Gooner Talk

It’s late, I’m hungry and the thought of waking up early tomorrow morning (more like later today) for school, along with all the mandatory responsibilities that goes with it, just won’t go away. And it’s not an appealing thought, by the way. It’s like a little scratch on the roof of your mouth that definitely would heal if you could just resist the temptation of exploring it with your tongue; it’s just there, mocking you, and its’ only purpose is to annoy you. These habits of mine (never sleeping when I should and drinking coffee when I shouldn’t – perhaps they’re somehow related?) will drive me crazy, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s the only time of the day where I can isolate myself from the outside world and escape to my desolate hideout and place of meditation – my room – and get my thinking done. And I like thinking. I tend to think alot about Arsenal, as well as football in general, and sooner rather than later I usually convert my train of thoughts into articles for this very site, so hopefully you like my thinking as much as I do. It’d be more convenient for everyone that way.

Tonight my topic of careful consideration has been moving on and leaving your once haunting ghosts behind you; dispelling old myths that were once thoroughly attached to the club in question, like an umbilical cord to a newborn, through sheer will and actual accomplishment. We’ve seen it happen right before our eyes these last weeks. We witnessed it when Liverpool finally beat Manchester United for the first time since the invention of the wheel. But they’re not the only ones that have sampled the sweet ambrosia of progression and development during the recent weeks. Arsenal have successfully put the myth of being easily intimidated by the northern, more physical sides to bed. Hopefully once and for all, but, considering the current media treatment of Arsenal, I doubt it. But there’s more to it than that. There is another generally accepted “truth” about Arsenal that have been – still only hopefully though – successfully disposed of. We have travelled up north with remarkable regularity with our young, fragile and frail squad and we’ve beaten the ghosts of our past – and doing it in style, despite missing a handful of chances every game – while, at the same time, carrying the weight of our ridiculously long injury list, meaning that our squad isn’t lacking in depth. At least not to the extent that it has been depicted by the, so called, football experts.

Imagine Manchester United, or any other team with a manager that instantly will be declared a genius for not failing after spending big money, having the same impressive goal difference we currently have after the very same fixtures with their equivalents of Rosicky, Nasri, Diaby and Eduardo on the treatment table. No Ronaldo, no Nani, no Carrick and no Tevez. I for one can see the headlines in front of me as soon as I close my eyes and merely think about it: “Admirable team spirit and collective performances will win United the title for a third consecutive year. And boy their manager is mighty smart.” They’d be getting the headlines we’re currently not getting. Now, I know that I exaggerated a bit, I do know that only 5 games have been played so far (and only 4 for United) – but hopefully you get my point.

It hit me like an atomic bomb, and I do mean that in the most positive way imaginable, whatever that might be, when Wenger, on his post-Bolton press conference, reminded the world that “we still have alot of quality at home”, despite playing football that commentators and neutral onlookers described as “awe-inspiring” throughout the remainder of the day – with half our first team squad. The lesser (at least in terms of quality) part of our squad, too. The same chunk of players had even endured an extremely busy playing schedule the recent weeks, involving several difficult physical challenges on the road as well as international duty.

Who would’ve expected someone like Eboue to, in the void of Rosicky, step up in the way that he has done? He’s been one of our most consistent performers this season, and that’s not even debatable. When I look at the lineup and see his name on the right wing I can actually visualize him running past defenders – with the ball, I might add – and doing something useful with it. I might even go a little bit crazy and assume that he will score. No, wait, just kidding. That’d be blasphemy. But Denilson is coming of age and is already putting in PFA Young Player Of The Year-Performances whenever he pleases, Walcott is turning into what we all thought, or at least hoped, that he could be and Almunia has definitely impressed me so far. The squad doesn’t look that bad after all, does it? Arsenal seem to be breaking their old bad habits without breaking a sweat – perhaps I should too. Good night.

September 1, 2008 was a black day for football. I’m currently lacking the words needed to describe how I feel and what I think about this indignity. Someone needs to say it but noone seems to step up. Is there a worldwide lack of civil courage? How is this not a cause for deep, deep concern? On September 1, 2008 Manchester City were bought by a foreign investor. Or, as Manchester City so deliberately put it on their official website, “a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG) and Manchester City Football Club”, meaning, when said in plain English, that they will be given a shitload of money by their new owners.

You might wonder why that is such a big deal. Lots of clubs have foreign investors and they’re still crap. Well, ADUG is nothing like, let’s say, Fulham’s owner and provider of money. ADUG makes Roman Abramovich look like a poor beggar desperately searching for a hot meal and a place to sleep for the night. To put it in simple terms: they are filthy, filthy rich. They reportedly made offers of astronomical sums for David Villa, Berbatov, Mario Gomez and Robinho, the latter one thankfully being the only presented transfer, all at the same time, only a day after being bought up. Their owner, Suleiman al-Fahim, is saying that he’s aiming to make Manchester City the number 1 club in Europe and, since England is the best league by quite a bit, the best in the world. They think a 4th spot is a realistic target for this season. Now, I’m not worried one bit about Arsenal finishing behind Manchester City – atleast not this season, unless they buy an entire new starting eleven in the January transfer window, but, in no less than 1 or 2 years time, I’m afraid the Big 4 will be expanded into the Big 5 with Manchester City being that 5th member of this exclusive club. Perhaps as the dominant one.

