Hysterical journo’s should be sacked

Ive just about had enough with all this handball malarkey, its got more media coverage than just about anything recently, there could be an outbreak of Bubonic Plague sweeping across Europe but the Thierry Henry handball would still be first in the running order.

The standard of journalism as a whole has been decreasing rapidly over the past few years but these past few days have shown them up to be horrifically bad at their job. Their blinkered, bias and hit seeking headlines and stories are actually pretty offensive to me, I thought they might value the general publics intelligence slightly higher.

The press have become so desperate for hits that the likes of Stan Collymore have got a chance to spew their views on the game in newspaper columns. This is one moment of genius from the nutty forward:

“And I would actually like to see the Premier League comprised solely of the 20-25 clubs who have been the biggest and most successful sides in modern history. I think those teams should form the top-flight whether that be Leeds United in the third tier or Newcastle United in the second tier.

And there would be no promotion or relegation which would allow those teams to grow. Then you would guarantee some of the world’s best derbies, like Sunderland v Newcastle, happening each season”

Sunderland and Newcastle? SUNDERLAND AND NEWCASTLE? Can you see where I’m coming from here?

Mr Squeaky Clean Collymore who denies ever cheating in his entire football career (I take it he never ever pulled a players shirt, did a sneaky little handball, moved a free-kick from its proper position etc etc) wants hard-line action taken against cheats which is fair enough, he went so far as to shame a few of them on his Twitter page:

“Mandatory 8 game ban for divers & cheats. Eduardo,Ronaldo,Henry,N’Gog, the list goes on.”

No mention of some of the biggest culprits out there…Gerrard (dived for England penalty), Lampard (FA Cup final), Joe Cole (lead to an England goal v Croatia) and who can forget Wayne Rooney’s dives? Wheres the English players eh?

Hes a typical, stupid, deluded and borderline xenophobic man with a penchant for funny habits and writing absolute crap.

I’m not saying Henry didn’t cheat, he did cheat and I’m convinced in those play-offs there were lots more players that cheated. If it was Wayne Rooney doing what Henry did in the World Cup final would he be castigated like Thierry Henry has been? Ermmmmm. No. Point proven.

Stan Collymore is not the only example of hysterical journalism, John Cross of the Mirror who has written some good articles in the past was guilty of it:

‘Disgusted by Henry’s cheating. Status as #Arsenal legend has gone. He is responsible for biggest cheat since Hand of God. Gutted for Ireland’

Oh dear.

And the old crackpot Myles Palmer was deeply touched by Henry’s handball it seems:

…

Thierry, you are a sickening cheat and a shameless liar. You’re a disgrace to the sport that’s made you a multi-millionaire. You’re a bottler who has never scored in a final in your entire life and you make me sick

…

What a scumbag ! What a pitiful, cheating scumbag ! Thierry Henry, you are the scum of Paris, the scum of world sport, the scum of the earth.

“scum of the earth” – whats he done? Touched a football. Hes not committed genocide, set off a suicide bomb or crashed planes into towers. HES TAPPED A FOOTBALL WITH HIS HAND.

Bloody hell.

This is not a topic I really want to revisit to if you have an opinion please air it in the comments because the chances are there will not be another chance to go back to this subject, on this blog in particular.

I want to talk about Arsenal, this is an Arsenal blog but over the past few years I have just found myself getting more and more wound up by the media. Thierry Henry is a man I greatly admire and I challenge anyone who may have been in the same position as him to make a different decision, they wont.

Football returns tomorrow and I will be here with a pre-match blog so stay tuned and remember to change your bookmarks to the temporary new address of www.thegoonblog.wordpress.com. The other website will no longer update.

I need a lie down. More tomorrow.

Eddie’s deal/injuries/Thierry/major blog changes

As you may have noticed, the blog is no longer at www.thegoonblog.com

As of now it is at www.thegoonblog.wordpress.com so update your bookmarks if you are a regular reader.

