Before I go into my thinking let me make state my opinions:
- Arsene Wenger is the club’s greatest ever manager
- Arsene Wenger remains one of the world’s best managers
- Arsene Wenger can achieve as much success as any possible replacement
- Arsene Wenger should leave at the end of this season
So how can I say 4 after the previous 3? Let me try to explain.
Arsenal are not a poor club; compared to the vast majority of clubs we are rich. However, compared to 3 other English clubs we are very much the poor relation. The problem is a huge swathe of our fan-base flatly refuse to accept this reality. So let’s look at the reasons why so many think we should be able to compete with these clubs and why their thinking is wrong.
We are the 5th most valuable football club in the world and worth more than City and Chelsea.
Yes we are, but you can’t spend your share value. An owner could of course borrow against it and fund the club that way, as Manchester United basically do, but our owner chooses not to. So just like the value of your house does not mean you can buy a new Ferrari, the value of the club does not buy players.
We have the largest cash reserves in football.
Yes, we do, but all of our cash reserves are shown in our accounts. City and Chelsea’s cash reserves are in the bank accounts of their owners and don’t show in their accounts. And importantly, their owners are prepared and willing to spend their own money to subsidise the clubs. Ours has no such willingness. It doesn’t matter how rich your Dad is, if he won’t fund your lifestyle, you are on your own. The fact that Stan is fabulously wealthy does not help a jot if he insists on the club paying its own way. And he does.
There is a proven 85% correlation across all leagues of money spent (on fees and wages) to success.
Did LCFC club outspend the rest?
No they didn’t. They were a once in a lifetime exception, and people should understand that for every 5000 to 1 winner, there are 5000+ losers. Using this freak result as an argument against years of proven data takes an incredible amount of stupidity, but that doesn’t seem to put people off.
Until fans accept that there are 3 teams much more likely to win the league at the start of every season there will always be rebellion. I don’t care who the manager is, each and every year there are 3 teams that will have vastly more expensive squads and who will most likely have out-spent us on transfers in the previous window. Some fans will ignore the financial gulf and demand we “compete” with the super spending clubs. But why?
Well, Arsene Wenger for a start. His massive early success set the bar, and the change that has happened in the game since is ignored. We want doubles and unbeaten seasons, no sausages for us, oh no-sir. We deserve better. We have tasted it, many are fans because of it and we demand it again. And again.
But we just want to compete I hear you say?
But that is bollocks, because if we did compete, the same fans would be accusing the team, manager and club of “bottling” it if we didn’t go on to win.
The connection between the fan-base and the team is broken. A huge portion of fans blame Arsene. If he achieves the finish we should be achieving – 4th- this will be hailed a failure.
But here is the thing. Any future manager getting 4th or better will have succeeded. Only Arsene can both achieve and fail at the same time. He needs to massively over-achieve for it to be seen as acceptable. If we finish outside the top 4 this year, it will be his first failure in real terms. But it is accepted thinking that he has failed for 13 years. And this thinking will remain as long as he is manager.
He has to leave before fans will see and accept that he is not the problem, and never has been.
The players appear to back him almost to a man. But until he leaves they will hide behind him and he will let them. He will take the flak for the players and the board until he leaves. I doubt a new manager will be as selfless.
Also the players could be carrying his burden onto the field. The pressure applied by fans and the media will not be released while Arsene is in the driving seat. They are sure he is the problem and will not consider an alternative view.
All this does not justify our current form which, by the way, is unprecedented in 21 years, but it might go some way to explaining it if people would be prepared to be a little open- minded. The problem is they are not. They are convinced. And only Arsene leaving will satisfy their lust for blood.
Arsene simply cannot win. He should leave, even if the club will actually be worse for it.
That said, if he stays, he will get my 100% support.
Because, well you know?
He’s Arsene Wenger.
Positively Arsenal 
O’ve been reading through the comments, if people think the Wenger Out Platoon will fuck off back to their caves and get off AF TV after Wenger leaves they are mistaken.
Wenger is the first target, are is really a civilian casualty, they baying mob want to get at Stan and Iven next.
In my opinion our Board and owner do things the right way, well most of the time. Arsenal have obeyed the rules and spirit of FFP, even when UEFA have become corrupt and City’s lawyers ripped up that rule book.
