Tony Adams Magic - Like A New Signing

Hello dear reader, its been too long we know. There's was ferocious negotiation over the last little while, contracts have been signed and I can confirm @snipster & @pumpkiii are back on the Arsenal loving blog trail.

There's much to talk about and we will, oh yes, we will.

Fantastic to be back!

Snipster

Tony Adams Magic Tuesday - GOOOOONER BLOG - Walcott & Wiltshire

Hola peoples from around the world! Welcome to another episode of TAM beaming into your eye holes.

Pumpkiii was supposed to do the blog today but unfortunately he’s Diaby'd his fingers playing six a side for Sporting Cromwell last night so I like a noble Ramseyan have step in. I couldn't play last night as I had rather urgent life/death business to attend to but it is with a heavy heart and a sad expression on my face that I report that Sporting Cromwell lost 4-1.

I understand that a few of the regular faces were missing from the team and although everyone played hard and managed to get 1-0 up. We could hold on.

Pumpkiii always the brave goalkeeper has managed to break a few of his fingers defending his goal. I think he’s suffering from a broken heart as well, no class keeper likes letting 4 in.

I’m sure we’ll return to wining ways soon enough.


In Arsenal news: nothing much is happening dudes!

Walcott & Wiltshire are back in light training. In which they can either wear those fat man suits so nobody can get near them or something of their own choosing. Walcott sometimes carries a spear and a net to protect his metal shoulders, whereas I hear Wiltshire favours a pit-bull and a revolver to protect his legs.

Arshavin is rumoured to be retiring. I feel sad that he felt it was better to sit off and get fat then compete for his place. You got the impression he felt he had made it and maybe the battle he now faced in competition and not being such a big fish didn’t inspire him and seemed to retard his desire to do well.

Its easy to point the broken finger and say he’s lazy etc but is a shame that a guy with such obvious talent felt better and more comfortable on the bench in the local beer garden than on the pitch when he should have played more.

More tomorrow. I spoke to pumpkiii’s manager today and he said he has terrific spirit and he’d be back in approximately 2-3 weeks. Looks like you’re stuck with me for the long haul.

Have a good evening and if you get a chance #prayforpumpkiii

Snips

Monday Moanday

Hey Tony Adams Magic Lovers,

Sorry for the super late blog but yours truly has been seriously under the weather today with one thing and another.

The results at the weekend were good for us with the smurs and the toffees drawing meaning we made two points on them given our excellent and massive victory against west brom.

It came to light that the very important chavs v smurs game has been delayed because of the chavs participation in the fa cup. One positive is that it'll further congest their fixtures towards the end of the season the big negative is that it gives smurs a week break when quite a few of their first team players are injured.

End of the day (cliché alert!) we have to focus in our own performances and keep our current run in the prem going.

Per's only suspended for one game so he'll miss the Norwich match. Wiltshire and Walcott have started training again so may be available.

Our London neighbours play in the Thursday night pro/am cup so lets hope they're both energy sapping games. Difficult for me work out if I want them to continue with their tiring journeys around the back waters of Europe or instinctively want them both to loose and get knocked out. Let them play on for now, just as long as neither of them win it.

More tomorrow.

Snipster

Happy days.

Happy days.

Going down to 10 men and still winning is not easy. Doing it away from home is even more challenging so full props to the 10 who clung on to the 3 points, we need them.

Sundays following an Arsenal win are excellent. A day of rest, time to chill, and an opportunity to watch the other results in, knowing we have already done our bit. Our win, however is came, will keep the pressure on the teams around us and we will see how they react to that pressure. That pressure that is gradually building on their wind pipes, CHOKE! CAUGH! GAG!

Still with the warm glow of the win yesterday, today I am going to watch QPR take on Wigan. My good friend Will (the Maniac) is a big QPR fan, they really need to win this match so hopefully it will be a good open match with lots of goals. 

I can't remember the last time I went to a football match Arsenal were not playing in. Perhaps it was Roma v Regina while I was in Italy in 2003. Or it could have been an AFC wimbledon match at around the same time. I hope it will be good fun. I obviously don't care about the outcome as my mate but still hope they win for his sake. I am normally quite vocal at football matches but today I guess I will be quiet for once. Might be a odd experience. I'm sure it will be fun though.

Oh actually I have been to a few England internationals but I support England so it's not as odd. 

Right I'm gonna leave it there as I'm not even talking about Arsenal anymore. Lets hope all the right results come in today.

Later

Pumpkiii

3 delicious points and one foot in the door of the top four

3 delicious points and one foot in the door of the top four

Today we traveled to the Hawthornes to play West brom. In typical Arsenal style, we didn't do it the easy way. We made what could have been a comfortable and easy win, a thrilling, edge of your seat, last gasp struggle. We finished with all 3 points though, so who cares?!

TR7 started the match and was brilliant. He was busy, direct and looked dangerous. Far too many times down the years he has been great to watch, but failed to provide an end product. Today was not one of those days. He played very well and grabbed two needed goals. The first was following some great work by Gervhinio, who also had an excellent match. The second was off a rebound; RR7 took the initial shot but the keeper made a good block. Luckily for Tommy the rebound fell kindly for him and he smashed it home as hard as he could. Terrific stuff and it had me smiling from ear to ear with the sheer "get in" ness of the way he kicked the ball.