Its a long story but to cut it short…you will still see the old blogs over at the .com but they are also over here and you will get the days blog on this site, not the other one. I hope that clears things up.

The current look is temporary and hopefully things will be moving forward soon.

There has been some good news for a change and it concerns Eduardo, who has signed a new long term deal with the club, both parties seem very happy and heres to many goal-filled years for our Croazillian. We know his character after what happened to his leg and we have all seen the quality he possesses.

Le Boss said:

“We’re delighted that Eduardo has signed a new long-term contract with us. Eduardo is a special player with huge talent and natural goal scoring ability, and we’re all so happy that he has committed his future to Arsenal Football Club. “We have also seen in his come back from injury, Eduardo is a human being full of courage, bravery and commitment. His full recovery from this injury is a testament to Eduardo’s character. We all look forward to enjoying Eduardo’s performances in an Arsenal shirt for a long time to come.”

Whilst Eddie had this to say:

“I am very pleased to have signed a new long contract with the Club. I’m very happy and I hope to stay at Arsenal for as long as I can. This period is good for me now. I feel strong in my body and I feel ready to play 90 minutes every three days if it’s needed. “I went to Croatia last week and everybody was telling me Arsenal play the best football in Europe at the moment. I agree with that. We feel we are strong now this season and we’re all going to give everything to win trophies.”

Its a big few weeks for him now as it seems he is the player that will be given the responsibility of filling the void left by the injured van Persie, it is also the latest in a long line of new contracts in the past eleven months since Ivan Gazidis took his position.

We can all breathe a huge sigh of relief about Kieran Gibbs who has not broken his foot or ankle, the club have confirmed. I doubt he will play on Saturday afternoon though and Mikael Silvestre will probably fill in for him.

There has been quite a big hoo-ha over Thierry Henry’s handball last night against the Irish and I can’t stand all this bollocks about him losing his ‘legend’ status at the club, nor can I understand that it is being pointed back at US. If you have not noticed in the past few years, he now plays for Barcelona, not Arsenal. Get over it.

Thierry will always be an Arsenal legend in my eyes and thats that.

More tomorrow.

Shit, piss and double bollocks: another injury

Desperate times call for desperate measures it seems; van Persie is going to have placenta rubbed on his ankle by a Serbian witch doctor in a bid to recover from injury just that little bit quicker – if you didn’t already know, he is out for 6 weeks with a bollocksed ligament. Maybe its the baby particles in the placenta that invade his ankle and make everything hunky-dory again. It better bloody work or one angry Arsenal accountant is going to be knocking on some very scary Serbian housewives front door.

Making stuff up that is so stupid to be believed is such an easy way to make money. I’m going to go outside and mow my lawn and sell the cuttings to a rich French footballer who wants to desperately learn the English language. I’ll tell him turning them into a soup ’soothes the vocal chords with pure Englishness, aiding speech of English’. Someone would have to believe it.

It seems we may need to send Gibbs off to van Persie’s placenta rubbing woman to mend him too, he got broken on under 21 duty tonight according to Young Guns. Hopefully its not serious.

Arsene Wenger has said how he will not be using Samir Nasri in the holding role when Alex Song jets off to get injured I mean when Alex Song jets off on ACN duty, tipping Denilson to fill the role. Le Boss said:

“No, [he is not a replacement], I do not say that he could not, Samir is very tactically astute, but he is attracted forwards. He loves the offensive game.

“We have Denilson who can fill that role. He is more suited than Samir at the moment. Samir is more a player who has pace, is versatile around the box and can finish. It would be a sacrifice to put him down there. Also he has a little handicap in the air.

“He likes [that defensive role] and certainly, technically and tactically, he can do it but I believe he can be more efficient up front.”

It is an area that had been attracting a lot of speculation before van Persie got injured and the hacks targeted our forward department and started linking Marouane Chamakh with a move to us again. It will be Denilson’s chance to make himself indispensable to Wenger, I rate him highly and thought his back injury came at a time where he was turning himself into a cast iron starter. Hopefully he picks up where he left off when he recovers from injury – he is expected back imminently.

