Four Thousand Holes In Blackburn Lancashire
Feb 10th, 2008 by 'holic
…and hopefully a fair few of them are going to be exposed in Rovers defence tomorrow night. When the Beatles sang that immortal line the Rovers weren’t managed by ‘Sparky’ Hughes. At that time he was learning his first lessons in football management from Corporal Jones in Dads Army, ‘they don’t like it up ’em’.
Those of you who heard me on the Arseblog arsecast on Friday will know I was extremely bullish about our chances of securing the three points from this game. That blogchat was recorded before the various press briefings where it became clear that I may be called up for the Gunners as virtually everybody in N5 has been struck down by illness or injury.
The situation may be eased by the return of Kolo Toure and Emmanuel Eboue, both of whom were unused substitutes in the third place play-off at the African Cup of Nations. It would be a tough ask for them so soon after competing in a major tournament, and whilst I am sure Arsene Wenger may consider Toure for a place on the bench, I think he may take a longer term view and let the centre-back have a little more recovery time.
Therefore I am going to attach a little proviso to my ‘holic pound bet for this one. If we can get a recognised centre-back pairing (probably only Senderos and Gallas will be fit enough), Flam and either Cesc or Hleb in midfield, and the goalscoring monster that is Adebayor up front, then I still fancy us to win. I’ll go for 2-0. The spine of the side is key.
Proposed Premier League Overseas Fixtures
It is a while since football supporters have been united in condemnation of an issue in quite the way that happened this week. When Richard Scudamore announced the ill-conceived proposals he must have surely expected the vitriol that would come his way.
I have to say though that a little more thought could have seen the idea presented in a more palatable light. It is so obviously unfair to add a 39th fixture anywhere, let alone potentially on the other side of the world. Don’t talk about seeding and draws, this notion is basically and critically flawed.
If there is a genuine reason to take the Premiership to the four corners of the globe (what do you mean, it’s round!) then there may be a way forward that is fairer. Groups of four clubs could be based for a week at a venue where they would each play one ‘home’ and one ‘away’ fixture from the regular thirty-eight game season.
The top five clubs could thus be seeded, so that the major ‘sell-out’ fixtures at home were protected. I for one would be, shall I say, less-opposed to a plan that sees our away game at Wigan (no offence) and our home game with Bolton (offence intended) played within walking distance of a California beach.
This plan is of course still unfair to fans of the smaller clubs who would lose a couple of opportunities to witness the big boys at first hand. If that was a significant issue then Bolton would have brought more than seven men and a whippet to the last meeting of the clubs at the Grove.
Let me make this point clear. I still don’t like the thought of any games being sold off in this fashion, but surely the numbskulls at the Premier League can try to make the proposal vaguely palatable? Oh, and while you are at it try and give us proper justification as well. How can you be so keen to promote the ‘Premiership brand’ overseas when you are preventing Arsenal supporters abroad from accessing Arsenal TV? (Damn, I wasn’t going to mention that today!)
Any Opus Finalists Out There?
Just a quick reminder about the O2 competion to win an Arsenal Opus. If you are one of the finalists looking to boost your vote then please feel free to drop me a line (gooner@(remove this)goonerholic.com) and I’ll include a few words about your photograph. I intend to start publishing the images this week, so be quick.
That’s it for another Sunday. Have a great day fellow ‘holics.
5 Responses to “Four Thousand Holes In Blackburn Lancashire”
I agree ‘holic, I don’t like the suggestion at all, but if they insist on doing this, there are other options, which could be considered. But clearly this half-baked idea is just about making more money for the billionaire owners and the other pigs around the trough that football has become.
Oi ‘holic. It turns out Arse TV does n’t work at the weekend!
Let’s tackle one problem at a time, Jackster.
😉
Playing any PL games out of England is a non starter. I still resent losing the 2 home games when the league was reduced to 20 clubs.
I am certainly not against PL teams playing meaningful matches across the globe.
My suggestion would be:
Change the CC to Championships clubs down only.
Use the CC fixture dates to play PL games.
This allows an earlier end to the season.
Assuming 4 teams have played in each of the CL & Uefa cup hold 4 qualifying groups of 3 from the remaining teams to eliminate 1 team from each group.
The 8 CL + Uefa clubs would then join a free draw with the remaining 8 teams from the groups, then onto 1/4 final, sf & final.
That would give some teams the chance of 6 games & the others a max of 4 games.
Call it the PL Global Cup & play all of it over 3 weeks, in May, at a single or multiple venue, anywhere they bloody well like.
That way the CL qualifiers are not playing any more games in the season & some of the poorer clubs have a chance of good revenue.
It would at least save the integrity of the PL.
Hope you don’t mind me taking the opportunity to provide a link for anyone wanting to register their disapproval of the proposed idiocy that is the 39th game. You can sign this petition at the link below, although tallying at over 4000 in just the last couple of days many many more names are needed to make these fools sit up and take notice that fans will not tolerate this ruthless profiteering. Cheers and keep up the good work GH!
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?Rocky7