THE WENGER THREAD

[Gunner Rob]

Yes there are big problems ahead still with Kroenke (I posted on here I think it was 5 years ago now how I thought he was the biggest problem at the club) however what I find encouraging this week is that the fanbase is slowly coming back together again. 78% of the AST wanting Wenger gone is significant and does show that a lot more have now all woken from their colllective sleep.

The club should finally be worried - one look at the ticket exchange indicates that the tourists are also stepping back from snapping up tickets, things are starting to really change I think.

[EastupperA]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 60026.html

The press are genuinely turning but without outright aggression yet.

[augie]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 60026.html

The press are genuinely turning but without outright aggression yet.

I know that article should depress me cos it is a very true reflection on life as a Gooner these days, but at the same time I couldn't help but laugh when reading it

[Pete on the beach]

Hi guys

Sorry I haven't been on here much to post lately, very busy and what Arsenal related time I have had has been largely given over to helping the boys organise the protest activities, the next of which you will see tomorrow. Also trying to drive support over on the gleiber forum, which - as many of you know - has been a forum dwelling of mine for many years (16 or so) although less so these days

Anyway thanks to DB for setting up the petition thread separately on another page, so please head over and sign it if you haven't already done so ( and post a quick comment on the thread to say you have as this will encourage more traffic and is good PR) .

Also despite the petition steadily climbing to over 2000 in just over two days, we need to get the numbers up a fair bit before we can start using its existence as a pressure point on the club and Wenger ( or trying to at least) so please do share far and wide amongst your Arsenal related network . Even on non football fans that you know, you could always try the "do it as a favour for me" angle or if their politicos " give a faceless corporate monster a bloody nose" , or even for animal lovers "do it for Alexis's dogs", in the case of the latter there may well be a dog element coming up in a future protest too

Anyway drive the numbers up boys and I hope to see many of you on Drayton park tomorrow

[Midz]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 60026.html

The press are genuinely turning but without outright aggression yet.

I know that article should depress me cos it is a very true reflection on life as a Gooner these days, but at the same time I couldn't help but laugh when reading it

An amusing take on what will most likely be our next season.

[Dudeface]

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... ews-gossip



































Bloody April fools

[SteveO 35]

Still agree with SteveO and Sk-gtfo, when Wenger goes there is no need for the Wiggy *word censored* to implement the wholesale changes required by the club to improve things.

The loss of CL money mean very little with the massive increase in TV money and there is no way that a Director of Football and Technical Director with any power will be appointed to the board because it would mean Stan losing some of the power at the club and it would mean him having to spend money he doesn't need to.

I'm all for getting rid of Wenger, it is absolutely necessary but it will be a phyrric victory whilst Stan retains the controlling interest in the club, i honestly can't see him employing anything other than yes men to replace AW and i think it will be a long hard slog getting our club back to anything resembling a competitive one again. I fully expect at least two to three years minimum in the wilderness before things really begin to change, i dearly hope i'm wrong but i just can't see it

The perfect time I think to remind ourselves of the fabulously successful franchises within the Kroenke Sports Enterprises portfolio:

Denver Nuggets - 9th out of 16 NBA Western Conference
Colorado Avalanche - bottom of the Central Division, NHL Western Conference
Colorado Rapids - 7th out of 11, MLS Western Conference
Colorado Mammoth - 2nd out of 4. NLL Western Division (whoop dee-doop.......he's got a top half lacrosse team)
LA Rams - finished 3rd from 4, NFC West NFL......group record Won 4 Lost 12

Lucky old us eh........because of course once Wenger leaves this owner we are truly blessed to have will buck the trend of all his other franchises over the past decade or more and turn Arsenal into an elite force

[General]

What I cant just stomach, if how he talks like he has all the solutions and answers, and portrays himself as a man in the know and in control.

The reality is, he doesn't know whats going on, nor even how to fix it, and he has no control of the team, players, results, fans.....nothing.

He's either too arrogant to not recognise the destabilising effect his actions are having on the team or is too stubborn to change course. Either way he's not digging himself out of a hole this time.


http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39458333

Brave woman. The secret society won't like this.

