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 
Interesting site to have come across. A 5 year fight against scepticism? This article focussed on Arsene’s thoughts almost 5 years ago: http://www.arsenal.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=511911 add the Mansour impact in the 5 years that followed, factor in the effects of changes in player contract laws and the negativity since has been magnified. Some positive thinking is long overdue.
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Doubting Thomas you say Andrew?
I have seen and heard of Doubting Timothy, though he has been silent of late.
Long may the void remain unfilled and silence unbroken though expect the usual yapping mod month with the usual ingrate self publicists invited to the AGM.
Not much Arsenal news today I think, no mention of any injuries at Swansea which is welcome. I presume our brave lads will be preparing for Napoli. Another set of obstacles to be overcome tomorrow. Higuain and Hamsik rested at the weekend by Rafa just to be in tip top form for the Emirates, Insigne the one to watch though.
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really good post. ‘doubting thomas’ could really really do with some perspective
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hahaa great post..very funny!
‘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.’
isnt that exactly about knowing your teams abilities (ceiling) but not letting it known to the public as not to show a drop in standards and to also show faith in the team ??? ….the exact opposite of clueless moyes saying “we cant do this…we cant do that..we need new this..etc etc” ? or mou talking about eggs and hatching ???…..
isnt that ( public speaking, diplomacy, protection of interests, not letting to many kittens out the bag) also part of his exceptional managing repertoire? to keep the high standards going EVEN under severe financial restrictions? brave man!!
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Good morning ANDREW and everyone. Very amusing post.
The game against Napoli has me nervous. It will be a tough but a good test. Hamsik is a tour the force and they have a very potent counter attack. I’m glad the first meeting is on home turf and expect a very noisy and intimidating atmosphere to help ARSENAL overcome the Italianos.
UP WITH THE GUNNERS!!!!!!
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2 more great results this week would be fantastic, sadly we then we go into the dreaded international break that will have us all crossing our fingers, getting the lucky Heather & rabbits feet out but we are due some luck as far as injuries go….;)
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Mel September 30, 2013 at 10:14 am
lets slaughter some sheep then …
preferably……the ones who followed the media and antiwenger narratives
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Lol. Lets do some slaughtering.
MEL
luck heather? Or is it feather.
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Morning all – GK, Moyes seems to be working hard to reduce expectations at the club though I think the problems at Manure predate his appointment by a long way. Hard to avoid the conclusion that Sir Alex knew exactly what he was doing when he said farewell to an aging squad and coffers that are not exactly brimful of resources.
It’s very early days yet, of course and nobody has ever won the league by the end of September. Manure, on the other hand, are doing their best to lose it, it would seem.
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Gooonerkam
‘Expect a very noisy and intimidating athmosphere’ at the Ems.
That would be nice, but I doubt it.
Runs off to the cloakroom….
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Excellent Andrew.
What’s this? Daily Mail has two(!?!) articles sympathetic to Arsenal.
The Carra one as well.
The world has turned upside down.
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Feels strange doesn’t it DC; luckily the Daily/Sunday Mirror is lagging behind and still ploughing the gloom-laden furrow. Then again, even today’s Mirror is reproducing the Alan Sugar pro-Wenger comments so who knows what’s going on …
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Witchcraft !
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Today is the 17th anniversary of Arsène Wenger becoming Arsenal’s Manager.
17 years of St. Totteringham’s days.
I DOUBT IT!
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I was married on St. Thomas’s Day (29 April 1984). The only doubt I have is that my wife thinks she knows something about football…she is a spud after all…..
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Many rivers to cross, yet. But the force is now with us, not against.
Thank heavens in December 2012, when it was gloomiest, after that loss to Bradford City, when the doubters and cowards were at their peak, Positive Arsenal decided to take a stand. Thanks AA.
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Andrew
Maybe this explains some of little England’s deep dislike of anything French:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/france-smells-bad-and-five-other-things-1549640
If the Mirror had done something like that about the Irish, or say, Nigerians there would be some uproar.
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Shotta
I think the tide began to turn, or at least began the fight back at the FA cup game at Brighton. Jan 26th, the same time as positive Arsenal appeared.
Those muppets (again a tiny minority who completely misjudged the mood of the real majority) got their asses handed back to them when they tried to unfurl their ‘Wenger out’ banner. We were winning the game at the time. We went on to win the game.
Now we are winning the argument.
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Oh my Denns.
The penny is even half-dropped with the grove.
“Part of me doesn’t like that it’s so easy, and a part and half of me sees the logic in tying a manager down to a few more years after he’s just spunked £43m on a player. Stability and continuity aren’t words you can associate with many clubs at the moment. I’ve always said I’d be happy to see Wenger stay if he showed that he could progress the team. The summer was a shocker in many ways, but in the end, we arrived where we needed to arrive. We have the marquee players we’ve all been looking for over the past 5 years, the fans are on side and we’re having a great run so far.”
