Talk About Conflicting Emotions – No, Don’t!
Mar 29th, 2017 by 'holic
I’m not sure if I am progressing joylessly into my latter years turning prematurely Meldrew, or if things really are utterly depressing at the moment.
I’ll not dwell on Brexit on this platform other than to say I firmly believe we would have been better off trying to change Europe’s clear issues from the inside than the outside. Rather than risk losing 52% of the countrymen who vote to read me now and again I’ll leave it at that. (Although thank you for the falling pound that has followed, thus increasing the portion of my life-savings held in US shares!)
I don’t want to be one of those people who comment negatively on the Arsenal situation every five minutes. I’ve made my current views known on here a couple of times, and on a couple of podcasts in the last month or so. Regardless of what happens, and the word is now very strong that Mr Wenger is signing a contract extension, most of us will, I’m sure, continue to support the Arsenal. If he stays it must be the final opportunity for him to create further memories and leave the club in the manner he deserves for all that he has achieved.
As I have said before the Arsenal supporters will be around long after the current custodians of our great club have moved on. All we ask is that you do make every effort to run the football club with a view to giving pleasure and delight to those who will always be the backbone of this great club. Please don’t mistake the unrest as some greater sense of entitlement by more than a few. We have lived through longer spells than 13 years without a league title and stayed loyal. Never before though has the club been so financially blessed and surely capable of delivering a genuine challenge beyond February and March?
What’s Going On At The 71-2004 Memorial Stadium?
Enough, miserable old git. Find some positives, for goodness sake. I have to confess to a smile when reading of the neighbours potentially spending another season in N17. The clear and obvious implication that the reconstruction of Castle Cock-Up is not going to plan brings real joy into this old heart of mine (with thanks to Holland–Dozier–Holland and Sylvia Moy). It would be sad if anything were to go wrong in the redevelopment of the stadium where we won more league titles than they did. If only there were an example of a club in the capital delivering such a project on-budget and in time. What? Oh!
Video Refs Are Here To Stay
Yes, the France versus Spain friendly last night (Tuesday) also caused a brief feeling of pleasure to return. I know the debate will continue for a while to come. Some people for whom I have a lot of time feel differently to me, and why not. It was, however, very satisfying to watching Spain win the match 2-0 rather than draw it 1-1 had the video assistant referee not been trialling.
The pleasure at watching obvious wrongs righted before the game would have restarted anyway was immense. My views on the standard of refereeing in the Premier League are well known, and I have long argued that we have to give the men in the middle every assistance. Further trials are scheduled, but the undeniable evidence of last evening is that some form of instant video assistance is inevitably coming. Yippee!
Just caught myself smiling again. Sorry about that. I’ll get back to the despair of Twitter immediately.
44 Responses to “Talk About Conflicting Emotions – No, Don’t!”
Ping
Pong
Well, if I had been married to the country of Brigitte Bardot and it was the evening of my divorce I imagine I wouldn’t be feeling too sharp either. 😉
My old man
Said be an Arsenal fan
I said fuck off
Bollocks
Pass the valium
🙁
I went to the dentist today and he said I have stress related gum disease. Never heard of it before. He somehow managed to sell me some interdental brushes that relieved me of £17 in reception. I’m thinking, “I’m supposed to be cutting down on stress, you fucker!”
And on the way home, I’m getting on the bus and this youth, who smelled of energy drink and funny fags, barges his way to the front of the queue and tries to get on, only to be told to (and I quote) FACK ORF by an elderly lady behind me*
It was almost…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KzuP_KNPLs
*No, I didn’t let her on the bus before me. She wants independence at her age, she can deal with having to wait her turn. 🙂
Evening H
As i understand it,the VAR is being used at the moment,to verify goals correctly or incorrectly awarded,offside etc,penalty decisions,red cards and mistaken identity.
If used in our last game,would the Brom player who tried to break Alexis’s ankle have got a red card,same with the Lincoln player who tried to maim Ozil.
Interesting one for me would have been the assault on Hector for Chelsea first goal at the Bridge.
