Category: Sport

I’m back……

Hello all

Yes, I’m still alive and kicking. In fact, I’ve done more kicking (figuratively), in recent times than ever before. I had a fun placement at Comic Relief last autumn, then following a stint at AXA Insurance, I have spent the last seven months with the guys at the Canary Wharf Group. It was a hugely enjoyable and rewarding experience and I worked on some really exciting branding and campaign projects. I worked across the residential, retail and events teams. The work was demanding, yet fun and I’m hoping I will return there one day soon.

So I’ve barely had a day off during the last year. My only short holiday was spent in Lyon during the middle of May. The masterplan was to watch Arsenal play in the Europa Cup Final. It was a cunning plan, with me booking travel and hotel months before the match took place. I got a good deal on the Eurostar and found a really nice hotel in the center of town. I then got lucky in the UEFA ballot for tickets. All was in place for a memorable holiday.

Arsenal then drew Atletico Madrid in the semi final. This was a potential hitch in the masterplan. They were the favorites for the competition and they were the worst possible draw for us. But no problem, the Spanish helpfully got a player sent off 16 minutes into the first leg at the Emirates. We will take a comfortable lead back to Madrid and I’ll make a joyful trip to France along with 30,000 other Gooners. My dream of an Arsenal v Marseille final was going to come true.

But the plan was evidently not so cunning. The Atletico defenders played like giants in London and they suffocated our attacking play in Madrid. So I departed London in May with a heavy heart but I had the most wonderful trip. Met a good few Arsenal fans who were as misguided as I was in booking up early and I also met up with football fans from all over Europe who travelled to a festival of football. A truly memorable trip. I sold my final tickets to a group of grateful Marseille fans and watched the game with a load of Lyon supporters who celebrated wildly when Atletico strolled to a comfortable victory.

So I’ve had a couple of weeks off work following my departure from the Canary Wharf Group and now I’m looking forward to some exciting roles for some new clients. And I promise to be more active with this blog. Apparently, Arsenal have got a new manager since I last posted?? Really…??

Not so happy

So it’s evident that I haven’t been too busy with my blog recently. No particular reason. Work’s been hectic and I guess you can get out of a routine and all your discipline can go out of the window in respect to updating your blog. But if there is a reason I can point towards explaining my lack of activity, it’s down to my growing apathy with all things connected to supporting Arsenal.

It’s been a frustrating, up-and-down start to the season. The Leicester game was a fun evening but then we had the poor performances at Stoke and Liverpool. We then had brief, encouraging unbeaten run but you always sensed we were a game away from a crisis. And predictably (and painfully), along came Watford and Troy Deeny to put some measured perspective to our decent form during September.

It made for tough viewing last night. We were flattered to go into half-time 1-0 up and I feared for the worse. No shame losing to Watford. They are having a decent season and they’ll take points of many big clubs but the manner in which we lost was so familiar. So ‘Arsenal’. No spirit, no fight, no capacity for defending a slender lead during such an indifferent performance. Our inability to grind out a result is killing us.

There seems to be so many reasons for such a troubling state. Sanchez and Ozil seem to have their mind elsewhere, our injury crisis has come even sooner than usual in the season and key players are simply not performing. The whole balance of the team is often plain wrong and squad players such as Wilshire, Giroud, Walcott and Chambers haven’t really made an impact in the PL. The fan divide hasn’t gone away and you can sense the infighting at our next home game will be as bad as ever. Kronke, Gazidis and Wenger are seen as obstacles to our club progressing and I expect they’ll be fan protests against Swansea. The media are enjoying our difficulties and there’s generally a feeling the club remains a little rudderless.

Nevertheless, I still continue going to the games. Yet increasingly the game itself is hardly the highlight of the day. The few beers before the game – we enjoyed the City rout of Liverpool before the bournemouth game – if often far more enjoyable than the following 90 minutes. The 3-0 was welcome but instantly forgettable. I was actually happy to leave the ground and then meet family/friends for a post-match beer. Revealingly, we barely mentioned the game. I think we just were happy to come away with a win and we could discuss all subjects away from the lifeless performance. I guess watching Utd drop points at Stoke helped but we all agreed the match day experience was a world away from watching Arsenal in the 80s.

