Below is an article I wrote for A Cultured Left Foot that was published almost one year ago. I want to revisit it because it seems that following Gary Neville’s observations, more people are accepting that the last 8 years have indeed been a success.
The blog was published on the same day Judas chose to publish his now infamous letter to you Guys which rather stifled the debate on my article. That saw me having terrible fall-outs with people who I hold in the highest regard. But that’s another story
It also followed a few days after a landmark piece that marked “what felt like the end of an era” as we were told by our former allies on that site.
Well it looks like they were right. We were coming to the end of an era, just not the one they began to hope for. They wanted Arsene gone. Instead it appears he is to enter a third stage of his glorious career with us, armed with the weapons he has forged over the past decade .
Here it is then:
I Am An AKB.
Although people intend it as an insult, it’s a badge I am happy to wear with pride. It will come as no surprise to most that I believe Arsène Wenger is the best football manager in the world. My opinion is based mainly on his achievements at Arsenal but by no means solely on these.
In his first full season at Arsenal, Arsène took us to a League and FA cup double. For the next 7 seasons we never finished below second place. We were on a par with Manchester United, the biggest football club in the world, a club with vast financial clout compared to Arsenal.
Not only did we compete on equal terms, we did it with style and flair never before seen in England, the pinnacle being an unbeaten season. Something many people – expert pundits, former players and managers – thought to be a foolish pipe dream when Arsène suggested it may be achievable, some two years earlier.
In this 8 year spell he changed the game in this country forever. United had to spend hugely in order to keep pace, other clubs followed; diet and fitness improved. For this period alone he has claim to being the greatest.
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 know 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.
All of the above is nothing new; it is said time and again, written about by better people than me. What I want to add comes now. The other day on Twitter I asked people to briefly write what words they felt best described Arsène Wenger. I am listing some of them below. It should be noted that I did not get even one negative word in reply.
Genius; unique; visionary; a dolphin in a sea of sharks; a genuine ‘special one’; loyal; dignified; progressive; passionate; winner; hero; devotion; intelligent; inspirational; revolutionary; absolute magician; he lives and breathes the club.
In January 2011, the International Federation of Football History & Statistics v0ted Wenger ‘World Coach of the Decade’. The organisation aggregated the results from each year of the decade, and Wenger had narrowly beaten Alex Ferguson and José Mourinho for the honour.
Now here is my point. If those two are his modern-day rivals for the accolade – and they likely are – how many of the descriptions of Arsène could equally be applied to them? Not many I suggest.
For me it’s Arsène’s standing as a human being that sets him apart from his rivals. Of all the people I have ever seen in football, he is in a class of his own. I respect him more than any person that I don’t actually know personally.
If I had to choose one person to run the country it would be Arsène. One dinner guest? Arsène.
Now I accept that him being human he makes mistakes. How many and how bad they have been we have speculated on endlessly on this very blog, and we will never be well enough informed about the club’s business to know the extent of his errors. What we do know is that he has gotten a lot of things very right, against a few that seem a little wrong.
To conclude my words to best describe the great man is “honourable and trustworthy”.
I truly love the man.
***
I feel recent developments and commentary has helped my case.
FunGunner said this the other day:
“The bit I meant was what you said earlier about the board tying Arsene’s hands, I really can’t see why you think that. Although he has been frustrated about other clubs blowing us out of the water with money they have not generated themselves, he has never complained about the board not matching the petro-dollars available to Man City or Chelsea. He knows the funds have not been available – they have not been withheld, which is what you seemed to be saying. The strategy of the club has been short-term pain for long-term gain – they chose to pay off a lot of the debt quickly, make infrastructure improvements, create a commercial department etc etc and build up capital reserves rather than spend more money on transfers and salaries, but AW is totally on board with that strategy for long-term success.”
***
I can’t think of a better way to put it than that.
Positively Arsenal 
Once again, I couldn’t agree more. Proud be a fellow AKB. Keep putting your message out there and enjoy it all the more when the f****rs are silenced.
