Thierry Henry is in news for what he said at the Overlap podcast hosted primarily by Gary Neville. Before we talk about it, here’s an excerpts from it that has riled some of the Arsenal fans.
The last three years, we have been in a situation where should at least bring a cup or be in a final. Man Utd played five finals in their last five years – the United that everyone laughs at. In the last three years of building, Arsenal didn’t reach a final. This year we didn’t compete with Liverpool. I don’t know what people think, but we didn’t compete, not once. I’m not saying this season was a disappointment, but it’s normal that people are raising questions now about what the team is doing.
source : TH14 via the Overlap Stick to Football podcast
Well, some of the fans are calling him naïve for it. Some of us feel that Henry said so to please the hosts, got carried away with the propaganda Neville and Carragher spits and that he shouldn’t have questioned the manager of the Arsenal football club who took us back into the Champions League, made it to the semi finals this season, competed for the title thrice in a row and is doing his best to get us to where we belong.
Let me start by pointing out a very big difference between you, me and Thierry Henry. He is a legend, has played for the shirt and won titles for us, arguably the best player in Premier League history, was part of the team under the best manager of that time, has got a fucking statue outside the fucking stadium and is as big a supporter of the club as rest of us. He has lived it, given his blood and sweat, played alongside the greats – Vieira, DB10, Ljungberg and there could not a better fan to speak about the progress of the club.
Now, everyone’s entitled to an opinion and everyone else is entitled to agree or disagree to it. But calling it a blasphemy because a legend of the club feels we could have done better only means that you have got sub-standard expectation in an elite, competitive sport. If you are happy with 2nd place finishes and Champions League semi-finals, go fuck yourself, please.
–
Ok, lets put the emotions aside and break up what he said.
He told in his discussions that he understood the first 3 years because any manager that comes in, will need at least 4-5 transfer windows to bring in players to suit his style of play. Sounds good, we won a FA cup as well with a team that we had to de-assemble and let go. We spent heavily and Mikel go the players he needed to start delivering on the promises he made. We reached second in 2022-23 and everyone felt we are couple of signings away from winning the league. Man City were at their best and challenging them for the title was good enough at that point. Last season, we reached second again and it was blamed on the lack of depth on bench and the missing piece of a CF. Mikel did fuck all to address both the cases, we got Havertz and Merino playing up front, neither of them are a full fledged #9. With Gabriel’s injury in defence, we had to switch to Kiwior whom we were trying to sell in the summer window and failed.
So, we spent money but addressed none of the problems. We brought in a LB while our academy product in MLS played 21 of those 38 games this season, and could have played more if we have picked him up early in the season. We spent 65m on Havertz to fix the attacking midfielder problem, shifted him to the striker position and spent some more money to get Merino when it’s Declan Rice playing most of the time in that position. What in the actual fuck did we spent money on then?
Next, Legend wants us to compete and at least reach finals. Finals are nervy, anything can happen and it’s all about who gave their most on that day. It can go either way, so the legend says we should at least make it to the finals which we didn’t do. Anything wrong with that statement? None at all. He sees us finishing 2nd as not competing with Liverpool because we didn’t do. We competed with Man City last season, last 5 games decided who would lift the trophy, but this year, Liverpool were way beyond our reach in what, 30th week of the season? Again, you can call it a great job at competing if you are as mid as a Spud.
He is not saying season is a disappointment – because we still finished 2nd and we made it to Champions League semi-finals. But how many of you believe we could have done better? Every fucking one. We could have at least tried to bridge the gap by getting Watkins on cheap in January, or by trying Martinelli in the middle early on. We didn’t address it because we thought we will do it next year now. We were in the Champions League and either Mikel or the club prioritised the revenue from there.
–
With recent revenue sharing stats from Premier League, we saw that finishing 2nd and 6th have about 10m revenue generating differences. That’s not a lot when you buy a player in 35m (Fabio Vieira) and not use him for exactly the position he was brought in. Champions League money increases a lot if you make it to the next round, and we were making that money before we could spend it. Fine if didn’t have some to waste it on Havertz who won’t have a place in the team once we get Sesko or Gyokeres.
I don’t see a tiny bit of wrongs in what Thierry Henry said. It doesn’t matter if he was amongst Gary Neville or Caragher while he was saying that, for all I care is, he is asking that we should have done better, and we should do better. We are not Tottenham for fuck sake.
