Arsene Wenger has said that Arsenal fans who call for transfers are too easily influenced by a media prefers to talk about signings rather than football, but that he’s ready to spend whatever it takes on the right player as long as he can identify him.
The manager was in prickly form after yesterday’s 0-0 draw with Leicester as fans once again urged the club to spend the money they have to boost a team which really needs strengthening in key areas.
Asked about what the travelling support were singing, Wenger said, “They are highly influenced by the media so that’s part of the process today. We try to make the right decisions, it’s as simple as that.
“It’s a bit surprising that you come out of football games and you don’t speak about football, you have to speak about money. I believe that you have to respect the players who play, the performance that has been done today by those teams and if you find players who can strengthen our team, then we are not reluctant to spend the money.
“Look, we are a whole team working on strengthening the team. I am not the only one and unfortunately nobody speaks about the performance of Rob Holding today. You should be happy, he’s English, he’s 20 years old, but I am sorry, he did not cost £55m so he cannot be good and that is for me what is most disappointing for me.
“You don’t speak about the performances of the players anymore, you just speak about money. Anything else than football. I believe that it’s not right.”
Leaving aside the fact fans can make up their own minds, the club have admitted a striker and a defender are necessary purchases, so if there’s a clamour to make those purchases it’s by their own admission as much as anything else.
Pressed on why he seemed reluctant to spend money, the Arsenal manager took umbrage at the suggestion, reiterating his position that it’s not how much you spend, but on whom you spend it that counts.
“Why do you say I’m reluctant, I don’t understand that?,” he said. “If I buy you tomorrow for £45m that means I’ve bought you [the journalist who asked the question] for £45m, have I done well? Yes, if I listen to you, I will have done well because I spent the money.
“That is not a quality, buying a top player, that is different – and we are ready to do that. I spend £300m if I find the player and if I have the £300m.
“Not to forget as well that we are a club who has 600 employees who we need to have a responsible attitude for as well.”
This is the thing about Wenger, he speaks good sense about how you should spend money, then drives people mad by not spending it that way.
Here’s how the away fans were influenced by what they saw at the final whistle yesterday.
It's time pic.twitter.com/megUZbBtuw
— Aaron Regan (@A_Regan_) August 20, 2016
We are even more influenced by what’s happening on the pitch so stop you’r whining and do the job you are hired to do.
You do yours first by being a good supporter, the boss doesn’t do the whining you do right now.
Ha ha I wants what’s best for the club. Right now, according to this humble supporter, that would be Wenger not blaming fans, or the media, for his, and the clubs, shortcomings in the transfermarket.
They would be better of paying the going rate for players, to get the team prepared for the season, instead of pennypinching and whining about how expensive everything is nowadays.
We’re already 5 points behind the leaders. It’s clear we need reinforcements. Just buy the players we need!
Out of those 600 employees that the club has to pay for how about SACKING OUR INCAPABLE SCOUTS THAT CAN’T FIND ANT TALENT ANYWHERE ?????
THEY OBVIOUSLY CAN’T DO THEIR JOB AND COULD PROBABLY SAVE US A FORTUNE ( maybe enough to pay the extra for Mastafi).
I wouldn’t blame our scouts. Wenger is just unwilling to pay the asking price for the players scouted. They have also found some cheap gems like Elneny, Campbell, Reine Adelaide, Holding. It’s not out of lack of scouting that we have been unable to sign a centre half and striker
Out of those 600 employees that the club has to pay for how about SACKING OUR INCAPABLE SCOUTS THAT CAN’T FIND ANY TALENT ANYWHERE ?????
THEY OBVIOUSLY CAN’T DO THEIR JOB AND COULD PROBABLY SAVE US A FORTUNE ( maybe enough to pay the extra for Mastafi).
Fletch, I think I might love you…..a tiny bit! Best comment I’ve read on here in over a year. I’m starting lose it with some of our fans. Self entitled idiots out!
I think he has a fair point. I’m tired of the transfer circus when the real problem seems to be our lack of imagination in the final third. Better at counters this season but too predictable in our approach play for me. Work on that requires training though, not transfers.
