;

Should Arsenal accept the reality of debt in the modern world?

2011-03-15T13:40:00.003Z

For all our talk about beautiful football, we were beaten by it twice last week. It seems that beautiful football is something we have made up ourselves at Arsenal and can only mean what we want it to mean, whether we win or lose. We win, lose and draw with beautiful football so everybody else is wrong apart from Arsenal because we're doing it right.

This is an easy sell. Look at Steve Jobs on his sermon on the mount performances telling the world how he is giving them "what they need" when in fact, it's an idiot's game all this consumerism and branding. You have to be a fool to part with your cash simply because it means something at the expense of all the things in the world that really do matter to us, or should matter for that example.

In football, there is a reliance upon an industry that churns out employees with massive wages at a high cost for the consumer. Arsene Wenger earns millions and millions year upon year so are we to believe that money doesn't matter at all in this game? I want to say right now, that I realised recently Arsene Wenger may very well be the greatest manager in the world of football today but not for the reasons you may be thinking. A club acquires a manager based upon their intent and the board members at Arsenal, need a manager, who will keep them away from having debt and paying debt.

We're a funny company you see. I know the world is saying that debt is bad but we're not living in that world anymore. We're not living in a world where a company is completely built upon its own finance. No matter what the press and their know nothing bloggers and reporters say, debt is good for a company. It can be the saving grace and a very very cheap way to finance a major project. What was our major project? The Emirates stadium at a debt of a very low interest rate built upon the de-regulation of banks that brought all of this about.

When the idea of the stadium was going ahead, the arguments coming from the boardroom were not entirely about what is good for the fans or for football, it was all about the most appropriate financial approach to the game. I still believe, in fact I believe it more so than before that David Dein was thinking on a purely footballing basis when he made his decisions heard about Arsenal. This is extremely rare and for a massive global brand like Arsenal that completely ripped apart football into a corporate object is indicative of nothing more than Arsenal being far away from football and all about money.

I used to hear some fans saying that our board members didn't make that much money - but seriously... 20/30 million is a lot when you've only got 1 million in the bank (and I say only there, but it is a lot) and that's what Arsenal is. The board may not take a wage but they must look after their investment and they are all invested in the club in some capacity and the debt, with the structure arsenal has as a company will be to the board member's expense so they can't allow it.

I'm going to get to the football and Arsene now. Arsene's role at the club is simple. Avoid debt, avoid needing to go into debt and bringing in massive investment (which is possible with a billionaire backer) and play some games that will allow us to stay in the running for TV rights, European and Premiership money to pay the bills and avoid the money needed at other clubs.

The world's banking system will not change over night so as long as a football club can bring in money to the club at a low cost and pay off any costs attached to that debt... they're fine. They could do anything to do this by selling players or changing the way they play football and buying other players. The board members at a club will adjust for any scenario and as much as some clubs have gone into liquidation, how many have completely disappeared? I say this while Leeds are fighting to get back into the premiership from league one? Sounds like a good solid 5 year plan to me.

Now, I'm going to be absolutely honest. Do we need it? I think yes. I think it would be nice to win some trophies and show what Arsenal are capable of but I have some further theories beyond this. What if Arsenal don't win trophies because they know that it's more important for United, Chelsea to win them because of their debt? You are nothing without your competition in football. If your competition suffer, Arsenal will also suffer too. We need the competition in this game to survive in order for us to survive, especially with the financial situation we have chosen with our current board who need that money when the debt, the debt built from a credit crisis that practically destroyed parts of the world, will disappear and so will our board members with a lot of money in their hands.

They will sell it off. Arsenal will disappear once this board has alleviated themselves and the future will show that Arsenal will not be able to survive solely on this stadium. We will have to go into debt because that not only how football is, but importantly how world finance operates and we will be no different from any other club. So get ready for it and stop looking down at other clubs - we will be next.

The stadium was nothing more than a project that will provide a return for the people who run the club and have ownership in the club. Any idiot who thinks there is anything else occurring at the club really needs to work out the world we live in. Football can be fun but I think people are, well I think they are, wiser to what is occurring in the world. I personally find the idea of debt quite, uncomfortable but it works for corporations, it works for the owners of corporations and it operates well for world and building these modern economies that exist around us.

I don't feel the vast majority see this. I think Arsenal could have won a few trophies this season, a couple at least but with the restraints that such a financial structure gives you in football, I don't think even Arsene can overcome this. I recall people blaming the ref or blaming certain players. I think the person to blame in all of this, is, the greatest football manager in the world today, Arsene Wenger; a puppet for the Arsenal board. I feel sorry for him in fact. Here is a man who chose millions for untold footballing glory.

Can Cheryl Cole do this? Simon Cowell and mediocre pound stretching of the premiership

2011-01-02T23:41:00.005Z

Useless individual in the public eye, one Cheryl Cole, conveniently told by her publicist to exercise the far extremes of a Newcastle accent fails to live up to any qualities that would benefit humanity.

Although she does benefit somebody's wallet. That's usually Simon Cowell who stretches mediocrity beyond its moments of death to the masses - the masses who are fooled into believing mediocrity has merit.

So in light of the world of Cheryl, you can use what you can to your benefit so you are two types of footballer's wife/girlfriend. The one who benefits more from dragging her husband through the dirt and the one who doesn't. I believe that a fair number of footballers do career away from their monogamy and venture out to the world of, well not polygamy, but hedonist modern day make up addicts who dwell in the dark scary holes of loud health hazard music we call night clubs.

Yes, even Footballers with all their money are sent crawling to these nightmares of modern contemporary sinkhole living that are night clubs. For sex I guess and maybe... to show themselves. To parade in some macabre mating ritual because there is nowhere else to show off your wealth. Clothes are so rudimentary and obvious that everyone is wearing your threads. Cars are such and the same that you are no different to anybody else with the same car. So where can you go but these filth ridden effluence of evolution or Hell. Maybe we can get Richard Dawkins to put this area of evolution in his next book and put it next to the chapters on commercialisation and capitalism.

This is where they go. Beyond our temples of dreams and our obeisance to the premiership TV screen, the money gets spent on the drugs of the moment, from extreme fashion, to sex, to alcohol - to any other stretching of mediocrity. That's the sign of our times. We are so finite in our relation to talent that we feel the only thing worth looking at are the publicity echoed through magazines related to sexualised images of nothingness. Well nothing worth nothing.

So Cheryl in all her pretty pointless appreciation of wisdom couldn't see the brilliance of Ashley Cole. Neither could we to be honest and we called him "Cashley Cole" because he wanted another 5 thousand pounds. Such is our fans mediocre appeal to football that we didn't think the once "best left back in the world was worth anything more" but if we look at the premiership today, the appreciation of mediocrity is too far away. Teams that were once giant beaters are dwindling further down the table to be replaced by teams, that still don't garner appreciation regardless of how much their players express brilliance and their managers scowl at the bias and prejudice in favour of the big four.

People still expect Liverpool to do well for all their problems there is no appreciation for the balance we can see in other teams. For all the money spent at Manchester City and Chelsea (basically Billionaire money funnelling organisations), they appear to be no match against the likes of teams that spend far less. Pretty ugly world I think considering how the owners of these clubs made their money.

Pretty much Cheryl Cole in perspective because Cheryl got all her money from being a pretty face and an exploiter of Geordieness and these Billionaires got their money from pillaging and raping the planet. OK, we all do it but there was no talent or brilliance involved so how can we expect them to spend well when it comes to money?

No different is Simon Cowell.

So to summarise and supplement, the electronic digital obeisance with the credit addiction has destroyed global supply chains. We can no longer give the world amazing talent, amazing expression and the world no longer recognises for all the mixed messages of sex, yes, blame sex, sex messages that are sent through the media. Our children are barely prepared for any of this and for all her complete lack of morals and decency - Cheryl Cole is a true example of everything wrong in the world and she exercises behaviour and attitude to fuel this.

