If you haven’t: there was a cross into the box which fizzed past the far post, and looked like it was headed over the touchline for a goal kick. But off one hop, it hit the arm of Thierry Henry, and deflected back into play in a perfect spot for him to center it directly into the path of the oncoming William Gallas, who headed home the winning goal. Two former Gunner captains combining for the golden goal. Ireland, who played bravely and who would have otherwise gone to penalty kicks for the right to go to the World Cup, feel aggrieved. And I absolutely, positively sympathize with them. To come so far, to play so well against a more talented team on their home field, only to be sent home by a goal which should have been disallowed…Well, that’s just awful (not the mention UEFA’s decision to adopt the seeding system for the playoffs after qualification had already started, which was complete b.s.). And I know they’re hurting today. Just to be clear–the goal shouldn’t have counted, and Henry could very well have been (justifiably) carded.

But I’m writing this because I think once the European/English media gets a chance to react to it tomorrow, we’re going to hear terms like “cheat” applied to Thierry Henry. The state of the modern/online media and blogosphere is that whoever can write the most controversial/provocative thing is going to get the most attention, so I fully expect to read outlandish pieces calling for Henry to retire from international play, admit to cheating, be banned, etc. Unfortunately, it’s the nature of the beast. But the bottom line is this–the play we got to watch over and over again in super slow motion happened to him instantaneously. He had to make a decision, which was more pure reflex than anything else. But the media tomorrow might try to interpret this as some premeditated decision which reflects poor judgment and/or malicous intent on his part. It was not.

Now. I’m not saying he was right, and I’m not saying the goal should have stood. But I’m a full-grown adult, who probably shouldn’t have football players as role models, but I do. And # 1 on that list in Thierry Henry. And it’s not just because of how great he was on the field, but it’s because of the character and class he showed off the field over the course of many years as a Gunner. We know that. We remember that. When the Lilliputian scene of hundreds of small, petty “journalists” and bloggers trying to take down a true giant of a man takes place tomorrow, I would urge all Arsenal fans, and all football fans in general, to reflect on the fact that what happened yesterday is completely incongruous with what we’ve seen from Henry over the course of the last decade or so:

I guess all I’m trying to say is that I think the haters may be out in force tomorrow, but no matter what they say, we all know that Thierry Henry was always, is, and will always be a class act, through and through. And we’ll never forget it.

Arsenal Holdings, PLC just released a summary of the financial results for last season. It all seems to be good news, and it sounds like the club improved in pretty much every financial category over 2007-2008:

–Overall income increased to £313.3 million from £223.0 million the year before, largely due to deep cup runs and increased merchandise sales
–Overall matchday/ticket revenue increased to £100.1 million from £94.6 million the previous season.
–The sale of some of the Highbury apartments contributed £7.8 million to the operating budget.
–Overall operating profit was £35.2 million, up from £25.7 million the season before.

Hmmm. 35.2 million. So, um….why didn’t we get Felipe Melo again? This is all well and good, and I’m glad the club is doing so well financially, but the fact of the matter is none of us are Arsenal fans because the club is well-run or profitable. We root for the club because we want the club to win matches and trophies. On the pitch. We’re not jumping up and down in bars high-fiving each other because the directors are getting higher dividends this season.

It’s not that simple, of course. The club does still have quite a bit of debt from both building the Emirates and developing the old Highbury property. And if and when that debt is paid off, the club is going to be a real cash cow, and hopefully at that point there will be more money going into the club’s on field product. The club is saying all the right things–Chairman Peter Hill-Wood says:

This is excellent news although I should perhaps stress that making and reporting profits is not in itself the primary objective for the directors. First and foremost we are supporters of this great football club and, as such, our main goal will always be the achievement of success for Arsenal on the field. The Group’s profitability is important because it is a by-product of running the Club as a solvent and successful business, which in turn allows us to maximise the level of investment in the playing staff and in the future development of the Club.

Wenger echoed a similar sentiment:

I am encouraged by the fact that the financial results are good because on my side I try to contribute to that. I am quite proud that I work in a company that is in a strong financial situation. I have always worked in clubs which make money and I would not feel that I do my job well if we lost money at the end of the season. However the sporting side is always the most important thing. To be completely happy you have to do well on the sporting side but never, no matter what happens, can it be accepted from any manager that to do that you put your club in trouble.

