meretricula | yet another service advisory notice

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fandom,
rl babble

yet another service advisory notice

leaving for Paris for the weekend, probably won't have internet at all until I get back on Sunday. as per usual, if something happens and you think I'd like to know about it, link in the comments! you all were great when I went to Poland. :)

VAMOS RAFA
AJDE SRBIJA
PLEASE STOP SUCKING LIVERPOOL (ALSO FIRE ROY HODGSON)
GET WELL SOON BB SILVA, WE NEED YOU
GOOOOOOO VILLARREAL
VISCA EL BARÇA, VISCA CATALUNYA

I think that covers everything!

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*comes in* HEEEEE. I'll freely admit that if Man City didn't have Nigel de Jong on their team, I'd probably like them quite a bit more. I don't think you can really judge them so much for having money in the first place, it's what they're doing, or not doing, with it that matters. (After all, even Barca has made some big-money transfers, hello David Villa.)

What, I think, bugs me about Man City, is that they have, like you said, the dressing room from hell. It's kind of hard to find that endearing when there seems to be a fight at training every week.

I like Arsenal quite a bit, hahah, like you can't tell from my Tumblr, lya accuses me of being a gooner every week--but yeah, sometimes I think I want them to win the league this year only just so everyone will shut up about it already. Including Arsenal. Also, I'm kind of not that impressed with the "Arsenal deserved to win the game" argument from this week's match. Did they score? Were they cheated out of a penalty? Then that's pretty much it, isn't it? Man City has arguably the best defense in the league, and if you can't score against it, then there you go. That being said, I confess, I find most of their players adorable, so that probably helps my attachment quite a bit. (waves at Theo)

But thanks to the clusterfuck that is Liverpool at the moment, I'm not all that attached to the EPL at the moment. Somebody, for the love of God, just call me when Roy gets fired. Until then, Imma cling to Pep, who is brilliant, never mind actually competent at his job.

just so everyone will shut up about it already. Including Arsenal.
there are a number of comms who feel the same way.

i do root for arsenal whenever it doesn't affect our league position, and sometimes even when it does. i can't pretend not to see past their faults though - and this is more to do with the gooner fanbase than the gunners themselves - since as we all know samir nasri is a flawless human being - and more to do with twitter than anybody here on LJ. so, the nature of twitter as a social media tool means that it's very conducive to in-the-moment squee; even more so than tumblr, because macros/gifs can easily go viral whereas your 140-character tweets are unlikely to be retweeted unless you are (a) very famous and/or (b) saying something spectacularly failtastic.

anyway i think that it's perfectly understandable to cuss like a fishwife when your team's trademark beautiful, flowing, open, attacking football is being frustrated by a million-dollar wall. i am a wreck whenever someone parks a double-decker in front of barça, i would know. the thing is, some gooners have this persecution complex that means they buy into this narrative wherein the FA and the english media are out to get them. the refs are under constant scrutiny, the odds are always tilted against arsenal, if only the footballing gods were on their side, etc. i would be a lot more sympathetic if blackpool or sunderland were making such claims tbh. it seems that these gooners want to have their cake and eat it too - they want the reputation and the financial cushion that comes with being a big club, but they also want the underdog mentality that comes with being a small club. and these aren't teenage fangirls on lj - these are respected bloggers, grown-ass adults with jobs and families and shit and it bugs me how they always paint arsenal as the martyr. whew not i've got that off my chest i feel mucho mejor.

ohai there was a point to this comment. right. i came in here to tell you that footballers are IRL trolls true story.

anyway i think that it's perfectly understandable to cuss like a fishwife when your team's trademark beautiful, flowing, open, attacking football is being frustrated by a million-dollar wall. i am a wreck whenever someone parks a double-decker in front of barça, i would know. the thing is, some gooners have this persecution complex that means they buy into this narrative wherein the FA and the english media are out to get them.

