London Calling

“Oh, T*ddy T*ddy, you might have joined the West Ham but you’re still a ….”

Well he is.  Trouble is he loves the abuse we give him as well, so although it’s deserved (and unstoppable) it’s also counter productive.  Not that I wouldn’t have been singing it the loudest if I’d been there!

To enable myself to have some semblance of home life I tend not to go to the London (and further south) away games.  Unfortunately when I travel to games it’s not quite in the same luxury that the players enjoy, and to be frank (not Judas Stapleton though) it takes it out of you.

It’s not often that I miss games, and it’s even rarer for me to miss a game and not be able to watch it in a pub somewhere.   This was one of those occasions, and I was prepared for that most painful of exercise, listening to a match on the radio!  Nothing against the radio commentators who are certainly no worse than their television counterparts, it’s just that despite the commentators best efforts you spend most of the game not entirely sure what’s going on. Also, there’s the dreaded ‘breakaway goal’ where you spend a couple of seconds trying to work out from the crowd noises whether it’s home or away fans that are cheering as the commentators say something like ‘and that goal came right out of the blue’.  Nightmare. 

Fortunately I didn’t have to live through that nightmare and got to see the game live via something Chinese called PPLive (download it here if you want to try it http://www5.pplive.com/english/  .  When you’ve got it loaded right click the icon and there’s a ‘Change Language’ option.).  Not altogether sure how it works but after a couple of minutes of buffering I got a good steady picture for the rest of the game so it beats the hell out of the types of streaming I’ve tried to use before.

Alan Pardew had been spouting in the press all week about how they were going to play their attacking game against us and whilst they weren’t anything like as defensive as some they still guarded the 18 yard line like their lives depended on it.  It was a fairly good game really and 0-0 wasn’t an unfair result, although I’d have felt cheated if we’d lost!

Having checked my atlas it became obvious to me that Amsterdam was indeed north of London and so obviously I had no excuse to miss it.  Ahem.  It was a bit tight though.

My son had a medical appointment for the Tuesday morning that couldn’t be changed (well, not without waiting months) and I had an appointment first thing Thursday morning that I couldn’t get out of.  Obvious solution – out Tuesday afternoon, back Wednesday.  Flights were booked, and although getting back wasn’t going to be a problem I was due to land in Amsterdam 5pm (local time) which meant if the plane was delayed much it wouldn’t be worth my getting on it.  Strangely, as I was waiting for the plane this guy came up to me and asked if I was going to the match because he was as well and had no idea how to get from the airport to the ground!  Yes I had a shirt on and no it wasn’t the new one!  We got chatting and it turned out he was working in Newcastle for a few weeks – for a charity in an office about 100 yards from my house.  Not only that, but he had also been a pupil at my old school down south and would have been there at the same time I was (although a few years younger).  Although I wouldn’t like to walk round it it’s true that it’s a small world!

Unfortunately the plane was delayed.  Fortunately it was only delayed for ten minutes.

One thing I love about quick jaunts is taking everything as hand luggage and not having to wait for your baggage to appear.  I hate flying but the worst part for me is when you’re itching to get out of the airport and the baggage seems to take forever to arrive.  So, Andy and I strolled out of the airport and decided to split a taxi into town rather than mucking around on the train. 

By the time we got there Jonno was entrenched in a bar (the type that sells, er, coffee…) and we joined him for a couple of liveners before getting the train to the ground.  Quite by chance we ended up on a carriage which apart from two old ladies (!) was full of Gooners in full voice.  The two ladies weren’t in the slightest bit phased and seem to love the attention (polite I should point out) they were getting!

So we got into the stadium 30 minutes before kick off and to be honest most of us would have been happy with a draw.  Bergkamp, Henry, Gilberto, Lehmann, van Persie, Senderos.  All out.  And if there was anyone there that thought Ljungberg could play up front then I didn’t talk to them!  By the time the game was two minutes old Freddie was the greatest player in the world and according to some could probably cure cancer if he set his mind to it.  Maybe it was the special atmosphere? 

I thought Bobby was superb.  It’s not been working for him this season but he’s increased his work rate (which despite his inability to tackle was always good) and it was good to see him net the penalty.  Maybe it will kick start his season because his ability to sniff out goals could be crucial. 

Now here’s something I’ve thought for a while (that hopefully I’ll be reminding you all of in May) that might sound crazy.  Selling Patrick Vieira was the moment we finally won the Champions League. 

Better explain that one hadn’t I!

Why haven’t we done better in Europe?  There are a million theories, but no answer.  The one thing everyone agrees on is that we’ve under performed. 

Now my theory goes something like this.  For the last few years the winners of European tournaments have invariably not had an outstanding player in midfield.  Now whilst I’d in no way call Paddy a liability, or suggest the other players slacked off because he was there but it was his nature to be the dominating presence in midfield.  His departure has left us without a dominator in midfield which has meant the other midfielders having to get in there more.  I just think this will give us more balance – and importantly more security. 

Bob’s stepped it up, and I said the other week about Gilberto.  Freddie’s always been a grafter as is Cesc, and as for Flamini he makes Ray Parlour look lazy!  I don’t think it will mean us hitting the footballing heights as regularly as we did a couple of years ago, but I do think the moment Arsene decided to sell Paddy will be looked back on as an act of brave genius.  And also don’t underestimate the importance of Arsene persuading him to stay the last few years and then shipping him out the first year he spent the whole summer 100% wanting to stay.

Mind you the extra ‘security’ didn’t stop us conceding far too soon after we scored.  Manuel Almunia.  Just seeing him on the bench is enough to make me nervous.  When I interviewed Bob Wilson (nice name drop that!) he told me that by all accounts Almunia was outstanding in training.  He also said lots of players are outstanding in training but not on match day.  To be fair he had a good game and the goal was one that some would blame him for and some would say was unlucky.  Although not a fan I’m going to the unlucky camp because it’s too easy to blame the keeper.  Bob told someone else (The Daily Telegraph – pah!) about what a nightmare the balls are now and how late they bend so… I’m still glad we got through Jens’ ban with maximum points though.

Arsene was widely ridiculed in the press when he said that Thun could be the surprise package in our group when the draw was made.  Well I’m sure Sparta aren’t laughing now!  Two games gone, three points clear of Thun, and five ahead of Sparta and Ajax.  Couldn’t get much better.  Then we remembered there were two games gone, we were three points clear of Thun and five ahead of Sparta and Ajax…and we were in Amsterdam!

After the train back to the city we celebrated far too much and slept far too little!  Didn’t want to come back really, but there’s always Birmingham home on Sunday!

Come On You Red(currant)s!