The FT has run a fascinating article about Barcelona and buried deep within it, they reveal crucial evidence when it comes to juice… notably, Barcelona players ARE allowed to drink it.
‘Just before afternoon practice, Barça midfielder Busquets pops into the kitchen above the training ground for a spot of refuelling. Before training, that usually means fruit juice.’
The f*cking audacity. But wait, it gets worse; and for all those that have been arguing with me about the horrors of juice sugars in elite athletes who burn 5000+ calories a day, you might want to look away…
‘Players are also encouraged to drink beetroot juice to boost nitrate levels (including two shots in the hours before kick-off) and “during busy competition schedule” to eat the equivalent of 100 tart cherries a day (which sounds rather like a challenge in a competitive eating championship).’
For the prominent anti-juicers on Le-Grove, this is a huge blow, but for those of us who truly believed in the sugary goodness of a post-game Sunny-D, this is a great day. That said, word of warning to English folk when you come to America, always say the ‘Sunny’ part, ‘I’m just popping out for some D’ means something different in these parts.
Interestingly the same article also points to caffeine being promoted for improving mental sharpness before games. Not even an elegant cortado, I’m talking about cans of NUCLEAR LEMONERRY MONSTER IN 2 LITRE CANS.
Back to the story. The gist is basically that all that organisational stuff I evangelise about; that the grunts blow off as ‘hipsterism’, is actually a thing at proper clubs. I shouldn’t have to explain that, but you know, this is the internet and being militant about something you have little insight into is human nature (I see you MJ fans).
Now, I’m not suggesting that great players aren’t important. I’m not for one moment considering putting a proposal forward that would put Deep Blue in the hot seat after Emery. I’m just saying that if you’re not considering all of these advanced approaches to nutrition, data, scouting, analytics and psychology, you’re simply putting off the inevitable. You are Blackberry believing in the fixed keyboard. Kodak ignoring the digital camera. My dad saying social media was for dickheads… hold on?
Technology and advanced approaches to specialisations in the game are not there to replace humans. They’re developed to help smart people make more informed decisions. To make more time for creative problem solving.
For the performance team, the richer the data they’re pulling from, the better their prediction models will be for players breaking down. If you could measure stress levels in players saliva and map it against their performance, you might be able to work out who is better suited to taking high-pressure penalties (sorry Auba). MAYBE the club could identify the gene for doing stupid things on the football pitch… I can tell you now for certain, I have that gene, my school friends will attest to this. Could personality mapping work out if players have elite mentality? Could it tell you if a player was suited to a managers style so you don’t end up with £400k wasting away on the bench?
Imagine players learning about tactical models in interactive VR worlds so they don’t fall asleep in video analysis lectures. Wouldn’t it be cool if AI could analyse the game in real time and work out that Luke Shaw may have smashed 40 nuggets before the game and as a result is running at sub-optimal levels and suggest his side of the pitch is overloaded in the second half?
There are so many possibilities…
However, we’re stuck with a fanbase that’s currently in a serious debate about whether having a footballing identity is important. So maybe park this for a bit.
Anyway, bravo Simon Kuper. What a piece. Funny story, I once recorded a podcast with him and the sound failed. Pretty embarrassing.
Moving on from juice.
What the hell is wrong with the UK press? The defence of Harry Kane for being offside looks like the #FakeNews my Russian twitter friends warned me about.
Do you think the England striker is super petty about critique? Most of the slobbering defences of him over the weekend seem to have come from English journalists. One can only assume they are protecting their World Cup access. Imagine getting a late night DM from Hazza.
‘Myster Wollace, read u sleggin me. 2morrow, ure gonna correct it. Say u spoke to the experrts, make me look the victim… or else Jon X gets the exclsive on me favourite color next munth. Uv been warned Wally-ace lollololol wally like ‘u wally’ lolol’
There are obviously some terrific UK journalists, but I swear, the group that dictates the news cycle really jump on some painfully embarrassing narratives. Give me Honigstein, Horncastle and Laurens all day long… none of those boys are drinking MONSTER for breakfast.
Big game this week. Rennes in the Europa round of 16. I like the French team, they have a fun squad, but I think we’d have to play pretty badly not to overpower them with our superior quality. That said, they have had their fixtures moved around by the French FA to allow them max prep time. They’ve not had a game since the 27th of Feb, which to be honest is a hefty amount of time to take off to prepare…
The game is also against the backdrop of a mega match against United at the weekend. That really is a must win for us if we hold out any hope of an upset in the top 4 race. The game is also at home. I’d take a draw with a weaker squad at Rennes if it meant we can flying out of the traps for the weekend’s game.
