By Tony Attwood (fresh back from the wilds of Norfolk where there is no mobile connection, but Jools Holland played a rather fine outdoor concert).
Now, we have learned a lot this week. We learned for example that after three games, Arsenal were out of the race for the title, because only 10% of the teams that win the Premier League do so after 1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat in the first three.
The league table that I find on making my way back to civilisation today shows that there are only four teams that have thus failed failed to succumb to what must be every club’s dreaded position of being around the status of Arsenal, or indeed below it.
So clearly if Arsenal can’t win the league, then nor can any club that slips below them. So now we are down to Man C., Crystal Palace, Leicester, Man U. Another week and I suspect we will know exactly who has won the title, and then, I guess we might as well pack up the 2015/16 season, and play friendlies.
Or maybe start the 2016/17 season early, to avoid the international commitments of next summer.
| POS | CLUB | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Manchester City | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 10 | 12 |
| 2 | Crystal Palace | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 9 |
| 3 | Leicester City | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 8 |
| 4 | Manchester United | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 7 |
| 5 | Arsenal | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7 |
| 6 | Liverpool | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 7 |
| 7 | West Ham United | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 3 | 6 |
| 8 | Swansea City | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 5 |
| 9 | Everton | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| 10 | Norwich City | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 4 |
| 11 | Bournemouth | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 4 |
| 12 | Aston Villa | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 4 |
| 13 | Chelsea | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | 9 | -3 | 4 |
| 14 | West Bromwich Albion | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | -3 | 4 |
| 15 | Tottenham Hotspur | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | -1 | 3 |
I suppose it says a lot about just how bad the Premier League is now that Arsenal are fifth. Chelsea must be wondering what to do actually being below the most notoriously awful side in the history of the Premier League, Arsenal. As for Tottenham, who have the benefit of the most clever negotiator of player contracts in the history of player contracts, they have not actually won a game. I can’t quite understand why, because they have a sensational wonder striker and if only we had a player like him we would be laughing.
Oh sorry, I am laughing. Must try and stop that. Obviously the North Sea air.
Of course you know, if you read Untold even occasionally, I’m larking about. You can’t judge the league after four games, and the statistics of what can and can’t happen are notoriously fickle.
But hell, who care about statistics? After all, earlier this week we ran the table showing all the clubs who had sacked their managers in the Premier League in the last 15 years, and pointed out that it was extremely rare to find that such a sacking led to improvement. Not impossible, but very rare.
And did the anti-Wengerian faction actually debate that point? Not really. They talked of something else. It was ever thus. Sometimes I don’t know why I bother.
But bother I do and thankfully there are only a few days of transfer window shopping left, and so I have commissioned a new article from Sir Hardly Anyone on this transfer window, looking back at some of the highlights of all these mystical players who were not actually about to sign, but had already signed. Just think of all the money Arsenal have wasted by signing all these people (some of them signed 10 or more times in the space of a month), and then never playing them, and then shipping them back to the clubs they came from. If we hadn’t done that, well, we’d have all that money in the bank still, ready to buy someone – if he becomes available.
I watched the first half of the Newcastle game before trotting off to the wilderness of no-phone-signal land (and as I discovered later, not even a decent Radio 5 signal on medium wave) and what struck me was that there were quite a few Newcastle fans who actually believed that the ref was right in not awarding us a penalty, and was wrong in sending off and booking player after player from Newcastle.
I know we are all positive about our own team and howl at the opposition, but even so, that was taking it a bit far, and is rather worrying in terms of any sort of understanding that those supporters have of the game. Newcastle booing Coquelin is like Stoke booing Ramsey. It puts the club beyond the pale of civilisation.
However that is not my concern. My concern is that after just four games we have had a goal that was perfectly good disallowed, and an obvious penalty disallowed. As the man on Radio 5 said (when I could get a signal) “I cannot believe how the referee did not see that”.
On this basis Arsenal will miss out on 19 goals this season.
Liverpool on the other hand obviously didn’t get their phantom goal yesterday – which must be very worrying. After getting the insanely awarded goal against Bournemouth and managing to have a ref who turned down the legitimate Arsenal goal against them, they must have thought, as I did, that they were set fair for the season.
Anyway, I shall gather my thoughts and consider matters further, later today I hope. Meanwhile I leave you with a few headlines quoted in full (just in case you thought I was making them up).
