Questions to Answer after Chaotic Koln

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I’m trying not to be a complete hypocrite here and I’m sure I’m not the only one whose ever been in wrong end/wrong seat/bought off a tout/jibbed etc, so half of me is thinking well done Koln fans…but tonight was a shitstorm which could’ve ended much worse than just an hour delay, which prevented many fans from staying the whole game….

  • Why did the police decide to escort so many Koln fans to the ground ?
  • Why were the police and stewards totally clueless once they arrived and when they were inside the ground ?
  • Were proper searches done on all fans entering ground ?
  • Why and how did the club manage to sell Koln fans so many tickets in the home end ?
  • Why did the club fail to enforce their own rules on away fans in home seats ?
  • Why did a steward once questioned say “leave if you don’t like it” ? …very professional that one !

The club/stewards/police need to have a proper think over last night, they got it so so wrong on all levels.

The warning signs where there and there early…

The Koln fans have been buying tickets off our ticket exchange on memberships in their own names.

The Koln fans were bragging of travelling in numbers. Local banks had run out of pound notes. The police would’ve been aware of how many had entered the UK.

The Koln fans spent all afternoon marching around London in big numbers, blocking up roads

10,000 (est) pitched up on Highbury field’s hours before the game Yet when they arrive at the ground an hour before kick off there is no plan to deal with them whatsoever.

If this was us at an away it would be a lot, lot different.

Firstly the local plod would do there best to either split us into smaller groups earlier in the day or contain everyone, probably also give us a few digs.

They’d get us to the ground then funnel us in one at a time searching us, checking tickets and sometimes photo ID. Any disorder and they would get the tear gas out and start wacking people. Our club would then be in fear of a fine or points docked.

But last night wasn’t totally about fans disorder.

I’m sure loads did jib in/let in to prevent trouble outside, it was simply about how easy our club made it for Koln fans to get tickets in home seats, they could’ve easy gave them 20,000 tickets in the 1st place and prevented all that happened.

The concern for the future is that it has happened once, it will happen again. Koln have shown that if you turn up on mass, Arsenal and the police will buckle. What will now happen when the mad Serb’s turn up? Or the jibbing Scousers?

Arsenal got lucky last night that the total chaos did not turn into much more than a few Koln fans getting a couple of slaps. It could have been a lot, lot worse.

GC

FC Koln fans – bunch of dull twats

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So apprantley there are 20,000 FC Koln fans march through London. Waving their flags and half and half scarves. Having a sing song and jumping up and down. 


In an hour they will be in the Emirates. Because that is what German fans do. Get to the ground ridiculously early. 

Borussia Dortmund did it yesterday. Into Wembley to play Spurs 2 hours before kick off. 

The media praised how great they were. That getting to the ground so early showed their loyalty to the team. 

The reality is it shows they are dull twats. 

Get yourselves in a boozer lads. Get a load of beer down your neck and have a sing song. Bit of a snif. That’s what travelling abroad for your club is all about. Not getting into the ground 2 hours before kick off. 

Bet you have towels down already on your seats for you…

Boring twats. 

Keenos

Which elite managers actually win trophies? – 6 Wenger replacements

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So I recently wrote a blog about potential Arsene Wenger replacements. Men who previously have been put forward as good options and how their careers have ended up dwindling. The likes of Jurgen Klopp, David Moyes, Frank de Boer and Roberto Martinez.

One thing that came out of it, to my surprise, was how little Jurgen Klopp has won in recent years.

Since he brilliantly led Borussia Dortmund to back to back league titles from 2010-2012, he has added just 2 DFL-Supercup’s to his trophy cabinet. The DFL-Supercup is the German equivalent of our Community Shield.

It got me thinking, we all dig out Arsene Wenger for not winning enough. We are The Arsenal. We want to be winning trophies. Therefore the logical line in the ground for his replacement is a proven winner. Not someone with potential who might win things, but someone who is a proven winner with a recent track record of success.

So I did a spreadsheet. You all know I love spreadsheets.

I came up with a list of 21 managers. You would probably call them the elite in European football right now. A mixture of those who have won the league title in Europe’s top leagues in recent years, and those that are highly rated by many.

