Greetings Gooners… Michael Thomas moment…Win a free tee…

I sit here now a confused, confuddled, slightly baffled, man of deep thought. Whilst I slouch here, typing away using my index and middle fingers of each hand only, I ponder away in deep tranquility – as I have all day – wondering what is currently taking place with not just mine, but our beloved club.

I’ve never been the type to jump on the “Club in Crises” bandwagon under Arsene Wenger, and I’m far from about to. How ever, I won’t deny that I’m slightly concerned with everything that has taken place so far this summer. As soon as news has filtered through about a possible signing, news has later filtered through about the possible sale of a player. With Philippe Senderos the latest to be heading out the door. I’ve surprised myself how I’ve reacted with this transfer, and to be honest, I’m still *insert appropriate word here*… Not “annoyed“, or “angry“, or “frustrated” even. “Concerned” I’ve used already, “baffled” perhaps? Hmm, something a little stronger then that… How about “disconcerted”? Or “Confounded”? “Bewildered” is a good one, as is “Perplexed”. None the less I do feel maybe a little of all these. The truth, and fact of the matter is, the standard of player we have let go this summer is as far off irreplaceable as we have replaced them. That has orchestrated my thoughts and feelings about the club right now. Let’s compare shall we, on the players we have let go, compared to the players brought in; regardless of whether they are loan deals or contracted transfers:

 

Jens Lehmann

Justin Hoyte

Philippe Senderos

Armand Traore

Gilberto

Mathieu Flamini

Alex Hleb

Have all been replaced by:

Vito Mannone

Emmanuel Eboué

Johan Djourou

Mikael Silvestre

Amaury Bischoff

Aaron Ramsey

Samir Nasri.

I understand Mannone, Eboué, and Djourou were at us already, but young Italian mob-star, Vito’s been promoted from the resi’s. Eboué, despite his central midfield cameo’s I think will feature more so as a right back, especially as Hoytey’s left. Djourou lastly, was at Birmingham for the first half of last season, and then on his first appearance for us back from his loan spell, he busted something or other against The Spuds. Looking at that, for me defensively we still need that big strong, towering lump of a lunging blocker. Who would get his right foot, left foot, forehead, or foreskin in front of the ball to stop it from going past him. 

Man Ure have Vidic, Locomotive London have John “Siht Cnut” Terry, and The Filth of Football have that foreign speaking Carragher bloke – our last of this type was Sol Campbell. God, if only his toy boy lover Quincy Owusu-Abeyie hadn’t of been sold hours before ‘that’ West Ham game at Highbury, maybe Sol would never of had that funny 45. Anyway, what’s done is done, as likewise what needs to be addressed, needs to be addressed. Senderos was seen as this Sol replacement by many within the club. After an impressive final third of the 06 season, peaking in our Paris run, Senderos was set to be big news. Handed the number 6 shirt later that summer, nicknamed “Swiss Tony”, everything was set up for him; until the shoulder injury he picked up in the World Cup that year caused him to miss the opening of the following season. Since then he’s only shown his quality in spurts, and has lacked any real consistency. I’m sure I speak for everyone when I say I sincerely hope he gets his career back on track, and what better way to be given a confidence boost with Meelan wanting you? Wafa Cup football might do him good for this season anyway – slight dig.

On to our midfield. Oh, fcuk it. I really don’t have the energy or effort to explain about something every single Arsenal supporter knows already. With Gokhan Inlar signing a new deal at Udinese, it’s not just the time which is running out, but the players as well.

Match news, and it’s the second leg of the FC Twente game tonight at the Emirates, we lead 2-0 and to be honest, I can see this one being a similar score line. Our fitness level will guide us through if our football doesn’t – much like the first leg. Cesc’s fit thank god, and hopefully a run out tonight will sort him out preparing him for the Newcastle clash Saturday evening.

Come on you GOONERS!!

ScottyDavisGooner 

‘Thomas – it’s up for grabs now’ – Where was you?

As part of this season and trying to tie in with all the 20th anniversary shenanigans of that famous last minute championship win, allgoonerdup.com is doing a ‘JFK where was you moment’. But obviously the moment we’re doing is – ‘Thomas – it’s up for grabs now’ moment. Every Gooner knows where they were when that goal went in and we’re going to publish your tails. The idea is do one Gooner’s piece a day, so get amongst it and send your emails in via the contacts page and mark the subject line ‘Thomas – it’s up for grabs moment’. I’ll be doing some sort of fancy graphic and that just to give the piece some ‘air play’. But get your emails in and hopefully we’ll get the ball rolling next week with your ‘Thomas – where was you moment’.

