Following up on the missive released during the summer, the WeCareDoYou movement have issued a new statement, challenging Arsenal’s ownership over the performance levels of the team this season.
Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Southampton means the Gunners have won just 4 of 13 games under Unai Emery, and a campaign that promised much looks to be heading in an ignominious direction.
The club appears to be backing the head coach despite this abysmal form, and fan frustration is as high as it ever was towards the end of the Arsene Wenger era.
The #WeCareDoYou statement in full is below:
In July we issued a statement from a number of key Arsenal groups, outlining our concerns at the direction of our football club. A supporting petition was signed by over 100,000 individual Arsenal fans who not only felt disconnected from the club but also had grave concerns about our future.
Since then we have been told to ‘get excited’ and to support the team. As Arsenal supporters we have done both.
There exist many issues raised in our first statement, that remain unaddressed by the club. While these matters have not gone away, it is the overall alarming and desperate state of things, on and off the pitch, that need urgent action and take precedent amongst our concerns. Until the club and especially the senior management structure, is running efficiently, effectively and ambitiously, then few other issues can, or will, be satisfactorily resolved.
The early optimism of summer, around what appeared to be good business and positive signings, has given way to renewed concerns about our overall direction and the leadership of our owner. It feels like the club is rudderless and floating aimlessly, unsure of its destination.
It appears that reported unrest in the dressing room is affecting our performances on the pitch and the board’s clearly stated target of a top four finish at season end, looks in serious danger with barely a quarter of the season played.
We spoke about never feeling less valued and this has continued with an astounding lack of communication from the club. We understand it is The Arsenal way to deal with issues internally but the current communication vehicle – the drip feed and leaks to certain journalists – is unacceptable and unsatisfactory.
Communications on the whole have been dealt with poorly, and the tactics used only add to the confusion, uncertainty and unrest among the fanbase – which in turn is motivating our opponents, who can clearly see we’re in trouble.
As documented in our initial statement, Stan Kroenke made his ambitions for the club clear: “KSE’s ambitions for the club are to see it competing consistently to win the Premier League and the Champions League”. We still see no evidence of this, and current form would suggest that we are moving ever further from these goals.
We raised previously the need for new and dynamic appointments at board level; people with Arsenal DNA are needed at this time more than ever. Sadly, the club’s reaction to this recommendation has been an unresponsive dismissal of it. Can we assume you are still satisfied that the right people are in the right positions, as Vinai suggested they were at July’s end of season supporters’ event? Again, the evidence so far this season implies an intrinsic lack of understanding, ambition, appetite and ability to take us forward.
Following our statement in the summer, Josh Kroenke made an announcement implying that an ambitious KSE had arrived to save the day and secure the club’s future. The fact is that KSE acquired a controlling share of Arsenal in 2011 and had significant influence prior to that.
The last decade, notwithstanding the FA Cup wins, can legitimately be seen as lost years, both on and off the field, when the team has not only stagnated, but actually regressed. To date, that is the legacy of the ‘Kroenke years’.
While our away support continues to be magnificent, our home crowds are starting to deplete and this situation will be further compounded by what will soon become a toxic atmosphere, if the current turmoil and lack of true leadership at the club continues to translate into poor performances on the pitch.
We want commitment that the board recognises the issues faced by the club, and how severe these are for the future of The Arsenal. As supporters we want actual communication and measurable assurances from the board, that actions are in place to address this seemingly inexorable slide.
As many great managers and players have said over the years, everyone involved with The Arsenal must “Remember who you are, what you are and who you represent”.
#WeCareDoYou
Lets hope this isnt waved off as “More Noise “.
I still can’t believe how incompetent their communication is; almost as much as their manager.
It’s actually really odd – as well as insulting – the are in the *entertainment* business!
It’s a sector which depends more than any other on effective communication with the fanbase and having a sense of how their efforts are being received. Other clubs manage the PR aspect of the business much more effectively.
