Proximity...by nellypop

Welcome back our contributing writer nellypop with some off-season musings that ought to be of particular interest to those of us on this side of the Atlantic. 

There’s a famous saying that goes along the lines of “the grass is always greener on the other side.” In recent times the Arsenal fan base has found itself divided along many lines, from who we should sign to whether we should hand Arsène his P45. One thing that regularly invites discussion (or argument, depending on who you are speaking to) is whether you are a more loyal and committed fan if you live overseas or within a stone’s throw of the Emirates. Or indeed, who suffers more to follow their team.

For some perspective from the outset, I should probably establish that I live in England, just north of London, with a match day journey time of around 45 minutes. I am about to begin my third year as a season ticket holder. And I live with a Sp*rs fan.

Many of my online acquaintances follow Arsenal from thousands of miles and many time zones away, and this brings with it challenges. Matches may not be televised, they may kick-off at 2am, and for every day, minute and hour committed to watching the boys in red-and-white on screens of varying sizes, these dedicated fans may never see them in the flesh. A lucky few can afford to fly in for one, two, three games a season, at a cost equivalent to that which I pay for a full 26 games a season. More likely, the only opportunity to watch this Arsenal team is a pre-season tour in a mock-competitive environment or a showpiece friendly. For some perspective, the last time Arsenal visited our many millions of fans in the US was for a solitary game in 1972.

However, the main focus of this article is to look at the perils of living in close proximity to so many Tottnumb supporters.

I am the first to admit that I am extraordinarily fortunate to have a season ticket (borrowed, since I am around 25,000th on the waiting list) which allows me a guaranteed seat at every home game, and priority for various away fixtures. I’m still new enough to the match day experience that every time I cross the Ken Friar bridge, every time I step out into the stand before a game, and every time the boys come out of the tunnel after a fanfare of dramatic music, I still get an adrenaline rush as if it were that first game. (Highbury, 15 February 2004, FA Cup 5th Round, Arsenal 2-1 Chelsea, Mutu (39), Reyes (56), Reyes (61) if you were wondering.)

And then there are the community moments – the child on the tube who exclaims, “Look daddy, that lady is going to see Arsenal too” [as an aside, when did I stop being a girl?!], the hug-a-stranger games when sheer delight permeates the whole stadium, and the journey home, where a look at your shirt and your face prompts random travellers to ask the final result or who scored.

However, there is a price I pay just like many other London-local fans, in a more extreme form than you will find anywhere else on the planet. In the street, at work, and (worst of all) at home, I am surrounded by people who proclaim ardent support for the little club up the road. Of course, over the year, this works out generally in our favour, with more gleeful moments than humiliating ones. But, when you consider that the last year without a St. Totteringham’s Day was the 94/95 season, the goalposts are rather different for each team – simply finishing above is no longer a measure of success – annihilation has to be the aim.

While debate will rage as to what league position this Arsenal team has aspired to for the last few years, there is little doubt that each season for Tottnumb begins with a big red laser sight on our backs – their number one target. The media get suckered in by articles such as this http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/oct/31/rafael-van-der-vaart-arsenal-spurs, this http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/9098731/Tottenham-striker-Jermain-Defoe-says-Sundays-north-London-derby-is-more-important-for-Arsenal.html and this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2283567/Gareth-Bale-says-Tottenham-better-Arsenal.html, and we end up facing another season of vicious penmanship. No one likes a bully, after all. With Tottenham cast as the plucky David, let Arsenal ever be considered as Goliath, for it will mean that they remain in our shadow. Goody-two-shoes Arsenal, with the self-sufficient business plan and international footprint are an easy target for the press, and means that allegations of media bias are not entirely unfounded.

For those abroad, there are a minority of Sp*rs fans who invade the peace, but given the following they have globally, they are a small nuisance compared to the carnage in the UK. Consider the irritation faced daily by those living within the M25: every dropped Arsenal point is a cause for a victory parade or a DVD, and every Tottnumb victory is heralded by a flurry of texts and Facebook messages to all known Arsenal fans along the lines of “COYS”. This is a club with such low expectations that overwhelming joy follows wins in the Carling Cup or draws against top-10 teams. Add in the Monday morning chirpiness following a successful weekend and you have a recipe for stressed Gooners. The best word to describe the attitude of Sp*rs fans is “desperate."

