Lasagne > Fulop
Monday, May 14, 2012 at 7:57PM
Only Spurs can witness their season end only to have it extended to wait to see if fourth spot translates to Champions League football. No lasagne this time, just Martin Fulop. Would have preferred the lasagne in goal to be honest, stronger backbone.
Mission accomplished then with a top four finish but then not quite job done and not quite what we had planned when you go back to the hedonistic days that came before the month of February. At one point we flirted with a title push. It's been some season. In the end it feels like we've let ourselves down but only because of those standards set early doors. We should have achieved so much more than what we've been left with. What we've been left with ain't too shabby but in context, it's bitter sweet and hard to swallow. What we have is an agonising wait for another football match to play out before we look to book tickets for the continent.
At the very start of the season I'm not sure many believed a top four place was going to be easy to achieve. Remember the back end of last season? Most wanted Harry gone after our league form slumped. Thanks mainly to other teams faltering and us pelting it, you can now nod approvingly to the suggestion that we should have done better because of the position we found ourselves in. But then when you strip away all the hype and you admit to the defiances of the squad, the mismanagement of loaned players along with the variety of outside interference that hogged the headlines from riots to heart operations to court cases to the England job...we've done as good as a team managed by Harry Redknapp can do. He found himself in a position he's never been in before and he fluffed it. A little more bravery and astuteness here or there from the gaffer might have seen us capture the odd lucky point to secure that 3rd spot even with the blip playing out the way it did. The crux is, can he learn from his mistakes at such a grand stubborn age?
No matter our ambitions before the start of the season, we've under achieved when you take into account how much the top tier of the Prem has opened up and invited us in to attack it. We've played some fantastic stuff but we have proved to be a side that only truly works when everyone is available and fit to play. Redknapp struggled too often with the pressures of rotation and tweaking strategy and catering for growth (Bale and the left flank and roaming the perfect example of losing control). Other clubs might complain they had their fair share of injuries and lack of depth issues with squad. Fact is, Harry and the players lacked the guile at vital moments that have proved to be costly. We had a 13 point lead at one point, that's Harry's doing. I'm not ignoring that. But it's also his doing that we lost that lead. I'm also not going to ignore the fact that a few seasons back we finished mid-table below West Ham United. We now compete season in and season out but that cutting edge is still required to make it all a little less nervy. I'm sure we wouldn't be complaining too much about a 4th place finish had Barca had beaten Chelsea in the semi-final. If WBA had a better keeper between the sticks would you have forgiven Harry for all the fluffs? Probably not, right? Because if we had finished in 3rd one point ahead it still doesn't change the fact that we slumped post-Feb. Either way, it's been harder than it should have been. We also lost ownership of a hashtag. The shame.
Still, little old Spurs with their 36k stadium and wage cap are once more sitting in one of the CL places (caveat: German club that needs to do us a favour). Next season we have to be prepared to build on this season's platform keeping in mind that one or two clubs that might believe themselves to have under achieved might come back with less of a brittle spine for the 2013 season. But even if they improve, if we do so to, they'll be worried as much about us as we would be about them.
We need to fix up in key areas during the summer months. Early business and not last minute. Redknapp also has to drop the 'it's as good as we've ever had it' defeatism. Although that's unlikely. He thinks and lives in the short term. Would be nice for him to tell us it's disappointing we've not finished higher and that next season we'll aim to do so. Not likely. But that's the crux of the problem I have with him and his lack of consistency with us. Nobody cares that we sat in mid-table below West Ham four or so seasons back. It's the here and now that matters, the present day. The past is the past and we need to be led into the future with relentless hunger to better ourselves. Aim high. Always aim high.
To do so, little Spurs have to play big. Since our last top four finish we've spent £16M compared to Arsenal (£64.7M), United (£80.3M), Liverpool (£132.9M), Chelsea (£160.4M) and City (£212.7M). Impressive yeah? But we need to do more than just survive in their company. We need to be able to bully them. Get on it Levy.
I'm repeating myself now. Lucky I completed my end of season review ('The regression of Harry Redknapp's Tottenham') already. Everything I've got to say is in there.
I can now look forward to all the ITK nonsense that is about to explode in our faces. I didn't give them much stick last couple of windows so I might need to allow the therapy to consume me as the alternative is to follow England in the Euro's and that is one ugly alternative.
