Of Red and Brown Nosing, Sycophancy And Misguided Punditry
ByIt’s been a long time since the regular dosage at Stone Cold Arsenal Towers, and I trust all has been well. Like many, I still find myself in that strange place of being ecstatic about the fact that proper football is back, but being apprehensive about the sheer amount of media shit stirring being peddled about in the name of selling copy. When is that transfer window being bolted shut?
So the last couple of days while commuting to and from work I decided to do the unthinkable and find out what the usual suspects are up to in sports radio. Kills the down time in between and I thought that maybe they’d talk about you know – football.
Red nose seemed to have picked his moment by accusing old Mancini and his paymasters for Kamikaze spending. Part of me smiled sheepishly as I thought “you sad bastard, you’re just broke and can’t afford those wild player purchases you used to make”.
And it’s the truth. Manchester United are damn broke and it’s pointless suggesting that they’re still liquid and can service their debts. In the real world, any company that had debt ratios at the level of the Manure would be lined up along the wall and shot. Gone are the days when winning trophies guaranteed that you’ll actually make some money.
Anyway, laughing at Red nose wasn’t my point; my point was the sycophancy of the media pundits who don’t know when they need to stop kissing Fergusons ass.
Everyone knows that the transfer market this summer has been uneventful. Well, there’s Manchester City, but for the real world, they don’t seem to live on this planet. The fact that their owners have a mint attached to their office block in Abu Dhabi makes including them in a conversation about transfers an irrelevant discussion.
And so the pundits start waxing lyrical about the foresight of Ferguson in seeing the light when it comes to the challenges of the economic environment. Challenges that have led him to take a more realistic and prudent approach to developing a new team with a blend of geriatrics and youngsters.
The sycophantic punks can’t stop to pontificate how Sir Red nose is the best at building teams and that they’re heading the right way. They remind us of how he brought up the generation of Giggs, Beckham, the Neville brothers et al, and how he is already doing the same now.
Do these guys think we walked into this season straight from the cotton fields?
The fool is damn broke, and any financial rookie getting off the milk train at Manchester Piccadilly could have told you that Red nose is damn broke and can’t afford the spending lifestyle he’s been used to over the last decade.
The thing is this though. These punks have spent the best part of the last 6 or 7 years unashamedly bashing Wenger and Arsenal for being a pillar of strength and not succumbing to brazen ‘cheque book’ management. They have continued to bash Wenger for being a tight fisted egomaniac who had only one agenda of proving the world wrong.
They have continued over the years to ridicule Arsenal as being an unambitious club that doesn’t have the balls to spend money to compete with the so called big boys. They have continued to mock and ridicule the comprehensive and visionary youth development policy that will continue to stand the club in good stead for years to come.
And yet when clubs all around Arsenal start becoming basket cases; and when Chairmen and club owners around the leagues start tightening their belts because creditors don’t want to play anymore; when the so called big boys have collective debts that rival the GDP of some developing countries – the punks don’t even have the humility to acknowledge that all along, Arsenal and Wenger have been doing the right thing.
They don’t have the grace to accept that their stupidity in Arsenal bashing over the years and their lack of foresight in understanding and appreciating Arsenal’s vision and why the club chose to go that way – makes them look like fools.
Yeah, go ahead and kiss the arse of old Red nose; but don’t forget – the mighty Arsenal leads the way and others follow.
The ambitious youth development policy that these misguided and miseducated pundits have been trashing in the last few years is clearly been seen as the answer by the establishment up and down the land.
The emerging richness of players from within our youth ranks means that Arsenal don’t have to ‘buy’ the so called big name mercenaries in order to compete. Yes, the team will buy, but we will buy players on our own terms.
Part of the problem with football in this country is that people don’t want or people don’t know how to build things any more. They just want to buy them. If there’s a problem – “who are they buying?”. Come the summer and January transfer windows, “who are they buying?”.
Watch the Arsenal baffle the whole lot of them as they suffocate for air from within Red noses – you know where….
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Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
Stirring stuff indeed..!!
Bloody good read that sir….!!
You’ll find that Wenger did get praise right up until the last couple of seasons (season 4 and 5 of not winning anything).
Good article…… not sure how near the mark it is with Man U but it cannot be far off, and any spending can only add to their mountain of debt.
I love Arsenal and it has been frustrating at times to have to stand and wait while others get all the glory. At the same time I have watched, with growing anticipation, the progress of our youth policy, and the vindication that will bring the glory back to Arsenal
And it is not just our policy of nurturing rather than buying that will prove the point. We should be thankful for our Board’s prudent fiscal policy, frustrating to supporters as this too has been.
We have no guarantee of success but we now have the building blocks in place to really reap the benefit of our own policies and the problems elsewhere.
Liked the article and good to see you back and firing on all cylinders.
I think the problem boasts deeper roots than many think.
At the risk of being likened to some lunatic conspiracy theorist, I believe the problem lies in the pundits towing the ‘party line’, and the ‘party line’ is the vested interest of Murdoch’s Mafia in the Manchester United corporation.
Sadly we are in an age with a monopoly on television sports (wasn’t there a commission for that, once upon a time?) and a duopoly on News coverage.
