A guest post from Muppet
In 2004 Wenger walked on water. 12 years on obituaries are circulating on line, despite him still being in contract. At the time of writing, L’Equipe has just announced that a 3-year contract extension is planned, which will take him up to 2020. The mood amongst fans is largely negative. The Wenger Out protagonists, who had always been with us, from around 2007, are now enraged. More significantly, even some of the mainstream support, who love Wenger and respect him for what he has done, are now saying it is time for a change. Go now with dignity, they implore.
The straw that broke the camel’s back was the exit from the FA Cup. After the Watford game a fight broke out on Twitter, and apparently, outside the ground. The fight was really about the events leading up to the Watford result, surfacing like a volcano. The sorry statistic of amassing just 10 points from 9 games since January 2nd (played 20), when we were top with 42 points, to take us to 52 points (played 29). This was a collapse and seen as an opportunity lost in a season where Man U, City, and Chelsea have been poor, so inviting us and clubs traditionally with no chance, to land the title. This was about stomach, and the expectation that we would fight – “Once more unto the breach dear friends”. With 18 games to go, we simply didn’t or couldn’t. We instead showed relegation form.
The case is mounting against Wenger. Not just knee-jerk Wenger out sentiment, there is major mainstream criticism of Wenger for his failure to strengthen the squad last summer. The retention of Flamini and Arteta, the decision not to buy a single outfield player. The failure to sign a world class striker, and to anticipate injuries to Rosicky and Wilshere, who have a chequered history. Even if you argue that we have been affected by injuries this season, the counter argument is that we should have anticipated the injuries and brought in replacements. Some say that our squad was already big enough and should have done better even with the absence of Sanchez, Cazorla, Wilshere and Rosicky for long periods. These arguments point to the failure of a manager to make short term decisions and assemble a strong enough squad. The success of Leicester apparently blows a hole in the resource argument. A team assembled for under £50 million, now favourites for the league. If Leicester are doing it now, then why didn’t we during the last 10 years? Managers are seen as being largely responsible for a club’s fortunes. Replace the manager if it is not working. We see this with Rodgers and the incumbent Klopp. The prevailing mood at Anfield apparently now much improved. And there are other managers who will do better. Simeone is a common suggestion. And these are managers who know how to deliver big blows to the super clubs like Bayern Munich and Real Madrid/Barcelona, whilst being at a club with lesser resources. Simeone, achieving this with a defensive style. Klopp, at Dortmund, playing heavy metal.
The problem with mounting a defence for Wenger, and the club, is that you become accused of being too defensive. And dismissed of having a red tinted narrative inconsistent with reality. And of downplaying our expectations. The backdrop of the stadium move and the relative success of the Wenger years from 1996 to 2005 has raised expectations such that the target is now the Premier League or Champions’ League, with probably the FA Cup or League Cup enough to stave off threats of the sack, and at least a top 3 finish.
If we agree that Flamini should have gone, Arteta too, then we should have been looking for 2 midfielders in the summer. A playmaker and a DM. Why then, didn’t they come? It was either because the manager misjudged the injury situation of Arteta, and over-estimated the remaining potential of Flamini, or there were issues in acquiring new players. Schneiderlin was supposedly available, he was seen as being ideal to solve one of the positions in the midfield. For whatever reason, AW thought otherwise. The reputed £24m fee and £5.2m salary which Manchester United paid may have had something to do with it, but I accept that we are now a well resourced club, and such sums are well within our reach. A popular criticism here is that Wenger’s unwillingness to pay market rates is killing us, and he is penny wise and pound foolish. But it might be that he simply thought Schneiderlin was the wrong fit. A player who was a box-to-box type, but no better than either Ramsey, Cazorla or Wilshere, and lacking the technical skill and deep play making ability of an Arteta. People can laugh at such a defence, but isn’t it the case that Wenger is under more pressure to take less risks with money than say, a manager of City or Man U. What if we spent £24m on a player who could neither be a deep laying playmaker, nor a superior box-to-box player than what we had?
