This is post 1962 and there have been 2,908,148 people who have crossed the threshold of my site in search of something funny, poignant, statistical, stupid, or sentimental.
Of those 2.9m hits, there have only been 54,984 comments. And of those 55,000 comments only 55 were good.
Just kidding, all the comments are good even the ones from people who only come on here to hate. What is it the kids say these days “he’ll kill you to death! He eats hate and craps thunder!” Something like that.
Of my nearly 2,000 posts only about 20 of them have been excellent, 200 of them good, 200 bad, and 20 have been dog shit. The rest are somewhere in the middle.
Some folks, apparently, felt that yesterday’s post was dog shit. Fair enough, even Arseblog seemed to take my post to task with his offering this morning. Joking about how we shouldn’t look at the body language of the player or how he seems to be ostracized in nearly every photo. I know Arseblog isn’t being a jerk and is just gently poking fun and I even agree with him somewhat. I even said as much when I stated that perhaps Stuart MacFarlane is picking the photos he wanted to tell the story that he or Arsenal FC want to tell.
But it’s the end of Arseblog’s post that made me smile a bit. The part where he said:
This particular issue aside the team look happy and in good spirits during the training camp. There seems to be good camaraderie, a positive atmosphere, and hopefully that will translate itself into performances once the season starts.
This is basically what I said yesterday, though I made it more about Song and Robin. But there is very little difference between me saying that I think van Persie’s smile looks winsome based on photos and me or Arseblog saying that the team looks in good spirits based on that same set of photos.
A set of photos, I will quickly add, that we all know Arsenal have chosen to tell exactly the story they want to tell. As a professional photographer I can tell you that MacFarlane has enough photos and videos of that training camp that he could edit together to tell whatever story he wants – he could probably retell Macbeth – but Arsenal and MacFarlane are choosing to show that the team have a great camaraderie and that the captain is being ostracized. That’s my interpretation.
For example, after news broke yesterday that Robin van Persie was supposedly already flying in to Manchester to sign for United, Stuart MacFarlane posted two photos on twitter showing that RvP was still in Cologne. It looks like an obvious rebuttal from the club and is a glimpse into the fact that they are telling the story they want to tell using various media outlets and media forms.
So, there’s nothing wrong with me intuiting from their photographs what story they are trying to tell and reinterpreting that here for you. It’s what human beings do, we are visual creatures who gather clues about the emotional state of other human beings based on subtle changes in posture or a difference in a smile. I don’t really have to launch into a 10,000 word post proving this, do I? You already know it and use it every day.
But in the end, that’s what I’ve done with all 2000 of my posts, interpreting data and research to tell you a story. I could be telling you a story using an interpretation of the stats that shows Aaron Ramsey sometimes dwells on the ball too much but that he also has great vision to pick out the right pass. Or I could be looking at the media that Arsenal have to offer and reading subtle clues as to the body language of the captain. It’s all interpretation and story telling.
For example, the big story today is Ferguson talking about “not understanding” why Arsenal aren’t just giving United Robin van Persie. There are lots of different ways to interpret this. Fergie’s playing “mind games”! Is probably the simplest but that’s not how I saw it. Fergie looks to me like he legitimately doesn’t know what else to do and he’s reaching out to the press in an attempt to further unsettle the player and Arsenal. Meanwhile, Arsenal seem to have stopped communicating with them and are looking to sell Robin elsewhere. Which is much to their credit.
“It’s difficult to say why they’re operating this way,” Fergie is reported to have said. Really? Fergie is the one who once claimed that he wouldn’t sell Real Madrid a virus so it’s a bit funny for him to act so confused. But just in case he really has lost it, tet me make it perfectly clear for Mr. Fergilicious.
When I first started watching Premier League football, I only knew one thing; Manchester United were the only team that I hated. I hated watching them get all the calls, win all the games because the referees gave them the benefit of the doubt, and simultaneously be the dirtiest cheats I’d ever seen play the game. I had already started to love Arsenal because of Vieira, Bergkamp, and Henry but I fell well and truly in love with that Arsenal team when they overcame the worst kicking I have ever seen a football club endure and win the League at Old Trafford. I went to ebay that morning and bought a gold away kit and the next day dyed my hair red in honor of what Arsenal had done.