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Aye Aye George…you were & are totally right.
AW’s been the absolute best manager in football for over a decade now.
I recently watched on YouTube all our goals last season and I must say it’s remarkable how the man retools the team again & again without overspending.
2013/14 beckons and things are looking good again.
Long live AW
Long live AW
Long live the Arsenal.
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Arsene is my one dinner guest as well. I admire the man a lot. When he does leave, I will be devastated.
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PG
I am so overwhelmed by that piece. It is exactly and succinctly why I am with you here. You have written what I would have written only better. You have made my day, week, month….We are taking off…we are….
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If Arsene dont know…then who does? The fans on blogs? Come on…
as for ends of eras..they came long time ago .sometime in late 90s when civilisation was brought in…its called evolution…amoeba..fish..reptile…lizard..snake..pig…bear….ape..hunter ..gatherer…barbarian…..human..computers …nasa…demigods…wenger…in that order
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A good write up and you make some great points but, I am very confused by the whole AKB label. I have recently been labled this when I do not see myself as one, to be a AKB I would of thought you would of had to have total faith in everything Wenger does. Everything from tactics in every game to hs use of subsitutions and his buying and selling policy. I think the labeling of Arsenal fans is driving a wedge between them you seem to have to be either a AKB or a WOB but there seems little for being ME the man in the middle.
I can see the great things Wenger has done for the club and I can see where he and the board are trying to lead this great club of ours but I also have my doubts about his tactics sometimes and his 70 minute substitutions. So if I have doubts can I be a AKB?
Talking to lots of fellow Arsenal fans they are in the same position, I think there are a lot more ME’s than AKB’s or WOB’s. Why should you have to label yourself anything other than an Arsenal supporter, yes you back Wenger but should that make you different. The AKB label as a label rather than just a saying was I think started by the more negative Arsenal supporter trying to justify their stance against Wenger and to try and ailienate the more positive Wenger suporter.
The AKB’s and more so the WOB’s seem to shout the loudest and be more vocal on forums and social media.
Well I think it’s time for the ME’s those who love Arsenal to stand up and shout from the roof tops that we are against labeling of Arsenal fans and that we should be togther in our support of the team and the club. Yes you might have differing views on this and that but to split the support is wrong and in labeling yourselves you are driving a wedge between our support and when that happens the only losers will be the club the team on the pitch and most importantly yourselves.
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Seminal stuff George.
The lunatics hell-bent on compromising the support for the club are on the run.
Even if some of them don’t know it yet.
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as you can see im way back on the progress list to think i can offer critique to a wenger which makes me wonder about those warriors of darkness and their “in depth” and unsurpassed football, financial, managerial and tactical “knowledge”.
and to the rest of apes who manipulate words and meanings thinking they are clever….what good has come out of your debates over the past 7-8 years ? have you helped the club in any way? has your critique helped improve the club ? ( lol…hahaa…i win again!)
fuck them all george..they made their bed and now they will have to sleep on it while me and others alike sit from above and piss on their foreheads laughing and humiliating them.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2352656/Arsenal-fans-Stan-Kroenke-owner.html
Interesting (ok probasbly not the right word) comments on here about the BSM’s survey results
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@Swales1968 at 10:08 am
We are all Arsenal fans and I assume we will remain so whoever is the manager. But Arsene Wenger is someone special. Dare I say that you ‘questioning’ some of his tactics suggests perhaps that you fail to comprehend the enormity of his achievements during this difficult 8 year period. This is the problem. How do we evaluate and comprehend what Arsenal FC achieved by building a state-of-the-art stadium during the most serious economic crisis since the 30s and still finish in the top 4.
I’m an AKB because I believe I see his influence on Arsenal FC and the Premier League that is far greater than whether he should or should not substitute players at 70 minutes. He is no ordinary manager.
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@Swales1968 at 10:30 am
A stupid survey, e.g., “Of almost 3,500 fans surveyed, 84 per cent said the board were not running the club effectively”. Really, and who are these ‘fans’. Do you think that many of them run multi-million pound businesses. If you asked the same fans what they thought about George Osbourne’s austerity budget what answer do you think they will give? These surveys are stupid and pointless.
