Man United's 'Busby Babe' Scanlon dies aged 74 (AFP/File)

Manchester United's football team winger Albert Scanlon rests in a hospital bed in 1958 in Munich. Scanlon, one of the survivors of the Munich air disaster, has died aged 74, the club said on Wednesday.

Catalunya's Dutch coach Johan Cruyff, right, is congratulate... (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Catalunya's Dutch coach Johan Cruyff, right, is congratulated after his victory against Argentina during a friendly soccer match at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009.

Argentine supporters look on during a friendly soccer match at t... (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)

Argentine supporters look on during a friendly soccer match at the Camp Nou stadium between Argentina and Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009.

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Cough bark splatter ming bleurgh

Good morning. The main news is that I am sick. Forget the football. I am sick. I have luminous snots, only one of my ears is working as an actual ear, the other appears to be just a thing sticking onto the side of my head with no eartastic function whatsoever, and I have lost my voice to the extent that I sound like Bonnie Tyler when I try and speak.

Every now and then I feel a little bit better but it's just my sickness teasing me with wellness. I'm holding out for a hero. Or large doses of industrial strength paracetemol. God bless Spanish pharmacies. So, as you can imagine, everything else pales into insignificance compared to this but I'll try and add a little Arsenal to my abject misery ... just for you.

Abou Diaby. He is tall and sometimes very good at football. Against Hull was one of those times when he was very good for 45 minutes. The main problem with him is that sometimes he's not very good and the game passes him by. We need him to be more good than not good, to impose himself more on stuff and that etc and what have you, and thankfully he seems to realise this. He says:

I think I need to improve my side of the game on that, and be more aggressive. I need to have more presence in the midfield and if I can do that it will be good for me and good for the team.

I could not possibly agree with him more. Not even if he said "Poor 'blogger. He is sick and therefore deserving of sympathy and Heinz tomato soup with lots of white pepper on top of it". If he can do what he did against Hull on a consistent basis then I will be most pleased with him indeed. Unfortunately the only thing he's consistent at is getting injured but in my fever induced delirium (did I mention I'm sick?), I'm going to keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

One thing I have noticed though is the plethora, and that is a much underused word, of articles about how Diaby is not like Vieira. There must have been at least 569 of them on the official site alone. There's another one up there at the moment. Can we stop now, please? Or, if it's such a struggle to post new stuff, how about one which says 'Andrei Arshavin is not like a wombat' or 'Emmanuel Eboue is not the new Viv Anderson even though both of them both have kind of unisex names'? Just throwing it out there.

There's been more activity regarding Arsenal shares with Yosemite Stan Kroenke buying another clutch to take him ever closer to the point where he'd have to make a bid for all the shares. This appears to have bothered Alisher Usmanov who, speaking from his dank Uzbeki lair, called on the American to come clean and make clear his intentions. He's a bit stupid, isn't he? It's obvious his intentions are to buy some, or possibly all, of Arsenal shares. Even I know that.

I suspect he'll buy them all and in the great tradition of American TV there'll be all kinds of changes. You know the way they show an ad break just after the show's opening titles? Well, we'll change our name to Arse-WalMart-nal FC and our stadium announcer will be sacked and replaced by Casey Kasem or Rick Dees. It's just the way football is going.

The Mirror reports that we could be re-negotiating our shirt sponsorship deal with Emirates. They got themselves a very good deal by paying up front when we needed to buy breeze blocks and bags of concrete for the new stadium. As such it's not as lucrative as it could be compared to other clubs. The article seems to suggest a new sponsor but I'm not sure how realistic that is. We did a deal which was good for us at the time, so while it might not generate as much money as we'd like, maybe we just have to live with it.

Shay Given wants to quit Man City according to The Sun. He's a bit good really and could be just the keeper we need to replace our keeper who isn't as good but who saved a penalty the other day so I feel all warm towards him while still recognising the fact he's had a poor season. I think it's unlikely that Arsene will spend on a goalie in January though.