No matter how good the premiership becomes. No matter how brilliant the quality in the league is, we will never ever see what is great because of Cheryl Cole, Simon Cowell and Billionaires with nothing but "ownership" and as much talent to do something as a drug riddled junkie locked in an empty room with no windows or doors.

Pretty much like what happens when the X Factor is on.

Can Cheryl Cole do this?

Finally - I guess this is proof I have a life.

2010-11-26T14:06:00.002Z

Lupe Fiasco - Never Forget You ft. John Legend
Destroyer - Chinatown

This morning, by chance, in a greasy spoon, I came across - THE SUN!

A newspaper famous for reporting on non-happenings that appear as happenings by characters from a self indulgent consumerist nightmare.

Not that I'm a regular reader of newspapers these days. I've got too much to do right now and therefore haven't got as much time to go over who plays where for Arsenal. Who plays where for any other team. Which team has bought who and how he plays, how he should play, where he should play and why he is playing. I don't have time for it anymore.

That... is... pretty... upsetting.

There was a time when, like anybody else I craved all that. Just look back at my correspondence from years gone by. Why this, why that, why the hell Bergkamp? Yes I questioned that and after seeing him for numerous games I still wonder that.

Bergkamp is a good place to start. We did have Dennis Bergkamp (you see what I did there? If not... bugger off) and we had him for longer than we should have had him. I think we massaged his ego. I think, by massaging his ego, some of our board and backroom staff massaged their egos. It was a case of "Wow. Look at us. We have a great player and he's still here."

We really should have grown and developed. I like to look at Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes and think, wow... now that is football. In the premiership today we have absolutely quality players who watch what they eat, develop their craft and compete at the highest level in the world right now. We don't do that at Arsenal.

Is that wrong? Or... what is right?

I think... I will say... don't go to football looking for your moral compass or sense of morality. In fact, don't go to anything business oriented. It's ugly. It's devious. It's nasty and people do die horrible deaths because of the way we conjur and create and global market exploiting business today. This from the corner shop to the big supermarket and back again.

If we want morality we should... be honest... be truthful... be good... be kind. It's very simple. We all know how to do that. I know life becomes hard and the struggles become insurmountable but we can at least try and trying is the first step - or is doing the first step. Trying is always filled with effort while doing appears to be a state of nonchalant automation. Just do good.

Yet, as I read The Sun today and read Arsene Wenger has been having an affair (please spare me your criticism, I don't know how true it is - is anything truthful today?) I felt a slight sensation of content. For years I had looked up to Arsenal's words of harmony and integrity and balance believing we were a club who never went in the wrong direction. We had fans, many of whom applied and projected religious principles on the club and we wished to express that.

I don't believe there is anything wrong with that. As long as we hope for good - but not on the basis of hypocrisy I believe. Not at the expense of other clubs who also do good.

So I am saying, I hope we are seen as ugly as business is, where our players and managers are prone to extra-marital affairs and can't keep their todger firmly lodged behind grand sporting celibacy. I do. This is the ugly world of football as entertaining as it is so that the people of football, the fans can go out into the world and find good and hopefully never stop looking for it.

If I could say, I hate the fact people hide behind money and the arrogance and power that money gives people. Why can't these guys be honest. We gasp with horror covering our mouths with our holy hands at how dreadful all this is but it's happening everywhere. Are we so foolish. so hidden, so protected in our lives that this does not occur. I am not justifying it, I am not reasoning it, but my point is that this is wrong, this is brutal (if it occurred) and we should call it for what it is - the ugly image of football. The ugly image of life and gross, nasty, harsh, reminder of disappointment.

So I guess I have a life. I didn't know the caricatures created by The Sun were having affairs but I do know a whole lot worse in real life. Really ugly things. Really nasty ugly behaviour that occurs in real life.

Still, I take solace in the grand pockets of peace that exist around us.

My conscience is clear.

Death to Arsenal

2010-10-10T01:14:00.003+01:00

Basic Physics - Ghosts on a G6 (Deadmau5 // Far East Movement)
D-Sisive - I Love A Girl (Grizzly Bear: Hijacked)
Lloyd Banks - Start It Up f. Kanye West, Swizz Beatz, Ryan Leslie & Fabolous
Bedouin Soundclash - Brutal Hearts ft Coeur de Pirate
Deadmau5 & Wolfgang Gartner - Animal Rights (Kids At The Bar Edit)
The Temper Trap - Fools

It's time to kill Arsenal.

Arsenal was re-born in it's second life under the guidance of David Dein in 1996 which gave rise to lots of new baby activities and spending leading up to the maturity and sudden decline at the hands of the Eastern Bloc powers and all the money that came with it.

Odd that we didn't see this coming but it's also odd how we didn't care about it and didn't want to change or win.

It's time for Arsenal to die. Is there a future amidst this? Is there a possibility that Arsenal can win something sooner or later?

We tend to believe there is a way out of this and why shouldn't there be... I mean seriously speaking, why do we have to consider, incapability due to environmental factors or even financial and internal factors. Isn't this something we can overcome? Of course it is but we've been over-reliant on many things lately which are dead in many ways for us and we are squeezing them for all the juice that they have.

So what is missing is risk and trying. Taking a risk and trying. I believe this is out of fear and fear from failure. There seems to be some fear of embarrassment from losing and in Football that appears to be peculiar because you have to get used to losing in order to have respect for this whole world of football. This I feel is where all of our problems begin from.

There appears to be a huge expectation on the shoulders of the players. It's like we are sending out players who fear for their lives. I'm not sure what has been forced onto these players but I don't I've seen them play relaxed and for fun in many many years. There appears to be no camaraderie. Looking back, if you see huge players like Vieira, Pires and Henry disappear to be replaced with kids under the pretence and belief they will grow to be better is like hoping people will accept an inferior product in the belief it become the best thing ever.

All this faith in one dimensional strategies has brought some results because we paid for quality... didn't we but not mature quality unless you count Arshavin in this and look what happened there. Amazing.

Anyway... it's not about players it's about changing who you are as an individual and accepting that doing the same thing over and over again isn't going to miraculously bear fruits from labours of pointless hope and nothing else. So we can talk about this for hours on end and for days and days when the whole point is not as some fans do, procrastinate on acceptance or even whinge on selection and transfer but realise the club has shifted into mess territory.

If anything I have realised is fear, with the people I know around me, can make you break down principles, faith, ethics, morality and for all the rhetoric people, these great people who speak excessively, spout against politics, media, society, civilisation - isn't nothing more than a projection of the fragmentation of their own psyche? In the state of our present existence, bombarded with synthetic, artificial images of humanity and this is humanity in every sense from the extremes of happiness to sadness, conflict to peace, sex to abstinence, culture to nothingness - we don't know what is right for us and what is wrong for us but we're all so quick to tell the authorities, the mummies and daddies of our institutionalised "now" and institutionalised "society", they are wrong.

In respect of the above, what is right in football is to create a team that wins, and we will see that. We will see that and say, the club is not lying and the club is working on truthful principles because we'll see it.

We can't see it so it's a lie.

Please watch this (without prejudice or feeling): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f2fmnTfoTc

and - once again Godfrey Reggio's Evidence:

Whoops - Problems aint fixed!

2010-08-16T22:57:00.002+01:00

Kid Cudi - Mr. Rager
Menomena - Wet & Rusting
Royksopp - The Drug
The Pass - Trap Of Mirrors

Ana Caravelle - Black Canyon (Shigeto's As I Inhale Mix)
Ana Caravelle - Out of Road Rendered

Different things are important to different people.

This is dependent on a multitude of factors from, I don't know, culture, friends, family, occupation - absolutely anything could conjure up the importance. I think, for instance, a lot of our importance, in the west, is an excuse to have a party and a good jolly.

So... you support Arsenal or you support United... because our society equates success with happiness.

