As Arsenal prepare to face Chelsea in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final at the Emirates tonight, Arsene Wenger has hit out at the press who he feels overlook the underachievement of other sides while playing down the fact the Gunners have won trophies in recent years.
FA Cup final triumphs in 2014, 2015 and 2017 – against tonight’s opposition – have made the Frenchman the most successful manager in the competition’s history, but he believes other teams and managers get an easier ride.
Asked if reaching a Wembley final would calm the mood among fans, Wenger said “To change the mood? I have no illusions at all.
“The mood is decided by you. Look, we have been in a few finals. Has it changed your mood? No. You celebrate some teams who have not been in a final for 25 years and yet you kill us, even though we have won the FA Cup three times in the last four years.
“It’s like that. We have to live with that.”
Wenger is expecting tonight’s second leg to be a bit more expansive than the game at Stamford Bridge.
Another 0-0 draw after extra-time would see the game decided by a penalty shoot-out, but because of the away goals rule if Chelsea score Arsenal will have to win the game in the [potential] 120 minutes to go through.
“It’s an important game and we want to go to the final,” he said.
“We have an opportunity to do it at home against Chelsea. I think the two teams know each other very well.
“The first leg was very blocked, the second leg will certainly be more open, because at some stage, the teams will have to open up to try to win the game.
“It should be much more spectacular than the first one.”
Let’s fucking have them lads. COYG!!!
I get what Wenger is saying. In my opinion there definitely is a huge anti Arsenal media agenda being peddled. We are constantly hammered in the press for not winning the Premier League since 2003, but clubs like Spurs and Liverpool get a free pass. The pro Spurs agenda is the one that bugs me the most to be honest. They have a few young English players and they are portrayed as if they’re the best team in the whole land, whereas in reality we are currently going through one of our worst patches in the last 20 years and… Read more »
Deluded Wenger
Wenger has had an easy ride compared to all other managers with the possible exception of Fergie.
??? You must be having a laugh.
Mourinho is one of the vilest, most divisive characters in the managerial world and they hang on his words, even when he’s not succeeding. Pochettino Klopp and Pep practically have gilded thrones in the interview rooms. And that’s just the current batch.
Wenger goes out there, speaks at length, answers questions he could and probably should pass on graciously, and in return he gets a fanning of the negative flames.
If his time’s up it’s up, but let’s not revise history here. Villainizing him is not necessary.
Agree, the only manager in the world who is certain not facing the sack if objectives are not achieved for years.
I expect Wenger to go to the press gallery and tell them: Look, you are dishonest, you have always been with us, simple as that.
that is absolute nonsense. when we were short on funds everyone ignored his accomplishments and complained about a trophy drought. then when he wins 3 trophies in 4 years nobody cares about trophies any more and everyone (even our own fans) wants him out anyway because they’re hypocritical nimrods who apparently want to go through our own david moyes/louis van gaal phase.
Fuck that bollocks!!!! The stats speak for themselves. The media can say or do what they want but the fact is our fans are fleeced, the board make a lot of money and we have not CHALLENGED for the premier league in over a decade!
And who have challenged? Sp*urs? Lpool!? They have The funds too.. Stop being a media hostage
The media is crap, that fact is not to be used as smoke screen for wengerd under achievements, which is what Wenger is trying to do here like so many times before. He is not a manager, he is a proud old man that currently is all about saving credibility in his legacy. If the resultd doesnt give him that, smoke screens are required.
The rod he created for his own back was winning a lot early on, raising the press’ and our expectations, leaving us disappointed that he isn’t still doing so.
We can see that all the money that came to Chelsea and City and that United have anyway doesn’t help, especially with the owner that we have.
IamaGoober…I just don’t buy it. The media are total shit stirrers but the only reason Arsenal fans think they’re anti-Arsenal is because what most Arsenal fans read in the media is Arsenal-related. You simply don’t spend the same time reading about other clubs. Fans of other clubs do the same & so they think their club is the media’s target. As an example…..I don’t know how many ‘Chelsea in crisis’ headlines I’ve read this season….a club who won the league last season in their manager’s first season, are way ahead of us in the league this season & who qualified… Read more »
I couldn’t bring myself to read an article by Marina Hyde, sorry. The woman is a professional shit-stirrer. Every “opinion” she has is an effort in being contrary.
I just liked the article. Have to be honest, can’t remember reading anything else she’s written so I won’t argue with you, you may be right !
Nah, Marina Hyde is fine. Sometimes very funny. While most of the press was still sucking up to Mourinho she was describing him with phrases like “simple twattishness” which is as close to cuntishness as you can get away with in print.
Her point about media bias makes sense – it’s just hard for us (or fans of any other team) to be objective about it.
I like your comment. Will read more of your comments in the future. 10/10 commenter. A1+, will read again.
