by Going Going Gooner
5th
Can’t say that it thrills me much. Certainly watching football on Thursdays doesn’t do anything for me, either. And, I am not looking forward to hearing all the rubbish from Spurs fans or the Wenger Out Brigade… although there is not much we can do about it…
Well, actually, there is. In reality, I only have one Spurs friend and he is a well-balanced individual so I am unlikely to catch much stick from him.
But, my other two friends (one is a relative, actually) who are WOBs are another story. I have my narrative to this season (Santi’s injury, PGMOB idiocy etc.) but I have to accept that at the end of the season they will sound like so many sour grapes.
Several people have been credited with “When you lose say little, when you win say less” (Matt Hughes?)… or even the opposite, “When you win say nothing, when you lose say less” (Paul Brown?). Regardless of your take on that… mine is to take the poison out of people’s vitriol by refusing to engage them.
A compliment to their club and then move on. I may not like the PGMOB’s agenda, nor some of the odious people at some clubs, but some humility if we finish in 5th would not be amiss.
I believe that we could have won the league and were hard done by in some or many games but based on our performances alone, it is hard to convince myself that an Arsenal championship was inevitable. In other words, we are not as good as we had hoped and need to get better… and hopefully we shall.
Sadly, I thought Spurs were the better team in our last match… there it is… we have room to improve. Let us not betray our better selves with comments that ignore the fact that sometimes we were second best on the pitch.
Don’t get me wrong, I will defend Arsenal and to a lesser extent Arsene Wenger (he does make mistakes) but our reasoned arguments and shouts of joy will carry more conviction and gravitas when we win…next year.
How to fix the Premier League – a scoundrel’s blueprint
I know Wenger has been criticised this season but would you really have preferred Mourinho?
Henry Norris at the Arsenal: Part 1. How Arsenal fell from grace.
Norris at the Arsenal part 2: heading for liquidation and the first thought of moving elsewhere
@GGG,
Agree with all you say. We have no divine right to be better than Spurs and this season they have clearly bested us.
We will finish probably 5th in the EPL, and winners or runners-up in the FA Cup. I wonder how many clubs IN THE WORLD would cheerfully swap places with us in order to achieve that.
Just a thought……;)
Well said. Although I have been a Spurs fan for many years I have to admire Arsenals record of a top four finish every year during Your managers time at the club. That is some achievement. Rivalry between aresenal and Spurs fans will always be but it does not need to be aggressive.
The end of season table never lies.
Aitch: What an odd thing to say.
The table has a meaning that is purported by those who run the league. But if there is a referee who bends a match in favour of one team or against another, then the final result of that match is likely to be false, and so the whole table becomes a lie.
The end of season table is an accident of statistics. Most of the table solidifies differences that have no basis. Teams that are essentially the same in terms of quality, appear to be different.
For this season, the teams between 8th and 18th are nominally all the same, and yet the table shows they are different.
on the subject of humility :
“If you are in any doubt, look at our season and compare that to Chelsea, Juventus and Atletico Madrid. We are a bigger club than all three of them but we are being held back by a greedy owner and a past it manager.’
bigger than juventus ???? ahhhahaaaa.
have we finished 5th?? Well, we have two more games and still a mathematical chance. I would wait for the final whistle. On the final day of the season.
Therz always a hope.
Sky saying that Sead Kolasinac has signed for us and will join on July 1st.
Might be the end for Kieron then.
GGG
Maybe we should beat ourselves with a 3-goal margin next season in order to win the league. It certainly helped Leicester (5:2, 2015-16), Chelsea (3:0, 2016-17) and, for those with a longer memory, Man United (3:0, 1998-99).
