Who’s gonna run this town tonight?*

Glad someone is taking this thing over, and congrats on putting forth the time to do so. However, with that comes writing integrity. I've seen bias from all of you at times as regular commentators, which in that capacity is completely fine, but when you're authoring the posts, I only ask that you all please your bias to the side.

"I do not think it means what you think it does."

Bias is inherent.

Don't worry Perry, Arshavin will receive a fair treatment from us.

There we go, I was waiting for one of you to take note of what I was indirectly saying. JG, you should be the admin of the admins.

I wonder what blog out there isn't written with a writer's bias? I personally would call it their perspective, but please tell me if there is one.

I am totally unbiased. Actually, more like supra-biased. I am beyond bias. I buy and sell bias for breakfast. 

Well I don't know anyone who doesn't have a bias in favor or against certain players, coaches, etc.  That's part of being a fan.  We have favorite players and such. 
I suppose we could write a super bland style to avoid any controversy, but that's not really what fan blogs are about.  Or at least I don't think so.  I hope we're not crazy reactionary writers just spouting off nonsense.  But we do have likes and dislikes and opinions.  Just like Martin and Sairax did, I would think.  We'll see.

Emperor Arsène "Caesar" Wenger publicly decreed four very interesting but
also very stupid statements last season that are going to haunt him and Arsenal
F.C. until he somehow manages to win a major trophy for Arsenal again, or he
decides to cash in his chips, retires from club football and finally ends up as
head coach of the French national team.

The emperor somehow managed to keep a straight face when he came up with
these four little nuggets of comedy-gold, 1. "This is my best squad ever". 2.
"This team has unbelievable mental strength". 3. "I would sign up right now for
second place for the next 20 years", and - my own personal favourite - 4. (on
the apparent lack of on-field leadership in the Arsenal team) "There is a big
cultural difference. For the English, sport is a combat. The English can't
imagine going into battle without a general. For the French, football is a form
of collective expression."

Each and every one of those statements should strike you - as a true Arsenal
fan - as immediately and obviously ridiculous, but what worries me most is, what
in the world are the players thinking when they hear Le Boss spouting such utter
tripe? Do they think that he's finally gone completely mental? Or do they pity
him as an idealistic and romantic old fool who has lost touch with the real
world and who, in his lonely world of idealistic isolation, stubbornly refuses
to listen to anyone else? Possibly even on occasion ignoring his own better
judgement about the true abilities of some of his players, so clouded is his
judgement by the emotional and financial commitment he has made to this group of
players?

The problem for the emperor is that, while players like Fabregas and Van
Persie have developed into tailor-made designer suits, players like Almunia,
Eboue, Squillaci, Diaby, Denilson and Bendtner have only developed into a
skid-marked pair of Primark pants - which only goes to show that, although you
can sometimes get some fantastic deals on a bit of clobber in the sales, you
usually get what you pay for.

The recent comments and behaviour of some of our players would suggest that
some of the current Arsenal squad can see that their glorious leader, Arsène
"Caesar" Wenger, is wandering around completely naked and that the time has come
for them to jump ship before they are dragged down into the murky depths of his
tragically-flawed, failed footballing philosophy. They have been sharpening
their knives for Caesar with some lazy, uncommitted, mentally-weak, error-strewn
performances for some years now, but some of their words and actions recently
must surely cut deeper into Wenger’s heart than any blade could ever reach. I'm
so disgusted by it all that I simply can't imagine what Arsène Wenger must be
thinking to himself right now.

Arsène Wenger can't be sleeping too well lately. Rumour has it that he can't
lie on his back (he can only tell a lie when he's standing up anyway, see points
1-4 for details) and that's probably due to all the knives that he has had
plunged in between his shoulder blades by his players recently. It must be so
uncomfortable for him to be publicly humiliated like this by the all the little
monsters that he has created. Like a real-life Dr. Frankenstein, Wenger is
suffering at the hands of his own creation in a bitter twist in his story at
Arsenal that may just finish poor old Emperor Wenger off. Wenger has
successfully brainwashed and mesmerised his players into believing that they are
the second coming of the Invincibles, when they are clearly more like the bloody
Invisibles most of the time. The fact that he has some of these kids believing
that they are Zidane or Maradona should be worthy of a medal in itself, as it is
undoubtedly one of the most amazing motivational achievements in the history of
world football.