The end of season finale (ep 43) of The Fighting Cock podcast will be recorded on Wed, out Friday.
Onwards.
Reader Comments (79)
I can't help but think Fulop received a nice brown paper bag, full of non-sequential £50 notes.......
Note, for legal purposes, that's what I'm THINKING, I am not accusing!!!
I like that you mention our transfer spending - try adding in the wages too and we'd fall even further behind them all.
To be honest Redknapp was given massive funds when he first came in. He wasted it on players he then soon deemed surplus to requirements. I would relieve him of his duties forthwith as he has proved now he is out of his depth. I definately wouldn't give him significant transfer money to waste again.
We have finished in the top four twice in 20 yrs of the PL history under Harry's management. Of course he shouldn't be sacked!!!
First of all i gota say what a climax to the season.... I couldn't make the game so i sat in front of lap top with a live stream Fox sports and a quality stream too, behind the lap top i had sky sports news on, there was i brief moment i was in heaven we were in front and so were WBA, unfortunately it did not last... Paul Merson was watching the City game, when City scored the winner he did a Jim White and his head almost exploded,,, great entertainment. Can you imagine what it was like for those city fans 2.1 down with minutes to go and you don't even look like scoring, what a remarkable outcome it was almost unreal.
I'm still absolutely gutted we did not finish 3rd simply because of the position we were in, HR is most definitely not the man to take us to the next level, he simply does not have what it takes... we have the most talented squad I have ever known at the club and HR is not the most talented manager out there.... I rest my case. Oh yea Saturday night Ive never supported a German team in my life, so that will be a first.... If there is a god of football please please let them win this one.
Cant disagree wid this article or the comment below,i thought Fulop's "performance" was highly questionable,i shall leave it at that! Im afraid tho blowing a 13 point lead is unforgivable!!!
It wasn't 13pts after Arsenal played their game in hand. Unfortunately some Spurs fans have been spoilt under Harry as the benchmark has been set higher. But you can't forget how things used to be. We have never had it so good. Well not for over 23yrs anyway. Spurs did let a nice lead go but make no mistake had Arsenal not got outrageous fortune again on the final day we would be 3rd. Fulop's performance looks more suspect than Chris Foy's peformance at Stoke.
Sorry Spurs fans, I'm afraid we let you down with Fulops performance, it was the worst performance in goal by any Albion keeper in living memory.
I'm afraid that if Foster had not got crocked before the game, we would have won, we played very well apart from the clown between the sticks, never mind, Chelsea are falttering to decieve, you will be okay!
It's not your fault Zolton. But it shows how unlucky we were for you to say that. But luck evens itself out over the course of the season right...! Of course it didn't and we have every right to curse our wretched luck after yesterday.
Honestly the Harry critics want to think things through. We finished below the largest club in the world, the richest club in the world and a club with the best manager in the world and a stadium with a capacity of 60,000. We left the second richest club in the world, Chelsea and the second most successful English club, Liverpool in our wake.
Our season was derailed - if derailed you can all it - by a combination of a force-majeur (the media, every chairman and manager in the country and every player in the country declaring Harry was bound for England) and some pretty unlucky results. By unlucky I mean away against the Champions when we were one millimetre away from 3 points and 5 seconds away from one. Against United at home, when even Fergie had to admit he couldn't work out how they had won the game and a bunch of games where we dominated possession and shots on goal and just couldn't get the breaks. Ade alone had a hatful of good goals disallowed. The result was a loss of form against average opposition - a genuine bad run of perhaps 3 games.
Meanwhile, Arsenal were enjoying entirely the opposite kind of luck. Last minute winners - the Liverpool game springs to mind and goals against the run of play. The final game of the season was a case in point. THREE goals gifted by the most inept performance I have ever seen by a Premiership keeper to a fairly average team. Frankly I wish I hadn't seen the game. Under such circumstances it is very easy to wonder about game fixing.
And still we were only one point behind Le Arse.
Remember for every armchair manager who criticises Harry for lack of rotation there are just as many ready to jump on him for meddling with a settled side. Hindsight is usually very evident in the justification for the position.
Considering the year he's had I for one am amazed that he kept us on course. He is an astonishing individual and we should be very, very grateful we've got him.
Hamish....spot on!
