Arsenal have confirmed that Arsene Wenger has finally put pen-to-paper on a new contract that will keep him at the club for another three-years.
The extension, which is believed to have been agreed as far back as the autumn and is worth approximately £24 million in total, means the 64-year-old could be at the helm until summer 2017 – a ridiculously impressive 21 year shift in North London.
Speaking about his decision to stay on at the Emirates the boss underlined that his commitment to the club was never in doubt.
“I want to stay and to continue to develop the team and the club. We are entering a very exciting period. We have a strong squad, financial stability and huge support around the world. We are all determined to bring more success to this club.
“The club has always shown faith in me and I’m very grateful for that. We have gone through fantastic periods and also periods where we have had to stick together. Every time when that togetherness was tested I got the right response. I think I have shown some loyalty as well towards this club and hopefully we can make some more history. I am sure we can.”
Stan Kroenke, no doubt pleased he’s not going to spend his summer ‘doing a Levy’, praised the Frenchman for his achievements while also looking to a bright future.
“Sustained excellence is the hardest thing to achieve in sport and the fact Arsenal has competed at the top of the game in England and Europe throughout the time Arsène has been manager, is the ultimate testimony to his consistency of performance, talent and ambition.
“We are delighted with the FA Cup success which has added to his already outstanding record. Under his guidance we look forward to adding more trophies in future seasons.”
As has been well-documented Wenger has led the Gunners to seven major trophies since joining in 1996, an achievement that surpasses those of his predecessors in the role. He’s also, in case you weren’t listening at the back, secured 17 consecutive years of Champions League football.
Oh no!
inb4Fatgo…
DAMMIT
ALL THAT PREPARATION WASTED
Give it a chance Fats, you might find you enjoy being a gooner for once.
Yeah Fatgooner 🙂 Just try 🙂
Start by reading this please:
http://www.7amkickoff.com/2012/how-much-money-would-it-take-to-bring-arsenal-level-with-the-big-spenders/
Too smart to see it coming? Thought he wasn’t a man of his word? Or blinkered, fingers-crossed, wishful-thinking dashed on the rocks of reality?
Now what are you going to do for the next three years?
— Tries sarcasm meter–
— does not work on Fatgooner–
— Shrug —
Him signing is great, but never really a surprise
He went into to tough times with his eyes open. I could not imagine him leaving now after all of that, with the good times around the corner. (Oh wait; is that an FA cup I see).
Onwards and upward
Fats Gooner wants us to notice him AGAIN.
He is so much of an Attention Seeker
We should make an tactical decision to show him the ” love” this summer
Imagine having to wake up everyday, and someone ” saying love fats” Blessed
Dear @arsenal : Endless love
Dear Arsene: Arsène ma chérie aller …
21 years……nous allons tous célébrer avec les trophées every year
OH NO! its fat gooner again, like a bout of herpes he recurs, gentlemen! prepare yourselves!
Well, we need him tied to a contract first before we can SACK him! Well done!
Now, #Vagnorr aaahht!
I am starting a new campaign. #fatgoonerout
Well, we know Arsene honours his contracts and Arsenal, unlike these ‘hoes’, is loyal So you’re going to have to deal with it for some time. So bunch up your panties and get with it!
Excellent! Can’t understand all the haters.
I’ll quickly agree and whisper before I go that they’re easy to understand really…. I think of them all, without exception, as complete idiots 😉
Wenger, despite what people may tell us, is an incredibly intelligent man. He’s aware that this is a great chance for the team to push on, and he’s aware that football has evolved and requires some bigger investment than it did back when he first arrived in England. I’ve been telling friends for years he’s playing this big chess game, waiting until all his pieces were in the right place to finally go for it, rather than pissing money down the drain a la Chelsea, Spurs. Losing RvP, Nasri, Cesc were problems he hadn’t anticipated encountering, I’d wager, but now… Read more »
Happy with that! Hoping for a positive summer window to kick off the next 3 years.
Yeah! This is like a new signing!!