Ok, but doesn’t this miss the point? Assuming that we were even looking for two tailor made replacements, a deep lying play maker, and a DM, isn’t it just rank incompetence that we didn’t find the replacements we were looking for? Whether we failed to scout them, or balked at the market rate, the accusation is of incompetence. Two players, popularly called upon to add to our midfield, are Geoffrey Kondogbia and William Carvalho. Put these two in midfield, we are told, and we have a title winning side. But there is a track record of players who would supposedly strengthen our squad and win us the title, and solve all the defensive and other problems. A lot of these players remain today playing for mainly mid-table clubs or have disappeared into obscurity. M’vila, Felipe Melo, Christopher Samba, Mata, Marouane Fellaini, Julio Cesar, Luiz Gustavo, Brede Hangeland, Scott Dann, Lewis Holtby, Bernard, Joe Cole and Stevan Jovetic are all examples of players who sparked a fury amongst Arsenal fans when we failed to sign them. The point is, that to compete with the elite, you need to make elite signings, who are in short supply. Too many fans are calling for signings of players who are simply not elite.
But there must be elite players who can improve us. Some maintain that if Napoli are demanding £60m+ for Higuain then just pay the money. We are not in the austerity period any more they say; we need to speculate to accumulate. But this is the one argument that, for me, should be taken up with the clubs directors, and not Wenger; if the objection is that the club is run as a profit driven model, and retaining those profits to the detriment of trophies. Of course, a lot still see Wenger as being all powerful, and hold him responsible for the lack of spending. Assuming that a new manager comes in, what is the plan? A change of style and more resources ? Some argue, an organisational coach like Koeman would be successful. But what is unclear is whether the budget would remain the same. Of course, the traditional anti-Wenger brigade blame the austerity on Wenger. But even if you are wildly enthusiastic about a new manager wielding a cheque book, will that bring success? Van Gaal has spent £129 million net in two seasons. Chelsea and City will continue spending with impunity. The latter clubs are now backed up with very good coaches. But doesn’t recent evidence of other clubs’ spending show that even with spending a colossal amount of money, there is no absolute guarantee that one will win either the premiership or champions league? In fact, there is no absolute guarantee that one will finish top 4. City are having the best ever campaign in the Champions’ League, but had never gone, until recently, beyond the quarter finals. Liverpool, despite spending over £100 million net in 5 seasons, have only been top 4 once, finishing 6th, 8th, 7th, 2nd and 6th. Manchester United and Chelsea are currently not in the top 4.
With respect to the defence of the current campaign, in my humble opinion we have had a lack of balance since January, due to our ball playing midfielders being absent. This was reflected particularly in our performances at home. Too many unconverted chances saw us gain just 2 points against Swansea, Southampton and Crystal Palace. In my view there has been a lack of analysis about the reasons why our form has been so poor at home. At home, teams sit back and they counter attack. To break them down, we normally rely on continuity players who are able to ping the ball around in the final 3rd. I believe the absence of Cazorla, Rosicky and Wilshere has been significant in this respect. In their place was Ramsey, Flamini, Coquelin and more recently El Nenny. We have still been able to dominate games, and have created chances, but I would argue that had we had the former three midfielders, we would have had more gilt-edged chances and opened up the opposition a lot more. Many of the chances created at home after January have been half chances that we have failed to convert.
We have still had moments this season that has proved our quality. We have beaten Bayern Munich at home, Leicester, Manchester City and Manchester United. But the crux for the mainstream support who have departed from Wenger is the cycle of injury problems, and the refusal to change transfer direction. They are not convinced that these problems can be solved by Wenger, because they should have been by now.
With respect to injuries, a report by the Independent shows that AFC had 37 separate injuries in total, ranking 7th overall. Crucially Leicester had the fewest injuries, having just 18.
There is a big correlation as well between teams that win the league and the consistency of the same 11 that is put out. Leicester is evidence of this, which is of course a reflection of the lack of injuries to its squad.
On the one hand, it can be argued that we should have done better in terms of our league position, as our injury total was probably not as bad as in recent seasons. This shows that Shad Forsyth must be doing some good work.
On the other hand, I would still point to the midfield, and say that it has been severely depleted, which has affected the balance of the team. I think this is a crucial point, because right now, on social media, on the blogs, there are a number of fans who believe that there is a confluence in the current run of form, and the stale football, and what they see as the end of Wenger’s reign. They see the current loss of form as one of a number of cycles that have taken place over the last 12 years, and therefore removing the manager is the solution. On this point I vehemently disagree. I believe, strongly, that, if we had more of a midfield balance, we still may not have won league, but we wouldn’t have had the negativity surrounding some of the performances, and could have finished higher.