It was derailed because of Redknapp. It's okay to be critical of him much like any fan can be critical of their manager. Not sure why Redknapp has been bestowed by some to be untouchable. He is accountable. Yes, we are now competing at the top of the table and that is fantastic and there is genuine progression over X period of time but its a grand shame he can't retain focus because if he could he might actually cement himself into the history of this club for ever rather than be a passing fad that took a good bunch of players and did good things rather than great things.
It does speak volumes though that the problems we had this season are actually easily solvable. Can see us battling for 2nd spot next season if...IF the chairman backs the manager and the manager retains 100% focus.
Re Gaz, we have one of the best 3 squads in the prem so finishing 4th is a minimum. Harry has to take blame but so to does the unbeivable bad luck we have had and Fulop looked like he double dropped some china whites after an allnighter at Fantazia. I mean what the fuck! The worst goalkeeping i have ever seen and suspicious. Fuck you Fulop you oath.
This waiting for the result on saturday is torture.
Great article Spooky and I would just like to point out that Fulop used to be on the books at Spurs but we released him, one can only assume that his performance yesterday tells us why he was out the door. I agree with the comments made previously regarding the brown paper bag scenario....mmm. Food for thought! IMO. COYS!!!
Hamish, what does finishing above Liverpool mean? Why is it so significant that we finished above such a 'big team' who spent X amount of money?
The game of football isn't a set of numbers. Shirt sales mean nothing if all you do is spend £35m of it on Andy Carroll.
Liverpool have never won the Premier League. Blackburn won the league in '95, do we measure our success against them?
I couldn't care less about what happened with Chelsea and Liverpool or how good they were. In the here and now, during this season, we were playing the best football, we were flying high, we set our own standards. Then when Harry came across a problem born of his own doing, yet done nothing but try to blag his way through it.
Come on guys. We had a slump like every other club. Harry did well overall. Yes the slump was due to us persisting with a 4-4-2 during a hard set of games where one more point could have been enough, but thems the breaks.... We did good. He has progressed us, and not too many people sound grateful for it. He has one more year on contract. When he joined, he talked of retirement. So perhaps this is his last season. I for one will be bricking it, because we have a 50-50 chance of following Harry with someone who underperforms. Look at Swapping Ancelotti with (UEFA cup winner) AVB, or replacing Martin O'Neill with (League cup winner) McLeish. Be careful what you wish for.
Johnny B - because people blame Harry for not signing Suarez when in fact it is numbers that made Suarez not even consider us because we cannot compete with Liverpool's wages - or fees that they pay. We were only allowed to spend 5m on Parker in order to improve on 5th. We did improve on 5th. No pundit (barring the biased Pleat, Hoddle and co) put Spurs even as high as 5th let alone top 4. So we did well. We are trying to compete on a non-level playing field, and we ARE punching above our weight financially. Even Everton matched our spending for the year. You take away Mancini's spending, and what would he achieved? People blame Harry like he is the only one making decisions that do not come off. ALL managers made decisions like this. Why do you all expect our manager to be more perfect than the others?
First of all I have to tip my hat to you spook for another excellent season of blogs! I cant complain too much about the season we've had...alright I could bang on all night but seriously like several posters have said we've easily finished above those who have spent far greater sums and a whisker away from a team that have spent more that treble than us. At the beginning of the season if someone told me we'd finish 4th, (granted we are waiting on Bayern to do us a favour) I would have taken it and id assume that was the target at before we started at boardroom level. As you said in previous blogs champs league equates to money which equates to buying better players so on and so forth so as long as we are in the hat along with Barca/Real and co we are still progressing. With a few additions in the summer and keeping key players im sure we'll push on for a higher placing next year along with more glorious European adventures. COYS!
There is no way Fulop took a bung to throw the match. It just doesn't happen here. This is England, not sime tin-pot spaghetti republic. Political, economic and sporting corruption is rife in virtually every single other country on the planet, but here in Albion, This Sceptred Isle, nobody would ever even entertain such a notion.
Just because an individual like R*pert M*rdoch has been accused in some quarters of controlling the media, police force, politicians, and governments by using corrupt and underhand methods, there is simply no way that his organisation would even think about using the same kind of nefarious tactics to interfere with something as important as our national sport.
Sorry to disappoint the tin-foil hat brigade, but Occam's Razor says that Marton Fulop is just a seriously shit goalkeeper.
