An unconvincing but pleasing result on Saturday gets our NEW start to the season up and running.
Next up is the first game of our Champions League season proper against Dortmund who are very much like Arsenal; going through a bad patch. The outcome will determined who's patch is wetter I suppose.
The newbies; Per & Mikel, had a solid start to the game on Saturday by all accounts but faded as the second half kicked in.
It was to be expected really, they've not had much time to gel but Arteta in particular doesn't need too much time with all his Premier League experience, he looked like he'd been with the Arsenal since birth.
A tougher test awaits the squad on Tuesday but with the likes of Song and G'vinho returning following stoopid, unnecessary 3 game bans, the team will be boosted with options.
As pleasing as it is to have more depth in the squad with our new arrivals, we'll still miss TV and JW terribly and though I, for one, will approach each game with optimism as usual, there will inevitably be nerves galore during each game, until I start to see a pattern of consistency and evidence of the growth of confidence (and goals) in the team.
It was clear, and natural, that the mauling ooop norf seriously damaged the confidence of many players but time is a healer so I will give them time.
There are some fans baying for blood already. It's as if instant success is the only way to appease the doomers which of course is impossible... we could have hammered Swansea 12-0 and then go on an amazing unbeaten run of 12 games scoring 29 goals in the next two months but that still won't necessarily lead to success.
Historically we start well and then hit a bad patch. I live in hope that our poor start will be our only major bad patch this season and the rest of the season we'll just get better and better...who knows, it could lead to silverware.
It's the most realistic outcome I can hope for but patience will be key.
Much of the media have written Arsenal off as a top 4 team any longer, even suggesting that Stoke Rugby FC are a huge threat to our status in the league. Sensationalism at it's best as per.
I disagree of course, as I still think we'll be up there challenging and if this team gel's well and we have a hell of a lot more luck in regards to further injuries and poor refereeing decisions, we could be dark horses in that top 4 challenge. (I am extremely optimistic I know!)
Having said that, I've been pondering about the future and can see a day when it will be time to say goodbye to the top league in Europe.
No. I don't mean I think Arsenal will be relegated from the Premiership.....
.....I just think that the Sugar-daddy/Oil-baron/bottomless-pit/play-thing clubs should break off and form their own boring Super League, thus relegating the Premier League into second place as no longer the richest league in Europe.
By no means do I suggest that this new Super League will be better, it will actually make the Premier League better by far.
It will 'even out' the playing field once again and will mean only one trip to Manchester each season in the league thankfully!
More teams will be challenging for honours, can you imagine the next ten years with Chelsea and Man City winning the league and Champions League every year?!
It's been bad enough ManU dominating, but at least they have done it mainly through their own commercial investment and good management (as well as a lot of help from referees of course).
As a Gooner, it's obviously hard for me to praise them as they have had ridiculous amounts of money pumped in and they've hardly been a self sustaining model what with all their debts, but that has been reduced through commercial and 'on the pitch' successes at least.
Arsenal can't compete in that sense at the moment but it won't be too many years until we will be again.
But the likes of Man City and Chelsea have had a bottomless pit of money available and can't be looked upon as professional football clubs in a business sense or in a traditional grass roots sense. Not in my eyes anyway.
Forcing other clubs out of the competition by paying ridiculous, unrealistic money for the best players available, whilst also offering them out of this world wage packets, is surely wrong. Hence why UEFA intend to bring in FFP rules. But how many of us really believe these new rules will make a blind bit of difference?
The day that Chelsea or Man City or even ManU get barred from Uefa competitions for not balancing their books properly is the day that Sepp Blatter loses 80lb and gets married to Scarlett Johansson. Never.
It may sound like bitterness and sour grapes but I, like many, think these billionaire owners have ruined the Premier League.
They're literally playing their own real life fantasy football league; not with a measly £50million but with limitless funds...any tom, dick or Harry Redknapp who was able to play 'The Sun's' fantasy football league with limitless funds would win the £100k prize easily!
I propose that any club with limitless resources should be ejected from football leagues all over Europe so they can f@ck off and form their own league.
How the heck are the likes of Swansea, Bolton, Everton etc ever going to progress? Yes they can put all their efforts into the League/FA Cups and hope for survival, but why should they? Why shouldn't they challenge for European places too?
These billionaire clubs are even pulling away from Arsenal FC (hence the grapes) but I think it's cheating.
