Thierry Quits France, Joins the Red Bulls

'Ello boyos! Been almost 4 months since I wrote anything on here. Full time jobs will do that to ya, not to mention our season didn't end in the best fashion, and the World Cup has been on for the last month, so those are my excuses.

So Thierry Henry, Arsenal legend, made two big announcements this week. The 2010 World Cup was a disaster for the French team, and Henry has decided to retire from International Football in the wake of the fiasco. He's France's all time leading scorer, (as well as Arsenal's of course) but will probably be remembered as much for his hand ball against Ireland as he will for being a part of the side that won the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000. Honestly I couldn't give a shit about the French team so I'm not arsed that he's retiring from internationals. But it is a blow for France for certain any time you lose a player from the golden generation.

The second big announcement this week was that Thierry is moving to my beloved United States to play in the MLS for the New York Red Bulls. Now I'll be the first to admit that I think MLS is a shit league with shit players and overpaid fucks like David Beckham only make the league look worse. This however, is in my opinion a brilliant signing. Henry still has plenty of gas in the tank, and against lower quality teams and players he should be able to get into top form. He doesn't have the pace that he used to, certainly, but he still has that knack for finishing and finding the right spaces on the pitch. When you look at him paired with Juan Pablo Angel, the Red Bulls instantly have the best strike force in the league.

Awesomely enough, his debut for the Red Bulls is going to be against some huge cunts, Tottenham. If there's one thing I can guarantee in that match, it's that Thierry scores a goal. Out of all the people who love scoring against Sp*rs, Thierry is especially good at it. While he'll only be here for half of the MLS season this year, I would put a good bet on him to be the league's top scorer next year. I wish him all the best and hope that I can make it up to one of his matches before he finally retires.

In other news, Barcelona are absolute fucking cunts. I don't think there has been one day since the summer began that one of their players came out and said how much they'd love to have Cesc Fabregas with them at Barcelona. Well that's good for them. Ya know, I think Cesc would fit in perfectly with my 7 a side team. We've been looking for a good midfielder this whole season and I think he'll fit right in. Cesc isn't going anywhere, so Barca should really keep their holes shut.

The World Cup was fun, but at the same time it kinda sucked. The matches didn't really stand out, with the exception of the Ghana-Uruguay match. That was mental. I really couldn't believe the insanity that happened at the end of extra time. The Final was awful. The Netherlands played like a bunch of cunts, fouling all over the place and never trying to actually do anything. Spain wasn't brilliant but they got the job done and so fair play to them and especially to our Captain.

Ok that's about all the time I have since I have to get back to work. I might do another post in the next few days (gasp!) with an Arsenal season preview. If not then I predict that we win the Treble - League, FA Cup, and Champions League. Cheers.

Thierry Henry Reaction, World Cup Better Off With France In It

Long, long ago, when the world was still new, there was once an Arsenal blog, written by an American. It was updated daily with all the latest news, transfer stories, and thoughts on Arsenal. It was called The ArseNole. And now, The ArseNole is back. That's right, after a shocking absence of over a month, I've made a return to the blogging realm, since there is finally a lot to talk about. Sure, I could have written a lot the past month of how well we have played and how I think we're going to win the league this season, but that would probably have just jinxed us and I'm very superstitious about Arsenal. But as I said, today I have quite a lot of things to burn on, so we'll start with what seems to be one of the most controversial topics in quite some time, and that is Thierry Henry's hand ball that put Ireland out of the World Cup and France in it.

Let me first clarify, that I am not Irish, and I am not French, and if this had happened to the USA I would have been pissed, but I would still not show the hate to Thierry that he has been getting from every corner of the globe. My loyalties lie with Arsenal first and foremost, so in that game I was hoping for a France win due to this simple math:

French:
Arsene Wenger
William Gallas
Gael Clichy
Thierry Henry
Bacary Sagna
Patrick Vieira
Robert Pires

Irish:
Robbie Keane

Yes, I know there have been other Arsenal players that were Irish, but the one that stands out is captain cunttastic, Robbie Keane, the cartwheeling cunt himself. Keeping him as far away from the World Cup as possible is just fine with me. And personally, I'd rather watch the French play all summer next summer than have to watch just one Ireland match. So yeah, it was a hand ball by Thierry, but I think it was mostly instinctual. The play happened so fast that I don't think he thought, "Oh shite I better stick out my hand here to keep this ball in play." I think he just had it as a natural reaction in the spur of the moment. It's the referee's job to make the call, not Thierry's, so why should he have to be the one taking the heat for it? Did you all expect Eboue to tell the ref he dove for that free kick in the Champions League Final? No, because it was Arsenal. And you shouldn't expect Thierry to do it either because at the end of the day, he got his country into the World Cup, and all the Irish can do about it is bitch for four years while they watch.

To me, the fans that say Henry is no longer thought of as a good person, or as an Arsenal legend, or they see him as a cheater now, are ridiculous and stupid. That one millisecond play made you forget about all the things he did for Arsenal, all 226 goals, countless moments of magic, and some of the best teams this club has ever had? Bollocks I say. Thierry Henry is the greatest Arsenal player of all time, and if you want to bitch about him and say his legacy is tarnished because of that one hand ball, then you're full of shit. He didn't launch a terrorist attack, he didn't molest his daughter, or set his ex-wife's house on fire. He fucking hand balled. Get over it. Do I feel bad for the Irish as a whole? Sure I do. Just not for the ones that act like Thierry Henry is no longer an Arsenal legend and instead is the scum of the earth.