Emmanuel Eboue has been talking about how he wants to be the next Eddie Murphy, he could make a re-hash of Beverly Hills Cop, shooting baddies whilst doing one of his funny dances to the Crazy Frog tune, something like this:

Its been a rather bad week, what with all the injuries and stuff, hopefully we don’t have any more bad news before the game against Sunderland on Saturday but as I am writing this I am hearing rumours of an injury to Aaron Ramsey.

More tomorrow.

Pointless friendly puts van Persie out for 3 months

So it looks like we have been hurt by the international break once again with van Persie being stretchered off against Italy in a friendly with a pretty serious injury, reports have said he has either cracked his ankle or torn ankle ligaments but I’m told that he has broken his metatarsal.

After having a relatively injury free period over the past year his luck with injuries has taken a turn for the worse again and you have to feel for the guy, he looked in real pain when he was being taken off and I just hope beyond hope the injury isnt as bad as first feared, we should have Theo coming back along with Vela to soften the blow but van Persie has been enjoying the best form of his career this season.

The man most likely to replace him, Eduardo, scored twice tonight and hopefully that will do his confidence some good heading into a few tough games against Sunderland, Lieige and then the London derby against Chelsea.

I’m really really pissed off that we have paid the price again for letting our players go out on international duty to play in pointless friendlies. Is it really needed?

It's my birthday today

…and I would really appreciate it if I had an Arsenal win to enjoy, sadly that does not seem to be the case due to another round of utterly pointless internationals.

There is only one bit of news – and I wouldn’t really call it news.

Jack Wilshere is looking forward to playing Citeh at Middle Eastlands in the Carling Cup and believes we can go all the way to Wembley, Jack the Hobbit said:

“It will be good to play against Manchester City and I hope they play a full team. We will go there and believe we can win and hopefully we can.

“I think now we are into the last eight it is realistic for us to win the trophy. I think we can beat Manchester City and if we do then the competition will be wide open. We can go all the way.”

Good to see confidence from the young man who will probably take center stage against Citeh, he is recovering from his ankle injury that kept him out of the last round but he concedes its good to see his fellow youngsters get a chance to shine in the competition:

“I picked up my injury in training but I should be back for the Manchester City game.

“It was frustrating to miss the Liverpool game but it was good to see players like Craig Eastmond come into the side and do well. If people are injured there are always youngsters who can step up and do a job.”

Thats about that for today, sorry for the utterly rubbish blog but I will be back tomorrow with another nothingy update. Till then, and heres to many an alcoholic beverage.

Wolves 1-4 Arsenal: streak continues + Gallas/Bendtner operation & goals

So we comfortably dispatched of Wolves in the end, the first 20 minutes or so were a little nervy but Diaby picked up a calf strain bringing Alex Song into the fray, we never looked back as minutes later one of two slightly fortuitous goals was scored.

The final two goals were class though, the first involved a lung busting run from Cesc Fabregas to get on the end of a move, his finish was coolness personified. His ninth goal of the season already, along with that he has contributed thirteen assists, quite some player ain’t he?

The final goal was an instinctive jab from Arshavin but it was a fabulous finish all the same, he might be quiet in some games but he can produce the rabbit out the hat, he is a special player thats for sure.

The fact that Chelsea beat United (boo fuckin’ hoo, Darren Fletcher), means that we are sitting pretty in 2nd place and are 5 points off the pace with a game in hand. The game against Chelsea in a couple of weeks is simply massive and hopefully our injury list will shorten over the international break, we need some luck here.

The players really look like they are starting to believe that this season could be the one when we end our trophy drought, one player who’s played a massive part this season is Thomas Vermaelen who’s said:

“If we look at the rankings, we are second and it is a message to other teams that we are involved in the race to be champions,

“It is good that we have had a good series of games, it is important to continue and stay focused on every game because there are a lot of important games.”

