Over the years I have seen John Terry developing from a good young player to a formidable competitor and player.
After he was run over by Freddie Ljungberg in the final of the FA cup 2002 he has gone from strength to strength and his character seems to made for being on a football pitch. 4 years ago i started to secretly admire him, but since he became the captain of England my admiration of him have started to fade.

It is becoming more clear for me that John Terry (or the more popular name JT), more personifies a simple brut than an intelligent sportsman. His actions on the pitch are bullish and interviews are simple and uninteresting, his speech is full of clichés extracted from The Sun or The Mirror.

But the reason I am writing the blog post is because the Champions league final in Moscow last year and the spit claim, where John Terry came out in the press denying the accusations. His good friend Mr. Lampard also coming out speaking about John’s fine character.

I think it’s outrageous that he slipped away from this action, as it was 100% clear on the television footage that he actually blew his nose in the direction of Carlos Tevez face, an action I think is equally if not worse than spitting. Hence I was mighty pleased to see his sullen face walking out after missing his penalty. If John Terry has the fine character and personality that Mr. Lampard is talking about I believe John should have admitted he made a mistake, and then we could talk about character and personality.

Now John has now retained the England captaincy, and somehow it matches the England hardcore fans, the fans that have the English bulldog tattooed over the chest, agrees with The Sun and drives a white van.

In my opinion John Terry does not show the right qualities or being the role model an national team, captain should have, but who should capello give the captaincy too...Rio? 

Carl Ball

One signing has been done, a versatile defender, Mikael Silvestre have joined the Arsenal squad on a two year contract. It seems like Mr Wenger have parted with his principal of only awarding players over 30 one year contracts! 

What can we say about Silvestre then, Arsenal took one more step towards being totally french, the squad became more experianced, the squad became uglier(as in the looks) and I actually think the squad became better. 

When i try and look past the fact that Mr Silvestre proudly had a United shirt on his back less than 24 hours ago, i do think the signing will benefit us. Tomorrow I will read Mr Arsebloggers blog with a smile on my face, and i wonder how many times he can mention "fish"

One more signing to go....now he got the time!

 Carl Ball

 I read today that Dennis Latcher said that Arsenal is the only top 4 club in england that do not pay large salaries. This was of course in relation to a transfer for Arshavin from Zenit to Arsenal. 

Dennis, are you completly taking the piss or do you have a brain damage. When i lived in UK my annum pay was 44000 pounds, which is a decent paycheck for the many people, i dont think anyone in the Arsenal team are under 500000 pounds per annum or any premiership football player for that matter.

 The salaries paid to footballers are grotesque!  (A question, footballers are paid weekly! But is that the weeks they actually play/train or is it over the full 52 weeks?) 

I question myself, or Dennis actually. Was you or was it Arshavin who demanded the ”large” salary? What is a large salary? I guess good ol Dennis will not read this so if anyone else out there could try and answer the questions i’m all ears.

Carl Ball

Today we saw a article in the Sun referring to an interview in Czech paper, it was no surprise that The Sun would twist his comments to something where thy try to rock the boat and that Mr Rosicky is pointing finger at his fellow team mates, everyone who actually read the article can see that this is not the case.

Then today you see the below headlines at SKY News, what is the problem with Sky? he does not need to backtrack anything as he never took a step in a direction to point finger. talk about trying to make something out of nothing.   

"Rosicky claims unity"

"Gunners star backtracks on critical quotes"

Please get a grip!

Carl Ball

Another season prediction, bit late i know, but at least i get a bit more information to base my judgement than others.

So how will Chelsea fare this season, they have a strong and old squad, i think they actually are OVER experienced. They got off to a great start and will continue to win their games, in October they hit a rocky patch where the play is not as convincing as in the beginning. JT will get injured while slipping on pencils at the local betting agency, he will be out crying  for a few months and the rushed back, then he demands a payrise and a place on the board.
Soon the midfield players will be sulking by the lack of playing time, and Big Phil will not be able to cope with the day to day business at an English club...he will start fist fighting with a reporter from The Sun who wrote something or other. The club will be in turmoil as per normal, as all their experienced players know how things should be run and voicing their know how in the press.

However, Chelsea will have a great season and fight for first place. Crash out in the final in Champions League baeten convingly by a youthful Arsenal side, which will be followed by Roman sacking everyone.

Carl Ball 

The football fan of the world are a funny character, a more "turncoat" type of character you have to look for. Win your first game convincingly and you are invincables, or buy a player expensively the team will win EVERYTHING! Do the opposite and you are ready for failure. It makes me smile and feel a bit superior to other people, because its so obvious that this is not the case, cant other people see this???

