After yesterday’s tragic and embarrassing 8-2 defeat at the hands (or maybe I should say “feet”) of Manchester United, I started on a long blog post about money being the controlling factor in football. Note to our American friends at this point, I’m talking about football, a game played by kicking a ball with the feet… not carrying and throwing an egg-shaped object while wearing body armour. After mulling over my thoughts and the content for twelve hours I’ve ditched that blog post. Money is a big controlling factor in today’s game, but there are other important elements. What I’m saying is that if you give two clubs an equal amount of money there’s a good chance that one will do better than the other.

Let’s get a few facts out of the way. A number of English clubs (they’re based in England and play in the English Premier League, although many of their player’s aren’t English) have huge amounts of cash to spend. This has come about from investment from extremely wealthy benefactors (you probably know who I’m referring to) and from selling branded merchandise and shirts to people who live a long way from where the club are based (again, you probably know who I’m referring to). There is an extremely high correlation between a huge cash injection and an upturn in fortunes. If that this point I mention Chelsea and Manchester City, I doubt I’ll get much disagreement. Liverpool were recently acquired by John W. Henry II’s Fenway Sports Group and have spent more than £80 million on players this year. It should be noted that spending loads of money doesn’t equal success, and this has been illustrated in the past… but again I don’t think I’d get many arguments if I said it gave the clubs more chance of success.

The point of this blog post is to examine the Arsenal situation. Before the arrival of Arsène Wenger, Arsenal were a reasonably successful Premier League club… although I do remember a season where there was a mild relegation concern. The turning point was a 5-1 win over Norwich, featuring a John Hartson hat-trick. I remember it well, I was in the jubilent crowd. Following Wenger’s arrival in 1995 Arsenal increased in ability and consistency. From 1997-98 to 2004-05 Arsenal were never outside of the top two, winning the title three times within that period. It’s also worth remembering that in the 2003-04 season Arsenal were unbeaten in the league for the entire season, a feat last achieved by Preston North End in the 1880s. As the t-shirt said “you win some, you draw some”.

Since the 2005-06 season Arsenal have been edged out of the top two by Chelsea (and occasionally Liverpool, and once by Man City) but they’ve remained in the top four (all-important for entry in The UEFA Champions League). Funnily enough (no, not really) Chelsea’s rise into a permanent top four and frequent top two place has coincided with Roman Abramovich’s funding.  Something of a rot has now set in for Arsenal – the last trophy to be lifted by Arsenal, the F A Cup, dates back to 2005. In season 2010-11 Arsenal looked to be getting themselves back into the top two, but suffered a dramatic decline in the closing weeks of the season. They were described as the only team ever to have come fourth in a two-horse race. Second place went to Man City, and Chelsea (after an appalling season by their recent standards) clinched third spot.

As I said earlier, money (and the top-notch player signings that money affords) don’t guarantee success but sure do provide an increased chance. So after a few years of watching the gulf between his club and Man Utd, Chelsea and more recently Man City widen, you’d have thought Mr Wenger would make strengthening his squad a priority before the 2011-12 season. Everyone knew that Cesc Fabregas was going to leave, and everyone knew that Samir Nasri wanted to leave. And everyone knew that Wenger’s policy of optimistically buying bargains in the hope they’d develop into world-class players wasn’t working. He has occasionally had the golden touch in the past, but he’s been no King Midas in the past few years. Yes, I am pointing at Arsenal’s central defence - Thomas Vermaelen is deservedly the automatic first choice, but he needs a world-class partner. Unfortunately Wenger has to choose from Johan Djourou, Laurent Koscielny and Sébastien Squillaci. None of them are good enough. Eighteen year-old Ignasi Miquel from the reserves look better than all three of them put together. So, shopping list item #1, Wenger needs a new solid, experienced, dependable, consistent central defender. Shopping list item #2, he needs another central defender of the same quality.

Rumours were than Wenger had £40 million to spend during the transfer window. Rumours are indeed rumours, I don’t know how true that is. Off trots Fabregas (and good luck to him, it was inevitable he’d return to his home town, and he gave Arsenal many good years of service). Gaël Clichy heads for Man City, and I think Arsenal handled this poorly – if he’s going there to be City’s first-choice as left-back, Arsenal should have asked for and held out for far more than £7 million. Where are they going to find a replacement for that sort of money? And then young Samir also heads to Man City, not for the money you understand (although allegedly tripling his weekly wages to £180,000 may have swayed him). Add this up and you get two things… around £67 million in the back pocket and a severely-weakened squad. That’s a squad weaker than the one that took fourth place last season.