A billionaire who owns some supermarkets is not able to compete with Gulf Oil states who just use football as a plaything to expand their state brand, which UEFA seem happy to accept, nice ferrRi there you’ve got.
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Apologies DC. I didn’t mean to be insensitive. Are you Irish?
Obviously it is bad officiating to blame apart from the players and managers responsible. But it really annoys me that the people with the biggest reach to people, ie the media, choose to spout the rubbish they do even after incidents like this, let alone build awareness and put pressure on FIFA et al to do something to prevent it from happening. (The Bellerin injury was the last straw for me)
I think as football is getting more and more corporate, change will eventually come either when players will actively come together, or if one player who has his career ruined decides to take legal action against not just the offending player, but also the authorities for negligence.
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No worries Shard.
I agree with you.
At least the Irish TV, with Brady as a pundit had the honesty to call out the shithousing by certain Irish players in the half time analysis. I wonder if that would ever happen in England? I watched most of the Germany vs England game with ITV commentary, Tildsley and Glenda think. They tried to paint up a shite England performance in a testimonial game for Poldi into something it wasn’t, and not a word said about Alli or Vardy, or Cahill either. A stricter ref, and England would have been down to ten men.
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DC
I felt if the ref had called some of the elbows and shoves etc and carded those that were worthy of a card then Wales would’ve been able to make something with their greater possession in that first half.
Subjective, speculative, maybe that’s the impression I get from having seen consistently risable officials who can’t do the basics of their job in the PL (my love and respect of Goldi Poldi only increased this week, his comments were too funny and coming from a World Cup winner who just belted in a thirty yard thunderblaster).
(That FUFA official from last night is meant to be one of the better ones? Ignoring anything else it was simply an inept an unprofessional performance from the official – he has one job! To protect the players, otherwise they’re not needed).
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20+ years ago Paul Elliot brought a case against Dean Saunders for ending his career Shard – he failed. There have been a couple of non League cases since but proving an opponent deliberately or negligently caused a career ending injury is a mighty steep mountain to climb.
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andy
I wasn’t aware of that, but I base this…hope… on how things have gone in American sports, where players unions play a major role. Football is run differently, but I think we’re getting closer to the model that American leagues run under, and if nothing is done, I can only imagine somebody taking the legal route against the league/uefa/fifa. To a league, even the threat of a public trial, regardless of the eventual decision, can be damaging enough for them to care.
There’s a reason you’ll find goals and highlights all over youtube, but any videos such as the one showing the tackle on Coleman, are taken down rapidly for copyright violations. They don’t want the public to see that as their product.
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Shard
I remembered a bad one someone flagged on Untold a few years back with news his club were going legal route
Found it
After a bit of searching which looked like it would turn up empty found 1 piece on resolution
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/may/06/sandro-wieser-gilles-yapi-yapo-negligent-assault
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He wrecked everything in other guys knee with that, and apart from 7 grand fine his main reward seems to have been attracting an English club.
Signed for Reading in 2016 which, along with *Gravenberch- guy who injured Perez within two minutes of his debut against us- suggests Jaap Staam wanted to boost his thug options when taking over
*big fella hasn’t played for Reading in any other game this year. A foreign Dan Smith by looks of it.
Not good enough to play ; worth launching against us for reasons unknown; not good enough to play.
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on RTE last night, two of the three pundits – Liam Brady and Richie Saddler – called out the Irish fouls, the elbows and the leaving the foot in, Brady even went as far as to say that Coleman’s leg break was a direct consequence of the rough play from Ireland, as it was clear Wales were told at half time to fight fire with fire. Ramsey was taken out of it with an elbow early second half, so it was clear Ireland were set to continue with Martin O’Neill type football. Bale should have seen red for a lung at o’shea, and then coleman got done.
Laughably the third pundit, Eamon Dunphy totally excused the irish thuggery, cos “we see it every week in the BPL”
saddler and brady both said that pro players know exactly where there elbows, and feet are in relation to an opponent almost all the time, and that both to them knew that ireland players knew exactly what they were doing, but that the one thing they did not bargain for was that it would be one of their own that paid the price for the thuggish behavior
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New Post up
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