Slightly more unusual is the situation I find myself in, cohabiting with “one of them." This has logistical challenges, such as always being out on opposing weekends, due to the fixture fiddling which means our teams alternate home games. More challenging, though, is the fact that a good result for one is generally a bad result for the other, leading to mismatched happiness or desolation – for example, returning home after the 5-2 or the final game of the season and having to contain my glee, or alternatively following the reverse North London Derby, having to face his delight in the midst of my despondency. Luckily, my moods are far more dictated by the Arsenal than his are by Sp*rs, but even so, I’ve resorted to moderating my emotions by putting Gareth Bale in my fantasy team to ensure that if Sp*rs do have a good result, at least there will be a silver lining, however thin. Arsenal’s motto may be “Victory through Harmony," but in my household there is very little Harmony through Victory.

The here and now is just about bearable, since the rest of my family are fervent Arsenal fans, but it’s the future that concerns me. I’ve already had a word with my dad to ensure that the next generation of prospective Arsenal fans will be gifted mini-kits and indoctrinated before they are old enough to walk, and more importantly, before anything can go wrong. After all, I wouldn’t wish Tottenham support on anyone.

So while we should remember that our overseas fans give so much time, money and dedication to the Arsenal cause, we also have to remember that in fact the grass is not always greener on the other side. In my own way I, like so many Arsenal fans local to N5, go through hell and back for my club to ensure that the strong roots of Arsenal support are cultivated to pull through the wilderness of Sp*rs fandom. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

You can follow me on Twitter @nellypop13. #NorthLondonIsRed

ITK, IDK...IDGAF, so STFU!

What is this phenomenon we see thanks to the ubiquity of twitter?  twitter has created a two-headed monster.  One head claims to know everything, or hints to know everything, or hints to know something. The other head does nothing but oppose the first while proudly claiming to know nothing at all.

At this point in the nascent 2013 summer transfer epic, Arsenal have done f*** all. It's early yet, right?  Or is it?  Is it actually mid-game?  Is it late?  Is it all over already?

But this isn't about Arsenal's transfers.  Why?  Because, while I am neither head one nor head two, I really don't know anything at all about Arsenal's business. It's not a match where I can sit and cheer for someone, so it doesn't really captivate my interest. And even if I did "know something" today, it wouldn't be worth a damned thing until the actual moment Arsenal announce the player is signed or sold.

What I find amusing is that with the advent of twitter, some people are able to purport to be "in the know" and derive some bizarre thrill in setting the world (literally the world of football, from twitter to "proper journos") ablaze by claiming special knowledge about a particular manouever. This is funny.  Before twitter, how could any regular Joe or Jill do such a thing?  We all knew the tosser sitting at the end of the bar in the pub, talking out his hole about how we should just wait and see the big signing on the way. That was his twitter. His blather probably never found its way onto the BBC.

Yet, in the face of such nonsensical pronouncements now finding footing among the world of proper reportage, a new group has arisen. These people fancy themselves the guardians of credible information.  They don't actually HAVE any of that information, they're just keeping watch in case something incredible comes along. These brave souls stand atop the barricades they've assembled and point defiantly at every rumour-peddler: "You!" they shout. "You there!  STOP SAYING YOU KNOW ANYTHING!  YOU CAN'T KNOW ANYTHING! NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING! QUITE LITERALLY NOBODY ANYWHERE HAS ANY KNOWLEDGE OF ANYTHING AT ALL!  AND I WILL EXPOSE YOU AS THE FRAUD THAT YOU ARE!"  And on, and on, and on it goes. Since these gallant few don't have the inside information, they KNOW one thing: that nobody else can have any either!

These are the people that really amuse me more than the "ITK" types. They will painstakingly deconstruct every rumour and end it with "until the player is signed, nobody knows anything."  My question is, since you admit you know nothing, how do you actually know who knows something?  How do you KNOW that John Cross absolutely doesn't know something?  I particularly like "Everything in the paper is fiction."  Really?

