After losing 5:1 to Bayern the English media have done everything to downplay the quality of Arsenal’s performance up to the 55th minute, ignore the diabolical refereeing (Wenger described it as “unexplainable and scandalous“) and to ratchet up the hysteria for Arsene to be fired prior to renewal or conclusion of his contract.
Leading the charge of the English media is one James Olley, Chief Football Correspondent of the Evening Standard. Before PSG was screwed over by the same UEFA referees he was a man filled with certitude.
“Arsenal were simply not good enough to compete at the highest level and after more than £85million investment in a squad Wenger had huge faith in, it is a damning indictment of the manager and this group of players (My emphasis).”
Despite the Standard being a rag that is given away to evening commuters, Mr Olley’s views are of such import that the Sage of Dublin made him his guest of honor on his Friday podcast to spew his diatribe to his army of followers. So let us dissect Olley’s views.
Did the manager ever have any illusions about the gap in quality between his club and Bayern? Unlike Mr Olley’s bill of indictment, the manager in his pre-game presser did not have great “faith” in his team’s chances:
“Let’s not fool ourselves, we have a one or two-percent chance. But you never know. That’s why we have to focus on the quality of our performance and our commitment.”
But should Gooners or neutrals be expecting superiority over Bayern because Arsenal invested £85million in the squad last summer? Apparently Olley believes after one summer of big spending Arsenal should be beating one of the traditional powerhouses of Europe (2-times Champion League and 3-times European Cup winners) and 26-times Bundesliga winner. If one merely focused on the headline statistic, i.e. market value of both squads; £472.73m for Bayern vs £418.20m for Arsenal (a 13% difference), and this is before making any adjustment to account for the more inflated English market, one would think it is a small gap.
Don’t expect Mr. Olley and his interlocutor, the Sage of Dublin, to dig down into the data as this would expose the shallowness of their claim that Wenger is all to blame for Arsenal’s defeat. Unlike them, we at Positively Arsenal demand data and facts to form a conclusion rather than act hysterically and emotionally.
A deeper analysis of the market value of the players representing both teams show a £20 million edge to Bayern, according to transfermarkt.co.uk Again it must be emphasized that England suffers from significantly greater inflation than Germany where Bayern can pick up a player with more or less the same qualities as one in the English market at a lesser transfer fee. This applies to wages as well.
| ARSENAL | |
| David Ospina | £5.95m |
| Laurent Koscielny | £18.70m |
| Shkodran Mustafi | £25.50m |
| Nacho Monreal | £12.75m |
| Héctor Bellerín | £21.25m |
| Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain | £17.00m |
| Aaron Ramsey | £29.75m |
| Francis Coquelin | £12.75m |
| Granit Xhaka | £29.75m |
| Olivier Giroud | £21.25m |
| Mesut Özil | £42.50m |
| Alexis Sánchez | £55.25m |
| Lucas Pérez | £14.45m |
| Theo Walcott | £18.70m |
| Total Market Value | £325.55m |
V.S.
| BAYERN | |
| Manuel Neuer | £38.25m |
| Mats Hummels | £32.30m |
| Javi Martínez | £21.25m |
| David Alaba | £34.00m |
| Rafinha | £4.25m |
| Thiago Alcántara | £25.50m |
| Joshua Kimmich | £21.25m |
| Arturo Vidal | £31.45m |
| Xabi Alonso | £2.98m |
| Robert Lewandowski | £68.00m |
| Franck Ribéry | £6.80m |
| Renato Sanches | £25.50m |
| Arjen Robben | £8.50m |
| Douglas Costa | £25.50m |
| Total Market Value | £345.53M |
The fact that the financial disparity, when 11 v 11, was only 6% goes somewhere in explaining why Arsenal was competitive for the first 55 minutes. But once the officials decided to tilt the tables in Bayern’s favor by not only granting a penalty for Lewandowski’s appalling imitation of Jamie Vardy’s favorite diving technique, but going further by sending off Arsenal’s best defender (Koscielny), the disparity became a gulf. Approximately £20 million in talent was sent to the showers.
By the way: I am no great fan of transfermarkt’s valuation as a source of unbiased data but it certainly goes somewhere in exposing the shallowness of Olley’s selective use of transfer spending to support a predetermined point of view. As usual, I publish my data so readers can do their own analysis and agree/disagree with my conclusions. If time allowed I would have researched age, years as a professional, performance rating (Squawka), etc., to assess the qualitative difference between both starting XIs.
