Can We Arsenal Fans All Live In Peace Together

I have just finished watching the NLD and I am delighted with the point. I thought it was somewhat similar to the same fixture last season when we were  somewhat fortunate to get a point.

Prior to the start of today's match, I was ready to settle for a clean sheet and a draw. With that result, Petr Cech equals that other bloke's EPL Clean Sheet record and we stay joint top of the Premier League table. You can accuse me of lack of ambition but I know you will agree with me that the Premier League is not won in November.

For me, it was imperative we stay in touch with Manchester City going into the International Break as we have been decimated by injuries. Also the tonking we got in Munich was telling. You are never sure what kind of reaction you will get from Arsenal after such a bad day in the office.

If my experience serves me right, we tend to draw after heavy defeats. Additionally, we have not been playing very we'll - we scraped past Everton (thanks to Petr Cech for saving 2 points), we were abject against Swansea in the 1st half and could easily have been 3 nil down by the end of the 1st 45 minutes and Munich was a disaster of epic proportion. I am not or one second forgetting the 'shit shower' at Sheffield although some are wont to discount that match because it was the Capital One Cup and it wasn't our first choice back 5.

I disagree though.  4 of those Arsenal Back 5 in Sheffield played in the back 5 in Munich and 3 played in the Back 5 this evening against the Middlesex chaps. If only we had used the Sheffield game to prep our defence maybe subsequent results might have been better. Who knows. The Sheffield defeat continues to rankle me.

Back to Munich as this was the inspiration for my write up today. As I got onto the plane at Stanstead, I recognised two notable faces amongst the Arsenal fan family. One is somewhat balanced in his admiration for Wenger and the other is rabidly anti Wenger. I know I am stating the obvious but both side of the Wenger debate appear to enjoy watching their team play, spend good money doing this and want their team to do well. I think the ones who actually want the team to do poorly are beyond redemption.

So in the words of Rodney King "Why is that we can't all just get along?" as Arsenal fans.

I am often on Twitter and I see many Arsenal fans at each others' throats. The abuse, the insults, the name calling, the baiting. You will think these are fans of opposing clubs. What seems to be so divisive is the fact that some want Arsene out and others don't.

I am not sure if both sides of the Wenger debate realise that there is no manager that 100% of the fans want. Not Sir Alex Ferguson, not Pep Guardiola and not that Comedian in West London. That's why we are humans. However once the Manager has been appointed and / or is in place, then all the bickering should stop.

I think this  advice from Sir Hubert Chapman is something all Arsenal fans should try to embrace:

We are a great big family and we should be pulling together in the same direction.

I called one of the Anti Wenger fans to the side in Munich and said to him, "you do realise we all love this club but we don't own it".  So if we realise this and we know for a fact that the owners of the Club are not going to sack Wenger why are we wasting emotions on Wenger in or out?  Why can't we channel our emotions into supporting the club come, rain, sun or high water.  I hold up Crystal Palace fans and the majority of Arsenal fans as my ideal here. Even at 5 - 1 in Munich were trying to cheer the team on.

Yes. The Wenger Out brigade have a point, we should have won more than 2 FA Cups in the last 12 years, we should be more of a challenger, we should not be satisfied with Top 4 only, that's very commendable. The Pro Wenger brigade also have a point. Arsene has been the most successful Arsenal Manager in history. He has changed the club totally and he has achieved something nobody else will probably achieve in our life time - The INVINCIBLES. I will recommend this book by Amy Lawrence to every Arsenal fan. You can better understand where Arsenal were before Arsene and the magnitude of what Arsene achieved in 2003/4.

Whatever side of the debate you stand, please realise that the man has his footballing and personal philosophies that align with that of the owners. Yes we fans are intrinsic to making football what it is but the ultimate decision on whether a manager goes or not is with the board / the owner and at the moment on the Wenger issue, the Board is not for turning. They believe in Wenger.

So please get on side. Lets join hands and make the club better. The baiting on both sides should stop. All fans irrespective of whether they are Wenger Out or In and talking especially about those who want the club to do well, spend their money and resources supporting the Team and following the club and should not be derided for voicing their opinions. .