Gervhinio also deserves a mention for his performance. He played really well and caused WBA all sorts of problems. He is on a good run of form which is good news for us and our final few matches.

Gervhinio divides opinion massively. I think most people believe he is rubbish and I can hardly blame them. He hasn't had consistency and when he has played well and done good things on the pitch, it almost seems like it was a mistake or fluke. People have even coined the phrase "doing a Gervhinio" for messing something up.

What ever the reasons for him playing well are, I hope he continues to do so.

The match was looking very well controlled and at 2-0 up there was never any fear we wouldn't go on to win. Then Per decided to take a little concentration nap and got caught out by a ball over the top. He hauled their dude to the ground and was given a red card this also gave WBA a penalty which they scored.

2-1 and down to 10 men and we started to panic. Many times we have seen our great club clutch defeat from the jaws of victory but today was not one of those days. We dug in deep and although we rode our luck a little, we held on.

The win takes us into 4th spot in the league and although Chelsea have a game in hand, at this stag of the season it's all about points.

Sorry for the lack of PodCast activity. We will try and get one up tomorrow AM.

Much love

Pumpkiii

Sent from my iPhone

Friday Round Up - The Donkey Wins The Derby, Nacho Man & Cornelius

Happy happy funday Friday!!

I’m feeling fine, fresh and dandy today and I hope you are to. You deserve to feel good and so I present for your enjoyment the latest instalment of Tony Adams Magic.

Yesterday was the 20 years anniversary of ‘The Donkey Wins The Derby’. Arsenal beat smurs in the fa semi final one – nil with big Tony Adams scoring at the back post from a Paul Merson free kick cross. Andy Linighan drawing Mabutt away.

It was fair retribution from when they lucky beat us in 1991 and although we didn’t go on and do the traditional double as we would have done in 1991, we went on to complete a unique F.A. Cup and League Cup double. We were the first club to win both the cup competition ever. It was a lot tough back then with both being contested by the top clubs. A fantastic achievement and another example of Arsenal being the greatest football club in the world ever. Accept no substitutes.

That FA Cup triumph facilitated us playing and winning the Cup Winners Cup the following season and all because Big Tone got his beautiful head on the end of that beautiful cross.

Nacho man has been talking about the difficulty of finding his feet in the premiership. I think he’s done a good solid job so far and has been a solid addition in an ever solidifying defence. We’ve obviously got to get a bit to go yet but this season we have looked (so far) looked quite decent at the back in patches.

In other news Garth ‘Cornelius’ Bale has twisted his ankle. Painful and debilitating for him and robs the lilywhites up the road of their only half decent player. The Choke Is On!  T.C.I.O! © #thechokeison

To capitalise on any dropped points we have to win our games and that must be our only focus at the moment. A tricky game at west brom tomorrow awaits. Pumpkiii and I will be doing a pre game podcast so come back tomorrow for that.

Have a great Friday.

Snips

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Austin Powers is a Gooner!!

Morning all!

I hope everyone is starting to feel the benefits to having a 4 day week (due to the UK bank holiday). We also had the clocks going forwards which means lighter for longer in the evening. All we need now is the seemingly never ending, bitterly cold wind to go away and we can party in the streets like it’s the swinging sixties. "Yeah baby!!"

We swept Reading aside with great efficiency last weekend and I hope we can have the same impact on the match on Saturday at West Brom.

I see the match at the Hawthornes as another tricky fixture. If we keep our recent good form and focus then we will have more than enough to beat them comfortably. We can't underestimate them as they have taken quite a few points off us in recent years.

When we met them earlier in the year they were in quite good form and we were the complete opposite. We had drawn against Villa and Everton and then there was the 0-2 loss away at Swansea, these were not happy days. We went on to beat West Brob 2-0 but it wasn't the most convincing win we will see. It took an Arteta penalty to break the deadlock; he also rounded the match off with another goal late on.

I am fairly sure we will have enough to get the result we need. I am not sure who will make the team sheet but I wouldn't change things too much. I'm sure we will hear later if there has been any injury news and we will bring it to you tomorrow.

It looks like most players are coming back fitness and finding some decent form so let’s hope that stays with us till the end of the season. I guess in some ways, not being in 4 competitions makes it easier to keep everyone fit and sharp but that is all down to squad depth and im not going to drag over them old coals now.

I’m feeling confident about the weekend and I believe Arsenal members can go to the stadium to watch the match on big screens. I have been before, it’s a little odd but quite good fun.

Hope you have a good day

Pumpkiii

Wednesday Fun Times - Walcott, Gibbs & Attack Stats

Good Wednesday my friends!

Little round up of the Gooner business for you today.

Theo Walcott has been talking about what he would swap for a trophy. I would probably swap him for a trophy. Hes stats have been good so far this season, still inconsistent but no more so than the whole team so I think he’s been doing alright.

Wenger’s been biging up his man Kieron Gibbs. He has gone so far as to describe him as one of the top 3 left backs in the country. I think you could say that. Arsenal are probably one of the top three teams in England and he plays left back for us so it all fits together quite nicely. Hes played 100 games for us. Well played Gibbo!

