Tag Archives: She Wore A Yellow Ribbon

SheWore.com hits 2,000,000 views – Thank You

Thank you!

To everyone over the last 3 years who have read the blog. Over the weekend we hit 2,000,000 views. Unbelievable.

When we started the blog 3 years ago, to go alongside the already successful Facebook page, I do not think it would become as popular as it has done.

In the overly saturated world of Arsenal blog’s, there are literally thousands, I do feel a sense of achievement that we have been able to get to 2,000,000 hits within our first year. Especially as we do not resort to click bait articles.

Over 3 years, we have published 658 blogs.

We try and give a reasonable point of view. A sensible view. A balanced view. I would like to think over the years we have done that for you. Highlighting the good and bad of the club, not just one or the other.

Over the years, I have written about what I want to. Random ramblings. Seeing where my fingers and mind take me. Blogs that have been well thought out, researched and planned have not been popular. Others which have been written on the spur of the moment, at 10pm at night, have proved a big hit, and some have even been picked up by the clubs official site.

I never usually bother looking at the statistics of an individual article. I write for me. As an outlet. As something to fill my time. If people read it, brilliant, if people do not, fair enough. It has never been about making money from advertising, or gaining some sort of weird celebrity status. It is all about writing for me.

When we first started, most of our hits came from aggregators like NewsNow and GoonerNews. Nowadays they are from Facebook, Reddit and Twitter.

Also a big thank you to everyone who has ever written an article for the site. Whether it is in a regular basis, a single article, or a contribution to The Arsenal and Me. We are always looking for people contribute. If you ever have anything you want to say, get in contact.

Top 10 most read articles

She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, The Arsenal’s Wembley Song
Five Liverpool Myths Exposed Falcao to Solve Arsenal’s Problems?Patrick Vieira set for Arsenal return Arsenal set to repeat £1 Suarez bid Rule change means Rooney to face ban for Cardiff kick A BIG thank you to BBC Sport from all Arsenal fans Jack Wilshere on his last chance?Francis Coquelin Apology Spend / Net spend of top 7 clubs over last 5 years

Top 5 The Arsenal and Me

The Arsenal and Me – Wayne’s Story
The Arsenal and Me – Peter’s Story
The Arsenal and Me – Mo’s Story (Part II)
The Arsenal and Me – Matthew’s Story
The Arsenal and Me – Ade’s Story

Thank you everyone

She Wore a Yellow Ribbon

Ivan Gazidis – “Who you buy, not how much you spend”

7 Replies

Before I start, let me get a disclaimer out there.

Arsenal need to spend some money, Arsene Wenger needs to buy some players, Ivan Gazidis needs to push Arsene Wenger to ensure Arsenal but the best players to enable us to put up the best challenge we can for the league title.

Now I have got that out the way, time to say a couple of things that might wind a few of you up, will probably need to accusations of me flip-flopping, and will certainly get me a bit of abuse from the trolls.

Both Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger’s recent comments are bang on the money.

Gazidis told ESPN “it’s not just about spending money but about how you spend your money and doing it wisely”, whilst Wenger followed this up with “if we find the right candidates, we will spend the big money.”

Now when most people read these quotes, they sighed in disbelief. In an era with new TV deals and giant match day revenue, Arsenal’s management team are once more talking about not spending money, and only on the right candidates.

It is Arsene Wengers “nobody better available” from last year all over again (although I am actually struggling to find him being quoted as ever saying this?)

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and interpretation of the quotes, but nine is that both are correct in what they say.

Personally, it has never been what you spend, but how you spend it.

Don’t believe me? Look at last season. Two of the stand out players were N’Golo Kante & Dimitri Payet. Only an idiot would not have put either in their team of the year, and both were named in the PFA team of the year.

But they cost around £16million between them (Kante – £5m, Payet £11m – both approx).

Meanwhile, Manchester United spent nearly £50m on Memphis Depay (£25m) & Morgan Schneiderlin (£24m). Manchester City spent £44m on Raheem Sterling & £55m on Kevin De Bruyne – both outperformed by Payet.

Liverpool £29m on Roberto Firminho. Tottenham £22m on Son Heung-min. Payet was superior to these too.

And N’Golo Kante was easily the best defensive midfielder in the league.

Looking back at the 2015/16 PFA team of the year, it cost approximately £54m. That is less that what Manchester City spent on Kevin de Bruyne, or less than what Manchester United could end up paying for Anthony Martial.

Another great example of it not being what you spend is Manchester City.

They have spent well over £100m in recent years on centre backs. And yet the best two that they have signed in recent years were Vincent Kompany (£6m) and Jerome Boateng (£11m). Last summer, they signed Nicolas Otamendi for £31m. Spurs meanwhile signed Toby Alderweireld for just £11m. City spent £40m on Eliaquim Mangala. Arsenal spent £11m on Laurent Koscielny.

City are a perfect example of a side who seem to care more about the price tag of a player rather than his actually ability.