You’re right, let’s train Alexis for the center forward position. Who cares if he’s played as an attacking midfielder his whole life. Let’s train ramsey on the right wing. Let’s not forget monreal can play centre back. Let’s not forget Gibbs can play left winger. Let’s play Bielik in Central defense. Let’s play Chambers in centre back, right back while we actually see him in the long term as a defensive midfielder. We have Walcott for the striker position and while we say we don’t like him on the wings, we still play him there just to mess with everyone’s… Read more »
A lot of those examples are actually good decisions. Although I would prefer Rambo in CM and Walcott as a second striker coming off the right. We all know what’s missing- a nimble centre forward and an experienced centre back.
But should a lack of transfers be our first source of grief when the team itself is not playing as I’m sure it can do? These are not bad players we have.
No they are not, but he could have completely avoided the shitstorm that will continue to blow by signing anyone. Sometimes that is needed maybe not to improve the squad but to up the numbers.
Ajax.
You are right, let s also not play Henry as a CF or wait let’s not play bale as a forward and keep him as a lot back or wait let’s keep van persil as a AMF and not a CF. Oh well we all know that players can’t change positions and end up better there. Oh well we also know that working and training with someone everyday is underrated and that fans should actually make the team
Obviously you’re wrong about picking the team, because of course we all know the media should pick the players!
Look, Arsene’s words are very reasonable and of course make a lot of sense. My problem however is with Arsene’s assertion of when a player is worth the money. He will only sign a player if he perceives the player to have obvious added quality that the squad is lacking. But why not go all in for let’s say Lacazette? Even if he’s not an immediate 30 goal a season success, he brings some added value. Last season we didn’t need that much more quality to have been champions. From a marketing/commercial perspective alone that would have been worth 10s… Read more »
You obviously don’t know lacazette… I am French and he is doest not even have such a great reputation in France so the marketing point is wrong. You won’t sell much shirts from him. You talk about adding a little bit of quality.. For 60M?becsuse thats what aulas is asking for. And you say ‘even if he is a flop’ right let’s throw away 60M give him a monster salary to lure him and who cares if he is a flop at least we spent the money. You say we will be able to offload him lol.. He has NO… Read more »
The thing about it is that it is not entirely one thing or the other. Of course buying for buying and spending for spending is stupid. Of course the valuation of the player is not always accurate in terms of his ability and potential. Of course the signing of Rob Holding and Granit Xhaka are positive. Of course the media is ridiculous and oversimplifies to the point of corruption the game. But on the other hand, of course not suitably responding to injuries to your two centre backs when we already needed another is irresponsible. Of course vacillating over decisions… Read more »
to be fair he is hired to reach CL spot and make big money for Kroenke which he is very good at that. I believe he’d finish in top 4 again this season and renew his contract with promise of same objectives.
Comments like this exemplify the problem at our club. We’re a team that should be challenging for the league, not qualifying year after year for a competition we have no chance or interest in winning. Arsenal won league titles before Wenger and will win league titles again when he finally leaves, which I really hope is at the end of this season. But, by accepting mediocrity, all you’re doing is facilitating the corporate business men at the club like Kroenke and Gazidis, in charging us the fans the highest prices in Europe for mediocrity.
comments like this are the problem or that this is the truth about our ambitions? of course as a fan everyone wants their club to aim for the top.
like I would be happy for Kroenke to have a fatter bank account :))
While Kroenke owns us it will not matter who the manager is.
That video is like beautiful music to my ears
Who’d you get in then?
The argument of whether we can find someone better is valid and one that has made be on Wenger side for the last few years. But ultimately you can’t just stick with him out of fear of what will come after him. I love Arsene Wenger for what he has done for us but I think we can confortably agree he will never win another Premierleague title with Arsenal. I would happily sacrifice a title for two seasons outside the top 4. I couldn’t care less about Arsenal losing money if they don’t make top 4 money as that money… Read more »
I’d do everything to get Simeone. Second choice would bee Allegri.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-transfers-arsene-wenger-hits-4141731
Look familiar?
Wenger is lucky the general fan don’t pay attention to the football, otherwise he would receive even more grief.
He probably isn’t aware of the unhappiness by fans at seeing Theo and Ox get chances over Campbell. He probably isn’t aware that we see how open we are defensively, or that we ask why our playing style and build up play has been so laboured and poor post Cesc, or we pure style is so predictable.
