Every season we lose a pre-season friendly I find myself writing the same thing. THE RESULTS DO NOT MATTER.

Pre-season is all about slowly increasing your fitness back to a proper match level.

The thing with pre-season is you are often at a different stage of your preparation in comparison to your opponents. And it this can be further exaggerated if playing a foreign side.

For all intents and purposes, Hibernian were 2 weeks ahead of Arsenal when it came to match fitness.

The SPL begins on 31st July, whilst the Premier League does not start until 2 weeks later – Arsenal’s first game being on 13th August.

Hibs returned to pre-season training on 28th. Arsenal players on July 7th.

So you have a Hibs side who have been back for over 2 weeks, whilst Arsenal have been back for just 5.

This was also Hibs 4th pre-season game against Arsenal’s first.

And it was not really a bad performance by Arsenal.

A mistake from the kid in goal for their first (que the bellends abusing him already) and their second was offside.

We then missed a penalty before a late consolation.

They certainly looked more “up for it” and were quicker to the ball and harder in the tackle. A few naughty ones left on Arsenal players highlighted that this was a big game for them, and a training run out for Arsenal.

Ultimately it was a good run out for the lads and the result really does not matter.

Keenos

And that’s that then. It did not come home.

I have always had a love / hate relationship with England.

On one had I am a proud English. I celebrate St George’s Day. I have an England flag tattooed on my leg. If there is an Englishman playing in the lawn bowls, I back them.

I have travelled the world to watch the England cricket team, I rarely miss a six nations game.

But then I have always struggled to connect with the England national team.

It might be because my love for The Arsenal is so strong that I struggled to detest Gary Neville, John Terry and Frank Lampard one Saturday and was then expected to cheer them on the next.

It is also partly to do with me finding international football outside of tournaments boring. Predictable qualifiers and stale friendlies just get in they way of domestic football.

But then I was out in France at the last Euro’s, and when international tournaments come round I tend to get caught up in it all.

I think maybe my dislike for international football is it disrupts the domestic scene. And then in the summer as there is no Arsenal, I fall in love with England.

This England team is a little bit different to those of yesteryear though. They are a lot more likeable.

The players do not have the arrogant swagger or clammer for celebrity. And the WAGs are not desperate to become famous. It just seems like a good bunch of lads.

And no more so than Bukayo Saka.

The picture of Saka on a unicorn lifted the nation.

He has such a child-like joy to everything he does. Like a one year old having their first birthday. So excited without fully realising what is going on.

And that is why I was absolutely gutted for him yesterday.

Why was he on the 5^th penalty? Why not Raheem Sterling, Jack Grealish, Luke Shaw or even Jordan Pickford – all of whom have taken senior penalties?

Yesterday was Saka’s first ever penalty at senior level.

To put the youngest man in the squad on the crucial 5^th penalty just felt like a mistake before Saka had even taken it.

Gareth Southgate is the man to blame for England failing to bring it home.

He failed to change the game with subs, bottled hooking Harry Kane and Raheem Sterling when both were so poor. Bought on Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho with 2 minutes to go to take penalties. And then had Saka on the 5^th.

My only hope is that missing that penalty and the abuse that followed does not change Saka. That he keeps that smile on his face. The joy.

I think Ian Wright has a big job to help Saka. He is the man to reach out. To play the “uncle” figure.

The abuse towards Saka was shocking, disgusting, but not surprising.

I have called out social media many times on this blog for a lack of action. For allowing a torrent of racist comments to exist within their networks. Unfortunately the likes of Facebook, Twitter and  YouTube turn a blind eye to the abuse. They rely on the abusers to boost their Daily Active Users, which in turn boosts ad revenue.

The sad thing for me is all England fans end up tarred by the same brush.

99.9% of those that follow England do so in good faith. They do not throw plastic chairs, look for a row, or abuse people on Twitter. But it is the 0.1% that end up on the front pages.

You get 3 or 4 idiots and suddenly 50million Englishmen are labelled as racist.

I hope Saka gets cheered at every ground he goes too next season – I think the days of the David Beckham lynch mob are a thing of the past.

As Arsenal fans, it will be down to us to build the young man back up.

Pre-season games start this week so if you are going to one of the games, sing his name loud and clear.

Oh, and for those couple of Arsenal fans that were abusing Saka. Stop pretending to be Arsenal.

Keenos

Yesterday it was announced that Arsenal would be the focus of the next episode of Amazon’s “All or Nothing” series.

Arsenal announced the partnership by stating “You asked. We heard you.”

