‘We have our plans and we know what we will do’
Is the above quote the one we’ll all hang from this summer? It’s a familiar line, one I’d throw on the pile with, ‘I’m taking my cheque book to the finals’, ‘You’ll be a very surprised by what I’ll do (then sign Silvestre)’, ‘We have the money to compete with Chelsea’, ‘I’m in for super,super class players’ and ‘We need to look at the defence (said for 3 years on the trot and it’s actually getting worse)’
Arsene Wenger is the master of inaction. Speak to any supporter of any other club and they’ll mostly say the same thing…
‘How can a manager as good as Arsene Wenger make the same mistakes every season?’
What did Einstein say about people making the same mistake twice? It could be however that he isn’t that good any more, like boxers, managers can’t go on for ever, they don’t improve with age, and don’t say Ferguson, he has a big budget so he’s no different to the chavs or City.
Football is a cruel game, it doesn’t work off sentiment and it doesn’t allow you to become complacent. The fact is, Wenger isn’t dynamic as a coach anymore. He doesn’t adopt best practice as a manager and his training techniques are dated. Even his style of play is now being out witted by managers like Tony Pulis. Being a trailblazer is only ever good long-term if you develop your ideas with the times.
Steve Jobs didn’t sit back and live off his success with the first ever home computer, he constantly challenged himself and his team to better themselves. He added strings to his bow and brought in the best talent from around to globe to help his firm develop. Now they’re the most valuable brand in the world.
Arsene Wenger took the Premiership by storm. His ideas on diet, fitness and style of football were ground breaking, we’d never seen anything like it over here. 16 years on though, it’s all looking a bit flat. He has demotivated players on huge salaries, he has a style that was figured out 7 years ago and he’s talking about a season of desperate under achievement like it was a good one.
If you tell your players 3rd is a trophy and this year was progress, what desire are they going to have to kick on? And don’t forget, it may well be 4th. We said months ago, never mind winning the title, be more concerned about the chasing pack.
People can marvel at his lack of spending in the transfer market, but then they should look at his wage bill. David Moyes may have spent more over the past few seasons, but Arsenal’s wage bill is almost £50million more than his. If you’re working off Wengernomics, then you have to include salary in your transfer budget.
Arsene shouldn’t just be coaxed into signing players, he should be sat down and told in no uncertain terms he’ll be out of a job next summer if he doesn’t rectify the problems in the team that are so glaringly obvious.
It’s no good saying,
‘On set-pieces we have been caught and Jones didn’t even have to jump to head the ball – that is something to correct’
‘It is the easiest thing to correct in the game, but you still must understand the flight of the ball and want to be first and have some experience’
If it was that easy to correct, surely someone should have been correcting it before we became the worst team in the league for conceding set pieces? Surely our analysis team should have flagged this in December and suggested the coach either bring in Steve Bould to help the defence or bring in a defensive coach from elsewhere to help out?
Jeez… it wouldn’t take much to lure Tony Adams back from Kazakhstan!
All our problems are based around bad management. Wenger, for all his past glories, is at the moment, showing himself up as a poor decision maker and man blinded by his own arrogance. Blame the players, sure, I’ve no problem with that. Trouble is, only one person puts them out on the pitch every week. Only one person renews their contracts. Only one person ignores talent in the transfer market because he has faith in what he has.
Wenger isn’t making the right noises about turning it around either. He’s happy with his squad, he thinks sorting out the problems is a simple exercise and he’s talking like he does at the end of every season.
It’s embarrassing and painful to listen to… I’d love to think he’s bluffing, but it’s the same story every season. We argue all summer about it and people say,
‘Honestly, he’s been really let down this year, he knows what’s wrong with his squad and I think he’ll surprise us’
‘We’re only a month into the transfer window, jeez, give him a chance’
… then before you know it, it’s August 28th, we’re quibbling over £2million and our squad looks much the same as it always does. Under strength, too young and filled with the same mediocre dross that delivered us zero success the year before.
One last thing, and I could be wrong, but we are treated like special needs donkeys that just keep doing what they are told, as Peter Hill-Wood recently said, those stupid people. However, I couldn’t help notice on the Arsenal home page that they were displaying the new kit, but forgot to put their captain in it, now that’s something I don’t ever remember happening, so I know we are all a bit slow, but that suggests to me that Cesc is already on his way.
