Spurs sack manager. Spurs bring in “serial winner”. Spurs fans get all excited. Serial winner wins nothing. Spurs sack manager.
The appointment of Antonio Conte has a bit of deja vu about it.
It was not too long ago that their fans were celebrating bring in serial winner Jose Mourinho. Claiming that he would turn them from trophyless laughing stock to a winning team. We all know what happened.
Conte is actually not too dissimilar to Mourinho.
He goes into teams, spends a lot of money, brings in a functional brand of football, wins trophies, fills out with players and then leaves.
Like Mourinho, Spurs will be a different challenge for Conte than his previous clubs.
He is not coming into to talented but underperforming squad. Not will Tottenham hand him hundreds of millions to spend – despite rumours of him getting a “£150m January transfer kitty”.
Changing manager does not change Spurs’ precarious financial situation. Having to finance a £1bn stadium in the post-Covid19 era is going to be tough.
Finances were the reason Conte did not take the job in the summer.
He wanted to much money. And wanted to spend too much money.
Daniel Levy has relented and agreed to pay Conte £15m a year. But they still do not have a pot to piss in.
Their biggest mistake last summer was not selling Harry Kane.
That decision has cost them over £100m and left them with an unhappy striker.
Conte might get a tune out of him for the rest of the season; but will he push once more for a move next summer? Or is he now mentally shot that he has little interest in football? Maybe early retirement and life on a Barbadian golf course is in his near future.
So Spurs fans are all getting excited. But ultimately we will all know how it ends.
Conte will win nothing. Will leave in 18 months. And Tottenham fans will be talking up their new manager like he will return the club to greatness.
The BBC have published an article on “how to be a sustainable football fan”.
What it basically does is blame match going fans for the ever increasing carbon footprint of football; and more specifically the Premier League.
The first line lays out the intentions Emlyn Begley, the author of the hit piece. It is to fan shame.
“You drive to the game, have a beef burger, hand over your ticket, watch the match and give the third kit you bought a rare outing.”
In blaming the fans, Begley is moving the blame away from the authorities and the TV companies. All of whom act without regard for match going fans or the environment.
For all of Sky’s “Game Zero” marketing, the decisions by them, BT Sport, the BBC and other broadcasters often force fans to “drive to the game”.
Given the choice, most fans will almost always take public transport to games; especially those away. This usually results in train journeys – the most environmentally way to travel long distances.
Yet TV companies reschedule games with no regard to how fans will trace to them. Often putting games at times of the day when they know match going fans will struggle to get a train home.
This is what forces more fans to drive to games. More fans on the road, in cars.
It is also the clubs, alongside kit manufacturers, that bring out 3 kits a season for every club. And multiple more training kits.
This is a perfect example of putting profit before the environment.
The BBC blame the end consumer, but why not focus their attentions on the clubs and the likes of Nike, Adidas, etc.
What is the carbon footprint or manufacturing and shipping 3 kits a year? Millions more made in China, India, etc to satisfy demand.
Premier League clubs are attempting to export the game throughout the globe.
Instead of encouraging fans from around the world to support their local team, which would result in a lesser carbon footprint, they attempt to draw them into supporting a team many thousands of miles away.
This leads to some fans having to take long haul flights to see the club they support; rather than maybe just walking down the road to watch their home town team.
Likewise the clubs then go on these money spinning world wide pre-season friendlies.
In recent years Arsenal have been to Australia, China, Singapore and America to play fellow Premier League clubs.
What is the environmental impact of these pre-season tours in comparison to playing Barnet, QPR, Dagenham & Redbridge and Leyton Orient? Once again it comes down to money.
And then we have the owners themselves. Flying around in their private jets from whatever tax haven they live in to watch a game.
The BBC calling out fans for “driving to a game” whilst their owners fly, or park their multi-million pound yacht at Chelsea Harbour.
And then hey also use their private plans to bring back their pampered stars from Brazil, Argentina, or wherever they have gone to represent their national team.
Is getting back into England half a day earlier really more important than helping save the environment?
We tweeted Emlyn our concerns over the article and it resulted him in blocking us.
Clearly he / him was more interested in attacking match going fans rather than highlighting what football clubs, the authorities and the TV companies could do to reduce the carbon footprint of football.
In the ashes of the Super League debacle, once again a journalist has shown that they do not care about match going fans. They only care about their paymasters and not upsetting them.
Keenos
Arsenal fans…
Not too long to wait until our 2nd set of Arsenal Beer Mats are available on the site pic.twitter.com/FC2zYGnjke
King Power Stadium, Filbert Way, Leicester LE2 7FL
Saturday, 30th October 2021. Kick-off time: 12.30pm
(4-4-1-1) Aaron Ramsdale; Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel Magalhães, Nuno Tavares; Bukayo Saka, Thomas Partey, Albert Sambi Lokonga, Emile Smith-Rowe; Alexandre Lacazette; Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Substitutes: Bernd Leno, Martin Ødegaard, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Rob Holding, Cédric Soares, Nicolas Pépé, Mohamed Elneny, Sead Kolašinac, Gabriel Martinelli.