Another thing that really amuse me is when a player comes out and says;

-We can win all competetions this season! Or -I think the new coach or player is a good addition to the club

Directly the papers are in awe of the fantastic leadership and belief of the fantastic signing. "Mr player backs Mr Coach/player for success" Reading the papers and online papers nowadays are a small joke to be honest, its really difficult to take anything seriously. I actually believe that some blogs out there are a bettter source of information than papers, at least you know where the writer stands and can view the piece in the right light.

Anyway, a decent start to the season! Not to good or not to bad, as a golf player i know i'm fucked if i start a round with a birdie, those rounds are doomed and i will hit the shit sooner or later. Better to start of with a par and be steady over the whole round and win in the end instead. I am of course talking about Chelkovs start Vs Arsenals start of the season, the blue scum will crash and burn, mark my words.

Ade got a payrise, i think he deserved it, and i'm sure he would have got this payrise even whitout the shannanigans over the summer. He definetly earned a payrise last season.

Was a bit surprised to see "Harvard the norwegian" to go away on a loan so soon, I wonder if Arsene is trying to fast track him for a place in the first squad next season, what do you think readers?

We have a week until next game, lets hope all our players come back in one piece.

Carl Ball

Another good thing with living in Sweden is that i can see more Arsenal games than i ever could in England, thank you Canal+. The problem is to divert the girlfriend and child.   

A draw for the young guns in Amsterdam, courtesy of a an in form Fabianski, some of the saves was out of this world....with a pinch of luck. Looks like the draw will be enough for a tournament victory!

It was quite surprising too see the team Wenger sent out tonight, i knew he was going for a inexperianced team but this was a piss take! 11 changes from last night with an average age under 20. Fabienski, Hoyte, Djouro, Senderos, Thomas, Wilshere, Randall, Raamsey, Gibbs, Bendtner & Vela!!

(Moorsinho had a front seat, he was probably sitting and trying to come up with some stupid fake english expessions on the touchline in an attempt to sound exotic. Have you ever heard a guy who has been living in England for so many years, being a translator and ex taecher, speak so rubbish English, that ridiculous accent and expressions are sooo fake)  

Anyway, Vela scored a well taken goal, and he looked really lively througout the game. Bendtner didnt play his best game, too selfish in an attempt to shine amongst his fellow teenagers, didnt work at all if you ask me. Wilshere has some balance, similiar to LJungberg at his best(except when he was looking for a freekick that is).

But the man of the night was Fabianski, he saved the game for us, good man!!

Carl Ball 

Time for a another season prediction I think.

Our Liverpool friends will have an average season, Barry will soon join the reds and by that adding another balance midfielder to the books. Unfortunately Stevie G will be out injured during December and January and the Liverpool boys will loose the title as normal.

Benitez and Stevie G will “surprisingly” come and say that the owners need to strengthen the squad if Liverpool is to win the the title, Carragher will also voice his opinion but no one will understand what he says.

Liverpool will finish fourth as per usual and have another good run in Champions league where they will meet their destiny in the quarterfinal, beaten by Inter Milan. The Inter defense will get their revenge on Torres as he again try to fall over and is shown the red card in the first leg. But the Kop fans will be happy as they are the proud winners of the FA cup, Agger will proclaim that this was the title he always wanted and add yet another tattoo to show his happiness and commitment.

Carl Ball

Yesterday we saw a great comeback from the Arsenal Team, Adebayor was leading the way with some nice and powerful strikes.

Going forward I think we are well covered, but RVP really needs to step up a few. Defensively we are pore, the premier teams will punish us big time this year if we don't improve the squad and play. Previously I havent really taken the doomsday talk to seriously but after seeing Cesc and Denilson together I now know we will have trouble. We desperately need a commanding midfielder....where are the Vieras and Keane's?? Is Inler our answer, I didnt pay to much attention to the swiss team in the Euros to know, can anyone help me? Is Inler an enforcer?

What was more interesting to see yesterday, RVP looks a bit lost somehow. I think he has difficulties to find himself as the second striker again. He was waiting for Henry to leave for him to take center stage, but now Ade is the main man. There was a bit of lip between RVP and Walcott and it was really good to see the young man to give as good as he got, knowing the two personalities I am pretty sure Walcott was right to fight his corner. Didn't really see what the spat was about but I guess about a pass or lack of.

Eboue, I agree with Mr Arsebloger this morning, Eboue have probably picked his first eleven place now, it was a lovely cross which set up Ade first yesterday....but that was it for the game. Whats up with Wenger and Eboue? Beats me. Anyone have got some news regarding Nasri and Diaby, how serious are their injuries.

Thats it for now...having the inlaws at home for a week, imagine that nightmare. Carl Ball