CAN YOU STILL DEFEND WENGER????

[southampton gooner]

Ahhhhh thats better. Calm has broken out over Gooner towers

As said B4 we all want the same thing and I'm sure all those who have slaged off AW will be V V happy to be proved wrong at end of season if we could win 1 of the big 2
"Come on Arsenal please for the love of all things good don't let the chav scum or Manure win it again".

[WengerKnows]

Fact : Our CB partnership is not exactly rock solid

Fact : We are blessed with possibly the best fullbacks in the leauge however our style of play often see's them in the attacking third rather than in defence

Fact : The above 2 points means it is critical for us to have a world class defensive CM

Fact : We dont have any proven defensive CM after the departure of Flamini , Gilberto and Diarra .

Fact : This is unacceptable

[Cockerill's chin]

Will the pricks who don't allow any criticism of AW to pass without a piss pointless reply of go support chavs please kindly fuck off. This is not an AW cult it's Arsenal Football Club. Fucking scientologists.

We pays our money and are entitled to an opinion.

Arsenal existed before AW and will exist after him. He is now running into the most difficult period of his reign due to hs stubborn refusal to adopt a balanced transfer policy.

Nobody is asking for a Chelsea, Spurs, Portsmouth, Man City, Sunderland, Villa, Man Utd, Liverpool, Newcastle type spending spree. It's just that championship clubs are spending more.

It would be nice not to make a profit in the transfer window. We have made a profit for the last 4 windows. If that floats your boat why not support an accountants in the the city? Nip along to their boardroom with your scarves on.

We played out of our skin last year with a thin squad and still came out empty handed. This year we are weaker. We haven't addressed the situation at goalkeeper, centre half or centre midfield. An extra 30m would have done it with AW's shrewd buys, which would have brought our net spend to 25m. The new wages required could have been offset against the big wages that have left.

AW has been the greatest manager this club has had. Now is his biggest test but it is one of his own making. HE has dictated the expansive youth and minimal transfer policy. Let's see if he is right over the next couple of seasons.

We have been fed a line by the board that we moved to enable us to compete. That there is money to spend. Maybe not 70m but at least 25m. We are meant to be the third richest club in the world. We pay more as fans than any other club. We are entitled to ask why, with such a thin squad which has such glaring weaknesses, that there is no investment.

As for the joker who says we can't dare to judge AW as we don't see the squad as much as him; take down the shrine mate, it's a false god.

[EL-Z]

Wont get a better comment than that mate. Arsenal have indeed fed us pure garbage that we moved to compete with other clubs. If they had said compete once the debts paid off I may have been a little more hopeful. Un fortunately i missed all the transfer business cause i went to bed at lunchtime lol and only just woke up but im pretty pissed off to say the least. All i bloody wanted was a world class holding midfielder. THAT WAS IT. and we buy NO ONE. Sorry but like above we pay our money like everyone else and we are entitled to our opinion. I dont say Wenger should be gone but if we dont win anything this season then hes gotta go. Man City have made their intent perfectly clear. Stupid amount of money or not Robinho is world class in every sense and will improve that team no end. And i hardly expect that to be the last of their big money transfers come januarys window. They are obviously gunning for the 3rd or 4th place we are going to be occupying come the end of this season. And even then thats gonna be a stretch.

Of course people are gonna say keep the faith with Arsene but it is painfully obvious that this team is not good enough to win anything IMO and if that is the case come May are we gonna hold our hands up and admit that or are we going to yet again say oh we were unlucky and Arsene should be given another year. I for one will continue to go cause this club is the only thing that i truly love but they cannot seriously expect to charge us more than any other club in the country to see a 4th placed team. Thats just not right and is a criminal attitude to take towards our loyal fans. Dont get me wrong I know the club doesnt give a shit about me or any one else as long as people are willing to pay but they will if a lack of success continues cause eventually people will start saying bollocks to this. Lower the price or I wont be going. And the corporates will find much more attractive business down that shithole in Fulham. Thats not my opinions, thats the reality if things continue.

[REB]

must admit i think wenger has made a big mistake by not buying and it will be just like last season, we will do well only to fall at the end, for those defending wenger , do you think finishing 4th is good enough enough because thats what people are saying is that the new arsenal fighting for 4th every season
i want arsenal to win titles and not be fighting for 4th every season and the man meant to take us there is wenger, but by not adding to the midfield i feel he has let us down

[Rob]

Well here I am bright and early only to discover that we have signed - NOBODY


It's an astonishing decision by Wenger that reeks of hubris and myopia.


This time last year we had Diara, Gilberto, Hleb and Flamini.

That was not good enough to win anything.

We have now lost all the above. Brought in Nasri a 17 year old from the championship and promoted a 16 year old from the youth team.


Can someone explain to me how we are going to improve on that. We saw what the midfield was like without Cesc at Fulham.

If he picks up any long term injury, our hopes disappear entriely down the plug hole.

We are now far more of a 'one man team' than we ever were in the days of PV4 and TH14.

Sorry Arsene you were astonishingly good for us up until 2005. But we are now looking at 2009 and paying the most expensive enterance prices in WORLD Football in the expectations of hanging on to 4th place.

Not good enough !

