Time for some home truths

[redgunamo]

We can be incredibly happy and still demand more. They are not opposites.

The PSG angle is interesting. Yes, I know they are, lets just say, financially blessed. But if you ask them, and the rest of the European leagues, they'll all bleat about the massive financial advantage of the Premier League. And they are correct.

Last season, PSG earned nearly 10 million from tv revenue. The top 5 in the Premier league all earned a minimum of 174 million.

I know ours is legitimate money. And I know they are cheats. But even so, this isnt just about money.

Yeah, we do all need to lose the idea that football is somehow against money coming into the game, from anywhere and from anybody. The rules on that are merely an annoying, systemic bottleneck. Rather like the taxman; football's administrators don't produce anything, they just insist on their cut of everything passing through their turf.

At bottom, football does not consider what PSG, City etc. are doing to be cheating.

[Peter]

Nobody wants to allow Mikel, and even our board any credit

I am happy to give them both huge credit. And Edu, by the way. He played a huge role in turning us around. And bringing in Arteta.

But credit isnt football's real currency. Winners dont want the credit. They want the win. And when they get it, they want it again.

So let's say we can be incredibly happy without being satisfied. Full but still hungry. Drunk but still thirsty.

Otherwise, what are we here for?

[Peter]

Henley is a raging leftie.

Right up until the point his own money enters the chat and he turns into Gordon Gecko. Naturally

That may be true.

But if The Eagles had been happy with the success of One of These Nights we would never have got Hotel California.

We haven't made our Hotel California yet.....

[Peter]

You and I have different memories, p. {And I do defer to your greater understanding of the game. I just like players with cannons on their tits.}

I thought we tried a whole new MF with Dec and Kai and it didn't really work. Then we bought back Wigwam, moved Dec into the GX spot and played Kai up top and started banging them in.

You say it's game management crap. I remember a different formation.

You're absolutely right. Raya had a poor start, Rice took a bit of time to adjust and Havertz in midfield simply didnt work.

But it was also the birth of game management and fhe start of the goals drying up. We looked for control, particularly away from home. We toughened up. Which was needed as we had been too easy to get at the previous season.

Post Dubai the shape changed, but so did the attitude. Unfortunately, it reverted back the following season.

It is always a question of balance. Abd I al afraid I jist do not like our insistence on trying to kill games without the ball when we are more than capable of killing it with the ball.

[Peter]

I know. I don't get it. Let's just be happy for the first time in 22 years. Everyone else will have a new manager. We've seen how that normally pans out. Slot won the title with Klopp's squad but normally it entails a rebuild. New managers have new plans and want new players.

We have to say that in some ways we have an even better back 5 than under GG, because his never got called the meanest defence in all of Europe. If JT had come back a week earlier we could have won that.

Kai showed in the final he's our best CF and he didn't play last season.

We're not resting on our laurels. The thing with PSG is getting personal now, like it was with City. So we'll have to do them. Goodness always triumphs in the end. Read the Mahabharata.

We can be incredibly happy and still demand more. They are not opposites.

The PSG angle is interesting. Yes, I know they are, lets just say, financially blessed. But if you ask them, and the rest of the European leagues, they'll all bleat about the massive financial advantage of the Premier League. And they are correct.

Last season, PSG earned nearly 10 million from tv revenue. The top 5 in the Premier league all earned a minimum of 174 million.

I know ours is legitimate money. And I know they are cheats. But even so, this isnt just about money.

[Peter]

Yes. Oddly enough, that's what we are. that's exactly what the Arsenal Football Club is!

I'm not sure football has ever demanded perfection, from anybody. Wenger just made that up.

No, Herbert Chapman made it up. And if he were here now he'd be agreeing with me. Maybe.

Good enough is not actually good enough. Pep would tell you that. Alex Ferguson would tell you that. Wenger would tell you that.

But, assuming you are correct, I guess we should make the most of this one....

[redgunamo]

I know. I don't get it. Let's just be happy for the first time in 22 years. Everyone else will have a new manager. We've seen how that normally pans out. Slot won the title with Klopp's squad but normally it entails a rebuild. New managers have new plans and want new players.

We have to say that in some ways we have an even better back 5 than under GG, because his never got called the meanest defence in all of Europe. If JT had come back a week earlier we could have won that.

Kai showed in the final he's our best CF and he didn't play last season.