So instead of being an "ITK" about some juicy bit of transfer minutiae, what they're really saying is that they're "ITK" about what's NOT true, that they have the inside information about how wrong John Cross is.  How they know this, I don't know. So who knows?  And how does this make the denouncer any more credible than the one he's denouncing?  You don't know who John Cross or anybody else talks to, so my advice to you would be to shut your self-righteous holes.

Here's my suggestion: Ignore the rumour-peddlers, ignore those spending time denouncing them, and have a cold beverage. It's going to be a very warm summer.  I'm lucky enough to have cricket to keep me distracted. Thankfully there's no ICC transfer window. But I did hear an interesting rumour about a certain spin bowler...just follow me on twitter for all the latest...
 

Never Say Never...by nellypop

(As my plans to turn this blog into a global media empire are moving forward, I've brought in my first contributor. You can call her nellypop. She's from England and she's an Arsenal season ticket holder so she should have more credibility than I do.  I've known her--virtually--for a few years and I think she's an excellent writer.  By way of introduction, I asked her for two Arsenal facts--favourite player and favourite Arsenal moment and her responses were "Cesc Fabregas and the first of our 5-2 victories over 'them'" but she asked me not to say Cesc because it would spoil the objectivity of the following post. Sorry, no need to self-censor for the sake of objectivity here. So without further ado, here's phase II of this blog, presented without commercial interruption for your edification.)

I’ve known Trey a while, and more often than not we share similar viewpoints on all things Arsenal. However, I couldn’t let his rather strong diatribe on Cesc Fabregas go unanswered, if only to restore an element of balance to the Gooner universe.

I should start by saying that this is not the first time I’ve written about our former captain since he decided to depart for pastures Nou. Indeed, my views are on record and can be read here. The gist of my argument, though, was that my biggest issue with Fabregas’ departure was timing rather than anything else, with Xavi and Iniesta still at the top of their game, and a much larger role still on offer at Arsenal.

He made 212 senior appearances for the club, in an 8 year period during which he led us to the Champions League final and single-handedly hauled us through many a game. In all that time, he never made any pretence that Barcelona was not a dream of his. Trey may argue that his behaviour has been worse than others such as the Dutch Skunk, but ultimately we all understand why he wanted to go play for the hometown club he supported as a boy, not to mention the greatest team in the world (at the time).

The little boy inside...

Van Persie, on the other hand, supported Arsenal as a child and issued a statement in February 2011 saying: “I know you can win trophies in many countries and in many ways, but I want to do that in our way and in an Arsenal shirt. I'm sure I could win things at another team in another country, but would it feel like our trophy, my trophy? I'm not sure it would. Anything we win here will come from the heart and that's what I want.” For me personally, while it hurts that he wanted to leave, the real kick in the face is the barefaced lies that accompanied the whole masquerade. Fabregas may not have been perfect, but at least he was honest. We only have ourselves to blame if we put our fingers in our ears and screamed “la la la” at the tops of our voices, and I fully count myself as one of that number. Van Persie left either for money or for glory (a trait that is much derided in fans), whereas Fabregas left to play for his hometown club. I know which I think is a better reason.

Of course, the typical argument levelled at Fabregas is that he drove down the price paid for him, in a market where Fernando Torres was worth £50m and Andy Carroll £35m. And to confirm this, since he moved in 2011, Fabregas has scored more league goals than both, before we even consider his contribution in terms of assists and so on. There is little doubt that he was ultimately sold for less than his true value, because he only wanted to go to one club.

What you have to factor into this argument, though, is that a player is only worth what the market is prepared to pay for him, and in this case it was a market of one. And the reason for this singular market was that although Barcelona was his first love, Arsenal come a very close second and Fabregas was not leaving because he was done with us. He was leaving because his team were coming calling. I think we can all understand that, even though we don’t like it, because I don’t think for one moment that a single one of us would turn down the opportunity to play for the Arsenal if it arose. For this reason, I don’t think we can blame him for leaving, or for the fact that his price was lower than if benchmarked against players of a similar (lesser!) quality.

