Andrei Arshavin is not a goat -- Andi Thomas
Go. Read this. Read this NOW.
4 months ago
Ted Harwood
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I was about to post this too
YOU WIN THIS ROUND, HARWOOD.
WRITTEN IN THE STAAAAARS, A MILLION MILES AWAAAAAAY
I write about the Arsenal for The Short Fuse.
WACHTEL IN CRISIS
Arteta, it's all about the right pass it goes left to the left foot of VAN PERSIE
Proud member of Fusillade and The Short Fuse
by Aidan Gibson on Jan 23, 2012 5:23 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
I think Squillaci is still a goat...
by Sabrina Dessipe on Jan 23, 2012 6:18 PM EST up reply actions
Squillaci works
though he always looks sad, and I kind of feel bad now.
WRITTEN IN THE STAAAAARS, A MILLION MILES AWAAAAAAY
I write about the Arsenal for The Short Fuse.
by Thomas Wachtel on Jan 23, 2012 10:19 PM EST up reply actions
This is exactly how I feel
I think people have been blaming Arshavin incessantly for this loss. And I don’t think that’s fair. It’s true that he screwed up really really really badly, but soccer is a team sport. You can’t blame one guy. The ball has to go past 10 others before it goes in the net.
I don't blame Arshavin.
I know he’s trying. I blame Wenger for continuously running a clearly ineffective player onto the pitch game after game. Being a SF Giants fan, I have to sit through the same thing every season (Huff, Cabrera, Winn).
Carter Jurica!
"Has anyone really been for even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?"
by GrahamCrakalaka on Jan 23, 2012 9:01 PM EST up reply actions
I'd rather have that
than one who keeps throwing darts at the roster and hoping something works.
Captain, there are doubt''s...
I can't possibly imagine why.
You would rather have a manager stick with someone who is useless than try something else?
That doesn’t make much sense to me
Carter Jurica!
"Has anyone really been for even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?"
by GrahamCrakalaka on Jan 23, 2012 11:45 PM EST up reply actions
Cause I don't think "try something else" is a legitimate solution.
As has been pointed out all over the place, you just wave a magic wand to make AA disappear and have someone perfect take his place. That only works on your couch at home.
Captain, there are doubt''s...
Why don't you think try something else is legitimate?
Arshavin is hardly our only legit option in that position…and considering that he’s doing worse than nothing…
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Put on Benayoun, don't take off OX, put AA on for Arshavin, etc.
Those are legitimate options. “Try something else” is meaningless; no better than throwing darts at a roster.
Captain, there are doubt''s...
Ok now we're just going into semantics
“Try something else” in my mind was exactly what you were talking about, using our legitimate options to repalce Arshavni.
So we’re in agreement. except for the part where you don’t take off Ox. He was never going to play 90 minutes, someone was gonig to have to replace him.
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by silverace99 on Jan 25, 2012 12:09 PM EST up reply actions
It's not so much about perfect as it is about "maybe try something different and see if it's better"
I'm confused
we are saying the same thing, you’re just being more specific. What the “different” is, I will happily leave to the experts, but something clearly needs to be changed at this point.
I always look at these things as discussions rather than arguments
so I wasn’t necessarily calling anybody out or saying somebody was wrong. No one ever wins anything like that. (Works in marriage to, btw)
Too often, especially after traumas like Sunday, fans jump to these extreme, reactionary conclusions (fire Wenger, release Arshavin, sign Neymar, switch to Swindon Town, etc.) which, while understandable, tend to worsen the trauma. There was a lot of good things that happened on Sunday and there are a lot of good things about this team that I’m afraid are getting missed by people who have a “WE MUST WIN EVERY GAME!!!!” mentality.
Sure, winning is fun and necessary, but it’s so temporary, so replaceable. Rooting for ManU or City just seems so fantastically boring to me. How can any of those titles or 4-1, 5-0 victories having any meaning to them? Duke? Yankees? La Liga? Where is the personality, the narrative, the struggle, the achievement, the failure? I love that we don’t solve problems by making them disappear. We fight, we wrestle, we fail, we restart, we progress. That is far more fulfilling and satisfying, even when it doesn’t work, because it’s honest and true.