To be honest a lot of it actually just does sound like noise. We feel this, we think that with very little real insight or actual demands. Only the call for boardroom appointments and highlighting the “lost” Kroenke years really make sense
I do get this statement but I kind of feel we just have a shitty manager. We invested pretty well, Raul did a decent job. By all understanding Edu is a good addition. Stan will never be a tactile, friendly owner. We know that by now.
We just need them to make a correct managerial appointment and things could dramatically improve in a matter of weeks. Maybe it’s not that simple but it doesn’t feel all doom and gloom. We just need Emery out and very, very soon.
It only took one Wenger to turn a misfiring team into legends.
I agree with your sentiment. Although they are partially at fault for the situation but you cannot say it’s a black spot against them. Firing a managet aftet 10 to 12 pl match would seem like a panic decision that someone at Man Utd would do. And without lining up a successor first, firing the current manager would make them hostage to any demands by the new manager. We are no where close to the situations like Bayern this year or Real Madrid last year (and frankly our standards have fallen well below those two clubs sadly)…so i can see… Read more »
I didn’t have faith in the manager after the shit show at the end of last season.
The problem is that this isn’t just a bad start to the season. You have to look at the end of last season, where we took just 4 points from our last 5 games. In the process tamely giving up a Champion’s league place. Which would have put Emory on notice by itself. To add insult to injury we also lost the Europa League final in a bit of a meltdown. So, the decline hasn’t just been going on this season, its was already bad and despite promises and significant investment, things have only got worse. In the end it… Read more »
How much of “Raul’s job” was done in reaction to the statements and sentiments made by fans?
Wengers don’t come along too often unfortunately.
True dat. And we’ll probably never get another one. But out there right now there’s someone who could take us to dizzying new heights. The Klopp to Liverpool, the Ranieri to Leicester, the Phil Brown to Swindon Town.
Out there. Somewhere. Someone. *Breaks into song*.
Can we ease up on the moderation? If I wanted everything I said to be poured over, I’d go buy an Elexa.
The Poch to us.
Phil Brown to Swindon? BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!
The Kronke’s are leeches. They only care about their investment. As long as we aren’t relegated their assest’s value goes up and that’s all they care about.
Seems like they are even happy enough with no European football and I’m pretty sure will sanction sales of Auba and Lacca, buy a few youngsters and then ask us to believe in their project.
There is no project, it’s a sham. We need to drive the Kronke’s out. How many years before the fans realize this?
Hard to imagine no European football isn’t it. The last time we weren’t in Europe was the 1995/96 season.
Agree completely Amusa.
Mostly agree with this – Kroenke is a businessman, not a fan – but I do think they would prefer a winning team. It’s just a question of how far they are willing to go to achieve that.
Asset value goes up so long as we are not relegated. I won’t be coming to you for financial advice, that’s for sure!
I am definite not a Kroenke fan, but let’s be realistic. He has sunk a ton of money into retaining his top players for the LA Rams and he replaced the last coach who was very mediocre.
@mandrake
I’m not trying to be a asshole here but you do understand in nfl-rams they have to spend a minimum amount of money regardless? Every team has the same max spending with the cap? They aren’t going over and beyond what any nfl team does when they are winning and have good talent. It’s very rare to lose a talented player unless they aren’t wanted because of cap reasons or calculated risk.
The coach they replaced I believe didn’t have a winning record for 5-6 seasons before being replaced?
Kse didn’t pour money into the rams. Stand threw a temper tantrum in St Louis and moved his te to Los Angeles because the city of St Louis wouldn’t subsidize his private business a new stadium. The city of la offered him incentives to relocate… and it’s a larger consumer market for merchandise sales. He came out ahead.
To be fair to them, they gave us a good transfer window. They are not football people so they don’t interfere in what they don’t know which is a positive. They put football people in charge which is a very big positive. This one is squarely on the guys running the club not the Kroenkes. Unless you have info that they are the ones keeping Emery on. We have Auba, Laca, Pepe, Ozil, all good players and bought expensively under their ownership. They haven’t sold any of them to pocket the money so I struggle to see how bad they… Read more »
The only way you drive kse out of arsenal is to completely stop going to games, buying merch, create a toxic atmosphere at every home game and most importantly make arsenal lose its monetary value along with its popularity worldwide.
