This post is dedicated to Thomas’s everywhere. No, really, it is.
These comments before the weekend from Arsene Wenger, via the Daily Mail, should be of interest to anyone seeking to understand the events of the last few years at Arsenal:
“‘We are, resource-wise, more competitive,’ he said, and clearly he feels the money needed to fund the move to the Emirates has, until now, clipped his wings.
‘Until 2005, we could compete every year to win the league,’ he added.
‘After we moved into the new stadium, it’s not a coincidence even if some seasons we were close to winning the title, we couldn’t.
‘But, believe me, I have worked harder in the last four or five years, against scepticism, against players moving out.”
It’s that final sentence – the one about working harder over the last five years, and why – that I find remarkably telling.
He is, in effect, saying that his job was more challenging in the last few years than during any other part of his 17 year tenure – and he cites player departures and scepticism as the two key reasons. Whilst the older playing talent took flight, the Doubting Thomas’s began to hi-jack the headlines.
If you yourself are an Arsenal fan, but one riddled with doubt and cynicism, anger and criticism, just take a moment to think about that.
Ask yourself what role YOU played in making the Arsenal Manager’s job that much harder.
Then ask yourself, regardless of victory, draw or defeat, what role, as a fan and a supporter, you might play in the future.
If you are a Doubting Thomas or have loved ones or know of anyone who is doubtful about Arsenal’s future prospects, it’s not too late to do something about it. Simply log onto http://www.postivelyarsenal.com for at least 20 minutes every day and rediscover your faith in the club. Help is at hand; just twenty minutes every day.
Go on, take that first positive step. Today and every day.
Positively Arsenal 
Kevin De Bruyne wants out. Josh McEachran, Gael Kakuta and Nathan Ake are in the footballing equivalent of Siberia. Mata is about to chuck his toys out of the pram and fuck off back to Spain. Let’s hope for the sake of football, players like Mata and De Bruyne develop fully and become very good players.
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The shame of it is alot of the bin liners bi are so short of football knowledge they still don’t feel stupid, so stupid to realize their stupidity if you like and as far as the British hacks are concerned they hate it that ARSENE knows and they clearly don’t
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Hunter 4:45 correct
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Gains @ 6.18
True he has given air time to some bin baggers but I haven’t watched that : )
I think he can be balanced but I don’t skim every playlist so I don’t know.
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@Gains
I’m looking forward to seeing Mourinho’s limitations exposed. He’s not proven himself capable of rebuilding sides or nurturing players, and seems increasingly unable to foster a united dressing room because of his egotistical antics. I believe he will, once again, not last very long in the Chelsea job. His nature is to come in, spend, win, then leave once his style has made him unpopular and before any rebuilding or transition has to take place. Leave that to the next guy. The clip of him ditching the press conference, and what he says about Mata and De Bruyne just before he leaves, I think says quite a bit about his philosophy of football and management.
To paraphrase, he says De Bruyne was not selected because he didn’t like his game against Swindon and the way he was training. And Mata is selected because of the way he played and the way he’s training. He seems to see players as simply tools to win the next game based on their last game rather than individuals to be nurtured and trained into a system. He’s discarding players rather than coaching them into his ways, and he will not cater for a player as talented as Mata.
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Gains & Harry
I don’t know what will happen to the Red Mancs but I do know that if I was an Everton fan I’d be happy with Martinez replacing Moyes!
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From the developments and the type of talk coming out of notes ,it looks like we will be treated to many a nightmares coming out of the theater of the dreams.
Ps. Excellent link to the post from ny.
very balanced and honest.
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Martinez has them playing pretty stuff at the moment. I also like the fact that he brought McCarthy with him from Wigan, as he’s probably one of the most promising youngsters in British football at the moment.
Now that you mention Everton, here’s a player who, along with Pat Nevin, I loved during the eighties. His name is Ricardo Bochini and he was kept out of the Argentine national team by none other than Maradona.
Enjoy
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@Leos
“He seems to see players as simply tools to win the next game based on their last game rather than individuals to be nurtured and trained into a system. He’s discarding players rather than coaching them into his ways, and he will not cater for a player as talented as Mata.”
I have a huge avocado plant in my backyard. My biggest problem every season is not finding recipes to turn my avocados into beautiful dishes. My biggest problem is trying to find people to give my avocados away to so they don’t fall on the ground and rot.
The problem Chelsea and Man City will eventually run into is they’ll end up with too many avacados than they know what to do with. I bet right now City and Chelsea each have at least one hundred million pounds worth of players sitting on the bench. Given how these players are humans, they’re bound to rot from all that sitting around and having their talent questioned. Just look at the way Torres has declined at Chelsea. I can almost guarantee you he’d do much better under a manager and an organic system such as ours.
On top of all this, they have a wonderful youth system, but none of those players can break through because the owner, not even the manager, buys whatever player strikes his fancy and relegates those kids to football limbo.
