Tag Archives: She Wore a Yellow a Ribbon

In memory of Jose Reyes; let’s stop abusing footballers

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The death of Jose Antonio Reyes has hit everyone in football. Shocking news to try and digest on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

It is a reminder to everyone how fragile life is.

Bill Shankly was wrong. Football is not more important than life or death.

Reyes death should be a reminder to everyone to be kinder. He had a tough time at Arsenal. After a solid start he was booted out of a game against Manchester United and never really recovered. After this game he became one of those players the crowd loved to get on the back of.

Were he to be at Arsenal in the current era, he would have received a lot of abuse on social media from fan.

Criticising players is fine. Nothing wrong with it. But abuse is wrong and often crosses the line.

It was not too long ago that fans were standing outside the Emirates singing about wishing death on Arsene Wenger. Following the loss to Chelsea, I saw one fan post up a picture of the Munich disaster with the comment “we need Arsenal’s version of this, with Emery and Cech in the front seat”.

Granit Xhaka recently came off social media due to the volume of death threats he receive. Shkodran Mustafi has also received death threats in recent weeks.

Whilst I am sure these death threats may not have been made with the intention of carrying through, it is still clearly wrong. I remember a few years ago someone said they would “find me and slit my throat”. I did not take it seriously but it still was not very nice.

We have also seen a lot of online abuse aimed at Mesut Ozil, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Iwobi and more. No one seems to be immune.

If you do anything in memory of Reyes, be kinder.

Criticism is fine; abuse is not

RIP Jose Antonio Reyes

Keenos

Mesut Ozil: 5 Best Moments as a Gunner

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The 2018-19 Premier League season hasn’t been kind to Mesut. The creative midfielder has rarely featured in the Premier League. Ozil is on pace to provide his fewest number of assists as a Gunner in the league this term. His previous low came in 2014-15 when he tallied six. This term, Ozil has just one assist in 14 Premier League appearances, which is far from his usual performance wearing an Arsenal shirt.

He has missed a lot of the season due to injury. Even when fit, manager Unai Emery has left him on the bench on occasions. Ozil has been challenged by Emery to prove he deserves a place in the team. The 30-year-old may be struggling through the Premier League season, but there is no doubt he has had some memorable moments as a Gunner since arriving in 2013.

  1. Free kick vs. Liverpool

Arsenal were humiliated against Liverpool 4-0 at Anfield in August 2017 and Ozil was heavily criticised for his poor play against the Reds. Four months later, the two teams met at the Emirates with Ozil putting in a classic performance. The next time Ozil takes the pitch, this website will give supporters the chance to back their team. The German inspired an Arsenal comeback and his classy free-kick gave the Gunners a 58th minute lead. The goal reminded football fans of Ozil’s quality.

  1. Volley goal vs. Newcastle

Arsenal met Newcastle at the Emirates just before Christmas 2017. The Gunners picked up a 1-0 victory thanks to Ozil’s 23rd minute volley. The midfielder perfectly tracked a poor clearance from Newcastle goalkeeper Rob Elliot as he backpedaled inside the 18-yard box. Ozil then rifled a brilliant left-footed volley into the Newcastle goal. Arsenal fans can visit https://williamcode.co.uk/ ahead of each Gunners’ game, to benefit from exclusive offers, to wager on the goal-scoring ability of their favourite players.

  1. First goal vs. Napoli

Ozil’s first goal was a thing of Arsenal beauty. It was classic Gunners under the management of Arsene Wenger. Flowing, perfect passing finished off by a goal provided by the entire team. The strike came against Napoli in the 2013-14 Champions League group stage. Napoli goalkeeper Pepe Reina had no chance of stopping the well-placed strike as Ozil finished off a finally weighed pass.

  1. 2015-16 Assist King

The one thing Arsenal supporters will always remember Ozil for is his ability to create goals. The 2015-16 Premier League season saw Ozil at his creative best. The midfielder tallied 19 assists to lead the league. It was a fantastic return for the German as he was the catalyst to all of Arsenal’s goalscoring during the season.