He thinks we don’t see these things and just chant about money.
which arsenal striker said “I am the best striker in the world” now if you answered Nicklas Bendtner, then you have been influenced by the media, bloggers, and social media, cos the lad actually never said it, his quote has been distorted, he said he hoped to become the best striker in the world, but the “I am the best striker in the world” has been so often repeated, as fact, so many take it, that he did indeed say it. So I say again, if you think/thought NB said it, then you have clearly been influenced by the media,… Read more »
The fans were perfectly content to watch the football and maybe occassionally obsess over a transfer rumour till the club started its Emirates based excuses. After a couple of years of taking their bullshit about finances at face value, obviously people got a bit curious and started picking numbers apart.
Despite the excellent job done by Swiss Ramble et al., no fan came to Arsenal to pore over balance sheets. And if the club didn’t insist on keeping up its elaborate long con, maybe we could go back to the football, thank you.
Spotting obvious flaws in our squad and then calling for reinforcements = “highly influenced by media”.
…and Arsene is not influenced by the fans sadly.
I would replace sadly with thankfully
Not only is he is not influenced by the fans but he cannot acknowledge the fans concerns
of course to him we are some dumb fucks who simply dont matter as long as we bring our hard earned money.
I was going to respond but then I realised I hadn’t read the papers yet and so have no original thoughts of my own to add to the debate 🙁
I love the guy I really do, but with every interview that goes by it just seems he’s massively disconnected with the fan base. Yesterday was pretty telling for me that we won’t be improving the squad bar Mustafi possibly. To say we are influenced by the media really is silly by Arsene and shows that he isn’t answerable to anyone. For someone so intelligent, to make such a silly comment like that shows that he is truly oblivious to what the fans are even frustrated about. I can only see this getting worse I’m afraid and it’s such a… Read more »
Highly influenced by points in the league table
The league table after 2 games is an utter irrelevance. Just the 108 points to play for…..
That’s a pretty naive way of looking at it.
Willing to bet that those 5 points become vital come May.
For our Europa league place or our top ten position?
I’m pretty certain I’ve seen you say that every season for the last 5+ years…
This is the exact mentality that fucks us at the end of each of the last who knows how many seasons…
CockEndRider thinks that 1 point from 6 is an utter irrelevance. Good one mate.
Spanner thinks that not winning every game has to result in sitting in a warm bath and opening your veins. No, you never said that either. What I have said is factually accurate. There are 36 games to go. I have more going on in my life than to throw my toys out of the prom when my football team doesn’t win at a stage of the season when the outcome of the whole thing is wholly unclear. At this stage last season it did not look like we would finish second. When you grow up, you may come to… Read more »
He is right in all honesty, I blame his lack of tactics for our dismal showings more than a lack of players
Although he may have a point but the timing of it is fucking piss poor. Another season and most of us can’t even bother hoping for a run at the title and he comes up with all this drivel. Fucks sake Arsene if you’re not doing your job don’t try to blame it on the fans and everything else. At the least just keep quiet.
Me meself highly influenced by the splish-splash-amount of idle and non-productive cash we have in our account
He has been doing this for the past ten years. He treats intelligent fans with such contempt that it has to turn toxic to get your voice heard. The problems with this club start and finish with him, he has been shown up as a fraud ever since he killed the competitive fire he inherited from GG and lost Dien’s arse wiping and mothering of him There are so many examples of his perverse willfulness but sending out Capmbell on loan while persisting with 100K hopeless Walcott, Dopy Oxlade and Sanogo is just bonkers and plain cruel on a guy… Read more »
“We” do not pay him. KROENKE OUT!
Mr. Wenger, you couldn’t be more disconnected with the fans.
Careful, he’ll take that as a challenge! Personally, give it another 10 days & I think we’ll see him even more disconnected from the fans. Hate what’s going on with the club right now.
We are influenced by the amount of money we pay to watch arsenal, we are influenced by the amount we need to pay to both sky and bt to watch arsenal matches when we can’t go to the stadium, we are influenced by having to listen to pundits thrash talk our club week in week out, we are influenced by the amount of abuse we get from rival fans from other clubs, we are influenced by the fact that your one of the highest paid manager, who seems to manage our wealth instead of the team
8-9 months left of this shite & hopefully the club can start moving forward after Arsene leaves instead of treading water as it has been. I really hoped Arsene would go out with a bang but he’s determined to do so with a whimper instead & taint his legacy in the process.