I guess I see their point, and I don’t necessarily disagree. It just seems like a club in Arsenal’s position can do one of two things–either (1) keep the profit within the club (I’m assuming it’s staying in the club, and not going straight into the shareholders’ pockets, which may not be a sound assumption) to guard against a rainy day when some debts get called in or the club fails to make the group stages and loses a lot of revenue; or (2) put the money back into the club, by say, buying Felipe Melo and Marouane Chamakh, and try to reach even greater heights–after all, if Arsenal were to win the league or Champions League (or even, to a much lesser extent, the FA Cup), it would greatly increase attention and marketing revenue.

The club has clearly chosen to be risk-averse and go with option (1). And I can’t say that it’s wrong. But of course, from a fan’s perspective, it is deeply unsatisfying to have a team on the precipice of great things, the money to improve the team in a way that could potentially put it over the top, and yet the team sits on its pile of money, arms folded, and still says with a straight face that the on-field product is the most important things. Sigh. I guess Biggie (R.I.P.) was right…

Hopefully you didn’t get so outraged you broke your computer, and are still here. The FA is reportedly investigating what Adebayor did in the match, and if there’s any justice, he will face a substantial suspension. Because the bottom line is this–on three separate occasions during the match, Adebayor did something which could have very well resulted in a red card. That he got away with just a yellow is an absolute joke.

As you can see from the gif, Adebayor at the very least went over the ball to dangerously kick Cesc in the shins. That tackle could have easily caused an injury, and we should count our lucky stars Cesc was able to shake it off more or less unscathed.

Then, of course, there was the stomp on Robin van Persie’s face. When I first saw it, my initial reaction was that it wasn’t intentional–even Adebayor, I thought, wouldn’t be so mean-spirited as to do something like that. But after reviewing it, it seems clear that he did, in fact, intentionally stamp his foot down on Robbie. His entire body and momentum is going to his left, but as he’s in the air, he sticks his right leg to his right up in the air, and stomps down and to the right. The ball was already yards away at that point, so I just don’t see any other explanation. He may not have meant to get his face, but it was clearly a cynical, malicious move. While it’s hard to say that Robbie was “lucky” given that his face was bleeding pretty profusely, he is lucky in the sense that if it had been a couple more inches to the side, he could have caught a stud to the eye and been permanently damaged. A broken nose or broken facial bone could have also happened quite easily, and he is lucky in the sense that the damage appears to be pretty superficial.

And then, of course, there was the baiting of the Arsenal fans. Adebayor has said he was emotional, but there’s really no excuse for it. Yes, fans were on him all game, but the bottom line is that there is a certain minimal standard of professionalism that comes with being paid vast sums of money to kick a ball around, and not actively trying to incite fans to riot goes along with that. Football has come a long way since the days of Hillsborough, but as the recent West Ham-Millwall brouhaha showed us, football violence is still quite a real thing, and we need to discourage it. The least we can expect is for the players themselves not to try and incite opposing clubs’ fans.

All in all, it was a thoroughly dick-ish performance from Ade. Reading the comments, commenters seem to fall into two general camps: (1) he showed us what a huge d-bag he is, I’m so glad we sold him; and (2) he showed us what a talented striker he is, we should have kept him. Readers of this blog know that I fall firmly into camp (1), so I won’t microwave those arguments for now.

But I will say this to those in camp (2). I think your argument rests upon the assumption that the Adebayor we’re seeing for Manchester City would have been the Adebayor who suited up for Arsenal. And I just don’t think that’s true at all. The problem with Adebayor was always his attitude and motivation–when motivated, I’d say he was one of the five or so best strikers in the world, but when he wasn’t, he was run of the mill at best. Last season for us, he seemed unhappy and unmotivated all season long–to watch a player jog around and go through the motions in a Champions League semifinal against Manchester United was truly, truly maddening. His goal-scoring ration last season was almost identical to Bendtner’s–why in the world would he expect him to be any more motivated to come play for Arsenal this season?

