On the Road Again!

I think I have become the 2017-18 season Jonah. All the teams I have some history with are struggling.  Even the Arsenal. But with the club of my childhood,  Oldham Athletic,  currently bottom of League 1 in England, and Zbrojovka Brno bottom of the Czech League,  it looked like my new international team in Orlando would be okay. Sadly from being top of their MLS division they have failed to amass more than 4pts since I booked tickets and have sunk to 3rd from bottom. Two places further to drop down the table  to match the others!! At least Arsenal have managed to get to 12th of 20 in the Premier League. Hopefully, Hurricane Maria withstanding,  they will rally when I am there at the end of September. Update 30/9/2017 What can I say? Easy drive up from Kissimmee and parked in 55 West. Walked to the stadium along W Church. Claire had a backpack.  Not allowed. Only see thru bags allowed. If only they say this loud and...

Everything has to be sponsored now. You can hardly turn the TV on without advertising as programmes are sponsored by some product or company. Mostly nothing to do with the program or the product? Maybe it's cheaper than simply paying for an advert slot? And so it is with football.  Long after shirt sponsorship became the norm the stadiums themselves started getting new names. My Arsenal are currently playing at "The Emirates Stadium" in Islington, North London. Sponsored by the airline of the same name.  I suspect the trend came from the US, and has taken over all across Europe. Schalke, where we go next week in the UEFA Champion's League, have the Veltin's Arena. Many German clubs have modern stadia built for the 2006 World Cup, where sponsorship was the business plan. The Football League Cup has been sponsored for years, by the betting company Littlewoods, by the Milk Board, by Coca-Cola and now by a bank - The Capital One Cup. The bigger clubs that hav...

When the draw for the semi finals was made I was hoping to avoid Tottenham . (For Tottenham the spell checker only has Nottingham , Titanium or Duodenum !!!) As an Arsenal fan it us nice to play our nearest neighbours and win. However the Premier League match a month or so ago was a close run thing, and if not for a poorly taken penalty by Robbie Keane it well have ended up another draw. The Arsenal winning 2-1. Tonight we had high expectations despite the shoddy performance at Burnley in the FA Cup on Sunday. After all it was our regular whipping boys, the scummers from up the Victoria Line! We started off okay, some huff and puff, but no goals. The back four missing all the regular starters consisted of Hoyte , Djourou , Senderos and Traore . A bit lightweight but seemed to be coping with Berbatov and Keane. We probably played the worst I have seen in around 40 years as an Arsenal supporter. Utter shit. In the end we went behind after some pressure and about the only time that ...

... And another win.  It seems such a long time since we beat the blue scum although over time they are over 20 wins behind us.  In fact, there have been more drawn games than Chelsea wins! This one was hard fought. Our fans spent the whole game berating Ashley Cole. We have had players leave before, but none have been as nasty as Cole. So he gets what he is due! In the end we should have won comfortably, we must have had most of the possession but it was a mistake by Cech that led to William Gallas heading the only goal. I need to see MoTD2 tonight as we had the ball in the bet twice more that Wiley (the worst ref I've seen this season) disallowed. In the end it looked as though he was doing whatever he could to let them equalise.  Wanker! Still we're top of the league!

Have to say I've not been this season yet as home matches keep clashing with the Arsenal games that my season ticket share covers!

Today I'm off to see the Arsenal play at the Emirates against Manchester City. Back in the olde days I had a brief flirtation with City. We had moved down to Surrey from Lancashire (You could in those days before the madness overtook the price of houses) and at the time City were doing quite well in League and Cups. My first trip to Wembley was to see City beat West Brom in the League Cup. In the end the minor infatuation came to an end and I went back to being an Arsenal supporter full time. My Dad supported the Arsenal all his life. I decided to let the train take the strain but the service (what service) from Sandling of on train an hour is disgusting. Instead I got on myu bike and rode to Ashford. A large and free motorcycle park is right in front of the station entrance. With the bike locked up it was all very painless. I've left my jacket in one of the Zegas and my old helmet (not worth tempting fate!!) In the box. On the subject of jacket. Today, "I are mostly weari...