The following blog first appeared on A Bergkamp Wonderland on October 4th, 2016. It has been reprinted here with their permission.

Gazing upwards on a cold, clear night in early October, millions of visible stars stare back from the celestial darkness like pin pricks on some piece of carbon construction paper, held aloft to a desk lamp.  They shine back against the blackness, connected only by the billions of light years that separate them in the void of space.

Football feels like this sometimes, particularly during breaks for International games. Thirty-eight games separated by the vast distances of life and work and sleep and traffic jams and reruns of X-Factor.… More SMRTETA

The following blog first appeared on A Bergkamp Wonderland on August 16, 2016. It has been reprinted here with their permission.  Since this blog first appeared, Arsenal have signed Lucas Pérez and Shkodran Mustafi – two signings which are a great move towards getting a winning team.

The spring of 2007 was unseasonably warm in London. As the sun crested the early morning, a man shaved and brushed his teeth – rehearsing the lines again in his head.

As he continued to prepare for his morning meetings, he questioned what he was about to do. In the past, he had been clear in his mission – often taking on riskier and riskier endeavors to bring success to the club he loved.… More SMRTETA

We aren’t winning the League this year.

As the embers of our flickering title challenge were extinguished by the 7-minute hat trick of Andy Carroll at the weekend¹, attention shifted from the fragile mentality of one last chance to catch Leicester to the reasons for our diabolical shortfall this season.

The questions have gained in momentum since conspiring to lose at Old Trafford and the subsequent insipid display versus Swansea at home. Although the signs were arguably there already, those results consigned many supporters to the inevitable outcome of a fourth place trophy (perhaps third).

This is not meant to be a damning indictment of Arsène Wenger but the mounting pressure on him is not unfounded.… More SMRTETA

“I am happy that [he] has left… he got praised as a great runner if he ever got back to defend three times in a game. If [he] fails to train properly twice or three times he won’t get games.”

– Berti Vogts, former Coach of Germany, on Lukas Podolski when he left Köln for Arsenal

We’ve been here before.

A strong attacking showing for one’s country in an International tournament playing centrally followed by a move to the Arsenal – only to be shoved out on the wing to suffer a death found out by a lack of defending; eventually tossed aside and moved on with little fanfare.… More SMRTETA

There are few things in life as pleasing as an a-ha moment.

It’s that moment where everything else fades away and we gain total insight; whether it’s the discovery that Verbal Kint made the whole thing up or that special realization that the moon is, in fact, not made of cheese – the a-ha moment feels good.

We like knowing.

It’s one of those things that makes magic so entertaining, we see something we can’t often explain and we’re driven to understand it in order to find that a-ha moment.  In today’s society, where we are increasingly determined to figure out how things work, we miss that magic sometimes. … More SMRTETA