It is now nearly 3 years ago since Arsenal’s infamous £40m + £1 bid for Luis Suarez that made us become the laughing stock of football.
The bid was poorly reported by the British media as they rang stories to for hits and to generally mock us. Ensuring at the same time that they did not upset the fragile Scousers who will boycott any media outlet who dare report anything negative, like they do with The Sun.
The true facts of the case, as brilliantly laid out in this article, are that Arsenal did what every clubs do when it comes to a release clause. Bid £1 over expecting it to be activated and allowing for talks with the target player. Liverpool played hardball, and it would have been down to Suarez to take them to court for breach of contract.
Instead, Suarez got himself a bumper new deal with an agreement that he could leave abroad the next summer.
Fast forward to 2016. Arsenal are heavily linked to Wolfsburg left back Ricardo Rodriguez. The reports indicate that he has a €25million release clause in his contract that is active until the end of this month.
Now firstly, whether this release clause actually exists is up for debate. Is it a fallacy created on Twitter that has got some steam up? On Football Manager he has a release clause, but that is just a computer game, it is not real life. On Football Manager a few years ago I signed Luis Suarez after activating his release clause!
If the clause is true, and Arsenal do want to sign him, we will see a repeat of the summer of 2013 and the bid will go in for €25m+€1.
You need to be in excess of the release clause to activate it. There is no point going in with a bid vastly over the release clause, as in theory, just the €1 above activates it.
Of course, as we saw with the Suarez / Liverpool situation, if a club digs their heels in and refuses to accept the validity of the clause, things can go wrong. However, the Liverpool / Suarez situation is the first, and only time I have heard of a club not honouring a release clause in a players contract.
If arsenal are after Ricardo Rodriguez, expect a bid for €25,000,001 to go in within the week.
So somehow GC and Keenos got into a debate on twitter which spilled over onto whatsapp and will spill over into the pub next season on just if Wenger is one of the all-time greatest managers in world football. With the restriction of 140 characters, neither could exactly get their point across fully, so a blog was born.
Wenger is not one of the greatest – by GC
Well my point initially was quite simple, no manager can be classed as one of the greatest ever unless they have won all the big domestic (title + FA Cup) and European trophies.
It’s very easy in this debate to try and distract from Wenger and start comparing to others from different era’s who may or may not be considered one of the greatest, so I’m going to stick to a bit of opinion and the facts on Wenger.
Let’s clarify the difference between great and greatest.
Firstly Wenger is a great manager, well his 1st 10 years at ours were great, FA cups, League titles, doubles and unbeaten season the blot being one thing, the European cup.
Just over 10years ago 100,000 (est) Arsenal fans took over Paris in probably the greatest ever away travelling support from any club in any country, that was the only Euro cup final Wenger has got us into and it ended with heartbreak. Since then its been a long run of getting knocked out at the last 16 stage.
There is also no denying Wenger built one of the greatest ever Arsenal sides, he added Vieira, Henry, Pires, Freddie (all world class in there prime) to George Graham’s famous back 5 who were the greatest ever defensive unit in English maybe European football ever, only rival there is the famous Milan back 4. But even with Bergkamp, one of the greatest ever forwards, Wenger hasn’t win the big ear’d one in 18 attempts.
So is Wenger one of the greats in the English game?
Despite never winning the league cup (losing 2 finals), no-one has finished in the top 4 for so many years running, no-one has won as many FA Cups and of course no modern day side has gone unbeaten in the league for a season or gone 49 games unbeaten. But too often when Wenger was in his prime and before ‘he built a new ground’ we finished 2nd in a 2 horse race to Man United who at the time were not only beating Wenger for trophies domesticity they also won the European cup.
Wenger also has the record of finishing 2nd in the league more times than any other Arsenal manager and has the longest run of not winning any trophies of any manager of The Arsenal.
Is Arsene Wenger great ? YES
Is he one of Arsenals greatest ? YES
Is he one of the greatest managers in world football? NO
The greatest of any era not only win the big prizes domesticity but then go on to win the biggest prize in Europe and then World Club Cup, and sadly Wenger has not done this.
Wenger is one of the greatest – by Keenos
Arsene Wenger is one of the greatest of all time.
When he came to England in October 1996, he transformed the English game in a way that changed coaching, fitness, training, scouting and diet methods forever. He led, the rest of England followed.
Yes, he might have now fallen behind others, but what he did in those first 10 years in English football has shaped how clubs now run now.
And look at his achievements.
An unbeaten season – something which no other modern day manager has done in the English game.
Doubles – Only Sir Alex Ferguson has won more league & cup doubles
FA Cup – No manager has won more FA Cups
Of course, some will point to his failure to win the European Cup as a reason why he is not one of the greatest. Bill Shankly also never won the European Cup. Does that also mean he isn’t one of the greatest?