Mr Wenger will point out that there have been signings incoming. Gervinho, a striker – looks useful, but was a striker really the club’s priority? Well, anything that expedites Nicklas Bendtner’s speedy departure is a good thing. That’s £10 million spent. A couple of promising young bargains, Carl Jenkinson (right-back) and Joel Campbell (striker) cost another £2 million, and then the big name signing of promising but inexperienced winger Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (yep, names don’t come much bigger, except in Russia maybe) which was reckoned to be around £15 million. A quick sum tells us that Mr Wenger still has about £40 million to spend, or £80 million if you believe the rumour of the initial transfer pot. Which leads me to the question…

What the **** has he been doing during the transfer window?

Walking his dog, reading a long book, maybe building a gazebo in his back garden. He made a few half-arsed attempts to sign Gary Cahill from Bolton and Phil Jagielka (had to check the spelling) from Everton. He dallied over the signing of Juan Mata, failed to do anything, and Mata was then signed by Chelsea (and promptly scored a goal during his fifteen-minute debut). Wenger made a comment about buying players if they had the right qualities… well, if they’re good enough to get into the Chelsea side, then they’re probably good enough for Arsenal.

Look at recent signings made by other clubs… Luis Suárez, Edin Džeko, Sergio Agüero, Jose Enrique, Ashley Young… what was Wenger doing while all of these guys didn’t get on his radar? And this isn’t just a recent problem. If Wenger had spotted the opportunity, don’t you think Rafael van der Vaart would have preferred Arsenal to Tottenham?

Rumours of signings continue – apparently Korean striker Park Chu-young may sign today (another striker). But after Nasri and Febregas departing, items #3 and #4 on the shopping list should be two midfielders. And if it’s true that Armand Traore is heading for QPR, Arsenal need more cover at left-back. So Arsenal need five players, and the transfer window closes on Wednesday evening. It’s a public holiday in the UK today, but I hope Wenger is at his desk and on the phone.

But a final thought. I tweeted yesterday that the problem “went far deeper than Arsene Wenger’s inability to work the transfer market and ManUre’s big-time spending”. I hate to admit it but Man Utd have something that you can’t buy and that Arsenal haven’t had for a few years… the attitude of winners. Much as I hate to say it, Man Utd always take to the pitch looking as if they have a God-given right to win. And often they do. Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool look like they’re learning that attitude. It comes from discipline and team-work. It comes from a good manager… and again, as much as I don’t like that miserable old scrote Alex Ferguson (and refuse to recognise his knighthood) he is a great manager. It comes from looking around you and seeing quality dependable players. Arsenal proved yesterday that they don’t have a winning attitude, they don’t exhibit great discipline or team-work, and they don’t have quality dependable players in all positions. They do have a manager who has proved himself to be great in the past – now he has to take responsibility, bring new players in, and create a great team from those new players and the existing players. If he can’t do that, it’s time to go.

I’ll be brief. I didn’t see the England versus Germany match because I was watching Lolli’s gymnastics competition (where she picked up a silver medal). I did see the post-match analysis and the obvious talking point was the ‘goal that never was’. I hope that the match officials feel suitably ashamed this morning, and I hope that stubborn old git Sepp “we don’t need video replays” Blatter had a sleepless night. In a game in which the outcome is essentially based on the number of goals scored, making a correct decision of whether a goal has been scored would seem to me to be fairly crucial.

The what-if scenario… if that goal had been given (as it should have been) then England might have gone into half-time at 2-2. That could have changed the second half – when you’re behind and chasing a game it can leave the defence exposed, and the risk is conceding more goals… which is exactly what happened.

However… let’s be honest. We can sulk about that goal and the what-if scenario, but it doesn’t change the fact that England were massively disappointing during the World Cup. Robert Green was the scapegoat after the first match, but show me a goalkeeper who hasn’t made that sort of blunder during his career – poor old Greeny just chose to do it at the most inopportune moment. England’s real problem wasn’t their goalkeeper, it was the fact that they then couldn’t go on and score a couple more against a USA side ranked below England.

After the poor performance against Algeria (ranked twenty-two places below England), it was relief rather than admiration when England beat Slovenia (ranked seventeen places below) by one measly goal. And there you have it… four matches, four goals (if you count the one that wasn’t but should have been). Matthew Upson out-scored Wayne Rooney and Peter Crouch. After the same number of matches Argentina had scored ten goals. That’s how to progress in the World Cup.