She's probably handing over her pass as I type.

[General]

Fish and chips short interview

https://mobile.twitter.com/thepagooner/ ... 41/video/1

[SteveO 35]

What I cant just stomach, if how he talks like he has all the solutions and answers, and portrays himself as a man in the know and in control.

The reality is, he doesn't know whats going on, nor even how to fix it, and he has no control of the team, players, results, fans.....nothing.

He's either too arrogant to not recognise the destabilising effect his actions are having on the team or is too stubborn to change course. Either way he's not digging himself out of a hole this time.


http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39458333

Brave woman. The secret society won't like this.

She's probably handing over her pass as I type.

Yep, they've run regular pieces on her on Arsenal.com for some time, but I suspect she will be struck off the list along with the likes of Stewart Robson. Can't have an adverse word about old Goonchops now can we ?

[Leyton Gooner]

What I cant just stomach, if how he talks like he has all the solutions and answers, and portrays himself as a man in the know and in control.

The reality is, he doesn't know whats going on, nor even how to fix it, and he has no control of the team, players, results, fans.....nothing.

He's either too arrogant to not recognise the destabilising effect his actions are having on the team or is too stubborn to change course. Either way he's not digging himself out of a hole this time.


http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39458333

Brave woman. The secret society won't like this.

She's probably handing over her pass as I type.

At the end of that report, another rival manager who wants him to stay I see. Southampton FFS. And why wouldn't he with the chance of another free pass in the League Cup and a home banker in the league at stake?

[GranadaJoe]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 60026.html

The press are genuinely turning but without outright aggression yet.

Ridicule can be more powerful than aggression. A funny, truthful article.

[OneBardGooner]

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 60026.html

The press are genuinely turning but without outright aggression yet.

It's like reading an article where I have told them what to print.

What's weird is that not only is it true - but that I can actually imagine wenger reading that over his morning coffee & croissants and nodding - Not just because it bears a remarkable likeness to the past 10 seasons (which in his mind have been successful) but because in his de-ranged mind he would see that not only as some kind of affirmation of his abilities as a manager, but see it as being another Successful season.


"It is August, the opening day of the season. Arsène Wenger is still the manager of Arsenal having signed a one-year contract extension and the mood around the Emirates is unusually positive.
Yes, Alexis Sanchez has left for Juventus and the only fit centre-halves are Per Mertesacker and an 18-year-old summer signing from Peterborough United, but the late surge at the end of last season that sealed a top-four finish means there is cause for optimism.
The spirit is best summed up by ArsenalFanTV’s Ty, who, once again, honestly sees no reason why they cannot win the quadruple. Unfortunately, this Pollyannaish mood is punctured when Scott Dann’s thundering header puts Crystal Palace in front on the cusp of half-time. Once Jason Puncheon’s 87th-minute scuffed strike ensures all three points will be heading south of the river, the Emirates returns to its natural state of acrimony.

September – October
Once the transfer window is out of the way, Arsenal’s form begins to slowly pick up and they claim routine wins over some of top-flight’s lesser lights. Mesut Özil sets up all five in a rout of newly-promoted Brighton and Hove Albion, nicely padding out his attacking output numbers for the next couple of months.
Then comes a significant victory against a fellow top six side, with a defensively-suspect Manchester City beaten at the Emirates. Suddenly, implausibly and without showing any of the conviction you would expect from serious title challengers, as we enter the October international break, Arsenal are top of the Premier League.

November
Not for long, though. Arsenal’s brief spell of optimism is brought to an abrupt end by a typically ruinous November, which begins with 90 minutes of Troy Deeney bullying their centre-backs in a listless display at Watford. The following Wednesday night, an away defeat to Ralph Hasenhüttl’s RB Leipzig leaves their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League knock-out stages in the balance.
For the first time this season, the ‘Wenger Out’ brigade properly begin to find their voice, and before the visit of Manchester United to the Emirates, hundreds make the short march from Piebury Corner to their £97 seats, their genuine concerns ignored, their wackier elements exaggerated. Then their team loses 2-0, and the season really starts to unravel.

