Have you ever………..? by Charles Veritie
It was one of those Monday morning rush hours that are a habit of London. Thick dark clouds low in the sky and the rain dripping off the end of your nose.
For thousands of us to get to the street, we had first to get past the ticket man at the exit of the train platform. As I was squashed forward towards him, so I saw that the look on the ticket man’s face was as miserable as the weather outside. On impulse I called out to him:
“Tell me. What don’t you like about your job?”
His reply brought a smile to the faces of those who heard his answer.
I swear his lips never moved but I heard him say in railway speak: “peoplewhoaskquestions.”
In our travellers language: “People who ask questions”.
Here are a few Arsenal Monday morning questions.
Feel free to add your own question to my short list.
Have you ever wondered why fouls against our players go unpunished by the four referees? (Man City should have had at least 2 red cards.)
Have you ever wondered why if a manager speaks publicly about a clear wrong decision, he is accused of bringing the game into disrepute and fined, but no referee has ever been accused of bringing the game into disrepute, no matter how bad his decision?
Have you ever wondered why that when Manure have a new manager that manager is given 6 – 7 games before playing one of the top teams and the same for Manc, Chelski and Looserpool? But Arsenal!
Have you ever wondered why ‘the time wasting rule’ are not applied by referees?
Have you ever wondered why there are no referees from London in the premier league yet there are several from the north west.
Have you ever wondered when was the last time a London referee, refereed in the top division?
Have you ever wondered why the newspapers, the TV channels and the bloggers go on and on about rumours (which are lies disguised as truth) of player transfers but never, talk about the true events in football?
Have you ever wondered about the 100 or so players that were reported by the papers and TV and bloggers as definitely coming to Arsenal but didn’t, are now?
Have you ever wondered why when a player leaves Arsenal that is usually the end of our interest in him, until that is the media report comments he has made about the present team and then we discuss him and his comments endlessly?
‘Now for something completely different.’
If you have read this, and English is not your first language try saying this quickly.
If a nurse becomes ill, does the nurse, nursing the nurse, nurse the nurse in the way the nurse wants to be nursed?
Charles Veritie
Charles where are you from,that is wonderful
Nice article.But you must know one thing that the world is not an ideal place no matter how we apply ourselves to make it perfect or good not least in football which there are over 1000 questions which we can ask.
Guys see the video on this site, maybe there’s actually hope under emery
https://www.givemesport.com/1372293-arsenal-fan-makes-interesting-analysis-video-of-unai-emerys-tactics-vs-man-city?autoplay=off
we still look like orphans when it comes to premier league management .we better look for how we shall survive as an orphan.
It is useless to moan, unless you want to be like Moaninho. I just want Emery to cut all the crappy players that rarely win in one-on-one situations and the ones that always slow down the counterattack
Arsenal need more direct attack with vicious wingers, not with another tiki-taka scheme, because the players simply do not have enough skills to play like Barcelona:
…………………..Cech
Bellerin . Sokratis . Mustafi . Monreal
………………..Torreira
……Guendouzi …….. Maitland-Niles
……………….Lacazette
……Nelson……………….Aubameyang
Lol Kev I think 1 of the questions is about you
Article sounds like someone thinks arsenal don’t get the run of the green and there’s some conspiracy against us
Great,,,,
But here’s mine.
Leno
Bel …..Mustaf…..Socrat….Monrel
Goudenzi…..Torera…..Ramsey
Iwobi
Auba……Lacazete
I like the idea of using Iwobi as a false nine, because he has good close control and pretty tall as well
Aubameyang and Lacazette can cut inside from the wings or cross to the midfielders
Lichtsteiner must start against Chelsea; he is presently a class above Bellerin.
?
Small chan,,,
GK: Leno
Def:
Bel…..Mustaf…Socrates….Montreal/AMN
CM: Goudenzi…..Torera….AMN
AM: Iwobi
Att: Auba….Lacaz
Emery should forget about Ozil.
Pressing and counter attack football are two different things.
Counter attack is usually sit back, let the opponents come at you and look to regain the ball in our own half when they have players out of pos and ready for pace to exploit.
Pressing is the opposite, it is what we seen City do to us with success. They do not sit back and wait, they step up to the ball and give whoever it is no time to pick a pass.
Thought you may need to know what the difference is as you seem to be saying we should play counter attack football but Emery has consistently said we need to be our own main character in this story, we need to control the game… This is more towards the pressing and not the counter.
To highlight the counter, it is what Wenger used to win titles and he then changed to try and become Barca mk2 which aiding in his downfall, just watch the early games and how often we allowed the opposition to push and then BANG ball was released, TH14 (or Anelka before) zipped through and Arsenal scored yet another beautiful goal.
Counter attacking football is good but that is a deep press system, only really pressed the ball when it got in our own half and then pressed fast to win the ball back and counter.
Lastly, Mkhi never seemed to be the issue at BvB for slowing down their fast attacks, you seem to have dropped him though and it feels like you lumped him into that category. You ignoring their time at BvB? On purpose?