- José Mourinho rounds on players for limp display against Crystal Palace – the Guardian
- Mourinho hits out at Chelsea players – Telegraph
- ANALYSIS: MOURINHO MAKES CRAZY CHANGE TO SHAKE UP DEFENCE – Independent (who obviously think that if they don’t write things in block caps we’ll miss it)
- Spurs stay winless after drab goalless draw – The Guardian
- Spurs make worst start to Premier League in seven years as Kane fires blank – Independent
- Kane in desperate need of help – Telegraph
And the shock horror transfer news…..
- ‘Mahrez not Benzema is Wenger’s top target‘ – Telegraph (oh my goodness – could it be that all this time that the guys in the pubs (ie journalists) have been led up the garden path????)
- ‘First Stones, now Chelsea miss out on Abdennour’ – Telegraph. And I thought it was Arsenal who were so inept at transfers while Chelsea were the master race. Sorry masters of the race. My slip.
- Chelsea transfer gossip: Jose Mourinho faces race against clock to bring in defensive reinforcements after latest target joins Vale. Actually no sorry, not Port Vale. Vale-ncia. My mistake.
Two anniversaries from the olden days
30 August 1913: the first ever match played at the Gillespie Road ground, later renamed Highbury. It was the third training match of the pre-season, with the previous two being played at Fulham and Millwall as the pitch was not ready. This game was played behind closed doors, and was probably between the first team and the reserves although no exact details are available.
30 August 1919: Arsenal started the longest run in the top division in the history of English football by coincidence playing the same team that they played in their first league game. The match was lost 0-1 to Newcastle. It was also the first match as manager for Leslie Knighton plus the first appearance of Alfred Baker, Henry White and Ernie Williamson.
Untold Campaigns
- Latest news on the Untold Banner (as of 25 August)
- A Memorial to the founders of Arsenal’s Highbury dynasty.
- The petition to raise a Parliamentary Debate about State Aid for the new WHU stadium is running. If you feel that there should be an investigation and you are resident in the UK, please do sign the petition.
Untold 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
Nice point ,this, to note something about analysis and predictions in football : the experts tend to show massive overconfidence in the future being a continuation of the past.
So Utd win three years ago, and were probably talked up as being sure to go close again next time..
City win two years ago, and we’re told they will likely dominate for a few years.
Chelsea win last year, and are made overwhelming favourites for this year.
Arsenal don’t win for years, and despite the squad strength, for clear and obvious reasons, changing a great deal, we are told we have no chance, even after the trophies have returned.
The same thing sees players who have won titles be regarded as title-winning types, while those who haven’t are suspected of being the types you can’t win titles with. Our team as a whole labelled as mentally weak for a decade, yet when many of those key players have gone elsewhere, and won things…little or no suggestion that they are mentally weak.
Chelsea with the worst defensive record in the league, by 3 clear goals, after four games!- the exact opposite was predicted. Yet it won’t alter any of the expert’s sense of certainty and confidence in their own predictive and analytical abilities.
The best laugh of all is that amidst the clamour for transfers the simple reality is lost of how often transfers do not work out.
It amused me this week to remember that the most sensational day/hour in the new transfer era enabled and pushed by Sky resulted in two calamitously bad signings- Torres and Carroll.
A perfect reminder that the excitement of big money transfers has at best an uneven and uncertain relationship with the actual end results.
The only time you ‘know’ that isn’t the case and know your club has bought a guaranteed hit tends to be when you’re buying the absolute best, i.e the most expensive. Well, we don’t need to go over again how hard it is for anyone, let alone the 6th or 8th richest or whatever we are, to secure those deals, and besides, Torres and Kaka demonstrate even those transfers sometimes aren’t guaranteed successes.
So think about Torres and Carroll anyone who thinks that if there’s no way we can get our top 3-5 targets, we should blithely pay a lot of money for our 6th or 7th target. Big excitement for a few hours, days or maybe weeks, years of regret and huge expense as money we can’t afford to waste goes down the drain.
But you, as non-managers with no accountability, wouldn’t really have to worry about that. You could just stick the boot in to the fools who made such a bad signing.