Okay, seriously, WORD. I was personally cussing like CRAZY during the first leg of the Bilbao-Barca Copa del Rey match that ended in 0-0. It was nothing but constant shrieks of "MOVE BITCH GET OUT THE WAY." And of course, Bilbao didn't, much to our collective dismay. But...that was in the moment. Regardless of what the other team is doing, your job is to play well and hopefully score goals. If you didn't score any goals, well then, that's that. It sucks, yes, but it kind of always baffles me, regardless, when someone says during a 0-0 draw, "So-and-so were the better team, they deserved to win." How does that even make sense? Yes, okay, one side can be better than the other, absolutely, but unless they were cheated out of a goal by something other than bad luck/the post, I can't see how you can say "they deserved to win." You know what makes you deserving of a win? SCORING GOALS.

I get how the martyr complex started among the Arsenal fanbase, truly, but that doesn't mean I have to like it or defend it. Trophy-hunt aside, they're one of the biggest, most successful clubs in what is generally agreed to be the most competitive league in the world. Relax already. The media talks shit about everything, it is what they are paid to do.

And the thing is, I have a lot of respect for Arsene Wenger, I find the faces he makes during matches to be as gifworthy as Mourinho's, but that complaint about Man-United's pitch in the wake of the 1-0 loss was ridiculous, flat out. I hate Man United, but on that particular day, their defense was better and they're the ones that ended up putting away the chance when they had it. You can talk about how Cesc wasn't truly fit, you can maybe even make the argument that Walcott, with his pace, should have started instead of Arshavin, but blaming it on the pitch? PLEASE. I eye-rolled so hard during that mess, lemme tell you.

Now, all that said, I do like the way that Arsenal play, and I find the great majority of their players to be charming and adorable, not to mention talented. If it hadn't been for that team, I probably would have started drinking a while back, considering how Liverpool's season has gone. (And, in defense of the Arsenal fanbase, I'm sure there's plenty of things about the Liverpool fanbase that drive onlookers equally nuts.) I like them a lot. But they aren't perfect, and simply playing gorgeous football isn't enough of a reason to hand them the league. Playing gorgeous football and earning the league title will.

stop talking sense, you

WOW that was a longass comment of mine. Apparently I have been having THOUGHTS for a while now. Also, HEEEE at all those tweets, but especially Babel's. I actually want him to say that during a match now. LOL U MAD?

Ryan Babel--the footballer version of ONTD, for sure.

omg m b i meant to link you to this tweet of rio's, not the same tweet twice!

Nigel de Jong can go ahead and DIAF anytime. and if he ever lays a finger on my bb Silva in training, THERE WILL BE BLOOD. liking Man City definitely does not blind me to its flaws. :)

but I guess because I'm in it for the storyline, rather than the football as it were, the dressing room is kind of interesting to me even if it is a horrific warzone. I mean, the people there are intriguing even if they're not always appealing. Yaya Toure went to Man City for the money, sure. he went to Man City for the money, because his brother was there already and he knew they were good for it and the two of them have an enormous family that they have to support back home. Tevez has made a huge mess out of a situation that started basically because he wants to go home and be with his kids. Balotelli is... well, Balotelli. they're interesting. (but yeah, DIAF Nigel de Jong.)

part of it definitely is the Arsenal fans - twitter, tumblr and _fb, not in anyplace in particular - and their persecution complex, but the players have got it too, which sort of bugs me. Cesc is not always very mature about this stuff, and it's fine to be a bad loser etc but not in public, come on. I HATE THAT SEXIST FUCKER ARSHAVIN SO FUCKING MUCH, IF I HEAR ONE MORE PERSON FONDLY CALL HIM AN "ELF" SO HELP ME I WILL SNAP. I don't have anything against, say, Bendtner or van Persie or Wilshere, but they just don't appeal to me (well I think Nicklas is hilarious but apparently he is a brat) as much as the generation of Arsenal that's retired or been got rid of: Senderos, Lehmann, Ljungberg, Hleb, etc. idk. it's one of those emotional-not-logical things, for sure, but I just can't identify with Arsenal, and I've been trying all season.

