The Two Sides Of Ivan There For All To See
Sep 5th, 2017 by 'holic
The two defeats leading into the international break has made this fortnight a pretty miserable time. Mesut Ozil, Arsene Wenger, Ivan Gazidis, indeed anybody connected to the football club appears to be a target right now. Not that some of it isn’t warranted. Ivan in particular needs to pay more attention to the messages he is sending out. It wasn’t too long ago I would not have expected to read pieces like this and this by my peers.
In a world of social media things won’t be getting any more cheerful this side of Saturday’s visit of Bournemouth. Even a victory over the south coast side won’t lessen the tensions to any great degree. Sterner tests will have to be passed but on Saturday, and next Thursday when Cologne come calling for our Europa League bow, will provide us with the opportunity to find some form to take to the bus stop in Fulham on Sunday week.
But for the results at Stoke and Liverpool we would be heading to Stamford Bridge with a reasonable hope of getting what would be a rare victory in recent seasons. Our two wins at Wembley will have instilled some doubt into the minds of Antonio Conte’s charges. but now they will feel capable of avenging those results in emphatic style. Still, let’s take it one game at a time, as the old saying goes.
Talking of Ivan I see he has today been elected to UEFA’s executive committee as one of two representatives from the European Club Association. The ECA is the successor organisation to the G-14 group of Europe’s most powerful clubs and now represents the interests of 220 clubs from 53 countries. Only the politically astute generally earn an invite to UEFA’s top table, so Arsenal’s CEO has clearly been networking with all the right people. A penny for David Dein’s thoughts tonight.
I’ll keep this mercifully brief for now. I’m watching the boys in green against Serbia. I hope they prove more attractive than England were last night.
Have a good one, ‘holics.
124 Responses to “The Two Sides Of Ivan There For All To See”
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Thirst.
Nice one, H.
Interesting times…
I’m watching the boys in green against Serbia. I hope they prove more attractive than England were last night.
That Roy Keane is a Devilish handsome fellow, don’t you think?
Thank you bath.
Cynic, tonight has been worse than last. Such a shame.
I have mostly been betting on the dog racing (said in the manner of Ray Miland in Dial M For Murder) and won considerable sums, which I intend to invest in a gingerbread man from the bakers tomorrow.
Smarties for buttons. The good stuff.
Football is irrelevant to me during the interlull, and increasingly so generally.
Who’d have thought the little six year old lad wearing an old red cotton rugby shirt, which was as close to a replica kit as I could get back then, with dreams of being Charlie George could be so disillusioned with the game, at all levels, come middle age.
Football has been destroyed by money, whether it’s Neymar on ludicrous dough or players at local level moving on for an extra tenner.
And there’s no way back.
Christ. Channel hopping when Lisa Riley’s boobs are being reshaped to remove saggy skin is a bad idea.
I’d rather be watching Spurs.
Just wanted to make a suggestion!
Now that the window has closed and the season is underway, I don’t think that the best solution will be for supportiers to boycott the games.
I feel that will disrupt the team even more and embarrass the club!
But if supporters feel strongly enough we should refuse to renew season tickets or any offers if we are on the waiting list!
The condition should be that we will resume normal service when Kroneke sells up!
What say you?
I spent the evening about 5 minutes from the Aviva Stadium where the boys in green failed to do the business against Serbia. There is a very different feel to the support for this Irish team to the ones in 1990 and 1994. I don’t think they expect to overtake Wales now.
I am reading more and more negative articles about Kroenke and Gazidis and they seem to be amply justified to me. Kroenke really seems the worst sort of owner.
I remember a debate on here some time ago where we were lamenting Kroenke’s stewardship. Pangloss took the ( reasonable ) view that until it could be seen that Kroenke was harming the club he would not condemn him. I think that evidence is starting to accumulate now. In fact we have a whole host of people who are performing poorly in key jobs at Arsenal- and that’s before we get to the players!
I find myself arranging my trip to the Bournemouth game without a shred of excitement or anticipation because of the sentiments that Bligs and Yogi articulated so well. I do hope we can find the spark to reignite our season but I have no faith that this won’t mean we can remotely challenge for the league.
@ King GT, short of abusing Wenger or fighting each other. I believe the fans should do anything humanly possible to get rid of Kroenke. As for the coach, his time is coming to an end soon.
I live in the States and I cant remember the last time any of his sports franchise won a championship. He is a horrible owner. We need to get rid of him ASAP.
