middlesborough 4 - manchester utd 1

man usa suffered a sound thrashing at the riverside today, with mendieta showing a glimmer of his formerly brilliant form to snatch man of the match honors with a brace. there's so much to say and giggle about, but i need to go for now. more to come...

...well it's later and i think i am going to just leave it alone. i will mention, however, that i felt really bad for the man utd fans today. getting pounded is never easy for a giant team like man utd, but to have the salt rubbed into their wounds with the riverside fans chanting "u.s.a." must really suck. they never asked glazer to come and buy their team, but they're going to be paying the price for years to come.

p.s. i still loved to watch them get their ass kicked, though. sorry, mateo.

pires...and other matters

it is a testament to how good robert pires is, and how much he means to arsenal fans, that no matter how hard the media tried to mock him for his failed penalty kick last week, i heard no arsenal fans taking the piss out of him. in fact, it is henry that we are all pissed at because it was his stupid idea, and then he had the nerve to declare himself the sole penalty taker as though things would have been different if he had had the ball.

maybe they would have, but pires' successful penalty kick was excellent, so sit down and shut it, thierry.

back to pires: he was excellent today against spurs. apart from ljungberg and lauren, arsenal played crap in the first half. but after pires and van persie came on things changed for the better. and then pires took his beautiful chance off of robinson's hand and secured the draw.

it was a thrilling game for both sets of fans today, but arsenal fans really need to push wenger to make sure he resigns pires. we'll miss him far more than we miss viera, and i don't want to see us without him.

and while i am talking about the old boys, it's time for arsene to park bergkamp's ass on the bench and bring him in as a sub. van persie is just too good and he needs the playtime that brilliant but slow bergkamp is hogging. i love dennis, but his time is passing. make way for the new boy.

debating the future of the arse

andrzej:

Ok, you have Gatti, I would agree with you, maybe that's exactly the person Arsenal needs. But then you have the spoiled kid Torres, who is going to scream after 1 year that he wants to go to Real, Juve or Milan. Gudjohnsen, hmm yeah, he would be good. He is loyal and effective, exactly the kind of player Arsenal fans are used to. Maybe instead of Torres I would pick someone more domestic. Arsenal forgot about the domestic talents. Players like Rooney, Owen, Smith, they could have all played at Arsenal, and they would stay there for a while. British style, accepting the spotlight but not exegarating.

brad:

okay, i see your point with torres, and i have to say i would really love rooney. but i think we have a realistic shot at torres, and there's no way any of the english strikers you named are possible, although it did raise an interesting possibility in my head: darren bent of charlton athletic. not at all spoiled, creative, and a great touch for goal.

i figured torres was a short term acquisition anyway. he can stay just long enough for van persie, lupoli and abeyie to mature. then we don't need him at all and we can sell him to barca or madrid for another nice fee.

andrzej:

Ok, now I see what you mean ,I think you might be right right, Torres is a realistic shot, but I would sell on top of Henry Reyes as well. Not immediately, that would be too big of a schock for the tactic, but he would be the next one to go. The success of ManU and Arsenal was the continuity of the first eleven, players that lose their focus too fast are not a good asset for this team.
Well, we will see.. Hmm by the way, I always forget to ask you: Have you ever played the Championship manager series? I think you would fall in love with that. Now they switched to Football Manager (sega), a new version has just been released - Football Manager 2006. I will burn it for you as soon as I get it myself. I have been playing it since 1998.. It's just amazing, not like any other soccer manager. I think I wasted a good 6 months of my life in front of that game, any real soccer enthousiast would. It's incredible how the game has evolved. Right now.. ach i can't describe it, you would have to try it if you already didn't.
Altough it might not be such a good idea since you value the time spend with your children.. It is extremely addictive, because it's so real. Creepy how it can suck you in. I almost cried once when i won the Eredevisie and the Champions leaugue with Ajax without spending more than 3$ dollars on new players in one season. I think I did cry...

henry needs to go

now he's saying he's going to take all the penalty kicks. last time i checked your name was henry not wenger. who knew the boy from martinique was going to turn in to fucking napoleon? henry can't leave fast enough for me. let's make sol the captain and sell henry's ass to barca.

let's get eidur gudjohnsen, gattuso and torres. that's all we'll need.