Sat 13th March 2010 17:30, KC Stadium
Archive for Media Talk
Media Sycophancy And What Football Must Learn From Arsenal
Posted by: | CommentsLast night was somewhat surreal as the football on offer left my emotions and thoughts split three ways.
Firstly, there was the reality check being dished out in its coldest and most ruthless form at the Santiago Bernabeu. Secondly there was the shift into the overdrive of media sycophancy about Manchester United’s supposed ’World domination’ and the collective kissing of Alex Ferguson’s and Wayne Rooney’s rectal passages.
The media establishment were so far up the said asses, it was hard to see how the fumes and operating conditions would have allowed them to offer some objectivity.
It was only yesterday that all and sundry tried to portray Arsenal’s annihilation of Porto as not worthy of the Gunners, citing a supposedly tame dragon that was Porto. This third aspect really pissed me off.
Well, I thought I was pissed off until my wife, an ardent Chelsea supporter, came downstairs remonstrating about how she had been let down by AC Milan. I tried to convince her that Milan weren’t the team they used to be and that their contingent of senior citizens has passed their sell by date.
She was having none of that as clearly, her issue was that in the next week or so, she’d have to cope with the media barrage of ”Rooney this, Man United that, Ferguson this, Man United that”. The thought of Rooney, Ferguson and Man United being shoved down her throat by the media felt like it was going to make her physically sick.
I’ve got to tell you, that when even Chelsea fans complain about the media sycophancy towards Sir Red Nose and his charges, then something is clearly amiss.
Perhaps it’s just naive to expect that the establishment’s darling won’t get its customary treatment – and what, with just around 12 weeks to go to the World Cup – it’s even more naive to think that Wayne Rooney isn’t about to get the media endorsement to become a Knight of the Realm.
Of course, he’ll have to score the winning goal at the World Cup before Aunt Liz and Uncle Phil take the Royal train from Buckingham Palace to Carrington to personally endow the next Knight in waiting with the right to use Sir Wayne on his personal stationery.
I don’t know which is more scary – having to live with Sir Wayne for the next I don’t know how many years, or having to live with the vanity of Lady Coleen.
If you haven’t noticed yet, I was obviously tuned into Sky Sports 1 last night watching the events at the Santiago Bernabeu. Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president has to be one of the biggest platinum idiots this side of the Mediterranean. I would have had sympathy for him under different circumstances, but Perez has form for breath-taking recklessness in spending an obscene amount of money to try and buy titles.
There can’t be any more spectacular ways to burn 260 million Euros – and what, for the sake of winning the Champions League in your own backyard? He tried it before and it didn’t work, and he should have heeded the famous Chinese saying that suggests that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
The truth is that Real Madrid has just become the perfect case study of the fact that there is no place for reckless and brazen cheque book management of football in this day and age.
Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have been constantly derided and ridiculed for supposedly being tight fisted and anal about not spending money they haven’t got. While this is going on, the recklessness of other comparable clubs like Man United and Liverpool have been hailed as the way forward – only to turn out to be basket cases of debt riddled clubs that are running on the fumes of history and reputation.
Chelsea and Manchester City on the other hand are play toys for sugar daddies who let’s face it, have to be candidates for the lifetime stupidity award for business acumen.
I hear the argument that these folks are billionaires so they must have done something right in business. Actually, they haven’t done anything that spectacular like build a software empire from scratch or something dramatic like that.
Abramovich benefitted from the Russian economic revolution in the 90s by being in the right place at the right time to pounce – and the Abu Dhabi Investment Corporation are pretty much sitting on top of an oil mine that allows them to print the money themselves.
Despite this, the reality that you can’t buy titles, history and tradition by throwing money at middle table mediocrity still doesn’t seem to sink in. Abramovich has already lost £700 million (and counting) – and all he has to show for it is 2 league titles and a few FA cups. If that’s a good return for £700 million,, then clearly we all need to fold our tents and move on.
The new trend seems to be that of shifting the obscene amount of debt from the liability column on the balance sheet to the equity column. Manchester City have followed this pathetic route – but it doesn’t mask the fact that it’s bad business. They’ll of course say they have the money – but if ever there was a definition of doping, then this has to be it.
