You know what, I think that I might have just witnessed a little bit of Arsenal history on Tuesday night... 6-0 says it all – but, if anything the result flattered Sheffield. It could have been 10-0.
"We would have been better off not turning up, or not getting drawn against them in the cup. We were trying to swat flies and couldn't catch them." - Kevin Blackwell
The remarkable thing for me was that I felt like I was watching a vintage Arsenal performance... the play was all distinctly Arsenal but the players were different – I found myself continually looking up at the screens to find out who was playing in what number. It was incredible that there seems to be a fully formed team just waiting in the wings to break through. Who needs a £100,000,000 transfer budget when we have a youth system that clearly works and is now starting to pay dividends? Arsene must have been chuckling to himself for the whole 90 minutes - £125,000,000 being bandied about for Ronaldo, the game has gone mad; I mean - FUCK OFF!
"We knew they were a good set of lads at Arsenal, but nobody knew how good they were." - Kevin Blackwell
I know it's only the tin cup – but this is a competition that I am growing very fond of... if we look back to the recent past our best players have matured in this competition and found their way into the first team. We know where they came from and we know just how good they are.
"They were awesome at times and would have beaten most teams. A lot of people would like to know how Arsene Wenger can do it." - Kevin Blackwell
These lesser cups give the youth squad something to aim for and the kind of exposure that they need to deal with the pressure of playing premiership and Champions League football... If I were Arsene I would give them the FA cup too.
"He has gone around the world to pick out the best - but there are also four or five top-class English kids in there so that can only bode well for the future of the national team." - Kevin Blackwell
Blackwell is right - in addition to Wenger's approach of building talent rather than buying it we are starting to see a some top class English talent coming through. These lads are driven by each other to improve. Anyone who claims that Arsenal is bad for the English game because we have had to budget to non-English talent until we can provide our own English players is blind. We are the best thing to happen to English football. We are the example. Chelsea fans will claim that their club supports the English football team because they have the likes of Lampard and Terry – this is shit, look what they did with SWP, an English youth with great promise – they ruined him with money and stuck him on the bench.
"Arsenal are one of the few teams I would pay to watch. I've spoken to Arsene and he's admitted that these are the best single group of players he's had, they're exceptional."
They are exceptional – every one of them... some will stay and some will leave but they have all learned their trade with us and I hope that they and our national squad appreciate it... a few of them seemed very special - I bet you that Wenger has received a few offers for loan deals this week!
"Same old Arsenal, Taking the Piss" – The Crowd
And they did... just you wait until they grow up!
Lets move on to Platini and what he said... as I think that I should 'go there'.
This isn't the first time that Platini has criticised Wenger (and to be honest I'm suspicious about the timing, and the relevance, of this 'news story' in addition to the 'news story' about the notes for a team talk being found) – these stories are relevant to Arsenal fans but why am I hearing about it in the mainstream press? The previous criticism about Arsenal buying youth players and developing them came out in late 2007 but it seems to have been amalgamated in the press with the current comments regarding video technology and running a club like a business.
Let's check out what he said:
"I like to talk about football, him (Wenger) about business. We must stop with Wenger and all that."
Right... according to Platini – making sure that your club doesn't go bankrupt is bad for the game – where as getting in a billionaire to bankroll success, unsustainably, by fair means or foul is... what – good for the game?
What Platini fails to see here is that Arsenal, in their own context, are the team under the kosh from the 'big clubs' in order to succeed – his previous arguments about us buying young talent (and nurturing them to the maximum of their ability) adversely affecting the smaller clubs who might keep them and turn them into shit-kickers is nonsense. For a start, didn't we get Fabregas from Barcelona? If he wants to address the balance then he should look into mandatory sell-on fees. See 'David Bentley' for an example of how this works. The other thing is that his arguments fall solely in favour of the 'lesser club' over the ambition and/or potential of the player. How exactly are you going to 'stop' a player from wanting to join a club where he can not only improve his game but realise his worth?
The flipside of this is that there are 1000's of young players who pour their future into playing the game for a club only to have their careers ended early by a bad challenge and are in effect told to fuck off for their loyalty; as an unproven or 'worthless' commodity, the parent club makes a business decision in that it cannot afford to bankroll their rehabilitation – I'm all in favour for redistribution of wealth and a social agenda but I think that this would start with the game caring for its players in the same way that the players, when they start out in their careers, care for the game... in this game the cream should rise to the top both club and player – at present the system is set up so it is only the money and the scum that makes it.
Keeping your club 'in the black' is the way things have been done since the leagues began... I would say that it would be in the best interests of the game to encourage the 'Arsenal model' rather than disparage it... we may then have a glut of talent in the sport rather than a scarcity of it. Also – in addition to mandatory selling-on clauses for young talent there should be a mandatory % on transfer fees going to a charity trust for helping out the players who got ruined on the way... it could even be tax-deductible. Is there a professional footballers union? There fucking should be!
Platini then embarrassed himself and reportedly said he hoped video assistance would never come into football, adding:
"It would make me happy that Arsene Wenger never sees it."
What can I possibly add to that statement as analysis on Platini's professionalism, vision and objectivity?
