Tag Archives: She Wore

Watford’s a shit hole, I wanna go home

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Cq376bBWEAAXpZCThere are many challengers. Hull, Burnley, Everton, QPR, for the worst away day in the Premier League but after this weekends game, we have a clear winner. Watford Away. Vicarage Road.

Lets set the scene.

Just a 20 minute train journey from Euston. It is like an away day, but not really an away day.

The stadium is a long old walk from the station, with a half way stop at the Moon Under Water. A pub that moonlights as a sauna. Usually a Weatherspoon’s has beer stained carpets. The Moon Under Water has sweat stained.

You then get to the stadium, and what they have done after recent refurbishment is shocking.

For away fans, there is ONE entrance. Un. Uno. Um. Eins. Unus. Odin. Jeden. 1.

So you have a few thousand away fans trying to get through a single door. and that is what the entrance is. A single door like you are entering a shop. It is only when you go through the door you reach the turnstiles. Four of them.

Now what idiot designed this? Usually turnstiles are on the outside. Giving you 4 ways to get in. At Vicarage Road, we had to go through this sodding door, one by one, and then have the 4 turnstiles. It was pointless.

I have never queued to get in a game before. But a half hour queue to get into Watford meant I missed the first 10 minutes. Despite getting to the stadium at 14:40. Disgraceful organisation.

Then you have the Watford fans. They think they are Borussia Dortmund. But they are not, they are not even Crystal Palace.

Sat silently throughout the 1st half. Plenty of empty seats despite the stadium being tiny. Zero atmosphere. Except for a bumble bee hitting a drum.

What crap club hires a bumble bee to his a drum for 90 minutes? Modern football at its finest.

Keep an eye on the bumble bee though. He is an embarrassment. Diving to the ground feigning injury whenever a player is down injured. Mocking players like Nacho Monreal who were actually injured. The bumble bee probably thinks its banter. Thinks it is hilarious. But he isn’s. He is just a sad man (or woman) in a bumble bee outfit hitting a drum.

At half time, there was no beer. This does my head in and is coming to more and more grounds. No beer. Thanks guys.

Some point in the second half the Watford fans woke up. For all of 20 seconds. We have all seen the cringey Crystal Palace Ultras. Watford have tried to mimic this. But it is even worse. About 30 blocks in a single block with flags who made noise for 20 seconds lead by their bumble bee hero.

An odd bunch of fans who cheered and mocked when Jack Wilshere was rightly booked. But threw their toys out of the pram whenever a decision went against them, decisions which the referee got completely right.

Watching their fans running along the side lines to have a go at the linesman was hilarious. Especially the fat bird in a Watford shirt 2 sizes too small with her arm in a sling.

I had to laugh when she stuck 2 fingers up at The Arsenal fans when Watford got 1 back. It was 3-1. Well done love.

Then is comes to the final whistle. 6 exits. So we have 6 exits and one entrance. Kind of highlights that Vicarage Road is a place built to leave, not to enter. Then we have the half hour walk home. Via the sweaty Weatherspoon’s.

The away day only saved by The Flag near Watford Junction Station.

I would not be too upset when Watford go down this season.

Keenos

Jack Wilshere – Sold; Not Loaned

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132Last night some news started to break that caused many Arsenal fans to lose it.

Arsenal are rumoured to be looking to loan out Jack Wilshere.There was Twitter wide condemnation of this news.

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And I completely agree. Jack Wilshere should not be loaned out. He should be sold.

Jack Wilshere made his Arsenal debut at 16, and became Arsenal’s youngest ever league debutant at 16 years, 256 days. In 2011 he had a performance against Barcelona that had the world purring. When Cesc Fabregas left, we shrugged our shoulders as we had Jack Wilshere.

And Arsenal lad with the pride and passion of a local boy, but the technical ability of a La Masia graduate. It was a matter of when, rather than if, he would become Arsenal captain.

In football however things rarely progress how is expected. And with Jack Wilshere that is certainly the case.

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That game against Barcelona in 2011, when Wilshere was barely 19, is still the zenith of his career. It was over 5 years ago.

2010/11 was Wilshere’s breakthrough year. He went from graduate talent and Bolton loanee to the future of Arsenal. The future of England. He played 35 of the 38 Premier League games, a total of 2652 league minutes.

England debut. PFA Young Player of the Year. PFA Team of the Year. Arsenal Player of the Season. All in the space of 10 months.

And then it all started to unravel.

During the summer leading into the 2011–12 season, Wilshere suffered a stress fracture ankle injury during an Emirates Cup pre-season friendly against New York Red Bulls.

The provisional expectation was it would not keep him out too long. He did not play a game all season.

In fact, in total, this injury kept Wilshere out for 17 months – 524 days. It was going to be a sign of things to come.

Ankle injuries, a body which breaks down, and a body which takes a long time to recover.

Off field behaviour aside, and there have been many a distasteful incident when injured, Jack Wilshere has simply not played enough football for Arsenal to justify wearing that shirt.

Between 2011 and today, he has completed 4,326 minutes of Premier League football from a possible 17,370. Last season is was just 141 minutes.

Back in the day we used to mock Spurs for Darren Anderton. Liverpool for Jamie Redknapp. Two brilliantly talented players who spent more time on the beaches of the world than the football pitch.

In response to our mocking, they used to reply by pointing out the talent the players had. That when they do finally get fit they would be England’s two best players. But neither ever really got fit. Never fulfilled their talent.

In Jack Wilshere we have a player of similar ilk.

A lot of fans gave Arsene Wenger dogs abuse for sticking with Abou Diaby. And rightly so.

But it seems those fans who wanted Diaby out, said we should have got rid of him, are then supporting Jack Wilshere.

If Wenger game Diaby too many chances because he is French, are you not giving Wilshere too many chances because he is English?