Heads are rolling this week in the Spanish Capital, and heads will continue to role. One disadvantage for Arsenal of course is that Wenger will now become a target sought after like a nonsense as Madrid try to save face and justify burning the money they’ve burnt in the last year.
Football today couldn’t do any worse than take a leaf from the philosophy and approach of Arsenal’s Professor who holds a Masters degree in Economics. He masquerades day to day as the Arsenal manager, but in Wenger, football has a sage who balances the virtues of football with the discipline of business.
Wenger is the reason why Arsenal leads, and others follow. If the footballing world didn’t learn anything from Real Madrid’s exit out of the Champions league yesterday, then I suspect a bigger tragedy in football must and should happen for our game to be in a better place.
In yesterday’s article, I laid out the first part of a coherent argument against what I feel ails English football.
Read: Anti-football, Anti-Arsenalism And The Misguided Self Preservation Of English Football – Part I.
In today’s final instalment, I want to address the role played by different parties in perpetuating this insalubrious culture of thuggery disguised as commitment, grit and steel.
3. It’s Not Just a Hill Of Beans, It’s a Very Big Deal
3.1 The Role Of Players
I mentioned yesterday that when it comes to players, there are two key underlying factors that have contributed to this decay:
- The issue of technically inferior players substituting technique with excessive aggression and thinking that this caveman approach to football is acceptable.
- The culture and environment that these players have been brought up in and continue to work in. It’s a culture that promotes the virtues of English football as being that of the physical ”blood and thunder, leg breaking, gut busting, full contact aggression” – that is typical of the ancient ‘Chuck Norris and Van Damme’ one man hero mentality that conquers all.
When these players cross that white line and get on the pitch, they are wired to unleash the cocktail of systematic violence as a deliberate strategy to slow down the opposing team – whether by physical or psychological means.
The horrific injury to Aaron Ramsey has left a bitter taste in the mouths of Arsenal fans and football enthusiasts ALIKE. Predictably, an unsavoury side of the English football establishment bore its ugly head for all to see.
Bear with me as I address what I feel are the key issues around the related themes of Anti-football, Anti-Arsenalism, and the misguided defence of the ugly side of English football that has no place in the modern game.
Before I lay my case out in this 2 part article, there is a very relevant sub-context to this topic that I’ve comprehensively covered in another 3 part article series Called ”How ‘English’ is the English Premier league”. If you have the time, check out:
- How ‘English’ Is The English Premier League? – Part I
- How ‘English Is The English Premier League? – Part II
- How ‘English’ Is The English Premier League? – Part III
I’ve covered a lot in the above series relating to the impact and necessity of foreign influence in the EPL – and I believe it’s very relevant as it already answers some of the questions that this two part article on ‘Anti-football’ will pose.
You can also read Part II of this article here.
Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey in action
1. The Systematic Targeting Of Arsenal
1.1 The Context: Technique vs Physicality
It has now become widely acceptable that for some teams, the only way to stop Arsenal is to kick the hell out of them. There are teams that with all due respect, will never be able to match the technical superiority of Arsenal.
It has become urban legend that the only way to play Arsenal is to throw them off their stride with an overly physical game that involves a combination of rotational fouling and a more coherent strategy of ’hard tackles’ to take Arsenal’s creative players out of the picture.
Sex, Lies And The England Captain
Posted by: | CommentsI thought I’d take a detour today and muse about the scandal of the day. There’s no video tape (well, not that I’ve seen), so I went with ’the England Captain’ in the title.
Let’s face it – infidelity is as old as the universe itself. It’s disingenuous to blame John Terry for acting on his animal instincts.
Part of the problem here is this; From time immemorial, men have under-estimated the mystical powers of the business end of a woman’s femininity. The world is littered by the great and good and by ordinary man folk who’ve fallen foul and succumbed to this mystical power.
The England captain is but a mere mortal and only stood as little chance as the next guy with a hard on. Perhaps what is more tragic, is that John Terry broke the cardinal rule of not banging the missus of a friend and colleague.
