Rosenior ‘red herring’ raised while Arsenal ‘cheats’ engage in ‘beautiful’ bottling

Liam Rosenior and Arsenal continue to dominate the Mailbox as there is a partial defence of the former, but less so of the latter.

It is an eclectic Mailbox which also takes in some Michael Carrick and plenty of Strongest League In The World chat.

Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.

Taking the Michael

Was just reading the amusing article on managerial shenanigans this year. But there is one bit, one narrative that seems to pervade all articles on the subject of Carrick: the contention that he has achieved getting more points in 2026 than either Pep or Arteta purely on vibes.

If that’s really true (it isn’t) then Arsenal need to bring Ian Wright in as manager and City maybe give it to Balotelli.

On the other hand, maybe Carrick and his team are doing more than merely putting square pegs in square holes and asking them to run about (which presumably only works because each member of the available squad is just better than those at our rivals – that *would* be a bold assertion), and deserves credit for that?

I’m personally very excited for next season to see Carrick send out a midfield of Tchouameni, Mainoo and Bruno with Rios and Charles as rotation. Get those signings over the line and even Pacho might change his tune on Wilcox.
Badwolf

League of their own

I’ve just seen my favourite statistic in years. Since Arteta took over:

Arsenal have topped the table for 539 days
Man City have topped the table for 454 days

Arsenal have won 0 titles
Man City have won 4 titles

If ever there were proof that Arsenal play well at the top of the league, when it doesn’t matter- but go off the top at the business end of the season, when it does.

And City are the complete opposite. You can top the table in December, March, whenever – it doesn’t matter to them. They will be there in April/May and more often than not, will be raising the trophy.

The word ‘ bottle ‘ has apparently been cancelled for not being funny enough. But if it hadn’t, it would surely be leaping to mind regarding Arsenal and those statistics right now.
James, Liverpool

The great bottling

You have to give it to Arsenal, in an effort to avoid their Title win being asterisked by winning in a poor league year with no competition, they’ve lured City back into the fold.

As a United fan, on balance I’d much rather Arsenal win the league. But you can’t get away from how entertaining it would be for the league to be thrown away from where they were. But I’m kind of over that now, and Spurs getting relegated will give enough entertainment, so hopefully Arsenal pull their fingers out (though City titles don’t really count and no-one knows any City fans).

I don’t think City will win 5 games in a row, so it’s on Arsenal now. Will they bottle it or not?

I don’t think Arsenal’s league win should have been asterisked for their brand of football, mind you, they got pelters for trying to be too pretty for years, so we can’t criticise them for winning and being too ugly.

Ultimately though, Chelsea’s titles should have been asterisked for their payment irregularities, City’s? Obviously, nothing needs to be said about those. They’re not real titles. It goes without saying that Liverpool’s covid win doesn’t count.

So really, the only proper Title winning club is United. Leicester can keep theirs too.
AS Camden

A note on Arsenal and Rosenior

Fair play to Mr Rosenior. The man has played some brilliant 5D chess. Pretend to be a manager long enough to secure a contract at a club notorious for giving out lengthy contracts to negotiate financial loopholes. Have no clue what you’re doing. Get fired and earn up to  £24 million

I can’t think of another industry where you can earn generational wealth for being absolutely rubbish. Welcome to the world of LateStageCapitalism where if you’re lucky enough you can fail upwards

A response to Rich AFC. I honestly agree with your gripe about finances in football. It has massively skewed the game and other teams just have to suck it up I’m afraid. You could say the same about Chelski when Roman Abramovich came in with all his COMPLETELY LEGAL FUNDs and dominated the league; there would have been other teams who would have won the league. However if if’s and buts were fruits and nuts it would be Christmas everyday

And unfortunately mate the reason that everyone calls you cheats and bad guys is because….you are. Gabriel must have a set of pictures of Howard Webb in drag or something because he should have been sent off twice against City for the headbutt AND for a hairpull on Haaland that was no different to that which got Martinez sent off. Arsenal have been the beneficiaries of atrocious refereeing all season and are still finding a way to shit the bed from a commanding position on top of the league all the while playing crap football with Sunday League level shithousery and gamesmanship.

