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The all things positive thread

mavelous

Tinfoil hat aficionado
In South Africa the worst racist term you could use for a black person is "Kaffir".. But anybody who knows the world well enough (or is Muslim) will know that this word is actually a term from Islam to describe a non-believer and has bugger all to do with ethnicity.
Pathetically it was brought down by dutch settlers who clearly didn't understand the term when they started using it for the local people here.
Yea that word is used in many islamic or arabic influenced regions to designate non Muslims or colonizers. But many dont take offence
 

Mark Tobias

Mr. Agreeable
Yea that word is used in many islamic or arabic influenced regions to designate non Muslims or colonizers. But many dont take offence
So the irony that colonizers would use it for non- Muslim natives of the southern tip of africa is overwhelming. Even more so that they allow that word to offend them, given it's true origin and meaning.
 

truth_hurts

but Holding’s hair transplant was painless
The state of this topic now.

Poschentino getting sacked for Sp**s makes St. Totteringham day a likelihood this year. Plus, Bellerin should be fully fit now.
 

GunnerBP

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
The fact that Bobby Pires still practices with the team is a positive thing. I know he has an official position now, but when the day comes and a coach doesn't think it is good for Bobby to be around or Bobby just doesn't want to be around, then we will have really hit rock bottom.
 

Sapient Hawk

Can You Smell What The Hawk Is Cooking?
Trusted ⭐

Country: Saudi Arabia
In South Africa the worst racist term you could use for a black person is "Kaffir".. But anybody who knows the world well enough (or is Muslim) will know that this word is actually a term from Islam to describe a non-believer and has bugger all to do with ethnicity.
Pathetically it was brought down by dutch settlers who clearly didn't understand the term when they started using it for the local people here.

First time I heard the term was in Lethal Weapon 2. I was absolutely stunned that South Africans had Arabic loan words in their language.

I hadn't a clue of its meaning in Afrikaans but picked up that it might've been more than a derisive insult towards Danny Glover's character.

After going to my local library & reading up on some history concerning South Africa, I found it amusing how such malevolent linguistic misappropriation of a word has had far reaching consequences for a group of people.

What I'm curious about is, from whom was the word misappropriated, the Malay people enslaved by the Dutch or the Indians brought over by the British as laborers?
 

Mark Tobias

Mr. Agreeable
What I'm curious about is, from whom was the word misappropriated, the Malay people enslaved by the Dutch or the Indians brought over by the British as laborers?
I could be wrong about this but my understanding is that the Dutch used Table Bay in what is now, Cape Town as resting point while travelling to the West Indies. As they moved up Eastern coast of Africa they would have encountered more and more Muslim nations. And they brought this back and it became widely used among the white population here.
 

Rex Stone

Long live the fighters
Trusted ⭐

Country: Wales
Think this badly needs a bump.

We currently have the second youngest squad average age behind Man Utd in the PL. Even if all our youngsters never become world class, if they can become good squad contributors which I think they can, then we’ll improve immensely.

The squad has four players over the age of 30. All of them are due to come off the books in 2021 although Aubameyang could renew.

That summer is when the likes of Nketiah, Saliba, AMN and Martinelli should start being regular first team players.

If you look at it optimistically, while we are pretty terrible right now with the squad as young as it is, hopefully this is as bad as it will get if only because of internal improvement.
 

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐
Think this badly needs a bump.

We currently have the second youngest squad average age behind Man Utd in the PL. Even if all our youngsters never become world class, if they can become good squad contributors which I think they can, then we’ll improve immensely.

The squad has four players over the age of 30. All of them are due to come off the books in 2021 although Aubameyang could renew.

That summer is when the likes of Nketiah, Saliba, AMN and Martinelli should start being regular first team players.

If you look at it optimistically, while we are pretty terrible right now with the squad as young as it is, hopefully this is as bad as it will get if only because of internal improvement.
I saw Edu talking about the U23s recently in an interview and it was encouraging to say the least, that he and Per had a plan for how to facilitate a pathway for future academy graduates. I think the current crop still have a few teething problems at the moment - Saka and Nketiah look the most sturdy, Willock still needs to flesh his game out and Nelson really needs to build some confidence and momentum; at the moment he has neither. AMN is starting to look somewhat settled and I can see him staying. That said, they all still have a great deal of promise and could yet prove to be top class going forward (Saka probably the more heralded of them all).

The interesting thing is looking to the future. There are still very clear holes in midfield and defence but we're quite fortunate that we also have a few CMs that we're producing currently. With the likes of Matt Smith and Miguel Azeez building decent stock for themselves from within, we could use them to help augment the profile of the midfield by slowly introducing them over the course of next season - I think Smith is more likely to contribute positively. There's also ESR returning to the fold aswell, and while he still needs to build up his fitness somewhat, he's someone I can see having a positive impact. We've also got TJJ and (maybe) Balogun for CFs.

We're probably a way off in terms of defenders, as it doesn't look like they trust the current crop, but some way down the line there are some really promising defenders coming up who're about to be scholars, our best group of individual defenders in a LONG time. But that's way down the line.

The point is, our long term future IMO should be fine as long as we continue to use Hale End - both as a resource for the team and for sellable assets. I have long believed it's our best chance of success, and doubly so at this current juncture. Our biggest positive by far. It is upon this, we should build - bringing in top talent and using our homegrown talents to complement them.
 

tcahill

Well-Known Member
Bellerin still has it.

