Arsenal have cancelled Arsene Wenger’s pre-Swansea press conference that was scheduled for tomorrow morning.
Having avoided the media after yesterday’s defeat against Chelsea it would appear the Frenchman remains in no mood to publicly dissect his side’s abject performance. The club have informed both broadcast and written press that quotes from an in-house interview will be made available instead.
It’s an unusual move from the Frenchman who has always fronted up to journalists throughout his 17 years in charge and a clear sign that behind the scenes there’s a real shitstorm going down.
As further evidence of the apparent lockdown, the club’s Twitter account hasn’t posted anything in over 24 hours while the entire squad appears to have been instructed to stay off social media.
The silence is deafening right now.
Calm before a storm?
More like a barren wasteland left after a storm.
Don’t think I could bare to take another press conference of Arsene saying it’s about ‘how we respond’, and the the players saying ‘it was unacceptable’. Talk is cheap. Especially right now when we’ve been saying the same things for pretty much the whole season.
I’ve been waiting for the calm to come back before posting this … In the last 5 seasons, including this current one, our performance against the top 4 teams has been as follows: Played 29 (this year we still have to play Man C) Won 7 Draw 5 Lost 17 What does this tell you about our mental strength? And for how long with this debacle continue against the front runners? When will we invest in getting some winners and leaders? Many more questions arise for which we do not have answers … if only Arsene can help us to… Read more »
For me right now no news is good news! – The players should focus on the game on the pitch instead of posting all kinds of pictures every time they win a game.
We’ve recalled Akpom from his loan so that’s something. So he may get some first team action to give something different to Giroud. Bendtner is never playing for Arsenal again it seems.
Calm before a Kim Kallstrom debut?
Sorry, I’ll get my coat.
In case you were in any doubt about us winning the league, the following should put you straight. if only she’d turned up at the beginning of the season…
http://metro.co.uk/2014/03/22/bromley-spiritual-healer-married-arsenal-boss-arsene-wenger-in-15th-century-4672954/
Puzzle Solved! Hehehehe
That’s amazing! Hahahaha!!! My favorite bit is that she is the mother of all aliens. Impressive.
Uh-oh….
It can’t possibly be what I think it may be……
jesus this is scary
It’d better fucking be scary for them. If we don’t react and MAUL Swansea after this, I will be extremely pissed. Not a grind-out 1-0 where we defend the last 20 minute. We have to thrash them to an inch of their lives. Enough is bloody enough.
Taking it out on Swansea doesn’t avoid the reality that City are coming to turn us over on the weekend. A leopard doesn’t just change its spots overnight.
Let’s just agree for the moment that Shitty are coming here at the weekend. We don’t know what’s going to happen.
Who gives a fuck about City right now. We have Swansea to beat. This had better mean shit is going down behind the scenes. This is the only top club I can think of where perennial failure is no threat to your job. That is not directed at Wenger but the club’s culture as a whole. Fuck the nanny state, these players need to understand that performances like yesterday mean the chopping block.
Does it ever change it’s spots??
Okay then. Lets all watch as we maul Swasea, a tea thats currently in a losing spiral. Then turn up on the weekend to thrash City.
Why do we continue to bullshit ourselves? Telling yourself that you don’t know what will happen against shity? Watching the fucking trend damn it.
After being humiliated by City we shit ourselves and drew 0-0 at home to manure, and after being humiliated by Liverpool we shit ourselves and drew 0-0 at home to chelski. So a 0-0 draw or another humiliation is a safe bet
got it all backwards Macduff, Chelsea followed City and ManU followed Liverpool, otherwise you’re spot on about a draw following one of these humiliations, but Chelsea and even the toothless ManU of this season are a bigger ask than Swans.
I believe a leopard can change his shorts….. and that this is the clam before the storm. Which shows I’m still fucked up after that debacle on Saturday. I can stand losing but I can’t stand bottlers. Ljundberg, Henry, Bergie, Pires, Viera all of them had the nuts to stand up to any opposition and win or lose not once did I get the feeling that they didn’t care. Still and all we’re all hurting or we wouldn’t be Gooners and a damn good thrashing to the Swans and slaughtering Wigan in the semi would go some way to making… Read more »
Apologies folks…… We didn’t maul swansea.