Oh I do love this site, it’s like a fundamentalist cult, with hyper sensitive over zealous posters reacting hysterically to anything deemed blasphemous or perish the thought, critical…
We desperately need additions, additions Wenger himself stated we need. Given how crap we’ve played with a toothless attacking, I can’t see Arsenal mounting a serious title challenge, but I’d love someone explain to me why I’m wrong and give me some confidence for this season.
Rich the hacks change their tune yet remain oh so hideously smug despite constantly being wrong.
The chavs we’re going to walk the league, now they are in crisis. While Arsenal have veered from no hopers to title favourites and back to total outsiders again.
Now following the loss against Palace, their squad is no where near strong enough. The same squad the hacks said was perfect!
Dex
Why not try address points people make for a change?
Tell me I’m wrong that it’s incredibly hard to buy the best players. Tell me I’m wrong that by the time you get lower down to your list of targets the outcomes are much more uncertain and you are much more likely to be left with an expensive mistake on your hands.
Liverpool and Spurs have spent the last few seasons liberally indulging in the exact market you appear certain we should be busy in. What’s the success rate been like for them?
You want someone to explain for you things you already agree with, why would people who disagree with you do that?
If my reasoning is faulty anywhere I’m, overall, glad, even though it’s unpleasant initially, when someone points that out to me.
It’s sort of the aim of life to try figure out where you might be going wrong, but it doesn’t feel like you’ve taken on any of the points i’ve made…instead it seems you’ve just reacted very sensitively, a little overzealously, maybe even a bit hysterically.
Tony, I hope Jools played the real jazz of the late 20’s and particularly that of the 30’s and not the modern rubbish. 😉
Oops, i’ve taken so long to type that you’ve written another one ,which confusingly seems different in tone to the first.
Anyway, trust me, I’d love us to make a good signing now, as i feel it can push us from in with a decent shout to a very strong chance. My big point is that those good signings are extremely hard to make for us.
We can’t, for the players who offer a great chance of improving us, make people offers they can’t refuse in the way City and co can.
So it’s fingers crossed for me. And if it doesn’t happen I’ll try to remind myself that we no doubt made a huge effort to make something happen. I don’t think I’ll be doing that just to hold onto my positive image of the manager; I do it because I really think it’s the truth.
@Rich
August 30, 2015 at 1:18 pm
Your patience demonstrates to me that you must be very good with small children 🙂 🙂
Apologies for the OT but, if Wikipedia is to be believed, Petr Cech equalled the record for Premiership clean sheets yesterday:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Premier_League_goalkeepers_with_100_or_more_clean_sheets
Quality post!
Arsenal need a DM & a ST. Wenger knows this the fans know this. Chambers will come good given cup games and outings against lesser teams.
Our problem lies in 2 areas.
1) Giroud and Walcott are not world class strikers. Each have good points but neither of them are the finished article for this league. Not consistent or ruthless enough in front of goal. Wasted chances when 1 or 2 is all you may get against a more organised defence.
2) The Ramsey, Ozil and when he’s fit Wiltshire debate. Ramsey plays where Ozil plays and where Wilts wants to run into. He is not a wide right or winger.That job should go to Ox or Walcott. With Sanchez or Welbeck on the left Arsene has to rotate these players rather than try and accommodate them all.
I personally would like to see an old fashioned 4-4-1-1 formation with Ozil in the Berg role a powerful, intelligent mobile striker and Ox and Sanchez on the wings.
Curious to hear thoughts on that?
Actually, Aymen Abdennour was signed by Port vale and loaned to Valencia.
Wenger should let player play with no fear,op they can perform
apo Armani – hear hear. Rich is truly good with infantiles.
Wenger had Campbell on the bench yesterday. So there are some strikers available. The own goals are deflected shots at goal & those that say the shot was not on target should observe the spin that could deviate the path of the ball.
There were a few nasty stud challenges that someone should put on McClaren(the smiling loser) so that he understands pain. There were a lot of attempts to damage Coquelin in the matches so far. It looks like PGMO have their job cut out.
Wenger has some targets within the window but we will find out if & when the deals are done. He might even employ Dex as psychologist. 😉
Rich,
TBH I wasn’t replying to you in my first post. Hence the fact your points haven’t been addressed.
Of course signings are not always simple affairs. However, to suggest that is reason enough for not making them is a complete cop out.
I will use Schneiderlin as an example. He wanted out of Southampton, the club set a price and Arsenal need a DM (Wengers own view). Yet we didn’t sign him. Why? Because the manager felt he was overpriced. And yet he spent £42 million on Ozil.
