Stokey Stokey Stokey Stoke

First things first, I’ve just got tickets to see these bad-assed mo-foes at Brixton on November.

Skunk Anansie MOTHERF**KER!!!

Oh yes, 9 years after they split and 10 years since I last saw them, the legendary Skunk Anansie are back! I for one am moist. If you don’t know them then youtube them now. Now, NOW MOTHERF**KER!!!!! Or use the links below for some choice cuts:

Skunk Anansie – All I Want

Skunk Anansie – Weak

Skunk Anansie – Brazen (Weep)

Skunk Anansie – Twisted

Skunk Anansie – Selling Jesus

Anyway. Sunday is the last game of the season (booooooo) with Stoke visiting the Grove. Team news is that Almunia and Nasri are out, Fabianski is 50/50 so we may see young Vito Mannone make his debut in goal. It’s a dead rubber so not too bad a way to make your bow. Other than that it’s the same squad as last weekend. Adebayor apparently still has a groin problem that ruled him out of the trip to Old Trafford last weekend, read into that what you will. Thinking about it he’ll still have to do the lap of the pitch with his team mates at the end of the game, so we’ll know if he’s really injured then. Should be an interesting reception if he shows!

Comedy moment now. After all the evidence, all the truth and absolute proof from Hull that dirty dirty Johnny Foreigner Cesc Fabregas spat on/near/towards/inside Hull Assistant Liar Manager Brian Horton on the pitch/in the tunnel/on the deck of the Mary Rose, the FA have cleared Cesc on both charges he was faced with (spitting and improper conduct on the pitch at the final whistle), citing, surprise f**king surprise, “insufficient evidence”.

Couple this with the fact that Hull Liar Manager Phil “Son of Sam” Brown spent several days in the aftermath of the game making an absolute tit of himself, talking himself into an FA charge, as well as the fact that Hull could get relegated this weekend, makes the whole thing quite amusing.

Lets take a minute to piss ourselves with laughter. In fact, f**k it, lets take three.

"For their club captain Cesc Fabregas to spit at my assistant at the end of the game shows you what this club is all about. I was there and witnessed it, he spat at my assistant manager down the tunnel, that's their captain. Hopefully he's proud of himself. He spat at his feet." – Phil Brown

“It just shows how we've got up the noses of the Arsenal hierarchy.” – Phil Brown

"He wouldn't shake my hand when we beat them fairly 2-1 at the Emirates, he wouldn't shake my hand when they beat us, fairly, 3-1 at the KC Stadium." – Phil Brown

Done? Excellent. Now lets hope Arsenal release the lawyers and really turn the knife, make that orange pr*ck eat his words.

One more thing on the new away kit, apparently we had blue away shirts as early as 1918. Oh, ok then.

Big Phil Senderos (la la la la laaa) has said he’d like to make his stay in Milan permanent. Personally I’d be interested in having him back and seeing what he’s learnt from the likes of Maldini. I mean, if you can’t learn how to defend from a legend such as him and in a league famous for being defensively minded, then you’ve got no hope. But it’s not down to me, if it was then things would be different, oh yes! Adebayor wouldn’t have any kneecaps for a start.….

Monaco defender Cedric Mongongu admits he is flattered to be linked with Arsenal. Really? Excellent, but who the f**k are you? One of the most promising defensive talents in Ligue 1 according to Sky Sports, so I’ll take their word for that.

AA has called for Wenger to spend spend spend! in the summer, saying that we’re only two or three quality players away from being “f**king awesome”. His words, not mine, honest!

That’ll do for the weekend, I’m going to get thoroughly destroyed as Leanne is away. So enjoy the long weekend and, for the last time this season…

COME ON YOU REDS!

Technorati Tags: Son of Sam,Stoke,Senderos,Adebayor,Skunk Anansie

Sleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep

God I’m tired. Just 6 of us at training last night so no matter how laid back I tried to make the session it was always going to be hard work!

