Last night I read this that Ivan Gazidis had to say in America.
“Think about this club. In 2002 and 2003, it’s really at the top of the world. And Arsene is at the top of the world. We have fantastic players. It’s us and Manchester United battling at the top of the Premier League. It all looks amazing for the Arsenal Football Club. But what does the club do? And what does Arsene do? And what do the board members do? They say we’re more ambitious than this.
Most people would have just sat back and said, ‘This is great. Everybody loves us.’ But what do they do? They throw all of that up in the air, a massive risk. They say, ‘We’re going to commit all the resources of this club to building a stadium that we think we are going to need 15 and 20 years from now if we want to be a really global football club.’
It’s an incredibly bold decision. They do it, they see it through, go through all the difficult times. Arsene continued to do an incredible job, threading the eye of the needle on the pitch. The board does an incredible job threading the eye of the needle off the pitch. We are now, just now, all these years later, beginning to come out of that. Arsene navigated us through that.
Yet it seems people just assume, at Arsenal, we’re going to be in the Champions League. They assume we’re going to be near the top of the Premier League. There’s nothing that really distinguishes us from the other clubs in England, other than this man.”
Of course “this man” was Arsene Wenger
For years I’ve been banging on about Arsenal being the most ambitious club in the country. For the very reasons Ivan mentioned.
It still staggers me that our ambition is questioned.
If we don’t sign Cavani( insert any expensive player you can think of ) it’s a lack of ambition.
When I ask Arsene’s detractors why they think we should ovecome clubs with far greater wealth, they seem reluctant to say its Arsene. But its really is.
To be quite honest I’m sick to the back teeth of the stupidity. I think Ivan said it all in these few words.
” There’s nothing that really distinguishes us from the other clubs in England, other than this man.”
Every day we should thank some deity or other that we have him.
By me. pedantic george @Blackburngeorge
Positively Arsenal 
Good morning PA from Loch Linnhe!
Absolutely, seriously, good, concise account of why PA is my home.
Now off to Ben Nevis…..
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Nice one George – will the message EVER get through?
Critics beginning to look thoroughly daft these days, it must he said.
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“muttley 2m
No doubt the club has had to almost standstill to go forward. The new ground was essential and money was always going to be tight for a period of time.
However, whilst it could be argued Wenger has done a good job to a degree, it doesn’t detract from the fact that he has made some awful decisions over the last few years.
The game has also changed, and Wenger hasn’t. He is tactically inept in the modern game – shown up time and time again in the big games last year (and before).
Every year is Groundhog Day with the mistakes he makes.
Let’s see what he does this year. But if the same old mistakes appear again, then sorry, but I for one would rather have someone else spend the club’s money”
And still they cling to the wreckage of their broken and sinking arguments.
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George
Does muttley still stick to his view after what Gazides has said lately?
Is this another example of you ‘filtering’ out the arrogant from posting on here and riling me?
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Well said. Well said.
I have always believed that to be true, and it is and it was glaringly obvious from the get go.
Sadly I simply ran out of patience trying to explain the simple facts to the disbelievers over and ever, but I have long given up doing so, as there are none so deaf as those who do not want to hear.
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George,
I think you missed a ‘t’ from ‘sinking’.
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Excellent article.
Unfortunately, it says a great deal about the (media led) values of those who only
understand & interpret “ambition” in terms of “splashing the cash” on shiney new players, and of “having a good transfer window”.
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To have done it during a period of world-wide financial insecurity and with the unexpected emergence of Chelsea and City is pretty good going.
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“muttley
Oh, George obviously removes posts which he doesn’t like! How utterly childish.”
Its no secret. No halfwits are admitted.
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you’ll never get to read a post such as this on aclf. thanks george.
ambition comes with risk. there is certainly no risk in us giving cashley whatever he wanted, buy shevchenko from milan or zlatan from ajax or adrade, deco and calvalho from porto back then just to stay on the top of the league while we continue to play in a 38,000 capacity stadium. united have old tradford, barca have nou camp, madrid barnebau, baryern alianz arena. while arsenal? highbury stadium.