For that show of breath-taking stupidity, the poor chap has to face the music and deal with it (how do they say it) – like a man.
The hyperbole and hysteria machine that is the media is working overtime to ensure that they milk this for what it’s worth. Good juicy copy to fill the columns and air waves comes at a premium in this 24 hour ’give me the frigging news now’ culture that we have.
The question then becomes whether morality has a place on the football pitch.
If you want to know how big a deal this is, you only have to listen to the excuses already being made for England’s failures at the 2010 World cup.
If I were John Terry, I’d be pissed off that I’m already being set up as a fall guy – but frankly speaking, he should be more worried that his wife has a problem with his away game record.
Incidentally, there’s form on this very issue that Capello and the England team can draw on. It wasn’t very long ago, 3 World cups ago to be precise – that the USA national team totally lost the plot.
The USA captain at the time was banging the wife of a team-mate and once that came to light, it was all downhill from there and the team never recovered.
My sense is that a captain has several jobs and it’s easy to debate whether on-field matters can be separated from or affected by off-field matters. Everyone will have an opinion about this and you can argue until the cows come home.
The thing is though, the glue that holds together all the attributes that makes a captain successful is trust. Once that’s broken – it really is a project to keep the team together.
Certainly, if I was a Chelsea or England player, I wouldn’t want to leave my wife or girlfriend alone in the same room with Terry. I would suspect that Terry would find it hard to command the respect of those that matter in the England setup.
The other bigger headache for Capello is that if he fires John Terry as England captain, he doesn’t exactly have the entire Vienna Boys Choir to choose from to get a new captain.
Steven Gerrard might seem to some as a natural replacement. But what does it say about a thug who bullies a DJ in a bar because the DJ refuses to play him a Phil Collins song and goes ahead and knocks a few teeth off the unsuspecting chap. I’m still amazed that even with the CCTV footage, the good folks of the jury saw it as self defence….but clearly, I digress.
Banging other people’s missus’s has consequences and I guess we’re already seeing the media blaming John Terry for another ”…but we won it in 1966” refrain.
Is Anti-Arsenalism A Reality Or A Myth
Posted by: | CommentsLike many Arsenal supporters out there, I suffer from an acute case of Arsenalitis. It’s a disease characterized by a deep emotional attachment to anything that has to do with Arsenal football club.
Some of the symptoms include chronic insomnia when the Gunners lose games or draw games we should have won; and frequent bouts of hypertension and anxiety attacks when we feel the club is unfairly being misrepresented in the media.
Despite the responsible thing of managing one’s own health and well-being say by not watching or listening to diatribe – you can’t help but notice the blatant cases of bias against Arsenal.
So is this anti-Arsenalism really a myth, or shall we stop beating around the bush and call it what it is – blatant bias and xenophobia by the establishment towards Arsenal?
Years ago, my Liverpool loving friend Dean asked me why I love Arsenal so much. You see, Dean and I grew up together and we’ve been really close friends for just shy of 30 years.
When we were kids, we played our own leagues in the council estates and equivalents of Hackney Marshes. This was in the early to mid 80s when Liverpool were flying and many of the local neighbourhood teams adopted the names of big clubs like Liverpool and Manchester United, despite the fact that we were lucky to even watch a televised match once a month in our part of the world.
The funny thing is that we knew more about the team we supported and the players of the time, than we did about school work and the local curriculum. Prozone would have been proud of us at the time.
Dean was the local Liverpool’s star. Their Graham Souness, the guy who made them tick. He’s the only footballer who I know will nutmeg you and dribble past 3 players, turn towards you with that impish ”gotcha” smile, before smuggling the ball into the goal from a ridiculously impossible angle.
So I wasn’t the least bit surprised about his allegiance to Liverpool. His question to me about the roots of my allegiance to Arsenal did make me think though.
I suppose the biggest driving factor for me is to do with what Arsenal as a club represents. Victoria Concordia Crescit says it all, but it’s much more than that. It’s about the club’s values and philosophy of openness and opportunity. About the clubs desire to go about things in the right and fair way, and about the clubs patience and determination to develop an ambitious vision, stick to it and work hard at realising it.