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The point I liked most about your piece George was the refrence to Arsene as a human being, as a man, not a cartoon character who his critics imagine is not wounded by the tide of hatred ( and it often was exactly hatred) that came his way from supporters of the club to which he had dedicated the last 16 years of his life.
A way of looking at the world as an endless cartoon where two dimensional characters, a football manager here, flit across the screen to be SPLAT’ed, cursed, humilited and finally flung to the fantasy dom by the righteously baying mob. Our fellow fans – I have never felt so uncomfortable in a football ground at times as I have in the Emirates in the past couple of years.
He’s not perfect, he makes errors, but he standas up and does the job.
I dont require Arsene to do more than that, I do not want him to do anything more than that.
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Great writeup GEORGE. Liked it the first time, like it even more the second time. Well done.
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I’m an AKB because I believe I see his influence on Arsenal FC and the Premier League that is far greater than whether he should or should not substitute players at 70 minutes.
bingo!the man has built as a stadium and the fans critisise his substitutions….ha
think i read it in the making of book ..that besides the education of the players into the arsenal way ( morelike the wenger way) further education was necessary for the fan….
you know..just like most american athletes who make it to the pro leagues ( nfl nba nbl)..they sign big contracts and find themselves from a position of poverty to a position where they spent 10,000 dollars per night at clubs and buying ferraris they dont know how to drive…they end up broke before their 30’s..one injury and youre out.perhaps crippled even..with bills running..and mouths to feed.these people needed education in college about financial management…likewise our ape fans need education as to what football really means…and no its not about days of alcohol in the sun cheering for the cup..its a lot more than that. its about a continuous commitment to improve and for this commitment to exist you need knowledge and discipline. a goal without a plan is a wish. none has planned or prepared better than Arsene.
bergkamp and wenger is my arsenal…and bergkamp had nothing to do with the savage practices that existed in the club when he arrived. i am convinced that dennis was the fax sent by arsene while still in japan tellling dein to get him ( a year earlier) or no deal. arsene needed someone he could communicate with. someone that would understand him. someone who has the desire to excell on his own , without the need of a headmaster. without needing to tell him ” oi you shouldnt be drinking beer before kick off”..without needing to tell him to eat good meals and take care of fitness like he would have to do with some others who didnt like their brocolli and fucked of to portugal..haha….
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Why do people find it so hard to believe the truth? I mean, the facts are there and everything…it’s got to the point for me where I’m thinking about leaving twitter due to the constant fuckwittery of some of our so-called fans,thank god for this place and you lot. As for Wenger,like I’ve said before-he’s a better man than he is a manager & that’s saying something.
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fuck the old guard i say…wenger and wenger again….. and again…when he stops i dont think ill be bothering as much with football let alone arsenal….football is entertainment..its there to pass our time…. my time with wenger’s football at arsenal has been the most rewarding killing of time so far….quality …sheer quality and class beyond anything else that exists in this mad business of football.
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i vote to pay the traitors with the same currency…the abuse they have thrown at our club, our manager our players and us as genuine fans is unforgivable in my eyes. if i take zizus example arsene is this club;s father and they are insulting our dad…thats not cool. my family above all.
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kill them materazzis wherever you find them… 🙂
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Top stuff George. Even if you are just lazily re-hashing past greatness (never did the Rolling Stones any harm mind you). Only joking of course, salient points as ever. Even more relevant than when you first penned ’em. You’ve never wavered George, never once during all the time on ACLF, and I love you for that.
However like Swales, I’m uneasy with terms like “AKB” or “WOB”, I don’t want to be labelled as anything (other than “genius” “drop-dead handsome bastard” and “Arsenal supporter”, I don’t mind those ones). These labels are reductive imho, and get in the way of any attempt at reasoning and debate. Now I’m painfully aware that to some folk on t’other side of the fence, reasoning and debate will forever be an anathema, but nevertheless I want to at least be free to shift my own goalposts as I see fit.
