Monday, 4 July 2011

Martin Samuel: shut it you ill-informed fat slag!

I don't often highlight particularly low quality pieces of journalism but today's Dail Mail has some of Martin Samuel's excrement within, and it deserves a closer inspection and ridicule. It starts off badly by falsely assuming that Arsenal have made a habit of buying in ready made superstars, in fact nothing could be further from the truth and by starting off from this false premise, Samuel's foundations of sand soon disintegrate to reveal no logical or coherent argument.

The truth is that Arsenal have never purchased superstars, as a club we have brought in top players who have been struggling for various reasons (Bergkamp/Overmars/Henry), young talent to develop (Anelka/Cesc/Clichy) and some slightly lesser known established players (Lauren/Pires). Arsene has always sought value and consequently we have never gone out to buy a big name superstar who would have commanded anything like a top whack fee.

In fact very few English clubs have purchased the very cream of top world talent in its prime. Most of the so called 'galacticos' of the modern game have tended to go to Italy and more recently Spain, as opposed to England. The history of the world transfer fee record makes interesting reading and demonstrates this point perfectly, the last eight record fees were paid by Italian or Spanish clubs.

Samuel ignores the fact that Arsenal are one of the few top clubs that isn't actually being bankrolled by a sugar daddy(City/Chelsea) or racking up massive amounts of unsustainable debt (Barca/Manu). It is no surprise that we cannot compete in the transfer market with some of these reckless charlatans, it would be suicidal to do so. Samuel than attempts to dismantle the signing of Gervinho, stating that he's not even a regular for Lille, yet another poor error from the bearded one, Gervinho was about as much of regular as it was possible to be, 32 starts for Lille in the league alone last season.

Samuel distorts reality in order to paint the negative picture of Arsenal then he wants to paint, this is just bad dishonest journalism. The truth is that Arsenal now are probably a relatively bigger club than we have been at any point previously in our history, and as a result we are capable of bringing in some pretty substantial players if we chose to do so. Certainly we can't compete financially with those who have an infinite supply of blank cheques, but frankly it would be madness to even try. Samuel would do far better to concentrate his anger and aggression towards clubs that are driving this reckless wage inflation with their unsustainable and reckless financial practices than pick this weak fight with Arsenal.


Anonymous said...

so arshavin, hleb, sol and henry were not superstars?
your just a deluded AKB

Highbury House said...

And this bloke was apparently Journalist of the year or something along those lines at some point?

Give over mate!

Highbury House said...

Anonymous... No, Henry & Hleb weren't "Superstars" and although Campbell was a coup de magnifique at the time of buying; he was probably the only REAL established player.

Sid said...

AKB? You brain dead sheep. Get an original opinion of your own you dooche!

I saw that fatty Samuel's piece, he's just biiter that his hammers aint so farkin happy right now!

Anonymous said...


lol deluded, have you any idea of our history ? and to say Bergkamp was not a superstar and just having a bad time lol I think Id rather go with Martin on this one and not this bloomberg report, we all support our teams for football not the account sheets you mug

Anonymous said...

How many people had heard of Hleb before he joined? Even when he left i doubt many would have labelled him a superstar.

Anonymous said...

A reply to Anonymous: Henry was a 'failed' young prospect, misued at Juve, who became a superstar at Arsenal. Hleb was hardly a superstar, but perhaps Arshavin.

Anonymous said...

To comment #1.

1) You are an idiot.
2) No, none of them were superstars.
3) Stop labelling people "deluded AKB", we are all Arsenal fans.
4) Try channeling your apparent frustrations into something else than posting stupid comments on blogs.

On topic:

Great post. I was fuming when I read Samuel's crappy article last night. Pathetic.

Anonymous said...

Isnt Martin Samuel a spurs fan !!

Burnit said...

Everyone is entitled to an opinion,there's no need to slag a bloke off just cos you don't agree. And I for one do very much agree.