[Rocky Fan]

I dont know what to believe anymore

[Magic Hat]

You say you don't need a striker but then it comes into the open we chased Kalou!

or he thought "hey, maybe I can get Kalou, he is a good player, let's see"

Can I defend Arsene on this one? Not really, while I will say that we don't know what work has been done, I find it baffling he has been unable to bring in any player. I doubt the board are too happy either, they are aware of the doubts over money and would have liked something spent just to show we had money.

We needed a dm and had area's that wouldn't have been harmed in getting either simply an extra body, having a better quality player (keeper) or a type of player (strong centreback) yet we failed to fill those area's. Yes we got in Nasri, who has started well, we should give Bischof time to show what he can, no complaints with getting Silvestere or Ramsey. Losing Gilberto? I doubt he would accept another season on the sidelines but should have secured someone before selling him and why have we loaned out Senderos Arsene, why?

I have no problem with Ken Friar and it is intresting to note the lack of... attacks not quite right word but arguments against him but we all know, as does the board, that we need better in the role of Director of Football. Window is over and by January, we should have one settled in, be very disturbing if we haven't got one by then

[gus ceasar is a legend]

Maybe it was a slightly vino'd up reaction last night!

We have several wonderful players at The Grove and I certainly didn't mean all our players were shit.

I am so fucked off though with the changing faces of Arsenal Football Club and Arsene Wenger.

Nobody can say we don't need a replacement for Flamini....not even Wenger. He told us himself this was the area in which he was looking. Flamini was such a vital cog for us last season and to lose him for a few grand a week was criminal! To not replace him is ludicrous.

Southampton I am not a glory hunter and have been with the Arsenal through thick and thin. I am passionate about our club and care deeply. I simply hate to see our club in reverse and losing the status Wenger himself worked hard to acheive.

I will not be fucking off to watch anyone else thank you.

Put simply I am fucked off as any chance we had of success this season went pop last night. Also 3rd or 4th place just got a whole lot tougher.

We now go into the season with just one experienced central midfielder! ONE! Fabregas. I am sorry but Denilson is not experienced.

Arsenal Football Club go into the season with one central midfielder. Sounds ridicuLous hey! Imagine if we went into the season with one centre half or one striker and Wenger telling us others in the squad can play upfront or at the back. You would think the guy has lost the plot. So why is midfield different?

Arsene Wenger you just made a glaring error and whilst I pray you have done the right thing and prove us wrong defending you is becoming tougher and tougher.

[Boomer]

Okay lads (& lasses)
The windows now closed ( ) and we can concentrate on football at last!

Fine Wengers not bought anyone but did anyone actually believe he would? no I didn't. Although I hoped we would but maybe only for the reason it would be a nice exciting present as any new signing would!

Fact is we haven't and there nothing we can do about it! So stop moaning
Lets get behind the Wegner & the boys!


On a seperate note we could be seeing an interesting few years. If both Chelsea, Man U & now Man city want to throw silly money around to be number 1 there's only two BIG cups for that to be achived. Champions league & the premier League.
At least one will club will be disappointed and not everyone can win everything.

Personally I'm happy with the current board as opposed to becoming a billionaires pet. Not every team will win and as Chelsea, Man U & Man city owners are there to soly make money eventually someone will break and leave there club in trouble!
If Wenger can keep hold of or major players and we continue to 'make' stars as opposed to buying them we can still compete with the silly money teams. This means Arsene can also consentrate on the top English youth in the country. As Chelsea, Man U & now Man city will be to busy buying the creme of the world which will hinder any youth programme & we'll continue to building the team of the world and complete with them.

[Cockerill's chin]

Although my sentiments remain the same, I'd like to apologise for the poor language in my earlier post.

I couldn't sleep and snuck down down to see if santa had been and dropped off Alonso and another mystery present only to find out we must have been naughty again this year. It just riled me.

Can't understand why we're on the naughty list again. We fill the stadium like good boys and girls and even buy some of the expensive shite they try to feed us.

Let's try to be good for next year.

[Rob]

If Wenger can keep hold of or major players and we continue to 'make' stars as opposed to buying them we can still compete with the silly money teams. .

But he can't keep hold of them can he ?

Flamini comes good - and leaves.

Hleb - even if he didn't come good - still left.

Adebayour would have left and come next May I expect the same garbage from him and his agent.

Last but by no means leat Fabregas won't hang around playing for an EPL team struggling to hold 4th place.

Fabregas to Real/Barca is a headline waiting for an airing come March/April 2009 let alone May/June.

As for your suggestion that we can keep going on the great British Youth kick well.............

[kautzie]

Yeah we could still salvage this thing if Wenger had the sense to go out and get Stephen Appiah, he's more in line with what we need than Alonso because as good as Alonso is he can't tackle, Appiah's a poor man's version of Essien which would be ideal and plus there's no transfer fee involved so it'd be cheap. But that won't happen because of Wenger's ego and the fact that he didn't think of that first.

[mrgnu1958]

1 or 2 injuries now and we are ...FUCKED!

[highburyJD]

manure will struggle if either vidic or rio got injured
ateotd luck with injuries is a key determiner of who does well
manure wr very lucky last season
and we weren't