We have to remember that Fabregas was contracted to Arsenal until 2015, and Arsène and the board did not have to agree to the sale. If they considered the amount was insufficient, they could have simply hunkered down and benefit from Fabregas’ talent for an additional year. Bearing in mind this was two years ago, I would suggest that with no end to the austerity due we likely felt that we could do with the money, and there was probably an element of negotiation having gone on behind closed doors between Fabregas and the powers that be for a few seasons prior.

We took a route through the initial stadium belt-tightening that relied on developing players and hanging on to them as long as possible to sustain our aspiration to qualify for the Champions League. It doesn’t take a huge leap to imagine that Fabregas remained a year or longer than he would have preferred following persuasion from Arsène. Indeed, we know that Barcelona were tabling bids in 2010 to no avail, and with his last three season yielding just 22, 27 and 25 league appearances, suspicions about his resilience to injury were emerging. Ultimately it was Arsenal’s decision to sell, at whatever price, and the decision was made that the move made sense. For this reason, I take issue with the criticism of Fabregas for the timing of his departure, because there is no possibility that Arsenal did not see it coming. None whatsoever.

Of course we can sit here and say he was ungrateful for the development we put into him, but equally we cannot act as if we as a club got nothing from the arrangement. In the changing world of football where money trumps all, frankly I respect the fact that there are only two clubs that Fabregas will ever play for.

It must be love...

For me, this is the key to why I would welcome Fabregas back with open arms, should he choose to return, and also perhaps why the club still have his image and name on a banner on the Ken Friar bridge I cross every match day. Arsenal may be his second love, but that’s still much higher than most players in the modern game. It doesn’t mean he didn’t care when he played for us, just as it doesn’t mean that Theo Walcott of Liverpool fandom, or Jack Wilshere of West Ham support don’t care. Indeed, in many ways it is harder for the Walcotts and Wilsheres, whose first team actually play in the same league, and who they must play against on occasion. We cannot hold our players to the same standards we would our fans – Carl Jenkinsons, with the talent and passion to play for Arsenal, are few and far between.

Trey, I love you, I respect you, but on this, I cannot agree with you. We may have Santi Cazorla now, but imagine having Cesc and Santi.

Truth is, Barcelona will only let him go if he asks, and he will only ask if Barcelona don’t want him, so it’s a vicious circle. A girl can dream though.

Follow the author on twitter: @nellypop13

...and don't let the door hit you in the arse...

(I hadn't intended to write this but some of the responses I've seen on twitter have forced my hand.)

I do not like Francesc Fabregas.

He is not a sporting hero of mine.

I'm baffled by the incredible double standard that Arsenal supporters are showing in their judgement of his actions versus those of other wantaway players. The only reason I can see is that these people simply want to believe that Fabregas is different. They dislike Van Persie, Nasri, Adebayor, etc., but they LOVE Fabregas. He is different. They want him back. He is special. The facts about him dare not contradict their magical thinking.

He rejected Arsenal and he voided the remaining years on his contract. He had signed an extension of terms with a pay rise that would keep him under contract at Arsenal until 2015. That's actually two years FROM NOW.

He had been made club captain (which I thought hilarious at the time because he had never been a leader) and given freedom on the pitch to flourish and become a great player.

My opinions are that he never would've become that player had he stayed at Barcelona because I do not believe he would've ever supplanted Xavi and Iniesta. He wouldn't have become a featured player for the Spanish national side. I don't think he would've become famous or appreciated on the world stage. And he certainly wouldn't have become the object of affection of so many millions of people who, despite his rejection, continue to pine away for him like a weepy teenaged girl.

The Arsenal Football Club is more important to me than individual players, and I do not take it lightly when players act in a way that damages the club. Fabregas' behaviour damaged the club.

1. He left the club before the end of his final season, his final game as club captain, while his teammates played out a draw at Fulham. He was once again injured at the time and showed his fellow players, manager, and most of all the Arsenal supporters, just where his priorities lay.
   
