Tag Archives: Tottenham

Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Jack Wilshere, Arsenal’s Defensive Crisis & More

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So a week or so without blogging has done me well. I feel refreshed, I have learnt some new words, and I have actually got some proper work done. But I am back, and I thought a good way to start off would be a recap of stuff that I would have blogged on in the last few weeks…

Mesut Ozil & Alexis Sanchez

Speculation is increasing that both will leave on a free in the summer. I would have dumped them both last summer and got in some replacements. My opinion is the same for January. Take what we can, and get in some replacements (Thomas Lemar and Julian Draxler still getting talked about).

Harry Winks

Who? Was what I asked when he got called up for England.

It turns out he plays for Spurs, and has started 4 Premier League games in his career. Good job devaluing the shirt Gareth. Still baffles me as to how Theo Walcott fails to make the England squad whilst the links of Jesse Lingard and this Winks fella get in.

THAT Spurs Book

White Hart Lane: The Spurs Glory Years 1899-2017

  • 2 League titles
  • 8 FA Cups

Arsene Wenger: We Want You to Stay 1996-2017

  • 3 League titles
  • 7 FA Cups

Spurs really are a deluded bunch.

“Super Clubs”

A lot has been written in recent years about Super Clubs. The likes of Manchester United, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern Munich. A lot of what has been written is positive, blue prints on how they got to where they are, and how others should attain to get there.

Whilst the likes of the 4 previously mentioned sides, alongside the likes of Juventus. Inter and AC Milan are at the top of the footballing hierarchy, the life of a football club is cyclical, and just because you eat from the top table, does not mean you will not have your struggles.

Man U, for example, have not been the same since Sir Alex Ferguson left. The other British Super Club, Liverpool, are 26 years without a title.

Bayern Munich, after years of everyone saying this is how you run a club seem to be intent in ripping themselves apart through internal politics. Whilst the famed Barcelona La Masia academy seems to be no longer producing world superstars.

Real Madrid sit 7 points off top and have won just 2 league titles in 10 years.

The two Milan clubs have also struggled since Juventus returned from the match fixing scandal.

These are all great clubs. They have the history, the success, the European trophies. Yet they are like every other club, they have good periods and bad periods.

Arsenal are not at that top table. We have never been, and whilst we wish we were at the top, the fact is we are the level below.

Every clubs have their troubles, no matter if they are a super club, the one we should all dream to become, the one which we all try and copy. No one is immune from a poor period, a period of turmoil.

Sean Dyche for Arsenal

So Ian Wright said Sean Dyche could be the next Arsenal manager. Whilst I agree that Arsenal legends should not be abused for their view, they are not free from criticism. And this view point is just a little bit silly from Ian Wright.

I have seen some fans backing him. “Anyone but that c**T Wenger” I saw one Facebook post from an admin of a page with 25,000 people. This is just stupidity.

The majority of us believe that Arsene Wenger’s time is over, but it should not be anyone but Wenger. This is just stupid.

When Wenger does go, we need to get an elite manager. A proven winner. Do not let your agenda lead you down a path of anyone but Wenger.

Jack Wilshere

After two poor England performances, where the side lacked creativity, plenty are calling for Jack Wilshere to be rushed back into the first team.

We all know that Wilshere is England’s best central midfielder, and if fit, starts. But let’s not rush him.

I would not play him in any international friendly until the World Cup preparation starts at the end of the season. Concentrate on letting him get fit, and stay fit. The 2 weeks off every few weeks will do him the world of good. Then at the World Cup, he will (hopefully) be fit and ready to go.

What is the point in playing him in meaningless friendlies?

Defensive Crisis

So Shkodran Mustafi pulled up with what looked like a hamstring problem for Germany against Azerbaijan. It has also been reported as a thigh strain.

With Laurent Koscielny plagued once more by his troublesome achilles, it is being reported that Arsenal face a defensive crisis ahead of the game against Watford.

The usual moaners are complaining that we did not buy a centre back in the summer.

