At his post-Everton press conference – well worth a look on the official site if you can – Arsene Wenger was asked about fans singing songs about Stan Kroenke, and why he didn’t participate in the lap of appreciation.
During the game, fans sang “Stan Kroenke, get out of our club”, an open show of dissent at the owner as the club beat the Toffees but failed to make the Champions League for the first time in 20 years.
Quizzed about the chants, Wenger said, “I respect everybody in life and I respect Stan Kroenke a lot.
“I don’t think that he is at fault for not reaching the Champions League, the technical department [manager and coaching staff] was responsible for that.
“I don’t see what he has to do with that.”
He was also asked about Alisher Usmanov and his reported bid to buy out the American.
“That again is not my problem,” he said, before revealing why he didn’t accompany the players on the lap appreciation.
The manager has always been part of that, but this season chose not to take part.
“The players have been disturbed enough,” he said.
“I wanted the players to have the quiet lap of honour that they’ve deserved. I was out there to show respect.”
To be fair, given the atmosphere at times this season, it was probably a sensible move to stay removed from it, but it’s all a bit sad really.
Wenger also said a decision on his future would be made soon, and it’s expected to happen within a couple of days of the FA Cup final next weekend.
These journos are idiots aren’t they?
Asking Wenger what he thinks of his boss – do they expect him to say he thinks Kroenke’s a money worshipping leech who knows nothing about football?
And that his moustache is noncey
People who want wenger to stay but want rid of kroenke need to ask them selves why that way round? As someone below said all kroenke is guilty of is settling for 2nd best and giving Wenger a new contract year after year. Not sure how you can separate the 2. arsene now has money to spend.He runs the club how he wants.The owner doesn’t interfere in team affairs. You either want them both to go like many of us do or you want them both to stay. It’s not logical to want stan out and Wenger to stay as… Read more »
Kronke is guilty of buying the club and doing nothing, watching it struggle for years when he could have paid off the stadium debt, invested some of his own money, won things, made the fans happy and probably greatly increased the value of his own investment
It’s just another business in his portfolio and he clearly doesn’t give a shit about it.
I agree 100% but even had he given millions of his own money to Wenger would you have trusted him to spend it in the right way.
Until we get rid of both the club can’t move on. Wenger trust’s Stan and visa versa the 2 are linked and both need to go
But I thought Arsenal is too good for sugar daddy owners?
Whether the fans agree on Wenger or not, they are unanimous on Kroenke. There is a lot wrong with our club but Wenger should be at the bottom of that list whereas people like Kroenke, Dick Law, Gazidis, Sir Chips etc should be right at top. The fans anger is misplaced.
I can say without an iota of doubt that Wenger genuinely loves Arsenal. Can the same be said about Kroenke though?
And lastly this
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/arsenal-news-arsene-wenger-future-stan-kroenke-toxicity-runs-deep-summer-of-change-a7748496.html
His wife is the heir to the Walmart fortune, even richer than him. He isn’t going to sell.
He was also asked about Alisher Usmanov and his reported bid to buy out the American. “That again is not my problem,” he said
It is not Wenger’s problem, but I wish he would speak to it. One of the biggest problems we face as a club right now is that Wenger is the sole spokesperson for Arsenal, and we all know how cryptic his interviews are, so we as fans genuinely have no idea what is going on.
We forget because of Wenger’s status, but those people are higher than him in the club. There hasn’t been any kind of search for a new manager so Wenger has to stay, otherwise we’re super fucked, even more so than we already are. Knowing this, it would be idiotic for Wenger to talk about a potential change in ownership of the club, as it would strain the relationship between him and the people he works for
The season is just ending so if Wenger goes, (which I hope for) we are not ‘super fucked). There is enough time for us to get in a new coach during the off season.
Besides, as usual there will be some good managers leaving their posts at the end of the season which increases our options. For example, Diego simeone just announced today that he is staying at Atletico, but it could very much have been the opposite.
He berter do a lap or two at wembley after lofting the cup on Saturday!
That’s the spirit, mate!
