As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Terry Neil now theres a man who truly was a fraud ,without Don Howe he could have taken us down.
The good thing though was that the club didn't leak stories to the press in those days and our expectations were so limited. The fun of the away matches ooop norf or by transalpino to Turin were like magical mystery tours .
Ah the good old days when fair was square the buck stopped here and you could still buy something with it . Pay in at the turnstiles what's all ticket games ,never had em at Arsenal........ anyone my age saw the glory of the fairs cup and a double followed by years of shit then 3 cup finals but mediocrity in the league ...and then came George......Overall I've been very lucky ,just think if your my age and have been a spud all those years what utter shit you've been through
Think we look back and remember the good times, leaving out the bad but yes was all so different then
Remember vividly when we lost to West Ham at home 0-2 that pikey Alan Taylor scoring both, torrential fucking rain and their scum fans taking the piss totally in the North Bank...that day was a real downer, those *word censored* were everywhere
The Double season and year after were amazing though
Yea I was there ,we had to fight like crazy just to get under the covers . West Ham always had 5,000 plus in there until 1982 when they finnally got walloped Unfortunately it prompted them to kill my friend John Dickinson .
Life of course was different ,if you wanted to watch football you had to go simples.
Motd and the big match was all we had 2 hours a week.
Admission was cheap as was rail travel and even if u played midweek up north u could still get a train back to London.
Yea I was there ,we had to fight like crazy just to get under the covers . West Ham always had 5,000 plus in there until 1982 when they finnally got walloped Unfortunately it prompted them to kill my friend John Dickinson .
Life of course was different ,if you wanted to watch football you had to go simples.
Motd and the big match was all we had 2 hours a week.
Admission was cheap as was rail travel and even if u played midweek up north u could still get a train back to London.
You should write a book of your experiences sometime Herd. in another 25-30 years time the 70s terrace generation will either be gone or their memories will have. I'd choose to read about those days every time above the Twitter / Facebook generation
Yea I was there ,we had to fight like crazy just to get under the covers . West Ham always had 5,000 plus in there until 1982 when they finnally got walloped Unfortunately it prompted them to kill my friend John Dickinson .
Life of course was different ,if you wanted to watch football you had to go simples.
Motd and the big match was all we had 2 hours a week.
Admission was cheap as was rail travel and even if u played midweek up north u could still get a train back to London.
You should write a book of your experiences sometime Herd. in another 25-30 years time the 70s terrace generation will either be gone or their memories will have. I'd choose to read about those days every time above the Twitter / Facebook generation
We agreed years ago never to write books, we have company directors ,headmasters ,oil company execs ,money dealers ,stockbrokers ,shipbrokers,record company bigwigs and of course career criminals amongst the old school Herd .
Stories of criminality might attract attention from PC Plod and none of us want that ,also none of us wish to glorify Violence which all of the books I've seen revel in it and exaggerate what really happened or in the case of Cass Pennant and Martin King just tell complete porkies and worse grass people up .
We also did a lot of things we wouldn't do now but we were young and it happened ,those that know know ,it makes me laugh when I see many 50+ year olds walking round going eie when they were never ever there .
3 to 5 yrs the experts were saying that it is going to take Dick to sort out the shitfest of our glorious club falling into the depths of 5th place in the league
Fast forward 16 months and those experts are now calling for his head
Modern football know it all bollox at its best but at least we are top of the fickle as fuk league
Don't agree Herbert. Personally I wanted Wenger gone in May 2010 when it was obvious he would not build another title winning team. I thought it would take the next manager 2 to 4 years to clean up the huge mess Arsene left behind and was prepared to support the man for that time scale if he demonstrated that we were improving and moving forward. Unfortunately we are not. We have stagnated again. He makes too many very basic mistakes that most PL managers don't make.
I think he has clearly demonstrated he does not know his best 11, he does not know his best system away or at home, his in-game management is extremely poor, his man management is poor (the Ozil and Xhakatard situations), he is fast becoming a master of dropping points from winning positions.
It's a shame because I like him but I'm not prepared to blindly support someone being paid a kings ransom to mismanage our club. I was behind giving him until May but I'm now afraid of how much damage he might do if we did give him that long.