As for strikers, I was quite happy to see Theo given a chance upfront, but it looks like the boss feels he is better suited on the flanks.
Apo Armani
Oh you have the same smugness as a true born again zealot. Fuck knows why, you haven’t demonstrated anything other than sheep like tendencies on here.
And there’s another one of the herd… Right on cue.
@Menace
August 30, 2015 at 1:59 pm
“Wenger has some targets within the window but we will find out if & when the deals are done. He might even employ Dex as psychologist. 😉 ”
hahahahahahahahaha
Dex
August 30, 2015 at 2:08 pm
Carry on mate!!!
Call your father a sheep!
ohhh and Dex…we are still trying to understand what it is your trying to demonstrate here – other then your monotonous negativity of our manager!
Surely patience is the only virtue sheep like Apo and Menace have.
Waiting desperately for a title challenge so they post pompous pointless posts about how they are proper fans because they don’t dare to critique the club, players, manager or performances… Lets blame other Arsenal fans, the hacks, pundits and refs instead…
Everything is perfect… ommmmm….
And just to really fuck with your feeble minds, I love Wenger, he is a genius and I don’t think any other manager could or would have stayed at the club with the economic restraints it had self imposed on it . He deserves to enjoy and spend the new found riches.
Apo
Every post proves me right.
Your IQ Dex is way too low to fuck with our minds or anything else for that matter…all you can do is basically keep upsetting/f’ing your self.
Keep it up!
and now I can see why you never post anything other than lame attempts at put downs…
Dex,
You called this site a den on of fundamental cultists. If you are not a cultist yourself or looking for one to join then what the hell are you doing here?
Give it up dude. None of the people you are antagonising are going to change their minds because of your badgering. On Le Grove on the other hand, I think you’ll be given the red carpet treatment. Do the right thing unless causing disaffection is your main objective.
On a diversion. In no particular order. Hopefully error free.
Jenkinson was on holiday yesterday, following his red card the previous week.
Szczesny Roma is playing Juventus, I haven’t tracked down anything more. One medja person expects Szczesny to be in net.
Sanogo did not start for Ajax.
Gnabry had a relaxing day on the beach for WBrom.
Maitland-Niles played the first half for Ipswich. He was fouled once, and fouled other people twice, his second foul producing a yellow.
Hayden came off the bench at 83min to replace Akpom.
Akpom started for Hull. He had 2 shots, was fouled twice and fouled others twice. Like Maitland-Niles, his second foul produced a card.
Martinez was on the beach for Wolves.
Crowley played the second half for Barnsley.
Toral started and played 54min for Birmingham. He was fouled once, fouled someone else once and had 1 assist.
Silva played on Friday, with Bolton trying to do their best Newcastle impression (5 yellows and a second yellow to one player). He started, and played 79 minutes, eventually being replaced by a most youthful Heskey. He was one of the people on Bolton who received a yellow, but there is no foul listed. He was fouled once, which was a bookable offence, had 1 shot and provided 2 assists. He needed some time to be treated for an injury.
Zelalem played the entire game for Rangers, and was fouled 3 times. The BBC had this:
> All hell broke loose three minutes after the break, however, with Mark Millar booked for treading on the prone Gedion Zelalem, before Lyle was dismissed on the advice of fourth official Crawford Allan.
—
Someone mentioned League Cup. Arsenal travel to white spud lane to play the spuds. Select other matchups in the 3rd round:
Middlesbrough home to Wolves (Martinez)
Norwich home to WBrom (Gnabry)
Hull home to Swansea (Hayden, Akpom)
Leicester home to WHam (Jenkinson)
Villa home to Birmingham (Toral)
ManU home to Ipswich (Maitland-Niles)
—
Congratulations to TV5 on his goal.
@Tony,
Excellent write up about the media hysteria about the title race after only 4 games!
@Dex,
I agree with the comments made by Rich. At no point did Rich say that we should not make signings, he said they should be good signings that improve the team. Why risk the money on secondary or tertiary targets just for the sake of spending money.
You gave an example of Schneiderlin, but if you pay £24 mil for a player, that player and the team will expect that player to be regularly in the starting 11, otherwise the player will definitely be unhappy. Is Schneiderlin a £24 mil worth upgrade over Coquelin. He definitely is not! Even the Metro showed that through the first 3 games Coquelin has played better than Matic, Fernandinho, and Schneiderlin!