People talk about the qualities of Arsenal and the high standards we expect of our board etc but when our manager feels he can’t do a lap at the end of the season because of the way the supporters might react I think it might be time we try and hold ourselves to those same standards.
Exactly what’s been on my mind.
Spot on.
Well said
You mean continually supporting the team, paying the highest tickets in the world and still watch us being destroyed by Bayern & undenwhelm against WBA, Palace, Chelsea(away) & Watford?
But sure yeah dig out the fans & not the guy on eight million a year & having no pressure to succee.
The point here is the last game of the season and the traditional lap of honour is not the time to be disrespectful and carry on like its a fans given right to do and say whatever the fark they want. Time and place for the supporters to show thier thoughts and feelings on the club, but the end of the last game of the season is a time to thank the guys for doing their best, even if it isnt good enough for some.
Am i missing something here? He didn.t do the lap so there is no way of knowing how the fans would have reacted!
For some? You meant the majority, surely. And we were told to judge at the end of the season, and here are the people who are emotionally tied to the club and pay the highest ticket prices and how else are they going to show their gratitude? In the AGM? At Wembley? You know what, we are a fickle bunch and all that but we have shown enough respect in not wanting the manager sacked, allowed him his time, ran his contract down and all the majority want is a change! Respect the man, but the time for a new… Read more »
Exactly. It’s not right that our fans have this reputation as ungrateful disrespectful troublemakers when the majority have been patient for over a decade and have supported Wenger even to the end of this season. It’s delusional to expect the entire crowd to throw roses at the man when some lost confidence in him as far back as the 2007-2008 season. To avoid this situation, there were two options available: clarify Wenger’s situation and face the music, or do nothing, carry on until the end of the season and risk inflaming a bad situation. Wenger, Gazidis and Kroenke had all… Read more »
“but we have shown enough respect in not wanting the manager sacked”
^serious ‘Wenger Out’ protest started at mid season, even when arsenal were clearly in top 4.
And yet we have constantly heard from fans on here and the manager himself that he should be judged on may in terms of the season as whole. He has been judged by some and deemed not good enough. Fans have every right to display thier feelings good or bad as long as it’s not over the top. We have had so many laps of appreciation when frankly it wasn’t deserved. How many times in the past have we said we are 1 or 2 players short of being title contenders. This year our squad was deemed good enough by… Read more »
When is the right time for fans to voice their discontent then? They can’t during a game because it’s disrespectful to the team and we should be getting behind them etc. So when else can they?
Write a letter
“NO Pressure to succeed” he finished fifth, his lowest finish in 20 years and that is bad enough that he can’t even do a lap of honour for fear of being disrespected. Sounds like pressure to succeed to me.
But Wenger brought it on himself. He should have walked after winning back to back FA cup in 2015. But he chose to stay and fight for another day, well look how that turned out. Not that I am justifying the vitriol and abuse he is now getting but all these are consequences of his decisions. Desperate times call for desperate measures and desperate people do desperate things
In fairness, we were on an upwards trajectory, improving by a place on the table each year so he was entitled to fight for the championship the last year.
Come on, you and I both know the table did not tell the story last year. We finished above Tottenham because once they knew their title challenge was over, they thought ‘fuck it’ and came third in a two horse race (very funny though!). Chelsea crumbled. Man City were awful. Man Utd were awful. Leicester bloody Walkers Crisps won the league. That shows you how bad the league was last year. Yet, we did not even come close to challenging. Rather than looking at the situation and saying we need to do something here, we papered over cracks yet again… Read more »
Finish 2 or 4 doesn’t matter, the problem is the same for years, we bottle the league and out of title race in February-March.
Wenger said his target is to win the league, not to just reach top 4.
But by your logic it looks like top 4 is the priority here and refuse to see the failures and issues within the club.
“Hey, we finish top 4, this season is a success, moreover we finish above Spurs, shit, it’s a very success season”
And Arsenal fans wondering why his club never win something big again.
false equivalency
Nonsense. As fans we have been put into a situation whereby the only way we can get through to Wenger and the board is to boo. Yes it is sad that he feels that way because he is a world class individual but he is not a world class manager and Arsenal is a football club. We tried quietly complaining for the last couple of years and it didn’t change anything. Don’t kid yourself change is what we need right now. If you think otherwise how many of you think we have a chance of winning the title if he… Read more »
It’s all bit sad. I miss Rosicky.
