Close season so far- my thoughts

I haven't wasted my time in writing on the various pieces of dross that has been peddled in the media in the last few weeks and I don't regret my stance for a minute. The vast majority has been completely made up and has not been worth wasting my pseudo-ink on.

In fact things have been so very slow and tiresome that a lot of people have been getting very excited about a certain jilted ex-board member's comments on Twitter. I wouldn't trust someone who has so many clear conflicts of interest.

One thing that hasn't changed is the fact that Barcelona are a steaming pack of c*nts, like the world being round or gravity tugging one's belly down to the ground, some things will never change.

Transfer rumours: utterly baseless tripe

It's been interesting reading some of the recent transfer stuff in the last few weeks, not because I believe anything I read in some of the so called 'news' papers, but because so much of it has been either completely contradictory or completely made up. One of the worst things about all this guff is that some rather angry fans have been launching into attacking certain Arsenal players for no good reason, just because they have believed the ludicrous spin of a dishonest or inaccurate news story.

For example one paper has been running one story saying that Nasri is going to stay and then another saying that he is demanding 160 grand a week, utterly nonsensical stuff. The Gervinho nonsense has also taken the Michael, one gutter radio source claimed he had signed for Arsenal, then moments later the Lille chairman is quoted as saying that they have had only one bid for the player, which has been quickly rejected.

Some people need to wise up, there are a lot of people out there peddling utter rubbish in order to sell newspapers, generate hits and advertising revenue. It is so transparent and predictable. The rage that has been vented a two players in particular, Nasri and Diaby, has been so very misplaced and misguided. These idiots who shoot off without engaging their brains would do well to realise that this kind of behaviour is completely counterproductive and likely to harm the club that they support.

We have made one signing, Carl Jenkinson, and he looks like a useful addition to the squad, the fact that he is a big Gooner is also a bonus. I have this little suggestion for Arsenal fans, how about we think before we cast judgement, how about we use our brains to separate the invented from the reliable? There is no point getting carried away with the fictional drivel floating around at the moment, let's wait for reliable concrete information before letting loose.

Transfer insanity catalysed by silly UEFA rules

I hate to be depressing at a time when our hopes and dreams should be running wild, at that time of year when expectation can be completely disproportionate to the reality of a situation, when everyone thinks their club is going to be the one next season. Frankly it is better to never expect too much, doing so leaves one invariably disappointed, and this is certainly the case for the majority of us football fans, whatever team one supports, whichever country one hails from, come the end of the season. I can't be arsed with the transfer rumours, it's largely just hot air made up by agents and journalists, I'd prefer to stick to the concrete.

Certainly the early hints of what is happening in the transfer market are concerning. The new UEFA rules that put an increased incentive on having more 'homegrown' players in squads, just to recap a homegrown player is one who has been at a club for at least three years by their 21st birthday/21st birthday season end, irrelevant of nationality. Essentially we have a limit of having 17 non-homegrown over-21 year old players at the club, then we can only have eight more over-21s if they are 'homegrown' to take it up to 25 players, while the under-21s don't count. Certainly the UEFA rules have led to a more ruthless culling of some of our older domestic talent, and this cannot be a bad thing.

The big concern I have over these UEFA rules is that it is threatening to make a bad problem far worse, that problem being the massively over inflated domestic transfer market for young English players. It was bad enough before the rules came in, clubs have long paid over the odds for domestic talent, and this has long favoured the richest clubs who are the only ones able to afford the top young domestic talent. UEFA's rules are making this situation a whole lot worse, young players are now even more disproportionately valuable and consequently the market has been inflated to an even more ridiculous degree.

The end result is a less exciting and a less competitive Premier League. The small and medium sized clubs have less chance of holding on to their best young talent, this week we have seen two young English lads go for massive fees given their lack of experience, Jordan Henderson and Phil Jones, age 20 and 19 respectively, both going for fees of not much short of 20 million pounds. Of note Jones had a serious knee injury last season which may well cause him more trouble in the future, lateral meniscus repairs are often not the end of the story. The best young players are now being snapped up so young, their clubs are getting so little out of them in terms of playing time, it just cannot be good for the game.

Perversely UEFA's rules are having the very opposite effect of what was intended, they were meant to protect young talent, they are doing nothing of the sort, they are resulting in the best young players being accumulated by a smaller number of rich elite clubs at an even younger age, they have also inflated the transfer market yet further. It is also perverse that the actual 'homegrown' talent at clubs like Manchester United is getting even less of a look in than before as multimillion pound teenagers are shipped in from elsewhere. UEFA's homegrown rules have been a step backwards. The problem has been exacerbated in the UK because our domestic rules make it so hard to bring in young players from outside the EU, putting even more of a premium on our own domestic talent.

