Points to prove, Emery v Arteta

TRVL

We could have had Overmars and Ten Hag as a team – a top level manager and a DOF who has a previous connection with the club.

Marc—don’t I know it…not to mention that the DOF would have a “real” club connection…I would suspect that Overmars extracirricular activities might have precluded him from the equation, but I would have gladly taken ten Hag regardless of that particular situation…I still haven’t gotten over the fact that we stayed the course with the far beyond it Wenger, when Klopp was available for the plucking…thankfully our current players are outperforming their manager

TRVL

Wasn’t he caught texting pictures of his cock to female staff members? Just give him a company phone where the camera’s broken!

Marc—what a dick move on his part, pun intended, but I think his more recent issues are health-related, as he suffered a heart attack this past December, which probably puts him out of the mix for at least a year or so…I would suspect the heart attack came as a result of his wife hiding in the closet, a la Cato Fong, with a Lorena Bobbit instrument of penile destruction frimly in her grasp…he’s obviously done exceptionally well for himself, financially-speaking, so he needs the game far less than the game needs him, but hopefully he will get a second chance at a profession he clearly excells at…Cheers

Mad weekend lads. Went on the beer,to hell with the consequences, a man has to take some pleasure in life! Watching Arsenal is probably worse for my health anyway. Anyone else getting ’89 vibes yet? We have it. We’ve bottled it. We have another chance. Definitely fucked now. Hold on….
City are throwing us all kinds of lifelines and you’d have to imagine with their focus on the champs lge there will likely be a few more. Then again we’ll definitely be sharting points the whole way home also. Buckle up.
Watching the snooker from Llandudno at the moment,cracking match. That near you KP? Pity there’s no event over here,I used to always go to Goffs for the Irish masters.
Tony,you’re playing a stormer with the articles and posts,I never got back to you about the idea of a poker school script,not a bad one at all. MB is slowly turning you towards the light, be careful, it’s the hope that kills you,there’s great comfort in the dark side!!
KP,poor old Steve Cooper. Reminds me of the old Newcastle joke. Gazza and Chris Waddle went back to St James’s after signing for Spurs but as they were driving through the crowd they were recognised and some of the fans started giving them abuse. In response Gazza pulled down his pants and stuck his arse out the window. The fans were infuriated,shouting ‘And fuck you too Beardsley’. Apologies, I’ve probably told you that one a few times already…..

Bobbit and Beardsley… It’s definitely been a good weekend.

I know Quasimodo was a figment of Victor Hugo’s imagination but in a weird time warp, I’m sure P Beardsley was in his mind’s eye when he created the character.

Hi Almunia. A weekend on the beer… I’m envious. By contrast just been at a rather prosaic dinner party with a Manure fan (who’s never actually seen them play of course) . Worse than that – the menu was vegetarian tagine with boiled cabbage and an apple strudel with inch thick pastry. A welsh/Moroccan/Irish/Austrian fusion menu of the lowest calibre. I broke a new years resolution and had a big mac on the way home.

You know those times when you take beers round to someone’s house? I rather over shopped and got 6 large cans, stupidly handed them over and only saw two of them. Nowhere near enough to wash away the tagine-y tang. A fucking disaster – a bit like the two results today. Ah well.

Llandudno’s a Victorian/Georgian seaside ‘resort’ with a funicular railway on the north coast. I’m right down the other end on the west coast. I did my usual stupid thing and stopped following it towards the business end. I’ll have to catch up. So there’s no actual internationally recognised tournament in Ireland now? An afternoon in an overheated auditorium in Dublin with lashings of Guinness and the clanking of ivory balls sounds like heaven.

Morning lads – what a weekend!

Fair play Almunia opting for the Wicklow mountains’ water best extracts after being brewed into Ireland’s most well known & favourite export. As for export? That is when the Irish have done their collective very best to deplete stocks and thus lessening the pleasures for the Jackeens and people in lands further afield. What a wonderful tool Google is. 🙂

No chance of leaving the dark side, Almunia, it’s where I was born among its murky depths of labyrinths to find solution in whatever is your passion, love and pleasure is? That being for me The Arsenal, sex, drugs and rock and roll not always in that order, and at my age, sometimes the sex gets crossed off or put to the back of the list.