Where that puts Nacho in the scale of best left backs in the country is up for debate, probably a little bit too early to tell. Signs are looking promising though.

The other thing I stumbled across while tireless looking for information to enrich your lives dear reader was from here

Check out the stat ‘passes in the opposition half’. We have the top 4. Good work.

Have a good Wednesday and if he see a smurs fan, lend him a scarf or a cough sweat. They’re just about to get a little bit choky.

Until tomorrow.

I hope they dont win the league at ours!!

A good weekend for Arsenal, 3 points in the bag and we keep the pressure on the teams above us. Spurs beat Swansea in the premier league and Chavski beat man u in the FA cup. This leaves us two points behind Chelsea and 4 behind spurs with a game in hand. Although spurs won I still think they will have a slip up or two. They have to play Chelsea and man city so there are some tough matches for them and Chelsea still have to play man u… but so do we.

At the match on Saturday G and I were chatting and came onto the forthcoming match against man u. There was a bit of fear in our conversation when we came onto the subject of ‘might man u win the league at ours. I was dreading the match enough any way, I like big matches but they can also emotionally drain you for the weeks surrounding it. If I found out that it looked probable that they would / could win the league at ours I would go into a period of mourning that might last longer than the ice age. 

I have done the sums and you will be pleased to know it doesn’t look like they will. I think they will win the league at West Ham or villa in two or three weeks time. It is still possible for them to win it at ours but I think it is unlikely now. They are 15 points clear of man city and with eight matches left it looks the most likely they will win it at the hammers.

Phew!!

There is little going on other than that. The press don’t like teams doing well. Good results mean slow news days / weeks.

I mentioned last week that I would be competing in a pram race. It was yesterday, it was a lot of fun, there was a lot of: beer, dressing up, pushing prams and drinking beer. About 25 teams competed and my team ‘Six pints under’ with our vehicle ‘The Death Trap’ finished ninth. I’m quite proud of our achievement and will chuck a few picks up on the twitter page later.

It is too far away to speak about the match next weekend so I’ll leave it there.

Have a good one

Pumpkiii

Arsenal 4 - 1 Reading - Royals Rumbled By Gerv-could have been more-inho

Good Evening Chums!

This blog is brouht to you via Mr. Lateton on Late Town Tennessee purveyors of anti-ageing cream.

So yesterday Arsenal played Reading at the Home Of Football and ran out 4-1 winners!! Hooray!!

The game was a good comfortable victory for the gunners and carried on our good run of form in the Premiere League. Reading were out played and out manoeuvred in what ended up being a good comfortable victory for the super gunners.

Before the game we all met up in the pub and the banter was of a confident manner. Chatting about the night before activities and how many we could win by. So often this season that sort of confidence has been the back drop to a misfiring gunners and points lost to underlings of opposition. Today wasn't go to be one of those days.

The game kick off and almost immediately from the start arsenal began to play with confidence and desire. Keeping the ball well and winning in back with good organisation and control.

Rocky Rocastle was remembered after seven minutes with a chorus of his song and his picture up on the big tv screens around the ground. A great tribute to a fantastic footballer who was sadly taken from us.

Ooooh Rocky Rocky, Rocky Rocky Rocky Rocky Rocastle!!

After eleven minutes gerviniho scored his first and so became gerv-one-inho. He connected with a fast low carzola cross from the left. Darting between the centre backs he smashed it in from 5 yards. 1-0 to the arsenal and the traditional song rung out around the stadium.

The rest of the half was dominated by arsenal with reading not really having much of a look in. Arsenal  should have had a penalty when Taylor, the reading keeper, smash into giroud when clean through on goal. The ref gave nothing.

Gerv-superman-inho

At half time the lead seemed slender for our dominance and contol. The nerves weren't prominent but a second goal was definitely desired by the faithful.

It didn't take long and three minutes after the break Santi gave us the presents we wanted, taking the ball down and curling it round the keeper from just outside the box to make it two nil. Gervinho turning into gerv-assist-inho for that one. A much better position and always important to score soon after the break to stop any sort of resurgence from a poor reading team.

The game continued in much the same vein until 67 minutes when gervinho broke from a reading corner ran half the length of the pitch, drew two defenders, he was certainly gerin-taking your time-inho and played it square for giroud to smash it first time across the keeper into the bottom of the corner. 3-0 and arsenal were cruising.

Cruising is always a difficult thing to do and a lapse in concentration gave Reading a way back into the game. A crisp long ball chipped over to the back post with nacho dipping in concentration left a man whom for the purpose of this blog has no name free to score. 3-1 and the a little sigh from the home fans. Unless we cut this sort of stuff from our game i=we'll always find it difficult to be competitive enough. Dropping off at 3-0 up is forgettable but doing the same at 0-0 will cost us as it has this season already. We need to be full alert all the time , whatever the situation.

Nacho crumpled into the post during that attack and left the field with gibbs replacing him. Great to have some proper replacements on the bench now we have a fitter squad.

On 77 minutes the Ox, on as a substitute for gerv-man of the match-inho, won a penalty which Arteta dispatched away.

4-1 to the arsenal. A comfortable win and a god performance from a more solid and in tune arsenal team.

