He sure ain't going there now.
RM just appointed another Argie Bargie, Santiago Solari on a 3 yr deal.

https://www.touchlinefracas.co.uk/tacti ... breakdown/

Good tactical analysis of Arsenal v Liverpool here

Even Wenger was being touted, I think. The media is full of rumours, sells their columns.

http://global.espn.com/soccer/real-madr ... until-2021

Good cheeky post, I like it

No don't think it was yours. I think it was Bernerd saying we should offer him another years contract after the current one because he got injured. Like I said in my first post, support him through his rehab while on contract and maybe allow him to use the facilities to continue getting back to full fitness after his contract ends by why we'd pay him after the contract ends I simply don't understand.

Correct. I am the heartless b****** who suggested we sever any contract negotiations immediately. Could have slipped the papers into his hand at the hospital or rung his agent and advised. Social work has never been one of my strengths. I have to say, the whole issue generated a lot of debate with Arsenal fans. Tomc just called me on my bloody minded hasty approach but I never thought he supported the idea of a new contract.

Mind you if I had been Wellbecks agent, and assuming he had an offer from the club already, I would have gone straight to the hospital, got instructions to accept the new terms and advised the club even while the club were still cleaning up the dressing room after the game. Offer and acceptance in legal terms.

But I don't think we have offered him new terms so it may just be daydreaming.

So there was an incident at the weekend, Sol Bamba scored a last minute winner for Cardiff and when he celebrated he took his shirt off which should be an automatic yellow card. Whether it should be or not is another debate but it is one of those very few rules in football that is black and white. Take your shirt off when celebrating = yellow card. For whatever reason the ref didn't spot that he'd taken his shirt off and then asked Bamba if he had taken it off, Bamba lied and said he hadn't so avoided the booking.
In my opinion that yellow card should be retrospectively given to Bamba. It is absolute nonsense to say the ref made his decision at the time and we can't go back and retrospectively act now. That may be true of a tackle that some people will think is a stone wall yellow because that is a matter of opinion. Taking your shirt off is a matter of fact so why can't the yellow be given after the fact? It doesn't diminish the refs role, by not retrospectively giving it you are just endorsing a mistake.

Anyway, it is a slow international week and this has been bugging me.

Mourinho looks ready to sell Bailly. I thought he looked good when he first came to Man U. Strong, quick, athletic. He's only 24, I think he could be a bargain for someone with more patience than Mourinho. Is he what Arsenal need? I'm not sure but for £20m (lets say) you might struggle to find a rough round the edges defender any better

If they say he cannot be given a retrospective yellow he should be charged with bringing the game into disrepute and suspended

A few players got visibly better under Mourinho (Drogba comes to mind) but he's also ruined many very good young playes with massive upside potential as well as established players. Pogba plays great for France and not for Man Utd. Its the manager.

I thought my first post was simply responding to someone else saying he shouldn't be given another contract. Which considering the poor bloke's injury, incurred while playing for the club, would in my view show a complete lack of class by Arsenal.

Nobody knows whether he's been offered one before the injury, but I've read nothing to suggest he has been. Nobody knows what he currently earns either, though I saw someone pretend he does. But as Perry Groves implied, I think the reputation of Arsenal would only be enhanced by giving Welbeck a one year deal on the same money.

Every player will know the same thing could happen to them. I therefore feel the club's reputation as a good employer can only be seen as a positive when we want to sign new players in the future. That reputation can surely only be enhanced by giving Welbeck a new contract. To me that makes it worth the money.

As it's the interlull, did anyone catch "They Shall Not Grow Old" on BBC on Sunday evening?

Along with many I'm sure, I thought it was a truly remarkable film which for me was deeply affecting.

As an evocation of life and death in the WW1 trenches, told by and featuring the common soldiers who were there, it is an extraordinarily important piece of work.

I did DHD, I get really angry with how those guys were treated, my own grandfather was in that battle. He joined up in 1902 served for ten years and when war broke out joined up again. He was gassed out in 1916 went in to a pub a couple of months later and was given a white feather so immediately went and joined up again. Saw the war out and died in 1921 of effects of the gas, buried in West Ham cemetery only to be dug up a few years later to be buried in a communal grave due to space. A home fit for heroes I don't thinks so.

I love reading how Sanchez is suffering at Man Utd.
https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... fer-gossip

So... if he goes it proves he was always going to go?

Therefore if he doesn't go?

Perhaps it doesn't disprove that he was never not going to go?

You Sadist!

That’s a sad tale Daf. Shameful in fact.

What got me was the way the nation’s teenagers (many well below age) joined up in their millions. They then spent the best years of their lives fighting and dying in unimaginably hellish conditions. When they soldiers returned, they were unsurprisingly, different. Changed. They were a breed apart from the young lads who’d left. Sadly, they were treated quite harshly by what they expected would be a grateful society who'd welcome them back. Both my grandfathers survived the trenches and both suffered all sorts of issues on their return.

As was said several times towards the end of the film, those who hadn’t been there could never understand what the soldiers had been through. That film offered a glimpse.