The spending is all but irrelevant. The clear correlation in football is wages = success. I said this before and have always been shot down by dreamers, but what the hell - lets say it again. We should have finished 6th this season. We should have finished miles behind Chelsea and Liverpool. We didnt - we finished in the top 4, pretty comfortably. We also made the FAC semi. We got our 2nd highest points total in the history of the PL. If Fulop hadnt received a nice pressie from some kind Malaysian gentlemen we would have finished 3rd. THIRD!
I know it seems tinged with regret, but it really shouldnt. We all got carried away in Feb, but it was just a result of a good run. Common sense told us it wouldnt last, and it didnt. Squad not good enough in places, too many back up players not quite good enough, hence the same players played every week and fatigue / injury caught up. Dont blame Harry, blame economics. We were taking on teams with a MINIMUM of 40% higher wage bills. Some more than double (City). Over 38 games these things almost inevitably have an impact. And yet we still finished miles ahead of Pool and comfortably ahead of Chelsea.
So, celebrate. Celebrate a great season. Celebrate Walker never having been beaten by a winger in an entire season. Celebrate Bale being unplayable at times. Celebrate Sandro emerging as a great. Celebrate the fact that we've just had our second best league campaign in a generation (2 years after our best), and yet still feel we could have done even better!
Yes Redknapp is accountable. But in a season that begun with riots forcing us to start late and Modric's head not in the right place, a very real threat of facing jail time, the whole England distraction literally hours after walking out of court and a player almost dying at WHL , well I'd say 4th for only the second time in premier league era isn't too shabby.
TonyRich. The story went that, Redknapp was told Suarez couldn't play the lone striker role and was more a deep lying forward like VDV. Rest assured, if we'd made a bid for him and failed, Harry would have told everyone, like he does.
Not signing Suarez highlights concerns over our scouting system, not our finances.
Great read as usual. If HR gets the sack, I won't shed a single tear. He has done well for us but we now have our best squad in over 20 years. His limitations are plain to see re. his tactics, management of players and general attitude towards our club and its supporters. Our capitulation in the last 3 months has been an absolute disgrace and HR is largely responsible for that.
Spurs Guv: "Re Gaz, we have one of the best 3 squads in the prem so finishing 4th is a minimum".
We really dont have one of the best 3 squads in the PL. We have, probably, the 4th best first team (when ever club has every player fit). Ours squad, certainly in the latter half of this season (ie excluding the players we loaned out), isnt even in the top 6. We had no full back cover AT ALL, ageing, crippled centre backs and 2 strikers on the books. And you know why? Because of simple economics. We had to let players go in the winter window to bring the wage bill into line with Levy's golden rule (50% of revenue).
Trust me - Harry rung pretty much every point possible out of this squad. As Everton, Norwich and Swansea are doing with their managers - we should be singing his name from the rooftops.
Why do spurs keep claiming you will be in the CL if Bayern beat Chelsea? The prize isn't CL, it's getting into a play-off to play in the CL. If Bayern are 70% favourites to beat Chelsea, and Tottenham are 70% favourites to beat whatever side you play against as is stands you have a 49% chance of being in the Champs League next year.
Just in case people think I'm a moaning bastard:
http://www.dearmrlevy.com/dml/2012/5/11/taking-back-what-belongs-to-us.html
Brilliant, is that the same logic applied to Spurs debut in the Champions League?
"You'll get knocked out in the qualifers"
"You wont get out the group stage"
"You'll finish bottom of your group"
"You wont beat Inter"
"Milan will dick you"
Q-F first time of asking.
There's always a risk. It's no different to any other game/competition. Hey, if Chelsea do beat Bayern and Arsenal have to go through the qualifiers I guess the same logic will apply to them too, right?
Too much nonsense here about sacking Harry. Why not have a potshot at Levy for not providing funds or paying wages that compare with the top three.
Who expects the Man U supporters tol be asking that Fergie be sacked because they won nothing this year, and he is obviously past it?
Too much negativity in these blogs - just appreciate how well we have done
Is this the same Martin Fulop that was drafted by City and had a very steady game in the run up to our last CL season. 'Occam's Razor says that Marton Fulop is just a seriously shit goalkeeper' I concur he is shit, but for the life of me I cannot remember two blunders of that gravity in a PL match by any goalkeeper. Bad luck mmmmmmmmmmm ok. But for their winner, he punched the f@£ing ball from outside the six yard box towards the goal under no pressure. That goal ensure that lot finished ahead of us by a point, that is some co-incidental bad luck.