I'm sure pumpkiii will run through any points in might have missed-inho in tomorrow blog so please come back and read his thoughts then.

With Chavski losing and smurs being a one man team (and hes not even a man) I don't think third place is that far away. Lets keep winning and playing the way we can and really push on for the rest of the season.

Have a good one Tony Adams Magic lovers.

Until next time.

Snips

Arsenal V Reading - Show time

We have a very important match today, we are playing Reading and on paper this looks like an easy 3 points. unfortunately nothing in recent Arsenal history has been done the easy way so we must go into this match with full concentration and as fully committed as possible. I believe this match will set the tone for the remainder of the run in, so we need to play on the front foot and mustn't for a second underestimate the opposition.

We have been guilty of overlooking 'lesser' opposition a number of times this season and it has, quite frankly, ruined the prospect of us picking up any silverware.

4th place is not an achievement of any great standing and we shouldn't aim for it as a target, 4th is the bare minimum. This season we are fighting for our bare minimum expectation. We still have to give it everything to get there. What ever the motivation is to get there doesn't really matter, Nacho and Rambo were saying it was because they didn't want to go down in history as the first Wenger team not to be in the CL. I would defiantly be motivated by beating spurs to 4th and then mocking them for being a bunch of chokers! Lets put them in the sleeper hold! What ever the motivation we need it, lots of it!

We have to win this match and fly into the final 8 matches of the season. Put pressure on the chokers and the chavs and see where we end up. That all starts today against a team we have scored 12 against this season.

I'm going for a conservative 2 - 0 Snipster is saying 4 - 0. It will probably be more like132743 - 1843 which would be a fun but confusing match I'm sure.

I'm really looking forward to getting back into the stadium. We will be having a beer or two locally before the match so give us a shout if you are around, it's probably your round ;)

Later on

Pumpkiii 

Posted by Snips

We're on our way - PodCast - Reading

Prior to the Arsenal home match against Reading Snipster and I got together to discuss:

The match
Abu Diaby
Jack & Theo
And a load of other stuff

Give it a listen, we hope you enjoy it! We're on our way - Arsenal v Reading

@Pumpkiii and @Snipster

you can also find us on facebook  http://www.facebook.com/TonyAdamsMagic and twitter @tonyadamsmagic

EXCLUSIVE: Thursday is the new Friday

We have been saying it here on Tony Adams Magic for a long time (a few months) and today, finally, Thursday is the new Friday... And so is tomorrow... And the next day. We have a four day bank holiday with a home Arsenal match smack bang in the middle of it on Saturday (or Friday night number 3), could things get any better?... Oh yeah, it’s only flippin pay day!!!

 

We face Reading and I am expecting us to beat them convincingly. They have caused us a few hairy moments this season though. We went 4-0 down to them before turning it around to win 7-5. It was in the COC and there was a bit of squad rotation in that match, but we should not be conceding 5 goals in any match.

 

In our last prem meeting we beat them 5-2 at their place with Santi bagging his first hat-trick for The Gunners. Let’s hope that having only played one half of two matches on international duty he is well rested and bangs in another few goals.

 

I haven't heard any injury news regarding our players apart from the Theo thing. Let’s hope they all got back unharmed and if they played lots, then the break was as good as a rest.

 

Reading has a new manager, we spoke earlier in the week about the new manager effect and how it might transform them into a team of world beaters. I doubt it, but we have to be wary. They are in a relegation battle, they have a new manager, and they have scored seven goals against us already this season. We will need to keep our defensive focus and build the goals on top of that. We need to be cautious and play with our heads in every game till the end of the season.

 

I read somewhere that Chavski have a million games in three days or something… They are in cups with two legs and have a replay or something… I don’t really remember and I’m not going to look it up but their run of congested fixtures ends with a match against spurs. Where one of them will drop points and that’s a fact.

 

I'm getting excited about Arsenal again and I'm really looking forward to Saturday. Over the last few months it has been a bit gloomy, we have been knocked out of all the cups when we really should have done better and progressed further. The 4th place spot is all we have left and it’s not good enough, we expect more. Saying that, we won our last few matches and that put me in a better mood. Combining our recent wins and the international break being such a fun sponge, I am looking forward to meeting up with the lads for pre match beers and watching The Arsenal continue their recent winning form.

 

In other news, I have been entered into something called the Bolney pram race. It is a charity fancy dress race that you take part in teams of two. Me and a mate will be competing as undertakers with our home made pram being fashioned out of a real coffin, our team name is “six pints under” he he! The race course has 7 check points, each checkpoint is a pub and at each pub we have to down a pint of beer. We can take it in turns to push the pram but one person must always be pushing (no free wheeling) and there must always be someone in the pram / coffin. I’m not telling you this to raise money or ask for sponsorship, I just thought you might like to know why the blog on Tuesday probably won’t make much sense. I will let you know how we get on even if I have broken both of my hands and am nursing a hangover the niagara falls wouldn’t be able to rehydrate. Fingers crossed I don’t end up needing the coffin as a permanent place of residence…

 

Have a great Thurs/Friday day

 

We will be back tomorrow and we should also have a ‘We’re on our way’ podcast Friday afternoon / Saturday morning.