Wenger needs help… Michael Thomas tee-shirt up for grabs now…Kings dies

Hello Gooners, hope you enjoyed the weekend and the latest bit of silverware to The Arsenal collection in the shape of The Amsterdam Tournament Cup. Well this is going to be a quick write up but I hope to do a more measured one this week, regarding Arsene Wenger. I will tell you this much Gooners there’s a lot of concern on other Arsenal sites out there regarding our current situation of lack of quality, experienced, injury free midfielder’s and severe lack of addressing that matter. Mr Arseblog who is not being his usual funny self has done a real good piece on this and such is the lack of humour in the write up that I had to second guess if someone else wrote the piece or if he like me is very, very concerned with our team at the moment. I’m trying not to be too negative with our team especially before the season has even started. 

However even before a ball has been kicked in anger we find ourselves with Cesc Fabregas’ midfield partner elect Abou Diaby injured. Quel Surprise! Only last week Le Gaffer said that Abou Diaby was his first pick last season to replace Gilberto Da Silva when he was given extended leave after lifting the Copa America with Brazil. Anyway we all know the story, Mathieu Flamini not only stepped in but stepped up and the rest is history. So this season with Abou Diaby getting the nod, he goes and gets injured again. Can we really rely on this guy? He’s as injury prone as Robin van Persie and that takes some doing as RvP has bought the copyright. 

So that leaves Denilson to step in. I’m sure Denilson can do a job, I’m not knocking him but he’s too similar to The Cesc for my liking. Denilson is in no way shape or form a defensive midfielder who will sit back and break up attacks, he is no Gilberto or Flamini, unfortunately. Now we have a game against FC Twente in the third round qualifiers in the Uefa Champions League on Wednesday which I think many a Gooner is taking for granted. There’s no way on earth we can fail in that game, that would be unthinkable. However The Cesc will go into the game playing only one pre-season game. Now heaven forbid if Fabregas got injured we’d be absolutely fecked. Big style. And on the back of this we’ve got Arsene Wenger saying he hasn’t got time to sign anyone. WTF! 

Wenger has said previously that he gets up to 220 CV’s from players every week. And we all know when Wenger looks at players it’s very methodical and in-depth, even to the point the brand of toothpaste they use comes into play. So, you’re telling me out of all the players we’ve been linked with Wenger isn’t ‘close’ to signing anyone? I really don’t want to believe that I don’t want to get all bent out of shape thinking about it either as there’s still time to get someone. But I am concerned Gooners’ big time. Getting an experienced player to help the younger’s come through and I’m including Denilson and Diaby in that equation and not to hinder them that is what is needed is my opinion. Robin van Persie even echoed that thought when after the game against Ajax in The Amsterdam Tournament he said we needed an experienced midfield player.

However this piece is longer than I wanted it to be today as I said it was only a quickie, in the headline I said Wenger needs help. And Wenger needs it big time. He is only one man and can’t do everything himself. Old fake tan and orange impersonator David Dein and ‘was he pushed or did he jump’ ex Managing Director Keith Edelman have never been properly replaced. Edelman is another kettle of fish as that’s an ‘upstairs’ problem. However old Mr. Orange has never been replaced and what with all that wheeling and dealing, Le Gaffer can’t be expected to cover all bases. He’s going to spread himself too thinly. So Wenger needs help even he doesn’t want to accept it, he needs another ‘David Dein’ to do the deals so he can concentrate on what he’s good at. Wenger needs to delegate as he’s gambling with the clubs future success. Wenger should have a right-hand man he gives a scrap of paper to or have a list on his brand spanking Apple MacBook Pro and say ‘get me this player’. And he needs such a man now, because Wenger can’t and shouldn’t be expected to do everything himself. It will be detrimental to the club.

 

Girl in a shirt

Allgoonerdup is looking to give the Goonerbabe page a bit of a boost and we’re going for a ‘Girl in the Shirt’ approach. Do you have any pictures of your girl in the shirt or girls get yourself seen on the Goonerbabe wall and send in your own pictures. Lets get this party started right. Send your pictures in and tell us your name, favourite player, favourite all time player, favourite drink and if you have anything else to declare to babe@allgoonerdup.com

Kings dies…

Not Arsenal news Gooner’s and fear of sounding all ‘Myles Palmer’ but I need to give props to two greats who passed away this weekend . You may or may not of known about these two guys but American King of Comedy Bernie Mac and King of Cool music legend Isaac Hayes both took that long walk into the light this weekend. 