Now if that is the truth, and if the manager has anything left for me to respect, then he’ll go out on day one and buy what he needs before he has the ready made excuse that everyone knew he had money from the sale of Cesc and the price went up.
Maybe a swap deal, Ozil and Benzema??? Anyone??? Oh to be an Arsenal fan eh?
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Gooby,
no.
debate closed.
villa have got players to hurt our shit defence tho
SUG – Ignoring the customary patronising tone, are you honestly claiming you can’t see any positives to participating in the CL even if we don’t win it?
villa have got the players to hurt our shite defence…
albo says:
May 10, 2011 at 22:37
SUG – Ignoring the customary patronising tone, are you honestly claiming you can’t see any positives to participating in the CL even if we don’t win it?
what is the point tho,we never have a good enough team to win it,and we never equip ourselves sufficiently….
bent and young maybe. otherwise thats it.
suga. good point. Lpool will get the spot
Benzema scores.
SUGA3
always thought cesc is better but looking at ozil’s ridiculous passing stats i thought it may be up for a debate.
but if you folk don’t fancy it…
patronising, albo?
just as I gave you the credit for being the intelligent man you are?
I can’t see any positives if we are getting eliminated in embarrassing fashion for the last few seasons…
so, what are these positves then? earning stupid amounts of money that don’t get invested?
sure as hell it does not help us attract the players this team deserves, and even if it does, OGL can’t be bothered to act – remember Villa?
could probably think of a few others, you know?
but worry not, we have Diaby
Gooby,
just kidding
but I say fuck passing stats! you know where this is going, don’t you?
benzema scored within seconds after coming on,
Suga3
I have faith in Denilson. Why do people slate him? His passes are accurate. He will come good in…………..
SUGA3
we are so desperate for a top signing it isn’t even funny anymore.
thing is albo, no season is different form another since 2008
Gooby,
and that inflates the prices even further, I would rip Arsenal off silly if I was the selling club’s chairman…
bang, there goes all the money saved whilst waiting to snap up Chamakh on a free!
what goes around…
Santos,
seems like you knew where this was going, huh?
and the gap-filler is 2036
they got him for £15m, may have been in €s.
fucking hell, what a steal
Albo
re: CL
There is no doubt that you have a solid point there but its a question of taking the next step to just showing up and participating to actualy competing for the cup.
We went into the CL final once in 16 years with a once again under achieving squad.
Well said Gooby.
You lot have a way of saying things with far less words.
And Suga
3rd spot is still very much up for grabs.
As for the first section of your post, I won’t rise to the bait.
Firstly, yes, the money is important. Money is utterly central to top class football, and to pretend it isn’t is just silly. I know that for obvious reasons we’re forbidden from admitting that the club bringing in money is a good thing around here, but it is. We made a loss of around £2 million this season. That would have been a loss of £22 million without the Champions League. Now I know you will bang on about the fact that we never invest the money where YOU want it invested etc etc etc, but let’s not pretend that the club being £20 million worse off is anything but a bad thing in both the long term and the short term.
Secondly, yes it is important for attracting players. Again, I know you will declare that we don’t sign world class players anyway, but we DO have both world class players and top class players in our squad right now. And, given that major trophies at home are proving hard tom come by, they are far less likely to stick around without CL football.
Thirdly, it is important for the club as an institution that we compete at the very top level. Teams like Barcelona coming to the Emirates are huge occasions that are important for AFC whether we win or not. Football is a global game, and to compete financially we need to be a global brand. Playing (and eventually losing) 2 action packed and massively hyped fixtures against Barcelona might actually be better for the club in terms of its global image and income than winning the FA cup!
Fourthy, I do not regard this season’s CL exit as remotely ‘embarrassing’. And you have delusions of grandeur if you feel it was so.