Anyway, all quiet on the Arsenal front, apart from new pics of the away kit and ‘keepers kit, as modelled by the skipper, Almunia, Theo and Arshavin:

  

Like I said before, smart kit, but not Arsenal. Apparently the design “Celebrates the sartorial excellence of the Club’s London birthplace”. After watching the promo video on .com I’m still none the wiser how the hell it does that! And what's the deal with the ‘registered’ symbol to the bottom right of the crest. Ok, do it on other products, but on our shirts? Pffft, makes it look crappy.

Eduardo had “simply ankle revision surgery” yesterday and will be back for pre-season, nothing too major by the sounds of things.

Something that totally went under my radar last week was the return of Thomas Rosicky to first team training. Will be good to have him back but I’ll believe it when I see it!

Young Gun Rui Fonte has returned to parent club Sporting Lisbon. Basically we had the lad on a three year development contract with the option to buy at the end, which we’ve decided not to take.I only saw him play a few times in online reserves highlights and he didn’t look to bad, but there you go. Probably end up scoring against us in the CL in a few years, sods law!

Adebayor’s agent has said something of insignificance I can’t be bothered to comment on.

Right, time for a hardcore caffeine injection to the face. Laters.

Technorati Tags: Eduardo,Away kit,Rui Fonte,Cesc,Almunia,Theo,Arshavin,Rosicky

The Wenger love in threatens to get stickier….

So, according to the Mail he’s definitely staying:

‘There's nothing to worry about, it's not an issue for me. I'm staying here. If that changes I will let you know, but don't worry about that. It's not an issue.'

Bob Wilson also agrees:

"Knowing Arsene as I do, I don't think he would ever walk out on a contract.

When you sign a player like (Andrey) Arshavin for that amount of money, when you get a player like Cesc Fabregas to agree to a seven-year contract, the player and their representatives are surely going to say along the way 'where do you feature in this boss?',"

"Unless there was 90% or 80% or 60% or 70% of people against him, I don't think he would ever walk out on a contract because he was such an honourable guy."

To be honest, it’s all been a storm in a teacup. He made one comment last Thursday night and the entire media has suddenly made a mountain out of a molehill. The Spanish have, as they always do that this time of year, leapt upon this mountain and tried to whack a giant flag on top through the “traditional” use of carefully selected sound bites designed to unsettle their selected target. To them I say:

F**K OFF C**TOS! Your TAPAS ARE BURNING!

Sunday is promising to be a bit of a Wenger-love-in with a variety of banners being paraded over the internet in support of Le Boss as well as a plan to sing his name for the first twenty and last ten minutes of the game, and probably some chunks in-between. That and the usual cry of “give the lads our support, even Adebayor!”

Part of me thinks “excellent, everyone is going to sing and I wont get as many odd looks when its just be and my cousin giving it both lungs at the back of block 98”, however there’s another part of me that is cringing a tad.

Yes, lets give the lads our support, its been a long season and a hard last few weeks of it that's tested everyone linked to the club. To go from one point looking like we’re certs to miss out on CL qualification to cruising into the top four again is certainly an effort worth applauding (although we should be bloody singing every week if you ask me!) But there’s another part of me that's thinking “is this just going to be a celebration of mediocrity. Well done, we finished 4th again, shoop-da-woop,” and send out the wrong message? Granted we made two semi finals as well, but lets get a bit of perspective, this season has been the absolute minimum we should be looking for. We’re still a country mile behind Man United and Wenger’s team selection in both of the cup semi finals have got to be questioned.

The good ship Arsenal isn’t sinking or even listing dangerously, she just needs to learn from her shortfalls this term and have her course adjusting slightly.

So lets get behind the team on Sunday, show that we are one behind Wenger and the team. But lets not forget that there have been failings that need to be addressed over the summer and without that happening we may lose sight of land.

I’ll stop with the sailing references, that got a bit surreal!

Technorati Tags: Wenger,Madrid,Stoke

WTF did I do this weekend?

Hmmm, so basically getting blind drunk on Friday, then topping up on Saturday for our early kickoff and drinking the rest of the day and deep into the night has totally killed my memory.

