Amusing lead story today, folks, Rupert Murdoch has vowed to start charging for access to his “news” sites, reportedly saying that “quality journalism is not cheap.”
Yes, indeed, this means that such bastions of journalistic integrity like The News of the World, The Times, and the mother of all evil, the Least Reliable News Source on the Planet, The Sun are all going to start charging for content.
I have some Google alerts set up and one of them occasionally picks up an article from The Sun. Every so often the headline is so outrageous, the hatchet job so glaringly obvious, that I click the link anyway. Knowing full well that I am entering a realm of half-wits. (It’s good for a laugh isn’t it?)
If they started charging me for this occasional click I would get to their subscription page and just bounce. As would, I suspect, a large portion of their clicks and thus, they would be reduced to a small band of simpletons who are willing to pay to have their intelligence insulted with crap disguised as journalism.
OHPLEASEGODSLETTHISHAPPEN.
Those three papers are like that last bit of toilet paper that sticks to the edge of the bowl and won’t go away no matter how many times you stand there and flush it. I mean, you know you could totally get that down the bog, if you were just brave enough to stick your hand in there and play with the muck but sense wins out and you just leave it there for the next person. “Disgusting” you say? Exactly!
Nothing would flush these turds down the drain faster than if they started charging for their content. It would be the equivalent of a 5 gallon bucket dumped straight into the bowl.
Postcards from the Sounders v. Barcelona match
Seattle Sounders owner Drew Carey reportedly wants to model his team after Barcelona; he wants to play beautiful football. The only problem is that takes time, a lot of time, say 10-20 years. See, Barca didn’t buy Lionel Messi, they developed him from age 13. And if you want to have a Barcelona in America, which I strongly encourage, you’re going to need to start right now with a world class international academy and get 9-16 year olds in and training 3x a week. Basically, you’re going to have to do what Arsene Wenger’s trying to do at Arsenal.
I think a team like that would clean up every trophy in the U.S. and even be a shining example of what football could be in America. So, again, Drew, if you’re listening, go for it. Look at your current team, your best player yesterday was Steve Zakuani; a product of Arsenal’s academy. What does that tell you?
Oh and while I’m at it, that pitch was terrible, again. They laid a temporary grass pitch over the top of the plastic pitch they normally play on and it looked shaggy and broken in places. Proper football is played on grass, not plastic. It’s another one of those things that just takes time. But if you want to do it right, you’ve got to take your time.
Transfers and stuff
Even though there wasn’t any real talk that he’d come in to the club this year, I’ve added Xabi Alonso to my list of players who didn’t sign for Arsenal owing to the fact that there was so much talk last year. It is a bit strange to see him go for a reported £32m this year when we were close to getting him last year for £14m. He undoubtedly had a decent season this year but no better than last, really, and certainly not 2x better. So, if there was ever any indication that the market is stupid overinflated it would be the fact that Alonso went for basically twice his value.
It was also funny to watch Liverpool turn right around and buy Aquilani right away. I say “funny” but what I really mean is “damn, that was a swift bit of business, Arsenal would never complete a sale and buy that fast.” Oh well, we’re learning lessons as Arsenal fans, right? What’s this year’s lesson, oh, uhh… patience.
As for Arsenal, I had a chance to watch the clips on the dot com of the Member’s Day Q&A session with some of the players and that was quite a treat. I mean just listening to them all agree that Arsenal need some leadership, like Vieira specifically, was interesting. Another thing that I found interesting is that our young, sweet faced, Theo isn’t so sweet and innocent anymore and has joined the Tattoo club at Arsenal. It’s a fairly large piece on his left arm and a clear indication that he’s ready to hop on his hog and drive the “old lady” out to Sturgis and get in a rumble.
One of my favorite moments came when a fan asked Djourou, Gibbs, and Walcott who their favorite player was growing up, he said specifically that it could be anyone and Gibbs went first and said “Dennis Bergkamp.” I’m a pretty good reader of when people are lying or making stuff up and I feel like this was an honest answer. I love seeing that kind of stuff, young lad, grows up idolizing an Arsenal player, makes the team, works hard and is now ready to burst on the scene and play for the club where his idol played…
Good stuff.
Interestingly, Theo mentioned growing up a Liverpool fan and idolizing Michael Owen. I thought it was specifically forbidden in the Christian bible to have balsa wood idols?
The Champions League draw takes place at 3am (PST) tomorrow and I suppose you’re all wondering who we’re going to get in 12 days time. Well, it’s one of the following: Celtic, Athletico Madrid, Anderlecht, Fiorentina and FC Timisoara. Personally, I’m hoping for an easy draw, like Celtic, and not some gang of grass rapers like FC Timisoara.
There is a weird story about Hangeland and how Fulham’s manager is not willing to let him go… unless the price is right… but no one has made a bid… especially not Arsenal. Why would the press print this? I don’t get it.
Later today I’ll be adding Klaus Janet Beststrikerever tot he list of players that Arsenal (thankfully) didn’t buy. Thank the gods, I can finally stop hearing about how Arsenal should sign him (yes, I do realize that people will continue to say we need him.)
And finally (because the “Chesk is not leaving” story is a non-story) there’s a report that Rosicky has suffered a hamstring pull and will be out for 8 weeks. Funny thing is though, there have been numerous stories about injuries this pre-season which have all been wrong (Clichy, Rosicky) so I’m waiting for Wenger’s press conference ahead of the Valencia match for confirmation, rather than link to any of Rupert Murdoch’s toilet clinging crap.
Right, that’s it for today, see you tomorrow?
You must be logged in to post a comment.