Eddie for England and three replacements for Emery….

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Eddie for England
So another England squad and yet again no Arsenal players.

Given our wretched form since the international break, this time I totally get it as our only decent English players are either back from injury and yet to figure in the first team regularly (Holding), or suffering from a dip in form after an initial positive start (Sako, Chambers and Willock). And as for Maitland-Niles – not sure what’s happened to him but he seems to be rubbish wherever we play him.

So yeah I agree that none of these guys should make the cut but there is an Arsenal player who I think Southgate is missing a trick overlooking. That player isn’t even playing for us as we’ve sent him out on loan. I’m of course talking about Eddie Nketiah.

Now I’m not suggesting the lad should start by any means but the problem England managers have always seemed to have is they have had a habit of just picking all of our best players on form and just trying to shove them into a starting 11 regardless of whether they fit or not. It’s why Joe Cole was continually selected because the boy was two footed.

But England have generally excelled when we have just picked the best 11 that exploited the squad’s talents to its fullest – Terry Vegetables was great at that and let’s not forget Sir Alf didn’t play one of the best strikers England has ever had (Jimmy Greaves) in the World Cup final.

Given we’re not through yet, we may need to sneak a goal and for that you’ll need a goal poacher – so how about Eddie? He’s proven this season he’s adept at that job and coming off the bench and scoring so he may prove crucial to our qualification.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Three coaches for Arsenal
1) Nuno Espirito Santo – why does no one mention him, he has done great things with Wolves and has excellent experience – his win % at Wolves is 53%. He knows the league and has amazing contacts, also seems to make Wolves significantly better than the sum of their parts (opposite to Emery). He also gets a tune out of the likes of Adama Traore which is mental – can you imagine how he would improve our defence, midfield and attack

2) Mikel Arteta – has got to be the most obtainable, best fit and has worked under two of the greatest coaches of all time (Wenger and Guardiola). He is also an assistant so can be easier to get from a contractual stand point. One draw back though – he doesn’t have his own back room staff and apparently that was one of the reasons he lost out in the first place. Positive is he does have a ‘big club’ mentality so will hopefully not cack his pants like Emery does every time he meets a good team!

3) Marco Rose – Doing great things with BMG and while in charge of Salzberg never lost a home game – wow! No big club experience but all that means is he hasn’t picked up any bad habits yet. Young enough and old enough – and probably speaks English already (as everyone is better at learning languages then we are)

Freddie would be a patsy if he took the job – it’s his in 3 or 4 years if he sticks around but not a good choice now and we would likely loose him in the short term.

Whoever says mourinho should – your not an Arsenal supporter – remember what a dic* he was to Wenger and always tried to sh*t on him for no reason (really wish Wenger would have punched him when he had the chance). The man is a pr*ck of the highest order and if he gets anywhere near my club i would have to after 45 years not watch anymore – the man is a narcicistic c*nt and would ruin the club, it’s image and everything associated with it.No one else would fit or is good enough yet..

What do others think?
Joe (Emery Out, Xhaka Out, Mustafi Out, I’m going out!)

Won’t somebody think of the children?
Can we just stop expecting the Utd kids to solve all the teams problems this season . I m tired of people having a moan when we lose and they are thrown in for the last 15 minutes like against Bournemouth.
The simple fact is, that they are not yet ready to play regular in the premiership the way Lampard’s kids are,

They have hardly any experience, of top flight football unlike ,Chelsea’s group for whom Abraham has already, played for the likes of Bristol ,Swansea and Villa. United’s Kids are a generation younger. if the Chelsea youngsters played for Utd at least one of your writers would be coming up with a line about some of them no longer being kids.Let those who need to go on loan be allowed in January and let’s see where they are in 2 years time.

What the article should have been about is how Mctominay needs help the troubling part of last nights game was him hobbling off , if he gets injured and we miss him for the 8/9 premier league games till January we are proper f..ked . At least one midfielder is need in January 2 if we can get them in because Fred and Perreira should at best be occasional options not starting options for United.

The play was better it was interesting seeing what Mata is capable of against less physical opposition and further proof this should be his last United contract
because if we pick him he won’t do this against Brighton .The style of play was great and we can now rotate with our youngsters and bench players in the cups for the rest of 2019.

Overall I think we should all remember this is still a team trying to build for the future, instead of the finished article not that, it will stop people from mailing in calling the Manager a useless git
Tim, MUFC

Ban sub keepers
Do they teach everyone at Sheffield Utd how play in goal?

Everywhere I’ve played over the years, there has always been at least 2 outfield players who are brilliant between the sticks. They don’t want to go in because they hate playing in goal.

However, would it not make more sense to have an outfield player capable of playing in goal rather than having a perennially benched “2nd” keeper?

When you have Walker and Jagielka showing actual professional goalkeepers how it should be done then we should make it a thing. Ban sub keepers!

Thoughts? (apart from outfield players will have it written into their contract that they won’t go in goal)
Fat Man

VAR countdown
And with Sparky LFC’s response to my mail we may have just solved an issue with VAR, each time VAR is consulted the theme tune from Countdown is played and if at the end of the theme the official has not made a decision, then the original call stands, it is brilliant, it is funny and I can already see the memes of the future about it.

