“It is at times like these when, for a manager, the world can seem a dark place. As methods are pilloried, tactics crucified and past glories forgotten, friends can feel like foes and adversaries appear as assassins. When criticism is flying at you from all angles, self-belief is the only solace.”
A well written rare piece of sports journalism. You would immediately think, the article talks about Wenger, but no. It is the Guardian defending Guardiola after Bayern’s defeat against Real Madrid. Sure, defend Guardiola. He is certainly much better than the likes of Mourinho. However, why is there no sincere defense of Wenger?
Wenger has consistently shown remarkable self-belief during plenty of dark days in the past 8 years. Spending figures show that the club has overachieved. Despite all the challenges, many of them unfair, the club is still on track and is now becoming a beast about to be unleashed. So, why isn’t there a defence of the club and manager? All that the manager consistently gets is, “Arsene did some good things, yeah yeah , but blah blah, cliche cliche, spend spend or go go…”
It is not as though these people in the media are dumb. Sure, you have the Michael Owens, but what about those cunning pundits/writers who are professional sports journalists? The likes of Amy Lawrence, Henry Winter, etc.. These people are not dumb. They clearly know what they are pushing and how to sell it.
Many of you here say that we need to ignore the media agenda and think for ourselves. I agree with that. However, the media also has a social responsibility. Not just in sports, but this applies even more so in the general world. We all have a part to play in society, especially voices that are heard by many. When, page 3 girls are pushed ahead and real issues affecting a society are hidden, those driving such agendas must be exposed. While every media outlet should have the freedom to write what they want, there should also be accountability.
For Arsenal, the media has been successful in building this image of a manager who is afraid of spending big, doesn’t know defence or tactics, a board interested only in money, keeping away the saviour Usmanov and last but not least, the poor shortchanged fans. An air of weakness has been built around the club. This mood must be shattered and those who made it shown wrong.
We have made a lot of progress in the past 8 years. The club and manager are highly regarded throughout the world. The media darlings Guardiola and Klopp, look up to Wenger and seek his advice. Players respect him. As much as we have mixed feelings about Cesc, he still calls Arsene boss. Theirry Henry calls him boss even in interviews these days. That, to me speaks volumes about his coaching. The club has been self-sufficient even when it could have taken the easier route, especially during times of financial difficulty and sold it’s soul to Usmanov. Instead, now club is about to burst into a self made super club. There are a lot more points, a lot more things going well for Arsenal that are written, discussed and shown very well by those of you who fight for Arsenal. People like you are needed, to fight back and push away the agenda.
Lastly, I would like to repeat a point many of you here have mentioned as I think it is quite important. As the man representing the club, Arsene is more than capable to handling the media vipers. Just read his responses to some of the media comments and I assure you, you would be enjoying his put-downs. It is the boos, jeers and criticism of the fans that hurt the man.
Please don’t do it.
Don’t be a Piers Morgan. Support the man (people like him are rare) and the club.
Today’s post was by Sensational Arsenal.( @Madras_Periyar )
Positively Arsenal 
i agree with you iwasthere, with regards to the difficulty of discharging the deadwood but what stopped arsenal from enjoying their deserved success? the limitation of players ability and/or manager? or the system ? in uk and europe. everytime we played an important game opponetn was allowed to kick us and as soon as we kicked we got yellows, reds etc. they foul us in the penalty area..nothing given..then in our area rooney/drogba/babel dives and its an immediate penalty.
in other words…do you think that the system is clean and fair for a project like wenger’s to pay off? should we slag off wenger for being naive or should we slag off the system for not putting things right?
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Chances are we might finish this campaign in third place and the FA CUP. now that is an overachievement.
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Well said!
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There was no way in hell we could have kept players like adeypaymore, na$try and rvp . No matter how much less we payed any of our supporting cast. For the above said players, the ARSENAL was a stepping stone club on their way to their big pay day. Strictly bussiness and no loyalty to speak of. Our “socialist” pay policy of the time probably saved us losing many of our up and coming players that were and still are targets for our rivals. They will poach them off even if they are not needed in their set up just to destabalise a tenacious league rival. Just because they can. Money is not an issue and this is a sound tactical move on our rivals part. By paying a bit more and keeping our players happy we checkmated their efforts.