I vaguely remember going to cricket (Surrey lost, again), apparently I got steaming and performed a victory dance with my pants around my ankles after winning on Wii bowling later that night. I may have also ended up in a hedge……

This means that when I started back on the beer at Scott’s for the Arsenal game it just increased the drunken haze I was already experiencing, so here’s my memories:

• Lots of possession but few shots
• Same for them but with less possession
• Song played well at CB
• Gibbs played well
• Arshavin is awesome
• Ronaldo is a diving ladyboy c**t
• Mike Dean is a c**t. They kick us = Freekick. We kick them = Freekick and yellow. Come again?
• We played well but I got this niggly feeling that with them only needing a point to secure the league they weren’t overly adventurous.
• But saying that we played well and worked hard
• Mmmmm, Pistachio nuts….

So yeah, in the cold sober light of day, we played well and worked hard and deserved at least a point. But you could tell that United weren't overly concerned about getting the win if that jeopardised a point or any injuries ahead of the CL final. In essence, we were allowed to play.

Interestingly, an Adebayor interview was screened on football focus before the game. Not had a chance to check it but the general gist of it was he criticised the fans for booing him. He then was ruled out of the match with a groin injury. Coincidence?

This post has now taken me 2 days to write, during which time AC Milan president Sylvio Berlusconi has made his interest in the Togolese striker known, shortly followed by Inter, although the lack of quotes suggests a bit of bandwagon jumping and assumption by the Telegraph for the Inter piece.

Oh god, while I’ve been on the lash the whole Wenger thing has blown up at the Shareholders Q&A. Apparently there were a few heated exchanges from disgruntled shareholders, Wenger criticising the fans for a negative atmosphere.

Referring to Manchester United's Champions League semi-final win at the Emirates, Wenger added: “There is a massive difference between the away fans, who are absolutely fantastic, and the home ones.

"It is always that negative way of thinking, that the players do not care.”

The difference was one set of fans was watching their team being humbled at home by a much better team, while the others were taking a significant step to achieving an unprecedented quadruple! Of course they’re going to be louder, we conceded 2 quick goals to stun the fans, team, and effectively end the season! After suffering that shortly after the bizarre episode at Wembley it basically knocked everyone for six.

He does have a point though, if you look throughout the season there’s always been a scapegoat. Eboue, Song, Bendtner and Adebayor. The only difference is the criticism of Adebayor has been constant, partially due to last summer and partially due to his poor form. Eboue, Song and Bendtner have come back stronger for it, got their heads down and grafted, the latter two especially. I can’t see Adebayor staying and personally I hope he goes, he got his bumper pay last summer and hasn’t reached those giddy heights since, his form and workrate has been effected and the fans have had enough. I don’t care if you’re not technically brilliant, look at Bendtner, like I said, he’s knuckled down and was still running his nuts off when we were 4-0 down on aggregate against United. I can’t remember many occasions that Adebayor has done the same, only Villarreal away when he was threatened with substitution perhaps?

Peter Hill-Wood has come out with his bit following the Q&A:

"Frankly, some of the questions were quite disgraceful," he told the Daily Mirror. "There you have the most successful manager in our history and two or three of the shareholders made the most negative and somewhat hostile and sarcastic comments, which I think were completely out of order."

I think we all need to take a time out with this one now!

Other Wenger news, well, the Madrid thing, I won’t give it the time of day because we always get this utter s**te at this time of year from either them or Barca. Put simply:

Wenger at Arsenal: Total control over everything

Wenger at Madrid: Dictated to by the President, sacked unless he secures a La Liga and Champions League double.

What do you think Wenger would do?

One final thing, I put up the leaked pics of our new away kit last week. Release date for his is June 25th. Interestingly FSC have a list of 09/10 shirt releases, and according to this we’ve got an “international” away shirt coming out on July 23rd as well. Could it be the green effort? One thing’s for sure, they certainly know how to milk the fans for every f**king penny!

That’s your lot today. More gibberings later this week.

Technorati Tags: Man United,Wenger,away shirt,International shirt,Madrid,Milan,Inter,Adebayor

Busy

Super busy here today, so I’m reduced to a linkfest:

Arsenal blow the Rice rumours out the water

Gazidis looks forward to next season, saying 4th isn’t good enough and that money is available.

Sky are reporting that we’ve got a young Argentine keeper on trial with a deal already on the table.