I sense UEFA's financial rules will not do anything to help increase the competitiveness of leagues either, it is likely the super wealthy clubs with big sugar daddies will find ways around the regulations, the regulations may sound good but are likely to be utterly toothless. The best thing UEFA could do is to do something about the routine dodgy tapping up of players who are under contract and about the dodgy underhand behaviour of various agents who have no eye on the long terms interests of their clients. This would be the best way to help the smaller clubs compete, as things stand those clubs which splash the cash have things even more stacked in their favour, and this cannot be good for the game we love.

AKB: the deluded railroading of debate

I wrote briefly on the 'AKB' tag the other day and this was largely inspired by some pretty slack jawed stuff that had been trotted out elsewhere in recent weeks. There were a number of excellent and eloquent responses from readers, certainly others who had been as angered as myself at the way in which some lazily trot out the 'AKB' tag in order to avoid ever listening to the opinions of others or thinking with their grey cells. This response summed it all up well:

"I am afraid that these 'empty vessels' who pamper to the vocal minority in search of greater visibility, will inevitably drown the voices of those among us who care for the club and wish to contribute with constructive argument and debate."

Quite right. Strangely the whole issue was neatly summarised when someone who seems to be unable to say anything without using the AKB tag emerged from the pond to try to explain his 'logic', if one can call it that. According to this intellectual powerhouse all Arsenal fans must divide themselves up into two camps, we must either be AKBs and think Arsene is a supernatural deity or be utterly opposed to these silly AKBs, thus want Arsene sacked and the playing squad completely dismantled.

Apparently it is courageous to 'make a stand' like this and call for the manager's head in the most vitriolic, angry and disrespectful of manners. Anyone who doesn't agree with sacking Arsene is then written off as a 'fence sitter' who is catalysing the process of stagnation at the club, what flawless logic.

The saddest thing about all this is that a small minority of Arsenal 'fans' is trying to divide and conquer, they are creating a rift in order to further their own rather polarised 'beliefs'. The greatest irony of all this is the way in which the AKB tag was coined, it was created by this vocal minority as they simply couldn't be bothered to engage with their fellow supporters, they just lazily and arrogantly wrote off a large section of their fellow support without even bothering to listen to their views. It was not something to be proud of.

The world is not black and white, we are not all either communists or fascists, this polarised view of events is neither helpful, intelligent or productive. In fact forcing people into two camps at opposite ends of the spectrum is immensely counter productive, and those who do the forcing have shown their true colours, their arguments on their own do not cut the mustard, so they have fallen back to bullying others into their way of 'thinking' or not 'thinking' as the case may be.

In conclusion this piece is not intended to divide, its intention is to draw attention to the unacceptable way in which a small angry vocal minority is treating its fellow Arsenal supporters. If you don't agree with someone, why not listen to their point of view, discuss things and then you can always agree to disagree like adults. It is not big or clever to polarise the debate, tag people with an oversimplified label and then just try to force your opinion down their throats while holding your fingers in your ears whenever they dare express their own opinion.

Mediocre Manu humbled and pathetic AKB piffle

It was the better result for football in the end, the better footballing side convincingly dispatched their opponents, a justice of sorts on the football field. It was even strange to see Barca play with some integrity, there wasn't anything like the same level of gamesmanship that we have seen in recent games.

It seemed to me that Ferguson blundered with his team selection. Although United started well for the first ten minutes or so, the absence of Nani baffled, Carrick and Giggs were rather anonymous in the middle of the park. If it wasn't for some excellent last ditch defending and goalkeeping then it could have been far more than the three goals conceded, the goal Manu scored was also a clear yard offside. Valencia should also have been sent off, guilty of four particularly crude or cynical tackles, in the end he escaped with just the one yellow.

Still however United had approached the game they probably would have lost, they simply aren't that great a side, they are deeply average in many areas of their side, particularly in the centre of their midfield. Barca played some great stuff, Messi was electric, Xavi and Iniesta instrumental, but for me it was their phenomenal work rate and fitness that stood out. Their work ethic and pressing game takes some commitment. They also produce in game in game out, it is pretty damn rare that this Barca side fails to turn up.

Some of the current Arsenal squad need to take a long hard look at themselves in the mirror, they should look at the work rate and effort that Barca players put in week in week out and realise that no matter of one's name, reputation or ego, it is simply not good enough to only turn up to games sporadically and expect to win the easier fixtures without trying hard. Song has openly spoken of this issue and well done to him for having the courage to do this. Everyone in our squad needs to work harder, even certain big names who some seem to think are immune from all criticism.