Then you get the lower league teams who have support and it's a good time, it's a laugh but there is that need to win and succeed. Amidst that you'll be left thinking, how long do you wait for success and what price does patience carry. Patience can be a heavy heavy burden you have to carry alongside hope and your thoughts.

A lot of my blogs have been around our financial situation and how we can use that to gain success but maybe football is more than that. Maybe football is about the game and wondering what player to play etc. But I laugh because we don't really do that do we. We've had certain problems for a number of years and I think I speak for a lot of fans when I say, we grow tired speaking of the same problems over and over again.

How dull and depressing must that be? Here we are with a multitude of solutions available and we don't try them.

Goalkeeper is rubbish? Change him. Spend the money.

Strikers don't score goals? Buy a better striker.

We're getting good money for a player? Sell him and buy some mature work horses!

For instance... Fabregas is a big big problem for us because he is miles, head and shoulders better than a lot of the players at the club but if we can't build a team around him then we're stuck. We had a good thing with Flamini but we let that slip by.

And now... whooops... there's another problem. Our transfers. Our player management.

Too many problems and you know what... just like our problems in life, even if we took small steps to solve them. Little steps in the right direction then it would give us hope. It would give meaning to patience but we're not. We repeat the same mistakes over and over again.

Are we going to win anything this year? No. We are not.

Does it matter? In the greater scheme of things it should but I think our fans have got used to waiting and hoping that it's nothing special. Which is worrying and saddening and upsetting because a club like Arsenal has had and does have a great deal of potential with world class assets and resources and we don't use them. We just don't use them. They are merely there for the balance sheet - to make Arsenal Football Club, the company look great.

Or maybe it's something else. Maybe, we have grown tired of football. Maybe so many deluded perspectives on a sport have been given to us, we've forgotten what it is. Maybe the commercialisation and hollywoodisation of football has tainted our perspective of the competitive nature of the game stopping us from seeing how we are in a clear position to win great things and how that opportunity has passed us.

A shame because wasted opportunities are a pain.

Free Cesc Fabregas

2010-08-14T21:10:00.003+01:00

Please visit the charities to your right

Ducksance - Barbra Streisand
Zero 7 - Futures (Error Operator Remix)
K.Flay - 2 Weak
Something A La Mode - 5AM (LaTourette Remix)

Camera Obscura - Forests and Sands
Camera Obscura - Tears For Affairs
Camera Obscura - Careless Love

We have reached a stage. A stage of no return.

Where lies are lies and maliciousness becomes vivid.

We're holding players captive and they need to be set free.

Yes we have control over these players. Yes they are our assets. Yes they must work for us.

But we as a club, for all our grand gestures of humanity and the Arsenal way are holding a player to ransom.

This club is dying and it's about time we released players.

We can see Liverpool and Manchester City as clear competitors. We can see Tottenham and Villa as rivals. The dirty game is arising and it's our pretentious, pompous arrogance that puts us in a position that we have forced ourselves into.

We are back to asking the same questions.

Is it too difficult to buy a decent player and pay him a wage with the masses of money at our disposal?

Is it too difficult to buy and sell players when we have a 30 million pound player being argued over across Europe and the world?

Why make life hard for ourselves?

Let's just face facts. We're idiots.

David Dein was right.

OK... forgive the melodrama. Who cares for all that right?

The point is to win things and for all the years of profits and for all the mind blowingly envious assets at our disposal we are merely acting like children when we could be world beaters.

The world has changed Arsenal. It will remain changed. It will not revert back to some never existed utopia. There will be no political revolution (and even if there was, we'd all change anyway)...

Just buy players. Just get them.

I'm going back to pondering why we behave like this...

Why... why... why...

Arsene Wenger is good - but he's not that good

2010-05-20T21:51:00.002+01:00

Gritt - Hell Yeah
Allure - Renaissance
Bat For Lashes - Use Somebody (Kings of Leon cover)
Teenagers in Tokyo - End It Tonight (Nightschool Disco Hijack Mix)
N.E.R.D - Hot N' Fun (Feat. Nelly Furtado)

Islam remains to be one of the biggest news stories in the world today. This will never change because muslims look out for number one and they know that if they support their own kind, if they continue to fight for the greatest achievement then people will listen - and people do, even though nobody believes them because in the greater scheme of things satisfaction is far more vivid than Religious faith.

The same can be said for our punters on Football highlights shows and sports channels. They go on and on about how great managers at the major clubs are - all the while people like Roy Hodgson and David Moyes create greatness at clubs that barely get a shoe in. They don't have the money and the commercial demonism of the big clubs but in the same way, the TV channels know the money is in the big clubs so you have to praise them as much as possible.

You won't find a drug dealer saying his supply is rubbish, will you.

Unless you're called Peter Hill Wood that is.

For this reason, this satisfaction, this lack of drive and looking into the abyss is a disease for the Arsenal fan. It's not realism, it's not positivity, it's a disease. We know the world of football works on money and we know we have money. You will have to be stupid to believe that Arsenal don't have money. Ever year we have made money for the last 20 years... where is all of that money? Do we burn the left overs every year?

We could be demolishing mountains and draining oceans but our support is too busy believing a marketing campaign that has brainwashed them into cult followers with a leprosy for the brand that is Arsenal.

The moment we can say, this isn't working. We're doing so much that is wrong. We're failing - is the moment that we will quickly see that there is glimmer of light in football where a team can achieve great things, just like Portsmouth, drifting into the Championship became runners up in the FA Cup, which is the non-trophy for a North London club that regardless of having a status of one of the richest clubs in the world has one eff all for 5 years.

We shouldn't be considering the logic of a manager and a team or a club, but just putting some faith and belief in change and realising that only if we spend money will we attain something because let's face it, you pay money to get into the ground or follow Arsenal don't you? That's where our answers lie.

Trophies, Passion, Support? Please stop boring me.

2010-05-18T22:46:00.003+01:00

Atmosphere - Sunshine
The National - England
Blur - Coffee And TV
Lady Gaga - Alejandro (Skrillex Club Mix)
Imogen Heap - The Song That Never Was (The Zodiac Social Version)

A lot has changed in football in the last 100 years. Football hasn't remained football. Nope. We have changed, the world has changed and therefore, football has also changed. Football looks at us and evolves in light of our demands.

I am getting the feeling we are a reflection of football. The football in our immediate area, in our immediate environment is a mirror image of who we are. So what does this mean?

It means, we're narcisisstic, vain, image obsessed, materialistic, angry, stressed out druggies finding it difficult to get satisfaction from life. Unfortunately the win is anything at whatever cost. We're in debt, we live beyond our means and we work hard, we push ourselves to extremes and far what? To fall further into a world of commercialism and materialism.

And the "good old arsenal" say it's ok. They say it's fine. They say they are harmony and balance and control. The "good old arsenal" say we're living within our means as long as we stay in the black and don't go into the red. But where is the fun in that? We are the materialistic, all flash and no substance, scrooge of football. Unfortunately, the world is collapsing and we have to spend big to gain big.

Dare I say it. We're probably one of the only clubs who are fighting against a world knee deep in money problems. If anything, we need to make big changes soon.

Football is officially dull and insubstantial. It has lost it's humanity. It's in coma and it's all because we lost sight of ourselves.

Let's blame Thatcher. Let's blame Reagan. Let's blame our own commercialism.

Unfortunately, it's all dead. The future does not look bright.

You see, I'm confused, sitting here writing about something that really matters little in reflection to the real problems in life. Let's talk about, for a moment, Peter Hill Wood's comments about Fabregas.

Cesc who is young enough to be his grandson is treated as a commodity by this idiot. Is this Arsenal? Where is the respect? Where is the dignity? Where is our character and our "special way of doing things"?

This is what is important. We should exude respect. We should be dignified. In a world that is collapsing around us due to extravagance and materialism, we should at least behave with some morality - not treat our bread and butter (and in Peter Hill Wood's case, his Father's money, not his) like they are objects.