Thing is he will get a contract extension… The way he “ensures” his boss’ interest will keep him in charge for some time more…
And if we don’t make 4th ?
It’s sad to see Wenger’s reputation and legacy being tarnished in this way. It’s ludicrous to see it being done by the man himself.
He needs to stop dithering and stop getting personally offended when a selling club dares to ask for more than his own valuation. He also needs to stop making ridiculous, contradictory and insulting statements.
We’re so close to being able to compete with the other top teams in Europe and it seems the only barrier in our way is Wenger’s reluctance to bite the bullet and spend over the odds.
If you want to buy a house in Islington you have to pay “over the odds”, but he just doesn’t seem to understand the concept.
Sorry, You’re suggesting that you have to pay more than the usual price in Islington to buy a house in Islington? Or more than the price of a house in Hull?
You know you’ve lost almost all support when the dedicated away fans are chanting for you to leave.. Oh, what a decline.
Great man and an Arsenal legend yeah. But why be so condescending towards the fans who spend their hard earned money to support the team?
I think Arsenal fans are some of the least influenced by the media. We know how much rubbish they spout. For example look how the British media love mourinho, but in every other country he worked the media thought he was a dick… Which of course he is!
and so many arsenal fans love mourinho just as much as the british media do,
What?
wenger and the board are in it together. Fans pay the highest prices in European football for two fa cups in 13 years! The manager is on £8million a year , the fourth highest paid manager in world football and the owners are taking a lovely salary out of the club. Until Wenger and the current board are gone we are going nowhere.
the highest paid board member is on £25K a year, and a few of them actually give this directly to charity. but don’t let facts get in the way of a good old whinge.
I think he’s talking about the £3m that goes to KSE every financial year…
Wenger on the chants calling on him to spend money: ‘It doesn’t cost a lot of money [to do] that’
This was the quote that as the most galling for me. He’s clearly completely out of touch with how much it costs a normal fan to attend matches at the Emirates.
To charge what our club does, to then stockpile cash and complain about a “difficult market” for not trying to improve the squad is frankly an insult to the supporters who spend a huge proportion of their income just to watch their football team.
So why not hit them where it hurts? i.e. in their pockets? Boycott!!
Arsene has a point. Untill you sit and try analyse his every single statement you won’t really get the true picture of what he’s saying. Partly because results are not so good atm. And either we like like it or not, the media influence as well.
I’ve watched both Manchester teams matches live so far and no media has told me what’s evident: they both have a top central striker and we don’t. And many of us thought Ibra would be slow and old for the PL; he actually has improved man U’s forward line a lot. That’s what a top player does.(and he cost 0!!! I wouldn’t mind the club paying those wages if the team improved so much) Look at Ozil when he entered yesterday, the team was already so much better. The moral is, keep buying mostly cheap like we’ve done so far… Read more »
but you see Wenger has never said there are no top quality players out there, (you seem influenced by misleading articles in the media and from bloggers who claim he has said that), he has said that there are not many, and that normally when they become available we are not the only ones after them, and are often battling for them against clubs with more money, so the market is difficult. Holding was one of the best players on the pitch yesterday, but loads of arsenal fans are demanding we sign Mustafi(a player I dare say they actually know… Read more »
But Bendtner did and I believe Sir. Bendtner..
NB did not say it, so you really prove my point about how media influence fans.
Those fans at Leicester have paid a lot of money to watch Arsenal, when they could of stayed at home and watched it on TV. They can see with their own eyes that another insipid performance requires a few confidence boosting transfers in key areas. More smoke and mirrors from Wenger, blaming the fans again to hide the problems we have. A manager reluctant to solve them is a serious problem in itself.
where did he blame the fans. more smoke and mirrors from you
I think Wenger is right and that there is a lack of players available to improve Arsenal. Of those that are good enough, either their clubs refuse to sell, or they don’t want to come to Arsenal. Wenger showed by bidding for Suarez, Vardy and Lacazette that he is willing to spend a lot of money, and these failed attempts show that clubs and players often turn Arsenal down when they make a bid. Probably there have been other bids that we don’t know about, and Arsenal’s veil of secrecy over transfers is often mistaken for inaction. Players like Benzema… Read more »
What a pleasure to read! Nice one
Another brilliant fan calling out our “bad luck”. So many injuries repeating season after season stops being bad luck and starts being something else.
