Wenger 2 – WOBs 0
Despite their total and ignominious defeat earlier this week, the WOBs remain unrepentant and as bitter as ever. It has been my observation these past many years that most of these anti-Wenger zealots, (bloggers, podcasters, tweeters and self-appointed tv personalities) are so invested in their anti-Wenger narrative they have become increasingly unhinged, removed from reality.
Take Blogger X, for example. Prior to the FA cup final he wrote a long, sonorous piece culminating in this Eureka moment:
“Arsenal’s problem is not money. Arsenal’s problem isn’t that Stan Kroenke doesn’t go to games or that he pays himself some token salary. Arsenal’s problem is Arsene Wenger.”
Not satisfied he had dug himself into a mammoth hole as well as receiving commendable pushback from some of the posters in the comments section, Blogger-X ranted and raged and propounded with all seriousness that Arsenal:
“…can, absolutely, unequivocally, spend the money that Man U spend. We spent £100m this season. We spent £20m on Perez, £20m on Chambers, £40m on fucking Mustafi. We could have bought Zlatan. Easily. We just needed to pay his agent. Which we refuse to do. We could have bought Pogba.”
Isn’t this the very definition of madness? Can any sane person seriously propose that Arsenal should go into a bidding war with the commercially most successful team in Europe, bar Real Madrid? Can any serious Arsenal blogger propose paying £100m for an over-the-hill forward at the expense of curing deficiencies in defense, midfield and attack. Isn’t this the kind of wasteful pandering to the agents of big name players like Zlatan and Pogba that had the once fearsome attacking force from Old Trafford earn the reputation of Drawchester United, stumbling into 6th place after expending £200m in transfers? Is it any wonder that this blogger entered the FA Cup final fully expecting Arsenal to be destroyed by Chelsea and sheepishly admitting how surprised he was at the result?
Yet this is a blogger, like so many, who are now fuming and cursing that Stan Kroenke, ignored their insane, unsolicited advice and himself decided that Arsene Wenger had his full and complete confidence, sanctioning his retention as manager of the football club for at least two more years. This is the key quote from his press release:
“Arsene is the best person to help us make that happen. He has a fantastic track record and has our full backing.”
Apparently Stan has a far greater grip on reality than these self-appointed football experts who claim to be spokespersons for rank and file supporters of Arsenal Football Club. These are the idiots whom the mainstream media love to quote as examples of the so-called increasing number of Arsenal supporters who are opposed to Arsene continuing as manager of the club.
Btw, note the negative feedback loop created by the mainstream media: (1st) They initiate fake news and analysis disparaging the manager who kept Arsenal in the top-4 for 11 tough years when the club had to pay for a new stadium. (2nd) A minority of weak-minded, weak-willed bloggers increasingly fall for their bogus reporting and over time, week-in, week-out, faithfully repeat the same talking points as the BBC, Sky, Telegraph, Guardian, Mirror etc. (3rd) A small minority of Arsenal fans are eventually emboldened by the continued, unrelenting anti-Wenger screeds of these bloggers and begin protesting with A-4 paper, bedsheets and even aeroplanes. (4th) The media then reports and highlights these protestors as somehow representing the majority opinion of Arsenal. Problem for the lamestream media is; you can fool some people sometime but you can’t fool all the people all the time. The absolute refusal of Stan Kroenke to be moved by either the media or the malcontents within Arsenal is proof positive.
Wenger is the Most Successful Manager in the Premier League
What the mainstream media and Arsenal bloggers rarely emphasize is how monumentally successful Arsene has been in the 21 years he has managed Arsenal Football Club. During his tenure, despite not having the mammoth financial resources of first Manchester United and later on Manchester City and Chelsea, he has led the club to earn the 2nd highest number of points among all the traditional top-5 PL clubs.