Nicky,
Clearly bested us? The season has yet to finish. Several pundits have observed this week that should Arsenal finish the campaign with a Champions League place and the FA Cup, it would represent a superior season to Tottenham, who have finished runners up in the title race but won nothing. I tend to agree. Manchester United will likely finish 6th – another piss-poor mark on Jose’s record – but that won’t really matter if they win a European trophy. Spurs flatter to deceive I’m afraid. The vultures are already circling around their squad and if even a couple of those stars don’t fancy a hit or miss season at Wembley, followed by an even more hit and miss decade settling into the new stadium, then it could all fall apart quickly. The manager makes all the right noises, but he’s widely regarded as a ruthless go-getter with huge personal ambitions. Tottenham’s best season for 60 years means absolutely nothing except to the media and their idiot fans – Arsenal can have yet another mediocre season and still come out on top. that’s the difference and the reason why Wenger stated, correctly, that they are still twenty years behind our beloved club.
spurs beat us and it hurt. United getting beaten was sweet. Spurs can do whatever they want. I don’t care as long as Arsenal do well on the pitch
@Flares,
I’d surely like to believe you but I can’t.
And if you perused most of the other Gooner News sites you will see the outpourings of bile and bigotry about our poor season and failing manager.
I don’t think we’ve done too badly but then I always find a silver lining to cherish where Arsenal FC is concerned. 😉
Going Going Gooner
—-“Well, actually, there is. In reality, I only have one Spurs friend and he is a well-balanced individual so I am unlikely to catch much stick from him”.
Same for me. It has to be said the 3 or 4 Spurs fans I work with are all pretty balanced and fair.
They all, to a man, cannot for the life of them understand the ‘Wenger out’ brigade.
Only yesterday I was working with one of the guys and he said you wouldn’t find many Spurs fans that wouldn’t swap the last 10 years in a heartbeat. “Yes it’s fun tacking the piss and all that but the reality is we still haven’t won anything”
And that’s it isn’t it. It’s happened again.
If, and it’s a big if, we win the FA Cup surely that is a great, not just a good, a great season, given how we keep getting told it’s ‘real trophies’ that count, and not the mythical ‘top 4 trophy’.
Even if we don’t win it and finish 5th then surely that, and an FA Cup final, amounts to an alright season. No not great, no even good maybe, but hardly the catastrophe some would have us believe.
—-“But, my other two friends (one is a relative, actually) who are WOBs are another story”.
This is spooky !
It’s exactly the same for me. The Arsenal fans I know at work just do not stop moaning. My Brother, a fully signed up WOB member never stops.
I know I cant prove it, so you’ll just have to take my word for it, but most non Arsenal fans at work (Oddly with the exception of Chelsea fans for some strange reason) just do not understand the abuse that Wenger gets regarding what he has, and still is, achieving. Of course they still ascribe to the notion he’s the biggest whinger and never sees it, but hey, they do still read the Sun and Listen to TalkSport so what do you expect?
—-“I may not like the PGMOB’s agenda, nor some of the odious people at some clubs, but some humility if we finish in 5th would not be amiss.”
Ditto to that as well.
By and large I think the team that deserved to win the PL have won it.
I think the team that are going to come 2nd deserve that.
I think Liverpool probably deserve 3rd.
The only thing I would dispute is 4th. If it is City that take that I would argue that we just about edged that over them, but it’s close.
—-“I believe that we could have won the league and were hard done by in some or many games but based on our performances alone, it is hard to convince myself that an Arsenal championship was inevitable.”
Yet again I have to agree.
My take on it, for what it is worth, is that we paid for getting too many 50/50 decisions go our way early on in the season, and it wasn’t liked. Many people on here actually said “we will pay for this” and we did. Some diabolical pitch tilting started to take place and I think, for want of a better phrase, the ‘stuffing’ was knocked out of the side. I think a few players just lost confidence on the back of it, and that spread through the team leading to a catastrophic loss of form at a crucial time.
So, yes, I honestly believe PGMOL had an impact on our season, but did it cost us the title? I doubt it. Did it cost us a top 4 finish? Definitely in my opinion.
—-“Sadly, I thought Spurs were the better team in our last match”
For sure.
