Tag Archives: Liverpool

Alexandre Lacazette, Gooner Fanzine, Stoke City, Liverpool and Safe Standing

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Alexandre Lacazette

Yesterday I discussed the future of Alexandre Lacazette at Arsenal. Some people clearly missed the point of the blog.

At no point was I pretending to have a source or inside knowledge that he is leaving. Now was I saying he was useless. I was merely putting forward the point that it would not surprise me if Atletico Madrid renewed their interest in him, and Arsenal decided to cash in and invest in someone different.

It always baffles me when people read the headline, or two or 2 lines of a blog, and then comment. Learn to read the whole thing.

Gooner Fanzine

Stoke City

I hope they get relegated. And then next season do a Sunderland and get relegated again.

The Aaron Ramsey stuff aside, their fans sum up everything that is wrong with football. They scream and shout and cry when they are criticised by the media or other fans, yet are happy to abuse others themselves.

It is actually hilarious that one of their fanzines now wants them to get relegated:

They are nearly as bad as Liverpool when it comes to playing the victim.

Liverpool and Safe Standing

I see Liverpool fans are attempting to “lead the way” when it comes to exploring the safety of standing. Quite ironic that it was their fans behaviour that lead to standing being banned across the United Kingdom.

Everyone always forgets Heysel. It is maybe this guilt that drives the likes of the Spirit of Shankly group. The knowledge that your fellow fans were directly at fault for others.

No one should go to a game and not come back. Whether it be Bradford, Hillsborough or Heysel.

It feels the rest of football is waiting for Liverpool fans to say “yes” to safe standing. That is like the medical profession waiting for Harold Shipman to OK the use of paracetamol.

Safe standing needs to come in sooner rather than later. It could revitalise the dwindling crowds at football. But Liverpool fans should not be put in the position of king-makers.

Keenos

The time Jamie Carragher threw a coin at a fan

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With 20 minutes of an incredibly bad-tempered FA Cup fourth round tie at Highbury remaining, Dennis Bergkamp found himself red-carded for a decidedly ‘stampy’ challenge on Jamie Carragher out near the touchline.

Bergkamp’s dismissal proved to be an instant flashpoint, with one particularly incensed Arsenal fan pelting a coin at Carragher.

The Liverpool defender reacted badly, picking up the coin and hurling it back into the crowd in the general direction from whence it came. Referee Mike Riley wasted no time in sending him off down the tunnel too.

This all coming a matter of minutes after Riley had sent off Martin Keown for a professional foul on Michael Owen. Tempestuous doesn’t even begin to cover it.

Anyway, Carragher immediately apologised for his actions after the game, accepting it was wrong for him to react in the way he had.

I regret what happened at Highbury because I let the club, the fans, my team-mates and myself down. No matter what the physical or verbal provocation, I shouldn’t have reacted like that I would like to apologise for any offence caused.

I was frustrated and did it without thinking in the heat of the moment. Anyone who has seen me play regularly will realise it was completely out of character but I’m not going to make excuses.

I was wrong and as a professional football player I should have known better. It’s a mistake I won’t make again.

The full and frank apology saw Carragher escape a police charge though he was issued with a formal warning and fined £40,000 by Liverpool for his sins.

Two fans who allegedly received injuries when the coin was thrown back into the terraces both declined to make allegations, and Arsenal pledged to issue a lifetime ban to the supporter responsible for hurling the coin if the club’s security team managed to successfully identify them.

For the record, Arsenal won the game 1-0 on what was, all in all, a pretty manic old afternoon in North London.

Keenos

You are allowed to want Arsenal to win (and want Wenger Out)

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I want to be positive. I really do.

Arsenal face AC Milan tonight in the Europa League. Defeat will make it 5 losses on the spin. One of the worst runs I can remember in my lifetime. A run that would see Arsene Wenger surely lose his job (if our board had a pair).

I will never be one of these fans who says they want Arsenal to lose so that Wenger is sacked. I want Arsenal to win the Europa League. And in my mind, all true supporters should want us to win the trophy.

Many fans will see that winning the Europa League will give Wenger a lifeline. The truth is, he should leave Arsenal even if we win the Europa League. But the reality is that even if we do not win it, the board will probably let him see out his last year of his contract.

Or they might not. Moves might already be being made to replace him this summer. Regardless of performance.

Who knows what is happening at Arsenal. I do not think Wenger’s future is tied to success in Europe.

So having made that statement, I want us to win the Europa League.

Arsenal have not won a trophy in Europe since 1994. We have lost 3 finals in 3 difference competitions since then.

European success is the only thing Spurs fans have over Arsenal. They have 3, we have 2. Winning in Lyon in May will even things up.

If wanting Arsenal to win trophies is a bad thing, something that can not make you happy, buzz your tits off, then I am sorry. Actually, I will not apologise for wanting to see my club win things.

Changing manager will not guarantee success. Liverpool have shown that with the appointments of both Brendan Rodgers and Jurgen Klopp. 6 years with no trophies.

So if changing managers does not guarantee success, we should not be saying that we do not want to win trophies so that we change manager.

Live in the moment, in the here and now. You can not predict the future, so cheer on a win against AC Milan.

They are not as good as some think.

Like Arsenal in recent years, they are a big club whose star has fallen.

I saw someone on Twitter state that AC Milan were as good as they were when they beat us 4-0 in the San Siro a few years back.

Well if your agenda pushes you to say Fabio Borini is as good as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, then live in your cloud coo-coo land with your fairies and expectation that changing manager will mean instant success.

A few other things just coming to mind…

A lot of fuss has been made over Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain “making the Champions League Quarter Final for the first time in his career”.

On the face of it, you would say that this highlights the massive underachievement by Arsenal in the Champions League, and it perhaps does. But it also ignores that Oxlade-Chamberlain was complicate in that underachievement. He was in many of the starting XI’s that saw us get knocked out.

So Liverpool fans are celebrating Oxlade-Chamberlain making the QF of the Champions League for the first time in his career, even though he did not play a single minute? So he is still yet to win a Champions League knockout tie.

Maybe that is where Arsenal went wrong? They should not have played The Ox? And this is perhaps my favourite…

The way some Arsenal fans and the media big up Oxlade-Chamber like he is performing any better for Liverpool than Arsenal is hilarious.

At Arsenal, who would have a spell of 2/3 games in a row of great performances, followed by 10 games of doing nothing. Not much has changed – we as Arsenal fans now just no longer see the poor games.

He has 3 Premier League goals this season. That is one less than Nacho Monreal, and one more than Alex Iwobi.

Lets calla spade a spade. He was average at Arsenal, is average at Liverpool, and is simply an average, inconsistent player.

On a final note (in an attempt to be positive) I had a it of fun with this tweet from friend of the page AFC_Glen.

https://twitter.com/AFC_GLEN/status/971330957943934976

A 3 year old arsenal fan would have seen his side win 2 FA Cups. Compare that to his playschool mate who support Liverpool. Nothing. Or Spurs. Nothing.

Come to think about it, the 3 year old Arsenal fan has seen more success than a 27 year old Spurs!

There are granddads in Cheshunt who have seen Tottenham win less than that 3 year old Arsenal fan.

Hopefully all those out in AC Milan get around OK, despite the widespread transport strikers. I went their when we lost 4-0 and it was a great few days at the football. Top city, top drinking, and they sell mini bottles of sambuca in the ground.

Up the Arsenal

Keenos