Lets channel our energies to supporting the players Win, Lose or Draw. Lets all pull in the same direction so we can make Arsenal greater.  

FIFA Presidency - time for a someone from anywhere but Europe & North America

Joao Havelange was FIFA President when I was growing up.  A giant of a man. He had the swagger and profile of any charismatic or powerful President or Head of State of any super power nation.

Havelange was the Blatter before Sepp Blatter was in diapers. And the world was a different place then, none of these transparency thingymabob. The world was opaque and shadowy figures ruled politics, sports and business.

The world has changed. Today, when people go on and on about the grandiosity of Sepp Blatter, I can immediately guess how old they are or realise how out of touch they were in those days before social media and Internet. Those days when you had to hunt for your news.

We now live in a new world. Transparency is every body's watch word. Corruption is a big issue and rightly so as the proceeds of corruption is fanning the emblems of many crimes around the globe.

FIFA to every body's knowledge has been under the intense spotlight of the America's FBI. Before then, several salacious stories have been swirling around FIFA. The FBI focus has confirmed what was been whispered or insinuated. FIFA is corrupt, rotten to the core. I'm even surprised that there is a functioning bureaucracy / administration after the FBI arrests in May 2015.

The events since then evidently points to massive / industrial scale corruption within FIFA. But should this be surprising though. FIFA runs arguably the World's most prestigious and richest sports event. FIFA is effectively like the United Nations, it transcends the laws of any country and is in reality answerable to no one. Is it a surprise that corruption thrives where there is opportunity and very little accountability?

So yes FIFA is corrupt. BUT BUT BUT. Was the FBI altruistic? Did they love football so much that they wanted to clean it up? Or was this another opportunity for America to annex another global organisation and place it under its thumbs? We will find out more when the FIFA cases are eventually heard in court. For this reason, however, I will be suspicious of any North American President of FIFA. To me this will be the next step in making sure FIFA does the bidding of America.

When the FIFA arrests stories broke, the European football fraternity and their media were very quick to distant themselves from Blatter's FIFA. I was amazed back then that a man like Platini could dare to position himself as the person to clean up FIFA. What bloody cheek. Fast forward 5 months later, it has all come out in the wash. Platini is part of the problem and should not be entrusted with the global administration of football.

In my opinion, ever since Blatter empowered 3rd world countries within FIFA and gave them a voice, the knives of the European football fraternity has been out for him. They are not happy at Mr Blatter's attempt to diversify football by ensuring Asian and African countries host the World Cup and participate fully. Europe has watched its dominance of football drain away and was quite eager to use Blatter's comeuppance as a backdoor to controlling global football again. I hope they fail and I hope a non European, none American succeeds Blatter as FIFA President.

Global football will be better for it. The beautiful game is for everybody, not just for Europe or the superpowers.

My Thoughts on the Arsenal AGM & the £3m payment to Kroenke Sports Enterprises

I have toyed with the idea of writing about other subjects in the past few weeks but I am yet to find the motivation to do so. Watching Arsenal, reading about Arsenal, writing about Arsenal is infinitely more rewarding than most subjects at this time.

This is because Arsenal is on a good run in the Premier League. The talent of the team is showing through and many players are either stepping up or maintaining their already high standards. If you combine all of these with the perception that Manchester City are not going to run away with the title this season like Chelsea did in the last one and that the previous winners are not playing well at the moment and are unlikely to mount a decent defence of their title, you are likely to come to the conclusion the premier league title is wide open this season and Arsenal like Manchester United have a fair chance of glory. It is fair to say that there is an air of incredible optimism amongst the Arsenal fan base although to be fair we have been here many times before.