And Santi
Its genuinely sad that Wenger ( regardless of what you think of his recent work) feels his partaking in a lap of appreciation might have negative consequences. He’s a classy guy and he’s done many great things for the club. If ever someone deserved a bit of appreciation……
Worse than him not taking part: the club wheeled out a cannon with dead supporters’ names on prior to the lap. Possibly the most cynical attempt to make fans stay quiet and compliant I’ve ever seen and pretty disgraceful. hope Ivan got a nice bonus for that idea.
There was a minutes applause (from the players and staff too) for fans who have passed away during this season. And it was the families of those passed who asked for the names to be displayed.
A nice, genuine gesture from the club and nothing to do with making “the fans stay quiet and compliant”
The anti kronke chants happened both before and after this.
Just leave Wenger. My anger has now tuned to pity. Please – I’m begging you. Leave and save yourself the embarrassment. We should’ve at least come 3rd place. I’ll keep on saying this – SPURS AND LIVERPOOL DO NOT HAVE A BETTER TEAM THAN WE DO. Wenger built a team he didn’t even know how to utilize.. December we were top of the table…how the hell do you lose out and come 5th? Losses against Watford, West Brom and Palace were simply unacceptable. Wenger needs to leave. Tactically, he is behind Conte, Mou, Pep and Klopp. It’s sad he has… Read more »
I agree with much of what you say but we have to honestly ask ourselves, which of our players would improve those teams above us? How much is down to their quality and how much is coaching is the big question.
Its mostly down to coaching. Give Conte or Pochettino that side and they will do far better
It’s not about doing far better which I doubt in the first place, it’s about winning the league and champions league.Bar Sanches and Peter czech and a promising Iwobi, the rest are way too average.
Ozil and Alexis would easily get in Liverpool team. Xhaka as well. Only CB as good as Koscienly in the top 4 is Toby Alderwereld. Pochettino and Klopp would’ve utilized Xhaka much better than Wenger did. Wenger’s handling of Xhaka at the start of the season was disgraceful.
Cech, Bellerin, Kos, Monreal, Ozil, Sanchez, Xhaka, Santi would definitely be in that Liverpool team.
They have Milner playing left back for ducks sake.
How is he tactically inept to Mourinho? Didn’t that guy just finish 6th after spending a boat load of money? Spurs have done some good business over the last 6-7 years to build the group they have, which used to be our strength,and evidently understand how to work harder. We could debate if individually they are better, but definitely a better team. Totally agree about Liverpool though. They are certainly not better,nor is City. The season came down to a handful of games where the performance was awful. Would have loved to see us change shape in January, to see… Read more »
As much as I think its time for him to leave his press conference made me feel sad for him today. He’s been fucked over by the board and owners. He also alluded a couple of times things which affected the season that we are not aware of. will be interesting to hear the story of this season when he feels he is able to dish the dirt.
The board haven’t fucked him over, let’s be honest. They’ve given him as much power as possible renewed his contract against all evidence and perpetually back him till he calls time to quit.
It’s as much a collective responsibility; the board, the manager, the players and even sometimes the fans (very rarely, I’m against those who blame the fans, but he should’ve been given an opportunity for a lap of honour).
But he is probably the most culpable.
It’s really hard to make a legitimate case that Wenger has somehow been hard done by the board. There is no other manager in Europe who has the same amount of control that Wenger has – he has complete autonomy to run every aspect of the footballing side of the club and answers only to the owner, who by the way doesn’t meddle at all. The board has massive amounts of patience – could you imaging any other major club where the manager would be given a contract extension after not meaningfully challenging for the league for the past 3… Read more »
How the fuck have they fucked him over? They have given him huge amounts of money. I’m no lover of the board in fact They should go along with arsene, but if arsene really thinks this mess is down to the board and not himself then he’s in a ideal position to say so. He’s not a young manager starting off in fear of his job, he’s a multi millionaire with a reputation that could take him to many jobs. The board have backed him, simple as that. He constantly backs the ownership to the hilt. He doesn’t need to… Read more »
If you can’t face up to supporters after a victory on a sunny Sunday afternoon, how the hell do you expect to respond to the challenges over the next two years? Run away and hide? Duck press conferences? It’s all getting pretty farcical now and somebody needs to put a strategic bullet to this charade and ensure that these failures by all involved are not repeated in the future.