The wife says I’m not always impartial on these matters, but sometimes I really do believe the collective world of football (note, the game played by kicking the ball with the feet, not throwing it with the hands while dressed in layers of body armour) have it in for Arsenal. Take Saturday’s game against the South East’s favourite team, Manchester United – ManUre committed 21 fouls but had just 3 players booked. Arsenal committed 15 fouls but had 6 players booked. ManUre were awarded a penalty, while Arsenal’s penalty claim (just as clear-cut) was waved away. And the perpetrator of the foul got away with that one and two other bookable offences, so should have been off the field.

Yes, Arsenal did concede a penalty and an own goal, and therefore lost fair and square, but many were in agreement that Arsenal were the better side. An injury-time goal was disallowed for offside, and yes it was the correct decision… but don’t you wonder what would have happened if the situation was reversed, if ManUre were 2-1 down and scored a dodgy last-minute goal at home?

Now consider the fate of Eduardo. In February 2008 he suffered a broken leg during a match against Birmingham, an injury so horrific that a surgeon’s first reaction was that amputation was a possibility. Of course that didn’t happen and he was playing again within 14 months. Last week Eduardo ‘dived’ during a game against Celtic, winning a penalty in the process. Whether he did dive intentionally to win a penalty, or whether he was making an evasive move to get his legs well out of the goalie’s way, only he will know. The question is, why would UEFA choose this incident to start a witch-hunt against the art of diving? I’ve seen far more blatant examples of diving and play-acting that have received nothing more than a booking. If UEFA have condemned Eduardo to a 2-match ban, are they going to go back over all of the other alleged diving incidents over the past few years? If so, a certain Mr C Ronaldo had better get his defence case ready… perhaps the ManUre fans, when they shouted “cheat” at Eduardo, had forgotten that that the greasy winger often went down like a sniper victim if someone coughed within 3 yards of him.

On a day where the Spuds almost eliminated their relegation concerns with a win over Chelski, a day when Arsenal took another step towards cementing 4th place (best we can hope for) with a win over the increasingly doomed-looking Newcastle, there was a shock win for Fulham. And no-one was more shocked than the ManUre fans, some of whom had travelled nearly 20 miles to watch the spectacle.

So okay, ManYoo are still top and are 10 points ahead of Arsenal, so I have no right to gloat. But this isn’t about gloating, this is about taking up an issue with the BBC. Their news site reported “nine-man Man Utd crash to Fulham” thus giving the impression that Fulham won because ManYoo were only playing with nine men. However, for most of the match Utd had ten men, and didn’t have a second player (the charming Mr Rooney) sent off until after Fulham had scored their second goal. Alright, ManYoo played most of the match with ten men, but that headline does take away some credit from Fulham, whose eleven men probably cost a quarter of the price of Utd’s nine men.

I consider the issue clarified.

Actually, not a good week. Arsenal were very poor against ManYoo, suffering a 4-0 defeat in the F A Cup. It was a busy night on the M6 as a few thousand dejected Arsenal fans headed back South, and tens of thousands of happy ManUre fans headed back South (or headed to Manchester airport to catch flights to Belfast, Dublin, Oslo, etc). Bacary Sagna missed the game after the sudden death of his 28 year old brother Omar.

The mid-week 0-0 draw against AC Milan wasn’t a disaster but certainly makes the away tie difficult. Mind you, a 1-1 draw would be enough to go through.

So, today it was back to the league, with Arsenal hoping to at least maintain a five point lead. Things couldn’t have started in worse fashion with Eduardo suffering a horrific broken leg in the second minute. The injury was so bad that Sky declined to show a replay – but later Match of the Day did (after issuing a warning), and now I wished I’d looked away. No wonder the Arsenal players looked so distraught. That’s Eduardo out for a year. I am glad that Arsene Wenger retracted and apologised for his earlier comments about Martin Taylor, the unfortunate perpetrator of the tackle – I was planning a post to say that I thought Wenger was wrong to make the comments, and ‘excessive’ was exactly the word I would have used.