Yes there is cause for optimism if you are an Arsenal fan, but very worrying is what appears to be the schisms within the fan base. There are notable and well known groups like the Pro and Anti Arsene Wenger group; we have the 'Ozil is shit' group and the 'Ozil is so good you can't appreciate what he does with the naked eye' group. There are also other groups who think Coquelin is the best defensive midfielder in Europe and others who think Bastian Schweinsteiger as a World Cup winner is better than Le Coq. There are also others who think Per Mertesacker (another world cup winner) is rubbish and any championship central defender is better than our very own BFG. There are also many who oppose the way the majority owner and directors are running the club and want all of them out with Alisher Usmanov running the show.They obviously assume Usmanov will be as generous as the Chelsea owner while I think different times, different place, different era and wonder if these sae people will tolerate the hiring and firing mentality of the Abramovich era or the turgid win at all costs mentality. Perhaps a topic for another day.

What I find amusing about the different Arsenal groupings is the fact that membership of one group does not exclude you from membership of the other. You even find the more pathetic ones who are 'Wenger Out' today and 'Wenger Messiah' tomorrow depending on what garbage Piers Morgan has spewed on Twitter. Never mind Piers, a man who loves to insert himself into any controversy guaranteed to get him the attention he notoriously craves. Less said about the toad the better.

Anyway back to Arsenal and the AGM. I have read many accounts of the annual meeting and I would  summarise the following as highlights from what I have read

• The club is unwilling to offer a proper explanation on the £3m paid to Kroenke Sports Enterprise (KSE)

• The Board & the owner will never sack Wenger. They are very happy with the way the club plays football and the overall performance of the team

• Arsene Wenger cares deeply about the club, he is ambitious for more success and wants to leave a legacy while remaining committed to his contract.

• The club considers some people noise makers  (I'm looking at you Piers Morgan) and will not spend money just to satisfy people if they can't find quality players to make the squad better

There are other points, but the above are what I consider relevant.

I am delighted that the club is effectively sticking two fingers at the 'Wenger Out' brigade and I do hope the anti Wenger lot will pay heed and realise that they are wasting their energy. Focus all your enthusiasm on supporting the club if you are genuinely a fan. At this time Wenger is the manager of the club you claim to support and the people who make the decisions are not going to change Wenger irrespective of your views about him.

On the issue of the £3m to KSE, I find all the repeated questions boring and a waste of valuable time and energy. I hope the people who are bothered about the payment to KSE realise that Arsenal's 2015 turnover is £344m. So KSE have collected 1% of this. Also Arsenal made a profit of £24m and the payment to KSE represent 12.5% of the group net profit. Please let that sink in. How much of a big deal is this £3m?

Yes the club are not giving a cogent explanation and are very tetchy about the repeated annual questions but maybe this is because they can't genuinely give an explanation because its a disguised dividend payment. If it is, Mr Alisher Usmanov should be screaming his head off because he deserves about half of that money. He has rightly written to the board for an explanation and we have heard nothing further. I would take it he has received satisfactory explanation which leads me to the next reason why the board have not answered the £3m payment question to our satisfaction.

Is it inconceivable that the directors are unable to provide what appears to be a straight forward answer because they do not wish to disclose some proprietary / confidential information that helps with Arsenal's competitiveness? The chairman reportedly pointed to the FA cups and the Community Shield as the outputs of the service KSE render to the club. Are we perhaps second guessing the board and the chairman? If you genuinely think they are lying why don't you write a petition to the Serious Fraud Office or the Police or to the Department of Business detailing what is obviously a malfeasance by the directors and stop all these merry go round at the AGM. Are we going to edure the sane question every year?

Alternatively the directors might consider the question such an irrelevance and not worth dignifying with a nut and bolt answer as the £3m payment to KSE represents about 1% of the overall expenses of the club.

I really worry about the repetitive nature of this £3m payment question. Why don't these people query the money we spend with the Coach Hire company, or the hotels, the football agents etc. We expend considerably more money in these other areas and in the interest of transparency, these expenditures should receive the same level of interest. But they don't because KSE is not related to these other areas.

I think the noise and anger is down to the fact that we the fans do not like the fact that the owner appears to be taking money out of our beloved club. I admire the emotions traditional fans especially those with historical ties to Arsenal invest in the club but are they perhaps clinging to an illusion that no longer exist? Why did the old style shareholders (the descendants of Samuel Hill - Wood & Sir Bracewell Smith) sell their shares? They either needed the money or they recognised that the club needed the money of these big hitters (these new style owners we hate so much) to move into the future. These new style owners have a way of operating and unfortunately one of those ways is what KSE are doing and what the Glazers are doing at Manchester United.

