Arsene Wenger says Arsenal have many exciting challenges ahead in 2018 but admits that the current January transfer window has had a destabilising effect like never before.
The Gunners have endured a tough start to the New Year, drawing twice with Chelsea in the league and Carabao Cup, exiting the FA Cup at the third round stage and losing to Bournemouth.
Despite their recent travails the boss says he has no intention of walking away from his two-year contract in the summer and instead urged his players to focus on their upcoming challenges.
“That’s not the way I respond,” said Wenger when asked if he might quit Arsenal in May.
“I agree completely that 2018 until now has not been very positive. I’m long enough in the job to know that what is important is how you respond to it and to focus on the performance. My personal situation is a bit secondary to all that.
“What is important is how the team responds and what we [now] make of 2018. We have many challenges. It’s difficult at the moment, but as well, very exciting.
“We have many exciting challenges in front of us. We can come back to [qualify for] the Champions League. We have the semi-final [of the Carabao Cup] next week and the Europa League as well. It’s another target.
“We have to very quickly get over this transfer period. For us, especially, this period has been more disturbing than ever. Why? Because we have big players at the end of their contract and that’s the first time it happens that we have such influential players who are as close to the end of their contract. It has been more destabilising than ever.”
Given Arsenal have manufactured the current situation, it’s pretty rich that we’re proffering it as an excuse for recent poor performances. It was much the same last season when the boss allowed speculation about his future to affect the squad’s balance. Something he later admitted to. It would be nice to get through a season without quite so much off-pitch drama…but for that to happen we have to seriously up our game in the corridors of power. Hmm.
Wenger was also quizzed on how stressed he gets during these periods where everything, both on and off the pitch, is analysed so closely.
“I have no stress measurement at all,” he joked. “It occupies you on the pitch, off the pitch and at night as well because you are very busy.
“After that, I think I can deal with the kind of stress that it creates. The experience I have helps me to focus on what is important and at the right moment.”
1AW.
”It has been more destabilising than ever.”
Arsene mate, come on. Who’s fault is that?
spot on.
I’d call it the greatest shambles ever and its under his tenure. No one to blame but him.
From Dortmund: re Aubameyang
“There is no contact on our part with Arsenal. Arsene Wenger certainly has enough currently to deal with the performance of his own players.”
You would have thought there would be contact by now especially as sanchez is so close to leaving and Walcott has gone?
We haven’t replaced Ox, Gibbs, Coq or Walcott and we won’t. I’m betting the board have said make room for the young players to come in. Akpom is the new Sanchez
I’m beginning to wonder if this Aubameyang talk is just that. Bullshit to keep us fans distracted for a few weeks?
I think it’s possible, but unlikely, given our track record. I’d much rather have auba than mkhitaryan, so we’ll likely have him instead of the gabonese. It’s nice to see us at least linked with players but we have a massive rebuilding job required. Going on our past transfers, what the manager has said about bringing in too many players at one time, and the Kroenke family’s desire for stupid profits at the expense of the sporting side of things, I’m expecting five players in between now and the end of the summer, when we need something like 9. Internal… Read more »
I actually disagree. Player transfers are very complex and the manager is only one component in the chain. Wenger cannot control everything and shouldn’t be solely blamed for our shortcomings in the transfer market. The key word there being solely I guess.
If it works, credit to mislinat, if not, its wenger’s fault. We the arsenal fans are funny.
Yes he should be.
My last straw was ’15 when we only got Cech. That showed he had lost his ability to understand the transfer market. Or he is just overwhelmed and refuses to delegate authority and get help.
Ah, but the situation is ideal, right Wenger?
Exciting challenges …ppsst
I love it how Wenger is trying more than ever to bring a positive spin on one of the most disastrous seasons ever. At least now he can’t give an excuse that his contract situation is affecting the performance. Still this is Wenger master of excuses .cone end of the season he might blame everything on global warming
Board F’k’ing up.
Manager distancing himself.
I think the whole story might come out as early as this summer…
It’s rare for Arsene Wenger to be even slightly critical of the board or management, but here I cannot interpret this as anything but criticism of the way things have been handled.
Poor Arsene. It’s not just refs – the universe is conspiring against him.
Yeh, and the old whinger wants to stay on and on and on. The Emperor with no clothes making the club he says he loves a laughing stock.
The irony in calling Wenger a Whinger, while you’re here to whinge about him LOL
Boo fucking hoo.
