I am writing this post, having just had myself a little conversation with the esteemed comrade Watt on the Fans’ Forum. As you can imagine, I was not the one to wax lyrical about the team’s performance last Saturday and did not really give Our Glorious Leader a pat on the back for the things he said during the pre-match press conference ahead of the Sunday’s game either.
As I waited, listening to the previous caller and the conversation between the comrade Watt and his studio guest on my mobile as the forum is not a live feed (delay is about a minute or so, hence it’s impossible to watch it on your laptop and wait on hold at the same time), I kept telling myself not to go into the emotional rant mode. I just figured that despite something inside telling me to go to town on he subject, it would not do anyone any good. If you want to get an important point across, no one will listen to you if you strike people as some kind of mentalist, not to mention that a minute delay leaves more than enough time to do a ‘lost call’ on you. Finally, I have got through and said a few things about the poor performance against Blackburn and unacceptable attitude presented by Our Glorious Leader with regards to ignoring the opinions of ‘people who have not worked in football’, and from that moment, the only contribution I was allowed was answering the questions like whether we would win the league or not.
Now, whilst I do appreciate that the FF was only an hour long and I could probably still rant until now, that is just manipulation at its worst. Not even sure how much of the stuff I said actually got through on air, given the delay! All this reminds me of the Radio Yerevan Q&A jokes that were quite popular in the Soviet bloc back in the days:
- Q: Is it true that in Romania…
- A: (barging in) Yes, it is.
You see where I’m going with this? Clearly, given the state of affairs, comrade Watt was sent out there with clear instructions to do his utmost towards limitation of damage. Being a PR graduate myself, I say thumbs up for the execution (I am the firm believer in the ‘end justifies the means’ principle, you know), but whoever had experienced what limitation to one’s freedom of speech is will certainly see the disturbing signs…
ATVO office in Moscow. Is nice!
The above picture shows the TASS press agency offices, the same agency which peddled the ‘nothing to see here’ stuff when one of the reactors in Chernobyl got blown to bits, spewing the radioactive dust all over the continent – even the May Day parades five days later went ahead as planned, no matter what the consequences might be! Whilst I do agree that this comparison may be a tad strong, it just goes to show how strongly I feel about my beloved club.
All of the above, however was just a minor disturbance in the Force compared to what Our Glorious Leader managed to come out with during his press conference: cut the long story short, he is right, his players can’t do no wrong, deserve all the recognition in the world for what they have ‘achieved’, anyone who has never worked in football knows bugger all and is obviously blind as a bat not to see that second place is a trophy. Naturally, we have also heard that the team is very young and that we should fund a massive golden statue of D******n, sit around it in a circle and sing Kumbaya. OK, maybe I’ve made up the last bit!
Mind you, even though I have just found out that I should shut up and bow to his superior knowledge, I could probably grit my teeth and live with all of the above if it’s just a sign of trying to create the siege mentality amongst the team to squeeze the very last ounce of effort out of them. What I can’t live with, however, is the following:
“As long as you are second in the league, I am ready to sign for the next 20 years and stand up for that.”
“If there is a team that is better than us, we have to accept it. I believe we do not have to be ashamed at the moment of what we have done.”
Whoa, excuse me French, but can you believe this merde? I am looking forward to the AKB brigade trying to defend that, I really am, everyone is welcome to contribute to the discussion to defend their Lord & Saviour from this savage attack, but I am not really holding my breath, as it’s simply indefensible. I am not sure if some realise that Mr Arsene Wenger, the great manager of one of the modern superclubs has just come out to say that, in essence, it’s OK to charge the fans top dollar to be the one who comes first in the group of losers, i.e. for being the number one loser! Stay tuned, as I will think of designing a fitting trophy without a shadow of a doubt – suggestions are welcome too!
So, ManYoo team is ‘better’ then? What a load of nonsense – with all my criticism, I seriously believe that we have the best team in the league and them winning the title with the most average team for as long as I care to remember will be an absolute travesty. What does that tell you about the quality of the respective managers?
As for the ‘signing for 20 years’ bit, we are sure you would love to Arsene, as this would ultimately make you at least £120M minus the taxman’s share richer, no? I just can’t help but tell you about what the Polish govt spokesman in the ’80s said when the economy went down the pan and the people were less than impressed: the government will feed itself…
I will leave you with that thought…
