City game rescheduled, our prep time looks better (does it matter?)

by .

A very quick post for you today as not a lot is going on and I’m still out on the town celebrating the MASSIVE win against Pompey. I thought Arteta’s comments on the kids were positive.

“They always respond and I always knew they would do that. They have to learn from the difficult moments and manage them but they have the talent and desire… look how hard they work.

“We have pace in a few players up front. Reiss is a special player and can eliminate players one on one. He’s been out for a while but he’s back now and he showed what he’s capable of doing.

“I’m really enjoying working with this group of players. It’s a process. I know [people think] everything has to be today or yesterday but in football it doesn’t happen like this.

“I am pleased with all of them, the kids really responded really well.

Reiss obviously a fave because he was one of the first players the manager trained way back when. I think we were all a little worried he’d struggle, but he’s starting to find his feet,  he certainly looks more direct, and a lot more confident in the new system. Let’s see if he can take that form into the Premier League, we’ll certainly need it.

Overall, I think our financial situation means a lot of hope is going to be pinned on the new coaches developing and pushing the players forward. I genuinely feel excited by the options coming through, even players on loan, like ESR OR Balogan, who scored another 2 goals last night against the U23 Monaco side. He really does look great.  OR WHAT ABOUT SALIBA. Good times coming for us if these players take their chance.

Big news, our Manchester City game that was postponed for the League Cup final is coming around a lot quicker than we’d hoped. It’ll be next Wednesday, which is a bit of a bitch for away fans, but at least the club is subsidising the fans with socialist bus tickets. The good news, if there ever is when playing City, is that from a prep perspective, we’re doing a little bit better. City play Sheffield Wednesday tonight, two days after our Pompey game, then they have a bitch of a game against City on Sunday against United at 5pm, versus our less of a bitch game against the Hammers at 3pm on Saturday.

I mean, the prep time doesn’t really help us when it comes to quality. City are still a very dangerous team and Pep will go extra hard against his little bitch student who left him midseason. It’ll be an interesting match, we’ll be lucky to come away with much, I just hope we put on a good show. If by some miracle we win that game, we’ll set ourselves up nicely for the run-in, lose, things start to look dark again and everyone will cry that they wanted Mourinho as manager. Just the way things are these days.

Ok, I’m at the end of the post. I told you it’d be short, so no bitching. Instead, enjoy the below podcast with Aash. He’s very eloquent and the sound is nice and good, ya hear me?

Spotify | Stitcher | iTunes

195 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Northbanker

Watts – agree – sack the coaches and get someone elite. it’s still a cheap option in the grand scheme of things. We really can’t get distracted buying a new keeper this Summer. We’ve talked about the money but i should also add that buying a top player involves a huge amount of management time and that time of Edu etc also needs to be focused on the midfield signings

Zacharse

Ivan Gazidis

Discuss…

Zacharse

Tierney, according afc, has resumed full training and crdric is slated to return next week

Marc

Wasi

How many young English players are sold abroad? If a player is English and attracting attention from the continent then they can pay the “going” rate juts like someone over here would.

The critical thing for us is to start including sell on clauses when we sell players especially the younger ones.

Wasi

Marc

Not many English players sold abroad due to them wanting to be in their comfort zones.

‘How many young English players are sold abroad? If a player is English and attracting attention from the continent then they can pay the “going” rate juts like someone over here would.’

Dont understand what you mean here?

Also we definitely need to add add ons and clauses. Even Madrid style buy back clauses for young players.

Marc

Wasi

You’ve agreed with me on English players not moving abroad that often. The other part of my point is if a German team wanted to buy AMN (for example) then they can pay what we’d get from a team over here – if there’s no interest over here then his value isn’t going to be that much to begin with.

Champagne charlie

Pedro

Is it even just footballers? Brits in general seem to be less fluid in the geographical element of their career path. I have no data backing that up, but we simply dont appear to be that open to change as much as we should be. Little island mentality perhaps idk.

Football wise it’s actually a joke how few make the effort when you consider the unreal efforts of guys from the Americas and Africa.

Marc

Pedro / CC

Nah we’re not lazy just confused why a third of the map isn’t pink anymore!

reality check

“..again and everyone will cry that they wanted Mourinho as manager. Just the way things are these days.” / Man are you purposefully saying things which show you are disconnected with the modern fanbase or do you really mean these things. What Pedro seems to forget is just how long it took for Arteta to get the job. The games we played during that time. Arsenal fanbase media is a daily content producing entity. So as soon as Emery got fired. Every single day Arsenal fans were discussing who they would want to come in. Yes many people wanted jose.… Read more »

Marc

RC

Are you saying Mourinho is currently ahead of the curve?

