As mentioned on here, Spurs-Brighton game called off as well, due to Covid.

Kevin Campbell recently stated it's Pépé's attitude that's an issue. Which was mentioned on here was a problem. Says it's why he hasn't played since October.

The mention of those two in the same sentence exemplifies how F&&&^%$ up modern football has become .......... I'd have a fit hey day Kevin Campbell in any Arsenal lineup in front of the 70 million pound Pépé : any day of the work .

I admire your faith in looking for top 4. For me fifth or sixth should be achievable. And I would be satisfied with that as long as we were looking and playing like a team.

I see that hopeless manager, Emery, has taken Villareal into the last 16 of the CL and sunk Atlanta in the process. I am happy for him that after his time with us he has made a place for himself elsewhere.

Floundering in 13th in La Liga though so not all good times for Villareal. :)

They are not exactly a giant of the Spanish league.

I don’t have much faith we’ll finish top 4, just noting what we’d need to do if we want to stay in the mix. 23 games left and 23 points on the board, probably need to average 2 points per game to get to 69 points for top 4.
Even finishing 6th would mean finishing ahead of one of West Ham, spurs or Man U.

.

Just watching the highlights of the Aussies v Poms in the cricket ..... thought it was a nice touch ...... bunch of about fifty Ritchie Bernaud look a likes . Wigs and shades

Nice tribute to in my book the pinnacle of sporting commentators , scrupulously fair , totally unbiased , called a spade a spade , superb understanding of the game and a beautiful easy to listen voice .

I remember Richie Benaud. To this day he’s the best commentator I’ve ever heard. From any sport, not just cricket.

In 11 PL games, Thomas Partey has been dribbled past 17 times. In 12 PL games, Sambi Lokonga has been dribbled past just once. Sambi has also made more tackles & interceptions.

And that doesn’t take account of the number of misplaced passes or times Partey has been caught dawdling on the ball. There’s 3-4 of both every game. At his best he is our best CM but in his career with us I think we’ve only seen his best for 90 minutes in less than 10 games. He still shows moments of quality in games but has under performed.

Based on the present form of Man Utd, West Ham and Tottenham, I think we have a great chance at top 4. West Ham is playing the best of all 4 of us in contention, but they are the weakest in depth. A key injury here or there could derail their hopes.

I am very happy for them though anyway. I think we have a great chance. We are in with a shout and not playing anywhere where we are capable.

Might have bloody guessed it.

Our Cup game v Forest is a 17:15 ko on a Sunday evening. It'll be maybe 19:30 when you get out of the stadium and it's about a 30 min walk to the train station, so the earliest you can get there is probably about 20:00. You certainly won't catch the 19:30 so that leaves just 1 train at 20:44 if you want to get back to London that night. Better get a move on though - currently there's only 1 seat left.

Realistically, the only real choice is to drive. Not for the first time, this shows a shameful and all too familiar contempt for the travelling fans - and for the the planet!

Thanks FA - for FA.

Arsenal.com still has nothing about the Forest game going on sale. How come there’s only one seat left, or do you mean on the train?

Yes I did mean on the train, Bern.

Match tickets aren't available yet but I try to book transport as soon as the match details are confirmed. I prefer trains where possible and I normally buy train tickets via thetrainline.com - that website lists one seat left on the last train back, the 20:44 from Nottingham to St Pancras. I suppose there could be more seats or additional later trains but it doesn't sound promising.

Forest's ground holds about 30,000 and the away club normally gets an allocation of 30% for Cup games. Nobody seems to consider the carbon footprint of maybe 8,000 fans driving 200 miles or more to attend the match.

Same thing happened a few years ago for a Cup game up at Man U which the BBC shifted to a Monday night. Fans couldn't get back to London by train that night, but who cares? Not the FA and not the BBC.

Thanks.

Interesting how another club, Leeds may be owned by US NFL San Francisco 49ers by January 2024

Agree wholeheartedly ....... big statement , but I don't think there will ever be his peer .

Contrast that with the current offering ...... Shane Warne's mumblings and bumblings .... Mama Mia

Spurs Dec 19 game against Liverpool maybe postponed as well.

America ideologically is a slightly left of center country numerically. However, America, in my humble opinion, will be governed fairly far right for the next several years. I can't see how the Republicans won't have control of the Senate and House of Representatives after the 2022 off year elections. They will also win the 2024 Presidential elections.