There are many aspects of Arsenal’s journey over the last 2 decades that are a reflection of my own journey in life. In the last 18 years in particular I’ve identified more with the Gunners than any other development in my life I guess.
Friends tell me in a way that I’m lucky that my wife is also crazy about football. The down side though is that she’s a diehard Chelsea supporter (yeah! I know) – but I guess we all make sacrifices in life and have to live with the consequences.
Perhaps these are the reasons why I feel more sensitive and aggrieved about the open bias towards Arsenal that I encounter every day from the English football establishment. And it’s not paranoia. I know paranoia, believe me.
I’ll give you 4 examples (and there’s loads more) to illustrate my point.
1. Broadcasting of Arsenal Games on TV or radio
I’ll cite the group stages of the champions league. Out of 6 match days, there’s 24 opportunities that 2 radio stations have to broadcast the commentary for the games involving the 4 English sides.
I’ve used radio as an example because on the specific Tuesday and Wednesday nights of the Champions league match days, I was working and where I was , we can only listen to radio.
Out of the 24 opportunities that both radio stations had, only one Arsenal game – the match day 1 game between Standard Liege and Arsenal was broadcast. In a fair world, you’d expect that more than 1 out of 24 Arsenal games would get air time. In most cases, both stations broadcast the same match involving either Chelsea, Man United or Liverpool.
Don’t even get me started on the debacle of the Sky vs. ITV split that sees Arsenal relegated into broadcasting wilderness.
2. Anally Retentive Commentators.
It’ was refreshing that in his last webcast to Arsenal supporters, Wenger confessed that he rarely watches Arsenal games on TV with the volume on. The outright bias and diatribe the commentators have against Arsenal can drive you loco.
It’s almost like it’s a scripted attempt to brainwash Arsenal fans with negativity. Whether it’s constantly referring to Gallas’s drama at St. Andrews in February 2008, or the application of selective amnesia that blanks out any virtues of the Arsenal game and amplifies Arsenal’s shortcomings; some commentators need to be lynched.
In many cases, commentators have publicly referred to the opposing team as ”our”. I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if they’re on the opposing team’s payroll, but to be fair, such commentators are just thick.
3. Xenophobia towards Arsenal’s colourful squad
The constant references to Arsenal’s supposed lack of English players is mind numbing and bang out of order. They serve to reinforce stereotypes that promote the dislike of the unknown and the misunderstood, and essentially fuel xenophobia.
The way the non-English mantra is latched on to suggests that there is something inherently wrong with not being English. An argument has been made that the English premier league is actually English in an attempt to justify the xenophobia.
Frankly speaking, in the 21st century, that’s an argument that needs to be filed right between shit and syphilis. There’s no room for that level of ignorance and arrogance for that matter in a game that is prostituted around the world as the best league competition on the planet.
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that the Premier League is only popular in the world because of the myriad of international players and managers in the game. If it was still quintessentially English, the league would still be in the wilderness of the mid 80s to early 90s following the 5 year UEFA ban caused by hooliganism.
Furthermore, the billions of pounds Sky and other TV broadcasters pump into the game is only made possible by the ability to sell broadcasting rights all over the world. The English premier league can’t be a reality without non-English participation.
Inevitably, Arsenal is the whipping boy of this ”you’re not English enough” band wagon. It’s a shame that no one takes notice of the composition of the Arsenal youth and reserves team, and Arsenal’s stellar work in bringing through talented English players for the future.
4. Misguided truths or convenient lies about Arsenal
Take your pick:
- Arsenal don’t have strength and depth
- Arsenal need an English spine to win the EPL
- Arsenal must play ugly to win
- Arsenal can’t hack it if you bully them or kick them off the park
- It’s OK to actually kick them weak and brittle Arsenal players
- Arsenal are broke and there are a poor man’s imitation of the big 2 clubs
- If Arsenal don’t win a trophy this season then Wenger must go
- Wenger is a tight fisted egomaniac who refuses to spend money for big name transfers
- Arsenal are a selling team
You get the picture…
Basically a narrative has been building for several years now to serve the purpose of pigeon holing Arsenal into an also-rans outfit. There will always be a negative edge pursued on any Arsenal story.