My admiration for Arsene knows no bounds, goes without saying. He’s performed miracles since the building of the stadium, quiet miracles, so quiet we’ve gotten used to them, and some have taken his achievements for granted. All the while being called all manner of disgusting things by a bunch of stupid spoilt ungrateful eejits who couldn’t see the wood for the forest. This must have hurt him, it must have. All he’s done for them. Still he’s just got on with his work, with his usual dignity, befitting of the man, aware that eventually certain financial shackles and constraints will be loosened and the corner turned. Signs are, we are approaching that time. And yup the backtracking has begun in earnest.
I don’t wish to piss on ’em and humiliate ’em though. No no no. Even if they are wrong. Hopefully if things turn out as planned, the very worst element (Le Grove and co) will have the grace to just slink away and wither. Probably not. There will be a lot less fence sitters willing to listen to ’em though, if they are proved to have been wrong all along. We’ll see.
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mel i think i have one version of the truth but many will find what i have to say insulting…but i dont mind..hehe….wait for it..here it goes: english football has ntohing to say to the modern continental styles philosophies and approaches and thus a manager who represents the foreign would always have a hard time here especially when he owns them in their national sport winning doubles and unbeate seasons with players youve never heard before…wenger has hurt their pride and reminded them that when it comes to football england is still in the dark ages…but here is the catch…they dont like being reminded that truth….so they will fight against it….like fuck if we allow the french clouseau to tell the ones who gave birth to the game anything about it….
i think the above has a lot to do with what wenger is experiencing here…
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lol harry you are very kind…i odnt believe in an eye for an eye but neither the turn the other cheek thing…i dont bother others but if they bother me and take my eye out im coming for everything. attack wenger once? ok they are frustrated…but this continous poison and non stop undermining , where does it come from? idiots with egos that where…
“if they are proved to have been wrong all along. We’ll see.”
if? haha…why? when was it that these jerks thought they were ever right about anything to be this time ?
they shouldnt even be allowed to comment….its like hodor insisting on telling tywin lannister how to run kingdoms…it just doesnt happen.
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jack wilshere please stop fawning over wayne. kindly be reminded that this short fat bastard dived to end the greatest run ever. the run that was humiliating all these peasants with their chip on their shoulders. sure wayne would love to join us…he will join the up and coming future england generation designed and programmed by wenger…his buddies theo and jack ..people he could possibly communicate better with than van persie or chicarito ..or moyes….fuck him jack….your destiny is to piss all over him and his manure club.
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I recently read a thing about Man Utds new manager and the pressure he is under. I went on something like “Fergie watching over Moyes”……..bull crap.
A few decades from now they’ll be talking of how Arsene Wenger changed the way England played football…….The very thing which Fergie is credited for today.
ARSENE WENGER, the greatest manager of modern times. A statue of him is not enough. I hope we name our home (the emirates) after him. The man who presided over ARSENALs successful transition into a super club.
If my above statements make me an AKB……..well I am proud to be one.
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@ Pedantic George
This is wonderful – lays out so clearly the reasons why we are so lucky to have AW, and for what it’s worth I agree that in years to come the last seven years will come to be seen as a greater achievement than the earlier trophy-laden period. Familiarity breeds contempt – true of some fans.
“a dolphin in a sea of sharks” – this is perfect, kudos to the person who came up with this description.
And I am honoured to be quoted yesterday and today.
@ Swales
It’s about perspective and the big picture. Being an AKB member doesn’t mean you agree with or love everything Arsene does or says, there has never been anyone in the whole of human history who has done everything right or pleased everybody. Saying Arsene knows just acknowledges that he has got a whole lot right, including decisions which went hugely against accepted wisdom. It also acknowledges that he always takes decisions for the right reason, ie the good of the club, even if the result of those decisions is not what he or we would want in every single case. In that context, it seems daft and churlish to pick on the little he does wrong. Saying “Arsene knows” is not to say “Arsene is perfect.” Nobody is, obviously. It just means, “I trust Arsene.”
