and pasting the world to suit its own agenda.  So the fact that as a result of this victory Arsenal will now have been in more FA Cup semi-finals than any other club, and Mr Wenger will be  in more semi-finals than any other manager in English football history, sort of passes everyone by.

So I wrote that history up on the Arsenal History site this morning (again without really seeing much of the screen – so forgive the typos).  I also sent a note to Arsenal FC in case they missed these important achievements too.

There was an awful lot of Ozil put downs early on too – and given the state of my eyes I’m not the best person to comment on this but he seemed to me to be running, putting through passes, being a decoy, in fact doing everything that you want a creative midfielder to do.

I think I’m right in saying that Coquelin was one of the men of the match – which once again shows the value of not seeing everything from the perspective of the last game only.   There were so many “supporters”  of Arsenal who suggested that no only was Coquelin was no good, but also that by using him, Mr Wenger was also no good.

But in fact it was those “supporters” who were crap at judging football, all the time.

But of course the papers twist and turn in the wind…

Van Gaal’s United take direct route on road to nowhere says the Guardian today.  (It’s in big letters so I can see that bit).

Their top two players were Coquelin and Monreal – both dismissed by those who know everything because they saw the highlights of a match once.

The Independent went with “This was a decisive victory for Arsenal and their manager Arsene Wenger” and the Telegraph, totally bemused by the team they so regularly deride actually beating one of their sides, go with “FA Cup draw: Arsenal and Liverpool kept apart”

All being well the eyes will be sorted perfectly for the semi and Blacksheep and I will, I trust, be there to do our bit for the team.

Yesterday I did an eye test to see if I could drive.  In the UK that means being able to read a number plate on a car at 22 yards.  It was a forlorn hope but I had nothing else to do so I did it.  I think it was clear that I was going to fail when I said to my friend, “Where’s the car?”

Hey ho.  It will all be fine in the end.

Arsenal and Wenger secure the all-time semi-finals records

 

24 Replies to “Watching the Cup with one eye closed”

  1. Tony

    Here’s to a speedy recovery which will hopefully enable you to see us progress to another final with perfect clarity.

  2. Good luck with your recovery Tony! And your eyes did not deceive you, Ozil played great last night doing almost everything that was expected of him.

  3. If De Gea hadn’t stopped the goal bound shot from Alexis in the last minutes Özil would have had another assist and Alexis another goal.
    The best man for United (and in the first match) was De Gea. He really has come good after his early errors for United. Quickly may he leave for a better and warmer country and league 😉

  4. Are media already talking about ARSENAL Liverpool final!!!!…..

    Have you noticed how they have bigged up the League Cup!!… If Chelsea win the league….it’ll be all talks if the double..

  5. All the best Tony.
    Manu were terrible, long balls to elbow man. Reminded me of a championship team.

  6. Walter,
    Re De Gea – I wouldn’t mind him coming South and joining us! Seriously he is the one player on their team who I would sign in an instant if available.
    United got seven yellow cards yesterday, counting both of the Di Maria ones (and could easily have had more), we got two both of which were deserved. I think after our second goal the referee just gave up on them and decided to be honest. I hope you do a review of this game at some point as I would love to see a breakdown of decisions correct and incorrect against time.

  7. Tony,
    Glad the op went well. Here’s to a successful result on the other eye as well!

  8. Tony,
    Had both my eyes done about 5 years ago.
    The improvement was marvellous.
    Wearing the protective eye thingy was also great. Pretty Girls helped me to cross the road even if I didn’t want to go.
    I recommend Specsavers as I obtained new reading and distance specs, with free prescription distance sun glasses.
    As to lastgnight’s game, any decent side can now go to OT with confidence (provided they can arrange for honest Mr Oliver to referee the game).

  9. United ‘s manager appointed Frans Hoek to the goalkeeping coach , he seems to have had a positive effect on De Gea. I believe that we have Gerry Peyton , as our keepers seem to get so far and then stop perhaps we need to look at helping them with their concentration because that’s where they seem to slip up with their decision making.

