As I catch up on all things Arsenal, I find myself chanting the song that I love so much, the song that makes me proud….
Oooo to, oooo to be, Oooo to, oooo to be, Oooo to, oooo to be, oooo to be a Gooner!
There is something very special about being a Gooner. There is a deep sense of belonging and a deep sense of “my club”. I would hate to be a fan of another club as I could never support the likes of Liverpool, United, Chelsea or Sp*rs. Down at the Emirates, we are no angels and I won’t try to say we are for one minute. But we are an honest bunch of supporters. We follow our team through thick and think. We had 59,000 people at the Arsenal vs Stoke last game of the season, 57,000 for a Carling Cup game against Sheffield United and at the same time you look at the likes of Chelsea whose fans barely appeared for a Champions League game at home to Rosenberg, 22,000, which is only 48% of their capacity turned up.
We manage our money the proper way. We are in the middle of a transition period where we’re paying off the stadium. We’ve had to sell Henry, Adebayor, Hleb and Toure in recent years to earn additional money to service our debt. Meanwhile, teams like Chelsea, Liverpool and United have only increased their debts in recent times.
Arsene Wenger, in my opinion is one of the greatest managers around and the treatment of our manager is borderline scandalous.
The good old guys at the Mirror reported this after the game:
The sending off of Arsene Wenger at Old Trafford for kicking a water bottle in frustration at seeing Arsenal outplay Manchester United and still lose was a joke. But what certainly wasn’t funny were the chants that accompanied Wenger’s comical retreat to the stands. You could hear them on Sky. We all know what the chant is but I can’t – and won’t – repeat it here because it’s libelous, wrong and deeply disrespectful to one of the all-time great managers. But if you go on to Amazon you can buy that song on a CD of football songs. Play.com had the good sense to take it down after complaints. Wenger, despite everything, stood there among the United fans and smiled. What an incredible man. I remember, though, Sir Alex Ferguson complaining bitterly about security and stewarding at the Emirates a couple of seasons back when he felt Arsenal fans were getting too close to his bench. But going back to those chants, how is it that United aren’t taking action? How is it that Tottenham fans are allowed to routinely sing those sick songs during every north London derby? You can’t make racist chants. People get arrested for those sort of chants and, in my view, should not only be banned from that ground but get a lifetime ban from every ground in the country.
Amazon, as you may or may not have known, have been selling these sick songs on their website and news coming in today is that they’ve finalled agreed to remove it. But why on earth was it on there in the first place…
Rooney admits to diving… but he definitely won’t get punished…
And just a little something to bemuse you… a few quotes from Wayne Rooney where he admits diving, says that he’ll take it
“If the referee gives a penalty there is nothing you can do. If they want to take punishment further it is down to UEFA and the people who run the game. As players you just want to play. Diving has been in the game for years. Probably the coverage the game gets now, with all the cameras around, it gets highlighted a bit more. But it hasn’t got any worse.”
Well, just because it’s been around for years, doesn’t mean you should do it – Eduardo’s penalty claim wasn’t any more of a dive then Rooney (although this is debatable)… and Eduardo receives a 2 match ban. What do you normally get in a game? A yellow card, right? So why has Eduardo received a 2 match ban? It makes no sense in any way shape or form. How many yellows will it take to get a one match ban? Three I think – so this amounts to 6 yellow cards – someone tell me the logic here?
This arbitrary decision has taken the gusto out of the player, with International team mate Olic revealing:
“Eduardo is very upset and annoyed by the charge. Normally he is a very happy character but he’s not like that at the moment. I think the punishment is very harsh and difficult to accept. Eduardo is a very honest and good professional. He wouldn’t try to trick a referee.”
The club have also now received the detail of the “reasoning” of the charge from UEFA and have released a statement saying that they will of course appeal:
“The club is in receipt of UEFA’s reasoned decision in relation to the charge against Eduardo. We strongly believe that the decision taken is deeply flawed and not based on any forensic review of the video evidence available. There are obvious errors and inconsistencies in UEFA’s judgment and we intend to appeal.”
Something to smile about
And a little something to smile about is the fact that Chelsea have been fined and also given a transfer ban for the next two transfer windows. The is due to the illegal signing of the player Kakuta from Lens. Chelsea were on a tranfer disciplinary tightrope after twice being warned by UEFA and the FA in previous transfer issues over Ashley Cole and John Obi Mikel. And it looks like they have finally been awarded what’s been coming to them. They will appeal of course, but a little something that not targeted at the Arsenal… for once… puts a smile on my face.