Some of that hatred has been tamped down a bit but it’s still there, festering like an old boil.
Image via @Gooner_Nate on Twitter
Rationally, I don’t see any difference between selling Robin to any of the top six clubs in England. They are all Arsenal’s title rivals and they would all be strengthened by the deal. Moreover, the argument that United wouldn’t sell us Rooney thus we shouldn’t sell them Robin applies across all the top teams. I couldn’t see City selling Arsenal Aguero or Chelsea selling Arsenal… who is their top player? Mata? So, I think selling any of them Robin is bad for Arsenal.
But when it comes to United, reason has to go out the window a little and I think that the club should rebuff nearly every offer. Because United have been one of Arsenal’s closest rivals for the last 15 years.
Well, reason nearly needs to go out the window. I mean, if they want to pay us £40m for him, diminishing their ability to buy in other areas that they need to fix like defense, and we can use that money to buy someone like Lewandowski. I might be a bit more amenable.
What am I saying? This is United: Roy Keane, Pizzagate, van Horsetilface, the brutal kicking they gave to Reyes, Rooney diving to end Arsenal’s unbeaten run… We can’t sell United our Golden Boot winner at any price.
Right?
P.S. There’s some confusion over my link back to Arseblog’s piece. Arseblog assured me on twitter that he didn’t actually read my blog so his criticism wasn’t leveled at me but at the idea. My point wasn’t to actually accuse him of attacking me but rather to head off any of the critics who would come on here and use his post as proof that my post was crap. I’m sure if Arseblog was going to criticize me, he would link directly to what he wants to critique. Or he’d email me behind the scenes. I was very deliberate with my language and linked to his post using that very deliberate language and I thought that would come through but apparently it hasn’t. So, just to be clear: I’m not taking Arseblog to task, nor am I “butthurt” over any perceived criticism. Cheers.
After SAF’s comments and obvious, “Help me out guys!” to his media buddies, my instincts instantly shifted from “Do what’s best for Arsenal” to “Do whatever we can screw over United.” I’d almost forgotten to hate them since they weren’t spending like Chelsea and City. But then I remembered, “Oh yeah. I hate them more than any time besides Spurs.”
In my ideal world, we sell RVP to a club outside England for a good amount of money, our squad kicks on it because it is suddenly looking fairly deep, we challenge for a title, and Arsene Wenger walks out towards the handshake at OT with a smile on his face and SAF’s nose is all purple from shouting. I miss the old days when we properly were at it with them. I hope the winds are shifting back in that direction.
Absolutely too fucking right. Here’s another reason not to sell. It will make 3 players United publicly went after this summer and failed, after Hazard and Moura went all petro. Add that to Nasri snubbing United for cash last summer after another public campaign and you get the sense that United is a fading empire.
Definitely should be: No, at any price…
but just the fact that we can all think it might happen, shows how much things have changed in the last 5 years or so…
I’ve been hoping they have a secret deal with Juve already in wraps and are just taking SAF for a ride.. but probably just wishful thinking..
If van Persie does end up at Manchester United, Arsenal is not to blame. We’ve done everything right in my mind. We offered to make him our best paid player by far, we’ve brought in top names 2nd only to Chelsea this summer, and we’ve maintained a hard monetary line with our domestic rivals on his transfer.
We could do for something even more outrageous to really irk the Red Devils. Offer RvP for 5 million in exchange for I don’t know, How about Vidic AND Nani? Our off-season business this year has been opposite to last year. It’s been great. May it always be so.
When Pursie was going to ManCity I was thinking player exchange might be beneficial to the squad… Say Dzeko & Richards or Johnson & Richards plus Ca$$$$h but looking at the United squad…. are there any (realistic) players we would take? Phil Jones? Welbeck?