And why spend £42 mil on Özil? I don’t know why people bash the way he plays. I love watching Özil play! He has created the most chances in Europe not just the PL since his arrival (and I think even before that). That’s why you pay £42 mil! He’s the guy that takes away pressure from our defense, finds spaces no one else sees, and terrifies opponent defenses with his vision for the killer pass.
With 19 minutes left to play, Arsenal Ladies were leading Millwall 3-0.
COYLG!
Dex
Your views are in direct contradiction to the Mantra of this site:
SUPPORTING THE CLUB, THE PLAYERS AND THE MANAGER
and therefore in direct conflict with a vast majority of its patrons.
A simple question:
When there are plenty of other sites with views in complete accord with those of your own, why chose to post on this site?
I can only think you hold your views in such high esteem that you think you can ‘convert’ us all to your way of thinking.
Or
As Boo suggested, you are solely here to antagonise.
Which is it?
The Ladies finish the game 4-0.
—
Come on Swansea, beat ManU by at least 2 goals!
Watcing the Swan v Man U game & PGMO Atkinson is very selective with his eye sight & hearing. His bias so far has been for Utd. ‘though he just booked £24 million player Schneiderlin.
Thanks to a Platini bottle job, FFP is now in a coffin and being lowered into the ground. A solemn day, the death of something which could have had some major benefits for the game if done properly
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/33686731
MANure anyone?? 🙂 🙂
The big spenders!!!
Well done Fabianski & co – good to see the manures come to grief!
I seen the end of the ManUre game. I think Rooney should have been carded. As near as I could tell, it was a fair shoulder charge the defender used, which caused Rooney to fall down. The card would have been for Rooney’s demand that it was a penalty, as the charge did knock him off his feet.
Poor old Manure!! Spread all over the field…
@apo
you’ve read my mind, Hahaha, the big spenders. Long ball tactics.
Let me get this straight – ManUre have a world class striker , a monster DM , spent a lot of fucking money , yet be outclassed by cygnets ? Your move Neville , spend even more money ? Sounds about right!
Strange start to season for many teams, but to be expected really because of the vast improvement of many teams in the way they play, especially when they are not seen as threats.
Gord:
“a fair shoulder charge”; What is that? How does one decide what is fair and what is unfair? This is just one of the ambiguities we have in football. A shoulder charge is a foul or should be I think. Man i wish all these things would get sorted out.
nicky
Glad people know real jazz. Jazz is chaos, jazz should not be ordered into sheets of music, as it reflects the energies of the universe, which is chaos.
All this so called smooth and robotic jazz is horrible, what i call “pop” jazz. 🙂
apo Armani
MANure anyone?? 🙂 🙂
The big spenders!!!
Indeed. The last 5 years net spend (or loss if you prefer):
£281 Million
And what makes it worse is when they need a change they bring on Fellani and play like Wimbledon. Embarrassing.
But they’re not the only ‘Big spenders’ of course.
Chelsea 1 – 2 Palace £215 Million
Liverpool 0 – 3 West Ham £172 Million
Man City 2 – 0 Watford £267 Million
Okay City have started like a house on fire, but it should be noted that during the preceding 5 years they also had a net loss of £270 Million.
That’s an astonishing £540 Million over 10 seasons.
Whatever the rights or wrongs of what they are doing, or how they are doing it, the fact is, if you don’t win the League after spending that sort of money then there is something seriously wrong.
For the record, our net spend over the last 5 years is £97 Million.
Even if we spent another £50 million we wouldn’t even be getting close to that lot.
And some still come on here screaming ‘there’s no excuses now’ !
Well, if WE don’t have any excuses because of having a bit more money, what about that lot?
Over to you Mr Neville……?
…but when the energies of chaos are transmuted into order we have Verve,down home Mdn Jz on Prestige and the mighty Blue Note taking us to heaven. Milestones(from Milestones lp),ok thats on Columbia Miles Davis, Spiritual by John Coltrane( live at the Village Vanguard) Midnight Blue-Kenny Burrell and anything with the greatest bass player ever Paul Chambers on it, and thats a stack of recordings, plus Poll winners Jazz vol 1 Barney Kessel, Chet singing,all tracks on Porgy and Bess ( Miles and Gil),Grant Green, Green Street,Something Else by CannonBall Adderly list goes on and on.
