The Geranium

Geranium

I’m going to tell you a little story about this plant.

Seven years ago Melissa, Aveline’s mom, left me because of my alcoholism. It wasn’t a surprise, all the women I have been with have left me for my alcoholism. Drinking takes a toll. Being around someone who is completely passed out, on their way to being completely passed out, or lying about everything and anything so that they can get to the point where they are completely passed out is tiresome. Some women last a few months, some women a few years, but eventually the drinker either stops drinking or they leave.

As Melissa left she took almost all of her stuff with her, except this plant. She said to me “I figured you could use a plant.”

I don’t know what kind of plant this is. I just left it on the counter in the kitchen and every few days or so I would water it. If I remembered to water it. Sometimes it went a week without water. Sometimes I think I over-watered it.

The leaves would fall off. Sometimes ont sprout would grow really long and weird, then fall off. But for whatever reason, this plant didn’t die.

A few months ago I looked at this plant and a few other I had around the house and decided that they needed to be replanted. Avie and I went to the local garden store (shop local!) and got some pots and soil. I repotted them all.

A week or two later I decided to feed them a little fertilizer.

This morning, I was filming my third installment of my sourdough videos (on Twitter) and I had to move this plant. That’s when I noticed it has flowers. These flowers made me irrationally happy.

Arsenal lost to Real Madrid. The referee sent off a Madrid player for a second infraction and then, in what looked a lot like what we call a “maybelline” call in this house (because it’s make up), sent off Sokratis for winning the ball too aggressively.

Emery once again got the subs wrong. The team once again couldn’t handle pressure. Madrid outclassed us.

These aren’t complaints. This is exactly what we have come to expect from the Arsenal since last season. This was, in a way, last season writ over 90 minutes: fast start, optimism, rapid collapse. We have to find a way to stop doing that. Apparently, we are signing three players this week. Maybe they will magically heal the wounds this club is shouldering?

I give this match two stars. But I give the plant four and a half stars.

Qq

35 comments

  1. I only saw the 10 minute highlight package but it still looks like we are so reliant on Kolasinac for offense, it’s stupid. Any team with a half-decent RB will shut us down. And on the flip side, any team that can attack down their left flank will kill us.

  2. You have a way with words that is quite magical, Tim. I’d dearly love to read more of your work – what’s happening with the mythical book?

    As a fellow writer – and Gooner – I doff my hat to you.

    1. I feel this acutely but I still need time to repot myself and feed my roots some nourishment. Then I can write what I want/need to write.

  3. I’m not sure Sokratis exactly won the ball on that one. In any case it was stupid and something an experienced player should have known not to do, given he’d just been yellow-carded. Modric was not an imminent threat, and even if he was, better to give up an attempt on goal than our man advantage.
    But I’m starting to think Sokratis is as much a liability as Mustafi. Sok was the 2nd most carded player in the PL last year. That’s not good. Unfortunately, Xhaka, Chambers and Mustafi were also pretty high on that list. That’s a big problem on top of all our other defensive issues.
    At this point the last thing I’d worry about is trying to get another offensive player like Zaha. With Nelson, Nketiah, and Saka, I think we’re deep enough there. Any money we have needs to go to defense.

      1. As I’ve said for many many years, VAR is going to be a disaster for Arsenal.

        But the problem is not necessarily the players (though Sokratis was known as an overly aggressive defender in the Bundesliga as well) but the system that exposes them so ruthlessly. Emery is just a bad coach.

  4. I love this post. Thanks for sharing. Geraniums are resilient plants. Overwatering maybe even worse than underwatering (especially in a pot) but glad you are taking care of your plant and yourself better these days. Agreed that match yesterday brought a lot of bad memories back.

  5. Good stuff, mate – erm, buddy. 😉

    No need to comment on Arsenal stuff…not today.

  6. At the risk of sounding a selfish pri#k I doubt your articles would be half as good if you made your bad and never touched the booze.
    I give this one four and a half stars.

    Since I know you don’t think much of Emery’s coaching abilities , I wonder how badly you reckon he needs to fail for Arsenal to let him go after this season.

    1. I think that we will find out.

      I think there’s a chance that if we don’t sort out the defense, that we start the season against Newcastle, Burnley, Liverpool, Tottenham, and Watford and take less than 5 points.

      Newcastle should be a solid 3
      Burnley at home should be 3
      Liverpool away – 0
      Tottenham home -1
      Watford away – 0

      I got us taking 7. But the thing about Burnley is that Burnley hates us. They will be kicking us all over the pitch. And Steve Bruce hates Arsenal as well. I won’t be surprised to see Arsenal take good leads from these teams and drop points. I give it 50% chance in each game.

      We just don’t control football games.

  7. I think this post is very sweet, in it’s own quiet way. Take care (of yourself, Aveline, and the plant!).

  8. “These flowers made me irrationally happy.”

    If only we can say the same of Mustafi’s defending.

  9. Great post Tim.

    We have been a 5-6th place team capable of collecting in the mid to high 60’s in league points for the last 2 years under 2 different managers with different systems so it’s no surprise when we play like what we are. So far we have not added any impact players that might change what we are. Players like Nelson, Willock and Saka all have potential but it’s unrealistic to expect them to be difference makers in the PL at their age.

    On the optimistic side I think is a real possibility that 2 of the other top 6 teams implode this year and give us a real shot at 4th place. That is assuming that a team like Wolves does not over take us

  10. Jack Action @ 7:49AM.

    I think the reason we are rely so much on Kolasinac is because we have no one else on the team outside of Lacazette who is making anything happen in the attacking 1/3. You can’t try to force the ball down the middle when you don’t have the right players to make something happen. It’s easy to blame Emery but Ozil wasn’t any better in his last season under Arsene. Emery isn’t standing on the pitch stopping mesut from making plays and if he was still capable of being the creative genius we hope for then why hasn’t he been doing it? We are getting very little from our central midfielders so passing the ball to kolasinac bombing down the wing often ends up being the best option we have.