Photo-Losophy… A short lived and dying art practiced by many an anguished Arsenal fan fretting over the departure of yet another star player…
A medium that was analyzed, criticized and something else than ends in -ized more than it ever should have been due to a blog post by one @7amkickoff
Some credence to the interpretation of squad camaraderie in Arteta’s comments here:
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/arteta-cazorla-will-have-a-big-impact
Then again, it’s on the dot com so it also supports the notion that the club are painting us a pretty picture. For what it’s worth, I think the impression of good spirit in the squad is very close to the truth. Given the vibe at the Grove among the support in the second half of last season and the way the team grew together from the turn of the year, it’s very believable that the players have gelled together well.
Arsenal want him to stay, I think they’ve decided to take the financial hit unless a silly offer comes through.
If he stays and remains fit, they probably think he’s the type of player who will still try his hardest, and bring in a return of 20 league goals or so. Is 20 league goals worth £20m? I’d say it is. It allows new strikers to bed in too.
He’ll go next year for free, but the £20m we would have made this summer will end up (hopefully) as points on the table. He’s 30, we say good bye, thanks very much, and we may even get a trophy out of it.
Agreed.
I think we’re sufficiently healthy financially to absorb some sort of a hit in not taking maximum potential from RVP’s sale.
Fergie’s interest (and Mancini’s) had only pushed the price upwards for us vis-a-vis the only suitor I believe the board are interested in (Juventus) but alas, they got themsleves mixed up in some sort of pay for your title scandal which left RVP less than impressed with their ‘ambition’.
I think Fergie’s current interest is obviously two fold :
1) Opportunism. Clearly United have priorities elsewhere in midfield. We have correctly set a premium price for them @25m or over. They won’t do it. Principally the board won’t say it but selling on to the title rival is not the preferred option. Yet we have to keep appearances that this is a possibility for the skae of suitors (and pricing) overseas. I don’t see Fergie biting fornaything over 18m (and that’s generous)
2) Gamesmanship. Old Red nose is pushing the price up for Mancini knowing full well that despite their deep pockets, there is dissent at board level with FFP issues.
I really hope we don’t succumb to the short term temptation of selling on for big profit.
The alternative for us (as I’d imagine we are scurrying around frantically behind the scenes to find suitable buyers on the continent) would be to keep him till January.
This may afford our shiny new strikers time to bed in. Conversely, he will have to keep banging them in since he will have to look good in the winter window being that much closer to 30.
Of course, he cuold always adopt the Rosicky approach and announce his real footballing age @27 on account of the amount of time spent on treatment table, but he’ll have to invest himself in a good set of hair products to get rid of the greys first. i’d imagine that’s why he’s hankering for a big money move…hair products aren’t cheap in today’s world.;)
If Man U want RvP for 20m, I say sell him.
Man U needs – desperately – a midfield with some creativity. Giggs is ancient, Scholes had to be brought back from retirement, Anderson is crap, Fletcher has the craps, Cleverly is overrated, they sold Park. Kagawa is a nice addition, but is he their answer?
So, I don’t think RvP improves them all that much. Plus, it just bumps Welbeck and Chicharito down the roster, which won’t sit well with them.
Besides, if Man U would be willing to send Berbatov back the other way in addition to the cash, I’ve always thought that his skills might be more suited to our team’s style of play. When he’s on his game, he is almost as lethal a finisher as RvP, trouble has been he’s not a “Man United” type of run-your-ass of striker that Ferguson likes.
Popular wisdom is just that, United need creativity in their midfield. If you take that as truth, van Persie can improve them in that it gives them the opportunity to drop Rooney into the hole and let him be the creator. Something they have experimented with in the past. With Chicharito and van Persie ahead of him, I can see that working.
Then again, United tend to rely on their wing players for creativity and let their central midfielders win the ball and spread the attack. Personally, I think their approach for RvP was a hopeful punt that has gained gravity based on the stall tactics of City to stump up, Juve’s off-pitch issues complicating that deal, and Moura going to PSG.
