First things first today I want to thank everyone who has completed the Arsenal FC Blog 2008/09 Survey. The responses so far have been very interesting and as I mentioned yesterday will form the basis of the first ever Arsenal FC Blog Awards to be announced on the Arsenal FC Weekly podcast on Monday.
For those that haven’t yet completed the survey you can do so by clicking here. I’d love to hear your opinions on the season and as I said yesterday there’s a number of free copies of “The Last Game” to be won thanks to Simon & Schuster UK. The survey will be available until midnight on Friday so get involved if you want to have an influence on the first ever Arsenal FC Blog Awards. So far I’ve had over 150 responses and it would be great to get that number up over 500 by the end.
It’s the Champions League final tomorrow night and I think it’s fair to say that every Arsenal fan and his dog will be cheering on Barcelona. Anyone who is sitting on the fence need only to be reminded that the other option is of course Manchester United and not only are they massive chumps but they also knocked us out of the competition. Barcelona on the other hand play the best football in Europe and have genuine nice guys like Lionel Messi and old boy Thierry Henry in their ranks AND knocked out Chelsea in hilarious circumstances. Quite hilarious indeed.
I might have a bit of a yarn about what I think might happen in tomorrow’s post but I want to make it clear how much I don’t want United to win. The thought of those wankers holding the trophy aloft for the second season in a row makes me cringe and it hurt even more than last season given the manner in which they defeated us at The Emirates. There was a rugby union shirt one of my teachers at school, a New Zealander, used to wear which said “I support New Zealand and anyone who plays against Australia” and that’s absolutely how I feel about United. I hope they get a good touch up and Barcelona take their rightful place as both the best and most beautiful side in European football.
There’s not too much transfer nonsense going yet – thankfully – but I found a piece of news about a player who will definitely NOT be joining us. That player is Roma hard man Daniele de Rossi who said that he will not be leaving despite his club’s poor season. The news will come as a huge disappointment to Panda Bear who just recently transfered him into his Arsenal team for the Manager Mode in FIFA09.
Anyway, that’s a fairly ridiculous way to end a rather ridiculous post. I’ll speak to you again tomorrow to give some more thoughts on the Champions League final and tell you another player or two that we won’t be signing. Adios!
Have your say on absolutely anything you want by leaving a comment. Come on, I dare you!
@SF
Being English I always want to support the English team that is involved in any European or world game. I am in a dilema with this one though, as you so rightly say, manure beat us, we don’t want them to win twice in a row, and our beloved Henry now plays for Barca, I have a barca shirt with Henry 14 on the back, cheap through ebay, not a fake though. One of my best friends supports manure and I told him I would be supporting his team but in my heart I hope Barca win and if Henry plays I hope he scores a hat trick. I think though that manure will win, there defence as we found out is so solid and they have so many attacking options. I just hope that football wins and it will be a great game.
Its a no brainer. Arsenal is about the beautiful game- one team tomorrow night follows this creed. Arsenal is about forgetting about silly made up national boundaries- forget that United is English. Arsenal is about philosophy, passion, idealism, and perfection. Barcelona is pretty much the Spanish version of Arsenal. If there is any other team in Europe I love its them. And how can anyone forget about the Arsenal Legend who will terrorize Man Utd like he did in the old days? I cant wait and I really really PRAY that Barca wins.
also a random question- is the home kit not changing next year?
@MoMONEY
The home kit is 2008-2010, the away kit always seems to be for just one year. I might be in a minority here but I loved the gold away shirt, I wish I had bought one but didn’t have the funds to splash around on shirts in those days.
Sorry i will cheer on the english team in the CL Final.I know TH14 plays for BARCA but will never forgive or forget Paris when according to TH14 barca were acting like a bunch of schoolgirls,before they scored their first goal(offside i think).As for playing the best football in europe sorry i dont think so they play against sub standard opposition almost every week.remember TH14 went to barca so he could coast into semi retirement.The chelski result was a joke.
i hate barcelona and i hate man u, tomorrow i will be supporting thierry.
@ MoMoney
When the current shirt was presented last year they said 2008/2010. So unfortunately it will not change.
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And about the post I dont want Barca to win, do you already forgot that they “steal us” the trophy some years ago. Anyway ManUtd will win! Barca dont have defence.
@ Dally – The gold kit was awesome AND we won in it as well. 2001/02 is still my favourite season as an Arsenal supporter; Pires was at the peak of his powers and Ljunberg went bonkers near the end. Great stuff.
@ adc1971 – I think the comment about ‘sub-standard’ football is a bit harsh. You can’t deny that Barcelona play the best football in the world. If that’s what Spain as a whole appreciates and tries to play they shouldn’t be criticised – the English sides should be criticised for not trying to do it enough.
I think Cana would be the best man for us. A Strong agressiv defensiv central midfield player. Buy him arsne!!!
My plans for tomorrow night have changed, I will have to watch the game at home, my wife has had to go back to England so I have to stay in with my daughter. The whole point for this message is that I live in Turkey and nearly everyone will be cheering on Barca. When Barca played Chelski a load of Turks turned up in my local sports club to support Barca, when arsenal played manure it was only me and my sp**s supporting friend.
i hope both teams get into terrible big fight at 90th min with 0-0 score, referee then call off the game, both teams are punished by stripping away finalist status, gunner and chelski call up in emergency to play the new final. just ridiculous blabbering, forgive me
Barcelona or manure?