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is there anything more risky/ballsy than competing in the epl with a team of untested youngsters and only lose out on titles from 4-5 clubs that can outspend you 10 times for any given player ?
Have said before..the people complaining are mugs who dont know football and dont understand what arsenal and Wenger set out to do a decade and more ago.
Perhaps if the culture of arsenal football fans was more knowledgeable and aware of world football and our clubs actual stature in the the football world per/after wenger – they wouldnt allow media and rival trolls to mess up with them. Can understand the low – mid 20’s getting carried away …but grown ups who have seen what arsenal was before to just turn against wenger and arsenal like that and demand changes (lol) …nothing but a bag of vomit and a big fuck you to them.
immense praise and respect and admiration for wenger for what he has done for this football club and will continue to do. cant thank him enough. he is the chief reason i pay my money….arsene has given us something to be genuinely proud of and that i feeling when you walk in the stands and see the glorious pitch surrounded by red seats ….priceless!! ..
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And to think that Wenger is not stisfied with his achievements to date. The signings made so far to improve the squad shows the scale of the man’s ambitions. Sanchez will add goals and I am sure there will be at least one more signing on the defensive side to improve that part of our game. The upcoming season will be very revealing.
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PG
I love you again.
Having learned that you hob nob/fight side by side with a MU fan, who then comes on here to defend the indefensible, I had a smidgen of doubt re the “positively” aspect of your blog. Be that as it may, once I think about the fact you reside in the Norf West (so sorry), and marry that up with your production of this wonderful blog, and the timing and lovely-tude of today’s post, I should surely not forsake thee! (Natural Southern-speak).
Ranty don’t half talk some bolux!
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Here’s some ‘Rub of the green/some you win some you lose’ crap from Old Toilet, with 2014 cup final ref as 4th official and our man of high integrity in the middle, following a wrongly chalked off “offside” goal that would’ve won that match for Arsenal:
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Are you on the West Highland Way GP ?
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Rantetta
I remember that match:
about 6 or 7 minutes of 2nd half injury time delays with both goal keepers down.
What did the ref give? 2 minutes.
Shitehawks, all of them.
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Mind the midgies, GP.
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Ambition?
I think AFC we have spent £46.5m so far (23+8+3.5+12).
ales and recoups have brought in close to £15-20m, so still lots left for one more big one.
Mind you the wage bill is going to be massive now.
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double canister
July 28, 2014 at 12:23 pm
that was the match were arshavin got hacked in the area..refs gives nothing ..and then gives penalty when rooney dived over almunia and landslided 5 mtrs away..got up and pumped his fist in celebration…..had he been fouled and done that distance hed be on the floor crying , not up and celebrating…..and then they gave wenger red and made him ti stand in front of 60,000 neanderthals calling him a paedophile…..the rub of the green…. LOL…
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Anicoll
Just arrived at our hotel on the Isle of Skye. Can check in till 3.00pm. So what to do. Check in to PA of course…..
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DC
The midgies seem to prefer the female Celt associated with me….
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Thank god the board aren’t as fickle as most of these negativistas who call themselves Arsenal supporters. Could Arsene done better? Perhpas. But I wouldn’t trade those nine trophyless years for any of the trophies Chelsea and man City won during that spell.
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This transfer window lacks the hysterical ‘edge’ of previous Summers – smooth as glass so far
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/defence/10992600/First-female-warship-commander-sent-home-after-claims-of-affair-with-crewmate.html
epic!
“There are plenty of men and women on board missing their children growing up, which is why keeping the ship happy is such a big part of my job.
spoken like a true captain!!!
i wonder which jealous bastard ratted on her…
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trade those nine trophyless years for any of the trophies Chelsea
the c.l too?
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i’ve just posted this on aclf (my first visit there after a long long time). i’m not sure if anybody will notice it though heh.
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What have you posted A23? Not the blog I hope.That would be rude.
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Especially their CL trophy. They not only bought that trophy, but dumped one of their legends like a used condom after he brought them the victory.
