Arsenal Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2018

wawaman

I get that we are crap at the moment. But does the coverage that other clubs (Sp*rs, Liverpool) are getting for things that were painted as failures for Arsenal bother anyone else? Arsenal dont win a trophy for however many years - what a failure. Sp*rs dont win a trophy for god knows how long and its all about the journey and the wonderful moments. Arsenal finish consistently in the top 4 and were mocked for the "4th place trophy", everyone else does it and its a fantastic achievement.

DvB

wawaman wrote: »

I get that we are crap at the moment. But does the coverage that other clubs (Sp*rs, Liverpool) are getting for things that were painted as failures for Arsenal bother anyone else? Arsenal dont win a trophy for however many years - what a failure. Sp*rs dont win a trophy for god knows how long and its all about the journey and the wonderful moments. Arsenal finish consistently in the top 4 and were mocked for the "4th place trophy", everyone else does it and its a fantastic achievement.

Its a media thing. Arsenal traditionally have never been popular within the press whilst Spurs have always had a strong following so that'll give them preferential treatment despite being a far smaller & less successful club.
The Arsenal only get the grief because they're such a big club & have always been the the biggest club in the capital city. I turned it around & now take a perverse pride in the weighted rubbish thats written/spoken about the team. Arsenal quite simply will always be news.

Mickeroo

wawaman wrote: »

I get that we are crap at the moment. But does the coverage that other clubs (Sp*rs, Liverpool) are getting for things that were painted as failures for Arsenal bother anyone else? Arsenal dont win a trophy for however many years - what a failure. Sp*rs dont win a trophy for god knows how long and its all about the journey and the wonderful moments. Arsenal finish consistently in the top 4 and were mocked for the "4th place trophy", everyone else does it and its a fantastic achievement.

No I think it makes sense. I think united's current situation is more comparable to the "4th place trophy" period than what Liverpool/Spurs are going through, notice how they aren't being roundly praise. Arsenal were coming from a position of success into a period of mediocrity, Spurs and to a lesser extent Liverpool have clearly improved. Plus Liverpool traditionally do well in Europe when they qualify so the 4th place seems less of a token achievement.

tayto lover

The 4th place trophy always only papered over the cracks.
Fourth just said that you were not good enough to win the league.
In fact from 2 down said that.

callaway92

brianregan09 wrote: »

https://soundcloud.com/brian-oregan-932825069/bp-zone-episode-16

Hey lads here is this weeks podcast

you can also find it on Itunes : https://itunes.apple.com/ie/podcast/bp-zone-arsenal-podcast/id1334453540

Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/bp-zone-arsenal/bp-zone?refid=stpr

Would love if you could leave reviews on Itunes or Stitcher too lads helps loads visibility wise

Is the cursing something that has to be there? Enjoying it but the amount of ‘fúckin’ thrown in there is hard to listen to!

greendom

tayto lover wrote: »

The 4th place trophy always only papered over the cracks.
Fourth just said that you were not good enough to win the league.
In fact from 2 down said that.

I'm not buying that.

Winning 3 out of the last 4 FA Cups - papering over the cracks

Finishing in the top four for more than 20 years - papering over the cracks.

These are fine achievements. Yes every supporter wants more but with the exception of Leicester every team that has beaten us to the league title has had more financial muscle than us.

Wenger needs to leave now but that doesn't mean the majority of his time is classed as papering over the cracks.

tayto lover

greendom wrote: »

I'm not buying that.

Winning 3 out of the last 4 FA Cups - papering over the cracks

Finishing in the top four for more than 20 years - papering over the cracks.

These are fine achievements. Yes every supporter wants more but with the exception of Leicester every team that has beaten us to the league title has had more financial muscle than us.

Wenger needs to leave now but that doesn't mean the majority of his time is classed as papering over the cracks.