That’s because you & your team didn’t do enough work in he summer, leaving us to do massive amounts this window & next. When had contracts to sort out, players to buy & sell and in the end we signed two, didn’t sell everyone we wanted, didn’t settle contracts & this all led to an unbalanced squad.
Why on earth is he complaining?
Fuck all planning at this club, infuriating.
The last year if not longer has shown that we are a dysfunctional mess behind the scenes, let’s hope the recent appointments start to rectify this.
I have a feeling he will create order out of chaos.
Me too.
You think so? I think it’s more like the human brain is conditioned and has evolved to recognize patterns, so will look for order even if there is none to be had.
This mess is partly Wenger’s fault (the results on the pitch, the seeming lack of communication to the board concerning player targets), but ultimately the blame lies with the people that are controlling the purse strings. The Kroenkes are bleeding us dry to further enrich themselves.
It is your fault that this is the most destabilizing transfer window ever. All our superstar players are leaving or not renewing because they dont trust they will win a title with you. RvP, Sanchez & Ozil. What a shame we are this position.
I’m sure all the cash he gets must help the stress. And as the sole major decision maker in the club he must bear most of the blame.
What does he do with all the millions he has stashed away, f… all it seems.
Excuses in early for when we are out of top 4 again. Whitewash and fagpaper over the cracks.
Say what you will about Wenger but think he’s shown over the years that he’s not a money guy. What he craves is power and autonomy which he has in spades (and what makes it so difficult for him to leave)
Every time he says “I’m long enough in the game” makes me think he thinks he has become untouchable at Arsenal. The fact the he maintains “He” will not walk away, as opposed to fearing the sack tells everything. He may as well be the owner, chief executive, MD and manager. He’s accountable to no one. He is seldom self critical and blames others for his own failings. As a club we are run poorly in everything but finance. Ticket prices, sponsors, marketing the whole shebang, creates revenue to place us in the top 10 clubs in the world. Sustained… Read more »
The wierd anagram advertisment at the end kind of let you down.
Sad to say but THIS really is the ultimate truth. ?
Exactly. Nothing more to add .
Ctrl+C – Ctrl+V
As long as this manager in charge nothing gonna change. He will pocket his £7m a year and not accountable for failure, players will walk away from contracts for more money, we loyal fans can’t change anything.
Is it just me or has Wenger become the footballing equivalent of the infinite loop at the end of popular beat combo The Look’s 1981 vinyl record “I am the beat”?
One for the oldies.
nice one! A lot of records used that trick over the years.
But seriously, I defended Arsene up until this season, this is just too sad to watch now. I’ve actually missed a few games this year on the tele for the first time in about 12 years. I’m not a fair-weather fan, but this team is just so boring to watch right now. Almost every single commentator on this site knows how to fix it. Maybe the club’s board could read some of these comments to learn how to run a bloody club.
When your strategy is to paint yourself in a corner, lose all the leverage and procrastinate, some destabilization is to be expected- I would say.
Do you guys know that comic strip in which there’s a woman riding her bicycle, jamming a stick in the front wheel while riding, falling over and then blaming the patriarchy? Then Arsene Wenger.
Never fail to remind people that he is long enough in his job in every interview..””been 20 years..” or something like that..
Agreed, & it’s a shame as I always interpret that to read “long enough involved to know considerably better…but for some reason I don’t”
The infinite loop.
The longer he stays, the more he feels more justified to stay.
What happened to it being an ideal situation and the hunger index?
bull shit wenger , its no different to any other transfer window
“Ideal situation.” 🙁
January transfer window gives him the one last chance to save whatever is left from the shithole this season is and to at least partially make up for the mistakes he made in the summer and past and he calls it a distraction? Man, if this is not 10/10 stupid than what is? Is this situation ‚ideal’ or in the end ‚destabilizing’?
The truth is even 2017 hasn’t been good and even the season before that. Same old stuff from Wenger.
“I have been long enough in the job”
How many times do we have to hear it?
He’s a hypocrite as well he just sold two players and obviously knows that loosiing Sanchez will put him in the spotlight so he needs to buy! This transfer windows is only THE way to save our season.
blah blah fucking blah
I must say the dealing has been a shitthole. Let’s get Aubameyang, Mhiki and sign Ozil/Wilshere to new contract. Let’s buy good CB and CM in summer then we can bounce back. COYG
I like how people say oh let’s just sign up wilshere and Ozil. What if they don’t want to sign?