Yea I was there ,we had to fight like crazy just to get under the covers . West Ham always had 5,000 plus in there until 1982 when they finnally got walloped Unfortunately it prompted them to kill my friend John Dickinson .
Life of course was different ,if you wanted to watch football you had to go simples.
Motd and the big match was all we had 2 hours a week.
Admission was cheap as was rail travel and even if u played midweek up north u could still get a train back to London.
You should write a book of your experiences sometime Herd. in another 25-30 years time the 70s terrace generation will either be gone or their memories will have. I'd choose to read about those days every time above the Twitter / Facebook generation
We agreed years ago never to write books, we have company directors ,headmasters ,oil company execs ,money dealers ,stockbrokers ,shipbrokers,record company bigwigs and of course career criminals amongst the old school Herd .
Stories of criminality might attract attention from PC Plod and none of us want that ,also none of us wish to glorify Violence which all of the books I've seen revel in it and exaggerate what really happened or in the case of Cass Pennant and Martin King just tell complete porkies and worse grass people up .
We also did a lot of things we wouldn't do now but we were young and it happened ,those that know know ,it makes me laugh when I see many 50+ year olds walking round going eie when they were never ever there .
Fair enough mate, I understand your reasons. A pity though, sounds like it would be a cracking read
3 to 5 yrs the experts were saying that it is going to take Dick to sort out the shitfest of our glorious club falling into the depths of 5th place in the league
Fast forward 16 months and those experts are now calling for his head
Modern football know it all bollox at its best but at least we are top of the fickle as fuk league
Don't agree Herbert. Personally I wanted Wenger gone in May 2010 when it was obvious he would not build another title winning team. I thought it would take the next manager 2 to 4 years to clean up the huge mess Arsene left behind and was prepared to support the man for that time scale if he demonstrated that we were improving and moving forward. Unfortunately we are not. We have stagnated again. He makes too many very basic mistakes that most PL managers don't make.
I think he has clearly demonstrated he does not know his best 11, he does not know his best system away or at home, his in-game management is extremely poor, his man management is poor (the Ozil and Xhakatard situations), he is fast becoming a master of dropping points from winning positions.
It's a shame because I like him but I'm not prepared to blindly support someone being paid a kings ransom to mismanage our club. I was behind giving him until May but I'm now afraid of how much damage he might do if we did give him that long.
I think this is the key thing. Just because a particular timescale was mentioned doesn't mean we cannot change our minds if we are seeing no progress. Its all very well Emery (who I like) and the club calling for patience but how long is a piece of string? How long do we give it?
Wenger played the 'patience' card enough times and look where that got us! Patience only works if there are small signs that you are going in the right direction. With us there are no signs of that. There are rare examples in football where a manager was on the precipice and something happened to turn it round. Howard Kendall at Everton in the mid 80s and the of course Ferguson at Man United. But that is not gonna happen with us. Not with this manager and these players.
Patience is a virtue and all that but if you pick the wrong time to be patient then it is destructive.
3 to 5 yrs the experts were saying that it is going to take Dick to sort out the shitfest of our glorious club falling into the depths of 5th place in the league
Fast forward 16 months and those experts are now calling for his head
Modern football know it all bollox at its best but at least we are top of the fickle as fuk league
Don't agree Herbert. Personally I wanted Wenger gone in May 2010 when it was obvious he would not build another title winning team. I thought it would take the next manager 2 to 4 years to clean up the huge mess Arsene left behind and was prepared to support the man for that time scale if he demonstrated that we were improving and moving forward. Unfortunately we are not. We have stagnated again. He makes too many very basic mistakes that most PL managers don't make.
I think he has clearly demonstrated he does not know his best 11, he does not know his best system away or at home, his in-game management is extremely poor, his man management is poor (the Ozil and Xhakatard situations), he is fast becoming a master of dropping points from winning positions.
It's a shame because I like him but I'm not prepared to blindly support someone being paid a kings ransom to mismanage our club. I was behind giving him until May but I'm now afraid of how much damage he might do if we did give him that long.