Now he’s playing great, because he is motivated. And why is he motivated? As his antics on Saturday clearly showed, his motivation isn’t to either (a) help Manchester City win trophies; or (b) please Manchester City fans. If it was, he would have kissed the badge and celebrated in front of City’s fans, whom he apparently loves so much now. But that’s not what he did. What he did was go out of his way to harm Arsenal’s players and taunt Arsenal’s supporters. Which shows quite clearly, I think, that he’s motivated at the moment to play hard in order to prove Arsenal wrong.

Let’s put aside the issue of exactly why he bears such a grudge against the club that: (a) rescued him from obscurity at Metz; (b) trained him and developed him from a skinny, ungainly giraffe of a player into a world-class stiker; and (c) paid him gobs and gobs of money. The real issue here is that you can’t use anger and the desire to “prove someone wrong” as a motivator for very long.

It won’t be too long before his vengeance-wish against Arsenal fades a bit. And then what will his motivation be? A desire to win trophies? That didn’t work at Arsenal, why would it work anywhere else? The mounds of money he’s making? Ditto. The bottom line is before long he’ll stop being so motivated to prove us wrong, and then Manchester City will be left with the same player we had to watch last season–a guy with a world of talent who isn’t willing to work hard, has a prickly relationship with teammates and fans, and needs constant adulation if you don’t want him to start complaining and sulking. And as far as I’m concerned, they’re welcome to him.

So hopefully he’ll face a lengthy suspension from the FA, which if imposed will keep him out of domestic competition for a while. But at least he’ll be able to play in European matches…oh, oops, forgot–he went to a club which couldn’t even qualify for the Europa League out of “ambition.” Guess he’ll just be sitting at home counting his money while City relies on its only fit striker, Craig Bellamy, for a little while, then.

It’s just infuriating. Wenger is, understandably, upset. The international teams, especially in situations like this where they don’t have another match for another month, have zero incentive to protect a player’s health. What does Russia care if Arshavin is out for a couple of weeks? As long as he’s healthy again by October, it doesn’t hurt them. Meanwhile, the club, which pays Arshavin’s salary, and in the cases of some players, is responsible for the player’s development and training, is the one who suffers.

Honestly, at this point, I’m all in favor of doing away with all these international breaks, and just having a few international breaks per year–give them all of January and the summer. Instead of playing qualifiers two at a time, which is a pain because then you have to go back and remember who is playing well, which country is in which group, what the scenarios are, etc., why not have them play 5 or 6 at a time over the course of a month? This would build up momentum and be more exciting, almost like a mini tournament, and allow team members to get used to playing together for a longer period of time. More importantly, if Guus Hiddink wanted to play a player just coming off injury for 90 minutes, that would be his prerogative, but if theplayer re-injured himself, it would be the international team that suffered the consequences. I guarantee you under this scenario international teams wouldn’t be quite so callous about players’ injuries.

Elsewhere, the news was apparently good, although I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t hear about another knock or two as the players return to England today. Rosicky played 60 minutes for Czech Republic, which is good news–I doubt he’ll play on Saturday, but we could see him on Wednesday. Fabregas played and scored for Spain to clinch a world cup berth. Eduardo scored Croatia’s lone goal in the 5-1 beatdown they took from England. Bendtner scored in Denmark’s 1-1 draw with Albania. Arsenal alum Thierry Henry scored in France’s 1-1 draw with Serbia. The official site has a full round-up here.

At any rate, Arshavin is out–I’ll cover this more in my preview tomorrow, but I imagine either Eduardo will start in Arshavin’s place along the front line, or we’ll go to a more standard 4-4-2 with Diaby getting a start. Here’s hoping it’s the former–for all the controversy about the dive, Eduardo’s been playing well lately, and I get the sense he’s pissed off and has something to prove, and could have a goal or two in him.

I also hate the international break because of the mind-numbing boredom it brings. As evidence of this, the official site unveiled its first in a series of “Fantasy Battles.” The concept is, basically, that an Arsenal player sits down and answers a series of stupid questions about “who would win a fight between…” Yes, I’m serious.

Anyway, in the initial installment, Gael Clichy is in the hot seat. Clichy’s picks:

1. A bear could beat a crocodile (because “it’s strong and I think it’s really powerful”)
2. Spiderman could beat Batman
3. Lara Croft could beat Wonder Woman

I’m honestly not sure which is more troubling–that our club and our players are spending time on stuff like this, or that Gael Clichy actually thinks Lara Croft could beat Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman is a lost Amazon with super strength and super speed (not to mention command of the animal kingdom and an invisible jet). Lara Croft has…what? Big boobs and a gun? Pfft. Regular readers will know that I’ve criticized Clichy’s decisionmaking over the past year or so, but even I didn’t think it was this bad.