For point of clarification alcohol, vaping and tobacco are also drugs. 🙂

Ronnie Scotts in London and The Saxophone Pub in Bangkok: 2 very worthy music establishments with over 25 years of welcoming some of the finest musicians to ever play on this earth: worth visiting if music is part of your very soul.

One of them was Jeff Beck who lit up so many peoples’ lives and sadly departed this year. While calibrating my Room my friend, Steve, dug out his Blu-ray of Jeff Beck Live at Ronnie Scotts to leave with me.

Tal Wilkenfeld on bass was about 16? Her Bass solo from the legendary Ronnie Scotts live show.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIBNh5VyiVk

She’s 36 now and played with all the greats. Worth checking out.

Jeff Beck had the creative genius of Zappa, but in the more jazzy blues and rock. Zappa in the sky with diamonds would have been a good Beatles follow up to Lucy. Certainly would have been apt.

Yolanda Charles Robbie William’s female bassist is also other worldly with her music, but Tal is another level above.

https://knowyourbassplayer.com/tag/bass-player-with-robbie-williams/

Back to the beautiful game and our return to the PL summit.

Points and game number crunching is of little use this season where reality has completely left the league both on the playing and officiating side. When I heard Lee Mason had resigned I dumped my tin foil shares pronto.

Ex policeman (5-0 in street talk), Howard Webb, will solve the VAR issues and weed out the culprits with his trusty truncheon in hand (where is LG Sid when you need him) :). Again, seriously I’m hoping Webb can create a new model closer to the Rugby Union and other sports successfully using the technology.

Seriously, Webb has to be better than past & current options. We don’t need a Mason 2.0.

I’m sticking with my latter thoughts of last night my time plus what I feel needs to be done from here on in.

Bring Bolagun back for the umpteenth time of saying. Change tactics and play Bolagun & Eddie up top using a 442.

K’phobe, If Party isn’t 100% fit for Leicester, then play Kiwior, Ode, Jorginho – Zinch at LB and Tomi at RB. When Jorginho tires bring ESR on early in the 2nd half who will instantly add pace and power to the more fleet footed, pure football thinking and slower Jorginho.

It’s a win at all costs game and we have the squad if used tactically who can beat Leicester in their back yard.

One game at a time for me.

Once Partey is fit, Arteta has a host of options in line who are well before Xhaka!!!!

Manure, City are our closest rivals for the title.

The Trossard, Kiwior and Jorginho window finally negates the need for Xhaka. We were more coherent with Xhaka off the pitch Saturday and why we were able to sustain so much final third pressure and fortunately the goal to turn our fortunes round once again.

For me if the last TW means no more Xhaka I’ll be happy now I’ve had a good look at Jorginho. Yes! Partey is a big miss, but much less so than playing Xhaka because he needs covering, as he goes walk about and getting in the way of fluid football.

I think an injury free Jorginho can be a stabilising glue/factor in our remaining games. A literal midfield general marshaling those around him.

All eyes on Arteta as right now there are reasons to be cheerful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIMNXogXnvE

Best Album: Handsome.

Howard 5-0 says, ‘book him Dano’. Cue the long canoes, the grass skirts and the music.

Nice clip to end with Tony. I’ve always loved Ian Dury. I think of his first two albums I slightly favoured ‘DIY’ although the mere mention of clever Trevor, Billericay Dicky and that tune that begins ‘arseholes, bastards, fucking cunts and pricks’ will never be forgotten. The cover for DIY was available in, I think, 6 different types of wall paper. Still got my album. I’m particularly fond of a very poetic and hilarious song called, ‘this is what we find’ where he describes the lives of some properly eccentric fuckers in London including this verse about a guy walking his dog and wiping its arse…

Single bachelor with little dog, Tony Green of Turnham Green
Says whose a clever boy then girl? yes you know whom I mean
Cos the mongrel laid a cable in the sandpit of the playground in the park where they had been
And with a bit of tissue, he wiped its bumhole clean

Guy was a poetic genius. That B side to rhythm stick, ‘ain’t half been some clever bastards’ and ‘common as muck’. Funny as fuck and very clever.