Hey Tim,
I am going to try my best to partially disagree with you. Right after I vomit, which is what the thought of selling anyone to United makes me do. Okay, so here goes:
I would like people to try for one moment, hard though it is, to divorce themselves from the emotions involved here – the love for the club and the player and what he did for us last year and the hatred for United – and treat it as objectively as possible from a sports business perspective. I know that is a near impossible ask but let’s have a go.
In all probability, Van Persie has peaked as far as his career goes. It is not exclusively true that players decline after the age of 30, but football is a very physically demanding game, especially for strikers who rely on speed in any way, and it is common for performances to begin to drop after the age of 30. It is certainly the case for me, where my play went from varsity at age 22 to Division 1 Men’s Premier until age 27 and now at 35 down to Division 3. But don’t take my personal experience for proof – it’s the very reason behind Arsene’s policy not to offer long term contracts (or anything but 1 year contracts) to players over that age. If there is anyone who acts on statistics and analysis in the market it is Arsene Wenger. This means that van Persie probably just had his best ever season of his career. Maybe he performs well this year, but probably by next year we will start to see a gradual or even sharp decline in performance. And that is assuming he is healthy. One of the principal principle’s of wise market behaviour is buy low, sell high. Selling van Persie in the year after his peak for money that values him at his peak or better is good business.
Secondly, his injury record suggests that he probably won’t stay healthy. The older you get the more wear on the body and the longer it takes to recover. And he just played a season that can’t have been easy on the body and he showed signs of obvious fatigue at the conclusion of the season. I think he has physically peaked as well as performance peaked. Also a factor that favours selling high.
So even if it were not for his obtuse comments in July and even if things were all sunshine and roses, now would STILL actually be a good time to be shopping Van Persie around as an asset. We’re rebuilding, he’s just had a huge year, and maybe we can bait someone into buying a just past-it player for a world-beater price. Don’t get me wrong, I loved RVP too and if this summer had happened differently I would be overjoyed to see him stay and be extended, but I wonder how much of that is actually emotional attachment without objective wisdom.
Okay, so its a good business time to sell, but not to United, right? Well, again not so fast. I hate United, but if we treat them in a non-emotional fashion they are just like any other club with a bank account. A customer, if you will. Maybe a fat, loud, drunk, ugly, Scottish customer, but a customer is a customer. And, I’m not actually all that worried about the contribution he’d make. This year, yes. Next year? The year after? On a long term model, this is not like losing Cesc or Wilshere or someone that will be huge for years to come. At least I don’t think.
So, if United want to pay a premium for the player, a real premium, then I say lets be non-emotional and sell. If the price difference between Juve’s offer and United’s is only a few million, then by all means off to the Old Lady. But if United can stump up 20 million, then that starts to sound like a deal I would take. Or better yet – take one out of Liverpool’s book from the Torres sale – pick a player we target as one we want. Let the selling club set their price, then tell United that is our price for RvP.
I suppose in the end I think that in the long term selling RvP to United for 20 million will make us better and them worse. Long term, mind you. Not this next season.
Of course, that’s in an emotional vacuum. Which we don’t live in and sports are not about.
Cheers,
Jon
Valid points but asking football fans not to be emotional is like asking Rush Limbaugh to start thinking rationally. It’s like when you are at a war – you may know you have no chance of winning but you fight anyway because of your principles and beliefs. Maybe a tad extreme of an example, but as Bill Shankly famously said: “Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it’s much more serious than that.”
The fly in the ointment for me on this RvP departure is that I, perhaps like many, saw him as the heir apparent to Bergkamp. Not just in that he’s Dutch, has awesome technique and scores as well as creates, but in that he could be used carefully as an awesome squad trump player well into his 30s.
Perhaps his record of injury is prohibitive ongoing in terms of appearances, but Bergkamp’s fear of flying did similar things, as well as his own advancing age. He was used carefully to maximum effect. He was in his mid-thirties when he posed for my avatar vs Newcastle. I really did, perhaps foolishly, see van Persie following a similar course and sticking with us and playing well for us, for quite a few more seasons.
