Schrödinger's cat, done and dusted, don't shoot the messenger
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 1:54PM Soz, sick. Hence lack of exuberant blogging this past week. Trying to ease my way to a Spurs v City preview.
Wolves
Looking back at this game, the fact we had to dig deep to equalise and almost went on to win the game...it should not be discounted. I know its still easy to claim its two points dropped but let's wait and see if that's still the case at the end of the season. You'd rather win on Sunday after a draw than beat Wolves then lose at Eastlands, right? Three points is just the three points no matter the opposition, but three points away to City would be worth so much more. The Wolves point might end up being the difference when it's all done and dusted. You know you've been in a war when you can look back at the hard fought battles. A point isn't quite a victory but its hardly the flag of surrender.
Them lot down the road
Avoided the glamour of trolling and attempted to debate the North London state of mind over at the White Hart Pain blog that looked at the trainstion of power (shift) from red to white. Comments section included this from a gooner:
Calm down mate, its January. For a “power Shift” to come about, you would need to finish above Arsenal for many seasons, not just. Next year normal service will be resumed.
I responded with this:
Er…no we don’t. All we need to do is finish about Arsenal the once. The problem you chaps down the road have is you’re not letting go of this fallacy that you’re still a great club. You’ve stagnated badly. Okay, so badly is pretty much defined as still being able to qualify for the CL every season but is that going to be your legacy, your gloat? 15 times on the trot?
Let go of it. Then you might be able to start a new era and move on rather than continue to drown in superlatives that are no longer relevant.
Wenger, came to Arsenal (a blank canvas) and pretty much created a club from his vision. Wenger is pretty much Arsenal. Much like Arsenal fans (most of them) seem to echo the delusions of the manager and part and parcel the same happens with the players.
You once had full rights to be arrogant pricks about it, but take a look around. This is no longer the Prem dominated by the Sky Sports Top four. No matter how much it hurts, its all changed. For the best. You think any club stood a chance during that period of time? Spurs included, we could hardly mount a challenge. Now we can. And its not just because everybody else has dropped off the pace, its because we’ve organically grown and evolved. Stick RvP into the Spurs side and we’d probably win the league (okay, City would still probably edge us out) but Christ…when in the last 10 years has anyone been able to speak about Spurs like this?
The foundations are set. Up to us to push on with it. To be honest, sadly, many gooners would not sit down and debate this. Because many refuse to accept weakness and doubt. They once cited the presence whereas all they do now is remind us of the past when the reality is, the future is there to be made.
But hey, I guess we haven’t got Frimpong denching it across Twitter so we’ve still got a fair amount of ground to cover before we turn into twats.
As for normal service? Is that what Arsenal are these days? Just the rivals of Tottenham Hotspur? It's like we're back in the 1980s again.
I welcome our 'neighbours' to better themselves because it would mean so much more to finish above them when they claim to be superior and at their best.
ITK and the transfer window
There was a time when I would spend the entirety of January trolling the ITK community and mocking the ones that worshipped along with the ones that claimed to have inside information. After almost five years of revelling in this traditional internet dance, I think I've entered a state of semi-retirement. I can't be alone in thinking this window is more so overwhelming than prior ones. Firstly, we don't tend to do that much business and the only type of business that can be embraced as exciting is the opportunistic dealings that Levy is (in)famous for (i.e. van der Vaart).
I don't really want to hear dressed up BS about why the Samba deal is stalling. We all know he's a prospective transfer target. Whoop-de-do. Other targets are taken from the small pool of players we're likely to be interested in based on the fact that we need a centre-back/midfield or winger/forward. If there are say twenty players out there that fit the bill, it's hardly rocket science to work out the potentials. Then we move ever closer to the last day of the window with everyone panicking that no new players will surely spell the end of our season. It's like being a kid and going to a toy store expecting to buy something and you end up coming away with either nothing or a crap toy you didn't really want but just had to get to make the visit worth while. Then you get home and look at the toys you already have and realise you're spoilt rotten.
As for the ITK's themselves, I've been following this thread (for larfs) but hardly paying that much attention to it. Schrödinger's cat would frown. There's can't be twenty or so separate claims of having contact with someone involved in the club. Similarly, we can't be involved in so many prospective dealings at once. It all remains reactive any ways these days. Where's Harry? He's in France. Cue player(s) he is scouting with additional info on likelihood of happening. Yawn. If there are only a few players then the twenty seperate 'leaks' seems to have their own perspective on what's happening. And if nothing is happening then we're blessed with a variety of information on the clubs transfer policy.
