THE WENGER THREAD

[Ikechukwu1]

You're quoting a blog as undeniable proof? How do you know those figures are correct? I

tchy stop believing everything you read on the Internet if it backs up your slanted view on things

Oh dear you've had a mare! That "blog" is written by a former investment banker, using DIRECT access to Arsenal accounts. It isn't an opinion piece, they are analysed figures from the Arsenal PLC balance sheet -which is in the official domain. So, the part that is, you know, "in black and white" is the bit on the Balance sheet that details the cash reserves (i.e. money sitting around in an account). It isn't made up by anyone, they are Arsenal's own figures

But yeah sure. It's just "some blog"
Do they teach finance in Essex?

How do you even know he was an investment banker? You can't pick and chose who you believe off the internet because it suits you. My understanding is Arsenals accounts are available to everyone if they want or can be bothered to read/study them (I cant)

Itchy instead of reading and believing anyone who vaguely goes along with you train of thought, bumming up anyone who agrees with you and throwing insults at those that don't YOU get the figures, study them and give us your view then I'd be happy to read it not some semi anonymous bloke off the internet

Again you've spectacularly missed the point. This AKB claimed he "didn't know" if there is money lying around in the accounts gathering dust. I provided a link to proof that says the cash IS there lying in the accounts.
You then go on a wild tangent claiming it is "only a blog", failing to mention that it contains extracts from Arsenal's official accounts. So again nothing to do with "a slant".
He is not a semi-anonymous bloke on the internet - his blog is so good that big banks like Credit Suisse and RBS have commented on how sound the numbers are. The guy that wrote this blog is well-known in City circles and even the Arsenal treasurer went on radio to validate how good his wage bill numbers and estimates were.
So...taking all that into consideration....well, nothing else to say on that!

In terms of my view, you know exactly what it is and I just confronted you on your flip-flopping. Which you still haven't answered by the way so I will ask again:
IF Wenker managed a title win in 2017, after 12 years of failure, how could he have "proved you wrong"?
Would that title win immediately negate the previous 12 years of incompetence and pure rank management? Would you simply overlook the pattern of behaviour from before because of a title win? And more to the point, what happened to Arsenal the last time Wenger won a title? Didn't he f*** the club for a whole decade, playing God? Why wouldn't that happen again?

[Ikechukwu1]

I know a lot of you have very anti wenger views, but can I ask a legit question out of curiosity? IF wenger did make the right purchases in the summer, and we win the title, how would you feel about the man? Would you be willing to give him a second chance? What would he have to do to make up for those eight trophieless years?

Not entirely sure if you're on a wind up or not so i'll answer honestly for now. I want Wenger gone he will never win another Championship with Arsenal his tactics are dated and even his buys are on the most part average to poor, he plays players out of position and fails to get the best out of them and quite frankly he is not fit to be Arsenal manager anymore IMO.

Personally I don't give a fuck about top 4 or European Cup qualification as we stand no chance of winning the damn competition and are further away from it as we have EVER been. I'm a football fan not an accounts fan so the money of top 4 means fuck all to me I want to win the league ANYTHING else is failure.

To answer your question I f by a miracle we were to win the league with Wenger I would happily admit I was wrong but unfortunately that will never happen

I agree with you about the bank account. If it could be proved that it's just sitting in an account like some people suggest, I would be really pissed off. I simply can't believe the manager wouldn't use the money if we had it. After all, why would it benefit him to leave it in the clubs bank account? Sadly we cannot know for sure.

However im sure we both hope you will feel the need to admit you were wrong about us being champions sometime in the near future

yes we can, the manager when asked what he would do with a load of transfer money said he would give it back, cant remeber exact amount, but its a oft repeated and easilt sourced quote. that answers that question.

the reason behind that is his ego/project, firstly project youth, bringing through avergae joes giving them big contracts in the hope they come good, that he has finally started to abandon, thats what lumbered us with diaby, BN52, denilson, sensderos, djorrou etc for years.
his ego comes into it in wanting to prove all his critics wrong, that rather than take on board what they are saying, like almunia isnt good enough for example, or we need a strong ball winning DM, he comes out with his 'havent worked a day in football' quotes, and persisitently and rigidly carries on doing what he has in the vain hope he will prove his critics wrong. failing to replace RVP or adebayor even, and lack of defnsive midfield and the other neglected areas of the squad that have been clear for years (lack of replacement for mad jens) are evidence enough of this.

http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/ ... PcnH_mqmSI

[mcdowell42]

I yearn for the days when you could ring a cousin in France and he would tell u something or someone was/is shit and then you could post it on here and then put the word FACT at the end of your post and that would mean it was true.

