Its easy. What we need is a manager than can overcome the financial disadvantage we are at compared to City, Chelsea and United buy buying the right players( you know the ones that cost less than theirs ) and getting them playing with a better spirit.
Teams like Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Montpellier have done it ! Why not us ?
Well, if its that simple why don’t Liverpool do it ? Spurs ? Hull perhaps ? Why not ? Or is it just Arsenal that should manage this ?
What makes Arsenal the club that can do what no other team in he history of the Premier League has done?
“What do you mean the Premier League George , football didn’t start in 1992” I hear you sequel.
Well because that is when the face a English football changed beyond recognition. The money that was pumped into the game altered everything. And the adding of two super wealthy clubs has compounded matters, perhaps an even bigger change.
How so you ask?
“Nottingham Forest won promotion to the top division at the end of the 1976–77 season after finishing third in the Second Division, but no-one could have predicted how successful Clough’s team would be over the next three seasons. Nottingham Forest became one of the few teams (and the most recent team to date) to win the English First Division Championship a year after winning promotion from the English Second Division (1977–78 season).”
Can anyone seriously think that would be possible today? Did anyone consider Burnley title contenders this year? If you are saying “no”, then why not?
Of course if you do think its possible then I cant help you and you should probably get whoever is reading this out loud to you , to stop.
The teams mentioned at the beginning stand out because they are exceptions. But really they are irrelevant anyway. Its not the same League . Which means the conditions are completely different. In those leagues the competition is much weaker, almost cannon fodder in most cases for the best teams. So if a decent team appears, once in a blue moon, it basically comes down to a two game shoot out. The winning of the league becomes like a cup final run, where just a few key games make the difference. And we know that anyone can win a cup very occasionally. Even Spurs.
Clough himself said “ tactics don’t win games,players win games”.
So first and foremost a club has to have the required quality of players. If you are City, you can do this by simply going out and spending a billion pounds . Buy 25 top class players and you will have a top class team. Its fantasy football without the a limit.
To beat them a team has to have players near enough that level for the manager to be the deciding factor. And that means developing younger players, improving good players into very good players and spending big amounts on key players that make the difference. But that’s three problems a manager has ,rather than one.
All City and Chelsea have to worry about is buying the right players. And even if they get it wrong it doesn’t matter, other than very short term, they can just go out and buy others. Other teams don’t have that luxury . If a team other than the 3 mega money clubs, buy a Torres, Carroll or Veron, they have dropped a huge bollock.
Time and money can be invested in a young player and you get Aaron Ramsey. Equally you can end up with David Bentley. Its massively difficult to get a young player and him become one of the best players around.
A good player like Gervinho can be bought, hoping he will flourish and the step up isn’t made. Again, that’s not a problem those three team have.
So basically if you think a team should, by good management, overcome these difficulties, think again.
Its hard , and the only way is to do it the way Arsenal are trying. Even if we change the manager,the new one will face the very same problems.
Playing the same way as other teams, having the same sort of players that cost less ( and therefore are not as good or ready ) will never see us being their better.
That’s what I want. I want us to be better, play better, look better and behave better. I don’t want to be a budget Chelsea. Bollocks to that.
What people are asking for is someone to do a “Clough like” miracle in the modern game. Its not going to happen. Not to Arsenal or any other team.
Thank for reading this load of old tosh .
pedantic george ( @Blackburngeorge )
Positively Arsenal 
As is normal, George I couldn’t agree more with your sentiments.
As for Arsenal supporters who want the likes of Abramovich and Mourinho running our club, I really don’t think they understand what The Arsenal is all about, and it’s beyond irony that these same ‘fans’ are the ones who go running behind the skirts of good old Arsenal’s class and tradition when put under pressure in an argument.
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These same ‘fans’ panic and complain through every game – unless we’re leading 3-0 after the first fifteen minutes – followed by sniping at or insulting the greatest manager the greatest club has ever seen. And then they complain about players not showing loyalty or grit. They wouldn’t recognize class if it was served to them on a silver platter with watercress around it. What’s to blame, nature or nurture?
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Not a load of old tosh at all George – obviously heartfelt and sadly too true. Whatever Arsene does he can’t win with those people. Even when we go out and buy top quality, they can’t wait to start tearing him down after years of complaining that is what we need. They are constantly shifting those goal posts.
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On the money as usual George, the days of an exceptional manager like Clough or Ramsey leading a club from the second division to PL success are a very long long way off.