If you use the pinnacle of achievement to define who is one of the greatest, it would mean the likes of Lionel Messi, Johan Cruyff, George Best & Cristiano Ronaldo can not be considered amongst the greatest. They have never won the World Cup.
In music, the likes of Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, The Kinks, The Who, The Clash, Jimi Hendrix & James Brown have never had a US Billboard Number One. Does that mean that they can not be considered amongst the greatest? Of course not.
To value (or devalue) ones greatest on a single achievement (or lack of) is short sighted. It include people’s who clearly are not amongst the greatest (Benitez, Di Matteo, Zidane, One Direction) and excludes people who clearly are great (Shankly, Messi, Wenger, Bob Marley).
Outside of this country is where you see Arsene Wenger’s true greatness. He is still upheld on the continent as one of the best managers in world football. Outside of the fishbowl of the English media and Arsenal fans, an unbiased opinion of him from abroad would be that he is one of the games greatest.
The impact Arsene Wenger has had, not just on Arsenal but on English football, on world football, is the reason he is one of the greatest.
For those of you have have followed this blog for some time, you would have previously read about the injustices against an Arsenal fan known as the Archway One. For the background on his story, you can play catch up here:
Nearly three years on from our first blog, the Archway One is no closer to having his ban overturned by the club.
Now before we start, it must be remembered, this is not a Football Banning Order. The Archway One can still go to games. He can go to grounds. He does not have to visit a police station on the day of the game. This is a ban, put in place by a single club, banning an individual from entering the ground.
This ban is due to an incident that happened 7 hours after a game and 3 miles away from the ground.
Since the ban, The WPC who ‘advised’ the club on the matter has been relieved of her duties due to reportedly falsifying evidence in other cases, and the Independent Football Ombudsman (IFO) had advised that the ban should be lifted.
Arsenal’s position has always been stated that it was acting on Police advice when imposing the ban, however a recent appeal presented Police documentation that current advice was to comply with The IFO’s recommendation and lift the ban. Yet the ban still stood after an appeal hearing.
A recent request from the club regarding this supposed appeal hearing this subject access revealed that:
No minutes of the meeting were taking, and no panel member took notes
Arsenal have refused to divulge the names of any members of the appeals panel or of anyone in attendance
All correspondence is signed “The Arsenal Football Club” – Nobody is willing to their name to this decision
This leads to the logical thinking as to whether an appeal hearing actually took place. Or have the club just come to a decision without following their own due process?
Most recently, the Archway One took his complete further. Questioning Arsenal’s own appeal process (or lack of) and took this complaint again to the IFO.
The Complaint
A long-standing Arsenal fan who had been given a five year stadium ban complained that his appeal was not properly considered and that the Club’s process was not open and transparent. He expressed doubts as to whether an appeal panel had actually met and he complained that he was not given reasons for his appeal being rejected.
Out of the complaint, the reasons behind the failed appeal were handed over by the club:
The Stadium Ban was imposed because the supporter was considered to pose a risk to public safety
The IFO did not dispute the imposition of the Stadium Ban
The evidence did not clearly demonstrate that the supporter no longer posed a risk
In the circumstances it would be inappropriate to reduce or amend the Stadium Ban
The review concluded by stating:
“The appeal committee was clearly not convinced that the perceived risk posed by admitting the complainant to the stadium had reduced. If he can produce new personal evidence to demonstrate that he is no longer a risk, then the Club has indicated that it is willing to consider such evidence”.
Due to the complaint, the club is now having to amend the Appeals Process in their club Charter to include the provision of the reasons for the decisions of the Appeals Committee for the 2016-17 season.
So in summary, the club have demonstrated that they have a personal vendetta against the Archway One and will up hold the ban no matter what. Continually changing the club’s charter and judicial processes to bloke the Archway One from getting the justice he deserves.
What is laughable is that they are claiming the ban is done on a matter of public safety. To protect supporters within the ground.
This despite the incident taking place 7 hours after the game and it not being a football related offence.
The club are demanding that they will only review the case again if evidence is bought forward that the Archway One is no longer a risk to follow fans within the ground, yet what they have not yet done is prove that the Archway One ever was, or is currently, a risk to fans within the ground.
Surely it should be up to the club to demonstrate why they believe the Archway One to be a risk, not vice versa. Innocent until proven guilty and all that?
This seems no more than a personal vendetta. A cover up. Someone at the club does not want him at games. And rather than coming out and saying that, they are hiding behind annoymous appeals process, and unsigned letters.
It is nothing short of a disgrace. And the worrying thing, it could happen to any of us, at any time.
It is now nearly 3 years ago since Arsenal’s infamous £40m + £1 bid for Luis Suarez that made us become the laughing stock of football.