[foxinthebox2001]

Baffled by the quote from Wenger that '72 points will get 4th spot', but it does underline his mediocre ambitions.
He is saying its cool to take 21 points from the last 33, or we can afford to lose 4 from the last 11 games and should still attain our goal.
Personally I would say to the players we want to get 84 points, that is try to win the final 11 games and lets see where that takes us.
It says everything you need to know about Wengers style of management, and the stagnancy of ambition at board level.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... ances.html

I'm not going on the Mail so I'll take your word for it. If that is true (and not spun by some two-bit hack) then I find it rather pathetic.

"4th. 4th everyone, it is 4th. 4th is our target. Did I mention it is 4th? Yes? Good. As soon as I achieve super-duper-4th-placed-ethical-super-trophy you may all congratulate me and bask in my relative failure."

I wish he'd not open his mouth sometimes.

In case the Mail is little bit down market for you, The Independent also has the story.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 83815.html

So the club is aiming to win about 70% of the remaining league games, I will adjust my ticket purchasing to a similar level.

Wenger "Look, have you seen the quality of the teams behind us? Southampton."........ priceless stuff, the mega rich South coast club is now our rival.

[CloakedGooner]

I know a lot of you have very anti wenger views, but can I ask a legit question out of curiosity? IF wenger did make the right purchases in the summer, and we win the title, how would you feel about the man? Would you be willing to give him a second chance? What would he have to do to make up for those eight trophieless years?

Not entirely sure if you're on a wind up or not so i'll answer honestly for now. I want Wenger gone he will never win another Championship with Arsenal his tactics are dated and even his buys are on the most part average to poor, he plays players out of position and fails to get the best out of them and quite frankly he is not fit to be Arsenal manager anymore IMO.

Personally I don't give a fuck about top 4 or European Cup qualification as we stand no chance of winning the damn competition and are further away from it as we have EVER been. I'm a football fan not an accounts fan so the money of top 4 means fuck all to me I want to win the league ANYTHING else is failure.

To answer your question I f by a miracle we were to win the league with Wenger I would happily admit I was wrong but unfortunately that will never happen

I agree with you about the bank account. If it could be proved that it's just sitting in an account like some people suggest, I would be really pissed off. I simply can't believe the manager wouldn't use the money if we had it. After all, why would it benefit him to leave it in the clubs bank account? Sadly we cannot know for sure.

However im sure we both hope you will feel the need to admit you were wrong about us being champions sometime in the near future

yes we can, the manager when asked what he would do with a load of transfer money said he would give it back, cant remeber exact amount, but its a oft repeated and easilt sourced quote. that answers that question.

the reason behind that is his ego/project, firstly project youth, bringing through avergae joes giving them big contracts in the hope they come good, that he has finally started to abandon, thats what lumbered us with diaby, BN52, denilson, sensderos, djorrou etc for years.
his ego comes into it in wanting to prove all his critics wrong, that rather than take on board what they are saying, like almunia isnt good enough for example, or we need a strong ball winning DM, he comes out with his 'havent worked a day in football' quotes, and persisitently and rigidly carries on doing what he has in the vain hope he will prove his critics wrong. failing to replace RVP or adebayor even, and lack of defnsive midfield and the other neglected areas of the squad that have been clear for years (lack of replacement for mad jens) are evidence enough of this.

http://www.tribalfootball.com/articles/ ... PcnH_mqmSI

Firstly, a couple of obscure blogs prove nothing. Flash has already argued that point for me, so I'll say no more on it. Secondly, I don't see a problem with building youth teams and giving them a chance. Some very good players have come through our ranks, albeit they were sold to quickly when they were just starting to deliver. I mentioned earlier about cesc, nasri, rvp etc. who you blame for them leaving is another matter. As I said earlier, I still believe they had there own reasons for leaving, aside from wenger.