Err, I need to find something football-y to justify posting this on LiR. Ah, yes here it is… Ian D would have made for a better Arsenal manager than Arteta. His rants on the touchline and his post match media interviews would have been magical. He’d also get some production out of ESR.

Almunia
We’re you an ID fan? Did your older sister like him?

I think that little verse is an AAAA rhyming pattern which is pretty rare.

Ian Dury passed me by KP although I am surprised at how many of Tony’s musical references mean nothing to me. I thought I had an eclectic knowledge of music but you two operate at a different level altogether.
Delighted for Milkins last night,it’s great to see the money spread to guys like him who have struggled by for years. He won 230,000 which was more than he had earned in the last decade. There are so many really average footballers who now earn that in a month. Little wonder they lose their way so quickly. The hunger is satisfied before they’ve begun for so many of them.
That documentary on Brady was brilliant. Did you know where he got his nickname? Have a guess. I’ll tell you later.

I always thought it was because when he joined Arsenal, he was staying in digs as an apprentice and either didn’t like what was on his landlady’s menu or he was so conditioned during his earlier life in Ireland that his diet solely consisted of chips, chips or chips.

Millkins is a good egg. Crazy name, crazy guy. That tournament where he got absolutely fucked up before playing. Some formidable cue power. Definitely a maverick. It’s good that he’s in the money.

Did you say that documentary about Chippy was on RTE? I might have a dig around for it. I cannot recall if he ever wrote an autobiography but I can imagine him doing a decent and honest job. As you know, I revered him when he played for us and was deeply disappointed when he didn’t come back as a player. Just checked his wiki – he was in Italy for 7 years. He was the face if Arsenal in the 70s. A forerunner to Bukayo in his importance to the team despite his age. Every time I re-watch that 5 minute final, I’m staggered by his skill and work rate. Did you ever see him play for the national team?

Listening to Ian Dury can provide some genuine laughter. He never held back and was a true original. Only he could have recorded that verse about the dog having a shit.

Cardiff having a recent renaissance which needs to continue. O’Dowda got motm against Reading the other night. He’s a real fan favourite. I love the guy. And Callum Robinson looking increasingly like Dennis Bergkamp now he’s playing deeper! Addicks are mid table right?

Hi Almunia
Sorry, one more and then I’ll shut up. Thinking about Brady, who would you say are the top 5 footballing royalty in Irish football history – players, managers whatever? Doesn’t have to be Arsenal people. Just wanted to get your take on who are regarded as the 5 most influential figures.

You’re not wrong there,the story in the documentary was that when he arrived in London his mother accompanied him and to impress them both Arsenal took them to a restaurant. When offered the menu the mother told them it was pointless as all he ever ate was chips hence the nickname chippy.
The documentary was called Liam Brady an Irishman abroad and was broadcast on the the national channel RTE 1. I’m not sure if you can get RTE Player over there but it’s well worth a watch. His time in Italy was absolutely incredible particularly his first two seasons at Juventus but he will always be an Arsenal legend to those of us who remember his early years. Your comparison to Saka is on the money in terms of one player carrying the team though Brady ,like a lot of players at the time I suppose, did not receive the acclaim or treatment from the club that his talent warranted imo,though the fans certainly appreciated him. Compare that to Saka and how he is being treated. No wonder we have the clichéd ‘bitter old pro’. But to be fair to chippy he is anything but bitter. A real gentleman. I saw him several times at Lansdowne for the NT and my heart was broken for him when injury denied him a place at Euro 88,our first ever major tournament. He fell out with Jack in 89 and didn’t go to Italia 90 either though it was unlikely he would have had a role to play at that stage given the emergence of a new generation of talent. But he remained a positive influence in irish footballing circles and of course qualified for the euros as assistant to trappatoni who had been his manager at Juve.
There’s an interesting chat in the documentary between Brady and Scezney in Turin when the latter reveals how all the hale enders were intimidated by chippy.
Glad to see the Irish boys settling in at Cardiff. Charlton at stuck in mid table obscurity, may aswell end their season now,another huge disappointment. Think big Mick Mccarthy is going down with Blackpool, would be some job to keep them up now. His biography ‘Captain Fantastic’ remains one of the most refreshingly honest and humble footballing books I’ve ever read. A far cry from the game as it is today I fear.