Spot on.
How dare you use common sense and reason on an Arsenal board 😀
And the £200m plus we have spent on mediocre players in the last 5 seasons? Is that not exciting either?
That makes a lot of sense Coy Smile until you tot up the players we’ve missed out on for the sake of a few million – Alonso, Cahill, Suarez, Higuain etc.
And you’re right that we’ve been unlucky with the injuries to Per and Gabriel. But there’s been plenty of time to replace them! That’s the whole point. If we’re interested in Mustafi why on earth haven’t we done the business by now?! It’s ridiculous and makes the club look bad.
100% correct.
Some of those we missed out on for money when we didn’t have very much Cahill and Alonso) and some we missed (Suarez) because he didn’t want to join us.
It’s a shame we missed Alonso but equally it’s lucky we missed Cahill.
spot on comment, arsene’s coy smile
So your argument can be summarised like this: don’t spend money the players may not work out e.g Mangala, Otemendi. This is the RISK of high transfers. For every flop transfer (Mangala, Torres) you get a successful transfer (Aguerro, De Bruyne, Fernando, Fernandinho, Hazard, Fabregas, Rooney, David Silva, Clichy, Sagna etc) In short, WHICH TRANSFER POLICY LEADS TO MORE SUCCESS? Man city or Arsenal? I know who has the best transfer policy for success and who’s transfer policy is best for excuses!!!!!!!!! Spending increases your chance of success by 95% FACT! ( look at the statistic of spend for the… Read more »
do you actually think arsenal can spend like man city,
strawman argument he never said we can or should match city, he said spending increases your chances, period. Its hard to make a hit without taking a swing
The reason the players you mentioned don’t want to join Arsenal, or the reason we find it harder to sign them, is because we haven’t won the league for over ten years, we have an aimless board and a manager without the will to win. 2 out of those 3 reasons are down to Wenger. Stop making excuses for him. He’s paid enough, he can come up with his own.
You also fail to mention all the transfers that turn out to be huge successes. Shaqiri, Martial, De Bruyne, Ibra. The pendulum swings both ways. Success, failure or just an average squad player. The point is you took a managerial decision, you took a punt, you TRIED SOMETHING! You speculated to accumulate. You spent £25m on an ageing striking machine from some second rate manager to win the league one last time (RVP). This increased your clubs profile. You get into a virtuous cycle. Other players want to join you now. Or do what Wenger. Get paid and do sweet… Read more »
While I agree with what you’re trying to say, Shaqiri, Martial, De Bruyne and Ibrahimovic? Really? The Swiss Messi is really just the Swiss Bojan. Martial might be a great striker one day but at the moment he is probably behind Rashford in most people’s opinions. De Bruyne is a good player, not as good as he’s supposed to be. Ibrahimovic has scored for United (which to be fair isn’t easy) and obviously has a lot of CL pedigree but he’s clearly more interested in money than winning things (unless he’s desperate to add the Europa league?) I do think… Read more »
Do you really think ‘Shaqiri, Martial, De Bruyne, Ibra’ have been a success?
I don’t, although I think Martial and De Bruyne will be this season and Ibra will be if he can be bothered turning up often enough. Shaqiri is a good player, but not a major success…
Personally, I don’t agree. The fans appear to be far more influenced by what we see in the media, and everything we see on and off the pitch is being influenced by that. Having checked the headlines several times a day to see what’s going on with transfers, it’s the same old headlines. The same old questions. Well, if you read something enough, you start to believe it! I’m generally very passive about transfers, but I’ve definitely been sucked into the speculation, and in many cases, the clickbait. So I’m not focusing on football, or enjoying it, and instead I’m… Read more »
klopp, pochetino and conte have all said the transfer market is madness, that crazy prices are being asked for ordinary players, klopp said fans needed to stop judging the quality of a player on his price, poch said he was finding it difficult to buy players that would improve his team, and conte even said £60M is being asked for £20M players, and said cfc are struggling to buy the players they want due to the massive fees. odd thing is none of them got slated the way wenger did for saying the same things.
