Friends, Gooners, football fans, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Wenger, not to praise him;
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interred with their bones,
So let it be with Wenger…The noble Mainstream Media
Hath told you Wenger was not ambitious:
If it were so, it was a grievous fault,
And grievously hath Wenger answered it …
Here, under leave of the Mainstream Media and the rest,
For Mainstream Media is made of honourable men;
So are they all (journos, bloggers and podcasters); all honorable men.
Come I to speak in Wenger’s funeral…
He was like a friend and mentor; faithful and just to me:
But the Mainstream Media says he lacked ambition;
And the Mainstream Media are all honorable men….
He hath brought many trophies to Arsenal,
Whose glories did the general coffers fill:
Did this Wenger seem not ambitious?
When the gooners have cried, Arsene hath wept:
Surely his non-ambition should be made of sterner stuff:
Yet the Mainstream Media say he was not ambitious enough;
And the Mainstream Media is made of honourable men.
You all did see that during the barren years after building the new stadium
He was often offered bigger jobs at bigger clubs,
Which over and over he did refuse; was this loyalty or lack of ambition?
Yet the Mainstream Media says he lacked ambition;
And, sure, they are all honourable men.
I speak not to disprove what the Mainstream Media spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause:
What cause withholds you then to mourn for him?
O judgement! thou art fled to brutish beasts and to the Mainstream Media,
And men have lost their reason…. Bear with me;
My heart is in the coffin there with Wenger,
And I must pause till it come back to me.
Shotta’s heart was in the coffin with Wenger but has now completed his passage through the seven stages of grief and looks forward to the reign of the King being followed by the rule of the Prince, el capitan, Mikel Arteta. All who agree, say Aye!
Positively Arsenal 
The Noblest Gooner of them all
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[…] Link: https://positivelyarsenal.com/2018/05/15/i-come-to-bury-wenger-not-to-praise-him/ […]
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Remarkable piece Shotta! Brilliant!
I think the final evaluation of Wenger’s time at Arsenal will depend somewhat on the success or otherwise of his immediate successors over the next five years or so.
Now the fans know all they have to do to instigate managerial change is to stay away from the Emirates for four games in a row, I’d anticipate an era of managerial Merry-go-round.
Or a re-definition of what constitutes success – a definition that was never applied to AW in his last ten years.
Spurs, despite winning nothing, have apparently had a ‘successful’ season. Manure coming 2nd with a cup, despite criticism for playing style, also successful. Liverpool, having commendably reached the CL final can do no wrong. Interestingly, Chelsea’s season appears to have been sabotaged by their own manager, so they, like us, are now also rans.
The biggest challenge for Arsenal is to define their own view of success and then recruit a manager likely to be satisfied with that. Under the current ownership we will not be matching the City/United spends. And whilst one of those two may have an off-season, it’s unlikely, with their giga-squads, that both will fail in any given season.
Meanwhile, with our hideously toxic fanbase, simply striving for any kind of parity will prove nigh-on impossible as we have already shown we are ready and able to boo our own players on the pitch and slaughter them online afterwards. Any set-back will see an eruption of negativity, hostility, a tsunami of disrespect repeatedly washing over us all until the next appointment.
What kind of manager can we now attract?
On what kind of spending?
What will the understanding be between Manager and Board?
How will they define success?
Or failure?
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some shameless self promotion from me, but just in case anyone missed this on the last thread here is my podcast – Arsene Wenger special, I pick 3 of his best teams, best buys, academy products and injury 11
https://www.spreaker.com/user/cavanonlineradio/the-sports-show-arsene-wenger-special
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Aye!
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Just a thought. A lot has been said about how Mikel Arteta’s signing has helped steadied the ship Arsenal ship after some notable departures. To add on that, do we undervalue the leadership role he played overall, on and off the field, in training sessions, helping our players in their prep that led to us ending the trophy drought with back-to-back FA Cups. His role as el capitan helping new signings integrate to life in London and in the team. Helping Arsenal go after a few season of finishing 4th, make the progression to 3rd and then to 2nd. Then suddenly when he left Arsenal fell out of top 4.
Okay I know there’s other factors like losing Santi etc, but could that too be a contributory factor.
How big of a role did he play in making David Moyes Sir Alex’s “chosen one”.
Does Arteta actually knows?
