Salutations, distinguished friends.
I’ve never thought of myself as materialistic but as I type this, I’m sporting Tommy Hilfiger glasses, a Gant jumper, a Ralphy tee, Diesel jeans, Gant socks, and a pair of Dunes. Interesting. Anyway, lots of random things to get through so I’m diving straight in.
Race for Champions League
Well, well, well.. Hasn’t it just got interesting. Arsenal were down and out. Media ‘experts’ were calling for Arsene’s head. Ex-players and pundits were convinced Arsene had lost his marbles. What do they know, eh? With two MASSIVE games to go, this is how the contenders stand:
(Source: Arseblog)
Looks nice that. Ahead of the yids. Ahead of the chavs. Need it to stay this way. Laaavly. We kick off the penultimate round of games tomorrow with a lunch-time clash against The Canaries. At the start of the season I’d have picked this game as a home-banker but they’ve done really well this year under Paul Lambert and pose a serious threat to our Champions League hopes for next season –just ask Tottenscum. If ever there was a time for a convincing win, it’s now. With many players missing through injury we’re up against it tomorrow but I’m feeling confident and let’s hope RVP can lead us to another valuable three points.
Interestingly, I think Arsenal [Norwich(h) & West Brom(a)], Spurs [Villa(a) & Fulham(h)] and Newcastle [City(h) & Everton(a)] will all drop points in these last two rounds of matches, with both North London rivals bagging 4 points and the Magpies picking up just one, so fingers crossed we get 3rd.
Title Race
I have enormous respect for Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United. I think he’s done an unbelievable job winning title after title and has secured himself as the most successful manager in the history of English football. They play the right way, they do things the right way and they conduct themselves magnificently as representatives of the English Premier League when playing in Europe. They also produced Gary Neville, my latest man-crush (though obviously for his punditry) – what a goalgasm! ‘’UN-believable!’’
In the blue corner, whilst I obviously dislike the way Nasri left Arsenal, for me, City have the strongest squad on paper. I’m no gynaecologist, but I know a cunny when I see one - Carlos Tevez. He had let down his manager, his team-mates and most importantly, his fans after refusing to come on as a substitute earlier in the season. He then went AWOL for almost five months but has now returned acting as if he’s done nothing wrong.
I tipped Manchester City at the start of the season and I suppose I have to stick with them – but this isn’t so hard for one reason, and one reason only; my hatred for the majority of United fans. So many of these ‘fans’ have never even been to OT, rarely watch United play, don’t know anything about the club’s history, don’t know much about football to be honest, yet they bask in the glory of the club’s success. Am I jealous? Totally. The day will come when old whisky-face retires, the Glazers run with their money and they are no longer winning trophies – we shall see how many of those fans remain.
Transfers
Contrary to last summer’s madness, Arsene has already got his cheque book out, announcing a £10.9m deal for Lukas Podolski. Those who know me well will know that he’s genuinely one of my favourite players - bit like Giovanni Van Bronckhorst when he joined us from Glasgow Rangers. It’s a statement of intent and hopefully one more reason for RVP to sign that new deal.
I’ve written in previous blogs that we need to trim the fat from this squad and until this happens I can’t see too much room for new transfers; Almunia, Mannone, Squillaci, Chamakh, Park, Benayoun, Bendtner, Denilson, Diaby & Arshavin must be sold or destroyed, before we start dreaming about signing the likes of Jan Vertonghen, Yann M/Vila and/or Eden Hazard. What is important is that Arsenal do their business swiftly and ideally before the Euros.
Finally...
Us Gooners talk a lot about Arsenal legends; Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira, Adams, Wright to name but a few. One perhaps we don’t appreciate as much as we should do is still at the club – Pat Rice.
Pat joined The Arsenal back in 1964 as an apprentice and made his debut just three years later. He made 528 appearances as right-back (only 7 of these as a substitute) across 14 glittering years. His proudest moment was captaining the team in 1977 and leading the club to FA Cup glory in 1979. In sixteen years as Arsene’s right hand man, Pat has helped guide us to three league titles, four FA Cups, various European finals and that ‘Invincibles’ season.
For almost 44 of the last 48 years, this man has bled red & white and for that we should be eternally grateful.
Thank you, Pat.
