Mannequins And An ABW Book Review With Alex Fynn
Nov 15th, 2016 by 'holic
A ‘window of opportunity’ has presented itself. There is a gap of an hour between England finishing and Alexis, I mean Chile, starting. I may even stay up long enough to see Alexis hop off the pitch on his good leg. Seriously, how much bandaging did he have on just to get through training with Chile for this match? They are fooling nobody.
I really don’t mind if he doesn’t start at Old Trafford on Saturday. He will arrive back so soon before a Saturday lunchtime kick-off as to make the selection of either Giroud or Lucas much more sensible. Had Chile done the best for the player and sent him back with whatever degree of ‘muscle’ tear he has then he could have been allowed time to recover properly. Right now we are praying he doesn’t turn a match or two off into six or more weeks.
Enough of that doomsday scenario. I may be back later with much better news. Let’s see. Now England, what can we say about tonight’s not always friendly against Spain? Well, the fact that is wasn’t entirely played in the correct spirit owed much to a horrible Jamie Vardy challenge in the opening minutes. Salt was rubbed into Spanish wounds when the Albert Steptoe lookalike was upended by Pepe Reina for the penalty that Lallana despatched for 1-0.
He got the second himself, and the England forwards, confident that the job was done put on a ‘mannequin challenge’ celebration. Sadly the defenders who had missed out on the fun took umbrage, and decided to do their own challenge in the last minute of the ninety and again in added time. Result 2-2, a draw snatched from the brink of a frankly unexpected victory.
I tweeted in the aftermath, maybe a little tongue in cheek, that Gareth Southgate has earned a crack at the permanent England manager job for going unbeaten with this utter shambles of a squad we currently have. I honestly cannot remember a weaker one. Much of that is down to his experience with the under 21s who are now starting to make their passage into the senior squad.
Surely we won’t mess him around any longer, will we? Over to you, @FA.
PS. Alexis was, of course, the man of the match, scoring twice as Chile came from behind to defeat Uruguay 3-1 in their World Cup qualifier. He was substituted with just over five minutes to go. Now we wait!
Arsenal: The Making of a Modern Superclub review on ABW
Apologies if you have missed this since it was published on Sunday, but I had the privilege, along with presenter Raj and producer Danny, to spend just under an hour talking to Alex Fynn about the updated version of the book he co-wrote with Kevin Whitcher. Additional chapters update the book to the end of the transfer window this summer. Alex provides personal insights on the Arsene Wenger era at the club from the viewpoint of a friend of David Dein, and one who is seen as one of the architects of the Premier League.Β It was a fascinating podcast to do. Thank you Raj, Danny, and of course, Alex.
To buy the book please go here and, as Alex advises at the end of the show, if you use the promo code ‘AW’ then six of your finest British pounds will secure a copy.
That’s it for now, but there may well be an updated version of this blog shortly as the Chile kick-off is now just twenty minutes away.
32 Responses to “Mannequins And An ABW Book Review With Alex Fynn”
A first first.
I read the original and pretty good it was to.
UTA.
Ive made it into one of your blogs, i can retire a happy man, and you got my job description right, woof
Best around Danny. ??
Alexis was electric for Chile, as he was instrumental in setting up their equalizer before scoring an impressive brace. He played for about 84 minutes in a 3-1 victory. He didn’t look inhibited at all. He dribbled past the Uruguayans leaving them motionless, as if they were participants in the Mannequin Challenge.
Alexis was unstoppable tonight. Let’s see what happens now. I hope he hasn’t aggravated the injury, but, he didn’t look injured at all throughout the game. Hopefully, he’ll be ready to destroy Man United defenders like he did the Uruguayans.
And Joel Campbell with two calm clinical finishes as a sub sends the Ticos to 4-0 lead and drubbing of the U.S. trumps — make that chumps.
Good news that Alexis was on fire last night and scored two crackers as well as an assist.
Keep the champagne on ice until the boss checks him out though.
A ticking time bomb is dear Alexis. Brilliant yesterday but every time he holds that leg, we all miss a heart beat. He was magnificent yesterday and that second goal he scored, he left two far bigger defenders in the lurch.
England less said better. All the high press and all is fine but you need to close out a game and yet again they never looked winning the moment Spain scored their first goal. Forget internationals honestly.
Saturday represents one more chance to finally beat that despised one and that shit team. We haven’t won in the league there for 10 years and that is a painful reading. The mind games should start from now on but honestly, if we play to our strength and more so shed our inhibitions, we should win the game.
