The Interlull, Another Perspective
Oct 15th, 2012 by 'holic
As a passionate Englishman and someone who is still very patriotic I recently started to wonder why international breaks were not something that I looked forward to? I remember the days when I used to await the announcement of the international squads with great anticipation, with a view to unloading bucket loads of abuse on rival fans as The Arsenal had more players called up than their shower had. That has all changed. Like many I now dread these breaks. My sole aim is to try and just get everyone back unscathed. I counted them all out, I counted them all back again? If only.
It was with all of this in mind that a few months I accepted an invite received via e mail to purchase tickets for the San Marino game. 2 adults and 2 kids for £60 was not only a bargain, but it also meant that Mrs T got an airing. The kids would surely enjoy a Wembley outing on a Friday evening? I would also use the opportunity to try and work out why I viewed the interlull as that and not something I looked forward to anymore.
So, after a quick bite to eat centrally we made our way to Wembley. Arriving an hour before kick off it became immediately apparent that very few had taken anything from the Olympic experience. Not one member of staff with a smile or willing to assist those in need. We walked up to the stadium with a mixture of families to the Neanderthal. No real surprise there then I guess. It was only as I entered the stadium that I started to get it. Some marvel at Wembley. When I think about what we managed to build for far less and in the fraction of the time it makes you start to wonder. Wembley of course has the capacity but I would say that is about it. Everything is still massively overpriced, even by Arsenal standards.
We took our seats, kids very excited, Mrs T less so if I am brutally honest. It is then that I start to look for comparisons to The Grove and the Arsenal match day experience. As the game unfolded I realised there were very few. It was nice to see families make the effort, but this was more of a tourist event than a football match. The announcement of the teams immediately identified the club loyalties of those close by. A group of young spuds sat in front, I just sniggered at their expense. My two had already decided that Cashley was getting the treatment if he played. It mattered not a jot that he was in an England shirt. Some Liverpool fans to my right went mad at the introduction of Jon Jo Shelvey? No, I don’t get it either.
Five minutes in and my worst fears are realised. I now know why I am not a fan of these matches. Theo is taken out by someone who has studied at the Harald Schumacher School of goalkeeping. I use the brief pause to survey those around me. I rapidly conclude that South Africa has a lot to answer for. Whoever thought that a vuvu’kingzela was a good idea wants shooting. Two brats to my left will never know how close they came to having theirs permanently inserted somewhere that is an exit only route for the vast majority.
20 minutes later and the first Mexican wave starts. I refuse to participate. For those throwing their undercrackers at Gary Barlow during a Take That concert, it might be considered appropriate behaviour. For me they should be banned totally at football matches. The game continues and I have rapidly come to the conclusion that as a spectacle, this is not a patch one what I am privileged to watch at The Grove. Quite frankly, the current Arsenal side for all it faults would wipe the floor with the side I witnessed at Wembley.
We depart 5 minutes before the end to beat the queues, something else I would never do at The Grove. It is now time to reflect on the whole experience. The highlight was obviously a goal for AOC. The kids also enjoyed themselves. Apart from that, not a lot else. The standard of football was not a patch on the play I am treated to on a regular basis. The stadium, apart for the capacity is not a patch on The Grove and the journey to and from is still a shambles. It leaves me wanting to get home. It leaves me with the feeling of exactly how lucky I am to have been born a Gooner.
Despite being a proud Englishman I am now more than aware of reasons that the International break holds no positive feelings for me. It is just another unnecessary interruption to what I now call real football. I will continue to just hope that all those that depart, just return fit and healthy. For my part I will continue to turn up week in week out. I, like many others will have the odd moan. But I will also realise that on occasions just how lucky we all are. We are lucky enough to support a fantastic club and watch great football in the best stadium in the country. Let’s be honest, it’s not a bad situation to find ourselves in, is it?
Keep the faith.
440 Responses to “The Interlull, Another Perspective”
It’s like there’s more posts during the interlull than at other times!
Cutting a long story short, I promised to post a pic of Steve’s young ‘uns on the night. Here they are…
Cheers, Steve T, that was a pleasant and edifying reading.
Nothing like putting yourself in situ to assess your interlull feelings.
Fair play to you.
Excellent post Steve, thanks for sharing.
I’ve only ever seen the new Wembley on the box, it does nothing for me.
ps Great looking kids.
Beautiful T kids!! Now to read the T column …
Superb, wide boy. 🙂
Incognito, apply the common sense filter before posting about one of ours, comprendez?
2 crackin’ saucepans as well….
Thanks Steve T for an excellent report. Funny that Mrs. T figured it out sooner than you did …
twitter, I am sorry. I’ve said loads of shit about you, but I bow down to your powers.
I am now ticketed for Schalke, in less time than I would ever have dreamed of.
Good stuff, Ollster. 😀
Good shout, Steve T.
BMBD.
Ollie@10, happy to hear that!
Steve, great stuff.
“20 minutes later and the first Mexican wave starts. I refuse to participate.”
Well done, mate! The Mexican wave has no place in football. It is just plain wrong.
Cheers Steve T,
The smiles on the kids faces are worth more than the price of admission any day.
Your description of the game and the crowd is why I don’t like our domestic league. As discussed in the previous drinks, I find it hard to support our league here in the states. MLS is all those things you just described and more. Drums, cheerleaders, dancers, vuvuzelas, chants ( not really singing) , the wave. It is pomp and circumstance around a mid-quality game.
I know I am being harsh and if there are people here who love MLS then I do not mean to offend, but we have failed to get it right. Again, we have tried the same formula as before ( see my previous drink on the NASL) and have only succeeded in ” Americanizing” the game.
It says something when I could just drive the family 4 hours to see an MLS game but instead I am willing to bring them 5000 miles to see an Arsenal game and get the real experience.
Off my soap box.
Oh, no! Not another holdout converted to Twitter. Happy travels to Gelsenkirchen, Ollie. 😉
That goes for ‘Oles’ too.
Yep, I’m chuffed, Lars. All we need now is good news from washed up, though I guess he can only wait and won’t know until a week before the game.
NorCal, It is interesting to hear you say that MLS is the same formula as NASL. I haven’t attended an MLS game but would be fascinated to get the chance, and to assess the changes as they may be, 35-odd years later. Especially if I could attend a game in Seattle where they seem to actually have more of an international football atmosphere in the stadium from what I can tell on the television. But it does seem to be a bit of an oxymoron to say we should succeed in having soccer in the U.S. without “Americanizing” the game in significant ways.
england are a thing of the past, club over country, all day long.
I do love the emirates stadium but i would change a few things..like i really dont like the name emirates stadium, i like ashburton grove i really hope we take this name on soon and i would also like the big arsenal lettering outside the stadium to be in red and white.. i would fucking love to see more realistic huge gold canons dotted around the stadium too
Was a joke Holic’.
Wasn’t funny mate. You know why…
Fair enough. No harm meant.
I know, otherwise you wouldn’t be here any more. Just a yellow 😉
Something not related to anything but heh:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/10/monkey-anonymous/
Nicely done Steve T and your kids are adorable 🙂 Children do tend to have a greater capacity to amuse themselves. I just feel that if Team Great Britain played better, then it wouldn’t feel like a total loss. Brazil’s Team totally rocks because they have the best of the best on their team. So maybe Roy got his selection wrong, you think? Other than AOC and Theo of course 🙂
Just noticed ‘holic is close to 10,000 followers. You’ll need a bigger bar. 😉
Team Great Britain, abb? They existed for one tournament and by the look of it, one and one only it will remain (until they get the Olympics again).
Team GB
Groan – manufactured nonsense.
Dr z, scourge of Twitter 😉
Every time I get close I lose a few Ollie. I think I have reached my ceiling, much like the balloon Felix was in yesterday 😉
Good work Steve T.
Other than that it would be nice to win something, I have to say that everything I have heard about the new Wembley leaves me with no real wish to go there.
And I think we all feel the same way about the apparantly immovable nucleus of the current England team, although Terry’s departure improves things a bit.
Good looking kids Steve. Your daughter reminds me of a young Jenny Agutter around the Railway Children time.
Hope they enjoyed their day.
Holic @30 –
Dr Z spends most of his time ON the ceiling. 😉
The Felix thing summed up Twitter.
Seven years he and his team have invested their blood, sweat and tears. They have secured millions of dollars of funding for the most technologically advanced equipment and systems to support their dream. Not only did they succeed in getting Felix to his target, and beyond, but they also had the wherewithal to get the capsule and all of the data back to earth in one piece thereby providing valuable information for future space travellers in the event of a catastrophe.
Summed up by one bloke on Twitter.
“Felix’ girlfriend so let him do her up the bottle Saturday night…”
Great write up Steve. Happy for the kids and for you for the joy they bring you.
NorCal – I have to disagree re MLS crowds, they are not even close to dull international games crowds. If there’s one good thing about the MLS it’s the crowd.
Since most crowds are dominated (whether in numbers or decision makers) by Hispanics, the MLS crowds resemble the South American ones.
It is a far cry from the “d-fence” chanting NBA and NFL crowd.
There are other factors, but I’ll leave it at that for now.
P.S – if you want, I wrote a paper about the major differences between American and European sports, including fandom.
I can email it to you.
Wow. Internet ate my drink.
No matter, it wasn’t very funny.
Nice work Steve T, and great kids. Their smiles win the day over your legitimate gripes! 😉
Team GB – no thanks.
That reminds me – If we evolved from apes, how come there is still Gareth Bale ?
8ball,
I have probably been a bit harsh on MLS. They have made strides. They also have a lot more money than NASL ever dreamed of. They have built some “soccer” only stadiums, although I believe Seattle plays in a gridiron stadium. They have engaged the communities more and have developed a youth system that is associated with the team. These are big steps in the right direction.
I believe that we need another generation before we have world class American players. My fathers generation had few Americans who even played the game. My generation had more kids playing but were mostly coached by parents who were new to the game. This generation is seeing success ( by the women’s team and more men playing in top leagues) and are playing with and being coached by people who have a real passion for the game. The next group ( hopefully my five year old 😉
will generate the world class players.
When I say they have Americanized the game, I am referring to the cheerleaders, dancers, loud music and chanting. These attempts at making the sport more like basketball and gridiron football make me cringe. The sport is unique and has its own traditions, I just wish MLS didn’t encourage some of these things.
Snir – “fandom”. Is this a whole world of fannies ? 😉
Snir, would love to read your paper.
‘Holic if you could pass on my email it would be much appreciated.
Oh, and I have heard and seen the D-fence cheer at MLS games. 😉
Scourge of twitter, on the ceiling….
which came first I wonder?
Incidentally, Wembley has never been the same since they banned swinging on the crossbar after the game….
Somehow, at the same time as my heart is screaming for real football my liver is shouting for the real drink.
And yes, I know my liver is not normal.
But I have a love – hate relation with my liver-ionee. Bless her.
Where is Saturday?
And a massive heh @ 33
So true
Didn’t mean to leave Joe Hart and Ashley out of the team, sorry lads 🙂
So you know what would be great fun? Team Brazil taking on the Arsenal! Really. Think about it.
NorCal – interesting post @37.
We’ve seen some attempts at what I would describe as Americanisation at The Emirates.
We had the Elvis Presley “anthem” randomly foisted upon us which had nothing to do with Arsenal at all.
We have the stadium announcer prompting us to call back the players’ names just before kick off.
And we now don’t just go to a game, we have a “match day experience”.
In England, teams have formed around workplaces, and communities have grown up with football clubs sited right at their cores.
Historic rivalries have grown within and between towns and cities.
Family traditions, school friendships and skirmishes, and childhood introductions to teams, cement support for a club which will never change.
You cannot hope to replicate all of that just because you start playing the game in a place or a stadium that has no history of it.
In another hundred years, maybe, as our top clubs are now around 125 years old.
Great oaks, tiny acorns and all that though, NorCal.
Sorry, afc, but the stadium will not be named Ashburton Grove ‘cos either Emirates will renew, ir someobe else will buy the naming rights. Unfortunate but, these days, necessary.
The PA announcer and the names thing isn’t American.
It’s all over Europe.
It originated in Germany.
The crowd always shouts back the name pre-kickoff.
But the main thing, would be the crowd shouting the name of the scorer.
It would be something like this:
PA: Goal for Dortmund! And the scorer is: Robert…
Crowd: Lewandowski
PA: Robert…
Crowd: Lewandowski
PA: Robert…
Crowd: Lewandowski
And the score is – Dortmund:
Crowd: 1 (or whatever it is)
PA: Bayern (or whatever opponent):
Crowd: 0 (some crowds say whore or cunts or whatever).
PA: Thank you
Crowd: You’re welcome! (Yes, they really do that, and it’s funny!)
Here is a good example of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKxAHwLOakw
And yes – I know it’s a Bayern video 🙂
But nonetheless, it’s common in Europe.
I hear you Trev. History is a big part of the game and why European’s have the club in their blood so to speak.
The MLS is trying to appeal to the masses and build up a fan base to enjoy the” match day experience”. I get that, I understand the marketing.
But what appeals to me personally, is the history, the identity of the club. I have not written my ” part 2″ on my original post from the previous drinks but that history and passion and club identity is what made me want to be a Gooner.
Good work Snir. What happened in Seattle, bro? Sorry, but I couldn’t resist. 😛
BMBD.
