Freshly served around tea-time on the last day of this year’s EPL season.
.
Well where to start?
A few dishes of Humble pie perhaps?
Before I get to gloating in a huge self-indulgent fashion, let me first say that finishing 4th is not our target. It is however a monumental achievement to finish in a Champions League position for the 16th consecutive season.
Of course there will be many who say it’s eight consecutive years without a trophy. In that they would be correct – mathematically at least.
I, however, believe the last eight years have been a huge success. As Gary Neville pointed out, in that period Arsene has spent a net £9 million on transfers (it’s actually a net of minus £40 million since 2006 – even more remarkable). That’s £460 million net less than City. That amounts to about an Emirates Stadium.
So those too thick to understand where all the money has gone, ask your carer.
Here is what I wrote in an article for ACLF last summer:
“With the planned move to the new stadium things changed. Arsène had to work within severe financial restrictions. Big players were sold and the fees helped relieve the pressure of the move, in what turned out to be an unexpected recession. The reduction in the wage bill must have done no harm either. History had shown that a new stadium usually led to a rapid downturn on the field; relegation beckoned.
I would have thought that our aim would have been to stay in the league in the early years of the move. However, Arsène kept us in the top four, guaranteeing Champions League football and further reducing the financial burden with the revenues generated.
He has only recently let it be known (as if we didn’t already) that he could have left and been paid much more money elsewhere. He gave up that financial gain and personal glory for the good of the club. I think that this period is a greater achievement than his first 8 years of on field success. It is a staggering achievement. And also could give him a claim to be the greatest.”
Well he did it again. Let’s see how we do with the purse string loosened. Now we have Arsene and money.
Here is what I said immediately following the Spurs reverse:
“There are thirty points still to play for. All is not lost by any means. But even if it was, nothing is to be gained by withdrawing our support for the team. Every week I see a team with huge potential. We simply must give them to time to fulfil that potential. I honestly don’t see why people can’t relish the challenge. Rather than throw their arms up and ask for change. Change may come all to soon, I fear, unless the majority of fans don’t quickly see sense.”
All was indeed not lost. We here did just that. SUPPORTED.
Well done us I say.
Have a look at what Gainsbourg69 had to tell us yesterday:
“We only dropped four points out of a possible thirty in our last ten games.
We ended up with the second best defence in the Premier League after City.
We recovered a seven point deficit and overtook the Spuds.
We have reached the CL for seventeen consecutive seasons.
We were one of four teams to ever have three players score into double figures.
All of this on the back of having lost an important player and getting three new players to gel with the rest of the squad.”
Another titbit from LeoS:
“Fantastic resilience shown by the squad. Once the new signings were properly bedded in and Wilshere and Rosicky came back from injury, about halfway through the season we turned into a results machine, winning 12 and losing just 1 of our last 16 league games. That’s over 2.4 points per game, which would deliver 92 points over a whole season.”
That’s 3 points more than the Champions this year and last. I know its over 38 games and all that, but hey! Just saying.
Now a list of some people, experts to a man, who confidently predicted we would not get in the top four:
Hansen, Redknapp, Shearer, Piers, Bale, Smith, Hoddle, Wilkins, Quinn, Stelling, Thompson, Souness.
Well done chaps. How many times does Arsene have to teach the same lesson? Pillocks.
The doom and gloom brigade must be spitting feathers. They though this was their year. Pillocks.
The bloggers who told us this team was crap, it was the end of an era, could not defend for shit, played the wrong formations, players in the wrong positions. Pillocks.
Did you all see the game? Yes?
Well no need for me to say anything other than fucking get in there.
Finally, thanks to everyone who has helped with the blog and those who have made it their homes. Don’t let any miserable bastards jump on your bandwagon.
Let them trail behind in their shit cart.
Positively Arsenal 
Joshua.The CEO has accepted there was a problem and we are in the process of fixing it.
But you did not acknowledge that you are not comparing like with like as our wage bill is a reflection of our size .
All teams end up with players who earn big and dont play much.
That is what happens when you buy players at their peek.We were force to go down a different path and wanted to stop clubs from poaching our prospects.
