Category Archives: Arsenal

Everton warn Arsenal to “be careful what you wish for”

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“Be careful what you wish for” became synonymous with Arsenal towards the end of the last decade.

Often used by those who backed Arsene Wenger and feared change.

Without opening up old wounds at a time when our fanbase is the most united for decades, I began thinking of the statement on yesterdays commute home.

It happened whilst I was reading about the demise of Everton.

In February 2016, Farhad Moshri announced that Moshiri had sold his stake in Arsenal Football Club to Red & White Holdings partner Alisher Usmanov in a bid to raise capital required to launch a takeover at Everton.

That sale included him relinquishing his joint ownership of Arsenal shares alongside Usmanov.

Two weeks after the Premier League confirmed that Moshri had purchased a 49.9% of Everton.

It was felt that he was the front of a deal that would eventually involve Usmanov, and the Uzbek billionaire would also end up involved on Merseyside; spending the money he always talked about spending at Arsenal.

Some Arsenal were up in arms. They wanted Usmanov and his billions involved at Arsenal, backing him over he Kroenke’s. Where Moshri led Usmanov was surely to follow.

In his first summer as major shareholder, Moshri went big overseeing £73.5million of signings as Everton finished 7th.

2017 would see USM, a holding company owned by Usmanov, agree an initial” five-year naming rights deal which saw club’s Halewood training ground renamed USM Finch Farm.

The deal was worth £20million and indicated that Usmanov would become more heavily involved in the financing of Everton.

2017/18 would see another £160m spent across two windows. “Oh what could have been” some Arsenal fans crowed “to have an owner that was not afraid of bankrolling the club to success”.

In 2018 Kroenke bought out Usmanov. At around the same time it was announced that USM had secured the naming rights of Everton’s unbuilt new stadium for £30million.

Usmanov did not own a single share and had already pumped £50million into the club.

Arsenal fans were beginning to get worried. A team in decline on the pitch, it was only a matter of time until big spending Everton, with our former shareholders at the helm, took our place as a top 6 club.

Everton’s big transfer spending did not stop.

In 2018/19 it was again over £100milllion; bringing in some great young talent including Richarlison, Yerry Mina and Moise Keane.

The £100million mark would be breached again in 2019/20. But whilst that took Everton’s spending under Moshri to well over £500million, the club finished 12th. And Usmanov seemed to have disappeared.

The summer or 2020 would see Everton’s transfer spending almost half under new Carlo Ancelotti. But in came the big names like of Allan, James Rodriguez and Abdoulye Dacoure on huge wages.

Something was clearly not right at Everton and Ancelotti returned to Rea Madrid at the end of the season, with Everton finishing 10th.

Despite protests, Everton then gave the managerial job to Rafa Benitez. As we all know he was a former Liverpool manager.

It was a bad appointment, and to compound what was happening the money seemed to have dried up.

In the summer of 2021 Everton’s only outlay was £1million on Demarai Gray. He was joined by journeymen free transfers Android Townsend, Salomon Robson and Askir Begovic.

Moshri has overseen £660million worth of signings. But it didn’t matter how much you spent when you continually overspent on the wrong players.

In the last decade, Everton have gone from being one of the best run clubs in English football with David Moyes at the helm to one of the worst.

In 6 years of ownership, he has got through 6 managers. Each has performed progressively worse than the last.

Whoever relaxes Benitez will be his 7th manager.

What sums up the situation at Everton is the club have spent £37million full backs in January, only to sack the manager.

Those Arsenal fans that spent nearly a decade crying out for their Moshri / Usmanov dream team to take control of the club have gone very quiet.

The situation at Everton has soured very quickly. Despite millions spent the club is sailing in the wrong direction.

Meanwhile it feels like Arsenal, under the stewardship of Edu and Mikel Arteta, are finally on the right path.

The Kroenke’s might not put their hand in their pocket, might stay too quiet for some; but there is a warning in the way Everton have been run under Moshri.

And that warning is be careful what you wish for.

Keenos

Media criticism tells us one thing: The Arsenal are back

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It was interesting in the immediate aftermath of the Man City game that pundits and media seemed demonstrably rattled by the way Arsenal had outplayed the best side in Europe. After years of being summarily dismissed by the better teams in the Premier League Arsenal had been robbed of a deserved victory by what we might euphemistically call “questionable” officiating. Some of us tentatively suggested it was the biggest sign yet that Arteta’s “process” might actually be a genuine route back towards the top table of English football. The fans suddenly seemed united in a way we hadn’t seen for some time, and the outrageous dishonesty of Liverpool FC and the EFL (by which I mean Liverpool’s former Chairman) further cemented the view that it’s Arsenal against everyone else again. At last!