@ Arsenal Andrew
AA, I was going to write this on yesterday’s post. I want to apologise for my daft comment about you “flirting with doomerism”. I read your post yesterday morning and by the time I had time to get into the comments in the evening, I had got it mixed up in my head with something else I had read. I didn’t re-read, as I should have done, hence my comment misrepresenting what you said. This infuriates me when it happens to me, so it’s only right that I should offer fulsome apologies. And it was a top post, as well. I love intelligent analysis.
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@ Swales
There are over 100,000 red members. A poll of the views of 3,500 people in an organisation with a specific agenda is hardly representative of the views of Arsenal fans. Perspective again.
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I try H13. I try.
Stand aside Bank Ki-Moon, stand aside.
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What Harry Flowers said & Hunter-like I said,thank god for this place & you lot.
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One of George’s most defiant and defining pieces. It is important to remember the context. One year ago there were the gravest doubts about the Wenger’s policies and his competence to continue as manager of the club. Seven years of austerity and the need for project-youth had apparently ended in failure. Summer of 2011 had seen the departure of Cesc and and Nasri followed by our 8-2 humiliation at the hands of United. Summer 2012, at the time this article was originally published, was to see the one remaining crown jewel of the post-invincible era, i.e. Mr Judas, recant all previous declarations of love for the club and undying support for Wenger-ball by pushing through a humongous transfer to the old enemy. The once defiant ranks of patient supporters wobbled as the media and long-standing enemies of Arsenal FC and its self-sustaining model had a field day attacking Wenger and declaring his management a failure.
Because AW has become the personification of the policies implemented over the past eight years, the AKB and WOB labels emerged almost intuitively to define the those for and against what the club has become. To pretend that these divisions do not exist is, in my opinion, the heights of naivety. George, to his credit, wears the AKB label with pride. The war over the future of the club may have receded as there is evidence of a financial rebound which will make us more competitive on the field. But there are still deep differences about the best footballing practices for this club. For example, those who believe in the “galacticos’ sugar-daddy model of team building are alive and well. Hence the signing Higuain, Rooney, Cesc, Fellaini, Cesar et al, all in one fell swoop, remains subject for serious debate in the media and online despite it is clearly impractical and counter to long-held policies of AW and the Board.
Thank heavens Positively Arsenal and contributors whom George has assembled remain opposed to this madness.
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ahhh matt stanger f365 about liverpool carrgaher luis and loyalty
“The idea that Evra felt the need to weaken a club who, at the time, were rivals merely in history and geography rather than immediate strength, is of course preposterous,”
preposterous? why? for the players at this level, football is war..the pressure on them to deliver and win is so huge that they will seek ways to gain advantage in any way possible. evra is getting owned and is being mocked in a country where the sensitivities on the subject are so hypocritical in their political correctness. in any other league they would have laughed at evra and told him ” go home you wanker this incident is nothing you are creating a storm in a tea cup.. here is your 10 month ban for sycophancy….now go play the flute… and give alex our warmest regards”…..
🙂
what the english journalists are doing to suarez they have done to us too…..if we had it their way we would never get to see vieira playing for us for 8 years…back then vieira was the first red card candidate …you reckon noone called him a nigger to put him off his game while playing with tensions running?..did you ever see him cry about it like a girl ? complain to the ref? or a camera? not our patrick…patrick had honour class and dignity..he grabbed them from the neck..and kicked them. oh yes!!
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the AKB and WOB labels emerged almost intuitively to define the those for and against what the club has become
correct but i have a question
who can have serious issues or complaints about what the club has become?
the club is better in every aspect/department than when found by wenger.
objectively speaking ….the club is 100 times better and bigger than before wenger.
those who have something against what the club has become are clearly stuck records loopin in an era which was both depressing and substandard.
