Arsene Wenger has lost his voice and was substituted by Steve Bould in today’s press conference, sparing him from answering the same questions he gets week after week, sometimes three times a week. I bet he was delighted.
Anyway, Steve has upset the malcontent by voicing his respect for Arsene
“Steve Bould On Wenger
I admire him immensely. He’s takes an unbelievable amount of stick off an awful lot of people. He is one of the great managers, it’s a pleasure for me to sit next to him.
Do you think he has been treated fairly?
I’m not here to answer those questions. I’m sitting in for Arsene to talk about the Stoke game, I’d much prefer you concentrate on football if possible.
He has done a great job as far as I’m concerned. He has done for an awful long time.
Can you give us an exclusive that he’ll be here next season?
I’d love to.
Do you sense Arsene’s hunger is still as great as ever?
Absolutely. He’s remarkable. Behind closed doors I’ve never met anyone who is as hungry and determined to win football games.
Is that hunger still as big as you’ve seen?
It’s as big as I’ve ever seen.”
This turned him immediately from a downtrodden hero, to a snivelling yes man as predictably as night follows day. How dare he make a nonsense of the bollocks spouted by Arsene’s detractors?
The other day I endeavoured to watch a Youtube video where someone had assembled an array of the most pretentious bunch of expert fans, bloggers and podcasters, all falling over themselves to tell us how the club was in need of major changes and desperate to convince us of how they knew exactly what is needed to be done to make us great again.
I wont put a link on here but I think it was called something like “A catalyst for change”. Only watch the drivel if you have a strong stomach.
But I digress . Among the other bollocks spouted by these leaders of opinion I noticed this particular statement.
“We know that Steve Bould isn’t allowed to coach defending”
Said one of these great sages.
Well for a start “we” don’t know anything of the kind. We do know that there are loads of halfwits that repeat this bollocks and even more halfwits willing to accept it.
Here is how I see it. Steve is one of the best defenders the club has ever had. He is Arsene’s assistant. He will coach defenders how to defend. To think he sits twiddling his thumbs after he has finished putting out the cones is frankly ridiculous.
However, what he wont be allowed to do is set the team up . That is Arsene job, and if the assistant manager was doing it there would be something very wrong. We know Arsene sets the team up to attack first and I suspect Steve would set us up in a more conservative way. But he will coach the players how to defend within the set up Arsene dictates, and that is exactly as it should be.
He’s bald now you now?
Positively Arsenal 
I might have missed the boat.
LikeLike
Not enough use of the word “stooge”, in my opinion.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Uh hum. The interlull is over and time to get those knees to chest.
“… ‘Can you give us an exclusive that he’ll be here next season?’
Bouldie: ‘ I’d love to.’ ”
A euphemism for ‘not today b*tch’. Clearly the old man is rubbing off on him.
Re the youtube ‘catalyst for change’ greats; was that put together as a contest to see which one can out-stupid the other?
PS: really enjoyed that podcast PG.
LikeLiked by 2 people
That ‘Catalyst for Change’ video could’ve been a really good and intersting video, as most of the guys have ideas on football and are pretty eloquent in delivery of their respective argument. Where the whole show falls down is the lack of eloquent or otherwise speakers\fans for the counter argument as if the counter argument does not exist or has no relevance.After a while it just turned into a blurr, as I personally like a couple of the guys that was a shame.
The worst type of opinion piece jiggerry pokerey , (all clever camera angles and new age video cutting, the lad creating the content has got some ideas with visuals) it does not allow for any debate as the protagonists have all the answers, apparently.
LikeLike
Arthur Okonkwo
Is only 16 years old wow
He looks a talent, very good 1 v 1 needed a worldy to beat him.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wwwb, who the hell can you like in that shower of shite?
Genuine question.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Great piece PG
I completely block the fuckwits from my life. I have no time for unsubstantiated opinions. Unless I feel I’m likely to be educated by someone I don’t want to know anymore. This applies to life in general not just football.