Alexis and ozil need to step up in such games because the team looks to their best players when it is a tough contest and rest assured it will be. If we need to be winners, we need to win such games.
chile ?
paxo once on university challenge
shot down a contestants perfectly fine answer
“no” said paxo
the jimi hendrix song wasn’t voodoo child
but
voodoo chile – (which he pronounced like the country)
nobody complained or corrected
cos it went on air
.
i believe they are a popular beat combo , m’lud
indeed
.
eejits
that’s the famed m’lud of yore
not our esteemed ‘holic colleague
of the same name
the mighty thunder T
and
howdy chris
the locale of yer ideal cottage sounds perfect
while mine is just a swift fart from a massive atlantic beach
i need to go over a wee hill to see it
can hear it though
the bar is an hours walk there
two hours walk back
mind you
new led torch i use
i’m sure can be seen from space
much better than the wee hand cranked dynamo type yoke i had
didn’t charge up so constant squeezing required
with the light flickering up to a full beam of practically fuck all
and dying down to death accompanied by the wee mechanism
going
weeeeee nnaa nnnaaa nnnnnnaaaaa nnnnnnnaaaaaaa
each time you squeezed it
every 5 fuckin seconds
pitch dark
near total silence
just me freaking out the livestock
with my light and sound show
.
UP THE ARSENAL
by the way
The book is on the list, Holic.
Sounds good – the original was very interesting.
Hoping bath’s news that Alexis was “on fire last night” was not posted in a literal sense. Mind you, the speed those short but very chunky thighs rub together when at full throttle….. who’d be surprised ? ?
@10 –
well there’s nothing else going on, so I’ll permit myself an amended re-run of a bit of old nonsense.
Sorry, Hol – as himself would say ?
Ol’ cba lives down on a farm
And once every night
He chances his arm,
To get to the pub
Through the piles of shit
Left in the fields
By the cows bit by bit.
Filled full of ale
He’ll return in the night,
But the fields now are dark
And his sole source of light,
Is the moon overhead
Or his LED torch,
His target, his refuge
His nice dry front porch.
But the cows in the field
Have had other ideas,
They’ve studied his night moves
For years and years.
They know every step
The old fella will take,
And they’ve planted the route
Full of squelchy cow-cake.
“Shit! Bollix! Feck it!
Oh, sweet holy Jeez!
I can’t feckin’ believe it,
It’s up to me knees!”
Up goes the cry
At the end of the day,
As the cow-cake from hell
Engulfs cba.
So learn from his folly –
Cow shit has no charm,
Don’t get pissed nightly
If you live on a farm.
am humbled trev
love it
love here
and dagnabbit
ya big galoot
i love you too
?
moooooooooooooooooooooo
?????
any roads
must get back to ma claim
i’ve a notion walter huston’s found ma stash
The Undiscovered Peter Cook is on BBC4 tonight at 10pm.
A major find is The Dead Sea Tapes, an LP recorded by Peter and Dudley in 1963, but never released (due to concerns about blasphemy laws), and long thought lost. Also included are rediscovered classic sketches from Not Only But Also, reconstructed in the edit suite after mute film clips were retrieved from Australia, and reunited with the original audio tracks.
Should be good.
Harrowing article in the Guardian today, by a former player, about the horrific sexual abuse of young footballers by a Coach up at Crewe and surrounding Clubs back in the 80/90’s.
The particular offender used to invite the young boys round to his house where a lot of the abuse took place.
One of the young boys mentioned was Gary Speed,who as we know ,sadly took his own life not so long go.
Even though his family were given assurances that he wasn’t one of the boys abused,how can they ever know.
Given the predator favored dark haired boys,and Speed fitted the type,his family will spend many sleepless nights wondering whether that led to him taking his own life.
Tip of the Iceberg.
Let the sunshine in, bros.
Are we back, then?
Is cba back from the pub yet?
I don’t think the pub has closed yet. So, probably not. :0)
Hope he’s not stuck in a giant cow patty.
Cynic @19. Thanks for the heads up. I’m catching up on it now. Timeless gold dust.
That giant cow, Pattie, has a hell of a grip. :/
Trev
That was truly poetic π
Thank God proper football is back! Off to the CL game next week anyone is making the trip up there?
????????
Should be a blog later I hope. So I’ll say this now, and then again later;
SCRUFFY MOANING LYING PORTO CUNT IS AN ABSOLUTE AND UTTER PRICK. I HOPE HE DIES IN A FIRE SCREAMING. THE CUNT.
esso nose
Here it is Esso! π >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>