Hello to everybody on here. I've been reading the forum since around 2009/10 and registered in 2011, but have resisted the urge to post, simply because I can't afford the time to get that involved and I fear that once I start, I'll risk becoming a regular ! I've been a supporter of the Arsenal from earliest memory, zero choice, because it's a family thing, so indoctrinated from birth by my Dad and older brother ! First game was a 3-0 home win against Forest in 1967 (yep, no spring chicken I'm afraid). Season ticket holder since Highbury days, but have rented it out for the last three years, vowing not to return until the French Fraud has gone....so I don't expect to set foot in the place for at least another two or three years. I really hope I'm wrong and he goes at the end of our current groundhog season, but I just can't see it. I struggle with the fact that I rent my ticket out, because I have a lot of sympathy with the view that only by stopping giving the thieving bastards money (because I am, of course, still doing that, indirectly or otherwise) will we force change and see Wenger and then Slippery Stan out of the Club.
Suffice to say that this forum is the only aspect of being a Gooner that I now derive any pleasure from. I started to doubt Wenger as early as 2005/6 and I still maintain that the demise began with the shipping out of Vieira in Summer 2005. For me, that signaled the beginning of Wenger's lunacy and was the key position and player that we have never come remotely close to replacing. While we failed to replace the quality of Bergkamp, Henry, Pires, Campbell etc, the loss of the colossus that was Paddy, proved to be the removal of the keystone that led to the collapse of everything. By 2007, I was screaming for Wenger to go, including a couple of calls to Talksport, one of which was well received (Stan Collymore and Danny Kelly), the other where the presenters (Jason Cundy....yeah, I know...and someone else) thought I'd lost the plot. Spent years arguing with fellow Gooners about the Wenger out issue (it often became quite nasty), but only in the last couple of years have more and more people seen the light. My sanity isn't questioned anymore.
Lest I be accused of posting a vanity entry (and DB10 starts to "bully" me like he did the new guy a couple of weeks ago
), I'll spare you all my heartfelt grievances, because you've all said it a million times and this place has probably saved my sanity. I've come to despise not only the manager, but the whole Club and like many have said on here, I'll never forgive the regime for driving me to that. Non football people simply can't understand how a feeling for a football club runs so deep, as to become a very part of your being, your identity, who you are. To be driven to the point where wins mean nothing, losses don't sting and, to be honest, you are wanting the team to lose in the vain hope of forcing change, is truly horrible. As I've said, non footballing people would make accusations of melodrama, or even stupidity, but unless one has the emotional and psychological tie to a club, it's beyond understanding.
I've decided to post, because for the first time ever, I sense that Wenger is on the ropes. Sure, the Club will get the PR machine humming, the propaganda will flow and they'll call in plenty of favours from their friends in the media, but I have a distinct sense that the die might be caste. I fully expect him to renew his contract, but it will be met with far less joy amongst the fanbase and this gradual, terminal decline won't be arrested. No matter what Wenger does, or tries to do now, pulling out of this tailspin is way beyond his capabilities. If it's another two years, as suggested, then it will be two years of hell for the club. The end is in sight, even if some way off. Of course, it may be that I'm as delusional as the Old Fraud !!
Apologies for the essay, but as I feared, once I started, I couldn't stop. Anyway, don't worry, there's lots more.
) to say that Sanchez is "flawed" and we should get rid. It's amazing how far they'll go to protect the Dear Leader's reputation.