After winning the FA Cup he sure as hell looks it
I posted this a few weeks ago but thought a re-post is warranted. “Ultimately people want Wenger out are very short sighted. He came, changed the way we’ve played, won us titles and cups, made us build a new training ground and stadium whilst having very little net spend over the last 10 years. Kept us in the champions league for 17 years. People take that for granted but after next year with no Utd in the CL that is a record only us and real madrid hold. We have a turnover that will exceed 300m when the next figures… Read more »
Anyone who doubts Wengers comitment to the club and his desire to get us back to the top should watch these: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7sC0YH2A_8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQEbo59FnTM We have the best manager I believe in world football. Yes he has flaws but the truth is you give any manager and I mean any manager the resources we have and say “We’re building a stadium, keep us competitive and playing champions league every year so we can pay this off otherwise the debt may become crippling, by the way if you could also make us anywhere from 20-50m profit on players every summer that would… Read more »
That’s right. It’s easy to come in to a squad with a bazillion pound, two deep at every position roster and compete. To build a team with a young core, despite captains leaving each year, which gains in points season to season in to be applauded. If the Premier League has truly become about a rich man spending money to buy a FFP violating championship, I want to watch Arsenal in another league. And those moronic fans can stay and pull for Petrodollar Team X.
Hehe, Yes. Imagine Mourinho being told that for the next 10 years you are not allowed to spend money in the transfer market, but preferably make us a profit selling. Your best players are likely to leave every summer sinse we cant compete financially with the other mega Clubs in this 10 year transitional period, but regardless we expect you to deliver Champions League football every season ofcourse.
Mourinho would have got the f out of there at the sentence where Not and Spend were put together.
Good read. Would recommend.
Whenever people criticize Wenger’s time at Arsenal, I always point them to this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Arsenal_F.C._league_positions,_1947-2013.png . I do this because I think people forget where we came from as a club and what Wenger has done for us. I think some people only know that last 10 years or so of Arsenal’s history as a club. People scream “X years without a trophy!” as if as a club we are somehow entitled to trophies because we’ve won them in the past. Yes we are a big club with a rich history but there are a lot of tough teams out… Read more »
That graph screams Cookie Monster at me
Forever is a long time, but not for Arsene Wenger.
Great! Delighted! Now sign at least three players, please… No, they have to be all in the same window! K.Thx.Bye.
Onwards and (hopefully) upwards
Great news! We will win the prem in those three years without a doubt, you heard it here first.
Hopefully the next three years will be very exciting for the club indeed!
Excellent news.
*8 major trophies!
I think he won an fa cup a little while back
Almost two full looooong weeks.
TWO WEEKS WITHOUT A TROPHY
WENGER OUT
etc
Wenger out (on the piss to celebrate and I’m joining him)!
3 more years at least. That’s plenty of time to win another title or three, and throw in a couple more FA Cups and hell, maybe a CL 😉 I say the job is pretty much there for him forever
The most important signing of this transfer window.
Not sure if this rings true for everyone, but in Arsene I trust.
This should be dedicated to all the Spurs fans who sang ‘We want you to stay’ when they were 2-0 up at our place. The first time. Actually, the second time too. Mugs.
Excellent news. Let the transition slowly begin.
ON a related note: Angel Di Maria wins quote of the week, perhaps month:
—Talking about the transfer speculation that surrounded him last summer, he revealed: “It hurts you when you are trying to always do your best for a club and then it comes out that you might be going to Tottenham.”
Next 3 years is going to be the best 3 years. Time to make some history.
Fucking get in gooners….
go do yourself FG.
This news is perfect for Friday
come on!
Great to get it out of the way. Now to building for the next season.
at least 2 major trophies and d next community shield would do quite nicely for me. Now for those top top quality signings pls.
He’s done as good a job as anyone could have in hindsight getting us through this period while building a new stadium. Yes he is frustrating, stubborn, and has his faults but I absolutely love the man. He deserves a chance to use the new financial firepower the club has. I shed tears when he lifted the FA Cup. Nothing in football would please me more than seeing Arsene Wenger make Arsenal great again, and finally get the credit that he deserves.
Well said. He’s human, fans forget that.
Over 153,000 per week. More trophies please…
Fantastic news! Now let’s go win the league!
A day after Arsene signs his 3-year extention, Arsenal seal their first summer acquisition:
A bigger fucking trophy cabinet!!
Here’s hoping they are three fruitful years for us all. One Arsene Wenger.
Delighted!
One Arsene Wenger, there’s only one…………..
I must admit, for the first time this season I started to lose faith. I was wrong. Arsene knows!
I feel a little sorry for Fatgooner. What a pathetic existence he must lead.
Yeah, after days of posting hope on other threads…he must be scurrying back to his cage now.
He got what he wants!
Now, please take that hand brake off please! Both in terms of playing on the field & signing players off it.