   
2. The timing of his manouever to break his contract left the club scrambling to fill the gap left by his departure. Despite his injury history, it must be said that as the focal point of the Arsenal attack he was not going to be easily replaced. During another of his injury absences in 2008, Arsene Wenger attempted to buy Mikel Arteta from Everton during the January transfer window. Fortunately Wenger was able to finally sign Arteta but not until after the 8-2 humiliation at Manchester United.
   
   
3. The most offensive part of this saga is not the rejection nor the hole left in the Arsenal midfield that would not be filled until the 2012-13 season. No, the most offensive was the fact that by deciding he would only be sold to one club on the face of the planet, Fabregas essentially stole at least 15 million pounds from Arsenal. The cut price of 35 million euros was “negotiated” (in the world outside of football it's more commonly called blackmail, not negotiation) at a time when players like Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres were going for almost double that amount. Arsenal gave Fabregas the opportunity to develop into what some were calling one of the best midfielders (when healthy) in the world. This was the way he repaid the club. And if you think that Arsenal don't need that 15 million quid, you haven't been paying much attention to their transfers lately.

I don't understand how Robin Van Persie can be reviled for his actions but Fabregas is loved to the point that I can sense rapturous tears in some people's tweets when verbally wanking themselves over the thought of the glorious son returning “home” to North London. Let's look at the facts: Van Persie played to within one season of his contract's expiration and had given the club time to bring in replacement players during the transfer window. He never stated that he would only go to one club, thus forcing Arsenal to sell him at a severely discounted price. And Arsenal were compensated fairly in the sale.

Is it disgusting to see Van Persie in that uniform? Yes. Do I want him back at Arsenal? No. Do I dislike him for what he did? Certainly. I'm a football supporter, not a newsreader or a member of a university philosophy department. It's not my job to be rational in my football support. I wanted him to stay at Arsenal and channel his desire to have lots of money win trophies there. But in the end he's just another classless mercenary footballer like all the rest of them.

I know most of my fellow Arsenal supporters feel similar antipathy toward Van Persie.

I just don't understand the embarrassing love-fest for Fabregas, whose behaviour was far worse and far more costly to Arsenal.

I would rather have made him see out the remaining years on his contract in the reserves than have him blackmail the club the way he did. It was disgraceful for everyone involved. And as far as I'm concerned, it still is. Nothing's changed.

Wait, one thing has changed.

We have Santi Cazorla now. That suits me just fine.

Arsene knows...except when he doesn't.

There is a reason this blog is called “The Existential Arsenalist.” You won't come here to read yet another in the hundreds of recounts of matches. I'm not here to match statistical analysis with 7amkickoff. I'm not privy to inside information.

If you read my writings on anything resembling a regular basis, you know that for me, every minute of every match of every season is nothing short of an existential crisis. It is very personal in nature, and as such is intended to be very subjective. Also, I'm watching from the USA, so I've less access to some things that those of you back in Blighty have as far as television coverage.

So enough with the exposition. Here's the premise of this entry: As we enter another transfer window, remember that Arsene knows, except when he doesn't, and when he doesn't know, look out, because he can miss by miles.

I'm not talking about missing with last minute stop-gap measures like Park or Squillaci. I'm talking about a particular vision for the club that Wenger had, a long-term building project that failed as miserably as any manager's efforts ever have.

The move to Ashburton Grove was designed to make Arsenal competitive with, at the time, England's “biggest” club. Petrodollars and oligarchs were topics reserved for the FT, not the FA. (See what I did there?) Decisions were made in the belief that the difference between Arsenal and their rival (there was really only one at that time) was matchday turnover. Gate receipts, if you will, limited how much money Arsenal could spend. That was true then.

Arsene saw a problem with the big picture before the move. He feared something very specific. I cannot find the exact quote, but I remember reading it. He said that he feared that Arsenal would become “like Ajax” after they moved to the Amsterdam ArenA. I specifically remember him saying “What good is a new stadium if you don't have any players in it?” or something similar. He was afraid that the debt from the building of the stadium would make it impossible to attract and pay top players.