Hey lonestar. Do you ever make it to FC Dallas games?
I’d like to go but I just don’t identify with the team. Maybe it’s my loss.
What happened?!?!?! Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am not lying when I say that I hate Devin McCourty. I feel genuine hatred towards the dude. He is so poor it’s nuts, yet BB perseveres with him. Since BB will never cut him, I think it’s better if he’d get injured. He reduces our chances to win.
Every time the ball is in the air, I have my heart in my mouth. It’s either a reception or a pass interference. I am sick of it.
That secondary has got to go. TB12 can’t carry those poor players anymore.
Top read, Steve T. And the kids look delightful. Fully agree with what you say about the gulf in quality between top Premiership sides and the England XI, though that may say more about England than anything.
NorCal, bt8b: I wonder if the MLS made a mistake trying to turn football into an American sport, consigning it inevitably to being the fourth or fifth ranked pro sport in the U.S. It might have been better off playing up its differences. The MLB, NBA and NFL can convincingly say that they are able to offer the best of their sports in the the world (not so sure about the NHL) but the MLS and NASL can’t. There is a big enough audience for the game in the U.S. that knows that. Embracing the bigger soccer world might have been the way to go, even if it flies in the face of American commercial exceptionalism that every marketing consultant no doubt tried to foist on the MLS.
Part 2
Most of you can skip to the next drink now. 😉
So how did I become a Gooner and why?
In 1994 the World Cup came to America and I went to Europe. I was finished with college, had been working for a few years and going to apply for med school in the fall. I did not need a second invitation when some friends of mine were planning a 2 month backpacking trip to Europe.
Only one of my traveling companions cared much about the World Cup and as such she and I would spend most evenings in a bar watching the games. As the trip progressed our traveling group would either grow or shrink based on who we met along the way and who had what plans. On the train to Budapest we met a couple from Portugal who stayed with us for about 2 weeks. Joao was an avid football fan (Porto) and joined in on the nightly drinking and football watching.
By the time the final game was on (Italy vs Brazil) we had drunk or way to Athens.
Per ritual we arrived at the bar about an hour before kickoff. We sat at an outside table that had a good view of the game. Shortly after our arrival a father and son ( James and David ) who sat next to us speaking the queens English. As the drinks and conversation continued to flow it revolved around the one topic we had in common: Football. Five people from 3 different countries ( England, Portugal and america)watching a game being played 6000 miles away by 2 different countries.
Continued from above…… (Premature posting)
As the game unfolded in front of us we discussed many things about the sport but what I really appreciated and found intriguing was listening to James and David talk about Arsenal. The history, the passion, the identification with the team. The only thing I could equate it with at the time was religion. Highbury was the cathedral. The team was the fabric that wove each generation together.
The game ended but the conversation and drinking did not. I wish I remembered it all. But that night and the next day when the conversation resumed I became a Gooner.
Over the years Internet and then TV coverage improved. 8 more years of school 2 wives 3 kids and most of my debt paid off and now I am going to get to see Arsenal, live. Next month my pilgrimage awaits.
Cheers everyone. If you made it this far you deserve a drink!
Oh and if I spoke Portuguese or Joao spoke better English I would probably be a Porto supporter instead.
NorCal, Bravo! Great story, told brilliantly. It’s as if I had been there myself, or at least I wished I had been. 🙂
Re: NBN @53. I hate the way this is starting to sound like a post-mortem on the MLS, which I have been and still am hoping will turn out to be a great success. Your description of the things that may be going wrong in the marketing approach are exactly what I thought went wrong with the NASL. So, without really knowing much about what the MLS is doing, I would be very disappointed to hear if they did not learn the lessons of what went wrong 2 generations ago. They certainly have done some things right, like building soccer-only arenas in many cities, and the attendances seem to be better too. So I don’t think it is anywhere near time for post-mortems although I haven’t seen any financial reports on how the league is doing.
Sorry for the grammatical errors above. The first entry posted as I was typing, before any proof reading and while getting dinner together.
Anyway that’s my interBull contribution.
Goodnight.
Thanks 8ball,
I don’t think the MLS is anywhere near collapse. It was not meant to be a post- mortem on my part. Only an opinion and commentary on why I don’t identify with any team.
It’s sad because it is a bit hypocritical on my part to want a club to have history but then not make an attempt to contribute. If I lived closer to a team maybe my tune would be different.
Snir, I look forward to reading your paper.
NorCal. I share your problem of not living close enough to an MLS team to feel a part of it. But moving to Seattle could be a solution. Here’s some positive attendance numbers, as of August, in that city at least:
http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/08/20/gaudy-home-attendance-numbers-bring-best-out-seattle
Then there’s this article, also from August, saying the entire league was averaging over 18,000 per game which seems healthy enough just so long as the salaries don’t explode too much.
Sorry, the second article is here:
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/rbny-fan-mls-currently-eighth-average-attendance-world-184500767–mls.html
And one more for good measure. This actually has the most complete attendance information for all cities in MLS, and shows there are several potential trouble spots where they average only about 13,000.
http://mlsattendance.blogspot.com/
The main reason that Soccer doesn’t pick up in the US is lack of pride in the Collegiate level.
If you research, you’ll see that Soccer is one of the most played sports in the US till the age of 18, more so even than Basketball (on an organized level I mean, of course).
The reason there is a huge decrease in the number of players who keep on playing is that there is no incentive to do so.
Football players grow up dreaming of playing for the ‘Sooners, Notre Dame, Wolverines, et al. Basketball players dream of playing at UNC, UConn, or UK.
For Hockey players, it’s the Junior leagues in Canada.
For Baseball players, well, they go on because Baseball is America’s past-time and there is of course a decrease in American talent as opposed to Asian and Latin talent.
As for Soccer players, they know that the MLS isn’t the something to dream for, and that intermediate step of collegiate level is not tempting whatsoever.
As we are expanding our Soccer coverage (FSC, FSP, and ESPN2 actually show more live games than in the UK), people start dreaming of making the move and playing professional Soccer in Europe, namely the Premier League.
Just a small example.
http://nbcprosoccertalk.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/auatlmgcaaaxkqt-large.jpg
Snir,
I’ll agree that there is a drop at age 18 when college soccer experiences a huge drop in incentive. That has improved since I was a kid. I think I mentioned to you before that there wasn’t a division one soccer team at any of the major universities in Texas when I was looking for colleges. That is not true now. I will also agree that may be the reason our women’s team fairs better internationally. There have been power colleges in women’s soccer for decades ( UNC, Portland, Norte Dame…). Girls have dreamed playing for those schools. There is also less competition for our top athletes in women’s sports ( No football, less basketball).
I will also add that we lose a group of players at about age 12. This happens because some of our best athletes make a decision at that age to concentrate on a single sport and that sport is most often not soccer for some of those same reasons you state.
I hope that with a better youth system and recruiting system we may be able to change these trends.
As I stated above, I think those attitudes will change with more generations that have played and coached the sport.
That was an excellent read Steve T. Thanks
Norcal, great story. Have a good trip to the home of football
NorCal @ 54 & 55
Nice one.
Or rather, two.
NorCal, Snir and others with an interest in the MLS: I, too, certainly don’t write it off. Its core problem is money. The big money in American pro sport is elsewhere. The very best young American athletes go into baseball, football or basketball because that is where they will earn the most. Not all will make it, of course, but the bigger the honey pot the more the bees. So unlike in Europe or South America, the MLS’s talent pool starts out comparatively depleted. The symbiotic relationship between TV and pro sport makes it difficult for any up and coming sport to break the cycle. If America’s top student athletes were trained up as footballers, the USA would be one of, if not the best team in the world in short order.
…and NorCal, great story of your European adventures. Glad it turned out so well.
Final thought; it is not just soccer that suffers form the talent drain to the big leagues. Many a wide receiver in the NFL is fast enough to be on the USA Olympic track and field team.
Well chuffed for Ollie. Good stuff.
What Snir said at 46. I saw it at Dortmund and it was mighty impressive. When it works it’s totally amazing.
Cheers Esso.
You can imagine I’m chuffed too, and someone else is too. Got a frank but completely fair exchange and understood where the mistake/omission came from even if it was still silly. As I said, he’s a totally good lad, and I can forgive him now.
In other news, since Ben has made his N-2 announcements, looks like we have a new division boss.
Sorry, ‘Ben’ didn’t announce anything, it’s the ‘Performance Program Team’.
I heard that there’s no relegation in the MLS. Is that true?
If so, maybe introducing such a system where there’s imminent danger for teams that perform poorly might add to the excitement.
A lack of men remaining interested in continuing down the football route, would have a detrimental effect on the US national team. But then again on the other hand, if it’s currently easier to get a contract with an MLS club, more people can achieve their dream of being a professional footballer. That must count for something 8)
CoR – that too is on my paper 😉
But that’s not the reason that the MLS isn’t as big as other leagues because there is no relegation in the other leagues as well.
If anything, American sports have a far more level playing field (relates to your ” more exciting” comment) because of drafts and significance of free agency.
Good morning,all.
Thanks for the post,Steve,your kids look like they were having fun on the night.
Abb,Arsenal playing Brazil will definitely be fun.
Norcal,i don’t think anybody ignored your first post,i think we were all waiting for the part 2 and now it’s here i’m reading it. Nice account overall. I will take that drink,thank Bergkamp you didnt understand Portuguese.
One day i will write my own account of “how i became a gooner” maybe this evening if i can get through with work early.
@76: Ah okay. I haven’t read your paper (maybe you should send it me too!) but from what I’ve seen and heard, the MLS as a product seems to be alright.
Other established American sports seem to have their number though.
Generations of supporters for baseball etc, and money passing hands that would make Blatter blush, for NBA, NFL TV contracts…
I’m just recycling stuff I heard from people though.
I do have a few friends plying their trade in the MLS and they seem to enjoy the scene 🙂
Snir’s paper is quickly becoming a document to get hold of, for all sports analysts on here 🙂
Firstly, excellent read Steve T, Transport for London made me scowl but you turned it into a smile on my bus journey into college 🙂
Btw, you indeed do have beautiful kids mate, seems like they had a great night out, and you and them must have cheered on the Ox’s goal loud and proud as Gooners, right? 😉
Next, excellent posts overall NorCal! I was reading your drinks on “1989 Remembered’ about the MLS but this new post came out before I could comment on them, keep it up as its always interesting to hear about the inner workings of Soccer *shudders at the use of the word*. On the atmosphere, I remember watching a film this year or the last (can’t remember the name) where the main character gets invited to an LA Galaxy game by someone who at the game starts signing “Let’s Go Galaxy, Let’s Go!” *cringe* and gets told to shut up another fan and it starts to degenerate into a fight, fictional as this example is, does that relate in anyway to the lack of atmosphere and the enforced chanting you were talking about?
And nice story of you backpacking across Europe also, seems like you had a great summer 🙂
Snir, if I DM you my e-mail or send it to you on Facebook, can you e-mail me your paper too? Quite interested in it 😀
How come I haven’t read Snir’s paper on Twitter?
You mean it’s longer than 140 characters?
Oh well, can somone at least post the highlights on YouTube?
Damn you to hell, interlull, I am so bored……… 🙁
Where do I sign for a copy of Snir’s paper?
Boo. Down with interlulls. Boo.
NorCal@54/55: I have of course heard plenty of stories about “it was Bergkamp” or “my family has been Gooners for generations” and so on but I think this must be the first story of someone becoming a Gooner thanks to a piss-up in Athens 🙂
Four sleeps ’til proper footie returns. Stay strong my friends, stay strong!
Great story NorCal. Surely the goonerholic family can find James and David from the Athens bar? They’ll probably be at the Emirates for your visit.
Steve T Thanks for the post.
I too would like a copy of Snir’s paper. Any suggestions?
MLS crowds sound good compared to Australia’s A-League but as someone whose only exposure to football growing up was the weekly highlights package from the old Division One a week after it was played (hoping that Arsenal’s match would be featured) I have no trouble identifying with and supporting my hometown team in the A-League.
I’ll upload it somewhere I guess.
Got an A on it, so you should like it 🙂
Bear in mind it’s the first paper I wrote so its not that long and obviously I coulda written more but it’s still pretty detailed.
P.S – I recently formatted my computer and found the file in my email (sent to my dad of course :)) so it could be a rough draft, but nonetheless, it’s still cool.
Ollie, Glad to hear it all worked out. Genießen Sie Ihre Reise.
NorCal, a nice story and I agree with Lars, that’s the first time I ever heard anyone becoming a gooner in such a fashion.
Back, for one last time, to the US.
Doesn’t Silent Stan own a MLS team?
I seem to remember reading something about the Colorado Rapids, that they were going to be our sister team in the States and that we would be sharing facilities and training regimes and have an exchange programme set up.
I also believe that there were plans to change the name of the franchise/team to the Colorado Arsenal, but I’m not sure if anything ever came of that.
(To our American bretheren) If there was indeed an Arsenal in the States would you then feel a connection to them?
NorCal @51- I haven’t attended any FC Dallas matches. I intend to do so, but the grounds are in Frisco (about 45mins north of Dallas – for those unfamiliar with Texas) and traffic can be a real bear. I also agree with you regarding lack of connection with the team. I’m not sure what the team’s strategy is for recruiting supporters, but the strategy is not working. They just are not a compelling squad.
