I had the most bizarre dream this morning where James from Gunnerblog was the star of a sitcom on the BBC and the more successful he got the taller he became. He was about 8’9 when I asked him if I could make a guest appearance on the show and he threw an unbelievable tantrum and accused me of selling stories about him to the press so I could steal the platter of sandwiches he got every day.
The sandwiches were the kind of that are cut into perfect triangles with the crust cut off the bread, and I tried to assure him that I was only interested in sandwiches with crust, or on a baguette, but he grew more and more furious which made him shrink back to normal size which made him incandescent with rage and because he was ‘small’ again the BBC cancelled his show.
‘Now look what you did!’, he said, and then he got into a boat which he drove down the road and into a canal where I got the sense he was going to live for the rest of his life. Houseboat James.
Anyway, Claudio Ranieri got sacked by Leicester last night which is both completely mental and completely understandable. Their form, and the fact the players have slacked off means that something’s gotta give, and in cases like this it’s never the squad, it’s the manager. Coming less than 12 months after pulling off the most unlikely title win I’ve ever seen makes it a bit mental though, and you’ve gotta feel a bit sorry for him.
I would hope that the parting is not acrimonious because even in this crazy football world where you’re only ever judged on most recent game/performance, he deserves a lot better than to have some ranting gobshites going mental at him for what’s happened this season. To have given that club a Premier League deserves a statue, his own weekend residence, a street named after him, and thousands of kids whose middle name is Claudio.
Wayne Claudio Smiff. Chanetelle Claudio Winklebottom.
Anyway, there you go. Win the league, reward your players with big fat contracts, and fight relegation. It’s going to be very interesting to see who they bring in, because even with a fresh voice, these players have been abysmal this season and it can’t just be down to Ranieri’s message not getting through. I think it’s also obvious that some dark magic was used last year, because in retrospect the idea of winning the league with a centre-half pairing of Morgan and Huth is like watching Jon Goodman run the 100 metres in 8 seconds.
Will they go down? I think they might. You might even suspect teams will be that little more up for it if they feel they can contribute to relegating the champions. Maybe it’s the Jamie Vardy cycle. Came from non-league to win the Premier League and now all the way back around again. That, my friends, was a pointy-chinned bullet so very well dodged.
As you can gather the lack of an Arsenal game this weekend has led to news being a bit short on the ground. However, there are a couple of bits and pieces to keep you going:
1 – Next season’s kits have apparently been leaked – see them here.
2 – Danny Welbeck talking about Per Mertesacker is brilliant – and watch the video at the bottom too. If there’s a player that deserves a good run of fitness now, it’s him.
3 – Tim Stillman looks at Luke Perry, and why he’s struggling to fit in after such a starring role at Beverly Hills 90210 Deportivo la Coruña.
Ok, time for this week’s Arsecast which was a little bit experimental. Sound and technology issues meant that my co-host for the evening, Andrew Allen, makes only a very brief appearance as I field calls from Arsenal fans from all over the world to discuss the goings-on, the ins, the outs, the shake it all abouts, the manager, players, transfers, and lots more. There’s also a fantastic recipe for soup.
You can subscribe to the Arsecast on iTunes by clicking here. Or if you want to subscribe directly to the feed URL you can do so too (this is a much better way to do it as you don’t experience the delays from iTunes). To download the Arsecast directly, use the links below the player.
If you are a regular listener via iTunes, if you would be so kind as to leave a review/rating that would be greatly appreciated.
Download – Acast – iTunes – RSS
Right, that’s that for this morning. More guff over the weekend, enjoy the podcast.
