Gooner Talk

Gooner Talk have managed to carry out an exclusive interview featuring one of France’s most passionate and talented football journalists – Philippe Auclair.

In his homecountry, Auclair is renowned for his work in the music industry where his name – Louis Philippe – was associated with the short-lived, but very influential ‘él record label’; since this label’s demise (1989), he has grown into one of the ‘elder statesmen’ of indiepop.

Philippe – who is a hardcore Gooner himself – works for RMCinfo, arguably the biggest radio station in France. He’s also a regular contributor to FranceFootball where he posts a daily blog on all things footy, definitely one to read.

Our British readers may be more familiar with Auclair’s work on Setanta Sports News as their French football analyst, as well as popular radio stations TalkSPORT radio & BBC Scotland.

Part 1 of the interview includes:

• Philippe’s opinions on the latest young crop of Arsenal talent coming up through the ranks.

• His views on why Michel Platini made a ‘personal attack’ against Gunners boss Arsene Wenger via the French media.

• What Philippe thinks about the squad in terms of experience and quality of football.

• Arsenal’s chances of winning silverware this season and if so, what trophy are we most likely to claim.

And much, much more!

Read the rest of this entry »

Arsenal kicked-off match day two of their Champions League campaign with a tie against FC Porto of Portugal.

The Gooners inside Ashburton Grove anticipated a much improved encounter than the poor performance and 3 points dropped against Premier League newcomers Hull City last weekend.

Arsene Wenger’s ’sweeping changes’ involved replacing Emmanuel Eboue with Samir Nasri, other than that, the team was unchanged from Saturday’s loss to Phil Brown’s Tigers.

Read the rest of this entry »

Not going to talk about the embarassing display on the pitch. We all know it was sh*t and not good enough.

Aside from the match, I am angry, really angry about the ticketing situation that saw two Hull muppets get seats in the middle of the North Bank upper yesterday.

When Hull scored, they showed themselves and it kicked off. There were only two of them, but they were obviously up for it and determined to bring a bit of Championship support into the Premiership. Obviously a few Gooners stepped in, gave them a slap and then the Stewards got them out the ground. The Stewards did a good job. The Gooners who gave them a slap did a good job. HOWEVER…

WHY WERE THEY THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Ticketing and the HUGE increase in touts outside the ground is getting worse. Half the touts had Millwall tattoos yesterday and obviously couldn’t give a f*ck who they sold to, or are maybe happy to encourage trouble in the ground.

Its a disgrace that neither the club or police are stopping this, resulting in law abiding home supporters getting into fights/trouble in the home support end as trouble makers from opposition fans take advantage of a ticket from a tout.

The person responsible for buying the original ticket (ie, the season ticket holder, or silver member or red member) should be banned. The touts need to be arrested and Arsenal season ticket holders in that area deserve an apology from the club.

If the club wants to charge premium rates for the tickets, they need to give a premium, safe, atmosphere to watch it in. With touts selling to anyone outside the ground the club cannot guarantee this.

Finally, what will happen if either Sp*rs or Manwho trouble makers decide to do the same thing this season?

Article by Robsy – Proud member of The Online Gooner Forum

Nacer Barazite hopes his loan spell at Derby will help him to follow Nicklas Bendtner into Arsenal’s first team.

Dutch youngster Barazite has impressed since moving to Pride Park last month, dropping down to the Championship in a bid to gain some valuable experience.

Bendtner enjoyed a similar education at Birmingham during the 2006/07 season before breaking into Arsene Wenger’s plans at the Emirates Stadium.

Barazite – who shares the same initials as the Denmark forward – is keen to emulate Bendtner and was not concerned about joining a club which had been relegated from the Premier League.

“He (Bendtner) was like me, almost at the first team. Arsenal sent him to the Championship with Birmingham and he went back there after doing really well and now he is in the first team,” Barazite, 18, told the Evening Telegraph.

“I was not worried that Derby had a difficult time last season. The Premier League is a very difficult level and Derby is a good club. I talked with Arsene Wenger and he said I was doing really well at the club and the final step was learn some other sides of the game and the best thing to do that was to go to the Championship.”

You can keep up to date with all the latest news and analysis on Arsenal’s reserve & youth sides over at Young Guns. Not forgetting Nicklas Bendtner News – the number one blog on all things Bendtner.

Arsenal have targeted Celtic’s chief executive Peter Lawwell for the vacant CEO role at the Emirates Stadium, and it appears that he’s the current favourite to replace already-departed Keith Edelman according to The Daily Telegraph.

Edelman had held the job since 2000 and was instrumental in steering the club through its move from its old home Highbury to its new Emirates Stadium at Ashburton Grove.

Lawwell, 49, will find out in the next fortnight if he has been selected from the two-man shortlist ahead of Paul Donovan, Vodafone’s chief executive for central Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Having substantially lifted Celtic’s turnover during his spell at Parkhead, his CV appears well suited to Arsenal.

His background is as an accountant and finance director, having had a spell in the property-development business on the Clydeport authority, fitting in with many of the core skills Arsenal require of their new broom.

On the other hand, you have Donovan whoover 15 years experience in the telecommunications and I.T industries and has worked for businesses such as Mars Group, BT, Coca-Cola, and Apple Computing.

The Arsenal board engaged headhunters firm Spencer Stuart to deliver a £1m-a-year chief executive – a decision is expected in the next week or so.

As we told you several days ago, Stephen Appiah will not be moving to the Emirates Stadium, after Gunners boss Arsene Wenger revealed he is “not on the case” of the Ghananian skipper.

Appiah, 27,  was linked with a whole host of Premier League clubs mainly because he is available outside the transfer window having been released by Fenerbahce prior to the end of August.

Wenger confirmed to the British press earlier this afternoon that he has no interest in bringing Appiah to the club.

“No, we are not on the case,” Wenger told a press conference on Thursday.

Since the departure of Mathieu Flamini and Gilberto Silva, Arsenal have yet to have made moves in the transfer market to replace either; apart from signing youngster Amaury Bischoff.

The Accra-born star would of added plenty of experience to Wenger’s thin squad; but the Frenchman has already confirmed that he is to stick with what he’s got – at least until January, that is.