Finally, there is talk of the “Magnitsky Bill” in Parliament and the mainstream media proposed to tackle the corrosive effect of Russian oligarch stolen money and petrodollars in our economy. Only Matthew Syed ever raised this issue years ago when Sky Sports news discussed the impact of ten years of Abramovich.
This is what Arséne has had to compete with all these years. Football doesn’t exist in a bubble…
LikeLiked by 2 people
george I don’t know where you got the idea Wenger had lost his voice, the malcontents confirmed that Wenger had in fact chickened out of attending the presser as he was afraid to answer questions about his future. Do keep up.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Banfield is our defensive coach, and we also know from both his and player quotes, that mad jens does some defensive coaching too.
LikeLike
A couple of facts I can give you are Stevie Bould has no hair and more importantly he doesn’t care.
LikeLiked by 3 people
WWWB… Those guys in that video are so divorced from reality that I doubt they even realizes that there IS an objective reality that lives outside their own heads.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I don’t take it personally that they do not agree with me as I don’t see the crumbling edifice, in a dystopian landscape that is Arsenal Football Club. Some of the guys are very knowledgeable and engaging talking about football.
Where I tend to disagree with them is some believe that they are far more knowledgeable about football and Arsenal first team in particular than Mr Wenger .
LikeLike
a Schalke 04 director today said that it looks like their German international midfielder Max Mayer will be leaving them on a Bosman this summer, as there is no contract offer on the table and no willingness from MM to hold talks about one. Bayern, Liverpool and Arsenal are all said to have held talks with him.
LikeLike
“far more knowledgeable about football and Arsenal first team in particular than Mr Wenger”, or even Big Sam, Little Tim and Alain Pardeux etc.? Hah.
These people are mental.
Especially when you consider that the national team couldn’t beat Iceland or Costa Rica at the recent WC. Perhaps they should start at the grass roots before setting their sights upon the Gunners?
You all know by now that I’ve tipped England to do well this summer, Wilshere’s match fitness permitting – as in he was only match fit after a few games out following a few games back, by the time of the Milan home game. So he’ll need the pre-tournament friendlies to set him to play well in the group games.
LikeLiked by 1 person
“Arsenal are the worst run club in football”
“Vengarrrrgggghhhh don’t do tactics”
When you call compare and contrast these bleating babies with the people that set up FC Utd the contrast is not flattering.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Very impressed with Sreve Bould, this morning and in general.
If Wenger really is to depart at the end of his contract, I hope the board give serious thought to keeping him on.
Agree with the article, Bould probably would make us stronger defensively left to his own devices but that could go against what Wenger is trying to achieve.
But in a recent interview, our Romanian youngster Vlad Dragomir said the coaching staff were always available to help players, and were often at Colney at ten pm .
So much for them doing nothing.
On another note, yes,they have been caught red handed, and probably acted out of all manner of necessity including some cynical reasons, some may argue they didn’t go far enough, yet, but that aside, refreshing to see how the Aussies have recognised cheating for what it is and dealt with it. Football in general, the media, and a club not so far away from our own should take note. Scratching a cricket ball is plainly wrong, so is simulation to instruction, on an industrial scale.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I was impressed with how he showed the ‘football’ press have been without clthes in plain site for sometime. Half the usual length of conference because Steve clearly wasn’t going to give them any desires soundbites however hard they tried to force them from his lips.
He said, effectively, “ask football questions” and they couldn’t.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Pochettino blathering on about unfair treatment of Alli from away fans.
Urges them to remember his age and that it’s in interest of national team to ‘help’ him.
Hmmm, if only there were a way to help a young player not to get a bad reputation as a terrible diver and cheat. Or, once reputation firmly deserved and established, to gradually change things. Hmmm. Who is best positioned for that ?
