Burnley Preview – Merci Arsène
May 5th, 2018 by 'holic
The timing is right, but lest we forget.
The ‘holic pound
The Arsenal 4-1 Burnley, available at 22/1 if you shop around.
97 Responses to “Burnley Preview – Merci Arsène”
May 5th, 2018 by 'holic
The timing is right, but lest we forget.
The ‘holic pound
The Arsenal 4-1 Burnley, available at 22/1 if you shop around.
10 pictures that are worth more than 10,000 words. Thank you One Arsene Wenger.
Legend.
Thank you so much for everything.
🙂 No chance of forgetting. Enjoy the game. Put a shout in for me.
No problem BtM, I’m coming home hoarse and all cried out. ☺️
Thanks for the wonderful memories Arsene Wenger… will never ever be forgotten.
Holic you are a maestro with words but you have outdone yourself tonight with no more than 8 words.
The best written preview EVER.
Don’t know if this was mentioned in previous drinks, but Alex Ferguson has had a brain haemorrage.
Seen it on Twitter, Cynic. Heartening to see the number of Gooners wishing him well. Respect.
And everybody, as Cynic knows, bless him, I have a piece in the commemorative issue of the Gooner fanzine, available from the Gooner website and at the game tomorrow. ??
You do indeed, and so do Jon Spurling, Amy Lawrence, TTG most likely does…
It’s an 84 page love letter really.
Barbara Cartland couldn’t have done it better.
Right. Gonna spend some money with the guy selling The Gooner under the railway bridge on Hornsby Road. All my favourite authors.
I do have a question. This T shirt that’s going to be on the seat tomorrow. Will it be sized for 60 year old gents with a fuller figure? If holic can fit into it so can I!
Hornsby road? Hornsey road even!
Wanda Metropolitano sounds like a fantasy figure on the Goon Show. Europe’s answer to Sabrina.
A random thought as I’m reading Oliver Holt’s column. Someone has to give him the clicks to keep him in Mandy bands.
It’s a little known fact that the real name of the seller on that road is called Bruce, and they sell it on a number surrounding streets.
Yes…. you can get it from Bruce, Hornsby and the range…
And on that note I shall retire, picking bits of rotten veg out of my hair as I go.
True legend those photos speak for themselves!
Thank you Arsene for everything!
I think it is right he is going, but I’m in bits already. He has been our manager for over a third of my life, and I’m a fossil. Some of you don’t remember Rioch!
I don’t have enough tissues for tomorrow.
how ye gonna make the Arse Nation rise
ye gotta AGITATE EDUCATE ORGANIZE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-HQR2-s1J4
Holic,
I will have a tear in my eye too Arsene was and will be One Aesene Wenger! ?
There’s a nice little interview with Rioch on the Telegraph website today, but it’s a premium article so you have to register, which is free although there are charges depending on how much you want to read. You get one free premium article a week as a registered user.
Thanks Cynic, I just can’t bring
myself to register with the torygraph.
I am curious though – is Rioch bitter
about how things went? It could be
argued that of all the Arsenal
managers in my time (from Bertie on)
he was the only one who didn’t get a
fair chance.
Excellent preview H. Something for the Arsenal TV idiots and the banner waving buffoons to contemplate? Embarrassing spoilt brats the lot of them.
Sunday will be tough. I, along with almost everything one I think believe the time is right. But the memories and achievements are just monumental. When I think back to some of the dross I’ve watched over the years, pre Arsene, it just makes you realise how lucky we have all been. It’s gonna seem a strange old place without him.
Anyone heading to the Tolly pre match? Got number 1 son with me so may get to say a few hellos through the railings.
A convincing win please. No negativity. Guns pointing out. Sing his name loud and proud. Then there has to be a lasting tribute. Personally, I’m all for naming the stadium after the great man.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery Sir Alex.
Thanks GH for the preview as always.
It’s a difficult day that the team could make
much easier by blasting Burnley. 4-0 please.
Cheers ‘h ?
An emotional day under the bank-holiday weekend sunshine, is likely.
Thank you once again for all of those wonderful memories, Arsene.