Arsène Wenger should be afraid, very afraid. Arsène Wenger has lost the faith
and respect of his players, meaning that he has therefore literally lost his
dressing room. When that happens to a manager, it usually means that it's just a
matter of time before he gets the axe or chooses to jump overboard from his
sinking ship before he is forced to walk the plank by his own mutinous crew.
Remember Big Phil Scolari at Chelsea? Or Ruud Gullit at Newcastle? Just two
examples of great men who certainly know a thing or two about football, but
couldn't control the over-inflated egos and the bad eggs in their dressing
rooms.

I take no pride in criticising Wenger, as I was once one of his greatest
supporters, but after that groundhog season we've just had, I've pretty much had
enough now. It hurts to see someone you used to idolise become a laughing stock,
a living, breathing walking, talking caricature of himself, and this serial
abuse of Arsenal fans has to stop - now. Full stop. Arsenal fans can no longer
be expected to put up with mediocre players who can't even be bothered to try
their best on a consistent basis because they have been convinced that they are
the finished article. They actually think that they are superstars! Even though
they haven't won anything! Hilarious, isn't it? They all seem completely
convinced that they are individually not the problem but that everyone else in
the squad is the problem.

I don't want to watch Wenger continue to fail, I don't revel in the
misfortunes of Arsenal F.C. I want to see him win things again, but unless he
signs the modern equivalents of Sol Campbell, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry
this summer it's just so not going to happen for him, I’m afraid, simply because
of the way that he sets his team up to play the beautiful game.

In order for Wengerball to be effective, you need a sh*t-hot world-class
team, and we have mostly a very decent-looking under-21 side at the very best.
This current squad is nowhere near a world class team. No it is not. Remember
the golden age, the good old times, remember when we had Pires, Henry, Bergkamp,
Ljungberg and Vieira all in the same team? Now that was Wenger’s best squad
ever. This new squad isn’t fit to lace their boots, but Emperor Arsène seems to
have them thinking that they are all so very fabulous, even the ones who aren't
World Cup finalists like Fabregas and Van Persie.

This all started for me when I heard the news that Cesc Fabregas was shooting
his mouth off back in April this year. He said "From 2007, I had already started
saying ‘we're not winning, but we're playing well’. And then you realise that's
no use. You enjoy yourself, during a phase of the championship - like this year,
for example, when we were still in four different competitions. And you say to
yourself 'here I have everything!' But then that final point is missing and it's
then when you have to make a decision: either go out and win, or develop
players."

Fabregas also discussed why Wenger was not under more pressure following
Arsenal's lack of trophies. "It's different here," the Spain midfielder added.
"The coach is an intelligent person and the club values other things - that the
team is always in the Champions League, that they fight until the end, bring
through young players, economic stability. I guess that, for the board, that is
important. Although I imagine there will be a moment when you have to take the
plunge...either you win or you don't win."

The Spanish midfielder believes his side are lacking a few important
ingredients to challenge the domination that Manchester United and Chelsea have
enjoyed over recent seasons. "It's difficult. For me it's more a lack of a
winning mentality, also of maturity in key moments," he said. "We have plenty of
quality but lack this bit of confidence. The problem is that the team needs to
win something. That's why it was so important to win the Carling Cup. We needed
this cup to be able to believe in ourselves as a team. (Robin) Van Persie has
won an FA Cup as I have, but there's no more. Nobody in the team has won
anything. We are missing that ability to say: 'now I know what it is to win and
I know what it takes to win'. That's what made the Arsenal team of 'The
Invincibles' so strong, they knew how to win games, when to dig in, when to
attack, they had a special intelligence to read games. Now we are very
young."

Now I'm not going to say that what Cesc is saying isn't accurate. I'm just
questioning whether it was the right thing to come out and say while he is still
the Arsenal captain. He forgets to mention that, if it wasn't for Wenger's
"Project Youth", he would never have got his big chance and would not be the
player that he is today without Arsenal F.C. and its fans. As if those comments
weren't enough of a slap in the face to Wenger, his team mates and the fans of
Arsenal F.C., then spending the final day of the season in Barcelona (of all
places!) at the Grand Prix was the icing on the bitter-tasting cake of his
betrayal.