I think it will be 1-0 then defense the entire match scenario again *sigh*
Apocalyptic? I’m trying not to be too dramatic, but either he wants to gather his thoughts and channel his aggression into the players rather than the assembled media OR he is gathering his thoughts ahead of making a statement of some importance OR the board are preparing an obituary to our greatest ever manager (Apologies to Mr Chapman). One thing for sure is that it will only fuel the media speculation wheel.
That’s what I was thinking too. But I hope it isn’t Wenger drafting his resignation.
I hope to god he is.
i still lean towards the “keep wenger” side of the argument – if only because if not him, then who? who else will attract the big names (ozil, draxler, etc.) that have the potential to change this club’s rotten course of good, but clearly not good enough? i just don’t know what the options would be, and we’ve all seen how it went for that lot up in the red side of manchester. with that said, what kind of professional football manager in the premier league can’t get his team to – if not lose, then not lose in such… Read more »
Laudrup? Pocchetino? All good young managers with vision, rather than someone who hasn’t improved the club in nearly a decade. I love Wenger but feel that he has done all he can, how can he turn this around? He doesn’t have it in him mate.
@jay no and no…
I don’t see it as a if not Wenger then who type of situation. This is a question of one of the finest managers in football who has led this team to CL qualification after CL qualification as the club undertook a major transformation (new stadium/new financial model).
Fickle fans here calling for Laudrup or Pocchetino? Unbelievable. Perhaps it is that we no longer deserve Wenger.
The “if not him then who” argument is crap, there are a number of managers around who may or may not be worth a choice, not one single fan would have picked Wenger before we got him, so there goes that argument
Daft Aider, Although as you correctly say very few knew of AW before we got him, the whole situation has changed. Dein was looking to move the club back up to the ‘Chapman’ level (which since then had been an occasional league winner, regular cup winner and regular upper mid-table team). At the time AFC could take a chance on an unknown. Now we have a fan base 100 times larger (and 25 times less supportive), it’s a very different game (remember the sand-pits/mud-holes they used to play on) and competitors in a completely different level both squad-wise and financially.… Read more »
I can’t imagine it, but are the board talking to Wenger about the game? Is there an inquest?
Leave it for the end of the season, I would say. Too much going on right now. Just put the next game and hopefully a good result between this disaster, and then face up to the press again.
Either way, they are going to ask about his 1,000th game in charge.
the players deserve it..they need to know what it is to represent the Arsenal!!hope they crush the swans midweek..
Good! Hopefully there is some serious head banging going on and the players are getting a grilling. That half time scene from Mike Bassett England Manager comes to mind.
I remember when I first saw that scene when I was a lot younger. The line – “If you don’t wanna wear the shirt, fucking take it off! There’s thousands of kids out there who’d die to put that fucking shirt on.” – always got me and still does. Applies to this bunch too. Where is the passion? Where is the bottle? Where is the fight?
For those foreign gooners who haven’t seen it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4x05Z3MSkQ
“England lose 4-0”
Thanks.
All I hear is *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* *beep* something *beep* something something *beep*.
@Gargoyle, bit of British humour for you there! Transcript if it helps… Interviewer: Half time, and England trail Mexico by 2-0. Mike: Have you heard what the crowd are fucking shouting? “Fuck Bassett!” “Bassett’s a cunt!” “Bassett’s a bastard!” “Bassett’s a wanker!” They shouldn’t be fucking shouting at me, they should be shouting at you, and do you know why? Because it’s fucking half-time, and we’re fucking 2-0 down to the fucking Mexicans! What the fuck’s wrong with you? Get your fucking fingers out! Where’s your bottle fucking gone? [hurls piece of equipment at the goalkeeper] Mike: And fucking pay… Read more »
Many thanks to Goontang and Exiledgooner.