This is what the international breaks reduce us to–talking about crocodiles and Wonder Woman instead of football. Thank God it’s over, hopefully we won’t hear about any more injuries today. Man City preview coming tomorrow.

The reason for these inquiries is that both clubs allegedly signed young players who were under contract (or “precontract”) with another club at the time. Therefore, since another club owned the rights to the player, any club who wanted such a player must first come to an agreement with the player’s initial club.

The initial reaction, of course, is to revel in Chelsea’s misfortune. Chelsea is an aging team who is very dependent on spending money in the transfer market, so this ban stands to hurt them badly if it is not reduced. And it’s always fun to see Chelsea hurt. Ditto Manchester City.

But after some reflection, this could be an ominous sign of things to come for Arsenal. It’s not that I think we’ve committed any infractions, although the signing of Fran Merida from Barcelona was pretty similar to the incident for which Chelsea was punished. But generally speaking, the young players we have signed for free (Cesc, for example) have been players who are not under contract at a club. And the young players we have gone after who have been under contract at their clubs (like Theo or Aaron Ramsey), we have negotiated a deal with the club before bringing the players in. We seem to have followed the rules within the system, and I don’t see us getting in any trouble for our transfer policy.

Where this is a problem, though, is that Sepp Blatter has said that he would like to end all transfers involving players under the age of 18. Under his proposed system, every player under the age of 18 would train with their initial club until that point, and only then would they be able to switch clubs.

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that no club in the world is as dependent upon bringing in young players from other clubs as Arsenal is. It’s the cornerstone of Arsene Wenger’s transfer policy. So if this were to change, then, Arsenal would be substantially affected, and have to seriously re-think our way of doing things.

I’ll say at the outset that from an objective viewpoint, Blatter’s proposal is shortsighted and badly flawed. The idea is that local clubs should be able to hang onto the players they bring in until the players are substantially developed, instead of having their best starlets picked over by bigger clubs. The idea is not without a certain simplistic appeal.

Where it falls apart, however, is its implicit assumption that players will develop roughly the same no matter which club they are with. This is, obviously, completely and utterly idiotic. The big clubs have spent tens of millions of dollars on their training academies, and can boast world-class facilities and some of the finest coaches, trainers, and instructors in the world. Smaller clubs cannot. It only stands to reason that players will develop better and more quickly with better coaching, equipment, and medical care. Therefore, it is only logical to say that if you take a player from a smaller club in Africa at the age of 15, he would develop into a better player by the time he was 18 than he would if he was forced to stay in Africa.

Or think of it this way–if you have an academically gifted 15 year old from a very bad inner city area, should he stay at the dilapidated, overcrowded, high school, being taught by teachers more concerned with maintaining order than communicating ideas? Or should he be transferred to the magnet school across town, reserved for the best and brightest students, where he will be taught by the best teachers in the district, at a higher level, and surrounded by students of roughly his level of intelligence? Does anyone honestly think that the student wouldn’t be better off academically by the time he was 18 going to the magnet school than staying at his public school? Does anyone honestly think that learning about math is any different than learning about football in this respect? So one hugely negative result of Blatter’s proposal would be that, on the whole, many players would not receive the level of training they otherwise would have, and will not be able to realize their full potential.

Blatter’s proposal also completely misunderstands one of the most fundamental notions about football as opposed to other sports, which is that it is the ultimate team game. By this, I do not mean that each individual player must shoulder his burden equally–while this is true, it’s equally true of other sports. What I mean is that each player must buy into the team’s system more than probably any other sport. Most teams (well, most successful teams, anyway) have a distinct and particular strategy and approach to the game, and in order to succeed, all 11 players must fill their role within that system. In other words, a left-back for Arsenal has a very different job than a left-back for Chelsea or Stoke. If someone is a very good player for one club, he will not necessarily be a very good player for another club, because his new club may play completely differently and have completely different demans for a player in that position than his old club (see Shevchenko, Andrei).