Get well soon and recover fully, Sir Alex. ???????
Oh how cruel life can be once you finally choose to relax and “get away from it all…” Very sad.
UTAAD&AN
Never thought of wishing Sir Alex Ferguson well before now, but here I am.
Not at all bitter, no, OM
He talks a bit about how he walked into a club where the various problems with booze etc were evident and that he was told when he arrived that he had no idea of what he’d inherited.
A bit about one nameless player who came to him in his office to confess to considering suicide that he had to sit with and talk things through.
There’s a minor bit of myth busting over the Bergkamp transfer where he says he was told that he wanted to join us, so he said to go and get him. Now you may think he would say that, wouldn’t he, but it doesn’t take a genius to make that decision really (and I never believed the stuff about players being signed by Dein myself)
Some admission of difficulty with Ian Wright, because he wanted to sign Shearer and a bit of a tribute to Wenger at the end.
The article also has stuff from the writer about how Rioch started the pass and move and gave defenders the freedom to play (I had forgotten using Winterburn as a midfielder for example)
I could have copy and pasted I suppose… 😀
Cynic
I have a couple of pieces in there. I wanted to try to get people to imagine where tge club would be if he hadn’t stayed with us after stupid trolls tried to suggest he was a paedophile- how ghastly a thing to allege about an innocent man and yet perpetuated for years by those jealous of him.
Arsene achieved so much and Arsenal is a completely different and much richer club as a result and we have wonderful memories that he gave us. He stayed too long, we all realise that but today is about thanks and respect not recrimination and I hope he finds it a day he can look back on with pride. Inside the club it’s been tough for him this season but he never betrays a hint of that in pressers just as in the financially straitened years when the board were clipping his wings he never moaned or sought to take bigger salaries from other clubs. He could have gone anywhere in those days but he stayed loyal to Arsenal. We have seen a special man and now it’s time to say goodbye. I don’t cry about Football and never have since I was eight but it will be emotional for all proper Gooners today.
We will win 2-0 with Auba getting both
Finally massive good wishes to Sir Alex, the fiercest of rivals but as he showed last week, a man of great class.
Merci Arsene and bonne chance
OM,
I almost bought Rioch’s old house in Norfolk five years ago. He wasn’t the owner then but had sold it to a Gooner funnily enough a year before. When we were supposed to be looking at room layout and ambience we were chatting about some things Bruce had passed on. He was very respectful about the club but boy did he have problems with that dressing room. Mrs TTG was less than impressed with me that day . Not for the first or last time. I met Bruce once in the village and he was extremely pleasant. A gentleman and someone who made tge playing transition easier for Arsene than he is given credit for
Great pictures, holic.
Adieu, Arsene. Just thinking back to the invincibles team you put together makes me smile like an idiot.
Thanks Cynic, much appreciate the
summary and good to hear he’s
not bitter.
I won’t copy and paste the lot as the paywall police will be after me but
“On my first pre-season trip to Gothenburg, two counsellors came out with the team,” Rioch recalls. “Players said, ‘We need them with us, otherwise we’ll struggle’. The counsellors told me, ‘There are far greater problems at this club than you can even imagine’.”
Frazzled, Rioch uttered a throwaway line that he felt like Marje Proops, then the nation’s pre-eminent agony aunt, such was the amount of mollycoddling he had to do. But this barely hinted at the darkness inside the dressing room, with Rioch now disclosing that one of his players had contemplated taking his own life.
“He knocked on my door at five to 10, just as we were about to go out training, to say, ‘I thought about committing suicide on the way in. I planned to drive my car under a truck’. I knew I had to sit with the guy for as long as it took. It’s not a job you’re trained for.”
The tribute bit is very short actually I thought he had said more. Just how good and loyal he’d been.
Skybet listing Allegri and this man as joint 4/1 favorites to succeed Arsene Wenger.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/apr/30/jurgen-klopp-loses-liverpool-assistant-zeljko-buvac-rest-of-season
Gwyneth Paltrow would have made a great Arsenal manager, TTG
Lovely, lovely post Holic. A fitting tribute. I think there’s dust in my eye.