Why does he say this shit? It only makes him look dumb. It’s like when he complained about the team not being prepared for a game we lost. Is there 2 Wenger’s? 1 dick head making shit decisions and the other who does interviews?
Dearest AW, Umm…yes it probably is. But only because you clowns at the club can’t get your act together when it comes to transfers. We ALL knew that Sanchez was leaving (despite what the press office & PR department tried to make us believe). Why do we always get the feeling that the club (& you AW) don’t even think about transfers before the window opens? It’s like you stumble upon the start date in you diary. “Hmm…Jan 1st. Let’s see what we’ve got going on today…Shit! The transfer window is now open!” It genuinely feels like the 1st Jan… Read more »
I think we want some destabilisation. Something needs to change badly.
Losing and drawing games was the most stabilising in this transfer window.
… destabilising, I meant.
“It’s difficult at the moment, but as well, very exciting” – change exciting to frustrating, & that sentence makes more sense. Still no more acceptable mind you
Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil entering the last year of their Arsenal contracts is an “ideal” situation for the club, believes manager Arsene Wenger.
That was 6 months ago. Now, he has defined it as destabilising. Orwellian double-think, methinks.
yawn. yawning. out cold.
So, back 3 back 4, back 3 back 4 back 3…back 4; oh no no, let’s play Ox days prior to selling him against the team we are going to sell him to out of position in place of our best right-back, but let’s play our best right-back at left-back; then let’s flirt with selling Mustafi but not and sell Gabriel instead; then let’s vow we won’t sell Alexis all summer transfer window, until the day before the closing, when we are totally going to sell him and basically do and buy Lemar except nope too late. Let’s count on… Read more »
Ummm… What he ^^^ said
I’ve been long enough as a fan, Arsene, to know that you’re making a balls of things.
Should have done it in the summer then.
Could have sold him for 60m last summer and bought Mahrez for 45m just saying.
At night… Just wondering whether monsieur Wenger wakes up at night all sweaty and panting from nightmares in which he sees images of zombies dressed up as undertakers, carrying shovels and forks and yelling, “release your best players now, else you’d be buried alive in the Sahara and your coffin filled with hundreds of giant flesh eating beetles”?
NO, I think the millions he has stole/conned from Arsenal make him sleep easy at nights. More millions of fans money to bank in the future, sad old scrooge. I wonder what his pathetic lies will be told when people add up all his failed coaching, to players (Gnabry, OX etc) who have rescued there careers since leaving
Why oh why do we allow players contracts to run down that in turn causes a media shitstorm and makes us look like amateurs? We are progressively getting worse as the table suggests. I am a big fan of spend some to make some and I think Arsenal need to rebuild with a new manager at the helm. Let’s get rid of the non performers and bring in some quality. It’s not like the club can’t afford it. We need to be dynamic and move with the times otherwise we’re just going to be a mid table team. Miki and… Read more »
So today Arsene’s got his Worzel Gummidge ‘poor me’ sulking head on. Still, I prefer it to his Napoleon I’m thirty years in this game’ head.
“first time it happens that we have such influential players who are as close to the end of their contract.”
First time? Seriously?
The definition of insanity has been updated: “Its like Arsene Wenger buying the same below average players, regressing them, and expecting to win a 4th place trophy.”
Either he is the manager, who seems to think and tell everybody he’s in charge of transfers, or he is not. Which one is it Mr. Whinger?
We all know exactly where this is going. Sell Walcott and Sanchez; no replacements will be bought; finish 8th.
This doesn’t usually happen to me on Arseblog articles but I stopped reading after the quote “I’m long enough in the job to know…”
That line just boils my piss and I don’t know why. Sorry blogs
Sixth place, here we come!
Call this a bold decision. But I think wenger will bring Rosicky out of retirement because he is exactly the player we need right now. That’s a fact.
“We have to very quickly get over this transfer period. For us, especially, this period has been more disturbing than ever. Why? Because I’m an arrogant tool.”
You brought this on yourself. You have no one to blame but yourself. You should have transferred players out over the years and brought in new blood but you didn’t. holding out hope and having faith in the wrong players. Being to stubborn to realize you need help with the modern transfer business.
Arsenal is a club very much in need of deep destabilising.
So good.
And nice too.