The Boycott Won't Make A Difference, Alas

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An Alternative To The Big Prices
In the midst of all the righteous indignation about the price of tickets to the Arsenal nowadays, I think it's probably worth pointing out that Dagenham and Redbridge are running their Daggers Against Racism day this weekend against Rochdale - £2.50 for a spot on the terraces, can't say fairer than that.
Andrew (congrats to the Bantams, not sure you've done us a favour for Saturday though), SFC, London


Surely Paying That Much Is More Of A Reason To Stay Til The End?
Given it costs around £60 to get into a football game these days, I struggle to understand why fans who boo their team and who leave early get stick, for not being behind their team.

If I pay £60 towards a £2m weekly wage bill and they don't entertain me (with either effort, or style), then isn't the only power I really have is to boo and leave? Footballers are paid the wages of entertainers, therefore it's understandable people expect them to entertain them, given the sacrifices people make to support. I'd say sacking off something you love, and have paid for is a valid way to encourage the clubs to behave more appropriately. Good to see City.

I also don't pay £10 a ticket to watch Steven Seagal movies on the basis that he was good when I was a kid.
Matt, Coventry


Well, This Is Helpful
I think we may have differing opinions on what constitutes a boycott.

Only managing to sell 2/3 of your allocation and sending the rest back to be sold on the gate on match day, to me does not constitute a boycott, any more than walking from your regular pub to the ground as you do every week, constitutes a protest march.

Let's cut the histrionics and just admit City don't have enough fans to get 3000 down to London...there we go, isn't that much better?
Brett 'Boycotting McDonald's by not drinking the coke-zero from my meal deal' Stirling, Zurich


The Boycott Won't Work
Sadly, I fear that the boycott of the Arsenal match by Man City fans won't make a jot of difference to Arsenal.

For those of you that don't know, the away end at the Emirates is adjustable, thanks to a set of movable segregating fences. If Man City don't take up their allocation, these fences can be relocated so that the away area is a smaller wedge of the pie, so to speak - this frees up more seats for home fans.

In home games against Spurs for example, the fences are moved so as to accommodate the maximum permitted number of away fans. Compare this with the stadium configuration for our league cup game against Huddersfield a couple of years ago, where the away fans only got a tiny little slice in the corner.

Given that no more tickets are available (according to the Arsenal website), I can only assume that the game will still be a complete sell out, and that this is no skin off Arsenal's nose at all.
Ryan F


...Totally agree with the ticket price boycott by City fans.

However, It's a shame only 800 tickets have been returned as this will largely go unnoticed in a stadium with a capacity of 60,361. Arsenal stand to lose around £49,000 in loss of revenue if none of the 800 tickets are resold. Sounds like a lot doesn't it?

Say The Emirates is a sell out at £62 per ticket, this generates a total match day revenue of £3.74 Million. Arsenal stand to lose 1.3% of match day revenue from the 800 who boycott.

Good publicity but highly unlikely to change the ways of Football clubs and over priced tickets. Sadly.
Peter (I'm spending £500 to see United on Sunday, I hope we win) Belfast


Malcontent In The Middle
I see a lot of the mails about the poor state of Aston Villa this morning rightly focus on our weak defence and lack of any centre backs with nous.

But for me this is the worst Villa central midfield of my lifetime. Our options are El-Ahmandi, Delph, Bannan and Westwood. Just let that swim around in there for a minute.

Its a solid championship pairing at best. No presence, no tackling, not a good eye for a pass, no goals, no cover for the defence and no attacking threat either. Genuinely I was despairing with not only last nights performance but that of most of the season. We have massively missed Petrov. Mackoun should have been given a chance and most of all we should have signed an experienced head in there. The current options leave the defence horribly exposed and they simply cannot win the ball back. A signing needs to be imminent and preferably a unit with a bit of presence.

Oh and Connor, Lerner didn't decide to bring on an untried, unknown waif of a striker at 2-1 down when there was already 2 and arguably 3 strikers already on the pitch instead of shoring up a midfield/defence that was failing in the most basic of footballing tasks. Similarly he didn't continue to bring on attacking options or change from a system that wasn't working while the 5th 6th 7th and 8th goals were raining in at Stamford Bridge.
Philip (not anti-Lambert yet but the evidence is stacking up) Thompson


The True Deserving Man
Years from now, when our grandchildren read the records from 2012, they'll come upon the stats of a Premier League superstar who played in the best league in the universe, who scored the tie-winner in the Champions League semi-final, who won the Champions League, FA Cup and Euro 2012 , who scored a goal in the European Championships Final, and who finished as the tournament's top goal scorer.

Our grandchildren will then turn to us and ask: "How didn't that guy win the Ballon D'Or? Why didn't he even make the World XI? Surely he was at least as good as Ronaldo, let alone better than that Falcao fella?"