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HenryB, not a clue, but then he is always cryptic.
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AW s system is paying off. Against all odds some of which you have mentioned. If it wasn’t for the three or four clubs around us that buy their false glory and throw money at any and all problems they have and change managers like changing under ware, we would have and should have won many a competitions. It is what it is and without any help from the league, pigmol, and the prevailing culture time for the fruition is near . Time to unleash the beast, the juggernaut that is the ARSENAL.
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NOTH ?
I understand perfectly. Just read the post a few times.
At any rate we disect these policies a few years down the line with 20/20 hindsight. Those brave enough to make the decisions then did so with the survival of the club and income from ECL at stack. With the gun to their heads they made the decisions as we can all see now they succeeded. We never dropped below fourth and on three occasions we came so very close in winning the comps. Second place counts for nothing even against all odds. the level of expectations is unreal.
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@ SA
Top post.
@ Iwasthere
“All valid points but a word of caution; it is absolutely right that the Guardian runs to defend Pep even though his methods and tactics were ruthlessly exposed over the two legs in much the same way he himself did to Tito in last year’s semi final. Therein lies the difference between using same pleas for Arsene as for Pep…. Pep won everything last year and for years before; Arsene has won zero for 9 years.”
Your distinction is flawed – the point SA makes is that suffering a reverse doesn’t invalidate Pep’s previous achievements or his philosophy. Arsene has been the manager for nearly 18 years, not nine years. His relative lack of success in the most recent eight and a half years do not invalidate his previous success, especially considering the circumstances he was working in. His achievement in keeping the club competitive while we were financially restricted has been described as miraculous by such varied commentators as Christian Purslow and Gabriele Marcotti – neither of whom are Arsenal fans.
“You have argued the case very well with very valid reasons why we have fallen behind our own very high standards over the last 6-7 years – we have actually performed more or less in line with expectations based on salary spend and with the restrictions that the stadium move, and the Board’s ethos bring.”
What you say is not correct – independent analyses, most tellingly the one commissioned by the AST, have shown that AW has OVER-achieved consistently.
“However I just can’t help but feel that Arsene can be his own worst enemy – and that with just a little more effort, whether tactically, motivational, or in meeting a seller’s price for a quality player, we would have never ever have got close to this “9 years without blah blah” nonsense.”
The implication that Arsene is not making sufficient effort seems contradicted by his image as a workaholic. I also question whether “effort” has any part to play in tactical decisions or agreeing on a player’s valuation. Everyone can do better. But if you are looking for a manager who never makes a mistake, all I can say is good luck with that.
“An ECL Final, 2 League Cup finals, a European semi, an FAC Semi (all lost) and, 2 or three seasons including this) of being well in the mix in Feb/March time for EPL only to fall away; that is his current legacy so questions and criticisms should be expected if not always justified and often pushed to an extreme by people with more sinister motivations than Arsenal’s best interests at heart.”
Questions and criticisms are inevitable, but is it too much to hope that these could be informed and fair? I don’t think it should be too much to ask for, especially from those with Arsenal’s best interests at heart.
“I know not everything can be perfect, but I do believe that things could have and should have been better than they are. Let’s hope we get that 4th place and beat Hull to at least get the monkey off our backs…….”
Things could have been better. They could also have been far, far, worse. Familiarity breeds contempt – that’s our problem, not Arsene’s managerial record.
@ goonerkam
Can you explain NOTH’s post to me then? Because I definitely don’t understand.
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HUNTER 13
Six game ban for your friend Faria for attacking a referee on the sideline.