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I really am enjoying the various social media spats about Arsenal’s next manager: it seems to boil down to a question as to whether the new one is sufficiently like or not like the old one. Arteta is seen as very like Wenger. Allegri as just like George Graham – and ne’er the twain shall meet. I suspect that there is a good chance that despite the strength that I see in the squad whoever comes in will find it hard. James Bond needed a brief spell as George Lazenby before Roger Moore could become the next Connery, and so it might be with our football manager. I can’t see a long contract being offered, nor a lucrative one in case it all goes wrong early on. On that basis, I am still holding out for Don Howe.
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AA: Interesting points you raise. It is all about emotionalism superseding realism on a mass scale. Like Newcastle fans at the time of firing of the late great Bobby Robson and even Liverpool fans when they decided Rafa Benitez wasn’t good enough, only hard times can cure a fanbase of such delusions. Arsenal fans have for 22 years enjoyed a level of sustained success no rational person could dream of, knowing they had to build and pay for a new stadium. Factor in the arrival of two large externally financed clubs who could afford hundreds of millions on transfers and literally double the best salaries Arsenal could offer, it was a virtual miracle by our noble manager, the Ceasar-like Wenger kept us within the top-4 and won a few more trophies.
As I borrowed from Antony’s speech, not only was Wenger able to bring glory but also fatten the coffers of the club. But all Empires eventually fall on hard times. Just like Rome, so will Arsenal. Let us hope it is not a terminal decline, but long enough to purge away that extreme self-entitled element in the fanbase and generate a more hardened, realistic core of supporters who will shut down the knobheads when the going gets rough.
Most of all such hard times may inoculate fans from the treacherous mendacity of the mainstream media, who while living off Wenger’s achievements, exploiting his every quote, did everything to undermine his vision of of football as an art and his refusal to join financial madness which could have bankrupted Arsenal’s model of a self-sustaining club.
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With so many of the senior staff leaving, or waiting in the case of Seve B, I can’t but help thinking that the board (and the new manager) have already decided on AW’s replacement.Now we waits for confirmation.
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Aah. I was wondering why that seemed familiar until I saw your comment shotta. That’s wonderful.
Who dare stand among all these honourable men of the media, Pgmo and the FA?
Does Arsenal? If we really do appoint Mikel Arteta, I will be encouraged to believe that they do. Arteta and Mertesacker running the first team and the academy respectively would show we mean to secure Wenger’s legacy.
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Colin Lewis is off.
Is this a natural change at the end of this cycle? younger physios have already come into the club in recent seasons.
I’m pretending that everything is up for grabs, no one at the club knows anything about what is going on, that the Arseblagging blaggers are in complete PR alignment (who could have imagined! Looooool!) almost as if they are singing from the same consultants handbook, regarding the “shambles” that is The Arsenal.
Shotta, I can’t relax just yet – I wasn’t going to debunk the Allegri PR stunt/rumours in public in order not to jinx anything (though you’d have hoped that people spending 24/7 discussing the topic would’ve done a simple wiki search?) in case our reading of the scarce information was incomplete but: that Danny Fizman was one hell of a negotiator!!! No wonder none of these Arsenal holes can ever discuss his final deal…not a mystery why they circumnavigate that topic, they can no longer hide behind their sneering attacks on the manager, and their true target is revealed for all to acknowledge as it can no longer be denied: the club.
The evidence before you all for that is self explanatory, no opinions are required!
Gary Neville outdid himself with his comments after the last match. Marvellously revealing gibberish.
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Are Dick Law and Steve Rowley among the departures from the club? I mean I know they left during the season, but they were retained in ‘advisory roles’. I always thought what was reported as Wenger refusing to let there be a change in structure was just him protecting the jobs of his subordinates. Now we see that Colbert and Lewin in the medical department are being let go, and Peyton as the GK coach. To be honest, I did think that the criticism of Peyton was likely justified. And wondered what Colbert’s role was after we brought in Shad and then Darren Burgess.
Some change is inevitable. So Mislintat now runs the scouting. Sanhelli runs the operations. Burgess runs the training? (What about Shad Forsythe?) Per will run the academy. And some changes in the youth teams too.
It’s somewhat amazing that despite so many changes, it still doesn’t feel like ‘All change’. I think that is important, and it is to the credit of Wenger and the board that they could manage that change fluidly. Of course the biggest appointment remains to be made and hopefully they get it right.
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Shard
It’s seems as if whilst others have been busy spinning their shambles and drinking their shandies that the club have been busy preparing for a transition – as per Vic Ackers’ comments either this season or next season.
