Never mind the buglers, where’s the FA Cup/4th place or better?
The fans are split, that’s a given.
But they are not split between AKB’s and WOB’s. Oh no, there are another set that sit between the two extremes. Just like in politics, the battle is won or lost in the middle ground. The vast majority of fans are floating voters. Within this middle ground there will be – and is – a full spectrum of ever changing feelings.
I would guess that up until Xmas the vast majority were happy and very much behind the manager.
Now? Who knows?
But it will be a whole lot less. And the amount they have shifted their positions will also differ greatly. Some will have had enough, while others may just have some nagging doubts.
Here is the crux.
They are all Arsenal fans.
They all want what is best for them. (Oh sorry – I meant “what is best for the club”). They all want us to win every game, they all want to win stuff, and they all want to be happy.
There is however, a basic divide.
Have the last 9 years been a success (as I believe) or have they been a failure? Therefore, has the manager overachieved or underachieved ?
David Dein recently said that the stadium move would have been impossible without the success Arsene had brought. Ray Parlour said that some of the loans to build the stadium were conditional on Arsene signing a 5 year deal. Arsene has told us he agreed to stay knowing that the league title was very unlikely. Ivan has admitted that there were indeed financial restraints that they had previously denied .
So taking those things into consideration, what was in Arsene’s job description? What did the board actually ask of him?
What was best for the club?
Arsene himself had said that his priority was qualifying for the Champions League with the financial rewards that follow it. He did that every year, and given his resources, that was an over-achievement. This isn’t my opinion, it’s a fact backed up by impartial data. The AST had an analysis done (I suspect they were disappointed with the results) which proved beyond doubt that this was the case.
People will point out that it’s not his job to make the club money, his job is to win trophies, but the reality is that his job is to achieve what his employers ask him to achieve. That may be very different to what a fan would want him to do.
If we finish in the top 4 and win the FA cup, I expect the undecided will once again shuffle towards us.
If we don’t?
Well we know all too well what will happen.
Positively Arsenal 
PG, the Arsenal have been the 4th best team in the EPL, for the past few years. One season we finished 3rd. Those are FACTS! The league table does not lie.
To claim that the Arsenal have not tried to win the EPL for the past few years, is IMVHO a blatant lie.
To claim that the Arsenal have not been good enough to win the EPL, is a different line of debate.
Supporters of the other 16 clubs, would be only too happy to accept the Arsenal achievements.
PG, I know it costs you time and money to run this site. The other sites can be too dependent on their advertisers, to be reliable, thus the need for distortion of the facts.
Keep strong. When the going is tough, the tough start playing.
COTG
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We won……yippee!
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Hunter & Gains
Like shotta I’ve enjoyed the debate too. And I to agree with Shotta at 7.24 too.
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How about the football eh? After the pelanty shout against Özil wasn’t given I was hoping they could find the energy required and the first goal was absolutely amazing. Özil and Ramsey make it look so easy, it’s not fair, but that was also a great team goal.
They’ve played some good stuff this year, this new team is getting better (Özil!). Only a lost Groaner will argue otherwise. Fotunately this is blog where you can share the pleasure an pride (welcome to our proud new member above!) in following your club.
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I liked the interchange too. I agree with Gains.
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we broke 300! … brilliant.
Notoverthehill April 20, 2014 at 8:03 pm
hey there, hallo..
“To claim that the Arsenal have not tried to win the EPL for the past few years, is IMVHO a blatant lie.
To claim that the Arsenal have not been good enough to win the EPL, is a different line of debate.”
that is exactly what most fans didnt get..wenger and board knew full well that it would be very difficult to win it, unless they stole it taking advantage of other teams mistakes (bit like lpool this year). but arsene would always keep the aims high so that they all learn what is expected. i still believe that the 07-08 was brought down by the system here because the possibility of wenger winning it while others pumping millions in the carousel was too much for them to handle.
” hey what the fuck is going on ??? we know he is good but for fucks sake we cant let him embarass us like that….we have a cartel to run here…piss off wenger ” and then we had the “arsenal dont like it up em”….. “to beat them you have to kick them” ….we had young players who couldnt cope with such pressure and thats natural…… most of our fans would blame the players and the manager, i blamed the people above wenger for not protecting them all. united had this label of the team from the ehart of england with brittish backbone of players, chelsea had the trio of lampard/terry/cole plus kenyon…and there is wenger with clichy cesc denilson eboue etc ….lol where do you think youre going? …this is england…. 😉 the title? muahahah ..take dean and dowd and others now to referee your games and enjoy
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Right the f••• on. If it wasn’t so tragic I would also say (0(. But it is and young men had their legs smashed to pieces and their careers facing ruin. And the higher UPS orchestrated the whole thing and sat the f••• back and witnessed it and then where able to sleep peacefully at night and look themselves in the damn mirror in the morning. Including the man I so love and respect who couldn’t do anything to protect those kids. The reason why some left wasn’t because they longed to be back home and moms cooking. The real reason was they actually felt helpless and putting the playing careers on the line was just to big a sacrafice. I don’t blame them and I don’t see how anyone can. AARON , EDVARDO, ABU , FREDY & SAGNA ( TWICE ). thank goodness they have been able to piece it back together and the majority of them can still earn a living doing what they grew up loving . I salute them one and all for they paid the heaviest price for the stadium and our move to the next level. Not the godd•••• supporters with their wrongly placed desire and impatience for the next freaking tin can. Ruthlessness in its most primal form. Maybe not a statute but a portrait of them and their story would be appropriate somewhere in the halls of the new HIGHBURY. I certainly think so. And sorry for the long diatribe and if I brought back some memories and emotions that many feel better left in the past and not talked about. I try, god knows I try. But those images are imprinted and so are the damn emotions that go with them.