A twelve game ban would have been more appropriate but I think the Fa is saving that for you. that for even thinking what you regularly think you want to do to a referee if given a chance. (0(
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Understand. Yes . Reexplain?? Not quite there yet. (0(
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That is unfair…six game for those handbags? what would they have given him if he had actually landed one on dean’s face. obviously i loved it that chelsea lost but there is no denying dean is a massive cunt who should be executed for his crimes on arsenal and football. and in the end of the day once you reach that point and you know the ban is coming…why not smash his face..what 6? what 12? what 47? who cares? break his fkn nose and make him look like a twat, bleeding and crying and scaring him for life and.
sometimes when i see mertesaker penalised for a foul when hes has done nothing (while giroud on the other side gets beaten up and nothing is given) and per goes mad holding his hair and screaming…i wish he just grabbed the ref from the neck and throw him down and then kick him while the rest of team follows. these colourful ideas i have are only for the refs who enjoy screwing arsenal..not for everyone…we are not savages..only fair.
dear friend faria its ok…i will bring you the new championship manager in the clinic room and you can replay the season…this time with mata and lukaku…. kai kai kai ..rantanplan…
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Thanks for the link to Tim Stillman’s piece on Arseblog yesterday touching on parts of the same topic here. Well worth a read as he highlights the nonsense of media coverage, particularly the recent canonisation of an unrepentant racial abuser.
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pedantic george
May 1, 2014 at 9:05 pm
have just read it…no doubt he is a lot more clever than the average fan but sometimes he amazes me. should have realised that ages ago when the story was all about making bechkam look equal to zidanne because “we also have world class players, not only france and brasil” or even when ” the soft foreign poofs cant deal with a cold night up north, kick them” ….and lets face it ..when we have stories and whole army mobilisation to oust evil sadam because of wmd …(HAHA) , football is light soap opera…opium of the people…
it is the fans fault for showing to the capitalist blood sucking vampires that they are psychologically attached/dependant on their football teams…hence why i love wenger’s approach “we are just doing our jobs nothign to see here” …it doesnt sell much does it as “useless inept at motivation tactics and finance”. i used to be relaxed knowing that we are fine and doing things right till my blood boiled watching the “stories” alienating the fans from the club which could easily disrupt us. and it has. clearly. the feeling of our players playing with their backs on the wall for silly reasons has been instigated by such stories and fan stupidity.
it is just football…feel lucky and privileged that your particular club is handled by a principled and intelligent manager….calm and relaxed..he knows what to do. our role is to follow/support. nothing else. but the stroies make the fan think he is integral in the rnning of the club which is laughable because as dear little dutch just realised…stadium 60k tickets…sky = millions of subscritpions…. its why i laugh when angry fans tell me thats its the ticket money that pays the salaries..they might be enough to pay the electricity bills ….
now with the internet and the clubs ability to have their own tv stations it wont take long till clubs televise/stream their games to their own subscribers/fans….fuck you sky! you too murdoch.and zahavi.
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Hunter,
— “with the internet and the clubs ability to have their own tv stations it wont take long till clubs televise/stream their games to their own subscribers/fans”
And what about the billions of dollars the TV companies pay the clubs to broadcast the games?
For example, Arsenal were paid almost £90m for last season, and with the new deal that is likely to be as much as £140m for this season.
The fans attending the Emirates pay around £100m already for season tickets and they and other Arsenal fans would be expected to make good the money the clubs would not get from the TV companies.
I see where you are coming from, but the cost to an average fan would be very high — too high.
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Media firms and clubs will be faced with an interesting dilemma H, in fact with available technology they are probably grappling with the issue at the moment.
It would be straightforward for clubs to deliver their games plus a package of info and features to fans on line though a subscription service. Direct from the stadium to your smart TV, door to door anywhere in the world, payment on line pay per view or on a season by season basis direct to the club, no need for Sky to be in the middle. If you want adverts and sponsorship worked into the broadcasts to add revenue, clubs have sufficient nous to organise that themselves.
Assuming you could get your fellow PL clubs to sign up then – hey presto – Sky disappears as the football content provider. The Sky payments have gone but the direct revenue makes up for any shortfall.
The difficulty is however it would be expensive to set up, and no one has really tried it before for a real football club. Sky are prepared to pay ever greater sums to ensure the above scenario does not happen.
Because if it does then Sky’s 10 million UK customer base would be devastated, and Sky as a business terminally wounded.
