THE WENGER THREAD

[MrT]

OK, this is going to be an interesting one. I'll admit I followed PhunckyTimes over from the Graun, not least because he's developed an unerring habit of getting the last word in before they close comments on an article.

First off, I'm not a slavish devotee of AW by any stretch of the imagination - what I do believe is that from where I see things, he's currently a lot better than any alternatives I can think of, and he's got a lot more stick than he really deserves.

So - bit of Devil's Advocate. We know that when the club settled on Ashburton Grove as the new location, it'd leave them with serious money issues, and the board agreed with Wenger that to try and minimise the hit, the squad would have to get new blood from younger players - wage bills aside, massive one-off transfer fees were not going to happen until the stadium costs were offset by something else. In short, they were asking Wenger to try to build a squad with one hand tied behind his back indefinitely - and most managers in the modern mould would likely have walked at that point. AW actually had the cojones to give it a go, when he could quite easily have gone back to the continent and taken his pick.

The sponsorship deal inked just before this season finally removed that restriction - the only problem being that the transfer market over the summer and in January was pretty feckin' dire in terms of the talent on offer. If you don't believe me, consider that the Spuds spent around £100M in that window and got bugger all out of it - they've been nowhere this season. Whatever AW tells the press, what actually seems to have stayed his hand striker-wise was that there was no-one remotely decent worth buying (at least no-one who would work within the squad).

Sure, Sanogo hasn't lived up to assurances - but on the other hand I saw our support giving AW hell for taking Poldi off against West Ham in the semi and keeping Sanogo on - but Poldi (still recently back from injury) was obviously not 100% even at the start of that match. Poldi then takes a central role in annihilating Hull the following week - a pretty good argument that taking him off against West Ham was the right call.

If AW's preferred methods end up limiting defence, then fair enough - but I'd argue that by bringing Steve Bould into the coaching team, he's aware of that limitation and trying to get things balanced.

Winning the league when the other top 3 sides are bolstered by a blank chequebook for transfers (and you're forced to watch the pennies) was always going to be an impossible task. You can talk about Everton and Liverpool's success this season, but neither of those teams have been in Europe this time round - and both teams are clearly flagging towards the end. Next year they'll have a much tougher time.


The away defeats were rotten, but to be honest pretty much every team in top-four contention has had at least one major embarrassment away (most have had more) - City's away form has been particularly shocking when you think about the money spent on the squad. And our squad has usually come back stronger after each knock - such as after going down 5-1 to Liverpool, we knock them out of the FA Cup the following week. More to the point, the recent away defeats happened with most or all of our top-drawer midfield players out to injury, and yet we still took points off Man City and hung on against West Ham to make the FA Cup final. As they came back from injury, our games have been much more solid, and in the same period of time we've seen Chelsea, Liverpool and Everton humbled by Palace.

If we can lift the FA Cup (amen), then that's the old "silverware" albatross banished - and if we can manage that it's looking likely to be made sweeter by Mou coming away completely empty-handed. A decent hand in the transfer window could see us looking very strong next year - no lynchpin players are itching to go, and we've got a 90%-there squad already.

So - while I'm not blindly trusting in Arsene, I do think that we should give him a year or two to finish the job he took on - which was a pretty thankless bloody task - and even if you disagree, who do you think would be both willing to replace him and capable of doing better?

Nice post, I agree with your sentiments.
But sadly, you'll just be mocked here.
The mantra here is the more personal and vindictive you can be in abusing Wenger, the more respect you will receive.
Is a game for who can abuse Wenger the most.
Let's not get the facts in the way of a good story.....

Sorry, but that is absolute rubbish. The vast majority of posters on here can have a reasoned and intelligent debate. Only a minority (from both sides of the divide) resort to outlandish or abusive opinions. Differing opinions are always welcome on here. But you should expect to have your opinion challenged too. I think though the problem is with some of the AKB’s you cannot prove your case and then resort to “this place hates Wenger, everyone here is a hater” type comments. I say “some” because there are a few that will post intelligently and will address differing opinions respectfully too. I also accept that some of the anti-Wenger posters are guilty of similar stuff.

Can I also ask everyone on here to please cut the name calling and personal abuse? This is something the forum owner has directed us mods to clamp down on. We certainly don’t want to be warning or banning people but you all can help us by not being personally abusive.

Thanks for your reasoned response.
Am new to this forum, I don't tend to use such forums, but did a few weeks back prior to our Semi Final.
But I do feel the vocal minority are setting the agenda, as per norm when there are any differing views.
The abuse of Wenger from a sizable element here is completely over the top and distorts genuine debate.

When you warn posters of name calling and personal abuse, does this also apply to the abuse Wenger receives here on a daily basis.

I'm sure Wenger sleeps safely at night knowing you are protecting his honour and integrity from a vicious vocal minority.

[rodders999]

A few of the lads on day release I see

[DB10GOONER]

OK, this is going to be an interesting one. I'll admit I followed PhunckyTimes over from the Graun, not least because he's developed an unerring habit of getting the last word in before they close comments on an article.