Arsene Wenger was afraid. He saw a future bereft of talent at Arsenal, a half-empty Grove, a decline, a collapse, the end of the Arsenal Football Club. In his mind, if not manged very, very cautiously (and I say cautiously as opposed to carefully), the move to the new grounds would leave Arsenal not unlike Leeds United under Peter Ridsdale's stewardship. And THAT is something that AW simply could not abide.

Thus he began what would become known among some people as “The Project.” This is how I remember the project: Take all the players who made Arsenal great during the 8 or so years of his reign and sell them for whatever he can get, stockpiling their transfer money and more importantly, the savings from their wages. Having done that, part 2 of the project was to buy a bunch of players for less money and keep them on the books for lower wages, letting them “grow up” at Arsenal, love the club and each other, and at that magical moment when they all matured together, Arsenal would be the “modern superclub (groan).”

If you didn't follow Arsenal before the middle years of the naughts, you might not know just how miserable a failure “The Project” turned out to be.

I bring this up now not to flog Wenger with it—please, that's the last thing in the world I wish for the man. I bring it up because I've just heard more than one Gooner that I respect (and you know who are, Goonerholic) declare the 2012-2013 edition Arsene's “worst Arsenal side ever.”

Bollox. Excrement. Not even close. I mean that—literally not even CLOSE to the worst side Wenger ever sent out over the course of a season.

Because I watched the worst side Wenger ever sent out over the course of a season. And that season was the one which ended in the spring of 2009. And, if I may be so bold, it's the season which shows the brilliant failure of The Project.

(Note: for the purposes of this incredibly subjective blog, I am talking about the domestic league. I'm one of those antiquated fools who actually puts a priority on winning the league and thinks that's the true measure of a side.)

Don't get me wrong—that season was only one point worse than the one just completed. That season featured a 21-game unbeaten run (unbeaten, but god help us not untied, and “tied” is what we call a drawn match here in the USA).

I only really hate (did I say hate?) the memory of the 2008-09 season because I think it reflects just how massively AW got it wrong. Wenger put his faith in a group of players who completely, utterly, and miserably failed him, the club, themselves, and the supporters. And I'll guarantee you that to a man none of them give a holy shit that they did. Never before has there been assembled such a worthless, shiftless bunch of passengers in a side supposedly built for spirit and all that shit Wenger always says. And they're gone. Almost all of them are gone, just 4 years later. Has any other side undergone such a change in such a short time?

What a joke played on us. Adebayor, Bendtner, Nasri, Fabregas, Denilson, Arshavin, Eboue, Gallas, Song, Clichy, Vela, Hleb...thank you, Arsene. Thank you for showing us that you are human. Thank you for showing us that you can fail and do so in a spectacular fashion.

Look at that list of names.

Egomaniacs, wasters, crybabies, bottlers, clowns...and not one of them invested in the club. THAT lot was supposed to replace The Invincibles, remember.

Compared to the group that finished 2012-2013, what shocks me the most is just how utterly unprofessional their conduct was. How many of those players ended up agitating for a move away rather than honour their contracts and the agreements made between them and the manager? How many of them appeared to quit on the manager and the club? I'm not speaking about players who suffered major injuries and fought to come back from them here—that's clearly the antithesis of quitting (and thus I'm sparing Diaby and Rosicky).

I'd love to produce a 7amkickoff-style chart where the players are listed down one column, then across the top is each category of horrible character trait they displayed at Arsenal. Gallas—disrespectful, quitter. Bendtner—egomaniac, clown. Arshavin—lazy. I suppose Adebayor could win this competition with the most boxes ticked.

Not every player on the list was unprofessional, I'll offer. Clichy was just a poor defender who would consistently make a game-changing mistake. Eboue was a clown but you never got the feeling he didn't love Arsenal. I only include them on the list because they were both players that Wenger put his trust and faith in and they failed him.