Poch’ having an awful lot of cosy chats with press at moment. Really might have read the book- not the published ones, which are garbage- on Ferguson
LikeLiked by 2 people
I Wondered if this was an April fool thing, but too early, have never heard of this one, but sounds unpleasant even in terms of Performance enhancing drugs if this article is correct
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5559923/THE-DRUG-SWAMPING-FOOTBALL-Sportsmail-investigation-reveals-use-banned-stimulant-snus.html
Yes, I know one of our strikers is mentioned as a sideline in here, but lots of mentions for Leicester, strange that.
LikeLike
looks like a lost year for Bielik, unfortunately.
Has picked up another injury after two training sessions with Walsall. Re-occurence of hamstring problem he had before the knee problem. Also had big shoulder problems, resulting in op, this year.
Nightmare for him. Bloody injuries. Hate ’em.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Interlul out….
Yeah not happy about Bielik at all.
Poor lad. Hope he gets more durable as he gets on in age. ‘Tis the usual progression.
I rate him really highly.
Bouldie’s no nonsense approach to the press twats paves a clear & fresh path for our players to re-arrange the landscape of our season. Topped up with the words of one Gilberto Silva, “it is time for the players to take the load off AW”.
Life can be peachi-er if their mojos sync strong.
We wait and we wonder.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just caught up with the press conference, and the podcast!
A relaxed possibly zen Steve Bould pleasantly laughing at the hacks like some kind of smiling yet dangerous Lama (no offence meant to any Buddhists), he’ll be at the club for a time yet I hope.
George I would say that Man Utd have had a young attacking trio that they are bringing through or were before they signed Sanchez who plays in the same areas, not forgetting Pogba who made his name at Juve playing further up the park – with Rashford, Lingaard and Martial they have three top prospects and therefore had no need of such a signing just as those players are about to take the next step up. Can’t be a happy dressing room…
Lingaard has actually scored goals and made assists in big matches for club and country and the non-group stages of a European club competition, and can do strange things like dribble, unlike Alli, so it was a blessed relief to see him, or anyone else who can actually play football, finally start ahead of the extremely overrated Alli for England. We’ve seen players hyped up to ridiculous proportions over the years, but those players would all have shown some inspiring glimpses to give the hacks something to hype. Alli? Blimey. To be fair he has a great agent. Top work that man or woman.
I hope Nelson signs that contract, one small reason players like Walcott were let go was to make room for Nelson and others. I imagined that getting thrown into European competition would’ve secured these younger talents at the club and reduced the carrots being dangled by agents. Not ‘sinister’ agents as some like to project, just hungry, as you explained with Jack Wilshere. It’s not a difficult concept to understand yet none of the broadcasters ever discuss the consistent power of agents in the modern game, their greater influences compared to yesteryear.
As we saw with the young player who ended up at Barca who might not be as good a player as those who’ve stayed such exposure is no guarantee in the current market.
LikeLiked by 1 person
just a few thoughts on Steve Bould’s press conference
to me it was clear from the outset that our Stevie was intent on having a good old laugh at the media and his detractors.
first question he was asked about team news and with him trying to hold back a big grin he asked “ours or theirs”
and I think he took a big shot at his detractors by specifically mentioning the one big soundbite that the malcontents say about him, namely “he just sits there”, so I really smiled when I seen him say he was “honored to SIT next to Arsene”
as George mentioned, it was also refreshing that Bouldie told the journos to ask football questions and when they did not he by passed them and in the end we had a very short and sweet press call.
one thing that the journo questions showed was that they have no interest in the actual football, they want to talk about everything around the game, and not the game itself.
there they had Steve Bould, one of our best ever defenders, and a coach at AFC for 15 years or so, about ten of them as no.2 to Wenger, these very same journos have written countless articles about our poor defending, poor set up, zonal marking etc, and yet with someone new to bring up these topics, not one of them came even close to breaching the subject of defending, almost as if they neither want or would if answered understand a breakdown of the why’s wherefores and the do’s and don’ts of our defending
looking at the sort of worthless questions asked by them yesterday, its not hard to understand why these guys rather make up stupid transfer stories or make a fuss about a non topic than actually delve into the real issue of the game, or in fact things about the game itself. It is clearly beyond them and these idiots know it, but of course their eog’s wont allow them to change.