MidwestGun

Potential Mourinho meltdown … incoming.

James wood

What is Unai the weather.

James wood

It

G

Cmon Norwich

G

Why there’s no replay

G

You want Tottenham to go through? So they have a couple of more games

Chris

Nah far more amusing to see Spurs squirm and then lose on penalties.

Chris

They should bring back the golden goal for extra time.

James wood

No VAR should decide who goes through.?

And bring back RED.

Danny

Sheffield United vs Arsenal

Danny

FULL FA CUP QUARTER-FINAL DRAW

(Ties to be played March 20-22)

Sheffield United vs Arsenal

Newcastle vs Man City

Tottenham or Norwich vs Derby or Man Utd

Leicester City vs Chelsea

Nelson

Good draw.
Leicester vs Chelsea
TOTTENHAM or NORWICH vs DERBY or MAN UTD
NEWCASTLE UNITED vs MANCHESTER CITY

Aussie Gooner

Un Interesting take on emigration. Emigrating overseas certainly has it’s challenges but can also have huge rewards. When we moved to Australia 20+ years ago from London we found everything so cheap here! We sold one tiny 2 bedroom cottage in the UK and bought 2 very large 4 bedroom ‘bungalows’ and a 5 acre block of land. We have never both worked full time. I stayed at home for the first 7 years to look after the kids. My wife only worked full time as a Midwife/Nurse for the first 2 years and part-time thereafter. Petrol is still half… Read more »

G

“” don’t care about rivalries right now. I care about top 4
Every thing else is secondary to that

Don’t think 2 extra games will make much difference.. If we’re in with a chance of top 4 do u want us to lose in next round

Marc

I’ve only watched the 2nd half of extra time of the Spud v Norwich match – Norwich look absolutely fucked and the Spud’s look knackered.

Great news for us the Spud’s have Burnley away on Saturday night.

G

Just saw ur earlier message so u answered my question.. My take on it.. Hope they go out.. One because I hate spurs and secondly another big team out..
Funny when we were getting top 4 many didn’t give a shit because we weren’t getting to the latter stages

Champagne charlie

Un

I’m not so sure its as simple as that, there’s certainly very little encouragement for young adults to leave the shores in search of a livelihood. Whereas other areas of the world see the market they’re interested in with a more global view.

This is my personal experience, there’s no facts or figures here. Can’t say I’m particularly enamoured with life in the UK current day, would go half way around the world with little notice tbh.

MidwestGun

Pk’s.. total crap shoot. Krul is a big bastard in goal though.

Marc

Un

The Thing is a great film – what brought that thought up?

raptora

Draw is pretty good. Sheffield are a tough team, but we dodged the big teams and they’ll be playing head to head.

Marc

Come on Norwich

Marc

Fuck it dirty fucking Spud cunts are going to win the penalty shootout.

MidwestGun

not just yet.

Marc

Fucking hell Norwich 3 – 2 up on pens

Marc

Spud cunts out

Danny

Bye bye Jose!

Chris

Apart from their miss, some outstanding penalties taken by Norwich.

MidwestGun

Krul is in full on mind games mode. haha

raptora

Let’s go!!!! Hahahhahaaha

Champagne charlie

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha oh dear.

Fuck off to any soggy biscuits that want to downplay this one too.

MidwestGun

Nice.. Fuck off Mourinho.

raptora

Mourinho picks a kid to take the 5th pen. What an imbecile…

Marc

Burnley away next for the Spud’s – Saturday 5.30 not an easy game.

Nelson

Spud is gone. Missed 3 penalties…

Chris

Quality shithousery from Krul.

Spurs’ season crumbling! Always great to see.

G

Un you must have a slight smile on your face

Leftside

Fuck off Lilyshites

Words on a Blog

Mourinho spursed it up!

Always lovely to see the spuds knocked out of a cup competition. Warms the old cockles. Good old mourinho.😁

DaveB666

The trophy cabinet at the North London toilet bowl is barren for another year. Have a beer in celebration my friends!

raptora

Imagine how dumb do you have to be to pick a 21 yo kid, that almost hasn’t played and hasn’t scored, to take the 5th pen for your team. Chances are your team will be out as well as the kid’s confidence.

Goonies

Raptora

Pipe down. Age has nothing to do with it and if he confidently puts himself forward to take one why would the manager say no?

raptora

It really feels like their project is going to die out. Poch was the driving force behind their rise. Now that he’s out, Eriksen moved, it really feels like Kane will be looking for a team that can give him better chances of winning something.
They will not qualify for the UCL in the next 5 years.

raptora

Pipe down? Are you an actual mouninho defender?! Piss off.