Right, so that's about covered, so it's on to other matters.

Eduardo signed a new long-term deal with the club. Solid move. He's going to have to start quite a lot while Bendtner and more importantly RvP are out injured, so we need him to stay fit and start pounding in the goals. I think he's perfectly capable of doing everything that RvP has done for us this season, in terms of goal scoring and making assists. Arshavin, Theo, Nasri, Rosicky, and Cesc are going to all have to step up their games though to make it through this period. First big test for us is this weekend when we play away to Sunderland, who are a tricky opponent. They're playing well this year under Steve Bruce, and Darren Bent has been banging in the goals. We'll probably have Silvestre in at left back, which is a worry, but hopefully our attacking play will be able to put a few past them. This is the type of game you have to win to be Champions. No slip ups allowed just because we have some injuries. Let's get it done boys.

We also have good news on the injury front. Fabianski, Carlos Vela, Armand Traore, and Denilson are all back, and Denilson will definitely be making the trip up to Sunderland this weekend, which is great news. I'd expect he may have to start right away with Diaby being out, although Arsene could opt to use Rosicky next to Cesc in the midfield. Traore could possibly slot in at left back with Clichy and Gibbs out, and honestly I'd prefer that to having Silvestre in there, but I reckon the boss will pick the experience over the youth.

I'm really quite happy to have Denilson back, even though he seems to not get much love from the majority of Arsenal fans. He's clearly better than Diaby, that is for certain. He can pick out a pass almost as well as Cesc, can hit the long shots, and is solid defensively. I think he'll be a real boost to the squad over the next few months.

Ok, that's about it for the day. Leave your reactions about Thierry and Ireland, or Arsenal, or whatever you want to in the comments. I'm expecting a lot of angry Irish folk mostly. Also, if anyone plays Football Manager Live, let me know so we can play a match on there. My keeper is Fabianski, woohoo! That's about all I've got. Vive Les Bleus, hehe.

Toure Out Until November, Almunia Made Captain

Morning all. Just a few hours till match day 3 of the Champions League. Just a couple of things to run through this morning before the match.

First of all we do have some bad news regarding Kolo Toure, who will be out until November. He injured his shoulder against Everton and had to come off, and now he's going to miss at least two weeks. While this isn't anywhere close to our toughest 2 weeks of the season, you never want one of your starting defenders out of the squad, unless it's William Gallas. Speaking of which, I was hoping while Gallas was injured that Djourou and Silvestre would get more time to work with Toure so we could see just how bad Gallas is, but this totally blows that whole plan.

"I hurt my shoulder badly, it was very painful but it is a job of a defender to take pain."

"And we won the game after going behind in our own stadium, and the injury is not too bad as we think I should be fine in ten to 15 days and ready to make a challenge."

Yes, it is your job to take pain. And to kill people. People such as Dimitar Berbatov. Get well soon though Toure.

So our back four for the match today will be Eboue, Song, Silvestre, and Clichy. Not the ideal back four but it is servicable. Fenerbache has a lot of skilled players and they aren't as much of a "score from corner kicks over William Gallas" team, so I think we'll be ok. We're top of the group right now on 4 points so a win would take us to seven points with two home games still to go, which you would expect us to win. A draw wouldn't be awful, especially with the amount of injuries we have at the moment, but I'd like to see us go out that and take the game. I think it's certainly a winnable one.

The captain for tonight's game will be Manuel Almunia. Good for him too. I like Almunia and think he takes way too much stick for nothing. He's played well for us last year and so far this year and if he is the captain while Gallas is out I have no problem with it. In fact I'd rather him be captain than Gallas all the time. Actually I'd rather anyone else be the captain. But that's neither here nor there. Almunia says he'll feel "nothing but pride" while wearing the armband for Arsenal. Don't really know what else he would feel but there you go.

Luis Aragones, the little shit who called our beloved Henry a couple of awful things very similar to what I just called him except with more racism involved, says he's not worried about facing Arsenal. He's a terrible person and I hope we run them into the ground. The only thing better would be if Thierry Henry was here to do it. Don't get me wrong, I was cheering for Spain in the Euro's but it was in spite of Aragones, not because of him. I can't stand the man.

Andy Gray writes an article about how bad Sp*rs are and it pretty much says what everyone else says, that they're moronic for letting their two best strikers leave and not replacing them. I just can't resist laughing at the cunts though.

That's about all I have. We're getting some good emails in for the next podcast in so keep them coming, ArseNole@arsenole.com. Anything funny, informative, inventive, or anything else that would be interesting to read on the podcast this Friday, get it in to me. The best emailer will receive a $10 gift certificate for soccerpro.com, and maybe a little something else from me. Also I still want to hear more feedback as to what you think of the podcast, so those comments are appreciated too. Enjoy the Fenerbache match, and cheers!