LikeLiked by 1 person
isn’t it very odd that every player we are linked with now has in the article that its a Sven Mislintat choice, or found by him, or targeted by him, never seen these sort of articles stating Steve Rowley found or targeted or picked etc etc, despite Sven actually now doing the same job Steve did. We have actually hundreds of scouts across the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, but all of a sudden the media, blogs and the malcontents what us to believe that our scouting department is a one man crew, the mighty Sven Mislintat. Its almost as if some people are trying to forward a narrative, regardless and devoid of facts. Of course we should not be surprised, as these people would like us to believe that all our good signings were done by David Dein, and any that were good after DD was rightly fucked out on his arse, was mere luck.
LikeLiked by 2 people
I thoroughly enjoyed the Bould press conference. Not so much for the dig at the WOBs really. It just seemed like behind the scenes, the club doesn’t give any serious thought to all the nonsense out there. Wenger is just too polite to directly let that on even if sometimes he can’t resist.
Bould just sat there and laughed his way through that. I particularly enjoyed that he reduced the talk of Stoke being a new team to, not knowing whether they’ll throw Crouchie on or not. My true thought was that Arsenal have a good future even after Arsene goes. Even if Bould doesn’t stay. It’s just that the culture of the club seems to be good.
LikeLiked by 3 people
ed
That Mislintat thing is so annoying. The idea that Arsene has been weakened by his and Sanhelli signing is so stupid. As if the club would offer an extension to a man they knew to be a liability, and then proceed to weaken his hand further, and that Wenger is so stupid or powerless to not see it or to prevent it.
After all these years saying that Wenger was doing too much for his or the club’s own good, now the same people say that Wenger’s had his power taken away from him.
Wenger has confirmed he has the final say on training and transfers and would absolutely refuse to manage without that. He’s also in the past hinted at dissatisfaction with the stats team (they recommended against signing Griezmann) So the club went out and got Mislintat whose reported strength is the ability to combine traditional talent spotting with the modern day stats gathering. (Grimandi had also said how modern players play to add to their stats rather than play according to the game)
Wenger also spoke up against the media line about a DoF, and responded sarcastically to the loaded question hinting that he should have transfers taken away from him. Sanhelli is not called a DoF and these people believe it’s to fool Wenger. How stupid can you get. It’s just to prevent Wenger’s response about the DoF being used against him and Arsenal. I’m not quite sure what Sanhelli’s role really is but I see him as a link between the football and the commercial side. Again, I don’t see why this would weaken Wenger.
Lastly, I believe Wenger would want to have the club prepare for his departure. He’s long said that he would see part of his success to be that the next guy comes in and does better than him.
I believe the only resistance that the club would have faced from Wenger is that he is loyal and wouldn’t want to dump people out of the club. So even though Rowley and Law retired they have hung on in advisory roles. New fitness/medical staff (that Wenger apparently demanded) has not led to the sacking of Tony Colbert. The much maligned GK staff has been kept on and two other GKs, apart from Lehmann have been added to the staff. The club’s bean counters might see this as inefficient but I believe Wenger sees this as essential. And of course the club have appointed one of Wenger’s most trusted lieutenants as the new academy director. So much for the club undermining Wenger.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Wenger playing a huge part in moving forward,and preparing the club for his eventual departure so things carry on!!
No, far more sexy rumours of civil war behind the scenes, Wenger and Ivan don’t speak, Wenger is being constructively dismissed through having his power removed etc. Yes, it is so easy to believe that highly intelligent men in the club are behaving like five year olds with silly power struggles and Stan sits there doing nothing about it
LikeLiked by 2 people
Arsenal U18’s v Man Utd U18’s in the Dallas Cup semi final is on tonight, 1am uk time kick off
should be a live stream for it
LikeLike
Ainsley Maitland-Niles on Wenger
“I owe him a lot for believing in me and telling me I need to work on stuff before he has put me out there
“I come in every day and try and work as hard as I can on the things I know I need to work hard on and the things that other people pull me up about to be the best that I can.