Bernie Mac some of you will know in the ‘Oceans’ film, 11, 12 and 13 but he was much bigger than that and if you like your comedy edgy and in your face than you would certainly know of Bernie Mac. He was a guy who would scare you into laughing. Have a pop onto YouTube and see what you’re going to miss. 

Also one of my musical hero’s Isaac Hayes passed away and he’s probably known by the younger bunch of Gooner’s out there for his role of ‘Chef’ in South Park, which he had the song “Chocolate Salty Balls”. The more musically tuned people will know him for his jazzy funky hits including the theme from 1970′s film Shaft, Hot Buttered Soul and Black Moses. 

So a big up and props to those two guys who like The Arsenal give me endless moments of pleasure. 

Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes – RIP

LAST WEEK TO JOIN: Score predictor Mini league – join up!

There’s still time to join the Allgoonerdup.com score prediction game mini league. There will of course be a prize for the winner. To join the fun just follow the link below:

http://iknowthescore.premierleague.com/landing.htm

Enter the code: FCCDA-XVB to join the Allgoonerdup.com mini league.

The deadline is August the 16th!

 

LAST WEEK TO JOIN:: Join the Allgoonerdup Fantasy Premier League

You’ve got just over a week to join the fun. Over 80 Gooners so far have got their game on and have joined the Allgoonerdup Fantasy league.

There will be prize for the winner and it will have a 20th anniversary Championship winning feel to it, that or a keg load of beer for the lucky punter! Click the below link to get started.

 

http://fantasy.premierleague.com

 

Sign up to it

Design your team

Join the league by entering this pin into the ‘Join league bit’ (League Pin 73628-19858)!

(The league is called sonofallgooneredup)

Then you are away!

The deadline is August the 16th!

We got your number…Arsenal in De (La) Red..Michael Thomas t-shirt up for grabs – it is now…

Morning Gooners and what a miserable one it is too – looks like England’s five days of summer is officially over – bah! It’s absolutely chucking down here. 

The good news afoot is that gifted l’il ‘un Jack Wilshere has been given a squad number and it’s a proper number too. Jack the Lad who has been sporting the NFL numbered 55 in the pre-season games has been handed the legendary and immortal number of 19 handed down by ‘Invincible’ Gilberto Silva – so no pressure there then to fill that those boots or shirt as the case may be. Arsene Wenger did say he planned big things for the pint sized pocket dynamo and he’s stuck to his word. Given Wilshere’s performances in pre-season and the amount of games The Arsenal will hopefully rack up in the Premier League, Uefa Champions League and the two domestic cups – Jack the Lad should get a nice little look in. So well done Jack – you’ve done ever so well fella – and who says if you’re English you wont get a look in at The Arsenal? Oh that tosser David Bentley is one I can remember spouting that nonsense. If you’re good enough you’ll play, simple as – bit like Bentley – a bit simple. Although we all have to be careful with Jack the Lad and not to place the burden of expectations on him, he’s only 16 after all and he could turn out to be another Gary Shaw. If you know your football and are old enough you’ll know who I’m on about. But without being negative and with loads of sugary spoonfuls of positiveness lets see how Jack Wilshere’s Arsenal career progresses. So nice one Jack – well done for grabbing your chance. 

Fresh from being linked to Gareth Barry, Xabi Alonso or anyone else for that matter The Arsenal have now been linked to purchasing Real Madrid’s Ruben De La Red – you have to love that name. Seeing that the Spaniard was in town over the weekend playing in The Emirates Cup some backroom brokering deals might of taken place, who knows? Many a site/paper are reporting the same thing, I guess it will be a new name or another player tomorrow or whenever until Le Gaffer pulls of his ‘mystery’ signing.

We have made a signing which may of gone under the radar though folks. Well a signing of sorts anyway and that’s French youngster Armand Traore or knuckles as he’s known to his mates who’s signed up for that old chestnut of a ‘long-term’ contract. So well done Traore, I think this player will come good in time so I’m quite happy he’s signed up for longer, lets just see if he manages to gatecrash the first team party or if he’s put on loan to give him some more game time this season.