Right, that’s me done… see you in the comments, let’s talk juice.
xx
DM
2
Bankz is here for the tr4phy again
Tr4phy
5th
Gosh I remember Sunny Delight, was the equivalent of downing half a pack of sugar
the uk press seem to love off Liverpool and spurs no matter what they do they don’t get crucified like arsenal, man u and Chelsea
harry kane is the darling of the FA
kloppmania is still happening
poch mania still going on because he promotes English youth
this what was said on sunday supplement
We all know that Kane is the darling of the FA and can do no wrong, even when it’s evident he falls over at the slightest touch, and it’s the op opponent that gets the card and Kane gets a free kick.
“I’d take a draw with a weaker squad at Rennes if it meant we can flying out of the traps for the weekend’s game.”
Same for me.
Kane is a f*cking pig diver.
The biggest challenge for clubs would be the struggle to apply information.
How you organize and have the authority to prioritize information is the biggest challenge for a manager.
Because all the specialists the club hires will champion their area of specialty. Which has the higher priority? Nutrition or scouting, for example.
Different departments probably, and you can be sure they want a giant chunk of the manager’s attention.
Kane is a diver and trips over his tongue and Mustafi is a mug
Davey
“Kane is a diver and trips over his tongue and Mustafi is a mug”
Looooool
It’s a post about juice. I read it twice to make sure but…it’s a post about juice.
Kane is English and actually quite good, ergo, he is a press darling. Nothing to see here.
Sorry, Pedro, but this is a silly post and yet another petty swipe at Emery. Of course top athletes continue to drink fruit juice — indeed, they drink chocolate milk in certain circles; Emery didn’t eliminate fruit juice because he thinks it is bad in some absolute sense. He eliminated it because it has downsides and he is trying to implement a new regimen. As anyone with a basic understanding of nutrition knows, fruit juices have a massive amount of sugar in them, and one must be careful about how much sugar one ingests. Too much sugar consumption can produces… Read more »
Rafa Benitez used to give his Liverpool players Haribo sweets at half time. (Did the Liverpool stadium tour when he was manager, was in the area).
Fruit juice is probably worse for the players teeth than their on pitch performance.
Holeeeeeeeeeeey Shit. Fruit Juices? Seriously. “Barcelona kids are allowed Fruit Juices Dad.”
Pedro I cant believe you just wasted your time on that. That is 30 minutes of your life that you will never get back and 2 minutes of each of ours.
Tomorrow can we hear whether Real Madrid kids are allowed to play Fortnite.
I still like Liverpool for the title, but Salah, Firmino & Mane need to get their scoring boots on. None of them were good enough against Leicester.
Who controls the players diet after the game? What stops player A from chucking Monster energy down his mouth in his spare time?
Some amazing footballers over the years smoked and drank. The fruit juice thing is another excuse for bollocks footballers turning in garbage performances.
Personally I find Pedro’s post rather anti-Semitic.
City
Liverpool
Chelsea
Arsenal
Tottenham
United
Loved the post today Pedro, super humourous and if people want an In-Depth post, then they can go and read the FT article / Or yesterday’s post!
Apologies for inserting a bit of politics here this morning, but the future of the planet depends upon it.
“We have 12 years to avoid climate change catastrophe, warns the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/oct/08/global-warming-must-not-exceed-15c-warns-landmark-un-report
Guys, guys, Pedro’s stuff about juice-gate was tongue in cheek – hence the reference to Sunny D.
Don’t fall for Pedro’s trap!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uH2lpzFU0TU
These days, it’s hard to tell Pedro’s joking around or dead serious.
Fruit juice?
Bamford obviously a anti-juicer AND now a full blown EKB.
How the mighty fall.
#FreeTheD
Sunny D back in early 90’s turned me a bit orange. True.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2wzksw
Messed with my teeth. Was a sensation regardless.
Yea, King Em banned the fruit juice cos it’s made in England. Probably talking to Raul and Monchi to start importing from Spain.
The Harry Kane phonecall though made me laugh hard. Wish we had a striker as good as him though. Auba and Lacazettte waste atleast 1.5 clear cut chances per match.
I like our chances against Rennes. In fact we should win both legs without maximum effort. I absolutely think the bigger game is on Sunday against united and MUST be prioritized.