A good example is when Andrey Arshavin said that Arsenal needed a miracle to have all their first team players available at the same time. This was swiftly rehashed and reported as “Arshavin says Arsenal need a miracle to win the title”
What is also noticeable is the contempt and disdain that Arsenal and Wenger are held in by the I-Zombies (pundits and hacks) in football. Most of them find it really hard to hide their contempt for all things Arsenal. It’s so pathetic to watch them pretend to be impartial.
It’s true what they say though. If they hate you this much, you must be doing something right. Is choosing to win by playing beautiful football such a bad thing?
Wenger’s Gamble Stokes Arsenal Out Of The FA Cup
Posted by: | CommentsThe morning after any defeat is a strange one. For many Arsenal supporters, it’s probably the headlines and the recycled TV footage of the said defeat that can make them lose the will to live.
For others, it’s a balance between lying in a dark room with a cold towel over the face or confronting friends and colleagues at work to explain why yet again, Arsenal fell short. Sometimes I’m glad I don’t have to face such an inquisition, but nevertheless, any loss is disappointing for the simple reason that I don’t like losing.
When my Liverpool supporting friend walked into the room and asked me “Have you seen your team playing Stoke?”, my first question was “Has Wenger done a Man United?”.
You see, in March 2008, I was with Dean (my friend) listening on the car radio while driving when Arsenal visited Old Trafford in the 5th round of the FA cup. At that time, the Gunners were top of the league, 5 points clear and with a game in hand.
For some reason, the Arsenal team didn’t get off the bus that day and were dispatched back to London with a 4 nil defeat. Dean’s reaction to that game was that Wenger threw the game to focus on the Premier league and the Champions league.
With a threadbare squad leading up to this weekend, it was therefore anyone’s guess as to who will make an appearance. Most of the headlines of course went to Sol Campbell, who I must say, didn’t have a bad game for someone who’s been in the wilderness for a while.
And so the team was overhauled. Dean joked in exclamation when he pointed out that “Jesus! Arsenal have started the game with 4 English players. This is a miracle. ” I reminded him that it could have been 5 if Little Jack Willy didn’t pull a sicky forcing Cesc to make an appearance.
We had a bet as to how many times the commentators will mention the fact that Arsenal started the game with 4 English players, 2 shy of Stoke’s 6 Englishmen. I said they wouldn’t notice and I won the bet.
Stoke seemed to want this game more than Arsenal did and within 70 seconds, Delap duly obliged with one of his trademark throws. Fabianski was none the wiser as the ball ghosted past him into the net.
The match then took that “they’re going to park the bus” feeling. A scrappy match followed for most part with constant references of Stoke’s giants vs. Arsenal’s pint sized diddy men. Clearly the revised script titled “How to be a lazy observer” was in full use.
The match ticked on at 1-1 with Denilson’s equalizer being referred to constantly as a deflected shot. I actually got pissed off the more this was said. Frank Lampard for example, has perfected the craft of scoring deflected goals yet no one bothers to mention that they’re deflected.
I expected that at some point, Wenger would relieve Theo Walcott off his misery. Theo couldn’t even fart on the pitch without being surrounded by a gang of red and white Stoke shirts. For all intents and purposes, it was like Arsenal were playing with 10 men.
When Wenger decided to unleash all 3 substitutes at the same time, I said to Dean – “this is going to be dodgy”.
The only time I remember Wenger ever employing a triple substitution was in early September 2006. I was actually sat at a bar in a mall in down town Kampala with Dean and some friends.
Middlesbrough were 1 mil up and Wenger brought on Thierry Henry, Alex Hleb and Julio Baptista at the same time. We still ended up drawing 1-1 despite the reinforcements.
Maybe it was déjà vu, but triple substitutions give me the jitters. At one point, Sly nearly ruled himself out of the game and I was convinced Arsenal were going to complete the game with 10 men.