To be fair, this is nothing to do with Le Prof. It’s been much the same ever since I started supporting the Arsenal (and that was when Bertie Mee was the manager!). The press have been sniping at Arsenal most of that time, whether it was “boring Arsenal” under Graham, or “underachieving” in the 70s and 80s (because we won just 2 cups in that time until we won the League in ’89 (plug for the film!). And though the Spuds haven’t won the League in over 50 years, I can’t remember anyone accusing /them/ of underachieving. Perhaps a few… Read more »
because arsenal are underachieving , and no , it wont change the mood
on that basis – every team bar Man City are under achieving. It is not black and white.
But other big teams are not consistently underachieving for the past few years. Arsenal are probably the only top 6 team that have continuously regressed and have not done any thing significant to change the trajectory.
His point is that 2 of the top 6 have won nothing for the last 10 years but they’re still media ‘golden’ teams.
Unfortunately we have failed to win the big 2 pieces of silverware however we have at least won silverware 3 times which the media either ignore or use as a stick to beat us with.
When you consistently year in year out finish 10,15,20 pts behind the winners for a club the size of Arsenal that’s underachievement which should result in the sack
Still nothing to do with the point he was making that we’re not as bad as many of the media darling teams.
Says the greatest manager in the word (per RVP) https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/robin-van-persie-arsene-wenger-11902132
Like Sanchez, it shows RVP left for the money and the increased chance of a title. Though if we’d had his goals that season we would have been close.
He left to win the title, and just happened to earn more money.
I corrected it for you
Sanchez was part of the team who failed to reach the 4th place last season. He was part of the Chilean team who failed to reach the WC. He was part of the Chilean team who was s** during the Confed Cup. Instead of putting his own teams in question, he may start putting himself in question.
Sanchez left for money. He didn’t join City for money and a guaranteed league, he joined United for money. He also didn’t join your Blues.
Any player that joins Arsenal on higher wages is only join us for the money, all mercenaries
Human nature, I think. The majority would take a doubling/trebling of their salary in any walk of life. (Except people from Widnes, who wouldn’t leave the delights of Widnes behind for a king’s ransom).
It depends on the numbers involved. For many there is a certain point where quality of life and enjoying your work is just as important as earning extra money. If Bale has the option to increase his money to ‘Ridiculous’ by moving to Manchester to play for MaureenO, is that a better option than staying on a ‘loads of money’ Salary in the sunshine where his kid (s?) and Mrs love living? Suarez desperately wanted to go to Spain because his Spanish wife was homesick. If City offered him £1m a week, would he go? Although Sanchez doesn’t have that… Read more »
One small extra point.
He probably also joined utd because he will get more playing time there compared to city. Money also, I have no doubt about that but I also dont doubt his desire to compete for major honours.
How many years is he potentially not going be in the champs league with us?
Hopefully not too long but for him it was important too
He left for both.
That’s what ‘and’ means.
He didn’t leave for money
Arsenal have consistently finished above United in recent years.
How the fuck do you know. C
If it weren’t partially for money he’d have waited for Pep this summer.
If it was only for silverware then he wouldn’t have wanted silly money when he spoke to Bayern.
Good point.
Thanks Pedant. Growing very tired of this world of people only espousing polar opposites; where strength of opinion matters more than reality.
People banging on about Sanchez move being based solely on money, conveniently forgetting a few things. -Mkhitaryan move to Arsenal was only possible because Sanchez decided to go now. Had Sanchez decided to sit out his contract (which was his right) and wait until the summer, we would have got the total sum of zero. The club had a chance to capitalize his transfer in the summer but decided to hold on to him instead fully aware of what that implied. -There has been not talk whatsoever about Mkhitaryan’s wages at Arsenal but he quite clearly did not come here… Read more »
Well said! The press might have it in for us, but that’s the burden of expectation. That comes from being great. People expect greatness. When that fades for a while, most people want to wonder where and why it went, rather than appreciate that it was there to begin with. And that’s just human nature, for better or worse. It’s ambition. No one is talking like this about the Scum or Liverpool, because no one expects them to perform, entertain, and win things. Being a big club comes with big expectations. And look at ourselves. We’re doing it too. “Wenger… Read more »
Words to live by. Beautiful
Really have you nothing better to do than pretend to be an Arsenal fan… that is some sad life.
He’d have won the title if he’d stayed. The extra £125k a week persuaded the little boy inside him otherwise.
Boom! Nicely put.
That’s just not true, is it?
So patronizing to the fans, so annoying. Its pretty much as if we are brainless morons shaping our opinion based on media narratives. A bit more respect please if this is what you constantly demand from everyone (‚im in the job for over 20 years’ etc etc).
“Its pretty much as if we are brainless morons shaping our opinion based on media narratives”
Hahahahahahahahaha
Pretty fucking much mate!
Oh Man, i really feel for you.