The purple-nosed one has said this about us re: Saturday

"We'll approach the game the way we always approach a game. We still have a job to do.

"It is against a very good Arsenal side - I don't take any notice of what is written, they are a very good side."

I don’t like it when he’s nice, it means he no longer sees us as a threat.

You might get some more later from me once I’ve escaped my meetingfest. If not then it’ll be silent running ‘till Monday as I’m at the Oval tomorrow for Surrey v Durham. Thankfully the weather has improved and we should get a game.

Laters

 

Technorati Tags: Rice,Gazidis,Man United,Surrey

Once again Nike take a steaming dump on our tradition

This looks like it’ll be our away shirt for next season, leaked pics courtesy of Football Shirt Culture.

Sadly this seems to tie up with the current promotional material on the official site, right down to the pinstripes.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s a smart shirt, but we’re Arsenal. Home shirt is red shirt with white sleeves, away is yellow with blue. Not all blue, not white, yellow with blue. At least the leaked re-hash of the green and navy 82-83 away shirt had some roots to our past. This one goes back as far as 1995 when Nike replaced Adidas as our kit manufacturer. I’ll probably still buy it as it is a nice shirt and I’m a bit of a kit junkie, but can someone at the club please sort this out when our next kits are due? Home shirt is red shirt with white sleeves, away is yellow with blue. Got that? Nice one.

In other news, the Times is reporting that Pat Rice is considering retiring. No quotes to support it but if changes are needed then certainly bringing in a new number two  to help guide Arsene’s hand wouldn’t do any harm. Many people, including myself, think that he’s got too many “yes” men around him and needs some checks and balances to point out his errors.

One final thing, yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the 1979 FA Cup Final victory over United, dubbed the “Five Minute Final”, a day that seemed to have haunted Steve Coppell since and fuel his hatred of Arsenal. So nice to see this happen last night, followed by this.

Rightyo, I’m off to prey to the gods for the rain to f**k of by Friday so I can enjoy the Cricket at the Oval.

Technorati Tags: Away shirt,Pat Rice,Coppell,Surrey

Uhhhh, so…..yeah!

Not a great deal going on. Why the hell would you inflict this on your child?

RVP feels sorry for the fans. Rightly so, nice to see one of our overpaid mercenaries realise that someone actually suffers for their drudgery.

Silvestre says that next season’s title tilt starts at Old Trafford this Saturday.

“All the players now have to fight for their spots and show the boss they deserve to be there and have the will to defend Arsenal's colours.”

Wow, if there’s an article to inspire you then this probably isn’t it. So, NOW they have to fight for their spots and defend Arsenal’s colours? What about the last ten months then?? Shut up and learn how to defend, puto!

As you can tell I’m getting a little pissed off with modern day footballers. Talk is cheap and they are not. All good talking about how they’re going to do this that and the other, but cross that white line and you’ll see quite a few not give a flying f**k and just happily collect their millions while the rest of us slave away for the “privilege” of doing it all again. I actually now prey for a salary cap, bring football back onto this planet and give the players a dose of reality. Speaking of doses, I hope Adebayor gets a dose of anthrax.

The Emirates Cup will see Athletico Madrid, PSG and Rangers visit the Grove on the weekend of 1st and 2nd August, with it already confirmed that Rangers will have their support segregated. All MET leave has been cancelled for that weekend as North London braces itself. Will be a great atmosphere thats for sure for the Arsenal v Rangers game on the Sunday (we play Athletico on the Saturday which should also be good) but lets hope it’s all kept in good spirit.

  Interesting how Adebayor isn’t being used to advertise the tournament!

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the “5 minute cup final”. Happier times.

Arshavin is “baffled” by Wenger playing him wide on the left.

"Sometimes I feel I can do well here but other times I don't - and that's probably because I am playing as a left midfielder.

"I still can't get used to the idea that I am capable of playing there and, frankly, having to do it keeps me baffled.

"I don't know if I can play so well as a left winger or if it is just God taking care of me."

Has Wenger gone mental, like some mad professor of football? Possibly. That would explain Adebayor, transparent bolts in the side of the neck y’see. A self conscious and fashion aware monster. Still can’t understand the offside trap though, tw*t.