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(lynch alert) ..give me sol over tony any fucking day….give me vieira and cesc and dennis and henry over wright or that clown merson any day too. that bunch and the manner of their relative success does not represent the arsenal ideals that fans like to crow about. they certainly didnt represent my ideals on the game for sure. but i had to live with it …you cant chose your family…but you can seperate the peasant members from the cultured ones…of course you can. and there is nothing wrong about it. not everyone was meant to understand what wenger has been doing for this club….we are not all the same.
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I was away when all the aclf stuff went on, I remember contacting George asking when he was coming back, only to be told that along with a few others he would never return
At the time I was worried that just about the only blog that I felt ok on was going to lose a big part but P.A. has been a phoenix from the flames. The post is a 100% correct and I wish I had read it first time round and would have happily got myself banned as well.
No one should feel uncomfortable being labelled AKB as it is the absolute truth to doubt this is like saying the great herby didn’t change the direction of our club
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Swales1968.
You misjudge the term perhaps.
Its “Arsene Knows Best” not “Arsene Knows Everything ” or indeed “Arsene Never Makes Mistakes”
He does know best.He knows better than you or I about all aspects of football.
If you had a debate with him about 70 minute substitutions,I am sure he could make a better case for there merits,than we could for the debits.
He does change things at other times and when he thinks its best..
But perhaps it should be”Arsene Knows Better Than Anyone Else,Including You And I” AKBTAIYAI does not have the same ring though
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AKB is a piss poor ‘insult’. As if believing that Arsenal’s greatest ever manager knows infinitely more about football than the rest of us is something one ought to be embarrassed about. You ought to be embarrassed if you don’t acknowledge ‘Arsene knows best’ to be an undeniable truth. It’s deluded, in fact. But it’s a delusion that grips not just fans but pundits and journalists.
“I’m like somebody who flies a plane for 30 years and I have to accept that somebody can come into the cockpit and thinks he can fly the plane better than I do.”
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FunGunner – no apology expected or required! But thanks anyway.
I have to say that whilst I understand the desire of some to remain hostile to those who have been hostile towards the club, adopting a 100% zero-tolerance to those who are beginning to see the club in a different, less negative, light risks being counter-productive.
The whole debate is rarely black and white although those occupying the ‘black scarf’ end of the spectrum are most likely guilty of the worst negative excesses. Most fans – including those at matches – ARE broadly supportive of the club but many have been puzzled by certain aspects of some of its actions. These are not people inventing and propagating myths about the club. But for perfectly good operational reasons, the club is generally reticent to explain its every action. Unfortunately, nature abhors a void and the worst of our real enemies have not been backward at coming forwards to fill that doomer-infested vacuum, wherever it has developed.
My personal preference is to isolate those who have become so twisted and bitter that they would seek harm upon the club rather than endure improvement under the current regime. But I am not comfortable with the indefinite condemnation of those with genuine questions, or are sincerely seeking clarity from a perspective made hazy by those in the media and beyond who wish harm upon AFC.
The ‘data’ referred to in Swales’ link was generated by the Black Scarf movement and is as reprehensible as it is irresponsible and unrepresentative. Let’s have no doubts as to who our real targets are, in this respect.
But taking up a position where the likes of Johnny (from Sunday’s main article) is expected to always be rejected from the positive mainstream thanks to an earlier standpoint is neither desirable nor sensible. For me, the ‘purpose’ of Positively Arsenal is not about the pursuit of vendettas but the promotion of all elements of value to our great club. The battle has, in any case, still a way to run yet even if we are sure the war can only end in one way. Let’s not undermine ourselves, our arguments or our position in the meantime.
The worst of the Anti-Arsenal mob will eventually just fade away as they’ll have few other options. The rest need to be engaged and taken on, constructively.
Let us not yet retire to our ivory towers; there’s still work to be done.