Right, rant over. If Henry has same managerial aspirations to lead Arsenal at some point and he is spitting venom against Mikel to get him fired, I don’t give a damn because what he said was true. What he said is what we have been saying at London Is Red, and at this stage, after spending 800m and managing the club for 6+ years, if Mikel can’t get us a trophy, it’s perfectly fine to question his method, spendings and everything around him. It’s not entitlement, it’s calling the bullshit and setting a higher standard than finishing 2nd.
See you in the comments.
Imagine the mood round Arsenal right now if it was announced they’d be no new player signings but Luis Enrique had just been appointed as manager?
The bounce in optimism would be epic.
That’s how bad Captain Fuckwit is.
The one that I miss who livened up LG is/was GoH Guns of Hackney, he posted some aggravating shit for the Arteta Kool Aid kids. In some way that blog has been neutered and Pedro is trying to post things to get a reaction out of people but they see right through it, not his true opinion just something to increase the traffic on the site.
FA charge Chelsea’s Mudryk with doping offences – https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cgmwg1w9130o
We dodged a seriously large bullet with this silly cunt.
Guns of Hackney was a very funny geezer. Never took himself seriously and kicked against many LG pricks. Including Pedro.
I once engaged with him hoping to trade some North London anecdotes. He crapped out though and said he’d moved years ago to the west Midlands. His sense of humour waned rather when I suggested it would be more accurate to call himself Guns of Halesowen…
KP—with 10 goals in 71 appearances, he still would have been one of MA’s better buys, especially considering that he doesn’t appear to give a flying fuck about resale values
England’s Best is brown bread? Really?
A monumental idiot in my book. If AFCF were to follow, I’d be equally delighted.
England’s Best was a limped dick muppet of epic proportions…Nigel was my. personal bitch until he soured at the prospect following a rather caustic exchange…of course, then he DMed Pedro, which ultimately led to my excommunication
Killlroy—good to see you posting here again, it’s been awhile…big thanks to you once again for (1) introducing me to this lot and (2) sending a message to my old JA buddy Dan…much appreciated bud
I see DK posting on JA and myself leave sporadically an appropriate message about the cunt that takes home 15mil a year as a pretend manager.
Next season will be a season to remember in the premier league, mainly because there is no stand out team but many very good sides who will all be taking points off each other.
Liverpool look like they have made 3 good signings but integrating at least 3 new signings into the first team does present problems and may prove disruptive. Plus it is unlikely that they will again go a whole season without injuries to their most influential players and favourable ref decisions.
City are in a transitional period but will remain competitive but beatable.
Arsenal will finish in the top 3 and will have a very good chance of being champions if injuries with a level playing field , we do have to play with more belief and look to dominate and destroy teams.
Chelsea and villa will probably have similar seasons to last but the dark horse may be Newcastle if they strengthen their squad in the summer.
Spurs and united will probably improve to the top half of the table with the likes of Bournemouth, Palace , forest , brighton and possibly Everton pushing for a European place.
Favourites for the drop will be the promoted clubs and possibly Brentford, wolves and West Ham if they have a poor start as the fans are not that keen on Potter and it will become hostile very quickly after a poor start.
Of course if Arsenal don’t hit the ground running we will hear the small (but loud) group of fans calling for the manager’s head without taking into consideration that we are playing at Anfield and St James park which are notoriously our most difficult away fixtures in recent years, united away on the first day of the season is difficult to call so old Trafford, Anfield and St James park will certainly be a test for Arteta , let’s hope he has the squad fit and firing.
And the award for making excuses before a ball has been kicked goes to Wicksy.