Biden won't win again. He won't get the same amount of people to vote for him in swing states and he may not even be able to run mentally/physically if even half the rumors are true. The Democrats have no one who can beat any of the 3 or 4 major candidates including Trump. Kamala Harris will lose by a landslide. She'll carry California and New York and other than solidly blue states (and they are fairly inconsequential), she will lose all the swing states.

While it may be historic for an openly gay person to be President, Pete Buttigieg, will lose to any of the GOP candidates. Dems have no one who can win. Bernie Sanders is too old. And the Dems will also rather lose to the Republicans than have Sanders win the nomination or the Presidency. Sanders is not a corportatist. Sanders actually has some ethics and those two things are garlic to the vampirish establishment of both parties.

Trump can win if he runs. The governors of Florida (Desantis) and Texas (Abbott) can both easily win if Trump doesn't run. The Dems have no one.


The Supreme Court has a clear 6-3 Republican majority and Breyer one of the last stalwart liberals will likely not make it for a few more years. Eventually, the Supreme Court will be 7-2 or even 8-1 conservative.

The Republicans will do what they always do when they get ultimate control...go too far. The court will allow the states to ban abortion, violate the 1960s voting rights and civil rights acts, and any other 'sacred cow' laws. They are doing it now. Supreme Court chief justice Roberts, who is ideologically conservative is the only one on the high court that fears what may happen with such an ideologically shift --- that is the Supreme Court will lose legitimacy as a body. The decision of a balanced court 5-4, 4-4 and one neutral, can make a ruling and although it may not be liked by some or most, will seem fair because of the balance. But, say for example, the high court refuses to defend Roe v Wade, the landmark case that legalised abortion in the early 70s, it will be seen as political instead of jurisprudence. Some of the members aren't just conservative, they are far right. One of them is a religious zealot.

The country will go far right and that will motivate the far left. At least till 2028 the country will be run far to the right. I also think this era eerily looks similar to the country 100 years ago. And it will end in a depression as it did nearly 100 years ago.

From 1918 to 1932, the country was run by the Republicans. Republicans have traditionally let the 1% do whatever it wanted. The 'Roaring 20s' was called that because the stock market took off in a post war euphoria. One of the presidents at that time said 'The business of America is business'. For over 100 years anytime the Republicans have run the country for 8 years or more it ended in an economic crisis of some sorts. I'm not a Democrat saying this belittle Republicans. I have more issues with the Dems than I do the Republicans actually. I'm officially an independent voter and of late, I'll mail in my ballot to vote for local and statewide elections and leave the presidential ballot incomplete if both sides are too onerous at times. I didn't care for either Romney or Obama for example.

Anyway, if we tie both the economic history of America with the presidential history, its proven that 8 years of Republican control ends badly, with one exception in over 100 years. They simply overheat the economy without any restrictions that results in a crash of some sorts. And when you are the biggest economy in the world it has global ramifications.

1897 to 1913 Republican control. Panic of 1907. The crash was so bad it created the Federa Reserve system several yars later. JP Morgan and others on Wall Street literally had to make the banking system solvent with their own funds.

1918 to 1932 Republican control. Crash of 1929 which ushered in the Great Depression.

1952 - 1960 Republican control. The only exception and I contend that the reason was Eisenhower was president and he was a general NOT a tradtional, pro business Republican. In fact, he was recruited by both parties in 1952 because traditionally the military high command hid their political parties since they had to serve presidents of either party and needed to be trusted that their voice was not ideological motivated. Unfortunately that tradition has now gone and that is a very dangerous thing. Anyway, Ike as he is nicknamed warned against the military industrial complex. He ran the economy like he did the military. Sober minded, you controlled costs, etc, so, that era of Republican control is the only exception for the aforementioned reasons.

part deux

1968 - 1976 Republican control. This ended with America coming off the gold standard and the currency deflated with no value since. Ford, ended that run with a country with high inflation, stagnant economy, long petrol lines being the norm and an economic mess.

1980 to 1992 Republican control. This had the 1987 stock market crash where the market dropped 25% in one day, the largest single percentage drop ever where Wall Street literally pulled the plug and stopped any trading in order to stop the bleeding. I was a uni intern at Merrill Lynch at that time and saw it live. (dating myself ). Some say the market would have easily dropped more than 50% if it had gone unabated. This era also ended with a mild recession in 1991-1992 as well under Bush.

2000 - 2008. Republican control. This is recent history and ended in what is now referred to as the Great Recession. The country was actually headed full stop into a depression statistically. Obama, to his credit (one of the few I'll grant him) stopped it from being a full blown depression by using government funds to bolster the auto industry and airline industries (among others but they were the major ones). Amazingly, no Wall Street people went to jail despite breaking laws. The reason? They gave him tens of millions in election funds to fight McCain and that was one of the back office deals. The only one who went to jail was Madoff because he robbed the rich.

