retired_Brandon Scott

'Remember the day Jake-son-remember the day: Saturday the 20th of September-a day when once again the Toon Army plundered the fortress of the Gooners....'

'F***ing give over Matt!' Jake snapped. He was in no mood to be reminded of last Saturday's debacle at the Emirates and certainly not by his Geordie friend. 'I'm here to watch the Champion's League game not to be hauled over the coals by you' Jake was flushing now, a sign that he was getting annoyed so Matt stopped his heckling. It didn't stop him surreptitiously sliding a newspaper cutting of the latest League placings under Jake's chair as he sat down, though:

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> Holders - Chelsea| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | | Liverpool | | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 5 | +4 | 13 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Tottenham | | 6 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 3 | +5 | 12 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Chelsea | | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 4 | +6 | 11 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Reading | | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 10 | 4 | +6 | 11 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Arsenal | | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 | 3 | +4 | 11 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Aston Villa | | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 11 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Portsmouth | | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 8 | 7 | +1 | 11 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | | Blackburn | | 6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | +1 | 11 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Bolton | | 6 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 7 | 4 | +3 | 10 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Man Utd | | 6 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 7 | +2 | 10 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Q.P.R. | | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 8 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | | Newcastle | | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 7 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 13th | | Man City | | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 9 | 11 | -2 | 7 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 14th | | Charlton | | 6 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 10 | 0 | 6 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 15th | | Middlesbrough | | 6 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 6 | -1 | 6 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 16th | | West Brom | | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 9 | -5 | 5 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 17th | | Fulham | | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 10 | -6 | 5 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 18th | | West Ham | | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 11 | -5 | 4 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 19th | | Leeds | | 6 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 11 | -7 | 2 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 20th | | Wigan | | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 11 | -8 | 1 | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| </pre>

'Yeah funny haha!' Jake exclaimed but he could taste the bitterness of that Saturday's toothless bore-draw with the Geordies in his mouth. He had arrived at the Emirates with his Dad and some friends of his Dad-all true Gunners in an air of expectation : they fully expected that the Toon Army would be packed off in defeat and failure so it was a rather stunned Stadium that watched Newcastle make all the early running, twice calling on Buffon to pull off agile stops in the first 20 minutes...in the meantime there had not been one Arsenal attempt on goal.

'Who's the home team here!' people around them started to chant. Jake, meanwhile, was intently studying his hero in the dug-out. Thus far Amponsah remained impassive and composed: maybe waiting for his team to wake up?

At last on the 23rd minute Arsenal sprang into life and a sweeping left-flank move that started with Richards in the centre of the midfield ended with a magnificent parry from Tuncay by Harper in the Newcastle goal. The corner, however, sparked a vicious counter attack that Martins gobbled up and was unlucky to be denied a scoring chance by the back-tracking Clichy. It seemed that Newcastle had taken a counter-attacking leaf out of Ben Amponsah's own handbook and were looking the better team by far come the first half. The home fans frustrations were magnified by a Theo Walcott in profligate mood who spurned no fewer than 4 gilt edged chances to score in the first half hour alone.

'Are you Adebayor in disguise!' sang the travelling support. Sadly the only time the ball ended in the net was when Gabbidon headed in from a corner but was aggrieved to have the goal disallowed for a push on Gallas.

As the Arsenal faithful discussed their frustrations at half time all Jake could think of was what would Ben do? He was like Mourinho in 1 regard at least: he was never afraid to make the necessary substitutions when needed.

The Teams filed out and Jake scanned the Arsenal Manager's face: he looked as though he had delivered one of his famnous 'beastings' to the Team and the initial stages of the second half seemed to bear this out as Arsenal attacked with vigour and purpose driven on by Richards and orchestrated by Rosicky (God they were a good pair in midfield, Jake thought: no wonder Fabregas was out of sorts!). The two central midfielders promptings led to immediate efforts by Tuncay from the left and Walcott: one wide and the latter over the bar. Van Persie then shot straight at Harper with the goal at his mercy.

By the 65th minute with the crowd baying for Bendtner to be brought on Jake did find himself wondering at Amponsah's indecisiveness...why didn't he bring the Dane on? Surely Walcott's performance thus far, was crying out to be relieved?