Cheers Holic !
Just catching up here and with Bloggs after a trip to foriegn climes – and very nice it was too. Well, the holiday was, at least.
What on earth is happening inside the Arsenal ?
I have received fairly short shrift here and elsewhere for suggesting that the club was being strangled by our absentee owner who, apart from his hereto increasing share value, could not give a rat’s about the club.
Well, he might have to start caring soon if the dissatisfaction at the state of the club among supporters is reflected in attendance levels in the stadium.
That would be the stadium that was to elevate us to the very top tier of European clubs, as we fought it out with the Bayern Munichs and Barcelonas for the continent’s top prizes.
The stadium that is now being compared by Ivan Gazidis to the King Power and Monaco – average attendance last time I looked was about 9,000 – in terms of our likelihood of winning a donestic or European title.
Leicester City is what we should now aspire to be. No, really !
The chaotic, desperate, last ditch attempts – if they were ever genuinely made – to strengthen the squad, signal only the complete lack of any plan to refresh and augment the team.
“Sanchez will not be sold” – well, he might be:
“Oxlade-Chamberlain will definitely be here next season” – he’s gone.
Of course we bid €100,000,000 for Thomas Lemar – just as he was about to start an international match on the last night of the window, having played “shall we – shan’t we” for the previous three months.
Don’t worry Arsenal fans – you see we really did try to make it the summer of great change.
The manager ? No, not him.
The coaches ? Obviously not – they were the manager’s choice.
The board ? Not likely.
The players ? Well, a lot went – 24 to be precise, and 2 came in.
The bank balance ? Now you’re talking buddy !
Dorset Mick from previous drinks.
Thnks for the heads up on how you became a Gooner.
With your Dad a supporter of our neighbors down the road,your Uncle did you a big favor.
Much the same with my being a Gooner.
My Dad spent his childhood in a children’s home in North London,and his first job when he was old enough to leave,was as an apprentice in a local Butchers.
Fortunately for me,all the guys who worked there,were mad Arsenal supporters.
So they took Dad to Highbury,this would be 36/37 season, to watch the team and the rest is history.
Nice stuff H.
The fact is that this is nothing more than business to Stan and Ivan. Arsenal are a cash cow. They can all say what they want but deep down, it’s just money money money.
King GT. I understand your idea but it simply won’t have any effect. The tourist market for football in London is thriving. Tickets will always sell.
Football is now more about the armchair fan rather than the ground attending supporter. If a game has to kick off at 11pm on a Thursday evening to satisfy TV audiences all over the world then it will do. The stadium is only half full??? Who cares when the club earns millions and millions from the game? Prem games abroad? An European Super League? All real possibilities in this money making world of professional football. You can rest assured that Stan will still want his massive slice of the pie.
Ivan elected to UEFA’s executive committee you say????????
For services to Coutt’s.
Oops. Not Le Steve anymore.
Sadly.
Or le T either, it appears.
Or doesn’t.
That will be it Trev.
Good to have you safely returned from darkest foreign parts, Trev, and still talking sense. Family all well I hope?
NDR … Radio Birdman, Scientists and Victims (last drinks). Me culpa, but I was working from a memory now clouded by time, cognac and ex wives.
Also last drinks, SSY -> http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/120206_cn-touche2_p465.jpg 😉
Venus Williams on the verge of taking the first set. If she wins she goes into the semifinals at the US Open.
You go Kylian!
http://www.leparisien.fr/sports/football/psg/psg-kylian-mbappe-cite-albert-camus-pour-son-adieu-a-monaco-04-09-2017-7235052.php
Imagine Arsène And him attending the pre-match press conference, exchanging Camus and Montaigne to talk about the absurdity of footballing fame while the room full of journalists stare at each other in bafflement…
Football was very important to good old Albert as well…
1973 barolo costamagna touche
For services to Coutt’s.
+ N
– O
– T
For you, SSY … https://images.vivino.com/thumbs/00ccbceo4i866_375x500.jpg
Camus is probably better known to most denizens of football terraces as a goalkeeper than un hommes de lettres, as your hint suggests you already know Dr F. 😀 And he’s not the only literary giant similarly ccomplished, as I’m sure you also know. Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle kept goal for Portsmouth in his time and Vladimir Nabokov wore the gloves for Cambridge University.