This dovetails nicely with a counter to Johnny Nic. Sorry mate this is bottling. Losing is if the league had been tight all season and they got pipped to it by a better side. Fair play that’s football. But losing a title that they led comfortably while their rivals tried their best to play their worst football imaginable is the DEFINITION of bottling. Especially when they used their position at the top of the table and possible quadruple as proof that we should all overlook the shithousery etc. It is absolutely beautiful. And yes it’s sad that Citeh will probably win with their 115 charges, but the schadenfreude of watching a bunch of cynical, entitled b*llends throw away a title is just beautiful. I guess we know who Johnny Nic supports XD

Regards
Disgruntled, RSA 

Geez, some of my fellow gooners are thin skinned.

The reason why we were all so nervous was because we all knew deep down that we would implode.

Rival fans will naturally find that funny especially given some of our fan base’s propensity for preemptive celebration.

I’m actually quite relieved I can give up the hope we would win anything.

Roll on August and #WelcomeCesc.
Graham Simons, Gooner, Norf London

Liam’s race is run

Dear Editor,

Ah here now… Because it’s yourself and your well-known allegiance Mr.Tickner, it’s probably safe to assume the “big club” you’re not mentioning is Spurs. A wealthy club sure, but it really is staggering the outsized amount of coverage they get for the actual size of them in terms of relative success, farcicality, fanbase etc.

You’ve made me feel dirty – somehow even more dirty than I usually am – because I’d have to agree with the sort of odious type of person who’d say something like “why does someone always have to make it a race thing?!” A megaklaxon red flag classic line from a dullard gobshite 99 times of a hundred – but in the case of this article – I think it would actually be entirely merited.

F365 have had great fun, and gotten so much content out of rinsing this absolute cartoon charlatan Guffrey McGuffleupicus O’Brentypartridgeton. He deserves all of it for his World Class, Instant-Pantheon of Notoriety self-mockery. It’s all been tremendous craic indeed…

But then suddenly and abruptly, a piece like this pops up, which really strikes me as disingenuous, inappropriate, wrongheaded and sadly just a ragebaitily-cynical engagement-driver.

Personally, I’d not even seen a media mention of his race before. There’s a massive problem with the lack of black coaches in English football, and it needs serious fixing – but the case of the Managerial Mayfly tenure of LinkedIn Liam is surely not the place to highlight same. Odd stuff.
Kentona/Ken Legend/The Parched Bishop of Kenterbury – Manchester

I second the opinion of Mr Tickner (yes really!) that it’s a shame what happened to Liam, and I doubt (hope) that no one other than maybe Chelsea fans delights in his demise. He seems like a genuinely nice bloke. It’s not his fault he was promoted too soon, nor is it his fault that Chelsea wanted him and presumably offered him life changing lumps of cash.

I think the criticism he has received about his, admittedly very funny, Brendan-isms is a bit of a red herring. They only become a stick to beat a person with if you combine it with poor results (Cantona anyone?). On their own they are not a reason to ridicule a person’s ability to manage or coach a football team. The likes of Harry Redknapp, Allardice and even Klopp et al have all spouted total BS on a regular basis, and we have laughed it off as them just being ‘a bit of a character’. As for his ability as a coach, I’m not so sure that he will never be seen again on these shores, but agree that his next job should be where he feels most comfortable and valued, which sounds like abroad.

As for the culture stuff, it’s strange to criticise someone for being nice and introducing a nice culture. I imagine he was trying to engender comradery and togetherness, which is no bad thing. It ended in disaster (though presumably being paid 6 years of colossal salary for 100 days work doesn’t sound too awful), but I don’t think we should hold a grudge. The lad is obviously a genuine and honest young man, albeit perhaps naive. And yes I am a bit biased from knowing his father, Leroy, who was very much a cult hero at West Ham when I started supporting them in the eighties (see his goal to beat table toppers Arsenal at Highbury in the FA Cup 3rd round replay in 1989, gold).

