You didn’t read the post.

If you consider zero goals in the premier league for the 2nd season running anything less than dreadful I’m astounded.

Ødegaard has shown him up as he’s come into the side and added value. Nobody’s even talking about us signing ceballos permanently anymore, surely an indication he’s been awful.

He’ll end up at someone like Malaga or Sociedad after his time with us, can’t wait. We’d have been better off playing AMN for 2 years

Removing as much bias as I can muster, I've always thought Henry was the best PL player ever. The best foreign player without question. Had Ronaldo stayed his whole career at MU, he might have eclipsed him.
With Aguero leaving Man City, will he be regarded as the greatest PL player ever, if not the greatest foreign player?

PS: I was going to put a Mustafi reference/joke in there but I decided not to. I really and truly hope he does well at Schalke. Nice guy, bad defender if I had to write an epitaph to his PL career.

Aguero is leaving City at the end of the season, lots of references already to 'that' goal and 'that' finish to the season. What a moment it was but not even close to Anfield '89.
City had to beat a relegation threatened team with 10 men at home to secure the title. Maybe if City had had to go to Old Trafford and win 2-0 and did so with that Aguero 94th minute goal, and didn't build their title winning team from more money than had ever been seen in football - then we might be able to equate the two

I can assure you I did read it. That’s why I made the comments about dreadful. Now you’re saying awful. Your use of over dramatic language to sensationalise your views is in my view ridiculous and compromises your credibility as a poster. Try using toned down language. I would certainly agree that Ødegaard has been better. But that alone doesn’t justify words like ‘dreadful’ and ‘awful’. By the way, as well as Xhaka who is the only other (so you claim) player you don’t like?

A report Top Gun won’t enjoy reading.

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/ ... 3ae133acee

You didn’t read it. You're a skim reader like myself on occasion. You skim across details and miss them.

Goodness me use your own eyes man. If you can’t see it by now you never will.

If he was good enough he’d have had a ton of teams after him when he threw his hissy fit but as it is the only one who showed interest in him was Berlin. ( about his level)

Btw someone told me we are interested in a player that plays exactly in xhakas position that would cost HUGE money, (not quite a Pépé fee) at the moment Ill take it with a pinch of salt as I can’t really understand it given the debts and won’t comment further unless it seems to transpire.

Most transfer rumours are based on nothing. What using my own eyes tells me is that you exaggerate his shortcomings. I’m not saying he’s brilliant or another Vieira or Petit. But he’s nowhere near as bad as you claim.

Also, Arteta is the latest in a growingly long list of managers who clearly rate him. Not only at Arsenal with Wenger, Emery, Ljungberg and now Arteta. But at Monchengladbach and the Swiss national team. Can everyone be so wrong?

It’s just down to a lack of options Bernard. Partey aside that’s a pretty duff bunch of midfielders we have and I would be shocked if new players in this area don’t come in this summer.

Henry saying he can’t watch arsenal when Xhaka plays ? I mean for all their faults Emery and Wenger must know Xhaka isn’t up to it based on their huge experience. However who are you dropping Xhaka for ? Ceballos ? I would but I can understand why Arteta wouldn’t, El Nenny ? There’s no obvious choice.

I actually think we have better players on loan in Torreira and Guendouzi however their issues at being unable to settle in England and being a complete d******* have meant they aren’t valid options.

You’re making things up. There is not a shred of evidence that Wenger and Emery didn’t rate Xhaka highly.

Just an opinion. I can’t believe you could be involved in professional football and not realise he’s a bit duff if you want to compete at the highest level.

However that’s not the real point. Question for you: who are we dropping to play Xhaka ? Which obvious dynamic midfielder should be in the side at his expense or is even strongly pushing for a first team place?

There isn’t one. There just isn’t, we don’t have an Edu sat on the bench covering Vieira or Gilberto.

Well Arteta obviously thinks Xhaka is better than all of Ceballos, Guendouzi, AMN, Elneny and Willock. And you spend a lot of time here defending Arteta.

The Jack Charlton doc last night was absolutely brilliant. Anyone see it?

That wasn’t the question (your skim reading again). I asked do you think there’s a midfielder on the bench better than him or can provide a similar level of performance ?

At the moment, probably not. But I think that has more to do with Xhaka being better than you make out rather than everyone else being so bad.

This is the problem. We have no options, there is no choice to make.

Take onboard your point about me not rating Xhaka I sit in a camp with Henry and a variety of other people who don’t rate him at all and we will have to disagree.