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i just posted the link to this article, i thought it deserved a wider audience.
it was promptly deleted.
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Diaby v NYRB
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Well thats fair by them (Yogi) enough A23.
To be fair, its the last thing they want to read.
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how can celebrating the greatness of the manager of the club they support be “the last thing they want to read” ?
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People don’t like to admit that they have acted like idiots whilst embarrassing themselves in front of the rest on the world.
Neither do they like to admit tht they have sided with or defended some individuals who have unpleasant “opinions” (as proven elsewhere when a “yank” took apart a chief Groaner for his bigotry).
Well, we know what they say about opinions. Everyone has one.
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how can celebrating the greatness of the manager of the club they support be “the last thing they want to read” ?”
I think you know very well A23
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George,
Can you do me a favour please and forward the email address I used to send the cup final review to FH: I haven’t used my other email for so long that I think my wordpress account has entered some kind of cyber-limbo.
Or I can just re-send you an email to forward if that’s easier.
Thanks!
FH
I guess Butler’s performance today shows that he or another should’ve got the nod ahead of the clearly unfit Prior: further evidence for me that something went wrong with the selectors in this past period. Jogi Lowe it wasn’t!
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“I can remember board meetings where we sat and thought ‘how can we survive’…now we can compete again. We got through the storm without too much damage.”
– AW
Further quotes undermining the crippling WOB posture are easily available should they have the courge to read them.
Like last season they will be hoping for “failure”, quiet after victory, vocal after any setbacks.
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Where did you find the AW quote? Fins
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And there’s more!
“I would say disregard everything you read. It’s very seldom close to what we’re thinking.”
– Gazidas
http://www.si.com/soccer/planet-futbol/2014/07/24/arsene-wenger-arsenal-ivan-gazidis-gedion-zelalem-alexis-sanchez-red-bulls
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George
From that SI interview linked above.
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Yeah Mail me fins and I’ll forward it to Tim
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Cool.
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Tim Payton is having a public spat with me on twitter.
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on aclf blog today, yogi taunted chezzer and other arsenal players for believing they can win the league this season just because they were on top of the league for 100 days last last season. he said all you need to do is to top the league for just one week like shity did on the last week of the season. the irony is that this same man would have gone on all season slating everyone at arsenal if we were never near he top of the league early enough just as they ruled us out of top four on the first week of the season when we lost to the referee at villa.
the same man who will write about panic buy if we waited until the last week of the transfer window before we sign a world class player.
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I dont get it george? When the club announced that we were attempting to self finance the move I remember a Press Conference where AW said things would be tight for several years while we made the new stadium a reality. That was before the housing market when tits up and all the other setbacks that befell the project. The media had a field day, gleefully predicting our demise (and they still like engaging in that jolly little past time don’t they), proclaiming we had bit off ,more than we could chew and denouncing the club, manager and board for not spending money like we had a minting machine in Doris the tea lady’s lock up in Shoreditch.
Of course Wenger made mistakes, no manager at one club for that length of time would be immune; the mancs wanted Fergie out on numerous occasions and he had gazillions to spend throughout his reign.
But here we are; financially secure, with a secure foundation and a transfer kitty that Wenger fully deserves to spend, that befits the club’s stature, and the amazing stadium that required so much sacrifice.
Up the Arse!!
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George;
I aint on twitter any more…. please C&P your spat mate?
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I have about 100 notifications Dex. Everyone is joining in. ,Le Grove, Pimp, 7am, Daniel Cowan Paton, Highbury Harrold.and loads more I’ve cause mayhem. Its glorious.
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Ha! Tut tut!
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George, you asked that I expand on my comment yesterday. My gripe is perhaps that the positive element of this blog that attracted me in the first place, whilst still clearly there – along with some marvellous and like minded posters/commenters, just sometimes, to me, seems more about how wrong the doomers/fickle twats are than being positive and sensible and just ignoring them.
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Steve. I’m well know for my gloatiness.
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Pogba to the Gunners? Could it be true? Wouldn’t that be something?
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