So I’ll still look forward to the Swansea game in two weeks. The lunchtime Utd v Spurs game will be a nice distraction and it will be good to catch up with some old friends. But increasingly, that’s what our home games now mean to me. An opportunity to enjoy a few beers with friends and a yearning hope that our team will return to some real form to make us credible top four challengers. I have a ticket for the upcoming Spurs game. I can only hope that Kane does his hamstring in the week to come…..

Working from home is rather good

I’m generally not a great fan of working from home. For many reasons I guess. My flat is very small and at times, the walls seem to be close in on me. I also love the cycle commute into work (when my client has shower/locker facilities) and probably the most persuasive reason is that I like working amongst other creative people.

But I’m quite enjoying working from home at the moment. My working day routine has meant an start early and a late end, with some fantastic sport to watch in between. The football season has come to a close and to be honest, it’s a welcome break from the agony of watching Arsenal toil in the league. The British Lions tour of New Zealand and the one-day Championship Trophy has been brilliant to watch. It’s top class sport and my passion for rugby union and cricket come a close joint second behind my love for football.

Waking up to a midweek game Lions tour game is wonderful. The Lions are up against it and I fully expect them to lose all three test matches against the All Blacks. They will probably lose a few of the warm-up games too, but they will be competitive and it will provide wonderful drama nonetheless. It’s going to be brutal and they’ll really put their bodies on the line. It’s a great shame Gatland and his coaching staff has such little time to prepare the squad for such a formidable tour. It really is asking too much for such an untried team to take on such a dominant, cohesive All Blacks team. We can beat the Aussies, go close against South Africa, but really I can’t see how we can ever witness a successful Lions tour of New Zealand. I noticed that the odds were 8/11 for us to lose 3-0. It’s a steal, as I really can’t see us challenging in the test matches.

Thankfully, the English cricket team are on top of their game. Joyfully, we may even knock out the Aussies on Saturday before the knock-out games have even begun. Our one-day team is thrilling. Dashing batsmen, brilliant all-rounders and effective strike bowlers has helped us win our two opening games. We have even developed a class limited-over spin bowler and our fielding is comparable with any other team in the competition. After such a torrid World Cup, our players have done magnificently to turn things around.

The format of the competition is helping too. Every game matters, there are no weak teams participating and there has been some fantastic individual performances. The run chase by Sri Lanka in their shock defeat of India was wonderful to watch today and the performance of Pakistan in defeating South Africa has given the competition a great boost.

It all makes for wonderful viewing. And I’ve not even started about the French Open tennis either…….

So if my clients are reading this, rest assured, deadlines will be met. Quality of work will be maintained. But I just may not be able to make the conference call at the time of your choosing…..>/p>

The new Juventus Logo

Am I alone in warming towards the new Juventus logo? I actually like it’s simplicity and it works well with the stark colour contrast between the black and white.

I don’t think football supporters are so closely defined by the past, like many golf or cricket fans are, but I guess we can get pretty nostalgic about the past. The game has transformed so much in the past 20 years and when you have such change, you do leave some people behind. And in the age of social media, the dissenters are inevitable. Much far sexier to be critical than positive in many regards.

It took me back to a game at Highbury (now there’s nostalgia for you), when a few Junior Gunners were rolled out to present our new logo to the crowd as they walked around the four sides of the ground. It must have been around 2002. It was a time when many of our home games were a procession to three easy points. The likes of Denilson and Bendtner would have never secured a place in our squad in a million years and the shiny, corporate Emirates Stadium seemed a long way off. So the mood amongst the fans was good. ArsenalFanTV would have been pretty dull and the toxic atmosphere which is a part of our match day experience these days could never have been imagined.

So I guess the Arsenal marketing team must have believed it was a perfect time to introduce a new club logo. The club revamped their famous cannon crest as part of a major shake-up of the club’s corporate image. The crest, which had not changed since 1949, was the result of nine months’ work by 20/20, a London-based design consultancy. What could possible go wrong??