Teams are certainly taking more notice of us now, and whilst it is a good thing we are getting a few compliments for a change being the underdogs could play into our hands.

You have to say though, a team that is on track to hit 100 goals in a season will not go un-noticed, the official site popped up with an article with some facts and figures, hyping up the fact we could be the first side to do it. I think its un-needed and premature. If we score over 100 goals and still don’t win the title what will it mean? There is plenty of time for things to change, a couple of games and the figures could look a lot different.

The team is exactly that this season, a team. The issue of William Gallas’ comments has gone away and hopefully he will sign a nice new deal with us before January. Captain Cesc says all that stuff is in the past:

“The issue with William is gone for us,

We don’t think about it anymore and are happy with the way things are going at the moment. The dressing room has always been really together and kept believing.”

His professionalism for the latter part of last season (before the injury) and this season has been exemplary, he is turning into a fan favourite just a year after he was almost public enemy number one. He was probably public enemy number 2, behind Adebayor; he could write a book about that and have a good ol’ winge. Would make a damn good read. Remains to be said though that Gallas will play a key part in any success we get.

There is a bit of bad news for Niklas Bendtner though, he could be out for a lot longer than two months with this injury he aggravated against Spurs and is booked in for an operation today. Hopefully he makes a swift recovery because he is a much improved player and is an important part of our attacking unit, bad luck for him.

So now we head into the interlull where im hoping there will not be mass silence and injuries.

Everyone pray – pray to Buddah, Allah, God, Jesus, Mary, Ghandi…hell, even me.

til next time.

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AZ obliterated/Kroenke/3 points at Wolves please

Another home game, another win, another game with over three goals. Nearly three months into the season and we have not scored less than three goals in a home game in any competition, it shows just how strong we have been at home this season and any team visiting the Grove will be aware of this record and aware of how strong the squad we have is.

Some fans were of the opinion the AZ game could be a bit of a bore draw because of their perceived negative tactics, how wrong they were, we tore them apart and only conceded when the game was won and we got a little sloppy. Fabregas is having a hell of a season and was at the hub of all the good moves again, Arshavin created three assists and Nasri became our 17th goalscorer so far this season – this formation could allow him to get more goals too. Cesc has eight goals already this season and is one of the form players in world football at the moment, there is no other player I would rather have in midfield.

We didn’t draw the plaudits too much after the game because apparently AZ came and had a go attacking us, I don’t remember them attacking too much. Gabrielle Marcotti was reticent to give us any praise at all (is it just me or is his head slowly sinking into his torso?). Not that it matters though, our football did the talking again.

It was the first game that Kieran Gibbs has had to step into Gael Clichy’s shoes and I feel he will do a great job. Yes he will make mistakes but thats part of developing as a player, he has all the attributes needed and I think our crossing might improve on that side as Gibbs is a far better crosser of the ball. What are the odds on him becoming the 18th Arsenal goalscorer this season?

The day after I wrote about Stan Kroenke’s share gobbling, (check the commenter from the Colorado Rapids blog with a good knowledge of Kroenke) he moved again to purchase shares taking his ownership up to 29.9%, making him unable to buy anymore shares unless he makes an offer for the whole club, a takeover, or a takeover offer can’t be far off now and it would be nice to hear from him and to confirm he has good intentions.

Moving onto another game this evening away at Wolves and the matches sure are piling up at the moment, the injures are too. The current injury list reads: Vela, Walcott, Denilson, Traore, Clichy, Fabianski, Wilshere, Bendtner, and Djourou. Thats one hell of an injury list and until midweek Rosicky was also on that list, it just goes to show how strong our squad is this season, its not that we have more numbers of players but the quality of the players we have has improved.

The Wolves game is an important one, we need to take advantage of the fact that either United or Chelsea will drop points this weekend, we lost a couple of points at West Ham and need to make up for it here because opportunities like this do not come along all that often in a season.