There are two ways to have a team that plays well together. One is through scouting established players–you can identify the strengths and weaknesses of their skills and abilities, and determine whether the player can fulfill a particular role within your club’s system. By and large, this is what clubs like Chelsea and Real Madrid have done, to great success. The other way is to teach all of your young players in the academy to play that particular style, so that by the time they are ready to step up to the first-team, they have been playing the club’s style for years and are well-acquainted with its demands and goals.

What Arsenal does is combine the two–we find teenagers who have the potential to develop into world-class players and we teach them from a young age to play football “the Arsenal way.” After 3-4 years in the academy and reserves, they are typically prepared to have some role in the first team, and have thoroughly developed an understanding of the way Arsenal play and what their role in the system should be.

However, they younger you are, the easier it is to teach you new things. It’s much easier for a 15 or 16 year old to adapt to a new style of play than a 20 year old. If Arsenal is limited to bringing in players of over 18 or more, Wenger’s transfer policy is simply not going to work anywhere near as well as it has thus far. And I happen to believe that clubs like Arsenal, or Manchester United, or Barcelona, who train young players to play within a certain system and then use the players to implement that system on the club level once they are ready for the first-team should be rewarded, not punished, for doing this.

But in the end, my views on whether this proposal would be good or bad for the game are immaterial. What we can all definitely agree on is that it would certainly be bad for Arsenal. Arsenal’s advantage has long been the ability to identify, train, and develop young talent. This has been the main way Arsenal has been able to stay competitive with clubs who spend a lot more money on the transfer market than we do. This proposal would partially negate that competitive advantage, and make it that much more difficult for the Gunners to succeed.

To illustrate, the following Arsenal players were brought in before their 18th birthday:

Fabregas
Senderos
Vela
Walcott
Ramsey
Djourou
Clichy
Mannone
Gibbs
Traore
Merida
Bendtner

That’s 12 out of 29, or 41.4% first-team players. All of whom Arsenal would not have been able to sign (at the point when they signed for us, anyway) had Blatter’s proposed system been in place.

Such a system would be bad for the players, bad for the game, and most importantly, bad for Arsenal, so here’s hoping it never comes to pass. But it’s definitely something that bears watching.

Apparently they have now come out and said that they will not be instituting a regular program of reviewing suspected acts of simulation for possible suspensions. So, basically, Eduardo gets suspended, and none of the other scores of players who have committed or will commit virtually identical acts will. Sounds fair, right?

I mean, I know we’re biased, but I would think that all football fans have to stop laughing at Arsenal for a second and realize how truly, profoundly messed up this is. I honestly don’t even know where to begin. But, to beat this dead horse one more time (quickly)–there have been a lot of dives in a lot of UEFA club competitions. Some of them have even, unlike Eduardo’s dive, had a big impact on the ultimate outcome. And yet, UEFA, after Celtic throws a fit and makes Eduardo the scapegoat for their first failure to qualify for the Champions League in sometime (I don’t know, I think maybe it was their inability to muster more than 2 shots on goal over 180 minutes of football, but I’m crazy like that) to deflect attention from how poorly they played and how, coming off of a league-winning season and getting group stage money that Celtic will not receive, Rangers are now the top dogs in Scotland, UEFA arbitrarily decides to ban him for 2 days. This, despite the fact that they have given no explanation as to what the standard or process used in this decision was. Then they basically come out and infer that this will not be an ongoing thing, just a one-time punishment. The best part was that they couldn’t even figure out how to fax the decision to Arsenal headquarters, and ended up to sending it to Arsenal Ladies headquarters. So basically, we have an arbitrary, one-time decision, made my a bunch of nitwits who can’t even figure out how to use a search engine or a phone book.

Really? How can we trust these people to make any kind of important decision? Let’s start talking about that European Super League idea sooner rather than later, because UEFA has shown time and again its incompetence and its contempt for big clubs, and I don’t see any reason why Arsenal and other clubs should continue to subject ourselves to Platini and his mindless henchmen. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is what finally drives Wenger off the cliffs of sanity, I can’t wait to hear his take on this, and you can’t blame him if he does go nuts. Given that the two matches Eduardo will potentially miss will be against Standard Liege and at home against Olympiakos, the fact is that I don’t think this will hurt us all that much from a pure football standpoint. But the principle of what has happened is deeply, deeply troubling. At least we can laugh at Chelsea.