Keep Emery then – the rest follows naturally. (Although I’m not sure you get a toxic atmosphere if everyone stops going to games?)
that’s noisy! 😉
This statement is much better. Addressing Josh’s previous comments specifically also was a good decision. See how he talks himself out of this one.
I keep for the news many are waiting for but this news is the next best development.
The increasing empty stadium wouldn’t have gone unnoticed, possibly by the sponsors. If some of them start pushing as well.
However, all these ‘noise’ shouldn’t be necessary for the hierarchy to do the job they should be doing!
Football is as much a sport, but the way it affects our everyday lives is amazing. Disappointments and accomplishments on a weekly basis of a football club are attached not only to the players, but to the thousands of people associated. Arsenal football club decision makers have to consider this fact.
Why bother? They’ll ignore it
Apparently, they don’t care, we shouldn’t be asking again, it’s so glaring.. I am sad for my Arsenal
Shouldn’t have had to write either letter/petition. Worse, that they still seem not to get the message. “Noise” FFS!
Well meaning, but ultimately pointless. It’s just another job to these people. A couple of million in the bank, enjoy living in a lovely house in Hampstead for a few years, then onto the next club or business.
Cringe-worthy
Will the moaning ever cease– one week Mustafi, another week Xhaka, then Emery, now the board…
Beyond patronising quite frankly
Don’t be so obvious Raul it could be us next!
What’s there to be positive about? What you wrote is ironically patronising. Maybe seek a bit of srlf-awareness.
“beyond patronising”
Your post or their letter?
I agree man. Its always somebody. Remeber when they were saying, Wait until Holding, Bellerin & Tierney are available? Ozil has been fucking up and all of a sudden he is supposed to save the team? I personally believe its the players fault. Have you seen the amount of times that they misplace a pass? How many times the consede a penalty? How many times they keep on doing the same bad thing over and over again? It is a mindset thing which i think can be salvaged by a new manager, but hold on to hats boys, Arsenal are… Read more »
“Accept what you’re given” is ridiculous. If we have no aspirations or hope, why bother supporting the club at all?
Thank you for your interest in our interest in their affairs
The only time they will do anything is when it affects their bonuses, because it is all about the money with these people
If I’d layed out all that money in Summer, I wouldn’t be too happy with how the investment was looking now. We’re it their investment fund manager they’d act pretty quickly I’d guess.
In my opinion this statement is premature. The club reacted in the summer and showed us that they were/are ambitious. I believe we as fans should trust club’s management and believe that they have the best interest of the club at heart. I understand the general feeling of disappointment at the current inaction to address the current issues plaguing the club but in my opinion, the #wecaredoyou campaign should be preserved as a last resort or some channel of communication with the management of the club at fixed intervals like end of season. I strongly doubt there will be a… Read more »
Ah Bishop you have blind faith but would you believe a likeness of you has appeared on my skirting if you would like to call around to see it.
Agree, the club as a whole has showed a lot of ambition getting personnel in place both on and off the pitch. Unai is definitely not the man to coach the team, so as fans we’re right to demand change there, but this second statement about the club’s direction in general is a little too much. If they didn’t care about getting the club higher than top 4, they wouldnt invest in someone like Saliba and Martinelli. We have lots of youngsters they could’ve held up as top class talent e.g. Nketiah as forward and we have Holding plus other… Read more »
I agree regarding the lack of communications and having negative stories leak via journalist.
What concerns me is the talk of disagreements within Arsenal’s board/upper management.
The midfield is a problem and people may not wNt to hear it as these players are three of most popular players . I like the, all too. But Matteo, ozil, Torreira. Not effective last couple of games. Torreira , I would start him every week but we might as well sub him as soon as he gets a yellow card, as then he stands off and tracks play but does not tackle ( his best skill) or header . His passing is sideways at best. Though he does have goals in him. As soon as Torreira gets a yellow… Read more »
Who views Arsenal fans as spoilt?