It’s up for grabs – it is now – Win a ‘St Michael Thomas’ t-shirt

You lucky people have the chance to win an Arsenal inspired t-shirt. We’ve added some new wares to the Allgoonerdup Online Shop and you can be the proud owner of this brand spanking new Michael Thomas inspired number. All you need to tell us is, what number was Michael Thomas wearing when he scored ‘that’ goal at Anfield in our title winning match up on 26 May 1989? 

Send your answer, t-shirt size, name and postal address to: iwannafreebie@allgoonerdup.com

Competition closes Monday 18 August.

Good luck Gooners.

Girl in a shirt

Allgoonerdup is looking to give the Goonerbabe page a bit of a boost and we’re going for a ‘Girl in the Shirt’ approach. Do you have any pictures of your girl in the shirt or girls get yourself seen on the Goonerbabe wall and send in your own pictures. Lets get this party started right. Send your pictures in and tell us your name, favourite player, favourite all time player, favourite drink and if you have anything else to declare to babe@allgoonerdup.com

Score predictor Mini league – join up!

There’s still time to join the Allgoonerdup.com score prediction game mini league. There will of course be a prize for the winner. To join the fun just follow the link below:

http://iknowthescore.premierleague.com/landing.htm

Enter the code: FCCDA-XVB to join the Allgoonerdup.com mini league.

The deadline is August the 16th!

Join the Allgoonerdup Fantasy Premier League

If you think you can outdo Arsene Wenger or more to the point want to give it Charlie Big Potato’s over the other armchair managers out there jump on board and join the Allgoonerdup mini league, this year in the guise of our comments site Son of Allgoonerdup. There will be prize for the winner and it will have a 20th anniversary Championship winning feel to it, that or a keg load of beer for the lucky punter! To get your team in and get your game on click the below link to get started.

http://fantasy.premierleague.com

Sign up to it

Design your team

Join the league by entering this pin into the ‘Join league bit’ (League Pin 73628-19858)!

(The league is called sonofallgooneredup)

Then you are away!

The deadline is August the 16th!

All time eleven, FaceBook and other stuff..

 

Good day to all you Gooners.

And here we have it, finally I have the Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven! Just to break up the tedium of The Emmanuel Adebayor and his Agents Show, The Alex Hleb Show – which seems to of been axed and also the Samir Nasri Show which hasn’t seem to of got off the ground at all, now indulge yourself in the Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven. So a big thanks goes out to all the people who sent their entries in, well done. Some of you Gooners may not agree with the line up, well shame on you for not sending in an entry, you could of had a say in the matter. A bit like all the people who couldn’t be bothered to vote in the London Mayoral race and then see that twat Boris Johnson win it, WTF?! Not mentioning any names that didn’t vote! Any road up, the players who made the team are all legends in my opinion and there cannot be any argument of them being in an All Time Eleven team in some capacity. Obviously some players will miss out, we’re lucky that we have such a rich history and have had the pleasure to of watched or even be watching some class acts. Well here’s how the team lines up after all the votes were casted, if you have something to say – jump on board the comments section and let us know your thoughts, agree? Disagree?

 

Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven

 

Doesn’t make a bad team does it? One thing I would say is that near enough every entry had David Seaman in goal, the position of keeper was probably the most straight forward! Other positions were very much up for debate including the left back spot which saw Gael Clichy come second to Nigel Winterburn. One point of interest was the amount of votes which went towards Bacari Sagna after only one season! He did manage to run Lee Dixon quite close. Other players to miss out with not a lot in it were the likes of David Rocastle (RIP), Marc Overmars, Manu Petit, Paul Davis, Martin Keown, Stevie Bould and former Arsenal top scorer and now BBC lovie Ian Wright, Wright, Wright, strangely though Emmanuel Eboué didn’t figure in any lists! As you can see from the final line up only ‘old skool’ player Liam ‘Chippy’ Brady makes the grade I think that reflects the readers rather than previous talent amongst The Arsenal ranks. Even Cesc Fabregas who’s only just turned 21 polled so many votes that he made the team ahead of the likes of George Graham, Manu Petit, Michael Thomas and Arsenal leg-end David Rocastle. Thanks again for all your entries, it was interesting to see just what you Gooners think of when thinking of the best players to don the red and white of London’s finest.

May 26 1989 anyone?

As there’s not a lot going on, why not catch up with some TV and watch the 1989 Division One title being won at Anfield again, and again, and again and and again. In fact send the link to any Liverpool friends you may have so that they can bask in it as well, would be rude not to. 