Nice stuff.
That’s brilliant!
Lol.. this is pathetic. own up and move on. You can’t hide from the press forever. They will ask about this lockdown till the end of the season.
Or maybe he’s realized that there’s not much good a press conference can do but damage the team even more and he can spend that extra hour getting the players ready?
ready for what? they had a full week for Chelsea. I doubt an hour will do much good
Agreed. It’s nothing new, and somewhat cowardly. A top manager would face the press after a mauling like that and EFFECTIVELY rip the players. But not Wenger, because he treats like toddlers, and from how they collapse in big games, it’s not far off the truth
Rip into players, you mean like what Sherwood did?
Because we learnt from Tim Sherwood that ripping into your players publicly works so much huh? …
May be this will be as bad as it will get. Like the Tottenham defeat last season. He will make changes.
that’s what was said about Liverpool…
and maybe this time it will happen… maybe.
Good move.. we dont need to hear about how they will bounce back and all that crap we always get told.. the players need a good kick up the arse, have a good long look at them selves and come out storming on Tuesday looking like they mean business..
…and not perform as they did post-Liverpool against Manure.
Heads need to roll
I hope he’s reading them the riot act,they’ve earned it!The annoying thing about all this is that Mourinho has got away with another episode of disrespect!
and who’s reading HIM the riot act?
Its a big game, go gung-ho, that has worked out this season for us.
Oh, we are two down. Work it out boys, you know my philosophy. I believe it is down to our quality, spirit, desire (oops, no desire), and the performance on the pitch.
I think his approach was wrong to the game but that does not excuse the team’sspineless performance. A team full of experienced club/international players and a back four that have played together all season long should be able to see the problem when they concede twice in two minutes and go 2-0 down with 7 minutes on the clock. They should be able to perceive the fallacy of their approach and course correct. Especially when the same problem would have been pointed to them in the post Liverpool analysis. One of Per/Sagna/Arteta should have put his hand up and said… Read more »
You’re not wrong. The back four are (mostly) seasoned professionals and should know what to do without a nod or instruction from the bench.
true, I like how raw gooner put it, “you’re not wrong.” I don’t disagree with you, and neither am I simply saying he should have got up and shouted and told them what to do. We are at their home ground, there is a lot of animus between the two managers, he hasn’t lost at home here, ever. Prepare the team to go out there and see what is happening in the first 10 minutes, how our own teamplay is developing, and “MOST importantly, boys, try not to concede, cover each other at the start.” You saw the positions they… Read more »
Wenger is the skinny kid on the beach getting sand kicked in his face with mourinho being the bully. He is only able to defend himself against another skinny kid (the Cardiff, fulhams of the world) but when did he last go toe to toe against a big team/ manager and win?
Its been too quite for my liking, wonder what is up. We Just have to wait i guess.
Okey…
Bendtner should be made to unleash his belt buckle on the entire squad, then forced to fuck Wenger like a Danish taxi.
silence is good. Its better than Players saying they are fighting for title and for Wenger after playing like that. Hollow words.
Goodbye Mr chips
Bye Bye FA Cup.
See you at the game.
Ill sneak in a pint of rum.
I think it’s a good move, they all need to focus and re-evaluate after their abysmal performance at the weekend. Hope we come out all guns blazing on tues! Nice warm up for City…
Good! This is a sure sign that collectively the players and manager have had enough of these awful away performances against top teams! A major reaction is needed and 2 clean sheets.
Italian teams always do this, generally to create a siege fuck the world mentality. That’d be nice, remember passion?
I hope this is what it is and not Wenger second guessing his position.
Wenger has been shielding the club from so much the past few seasons — taking the blame for not signing players (when I presume that the case was rather that the money wasn’t forthcoming), among other things.
He deserves more credit for seeing the club through a massive restructuring
Good. Less chat, more…. thing to do with winning that rhymes with chat.
You’ll have to spell it out for me. Cat? Hat? Fat? If it beings with ‘tw’ I may have just got it.
