OHH my GOD!!!
What a way to celebrate Christmas!! Arsenal certainly have me in a festive mood .. this is so awesome. They played beautiful football. But they always do that. They had the cutting edge. They always HAD that. And now I hope it's back. I started this blog for my brother but i think I could start enjoying this.
There's no doubt they are a quality side; their results against the top three will attest to that. However, what people say has been lacking is the determination and will power and the ability to motivate yourself against the 'lesser' teams. This, I don't think, is completely true. Although they don't seem to be able to pick themselves up as much for the not-so-big teams, they suffer a bit from the kind of criticism that was often dished out at one of my favourite cricketers, Mark Waugh. Like Arsenal, he was the most elegant exponent of his art. Like Arsenal, he was easy on the eye. His strokeplay was as smooth and as slick as the Gunners' passing and movement. And, he was often criticised of being casual when dismissed. Just because it looks easy doesn't mean that it is. Mark Waugh busted his a** off to bat the way he did. And Arsenal sure as hell play as hard as they can; it's just that them playing harder means the passes being sleghtly slicker or the movement being that much better.
Today, it all came together in the last ten minutes. The floodgates had opened. Someone was going to be ripped apart by Arsenal soon and it turned out to be Blackburn. Long may the holiday goal rush continue and Sky Sports better learn that keeping an Arsenal game off the list of live telecasts is risky business!!
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Blundering Gunners
Though I hate to admit it, it's been really painful watching some of the Gunners' games this season; Man City, West Ham and Bolton immediately spring to mind. So, it is with baited breath that i wait for the Blackburn game tonight.
The positive aspect of all this is that even though this is the most disjointed season we've had during Wenger's reign, we're still topped our CL group and are just points off third place in the Premiership. All this has been done by a side which has sometimes as many as nine outfield players who are 23 or younger. All this with an out-of-sorts Thierry Henry who has been absent from several crucial fixtures this year. All this while transfer spending has been respected by the move into the most magnificent stadium in England. All this despite not being able to compete in the big-name-player transfer market due to a certain sugar-daddy who seemingly has started a very disturbing trend. Someday, when i rake in the billions, I'll show him :p. Jokes apart, it frustrates me that Arsenal aren't being able to reap the rewards of their fantastic wage policy, ever-increasing turnover due to merchandising, corporate sponsorship and gate receipts simply because the equations have been changed in the middle of the game. It's no fun when there's no financial impact on another team missing the CL knockout stages simply because there is no question of balancing the books for them. I'm not saying kick out these oligarchs or business tycoons. All I'm saying is that keep a wage-cap and if teams exceed it, they have to pay a luxury tax. That's how they do it in the States and it works really well in the NBA. If the wage-cap for a team is $750,000 a week, for every dollar spent above that, a dollar has to be paid to the FA which will be distributes amongst all the non-Premier League clubs. I'm not saying this will deter someone with the wealth of Abrahamovich, but just having him feel that slight extra pinch will make my day!
More ramblings later; I've got an Arsenal game to watch. Ok not watch, but follow online I guess. Ahh! The consequences of not competing for the title. As always, GO GUNNERS!!
The positive aspect of all this is that even though this is the most disjointed season we've had during Wenger's reign, we're still topped our CL group and are just points off third place in the Premiership. All this has been done by a side which has sometimes as many as nine outfield players who are 23 or younger. All this with an out-of-sorts Thierry Henry who has been absent from several crucial fixtures this year. All this while transfer spending has been respected by the move into the most magnificent stadium in England. All this despite not being able to compete in the big-name-player transfer market due to a certain sugar-daddy who seemingly has started a very disturbing trend. Someday, when i rake in the billions, I'll show him :p. Jokes apart, it frustrates me that Arsenal aren't being able to reap the rewards of their fantastic wage policy, ever-increasing turnover due to merchandising, corporate sponsorship and gate receipts simply because the equations have been changed in the middle of the game. It's no fun when there's no financial impact on another team missing the CL knockout stages simply because there is no question of balancing the books for them. I'm not saying kick out these oligarchs or business tycoons. All I'm saying is that keep a wage-cap and if teams exceed it, they have to pay a luxury tax. That's how they do it in the States and it works really well in the NBA. If the wage-cap for a team is $750,000 a week, for every dollar spent above that, a dollar has to be paid to the FA which will be distributes amongst all the non-Premier League clubs. I'm not saying this will deter someone with the wealth of Abrahamovich, but just having him feel that slight extra pinch will make my day!
More ramblings later; I've got an Arsenal game to watch. Ok not watch, but follow online I guess. Ahh! The consequences of not competing for the title. As always, GO GUNNERS!!
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