Tag Archive for Bergkamp

Wenger Still Has Fire In His Belly

April 25, 2013 Arsenal, Guest Bloggers 14 comments

On NLIR today I am delighted to welcome Martijn Stolze (@hahostolze) . Martijn is a Dutch history student with a love for Britain and has been a Gooner since 1997. Martijn has written an extremely emotive piece and I’m sure you’re going to love it. Grab a beverage and strap in for an epic ride.Take it away Martijn…..

You can’t blame Arsène Wenger if over the last two or three seasons he has looked glum, burnt out and tired. You can’t blame him if he has felt despondent and absolutely lost. This is a man whose love for Arsenal FC is absolute and unequivocal.  But also a man who has seen his hard work, on one of his finest generations, fail and falter at the last hurdle too many times, and seen the lure of money and glory rip apart the teams he set about to mould in his image. A man who was on par with the greatest manager in PL history when the influx of money set the PL alight. Yet during recent weeks Arsène Wenger seems a man repossessed. The fire in his belly that drove his incessant desire for perfection, for better, for prettier, seems to be roaring at its fullest again. And just when we needed it.

Very few things are as harsh on a person as their position in history. In the last few days the glory of Sir Alex Ferguson has been sung by all those who love him, need to suck up to him or those who respect the man’s achievements. Looking through the Guardian’s review of the titles he won it makes it very obvious that the only man who consistently got close to his all conquering teams was Arsène Wenger. But Arsène Wenger is not a man en vogue today. He is not popular. His legacy isn’t being remembered the way it should. Not even with some of the fans of the club he has helped into one of the biggest and most valuable in footballing history. That has got to sting. I know it stings me. Read more

Arsenal or Ajax tickets – Is it any better on the continent?

March 28, 2013 Arsenal, Premier League 7 comments

I’ve chatted with a few buddies recently about ticket prices and arguing until I’m blue in the face that Arsenal do not have the most expensive tickets in the EPL. The two chaps I spoke with are not Arsenal fans, one is a Liverpool fan and the other is a Bristol Rovers fan (I live in Bristol these days).

The Liverpool fan hasn’t been to an away game for over 10 years and maybe makes it to Anfield about 4 times a year, once for the Merseyside derby and the other times for what we Gooners know as category C fixtures.

The Rovers fan however goes to every home game and 80% of away games with The Gas. He has never been to the Emirates although he has said he would love to but can’t justify the cost especially when him and a few other mates hop around Europe a few times a year catching games in other leagues in countries like Belgium, Czech Republic, Holland, Portugal, Austria and Denmark or any league where you can name at least one “decent” team for less than the price of day in London. Read more

The Importance Of God

February 11, 2013 Guest Bloggers 22 comments

Today I welcome Willem Gonggrijp aka @BergkampFlick , as a guest blogger to North London Is Red. Willem recently launched his own blog, BergkampFlick and describes himself as a realistic idealist. As a countryman of van Basten and Johan Cruijff, he’s looking to entertain us with the written word and I think he will with this delightful piece. Take it away Willem…..

I would like to tell you something about God. God has always been an important figure in my life, ever since I was a little boy. As a matter of fact, I remember my first encounter with Him like it was yesterday.

Six-year-old me had a boring summer. The Dutch weather is known to be very changeable, but 1998 was an utter disappointment. There was lots of rain and no sun to be seen. It was gloomy stuff back then but luckily there was a World Cup for me to look forward to. Read more

Merry Christmas and A Year In The Life

December 24, 2012 Arsenal 10 comments

I’ve been a blogger for a couple of years but it has only really been this year that my blog, North London Is Red, has taken off and grown in popularity.

I am extremely grateful for every reader that I have had this year and want to take a moment to say thank you to you all and wish you a most wonderful Christmas wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

This year has been a huge journey for me as a blogger from starting the year with 7 twitter followers and about 100 reads of my blog (on the old domain) in 8 months to having over 3600 followers and 300k+ reads of my blog on this domain since May.

I’ve had a really good year in the blogosphere and a lot of thanks has to go to many of my fellow bloggers and tweeters for helping me gain so many new readers and followers to interact with.

It’s not only been a journey of popularity, it has also been a journey of emotions as following Arsenal always is so I thought I’d use this opportunity to take a look back at my journey through 2012 in blogs. Read more

Would it be Armageddon to play Santi out wide?

December 21, 2012 Arsenal 28 comments

So the world didn’t end. I knew it wouldn’t for a number of reasons but the biggest one is that Tottenham are currently above us in the league and any deity that exists or the will of the universe would not allow the world to be destroyed and have the spirits of Spuds spend eternity claiming superiority based on league position at the time of Armageddon.

God is a Gooner

After the Bradford result you could have sworn that the world was ending though and it’s probably the main reason I haven’t blogged in a few weeks.

I had so much I wanted to say after that game. About our lack of fight, spirit, killer instinct, vision, unity, tactical awareness, mental strength and passion but it all seemed so pointless. I was angry for days and it took a lot for me not to pick up my keyboard and slag off the players, the manager and the board. After I had calmed down I still had some thoughts about the game in me and wanted to blog them but by then we were visiting family and were returning on the day of the Reading game so I thought I’d wait to see if we had learnt what I thought we needed to learn and in some ways we did. Read more

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