Arsenal

[Daley]

Mourinho did not win his first title with style at all. I remember being appalled at the way Chelsea played given their embarrassment of riches. Rarely has a "4-3-3" gone so far to piss on it's wonderful attacking roots.

I beg to differ. When we played them at Highbury and they had Robben and Duff on the wings and Drogba in attack and a midfield three behind it seemed like they had more men than us, like they were playing 4-5-3 such was the running Robben and Duff got through. But we will have to agree to disagree.

[Art Vandelay]

Chelsea at their pragmatic worst were still better to watch that the refried turd that's been served up by us at times this year. Personally I wouldn't want Mourinho as I think his MO of spending quite a bit to achieve short-term success and propensity for only staying for a brief time at clubs isn't likely to dovetail with the way our club is run. Guardiola is a far saner choice, but if he doesn't like the pressure of the press at Barcelona then I can see him cracking like a walnut within a fortnight in England.

[The Fox]

Let's not forget though, people, that Jose Mourinho is a massive, massive cunt.

[wev]

And that Guardiola (who is never ever going to come to Arsenal, lets be honest, likewise Mourinho) only likes one year contracts.

If Wenger were to leave (in whatever manner), I doubt the board would go for a major name like either of those. Part of me would like to see how Slaven Bilic would do... (he's not done too bad with Croatia)

[Daley]

Let's not forget though, people, that Jose Mourinho is a massive, massive cunt.

Finally something we can all agree on.

[Steve007]

Let's not forget though, people, that Jose Mourinho is a massive, massive cunt.

The only people not to think that he's a cunt are the fans of the clubs he has managed, He's a hero at Porto, Chelsea & Inter. Managing Real Madrid is as impossible as managing England so there's no point making a comment about his current position.

I thought he got the best out of his players at his first three clubs though. I think know he could get more out of our existing players than Wenger. They haven't even tried in the last two games. If you did that under Mourinho you'd be lucky to get another game for the rest of the season.

[wev]

I agree with that last point, the problem then being we'd have no players to actually play a game. Can you forfeit matches in the Premier League?

[Steve007]

I agree with that last point, the problem then being we'd have no players to actually play a game. Can you forfeit matches in the Premier League?

I don't know what it is, but players would run through brick walls for him. He clearly knows what to say and do so I think he wouldn't have a problem motivating people.

He'd rip up the pampered nonsense that goes on at London Colney. You win games by training & working hard. You clearly win fuck all with days worth of rubdowns, massages & swimming before a game. It's not like all the pampering actually works as players have been breaking down with long-term injuries for years under Wenger.

Under Wenger, win lose or draw you have a day off after a game. Come 2 days after a game most of the players would have moved on & not learnt from the mistakes made in the previous match. During George Graham's regime, he'd have them in the next day after a stinker to go over and over what went wrong and he'd drum it into the players on how the mistakes could be avoided. Everyone thinks Wenger is a student of the game but Graham did exactly the same analysis using videotapes.

[The Fox]

The only people not to think that he's a cunt are the fans of the clubs he has managed, He's a hero at Porto, Chelsea & Inter.

I'm just gonna check with Yaya Touré, Anton Ferdinand and Marco Zoro to see if they think the fans of those clubs are qualified to say who is and isn't a massive cunt.

[Daley]

The Arsenal Supporters Trust had their annual meeting last night (more here).

Conclusion: Yes Arsenal really do have £50m of spare cash but are scared of not qualifying for Champions League.

Loads of other financial guff in that link but couple of non-money related bits from Twitter. Arsenal have more fans in Nigeria than they do in the UK. 400 season tickets are used once or less a season.

[The Fox]

I dunno guys, I mean me call me fucking mental, but maybe the danger of not qualifying would have been significantly lessened if you'd actually met Valencia's perfectly reasonable asking price for Juan Mata. Just a thought.

Anyway you've probably all seen it via Arseblog but this was a good read from Michael Cox: http://www.guardian....nderland-hybrid

Basically saying we're not playing as centrally as we used to with Cesc, Nasri and Arshavin in the side, but we're hitting the wide men way too slowly with laborious build-up play from Song, Arteta and Ramsey. We're not good at dealing with teams who pressure us in midfield (not combative enough without Wilshere - maybe this is why the Guardian strongly linked us with M'vila last summer?), or ones who sit back (can't break them down).

Last night on Talkshite Drivetime they posed the question "Who's to blame - board or manager?" the answer to me seems to be obvious: both. Silent Stan and his cronies have thusfar displayed a disgraceful lack of ambition and leadership, that much is true. But ultimately as shown by this article, Wenger has not assembled a team that looks consistently decent on a tactical level, let alone anything better than that.

[Art Vandelay]

Arshavin is turning out for the seconds today. That's quite a fall to have in just over a year.