We're not resting on our laurels. The thing with PSG is getting personal now, like it was with City. So we'll have to do them. Goodness always triumphs in the end. Read the Mahabharata.

It very much is personal, as it is with Manchester City. It's the Qatar/Abu Dhabi/Dubai Derby.

Oddly enough, The UAE doesn't really care which of us (City, PSG, the Arsenal etc.) wins because they win either way, their goal being to use football as nation-branding project where the "trophy" is global influence.

[redgunamo]

That'll do- that's the sentiment of a club who wins the league every 22 years. And a club that hasn't retained a title in almost a century.

No, it wont do! As Wenger said, football drives you mad because your job is to pursue perfection in a sport built around chaos and imperfection.

That's our task. Same as always- to do better next season.

Yes. Oddly enough, that's what we are. that's exactly what the Arsenal Football Club is!

I'm not sure football has ever demanded perfection, from anybody. Wenger just made that up.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Nobody wants to allow Mikel, and even our board any credit

I know. I don't get it. Let's just be happy for the first time in 22 years. Everyone else will have a new manager. We've seen how that normally pans out. Slot won the title with Klopp's squad but normally it entails a rebuild. New managers have new plans and want new players.

We have to say that in some ways we have an even better back 5 than under GG, because his never got called the meanest defence in all of Europe. If JT had come back a week earlier we could have won that.

Kai showed in the final he's our best CF and he didn't play last season.

We're not resting on our laurels. The thing with PSG is getting personal now, like it was with City. So we'll have to do them. Goodness always triumphs in the end. Read the Mahabharata.

[redgunamo]

p - shanti, baba. Just chill. Let's wait to see what Santa brings this summer and in the mean time let's celebrate being champions and the fact that there's basically nothing between us and the financially-doped ****gibbons who've won the CL for the last 2 years.

Nobody wants to allow Mikel, and even our board any credit

[redgunamo]

I'm going to say it for the rest of my life. It is the focus of every competitive sport.

Oh ****, we are so good it is going to be very difficult to find ways to improve. We had better get started straight away.

As Don Henley said, sometimes success can be every bit as disconcerting as failure. Of course, he wasn't talking about his solo career.

Henley is a raging leftie.

Right up until the point his own money enters the chat and he turns into Gordon Gecko. Naturally

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

That'll do- that's the sentiment of a club who wins the league every 22 years. And a club that hasn't retained a title in almost a century.

No, it wont do! As Wenger said, football drives you mad because your job is to pursue perfection in a sport built around chaos and imperfection.

That's our task. Same as always- to do better next season.

p - shanti, baba. Just chill. Let's wait to see what Santa brings this summer and in the mean time let's celebrate being champions and the fact that there's basically nothing between us and the financially-doped ****gibbons who've won the CL for the last 2 years.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Nuit St Georges, GG, my favourite Burgundy village.

Morbier, Tomme aux Fleurs and Bleu d?Auvergne

From a quite wonderful fromagerie in Villiers

Ooohh, shall we meet when I'm next in Paris to toast the season with cheese and Burgundy? Do try a Sainte-Maure de Touraine. The goat cheese log coated in ash. Will go lovely with Burgundy.

Where do you buy your wine? I still reckon Nicholas is decent as chain shops go.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Of course I would take the title.

But I reject the premise. And the evidence is Sat in front of you, post Dubai.

You know why we didnt win the title that year? Because pre Dubai we played game management crap and took 40 points from our first 20 games.

The year before we were far too loose and open but with a smaller and inferior squad we still hit 85 points. Exactly the same as this season.

The choices you present deliver an obvious answer. But I reject the choices.

You and I have different memories, p. {And I do defer to your greater understanding of the game. I just like players with cannons on their tits.}

I thought we tried a whole new MF with Dec and Kai and it didn't really work. Then we bought back Wigwam, moved Dec into the GX spot and played Kai up top and started banging them in.

You say it's game management crap. I remember a different formation.

[Peter]

I could remind you that you've been saying that for years. But I won't

Anyway, nobody is assuming that! Except perhaps you and Bunnell.

I'm going to say it for the rest of my life. It is the focus of every competitive sport.

Oh ****, we are so good it is going to be very difficult to find ways to improve. We had better get started straight away.

As Don Henley said, sometimes success can be every bit as disconcerting as failure. Of course, he wasn't talking about his solo career.