Glad he’ll stay. Now for the task of adding more firepower to the side.
the most important signing of the summer
thank fuck for that! now let’s go and sign grant holt before the hole left by TGSTEL gets too big for even grant to fill
Whilst coming close to an end of every of his Contract periods,Wenger has always assured everyone(when asked) that he’ll sign a new contract at the end of the season….I wonder what his comments’ll be(when asked) at the time he thinks that his time at the Emirates is coming to an end.
On the fans expecting a big summer
Yes, they should expect that. What I can promise is that we work very hard on a market that is very, very congested with many people who have a lot of money. But we have a big advantage, players want to join us and if we find the right quality I’m sure we can strengthen the team.
Oh, thank God! Was starting to get a little skittish about the silence regarding his contract, and as Blogs said in an Arsecast not so long ago, who would we have replaced him with? One Arsene Wenger! Let’s make it another FA Cup or two before he eventually retires! Would also love for him to win a Champion’s League, but that is a few quid’s worth of investment off I’d say.
The only Giroud is Olivier
Wenger IN!
Only ok if he for once starts signing some good players.
I hear that Ozil fella is pretty handy. And I keep hearing about someone named Ramsey. Unfortunately we’re losing another of his signings, a faithful gunner of 7 years named Sagna, but it’s nice to see Cazorla is here for a bit. Oh yea, then we have Koscielny and Mertesacker. They’ve seemed pretty decent chaps. There are more, but I’m tired of typing.
Arsenal does not have the philosophy of Real or ManC or Chelsea.
I’m cool with that.
And then again, clubs like Real Madrid has Ronaldo amongst others. Your point being? Nobody can honestly expect us to win the league with the current squad we have now. Sure we’ve played good against the bottom teams of the table, but are our team good enough to beat the other challenging teams? I don’t think so.
You mean like Liverpool? The team we comfortably beat 2-0?
This squad needs more players, but it’s pretty fucking good already.
My point being, It is disrespectfully shortsighted and not at all thought out to claim that Wenger has never signed a quality player.
Yes, Real has Ronaldo among others. They didn’t win their league. Barca has Messi, AND Neymar, neither did they. ‘Pool has Suarez. Second, and we dumped them from the FA Cup. Oh then there is ManU and RVP. Where did they finish?
Only bad thing about this is we have to put up with all the moaners and whiners if we get one poor season. They’ll be all “knew we had to let him go” and so forth. Even if we win two trophies the following. But I believe in Wenger. He’s brought us the title before and he can do it again. Just fire all cannons, Arsene!
Great news:-). Wat does TGSTEL mean?
This is a massive mistake. This is not a positive move by the Board: it’s a negative one. Arsene Wenger is yesterday’s man; he’s Mr Fourth Place; he’s the guy who just doesn’t get it. This new contract will mean three more years of underachievement. A younger, better manager could have won us the Premier League; Wenger will just ensure more mediocrity and failure. “Oh, but we’ve just won the FA Cup!” I hear you all exclaim. Yeah – but it should have been the double. This season’s shambolic (but predictable) collapse in the Premier League – caused mainly by… Read more »
moyes in 🙂
Couldn’t be bothered enough to read all what you said.
Roberto Martinez may be a good manager but himself and his team bottled so sorely at home against Palace and let us get away with the 4th spot.
tl;dr
an essay in confirmation bias, by F Gooner if all you look for is failure, failure is all you shall find, my friend i think most of us are capable of recognising weaknesses and whilst AW’s sides haven’t always been where they once were, there’s a big fucking pile of concrete with 60,000 seats in it which goes a long way explaining it, and that’s before you get into the money being spunked around by other teams. under the financial straits imposed by a new stadium build EVERY SINGLE OTHER BRITISH TEAM HAS BEEN RELEGATED. Arsenal has maintained CL football… Read more »
Poppycock, Sam. You’re wrong. He’s why: 1. The stadium. All of the clubs who were relegated building new stadia were yo-yo clubs anyway. Derby, Sunderland and Bolton have always been up-and-down clubs, even in the old days. And what about Man United? They practically rebuilt Old Trafford while still winning titles. You know why? They had a brilliant manager who got the maximum from his resources. 2. The myth about no money to spend. Wenger wasted a huge chunk of the wage bill on dross like Almunia, Bendtner and Diaby. Money WAS there, but most of it was spent badly.… Read more »
Well said and all true.
But you must remember that it is ‘Arsene Football Club’ and and not ‘Arsenal Football Club’, that these little fellows follow. And will do for the next three years.