| Clubs | W | D | L | Points | Avg Pos |
| Man United | 502 | 169 | 127 | 1675 | 2 |
| Arsenal | 462 | 196 | 140 | 1582 | 3 |
| Chelsea | 443 | 188 | 167 | 1517 | 4 |
| Liverpool | 419 | 201 | 178 | 1228 | 4 |
| Tottenham | 345 | 194 | 259 | 1229 | 8 |
Note this table excludes Manchester City, who, before they hit the jackpot in 2006, were outside the Premier League for extended periods. They are now the very definition of a club who lucked out on a very rich sugar-daddy and can now outspend all their rivals. Another observation; despite all the song and dance about Tottenham’s recent successes, they are the worst performing of Arsenal’s top competitors during Wenger’s 21 years, averaging 8th position. Forced with having to pay for a new stadium, sooner or later they will have to cash-in on their best assets to pay the bills. History proves it is unlikely they can sustain their recent competitiveness.
Wenger is The Most Efficient
Arsene has not only been successful in winning games but he has been one of the most efficient, i.e. achieving more points from every pound/dollar spent on players. Isn’t that the very definition of a successful manager in every walk of life; the ability to get superior results from the resources available? Why should football be any different?
The following table focuses on 11 years since the move to the Emirates Stadium. (All currency is in millions.)
| W | D | L | Points | Avg Pos | Net Spend | Spend per Pt | |
| Man City | 224 | 89 | 105 | 761 | 5 | £869.03 | £1.14 |
| Man Utd | 265 | 83 | 70 | 878 | 3 | £481.09 | £0.55 |
| Chelsea | 259 | 88 | 71 | 865 | 2 | £329.31 | £0.38 |
| Liverpool | 224 | 104 | 90 | 776 | 5 | £252.23 | £0.33 |
| Arsenal | 236 | 102 | 80 | 810 | 4 | £170.15 | £0.21 |
| Tottenham | 205 | 104 | 109 | 719 | 5 | £132.78 | £0.18 |
Arsene has earned a point from every £210,000 spent on transfers achieving an average 4th position in the league.
While Tottenham had a lesser average transfer spend of £180,000 for each point, they averaged a lower league position than Arsenal, meaning outside the top-4 and lucrative champions league spot.
All the other top four clubs spent on a net basis significantly more than Arsenal:
- Liverpool has spent 50% more to average 5th place in the League.
- Chelsea spent double.
- United triple.
- City quadruple.
Despite their massive net spend City still averages 5th position over 11 years. One must admit that prior to Sheik Mansour they were a team languishing in the lower reaches of the League so they have a significant deficit to cover.
But the above data gives lie to the non-factual nonsense spouted by Blogger X who demonstrated he had absolutely no clue about transfer spending. It is not how much you spend it is how efficient and effective is your spending. Any smart, rational owner seeing how effective Arsene Wenger has been would do everything to retain his services. Why should Stan entrust the club’s resources to some unproven manager who simply wants a big checkbook to compete with City, United and Chelsea; all of whom have bigger checkbooks?
Yet we have bloggers doubting that Stan is smart. Apparently they skipped that part of his biography that he became a billionaire before marrying into the Walton family. That he has a Bachelors of Arts, Bachelors of Science and Masters in Business Administration and massively grew the family business. According to Blogger Y, who is also well known:
“Enos is clueless on football. He doesn’t have a plan, abdicating responsibility to a powerless board. They lacked the stomach for a fight they knew they would lose and their capitulation to the manager is the result.”
Apparently Lord Sugar, former owner of Spurs is also clueless because he is constantly praising Arsene and ridiculing that absolute idiot Piers Morgan who is totally unhinged when it comes to Wenger.
Is the battle over?
Despite the massive loss suffered by the WOBs, many of them are still digging deeper into that hole dug by Blogger X. But I have observed that the least unhinged are trying to walk back some of their initial over-the-top reactions. For example, big, bad Blogger Z initially wrote:
This current board have been a shambles over the last few months in particular. They’ve shown themselves to be utterly craven and you have to question whether some put their own self-interest ahead of the club.
Two days or so later he described himself as somewhere in the middle. The fact that he could make such a slanderous, demeaning description of the Board of Directors did not restrain him from writing a long meandering blog making suggestions and giving advice to the very board. What Chutzpah!