Mikel has a clear playing style, once our fitness levels are at the required level for his system we'll be hard to beat.

Our transfers in the last two seasons have been mostly successful.

We'll have a lot of deadwood off the books end of next season, will free up plenty of wages.

We have lots of quality players age 24 and under.

Our kits are getting nicer.
 

krackpot

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
Sadly, only positives this season is to see other teams fail
  • I've stopped caring about this season
  • Tottenham is dire
  • Man Utd is kinda **** too
 

BigPoppaPump

Reeling from Laca & Kos nightmares
I’ll never understand why people get so excited over youth players, how is having the second youngest squad even a good thing?

Arsenal fans never learn we been sold this youngster sh*t forever and it never benefits us. Either the player leaves when their contract is down or they spend most of the time injured. Look at Chambers & Holding for example we’re still waiting for them to produce. Oh wait maybe Reiss Nelson will be our saviour?

Our best players recently were Alexis and Auba both players we bought in their prime. Give me a squad full of players over 25 youth is overrated.
 

Rex Stone

Long live the fighters
Trusted ⭐

Country: Wales
I’ll never understand why people get so excited over youth players, how is having the second youngest squad even a good thing?

Arsenal fans never learn we been sold this youngster sh*t forever and it never benefits us. Either the player leaves when their contract is down or they spend most of the time injured. Look at Chambers & Holding for example we’re still waiting for them to produce. Oh wait maybe Reiss Nelson will be our saviour?

Our best players recently were Alexis and Auba both players we bought in their prime. Give me a squad full of players over 25 youth is overrated.

Not saying they’re going to be world class but if they can become even squad contributors that can massively help us in terms of recruitment.

We’d still need to invest well but a good youth academy reduces the need to buy 23 good players which for us isn’t feasible.

We’ll be getting a lot of dead wages off the books in 2021 and can really target a few good players.
 

Corbulo

Active Member
At some point we are going to have a stroke and die (most people with a severe stroke will die within 6 months) while typing about the youth and the future.

The overall talk about youngsters is like a **** postponed which is good and I'm embracing it once again knowing that it will eventually fail. So it counts as a positive. It's the most fun exercise we can do.

A future Arsenal team led by Martinelli & Saka. A piece of iron ore bought by Edu Gaspar in 2019 and a product of our Hale End academy have finally won Arsenal their first Champions League trophy, just weeks after being crowned Premier League champions which put an end to the club's 24-year title drought.
 

MikelHadADream

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
I’ll never understand why people get so excited over youth players, how is having the second youngest squad even a good thing?

Arsenal fans never learn we been sold this youngster sh*t forever and it never benefits us. Either the player leaves when their contract is down or they spend most of the time injured. Look at Chambers & Holding for example we’re still waiting for them to produce. Oh wait maybe Reiss Nelson will be our saviour?

Our best players recently were Alexis and Auba both players we bought in their prime. Give me a squad full of players over 25 youth is overrated.

This is so spot on. How many top sides down the years have their first team loaded with academy players? Peps Barca maybe? I really don't understand the obsession.

Chambers should have been sold 3 years ago and he is still at the club. We could see after his first season he wasn't good enough, yet fans still want to keep him around and give him a chance.

Liverpool sold the likes of Sterling/Ibe/Kelly/Wilson/Solanke, which then helped them bring in Salah/Mane ect. I'm sure they're fuming they didn't give the youth a chance.

Most times you can see if a player is good enough or not. From the current lot, Saka/Martinelli look as if they will make it at the top level. Personally I think Willock has the tools to be a useful player, but the duty is still out on him.

The rest should be used to generate funds for first 11 quality players. Nelson's the prime candidate here, hopefully we can get 20m for him.
 

A_G

Rice Rice Baby 🎼🎵
A-M CL Draft Campeón 🏆
Think this badly needs a bump.

We currently have the second youngest squad average age behind Man Utd in the PL. Even if all our youngsters never become world class, if they can become good squad contributors which I think they can, then we’ll improve immensely.

The squad has four players over the age of 30. All of them are due to come off the books in 2021 although Aubameyang could renew.

That summer is when the likes of Nketiah, Saliba, AMN and Martinelli should start being regular first team players.

If you look at it optimistically, while we are pretty terrible right now with the squad as young as it is, hopefully this is as bad as it will get if only because of internal improvement.
The team isn't *that* far from being at least a top 4 contender. If you assume that Leno, Cedric/Bellerin, Saliba, Tierney, Xhaka, Saka, Pepe and Auba if he re-signs will be the core for the next couple of years then 3 good signings can make this team viable. As you say a lot of players come off the books in 2021 so get rid of them, keep the academy lads as back-up and suddenly the squad looks a lot better.

It's never as bad as people think, Klopp took over a bigger mess at Liverpool and just three major signings (Mane, Wijnaldum and Matip) was what he needed to get into the top 4 in his first full season.
 

MikelHadADream

Established Member
Trusted ⭐
On a positive note... I think we have the right manager in Arteta. You can see that the team is actually being coached now. I can't remember the last time we went away to a top 6 team and played like that.

All of this Mourinho masterclass stuff is BS. Make no mistake, we dominated the match, and had clear chances to win the match. They scored from 2 defensive **** ups, it wasn't anything that Mourinho did tactically.

I can see parallels between us at the minute and when Pochettino first went to Sp**s. I think with the correct signings, we will have a similar trajectory in terms of league position.
 

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