Haha. I was thinking the same. For what it’s worth I wouldn’t mind a change on the managerial end at all, don’t get me wrong, but some people and their one track narrative on Wenger is beyond belief. As Wenger pointed out Spurs are being celebrated for doing fuck all, and only being 3 points ahead of us with all the refereeing decisions going their way, and instead the opposite for us. We’ve won the FA cup 3 times in the last 4 years and suddenly it’s not a big cup anymore, all because the Spurs love in from the… Read more »
‘Arteta is a top class DM’ ‘Gervinho is the best player in Africa’ ‘We have gone from 4th to 3rd to 2nd, we are progressing’ ‘We may have dropped to 5th but we got more points than the season before. We are progressing’ ‘No, we are not out of the title race, we still have x games to go’ ‘We have two top, top quality goalkeepers’ ‘This team has great mental strength’ ‘No, I don’t believe we lost our best chance when Leicester won the league. That proves the quality in depth of the league, you will not see teams… Read more »
This is the kind of mentality that is killing our club. We are constantly looking beneath us and taking comfort in the fact that they have not achieved anything. The media kills us for not winning the league because nobody fkn expects spurs to win it . They are not a big club and they never has been. They are not the club that had sanchez and ozil some of the world class players and onr of the best squad in the leagye .they are not the ones that has one of the highest wage bills in the league .… Read more »
“They are not the club that had sanchez and ozil some of the world class players and onr of the best squad in the leagye ”
Neither were we, between 2005-2013. But I may have missed the praises from the media when we consistently made top-four regardless, playing brilliant football, with the likes of Almunia, Djourou, Silvestre, Song, Eboue, Adebayor and Bentdner.
Hahahaha! Remind me who brought them all to the Club?:):):)
The fan’s who pay the highest ticket prices in football
shut up john
Beating Spurs by two whole pounds. Yes, their most expensive tickets are £95 compared to our £97…
@ Maul Person
Congratulations for being about to count
The man who kept you at the pinnacle of european football for 20 years, working on a shoestring budget? 😉
Such a shoestring, we only have the 6th biggest budget in world football, more than both PSG and Chelsea!!
We dont have more money than PSG and Chelsea, dont look at that rich list thing. PSG may have -2 billion as a bank account but they’re owned by people that have so much money it doesn’t matter
Hahahaha! Pinnacle?:D The year on year defeats in 1/8 of the champions league? That’s ‘competing with Bayern and achieving great things’? Well you have high aspiration dude :D.
“The year on year defeats in 1/8 of the champions league?”
Yes, consistently in the Top-16 in Europe. What was wrong with that, considering our budget? 🙂
Achievements such as these were what attracted the likes of Özil and Sanchez to us, for example.
it is the action of an idiot to follow a club that you clearly hate – why would you do it? or you are here for the trolling – wow what a life you have.
Hermitian, most people agree with you that Arsene did a good job in keeping us in the top 4 post-Emirates move…..but since he signed his contract in 2014, this club has regressed. Yes, we have won FA Cups & they were fantastic & I loved them…….but we haven’t even challenged for the title, never mind winning it. I’ll put it this way : if Arsene had left in the summer of 2014, I think we were perfectly set up to win the league in the next couple of seasons with the right new appointment. If he goes this summer :… Read more »
@Kwame Ampadu Down “if Arsene had left in the summer of 2014, I think we were perfectly set up to win the league in the next couple of seasons with the right new appointment” As it happens, I don’t necessarily disagree with you. But we were in good shape largely due to his fine work in the preceding years. Didn’t he deserve the chance to reap the rewards? You could as well say that we were perfectly placed to win the Champions League during the Invincibles era, given the ‘right’ managerial appointment (Lippi, O.Hitzfeld, Ancelotti etc). You can always find… Read more »
Being an Arsenal fan should also be about loyalty to your team and the manager while he is under contract – why should we be getting rid of a manager who has earned the team more than 10 trophies and 20 years of CL , helped pay for a new stadium , helped keep the team financially Self sufficient and with manageable debt and above all get a team which plays attractive football you actually want to watch and with a stadium which is sold out throughout the season ? Which manager around will be able to guarantee you this… Read more »
I get the point that maybe he deserved the chance to reap the rewards….. but the reasons we didn’t win the league in 13-14 said to me we were never going to win it again under Arsene – the lack of mental strength under pressure & the glaring weakness at DM with Arteta. Three years on, those issues are still not addressed…and it seems clear Arsene has little interest in doing so. I just don’t get that any football manager should get the choice to decide when he goes….(unless he chooses to go out on top like Ferguson did) …..Arsene… Read more »
Can you name the teams in the PL which can outbid Arsenal for players and which can afford a bigger budget ? I make it 3 Can you name the teams in the top 6-7 in the PL which Arsenal can compete with financially for players and staff ? I can think of 2-3 So under the circumstances , what is your expectation on Arsenal performance over the years in PL ? Can you name the teams in the CL who can be counted to be CL regulars and who can outbid Arsenal and have a budget at least as… Read more »
So if results are all down to financial power, Arsenal never lose or go out of competitions to anyone financially weaker correct? Like Nottingham Forest?