    1. you continually miss the point that everyone else sees. it’s not about the tactical performances from the players, it’s about the strategy from the coach. all you talk about is the statistics. being this is 7am, we love stats but we also know they only tell part of the story.

      as most players get older, they care less about stats and more about winning. mesut may not rack up the stats but he’s an absolute facilitator and the attack is more potent when he’s there than when he’s not. when arsenal bought lacazette, he was a goal machine. now, laca is more of a facilitator as well. even olivier giroud, france’s center forward and the third highest scorer in france’s history (only trailing henry and platini) played 7 games and didn’t score a single goal at last summer’s world cup. giroud wasn’t trying to win the golden boot, he was trying to win the world cup.

      this concept applies even in other sports. tom brady isn’t trying to win the touchdown passing title, he’s trying to win super bowls. lebron james is more concerned with winning championships than scoring titles. how many championships has james harden won? even russell westbrook has become a better playmaker than scorer as he’s matured.

      you have to look more at the complete body of work than merely relying on statistics to make determinations of one’s effectiveness, especially as they get older.

  11. well, ceballos is signed. not too sure how excited to be. he looked good last month at the uefa u21 tournament but the premier league is a different beast. we’ll see.

    1. First order of business for me would be to add 5-10lbs of muscle to his frame asap. He could barely hold that plank in the video of his first day. He’s going to get pushed around I’m afraid.

  12. Looks like we signed two players today. One of them won’t be playing for us next season and the other won’t play for us this season. #ArsenalTransferMagic

  13. Ceballos. Dont know, man. Suarez has a left a bad taste. wtf was that? It was like a short, bad dream.

    But…
    He looks the business attacking wise, and in knitting play in the midfield. I disagree with Tim… I think he can and will play deep, because he can distribute and he can ferry. I can’t see him and Xhaka playing together, although he looks a bit slight, and cant bring what Xhaka does to aerial, set-piece defending. But he’s got everything that Granit does, takes free kicks and is a more potent goalscorer. And everyone is a better athlete than Xhaka.

    As for being slight, we hear that about Modric and Eriksen, and they were/are both exceptional premier league players.

    Saliba’s done. Got a touch of Vincent Kompany about him, as said before.

  14. Joshuad

    I get it that stats don’t tell everything but I still think a big part of the reason the teams strategy has evolved the way it has is because our players have not been very successful with trying to build effective attacks thru our central midfielders. Using your American football analogy, a team is not going to continue to try pound the ball between the tackles again and again when he does not have the players who are good at executing that strategy. Every team would love to be able to run the ball effectively but no team is going to be successful if it tries to run on first and second down and is consistently facing 3rd down and 8.

  15. Joshuad

    I think its been reasonably clear that our central midfielders have not been nearly as influential as we would like in the attacking end for at least a couple seasons and that started before Emery. The stats just support what our eyes tell us when we watch the games.

  16. In the vast majority of cases star players don’t stop being highly visible superstars and change into behind the scenes facilitators until their skills start to fade and they can longer do the things which made them superstars0. I can’t believe a idea that a player like Giroud voluntarily stopped scoring. He took up that role because he is no longer very good at scoring goals.

  17. I am certainly not going to discount the importance of players who facilitate. However its the star players who make your team great. A team does not get better if its most recognizable and highest paid player changes into a facilitator unless that team is so full of superstars and they in each other’s way. The latter is certainly not case with our team

  18. Maybe we’d all be better off just supportingThe Bergonia instead.

    The season hasn’t even started and it’s already flowering and healthy.

    Top four guaranteed!

  19. Ceballos on loan is good. He’s not like the Suarez signing. But I’m worried if he’ll be used properly. As Bill seems to keep missing the point that it is the coach who simply doesn’t want to play through the middle. I could see us playing Ceballos at 10, with 2 players behind who cannot provide ball control, forcing him deeper, and once again relying on FBs for creativity.

    I hope we use him as an 8, with Ozil as 10. Might need to bulk up some, but he looks like he’s good at sh**housery, so I’m not too worried. Willock and ESR ought to be given chances too though. It would be a shame to stall their development for a player who’s only on loan. But of course CL is our target now (this time explicitly stated)

    Saliba looks great and I’m not sure why. I’ve not really seen him play. But he has an aura about him, and I’m betting he’ll be a good signing.

    More to come? Probably.

    I’m not sure why everyone’s so confident about our chances. Emery’s here, and I don’t think he’s a good tactician, nor is he a good motivator. No matter how much he fancies creating friction like Mourinho. Even when he gets it right, he’ll change things because he doesn’t believe in his players. We’re not getting top 4. Hope I’m wrong. We could win the EL though. That’s a competition Emery knows and a chance to win a trophy is a different motivation. Need some luck with the draw.

    PS. Sead is real life Hulk.

    1. i saw that video with sead but his reaction didn’t surprise me. what people don’t always realize is that growing up in the balkans is like growing up in the inner city in the states; those guys fight all the time, even if someone has a knife. the thieves saw that the knives they had didn’t scare kola and backed down because they’re cowards. sead is a world class athlete and a powerful dude. who wants to be known as the guy that, despite having a knife, got his a$$ kicked by an unarmed footballer?

    2. whenever there’s a skirmish on the pitch in an arsenal game, guess who’s always in the middle of it? sead kolasinac and granit xhaka.

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