As most of my readers know, I am not very optimistic when it comes to arresting the emotionalism and stupidity generated by the media and many bloggers because in the final analysis it is very profitable. It generates clicks and eyeballs. Google’s Adsense is making money for someone. Furthermore it is my experience that anybody online who makes a career of trashing Arsene Wenger is guaranteed notoriety.
That is why I try to arm sensible fans with the facts showing that Arsene Wenger is simply an amazing manager. Based on the unbiased data I had absolutely no doubt he would be reappointed. He is simply the best man for the job.
Victoria, Concordia, Crescit!
Positively Arsenal 
3 bits of Arsenal news
1. Henry Onyekuru gave an interview yesterday where he said he is pleased with Arsenal’s offer, and that he will see about it after Nigeria’s game v South Africa next week
2. Szczesny’s agent gave an interview in Poland yesterday where he said that Szczesny’s desire is to return to Arsenal and become first choice.
3. Per Mertesacker gave an interview in Germany where he basically says his playing days are over, that he no longer can play every 3 days, that he has done it all in his career, and that its time to bring it to an end. He is no longer fully motivated.
But the good news is that he wants to remain a back up option, and that Arsenal want to keep him and that he is in talks with the club about an operational role at the club.
“Arsenal wants to keep me, as there are already talks, it will be in the operational business, I will be on the other side.”
http://dailycannon.com/2017/06/mertesacker-im-in-talks-with-arsenal-about-new-non-playing-role/
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So we may have seen Per’s last game in an Arsenal shirt, what a performance he gave in the cup final, a fitting way to bow out.
and to make it even sweeter, he gets a role at the club, suck on that Tony Adams,
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Great article Shotta, we need a separate archive for these great ‘reference’ works, somewhere to refer to when we want to check the details.
Feels like an uber long summer ahead of us. Don’t anticipate many buys for AFC mainly because we shouldn’t need too many assuming Alexis & Mesut re-sign. Will be sad to see Per leave the field if the above is true although one hopes he’ll play the odd cameo to huge and thunderous applause. The FA Final was surely his best game for Arsenal?
And so on to the CL Final tonight ahead of two months without a game to watch. It’s enough to make you watch cricket!
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Wenger said earlier this week that Arsenal need to cut players from the squad, to make room for the 2 players we want to buy this summer. So where and who can we afford to sell. I have included Kolasinac in this list.
Goalkeeper – 4
Cech, Szczesny, Ospina, Martinez
Central Defenders – 6
Koscielny, Mustafi, Gabriel, Holding, Chambers, Mertesacker
Right Wing Back – 3 or 4
Bellerin, Debuchy, Jenkinson, and maybe Oxlade-Chamberlain
Left Wing Back – 4
Monreal, Kolasinac, Gibbs, Bramall
Central Midfield – 6
Xhaka, Ramsey, Coquelin, Cazorla, Elneny, Wilshere
Forwards – 5 or 6
Ozil, Alexis, Iwobi, Walcott, Campbell, and maybe Oxlade-Chamberlain
Striker – 5
Welbeck, Giroud, Lucas, Akpom, Sanogo
that is a list of 34 players, a list that if we are to sign two more players, has to be cut by 11, so that we meet the 25 man squad rule.
If reports are true that Per is looking to retire, then we still have 10 players to move on. Looking at the make up of the squad, then we have room to move on in the goalkeeper, wing back, central defense and central midfield and one or two from the forwards/strikers
best guess for the 11 we will cut
Ospina
Jenkinson
Debuchy
Gibbs
Bramall – out on loan
Mertesacker – retired
Wilshere
Campbell
Akpom
Lucas
Sanogo
of course who the two are that we add would also impact on who we let go and what positions
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Millsy: Your Auden quote is now entirely mine (Lol).
” one finally becomes adult when one realises telling the truth no longer does any good”.
But there is a dialectic to life. I am also old enough to confirm, what one Dorothy Allison wrote:
“Things come apart so easily when they have been held together with lies.”