Pep should just never leave us. keep signing one-year contracts into eternity please. (but even he is the first to say that if you don't win with it pretty football is useless.)

Nigel de Jong, omg, I could rant about this shit forever, but suffice it to say that when you've broken the legs of two players, karate-chopped a third during the WORLD CUP, and apologized to NONE of them, you have singlehandedly invented a TOTALLY NEW LEVEL OF FAIL.

I see what you mean about City being fascinating--I didn't know that about the Toure brothers, for example--but yeah, they just will never be the team for me. Every team has at least some dysfunction SOMEWHERE, yes, even Barca, but City's just got too much of it for my tastes, and while I respect their right to play whatever type of football they want, I don't particularly enjoy watching how they play. This is my personal preference, btw, I'm not attaching any kind of ~moral significance~ to it or whatever.

it's one of those emotional-not-logical things, for sure, but I just can't identify with Arsenal, and I've been trying all season.

That's totally fair! I haven't paid too much attention to Cesc's interviews/comments in the media, but yeah, he can be a little bitchy on occasion. (to be fair, I think the whole persecution thing is something that Wenger, if not outright encourages, doesn't do as much as he could to nip that shit in the bud. Everybody knows how you feel about the way City spends, Arsene, you don't need to bitch about it in the press all the time.) And while I may like a lot of the current Arsenal players, ARSHAVIN IS NOT ONE OF THEM, HOMG. It is delighting me to no end to see Theo Walcott apparently pushing him out of Arsenal's preferred starting XI, since Theo, as far as I know, has never been a creepy sexist asshat.

I don't have a single allergy (that I know of) and I break out into hives every time someone even hints about Pep leaving us. *clings* And yes, exactly, that's what's so fantastic about Barcelona--they took the way they played and MADE it wildly successful for them. That's the part that should be admired, imo. Barca's last two games since the break were against teams that parked a double-decker bus, and they busted their way through. It wasn't all that pretty, and God knows it was nerve-wracking for the fans, but they got the job done. To me, that's much more significant, and much more awesome in the long-term, than relatively easy 8-0 wins against weaker teams.

yeah, I don't really watch the games for anything but the goal celebrations (and Ray Hudson's commentary) so playing style has no effect on my liking or not liking a team. unless it makes them lose all the time, because I'm a patient woman but I can only take so much grief, haha. FIX YOURSELVES, LIVERPOOL. THIS RELATIONSHIP IS STARTING TO GET ABUSIVE.

that's a good point about Arsene - idk, on the one hand it's really hilarious to see coaches with feuds and agendas and everything (Rafa Benitez and Mou for instance XD) but I think it's kind of embarrassing when it's your coach. reason #754 why Pep > everything, I guess. he doesn't always manage to keep from making it about him (cough El Clasico cough bus-trip rant) but he makes a concerted effort, which I appreciate. lol at all the players trolling on twitter to complain about refereeing decisions though (both Liverpool and Arsenal). children, children! your ill-considered remarks will be preserved for posterity!

Heeeee, STARTING to get abusive? Girl, I don't know about you, but I passed that point a LONG time ago, damn. (Although Dalglish's appointment is making things a bit better--it's nice to read quotes from the Liverpool manager that don't make me want to cover my eyes.)

The whole managers with feuds/agendas is a really fascinating thing to watch--on one hand, it does have the effect of creating a us-versus-the-world mentality on occasion, which I believe is part of why Mou acts the way he does, because he believes it unifies the team and gets them behind him. And, to be fair, that approach does seem to be working at Real Madrid. (Also, because he's addicted to the drama/trolling, girl did you HEAR about the Villerreal match?) But on the other, it opens up the team to more scrutiny that they might not otherwise get, and personally, I don't like having to excuse/defend/condemn the manager of my team all the time. So like you, I appreciate Pep not taking that kind of role--for the most part, at least.