That's what the 4th place trophy is all about.
No good getting into Europe and going out at the same stage every year.
FA Cups never did anything for me as the league is where it's at.
As the great Joey Dunlop used to say " I hate being second, when you're second you're the first one beat".
I never heard a quiz question asking "who was 4th?".

greendom

tayto lover wrote: »

That's what the 4th place trophy is all about.
No good getting into Europe and going out at the same stage every year.
FA Cups never did anything for me as the league is where it's at.
As the great Joey Dunlop used to say " I hate being second, when you're second you're the first one beat".
I never heard a quiz question asking "who was 4th?".

Europe is probably the most disappointing area of his time with Arsenal. We should have made reasonably regular appearances in the quarters and then the odd season pushing beyond that. The constant last 16 exits were much more disappointing to me than not winning the league.

tayto lover

greendom wrote: »

Europe is probably the most disappointing area of his time with Arsenal. We should have made reasonably regular appearances in the quarters and then the odd season pushing beyond that. The constant last 16 exits were much more disappointing to me than not winning the league.

I am not only talking about Wenger. Any manager who is happy with 4th (except for maybe the first time they get it if they come from nowhere) is celebrating something that is not winning, especially if you keep doing it and being happy with that.

omega man

I really enjoyed the recent cup wins, particularly 2014 after such a long period without a trophy. You can’t beat a Wembley final on a summers day in May (as long as you win!).

OK yes it papers over the cracks somewhat but as a supporter it has to be savoured and celebrated. Many other team supporters may never experience it (like spurs etc).

As for top 4. Well yes paper over cracks again but our run of consecutive qualifications was an achievement in itself. However, our continuous failure (bar ‘06) year after year almost made a mockery of the club and in turn served to highlight the achievement as a commercial success only.

tayto lover

omega man wrote: »

I really enjoyed the recent cup wins, particularly 2014 after such a long period without a trophy. You can’t beat a Wembley final on a summers day in May (as long as you win!).

OK yes it papers over the cracks somewhat but as a supporter it has to be savoured and celebrated. Many other team supporters may never experience it (like spurs etc).

As for top 4. Well yes paper over cracks again but our run of consecutive qualifications was an achievement in itself. However, our continuous failure (bar ‘06) year after year almost made a mockery of the club and in turn served to highlight the achievement as a commercial success only.

I might celebrate a Cup if it came with a league, but the League is the main competition.

JenovaProject

I'll always celebrating winning an actual trophy..not a top 4 trophy..but the joy wears off extremely quickly because you realise that we are getting further and further from challenging for the PL..
We are more or less the worst of the big teams,we won't win Europa going by last night and us in General,we might pull out a miracle performance against City to win a trophy worth even less than the FA cup...not really much worth getting excited about imo.

Looper007

tayto lover wrote: »

I might celebrate a Cup if it came with a league, but the League is the main competition.

For me, winning the League is the number 1 target. Getting ourselves back into talk of been a major force. Would love a Champions League but right now the League is the hurdle we need to get over. Cups should be a nice bonus to the bigger riches like the PL and CL. Look when Chelsea and City even UTD were winning titles in the last few years, they added a League Cup or FA Cup to it.

wawaman

tayto lover wrote: »

I might celebrate a Cup if it came with a league, but the League is the main competition.

whats the point of been a fan then if your definition of success is one competition. Fair enough its the ultimate in England but its not the only way you can have tangible success and enjoy it.

Skylinehead

I feel sorry for those unable to celebrate a cup win tbh. What's the point if you're so miserable?

emmetlego

Yes, of course we all desire to be a consistent challenger for the PL and to go well and maybe challenge for the UCL every few years, we have to accept ( for many reasons) that we are not at that level, and while I'm not happy with that, those FA cup wins were pretty special, especially the manner of the last 2 and who we had to beat to win them. I'm not saying that we should rest on our asses while everyone else gets better and better, but I'm just saying, not enjoying those FA cup wins (and maybe even the funny cup in 2 weeks) is just being miserable for the sake of it!

tayto lover

wawaman wrote: »

whats the point of been a fan then if your definition of success is one competition. Fair enough its the ultimate in England but its not the only way you can have tangible success and enjoy it.