Maybe Mkhitaryan would play well as a right winger
I did not include him because I feel Nelson is more explosive with his pace and stamina
Hmm, see as people are just posting lineups here, maybe there’s a hidden Ferguson or guardiola in someone here
Nice article hve lots of them need an article!!! Ever wondered y arsenal fans loose hope at the first huddle……. Why stan is the major shareholder of our beloved ARSENAL
Have you ever wondered about people who talk about tactics but lack an understanding about the tactic. (Let’s play a false 9 and fast wingers because we do not have any passers of the ball, players like Ozil or Mkhi…, instead, we should use a false 9 and use pacey wingers… which we do not have and need to sign but can’t as window slammed shut)
Have you ever wondered why people who slate Wenger for not training/coaching our squad to defend then go onto moaning about the def players not progressing good enough. (Kinda obvious players will not progress as fast as they could if parts of their development is left blank, isn’t it?)
Have you ever wondered why people would moan about favouritism by Wenger yet jump on the bandwagon of Leno even Cech should be picked iof going off form instead of favouritism.
Have you ever wondered why Emery isn’t being given enough time by some Arsenal fans, demanding instant success and the City loss is ‘Typical Arsenal’, nothing has changed blah blah.
Hmm, Maybe some of the posts could be done in a song mocking Elvis “Did ya ever” song 😛
Have’ja ever… (ever)
Have’ja ever wond..
Have’ja ever wondered why…..
A clever but wrong article Charles. You have a paranoia about refs hating us and I just totally disagree. Refs are not biased as you claim. Of course we , like all clubs , have had diabolical decisions given against us, but to think it is only ARSENAL WHO ARE VICTIMS OF WRONG REFS DECISIONS IS ONE SIDED, WRONG, AND UNFAIR. PARANOIA IS THE BEST AND MOST ACCURATE DESCRIPTION i CAN GIVE FOR YOUR ODD VIEWS.
Jon. Thank you for your comment
On reading your comment, I again read through my article as published here.
I have provided questions. I have not provided opinions.
Charles , absolutely correct, I wonder about these same things all the time. I’ve been sending emails to the PGMOL for the five years complaining about their northern referees. Never a word back. I’ve even wrote to the football ombudsman who at least had the decency to send me a reply regarding the referee question with”I see nothing sinister here”. I’ve even had some educated people on these pages such as my good friend Jon Fox who’s always told me decisions work out even at the end of the year. and these northern referees show no bias, their just bad officials Funny thing is I still believe Northerners think it’s their game and us Southerners are bunking in. This, believe it or not, was the attitude in early 1900’s and still is. I’ll carry on moaning but don’t hold much hope of a remedy.
Here’s another one for you Charles. As a referee no one hated us and especially Arsene Wenger more than former referee Mike Riley. It was him who gave the disgraceful penalty decision against Sol Campbell on Rooney that ended our 49 match unbeaten run. Known in football circles as a massive Manchester United fan who over a course of 9 months while refereeing 11 Manchester United games gave Ruud van Nistelroy 11 penalties and this at a time when United were Arsenal’s only challenger for the Premier League. This man is now head of PGMOL, the body control all referees in the Premier league. The day he got this job I said to a friend ,”we’ll never win the Premier league again while he’s in charge of the referees” and so far that’s been the case.
Kenny, You misquote me. I never said “decisions work out even at the end of the year”, though I have said Northern refs are not biased . There are bad refs( almost ALL OF THEM) from almost every county in England but NOT biased. I just don’t buy this conspiracy theory of yours and others against Arsenal. If refs are bent, which is what you are in effect saying, then our sport is not worth watching or following. The many problems we have had during the last decade were caused by a manager not fit to manage us and a board and owner also unfit for purpose. This “work out even” phrase and theory which is often used, is untrue, and was never said or believed by me. In the long run(decades) , the theory and the law of large numbers will always tend to slightly even out discrepancies against any one club, BUT that is quite different from “working out even over a season.” Lastly, all clubs have many fans who think refs are biased against them and they too, are wrong.
Jon , bent is a strong word, bent referees take money to influence the result I honestly don’t think our refs take money to influence the results, but it’s the small decisions, the 50 50’s, the Chambers handball incident last year and several Mike Dean decisions over the past few years that have continually gone against us. How many times has a harmless tackle in the box led to a penalty. The crowd go hush, thinking, the ref could give this , then someone like Michael Oliver points to the spot, Mike Riley’s 11 penalties in 11 games for Manchester United, do you think that’s coincidental and Riley’s run in’s with Wenger didn’t help neither.In fact Wenger was very much to blame for a lot of these bad calls, he might have a degree in economics but when it comes to a bit psychology, he’s clueless. Psychology plays a big part in our game and Wenger’s continual moaning at refs didn’t help at all. For example look at Klopp with his arm around the fourth official, he knows exactly how to get the 50 50’s and the small decisions. At the end of the day their worth a point a game.
Kenny, I agree with you on Riley. It is interesting that no English referee was good enough to officiate at the world cup.
Ozziegunner, The PGMOL is a closed organisation, they answer to no one. Even respected journalists get no answers from them, they behave like a secret organisation and Mike Riley is their leading figure. They’re the body responsible for appointing all of our referees. Although none of our referees were appointed to the World Cup the PGMOL took no responsibility, just brushed it under the carpet. Many journalists have asked serious questions and got no answers. My question is, why not?