Jake had his answer in the 68th when Walcott charged down a throw in just inside the Newcastle half, ran at speed down the right, drove towards the goal with the Newcastle defense trailing in his wake and cut the ball back to Clichy, arriving at the left side of the 6 yard box. Clichy's shot was wide and across goal back to Walcott, who's snap shot back across the face of goal was whiskers wide....that was why Amponsah was keeping him on. Jake smiled to himself: it was always good to be reminded of why he worshipped that urbane man in the Arsenal dug-out.

It wasn't enough, however, and the game fizzled out-not even the belated arrival of the exciting Bendnter could salvage the win as Newcastle sat behind the ball for the last 10 minutes-disappointing, very disappointing indeed. It would have been even more so had Martins not made more of his break-away in the dying seconds but with the goal at his mercy he had lobbed Buffon well wide. By this time Amponsah was apoplectic: his earlier reserve swept away by Arsenal's complacency. He swept from the dug-out as soon as the final whistle went-face as grim as the clouds now lowering overhead....

retired_Brandon Scott

Jake sat at the breakfast table eyeing the Sunday Mirror askance, tears welling up. The result was bad enough but this......

AMPONSAH WARNED BY SAUNDERS IN BUST UP AT ARSENAL The Sunday Mirror Sunday 28th September 2008

Andy Sharpe Sports Writer, writes

No it wasn't thought Jake angrily but his anger was not directed at Ben Amponsah-no it was aimed full square at Dan Saunders: how dare he? HOW DARE HE?

retired_tazman

are you for real?
maybe, a bit too modest?

how old are you?

Good idea with the articles!

retired_Brandon Scott

thanks Naspa-never ask a writer his age lol and yes a bit modest but I am trying to get the perspective as if from a devoted young (and slightly obsessive) fan :thup:

retired_Brandon Scott

Jake hung his head in shame and disbelief as the chants of the visiting Spurs fans echoed across the cavernous bowl that was the Emirates stadium...how had it come to this? Being beaten by the old enemy and being well-beaten at that.

''You're not fit-to shovel S**t! You're not fit to shovel s**t! 3-1, 3-1, 3-1! came the cry. Jake could only look up at his Dad-the tears welling again. Damn! He wished that he was a bit more manly about these things sometimes. The fact was, though, that Jake always became emotional when his team and his hero were struggling. Jake's Dad put his arms around his son-who wouldn't? He always looked like a little boy lost in times like this: perfect for the cameras though: you could be sure that when Arsenal lost some Cup Final or another, that the cameras would always find Jake, his blonde hair tousled, his pretty face a picture of wounded innocence.

'Come on Son-It'll be ok' Sebastian Patterson said but his efforts lacked conviction: he was obviously hurting too. The fact is that the season so far had been very up and down. The calamitous away loss to West Brom had been duly followed by home victories against Reading and Maccabi Tel-Aviv, the former 2-0 with Micah Richards opening his account for Arsenal from his less-favoured right back position. 2 weeks later the hapless Israeli's were seen off with room and energy to spare, Sanli Tuncay, in particular revelling in his new role as a striker and bagging a brace. Even more encouraging was Cesc Febragas returning to his imperious form of 2 seasons back, spraying highly accurate passed all over the pitch and bossing the midfield: he even scored a stunning 25 yard snap volley to put the icing on the cake. Jake had remembered the cameras catching Ben Amponsah's grin of satisfaction at that moment: a vindication maybe? Others had apparently urged the Arsenal boss to jettison the malfunctioning Febragas long before but Amponsah had kept faith with his star. The apparent difficulty was what to do with Rosicky but this dilemma had been sorted by moving Tuncay to support Van Persie up front and moving Rosicky to the left and giving him a free role. Just like having Robert Pires back in his pomp, Jake had thought happily.

And so it was a bouyant set of fans that arrived at the Emirates anticipating nothing less than a ritual hammering of the old enemy. Jake had remembered reading up on the Spurs line up and an involuntary shudder passing down his spine when he saw the Spurs defence of King, Woodgate (how had Spurs managed to snap him up?), Chimbonda and Finnan. The moment had passed but now Jake was beginning to fear that it had been some kind of premonition.