We Arsenal fans are bloody fortunate and do not realise it. Every year Manchester United spends in excess of £30m on debt servicing. Debt that wasn't used to build Old Trafford or Carrington or to pay the enormous wages of Wayne Rooney. This was debt for debt sake. Let that sink in Asenal fans. That £30m is the  equivalent of adding a player the quality of Alexis Sanchez to your squad every year and that is on top of your other regular player purchases etc.

I can't believe that any serious Arsenal fan is complaining about £3m paid to KSE. In 2011 we bought Sebastien Schillaci from Sevilla for £4m, a million more than we are moaning about on KSE and then proceeded to pay Schillaci something in the region of £60k per week. Every year for 3 years, the club was handing out £3.1m to Schillaci. I didn't see any fan or shareholder moan about this every year at the AGM. What did the club get from Schillaci? The square root of NOUGHT. Yet we moan that KSE even after the directors say they get tangible benefit for the payment.

Why do we focus on inanities? Did anybody think it fit to ask about a succession plan because much as we all love Arsene Wenger, he is not immortal. Did anybody ask what realistic football targets are set at the beginning of the season and what is the minimum expectation from the squad every season? Did anybody ask if there is a scope to expand the Emirates to take advantage of the 80,000 plus season ticket waiting list? No. Nobody did. We are wondering what happened to 1% when the there is  scope to significantly improve the size of our operations and keep pace with the Manchester Uniteds of this word financially.

I call on Arsenal fans to focus on the football. Support the team, be a genuine 12th man instead of the inanities that lead no where. With our concerted 12th man support, ARSENAL CAN ACHIEVE A LOT MORE.

Wenger Out - TIME FOR CHANGE

Looking at social media today, you will be convinced that Arsenal Football Club have suddenly won the English Premier League, the Champions League, the Europa League and World Club Championship all rolled into one, following yesterday's match at the Emirates.

What is wrong with Arsenal FC fans?

If you must know, Arsenal only defeated what can be realistically considered a very expensive pub side. A team filled with 'has beens' on their last legs. Arsenal got lucky yesterday by playing against a 'has been' manager in King Louis Van Gaal. A man who was doesn't understand or do tactics, a man who is past it and no longer has anything to offer football. In my opinion, he is too old.

However Man United have an excuse, anything was / is better than David Moyes - Ian Holloway, Phil Brown, Stuart Pearce. Anything or anybody. Fortunately, for them, LvG will be gone in the next 2 years and will hand over the crown jewels of the football world to the King in waiting - Ryan Giggs. True scion of Fergie who will then restore all the lost glory of the Red Devils kingdom - GGMU.

Back to Arsene. I don't know what the AKB brigade see in the man. Can't they read? Don't they watch TV? Haven't they heard what THE BEST MANAGER IN THE WORLD (Jose Mourinho) called Wenger - "Specialist in Failure". Cant they see all these things many people write about Wenger on social media and in the newspapers? Why should any reasonable person be in AKB brigade?

In all my 10 years of following football, Wenger has won nothing of note. NOTHING. Soon it will be 11 years. Please please don't get me started about FA cups. Those are not proper trophies. Real clubs don't take cup competitions seriously. Millwall FC almost won the FA cup a few years ago, A League 2 club like Portsmouth won it recently so please spare me your comments about the FA cup.

As everybody knows, winning the Premier League or Champions league is the Holy Grail and as Gary Neville, the best football pundit in the world said, "Arsenal can never win the league again under Wenger". So why do we stick with Wenger?  If you know football, you will  know that if Arsenal was managed by Jose Mourinho in the last 10 years, we will win the league every year, our team will be the best  team ever. Arsenal will never play rubbish football like we did against Dynamo Zagreb, Olympiakos and Monaco. We will absolutely monster them. Also, if Pep Guardiola was managing Arsenal, we will win the Champions League every year. So why are we allowing Arsene hold Arsenal back?

