After yesterday’s confirmation that Jurgen Klopp is se to leave Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season, it was inevitable that Arsene Wenger would be asked about his German peer’s decision.
It’s fair to say, he didn’t take the line of questioning in this morning’s press conference.
Visibly annoyed at being quizzed on the future of the popular 47-year-old coach, Wenger told Sky Sports’ Nick Collins: “Look, I’m not an agency to place managers. I like every manager and respect everybody. I find that circus a bit ridiculous honestly.
“Again, I think it’s down to every club to make the right decision,” he added when pressed whether there could now be a player exodus at the Westfalenstadion.
“Dortmund is a massive club and will survive and will keep their best players, [they have the] ability to keep their best players. It’s a club with a big history; a history linked with great results and great achievements. I don’t think will stop for Dortmund.”
In a noticeably tetchy mood, Wenger also took aim at the television companies who’ve chosen to schedule Arsenal’s FA Cup semi-final clash with Reading at the same time as Chelsea take on Manchester United.
Presumably annoyed because he himself wouldn’t have minded settling down with a glass of wine to watch the Premier League encounter, Wenger said:
“I’m a bit surprised that a game of the same stature is played at the same time. It’s a bit of a conflict there, it’s difficult to understand.”
Because you know… the is a CAMPAIGN against Chelsea and of course you wouldn’t want to upset Mourinho even more now… Broadcasters = LAME.
Seriously though… Klopp to Man City? 😀
Have a goonerish day folks.
Guardiola lost to a supposedly inferior team yesterday, 3-1. The headlines read “A Night for Pep to Forget”, signifying the poor result was merely a flukeish aberration and not at all his fault.
After our Monaco defeat the headlines were markedly different. Love him or not, Arsene deserves a bit more respect. Telling him to his face to basically move aside because a supposedly superior manager is now out of a job, is disrespectful.
The difference is that Guardiola has won the UCL more than once, Wenger and Arsenal have never won it. We have also gone out at round of 16 for last 5 years after having shot ourselves in the foot in some fairly winnable games on some of those occasions. To say that Monaco was an “aberration” for us just isn’t true considering our recent record, hence it’s fair for the headlines to reflect that. That said, sports journalism (Arseblog News aside of course) is a total joke. These hacks make up transfer stories with no source whatsoever, act disresepctfully to… Read more »
I wish I could thumbs down your comment a million times.
Clear cache, thumb down, clear cache, thumb down, clear cache, thumb down …
You’ve just caused chaos my friend.
Guardiola has had his fair share of luck in life. He walked into managing Barcelona as his first gig. When he got there he had probably the best squad ever assembled. Messi, Henry, Iniesta, E’to, Xavi, Toure, Valdez In a 100,000 seater stadium that is packed to the rafters with fans who loved him. He was then given a colossal budget to improve the team and he bought Hleb. (and Dani Alves, Keita, Pique etc) He then bought Zlatan He then won what you would expect with the best players on the planet He then cracked up a bit and… Read more »
Truth hurts a million
Only if it’s true. And only if it hurts a million.
What that Guardiola has won the UCL. Wenger and Klopp haven’t
Its the truth. The positive fans unfortuanetly will thumb you down “a million times”.
Funny…I thought most reports said Bayern were hapless.
I can’t agree with people who call Klopp a superior manager. Dortmund’s record this season is far worse than Wenger’s worst record with the Gunners. If critics of Wenger going to say that regardless of what he has done in the past, Wenger must be judged on his recent accomplishments with the Gunners, then the same standard must be applied to Klopp and based on Dortmund’s record of the last 12 months, he’s hardly a superior manager.
“Dortmund’s record this season is far worse than Wenger’s worst record with the Gunners.”
Not only that, it’s in a league that, apart from Bayern and a couple of other teams, is closer to Championship quality than Premiership. Seriously, you could put Burnley or Leicester in that league and they’d be in the fight for European places.
Yeah of course…keep lying to yourself.
Burnley and Leicester would beat Schakle, Leverkusen, Monchengladbach, Wolfsburg.
Typical “positive fan” response.
Wenger once said a great manager is someone who only loses 2-3 games at the trot. An average manager will lose 4-5. A bad one 6-7.