I hate pundits and the media in general, they don’t talk about how BORING our games is nowadays. Huge mistake not to focus on this, because Arsenal used to be ‘fragile but entertaining’, not ‘fragile and boring’.
Anyways, Wenger gets it way too easy in the media, transfer questions can be over the top, and can be dodged easily, while a well-directioned question about our lack of ability to control games and create fast-paced attacks would make him sweat. Somebody should have pointed to him how much fewer goals we score from year-to-year.
I consider what he said to be offensive to fans. Just laughable. Condescending, and deflective of responsibility. I mean the guy is just beyond a joke now. To those who still worship at the feet of all things Wenger (and clearly there are quite a few) – yes he has done great things in the past, but no man is bigger than this football club. Look, I’m not necessarily expecting him to sign an Aguero or Suarez. I’m realistic, and understand the constraints (not financial, but all the other factors that affect transfers). A good striker just below the top… Read more »
Dear AW, Performance in Game 1 showed that we need another CB. Performance in Game 2 showed that we need another striker option. It really is that simple. Oh, & that’s before we ask the likes of Kos & Ozil to play each & every game… If the club really has no ambition then perhaps, just maybe perhaps I’ll understand your moves…or lack of as the case may be. But at least say it & stop with all the BS pretending otherwise. You can also lower ticket prices whilst you’re at it too to match that of a club lacking… Read more »
I think he’s got a point to some extent. Sky and BT sport have a permanent hard on when it comes to transfer stories as it gets people’s attention and creates a sensational story, and just looking at newsnow even when the window has closed It seems like it’s all transfer rumours. All managers are asked about in press conferences and post match interviews these days is transfers and I think he gets fed up with it. I also thought he was right about Holding, if he’d cost £35M instead of £2M the press would have been all over it,… Read more »
I’ve been anti-Wenger ever since he sold RVP to Manure. My mate is a long time Wenger apologist and even he has had enough of his bull. Don’t get me wrong he’s changed the club in a positive way, but the last decade just shows how poor of a football coach he really is and this transfer window shows how many lies he’s been telling the fans over the years. 1st it was because we had to balance the books over the stadium move. Then it’s because oil money came into the game and inflated prices. Now it’s because of… Read more »
He is a second tier coach and always has been. He is a very good manager, but not the absolute top tier to challenge the likes of Pep, Jose or Simeone or even Allegri
To say “the fans at influenced by the media” is – to use a Wenger sound bite- “short sighted”. We always seem to be one or two players short and what’s really infuriating is we end up scrambling at the end of the transfer window. I swear we used to be more decisive- in 2001 I seem to remember we signed: Wiltord; Campbell; Jeffers; Richard Wright; Van Bronkhurst…a couple more I think. Wenger seemed more ready to add to the squad. If he doesn’t want to sign anyone then why give Joel Campell away on loan? He was bright last… Read more »
you see you mistake not having signed a forward with not wanting or trying to sign a forward. AW has many times this summer said that he wants a defender and a forward signed, and that he is trying to get them signed.
so maybe, just maybe, the media headlines suggesting otherwise has indeed influenced you into thinking AW does not want to, and is not trying to, sign the players.
Eduardo- you seem to have taken it upon yourself to comment n other people’s comments in the defence of Arsene Wenger, the board and the club. The mistake you seem to make on every comment (that I’ve bothered to read) is you’re assuming people are whinging or being negative. Eduardo- people can express themselves how they want, including you. The mistake you’re making is, you don’t seem to be acknowledging the fact that there’s something amiss at the club. You claim Wenger is “trying” – how do you know this? Evidence suggests otherwise. This is Arsenal football club- not Port… Read more »
benteke for £27M, yeah afc could have done that deal, would it make sense no, would it improve us, probably not but it might make some fans happy, just cos money was spent, after all it don’t matter on who, or how good they are, its just buy buy buy, then we can win a transfer window dick swinging contest. buy pogba, agureo or zlatan, of the 3 the only one possible was zlatan, and his wages would have meant more than half our squad having to get pay rises, which would damage the club. we all would love a… Read more »
you see, that is the issue with mentioning other club transfers. No one is saying Arsenal should have bought Benteke. What they are saying is that, if Crystal Palace managed to get a 27m deal wrapped up in a week, why does it have to take Arsenal FC a month to wrap up a deal worth a smaller amount? Especially when you consider we are supposed to be an elite club. We have to be more efficient, more pro-active and more responsible in our actions within the transfer market. No one is saying pay stupid prices for average players, what… Read more »
Two stars, one ok player, two flops.
