I feel like I’m in a bit of an Arsenal No Man’s Land at the moment. Caught in the middle of the crossfire with little hope of survival, metaphorically speaking, of course. The reason for that is because I want this season to be over so much right now, yet I know that with attention hungry oiks all over social media sharpening their online ITK pencils to jot down their completely fabricated nonsense, the horizon beyond this season will be idiot after idiot claiming to have insider info within the club.
It’s a pretty depressing time. The football is crap, the journalism is – largely – crap (a few exceptions like Chris Davison, Charles Watts, James Benge, etc, who are all good), then the misinformation from people just trying to hit five-figure follower numbers on Twitter for some bizarre reason and craving for some form of faux adulation. Normally the football is there which can at least distract us for most of April and May but it’s been so depressing of late that even that feels like it takes monumental effort just to tune in to the tripe we are getting served up as Arsenal fans.
Then the journalists get fed more nonsense from within ‘sources’ at the club saying that there will be ‘big investment’ this year. Really? Investment? Like every other year when there have been stories that KSE recognise that they might splash some cash? We’ve been hearing about ‘war chest stories’ for over a decade now. So forgive me for being beyond cynical and dismissive when I hear ridiculous comments that KSE will put up more than £100million, plus we’ll have a big clear out and get ourselves another £100million in player sales. It isn’t happening. That’s because Arsenal are a mess, poorly organised with absent owners who don’t give a monkey’s about us as their asset. In a year in which they’ve had a white elephant in LA burning a whole in their pocket, a number of franchises in the US that will have also been sitting dormant and not making any money, plus an Arsenal that has been shedding staff like a mountain goat shedding it’s winter coat, there is no way any mass overhaul and financial injection is happening at Arsenal this summer.
Oh, they’re SAYING these things, of that I am in no doubt, but I hope there isn’t an Arsenal fan out there who doesn’t realise that what KSE SAY and what KSE DO are far, far apart.
Sorry to be a bit of a Debbie Downer here guys but it just reflects my mood at the moment with The Arsenal. Unfortunately I can’t just switch it off and I cannot simple step away from the ‘noise’ that permeates every aspect of life. TV, social media, websites – Arsenal are woven in to every corner of my life and so even if I wanted to football and The Arsenal appear. I watched the BBC News at Ten last night and there was a five minute piece about the Champions League final. When I want to ignore that football exists, it comes straight back in to focus.
But anyway, back to KSE and their ongoing mis-management, and how about the latest humdinger from the club, in which it is being reported that they’re now hiring scouts, having let a load of them go this season. Perhaps there is clear vision and the role of these scouts will be different to the ones they’ve binned, but you can’t disagree that the optics of this look a bit, well, sh*t. We were told by Edu that he wanted to work with less people, be more data-driven and focus more on StatDNA. Hiring more people is in fact, Edu, the very antithesis of ‘working with less’people.
It just looks haphazard and another reason as to why we are getting things wrong. I’m half expecting to hear we’ve agreed to pay Coutinho £350k-per-week, Kia has his old desk back at London Colney and Willian is the new captain, with the mentalness we appear to go about our business.
Shakespearian aside here: Mikel’s comments about Smith Rowe and Willian after the match on Sunday don’t help him. To seem to caveat Smith Rowe praise by saying he needs to score 15 goals and 10 assists in a season, then by talking up Willian and saying he’s done everything in the game in the immediate question after thet, just comes across as worryingly blind to the obvious. Hopefully his words are just empty platitudes for the Brazilian and he’s already planning on which door to boot him out of in the summer, but I worry when I constantly here this defence of a guy who has been the worst signing I think I’ve ever seen. And I’ve seen Silvestre play for us in the flesh.
So we’re getting in these scouts, but will the club actually leverage them properly? Or will they turn to super agents and continue to pay them a small fortune of whatever cash we have left over at the club? I can’t say I’m particularly confident right now.
But who is, eh?
Anyway, I’m sure there will be plenty of soundbites for us to pour over today, as Arteta will no doubt deliver a press conference and tell us all everything is fine ahead of the game against Chelski tomorrow evening. The good news will be that I won’t be feeling nervous ahead of the trip to Stamford Bridge. I simply don’t have enough in me to give a hoot about the game or the result. I’d like Arteta to come out and say he’s giving some youngsters a shot but I doubt that will happen. But let’s see what he says on the game tomorrow.
Laters people. Have a good one.
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