 

Pumpkiii

Wednesday - Proper Football Soon & Sporting Cromwell Are Heros

Today is Wednesday and the international break is basically behind us. We can look forward now to the Arsenal v Reading game this Saturday kick off 3.00 pm.

I can’t wait to get back to the emirates. It seems like a million years since I had the pleasure of the Gooners. I had to miss the Bayern Munich games due to matters of life or death and so I was robbed of the last nourishment many of you have had.

We wait with baited breath to find out who has been savaged on their travels and who will return to Hill-Woods’s wrinkled bosom full of health and vitality. Apart from Walcott who has torn is groin while over stretching I can’t think of anybody else I know about.

I’m sure the exact nature and number of causalities will become more obvious as Arsene gather’s his flock.

England played Serbia last night. 1-1 was the fnal score. England were good in the first half talking the lead ,terrible in the second half conceding the equaliser with 15 to play.

In other news Sporting Cromwell FC were confirmed as runners up in the league today. It was a great team effort by all the lads. Pumpkiii got player of the season for his fantastic displays between the sticks and as a out field player, a fantastic personal achievement.

In his honour I have found this list of goal scoring keepers. Well done Pumpkiii.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_goalscoring_goalkeepers

Have a good day.

Snips

ENGLAND, ARSENAL & CROMWELL, bish, bash, bosh!

Today is the last international break day, it has been a dull break, most of the Arsenal related news has been a bit tedious. We had the Szczesny’s dad thing. We had a number of EXCLUSIVES quoting our players saying they were happy at the club and didn’t want to leave, shock horror. Walcott picked up an injury on international duty, shock horror. There was the announcement Faye White will retire from our Ladies team, she had an amazing career at Arsenal and I’m sure she will be missed from the set up. In the NextGen series the young guns have beaten Milan away and CSKA Moscow at home, they now face the young chavs in the semis.

Looking further back in history and on this day in 1987...George Graham brought Leicester hit-man Alan Smith to Highbury in a £750,000 deal.

Sooooo… If we chuck in a potential new shirt, some snow and a conspiracy theory we can summarise the last week.

Looking forward to the Reading match (yes I am, lots!) this weekend and they have appointed a new manager in the shape of Nigel Atkins. Teams often respond well to the appointment of a new manager. Players who were out of favour with the previous manager want to perform well for the new one. That intern puts pressure on the starting 11 to play to the top of their game and the overall team performances are improved.

We can’t take our foot off the peddle for a second until the end of the season. We have got ourselves into a good position, where a win would put us a point behind spurs, who have a tricky away match against Swansea. We also have a game in hand. I’m sure we will talk more about the Reading match in days to come. The new manager thing shouldn’t matter too much really, as we need a win, we need 3 points, we know what we have to do and we shouldn’t under anticipate them.

You will be pleased to hear that Sporting Cromwell, our 6 a side team have managed a 2^nd place finish in the league. We came from 1-0 down to grab a late draw 1-1. It wasn’t enough to guarantee our position as second and should the team in third have won in the match after us last night, they would have been in second due to goal difference.  But they were beaten 3-0. So we go to our third awards ceremony in four seasons.

The first two awards ceremonies have resulted in some serious casualties. The first almost ended my marriage and the second almost ended Snipsters life!! What will happen at the third? HOLD ME BACK!!

A result of all this, is the release of the top 25 managers list as you can see Will “the Maniac” our player/manager has made it into 7^th following our glorious few years.

1. Sir Alex Ferguson [180]
2. Jose Mourinho [174]
3. Arsene Wenger [165]
4. Fabio Capello [147]
5. Vicente del Bosque [124]
6. Marcelo Alberto Bielsa
7. Will “the Maniac”
8. Carlo Ancelotti
9. Luiz Felipe Scolari
10. Rafael Benitez
11. Joachim Low
12. Marcello Lippi
13. Frank Rijkaard
14. Sven-Goran Eriksson
15. Karel Bruckner
16. Pep Guardiola
17. Roberto Mancini
18. Ottmar Hitzfeld
19. Carlos Alberta
20. Dunga
21. Otto Rehhagel
22. Giovanni Trapattoni
23. Bert van Marwick
24. Carlos Bianchi
25. Muricy Ramalho

 

That’s it for today. See ya!

Pumpkiii

Mondai Morning Arsenal - Next Gen, Walcott & Inspirational Managers

So the first day of the week is upon us once more, but this is a 4/5^th Monday. What with their being a bank holiday here this Friday, which I suppose doesn’t make it your usual Monday, more like a Nonday or a Monda or a Mondai or something like this.

Arsenal news around today is very much a function of the internationals. We heard a little about Walcott’s injury from everybody’s favourite granddad Roy Hodgson. It sounds like he’s partial torn his groin, which I assume will be three weeks injury time, fortunately the first 10 days will be taken up with the rest of the international break and with any good fortune he’ll only miss the Reading game and be back in time for the W.B.A. match on the 6^th April.

Looks like The Ox will take his place in the England team and hes making the usual positive noises, like a old saxophonist gently playing some jazz late night under their lovers window, he has lyrically been caressing the assembled press.