I find it very difficult to believe that Wenger of all people can be accused not knowing the way forward, in terms of playing attacking football. In previous years, the accusation was always the complete reverse, that we were too gung-ho, and the defence needed attention.
For years, fans lamented the absence of a world class goalkeeper and a defensive midfielder.
Ironically now, with Cech, Coquelin and Elneny, fans are now lamenting what they see as the absence of a striker, but forgetting that previous concerns were addressed.
Positively Arsenal 
I enjoyed reading that. Thanks MooPay….. essentially well researched…
i recall that loss of the league in 2008 and I thought it was loss of Rosicky more that Eduardo that affected that campaign… same here with loss of carzola, arteta and Wilshere… if rosickly had been available to fill i, it would have been great!
People that WANT to complain would regardless of the situation as evidence by the complain swinging from lack of defense to now lack of goals…
For me the defense has also not done enough … Leicester seems to have scored about 2 or 3 goals more than us and conceded a few less i think… I imagine some of those drawn games where we could have conceded one goal less… crystal palace and Liverpool and even the 1 nill loss to Swansea spring to mind!
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Well balanced article Muppet. Thanks. (btw who’s MooPay?)
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It is refreshing to read from someone with a bit of logic and reason behind their opinions..
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Several games where points were lost are vexing:
Southampton (H)
Swansea (H)
Palace (H)
The team didn’t do much wrong – the ball just didn’t go into the net enough.
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Well done Moopay (for those who ask, this is an affectionate play on Muppet when we blogged elsewhere). I am afraid this is the first of many post moterm on the 2015-16 campaign, most of which will suffer from “hindsightism” rather than the in-depth analysis you took the pains to undertake. Interestingly, on twitter Gainsborough has suggested that our main weakness, especially since Santi’s injury, is being too easily closed down in midfield, without a deep lying play-maker to beat the press and, by his logic, with the ability to ping the ball into dangerous positions for our forwards to hurt the opposition. Gainsy suggests that as a result too much of the creative burden is put on Ozil who apart from suffering from the fatigue of doing so much is being closed down hard by the opposition. He suggests that in addition to Santi’s return we need another deep lying midfielder as Wenger’s system is midfield oriented. Would be interesting to read other opinions from PA.
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well just a couple of counter points
balance and injuries to our midfield
injuries
well as you state the injury records of Wilshere, Rosicky, Ramsey and Arteta are well known, Flamini also has his fair share of injuries, so of course questions should be asked as to why we relied on these guys not getting injured(2 of them- wilshere and rosicky- injured before season started, one more -arteta- had missed nearly all of last season and was known to have long term problems), Along with relying on these injury prone players, we did not fill the 25 man squad, 3 places were available, so in essence we started with 22 man squad, had 2 of them out injured before a ball was kicked, and arteta, so basically we were down to a 19 man squad. Welbeck was also injured for start of season, so 18 man squad, not the 25. Now the point of this is not that we should have known Rosicky and Welbeck’s injuries would take longer than expected, but that by leaving 3 places unfilled, and knowing Wilshere. Arteta, Rosicky, Ramsey and Welbeck’s injury records and injury status at the time, was an unnecessary gamble. A gamble that was little more than a repetition of similar gambles over recent years – we have never fill the 25 man squad without the use of u21 players, since the rule came into existence. now that could be excused when we pleaded poverty, but what is the excuse now.
as for the balance of the midfield,
what was done to change the balance, we did not change formation or tactics, it seemed like we just changed personnel and asked them to perform the role of the men the replaced, despite not having the same skill set. could we not have come up with a formation and tactics that best suited the players we had fit. Could we not have tried a 4-4-2, or a 5-4-1, or a 5-3-2 or a 3-5-2. would going 3 or 5 at the back not have given our fullbacks attacking freedom and still been solid at the back, would giving us two strikers not have given us more chance of scoring. I don’t know the answer to these questions, but so many people say our balance was well off, so why did we not try a formation or tactics that suited the players we have. In recent weeks Alexis has been shifted to the right wing, and his performance improved, why did it take so long for this to be tried
by the way there are still concerns about the defense, and how gung ho we are when it comes to leaving ourselves open, wenger has hinted of late that he knows our tactics of overloading the attack with our fullbacks, leaves us open to the counter, but that its just something we have to live with as we are an attacking team.