I think when you approach it this way you start to see and appreciate much more. You realize how important the Arteta signing was (perhaps it was right to wait til the end of August to get him and not jump all over the 1st midfielder who was available). When you see Djourou struggle out of position you remember that we not only don’t have any more fullbacks but that we also don’t have anymore center backs. Think about how hard these guys are working!
I wish we weren’t but we change with every game we play. We’ve used 30 players and fans are demanding more? Look at the players we’ve out up against the defending champions: Yennaris, Traore, Coquelin, Ox, Dench. Sure, the 1st game was ridiculous but the second was peer-to-peer. Isn’t that change? They’re not better than us, they’re just different. Just like Barcelona last year. It’s our ability to adapt and to change that keeps us competitive every year.
What we are and all we can expect to be is a team that can compete. Wenger is responsible for this. He keeps us competitive because he isn’t playing darts, he isn’t changing for change’s sake, he doesn’t believe “WE MUST WIN EVERY GAME!!!!” He knows every inch of these players and every inch of this club. He has made them and he has made this club. He will change because he has always changed. And if you sit back and endure the struggle, read the narrative, you will appreciate more, remember more, enjoy more.
Captain, there are doubt''s...
by Match Day 5 on Jan 24, 2012 10:00 PM EST up reply actions 2 recs
My uncle is a Man U fan and he's gotten bored of winning
He would agree with you. After the game, he went and said that someone new should win the league. Of course, he’s a pretty original guy and I think most fans would disagree with him but…
by Adnan Ilyas on Jan 24, 2012 10:09 PM EST up reply actions
I agree with about 98% of what you wrote
but where I differ is that I can read the narrative and enjoy the struggle and not agree with certain parts of it. That doesn’t mean I want Wenger fired, or heads to roll; what it means is that I want this:
He will change because he has always changed.
to happen just a little faster than it seems to be happening. I was listening to the Football Weekly podcast today, and they raised a good point. Arsene’s fairly standard caveat after a tough loss, which he said again after Sunday, is “this is a young team that lacks experience”, which is true – but he’s been saying that regularly for the last five years or so. At what point is that no longer acceptable? At what point will Arsenal not be able to attract an older player because the young kids don’t produce because they’re young?
I don’t want Wenger fired, I want him to evolve. The game he revolutionized has caught up to him, and now I want him to – to be a bit over-simple – adopt the Moneyball route, find skills that no other team values, and nurture players with those skills. He’s done it once before, and I believe he can do it again – I just don’t want him to wait so long to do so.
The Moneyball comparison, I think, is really accurate but in a different way
In the same way that Beane was the innovator but was eventually surpassed by people who learned to do the same things on bigger budgets, Wenger is basically the soccer version of this.
He was the one who brought soccer, at least in England, out from the isolated, traditional style into the innovative, Continental version we have now. There were other factors (Bosman, technology, EU, etc.) but he was one of the first to bring over and/or embrace those techniques in scouting, training, and analysis.
Now that others have learned from him, and new generations of ownership have cycled through, more teams are following his footsteps and they are doing it with seemingly bottomless vats of money. Beyond what even american baseball owners have available. The advantages we had 10, 15 yrs ago just aren’t as significant anymore.
Captain, there are doubt''s...
So while Beane had to underpay his players Wenger is at least able to pay fair wages for his. In both cases, when the player demonstrates that he is worth more or is nearing the end of his contract and feels he should get more, Beane and Wenger are forced to make tough decisions. Beane has to do it out of necessity, Wenger chooses to do it out of prudence. Either way, informed, rich, irresponsible clubs have the advantage.
Captain, there are doubt''s...
Good read
and valid point. I’ll recuse myself from any more symbolism talk since I just dropped that 1,000 worder on the front page.
Turf Show Times editor, Mocking the Draft writer, and I gots that Twitter too, yo.
"my keyboard won't corporate, neighter will my smell check." - Knoxfan
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