This is following on from cb's brilliant article that highlighted where Hill-Wood is basically protecting his own (and his friends) interests above those of the club (and has no qualms about doing business with 'murky' Russian business men, just not those that threaten his position) I think it's about time fans started putting some pressure on the Hill-Wood to step down and also to campaign to bring back David Dein onto the board, the one person who actually knew how football worked. I'm not going to go over cbs article again http://www.not606.com/showthread.php/146927-Interesting-article-regarding-our-board, it's on the forum to read - if you haven't yet I'd recommend you do, because basically our chairman is a self serving hypocrite who doesn't seem to have success for our team at the top of his priorities. He also ousted Dein and ruined one of the best working partnership's in football - Dein/Wenger and replaced people with genuine football interests with silent businessmen that can't even be bothered to communicate with the fans about their motives. It's no coincidence that since Hill-Wood fired Dein, we've won **** all, sold our best players and not replaced them. It's my opinion that Wenger (whilst not perfect) has done brilliantly to keep us in the top 4, whilst the board have dismantled the team around him. But it makes me wonder if he will eventually grow tired of them selling his best players, not giving him adequate funds to replace them and will eventually call it a day. If he does, and we're left with PHW in charge, then I think that's when we'll really start to fall away.
If Wenger does indeed resign, maybe at least then we'll hear just what the hell has been going on behind the scenes since DD left
I think it will all come out one day. But I want to see Wenger given the support he deserves from the board- and that means spending some ****ing money instead of walking away from it all because he's exasperated at them selling his best players.
I agree with this but I honestly dont see silent Stan forking out money to buy players and I would therefore like to see Usmanov on the board and being a more important figure for our team, he has already stated that he would provide funding to strenghten our squad which is exactly what we would need at this time
Exactly. I want to see Wenger given proper funds and see what he can do. What would be the point of building the club up to a healthy state and not benefit from it? It wouldn't be fair would it. But even if he went, there would be no guarantee that the next manager would get the available funds, as it's the board at fault.
Exactly, and this is why I'm not one calling for Wenger out. Anyone who came in would have the same set of parameters to work with i.e. **** all. For everything Wenger has done for our club, it's a bloody disgrace that he's given a pauper's budget to try and build a title winning team. Then when he gets close to one, the board go and sell of the best players that he's bought.
Wenger is at fault to a certain extent because he should push the board to provide him with more funding and I don’t think he has fought hard enough to keep key players be it his naivety or his fear of the board is un clear however he has the fans backing and should therefore make demands on the board. I bet Fergie wouldn’t let the board dictate everything to him. Take the appointment of gazidis for example, it has been stated that Wenger did not want him however he was still appointed despite this.
I think the point is that in the heirarchy of of the club, Wenger comes below the board and is therefore subject to their decisions. I think what would have been different though is that the players that were sold, might not have been had Wenger's right hand man David Dein still been on the board. IN fact Hill-Wood almost brought the whole house down when he sacked Dein, as Wenger was about to resign in protest. Arsene Wenger described David Dein’s departure “as a sad day for the club”. Following his departure, Wenger was believed to have asked Dein whether he wished him to resign from the post of manager in support for his friend. Dein told Wenger that he should not leave Arsenal as the club would suffer greatly from his loss as manager if he decided to leave. ​http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Dein
I agree which is exactly why we need Dein, he dealt with all the politics behind the scene leaving Wenger to focus on the football, I believe that he was very effective at this, I can’t say the same for gazidis who I think is a puppet for the board and I doubt he would back Wenger with any disagreements and I don’t think Wenger trusts him like he did with Dein. Hill-Wood needs to leave, his mistakes have cost the club and he should own up to it.
When you look back, it was Dein who was responsible for dragging not only our club, but the whole of English football out of the doldrums and into what is now the best league in the world. It was Dein who brought Ian Wright to Arsenal and it was Dein who brought Dennis Bergkamp to Arsenal. It was also Dein who, against the cries of 'who?' and 'He will be a flop' brought Arsene Wenger to Arsenal and started the revolution of our club. a quick glance back over some of Dein's signings says it all: Wright, Bergkamp, Vieria, Overmars, Petit, Pires, Henry, Ljungberg, Campbell, Gilberto, Clichy, Toure, Fabregas, Flamini, Van Persie and since he was fired - I can't name one world class player.
I made a very similar point in another thread, people say silent Stan isn't here for the money - he is not taking a dividend, so what ?! If he is not here for money why did he invest so much money to buy Arsenal ? He is s business man, of course he is here to take money and he will get it one way or another. He will either take his share of money from the pot when he sells the club or he will make a shed load on his shares. Either way him buying the club was BAD for Arsenal because: He is not an Arsenal fan. He has not invested any money in the squad. He doesn't come to watch us play. And the key point is, he has prevented others from buying Arsenal and allowing us to progress !!!! Under Silent Stan we have gone backwards, he needs to go, PHW need to go. Kronke OUT ! PHW OUT !
I'd like to give Kronke a chance to tell us what his motives are and how his stewardship of our club will help us to get back to winning ways. If he can't - then he and PHW should be shown the door.
Bloody good read that article. It goes some way to explain why we haven't shown serious ambition for some time. It makes sense: why would they want investment in the team when they're all laughing all the way to the bank? The reason why we were frugal during the move to the Emirates wasn't 'sustainability to keep us competitive in the long term', it was so the move wouldn't impact on their profits! If we dropped out of the Champion's League spots the uproar would be difficult to ignore but as long as we keep scraping through they can keep exploiting the hope of Arsenal fans that things will get better in the future to line their pockets. Absolutely disgraceful.
Thing is, no matter how likely this sounds, it's speculation. When in the last few years has Wenger complained he has a small budget? You see it all the time with managers of other clubs, why doesn't he even hint at it[1]. If there was a directive to downplay the severity of our small budget, why is Wenger so complicit in it? If it is for personal reasons doesn't that only make it worse? Why is it hard to believe that Wenger has never made a proper case to them that we really need investment in world class players? Why is it hard to believe that he goes there every season saying: "vee veeel be fine wif one or two more quality signings, ze squad have matured"? [1] Besides the "wage structure" thing which is mostly for existing players, and there are exceptions to it.
That's why getting top 4 has been indirectly bad for us as they've used it to keep us quiet. They say getting top 4 is essential to get players in, but who have we really bought, hardly anyone and we've been getting top 4 every sodding year. It's soley down to what Wenger has done for the club that attracts players to us. Even if we didnt get top 4 this year, players would still be willing to come to play for Wenger and Arsenal football club!
Nothing, that is not my point. I think Wenger is still the right man for us, but he is complicit in every direction the club takes. If he really is troubled by the lack of spending he should have pressured the board more. I don't get the impression that he is troubled by the lack of 'world-class' signings.
I don't think Wenger is the type of manager to come out and publicly criticise his employers though. But, he has shown that he disagrees with them in the past, over the Nasri saga. Also he offered to resign when the board sacked Dein, it was only because Dein asked him not to as it would harm Arsenal.
As an example, for most parts of this season almost everyone in this board conceded that Spurs might have had a stronger squad this season. Sure we came out on top, but they could have easily got 3rd. Despite that, after the season ended their manager publicly asked for higher spending to 'keep up'. Has Wenger done that? In fact when has Wenger ever alluded to the fact that he isn't given enough to compete? I'm just saying, Wenger has to be in full agreement with the direction the club is taking for him to be so agreeable all the time. No point in making him a victim in all of this.