And then we'll have to explain how, back in 2012, we had players who won tons of trophies, but who were still Fernando Torres.
Mark Van Dijk


Pops
Just wondered if Msuthu Soweto JHB from this mornings mailbox wanted to make up his mind about the 2012 XI: "deserving candidates don't always win - it's a popularity contest" but "the EPL isn't all its made out to be" because no players from it are there.

So you have a pop at the flawed system but then use it to have a pop at the EPL, good logic
Matt, Basingstoke


Iniesta & Xavi Have Done OK Without It, But...
I would find it easier to like and appreciate Messi if I didn't feel that he was something of a cheat. Not just the handball goal, the diving and the fact that he's Argentinian, but that he has taken growth drugs since he was a kid as part of the sweetener Barcelona offered his parents to sign him up. I can't get passed that it seems somehow a more fundamental level of cheating than even Bale has achieved. It reminds me of when I play Fifa and tweak the user settings...

So, on that basis, here is my people-who-might-have-benefited-from-Messi-style-growth-hormone-replacement-therapy XI (aka a shortar$e XI)

Jorge Campos
Insua | Cannavaro |Roberto Carlos
Cazorla |Makalele | Giovinco | Lennon
Buonanotte | Aimar
Saviola

Subs: Piatti, SWP, Iniesta, Xavi, Giuly, Barthez

Bit of an attacking line up, especially in defence! But all of the above are shorter than Messi (except Barthez and Cannavaro who are just short for their positions). Just imagine how great Romario might have been if he'd been fuel injected too...
Guy S (when is a handball not a handball, a dive not a dive, drugs not drugs? The answer begins with M)


Well, This Is Weird
Ode to a Mailbox Fave inspired by "We concede a jammy goal to a rubbish lower league team".

Oh dear Conor Byrne,
When will you learn,
It's not good to bitter,
Just 'cos Bent missed a sitter,
Your mailbox exit I yearn.

Oh poor Conor Byrne keeps typin'
In the hope the someone is readin'
But's it's got quite boring,
Now I'm close to snoring,
You're just a poor Stewie Griffin.
Dave, BCFC


Ads
In response to Chris ITFC, Liverpool email this morning regarding footballers doing anything for money to the point of it being shameless and embarrassing, I wish to regale the mailbox with a quite remarkable advert I saw when spending some time in Italy a number of years ago.

It was the summer of 2006, and a great Italian team faced an arguably even greater French team in the final. I found myself in Rome for said final and gathered with the Italians in Campo di Fiori to watch the game on big screens. Great atmosphere, good beer, beautiful women and football. I was in my element.

The game unfolded as we all know it did, a couple of goals, an audacious penalty, a head butt and a timeless image of one of footballing greats walking past the world cup after being dismissed. Great theatre. However nothing could prepare me for the advert that followed the conclusion of the penalty shoot-out.

The big screen showed an advert for salamini (a small pepperoni type snack) which included Del-Piero, Gattuso and Buffon all in kitchen aprons going about household tasks before breaking into a mad squabble over the last of the spicy sausage based snack. The ad had these chaps literally slapping one another, handbag style, over the last packet of salamini. Gattuso was in his element, he rarely smiled on the pitch, but when he was filming this ad he looked elated, like a crazy bearded possessed man.

Thankfully not many of the Italians saw their world-cup heroes acting like complete twonks because they were too busy celebrating their victory.
Ed (Del-Piero's goal in the semi-final against Germany is still one of my favourite goals) CFC, London


...This morning's mailbox had me wondering:

Somewhere out there, is there a Spanish version of Chris, ITFC, writing into a Spanish version of Football365, complaining about the Spanish version of the same exact advert, starring one Iker Casillas?
Oliver Dziggel, Geneva Switzerland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_YnCwkBSOow


...Chris asked if any other English internationals have been in more embarrassing advert than Joe Hart (which admittedly is quite cringeworthy). I have no answer to that, but the best player this planet has ever seen, who should have no worries about small change, can do his magic in front of cameras as well it seems. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqB_PyVh0zo
Matti Katara, Helsinki


...In response to Chris ITFC, Liverpool's email - yes there is a more embarrassing and bizarre advert involving a footballer. Strangely enough, it also involves Joe Hart.

He must be minted from all of these endorsements.
Andy (Not going to begin to rant about my team) Walsh, AVFC, Lichfield
http://metro.co.uk/2012/10/12/joe-hart-grows-six-arms-in-bizarre-south-east-asian-tv-advert-599138/


FF Kiss Of Death
In response to Hakim this morning, I definitely how he feels with the old fantasy football curse. My personal record was back in February 2010 when I decided to bring in both Martin Skrtel and Aaron Ramsey as my only 2 transfers that week. Fast forward 7 days, Skrtel had broken his metatarsal and Ramsey had been Shawcrossed. Not the best result.
Laurence