Congrats… this is the 55,000th comment on the site.
I was hoping it would be a good one and you didn’t disappoint.
I’d like to see us invest the money from RVP in a promising younger striker being that we have two shiny new ones entering peak age.
Jovetic seems expensive (for the moment) but Leandro is having an excellent tournament in the Olympics. Quick, strong in the air, technical and @22, I believe Spurs have an understanding with Internacional and bid 12m for him (they wanted 15m) but all the same he turned the Spuds down. Probably has ambition.:D
Absolutely right! This is exactly what I said in my comments yesterday. I can’t even imagine how much hatred I’ll have for RVP if he signs for Utd. – and I don’t want to hate him. Even though I’ve already lost all respect for him, I am still some ways off from hating him.
I also agree that it’s a very normal human instinct to look into photos in the hopes of finding a story. I have done that countless times with photos of Cesc in the past, with Nasri last year and with RVP this year. This is probably an exercise in futility, but it’s fun and as die hard fans – pretty much unavoidable. The pics do tell us something. For e.g. I can say with confidence that RVP had Mexican food the night before. How? Well look at his smile. He is quite clearly suppressing a fart, and we all know beans make you gassy. See? It’s elementary.
Highly enjoyable. Cheers Tim.
Watching Serge Gnabry describe Diaby as the best of all the players training in Germany, was quite a surprise. What is this mythical Diaby?
Best player …when not injured (he forgot the qualfication)
Gnabry is a talent. Hope to see him get some first squad action this season!
It’s healthy for us to think critically about the images around us, so I totally agree with you, Tim. All images are rhetorical, even photographs (especially photographs, because they create the illusion of pure representation).
I see the latest array of pictures from Germany again feature a lone van Persie (with requisite smile). I also notice that the pictures today are much more all-action, whereas previous offerings included more sightings of camaraderie and jokes. It seems clear that the club wanted to establish for us that all is well within the camp (i.e., new folks are settling in well, while transfer sagas are having no effect whatsoever on how famously we’re getting on) before then reminding us that they are serious, ready, and up for it.
I’m enjoying Ferguson’s charade of bafflement, unless he really is senile, as we’ve long suspected. As Jon said above, I can appreciate the silver lining / business sense of selling van Persie to United (and, for once, someone else can have near heart attacks every time he goes to ground under a challenge in an international friendly), though this would only make him the hate figure I really didn’t want him to be. Van Persie is an intelligent and interesting character, and I’d like to be able to think fondly of his contribution this past season rather than wish fervently that his career nosedives directly after he leaves. Should he go to United, it’s the latter preoccupation, surely.
Anyway, I genuinely have no idea how this will pan out, but it seems United are the only suitors right now, and I like that we’re playing a little hardball with them.
55,002… last in line for the gangbang.
Oh God, did you have to go there?
Well its fun to see utd losing out on various transfer targets and not being a force in the market that they once were. Giving them RVP , aside from being a great addition in quality , would also give them a moral boost as well as an increased faith in their squad to achieve something this year and a sense of being in control and still being a power in the transfer market, all of which is something i would hate to see.
Also many have pointed out getting RVP may mean they wont get a mid
fielder that they desperately need , but dropping rooney or even RVP in midfield with others attacking can work wonders for them i believe.
And finally even if keeping RVP helps us finish 2nd instead of 3rd or help win a domestic cup then it would be worth it to lose him for free next year , especially keeping in mind we are supposed to renegotiate many of our sponsorship deals in near future. Also it would take immense pressure off the shoulders of Giroud and Podolski this season and give them enuf time to get settled by the time he leaves next year.
So in short , it makes more sense to me to keep him this year even if that means lose him for free next year.
Cheers
I’d entertain the idea of keeping him another half season if United were our only real option.
It’s a bit of a risk but it will also buy us some time to bed in the new strikers.