I think this is the key thing. Just because a particular timescale was mentioned doesn't mean we cannot change our minds if we are seeing no progress. Its all very well Emery (who I like) and the club calling for patience but how long is a piece of string? How long do we give it?
Wenger played the 'patience' card enough times and look where that got us! Patience only works if there are small signs that you are going in the right direction. With us there are no signs of that. There are rare examples in football where a manager was on the precipice and something happened to turn it round. Howard Kendall at Everton in the mid 80s and the of course Ferguson at Man United. But that is not gonna happen with us. Not with this manager and these players.
Patience is a virtue and all that but if you pick the wrong time to be patient then it is destructive.
Good points from both of you
I like him too but if he has a shit December then I cant argue with him being sacked
3 to 5 yrs the experts were saying that it is going to take Dick to sort out the shitfest of our glorious club falling into the depths of 5th place in the league
Fast forward 16 months and those experts are now calling for his head
Modern football know it all bollox at its best but at least we are top of the fickle as fuk league
Don't agree Herbert. Personally I wanted Wenger gone in May 2010 when it was obvious he would not build another title winning team. I thought it would take the next manager 2 to 4 years to clean up the huge mess Arsene left behind and was prepared to support the man for that time scale if he demonstrated that we were improving and moving forward. Unfortunately we are not. We have stagnated again. He makes too many very basic mistakes that most PL managers don't make.
I think he has clearly demonstrated he does not know his best 11, he does not know his best system away or at home, his in-game management is extremely poor, his man management is poor (the Ozil and Xhakatard situations), he is fast becoming a master of dropping points from winning positions.
It's a shame because I like him but I'm not prepared to blindly support someone being paid a kings ransom to mismanage our club. I was behind giving him until May but I'm now afraid of how much damage he might do if we did give him that long.
I agree with DB10 on Emery. We estimated 2-4 years but we had not taken into consideration that the board would back him in the transfer market. A lot of the dross have gone and he has brought in some of the talented youngster at the club. However, after the league cup defeat at Anfield I lost faith in Emery's plan. To score 5 goals at Anfield, twice being ahead by two goals and still end up losing albeit on penalities, shows the gaps in emery's ability to manage a match.
The players he has bought in are an improvement to the players they replaced and we should be challenging Liverpool and City with this squad. The players and system he used to play against Leicester was correct. But it didn't work because they didn't look like they worked on it in training. You could see Luiz frustration as he was not receiving the ball in a positoin he would expect. I think 3-5-2 is the system to use with this squad of players but they need to be drilled in training. Can Emery do it? Personally, I don't think he can after the Xhaka and Ozil miss-management, yet I hope he does because I want Arsenal to succedd.
3 to 5 yrs the experts were saying that it is going to take Dick to sort out the shitfest of our glorious club falling into the depths of 5th place in the league
Fast forward 16 months and those experts are now calling for his head
Modern football know it all bollox at its best but at least we are top of the fickle as fuk league
Don't agree Herbert. Personally I wanted Wenger gone in May 2010 when it was obvious he would not build another title winning team. I thought it would take the next manager 2 to 4 years to clean up the huge mess Arsene left behind and was prepared to support the man for that time scale if he demonstrated that we were improving and moving forward. Unfortunately we are not. We have stagnated again. He makes too many very basic mistakes that most PL managers don't make.
I think he has clearly demonstrated he does not know his best 11, he does not know his best system away or at home, his in-game management is extremely poor, his man management is poor (the Ozil and Xhakatard situations), he is fast becoming a master of dropping points from winning positions.
It's a shame because I like him but I'm not prepared to blindly support someone being paid a kings ransom to mismanage our club. I was behind giving him until May but I'm now afraid of how much damage he might do if we did give him that long.
I agree with DB10 on Emery. We estimated 2-4 years but we had not taken into consideration that the board would back him in the transfer market. A lot of the dross have gone and he has brought in some of the talented youngster at the club. However, after the league cup defeat at Anfield I lost faith in Emery's plan. To score 5 goals at Anfield, twice being ahead by two goals and still end up losing albeit on penalities, shows the gaps in emery's ability to manage a match.