Wow….
At least it’s being taken seriously.
I read somewhere that arsenal practice their passing game against cones that represent defenders. Look at how quickly our passing triangles fall apart, if the players don’t practice how to deal with intense pressing then how can they be expected to actually deal with it?
I read somewhere that we were trying to sign Messi. Believe nothing that you hear and only half what you see.
Every team practices against cones AND against 2nd team and 3rd teams.
it was like the players were remote controlled in between the time chelsea got their first three goals..it was like magic. they just breakdown the defence and shoot and the ball suprisngly goes into the net.. i hope this lockdown would be an awakening for players,coaches and board as well and as well save our epl title challenge
These days my second or third comments always go for moderation. None has been rejected. Just curious why that is. Separately, FA cup and top four is an advance on the previous season, beating teams we are supposed to beat, also an advance. Squad improvement also an advance. Next season, better performance on squad improvement, a bit more balls facing big teams (Pires, Henry et al were never scared), and I hope a return to, or at least a modicum of, power football. We’ve always passed well, but we used to do it with more power and pace. Theo’s return!… Read more »
Not sure if this is an improvement – first half of last season – not very good – second half of last season, and first half of this season (2013) very good – second half of this season – not very good. Have we actually peaked, and it now downhill? I hope not, but the team are getting that bit older, and slower, and less good…….
I am really of the opinion that Arsene should somehow manage to win us the FA cup and leave this summer. He has done legendary stuff for this club but its time for some new blood. I would love to see passionate and younger manager like Kloop manage Arsenal.
There are two ways to look at improvement, points earned and team performance. As Blogs previously said, the run to secure top4 at the end of last season was awesome points wise, but the games were nail-biting, hanging-in for life kind of stuff that he, nor I, would not want to go through again. The way we’ve played this season is more like deadly in patches and consistently hard to beat against the lesser teams and nail-biting the rest of the time, early season wins against Napoli and Liverpool aside. I don’t think we’ve improved performance-wise, we don’t dominate games… Read more »
Kafka, Good point, well made. The squad will get better. Hopefully a bit more speed as without TW we doo look a bit slow on the break.
Probably still rolling around in rum the lot after that performance. I know I am.
Steve Bould is currently trying to work out who is up for the fight by holding a ‘Beyond the Thunderdome’ fight off whilst dressed in a Tina Turner wig.
I like the silence, this loss was something else and the usual comments from the players (after a loss) wouldn’t be comforting. Nice with a game on Tuesday too.
“We showed great mental strength”
“This was a one off”
“Have to forget about it and move on to next game”
Remind me, by forgetting about such a disgrace, how will you ever learn? Wenger out, the man has lost it
I wish he had them all on lockdown before yesterday’s shambles so they can focus. Of course a win on Tuesday is a given but next weekend is where we must show the world what we are About……
Who cares!? Wenger’s way past his sell by date! He hasn’t moved with the times. It’s all about high intensity pressing and counter attack football, as you saw yesterday and in heavy defeats at anfield and the Etihad. He hasn’t learned or adjusted or bothered to move with the times, to counteract those teams and tactics. He refuses to change. The players he has, reflect his philosophy. He has too much influence at the club and the board is a closed shop! He should resign, because that’s the only way he’ll go.
SO you’re saying he’s out of touch because he want to play high intensity pressing football, which is exactly what $iteh and the mugsmasher do……
Jurgen klopp please. He will put a much needed rocket up some arses
The only way Wenger will finally go is if he resigns. The board have no balls, hence no sacking
Ryan, just to be clear, you want to replace a manager whose team is top 4 in a league that’s got 4 dominant teams (and 8 competitive teams) and in the cup semis, with a manager of a team that’s 2nd in his league but it’s dominated by 1 team with max 4 competitive teams…. You don’t see something wrong there? I think Klopp is a good manager and in a few years time he may be a very good option for us but he’s not up to AWs standard. AW will not resign. He always sees out contracts (so… Read more »
For me right now no news is good news! – The players should focus on the game on the pitch instead of posting all kinds of pictures every time they win a game.