I suspect however the clock is ticking for Sky, and BT, and within few years the direct sale of content from clubs to fans will be the norm
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@ hunter13 May 2, 2014 at 9:46 am
lmao
That last paragraph…ahahaha I’m still laughing
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anicoll,
Of course technology is changing everything about the way we live and communicate, and will continue to do so, and many of the journos who anger so many fans at the moment will soon be looking for new jobs as newspapers are forced to the wall by the internet.
I can see clubs taking more control of their product, as you say. and in a way Real Madrid and Barca have been doing so for some time. Their share of the Spanish TV pie far outstrips the other clubs, and I am amazed they still get away with it, as it only takes the other clubs to say – equal shares for all, or you two play yourselves – but I digress.
It is possible individual clubs will contract with a TV company to handle their games, as the TV wallahs already have the infrastructure in place, and that will reduce or remove the capital costs, but as you alluded to, it will require the clubs to come to an understanding between themselves as to how it will be set up, and I cannot see that happening any time soon.
On the other hand 25 years ago who could have forecast how quickly the internet would take over and influence our lives. So what do I know? 🙂
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Hi Henry b, basically yes as anicoll says clubs will sell their product directly to their fans . i magine they woudl do that via establishing a seperate club/body/association that would deal with nasa and satelites and flip the bird to sky. if the big clubs in europe manage to create their eurosupraleague and cut a generous commission to uefa they can kick sky out of the picture.
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Iwasthere, as I was reading your post I thought to myself, here’s a guy who has his finger on the pulse of modern, top-level, European football and his opinions are nothing like what other hacks have blurted out a million times. I mean, take your comment about Arsene being his own worst enemy. I’ve always thought, if only Arsene had made the players run around the cones five times instead of four times, we could have beat Barcelona in the CL final. Oh, and your comment about Wenger’s inability to get the right price in the transfer market was absolute gold. Personally, I think he botched all those deals he made with City for players like Clichy, Nasri, Ade and Kolo. I mean, he only made seventy one million pounds on the very same players who had been winning us trophy after trophy. Seriously, man, if you haven’t received your coaching badges, you’re wasting your time. Something tells me you could be the next Arrigo Sacchi.
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http://video.gazzetta.it/top-ten-primi-tocchi-piu-belli-sempre/34d03086-c61b-11e3-a5de-49421f3817c8
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ahahaha gains …. legend !! damn, youre strict!!!
http://isleofholland.com/read/sports/marco-van-basten-an-extraordinary-career-in-10-goals
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Iwasthere is not quite down spewing every imbecilic talking point he picked up on the Internet. Can anyone guess what tripe he’s going to trot out next? Personally, I’m going with project youth. He hasn’t used that one yet and I can guarantee its burning a hole in his coat pocket.
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its true though what he says about wenger aiming them to stay together and enjoy success but when success didnt come they all opted out…i made the differantiation though of why the success didnt come…some fans think we werent good enough. we were more than good enough and people didnt like it. they stole those kids success and it backfired on wenger.
was discussing same with someone else about eduardo and to my astonishment he said “boohooo one tackle and we lose the title? guess it shows wenger’s man-management skills”…… i obviously i wanted to punch the stupid cunt but whats the point? they think its easy…just get on the pitch run and score….
“but they are kicking us” // shut up and win the game…
“but they wont let us were down to 9 men” // shut up and win…..weve paid a ticket.
“but they have drogba …mesi etc” // shut up and win or spend money and bring players that can win …
“but youre crazy” // no man bigger than the club …wenger out..everyone listen to me , i know….i play fifa with faria at wing 7d
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‘The perfect team at this level can’t make this sort if mistake. Eden is not 100 percent ready to sacrifice himself for the team. I’m not happy about that.’
oh thats nice selling mata and hazard in less than a year…. brilliant coaching…maybe he didnt motivate him enough to track back…?
” the perfect team” .. ????? ahahahahah wtf is he talking about????? man this guy needs a new word to describe him..narcissist cunt is too mild a characterization
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Gains
Don’t forget the dithering or wouldn’t pay for Alonso’s or Mata’s (insert whatever big name we missed out on) high wages meme too. Than is one of the set of sticks for a proper AW bashing.