Back to Mr. Olley’s campaign to discredit Mr. Wenger. One day after Bayern his headline was Arsene Wenger cannot be allowed to decide his destiny – he is holding Arsenal back:
“It is difficult to imagine how bad things have to get at Arsenal before the offer of a two-year contract extension to Arsene Wenger is withdrawn.”
Apparently this provocative headline earned him the invitation to do that Arsenal podcast. Birds of a feather certainly flock together.
It took Sir Chips Keswick, chairman of the board, to put Olley and his cohorts in their place by letting them know who decides Arsene’s and Arsenal’s destiny. He issued an official statement on Thursday, March 9th which stated:
“Arsene has a contract until the end of the season. Any decisions will be made by us mutually and communicated at the right time in the right way.”
None of that dreaded statement of confidence, that platitudinous public relation puffery used by Board chairmen to assuage the media and incredulous fans to insulate themselves from criticism while they plot their options. It was a simple statement of fact; a big, polite “eff off”.
Olley was not dissuaded. During the Lincoln game, like so many in the English media, via a series of tweets, one could sense how desperate he was to have an upset and his ensuing disappointment.
Who had 24 minutes? Xhaka booked for a wild tackle on Matt Rhead. Lincoln may just be sensing an opportunity. 0-0.
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) March 11, 2017
Lincoln fans: “Arsene Wenger, we’re coming for you.”
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) March 11, 2017
Third injury delay here helping Lincoln gather their breath & composure. #afc lacklustre so far.
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) March 11, 2017
HT 1-0 #afc fortunate to be ahead after underwhelming first half. Lincoln, top of the NL, were matching them stride for stride until then.
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) March 11, 2017
#afc 2-0 #Lincoln Giroud converts from close range. Not much of a celebration. Looks like they just want to get out of here.
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) March 11, 2017
#afc 3-0 #Lincoln Waterfall turns Gibbs’ cross into his own net. Game over.
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) March 11, 2017
#afc 4-0 #Lincoln Sanchez curls home a fourth from the edge of the box. Job done.
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) March 11, 2017
FT 5-0 #afc Underwhelming start but in the end a comfortable win which will at least help morale. Lincoln (& their fans) can be proud.
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) March 11, 2017
In his post game report Olley came to the remarkable conclusion that a 5:0 trashing was underwhelming.
“The performance was underwhelming as Lincoln held their own in a fearless and well-organised display but Wenger got the result he desperately needed to avoid further discontent.”
My friends, this is the state of the English mainstream media and its profitable footballing division; a state of rank bias and mendacity. And colluding with them are bloggers and podcasters who pursue ambitions completely divorced from the hard facts and reality that affect the club they claim to support. Rather than trying to educate and inform the fans they are in it to promote hysteria and emotionalism. What a shame!
Positively Arsenal 
Bama
For me it’s no different to exactly this time last season and the infamous stadium protest. Grondhog day haha! Almost like some kind of stunted and failed campaign designed to try and engineer a hostile corporate takeover?
It’s been an ongoing problem and is the main reason this blog was set up by my understanding.
Tim Stillman came on early doorsand asked why people here were fed up with those who claim to be against modern football whilst acting like the worst elements of modern sports fans, and more importantly he refused to acknowledge the impact on the club, on the pitch, online, and it was hard to take him seriously as a result (I recall Frank had a much more efficient technique of expressing the above)
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Oops. The willock bit was in response to ian
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Oh yeah fins. These fans really love being treated like sacred untouchables. How dare you blame them? (Everything is blame to them) It’s Wenger’s fault.
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Are internet memes allowed here? Or talk of them?
I really think this image of Wenger should become a standard response to the idiots flooding the internet. (Someone did a great job putting this up on the official site)
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Shard
My understanding is that AFCs use is light years ahead of the broadcaster’s. Probably using patented or copyrighted software/process?
And even then scouts like Grimandi will always have a high status. As it should be.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/03/sports/soccer/arsenal-arsene-wenger-analytics.html?_r=0&referer=https://www.google.co.uk/
But this is a fitting link and excuse to remember and honour the great cricket coach Bob Woolmer who is being remembered today: called the AW of cricket not only was he a successful and pioneering coach praised by so many leading players for his one to one coaching but he was also a big pioneer of tech in cricket, much to the ire of Geoffrey Boycott! Heh.
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Actually, Fins, it’s on here that it it feels different to me. Not as much positivity as I’m used to. I don’t think it was like this last year, but I could just have blocked it out. (banned smiley)
No question in the rest of the AFC world it’s definitely Groundhog Day. As usual. Never mind them, though.
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Shard, memes may or may not be allowed but they are unavoidable!