Blue note artists, the coolest guys that ever walked in music.Everyone loves Reid Miles covers but Francis Wolff did all the snaps…
Mandy Dodd
Relating to that, this from Neville today on SKY.
“…..it’s being lost what I said the other Night”
Whatever that’s supposed to mean?
“……it’s that last little bit. Competing with City is what I mean”
Hmmmmm
And how do you propose we do that then Gary?
That enormous sum of Cities above is without the £58 Million acquisition of De Bruyne today, pushing there spending to:
This year alone £113 Million Net Loss
Last 5 years £320 Million Net Loss
Last 10 Years £592 Million Net Loss
Is that what you mean by ‘competing’ with City Gary?
Jambug
Well said
But must admit that City has won twice the league in the last 4 years.
Though money spent is out of proprtions.
And there CL record is even worst than us.
But winning PL twice has been wortthy of the money spent.
> Law 12 – Fouls and Misconduct
> The act of charging is a challenge for space using physical contact within playing distance of the ball without using arms or elbows.
> It is an offence to charge an opponent:
> – in a careless manner
> – in a reckless manner
> – with excessive force
To use any part of the body below the hip to make physical contact is typically considered a trip or kick. To use only the hip is usually also considered a trip. This law explicitly rules out the arms and elbows. To use the head would probably be considered reckless. What is left (and is possible), is deemed a fair charge. Shoulder to shoulder is left and possible. Many instances of chest or back to chest or back would fall under the reckless categorization, simply due to what happens to the head in such a collision.
Para – dude where did you get chaos in jazz? Jazz is always ordered either by beat or rhythm. The root melody is never out of reach. That’s why jazz usually ends with melody. Kenny Widmerpool is with it. Never leave the queen out Ella Fitz. That’s jazz
^
Same old same old old turd
The dark tetrad exposing itself in all it’s glory again.
It’s times like this a scroll wheel can be very useful.
Rosicky@Arsenal
Thanks.
But instead of “…..worthy of the money spent” can I suggest “…..an inevitable outcome of the money spent”.
Give that kind of money to Chelsea and they would win the PL. Oh, they did.
Give that kind of spending power to Man Utd and they would win the league. Oh, they did.
No Club, other than one spending best part of £50 Million (Net) per season for a period of 5 years or more, has won the PL for over 10 years.
Wenger IS a genius, but to do such a thing on what has been up until recently, a mere 10% of that spend, would be beyond Genius.
Yes, we do have more money, but it is still dwarfed by those 3, and it would still be a work of Genius to beat them to the title.
Yes sorry Menac! Ella, she would soothe a hurricane, Lady Day( Lover man is the version!!)Sarah,Nina(I loves you Porgy, what a version feel that pain…)Anne Richards,Peggy,Julie, and shit I even forgot Charlie and Diz( Jambo Caribe great album!).If Charlie Parker was a gunslinger there would have been a load of dead copycats.
Lee Morgan on the Sidewinder, still a great dance track, Stan Getz and Paul Desmond for a late night rendezvous, Wynton kelly, and Sonny Clark all great…
Jambug, Your comment @6:35 P.M. had me rolling on the floor with laughter. I nearly peed my pants. How true is it that those Man. Utd. assholes resort to long ball tactics quite often when the going gets tough. Maybe that Dutch genius L.V.G. should bring back Fash The Bash, Dennis The Rat Wise, Vinnie Jones, Lawrie Sanchez and Dave Beasant. Play them together with Shrek Rooney and Elbows Fellani and call them the Crazier Gang that couldn’t shoot straight. Ah memories. By the way, Many of the untold readers would not know the American writer Jimmy Breslin wrote a best selling novel about the mafia here in the States called the gang who couldn’t shoot straight.
Back on topic – whatever Man City does is based on Wenger’s Arsenal methods. The personnel collated into Man City was the basis of bought success. The unlimited expenditure has proved the copied process is successful.
Arsenal does it the Wenger way (even though the fans sing ‘playing football the Arsenal way’). Wenger basics are ‘make the ball work & pass the ball into the net’. This works on a level playing field correctly officiated. In the EPL it requires more. Strength, balance, tolerance, intelligence & a very very high pain threshold.
