An addendum to the 4th place issue........
Monday, March 15, 2010 at 4:01PM by guest-blogger Tricky
*please not that the identities of the clubs in question have been protected to stop it becoming an automatic game-saying from opposition fans, or as they are fast becoming known 'the lowest common denominator'.
As a caveat to the question of ‘4th or Cup’, Spooky asked a genuine question, but inadvertently in doing so has attracted some watching opposing fans.
It is an interesting question and one that naturally draws a comparative, it is emotive because of the comparison and the need to be honest about ‘what really matters in the game’. Accordingly it is subjective depending on the individual fans own views on whether or not football is about the trophies and days out to cup finals, or whether the business side and progression to recognition amongst Europe’s elite is of a greater long term consequence. Ostensibly ‘live for the here and now’, or ‘Jam tomorrow’.
But let me cast my mind back to the year 2005 and the month of May (as per Tony’s question of ‘who remembers the final’)
Well I for one remember well the FA cup in 2005. One team from the south (let's call them 'Farcenal'* for argument sake as it doesn't actually matter who it was) played 'anti-football' for 120 minutes whilst a team from the North West (let's call them Glazer United*) dominated possession, and did everything but score (Farcenal having 'parked the bus at the millennium stadium on the pitch'). Farcenal won on penalties, and it was to be their only piece of silverware for 5 years.
The manager of Farcenal then went on complain at every possible opportunity, for the next five years, when teams set themselves up to play a 'certain way' in break down his team, and yet no reporter has had the temerity to point out that 'well didn't your last piece of silverware come from exactly that scenario?'.
So yeah I remember it as it was two hours of my life wasted by negative play, and the 'wrong team' won (purely from a neutrals perspective as I have no love for either team) and football was the loser that day. The highlights were limited to a 10 minute analysis of defensive play by farcenal, and the penalty shoot out, accordingly MOTD was only 16 minutes long that day, the shortest in recorded history for the National Game’s ‘blue ribbon event’.
Of course since that day their fans don't like being reminded of that each time they start chanting the 'Farcenal mantras':
- Thou shalt not tackle thyne 'farcenal players'
- Thou shalt not defend only at the home of the effeminates
- Thy manager knows best, for he is Le God and accordingly is never contradictory, myopic or wrong.
Since then the question has been posed to ‘Farcenal’ which would they prefer 4th place or a cup, and each year the answer has been the same ‘Champions League is vital to the attraction and financial stability of the club’. So that’s their view, money over trophies in recent time.
As I said this is just an aside, as I remember 2005 and it added to the extensive list of reasons to ‘dislike Farcenal’.
'Farcenal' also finished 2nd in the league that year, and was to be the last time in same five year period of finishing in top 2 in the league. Just thought I’d mention it, may come in handy during ‘discussions’ with the opposing fans later on in the season.
Reader Comments (67)
When you ask the question cup or 4th finish what are you implying? Do you trhink Harry senda them out saying dont worry about winning today lads we aare only interested in the FA cup, or visa versa. The team will go out whatever the fixture and play to win and Harry will pick the best team avaible. So you may ask what would you prefer to win 4th Place or the FA cup but believe you me we will be trying very hard for both neither will be targeted over the other. Realistcally we have a better chance of winning the FA cup but who knows?
Started reading, lost interest rapidly! Eyelids heavy, head dropping down towards keyboard. Stop! just in time. Avoid potentially nasty accident. Must be more careful about which blogs I read......
Try one with pictures next time.
I've a feeling the only picture gorgeousGeorge would be interested in would be taken off Gary Glitter's pc!
But of course this 'Farcenal' would only be interested in league position and monetary gain as their history is not about glory, trophies, or the beautiful game. It's based on underhanded pay-offs, brown envelopes and other pikey misgivings.
Arsenal are the exception to the rule. Learn to live with it. Wenger wraps perceptions of what he believes to be right and wrong to serve his tenure and nothing else. You can respect him for his determination and tunnel vision but nowadays he comes across as a loon. More so than say 5 years ago.
Sadly, all the pundits still seem to be falling for the mysterious 'Farcenal Brown-noseious' disease. I watched MOTD agog on Saturday night as S*l's challenge was described as tough but fair by all concerned, despite him lunging into it like a runaway train.