December
At this point, a glance at Arsenal’s long list of absentees has medical staff in concurrence with one of the club’s best-known supporters. They are indeed “f*****, blud”.
The only positive is that twelve injuries at this stage of the season represents a relatively clean bill of health when compared to the 13 of five years ago, the 14 of two years ago and the 19 of three years ago.
And technically, seeing as Santi Cazorla is little more than a reanimated corpse at this point, his does not count.

January
This year’s injury crisis has hit Arsenal’s defence hardest.
Thankfully, the new year brings the possibility of reinforcements. Several dependable centre-halves from some of Europe’s leading clubs are linked with a January move, and anticipation builds on fan forums and social media, but for those calling the shots, each seems to cost a million too much.
Not to worry though, as a 33-year-old Philippe Senderos is still a free agent following his release from Rangers seven months earlier and better still, he retains just enough anterior cruciate knee ligaments to perform.

February
Despite the injury problems and mediocre form, Arsenal stay within distance of the pacesetters. Though a title push appears to be a stretch, a top-four finish is likely, and what better way to build excitement for next year’s Champions League campaign than to bring their current one of a swift and humiliating end against a member of European football’s elite?
With Bayern Munich having had their fill, it is Barcelona’s turn this time, and despite a 14-1 aggregate defeat, Wenger insists that Arsenal are at the same level as last season’s Champions League winners, in much the same way as a fine Bordeaux shares the same supermarket shelf as Blue Nun.

March
With European hopes dashed for another year, Arsenal turn to domestic affairs for respite, only to realise that next up on the fixture list is their customary collapse at Stamford Bridge.
It is just a 4-0 defeat on this occasion, with Mohamed Elneny sent off after six minutes for having the temerity to be elbowed by Diego Costa, but it extinguishes any lingering hope that they could succeed their cross-city rivals as Premier League champions.

April
With the pressure off, it is time to turn on the style, and they rally as we enter the tail end of the campaign. Olivier Giroud, in particular, finds form, knocking a brace past Bournemouth and a notching hat-trick against Swansea City. The hot streak of form on a flat track lifts him into double figures for the season and the third, a tap-in to round off a 57-pass-move, is hailed as the goal of the century, until it is forgotten about three weeks later.
The ‘Wenger Out’ brigade duly quieten a touch, but their hopes of a hard ‘Wexit’ are buoyed when reading between the lines of an interview that the Arsenal manager gives to independent French magazine L’Rêveur, in which he muses on man’s inhumanity to man, the immediacy of the modern age and how everything, given an infinite timescale, eventually turns to merde.

May
An hour before kick-off on the final day of the season, a top-four finish secured with one game to go, the final, predictable part of Arsenal’s 2017/18 season is played out, when Wenger confirms what everybody already knew in a pre-match interview with Sky Sports’ Geoff Shreeves.
Despite the underachievement, despite the disappointment, despite the same old patterns being played out year after year and despite, above all else, one of the game’s greatest-ever managers having his once-outstanding tenure sullied, they will do this all over again. One more year.

They missed one important fact - He would now be on an improved contract/salary earning £11 million + per annum

[OneBardGooner]

What I cant just stomach, if how he talks like he has all the solutions and answers, and portrays himself as a man in the know and in control.

The reality is, he doesn't know whats going on, nor even how to fix it, and he has no control of the team, players, results, fans.....nothing.

He's either too arrogant to not recognise the destabilising effect his actions are having on the team or is too stubborn to change course. Either way he's not digging himself out of a hole this time.


http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39458333

Brave woman. The secret society won't like this.

She's probably handing over her pass as I type.

For sure that is the end of any career she may have envisaged at Arsenal...

"Smith, who coaches the ladies' development squad, says "tension is running high" at the club's training ground because of the uncertainty."

That suggests that any of the planned protests at Colney would indeed have the desired affect of helping to ramp up the tension & pressure..

[OneBardGooner]

https://www.express.co.uk/sport/footbal ... ews-gossip

Bloody April fools

Let's hope it comes back to bite them in the ass and there is a 'bust up'