This is why Arsenal are no different from any other club. We're basically knee dip in the rubbish and we will stay there.

I can't end on a lighter note because I think realistically, it's all very nasty and as much as I enjoy a win like the next man, I think we should remove the board and start again and this is where we will begin to behave like a club again.

Godfrey Reggio - Evidence

Arsenal need new manager to rebuild club from the lies

2010-05-03T20:37:00.004+01:00

Sleigh Bells
www.myspace.com/sleighbellsmusic

http://www.thecitizeninsane.com/2010/04/new-sleigh-bells-to-blow-yr-speakers-to.html

The Verve Vs Mgmt Justice Vs Kanye West Lupe Fiasco - Bittersweet Electric Sky Touch (GlowTape!'s String Cheese Mash Up)
Phoenix - 1901 (Customised by DLID)
LCD Soundsystem vs. Justin Timberlake - My Love (Diplo Mix)
Simian Mobile Disco - Aspic
Atmosphere - Sunshine

I've seen a number of idealist individuals bouncing around town centres recently. They just say the same thing over and over again, hoping, praying that people will listen and usually, a lot of people do. You see, if you sell yourself and present yourself, amongst friends and like minded individuals with a reasonable, reasoned idea - people looking for a "change" will follow you.

The problem is, these things aren't usually tested.

Say for instance, you have a problem with your car. It does something funny. What do you do? You take it to a garage who will give you a quotation to fix it. You could get it fixed - after all... they have a sign, they have cars getting fixed, they also have mechanics working too. Maybe, somebody has recommended the place too - then again, you could go elsewhere too. They give you a different price... then somewhere else, gives you a different price.

Now the problem is... how do you know the cheap place isn't just offering you what you need... or maybe they're giving you rubbish but it's an inviting deal. How about the expensive place. Maybe they are offering you decent goods and great workmanship for a respectable price. Then again, they may be ripping you off all the while they have their name up in lights and offer you smiles and winks to make you feel good.

This is, what I think has been happening at Arsenal. We're sold these footballers and managers as the greatest thing ever. Out of the blue, they may beat a great team 5 nil or 6-1. We may get fantastic goal, amazing set pieces - we will then think this is fantastic.

I might as well say it right now - we've won eff all.

Even the clubs below us win games, some great games. Blackburn Rovers beat us today and they also played some great football. The difference is, the Blackburn players aren't called Fabregas and Arshavin and don't have fantastic contracts at with major sports brands at amazing clubs.

All Wenger has given us is this way of playing football but as the Mastercard advert says, some things are priceless and that's how much I'd pay for Arsenal now - nothing at all. It's not worth it. We're seeing the same thing over and over again, sold by the same crap-merchants selling the same old idealised story. What can they give us? A trophy? Maybe two? What will 5 years of no trophies at one of the greatest clubs in the world give us now to justify this drought?

Are we really doing something special?

All we are sold are lies, lies and more lies.

It's about time we got in a new manager who did things differently and we have the money for this new manager. God knows why we pay Wenger millions and millions every year to sell the same old story over and over again. What a waste of money that has been.

A new manager will come from a different background, new experience and could possibly instil new ideas at the club. Hopefully we can kick out the crap at Arsenal too starting with Peter Hill "epic idiot fool" Wood and the rest of the crappy Carr legacy we have had to endure. Time to get somebody in to spend money and spend it well. We're not way up there in the rich list for fiddling the figures. We're a bankable club and we should spend well, re-build and throw out all this rubbish we have first.

Maybe Jose Mourinho. He's a better manager than Wenger after all. I am sure we're all tired of the same old same old rubbish.

Roy Hodgson is a better manager than Arsene Wenger

2010-05-01T02:36:00.005+01:00

Regina Spektor - No Surprises (Radiohead Cover)

Please take a moment to visit the Charities to your right.

Achievements echo far more in history than anything else. We won't be remembered for spending less money year on year at all. I doubt we'll be remembered for anything other than wasted opportunities.

In between all that, we will have the common myths in football that people who score goals and managers win games. In the same way that Arsene Wenger will be inaccurately remembered in history for winning Arsenal trophies, so will we be inaccurately remembered in history for playing great football.

Anybody who is a real football fan or a real Arsenal fan will know it is David Dein who made the modern team what they are and it is he who brought us to the point we are at now. Arsene Wenger was merely, commercially appropriate.

Commercially appropriate.

Footballers are commercially appropriate, just as much as Managers are commercially appropriate. By this, I am sure anybody with a decent MBA who has worked in a major corporation to make major decisions will know, that certain things are said and certain things are done in order to create a commercial success, but the real success isn't indicated to the public but left behind the scenes. The illusion of success is given just like they are given with footballers and managers. Club win - not footballers and managers

George Bush for instance is not an idiot. That's just a myth. It's just commercially appropriate to make him out to be one so people have an idiot to blame; just like Gordon Brown makes calamitous errors too before we get a hung parliament.

Yet, we are idiots. Yes I am an Arsenal fan and I am just like every other Arsenal fan an idiot. We all believe the lies fed to us by the club while they spend less money. Now the funny thing is, we're supposed to be happy about this but what is even funnier is we could save money until the cows come home but there will only be one club left around when all is said and done and because you can't run a league with one club (to cut a long story short) not many clubs will go under because there are enough idiots in football to pay for season tickets and follow teams and...

...the banks know this.

Arsenal now this very well too. Victory through harmony with beautiful football you idiotic fools!

So, we would have won the champions league a couple of teams at least by now and won other trophies too but money is a powerful thing. You know how fans think football players and managers think like them - no because if you ask yourself, what would you do for 1 million pounds and then ask yourself what would you do for 1 million pounds a year, you'll realise there's more to this game than the game.

It's a funny old game but how much of a fan are you to look beyond the obvious and see what is really going on? Do you love the football or do you love the glamour?

Come on, admit it, you like all the bright lights and beautiful colours because for a minute you can dream and fantasise that you're the one kicking the ball and winning and making the money - even if you try and make out that this is not the case.

Years and years ago (I'm talking 20s and 30s guys, not the seventies so you can sit down) football was a cultural thing related to the working week. Ever since we finished with World War 2 and all that economic change, it was all about glamming it up and being well funky to marketise and tax every little part of our lives.

Roy Hodgson is an amazing manager.

Arsene Wenger is a just a greedy man.

Only an idiot would be proud of Barcelona destroying Arsenal

2010-04-07T16:36:00.005+01:00

Broken Bells - The Ghost Inside
Hey Champ - Cold Dust Girl
Twin Sister - Lady Daydream
Twin Sister - The Other Side of Your Face
Twin Sister - Ribbon Bow
Twin Sister - All Around and Away We Go

http://twinsistermusic.com/music/release/color-your-life/

6-3 on aggregate and a defence that couldn't control one man with a manager (who is supposedly world class) couldn't prepare for a team who is supposed to be in the same league as us.

We have injuries - no excuse. We should not have injuries. Is this bad luck? No it's just bad customer services. Why aren't we better at managing players and their playing strategies? Why stress a player to such extremes?

Back to the game in question, I do feel there is an Arsene Knows Brigade response of proud like the word proud is some kind of instant viagra through neural linguistic programming. Every time a member of the Arsene Knows Brigade says proud they get an instant erection but the word Arsenal should be in the same paragraph or within 20 seconds of saying or writing the word Arsenal.

When you get to the quarter finals of the Champions League it is a moment to raise your game and prepare to win, so does losing 6-3 make you think the club raised their game or prepared to win? No. We got it wrong and with the team Arsenal have it was the same old same old in terms of failure.

Now I could go on and on at how incompetent our response was to playing this team but what do we need to do to stop this happening in the future?