I want to support an MLS team, but I’m pretty sure when I do select a squad, it will be Seattle.
BMBD.
A quick google later and I found that they’re even on pravda;
http://www.arsenal.com/usa/colorado-rapids
NorCal – good story.
You clearly understand how inseparable the history is from the support, and that is what captivated you.
Teams, communities, towns, cities and football clubs have their fabric woven into each other. Only time can fix that, but there still has to be desire and motivation for the club to form in the first place, as Snir has written about.
Hope you enjoy your trip to the HoF, when are you coming over?
The Tollie Brollie awaits ……..
http://www.docdroid.net/1haw/paper-one.doc.html
Here it is.
It’s a preview.
To get the whole file, press on download on the top right.
Lonestar –
Therein lies the problem. In countries where “soccer” is THE game, you do not look around and choose the squad you like most – well, Chelsea and ManUre fans do – that choice evolves through family, school, geography and friends – or enemies !
Picking a squad you have no real connection to can never generate the same passion and loyalty as those other factors.
That’s not a criticism of you or football in the U.S., just, I believe, thecway it is.
Maybe soccer and fandom in the US struggles because it is such a vast country.
It must be very difficult to follow a team away from home every other week, and as some have said above, they have never been to a game at all because all the stadia are too far away.
Options for this evening
Watch England
Watch Scotland
Watch Wales
Suicide due to all of the above options
Trev – That is exactly why I said back in that post (I can’t remember who wrote it) that I will always feel inferior to you guys, and a “level B” supporter because of the lack of ” you do not look around and choose the squad you like most, that choice evolves through family, school, geography and friends – or enemies !”
I wasn’t educated on Arsenal by my dad. I was educated on Maccabi. So, just like I’ll always feel inferior to y’all, I know that I’m a superior Maccabi fan to anyone who starts liking Maccabi because he “chose to” without one of those factors.
I agree wholeheartedly with your conviction.
You don’t choose a team, it chooses you.
Just like I had no choice when I was a little kid. Anything other than Maccabi woulda been met with a stern talking to. Perhaps even punishment.
But luckily it didn’t get to that, and my two brothers didn’t have much of a choice either 🙂
Whips it into the box as if anticipating a first miinute goal at Norwich after a two weeks wait.
Nonny, You always have a way of cheering me up 🙂 ! Cent, So agree. It’s always been a fantasy of mine to see Arsenal take on Brazil. Bet Arsene would be tickled pink as well. What I really am interested in is how Neymar would cope with the likes of Jenks and Gibbs, breathing down his neck. He gets fouled alot but the marking isn’t as tight as it is in England. And Kaka is finding his form again. Would be an utterly fantasic match up 🙂 Norcal, your final installment read like a charm, twas fate you found the Arsenal in such a round about fashion. I would know 🙂
Re: Snir @90. To download the whole paper, how much money is required, and what percentage do you get? What is Ms. Welch’s share? 😉
Nonny: Dirty Spain vs useless France.
And danke schön, H2H, mein Freund.
If I may assist….?
BMBDEWTD.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. 🙂
(That was Barcelona Must Be Destroyed Except When They Don’t.)
Not bad at all Snir.
====
Trev, I agree with a lot of what you posted. Why am I a gooner, well because I was born in Holloway, plain and simple, but that was back in the sixties, football has come a long way since then and over the last few years with the advancements in TV coverage and internet it’s literaly a brand new ball game.
Nowadays an African will pick the team a local lad plays for, a Korean will do the same and another from a far away place may pick a team based on something as trivial as the colour of the shirt or that they like the sound of the name, thousands of different fans from a hundred different places with a million different reasons for supporting their team of choice.
8ball – completely free from what I saw…
No?
Snir.
We’ll have none of that inferior stuff around here thank you very much.
You’re a gooner, plain and simple.
All Gooners are equal.
But some are more equal than others
*The Feelgood Foundation is an unequal opportunities employer.
Thank you Dr F Orwell.
And Heh.
Nonny @ 92
4 is natural by-product of 2.
(For those that care.
Personally, if they were playing in my back garden, I would close the blinds).
Heh,
Meet Dr Forwell*,
*sounds of yet further shattering of personality heard in the distance*
I have no option, it will be Romania v The Netherlands here on the box in the bar and my head hanging under the beer tap.
Snir @103. I say cash in now while you have a captive audience. Just kidding. 😉
Dr Forwell, heh.
H2H – You know what I mean.
I will never, ever have the same connection with The Arsenal that you guys have.
No doubt about it, I consider myself a Gooner, but there are plenty of stuff that are of added importance/significance to other English Gooners that mean absolutely nothing to me or anyone who isn’t English.
It just comes with the education.
For instance, the whole “letting yourself down” wishing injury on another player.
In Israel, there’s no such thing. Winning is the most important thing, and if someone needs to be injured in order to increase Maccabi’s chances of winning, so be it.
@ 109
Facing upwards, I hope 😉
Nice work Snir… good to see you got a mention of The Arsenal in there! 🙂
Snir, although I strongly disagree that you’re a second class gooner, we’ll just leave it that.
===
Good advice Z’.
*jots it down on a Post-it and sticks to tap*
Morning all.
Appreciate all the well wishes for our trip next month.
My wife has made it clear that this trip is the ” family trip” so there may be less Arsenal than I wish. I have been given the green light for another trip in the spring though.
H2H,
Is it considered torture or waterboarding if you use Beer? I vaguely remember some instances in my youth of being upside down with beer being poured down me, usually with a funnel.
This song is for all holics not born in England. “For He’s a Jolly Good Gooner, For He’s a Jolly Good Gooner, For He’s a Jolly Good Gooner, Which Nobody Can Deny!’ Glad that’s settled 🙂 When I think of how passionately Snir has defended The Arsenal, well, I’m awestruck. And how about Ollie, season after season, making the pilgrimage to see them play. And then there’s Dr Z, risking the wrath from Roxette just to see our lads play. And me, wrestling the TV remote away from a certain grumpy Italiano, to watch our games, risking life and limb in the process (many a bribe too). Got to count for something 🙂
Snir,
Enjoyed the paper. Thanks for posting it.
Also have enjoyed all the discussions during the interBull here in the bar.
Guinness or single malt (or both) for the owner!
NorCal – It was more on sports rather than fans, but close enoug 😀
Safe trip!
*enough
NorCal.
I think it would be considered torture if you kept me away from beer. 😉
Watching kenya vs south africa friendly, we are a goal down. Wanyama is very tidy at DFM, hope macpurplenose is not really serious about this one, hes truly something. Go Kenya!
Ooooh, good lookin kids Steve, the little one looks trouble!
My tuppence on the equality of Gooners issue:
A person is born with family, but chooses the friends who become his family.
I feel inferior to no Gooner. Sure there are inside commentaries and memories I do not have, but I share that temporal limitation with my fellow Cowboys or Longhorns fans. And going forward, I will share the new memories with Gooners worldwide thanks to the Guv’na.
Like NorCal, I chose the Arsenal (although not by way of a piss-up in Athens)…but, in a profound sense, the Arsenal chose me too.
Now on to this paper of your, Snir. Nice goal, 8ball. BTW, Stan or no, I ain’t supporting no damn Colorado Rapids. Corporate synergy only goes so far.
BMBD.
While I agree with Snir about what Arsenal means to different kinds of fans, I’m also with H2H and Lonestar – noone is in any way inferior to anybody else because of that.
So, that’s enough serious stuff. What’s on TV ……. Oohhh ! 🙁
Let me throw my two penn’orth in. There probably are two categories, but not classes, of supporter.
Them that are bitten for life. That’s you I know Snir, you aren’t second-class anything.
There are others who get caught up as a ‘fashion’ supporter. A bit like my following the Chicago Bears from afar. I watch them when I can, I have seen them in the flesh at Wembley. However that wouldn’t have happened if American Football didn’t get shown live here from 1985 and it was the done thing to have a club and wear the jersey. I have no real emotional attachment to the Bears. Well not in the all-encompassing feelings I have for the Arsenal anyway.
If the Bears moved tomorrow I would just stop watching. If Arsenal vanished I would have lost a significant chunk of my raison d’être.
I seem to have the choice of many games, Poland vs England (meh), Germany vs Sweden (tempting), but I think I’ll just stick to the obvious, even if it’s 11 cnuts vs 10cnuts+Koscielny.
France’s midfield should get eaten alive tonight. And a red card wouldn’t suprise me. That’s what the virtual Olliepound is on.
Holic @126 –
Maybe that just means that ‘fashion’ supporters have a seedless raison d’etre. 😉
Italy vs Denmark also available.
Have just seen Evra. Annoyed Kos is playing. Otherwise I’d be perfectly happy for Spain to give France a drubbing.
Evening everyone.
First of all thank you all for your comments. All greatly appreciated.
Gooners one and all. I am not sure anything else matters. I am certainly not going to start catergorising genuine fans. We are all different and all have different stories to tell. Whatever that maybe, whatever path has been trodden, we are all united in our love for one club. That quite simply is enough for me.
Ollie, Based on your somewhat vague description I have a feeling we are watching the same game. Not that I expect we are supporting the same team of course …
I did just get a bottle of your French Carignan, however, which I will enjoy most robustly later on. Cheers!
At half time NL lead Romania 3-1 in a pretty decent game.
*places head back under tap*
I’ll drink to that, Steve T. On Lars’ tab.
I have no idea who you support in that game bt8. I only support Koscielny.
A bit of a mess in Poland at the moment, I’m reading that they may postpone the game and play it tomorrow.
I didn’t know they could do that, sounds like a logistical nightmare.
Santi about to come on.
One good guy in each team.
I think I hate the French players I hate more than I hate the Spanish ones though.
The scenes in Poland is a complete joke. Take one stadium with a retractable roof. Take one weather forecast which predicts heavy rain. Only FIFA would make a decision not to close the roof, and then start scratching their heads when shock of all shocks the pitch looks like a duck pond. It makes my experience look positively encouraging.
Ollie, I always support Spain but now the satellite has blown so I must search for it on the computer. This all happened before Santi came on. Who did he replace?
Silva, bt8.
Now ESPN have radio coverage at least on the computer so I hear it’s Spain 1- 0 France. Sergio Ramos apparently?
Indeed bt8.
Watching Czechs versus Bulgaria ..painful to watch ..imagine Stoke playing against Sunderland for example and you will get picture of how enjoyable that match is so far.
Kos conceded pelanty now (after France goal disallowed for a very very marginal offside)
Lloris save of Cesc penalty. Kos off the hook?
Shit pelanty. I hate Lloris.
Pedro and Cesc both had good chances after sublime Xavi chipped ball. Two more saves by Lloris.
What did Lloris do to offend, Ollie?
Other than sign for Spurs, I mean.
Kos lucky it was just a yellow. Poor attempt by Cesc.
Equalizer probably should have counted.
NorCal. Equalizer looked like a good goal as far as I could see. Would have to see slow motion replay from a few new angles to see whether offside call was justified.
Satellite reformed at about the 30th minute of the first half.
bt8:
1) played for Lyon
2) plays for Spu*s
I think the offside call was one you normally give to the attacker, it was marginal if ever it existed.
It’s one of these when you have to remember that the rule is ‘any part of the body that can play the ball’ though.
Someone please tell Alexi Lalas he was a mediocre player and worse commentator.
The Dutch win 4-1 in Romania, 2nd half not as good as the first.
England game finally called off, now there argueing when it should be played. England want to play tomorrow, Poland not so keen, odd situation.
Ollie, I also think nene was behind the ball when played and he was definitely behind the sliding Spamish player.
I meant menez. Not sure why it corrected to “nene”
I think Benzema may have been offside in the first ball, NCA. But again, if that, it’s one you wouldn’t normally give.
However, while both Nene and Menez play for PSG, Nene plays for Brazil 😉
Ha! Wires crossed.
Yeah. I think I typed “mene” and my phone corrected to “Nene”
I pretty sure my phone was made in china but maybe it has a Brazilian flair.
And yet it didn’t correct Spamish? Haha.
heh!
For my money Ollie, the sliding defender at the other post plays Benzetwat onside, but have only seen twice from not the best angle.
It’s a very very harsh decision, I agree.
If I cared and if it was given again Arsenal, I’d be furious.
But for France? Meh 😉
Wow, Sweden came back from 4-0 down against Germany to equalise in the last minute of injury time.
Germany don’t even have Phil Dowd’s terrible refereeing as a mitigating factor.
Our BFG scored?
He’s such a peach! 😉
Cazorla stupidly loses the ball from a corner, Giroud scores on the counter attack.
1-1, Cesc penalty miss and wrong offside call against France. Fair result. Good game.
Giroud scored a last second header to salvage a point for France. Wow. I mean just wow. And at the final whistle Santi came to congratulate Giroud with a big smile on his face. Such sportsmanship.
I feel bad for our BFG though. Got elbowed by Ibra when conceding the last second equaliser against Sweden.
Phenomenal games today nonetheless.. Giroud’s goal still leaving me rather speechless. Lost a little money since I bet on Spain, but seeing him score is probably worth it.
COYG. And roll on Saturday…
Ollie Juanfran was possibly just as guilty, losing the ball in a terrible area. Del Bosque though won’t be happy with Santi for tripping over the ball in a harmless area.