M.Samuel is a thick ape!

dev said...

BEWARE ALL ARSENAL FANS. this sh*tty blog is run by spurs agents. They writer crap to paint a rosy picture and bash those who dare to ask questions. Their mission is to pretend to support wenger hoping he keeps making the same mistakes till its too late.

Norn Iron Gooner said...

No matter when you lift the Dail Mail it is the same anti Arsenal bile that back in the day I wouldn't even have wiped my arse with.

Official Arsenal product (unfortunately)

Anonymous said...

In reality, this writer should actually take a different slant at his post because he is effectively admitting that Arsenal are not a big club. Essentially the post confirms that Arsenal have never attracted big names and have always found it difficult to retain them.

Anonymous said...

Spot on. exactly what I thought when I read it i.e. Garbage. These morons like the big spenders as they're a better story for shifting tabloids. I want us to win but MUCH more importantly I want us to still be a top club for many many years. Samuel would sooner we crashed and burned. We'll be able to afford players when MU are finally working out that increasing debt that's already taking them backwards at £80M a year (or £40M back after £40M profit wiped out) doesn't make for a happy future....As for Middle Eastlands and Chelksi, we'll have to hope the new Uefa rules bring them back into range. Either way they are freak shows and we'll have to live with them for a while. Long term even they can't go on burning £500M lumps of money forever..... Football needs to be run more like Arsenal or a lot more clubs are going to go pop and disappear but I guess that story that would be proper journalism.

Anonymous said...

Get yourself a bucket fill it with sand and stick your head in it like your fellow deluded AKB's

Anonymous said...

spot on cause of these journalist the plight of grass route football is dying

shame on you

Anonymous said...

If you link to the article you'll find Samuel makes a lot of good points. The points you raise from his article are muddy interpretations of what he wrote and only relate to about 10% of the article in question.

Perhaps you should just admit to not liking someone slagging off the club,. and instead preferring to bury your head in the sane whilst Wenger's hideous inaction sends our great club down the fucking shitter.

Your priorities are all wrong, because you're a dumb Arsenal fan with a tiny brain and no ambition whatsoever.

Anonymous said...

you have insulted us far more than that "fat slag" as you call him. how dare you consider us a far bigger club than anytime in our history. moron, we were ten times the size of club we are now in the '30s. in the '80s we had more titles than manure.

that fat slag usually talks sense but wenger has this coming.

and for the record, AKBs are all deluded and are all to blame for appeasing wenger for too long. they are the reason it is now open season on wenger and the club.

GunnerPete said...

Calm down all you real not let a bloke who supports Spurs/Hammers/Chelski Idepending on who are highest at the time) and worse still work for the lowest of the low paper 'The Mail' get to you. The idea is to sell newsprint...fortunately in a few years he and others will be put out of work by Ipads etc.

As for his rant, thats his opinion and he is entitled to it. Mine is that sooner or later we in the UK will have to decide if its worth calling our trophies by the old names or if we should now hand them to the highest bidder to save us all going to matches. Either that or we should have a buyers league consisting of the clubs who regularly buy all their players...Manure, Chelski, City, Spurs, Livepool and soon QPR. Thyen the real title can go to the team who actually wins by producing teams aquired via a balanced club account?

Anonymous said...

The Arsenal are a big club.Simples.

And I agree with the Opening poster and would like to add that our standing in world football has never been bigger than it is now.

Let all the doom and gloom merchants carry on with their tirades against us gooners who have faith in our club/team, we will overcome.LOL

Normally Samuels is a good journo but he is just jumping on the bandwagon of dissing Arsenal at the moment,

It is fair to say that Samuels is no Patrick Barclay when it comes to football writing.

1979gooner said...

Just to respond to the minority of rather braindead comments.

Anon1701, I think you have been nicely put in your place already, nothing much to add really, you have already been neatly mocked.