Finally onto a lot of rather lazy and unconstructive stuff that has been put out there in the last few days. It is not often that I single out a site for criticism but in this case I make an exception, the OnlineGooner has covered itself in turd of late. It started with this 'Dear AKB' post, it summed up so much that is wrong in the way that some idiots reason and rationalise the 'debate'. The AKB tag is a useless and stupid term that serves no productive purpose, it is used lazily by morons to polarise the debate so that they don't have to listen to the opinion of others and therefore have a proper debate. The 'with us or against us' argument is nonsensical and dumb, seeing Arsene Wenger has a God or an idiot is just plain foolish, the truth is somewhere in the middle, so labelling people as one extreme or the other is unconstructive, stupid and patronising in the extreme.

The OnlineGooner has followed up its weak AKB piece with another limp effort, this time it's apparently a tongue in cheek effort to mock those silly AKBs (note sarcasm here). The fact that a lot of people didn't realise it was meant to be 'funny' says it all really, it isn't funny, it's just a sad attempt to polarise the debate and insult anyone who dares disagree with your opinion, rather than bothering to listen and engage in a reasonable debate. The author 'Raskolnikov Enahoro' seems to think he knows it all, he wants Arsene sacked, he has openly stated how useless he thinks Arsene is and he has made it clear that he is unwilling to listen to anyone who would dare disagree with his mighty opinion.

Anyways I'm rambling, the point I'm trying to make in a rather laboured fashion is that the 'AKB' tag is completely useless and invariably used by rather aggressive reactionaries who have nothing constructive or productive to say. It is amusing that these reactionaries are so often incapable of suggesting any realistic managerial replacements for Arsene, they are all too happy to list players we should sign, however when they sign for someone else and turn out to be utter turnips then this is completely forgotten. Arsene deserves criticism, I'm not saying otherwise, but it should be reasonable, proportional and fair, and certainly a lot of dross written slagging him off in a rather disrespectful and vitriolic manner deserves nothing more than a wastepaper bin. Generally if you have to use the 'AKB' tag to make a point then your argument is probably about as solid as Ryan Giggs' superinjunction.

Night of the gruesome twosome and other news

Well the hype surrounding tonight's Champions League final has been going full blast for hours now and I have a certain feeling nagging inside me concerning the injustice dished out to us by Barcelona and their referee in that tightly contested tie earlier on this season. We were robbed, although I feel Arsene got his tactics wrong in the second leg, Rosicky was poor and Arshavin should have started, some of the refereeing decisions were completely incomprehensible, especially the RVP sending off. In fact since that red card I have noticed even more that players shoot as RVP did, after the whistle had gone, rather routinely and never get punished for it.

Still, although Barca are a bunch of cheating, diving, arrogant tosspots, it is hard to even come close to backing the side that comes from the grim hole in the north, Manchester. They have so many unpleasant malignant sorts in their team and their manager is the most deplorable of the lot. They are also a distinctly average side, the fact that we so comprehensively outplayed them as we beat them 1-0 at the Emirates showed this. Their fans are also such obnoxious arrogant numpties in the most part. The fact is that Manchester United have got a great record of winning things when they haven't been that great a side, beating Munich in that final a few years back was the best example of this, distinctly second best for the whole game, one of the most undeserved triumphs in footballing history in most objective people's book.

The role that Ferguson's bullying and intimidation of officials plays cannot be underestimated in my opinion. His comments earlier this season relating to Martin Atkinson's impartiality summed this up. The strangest thing was then that Atkinson didn't get given any more Manchester United games for the rest of the season. The Italian refereeing scandal of a few years back got a lot of attentions and resulted in huge punishments for the clubs concerned, yet in England the way in which officials are given certain games is still conducted in the most hidden and subjective of manners. To me it looks like there is far too much room for manipulation here, in the context of Manchester United's narrow title success, small changes from this kind of systemic manipulation may be rather key in their success. Anyway tonight it's a hard choice for me, and frankly I won't lose any sleep over it either way. If I had to lean either way it would be towards Barca simply because they are far better in footballing terms than this distinctly average United side.

Transfer wise I refuse to get too excited about all the gossip, we have been linked with dozens of players already and most of it will turn out to be utter horseshite, let's just wait until deals are done and then make comment. The most important thing for me is getting rid of those who have not performed and who are not 100% committed, whoever they may be, big name or otherwise. Almunia, Squillaci, Denilson, Vela are just a few of the names we could do without, while they are certain young players who are clearly not going to cut it at the highest level. Good to see Aaron Ramsey confirm his recovery with a cracker for Wales last night. The goings on at FIFA are also rather welcome, let's just hope this can be the beginning of some real change for the better.

Family man Giggs lets photo do the talking