If it had been by a Stoke player on Eduardo or 'Waste of a Ticket' Walcott, Wenger would have been calling for him to be banned from the game for life and the pundits would have lined up to call it 'bully-boy' tactics.
it would b good for spurs as a club if they dont get involved in champion league bcoz-
-club with their avg stature cant handle it, what was last time they were in it
-their squad not good enuf to b playing for both epl and ecl ,so they can slip to 8-9th place next season
-english domination in europe colud become weak if medicore spurs would b representing england
-they cant win both fa cup and 4th place, and if they get 4th spot i m sure in qualifying round they would b thrased and loose on both fa cup and ecl
-a club in europes elite competition should atleast have won or b around top of respective league for being worthy fairly, what was last time spurs did that
-
Thanks for chiming in Roger'd
Where do these people come from? I'll take the 4th spot and FA Cup. How long have we as fans clamored for the 4th spot? And now that it's within reach some are saying we should forget it? I'm just going to venture a guess and say those fans have had too much lasagne.
"Gorgeous George"-something tells me if you were shooting your mouth off in the flesh that title would be deeply ironic.
Good article with some very fair points. Arsen...sorry Farcenal are all too keen to crow about the year of the Invicibles and how they are proponents of the beautiful game but does anyone here remember the chant "1-0 to the Farcenal"?. The glory days of George Graeme weren't that long ago Gooners...
Most of those MOTD commentators haven't got a clue about the laws of the game. Not that I do, either, but I think that if I was paid to sit on a couch and talk about football I'd spend a bit of time learning them.
IMO, if a player goes in like a steam train (even if he slips) then it should be considered a bad tackle and a foul. Doesn't matter if they get the ball or not. Like to see a good tackle, but not at the expense of player safety. The skillful players will always come off worse ... and lets face it, for a Spurs fan that will generally mean one of our players.
As for FA vs 4th. I'm tempted to say 4th just so that boring sky sports 4 can be broken up. And then that pool team will probably lose their best player(s) for next season. But then Wembley... Silverware... Just go out and win every game.
The choice should really be group stage vs FA. That's a tougher call, as we would all expect to go out in the qualification round anyway, right? COYS!
Perhaps if this question had been put to a Portsmouth fan last year when they were on the verge of an FA Cup final, not many would have opted for silver versus money!!!
But then again Portsmouth were never in a position to challenge for 4th spot.
Bit of a toughie this one. I'm too young to have remembed our last FA Cup win, so 2 league cup wins and 2 league cup runners ups is all I can really relate to. With this in mind, I would pick the FA Cup.
There is no reason why we shouldn't and couldn't compete for both. A couple of reults went in our favour this weekend, which is what we are going to have to rely on, as looking at the run ins of the respective teams, 16 points from our last 9 games may not be enough.
Should we finish fourth, our squad is good enough to be able to compete with some of the top European teams, and if we were to draw the likes of Sevilla or Roma I think we would stand a chance of quaifying.
The key will be keeping the squad together, wth one or two high quality additions, not bulking the squad out with squad players. The league cup and early rounds of the FA Cup should then be used to blood youngsters and those 1st teamers who need to match practice etc.
-a club in europes elite competition should atleast have won or b around top of respective league for being worthy fairly, what was last time spurs did that
- Roger(ed senseless by Sol)
Quick question Rog (you semi-literate mong):
when was the last time Woolwich were promoted to England's elite "worthy fairly" (sic)?
I think Roger either ran out of points to make, or his carer turned up.
But it was good of him to make the points he did (I think? The neighbours kid is home from school so will now ask for a translation and get back to you on that one).
Hahaha lol at spurs. You iz way too shit to win da cup or get champins leeg.
Arsenal iz da best when we pleh yoos at 4 point lane we will blatantly win you like alwayz hahaha.
I neva watch spuds play but I no you is shit anyway lol lol lol
I bet yoo wish you wuz arsenal. We don't care bout little fings like winning trophies long as we play da best football in Ingland.
Oh yeah and Ingland is shit anyway I'm supportin Spain in World CUp coz Fabregas is da gee and I don't no any Inglish playaz uvva dan Beckham and he's dead now innit!
Why must we talk about Arsenal all the time... it's embarrassing!!
They've been better than us for 25 years.
They've spent about £300m less than us in the last 10 years whilst building a new stadium and a new training ground.
We haven't beaten them in the league for donkey's years... We beat them in the Carling Cup but let's be honest, it wasn't their first team. We celebrate a 4-4 draw like we won the league...
They've been to European cup finals, semi finals, quarter finals. Won in the Bernabeu, San Siro, Stadio Olympico.
We make ourselves look small time with our (that includes our manager and players) constant comparison making with them. We've won 2 league cups in almost 20 years, THAT'S ALL... that isn't enough to gloat about and then laugh at them for not winning anything in 5 years. In those 20 years, they've won 5 league titles, won one european trophy (so i'm told), been to 3 european competition finals- including the Champions league final, won 5 FA Cups, 1 league cup and finished above us in the league probably 90% of the time.