Gut feeling….
Good ticking off, and some focus on professionalism to ensure minds are wholly on the game.
Twitter can fuck off.
maybe the all just die after this embarrassment?
Good!fed up with all his nonsense (excuses) every time we got whacked ! Nobody is bigger than the club , those who can’t perform must go !
Like Wenger, who hasn’t performed since 2006? Or is he bigger than the club? I remember Arsenal before Arsene, they weren’t bad you know..
Jay, you have absolutely Zero knowledge of the club situation since 2006, so how the fuck do you know he hasn’t performed? All you know is what you see from the outside, like most of us. We have No idea of finances really available to him whilst Siteh and the Chavs (and to a lesser degree Old red nose’s team) have bought silverware and the mugsmasher/spuddies etc have been trying to win silverware….
So what you mean is that AW hasn’t performed the way you (or any of us) want him to.
Not quite the same thing!
I don’t understand how it’s Wenger’s fault if players play like they did yesterday. It seemed like we were playing a different defence to the one played at Spurs. Abject. Pathetic. Embarrassing.
Not completely his fault but he’s the manager and deserves some blame along with the players.
Agree with the ban on pointless drivel from players twitter accounts. There’s been too much talk the talk closely followed by the same players going awol when it counts. Mad a hell right now.
After that embarrassment yesterday I think it’s fair to say the players and manager should give up a weeks wages to charity. It’s not like they earned it, may as well do some good.
Godd idea. Or just refund those away fans and give them free tickets to next season’s away games at Chelsea and City.
Whatever might have transpired backroom the most important thing right now is to finish in the top 4 the find a new energetic more modern tactical knowout to lead us next season. AW has so much compassion for AFC it has be clouded his judgement and insight into the modern day football. This defeat has almost put us in the shadows of chelsea and given cunt morinho the full bragging right damn I hate morinho! A lot of our players are good but a lot of questions has to be ask about their committment and ability to dig out crucial… Read more »
This year was wengers chance to prove everyone wrong , Chelsea didn’t start the season well , citeh and manure had new bosses and Brandon was getting he’s teeth whitened…..
This year although we probably have improved but we haven’t stepped up and added a quality centre forward , central midfielder and done something about our appalling injury record ……
And signed a 31 year old midfielder with a broken back, on loan, with more than £100 million to spend. It’s like he wants us to hate his guts
We haven’t signed a central midfielder? We signed one of the best in the world…
He’s highly overrated, that Ozil. Looks normal, average on this team, looked great at Real. Who wouldn’t look good in the midfield when you have Xabi Alonso covering your ass and Ronnie running onto your through balls? Ozil is not a box to box kind of guy who can control the game. He is always looking for that perfect pass, and it’s not always there. As great as he may potentially be, he just isn’t they type of player that we need.
Not like it matters.
As soon as we beat Swansea all will be forgotten and we’ll be back to hearing about how the team have great quality and mental strength. Fans will be happy that we won a game and the Chelsea match will be treated as a ‘freak result’. Then Wenger will sign a new contract and we can look forward to repeating all this next season. And for some reason everyone will be surprised. Can’t wait!
Alas I think you are right. The cracks will be papered over once again and Arsenal will continue to stagnate under Wenger for another three years of abject failure…
Oh, hey Tim.
We’ll beat Swansea and city and then everything will be ok again. Only team that can win the double!
Management more culpable than players. That being said each player needs a good kick up the arse. They took the easy.route of giving up and kopping out rather than fighting for the league. No progression through perennially ‘fighting’ for fourth place…
Yeah….had noticed Twitter silence!
Always hate the “not acceptable” and “sorry” bollocks. There are no Vieras or Adams’ in this team…that’s for sure.
I really want Wenger to stay. I want him to leave too. But not like this. Whenever Wenger leaves, I want him to leave with respect. And Roberto Martinez as Arsenal’s next manager please.