I'm not surprised they suffered I'm amazed anyone came out of that situation unscathed. Millions came through it and went back into society with trauma, one just can't imagine the suffering. When I was a kid there were still men suffering what was considered a weakness "shell shock". You would see them walking around with the shakes. Poor bastards, nothing done to help them. Yet we still send our young men out to battle without a thought to their mental health when they return.

That is terrible treatment of a person who fought for what we have today.

Probably the most embarrassing day for Britain I can recall

Not seen any news today. What's happened?

Football leaks - Roberto Firmino, who has a €98million exit clause which can be triggered two years ahead of the end of his contract…”IF the interested club is NOT Arsenal FC”

Trumpy Bear!

Don't know if this is of interest to any old or not so old timers. My Mum passed away last year and left some super 8 reels which we had converted. In there was some footage of Arsenal v Derby from April 1974. It was taken by my Dad.

Lovely muddy pitch, half time scoreboard, lots of Geordie Armstrong, Raddy, and a young Liam Brady paired with Alan Ball in midfield. Enjoy.

https://vimeo.com/301071378

That was great. Thanks for posting the link. The celebration for our penalty was rather muted by the players. A pitch invasion but my favourite was the flying header by one of our players to clear the ball from our area.

This ones for Kiwi. Next time you are having withdrawal symptoms because you haven’t visited Oz lately you can play this.

I was at that match ....DaveyBoy

Derby were a quality side ..... Roy McFarland , Colin Todd in defence... Archie Gemmel , Bruce Rioch pulling the strings in midfield some extended beanpole up front [ John McGovern Roger Davies can't remember ]
We were coming out of the doldrums and that was a bright spot in a mediocre season .

To put it in context Derby won the league the next year .

Bound to be something about Brexit ..... where he thinks the minute you pull out ; Russia will invade the UK .

For all the talk around Ramsey and Welbeck's contract's expiring I thikn a lot of people have forgotten than Monreal's contract is also expiring. Even at 32 he should get a new 2 year deal. Very consistent for us.

yeah thanks for that Gaz ..... I keep thinking I should thunder over visit Granty Boy get my savings out of the NAB and Sunsuper before they wither on the vine .

I've met a lot of dead balls red neck blokes in Oz but by God the times I've had over there , [ working with two of my sons along the way ] have been the most vibrant of my life .

Created memories I'd have never ever come close to if I'd stayed in NZ .

My grandfather/ grandmother bound for NZ stopped off in Oz due to birth complications with what was going to be my father .

They settled in Annandale , Sydney ... he enlisted in the Aussie forces and was sent to France . He was wounded and sent home , my auntie [ his daughter ] said he never adjusted properly after the experience .

I checked the Oz Army records for his contribution ...... first day they arrived in England he was arrested for drunken disorderly , AWOL , trespassing ....... fined two weeks wages .

Reading this I said to Mrs Kiwi .... don't blame me when I get pissed now and than ...it's a genetic thing

Enjoyed that!

I would have been as well, though I can't say I remember it. People were moaning when Puma started doing the home shirts with a brighter red as though it wasn't traditional. The shirts in that clip looked a bright red to me. I don't think it can be put down to a dodgy old film either, as that's how I recall the shirts from those days - a very bright red.

Pretty sure I was as well. Alan Ball. What a player. Has to be a shout for any all time Arsenal XI. Post double we signed him and no one else. If we'd signed a goalkeeper and centre half as good as him and Charlie hadn't hated Bertie Mee so much the mid 70s might not have been so bad. But then if my auntie had.....

I really hate international breaks. If it was for the rugger against the Blacks on Saturday it would be a sporting wasteland.

I agree about Ball. We didn't win anything whilst he was at the club. But I reckon without him we'd have been relegated in the mid-70s.

that was great........it also made me miss the North Bank

If you read Brady's autobiography (written in 1980!) he says what an unhappy squad it was, and it what a breath of fresh air it was to meet up with the Irish squad. In fact, it wasn't until his Irish call up that he realised what a happy squad was. In particular I think that maybe Alan Ball might not have been popular with the others.

That was a decent Derby side.

I don't *think* I was at the game. I was taken from birth so I don't actually remember my first game. I remember a few reserve games around 1970 as a five year old, Birmingham away in 1974 is the first live game I can really remember. It was miserable.

Make sure you tell them to dedicate "Go Your Own Way" to AmericanGooner who "borrowed" his older sister's
'Rumours' album and played that song over and over for Sue Scirozinski breaking his heart in middle school. Thanks.
PS: tell them they may want to correct the spelling of 'Rumours' to 'Rumors'

Politics for a moment. Despite reading about in the news as well as on news programs. What exactly are the issues with Theresa May's managing of Brexit?
Is the Irish border a big deal? That border or at least parts of it has been open and porous for some time, pre Brexit, right?
What else? Exactly 'how' England will exit?
Not quite sure if that's the jist of it and why she is facing a possible vote of no confidence.