In any event, the country has debt it can not pay. Trump created more debt in his 4 years at a pace more than any president prior. If he runs in 2024 he will win and my guess is we will have a full blown crash by 2028 and definitely before 2030. The country is much weaker economically than 2008, 1987, 1976 and other prior years where a downturn happened. We are far, far more fragile.

And this crash will rival 1929 and it will involve China as well which is sitting on the biggest property/real estate bubble in recorded history. Both countries make up just under 50% of the world's GNP and thereby the global carnage will be severe. The global economy is far more integrated than it was in 1929. This will not be pretty.

America will emerge out of it similar to 1929. The 1932 election ushered in FDR and the changes to American society are still being felt. Prior to the crash, the federal government stayed small. Stayed out of the state's business. They didn't protect the underclasses. States and cities could be openly anti semitic, racist, what have you. It took a lot just to ban child labor. Women's suffrage movement got the right to vote primarily under Democratic run America from 1914 to 1918 under Wilson, and those efforts became law in 1919. I believe England went through a similar woman's suffrage movement around the same time as well.

When this crash happens, I believe we will go far left. We will go socialist more or less. Gen Z and Gen Y today have no issue with the term 'socialism' or 'democratic socialism' and many embrace it. I think the loss of power politically as well as economically will usher in a new wave of mass shootings and even mass bombings directed against politicians, public figures, and various groups of people who they may blame (Immigrants, Blacks, Jews, Gays, etc). The young people of America grow up stasticially without fathers because of the high divorce rate and at the risk of sounding like a male chauvinist, are far more emotionally driven their predecessors. If they are left, they are very far left. Openly embracing antifa, socialism. There were protests in literallly 1000s of towns, cities, etc, across America a sumer ago. The major ones made headlines but there were violent clashes in cities like Salt Lake City, a predominantly Mormon city. Conservative, relatively crime free for its size.

If they are right ,they are extremely violent. Dylan Roof, shooting up a black church in South Carolina, school shootings of all kinds, Kyle Rittenhouse recently. Older far right extremists don't go into black churches and kill openly. The shootings at the gay club, young person. The killing at the synogogue in Pittsburgh, young person.

America will be a complete mess politically, economically, socially by the end of this decade I predict. Not with any joy but as pragmatically as I can muster.

Where will AmericanGooner be? If the gods are kind and the planets align properly, I'll be watching this all happen either in some southeast Asian country, or Portugal, or another location but it won't be in America. I'll be back there for funerals, weddings, managing some property holdings and trying to keep the U.S. tax agency from accessing my crypto currencies, and foreign bank accounts from my second passport.

part trois

When the Democrats gain control over time, they go culturally left with varying long term success. The Democrats were in power for 20 years from 1932 to 1952. The whole culture of America changed. For example, if say, Kansas had a tornado prior to the 1930s. The state and the federal government didn't send in the national guard and tonnes of supplies. It was locally dealt with. Neighbors volunteered. The surrounding towns who they were connected to by familial, economic ties, came and helped. If the bank went under, you lost your money. There were no insurance, you rebuilt or were homeless.

Under FDR that changed radically. Not just the state but the federal government aided you. One has to remember, the 1920s in America was also known as the Red Scare. Russia became communist and virulent anti communism swept America. An over-reaching government was seen as communist. A decade later after a crash and it was welcomed.

Obama is known as the 'Gay President' because he legalized gay marriages as well as an assortment of protections under the law. A southern baptist Mississippi baker could tell a gay couple he wasn't making a cake for them in 2008. He couldn't do that in 2016. As with all movements, they go too far (at least in my opinion). I welcomed the gay marriage legalization because what 2 adults do is not my business. As I told a gay friend, why shouldn't you be just as miserable as the rest of the heterosexual married folks? Now culturally, you can be legally responsible for not referring to a transgender by 'their' proper pronoun. There are trans females (formerly boys) who now compete in female sports sometimes to devastating results such as girls wrestling where they have sent girls to the hospitals for an assortment of injuries. I certainy wouldn't want my daughter, if I had one, to have ny full contact sports with a transgender for physical health reasons.

Latinos are now referred to as LatinX in the media because they believe Latino is sexist. However, polls have shown hispanics overwhelmingly take offense to the term LatinX. They are largely traditional people. These are just a few examples of the Democrats going too far (to some people) and often will change an election from kitchen table issues such as cost of living to a cultural war as the right will call it to get the vote.