However…

Wenger has a right to feel aggrieved about other incidents in the game. Birmingham scored from a free kick which was dubious in it’s award to say the least. Later, 2-1 up, Arsenal had a clear penalty claim ignored when Adebayor was held back. But worst of all was Birmingham’s awarded penalty – Gael Clichy was judged to have brought down Stuart Parnaby. But replays clearly showed that Clichy reached the ball first, thus making it a legal tackle. Well done the ref… a closet ManYoo fan perhaps?

Still there was always the hope that Newcastle could get a draw or even a win against ManUre, and surely Newcastle couldn’t suffer a defeat as bad as the last time they met the South East’s favourites (6-0). It certainly wasn’t as bad… but 5-1 was bad enough. What happened to that team who stuffed ManYoo 5-0 in October 1996? David Ginola, Les Ferdinand, Alan Shearer, Philippe Albert… even Darren Peacock… come back, your former club needs you.

I hope Arsenal take the Premier League title, but much more so I hope Eduardo makes a full recovery and is playing again as soon as possible. To me it’s only a game, but to that unfortunate 24 year-old it’s a career and a way of life.

Hampshire’s favourite football manager is spouting crap again. On occasionally-serious footy web site Football365.com Mr Ferguson (pictured here with Ruud van Nistelrooy) delivers these pearls of wisdom…

“Arsenal are playing well, but it’s a long season and they know that, too. They will drop points, there’s no doubt about that.”

This is an incredible revelation – I had just assumed that Arsenal would win every single game from now on. This comes as a big blow to me, and I’m sure Arsene Wenger will spend a few sleepless nights coming to terms with this news.

Dame Alice goes onto to discuss their recent defeat at the hands of Bolton…

“If we hadn’t lost to Bolton then we would have been in a great position.”

Right, but you did lose to Bolton, so get over it. Naughty Bolton for denying ManYoo of their God-given right to win every game. And naughty Bolton again for not trying very hard against Liverpool and letting them win 4-0.

Having been handed a very unlikely life-line by Isreal at the weekend, all England had to do was draw (at home) with Croatia. Just a draw.

McClaren decided to drop Paul Robinson because, as far as we the public could see, he had been unreliable… so Scott Carson started in goal. David James, with years of experience under his belt and having a great season between the sticks for Portsmouth (ignore the Reading game), was the second choice. Irony, as we know, is a fickle mistress, and thus Croatia’s first goal was caused by Carson’s schoolboy error (apologies to any schoolboys reading this).

By the time the second Croatia goal went in, I was at the stage of not being able to decide whether the drama unfolding was comic or tragic. By half-time I had the awful feeling that I wanted a third Croatia goal so that McClaren’s misery could be absolutely, gloriously complete. England were utterly rubbish in the first half. While Croatia looked well-organised and dangerous on the break, England were a shambles.

Croatia obviously had better studs on their boots as they seemed to manage to keep their footing while England slid around like Oliver Reed appearing in ‘Magic Moments from the Keystone Cops on Ice’ (while pissed). And who decided it was a good idea to let our American friends pound the pitch wearing body armour in a game that’s based on diving headlong across the turf… in Autumn, when it’s wet and there isn’t much sunlight? Wembley Stadium, the pride of England, sported a Sunday league-style surface.

As the seconds ticked away, following England’s two goals and Croatia’s third (in the words of the Incubus song “you should be careful what you wish for”) it was pointed out that we could still qualify if Andorra pulled a goal back against Russia. Andorra has a population of about 72,000 but Andorran’s are a minority in their own country (more than 67% of inhabitants are of other nationalities)… you get the point, it wasn’t going to happen.

The BBC web site reports that Steve McClaren has insisted he will not step down. Well, if he doesn’t do us all a favour I hope the FA do, preferably tomorrow.

So that’s it, no UK teams in Euro 2008. Northern Ireland got very near and should be very proud – “something to build on” would be an understatement. Scotland (I’m proud to be half-Scottish) got very near too and did far better than was expected – just falling at the last hurdle, but against world champions Italy there is nothing to be ashamed of. England on the other hand… I’ll use Ports’ word… “pathetic”.

I wasn’t going to write anything about this match, but I can’t let this go. Following today’s 2-2 draw, Moan Utd’s whining old scrote of a manager Dame Alice Ferguson accused referee Howard Webb of favouring Arsenal. Hang on, was he watching the same match as me? In the match I watched, ManUre got a free kick almost every time Arsenal made a tackle on a Utd player. In the same match, Utd’s Anderson committed three bookable offences yet only got booked once (and hence he avoided being sent off). Also, during this match, Utd were awarded a free kick when the odious grease-monkey Ronaldo fell over with no contact whatsoever from Gael Clichy. And finally, the referee wouldn’t have given the second Arsenal goal had the assistant referee not spotted that the ball had clearly gone over the line. So if that’s favouring Arsenal, I hate to think what would have happened if he’d got it in for them.