I stick to us being a bigger club. We do frequently take it all for granted but having move to the Emirates, we have been transformed into a far bigger player financially speaking, in simple financial terms we are now one of the biggest clubs in world football, we were never this big in previous decades.

Frankly it is deluded to think that the Arsenal of 20-30 years ago was one of the biggest clubs in world football.


you are an absolute tool of the lowest order,

this blog is run by 'spurs agents'! what utter nonsense

get a grip on reality you sad specimen

I am not supporting Wenger, this is NOT about Wenger, this is about Arsenal's recent history you mug


the headline and the general spin of the whole article is what I am critising, I don't deny Samuel does make some decent points, but the point I'm making is he has spun the whole thing in a very slanted and unfair way

Anonymous said...

The way i see it is that we are being placed in the eye of the storm by poor easy jounalists and the FAT SLAG to put it has bore the brunt of anger by claiming arsenal are not a big club when we are.

You dont have big stadiums if your not a big club you dont consistantly qualify for Champions league if your not a big club ask SPURS!!!

they have shot us down before the season has even kicked off just like every other year but to be fair to arsene he always finds the answer, the next big thing wait until may 2012 before you get ticked off thats when the league is decided

we will sign players but for me i think the club are trying to sort out internal affairs with cesc and nasri before they know what and where they need to strengthen im not to worried we have only lost clichy so far (not a big loss he could hardly defend) and liverpool have signed henderson for
£20million and manu have signed a bench player and young for 40million thats not great buisness for me being they have sold thier best utility backs (ALMOST) in brown and oshea and lost scholes i would be more worried if i were a man utd fan tbh they wernt that good last year and the refs gave em the title and were show for what they really are against barca a very poor team with no balance to their squad

shrek said...

To the person who said this "how dare you consider us a far bigger club than anytime in our history. moron, we were ten times the size of club we are now in the '30s. in the '80s we had more titles than manure. "
I had no idea Wenger was responsible for our decline in any way during the 80's. If we actually look at the stats( I am considering it till the time we have last won a trophy) during the term of Arsene Wenger which was from 30 September 1996 - May-2005 , these were the trophies we won
"FA Premier League (3): 1997–98, 2001–02, 2003–04
FA Cup (4): 1997–98, 2001–02, 2002–03, 2004–05
FA Community Shield (4): 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004"

Now looking at Graham's stats from 14 May 1986 - February 1995, these are what we won
"First Division (2):1988–89,1990-91

FA Cup (1): 1992–93
League Cup (2): 1986–87, 1992–93
FA Charity Shield (1): 1991 (shared)
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup (1): 1994"

Pretty interesting...... don't you think?

One more interesting stat is the the occasions we have come up as runners up for the league in our history: Runners-up (8): 1925–26, 1931–32, 1972–73, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2004–05.What this essentially indicates is we were competing for the title.

I don't see any such attempt during Graham's term . What this means for the first 8-9 years of AW's reign we were either winning or coming 2nd . I have no idea how people get an idea that Graham becomes a better manager than AW simply because he organized his defence better .

Also regarding the comment that we were bigger in the 30's, who the heck globally knew Arsenal outside of the British Isles? We were probably more successful at that time, no doubt. I don't recall Arsenal ever being a global power during the post world war years until the late 90's.

ctc said...

79 Gooner
You don't deny he's making points, you just don't like the fact that he pointing out the blindingly obvious.

Is it time to change your diaper?

Let's face it. When the big boys come we'll sell. Wenger has brought this on himself and the club. Stop blaming everyone else.

There's only one way to solve it. Are wenger and the board up to the task?

Uncle Mike said...


Because Graham and his defence were ENGLISH!

Yes, I know, Graham is Scottish. That's the point: For all he did for this club, as a player and as a manager, he was NOT a better manager than Wenger, and anybody who thinks he was is ignoring facts. The last 3 seasons that began with Graham as Arsenal manager, Arsenal finished 10th, 4th and 12th. Yes, there were trophies in those 10th and 4th seasons, but from the 1991 title to Wenger's first season of 1996-97, Arsenal were never in the League title race. And those stalwart English defenders weren't exactly looking like champions in League games, either.