He’s forms been a bit up and down this season. The game against Milan in the champs league last season really raised expectations which completely understandably he hasn’t been able to reach every game. I think he’s got a fantastic future is he keeps on going.

There’s a game at the Emirates in the Next Gen series this evening, Arsenal play CSKA Moscow. Tickets are at a discount, the teams look strong and a lot of the Arsenal players in the youth set are being looked at as the new set of players that might take up positions in the first team. Never having played anywhere near that level its impossible for me to give an experienced opinion but the step up seems to be massive and many really promising players never quite make it.

Arseblog has a reasonably interesting piece about it here: http://arseblog.com/category/arseblog-arsenal-blog/

And theres a little bit from one of the lads who will be playing tonight on the main site here: http://www.arsenal.com/news/features/entertaining-the-emirates

Sporting Cromwell, the 6-a-side team Pumpkiii and I play in, play their final game of the season tonight. A win will secure us second in the league.

I should be playing after a long injury which  I’ll either inflame and have to come off after one minute or play a game that will be remember for generations to come. One or the other, no middle ground. Pumpkiii is moving up the field from goal to striker, from goal keeper to goal poacher, inspirational stuff from the manager.

One of us will let you know how we get on tomorrow and we’ll have a quick look at how the next gen boys got and coupled with all the up to date Arsenal stuff.

Come back and suckle from our red and white newsy bosom then.

Have a great Mondai y’all.

Sunday Snooze Up - Form & That

Sunday Snooze Up!
Nothing happening in the world of Arsenal today.

Had a little look at the form table, where the Arsenal are second. That's good to see. We are building a little momentum in the league and if we win our game in hand we will be 1 point behind the chimp lovers and then the choke is massively on.

I would love for us the sail past them while they implode but I have a feeling it might not be as easy as that.

In other news born again Gooner George Graham has put a little bit more pressure on the humanzee worshipers by claiming they will miss out on one of the top four spots. I agree.

The rest of the other stuff doing the rounds is basically made up. You can see quite a useful list of it here:

http://www.teamtalk.com/papertalk/8594080/Paper-Talk-Arsenal-eye-QPR-duo

Talking of teamtalk, remember those premium rate numbers you used to hear all the up to date transfer gossip. £1.50 a minute and it was always flashing at the bottom of ceefax (RIP)

Arsenal: Duo Arriving Tonight Shock

15 minutes later when you had doomed yourself to no pocket money for the rest of your life you were still none the wiser.

So rather than taking their lead and using up more of your precious time I'll leave it there.

If you are at a lose end, do feel free to *like* us on facebook: www.facebook.com/tonyadamsmagic or follow us on twitter @tonyadamsmagic

Have a good Sunday

Walcott out - England blast 8 past San Marino.

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It's the weekend and you know what than means? As Snipster quite rightly pointed out, I treated Thursday afternoon like it was a summers Saturday. A long pub lunch, followed by a afternoon down the boozer and then onto a local for a few more jars. The trouble with treating a Thursday like its a Saturday, is that it's not. Like night follows day, Friday follows Thursday and on Friday morning I was faced with a 8am meeting followed by a day in a busy London office. The other problem is that Friday night is still the old, the current and the new 'Friday night' and so I was dragged (couldn't stop me with a cattle prod) back to the pub for another excellent night out. It's now Saturday morning and I'm a bit fuzzy. 

I watched a small part of the match, it was 0-0 then I turned to chat to a mate and when I looked back it was 8-0. No idea what happened. I believe The Ox scored?!?

The bad news is that Theo picked up an injury in the warm up / training session before the match and was flown home to England for treatment. It's a bit of a blow as Arsenal need all of our players to be hitting top form for the run in. Theo has not been in great form recently so missing the second England qualifier and the home Reading match might not be such a bad thing. He can rest and hopefully get back some of the hunger he had when he was playing to get a huge pay rise. His form towards the end of 2012 was the best we have seen from him. We could do with some of that for the remaining matches. 

I'm guessing The Ox will step in or perhaps we will see Santi play out on the right. Two good options, in my opinion.

Not much else going on at the moment, I'm going to get another bottle of Lucozade Sport Isotonic Performance Fuel (or Hangover Recovery Juice) and prepare for Saturday the old Thursday afternoon.

Hope you are having a good weekend

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog. You can like us on facebook:www.facebook.com/tonyadamsmagic or join us in twitter land @tonyadamsmagic

Pumpkiii

Friday Fun - Fathers, Financials & Football Shirts

A very happy happy Friday to you All. I would think some of you are a little worse for wear this morning after the ‘Thursday is the new Friday’ excess for going out and getting drunk. My friend and yours, Pumpkiii, continued his Thursday lunch time is really the new Saturday afternoon time in to Thursday evening which is really the new Friday night time and he maybe feeling a little foggy this morning.

He is well known for being made of sterner stuff so I’m sure he’ll push through and complete a day of tasks that mere normies could only dream of.

On to the red and white stuff, I have looked a little on line and through some hard copy press, mainly just from a nostalgic point of view. Talking of hard copy press, me and my dad used to go for fry up/breakfast in a place called Perdoni’s on a Saturday morning before the game, I always remember him reading those massive broad sheets, I had a comic, it was almost testament to masculinity he could wrestle and manipulate these giant swathes of paper.