The Gunners had started slowly, allowing Tottenham too much time on the ball and not closing them down quickly enough: all the early chances went to Spurs with Malbranque and Lennon causing particular problems. And was Gallas just looking a little out of sorts Jake had asked his Dad's mate, Erwin? Sure enough the 1st goal, when it came, was as a result of a defensive howler from the normally dependable Toure: Lennon robbed Clichy on the Arsenal left, fed a long ball to Keane, who's instant cross-field pass to Berbatov should have easily been dealt with by Toure. Instead it came off the witless Ivorian's back into the path of a grateful Berbatov , who was easily able to round the despairing lunge of Gigi Buffon. 1 nil to the Spurs and this was only after 19 minutes....Jake had remembered putting his head in his hands and then looking down towards the Arsenal bench to see the great man doing the same. 'What was he thinking/' Jake had thought-'if only I could get into his head'

It was to get worse, with the midfield struggling to keep the ball and the usually inventive Tuncay dropping ever deeper in search of the ball. Some collective malaise seemed to have gripped both the defense and the crowd: there was an air of panic all over the ground. Berbatov missed a sitter only 3 minutes after the goal. And then on the 31st minute an innoccouos free kick from the Arsenal right somehow managed to get through the massed ranks of Arsenal defenders to Finnan who was amazingly unmarked in the 6 yard box and rammed the ball home from close range. Disaster. Ben Amponsah had turned his wrath on a nearby water bottle kicking it from the dugout and slamming his fist down into his lap. Disaster.

And now it was 3-1 after, first some hope had been restored with a Van Persie goal, and then was dashed as Gallas (who was having a really poor game) gave away a penalty. Losing to Spurs 3-1 at home and all before half time-how would he ever live this down was all Jake could think through his tears.

There was to be no improvement after half time-Arsenal huffed and puffed but thery never even got close to blowing Spurs's house down-it was a poor defeat-as poor as Jake could remember. By the end he was intent on watching Ben Amponsah seethe: it was like watching a kettle boil-'what can he be thinking?' Jake thought 'If only I could read his mind'..............

retired_Brandon Scott

AMPONSAH'S VIEW: : The Official Arsenal Manager's E-Mail

Sent: 03/11/08 1345 to Jakep@hotmail.co.uk

Arsenal v Chelsea-My verdict

Jake closed the e-mail and sighed: he would always support his hero no matter what but it was hard at the moment and as for Arsenal's league placing.....

retired_Brandon Scott

Thurs 11th Dec 08 1630hrs

The Rosetta Ladyhurst School, Islington, London outside the Headmasters Office


Jake sat with his head in his hands, the tears streaming through his fingers, his face flushed bright red. Waiting for his Dad to come and get him out of this mess: how had today ended like this? Him losing it in front of all his classmates. The shame and confusion were unbearable-what was happening to him?

The truth was Jake had not been feeling right for some time now-ever since the Arsenal Chelsea game over a month ago. He'd been waking with a growing sense of foreboding every morning-sometimes he'd have nightmares that he could never remember in the morning, when he would wake up screaming the house down and bathed in sweat. His Dad had said that he shouldn't get so wrapped up in his football Team's fortunes and should be less obsessed with the Arsenal Manager but it wasnt that easy for him: the truth was that he was beginning to fear that his mental health-fragile at the best of times for most adolescents-was inextricably linked to the goings on at Arsenal, the utterances of their Manager and the form and fitness of its players.

How else could he explain his extremely sunny disposition in the 2 weeks following that game, as the good results came rolling in: first Arsenal overcame stubborn Liverpool resistance to knock them out of the League Cup in the 4th Round on penalties. Then 2 of the Arsenal Squad played superbly for England in the 3-0 friendly victory away to the Czech Republic: an away game it might have been but the papers had been full of how Richards in the centre of defence and Walcott, in his less favoured position on the right wing, had been instrumental in the impressive victory. With Wright-Phillips also coming on from the bench Jake had remembered thinking that it was getting back to the halcyon days when Arsenal, Man U and Liverpool had dominated the squad. His mood was lifted still further when Arsenal tore into a hapless QPR 3 days later at the Emirates, beating them 4-0 with Walcott starting the rout, Tuncay adding 2 fine goals and Toure gilding the lilly in the final quarter. Van Persie could have added a 5th in the 90th minute when the rampant Gunners were awarded a penalty but he blasted the ball straight at the keeper: about the sum of his season, Jake had thought darkly. Newspaper reports had indicated that the Arsenal Chairman was very pleased with this drubbing as he had began to wonder about Amponsah's abilities....the cheek!

His demeanour lightened even more the following week when the team travelled to an icy Moscow to take on CSKA in what was a pivotal game: win it and Arsenal were through to the next round and in a good position to qualify 1st as their last game was against Werder Bremen at home. Lose it and-well it didn't bear thinking about. But win it they did: 2-1, in spite of 2 missed penalties, 1 by Hleb and 1 by the mis-firing Van Persie-God, how they missed Henry!