**Leicester fucking City**
It is depressing how often we lose to the little teams but we’re not the only one.
I’m pretty certain all the other top 6 teams have lost to much smaller teams at least once in the last 5 years.
We’re the one team that beat **Leicester fucking City** twice that season.
Well done to Leicester for a once in 50 years achievement … this is how sport goes .. the underdog will have a glorious day once … ditto for Nott forest … this is football and part of the reason we follow it …..however just answer this question , would you rather be in Leicester’s or Nottingham Forest’s position or in Arsenal’s ? And ask the Leicester and Nott Fan or even the Spurs or Liverpool,fan – which team has the better performance and track record … Having said that , I still think Arsenal need to win the EL… Read more »
“And nobody gives them shit for treating the FA cup half arsed”
i’m not gonna defend sp*rs now, but they started into the competition with some of their best players against a league-one-side. whereas we as title-holders started with a b-team vs a championship-team and tragically failed.
if you only select a b-team to defend your title this may seem half-arsed or arrogant and you don’t have to wonder if there’s bad news coming.
The problem is that wasn’t the future we were sold now is it??? When the Emirates move began we were told it was so we could compete with the best, not FA cups.
Yeah but come on mate, since then actual nations have started buying clubs and stick piling the worlds best players. Even the most hardcore Wenger out mother fuckers can’t have expected him to know that was gonna happen.
Every person in Football thought it would be a good idea to get a bigger stadium (although they’d argue about the financing of it), but no one thought that TV revenue would explode beyond all recognition and that Oligarchs and Oil Money would arrive in the amounts that it has done.
Building a bigger stadium still is a good idea, which is exactly why Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea and Everton are in the process of doing so. The bad idea is not spending the extra revenue it creates, which is where Arsenal and Wenger have gone wrong.
They have spent a large portion of the extra money it created by paying for the build, training facilities and the vast employee structure needed to run it all. The issue is that it’s not such a big factor compared to the TV money and especially the sugar daddy money that’s arrived in the game.
Asked if reaching a Wembley final would calm the mood among fans, Wenger said “To change the mood? I have no illusions at all. “The mood is decided by you. Look, we have been in a few finals. Has it changed your mood? No. You celebrate some teams who have not been in a final for 25 years and yet you kill us, even though we have won the FA Cup three times in the last four years. A lot of people here just don’t get it. sure, the media narrative is unfair, but what Wenger is saying is that… Read more »
Wenger doesn’t like scrutiny so he turns it around and points fingers at others because fan’s are apparently too stupid to form their own opinion.
The man’s arrogance is what creates the mood.
Wenger accepts the scrutiny and acknowledges that it’s part of the job. He says it relentlessly.
No he doesn’t, he points the finger for his failure on others, media, refs, fans, other clubs, he very very very rarely accepts responsibility.
Dont tell me what the ‘C’ stand for John… I think we all know.
Blog is not media? I learnt a new thing today
Adam. It’s almost as if you believe that the media can have no sway on public opinion. Surely you’re not that naive?
“It’s almost as if Wenger believes the mood around the club is determined only by the media and not how fans react to a pattern of results over time. Surely he’s not that naive?”
There’s something deeply ironic about Wenger die-hards agreeing with the notion that other Arsenal fans are “brainless morons with views shaped by media narratives”. It implies they have a low opinion of their fellow fans but such a high opinion of themselves that they remain unaffected by said narratives.
Pretty much the dictionary definition of arrogance.
I know many people that believe too much of the media drivel, and they support many different clubs.
So yes there are an awful lot of idiots that support every team.
If support of a team required an IQ test there are many that wouldn’t be allowed to support any team (including a few on here).
Saying that any group of people has some dumb people in it is fine.
What’s arrogant is the belief that anyone who isn’t a Wenger die-hard is one of the dumb ones.
He didn’t say that though, did he?
Every time Wenger talk about something he is always spot on. He is not just one of the greatest managers of the last 20 years but he is the most cleaver person in the football world.
I particularly like his reply, “I have no illusions” when asked whether he feels the pressure. Sadly, people do not celebrate his spectacular intelligence, which other halfwits like mourinho could hardly muster
Sadly this is not an IQ or intelligence race, this is about managing and winning titles with a football club, which Mourinho wins hands down.
I’m off to puke now.
MaureenO does have the lead when it comes to winning silverware in the last 10+ years, but it’s cost his clubs more than we could afford.
Porto? Inter Milan?
Is that the Inter that Maureeno joined after they’d won the league 3 time consecutively?
Clearly he pulled them up from obscurity 😀
They weren’t exactly a team built on the cheap.
He did do well at Porto and with very few new players, but again, they weren’t exactly shit before he took over.
What a load of bollocks
…from someone called himself Donald Trump it’s a compliment for me 🙂
Jumped headfirst into that one didn’t he
Exactly!
Tujhya aicha gho wenger !!! Auba announce kar.