We ‘Arsenal fans’ will simply have to bide our time.
your avatar is flawed
Lets all walk in FatGooners enormous shoes for a while. Let me see if I’ve got it right – we should get Martinez because he is better than Wenger. This is because we need a manager that is capable of the big signings, tactically shrewd, proven track record, etc. Hmmm… Berkampt & Ozil. A season undefeated. 17 years of CL. Just think of the league dynamics if Chelsea and Man City’s billionaires hadn’t arrived. Would we have lost the players we developed. Would any club be able to assemble the superstars of football that delivered trophies to Chelsea and Man… Read more »
Go and eat yourself, will you!
I’ve taken a screen-shot of you claiming Wenger will never win the league again.
Filing it in the “humble pie” folder.
Who ever manages to read all of what FG has to say above, gets a biscuit.
Fat Gooner you truly are the Niklas Bendtner of Arsenal Fans. #TGGTEL
Haha, a manager who fought relegation all his life, got relegated last season, and choked again this season, and we think he is on the up 😀 You are some serious analyst, Sir.
Fats OUT.
Why don’t you just take over from Arsene.. Mr.Fatgooner? You know too many things..!
damn!
that means another three years of guaranteed champions league football.
Fucking A!!!
where A is for Arsenal,Arsene,Awesome in that order
Yes! He may not be flawless, and I may well be calling for his head some time next season, but how can you not love Arsene? He’s such a neat guy.
Not only has he achieved overwhelming success here, but his views on the game and our club are truly inspirational. Respect for all people, the tradition of the club, and beautiful football. Be thankful we don’t have some clown like Jose Mourinho at the helm.
This is excellent news. No other manager in the history of the game – Paisley, Guardiola, Del Bosque, Ferguson, Ancelotti, Shankly, Mourinho, Jacquet, Busby, Benitez, Capello – even Juande Ramos or Tim Sherwood – could have kept any club in the Champions League year after year whilst building an iconic new stadium in the centre of Europe’s most expensive city, having to make a transfer surplus and competing against rival clubs who can write off £billion losses like people write off a rusty Ford Escort. Now Financial Fair Play is starting to kick in and Arsenal are no longer hamstrung… Read more »
Ugh, the words on the blog today are so well done. Class, yes, preach on sir!
Your last point is as fatuous as it would be to suggest how much more successful we’d have been if we’d have signed Ferguson as our Manager. It’s totally hypothetical because we didn’t.
What about Sagna?
Sobs
Let it go!
Well, I’ve certainly got my issues with Wenger, but it can really only be good news he’s staying. Good for the players, certainly – will give our youngsters a few more years of stability. I was impressed with the team this season, a title challenge and a trophy was what I was hoping for and what was delivered. It may have faltered, but we ended only seven points off the top, and the season wasn’t over in November like before. Fair play to Wenger and the team for that. Only thing I really hope is that he’ll go hell for… Read more »
8 major trophies, isn’t it? 3 league titles and 5 FA cups?
I wonder how long before fatgooner’s comment gets hidden.
Not soon enough,IMO.
God I love being skinny, it must be so fucking miserable sweating your ass off in December! Seriously though, you call for Wenger to be replaced by someone on the up like Martinez, the same Martinez that completely bottled 4th spot this past season and now has a huge job on his hands replacing all the players he is losing from their loan spells ending! Get a fucking grip Fats, the grass isn’t so green over there!
Fats needs a loan deal at some other club.
I was hoping he’d use the F.A Cup as an excuse to bow out on a high.He’s a man pushing 70 who’s set in his ways. Not feeling positive about this. To tell the truth, felt this sinking feeling in my stomach when it was confirmed. Ironic a man who loathes spending to make the team better earns one of the world’s top salaries.
I am so pleased. As others have stated including David ‘Goalie’ Seaman stated in his interview recently before the FA cup final. “Be careful what you wish for”.
With all the previous stated reasons he has done an a great, consistent job, and brought us success and enjoyment along the way.
I for one really can see a better future with him still at the helm.
PS love the debate and discussion keep up the good work.
http://www.arsenal.com/news/news-archive/20140528/table
Watching some of these graphics kind of boggles your mind. Wenger is a about a quarter of the clubs TOTAL HISTORY in games played, won, goals scored etc. And not to mention trophies (especially FA cups). That’s just incredible.
Will it be possible to replace Wenger?
Like for like? No way. Not even Somewhat Similar when you consider both the vertical and lateral influence he has at the club.