First off, I'm not a slavish devotee of AW by any stretch of the imagination - what I do believe is that from where I see things, he's currently a lot better than any alternatives I can think of, and he's got a lot more stick than he really deserves.

So - bit of Devil's Advocate. We know that when the club settled on Ashburton Grove as the new location, it'd leave them with serious money issues, and the board agreed with Wenger that to try and minimise the hit, the squad would have to get new blood from younger players - wage bills aside, massive one-off transfer fees were not going to happen until the stadium costs were offset by something else. In short, they were asking Wenger to try to build a squad with one hand tied behind his back indefinitely - and most managers in the modern mould would likely have walked at that point. AW actually had the cojones to give it a go, when he could quite easily have gone back to the continent and taken his pick.

The sponsorship deal inked just before this season finally removed that restriction - the only problem being that the transfer market over the summer and in January was pretty feckin' dire in terms of the talent on offer. If you don't believe me, consider that the Spuds spent around £100M in that window and got bugger all out of it - they've been nowhere this season. Whatever AW tells the press, what actually seems to have stayed his hand striker-wise was that there was no-one remotely decent worth buying (at least no-one who would work within the squad).

Sure, Sanogo hasn't lived up to assurances - but on the other hand I saw our support giving AW hell for taking Poldi off against West Ham in the semi and keeping Sanogo on - but Poldi (still recently back from injury) was obviously not 100% even at the start of that match. Poldi then takes a central role in annihilating Hull the following week - a pretty good argument that taking him off against West Ham was the right call.

If AW's preferred methods end up limiting defence, then fair enough - but I'd argue that by bringing Steve Bould into the coaching team, he's aware of that limitation and trying to get things balanced.

Winning the league when the other top 3 sides are bolstered by a blank chequebook for transfers (and you're forced to watch the pennies) was always going to be an impossible task. You can talk about Everton and Liverpool's success this season, but neither of those teams have been in Europe this time round - and both teams are clearly flagging towards the end. Next year they'll have a much tougher time.


The away defeats were rotten, but to be honest pretty much every team in top-four contention has had at least one major embarrassment away (most have had more) - City's away form has been particularly shocking when you think about the money spent on the squad. And our squad has usually come back stronger after each knock - such as after going down 5-1 to Liverpool, we knock them out of the FA Cup the following week. More to the point, the recent away defeats happened with most or all of our top-drawer midfield players out to injury, and yet we still took points off Man City and hung on against West Ham to make the FA Cup final. As they came back from injury, our games have been much more solid, and in the same period of time we've seen Chelsea, Liverpool and Everton humbled by Palace.

If we can lift the FA Cup (amen), then that's the old "silverware" albatross banished - and if we can manage that it's looking likely to be made sweeter by Mou coming away completely empty-handed. A decent hand in the transfer window could see us looking very strong next year - no lynchpin players are itching to go, and we've got a 90%-there squad already.

So - while I'm not blindly trusting in Arsene, I do think that we should give him a year or two to finish the job he took on - which was a pretty thankless bloody task - and even if you disagree, who do you think would be both willing to replace him and capable of doing better?

Nice post, I agree with your sentiments.
But sadly, you'll just be mocked here.
The mantra here is the more personal and vindictive you can be in abusing Wenger, the more respect you will receive.
Is a game for who can abuse Wenger the most.
Let's not get the facts in the way of a good story.....

Sorry, but that is absolute rubbish. The vast majority of posters on here can have a reasoned and intelligent debate. Only a minority (from both sides of the divide) resort to outlandish or abusive opinions. Differing opinions are always welcome on here. But you should expect to have your opinion challenged too. I think though the problem is with some of the AKB’s you cannot prove your case and then resort to “this place hates Wenger, everyone here is a hater” type comments. I say “some” because there are a few that will post intelligently and will address differing opinions respectfully too. I also accept that some of the anti-Wenger posters are guilty of similar stuff.

Can I also ask everyone on here to please cut the name calling and personal abuse? This is something the forum owner has directed us mods to clamp down on. We certainly don’t want to be warning or banning people but you all can help us by not being personally abusive.

Thanks for your reasoned response.
Am new to this forum, I don't tend to use such forums, but did a few weeks back prior to our Semi Final.
But I do feel the vocal minority are setting the agenda, as per norm when there are any differing views.
The abuse of Wenger from a sizable element here is completely over the top and distorts genuine debate.

When you warn posters of name calling and personal abuse, does this also apply to the abuse Wenger receives here on a daily basis.

It certainly does. If it's abusive for the sake of being abusive, racist or xenophobic then we mods delete the comments and let the poster know by PM. If it's obviously tongue in cheek we let it slide a bit. It's a difficult and fine balancing act tbh. We also don't consider general critcism of Arsene to be abuse. Again it's a fine line often. We also understand that posters may be angry or frustrated after a particularly bad result and need to vent, so we try to be a bit more lenient then. And then finally there is the "pub atmos" aspect of this forum which most members regard as it's main strength. We don't want a sanitised AFC type forum so it's really only the vile or most abusive stuff that gets deleted. I understand that might not be for everyone, but you can't please all the people all the time!