Surely the only honourable way to win a competition, league, any type of sporting challenge, is to attract commercial sponsorship through pure, attractive football.
To nurture young talent and invest in your academies. To use money earned through the turnstiles and with shirt sales to buy players and offer them fair wages.
To do all this through a self sustaining business model with sound investment that keeps you in the black through the skill of good management, professional business decisions and sound accountancy.
Surely to have all the money in the world to buy the best talent in the world by offering preposterous, sickening wages just to keep other clubs at bay, is the dis-honourable cheats way of doing things. It's how evil dictators rule their countries and it's how these dictator clubs are winning trophies and will continue to do so in the future unless we chuck them out. Let's see how well they do in a league full of billionaires where the Oil, I mean, playing fields are even.
I fear for the future of football in general because of this issue, it's not sentimentality or romanticism, it is a genuine fear that unless all clubs are bought out by Oil baron's with bottomless pits, that we'll pretty much have two leagues in one anyway and we'll end up like the SPL or La Liga, two clubs winning everything, everyone else just existing. What a scary & boring thought.
Many won't agree. Many Arsenal fans wish we were more like Man City, I just like things done the proper way, the traditional way, it makes me proud to know we won trophies at Highbury through good man management and proper professional running of the club.
Players played for the club, not just their pay packets and we competed with ManU and Liverpool, two footballing giants because of their history, not because of the wages they could offer their players and how many yachts their owners had. The likes of Newcastle and Blackburn challenged and the latter even won the league once! It was exciting, now it's just too predictable.
If we go down the billionaire road how can we feel proud to have won a league title knowing we've had the best players in the world competing against other clubs who can only attract youngsters and inexperience or ageing rejects.
It would tarnish the trophy, it would tarnish the pride I felt.
I'd feel like we'd cheated, like we bought it.
Deep down, my ego would be cowering behind the sofa hoping no-one twigged that there was no honour in what we'd achieved and that really, I was ashamed.
Imagine, that's how the Chavs and Citeh fans feel...horrible thought eh.
Anyway, rant over, don't give a monkey's ballacks if you agree or not, these are my thoughts but I'm interested in yours so by all means feed back to me in the comments section or on Twitter or the Facebook group.
Onto Europe! Up the Gunners und Drei Null bitte!
Danke!
Next up is the first game of our Champions League season proper against Dortmund who are very much like Arsenal; going through a bad patch. The outcome will determined who's patch is wetter I suppose.
The newbies; Per & Mikel, had a solid start to the game on Saturday by all accounts but faded as the second half kicked in.
It was to be expected really, they've not had much time to gel but Arteta in particular doesn't need too much time with all his Premier League experience, he looked like he'd been with the Arsenal since birth.
A tougher test awaits the squad on Tuesday but with the likes of Song and G'vinho returning following stoopid, unnecessary 3 game bans, the team will be boosted with options.
As pleasing as it is to have more depth in the squad with our new arrivals, we'll still miss TV and JW terribly and though I, for one, will approach each game with optimism as usual, there will inevitably be nerves galore during each game, until I start to see a pattern of consistency and evidence of the growth of confidence (and goals) in the team.
It was clear, and natural, that the mauling ooop norf seriously damaged the confidence of many players but time is a healer so I will give them time.
There are some fans baying for blood already. It's as if instant success is the only way to appease the doomers which of course is impossible... we could have hammered Swansea 12-0 and then go on an amazing unbeaten run of 12 games scoring 29 goals in the next two months but that still won't necessarily lead to success.
Historically we start well and then hit a bad patch. I live in hope that our poor start will be our only major bad patch this season and the rest of the season we'll just get better and better...who knows, it could lead to silverware.
It's the most realistic outcome I can hope for but patience will be key.
Much of the media have written Arsenal off as a top 4 team any longer, even suggesting that Stoke Rugby FC are a huge threat to our status in the league. Sensationalism at it's best as per.
I disagree of course, as I still think we'll be up there challenging and if this team gel's well and we have a hell of a lot more luck in regards to further injuries and poor refereeing decisions, we could be dark horses in that top 4 challenge. (I am extremely optimistic I know!)
Having said that, I've been pondering about the future and can see a day when it will be time to say goodbye to the top league in Europe.
No. I don't mean I think Arsenal will be relegated from the Premiership.....
.....I just think that the Sugar-daddy/Oil-baron/bottomless-pit/play-thing clubs should break off and form their own boring Super League, thus relegating the Premier League into second place as no longer the richest league in Europe.