The most recent man in PL years was Keegan’s Newcastle, from the brink of relegation to theThird Division to a last furlong stumble against Fergie in the PL run in.
And no one ever mentions Keegan as a good manager.
Mind you in Rodgers carries on in his present route some lucky manager might get the chance of hauling Liverpool out of the more and back to glory.
Having sorted out the PL the same does not seem to be true for the Champions League. Athletico Madrid, Dortmund, even Inter in recent years and before that the run that Valencia had, Porto, Monaco and Leverkeusen have all put in great performance to the final, most have lost but not all. Knock out competitions are notoriouosly winnable for the underdog. Ask Wigan.
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They say they want Kloppy and that they want him now.
Klopp forfeited the Bundesliga with that first half performance against Arsenal the other week. Took his squad about two weeks to recover, they’re thirteenth or something?
So. To be clear. The man these bitter Groaners want because they believe he will compete has this season forfeited a shot at the league in a league where he has only one rival. A rival that poached two of his key players. I also think we’ve seen good evidence that Klopp wouldn’t cope with the kind of pressure AW has been under from those who don’t like the Arsenal model.
AW has put AFC in a stronger position then Klopp has managed with Dortmund (they won’t win anything this year, unlike arsenal last year) after losing two key players and still competing in league and cups. But they are in denial of this.
I also enjoyed the groaining about arsenals success with young players on the same night that five arsenal players took to the field for England for the first time since Chapman’s era, 1936. All five of them twenty three or younger. I couldn’t make it up, could I? Do they see how genuinely genuinely stupid such comments are at such a beautiful moment in the club’s history? These Groaners make themselves appear to be absurd with their own words. There’s no need for any further commentary.
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Also: if AW doesn’t change tika tactics then how in the blazing saddles did an Arsenal team win 0-1 in what was a classic “smash and grab” raid at Dortmund last season, just one example? You know, at the same venue where Mourinhio’s Madrid got spanked four nil not so long ago?
Also I don’t think the Groaners realised how farking funny it was to hear them groaning about a manager who doesn’t change tactics five minutes after listening to them groan about the changes in tactics by the very same manager: properly mad innit!
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Corr.:
“wouldn’t cope as well…”
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One valid critique of the club could be of the youth scouts who didn’t pick up on Sterling and Clyne. But you’d have to balance that with examples like Jenks who have been given the opportunity. I think Jenks could force himself into the England squad, if this hamstring niggle he has clears up.
What’s funny is that if Vermaelan and Jenkinson had been kept, they’d both still have been unavailable! Hilarious. One and a half promising apps. (denied a good assist against the evil Mancs) with the ‘ammers for Jenks whilst managing his strain.
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Fins
Sterling can be very erratic, and he has had various ‘attitude’ problems – even after joining at Liverpool.
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True, perhaps moving away from London was helpful for him.
Don’t worry DC, I know the gaffer says he’s a good player but Raheem has a long way to go before I think he’s a more rounded (better) player then Chamberlain. All that defensive training that Chambo has received since he moved to the Arsenal (sshhhh, it’s a secret, don’t tell the Groaners: I’m just relying upon Chambo’s own words here…) has simply made the Ox a better player – one the England manager felt happy to start at LF during Euro 2012, whereas with Sterling he has concerns in that role (sent off in friendly before WC and not trusted to play that role thereafter). Both good players.
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When Chamberlain was going through that Deeeeeefensive crash course that helped turn him into the player who waltzed from deep CM past the Brazilian team to score that great goal last summer, that was the period when the Groaning Experts were calling for the brilliant Walcott to be dropped and for the then undeveloped and unready Ox to be unleashed – when he was being given the kind of coaching that they deny happens at the club.
When you think about it, the Groaners groaning mantra is so absurd and genuinely genuinely mad that it is quite funny.
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Excellent piece PG, clearly inspired and informed by the podcast.
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I think my post on the last piece is more appropriate here:
Just finished listening to the Bergkamp Wonderland podcast featuring our very own PG. Needless to say but George and Geoff were as good as I expected, giving honest answers on the basis of whatever evidence was available and made clear when they were speculating. Good, sensible stuff. The Gav chap is just an angry, frustrated individual who uses simplistic, if not not childish arguments, mostly all based on hearsay and myths.
