Did you see that? The whole town was red, MLS sobbed for a few seconds and had to clear his nose, Ben White – the legend – dedicated a song to Hincapie, Mikel wore sunglasses, Saka and Martinelli – the OGs of this team – posed together and the best of all, rhe TShirts of all the players read CHAMPIONS.
Declan Rice was singing, “Set piece again, ole ole; set piece again, ole ole”. ‘Hincapie, get your bum out..’ were the words only Ben White can come up with. Dec Rice is a decent guy, with Ole, Ole, Ole, Ben White White…
It was disheartening to lose the Champions League final. And the way we lost it to PSG made it even worse. There are questions being asked, and Mikel is answering why Gabriel was the one taking the crucial penalty when you have Madueke and Zubimendi available but that’s for another day. I would like to celebrate the ‘Premiership’ for some more days, after all, we had the title of 22 fucking years and the best part of it all is, the best is yet to come.
No, I am not giving up. You have to be critical of things in life if you want improvements. And there’s a lot to improve still at Arsenal. You can always get better than yesterday in sports and we won’t let it go the late Wenger years way, not at LiR.
But, we did win the Premiership. Against a club that has been under the radar for cheating. Against a team that went on to spend 200m pounds and got Marmoush, Nico Gonzalez, Khusanov in a January transfer window and still fell short of us. Against another team that is color blind and thinks red is blue. I heard they joined the parade in red and white and were singing rice, rice baby. Sad bunch of the lots.
We finished as runner ups in the Champions League. We lost to the last year Champions and in the penalty shootout. The only one who saved a penalty was David Raya and only if Eze and Gabriel had put it in, we would have 2 trophies on that bus. We played with 10 men during the extra time, Hincapie could hardly move and yet, it was PSG who wanted it to end and go to the shootout. They registered their first shot on target in the 117th minute. So, yeah, we lost but it wasn’t a gran and run for PSG.
Only about 2 months ago, I was frustrated and writing about us getting ousted from the Carabao and FA cup in 15 days. The last 15 days however were totally different because we saw us lifting the Premier League trophy, ending the Champions League run as runner ups, and an open bus parade painting London in red as if the communists are back.
Could we have done better? Yes – but then PSG could have done better too. No shame in losing in penalty shootout, we will go again next season and with a better preparation. The next time we go into the competitions, we will have a team who knows what it takes and will have experience of winning a trophy.
I have been a critic of the Mikel regime. I will also be critical in the coming season(s), but for now, thanks to the club, manager, players for giving everything they could to lift the trophy. We did it.
Right, that’s all for today. Hope you are back in your senses if you were part of that parade.
If you were part of the parade, Champions League final or the last day of the Premier League and have some pics which you don’t mind sharing with me, please send it to bloggingwithmb@gmail.com. I’m already preparing for the next season.
Also, fuck the Spurs.
Vieira
TP would probably be welcomed south of your border given the orange mafia boss is a paedophile and adjudicated rapist. I think he’s still awaiting a verdict right?
My TP tea-tray (‘you put the kettle on and I’ll do the teabags’ ©) is currently with my extensive intellectual property legal team. I hope to have it cleared and ready for US and UK markets in time for Christmas.
Yep KP
BBC piece is spot on . Think Thapa take is more brutally close . Somehow commerce and easy earnings has cropped into the system so there are astronomical salaries in cricket a less intense game . Parents push children that way.
This becomes apparent watching lower Division teams which display rudimentary skills. Even the highest IPL looks a leisurely farce after one watches EPL regularly.
So yeah , as position worldwide goes , India is going South
Hi Hoopah
Good to read your thoughts. Indian football is not in a healthy spot it seems. Are you watching much of the WC. I guess the timings for you are even worse than in Europe.
Thanks KP, that 2as an interesting read.
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I spent a lot of my summer holidays of my teen years in a place closer to Bengal and there were players of every age. I was hardly bothered at that time and preferred cricket myself but some of them were surely enough to go next step.
But there was NO next step. You play for the fun is all, no talent or effort would push you to rhe next step because there is no next step. Bengal, Goa, Kerala and probably a few other places have the infrastructure (on a very low level, lack of proper grounds, lack of money, corruption etc).
BCCI, the cricketing body earns 20,000 crore. Football is alloted a 50-100 crore out of which only 9 crore is from the government. No wonder we are 138th ranked country in the world.
Also, this could have still worked but I’m pretty sure 99% of the that 9 crore is eaten up by the corrupts. Could be even 100%.
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There’s only one way of fixing it. A billionaire decides someday that enough is enough, put his own money to build some good stadiums, put money in marketing and spend his 10 useless years in reviving football.
QPR was once interested in Baichung Bhutia, things could have been different had he made it. But then, Cricket has eaten up most of the games here.