Like I've said before - if a club like Arsenal behaved like a football club and not an investment opportunity for an old boys club from the city who are living off Daddies money then we'd have won a lot more trophies by now but they're too busy playing alpha males because Daddy gave them the money and they lose people who know what they are talking about and made them millions (David Dein) because...

maybe it's just a case of because.

Anyway... we're all used to this now aren't we. We're just a club who has the money to get players but we don't spend a lot because that would harm the price of the club.

(New Pictures of) Ramsay injury is the most important injury in the history of football

2010-02-28T22:44:00.004Z

I've inserted some new charities to the right. Please do visit the links.

Let's just show the man in action:

Jamiroquai - Canned Heat (Calvin Harris remix)
Snoop Dogg Ft. Kid CuDi - That Tree (Clockwork Remix)
Kisses - Bermuda
Tesla Boy - Electric Lady
Bella Ruse - Push On

I hope it is the most important injur in the history of football.

Now we have two players who have broken their legs and we are one of the biggest clubs in the world. Hopefully clubs will think twice. Hopefully players will re-evaluate their game. Hopefully kids will think

"Now I won't shag around because John Terry is a real **** and I'll improve my football because I don't want to break legs."

Hopefully for a moment and maybe longer things will change for the better.

Hopefully if we keep this aware for long enough then more and more people will notice.

When is clumsy malicious? In Football. When talent is over shadowed by aggression.

2010-02-27T23:06:00.005Z

Coeur de pirate - Printemps
Basement Jaxx - My Turn (feat. Lightspeed Champion)
Chromatics - Running Up That Hill
Afrojack - Pacha On Acid (Original mix)
Primary 1 - The Blues ft. Nina Persson
Phantogram - As Far As I Can See

I've changed the charities to the right there. Please take a moment to visit the links. - Thanks.

Watching the footballers on Match of the Day comment on Shawcross' challenge I realise how irrational logic is ever present in the game and why football will never move forward when it is grossly embedded in the psyche of football to dominate with aggression and not with talent.

Football is a fast game. So, how stupid do you have to be to play with aggression, with force with speed where contact is involved? Where is your respect and consideration for players in such a game?

Stoke, and all premiership football teams should spend far more time, responsibly expressing the importance of respect to players. I am sure, in fact I can guarantee most managers, if not all, encourage players to play with full force and intensity because that means money.

Football + Aggression = Money.

Another equation could be

Football + Talent = Money.

or maybe.

Respect + consideration = Football

an if that final equation was the case with billions around the world following the game through the internet or TV... then wouldn't the world be a better place?

I'm bored, I'm rich, I'm vacuous - give me a scandal (NOW!).

2010-02-26T06:34:00.003Z

http://www.myspace.com/coeurdepirate

Hawa - D.A.N.C.E. (Justice Cover)
Coeur De Pirate - Comme Des Enfants (Le Matos Andy Carmichael Remix)
finley quaye -dice From an advert! Don't ignore this!
Florence and The Machine - Hurricane Drunk

The Knife - Heartbeats

Broken Social Scene - World Sick

Do you know why people emigrate from their country? Call me controversial (or anything else for that matter) but do you know why they do that? Do you know why people take that step away from their

Home

Home being an operative word?

Boredom? Completely useless individuals with no life who need to exercise their brilliance by moving to another country or...

Money... no... no... I got that wrong.

Career.

What I am saying is, if you already have a career and big giant western company says "Dude, we're going to give you much wonga... come and get us!"

but most of these people are completely rubbish individuals who are boring and lifeless and they'll come here, see the women and give them unbelievable unreal stories that only stupidest of individuals would believe because, if you travel and you go to the countries they emigrate from you'll realise that these people are the dullards of their country. These individuals are their evolutionary effluence that have been forced upon us because we have this embarrassingly frightening need to populate our country in the hope our economy will magically transform...

and it does.

Which is why celebs, like John Terry, like Ashley Cole, like Terry "I write some whacked out magic mushroom nonsense" Pratchett love to get in the media limelight because they are eejits who need that exposure.

Question everything. Everything (unless you are a useless numpty). I know people really love the fact they are exposed to difference, something new, something out of this world because the daily grind of sitting at your desk really needs weird numpties from odd ends of the world to enlighten you

just like the gossip mags do

just like some random geezer who writes for the unfortunate geeks out there

just a new transfer...

(see we would have got to the point)

just like a new player arriving at the club, we get all excited... just to see the same thing over and over again.

Don't get excited when he kicks a ball folks - that's what footballers do... they kick balls.

What I'm saying is, we're all very much the same even though we do call people racist, violent, aggressive, funny - all that stems from the same things. We add the difference like we see in literature, art, fashion etc etc... because we're bored...

...but I'm sure similarity is just as exciting... unless you have an ego and insecurity to feed.

(just something that really pisses me off - people getting excited about the ordinary)

.
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I've been doing some weapons training because I've been told that inner city freaks on drugs feel no pain.

Arsenal's fear of failure

2010-02-18T23:12:00.002Z

NORA - Quiet
2AM Club - Worry About You
Mumford And Sons - Little Lion Man
Toro Y Moi - Master of None (Master of None)
Toro Y Moi - 109 With other Toro Y Moi tracks

Cut Copy - Lights And Music (Moullinex remix)

I am obsessed with people who get wrapped up in the world they exist in. This is especially the case in football where football means everything to somebody - now don't get me wrong here, I admire people who are grossly, romanticised in the game that they can see no ill whether in rivalry or result and I say this because I do negate romanticism at times. Yet, the case here is Arsenal have put themselves in a position where they can lose a lot of support if they tried something new and then...

...failed.

You friendships, your family, your partnership, everything you exist in, your company even, is built up on principles and behaviours that make what you have live and breathe and this is something that all those involved in the units you exist in know so well. Nobody likes anybody who rocks the boat because we all fear the person who rocks the boat since they will break barriers, topple walls, climb mountains and kill everybody you know because they can change at a whim.

Now I don't have a problem with people who change and adapt. Manchester United are built on this change and respect for the environment,...

...if you succeed.

Their system is built on a belief to succeed and if you are the best in the system, if you are the greatest in your culture then people, the economy and finance will always be interested in you because you make things happen.

In the case of Arsenal, the only thing making things happen for them is eccentricity and a need to pummel into their fans that uniqueness, beauty and difference is of most importance. If Wenger changed and evolved and he went out and bought players and failed - what will happen then?

Wenger is in a trap. He has played this game, with the board, for so long where they buy young players, sell players for a high wage, squeeze every penny out of every action that they've embodied this belief into their fans. If they change, just imagine the scene for a moment, that if they change and they fail, completely fail by not winning any cups or anything with numerous players bought for 10s of millions and high salaries on the back?

Well then finance will be a clear and visible annoyance, anger and frustration for their clientele...

by that, I mean, you and me. All of us.

Underneath all of this, we're not good enough. David Dein was right, we needed somebody who was willing to put a cash injection into the club. Is this wrong? Is this immoral? Is this unethical? God no. Football is built on money. Somebody put money into Arsenal in some way and somebody had to pay for it so what is wrong with it.

We're too afraid. We're afraid on the pitch if we get injured. We're afraid of spending good money. We're afraid of trying something new. - all of this, all of this fear because we have never tried to change and the man who never tries to change.

Dies.

Epilogue

But we all know, even if times go bad, we'll still be fans. Some of us will disappear but the rest will remain.

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Alexander McQueen humanised the Fashion Industry - who will bring humanity back to football?

2010-02-16T23:30:00.002Z

Chiddy Bang - Opposite Of Adults
Fear of Tigers - The Adventures of Pippi Longstrump (Edwin van Cleef Remix)
J Dilla - So Far To Go Feat. Common & D'angelo
Baby Monster - She Comes Alive
Ernest Gonzales - Dancing In The Snow
Calvin Harris - Stars Come Out

Dan Black - gorecki fix up my girlfriend some more LOL this is quite something.