The other minor competitions are only window dressing for me.
It's a bit like dessert. I enjoy it a little but if you only got dessert and no main course then it's no good.
You can't beat a good steak.

emmetlego

tayto lover wrote: »

The other minor competitions are only window dressing for me.
It's a bit like dessert. I enjoy it a little but if you only got dessert and no main course then it's no good.
You can't beat a good steak.

I think I just discovered why my wedding dress doesn't fit me anymore...

tayto lover

tayto lover wrote: »

The other minor competitions are only window dressing for me.
It's a bit like dessert. I enjoy it a little but if you only got dessert and no main course then it's no good.
You can't beat a good steak.

Go support City for a few months, then come back to us.

Enjoy your steak

tayto lover

Skylinehead wrote: »

I feel sorry for those unable to celebrate a cup win tbh. What's the point if you're so miserable?

No need to feel sorry for me. I'm not really a miserable person.
I just prefer steak to quorn.

tayto lover

Basil3 wrote: »

Go support City for a few months, then come back to us.

Enjoy your steak

Ah no. I'm a true Gooner. Few of us left who didn't buy into the 4th place cup thing.

wandatowell

tayto lover wrote: »

I'm not really a miserable person.
I just prefer steak to quorn.

wawaman

tayto lover wrote: »

The other minor competitions are only window dressing for me.
It's a bit like dessert. I enjoy it a little but if you only got dessert and no main course then it's no good.
You can't beat a good steak.

But if the bar you set is that for you to be happy as an arsenal fan you must win the league, you will be disappointed most if not all of the time. While i agree that the aim should be to try and win the league every year, unless you are barcelona or play in a one team league (Celtic) then where is the enjoyment if everything else is meaningless?

JenovaProject

wawaman wrote: »

But if the bar you set is that for you to be happy as an arsenal fan you must win the league, you will be disappointed most if not all of the time. While i agree that the aim should be to try and win the league every year, unless you are barcelona or play in a one team league (Celtic) then where is the enjoyment if everything else is meaningless?

The only reason these cup wins are becoming meaningless is because every year we are further and further away from competing at the top.

wawaman

JenovaProject wrote: »

The only reason these cup wins are becoming meaningless is because every year we are further and further away from competing at the top.

But why do they have to be tied hand in hand? It is possible to enjoy winning a trophy while knowing full well that a change of manager is needed.

tayto lover

wawaman wrote: »

But if the bar you set is that for you to be happy as an arsenal fan you must win the league, you will be disappointed most if not all of the time. While i agree that the aim should be to try and win the league every year, unless you are barcelona or play in a one team league (Celtic) then where is the enjoyment if everything else is meaningless?

The enjoyment when not winning it is to mount a good challenge. Be proud of the display even in defeat if you put up a show. Of course we can't win it every year, we know that. BUT we are not even mounting a challenge anymore and are slipping further down the greasy pole.

JenovaProject

wawaman wrote: »

But why do they have to be tied hand in hand? It is possible to enjoy winning a trophy while knowing full well that a change of manager is needed.

They dont and theyre not.
The enjoyment from winning these trophies is dwindling because of the decline of the club overall.
Its of course enjoyable winning any tournament but its not as enjoyable because of how far we have fallen from the top.

emmetlego

tayto lover wrote: »

The enjoyment when not winning it is to mount a good challenge. Be proud of the display even in defeat if you put up a show. Of course we can't win it every year, we know that. BUT we are not even mounting a challenge anymore and are slipping further down the greasy pole.

Well, I think I understand where you're coming from. Let me try this. Which season did you prefer. The ones where we won the FA cup say Vs Chelsea last year or the one against City, as opposed to the season where we finished in the top 4 but won no silverware? Curiosity.

Looper007

Skylinehead wrote: »

I feel sorry for those unable to celebrate a cup win tbh. What's the point if you're so miserable?

They are nice, but wouldn't it be even nicer if there was a PL title or two thrown in there since 2004. I'm not miserable but I won't over celebrate something and accept it like most do that it's a success. It's covered up a lot of cracks of years of failure in the league and CL.

tayto lover

emmetlego wrote: »

Well, I think I understand where you're coming from. Let me try this. Which season did you prefer. The ones where we won the FA cup say Vs Chelsea last year or the one against City, as opposed to the season where we finished in the top 4 but won no silverware? Curiosity.