  1. FA Cup Glory

Since arriving at the Emirates in 2013, Ozil has helped the Gunners win three FA Cup trophies. The first came in his debut season for Arsenal and the second came 12 months later. Those first two FA Cup tournaments saw Ozil play a combined 10 times scoring twice and adding four assists. Arsenal collected a third FA Cup in 2016-17. Although Ozil only played three times as the Gunners took the trophy, he still added a key assist to lead them to the cup final. The German has been at the heart of Arsenal’s most recent success and will go down as an unforgettable part to those teams.

 

The Truth: Mertesacker’s “absence” and Manchester United’s ticket allocation

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First thing to do this morning is nip something in the bud quickly.

Per Mertesacker went the NBA London Game on Thursday night rather than to Arsenal v Tottenham in the FA Youth Cup.

This decision has led to huge criticism by many uneducated members of the media and fans. Most are looking for easy hits or RTs on Twitter.

Mertesacker is the Academy Manager.This means he oversees the operation at Hale End – where members of the Arsenal Academy train.

The U18s are not considered part of that academy. Once you reach U18 level, you move across to London Colney to train with the first team

You can not expect Mertesacker, Unai Emery or whoever to go to every game, every time. They have other things to concentrate on, and are allowed a life outside of work.

Going to the FA Youth Cup does not fall within Mertesacker’s contract parameters.

Now he might have gone out of interest, or to see how an U16 performed if they are stepping up a level, but on this occasion he decided to go to a basketball match.

A huge basketball fan, the NBA London Game is a once or twice a year thing.

So let’s just ignore the white noise and fake news surrounding his “absence”.

In other news, Arsenal are set to donate around 600 tickets for the FA Cup fourth-round tie against Manchester United. This after a dispute between the clubs over ticket allocation.

FA rules dictate that home clubs must make 15% of tickets available for the FA Cup. This is 9,000 tickets at the Emirates Stadium. Arsenal have given Man U just 5,000 tickets, citing safety concerns.

Every club must get a safety certificate for every game. They must have this signed off by the local council and the police. In the past (when we play Tottenham in a mid week cup game, for example) the police have stopped us giving away the full allocation as they can not guarantee the safety of all fans.

Whether the council or police are behind the drop in allocation, or Arsenal are just hiding behind Health & Safety is not clear.

There is also a bigger story at play here. One which is rarely written about. And that is the fact that Manchester United never give visiting teams a full allocation for cup games.

The FA have approved Manchester United to give visiting teams a lower allocations for FA Cup ties at Old Trafford, where around 11.7% of the 76,000-capacity is handed over to the away team. This usually happens without much comment from the media.

This is potentially tit for tat with Arsenal. “We do not get full allocation when we visit you, so why should we give you full allocation”.

The same happened against Tottenham in the League Cup.

Spurs never give Arsenal their full allocation, yet a lot of fuss was made when we failed to give them theirs.

One problem with the 9,000 tickets is they are then lower and upper tier, with club level and executive boxes filled with Arsenal fans in between.

In the past when away fans have got upper and lower tier, there have been stories of those Arsenal fans in the middle tier being spat on, coins thrown and urine poured over them. This is clearly unacceptable and Arsenal’s first priority is the protection of its own fans.

Back in 2014  Everton (a club with a reputation for throwing urine) only got 9%

The FA responded to complaints stating the 15% was “subject to the local Safety Advisory Group (SAG) agreeing to that ticket allocation number.

“The SAG is made up of services such as the local council, police, fire brigade and the club amongst others and issues the stadium’s health and safety certificate.

“In regards to the Arsenal v Everton Sixth Round tie at the Emirates on Saturday 8 March, the local SAG has chosen to allocate just under 9% to the Everton supporters.

“Although we appreciate the disappointment in the SAG not granting the full 15% allocation, it is nearly double the amount of tickets that Everton would have received for the Premier League fixture at the Emirates back in December.

“The FA does not have any input into the decision of the SAG and cannot change it as this is a matter of health and safety.”

So here is an idea. If you want to have 15%. Stop throwing coins, spitting on, or throwing urine at fans below you.

Today is Chelsea. Not much to say except we need 3 points.

Keenos