You really don't care about Arsenal anymore, do you Cesc? You've got
Barcelona on the brain again. You forget that Arsenal and Arsène Wenger made you
what you are today and you could easily stay for a couple of more years and go
back home when you are 26 and Barcelona might actually need you. Barcelona don't
need you, but we at Arsenal do and, if you leave us now, when we need you the
most and Arsenal plunge down the Premier League table, many Arsenal fans will
never ever forgive you for leaving. Call yourself a captain? A true captain
either heroically steers his ship to safety or goes down with it. Motorsport is
obviously more important to you than Arsenal is, so why oh why did you ever dare
to kiss our beloved badge? How very painful for Wenger that his captain and
poster-child for Project Youth is now deserting him when he truly needs him the
most. Cheers, Cesc mate! F*** you very much, culo! By all means privately
pressure the boss to sign international superstars, but I think that you are
just doing your laundry in public to excuse your desire to return to the warm
embrace of your idol Pep Guardiola and. if (as some people are suggesting) he
ends up transferring to any other team than his much-beloved Barcelona, he will
lose whatever shred of respect that he still has among the Arsenal faithful.

There was Wenger walking around with this great big knife sticking out of his
back that Fabregas so unceremoniously plunged into it but did Denilson or
Bendtner come to his aid and try to pull it out? Did they f***! They both
decided that it was a good time to come out and publicly declare their desire to
leave Arsenal!

Denilson said "and most of all the boss suffers it worst of all and that
makes me sad, because he is a great man and a great manager." Denilson says
Wenger has been brilliant in dealing with his desire to leave. "I went to see
him and told him of my decision and he understood. "He says he will not stand in
my way and, if the club receives a good offer for me, I can go. I was so
relieved to hear that. I am very grateful. Not every manager would have been
like Arsène Wenger, not every club would act like Arsenal. I know in a year's
time I might regret it and be wishing I'd stayed. I may go somewhere and find
it's just not the same. But my heart tells me I have to take that risk, I have
to be honest with myself, be true to myself. I am a footballer and I want to
play every week because I want the chance to play for Brazil. Look at Lucas at
Liverpool. He's been playing regularly and he's in the Brazil team. That's where
I want to be. I would love to be able to do that at Arsenal, but, based on how
things have gone this season, I think it's time for a change. So I am flying
home to Brazil on Sunday and I'm hoping I can make a fresh start in Spain or
maybe Italy."

Wenger isn't going to stand in your way because you are useless, and the fact
that you are behind Lucas in the Brazilian national team pecking-order should
tell you and everybody else just how good you actually are. This is how you
repay the man who has stuck by you through thick and thin? Publicly declaring
your desire to leave, therefore driving your price even lower than it was
already?

Bendtner obviously thinks that Denilson is a genius because he then declared:
"I have decided 100% that I must leave Arsenal. I've considered this for a long
time and was quite clear when I arrived at my decision. It doesn't feel
particularly strange to not know what my future holds - I'm quite calm and
confident that I'll be fine at a new club. I'm fully focused on Saturday's game
for now, because it is incredibly important, but after the international is over
I may focus more directly on my future [but] I am sure I could easily go on
holiday without having to panic about it. I'm looking to relax, mentally, after
a season that was not what I hoped for or expected."

Yes Niklas, we get it. You are indeed a very confident young man but only you
know where that confidence comes from. Arsène Wenger has also stuck by you for
way longer than he should have, and this is how you repay him? Good riddance to
you and your mate Denilson, if we can find anyone stupid enough to buy you, that
is.

If all those knives weren't enough for Arsène's rickety old back to take, it
looks like Clichy and Nasri are angling for either parity with Cesc's £115,000 a
week or a cut-price transfer. How Clichy has the cheek to ask for more than
£60,000 a week is beyond me but he is holding Old Arsène to ransom, knowing full
well that Gibbs is not ready to take over yet and that Leighton Baines would be
very expensive to buy from Everton.

Et tu Nasri? We even managed to get a new song together for you that you said
that you liked. You are a great young player but you only average about 9 goals
and 5 assists a season (27 goals, 15 assists total). Is that really worth
Lampard’s, Gerrard’s or Fabregas’ wages just yet? By publicly flirting with Man
United, you are breaking all of our hearts and delivering the latest knife into
your mentor’s back. If you also don't believe that you owe Arsenal or Arsène
anything, then I think that I'm starting to fall out of love with football, due
to greedy little c***s like yourself and Wayne Rooney. You are behaving just
like Ashley Cole, Adebayor, Hleb and Flamini did towards us. Please don't join
them on the list of ungrateful scum - we love you!