If the above two are out, it still leaves us with Rob Holding, Per Mertesacker and Nacho Monreal as the back 3. That is the same back 3 that won us the FA Cup Final. And we still have Calum Chambers in reserve.

I would not be surprised if Koscielny is fit to start on Saturday. His withdrawal from the French squad is more of a precaution.

But if he is out, we are certainly not in a defensive crisis.

The International Break

Mixed results for Arsenal players, as Mohamed Elneny, Alex Iwobi, Olivier Giroud, Nacho Monreal and Alexandre Lacazette helped their countries qualify.

Meanwhile Aaron Ramsey Wales and Sead Kolasinac’s Serbia just missed out on a play off.

I did smile when I read the moody dog shagger Alexis Sanchez will not be at the World Cup. Call me petty, but whilst he (and Mesut Ozil) want out of Arsenal, I want as little success for the pair as possible – unless it is in an Arsenal shirt.

Keenos

Stop getting easily offended at the football

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Football is a release for many. We all have a hard working week. Whether it be in the office, on site or down the mines, but we live for the weekend, for Saturday 3pm (or whatever time the kick off is). We work hard, and the majority of what we earn go’s on tickets, trains, booze and food for the football.

It used to be the working mans sport. A chance to release the stresses of the week. Whether it be screaming for your team till your throat go’s hoarse, drinking till you can not remember, or any countless other extra curriculum activities that happen on game day.

Sadly, football has been on a downward spiral for many years now. And recent actions by the PC brigade seems to be hammering the nail in the coffin.

Chelsea Chant

So Chelsea use the word Yid in their chants. As do Arsenal. As do Spurs. As do West Ham. Kick It Out (always trying to make themselves relevant) reacted to it. Complained. Demanded people who use the word Yid in a song get a life ban. They need to fuck off.

I remember 15 odd years ago, we sang a song about Sol Campbell (to the tune of Hey Baby by Dj Otzi):

Heyyy, Hey Yiddo,

You. Scum.

I wanna knoooow,

Where your captains gone,

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

(repeat)

The next game, in Arsenal’s programme, the club politely asked us to stop singing the song as it was deemed racist. They assumed we were calling Jewish people scum. We were not, we were calling Spurs fans scum. If you have been living under a rock for decades, Spurs fans nickname themselves the Yids.

Arsenal fans were not using the Jewish definition for Yid, but the Tottenham definition.

Recently Chelsea have been condemned for singing an alleged anti-semitic Alvaro Morata song :

Alvaro, oh, Alvaro, oh.

He came from Real Madrid,

he hates the fucking Yids

Like Arsenal’s song about Sol Campbell, Chelsea are not saying Morata hates Jews, but that he hates Spurs fans.

Now there are some very naughty songs out there, about Adolf Hitler, gas chambers and more, and these are in poor taste, and are anti-semitic. But the anti-Spurs songs are degrading to Spurs supporters, not Jewish people.

Too often this subject has been spoken about. Nothing will change. What annoys me is the easily offended snowflakes. They do not go football. They do not care for football. They hate football fans. The type who look at you like you are scum when they are on the way to a museum. Those that say English football fans shame the country.

The problem is too many of these sort of folk work in the media, and like to have their say about things. The type of people who called up Ofcom to complain about the Russell Brand, Jonathan Ross, Andrew Sachs voicemails without ever having heard it.

Many of those who complained over the Chelsea song probably did not watch the game live. They did not watch Match of the Day. They have not even heard the song. They probably do not even know who Alvaro is.

Leave our game alone.

Romelu Lukaku Chants

In very much the same way, Manchester United fans have been condemned for singing a racist song about Romelu Lukaku:

Romelu Lukaku,

He’s our Belgian scoring genius,

With a 24 inch penis,

Scoring all the goals,

Bellend to his toes

Our friends at the very easily offended anti-discriminatory group Kick It Out called the chant “offensive” and have raised it with the FA and Manchester United.

“Kick It Out is aware of footage of alleged racist chanting by supporters of Manchester United that emerged on Wednesday evening, ” a spokesman told The Times.