Arsenal will still win the league & prove that true football cannot be bought.
Quite pathetic to see Man U resorting to hoofing the ball up to Fellaini in a desperate but futile attempt to salvage a point from today’s game against Swansea. Pub team tactics presumably decided on by their master tactician manager van Gaal. Given their resources and the world class players they have available plus the top manager they have you would expect a more sophisticated approach.
Could you imagine Wenger resorting to such tactics.
Szczesny won, but did not keep a clean sheet. Evra (on Juventus) was given two yellow cards.
Apo Armani, Menace
I’m not so sure my patience and whatnot in real life are same as on here. More like online-Arsenal-debating me is closer to how I’d like things to go about things.
Argue with someone face to face and normally, if there’s real anger or insult, there’s no chance of getting anywhere and reason might not get a look in. Suppose internet isn’t that different,after all! but it does give you a better chance of thinking things over before hitting send.
Most of all, I hate seeing the more erroneous stuff about club, manager and football in general so much that, on reflection, it nearly always seems worth trying to keep it cooler as I reckon it offers a tiny- infinitesimally small, mind- chance to influence someone’s thinking slightly in the right direction.
Also find that the shitty emotions I feel about all the crap spoken (or when things go real badly on the field!) is helped a lot, later on, by sound analysis in a place like this.
Can’t get involved in all this jazz talk ,though!
Jambug
Something might be afoot in that damn transfer market that’ll grieve me more than ffp’s apparent death and City’s mad spending.
Saw that Martial kid for Monaco the other night and he really stood out as a potential superstar and exactly the type of player who would catch Wenger’s eye. Saw flashes of Henry in there, and that’s something I’ve not seen in anyone since the man himself
With Monaco having slowed spending right down and having exited CL I let myself have a few ‘just maybe…’ thoughts.
Just maybe there’d be an opportunity there and Wenger could do something at a price that made enough sense for us and yet appealed to Monaco as a seller.
Then I saw Chelsea linked with him for 40 mill. Much worse, now Utd are being very strongly linked at 50 mill!
A real personal example to me of just what we’re up against still. Maybe it’s just sane enough for the richest clubs to pay 50 mill for a kid with fantastic potential but who is very inexperienced still. But it isn’t sane enough for us to do it.
It simply isn’t. Many won’t have it but that’s the simple truth. It applies everywhere throughout the parts of the market we will be looking in. And it applies to the endless, endless spending of these other clubs.
Bastards.
Nice to hear from you Bill.
Be sure to give those pants a rinse before you go out 🙂
Mick
“Pub team tactics presumably decided on by their master tactician manager van Gaal.”
You can just imagine him on the touchline. 10 Minutes to go. A goal down. Going nowhere.
And there he is, furiously flicking through his file, mumbling to himself:
‘One down, 10 to go, one down, 10 to go, one down, one down….I know I wrote it down somewhere…one down…one down…where the fuck is it……ahhhh, here it is. I knew it…..under ‘D’ for ‘Desperate’……NOTE TO SELF: WHEN ONE DOWN WITH 10 TO GO…HOOF IT !!!!!’
I knew that stupid folder of his had to be useful for something.
Rich
“A real personal example to me of just what we’re up against still. Maybe it’s just sane enough for the richest clubs to pay 50 mill for a kid with fantastic potential but who is very inexperienced still. But it isn’t sane enough for us to do it.”
And in one paragraph you sum it up perfectly.
The other problem we have is that some of our fans think that’s exactly what we should do.
Jambug 7.00 , sounds like Neville is backtracking!
Competing with City indeed. The figures you post say it all.
Neville has a very strange obsession with this club these days.
Only the start of the season, and a lot of things could change and improve for certain clubs, including us, but all in all, a very bad weekend for a whole bunch of idiots .
Rich
“Also find that the shitty emotions I feel about all the crap spoken (or when things go real badly on the field!) is helped a lot, later on, by sound analysis in a place like this.”
I agree, but ‘Later on’ being the key phrase.
Following a loss, or even a draw believe it or not, for my own sanity, for years I have avoided ALL media. In addition to that, of late, I have made a conscious decision to even avoid Untold. Simply because I cannot face all the bile that spills from the tappy fingers of so many, even in this haven of sanity.
