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ARSENAL
After that display perhaps Wenger will now go out and spend some of the millions he has on proven defenders & midfielders. Not on youngsters who may or may not make the grade. Everyone can see it apart from him, and it`s been like that for the last few seasons. We needed players before we started selling our best ones, OI WENGER IT`S NOT YOUR OWN MONEY SO GET SPENDING NOW.
Comments
As much as I hate to say this the wenger project has failed. He didnt buy enough quality to supplement the young talent he had at the club.
If wenger wants to stay at the club he has to swallow his pride and spend that £60 mill we have just received for fab and nasri. I would love wenger to turn things around but I think its now too late. The club is stagnating, we have players who are not bleeding for the shirt (arshavin et al).
It will be a miracle if we finish in the top four this season.
As a final note, could it be that Wenger may just say " Ive taken the club as far as I can" and dissappear by Xmas ??
Tbf Arsenal and Spurs are just feeder clubs. It wouldn't matter if Jesus managed them. If they found a miracle player City would get them next season and triple their wages.
It would be a pity if the Arsenal fans turned on Wenger. It wasn't long ago that he turned down Real Madrid before Mourinho got the job. His acumen helped build the Emirates.
This isnt a wenger only problem, its roots lie deep in the heart of the board and their desire to see us compete with the other big clubs. What does gazidis do ffs ! The american Kroenke does not understand the values and history of the club and merely sees it as his cash cow, 60,000 fans turn up every other week and generate millions, thats all he cares about.
Going back to Wenger, he looks like a broken man in all senses of the word. His pearls of wisdom no longer ring round the club as he has nothing to back them up with. This cannot be missed by the players who im sure many of which are now only interested in their wages rather than the glory. Some of them need a kick up the backside. I would immediately sack Pat Rice and bring Martin Keown in with a view to carry on when Wenger steps down. Keown not only is articulate in his appraisal of football but is also respected as a no nonsense man, we need that at our club desperately.
In Response to Re: ARSENAL : To an extent your comments are true but that doesnt detract from the fact that Arsenal are turning over in excess of £200 million a year. We have the most expensive tickets (and burgers!) in the prem, on the financial side the club is run as an optimally profitable business, which is one sense is good, but on the other hand it means we are always tight with the purse strings. This isnt a wenger only problem, its roots lie deep in the heart of the board and their desire to see us compete with the other big clubs. What does gazidis do ffs ! The american Kroenke does not understand the values and history of the club and merely sees it as his cash cow, 60,000 fans turn up every other week and generate millions, thats all he cares about. Going back to Wenger, he looks like a broken man in all senses of the word. His pearls of wisdom no longer ring round the club as he has nothing to back them up with. This cannot be missed by the players who im sure many of which are now only interested in their wages rather than the glory. Some of them need a kick up the backside. I would immediately sack Pat Rice and bring Martin Keown in with a view to carry on when Wenger steps down. Keown not only is articulate in his appraisal of football but is also respected as a no nonsense man, we need that at our club desperately.
Posted by ACEGOONER
Well it is clear that Arsenal have problems but i for one have developed a lot of sympathy for Wenger. If he was a poker player i'd have to say he was running thru a period of abysmal variance. I thought Arsenal were cheated out of beating Barca in the Champions League last season when Van Persie got sent off. His board have let him down and the media, esp. the press, have a massive, overtly hostile agenda towards him. Many of his players have let him and the fans down badly on a number of occasions. Even things like Champ League draw get anyone BUT Udinese.....oh dear Udinese. Even then he got a win from the team. That game was seriously important. The Man Utd loss was on the cards 1-0 or 8-2 doesn't matter much in the long run just no points. Yeah Man Utd fans can gloat but they are just glory hunters in the main, think little about the realities of the larger game and support a club that have virtually zero financial liability.
The bottom line is that i think Wenger is super sane. His principles about how the game should be played and how clubs should be run financially are totally correct imo. Just because Arsenal cannot compete financially does not make those principles incorrect.
I guess you are frustrated but there is a fine line. Arsenal could smash their wage policy and spend any amount on players if they like. They can run themselves into massive debt, mortgage their stadium and hope a goodly billionaire that understands football takes them over and bails them out appears. The Liverpool strategy.
Even if they did tho they still won't be able to compete with Man City. Sheikh Mansoor is inconceivably wealthy. He makes Abramovich look like a relative pauper. Various reports suggest his wealth outstrips the Russians' by 100 fold. Soon all clubs will become feeder clubs to Man City. The ONLY consolation is the Utd fans can come to realise that they aren't an amazing, successful team for any other reason that they were the richest.Serves them right the smug %8#&€r$.