Sky Sports gets into financial partnership with Manure, through many and devious means, and through that manipulates the coverage of football and, ipso facto, the pundits.
The government can’t afford to upset Murdoch’s Mafia, because they have become kingmakers under New Labour (who else would give old red-nose a knighthood) and so Murdoch and the boys do whatever they damn-well please.
The upshot of all this is a blatantly biased media that nobody is capable of tackling. Associated Newspapers can’t go after them, because we all think the Daily Mail is for middle-class loonies. The government can’t go after them, because they want to get re-elected, the BBC can’t take them on, because the BBC owes its livelihood to the government, and the monopolies people think sports coverage is all just ‘a bit of fun’.
This is not ‘a bit of fun’ this is an insidious and calculated business strategy that promotes its own financial interests at the expense of journalistic integrity and balance, and ultimately democracy.
Far-fetched? Maybe, but I truly believe it.
To be honest Darius fret not, the press might not recognise it, the real recognition is when you hear other clubs in the country say “we are doing an Arsenal” or using “the Arsenal model”, or “The way Arsenal have done it is….”.
They are the ones who will usher in the better club management, and then sky will do a report on the better husbandry of clubs with a footnote credit to Arsenal, it was the same for players diets.
It will only be deemed messianic if we win the prem, with the press all that glitters is gold.
Darius,
Alex Ferguson has 11 league titles. ELEVEN!
5 FA Cups (two doubles)
2 European Cups (1 treble)
And a stack full of other accolades….9 community shields, 4 league cups, a cup winners cup, a fifa world club cup…………
Are you seriously suggesting that he has mismanaged Man Utd?
He hasn’t. All thats happened is that the Glazers have saddled the club with the buy-out price – which can happen to any PLC irrespective of who the manager is. It really has very little to do with Ferguson. Now – I don’t like him any more that the next Arsenal fan, I think he’s a bully at the best of times, but his record is just breathtaking and his success as a manager will see him go down as a legend in the history of football.
Joe,
and that’s the problem with history… it’s single dimensional.
The reality was that for years Manure out-spent their rivals and effectively bought the trophies….
The fact that old red-nose is now bitching about Kamikaze spendfing is hypocrisy gone mad.
I was missing the fact of no new posts for a while. Nice article. Surely credit must be given to Arsene’s foresight. The club is in a very good financial setup. Even the board knows we are in the right direction, giving wenger a 4 year deal.
We cant bash wenger for not making any signings completely.
1. Clubs dont seem to want to sell their players.
2. Man Shitty are paying huge sums, as a result the market is inflated.
3. Transfer wages are absurd.
4. Wenger wont over pay his evaluations, not too much i guess.
5. Will Mancini sell Given to us?
Good to see you back with batteries recharged Darius.
SAF has superb tactical & motivational skills that allied to Man U’s ability to boss the PL transfer market, until Abramovic turned up, has led to his staggering record, since 1993. He also had a rare number of terrific players coming through the MU system but it is to his credit that he found the best way to use them, although it may have taken longer to be successful if an Abromovic was around then.
At a time, when we are constantly reminded that it is 5 years since our last trophy, it should be remembered that in Fergie’s first six seasons there was only 1 fairly fortuitous FA Cup win in 1990. As I remember he did get quite a bit of stick at that time, more likely than not because MU have always had their own doomers too.
His remarks do stink of “sour grapes” when you consider his at any price purchases of Rooney & Rio, together with triple realistic prices for the likes Carrick, Hardgreaves & Berbotov etc.
He is now coming down to a more of a level footing, in the transfer market, with AW now, so it will be interesting to see how this pans out.
As a pure football man SAF is unassailable in British football but in terms of overall effect for the better on a club & its football then to my mind AW is absolutely without parallel.
I have no grudge with the sycophancy surrounding SAF but the lack of respect shown to AW is just sad & ignorant.
FMC,
some nice points there and well made… The saddest thing of all is that it is our so-called Arsenal fanbase that does a great deal of the sniping at AW.
Constructive criticism is the right of every fan, but at times this goes beyond anything that might be described as even loosely constructive. This merely aids and abets the negative press.
We live in a disposable world; with disposable people, with disposable values, and an Arsenal fanbase fringe with highly selective memories..
Perhaps this is part of the reason that articles and sites like this get so few comments and interest, and the Arsenal lunatic-fringe blogs get so many… I just don’t understand it.
Welcome back Darius. Very Good read.
Yep, good to have you back home Darius.
High quality postings, in the main.
Strangely, I had a dream about SAF last night and for the first time saw him as a reasonable man. We were in some kind of alliance! Of course, his antics and behaviour now contrast well with that of the chavs and blue mancs! That didn’t used to be the case.
Arsene will never get the credit he deserves with the mainstream media. Not exciting enough for them. I suspect there is a fair chunk of truth in mikeB’s comment as well.
very good read, i reckon the time is coming when arsenal begin to dominate the premier league and europe.
Good read. I am glad you’re back.
Years from now as we dominate the media will be praising how genius is Arsene Wenger and how they knew all along and predicted our success.
Well written material.