ITK's = the internet version of the backpage of The Sun
I've never shared this, but someone (who reads this blog) worked in the business. He's publicised that himself. Hey, he could be telling fibs for all I know (insert smiley here) but the info he did share was always of interest although not always Spurs related. You're more likely to get said info from football agents and the clubs looking to sell/off-load. The wonderful irony is that there are so many political plays and bluffing that it remains difficult to truly know what is happening until it happens. And surely that's all that matters; Player, outside The Lodge, holding up the shirt. I found this to be the case with the info shared. Genuine information...is it still genuine if it's ambiguous? I guess that's why I refuse to get all angry about the ITK's. Wouldn't go as far as offering them an olive branch though. More so the idiots that protect them like some melting pot of a cult.
Oh look. I've gone and repeated myself with all this when I promised myself I wouldn't. Slow news day. In the mean time, 1001 other football websites will boost their click-thru average and earn some pennies for the meter but sharing the same old churned out stories that seem to never go away. We'll have to wait and see if Levy aims to please us or retains a calm composed pragmatical approach (which would equally be pleasing if we improve squad depth).
Do think we need to shift players out first. Perhaps the chairman needs to drop the valuations down a little to do that. Surely we need to be paying someone to take Gio off our hands? Can Faces not sign him as the 'Face of Faces'? I'm sure Ledley wouldn't mind.
Reader Comments (12)
Agree that we need to sell before we can buy. Your "kid in a toy shop" analogy is spot on, however nearly all of us are guilty of that. It would be pretty awesome to see a Big picture of Samba and Remy holding their new shiny white shirts aloft for the papers.
One way or another, we will be doing business this summer, wether it's a disappointing wave goodbye to our best players, or a triumphant welcoming of new talent.
Oh, and I wouldn't waste your breath on the Gooners. Actions speak louder than words, thats something both sets of fans have to agree on.
I doubt Ar5ena1 will even draw they have 12 players out. A win on sunday would secure a top 4 spot even more. COYS ! Unleash the hell at the Etihad!
Why do I believe that we are going to come away from Man C with the points on Sunday.
what do you mean when you say 'Schrödinger's cat would frown' ?
Nudge towards paradox. Which is how I tend to perceive ITK logic.
Another good blog spooky, the marathon not a sprint analogy comes to mind regarding the wolves result and we'll just have to see at the end of the season
what do you mean when you say 'Schrödinger's cat would frown' ?
Jan 20, 2012 at 3:23 PM | liamlemur
i'm guessing he's meaning that by not paying attention to the itk thread makes the theory of seeing the dealings "alive and/or dead" doesn't matter as he doesn't care and therefore the potential waste of life ( or in this case Sibs' time) pointless.
Then again what do i know :S
There could possibly be a powershift in North London but we are not there yet.
We lag behind the other mob in trophies won,titles and revenue streams and it is way to early to think we are the real deal just yet.
We need a bigger stadium built.We need to win trophies.We chose? not to compete in the Europa league so thats one we cant win and whilst we are still in the FA Cup and in with a chance in the league there is a lot of football to be played yet.
We are superior in so many ways of course thats just because we are Tottenham and have bragging rights on the season so far without question.Please God come the end of the season we can hold a trophy aloft and qualify for the Champions league while they miss out on everything, then we the cockeral can truly crow and i will be the first to launch into the South London peasants.
"It's like being a kid and going to a toy store expecting to buy something and you end up coming away with either nothing or a crap toy you didn't really want but just had to get to make the visit worth while. Then you get home and look at the toys you already have and realise you're spoilt rotten."
I need to show this to my 5 year old....... Every time we go to ANY shop he thinks he's going to come home with something. He usually comes home with a 99p car, which then ends up with the other 100+ in a box.
As for the ITKs and signings, I think Levy's holding fire on serious bids until the court case is done and dusted.
This is, as expected, a boring transfer window. Typical Levy will be waiting by the door to the bargin bin on the 31st ready to break through, spray a granny in the face with pepper spray, snap up someone we don't need and miss out on someone we do.
It pains me a bit to see clubs like Newcastle do things the right way. Scout, Identify, Bid, Sign. Why don't we do this? It's what we should have done with Damiao, but that's too late now.
Still, we're in a good position so I can't complain too much. You can't help but want the cherry on top of the cake before you eat it I guess.
Besides, we have signed Falque on a permanent. Do you have an opinion on this, Spooky?
I've been telling local Goons that the only reason they ended up above us last season was RvP. There's been a lot of propaganda from the Death Star recently about the contribution of the Van Persie family to their cause, but he still hasn't signed and if they don't get into the top four then he'll be off. I'd welcome him at The Lane: family don't need to move, Modric et al would stay, and we would win the league.
Harry has cranked up the pressure on City. Come on you Spurs.
cheers for the clarification spooks. And MartyG i appreciate your effort although it bought flashbacks of enduring english lessons with people reading into a straight forward comment in non existent depth!