Thursday 2 September 2010

Squad announced amidst ridiculous tabloid fury

So our first team squad for the coming season has been announced. It's both smaller and larger than others around if that makes any sense. It's smaller in the sense that we only have a squad of 20 over-21 year old players, but it's larger than most in the sense that we have a fantastic depth of U-21 talent which includes the likes of Walcott, Wilshere, Gibbs, JET, Vela, Szczesny and Ramsey.

These new rules have been known about for many months, so any knee jerk comments have misrepresented this very fact. Gordon Taylor, a man who always looks after his own selfish interests, has something to say, the stupid and ignorant Phil Jiggins (maybe he's still angry about having a sh*t name) had this to say:

"Arsenal and Manchester City helped turn the Premier League's brave new dawn into a farce last night.....Strict new rules designed to restrict foreign players in English football — and encourage homegrown talent — were shown up to be meaningless."

Phil is even wider of the mark than Kaba Diawara. Firstly how can the rules be 'strict' and at the same time meaningless? Surely a bit of a contradiction their Phil. Quite why it is Man City and Arsenal who have been singled out I do not know, in fact Chelsea and Manu are sailing as close to the wind as anyone because they are almost at their limit of foreign players who are over the 21 age limit.

If Phil had done a bit of reading and wasn't just writing to appeal to Britain's lowest common denominator, ie the Sun reader with a reading age of 10 and a hatred of anything that isn't branded with a union jack, then he may be able to acknowledge that Arsenal have done more than virtually any other English club in developing young talent in recent years and without Arsene Wenger's input English football would still be languishing in the dark ages. The reason why we now have such depth is that we have invested so much money and time in developing our youngsters over a sustained period.

It is ridiculous that even now, while we continue to produce top talent for the full England squad (Gibbs/Wilshere), we are being singled out unfairly. In fact our youth setup has seen a beacon in recent years, we have produced numerous excellent English players who have gone on to forge solid careers in the top leagues, we have even produced the best groundsman in the world who was poached by Real Madrid. It's just plain embarrassing what passes for journalism in some quarters, some people just don't like Arsenal and can't bear to admit this, they would prefer to run dishonest articles that masquerade as objective criticism when it clearly is not.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

It is quite amazing that Arsenal still get hammered with the same old sh*t about foriegn players. Teams like Chelsea are hailed as the saviour of English football when they've done nothing but spend vast amounts of money. It will be interesting to see the amount of English players, United and Chelsea have at the next World Cup against the Arsenal lads. I think what Arsenal are trying to achieve has hindered their ability to win trophies to some extent but to accuse them of ruining the English game is so far off the mark it is frightening.

Wavy said...

Here, here!
Arsenal are a beacon for everything that is right, proper and decent in the premiership. They are have always shown integrity and honesty intheir dealings in football since time in memorial, well the 20's anyway.
If all the other clubs were as rigorous in the planning for the future then even the national team may have a chance of winning something, with English home grown players nurtured through a caring and efficient scholarship scheme. BUT most other clubs prefer to buy in cheap continental players and cut out the effort and investment that such clubs as Arsenal put in.
You are 100% right 'Sun' 'Mail' 'Express' etc sensationalise the trivial claiming half truths are incontravertible facts and point fingers of blame where none exists SHOCKING - MISLEADING - LIES and they get away with it all.
Let's hope that more clubs do fo;llow the laws of Wenger and all english players are given the chance to develop and blossom instead of finding their way barred by the need for instant success.

HorshamGooner said...

We also provided the best Physio that England has ever had!

1979gooner said...

Indeed, forgot that! Gary Lewin, there's only one Gary Lewin...

Anonymous said...

We also produced Paul Burgess the world's greatest groundsman.

Anonymous said...

SHOCK HORROR BURN AN EFFIGY OF ARSENE "JOHNNY FOREIGNER" WENGER. Arsenal have not named ONE English player in the 25 man squad. That is the take of SkynotSportsNews. Whoah, slow down mad people, let's look at the facts. Arsenal currently have 13, yes THIRTEEN ENGLISH players, under the age of 21 who not need to be named in the 25 man squad, all of whom have very real prospects of taking part in the Premier League this season. I bet that fact does not appear on the back page of any red top Wenger bashing scum newspaper anytime soon eh? Jaygooner

Holla said...

Anyone else find it funny that all this anti-Arsenal sentiment about them not being British comes out within 24 hours of the new England kit.....you know, it's the one where the promo poster features 3 Arsenal players (Theo, Jackie, and Maverick).

Uncle Mike said...

Arsenal is singled out because of our history of avoiding English players -- probably going back to the days of the Irish Connection (which didn't seem to bother Man U fans with George Best and Roy Keane) -- and also because of the rivalry with "English teams" Tottenham and Chelsea.

Man City is singled out because they are the (supposed) arch-rivals of Man U, who they love. Never mind that the best Man U players, in addition to the Shamrocks above, have been French (such as Cantona and Evra), Welsh (sorry, Giggsy, you're British but not English), Latin American (the now-Blue Tevez), and, of course, Martian (Rooney).

They'll never stop hating Arsenal. So to hell with them. Let's win. If they don't like it, tough. Like the song goes: "We are The Arsenal, and we are the best. We are The Arsenal, so fuck all the rest. Fuck 'em all."

Ted said...

Another day dawns and more tabloid drivel is published.

I figure its actually an art form to sit down at your desk and produce an article for a tabloid newspaper that is utterly wrong, utterly meaningless, a bit racist, and mostly just a thinly veiled attack on the club you hate.

For some reason, the anti-Arsenal vein in the press is allowed to prosper, but actually this is only a good thing.

For instance, Alan Hansen's lunatic attacks on Theo after the Blackpool game will only be added to the long list of quotes that show that Hansen is a biased retard.

The differences between Manure, Chelsea and Citeh are nothing more than timing. Manure had the money for a bit, then Roman pumped cash into Chelski, now its Citehs turn.

Only Arsenal stands apart. Long term success on minimal spending. And if you are a journo who does not support Arsenal, that makes us a target for jealousy.

So I take pride in every piece of anti-arsenal bullshit I read in the papers. It means we are hurting them.

Anonymous said...

This isn't so much anti-Arsenal as anti-Wenger. The English press have got a thing about him and wont let go. Basically cos he is someone with ideas and doesn't chop and change to make himself popular with self appointed opinion makers. Arsenal's jewel in the crown was born in Spain but he's been at the club since age 16.
So f**k 'em. Let Arsenal win the premiership, go on to the Champs league and if the Sun, Mail, BBC etc want to support whoever they play who cares?
Arsenal fans put up with being called boring when winning 20 years ago, so let thelm call you fancy dan foreigners now but ram it down their throats by winning. That is all that counts.
But the pleasure will be greater when you win by sticking to what you believe in and with Wenger that means playing good football with players he has trained and trusts.
This could be the season. Hold your nerve and watch the tabloids fume!