“As with folded arms I leant against the left goalpost, I enjoyed the luxury of closing my eyes, and thus I would listen to my heart knocking and feel the blind drizzle on my face, and hear in the distance the broken sounds of the game, and think of myself as of a fabulous exotic being in an English footballer’s disguise composing my verse in a tongue nobody understood about a remote country nobody knew. Small wonder I was not very popular with my team-mates.”
Nabokov from his autobiography Speak, Memory
Hi guys,
If the ticket sabotage thing won’t work, then I think the next best thing will be for supporters to protest outside of the stadium/head office from day 1 of season end to season begin!
I think that will be less disruptive/embarrassing and just as effective?
I don’t think Kroneke deserves 2 billion pound for his shares (the rumoured amount of Usmanovs next bid)and there are apparently question marks over Usmanov, but the passionate supporter in me still feels that is a better option than what we have now.
Or If Usmanov is still willing to put his hands in his pockets with a majority share as opposed to a 100% share surely that could be a deal which suits everyone?? Stan could still retain around 29% (and collect around a billion) and still collect money towards his ranches through dividends while Usmanov gets on with re-building the squad!
After all, isn’t David Dein still chairman of Red and white Holdings??
Chris & Dr F: You have to get the t-shirt:
https://www.philosophyfootball.com/philosophers/-albert-camus.html
? Guvnor!
Gazidis is proving to be a right proper?
To be expected from a fellow Oxon alma mater of “that” particular College! ?️♀️
A compelling few weeks upcoming for The Arse & especially for it’s ?s upstairs in the Board Room?!
Only the under?s upsets week-upon-week against the financially-doped-up ?heads, shall be one’s viewing schadenfreude for the vastness of this season! ⚖️
?s all round!
AFCOF!
NBN@25: And I will, thanks a lot! 🙂
Couldn’t resist
https://youtu.be/ur5fGSBsfq8
Hmmm. Thanks Ned, but I’d rather have a Camus cognac t-shirt! 😀
I first referred to Kroenke as a ‘ mediocre’ sports entrepreneur when I referred to him here. He’s nowhere near as good as that . We’ve saddled ourselves with an unambitious, balance sheet oriented, taciturn businessman who has a really poor track record in every sport he’s set his hand to.
I hate the thought of him getting £ 2 billion but I would prefer this to him staying on. The problem is with his head- down style he never sells anything.
Clive@11,
Your Dad would have been watching Arse just after Chapman had died, when they were still at the top of the tree. A just reward after his tough start in life.
Sounds like your family dodged a bullet – it often is something as incidental as the influence of friends or work colleagues that determine where your loyalties lie.
I worked in a factory for over thirty years (well, attended, anyway), which comprised about 4,000 Saints fans, 1,000 Pompey fans and one Arse fan. If you think that we despise spuds, you wouldn’t believe the vitriol between south coast rivals, “skates” and “scummers”.
Sorry PR, I cannot allow posts calling for illegality to remain here.
Great interview with Ornstein on Arseblog.
Holic,
Totally understand and it was inappropriate to be fair.
I do feel that cataclysmic events will have to come about before we see any change, for example a run of horrendous results which supersedes the hideous fare that was served up Jan-April this year.
It makes me feel really conflicted because I don’t want to hope my team lose, but at the same time it could in a perverse way help.
PR
Decided to support Shrewsbury in League One this season.
Haven’t figured out yet though whether the town in is England or in Wales.
La Liga president says PSG has been caught “peeing in the swimming pool” and “Neymar peed from the diving board.”
He goes on to say “We can’t accept this.”
No doubt he is correct about the first two points.
The only question is over the third. But I hope and would like to think he is. Maybe with a widespread boycott of Champions League stadia something can be accomplished. If so, no doubt Gazidis will claim that Arsenal played the leading role in the boycott.
Someone in Spain is clearly ?ing themselves because of the now much “bigger kids” starting the school with them this year! ⚖️ ?
You started it all with your Spanish Banks ?s!
????
https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2016/jul/04/spanish-football-clubs-repay-tens-millions-illegal-state-subsidies-brussels
????
http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11023034/psg-and-man-city-accused-of-financial-doping-by-la-liga-president-javier-tebas
????
Chris #17 – No bother ; my memory is going that way too !