(And by the way, I find the link everyone on here makes with Villa to be tenuous in the extreme. What exactly is the evidence that he nearly came to us? That he once said in interview that he liked the way we play? Villa refused to move every season until this one due to loyalty to Valencia. And when he did, there was only one club that he wanted to go to)
off to bed
night fellas
long time not input… boys
a simple told you so again , to the weak minded who spread their faith in Wenger ..
what i want to know is i go away on holiday 1 month ..
and come back too…. Chelsea CAN overtake man U ..
HOLD ON weren’t we baby sitting 2nd spot for half the season WTF ?
crumbling again at the right end of the season …
since deans left as an accurate bench mark in time..
we need a goalie and class defenders , wenger is a tit , and ANY other HUNGRY manager , hungry to retain their job would have made the corrections ..
seasons ago … after jens ! instead buy babies when most of the GREAT goalies are over 30 …. commons?
same with defenders !
the problem in a nut shell is goalies and defenders
are usually in there prime at 30 ..
and we sell them before that age dont we
?
David – I do agree with you there entirely. I’m just trying to counter this silly argument around here that because we don’t win it, we’d be better off not being in it.
It’s just people wanting to cut their nose off to spite their face.
albo
(nice man , i was about too ask what AKB’s are settling on for AMMO of their defense of failure … cheers bro,)
….but let’s not pretend that the club being £20 million worse off is anything but a bad thing in both the long term and the short term.
lets also pretend we got shay given or some goalie worth ‘MONEY’ and won silverware back to back !
wenger is making too many common errors , and he MADE money on the window like he usually does , he makes money for the old wankers on the board , and has done for years …
he gets well numerated for it .. so UCKF the fans !
so yes money is very important … too the club .
WE KNOW !!! “)
more important than winning , i think you forgot to add !
albo,
mate, as far as I am concerned, you are just a bit more civilised version of ‘A’ – they all crack and bow to the superior power of DooM™
there was no ‘bait’, now put your tin foil hat back on, these alien rays don’t do you any good…
it’s not about where I want it invested, it’s more about where I DON’T want it invested:
- giving contracts extensions and payrises for players that don’t deserve it and thus rendering them unsellable
- spending millions on buying kids with the piss poor success rate of the Project Shite
well, you may not consider getting dicked by Barca and chucking away the chance to go through against the odds due to Bendtner being a shit cunt ‘embarrassing’, and this is where we differ, it’s not delusion, it’s just a fair criticism…
and sorry to break this to you, but we are the third or fifth richest club in the world, so CL is a gimme here…
would love to stay and chat, but I have to get some sleep for once
Money spent not-so-prudently. Tomorrow.
and don’t get me wrong: I know we need money, but I don’t see just participating as a ‘positive’…
the last good run in the CL was in 07/08 season and then Wenger decided to fuck this all up…
Where you want the money invested is nothing to do with this conversation. We all know what you regard as the clubs failures since you list them in the comments section of every single post every day. As you know, I agree with many of them. But that’s not what we’re talking about. We’re talking about whether the club missing out on £millions of income is a good thing.
And nah mate, what you’re describing is us nearly going through against the best club in the world despite being unfairly down to 10 men…Call it disappointing by all means, but embarrassing it most certainly wasn’t. (And each result they had in the CL from then has only strengthened my argument here)
And there was plenty of bait. I’d love just once to have a conversation with you that didn’t involve your constant sarcastic tone. Just because we have different views on a football club doesn’t mean you have to act like a tosser ALL the time! Not only is it patronising, it just gets boring after a while. It’s ironic that you often used to criticise me for something that is your clearly your default setting!
albo,
no mate, there was no bait, I just thought I would stop short of saying that if I was interested in ‘taking part’, I would watch a certain other kind of sport broadcast instead, as we should maintain some level on here
thought I would allow you to figure this out for yourself…
and you seem to have misunderstood me here: I am not saying that the club missing millions of income is a good thing, but what good is it if it is not invested like it should?
I am with Geoff on this one, this club’s future will not be so swell if we don’t win jack shit, Dein was right all along, if you saw that video, you would understand who he had to work with and who was running (or is it ‘ruining’) this club in his absence, allowing AW to get away with keeping shitcunts like Diaby and D*******n around…
and yes, pisstaking is my default setting, but never patronising, the latter is reserved for special occasions
really off now…
May the DooM™ be with you
ok, im going all out here. what the heck is wrong with the management? i am tired of hearing the same BS over and over and over again. im a big fan of what wenger has done for the club, but if he doesnt make the right investments this summer, thats it for me. someone please tell him that even if one wants to be financially sound, its ok to take a loss for a year if it makes for higher profits in the future.