I don't count Top 4 at all because the predictable will surely happen in the CL.
I can enjoy a good performance like the Cup wins but they don't really matter to me when i see the team slipping down the League annually as i regard them as window dressing tbh and know they will be used to keep a failing manager at the helm.
I'll make a prediction and say that we won't win the Europa League either in view of the performances in it so far. We haven't addressed the defensive issues and it will cost us.

wawaman

tayto lover wrote: »

I'll make a prediction and say that we won't win the Europa League either in view of the performances in it so far. We haven't addressed the defensive issues and it will cost us.

Thats not exactly Mystic Meg territory there

Skylinehead

Looper007 wrote: »

They are nice, but wouldn't it be even nicer if there was a PL title or two thrown in there since 2004. I'm not miserable but I won't over celebrate something and accept it like most do that it's a success. It's covered up a lot of cracks of years of failure in the league and CL.

Celebrate it in isolation. I know I did. I might as well give up if I have to think "oh but what about the league" when we win a cup. Pretty dour that.

What cracks have the FA Cup covered up? The world and its mother is aware of our failings, they've gone nowhere.

pudzey101

ah its gone a bit much to win the league these days with the likes of city basically buying it any cup should be celebrated if won even if its a mickey mouse cup

al87987

If I'm honest I don't really care too much if we win trophies or not. I know that sounds blasphemous but bar bragging rights what else do you get from it? I mean its not like I'm personally winning anything. Trophies are a bonus for me.

For me, if I am going to watch 50+ Arsenal games a year then the main thing for me is to be entertained and to be fair to Wenger I can usually guarantee that so I'm never overly harsh on him.

I would much rather support a trophy-less Wenger style of football team, than a drab Mourinho double winning team.

Clearly won't be the choice for everybody but that's where i fall.

wawaman

pudzey101 wrote: »

ah its gone a bit much to win the league these days with the likes of city basically buying it any cup should be celebrated if won even if its a mickey mouse cup

After having the "Arsenal havent won a trophy since 2005" shoved down our throats between 2005 & 2014, i intend to enjoy any trophy we win from now on regardless of "the bigger picture"

tayto lover

wawaman wrote: »

Thats not exactly Mystic Meg territory there

It's not me you should address this post to.
It's some of the posters that think we can win it.:D

tayto lover

al87987 wrote: »

If I'm honest I don't really care too much if we win trophies or not. I know that sounds blasphemous but bar bragging rights what else do you get from it? I mean its not like I'm personally winning anything. Trophies are a bonus for me.

For me, if I am going to watch 50+ Arsenal games a year then the main thing for me is to be entertained and to be fair to Wenger I can usually guarantee that so I'm never overly harsh on him.

I would much rather support a trophy-less Wenger style of football team, than a drab Mourinho double winning team.

Clearly won't be the choice for everybody but that's where i fall.

Welcome to the forum Stevie.

Quazzie

al87987 wrote: »

I would much rather support a trophy-less Wenger style of football team, than a drab Mourinho double winning team.
.

Do you think the style of football we play lately is enjoyable to watch? I know I certainly don't. We're atrocious at times even when at full strength, so we don't have our "style of football" to fall back on anymore.

emmetlego

tayto lover wrote: »

It's some of the posters that think we can win it.:D

Is there any of them left?

I agree with you, I don't think we're currently good enough to win Europa either. But if we did win it, I'd certainly celebrate it and would be very damned happy!

al87987

Quazzie wrote: »

Do you think the style of football we play lately is enjoyable to watch? I know I certainly don't. We're atrocious at times even when at full strength, so we don't have our "style of football" to fall back on anymore.

I do actually, it's not as easily identifiable as it was in the past with our early 00's counter-attacking which gave way to possession based etc... but we still attempt to win every game we play in, keep the ball on the deck and trust in our creative players.

It's never really boring, Leicester first game of the season was classic example, could maybe should have lost but ended up winning a game that had all our negatives and positives on display.

