Category Archives: Arsenal

Now we can all look forward to the return of The Arsenal

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Morning.

Early one from me as I sit and watch the cricket. Hopefully England can get the white wash and finish the year on a high.

The warmer weather and rain has cleared the snow,. With the World Cup now done football should be getting back to normal.

We also have 5 working days of no posts strikes, so hopefully Royal Mail can clear the backlog and get you all your gifts out this week (I have had post once this month!).

I watched some of the final yesterday whilst I went from pub to pub doing some last minute Christmas shopping up town.

As we blogged yesterday, I did not care who won the final; but it seems like plenty were overly excited to see Lionel Messi lift the trophy.

I’ve seen him play live and he is a fantastic footballer. The second best I’ve seen after Thierry Henry.

To still be performing at such a high level at 35, 19 years after making your debut is testament to both his mentality and fitness.

Messi is still one of the best players on the planet – if not the best – and has a drive and determination to stay there I do not see in other footballers.

The only comparisons I can see if Rafa Federer and Rafael Nadal, as well as Jimmy Anderson.

if Messi is still doing it at 40, then we can talk about him as one of the greatest sportsman of all time, alongside Anderson. And let’s remember that Anderson has done it on a cold evening in Burnley!

I’d imagine this week we will see the likes of Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli in the training pictures.

Both would have been given a week off following Brazil and England’s exit last weekend. A chance to relax the mind.

We play next Monday, so an easy session for them today to ease their way back in before we begin to focus on West Ham.

It will be interesting to see if William Saliba is straight back into training considering how little he played at the World Cup – although losing the final will be as mentally exhausting as physically.

Would not be surprised if he is given the week off and we see Rob Holding start against West Ham.

Anyway, I’m glad the World Cup is over. As predicted “the best World Cup ever” line was put out by FIFA as they continued to be a useful idiot in Qatar’s sports-washing.

All the pundits out there are also complicit, and many showed themselves up as hypocrites.

Alex Scott “taking a stand” whilst holidaying in Dubai. Pick a side.

And Gary Neville using his job as a pundit to make a party political broadcast, slamming workers rights in the UK in an attempt to defend the Qatari’s. H

Neville has spent the last month on beIN, Qatar’s main sports broadcaster. So maybe he should stop lecturing the rest of us on workers rights whilst being paid by a regime that built a World Cup through modern slavery and the death of 1000s of migrant workers.

I am sure Qatar put Neville up in a nice 5* hotel whilst Bangladeshi, Pakistani and other south Asian workers lived in horrendous conditions.

At least now we can concentrate on our football. Although our game, and Arsenal, are infected by middle-East businesses acting on behalf of the Emirati, using the Premier League and Premier League clubs to promote their states to take the focus off the human rights, the slavery, and more.

Pakistan have got 15 runs in the course of me writing this. Lead by 41, 4 wickets down.

Ball is spinning so this game is not over. Anything over 150 will be a tricky chase on this wicket.

Enjoy your Monday.

Keenos

Qatar World Cup a success – in sports washing

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Morning all and happy Sunday.

I hope you have all done your Christmas shopping by now. If you still have stuff to get, I would suggest heading out to your local High Street.

Most major postal companies (Royal Mail, DPD, Evri, etc), have huge back logs and “next day delivery” will mean 2-3 days across most of the country. I have hardly seen Amazon fans on the streets in the last week, and normally at this time of the year you can’t cross the road without one nearly hitting you!

So the World Cup finishes today, and I am fairy non-plussed.

I do not really care who wins between France or Argentina. We don’t have a horse in the race (or player on the pitch), so I do not really care who wins – yes, William Saliba is in the French squad, but he won’t play and my connection with him is certainly not that of Henry, Vieira, Cazorla, Ozil and others.

I also have no interest in the Lionel Messi debate.

There are two types of football fans. Those that support a single club, and those that support a player.

I support Arsenal. Have only ever supported Arsenal, and will only ever support Arsenal.

The likes of Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Mesut Ozil and more have fans that support them rather than a club. They change the club who they support depending on what club their favourite player is performing for.

And with many of these sort of fans coming from lesser nations, they end up supporting the country that their favourite player starts for, rather than the country they are from.

Win or lose I am English. I find it a fairly odd concept that people will be fanatical about Argentina even though they are from Nigeria, from Dubai or Singapore. They almost treat international football like they treat club football. Where they “pick” the country they support and continually change it.

Where will Qatar sit in the list of great World Cups? Again, I do not care.

The PR merchants will be out in force making Qatar seem like the greatest World Cup ever. But in reality the quality of football, shocks and competition is no different to any other World Cup of the last 30 years.