Matthieu Coutadeur has said that there’s “nothing concrete” in our interest in him and that he’s eyeing up a move to PSG from Le Mans in the summer. Oddly enough I signed him by chance on PES and he turned out to be quite a good DCM. However then Diaby became world class and edged him out of the squad while we captured our 3rd consecutive Champions League title and 4th consecutive Premiership title to go with the cup and giving us a 3rd treble in as many seasons, so maybe PES isn’t the best thing to base our summer transfer activity on!

Right, I think that’s enough of a linkfest for today. Oh, and apparently Kronke has upped his stake in the club to 28.3%, just 1.7% below the limit where he’ll be forced to bid for a takeover. Got this emailed from the old man, not sure of the source:

Stan Kroenke has purchased a further small amount of Arsenal shares, with the American billionaire's total holding remaining at 28.3% of the Barclays Premier League club, it has been confirmed.

Kroenke, who last year accepted an invitation to join the club's board, acquired two more ordinary shares on April 30, at a price of £6,750 each, a statement released on Tuesday morning on the PLUS market said.

The Kroenke Enterprise Group are the largest shareholder in Arsenal, ahead of Uzbek tycoon Alisher Usmanov, after a recent £42.5million purchase of stock from director Danny Fiszman and then increasing their stake with another 4,839 shares from members of the Carr family, also at the end of April.

Under financial regulations, were any single shareholder to reach a 30% threshold, they would be obliged to make a takeover bid. However, it is understood Kroenke has no intentions of any such move....just yet!

As opposed as I was to a takeover it’s starting to look inevitable, and with the squad needing investment to push on for honours this guy looks the lesser of two evils. I’ll probably talk more about this tomorrow. Maybe.

Anyway, that's your lot. Adios.

 

Technorati Tags: Adebayor,Kronke,Usmanov,Emirates Cup,Arshavin,Silvestre,Coutadeur

Stop the season, I want to get off…..

So, another thrashing in our own back yard. I can pretend I’m bothered by this but for some reason I’m pretty chirpy this morning, so I wont really let this spineless display get me down.

I played hockey yesterday so haven’t seen anything of the game. And after speaking to the old man I decided to give Match of the Day 2 a swerve as well. But the general impression I’m getting is that we started really, really well, conceded against the run of play after the ref bought a Drogba dive, went at them again, conceded to the f**king Mercenary (well, one of them!), went into halftime two down instead of three up and promptly stopped giving a toss. Interestingly Arshavin didn’t feature against the Chavs for the second time, flu apparently the reason. I love a good conspiracy theory me, and personally I can’t look past the whole dodgy Russian owner/Russian national manger/Kittens and AK47 theory behind the situation!

We entered the game with a vague hope of finishing 3rd, but as I stated last week realistically this game was a dead rubber, with 4th assured we’re just playing out the season. Unfortunately with yesterdays game and United away next weekend it could be a painful week before our final game at home against Stoke, a side that also has nothing to play for. I’m honestly expecting United, who may only need a point to secure the title against us, to put five away.

But, one massive positive that slapped me round the face like a live Salmon yesterday was that the humbling that we’ve received in the past week, and will probably get again next weekend, is that it will hopefully, hopefully open both Wenger and the Board’s eyes as to what must be done this summer. The side is full of potential but we desperately need one, probably 2 quality, ESTABLISHED (and not Mikael f**king Silvestre, a proper player) centre backs and a decent centre mid. The trouble we had this season was the lack of the latter and so kept trying out different players (Diaby, Song, Denilson, Nasri) with little joy. Wenger has noted this and has said he will strengthen in the summer:

"We'll look to sign one or two players. We are prepared to spend the necessary money to get the players we want."

Ok, that's encouraging, but I’d say its more like three or four players rather than one or two. It’s a view echoed by Jabba Usmanov:

“At times it was a bit like men against boys (us v Man United). Does the club need to take a step up? Of course. To be first in the world, to be first in Europe, you must have a much stronger bench.”

"Look at United on Tuesday night. They had at least £100m in talent sitting on the bench."

