february 17th
So there’s a little bit of a lull this week as the international friendlies take place. England go to Portugal, France play somebody and Brazil, featuring Gilberto, travel to Ireland to take on ..er…Ireland. Our current goalkeeping number 2, Graham Stack, has been called up to the Irish squad by Brian Kerr, so good luck to him and hopefully he’ll get some kind of a run out.
Meanwhile, our current number 1, Jens Lehmann has been fined £10,000 by the FA for throwing the ball at Kevin Phillips’ head. No arguments from here about that, I’m surprised he wasn’t banned for a game or two considering he was warned about his future conduct following the battle of Old Trafford.
The draw for the FA Cup was made yesterday. Arsenal will be away to the winners of the Portsmouth v Liverpool replay. So, Portsmouth it is then. Dennis Bergkamp doesn’t care who we get, while according to The Sun the FA will let Arsenal keep the cup if we make it an unprecedented hat-trick of wins. Not sure I agree with that to be honest. Winning it three times in a row would be a marvellous achievement but the history and magic of the FA Cup goes beyond the success of one club over a certain period of time. It’s a nice idea, but I hope that come May it’s a situation where we can turn around and say ‘Thanks, but no thanks’.
Paddy on José: “We all know he is a terrific player and you could see from the celebration which greeted his first goal how popular he is in the dressing room. That goal will be fantastic for his self-belief and when he is working every day with Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Kanu he is going to be learning all the time.”
It’s been a little while since we’ve heard from him, and I think he’s still far away on one of his escapades, but Leopold has checked in with a new piece called ‘Self Reyes-ing Arsenal’ on the real ANR. He’s also promised to be more regular, but whether that means we get more of his writing or he’s going to increase his bran intake remains to be seen.
Last chance to enter the 1971 competition with thanks to Nostalgic TV. I’ll announce the winners tomorrow morning.
I’ve got a really minging cold as well. Luminous-snot-tacular. mmmmmmm.
