As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Gunner Rob wrote:Augie- just a bloody brilliant post.
The club no longer seems to even acknowledge that there were great Arsenal teams before Wenger.
Very sad.
had this exact argument last week with a mid 20's gooner at work,he said we were nothing before Arsene took over,WTF!!made my fucking blood boil,i put him straight of course,these jokers make me fucking sick
topcat wrote:If this club dosnt acknowledge our great history and thinks that its "arsene fc" then why was a herbet chapman statue put up in 2011 and not an arsene wenger one.
Im not sure its as straightforeward as what statues are where, its more the ethos thats changed, sadly a lot of the ethos is hard to statisicise- so to some it "doesnt matter", its the feeling for the club towards supporters, the Pravdarisation through the website, the inexplicable season ticket rise, the "hidden" rises in red/ silver membership, the appalling injury list, the horrible transfer windows despite the so say war chest, the humiliating defeats etc etc etc. The handling of the move to the Grove, with such initial lack of history being bought with it, other than in The Boardroom ( ) especially the way that season ticket holders were moved without seeming consideration of the relevance of knowing people around, singing etc . True some of that has been improved, but not an awful lot really.
All are what we wouldnt begin to accept a few years ago.
Even to the extent that our clock was missing, that our beloved North Bank and Clock End were replaced with Blue / Yellow quadrant etc till the outcry made them change it - makes me wonder if it was a deliberate act, such was the magnitude of the neglect, a very clumsy attempt to erode all of our Highbury history in an instant.
Richard Osman was putting in his tuppenceworth on Pointless today, saying what a fantastic manager Wenger is and what an amazing job he's done with such limited resources.....
monkswell wrote:Richard Osman was putting in his tuppenceworth on Pointless today, saying what a fantastic manager Wenger is and what an amazing job he's done with such limited resources.....
Yep and we'd all agree. How he put those old moneybags Everton in their place in the last 2 weeks of the season was unbelievable and anyone who thinks to the contrary can fuck right off and go and support Tottenham
topcat wrote:If this club dosnt acknowledge our great history and thinks that its "arsene fc" then why was a herbet chapman statue put up in 2011 and not an arsene wenger one.
Im not sure its as straightforeward as what statues are where, its more the ethos thats changed, sadly a lot of the ethos is hard to statisicise- so to some it "doesnt matter", its the feeling for the club towards supporters, the Pravdarisation through the website, the inexplicable season ticket rise, the "hidden" rises in red/ silver membership, the appalling injury list, the horrible transfer windows despite the so say war chest, the humiliating defeats etc etc etc. The handling of the move to the Grove, with such initial lack of history being bought with it, other than in The Boardroom ( ) especially the way that season ticket holders were moved without seeming consideration of the relevance of knowing people around, singing etc . True some of that has been improved, but not an awful lot really.
All are what we wouldnt begin to accept a few years ago.
Even to the extent that our clock was missing, that our beloved North Bank and Clock End were replaced with Blue / Yellow quadrant etc till the outcry made them change it - makes me wonder if it was a deliberate act, such was the magnitude of the neglect, a very clumsy attempt to erode all of our Highbury history in an instant.
Yeah good point, maybe it was a deArsenalisation plan that went wrong- suppose they thought lets make it different to PROOVE its not Highbury .
Theoperator wrote:Yeah good point, maybe it was a deArsenalisation plan that went wrong- suppose they thought lets make it different to PROOVE its not Highbury .
To be honest it looks more to me like an - admittedly short-sighted and dumb - attempt to maximise potential interest (and therefore revenue) in using the stadium as a corporate/concert venue by organisations who are not affiliated with the club. I can't see that AW had much to do with that end of things.
I grew up with Highbury. I love Highbury. But the fact is that despite the club being a local institution, the residents of the immediate area fought any proposal to extend the original stadium tooth-and-nail. Getting the East Stand facade listed was just the final nail in the coffin.
To get back on-topic, watching the FA Cup final after the fact, I'm pretty sure that I saw a manager bearing a distinct resemblance to AW changing tactics and formation (to *shock horror* 4-4-2 no less!), spotting the opposition's defence running out of legs and using the other subs he had in reserve to run them ragged. The bugger even found Sanogo's calling as the footballing equivalent of a Scud missile (they never knew where he'd land). Haters gonna hate, but I still think a lot of the bitching is based on 2006-2013 performance rather than what we have now.
