There are few sportswriters around at the moment for whom I have much time. Hugh McIlvanney is one that I do and in this morning’s Sunday Times, he encapsulated the problems of talking about Arsenal in one paragraph:
WHEN Arsène Wenger’s position at Arsenal is debated, clear reasoning has a struggle to intrude on reverence. The Frenchman’s achievements with the north London club are among the mightiest by a manager in the history of English football, a contribution to the game represented as much in how his best teams played as in the many prizes they won. But it is a ridiculous flouting of the realities of competitive sport to suggest, as people who should know better often do, that increasingly distant glories make any questioning of the Wenger regime’s right to a future an unthinkable proposition.
It is a piece that will irk many but the reality is that whilst Wenger is held culpable for recent seasons, the board and Stan Kroenke are deemed more responsible. That ties into the comments on 5 Live this morning of Messrs Wilson, McLintock and Graham. McIlvanney and the former players all highlight one point where the club has tailed off in recent seasons, namely the purchasing of lesser known players who are moulded into stars. As George Graham put it, “Arsène needs to find his magic hat“.
Uncomfortable as that might be, it is a common theme is some of the punditry on offer, Gary Neville treads a similar path being critical of the replacements for The Invincibles, rightly observing that the players are not as good. That is not a hollow analysis but overlooks one crucial aspect in that that squad – like the 1998/99 United Treble winners – had all of the football planets in alignment and the gods on their side, to compliment their talents. They were once in a generation squads for their clubs. Whilst some come close, it will be a while before their achievements are matched. Someone will go 50 games unbeaten at some point, someone will win all three domestic trophies and the Champions League. It just strikes me that those things happen eventually; maybe not in my lifetime but probably in my childrens.
Football is cylical and as Neville points out Arsenal will win titles again, not this season for certain which rankles given the start made. However, too often anything attempting to discuss or argue about Wenger, the squad or club itself, is lost in abuse. Over-reaction to media commentary often overlooks the most crucial aspect, money. The papers want it from advertisers and will ask for opinion that divides or accentuates the negative. They get page views – to a lesser extent, paper sales – brought on by anger, an emotion which ensures that they maximise revenues.
The talk of player contracts is incessant. Someone observed on Twitter that there were something like 14 contract negotiations being worked on at the moment. Walcott and Sagna were the two high-profile deals, probably because the players have not agreed new terms. Those such as Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Wilshere have been conducted relatively smoothly and as such, are not newsworthy. Good news doesn’t sell. I chuckled when I read the comment yesterday that Ramsey can’t be any good since nobody has tried to sign him. That is now the benchmark; no transfer gossip therefore he’s useless.
Wilshere has reiterated points made by others, namely the players are as responsible for the current predicament as the manager. There was a refreshing naivety in the hope of winning the title which will take more than a win or two for the gap to close. Wilshere recalled the words of Fabregas and van Persie by proclaiming his loyalty to the manager; the knife came out when he put in his transfer request by stating he would love to captain Arsenal. When the signing of this contract is confirmed, I’ll be happy. The words are good but then Theo Walcott and Bacary Sagna are good at the platitudes, not so quick with the pen.
The timing was interesting and he did not shy away from answering the questions posed about defeat to Bradford. Obviously nothing controversial was said but the honesty with which he approached the reaction of supporters is something which should be noted,
When you hear boos going around the stadium after a defeat, what do you say to each other as players?
We understand the fans’ frustration. They pay their money. If we are not performing, they can boo. We should not be losing games at home with the team we have. We were disappointed we lost the Swansea game and the fans deserved to boo us.
Talk about being out of step. Jack, don’t you know that isn’t allowed? Fans reaction is another area that provokes a holier-than-thou attitude. I’ll reiterate again: I don’t agree with it but I won’t condemn those who do boo, it’s about reacting honestly with your emotions at that moment in time.
Elsewhere, the expected PR fluff from Alisher Usmanov emerged in the Telegraph where his team proved to have read every opinion going on Arsenal from the interweb and put them into one puff-piece.
’til Tomorrow.
“I have nothing to say about those speculations. Nothing has happened”,
“The media know Arsenal need another striker and they know about my release clause. They need to make their own mind up about it.
“Arsenal are one of those teams who makes you dream”.
so
heres jonjons plan
we fuck the shitty formation off that has players playing everywhere they shouldnt be..
we fuck players like chamakh, gervinho, arshavin, santos, squillaci, fabianski etc etc etc off and we pretend diaby and rosicky arent in the squad.
we bring in some wingers like sterling and zaha and some strikers like ba and llorente and we give broke arse everton an offer they cant refuse for felliani..try and take baines as well while we are at it..
give theo and sagna the pennies and play 44 fucking 2..
oh and tap up freidal..