And then came the fall and the real start of Jake's problems. Instead of building from there the team once more went into schizophrenia mode, losing convincingly to Blackburn away the following Saturday. This result couldn't even be put down to wasteful finishing as so many before; it was a hammering plain and simple and the final scoreline of 2-1 was flattering. At least Van Persie had got the monkey off his back and scored for the 1st time in almost 5 games (all as sub-clearly Amponsah had lost faith in his Dutch star). This horror show in Jake's eyes had been followed by a similarly abject performance at the Emirates, mid-week, where Portsmouth had very nearly departed with all the points: they were first to everything, harrying and chasing the Arsenal players all over the park and but for the man of the match defiance of Gianluigi Buffon would have claimed a convincing victory. Jake had woken the next day with a crashing headache and mood to match and had not uttered a word to his Dad at the breakfast table. He'd then had to endure the taunts of one particularly odious class-mate at school, Chris Brown, as slippery and as dishonest a character as Jake had had the misfortune to meet. And to make matters worse he was a Spurs supporter and Spurs were currently 2nd in the League whilst their more illustrious North London rivals were languishing in 11th! Jake had ignored Brown on this occassion but inside he had been screaming....

Redemption seemingly arrived in the shape of the long-absent Captain, Thierry Henry, who was pronounced fit to play in the Leeds away game and duly announced his return with a goal in the 11th minute, profiting from the inability of the Leeds defence to handle the lightening thrusts of the quicksilver Walcott. Rosicky had then crashed in a 25 yard bending, dipping piledriver in the 73rd Minute before completing the route with a jinking run and crisp shot in the 88th. Welcome back Thierry! The nagging feeling of unease that seemed to have gone was back with a vengeance the following Tuesday when Henry was stretchered off injured after only 2 minutes of the Champion's League game against Werder Bremen. The fact that Arsenal went on to win the game that gusty night and top their Group was really something of a sideshow as far as Jake was concerned: he had peered down from the stands at Ben Amponsah when Henry was stretched off and seen something that had really disturbed him: was it fear? Back home Jake had watched in disbelief as Sky Sports News had repeatedy asked a rather exasperated Amponsah how long Henry would be out for and whether he felt that Niclas Bendtner could fill in for the stricken Captain......Jake had exploded at the TV:

'Bendtner for f***'s sake! Are they f*****g crazy-JESUS!' How absurd. The Arsenal Manager seemed to echo these thoughts as his response was terse:

'Thierry has a sprained ankle, which will keep him sidelined for a further month-yes it is a blow and no Niclas Bendtner, promising as he is, is not going to be a suitable fill in for him-thank you.'

'Bloody idiots.' Jake had mouthed before grabbing some extra strong Nurofen and retreating to bed; his headache was back with a vengeance.

Middlesborough were up next at the Emirates in an early lunchtime Saturday kick-off. Like it or not Amponsah was going to have to stick with the goal-shy Van Persie and Walcott up front with Tuncay on 1 flank, Sneijder on the other and Rosicky and Gilberto in the centre. The defense was the now settled back four of Clichy, Senderos (who had long ago replaced the out of form Gallas), Toure and Richards. Boro were duly despatched 2-0 with an encouraging man of the match performance from Senderos of all people and goals from Van Persie and the substitute Bendtner. The Arsenal faithful especially loved the Dane's goal as it was an angled drive from the edge of the box, taken at full pace and on the volley-beautiful! Jake had not been celebrating, however, as instead he had been recalling the newspaper headlines from The Saturday Independent:

Amponsah recalls Adebayor to Mis-firing Arsenal Attack The Independent Saturday 6th December 2008

Ed Hollister (Sports Journalist of the Year 2008) Writes:

Adebayor back! This was really clutching at straws: Jake couldnt care less how well he was doing in the Spanish Primera Liga-he had been utterly rubbish in the Premiership and his wastefulness in front of goal a constant frustration to both his manager and to the fans.

It turned out that Jake needn't have worried: Adebayor promptly sprained his ankle in the subsequent mid-week game at a wet and windy Wigan: another defeat: this time 2-1 with the decider being scored by Senderos who seemed to be back to his one serious mistake in every game habit. His Dad had tried to console him by stressing the positives:

'At least van Persie scored from the spot son.'

'I dont care!' Jake had screamed from his room.

