Morning Gooners – we all good?
Got a bit of sun yesterday afternoon and inevitably dropped a beef-heavy BBQ in the back garden whilst watching the Austria v Poland game. That’s what I love about the group stages; there’s always something on TV to watch. Especially when it’s the Euro’s, because when it’s the World Cup sometimes it’s all done by mid morning when it’s over the other side of the planet, but it being in Germany is perfect for the casual international football watcher like me.
I can’t say I watched it with any kind of detail though, although I did see Wojciech absolutely clean out an Austria player. No real complaints from anyone there, I don’t think.
There can be plenty of complaints for the Netherlands though, after they were lumbered with an English refereeing contingent and wouldn’t you just know it, VAR took about five years to make it’s decision on one of the contentious moments. And unsurprisingly, the English contingent of referees got it wrong. Honestly, I have watched only a few games these Euro’s, but the way VAR has been implemented has been pretty impressive until you get our sub-standard of referees on show. Arsene said it years ago; we were one of the first to professionalise the referees in this country and yet the poor standard we get for what is clearly the best quality league in the world, is mental. I don’t watch enough European football to say categorically that we have the worst refs as a collective in England, but it can’t just be a coincidence that in a game with the likes of Attwell and Taylor in charge, the process seemed to be clunky, frustrating and ultimately, wrong. We’ve got countless examples from it from last season, like the Newcastle game against us, the Scum v Liverpool game, the number of times Wolves were shafted. This regularity surely shows a pattern.
It needs to be ripped up and started again. Blow up the PGMOL and try something different. I’ve said it for years and I know I’m a broken record, but the ‘Old Boys Club’ that runs the PGMOL haven’t improved, they show little sign of it, so really we should be taking away their powers and trying something different.
Today’s games are Georgia against the Czech’s, Turkey against Portugal and Belgium v Romania. It is mad to think that unless Belgium win today, they’re going to be out. A team who has got so many talented players and who should really be looking at quarter finals minimum, are staring down the brink of an early exit. The only up side I could see would be Leo Trossard coming home and getting himself fully up and ready for the start of the new season. So there is that.
Turkey are my sweepstake team, so perhaps there’s something for me to keep an eye on, but I’m up for a bourbon tasting in London this afternoon, so I don’t think I’ll get to see much of it. The Turks probably need just a draw to get through but I suspect Portugal might do them over a bit later. Let’s wait and see.
As for The Arsenal news…well…there isn’t really, unfortunately. The focus is on the Euro’s and Copa America and there’s still very little movement. I suspect we might start to get a little more stuff happening when we get in to the knockout stages, as more teams will drop out and players will then be looking at their futures more in the run up to pre season starting again. So give it another week to ten days and I think we might start to see some things bubbling along.
That’s pretty much it for today. Apologies for the super short one but there really is very little going on, so might as well get on with my Saturday and go wake The Management up.
You have yourselves a good one.
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