The Wolves boss has come out and said they will have a go at taking the game to us but you just know they will sit back, its one thing saying you will attack Arsenal, its another to actually do it. I do think we could drop points in this game so we need to go there, get the job done and take the 3 points.

Fabregas, Arshavin and van Persie will hopefully continue their fine form, not forgetting Alex Song who is doing so well in the cleaning up role behind them – the unsung hero of the season so far. The boss has been hyping up van Persie who has been in fantastic form, scoring 8 in 9 games or something like that, one of the form strikers in the league and clearly enjoying his football, to be honest any striker with service from Cesc Fabregas would be enjoying his football.

It wont be a glamour game but it could be a really, really big three points. I’ll be back tomorrow hopefully with a round up of the game.

Til then.

Kroenke: Attitude, aspirations and ambitions

I have wanted to write a piece about Stan Kroenke for a while now, about a year ago I wrote a story about the ownership of Arsenal just after Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith left the board.

_____________________________________________________________________

Early on Saturday morning I was listening to the World Football Phone In on BBC Five Live and their correspondent for North America was asked about Stan Kroenke – what he is like as a guy, what his intentions may be in the future and what we would want to get out of a club like Arsenal.

It is at this point that I would like to state that all the information I am using is garnered from the respective radio phone-in and in the case it is not, I will link to the information source in the text. This is so I can’t be accused of making something up.

The latest news on the takeover front is that Kroenke has upped his stake in the club for the second time in two weeks – he now stands at 29.6%. Another 0.3% and he will have to launch a formal takeover bid at the shares at the highest price he had paid in the preceding 12 months which is £10,500 each.

Stan Kroenke: Attitude

When asked about what Stan Kroenke is like as a business person he was described as the ‘opposite of Randy Lerner’ who is thought of in English circles as the model football club owner. Kroenke’s description was a frugal type who gives little away and has an attitude that engulfs the saying ‘its my way or the highway’.

The appointment of Ivan Gazidis was seen by a few people as a Kroenke appointment, and the correspondent hinted at it too and almost questioned whether Kroenke as a control freak.

Stan Kroenke: Aspirations

Kroenke would want to make Arsenal the number one supported Premier League club in America, an area of the world where football is not the number one sport and is dominated by support for clubs such as Barca, Milan and United. It is likely that Kroenke would want success faster than some fans may realise, and is one of the richest men in the world, but here is where the clash could be – the manager is known to embrace patience for success, a power hungry and demanding new owner with funds may well demand that trend is broken. I must state this is only hypothetical.

Stan Kroenke: Ambitions

The main thing Kroenke would look to get out of buying Arsenal FC is profit in the long term. After all he is a damn good businessman who hasn’t got where he is by simply giving his money away. He is frugal in his how much he invests though and has not been known to pump money into his investments, this is why some sections of the Arsenal support have warmed to him over Alisher Usmanov who has something of a murky background to say the least.

The words cost and cutting were mentioned alongside each other though, and then you have to wonder…will he just want to pocket every bit of profit the club makes for himself and not re-invest it in for example, new players and sell off valuable assets, again, players to use an example.

This is where he needs to break his silence and assure fans his intentions for the club are good, at this stage we know more about Usmanov than Kroenke, and whilst Kroenke has a history of investing in sport he is also heard to have been very ruthless in some respects.

There is the fact that he has still not actually paid for quite a lot of the shares, it is stated here he owes Danny Fiszman £50 million, and if you have an owner you want to know that they can afford to take the club over and don’t have to borrow money that would in turn, be shifted onto the club and turning into debt.

A few facts about Arsenal’s majority shareholder:

• his wealth is estimated to be about $3.5 billion
• Wife is the heir of Wall-Mart
• is the owner of professional basketball team Denver Nuggets
• owns professional soccer team Colorado Rapids
• owns professional hockey team Colorado Avalanche
• owns 40% of the St. Louis Rams professional football franchise

My personal view of Kroenke has changed a little since I heard that correspondent on the football phone-in, as I can’t recall the name of the guy I can’t look into him and see if he is friendly with the Usmanov crew and David Dein – it is possible that his opinion may be bias.