By no means do I suggest that this new Super League will be better, it will actually make the Premier League better by far.
It will 'even out' the playing field once again and will mean only one trip to Manchester each season in the league thankfully!
More teams will be challenging for honours, can you imagine the next ten years with Chelsea and Man City winning the league and Champions League every year?!
It's been bad enough ManU dominating, but at least they have done it mainly through their own commercial investment and good management (as well as a lot of help from referees of course).
As a Gooner, it's obviously hard for me to praise them as they have had ridiculous amounts of money pumped in and they've hardly been a self sustaining model what with all their debts, but that has been reduced through commercial and 'on the pitch' successes at least.
Arsenal can't compete in that sense at the moment but it won't be too many years until we will be again.
But the likes of Man City and Chelsea have had a bottomless pit of money available and can't be looked upon as professional football clubs in a business sense or in a traditional grass roots sense. Not in my eyes anyway.
Forcing other clubs out of the competition by paying ridiculous, unrealistic money for the best players available, whilst also offering them out of this world wage packets, is surely wrong. Hence why UEFA intend to bring in FFP rules. But how many of us really believe these new rules will make a blind bit of difference?
The day that Chelsea or Man City or even ManU get barred from Uefa competitions for not balancing their books properly is the day that Sepp Blatter loses 80lb and gets married to Scarlett Johansson. Never.
 |
| She should know! .... Not really! ... or......?! |
It may sound like bitterness and sour grapes but I, like many, think these billionaire owners have ruined the Premier League.
They're literally playing their own real life fantasy football league; not with a measly £50million but with limitless funds...any tom, dick or Harry Redknapp who was able to play 'The Sun's' fantasy football league with limitless funds would win the £100k prize easily!
I propose that any club with limitless resources should be ejected from football leagues all over Europe so they can f@ck off and form their own league.
How the heck are the likes of Swansea, Bolton, Everton etc ever going to progress? Yes they can put all their efforts into the League/FA Cups and hope for survival, but why should they? Why shouldn't they challenge for European places too?
These billionaire clubs are even pulling away from Arsenal FC (hence the grapes) but I think it's cheating.
Surely the only honourable way to win a competition, league, any type of sporting challenge, is to attract commercial sponsorship through pure, attractive football.
To nurture young talent and invest in your academies. To use money earned through the turnstiles and with shirt sales to buy players and offer them fair wages.
To do all this through a self sustaining business model with sound investment that keeps you in the black through the skill of good management, professional business decisions and sound accountancy.
Surely to have all the money in the world to buy the best talent in the world by offering preposterous, sickening wages just to keep other clubs at bay, is the dis-honourable cheats way of doing things. It's how evil dictators rule their countries and it's how these dictator clubs are winning trophies and will continue to do so in the future unless we chuck them out. Let's see how well they do in a league full of billionaires where the Oil, I mean, playing fields are even.
I fear for the future of football in general because of this issue, it's not sentimentality or romanticism, it is a genuine fear that unless all clubs are bought out by Oil baron's with bottomless pits, that we'll pretty much have two leagues in one anyway and we'll end up like the SPL or La Liga, two clubs winning everything, everyone else just existing. What a scary & boring thought.
Many won't agree. Many Arsenal fans wish we were more like Man City, I just like things done the proper way, the traditional way, it makes me proud to know we won trophies at Highbury through good man management and proper professional running of the club.
Players played for the club, not just their pay packets and we competed with ManU and Liverpool, two footballing giants because of their history, not because of the wages they could offer their players and how many yachts their owners had. The likes of Newcastle and Blackburn challenged and the latter even won the league once! It was exciting, now it's just too predictable.
If we go down the billionaire road how can we feel proud to have won a league title knowing we've had the best players in the world competing against other clubs who can only attract youngsters and inexperience or ageing rejects.
It would tarnish the trophy, it would tarnish the pride I felt.
I'd feel like we'd cheated, like we bought it.
Deep down, my ego would be cowering behind the sofa hoping no-one twigged that there was no honour in what we'd achieved and that really, I was ashamed.
Imagine, that's how the Chavs and Citeh fans feel...horrible thought eh.
Anyway, rant over, don't give a monkey's ballacks if you agree or not, these are my thoughts but I'm interested in yours so by all means feed back to me in the comments section or on Twitter or the Facebook group.
Onto Europe! Up the Gunners und Drei Null bitte!
Danke!
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