I don’t think it’s any coincidence that this Interlull has coincided with the drop in temperature that reminds you that winter is coming. “Yer knur nothing Yaya Snurnurguuuu …”
Still, maybe the cold isn’t a bad thing right now as we’ve gone a full 24 hours without news of anyone being injured. Perhaps, because it’s so chilly, there’s some cryonics going on and they’re incapable of being banjaxed. The problem is though they’ll all wake up 1000 years from now in a future which has tubes for whizzing around. Or maybe that’s Good News Everybody. I wish we had travelling tubes.
As you can see there’s not much going on from an Arsenal point of view. I saw a headline on NewsNow which said ‘Wenger set for £40m La Liga spree’, so obviously I simply blocked that website from ever appearing on my feed again. Talk of sprees in October is as irritating as an ad you can’t skip before a YouTube video. In the summer I’m down with sprees like you wouldn’t believe.
A spree here, a binge there, perhaps the odd Bender (see what I did there?), and if pushed I could get on board with a splurge, but now? This is simply not the time for transfer market Bacchanalia. These people need to shut up and when they’ve shut up they need to make sure that they stay shut up until I say it’s ok for them to talk again. Which is never. Thinking about it, this should also apply to politicians, the majority of people employed as football pundits and Jose Mourinho.
Breaking news: the handle came off my *boilk* mug. I may have to get some more made.
If you are looking for something vaguely football-ish to pass the time, there’s the new rules regarding seeding for the Champions League which, unless we win the tournament or the Premier League this season, will see us drop out of the top group.
In the past your seeding was based on your UEFA coefficient which was determined by your record in Europe, progress in the CL over the past number of years, how friendly you were towards Michel Platini and other factors. We’ve long been in that top group but unless we can do something remarkable domestically or Europeanly then we’re going to find ourselves bumped down.
The UEFA dude said:
People had difficulties in understanding how the champion of a country is in a lower pot than the third-ranked in that country. This will give another dynamic with the draw and in the way the groups are composed. It will be approved with the regulations at the start of next year.
Given that some people have difficulty understanding clearly written instructions on which way a door opens, I’m not surprised that some had issues with comprehending UEFA’s seeding system, but it’s not as if it were that complicated. Now it’s going to change.
The top group will consist of the title winners from the top 7 European countries (England, Spain, Germany, Italy, Micronesia, Gondor and Mushroom Kingdom), as well as the defending Champions of the Champions League. Which I suppose will come from one of those 7 countries and possibly even the title winners in which case there’ll be a tie-break game of sexy-Twister for officials to get their club into the top group.
And that all sounds perfectly fair to me, really. Considering we haven’t won the league since 2004 and haven’t reached the semi-finals for 4 or 5 years then we can’t really complain if we’re not top seeds. It might even make the groups more interesting when we get drawn against Dortmund and then two totally other random teams who we don’t play every season. Anyway, that all kicks in next season and now we just have to, you know, qualify.
Finally for today, Robert Pires reckons Sami Khedira is the missing piece of the Arsenal puzzle and he’s urged Arsene Wenger to sign him in January. Speaking from India, where he’s taking part in the Indian Super League, the dreamy one said:
My advice is if he can buy Khedira he can be the like Vieira, more aggression in the middle. He has a lot of experience. When you play in the middle you need experience, especially when your midfield is young like Arsenal’s.
Sounds good, and when Khedira is available again in January having had a new knee fitted, he’s the ideal candidate for us. Because he’s always injured. And that.
*cough*
Is this thing on?
SPREEEEEEE!
Till tomorrow.