Tim, your blog is brilliant. It’s the reason I come back everyday – there are about three blogs in total across all subjects, which I read, so kudos. Yesterday’s post was entertaining, even if I thought it was not a good way to analyze things. But the blog itself is always good, always interesting, always worth reading. So keep it up.
I’m not sure why you are defensive of late.
I don’t agree with some of your articles (as you well know) but I think your blogs are food for thought to say the least and these threads a good venue for sensible discussions….well only if they don’t pertain to TTVwhich I consider absolute drivel..:D
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/bbf33dd6-e22b-11e1-b3ff-00144feab49a.html#axzz234eK9bzj
So Man U will soon have some ‘spare change’ to send our way for RVP. I would like to consider the RVP situation with a calm pragmatism but unfortunately I cannot. My hoped for resolution to the RVP saga would be either he goes to Man U for silly money (25mil +) or we sell him overseas for a cut rate price just to piss off SAF. RVP’s agent Kos reportedly want an additional 4mil on op of the transfer fee and player’s personal terms which could put the total package at around 40mil for an injury prone 29yo. If I’m a Man U supporter, I’d be screaming that SAF has lost the plot. He actually lost the plot when he purchased Berbatov ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/7592272.stm).
I find it interesting that some of Man U’s transfer targets (Moura, Hazard) are finding other teams’ projects more interesting. We can attract 3 top of the line players to our project and yet RVP wants to go to a Man U team that is past it’s prime.
Unfortunately for United, none of the IPO money will be used to buy players.
If our great Uzbek owner wanted to weaken our mortal enemy Manure, he should short Uniteds stock offering down to $2 a share and leave the glazers and their creditors wondering what the hell just happend.
I also wonder how much of a bribe they offered that Dude at GM to sign off on a half a billion dollar sponsorship? Hope it was enough to make it worth his while since he was fired for it.
Reading that BBC article again, I can’t help but think buying Berbatov at that price was more of a face-saving move on United’s price which hurt them in the long run. Remember they didn’t meet Spurs’ valuation until City came in with an offer. Not to be outdone by City, Utd. then upped city’s offer and got Berbatov in the last minute at that ludicrous price. Bad move. Really bad move.
“Arseblog assured me on twitter… I’m sure if Arseblog was going to criticize me, he would link directly to what he wants to critique. Or he’d email me behind the scenes.”
===
OMG. Like, O. M. G. You know ARSEBLOG?????? You guys like write to each and everything??? Ok ok ok WHAT DOES HE LOOK LIKE? Lol. I bet he’s super cute! Does he eat pizza!!??!! What do you say to hiM???OMG! What does he say to YOU??? I can’t believe it!
He is 3′ wears all green and carries a pot of gold. True story.
Although most of the media we get comes out of Arsenal I do think that the squad is developing good camaraderie and genuinely like each other. Apparently, RVP was instrumental in fostering a lot of this last season , but it also be the influx of wise heads like BFG and Arteta , and happy “gay’ people like Andre Santos and Ox.
Whatever it may be, I hope it continues and we demonstrate this togetherness on the pitch, with or without RVP.
Can’t help but love the gaiety of Andre Santos
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/arsenal-penalty-shoot-out-andre-santos-v-alex-song/?
I hope we never get to a situation where Song has to take a penalty!
http://marketday.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/09/13202746-yellow-card-for-man-uniteds-ipo-analysts-say
Pay attention to CNBC commentator Guy Adami in the clip at the bottom of this article. We are everywhere. We are legion.
I love PSG for buying moura….the dude is insane
I’ve hated Man U ever since that fight that THEY STARTED against us in 1990 at Old Trafford. They started kicking Limpar and Winterburn on the ground and yet, we were deducted 2 points and they were deducted only point. It didn’t stop us from winning the league that year but it did let everyone know how fucking vile their players are, and the extent to which they escape censure and appropriate punishment.
And Fergie always has the gall to complain about Arsenal being violent, the fat fuck.
We must never sell anyone there, especially not RVP.
What kind of a message would that send?
Spot on Tim, the best ‘left side’ Gooner blog; a must read each day.