[turricaned]

Did you watch the Semi final mate? We all make mistakes and have mad moments so it would be pedantic of me to highlight one minor mistake .... but you did it THREE times! It was Wigan we played not West Ham. That is Wigan Athletic from the 2nd division (or whatever its called these days!)

D'oh! My bad - that'll learn me for posting in the wee hours. I did indeed watch it, and it was squeaky-bum time. I remember Poldi being seen by the physio for several minutes at the beginning, and that's probably why he got taken off later.

[Leyton Gooner]

"If you look at it, every team at the top four is frustrated. You think we could have got this point here, this point there, we would win the league. You look at Chelsea and Liverpool, they could say the same.

"We have to continue to develop as a team. We have bridged a gap [from last season] and we want to be better next season. How do we achieve that? We have hard work.

"My team has shown a remarkable mental attitude in their consistency. I'm proud of the way we have responded. We are looking at aspects where we can improve internally I am convinced we can do it."

Nothing we haven't heard before but jeezus when the fuck are people going to stop buying his utter bollocking bollocks. He geniunely believes we were only a point here and there from winning the league. Utter utter cretin of a man.

[arseofacrow]

"If you look at it, every team at the top four is frustrated. You think we could have got this point here, this point there, we would win the league. You look at Chelsea and Liverpool, they could say the same.

"We have to continue to develop as a team. We have bridged a gap [from last season] and we want to be better next season. How do we achieve that? We have hard work.

"My team has shown a remarkable mental attitude in their consistency. I'm proud of the way we have responded. We are looking at aspects where we can improve internally I am convinced we can do it."

Nothing we haven't heard before but jeezus when the fuck are people going to stop buying his utter bollocking bollocks. He geniunely believes we were only a point here and there from winning the league. Utter utter cretin of a man.

[northbank123]

Some more worrying comments from him today. Talking about how we need to up our attacking prowess to match City and Liverpool - whilst I wouldn't be opposed to that combine his comments with the bizarre conclusion that we were maybe too cautious at Anfield, Etihad and Stamford Bridge and it's puzzling. Three canings, 17 goals conceded, getting ripped apart at ease and what he takes from that is that we need to be more attacking???

Also managed to squeeze a typical Wengerism in there about us showing great stamina this season. Which was especially laughable given that he was talking about the title race in terms of a marathon.

[Clash]

"My team has shown a remarkable mental attitude in their consistency. I'm proud of the way we have responded. We are looking at aspects where we can improve internally I am convinced we can do it."

Wenger always comes out with shite like this and yet people still wonder why he gets abuse! What exactly is the response that he is so proud of?

There is one very obvious internal solution though that will bring immediate improvement. All someone needs to do is to get hold of that new contract and put it through the shredder. Biggest problem at the club solved in 3 seconds!

[scotgooner]

I'm in general not an angry person but anytime I read/listen to him spouting his shite my blood starts to boil!

[Leyton Gooner]

"My team has shown a remarkable mental attitude in their consistency. I'm proud of the way we have responded. We are looking at aspects where we can improve internally I am convinced we can do it."

Wenger always comes out with shite like this and yet people still wonder why he gets abuse! What exactly is the response that he is so proud of?

I can only think he means the response to the humiliations at Liverpool Chelsea and City by returning to flat track bully mode and convincingly beating the likes of Hull and Newcastle to once again claim the VT. Something nearly everyone on here called as far back as December, when the cult of Wenger were declaring that he'd proved everyone wrong. None of this judge him in May shite this year

[mcdowell42]

the only progress I can see in the league, is tht we qualified for the CL with 2 games to go as opposed to waiting till the last day of the season,we still finished 4th same as last season.Now our 17th season in it and the best we have done is 1 final in that time,while the chavs and the victims have won it despite not being in it 17 yrs in a row.One big joke

[Supagoon]

"improve internally"
"improve internally"
"improve internally"

"I am convinced "

[mcdowell42]

http://www.arsenalstation.com/2014/05/0 ... um=twitter

[augie]

I dunno why ye are complaining about the consistancy remarks......every time we play a top side away we got raped and you dont get much more consistant than that

[clockender1]

. We have bridged a gap [from last season]

this is the biggest AKB bollocks i have ever ever heard - we did not 'bridge a gap" behind the title winners - United's wheels fell off. had they not, we'd be 5th most likely.

where is the issue about not winning against the top 6 addressed ? its not. its bollocks to say we can beat the top six with 'hard work', what we need is better preparation, organization and tactics.

if I kept making the same mistakes year after year at work, my bosses wouldn't tell me to 'work harder' they'd tell me to organize my self better.

wonga is total dick.