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gains what is more suitable for the “perfect team”…for attacking wingers to play secondary fullbacks ? or for attacking wingers to press opponents in their own half with fullbacks behind them as extra pressure/ support….thus compact high line with quick defenders (djourou/kons, piq/puyol..hummels/subotic)
mou wants slow and heavy bruisers terry and cahill to sit back with fullbacks and the mid- attacking options to do the work so as to have lines/zones of defescive lines….. obviously he is a professional and im a nobody but what are your thoughts? its the word perfect he uses that pissed me off…… his plan is for the team to sit back and steal the game….thats not a perfect team..thats a sly team..
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Antonio Conte of Juventus has said that Mark Clattenburg wasn’t of the required standard to ref a Europa Cup semi final.
Well, I suppose if the corrupt manager of the Old Lady is used to purchasing the best ref’s that money can buy.
And people have tried to link Conte to the next management job at Arsenal? He can feck right off.
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/22/sport/football/football-conte-ban-pazzini-cassano/index.html
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Well since he’s going after Denilson and Bendtner, I’m guessing he’ll try to poo on project youth next.
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So Maureen wants a talented and creative player to sacrifice his game to become a dark destroyer in order to satisfy the evil whims of his master.
Why should we be surprised? We’ve seen it before.
“If you will not be turned. You will be destroyed. Young fool. Only now, at the end, do you understand.” – Emperor to Luke Skywalker
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Clattenburg did stink up the joint last night, but he had it in for Benfica instead of Juve. He was willing Juve to score, but they just couldn’t capitalize. Benfica will be lucky to field a team in the finals thanks to all the needless yellows Clattenburg handed out last night.
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juve are the reservoir dogs…..conte is a legend … he has a special place in panathinaikos fans hearts … he disqualified the piraues rats with a header in the 90th minute or so back in 98 or 99…. we have a song for him too.
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I am sure I have mentioned this before, but if so, here I go again.
Arsene has often been pilloried for being too mean and losing out on signing a player because he would not pay the salaries demanded. But then again, he has been told he is a moron for being profligate with the wage structure and getting stuck with players like Bendtner.
So do we have any facts — have you noticed how often damning assessments have been made without any reference to actualité?
Our much increased wage/salary bill has caused many comments both of concern and also proof that Arsene will cough up the goods if he chooses to.
Since the 2008/9 Annual Accounts were published, the salaries wages have grown exponentially by as much as 38% to £143 million in 2011/12.
No problem with that, it shows we are recruiting better player with greater demands, but the fly in the ointment is that our revenue (turnover) has only increased by 5% over the same period.
With the much publicised new contracts for the British guys last year I have no doubt the salaries will have increased yet again. And there needs to be a constant co-relation between the salaries and the revenue stream, and fortunately there will be a growth in revenue from the £235m shown in 2011/12 to north of £300m.
This means that at an industry ‘norm’ of 60% of wages to turnover could be earmarked as a self sustaining salary/wage bill of some £180m would be possible.
So the facts are that we can and do pay top dollar when it is deemed necessary, and although this is less than what Manure, Citeh and Chelsea pay, it is within spitting distance of them, and if an occasional error of judgement is made, as with Bendy, it is minuscule in the great scheme of things — and more importantly it remains within the self-sustainabilty criterion the club has set for itself.
Now that is a fact! 🙂
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Gains. I love you.
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that figure of a 180m wage bill…thank you for that ..it supports my claim that ticket revenue though very important is not enough to pay the players salaries, let alone fixed costs or salaries of all employees under arsenal…maybe 1/3 or 1/4 of it…
” we pay your salaries you cunts..now run and score goals” muahaha
think there are like 45,000 seasont ickets x what should i put as average price ? 1,000? 1,200? ..lets say 45-55m . then the remaining 15,000 x 14 home games at avergae price of what? 60? – 70 pounds? …another 12-13m….total: 65-70mill at best. if its just the wage bill that is 180m…..then what about the rest of eomplyess, fixed costs, bank loans, travelling , utility bills at stadium and training/medical, maintenance, the academies …etc etc…
champions league matchday revenue is rumoured at close to 3m, add uefa bonuses for vitory/draw ..you make 4-4.5 in 3 home games at group stage + the 15-20m of entry
15-20 + 13.5 + 3m bonus qualifying in 16 + bonus from win/draws away in group stage 16 = say another 35-40m ….tut ut tu bingo …champions league important = top4 trophy
now lets add 30m a year sponsor puma….. lets add sky package 25?-30m?..finally lets add sales of replicas scarves etc etc and add money made from player sales….