  10. Tony – Glad to know the first op went well! the second will as well. I had both of my eyes done a few years back and haven’t had a problem since. Wishing you the same and warm regards. COYG!

  11. Tony – very best wishes for a speedy recovery.

    I am slightly surprised the plan is to have such a short time between surgeries, my impression was that the medics liked two months or so between surgeries to prevent an infection from infecting both eyes. Anyway hope all goes well.

    The vision in the first eye should improve over the next week or so, even without glasses.

    I’m sure last night’s win was a great pick up! Hope you have the match recorded to re-watch when the new post op glasses are available!!

  12. Tony
    My Mom (83) had the surgery a year or two ago. Now she doesn’t need glasses to drive or play golf, but she still does to read. At first, the golfing was hard, but it has gotten better.

  13. Gord

    If your Moms anything like me she may be better off without 20/20 vision as all I seem to see is my Golf ball making it’s serene way out of bounds !

  14. Thanks Jambug.

    I don’t golf. Ever since I started weight lifting, I have no swing. And the ball could go anywhere (I hook and slice). And the grounds keepers hate slide tackles on the greens.

    But Mom really enjoys it. She doesn’t take a power cart, and most days (in the summer) she does 18 holes, sometimes 27. Mom does visit the out of bounds areas, and finds so many balls that are left behind. She has probably given away two or three hundred pounds (weight, not money) of golf balls.

  15. For the eagle eyed the acquisition of errant golf balls can certainly be a bonus for the ‘out of bounds’ Golfer !!

  16. Mr Attwood,

    get well soon. It’s good to see that you have a spirit to go through the whole thing.

    Speaking of car plates… I realized I would need glasses at the age of 15 when I couldn’t read the number on the plate of the parked car from cca four-inch-distance with my left eye. The plate was totally scrambled.

    Perhaps the bad thing is, I rarely take off my glasses. Sometimes I even fall asleep with them. When my significant other asked me one morning why I had slept with my glasses on, I replied: “Of course I slept with my glasses. I wouldn’t see sleeping if I hadn’t!”

  17. Wishing you a speedy recovery Tony.
    The broken but unspoken records are now on the Arsenal website attributed to your name.
    COYG

  18. Tony,

    May the second op go as well as the first, and you get your vision back in no time. Enough to see the ref bias in action again in the next match;)

    From where I was (in front of the TV who gets only selectively filtered out content) it seemed to me that dive Maria got a straight red after pulling the ref’s shirt. Oliver was visibly pissed off by that gesture, so leaving the player on the pitch would have been too much, even by the 99% men’s standards.

    In a not so stark contrast by now, a ref had showed 3 yellow cards for diving in the MLS match between Orlando City FC and NY City FC only 2 days before. I don’t believe in coincidences, but I can’t possibly believe Peter Walton could have given Riley a hint, only for the PGMOB head to take it. Here’s to coincidences:)

  19. Tony I will/may be joining you & the others soon. My cataract is small & growing. I might find a way of getting rid with Indian diet! (Ctrl & +) are useful in most cases on computers to enlarge the characters on screen.

    The issues of the aging process (growing old) are gradually coming home to roost. Thank God for Arsenal keeping me young & giving me thrills through the passage of time. This year I get the seniors discount only if they don’t move my seat.

    My first ‘seniors tickets’ Brazil v Chile at the Wenger Stadium.

  20. Dear Tony , your eyesight may be poor but your ‘vision’ seems 20/20 !
    You could always get someone to do the voice overs on ‘touch demand’ for the articles on UA ( as well as the posters’ comments !), so that ‘they’ can understand it better.
    You know just the same as how the so called ‘expert’ commentators explain ‘their’ version of the unfolding drama on the field , which seems totally not at all in sync as what ‘we’ are watching !
    Could I also suggest some canned laughter for my jokes , so that people know when I’m being funny and follow suit ?
    Or groans , or booing, or hissing ( hold the rotten fruits , please !) – I don’t care!
    Get well soon !

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