I’m going to say this again: I agree that there are problems with Wenger. Walcott should not be starting for Arsenal and Wenger should leave it to others in the club to worry about the money. But when we lose him we’re going to be left with the underlying problem that we have had for quite a while now, the club ethos. The club is not so much a club as it is a company anymore. Money comes first, football second. If the board decide to cave into the pressure from the fans and let Wenger go our next manager… Read more »
Any top manager that comes in will want a decent budget to work with. Or we’ll get a 2nd rate manager or maybe promote from within and continue the current methodology… What people don’t realise is how much money Arsenal lose by lack of investment/success. You just need to see how low our commercial revenues are compared to top teams to see how we are failing to attract new fans and in some cases failing to keep our old fans, especially in foreign countries where perhaps fan/team loyalty is much less of an issue
Agreed! But I think the board see real investment in success as too risky at least at this stage. I feel sorry for Ozil, he’s miles ahead of almost all our other players.
“The board see investment as too risky at this stage”? What stage? We have pretty much paid off the stadium, the EPL just received a new TV deal and a few years back he was telling us how when we had a new sponsorship deal we would have more money to compete. This is the time to invest and compete and we aren’t. We all vilified Cesc, Madrid and RVP when they “turned their backs” on us and left. Sanchez and Ozil will do the same thing to us but now we will accept it and actually encourage them to… Read more »
“We have pretty much paid off the stadium”
really that will be good news to the club, who seem to think that their is something like 15 years of repayments to be made, over £200M
maybe the like of the sky pundits claiming the stadium debt was paid off has influenced you into thinking this was the case.
“if you find players who can strengthen our team, then we are not reluctant to spend the money”
That’s bullshit, isn’t it. I refuse to believe there aren’t better players out there than Feo, Ox and Iwobi – one of whom will probably be playing every week.
Wenger really doesn’t think much of us collectively as fans. Last year it was our fault for the teams poor performances at home, and now this condescending comment that we don’t have the ability to think for ourselves. What he continuously fails to acknowledge is that he’s in a position where he will be publicly scrutinised for his and the teams performances, which is why this is subsidised by his over inflated 8million a year wages. Yet, any criticism directed at him, he turns it in to this big media personal agenda against him. Well guess what Wenger, you may… Read more »
well clearly you are influenced by the media, as he never said the fans were to blame for the teams poor performance, that was of course how the media portrayed his comments,
I think you have been influenced by Mr Wenger.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday evening’s visit of Norwich, Wenger said: “We lost the championship at home against the lower teams, but we played at home in a very difficult climate.”
In his own words champ – a direct quote. Difficult climate.
So how is that saying it was the fans were to blame?
Just stating a fact that many in our home crowd aren’t very supportive.
Arsene should manage a National team; it suits him better. There is no transfer window.
Arseblog stiring the shit up by publishing third article about the same post match interview. And taking his frustration about failing servers out on Wenger. While the points you make are valid there is no need to go on on about it. Standards are falling here. Poor form. Click baits.
We’re reporting his exact words. This was his post-match press conference, NOT his post-match interview. Like it or not, what he says is news, and we’re simply reporting it. We haven’t misquoted him or presented what he said out of context.
You don’t understand what ‘click baits’ is. And I have no idea what you mean about ‘failing servers’.
Well, you are not simply reporting it are you?
arseblog if you were simply reporting it, you would just quote the questions and his answers, and leave the comments on it to the comments section, and not put in your own slant on it.
We want Wenger Out! We want Wenger Out!
Sorry mate we are not blind!
I live in Islington and have stopped going to the games. Not due to Wengers lack of spending, or because our results are not perfect, not even because I do not like the style of football we play. I have stopped going, because these ‘fans’ these selfish ‘fans’ with unrealistic expectations are ruining it for the real supporters. Support your team and stop booing! The fans lost us more points last season than the manger did.
Same here. I’ve stopped going to the games too.