Now it’s a little self-serving to a choose a metric you excell on yourself, but it’s true that Wenger’s greatest strength is his consistency. His slumps never last long, and he always gets the team out of them before there are any really serious consequences.
Klopp is not a great manager by those standards. Wenger never would have let his team end up in the relegation zone halfway through the season.
Come on man, every Arsenal fan has been frustrated by numerous displays in big games similar to our loss to Monaco. That’s never been the case with Guardiola’s teams. Let’s not base our opinion of a manager on one bad game. And don’t even with the budget comparison; we’ve had the talent to win the prem for two years. We are the best team in the league so far in 2015 and were the best team in the league the first half of 2013-2014. I love Wenger and wouldn’t change him for any manager in the world. I think he’s… Read more »
I mean how many times have we seen any of pep’s team get beaten 6-0, 6-3, 5-1, IN A SINGLE SEASON??
Positive fans will keep lying to themselves. Yes Wenger has done a great job, but undermining pep’s ability to revitilize a squad like he did with the barca team is just plain ridiculous. He moulded that team in his image after riijkaard left it in tatters.
rijkaard left barca in tatters? a cl cup a liga and some wonderfull players (deco, ronnie, puyol, a young messi and xavi already controlling games ) that’s some tatters indeed! people tend to underestimate what riijkaard did at barca. that was the end of the cycle. pep took over and did great but he had a trio of messi xavi and iniesta at his prime.of the best trio in history. pep is a great manager but not superior to wenger, nor is klopp.wenger is not just a mere coach. he is the boss and decided consciously to be a a… Read more »
tv company wankers. Press wankers. Cant imagine how much they might have wanked after the BVB’s official club statement.
Since when did they start to schedule league games at the same time as the FA-cup semi? It sure wasnt any PL-game last yaer was it?
Actually, it was the BBC who scheduled the FA Cup semi-final at the same time as the Premiership game,. Sky had alread said back in February (I read somewhere) that they would be putting the Chelsea v Man Utd game on their late Saturday afternoon slot.
Blame the BBC.
Klopp might end up at the Glazerdome, I reckon. Beaker has really not achieved a great deal for all the money he’s blown and their current league position is really based on several lucky results along with an uplift in performance that came of the back of the humping we gave them in the Cup…
Klopp off, kloppof*ckers!
I give zero fucks what Klopp does. Had a great squad, won stuff, key players left, he then lost a lot. Possibly a great manager in there but he’s no Hitzfeld or Conte. As evidenced by this season’s (admittedly post WC, post injury) form a guy like Hummels could easily flop if he ended up at the wrong club. So again, zero fucks where he ends up. More importantly, I hope OUR manager has prepared OUR squad well for tomorrow. As if we don’t have better things to speculate about than the dumbass drama at Dortmund. Fucking stupid pressbox and… Read more »
Fucking ridiculous having Chelski/Scum match at the same time as ours.
BBC/FA have fucked up here.
I guess we have to PVR the other game and watch it after. I’m hoping for lots of red cards and injuries, haha.
The way they constantly move game times in footie is quite shocking to a North American. Most leagues over here set up the schedule at the beginning of the season. I understand the need for some tinkering during the year due to cup runs and the conflicts involved, but the changing of games must really mess with people traveling and making plans.
They only get moved if the TV companies want to show one of them and they can pick them through out the season. This is so if there is a couple of months to go and Chelsea and Arsenal are in a 2 horse race, they will opt to show there games. They wouldn’t know this if they picked which games to show at the start of the season.
Screw that, they should pick what hey broadcast in advance. It makes no sense anyway that only the fans of the league leading teams get to see their teams on live television more than once or twice a year. I’m pretty sure Newcastle-Sunderland would get a much larger audience than Chelsea-West Brom, regardless of their respective league positions. They should just pick derbies, games between title favourites, and games between other kinds of rivals. Any time any fan gets screwed out of his/her travel arrangements by a match being moved for television is a time too many.
Good to see Arséne having a certain… swagger about him of late. First the whole “we’ve made contact with the embassy” thing with Theo, now referring to the BVB situation as a “circus”- it’s good to see him feisty about things after the worn down, almost beleaguered figure he cut for the past 5 or 6 years when questioned about stuff.
He’s right about the TV companies/FA with the Chelski game, though. Fuck ’em.