I also don't think the manager stuck with youth out of pure ego. That's simply my opinion however, I think he is a footballing purist who has a certain vision of how football should be, and what direction we should go down. I agree with playing mantis that he has a project, which has failed to produce in recent years. Again, the reasons for this we will disagree on. As mentioned above, many key players were flogged to quickly (by the board and probably to line kroenks pockets). I do blame wenger for breaking up the invincibles too quickly, he should have kept some for longer to help the guys coming through. Any winning side has a mix of youth and experience. If wenger didn't directly sell them, he should have at least fought to keep them. But this, as well As some other problems with the team comes from wengers greatest weakness.... Trust. He trusts his players to much at times. He trusted a youn side to pick up after the invincibles. He trusted lazy players like arshavin who let him down badly. I truly believe his heart is in the right place, and he isn't just on an ego trip. If he could find it in him to get more ruthless with the team, and had a full war chest to draw on, The Arsenal would be UNSTOPPABLE.

[IW8Goalmachine]

I also don't think the manager stuck with youth out of pure ego. That's simply my opinion however, I think he is a footballing purist who has a certain vision of how football should be, and what direction we should go down. I agree with playing mantis that he has a project, which has failed to produce in recent years. Again, the reasons for this we will disagree on. As mentioned above, many key players were flogged to quickly (by the board and probably to line kroenks pockets). I do blame wenger for breaking up the invincibles too quickly, he should have kept some for longer to help the guys coming through. Any winning side has a mix of youth and experience. If wenger didn't directly sell them, he should have at least fought to keep them. But this, as well As some other problems with the team comes from wengers greatest weakness.... Trust. He trusts his players to much at times. He trusted a youn side to pick up after the invincibles. He trusted lazy players like arshavin who let him down badly. I truly believe his heart is in the right place, and he isn't just on an ego trip. If he could find it in him to get more ruthless with the team, and had a full war chest to draw on, The Arsenal would be UNSTOPPABLE.

you have to be taking the piss.

Do you actually see us winning the league in the next two years?

[Chippy]

Some people are deliberately obtuse. This is a link to the club's statement on the financial results last week.

http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archiv ... lc-results

The Group has no short-term debt and its cash reserves, excluding the balances designated as debt service reserves, amounted £138.8 million (2013 - £120.6 million).

For the hard of reading that means we have £138.8 million in the bank as opposed to £120.6m last year.

FACT

[CloakedGooner]

I also don't think the manager stuck with youth out of pure ego. That's simply my opinion however, I think he is a footballing purist who has a certain vision of how football should be, and what direction we should go down. I agree with playing mantis that he has a project, which has failed to produce in recent years. Again, the reasons for this we will disagree on. As mentioned above, many key players were flogged to quickly (by the board and probably to line kroenks pockets). I do blame wenger for breaking up the invincibles too quickly, he should have kept some for longer to help the guys coming through. Any winning side has a mix of youth and experience. If wenger didn't directly sell them, he should have at least fought to keep them. But this, as well As some other problems with the team comes from wengers greatest weakness.... Trust. He trusts his players to much at times. He trusted a youn side to pick up after the invincibles. He trusted lazy players like arshavin who let him down badly. I truly believe his heart is in the right place, and he isn't just on an ego trip. If he could find it in him to get more ruthless with the team, and had a full war chest to draw on, The Arsenal would be UNSTOPPABLE.

you have to be taking the piss.

Do you actually see us winning the league in the next two years?

I had a poor choice of words there. Obviously he's not a wallflower, but his type of personality means he could never be as ruthless as Ferguson or Souness etc. he has a completely different way of managing, which I think some of the players are taking the piss out of. This doesn't mean he doesnt know what he's doing, or that he doesn't still have a good footballing brain.

No I concede that I don't think we will win the title in the next couple of years. It's the reason we prob won't that I am disputing. I genuinely don't think we can currently compete with Chelsea and City who are throwing huge money around for fun.