6 years – 6 years of hurt! i know we were rebuilding, but shouldnt that process be over by now? what major club hasnt won a trophy for 6 years straight in the last 20 odd years?
now this is just ranting, but well, i say sell denilson, rosicky, bendtner, eboue, and almunia. bring in gameiro, melo, vertonghen, bartley (recall), hazard, goetze. borrow some money if you have to, but for goodness sake, get rid of the crap and get some quality in. if cesc leaves, replace him with a big name, and i mean big. like kaka. or gourcuff. baines for clichy would be a good swap too if it must happen.
and yes, pisstaking is my default setting, but never patronising, the latter is reserved for special occasions
—————————————————
Haha. Fair enough.
Arsenal will sign Gameiro, M’Vila, and finish 3rd again. That’s the Wanker…. ahem, Wenger way.
Premiership Managers Performance Table 2010/11 (current managers only)
1 – Alex Ferguson
2 – Kenny Dalglish
3 – David Moyes
4 – Carlo Ancelotti
5 – Tony Pulis
6 – Owen Coyle
7 – Alex McLeish
8 – Roberto Mancini
9 – Arsene Wenger
10 – Harry Redknapp
11 – Roy Hodgson (WBA Version)
12 – Steve Bruce
13 – Alan Pardew
14 – Mark Hughes
15 – Mick McCarthy
16 – Ian Holloway
17 – Steve Kean
18 – Roberto Martinez
19 – Gereard Houllier
20 – Avram Grant
Nutsacks.
Another year I promise myself I won’t get glued to Newsnow for transfer gossip, and I dind I am addicted to Newsnow for transfer gossip.
for anyone interested, we almost signed Alex Ferguson as manager back in the day, we might sign Kaka (haha), Vertonghen is in the bag, Oxley-Vibo is coming and the Spuds lost again.
is oxford-trampoline coming to arsenal next season?
have we got benzema yet?
no ikon
the club decided it is inappropriate to sign him as it will kill gilles sunu
Just like Chamakh killed Bendtner….
we’ll sing this kid
http://www.givemefootball.com/premier-league/arsenal-plan-free-swoop-for-spanish-starlet
kush
bendtner didn’t need chamakh to come and “kill” him, he was doing it all by himself already
And so to all of you who want Wenger out , WHO would you want to take his place and based on WHAT ? and once you give me a name tell me this, would he/she want to come to AFC ? Would we afford him ? Is he available NOW ?
Signing players per se does not guarantee you success, look at Man City, Chelsea , Real Madrid….need I go on ? How much more have they spent than Arsenal ? Last but not least yes I agree we need reinforcements and also clear a few dead woods in the team. The future is bright fellow gunners.
If Arsenal finish fourth this season,it really shows Wenger has lost the plot.A dodgy gk,leaky defence and
conceding goals from set pieces with regular clockwork like an Emperor changing his sex partners from his harem have been troubling the gunners the last six years.Surely a manager of his stature should have addressed them much,much earlier.
The problem is his undying faith in his project y. we all know the kids had been blown to pieces since Euardo’s injury.
If Wenger continues to invest in kids,it shows his one eyed vision. Frankly these should be wake up calls but our Fm believes in his vision .
I am afraid his intransigence is costing the gunners dearly. If he doesn’t get the monsters the defence requires,it shows the stubborn trait in him.The epl is full of monster thugs. Against a ballet type player 175cm,the outcome is obvious.
farkin 2-0 to Villa. gay bastards!
D Bent is good enough for Arsenal. Droga unsettled at Cheksea. R Green J Hart?
What about good defenders? Who I wonder
They are making too much over E Hazard. He’s 5’7. Too small. He should be chased around a bedroom in a sailor suit by Max Mosley
Delap and Shawcross. Yes
we are told Wenger is not to go to France for players, yet that is all we are reading