And I used to LOVE watching live games as a special treat, normally on my birthday, but it’s ceased to become entertainment.
Plus, I also agree with others comments on here about this blog.
Arsecast Extra is quality, the presenters are excellent. Really funny and insightful. One of the highlights of my week! But last week put me off listening any more.
Unbiased Arsenal news and humour is what attracted me to this blog, and unfortunately that’s fallen by the wayside.
We are totally biased towards Arsenal, but we’re not cheerleaders. If last week’s Arsecast Extra wasn’t as humorous as you’d have liked, it had a lot more to do with losing 4-3 on the opening day than anything else.
Yeti just stop paying Arseblog to do this…oh hold on a minute…
In Arseblog/Arsecast/Arsecast Extra I trust.
So let me get this straight..Arseblog were not biased when they did not say anything against Arsene, but now that they have made some observations (which are commonsense) they are biased…
can you see where the bias is here..
(beauty is in the eye of the beholder holds true here)
Selfish fans? I live in Shoreditch (so just outside Islington) and I am sick and tired. I was supportive from 2008 to 2015 when we paid thousands in season ticket fees to always start the season a few players short. Well now, with £200m (that we have contributed to) to spend, we are being told we cannot compete. So my patience and support for the man has run out after 8 years of it. An I am sick and tired of people saying “support the team” blindly when they give us so little reason to with insipid performances and insulting… Read more »
Waffle King strikes again.
Last year of his contract, so change is coming to Arsenal next season, but will it be for the better? With Kroenke up top and by looking at his other sports franchises i think it’s safe to conclude with a big fat NO or atleast a very very unlikely.
I believe that Kroenke is the problem.
What a patronising statement from Arsene, directed to all of us Arsenal fans. Wenger, confine your supercilious talk to the board room.
Seriously, of all the youth we’ve invested in the last few years, whom we believed would become genuine world class stars, how many have made it to become world class? These were players Wenger overlooked established players to buy because he told us their potential would be realised, but how many have become WC players? Let’s have a look Chesny Chambers Gibbs Jenkinson Jack Ox Theo Sanogo Ramsey Campbell We could go back a bit to pre-Cesc and RvP days to Denilson, but that’s a while back. The last few guys were Van P, Cesc and Nasri. And those were… Read more »
Arsenal.com is a sickening bullshit filled propaganda machine.
Turning his critical reference to us the fans into ‘we’
The man has completely lost it. There is a chasm of disconnect between club and fans.
The storm is gathering and the end of his reign will be horrendous if he doesn’t act quickly.
Yeah I felt support/opposition for Wenger was about 50/50 towards end of last season but it now feels well over 50% of fans are against him.
He’s not doing his job and if he can’t take valid criticism then he should leave behind his incredibly well paid job.
The ‘protest’ last season suggests it was way lower than 50%
Probably closer to 5% but clearly the loud 5%.
Very disrespectful comments by Wenger… does he think the fans know nothing about football?
Gary Megson ?
Even my favorite site to read about football is now getting too bias…..I am an arsenal fc FAN….now finding it hard being here. COYGs.
…matey, he article is only reporting the words coming out of Wanger’s mouth.
Fact.
no it aint fact, the bits not in quotation marks are added, they are the authors views or take on what wenger said,
Fact.
If Wenger was winning with the squad he had, no one would raise a peep about him not spending. But he has been underachieving for far too long.
Enough of the excuses Wenger. Time to produce or make room for those that will.
Everyone really needs to take a deep breath, exhale, and calm down. The endless talk about transfers is fabricated and fed by the media, and like it or not this influences us greatly. Along with reading Arseblog, my first venture every morning is searching through the online papers for news of Arsenal transfer targets — all summer long, even though I know the majority of it is complete BS. I do believe, like 95% of the fanbase, that we need an injection up front and more stability at the back; why that has not been accomplished is very, very frustrating.… Read more »
I assume then that Arseblog are now officially in the out-brigade, as suggested by the tweet at the end?
If you’re trying to suggest that fans aren’t influenced by the media then you’re deluded. It appears to me Arseblog has taken offence to the suggestion and this is reflected in the piece.
It would be more honest to admit that we dont know why they haven’t bought a striker, and Wenger does. His point about Rob Holding is also sound.