A lot has happened
What a strange season this is. Hope, it seems, is knocking at the door. As a Gooner I have learned not to trust to hope, however, the masochism that piggybacks football
fandom not only trusts to hope, but opens the door wide and embraces it like Pam Ewing when Bobby stepped out of the shower. But this is what makes football so enjoyable. The very fact that we
all fail utterly to learn from our mistakes and enter every season with renewed hope and proceed to sit and watch as those dreams are dashed and then reawakened on a weekly basis. Or maybe
that’s just the Arsenal.
Here we are, six wins on the trot. A measly two points off the top spot and behind on goal difference. Can we do it? Of course we can, if we win all our games and the other
two drop points then the league is ours. This is not unbridled optimism. We all know that we have to take each game as it comes and that the easy run-in is anything but. We also know that the
squad is just a couple of injuries away from obliteration, nonetheless, we have momentum. The trouble of course is that United and (apart from their draw the other day) Chelsea also have
momentum. United also have Rooney, who seems to have some kind of Faustian goal-scoring pact.
Barcelona also loom ahead of us. If we win over two legs then great, if we don’t that would be a shame but they are the best team in the world so I am not
going to beat myself up about it….. Unless any of the following happen: player sent off for no reason; bad penalty decision; bad penalty decision and sending off; goalkeeper gifting them two
goals; one of our players having their leg snapped/ligaments torn/etc etc. I do worry that being knocked out of the Champions League will shatter the team’s brittle confidence in the
Premiership, we haven’t reacted well to European elimination in the past. Ach! What’s the bloody point of worrying right?! Enjoy it I say. We are unexpectedly
challenging for the league after being humiliated by both United and Chelsea and we are in the quarters of the Champions League after teams like Madrid have spent a gazillion quid on players
and been knocked out. Brilliant. Arsene Wenger, what a manager.
At times in recent years I have felt, like many Gooners, a great frustration at the lack of signings, a perceived lack of money and the inherent lack of ambition that this
seems to infer. Obviously the training pitch and stadium developments are the key to this and clearly the worldwide economic problems don’t help either. However, I’m a football fan and football
is about winning trophies. This means that rationality goes out of the window. Then I read Alex Flyn and Kevin Whitcher’s book: Arsenal, The Making of a Modern Superclub, and it all makes
sense. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I am now (almost) free of the doubts and frustration. Arsenal are the model business which in the future all clubs will try to follow. The
debts at Liverpool and United and the problems at Portsmouth only serve to highlight this. We are challenging for the two major trophies having spent naff all AND we have the best stadium in
the country. Our stadium debt will be paid off soon and when that happens we will enter into a period of success entirely within a subsistence based formula. The current financial problems in
football were predicted by our board and our board alone. Consequently we are way ahead of other teams. For this reason I’m looking forward to the future and don’t mind a couple more lean years
to achieve the great things on our horizon.
Changing the subject slightly, I had a conversation the other day with a geezer spouting on about how Wenger and ‘foreigners’ in general are ruining the English national
teams chances. Shut the f~ck up you goddamned meathead! England haven’t won anything since 1966. 44 years! We’ve only had a massive influx of overseas players since 1995. England were no better
in the 80s then they are now. I just don’t understand the argument. Think of the players that are being developed now by Arsenal alone – Walcott – only 20 years old; Wilshere – touted as
potentially one of the best ever; Gibbs – future England left back for sure; the list at Arsenal goes on, and the same is true at other clubs. Playing with overseas players has led to the
increase in the quality of our own players.
Having said that, you do wonder about the mentality of some English players. No wonder Wenger has traditionally shunned them. They’re just a bunch of thugs. Gerrard; Terry;
Mobile Phone Boy – its just embarrassing. Supporting them makes me feel sullied. As an Arsenal fan, how can I sit there and cheer Steven Gerrard? It’s impossible. I hate the idea of Walcott,
Wilshire and the rest mixing it up with them in the England squad. I’ll probably get swept up in World Cup Fever in the summer but right now I couldn’t give a rat’s ass about England, I really
couldn’t. Well done again to Wayne Bridge for his award winning shunning of Terry’s handshake. A heroic
move.
Great news to hear that RVP is on his way back. Bendtner, he has done okay in recent weeks and is a young player with a long way to go but as a Gooner weve seen some
great strikers and there is something about a great striker that sets them aside, an x-factor. I’m not so sure Bendtner has that. Maybe he’ll develop it..
A few questions before I go… 1. How is it that Shawcross is somehow the victim? Well done Ramsey for ignoring the thugs text messages. Why should he answer the phone to a
talentless coward who snapped his leg in two places and didn’t even think he’d done anything wrong? A guy who thought that crying like a little bitch somehow makes it okay? Aw dear he’s in
tears…poor lad…WHAT ABOUT THE TEENAGER WHOSE LEG IS HANGING OFF?! 2. Pulis?! What the Hell?! 3. Phil Brown, Ha!
I’ll try not to be away so long again.