With Arsene, we can never be as successful as great club sides like Liverpool, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest, Aberdeen - great club sides who have won the European League, in Liverpool's case, 5 TIMES. Arsene has condemned Arsenal to also ran in Europe. Liverpool fans will forever have bragging rights over Arsenal fans.

And just to demonstrate how ambitions Liverpool FC are, they have just fired the manager who almost won them the league. They are going to employ the most forward looking manager in Europe in Jurgen Klopp. In Klopp, Liverpool are about to appoint a guaranteed winner. I wonder why many Arsenal fans don't think like Piers Morgan, a man who is very knowledgeable about football and a very likeable person who loves Arsenal football club more than most. He has said that Arsenal should sack Wenger and appoint Klopp. WE SHOULD LISTEN TO HIM PEOPLE. The Board of Arsenal should send a big delegation to Germany tonight and beg Klopp to come and manage Arsenal.  But will we?

I'm sure we will not. Why on God's earth do we stick with Wenger? The man seats on a pile of cash, a £200m pile to be precise and refuses to sign players. Why couldn't he have just offered £100m to Real Madrid for Benzema. Thump the table with the money like Man U did for Martial and watch Florentino Perez hand over Benzema in double quick time.

Why didn't he offer to pay £250k per week to Schneiderlin? Why did he allow Manchester United sign a player who appears tailor made for Arsenal? How can he prefer Coquelin who was playing in the championship a few months ago, to a proven performer like Schneiderlin?

Why didn't Wenger offer £90m to PSG for Cavani, a man who could have become Arsenal's own Suarez. Even Liverpool have spent over £300m on players in 3 years. What has Arsene done? Nothing. Unquestionably the man is ruining Arsenal.

He has managed Arsenal for too long. The job of Arsenal Manager is not a traditional title. Please he has done enough, let him go. The Arsenal Board should approach Pep Guardiola this very minute. Pep's contract at Bayern Munich expires at the end of this season, he will definitely be interested in managing Arsenal knowing that we already play his style of football. And with our £200m cash, Pep can bring Muller, Lewandoski, Gotze, Alaba and Neuer to the Emirates in one transfer window. Something Arsene can never do.

Guys. Its time to sack Wenger. Our club Arsenal is going back. FA cup is nothing,  Since Wenger cannot deliver the holy grail like the pundits say, he should go. We have had enough.

WE WANT  CHANGE

Arsenal - Learning To Take Yes For An Answer

A colleague recently introduced me to the TV series 'Breaking Bad'. I have been engrossed in the series and recently heard the phrase that is the title of today's post. "WHY DONT YOU LEARN TO TAKE YES FOR AN ANSWER"

Usually people don't like taking 'NO' for an answer. You will be surprised that not taking 'YES'  for an answer is even more common because the packaging for the 'Yes' is not how we expect it to be or we sometimes might not believe our luck that we got a 'YES' answer.

Anyway back to football. It is a fact that all football matches end in one of 3 outcomes. A win, a draw or a loss. Depending on your team's circumstances at that particular time, either of these outcome might not be a bad thing.

How is a loss a good thing I hear you say. Cast your mind back to the Arsenal versus Monaco match in last season's UCL Round of 16 first leg. Everybody now agrees that a 2 - 1 loss rather than the 3 - 1 result would have been a good one for Arsenal. Wise heads on the pitch, or equally savvy heads on the touchline would have realised same and when Oxlade - Chamberlain pulled one back for Arsenal on the night, the advise should have been for the boys to see out the match at 2 - 1 and not go chasing an equaliser. That didn't happen and the rest is history.

Earlier on tonight, I watched Alexis Sanchez level for Arsenal to make the game 2 all. I immediately said to everybody watching with me that Arsenal needed to kill the match for the next 10 minutes and if they succeed, then go in search of the winner in the last 10 minutes.  Unfortunately the ball was in the back of the Arsenal net within minutes.