Wake me when Emery is shown the door.
Thank you for your interest in our affairs.
If we have to point out to football operations through “noise” that things are going wrong every single year we cannot succeed. They have to be proactive and they should spot these issues before we do. It’s ridiculous that the fans have to point this out, we are literally doing part of their job.
They will only take notice when the bottom line is hurt, reduced sales, and the damaging visual of empty seats. Thankfully, they are inextricably linked
Well timed. I happen to follow the NHL, and support the leafs (I know its like I am purposely avoiding titles *head hits desk*). Anyways, leafs played the colorado avalanche (doing just fine now)this weekend and guess who was in attendance… Josh… Interesting that he chose to be there while our team was struggling to draw southampton at home. Talk is cheap Josh.
The avs have had many, many lean years and have underperformed for a decade or more under kse ownership. As there is no relegation in the nhl, the Kroenkes don’t care about investment. Only revenue.
While i totally agree that they were poor for quite a while. Thats how the majority of NHL contender teams are built these days. Leafs, avs, penguins, oilers, to name a few. But im not arguing that point. I just found it awful to see him visiting the team not in crisis, and as I feel like us hockey watching Arseblog/arsenal fans are the minority it seemed fun to bring it up.
I was hoping when i turned on sky sports news this morning to see BREAKING NEWS Emery sacked as arsenal manager, but yet again let down by the arsenal
Great and necessary statement, thanks ?
This is no noise making and should not be dismissed with a wave of the hand. Things can go haywire if they make such ridiculous mistake.
Honestly I feel for Emery, no one deserves losing their job but then on the other hand the club is sliding and losing its identity under him. I also don’t like the way he has thrown players under the bus as I feel it’s the managers job to take care of his players of the field and they will in turn fight ffor him on it. That said I feel it’s time to let go of him and put him out of his misery now. It could mean writing off the season and taking Freddie in as the caretaker manager… Read more »
“no one deserves losing [sic] their job”
Except a consistently underperforming, but well paid, manager in a results based business, no?
I fear that we as supporters will have to speak much louder than that before notice is taken
We have to march and protest. We have to get the Kroenkes out. Its clear now that this is the only way.
To everyone saying that KSE won’t care, the prestige media will pick this up and put it on the front page of sports sections, and KSE will sure as hell care then. My o my concern is that this might delay the sacking of emery further because the club won’t want to be seen as making such a major change *because* of the letter, but f it, it needed to be said.
As long as Arsenal are making money, there will be no changes made. This has been going on for so long now, it has become almost natural. Everyone thinks Wenger had full control, but i really do not think that, and i did predict that Arsenal with new manager would be the same as under the last years of Wenger. The board is causing problems because they are divisive between themselves, how can we expect the team, who is more aware than us of what’s going on, but cannot speak about it to play with confidence and pleasure. They look… Read more »
This ‘statement’ reads like every fan group want to get their piece in.
I know I asked for Edu/Raul out banners recently. But honestly, their behaviour wouldn’t differ whether they are actively looking for a new head coach or not. And the fans wouldn’t be any wiser.
They are not going to issue a public ultimatum to Emery, and a new appointment requires both sides to agree.
“Nuni Espiritu Santo’s red and white army” has a ring to it.
Fans should not attend games, stop renewing season tickets, not buying merchandise, letting the sponsors know things aren’t good with the club, will force management to act. All those regular fans appearing on a certain YouTube channel, week in week out moaning, but still go back to ensure they get their YouTube views cash.
They could have saved a lot of words and time and just said “Sack Emery”.
Totally agree. Actions must be taken now we are not pleased with the results at all
What do some board members need to see as an evidence that the team is going downhill? To be in bottom three? The board better move quickly to appoint a capable coach. Why the board think Emery would resign and lose out on his pay off? He’ll keep going shamelessly until they sack him and rightfully take the many millions he’s due. Arsenal are so tightwad though, they won’t rush his sacking so the descent into becoming a Crystal Palace-like side where top half is success could drag on for some time. The next appointment, whoever it is will continue… Read more »
We won’t win anything with this disorganised rabble. The rudder has fallen off.