Get out why you can Stan. More importantly, what is the state of Alexis’s injury?
If he can’t play at Wembley we are in big trouble before he goes to little China. Hope he stays but missing top four is an excuse for him to go to Bayern or PSG. Ace finisher Danny Welbeck is not the complete answer just yet. Get up for the cup Alexis with Mustafi to replace the rush of blood Kos. Silly boy. What was he thinking?
I thought AW looked & sounded really emotional in the post-match interview. My feeling is that irrespective of the result in the final, he may be on his way.
Usmanov should buy Spurs. Kroenke is never going to sell Arsenal between the dividends payments and the £3million a year he pays himself it’s just too much for him to walk away from. Even though he is worth $9billion.
kroenie doesn’t take a dividend. Only the £3m. Get it right. It’s Usmanov who said he would institute a dividend.
It says that kroenke has nothing to do with the team not reaching the champions league. Doesn’t he give the money to get the players that should be at Arsenal to help reach the champions league. I know people won’t lie it but if you look st the teams that are going to be in the champions league next year from England, I would only choose 1 Arsenal player to be in an 11 and a few from Chelsea, Spurs, City and Liverpool. Doesn’t that show we don’t have a good enough squad and 11 to compete. Kroenke needs to… Read more »
You’d think.
But we have Ozil who was world class before he came here.
Ramsey who looks world class when he turns out for Wales.
Kos who is great
Etc. Etc. So maybe it is the coaching/management who can’t improve players and get the setup right for them to win.
Spurs spend much less on players than us. As do Liverpool.
Most spurs players were shit before poch arrived.
Also Wenger is in charge of who is bought in and who is sold.
In hindsight Arsene should’ve left in 2015. Not spending money on a single outfield player that summer cost us the league title last season.
I supported Wenger all the way until 2014, I thought he’d help take the club to the next level and backed him getting the new contract. It hurts seeing him like this.
The club has gone stale. Needs new leadership. Or else in 2-3 years, we will be fighting for 7th/8th place.
That Arsene feels he cannot participate in the end of season tradition at the stadium he pushed for is an indictment on the fans…when the chips were down and the club were struggling, planes were flown, banners drawn, vitriol hurled at players and manager….for most of us, Arsenal have never been just about winning trophies year after year, at least not back when I started. Arsene raised that bar. If and when he leaves, thank you Arsene. To all the “fans” who when the chups were down, the club was struggling, when everything seemed to be going wrong thought now… Read more »
No one is saying we should be winning trophies every year. All that the fans want is that we at least compete. That’s it.
Agree.
A lot of this vitriol is happening because some of you don’t know how to show respect for Gooners with opposing viewpoints.
We should respect the fan who’s prepared to tell the club exactly what he thinks.
And we should respect the fan who always wants to show support.
Both have the right to do so. Neither side is to blame for a situation caused by the team’s failures and the club’s lack of leadership.
Please respect opposing viewpoints.
You username amply justifies the lack of ambition in the posts. No one is abusing anyone, but its not too much to ask that the current manager shouldn’t have 100% job stability based on what he did a decade ago. Like it or not, but the likes of Conte, Poch, Klopp and hell even Koeman would have made more of the squad that Wenger had at his disposal this season. Saying that the club should look at options is not quite the abuse you are trying to make it out to be. If fans feel the manager is under-delivering then… Read more »
chips dammit
People need to stop shifting the blame to Kroenke. He has supported Wenger fully and it’s Wenger that has failed. Now that Wenger’s failure has come home to roost they’re deflecting the blame on Kroenke. Not saying Kroenke is perfect by any means, but it’s not his fault a manager with a £200m wage bill that’s blown £300m in three years on transfers can’t make top four.
