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From the BBC website

NFL Draft: Tampa Bay Buccaneers to use parrot to announce fourth-round pick

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Zsa Zsa, a Catalina Macaw parrot, will help announce the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' fourth-round pick

On Saturday - the third day of the draft - teams will use weird and wonderful ways to announce their selections. Zsa Zsa will fly onto a pirate ship in the Raymond James Stadium with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' fourth-round pick in her beak.

All this reminds me.....2019 will be the 100th anniversary of the death of the club parrot, famed to have died on the day that it was announced that, by bribing Football League officials, Arsenal had been elected to Division One in our place. This act of 'Gooner treachery' must not go unmarked. I suggest that we catch 100 of the ring necked parakeets that fly wild in Mitcham, Sutton and Carshalton and release them on pitch the day we play Arsenal at NWHL. Frankly reducing their number is long overdue.

Alternatively, we could just pick young Troy Parrot from the Academy. That'd show 'em and there'd be less droppings.
 
"Thanks for that Brian" said:
From the BBC website

NFL Draft: Tampa Bay Buccaneers to use parrot to announce fourth-round pick

You must log in or register to see images


Zsa Zsa, a Catalina Macaw parrot, will help announce the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' fourth-round pick

On Saturday - the third day of the draft - teams will use weird and wonderful ways to announce their selections. Zsa Zsa will fly onto a pirate ship in the Raymond James Stadium with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' fourth-round pick in her beak.

All this reminds me.....2019 will be the 100th anniversary of the death of the club parrot, famed to have died on the day that it was announced that, by bribing Football League officials, Arsenal had been elected to Division One in our place. This act of 'Gooner treachery' must not go unmarked. I suggest that we catch 100 of the ring necked parakeets that fly wild in Mitcham, Sutton and Carshalton and release them on pitch the day we play Arsenal at NWHL. Frankly reducing their number is long overdue.

Alternatively, we could just pick young Troy Parrot from the Academy. That'd show 'em and there'd be less droppings.
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We should have an And finally... thread. This type of nonsense would be perfect for it.
 
BrunelGooner said:
It's interesting you bring up Kroenke's intentions actually. Whilst he does care more about the £ piggie trough that comes with CL football, this current season has seemingly sent him on red alert. Ornstein's report yesterday said he was growing concerned with the empty seats and low corporate-level ticket renewals. This obviously affects commercial deals and image rights etc, which would affect the amount of money Arsenal are making.

I still think he is a massive problem and will not go above and beyond to propel us to success. However, as I mentioned in my previous comment, the board have tried to be a lot more proactive by recruiting new members of staff who all have their own personalities, approaches and ideas regarding what they want to achieve. They all also have a plethora of experience in their respective fields. Raul Sanllehi, as Head of Football Relations, Sven Mislintant as Head of Recruitment, Huss Famy, as Head of Negotiations and Darren Burgess, as Head of High Performance.

Their knowledge and expertise is certainly a cause for optimism. And although a dodgy owner isn't ideal, in some ways, Kroenke being less involved in the club may work in our favour when it comes to the football side of things. But I think even he is aware that a second successive season outside of the Champions League means we will have no option but to abandon the overly-frugal approach that hasn't served us well over the years. We still have a significant pot of money to spend on players; we just need to identify the right players and ensure they will fit in at the club. Of course there is no guarantee with any new player that they will do well, but you have to maintain trust that the club and Wenger's successor will know how to incorporate them into the style of play/team that they desire.

Although Gazidis has publicly stated we haven't been actively looking for a successor yet, Ornstein said he's been hearing they have had a five-man shortlist ready to present to Kroenke in light of Wenger's departure. Included on them are Jardim, Allegri, Nagelsmann, Ancelotti and...Rodgers (God help us if he gets the job). Any statements in the public domain that come from Gazidis' mouth are to be taken with a handful of salt. Deep down, they must have known this was coming at some point and with the new off-pitch acquisitions, it would be gross negligence to not have some names prepared to take over.

I guess we'll just need to wait and see, but I am quietly optimistic that this is a leap forward.
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An interesting article in The Telegraph today - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/footbal...anager-restricted-50m-summer-transfer-budget/

Whilst all press stories come with a large potential for bullshit, this does have a certain ring of truth to it. During January, Arsene Wenger said that the club couldn't afford Jonny Evans on top of Aubameyang's and M'Khitaryan's contracts and transfer fee and Ozil's wages on his new contract. If you win the EL, I'm sure that the purse strings could be loosened but without CL football, income from a number of sources [prize money, tv, sponsorships, ticket sales and other match day income] will be down, possibly by as much as £80m or 20% of income. Two years in a row, that's a painful decrease.

It had become 'de rigeur' to mock Wenger for his '4th Place Trophy' in the last 10 years but that money kept the wheels greased and made Arsenal such an attractive purchase for Kroenke. Being without it is going to be a new experience for a whole generation of fans, who are probably expecting you to go out and splash a good deal of cash on a new defence and midfield to go with the new attack. I think that's unlikely to happen and that purchases will be of a more modest nature than most Arsenal fans think is likely. That won't preclude an improvement in performance as your current defence and central midfield are not impressive and decent defenders can be picked up more cheaply than any other position. Better to have a potent strike force and need to bring in defenders than vice versa. Although it would help if some of them ran towards their own goal occasionally, rather than just at the opposition's.

The suggestion is that sales may need to be made but it's difficult to see where large sums could be raised. Neither goalkeeper would raise much. Only Bellerin of your current defenders has much real value, although the loss of his gloss from before signing his last contract, has devalued him significantly. Kolasinac and Mustafi and Xakha might have value in Germany but haven't been successes in England and won't fetch anywhere near top dollar. Ramsey's contract's running out and Wilshire's has run out. The main family silver [Giroud, Walcott, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sanchez] has gone already.

Winning the EL is a really big deal, probably a great deal bigger than many Arsenal fans really appreciate.
 
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"Thanks for that Brian" said:
An interesting article in The Telegraph today - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/04/23/new-arsenal-manager-restricted-50m-summer-transfer-budget
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Damn, a new challenger for our coveted net spend trophy.


"... I'm sure that the purse strings could be loosened but without CL football, income from a number of sources [prize money, tv, sponsorships, ticket sales and other match day income] will be down, possibly by as much as £80m or 20% of income. Two years in a row, that's a painful decrease."

I reckon 50m odd per season is the likely minimum.
 
"Thanks for that Brian" said:
I wonder if Roma had any idea that he'd be such a huge success in England? The transfer fee suggests that they didn't have a clue, which is pretty much how they've played tonight. It could have been 5 or 6 in the first half.
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I don't even think Pool had an idea he'd be this good.

Can't imagine how good he'll be next season at Real Madrid <whistle>
 
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I’m watching this wondering how the hell Roma got to the semi’s though. They’ve been the makers of their own downfall, despite how good Liverpool are.
Too many touches before releasing, misplaced passes, lack of support....
Really poor.
 
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Roo said:
I’m watching this wondering how the hell Roma got to the semi’s though. They’ve been the makers of their own downfall, despite how good Liverpool are.
Too many touches before releasing, misplaced passes, lack of support....
Really poor.
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It has a very depressing familiarity to it. I've seen us do that up there more than once. I was there in '78. I got hit by a coin in the face in the ground. Fortunately, it must have been a small denomination. Cheapskate Scouse bastards. <laugh>

Still, I was the first in 4 generations to see us win there in 1985. Imagine that. My great grandfather was a spurs fan and I was the first in my family to see us win there. My level of drunkenness was truly legendary after that match.
 
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