The prospect of another huge team in the Premier League is not at all an appealing one to Arsenal fans, or any other fans who have their sympathies reserved for a team in the English league for that matter, because it will mean another mountain to climb. But that’s not my biggest concern. If only it were on a sporting level. This is about much, much more than that. It’s about morality – an underrated thing nowadays. Is this the message we want the future generations to absorb? That materialistic possessions, success and fame is all that matters? That everything can be solved by money and noone even cares? To me it appears that it’s what the world, not just football, is constantly moving towards. I don’t think that there is a global and generally accepted standard of morality in the world – nor should there be one, although religion sometimes tries to provide it, still I find this shocking, morally bankrupt and disturbingly wrong in so many, many ways.

Incredibly and mind-boggingly rich foreigners who know nothing about the game itself is what my nightmares are made out of. How do I know that they know nothing – or atleast, thankfully, very little – about the sport? Well, in the same interview that Suleiman al-Fahim revealed his ambitions for the club, he also said he was going to bring in players from his country to the club. That’s exactly what Shinawatra did too (who, by the way, didn’t give City a single pound of his own money – but perhaps more on that another time) and just look at how the players from Thailand permeates the City squad. Ehrm.

I really hope that Suleiman al-Fahim intervenes as much as possible with the manager’s plans. That would atleast help us a little bit. It doesn’t save the world from the evils of foreign investment, everything that it means and the reprecussions it will have on generations to come, though. That’s where our very own Arsene Wenger comes into the picture.

Arsene once said that he despises Big Brother, just like I do, for the same reasons that I hate it; because people want to become famous quickly. Not famous for anything in particular, like being good at something, just famous. What kind of goal in life is that? That is exactly what I think and it’s exactly the kind of soulless, materialistic worldview that will ruin society, like a virus or a parasite (or a foreign investor), inevitably leaving the world as a vacuum of individuality and moral fiber; a black hole of shattered potential and despair. Atleast that’s how I see it.

On a footballing level I still do see Arsenal having a bright future. If Wenger stays he would make Arsenal into the complete antithesis of get-famous-quick-clubs like City and Chelsea. If we aren’t one already. I can see players joining Arsenal solely on the basis of ours and Wenger’s reputation. Another positive thing about these trophy-barren years, partly imposed upon us by Wenger, is the love and affection for the club that the players have. Wenger brought them to London at a young age to let them develop together for years, making their ways up into the first team in the future. We are seeing the rewards of that now in the form of Clichy,  Toure and Fabregas – players who probably never will leave Arsenal, and more of these example will definitely follow. Hleb, Flamini and Gilberto (although the latter is perhaps not to be considered in the same ungrateful bracket as the first 2, but just do it for the sake of the argument), who all left us during the summer, did not go through the same things at Arsenal like Clichy and Fabregas has done. I think people will want to be a part of that. And when the Emirates makes us a force to be reckoned with in the transfer market I see no reason why we couldn’t be the dominant force in world football – considering teams like Man U and Chavski should be the new Leeds’ by then.

I love Arsenal, the players within the squad (yes, even Eboue), Arsene Wenger, his philosophy and everything that Arsenal stands for; everything from the way the lawn is mowed at the Emirates before games to all the charity work being done – I simply love Arsenal. I would prefer not winning a title ever again than being taken over by that fat, ugly, kind of troll-reminiscent waste of space that is Usmanov and becoming just like Chelsea or Man City. And if you love Arsenal, you should too. Let’s stick by Wenger for as long as we possibly can, because he truly is one in a million. And so is Arsenal.

Arsenal skipper William Gallas has urged his young team-mates to bounce back from Saturday’s shock Premier League defeat to Fulham, by cruising through to the Champions League group stages with a win in tonights penultimate qualifier against FC Twente.

The 31-year-old captained a below-par Gunners’ side at Craven Cottage and believes tonights game gives Arsene Wenger’s men a chance to redeem themselves.

Goals from Gallas and Emmanuel Adebayor secured victory in Arnhem just two weeks ago but the Frenchman still feels that Steve McClaren’s team pose a massive threat.

“It’s an absolutely must-win-game, we have to bounce back to victory before welcoming Newcastle because our group is getting better and better as soon as we win,” Gallas told his personal website.

“As a consequence we are going to play this game to win, despite the difficulties we faced against this team in the first leg.”

Gooner Talk will preview tonights game later this afternoon with a match report coming immediately after full time.

In other news, Lukasz Fabianski is going to be Poland’s Number One for the World Cup Qualifiers next month against Slovenia and San Marino, after Celtic’s Artur Boruc received an indefinite ban from the team.

Boruc and two of his team-mates, Dudka and Majewski, broke a curfew after Poland’s friendly in the Ukraine, which ended in a wild party and severe damage to a hotel room.

Boruc, Dudka and Majewski issued a grovelling apology on the Poland FA website but it didn’t save them from the axe.

Fabianski has only played around eight games for Arsenal in the last year, but with Lehmann leaving for Stuttgart he is now the firm second choice behind Almunia. He has also made seven previous appearances for Poland.