Tag Archives: Arsène Wenger

Marty McWenger & his refusal to go Back to the Future

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It was an interesting day yesterday, not much concrete news on the transfer front which won’t exactly come as a surprise however there were more revelations, debate and discussion about Arsenals transfer strategy or lack of it.
 
The team flew to Turkey last night for tonight’s game and Arsene gave a press conference which to me was quite revealing.
 
Wenger said: “You don’t know what we have done, you don’t know if we did bid. It’s quite amazing that all of the people don’t know and yet they always have opinions about things they don’t know.

“It’s not down to me to explain to you everything I do. It’s impossible. If we do a transfer we will announce it. We don’t want to hurt anybody, not Newcastle, not anybody. You can’t reproach us on one side for not buying and yet on the other side when we try to buy to reproach us as well. That is a bit contradictory.”
 
History tells us we do know what’s gone on, that being not a lot apart from dithering and indecision and that is exactly why Arsene finds himself under intense pressure. Pressure he has created himself yet refuses to accept any blame or responsibility.
 
To say “It’s not down to me to explain to you everything I do”  displays breath taking arrogance, fans part with their hard earnt cash every season, so yes you do have to explain to us Arsene. Match day revenue in just 3 games pays for Arsene’s yearly salary of £7.6m so the fans are very much entitled to an explanation.
 
Football is a product, in no other industry do you buy a product and are told “like it or lump it, don’t dare question me” Trading standards would be all over you.
 
In Arsene Wenger we have a man who is known to be stubborn, who is known to dither, who has dated and inaccurate beliefs on a players value and refuses to budge from these beliefs. A man who, despite having a degree in economics, cannot or refuses to believe in the basic economic principle of supply & demand.

 Time has moved on, Wenger hasn’t. He thinks he doesn’t need to because he knows or at least he thinks he is untouchable at Arsenal. For now I expect he is, however that cloak of invincibility is fading day by day along with the value of Stan’s investment.
 
What Arsenal need is whole sale change, at board level, at first team level & youth level. At board level we have a CEO who seems to answer to the person he is supposed to be in charge of, Dick Law being laughed out of boardrooms, the latest being Valencia, an owner who has no interest in the clubs affairs and an ageing board with little or no football experience. The problems at first team level can be summarised in 2 words. Arsene & Wenger.

At youth level, the conveyer belt of talent feeding the 1st team ground to a halt a long time ago.

The AST, lead by Tim Payton have now changed tact from “patience” to echoing what most of the fans are now saying,  that the current situation is unacceptable and unforgivable. For me this is a positive as they are the only fans group who have genuine power to try and change things. Other fan groups it seems are regarded by the club as an inconvenience.
The Arsenal way is do as I say not as I do.

On radio 5 last night there was an in depth discussion about Arsenal & the transfer market, most of what was said we have heard before, however one of the guests was the former sporting director of Monaco who spoke well and gave an interesting insight into doing football transfers in today’s climate.

It is clear Arsenal miss David Dein, they need a director of football urgently, someone with experience in football transfers who can also manage Arsene Wenger. He spoke highly of Manchester City, a club who had an Arsenal-esque summer in 2012, but learnt from their mistakes and improved the structure of the club over the course of 12 months which has enabled them to identify and sign their transfer targets early then have the new players integrated into the squad in plenty of time. Exactly the way it should be. You could argue money is a factor and it is but Arsenal as we know can now compete, it’s just a shame they have no desire to do so.
 
So where do we go from here? Well for me, if you sack Arsene Wenger you solve a lot of the issues quickly; board changes take time but need to happen.  Make no mistake, Arsene Wenger wont change. He is old and set in his ways; he refuses to be held responsible for the team’s failings, and sets his own targets which he then tries to sell to the fans as success. Fourth place as good as a trophy being the latest.

Add in blind loyalty to his players and a fear of upsetting them or “killing” by signing better players, (Alonso & Denilson) and you have a man who despite what he says, is not acting in the best interests of Arsenal FC but in his own beliefs. In any other job that’s gross misconduct.  The sooner he goes the better.

Thanks for the memories Arsene.PG

Arsenal Fans – A Shift in Dynamic?

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Before I start, allow me to nail my colours firmly to the mast;

I am a fully paid up member of the BSM – I have questions over the way the club is managed, from the very top – all the way down. I question ticket prices, in fact I question the price of everything at the stadium – how is this the working man’s game anymore? How does this game belong to the fans? Fact is, it doesn’t, however this is going a little off topic.

Now, where do I stand with Arsene Wenger? These must be treated as two very separate things. My membership of the BSM has zero correlation to my feelings toward our long standing manager. There is no association whatsoever, those of you reading this that are bright enough will completely understand this, those less so, you need to do some research.