I think it is inevitable that Arsenal will be taken over in the next year, I also said this last year so I guess that voids my judgment on that matter.

I must state that if I had the choice of Usmanov or Stan Kroenke; I would pick Kroenke every day of the week.

If you have any information, an issue with what has been written or just an opinion please use the comments or contact me personally.

Arsenal 3-0 Tottenham: Reliant Robin earns his Spurs

It looks like we have shut the Spuds up for another few months then with a performance that left even the most hardy Spurs fans noting that they had some way to go to catch up with us.

I had a very good feeling before the game, a feeling I hadn’t had since that 5-1 beating we took. Maybe it was confidence or just a sign of what was to come, whatever it was I liked it and enjoyed every second of this North London Derby.

We started off much the better team, passed it well and created a few half-chances. Cesc was denied by what I must admit was a quite breathtaking save from Gomez after he pounced on a deflection in the box, Arshavin had a pop and missed and within the first few minutes Bendtner somewhat belatedly had a dig from outside the box that wasn’t too far away. He had a good start to the game Nicklas, it was a shame to see him go off with another injury, he worked hard and was really looking to back up his comments in the press the day before, he had a goal in him thats for sure.

After all that it all started to go a little quiet, Spurs started to get into the game a bit and Alex Song made a couple of brilliant tackles to prevent them carving out chances, Vermaelen and Gallas were solid at the back and Clichy did very well defending higher up the pitch and making plenty of interceptions that gave us momentum going forward. It was Sagna that created the first goal though.

A tempting little cross was met by van Persie to tuck the ball away at the near post, despite what people may say Gomez never stood a chance and the movement from van Persie was first rate and a sign of his improvement in sniffing out chances. Its worth noting that not many of his goals recently have been the flashy sort we have so often seen from him, they are important ground out goals that you would expect Eduardo to score more than Robin.

Straight from the kick off Cesc dispossessed Palacios, shrugged him off, megged Ledfoot King and through the Spurs team before delightfully tucking away his sixth of the season already, it was beautiful and the Grove was in delirium. ‘arry claimed that none of the goals scored were good goals, if it was Ronaldo who had scored that goal the entire media would have sodden panties. It was pure world class.

Being 2-0 up didn’t take our foot off the pedal at all, we came out in the second half and carried on where we left off, it was effectively game over when Sagna siezed on the referee playing advantage to cross for van Persie who tucked the ball into an empty net after the Spurs defence did a great job of cocking it all up.

After that we could have added another three easily, Eduardo could have had a hat-trick and looked a little rusty finishing wise but his build up play was lively as always, Diaby attempted a header but somehow it managed to come of his shoulder. He has picked up a bit of stick for his performance but a little spell mid-way through the first half aside, I thought he had a good game. I wish people would get off our own players back and support them for once.

Old ‘arry was a bit grouchy after the game and claimed he’d received abuse off one Arsenal fan behind the dugout, I paraphrase: ‘He swore at me and with kids around that is not on’ – So when thousands of Spurs fans call Arsene a pedophile there are no kids around to hear it then? It was a man talking who had had his pride battered and his team had taken a beating for the second week in a row.

We moved into joint second place in the league table for a couple of hours and we are only two points off the top if we win our game in hand, we are doing pretty well thus far this season.

All in all it was a fantastic display, not full of beautiful goals but two very, very, good goals and one scrappy goal that ended it as a contest. At the moment we have the best passing central midfielder in the world and a matured van Persie who looks like he could get a fair few goals this season, 7 in 10 league games and 7 in 7 games. His slow start wasn’t all that slow in fairness was it?

We have to look forward to AZ on Wednesday now and hopefully we will banish the last minute equalizing demons of our Holland trip and secure knock-out phase football for after Christmas.

Till tomorrow.