'Jake there is no need to shout' his dad had said as he came in,

'KNOCK KNOCK!' Jake had shouted 'Don't patronise me Dad and F******G KNOCK WHEN YOU COME INTO MY ROOM!!!' The force of Jake's anger surprised even him and stopped his dad dead in his tracks.

Jake started to sob disconsolately, 'We were supposed to do so well this season Dad-we were supposed to be challenging for the title-Ben was supposed to be Manager of the Year!' he cried, sobs racking his body.

Jake's Dad sat down on the bed with him and hugged him close. What was happening to his son he thought anxiously.

'Son it's too early to give up hope and you can be sure that Ben won't have done. He has said himself that you can only get a really clear idea what's going to happen once Christmas and New Year are out of the way-let's wait until then son eh?'

His Dad's words had helped but when Chris Brown decided to throw one too many 'you're gay and you fancy the Arsenal Manager' slurs in his direction at school the next day Jake had lost it again: this time he ended up shouting and alternatively screaming in the middle of the Junior 6th Form Common Room whilst flailing his arms violently as he was stopped from attacking a clearly surprised and satisfyingly frightened Chris Brown. That had earnt him his trip to the HeadMaster.

When Seb Patterson arrived at the school and made his way to the Headmaster's study he was greeted by a still disconsolate Jake, eyes puffed up from crying, hair dishevelled looking every inch the abandoned waif-had Jake's personal hygiene started to slip too, Seb thought with horror-his son was normally so careful about that?

'Oh Son'.............

retired_jagamm

Great concept! A lovely way to tell your FM story - as a Boro fan, I've been in Jake's position many, many times...

retired_Brandon Scott

hehe-thanks T: I'm enjoying telling the story from this different perspective though not the maddenning inconsistency of my Arsenal side

Thanks for feedback though fella-always appreciated :thup:

retired_Brandon Scott

Saturday 13th Dec 08 The Valley, Charlton

'We're with Jim and the Man of the Match, Robin Van Persie. Jim:'

'Thanks Richard. Robin-what can I say about that match? It seems that you and Theo refused to accept defeat in that game?'

'That's right Richard-it's important to keep going. It was a hard game but it's not usual for us to concede 3 goals: Gigi is normally very angry to concede 1 or 2.'

'It was highly unusual: I know that your season has been a bit up and down so far but this was a real ding dong affair-look we've got the goals on this monitor Robin. Talk us through them.'

'Erm-ok. Yes the 1st goal was a real shock to them. Theo did what Theo does and carried the ball at speed into the penalty box but the goalkeeper saved. The ball rebounded to me and I had an easy tap in.'

'This was within 20 seconds: that may be a new Premiership record Robin.'

'It may well be Jim-yes'

'And then Charlton were rocked again-a flowing move which ended up with you having a shot saved into the path of Walcott this time-your partnership really looks like it's beginning to bear fruit?'

'Well we do enjoy playi8ng together: we have to convince the boss that we can score goals consistently I guess.'

'True. I know there have been questions about your accuracy in front of goal and rumours that you are particularly unhappy about the team's position at the moment?

'Well I don't think any of us are happy. It's up to me I guess to get the goals to help us out of it and into a position where we can challenge for the title as our boss wants us to.'

'Absolutely Robin but back to the game: and then it seemed that Charlton had a revival on their minds eh?'

'Yes they managed to pull one back just before the break and then scored not long after to peg us back to 2-2.'

'And then step forward Theo Walcott again eh Robin? At this stage the Arsenal fans didn't know whether they were coming or going: 3-2 to the Arsenal. There's no way anyone could say you were boring again!'

'No this is true. Unfortunately they pulled another one back late on but luckily I managed to find something extra in the last 10 minutes to win the game for us'

'It was another goal scored from kick off-has Ben Amponsah been getting you to practise that or something Robin?'

'Haha-no it's just important to really have a go from kick off-especially after a goal. The Boss has certainly always stressed that this is when teams are vulnerable.'

'And where to from here Robin-are we going to start to see the real Arsenal?'

'Well we needed to answer the fans after the Wigan defeat so this was our response-we need to push on from here and get ourselves in contention for the title-Manchester United are only 6 points ahead of us and they are coming to the Emirates in 2 weeks time so we will see.'

'Yes very true Robin but they have 2 games in hand on you. Anyway well done Robin-our Barclays Man of the Match.'

'Thanks very much Jim-see you.'

Jake would normally have been watching all of this on TV with a smile on his face on this gloomy Saturday afternoon but instead he wore a deep frown: today was his first Psychiatrist visit. What was he going to say?.........