Deserved draw though, France played very well in the second half.
And they got lucky that Benzema picked a knock.
Juanfran was overall rather suspect indeed.
Good for Giroud getting on the scoresheet.
He’ll come back on a high and I hope in the mood to stick a few past the Canaries.
Very nice finish by Giroud. Composed and picked out the corner. France deserved the draw.
Was also glad to see Santi come over and hug Giroud.
Both Ronaldo and Suarez have had a miserable last few days as their teams had three defeats and one draw between them. See, international breaks have their advantages.
I was otherwise engaged most of the evening so I missed all the footie. I have seen the goals from the Germany-Sweden game and Mertesacker was not involved at all in the first three Swedish goals but failed to clear the ball with a header for the fourth – but this was mainly due to Ibrahimocunt elbowing him in the face so it should have been a free kick for Germany.
Happy to hear that Giroud scored as well, hopefully he can continue what he started v West Ham before the interbull.
Snir,i understand why you feel like you are less of a gooner but look at it from the aspect of religion,Christians who were converted outside of rome are not inferior Christians to Roman born/raised Christians just as Moslems who were converted outside Mecca are not inferior to muslims who were born/raised in Mecca,so i believe all gooners are equal just that those of us who stay far away from the Emirates can consider trips to Emirates as a pilgrimage. My two cents,sir.
*continues backdrinking*
Nice drinks above,gentlemen.
I think the Menez “goal” should have stood,Ramos sliding at the other end of the post kept him onside. For some reason i was happy to see Cesc miss the pelanty,maybe it was Kos of who conceeded it,anybody noticed Giroud movement for his goal?he had a defender (or two) on him before the ball was crossed but in one swift movement he sent them chasing shadows and made French hearts flutter.
Hahahaha, just saw the tail end of an episode of Criminal Minds on tv and the murderer’s name was Phil Dowd 😀
Lars,so they let him loose with a whistle in his hand,i see.
RIGHT.
Im not one for the national team. But, blimey Lars, you must be able to enjoy this. I haven’t celebrated a goal like the fourth since Henry’s against Leeds.
Right #2 that’s not true, Koscielny’s last goal last season was fucking brilliant.
But to go from 4-0 to 4-4 away from home to Germany…
Now, roll on Norwich! Arsenal focus back on!
Snir:
Don’t downplay your importance/dedication as a supporter to the mighty Arsenal…. it is legit, no less than other lifelong supporters (LeGrove anyone?)…..so you didn’t find the love until later in life, so what!!! It is how you support/feel after you got on the Arsenal bandwagon. It took me 35 years to discover the beautiful game and I was fortunate enough to decide to watch the Arsenal, blindly, thanks to TH14 at WC06 (I had no idea of the CL final btw). I remember the first match I watched which was a blah opener v. Wigan in 06 where Gilberto scored the tying goal. Arsenal hasn’t won squat since before I was a supporter but I couldn’t be happier in my choice. I’ve felt the highs and lows more than any other sport I’ve watched. Just can’t get enough….when does this BS interlull end?
Holic, Bears are looking good, big Monday night game next week. Can’t wait for the Red and White this weekend. COYR!!!!!!!!
@181: Cent, I think the way you put it is most apt. Great analogy. I agree, being a gooner means we all carry the same cross no matter where we are…
Great comeback by Sweden from 4-0 down! Unbelievable.
Probably flew under the radar but Japan played Brazil in a friendly and got spanked 4-0. Kagawa is shite. Does he know the offside rule? Don’t know how he got signed for Manure… I was pretty upset because I wanted all game to see Miyaichi and they only brought him in the 45th minute! Hate this sempai-kouhai system of picking players in Japan. How can young players show what they have to offer with just 120 seconds of playtime??
Hey Snir, I read your paper. I half-expected it to be something like the Swiss Ramble with graphs all over the place having read your many detailed posts! Well put together though.
I found this quite interesting: Many teams with bad records do “try their best to lose” towards the end of the season so that they can get the worst record and the first draft pick.
So cynical! Would fans kick up a fuss if they paid, I dunno $70US for a game if they knew in advance their team was going to try to lose? But then again, if the team is already really bad then I guess nobody would bat an eye…:lol:
Btw, is Ms. Welch, Welsh?
CoR – we’re not allowed to use graphs. 🙂
Cent – I get what you’re saying but although its the closest comparison, there is still a difference.
People who convert can fully understand and participate in any aspect of the religion.
We (foreign Gooners) are encountered with many things we don’t quite understand as we’re not English.
I’m sure this isn’t something new. I’ve seen both Tim Payton and Myles Palmer say that foreign Gooners are second class to the local and English, and regardless of what you might think of the two, it shows that that line of thinking exists.
Especially when it comes from the AST spokesman…
Snir, surely Tim Payton and Myles Palmer saying this should seal the fact that it is bollocks. The line of thinking ‘exists’, as you say.
Xenophobia exists too.
(and sometimes I forget that I am ‘foreign’, granted :D)
In ascertaining Goonerishness, I can see we are going to have to introduce a points system.
Gooners who buy me a beer on match day = 3 pts
Gooners from a distance who buy me a virtual beer in here =1pt
Gooners who buy me a beer on match day, wearing Speedos and heels = 3.5 pts.
Let the scramble for Gooner points commence…….
I would like to buy you virtual 4 pints and a Suntory Whiskey Dr. Feelgood.
How many points do I get if I give you half of my moustache and beard?
4 virtual pints* 8)
5 if you keep the face hair to yourself 😉
Hirsute yourself then 😉
Heh,
Hair enough….
Hopefully I can get myself across to the Tollie in the near future to fill you with drinks and you’ll see the follicle of your ways!
With that, I’m off to pore over some books…
I’m going to wait for the usual Tx action for Spu*s but how come that I’ve just sneakily logged it and it tells me I haven’t the right to buy, despite the ticket page saying they’re on sale to Reds?
Have I just moved from third-rate to fourth-rate supporter? :s
I see I’m on time for a customary assist.
On the red bar page they tell you red sale postponed due to technical difficulties Ollie. Further announcement at midday. Arsenal’s ticket system is pathetic.
Gooooooaaaaal 😀
Ah OK, cheers Andy, didn’t see it.
Well in for the century and indeed it is pathetic. It’s almost like they’re trying to make it worse every season…
Perhaps it’s an incentive for people to take up ST offers. Clever….
I have no idea which Andy Goram was Ollie speaking to, and I suspect he didn’t have a clue either.
Morning ‘Holic & ‘Holics
Steve T – Lovely to see your name at the head of this post. I’m with you, my interest in international football has taken a slow and steady decline since Italia 90. My interest in the England team even more so since Rooney & Terry became regular fixtures. Maybe a team full of AOC, Gibbs, Wilshere (& Theo?) will revive that in the years to come. Hope to see you again soon.
Ollie – Was very glad to see that some Top Gooners + Twitter helped you to source your Montpellier ticket. Twitter definitely has its benefits. PS: Was that a schizophrenic self-assist?
Dr.Feelgood – How about buying you a virtual pint, from afar, when you’re in The Tollie? Also, what about buying you a real pint in The Tollie wearing a lab coat with a clipboard under one arm?
@ 205
on behalf of the Feelgood Foundation
Pint from afar still only merits 1 point
Real pint in the Tollie = 3 points (with a one point deduction for drinking whilst on Company time) 😉
Lars @ #180
Heh! @ ‘Interbull’. You can copywright that. Giroud’s goal was beaut. I wanna see him do that for The Arse, starting Saturday, surely he’ll play? Loved the post match bromance with Santi & Kos too. We’re a real team this year.
Excellent point @ #206. Just testing.
Snir@188: I am 12.5% English, does that make me a 1.875th class supporter? 🙂
TS@207: while I would have been happy to have invented the word “interbull”, I think it was Ollie or zico who said it first.
Good point TS @207 – there was mutual regard and appreciation in that post match embrace that demonstrates that this Arsenal squad has the right attitude and great team spirit.
OG (or BHF using Arseblog’s terminology) looks a confident and mobile big leader of the line of the type that we have not really had since Smudger. I think he’s going to be a big player for us over the next few seasons.
I also share your dwindling interest in international football despite a different national allegiance (and therefore no poisoning by the vermin you name). Perhaps mainly because international football used to be a step up from club football in quality because it aggregated the best players of each nation and they produced football of the highest quality (though not the nation I follow). We have been blessed over the last 16 years to watch football of the highest quality at THOF and the Grove through the careful selection and blending of an international array of excellent talent. So often I watch international games thinking, thank DB10 for the Arsenal.
True Storey: thanks but I think you need to revise your geography 😉
And no it wasn’t. As the second Andy Goram implied, I have no idea who that century scorer was.
Well I have an idea, but there’s only one (or two, funnily enough, heh (Goramesque) people who can tell us).
Snir, you are Arsenal through and through. You even have a greater sense of perspective because you support your local team in Maccabi.
If somebody told me to support my generaly racist local team (Millwall) as well, I’d tell them to kindly fuck off 😉
I used to feel inferior because even those I’m a born and bred Londoner, I’m not a ‘North’ Londoner (N5), I’m a South Londoner (SE15 with a bit of SE5, born in SE1) but if you think about it, the Arsenal originated in Woolwich (SE18) so its a redundant argument 😆
Never felt inferior as a Gooner because I’m not English, in fact I’m quite proud to be labelled as British even though both my parents are Nigerian, it truly is a global game nowadays.
A simple walk from Islington Town Hall to the Emirates on a Matchday swept away all the fears I might have had about not belonging as an Arsenal fan 🙂
Well in Andy Goram, timely assist as usual Ollie.
Good afternoon,all.
Snir @188,Ollie knows @189.
Wind, you are a one pointer until you get to the bar at the Tollie 😉
Andy,well in for the 200.
Wind,you have Nigerian roots? Good to know that,what’s your local Nigerian name?
Bath @210,
You just said perfectly what I was trying to put together through an exhausted fug a coyple of nights ago.
I deleted it in the end as it was laboured and confused, but you have it spot on there.
Snir @various,
No more nonsense about ‘second class’ or ‘inferior’ please.
Your support may be different due to geographical necessity, but it is neither of the above.
And the links to all sorts of videos and reading you post on here enhance the “Arsenal experience” (sorry) for fans in many countries, including England itsself.
Bath @ #210 – … and whisper it, the right level of ‘mental strength’ too? Great post. The BHF might just be the real deal. A run of starts in The Prem will help us to find out. I would love him to score the winner at the Old Toilet and then go up to RVP after and give him a cheeky/winky handshake. Wishful thinking.
Ollie @ #211 – Are you now a Geography Communist as well as being a Grammar Nazi? I stand corrected as always 😉
Lars @ #209 – Your honesty does you credit and props to Ollie and/or zico for ‘Interbull’.
Get off my effin laptop Edwin!
Myles Palmer is nothing but a first class knob gobbler, and if Payton really made the claim that overseas gunners are inferior to their UK based counterparts then he should be removed from his position.
Me talk bull?
Surely, not.
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2896/premier-league/2012/10/17/3455986/manchester-city-arsenal-just-call-players-and-offer-them-lots-of-
Is he on drugs??
The only players that received a lot of money were Theo.
Even AOC was signed on a 15,000 pound a week deal.
*player.
And of course, I mean among the young players we recruited for our academy.
Gnabry isn’t on big money, neither are Bellerin or Toral.
He fails to mention that Puyol signed for Barca when he was 17. Same happened with Pedro.
He also fails to mention that they tried to lure both Chuks Aneke and Benik Afobe thinking that the name Barcelona would be enough.
God, I hate them so much.
BMBD motherfucka.
This makes for happy reading;
http://www.football365.com/topical-top-10/8172609/Top-Ten-PL-Midfielders-Statistically-Speaking-
The interesting thing about those stats for me, H2H is the number of chances created.
I could fulfill the role that Joe Allen performs for Liverpool, namely make myself available for a short square pass, to then pass it on, square with absolutely no impact on the opposition whatsoever.
Of course, I would also be sporting a humungous cigar and shades. 😉
The ony thing I found interesting was that it was Arsena players at the top of the pile, the rest I saw as this;
10 C*nt
9 Prissy C*nt
8 Mickey C*nt
7 Unknown C*nt
6 DJ Slapping C*nt
5 LW Reject C*nt
4 Big C*nt
3 LW Should of stayed ay Fulham C#nt
2 Amazing Mikel
1 Super Santi.
*Any similarity to something that Arseblogger woud have written is purely intentional.
The merit is all zico’s, I claim no royalties.
heh @ 227
As for 228, I claim all royalties. For everthing.
Plus image rights.
Joey’s sister?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-j_QrozSLXE
Serbian FA attacking Danny Rose for his “vulgar” behaviour last night and denying racism by their fans. Jesus.
On reflection @ 229,
I won’t take any royalties that may accrue from spelling. 😐
It’s all right, Nonny. I think they should be rewarded too:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19952899
233 Ollie.
If, by some travesty, he’s found innocent then a position at Anfield awaits.
Afternoon All,
Lovely piece Steve. I agree completely with your central contention that the standing of International football has never been lower.
There are of course many reasons for that: –
The ubiquity of televised football now means that a televised England game no longer has the “wow” factor that it did in the past.
