Pfft..

I always thought I would take something special to happen (Arsene Wenger leaving) for me to return to these pages, quite simply these days there are more Arsenal blogs than ever before. Some of these are truly wondrous pieces of writing to levels I can only dream of, others are so horrendously bad that it makes me fear for the future of mankind. Simply put being in the middle or bottom-middle wasn't that appealing to me on a regular basis anymore.

But here I am, and today's biannual post focusing on something I find myself thinking about on a day-to-day basis whenever I think about football and the circus that revolves it. 

It's lazy.

The Internet is truly one of the greatest inventions there has ever been, I can order a pizza, record something to my Sky Box from another county and countless other majestical tasks that would be impossible 30 years ago. In Football senses I'm not so sure though.

Before you carry on reading, I understand the massive irony of writing to you about how football is portrayed on the Internet...by writing about how football is portrayed on the Internet, but we've reached a level now where no stone is un-turned, it's bred "The Superfan" who signs autographs and makes a career out of simply being a fan, it's turned fans who once would have no outlet to write letters to football manager instructing them how to do their job and accusing club employees of sabotaging players by food poisioning, now if that doesn't want you to stop the world and get off then I shudder to what will.

The 24-news cycle is great for people like me, I've always been a serial geek that would get off on knowing things going on in the world before everyone but it reaches a saturation point where people writing the news have to say things all the time to remain relevant. My case is point is the Eva Carneiro vs Jose Mourinho thing. I'm writing to you on Friday, a whole 6 days after the event and we're still talking about it. Very few journalists are interested these days in finding new stories and are happy to make a living off prolonging stories such as this. And let's not even mention the "clickbait" stories (Actually let's)

"Wenger wades in on Mourinho row"

This headline should read "Wenger confirms he doesn't give a toss but reminds people of rules that are there"

But that's not as exciting and to some degree why Harry Redknapp, Jose Mourinho and Louis van Gaal are revered in the press, because 90% of the time they do the job for the press - they are perennial "rent-a-quotes" and will say enough to fuel a week's worth of stories.

I guess what I'm saying is that it just gets tiring after a while, social media and the Internet play a wonderful part in what they do for football most of the time, they bring together fans all over the world, provide a passage to read pieces by people you never knew existed and provide a steeping stone for these people to get paid for doing the job they love, but there's just a danger it's going to become a agenda-filled, hatred filled playground.

Theo.

 The news today that Theo Walcott's contract talks will wait until the end of the season before resuming must have convinced 99% of Arsenal fans that this season would be his last, I have to say from a personal viewpoint that I don't necessarily agree with reports that "We hold all the aces", as with modern football very rarely does the club hold the ace these days.
 
Walcott signing a deal in the January of 2013 was crucial, we had lost Van Persie in the summer and this was the deal that needed to happen to buck the Nasri, Fabregas & Van Persie trend of summers past. Did we overpay to keep him? Probably. And that was where the seeds of this stand-off were sown.

Walcott on current form (I know he missed a year) doesn't merit a pay increase from 100k to the levels we see Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil take home and I seriously doubt Walcott would accept a pay freeze when there are clubs like Manchester City desperate for home-grown players or Liverpool, who are Walcott's boyhood team, willing to pay over the odds for an England International. In fact I hear at least 1 team is already in his agent's ear about leaving for bumper pay in the summer. His finishing is still as scattergun as it ever was and Arsenal seemed to overcome the lack of pace in attack that they were suffering around the time Theo signed on again.

Arsenal needed Theo then, but not so much now. A player who had the world at his feet in his teenage years leaves me thinking that he never has fulfilled his true potential, the ultimate sods law now is that he leaves for another team and fires on all cylinders earning whatever raise he would have wanted to stay, but that's a risk we should be willing to take.

Aaron Ramsey - An Apology

I was reminded today of something I said about the new "Welsh Jesus" Aaron Ramsey back in the times when he was struggling at Arsenal and being farmed out to Nottingham Forest on loan....


"He's just a Welsh James Milner"


I would like to go on record and apologise for that statement because quite frankly I'm an idiot, although in my defence I have also said that if he ever did regain his form and confidence, the sky is the limit for that kid because he never went missing, never hid and was always looking for ways to change his fortunes around and nothing gives me more joy than to see this happen.

Whether Arsenal would have won the league with Ramsey having a fully fit season is still debatable in my eyes, I don't think the squad depth is necessarily there and no-one would have predicted Liverpool's late season run either, but safe to say we would have been a lot closer to the league.

The real test for Ramsey next season to cement his standing is how he deals with the extra pressure, the pressure that Arsenal and more importantly Arsene trust him so much now that they can just pass on Cesc Fabregas, and the pressure put on him by opposition defenders who will now look for him just as much as they look for Mesut Ozil. Weighing all the evidence up, it wouldn't surprise me if he takes all that on and thrives, he has the mental attitude to do whatever he wants to and he's backed that up with his form this season.

So in short - I'm sorry Aaron.