Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

Aaron Ramsey, David Dein, Sead Kolašinac & Alexis to Everton?

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Aaron Ramsey

Against Swansea, Aaron Ramsey became the 50th Arsenal player to score 50 goals.

A man who has divided opinion over the years, we should be forever grateful of 2 of those goals, which won us 2 of the 3 FA Cups in recent years. In years gone past, he would be labelled a legend for winning us two FA Cups. I imagine this status will only come once he retires, in years too come.

He will always be remembered as that guy who scored the winning goals in the FA Cup finals.

It is easy to forget that he is still just 26 (27 in December). He still has a lot of years to go at the top level. As long as he remembers to keep it simple, and play to his strengths, there is no reason he can not go on to score 100 goals and play 500 game for The Arsenal.

Well done Aaron on your 50 Aaron.

David Dein

Once again, the name David Dein is being spoke about for a return to Arsenal. Like Aaron Ramsey, opinion is split on the former Arsenal director.

I am of the opinion that we won a lot under his stewardship, but these trophies covered up the discord he had between the fans at the time.

There is a clear split between fans on the matter of David Dein. Those under the age of 35, or who were not going to games regularly in the late 80s / early 90s, think he is a messiah. That he can walk on water. They see the league titles, the FA Cups, the world class players who joined. It was a successful period.

But then those who are of a certain age, going in the late 80s / 90s, will remember the North Bank Bond fiasco. They will point to the moment the club chased the money instead of protecting its long term fan base.

The Bond Scheme was fairly similar to the Club Level season tickets that came on the market when we moved to the new ground in 2006. By paying a big chunk of money (back then it was £1,000-£1,500), fans could secure themselves a season ticket for Arsenal for the next 150 years.

The following is an extract from the book Fanatics: Power, Identity and Fandom in Football:

There were protests, a Ban the Bond campaign involving the release of balloons. There was as much anger at David Dein at Highbury than there is at Stan Kroenke now.

Also under David Dein, ticket prices rose at incredible rates.

In the 10 years from 1990 – 2000, the average Arsenal ticket price rose 289%. From 2006 – 2016, under Stan Kroenke, prices rose 18%.

Whilst this is not to justify Stan Kroenke, it is too highlight that David Dein was certainly not a man of the people. He only cared for maximising profitability at the detriment of loyal working class fans.

On top of this, he also introduced Stan Kroenke to the club, before selling to Alisher Usmanov. He created the current ownership problems we have.

Dein profiteered from the club to the value of nearly £100m. He was in it for himself, for his own pocket.

All of this is forgotten about because we were successful under Dein’s stewardship.

It does make me wonder, would many of the current fan base who moan about ticket prices soon be quiet if we won a league title? Probably.

Dein did a lot of good for the club. But he was also the man who kicked off the current PLC mentality of maximising profitability at the detriment of match going fans. He we the catalyst for many of the problems we now face.

Sead Kolašinac

What a player this boy is turning out to be. He does have a bit of a poor injury record, so I hope the slight strain he picked up against Swansea does not turn into a season long thing.

He is a sharp reminder to us all that it is not what you spend on a player, but what player you buy.

It is laughable to remember some fans in the summer moaning that he was a typical Wenger signing. Cheap.

Manchester City spent nearly £150m on full back this summer, and Kolasinac is better than them all.

Alexis Sanchez to Everton

Bit of laughable transfer news this morning.

Everton are interested in signing Alexis Sanchez from Arsenal this January for £30m as former Arsenal shareholder Farhad Moshiri looks to splash his cash.

If Sanchez does go to Everton, it will be for huge wages and show that the Chilean is interested in money, not trophies. Hope he enjoys playing in the Championship next season.

 

Have a good week

Keenos

Arsenal show cojones to defeat Swansea

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Thanks Troy.

Since your unprofessional comment over Arsenal lacking the cojones, we have won 4 on the bounce, 3 of which Arsenal have come from behind to take the victory.