The sheer proliferation of games (San Marino FFS), means that International Football has lost any right to call itself an event. International friendlies (why?), in which whole teams are substituted at half time, lend an air of meaningless exhibition to that particular subset of the genre.
The standard of International football has fallen far behind what the Premiership has to offer let alone the Champions League.
Off the pitch the attachment for so long of the Far Right (at least in England) to the National team has, despite the laudable attempts of Bodies such as the England Supporters Club, left a stain that is difficult to eradicate. My last visit to Wembley was during Euro 96 when we amazingly trounced the Dutch 4-1. I stood in front of neanderthals who booed the Dutch anthem, who made the Sieg Heil salute during God Save the Queen, and who booed Ince throughout for the colour of his skin. What did I have in common with these people other than an accident of birth? I am told it is better now, but I haven’t been back.
The players themselves, their ridiculous egos swollen beyond any reasonable measure by their exorbitant wage packets and untethered by any discernible education, are led into areas of behaviour that only serve to widen the already enormous rift between player and supporter. That fissure is increasingly widened by both a voracious media intent on destroying any last vestige of hero status afforded to the players with reportage that at times bears little relation to the truth, and by a governing body who even when real imbecility (think Terry) is exposed seek to cover up or otherwise excuse such behaviour for their own ends.
All this while the Club game goes from strength to strength, serving to increase the polarity of supporters views which have become entirely dependent on Club loyalty.
It wasn’t always like this.
I remember as a kid that when an England game was televised live (not that often), there was a real sense of occasion, a feeling of One Nation under a groove coming together to watch the best that the country had to offer.
Aside from the Home Internationals, the first real memory that I have of England was of Bobby Moore et al being utterly outplayed by Gunther Netzer and his compatriots in 1972, and I remember that the desolation that I felt as a 7 year old at that defeat was at the time every bit the equal of what I felt at an Arsenal defeat.
An England game then was a chance to watch the very best (save for a number of Scotsmen and one uber talented Northern Irishman), that the League had to offer. Week in and week out, England players stood out in their Club games, and as such there was a residual affection for them whatever the hue of their club shirt.
At Upton Park to watch Arsenal with my father in the early seventies, I remember him purring about the performance of Bobby Moore, despite him being on the opposing and losing side. The same was true of Colin Bell, Tony Currie, Gordon Banks and many others who all stood out on various visits to Highbury. Club loyalty prevented my father from holding Martin Chivers “a slow cumbersome donkey” or any Leeds player “filthy cheating animals” in the same regard, but come an England game they at least became “our” filthy cheating animals.
Fast forward to 2012 and England players no longer stand out. At Arsenal our most recent successes were driven by the stellar talents of Bergkamp, Henry Vieira and Pires. Manchester United’s rebirth as the most successful Club in the country was initially founded on the very Gallic abilities of Cantona . No-one goes to City to watch Milner or Barry when the eye is taken by Silva or Aguero. Both Lampard and Terry have been integral to Chelsea’s success but neither are possessed of an ability that makes your heart dance in the same way that the talents of Fabregas, Cazorla or dare I say it Zola did. Gerrard has of course dominated his club in the last decade in a way that no other Englishman has been able to do, but that merely serves to highlight the paucity of much of Liverpool’s play during the period.
There have been many reasons put forward in the intervening years since 1966 as to why England have not won anything. Some have more validity than others and most focus on whatever burke is the manager. The truth of course is much more humdrum. Our players, as a general rule, are simply not very good, at least not in any technical sense. It is why such hope is now placed on the young and fragile shoulders of Wilshere, in the same way that it was placed on Gascoigne and Hoddle before him. England do not produce technical players. The little magician Cazorla, head and shoulders above any current England player, can only make the Spanish bench. Had Arteta been English, he would have over 100 caps by now, yet he is still to play for Spain.
The multinational Premiership has allowed everybody to glimpse that reality, and that the hype that surrounds many English players is just that. Football supporters by and large go to football to see their team win, and won’t quibble too much however victory is achieved. Just occasionally, however, it is nice if along the journey, you find moments that transmogrifies Sport into Art. You won’t find those moments watching the National team.
Several years ago Arsene Wenger said that International football between countries was dying. For that he was eviscerated by the English press. I remember Henry Winter was particularly scathing and wrote a long piece about the central position that the English team held in the heart of the Nation. It is of course the lot of the Visionary to be ridiculed, but like so much of what he says Arsene will be proved right.
International football is dying. In twenty years time it will be reduced to a bi annual tournament with hugely abbreviated qualifying competitions. It will provide nothing more than an anodyne diversion for supporters waiting for the real stuff to start again.
I will watch England tonight, and I will want them to win. There will not however be any blinkered intensity of feeling, or pre match nerves or sense of communal solidarity that I have with other Arsenal fans at the ground or in The Tollie or in the away juicer of choice.
All that there will be is a gnawing feeling that if England win (and subsequently qualify) the whole tedious caboodle in Brazil two years hence will be slightly more bearable for me if , as an Englishman, England are in it.
Football depends on the emotions being engaged. There ultimately can be no future for something that only engenders the most passive of responses .
Cracking photo by the way Steve.
Glad to hear you’re sorted for Schalke Ollie.
Off to read Snir’s thesis.
tabs, you could have saved that piece for ‘holic to publish during the next interlull!
Great read.
Good stuff tabs, loved the George Clinton reference.
Internationals never really caught my full attention, although I never missed a Home Internationals game on the box when I was a kid and I’ll see almost every game in a WC or Euro’s Final.
As a kid, London born of Irish parents, I had the choice between England and ROI, later on I lived in Spain but had no particular need to support them. I’ve now spent a substantial portion of my life in Holland and will pull on an Oranje T-shirt during a finals, but this has more to do with commerce then any overwhelming feelings of Dutchiness.
In the end if push came to shove then it would be England who’d I’d be behind, but it hasn’t been easy with all the toerags that have donned the shirt over the last decades. But when it comes to club football, there is only Arsenal, there is no second team, I have often been to see other teams play but I really couldn’t give a Gareth Bale about how they get on.
Stuck at work. Is game on ITV this afternoon?
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/wilshere-sagna-play-in-friendly-at-colney
Good news, dreadful result.
Zico,
After you are done collecting all of MY royalties on the word interBull, you can buy me a pint with the proceeds. I am sure that’s about all it will buy.
Exhibit A:
on 10 Sep 2012 at 8:15 pm56NorCalArsenal
So. Ok.
3 games played. Only one team has won all 3 ( Chelski) one has lost all three ( Southampton ) and one has tied all 3 ( stoke). Sunderland has tied the 2 that they have played. There are 7 teams that have not lost yet ( Manure is not one of them).
So, Swansea and west Brom are at 7 points and West Ham sit at 6.
I know this is a small 3 game sample but I would say this year is going to be highly competitive. Southampton was one of the biggest spenders in the transfer window, and played Manure close this past weekend.
I am going to guess that the magic 40 points will not be good enough to avoid relegation this year and it is going to be very tight in the middle of the table this year.
And that is my interBull shit.
Cheers and a virtual pint for you as well.
Good piece Snir, cheers I enjoyed it, and what H2H said @104.
When at school aeons ago I have to admit to having a withering contempt for anyone who professed to “support” a club outside of London. These were mostly Liverpool or Yanited supporters who were seduced by the possibility of glory. I knew however that bar 10 minutes on MOTD every other week they couldn’t follow their team in any real sense. Nor did I have much time for any Arsenal fan, (though I was always prepared to give the benefit of the doubt), who didn’t actually go or couldn’t instantly reel off the double side.
That age is long gone. The wonders of the Internet and the increased TV coverage mean that the Club can now be followed from afar with the same level of intensity and knowledge that the man “around the corner” can do.
All that counts now is having a feeling for what the Club is trying to achieve and where the Club has come from. Marry those two things, as you amongst many others do, and I don’t think anyone can level an accusation that your support is in some way less worthy.
I take your point that the more localised fan who travels home and away will know a little more about little things – chants, gossip etc than the overseas one, but ultimately this is not significant. I go to less games now than at any time since the mid seventies. As such I can be unfamiliar with certain chants or in jokes doing the rounds in a way that would have been impossible in years gone by.
Am I therefore a lesser Gooner than I was 35, 25 ,15 5 years ago? Of course not. I am as still childishly exultant in victory and as morosely despondent in defeat as I have been since I was 5. How Arsenal make you feel is what counts, and it seems to me that you have the necessary passion in spades.
A Gooner is a Gooner is a Gooner.
As for what Myles Palmer (LWC) AND Potty Payton say, what Ollie says @189. Payton is a joke.
Nice story on Arsenal beginnings NorCal.
Dr Feelgood @191 – I know someone who is heartened by your scoring system 😉
Dr Z – I’d pay good money to watch you turn out for the Mickeys! 🙂
Cheers Ollie, H2H for the kind ones.
NorCal,
I am but an employee of the sinister Feelgood Foundation – you need to select your targets more carefully. 😉
Zico @ 215, boo! 😛
Cent @ 216, local Nigerian name? I’ve always been called by my 1st name for the 18 years I’ve lived in London so far, even when I went on holiday to Nigeria (it was my great-grandfather’s name as well, that’s why I suppose). Only my mum calls me by that, I’d be happy to tell you… On Twitter 8)
Also NorCal,
You will note that I was only claiming the royalties – I at no point claimed authorship of the term – even alluded to this @ 221.
That said, I happen to think that plagiarism is one of my more acceptable traits 😉
So there, you one-pointer you!
tabs, meant to say, good work @ 235 although the word is dieing.
*removes Ollie’s spell-jacket* 8)
Zico
Ah yes. My nemesis Dr Feelgood.
The man of many names ( Feelgood, Feelgod, Forwell, Ohsogood)
but the only description of his face I got was from Ivana and all she said was ” think of angels singing”.
Fair enough the royalties go to the Feelgood foundation.
Another virtual pint
Dr Z, ahem …
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060628214856AAVblE2
Don’t think that jacket suits mate 😉
Zico, I’d love to get to the Tollie & buy you & the Holics a pint but if I went for a matchday to meet up with you guys and I was the only one without a ticket for the game left there, it would hurt.
What I’m trying to say is, I want to go to at least 1 CL Home Game (Schalke or Montepellier were the targets) & 1 FA Cup Home Game this season but I’m flat out broke 🙁 Need to find a job, for the sake of me returning to the Ems at least…
tabs, I stand corrected by both you and the Oxford big book 😳
Typical of this day – I think I’ll learn French.
Less chance of a faux past 😉
My dear Hurricane,
“Poor impoverished student” invokes no sympathy from the mighty Feelgood Foundation – there is but one charity.
However, you don’t need to buy for all the Holics – 3 points for a beer for Dr Feelgood – the rest are the responsibilty of Lars.
See you at your earliest convenience, cool breeze. 8)
Dr Z 🙂
England 1-1. Only saw the second half. Hodgson’s negative outlook apparent for much of the half as England merely sought to protect their lead. Sub Chamberlain to the fore when England actually needed a goal and decided to attack in the last 20 mins.
England constantly exposed down their left where one Ashley Cole looked a busted flush. Hart at fault for the equaliser.
heh zico @249. I see what you did there, you can’t change your history 😉
I hope my man Obraniak played well, tabs.
He did I think Ollie, at least in the second half.
Heh, H2H @ 227 – I don’t think my socks will ever ring out.
Nice read tabs @235 – “Football depends on the emotions being engaged.” too right – and those can be negative feelings as well as positive feelings. Sometimes the former is even more enjoyable.
Spot on tabs @ 242 – “A Gooner is a Gooner is a Gooner”
Heh very true Bath 🙂
Just to chip in my two penn’orth on the Decline of the England Supporter amongst Arsenal fans…
I think there are/were two factors that have led to my falling out of love with Engerland:
Firstly, I am completely fed up with the xenophobic attitude of the national press. In particular, any regard I might otherwise have for the England-supporting football press has failed to survive their oft-repeated line that diving is a dirty foreign players’ habit. Compare their attitude towards Rooney, Gerrard and Eduardo.
Secondly, it strikes me that modern football is actually rather difficult technically and that only at club level can the players get to know each other well enough to play it properly. Whenever I watch England these days, still more often than I might like, I always seem to see players making runs who don’t get the ball passed to them, when I think that an Arsenal player making a similar run would have had. Whilst it’s true that Arsenal players are superior to those playing for England, I’d expect that to lead to the passes being made but not completed.
It’s a shame, because I genuinely like the way that the national mood improves when England go on a good run at a big tournament such as the World Cup, but I have abandoned them for the Arsenal. The football’s better and so is the company.
Drinks for all. (I need all the zicopoints I can get.)
(Only three more sleeps. Tell me there isn’t another interdull coming up in a month or two… please, Mummy)
COYG ICDDR
Oxon,
That might also explain why Spain has played so well internationally. Their players are almost exclusively from 2 teams. Therefore, the familiarity is there. Their attacking midfield and strikers are almost all farcelona players. They don’t have to change anything.
Tabs, it seems we used to have the same outlook.
I never trusted anyone from my area who professed love for the Mickeys (the in team at the time) or the Mancs, I had more respect for a LWC. I also confess I didn t really have much time for what was then called an “armchair”. Ahh the impetuence of yoof.