If I as a fan, know that you are more vulnerable after scoring a goal, how come highly paid professionals don't realise this? Clearly we should have taken the draw rather than this loss that leaves us bottom of the group with zero points.

For me, I will forever disagree with pundits and commentators who believe Wenger is past it. He has 2 back to back FA Cups to show for his 'past it' ness. Wenger's biggest problem as far as I am concerned is his football communism / socialism orientation. Arsenal under Wenger will always allow the other team play football. We will not employ any skulduggery or game management or dirty tricks. We are too good for all of that and therein lies my problem with Wenger.

Arsenal as a team need to be a bit more street smart. If the players on the pitch do not realise when you need to close a game out or you need to disrupt the flow of the game then the people on the bench need to intervene. It is all well and good to have a purist view of the game and to trust your players but often, something extra is needed from the bench and I believe this is lacking.

On the issue of rotation, I was more comfortable with the starting 11 today than the team for the Zagreb game. I rate Ospina. I am a huge fan of the man's professionalism and his goalkeeping abilities. Yes he blundered today and chose the wrong match to blunder. Unfortunately for both him and Wenger, his error today would be held up as further evidence of how crap a goalkeeper Ospina is and Wenger's missmanagement. Unfortunately I agree with neither. We have seen our number 1 goalkeeper this season make some errors. World Class goal keepers make errors and some are fortunate that there errors go unpunished or does not cost their team. Others are unfortunate and Ospina was one of those today.

On this goalkeeper issue, Wenger and Ospina made the mistake of not playing the percentages. When you are facing a must win game, when form is patchy and the team is a bit brittle, in my opinion, you play safe. The safe option was Petr Cech today. If Cech had made the same blunder, some of the anti Wenger noises will be less and I doubt if Cech would have attempted what Ospina did this evening. As for Ospina, the safe option was to punch that ball, not attempt some exotic save that ended up costing your team a goal especially with the absence of goal line technology.

But match is done. We have lost and it hurts. Today's match highlights our frailty as a team and further demonstrates the overall malaise afflicting the English game. Next up is Sunday's match versus the league leaders. I dare say Sunday is a another day to play safe. There is a lot of high emotions out there especially amongst the fan and the minimum expectation I believe is a draw. For me, a draw with a very assured defensive display is the least I will take. If we win, all the better but with Mr Anthony Taylor of Manchester as the man in the middle, watch out for some interesting calls as Mr Taylor has his own rule book which is totally different from most referees. You think Mike Dean is awful. Wait till you experience Mr Taylor in HD

I BELIEVE JOSE MOURINHO IS A COWARD

I believe Jose Mourinho is a coward and I have proof. About a year ago, Arsene Wenger violently shoved him. Not only did he not retaliate, he didn't stand his ground. 

You would expect some form  reaction from someone who appears on the surface to be bold. None was forthcoming from Mourinho. He appears to hide behind the referee and offers some platitudes during the post match conference. That is typical little girl blouse behaviour in my opinion. 

It is universally acclaimed that Jose Mourinho is the motormouth of the football world. Unfortunately, his mouth is quite unlike a sleek vehicle, a bit like those rough and ready bangers used for the Paris - Dakar rally. In his desire to make everything about himself, he spews a lot of garbage. 

He was at it again a few days ago. Given it large and apparently directing his verbal volleys at Arsene Wenger.  Mind you, like all typical cowards, he wasn't courageous enough to mention the Professor's name. What was he afraid of?  If you are a real man and you intend to go on a rant. Please have the balls to man up and point your fingers appropriately. Don't hide behind hyperboles and using the media to do your dirty work. 

His rant is reproduced below. 

“In this country, only one manager is not under pressure. Every other manager is. I am under pressure, Steve is under pressure, (Manuel) Pellegrini is under pressure, Brendan (Rodgers) too. We cannot be below par. We have to meet the objectives. I have sympathy with all of them, because it's a difficult job. There's one outside that list, but good for him. I have sympathy for Steve.”