This week, Adebayor came out and said that Arsenal fans made it “hard” for him. Well, you know what, Ade? You made it “hard” for me to watch my favorite team get spanked by Manchester United in the Champions League because you weren’t even trying to help the team win. According to Adebayor:

As a footballer, when you know that the club and the fans are behind you, it makes you want to give 100 per cent – and that is what happened on Saturday. It was very difficult for me at Arsenal. When I got the ball and tried to score a goal, even at home, the fans were still booing. That is something you cannot imagine. Now I am happy to be at a club where everyone loves me. The criticism I got at Arsenal was unfair. Clubs like AC Milan and Barcelona were in for me, but the fans could not understand why that happened. I don’t know if they think I am a poor player, but the important thing for me was to change clubs. That is all behind me now – I achieved a lot of things there and my record is not bad at all.

History hasn’t been this badly twisted and misrepresented since Michael Bay made that crapfest “Pearl Harbor.” The fact is that after the 2007-2008 season, Adebayor was beloved by Gunner fans, and could have been a North London legend. Fans only began to turn on him when he made a choice to disrespect the club by openly trying to leave the club. Here’s what I wrote in May when Adebayor criticized Arsenal fans in the media, and was dropped from the squad for the last game of the season with what was ostensibly a groin problem:

The other big news was that Adebayor was left out of the squad, ostensibly with a groin problem. But it’s worth noting that it did come one day after giving an interview criticizing Arsenal fans for not being more supportive of him this year. Arseblog has a great analysis of this situation, but it really comes down to this–some people get it, and some people don’t. Cesc, with the way he acts towards the fans and his fellow players, both on the pitch and in media interviews, gets it. Whenever a story pops up about him going to Barcelona pops up, he immediately comes out and says it’s not true, that he’s happy at Arsenal and staying at Arsenal. Adebayor, on the other hand, spent months in the offseason trying to engineer a move to Milan or Barcelona, then when it fell through tried to blame it all on his agent, saying he himself never wanted to move or tried to work out a move. Well, you know what? Your agent works for you. If I had an agent who was saying things that were untrue or misrepresenting my intentions, I’d first tell him to knock it off; if that didn’t work, I’d fire my agent, it’s really that simple.

And then, of course, there was the incident where Adebayor kissed the badge on his shirt at a preseason match, and was rightly booed. In the middle of the most important stretch of games this club has had in some time, he came out and compared being courted by Milan to being courted by Beyonce, which I think shows volumes about his priorities and focus. And now he claims that the fans haven’t been supportive enough, and didn’t sing his song as much this year as last year? Well, you know what, Ade? Fans generally sing your song when you score goals, or at least look like you give a crap whether your team wins or loses. Last year you scored 29 goals. This year you scored 15. Do you want them to sing your song to glorify your half-hearted jogging around in a Champions League semifinal game against one of your biggest rivals?

The bottom line is this–I think Adebayor’s ego has gotten too big, and while you can certainly have an ego (it didn’t stop us from loving Henry), when you’re so completely self-centered that you have little regard for the club, its fans, or your teammates, it’s just not feasible for you to stay at Arsenal. We probably won’t get the fee we could have gotten for him last year, but you don’t think Manchester City would pony up £20-£25 million for him? And while it’s not Milan or Barcelona, Adebayor is clearly someone who cares a lot about money–if Manchester City were to give him £100-£120 thousand pounds a week, does anyone think he wouldn’t take that and a chance to pair up with Robinho? If we could get that, I say we jump at the chance–Adebayor’s a talented player who is world-class when he wants to be, but all too often, he can’t be bothered. I’d rather get a return on him and spend the money on a player who wants to play for Arsenal and help us win trophies.

Bam! Move over Miss Clio! I nailed the team and the transfer fee on the head! But self-aggrandizing aside, I stand by everything I said–he was the one that ruined his relationship with the Arsenal fans. He couldn’t have honestly believed that he could openly court bids from other teams, then when there was no interest, come back like nothing happened, kiss the badge in a preseason game, and be fully embraced again by the N5 faithful. He wanted it both ways–he wanted to play for Milan or Barcelona, not Arsenal, and when that didn’t work out, he expected us to pretend like it doesn’t happen.