====
I only saw the first half of the England game, I think my report will be brought to you by the letter C;
Clumbsy – is how I’d describe the defence. They didn’t look at ease at any time in the first 45
Careless – sums up the midfield, only Gerard looked like he had half a clue, because…
Carrick gave the ball away at every opportunity as did….
Cleverly, I admit to have not seeing much of him, but what I have witnessed is not worth the hype surronding him.
Clueless was the attack, Defoe chasing shadows, Rooney trying but it wasn’t working, they had no service as someone had forgot to tell the team that Carroll wasn’t playing so all the hit and hope long balls were pretty futile.
Other then that they weren’t too bad. 😉
Goodevening,all.
Tabs excellent piece @235.
Ollie,Obraniak got the assist for the Polish goal from a corner-kick.
Wind you will find me on twitter through the handle : @centyclaus.
Great read Tabs. Used to follow Engerland. Was a laugh up until 88. Then the right-wing element pretty well took over. It never meant as much as following Arsenal, but it was fun.
Aint taken any interest at all since 96.
Heh too right H2H. You better come over and join me in the impertinence corner! I have a jug of Bloody Marys. Pull up a chair.
Thank you Cent.
Cheers Esso mate. I bet you have some stories to tell following England during that period! I lasted maybe 2 years longer than you. The last time I remember being completely involved in an England game and being gutted when we ultimately lost was when Argentina beat us on pens in ’98. Since then, its always been a big fat meh win lose or draw.
*pulls up chair*
Dr F @ 250, no sympathy eh… It was to be expected from the (some would say ruthless) Feelgood Foundation, ever heard of a non-repayable student grant? 😆
Cent @ 260, followed 🙂
*pours H2H a red one, making sure to go easy on the green* 😉
Cheers mate.
I have fond memories of Bloody Mary’s jugs.
Heh.
🙂
Wind,seen and reciprocated.
Well, at least the interlul is now over.
Time to look forward to plucking some Cannaries. Last year they were pretty decent but this time around they look pretty pooh and Grant Holt is even fatter. Second season syndrome if ever I saw it.
Add to that the fact that their new manager is an ex LWC and it all adds up to the fact that they deserve a good hiding.
Guilt Free Cent.
Free the Cent.
Followed. 🙂
Feck, twitter fest.
Get a room 😉
Baff – you obviously signed the hypocrite’s oaf? 🙂
Tomato juice is wrong on so many counts…
Not with vodka in it’s not.
It’s the breakfast of champions ‘h.
I never ‘got’ tomato juice. It’s one of those things that makes no sense at all.
popping in for a quick one. drinks for all, especially we “tier 2” fans from abroad (i jest)…thanks lars.
‘holic, i always wondered what they did with the juiced tomatos.
maybe they’re in mitt’s binders.
glad the dull is over. can’t wait for saturday. and everyone cheer for snir…top marks on his sociology exam!
I think we should buy Lewandowski next summer!
VaT is the way forward with vodka, I think you will find.
Tomato Juice as a single entity is indeed useless, just like lime, ice, any kind of fizzy drink or plain looking women.
You need to add alcohol to appreaciate them fully.
z @ 273 – popular misconception, mate.
I miss FunGunner ! She’s the only lass here that can handle you boys properly 🙂
Old ma Feelgood says I was popularly misconceived.
H2H,
There are plain women?
Get us a pint…..
😆
z @283 heh 😀
Ollie,your Bio cracked me up,do you rap in your spare time? *cheeky smile*
Catalan,are you Indian?
Dr C an Indian?
How? 😉
Heh @ 288
He does smoke a pipe 😉
By that logic we’re all Indians.
Gooneromino’s. 😉
So then it was a Sitting interBull?
Heh(awatha)
Above & beyond the call of duty Steve T & family. Nice read. The whole concept of international football has become irrational to me as I get older. I don’t like them and feel I have nothing in common to the folks to regularly attend those games. In the old days I quite enjoyed the matches between England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales & Eire. At least those games had some degree of rivalry in them – now I just can’t see the point outside the WC & Euros..
Can wait Tecumseh the Arsenal!
Whoops, “Can’t wait Tecumseh the Arsenal!
Wind @ 248
re your finacially challenged situation,
If you have a bank acct,i am more than happy to transfer some funds into it,so that you can get to see the team you love so much play at the Ems.
I know what it is like to be young and broke, with not a Penny to bless yourself with.
Holic has my email details,and i am happy for him to pass them on to you,so you can contact me direct.
This is not a loan Wind,just a gesture on my part to allow you to see your heroes up close and personal.
The thought of you with a big wide smile on your face as the boys run out on to pitch,will be repayment enough.
The offer is there with no strings attached if you want to take it up.
Cheers
The Sweeper.
Returns from an evening out to applaud Clive’s phenominally generous offer and tip over a pinpoint pass to the corner of the six yard box…
Well, seeing as you’re offering Clive…..
The Feelgood Foundation
Sort Code: 87:70:01
Account Number 09990666
Assist Ollie stylee
Assist/Giroud ?
Clive,am in awe of your generousity. You,Sir,are a great man.
Wow, nice one Clive, what Cent said.
Well in Cent.
Clive great gesture. I was thinking of something along the same lines.
Wind, if you have a Red membership I was going to buy a ticket to the Montpellier game on Monday when they go on sale. I could buy 2 ( one for you and one for me). We could meet at the Tollie before and I could go to the with a fellow ‘holic to the game.
Which ever you choose.
Holic can you send wind my email too. Thanks.
Shit, why didn’t I think of this “I’m broke” routine first…..
Heh Dr F.
I could shed tears at the compassion being shown to me by you Clive & you too NorCal :’)
Thanks for the assist,H2H.
Norcal,nice gesture,you are a greatman too,sir.
I bet Dr F’s sheding more.
Dear Clive and Cousin NorCal
I should very much like to buy a new Falcao in the January sales
If you think you can help, Holic has my e-mail address. Alternatively you could send your donation to the Northern Branch of my bank, where my erm, Manager, Dr Forwell will send you a receipt.
Yours handbrake offingly,
Arsene
😥 😥 😥 😥
Heh @ AW 308
🙂
Dear Arsene
Falcao hasn’t done shit since Rock me Amadeus.
Whoever posted @308 cracked me up!!! “your handbrake offingly” line of this interbull.
Cent, I’ll give you a clue.
He’s a master of disguise.
Feelgood,
You have taken my wife, my royalties and now you want a direct cash infusion. You are my nemesis.
Shall I call you Goldfinger? I already know what Ivana calls you …… And it ain’t finger.
NorCal.
He left you with cash?
He must be slipping. 😉
Clive. NorCal.
You just took this bar to a whole new level.
Incredible.
Trust in humanity boosted….
Mr NorCal
You have conversations with your wife?
Schoolboy error.
I hope you have not let her out of the kitchen? Unless of course she hasn’t finished the ironing…..
Clive: that was a wonderful gesture and I am sure that young Hurricane will be eternally grateful.
I see that Ol’ Feelgood is at it again. FYI that’s the Foundation’s sinking fund account coded WAT [without a trace] .. just thought I would point out in case your little black book is a bit out of date ..
Clive… Norcal… Within a month of August/September 2011 when I started drinking in this bar (underage as I was), I knew that the this was one of my 3 favourite Arsenal blogs & my main Arsenal Blog on a Day to Day Basis.. Within 6 months I knew that I could get to know the Holics face to face if I ever worked up the courage to meet up on a matchday before & after a game. When Nurse abb donated the double stone for the competition & Trev aptly suggested “Goonerholics, Virtual Bar, Real Friends”, I knew this place was like a home away from home in effect, a 2nd family to my birth family even, a proper community that all love the Arsenal wherever their position on the globe. But you two have silenced, slowed & shocked ‘the Wind’ with your selfless gestures :’)
Before anything else especially to Clive, @ 296 I directly felt your empathy with my situation & the situation of a student which can only show how honest a person you are, but 18 as I may be, I’m not in University as I should be, a lack of effort & a lack of a reason to work is the cause & effect of that. So its not a case of me having no student loan yet or no grant from the government to spend on myself, this is because I’m at College for another year to finish my A-Levels proper, it was either repeat a year or enter the working world at the age of 17 & so I took the best option to me & essentially used the gap year I could of had to repeat Year 12/AS. So in effect, I’m not a proper student who’s supporting himself through University as you may think I am.
Also, I would hope that you’re not under the assumption that the game you would kindly offer to fund me for would be my 1st game, it would be my 1st game for this year but not my 1st ever as I did go to 4 games last season in 2011, I just wouldn’t want the driving force behind your very kind offer to fund me to be on the assumption that I’ve never been able to see my heroes run out onto the hallowed turf, would make me feel slightly guilty 🙁
NorCal, I do have a red membership & your offer to buy 2 tickets next to each other would kill 2 birds with 1 stone (meet up with a Holic, go to a midweek CL game), I appreciate the kindness behind it more than I can eloquently put into words mate.
All I can say right now is, thank you, the both of you for the kind intent at the minimum, I’ve never been this humbled & shocked in my entire life.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again.
You lot are (as well as positively barking!) the mutts. Introduction mail sent.
I feel very humble when you do the things like you have done tonight, and when abb donates the stone, and when the usual reprobates keep me in light refreshments on matchdays, and when I get awesome guest contributions.
Thank you so much…
Wind
Thankyou for the kind words.
I am aware this is not your first ever game,i do read your posts believe it or not,so i know you went to a couple of games last season.
To me,it would be a great shame if you were deprived of the opportunity to see some games this season through financial hardship,when i,like a lot of other Holic’s am convinced we could give the Trophies on offer, a good shake this season.
Holic has kindly sent me your email contact,so i am assuming he has sent you mine.
I will wait to hear from you,should you want to takeup my offer.
cheers
The Sweeper.
I love you people…
I love this place.
You do read my posts Mr Sweeper! 😀
I’ve received the ‘conduit’ e-mail as well, will be in touch now that you’ve settled my premature fears 🙂
Tabs @235 –
great stuff. Enjoyed the read even though it was about internationals – games and players – of which I am heartily sick.
The lack of technical players is, I think, the key factor in the paucity of the England team.
When Arsene came to Arsenal hecwas constantly criticised by the ‘meeja’ for, shock horror, having no English players in his teams.
The simple fact was that after the gradual disappearance of the inherited back four, there were no english players technically able to perform a role in his side. Hence the concentration on yourh development and the importing of foreign teenagers to lift the standard.
It was ten years before the first technically able players began to emerge, most of whom were still not up to top premiership or international standard.
No other club apart from ManUre and a recently qualifying Everton has allowed a manager anything like that time to undertake the task of such development.
Result: It hasn’t happened.
Consequence: Despite many changes of manager we are still lumbered with the same set of players in the England team that have failed repeatedly over the last decade.
Watching a collection of second raters, in international terms, under performing and under achieving at each successive tournament has lost its appeal.
The fact that those under achievers are such repugnant people has turned off our interest completely.
Sad indeed for the current generation of kids.
Hopefully the likes of Gibbs, Jenkinson, Wilshere, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Walcott will eventually restore some pride and interest in the national team.
Will there then be apologies forthcoming from Arsene’s critics in the media ?
Don’t hold your breath.
Clive, NorCal,
I’ve said more than once that this bar, in both its virtual and real contexts, doubles the pleasure of being a Gooner.
You two absolute gentlemen have just enhanced it again tonight.
Clive,
Can I borrow some money?
😉
Wind, it does indeed kill 2 birds with one stone for me too. The same birds. What better way to enjoy my first game.
As per previous drinks what it means to be a Gooner has just been shown. It’s one thing that separates our club and why I am sure that even though I chose to be a Gooner , it chose me as well.
Wind, I will be so happy for you when you finally have the chance to meet up with the holics. Giving is easy, it’s the recieving part that is tricky! Once someone realizes that by accepting something offered, they are giving back something as well. A circle of generosity is formed. Just as when holics take the time to post here. This Bar is my antidepressant, and it is free, made only possible by the holics and the barman himself.
ABB,
I hope we can see your stone while we are bird hunting!
Hey NorCal, Waiting to hear from Arsenal (don’t know if it will be snail or email). The picture of the Stone is absolutely beautiful. But I fear that it won’t be ready till late December 🙁 You and Clive, deserve a special shout out, hope you both can hear me 🙂
Feelgood,
Sounds like Abb is behind with her subsriptions.
You’re slipping. 😉
NorCal, I’m happy you’ll have a fellow Holic & someone you know sitting next to you if all goes well & as planned, but at my 1st game I went by myself (1st Gooner in my Family) & I struck up a lovely rapport with a season ticket holder in the North Bank, we talked tactics, berated the ref & celebrated the goals together including the Ox’s debut, a beaut of a 30 yard strike that I don’t think I’ll forget, truly do wish I got his name 🙁 But he was a great guy 🙂
E-Mail coming yours & The Sweeper’s way soon, look alive 😉
abb, you’re my antidepressant ;), one of the most cheerful & optimist people I know, I wonder how more so in person this is true. Thank you for your kind words & thank you for your wise words regarding giving & receiving 🙂
Wind, Remember I must get my head through a door…so much praise! 🙂 Now Trev…and Zico, just what is this ‘ironing’ business? Must ask my muse, Gloria Steinem first, before I take it up 🙂
abb – inbox.