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Yes, Shotta, the Serenity Prayer. I think it a lot while on Twitter, when I’m tempted to reply to idiots. Then I decide to leave it to people more qualified than I. I am constantly amazed at the amount of knowledge possessed by the bloggers and regular commenters here. I learn something every day. Maybe at some point I’ll feel knowledgable enough to take on the doomers, but for now I’ll just carry on supporting those of you who do it daily.
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Yep, serve up the blow wow humble pie.
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jr one of the biggest holes in your argument is you make it sound like these were the only players we have bought and paid during this time every club including manure have players not making it. some of those players named came through the reserves and showed considerable promise and would have been paid just as well elsewhere.
bentner for example was an international from a young age and scored regularly and however much he tried to make himself unpopular his potential was undoubtable and would of commanded a big wage wherever he went early on. denilson we had to fight of lots of other clubs to get and dj too had performed well at international tournaments. the other thing to remember is these players nearly won the league their wages then wouldn’t have been in doubt so its fine lines
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Joshua, not many of those players you noted were average when they came to Arsenal, if any. Yes, they fell out of favor and lost form for various reasons but most came here as very talend footballers. Arsenal supporters were quite glad to have squillaci when he came on board, I remember the comments well. It did not work out, such is life.
and what a_or_b said.
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I take all your points, and I don’t want to be one of those guys going ‘oh aren’t footballers overpaid a ridiculous amount blah blah blah it’s not like when I were a lad.’ I also don’t want to have 20:20 hindsight, but I think it fits into a wider point. Arsenal lacked leaders when everyone in the squad was on roughly the same wage, and now they have a better balance within the team.
In fact, clubs that overspend on wages for unproven players tend to have problems. Look at Liverpool a couple of years ago or Villa now. There is a cycle where:
– there are disappointed players on the bench with bruised egos
– fans complaining about lazy, overpaid players
– a disconnect between the players (who are overly criticised) and the supporters (who see the players as not trying)
You guys make the point that players were talented when they signed contracts. But players like Denilson, Bendtner and Chamakh had their talent damaged by getting into this cycle.
This has contributed to some of the discontent at the club in the last few seasons, and compare that to the last six months when players have stepped up to the plate. Like pg said ‘there was a problem and we are in the process of fixing it.’
Finally: aob mentions Man Utd, who spend £20m a season more than us. However, until recently Welbeck and Hernandez were on less than £20k a week. Wages aren’t just about how much you can afford, but what messages you are sending to players and fans. (I am not comparing us to Man Utd, someone else did, so don’t write back acting as if I think everything they do is great and pointing out how much they spend)
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Joshua, honest question. How do we know how much players get paid?
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@Joshua
Not going to “attack” any of your points, just wanted to point out that the wage list you have linked is rubbish. It’s completely made up by the author. Just because some bits in it might sound right or “make sense”, it’s still a made up list at the end of the day and any accuracy stemming from it is rather by accident than by design.
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Anyways, we should be celebrating the accomplishments of the teams, inspite of. That is what is really important right now. The team showed resolve that most did not think we had. The funny thing if the more talented players of the past had this resolve instead of crying and being scared of being leaders, we would have won the league a couple of years ago. It was not pretty all the time but 26 out of 30 in championship from as has been noted.
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That Arsenaltruth guy is the biggest joker going. That epitome of narcissism.
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You guys make the point that players were talented when they signed contracts. But players like Denilson, Bendtner and Chamakh had their talent damaged by getting into this cycle
you cannot just make that statement and assume its fact players fail for all sorts of reasons especially when your talking about a team coming second in the league and in the champs league, the three players you named are all very different and had different experiences at the club I think that just damages your arguments
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The epitome…
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I love those lists – there are so many Joshua but thanks anyway- The one I like particularly is Vic Akers. I have seen him quoted as earning anything from £600 a week to £10,000 a week on various different versions.