oddly enough, for an attacking team, only in one game this season did we go gung ho to try and win it late on, that was LCFC at home, when we finished with as wenger put it “four strikers on the pitch”, and it is something that I have found odd of late, that its Giroud or Welbeck, why not both for the last 20, when we have one of them on, the opposition double up on him, they would find that tough on both. We swung the FA Cup final v Hull by bringing on Sanogo to play up top with Giroud, it caused mayhem, but it just seems like we don’t believe that is how football should be played
watching the u18’s, u19’s and the u21’s play this season, they are a carbon copy of the first team, lots of goals conceded by individual mistakes or by the team being very open, all players highly skilled ball players, very few physically imposing players, very few goals scored from corners, or free kicks, formation and tactics are stuck to regardless of opposition, scoreline or time of the game. Some absolute wonderful football played, but when the tempo is not right the level drops so much.
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shotta I would agree that our play is midfield orientated, we have a young lad in the U18’s who is the leagues top scorer with 21 goals, he is an out and out scorer, and has not had a look in with our fa youth cup squad, or our u19’s, and has one u21 sub appearance(due to others being unavailable), and I would suggest this is cos he is not a ball playing striker with silky passing skills, he does not fit in with the midfield orientated game we play, he is just an out and out finisher
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If I were to assign blame for this season, it would be on Wenger making two mistakes. 1) Trusting Mikel Arteta would be fit to contribute this season.
2) Trusting that Walcott, along with the Ox, Ramsey, and the returning Welbeck would score the 10 extra goals he’d talked about at the end of last season.
Aligned with our injuries, specifically Cazorla, and the inability of Alexis to contribute as well as last season (understandably) led to our title charge falling apart.
Of course Wenger’s biggest fault this season is allowing a team like Leicester to finish ahead of Arsenal and win the title. I mean the ego could barely handle it when Chelsea and City with their ill gotten billions did it, but since it’s Leicester and their smaller (though perhaps no less ill gotten) millions, my sense of self is damaged beyond repair. Thankfully Spurs and their new messiah probably won’t win it now, otherwise I might have had to burn the Emirates to the ground, becoming the very enemy I (supposedly) hate and hurt the club I (supposedly) love. It’s all Wenger’s fault.
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juventus won their 5th league title in a row when Roma beat Napoli yesterday. Szczesny had an outstanding game for Roma
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Formidable Le Moopay, as usual. The other unknowable factor, and therefore impossible to plan for, was Leicester going through a PL season losing just three games. A comparative ‘tornado’ struck the traditional big clubs.
When Arsenal announced we had signed Tomas Rosicky in May last year for another season I was delighted. On reflection, and having finally seen Abou away, it was an error.
We don’t score enough goals, our strikers, our midfield players, even the usual half dozen from defenders seem to have been missing this year. Top of Arsene’s list to address over the Summer.
One tiny technical point – William Carvahlo broke his right tibia in the Euro – U21 on 15th July 2015. I can imagine the storm that would have broken if we had signed the boy on crutches.
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protest planned for Norwich game on Saturday
http://redaction-gooners.blogspot.ie/2016/04/time-for-change-have-your-say-at.html
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Yawn
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Sutton @sutton_01 4h4 hours ago
Fans now telling other fans they can’t laugh at Spurs, what has supporting this club come too.
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AFCPressWatch™ @AFCPressWatch 12h12 hours ago
Referee Appointment For The Arsenal v Norwich Match:
Mike Jones in the middle.
R West & M Scholes to assist.
K Friend, the 4th official.
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The problem I suspect was not so much with us not trying to sign anyone, but with persuading those anyones to come. Why would an ambitious Schneiderlin (as an easy example) want to join any side unless he felt he was going to be a nailed on starter. Had all of those midfielders we mentioned been fit would he have played all the time? Possibly yes, probably no would be my guess. And so he might well have felt that going to United was a better career move for him. Remember Jack’s injury came just before the Charity Shield, leaving precious little time to find a real quality replacement for him. Whereas with Elneny the landscape had changed quite significantly by the time he joined and he could see he would most likely be a definite starter (and we don’t know of course whether we were trying to buy him last summer anyhow). Getting top players to come as cover is very hard indeed: getting top players with ambition nigh on impossible.