Anonymous said...

chaps , why argue amongst ourselves- I , as a supporter will continue to do that, support my team.

YES Wenger needs to buy. YES some of project youth have let him/us down. YES Arsenal are struggling to keep up with the suicidal trading of the money clubs but for all the Wenger out brigade. please consider the following.

Before Wenger arrived The Arsenal were a cup team with a great miserly defense. We had a good striker in Wright and I reckon we were probably similar to an Everton of today. Good- but not one of the ruling class.
The Anelka/Henry/Pires/Llungberg purchases, twinned with other exotic foreign buys were the first step in developing Arsenal as a pan global brand and developing a support base outside that of the UK. The fact that he bought those players does allude to the fact that he has THE eye for talent that has made him successful and why Real have tapped him up many times.

The move to the Emirates basically skinted Arsenal and he has been denied the NECESSARY cash to compete ever since. He pragmatically used the only plan he could- buy talented kids and try and keep up with the moneybags of United, Chelsea and now City.

Keeping us in the top4 with no cash isnt just a bit good- its a fucking miracle and has to be seen that way.

Meanwhile we have performed measurably better than some of of Europes big guns, ie since 2005, the last time we won a trophy, we have as an average out performed Real, Juve, AC and so on in the Champs League and have become the worlds fifth largest sport team brands according to Forbes.

Bla bla bla you might say- who fucking cares, we arent winning anything! Well I agree, I also join the teeth gnashing and shaking of heads at our so called penny pinching bullshit BUT again have a closer look. Manshitty spent nearly 1/2 billion to finish 1 point above us last year- does that strike you all as good no. If the UEFA FFP ruling comes in then City wont be able to do the European thing until they are self sufficient- another reason to wonder what the fuck they think they are doing.

Fabregas has given us 8 great years and wants to go home. Fine and good luck...when Barca pay the market value, set at £40 million plus. Nasri seems to be not motivated by money, only trophies. On June 9th the pillock gave an interview saying that Arsenal were the best talent last season and with a couple of top purchases, Arsenal would be the winningest team in the EPL!!

Not a month later and alledgedly he is only looking at trophies at teams where he can double his salary. OK, if thats your gig then sod off and we will find another.

I have no doubt that Arsenal is bigger than any player and we will replace fallen stars with new ones. Yes we need to get the tight french git to spend but I am convinced he will and also convinced that should he fail to he will leave anyway. The real concern is who else can fill his shoes without just spunking cash. Look at The Spuds and The Pool- examples of blowing a mountain of cash and not getting anywhere near the top.

I say give Wenger the chance to do what he does now he finally has cash- lets face it if he can keep us top 4 with f all- what do you think he will do with a big spend off

1979gooner said...


Must I repeat myself?

The headline and the central theme of samuel's piece were well off mark, this is the obvious point I made which you have failed to appreciate.


This is not about blame, it's about a shit piece of journalism.

There is no doubt this is a big summer for the club, they ned to strengthen and make some points clear.

It is way too early to judge on this, realistically it will be august before we can make any kind of sensible reasoned comment on this.

Making comment now and reading a lot into some media hype will help noone but the journalists peddling their bullshit.

Anonymous said...

Clichy just left...who will replace him? Better not be Gibbs as he is an injury prone player who really struggled last season. No excuse for that.
With Nasri & cesc leaving, RVP and Arshavin angling for moves and Walcott refusing a new many more 17yo players must we find to replace them?

Ted said...

1979 - good post. All well said and I entirely agree.

ctc said...