Having processed what they have won since the 2013/14 season (the year I have chosen to support an alleged agenda is what will be claimed – I just went for the last 5 seasons including this one), I then tried to weight each success.

So the winning a domestic league and winning the Champions League, in my opinion, are equal. So I gave them 10 points each. Same for the Europa League and the nations major domestic cup. I gave them 5 points each.

Then we have the nations minor cup. The likes of the League Cup. Not all nations have a secondary domestic cup. These get 2 points.

Finally we have what I call the glorified friendly’s. The domestic season openers, or Super Cups that every country has –Community Shield, DFL-Supercup, Supercoppa Italiana, Trophée des Champions, Supercopa de España. As well as the UEFA Super Cup and World Club Cup. Fairly insignificant competitions with limited participation. They get 1 point each.

This is how the table turned out:

Now of course, like with any statistical analysis, things can be interpreted in different ways.

For example, topping the table is Laurent Blanc. I was surprised by this. But he oversaw a very successful a very successful PSG team. Now does winning a lot of trophies for PSG mean you are a great manager? Probably not. I probably could have gone to PSG and managed them to a league title.

Likewise at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. They are in tougher leagues than PSG, but is Luis Enrique really that much of a great manager having overseen 9 trophies? Likewise Pep Guardiola’s time at Bayern Munich.

Is it a bigger achievement for Leonardo Jardim to have won 1 League title with Monaco, than Laurent Blanc to have won 3 with PSG? Same with Diego Simeone. Is a single title for Atletico Madrid worth more than Massimiliano Allegri overseeing a dominant Juventus side? Possibly.

You also have the likes of Antonio Conte. He was not in domestic football for 2 years of the 5 as he was managing Italy. So he actually does very well to be mid-table, above the likes of Jose Mourinho who has been in a domestic role for every year.

What the table highlights is that whilst the likes of Klopp, Thomas Tuchel, Mauricio Pochetino and Luciano Spalletti are highly rated, they have won next to nothing between them in the last 5 years. The later two winning sweat FA.

Now you could argue this is because they all manage lesser clubs, but then you see the success of Unai Emery at Sevilla, who has won a lot despite being at Spain’s 4th club.

Likewise the league wins for Claudio Ranieri and Leonardo Jardim are remarkable. If they can achieve their success at their relative clubs, why not hold Klopp, Tuchel, Pochetino and Spalletti to a higher level?

But as Ranieri showed, his title was a one off. Is Jardim’s the same? To talk of Jardim as a Wenger replacement after one good season, is that premature?

What might surprise you all is that Arsene Wenger, La Failure, La Flop, La Fraud, or whatever idiots want to call him, is exactly 10th on the list. Make of that what you will.

He has certainly had the advantage of being with his side the longest, and 3 FA Cups, when taken over the longer period of 10 years, is a massive underachievement.

So from this list of 21 elite European manager, 20 of which are not Arsene Wenger, who would my top 5 replacements by – taking into account all of the above?

Massimiliano Allegri – Proven winner. We should have pushed for him aggressively for this year. Signed a new contract with Juventus recently that keeps him at the club till 2020.

Carlo Ancelotti – Proven winner. Always been a big fan. Won trophies everywhere he has been. Felt Chelsea made a huge mistake to let him go.

Unai Emery – Serial cup winner. 3 Europa League wins for Sevilla. Been given a chance at PSG. Failed to win the league last year. Likely to be available in 2019.

Leonardo Jardim – Single league title with Monaco. Wildcard. Still needs to prove himself. Has 2 more years to do so.

Antonio Conte – Proven winner. If Chelsea are stupid enough to let him go, we should make our move.

There are plenty of options to replace Arsene Wenger. Joachim Lowe is another who is set to come available this summer.

I have always been of the opinion that whoever comes in for Wenger has to take the club forward. I want a proven winner. There are many on the elite list with a high reputation who have just not won very much.

It will be interesting over the next 2 years to monitor those lesser, younger managers. See if in 2 years time they have actually won something.

This started off as brief blog where I was just going to embed a little spreadsheet. It has ended up with me deciding on my 6 man short list to replace Arsene Wenger.

I will probably revisit it in a year, see how the 6 have got on.

Enjoy the Europa League tonight

Keenos