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Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Schwarzer: my final thought

I was never particularly keen for us to sign Mark Schwarzer, not only is he 37 but he is arguably no better than the goalkeeper we already have, Manuel Almunia. The transfer window has closed and we have no new keeper, Manuel Almunia has to be our man.I didn't watch that much of Fulham last season but I can certainly remember Schwarzer's howler at the Emirates. I also saw him in the World Cup,

Deadline day exclusive!

I can exclusively reveal that transfer deadline day is an over hyped turd burger which teases and tantalises, but then invariably fails to deliver. One has two choices. One can either waste a perfectly good day listening to incessant gossip and rumour, and in the process become progressively manic and infuriated. Or one can go and do something completely different, ignore the damn transfer

Monday, August 30, 2010

Fat Sam stewed, Pulis the dire and 'Arry kari

Having re-watched the weekend's game I now feel ready to comment on proceedings. The starting eleven was almost as we had predicted, RVP given the lone striking role with Arshavin and Walcott retained in the wide forward roles, Cesc returned alongside Diaby and Song in the middle. We started positively both offensively and defensively, there was a bit of aggression about our defending which is

Saturday, August 28, 2010

The start

I am slightly paralysed away from my computer and typing this brief post from a phone with a moribund battery supply. Today's result away to blackburn is exactly the kind you need to grind out if you are to be in contention come the end of the season.We showed grit, determination and desire. We played far more like a team than we did in many away games last season. The bottom line is we now

Thursday, August 26, 2010

CL draw as fat Sam's cloggers await

Year by year it seems the draws for various competitions become more drawn out as a result of various vacuous pieces of bullsh*t that no one really cares for, the problem is you care about the outcome of the draw so you watch on regardless, getting progressively irate as Michel Platini drones on whilst admiring his plump pomposity in the mirror. Anyway we have Shakhtar Donetsk, Braga and

Barca again, Twitts, Defoe cheats and await 1700

It is no surprise that Barcelona are again trying to sign a player for a pittance of a transfer fee. This time the club concerned is Liverpool and the footballer is Javier Mascherano. Again the miniature Neanderthal freak boy feels the need to comment on things, saying:“Javier won't play for the club again, I can assure you of that, and I think the Liverpool coach knows that now. Javier's

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Assorted witterings and congratulations spurs

It seems that the Squillaci signing is extremely close, the Is have been dotted and the Ts have been crossed, the one thing that may not have been done is the stocking up of the club shop's supply of the letter Q. He seems to tick all the boxes, most importantly he wants to play for us, he has experience, he is aggressive and he has a good track record. The one thing of interest is who is going

Monday, August 23, 2010

Fergie's red herring and the truth behind the murky Rock

Having researched the background to the feud between Alex Ferguson and the BBC, it has become pretty clear that Alex Ferguson may well have created this feud as a smokescreen to obscure our view of the real dirt. They key to the whole affair lies in a racehorse, the Rock of Gibraltar.Firstly let's go back a few years to 2001 when John Magnier and JP McManus first began buying shares in

Sir Alex Fergsuon, the BBC and Manchester United's dirty dirty linen

The long running refusal of the Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson to speak to the BBC stems all the way back to 2004. The BBC produced a program that looked into some rather suspicious transfer dealings that had involved Manchester United, Elite and L'Attitude, the agency that Alex Ferguson's son Jason worked for.The background to this story is also rather interesting, the BBC's

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Tangerine dreams

You simply can't argue with that. A fantastic team performance combined with so many excellent individual performances. You can only beat what is in front of you and that's precisely what we did yesterday. The starting eleven was close to my prediction, Djourou obviously wasn't 100% so Song came in at centre back, Rosicky in for Nasri in midfield, Walcott for Eboue on the right. It was

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Wenger on Scholes: spot on and undeniable

The Sun is making a massive deal of Arsene's comments regarding Paul Scholes this morning. Really there is nothing to make a big deal out of when you read the proper quotes in the Telegraph:“You ask me was Scholes a fair player: I say no,” said Wenger. “I’m sorry, for me he was not a fair player. There’s a little bit of a darker side in him, sometimes, that I did not like. I respect him

Friday, August 20, 2010

Overpaid, Redknapp's no-brainer and tomorrow

Armand Traore has apparently turned down a move to Benfica because it would result in his salary halving. I think this shows that we are overpaying some of our younger players who have no even made it as first team players. Obviously we need to attract in the best talent, however I would argue that a lot of lucrative five year deals have been thrown around too early, before players have done

Billy Gallas, Manu, and transfers attempted

So William Gallas is set to join the mighty spuds. It hardly gets me worked up because it shows that there can't have been much interest in Gallas, and one must realise that this is because he has been pretty damn poor over the last couple of seasons. As well as demanding ridiculous wages, Gallas has been a disruptive influence, an inconsistent performer, in fact the only thing he did

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Another news round-up volume 1

As the Blackpool game approaches I thought it would be a good time to start a quick review of the week's news, something we shall aim to do here on a completely random and intermittent basis, if I were unemployed then it would be a regular fixture but unfortunately I do have a job which does get in the way of being at all reliable with sticking stuff up on the blog.Our injury curse has struck and