This club needs the Champions league in order to grow but constantly comparing ourselves to L'arse will only make us look foolish.
Just kidding, it was me. thought I'd save a few retards the trouble of posting on here
oh and i agree with Dan 100%. fuck arsenal and concentrate on the spurs
Arsenals cycle will end soon enough. History tells us this.
sorry mate, this would be a terrific article if you were writing for a journal or something, but this is a football blog. your writing is far too unnecessarily flowery for the subject matter, and indeed your audience. tone it down a bit, it is obvious you are talented with the language, its just boring to read.
OOOOOHHH POOR SPUDDIES !!!!!,HERE WE GO AGAIN, I THOUGHT THEY HAVE LEARNED FROM PAST THAT THEY R NOT GOOD ENUF FOT TOP 4 AND THEREFORE NOT TO GLOAT ABOUT IT BUT THEY PROVED US WRONG AND AGAIN ARE ON THEIR WAY ALREADY CELEBRATING THEIR 4TH SPOT FINISH, ONLY TO B FAR FROM IT IN REALITY AND ONCE AGAIN THEY WOULD B A HUGE SOURCE OF OUR ENTERTAINMENT AS THEY WOULD PROVIDE US WITH SOME GOOD LAUGHS WHEN HAIRY REDNAP WOULD B SACKED AND 1 OR 2 DECENT PLAYERS THEY HAVE WOULD DITCH THIS HANK-PANKY CLUB, HA HA HA!!!!! SPURS WHAT A MOCKERY OF A CLUB FULL OF DELUDED DONKEYS HA HA HA H A!!!!!!!!!!!!! POOR LITTLE SPURS ALWAYS UNDER ARSENAL'S ARSE LOL !!!!!!!111
Farcenal, very witty. Thought their monicker was a rich source of humour as it was but you've outdone yourself Tricky. I remeber that extremely boring cup final as I was there due to work, sickening. To all the all the Farce contributors, is there nothing in your world to discuss, i'm sure you can get back to your own blogs and complain about hard done you are or just get back to the bottom of the latrine with the rest of shit.
4th and a run in Europe's finest money spinner, it's about time, as a club that would give us a maasive push, with DL in charge we already have a running start, who knows with that under our belt we could be looking at a league title in the near future. Steady on boy. Come on Pompey.
A Gooner -- brilliant satire!! Innit.
Yeah obviously this blog is useless - hardly anyone reads it... no-one bothers to leave a comment... great advice there. Perhaps more love letters to Levy and perhaps Jenas instead.
The re is two things that will break our Premiership and make our clubs into financial wrecks the champions league and relegation .I would love for Spurs to get in the champs league and win the Fa Cup. The problem is we are not ready of the field lets say we get in and we play Barcelona we have 36 thousand fans lucky ones with tickets and they are getting fleeced to pay our players who now want 90 thousand or more a week.And some of them have been tapped up to move in January . All because we are doing well or god for bid even the play off games the prem and the Fa plus Ufa wont allow this Cartel to change unless Liverpool don't find money and then only City will be allowed to enter . They have already got plans agreed by Manchester council to pump 1 billion into the stadium and the surrounding area for next year we are still fighting for approval .When the G14 disbanded and made peace with Ufa this was a blue print for a European League and is being worked on now like a Kerry Packer style league. This is why Plattini wants Clubs to be Finical' y viable to be in the Champs league. I cant stand this pressure every week and heartache when we get mugged by a Team of cast offs and Energized ill looking players and over thirty's medical right off's playing like they are 20 Carr for one. Plus do we has intelligent humans believe any man can launch a ball with the whip of a javelin 19 times and not hurt is arm muscles or tire we have just witnessed a rugby player in his thirty's a well established player get caught taking growth hormones and up till he was tested positive no player or any other Sport had been caught . The reason they leave your body in 48 hours and he got caught in a training Camp we have not allowed this testing method of blood testing but its on the way, look out for a bad injury on the throwing front. The reason i have said this is because the top four and relegation and TV MONEY have made Football like athletics was tarnished with desperate cheats and results are showing it up Wigan 1 liverpool 0 Bolton 4 Wigan 0 we play Stoke Launchers next my fingers toes and bollocks are crossed and my rosary beads are ready. I want to keep Hudds Lennon Defoe Bale Walker naughton Caulker Mason Bostock Townsend Taarabt Parett and build a team for our new Stadium and win Cups on the way for our History Not playing in Europe when its a close shop from teams with 60 to70 100 , thousand crowds every week. This saying is true Hurry in Haste repent in Leisure .COYS
Dav you truly are a confused individual.