Rosie and Me - Bonfires

Alexander McQueen was a fantastic fashion designer but not merely because he was so counter the industry in his designs but also as an individual, he was hardly representative of this tall supermodel, vacuous world. He gave the industry personality and character because he came across as an everyday individual and because of that, what stood out was this talent to make great clothes.

But he was still part of this industry that is superficial at best. Even for me, McQueen was still part of high fashion and then, he committed suicide.

Now... it was a very very sad event. It was unfortunate to lose somebody with great talent. Imagine if we lost, Henry, Zidane, Ronaldo at their prime - they just disappeared from the world and couldn't contribute anymore. How would that feel.

Then again, Zidane, Henry and Ronaldo have always remained part of the world of football.

When I heard the news, I felt the same way I did when Brittany Murphy left. Brittany Murphy's career spanned across animation, music, different genres of film and she was relatively unknown to the masses. She was only known by people who watched films on the films they enjoyed watching. For instance, people who likes teenager led movies or comedies remembered her for clueless, the average teenage boy or man remember her for 300, while those who enjoy drama remember her for Girl, interrupted and if you like hip hop or urban music you will remember her alongside Eminem in 8 Mile.

I think you get the point I am making here. She was versatile. She also had a part playing a recurring character in the animated comedy King of the hill too as well as singing on a massive dance anthem with Paul Oakenfold.

This is a legend but unless she got that Hollywood A rating, you wouldn't have known her, ever.

In the case of the fashion industry, Alexander McQueen's death made me realise how much humanity and reality exist for each individual in the world. Regardless of where you are and what you do, you could be a real sh*t, a grade A murderer or the best person in the world - your time on this planet is limited and you'll burn out. For some that burn may escalate unknowingly and that human-ness, regardless of who you are will explode out of nowhere.

In football, there is this nastiness, like in Fashion, where your image, what you can do with money is brutally evident from millions of adoring masses who travel for miles and invest years emotionally into something which is nothing at all. Managers and players invest this time in an industry if broken from the shackles of capitalism could feed the hungry, cure cancer, aid the elderly and revitalise education. All those billions floating around in football could make the world a better place - imagine if all that money was invested into real human causes instead of gratuitous pleasure.

All this talk in football about charity, to give an image of humanity, when we actually give a fraction of our time in charity, a fraction of the money to charity while the rest is spent on fuelling rivalry, division and superficial joy.

Once it was a celebration of your home, where you live, who you are. Once football was about the abode and the community that you share your existence with but now fans love teams miles and miles away. If you've ever been to Manchester you'll realise the are around Stretford and Salford isn't all that fantastic unless you love history, architecture and working class culture. Around Islington it isn't all that fantastic either unless you want to spend an evening marvelling at the cross-section of culture it has invited to the area.

Are all Arsenal fans cultural connoisseurs? No.

Tragedy brings some interesting facets of humanity to the forefront for an industry. Will fashion houses/designers now begin to use models of all sizes? Will we see a revamp of the pricing and some innovative steps towards clothings for the masses instead of choice artificial cultures of the unknown few? I know this has all changed for me. I like fashion but I've always known you don't have to spend big in fashion - maybe this will make the label hoggers think twice when buying fashion?

I doubt it.

In football, I would expect Arsenal to just change and think about their pricing. Practice what they preach. Maybe go to the RBS and say they will pay an interest rate on the loan that doesn't hit the tax payer as hard as the negotiation they made does. We could, hopefully get the truth.

Then again, nobody cares about death anymore. Everybody in the world is looking out for number one - nothing changes, because nobody cares, unless a team loses or wins.

How dreadful.

Hooray - We're gonna get money for Fabregas. Fantastic!

2010-02-14T00:21:00.003Z

This is quite amazing, with only like 900 views or so?

Kate Nash - I Just Love You More

Seth Augustus - Trickeries of the Great Emptiness
Sean Hayes - Garden

Crookers ft Yelle - Cooler Couleur Posted this before, but it is awesome!

Holly Miranda - Waves This is good.

Damian Marley & Nas - As We Enter Cool

I am sure people are screaming war and pillage with the recent Fabregas stories but let's face it - we've been here before haven't we. This is nothing new for us in every context of the word because when stories like this arise we go through the motions of getting angry, getting frustrated, kicking things, blaming life, the universe and the heavens and then reverting back to supporting Arsenal.

This is the age old cycle of players leaving and coming and eventually going, because they do eventually go, don't they... we can't stop that but what is important for me in all this is how, we always let them go for a lot of money and we make that money don't we. I'm not going to beat around the bush here so I'll highlight the fact, we tend to want to make a lot of money from out players a lot more so than other clubs

(unless it's the Thierry Henry anomaly where we can make a big whack of cash from shirt sales, publicity and TV rights when he hangs around for another year...)

...so, shall I ask, why do we do this?

Let me celebrate first because if I don't, people will start to wonder why I support Arsenal so...

Woo. Yeah. Fab. Amazing. We're making more money. (checks bank balance) Cor, look at that dosh - WONGA! Me so happy.

It's strange why we do this. The Arsene Wenger Brigage ( :oD ) tend to believe that one day this mountains of cash will be utilised to destroy football. Destroy all clubs. Show people you don't need Money laden Billionaires to prop up a club (anybody can tell you that...

For a moment, let's highlight that this obsession with billionaires is momentary and is not important to football. They bring in cash. That's it. What we should focus on is being better than them and failing to win competitions doesn't prove that. We can as a club do things without Billionaires and their money but if we don't win anything and just remain also rans, we prove that money works.

In fact (to get back on topic) we prove that over and over again don't we with our obsession with money. Our inability to spend and invest in football (instead of the club and company) shows that we are obsessed with cash and making money and catching up with them. In fact the Arsene Wenger Brigade argument that we are saving money to create a Babel like mountain of football power just proves we can't do anything without money.

We have, in fact never been able to do anything without money. That is us. That is what we do... we do things with money throughout. All our players, our manager etc etc - driven by a lot of cash.

So... let's just praise the Arsenal Inc. Gods for providing this opportunity to sell Fabregas for the mighty Wonga. It's what we're really good at. Making money.

SayCet - Opal AND SayCet - Opal (Error Loves Opalowsky Remix)

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2010-02-12T17:10:00.003Z

Charlotte Gainsbourg - In the End
Charlotte Gainsbourg - Trick Pony
Charlotte Gainsbourg - Me And Jane Doe
Charlotte Gainsbourg - Heaven Can Wait (Nosaj Thing Remix)

Ennio Morricone - L'Estasi Dell'Oro(from-The Good the Bad and the Ugly) Bandini remix

Klaxons - No Diggity (Blackstreet cover)

David Guetta ft. KiD CuDi - Memories (David Guetta's Fuck Me I'm Famous Remix

OK... I concede, every club has to commercialise themselves

and then get raped by the economy?

No that can't be right.

Can every club be like Arsenal or is there really only one Arsenal amidst a magnitude of clubs in debt while we're knee deep major players in sending the Royal Bank of Scotland under by pummelling them with a low interest rate?

OK... I guess nothing is sacred.

If a club like Portsmouth goes under or if West Ham goes under with all their Pompey play up and Bobby Moore nostalgia - will Football die or will there be cheers all over the country because fans really love it when a club gets kicked hard because the big players, the big financial players like Arsenal have got a muscle that is rare and unique in football to the point of being corrupt and deviant? I'm beginning to wonder, besides trophies and good football and some neat passes and all that in your face nonsense - what do we have?

I think, every club should be in debt and therefore we can clean up football without being in debt. I think even Arsenal should be swimming in debt too so that they can clean up the sport. It's unbelievable that they've allowed a sport to get this way - completely submerged and drowning in the red while all a few clubs are just lucky to survive.