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I liked Bob Woolmer (I think he was born in my country too) I remember the controversy over the use of earpieces with South Africa. But it just showed he was always looking to innovate. Sad how he died. I still think there was something shady around that. It just felt off. But who knows?
On the article, that’s really interesting. I hadn’t read the details around how the purchase of StatDNA came about. Thanks for that. Stats vs Scouts is quite a difficult debate, but of course, I believe nothing can completely replace that human element in making a call.
By the way, is it just me, or have more of our scouts been speaking to the media recently? There was Grimandi some time ago. Jurgen Kost was at it talking about Ozyakup and some Turkish kid in Germany. Sandro Orlandelli also said something about how he was hired after he had recommended Kaka before he was known. I mean it’s interesting to get these stories and I’m not complaining, but it strikes me as unusual for Arsenal.
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Shard, Ian
Would really hate to see Willock leave.
Have seen one fan, who really does attend every single game- home, abroad, pre-season, youth- claim, after the last u23 game, that a player there wants to leave (because of Wenger). Don’t particularly like this fan in question but I’m pretty sure he never resorts to inventing stuff.
Wouldn’t say who, because it would break a parent’s trust, but it was on same day as the talk of Chris W leaving so seems likely it’s him.
What can you do? I’d guess any unhappiness would come from not getting many minutes in Carling or Fa cup, with Jeff and Ainsley getting them instead, but, to me, immensely talented though he is, I’m still not sure it’s his time just yet for senior football.
Big danger is Utd or Chelsea coming in, making promises and paying big wages. Really, it’s nothing to them. They might think the chance isn’t even particularly high, especially without a loan or three, but what does that matter to them, I doubt they even think of realistic chance of making it when signing young talents, especially cheap : a big, unusual talent, hefty wages which are nevertheless no big deal for them, a painful one in the eye for us (which you know who would probably enjoy) : no brainer for them.
Hopefully, Willock makes the smart choice. If he thinks he has a better chance at those two or City, he’s surely mistaken and also less suited to their ideas of a wide player than at Arsenal. Can imagine Liverpool trying as well.
Gone on a lot there, but truth is I’m pretty anxious about that one. He’s got such sublime, unique skills and I’d be pretty dismayed if he never even gets a handful of games here to show he can transfer them to first team.
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Bama
I hear you, though it was about this time last year where Eds and I disagreed about the drop in form in AFCs football. it wasn’t a topic of great interest to me as it was an obvious consequence of losing Santi Cazorla (and for a shorter window Alexis when his cover was also out), and everything I saw in the first few months of this season reinforced that appreciation of the Midfield Generalissimo’s leadership and quality. Perhaps without the four game ban Xhaka and Rambo would’ve found a recognisable groove, I expect them match and eventually better the Arteta-Ramsey partnership (a combo that supported the Cazorla-Ozil playmaking pair),
Chamberlain has also been playing well, but his agent scares me!
Someone tried to tell me some scary rumours regarding the Welsh wizard wanting to go to the big two in Spain but you’ll be happy to hear I wasn’t having any of it!
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Shard
What was off regarding Bob Woolmer’s passing was the disgusting and indefensible behaviour of some prominent sports journalists accusing much admired individuals such as Mushtaq Ahemed of murder! (much admired for his character on the county cricket scene and also an England’s coach at times!)
Fake news and then some.
The PCB boats are not the greatest but it’s not as if they operate from the worlds black market betting hub, like the owners of Leicester City FC do.
We’re lucky to have such brave journalists I guess.
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I’m glad to see Arsene taking a stand and refusing to answer anymore of those provocative questions from the media and he’s calling them out on running with fake news. Long may it last.
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Rich, knowing how we got the Willocks in the first place I really can’t believe he would be leaving for any other reason than inducements, basically that’s how we got him and his parents didn’t seem the type at the time to move their lads for footballing reasons.
Kelly, Maybe last year we were all thinking that Arsene had a minimum of a year left and at that point he was not talking about any possibility of hanging up his tactics board.
I think we have had to think more about what if this year than ever before. Of course that doesn’t mean we are any less positive or supportive.
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Yes, Ian, you are right about that. Uncertainty does tend to make us all edgy. I’ve actually been concerned that the players are suffering a bit from uncertainty as well. Who knows? I’ll confess I’m not looking forward to the summer at all.
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Ian
Damn, that doesn’t sound good. Been honing distinctly Arsenal skills and passing moves around box for years so a real shame if he goes.
He’ll get a hell of a shock if he makes the wrong move and finds they don’t have players on same wavelength to exchange passes with, or that they expect a lot of defending or even prioritise defending from wide players.
Fingers crossed he stays in end.