I’m with you on this. Truly disgraceful!!!
I see this is a less than thinly veiled dig at the spuds.
and Liverpool (though they have played a cup final during the last 20 years!).
hahaha the one called champions league (which they won) you mean? 🙂 why don’t you wake up Mate?
That was a very long time ago.
Any of their players remember that?
I think Liverpool are happy with winning the champions league instead of the fa cup tbh. I know I would be
it was over a decade ago.. When they won that we had just been invincible… back to your agenda….
Can’t agree more with the boss. I’m one of those who really don’t get this “Spurs have closed the gap” hype. I’ll believe it when they actually win a trophy. Also I find it very rich for Liverpool (and to an extent Man Utd) fans taking the mick on our alleged “empty trophy cabinet” when their clubs gave won fuck all in the last gazillion years. What hurts most is when some of our own fans get sucked in the wind up conspiracy and actually believes our club is pants. Get a grip men! Edit: Don’t get me wrong –… Read more »
Disagree. We have been underperforming for more than 10 years ago.
And Liverpool have won the Chanpions League more recently than we have won the Premier League…so we need to be a bit careful bagging them
The FA cup is a well respected trophy with great tradition and our achievements should be respected. But that doesn’t fully mitigate our underperformance in the league
have you ever played football? if you have I am sure you won everything, every game.
Spot on.
“Arsenal haven’t won anything for years and years, let’s point and laugh.”
Arsenal break their duck and win the FA Cup three times in four seasons.
“Well the only trophies that matter anymore are the Premier League and the Champions League. Arsenal are going backwards.”
I actually had a Sp*rs fan call me a liar because I said last summer winning the FA Cup and finishing fifth in the league was better than finishing second with fuck all.
What’s happened to football?
I always see having the 2nd leg at home a disadvantage esp if you haven’t scored in the 1st leg. Some defensive composure required tonight lads. Wenger spot on about press too. Not just cups either but transfers too, Arsenal always seem to be the ones highlighted and talked to death about.
There is always a new “Wenger nearly 11” like if Ferguson and Mourinho (despite unlimited budgets) never lost out on transfers or as if Wenger didn’t make actual signings for those he didn’t sign, in any case many of whom were at the time unproven youngsters.
Give me an example of a player whom either Ferguson or Mourinho has publically said they’ve almost signed and i’ve give you 10 from Wenger.
Fergie – Aaron Ramsey & John Obi Mikel.
Rattle off that list of 20 mister C…
Wenger is spot on with this comment. We get regularly hammered by the press and I would add the meny ex pro pundits as well. Often even game commentary is biased and hard to listen to. They just love to give the arsenal a hard time.
All of this is true but it’s not the whole story either,there is also the underdog factor why they root for teams that have not won in ages (we didn’t get any of that so I understand) but it’s still a thing, the other is S*urs are not under the same scrutiny because of their set up and history or lack thereof, basically they hope wish and pray that spurs win but the expect Arsenal to win,not fair but true, the problem arises when the same is not fished out to the other historically successful clubs,Liverpool haven’t won the title… Read more »
Here are the richest clubs in the world, which shows how Arsenal are massive under achievers.
1. Manchester United: €676.3m
•2. Real Madrid: €674.6m
•3. Barcelona: €648.3m
•4. Bayern Munich; €587.8m
•5. Manchester City: €527.7m
•6. Arsenal: €487.6m
•7. Paris Saint Germain: €486.2m
•8. Chelsea: €428m
•9. Liverpool: €424.2m
•10. Juventus: €405.7m
Let’s look at actual spending rather.
Why?
Look at the ‘value; next to PSG and then recall how much they spent on Neymar and Mbappe…then please keep quiet.
Liverpools CL win wasn’t recently…
And the invincible’s was even less so, the difference being that Benitez got the sack for failing to build on it whilst Wenger hasn’t!
Obviously their silverware haul since then proves that they did the right thing… 😮
Ours hasn’t been any better.
Yes it is. Not good enough, but better than Liverpools.
Often? Commentary is brutal every single match, better to watch on mute!
Excuses, Mr Wenger. Hate to admit it, but Tottenham are exceeding expectations , while we are not delivering the results a club of our stature should. Also, no other top club are being humiliated on the pitch as often as we do.
Tottenham are exceeding expectations? It is easy when you have low ones. Burnley are also exceeding expectations. Hell, Huddersfield also exceed (at least mine). Does this make them better clubs than Arsenal?
Wenger’s comment is spot on.
Speaking of lowered expectations, Isn’t going from title contenders to top 4 aspirants a step down? Isn’t going from top 4 to top 6 a step down? Basically the club and Wenger to an extent are asking us to lower our expectations by pointing fingers at the oil money in spite of the profits we make year year out. Although I agree with the general media bias against us to an extent, I have to admit that spurs or liverpool or man u look more like clubs moving in the right direction compared to us who seem to be in… Read more »
I could really use an article on football finance from Swiss Ramble right now. It seems to me different clubs have different philosophies on how to operate; some have outside money and balancing the books and carrying debt doesn’t matter (Man City, Chelsea, PSG) Others have revenues from commercial and other areas and can spend a lot on transfers and wages (Real Madrid, Man United) and others are very conservative, have good commercial revenue but prefer to balance the books have a wage structure and adhere to it for the good of the long term future of the club. I… Read more »
How? let’s compare recent Silverware – say the last five years.