In fact, most of the discussions were attempts at unravelling myths and Chinese whispers. So, I often ask myself what is the point of these podcasts and blogs? Are they an outlet for people to vent their frustrations? Do they serve some kind of therapeutic role? Let’s face it I come here as my first point of call because I approve of the ethos of this blog. It is positive because we can be on the balance of the evidence we have available. I am persuaded that Arsenal football club have gone through a very tough period of austerity and that we will get stronger, year on year, from now. I don’t know if AFC took longer than necessary to get to this point or not. Some of our accountant friends seem to suggest that it did.
Anyway, was PG excellent well done!
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One thing that did occur to me this week was the potentially positive effects of a reduction in the number of our available midfield players.
Now I know in the era of rotating squads and the theory that players have to be regularly withdrawn and rested if we have several players out it will increase the physical burden on the remaining fir players and as someone posted earlier in the week that can mean two games a week.
Weighed against the greater physical burden must however be the probability for the fort players is that they almost certainly will be playing, either starting or expecting a run off the bench.
My impression of Santi, and the Ox, that they don’t really like being rotated and in the Spaniards case finds it difficult to get into the game quickly if he does come on, and does not look happy if he is unused.
Now he knows he is going to be in action, he will be the pivot around which the team rotates. Same with the Ox.
I predict a spring in their step.
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Once George started calling Gavin on his idiocy, he decided to be a tit and the whole podcast went downhill. The other guy, Moises, was useless. You can’t really have a discussion against two close minded morons who get their footballing knowledge from football pundits.
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Next time you talk to that Gavin ask him how many times the Liga has been won by another team other than Real Madrid or Barcelona.
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Andy Nic: absolutely spot on as ever. Of course they want to play, and there is much to be said for a settled small squad. It is a sad but true fact that any decent pro will watch the good performances of his team mates and potential rivals through gritted teeth. This is of course especially true of a younger player who in many cases will often need an injury to a senior pro to get his first proper chance. Last season it was an injury to Walcott (whilst warming up) that gave Gnabry his first meaningful start: his performance against Spurs in the Cup several games later showing how intelligently and skilfully he had made the most of that opportunity.
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Gains last team before Atletico was Rafa’s Valencia – that is how the average football is able to quantify and affirm that Benitez is a better manager then the specialist in signing players from specific special agents.
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firstly i didnt hear the podcast any chance of link, secondly excellent dose of reality George.
ARSENAL were on par with aston villa,the spuds,everton, with liverpool more sucessful and manu less so and trying to live up to the 60ts but with a big fan base. The elevation of our club to top status and above these other clubs was brought by the insight of one man Arsene Wenger and the men at the top of the club that have supported him (passed and present). After Patrick Barclay wrote his book on the great Herbert Chapman, he commented on the similarities between Hertbert and our own modern innnovator. These are the things the detractors forget or are to stupid to realise (some to lazy to check the club they claim to love’s history.
The elevation of two of the alsoran clubs, the other club in manchester and a small club south of the river in london, was not through brilliance but simly brought. However much fans enjoyed the sucess of these clubs they will never really see a growth in the club. A progression through excellence to cross the finish line way in front of everyone else when your not expected to is a wonderful feeling.
To judge a man against his own sucess and not against the history of the club or the others in a similar position is totally illogical. Why they think he is so incompetent and yet still sought after by all the top clubs in the world is beyond comprehension.
Remember most fans react to the first water they dip their toe in. Unfortunatly the water most of them experience is filled by self elected, self promoting fuckwits who many years ago no one would of taken any notice of. The big shame is the influence they have and the way the club has to acknowlege their exsistence.
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https://m.youtube.com/watch?list=UUZRtjNx9fy3kbG2LD_n_3Lg&v=gx79W5Nq2BE there you go Seebs, personally I’d swerve it
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How on earth could anyone think Jose Mourinho should be ranked higher as an overall football manager than Arsene Wenger?
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On the subject of settled (as in lightly-rotated) squads, I understand that the Arsenal double winning side of ’71 swept the board with just 17 players. Two of whom were goalkeepers.
A testament to the miracles of the pre-match tot of whiskey and the post-match pork pie and cigarette, perhaps?
(Incidentally, bonuses for that year were a mighty £300,000. For the entire squad)
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Ranteta (from previous post) – I’m not sure why you are being asked to log into WordPress (who host this blog) each time you try to ‘Like’ a comment; I can’t replicate as I’m automatically logged into WP by my browser the moment I go online. If you do register with WP it should only be a one-time exercise, won’t cost snything and might stop annoying you!