The comments on here are absolutely ridiculous. For months Arsene has been making fun of all of us in his interviews. He has spun stories and held to a particular message all season and now admits he lied to us all. But, he tugs on some heart strings and you all line up like sheep to defend him. I forgive him for doing this and I forgive all the people who will downvote this comment and the ire you will direct my way but facts are facts and they must be said. It’s the last game of the season and… Read more »
^^^^^^THIS
“Facts are facts and they must be said” – Perfectly put.
Well said.
It’s unfortunate that Arsenal did not qualified for champion league this time around. But let’s give credit to the manager and the entire team crew. Premier league has changed.
Catch 222 init? He goes on the lap of appreciation and some people will start hurling abuse at him, the players won’t like that. He doesn’t, and the same numpties will get upset. They can’t blame anyone then blame silent Stan. Easy target. Frankly as Wenger mentioned nothing to do with Stan since there has always been money to recruit players and the business side is doing well (which is what Stan is suppose to help with) Its a bit mental really from some fans. Wenger stays to give a level of respectability and they are still out there baying… Read more »
‘We are a very stable club’ you say. Replace that with ‘stale club’
We are facing a footballing failure, which is on Wenger I’m afraid and there is no prospect of improvement. Looking to (new) players is already a mistake since it is Wenger’s underperformance we are suffering from. Pochettino’s group is not better than this one.
When a manager of a football club feels the need to protect his players from the fans’ reaction to him, then he’s become the problem and it’s time to leave.
When is it time to stop spamming?
We need some banter and some fun. Bring back Eboue!!!
Wenger alludes more and more to unseen forces influencing the outcome of our season and I for one am not going to doubt that there are things we do not know of. All said and done it is disappointing for us to finish the season in fifth but this is the level we have become used to and I am thankful for that. For all that he has done, Arsene deserved the lap of appreciation. Imagine situations turn worse and he leaves in the summer after a hasty appointment. Our greatest ever manager, the who gave us Thierry Henry, Bobby… Read more »
I’m not ready to absolve him for his. He has brought much of it upon himself, he has agency, he chose the way in which it goes. He could have had a great farewell tour, but he’s clinging desperately to the job as he seems to be too scared on what’s coming next. Like Tim Stillmann said, it’s become less what’s good for Arsenal Football Club than what’s good for Arsene.
I would agree he seems too fixated on this for his own good. I think it might even be taking a toll on his health, reached a limit. However Wenger’s agency was highly limited till the summer of 2013 when he did show that he was willing to buy World Class players when the money became available. From 2013 to this year we have had shots at the league which should have been better and closer run yes. Those are his failures. I do not consider his time up till the Özil signing to be a failure because it is… Read more »
Agreed in principle. He always had his blindspots though, which held us back, but yes, until 2012 or so he did really, really well. But it’s hard right now as the perspective is clouded by, well, everything going on right now and he himself is not being helpful at all in his stubborness. If at least you could believe he could change to help modernise the club but he clearly refuses to.
For those posters asking us to judge the team at the end of the season, can we do that now please… Most of the points have been covered above already but on the point of Arsene not joining lap of honour out of fear, he pussied out. If you want fans adorations when you do good or average then be a man and face them when you are shit. Its not a charity, Arsene is not doing this for free and even though he might sleep under a Arsenal branded duvet every night wearing his Arsenal branded boxers that does… Read more »
I LOVE YOU, Arsène!
I hope Wenger doesn’t believe the fans want Kronke out “because we finished 5th”. The reasons we want him and I’m sorry to say Arsene out as well is, the 12+ years of not challenging for the title, the annual humiliating exits from the CL last 16, the failure to beat any of the top 6 teams (when it matters), the constant failure to invest to give us that extra push to challenge. Unfortunately it seems that Wenger and Kronke are just happy with the norm, happy to take money out, invest nothing in and hope that maybe on day… Read more »
Yeah I get he couldn’t slag off silent Stan but doesn’t have to look like a tool by saying he had nothing to do with the season being pants when we all know that’s not true.
It was a poor lap of honour, half the players just continued talking to each other without interacting with the fans