*Official* English Football Season 2011-12

[BoyBrumby]

& there ends another season.

Sigh.

 

[sledger]

Sad, in a word. Very very sad. Watching Arsenal has often been annoying and frustrating, but it's suddenly getting to me just how sad the team's decline has become. This team is just not up to it.

 

[Neil Pickup]

Meanwhile in the land of real football, the arse end of League 1 is getting tighter and tighter. The whole division could be in a relegation scrap before too long.

 

[sledger]

Do Arsenal fans care much for the Cup?

As Furball has said, finishing 4th has to be a priority really. But a failure to win anything for 6-7 years is eating away at the general morale.

For me personally an FA Cup/Carling Cup win would be nice, but ultimately they are Mickey Mouse prizes to some extent. If success in either of them came at the expense of qualifying for the Champions League I wouldn't see it as a good trade off.

It's reached a horrible stage though, because large sections of the fans seem to be desperate to win pretty much anything, and one feels this is spreading to the players as well. When Arsenal lost Vieira, Bergkamp, Cole, Campbell, Pires and Henry within the space of a few years I felt perfectly content to sit through a period where the loss of these key players was absorbed and the new generation of promising players came through. However, now several years later things have actually regressed, and rather than having a team of world class performers and promising young talents, there now exists a squad which consists predominantly of crap/mediocre players who haven't reached their potential and new players who are supposed to be good one day.

I'm meant to be writing a paper on media pluralism in the EU today...but I've annoyed myself by thinking about Arsenal now, so may write an article on why they've become so crap instead. Watch this space.

 

[Nate]

Thank you for your collective thoughts.

Also, BOOM.

 

[Furball]

 

[GIMH]

This is awesome

 

[Nate]

Roy.

 

[Pothas]

Been transfixed by it for a good 2 minutes.

 

[sledger]

Haha reminds me of that Arshavin back to the future video thing that showed up a few years ago. Was about the last time Arshavin was good funnily enough.

 

[Nate]

Could it work out that 5th and down don't even make Europa? Would be brutal for Arsenal to be left out of it altogether.

Very excited for the Cup final this weekend.

 

[sledger]

Would rather they failed to qualify for Europe altogether if they fail to make the Champions League to be honest, would just serve as a distraction to the long term goal of desperately trying to become a major power in the big competitions again. Contrary to what anyone in the game says, the Europa League is not worth anything. Not to a team like Arsenal anyway, who still have the (misguided, perhaps) goal of winning the Premiership. Winning the Europa League would mean less than winning the FA Cup to me personally, and we already know what I think about that competition.

 

[Nate]

Would rather they failed to qualify for Europe altogether if they fail to make the Champions League to be honest, would just serve as a distraction to the long term goal of desperately trying to become a major power in the big competitions again. Contrary to what anyone in the game says, the Europa League is not worth anything. Not to a team like Arsenal anyway, who still have the (misguided, perhaps) goal of winning the Premiership. Winning the Europa League would mean less than winning the FA Cup to me personally, and we already know what I think about that competition.

I've found the vast majority of people to be very dismissive about the Europa League actually. And while I can understand that viewpoint, I've always believed that winning is a good habit, and that you should take the opportunity to do so whenever possible. Being rewarded for your success, even when it's not the most prestigious title, inspires you to bigger and better things, from my (limited) experience.

Might just be a cultural thing too.

 

[Ausage]

Isn't Europa financially lucrative? Might not mean much to the majority of fans but if you want to improve your squad having more money is a good place to start.

 

[Nate]

I support Blackburn lolzors!

Do you think you'll stay up, and if so, which three will be relegated?

 

[cpr]

I've found the vast majority of people to be very dismissive about the Europa League actually. And while I can understand that viewpoint, I've always believed that winning is a good habit, and that you should take the opportunity to do so whenever possible. Being rewarded for your success, even when it's not the most prestigious title, inspires you to bigger and better things, from my (limited) experience.

Might just be a cultural thing too.

Winning is a good habit, but diverting resources to win something minor that impedes on your quite realistic chances of winning something major is a difficult thing to do. Even suceeding in the minor comp means people will bemoan the loss of the big prize. Unless you've got the squad to win all, then your laughing. Which no one has

Isn't Europa financially lucrative? Might not mean much to the majority of fans but if you want to improve your squad having more money is a good place to start.

Not to Arsenal, with a fair chunk of cash in the attic.

 

[Nate]

Winning is a good habit, but diverting resources to win something minor that impedes on your quite realistic chances of winning something major is a difficult thing to do. Even suceeding in the minor comp means people will bemoan the loss of the big prize. Unless you've got the squad to win all, then your laughing. Which no one has

I said I understood that viewpoint, and then gave mine. But yeah, Arsenal better damn well make fourth if that's their frame-of-mind.

 

[Pothas]

For some reason I just did the bbc predictor thing. Given how terribly I'm doing in the predictor thingy it is undoubtedly totally wrong. Had Wolves down with Blackburn and QPR, Wigan just one point clear thanks
to beating Wolves in last game as QPR lose to champions Man City.

In reality you do have to fancy Wigan to go down but they will just keep plugging away and you never know. Have kind of expected Bolton to get away from it all season but not really sure right now and there is no doubt Blackburn can score goals. QPR you would have thought have the squad to stay up now, but that run in is fairly awful and who knows about Wolves with a change of manager. Basically I have no clue but it's going to be interesting.

 

[Ausage]

Do you think you'll stay up, and if so, which three will be relegated?

I don't think we will. I don't remember ever seeing a Blackburn team this shaky at the back, we look like we could conceed nearly every time the opposition gets the ball. Wigan and Wolves have looked pretty ordinary when I've watched them, but I think we're a worse team (with a worse manager) than QPR and Bolton.

We're a team that is extremely good at grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory (Everton and Newcastle @ Ewood for example). I truly believe it comes down to Samba. If he remains off the rails we'll be relegated. If he comes back and gets some stability going at the back we're a shot. Yakubu has been incredible and must stay fit, we'd probably already be gone without his goals. The team in general has talent, we've beaten Man U and Arsenal while drawing with Liverpool and look great at times, but it all seems to be in spite of Steve Kean (see second half vs QPR after his substitutions) which to me suggests it can't be sustained.

I'm extremely pessimistic about where the club is headed. The owners don't seem to know much about the game but want to have a direct influence on how the club is run, the worst kind of owner. They were talking up ambitions of European football, but have done nothing but strip the club bare since coming here. Since the sale the only money the club has spent has been what we got for Jones/Kalinic, next to no money has been made available to improve the squad. Given the owners got rid of BFS because they wanted the team to play a different style they should have known that changing a team set up to play a certain way doesn't just happen with a few hundred k and a snap of the fingers and it definitely doesn't happen without a manager who really knows what he's doing.

There seems to be an obsession with shedding older players, even when it is to the obvious detriment to the team (Nelsen moved on, Salgado frozen out when we have a backline crying out for some leadership). I think the owners want the team to become something of an export/development club. We have a solid academy/youth set up, and I think the money Jones attracted has the dollar signs lighting up their brains.

If we manage a great escape this year I think we'll either need new owners or face the drop within 3 years.

 

[Pothas]

Yeah don't know how many of the stories you hear about the board are true, but there is no doubting the incompetence, with the ridiculous top 4 and getting Ronaldinho claims.

On the pitch they are bizarre, rubbish the vast majority of time of course but I very rarely feel they have no chance at all going into a game and there is still hope while that is the case.