This summer, Borussia Dortmund have spent around £90m. Liverpool just shy of £80m. But the difference in quality is stark:

Dortmund:
Mikel Merino
Ousmane Dembélé
Sebastian Rode
Emre Mor
Raphaël Guerreiro
Mario Götze
André Schürrle

Liverpool:
Joël Matip
Loris Karius
Sadio Mané
Ragnar Klavan
Alex Manninger
Georginio Wijnaldum

If players of the quality of Gonzalo Higuain, Julian Draxler, Riyad Mahrez or Romelu Lukaku are available, but will cost big money, go and buy them. They are the right players. We have shown this with Granit Xhaka. The right player.

Chelsea won the league in 2013/14. They identified two key positions where they needed to make strong signings. Central midfield and upfront. They went and spent £60m on Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas. They were the right players for Chelsea to bring in.

But likewise, if we find the next Riyad Mahrez, the next N’Golo Kante (before we secured Xhaka), the next Dimitri Payet, someone who would improve the team but cost little, we should go for them too, even if it annoys fans that we are buying “another unknown from France.”

Everton signed John Stones for £3m. He is now being speculated at going to Man City or Chelsea for upwards of £40m. Who is to say Rob Holding is not that good?

“Now it is about how well you can identify and develop talent, how strong your club philosophy is, how together you are as a club and what your support services are like in the medical, fitness, analytics and psychology fields.”

That is the most important aspect of what Gazidis told ESPN. It is not all about spending £50m on a player. It is about buying in the right player, and ensuring that the support (coaching?) within the club ensures that the talent fulfils its potential.

Of course, I am not advocating not spending. In my eyes, Arsenal still need a strong centre back to compete with Per Mertesacker, an attacking right winger to displace Theo Walcott. And a striker to offer something different to Olivier Giroud. But I want us to get in the right players, no matter their cost, not just buy a player because he costs a lot.

I do not care what a player costs, as long as he is the right player for the team.

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC

Arsenal Sign Bolton Beckenbauer

3 Replies

https://twitter.com/Northbank1968/status/755442276483076096

So Arsenal have signed 20 year old England youth international centre back from Bolton, and already the world of Arsenal fans is losing it.

On one side, we have those sitting dumbfounded. Arsenal have gone out and signed YET ANOTHER young player. What the hell is going on? Why do we even bother? Arsene Wenger only ruins them anyway.

On the other side, we have signed the Bolton Beckenbauer. The next Tony Adams. The man to play centre back for The Arsenal for the next 15 years.

The reality is, both of you are stupid.

He could be the next Tony Adams. He could also be the next Igor Stepanovs. Or the next Kyle Bartley – the last young centre back we bought from Bolton, now shipped out on loan from Swansea to Leeds.

Who would have thought in 2013, when Everton paid Barnsley £3m for John Stones ,that 3 years later he would be subject to a bidding war for around £50m? Likewise,a year later in 2014, Arsenal bought the equally as talented Calum Chambers for £16million, and he has since struggled to settle.

What I am perhaps trying to say is let’s give Rob Holding the chance. Let’s not hype him before any of us have seen him (let’s be honest, who watched Bolton last season?), but let’s also not write him off as a failure before he has even kicked a ball for the club.

Let’s allow him to develop into the player is destined to be. He could be another Kolo Toure, or could become another Johann Djourou. Allow him to become the best Rob Holding that he can be.

And another thing, let’s not get on his back.

He should not be Arsenal’s only new defensive signing. I still expect a senior centre back to come into the club. But if one does not, that is not Holding’s fault, blame Wenger.

When we signed Yaya Sanogo, the young Frenchman got a lot of unfair grief from many fans. It was not his fault Wenger failed to sign another striker. It was not his fault he was suddenly Arsenal’s second choice. That was down to Wenger. And he was derided every time he started. He was on to a loser before he had even kicked a ball at Arsenal.

This did not sit well. A youngster getting the blame for a managers decision? No. Just wrong.

So do not get on Holding’s back, it will not be his fault if we have to rely on him next season.

Signing youngsters is a hard thing to do. You need to do it. If you do not, you risk missing out on a top player, like Hector Bellerin.

You could wait for another side to sign the youngster, see how he progresses, and then sweep in. But then you end up in a scenario where every top club ignored John Stones & Dele Alli, and now both are worth a lot of money!

It is pretty much 13 years to the day that Arsenal had a young Yaya Toure on trial. Anyone who was at the game against Barnet would agree with how poor he was. No one there would have predicted the world beater that he became.

It is interesting that many who bash Wenger for signing youngsters also bash Wenger for letting Yaya Toure slip. You can not have the best of both worlds.

You take a risk on a kid, some pay off, some don’t. What is important is that you sign senior players to go with them.

There is no point signing Holding and Takuma Asano if we do not also sign a senior centre back and senior striker.

Rob Holding, welcome to Arsenal, and good luck.

Keenos
Follow @KeenosAFC