I have been a long-time admirer of the man – who couldn’t have been? He has delivered success, he has brought some outstanding players to the club and transformed the way we played. Not only did he oversee a complete change in our training structure and facilities, he was instrumental in our move to the Emirates. Don’t get me wrong here, I’d rather be at Highbury, where there was deep soul, history – it was ‘The Home of Football’ – actually it was ‘Our Home of Football’, but the game was changing, we had to move to a bigger stadium in order to compete, in order to attract the best players in the game – or so we were told. So, I have held a lot of respect for Wenger for everything he did for this club since he came to us 1996.

However, that started to wain several years back – continually selling our best players, not replacing or replacing with inferior players & poor tactical decisions – during all of which I listened to his apologists in an intelligent and fair way, with decent debate. I was clearly in a minority, a small number of fans that were starting to see the cracks appearing. I had been criticised, castigated and outcast – being regularly told to ‘Go and support Spurs’ – okay so when I said there was decent debate, there are exceptions to every rule and nobody can legislate for idiots, right?

I am guessing I’m lining myself up for a lot of criticism about me only being in this for the trophies, you are wrong! Of course I want pots, but more importantly, infact much more importantly, I want a team that is ambitious enough to compete. A team that has the desire and ability to win. Led by a manager that motivates and drives the team on. A manager that will recognise where the team need help and go out and find that support. A manager that isn’t happy to finish 4th – The third worst of the runners up. A manager and a board, that doesn’t continually lie. I’m not going to go into the comments Ivan Gazidis made in June about our financial fire power, you’ve all seen them and if you haven’t it won’t take much to find them.

The reason I started writing this article was about my experience at the game yesterday and what I witnessed on my journey home. The inspiration was about seeing, first hand, a shift in the dynamic of the fan base. I’ve hinted above about how I was one in a small minority of fans that were starting to question Wenger many years back – but now that’s different I feel.

There was a strange atmosphere in the ground yesterday, it was tangible. Giroud’s early goal simmered the tension for a while, but once Villa equalised, then took the lead you could feel it changing into a poisonous place. Once the third went in, there was an immediate response – the mass exodus of fans, clearly demonstrating, with their feet, their displeasure at what they were watching, was matched by the chorus of ‘Spend some fucking money’. For the very first time, one of my lads suggested we leave early and head home – A shift in dynamic.

As a father, and supporter of Arsenal, it was my duty to keep him there until the final whistle, but I could totally understand his motives. At the final whistle, the boos started to ring out, quickly replaced by the clapping of the team off the pitch – this is not their fault. It is not their fault they play for a manager who demonstrates ineptitude at any opportunity and I’m convinced they feel as frustrated as us fans a lot of the time. Then the ‘Spend some fucking money’ chants echoed around a half empty ground.

As I left, even the stewards were bemoaning what they had just seen – a shift in dynamic.

But, the most startling thing for me, was sitting on the train on the way home. I was with my two kids, and around us were another 7 fans. A conversation soon started. A lad of, I’m guessing 15, started talking about Wenger, then voices came from behind a seat, almost anonymous contributing to the topic, then out of nowhere an elderly lady, who must have been 70 if she was a day appeared. She was very well spoken, clearly educated and obviously a life-long supporter. Very open in her criticism of Wenger, she was suggesting he has ‘lost it’, doesn’t know what he’s doing or saying anymore, how we should all get together and demonstrate against the man.

Never had I experienced a journey like it – a definite shift in dynamic.

Finally, two more things…

I did hear a startling revelation, which I wanted to share with you, it could be hear-say, I wish to emphasise this is nothing more than rumour and there is nothing upon which to substantiate this, but I heard Wenger simply refuses to have any player at the club who earns more than he does – if this is true, it is slightly ironic as he earns more than his CEO – Ivan Gazidis, but more so is extremely concerning considering the way players remuneration has increased over the past few years. We are getting left behind.

Listening to his post-match comments were interesting too. He mentioned it was not possible to buy 6 players at five to three – I don’t know how everybody else felt about this, but I thought it was slightly rubbing our faces in it – the transfer window has been open since July 1st!! But to suggest there were positives to draw from the game is infuriating to say the least. The only positive I could draw, was that yesterday I lost my Piebury Corner virginity. If you have never visited these guys on Holloway Road – you need to make a point of it next time you go past. A great pie and fantastic hospitality – give them a follow on twitter to

Onwards we go, onto Wednesday’s vital game, even more threadbare than we were on Saturday.

Whatever my thoughts on the club and Wenger, I always get behind the boys…Up the Arsenal.

DH

Arsenal Humiliated

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Humiliation – Is that perhaps too strong a word to describe yesterday’s match? On the face of it, yes. Some might say the word humiliation is a little melodramatic but, lets analyse things first.