But that’s not the way it works. If your girlfriend tells you you’re ugly and then proceeds to spend all night throwing herself at a couple of rich, collar-popping, cologne-drenched d-bag fratboys, only to get turned down, she can’t just come back over to you, give you a kiss, and expect her to take her home like it didn’t just happen. She just can’t. And it’s the same with footballers and their clubs. You either want to play for Arsenal if you don’t. Cesc has the chance to leave Arsenal for a “bigger” club on a more or less weekly basis. But he loves Arsenal and wants to be here, so he doesn’t leave. And we love him for it. Contrary to what Adebayor would have you believe, Arsenal fans are great fans, and we’re very loyal to our players. We just expect the same in return, and that’s what Adebayor can’t get through his thick head.

He just doesn’t get it, and he probably never will. And as for his contention that the Manchester City fans are better than we are, I would humbly say this–give them time, Ade. If they can put up with three years of your openly trying to leave them for other clubs and putting in shockingly indifferent performances in important games, and they’re still 100% behind you, then come talk to me about supportive fans. Until then…

Arsene Wenger has told the official website that:

“We have some problems. We have Theo Walcott (back), who is not available. Diaby has a little groin problem but he could be available. [Also] we have lost Johan Djourou and Lukasz Fabianksi because they had injuries. Lukasz had a cartilage surgery. He will be out for two months. Johan has a knee problem that will take some time to cure – one month. Thomas Vermaelen played 45 minutes for Belgium last night and came through OK so he will be available. Tomas Rosicky is two weeks away. Samir Nasri [is out] three-and-a-half weeks now. But it will be six or seven weeks until he is available for training.”

What. The. Frak. How have we lost six players before we’ve even played a game? And we’ve got Gallas fit, Vermaelen is “available,” and then after that, you’ve got Senderos, who’s unsettled and may not even dress against the team he will probably be playing for in a week or so, and then Silvestre. To make this point absolutely clear–IT’S THE FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON, AND THERE’S A GOOD CHANCE SILVESTRE WILL BE STARTING AT CENTER BACK. NOT OKAY, WENGER. Not okay.

I hope Diaby can come through his “little groin problem.” Chin up, Abou–I hear size doesn’t matter. In all seriousness, this is pretty distressing. I’m not sure how we’ve got that many people injured, especially since we haven’t played all week. Ugh. I’ll get into this in tomorrow’s preview, but I think between the injuries and Vela flying back from Mexico, our options will be pretty limited, lineup-wise.

There’s a music biz joke that goes: Q: How do you know when Morrissey is on tour? A: When he’s cancelling shows.

I guess the football analogy would be: Q: How do you know it’s football season? A: When Arsene Wenger is having to piece together a patchwork lineup.

Sigh.

It is undeniable that the idea has some superficial appeal. Like pretty much everyone else, I suppose, I have an inner 80-year old who thinks “Why, these players today, they make too much money! And these transfer fees are out of control! Why, back in my day….,” etc., etc. A salary cap, the theory goes, would keep player wages in check, and force teams to be more thrifty and thoughtful in their spending instead of simply throwing money at players.

There’s also the notion, which I believe is probably true, that a salary cap would provide more parity in the Premiership. If, for example, Blackburn and Manchester United were to spend the same amount of money in wages, their teams would theoretically be much closer in quality than they are at present (although due to prestige, fan support, etc., you’d have to think United would still be a substantially better team). Specifically, many of the big sides stockpile expensive talent only to have it sit on the bench–I believe at one point last season Spurs fielded a reserve side of quite a few players who had been bought for over £10 million. For example, if there had been a salary cap, it’s doubtful Chelsea would have been able to pay someone like Wayne Bridge such a high wage when he wasn’t even a member of the first team. So those types of players would now be starting at the Aston Villas, Boltons, and Evertons of the league, which would improve those squads and make the league more competitive, and pose a greater threat to the Big 4 monopoly.

So far, so good, right? More reasonable player salaries, which probably result in lower ticket prices; and a more competitive league in which the best players in the league actually play instead of sitting on the big clubs’ benches. So what’s the problem?