Hate to say it, but the chubby one has it bang on the head. We’ve had a horrific time of it with injuries, and when fit our first team is pretty awesome (minus Adebayor). The trouble has been those coming in aren’t yet the required quality to maintain a bid for any silverware. Wenger has said he doesn’t want to “kill the kids” by signing big players, but we’re now at the stage where the fans do actually want to “kill the kids” literally, enough is enough.

However, is the money available? I guess we’ll find out one way or another this summer. Either the manager has the cash but wants to keep the faith with his experiment, or there actually isn’t any finance available to bring the players required in, his hands are tied and the board has lead the fans on a merry dance with empty promises that we can compete. And if the latter is true then the board could find themselves in a spot of bother.

One thing that certainly also doesn’t help is when the manager keeps f**king with the side and resorting to playing players out of position. Stop c**ting about with 4-4-1-1 or whatever the hell formation we’re trying, stop playing Nasri as a holding midfielder with Diaby of all f**king people on the left and Bendtner on the right. Nasri is a attacking winger, Diaby is a defensive midfielder who jumps up to attack occasionally (no matter how much he thinks he’s Maradonna or whoever, that’s what he is) and Bendtner is a big, f**koff centre forward. That’s what they are, PLAY THEM THERE! Yes, it worked against Boro, but they’re utter sh**e and probably going down, THAT’S WHY IT WORKED! We then used the same “masterplan” for two games against United and one against Chavski. The result: 3 defeats, 8 goals conceded, 2 scored and humiliation. GO FOUR-FOUR-F**KING-TWO!!!!!

Anyway, this is now a rant, it’s been that kind of week. I’m in two minds weather to actually watch the United game next weekend, I’ll probably decide on the morning if I want to torture myself further.

But on a happy note, my hockey season finished yesterday with a thorough dismantling of University of Portsmouth, we won 18-0 and I bagged a brace to finish the season with 10 goals, 5 assists and 4th highest points scorer on the team. Can’t actually remember the last time I scored double digits in a season, but I’ve got the feeling it may have been when I was 15, so I’m happy with that!

Anyway, I’m going to have a Pink Floyd-athon. Adios muchachos.

Technorati Tags: Farnborough Arrows,Pink Floyd,Chavski,Wenger,United

He’s an Englishman at Arsenal…..

So, Theo has signed a new, long term contract. Good times.

Ok, so he’s got a dodgy shoulder and was played out of the 2 semi finals against United, but the kid’s only 20 and is going to only get better, so to secure his services for X number of years more is a great move.

Arseblog gave the initial heads up on this article, but just in case you’ve not read today’s Arseblog (why the hell not??) here it is again. I usually hate the Mirror, but John Cross hits the Adebayor nail on the head. I wish someone would hit Adebayor on the head. With a lorry. Repeatedly.

Chavski on Sunday in a battle of two teams that are 3rd and 4th and will probably finish in those positions too. Although it’s a London Derby I can see it being a bit of a non-event which they’ll probably win. I don’t think any of our injured players are scheduled to return, Clichy is out for the remaining 3 games with the boss not wanting to rush him back. Arshavin has a bit of the flu but should feature.

It’s looking like we may have to watch United be presented with the trophy when we go up there next weekend. Could be a long week potentially.

I won’t be watching Sunday, the old man is heading to the game and I have my last hockey game of the season vs University of Portsmouth which some ignorant t**t decided to put at 16:20 on Sunday afternoon, as if my hockey fixtures weren’t bad enough to them make them clash with Arsenal is disgraceful! Skulls will be crushed, oh yes!

Finally, The Who will be playing an acoustic set at the “Legends and Youths Ball” at the end of the season in aid of the TCT. The idea of meeting Arsenal players while watching a Who live set is a pretty awesome one, but at £1,200 for a pair of tickets probably just a little out of my price range!

Have a good weekend, lets hope Arsenal can put some smiles back on our faces.

Technorati Tags: The Who,Adebayor,Theo,Farnborough Arrows

Feeling Fine….

Well, I’m not actually. I’m still pissed off and the only comfort I can have that we were so far behind United in terms of quality that you can’t really complain with the result. And if that were a physical comfort, it’d be a teddy bear lined with razorblades and a mace for a head. Pretty s**t comfort!