This group of players seem to have done something drastic to Wenger's personality. With them, he persisted in playing them long after they had disgraced themselves with terrible performances or off-pitch nonsense. The worst among these was Denilson, Arsenal's ultimate passenger. His complete disregard for the game that was going around him used to make me scream and curse, and my dislike of him was only compounded by his “What, me worry?” Samba-boy Brazilian happiness no matter how utter shit he was or how many times Arsenal lost. He and Adebayor could be the poster children (emphasis on children) for this entire misguided era of Arsenal football—Denilson can do his little dance and Adebayor can grin like an idiot after he's flagged for offside for the 9^th time during a match.

The king of this miserable lot, the player who always “led by example,” was little Francesc Fabregas, little boy lost, the sad little boy who just couldn't honour his contract and had to run back home to sit on the bench at Barcelona. Poor little Cesc, his time at Arsenal was so miserable that his DNA wouldn't let him behave like a professional footballer. Can you imagine him crying into his little blue and red pillow every night? I can. The little boy.

I can imagine him being injured every time a big match came along. Remember, he never got to experience lifting a trophy except that he could have but he was injured for the Birmingham City match. Poor little captain. Pobre Capitanito.

Do you think poor little Cesc was bothered with leading or setting an example? He was such a great leader that he missed the final match of his Arsenal captaincy so that he could attend the Spanish Grand Prix in BARCELONA. Now that's an example, isn't it?

Do you think poor little Cesc was any better of a captain than Billy Big Time Gallas? I don't, because at the first asking, Poor Little Cesc, the homesick boy (who I guarantee you will end up plying his trade in Sunny Spanish Manchester) fucked Arsenal out of 15 million quid and forced (FORCED! Can you read that? HE FORCED ARSENAL TO SELL HIM AT A RIDICULOUS CUT RATE!) his club to sell him.

Adebayor. Bendtner. Nasri. Fabregas. Denilson. Clichy. Hleb.

Arsene knows. Except when he doesn't.

That last match of 2009 had a little bit of everything for that lost generation. Ryan Shawcross conceded a penalty. Go ahead, laugh a bit. Abou Diaby scored. Go ahead, laugh for about 20 minutes. Vito Mannone started at keeper. Eboue, Bendtner, and Vela (who replaced Arshavin, go ahead and cry and laugh and pull out your hair) all featured. Denilson stuck out a leg after being beaten, tripped Ricardo Fuller, and was booked as he conceded a penalty. I am not making that up.

2008-09 really began with Mathieu Flamini leaving for Milan. Flamini was a shit player who baffled at his continued inclusion in the side despite his utter crapness, until he had a decent run in central midfield and decided to cash in on that in a lovely bit of “Fuck you for sticking with me, Arsene Wenger!” (That would certainly become a trend.)

Lehmann was released. Gilberto was released. Vela was granted a work permit. Alas, poor Chip-arito, we knew him well. Nasri was bought from Marseille. Hleb left for Barca (and began forming a great impression, unfortunately for him that was the impression of his arse in a seat on the Barca substitutes bench). Poor Little Cesc was made captain in November after Billy Big Time, er, behaved like he always does, like a massive cunt. Arshavin is bought. Arsenal are destroyed by Manchester United, 4-1 on aggregate, in the Champions League. On the 8^th of May, Nicklas Bendtner is “fined for unacceptable behaviour” because he decided to consume massive quantities of booze and walk out of a nightclub after that MUFC match with his trousers around his ankles.

Adebayor decided to follow his previous season, where he scored 24 league goals, with 10, proving of course that he is a stupid grinning offside twat.

72 points. That's what this squad managed, despite a 21 match unbeaten run.

I'll take the 2012-13 version of Arsenal any day of the week over that lot. For the first time since the undertaking of “The Project,” I saw an Arsenal side made up of professional players led by a manager who was in no mood for nonsense (if Santos' fate is any example). At every position, it seemed that the rot had finally been cut out and, even if they weren't good enough to win anything but a mythical fourth place trophy, they were a reasonably likeable bunch of hard working professionals who gave the required effort.

Arsenal finally have something real upon which to build. Let's hope that Arsene knows this time. Let's hope he knows what a winning squad really needs, and what winning players really look like. A trophy would be nice, but what always satisfies is a team worthy to be called The Arsenal.