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Have only waded through the first half hour of that podcast (which is why I’ve not yet commented on PG’s main post) but I’m already struck by how tired George and Geoff’s ‘opponents’ sound.
Tired of their own tired arguments?
Mind you, with George and Geoff lined up against him it’s no wonder Tim ‘Timid’ Payton fled to the hills of Wembley in favour of the most pointless fixture in the entire international calendar rather than spend two-plus hours being called out by the voices of common-sense and reason.
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Atletico de Madrid is currently sitting in fifth place. Their Liga campaign is over because they had to sell their best player. Real Madrid and Barcelona are back to volleying the liga back and forth among each other again just like George said.
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Just like George said the richest teams are wont to do.
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Just listening to my next instalment of George’s Bergamp Wonderland podcast and the old ‘lack of ambition’ charge gets raised, even now.
A point I’ll ponder next time I’m in attendance at the stadium, admiring the silky skills of the likes of Ozil and Sanchez.
Not to mention the recently re-contracted seven member spine of the new England side …
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Much as I get on with George & Geoff,I can’t bring myself to listen to that podcast,if we won the league this year,some people would still be on the managers back,their just too far gone. The same people would lecture Mr Kipling about cakes,also-is it me or do they sound like they don’t actually enjoy anything? Let alone Arsenal. As I keep saying on twitter,people aren’t laughing,drinking or fucking enough.
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What happened to the positively arsenal podcast, George? Time to resurrect it, maybe.
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I’ve just seen a comment from one of the idiot moaners on an Arsenal blog, that Arsenal should sack/replace Wenger “for better or for worse”, that anything is better than what we have year on year. This shows the levels of stupidity among the moaners, they would rather see us do worse as long as its not wenger in charge. Fans of so many other clubs would give their right arm to have what we have, yet our fans can’t see it or don’t want to see it.
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Nice post George. The podcast was much as expected… In fact exactly as expected to be honest.
Mel. You do not need to listen to it. I’ve done that bit for you and can assure you that you are sound in your judgement and reasoning as to why you don’t want to listen.
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I liked most gavs arguments on the podcast , fuckoff. bollocks, are you for real, youre talking out of your arse or his best argument just laughing. His lack of coherent, cogent vocabulary reminded me of some of the pulis loving stoke fans. In two and a half hours he only momentary lasped in to proper debate. He doesnt like Arsene and doesnt like you George, I think he cant differentciate between dislikening someones opinion and thinking he has to hate the person. Unfortunatly he is stuck in the 80s and to suggest football did not change at the advent of the premier league means you were correct in your assertion he doesnt care about reality.
I dont normally listen to podcasts but I wanted to hear the arguments put forward by one of the AWOBs top avocates. Although he was supported by the giggling, not so impartial chairman, Danny and, the change cos its about time, Mo I thought you and Geoff wiped the floor with them.
It became more and more apparent that when asked is that an opinion or a fact they backed down time and time again.
Although I always thought reading the text of some of these doomers they seemed like they had a black cloud following them around I always thought bit was just my interpretation of their prose. However now I have listened to them I am sure prosac is in order.
* oh and the line about sending you some cufflinks was pure class.
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What gets me about the two AWOBs is them thinking Wenger is past it tactically, even though Pep, Klopp and every manager, bar that piece of shit Mourinho, think he’s a genius. They also want to dump the attacking Wengerball in favor of boring Chelseaesque football.
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Mel: “As I keep saying on twitter,people aren’t laughing,drinking or fucking enough.”
Amen, brother.
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Listened to the pod – good job George.
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Re Pod: Most of these groaners simply repeat the same conventional clap-trap in the mainstream media. So close-minded with not a single new idea. Poverty of imagination, poverty of support.
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Big night for Szczesny!
Plodders unlucky to hit the bar (probably he should’ve started for Germany IMO) Germany obviously missing Ozil. Obviously.
Five players for England the other night.
Where’s the ambition at Arsenal?
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and Hayden captaining England under 20s with Chuba coming on to score two late goals to turn the game from a 2-1 defeat to a 2-3 win
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An interesting story going around on newsnow that Jack is studying Xabi Alonso videos of how to play the holding central midfielder position better,
If true, this is excellent, and I commend those who saw the similarities in their play. Also good is that he can now ignore that Ginger plonker from Salford.
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New post is up http://wp.me/37nXa
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