Posted by BLACK_MASS
As an arsenal fan who cares about the welfare of my club, I do not expect them to blow a fortune on players and wages but merely try to repeat what was achieved in wengers early days, ie buy established world class players alongside bargains who can be sold on for profit at the right price eg, vieira, henry.
Is it asking too much to make a reasonable bid for cahill? £15 million would do it, as would a similar bid for samba. So we would then have two real defenders and still have £30 mill in the bank even scott parker would add a bit of steel to our midfield. Play walcott as the front man (hes not a winger ffs), use his pace and have RVP as the link up man.
The whole idea of moving to the emirates was to compete with the big boys, we are paying through the nose for a bunch of chumps who are not fit to lace the boots of the 2004 invincibles, undoubtedly the greatest Arsenal team of all time argueably the best top flight side since the PL was formed.
As I said wenger looks like a beaten man, its time to plan for the future. That doesnt mean sacking wenger but having a period of transition where we can nurture his sucessor to carry on the values and style that wenger was so succesful at in his early arsenal days. When the time is right wenger can move up to board level and that muppet gazidis can sling his hook. Also get david dein back home quick!
he needed to buy 3 central defenders and 2 strong expiriened central midfield players instead hes played £15 million for yet anouther lightweight striker and £15 million for anouther theo walcott. what does he need anouther walcot for he doesnt know what to do with the one hes got.
Is Gary Cahill really so great ? The day the media started bigging him up Stoke whacked Bolton 5-0 in a semi-final.
Bolton shipped 3 vs Man City and Liverpool in last 2 weeks. Is that useful ?
Roger Johnson is good but he and his amazing defender mates at Brum were so good they got relegated last season. Cool ?
Teams like Arsenal need defenders that can defend and play a bit too. Trouble is Clichy looked like a really good prospect but Man City can pay any wages.
Mertesacker should be sound. Experienced international.
The point i'm trying to make is that if Arsenal sacked Wenger and got Sam Allardyce where would that propel the club ?
Realistically they haven't the financial power to win anything but the Carling cup like all but 3 or maybe 2 of the other Prem sides.
Not as simple as the papers make out. I'm not even an Arsenal fan.
Mertesacker less than half price of Jagielka. Can't be too bad.
I have been critical of wenger lately but what I wont accept is the way teams like stoke (and bolton in previous years) set themselves up to have a scrap against Arsenal. One reason that england get found out time and time again on the world scene is that players are taught the physical virtues of the game over pure technical skill.
Look at Barcas/Spains midfield, that is the new world order. Small quick thinking mobile athletes running rings round even the most physical opposition. Arsenal have tried to replicate that and I have to say are a poor mans Barca but dont knock it. Its far better to watch than the mediocrity at places like stoke.
In Response to Re: ARSENAL : I dont know what stokes beef with arsenal is. Ever since the last game of the season a few years back (when your fans nearly caused a riot at the emirates) there seems to be a bit of needle. Then we had the shocking tackle on ramsey which put him out for the best part of a year. I have been critical of wenger lately but what I wont accept is the way teams like stoke (and bolton in previous years) set themselves up to have a scrap against Arsenal. One reason that england get found out time and time again on the world scene is that players are taught the physical virtues of the game over pure technical skill. Look at Barcas/Spains midfield, that is the new world order. Small quick thinking mobile athletes running rings round even the most physical opposition. Arsenal have tried to replicate that and I have to say are a poor mans Barca but dont knock it. Its far better to watch than the mediocrity at places like stoke.
Posted by ACEGOONER
+1 TOTALLY.
I blame our media for throwing fat on the fire. They are diseased. I think the way Wenger has responded to the challenge of taking football to the next level is great for the game. BUT he's French and buys a lot of foreign players. The press hate him for it when it doesn't win silverware but the reason for that is just because of money and nothing to do with his footballing principles.
At Barca they get young kids who practise passing and moving for years before they even get to play a competitive game. In England they get kids playing immediately and then pick the biggest and strongest kids. The kids that go thru puberty earliest. It's pretty backward and as a culture is negative and destined to reap zero rewards. Then to top it all off we have a hysterical, bordering on xenophobic, press that don't expect but DEMAND that England succeed at world level. What a sick, retarded joke.