As far as I am concerned, this rant and his comments before the Champions League match versus Maccabi Tel Aviv were a desperate cry for help. A frantic appeal to Mike Emenalo and the Chelsea Board to spare his blushes and not make hasty decisions. 

Mourinho knows the type of organisation he works for. He knows what he has signed up for and he knows the Chelsea Board are asking questions which he has no answers for at this time and in typical fashion, he is trying to change the narrative. 

I can somewhat relate to the job of a football manager as outside of my attempts at writing, I have a day job. I know my objectives and deliverables in this job. When it is time for performance management discussions, I am judged against those deliverables while allowance is made for any genuine extenuating circumstances. It is inconceivable that I will attempt to bring in the supposedly below par performance of some other professional in a similar role but working for another organisation into my performance management discussion. It will not fly.

So why is Mourinho trying to bring Arsene Wenger's lack of pressure at Arsenal into question? Are they both working for Arsenal? or does Jose indeed want to work for Arsenal seeing that he his getting older, losing his so called magic touch and looking for a club where he is unlikely to experience the same roller coaster pressure he has been under all his professional life? 

Is the ownership model at Arsenal the same as Chelsea? Is the financial model the same? Do they play the same type of football? Or is this plain old jealousy? Why can't I have that? A perverse attempt not to keep up with the Joneses but to destroy the achievements of the Joneses. 

As far as I can see with Jose's comments, he is literally asking kids whose dads / parents are unsuccessful (going by the parameters laid down by Jose Mourinho) to change their parents. What manner of a person is he? 

Jose believes he is a better manager than Wenger. Granted he has won more trophies than the Arsenal Manager and has not lost to Wenger in all competitions bar the Charity Shield. The football world out there believe Jose is a better manager. So why is Jose constantly obsessed with Wenger? If you are superior to someone, I will imagine you are not bothered about them. They ought to be inconsequential. But to make this inferior professional the subject of your rant is beyond me and confirms that Jose is genuinely weird. Weird enough that if I had the money, I will hire a psychologist to help him. 

I agree totally with the comments Wenger made in 2005  that "When you give success to stupid people, it makes them more stupid sometimes and not more intelligent.” 

Jose's actions do not appear to be that of an intelligent person. His delusions are self evident especially when his team does not get the results that they feel entitled to. It is someone else's fault. There is a conspiracy. The world is aligned against us. Our computer broke. Don't you feel sorry for us. It is comical and I wonder when the savvy Tsar of West London will say enough. 

I hope soon. I expect Mr Abramovich will soon don his Grim Reaper costume, hand over the Sword of Damocles to Mike Emenalo and instruct him to lance the putrid boil that is Mourinho. The sooner we are rid of him the better. Hopefully club owners the world over will soon realise that the only guarantee you get with Mourinho is strife. 

Arsenal – Plus Ca Change. Plus C’est La Meme Chose

I have found it difficult to motivate myself to write for the past 4 weeks following my return from vacation. I attempted to write about my holiday last weekend but abandoned the effort after writing one page. You have to praise writers who are consistent and publish their copy week in week out or even daily.  

Anyways, Arsenal’s loss to Chelsea yesterday has prompted me to pick up my laptop and attempt a few squiggles. Here goes.

Prior to the 2 matches before Zagreb and Chelsea, I was in a good space as an Arsenal fan. We had sort of turned around our disastrous start in the Premier League with a few points on the league table. By the way, considering, West Ham’s win at the EPL Champion Designate otherwise known as The Unstoppable Manchester City and the comprehensive dismantling of Liverpool FC (that hitherto giant of Global Football) I would not now call West Ham’s defeat of Arsenal an upset. After all Arsenal are nobodies when it comes to football (By the way, that’s what one my senior friends and big brother calls PERSPECTIVE)

Back to other matters. For as long as I can remember, we didn’t go into the international break as the butt of all football fan’s jokes. We also didn’t return with any crocked players. Playing Zagreb while not exactly a ‘gimme’ was not expected to be too much of a worry. I expected and I expect that any Arsenal 11 will beat Zagreb.

