This has been coming down the road a long time and frankly I could no longer give a toss. We're all just soulless franchises now and have been for a while. English football's just another product to be marketed at chinks. Let them have it.
When we sold to Kroenke, we became just another club. When Wenger went, the last link to what the club used to be went with him and with it any emotional attachment. It's just been going through the motions since then. Given all which, I can't really get terribly exercised about this latest grubbiness.
One thing I'm not having, however, is Sky Sports, the Premier League, newspaper pundits and that repulsive little commie Gary f*cking Neville getting on their high moral horses about it. The PL was no less of a carve-up by big clubs and only now they suddenly develop a problem with the idea? F*ck right off.
I assume so. That's been the dream for big clubs for ages. I can't really blame them.
To be honest, another reason I'm not that arsed about it is that I wholeheartedly despise everyone who's p*ssed off about it. If Sky, the Premier League, Garys Neville and Lineker, UEFA and football fans are whining about something, I find it physically impossible to be on the same side as them.
Watching a kickabout in an empty stadium is bad enough, Watching the kickabout stop for 10 minutes whenever anything even vaguely interesting happens in order that people can f*ck about with VAR and arrive at apparently arbitrary decisions in an empty stadium is even less appealing, tbh.
Indeed. Well said, as ever.
Even back when we decided to become the Woolwich Wanderers, something important died.
Can't cry for Wenger though; he's been one of the chief enablers, if not architects, of the whole global sell-out and sell-off of football for years. Though perhaps it was inevitable anyway, as you suggest.
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
Quite. Even though I agree with much of what Burney posted, associating Wenger with the club we once were is pretty rich.
I seem to recall him being slated for bringing too many foreigners into our club, hammered for fielding an entirely foreign 11 and then absolutely murdered for moving us from Highbury.
And he wanted VAR too
"Plenty of strikers can score goals," he said, gesturing to the famous old stands casting shadows around us.
"But a lot have found it difficult wearing the number 9 shirt for The Arsenal."
He was the last remaining link to Highbury, the marble halls, the Hill-Woods and the rest of it. Those are just facts. Whether you like him or not doesn't change those associations.
And VAR per se has never been a bad idea. The way it's been implemented, however, is a complete shambles. It should never have been put in the hands of the officials, who are naturally going to use it to cover their arses. It should have been an appeals-based system in the hands of the team captains as in cricket with a limited number of appeals available. Unless an appeal is made, the on-field decision stays.
It’s a good example of what happens everyday.
Media spin, cancel culture, general hatred and bullying.
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It’s Champions League reform.
All of the clubs have said they will continue in their domestic leagues and the format allows for a revolving door of 5 other clubs.
But UEFA have thrown their toys out the pram and kicking them out of everything...even international football...while Gary Neville and Rio stir up emotions of ‘how can they do this during a pandemic’.
Good grief.
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Usually with stuff like this all parties realise there’s too much money to be made so compromises are made but I wonder if UEFA have completely lost the battle now with their latest escalation.
Might even see more clubs sign up to it so we end up with 2 Super League division.