Are you male again this week? Seeing as you're crossing your bollocks for the Stoke game.
As Edmund Blackadder so eloquently says you're "madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of this year's Mr Madman competition."
IF I READ ONE MORE davspurs POST MY HEAD WILL EXPLODE.
GONE FROM BEING THE INVINCIBLES TO THE INVISIBLES...AINT WON SH**. SINCE YOUR
PLAYER MANAGER (TERRY HENRY)TOOK HIS C*** OUT OF YOUR OBEDIENT CLUBS AR**
EVENTUALLY FINDN HIS TRUE LUST (MADAM BARCELONAS Real success). MMMMMMWWAHH.......!!!!
ALWAYS SENSED HE WAS A BIT OF A NONSE...BUT BY ECK DID HE LEAVE YOUR HOLE GAPING !!!!
YOUR GLOATING EGO TRIPPING AND OVERALL FARCICAL TAKE ON TRUE WINNERS CONDUCT
IS LAUGHABLE. .(A BUNCH OF STREET ROBBERS COUNTING THEIR SCANT ILL GOTTEN GAINS)
NO CLASS NO NOBILITY NO SAVVY...JUST A PACK OF LAUGHING DERRANGED HYENAS.
IF YOUR GONNA DO SOMETHING ...THEN WHY NOT DO IT PROPERLY. (THEN GLOAT)THE ARSENAL COMEDIAN APPEARED TO OF OMMITTED A GLARING COURSE OF EVENTS....IT WAS GOING GOOD TILL.......WELLL???? WHERE WERE YOUR WINNERS MEDALS FOR THE CL. WHAT HAPPENED DID YOUR
GOOGLE ARSENAL STATS PAGE DROP OUT. ?? I SUPPOSE THATS WHAT YOU GET WHEN A GENERATION
OF SKY SPORTS DROIDS ARE RELEASED ON TO THE INTERNET.
IF VICTORY COMES AT THE COST THAT YOU BOYS HAVE HAD HAD TO PAY THEN AS SPURS FANS WE
WILL FIND ANOTHER WAY.(AS ON RECORD)FIRST CLUB TO WIN THE EUROPEAN CUP. REMEMBER YOUR ABILITY TO PLAY ATTRACTIVE FOOTBALL AND WIN (SOMETIMES) IS SOME WHAT OF A NEW CULTURE AT YOUR CLUB, (A BIT LIKE WHEN U THINK OF LADY DI PASSING ..IT ONLY SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY REALLY)BUT WOULD'NT EVEN EXPEXT A MEASURED OR HONEST TAKE ON THAT FROM THE GLEENING
VULTURES.
ARSENAL ARE THE REAL (COURTEZANS)HANKY PANKY IS WHATT KEEPS ARSENE AT THE 'XTRA
FITNESS' CLASSES.
COYS
lol
I RECKON DAVE IS THE ORICLE OF THIS MATRIX....WHAT YOU REKCON, HES
ON THE BLUE PILL OR THE RED ONE...
I saw the length of the post then checked who wrote it...I've just saved 2 minutes of my life!
Then you wasted them on telling us. You teh win!!
The bane of blogs.
Look at me, I'm not interested but I'm interested in telling you I'm not interested.
Good article. Anything that further highlights Wenger as a hypocrite is fine in my book.
to
Mar 15, 2010 at 9:43 PM | JUSTANOTHER5-1NEARLYFAN
it seems that long-long years of inferiority ,jealousy and seeing arsenal becoming one of biggest club in the world and at the same time spurs well ! they remain same shit-tank they always were has made most of spuds loose their brain cells and hence they are now commonly behave and known as deluded donkeys.
You load of Pussy's letting Arsoles fans come on here and slag our team of here is a bit of History the fuckers never brag about . Adams turns is car over pissed and drugged on coke great leader six moths in the Slammer Merson caught in a night club toilet snorting is brains out by the news of the world he was told confess or we do it for you .He cried all the way to the Fa and confessed to three addictions racing pissing on his shoes drunk and Cocaine especially when he scored and he did is drinking celebration . Record red cards Wenger blamed the rugby leagues favorite mental powder creatine for is players mad tackling and circling the ref in a threating manner yes since doctor Wenger brought is medical bag from Monaco you have made history with two addicts that got caught the rest finished in clinics after they retired so fuck of and enjoy the mental Doctor Wenger while you can. And if ypu look at liverskint tonight you will see the very Tempo i discovered two years ago you doubting pillocks and if we finish fourth it will be a miracle beyond the matrix or me sticking my Bollocks back on me tool
Davspurs I have no idea what you are saying, but I could read it for days.