Feels too early to be so calm but I feel and I have the literal impression that Ivan has got his critics spinning and it’s not the kind of direction of spin that they were hoping for (please refer to AFTV plundit and idol: Gary Neville).
I’m on the verge of standing up and giving Ivan and his team a long round of applause but I don’t want to premature with that or to jinx it so I’m going to shut up for now and just relax and lie in the sunshine whilst I can (not as long as I’d like!).
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Fins: I think you are so right. It has the feel of a very carefully engineered progression.
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Not that I will not support him but can someone explain to me why Arteta is a better candidate for boss than Vieira?
This is a genuine question,
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gf60 I would agree with that, the letting of blood among the coaching staff and it going as far as physio’s and even the equipment manager, for me suggests 2 things.
1. its being done at the behest of the new guy, so appointment is imminent – by end of the week
2. the new guys either has his own crew, including physios, coaches, even equipment manager that he wants to bring with him, or he is someone who is familiar with all these things at Arsenal, and has got rid of those he feels not up to the job.
my feeling is that if its someone who knows the inner workings at AFC, its likely Arteta, I think that PV4 too long gone from AFC to know enough to dump these guys.
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rumor that Santi is staying, a new contract offered.
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Fins: I just don’t see Allegri, the match-fixer, getting the job based on the history and traditions of Arsenal FC. This is a club that fired the then quite successful George Graham for taking a bung. If the Italian is hired then that is a clear sign of Arsenal going the way of Rome and giving up on its values as Wenger ardently pleaded they should maintain. As you correctly point out it could be it’s all up for grabs. Only time will tell.
PS: Because of their history, I don’t have to monitor the bloggers that closely to be convinced by your report that they are echoing the mainstream media in promoting the big name, big money manager without regard for their values; i.e. persons who need a big transfer budget to be successful and who moreover will lie and cheat in the process. But for them it promotes clicks and eyeballs and listenership from weak emotional fans who need a big name for validation.
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WWWB , just listen to them both talk about football and all will be revealed.
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never mind Allegri’s match fixing, its his style of football and reluctance to give youth a chance that would likely scupper any deal with AFC.
also, as I have said on him all along, why would he want to risk his reputation by leaving a club that has won 7 leagues in a row, 4 doubles in a row, reached latter stages of CL in recent years, and who seem certain to keep dominating in Italy for years to come, to join a club in he EL, and with 2 clubs way way richer and another one richer too, a club that has not won the league in 14 years. Especially when there might very well be a vacancy at one of the richer clubs, CFC this summer, and at one of the mega rich clubs, Man Utd, next summer, maybe even this summer if cup final goes wrong for them.
When you are used to having the pick of players in your own league, why would you go to a club that still has rivals buying some of their better players off them
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I’m surprised by Gf60 and eduardo’s conclusion based on staff being let go. I think it’s the department heads and Gazidis who are making these calls. The coach will likely bring some of his own staff when he joins, but I venture this will not interfere in the medical staff, and especially not for the post of equipment manager.
Doesn’t mean we’re not close to appointing a coach. I don’t think these departures are linked though.
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Oh please let Santi stay!!
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pedantic George @arseblagger
Not sure that is enough
Vieira has worked with youth players (The players that are actually getting playing time for Man City and Jadon Sanchoo)
Man City youth players loved him
I have watched more than one docu about the impact that PV4 has had in New York and the MLS.
I have seen him improve young and old players
Turn around a team a new franchise and give it a stamp and organisation
I have seen how his staff and players and opponents speak about him as a manager
48% win record and create a style of football.
With an actual pedigree of winning with Arsenal as a player.
The world still refer to him as Arsenal legend
Then there is Arteta’s statement.
I like Arteta and will support him if he is given the job .
But I state that Vieira has more credibility at each measuring point you can find than Arteta.
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Oh, now a tall black man from France who got sent off countless times for Arsenal as Manager of Arsenal, Media will go easy for sure. The PIGMOB will be beside themselves to be the first to send a Paddy player off to start the new count, with a mention of how many the last tall Frenchman had. Not sure Patrick would be as polite as Arsene with the Hacks though. Would rather an ex player with credentials than some big name making demands.
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Yond Ashton has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much; such men are dangerous.
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Has anyone seen Patrick Vieira give an interview as the Manager of NYCFC
If you think it is easy to face the press in NY you don’t know much about sport in NY.