Faint praise. And a bucket load of revisionism.
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dc @ 11:02am – Have you forgotten the so-called negative spiral after our loss to the Scum on March 3rd. The doubting Thomases have had a field day. But the tide is turning inexorably.
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DC – that comment reminds me of one of my favourite episodes of the BBC political satire Yes Minister/Yes Prime Minister – the one where the Whitehall mandarin is patiently explaining to the elected minister that the UK nuclear deterrent has little to do with the Cold War (which was then ‘raging’) because, “of course”, our missiles are in fact all pointing at the real danger – the French!
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I’ve enjoyed our ‘negative spiral’ Shotta.
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dotn forget now …none of what we see today would have happened had it not been for fans pressure!!! ….
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“‘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.”
It was the insistence by those who follow the club closely that this was not the situation that left their motives or their intelligence open to question, especially when the above comments have been made numerous times in be past. The quotes are on the record, many times, and there’s not much of an excuse. Not even the PR spun the other way by the club: surely all these experts on PR, finance and football worked that one out?
Not exactly witchcraft. Possibly an unflattering tribute to Vincent Price’s Witchfinder General.
As Keys and Grey said on their smashing (sorry!) show this weekend, AW is a genius plain and simple. A gift to the game in this country.
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A gift to the game in this country.
its why i get so upset and aggressive when the clowns of this country think they can judge him as harshly…they should be more respectful for what wenger has brought to their game instead of throwing feaces at johan sebastian bachs…. as i like to say : “these fools here couldnt even lay the grass properly in their national football stadium and they want to critisise wenger about anything to do with football?”
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Of course the DT’s will say Arsenal have only played 1/6 of the season so far, and are always one loss away from a crisis.
Well Arsenal are the form team for the whole of 2013 so far after 25 consecutive league games with 55 points.
Simple extrapolation of the points/game ratio would suggest we are heading for 83 points this season, which I think would be more than enough to win the title this year.
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Just thinking…..that international break would be an ideal time for some contracts to be sorted out……..
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And the instance that AW was scrooging whilst rebuilding the team these past two seasons is simply a poor reflection.
A team needs to be built. Over time. A quick glance at the title winning squads of the two English Gas/Oil Clubs surely makes that obvious to all observers? So, keeping your powder dry for an Özil here or an alleged Cavani there (reports of a £30M bid in January weren’t enough to beat off another Gas club) is a bad thing? Or would people have preferred it if AFC went on a hit and miss splurge like the team in our shadow? they have past form on spending big bucks on crap- some of their signings will not succeed. Why would a club that isn’t registered in the Caymen Islands want to do that?
Santos and Gervais were reasonable punts, Santos quickly and brilliantly replaced, a decision which had as big an impact on the post Xmas run as any. And Gervais is getting plenty o plaudits at Roma for the moment: two goals yesterday! Possibly part of the punt with Gervais considered Gnabry and Ryo in the shadows: as in methinks some did protest a teeny weeny bit too much. Enough!
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Or would people have preferred it if AFC went on a hit and miss splurge like the team in our shadow?
but isnt that what @ambition@ is all about? to show you have no fear throwing money around ?
(ahahahaaa..)
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“In Arsène, Arsenal Utterly Trusts”
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Lovely, AA – I’m sure it’s been said that in years to come, staying competitive in the last five or six seasons will be looked at at as AW’s greatest achievement.
You should design a 12-step programme to wean some people off the negativity to which they are addicted. (banned smiley face)
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Just made a mistake and spent some time looking at other blogsites. It would seem that OG is now a target for the Thomases again, as is (bizarrely) JW. I need to have another look at Saturday’s game, because my memory has OG crucially involved in both goals, and Jack rescuing an extravagant (but potentially ball losing) moment from Ramsey, before setting up his wonder goal.
There will always be injuries, of course, and the problem with having Internationals in your squad is that by definition they have to play all those extra matches, but it is worth spending some time thinking what might happen should all our players be fit and in form at the same time. Not thinking as in “shock horror, Ozil won’t make the starting line-up”, but thinking as in ” just how will the rotation go?”
I can imagine Wallcot and Cazorla coming on after 60/70 minutes of one match, but then starting the next game, before being replaced on the hour by Wilshere and Podolski. That’s too simple, of course, but you’ll get my drift. It is the thought of fresh legs coming on when there is still enough time to make a real difference that excites – but when those fresh legs belong to world-class internationals it gets beyond exciting.