Poor Mrs Akers – she must be a very puzzled woman not having a bleeding clue what Vic is likely to turn up with this Friday in his wage packet (line of yellow falling over larfy things that George disapproves of)
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arse_or_brain May 20, 2013 at 12:47 pm
every word !
oh ive had so much fun today…dirty kind of fun..its nice to be horrible and to mock without mercy some times, especially if the cause is a good one and none better than arsenal’s/wenger’s… i put them together..
this i also liked from walter May 20, 2013 at 1:55 pm …yes i also believe that every little helps and has helped. and theres more to come1
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top post George. eat that doomers
My favourite football quote was made by the Partick Thistle manager when hearing his centre forward aws concussed aand didnt know who or where he was ” Tell him he is Pele and send him back on was his response. I dont know what Wenger said after the Spurs games, but we;ve had a number of Pele’s playing for us recently
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Paul-N May 20, 2013 at 4:22 pm
please dont talk like that about my bitch..if you want you will have to pay …we have a business to run you know….
🙂
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http://www.whoscored.com/Blog/y_gwsiszc0ydzb7nwsboqa/Show/Team-Focus-Koscielny-Crucial-In-Arsenals-Top-4-Finish
Brilliant piece on our Boss and I think especially this line is remarkable: “This is evident in that only Wigan Athletic have committed more errors leading to goals (17) than Arsenal (14) all season, yet since the 2-1 defeat to Spurs, the Gunners have not made a single further such costly error. ”
I had long maintained this season that our defending has been fantastic, it was just individual errors that came back to haunt us, and it’s nice to see what this team is capable off once those individual errors are ironed out.
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Joshua Ross May 20, 2013 at 4:05 pm
Dear Joshua
the problem george referred to had mostly to do with application rather than distrusting the players that wenger himself signed. you see george happens to be of the idea that since x player is signed by said manager then the criteria must have been met or else player x would not have been chosen.
the problem with that is that fans became judges and executioners because they werent strong enough mentally to laugh at every mug coming in their faces trying to mock them about trophyless years and what else.
the fans turned against the team the manager the players the club its policies its stuff its owners its shareholders. the fans were the problem. and if i were denilson or cesc i wouldnt want to play for you either. its one thing working and learning under wenger and quite another having my legs snapped in two and my fans booing me.
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my fans booing me………( contoinued)
* cause i didnt win the champions league or the epl title of drogba and giggs when i was 19 and 20….
the fans had no right , no matter what they paid or had paid for tickets, to transform into spuds. they werent just critical of the club team and manager they were 100% against arsenal and whatever arsenal was standing for. so fuck them.
yes yes yes fans the lifeblood of a club.,.. managers come and go ,..fans will be there forever and such….but just like the club ARSENAL needed football education when wenger got here so did the fans….maybe they will start learning from now on. hope dies last.
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Joshua @ 4:05 pm – With all due respect, the figures being used for individual salaries lack any reliability and come from sources, such as Arsenal Truth, who have a track record of hatred and animus towards Arsene Wenger that deny them an ounce of credibility.
Even so, it is generally accepted that salaries on the whole at Arsenal are quite generous relatively speaking. But as mentioned before, the club used this as a strategy to prevent young talent being siphoned off by our competitors. Flamini anyone. I read a blog recently that made the argument that combined with the club’s aversion to high transfer fees the net effect was our player expenses were comparable to any big club.
Like anything in life there is always a dialectic. High salaries may retain talent but it may also have the effect of retaining the anti-talented especially those who lack the drive and ambition to keep improving. Complacency is a human vice. I suspect the club may be aware if this and not renewing many contracts at the 2nd tier. Don’t be surprised one or two become big players in the future. Then you may be writing a post critiquing the club for being penny-pinching and not patient enough to nurture talent.
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@ Bob Fisher
ha ha
@ Evil
great stat there.
I have been thinking – the long run culminating in yesterday’s result meant to much because it was not a heroic but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to recover (as in the CL ties v Bayern Munich this season), but a heroic successful recovery. We had to be pretty much flawless for 10 games. And we were.
@ Joshua Ross
Hello.
Our wage bill includes the pay of everyone from Arsene to Colin Lewin to Gunnersaurus (who is a real dinosaur, by the way). Speculation about how much individual players are paid is just that, speculation. The rather-too-precise figures that appear on blogs are arrived at by guesswork unsupported by evidence and appear credible because they are repeated by others – it’s the repetition which makes people think there must be some foundation for the figure quoted. It’s possible to say with reasonable certainty that our players on the whole are paid more than at Sp*rs, and less than at Chel$ki. But that’s as far as it goes. Beyond that, you are on shaky ground.