So when Arsene says there was no one available to improve us he probably meant no one who was better than Ramsey,Cazorla, Wilshere, Oxlade or Coquelin that was for sale at a price we could afford. And the same I suspect goes with strikers. While there are a few better than Giroud, everyone is looking for them and those that have them need a lot of persuasion to offload.
Spurs weren’t going to sell us Kane (but they might struggle to keep him for much longer), Dortmund had every reason to hang on to Aubemayang, Lewandoski was happy at Bayern etc, etc. The only route for us I suspect is to find an unknown like a Sanogo or Vardy (and some work and some don’t), develop a gem from within (as we seem to have done with Iwobi, but he isn’t yet the out and out striker people crave) or hope to transform Welbeck and Walcott into machines – which again has been thwarted by unexpected and frustrating injury. I still hold out great hopes for Welbeck by the way, but don’t find it remotely surprising that after a bright start after his near year-long injury his form has dipped a little.
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foreverheady @ 12:28pm – Additionally, Welbeck wasn’t suppose to be out for 6 months based on the diagnoses last May.
The journos, bloggers and podcasters seem to know more about who we should have signed and better knowledge of medicine than the various professionals at AFC. Given that I frequently rely on the opinions of pros in my line of work, please understand why I don’t give our armchair warriors the time of the day.
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Another home match coming up. Another protest. At ticket prices? At broadcasters? At owners? At managers? Very, very odd behaviour.
Of interest to psychologists (that are bored) and perhaps anthropologists too but surely this bullgr*t is of sweet FA interest to fans of Football? Does this help explain why the Groaners ignore the football never actually discuss the footy on the pitch, and the impact of players like Arteta and Cazorla and the BFG had on a young / unsettled squad and spent the last three years groaning whilst the rest of us enjoyed Cazorla’s arrival, that free kick at Wembley, Arteta leading the troops out of the shadow of the Ego’sas the club somehow avoided what we’ve seen at Chelsea and Utd (must’ve been a fluke?) the Alexis Final, etc.
the latest meme that AFC need to play more like LCFC is going to look fooking hilarious as next season lcfc begin to further resemble other modern teams competing on multiple fronts. Sado-masochism. It’s not a good look.
That article by that Sunderland supporter that Andrew linked is worth re-visiting
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Aston Villa ticket safely retrieved – Block 31 – very salubrious.
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@ andy.. ticket retrieved? what does that mean?
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I bought it on the Exchange Team – there has been a few tickets on all week for villa but I was waiting for a good one = lower tier, centre blocks, a few rows back
(Need to make sure I am on the telly)
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Mikel’s operation was supposed to have fixed him-it didn’t
Tomas , Jack and Danny were supposed to be back by Xmas-they weren’t
The loss of Santi, Aaron and Coq around the same time meant that the others were playing too much and got fatigued
We could not have covered these players with anything like that quality.
Who would have predicted such poor form from Theo ,AOC and Sanchez?
Shit happens.
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Theo, AOC and Sanchez form right there n the pitch was really not expected – even Giroud… honestly usually, one or the other steps up!
along with all those i juries mentioned that cannot be legislated for
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Obviously we are all down in the dumps after yet another season where we managed to fall off of the league pace. It’s very understandable and it affects people in different ways as we are of varying ages and have various perspectives on both football and life in general. But it’s the depth of the annoyance that I find hard to accept, have folks forgotten that it’s a sport played by other human beings who also have “on and off days”, get injured or make mistakes etc. They seem to believe that the team should be robotic and always fulfill the hopes and dreams of the supporters.
I could rant on all day about how poor I think our supporters are but it will get me nowhere in the end so I would like to end this with a question.
Does anybody else feel as I do that our supporters are among the most spoiled in the PL – what gives them the impression that they are entitled to winning every season?