It clearly is not offensive. They are just saying he has a massive knob. Now whether this is because of the positive stereotype that black man have massive penis’s, or maybe a fan has actually seen him in the shower, it is just not offensive.

Arsenal used to sing a song about Emmanuel Petit:

His blonde

His quick

His names a porno flick

Emmanuelle, Emmanuelle

Would this be considered offensive? After all, we were making a chant about his hair colour. And the majority of blonde people are white. I would imagine Kick It Out are the type of group that deny racism towards white people exists. Some bollocks about oppression and the oppressee’s can not become the oppressors. Some mumbo jumbo invented by some idiot who got a degree in Sociology from SOAS.

Of course, the Petit song is not offensive, and neither is the Lukaku song.

Stop finding a reason to be offended by everything.

Women’s Football

The ladies game has been through hell in recent weeks. Hell of their own making. Players and the FA are to blame over a cover up where it seems a women was dropped, could not handle being called lazy, claimed racism, accepted a pay out to shut up, and then the cover up was exposed leading to the England manager being sacked.

Now I am not going to go into the in’s and out’s of what has happened, as there is a lot to come out. There will be court cases with all parties taking each other to court. Whether it be for discrimination, unfair dismissal or lose of earnings.

One side comment, Lianne Sanderson is clearly of the easily offended nature. This is a woman who refused to play for a black lesbian in Hope Powell, claiming unfair treatment. It seems she is making similar noises about her time under Mark Sampson. Maybe it is her who has the chip on the shoulder. The issues. She needs to look at herself, rather than constantly blame others.

It seems the women’s national side is full of cliques. Some supported the manager, some threw accusations at him and were widely disliked by some in the squad. Imagine tweeting that former-team mates celebrating is ‘divisive’, whilst you are sitting on your phone continually making divisive comments.

I feel ultimately, a few people have realised there is a few quid to be made and, with their careers coming to an end, are looking for an extra pay out, whilst also launching themselves into the media spotlight for a media career.

CBBC and I ‘m a Celeb beckons for some of these.

Anyway, I have digressed.

The FA covered up a banner which stated “Super White Army” that hung from the stand of Tranmere Rovers Prenton Park.

The banner is a nod to Tranmere’s nickname. A Tranmere Rovers Supporters’ Club said it did not know why it was covered, adding it was “not remotely racist” and referred to their team’s shirts.

It was taken down after England player Lucy Bronze tweeted a picture of her team mates training with the stand that contains the banner in the background.

This tweet drew criticism from the PC brigade who claimed the banner was offensive.

Arsenal call themselves Red Army. Is this offensive to Red Indians, ginger people or sunburnt Brits? Plymouth call themselves the Green Army. Everton, Chelsea and others the Blue Army. These are not offensive terms.

What next? Homebase can no longer sell white paint? Screwfix fix stop selling white spirit? Great White Sharks have to get renamed Great Sharks?

It is just a perfect example of what I am talking about. People who probably do not even care about football getting offended about something that is not offended.

Why can’t they just stick to having a go at the Conservative Party, abusing Theresa May, moaning about Brexit and taking in asylum seekers? Just leave our game alone.

The problem is the more the PC brigade do, the more the game dies a little bit. The more atmosphere is killed.

We already can not drink in the stands. Swearing is unacceptable. And we are requested to grass fellow fans up by texting the club if you feel the remote bit offended. How long till football stadiums have safe spaces? Many already have prayer rooms.

I look at cricket. I went to Australia in 2010 for the Ashes. It was brilliant. Boxing is a top crack. The atmosphere at the darts is electric. Rugby is full of posh twats. Even cricket now has a better atmosphere than football – no longer do old folk sit around and politely applaud. Snooker has an incredible atmosphere in its own special way. Even ice hockey now, a few Arsenal lads I know have started going to Gillingham, Lea Valley or Milton Keynes.

I always laugh when I am watching boxing, at 11pm, and someone swears and the commentator apologies’ if you heard foul language. It’s 11pm and its two people fighting FFS. No one is going to be offended.

If football keeps going down this root, its key selling point, the passion and atmosphere, will be no more.