Ted, it's not about being negative. If we're going to discuss the good we need to point out the bad. Redknapp soundbite: "I've not spoken to the chairman yet".
Why does he persist in the disassociation? The 'them' and 'me' mentality? It's hardly a unified stance that he projects every time he opens his mouth.
Just finished reading your blog, "Taking back what belongs to us". Excellent writing Spooky, truly inspirational, you are a very gifted writer my friend. Stay on the ball, thanks mate!
Yep, that third goal is a nonsense. It wasn't a ball through the legs, or even a miss-kick....why would Fulop punch the ball towards his goal...madness or he hates Spurs. ;)
When I listened to Joey Barton's antics in his sending off, I thought he was engineering some sort of pay day. Then I saw it on MOTD. He just reverted to the piece of work that has been masked by his latter day ability to reid & right. Then I saw that goalkeeping display. Bent-as-u-like.
Wow im sure some of these posts are written by jamie redknapp. To talk about england as if that wasnt a problem of harrys own making is a joke. If he had come out and said he dont want the job and will be staying at spurs then we may have finsihed way above arsenal instead of cocking up. Its like your mrs coming back to you after publicly whoring herself around another man who then rejected her. Totally agree that redknapps negativity and excuses are annoying. Whats wrong with him saying "i dont care where that team have finished in the past or how much money this team pays, this is a great club, we have great players, im a great manager and we are gonna be the best". All we hear is "its difficult", yada yada. Levy needs to show some ambition too.
Let's just wait and see how many arsenal young players go on loan to wba next season arsenal had so much to lose if they finished with no champions league football next season more important to them than 30 million pounds is the loss of rvp the only Stella player left at a dwindling football club 3 goals from 3 shots on target 2 of those blatant keeper errors more like fullguy than fulop out of contact out of prem league out of spot light mark my words at least 3 players loaned to wba next season for serves rendered to arsenal football club!!!!!!! Unhappy yido
Sorry, for all that has gone before us this season and that magnificent/ exciting finale, Fulop's display of feigning ineptness to that extent takes the biscuit. This is a distress call to Windy, I know you only analyse the ones we concede, please make an exception and run me through their winner. If that's not deliberate.
Q: Who is the most bent: Fulop,Foy or Darren?
Campbell
Arsenal fan here. Fulop has an absolute shocker, but I've seen performances of equal ineptitude. Lets go back to last season Arsenal-West Brom at the Emirates. Almunia has an absolute shocker, just as bad as Fulop. First goal he came racing out of his box, a bit like Fulop but Almunia was some 30 yards out and missed. 2nd goal was a shot at the near post which Almunia failed to get behind and knocked it into his own net, again like Fulop yesterday. 3rd goal I can't really remember, but I believe Almunia was at fault yet again.
You mentioned spending, but those figures aren't as accurate as you make your readers believe. Spurs would spend a lot more if they sold Bale and Modric. We sold the best midfielder in the PL, Fabregas, and Nasri so we had to make some purchases after the 8-2 debacle.
Seeing that 2nd goal again, Almunia's mistake was much worse than Fulop's. Almunia was standing at the near post and a weak shot still went in somehow.
Pet, of course we could all point to howlers, but how is it possible that an international goalie, can be so incompetent, maladroit and incapable, that he would to punch a ball from outside the six yard box goal wards. How did he misread that ball so badly, it wasn't swerving, he wasn't blinded and the only competition he had was his own player jumping behind him.
As stated he might be shit but.............
Q: Who is the most bent: Fulop,Foy, Darren or Almunia?
A lot being said about Ben Foster not playing against the Arse. Woe is us and all that. But if there was one player we didnt want to face on Sunday it was Clint Dempsey - and he we didnt have to as he missed his 1st game of the season.
Get a grip, guys.
Harry ballsed this right up. No-one else. Constantly playing players out of position, tactics so naive it was laughable.
The Villa performance and team selected was a joke when we already knew the Arse had dropped points to Norwich.
And the rubbish about how less we have spent is jaundiced too. 'Arry outspent everyone when he joined and stuffed our squad full of bit-part players that drained our resources completely. This is a guy who has no clue about potential. He wants to buy ageing players who were once great - Gallas and Parker and Saha etc., - like he did at Portsmouth with the Kanu's of this world. Don't forget how he did not want Bale at the club and was open to offers for him, dumping him in the reserves. Only injuries brought him back in. Anyone seen Pienaar's performances for Everton since we loaned him back? Loaned him back!!! To the team we spent money on buying him in the first place. Its a joke, an utter joke.
