CLASSICAL ALLUSSIONS AND MEDIA DELUSION

When critics come they come not single spies, but in battalions

Now, I’m not the type who looks out for car’s following me, strange phone calls or unexplainable coincidences but I can confirm that as an Arsenal supporter I have to say that there is something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

Before during and after Wednesday’s enjoyable victory in Marseille there was layer upon layer of criticism, snide remark and general bastardness towards Arsenal. Particularly bad was the awful ITV coverage (are they any worse than Channel 5?). Did we want to know that O’Neill didn’t get on with Wenger? Did we want to be reminded ad infinitum that Arsenal have not had a great start to the domestic season? Was it good TV to have Keane gloating at our current sticky patch?

Ah-ha or not Ah-ha that is the question
http://youtu.be/Oi9W1E_Flqw

~~Alan Partridge~~ Gareth Southgate as a panellist brings new meaning to the word wooden. Andy Townsend transcends banality with his so called incisive views. Clive Tyldesley? I would rather have Ivy Tyldesley in the commentary box.

Tyledsley doth protest too much methinks

What happened to the pro British clubs in Europe reportage that ITV generally deal in? Those who were expecting unbiased and interesting coverage of the game by informed and articulate broadcasters were sorely disappointed. What we got was akin to the X Factor judges giving their views on talent.

more chatter with less art

The press were no better in their coverage. Some of the so called reporting was of the ‘last gasp Arsenal spared blushes variety’; funny that, as before they were banging on about how good OM were in Europe. There were far too many negatives in print to go into, but one of the best ones was Koscielny’s 6/10 rating!

Man Utd and Chelsea played nobodies Man City were a bit ‘last gasp’ yet Arsenal, unbeaten and topping a group that has The German Champions as a pot 4 team, the Greek Champions and the French runners up, receive scant praise. Don’t get me wrong though, it’s not praise that I am looking for it’s a fair and open media view; basic stuff.

To quote the Bard again, the football media is an unweeded garden of things rank and gross in nature.

Quotes from Hamlet

reinterpreted

Comments

Reasons to be cheerful?

So November arrives with cold weather and grey skies. Arsenal sit in 2 nd place with a great chance to make progress in the Carling Cup with a home draw against wigan Athletic. Poised to win our Champions league group and with six months of the season left have 3 of our five tougher away fixtures out of the way, having taken a respectable 4 from 9. I say respectable as, the Man City away trip aside the draw at Anfield on the occasion of Hodgson’s first game was a good result and the Chelsea game I don’t think anyone can really speak of any injustice. That leaves away games at Old Trafford and Sp*rs (who as we know raise their game for this fixture). With injured players gradually returning and the Polish goalkeepers showing signs of optimism, we’re in relatively good shape. Or so you’d think. Yesterday at the Emirates West Ham were put to the sword late on after some stout defending, a good performance from Robert Green and a couple of missed opportunities. The level of indign...

There's something rotten in the state of Denmark

A number of blogs are pointing out what was evident to me yesterday; as a season ticket holder and Silver member i like thousands of others made plans to purchase an additional ticket for the Barcelona game using the frustrating and irritating online service, but guess what? no joy, just lots of waiting finger tapping and watching the dreaded 'loading' bar (to make matters worse I had asked my missus to do this as I was doing training). But no one got these additional tickets, that is no supporters judging by the general feedback! It seems to me that the additional seats will have probably gone to customers of a corporate nature. Ultimately for such a marquee (to use an American commercialism term) game I suspect that the club where never going to sell to supporters of the club, there is clearly a undercurrent at the Emirates that the club wants to have the stadium full of customers ie; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ognvWIwjKTQ The Emirates of the future? It will be interesti...

PERSONALITY TEST

Played 23, 10 defeats, 4 draws and 9 victories; that's the factual bit out of the way. What does that tell us? I guess it is a set of statistics that reasonably reflect a mid table team. How we got here is something that countless column inches and hours of debate have gone into. How we move forward is the bigger question. Naturally, learning from past mistakes is a key element to moving forward but have Arsenal Football Club done that? Have Arsenal Football Club realised that a clear vision and plan is needed? When you look at the current squad its relatively easy to see where the strenghts are, and the weaknesses. The manager too, has strengths and weaknesses but one thing that is intangible is the personality of the club. Not so much "where are we" as "what are we?" To know what the club is is to know what the upper echelons think, what their plan and philosophy is and how the manager processes that information. We can assume that the club decision makers wa...

ARSENALISM©

Search This Blog