Random Arsenal Shit (When it's not worth starting a thread)

[Letters]

some things are better - the smoking ban feels like one of the least heralded but most important steps forward, not least for the NHS but also (and I speak as an ex-smoker) just improving our social experiences by not treading on a carpet of fag butts, or being suffocated in small venues or ofc passively developing cancer

general air quality is better to thanks to (ahem) 'cleaner' fuel but ofc the elephant in the room is climate change which, as you at least are aware, is now getting the point where it's irreversible and makes me particularly glad I'm not any younger than I am, though even in my late 50s I'm far from convinced I'll miss witnessing some of the really bad effects of it

Wow. You're an older bastard* than I thought (*no offence!).
Agree about the smoking ban, it now feels ridiculous that you could ever smoke in pubs and clubs, on trains and so on. Aside from the obvious health stuff, everything absolutely stank.
Quite nice that people pick up their dog's crap now too.

[Marc Overmars]

The smoking ban is easily one of if not the best change made in my adult lifetime. It was absolutely grim going out to enclosed spaces with so much smoke in the air. Plus it’s a habit that I’ve always hated anyway because my dad was a big smoker and he’d happily puff away at home with me around him. When I grill him about it now he blames a lack of an education on the matter but it seems like a flimsy excuse tbh.

[HCZ_Reborn]

Nah.
What was actually better was...you. You were young and healthy (probably) and optimistic (possibly).
Now you're old and ill (probably) and deeply cynical about everything (definitely). So you look back on what you see as happier times and declare everything better. I see this all the time on FB. Old people going on and on about how everything used to be so much better. It wasn't.

It wasn't worse either of course, the truth is some things were better, some were worse.

With regards to football. That generation of players wouldn't cut it in the modern game. They might have been "real men" but they were slow and fat and unfit and wouldn't get near enough to the modern players to hack them down. Some of them would make it of course, they'd be brought up in the modern regime. But a lot would be off down the pub and would never get near the top level. And you are cherry picking the best players from yesteryear, ignoring how many utter cloggers there were.

Overall I think football has got worse but not because of the quality of player. The main issues are the money, the blanket coverage, the disconnect between fans and club - the relationship now being very much business and customer. As HCZ highlights, money has always been a thing but Sky and the expansion of the CL have turned it up to 11.

As for society in general. The 80s were a deeply sexist, racist, homophobic time. It might have been great if you were white, male and straight. Less great for black people or the gays. A lot of that is much better now. Other things have got worse - immigration has enriched us in some ways but the level of it is too high and that causes issues. House prices are inaccessible for most people. The internet has brought a lot of benefits and convenience but obviously there are big issues there with kids having access to stuff they shouldn't and cyber bullying. Ironically the multitude ways we have of instantly connecting with people has made people lonelier.

Overall - some things better, some things worse. Hard to quantify it into a definitive about things being better or worse these days.

Although that’s largely because you’re making all the same arguments I’ve made, perhaps in a more concise way? Well you might think that….i couldn’t possibly comment

[Letters]

This is one area where we are fairly well aligned.

[HCZ_Reborn]

some things are better - the smoking ban feels like one of the least heralded but most important steps forward, not least for the NHS but also (and I speak as an ex-smoker) just improving our social experiences by not treading on a carpet of fag butts, or being suffocated in small venues or ofc passively developing cancer

general air quality is better to thanks to (ahem) 'cleaner' fuel but ofc the elephant in the room is climate change which, as you at least are aware, is now getting the point where it's irreversible and makes me particularly glad I'm not any younger than I am, though even in my late 50s I'm far from convinced I'll miss witnessing some of the really bad effects of it

Ah the whole ex smoker thing does rather explain your zealotry on the issue, for what it’s worth I support the smoking ban as it exists (I smoke outdoors by choice even at home) but I’m also this far and no further. The idea that giving people a designated outside area to smoke no where near anyone else and that’s going to affect people who don’t want to passive smoke, it’s smoke not radioactive fallout. I don’t object to the plain packaging and the warning labels although I have to say I think it’s absurd that anyone could think for a moment that this would deter anyone.
People ask me why I smoke despite the fact I have partial lung damage from passive smoking as a child (my dad and my grandparents) I give them the same answer Fitz does in Cracker when asked why he smokes, drinks and gambles…”I like it”

I’m all for minimising the risk to others, but there’s a gap between public health and heavy handed nanny state “it’s for your own good” mentality. As someone who works with people addicted to drink, the damage done to other people by alcoholism far outweighs the damage done by someone smoking….but we don’t legislate supermarkets doing special offers on booze.


Ultimately if we are worried about the costs to the health system, than we can simply have it that people who have caused themselves lung issues through smoking….have to pay for treatment like those who cause themselves issues through a high fat and sugar diet.

Ultimately you can encourage people to live healthier is fine (I’m all for teaching about nutrition and having healthier food available in school canteens) but pretending you can force people is a fools game

[HCZ_Reborn]

https://x.com/welbeast/status/188714...k_DvSqUkaQFrjw

This just depresses me, I don’t think there’s anything to gain from believing the footballing authorities are against us. But I simply don’t remember this kind of messsge coming out when Adebayor sprinted the full length of the Etihad pitch (wasn’t called the Etihad back then) like he was Linford Christie to celebrate in front of Arsenal fans. I’m one of those people who thinks he was a dick to do it, but the fans throwing shit at him were just as bad.


The City fans have been inconsolable since Sunday, they remind me of the Arabs in the Levant and their attitude towards the Jews in 1948….so used to us being their bitch that they simply can’t take it.


But Guardiola?, as classless as he is at times, simply said “that’s nice” when asked about the MLS goal celebration. He didn’t care, and I actually doubt Haaland cared that much…he’s a big boy he realises if you dish it out you have to be prepared to give it back.


Why does the Premier League need to step in like an overprotective mummy and say “don’t you make fun of my special boy”

[Letters]

Yeah. They can fuck ALL the way off with stuff like this.
I also don't believe "they" are out to get us, but I don't remember there being any outcry when Haaland threw the ball at Gabriel after their late equaliser at The Ethiad. Henry running the length of the pitch to score against Spurs and then all the way back to slide in front of their fans is iconic.
Not happy when it happens to us of course but that's football - you dish it out and you have to take some.

[IBK]

Unbelievable. Don't think the league (as opposed to PGML) is out to get us, but f*ck me do the powers that be have a hard on for AFC. This is embarrassing!

[Mac76]

This is IMO why winning something, even if it's the League Cup, is important, we're just being picked on atm as irascable wannabes

Also maybe the club ahould hire an ex-FA / PGMOL guy or something to try to work on them through back-door networks, it feels like we're not being savvy enough somehow

[HCZ_Reborn]

I don’t think we should be trying to get their respect and affection, like a low self esteem teenage girl does with her alcoholic piece of shit father. We aren’t going to get it, and it’s of no value anyway.

Getting to the final might add some pathos to the season, but ultimately even if we beat Liverpool in the final it’s nice but it’s ultimately worthless, plus the idea of us being some plucky underdog as we were when we beat them in 1987 nauseates me.


But that’s neither here nor there. I’m quite happy for us to have an antagonistic relationship with the authorities to some extent, they are after all the shit under our shoes.