Ahahahahaha, I ain't even mad at Ryan Babel for that tweet--he totally shouldn't have done it, but I'm sorry, the FA should have bigger issues on its plate than one tweet about a referee that everyone agrees is controversial at BEST. (I still insist that Webb has a bias against Spaniards lol.)

and OH, I almost forgot--this website has highlights from all the Barca/RM games with Ray Hudson commentary. Just in case you were looking for it. AND, as if that weren't enough, somebody's taken the craziest of Hudson's quotes and turned them into spoken word poetry, IDEK. I was particularly charmed by the verse describing Messi as a "zombie hunter looking for a Twinkie."

you know, it's funny about Mourinho, because as you say, it really does work. his players love him, they defend him, it's pretty similar to the way Barça's players clearly feel about Pep, except that the Barcelona kids are so young that they'll still do stupid shit like get into fights over it. (that said, I'm not entirely sure Casillas is sold on Mou. do you ever get the sense that he's being very diplomatic in his interviews, but not terribly enthusiastic? he has to defend Mou because Mou's his coach, but I never get the OMG HDU SPEAK THAT WAY ABOUT HIM vibe off Casillas that you'd get from, idk, Drogba.) but it only works when the manager is able to take ALL the heat for his players and stamp out any internal splits before they start. I'm not sure anybody in the modern game besides Mou has the force of personality to pull it off. (ugh yeah I did hear about the Villarreal game. sure, pal. sure you were celebrating with your son. and I hate that I have to be skeptical about that because I know that he must love his children very much, but I don't think he should be bringing that into his professional life.)

also WHEE RAY HUDSON. (though I am hurt you don't remember me linking to the found poetry version on tumblr ages ago. XD)

Honestly, if there's anybody who I want, once they retire, to write and publish a no-holds-barred, air-all-the-dirty-laundry type of autobiography, it's Iker Casillas. I always get the sense he could say a LOT about playing for Real Madrid if he chose to, but I doubt he ever will. (Not that I'm doubting his loyalty to that club at ALL.) As for his relationship with Mou, I really don't know--I remember him saying once that the team might belong to Flo Perez, but the players belong to Mourinho, which seems like a ringing endorsement, except that it happened, if I recall correctly, when Mou was the closest yet to a public disagreement with Perez and the club, so you kind of expect the team captain to back up the manager, particularly when Mourinho appeared to be sticking HIS neck out on behalf of the team. I do definitely get the vibe that Iker is still a bit tetchy regarding the way that the whole Ronaldo vs Carbonero mess happened, and the response of the club to it. IDK, I think mostly it's a difference of temperament--Iker has never struck me as a dude who loves having drama play out in public.

As for Mourinho, you're right, there are very few managers who can pull that kind of thing off. I'd add possibly Sir Alex Ferguson to that very short list of "managers with 'TUDE", but SAF has a few advantages that Mourinho won't have, at Real Madrid or anywhere else--Ferguson is very much of the "establishment", he's been at the same club for years and years, and he also, frankly, has the advantage of being British in a league that still, IMO, has something of a anti-foreign bias. With Mourinho, it's ALL force of personality.

As for the Villarreal game--oh, for God's sake, Mou, REALLY? Really, now. Like you, I hate being skeptical about that, I do not doubt at all his love for his family, but even unamadridista agreed, he should have known better. It's not like this is the first game of the season, after all--I don't even know if this is the first time that RM has come back to win the game this season. He shouldn't have done it, end of story--and as for his complaints that nobody gives him the benefit of the doubt--dude, look at your record. When you (deliberately) troll like that, you don't get "benefit of the doubt".

And HEEE, I knew somebody had linked that on tumblr, but I didn't realize it was you! Apologies, apologies.

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