Truly tragic events in Connecticut. I’m hurting to the core. Heartbreaking.RIP
Lol
IN JJ WE TRUST
Not
I have always felt that one of the very great strengths of ACLF, after YW’s remarkable contribution, has been the extraordinary diversity of the countries of origin of so many of our very best commentators.
I know I have said this before but I think the terrific sense of perspective so many bring, enrich all our views and experience of the club in particular and the game in general. There is a tendency of significant numbers of those of us geographically closer to North London to feel sorry for ourselves when things aren’t going as well as we would wish; the views coming in from all over the world are especially appreciated, especially in the current tricky times.
That said, its also one of the greatest ironies that there appear to be so few female contributors on ACLF and I do think we are poorer for it.
I’m not suggesting I agree with everything all our friends from abroad write and I’m equally not claiming the same of our female writers but the wisdom and sophistication of thought from those that have gone ‘missing in action’ is much missed.
***
Up early this morning here in London watching the final day’s play and a terrific England cricketing performance live from India where we (England) stand a fighting chance of a series win in the East for the first time in decades!
I wonder if Sahil is watching …
ANDREW, I wholeheartedly second your sentiments ,
Great post coming from someone as eloquent and loyal as yourself,
The ladies ate definitely missed for their steadfast loyalty and educated unemotional perspective and posts, specially FUN GUNNER,
thanks god we still have TEAM SPIRIT,
HERE IS HOPING for a professional win today and moving up to fifth and only two points from third,
Should cut down on a lot of this hysterical criticism facing AW and the team ,
COME ON YOU ARSENAL
lets hear them canons at work
Andrew, certainly a terrific performance and deserved series win for England.
Team Spirit
Actually they got fed up of post after post of abuse. Which pretty much should have made people look at themselves but it didn’t. So now they’ve got the permanent threat that abusive posts will lead to permanent bans.
More women? We have George. What more do you want
Actually they got fed up of post after post of abuse. Which pretty much should have made people look at themselves but it didn’t. So now they’ve got the permanent threat that abusive posts will lead to permanent bans
————————————
This undoubtedly put me off coming here for a while.
Yogi,Thats not what FunGunner and Firstlady told us and Passenal certainly just got sick of negativity.
I cant remember ANY of the girls getting abuse.
Did one not leave in sympathy for Gains69 being banned and Jonny getting on her nerves?
Or am I dreaming?
If Santa is reading the blog (assuming he has not been put off by the abuse) I would be greatly encouraged to hear that Zaha has been lined up for a prompt arrival
I have been a good boy all year – not booed once
Yours faithfully
A Arsenal fan
Regarding the abuse, it did seem for a long time that it was almost impossible to comprehend the level of stupidity and ignorance that seemed to grow from a small but shouty community in the Arsenal blogsphere (hence the so-called, umm, “doomer wars”) These people, most of the time, just resorted to verbal themselves. Especially denigrating players and the manager in the most offensive ways. You felt you had to shout louder than them, put them down at times, as they had no intention of listening to rationale. Or they weren’t even capable. You had respect for Arsene and you were labelled an “AKB” or whatever by some numbnuts.
Of course after a while it get’s wearying to listen endless diatribes and personal insults masquerading as debate. Now there are general feelings of growing unease and creeping concerns, even amongst people like myself (f*cking rose tinted) the divides don’t seem so stark at the moment. Hence the vitriol has, to a large extent, faded.
What a load of pretentious flannel. I’ve out done meself
PG
The girls did not get any abuse but post after post was abusive.
No Andrew, I didn’t watch.
Big changes needed in the cricket team.
Yogi .perhaps .But their had been much more abusive times ,as Harry pointed out.
It was not the reasons given as too why they stopped posting.In fact FunGunner used to find it amusing.
The abuse was not one way, Harry. The ‘doomer wars’ were a long time ago and there has been a bad atmosphere and abusive reponses on here for some time until YW drew his line the other day.
The atmosphere will not clear though, even if the language moderates, while there are some who just make it their duty to put down the views of others just because they differ from their own.
People just need to show some respect for others. We actually all want the same thing, a successful Arsenal side, whatever our different views asto the current performance of the team manager or board. I don’t see a huge difference in the views of 90% of us.
Today’s post:
http://www.aclfarsenal.co.uk/?p=10212
Far be it for me to disagree PG but Passenal left after an abusive comment (sexist), Firstlady following a row on here in which ended with the quote that she had better things to do than “fight with grown ass men behaving like teenagers, thank you very much!!”.
Do you still want to argue about them not leaving for abusive posts or are you going to do anything but look at the behaviour on here.
Harry
That’s the problem, the vitriol hadn’t faded with abuse handed out on a regular basis.
But what really angers me is that people are respectful elsewhere yet they come here and hand out abuse. If people want to show me and others here that lack of respect, they can leave.