As much as I hate the thought of wanting the northern monkeys to win.
Given a choice it can’t be Barca, as their winning the cup will vindicate Hleb & even Henry’s move to Spain and will make keeping our current stars even harder (cesc or rvp);
The thought of Hleb having a winners medal around his neck is too much to bare!
Barcelona for me, Man U have taken over from Leeds United as the team I most want to see beaten.
Player NOT to be signed… Didier Drogba the Diving Diva.
ps Add Joey Barton to the above!
theys nothing i will enjoy than seeing man.u get beaten by barca en i wish TH14 wil score 2 send those wankers down my cousin who gose by the name of ndabe loves barca hes a huge fan but he enjoys watching arsenal than barca but ill be cheering wit him 4 sure go BARCA GO TH14 GOONER 4 LIFE!
Oaaaah Bollocks!
I hope Barca wins coz Henry is a legendary Arsenal player and the pain of losing to manure was too much.As it has been with football this season,every club has had a piece of sweet revenge.Chelsea against Arsenal,Arsenal against hull city,man city and the sweetest revenge against stoke.We were not able to avenge ourselves against manure in the PL but im stil grateful we did not give them all the 3points,i now hope Barca will make every gunner happy by finishing the job of revenge.
Gunner forever.
Arsenal FC Blog Awards should be good :D. I defo want Barca to win, I did say if we were knocked out I would be supporting Barca purely because the football they play is just amazing to watch. Reminds me of Arsenal on their day, but Barca always seem to be on their day. As they are playing United, I want them to win double, cuz i dont want united to retain it, they knocked us out and well i jus f**kin hate them. So Come On Barca. Henry show them what they have been missing, maybe even Hleb could do something to them, well whoever I dont care, just aslong as Barca win, good thing is, all my m8s want Barca to win, which is very rare for us to watch a match and support the same team. Should be good. BARCELONAAAAAAA!
in kenya we are supporting BARSENALA….i got this cusmomized jersey with barca colors with th arsenal cannon on th chest….the back has Number 14 with the name ‘THEO HENRY’ curved over it.
GO! BARSENALA GO!
spot on SF!! Go Barca, support our old boy, TH14 Theo14 both my best players.I m just wondering about, how could someone still say that Barca dont play the best football in Europe??? and Messi is the best world player???
Unlike you ,I hope the real team wins.
Glad to hear a few others dig the gold jersey. I happen to be sporting it today. I’ve been waiting for them to go back to it again. Way better than the new blue one.
I’m for barca tonight. Just can’t get behind ManUre. Kick their trash Henry!
Hi Spanish.. Thanks for providing us bloggers with a chance to fill the survey and I’m really curious as to what the results of the Arsenal Blog Awards will be..
I really didn’t like Hleb’s comments/ attitude when he left us or when he taunted current players to leave Arsenal so I really hope he does not feature at all.. But all in ll I would prefer a Barcelona win though I hope as has been posted above it wont get into the heads of Cesc and RvP that Barca is the place to be….
All in all I hope for a great game of football and may Thierry Henry shine against the Manure….
If hate both man useless and barca!..my only reason for watching 2morrow will be to c henry14 avenge us and finally be king of europe.so sad couldnt do it as a gunner!if hleb gets a medal(spit n curse),well pretenders like oshea n fretcher have, its a price i would gladly pay for the best striker to have ever worn football boots.so down with man u!down with barca!go henry go!
It’s all about Henry. Come on boy!
@ SF, indeed it is, although he is at Barca, he is still very much a Gooner and forever will be. Always in our hearts and in his biggest game for Barca we want to see him shine specially because its against Manure, he deserves a champions league medal and so i hope Barca win and I would be so happy to see him net a goal, and even happier if its the winner. C’mon Thierry, do it for us, beat Manure for your forever loyal Arsenal fans!
i kind of hope that henry doesnt win so that he knows its not arsenal that was the problem, but it makes it tough having to support manchester united. and i guess its time to give up thinking Henry may come back to arsenal, so he might as well just get his champions league win with barcelona. although 3 years ago, he could easily have scored 2-3 times which would have greatly helped arsenal win that game
@knightman
that sounds like an awesome jersey
I Hate the Red Devils and same goes to Barca. To me who wins it just doesn’t matter to me. But would be watching the match only for Henry. The Arsenal Legend. I just hope he scores against barca and I will believe that he scored for arsenal against manu. I just don’t want this Stupid Red team to win.
I have a midterm exam right before the game. Having trouble studying and will surely have trouble focusing during it. I wonder what would happen if Arsenal was playing lol?
Great Gunners! A huge congratulation to Arsenal’s Youth team for winning the FA Youth Cup, beating Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield, following their first leg win. Well done that man Steve Bould! Nine English players in the starting line-up too. The Arsenal dynasty looks set to continue in great health.
@Old Timer
Yes I am glad you brought this up. An excellent performance from the youngsters, the futures bright the futures red and white. This is where you wonder about the benefits of bringing in experienced players rather than promoting through the ranks. I think that Wengers main problem recently is all the experienced players left, this new crop of players can be brought in one at a time to augment the current players who by then will have experience.
@SF is there anyway that we can get images on the blog, then everyone can see how awsome the gold shirt was.
Congrates to the young Gunners for that excellent result,you really have promissed us a promissing future.Hats off to you boys. Patrick