I'd argue that you more have a problem with the (away) results as opposed to our overall approach no?

al87987

al87987 wrote: »

I do actually, it's not as easily identifiable as it was in the past with our early 00's counter-attacking which gave way to possession based etc... but we still attempt to win every game we play in, keep the ball on the deck and trust in our creative players.

It's never really boring, Leicester first game of the season was classic example, could maybe should have lost but ended up winning a game that had all our negatives and positives on display.

I'd argue that you more have a problem with the (away) results as opposed to our overall approach no?

I think we're missing some kind of spark atm. The matches where we play entertaining football and lose are few and far between. It's generally dire football coupled with a loss, which is depressing.

tayto lover

Basil3 wrote: »

I think we're missing some kind of spark atm. The matches where we play entertaining football and lose are few and far between. It's generally dire football coupled with a loss, which is depressing.

It is all stemming from our dire defence if you ask me.
Build a good foundation and nobody has any fears about the house falling.
Kos and Mustafi have been poor, Bellerin very poor and Nacho just middling apart from his four goals. Keepers very average. Xhaka is not a DM imo.
The problems have not been addressed.

brianregan09

callaway92 wrote: »

Is the cursing something that has to be there? Enjoying it but the amount of ‘fúckin’ thrown in there is hard to listen to!

Hey Callaway92 yeah the cursing thing , basically when I set out to do this I wanted it to sound natural as possible and not as washed and cliched as you hear on the TV and some of the other more funded podcasts , So yeah that's how I talk in real life , But in saying that we want to grow as a podcast and want to grow the audience we do have , So yeah we will try and curb it a bit as i know myself from listening back to it , It can be excessive , But thanks for the feedback we will definitely adhere to it.

Also it is up now up on Itunes took 3 hours after I posted it to soundcloud for it to appear there , Damn apple lol

Wheeliebin30

tayto lover wrote: »

It is all stemming from our dire defence if you ask me.
Build a good foundation and nobody has any fears about the house falling.
Kos and Mustafi have been poor, Bellerin very poor and Nacho just middling apart from his four goals. Keepers very average. Xhaka is not a DM imo.
The problems have not been addressed.

Replaced xhaka with a proper midfielder who protects the defence and you would see a totally different arsenal.

Our defence is so badly exposed im surprised we havent actually conceded more this season.

5star02707

Looking at Maitland-Niles infront the back 4 is so refreshing indeed. He does run and tracks back, hopefully we use him there more and not as left back

https://twitter.com/Arsenal/status/965527379203493888

£40m/year shirt deal agreed with Emirates. Same as Chelsea, £7m/year behind United. Training kit included in deal, but we can now add sleeve sponsorship which could bring in an extra £5-10m.

5star02707

5star02707 wrote: »

Looking at Maitland-Niles infront the back 4 is so refreshing indeed. He does run and tracks back, hopefully we use him there more and not as left back

Played my 7-year-old in FIFA 18 on Saturday night. He was Barca, I was Arsenal. Drew first leg 2-2 with Xhaka in the middle. Won the second leg 5-2 with Maitland-Niles in for Xhaka.

Read into it what you will.

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Basil3 wrote: »

£40m/year shirt deal agreed with Emirates. Same as Chelsea, £7m/year behind United. Training kit included in deal, but we can now add sleeve sponsorship which could bring in an extra £5-10m.

I hate that sponsor and I hate the stadium naming rights.

Bounty Hunter

Played my 7-year-old in FIFA 18 on Saturday night. He was Barca, I was Arsenal. Drew first leg 2-2 with Xhaka in the middle. Won the second leg 5-2 with Maitland-Niles in for Xhaka.

Read into it what you will.

He's not very good at FIFA?

MEGA BRO WOLF 5000

Basil3 wrote: »

Played my 7-year-old in FIFA 18 on Saturday night. He was Barca, I was Arsenal. Drew first leg 2-2 with Xhaka in the middle. Won the second leg 5-2 with Maitland-Niles in for Xhaka.

Read into it what you will.

I love giving 7 year olds a damn good thrashing on FIFA. If I could kick them in real life..I would.