Well we won…St Michael Thomas t-shirt up for grabs..

August 14, 2008

Good day to all you Gooner’s out there.

Well all I can say is that we won, that’s it, oh and thank feck that FC Twente strikers are about as lethal as a doughnut, not the ones with jam inside, the ones you see in the Sainsbury’s bakery bit with the hundred’s and thousand’s – who buys those? Anyway I digress FC Twente are a poor side when it comes to finishing although they play a great passing game. At times they reminded me of The Arsenal (without the flair) with their quick one-twos and passing in triangles. When I say they remind me of The Arsenal I don’t mean The Arsenal that played last night because they played like Bolton the amount of times the ball was in the air I thought my neck was going to give, I mean The Arsenal we know and love that can play the short passing game. I wont knock our team as we won, I wont say it was convincing but we won. 

One thing I would say is that I think Le Gaffer is papering over the cracks citing that the team was very young, well you know what, it shouldn’t be now should it? I’m not sure how many ‘big’ teams would field a 20 year old and a 17 year old in the middle of the park. I know injuries to key players are partly to blame for fielding these youngsters, however timing and a cheque book could of put a potential disaster completely out of mind. Well as I’ve said we won but there was some woeful performances out there and if anything the game does show how paper thin we are when we lose key players. I mean come on Emmanuel Eboué playing on the left wing? FFS! I know Wenger subscribes to the idea of Totaalvoetbal but I think he’s taking it too far now. Eboué is many things, he is a great athlete, but a a greater actor but he certainly isn’t no left sided player, Abou Diaby must be spinning on his treatment table bed. 

I’ve seen on some sites Gooner’s arguing with each other about spending money and injured players etc. However you can’t legislate for the injuries we’ve got already, no one would of thought The Cesc would be injured or new boy Samir Nasri but I think the clever money would be Abou Diaby not playing more than three games in a row and the less said about Tomáš Rosický the better – he makes Darren Anderton positively seem almost Frank Lampard-like, no I don’t mean a fat kebab eating chav but not missing something like 100+ Premier League games in a row. I know surprising isn’t it that Frank Lumpard has a record like that I think it’s something to do with a bonus of every game played he gets to go the Fat Fuk Chinese on Brompton Road and do the all you can eat menu. 

Anyway Gooner’s joking aside, we were dire – I actually missed the first goal as I was texting my brother Brian and keeping him in the loop as he doesn’t have Setanta and even when we scored I didn’t get overly excited. I’m glad we won, of course I am – I just think we need to seriously address what we have in the middle of the park and not have to rely on two youngsters to get us to a big fat mouthwatering prize worth potentially £10-£15m. Also with Aaron Ramsey we only bought him in the summer when many thought he was going to sign up for Manchester USA, who the hell would play in the middle if we didn’t have him? Another 17 year old, a 16 year old? Could you imagine if we lost or drew that game? The money Wenger thinks he’s saving or more to the point not spending wouldn’t be an issue as there would be huge pressure on us and the worst case scenario would be too horrific to consider. I know one player with experience we wont be getting is Xabi Alonso as the hubcap nicking, shell suit wearing, giro getting Liverpool Scallies USA played him in their 0-0 draw with Belgium champions Standard Liege – so bang goes that signing. But as much as I faith in the kids we need some much needed experience to help them out. We got away with it last night but a better team and yes there will be better will punish us. However I will say – well done boys! And Wenger please get your wallet out before it’s too late.


Oorah – it’s on people…Cesc joins injury list…St Michael Thomas t-shirt up for grabs..

August 13, 2008

Hello Gooner’s and good day to you all.

Well today starts the beginning of our 2008/09 season and it’s going to be an emotional roller coaster and an exciting one, no doubt. The long road towards getting some much needed silverware in The Grove’s trophy cabinet starts now and I’m not even going to recognise or give props to The Amsterdam Tournament Cup. As that great rapper MC Hammer, he of the baggy pants look once said we need ‘proper’ silverware this season. 

Our march to glory and a first ‘proper’ trophy since 2005 in that infamous F.A. Cup Final when we bashed Manchester USA from pillar to post and generally spanked the bejesus out of the them comes in the shape of FC Twente. FC Twente as we all know are bossed by none other than the ‘wally with the brolly’ Steve McClaren and he for one will be looking for an upset against a English club so he can ram all the taunts (deservedly at that) aimed at him by the British press back down their throats. I’m sure that would be motivation enough for him to get the British sports journo’s to actually write something positive about him. Anyway that’s his look out, our aim is to make sure that isn’t even close to being a reality – a bit like spurs being considered a Big Four Club™.

Which brings me nicely to Dutch Master in the making Robin van Persie who has labeled FC Twente the Dutch equivalent of ‘that’ team with an extreme deluded sense of grandeur and lets be honest they have the fans to match as they seem to think one Carling Cup victory puts god knows how many years of obscurity into the shade. Anyhow what with FC Twente being compared to spurs, if that wasn’t motivation enough for The Wenger Boys I’m really not sure what is. It’s not even a money thing. You can’t give someone a bonus for beating them, the mentality should be you just don’t want to lose against them, it shouldn’t even be a consideration. Such instances should see you ridiculed on a scale of Fat Ronaldo being caught in a hotel room with a bunch of transvestites and then banished to a far away place – like the Isle of Dogs or some other god forsaken place. 