Yeah I did Niall. Wonderful stuff. Big Jack wasn't a man to cross was he, didn't suffer fools gladly. Very sad to see what dementia did to him in the end, but the scenes where he remembered things from the past and his face lit up were very moving.

As an aside, that (ooh ah) Paul McGrath could play a bit couldn't he.

Yes Tom, it was very sad to see the way he deteriorated near the end. Such great memories he left for Irish fans of the era though. It seems a very, very long time ago now.

McGrath really was an amazing player. One of the greats. Dare I say it, truly world class.

Those shots of him teaching rural kids "soccer" were fantastic too.

Very good piece of television. I have a 2nd generation Irish wife and she remembers being quite young at the heyday of Jack (late 80's/early 90's) and all her family loving him, and the country as a whole. I think the thing I found most fascinating was the ability for sport (and people) to bridge politics. It is a delectate subject but it always infuriates me when politicians seem to have no concept of how powerful sport can be.

I think that aspect was overplayed to be honest. The game (1-1) at Windsor Park was absolutely horrendous for the bile and hatred that was displayed. The Northern Irish side never really recovered from that within the Catholic population.

Wtg Bernard give him both barrels. Do you not think that a lot of his comments and beliefs have some similarity with AG. Perhaps Warrior could confirm or deny this? Imo both have a childish attitude and write like stroppy teenagers. I tried to post a response to his ridiculous comments about the loan system but was in a bad Internet spot and lost it in the outer hemisphere somewhere.

Xhaka gives 100% and has been excellent all year. Partè is giving 95% for some reason probably injury related or maybe he's just not used to the speed of British football. Personally I love him too and would not get rid for 100 million.

Imo we are ready for take off. The only real problem we have is Aubameyang, much as I like him, I was I yhink the first person to call for him to come to us before we got Sanchez but regret he is, considering Lacazette's form and Martinelli waiting patiently, surplus to requirements. Another one I've always liked is Eddie but he just doesn't do it for us and he was given a longish run to try and bed in.

Happy Easter everyone, next weekend I think maybe the one after,if you smell barbies in the it's probably Cypriots partaking in a national passtime.

Possibly as a temporary fix, but Arteta can't continue that over a long haul Irregardless of experience. Has to blend a both. Youth and experience obviously.

Absolutely, also he can only sign what’s available on the market.

Our transfer fund isn’t huge and we no longer carry the draw and attraction we once did as we are no longer in the champions league. We aren’t everyone’s dream move anymore and I think we will find that out with Ødegaard this summer

I did Niall

I had a very healthy dislike for Jack Charlton even before he and Madeley flattened Jim Furnell so Terry Cooper tcould score controversially for scuzzy Leeds in the 1968 League Cup final. They shut up shop and we lost a $@$*#y bad-tempered match 1-0.

Charlton didn’t really reappear on my radar until he took over the Ireland job and then only marginally, given my long-standing dislike of international football. But even with my complete lack of interest, the neanderthal tactics employed set Charlton’s team apart as the epitome of anti-football so beloved of the Pulises and Fat Sams of this world. Punting the ball towards the oppositions’ corner flag and getting everyone to chase it down as a gang is a tactic that should carry a health warning - it makes your eyes bleed to watch it.

Of course I was honestly pleased for my Irish relatives and mates – you’d be hard-pushed to begrudge them a bit of success however it was achieved. But it was no real surprise when he got the tin-tack; that gruesome brand of football only carries the day if you get results.

Having said all that, I watched last night’s excellent documentary with a growing sense of admiration and respect for Jack. Whatever my thoughts on him as a coach (which probably had a lot to do with the mediocre pool of talent he had to choose from) he was always his own man. The way he dealt with an adoring public is a lesson to other ‘stars’. I loved the way he handled a clearly very ill Paul McGrath. It was touching and sensitive in a really unexpected way. Equally laudable was was the way he dealt with his lick-spittle brother.

The last bits of the programme had me in tears as the ravages of Alzheimer’s caught up but never beat him. He retained a towering dignity until the end. I could never in my wildest dreams have expected I would be so impressed by the man. Watch it if you can.

Yep £77M.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.goal.c ... cnellto9fg

You deleted the majority of my post that clarified why I thought at the moment, probably not. The full post clarifies why I think that more than the bit you ended up quoting.

“At the moment, probably not. But I think that has more to do with Xhaka being better than you make out rather than everyone else being so bad.”

By the way, you still haven’t said who the two players you say you dislike are. Xhaka has to be one. Who is the other?