But the real problem with what you say is that, if you think about it, every club at every level has overpaid or under-performing players at any one time. It’s just one of those unavoidable things, whatever your wage structure and your overall wage bill. When the manager gives a player a new contract, he is gambling on future performance. Sometimes the gamble doesn’t work out, and the reasons for that will be different in each individual case.
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what i dont get is why is arsenal’s wage bill coming into question when citys or chelseas roster aint doing much better than arsenal players…is torres wages justified just cause robben missed the penalty? drogba saved them all at the end..but you see since the team :chelsea won the champions league, ( irrepsective of the hows) i guess all expenditures on the wages of bogartes shevhenckos ferreriras and terries are ignored.
just because aguero saved city blushes last year it goes that kolarov and the rest there deserve their salaries right? ahhh ambition…. hahaha.
i suppose barcelona winning the lot justified ibras wages too ….or is pep not taken to task for throwing money around since the catalunia team saved the day there? ..
perspective…
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Not a cloud in the sky today, really – but it’s a slight shame that our winning run was only 10 matches.
It means that when we go unbeaten through next season, we’ll still be one game short of our record.
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OK last post.
I think we are just overcoming problems that have taken time to sort out and I am trying to highlight their achievement and the adaptations we have made that are working better for us. It’s good news.
We know that the total wage bill is £143m from the club’s financial reports (the report says this is ‘largely attributable to the first team player’s wages).* Wenger has always had a wage structure in place, reported to be at £110k top wage. We also know that Wenger has a philosophy to pay everyone a similar amount, and for this to build team unity. “We have a more socialist model,” he said “… We pay well. We pay very well.”** So Wenger’s philosophy is to pay players very well and have a small gap between the top and bottom earners.
But when does this create unity and when does it create disharmony? Well look at how it’s worked well this season.
Theo Walcott is earning more after his negotiations this season, which the club was keen to publicise***. We also know that he received a more generous offer because of his performances this season and that this appears to have had a positive impact on his game. This is an example of the system working: a player plays well, gets rewarded and now gets treated with more responsibility.
The figure was also given out that Carl Jenkinson signed a £1.6m contract, a sign that the club considers him a good up and comer. He is still treated as a squad, rather than a first team player, but one who has been rewarded.****
The fans can look at both of these players and say that they have been fairly rewarded for hard work. But we are paying £143m in wages, ‘largely attributable’ to 32 first team players. I am not going to estimate the real wage bill after backroom costs, pensions etc. But it is not a figure in line with Jenkinson’s new contract and his position in the squad.
And that’s the point. Wenger says in the earlier quoted piece his aim was ‘to pay something that makes sense and is defendable in front of every single player’. However you calculate the wages, that simply was not the case under the old system. I like that we can be proud of our players and proud to announce how much we value them at, whereas I don’t feel like that about the way things were at all.
* http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/sep/27/arsenal-pre-tax-profit-wage-bill
**http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/arsenal/9782420/Arsenal-manager-Arsene-Wenger-defends-his-socialist-wage-plan.html
*** http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/18/theo-walcott-signs-arsenal-contract
**** http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/arsenals-carl-jenkinson-the-32k-a-week-wonder-8315836.html
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Lol @ Hunter
“oh ive had so much fun today…dirty kind of fun..its nice to be horrible”
Nice one!
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It means that when we go unbeaten through next season, we’ll still be one game short of our record.
dont know about that, we might need to bring in cahill and jones for that……
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hey sav !! did you see how the spuds celebrated thinking newcastle had equalised? haha..
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The one I like best is “Wenger is on £7.5 million PA.
And it is taken as fact.I have seen an article that estimated his salary at £3 m PA.Strange hoe that never became fact.
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Lol yes Hunter…it was quite horribly funny – I heard about it before I saw it on youtube…tried not to laugh but couldn’t help it.
But considering the shit the media went on and on about regarding power shifts, etc – I say fuck it, we deserve a little giggle eh.