Feeling great love for The Sweeper and my NorCal brother tonight. Wonderful stuff, gentlemen.
Clive, I can’t say when I can buy you a beer, but some day when I am in England consider your rounds paid for. NorCal, in the Spring lets certainly plan a Maggie’s meetup, where your money will be no good. As Snir said, I love this place.
Wind, speaking as one who at times declined honest, thoughtful generosity due to being too thick, taking them at their offer is a mark of highest respect. Real friends, indeed.
Ok snir 🙂
You cats are the greatest.
Bear Grease for everyone!
Clive, NorCal, you are officers and gentlemen.
Wind, you are a lucky lad. Remember them fondly when you are in a position to perform similar acts of generosity.
Tabs, Trev, so right about the paucity of ability in the England team. Of the starting XI against Poland only Hart and Rooney would get into our squad. It is also telling how few Englishmen play their club football outside the UK, and especially not in the Spanish and Italian leagues.
All above: great stuff. Drinks all ’round.
I see BBC have published a survey about the price of football.
Interesting, though no big surprise.
But apart from a small asterisk on the page where you can see the table, they still forget to mention that Arsenal ST includes seven cup games and so ‘price for cheapest season ticket’ cannot be compared.
Still, prices are indeed extortionate (with the new Cat .A pricing in particular), but it’s true that the new structures with Cat A/B/C and therefore cheaper tickets for a minority of games is very clever….
scruz @ 334, that is the best way to think of it 🙂
NBN @ 337, some experiences, positive or negative have the capacity to make you a better person for having gone through them, I can only hope that I’ll be able to replicate this sort of kindness & compassion when I’m in an able enough position in the future 🙂
And I don’t think I’ll ever forget them at this rate! 😀
Good stuff, Wind.
Norcal @326 “I am sure that even though I chose to be a Gooner , it chose me as well.”
Your observation got me thinking (heh).
As a boy interested in football, I supported my small town team, Elgin City and took every opportunity to see them in the flesh – first game v Forres Mechanics circa 1960 -with dear old dad -can’t remember the score but am sure we didn’t lose.
However when at the age of 11 I moved with my parents to Glasgow I was surrounded by Huns and Tims at school. I was intuitively alienated by both of these bellicose battalions and although I most frequently nipped along to Firhill to watch the perennial comedians’ butt, Partick Thistle, I followed Aberdeen as they were the only team close to my home town that I could see regularly on the box or very occasionally in the flesh. It was a privilege after 14 years of following them to see them lift the Scottish Championship for only their second ever occasion and 3 years later to see them lift the ECWC. The architect of those successes plus a couple more championships and a clutch of Scottish FA Cups was of course, (whisper the name), you know who.
I had a MOTD familiarity with the English league and English teams and a recall of iconic moments such as the brave fight back UEFA cup victory by a certain stylish club with white sleeves (that shirt stood out from the crowd on a 1969 black and white TV screen), Charlie George’s horizontal celebration of the FA Cup Final goal in ’71, a certain stylish Irishman with the sweetest left foot on the planet, Alan Sunderland’s last minute winner in another FA cup final win and a few more moments.
Five years working in London in the early 1980s saw me attend no games at all in England. Work was all consuming and I had 20 years of Scottish football tribalism diverting my football focus – driving up to the big games in Glasgow as Aberdeen were still competing well, getting to finals and still worth the effort as they still played good football. I had invitations to watch the LWCs (from their Treasurer whom I met at a ‘Sportsman’s Aid’ dinner through my work), the Wet Spammers (from a workmate) and QPR (from a former flatmate). I declined them all – none attracted me enough or felt right.
After our move to Bath, a certain Friday night in 1989 with a televised game from Anfield was a milestone in the balance of attention paid to the Scottish and English game. By the time of the successful ECWC campaign I was an armchair Gooner. A 10 year old son keen to see live games a couple of years later resulted in our first drive up to THOF and it has been a regular family rite ever since. That drive up to THOF followed visits to Twerton to see Bath City and Swindon to see Holic’s local club. Neither experience attracted either of us.
That first visit was a late season draw with Liverpool followed quickly by a second that was an end of season loss to West Ham. The football wasn’t great but the deal was sealed. The colours were the same as Aberdeen, the defending had the same dour determination – and was even more determined and so much better (that was lost a few years later as we all know). The sole offensive tactic seemed to be a ball down the channel (lofted by the keeper or a defender over a pedestrian midfield) for a certain charismatic little number 8 to latch onto (and score) and the crowd in the North Bank were blue collar, humorous and ‘my kinda peeple’. The songs were similar to those I had sung with the Dons (Scottish Dons) fans bar one – which was the single hurdle to be overcome. ‘Hello, hello, we are the Arsenal boys….’ is a Rangers song in Scotland – I felt the hackles rise at the back of my neck initially – but I got over it. I was even singing it after a few visits.
The biggest problem I now have is to manage the demand of two Gooner children (success!) living in London for the two seats to which we are currently privileged to have access. And it has certainly been a huge privilege to watch this club regularly for the last 20 years.
This long winded ramble was stimulated by NorCal’s comment. Pictish tribalism led me to follow Aberdeen and that sustained me for almost 10 years after my move to England. However surrounded by an alien (heh) culture and invitations from all and sundry and with lots of choices, there’s a subtle subconscious process in which the team selects the adult fan rather than there being a necessarily objective decision.
It’s in the genes Holics. As tabs said yesterday: a Gooner is a Gooner is a Gooner!
Excellent work, Baff.
Fergie was a cunt back then, too. 😉
Dr z@344
Aye he was but from a Dons fan’s perspective he was ‘our cunt’ and his stock rose immeasurably when he declined the offer to take over at Iprix and chose to stay at Pittodrie and lead the Dons to more titles.
You can tell, no doubt, that I am in internal conflict here.
Interesting experiment. Joined the LWC ticket queue at 9.58, and the bar is barely moving. I wonder what will be left should I make it through to the next stage?
Blimey – i see goalie green (or maybes it’s pink) is this season’s full-b(l)ack …
Go On Mannnnnnnyyyy – my son.
Yeeehaaa – we’s nearly there.
Up The Arse!
AL’s back!
Where’ve ye been?
QPR – up for some liquids?
Half an hour in, and the bar is halfway across. In Highbury House the number crunchers are rubbing their hands with glee. “Another few percent next seaon Ivan.”
Hey Z – QPR (i say, that reads a bit like a dyslexic doing the alphabet who can’t be arsed to put much effort in) booked in and bought up, and fingers crossed that you’ll be wearing something water (nee beer) proof on the day.
Clive and NorCal, you have taken this fantastic place to extraordinary new heights.
Love everybody’s reflections on how they became a gooner. As my moniker suggests my entry to the tribe happened a long time ago as a young boy watching television from afar. I simply cannot define all the things that brought me to Arsenal but George sticks out in my memory.
I am hatching a plan (please don’t tell my better half yet) to try to get to the Ems for my first ever game in December 2013. Wish me luck!
‘holic thanks again for your leadership and inspiration and allowing me to learn so much more about what it means to be a gooner.
Anything you reprobates want at the bar is on me for a little while.
Apologies if I offended anybody with my cheap-shot gag at 350. Believe me, i know as well as anyone that dyslexia is not a laughing mutter.
And after 45 minutes I appear to be in. Plenty left but all at the back of the upper tier. Bollocks to that.
AL, I’m sure even dyslexics can take a koje.
Sainsbury’s have completely run out of sandwiches, crisps, fruit – dyslexics have been picnic buying…..
What does DNA stand for???
Yep, Andy G, well I didn’t have a chance to try, but I wouldn’t even try now, at these sort of prices in particular. I hope my luck doesn’t run out and I find something nice on Tx Lower for a ‘cheap’ 60-odd quid.
Still waiting for some Lower Tier for Fulham too, all Tx I have seen so far are on Upper, but plenty of time left.
I’ve done so many different blocks on NorthBank/ClockEnd upper, now I’m continuing my exploration in the lower tier (only done 9/10/32 there, doing 18 for QPR, my first time even in the East Stand)
Digital Network Analyzer, AL 🙁
Why not, Ollie?
In other bad language news – i see J. cunterry has apologized (almost a full year after the incident) for saying what he said, while still contending that he didn’t mean it like what it might have sounded like he meant by it. Well that’s that sorted then – innit?
How weird. Ollie and Andy Goram having the same grumble about the booking system!
They must be best mates.
I wouldn’t mind betting we must have lots of mates if ghat is the criteria. We are in two minds about this.
That, not ghat. I appear to have caught dyspepsia off AL.
Must be one of those computer viruses
AG @362
That´s hard to stomach. ;). I believe that investigations will reveal Craig Eastmond as the primary source of this nasty outbreak.
On another note, look at the first touch of this Neymar chappy…
http://t.co/E8ooB77L
Not a patch on Corporal Jenkinson though.
So why is dyslexic so gard to spell ?
Argghh = ‘hard’ to spell. That actually was an unintentional iPad error. Again!!
@356 – the national anthem ?
Good to see AL back.
Great read, bath.
Thanks Trev, it all just came out spontaneously in response to NorCal’s observation. I think it’s like dogs, people get the clubs they deserve.
Good afternoon,all.
Welcome back,AL.
Bath,nice post @343,do bring the boys to this bar when they come of age.
GAWM69,goodluck with your plan.
I have a few free minutes from work now so My “how i became a gooner story” will come in my next post.
Cent @370 – boy and girl, gooner and goonerette, well of age and both familiar with the Tollie. Regular visitors to Holics site but only occasional visitors to the virtual bar. I think they prefer not to drink with the old man too often.
Cheers Trev @324 for the kind ones, and totally agree with what you have to say as to the paucity of England’s technical abilities.
I really can’t understand why no-one in this country doesn’t have the foresight to do what Germany did after 2004 and rid the squad of those players who are either underperforming or who are simply not good enough, go with the kids, take a short term hit (maybe don’t qualify for Brazil, so what, we’re not going to win it anyway), and build for 2018.
Circumstances have conspired whereby fortuitously we no longer have CunTerry in the side. That is a good start. Get rid of Cole, Lampard, Milner, Carrick, Defoe, Lescott and maybe even Gerrard. They are either not good enough or past it.
Go with a spine of young and talented players, Hart, Jones and Wilshere (when fit), Cleverly, Welbeck, Ox, Gibbs, Jenks, etc
Sure they’d take a few beatings in the short term, but it would stimulate interest (or at least my interest), and you never know we might even have a half decent side by the time the tournaments of 2016 and 2018 came round.
Never has the xenophobic bombast of the national press(alluded to by others above) been more apparent than when Rooney is spoken of in the same terms as Messi and Ronaldo. It is of course utter tosh. Now don’t get me wrong, Rooney is a decent player and even though he has a potato for a head and a moth-eaten gerbilskin for a barnet, I’ve watched him destroy us on more than one occasion. Yet to suggest that he is even close to the afore-mentioned Cuntico stars is self-evident nonsense. Heis not even in the second tier of world stars, let alone those rarefied levels.
Clive/NorCal – I tip my hat to you both. I’m looking to go round the world. Can I get back to you both with prices so that I can plan the funding etc? 😉
Bath @343 – Thank you Sir, a lovely read as to Arsenal beginnings. Given the aberdonian background, I wonder if you were ever tempted to follow the granite-faced cockspanner to Old Trafford? Too far geographically perhaps, or were you even then coming to the inevitable conclusion that, putting all tribal loyalties aside, Sir PurpleNose was an almighty cunt? 🙂
http://www.football365.com/news/21554/8174700/Barcelona-Blast-Man-City-For-Busquets-Link…
Sandra still bitter about Toral?
Hindsight
Interesting statement and apology from John Terry.
He said: “With the benefit of hindsight my language was not an appropriate reaction to the situation.”
Quick word, John. For most people, it doesn’t require ‘the benefit of hindsight’ to direct the words ‘f*cking black c*nt’ at a black man.
Cheers, thanks for listening.
heh at Andy Goram.
Hypocrisy of Sandra beggars belief Ollie, when they’ve had Overmars, Petit, Hleb Henry Fabregas and now Song off us in 12 years.
Reckon his bitterness has more to do with having to pay £25m (or whatever the final figure was) to get Fabregas back, rather than anything to do with Toral and Bellerin, though that thought does please me. It means they’re pretty useful, hopefully.
Afternoon peeps.
Wow, it was like Christmas last night on here, heartwarming.
Excellent piece, Bath.
Various hehs AL, Z, AG, Ollie, Trev and Dr C.
Dyslectics of the world untie!
Dr C. A nice goal from that Neymar chappie, but a confusing video, check the crowd celebrations (at approx 25seconds in) even the fans in the oppositions teams colours are celebrating that goal.
They must really love the guy over there or are the biggest bunch of glory hunting bandwagon jumping fans since Roman Abromovich brought his ill gotten gains to the bus stop.
*They may of course have another strip similar to their opponants, but that would mean me missing a chance to stick the boot into the chavs, so this option may not be considered.
What’s all this SAF was a cunt business?
He still is.
We can’t really blame Rossel.
He’s a dude going through life with a girls name, ofcourse he’s gonna be a bitch.