Also Liverpool where better at Anfield.
Chelsea where better at Stamford Bridge, even though we where cheated.
But as I say, we where better than Man City more than once.
—-“Don’t get me wrong, I will defend Arsenal and to a lesser extent Arsene Wenger (he does make mistakes)…”
Only comment I slightly disagree with. Yes Wenger makes mistakes. But so does every manager, so that wont stop me defending Wenger to the hilt.
Also I have to say, as much as Conte has done well I do think some people are going a bit overboard.
As I said in a comment on here a few weeks ago, lets not forget he inherited an Multi million pound squad, a majority of which had won the PL just 2 seasons before.
The question I posed was more along the lines of, how the hell did Mourinho f**k it up so badly last season?
And lets not forget Conte spent £120 Million (£51 Million Net) in the Summer, so lets not pretend he performed a miracle here.
Yes it was his first season, and as Tony regularly points out that is usually a disadvantage, but a lot of his players had been there, done that. This wasn’t a bunch of novices he was working with here.
So, as I say, yes he done well, but a bit of perspective is needed, surely?
Nice one GGG . Humility is in very short supply . Like most I too had hoped much for this season .
That things didn’t work our for us is a blow , but we all will go on and start all over next season and wishing for success .
No looking backwards , but hopefully learning from all our mistakes and shortcomings .
Not an inch bothered by fans of other clubs , journos and failed ex players .
Up the Gunners !
Lessons from Teachers and Gurus.
1. A teacher takes responsibility for your growth.
A Guru makes you responsible for your growth.
2.A teacher gives you things you do not have and require.
A Guru takes away things you have and do not require.
3. A teacher answers your questions.
A Guru questions your answers.
4. A teacher requires obedience and discipline from the pupil.
A Guru requires trust and humility from the pupil.
5. A teacher clothes you and prepares you for the outer journey.
A Guru strips you naked and prepares you for the inner journey.
6. A teacher is a guide on the path.
A Guru is a pointer to the way.
7. A teacher sends you on the road to success.
A Guru sends you on the road to freedom.
8. A teacher explains the world and its nature to you.
A Guru explains yourself and your nature to you.
9. A teacher gives you knowledge and boosts your ego.
A Guru takes away your knowledge and punctures your ego.
10. A teacher instructs you.
A Guru constructs you.
11. A teacher sharpens your mind.
A Guru opens your mind.
12. A teacher reaches your mind.
A Guru touches your spirit.
13. A teacher instructs you on how to solve problems.
A Guru shows you how to resolve issues.
14. A teacher is a systematic thinker.
A Guru is a lateral thinker.
15. One can always find a teacher.
But a Guru has to find and accept you.
16. A teacher leads you by the hand.
A Guru leads you by example.
17.When a teacher finishes with you, you celebrate.
When a Guru finishes with you, life celebrates.
Let us honor both, the teachers and the Guru in our lives…
Thank you AW for the lessons that you inpart to us by being just you.
I can see places for both the teacher and the Guru Brickfields.
Most of what engineering taught me, was the system. And it presented knowledge from many great minds: Aristotle, Euclid, Galileo, Newton, Gauss, Laplace, Einstein and on and on.
But, I knew even back in grade 7 (age 13), that I didn’t think like other people. I followed a few steps of the systematic solution, and then seen that this problem was like another, and I would take a sideways step. A few steps down that path, and sideways again. Usually, I finished this strange path before anyone else finished their standard path.
But having no mind’s eye has been strange. Especially since my Mom has a photographic memory.
@ Gord -17/05/2017 at 3:51 am – Thank you , I ‘ll take that as a compliment ! Medicine and humour make a combustiable brew .
It never bothered me that I’m seen to be different than most. I’d rather laugh aloud and alone than be laughed at .
But then again, like you , I too learned from some of the great masters in their fields (of mirth and outright lunacy) – those ‘usual gang of idiots’ at MAD magazine . 33 years as a devoted subscriber .