Anyway, nothing much going on that anybody will be talking about this time next month but the things that are more stand outy for me are as follows…

Our man Wojciech Szczesny, has moved to calm the waters after his dad rather annoying used a polish tv programme to have a dig at Le Proff. Szczesny Snr went on the moan about how Wenger had played his son whilst injured at the end of last season and again in August. This has lead Szczesny Jnr taking to the official website to say he loves the old man but thinks he needs to keep his thoughts and opinions to himself. He went on to reiterate his love for The Arsenal and Wenger and, although he didn’t do it by name, his massive love for this blog and me but not so much Pumpkiii (he can take or leave Pumpkiii).

I don’t think he has been quite as good as I was hoping he would be this season but he’s very young and he looks assured in goal and he seems to have that arrogance top class professional sportsmen need. His distribution is a concern. He needs to progress some before he can claim the number one jersey as his own but I hope he can do it.

Secondly, Arsenal got a big write up in Sport magazine today,

http://www.sport-magazine.co.uk/features/arsenal-club-decline-or-one-step-ahead-3670

As the web address suggests it begs the question and looks to identify whether arsenal are ahead of the game with their infrastructure and ideology around self sustainability or indeed in terminal decline. My opinion would be that we’re somewhere in between the two.

The players aren’t at the same level currently as the previous teams Wenger has managed at Arsenal. The stadium does seem to be a burden at the moment but if that’s a burden other clubs will have to take on or risk loosing out on top players when the Financial Fair Play stuff comes in then we’re are ahead in that process.

Ultimately the bottom line is we weren’t good enough to compete for the league or the champions league this year or over the last few. Something needs to change if we are to do that. However we do finish in the champions league places ever year, we do have a brand new massive stadium and increased revenue as a result and we do have some really excellent players at the club at the moment. Our midfield is as good as anybodies. Sometimes I think we as fans are guilty of accepting that as given when 99% of other clubs and their fans would give their chocolate leg for a bit of that. I have faith that Wenger knows what he’s doing, how long that faith will stay is depending a fair amount on whether we finish top 4 this season and what happens next. It’s getting close to make or break for me. I love the bloke but I love Arsenal FC more and he has to be the right man for the job today, not the brilliant man of yesterday. I hope he brings it all home.

To complete this trident of information that I’ve speared into your face, Arsenal recently struck up a shirt deal with Adidas which would, you’d imagine, see the Adidas three strips back done the shoulders. CaughtOffside are running this leaked picture:

http://www.caughtoffside.com/2013/03/17/image-arsenal-new-home-adidas-201415-shirt-revealed-leaked-kit-looks-top-notch/

Please let it be true. I think it a great kit. Reminds me of Mickey Thomas and Anfield and looks, for my money, much nicer than the one we have at the minute. Now all we need is to get the old cannon back on the crest and it’ll be suitable to wear at christening, dinner parties and wakes.

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog. You can like us on facebook: www.facebook.com/tonyadamsmagic or join us in twitter land @tonyadamsmagic

Have a great Friday peoples. And spare a thought for Pumpkiii I bet he’s hoping Friday afternoon turns into the new Sunday morning…easy!

Podcast hopefully tomorrow so come back and listen to us talk about all things arsenal, a little about life and we may have a special guest on.

UTA

Thursday, the new Wednesday? I hope not!

 

 

 

Happy Thursday guys and gals,

 

We have broken the back of the week again and we march onto another weekend, GET IN!

 

Unfortunately due to a tournament being held over 15 months away, we have a weekend without Premier league football. What do we think about that? BOOOOOO. That's what!

 

I quite like international tournaments, but only really the finals. The group stages and friendlies are a bit of a pain in the neck and makes building consistency in the league tough. It might however give the players a little break from the pressure at the club, which could be a good thing. The wind was in our sails and spurs were tipping over the worlds end of waterfalls, lets hope we come back to the same situation. 

 

Picking up Injuries at meaningless internationals is always the big concern and I hope we don't. It was interesting to read that Rio won't be going as he has training planned at Man U and he can't miss it as he might get injured. Surely that's a blag straight out of the "forgot my gym kit" book of terrible blags. No real surprise though as sir Al*hic*s, mourinho and the rest have been doing it for ages. Lampard, terry and co have missed many friendlies due to their club wanting to win cups and leagues, and who can blame them. The clubs they play for pay them fortunes and those clubs have targets to achieve with their assets. If they can't utilise their assets then maximising their returns is economically unviable. And we all know that sustainability is the real winner! 

 

This is what happens when you write a football blog while on the way to a business meeting. Busiball, the business side of football. 

 

I think we have a few players playing in the internationals, perhaps we could look at them tomorrow. Snipster?

 

Onto some other thoughts:

 

I watched Tyson (the film documentary) the other day. It was a good watch and well worth a view. Tyson came from very humble beginnings, when he was young his parents split up and his mom moved them to an area so bad women and children would be mugged and beaten up regularly. 

 

Tyson grew up in fear and was constantly bullied. He kept pigeons and one day the bullies found out where he kept them and grabbed hold of one. Tyson asked / pleaded with them to give the pigeon back. The leader of the bullies rung the birds neck and threw it back to Mike dead. This enraged Tyson and he beat the bully into a pulp. 