Firstly, this is our first competitive match of the season. It comes on the back of a half decent run in last term. Granted, we didn’t face the strongest opposition during those games, but we did grind out results. We are also nearly through the transfer window so if you take 1st July as the official start we have had six to seven weeks in which to address any areas of concern. Coupled with the fact that our CEO openly boasted that we have adequate funds to strengthen, we should by now be in a position of strength.

I think everyone who enjoys football knows that opinions vary wildly on pretty much every aspect of the game. Fans of the same club can describe a player so differently that you could be forgiven for thinking they are even talking about the same person. It is this aspect of the game that gives it such broad appeal and allows newspapers and magazines to sell thousands of copies and football radio shows to be so popular. That being said certain things can polarize opinion. I am absolutely sure that every reader will agree Lionel Messi would improve any side no end. Similarly, all Arsenal fans will agree Denis Bergkamp was a fantastic player for Arsenal and a terrific servant of our club. On this basis I am sure I can get across the board agreement that Arsenal are:-

  1. Short of players with decent first team experience anywhere

  2. Specifically in need of players in certain positions as a matter of urgency.

I watched the match yesterday and I thought at times we played some good football. We did some stuff very well and we were in truth unlucky not to score more goals. Our problems are the same age old ones. We still try to walk the ball into the back of the net and we are lightweight through the middle. I would say Vieira and Gilberto would be the last proper defensive/holding midfielders we have had. Not only could they both do a good job of breaking up play but, especially in the formers case, could turn a game with a run. Often though they just needed to let the opposition know they were about with an early bone shuddering, but fair, tackle. It would whip the crowd up and galvanise the rest of the team. We lack this enforcer, this powerhouse. Don’t misunderstand me though, I know Jack Wilshere would run through walls for us but at 5’7” he isn’t going to put the fear of God into Yaya Toure and co?

My point in all this is, everyone knows what we need except it seems, Arsene Wenger. How has he not managed to bring in this type of player when so clearly he has seen the benefits of such beasts in the past? I will let you ponder that whilst I also ask how we can possibly be able to challenge for any honours with such a shortage of first team players.

Defenders, especially centre backs are always prone to the odd card. I would say Koscielny was very unlucky yesterday to see red and I know many will fume about it for months to come but it is an occupational hazard. Similarly, all players can get injured, Arsenal fans know this to be true more than most. We also know that initial two or three weeks “knocks” can quickly become two ankle ops and a twelve month rehabilitation. Our defensive squad yesterday of two right backs, two centre backs and one left back was ok, that is ok if you forget the preceding two sentences. Two injuries and a sending off added up to us ending the match with our second choice right back, one (slow) centre back and Podolski at left back. Unfortunate, yes, avoidable, definitely.

Now to look at our opposition. We ended the last season a full thirty two points ahead of them. We lost seven games to their seventeen. They had big dramas with their main striker who wanted out, but, managed to keep him and he scored twice for them yesterday. (On a side note – Our former top striker scored twice yesterday too – shame we didn’t do enough to get him to stay ?) They have made some signings, nothing to set the pulse racing but they didn’t look out of their depth at an imposing place like Arsenal with sixty thousand fans. In the second half they made us look amateurish, moaning and groaning at bad decisions and brandishing imaginary cards always gets my goat.

People in charge at our club from the CEO to the manager have told us to forget the last few years of austerity and now is the time for us to move forward and reap the benefits of our frugal attitude. Financial Fair Play, massive increases in television revenue, new commercial deals all add up to a bumper transfer kitty and no danger that our best and brightest have to be sold. If you can bring yourself to erase from your memory all the false promises of the last decade we have finally reached the promised land. Sorry, let me get back to reality. The fact is we haven’t sold our best this year because we don’t have anyone attractive enough to other clubs to bid big money for. Equally, we haven’t been able to attract any big names. Scratching around after the flesh eating striker from Liverpool with embarrassing bids with £1 at the end just don’t cut it for me.

I asked if humiliation was a good description for the match yesterday, well yes it is. We are The Arsenal, not some mid table wannabes looking to build a good reputation and break into the top six. It is humiliating to be beaten at home by a team that were clearly so far behind us last season. It is humiliating that their top striker, who incidentally, could have been nabbed for a decent offer, was persuaded to stay with no European football and we can’t attract anyone with a decent chance of Champions League qualification. Most importantly it is humiliating that our manager continues to treat the fans like the enemy and say his job is to make us happy? I fear the humiliation will get worse and the thing making me really worry is that we may end up spending our transfer kitty in the next couple of weeks on sub standard panic buys, still fail and leave the next manager with nothing but deadwood to make do with!!

Daran Malone