I find it best to wait for the dust to settle. The next game, which as often as not a victory, or else I end up in rows with guys I don’t have a thing in common with.
Jamburg,Rich,Mandy…
The aaa is gone 🙂 🙂
hahahahahaha
Neville…you are the biggest joker on the planet!!!!!!
Great minds think alike dan 🙂
Jambug
Wise move I reckon. Done that myself in past at the worst times and it didn’t feel like a choice- sheer necessity.
If things go a certain way, now made so much more likely thanks to ffp’s demise, there’s a genuine possibility I’ll have to make the media avoiding a permanent thing.
Not embarrassed to say, it’s a real good vs evil thing in my mind.
Just hoping it doesn’t end up going the way of this bit- from a book I read recently-which impressed me at the time and which I somehow managed to convert this weekend into gloomy football thoughts
“. . . yet there is no avoiding time, the sea of time, the sea of memory and forgetfulness, the years of promise, gone and unrecoverable, of the land almost allowed to claim its better destiny, only to the claim jumped by evildoers known all too well, and taken instead and held hostage to the future we must live in now forever.”
Wenger will remain a true hero to me for life, even if the escalating money madness ends up denying him the fitting last years of his career I felt we were very well set for if ffp had held. Much tougher now.
Master tacticians -LVG 🙂 🙂
Final thought : didn’t know why Neville was getting talked of yet again.
So the guy Piers Morgan says he’d have as Arsenal manager tomorrow, Neville, has a solution for the club, Utd, who have spent hundreds of millions in a couple of years- SPEND, SPEND,SPEND.
So Gary thinks you need to spend 300 million, or 400 million, in a couple of years, to compete…yet thinks we should win while not being able to spend anything like that.
Morgan, meanwhile, wants him as the manger, even though he- Nev- wouldn’t have half the money required,if Utd talk means anything, for a chance of winning.
It’s all quite funny, really.
Rich
“Wenger will remain a true hero to me for life, even if the escalating money madness ends up denying him the fitting last years of his career I felt we were very well set for if ffp had held. Much tougher now.”
Here here to that.
Alas I never, for one second thought FFP would hold.
On the subject of avoidance, there is a post elsewhere that I would normally have challenged but decided against it on the basis of ‘it’s just not worth it’.
I just find it odd, that with such diametrically opposed opinions to that of the sites founders, and a large majority of the contributors, these people feel the need to post here abouts, especially when there’s plenty of other sites where there views would be more than welcome.
Each to there own I suppose.
Man City is winning after spending insanely, why does is
Man City is winning after spending insanely, why does is stI’ll find it so difficult to fill the Etihad, maybe football is not only about expensive over payed mercenaries but philosophy , values, and style, look at what happened to the 60 million Dimaria
Man City is winning after spending insanely, why does is stI’ll find it so difficult to fill the Etihad, maybe football is not only about expensive over payed mercenaries but philosophy , values, and style, look at what happened to the 60 million world class Dimaria
There are two teams in the title race. Chelsea and Man City. That’s it.
@BILL…thanks for that reminder…The Gang that Couldn’t Shoot Straight is a classic!!
Don’t like ManCity’s financing model but at least they are trying to build up an academy (unlike Chelsea) and their manager is a gentleman.
Things may change, they may yet spend their way out of their malaise but Chelsea look nothing like title contenders.
Key players out of form, players lacking energy , four points from twelve, Jose blaming players via the media, not naming said players but we all have a good idea…..maybe Wenger was right to pass on one of them. A defence all over the place, not enough goals, and the manager continuing to show the world, and more importantly, his players, he is an ego driven dickhead.
Only The owners money will make this lot title contenders this year……in fact, that has been the case since he arrived.
The question is, is he willing to keep throwing money at the rate Jose clearly requires.
jayramfootball
August 30, 2015 at 11:11 pm
There are two teams in the title race. Chelsea and Man City. That’s it.
You ARE taking the mickey here, right?
Dex, When did the manager say he was looking to buy a DM?
Jayramfootball, only Idiots make such inflexible predictions after only 4 games.
Hey Dex,
Seeing as you live in Manchester and took great delight in slagging off City fans on here the other week, that offer of discussing it over a pint still stands. That’s when you’ve finished calling your fellow Gooners on here c*nts. I’ll even invite my old sparring partner Jambug along to the party – let’s see how far you get calling him a c*nt to his face 😉