a rosetinter's letter to wenger

[brazilianGOONER]

i don't really have much to do on this infernal hot night in porto alegre, so i decided to create this hypotetical letter to our boss, arsène fucking wenger:

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a rosetinter's letter to arsene wenger

mr wenger,

for 13 years now i support our wonderful club, meaning you are the only manager i ever saw at the arsenal. i consider myself a lucky guy, for since i started watching this team you've lead us to two doubles, an unbeaten league title, a champions league final and a few cups as dessert. all that with brilliant teams that play the most wonderful football to be seen, it must be said. you, sir, turned a big english team into an european force, that is always on the champions league and usually goes as far as semi or quarter finals. thanks to you, we have a wonderful stadium and an exemplar training ground. you turned us into a role model for football management, and our future seems as bright as it could. you surprised us when you arrived, and never stopped surprising us (the signing of vermaelen shutting the mouth of those who thought you couldn't sign a proper central defender).

however, sir, something has happened a couple of years back and i don't understand what it is. i'm not talking about the lack of trophies, that is just a consequence. i understand that with the emirates stadium and it's debts you have been having your hands a little tied behind your back when it comes to money. you accepted that and said it was possible to keep our quality, without signing expensive players every season, and i do agree with you! we have quality players that were signed when just youngsters, and other brilliant players like vermaelen who were bought at reasonable prices considering their quality. what i do not understand, sir, is why a man like manuel almunia is first choice keeper at the club.

please understand that i have nothing against the person almunia. he seems a decent lad, who works hard and gets frustrated when he has a bad match. he seems like he cares about the club. but you sir, more than anyone, knows that it is not enough. and almunia clearly is not technically or mentally good enough to be arsenal's first choice keeper. he showed that since he first arrived at the club, i really do not understand why is he still here, and specially as first choice! my mother, you see, the poor woman does not understand football. she does not understand the offside rule or why the guy dressed in black never receives the ball. and still, in our recent game against united, she yelled "i could do better goalkeeping than this poor fella!" after nani's goal (or was it almunia's own goal?). sir, if my mother sees it, how on earth can't you?

another transfer window went by, and we haven't signed a striker (not that i wanted one, i believe that eduardo can show his quality once again and i believe in bendtner's future) nor any other player than sol campbell. i would have liked to see a decent cover for song, since denilson is having some VERY poor matches this season, but i accept that you haven't signed that defensive midfielder as well. the problem sir, the biggest problem, is that almunia keeps being our goalkeeper and so we keep losing points every single season, because of him. how can you sir, a football genius, my hero, the great and only arsène wenger, not see the frailties of that poor spaniard and how much important david seaman and jens lehmann were to our winning teams? have you ever seen a team conquer its opponents and win loads of titles with a goalkeeper as poor as almunia?

sir, you are my hero. i want you to manage arsenal for the next 20 years. but i do hope you haven't lost it.

thank you for everything, and i hope you keep bringing me joy and happiness,

your big fan,

rodrigo feijó

[brazilianGOONER]

ahhh... now i feel better.

[brazilianGOONER]

oh, and mr wenger, if you don't buy a new keeper for next season, i'll put you on fwank's thread.

now i'm done.

[mrgnu1958]

brazz"y..i cant be arsed to read any of that coz im really pissed and i dont think that anything constructive will come outta me mouth for thw next 24 hours.

well done anyway.

[brazilianGOONER]

brazz"y..i cant be arsed to read any of that coz im really pissed and i dont think that anything constructive will come outta me mouth for thw next 24 hours.

well done anyway.

that's a compliment, gnuey, thank you!!

[northbankbren]

Discuss.......An awful lot live in a dream world. The official line will always be (and must be) "we will challenge", and lets be honest we are always in with a chance but in recent years just seem to lack that something when it matters.

But it seems everyone forgets that we have moved into a big new stadium that has to be payed off, so we live on a budget. And we still finish top 4 every year. And this year it seems were capable of better.

All the shit about having money to spend is bollocks, were on a tight budget and rightfully so, go we want to got the same way as man usa, scouse usa, leeds, pompey doa?

Its the quick buzz syndrome that sky tv has poisoned football with, we all expect too much.

A Club is for life.......and remember the current regime is going to leave us is better shape than we've ever been before.

This will be Arsenal's Decade.

[REB]

nice letter bg but as you said you have only know wenger as manager, my time as a gooner i have seen 7 managers i think

give it a few years buddy and when you have seen enough shite on the pitch and 7 managers i would like to see how much of the rosetinter is left in you

[franksav63]

Nice letter B.G., (are you going to send it to him) Don't forget the capitlisation at the beginning of your sentences...

So 8/10.... Good effort.

[SPUDMASHER]

Discuss.......An awful lot live in a dream world. The official line will always be (and must be) "we will challenge", and lets be honest we are always in with a chance but in recent years just seem to lack that something when it matters.

But it seems everyone forgets that we have moved into a big new stadium that has to be payed off, so we live on a budget. And we still finish top 4 every year. And this year it seems were capable of better.

All the shit about having money to spend is bollocks, were on a tight budget and rightfully so, go we want to got the same way as man usa, scouse usa, leeds, pompey doa?