A few critical points by me’. 1) The social media is for dickheads and perverts.. Your father is correct. What you don’t want to be is a dickhead pervert. 2.) We do need a face of the Club type player that doesn’t suck.. Similar to MJ..Good example. Nice. Henry, Messi, etc..Those guys live and breath football. Hate losing more then winning, MJ’s credo, actually. Ozil.. not so much .. I’m guessing the fortnite crowd isn’t crushing it at the merch, window either. 3.) And most importantly … There is no juice in Sunny D! It’s 98% high fructose corn syrup..… Read more »
Mystic, Brits import orange juice, it’s 2019, not 356 BC
Why can’t we just get a manager that isn’t ‘cult’.
WKB
EKB
JOKE.
JOKER!!
(the juice brand)
(sorry)
(lol)
More seriously, the Sunny D juice is delicious.
Pedro
‘Now, I’m not suggesting that great players aren’t important.’
That’s a relief.
Juice or no juice, great players do come in handy.
Arsenal had quite a few of them last time the club won the league.
Alex, we’ve had quite a lot of them since.
2008 team was superb
“Mystic, Brits import orange juice, it’s 2019, not 356 BC”
lol, point taken
—–
Midwest, we do have a face. The club can’t wait to get rid of him though. But I wouldn’t want that distraction to be honest. The club needs to get itself back together and on track before looking for face. We are far off
Pedro, who and who were great in that team? I can’t count more than 2. Others were good and playing off confidence and style but not necessarily great
“Mauricio Pochettino is unhappy Borussia Dortmund have had more time to prepare for Tuesday’s Champions League tie. ”
They won 3-0 at Wembley, but he’s still moaning, amazing…
(GO DORTMUND!!)
Top 3 hated spuds for me
1 ALI
2 ROSE
3 KANE
Mystic,
Adebayor, RVP, Cesc, Hleb, Rosicky…
Poch isn’t wrong, other leagues give allowances for their European representatives whilst the Premier League or FA don’t give a shit and worry more about the TV schedule.
It’s another minor grievance when discussing English teams and their chances in Europe. Certainly doesn’t help to have your opponents given leeway you don’t receive yourself.
@Pedro –
What about Nasri and Arshavin, say what you will about them, I doubt there is a better footballer currently at the club better than those two.
Ozil as the face of Arsenal?
And we wonder why we’re the laughing stock of World football.
Nasri was bare Coleman’s at Arsenal
Soft drinks are known to be bad for the human body. Beer all the way!
Charlize Theron really grew into her face. The 2003 version was bang average.
Mystic… Agree to disagree. I guess. I think the only way the Club can move forward is to resolve the Ozil situation. You can’t have your highest paid player, disinterested and barely contributing. It will be a dark cloud hanging over the Club again. He also can’t be our captain., either. It’s just weird. I would say the Club will never be on track until we move on. Yes that means yet another position we would need to fill… so yes, as you say .. we are far off. It will be similar to the Alexis Sanchez situation.. I was… Read more »
@Champagne charlie –
Would still take him over most the current squad.
Sorry but Sunny D is the most disgusting juice out there. If you can even call it a juice. Back in the day (early 90’s) I used to love Five Alive. Impossible to get it here now though for some reason but I hear it’s still available in Canada and UK. It’s a perfect blend of tangerines, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, and limes. Give it a try.
And we wonder why we’re the laughing stock of World football.
__________
Yep.. that’s my point.. Although. I’m not sure he is big on juice.. more of a hookah dude.
Midwest
Ozil is the face of an aquatics company.
“Charlize Theron really grew into her face. The 2003 version was bang average.”
I guess you’ve been watching the movie “Monster” too many times.
lol
Haha haha Guns.. – You ever see that movie..Shape of Water.. ? Thought it would be horrible… but it was strangely entertaining.
HL
Actually it was the awful remake of Italian job with the racist and small statuted Mark Wallberg.
Compare the 2003 Theron to the Atomic Blond one. Oh my god.
Mid West “Mystic… Agree to disagree. I guess. I think the only way the Club can move forward is to resolve the Ozil situation. You can’t have your highest paid player, disinterested and barely contributing” The only person to blame for that is the manager ..it was his decision to marginalize him from the team . Since Emery decided this course of action back in November , the team has won 5, drawn 1, lost 0 with Ozil starting . Compare that to 7 defeats during this period without Ozil starting and it is obvious that the team misses his… Read more »
Midwest
Shape of water sounds deep (pun intended). I hate movies with a message. Absolutely hate them. I don’t do dramas or tears or long illness death scenes.
I watch garbage. Utter garbage.
Top 3 hated Spud’s for me.
1) The players
2) The fans
3) The club
Is it me or does every time the Poch opens his mouth at the moment it’s either to complain or make an excuse?
