leffe186

It’s all about Arteta. He’s decided this is the best way to maximise their odds of winning stuff, and been working towards this for years. Stifle, stifle, stifle. Niggle, niggle, niggle. Cheat, cheat, cheat. You can see it in somebody like Bentancur. Under Frank he was negative and indecisive and we thought he might be done. When De Zerbi came in he was a revelation. Managers and schemes have a massive impact.

Can actually look forward to the World Cup. Unless they got a red card or two I don’t think I could have hoped for anything more than a total shithouse performance from the 6th minute, including all the usual Arteta antics and then Gabriel blazing the decisive pen into the crowd. Eze miss just a bonus. I believe that English clubs have won 18 European trophies since Arsenal last won one. Liverpool, Man U, Man C, Chelsea, Spurs, Villa, West Ham, Palace. Four teams from London alone. Their trophy parade is tomorrow and it will feel just a bit empty. What a pity we all had to endure that God-forsaken football to get this little bit of joy.

No yellow cards for Arsenal in the first half. Guess the timewasting was being done by some elves?

I mean, you saw this season, maybe we just shouldn’t have it count full stop.

Anyone watching the Scottish match? Curaçao looked OK and scored a cracking goal on the break, then got an incredibly stupid thuggish red card.

Urgh. Was fun while it lasted I suppose.

Those are the rocks I am clinging to. Some poor old sod in a Spurs cap down here by the gate. Doesn’t seem like he’s on the wind-up or mentally ill, just oblivious It’s proper Parklife out here today (28C I think) just ruined by all the Arsenal nonsense.

No red cards, no penalties, absolutely transparent double standards over things like the Gabriel headbutt, the Gabriel dives, MMA at corners etc. It’s not even a conversation. Even that recent PGMOL list of VAR errors which was very obviously “massaged” (for example, recording no errors against us when their panel disagrees and IIRC they actually apologized for at least one) said “yeah, we favour them, so what?”

Oh man. Arsenal managing to blag a season without red cards then getting three today would be funny.

Don’t know if you guys know the area round Arsenal but we’re at the main Finsbury Park gates. It’s all Arsenal. Feels like some horrible apocalypse movie. The Twelve Pins is bursting at the seams. If they lose I am very tempted to come back out here.

Honestly we were all worried about them winning the league but in the end it didn’t actually hurt much. Partly because we had other things to worry about, partly because they were so horrible. If they’d won it in style it would have sucked.

Daughter’s having a picnic on Finsbury Park. On the train and it’s all Arsenal. I’ve managed to avoid it all so far but this is pretty rough. The shirts are all noticeably brand new, which is simultaneously funny and frustrating.

Not properly bowing out, just giving it a break for a bit, in the Football side at least. I’ll be back for the World Cup. I like the sight of my own voice too much I just know I’ve been on tilt for a while and need to be careful in general, but particularly on another team’s forum. I am, as I have said many times, too old for this shit. There are a lot of Spurs fans out there who have made clear that this season has genuinely fucked with their psyche and left them reluctant to rip the piss out of West Ham fans. You guys have been through this relatively recently - not just relegation but a (far more obviously) dysfunctional ownership. It hurts, and sometimes it’s worth acknowledging. Fuck what Elon Musk says about empathy. I think it’s important.