I travel up and down the country and very few stadiums have hostile, vibrant atmospheres. Everyone now sits on their hands and claps politely.

Being in the crowd is no longer as enjoyable. And the more this continues, the less people will go. They will drift to other sports where the atmosphere, the release is still there, and football l will die.

Remember, without fans, football is nothing.

Football has had its troubles in the past, and every now and again these rear their ugly head. But let’s not go too far the other way and make the game completely sanitised. It will kill the game.

The likes of Kick It Out and the Society Of Black Lawyers need to take a step back a little bit. Understand their role in society. And realise that you should not be offended by everything.

We are all consenting adults. Stop trying to sanitise our once-great game.

Keenos

League Cup highlights Spurs are still in Arsenal’s shadow

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I remember a few years ago writing a blog about attendances at Arsenal and Spurs. It was basically questioning why Spurs are building such a big stadium.

The blog was about Spurs struggling to fill White Hart Lane for certain games:

The point I was making in the blog was that if Spurs struggle to sell out for every game now, there were only be more empty seats in a bigger stadium.

I then returned to Arsenal. Even for League Cup games at Highbury, we sold out. And since the move to the Emirates, Arsenal’s lowest attendance (before the Doncaster game) is 46,539, against Shrewsbury Town in the League Cup third round way back on the 20th September 2011.

The Doncaster attendance was 44,064. 

So Arsenal get near enough twice as many fans turn up for small games than Spurs, but Spurs are building a stadium bigger than Arsenal? It is all just very odd.

When I wrote the original blog, many Spurs fans pointed out that Arsenal’s Stadium is bigger than White Hart Lane. That Spurs can not get 46,539 into their current stadium so it was an unfair comparison.

This argument was stupid, because whilst I would not expect Spurs to have more fans in the ground than their capacity, the point is they are not filling their current stadium.

The Spurs argument was that if they build a bigger stadium, more fans will turn up for the smaller games. If you build it, they will come.

This completely missed the point that every year over the last half a decade, there have been games where 10,000 tickets have gone unsold. They have been advertised at train stations and in the Evening Standard, yet still tickets were unsold.

A bigger stadium would not magically create more fans. They had an opportunity to take one of the 10,000 unsold tickets, and chose not too. A bigger stadium would just leave more seats empty.

In 2012, 25,030 turned up to watch Spurs play Lazio in the Europa League. That is around 10,000 tickets unsold (maybe a little less with the reduced capacity). If Spurs played in a 60,000 seater stadium, the attendance would still be 25,030, meaning that their would be 34,970 unsold seats.

But if the stadium was bigger, more would turn up the window lickers kept shouting at me.

Well on Tuesday Spurs were playing a League Cup game at Wembley. A 90,000 seater stadium. It was against Barnsley. 23,826 people turned up to watch. That is 61,686 less than what turned up to watch Spurs play Bayer Leverkuson last year in the Champions League.

So they built it, but they did not come.

In comparison, Arsenal’s attendance yesterday for the game against Doncaster was 44,064. Nearly twice as many Arsenal fans turned up for a game in the same competition as Spurs.

Of course, Spurs fans will have their excuses. Like it being at Wembley instead of Tottenham – even though hardly any of their fans actually live in Haringey.

They will point to it being the League Cup, yet Arsenal had more turn up, and are they then saying they only want to go to the big games?

The fact is, their new stadium is a vanity project. They are hoping that by building a bigger stadium ,it will elevate them to a top team, a more popular team, and their fan base will grow.

In reality, you only grow as a club, become more popular, with success. And no matter how big Spurs build their stadium, it will not hide the fact that they have won just a single League Cup in 18 years. No FA Cup in 26 years. No league title in 56 years.

It will be hilarious when Spurs play in their new stadium, whether it be next season or the year after. Their League Cup 3rd round tie against a lower league side will just be a case of déjà vu.

It will not see them sell out. It will not even see them get above 45,000. As history has shown, for these smaller games, Spurs only have around 25,000 who actually want to go.

Spurs will always be in Arsenal’s shadow, no matter how big they build their stadium.

A big new stadium does not make you a big club.

Keenos