This is exactly what is happening to these lunatics who who write such abject nonsense in their futile attempts to undermine the genius of Arsene Wenger. Just a reminder for those who read my blogs; according to the data, Arsene is the most successful manager ever in the PL relative to financial resources. Blogger X, for example, is so deranged he recently published a piece declaring that Arsenal fans should reset expectations aiming for a top-10 finish and there is no chance of Arsenal ever winning the League under Wenger. Remember this is the “genius” who was absolutely confident Arsenal would never win the FA cup final vs Chelsea.
Blogger X is coming “apart” like so many of the other lunatics who ignore facts and data.
We may be a niche blog and our truth-telling MAY do no good but objective reality is like running headlong into a wall. If you won’t hear, you must feel.
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Thats a good quote from Allison Shotts, and a great meme for PA? I think Audens quote is also pretty debatable? Sort of one of those strange quotes than can be used this way or that. Gets you thinking though…
OK obscure quiz questions of the day! First name of David O’ Learys brother and which team did he play for?
And for real obscurists who were they playing against when they were substituted for each other?
Anyone looking on Wikipedia will be taken to the stocks and forced to watch AFTV until they plead for mercy ( 24 secs?)…
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Arsene Wenger will have his eyes out for Santi 2. One option is Naby Keita:
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or this lad JEAN MICHAEL SERI
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I like them both shots
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Will take a look WWWB. I am doing mi own scouting. Lol. I am convinced by the data we are stregthening in that area. Sending Jack on loan was a sign that AW was not convinced he was the future, now Santi’s recurrent ops has made it absolutely critical to go in the market.
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https://www.bloomberg.com/amp/politics/articles/2017-05-30/live-from-my-yacht-tycoon-goes-on-youtube-to-troll-putin-critic
Looks like the Lion of Uzbekistan knows a thing or two about hiring PR “genius'”/ acting like an internet troll…
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Europa league is one reason i wouldn’t declare that JW is off.
Has an injury. Back to square one yet again. Truly a disaster for the athlete. Needs game time and the minutes for rehab (& to quit smoking!). If I was a buyer I’d wait six months/ till the season after.
I don’t think he’ll be going anywhere. Not after what happened at the ground where AFC won a few league titles. We shall see…
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shotta_gooner
Let us know what you think of him
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WWWB: Like all the YouTube vids Seri’s focus on his offensive skills. Technically excellent, good with the ball, good vision. Not sure how he performs without the ball, Good at interceptions. I had doubts about his actual foot speed and tackling. That is where real scouts come in. Btw the French league is poor defensively. Some of those goals were ludicrous.
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Agreed I have though watched him a few times he reads the game well and is often in the right position. He can play in all three central midfield positions
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Allegri is still a very good coach,but it is not that easy,even if your team has won the double domestically for the last 3 years in a row .
Real just pulled away in the second half
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Is Zidane the new Pep or something more?
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Fins @ 6;00pm – You have often been proven right about being patient with injured players but I am not sure about Jack. The injuries have taken their toll. But lets wait and see.
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When are officials going to realise what Sergio Ramos gets up to
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Hi Ed and everybody at PA
Real 4 -1 juve
The scoreline doesnt looks familiar?
Bayern 5 – 1Arsenal
But lets see what the media and the Wwwobs
make out of it.
Will he get the same treatment as Wenger on the 5-1 scoreline?
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but jose said Wenger would never make world record bids
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Yaya Sanogo announces in tomorrow’s L’Équipe that he will be leaving Arsenal this month when his contract expires.
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If that’s the case, good luck to yaya sanogo…..a man who helped changed an FA Cup final, and I was lucky to be in the stadium to see his unbridled joy when he scored four goals in the shirt. Hope he gets a club, and best wishes to him
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Shotts
The fear is that JW has had too many big injuries and lost too much time on the pitch.
The loan was working out this season, he was getting the minutes he needed to regain his game, but he’s not been lucky!
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New post up
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