I have a theory about the Platini's problem with Arsene...
…Arsene fucked his wife once and she loved it.
"We would have been better off not turning up, or not getting drawn against them in the cup. We were trying to swat flies and couldn't catch them." - Kevin Blackwell
The remarkable thing for me was that I felt like I was watching a vintage Arsenal performance... the play was all distinctly Arsenal but the players were different – I found myself continually looking up at the screens to find out who was playing in what number. It was incredible that there seems to be a fully formed team just waiting in the wings to break through. Who needs a £100,000,000 transfer budget when we have a youth system that clearly works and is now starting to pay dividends? Arsene must have been chuckling to himself for the whole 90 minutes - £125,000,000 being bandied about for Ronaldo, the game has gone mad; I mean - FUCK OFF!
"We knew they were a good set of lads at Arsenal, but nobody knew how good they were." - Kevin Blackwell
I know it's only the tin cup – but this is a competition that I am growing very fond of... if we look back to the recent past our best players have matured in this competition and found their way into the first team. We know where they came from and we know just how good they are.
"They were awesome at times and would have beaten most teams. A lot of people would like to know how Arsene Wenger can do it." - Kevin Blackwell
These lesser cups give the youth squad something to aim for and the kind of exposure that they need to deal with the pressure of playing premiership and Champions League football... If I were Arsene I would give them the FA cup too.
"He has gone around the world to pick out the best - but there are also four or five top-class English kids in there so that can only bode well for the future of the national team." - Kevin Blackwell
Blackwell is right - in addition to Wenger's approach of building talent rather than buying it we are starting to see a some top class English talent coming through. These lads are driven by each other to improve. Anyone who claims that Arsenal is bad for the English game because we have had to budget to non-English talent until we can provide our own English players is blind. We are the best thing to happen to English football. We are the example. Chelsea fans will claim that their club supports the English football team because they have the likes of Lampard and Terry – this is shit, look what they did with SWP, an English youth with great promise – they ruined him with money and stuck him on the bench.
"Arsenal are one of the few teams I would pay to watch. I've spoken to Arsene and he's admitted that these are the best single group of players he's had, they're exceptional."
They are exceptional – every one of them... some will stay and some will leave but they have all learned their trade with us and I hope that they and our national squad appreciate it... a few of them seemed very special - I bet you that Wenger has received a few offers for loan deals this week!
"Same old Arsenal, Taking the Piss" – The Crowd
And they did... just you wait until they grow up!
Lets move on to Platini and what he said... as I think that I should 'go there'.
This isn't the first time that Platini has criticised Wenger (and to be honest I'm suspicious about the timing, and the relevance, of this 'news story' in addition to the 'news story' about the notes for a team talk being found) – these stories are relevant to Arsenal fans but why am I hearing about it in the mainstream press? The previous criticism about Arsenal buying youth players and developing them came out in late 2007 but it seems to have been amalgamated in the press with the current comments regarding video technology and running a club like a business.
Let's check out what he said:
"I like to talk about football, him (Wenger) about business. We must stop with Wenger and all that."
Right... according to Platini – making sure that your club doesn't go bankrupt is bad for the game – where as getting in a billionaire to bankroll success, unsustainably, by fair means or foul is... what – good for the game?
What Platini fails to see here is that Arsenal, in their own context, are the team under the kosh from the 'big clubs' in order to succeed – his previous arguments about us buying young talent (and nurturing them to the maximum of their ability) adversely affecting the smaller clubs who might keep them and turn them into shit-kickers is nonsense. For a start, didn't we get Fabregas from Barcelona? If he wants to address the balance then he should look into mandatory sell-on fees. See 'David Bentley' for an example of how this works. The other thing is that his arguments fall solely in favour of the 'lesser club' over the ambition and/or potential of the player. How exactly are you going to 'stop' a player from wanting to join a club where he can not only improve his game but realise his worth?
The flipside of this is that there are 1000's of young players who pour their future into playing the game for a club only to have their careers ended early by a bad challenge and are in effect told to fuck off for their loyalty; as an unproven or 'worthless' commodity, the parent club makes a business decision in that it cannot afford to bankroll their rehabilitation – I'm all in favour for redistribution of wealth and a social agenda but I think that this would start with the game caring for its players in the same way that the players, when they start out in their careers, care for the game... in this game the cream should rise to the top both club and player – at present the system is set up so it is only the money and the scum that makes it.
Keeping your club 'in the black' is the way things have been done since the leagues began... I would say that it would be in the best interests of the game to encourage the 'Arsenal model' rather than disparage it... we may then have a glut of talent in the sport rather than a scarcity of it. Also – in addition to mandatory selling-on clauses for young talent there should be a mandatory % on transfer fees going to a charity trust for helping out the players who got ruined on the way... it could even be tax-deductible. Is there a professional footballers union? There fucking should be!
Platini then embarrassed himself and reportedly said he hoped video assistance would never come into football, adding:
"It would make me happy that Arsene Wenger never sees it."
What can I possibly add to that statement as analysis on Platini's professionalism, vision and objectivity?
I have a theory about the Platini's problem with Arsene...
…Arsene fucked his wife once and she loved it.
