Tag Archives: Twitter

Would people love Theo Walcott if he had red hair?

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We love you Freddie, cos you’ve got red hair
We love you Freddie, cos you’re everywhere.
We love you Freddie, cos you’re Arsenal through and through.

Nearly 15 years ago today (15 years + 1 week to be exact) Arsenal signed a Swedish 21 year old striker who went by the name of Karl Fredrik Ljungberg. To Arsenal fans he became known Freddie Ljungberg. As Sid Vicious. As a Super Swede. He was loved by the fans. And got cult status. Mainly due to his red hair, as per the song above. Although when his career finished with us, he had less hair then Steve Bould!

Freddie Ljungberg deserves his cult status. He was brilliant for Arsenal, scoring many crucial goals in his 9 seasons for Arsenal. Scoring on his debut against Manchester United in 1998, he was immediately a key member of the Arsenal first team, shooting himself from Day One into the hearts of Arsenal fans.

His career for Arsenal peaked in the 2001/02 season, scoring 17 goals in all competitions, and perhaps more importantly, scoring in 5 of the last 6 Premier League games of the season as Arsenal went on to win the double. The same season, he also scored in The FA Cup Final.

He was a played who scored his goal’s in bunches. When he was hot, he was scorching:

  • 2000/01 – 8 goals, inc 6 in 9
  • 2001/02 – 17 goals, inc 7 in 9 & 7 in 8
  • 2002/03 – 9 goals, inc 5 in 6
  • 2003/04 – 10 goals, inc 4 in 6
  • 2004/05 – 14 goals, inc 6 in 7

And this is where we come to the problem of Freddie Ljungberg, when he was not scoring, he was not doing much. In his Arsenal career, he only got 22 assists. He was not a great passer, could not cross and rarely tracked back. Yet he became an Arsenal great. Many fans, when making a ‘Wenger Era XI’ would have him right wing. And many more would have him in the starting line up of an All-Time Arsenal XI. In an Arsenal fans survey, he was rated as 11th greatest ever Gunner.

This ‘greatest’, for a man, who when he was not scoring, was not doing that much. The man reasoning behind this is he scored in many low scoring games, often popping up with crucial goals.

Now we come to Theo Walcott. A man who, despite looking like silencing his critics with a scintillating season last year, gets a lot of criticism still. Despite scoring an absolute peach of a goal to open the scoring in the tough away European Champions League game that was Marseille, he still gets criticised.

“He did nothing else”
“He did not track back”
“He was very quiet”
“He was not a threat”

Were some of the snippets from Twitter last night. Yet he scored. And that is the important thing. He once more came up with an important goal which saw Arsenal take 3 points away from home in Europe. 3 crucial points. And a crucial goal from Theo. So why did he get – and continue to get – criticism?

Let us look at some stats:

Ljungberg v Walcott

Freddie Ljungberg and Theo Walcott have an almost identical games per goal record. Whilst Freddie was deadlier, Theo Walcott creates a lot more than others. So this makes me wonder, why is Freddie Ljungberg an Arsenal great, whilst Theo Walcott is highly criticised by many?

The only difference I can see is Freddie Ljungberg had red hair.

Keenos

SheWore Exclusive: #NoPintsNoProgrammesNoPies

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Anyone who follows Arsenal via Social Media would of come across the brilliant ArsenalFansTV on YouTube. Recently they have come to the publics conscience with ‘The Ranting Arsenal Fan’ calling out the AST and journalists. However, on Tuesday, another fan came to prominence, announcing #NoPintsNoProgrammesNoPies. Today he exclusively writes for shewore.com

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Fifty years ago this week, a great man said:

 “I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will  not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.”

This week, I, an average fan said:

 “No Pints, No Programmes, No Pies.”

I do admit, mine lacks that profound quality that will see it being quoted in 50 years time.

The reason I open with Martin Luther King, is that there has probably never been a more iconic representation of the power an individual can have when his peers support him.

At times, I think, “I am just an average fan, what difference can I make?”

A different part of me however, looks at the achievements of Martin Luther King, who without Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, #hashtags or ArsenalFanTV, was able to make such a huge difference to the world we live in.

It is this ‘Martin Luther King inspired’ part of me, that leads me to believe that though I am just an average fan, I can at least try to make a difference to the fortunes of the club I love so much. After all, it was I that said on ArsenalFanTV on Tuesday night:

 “Not trying, is even worse, than trying & failing”.

With inspiration from 50 years ago and self issued advice from 3 days ago I am going to try and make a difference.

NO PINTS. NO PROGRAMMES. NO PIES.

Some of you may have heard this slogan. If you have, I have overcome my first obstacle.

My second obstacle, is attempting to convince you to get on board this campaign and to implement it on Sunday.

This is what I will try and do below.

In the 6 months leading up to November 2012, Arsenal earned £37.8m in match day revenues over the course of 10 home games in this period.

It doesn’t take a mathematician to calculate that as £3.78m per game.

I have assumed an average ticket price of £46 and an average attendance of 60,000. Multiply these two assumptions and we get a total of £2.76m from ticket sales.

  • Total Match Day Income  – £3.78m
  • Less  Ticket Sales   – £2.76m
  • Equals  Other Match Day Income – £1.02m

This £1.02m is within OUR control.

I realise this figure, based on assumptions, could be higher or lower, but the fact remains. We as fans, plough a sizeable chunk of cash, into the club every game. We need to realise, this cash has power attached to it. On Sunday, let’s retain our cash and our power until the club display to us that they deserve us to relinquish our cash and power.

Many of you may have heard the immediate rebuttal to this campaign.

“Catering is outsourced, so No Pints and No Pies wont hurt the club.”

That may be correct, but now I require you to read between the lines here and look at the ultimate objective of this campaign. This is not about pints, programmes or pies. This is about every single one of the products and services that generates an additional £1.02m for the club every single match day.

Us fans have the power to hit the club in the only area that it understands. Financially.

Whether it’s pints, programmes, pies, or whether it’s merchandise, sweets or a Bovril, it all contributes to the £1.02m that we plough into Mr Gazidis’s pockets.

Before you spend any money at the stadium on Sunday, just remember, that £4 pie you’re eating can be purchased every single minute of every single hour of every single day this year by Ivan Gazidis, based on the package he received from the club last year. (He would still be left with £38,600 by the way.)

In other words…that pie you are buying goes towards funding Ivan Gazidis…not towards funding Gonzalo Higuain, Luis Suarez, Karim Benzema, Marouane Fellaini, Julio Cesar, Mesut Ozil, Angel Di Maria, or any of our other failed transfer targets.

As I come to an end, I want to be clear about one thing.

This campaign is not designed to punish the club, it is designed to stimulate the club. I love this club far too much to want to punish it.

I am shamelessly seeking exposure for this No Pints, No Programmes, No Pies campaign, because I want this club to see this.

I want the club to react.

I want the club to reward the loyal fans with much needed world class players.

I want the club to start displaying some ambition.

Please get on Twitter and Facebook and spread #NoPintsNoProgrammesNoPies

This is a boycott of ALL additional match day expenditure.

If the club takes notice and completes a deal before the match, then by all means implement a new campaign.

#TwoPintsTwoProgrammesTwoPies

But until that happens, let’s keep our cash and let’s keep our power.

I have a dream…please help it become a reality.

Moh

Moh’s ArsenalFansTV interview can be viewed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq0aSa-WUjo