Spurs = Zero
Liverpool = Zero
Arsenal = 3 x FA Cups.
But they are going in the right direction and Arsenal aren’t?
You are living proof that the weak minded will believe anything they read.
If so, same can be said for Manchester United. From Title winners to Europa League contenders.
Sod off to the Lane then.
Great argument, disagree with me so go support someone else
Love him and would be completely on board with this… if our ticket prices were’nt one of the highest in the world
As someone else mentioned, would you really prefer to pay £2 or maybe £5 less and see the Spuddies?
No matter how the press paints Sp*rs we are better than them….. they will always be in our shadow COYG
Of course what he says is nonsense and a false equivalency. The criticism is of him not the club but as far as he’s concerned he is Arsenal so criticism of him becomes comparable to non-existent non-criticism of clubs. It’s quite clear why Klopp, Pochettino etc aren’t receiving the same scrutiny that Wenger receives because in their short managerial spells at their respective clubs they’ve made them better, they haven’t got a job for life and will certainly not be given a decade of failure before they’re sacked. Wengers been at Arsenal 21 years and had total control of the… Read more »
“…..and we’re now in a worse position then when he became manager.”
Rubbish. Please look up our history.
You please look up our history.
Wenger inherited a team that finished 5th the previous season but was full of proven winners. The club and majority of the squad he inherited in the 7 years previous had won 2 league titles, an unprecedented FA and League Cup double, a european trophy and had returned to the final the year later.
We currently 6th and he will not be leaving the club in even an equivalent position but worse.
And Wenger would have won fuck all if it were not for the squad he inherited. Who would win anything that inherited this squad? It’s a badly educated mess.
This is such a stupid argument.
So what if he inherited good players? They were good players that just about finished 5th the season before he arrived, and had finished 12th the season before that. Wenger added players to them to make us double winners. Why are people so insistent on playing down what he has achieved because he’s under-performing now?
Also, none of the players he inherited were part of the 2003-04 squad which did something no other team has done before or since, so give this tired nonsense a rest.
100% it required good management to win with the squad he inherited, and of course the team finished 12th the season before Rioch was manager but GG was ironically fired to choruses of “Get your cheque book out” because he had come to the end of his usefulness as manager.
There are parallels between the end of GG’s time and Wengers, both have/had run out of ideas and even Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang have the last throw of the dice feel of Helder, Kiwomya and Hartson.
I’ve got no issue with people drawing parallels between the two eras, but it’s just to bloody-minded to suggest that the only reason Wenger won things was because he inherited the back five and a couple of others.
To a man, they all cite Wenger as someone who helped them get more out of their careers, both in terms of playing time and what they won.
I get why people are frustrated with him, but to dismiss his role in those achievements is nothing less than idiotic.
You absolutely can’t dismiss him as anything but a great manager up until 2004/5 but since then its been a downward trajectory and really should have left in 2010. I personally was prepared to give him the first few year of project youth but when it became apparent the biggest obstacle to its success was his point blank refusal to compliment the youth with the quality and experience it required he should have been shown the door. He’s hung around far too long and quite frankly many many fans resent him, so much now he will never retrieve their respect.… Read more »
To be fair, the comment didn’t say that Arsene Wenger was successful because of the squad he inherited. The point was that the club was in a better position because of the quality of players that were available to the new manager. I would point out that the squad we have now is actually good, and that it’s the manager’s lack of ability to get the best out of them that makes them look bad. From that perspective, and the relative financial strength of Arsenal compared to other teams around them (we weren’t really much richer than teams like Everton… Read more »
I think the back five he inherited enabled Wenger to have such early success. Without that I don’t think he would have been capable of building a title-competing, let alone winning defence. You can talk about the 2003-04 squad, but Sol Campbell was the lynchpin of that defence, so it would equaly stupid to imply the 2003-04 team would have been capable of what it achived were it not built on the success that came before it. The fact is, since that squad disintegrated, Wenger has proven himself to be singularly incapable of building a defence able to compete for… Read more »
Yeah, going an entire league season with a defence you built yourself is grossly overrated all right
@ Arseblog How much of that was down to a midfield that had several years of being coached through games by Adams, Keown and Co? I read an interview with John Jensen a year or so ago where he said playing in front of Adams was easy because he spent the entire match telling him where he wanted him to stand. It’s quite clear none of our current centre backs are doing that now. We’re not and haven’t in a long time displayed the good defensive habits we had back then and it’s quite reasonable to ask in my opinion… Read more »
Sorry, what’s your point mentioning Sol Campbell?