 

Mike Tyson got a lot of respect for this from the other youths in his area. He was still a shy and unassuming guy though. He got involved with the wrong crowd and ended up in juvenile detention. It was in jail he started boxing and on Tyson's release, the jail boxing instructor put Mike in touch with a professional boxing coach as he had seen so much promise during his incarceration.  

 

This coach trained Mike Tyson to be an excellent technical boxer. A boxer with pace, power and technique. The one thing the coach couldn't train was for Mike to be confident. Mike Tyson still had a quiet and introverted character. 

 

The coach would complement Mike all day every day, about every aspect of his personality, body, power, ability, intelligence, even stuff like his hair, his style and his dance moves & singing voice (probably). Mike didn't know until later in life why the coach did this. He just thought he had the nicest coach in the world and thought he was possibly hitting on him. Later in life he realised the coach was building Tyson's confidence. Mike Tyson was now not only the best technical boxer on the planet, but he also believed he was unbeatable and destined for world domination. 

 

Tyson spoke about winning fights before a punch had been thrown. He would be able to see in his opponents eyes if there was a glimmer of doubt. When there was be would punish them.

 

Arsenal players need to build this sort of confidence for the future. Too many times this season we have looked low on belief. 

 

Arsene, after the team have finished watching the defensive videos, chuck Tyson the documentary on but remember to press pause before he gets all messed up on drugs and women 

 

 

International break. Run in conspiracy

Good morning to all you lovely Arsenal fans, morning to fans of other teams, spuds fans I hope you have a terrible morning.

The international break rolls on and the available (made up) news stories regarding Arsenal become fewer and farther from believability. In a way it is welcome that there is nothing to talk about. Two wins and two clean sheets leave us with nothing to endlessly moan about, at least for another week or so. It does however seem as if something is going on in the press, something a bit dark and underhand.

It is probably just my over active imagination, my love for Arsenal, my hatred of tottnumb and being brought up on X-Files. But it does feel like there is a conspiracy out there to derail us in any way shape or form.

The day before the scums away derby match we were told that a huge bid was coming in to buy the club. We were told we would have A HUGE WARCHEST (well we are the Arsenal), that we would bin our current crop of players and buy international mega stars. This has come to absolutely nothing (so far), the story was quoted by an un-named source. So it seems like it was a plant, put there to unstable our players. We all agree that the margins in top flight football are very small, so something like being told by the national papers that your place of work and job are at risk, might just be enough to knock the concentration of the players slightly. Small margins, massive effect. We lost that match and the pressure mounted on the team. The plant worked.

In our last two matches we have kept two clean sheets and I believe most fans are happy with this. But it appears in the press that there are question marks above two of our defenders playing for us in the future. The stories effectively say that Per and Kos are "Gunner stay". What a non story?!? They are contracted to the club for a good few years to come and Per has started almost every match for us this season, showing Wenger does have some amount of faith in him. How many people do you know that would put on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In or where ever, that they are leaving their job before talking to their boss? You would have to be mental!!

So why are the stories there? They have no value. Might they deflate the confidence high Per and Kos are riding on? Who knows, but whenever I read these articles it makes me wonder why they are there, and what the intended outcome is. Could there be an overwhelming number of spuds sport writers? Are the stories being funded by another club? Could there be an alien invasion happening where they have targeted the press and are starting to brain wash us…?

I’ll leave it with you to make your own minds up but the truth is out there… I want to believe.

 

Pumpkiii

England Vs Arsenal - Tuesday Slow Mo

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A Tuesday morning in the middle of the nuclear winter which is the international break makes it hard work to find interesting and true news stories.

I’ve never really been in to international football. I’m a very proud Englishman but when I was growing up my passion for Arsenal was so blinding and more importantly my hatred of other teams and their players so intense I simply couldn’t bring myself to support them. How could I hate these guys one day and support them the next?

I want England (and Britain at the Olympics) to do well, don’t get me wrong. I love the England shirt but I really dislike some of the people that wear it. My dislike for opposition players in England shirts has waned and mellowed a little as the years have passed but, frankly, I still struggle with the whole concept. I would gladly throw John Terry into a pit of molten larva but when he puts on an England shirt I’m suppose to be his supporter. It seems a bit contradictory to me.

I’d still probably have England win the world cup above arsenal winning the champions league just for the national craic of it. What can I say, I’m conflicted!

There are a few stories this morning about our centre backs. I won’t bore you with the details but they all look quite tenuous and if any did leave, which I don’t think they will, it will be independent of any of these rubbishy stories.

I was reading a good article in the gooner on my way to work, and I would recommend you have a look at it too. A good piece they talks about what lies ahead for The Arsenal.

http://www.onlinegooner.com/article.php?section=exclusive&id=2897#.UUgmB_ogGc0

And I also came across these two photos when I was looking for a funny arsenal related one to send to pumpkiii.

This one is of George Graham after winning the league at Anfield 1989 in what is surely one of the most amazing games in our history.

 

It just struck me how more real it seemed back then.

And this one is of Tony Adams. Hero.

That’s it for today. Pumpkiii should be back tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of your Tuesday.

Come on you reds!!