There are several, unfortunately. First off, unlike the examples cited by Gazidis, like the National Football League and the National Basketball Association here in the states, the EPL isn’t head and shoulders above any other league in the world. While most believe it is the preeminent league in the world, Spain and Italy both have premier soccer leagues which belong in the conversation, and France, Portugal, and Germany are not too far behind. The NFL and NBA can afford to have a salary cap because there’s really nowhere else for their players to go (although this has started to change a bit recently in basketball)–if they lower salaries 15%, that’s by and large still much more money than the players can make anywhere else, and there’s nowhere else that offers a comparable level of play. So the players just have to accept it.

But that’s not the case with the EPL. If Manchester United and Chelsea had to cut their wage budget by 25%, the fact is that they would have to lose players, and pay players less. But why would someone take less at Chelsea when they could go play for more at AC Milan or Real Madrid? Those leagues offer a comparable quality of play and atmosphere, and you could make more money. The bottom line is that unless every major soccer league in Europe agrees to a salary cap, which will never, ever, ever, ever happen, any league that does institute a salary cap will only be handicapping itself in terms of its quality of play relative to Europe’s other leagues. While English soccer would no doubt survive and still enjoy widespread support, placing artificial limits on salaries would send some of its best players elsewhere, and reduce it to a strong, yet not elite, domestic league, along the lines of Ligue 1 or the Bundesliga.

That also means, of course, that English clubs would become also rans in the Champions League. Since some of the better players would be leaving for greener foreign pastures, and the big clubs would have to get rid of reserve players, who often allow Big 4 managers to rotate their squads to keep people fresh to participate in multiple competitions, EPL teams would be at a major disadvantage to clubs from other nations which didn’t have salary limitations. Spanish and Italian clubs, for example, would be able to field stronger, deeper squads, and would most certainly have the upper hand against English clubs.

For all its benefits, then, I think it’s fairly certain that a salary cap would likely have the effect of stripping the Premiership of its “best league in the world” status. And I, for one, am not anxious to see Premiership players bolting their clubs for Serie A or La Liga clubs, and I’m certainly not anxious to watch Inter, Barca, AC, Real, and Juve take turns lifting the Champions League trophy year after year.

The bottom line is that each club must be responsible for its own financial well-being. As an Arsenal supporter, I am very proud to support a club which has shown that a club can be competitive without a rich moneybags owner pouring his own cash into the club and without taking on massive amounts of debt which it can’t pay off. There’s really no reason a club can’t be self-sustaining and competitive, and it would certainly be nice if other clubs followed our lead. But the bottom line is that if a Mansour or Abramovich wants to operate their club at a loss by pouring hundreds of millions of pounds to satisfy their myriad personal inadequacies by buying a bunch of players who win a trophy and then being able to claim that they themselves won something, hey–it’s their club, and their money. You may think salaries are out of control, but the guys drawing those salaries are world-class athletes with unthinkable talent and skill, whom we’re willing to watch week in and week out, and pay money for tickets, replica shirts, etc. If the market pays it, it necessarily means that that’s what they’re worth. End of story. Obnoxious as they are, Manchester City are assembling an impressive collection of talent and seem primed to make a legitimate challenge to the Big 4, and I for one think it’s going to make this upcoming season very interesting. And I urge you not to pay much mind to all the chicken littles out there who claim otherwise.

Brown then filed a complaint with the FA, who wasted the time of Arsene Wenger and Cesc Fabregas with an investigation when our season was jam-packed with important fixtures. Of course, since the allegations were obviously fabricated and not supported by evidence, the charges against Fabregas were dismissed.

But lost in all that was that Brown himself had been charged by the FA for his postgame criticism of referee Mike Riley. And today, the FA returned a verdict and fined Brown. Granted, it’s only £2,500 + a warning about future conduct, but I still find it oddly satisfying. Perhaps Brown should spend less time making up accusations about players from other clubs, laying in the tanning bed, and worrying about Cesc’s pants and more time worrying about his own team. In fairness, he is a quality manager, and I do think it’s quite a feat that he kept that Hull side up last season, but he really showed no class at all in the aftermath of the FA Cup game, and was transparently desperate to do whatever it took to deflect criticism from his own management and the fact that his team couldn’t hold a lead late. I would say this fine was well and truly deserved.