From Steve Phillips : I just want to remind everyone of your own comment
Hi Myles:
Football fans get worked up about things like why doesn’t Wenger buy a centreback and all that stuff, but you yourself said: “After all, it’s only football”.
It’s not third world countries being destroyed by earthquakes or refugees living in the mud or boat people making a desperate all or nothing bid for a better life or major wars or anything like that. It’s the diversion from that stuff. From Siberia to Tierra del Fuego, football fanatics everywhere feel the same: It’s Friday, it’s been a long week, I’m tired and looking forward to this weekend’s matches, and speculating on the starting eleven and having a natter with their mates about transfer possibilities and all that stuff, and everyone’s an expert.
The beauty is that there are millions of us all around the globe with a common love for this game, and we all do the same things, no matter what our other differences might be. So, in the end, we’re all having a laugh. I like to watch La Liga too, and some Serie A, and there are some tantalizing matchups there and in the European Champions League.
So, it’s Friday, and it’s been a long week and I’m looking forward to this weekend’s matches and I have a moment to check out the football news and see what Myles (and his readers) might be on about over on ANR, and it enhances our collective shared enjoyment of the game, and we opinionate and then get on with other things.
Some English lads once sang: “I know it’s only rock and roll, but I like it.” (And Peter Gabriel once sang: “I know it’s only knock and know’all, but I like it.”)
Love
Steve in Vancouver
Mahad Khalid : Is it because of the phrench connection?
Dear Myles,
I’ve been reading your blog regularly for years now and I just can’t have enough of it.
Dont ever stop blogging. Ever.
I’m from Pakistan which is going through a very rough time now. Almost 20 million people have been affected by floods and what not. It’s nice to see England and English people supporting us in these hard times.
But still I just can’t miss Arsenal’s game.
I agree with most of your views but sometimes feel that you are way too critical about Arsene.
Liverpool has spent much more than Arsenal in recent years and they haven’t won a thing since 2006 (like Arsenal FA Cup) and they finished 7th last season but still why does it seem that every single pundit and journalist loves everything about it and especially “Uncle Roy”??
Before the start of the new season everyone writes off Arsenal and some crazy people also predict Spurs to finish above us but that never happens..
I want to ask that is it because of the French manager and French players and every French thing about Arsenal that everyone hates us so much, despite being much better than Spurs and Liverpool?
Do comment Sir.
Myles replies :
I still enjoy blogging because it’s therapy, it’s letting off steam, it’s sharing, it’s connecting, it’s different things to various people.
When I started I thought of ANR as an allotment, a small, hidden plot of land near a railway line where I’d go every Sunday morning and plant a row of lettuce and two rows of carrots.
It was a tiny corner of cyberspace, just as an allotment is a tiny corner of the earth.
Now, 12 years later, I find I’m learning a lot from my readers, I’m replying privately to some, I had academic Gooner from South Africa round to dinner once, then she came again another year with her husband Roger, then again a year or two down the line they brought two of their kids. Linda’s coming to see us again in September.
Sometimes, recently, I’ve put readers in touch with each other.
All of this is fun but it’s quite time-consuming and I should be spending those hours writing about Arsenal for you.
If it’s Friday, it’s the end of the working week, as Steve says, Arsenal often have a game tomorrow and Blackpool is a game they can win, so four points from two games is OK if you’re in Hitchin, Vancouver or Pakistan. People on five continents think of themselves as a broad community who share their love of a football club in north London.
Funny Steve should mention It’s Only Rock & Roll, as I was writing about the Rolling Faces two hours ago in the 4,000-word Preface to my memoir.
When Ronnie Wood joined the Stones, as a buffer between Mick and Keith, the group became less menacing, less dangerous, more larky. Mick stopped thrashing the stage with a silver-buckled belt and Keith stopped carrying a gun.
On Monday I’ll read the Preface aloud into a dictaphone, to see how long 4,000 words is in minutes, as I’d like to stick it up on YouTube, to see what reaction it gets.
I’m trying to write it as a script, for the voice, so it will be an audiobook and a download, as well as a mass paperback, the first of a trilogy.
The YouTube voiceover will be read by an actor or a broadcaster. A couple of friends have offered to help out.
Of course Myles has no idea how to load sound files onto YouTube and no idea how to create an 8-minute film. But bigger challenges than that have been overcome, especially in countries that have floods, earthquakes or volcanic eruptions.
It’s obviously humbling to have people like Mahad say they read your stuff for years. But it’s a responsibility I don’t really relish, as it puts doubts in my mind. Doubt has never been my metier.
Last season I predicted Arsenal would finish 8 points above Spurs. I was sure about that but in the end I think it was 5 points.That’s old history.This season Newcastle, WBA and Blackpool will be helping to write new history. People don’t hate Arsenal that much but if they do it’s probably because Wenger gives the phrench media more club news than he gives us.
Arsenal is France’s biggest club by far and he supplies many players for the national team
When I get a feel for how this season might pan out, I’ll say what I think Arsenal, Liverpool, Spurs and the other clubs might do.
Until then, ciao.
Good morning Pakistan, goodnight Vancouver.