I am really disappointed with the message. I understand it needs to be diplomatically written, but I just feel a real statement that the board are ignoring what is obvious on the pitch – literally as blog says “now they’re a bunch of Neros fiddling as Rome burns”. That is a wonderful quote and one that should have been used
Using an ahistorical cliche is never a good idea if you want to be taken seriously.
These people have their ears and eyes blocked by money ! The only way to be heard is to peel off that money and they will suddenly come ALIVE!! They will start addressing the fans daily. Let start #BoycottArsenal !!
It’s not even about kse being good or bad or inbetween owners. They don’t seem from their past 10+years here the type of owners that interfere with the day to day running for the club. They set the financial philosophy and the business and football people operate under that philosophy or budgets. It’s about Raul and Vinai. What do they see that we don’t? I’ve been #emeryout crowd since middle of last season. I know for some that was too soon but the tactical shit emery was doing was stupid. Constant formation changing against weaker opponents and player usage was… Read more »
I just watched IanWright drink a glass of blended pig’s penises and if that isn’t a metaphor for our season I don’t know what is.
3 at the back? We had 8 defensive players and 3 attackers against the team in 19th place which had shipped 9 goals at home to Leicester!
There are better ways to improve a defence than just throwing numbers at it – as we’ve shown. Coaching and planning are the key.
Remember to check your spam filters while you wait for a reply, lads.
Completely agree with the sentiments of the WCDY statement but I’d have liked more emphasis on the absolute shite we are seeing on the pitch. We were all fairly positive with our summer business. Unfortunately none of the first team signings have hit the ground running but that is because our coach is completely out of his depth, I’m certain a better manager could do more with these players. The warning signs were there at the end of last season and for the board to not have recognised that and had a contingency for the possibility of this total collapse,… Read more »
Hear what you’re saying, but given our last decent midfield – Fabregas, Flamini, Rosicky, Hleb – was broken up over a decade ago now, it’s clear that Arsenal’s malaise goes way deeper than Unai Emery.
Of course, like I said I agree with the sentiments the problems we are having undoubtedly stem from the top, our decline coincides with the arrival of the Kroenke’s. I don’t think that’s a coincidence! But being realistic those arseholes are going nowhere soon. Of more immediate concern is our form on the pitch, make no mistake we are in relegation form. I just don’t understand what they are waiting for to get rid of Emery, at this point I think anyone could do a better job.
I think it’s coming tbh. The owners clearly aren’t people to take criticism, however constructive, on the chin and will no doubt look to shift the blame elsewhere.
Emery might well be ‘Raul’s man’, but that won’t save him. Unfortunately it looks as if the inevitable won’t be in time to save our season though.
KSE have a multimillion(billiob) dollar lawsuit ongoing over their flawed move of the Rams from St. Louis to LA so I doubt very much whether they give a damn over the day to day running of Arsenal.
The value of the asset will still be increasing so why should they care?…..
I imagine Emery coming out shouting ‘calm’ over and over like he did in his training video
Arsenal will be lucky to get into the Europa league, the Americans will fuck Arsenal up
There’s a lot of good vocabulary in this statement, but what a load waffle it also contains. What happened to our fanbase? It used to be the most intelligent and knowledgeable, and now it’s an embarrassment.
And why would the club want to communicate with these supporters, who have behaved like prats for the last several years? We’re getting what we deserve for all those stupid banners and the toxic atmospheres. Now this WeCareDoYou group is further embarrassing us. They’re just a more eloquent version of AFTV.
The only thing the Kroenke’s & Board will understand is lost revenue from Ticket Sales and Catering, Bars and Vending plus shop kits etc.
It appears they care only for taking £30M per annum “out” of the Club while failing to address the playing deficiencies especially in Defence‼️
The old Arsenal I loved and was proud of is being strangled by American Owners who appear to care little for “On Field” success❌❌❌