A lot of that optimism was dented badly by the no-show at Nottingham Forest. It was a shocking and unacceptable display and, longer term, will have no doubt sealed the fate of a number of the players in Arteta’s current squad. What followed at Anfield, however, was a Lazarus-like recovery and a redemption for the likes of Rob Holding and Sambi Lokonga. The XI Liverpool fielded, and the strength of their bench, gave all the evidence we needed to see their duplicity a week earlier, and it maybe galvanised the Arsenal players to perform with such defiance. The last time I remember a 0-0 being celebrated so much by Arsenal supporters was Real Madrid at home in 2006.

All of which brings me to this past weekend and the North London Derby that didn’t happen. Starting Friday morning it was apparent Arsenal were in trouble in terms of player availability, albeit not necessarily COVID related. However, a quick look at the ridiculous Premier League rules for this season (and it’s important to make the distinction between the Premier League rules and those for the League Cup which were circumvented by Liverpool) that Arsenal  were well within their rights to request a postponement.

I understand this was the 20th Premier League match to be postponed due to lack of players this season. The first club to take advantage of it was Tottenham, claiming a COVID outbreak for which they refused to publicise the names/number or players, and which just happened to coincide with their new Manager wanting some time on the training pitch. Arsenal played Leeds the week before Christmas in a match that, had Leeds been held to the same standard as Tottenham, would never have been played. Not Arsenal’s fault, but I mention it as some “journalists” (and I use the term loosely) cited it as an unfairness this weekend. On 28th December Arsenal’s home match with Wolves was cancelled due to the opponents struggling for players. Last week Leicester got a match called off largely because of players being at the AFCON tournament. And again, on Friday morning, Leicester v Burnley was called-off. Nobody in the media batted an eyelid. And then came Arsenal…

The faux outrage this weekend from the media, Spurs themselves, and other clubs’ fans has been maniacal and comical all at once. Micah Richards and Alan Smith (who almost sounded like an Arsenal Man for a change) pricked the balloon delightfully on Sky yesterday by pointing out the facts. Gary Neville pretending his objections were on behalf of “the fans” were beyond laughable. This is a man employed by a TV company that made Bournemouth fans travel to Middlesbrough for a 1230pm kick-off in the week before Christmas and now he’s worried about us?! A man of such conscience will not, I’m sure, be appearing on any coverage of the Qatar World Cup later this year.

The only conclusion to draw from the stick meted out to Arsenal by all and sundry is that Arsenal are back. Instead of being laughed at, even at times sympathised with, for the state we were in, it seems Arsenal have people worried again. They’re worried that something is happening at our club and we might be about the gatecrash the Premier League hegemony once more.

It’s good to be hated again. It’s good to be formed up as a club with the cannons directed outwards once more. We are The Arsenal, and we’re back.

Dover Marksman

The end of MrDT should also spell the end for AFTV

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So I thought it was time to address the elephant in the room. AFTV and Liam Goodenough (AKA MrDT’s) incarceration.

For the majority of us, the behaviour of Goodenough (the irony of that name!) comes as no surprise.

On social media, he always came across as a bully. This probably stemmed from him being bullied as a child. This is highlighted by who hewould try to bully and abuse on Twitter – mainly women and children.

He was a narcissist and rumours of previous domestic abuse incidents had circled for years.

Being an egotistical narcissist and a bully, his online persona was always going to explode his offline life at some point. And it finally happened as he was sentenced for 3 years after stalking, assaulting and kidnapping a woman.

This sentence would not count to a surprise for many – bar AFTV it seems.

Rumours had been circulating since last October he was in prison for domestic violence.

The official line was that he was taking a “break from social media” due to his mental health, but it is now clear he had been held on remand from August until his trial.

In November, I found details of his trial on the Law Pages.

https://twitter.com/keenosafc/status/1462369997704077320?s=21

He had plead guilt on November 5th in Aylesbury Crown Court.

So we knew the rumours were right. He was in prison. Only thing we did not know is what for. Domestic abuse, assault and kidnapping was the unconfirmed rumour.