Not to mention pushing Maureen when “going from point A to B”! I love classy Wenger because it is so difficult to be classy. But I want to him to be ‘shoving’ Wenger because it just feels so good.
Arsene always oozes with class when dealing with the press wankers.
Look, I’m not an agency to place managers.
Love it. 🙂
He’s had some good lines down the years but that is one of the better ones.
I have to admit that I too was very surprised at the scheduling. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m watching the Arsenal game all day long but Chelsea vs United is also is also a cracking tie one wouldn’t want to miss.
Who cares about Borinho v Louis Van Boringaal?
The Bus Driver v. Louis Van LongBall.
Let’s see who’s more boring. Hope the master of boredom bores the student of boredom into a submission of boredom and loses
I mean wins…
Don’t see a problem. Only interested in the result of the chav v manure match bollocks to watching them.
Klopp will go to the sheiks or bin dippers hope he leaves his players at BVB though.
I’m starting to love this new Wenger attitude of ‘I don’t give a shit about you nonsense gossip headline questions!’
Seems like he can be his self now that we have money to spend instead of playing useless mind games with the press and players.
Forever COYG!!!
Fuck it. Get Klopp as assistant manager for next 10 years under Arsene while we conquer the world, and let him take over as we move into the Arsene Wenger Super League made up of all the intergalactic champions, because I’m sure that humans and aliens will be living in coexistence within the same universe by then. I also think we will dominate this league because I’m pretty sure the rules of football dictate that the players must be human, meaning that all the other teams that enter will be disqualified by default.
Actually there is nothing in the Laws Of The Game that require players to be human.
I miss Rambling Pete.
Even if everything goes according to plan, we pick up another CDM, striker/winger and CB to compete/compliment the team and treble next year, Wenger retires heading into the sunset with all the glory he deserves, Klopp wouldn’t be the right successor.
The right successor would be Diego Simeone. A manager who has been competitive under budget constraints, and looks insanely scary enough that he would terrorize Gunners into terrorizing opposing teams on the pitch and forever erasing any questions of grit, toughness and ferocity.
Actually, whenever I look at Simeone I see a future Chelski manager. The guy can be pretty odious (has history from playing days atleast), plays a game plan similar to Moanrinho’s earlier stint with Chelski and sufficiently mental (no, not in an endearing way).
As for Klopp he might be going to Man shitty by default – they will be looking for a new manager; no other major club is looking to change theirs.
I think Klopp will go to Man $chitty. Pellegrini’s days are numbered and he may even be sacked before the season ends. Unfortunately for Klopp, $chitty is a bit of a poisoned chalice at the moment. More than half the team is 28 or older and they’ve got next to nothing coming through their academy. They’re under FFP restraints so they can’t go out and buy any more trophies. Klopp has had some outstanding successes in the past four or five years, but I don’t believe they’re because he’s a brilliant manager, strategist, or motivator. I think for a little… Read more »
With Klopp being a manager for longevity, as in someone who will build a team over time, would Citeh be the kind of club who’s allow him the time to do that? I doubt it.
Wenger has class
It will be a pleasure to miss Gary Neville and his odious love in with man Utd
I second that. His tutting of the one dissenting voice (the ex player and now pundits name escapes me) over Rooney’s blatant dive against Preston was pitiful.
It’s too difficult to compare any manager let alone one who didn’t need to balance the books as much as Wenger.
They both suffered from bigger clubs poaching their key players at the worst timing, Lewandoski, Fabregas etc.
But Wenger has managed to recover the best. His powers f recovery are amazing and he has adapted in many ways to ensure Arsenal has been competitive during the stadium building era. In years to come Arsene will be recognised more for such achievements than Klopp will, unless of course he becomes Arsenal manager.
Klopp on – Klopp off, Klopp in – Klopp out, to Klopp or not to Klopp, that is the question.
Yep, flavour of the month. Just like Brenda before him, and Martinez before that.
I think we all like Das Klopp. If he was to replace Wenger when, and I say WHEN, his time is up I wouldn’t complain. But the time for Wenger to hand over is not yet upon us and as some lucky club is bound to snatch him up it looks like Klopp wont be an option for us.
Klopp has deserted a sinking ship.
Arsene deserves maximum credit for hanging around and keeping us semi competitive.