Unfortunately football is not mathematic or arithmetic. Clearly the manager had his eyes on the Chelsea match and proceeded to rest many players.  The rest they say is history (pardon the pun). We lost and in entirely somewhat unfortunate circumstances we lost the match we were resting players for. SAD. VERY SAD.

Before I continue, I must make it very clear that I am an Arsene Wenger fan. I do not believe he is perfect. Far from it and not even close. At the moment, he is the manager of the club I happen to support. He has done a bloody good job in 19+ years, he has changed the face of the club and Arsenal appears to be well positioned for the future.

I do not believe he is indispensable as I am aware that the graveyard is filled with many who consider themselves indispensable. But I consider myself a realist. From what is in the public domain, Wenger’s two bosses support him totally. One owns the club and is happy with the way the club is run and Wenger’s work output. The other one is the Chief Executive and was supposedly recruited by Wenger. The Arsenal directors love him. So guys / Arsenal fans, until Wenger decides he has had enough or Kroenke changes his approach, Wenger is going nowhere soon.

For those who don’t like Arsene, I have a fantastic idea – GET BEHIND YOUR TEAM. That team includes Arsene and the players you take delight in slating.  If your principles are such that you cant support Arsenal the way it is now, please keep your gob shut. If you cant, maybe supporting another team might appeal to you.

Back to our matches versus Zagreb and Chelsea. In retrospect, I think the decision to rest players versus Zagreb was wrong. I was apprehensive before the match as I was worried we will do ‘an Arsenal’. Despite that, I didn’t predict a loss. I however consider Wenger’s decision to res players wrong because you should really be playing the next match, not 2 matches away. It was incredibly important to start our Champions League campaign on the front foot and by resting players we couldn’t do that. Not only that we went into the Chelsea match without the momentum and the feel good factor that a win in Zagreb would have afforded the team.

I’m sure Arsene trusted the boys who played to do the business. Unfortunately Giroud’s bizarre petulance and dissent let his team down. When things started not to go according to plan, I will expect Wenger to do something about it. The manager is very reluctant to take what might appear to be rash decisions. I give that to him. But often, the players he relies on to be matured and calm let him down. From what we saw during the game with Crystal Palace this season, it appears Per Mertesacker had to intervene with the manager before Coquelin was substituted. Last season in Wales, Calum Chambers was crying to be substituted after Jefferson Montero handed him his backside. Bellerin has had some disastrous times in the Arsenal shirt as well with the manager doing nothing about it.

As soon as I saw the circumstances leading to Giroud’s first yellow card, I messaged a friend that he will be sent off today. If I can see that, why cant the manager see it. There was no sign that any of the coaching staff passed on messages to him to calm down. And if the manager knows his players very well as he should, I would have expected him to yank Giroud off immediately after his behavior towards the ref.  Similarly with Gabriel, we know he is a feisty lad and we love him for that but why was none of his teammates minding him yesterday as the Costa incident was kicking off.

I know nobody can make allowances for all circumstances in life but it appears Arsenal make the same mistakes time and time again. The more things change. The more they remain the same.

Arsenal FC makes the same basic mistakes time and time again. Forget the mindless incompetence of Mike Dean in the Chelsea match. We conceded a set piece goal to effectively lose the match. West Ham, Zagreb and now Chelsea. That was why we lost those 3 matches. The decisive goal was conceding the set piece. It’s a shame that this is a reoccurring theme. We realize we have problems with set pieces, we fix it and then the problem reappears and we then have to fix it again. At the end of the day, you want to question the coaching the boys are having. 

To conclude, a word of advice might prove useful to Arsenal fans and maybe all football fans that are presently despondent with their club (wink wink Man U fans), no team has a divine right to win football matches or football competitions. That is why the word ‘upsets’ was coined. I dare say upsets happen more in football even when 11 school boys play the best 11 in the world. Also no manager can guarantee you they will win any competition from the start of the season. Some managers and teams are more likely to win. In my opinion, fans should ordinarily be interested in the competitiveness of their teams. When you are competitive, with that bit of luck and with a few dodgy referees in your corner like Mike Dean, you will definitely win something.