[BlinkyBear]

Arshavin is turning out for the seconds today. That's quite a fall to have in just over a year.

I just saw the team. It's a bit mental really. Yossi, Arshavin, Chamakh and Park. Wonder what Wenger is thinking of, other than trying to force some form into them? Punishment of some kind?

[Steve007]

400 season tickets are used once or less a season.

That's an amazing statistic.

2 rows in front of me there's a family that own about 7 seats. They only ever turn up for the big games (Spurs, Chelsea, Man United, Champions League QF etc). What a waste. I've got dozens of mates who'd love to get a ticket and that family only come to about 5 matches per season,

[Daley]

New kit. Trim looks more blue and less black. Still looks shit.

[BlinkyBear]

New kit. Trim looks more blue and less black. Still looks shit.

It looks ok in so much as it's the same kit as we've got now. Except that they want to charge £50 for blue trim on the sleeves.

[Art Vandelay]

I find this more acceptable. It looks pretty poor though, kind of like a Pro Evo kit for North London Red.

[The Fox]

It's the red stripes on the sleeve. It'd look better without them. It's still basically a recoloured 10/11 shirt though. Must have taken all of five minutes to knock that up.

Fuck the navy socks though.

[Daley]

If the blue on the sleeves was more trim and less a bit fat block I could like it. Kind of like a late eighties/early nineties Thomas/Rocky era kit.

Bit like this.

[Silent Runner]

That's an amazing statistic.

2 rows in front of me there's a family that own about 7 seats. They only ever turn up for the big games (Spurs, Chelsea, Man United, Champions League QF etc). What a waste. I've got dozens of mates who'd love to get a ticket and that family only come to about 5 matches per season,

A couple of years ago me and my Dad got tickets for a match at Highbury. He got them through a friend of a friend who was giving us the use of his season ticket for the match. We went through the turn styles and the girl tore out the relevant vouchers for that days matches. It was only the 3rd voucher that was torn out from the season ticket book and this was in mid January. We couldn't believe it.

[toythatkills]

Some comedy photo use from the BBC, here.

[g wings]

New kit. Trim looks more blue and less black. Still looks shit.

It looks like children's pyjamas.

[humdrum]

wasn't that kit posted a couple of weeks/months ago and generally considered to be a fake?

I think if that is the kit for next year though. i'll just end up buying one of them knock off retro 70's arsenal tops.

[djbhammer]

I think Wenger should recall Henri Lansbury to become your new No.1!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/17023316

[Steve007]

I think Wenger should recall Henri Lansbury to become your new No.1!!

http://www.bbc.co.uk...otball/17023316

I think we should send Almunia back to your lot.

[Daley]

http://www.dailyreco...86908-23760448/

CRAIG WHYTE has flogged 102 years of Rangers history by selling the club’s shares in Arsenal.

The latest revelation, which will sicken the club’s supporters, has come to light as part of Record Sport’s explosive investigation into Whyte and the £1 deal he struck to buy Rangers after selling off £24.4 million worth of season tickets to finance his takeover.

Fresh information in our possession now shows how Whyte struck a deal worth more than £230,000 with a consortium called Red and White to sell off the 16 shares and cash in on a historic link between the clubs dating back to 1910.

Usmanov must be getting close to 30%. I would not be surprised to see him buy the whole club off Kroenke once he hits 30%.

More on that Rangers thing.

The close friendship forged between Rangers and Arsenal spans back to the turn of the last century when the Londoners were experiencing financial trouble of their own.

It’s believed Rangers attempted to help out by buying two shares in ­Woolwich Arsenal because their manager, George Morrell, had previously worked for the Ibrox club.

Around 20 years later, a much stronger and vibrant Arsenal gifted Rangers with a further 14 shares in return for their support during troubled times.

[Dude Ranch]

Was just reading on the Metro that RvP, Rosicky and Walcott are all up for negotiating new deals. Hehe, yeah. But also it says..

Arsenal's top targets for the summer include Lukas Podolski, Matias Suarez, Eden Hazard, Lucas Biglia and Mario Gotze.

I'll eat my hat if we get any of those.

[Steve007]

I'll eat my hat if we get any of those.

Hazard has been arse licking Spurs via the media over the last week or so, so I can't see him coming to us.

The most critical issue that needs to be resolved is the ownership of the club. Until that is settled we can never be a steady ship or have plans in place for the future.

[Lucky]

Heard / read somewhere the other day that Djourou has been rewarded with a new long term contract on 60k per week.

Knowing us this is probably true.

How we can reward mediocrity (I think that's being more than fair on him) in this way is beyond a joke.

[hauk]

£55 million to spend in the summer according to the papers today. Has to include wages including renegotiated ones though. I'm also wondering that even if we get 4th place, will the club wait until after the qualifiers before splashing the cash?