Marc—you’ve got to give Pricksy a little credit as I figured he wouldn’t show his face around here until something positive had transpired in the window…I guess even he got tired of waiting for something to actually fucking materialize…you have to remember that he’s only allotted a brief period of supervised time on the “facility” computer per day and he was likely getting bored of simply sending pages of heart emojis to the email account MA had suppposedly setup for the purposes on getting input from the fanbase, which by the way goes directly into a spam/junk mail file
speaking of beating a dead horse, what more does Zubi have to do to prove that he wants nothing to do with MA’s little project…I would suspect that even if he were to don an Arsenal kit with a giant X through it, MA would simply continue to offer more money to Sociedad…even if he does eventually make his way here, does anyone really think he’ll be all in…not to mention, how long will it take for things to sour should he struggle for form in his first season…I can picture a scene where a reporter is talking to his friends/family and they’re all wearing “Free Zubi” t-shirts
on another front, there was an article involving Timber where he was discussing how he played while injured late last season which was a rather disconcerting considering MA’s history in that regards:
“It got worse and worse. I had an Oranje scan, and the conclusion was that I had to undergo surgery at the end of the season. I wanted to play at Arsenal, but it was hard,” he said.
“Sometimes the pain is much worse. I’ve been through how that feels now. I only trained one day before the match. I thought I have no idea how to finish this, because I couldn’t even run. But in the second half I got adrenaline again and in the eightieth minute it was time to get out.
“I didn’t train all those weeks and was stressing for that second semifinal. It hurt so much. The manager thinks: ‘Jur has had a scan, it can’t get worse, make sure you’re ready’, but he doesn’t see how much pain I’m in.”
Any thoughts?
other than that, it’s just another typical day on the Arsenal transfer front, rejection letters and fucking tumbleweeds
Some players slot into a system quickly others take a while. Slot has done his business early and therefore will have time before the start of the season to accustom players to his style. If the players enjoy his system then they are likely to up their game accordingly. On the other hand some players take an age to integrate and never really offer what is expected – German Giraffes spring to mind. Liverpool will be the team to beat next year – we will know before the end of August if we will be competitive or we will be amongst the also rans.
TRVL
What was Arteta chasing? The PL was over months before it officially finished.
Arteta doesn’t care about the welfare of the players – that in itself should be a sackable offence.
What a cunt.
Marc—just one of many reasons why MA’s ill-equipped to manage a side with supposed championship aspirations:
(1) he arrived from City without having a single star player in his backpocket…instead we paid above the number for both an injury-prone faux Striker and an unproven inverted backer (look like Berta brought even less to the party)
(2) his re-upping of Auba, only to plot his demise a few months later
(3) the Willian debacle
(4) the mismanagement of our young blue chippers
(5) the constant need to shoehorn players into the lineup
(6) his inability to properly rotate
(7) his tactical naivety
(8) his inability to sell this sideways project to players of consequence
(9) his mismanagement of every single transfer window
(10) his almost uncanny ability to cock things up
(11) the fact that he talks out of both sides of his mouth when it comes to assurances and his involvement in the transfer process
(12) his unwillingness to accept responsibility for anything
(13) his Wenger-like behaviour when it comes to redressing our most pressing needs in a timely fashion and for his gutless/baffling decisions regarding the armband/intra-squad leadership
(14) the shocking manner in which he encourages the nonsense being spewed by his Kool-Aid fucktards
I could go on, but that’s probably enough to chew on for now
Wicksy
Nice one mate. Killing the vibe when it’s already on life support. Top three means third. Wow…I’m getting moist at the very prospect of your prognosis. I think you’ve shot your bolt too early. Will you still be saying third when ECMC and the fruit bat spurn every offer to buy a decent CF?
Wicksy you slag.
There are other blogs and outlets, where slags like you, can post your toxic positivity.
Some of us, actually like winning and not spoken to like we are cunts , by this cunt of a manager.
We have not won the league for 20 years and have never won the Champions League and you know the reason why?
Slags like you.
Artfully put
AF
Toxic positivity. Wonderful. I was listening to something on radio 4 the other day about this. Being baselessly positive about something is annoying and, ultimately, destructive. I used to work in the Foreign Office with scores of people like this. They thought it helped their career progression, but bosses and colleagues alike loathed and distrusted them.
Thanks for expressing that Art. Your oeuvre is great at both ends.
Hoopah
How are you doing mate? I guess you’re right in the centre of that hot summer period waiting for some rain.
Kroenke
Its actually worse to work in an organisation that’s management get annoyed at criticism in a sales meeting when there’s only employees present.
I once got into all sorts of trouble for pointing out that the marketing departments new white board youtube video (I told them to speak to me before putting it together my technical knowledge was a thousand fold better than theirs but of course they ignored me) basically said clients should buy from our competitors!
Strangely it disappeared.