Before the Wigan semi, people were saying if Arsenal lost that game, Wenger's position becomes untenable. Even Arseblog said this so it must have been serious.
As it turned out, we didn't win the game but got through it in the most unconvincing of ways ... and then won the cup with an equally unconvincing display in the final.
So how exactly does winning a penalty shoot and another game by the skin of your teeth get you from untenable to a 3 year contract?
And if winning the FA Cup was so important that it allows people to ignore yet another league collapse among yet another string of humiliating results ... then how did Wenger survive several years of effectively not bothering about this same all so important competition?
Before the Wigan semi, people were saying if Arsenal lost that game, Wenger's position becomes untenable. Even Arseblog said this so it must have been serious.
As it turned out, we didn't win the game but got through it in the most unconvincing of ways ... and then won the cup with an equally unconvincing display in the final.
So how exactly does winning a penalty shoot and another game by the skin of your teeth get you from untenable to a 3 year contract?
And if winning the FA Cup was so important that it allows people to ignore yet another league collapse among yet another string of humiliating results ... then how did Wenger survive several years of effectively not bothering about this same all so important competition?
Before the Wigan semi, people were saying if Arsenal lost that game, Wenger's position becomes untenable. Even Arseblog said this so it must have been serious.
As it turned out, we didn't win the game but got through it in the most unconvincing of ways ... and then won the cup with an equally unconvincing display in the final.
So how exactly does winning a penalty shoot and another game by the skin of your teeth get you from untenable to a 3 year contract?
And if winning the FA Cup was so important that it allows people to ignore yet another league collapse among yet another string of humiliating results ... then how did Wenger survive several years of effectively not bothering about this same all so important competition?
As I say, I don't get it!
Knock out competitions are generally about the result (Chelsea's Champions league win, for example). Hull and Wigan were always going to be up for it - it's a one off game and everything else goes out of the window.
Fact: The Board has no plan in place for Wenger's replacement. They'd probably do Steve Bould as interim manager while they ran around having panic attacks.
There was never any doubt that they wanted to renew his contract, although it was curious that Gazidis mentioned 2 years, not 3. I still wonder if there isn't tension between Gazidis and Wenger.
The Cup was 'damned if we do, damned if we don't' in that I think IF Hull had won, Wenger might (*might*) have departed.
But while he continues to see and be allowed to see his contract extensions as doing the club a favour, he'll stay as long as he wants.
Sam59 wrote:Fact: The Board has no plan in place for Wenger's replacement.
correct and that means that the 3 year contract is irrelevant.
If Wenger wants to stay another TEN years then he probably will. The chance to beat Ferguson's 27 years in 2023 might be very tempting to him.
Theoperator wrote:Yeah good point, maybe it was a deArsenalisation plan that went wrong- suppose they thought lets make it different to PROOVE its not Highbury .
To be honest it looks more to me like an - admittedly short-sighted and dumb - attempt to maximise potential interest (and therefore revenue) in using the stadium as a corporate/concert venue by organisations who are not affiliated with the club. I can't see that AW had much to do with that end of things.
I grew up with Highbury. I love Highbury. But the fact is that despite the club being a local institution, the residents of the immediate area fought any proposal to extend the original stadium tooth-and-nail. Getting the East Stand facade listed was just the final nail in the coffin.
To get back on-topic, watching the FA Cup final after the fact, I'm pretty sure that I saw a manager bearing a distinct resemblance to AW changing tactics and formation (to *shock horror* 4-4-2 no less!), spotting the opposition's defence running out of legs and using the other subs he had in reserve to run them ragged. The bugger even found Sanogo's calling as the footballing equivalent of a Scud missile (they never knew where he'd land). Haters gonna hate, but I still think a lot of the bitching is based on 2006-2013 performance rather than what we have now.
Yup, and I'm certain he didn't bring Eduardo on either. Seriously - I got better debating skills from my time on the infants' school playground!
It just bothers me that it seems a number of folks on here have allowed this seemingly irrational hatred for the guy to utterly overwhelm everything else - and I can tell you that when out-and-out hate takes over it becomes completely irrational, and is far more destructive than any 9-year dry spell could ever be.
I'm constantly told AW should go because he either doesn't do stuff I've seen him do - or does do stuff I haven't seen him do very recently. This is what I mean by irrational.
Frankly the fans of the other "big" PL clubs can sing what they fucking well like, because none of them bar Man City and us have a trophy to show for their efforts this year.