I was amazed by the importance British government gave to Football and leagues. They have converted the fun to a tax source for themselves and there are hundreds of thousands of people earning their livelihood from football, directly or indirectly. We kinda do the same here with Cricket, but with a country of 1.4 billion people, it won’t hurt to have another sports of that sort.
there’s little doubt that MA’s a huge fan of Roberto Martinez…300 hundred passes per attempt on goal, shoehorning the fuck out of his team and all the flopping antics…somewhere our manager was watching that sideways performance with a full length mirror and a box of kleenex at the ready…what a waste of tissue
Ambarish—it’s such an interesting situation, I know that under British rule those within the elite classes brought their preferred sports (cricket, rugby and polo) to India, whereas football was seen as more of a commoner activity, but I’m surprised that in the years that followed their wasn’t more of a grassroots push to change that narrative…clearly it speaks to the continuance of the have/have nots dynamic, which is a real fucking shame…I find it difficult to believe that you wouldn’t be a footballing powerhouse had things been different…Cheers
I would love a 20-teams PL like set up here. Let the quality be bad for now, but lets have 20 states compete like IPL. Things will improve automatically.
In my hometown, there was a hybrid stadium for cricket, football, hockey, tennis, athletics. I played throwball in school at district level a few times there. It was having 25000 capacity which is not small. But that stadium is in ruins. The funds are eaten up to pay salaries who do nothing. The govt is least bothered (except during each olympics) and the people are more concerned for livelihood.
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Oh, and all those rags are riches stories about cricketers are fake, except for MS Dhoni may be. The kit itself is outside of the middle class budget, leave aside the coaching and travelling.
Ambarish—how ironic that right after discussing the matter an article entitled “India: Why a country of 1.4 billion is not in the football World Cup” by the BBC landed in my timeline…clearly they’re listening in…fuck you algorithm bots
We collectively need to get the Kroenkes into Indian Football. What could possibly go wrong?
Stan could throw away his syrup and don a turban.
And he is American, so corruption isn’t new for him.
Excellent
We seem to be exerting a lot of energy (and potentially money) trying to acquire future prospects, which seems somewhat problematic considering MA’s history with “unproven” talent…what we need is to improve our starting 11 and figure out how to properly embed our current academy pieces…speaking of which, if Barcola is our main priority that could be a losers bet, as they’re under no pressure to sell and we will never go into talks with a serious bid up front, which will invariably lead to a protracted negotiation process
as for the WC, the one lesson MA should learn from this competition is that if you want to beat a low block you had better have top-class talent up top…right now we have one player who fits that bill, Saka, and he’s regressed under MA’s tutelage…I’m sure he’s spending far more time watching and praising those bus sitters who’ve managed to steal points from better sides with little to no offence to speak of or those less adventurous squads who’ve made a shit ton of sideways passes to nowhere town…fuck me I hope I’m wrong and we actually acquire a couple of bona fide needle-movers
Vieira
Hi mate. I hope you’re enjoying the WC, at least the bits north and south of gringolandia.
There are so many rumours around about sales and buys. It’s impossible to see any top level business being done til the dust has settled. One of the rumours concerning young players is Jeremy Monga from Leicester who might be worth a punt. If I was Berta, I’d be trying to get Jesus and Fabio V (aka the Portuguese Harry Potter without the magic) sold before the buying frenzy really kicks in. Bit until then, I think there’ll be little moolah changing hands.
Alvarez openly saying he doesn’t want to continue at Atletico.
We can surely afford him right?
Ambarish—supposedly he wants nothing to do with us…Barca is his preferred destination…clearly he doesn’t favour MA’s blunt instrument offensive scheme…can you blame him
KP—surprisingly enjoyable group stage…maybe the fact that the draw expanded has meant that more goals are in the offing, at least in this round…as such, the stars have come with goals in mind, which usually leads to a more exciting brand of football…just heading to TO in an hour or so to see the Croatia match…Cheers
The question of Alvarez isn’t can we afford him its what’s his Bambi on ice impression like?
Is he world class at falling over with no or minimal contact?
The fact that he’s only 5 foot 7 tells me he wouldn’t be anywhere near Arteta’s list unless he’s going to play him at LW, RB etc.
Pickford really is a terrible keeper – lucky there the decision went his way.
TRVL – what was the game like in Trona? Hopefully you had more excitement than the bore fest in Boston. I rarely watch international football but I was over ruled by my wife. The officials were probably asleep when Pickford made a huge error. The rest of team were in Arteta mode – Tuchel was spitting feathers.
Norg—it was barely a football match as Panama is just a piss and vinegar side with no end product to speak of and Croatia is a mere shadow of it’s former self…that said, the general environment was off the charts…it was primarily a Croatia crowd, which came as no surprise, but if I see another Croatia head diaper I might go fucking postal on someone…needless to say if I wasn’t comped the tickets I would have stayed home and watched it in the conforts of my own home…tbf I’m still being weaned off this fucking prednisone so my fuse is unusually short, so that certainly didn’t help matters…the most enjoyable part was watching that Panamanian Energizer bunny Martinez run all over the pitch…Cheers