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yes george he spent 4 million of that last night together with his players visiting brothels in totenham…..
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where do all them spuddies come out from you thought ? …they are our john snows..the bastards…
they seek their dad;s attention all year…daddy daddy ill beat you this time ….
muahaha..
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a little giggle eh.
yes only a little…tiny actually..from here to japan 🙂
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George has got hoes on his mind
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sorry joshua you claim that there was disaharmony due to wage bill and you site that reason as a failure on wenger;s part to instill a winning culture? am i getting it right?
do you think wenger is an idiot to expect 20 and 21 yearolds to have the mentality to beat drogbas for their title when said drogbas are at their peak ?
are you saying that wenger is some mug who expected to win the title off from the investments of abramovic glazers and the sheik ?
i trust that if you think it carefully enough you will arrive at the conclusion that wenger and the CLUB were never interested in going into direct comeptition for the torphies against three clubs that had MORE money and BETTER players.
so essentially all he wanted to do is build and prepare. and in such plans the role of the fan is also important. if the fan dont believbe and support then who will?
its not about wages and it never was….its all about the fans and their belief in what we were doing and some lost it. admit it and quit trying to attribute any blame to a manager who has accomplished astonishing things considering the limitations not to mention the difficulties of building 500 million euro stadiums in ENGLAND in the EPL in the 21st century and still qualifying for the champions league money jackpot whether he fielded henrys or chammakhs……
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I’m tired of offering servings of humble pie. All I want is these dickheads to learn that players tend to do a hell of a lot better if you give them positive reinforcement.
From all the comments I’ve read on places like Eurosport, Daily Mail, the Guardian, etc., there’s a growing number of former doomers who are giving Wenger credit for us achieving fourth place. I think the loss to the Spuds was our lowest point of the season, and the way the team turned things around changed a lot of hearts. Hopefully, this is a turning point and everyone starts behaving like proper supporters.
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joshua one question..were you proud of merson? or gg’s football? or ian wright and his desire to play for benfica and not finnish his career at arsenal ?
funny how the betrayals of some of the men of that era are ignored together with their limited managerial or playing abilities yet are magnified in the case of foreign 20 and 21 yearolds…
Id say that fans like you are obviously divided between two eras and two completely different set of principles and playing philosophies. you sound like you value more the brittish factor of the hardmen and the battles in the rain between tough lads playing for the badge and then fucking whores and drinking whiskey till dawn.
there is no bigger joke than comparing the graham years to wengers and there is no bigger parody than claiming that arsenal had it better then and that wenger has been altering the clubs dna or whetever shit you people come up with to excuse the inexcusable……
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@ Joshua Ross
You are still quoting guesses at specific figures as fact. You do not have any facts except the overall wage bill which includes EVERYBODY’s wages.
We have some players who are overpaid relative to their contribution. Arsene’s “socialist” wage structure is not the cause. The cause is the fact that at the time of awarding the contract you are guessing that a player will continue to develop or continue to be excellent. Whatever model of wage structure, that would be the case.
Do you know of a club which has no under-performing players? If not, why not, if the problem of under-performing players is a product of *our* wage structure?
Can you say here and now which, if any, of Podolski, Cazorla, Giroud or Walcott will fail to justify his wages in a couple of seasons’ time?
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For me, there is no one player that I would pay more than AW. He is more important to the team than any one player. The best manager ever, in my opinion. Give Arsene the resources that these other teams have had and he would have left them in the dust a long time ago. No one would be talking bulls about Fergie and him being the greatest ever. It is no surprise that the man assembled what is deemed the best team in PL history, most probably in the history of English football. It is no surprise to me that when he had the resources Arsenal gave United a run for their money for a number of years. Unlike City and Chelsea who faltered even though the money was still huge.
Hunter, I do think our 08-09 team was the best in the league. The Eduardo situation was a killer that year. Had those players stayed the course, it would of been us ruling football right now. That team was special and would have been great.