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You ought to be embarrassed if you don’t acknowledge ‘Arsene knows best’ to be an undeniable truth
this.
this is truth and reality. the realists have been mocked for being realists….welcome to the theatre of absurdity called “arsenal supporters” ..haha…. there are many pierced organs around who are arsenal fans ….nothing is perfect.
things just got a bit out of hand lately cause the idiots being the loudest had found a free environment to develop their sickness and spread it like a disease what with instant media accessible 24/7/365 and the defence system was cought off guard for a while thinking ” nah ..it cant be that bad…just some bad bacteria..weve been through worse” . then when the disease got worse and worse and started creating real problmes to the overal health of the organism thats when george picked up his gun and decided to act..very correct and very brave …
i consider myself equally sick as george when it comes to what wenger represents to arsenal but id never devote the time or the effort to DO something to turn the negative critique other than fire with my cannon my occasional shots to random bastards…we need an army of georges really..actually i thought that the older guard would all have turned into georges after the first decade of wenger…i wonder how they lost it…
i would say the difference is hidden in the martial arts. they teach discipline and calmness. if you aint calm and you panic you wont make the right moves, take the right breaths, do the right steps ….am i close
as of tomorrow wenger will order players to take kung fu lessons..sagna the master sifu….
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Andrew you are right of course..but if its a vendetta…its others who started it….out of the blue and for no particular reason people who claim to have been fans for years and years turned against everything we represented. It was fans of our own talking shit about wenger inheriting the invincibles and other things. Its our own fans who accuse him and ivan for being more interested in bonuses than the wellbeing of the club. It was our fans marching like idiots outside the most expensive stadium in the country wondering where the money is going? ( Duh …its right there in fornt of them). Now thats embarassing. That the fans of Arsenal would see it as fitting to march against the regime that brought them titles, unbeaten seasons european recognition world class infrastructure and the best years and football momments the fan could ever have hoped ..thus far.
And its ok…not everyone has the ability to decrypt what is unravelling infront of him but there were people all along who told these shitheads to relax and keep calm and not to judge as harshly and to view at it differently and to consider other things too. They ignored us. They mocked us. They insulted us and demanded that we follow their sick logic which ended with a ” thank you, you can fuck off now” and a trip into the abyss.
Fans of arsenal, genuine fans of arsenal were being mocked and singled out by their fellow supporters for being loyal to the manager the players and the ideals standards and philosophy we have as a club.
Many of us could see that winning the title with 20 yearolds and a 15m budget every year was never going to happen…we did not need some “expert” and his opinions and his blogging to tell us….BUT (and here lies the difference) due to the fact that we understood the enormity of the transition we could easily cast a blind eye on not winning shiny metal things because after all…we are arsenal fans win lose or draw title or no title….right or wrong? After all…the fans who have expereinced Arsenal before wenger couldnt possibly complain about anything, – yet they complained the loudest. Could it be that some “perfectionists” after “perfecting” their lives and careers decided to lecture Arsene Wenger via their keyboards and screens on the complicated nature of running football clubs ?
The ones who remained logical and down to earth were put aside as know nothing naive blind followers, cultists even some were called. It is so absurd. In this spiral of absurdity i lost it too and decided to join the madness only from the other side of the spectrum……..avanti george..avanti maestro… like fuck if we let the savage fools take away the most dear thing to us…ARSENAL…shooooot!!!..raise aim fire !!
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What Hunter said. Brilliantly put.
It’s not about a zero tolerance policy, at least not for me. There are those who have been pessimistic but respectful, who supported the club and the manager but had their angry and irrational moments when the Arsenal ship has weathered its worst storms. They will find their way back and I think most of us will be glad to have them. My beef is not with them.
It is those who have actively sought to harm the club, who have tried to drive Arsene out, who have unrepentantly spewed bile against the manager and board for years, who have celebrated our failures. With their blogs, banners and bin bags, peddling their ignorant, ego-driven agenda. They have been a cancer on the club, trying its hardest to poison us all. They are not allowed to forget their actions.
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What Andrew said at 4:18 pm. We at Positively Arsenal do more harm than good by pursuing vendettas and settling scores. Yes I have been guilty of not always taking my own advice but these days I am keen to engage the wider fan base rather than just using PA as an echo chamber for my own views and ideas. Thank heavens for Twitter. Coincidentally it so happens Johnny and I had a debate on Twitter long before his piece on Monday. We may have disagreed at some points but it was respectful.