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Wow. All this worry about a nineteen year old staying or going? I get he’s talented but I have never been worried enough about losing even top level players like Van Persie and Cesc (nor Alexis or Ozil now) for me to worry too much about what this kid does or what his motivations are. Not everyone matures at the same rate as say, Cesc who was brilliant even at 16, but there must be a reason Willock finds himself behind the likes of Jeff and Iwobi.
I would like if we kept a talented young player but if he decides to see out his contract or make demands we’re not prepared to meet..my reaction is…meh.
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finsbury
Really? I have no recollection of Mushtaq Ahmed being blamed for Woolmer’s murder? Wow. Maybe I saw it then and dismissed it as a joke.
The British press really are very…. disappointing aren’t they?
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passenal
A few days ago I had read a Guardian article talking about the press being kind to Wenger instead of going in for the kill over his ‘misguided conviction’ about the role of the referee.
I think it was just more likely that they were terrified to annoy Wenger any further when he was obviously in no mood to take any nonsense.
He seemed in a no nonsense mood today too, though obviously not fuming, but the sense I got was that the journos were a little scared of him today as well.
I remember Martin Keown once saying that in Wenger’s niceness and calmness it is easy to forget how imposing he can be. MARTIN KEOWN found Wenger imposing. Those journos don’t stand a chance.
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Shard
I’ve not been able to listen to Jonathan Agnew since without laughing. What an idiot!
Fortunately there are some decent cricket plundits. Phil Tufnell’s accounts of his encounters with modern training techniques are pure gold (he never had much time for stats. Or stretches. Though the stats do tell us of his quality as a player).
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Wait. Are you saying he was really good? I don’t know what his stats are like but my impression of him was that he wasn’t. But it has been a while and I no longer follow cricket, so I don’t know how his ‘legacy’ is viewed.
Or maybe you are saying that he wasn’t very good. In which case…phew.
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Hahaha!
Safe to say that with a little bit of extra training , & less smoking, that he might’ve have been better.
Until the arrival of Swann he was the best (& most entertaining) English spinner i had seen
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ianspace2014
March 16, 2017 at 1:51 pm
Ed, Another Willock brother is already at manure and they nearly signed Joe and Chris before we managed to get their signatures. I think that enough big clubs were in for them that the parents could see exactly what was dangled I front of them before deciding where they went. It is therefore no surprise they are stalling again. They are undoubtedly big talents but I would question their loyalty at any stage of their career.
THe older Willock was releaseds by us and picked up by Utd. Chris and Joe were Schoolboys of 15 and 13 at the time and Utd were sniffing round per this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2533294/THE-TRANSFER-COLUMN-Manchester-United-chase-Arsenal-youngster-Chris-Willock.html
Not sure we poached them from Utd as such.
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on Chris Willock, I was told that Arsenal were willing to send him out on loan in January, but only after he signed the new contract on offer, but as the lad did not sign, it is Arsenal policy to not send on loan, those they want long term, who have not signed on for a few more years. Its sort of, “we don’t put lads in the shop window who can walk for free”. As it stands, any interested club, will still have to consider if the lad can actually make the step up, without having seen him play in a run of first team games. It leaves doubt in their minds.
Joe Willock almost had his scholarship offer cancelled due to the amount of time he took to sign it. He even missed part of the pre-season training before he signed it, then when he did not feature for the u18’s early last season due to lack of fitness he was complaining that he was not getting game time. Now he is complaining that he has not been promoted to the u23’s this season, despite his performances for the u18’s not been good enough to warrant a promotion.
Reiss Nelson firstly jumped past Joe at u18 level, and now he is outshining Chris at u23 level, so as much as AFC don’t want to lose Chris, they will not bend over backwards to keep the lad. Chris was actually ahead of Iwobi at the start of last season, but Alex’s greater physique meant he was more suited to first team football.
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Aah. See when I think spinners of the 90s, I think of Shane Warne, Anil Kumble, Saqlain and Muralitharan. I’m afraid Phil Tuffnell didn’t make much of an impression on me. Paul Adams though. Now that was entertaining. (banned smiley)
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Shard @7.12 pm, I can well imagine that. When the quiet man makes his voice heard it’s much more impactful than the noisy man who is always screeching and has been tuned out eons ago.
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Amazed that Walcott did not get called up to the England squad.
Arsenal players called up for England duty:
U18s: Nelson, Mcguane, T Bola, Nketiah
U19s: C Willock
U20s: Maitland-Niles
U21s: Holding
Senior: Oxlade-Chamberlain
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Jon Toral signed a new Arsenal contract in January before going out on loan to Rangers
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Matt LawVerified account @Matt_Law_DT 7h7 hours ago
Walcott has 17 goals in all comps for Arsenal this season. More than any other player Gareth Southgate has picked.