So the biggest problem in football is, why is it so nasty and tortuous to survive in this game? Why do you have to destroy the dreams of the fans in order to get by? People invest a lot of soul and emotion into this game and Arsenal's greatest achievement is "phew, not us". It's quite sick if you think about it because with money available, it's bizarre that one club is doing well while everybody else is struggle. Not very fair is it.

There is a lot of ugly.

A whole bunch of bad.

Very very few Good.

I'd love to look at it in a pleasant, woo, we beat Liverpool, dream like ignorant wonderland but I'm not drugged up fantasy.

Wenger is Rubbish - Selling sex to the lesser knowledgable Arsenal fan

2010-02-08T14:51:00.006Z

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/right-to-link/

This is Emma Russack :

Emma Russack - Sex On The Beach

The football blog sites make me laugh. Like seriously, grow up!

Oooh, Arsenal are so wonderful, ooh we have been at the top for so long, ooh I love our history, I need a new anorak!

You know what I find funniest? How you can tell by the language on these blogs in the back of their mind they are really thinking how crap Arsenal have been lately and how messed up it is that arguably the richest club in the world behave like a post-modern Scrooge. It cracks me up with all the "well, we played better than last time" and "ooh, X player was playing better, maybe he is improving"... Christ man, grow some BALLS! (or have Arsenal got them so you can ejaculate when they win a trophy in 3094?)

Somebody has to say it and somebody must say it out loud. Instead people tiptoe around the nonsense that he built a club, built a team, made us what we are... what a pile of utter cack that is.

We had money. This business is built upon money and that is what we did - built a business from money, from the fans, from clever marketing. Wenger is just a spokesperson and a very expensive one at that.

Anybody out there, any football fan out there who thinks that what happened over the past few years was part of some secret high IQ plan is utterly stupid. First of all, lets face facts that they are not real Arsenal fans. Just a bunch of numpties masturbating over symbol that has sex attached to it all over the place:

Footballers Legs - Sex
Spirit - Sex
Positive - Sex
Togetherness - Group Sex
Beautiful (football) - Sex
French - Sex

Sex Sex Sex

Any fan who excuses the club and Wenger is more interested in a projection of Sex than watching football.

The club has made a fool out of fans for far too long. Incapable of spending money that is visibly available for all to see and lying to fans over and over again. This kind of behaviour is escalated by an internet campaign led by people far too proud to admit their idiocy, stupidity and blind devotion to

faiure.

Wenger is rubbish. He has been lucky with the money available but all this club cares about is creating a product that can sell and people can invest in.

Anybody who thinks otherwise is not a football fan but a fan of pornos but too afraid to watch them so they base everything pornographic on football.

...and while I'm at it - why the bloody hell get back Sol but not Vieira? Duh!

I just youtubed sex football and this was at the top

Who can you trust?

2010-02-08T01:07:00.004Z

Massive Attack

Yeah... I know. Still a cool pic!

Massive Attack - Paradise Circus feat. Hope Sandoval (Gui Boratto Remix)
Massive Attack - Saturday Come Slow (Feat Damon Albarn)
Massive Attack - Girl I Love You (feat. Horace Andy) (She Is Danger Remix)
ThE hOmOgEnIc ChAoS - Teardrops Life [Massive Attack vs. Nine Inch Nails vs. Evanescence vs. Hans Zimmer vs. All Amarican Rejects vs. Foo Fighters]
unkle thom yorke rabbit in your headlights massive attack mix
Mighty Mike - Massive Fear (Massive Attack vs. Lily Allen)
Massive Attack - Psyche (Van Rivers & The Subliminal Kid Remix) (ft. Martina Topley-Bird)

Safe From Harm mixes;

And this is absolute Amazing!

Massive Attack - Future Proof (live)

Just like any other fan, I don't want Arsenal to lose or go through a bad streak. It's fairly obvious for anybody that a fan wants wins, success and all that.

But I have to accept now that football is not really cyclical or polar or parallel - it's very much a long term struggle. A fight. A never ending fight that inevitably ends in death. Maybe it's all about finding meaning amidst the chaos of life. As long as somebody can attach themselves to something, it all makes sense.

Football carries with it community. Maybe it is all anthropological because we're all looking for that state of fight and tribalism. Isn't that just crude?

The other day, while sitting down, a couple behind me were engaged in their own thing on a couple of computers and the man said to the woman something about a footballer. The mans language was natural while the girls was clearly from the books of Sky Sports and Match of the Day.

Oh what would somebody do to feel like they belong!

Can we trust Arsenal? How long have we waited? We're different to other clubs. We went through a stage of massive success over and over again but now we've attempted to win something and lost out completely over and over again.

The excuses... well, usually to do with money (but don't we have a never ending profit of 30 million plus year on year?) or the other excuse to live up to some higher belief of football where you believe in kids (oh F*** OFF!) and live with in our means (I think we're just stingy).

I mean, where does this c*** about developing kids come from? Who really gives a s***! Just get the F*** out there and buy some players, win some trophies under Wenger and get another 2 million fans to buy your shirts!

Is that difficult? Come on now, have I got this the wrong way around?

We just got beaten by two teams playing some outstanding football.

I don't trust a club who don't put effort into winning trophies when it is very simple. I think that's not only pathetic but pretty inconsiderate, irresponsible and unfair for the fans.

Greed? LOL... I think a bunch of suits outlining the desires and hopes of millions of "football"1 fans with outstandingly poor romanticised BS is Greed... :D

1. Football is a game where you try to win games and trophies on the basis of the available resources.

Disgusting narratives from blind broken creativity

2010-02-07T00:11:00.002Z

Zooey and Katy
Are they the same person

Groove Armada - Paper Romance
Yeasayer - O.N.E.
Lali Puna - Remember
The Walkmen - The Rat
Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea
Josh Millard - Where Is My Mind (Pixies cover)
Toro Y Moi - Thanks Vision
Kid Cudi - Do It Alone
LBCK - Start

like this

Timbaland - If We Ever Meet Again (Feat. Katy Perry)

AND!

David Bowie - Across the Universe

This has been on my mind for a while and so here it is presented.

We all love familiarity. Ever have that feeling of nervousness when something changes?

Say for instance you walk into somebody's office or house and somebody new is there. Nervous?

Say for instance you are in a town centre, near a road and a huge explosion from a car blows everything within 10 metres 50 metres into the sky?

Nervous?

Nobody likes difference. Nobody likes change - well not at first.

A few drinks always help don't they? Or the drug of somebody you can trust, believe in - is your own?

So I went out onto the Internet after the United loss last week to see what fans were saying?

And guess what, surprise surprise!

Sack him. Drop him. Sub him. Shoulda him. Leave him.

Same old same old? Gave me a bit of a chuckle. That sense of familiarity, that sense of the usual is so great. What do you expect fans to say? Break out into a Shakespearean narrative to change football with verse?

How dare he! Shoot him. Kill him. (or her)

If there is one thing in the world we can trust it's the usual nature of sport that we have a game, we have the presence of something we can trust that won't change and will not surprise us too much.

Pleasant, obvious and placid. Just a bit of stress relief I guess.

...so what I am really trying to say is, just like I've always said.

Arsenal needs more than one way to play football. (weren't expecting that, were you).

Morality and the question of football support - Mido?

2010-02-03T23:11:00.004Z

Chelley - Took The Night with some other tunes too
Chelley - Took The Night remixes
Lo-Fi-Fnk - Marchin' In Starts slow but builds
Kid Cudi - High's N Lows
Major Lazer - Halo Far better than the Beyonce version
Miike Snow - Billie Holiday
Camera Obscura - French Navy
Lady GaGa - Fooled Me Again (Honest Eyes)
Mr. Oizo - Erreur Jean - WOW!

Guilty by association.

We've all had the tag, or even heard of the tag that football fans are aggressive angry numpties who get worked up about the most superficial thing - and maybe, they couldn't be further from the truth. If you look around you, look how much is written about football. It is clearly the biggest fabrication in the world today. We're supposed to believe it is important, it carries merit, it has some use to the world but in fact it means nothing.