There was a time when my beloved GameCube suited my needs. The graphics weren’t as good as some as it’s competitors, but it did offer Sega Soccer Slam. Enough said. Later in it’s lifespan I became addicted to FIFA 05, and I’m still progressing through the fifteen year career mode. Career mode is where you become a virtual manager, put a squad together and try to win as much as possible (and also control the players in every game, unless you elect to simulate the match and let the console take over).

Currently I’m managing Arsenal in the year 2015… I started at Leyton Orient (got them promoted and won the F A Cup), then managed Reading before moving onto Monaco (where I put Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres and Ashley Cole in my line-up), then onto Real Madrid (welcome aboard Mr Steven Gerrard), and then AC Milan. Having brought more success to these already successful teams, I thought I’d bring some of my managerial magic to a team that needed it – Spurs. After two seasons of winning everything (the Premier League, domestic and European trophies) I moved onto Arsenal but failed to get many of my elite Spurs squad to join me. Not that it matters, I’m romping to success anyway.

Other fun aspects included buying greasy diving one-trick-pony Christiano Ronaldo from Man Utd, letting him rot in the Spurs reserves and watching his morale sink like a mafia informer wearing concrete wellies. I did also consider opting to manage Man Utd, selling all their best players, buying crap players, scoring own goals and guiding them to relegation, but I had my impeccable rating to preserve.

Compared to what can now be achieved on the modern consoles, the graphics on GameCube games leave a lot to be desired. But now I have a Wii, there seemed to be an obvious thing to go on my Christmas list… FIFA 08 Wii edition. But then I heard the news that was so catastrophic to my plan – the Wii edition doesn’t feature career mode. And let’s be honest, that’s a bit sh*t.

So now I have three options. The first is to wait until 2008 when Pro Evolution Soccer for the Wii is released. The second and third options are Xbox 360 or PS3 with FIFA 08 in whatever format. This is where I’m stuck (it’s a bit like the Archos versus iPod Touch argument which is still rattling around inside my head).

Choddo, a man who missed out on a mis-spent youth and now endulges in a mis-spent adulthood when he gets time, was absolute in his support for the Xbox. For a moment I thought he was going drive over and frog-march me into the Game store in Camberley to buy one… and they do have the Halo 3 editions of the Xbox in stock (nice shade of green, eh?). But while in the Camberley branch of Game the rather over-enthusiastic assistant manager all but declared his undying love and devotion to the PS3. According to him the graphics are better, the motion sensor controls are great, and the Blu-ray DVD player is an added bonus (assuming Sony win that format war).

Thoughts and opinions welcome.

Let me start by saying that as an Arsenal fan I’m a disgrace. Yes I admit it. A few years back I was going to most home games, but (bearing in mind it’s been the home of the Gunners for over a year) this was my first visit to the Emirates Stadium. Having said that, that’s still one more time than most ManUre fans have been to Old Trafford. To make matters worse, I didn’t even pay for the ticket – it was courtesy of one of the best things about being in a sales role… corporate hospitality. Food, entertainment, more food, some free goodies, a bit more food, and then see the match. Lovely.

The itinerary told us to be at Highbury House for 17:30 and make our way to the Board Room. The actual Board Room where the Arsenal directors meet? Yep, apparently so. The itinerary also stated “Champagne reception with Arsenal legend” – and they weren’t kidding. We walked through the door and were met by none other than Charlie George.

During drinks Charlie (see, we’re on first-name terms) talked about his playing days, and after some excellent food Charlie talked to the party about the success of the club (both financially and on the field) under Arsene Wenger. He then posed for photos, autographed programmes (I have one, and no you can’t buy it from me), and presided over a prize draw for an Arsenal pennant signed by the first team (which I didn’t win – one of our customers did, which was probably a good result).

Soon it was time to go see the match, so we said our farewells to Charlie and made our way to our seats in the Emirates Stadium (see the Wallpaper page for some photos). It’s an incredible place, and of course more spacious than the cramped Highbury in every respect. To cap off an excellent evening, Arsenal battered poor old Slavia Prague 7-0 (with two goals for Theo Walcott, even though it was past his bed-time).