One of those days…

It’s one of those days where I’m sort of floundering around looking for something to write about.  It’s not that there isn’t any news, au contraire there’s a barrel of stuff to write about, the problem is that there’s too much to write about in a more focused and concise way.  Whenever we have one of these days I feel like a sort of RSS feed with jokes; blurting out links for my few loyal readers along with a few one-liners or bad puns.

I guess the season is just ramping up but as you all know I do my best writing when I’m passionate about a topic and no one player has brought out more passion than Joey Barton.  I guess I’ll just wait to write that piece.

Because we have Arsenal news!  In the first round of the Champions League Arsenal were drawn against Steve McClaren’s new club, FC Twente. The press are making a big deal of this, because, well, because the English press has a pathological obsession with the English national team.  So much so that they still fawn and obsess over former players and failed managers.  In reality this is a very, very small Dutch club pitted against one of the biggest clubs in the world.  In reality, this story would normally get maybe a line in a bigger story about the whole draw, something like “Arsenal got a beneficial draw when they were paired with minnows FC Twente.” In a sense, though, I think of this as the real first test for this young team.  There will be a lot of expectations by the fans and the press due to the imbalance of the pairing.  Combine that with the over exposure of this match in the press and it’s a good test of this team’s mental strength.  Good to get that out of the way right away.

Matches will be played August 12/13 in Enschede with the return to London scheduled for the 26/27th.

Agent talk

Goekhan Inler’s agent is supposedly flying in to talk to Arsenal.  The quote here is priceless

I’m due to go to London and take a look over everything, but no deal has been done yet with Arsenal. It is difficult for us to take a decision, but Arsenal is certainly something that Gokhan needs to look at. Wenger is someone who helps young players go forward.

Let me translate:

There’s been no contact whatsoever between Arsenal and Udinese or even any proven contact between Arsenal and Inler, still I’m going to London because I really, really think Arsenal would be good for Goekhan… s bank account.

The Straight Dope

I wasn’t a fan in 1989 but I know about that legendary title win.  As an Arsenal supporter, how can you not?  It’s only one of the most legendary title wins of any club in the history of the EPL.  This year, the club (and Nike) are celebrating the 20th anniversary of that famous win with a commemorative away strip (which I will buy when I travel to London) and a viral marketing campaign to push the brand.  You really have to take a few minutes and watch the video in that link above.  Just watching Paul Merson talk about that magical night you get a sense of what it meant to them and to the old heads that got to live through it.

My favorite part is the shot of the Arsenal section of the growd going ape-shit.

That’s what being a fan is all about.

Later.

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