That’s a tough one about Irish football. Anecdotally speaking there are four players who divide opinion each one with a very strong case to be considered Ireland’s greatest. They are Chippy,Johnny Giles,Roy Keane and Paul Mcgrath. Very tough call but I’d say Keane shades it for most with the utd connection being a strong factor. For me it’s Mcgrath,Chippy, Keane and Giles in that order. 5th place us a lottery with Houghton,Whelan Lawrenson,Given,Moran,Irwin,Robbie Keane all worth a mention but for me it’s Kevin Sheedy pipping Given. Just for the record I couldn’t consider anyone pre 1970’s as I have very little knowledge of football from that time. As for legends off the pitch. There’s only one. And he was English!

I liked that list and your arguments. My only other thoughts were David O’Leary ( betraying my bias just a bit). Niall Quinn never quite did enough as a player did he?

I remember that Everton team from the mid 80s. Sheedy was a beautiful player and universally liked. Honorable mention too for our friend Eamonn Dunphy?

I remember that towards the end of his playing career, Paul McGrath was excused from training because his fitness was so fragile. Yet he continued to play excellently and through an evident pain barrier. I’d say Villa AND Manure supporters would happily have him in their all-time XIs

Could you imagine Tets being that flexible and strategic with, say, Partey?

Gotta love Dunphy,off the pitch anyway. O’Leary was unfortunate in that Ireland had Mccarthy, McGrath, Moran and Lawrenson all at the same time. But Genoa 1990 will always be his. Quinn and Cascarino were household names obviously but both were also synonymous with big Jack’s anti football which while being successful, doesn’t help while looking for a place in the pantheon of footballing gods.
Your turn. 5 greatest English players. I’d say we will disagree here!

OK. I’m going to try and be objective. We might not be too far apart…

1 Bobby Moore
2 Geoff Hurst
3 Rooney
4 Gordon Banks
5 Kane

Managers, you’d have to think about Ramsey and Bobby Robson.

Wales

John Charles
Bale
Southall
Gary Speed
Maybe Ramsey

Scotland
Dalgleish
Archie Gemmell
Bremner
Lambert
Jordan

Almunia & K’Phobe,
I feel the same Almunia when you and K’Phobe discuss sports and football where I wonder if I lived in some parallel universe and have somehow shifted over. I couldn’t help thinking Liam Brady would have been seriously considered as you discussed. I remember most of the names you discussed above, but would never have come up with them off the top of my head.

Tough one Almunia when it come to music as ,it’s so subjective and why our choices are so eclectic. I’m finding new music all the time and today as friend sent me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrFH0kSmLro A modern day Kraftwerk or Mike Oldfield with interesting beats and melodies touching into deep house and Madonna – very soothing.

I spend about 8 hours a day now I’m retired in my Room with my vast collection and Tidal and Qobuz and finding new music all the time. Music is my life outside my family it’s in my head all the time even when I’m not listening to music: one of the few pleasures of occupying the spectrum.

https://jhaudio.com & https://www.schiit.com buy what you can afford from these 2 companies and you will have an unparalleled sound stage in your ears that would replicate parts of my room. I use 2 Schiit DACs to run my 2 Meyer Aime sub channels with my Trinnov. I think they were about US$200 each. You could keep it all Jhaudio as they have the full range, too.

Just down to individual budgets. It’s immersive sound with decent adjustable bass on the top IEM models.

I spent 9 years in the industry as a sound engineer and later management. I’m a tech audiophile sound engineer still happily drowning in music. The new Rolling Stones Blu-Ray: Grrr is also excellent with Jonathon Meyer and Lady Gaga guesting.

if you’re a Bowie fan then this is a must:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Moonage-Daydream-Blu-ray-Region-Free/dp/B0B7SBHFWY

Back to the best of the Irish I’ll stay with Brady as he was a magician on the ball and Arsenal.