The players he has bought in are an improvement to the players they replaced and we should be challenging Liverpool and City with this squad. The players and system he used to play against Leicester was correct. But it didn't work because they didn't look like they worked on it in training. You could see Luiz frustration as he was not receiving the ball in a positoin he would expect. I think 3-5-2 is the system to use with this squad of players but they need to be drilled in training. Can Emery do it? Personally, I don't think he can after the Xhaka and Ozil miss-management, yet I hope he does because I want Arsenal to succedd.
That's the thing for me too. I just want us to win titles. If Dick did turn it round I'll be the first to hold up his hand and say "yep I got it totally wrong". I have no ego or "I told you so" silliness invested in this..... I just want us back where we belong.
No sign of improvement or even going in the right direction is the key point. You could even argue that we are worse now than under the latter years of the Old French Fraud. We're not even flat track bullies anymore.
This slump in form is largely Emery’s doing and I’m struggling to find any defence for him. 12games, 6 different formations, negative goal difference and some downright awful football. The French basket didn’t give a toss about the opposition and we’ve somehow found an antithesis who is completely obsessed to the peril of his own team. Confidence is on the floor and the team has become engulfed in an inferiority complex which is very troubling. At this rate we’d have a relegation battle on our hands.
If he makes it to January, he might get help with fresh signings, but he’d have to navigate a fixture list that’s fraught with all kinds of difficulties. He strikes me as a coach who is immensely proud of his work and is not about to make a U-turn and go back to basics. What I’m seeing is an escalating commitment that shows no sign of abating. It is very bizarre how he’s abandoned some of the fundamentals that served him very well during the first half of last season. I like him and wish him luck but he’s toast and a dead man walking.
No sign of improvement or even going in the right direction is the key point. You could even argue that we are worse now than under the latter years of the Old French Fraud. We're not even flat track bullies anymore.
Spot on, not even a little bit of progress to cling to and as you say not even capable of beating the teams outside the top 6 anymore.
Have to say I disagree with Nos comment above - this squad is not even close to being able to compete with citeh and the victims.
This slump in form is largely Emery’s doing and I’m struggling to find any defence for him. 12games, 6 different formations, negative goal difference and some downright awful football. The French basket didn’t give a toss about the opposition and we’ve somehow found an antithesis who is completely obsessed to the peril of his own team. Confidence is on the floor and the team has become engulfed in an inferiority complex which is very troubling. At this rate we’d have a relegation battle on our hands.
If he makes it to January, he might get help with fresh signings, but he’d have to navigate a fixture list that’s fraught with all kinds of difficulties. He strikes me as a coach who is immensely proud of his work and is not about to make a U-turn and go back to basics. What I’m seeing is an escalating commitment that shows no sign of abating. It is very bizarre how he’s abandoned some of the fundamentals that served him very well during the first half of last season. I like him and wish him luck but he’s toast and a dead man walking.
Good post mate. And good point about Emery being the antithesis of Wenger with regard to worrying about the opponents. Quite true and while we all wanted more of that side of things, it wasn't meant to be to the detriment of our own game.
Its interesting how many fans make a point of saying that they like Emery though. I do too. But what we'd like most is our club to have a good, competitive team we can be proud of. And unfortunately it is looking like there is no justification for believing Emery is capable of providing that.
No sign of improvement or even going in the right direction is the key point. You could even argue that we are worse now than under the latter years of the Old French Fraud. We're not even flat track bullies anymore.
Spot on, not even a little bit of progress to cling to and as you say not even capable of beating the teams outside the top 6 anymore.
Have to say I disagree with Nos comment above - this squad is not even close to being able to compete with citeh and the victims.
Same for me Jock.
I think as well as recognising the limitations of the manager, we also have to look at the players and acknowledge they're not as good as we thought / hoped they were.
Sadly there is almost certainly not a really good team there waiting for the right manager to come along and get the best out of them. There are some good individual players yes ... but that doesn't make us a good team.
We have several players that with different players around them (i.e. in a team with a different mentality) would be top players ... but I see no evidence that the collection of players we currently have can be moulded into a winning combination.
That's not to say Emery isn't also guilty of failing to maximise what they can do too though. And that's why he probably needs to be the first change we make.