(0( . You might feel it’s crazy but while we where at top the league for 130 days every time the guys stepped onto the field I was thinking nay expecting a similar tragic event to unfold. Why?
Because nothing really has changed after all.
I blame the bloody physios and yes venga. :-S
Damned idiots not only didn’t get behind the guys, they called them soft and oh yes, there is something wrong with our training regiment. f•••••• bas••••••.
Don’t get me started…….
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Almost forgot.
For you SHOTTA.
BOOM SHAKALAKA BOOM BOOM.
against all odds . The ARSENAL is still right on your a••.
Be afraid. Be very afraid……
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thats why i wanted the savage who is utterly ruthless and a bastard and wenger smilling saying “ooopps i didnt see it” …. 😉 fucking cunts decimated our squad..broke their spirits but its ok ..its the pashun… the way i see it, a true fan of arsenal will never forget what happened in birmingham or how they have treated wenger and his players. plus…we won that game .. and they cheated us again with non existant penalty on clichy…
one of those incidents that correct themselves over the course of a season…. ha! and what could wenger do ?…eveytime he spoke about it it was like ” shut up or go back to france, spend some fucking money, get real players” ….
what about newcastle…4-0 and then two penalties and a red and constant fouls to bring newcastle players in our area…..4-4… “spineless arsenal…stupid diaby”….. i think we were topping the table then too. do you see the country rallying the rest of teams to kick liverpool ? why is it good for football to watch gerrard and liverpool win it and not wenger’s arsenal who have the most ethical of approaches ? ….. what? and let a frenchman own us in our national sport??????????????????? ts ts ts ….
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and then when eduardo made it back…we were playing celtic and the man dived over boruc who was already committed ( coming out) nowhere near the ball….and they called him a cheat ….in the country where he nearly lost his leg because of the game’s culture …they called him a cheat ! ahahah
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Man. Hunter you understand. Very painfull to even contemplate. 18, 19, 20 year young men treated like the slab meat on the counter to be hacked. Over and over again. sons o bi•••••.
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man I so glad we got a few main players back and we are back on track. Goals are back. Confidence is soaring and these guys are gona makes us proud. I must say for the most part the guys who came in to fill in temporarily wrap themselves in glory. They had stumbles. Some pretty nasty ones but they did themselves proud in the games that came after acclimation. I was very happy with NACHOS performance today. And POLDI, man he has hit his freaking zone and I hope he doesn’t come out of it. (0(
And WOJO, super cool goalie. I’m glad for him today and for the clean sheets.
The stats say they had almost same number of shoots on goal. I didn’t feel like that to me. Very assured and purposeful. They fought and took so licks but they pushed them back with tactical intent. Bend over and say ahhhh.
The final should be a lot of fun..
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DC
thank you for that Muppets sketch. good piece of culture I guess. Next BORIS & NATASHA… 😉
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hehe i just saw the start with the flying boards…”premier league” …and hey thats a penalty on ozil early in the game..wtf???
sterling the best young player in europe ……. mmmhmmm
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Well, we may have been TRYING to win the league for years, but this season was one of the few good chances since 07-08.
It’s all about the deltaP i.e. the differential between Arsenal’s final points total versus the champion’s year on year. I believe that this season we are getting much closer to the top position, I’m not one of those saying if only Theo and Ramsey had been fit we would have won this year, but a number of factors could have meant we were a Hell of lot closer to the top position.
The biggest problem of the season is not having a more defensive game plan for the first half in difficult away games where the teams’ natural slow starts and attack based positioning have been ruthlessly punished by the kind of managers who love watching analysis Dvd’s and stat sheets. Wenger has the whole summer to figure out a fix to this, and once it’s fixed Arsenal will be the top dog in this league for the next few years.
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New post is up people.
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I agree with Hunter.
07-08 wasn’t about Arsenal bottling it, but a systematic and deliberate campaign to destroy our moral.
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Who said Sterling best youngster in Europe?
Sorry for my ignorance I try to follow only things Arsenal
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