Scorers: Gabriel (5 mins), Emile Smith-Rowe (18 mins)
Arsenal Possession Percentage: 38%
Referee: Michael Oliver
Assistant Referees: Simon Bennett, Dan Robathan
Fourth Official: Robert Jones
VAR Team at Stockley Park: VAR Jarred Gillett; AVAR Sian Massey-Ellis
Attendance: 32,209
We all recognise that today’s match at the King Power Stadium will be a difficult one, hence the change in formation. Again, we have both of our main strikers on show right from the start, so it will be interesting to see if we can punch a hole through the Foxes’ defence, utilising this attack-minded formation, and along with a powerful four-man midfield, it should all make for an interesting Saturday lunchtime clash.
After a moving Remembrance Day ceremony involving both managers laying wreaths in the centre circle on behalf of the fallen of both world wars, we kicked the match off in earnest, showing intent by taking the game to the home side in the early stages. After just five minutes, we scored the opening goal, courtesy of Gabriel. Shortly after a first Arsenal corner was kicked out for a second, Gabriel rose to meet the high delivery to flick his header past Kasper Schmeichel and into the net. This early goal fired our boys up, and both Thomas Partey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang were desperately unlucky in not scoring a second goal for us shortly afterwards. The home side looked a little all at sea, almost nonplussed after our early strike, and they seemed to be having issues in getting themselves together against a very confident Arsenal side. Our confidence paid dividends, when after eighteen minutes, we grabbed a second goal when Alexandre Lacazette looked like he wass going to shoot in the penalty area but the ball ran away from him. Jonny Evans’ clerance was poor and Emile Smith-Rowe was on hand on the edge of the eighteen-yard box to neatly slot the ball into the back of the Foxes’ net. We were completely dominating the match at this point of the game, with every man playing their part and confidently knowing their role within the system. Aaron Ramsdale was called into action after twenty-six minutes, when he dived at the feet of Youri Tielemens to deny the home side a scoring opportunity; and again a minute or so later, he pushed a dificult shot from Kelechi Iheanacho past the right-hand post to show everyone what a fine goalkeeper this young man truly is. Leicester City’s game plan appears to be one-dimensional, in as much that they are attacking us straight down the middle of the pitch, a move which our defenders are finding it a comfortable process in dealing with this particular simple tactic. The match started to level out, and although both sides had their chances, it mostly came to nothing in the midfield areas. Incredibly, three minutes from the break, a James Maddison free-kick was superbly saved by Aaron Ramsdale, and although Jonny Evans followed in, Thomas Partey managed to kick the ball away to save the day. Incredible drama. The two minutes injury time brought no more action, and so we went into half-time deservedly two goals ahead.
The home side kicked off the second half, and suddenly the match became more intense and quick with both teams challenging with gusto and vigour. Ben White and Nuno Tavares at the back were excellent in their positioning and tackling, and it was their quick thinking on several occasions that prevented the Foxes from scoring, as the home side started to assert themselves in the first quarter of an hour of the second half. Alexandre Lacazette was replaced by Martin Ødegaard after fifty-seven minutes, but the substitution was not enough to stop the home side from increasing the pressure on our goal; Aaron Ramsdale was abolutely immense today, throwing his body in front of each and every shot from the Leicester City forwards. A sterling performance by the young man between the sticks. Time after time our defence was placed under intense pressure at the mid-way point of the match, and every time they stood up to be counted in order to deny the home side the oxygen of a goal. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang nearly scored a valuable third goal when Kasper Schmeichel saved from him from close range, and shortly afterwards Bukayo Saka was also very unlucky not to score when his mid-range shot went skywards. The match started to get rather scrappy now, with one or two unsavoury incidents here and there, which saw free-kicks being given liberally by referee Michael Oliver, followed by entries in his book with the yellow card being shown on a couple of occasions. After Martin Ødegaard went to ground following a bad tackle, Bukayo Saka was replaced by Nicolas Pépé with just six minutes of the match remaining. The match started to lose some of its previous fire and fury now, and with two minutes of the game remaining, Emile Smith-Rowe was replaced by Sead Kolašinac in order to shore up the defence in the dying embers of this battle. In the five minutes’ injury time, our game management was the difference between the two sides, and we kept our heads to take three points back to North London, and now fifth in the Premiership table.
All things being equal, a fabulous performance by all concerned. Aaron Ramsdale was truly magnificent today, a world-class performance from a goalkeeper that will surely grow in stature from now on. Arsenal looked good, played with confidence and are now nine matches undefeated across all competitions; we left the King Power with no injuries and no bookings, add to that the players adapting very well to the 4-4-1-1formation (which oscillated between that and 4-4-2 at different times during the match) then you have a recipe for sucess. Keep going lads, you’re looking good.
Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as this season is going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Our next match: Watford at Vicarage Road on Sunday, 7th November at 2.00pm (Premier League). Be there, if you can. Victoria Concordia Crescit.
Steve
Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 