THE WENGER THREAD

[augie]

Grrr, FFS this is an all time low, fans on here NOT wanting us to win a trophy, this is bizarre

Have to say here that there is a fundamental difference in interpretation here and dismissing it wildly does not help.

I am one of the biggest wenker haters on here (and yes I do hate him) but the lack of trophies, as painful as it is, is not the main reason for my resentment towards him. The simple fact is that there are only 4 trophies to win in a season and every club wants to win them so no one club can have a divine right to win them. However what we do have a divine right to expect is that we would be challenging for these trophies every season and I expect the manager, the players and the board to do everything humanly possible to give us the best chance of winning silverware again. Clearly that is not happening as we have a manager and board not investing properly in player recruitment (despite sitting on a lucrative kitty), we have a manager with no tactical acumen whatsoever, we have a manager that continues with the same type of flawed football and all of these are contributing to our failure to win trophies and that, not the trophies themselves, is where we should be focused instead of allowing ourselves to be dragged into a trophies debate which only allows the akb to label us as spolit instead of focusing on the decline of our standards and expectations

That being said, I find this whole "trophies don't matter" point (made in the guardian) to be embarrassing and galling at the same time. A supporter that values "entertainment" over substance is not a long term supporter and clearly is not a supporter that is in tune with the history of our club. It is exactly the same type of loser attitude that we derided the scum supporters for having over the last 40 years or so and is befitting of somebody that should spend more time in the west end shows than in football grounds cos it is not a proper supporter mentality or at least it is not a real Gooner's attitude

[postmanPat91]

Grrr, FFS this is an all time low, fans on here NOT wanting us to win a trophy, this is bizarre

Have to say here that there is a fundamental difference in interpretation here and dismissing it wildly does not help.

I am one of the biggest wenker haters on here (and yes I do hate him) but the lack of trophies, as painful as it is, is not the main reason for my resentment towards him. The simple fact is that there are only 4 trophies to win in a season and every club wants to win them so no one club can have a divine right to win them. However what we do have a divine right to expect is that we would be challenging for these trophies every season and I expect the manager, the players and the board to do everything humanly possible to give us the best chance of winning silverware again. Clearly that is not happening as we have a manager and board not investing properly in player recruitment (despite sitting on a lucrative kitty), we have a manager with no tactical acumen whatsoever, we have a manager that continues with the same type of flawed football and all of these are contributing to our failure to win trophies and that, not the trophies themselves, is where we should be focused instead of allowing ourselves to be dragged into a trophies debate which only allows the akb to label us as spolit instead of focusing on the decline of our standards and expectations

That being said, I find this whole "trophies don't matter" point (made in the guardian) to be embarrassing and galling at the same time. A supporter that values "entertainment" over substance is not a long term supporter and clearly is not a supporter that is in tune with the history of our club. It is exactly the same type of loser attitude that we derided the scum supporters for having over the last 40 years or so and is befitting of somebody that should spend more time in the west end shows than in football grounds cos it is not a proper supporter mentality or at least it is not a real Gooner's attitude

Completely agree - it's not even the fact that we haven't won a trophy in ages; it would be unreasonable to expect a trophy every year. What pisses me off is the lack of ambition and desire to actually try to win something, and the failure to fix the blatantly obvious flaws in our squad... especially this season! Like I said a couple pages back, it's this 'small-time', 'good-enough', '4th place is an achievement' mentality. I don't expect trophies every year, but I do expect those in charge to do everything in their power to at least try.

Nevermind... bring on the wankathon in May!

[postmanPat91]

Came across this gem in the comments section of The Guardian:

Am I the only one who gets tired with listening to journalists and certain fans droning on about ‘silverware’ and ‘winning something’ as if it’s the be-all and end-all of football?
Football is an entertainment and to me the main joy of that entertainment comes in the form of particular games, especially v Man U, v Spurs or Liverpool, etc or whatever turns out to the most thrilling or exasperating encounters of the season, pulling my hair out of refereeing decisions, shouting my head off (for good or bad), seeing how the team progresses since last season or arguing about players and tactics.

The way that some journalists and fans talk you would think that any season in which the team doesn’t win a trophy is somehow a waste of a season in which we’ve been cheated and should be demanding our money back (which basically applies to 16 to 19 out of the 20 teams every season). Almost like saying that a new album from your favourite band was only worth listening to provided it won a Grammy.
Did you enjoy the games or not? Did you at least get to watch a few great victories or impressive and passionate displays from your team? Silverware and ‘winning something’ is the great bonus cherry on top and something that of course we aspire to, but it’s not reason I watch football.
People say that Arsene hasn’t won anything in 8 years. Actually, he has won a lot of games and given me some great entertainment. He hasn’t won any trophies, but I’m a grown man, so I’ll survive that disappointment.

Can't stand this pacified, small-time mentality. It's idiots like this that keep Wenger in the job.

It's not a small time mentality at all. Football is not just about trophies, and the child-like demands for them is ridiculous. It's great to win trophies, but it's a small part of football supporting. A lot of fans are fed up with Arsenal for various reasons and we're all aware of those issues, but I really wish people stopped harping on about not winning a trophy for a few years, it's embarrassing.

Celebrating last year's 4th place finish as if they had won the Champions League... that's what I call embarrassing mate

[Theoperator]

Grrr, FFS this is an all time low, fans on here NOT wanting us to win a trophy, this is bizarre

Have to say here that there is a fundamental difference in interpretation here and dismissing it wildly does not help.