Its the quick buzz syndrome that sky tv has poisoned football with, we all expect too much.

A Club is for life.......and remember the current regime is going to leave us is better shape than we've ever been before.

This will be Arsenal's Decade.

The problem being that the part I highlighted in bold is incorrect. The way our finances are structured assures that an amount of money is made available to the manager for team building. It was written in deliberately to allow us to continue to compete. The fact that we haven't spent any of the £30+million that we have is one mans decision. Nothing more!

[skipper]

discuss...

I would like to know in what way exactly are we "european force"? We won fcuk all in Europe during Wenger era, and if we are "european force" so is Lyon and Bayer Leverkusen...and what that makes Porto then, considering they won the bloody thing?

Also this talk of club being in "better finical shape then ever before" once debt is paid off is somewhat misleading I believe. While I have no doubt that people running club will be richer than ever, what guarantees are there that after 10 -15 years of spending fcuk all, club will suddenly decide to go and spend big? I doubt it very much.

And yes, the CLUB is for LIFE, but that's where it stops.

[OneBardGooner]

Good Letter BG......well done!, there are sooooo many Gooners who criticise and moan and whinge about what is or is not taking place at Arsenal, but rarely actually DO SOMETHING (like write a letter or get involved in Red Action or whatever), and just sit on their backsides doing Sweet FA...so you are sir to be complimented.

I wrote a similar letter (about Almunia and Ebuoe - the latter was at the peak of his Drama Queen antics - just prior to when he got booed and subbed etc) explaining that indeed I am a Loyal, Caring, Passionate Gooner, who although valuing his brilliance and cherishing the great joy he has brought me and countless other Gooners, that he needed to look at the Goalkeeping Position - as Almunia (though seeming like a nice lad) was simply "Not Good Enough", I even went further and suggested he invest in Shay Given (who was still at a quickly declining Newcastle Utd) probably the best G'K in the Prem, also that he have one of the elder statesmen of Arsenal FC - teach Eboue that he is bringing shame on the club, fans and shirt with his hystrionics....

I actually got a reply!!! Not from the great man (AW) himself, but from 'one' of his secretaries (I believe he has four! )

Explaining that AW is a very busy man - and cannot respond to all letters and communiques received, but that my 'concerns and comments' would be passed onto him.

So it's worth a try, mind you, Almunia is still at the club as is Eboue , who though a tad less dramatic in his outings, is still prone to the odd 'slip' (cough! cough! ).

As long as the letter doesn't include insults, oscenities etc and is argued in a polite manner, there's no reason why AW might not get to hear/read of what it is you are saying!

(I have a copy of the letter somewhere on a flashstick, I'll see if I can find it)...

Maybe if EVERYONE on OnlineGooner did something similar......AW might (yeah I know it's highly unlikely buttttttt you never know), just might Wake Up!

[hatemanu99]

Discuss.......An awful lot live in a dream world. The official line will always be (and must be) "we will challenge", and lets be honest we are always in with a chance but in recent years just seem to lack that something when it matters.

But it seems everyone forgets that we have moved into a big new stadium that has to be payed off, so we live on a budget. And we still finish top 4 every year. And this year it seems were capable of better.

All the shit about having money to spend is bollocks, were on a tight budget and rightfully so, go we want to got the same way as man usa, scouse usa, leeds, pompey doa?

Its the quick buzz syndrome that sky tv has poisoned football with, we all expect too much.

A Club is for life.......and remember the current regime is going to leave us is better shape than we've ever been before.

This will be Arsenal's Decade.

Mate you have written some total bollocks on here before but this post is spot on. I'm as annoyed as anyone about the lack of spend, but all the others could have strengthened massively in January, but didn't. All this chat of £35m to spend is based on the accounts. The accounts can effectively paint any picture it wants. The fact is we are still in debt to the tune of £250m+. It hurts right now but I believe our future is secure.

What I absolutely don't understand though is why a lot of money is being spent on keeping distinctly average players at the club.

[Percy Dalton]

I will answer that.

It may seem a lot of money to mere mortals like us but in the crazy world of football the money we spend on wages is relatively low if you compare us to our rivals.

The average players are infact a cheap option and that is a fact.

[SPUDMASHER]

I will answer that.

It may seem a lot of money to mere mortals like us but in the crazy world of football the money we spend on wages is relatively low if you compare us to our rivals.

The average players are infact a cheap option and that is a fact.

Not true mate. Our wage bill is only £2m a year lower than Manure.
We're the 3rd highest wage bill in the prem. Our problem is that we are paying all our players a similar wage (excluding one or two stars). Even the likes of Eboue are on £50k a week. Hardly what you would call a cheap option.

[Percy Dalton]

I think there is discrepancies though in how wage figures are shown.

I have been told before, but it may well be bullshit, that Man Yoo only show the figures for genuine first tema players and all other wages are put against their academy or something along those lines. At Arsenal however they lump all the playing staff in as one.

I think there may be some truth in this as there is no way our wage bill is just short of Man Yoo's. None of our current squad are on anywhere near what the likes of Rooney and Ferdiand are on and remember that Ronaldo was included in last years figures.

The top earner at Arsenal must be Cesc now with Theo and Gallas close behind but they are all £30-40k a week shorter than Utd's top players.