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Theo didn’t get picked? Good grief, what does he have to do?
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he gets picked when off form, but when on form he gets left out, it seems Southgate has not got a football brain.
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Wenger on Bellerin rumours: “He has just extended. It’s an unbelievable amount of years. It’s difficult to take these things seriously.”
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ah poor old jack wilshere, left Arsenal on loan cos he had lost his England squad place due to lack of game time, now he still can’t get in the England squad, maybe cos he has been dropped lately by AFCB.
Maybe Jack will realize that its got little to do with game time, and had/has more to do with how fucking brain dead the England manager was/is. Just ask Theo, he has suffered more than most from the madness of England managers.
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Positively Arsenal @Blackburngeorge 8m8 minutes ago
Roy Keane on Jose”He is talking absolute rubbish, I’m sick to death of him. maybe the club is too big for him”
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so the person organizing the David ‘Rocky’ Rocastle remembrance event has asked for the Wenger out protest not to be staged at the game on that day, but of course the self centered wob’s are ignoring this request, as they see the opportunity of piggy backing on it so as to claim greater numbers in their vanity quest.
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imagine the uproar if Wenger said this
“we are not ready to be a dominant force”
asked if he could return the club to its former greatness he replied
“forget it”
“Don’t try to go 10 or 20 years ago because it it not possible anymore”
but that is what the great Jose Mourinho told the media about Man Utd tonight.
But even if Arsenal have much less money than Man Utd, there is not one reason why we should not be dominating like we did 10-20 years ago, and we know this to be true, cos the banner boys tell us so.
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Shard
When you reel off those names it makes one appreciate how lucky we were to see such great players, wow what a list! We’ve been spoiled.
Their stats weren’t too shabby either.
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The stats won’t show our admiration for Paul Adams’ bowling action!
But they’ll show that the batsmen would’ve been more cautious with the others’. (When I say batsmen I mean people who could bat, not the likes of me!)
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fins
Add in fast bowlers like Walsh and Ambrose, Waqar and Wasim, McGrath and Lee, Donald and Pollock. and batsman like Tendulkar, Lara, the Waughs, Inzy, Gibbs, Jayasuriya and Aravinda Da Silva, Dravid, and the later evolution of the wicketkeeper batsmen with Gilchrist, Sangakkara and Dhoni, it probably was a golden age of sorts. Cricket was evolving into the modern game and I think there was more innovation in that period than ever before or since.
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Yup.
And in spite of the Cronje scandal the evolution in the umpiring standards set the foundation for that golden era blissfully free of controversy involving officials
what happened more recently in the IPL was entirely predictable given the model and ownership structure of that league, I’ve not yet watched an IPL match!
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Mums side of the family are Irish so Happy St.Patrick’s day to DC and Eddy and everyone else!
ps Are the 15 minutes of fame for the banner boys up yet?
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Adrian Clarke @adrianjclarke 20h20 hours ago
Theo Walcott should be in this England squad. End of. I thought it was a wind-up when I heard who was in ahead of him.
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will we be getting the wba preview post today seeing as its an early kick off tomorrow
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http://northlondonisred.co.uk/walcott-arsenals-most-dangerous-and-reliable-attacker/
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I have no doubt Stew is staring at a blank screen as we speak eddy
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Our usually silent coach Boro Primorac has been speaking to the press in Croatia and if reports are to be believed he says AW is not thinking about leaving. I particularly enjoyed this supposed quote from him
“We understand how fans are not happy, neither are we. But as for critics, there are no less grateful persons in football than fans and ex-players.”
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I was pondering the Champions League Quarter final draw and its Europa League equivalent.
In the CL there are six, arguably seven sides (+Leicester) capable of going to the final and winning, the best sides in Europe – games that I will watch.
The Europa League ties are between a gaggle of second tier teams – I cannot recall a year in which the final eight of that competition has been quite so poor. The ridiculous thing about it is the winner gets an automatic CL place at the group stage. If I was Jose I’d have the EL trophy front and centre of my strategy over the next two months.
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Neil Swarbrick is the ref tomorrow v wba, he was ref in the home tie v wba too, and when i tell yuo it took him 83 minutes before he booked Ben Foster for time wasting, it tells you all you need to know about his ability.
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have the european draws been made
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Obviously Referee Swarbrick knows what he is doing – he books Foster on 86 minutes, and we score the winner on 87. Go Neil, go.
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