“Me personally, he’s a very trusting person. He has a lot of belief in his players and whenever you want to talk to him about something his door’s always open – you can always walk in.
“Especially on the training pitch, he does put his arm around you when he thinks, ‘Look, I need to get into this player and tell him in a nice way how he needs to improve on this and that’, and it gives you a lot of confidence that the boss believes in you.
“You could talk to him about anything. He’s such a loving guy, he treats every player as family.
“It depends how open you are as well to go and speak to him. It’s almost like he can be your dad, but he’s your coach at the same time, so he’s giving you that push in both areas.”
LikeLiked by 2 people
Steve Bould on Jack Wilshere
“Perhaps he will always have a little niggle here and there because of the way he is structured,That’s his make-up now.
‘He’s a great player. A fit Jack Wilshere is a very good player. We are all hopeful longer term he has overcome those issues.
‘I’ve known Jack since he was a real young kid. He’s a great footballer — he loves the club and we just need him fit more often than he has been.
‘It is coming slowly but surely. It is something he might have to manage all his career. That’s the nature of Jack I’m afraid. He can pick up an injury because his ankle will turn, his knee will… he’s got a sore knee.’
LikeLiked by 1 person
seen some quotes from Gilberto about the DM’s Arsenal have had since he left, in particular, Flamini, Song and Coquelin, and he sort of suggested that they all had too much to their game, that they all wanted to play more than a DM should, that if they were to be top DM’s they would have had to sacrifice part of their game for the greater good of the team, as he thinks that basically a DM has to first and foremost put the needs of the team over his own game.
LikeLike
the u18 game should be Live on http://www.univision.com/deportes ai 1am
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ray Wilkins fighting for his life in hospital after suffering heart attack with Chelsea legend in induced coma
LikeLike
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DZkg6HWV4AAfQUW?format=jpg&name=small
LikeLike
LikeLike
Maitland-Niles: “We should also take some of the blame because we are the ones on the pitch. He [AW] only picks the team so that’s how far his judgement goes, but us on the pitch, we need to take more responsibility & really fight & stand up for our club.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Positive vibes to Ray Wilkins
LikeLiked by 2 people
Interesting Ed, that stuff from Gilberto. Can certainly see that with Song, though I loved his Hollywood passes to rvp, but always thought certainly Coq and to a lesser extent Flam stuck to the basics, but I am not going to argue with Gilberto. If these players were being a bit expansive, would imagine that was down to instruction, as with the case of the much and unfairly maligned Xhaka?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Gilberto did mentioned that Flamini was excellent at it the season he kept him out of the team.
from his quotes it was hard to know if Gilberto meant that these guys played more expansive as they were not willing to sacrifice those aspects of their skill set, or if it happened cos they had too much skill for the DM role, but it did seem to be that it was down to the players not being willing to put team above everything else.
LikeLike
a quote from G.Silva: “I worked with AW for such a long time. As I know him, he’s a person who loves the game and wants to win things. He sacrifices himself for the players and for the club.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
eduardo
Having a look on that univision site. Found the right bit but seems you have to sign in with particular provider or something.
Appreciate it if you can let me know how you get on with it or alternative.
LikeLiked by 1 person
having problems with it too rich, telling me its not available in my location
its odd that previous rounds were on the Dallas Cup facebook page but the semi final isn’t
LikeLike
Yeah, typical isn’t it.
Slightly regret decision to drink a load of black coffee without making sure game was on first!
LikeLiked by 1 person
seemingly utd 1-0 up
LikeLike
2-0 to utd now
LikeLike
half time and AFC are losing 2-0
LikeLike
Arsenal pull a goal back 1 minute into the second half 1-2
LikeLiked by 1 person
about an hour gone and Arsenal have drawn level, 2-2
LikeLiked by 1 person
FT: Arsenal 2-2 Man Utd
game now goes to extra time
LikeLike
AET: 2-2
gone to penalties
LikeLike