Good morning everyone. Hope you’re waking up feeling well. Perhaps a nice cup of tea would be just the thing for you on this lovely Monday morning.
I take it everyone is still basking in the warm, luxuriant glow of the derby. And why not? I know we look at everything through the big picture prism these days, which sometimes prevents people from enjoying things in the now as much as they should. I know I’ve said this before, but football is primarily about little moments that make you happy.
For some clubs, prizes at the end of the season are the measure of success, and that’s certainly true for Arsenal, but a great tackle, a clearance off the line, a winning goal, or just winning a game against your local rival are things that ought to be cherished. It doesn’t mean we can’t look at everything else, it doesn’t mean we should ignore issues and problems, but if you can’t allow yourself to be happy in the wake of a win like Saturday’s then I don’t know why you would even bother with football at all.
Also, leaving aside the fact it’s always glorious to beat that lot, it was a win which was very important in general, as everyone else around us picked up three points this weekend. We remain in sixth, level on points with Burnley – who we play next weekend – and Liverpool, but now the gap on Sp*rs is just a single point.
Chelsea and Man Utd won, as did City of course, so in the battle for a top four place, the three points we earned on Saturday are extremely important. Will it also derail the Sp*rs momentum? We can only hope so, but what’s crucial now is that we build on the win and the performance. It’s something we can touch on later in the week, perhaps in the build up to the trip to Turf Moor, because for now I still just want to bask a bit.
For added basking, don’t forget to check out our video page which may have some stuff that you might like on it.
Meanwhile, from Germany comes very interesting news about the possible recruitment of Borussia Dortmund’s head of scouting, Sven Mislintat. It seems that it’s basically a done deal, he’s been lured to London by a new challenge and a healthy increase to his current salary. Arsenal will have to pay the Bundesliga side something like €1.5m in compensation.
From everything I’ve heard and read – and there’s a very interesting profile of him on ESPN – this could be a game changing appointment for the club. There’s no question that the scouting department is one which is badly in need of an overhaul, both in terms of personnel and thinking.
It would be kind to say that things have been stale for a little while, and when you look at the track record Mislintat has had at Dortmund – in terms of the players he’s recruited and the other contributions he’s made to the club – this is a really positive move for us. I know there’s been a lot of talk about revamps and back-office recruitment without much happening, but it seems like this is going ahead and that is a good thing.
Hopefully it’s just the start. With Dick Law’s contract expired, there is a need to add to the team in that area. Arsene Wenger doesn’t want a director of football, we all know that, but it doesn’t mean we can’t bring in people who will help the restructuring and future-proofing that needs to happen.
A ‘Football Executive’ can work with the manager while allowing him to retain the power he wants when it comes to the final say on transfers etc. When Wenger does go, it should be relatively straightforward then to transition to pick up the responsibilities that a modern Director of Football is expected to have. Anyway, let’s keep fingers crossed that we don’t just keep hearing names and that people are appointed soon.
Finally for today, a word about the cup of tea GIF hysteria. If you don’t know the story, a Daily Mail journalist put together one of those risible combined XIs ahead of the derby, and selected eleven Sp*rs players including Danny Rose, who has played just three games this season. That’s entirely his prerogative, of course, but it’s a bit silly and definitely a bit of a wind-up.
Following the game, the Arsenal Twitter account posted a Tweet to him, with picture of a very happy Mesut Ozil sipping what appeared be a cup of tea. It was pretty funny, and good natured, but the journalist in question then complained about a slew of abusive responses he was supposedly subjected to.
The first thing to say is that anyone who engages in any kind of abuse is completely out of order, and nobody should condone or excuse that in any way. However, if you live online, and if you write a clickbait piece for an organisation that lives on clickbait, then you have to expect that kind of reaction.
I write here every day. Comments are open to everyone, you can get me on Twitter, on Facebook, it’s easy to find my email address if you want to do that, and that’s the way it is. If I wrote something I knew was going to wind people up, I can hardly complain if people get annoyed or react negatively.
It doesn’t mean I deserve to be abused about anything other than the piece of writing, but let’s not pretend we don’t all know how it works. And ultimately, did it not do exactly what it was supposed to do? It was clickbait, it was exposed for clickbait, it then got more clicks, bloke picks up his pay cheque at the end of the week and his bosses are happy.
Also, while it’s never nice to see someone get piled-on (well, sometimes it is because there people court that kind of interaction or their behaviour demands it), perhaps it might make people consider how they express themselves or think about what they write. The abuse is not the fault of Arsenal, it’s societal and that’s a problem we all have to deal with, but don’t cry about getting stung when you’ve been standing under a wasps nest throwing stones at it.
Right, that’s that for now. James and I will have an Arsecast Extra for you this morning. Thankfully, after a big win, he’s ok:
A few people have asked if I’m ok, as Arsenal’s big wins tend to coincide with personal misfortune.
Can confirm things are pretty bad: a football club tweeted a gif at me.
— gunnerblog (@gunnerblog) November 19, 2017
If you have any questions or topics for discussion as we relive the derby win, send them to us on Twitter @gunnerblog and @arseblog with the hashtag #arsecastextra – and we’ll get to as many as we can.
That’ll be up before lunchtime, catch you then.