Or is that true?

When two countries, divides by walls and borders come together to play football they merge to compare merits of physical prowess. This merges two countries under the banner of sports, fairplay, character, attitude, personality, virtue. We can extend this to a local level where teams from towns and cities play each other to merge two groups of people together with their differences on the basis of colours and history to share a goal.

Isn't it beautiful!

(?)

No... or maybe it is. Maybe it's all about perspective?

We can look back at the handball from Maradona. The fighting. The spitting and aggression between Holland and Germany and our dislike for Germany too (unfortunately). Mocking race and culture on the terraces. Racism, prejudice, Stereotypically driven rage?

If anything, football just shows us what boundaries we have and the huge walls that divide us because we really dislike our fellow man for the most pointless reasons ever. Superficial nastiness based upon

History
Colour
Lies

Then we have the players. Shagging their friend's partners. Stealing money. Fighting to earn millions -

Then Credit's Crunch!

It's not surprising our kids are obsessed with material things and naked women.

(what did these footballers see in this French girl?... some easy locker room gossip?...)

Then there is Mido? What is this all about?

1000 pounds a week. For now I'll accept, amidst the fog of cynicism and scepticism that haunts our greedy subjective relativity - this is one of the few great things in the world today.

#

Liam Neeson using all those hybrid martial arts in Taken. I think in an interview he said it was Kapour that he used which is a hybrid but they were trained by Oliver Schneider who was trained in Wing Chun and the Indonesian art of Pencak Silat.

I've included a video below to give some idea of it

Is there a limit to football quality? Have United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal gone as far as they can?

2010-02-01T12:31:00.003Z

DJ Stroke - Dangerous (RHCP vs. Busta Rhymes)
Sleigh Bells - Ring Ring
Breakbot - Baby I'm yours feat. Irfane
Danger - 4h30
Lady GaGa - Retro Physical
The Knife - The Height of Summer

You know those films where a man has a dream as a child and wishes to become something or do something but his high school sweetheart pops up and they have kids - and then maybe the wife dies (to add some drama or sentiment to the story) and he has to raise the kids himself because one of them is an annoying brat and then he has the chance to live his dream but he says "No Kids, you were my dream!"

For a long time now (since we never won any trophies) some fans have been saying we need to get this player, we need to get that player - we need this manager or we need to do something differently. I have to wonder - what if that is not at all possible no matter what we try? What if, if you're lucky enough to get a player or get a good thing going that...

Is as good as it gets.

You reach a summit, you attain a height and then it stops. Life gets in the way.

Now this heightened for me when John Terry and all that story came out. It could be false. It could be - but how much does such a story affect a team? How much did Ray Parlour's divorce affect the Arsenal team and then the players disappearing? Alongside all the other snowball effects, what does this do to a team?

How important is morale?

I think sometimes, a club has a huge problem finding that missing link. One the surface, fans will talk about players and positioning and maybe, financing - but what about everything else? What if the club is in such a position that it is practically impossible to make a change?

Some clubs are just rubbish, let's face it... they could, as we have seen, get some dynamite player or some extra money but what does that do? Once the spiral begins, it explodes. Look at Newcastle United. Do you blame the fans? Do you blame the chairman? Who?

It's a lot of things.

I guess for Arsenal, money is a factor. We always wonder, with all of our money (and no matter what anybody says, a club that has made a profit for over 10 years, has money!) we still do not spend it. We have everything in our favour but we still don't spend it? In business, this is an organisation that is making itself, and keeping itself, investable.

That - may just me the problem...

Thought this was cool:

Jane Moore is Cheap and Populist - The problem with The Sun

2010-01-28T23:22:00.003Z

Jenny Tonge - Awesome!

Spoon
Monarchy - Black The Colour of My Heart
Crookers - Cooler Couleur (Feat. Yelle) Very good.
Beach House - Zebra
MillionYoung - Hammock
Holy Hail - Cool Town Rock

(overseas readers can find out about the oddities I refer to on wiki)

The problem with The Sun is, it is owned by Rupert Murdoch and all his goals are riddled with manipulating society to buy shoddy goods and glamourise nothing!

Jane Moore - who is on Question Time as I write this - is one of his many pawns. As she called the two boys who almost killed two other boys savages, she attempts to make the grossly exaggerated and dirty gratuity to say the country is broken...

Is it Jane? The same country that your boss makes a massive bulk of his money from and the same country that buys your articles that finance your home and your lifestyle?

Now... is it Jane or is it just that you are paid to write rubbish so that the Tories can come into power and do the bidding of your overlord and master - Rupert Murdoch?

I used to admire Jane a lot but there comes a point where you just give up when you realise that some people live off the glamour their career gives them to hide the insubstantial ambience they emit.

Football slant? Rupert owns Sky Sports and slowly but surely the fabric of football viewing and appreciation is changing in this country. People are realising they have less money (not a bad thing, we survive - we still have money) so they get their joy from sport that modern technology provides but this is cheaper and faster without Sky Sports and this is what Jane and Rupert what to fight against because Sky sell and the public are getting what Rupert and Jane sell far cheaper elsewhere.

Where does Arsenal's benefit lay? It lays in the changing media climate arriving in Europe and also in Sky Sports too. We need that money but we're different. We follow the climate and we watch the climate. One thing people miss about Arsenal is, we are not completely controlled by one facet of the economic climate around us - we change to follow suit.

We do not need cheap and populist puppets like Jane Moore to tell us that our country is rubbish.

If she hates it so much she can go live somewhere else - I am sure Rupert won't care since there are a number of people prepared to replace her!

....

Some comments from Twitter:

Jamie Bulger was murdered in 1993 under a Tory government. Does she blame them? Jane Moore? Jan Moir more like. Idiot. #fb #bbcqt
rpcompaneros - twitter.com - 4 minutes ago

"Don't accuse me of being cheap and populist" Jane Moore Sun Columinst. In other news: "Pope complains about being labelled a Catholic"
Briesias - twitter.com - 6 minutes ago

#YesWeKHAN #bbcqt Jane Moore is such a populist. Nigel Lawson is mad as a hatter.
jimmyfrith - twitter.com - 6 minutes ago

@mathewhulbert Jane Moore's support for the Tories is just the way the political climate is going at the moment #bbcqt
ThePhilNorth - twitter.com - seconds ago

Well - I told you so... isn't that strange? Maybe not.

2010-01-28T00:47:00.004Z

Caribou - Odessa
Efterklang - Modern Drift
Joanna Newsom - 81

Taken By Trees - To Lose Someone
She & Him - In the Sun

.

Hmm... we aren't doing as well as we once were?

As I stated a few blogs back, I was thinking that a downfall was probably - just around the corner and now we have it. Now is this a bad thing or was it just, or is it just a part of the process in this thing called Arsenal?

Well... the answer is a yes and a yes - or a no and a no - so it's a bit of everything.

Basically, we're not in a bad state are we. We could get second even after a slump and we could win some other trophy - could we? Hmm... that could be tough then. Not good that one is it.

We are still a great club in the world today - but why do these football clubs look like cans of coke to me? So are we a great club or just some football team with a ton of money... I mean, say your local pub got a billion pounds... wouldn't it just buy some great player, get a stadium built so they don't have to play down the playing fields and then get loads of fans who want to see this glamorous well publicised pub team...

History? History... isn't that just achingly desperate?

We have to win something. Maybe the club doesn't see it as important or significant. Maybe we don't need to win as long as we're making money.

So to end with I'll say... you're running in a marathon and by some coincidence or magic, it's you and some African - now, are you going to say... fine, I've made it this far and I'll come second to a champion or are you going to put together that last bit of strength, that last bit of fight, that last bit of determination to win this and knock the African out to be the winner?

Yeah, I think Arsenal is option one and the clubs around us are option two.