"I still have hope because I am a bit crazy. Realistically, we will not win the league, but it doesn’t matter what our chances are – we have to give everything to go as close as possible to the top teams."
- Arsene Wenger, after the Newcastle win
There once was a man called John Ihan.
He started out by opening a mobile phone store, calling it "Crazy John's", as you do. It became successful, and as the years rolled by, he added more. By the time he died aged 42, he'd built up the largest mobile phone retail company in Australia. He's an example of what can be achieved if you really believe, and have the courage of your convictions to see it through to the end.
But I suppose if he'd told people at the beginning how succesful he would become, they would've told him that he really was a crazy mo'fo. That's how they speak in Broadie, you know.
I'm starting to think Arsene Wenger's a similiar sort of guy. Throughout our horror mid-season, he remained upbeat and supportive of our players, despite some truly terrible performances. He kept faith in Song and Denilson when the consensus was that they weren't up to scratch. He even called Eboue his "pass master" and loved him when he was unlovable.
By about mid-January, I was starting to think Wenger was losing his mind. But now, after the Newcastle match, the streets are starting to smell of roses and of Arsenal. Aston Villa lost the other day, 0-5 against Liverpool. We're ten points behind Man Utd and we're three points above Villa. We've got a kindly Champions League draw, and we're in the semi finals of the FA Cup. Fabregas coming back in the weeks ahead, and we're all eager to see him join up with Arshavin.
But best of all, we're playing the kind of football that the Arsenal are known for.
As Wenger said, it's a bit crazy, but you still have to hope. It springs eternal, after all. Whisper it quietly, because if you say it too loud there's a chance you'll be committed, but whisper it with conviction - we're gonna win the Premier League.
****
Oh, and this is a link to the Treecreeper MySpace site. bbl, a poster at the gunnerblog website, is in a band. Check it out, it's not bad. It's got a chilled-out, introspective indie-western type thing happening. It's actually pretty good. It's music you can happily kill yourself to. It evokes the defeated, abandoned depair of the mid-westAmerican rust belt, which is kind of strange coming from a couple of boys from Buckinghamshire.
Monday, March 23, 2009
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5 comments:
Just a question- are you an Australian? Just thought so because of the Crazy Johns thing
ANd by the way business is still booming but it really hasn't been the same since he died
Yeah, born in Hong Kong, moved to Melbourne when I was three and have been here ever since.
I miss the craziness. We need more crazy people in Australian retail. It's just Ken Bruce now, and he's completely mad.
Same story here- Born in HK, moved to Aus when 3 years old, and have been here since! The only difference is that i'm in Sydney and you're in Melbourne! How crazy and weird is that???!!!
I sorta got me thinking that you might have been an Aussie cos of the time you set your blog on- same as mine.
Just been to Melbourne in December- nice place Melbourne is, and the weird thing, is when I went, there was a massive downpour, and no rain came until the Vic bushfires.
Random thing, life is.
Nice to see you got some of your readers back.
Your Brother.
No, not really, brother. I think I lost a lot of readers when removed "fucking" from the title. that stood for something.
Yeah Justin, strange stuff.
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