I am currently in the queue on the online ticket booking queue trying to buy tickets for the spurs game. I’ve been in the queue for about 20 minutes and the status bar has only gone a third of the way. At the same time I have got the box office number on redial which is constantly busy. The system that they used last year was so much better, you posted one application on the internet in a time period, didn’t matter when in the time slot. Then the 38,000 applicants who’ve been to the most games get tickets.

Now it’s just a constant rush from 9:30 all day, luck that Monday is my day off from college ay. When tickets for Real Madrid came out I was secretly ringing the box office under the table with a hands-free kit all lesson. In the end I didn’t get tickets but I tried. Hopefully I’ll get through this time; the online ticket box office looks my best bet, the status bar is nearly halfway now, I’d say it’s about 4/10ths done.

I thought as I am waiting I might as well post on The Cannon, should be another half an hour at least before I get through on the online box office. Anyway you don’t really want to know about me trying to get tickets, you want the blog. To be fair there’s not that much news, with it being internationals next weekend all talk’s about England, which doesn’t really concern Arsenal. I’m not the only one upset about the internationals though, Arsene Wenger has had a little rant saying that these games are very disruptive to a season:

It is terrible. The international teams play Saturday and Wednesday and when they come back we do not have enough time with them. We have asked before if the international teams can follow the same schedule as club sides and play on Saturdays and Tuesdays but nobody has done anything about it. I have calculated that over the next 10 months, our players will be away with their countries for 100 days. That is just not acceptable. We have to live with it. But we are the ones who employ the players and yet they spend all this time away from us. It is simply not logical. There needs to be a better compromise than the one which currently operates because this one is not in favour of the clubs at all.

I didn’t realise there was a game on Wednesday too. That’s ridiculous. That means the players will be back Tuesday but not train as they had a match the previous night. Then Friday they will do some pre-matchday light training and have to swap up on the opposition, and then the next day it’s the match. It’s mad. Luckily it’s only Watford but if we don’t take 3 points then Wenger will no doubt point the finger of blame on the internationals.

One player who is to do with the England setup at Arsenal is Theo Walcott, I think he’s playing for the under 21’s this week and Gilberto has been talking about the new teen sensation:

It’s very important that he can set up goals. It’s this kind of thing that makes the difference in a good player. It doesn’t matter if he’s young or not when he can bring important things to the pitch and do his job like he did when I scored the goal against Aston Villa. He needs to play freely and not have a lot of pressure put on him, but I think he can handle the pressure especially with the way Arsène works with the young players. He’s only 17 and he needs time to improve and to grow but the more he trains with us and the more he plays, the more he will grow in confidence and I think very soon he will be ready to play.

He looks very good. I think you have seen him enough times playing for Arsenal to see he’s very confident when he gets the ball and he’s the same when he trains with us. Myself, some other experienced players, and Arsène, talk to him a lot. We tell him to train and train and train and that when he gets the opportunity to play he must do the same kind of things he does in training.

OH MY GOD I JUST GOT THROUGH!!! Fuck it was just a message saying there's a technical error, fuck. Got all exited then and everything. The online thing's about 6/10ths done now...

Anyway what Gilberto was saying there is that we can’t expect everything from Walcott when he comes on and to just give him some time to develop. We all know he can produce, just don’t expect it. Imagine if you were playing at Ashburton Grove in front of sixty-odd-thousand Gooners and only being 17. It’s alot to ask of the boy. Bert’s also saying that this kid is amazing and yes, he’s worth getting exited about him but we’ve got to just let him do his stuff. One day Theo’s going to be our best player, no doubt in my mind at all.

Arsene also had a word on Van Persie’s 2nd goal at Charlton:

It was outstanding, quite unbelievable. Nobody expected that. When Eboue crossed I did not see anybody in the box so it thought, like many times, we have nobody in there. Then suddenly Van Persie arrives. Technically it was perfect, with full pace and power. I felt the ball would go over the bar at the start, then it finished in the top corner. It is the goal of a lifetime.

That’s summed it up nicely, nothing more I can say to that.

Ok, that all there is for today. I’m going to continue trying to get my Spurs tickets. AHHH I JUST GOT THROUGH AGAIN!!!

I’m now pressing buttons to a recorded voice, now I’m in a queue …AH! NOW IT’S RINGING!!!

Still ringing…

Oh come on! Now it’s another recorded message! FUCK!!! Now they’re saying tickets don’t come out until half 11…the cunts. I woke up this early for nothing? Oh well…guess I’ll try again at half eleven.

Anyways, yeah. That’s all today’s news. I’ll let you know how I get on trying to get tickets. Have a good day.