Now if only we could add a slide whistle effect every time a player takes a dive.
Mikey, CFC (Yes, I am that guy from At The Bridge Pod for those wondering)

Pundits as refs
TV and radio pundits all think they can tell if something’s a foul/offside/dive etc within seconds, and that those morons in Stockley Park are just too weak to make a snap decision.

Well, why not give them the chance to prove it. Assemble a panel of 3-5 pundits, with big, colourful ‘Yes/No’ buttons, that they can hammer when the ref asks the question. Give them access to the tv monitors. Give them 20 seconds to make a decision. Base the decision on majority vote and communicate to the referee. And at the end of the game, find out how many of them Andy Townsend got wrong. Don’t let Garth Crooks near it, obviously. Assemble a ‘fantasy pundit’ league table. And maybe, just maybe, they might shut up about it. As long as Robbie Savage doesn’t win, dear god.

Cheers
Ollie Wilkes

Champions League apathy
This mornings (soon to be yesterday mornings) shortest ever (and most boring?) mailbox clearly illustrates just how drab the CL/EL group stages have become. Over the past two nights, more goals have been scored than ever before in a round of matches and although Chelsea’s 4-4 draw and controversies did prompt some response, the apathy to results and performances, not just of the English teams, couldn’t be clearer.

THFC win comfortably at a ground where very few visitors do, MCFC have a VAR fest, Kyle Walker in goal, one of the worst penalties ever and are outplayed for 35 minutes, Barca draw at home without scoring, R Madrid hit 6, a 3-3 draw in Croatia with a penalty given for a goalkeeper being elbowed, continental referees use pitch side monitors and show how effective they can be, responses – NIL.

People just don’t care as nearly all the groups will finish exactly as expected, which would also explain the vast number of empty seats at many grounds (tbf Atalanta got 32,000 instead of 18 by switching to the San Siro) and surely UEFA now need to re-consider the format (as if!)

know what, couldn’t be arsed to send this
Howard (nothing witty comes to mind) Jones

Goal music
It’s mental they do this – it’s the Americanization (did you see the z 🙂 of all sports – we are dumb consumers and need to be unoccupied for 10’s of seconds – so the goal gets scored – instead of hearing the roar of the crowd (which is amazing to listen to) they blast crap techno music that all the tourists and day trippers start dancing to – they’re not even celebrating the goal. It’s a real shame and unlikely to change as that’s part of what makes going to a live game so great – also those stupid clapping sticks – not looking forward to the Leicester game, thats all they use and it sounds awful, and after they score the 5th goal against us it will be really f*cking annoying – at least make it sound like a clap, it actually sounds like a pebble beach with the tide coming in – are we so pampered we can’t even use our hands to clap.
Joe – agree with the other gooners – I hope we loose bad!
BTW – Xhaka lost the captaincy (whoopee!) and after the 6-0 defeat to Leicester his guardian (Emery) will be gone as well. You know the best time to kick a man – when he is down – hahahha PC SC….
Thanks
Joe

Banter!
Good evening Dave Somerset, my ‘Pal’ ( I didn’t know I was ranked in the dog food category (must be my sense of humour!)…can I call you ‘ Chum’? It might give you a pedigree on your CV ! 😉). Oh..yeah, I see where people are coming from.

Actually geezer, mate: I totally agree with your response to my email. Ironically, I only have one friend who is a Liverpool fan and he is the manager of my local pub and is a top bloke. Poor bloke misses all his teams’ goals ‘cos he’s busy ! Bless him too as he allows me to wear my heart on my sleeve when I can’t make the Emirates ! Most of my mates are Palace fans and they are well able to rub my nose in it without being condescending twats ! Ironically, I refer to colleagues. I work in Holborn, London and in my department there are about seven Spurs fans, five Liverpool fans, two Arsenal fans, one Palace fan, one Leicester fan, one Man U fan, one Sheffield United fan, one Newcastle fan and a few others that don’t spring to mind at present. The only bunch who feel the need to go fishing are the Liverpool fans who, unlike me, don’t even know where Anfield is (personally Goodison Park in the eighties was a nicer more characteristic ground). Banter is banter but it does get tiresome: “what was it like playing a European game on Wednesday?”; “It’s time for fat Sam”; “Did you enjoy the game last night ?”(sarcastically after the 5:5 draw/defeat). My answer was “yes” to a response: “…. but we only had kids playing!”. Also having presentations and accidentally on purpose throwing in slides about Liverpool’s last result no matter who it was against and we’re all supposed to find it funny? What about those who aren’t interested in football? Etc, etc, etc !

Graham Kirk: You are such a prize example because all your comments (and emails, to a degree) back my point! As an example: you slate me for my email but offer no constructive argument to stand up for your crew. The problem is that you can’t understand people saying anything against your precious club whereas we have to accept it from you whatever ! You make a comment in the following Mailbox section stating that if opposition fans DARE question the famous Anfield atmosphere it’s because the opposition isn’t good enough! Listen to yourself ! You’re just putting the icing on my cake !

Going back to you Dave, because I’m 52 I’ve have been through and am going through turbulent times with my club and appreciate we have fallen short in certain areas so I can relate to what you’re saying.
Chris, Croydon