It appears that Gallas was right. It hurts so much to write that. Whether you
love him or hate him, you have to admit that William Gallas was right to
criticise Arsene's precious little cherubs; he was just wrong to do it so
publicly. Yes, he committed the cardinal sin of joining the scum, but I feel
that it was more of a two-fingered gesture to the Arsenal manager and board by
him rather than borne from any kind of ill feeling towards the Arsenal fans.

Gallas is a lunatic. Everybody knows that he is borderline certifiable and
Wenger of all people must have known that he was at least a little bit
unbalanced before he signed him. Before William Gallas had even pulled on an
Arsenal shirt for the first time, he had already been quoted as saying that he
would score an own goal against Chelsea or get himself sent off if they refused
to sell him. Gallas then responded by claiming that the unnamed Chelsea source
was lying but I could see him saying something mental like that, couldn't
you?

He was put in charge of Wenger's fledgling squad back in 2007, and I can't
help but think that he cracked under the pressure of an impossible job. No
wonder he was crying on the pitch like a big sulking baby after watching Clichy
give away a penalty at Birmingham. He had to share a dressing room with that
bunch of mercenary, delusional, backstabbing bastards! It must have made the
move to the Scum almost a seamless transition for him.

As modern football fans, it seems like we should get used to all these stupid
comments and mercenary shenanigans from foreign players and hope that great
young players like Wilshere, Ramsey and Walcott will show a bit more loyalty and
respect in a few years’ time, if they develop as we all hope that they will.

Fulham have a statue of Michael Jackson and we have a bust of Arsène Wenger.
Arsène Wenger has become like Michael Jackson after all of his ill-advised
plastic surgery. No-one will tell him to his face what they really think as they
are obviously only around for the money but, perversely, have no problem
whatsoever in sticking the knife in as soon as his back is turned.
Disgusting.
 

Blog Comment...FAIL.

seriously, dude - like Darren said, go get your own blog. Some folks around here agree with some of your points and I'm as longwinded as they come but geezus fkg krist - get a grip. You could've said what you wanted to in half the amount of bandwidth you took - and even that would've been novella-length. Sheesh.

you should reight your own blog

Welcome to the Arsenal church brother, but rooting for the Bruins from North London for Game 7! Go, go black and gold!!!

Good luck guys!!! Lets keep this website going!!
Cheers to Martin and Sairax!
Lots of exclamation marks.

Brenton,
You didn't mention it, but I'm guessing you're pretty pumped about the Canucks right about now, right?  I'm currently basking in the glow of the Dallas Mavericks title, which was totally unexpected around these parts.  Feels nice though.  I don't have to rely on Arsenal to make me sports happy at the moment. 

Game 6 tonight!!!!

The other day the Canucks, the Canadian national team and the Whitecaps all played on the same night, with all three games overlapping. My PVR was on overload. 

What was with Nowitzki leaving the game before cheering with his teammates?

He had to go do a big sports guy cry.  And he didn't want that in public.  Then he came back out and celebrated big.  If he were a citizen, he could easily run for mayor or whatever he wanted.  He's the king around here these days.

He said afterward that he was about to start crying but didn't want people to see him do it, so apparently he just went to the locker room, cried, and went back out for the trophy/MVP celebration.

I'm really happy for him and Terry and Kidd, and really, really, really happy that Miami lost.

From the above 3 comments, there are about 217 words I didn't understand. It sometimes sucks to be European, let me tell you.

It's ok. I'm from the US and couldn't care less about our many "American" sports (basketball, baseball, football, etc). The only thing that gets my blood going is the real football!

I love it when the rare Americans pop up and call their "soccer" real football :D

I think of it as football and American football or hand egg as it should be called since in American football only one person on the team uses their feet and its not a ball, but more of a pointy egg.

I don't follow basketball, but I don't like Miami. So, yay Mavericks!

Thx Brenton. All the luck to all you guys, I will continue to write and cry around here hahaha.
So you are Canadian as mommy, well that doent change things so drastic! Good!
Thx to all of you for taking over, I think I speak for a lot of people when i I say that I really appreciate it.

Wonderful.  Grats to you (and I'll extend it to everyone in the official intro post when it goes up). 

You guys are my favorite memebers of ArsenalTheOffside and im so happy you guys are taking over