[officepest]

Cloaked:

The oft-quoted “if I had £100m I would give it back” is legit. I’ve paraphrased Wenger’s response but he did say he would give such a sum back; I’m surprised you aren’t aware of this.

Swiss Ramble is also pretty much bang-on as regards our finances.

[officepest]

In case the Mail is little bit down market for you, The Independent also has the story.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/foot ... 83815.html

So the club is aiming to win about 70% of the remaining league games, I will adjust my ticket purchasing to a similar level.

Wenger "Look, have you seen the quality of the teams behind us? Southampton."........ priceless stuff, the mega rich South coast club is now our rival.

It's not that it is too downmarket (shit, I'd say); it is just that it takes two fucking hours to load up on my browser due to all the shit on their site.

[IW8Goalmachine]

I had a poor choice of words there. Obviously he's not a wallflower, but his type of personality means he could never be as ruthless as Ferguson or Souness etc. he has a completely different way of managing, which I think some of the players are taking the piss out of. This doesn't mean he doesnt know what he's doing, or that he doesn't still have a good footballing brain.

No I concede that I don't think we will win the title in the next couple of years. It's the reason we prob won't that I am disputing. I genuinely don't think we can currently compete with Chelsea and City who are throwing huge money around for fun.

if we had a top manager that knows tactics and player management then yes with the squad we have right now we would be competing chelsea and man city for the league

[BFG4]

Cloaked:

The oft-quoted “if I had £100m I would give it back” is legit. I’ve paraphrased Wenger’s response but he did say he would give such a sum back; I’m surprised you aren’t aware of this.

Swiss Ramble is also pretty much bang-on as regards our finances.

Every AKB denies Wenger ever made any comments that belittles their glowing opinion of him. I'm wondering cloakedgooner, do you have a recollection of Wenger telling fans that pay extortionate prices to go to games that they should ''go to the game, and then judge was it worth the price they paid''. Further proof of the arrogance of the man, while he earns millions.

[StuartL]

Cloaked:

The oft-quoted “if I had £100m I would give it back” is legit. I’ve paraphrased Wenger’s response but he did say he would give such a sum back; I’m surprised you aren’t aware of this.

Swiss Ramble is also pretty much bang-on as regards our finances.

Every AKB denies Wenger ever made any comments that belittles their glowing opinion of him. I'm wondering cloakedgooner, do you have a recollection of Wenger telling fans that pay extortionate prices to go to games that they should ''go to the game, and then judge was it worth the price they paid''. Further proof of the arrogance of the man, while he earns millions.

Which is why I haven't stepped inside the Emirates for over 2 seasons, to watch boring, slow paced possession football.

Wenker Out

[CloakedGooner]

Cloaked:

The oft-quoted “if I had £100m I would give it back” is legit. I’ve paraphrased Wenger’s response but he did say he would give such a sum back; I’m surprised you aren’t aware of this.

Swiss Ramble is also pretty much bang-on as regards our finances.

I was aware of the comment, I just didn't take it seriously. That comment was tongue-in-cheek at the time, as he knew full well we couldn't just go around spending that type of money.

[CloakedGooner]

Cloaked:

The oft-quoted “if I had £100m I would give it back” is legit. I’ve paraphrased Wenger’s response but he did say he would give such a sum back; I’m surprised you aren’t aware of this.

Swiss Ramble is also pretty much bang-on as regards our finances.

Every AKB denies Wenger ever made any comments that belittles their glowing opinion of him. I'm wondering cloakedgooner, do you have a recollection of Wenger telling fans that pay extortionate prices to go to games that they should ''go to the game, and then judge was it worth the price they paid''. Further proof of the arrogance of the man, while he earns millions.

The price of the tickets are ridiculous these days (I've been priced out somewhat, only get to attend the occasional game ) but the price the club sell tickets for isn't down to him, all he is really saying is that a fan should go to a game, and then judge whether it was worth going. Any time we go to watch our team, it's technically a gamble as we don't know for sure if we will win or play well etc. I think he was just trying to say (in a round about way) that side of the club isn't his area.