Davspur - genius or mentalist?
I am going with the former as despite the terrible spelling, bad grammar and apparent randomness of his comments, they still manage to be a bloody good read!
Anyway, bravo for the artical, enjoyable read if a little high brow. If I had to choose between the cup and that elusive 4th spot then it would have to be 4th. I only say this as to retain and indeed attract the top players, we need it. Seriously, with our strict coherence to a wage ceiling (which I agree with) it would give us a strong bargaining chip. This way next year we could look at adding to the great work of Mr Rowe and Nicholson and add a title, or god forbid a double.
COYS
Lads my last two predictions where Bolton in the cup 4-1 and Blackburn 3-1 who gives a shit about grammar . My words may need a wartime decoder to understand my message but you can put money on me telling the truth and telling the score.I will improve my grammar when i can sing the same message and class wins games not Javelin throwers and battery powered rejects who should be retired and playing Golf .You all have good grammar on here well nearly all but what i see is ignorance and a lack of intelligence any fool can see Teams are performing way above there ability yet you call me ,The trouble with you lot is you think because my words are jumbled i am thick well you would be wrong and its me who is laughing because the one thing that made me a legend in my town was the ability to see something before it happened .,There is after thoughts and before thoughts well my gift is before thoughts sometimes they help and other times they frighten you .Like one day i went for a paper and just has i got in my car a little boy was walking accros the feild with his grandmother nothing special buut instead of starting the car and going home i felt the boy was in danger and the next thing he left go of is Nan and ran for the road she manged to stop him because i pressed my horn and he got startled and he stopped .She got hold of is hand and stood on the curb. All along the road blocking her view was cars i looked down the road and a car with a young girl was coming up the road the lady let go of the boy's hand and let him walk across the road right on collision course with the car i pressed my horn with all the force i could muster and waved to the oncoming car the lad stopped with the noise and the girl braked she hit the boy and all he had was a bleeding nose the car had brushed him over you see if i had gone home that little boy could have died and is grandmother would have been devastated this type of thing happens a lot even with Spurs games so spotting cheats is easy for me the hard part is writing it down some of my cheats i picked before they even failed a test are the pakistan fast Bowler Wendell sailour Australian looking at some one on drugs is no different than looking at some one drunk just different actions .But this new way using all your players is taking cheating to a new and dangerous level and the sad thing some managers do.nt even now or turn the other cheek but the drug testers do and they told me what i already new so yes my blogs are eyebrow stuff but they are a lot nearer the truth than you could imagine .Right from now on it will be clean fun and short sharp shite blogs and no more D words because if you don't no now you don't want to.COYS
spooky, you see what happens when you let one over-excited Spud writer loose on your blog? it turned spuds against spuds!
its a good writing though and has good point too if you take out the "farsenal" thingy!
Too many spuds are now counting the chickens before they hatch! 4th or Cup?????? At the end of the season you will see.............neither of them! how ready i am to see that day.......!
DAVSPURS, you are my favorite person on Earth. (Sorry Spooks)
Davspurs you are the most confused insane individual I have ever had the pleasure (not quite sure if that was the correct choice of words) of reading.
Who knew they would let you have internet access in your rubber room?
Have you thought of starting your own blog?
You crazy Anti-drugs lobbyist, psychic, hermaphrodite you! LOL
For the record, by my reckoning we won't get 4th or the cup. So anything is a bonus.
DAV, I love you, you genius.
Good news on the Sandro front
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11661_6030015,00.html
you spurs fans are disgraceful, that DAVSPURS is blatantly a spastic and you all egg him on.
but your nickname on the other hand is o so creative ...
touche you belgian twat
Yeah mate, cause you're defo not a massive twat yourself.You daft racist.
Are Gooners this easy to bait all the time?
I know they come from the same primordial genetic waste anyway, so there's a few chromosomes short.
But some of the throwbacks posting here make Dav look practically Mensa material.
The media constantly wank over Farcenal,
They're sooo young....ok, who made it that way then?
They don't like it up em, funny that. If that's the case then it would make it far easier for Stoke for example to intimidate a Farcenal rather than a Chelsea or a Bolton. ergo they go in harder against harder teams. They dont need to be that hard to ruffle Farcenal. Solution? Why not buy some men to play for your team?
They play good footy, sure, but they don't win anything anymore.
It's funny because every goon I read on the net anywhere gives it the biggun about CL being the be all and end all, yet most goons I talk to in real life want a trophy...any trophy..Who is telling the truth???????????
Neither knowing them!