Allgoonerdup goes FaceBook

It had to happen, Allgoonerdup has gone and got itself on FaceBook. So get yourself on there and link us up, tell you mates, your family, whoever, join the fun and socialise on the worlds number one social network. OK I’m not getting paid to say any of that but you know the coo. 

To link us up just go to: http://www.facebook.com and in the search area type in either: 

Tommi Gooner or Allgoonerdup and you’ll get to the right spot. The area is a bit sparse at the moment but the idea is get a load of Gooners on there and share in everything…. well Arsenal. 

The Emmanuel Adebayor Show

There’s absolutely no new news on Adebayor who’s fixing to sort out his retirement at the ripe old age of 24. Barcelona were told that the asking price is the in the region of £35m and now the Catalan giants have supposedly offered a final, not going back, take it or leave it sum of £30m. Well it’s not £35m is it boys so I think we’ll leave it. Although does anyone really believe Emmanuel ‘One good season’ Adebayor is worth £30m+? It will be interesting to see just what Arsène Wenger will do. For once he isn’t bowing down to the big boys and has grown some cojones, some big golden cojones and isn’t shirking this one. If Wenger does manage to get £30m+ for Adebayor it would be like a mugging and would be up there when Wenger somehow managed to get Villerreal to pay, yes actually pay to take Pascal Cygan off our hands. All I hope is that if Adebayor, who’s been keeping his trap shut this week obviously trying to gage the heat in the situation is sold we actually have a ready made replacement bought, polished up and standing in their new red and white kit. 

Other bits

As it’s really quiet I shall be doing some ‘under the hood’ type shenanigans and will be adding to pages such as the ‘Hall of Fame’, ‘Hall of Shame’, ‘Player profiles’ and others. So remember to keep having a look at those and get in touch via the contact page if you want to have a say. 

Jump on the comments section and have your shout – see you in there!

New away kit pic and other bits

 

Good day Gooners.

It seems we’ve been hit by a very slow news day today, so I shall keep it short so that all you Gooners can enjoy the sun, (what sun!) and all the other things you should be doing when you’re not reading up about The Arsenal. Well it seems most of the Arsenal fanzine’s/blog/website’s have clicking on each others wares, no more so than The Cannon who have got an pic of the new away kit. The likes of early birds Arseblog and Le Grove have already posted links on their sites, so sod it I thought I would join the party. If you haven’t seen the kit already well it’s gone a bit retro and trying emulate the 1989 yellow and blue kit. You may remember the kit from famous nights such as when we pissed on Liverpool’s parade in the last game of the season when Michael Thomas scored that amazing goal to win us the league title. 

And just for good measure, have some of this:

“Arsenal come streaming forward now in surely what will be their last attack. A good ball by Dixon … finding Smith, for Thomas charging through the midfield….. Thomas, it’s up for grabs NOWWwww THOMASSSSSS”

That still gives me goose pimples, even after all these years. I don’t think anything will beat that feeling although winning the double in 1998 does come close. But May 26 1989 is still way up there, I can tell you that much.

 

Apart from that good people there really isn’t much going on and I’m not going to try and stretch this post out just to make it appear there’s stuff going on. So in bite size chunks here’s a round up. Barcelona who had an initial bid of £24m turned down for Adebayor say they will test The Arsenal with another bid. Well all I would say that if the bid isn’t bang on the money (excuse the pun) of the reported £35m valuation The Arsenal have placed on The Togonator then jog on gentleman and don’t waste the boards time. And I do believe that is all on the order of business today folks. I’m sure The Emmanuel Adebayor Show will take a few twists but can’t see anything really happening on that. 

The only other bit of news worth mention is that Wenger has been speaking up about Andrei Arshavin and then quickly dumb’s him down by saying he’s not sure if the Russian could play three games in a row in the Premier League? Mind games surely Monsieur Wenger? Is he trying to make the competition not bother with the Russian? I find it a bit odd that the wily coach would let the media know that he is after a player in the first place, Wenger is a lot more private and secretive about his targets. Apparently CSKA Chelsea are having a look at Arshavin as well and if it comes down to the nuts and bolts of pure money then Arshavin will be a CSKA Chelsea man quicker than Shaun Wright-Phillips can sit on a bench and get splinters up his arse. 

Other than that, tomorrow you can look forward to Allgoonerdup All Time Eleven as voted by you, the loyal readers. You’ve never had it so good!

Jump on the comments section and have your shout – see you in there!