@ 372 and 378
See 344. 😉
‘too’ may have been a clue in zico’s post, H2H 😉
Ollie, as in my post about the Chavs, lets not let the facts get in the way of calling SAF a cunt. 😉
tabs @372
No chance of supporting Manure. I have hated them since the early 70s whilst still in Scotland. They stole Martin Buchan from Aberdeen and then Tommy Docherty from Scotland. Even at that distance I could detect and disliked their smugness. Plus, from 1971 onwards I always had a soft spot for the Arsenal.
Tabs.
I agree with your rip it up and start again approach to the England team. It’s high time we got rid of the so called Golden (shower) Generation, they’ve done nothing but dissapoint.
As you mentioned, ze Germans have done it, and after their Disastrous showing in the Euros the Dutch are doing it too, the two teams van Gaal put out in the last round of games was unrecognisable compared to v Maarwijks team.
There’s two years to go to Brazil and England are in a group that is not that strong, even if the kids don’t qualify they’ll be better for the experience once the Euros come around again.
Ned. Also a very good point that there are little to no English players plying their trade abroad.
….and you follow a team, not a manager or a here today gone tomorrow player, don’t you?
Tabs on fire !!!
“xenophobic bombast” – “moth eaten gerbilskin” !!!
Sir, I demand a whole pint of whatever you are on. 😉
Ollie, I haven’t got time to read the link just now BUT,
Barcelona decrying links to their players ?
I should jolly well think so. I mean, who could possibly, in their wildest dreams, imagine that was any way to behave …….
I rarely or never lean toward the four- letter verb or noun in here but, please Barcelona, and all who sail in her, just feck orff you bunch of counts.
Un. Be. Lieve. Able.
heh Trev. Heartfelt outrage! Fully agree.
My journey to goonerdom is basically the story of my love affair with football and since my life revolves around football it’s basically the story of my life,so sorry this post will be long-ish.
I became attached to football very early in life. I was an awkward kid,i wasn’t interested in watching cartoons/movies or even toys,i was always outside playing/kicking something about on the streets with boys who were three/four years older than me. One of my earliest memories was in 1994 (i was 3years old then) i was playing in the corridor when i heard my Dad let out a cry of joy,i rushed into our parlour and found out Rashidi Yekini had scored Nigeria’s first ever goal in the world cup,seeing my dad that happy made me sit down and watch the rest of the game with him (only thing i can remember from that game is Yekini’s net grabbing celebration).
Fast forward 2years later,Atlanta 96-we had just moved to a bigger house and better neighbourhood,my dad hoped this will stop me from playing/getting injured frequently on the streets as well as get over my younger brother’s death (it didn’t quite work)- Nigeria were losing 3-1 to Brazil in the semi-final of the Olympics and up steps a certain Kanu,he grabs the game by the scruff of the neck and single handedly wins the game for us,we go through to the finals. In the finals Nigeria are down 2-1 to Argentina and Kanu steps up to the occasion,again,and wins the game and the Olympic soccer event for Nigeria,cue wild celebrations on the streets,my estate which is usually quiet even in the afternoon erupts into a hulabaloo in the middle of the night,my dad who always wants me indoors allows me to go outside and celebrate with strangers in the middle of the night. My love affair with football starts in earnest,Kanu becomes my favourite footballer and football becomes the only thing that draws me to a television set(they only showed our National team games then though).
Kanu is later diagonised with a heart problem and rumours starts flying of how he may never play football again,i was heartbroken,sometime later i heard Kanu had been cured and could play again but the only problem was that his “team” might not give him a second chance,i didn’t know the diffrence between a club and a country so i couldn’t understand why he would want to play for any other team when he was always welcome to play for Nigeria,a while later i watched a game where Kanu didn’t play but jogged on the pitch after the final whistle amidst applauds from the fans,i can’t quite remember if it was when Nigeria qualified for France 98 or in the tournament proper when we beat spain in a group stage game,anyway,i watched a Netherland game in that tournament where Bergkamp was unplayable and scored a worldy,he became the first non-Nigerian player i liked,even though I forgot about him after that tournament.
1999 i heard a team had signed Kanu (meaning that they were ready to give him a chance despite his health issues) i was overjoyed,i didn’t even know the team’s name then,with Kanu’s move to the Epl the league became quite popular in Nigeria and a local T.V. Station started showing a game every monday,i cant remember the first Arsenal game i watched but i can remember watching Bergkamp again and feeling happy when i discovered that my favourite Nigerian player and my-now-favourite non-Nigerian player actually played for the same team. Later,around 2001 my dad got cable subscription that televised Epl games through an Arab station (A.R.T. primesport) live on weekends and replayed them through out the week,so i watched Epl games NOT as an Arsenal fan but as a neutral with a bias towards Arsenal.
Sorry i have to go now,i will post the rest of my story later in the day.
Heh at you too, bath.
Your 383 provides an idea for when Grizzly Smurf retires.
His inevitably elevated title should become –
His Smugness, Sir Chewy McPurplenose.
Now that’s evolution for you ! What a shame he missed out ! 😉
Hehs at H2H and Dr Z.
Bath, Ah understood @383 and point taken @385. I wasn’t really being that serious in the suggestion that you might have followed Fergie 😉
Trev, haha, pint of vod winging its way over to you 😉
H2H @384 – Couldn’t agree more.
Excellent piece Cent.
I hope you have finally found peace regarding the loss of your sibling.
Funny that you choose Arsenal because your two favourite players were both previosly at Ajax.
Clive and NorCal, my hat is off to you.
(very busy at work currently and also stuff to do for Arsenal Sweden so too little time for me to visit the bar at the moment…)
I really enjoyed the 1st instalment Cent, shocking that you’re only 3-4 years older than me 😮 You seem so mature 😉
Sorry to hear you lost a brother, I hope you eventually come to terms with this lost if you haven’t already.
Wind,
Classy bit of honesty in your reply to Clive’s offer last night.
Two people offering to buy you tickets now. What haven’t you got that we’ve all got ? 😉
Mr Goram, looks like Spu*s is sold out already. Ivan laffing all the way to the bank.
Aye, cannae complain aboot ticket prices when ye’re sellin’ oot at £62 – £123.
Dick Turpin would have been locked up for attempting the same, mind.
Damn, just saw block 32 as Orange for Spu*s, but the ticket must be gone already.
Great opportunity missed 😉
Trev,that’s some title for SAF indeed.
H2H,thanks for the compliment. I’m well over my brother’s demise now. Kanu and DB10’s Ajax connection will be a co-incidence because back then i didn’t even know they were both at Ajax and now you’ve mentioned it i’ve just realised they both had not too impressive stints at Inter.
Wind,i’m glad you enjoyed it,mate. I guess life experiences made me grow up fast,in the end,i’m glad i did.
*assists*
get in
Giroud
Thanks Ollie
As I said to blogs this morning, success in life is much about timing.
WEll in baff. And Cent in the tabs position and for the lovely story.
Yep good read Cent.
Goonerdom is enriched by the various journeys taken to reach it from all parts of the planet.
Bath @400,mate,you just couldn’t allow Giroud score could you?
@All,if Giroud doesn’t score during the weekend we blame Bath,agreed?
Trev
Fine moniker: HSSCMcP. 🙂
Very well named.
Cent @405
Couldn’t hang around waiting for somebody to do a job I can do.
Who was to know Giroud might be on the field even?
Don’t get bitter, sunshine. There’ll be plenty more opportunities.
Giroud will score when it matters.
Thanks,Bath and Ollie. The second part of my story will follow shortly.
Bath,i guess the team spirit our team is showing this season is rubbing off on us fans,always willing to work for each other and take responsibilty,long may that continue.
bath@402, GOOOOOOOALLL
Oh :blush:
2 days and counting! Hi everyone. Cent, I’m looking forward to the rest of your story. Every piece you pen is so thoughtful (just like you ). Tabs, agree with your take on England. Not ready to give up on Cole, just yet. Still think he has what it takes. The Barca article, surely that was meant to be tongue-in-cheek (I hope so), cause I really laughed quite hard (honestly!). Catalan and H2H, that is one of Neymar’s ‘tamer’ goals, still quite nice though. But where is the defense?!
Well in Bath.
Just out shower.
Heh.
*passes coat to Dr F*
Trev @ 394, thanks, life experiences have made me this way and tempered my conscience the right way:) And I don’t know what I haven’t got that you guys do, youth, a degree of innocence 8), a lack of a (minor) beer belly? 😉
Well in Bath, lovely as usual Ollie.
If you’re looking for an insufferable bastard, abb, yes I think Cole has what it takes.
It’s harsh, yet fair, to say that international football has certainly lost its zest. It was never as good as club football, but it always had it’s own appeal.
Unfortunately, even that appeal is fading. I’m not even sure why!
Anyway. Bring on Norwich.
I have to write the Narch preview tonight, and pack for a weekend away in Cornwall with sis, but I seem to be drinking Guinness in the pub. How did that happen? #longnightahead
Heh Holic, you’ve surely had a wee bit of practice at that challenge? Nae borra for a maestro like yersel.
Try a wee drap o Benromach for inspiration.
How bizarre, ‘holic!
And bring back some Pasties 😉
Pasties, piskies, all the same to me 😉
Pasties bleugh!
Never understood the attraction.
Deep-fried Mars bars more your thing, bath? 😉
Oh Ollie , If I left out every player who is immature, why I might be forced to call upon you lads to play. Hmm, something wrong with that argument, but what 🙂
heh, abb, very wrong indeed 😛
Part Two Of My Story.
I entered secondary school ( the equivalent of what is known as middle and high school in the U.S or comprehensive school in the U.K) two months into the 2001/2002 season and after so much protests i obeyed my dad and entered the boarding house,this resulted in me only watching games during holidays,my interest waned a bit only to be awakened by an arguement/experience i had two/three years later.
I was in Junior secondary class 3 then,we were preparing to go home after then term exams,a senior student called the whole class 3 boys in my dormitory and asked us to entertain and keep him busy by naming our favourite football player,his name,his country/club and talk about the player generally,i said “Dennis Bergkamp,he plays for Arsenal…” only for said senior to cut me short and tell me “David Beckham is now Madrid player and he played for Man U not Arsenal” i was perplexed i couldn’t understand how this senior would not know that Dennis Bergkamp and David Beckham were two diffrent people,i failed to understand that not everybody was privilaged to have cable TV then,i was convinced he was just out to witchhunt me so i argued with him and in the process i called him a liar,i got six strokes of the cain for arguing with and calling my senior a liar. I went home at the end of the term determined to prove to him that i was right.
During the holidays i watched as many games as possible,cut out parts of my dad’s newspapers where Dennis was featured,i took a load of it back to school and showed him only for him to tell me he had already found out during the holidays,he then walked away without any apologies for the flogging he gave me last term. The arrogant sod.
That whole experience taught me that i could keep up with EPL even when in school by reading the papers,so i started reading newspapers in the school library,when the library stopped getting newspapers i started buying my own(a cheap soccer-only daily newspaper named “soccer star”) through day students,i could only afford to buy twice a week so i choose tuesdays and fridays because they carried a review and preview of the weekend games respectively. I was still a neutral,mind.
June 2004,Kanu left Arsenal but i still had this bias towards Arsenal,then came the weekend he turned out for Westbrom against Arsenal,i didn’t know who to support,after thinking about it for a while i realized i didn’t just love Kanu,i also loved Bergkamp and Henry,and Viera,and Gilberto and that boy who plays in midfield wearing an oversized jersey and number fifteen on his back as well as that their manager who i still don’t know why he changed his name to rhyme with his team’s name,so i made the decision and supported the Arsenal. I can’t remember the final score for that game but i think Kanu scored and we lost but i didn’t care,Arsenal was now my team and we will win some and lose some.
N.B. The first jersey i bought was Fabregas No 15,yellow away jersey.
heh Ol @423
Never tried that – just seems wrong.
Eh Ollie 🙂
Good stuff Cent.
Cent, I feared for you the moment you said a ‘senior’ student had requested the presence of his under classmates. Made me think of ‘Lord of the Flies’. Good stuff written in a charming style 🙂
Evening H2H, Sir! A Bloody Mary perhaps?
ABB … I believe the defence was sitting on it´s collective arse having been tricked into colliding with each other. 🙂
Great read again, Cent, though I’m a bit perplexed that an abridged version turned up after the full one 😉
Oh Catalan, Rare I have the honor to say ‘hi’ in relatively real time. Quite agree. If Oscar gets his way, someday Frimpong may have a go at Neymar (just hope he’s gentle)!
Hot off the press! Scoop! Better bone up on the (1970’s) Canaries, tweet, tweet 🙂
Now I’ve looked at our record against them in that time period, looks like a wash…what am I missing 🙁 Besides the obvious (winks).
Bath,
The attraction of the pastie, in the West Country, is sheep – in any form. 😉
*happily sports his brand new “Keep Calm Im A Gooner” scarf which arrived today from HoF* 😀 take that winter!
Good evening,’Holics.
Abb,thanks for the compliments @411 and .
Thanks,wind.
Thanks,Ollie,it was a posting mistake.
Abb,just saw 430,thanks again. My school was quite a good school back then,punishments were always meted out but it never degenerated to a “Lord of Flies” like situation.
The barman must be stressed out.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>><<