Arsenal America

“First off, WERE YOU THERE???? I don’t mean Highbury, I mean New York’s own Nevada Smith’s (or wherever you were across the states) last Saturday! The turnout was TREMENDOUS as the Gooner contingent made it seem a bit like “”Highbury across the pond”" in there as we outsang the scum dwellers who had the gall to throw up their sh*t flag in the corner, I guess they “”got their Tottenham back”" now, right???? If you were in there then you know how GREAT it was to send them home to the following “”crying on the telly, we saw you crying on the telly…”" amongst other ditties (”"we won the league at 3 point lane”", “”1 team in London”", “”are you Tottenham in disguise?”", “”3-0 to the champions”", etc…) to name a few. Overall, the match itself was a thorough display of class against classless on the pitch as the champions showed “”mystic Meg”" Hoddle just how far the divide is between the champions and North London Albion (yeah, they don’t even deserve to be called a Premiership team after that lopsided victory). What stood out the most to me was how wellthe whole team took the derby and played b*lls off to gain the 3 points from Shabaan (we need a song for him, say something that rhymes with “”Shazam”" orsomething!) to “”the new Ian Wright”" Henry up front. Need I mention how Vieira, Pires, Freddie and Gilberto bossed the midfield or what? 3-0 to the champions, ’nuff said. And now my weekly effort…

European Cup- a draw that has the Arsenal primed for a full effort, no lollipops here as trips to Rome, Amsterdam and Valencia will need to be the stuff of legendary performances to progress to the quarter-finals. The tougher the better as nobody said it would ever be easy for Arsenal, and gear the team up for better nights in Europe. Let the next stage begin…

G-14- in case you missed it, last week the G-14 had a “”gentlemen’s agreement”" that was to limit 65-70% of a club’s overall turnover into player’s salaries. Now Arsene Wenger (correctly too at the time) said that this was setting a bad precedent where clubs will now try and change up their books and hide cash payments to players’ salaries and agents by fudging figures. Now this is due to take place in about 3 seasons but there is trouble on the horizon as you know that clubs will now include image rights clauses into contracts as well as payments to invisible officials as a way to circumvent this agreement I think. And this “”agreement”" was basically brought into fruition by none other than those rich b#stards Real Madrid whose club president then had the nerve to say “”not every team can afford to buy a Zidane or Figo every season”" REALLY? I thought every club had your deep treasure chest, mate! ( note my sarcasm there!) To which Arsene came up with the following dittie “”it’s not a good idea as we should fine clubs like they’ve done in other countries by relegating clubs for not balancing their books”". Could you just see the looks on Ken Bates and Leeds’ Ridsdale if they were threatened with relegation for not balancing their books like Fiorentina? The best idea to help teams control their spending is easy-STOP SPLASHING CASH ON INFERIOR TALENT! I think it would benefit the game overall, right? These clubs wouldn’t splash out the cash if they didn’t have the resources to re-coup it and then some in merchandise, right? And I’m no economics major/strategist, just a football fan.

English football’s problem- no I’m not talking about the yobs or the violence, I’m speaking on the talent in the youth system. “”The reason there’s no good English talent is that they’re not given the chance”" is a quote I’ve heard, read and argued with mates over for a while and since I’ve got your attention, here’s my 2p on it. There is English talent out there but on a whole it’s not up to snuff with other country’s youth system and that’s why there’s a dearth of talent in the Premiership that’s homegrown. For every Michael Owen and Beckham there’s a Tim Sherwood and Teddy Sheringham, you get the correlation here between sh%t and talent, right? Good. Just look at France as an example and you’ll notice there’s youth academies set up all over the country and the youngsters are given the technical assessments early and trained properly while in England there’s too much of a rush to get theyoung lads to the spotlight too soon and you’ll see more Tony Cottee’s (anyone remember how “”magic”" he was supposed to be as a lad???) than Owens, Beckhams or even Rooneys. So by time you have the opportunity to bring up a 20-year old French youth team player or English, you’ll more readily go for the French player. It’s going to take England at LEAST 7 years to honestly compete with other countries on this development of young stars I believe. Disagree? The proof is there and the foreign influence in the Premiership is there to support my case.

Friendly week- WHO CARES???? Well, I just hope the Arsenal players return healthy from wherever, and what’s this “”get together”" for England, Mr. Eriksson? Let the lads enjoy the week off as there’s not another break for them until May unless you’re sperz and you’re season’s already shot and you’ve got relegation to fight off!;) (one can dream, right?)

Well if you’ve read this far I thank you and until next week…

1 life

1 love

1 club

1 nil!

1 TEAM IN LONDON!

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