New York does not accept losing at anything.
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adrian clarke’s end of season breakdown, he picks AMN as young player of the year and the 3 contenders for player of the season, Monreal, Ozil and Ramsey with our Welsh hero getting the nod
https://player.arsenal.com/video/breakdown-end-season-special
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Mustafi not in Germany world cup squad
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Not in the squad,
Not a surprise.
Arsenal had a weaker squad this season then in more recent ones. That is:
Not an opinion!
The numbers as in yes the data was or were too low -in terms of available CBs with over X starts in top leagues leading the defence. Which is not a critique of an individual after all the Great Kozza himself needed a little bit polishing after being quarried out of the French second division. But, well, yes, with the great Kozza hobbled the Arsenal defence was fooked, Monreal could cover and filled in where Sagna left off alas it was apparent after his first few performances that the new LB didn’t quite have the stamina and conditioning and recovery to be playing three times a week at PL intensity, at least not from the off and then he has some injuries which set his fitness programme back.
Yep. It was a weak defence this season. Weaker then the last (or more significantly two seasons past).
Rupert knows.
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Patrick Vieira signed for Arsenal 22 years ago so perhaps a few people might have forgotten what a player he was for Arsenal .
A little reminder
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900ft gooner: LoL at your allusion to Ashton as being Cassius-like. While the journos from the mainstream media may have been Wenger’s Brutus, none of them have anywhere a similar standing, the virtue and devotion to duty with one or two well known exceptions (there is a fellow from the Times whose name escapes me who hardly writes on football any more). The majority remind me of Decius, deceitful and mealy-mouthed, who betrayed Wenger to his enemies. Julius Caesar, the play, may seem to over dramatize football but that is the beauty of a great work of art; it helps to sharpen our understanding of reality.
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It must be a bit of a blow to Mustafi to miss out on the WC having played in the last.
Our friend Swales1968 has made similar observations and this comment below underlines the crucial issue that resulted from having one fit senior (just about) CB in the squad – the two starting CBs couldn’t train together!
@Swales1968
15/05/2018
Mustafi is a player with a mistake in him every game that it seems to lead to a goal somewhere along the line. But I wonder if this mistake or mistakes are down to having Kos who apparently doesn’t train next to him, is the a lack of communication between them or is he so worried about covering for Kos because of his injury issues that he is not concentrating on his own game.
I’m taking a wild stab in the dark as I’m no coach or manager, but I think if he had a younger Per beside him a lot of those errors we see would not happen
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Correction above. Minus Rupert plus Low.
As in:
Low Knows.
Has a nice ring to it but I don’t think that the German supremo is high on the bookies list, nine neither as I can’t imagine he’d want to manage in club football, or even just think about it at this moment in time.
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fins
Apparently Low has just extended his contract with Germany to 2022.
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I like the thought of Arteta…it’s about beautiful football after all…
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maybe the dream team could be Arteta as boss with the highly experienced no.2 Buvac as his assistant, maybe even Faria part of the set up too, an inexperienced top guy, but with 1 or 2 vastly experienced assistants with him, not forgetting Bould and Mad Jens too.
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Thanks Shard.
On further reflection we can emphasise with how and why people developed an irrational fixation on “defensive coaching” this season. When you’re starting CBs can’t train together, it is not helpful. Paul McGrath was considered a top player, a leading British CB, but after his injuries restricted his training I note that the teams he played for didn’t win much, at least I can’t remember seeing any glory for Villa, Derby, and Sheffield Utd in the 90s (I could be wrong!) – no top club would take him into their squad as he couldn’t train, there were other infamous reasons too? But primarily the old lack of training would’ve been an issue at CB who do play in pairs, as any close observation of the two senior CBs who have played together this season for the Arsenal can confirm this can be a problem…*coughs*
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media reporting that Santi Cazorla is set to be offered a player coach role, as part of Arteta’s coaching team
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fins
If it’s true that Kos and Mustafi couldn’t train together that would explain a lot. Though Mustafi also had a mix up with Cech and keeps making some boneheaded decisions. He also does somethings right and is aggressive.
I’m not sure he’s good enough to be a starting CB for Arsenal. Hopefully he’ll prove me wrong about that. Definitely need an experienced CB for next season. If he is to be paired with Mustafi, then I think he needs to be the Per kind of defensive reader and aerially strong, rather than the Kos type of stopper.