What I love about heist movies is the way criminals can just steal gold bullion and walk or drive away like they have a child seat in the back and not 3 tonnes of metal.
Oh and stealing pallets of cash totalling £100m…easy right? Nah, weighs hundreds of kilos.
For the prominent anti-juicers on Le-Grove, this is a huge blow, but for those of us who truly believed in the sugary goodness of a post-game Sunny-D, this is a great day
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/08/31/unai-emery-bans-fruit-juice-arsenal-training-ground-likes/amp/
Just one of those things that gets falsely spread about you know. Likes freshly squeezed juice as opposed to the other kind beetroot juice would be fine under Emery. It’s March and you’re still trying to pin fruit juice on him. Interesting
To say Ozil is ” disinterested and barely contributing ” is a lazy comment. ______ Not a lazy comment if it’s true.. unless you believe he has actually been sick or injured this whole season. Not many goals or assist to show for it. The player does have to take some responsibility for his actions. Yeah Emery is partly to blame sure.. But that’s my point… I see no way forward where they work it out to the mutual satisfaction of all involved… IE playing all the time at a high level which is what we need out of our… Read more »
However, we’re stuck with a fanbase that’s currently in a serious debate about whether having a footballing identity is important. So maybe park this for a bit.
Nobody’s debating that from what I can tell. It’s very important. But to go from not having one in over a decade to expecting one inside a matter of months is unlikely. If our identity is a bit shit with weak footballers and a loser mentality for many years it’s going to take some time to fix that.
Unpopular opinion but I have never really understood the legend of Nasri. Especially at Arsenal. He never really hit any heights. Was just a regular player who was very technical but certainly not great. Arshavin, while I loved him was never great. Think he profited off having a good Euros but at least gave us some very good moments.
“Adebayor, RVP, Cesc, Hleb, Rosicky…”
Cesc and RvP without a doubt. Rosicky very close, was ultimately too unfit to influence much. Hleb and Ade will always remain debatable.
Miki = Hleb
Lacameyang > Adebayor
Rosicky = Ozil
Poch is a moany cunt by the way. Dortmund played Friday night away and Spurs played at home at 12:30 Saturday so you’re literally talking about hours. You don’t hear Emery complaining about games against Spurs and United either side of Rennes while Rennes had their weekend game cancelled.
Trust YOU KNOW WHO to take this attack on his god very seriously by driving us down a path of semantics and boring strawman arguments.
Barca roll with caffeinated sports drinks, fruit juice and beetroot juice.
Whichever way you try and strawman yourself here… the policy is a nonsense.
Lighten up, get out on the town and grab yourself some D.
Jim, totally agree… it’s like Mystic wasn’t around for the 2008 season. Couldn’t name more than two good players!
That team was mustard. With some better sports science at the time and a couple of Jan signings, we’d have won the league.
Marko
I think the pressure is getting to him and I have a feeling their squad might be running on empty a little bit.
Thing is if a manager is displaying negative vibes that will just translate onto the pitch. It will be interesting to see how they get on against Southampton at the weekend.
Whichever way you try and strawman yourself here… the policy is a nonsense. Right so I can see no evidence of him banning juices he allows freshly squeezed juice. That beetroot juice you keep mentioning from Barcelona’s cafeteria is I’d imagine freshly squeezed and would be okay by Emery. If it came as some powder and needed to be made in a cauldron then that’s banned. Just so we’re clear. Fresh Juice not banned. Fake juices banned. I’ve got no idea the policy on caffeine. But I’ve seen a video on the official page of Torreira making the traditional South… Read more »
Marc he’s setting himself up for acceptable failure. I’ve always thought he’s a good manager and he’s done a great job at Spurs truly but he comes out with some real loser talk sometimes. That stuff on winning trophies was honestly the worst thing a supposed top manager could say.
Anyone who prefers the crappy processed “juices” over freshly squeezed stuff needs a slap.
Marko
It’s also looking like Madrid might not be in for him in the summer with all the Allegri talk. He might have missed his chance to move to a big club.
Also highly doubt Sunny D is drank by a single professional sportsman anywhere. That’s the kind of shit that they’d ban a player from drinking not that a player would think to drink it
“Miki = Hleb“
What does that sign mean where you come from? In English it makes you look silly..
Also Adebayor for Arsenal was unreal, I’m not sure how that’s even a debate. Man went down the shitter so so fast, but respect his Arsenal tenure at least. Unplayable when on.
Just as well considering that he’s not interested in winning anything. Builds egos and that’s it
Agree Marc
Poch has bottled it, Allegri will likely hit Real Madrid, ZZ to Juve and Poch maybe United if Ole gives him a sniff.