From a more practical relegation battle related perspective, I have more mixed feelings. Chelsea still have to play Spurs and so surely anything will be better than what Liam’s team would have produced. And if Leeds beat Chelsea this weekend, Leeds’ game against Spurs would come in the midweek before the FA Cup Final which would likely be a total disaster. Then again, after Spurs’ inevitable destruction of pathetic Wolves on Friday I already expect them to regain confidence and coast to safety regardless. Damn…. Hey Forest, isn’t it about time you rested players for Europe??

It’s very strange feeling WH are playing with confidence and fluidity and yet it feels semi-hopeless. I don’t think 40 points will be safe come the end of the year. And again, as a reminder, last year 26 points was safety. Ffs…
Mike (WHU)

I don’t know if I’ve missed the outcry at this little snippet, but I think the truly most astonishing thing to come out of the Linked-in Liam sacking and subsequent leaks to the media; Marc Cucurella has a “barber”.
Chris Bridgeman, Kingston upon Thames

The best solution for football

​So recently there has been a lot of mails or comments about wanting City to win the league because…reasons.

I don’t disagree with the sentiment of Arsenal not winning the PL because their football has been generally awful, I dislike Arteta and most of their fans have been insufferable this season.

That said, why does anyone outside City fans want City to win? It is the most soulless thing, because until this case is eventually sorted out there’s always an * next to anything they win.

So I figured the best solution would be for them both to lose 4 of their next 5 games.

Now, sure, as Man U fan that opens the door for us. But I’m sure most opposition doesn’t want us to win, and that’s fair. I would argue the same for Liverpool.

But there is one other team in that mix who I never see anyone say they wouldn’t want to win. Aston Villa.

It is time for Emery to save the Premier League. I’m sure the odds are slim but I believe!
Andrew, Manchester, MUFC

It’s the belly of the beast

There has been a lot of debate about whether the Premier League is truly the strongest (read best) league in Europe. The red tops amped this up when English clubs dominated the new Champions League league-phase format, with five automatically qualifying for the playoffs and a Newcastle qualifying through the playoffs.

Yet the narrative took a dramatic nosedive when the knockout rounds arrived, with only two reaching the quarter-finals and just one making the semi-finals, leading to a familiar conclusion: which was that the emperor had no clothes.

But I think we are missing the point. First, strength doesn’t mean best. The strength of the Premier League has never been solely about having the very best teams, but about the overall depth of the competition. While other leagues often have a small number of elite sides and a noticeable drop-off beneath them, it would be fair to say, I think, that the Premier League has developed a much stronger middle tier. That depth has allowed six English teams to qualify for the Champions League and produced winners in the Europa League and Conference League.

So I took a look at the last 25 seasons of the Premier League, breaking down the Top 4, Middle 8, and Bottom 3 as a percentage of the total points for each season. Most recently, the Middle 8 have gained points at the expense of the Top 4 and Bottom 3, both of which saw dramatic drops. You can see this happening in cycles, likely caused by one or two of the Middle 8 teams who make a European spot and find maintaining their league form much harder. The big question will be whether this will now be maintained as the league is richer and those clubs can continue to invest in quality talent to maintain their position by increasing their squad depth to battle on that fourth, European front.

This would also explain why the top tier struggles post-Christmas, which is when the playoff rounds in Europe start after a grinding holiday period. No matter how big your squad, with almost constant football played throughout the year, injuries have increased, and the players are knackered. Not to mention that the type of football needed to push through this period is totally different from that needed to play expansively against the elite of Europe.

The Premier League has become more competitive through the middle. Clubs outside the traditional top six are better coached, better recruited, and more capable of taking points off anyone. That makes the domestic season more demanding, with fewer straightforward matches and less margin for error.

With a World Cup, no matter how ballsed up this summer, things are only likely going to get worse for those top Premier League clubs battling on the European front next year.
Paul McDevitt

Bah-dum…

Chris, Croydon – I hope the recovery from the cataract surgery is successful because it seems to have left your opinion incredibly one eyed.
JB (If all jokes wrote themselves that easily, my job would be so much easier)