Chambers as younger version of Per. Mavropanos as younger Kos. And I think Holding is more Kos than Per but is good in the air and versatile enough to play either role.
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Mustafi is a good player and I hope for the best for him.
One thought I shared earlier in the season is that might come at RB and not CB?
Koscielny had unsettled partners if I recall in his first two seasons also due to injuries, but he was in the end undeniably helped in his settling into a new league and style by a worthy effort from Gallas in his final season before he went to pick up his pension following an increase in his injury problems at the club that apparently has spent less then AFC (youwhatgovcomeagainmate???? Areyouunwell?)
– For context: Gallas was let go when he was having similar issues to Koscielny this season. Gallas was let go to take a pay rise at a club that were hoping for more then a literal handful of appearances from him, hehe, ‘Arry must’ve been spitting grit, though to be fair he was probably too busy counting his comission to be upset at the football.
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Arteta with Buvac as assistant seems unlikely ed, but it really would make me happy. I think stylistically it could be a good fit. The German ‘gegenpress’ and Spanish ‘tiki-taka’ combined with British steel and Arsenal flair.
Arteta is supposedly Pep’s video analyst. (Supposedly) Which shows an eye for detail. He’s also credited with the improvement in Sterling (and Sane?) If we can get Ramsey, Xhaka and Elneny/AMN playing a more active pressing game in midfield, and the wide forwards can also start contributing more goals, we would be formidable. I think this would also help our defense, and hopefully Bould (and Lehmann) will stay to help out, as well as retain continuity.
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At the end of those initial two years in the PL Koscielny had earned himself a spot in the French squad and prior to the ankle going he was in recent years the leader of that defence. And they are, you know, a decent team!
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Shard
Arteta spent a large bulk of his younger years as an attacking midfielder and occasionally a wide forward (?) at Everton etc. before he made the later/older transition into CM. The accolades for his one to one coaching of those players sound plausible.
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Kos is awesome! He’s a great defender and footballer. It’s amazing what he has done for us. And of course what we did for him. But he’s repaid us many times over. The goals he’s scored for us. Always seemed to get the big goals. To get us top 4. To break our trophy drought(TM) . Although he did also have two very costly mistakes at both ends of his Arsenal career. But whatever. An incredible servant for us. And I hope he comes back from this injury.
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As I remember, Arteta started at ‘defensive midfield’ at Barcelona. I think in his first game at Barcelona B he replaced Pep. But when he moved to PSG, where I suppose the technical standards were lower, he was played higher up the pitch, and there he stayed until Wenger dropped him further back. So he kind of went full circle. No idea if he also played wide forward (Weren’t most teams playing a 442 then?) Though come to think of it, I remember him on the right for Everton a few times.
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I have no frame of reference for Arteta as a coach so I am going to have to fly blind, if he is installed.
I was not old enough to be aware of what happened when Billy Wright left and the physio took over. I learned later they thought the ex guards man would ‘Whip them into shape”.
He did an alright job
We shall see how this pans out .
Because I have not met a single soul who could tell me what exactly Arteta has done that makes him a better fit than Vieira.
How can you tell?
What criteria are you using to get to this decision?
I am genuinely wanting to understand how you arrive at the decision
I am still waiting for someone on this site to actually give me something tangible(Apart from his hair) just saying that I should read his ‘Mission Statement’ is nothing .
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http://www.goal.com/en/news/all-you-need-to-know-about-mikel-artetas-importance-to-pep/1sb79795r2ige1uo5984djkey4
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Wwwb
I’m not sure what ‘tangible’ thing you could be given. It’s obvious he has no experience of being the manager at a club (though that article says he was given the responsibility on at least one occasion) If that’s the tangible thing you want for what Arteta has done, then he’s done nothing.
And yet, he was highly rated by Wenger and Pep. They saw a guy with a sharp footballing brain, and a natural leader. He also seems to be his own man. He would often publicly criticise the team if they didn’t play well, something Wenger chose to almost never do.
He outlined his views on running a team and stated he was confident he could do it. An attacking philosophy, exploiting the opponent’s weakness, demanding complete commitment, and constantly evaluating his own performance were the ideas he put forth in his ‘mission statement’.
You seem to favour Vieira over Arteta, and honestly, I’d be happy with Vieira too. But what exactly is Vieira’s philosophy? What tactics does he play? What tangible evidence do we have that he’ll be a good fit at Arsenal? Experience as manager counts, but if the talent and the vision is there, a lack of it should not be a disqualification.
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