It was strange that details of the case had not been released. They would usually be picked up in the crime pages of the newspaper local to the court. But there was radio silence.

There are a few reasons why this happens. The case involved vulnerable people, or someone a victim that didn’t want to be named. Or the sentence had been appealed by the prosecution.

It turns out it was the later.

After Christmas, having spent around 5 or 6 months in jail, he was released from his original 12 month sentence early on tag and with a curfew. This is what allowed Goodenough to be at the Manchester City game.

Those tweets sent during his team in jail were probably sent by a family member when they went to visit. An attempt to hoodwink the world.

On 13 January the Court of Appeal reheard the case and his sentence was extended from 12 months to 3 years.

Now the fall out.

Firstly we have his fan boys who have come out defending him; saying him we should not be criticising him but offering him help.

He assaulted and kidnapped a woman. Threatened her with a knife and used his young son as leverage. This is not a person that deserves our sympathy.

Secondly we have the statement from AFTV.

They released yesterday a laughable statement saying they “didn’t know” what was happening.

Well I knew what was going on, as did many others. So for them to say they did not know what was happening is a bare-faced lie.

But let’s play along.

They might not have known what happened this time; but they knew what type of person Goodenough was.

He had previously spent time in jail and spent much of his time arguing and abusing people on Twitter. I lost count how many times he threatened to Arsenal fans with violence. Said he would “see them” at a game.

Despite countless threats of violence, including to myself, AFTV continually gave Goodenough a platform.

So they might not have known specifically about this incident, but they would have known he was an unhinged bully who often threatened violence.

And it was not just him.

They also have a platform to Lee Gunner.

Gunner (it is actually his second name) is a lightweight version of Goodenough.

Lee and Liam. Formally best mates but fell out of money after both forgot their receipts on an expensive away trip to Eastern Europe. Robbie refused to compensate them without receipts, they had a barney and it ended up with Lee leaving AFTV.

Lee was also one that often threatened others with violence.

I was once sent DMs of him and someone else discussing how to obtain an Arsenal fans address.

Numerous times Lee would post up peoples addresses on Twitter. And their places of work and family names. They would be followed with threats of violence of violence.

Once he put up my postcode and said he would “be knocking at my door in half an hour”. Of course, he never turned up. Cowards do not.

This was in around 2016 when Gunner was trying to break through on AFTV. Robbie was more heavily involved in running his social media then. He would have known that his new kid on the block spent his time threatening others on social media. Yet he gave him a platform.

Then we have Claude (RIP).

Claude liked a drink. And when he had one he went dark on Twitter.

On one occasion, he threatened to “cut my throat” on my Twitter. He also said that “a nasty accident” would come my way and he would “silence” me.

This was all in 2016 prior to his “suicide attempt”.

AFTV gave him a platform for 5 years after despite knowing he had threatened to slit my throat. Despite him having clear and obvious mental health issues.

It is very clear that AFTV did not care about the behaviour of their “regulars” as long as the hits rolled in.

Liam, Claude, Lee and others spent half a decade threatening Arsenal fans. Bullying them. Throwing racist and sexist audiences. Yet Robbie kept giving them a platform as he earned his money.

It took sponsors to walk away for him to get rid of Claude.

Even if we believe the AFTV did not know that Goodenough was a violent domestic abuser, they would have known about his character and his previous actions online; as well as others actions online.

Robbie clearly does not care about an individuals character as long that person makes him money. It is only when that money stops rolling in that he cares.

And that is why the end of “MrDT” should also be the beginning of the end for AFTV.

AFTV was built on abuse. It’s contributors were encouraged to be angry and aggressive. The rants, the abuse to Wenger.

It is clear that Robbie was happy with how “stars” getting into arguments on social media as this gave them and him attention. More followers, more hits and more money.

You can’t continually give a platform to violent abusers and then pretend you have no knowledge of their behaviour when it hits the fan.

Play with fire, eventually you will get burned.

And the drama isn’t over. The spawn of Liam has already said it isn’t over and he will “have his say on a video on YouTube”. I bet it is monetised. His football club has also stated “there are 2 sides to every story” showing that no one involved has any remorse.

Goodenough plead guilty to stalking, assault and kidnapping. He will serve 3 years at her majesties pleasure. He won’t be missed over The Arsenal.

Keenos