The worst player on our team is consistently our 12th man 😦 😦 😦
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Oh – my question excludes us – as I know that we are among the best of our supporters 🙂 🙂 🙂
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ome of the supporters actually acting like spoint brats? No contest to that assertion… CHELSEA MAN U AND ALL ELE THAT SPENT HEAVILY DID NOT MAKE IT SO ARSENAL MUST BE THE ONE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE… the logic of that argument, only them can understand.
the return of de bryne recently for amn city shown how a key player ala carzola being ut can impact on a teams play… and as observed earlier not at al helped by theo and o not managing to score even half of hat was expected from them!
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NO SMILEY FACES !!!!
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They are unhinged GN5 – I suspect they are unable to find much joy in their everyday lives and transfer their frustration to the football club
Printing off a leaflet and holding it up because ” this is the last chance we will have this season”.
Pity it is not the “last chance” any of them had, ever.
Just. Fuck. Off.
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It is good that, Muppet is still up-to-speed!
The inquest has started? I can see no reason, for shedding tears on what might have been.
Excuses, not for me. I do not have the StatDNA data, and therefore I am in no position to analyse the reasons why and why not. Arsenal is an attacking team and the goals for, should reflect that attitude. Right? Wrong?
I would expect the opponent, to ensure that X, Y or Z, is made to shoot from his less-favoured foot and from an unpromising position? The diagrams do not exist for the Arsenal X, Y and Z’s, shots on target and off-target. StatDNA, will have this detail.
Therefore, I support the Arsenal, come hell and high-water!
COTG
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Outstanding Muppet, really well thought through and a great read. Deserves to be widely read in my opinion.
Thanks.
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isn’t it odd that the likes of ast, redaction etc etc are all for protest, yet fall over themselves for places for the Q&A sessions with Gazidis etc, it seems it ok to boycott games, but they don’t consider boycotting the perk of meeting the big boys.
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Excellent stuff Moopay……
I too believe Santi was a major loss. I suspect that Wilshere was expected back sooner…
Whilst I instinctively feel contempt for the moaners and groaners part of me understands. It is very difficult to remain steadfast after 12 years….
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might be next seasons away kit
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That was a great read,
In previous seasons I think we have copped better with adversity with squads not as well equipped to do so.
Never before have we been hit with such a blight of poor form by so many players all at the same time and this has been the most disappointing thing.
This was set against the backdrop of being the PL’s best team in 2015 and when you set the standard so high then don’t match it then obviously questions will and should be asked.
The million reasons given by uncle Tom cobley and all why things went wrong are probably 90% hogwash I suspect Arsene is already working on the parts of the remaining 10% that can improve the team.
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To be honest if we’d been awarded the same number of penalties as Leicester we’d probably be winning the league too.
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lets look at the chances of this campaign for change working
Arsenal go 9 years without a trophy and we don’t change the manager, we now go one year without a trophy and some fans will hold up A4 sheets of paper, are we likely to change the manager
Kroenke moved an entire club from one state to another, from st louis to los angelus, upsetting all in st louis, lots of abuse, chants, placards etc, did it change Kroenke’s mind.
Arsenal fans will hold up A4 sheets of paper, are they likely to change Kroenke’s mind about how the club is run.
I for the life of me can’t see how the A4 sheets of paper protest could possibly fail. Arsenal is saved, all hail A4
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why are the fans groups saying that the protest is not a wenger out protest when they say “rumors of wenger getting a new 3 year contract means their is no light at the end of the tunnel”, what is that if not a clear wenger out stance
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The stellar signings and squad development of recent years that led to the two FA cups and culminating in the outstanding form of 2015 have made Leicester’s and Tot’s current streak far harder for many to bear than might ‘normally’ have been the case. The impact on our fans’ psyche can be labelled catastrophic but the reality of our squad’s true strength is unlikely to be similarly under-estimated by those charged with the day-to-day management of the club, whichever side of the Atlantic they reside.
Nothing would surprise me less than another three-year deal for Wenger and a summer of squad trimming and player acquisition that will see the silly shenanigans of a noisy, self-publicising minority of shrieking Sheilas eclipsed once and for all.
The anti-Wenger contingent know they have to whip up feelings against the team and do anything they can to contribute to AFC falling out of the top four; only in this instance will they have any chance of Arsene calling time on his career here. And this is why they are attempting to seize their moment now rather than in a more appropriate out-of-season context.
I suspect they will end the summer somewhat disappointed – and the rest of us will excitedly await the start of 2016-17.
We’ll see.