A player that joined after AW.
Because Campbell would never have joined Arsenal had they not been Champions. So the title-winning success, built on the foundation of GG’s success, led to Campbell joining, hence the Invincibles.
Toure was not a great defender, just a pace-machine. Campbell was a fucking monster. They complimented each other beautifully. But Campbell was the rock – he was another Tony Adams.
No GG defence, no title, no Campbell. When Campbell left, it all fell apart and Wenger can be seen for what he is. Average.
Give it a rest. It cannot be good for your health hating this much. there is more to life.
Yet he didn’t inherit the Invincible s… who was it?
…and like for like comparison of managerial achievement of porch, kopp and wenger for same number of years at the helm, o wise sage?…..fuck all, for porch and kopp, apart from intermittent top four finish…what else have they achieved?, even before their current jobs?
Grant
Maybe look at what klopp has achieved. Winning the league in Germany against a super power back to back is mightily impressive
But I guess you want to push a narrative
What has he done in the Prem…? he has won nothing. let’s stick to facts.
Loorollmessi
When someone references someone work at a previous job and they are incorrect they will be told so
Whilst Klopp clearly did a good job at BVB, They were a big team there for many years before him, and his silverware from 7 years as their manager isn’t that impressive in a 2 horse race (even though they were the underdog team).
The same argument could be used with Wenger, he only won the league when it was a two horse race as well!
OK, at least you now agree that AW’s done a good job…
Same way Wenger won Ligue 1 with unfancied Monaco
There’s a website called Wikipedia that can help you with that
Yeah, right idiot Wenger. You on the other hand…
I believe we should be doing much better but if winning 3 FA cups in the last four years is ” a decade of failure” and the said Klopp and Poch haven’t won anything in those 4 years and are praised then I totally see the mood setting thing he’s talking about.
Now I can catch my breath.
They haven’t been manager of their clubs for 4 years and certainly won’t be given 10 years without a trophy before being sacked.
Wenger sets the mood by constantly pointing the finger at others, we’re not interested in Liverpool or Spurs we’re interested in Arsenal.
I think it worked both ways, yes we didn’t win anything for 10 years but we made finals and were still competitive. Wenger also had to accept major financial restrictions (he may still) because of the stadium.
It’s actually fairly impressive he stayed relatively competitive under the constraints especially when you look at how other clubs who have faired after moving stadia. (That aren’t financially doped).
The guy has flaws, like everyone, but I don’t think another manager would have done better in that period or stuck around knowing life would be tough.
There are better things to do in your life john.
Your the one who bought Poch and Klopp into this debate…? You need help John and I am not taking the p!ss.
Wenger spot on. Insight with facts. How long since Liverpool, Spurs, Everton… won a title, cup? Every trophy has value and the FA Cup? I am old enough to remember Spurs of the 60s. A great, great side based on the football they played. How many titles? One. How many FA Cups? 3. We don’t hear many people saying it was only 3 in 7 years. Wenger has given us 7 of them, 7!!! 3 titles. Get it into perspective and support your manager and team unconditionally!
Hahahaha
This is satire right?
I think you need a nap john.
And they aren’t arrogant condescending pr***s who talk down to the press and admit their mistakes when they make them.
You clearly don’t watch their press conferences then…
Compare the same say the first five years of Wenger’s Arsenal career to the first 5 of Poch or Klopp…. there goes your agenda… they have made their teams better while Wenger was winning doubles…
and you call him an idiot?
No Wenger,the media ‘kill’ you because Arsenal are underachieving with the quality and money we have,(we are expected to be a champions league team but are currently only a Europa league team)while spuds and Liverpool are celebrated because they are overachieving against their expectations(where they are expected to be Europa league teams but are pushing for champions league places).
So finishing fourth in the league is fine for you but fifth is underachieving?
Can’t say last season wasn’t disappointing in a lot of ways but we won the FA Cup ffs.
I’m highly critical of him but he is right. Imagine how we’d get hammered if the only thing we had won was a Worthless Cup over 10 years ago. The last time Spurs won anything of consequence Mrs Thatcher had only just been kicked out of Downing Street. The last time they won the League, Britain was still 10 years away from decimal currency and yet they can do no wrong because they play attractive football. We’ve done that for years, won nothing till recently and we were still criticised. Unfortunately, I can see Man City dominating domestically for the… Read more »
It’s cause more is expected of our club.. Whereas other teams haven’t won stuff so not much is expected
If Mourinho won 3 F.A Cups in the last 10 years, would you be critical of him?
What if he finished outside of the top 4 last season, then was on track to finish outside of the top 4 this season?
For the amount of money he’s spent, yes we’d be critical of him.
But would he have won as much as that with less spending power?
Not when he spends over 300 million GBP a season.
He’s fuckin right too
I wish he followed up that statement with “but of course it is right that you have such higher expectations for us, since we are much bigger than those other clubs.”