Would it have been disallowed and a red card. ??
Who knows what will be on the introduction list Clive, but all of those areas will be covered as confidence grows in the technology versus the unsupported referees.
Cynic ?
Evening Holic.
I suppose there was only Brexit left to come, having already completed our customary premature CLexit and PLexit.
We did exit both entities on extremely good terms, however, being guaranteed access to all the players across the entire European Union this coming summer, with the strong likelihood that we will not be contributing to the circus at all, while at the same time increasing our already extremely strong currency reserves.
One can only hope that we, along with the rest of the league, will not be drawn into bailing out the terrible financial mess that is brewing just the other side of the Greek border of North London.
A mess that is all the more baffling, given the legendary bargaining powers of their President Tsk-Tsk-Levy. Can it be that he has forsaken the principles of his strict parental financial upbringing and abandoned
his Ma’s-strict Treatment.
Trev, you are a star!
Who’s up for a drink on Sunday?
Holic @9,
Don’t you mean Eurostar ?
Should make one pre-match if you’re about then ?
One for cba, although he’ll probably curse me for a heretic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrjSlTeTpNc
@12 Good enough for me at least.
Thanks GH, I found myself agreeing
with everything! I must be an
agreeable fellow I suppose.
It’s great of the spuds to give us all
a laugh, they really can’t get anything
right. Perhaps they can groundshare
with Enfield Town FC.
Looking forward to the Shitty game
and the chance to put things right
on the pitch instead of the rarara
bollocks in the press.
Cheers H! Have a great day out Sunday mate.
Reasons to be cheerful, ‘Holic?
https://youtu.be/CIMNXogXnvE
One advantage of using video assistance for offside is that it might force a much needed simplification of the rule. Getting cameras to identify whether a player is in an offside position is not much more complex conceptually than identifying whether a ball has crossed a goal line, even allowing for the fact that the players, unlike the goal line, are moving. Working out what phase of play is occurring and whether a player in an offside position is committing an offside offense, say by interfering with play, would be quite another matter.
So, I assume we struggle v City, get a good few points against Hammers, Palace and Boro. They then use that window to announce he’s staying and then we get cruelly exposed again in last 6 games v’s City again, a rampant Leicester, Spurs, Man U, Stoke and Everton. How depressing and opportunistic.
Interesting conflation of light and dark Guvna. Giving Shakespeare a run for his money, eh?
Couldn’t agree more about helping the officials. Offsides can be reviewed in seconds. If a decision was taken that for every goal scored that there would be an automatic referral then you would know almost instantly. I can’t think of any logical argument against it if it means that the right decision is reached. For those that require interpretation then I would suggest that those remain with the on field officials.
As for those that still think that refs do a bad job then I will try-post the link to the Sky report. It’s very much worth a read.
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11096/10808860/referee-myth-busting-how-many-decisions-do-officials-get-right
As for the building site at the toilet??? It’s just funny. The fact that they could be playing in Milton Keynes next year with little hope of redevelopment just makes me smile.
Holic you state “Never before though has the club been so financially blessed and surely capable of delivering a genuine challenge beyond February and March?”
The problem is that we are not one of the few clubs with the this financial prowess now:
A look down the distribution of money table shows the different between the winner of PL (£146M) compared to the one relegating at 20th! place (97M) is just £49Million
One of the main reasons we are struggling this season is that teams have upped the spending as a result and premier league is now more competitive than ever.
With everyone having a £100mil to spend, or raise player wages to re-motivate them, its a difficult league.
The gap between top 4 and others is therefore much less significant.
We probably haven’t upped the quality significantly enough plus club are in the same mode of cruise control.
I think the main point for me where cash is concerned is that we are swimming in money but we don’t use it and when we do buy, we buy players who are not top quality, generally speaking, and the players we do buy aren’t coached well.
How many games have we seen in recent years (I mean the last five or six) where we’ve looked completely disorganised?
Mustafi, Xhaka, Chambers (to name just three) are hugely over priced and not up to the mark in any way, so much so that one of them is no longer required.