Hey DHD, yep, I don't think you'd find anyone putting forward the notion that Jack's tactics were pleasing to the eye. However, I would put his deployment of these tactics down to his belief that this was the way to win at football rather than based on the abilities of the players he had at his disposal. At the time, Ireland had very good players and these guys were expected to adapt to the game-plan or they were out on their ear. Liam Brady, David O'Leary, John Aldridge, Ray Houghton, Kevin Sheedy, Paul McGrath, Roy Keane, Ronnie Whelan, Frank Stapleton, Steve Staunton and Kevin Moran were up there with the best players in the old first division. Brady and O'Leary in particular were top players sidelined for the system.

Whether Charlton would have got away with these tactics as England manager is another question: although Graham Taylor did come around a few years later.

But yes, you can only admire him for being his own man. Totally agree with that sentiment.

Good to see the old selective quoting is still a huge feature of the forum

Absolutely right, Niall. Jack had a fantastic squad of players available to him. His great strength was in forging a tremendous team spirit and the team's work ethic was superb. The tactics were awful though. Bypassing midfield when he had the likes of Brady, Whelan, Keane and Houghton available. It has been more or less forgotten about now, but there were many critics of that football at the time, especially his former team-mate John Giles. They were great days, but we really could have been better.

I deleted the 2nd part of your post because I wanted to emphasise the point that I considered was actually the issue with Xhaka.

You clearly didn’t read the 2nd part of my post that said we will have to agree to disagree on Xhaka and I’m not sure why you want to discuss it more.

I’m concerned you have an issue with skim reading as you seem to miss important details and observations being made in written form like the 2nd part of my post, I hope you don’t work in the legal, financial or health professions as a tendency to miss such details would lead you to be able to perform your profession without much competency. I’m sure you must encounter issues like this.

You accuse me of being myopic about my dislike of certain players yet are asking me which other player I’m less fond of, why would I name him to increase your paranoia on such matters.

Have to say I’m not a fan of Le grove but I agree with him here

https://twitter.com/legrove/status/1376 ... 19616?s=21

Stan K had been deposed late Jan 2021 for 2 days. The lawsuit being brought by St. Louis over the LA Rams move to LA in 2016 from St. Louis, being illegal. If St. Louis wins the case, which could still go to trial in Oct this year, they'd get upwards of millions in damages owed. Or even $1B in damages owed.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.ksdk.c ... 9ddcb15417

You couldn’t be more wrong about my career. I have conducted high level research with requires in-depth reading of evidence. I did notice you say we’d have to agree to disagree and while we obviously do, I actually thought it verging on dishonesty to ignore the majority of the post you quoted.

My reason for asking who is your other disliked player is that it may explain some of the exaggerated nonsense you post about players. At least it would make it more understandable because, as I’ve said, I think your opinions on players are often driven by your own personal animosity towards them than common sense.

I would strongly advise you to take a deep breath and think before you post a variety of the insults you make about certain players. I’ve no idea how old you are but it makes you look childish.

Please tell me your not involved in the creation of the Oxford, AstraZeneca vaccine

We’re all properly *%^@** if that’s the case.

I addressed it in the post said we’ll have to agree to differ and you ignored it and you’re still harping on even now.

The rest of you're latest post is nonsense as I often am the only one sticking up for our players at the moment and there’s only usually a couple of players who wind me up. Not sure what else needs to be said.

The jack charlton documentary, absolutely superb. Surely one the best football documentaries ever if not the best. Certainly close to Maradonas one.

Also acted as a reminder on the U2 part that much to my shame I’ve never seen U2 perform live, surely a must before my days are over

No I wasn’t involved with the development of the AstraZeneca vaccine, although I was given it.

I think there are plenty of people sticking up for players, so your claim that you’re the only one is ludicrous. My point is that you let personal feelings on players impact too much on what you post about them.

As I said, I think we do have to agree to disagree on the general issue. But it was you seemingly trying to give a false impression of what I’d said by taking the trouble to delete the majority of my post you were quoting that made me feel I had to respond again. If you hadn’t done that I wouldn’t have bothered.

Sigh Jesus man

1-0 to Bernard

Looks like these champions league reform plans are going to get voted through. I don’t think this is great for the game, but it is good news for Arsenal because of the extra 4 champions league places 2 of them are wildcard entries based on uefa co-effocient. Which is the highest ranked teams not already in the CL, at the moment that puts us in the frame and with a decent run in the europa league each year our coefficient isn’t harmed that much by not being in the CL

I would say that Bernard has flaws (a point he will hotly dispute), but in any case lack of attention to detail is not one of them ...any more than letting go too easily is a common flaw for a bulldog!