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Sticking up for Manuel

There is no shortage of speculation at the moment about the goalkeeping situation at the club. Obviously this is not particularly reassuring for the current first choice goalkeeper and he quite rightly is not enjoying the speculation. No doubt Manuel is partly to blame for this situation, his form has been somewhat erratic over the last year. However personally I feel the club's management are

Monday, August 16, 2010

A useful point

As with all games there were positives and negatives, there were good performances and the less so, however overall I was generally encouraged by what I saw. In retrospect I think Arsene got his starting eleven slightly wrong, we did lack width and this meant Liverpool could defend a bit more comfortably than we should have allowed, especially after Cole had been sent off to leave them with ten

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Big day and refereeing inconsistency

It simply doesn't need repeating or emphasising, today's game is huge. Arsene reckons whoever he selects in goal today will be our no 1 for the season, so if it's Fabianski then I will be f*cking furious, I just hope and pray we see anyone else in goal other than the hapless Pole. Apparently the keeper will be selected based on pre season form, therefore if Arsene selects Fabianski on this

Friday, August 13, 2010

Unavoidable negativity

It is hard not to be slightly fearful with the new season almost upon us and I think that says a lot. Even the ever optimistic Arsene Wenger was just 'hopeful' going into Sunday's game at Anfield. When you have a great squad and a decent chance of the big titles then one has this eagerness and anticipation combined with an almost naive over confidence. I don't have that this year, I am looking

Thursday, August 12, 2010

England, sick Jack and Schwarzer saga grumbles on

Last night's England game was a rather useful exercise for many reasons, it also showed just how wrong some people including Fabio Capello have been in the selection of players. The lack of pace and width at the World Cup was obvious and last night the introduction of the likes of Walcott, Johnson, Young and Gibbs made a huge difference. Walcott had a fantastic first half, incisive and

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Is Schwarzer on his bike?

Mark Schwarzer has handed in a transfer request. Mark Hughes will not be keen to let him go but is his arrival at the Emirates now rather likely?He certainly has experience and has been very solid for Fulham over recent seasons. However question marks do remain over his ability to perform at the highest level, his world cup performances were hardly brilliant and he does not have age on his side

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Trickles and squad thoughts

I'd imagine most Arsenal fans are thinking the same things at the moment. The season nears and there are still some rather big gaps in our squad, most of us are waiting to see what happens over the next few days particularly on the goalkeeper and centre back front. In some areas we are very well equipped, others not so, these are my brief thoughts for what they're worth.The goalkeeping

Monday, August 9, 2010

Harry Redknapp is not the brightest

I happened to stumble upon this in the papers today:'It's unusual that players not in their club's team are in the England squad...... Wilshere is a good prospect but I thought England were supposed to be better than than any club side. Maybe Arsenal are better than England.'I have highlighted the particularly stupid bit. Individually and collectively the best club sides are far far better than

Sunday, August 8, 2010

A week left

It is more than a little concerning that there are only seven days left before the competitive start to the season. We have a big problem in the goalkeeping position, Fabianski is not good enough, Almunia has not been playing and is Szczesny ready for a game as big as Anfield?We are desperately short at the back both in terms of centre back numbers, but the Legia game has also shown that our

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Fabianski must go and defense crumbles

Watching the Arsenal-Legia Warsaw game I have just seen yet another appalling error from Lucasz Fabianski for the second Legia goal, he came for a standard in swinging corner and got nowhere near it, falling over in the process under no pressure. Ignoring the other problems with our side defensively, it is clear that Fabianski is never going to be good enough to be an Arsenal player. He makes

Friday, August 6, 2010

Fabregas speaks: classless Barca

"Firstly I would like to apologise to all the Arsenal fans for not speaking sooner about my future but I have not known what I was going to do until this moment."I cannot deny that joining a club like Barcelona was not an attractive move for me. This was the club where I learnt my football, it is my home town where my friends and family are and a club where I have always dreamed of playing.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Cesc back in training, what will be said?

Cesc seems happy enough back in training, I can't see any tears being shed for Lionel Messi's gurning face today. The big question is who will speak to the press today and what will be said. I am waiting.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Can Barca sink any lower?

Just when you thought that feeble excuse for a football club, Barcelona FC, could sink no lower, they have done precisely that, they have sunk even lower. I wrote on the deliberate manipulation of the media by Barca in order to unsettle Cesc yesterday; this is something that looks rather likely to be the case given the number of Barca players who have systematically spoken to the media on the

Monday, August 2, 2010

Have Barca been feeding false quotes to the press?

I happened to come across this story on Goonertalk this afternoon. Basically Carlos Puyol has come out to deny some quotes attributed to him in the English media:“Hi everyone, these past days a British news media outlet has published some statements supposedly mine that are totally false, I just saw them and I can guarantee that I have not said anything nor talked to anybody about this

Youth bolsters squad as season nears

We are now less than two weeks from Anfield, there is merely one remaining pre-season fixture next weekend away to Legia Warsaw. There really isn't much time left for our returning World Cup players to recover their fitness, so it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few days and who gets the nod at Anfield. Certainly we haven't had as many players involved in the World Cup as in