Cynic agreed, player such as Mustafi and Xhaka will come good in 3-4 years and buying them is probably what we always done; we have always invested in up and coming players and made them better, sold on and made money.
We are still in the same mode.
This philosophy is a sea change from those with the pressure to Win. Teams like Chelsea or Man C, Real Madrid, will pay big even if a top player is 28 years old and they will utilize a player for a year or two knowing the owner wants the trophies, secondly its not really their money and mainly as the manager fully knows heads will roll if they didn’t deliver.
An article from Newsweek on an interview with Xavier Rivoire, Wenger’s authorized biographer…
Q:
But Arsenal doesn’t appear to be getting any closer to the Champions League you say Wenger craves. Does he retain faith that his current approach can bring him more success?
A:
I don’t know. I could not answer for Wenger, obviously I have too much respect for him and I would not elaborate on something I have no clue about. What I know is that the success of the Arsenal of the late 1990s and then all the way until 2006 was built on a very solid British base, with continental and world additions that were installed in the team.
He has only kept the youth of the team without keeping the British spirit. What made Arsenal so great when they won the title in 1998 was the back four, the back five with [David] Seaman. But the Nigel Winterburns and Lee Dixons of this world actually made Arsenal. They had those very solid foundations, maybe not technically speaking but with this incredible heart and soul that belonged to Arsenal. And I think myself that Arsenal lost their soul the day they left Highbury. That’s my view. I have always said there was a great nostalgia about Highbury, they should never have left. I hate those modern stadiums meaning nothing, just money, business and merchandising.
Wenger had this British foundation. In terms of the number of starters, in terms of the spirit they gave to the team. And little by little, you had fewer and fewer British men. The English players they would buy or they would grow were not maybe as engaged, they were not as linked to the club as the ones I just mentioned.
Another excerpt:
Q:
I think I have to ask you the ultimate question and cliffhanger—will Wenger leave at the end of this season?
A:
Yet again it’s difficult for me to answer in the name of Wenger. But it doesn’t seem like Wenger is going to go on his own. I think he has almost made up his mind that he wanted to remain faithful to the Arsenal almost until death. He wanted to be the Alex Ferguson of Arsenal but Ferguson left, remember he left and also he left on a high.
I don’t like Ferguson myself, I don’t like the man, I think Wenger has so many great human qualities. But when I see Wenger now with his white hair, he still has—I compare him to an Alberto Giacometti statue at the start of the book. He has the same type of profile and silhouette but he has aged and you can see that. He has more wrinkles, his forehead is all wrinkles, it’s like Giacometti’s bronze figure.
To me Wenger will always remain this very sober and distant man. But in the sunshine of Highbury, in the middle of the pitch, when they won the title back in 1998. This is the Wenger I want to remember. This is not the Wenger with a raincoat losing at Birmingham or at West Brom. Or fighting against José Mourinho. I don’t want to have this image of him. Because I like him so much. I want to keep the memory of Wenger in the sunshine, surrounded by his warriors in the late 1990s.
Only he knows what the future is made of. Only he can write his own stories. I wouldn’t dare say anything about what he has to do or what he should do or should not do. But what I am telling you as a man and as a football lover, is that to me Arsenal has become different. It is like another club since they left Highbury. And part of the soul and heart of Wenger was probably left behind then, when they left. They moved from a British, passionate, open club playing brilliant football to an empty shell made for football business and merchandising. And probably part of Wenger’s heart stayed there, back at Highbury.
Steve T
Your link states :
“In total, refs make around five errors per game, meaning they are right 98 per cent of the time.”
The problem is if these 2% are among the game changing decisions in a macth then it means nothing to a manager or team that looses that match.
If that match or key matches decides between relegation or survival or winning or loosing the league (or a CL spot) then 98% of correctness means nothing.
We have been on the receiving end of a number of not getting the rub of the green in a number of matches against Man U, especially after David Dein left the FA panel.
A number of independent articles from professional an casual analyst pointed to this fact.