In the 2030s the Dems will go far left. We'll see the government shift its position on Israel using the Palestinians as a prop for example. We may see a real discussion on reparations for African Americans. We may see impositions on free speech (both sides will do that actually). In the TV show 'Homeland', the liberal president elect ended up being fascist. This may be a precursor to America after the right has had their run.

All the stars are aligned. From the Arsenal website: we have been undefeated in our last 27 matches which start at 3pm on a Saturday and last 22 away games by Southampton at Arsenal they have not won any of them.

Doesn’t seem Like we’ve played at 3pm on a Saturday that much this season considering we’re not in Europe

I have to say American that those three posts had ‘scroll past me quickly’ in big letters at the top.

I actually prefer really early or really late games just because it is before bed or very early in the morning but I will be just happy with 3 points and watching a replay in the morning tomorrow.

Hahaha...I would have thought the same. I was going to post about the game, one of my visions came upon me. My eyes rolled back and next thing I knew, I had written something.

I brought a coworker to the LA pub to see our cup final against Soton many years ago. I think it was the 2003 cup. I was getting teased for not following a 'real sport' and a non American sport but he said he'd come to the pub to see what the fuss is all about. It was a cup final, packed house of course.

He was >>>this close<<< to becoming a Soton fan because his HS in LA were the Saints in blue and yellow. The odds are fantastic but it was the same. He cheered for us eventually and is not a gooner but will sometimes see the results and know if I am happy or sad.

Indeed ..........a 25000 word essay on Laotian architecture would have been more interesting .

Would Arteta be brave to play a team like this?

Ramsdale
Tomiyasu White Gabriel Tierney
Partey Lokonga
Saka Ødegaard Martinelli
Lacazette

I really hope that’s the side if Emile Smith Rowe can’t make it but have a feeling the Swiss Charlie Adam will be back in

I think ‘would have been more interesting’ is lessening the extent to which Laotian architecture (whatever that may be) beats them for interest.

Martial wants to leave Manure in January. Would he be worth a punt?

Not a bad shout tbh. Jovic at Madrid is an interesting one too.

Am I the only person on the forum who reads American Gooner's political essays? I'd hazard a guess that Decaf may read them too, though admitedly I only read the first chapter. I'm going to make myself a builders tea before I tackle parts 2 and 3.

I don’t read the longer posts but I will say AG really doesn’t offend me in the way he seems to with other forumites. I really don’t understand the offence he seems to induce.

I read the posts with interest.

Thank you AG.

Danke Schoen.
I would not have been insulted in the least if they were ignored and no comment. But thanks all the same. I have zero issues with anyone disagreeing with any opinion, etc. The forum was built on debate. As long as its respectful if there is no online relationship. Meaning, fun banter from forumites you have a good, or even casuaul relationship with. And if not, then respectully disagreeing.

What I don't appreciate is trolling and rudeness for the sake of it, for reasons unrelated to the topic at hand. A few people have wanted me off this forum for a while due to debate beefs that literally go back a decade or more and they can't get over it. I will leave when I'm dead or have been kicked off for violating forum rules. Saying things they know they would never, ever utter face to face. (exception being exiled, if he's reading, no idea, I think he would....repsect...lol..and he would probably be the only one to want a 'word' behind the pub..haha and I would oblige and I would hope no hard feelings either way afterwards). The rest wouldn't.

As I've said a few times before. I will NEVER, EVER, EVER be bullied online or in person. I won't leave because I'm bullied off. EVER. Bullied by the definition we are all know. Like I'm some first former with the wrong pedigree, name, colour, religion in Victorian era Eton and the fifth formers don't want that 'sort' there. I'm extremely stubborn with an obsessive compulsive character and those two together when I think I'm being picked on. A few have flat out lied about me, but I'm too much of a gentlemen to disclose private correspondence.

Anyway, happy thoughts, up the Arsenal.

Back to our regular scheduled program.

I don’t think many have problems with AG posts per say it’s just that he blocked half the forum for no reason and still everybody has to read them.

I have some concerns he might be a potential son of Sam type or whatever that blokes name was who shot Lennon however from his posts you can tell he has a brain on his shoulders and is an interesting fella.

I’ve said it before. He should proceed with an amnesty and unblock people because he would get a ton of respect for doing it and may find the goodwill he receives favourable. Not a bad guy just a bit messed up like all of us are