Every World Cup has shock early exits, some great football and goals, some horrendous games and a country that reaches the latter stages on passion rather than talent.

FIFA and Qatar will go into overdrive, trying to show the winter experiment in a non-football country as a success. But this is just diversion to take your thoughts away from the thousands that died building the stadiums. The states human rights record, treatment of women and more. Qatar is a perfect example of sportswashing.

On a side note, I did find the virtue signalling of the likes of Alex Scott hilarious.

Happy to holiday in Dubai, happy to go to Qatar to earn some money, but will wear an armband and talk out against the regime.

If Scott (and others) really cared, they would not holiday in these sort of countries. But I guess getting some winter sun is more important than slavery, human rights and journalists being murdered.

The next World Cup is in Mexico, America and Canada. Another sham hosting it over 3 countries that span such a huge land mass.

As for FIFA’s proposal for a new “Club World Cup”, it just shows all these international tournaments are just about generating money to fill the pockets of those that “run the game”.

Corruption in FIFA (and UEFA) is still high. It is all about how many millions those in blazers can take out of the game.

The best 32 teams in the world are European. There is no need for a competition to find out who is better between Real Madrid and some Chinese, Australian, African or Emirati club. Even the best of South American clubs are no better than your average Portuguese side. Brazil and Argentina are just Europe’s academy.

If you’re watching today, enjoy it. Celebrate however you want. I’m heading to Oxford Street for some Christmas shopping.

Keenos

Matt Turner is “Arsenal’s biggest winner from the World Cup”

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Matt Turner’s story is an extraordinary one.

Turner didn’t play football until he was 14 years old. He only took up the game to stay in shape for his primary sports – basketball and baseball.

He only started playing in goal during his freshman year when the team keeper was injured. Turner would go viral whilst at college, knocking the ball into his own net whilst attempting to catch it.

At 21 years old, he was still only playing at a college level, still not a professional.

Despite 21 clean sheets in 39 appearances for his University, Turner was not selected in the 2016 MLS SuperDraft.

He would eventually join MLS side New England Revolution following a successful pre-season trial.

Then 22, he was loaned out for 2 seasons to Richmond Kickers – the American equivalent of the Championship (but closer to the level of the Vanarama National League).

He would eventually make his MLS debut a few months shy of his 24th birthday in a 2-0 defeat to Philadelphia Union. He remained New England number one for the 2018 season.

In 2019, he would find himself demoted to 3rd choice for spell, before regaining his starting spot as his side reached the play-offs for the first time in 4 years. He would finish the season being named the 5th best keeper in the MLS.

2020 would be his breakthrough season as he was named the second best keeper in the MLS behind Jamaican number one Andre Blake. Fans and teammates would both vote him as Revolutions Player of the Year.

Turner would make his US debut in 2021, aged 26. He would keep a clean sheet on a friendly against Trinidad and Tobago.

2021 would also see him named MLS Goalkeeper of the Year, as well as start all 6 games for the US as they won the 2021 CONCAF Gold Cup. Turner would keep a clean sheet on the final and be named the “Best Goalkeeper” of the tournament.

Those performances led Arsenal to agree a deal to sign Turner in February 2022 in a deal that would see him join us that summer.

In June 2022, aged 28, Arsenal announced their new keeper in a deal that could rise to $10million.

His acquisition led to many questions from fans; not a surprise considering his age and background.

On paper, it looked like he could be another Runar Alex Runarsson – the Icelandic keeper came out of nowhere to become Arsenal’s number two in 2020 and couldn’t catch a cold. Possibly the worst keeper to every play for us.

Turner was replacing Bernd Leno.

The German international had close to 500 starts, with over 400 being for Leverkusen and Arsenal. It felt like a big step down from an experienced number one to an unknown from America.

Despite being US number one, Arsenal fans would still have been questioning his future prior to the World Cup kicking off. His performances out in Qatar have silenced his critics.

Turner has shown himself to be a very decent keeper at the World Cup.

He would keep two clean sheets in the group stages and would not be beaten from open play – the only goal conceded would be the Gareth Bale penalty.

Despite losing 3-1 to the Dutch in the Round of 16, Turner would pull off a string of fantastic saves and look like a keeper that was not out of place on the world stage.

Turner is probably the level below what Arsenal would need as a number one. But he would start for half of the sides in the Premier League. And that is what a top side needs as a number two.

If Arsenal fans were unsure of him before the World Cup, those fears must now be set aside.

Turner playing should not fill fans with the dread of Runarsson MK II. He is a decent keeper who has shown he will be able to do a job when called upon.

The American is arguably Arsenal’s biggest winner from the World Cup.

Keenos