THe darkest day for us was Hodgson getting the England job. We now have to have this DelBoy in charge for another season before he walks for a bigger payday like he always does.
Maybe he has gooner friends, maybe he's just shit. We'll never know, but after watching Almunia week in, week out I know that anything is possible from a keeper!
The only thing bent in the PL are officials. I'm not talking about the major decisions(penalties, etc). Most match fixing is based on strictly applying the rulebook for one team, while letting things go for the other team. This gets players very frustrated and also effects their game and the flow. Games are won and lost in midfield for the most part, and thats where referees can step in.
I'm not a paranoid Gooner, I've done my research on corruption in England (way back in the day) and a variety of other leagues(mostly European + Argentina). Arsenal were no angels, but take a good look at your own promotion before you spew your accusations.
Side note, QPR owner is also a sponsor of the Premier league. Clear breach of rules, the FA does nothing about it. Make up your own minds.
Mate as I said we could go on about howlers and shit keepers, and I agree Almunia is shit, I am very resistant to any conspiracy (Lasagne??) and maybe i'm inferring a bung of some sort, trying not to. Someone please explain what was Fulop doing on that 3rd goal. No comparisons, he ran past the ball , jumped and pushed it towards the goal. I'm willing to be convinced, that it was just ineptitude or rustiness.
As for corruption, and spewing accusations, i suggest you re-visit your facts from back in the day about our promotion. Arsenal are no angels is the one of the hyperbolic litotes that was ever written.
But I have to settle for maybe he has gooner friends, or shit or pissed off with Spurs (remember he had a pretty solid game against us when on loan to City back in 2009, trying to halt our 4th place and CL berth).
Nah i'm not convinced.
Mark - Its not the Ben Foster absence and yes Harry messed up at times and had us playing alright at times and as Spooky pointed out the dis-connect from HR is annoying but what was Márton Fülöp doing for that third goal. I'm open to persuasion.
Personally after the initial disappointment of not finishing 3rd, dropping all those points etc I have actually had some time to think about this rationally, Ive also been chatting to a couple of my friends (who are not Spurs fans) and it well worth noting that EVERY single team will have a bad patch. Take United for example, Fergie, who irrelevant of what you may think of him personally IS the most successful manager in WORLD football managed to drop an 8 point lead on City and ultimately finish 2nd. Yes its not the 13 points we lost but then again we are certainly not United. Add into the mixer everything that was going on for Ary personally and Im OK with where we finished. Yes I will be heart broken if the Mr Abramovich decides to buy off the Germans and ref to win the Champions league, however I am hopeful that the players will step up to the plate and stick a few past what will be a very patched up Chelsea side....until Saturday I live in hope of another great campaign to come
i really think we shud stop pointing out stupid things such as luck etc as the reaon where we r and where arse r bcoz if we will go by the same logic many of gooners wud claim that if in past some seasons if they had any luck on their side they wud hv at the very least one epl title under their belt as well as one champions leauge ( we all hv seen their final against barcelona ) and dont forget what a joke of a team we were made to look against the arse at emirates and i hv really got a gut feeling next season with likes of podolski , wilshere , rvp , arteta , rosciky , revitalized arshavin and their more new signings in full flow , they are coming back with huge revenge..and i fear for us bcoz i really think modric is not that good and vdv and bale are too incosistent along with that likes of chelsea , liverpool, newcastle are sure going to b much stronger next season..
Have to agree with the Arsenal lad Pat. Fulop is just a woeful keeper who let the occasion go to his head. It's typical but hardly unexpected.
As Pat says though, it is slightly disconcerting that an individual like Tony Fernandes can have his Air Asia company sponsor the shirts of Premier League referees, and he then goes on to buy a Premier League club. At the very least, it doesn't look too good. As Woodward and Bernstein would say, Follow the Money...
Not wanting to upset a reasonable Goon like Pat, this is more for the trolls on your previous thread. This doesn't get said very often, but Samir Nasri puts everything into perspective for the ebullient Goons.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/manchester-city/9266576/Samir-Nasri-mocks-Arsenals-third-place-finish-following-Manchester-Citys-Premier-League-title.html
Nasri dropping bombs on Woolwich today.