79 gooner
You and Ray Charles would be the only ones who don't think the article wasn't on the money. Do we need to go thru the list of players we can't hang onto? Flamini, Hleb, Campbell, Merida (not that i thought he was a star but wenger certainly did), Fabregas and now, potentially Nasri. And they've been replaced by ??????? a bunch of nobodys save Nasri. It hurts to acknowledge it for me too. The first step in rehabilitation is to acknowledge the problem.

Just to point out, you're the one commenting on the journalism and helping "peddle their bullshit".

Ted said...

CTC - stop being a moron. Are you really trying to make an issue of Fran Merida? Really?

Oh no, you are.

The only player on your list that its worth having any sensible discussion about is Campbell, and I think its a well trodden path that AW has not been a great purchaser of centre backs.

But can people please stop forgetting that Tommy V missed almost the whole of last season and might, just might, be the best CB that has been at Arsenal since Martin Keown.

ctc said...


1) Reading comprehension not a strong point for you is it. I said "not that i thought he was a star but wenger certainly did".
2) And you think Merida invalidates the point that we can't hang on to our good players?

TV is a great CB and i don't think anyone has forgotten him. Problem is they have no mid-field. Diaby and Demlson one of the great winning combinations in Arsenal history. Get used to that shite we'll be seeing a lot of them this year.

Let the new youth project commence, again.

trade4target said...



Ted said...

CTC - if Merida doesn't help your argument then don't mention him!!!

Man United couldn't hold onto Ronaldo, or Tevez.

Liverpool couldn't hold onto Mascherano.

Hleb struggled to get into the Birmingham team.

Clichy gave us 8 years good service, Cesc about the same.

Whats your point?

Anonymous said...

Indeed Ted,

I sense CTC doesn't have on, a point that is.


ctc said...

But then united have won trophies haven't they. They can afford to let them go and yet they still win, whereas we......don't. What's the difference there? They can win with an average side and we can't. Why's that?

Mascherano wanted to go didn't he. Wanted to win something before he was too old to. And yet you lot give Nasri stick.

Hleb, Wenger didn't want him to go did he? So which is it, Hleb sucks or Wenger can't evaluate talent?

The point was that Samuel, despite gooner79 rage, is more right than wrong.

If Nasri goes your central mid-fielders are Jack and Aaron, Song if he stays out of jail, Diaby if he can ever get healthy for more than a month, Denilson who we can't even flog off, Eboue the clown in a pinch and a bunch of kids.

Do you think RVP wants to hang around until jack and aaron grow up in 3-4 years? Hell, he'll be over 30 and wenger will be flogging him too. He's off next year as well.

So three mid-fielders at a minimum, (Arshavin is over 30 so that'll be 4) central and left-backs, another striker.

Do you really think wenger is going to go out and buy 8 players? Even over two years?

Project kid v 2.0. Another 3 years. Want to give me odds on whether Wenger hangs around for it all?

kamran said...

" the writer martin, as with all others, and FIFA included ,should honor and respect ARSENAL for doing their best in this whoring environment that has become football today.. i for one have no respect for accomplishments of the pimps of modern day football. manure,chitty,tots, liverpool, chelski and Real ,BARKA. the field of play is not level. when ffp and salarycaps are introduced you will see the ARSENAL rise to the top. as you say its arsenal hunting season and all rags are sharpening their poisoned pens. let the basterds level their shit, i for one am nor buying.

1979gooner said...


your argument has gone way of course

the point is that we have never signed ready made superstars and this stands unrocked

whether wenger will go out and buy the players we need is another matter entirely and something for another day, read some older pieces for our views on this

ctc said...

"How on earth will Arsene Wenger attract any top players to Arsenal?"

Is Wright another ill-informed fat slag?

Anonymous said...

Ian Wright is a class A moron, a media whore and talkshite regular, if you listen to him for a sensible opinion, you'll be left waiting for a long long long time.

Paul Merson and Alan Smith are another two ex-Arsenal idiots.

There are some respected pundits whose opinion are valued, such as Lee Dixon and Martin Keown.