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Ebecilio
kyle? he left? …they regarded him the next schneijder ( in fm 09 i think)
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double canister September 30, 2013 at 5:33 pm
george …we need a ‘like’ button …. a ‘crap’ button ..and a ‘fuckin well said’ button
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Steve_I September 30, 2013 at 6:56 pm
id say ok for the first one but for the second one …i will accpet “tolerated’ if you can accpet that im allowed to mock and laugh at said opinions … the fair thing..both get satisfied. ( smile)
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this guy was rather good but nowhere near jojo shelvey
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LeoS : It’s nothing but a theory, an emotional and baseless theory with no legitimacy to ‘opinion’ status.
haha ..yes i can agree to that…opinions should carry some credibility with regards to facts and objective truths….. sure i DISLIKE ferguson but if i call him a crap manager then my opinion is worthless as its biassed by emotion rather the objective reality that for him to have been there fro 20 years and to have won what he’s won he cant be that crap.
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Gains, I thought in the first half vs. Swansea that we missed Arteta’s coolness and intelligence in possession when they pressed us so hard. Luckily they tuckered themselves out, we raised our intensity and speed of play, and have someone fit enough in Ramsey to push them back into defending on their heels as easily in the 50th minute as in the 94th.
I think the general discussion of Flamini or Arteta is somewhat pointless without context. Who is available, most fit or needs a rest? What is the matchup, the tactical advantage, the style we want to play? What we have shown very nicely this season is the variety in our ways of playing. Both will get plenty of games, can sometimes play together, and offer different things. For me, generally I go with Arteta but a wonderful and strong case can be made in specific situations for the preferability of Flamini. Delightful for AW and Arsenal! Vs. Napoli, either would be good. Maybe Flamini is more familiar with the Serie A side? Maybe we need to be more careful in possession given their counterattacking ability and could benefit from Arteta?
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Yes, Hunter, Ebecilio and Özyakup left because Van Persie convinced them it was in their best interest to abandon Arsenal.
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Wise words, Gains, on the Mourinho charade. That guy has started to really get found out and has already started getting terribly defensive and upset. He’s probably never going to get over the fact that his ridiculous antics in Spain have prevented him from getting the ManU job. He really has a task ahead now–what to do with creative players and a brief from the boss to play Arsenal style football? It is making him miserable. The cult of his personality is on the way down and I won’t shed any tears. He’s simply entertainment and the quality of that has declines too. The only manager of a major side competing against Arsenal that I have any time for is Pellegrini.
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Limestone, I think Swansea were able to get on top of us because Flamini doesn’t have an eye for a pass which can initiate a counter attack or a pass to a teammate with less pressure on him. Just look at the passing and possession statistics in last Saturday’s game. In the first half, Swansea had made 282 passes to our 221 and enjoyed better than 50% possession. When we get Santi and Arteta back in the team, you’ll see us concede less because we’ll be able to hold on to the ball a hell of a lot better.
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Lime, I knew he was going to be found out at Real Madrid because their support were not going to tolerate his brand of anti-football.
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Gains, my thinking exactly v. Swansea. I wonder if by Dortmund we’ll see Arteta starting precisely because of this.
Re: Mourinho, it was surprising that they didn’t revolt earlier but it always looked a poor fit–not every club is like Chelsea with its fans low footballing culture and expectations.
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Hunter , I think I got it wrong way round in my 6:56 to your 4:45 , possibly.
My 4:35 to your 3:37 was what I meant but I made an assumption when reading your 4:45 that you put the YEs and NO in the same order I had, but you hadn’t. Only on return and reading your 8:28 do i see my error. Clear?
If not, I’ll clarify:
I Don’t think it’s all about opinions and I DO think they are covering their arses/own inadequacies etc when they say it is… because quite simply and clearly… it isn’t.
Opinions are about opinions and opinions, unfortunately, can be held by both the sensible and the daft.
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alabamagooner at 2:43 pm
Thank you. I’m going to read that article again, as I became “re-stunned” when reading the quote you picked from it: “Wenger’s true triumph is that his optimism always gets the better of pessimism.”
Note to self: I allow my optimism to get the better of my pessimism.
AA, Thanks.
PG, Thanks.
Steww, Thanks.
Arsenal supporters,
Thanks.
I feel a PA podcast coming on. (glass half full).
Great comments and debate since I wrote the above, several hours ago. Ta for link to miserable maureen. There ae other posters I wanna thank, but reading 50 at a time means I forget whom to thank and for what. But Thanks. All. (Y’all?) Dench.
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Maybe we should just discuss other blogs less? And that definitely includes meself.
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Wow. I was off. Not jol. Not Sparky.
ALLEN ‘ PARDON MOUA’ PARRDOW sacked as Newcastle head. Who’s next??
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a
I can’t thank you guys enough for this place, I’ve never had any regret since my first time here (discovering that I’m not alone). A day without visiting here is never complete even if it mean reading old pieces (and hope I’ll be good enough to give a good write up here someday)… He’s been in charge of Arsenal for the majority of my life and I wouldn’t wish it any other way. I believe most of them (wobs) have been served the humble pie… There’s only one Arsène Wenger.
Many thanks to you guys here… George, Stew, Andrew, etc..
And of course give it up for no 7 Bradyesque (who never thought it to be a condescend in following me twitter). God bless you all!
@Only1Arsene
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