Stoke however applied themselves well, and scored twice from attacks launched after Arsenal sloppily conceded the ball. I guess that’s what you get with a team determined to cause an upset and a heckling Britannia stadium behind them.
The team selection was always going to be a slippery banana skin for Wenger. Damned if he played his strongest team, damned if he didn’t. I was actually pleased that Gallas and Vermaelen had their feet up with a cup of cocoa watching the game from home. The two needed a rest and this game was as good a chance as any to give them a rest.
Doom and gloom merchants as well as media hawks and I-Zombies (the new name for plonkers and pundits aka plundits) will be quick to point out that Arsenal have killed their chances of silverware this season.
Frankly speaking – that’s total nonsense. Arsenal had to make a choice and prioritize and in the grand scheme of things, the FA cup was the sacrifice.
Of course Arsenal want to win, but prioritizing the Champions League and the Premier league has to be the case. The blunt truth is that the FA cup doesn’t bring in big bucks.
It’s still very disappointing to lose a game and I’m sure that the team that played were bitterly disappointed.
Time will tell whether the loss adversely affects the morale of the team ala the drama following the 5th round defeat in 2008.
Stoke were worthy winners on the day and they gave the game a really good cup atmosphere. I must say, their crowd are brilliant and get well behind their team.
It was also very nice to see J Emmanuel Thomas have his full debut for the first team. I like the lad and he has a lot to offer this team. I seriously hope he gets more game time.
And as for the nonsense about Stoke being our new bogey team, there’s a simple answer to that according to Wenger. Arsenal doesn’t struggle against Stoke at the Britannia, Arsenal struggles against any team if they don’t play well, period.
A positive response is needed at Villa Park on Wednesday night when the first team returns for duty.
Media Hypocrisy: As Stoke Threaten To Bully And Kick Arsenal
Posted by: | CommentsAfter the furore over the William Gallas affair, it was timely that Wenger reminded the very media that revels in peddling sensationalism, that they’re as two faced and biased as they come.
In the non-footballing world that we live in, publicly threatening to assault and injure other human beings is actually a criminal offence. I think they call it conspiracy, in this case Conspiracy to commit ABH or GBH.
On the issue, Wenger said:
There was too much made about the William Gallas incident. It was a mistimed challenge but without any intention to harm the player.
What is more funny is that, when we get kicked, some people say before the game ‘we know how to play Arsenal, we have to kick them’ and nobody in the whole country is upset by that. I am always absolutely amazed that people get away with it.
When we get kicked and lose the game, the question I get from the press is ‘oh, you did not fancy that’. But nobody is upset or shocked by it. When we are kicked they find that it is absolutely all right.
Step forward Ricardo Fuller, and right on cue too.
The Stoke forward shamelessly peddles the fact that Stoke’s strategy tomorrow is to bully and kick the hell out of Arsenal because the Gunners don’t like it ’up their noses’. He even claims that Chelsea and Bolton do this job very effectively (though I highly doubt he watched Arsenal’s last 2 games).
Even more disgusting, is that the media print and broadcast this sort of incitement to violence as credible news. I think they call it build up to the game, or something dramatic like that.
This is the same media that decides to apply selective amnesia and totally over-react to incidents that help them peddle their narrative of pigeon-holing Arsenal as the also-rans the establishment wants them to be.
Wenger’s take again on this is simple and refreshing:
The problem in England is that the sensitivity of one media dictates what the whole country has to think and I raise big question marks over the competence and the objectivity of the guys who make these kind of decisions.
Maybe Arsenal should just look at the threat to maim their players as a compliment from teams who can’t cope with Arsenal. Anyone reasonable would expect that an opposing team will at least try and play some football.
The Gunners though, are most definitely a different proposition, and have shown that they’re not going to be bullied off the park. If it means taking one for the team, the players are willing to – what do they say – mix it a bit.
It’s unfortunate though, that the FA have not seriously taken FIFA’s recent ruling that technically gifted players must be protected by referees. It truly is sad when this sort of violence is sanctioned in the name of association football.
It’s even sadder when the careers of technically gifted players are put at risk because other less technical players opt for violence instead of trying to play football.