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eduardo
Kroenke’s LA Rams have also now traded up to acquire the #1 draft pick for this season. They are expected to get one of the two hyped young Quarterbacks to build around, and their guys said that the moves for being at that stage started in 2012 with the trades they did to pad out their squad. Slow planning, building up, leading to a big ticket move of ‘ambition’.
Oh, but Kroenke, who has invested his money in a multitude of sports teams, has no passion for sport and no passion for winning. What is going on?
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@AA, LOL. AS UNLIKELY AS THIS seems, how i wish we can finish 2nd… 1 pt ahead of spurs… would love to see the egg on their faces… ungrateful and self entitled spoilt brats are the lots of them!
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LESS WHINING
MORE SUPPORTING THE ARSENAL
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shard I seen an article about the LA Rams doing that trading and the thing that struck me was the line about how Kroenke runs the club, “he hires people who know what they are doing and lets them get on with it”, now doesn’t that sound familiar
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I see the Scarfists and whiners have moved on to wanting a “regime” change at the club.
One of us is one another planet, and I am reasonably sure it is not me.
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Away matches to Chelsea and Newcastle sandwiching a home game against the side formerly managed by Poch – while we must take on Norwich and Villa at home either side of our visit to blue moon Manchester. Win all of ours and see the Spuds stumble badly sees us end up in second place. And against that backdrop anyone planning anything less than 100% support on the weekend might pause to consider just what they want out of following a team.
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The game is described as “a meaningless kick-about” Tim hence it is fine to protest to bring about a change of regime by waving your placards and banners at 12 and 78 minutes.
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“We host Norwich this coming Saturday in what’s become a pretty meaningless end of season kick about. ” (BSM in case you wonder)
And they wonder why clubs come to the Ems and tan our arses ?
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for me I think this whole escalation of protests has little to do with how this season has gone, and more to do with a small handful of internet celebrity fans – you know the type, AFTV, big twitter accounts, tim look at me payton, the banner wankers, etc – knowing that all they have said and done over the last 12 years has not made one iota of difference to how the club is run, how the team is picked, how the team is assembled, the managers tenure, etc etc etc, but they know that Wenger is likely to be gone within a short period of time, mainly due to his age, if nothing else.
There is no better time to try and make your self promotional fan/group, look relevant, than right now, take a look at the actual facts of the situation, Wenger and the squad. Never has the situation with both lent itself to conning the ordinary fan into believing the protest groups have had an impact or victory as they will claim it, when in fact nothing will have changed one iota, from the plans the club already have and are running to.
Wenger – He has one year left on his contract, he has said nothing to even hint that he will be staying beyond that, what guy aged 66(will be 67 in October), would be committing to being here beyond his current contract, until any new deal is signed why should he. Any man of that age still working in a high pressure job would have to think carefully about committing to any new deal taking up two or three more years of his life. There is claims that his contract included an option where he can step down one year early.
So lets assume Wenger does leave either this summer or at the end of his current contract next summer, we all know that the WOB will claim they forced him out when the facts would be that it had nothing to do with them what so ever.
Squad-we know that Arteta, Rosicky, Flamini are all out of contract, Debuchy wants out, and its also reported that Szczesny, Ospina, Gibbs and one or two others want out, as they want to be first choice somewhere. So we could very well be seeing 7,8 or even 9 or more players leave this summer.
What happens when a whole host of players, even squad players, leave. you bring in replacements. Even if 9 or 10 leave we might only see 5 or 6 new signings, but after no outfield signings last summer, individuals or fans groups can claim a victory in forcing the club to spend money and sign players. When the facts would be that it had nothing to do with them what so ever.
I would find it hilarious if after this protest on Saturday its announced on Arsenal.com that Wenger has signed a new 3 year deal. Just to show these self entitled guys just how little impact or influence they really have at AFC, in fact it might make them realize that they have as little influence at AFC as they have in their normal everyday lives,
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its clear that the protest on saturday is a wenger out protest, but as they know they have not enough support for that, they have dressed it up in a general protest, a one size fits all type protest, so if you are unhappy at the manager, or the owner, or the board, or the CEO, or the team, or this player or that player, or the weather, this is the protest for you
If you are unhappy with the protest itself, this the opportunity to protest, so if you want the protest to change, get your A4 sheet, Time for Change is now.
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