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Hunter
I’ve written comments on Untold guesstimating upon how it was that a billion pound football stadium was built without a football pitch. Let’s be honest: these ineffable mysteries are probably best left to the experts. : )
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People buying into the bin dippers propaganda that the Arsenal management and board are the worst in the country that was most disappointing. Birmingham, Newcastle…the list is quite long before you get to AFC. And in spite of all the bullcrap your average cabbie who happens to be a spud will only praise AW (in my experience).
Poor, poor form from the petty nationalists and the bitter malcontents.
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Fortunately we have a better quality of cabbie here Fins.
Isn’t that right Mel?
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@ Mel September 30, 2013 at 10:14 am
the feet of a rabbit called Heather would be best of all… Though not for her, of course.
@ Arsenal Andrew
” Hard to avoid the conclusion that Sir Alex knew exactly what he was doing when he said farewell to an aging squad and coffers that are not exactly brimful of resources.”
My suspicion exactly.
@ anicoll5, arsenal andrew
What’s going on is that some people are starting to think we genuinely have a chance to do something special and not just for this year. Journalists, people in general, like to be associated with success. If we do become the dominant club they want to be hanging on to our coat tails. Hence the praise (Alan Sugar excepted, he’s always thought a great deal of Arsenal and AW) and collective amnesia that six weeks ago we were “a club in crisis”.
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I’ve got no problem with Tottenham supporting cabbies turning around and saying stuff like: “I wish there were more managers like AW. He is top class. And a gentleman too.”
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The nail in the dts coffin will be winning the league or the CL however their argument is already lost. Our season may not produce the ultimate hammer blow however for now its important fans enjoy ARSENAL top of the league and make sure the atmosphere is red and white and not blue and white
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Ooops. Of course you get much better cabbies round these parts.
No doubt about it.
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When is the narrative going to change from doubts about our durability to Arsenal have an outstanding chance of winning the league this year? Do we even comprehend the quality of the players we have in the wings to return from injury?
Cazorla, Podolski, Walcott, Chamberlain, Rosicky, Diaby, Sanogo!!!
To quote great man himself:
‘The competition is so open, so tight. At the moment, if I tell you we cannot do it, then you will tell me I’m completely stupid.
‘It will be down to consistency, getting the injured players back, and then we have a good chance.’
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FunGunner – I’m sure you are right about journalists wanting to associate themselves with success. I’d go one step further and suggest it’s slightly more insidious than that in as far as, for safety’s sake, they (journalists) prefer to move as a pack with very little dissent between them.
The signs of a shift in favour of more positive coverage of AFC are certainly there now and one can confidently assume there is some jostling for position as regards who will now become the ‘fall guys’.
How ironic it would be if one of Ferguson’s legacies was leaving Man U in such a weak and vulnerable state that his old friends in the media were obliged to change tack.
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Lord Sugar may not be a cabbie but his opinion as a former owner of the scum does count for something when he says AW is the greatest manger in the country and AVB is not fit enough to tie his shoelaces.
Too busy to look up the quotes.
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I’m sorry to have to be the one to break up the party folks.
My expert advisers elsewhere in the blogsphere suggest that the squad is paper thin, the team will fall apart and the self confidence collapse at the first lost game we encounter.
Wenger should have listened to the fans, Thre is no quality cover at CF and CB because Podolski and Vermarlen are mearly figments of your imagation.
Oh, and Di Canio could have got Arsenal into the position they are in the league right now, especially against all the bad teams that we played such as the LWC’s.
.. and Gnarby is just a ball boy who got on the team bus by mistake.
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The more positive media coverage is a desire to promote a “we’ve never doubted Wenger” among the two faced media jackals and wanting to associate themselves with success
The truth is of course the media pack don’t really care for success
They love crisis,turmoil, booing
They love dissent, misery and all that goes with it
To hell with them
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Well George I’m not sure if any of the Arsenal Tim’s would agree with you mate,but I can live with that!
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Anicoll – yep, that sounds about right although I think a great way of promoting discord and misery elsewhere is to over-state success for the few at the expense of the efforts of everyone else.
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I am disappointed with the silence from the FA this morning in respect of further action against Torres for his attempt to scratch out Verthongen’s eyes
An exemplary punishment is required for such despicable wierd behaviour
A five match ban and having to wear fluffy mittens for the rest of the season might do it
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Like Harry I’m happy to be cautiously optimistic.
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We are top of the league!
Some funny videos on Arsenal Fans TV
A good distraction from the huge game tomorrow. Rafa proves his qualities, those Chelsea fans acted with as much grace as some of our own.
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I wasn’t the only one who laughed when the referee who jumps for joy when Tottenham scored sent off Torres on the weekend (Ok, he could have been sent off earlier for ‘raising hands’…)
Two dodgy pelanties so far. Defenders allowed to pull down the oppositions pants inside the area. And Mike Dean. The spuds could linger about for a while.
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scored<score
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