Anyhoo Gooner’s I digress I’m supposed to be chatting football. So FC Twente the Dutch equivalent of spurs, I’ve got that covered. Not like our midfield where players are dropping like a fat man after a 5m sprint. Not only has ‘first pick’ Abou Diaby been put on the injury list, he is now joined with the sicknote waving shenanigans by WonderBoy™ TheCesc, Kolo Touré and Philippe Senderos. I think that groan can be heard all over North London. Well now we’ll see how much depth the squad has, I actually feel a bit responsible for The Cesc’s injury, no I wasn’t invited to join the boys at London Colney and buckled The Cesc with an ill timed challenge but I wrote a piece the other day and said we’ll be well up the shitter if The Cesc does get injured as we do need some experience and cohesion in midfield. What with messrs Gilberto, Hleb and Flamini all doing one there’s no consistency in the midfield, so hopefully the pre-season games will of had the new comers and second choice players getting an understanding with each other. Well cross you fingers, either that or any of the traveling fans I suggest you grab your boots because you’ll more than likely get a game if anyone else gets injured at this rate.

I shall finish on a positive note though Gooner’s. What with these injuries it gives the ‘second choice’ players a chance to stake a claim and do a ‘Mathieu Flamini’ and prove they have what it takes. Now is the time for the likes of Johan Djourou, Aaron Ramsey, Denilson and even Theo Walcott to step up to the plate. Well Gooner’s it’s going to be an emotional roller coaster ride tonight, enjoy the game which is being shown live on Setanta One, get behind the team and lets roar on The Arsenal to victory. As the motto goes Victory Concordia Crescit – C’mon Arsenal.


I can almost smell it… Michael Thomas t-shirt up for grabs now…

August 8, 2008

We’re getting close kids! The Charity.. sorry… Community Shield is this weekend, featuring the Arsenal Retirement Home versus the Northern Scum. It’s a match that I rarely get excited about other than it being the flare that is sent up to warn of proper football coming shortly. So there is only a week of preparations to get through before we can see our lads in serious action again. 

First up in that preparation is The Amsterdam Tournament, which is working out as an ideal warm up for the match up against FC Twente, currently being mismanaged by Steve ‘Euro2008 Commentator’ McClaren. I think Arsene will be feeling pretty confident that Steve poses little threat in terms of tactical awareness, and the run out against Ajax is ideal.

Of course in the background there is plenty of stuff going on. The newspapers have taken to linking us with every centre midfielder in the known universe for one thing, and so far we look no closer to signing one – something that Arsene has publicly acknowledged. It is odd though – if we need a new midfielder, and I realise the transfer window is still open for a while yet, that we wouldn’t try to get someone in before the season started rather than during its first month. But Denilson has played well in the few run outs he has, and the lure of a first team place will hopefully push him to become the great player he has the potential to be. His challenger for that spot, Abou Diaby, needs to stop hanging out with Tomas Rosicky and RvP if he wants to claim the spot – he has been far too injury prone in recent months, or most of his Arsenal career if you want to be cynical, although Sunderland’s hatchet man Matt Smith had a hand in that. I still doubt whether he has it in him to last a whole campaign. And keeping with the script the gangly Vieira wannabe is injured once again, FFS! What is it with our players, the season hasn’t even started and we’ve got more casualties than a party thrown by Michael Barrymore. Scarily, Ebouseless got a run at centre midfield against ‘Ze Germans’, which I’m hoping was merely a plan to get him some fitness and not a test run for yet another position switch. 

Meanwhile Jack ‘Wonderkid of the week’ Wilshere is impressing everyone still – enough so that he has been given a first team squad position. I can’t imagine that he’ll see much of the Premier League, despite Arsene assertion that he wouldn’t be afraid to throw him in, but it is still wonderful to have such a hot prospect, an English one at that, coming through the ranks. I’m sure Gael Clichy is wondering what the hell is going on with him consistently being one of the oldest players on the pitch for us in the warm up games. 

And first up we get West Brom, who are fresh up from the Championship. They’ll be out for an upset so it’ll be a tougher game than it looks on paper but hopefully we’ll knock the confidence out of them early on and from there it will be a steady slide into oblivion. I’m particularly keen to see Samir Nasri take the field – if he can be more of a Pires than a Hleb then I think we’ll challenge for honours again this season. If not, we obviously need younger players! 

Roll on The Amsterdam Tournament enjoy it Gooner’s, the real curtain raiser for ‘proper football’! C’mon on The Arsenal.

By Paul Wright Allgoonerdup roving reporter.

For more on the main site click the link: Allgoonerdup.com

Lets get commenting Gooners…


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