When Deeney made his comments, a few disgruntled fans said “a decent manager would print the comments and out use them to motivate the team” insinuating than Wenger and the players would just brush them off, ignore them, be blind to comments that were correct, if said unprofessionally.

Yesterday Arsenal went 1-0 down for the 3rd game in a row.

It was a carbon copy of the previous 2 games. Dominate the early stages, go 1-behind, lucky to not be 2-behind at half time. Come out 2nd half, dominate once more and win.

Coming from behind like that shows character. Shows cojones.

Obviously I would rather be 3-0 up at half time and cruising, but football is not always that easy.

Both Chelsea, Man U and Man City scrapped to 1 goal victories against small teams this weekend.

Yesterday’s victory (and my math might be wrong) makes it:

9 wins in 10 games
14 homes win in a row
Not lost at home in the league since January

For a few years, people have moaned about our home fans. About how their negativity go’s through to the players and the home fans are why we do not win anything.

The statistics this year show that is a load of old rubbish.

Someone responded to my comment on the She Wore Facebook page with “where’s the trophy” when I put those statistics up.

May 2017. The FA Cup. There’s your trophy.

But I am sure you will say it isn’t the trophy you want, you probably now moan about the lack of Champions League football, despite spending 10 years moaning that being in the Champions League was pointless if you are not winning trophies.

So onwards to Belgrade at home where we will be looking secure qualification for the knock out stages of the Europa League and keep that home winning run going. Then on to the tricky period of Man City away and Spurs at home.

A final thought. The press continue to portray Arsenal as awful and Spurs as brilliant. There is one point between the clubs.

A final, final point.

Since Troy Deeney’s comments about lack cojones, Watford are P 2 L 2. Yesterday Troy showed his true self.

Refusing to give the ball back after Stoke put it out so one of their players could get treatment, and then violently attacking Joe Allen, who is about a foot shorter.

We all know Troy is a bully boy who once stamped on a defenceless students head whilst he was laying in the ground.

He got a yellow for the incident, but it will surely be upgraded to a red and a 3 game suspension.

Troy showed his true self, a violent thug who acts cowardly. He certainly is not rehabilitated.

I notice he hasn’t been on TV recently calling his team mates out for not showing cojones.

Have a good Sunday. I am having lamb shank.

Keenos

Spurs fail to sell 50% of tickets for match against London rivals

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Just over a month ago, I wrote a blog about how the League Cup highlighted that Spurs were still, and always will be, in Arsenal’s shadow.

It was very basic stuff, about attendances. That Spurs basically did not have the high attendances to justify such a big stadium. That whilst they might get 90,000 turn up for a big game, they have had attendances as low as 20,000 in recent year for smaller games.

The point I was making was that when it came to lesser games, either Premier League, League Cup, or European, Spurs will probably be best off closing their upper tier.

Against Barnsley, just 23,826 turned up to watch at Wembley, highlighting that Spurs do not have the fan base to sell tickets for minor games.

The replies from Spurs fans were predictably laughable.

We then come to this week. A game against West Ham. It is half term. Surely no excuses to sell out, or near sell out?

Or so you would think.

Interestingly, Spurs have failed to release attendance figures for their home time against West Ham, but reports are they are around the 36,000 mark.

Now we all remember the criticism Arsenal drew when “just” 44,064 turned up for this seasons League Cup 3rd round tie with Doncaster Rovers:

So what has been the media response to Spurs having nearly 10,000 fans turn up against another West Ham side?

In reality 36,000 for a midweek third-tier domestic cup competition is pretty sensational going.

The low attendance and the positivity from the media once more shows that Spurs are still in the shadow of Arsenal. That the bar of achievement is a lot lower for them than Arsenal. The level of expectations a lot lower for Spurs than Arsenal.

Spurs, the joke of a club who think progression is a trophy and release DVDs celebrating losing in Europe. They will talk about that night in Madrid for decades to come.

https://twitter.com/ShaneBurns_/status/923268979271061504

Small silly club.

Keenos