I find Chavski’s result a bit better. Yeah, celebrating our rivals shortcomings is something that lot from the swamp would do, but f**k it, when we’re down, lets mock those that fall also!

I’ve not seen any of last night, but heard about the Chav’s behaviour at the end, surely some serious bannage will come? I doubt it, money talks.

Speaking of money talking, Adebayor has pledged his future to the club. Not just twisting the knife, but pissing on the open wound at the same time. Not sure about you but I was planning on which Defensive Centre Mid and f**koff scary Centre Back we were going to purchase with the cash we got from getting rid of Greedy. Bollocks. Lets hope its reverse logic like last summer, when he said he was off then stayed…

Another striker behaving badly is Nicklas Bendtner, who was seen being escorted out of a nightclub seeming a little worse for ware and with his trousers round his ankles. A Bendtner Bender! Anyway, he’s issued an apology. Ok, it’s not the thing you’d expect or want a professional footballer to do, but I think most of us wanted to go drink ourselves to oblivion on Tuesday night so I can kinda feel for him, he seemed to be one of the few that really cared, unlike a certain Togolese striker WHO I CAN’T BELIEVE HAS SAID HE’S STAYING. WHY??? F**KING WHY??????

Rumours are flying about at the moment that both Wenger and Theo have signed/are close to signing/will sign new contracts. Just rumours at the moment.

One massive this that was highlighted by the United defeat is that it was men against boys and Wenger needs to re-assess his methods to achieve European glory. We needed established players a few years back but the team has gotten younger. Half of this is probably down to the manager, the other half is that no-doubt his hands are tied by the board with regards to finance because of the stadium loan. While thinking of the latter one interesting point I read online that is bang on the money was with regards to his scouting network. Why look at youngsters at the moment when if we re-focused attention to areas such as eastern Europe there are probably players with the quality, age and experience that can be bought cheap (ish) i.e. Vidic when United got him. Are the scouts too obsessed with age or are we just looking for the wrong needles in the wrong haystacks? It’s a great point. Unearth developed talent rather than potential.

Anyway, that’s enough for today, Surrey are about to start their second day vs Middlesex and Ramprakash is on 126 not out, so I’m going to listen to that.

Enjoy.

Technorati Tags: Fallout,Wenger,Theo,Bendtner,Surrey,Scouting,Adebayor,Ramprakash

Numb

Men against boys. Says it all really……….

BELIEVE!

A quality long weekend with muchos muchos cerveza will ensure that this is a short post.

Good win at Pompey at the weekend, quite easy really and it could see them being dragged back into the relegation scuffle if they’re not careful. We put out a second string and did the job in style.

Now, important matters. Tonight. The Mancs. A place in the final up for grabs.

I still think we can do this!

RVP is in the squad, I believe Silvestre is as well, so no new injuries following Pompey, which makes a  nice change!

Going to be an awesome atmosphere tonight, the Grove will be rocking and the club has dished out 60k Arsenal flags to improve the atmosphere. Personally I think that’s tacky as hell, especially after mocking that lot from the West End for their artificial atmosphere. But sod it, its a one off and we need a kick up the arse.

Lets hope my hazy and pissed up blog tomorrow will be one of unconfined joy.

COME ON YOU REDS!

Technorati Tags: Believe,Champions League Semi Final

Pompey away and beer on a sunny day

Pompey away tomorrow, bit of a non-event this is expect.

We know that Clichy is out and wont make the game on Tuesday either, good thing we have Wonderboy Gibbs.

Yeah, put that ladyboy c**t on his arse!

Also injured are Silvestre and Eduardo (again), both with groin injuries and both doubtful for Tuesday.

Tomorrow is pretty much a dead rubber, they’re pretty much safe, a win and we’re guaranteed 4th, we’ll still be guaranteed 4th if we lose and Villa fail to win, I think. I’m expecting a score draw and lots of rotating players. I don’t mean literally spinning in circles, I mean chop and changing, all that, you know…..

Anyway, I’m off to the Reading Beer Festival to get royally c**ted and eat my bodyweight in pork scratchings (and that’s a lot).

Enjoy the long weekend and COME ON YOU REDS!