Me too, mate. I still trust him but he has too get his tactics right or we are always going to get fucked in the arse. In one hand, is the players fault too, in big games they get lazy…why? i just hope we sort this shit out and quick. Oh, i prefer Klopp to take over after Wenger leaves, he’s awesome!
Klopp is awesome but he is also under newly signed contract until the end of 2018 and stated he will always see out his contracts.
Arsene Wenger in the pre-Chelsea presser was quoted as saying he first and foremost makes every decision as if he owned the club. I have no doubt that he is shattered after this, especially this being the third time in one season where we were not even close to comptetitive. There is a reason he has not signed that contract. I believe the Man City game away gave him pause……and now Liverpool and Chelsea. He is in control, this is not the club’s call he has the say-so in nearly everything that occurs. Very difficult times and I am no… Read more »
Every top club has a structure in management. Bayern, who we should be looking at as they have the perfect way of management, have ex players who run the club, who have the best interests of the CLUB at heart. Can we say that for Arsenal? Hell no, or else somebody would tell Arsene that he needs to change. Wenger thinks he’s bigger than Arsenal
If you don’t think Wenger has the CLUBs best interests at heart then you’re a fool.
“who we should be looking at as they have the perfect way of management”
Yeah, with sll those tax dodgers.
I’m also a Bayern fan (Lived there for a while) but their model cannot work in the PL.
There’s a number of reasons including the fact that their league has so little depth that they can have a poor season and still get a CL place.
We really should follow their sponsorship model though.
Good. They should all be banned from using social media.
They played shit last week and got away with it, taking stupid selfies etc.
Leave the selfies and tweeting for when we have achieved something (FA Cup).
This is getting tragically scary. Well, we’re all shocked after that trashing defeat by Chelshit with that bitch called Josephine. Head up, time to regroup and concentrate.
Strong language for an Angolan girl…
Yeah, sorry mate…
The bollicking should start with the players from Arsene. They should all be told they are playing for their future careers at Arsenal. Someone needs to drill some pride for the club & jersey into them. The board should give AW a ton of grief & question his tactics, training methods, his ability to change the situation & his scouting & purchasing policy. Is he still the man to take Arsenal forward? If he is then demand a better return on the huge salary we pay him. If not they need a replacement strategy for the Summer.
If they are playing for their futures, then why did he re-sign the majority of them during this season? The players are too content in their positions with this club and are managed by someone who has no idea what it takes to win anymore. Because Wenger is loyal to them, they wont feel the pressure to succeed. Regardless of our form from September to January, this season will still be lumped together with every 3rd or 4th place finish recently. Keep in mind, this generation has experienced the worst ever road losses in our premier league history, the 8-2… Read more »
Yes time this players know how bad this defeat is. I remember mertesacker calling the liverpool 5 1 result an accident and one which will never happen again. knowing it was mertesacker I believed him but look where we are now. im not listening to any player anymore sitting beside the manager at pressers and spew some shit that they know we WANT to hear, get on the pitch afterwards and waste away in 90 mins of mediocrity. fuck all this
The players say this because they actully believe it. They blindly follow Wenger’s idiotic tactics which is why they all think that they’re better than they are, they believe Wenger is still invincible. The world has moved on from Wenger, he has no clue about tactics which is why we have such a pathetic record against top teams. What team goes into every big match expecting to lose? That’s how I feel whenever we play Chelski, City and United.
We’ve played 12 games against Chelsea, City, United, Spurs, Liverpool who all spend more than we do.
The results:
5 Wins, 2 Draws, 5 Losses
Jesus christ monkey balls!!! Can open, worms everywhere!!!!!
Ild much rather they would have taken this game seriously and had a twitter lockdown beforehand. After the embarrassment of city and lpool I would have thought heads would have been switched on early. Seems with players like rosicky the ox and sercezny that if they do well in a game or a couple they think they are world beaters. It’s about doing it week in week out. Aw selection yesterday was poor. I know he has a hard on for arteta but flamini is a dm and does the ugly bits arteta doesnt. If anything arteta and flamini for… Read more »