Well quite a lot in fact. The boos rained down on the poor Junior Gunners as they paraded the new logo, which as printed on a large banner. The boos started slowly as they walked along the East Stand towards the North Bank, the noise rose steadily as it passed the West Stand and I feared for the poor fans. Then as the logo passed the Clock End, the dissention broke out into a fully-fledged revolt. I bet the creatives from 20/20 dissolved into the crowd, temperatures rose amongst our branding team and the banner was swiftly hidden from view. I wonder if those Junior Gunners survived the experience without incurring lasting mental scars.

So beware Juve fans of parading the logo around their new ground. It could get messy. But I have a little positive news for them. And I must whisper this softly. I quite like our new logo.

Sleeping with the enemy

I has a thoroughly enjoyable evening last Thursday at Wembley watching the Spurs v Gent game. Many Arsenal fans would have turned up their nose at attending a neutral game involving Spurs. Maybe I’m getting a little mellow in my old age.

But even as a teenager, I often attended matches at White Hart Lane. In those days, you have the archaic experience of waking up on Saturday morning when Arsenal were playing away, scanning the fixture list of the stand-out games in London and selecting the best match to attend. Pay-on-the-gate was the norm in that era and I enjoyed watching games as a neutral. Even though there was a fair amount of hooliganism during those years, my group of friends were young enough to prevents us being a target. Furthermore, proceeds from your paper/milk round would more than cover the cost of the day: travel, programme, burger and entry into the ground. You could have to deliver papers to half of Camden’s homes these days to cover the expenses of a match day at the Emirates. So I spent my happy days at Fulham, Chelsea, QPR, Crystal Palace and White Hart Lane. I was more than happy to stand on the home terracing, but for Spurs games I was headed to the away end. A late, late Peter Beardsley equaliser was particular special memory from a visit to WHL. It was raining a thunderstorm during the game but the day standing in an uncovered Park Lane end had a happy ending.

Pre-match on Thursday was spent in the Allsop Arms near Marylebone Station. From my many visits to Wembley, I’ve enjoyed the build up to a game all over north and central London and Marylebone is my favoured choice. The quick journey from Marylebone station to Wembley Park is often stress-free as you avoid the madness and congestion of walking up Wembley Way. The Spurs fans I met in the pub expressed amusement as to why I wanted to attend the match. I guess a few hours later, if anyone could have sensed my suppressed joy Gent’s equaliser, that question would have been answered at a stroke.

I guess I have softened my rivalry when it comes to Spurs. I try and maintain my intense dislike of them and my hatred for what they represent. But I am at an age whereby it would be pretty pathetic if I carried on as if I was a teenager. Saying all that, I have been motivated to knock up a site www.laughatspurs.com, so there must still be a little of that burning dislike of the second biggest club in north London.

I enjoyed the game from Club Wembley and I sat back to enjoy the game, without too much tension. Sure I bristled at little at Eriksson’s opener but I kept on looking up the Europa Cup branding in the stadium to remind me we weren’t watching Europe’s premier competition (not that I want to stray too close to that subject….). The Gent equaliser was fun and Alli’s challenge (which was clear red all day long) ensured the night was going very well. Wanyama’s goal merely gave some futile hope to the home crowd and I always sensed the first leg defeat would prove the undoing of Spurs. Gent’s second goals was joyfully scored at my end and the mass evacuation of the home fans was another highlight of the evening.

Now if Spurs had gone on to win the tie, it would have proved a more difficult evening but I would not have been overly fussed. The increased fixture commitments made had helped Arsenal and I never really believed they had it in them to win the tournament. I strolled home listening to Spurs fans rage on TalkSport; Levy’s got to spend, Harry can’t do it all, Alli has to learn his lesson and the squad lacks the x-factor. Happy listening. Sure they have a crop of young, promising youngsters, an excellent manager and plans to move into a pretty impressive new stadium. But for now, I’m not losing any sleep. So far it’s a lot of noise, a lot of potential. But until they win anything substantial, I still intend to continue looking down on them.