IThat being said, I find this whole "trophies don't matter" point (made in the guardian) to be embarrassing and galling at the same time. A supporter that values "entertainment" over substance is not a long term supporter and clearly is not a supporter that is in tune with the history of our club. It is exactly the same type of loser attitude that we derided the scum supporters for having over the last 40 years or so and is befitting of somebody that should spend more time in the west end shows than in football grounds cos it is not a proper supporter mentality or at least it is not a real Gooner's attitude

I think thats what I said though in one sentence, and no need for a paragraph Augie

[Henry Norris 1913]

I hate these modern latte sipping fans who claim "trophies isn't the definition of success", and go on about entertainment. It's such an annoying hipsterish view you get from people who've grown up only watching sky football in recent years. I can't imagine they're the same people who were packing the terraces singing cup songs about wembley back in the day when we were playing in the quarter final or whatever. Of course we're not just supporting a club for trophies, it's like a family and you do it because it's part of your life one way or another but what is the point in our club (which has a matchday revenue of over £3m) not trying to compete with the best in the world? we're a club that has two average french ligue 2 standard strikers up front, comparing it to the strike forces at liverpool, man city even aston villa and it looks pitiful.
I don't want beautiful football, if I wanted aesthetically pleasing sports, and technical prowess I'd get into ballet or showjumping. It's football, you kick the ball into the goal , go to the pub and go home and watch match of the day. At the end of the day winning a trophy is the main game though, if you don't respect the cups they become meaningless and finishing as high as possible in the table only to ramp up the biggest earnings at the end of season becomes the only priority. It's fucking drab and it scares me what football will become

[Swifty]

It's football, you kick the ball into the goal , go to the pub and go home and watch match of the day.

Plus passion from the team, the coach and the fans and that sums it up.

[phil_mitchell]

if you spend 42m on a player YOU HAVE A DIVINE RIGHT to demand/expect success, and by success i mean strolling the league. buy three more 30m players, pay them whatever they demand (fuck it, it aint my money). i would exchange the 120m in the bank + another 120m of debt just to win the league once more

[Fever Pitch]

if you spend 42m on a player YOU HAVE A DIVINE RIGHT to demand/expect success, and by success i mean strolling the league. buy three more 30m players, pay them whatever they demand (fuck it, it aint my money). i would exchange the 120m in the bank + another 120m of debt just to win the league once more

Still thinking.... How do we encourage his departure ?!?

[clockender1]

A supporter that values "entertainment" over substance is not a long term supporter and clearly is not a supporter that is in tune with the history of our club. It is exactly the same type of loser attitude that we derided the scum supporters for having over the last 40 years or so and is befitting of somebody that should spend more time in the west end shows than in football grounds cos it is not a proper supporter mentality or at least it is not a real Gooner's attitude

very true - we've being laughing at the spuds and West Ham for being The Academy for decades for exactly that reason.

Since we last won a trophy - liverpool (three times), wigan (twice), birmingham, west ham, portsmouth, cardiff(twice), stoke, spuds (twice), sunderland, swansea and bradford have all been in finals. we made two.

liverpool (twice), wigan, swansea, spuds, birmingham, portsmouth have won a cup. we won nothing.

so basically we are at or below wigans level in terms of success over the last nine years, below liverpools, spuds and cardiff.

thats not 2-3 or even 4 years, thats NINE, almost a decade.

sickening.

[clockender1]

good balanced article from the Graniad - which also makes a mockery of Wengers "we always finish strong if you look at the stats" lie :

http://www.theguardian.com/football/201 ... sean-ingle

[Leyton Gooner]

I don't know where this finishing strongly myth comes from. Unless the fourth placed trophy is in doubt we always collapse from February onwards it's common knowledge. Think I read on here that we won two out of our last twelve games or something after the League Cup debacle in 2011? Then there was 2008, and the season we finished fourth in a two horse race (2010?)

[Nos89]

Hang on has wenger actually signed a contract extension yet? I think he's gonna move on at the end of the season. PSG or the french national team might be tempting. He's clearly in need of a new challenge and how often can he live the groundhog day that has been the last 6 seasons.

hopefully with pelligrini winning his first trophy in 10 years it can inspire wenger to achieve the same.

[LDB]

if you spend 42m on a player YOU HAVE A DIVINE RIGHT to demand/expect success, and by success i mean strolling the league. buy three more 30m players, pay them whatever they demand (fuck it, it aint my money). i would exchange the 120m in the bank + another 120m of debt just to win the league once more

City paid 38m for Aguero, 30m for Fernandinho and a list as long as your arm of £25m players, I guess they have a divine right to stroll the league as well?

Shit, Chelsea paid 50m for Torres, I suppose they have a divine right to win the league too?

[the playing mantis]

if you spend 42m on a player YOU HAVE A DIVINE RIGHT to demand/expect success, and by success i mean strolling the league. buy three more 30m players, pay them whatever they demand (fuck it, it aint my money). i would exchange the 120m in the bank + another 120m of debt just to win the league once more

City paid 38m for Aguero, 30m for Fernandinho and a list as long as your arm of £25m players, I guess they have a divine right to stroll the league as well?

Shit, Chelsea paid 50m for Torres, I suppose they have a divine right to win the league too?

Me thinks whoosh maybe!?

[the playing mantis]

Hang on has wenger actually signed a contract extension yet? I think he's gonna move on at the end of the season. PSG or the french national team might be tempting. He's clearly in need of a new challenge and how often can he live the groundhog day that has been the last 6 seasons.

hopefully with pelligrini winning his first trophy in 10 years it can inspire wenger to achieve the same.

No way. It's signed and sealed. Ivan said as much. They just delayed announcing it as they thought they would do on the back of some ' fuck you' wiv success. They were as dumb as the akbs as it's gone pear shaped since and they are scared to announce it for now. Should we scrape fourth they will paint it as a success and do it on the back of that. Should we get fifth, they will claim he's signed to get us back where we belong.