Bojangles

Un

I’m a big fan of the horror genre. Silent House, if you can find it is worth 90 minutes of your time. A Scandinavian offering. I haven’t managed to find a sub titled version around so obviously the storyline and spoken word not that important.

Marc

Can’t wait for the Mourinho attack on Levy will probably be along the lines of “selling Eriksen cost us millions” etc etc.

Reckon he’ll be going about November next season.

Words on a Blog

Anyone seen the video of Eric Dyer losing his rag and running up into the stands chasing after a Spurs supporter and trying to beat him up?

Wow.

Not sure what that was all about…

Marc

We win 2 nil at the weekend and the Spud’s lose 2 nil and we’re level on points and goal difference only behind on goals scored with a game in hand.

Marc

Words

No – what happened Dyer scored his pen so seems a strange one unless of course he was offended by the incessant racist chanting by the Spud’s fans

Words on a Blog

Saw it on my son’s Twitter.

Some saying Dyer was angry at racist chanting; others saying someone in the crowd was laying into him and he flipped.

Will soon find out.

Northbanker

Thomas – you’re an idiot

Of course fans care about the FA Cup unless they have no sense of history

And Tottenham going out is perfect so ffs enjoy the moment unless of course you’re a Spud which I think you are

Our joint target must now be to win it and come 4th and we strain every sinew to do both

Words on a Blog

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/eric-dier-confronts-tottenham-fans-21634650

Includes video.

Apparently Dier “reacted to abuse” from the Scum fans….jeez, and we thought Xhaka was bad!

Jamie

Another chance at silverware flushed down the Spurs toilet bowl. Hate to see it. Jose in!

Dissenter

What a happy day
Spurs lost again and they still have to keep Mourhino.

Dissenter

Norwich fans can just say they didn’t hear any abuse at Dier, same way Spuds couldn’t find abuse directed at Rudiger.

Words on a Blog

And so Spurs’s descent into the depths of hellish discord under The Lord of Darkness begins….

Overmars

Was just looking at which players we could sell to raise some funds for next season, as clearly some of the players aren’t good enough to get us back competing for the big trophies. Bellerin 30-40m Elneny 10-15m Sokratis 5-10m Mhkitaryan 15m Ozil 10-15m Mustafi 15m Xhaka 30-40m Chambers 20m Kolasinac 15-20m If we are forced to sell one of Lacazette or Aubameyang, we should be getting minimum 60m for either. We could easily recuperate over £100m this summer and bring some of the youth through further I.e Willock, Nelson, Smith-Rowe, Nketiah, Saka, Saliba …. as well as maybe Balogun,… Read more »

Champagne Charlie

Apparently Eric Diers younger brother was getting abused by a couple of hooded home fan types and he pulled a move straight out the grand national and vaulted several rows to confront them.

One guy in particular can be seen waving Dier away before running away, giving it large again, then doing a runner proper.

Well hard as per. Shame Dier didn’t get his Cantona moment.

Bojangles

What can I say.

#SAVE JOSE

Calypso

Lol Spurs fuckin’ useless lot

Ernest Reed

Seems a common occurrence these days Charlie, where moronic supporters think that buying a ticket gives them carte blanche towards abusing players, their families and pretty much anyone them see appropriate. Saw the video of the coward trying to run away from Dier. Guy had some sort of orange logo on the back of his jacket from what i could see. Sadly Dier will pay a significant penalty for this one with a fine and suspension. The so-called supporter may just get away but hopefully CCTV caught a good glimpse of him and he’s identified and subsequently banned for life.… Read more »

Ernest Reed

Im also going to further say that a week or so ago there was one individual who took it upon themselves to wish a deadly virus on Lacazette because they clearly hate him that much. Fortunately Pedro did the absolute right thing and binned the individual, hopefully on a permanent basis. What this episode shows is the pure venom that some have towards some players today. Its one thing to argue or debate the merits or contributions of a given player and the desire to rid the team of said player, but to wish harm upon them? That takes a… Read more »

Guns of SF

It really hit me today, just thinking
What if a player gets Coronavirus??
2 week incubation period before signs show…
Training with his team
Huffing and puffing during games.
How the heck do we know at that point who to quarantine????
the entire team??? what happens next?

Perplexing

Guns of SF

On the Dier situation. I feel for him. If he really was protecting his younger brother… he actually can be heard screaming that on some footage… then that is simply too bad. No player should have to resort to defending their family in the first place. Not the first time shit has happened like this.
Zidane vs Materazzi on the pitch!