A midway assessment of our season

So we are just past halfway the league campaign and it’s occurred to me I’ve not posted much about football recently. Arsenal fans have never led a quiet life when it comes to supporting our club and things have not changed. We are simply 90 minutes away from a crisis. We have the most divided fan base in the country.

I’ve always been vocal in my support for our manager. He has faults and boy, can he be stubborn. But he has unquestionably been a force for good for our football club. I guess I have been increasingly critical of him, but the abuse he has faced has been shocking and an embarrassment to the majority of Arsenal fans.

We had a few really tough years following our move to the Emirates. Fans who claim he’s had millions to spend during the first years at our new ground and he stubbornly refused to buy world-class talent are simply deluded. To think he was happy to go toe-to-toe with Fergie and Jose (and often losing) with a depleted squad is an opinion formed with a set agenda in mind. Seeing the likes of RVP, Csec and Nasri leave us for big money and replacing them with the likes of Bendtner, Denilson and Baptista has been cruel for us all.

But I’m going off on a tangent. I’m pretty defensive of all the criticism that Wenger has faced. The actions of most on ArsenalFan TV were amusing at first but now have been come an irritant and most certainly an embarrassment. Forgetting the past few barren years (excluding the significant consolation of a couple of FA Cups), we need to ask are we improving as a team and a club??

Unquestionably, the answer in my view is yes. I’m gutted we have lost so many crucial games in recent years. They hurt a lot but I’m a little too long in the tooth to react to defeats like many of our social media loving fans. The squad is in good health, bar the incessant injuries. I will argue to my dying day that we would have won the league last year if Santi has been fully fit. But this year we have greater depth to our squad. Our key players – Bellerin, Sanchez, Girod, Xhaka, Walcott, Koscielny, Mustafi, Cech, Monreal and the lavishly gifted Ozil have been in largely excellent form. The back-up players – Perez, Elneny, Iwobi, the Ox, Ospina, Iwobi and Ramsey have all played their part.

The response to our reason defeats at City and Everton (two traditionally tough games) has been completely overblown. We have had only three defeats (the other defeat to Liverpool was largely down to us having a second-string defence) and we have show great spirit to come back from losing positions. Grabbing points against Burnley, Southampton, WBA, Ludogorets, Preston and Swansea when we first well below our best were fantastic wins. Savaging points from games against Utd, Bournemouth and PSG demonstrated the mental strength which the players never receive credit for.

Alongside those games are the performances where we really excelled – Hull, Sunderland, Chelsea, Nottingham Forest, Ludogrets (at home) and Basel, have been so good to watch. We’re in the knock-out stage of the CL, facing a relatively easy path to the FA Cup Fourth Round and I still maintain we are well placed in the league.

I shall endeavour to post more. I sense it’s going to be a rollercoaster ride but I’m the eternal optimist.

A debt of gratitude towards Leicester City Football Club

So thankfully, the season is almost over. It’s been a long, brutal season for Arsenal fans. So many false dawns. One thing has saved the season for me. Step forward Claudio Ranieri and his magnificent team.

For Arsenal, it’s clearly been a season to forget. We have dropped so many stupid points. Our record against the leading clubs has been half decent (we took 6 points of the champions). But dropping points against the likes of Sunderland, WBA, Swansea, Norwich and believe it not Chelsea who beat us twice, has proved fatal. Another lost opportunity.

Continue reading “A debt of gratitude towards Leicester City Football Club”

Opportunity knocks for West Ham

So there’s much anticipation around West Ham Football Club as they prepare to move into their new ground for next season. West Ham are one of the most nostalgic institutions in British football. The much talked about West Ham Academy is lauded as producing the most talented footballers in recent years (Julian Dicks??) and their claim to have won the World Cup in ’66 is trotted out every four years.

Continue reading “Opportunity knocks for West Ham”

What’s the Spanish word for Schadenfruede?

Just spent an immensely satisfying 90 minutes watching Barcelona toil against Valencia at the Nou Camp. The home team were defeated 2-1 and the nine point lead over Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid has vanished. There can’t be a more arrogant club in the world than Barcelona (and I include Bayern Munich when making that claim).

Continue reading “What’s the Spanish word for Schadenfruede?”