its laughable to suggest that its the fans ticket money that pays the players salaries… the club has to get involved in a multiset of activities just to manage to pay the players wages………
and as a club/company our profit percentage must the best in epl …dotn know about europe
and thats as per my calculation which is frankly pathetic……
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Thanks, Georgie, I love you too.
Arsene is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. He’s damned for supposedly panick buying Ozil and he’s also damned for missing out on gems like Fernando Melo.
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AND SAMBA! DONT FOREGT SAMBA!
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sorry i got excited … caps off now
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The other trifling flaw in the “but we waste money on the wages of the likes of X” abuse is this.
When you sign a young player, and in the years that they initially develop with the club it is very difficult to KNOW what the outcome will be.
We did not KNOW Sagna would be the success he has been, when we signed him he was a largely unknown French right back from the “mighty” Auxerre. We signed however through the lever of a decent wage offer, if not Bacary would logically either have not left Auxerre or moved elsewhere for a higher salary, and he has paid that back many times over.
We did not KNOW Koscielny would work out so well, we took a gamble, paid a fee and offered an attractive salary – and hey ho how well has that deal succeeded ?
Add in as many names as you like – Ramsey, WoJo, the Ox, Jenks – we took a financial risk – it was repaid in spades – I don’t need to go on.
So why is it the groaners only want to talk about the wage deals done with Bendtner, Chamakh or Squillaci ?
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how much is psg offering hazard ?
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it is very difficult to KNOW what the outcome will be
“wtf we paying that mug 7m a year for then? can he not judge players?????? sack him”
ha…
wenger has good connections in france..i reckon/imagine that the one who whispered to him about knscielny must have been someoen wenger trusted with closed eyes…paid immediately 8m for a ligue2 player..without asking questions….no scouting reports nothing…
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lolo what a boss…cant beleive they didnt vote for him in team of the year….ninja!
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Royalty and governments have been using the media to pedal there own agenda since time began and unfortunately with most of the worlds media owned by just a handful of organizations nothing has changed.
The laymen will believe whatever they have been told and football is no different. Some of the arguments put forward, and honestly believed, by the portrayer are laughable at best and dangerous at worst.
Perversely this is where social media can sometimes be helpful as its rawness has a certain uncontrollability about it.
Oh and by the way great piece S.A.
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I think Mata, Hazard and all their ilk might be finally regretting not going to the club that wanted to maximise their talents, instead they have blisters on their arses from sitting on the bench, and when they do get on the pitch they are expected to ‘ey-up! get stuck in, lad’.
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they should be more greatful to their great manager and motivator who works all season trying to IMPROVE them.
Mua….
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Well Ramsay chose the right club and right Boss didn’t he…
Just look at what Pogba – arrogant though he may be – had to say regarding Man Utd’s treatment of him…now they want him back LOL
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Koscielny was indeed a coup. But, hey, Wenger lost his touch in the transfer market like five seasons ago.
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Sav at 4:50 pm – United want Pogba back? That could make the £200mm transfer budget look like pocket change.
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Gainsbourg69 at 1:22 pm
That was a classic!
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@shotta
Thats the thing I like about PA. You cannot talk nonsense because you will be called on it. Very strong characters.
Honestly, I think very carefully before I make a comment just to make sure I don’t say something stupid by accident. I have to say I have learnt alot from everyone. Not just about Arsenal, but about football in general. And more than facts, I have learnt perspective. It’s like I’m back in the dojo and the sensei’s and sempai’s are talking – watch, listen, learn.
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@ Shotta 5:50 pm
I meant to say.
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