Scum for those who were tormenting this brother… He will get fined and the suspension but damn… even Jose calling out non -fans in the rich folk seats !

Overmars

The sad thing about the Dier situation is that as well as being banned, he will probably receive a larger fine than the racist in the crowd. No justice.

Dark Hei

Can’t believe that I agree with Jose.

“Eric, I repeat did what we professionals cannot do, but did something that probably we would do”

Bojangles

Re Corona Virus.

“The guidance also notes that the Government has laid out three different categories of contingency plans and could intervene if the situation changes.

While the Premier League is currently in Category A, described as “as you are”, it says that Category B would be “behind closed doors” and then Category C is “cancellation, curtailment or postponement”.”

I don’t think it will be long before PL hits category B, as is the situation in Italy now.

Dissenter

Even even if he was being racially abused, surely he cannot be excused for leaping into the stands to confront his abusers?

The FA still has to punish him and ban the idiots who were allegedly abusing him racially.
Spuds acted all sanctimonious during the Rudiger incident and their supporter group demanded that Rudiger retract his allegation, now they know there are idiots in their midst.

Sid

Category D play the PL in Africa

You heard it here 1st!

Guns of SF

The question is still if a player contracts this…
Takes 2 weeks to show symptoms but all along the player is spreading the virus
Qt the team ?!!
Cancel games for 2 weeks? Extend the season if that happens?
A host of questions now….
I hope the FA has a plan for this…

Pierre

http://www.streamfootball.tv/fa-cup/pablo-mari-s-arsenal-debut-every-touch-from-the-new-signing-emirates-fa-cup-19-20 He has a bit of a Alan Hansen about him when he has the ball at his feet. He has a deception about his play in that with a slight feint he gives himself time on the ball and the pace of his passing is very good . Alan Hansen was very good at more or less walking with the ball and then effortlessly glide into spaces as he was being closed down. Also Mari looks like he wants to look forward and pass between the lines. It’s important to recognise that in our style of play, the centre… Read more »

Dark Hei

Guns of SF

If just 1 guy gets it, the entire EPL will get cut short.

And by 1 guy, it is 1 guy out of the entire pool of playing and non-playing staff, trainees etc.

Because if just 1 guy gets it, the entire club will have to go quarantine.

Pierre

Cantona was banned for 9 months for something similar.

Goonies

Raptora
-Pipe down? Are you an actual mouninho defender?! Piss off.

No I hate the cunt but your commentary is a constant stream of shit.

Bojangles

Seems we are interested in another error prone cd with Stones being the latest linked to us.

Valentin

I wonder what are the Premiership rules that Eric Dier broke.
He could be accused of causing a disturbance, but he could argue that it was already happening (i.e. the harassment of his family) and that he was trying to diffuse it by confronting the perpetrators.

I am also not so sure that it is in the FA interest to throw the book at him instead of expressing a message of support to players who get abused by “fans” be on social media or in real life.

Pierre

The question I would ask is , if Tottenham had won the game would Dier have reacted in that way(whatever was said). If the answer is probably not then he obviously had the hump due to being knocked out of the cup(again). Will add , that I’m not condoning in any way the behaviour of the Tottenham fan but you only have to walk down tottenham high road on a Tottenham/arsenal match day and you will see hundreds, maybe thousands lining the street being equally abusive to Arsenal fans going to the game. I don’t see the likes of Dier… Read more »

InsideRight

Mourinho.

There but for the grace of God…

Dark Hei

“Spurs should throw the book at the dick head and ban him for life”

I hope they do. That will create a civil war and the club will self-destruct.

Terraloon

I understand why so many want massive squad changes and can see why some of the names that are being mentioned have been identified as being prime to being sold the danger is if you strip too much experience too quickly the knock on not just on the pitch is a risk that I very much doubt the Arteta or indeed the board will risk. This list Intrigued me Bellerin 30-40m Elneny 10-15m Sokratis 5-10m Mhkitaryan 15m Ozil 10-15m Mustafi 15m Xhaka 30-40m Chambers 20m Kolasinac 15-20m Why you may ask. It’s quite simple most of them are far too… Read more »

Davey

LT has a fractured right ankle- season over

Spanishdave

Is Tierney finished with us.?
He’s fit , training but not to be seen.
Hardly played since joining us, maybe they realize he isn’t going to make it in the EPL. It’s a lot quicker than Scottish football.

Dissenter

Now Spurs have three players on the field who should be in the sin bin