You asked. We heard you.#AllOrNothingArsenal

Coming to @PrimeVideoSport in 2022 ⏳

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) July 9, 2021

 Let’s be honest. Hardly anyone asked.

In fact the majority of response to the announcement is negative. So Arsenal should stop pretending they are doing what the fans wanted.

So why have Arsenal agreed to be the next victims of All or Nothing?

Money.

Amazon reportedly paid Spurs around £10m for their 2020 series.

When you consider Arsenal have no European football next season, £10m is a huge sum. It will far outstrip any other sponsorship agreement bar Adidas and Emirates.

And it is not just the amount Amazon pay for the series that is financial important. It is the long term impact of the series.

Arsenal, like Tottenham and Manchester City before them, will hope that the “all access” show will attract a new wave of fans from the USA. That those that side of the pond will become hooked on the series and as a result end up a fan of the club.

Now Amazon do not release how many people watch stream their shows. However Spurs All or Nothing was in the top 0.4% of documentaries watched in the UK. In America it is in the top 50%.

Taking into account there is an air of negative surrounding Arsenal at the moment – both on and off the pitch – the club will probably be hoping to use the documentary to boast the “brand” around the world.

If Arsenal have a good season, win a trophy and finish top 4, a positive documentary will do wonders to boost the brand. In turn this will increase the amount of Arsenal fans globally as well as make us more attractive to sponsors.

Now if, like me, you think the globalisation of football has ruined the game for the local fan, this will all mean nothing to you.

Is someone who is currently a Chelsea fan deciding to support Arsenal due to a documentary really a fan? No. But the club do not care about that as long as they buy a shirt, follow the club on social media, etc.

We live in a world of REACH and IMPRESSIONS. And the more people that follow you on social media, interact with you; the more sponsors will pay to be associated with you.

And that is all what this is about. Money.

The other bit of Arsenal news from yesterday was the changing of the criteria for Cup finals.

Now to lay my cards on the table. I am a home season ticket holder. I was an away scheme member.

The club decided in a couple of weeks ago to scrap the away scheme.

Now whilst some people “celebrated” it; that decision will cause the likes of myself a headache.

The away scheme made things easy for away games. I would not have to think about when games were on sale, setting alarms, ensure I had access to a computer to buy tickets.

Myself and the 3 mates I sat with would automatically have our money taken from our account, tickets bought on our behalf next to each other, and two weeks before the game they would arrive in the post.

It made life very easy.

Now yes, some people did exploit the away scheme.

There were a few touts on it who never went to games and sold tickets on for huge profit. But these were in the minority.

For years AISA and the AST have been pushing the club to scrap the away scheme. And they have now got their way.

Both groups are supposed to be supporters clubs, but neither of them represented the views of those 1000 or so fans on the away scheme.

The attack on away scheme members by AISA and the AST has always felt like “we are not on the away scheme so will do everything we can to get it scrapped”.

But hey, as long as Tim Payton gets his seat on the board as the “fans representative” I am sure he does not care.

So then we have the change in semi final and final requirements.

The criteria for as long as I can remember has always been a mixture of being a season ticket holder and having away credits.

Basically, if you had 3 away credits and a gold membership, you were guaranteed a ticket for the final.

Away credits are awarded for going to away games in the last 2 years, as well as the current year. So basically you would have had to have gone to one away game a year for the last 3 years. Not exactly a hard task.

I have agreed for a long time that home games should also be taken into account.

Those that go to every home game should get priority over those that leave their seat empty or sell on the Ticket Exchange.

But I can not get behind the scrapping of the away credit criteria completely.

Surely a better solution would have been to combine away and home credits? So someone that goes to 19 away games a season and 10 home would have more priority over someone that goes 25 home games?

Again, it feels like an attack on away fans by AISA and AST.

Just because their members (or probably those running) do not go to away games, they have no time for them.

They do not want a criteria that is fair for all Arsenal fans. They want a criteria that gives themselves the best chance to get tickets.

And how long until the club move the goal posts a little and give you points for spending money in the club shop?

It is all just very disappointing from both the clubs and those supporters groups who pretend to be fighting a battle on behalf of the fans.

Maybe I am just being as equally selfish? But with the 3 decisions in the last couple of weeks, it just feels like the club is doing less and less in the interest of a fan that has travelled up and down the country following the club for over a decade.

As each year goes by, Arsenal becomes less and less “my club”.

Keenos

Our Bukayo Saka riding a unicorn collection Yes, that is the T-Shirt Ian Wright was wearing on his Insta yesterday… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…—
Kick Off Merchants (@KOMerchants) July 09, 2021