And that's really about it. I might go back to bed although lying down seems to make all the snots go straight to my head so when I stand up there's a snot rush and that is not pleasant, let me tell you. I'll just sit here, moaning softly to myself, and being quite miserable. 

Till tomorrow.

Nasri facing trial by television + news round-up

Hello there, we're into what I assume is going to be a pretty quiet week, given the festivious nature of things. Yesterday's draw between West Ham and Chelsea means it's been a fairly decent weekend for us. United lost, Chelsea dropped points, Liverpool fell further behind, although both Villa and Sp*rs won. It means Sunday's game against Villa is going to be absolutely massive.

More on that to come in the days ahead, I'm sure. The main story this morning is the inevitable one about Samir Nasri facing an FA rap for his kick at Richard Garcia which sparked the handbags during the Hull game. Let's be clear, it was silly and unnecessary from Nasri, and on another day it might have been very costly. As he was apparently booked for his reaction to the scuffle, it's open for further punishment to be handed down.

On that though, won't Barmby and Hunt face further sanction. The ref's back was turned when Barmby pushed Nasri in the face? That's a red card offence. And Stephen Hunt parks his caravan in nice areas and leaves it strewn with litter and rubbish when he and his 48 strong family eventually move on. That's also a red card offence. There's talk of Alex Song facing a ban because he grabbed Hunt around the throat. 

I dunno really. I'm all for fair play and that but at times you have to realise football is a passionate game, played by men and deal with things accordingly. There were no punches thrown, Barmby had to leap as high in the air as he could to get near Nasri's face and the face push was tame. It was pure handbags and if they start going after everyone who was pushing and shoving then they'll be busy people. I think Nasri will probably get a ban and Barmby too, and that should really be about that.

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is how that small kick from Nasri managed to leave Garcia motionless on the floor in a crumpled heap. I said football is played by men but men don't react like that. If Garcia had turned around and had a go at Nasri then I'd have no problem in the world. Instead he chose to act, to pretend he'd been badly hurt to try and get him sent off. I really have no time for that kind of shit. I hate it when our players do it, I hate it when the opposition do it. It's part of a culture of cheating and dishonesty within the game. There was a similar incident in the West Ham v Chelsea game too. Some West Ham player got the fingertips of a Chelsea player in the face, went down and stayed down as if poleaxed. 

It's stupid and the players look like idiots. When you compare his reaction to that of Arshavin who caught an accidental McShane elbow right in the mouth and pretty much carried on it's laughable. It's a shame there's no way of punishing players for feigning injury. Anyway, que sera, sera. We could probably do without Nasri being banned for 3 games but there's probably not much we can do other than just get the fuck on with it.

Manuel Almunia has had his say on Hull saying:

If they don’t know how to play football, it is not our problem.

He had a couple of run ins with Stephen Hunt who is obviously under orders to go in and annoy goalkeepers. I suppose they viewed Almunia as a bit fragile and tried to get under his skin. As he saved the penalty in the second half I don't think they can view that tactic as a success. I meant to link to holic's blog yesterday as he had a rather entertaining account of the songs being sung at Phil Brown. So I'll do it today. It's also worth mentioning that Brown's moaning about the 'wrong decisions' made by the referee completely ignore the fact they got a free penalty so they have no right to complain about a free kick that is given countless times in every match. 

Not much else going on really. The Mirror reckons we've suffered a 'massive setback' as Rafael van der Vaart has chosen to stay at Real Madrid and not join us. Oh. Well, that's our season over then. Unless we sign van der Vaart any chance we have of winning anything is gone. Truly I am devastated beyond words.

Also in the Mirror the rather amusing story that Kolo Toure wants to quit the Middle Eastlands and leave Man City as soon as possible. His agents are trying to get him a move to Spain. Yet another player to discover the grass is not always greener on the other side. Although the money might be greener. Or there's more of the green money. Or something.

So that'll have to do for today. Got to finish my Christmas shopping today and my cold is minging. Hot whiskey, you say? Don't mind if I do. Till tomorrow.