Then Wenger comes along and tries to foster something akin to this Barca philosophy. 3 of his players get their fkn legs broken. Wenger doesn't like it, obviously. I mean what manager would ? Can you imagine Fergie in the same position ? He'd have an apoplexy. The press react by making out Wenger is a paranoid on the verge of cracking up. Why ? They defend the players that do the leg breaking. Call them good, honest professionals etc. Defend the 'English' mentality that tough tackling is what makes our game great.
Meanwhile back in Barcelona the conveyor belt rolls on. People used to think that it was players like Xavi and Iniesta that helped make Barca great. But it isn't them per se. They've got Pedro and Busqets and Keita. There is a generation playing the right way from 6 years old and upwards. Spain look set to continue their domination of the European and World game for years to come. Here in England you can listen to our pundits laud the 'talents' of Kevin Davies and ponder over whether he should start for the national side. It really is so fkn stupid it's funny.
Now i don't blame Stoke, Bolton, Wolves etc for playing the way they do. It's pretty obvious that they have to play that way with the resources they have to survive in the Premiership. At the same time however even their most diehard of fans have to admit that their teams aren't exactly playing the football of the future.
Looking at the weekends results for me, what was most notable ? Well it was the media reaction. Such was their zeal to stick the knife into Wenger. Rubbish his philosophy. If Sagna and Vermaelen play the scoreline would have not been anything as humiliating. Arsenals second team looked drained after the Udinese game. Yet at White Hart Lane a full strength Spurs team got mashed. They lost zero players in the window.
For me that result was as bad if not worse. There were NO mitigating circumstances. But good old Harry Redknapp is English.
Arsenal have had some very good results this week. They qualified for Champions League when the odds looked stacked against them. They managed to offload football mercenary Nasri for 23m with only a year left on his contract. That is genius. Finally they didn't capitulate to the press demands and pay way over the odds for English defender Gary Cahill. They brought in a defender that is 26 and played for his country 85 times for half of what Everton were holding out for Jagielka. Again genius.
Good on Wenger and good on Arsenal. Anyone that thinks that sacking that manager is a clever idea is a total moron. If he were to be sacked the next time you see him on t.v may well be watching him in charge of Real Madrid with fortunes to spend. Now how good will that be for the English game ?
Posted by BLACK_MASS
Good post and well said.
Posted by BLACK_MASS
Our oldest boy did a year playing football, then switched to rugby. The philosophy behind teaching kids to play the two games has been completely different.
Football was all about picking a team to win and if a kid weren't part of that then it wasn't worth training him. If someone was a sub they might get a token minute of game time.
With junior rugby all the kids who join are taught every element of the skills to play the game for their age group, and subs are constantly revolved during games to give everyone a chance. That policy continues at least until U13 level.
Completely agree about the Spurs result. Bad as Arsenal's result was at Old Trafford, a team of their ambitions getting creamed 5-1 at home seems to have had very little press at all.
If you want to play like Barcelona or use that philosophy then fair enough but don't expect teams like Stoke to sit there while you try to pass us of the park,we,re here to survive we,re here to battle and battle we will
Oh BTW considering its mediocre, its pretty lively up here and yet all that world class footie played down The Emirates its rather quite
If everyone played the same way, football would become old hat very quickly.
Wilshire and Vermaelen out long term ?
Seriously Arsenal are totally cursed !!!!!!!!! Unreal.
The tackle on ramsey was a disgrace, perhaps it wasnt the intention to break his leg but it wasnt to make a legitimate tackle, ie go for the ball. That is outside of the rules and spirit of the game.
We now have a 6ft 6in central defender, perhaps we will have more of a chance to deal with the long throw but personally I want to watch football, not basketball. And as for your fans making a bit of noise, perhaps when you dont have anything else but mediocrity in your town, it makes it seem good.
As long as clubs like Stoke encourage kids to apply braun rather than technical skill our national team will never be sucessful. Are there any spanish clubs that employ stokes tactics against Barca or RM. What is the result for their national team?
As long as clubs in england have their head in the sand about how to play football (note the use of the word foot) our national team will never suceed. Jack Wilshere is a perfect example of what can be achieved with the right coaching. He is the best left footed midfielder I have seen at Arsenal since Liam Brady.
As for the ramsey tackle I watched it again, it was a terrible mistimed tackle how can you say he was going for the ball. He overan the ball, ramsey intercepted and he sythed into him. Yeah he didnt deliberately try and break ramseys leg I admit that, but the tackle was shocking.
The only bubble that seems to exist is with stoke and their fans, who seem to carry around with them a nasty atmosphere both on and off the pitch.
I'm seriously considering becoming a gooner.