COYG
You are the one underachieving Wenger, even more so when considering continuity, on that front our ability to compete in anything but the FA cup is declining for every year you remain in charge. That is not an evil opinion, it is a statistical and mathematical FACT! I would be truly delighted if you can wrap up your Arsenal days on a high, but the club cannot be hold hostige to protect your legacy. This has to be your final year, the way you have approached the prospect of 2 more years is with painful transperency confirming; 1. we are… Read more »
Have you tried Valium?
Valium? I should go consult another doctor me thinks, keep your valiums to yourself 😉
I agree with Wenger to an extent. The issue is it always must be contingent, there must always be narrative. And we forget this, but its really taken off in recent years. Arsenal will the cup in 2013 and they immediately say on Sky as they’re celebrating, something like ‘Arsenal win a trophy for the first time in nine years, but can they keep it up? Back to the studio…’ The narratives are decided before the result and Wenger is right to draw attention to this. Nonetheless, Wenger’s time at the club is coming to a close. We consistently fail… Read more »
Not sure why my comments are being moderated again. I abuse no-one. Is it because I always say fuck, blogs? (Note the comma!)
Hate him or love him. That statement is pure LOLs. What have Tottenham and Liverpool done of note over the last couple of decades…(apart from Liverpool winning the champions league)? Zilch.
”The mood is decided by you.”
So we as Arsenal fans are mindless idiots whose mood is controlled by the press.
Sadly many are exactly that.
As you demonstrate so well!!
Says the man parroting the press drivel….:-D
As Arsene said “once you’ve caviar you don’t really want to eat sausages” so it’s no surprise. And isn’t there a general feeling shared by most of us that the team has underperformed
Paranoid
It is so true. How long have media darlings the spuds and the scousers gone with out winning fresh air. When was the last time the won the premier league? Nevuary. Yet all you hear is how long we gone without the prem and the sheep parrot it like everything else is a number 2 sandwich (fa cup is crap now according to some). And people believe the media is neutral, stop getting ur brain put in the washer dryer.
All he does is bitch.
Henis a great man but we will be a better club once he is gone
What’s fascinating is how Arsene (the manager of a club in the top flight league in England) is looking at the teams under him when he should be focusing on those above. What’s more fascinating is how fans can get behind him on this. Real Madrid has just won the UEFA Champions League consecutively for the first time ever. Ask Zidane if the Benabeu faithful will take it easy on him if he fails to win it a third time straight as he’s relinquished the title to Barcelona this season. Ranieri was asked if he will be matching his historical… Read more »
He’s not focusing on the teams below us, just pointing out the hypocrisy of the press.
Beyond Spurs and Liverpool, Manchester United has not won the league in 5 years despite spending nearly a billion pounds. I would remember that by 2009 (5 years after the invincibles) we were already being asked questions about not winning the league despite obvious budgetary constraints.
“The problem with Arsene Wenger is he’s French and we don’t like frenchman over here” – Brian Clough The press have their favourites and Wenger isn’t one of them, partly because he doesn’t use them to do his dirty work. How many times do you hear English managers bang on about how foreign managers get the best jobs and blah blah blah. The press aren’t much different. The reason the press give Wenger a hard time is because they know he’ll give them soundbites they can use like the ones above. Fergie, for instance, would instantly ban anyone from the… Read more »
I couldn’t agree more with Wenger. Sp*rs, Mugmashers and Manure always seem to get a free pass when it comes to the British media. Biased press is biased.
I take it the press is the reason our team has been inconsitent and incoherent?
Is it the press that makes us defend like shit and attack like Swansea?
Does the press make us sell our best players?
No? Then it could be our manager’s shit.
Did he say that?
He’s just pointing out the hypocrisy of the press.
In the last 5+ years we’ve seen similar (or worse) inconsistency from many of the media darling teams.
He does have a point.
All that man does is blame other people for this club’s failings and moan. Moan moan moan. It’s either arrogance or self-pity from Wenger. Can’t wait to see the back of him. Boring boring Arsene.
That smoke screen is not solid enough to cover up for the declining achievements during some + 10 years.The fans love the FA cup, it is not us you need to convince of how massive an achievemwnt you have mastered, it is the top players that expect nothing else but a honest ambition & ability from the manager and board to fight for the top prizes you need to convince, and if you struggle at that, at minimum ensure we replace top class with top class while that is possible, and dont form the team aroumd players that wants to… Read more »
Fighting words. Spurs haven’t won the title since 1961. That’s over half a century ago. Liverpool haven’t won the title in the history of the PL. A quarter century now. None have won any significant cups. So Spurts finally after 2 decades finish above us and they are lauded like challengers. Granted we are dropping off pace again this season but Wenger’s right. Only thing is we need to win the Europa. League cup as a domestic title is good but frankly minor. A Europa (and League) plus sneak into fourth spot (regardless of Europa) would be for me minimal… Read more »
Liverpoo! have won a significant cup though…