Wenger/Real Madrid, Football Cannot Have Videos, United Censorship, More

Question: Arsene Wenger, do you have a message for Real Madrid?

Answer: Yes, leave me alone.

Arsenal’s manager still can’t be bought off with cash as he rebuffed suggestions that he was fixing for a move to the Bernabeu to become manager of the most expensively assembled team in football history.

Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema, and Co. proved that "£240 million doesn’t buy you the Champions League necessarily," as Arsene Wenger put it, according to ESPN .

Indeed, Arsenal has reached Champions League finals and semifinals whilst fielding squads put together at a fraction of the price Madrid spent.

And Wenger did have a message for Arsenal fans as well it seems, as he pointed out just how hard it was to meet expectations:

“In the last five years we have been in the [Champions League] final, the semifinal, two times the quarterfinal. It is the consistency that is the most difficult to achieve at the top level because you have so many teams that want to be in there. When you just turn up regularly, in England, we don't rate that any more because we are used to it. But it's not easy.”

I should point out though, no matter how hard it is to reach a Champions League quarterfinal, if that was to be the Arsenal’s biggest success this season, expect the population of “In Arsene We Trust” placards to decrease significantly.

FIFA Is Too Cheap For Video Technology

The great minds that run football have finally explained the real reason we cannot have video technology in the sport:

“The application of modern technologies can be very costly, and therefore not applicable on a global level,” writes FIFA President Sepp Blatter on the FIFA website.

Apparently Blatter hadn’t been informed of FIFA receiving $2.7 billion for World Cup TV rights.

Of course, he had a back up argument:

“For example, we have close to 900 preliminary matches for the FIFA World Cup, and the same rules need to be applied in all matches of the same competition.”

Blatter forgot to take into account that the billions of football fans are not protesting decisions made in a match between Bhutan and Monsterrat, rather they are baffled by Thierry Henry being allowed to feel up a ball before he sets up a goal that knocks another country out of the World Cup.

Portsmouth’s Clean Food and Clothes

The Independent reports that England goalkeeper David James is recruiting Portsmouth players to help pay the salaries of several training ground staff who were sacked last week.

Club administrator Andrew Andronikou is currently in the process of cutting jobs at the club to reduce its wage bill.

Regulations of administration procedure prevented James last week from paying the wages of the club’s assistant kitman and training ground manager, though Calamity James has now gone back to Andronikou in order to rescue a group of kitsmen, groundsmen, catering staff, and cleaners.

Amazingly one man who has evaded the job cuts is chief executive Peter Storrie, who remains at the club on a salary below “500 000”, the Telegraph reports.

Storrie presided over one bad takeover after another at the club, but he keeps his job because by law, the club must have a nominated officer, and Storrie is the only man left on the club’s board.

The law seems to help those who are fortunate and leave behind those who are less fortunate, in this case at least.

“Fair” and “just” is an oxymoron at this point.

Manchester United: The Glazers Are Going To Stay, So Shut Up

David Beckham donning a green and gold scarf, the official colour adopted by United’s anti-Glazer protesters has become a telling image of the campaign to remove the Americans.

However, United protesters desiring sympathy from the players at Old Trafford will have to look elsewhere for support, if they want that support to be public.

The Telegraph reports that in response to the most famous footballer in the World giving the “Red Knights” a huge publicity boost, and in fear of further United figures endorsing the protest, the club has:

Banned players from discussing the campaign in the media.

Forbidden the in-house TV station, MUTV, from referring to the rebellion and edited questions about it from broadcasts of Ferguson's press conferences.

Ejected a supporter from the audience of an MUTV show after he refused to remove a green-and-gold scarf.

Sacked a steward after 19 years' service for attempting to return a confiscated anti-Glazer banner to it's owners.

It seems as if the Glazers do not believe the “Land of the Free” concept applies in the UK.

Quotes of The Week:

“I was not angry about the change, but the scoreline. I was replaced by Raul, who has a lot of experience in scoring.”

Kaka was speaking to Marca, addressing rumors that he was upset at being substituted during Real’s loss to Lyon in the Champions League on Wednesday, as they crashed out.

Scoring was a foreign concept to Kaka on that night, an “attacking” midfielder who only cost Real approximately 70 million euros.

“We're anticipating not having the season starting....As of now, for us, we're very far apart, even with the mediator there in D.C.”

MLS Toronto defender Nick Garcia, as quoted by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp .

MLS players are threatening to strike before the start of the new season in a few weeks time, if they are not granted more free-agent rights and a greater percentage of guaranteed deals.

Under the current arrangement, the MLS authorities negotiate all player contracts, a system which does limit the rights of the players to move.

If a new labor contract isn't agreed before the season opener on March 25, the players will strike.

This could keep LA Galaxy star Landon Donovan playing for Everton for a while, so expect David Moyes and Everton fans to be fully behind MLS players’ rights.

“When you've won more league titles than Champions Leagues you miss what you don't have. It's like having a girlfriend; you want to be free when you have one, but once you are, you want to have a girlfriend again.”

AFP reports on Real Madrid keeper Iker Casillas, who seemed to liken his team’s poor performance against Lyon to the romantic phenomenon of commita-phobia.

Can we also sum up their season by saying Madrid “gives love a bad name”?

Feel free to comment on United censoring fans, Madrid’s waste of cash, video techonology in football and more. Thanks for reading. PS: My FC position is not for football.