I mean, it’s understandable in the context. This is your manor after all, I’m just a guest. I’ll give you all some space. I will say this. I’m posting on a Spurs forum too, obviously. I’m not a weirdo . I just have connections in the area (my Best Woman is from Stakeford, among other things) and it’s a cracking forum with some beautiful people. And also, I do think it’s good for fans of different clubs to speak to each other occasionally. In that light, I’ll bow out for a bit with something from that Spurs forum I hang out on that I think is worth saying after this last few weeks and months. The first two posts are from KUMB, the last is from Spurscommunity in response. They were all posted before the games today/yesterday: Hammer 1 If we stay up, we stay up. If we go down, we go down. Planet's still gonna spin, sun's still gonna rise and set, tides still gonna rise and fall. Plenty more to be thankful for in life, so don't let today get into your head regardless of what happens and just enjoy the ride of another day on this amazing, small blue ball spinning through space. Hammer 2 Well done - as this needs / needed saying. Football, whether going to football with your friends, watching football in the pub with friends or at home watching it on your own, it means a lot to people - to some it's a way of life, it is their lives, it's like Religion. For some it's all they have. During one of my many stays in hospital, this time the Royal Alexandra, Paisley, one of the Auxiliaries was telling me about a young Rangers fan who was lying in a room down the way from me... he'd tried taking his own life after his club went into administration. Difficult to imagine, but for some following your Club becomes your life and what happens to that Club affects your life. Which is why your post is significant. Later on this evening, there'll be people on here or on other West Ham sites and in the London Stadium... and.. ...let us not forget over at Tottenham Hotspur whose lives, depending on how results go, are going to be affected badly and it's important that someone is there to offer them the same advice you offered us all here .... West Ham / Tottenham will continue to exist, Life will go on and will continue to have meaning. Clubs as big as ours, or as big as Rangers always bounce back eventually, it's only a matter of time. Take care of yourselves, wherever you are. Spurs fan: I remember being at WHL in 2011 when we relegated Birmingham. At the end of the game, before they welcomed our players et al back onto the pitch for the lap of appreciation, Coytey addressed the Birmingham fans in the corner, praised their support that day, commiserated them on going down and wished them luck in their quest to return. Both sets of fans then applauded one another and it felt like that’s how fans of relegated clubs should be treated. Today, however, I suspect within minutes of the final whistle, Dominos, Specsavers and a few betting companies will put out posts mocking whichever team has been relegated, and in doing so they’ll set the tone for internet fans everywhere, who will forward and repost those memes etc far and wide. If it’s us who goes down I expect there will even be some rival players who make comments which their own supporters will gleefully share. And someone somewhere will take it to heart, let it get to them, and do something destructive, be it to themselves or to a loved one, and those people and companies who revel in the bear baiting will accept no responsibility at all. ‘Just banter innit’. Whatever the outcome today, I recommend you already have plans for this evening, and mute WhatsApp groups etc. And remember, no matter what, we kick off again in August

Fuck me, how dodgy was that Man City disallowed goal? The guys running VAR are doing everything they can to get it binned.

I’ve no idea of the talent of the guys you mention or their ages but there could be opportunities out there. We had at least five players on loan in the Championship at the end of the season and I think Brighton and most other Prem teams had at least one or two. You’d expect it to be a player on the cusp of the first team though. Funny you mention Westerlo - we had two successful loanees there recently. Devine now at Preston, and Vuskovic at Hamburg. Both could be in the first team squad next season.

Haven’t seen their game yet . Don’t know what team Chelsea put out, but presumably they gave less of a shit than they did against us.

Playing in Europe is going to wreak havoc on their squad. When you stand back and look at it it’s an insane amount of extra games.

Steered well clear of all of this for obvious reasons. At the time the first vid was made West Ham were two points above us and out of the relegation zone. I think they are a whole new level of fucked. Used to play football with a few West Ham fans on Stepney Green. I was in the US when Upton Park was sold and so I missed their take on it all, but every West Ham fan I know says they felt empty, like a part of them had been lost. I had presumed they made a tidy profit on it but a Google suggests they made £8.3M, which seems absolutely pitiful.

Cheers mate. Tbf they’ve been talking about the assists thing for ages. Christ, did they really play “Movin’ On Up” at the London Stadium?

Reporter: So Leffe, when did you finally know you were staying up? Leffe:

Yup. It was super depressing selling Sheringham, Bale, Carrick, Robbie Keane, Modric, Berbatov, Kyle Walker etc. It’s fucking transparent why.

From your lips to God’s ears, man. Although I just spent 40 mins watching a Christopher Hitchens compilation on YouTube, which I’m beginning to realize may not have been the best idea. Pascal’s wager and all.

It’s just the same thing as always this last few years though. You’ve basically got five or six players who are much of a muchness for the one position, one which Kane already complicates the issue for. Bellingham is the one who can win you a World Cup, and then you can make a case for all the others, to a greater or lesser degree. Rogers is apparently the one who’s shown a bit more for Tuchel both on and off the pitch. I feel like we’ve said this every time about every Tuchel squad. He’s got a million pretty good to good players but virtually no great ones. That means there’s tons of scope for argument but I don’t think it’s ever going to be a “silly” or “insane” decision which I've heard so many times about so many players this month. Even ignoring Jordan Henderson there are probably half-a-dozen things I’d have done differently, but sometimes I think it’s OK to say to the manager “it’s looked pretty good so far, just pick who you want and we’ll see what happens”.

Well to distract myself let me check the fixtures and higher echelons. You’ll understand if I say I have been focused on two specific games to the exclusion of all others. … I’ve checked them . Depends on the ref. I think Chelsea have too much for Sunderland but if they can spoil the game like they did against us and Brobbey gets free rein to John Fashanu it up then Sunderland can squeak a win. I think Chelsea get at least a point, and that keeps Sunderland out of Europe. Looks like Joao Pedro and Colwill both have a chance to play, and if the former is on I think - along with Neto - Chelsea get the win.