I’m in full music mode today, so off to my Room.

Have a good one lads.

Just noticed my post is awaiting moderation, Ambarish? Would you mind telling me why?

If you wish to censor me in any way, Ambarish, I’ll leave the blog and you can delete my presence here or the mention of future help.

I had enough with LG I can live without LIR or any football blog, as i’ll probably start wringing something I’ve been putting off.

Thanks for the platform anyway, Ambarish. Sorry lads but I’m not being moderated by any anyone I’m tapping out.

writing* – not Blog*

just testing…

KP,
Fell asleep last night before I could reply! Your selections are great,real food for thought. Going to do England first. I’m going to exclude the 66 team because they are before my time but for clarity,from all I’ve watched and read,3 of them would be in my top 3,Bobby Charlton,Banks and Bobby Moore. But I’m going to pick from 70’s onwards. Same for Wales and Scotland. England top 5 is
1. Gazza
2. Lineker
3.Barnes
4.Beckham.
5.Shilton.
A real mixed bag there. I wouldn’t have watched a fraction of England’s games that you have so I’d imagine I have made the mistake of picking brilliant club players who didn’t produce for England( Barnes?) But I would level that accusation St the entire golden generation of the noughties,bar Beckham. Keegan is an enigma for me,never really understood the hype. Loved Beardsley too but never seemed to do it in an England shirt. Owen was perhaps more consistent in fairness. Hate Rooney so my bias wins there! Of our boys Adams,Seaman and Wright were probably best. Dixon rarely let them down. Does Platt count as one of ours? Shearer was one of my all time favourite strikers but for me Lineker was the most consistent English striker in the really big games. Rarely went missing,rarely missed big chances.
Bound to have missed a load more ain’t I? Always liked Bryan Robson too,he played with utd before I began to truly detest them! Ince was another you’d rather have with you than against. I’ll shut up now,could go on for hours!

Tony,
Is it possible the site was having problems? If MB is moderating you we’re all in trouble. KP and I will be banned for boring the hole off everyone with our very lengthy strolls down memory lane!! I’d doubt very much you are being censored my friend, blame it on the machines.

Wales is easy.
1.Neville Southall.
2.Kevin Ratcliffe.
3.Gareth Bale.
4.Mark Hughes.
5.Ian Rush.
Rush is the most likely of these to fall into the great club player who didn’t always produce for his country category. Giggs can do one,pushed his country too far behind his club. Bellamy and Speed are probably the best two not to make it. I loved pat van den Hauwe also. John Charles too far before my time. Ramsey just a level below. Did I miss anyone really obvious?

Scotland
1. Dalglish,no doubt.
2. Colin Hendry,braveheart.
3.Alan Hansen,rolls Royce.
4. Gramme Souness,crunch.
5.Ally McCoist,goals.
Much harder.Denis Law and Billy Bremner victims of my pre 70’s ignorance. 3 Celtic midfielders,all equally brilliant,very unlucky not to make it,Paul McStay,John Collins,Paul Lambert. Strikers like Frank Mcavennie and Big Dunc worth a shout. I never saw Fletcher have a bad game in a tartan shirt,nor Gary Macallister for that matter. David Speedie was another gem. Feck I forgot Pat Nevin,he was class also. Scotland have produced some gems haven’t they. Stevie Nicol too. I’ll stop!

Real have almost thrown this away already! Need Benzema to reproduce one of the many Lazarus-type performances that were the hallmark of their winning run last year. Can’t have Liverpool winning this trophy again!!

Nuts game. 2 all and it could have been more easily. Surprised at Allison,incredible keeper. Not so much Courtous,also brilliant but never as comfortable with his feet. Anfield is such an intimidating place to go,particularly on Euro nights,worth a goal to Liverpool every time. We miss that having left Highbury. Such a pity that the move was necessary. No title since then. No surprise really.