Thought this was worth posting again. In depth interview with 'our man on the subs bench' David Dein http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14588552.stm
It's all well and good backing Wenger, but when he's leading the club on a slippery slope towards mediocrity, only a fool would stay on board, and voice their suport. My patience with Wenger is running low, i acknowledge he has done great things for this club, but his stubborness is becoming his undoing.
If this isn't akin to brainwashing the masses Piskie. Why not post reports of past match successes too? You could do it on a year by year basis. That would get you quite a few threads. Best to leave out most of these past 12 months I think.
I turned it off after 3 mins .... "Under Arsene Wenger .. we have known good times and very good times" Yeah .. and we have known mediocre times and crap times too numnutz - and there is no reason to believe the mediocre and crap times won't remain ! Do you see what I did there ?
Personally I think it shows a bit of perspective from someone who knows Arsenal and Arsene better than anyone of us on here.
Yes I know Piskie but that was an interview back in August before our second bad spell under the current manager and board. Since then we have had a third, the current one. In all three of these lowest points over the course of 14 months Arsene showed something he had AFAIK never demonstrated before - the inability to influence the team. I really think that were SAF to find himself in a similar situation, he would have done the honourable thing and said perhaps he was no longer the man for the job. ( NB - I don't like SAF ) You may recall that we had a not too dissimilar discussion back at the start of October and you asked that perhaps I should reserve judgment ( for want of a better expression ) till the end of that month. Well, I don't see a 4th place under these circumstances and if we do nothing this month, we probably won't have RvP this time next year nor any hope of bringing in players to get us out of the tight spot. We'd probably still be left with a bunch of deadwood no one else wants too. Arsenal have been sliding away from the front rank of English football over the past 5 to 6 years. Flashes of brilliance are not enough because they do not occur with sufficient frequency. I don't think the squad has been weaker than any other time during Arsene's reign. Yes we have injuries but we always have injuries and always are affected by them. This is because we do not have depth in the squad, decent depth and yet no purchase is on the horizon. Watching old videos won't change anything. Can you honestly say you are comfortable with this?
No it doesn't. Jeffrey Dahmer's mum said he was a nice boy !!! Dein's interview doesn't show a damned thing. I suppose in Dein's eyes the last 7 years haven't taken place
i think it shows his love for the club, and how he'd love to be back working there. the fans would love to have him back, wenger would love to have him back - their partnership was very successful previously. the issue is does he get on with both Kroenke and Usmanov? or did he burn his bridges with Kroenke when he backed Usmanov, and burn his bridges with Usmanov when he left him?
The same Alex Ferguson who went 4 years without winning a trophy when he first arrived at united and had the fans on his back? No offence meant but it seems at the moment you will use anything as a stick to beat Wenger and the board with. Why have you become so negative?
We've had a year of the most lacklustre performance and our manager appearing unable to do anything to motivate the players. For most of six of the past seven years I had been defending Wenger to the hilt because I held out hope. Turns out to be pretty false and the way this past year has gone I see nothing on the horizon that gives one hope for joy. It's not a negative to want more for one's club. What we have now is not positive, is it? Either the board will not release the funds to get us back up again or the negotiating team holds back in talks with prospective players or Wenger won't spend it. Whatever it is ( or combination of ), it clearly isn't enough about which to be happy or comfortable.
No I completely get the anger at the club but it seems like you will use any scrap of information that is connected to arsenal and some how turn it negative. That isn't expressing disappointment at how we are being run, that is just being defeatist. At worst I find our situation extremely frustrating, however I don't feel like its the end of the world, we are not facing financial implosion or getting close to being relegated. We still have an exciting tie against AC Milan to look forward too and although I personally don't think we will get 4th place it is possible. I am not asking for 100% support or anything, just can you try to not be so down on everything about the club?
What Jayram said Robin and while you may have directed your posts at mine, it is not just I who feel it is high time for a major change. Our manager seems powerless to reverse the style of play that has seen us drop points and fail to capitalise when the opportunities present themselves for us to get ahead of our rivals. Twice now in recent weeks we have had chances to pull ahead of Liverpool and Chelsea and close in on Spurs. However our results have been woeful. It is almost as though we lose matches or draw them in sympathy with our rivals!! I wonder if our CL or Heaven forbid EPL tenure depended on it, would we have lost the last two matches? Perhaps the fault may not entirely be Wenger's. We are not told everything and there have been rumours in the past, one of which appeared early this season that the club felt the need to deny. Whatever are those underlying reasons behind the club's slide from competitiveness, the felling that we have fallen behind is widely-shared.
Well I understand what both of you are saying (and I thought the article in the independent was very good RVB) but I still think it can get a bit too negative on here for my liking.
Robin I believe it is important to think positively and like all of us, I go into each match believing we will win or find a way to win. However there are realities we cannot overlook. These refer to the shortcomings within our team and club and the quicker these are addressed, the sooner we will be able to move forward. If there had been a sustained glimmer of hope beyond beating a bunch of middle-ranked clubs that would be cause for hope. As it is, since we struggle against these clubs how likely are we to outgun the top ones? On the pitch,, the entire team has to man up. They need also to cover each other. On the management front, there has to be an approach which gives priority to our sporting ambitions.
Robin - that example doesn't even come close to being accurate. Man U hadn't won anything bar the odd cup for over 20 years so its not like Arsenal where Wenger has done 3 leagues, 2 doubles and numerous FA Cups ..... and then nothing. It was 3 years before SAF won a trophy, do you really think Fergie would still be in charge if 6 years went by after all he has won with them and they hadn't won a trophy and the team had gotten progressively worse ?
OK Robin, you tell me, what is there for me, an Arsenal fan, to be happy about ? what is good about the club ? You say don't be so down on it, you say we are defeatist, I struggle to see what I should be excited about ? Rising ticket prices, falling quality of players, rising wage bill, opponents getting better, us getting worse, Dinosaur board, stubborn manager, high probability of losing best player, injury prone squad, loss of atmosphere at ground, watching our developing kids leave - this is what I see. Let me guess ... you will say, we play the best football (yeah right), we don't have crippling debt, we will qualify for FFP, we have some good home grown talent (who will leave to win trophies), we have great history (yawn). I can't think of anything else. To counter any money/debt arguments I will say, the last time I knew, Arsenal were a football club not a FTSE100 company ! Taking your example, I may have a crap job, a crap house, a minging wife, but I guess I am alive so I shouldn't be depressed or miserable. I have all 4 limbs so I should be happy. Life doesn't work like that.
Hothead - I think you explained rather nicely what has taken place since AFC opened Pandora's box. Sadly so many supporters are content with what was left. (look it up for those with no classics education).
So which clubs would you be laughing at then ? Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Newcastle, Aston Villa ? They've all changed their managers, spent bucket loads of cash and other than the extravagance of Chelsea, how many of those clubs have been successful ? You do realise that Dutch Elm is a disease and not a cheese, don't you ?