Players missing for Manchester United vs. PSG tomorrow:
– Paul Pogba
– Nemanja Matic
– Phil Jones
– Jesse Lingard
– Juan Mata
– Ander Herrera
– Alexis Sanchez
– Antonio Valencia
– Matteo Darmian
– Anthony Martial
How many of them will be back for Arsenal though? Is Ole throwing in the towel?
“Jim, totally agree… it’s like Mystic wasn’t around for the 2008 season. Couldn’t name more than two good players!”
Lol, you said many great players and i said two great players and a handful of good players that thrived with form and style of play. Were you around for the 08 season?
Great players that stopped being great immediately after the 08/09 season and never won anything. That must be some next level magic
Marko, thank you so much for pointing that out
smh
I mean it seems like it needed to be stressed Pedro. There’s juice allowed at Arsenal football club
Mystic, except they didn’t…
A chunk of them moved to other clubs and won things.
That was a squad full of very good players. The type you’d be all over now if you could land them in their prime.
I laughed heartily when I read that English referees aren’t being selected for the knock-out stages of the CL and Europa league this season.
Apparently they don’t have VAR experience, per UEFA.
That will serve them right for being against the early adoption of VAR.
They could have had VAR and worked out the wrinkles over the course of the season, instead they let fear of being over-ruled dictate their VAR stance.
@Pedro –
“That team was mustard. With some better sports science at the time and a couple of Jan signings, we’d have won the league.”
Yup it is definitely one that got away. Its crazy to think about the creative talent that was in that team compared to what we have at the moment, would love to have someone on the level of Cesc or RVP in the team today.. Ah the memories!
Recently saw the highlights of us beating AC Milan back in 09, Cesc was a machine.
Marko, it’s people like you that keep this whole damn thing afloat.
#FreeTheD
Marko-
I believe what Pedro is trying to tell you is he didn’t mean juice in the literal sense.. He meant juice in the sense of panache, extra quality, verve…… Emery seems to prefer.. a more bland affair.. the juice ban was just a literary device to get you to think about it. The actual “juice” doesn’t matter. ,,, just sayin.
What the hell are you talking about? I didn’t post an article starting off about how Barcelona players are allowed juice and we’re anti juice. I also don’t bring up an outside gym and double sessions randomly. I’m not the one obsessed here.
At level these guys have their fitness, sugar in juice isn’t effecting them same way it would Johnny Keyboard. They require more to balance out and recover.
How about Low? Going hard project youth looking forward killing future international dreams of Muller, Boateng and Hummels saying Germany going another a new direction.
Ah juice mid? He’s banned the club from having any “juice”. Don’t forget sauce too. And magic there’s a ban on magic
Sal if Low did that last summer they might have won the world cup and now he’s kinda forced to think of the future given how some of the more senior players have seen their form drop off a cliff.
Lol.. I don’t know if there is or not a ban on magic.. but to be fair… Suarez doesn’t look very magic.. Hopefully that wasn’t a omen of things to come on the type of players we are targeting , I do get the concern in that regard .. I have been pretty clear .. we need players with a bit of juice..
#juicegate.
Midwest, my man, you are one step ahead as always.
Grab yourself a Sunny D and take a seat on the terrace, you earned it.
We need players with juice a manager with sauce and an owner with… that’s a tough one…testicles? A vague interest? Desire to win things? All very attainable
Thanks Pedro.. I will take my standard fee. a $25 gift card to Sal’s music Emporium.
Marko
Easy to look back and say, went in to tournament one of favorites. Think it would be incredibly harsh to shit can the core of squad that won previous world cup, went to semi final of 2016 Euro.
Kind of earned right to defend it, even though it was a total bottle job.
Hard to suss out tonight’s game as an Arsenal fan. On the one hand them going far in the tourney might see their league form impacted. But on the other hand a good champions league run will see an improvement in finances for them
Sal he basically left Sane at home and brought Muller and Ozil last summer not necessarily because of form but because of their name. His form excellent their form for the last few seasons has been deteriorating. And he brought Mario Gomez too. He should have been doing this a bit sooner I thought. Now he’s absolutely forced into it considering the form of the likes of Havertz and Kehrer and Tah.
Marko
No argument from me, leaving Sane was idiodic. Was speaking more of the core he’s just cut out. And tbf, Muller and Ozil were always great for Germany until that cup.
Marko
Well I think the best result would be a gruelling match complete with extra time etc with a devastating loss on pens. Oh and plenty of injuries.