There were games were first Freguson’s team and then all others kicked us off the park to put a shuddering stop to our wining streaks.
“I believe” it was partly because at that time (because of the way money was distributed among other clubs) ManU were bringing the highest revenue of any other club and they had also support development of English players whereas at that time wenger clearly stated buying / development of British players was not his job.
I believe West Ham under Bilic in first year were robbed of a top 4 spot and the way we have managed to get the top 4 sport for 20 years is something not even a statistician could have bet on!;)
By the same token a large majority of penalties awarded to Vardy were “wrong”!
ManU is a good example at the moment of if you annoy refs/FA you will loose the rub of the green
I’ve been travelling during which time I met a S***s fan showing me his pictures of the new ground emerging. Have I missed something on the funding. I thought they have a £350 million loan in place.
Can you update me? I need cheering up.
Crikey bath, I don’t think the bard will be unduly concerned at his place in writing history. 🙂
Rugby makes the referee’s conversation with the video adjudicator’s conversation be audible to the TV audience. That makes whatever time it takes to make a technology-assisted decision pass very quickly.
Or in English, Shakespearean or otherwise:
Rugby makes the referee’s conversation with the video adjudicator audible to the TV audience. That makes whatever time it takes to make a technology-assisted decision pass quickly.
Good stuff Arsenalist @24 & 25. Thanks for sharing. Much truth there is in there.
Ach you’re too modest, bard of Highbury.
Jaba. Your drink contains more spelling and grammatical errors than the average referee makes in 90 minutes.
All of a sudden, a 98% success rate does not look that bad at all, does it?
Just saying.
Bring on technology.
Anything that decreases errors on the refs part is welcome!
Till then will moan about it every time the ref cocks up.
Simply unacceptable in this day and age that game changing errors are even being made in the game. Especially when we have the means of avoiding it.
Up The Arse!
I’m onside with all those supporting the introduction of technology.
All failing systems need the support of all available technical help and the loss of respect for the integrity of referees resulting from their frequent and ‘obvious on TV’ critical match determining errors are evidence of that failing system.
Inevitably it will upset traditionalists who defend the status quo with the observation that the referees’ errors are all part of the game and the game has always had talking points.
However the is fine for the Junior League where the cost of these errors is minor. In today’s top leagues the cost of these errors can be astronomical not to mention coaches’ jobs.
Inevitably there will remain controversy because there are still decisions that are difficult even after several views at slo-mo from several angles and it remains the decision of one human being. However that should satisfy those who relish the referee errors being part of the game with the considerable advantage that the majority of clear miscarriages of justice that result from human frailty or mendacity are removed from the game.
Interesting speculation about not announcing Wenger staying because they want to have a dual announcement linked to a prominent former player coming back in a director of football or coaching role.
I just don’t see it myself.
I cannot see Wenger having anyone around him who is a “NO” man and can’t see someone like Bergkamp, Vieira or Henry being “YES” men. Pires might… not those three.
Steve Bould? With all due respect to him, he’s the day before yesterday’s man and has no real pull. He can’t demand a say.
Bergkamp, Vieira and Henry certainly would and I don’t see that working. Be good if it did happen but I don’t see it.
Cynic agreed about Yes men comment an Arsene wont accept ANYONE challenging Any of his decisions on day to day basis.
So if he does go for Yes men, the question will be how much time are the fans and media prepared to give Wenger and the new coalition?
ZERO i guess every time a result goes against them they will be up in arms.
Steve
It must have been when i was with Brahino 😉
Whatever you think of the AST, this is pretty stunning stuff
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/arsenal-fans-voted-rid-arsene-10131983
AST doesn’t say how many of its 1,000 members responded to its survey, but a bit of back calculation from what it has published suggests the Wenger out vote amounted to 380-390 fans. Not quite the landslide of ‘Arsenal fans’ the Mirror suggests.
all the best for yer gummy troubles cynic
top man
have owned a burnt out fort smile meself
whether i still do is none of you bastards concern
fuckin shower that ye are !
*mushes dinner*
Enjoy that mushy dinner, cba. 🙂
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