In Diaby’s last 6 years at Arsenal, he played 4,105 minutes. Just 200 minutes short of what Jack has done in the last 6 years. Neither is acceptable.

It is hard to see where Wilshere fits in when everyone is fit.

He has never really developed as the defensive midfielder Roy Hodgson hoped he would become.

Granit Xhaka – who incredibly is younger than Wilshere – put in a performance against Watford at a level we have never seen Jack play for over half a decade. He is the player Wilshere could have become.

Moving forward, he has Aaron Ramsey and Santi Cazorla ahead of him in the pecking order to play central midfield behind Mesut Ozil.

That leaves Wilshere on the bench. And you would rather see Cazorla (or Ramsey) come on ahead of him when we need to change a game. And Elneny come on ahead when we need to see out a game.

In fact, when everyone is fit (and I know it’s a big, unrealistic ask), would Jack Wilshere even make the bench? Ospina, Gibbs, Per, Elneny, Cazorla, Perez, Welbeck.

He potentially wouldn’t.

So here we have a player who can not be relied upon. His body can not be trusted. We as fans grimace every time he goes down, fearing the worst. Will he come back up?

He gets substituted after taking a knock. We wonder if we will see him again. His reliability it not better than Diaby. A player we all said Wenger should have got rid of at 24. And here is Jack Wilshere, now 24 himself.

Maybe a loan deal will actually be good for him.

Wilshere needs to prove that he can play a full season. Arsenal can not give him that opportunity. As things stand, he doesn’t make our first XI. So he does not get the chance to prove his fitness, to fulfil his undoubted talent, to force his way in.

A loan deal to a Premier League club would give him the chance to do that. But then again, based on the last 5 years, it is only a matter of time until he breaks down again.

Jack Wilshere is a talent. But a talent who can not be relied upon to play.

Keenos

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Arsenal set for busy end to transfer window

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The transfer window will slam shut on Wednesday at 11.30pm. Less than 60 hours to go. And in that 60 hours, Arsenal still have a lot of work to do.

Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez

The deals are all but done for Shkodran Mustafi and Lucas Perez. Fees agreed, contracts signed, medicals reportedly completed. All we are waiting for his the FA to reopen Tuesday morning so that we can send across the official paperwork, and the deal is then signed, sealed and completed.

I would imagine as I am writing this, both players are at London Colney and/or the stadium getting their promo photos done. Arsenal might even announce both deals today before they have been full ratified by the FA.

Mustafi has been called up for Germany’s friendly game against Finland on 31 August 2016 and the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification game against Norway on 4 September 2016. Perez unsurprisingly not selected for Spain.

Both Mustafi and Perez will be able to use the international break in different ways to gain full match sharpness and be ready for the home game against Southampton on September 10th.

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Defenders Loaned Out

The exit door could be very busy at London Colney over the next 60 hours with numerous players slated to be loaned out.

Arsenal are ready to allow Mathieu Debuchy to depart the club. Most likely on a season-long loan. A reported calf injury could hamper the deal, but a club will likely take a gamble and get the French international in. His destination likely to be somewhere in Turkey, or the mid-lower reaches of Italy’s Serie A.Mathieu+Debuchy+Calum+Chambers+Manchester+a7sYRe78Nyrl

Also exiting will be Calum Chambers. Since his breakthrough 2 seasons ago, he has struggled to nail a place in the team, mainly down to lack of playing time. He needs to go somewhere in the Premier League and play a season at centreback. We will want him to go somewhere where he will be guaranteed to play every game. Hull and Middlesbrough seem like the front runners.

Letting both go would leave Arsenal with just one recognised right back whilst Carl Jenkinson recovers from his injury, but Mustafi has played at right back before for both club and country. I would also imagine a deal for Chambers would involve a recall clause.

Major Exit?

Could we see Theo Walcott or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain leave the club over the next few days?

Serge Gnabry

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The next out of the door could be Serge Gnabry. Top scorer for Germany at the Olympics, he was in impressive form. But is there a place for him at Arsenal?

With Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Alex Iwobi & new boy Lucas Perez ahead of him, he will struggle for game time.

One thing Arsenal have to take into account is his contract. It expires at the end of this season. the club would probably prefer a loan deal for the barley-21 German star, but that would open the risk of losing him for nothing at the end of the season if we do not tie him down to a new contract.

Arsenal might be willing to cut their losses with Gnabry and sell for a cut price deal.

He will end up in Germany, whether on loan or a permanent deal.

David Ospina

I began writing this thinking we might see David Ospina make the surprise move to Barcelona to provide competition for Marc-André ter Stegen, replacing Claudio Bravo. But they have already secured Jasper Cillessen. That door is now closed, but it would not surprise me if someone came in for a late bid for the Colombian, with the offer of first team football.

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Minor Loan Deals

The likes of Yaya Sanogo, Chuba Akpom and Jeff Reine-Adelaide could well see themselves also exit the club in loan deals.

With the changes to the loan system coming into place, we can not think that we will keep Akpom and The Jeff to play against Nottingham Forest before loaning them out. A decision will have to be made on them in the coming days.

As for Sanogo, any loan deal will be an option, or we might just put him down and turn him into glue.

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Late Madness

It has been the slogan of our summer after a Twitter ITK tweeted that Arsenal were going to do a madness.

So far the predictions that we would smash our transfer record has not happened, but you feel that if all the domino’s fall into place, we could see one more final transfer on the last day of the season.

Could Arsenal take advantage of Daniel Sturridge’s unhappiness under Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool? Or a move for long term linked Antoine Griezmann or Julian Draxler? Or maybe a big money move for James Rodgriguez or Isco? Or will Dimitri Payet become Arsene Wengers man?

We have the money there, we could still make a late move for someone.

Keenos

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