There were some truly great Aussie Garage/Punk bands buried in the mists of time that never really got their due over here – got a stack of them on Vinyl somewhere but this double CD set serves as a fantastic reminder : http://www.allmusic.com/album/do-the-pop%21-the-australian-garage-rock-sound-1976-1987-mw0000399756
bumptious is a good word isn’t it
.
BUMPTIOUS !
amen hüsker 41
yer 41 wasn’t there when i 42’d
?
Chris, family all good thanks.
cba,
It would have been rude
To have 42’d
When 41 wasn’t there
And 43
Would look very lonely
Without a 44
?
45 and 6
Are in the mix
And both look jobs well done
7, 8 and 9
Are all in line
So go for your big half-ton.
Gawahn !
Yes
They are
Bless you cba, i love bumptious, me…
Raises bat to the dressing room.
Physiotherapy today.
Female.
I have a weak bottom.
She said.
“No that’s just last night’s curry”
*boom boom*
(This is all true apart from the curry bit. I need to strengthen my arse, apparently)
Not the only Arse in need of strengthening, Cynic.
DM @31
You deserve a medal surviving that long as a lone Gooner among 5,000.
Did they know you were. ??
Some pretty scary stuff went on in the 70’s around football down on the Coast.
Pompey were well known for it,although never heard much about the Saints involvement.
I am assuming being around the docks,the factory you worked in would have been a boatyard.. ??
Although you will now probably tell me it was a biscuit factory or something. !!
As for my Dad,when he was of age to leave the children’s home,he was given a list of different apprenticeships jobs available in the local area.
Electrician/plumber/carpenter/baker/shop assistant etc.
On a whim he ticked Butcher,thank goodness.
Don’t get it. How can they replay the match if the referee has been banned for life? 😉
http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/41182108
Clive@54,
It was the Ford Transit factory. It’s gone now, and they build them in Turkey instead.
Bumptious is an anagram of ‘opium bust’, cba.
I became a life-long gooner after being asked as an 8yo what team I supported and said Arsenal, who had just won the 1950 FA Cup. If they had lost I could well have been a scouser to this day, despite my finding ancestors in Plumstead at the time of Dial Square whose successors later moved into Holloway and Finsbury Park. Some things in life are best not thought about, ay. 😮
trev ?
sorry i missed the half ton
a bigger boy schnuck in
and stole it all brazen like
?
i’ll be ok though
i have great support behind me …
… cynic ,
thoughts are with you during this difficult time
.
.
anyhoo
howdy and cheerio
.
UP THE ARSENAL
here
have a rainy
moooooooooooooo
everyone
?
60 is the new 50 anyway
?
*sammy nelsons ‘holic*
.
.
…. and leaves
A former Chile youth coach has had a pop at Alexis Sanchez, saying the forward is ‘fatter than normal’.
Sanchez and Chile have had a bad week after the national team was beaten 3-0 by Paraguay in World Cup qualifying before suffering a 1-0 loss in Bolivia.
And Chile’s former under-20 coach Jose Sulantay sensed something was not quite right with Sanchez.
“I saw him gone, I saw him out of physical shape, totally. He’s fatter than normal,” he told newspaper La Cuarta. ‘Without his spark, he never left that Paraguayan defence behind. He never made a diagonal run, it was something else. It was not Alexis.”
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———–
No doubt caused by the indecisions in transfers!
😀
… But the good news is Cazorla should be back after X’mas!
😀
@BB, X’mas 2018? or the one after.
in other news
serious question to serious people
my eyesight is going so
i have a big magnifying glass
I put my eye seeing glass down on the table
wee bit sideways on a coaster
looking at the glass
THE MIRROR ABOVE THE FIRE
IS LIKE A 3D HOLOGRAM
just above the magnifying glass
if i reach for it
full pretend 3D not there stuff
.
explanation ned style I’d love
it’s freaky
bad explanation I’m sure
looking down on the magnifying glass on the table
there is a wee 3D version of the big mirror over the fire
which appears hologram style to be floating in the air
where’s physicists when you need them
doc fau ?
fire walk with me
arseholes need not apply
serious business here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZiSyNicwPI
pronto, hippie
cba@66: By chance (or natural genius), you have positioned the two mirrors so they create a rudimentary hologram of the fire, which your brain interprets as a 3-D image.