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not only eduardo..and the cancelled goals against middlebro i think…and that joke of a handball on gilberto at old trafford..
and how could they have stayed the course? they did not have the experience to deal with such pressure or such refs..what bothers me is that it was intentional , our players were targeted all the time and they all loved it how an inexperienced team would crack.
seen any such pressure or treatment applied to any other team or teams players..have you seen any teams playing/kicking chelsea or united the way they kicked wenger’ s young foreigners? it was fun for everyone to mock and stick the knife in a young squad assembled on peanuts just trying to make their mark more than anything. that they went so far was a testament to wenger;s managerial abilities and a proof that had they not been a threat to win stuff they wouldnt be kicked and fucked by officials now would they……
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@Paul-N
I just hope AW still has it in him to carry on for another decade and reap the rewards of what he has toiled so hard to achieve. And as selfless as he has been, I cannot imagine he would be satisfied to build the foundations for success and allow someone else to come in and take all the glory. With strong financial backing he can leave a legacy far greater than that of Fergie’s. A legacy not just of trophies but of great players, scintillating football, a wonderful new stadium, and an academy and scouting system that will continue to bring trophies, great players and scintillating football long after he’s gone.
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Absolutely, LeoS – he deserves it and he’s so healthy he could carry on for another7 or 8 years no problem.
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the possibility that wenger and the kindergarten could have won it with 1,3m clichy and 2.4 rvp and 450k cesc and 1m song etc etc against ferguson and united with 30m rio , 30m roo 24m carr 15m ron 17m nani etc etc and from chelsea with 25m drogba lampard czech malouda essien makelele ballack etc etc was something that freightened them all and they did their utmost to prevent it. and thats when the team needed its fans the most. thats where in my eyes the arsenal fans earned a big fat 0 when it comes to supporting. thats when i lost it too and started insulting every muppet i could find ( arsenal fan or not) whod talk about us like a spud. these players and wenger have done it on their own under a very difficult environment of hostility from the home crowd. thats why they celebrated and i dont think they give a damn what the fan thinks. they achieved their target as a group, collectively and they seem to have made a bond that was too difficult perhap to exist with rotten apples like ade nasri and some random travelleres like diarra flamini baptiste etc etc….
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LEO LEO LEO
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Exactly that, LeoS. I fully agree, then man needs to be rewarded for what he has done and his faithfulness.
Hunter, I am not going to say it was all the refs. I feel that some of the players punked out for more money (not that Arsenal did not not pay them well) and easy winnings.
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It’s important that AW is given the opportunity to reap what he has sown, full agreement there. First of all, for his unwavering loyalty he deserves to be rewarded with another trophy or two but, and I think this is just as important, because if he only lays the foundations and somebody else leads this — his — team to success, it will be easy for the negative forces in the Arsenal fan base to tarnish his legacy by claiming that he was holding us back, because, as we unfortunately all know, those people don’t care for the realities of football business in the 21st century, for them it’s all about having bragging rights and shiny new and expensive players.
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LeoS @ 8:53pm
In that version of the universe where people get their just deserts, AW would win the CL with Arsenal before he retires.
Let’s all hope that’s the one we’re living in.
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of course some went for the money, of course but only after they realised that
a) hmmm our opponents kick us and we run the risk of losing our legs
b) hmm refs aint protecting us
c) hmmm media are laughing at us
d) oh shit ….our fans are booing at us
e) i love you mr wenger but i cant stand this shit anymore i want my mum
hleb left the day the ref didnt award him the penalty against liverpool when he walzed through 7 players or something ridiculous
flamini left the day he saw eduardo’s ankle hanging from his sock
“don’t care for the realities of football business in the 21st century, for them it’s all about having bragging rights and shiny new and expensive players.” lol so true..they re still in the stone age…
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EPL goalscoring tallies 2012-13:
Little Dutch boy: 26
Santi: 12
Lukas: 11
Olivier: 11
Have I miscounted, or did we sell 26 goals and buy 34 last summer?
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Luvely stuff PG.
Not been able to comment much but enjoying reading the nice positive posts & comments on here.
When we win the PL next season & AW signs a new deal I foresee some self harm at certain blogs & forums. I say, “fuck em, let then eat the crap from their shit cart”
And, just because I’m a bit of a rebel, take this 🙂
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Dups!!! I was worried. I’d thought you’d gone for good. Welcome back.
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