Upwards and onwards
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I can never forgive treachery .
No,there is no way back for me if someone has tried to destabilise the club
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Anybody watching our new boy Sanogo? Pretty good player…..
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Sanogo scores again…..
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Well that that is quite an amazing piece George!
And apologies all, for inadvertently riling Andrew and Funs into a debate about the Board, which George quoted Funs response.
I was well and truly learned. And in the most polite manner too. That’s why I love this Blog. If pushed I’d say I’m an Arsene (mostly) Knows Best.
But here is the thing, sitting on my fat arse on the couch watching the Arse for 30 years and playing the odd kickabout does not give me a right to second guess the Greatest manager the world has ever seen. And fuck the former pros too.
Wgat the club have done in the last 8 years has been one (perhaps) the greatest achievement in our history.
FFS look at Liverpool to see how it goes wrong. And see the shadow dwellers up the road to see how it can never happen at all.
IN WENGER I STILL TRUST.
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Fungunner
I used to see a very big fellow going to the games with a simple ‘Arsene Knows’ printed on the back of his shirt.
Said it all.
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Hunter,
I’ll call it quits and bury the hatchet with the doomers on their little woodland site when they take down the AKB bullshit from their posting policy guide.
Hell will probably freeze over first.
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@ DC
(banned smiley face)
***
Anyone else picturing Sanogo + Akpom in a few years’ time? And drooling just a little… Oh God I need some Arsenal. Tennis notwithstanding, these last two weeks are going to be hellish.
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Excellent article George and it has generated an interesting debate. I don’t have a problem with the AKB label, which was intended as an insult, but why should it be? Respecting a man who does everything for the good of the club and acknowledging that he knows more than the average fan makes perfect sense to me.
Saying “Arsene knows” is not to say “Arsene is perfect.” Nobody is, obviously. It just means, “I trust Arsene.”
Spot on Fungunner
@ hunter13
July 2, 2013 at 4:54 pm. Sometimes you can go completely off the deep end and lose me, but this post was absolutely spot on. Andrew is absolutely right, but I totally see where you are coming from. I too have a hard time doing the ‘right’ thing in this case because I think that expecting Arsenal to tell fans all the ins and outs of the business was never going to happen and is completely unrealistic. AFC is a multi-million pound business in a highly competitive environment. You can hardly tell the fans everything, without spilling the beans to your rivals. There was enough information in the public domain for anyone with a brain and a passing desire to see the best for the club they claim to love to STFU and trust the people who know what they are doing and have access to information we could never dream of, to do their job without childish name calling and insults. Characterising PHW as a ‘buffoon’ when it was his contacts in the banking world that helped us raise vital funds for the stadium, or bringing AW’s age and Nationality into the insulting epithets is unforgiveable in my book. I will tolerate them, but I will never forget or forgive. They will be front and centre celebrating when we start winning again, but I will be remembering what a bunch of hypocrites they really are and will not be trusting them knowing they will turn at the first hint of things not going exactly as they want.
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“Anybody watching our new boy Sanogo? Pretty good player…..”
I’m sorry I missed it as I didn’t know it was on T.V.
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Funs,
There is the Tour.
I got my wish today!
Arsenal sign an Irish Sporting legend.
Jerry Flanney, Munster, Ireland and Lions hero is joining Arsenal’s backroom training staff as a fitness coach.
This is one hell of a well respected guy over here on the wee isle, looks like training sessions are going to get a lot lot tougher.
Start shitting yourselves, Stoke. This man eats shawcrosses for breakfast. Then he has a proper breakfast.
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This Yaya kid,
Is it just me (obviously not round here) or has Arsene just done it again?
Sort of Anelka/Drogba crossover. If he is similar to Lukalou I’ll be jaw down on the floor in awe of the Genius for Signing this kid, the criteria are all there, French, cheap as chips, unknown, dodgy injuries. And a massive shout out to the Grimster to.
Good work, Giles.
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