Either that or you are overbrewing the home brew…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uKbIkYGsIg
cheers ned
really freaky
bushwhacker
really freaky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8sI_nDq2kw
herself looked at me odd
.
it’s absolutely amazing
.
did Charlie George experience this feenomeenom int 70s
I SUSPECT HE DID
‘holic
what you lookin at ?
oooooh
urgh
a music war
good record
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6QZD_niSlK8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b-nFSUXcuM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71s-T8oUTQs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s29RKnB7l7o
but
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hy8_ByqQA3Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61rkMv6iF0c
Premier League votes to close its domestic transfer window before the season opens.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41188235
Football doing something sensible for once.
?
And German football doing something progressive.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/41193280
Bibiana Steinhaus will become the Bundesliga’s first female referee after she was chosen for Werder Bremen’s game at Hertha Berlin on Sunday
Bibiana in the valley of the dolls
3D
All I can say to that is https://youtu.be/yXCXBcVrbrM
A question for the estimable Ned and the monks. It looks to me as if Nketiah is not in the U Ropey League squad. Is that correct and if it is do you know why not? It would seem a perfect opportunity to give him first team experience
?
goodnight
shitefaced
so
i
AM
.
laters turdhandlers
“BOOOM”
well in for the hunder’d cba
the rules has changed
and my grammer gets better when i’s sober
got thee a physicist yet?
Ttg@96: Nketiah is on the B-list, which is for players born after 1 January 1996 and aren’t in the A-list of 25, which has a quota for ‘locally-trained’ players, similar to the Premier League’s ‘home-grown’ requirement. We’ve put 17 players on the B-list for a total squad of 42.
Europa League Squad:
A-list
Ospina
Cech
Iliev
Macey
—
Debuchy
Mertesacker
Koscielny
Holding
Monreal
Mustafi
Chambers
Bellerin
Kolasinac
—
Ramsey
Wilshere
Ozil
Xhaka
Coquelin
Elneny
—
Sanchez
Lacazette
Giroud
Walcott
Welbeck
Akpom
B-list
Huddart
Keto
—
Bola
Johnson
Moore
—
Iwobi
Reine-Adelaide
Maitland-Niles
Bielik
Gilmour
McGuane
Nelson
Sheaf
—
Dasilva
Eyoma
Nketiah
Willock
Iwobi’s slide continues. Not long ago he was close to regular first XI.
@90 NBN
Yep, credit where it’s due. Not
often you say that about the PL!!
Is Vlad the Dragon still with us?
Doesn’t seem to have made the
42.
I hope 2 or 3 of the B List get a
start against Koln.
AW has questioned the efficacy
of FFP and thinks it may put off
American or Chinese investors.
His comments were reasoned as
usual but I couldn’t help thinking
I hope it puts off one particular
American investor.
Good to see FIFA refused Leicester’s Adrien Silva transfer because it missed the deadline by 14 seconds. Sounds daft but not a precedent we want to see. Where would it end?
*Ratifying the late transfer being the precedent we don’t want, I mean of course.
OsakaMatt@110: Dragomir is still with the club and playing for the U-23s. He missed the first game of the season and only played a few minutes coming on as a sub in the next two, so he might be coming back from injury. Clubs can add players to their Europa League B-list throughout the competition up to midnight on the day before a game.
Thanks Ned.
I’m looking forward to the
headlines in his future….
Vlad impales Chavs and
Arsenal’s Dragon roasts Spuds.
That’ll be a good day 🙂
Any volunteers to write a report on tomorrow’s match? I will be there but a heavy night is scheduled and I have to head for Cornwall on Sunday.
Posts 84-89
That’s why I love this place ; where else can you chat all things Arsenal whilst listening to Devo, Mekons and Wire ?
Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalal….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7nKM2SW5ns
Just post this, H. Everyone will understand
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZ_SLKdVAAA6g9L.jpg
What on earth is that? ?
That is Boston Legal. The finest tv show ever made
Ratbag quality but this is a taste of why it’s great
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4la8Izrwea8
Cech
Mustafi Kos Nacho
Hector Coq/Neny Xhaka Kola
Rambo/Ozil Laca Alexis/Welbz
Cech
Bellerin – Meh – Meh – Monreal
Meh – Meh – Meh
Walcott – Lacazette – Alexis
Meh = Anyone we could play in those positions is much of a muchness. It depends who gives the best partnership at centre back and I think the midfield is all very samey.
The main thing is to go to a back four and a front three that can score goals. If Welbeck plays, I will be in despair (although won’t actually know about it before KO as I’ll be away from any devices capable of telling me).
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>