I am truly grateful that I had the privilege of watching Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal teams. The best players and best football I have ever supported. We are eternally in his debt.
Yet it is certainly time for change. A bittersweet time.
I hope that Arsene’s successor can build on his enormous legacy in a way that makes him proud and us ecstatic and I wish Arsene every success in his future ventures.
Best wishes also to Sir Alex for a full recovery.
I hope to see some of you lovely people later.
COYG
Gwyneth Paltrow eh? She would have brought different qualities to the job but the team would probably have eaten even more broccoli!
TTG,
Nice story about Rioch’s old house
– what Gooner wouldn’t want to hear
about Bruce’s thoughts rather than
look at a house, so many houses,
so few ex Arsenal managers 🙂
Cynic,
That dressing room did have a few
loose cannons – they did well to win
anything given some of the
lifestyles. Most of us would give a
limb of some sort to live the dream
of playing for The Arsenal, it’s sad to
hear of someone being that down.
A preview of true class, Holic.
Yes, there are issues but not for today.
Can’t believe I won’t be there for his final home game having been such a big fan of his and proud of my club for finding such a unique, intelligent manager.
Although it has disappeared lately under the increasing hostility of the various media, the humour of his early years should also be remembered.
He saved the club and then transformed it, along with the entire English league. He was not to know his vision would be clouded by the arrival of unlimited amounts of Russian and Arab cash.
He will be given a send off today in a stadium that would very likely not be there, were it not for that vision.
There will be mixed feelings in the ground today. There should be no doubt about the thanks cheered up for the manager who has given us the best football we have ever seen.
Give him a shout for me please, Holic.
I have spat feathers in the past at Sir Alex Ferguson.
But he has children and a family like any other man.
Hopefully, we can all wish him a full recovery.
Ozil having his predicted weekend off.
Get well soon, Sir Alex.
I have always been a Mesut Ozil fan but it seems that the way he has been treated/handled by the gaffer leaves a lot to be desired.
The preferential treatment meted out to him must surely cause friction behind the scenes. What do I know?
On to the game. We need to give the manager a proper send off. 5-0 will do nicely.
Just seen the gaffer wave goodbye. Can’t hold back the tears.
One Arsene Wenger!!
First tear
Mavropanos, please be all we hope you are.
COYG
Auba!
get in Auba !
Mavropanos has a good passing range and is calm and assured on the ball.
We’ve got a player on our hands.
No, we’ve got a kid on our hands.
in 2022. he’ll be a good defensive player
maybe
good finish Laca !
A kid that’s a player. That he’s balling now doesn’t mean he can’t develop further.
2-0 half time, solid half from the
lads defensively too
Burnley has been a bit underwhelming bit that doesn’t take away from our efficacy upfront.
big miss Vokes and iffy defending
rearing its ugly head
Rocket from Kolasinac. Good work and pass from Jack. 3-0.
goodnight Burnley, cracking finish
nearly another for Mkhi.
Mkhitaryan is a really good player who makes our midfield tick. Jack is also in good form today and we look good going forward. Burnley look like they are on holiday already.
As long as we don’t do anything
silly in the next 15 minutes I’d like
to see a farewell run out for BFG
too.
Everyone is putting on a show for the boss. Iwobi makes it 4-0 with a left foot cracker. Where is all this on our away fixtures.
another nice finish – Iwobi this time
very happy for AW 🙂
Cynic@31,
She’d certainly “stiffen up” the back four!
Wenger has taken your cue, OM. Per about to make his last appearance for the club at home.
So much for Atletico being invincible at home. Humbled 2-0 by Espanyol this afternoon at the Wanka Metropolitano.
it was just a feint ksn !
Auba again, 5-0. Auba is deadly in the box.
Wish I had placed a wager.
Get in, Auba.
Auba !!
Big Per.
A good and faithful servant of the Arsenal.
Per on. We need someone with Per’s height, defensive nous and cool to replace him. Mavrapanos has good height but is too inexperienced, though he has the basics in place and will develop if given decent game time. Definitely one for the future.
As you say SG he was and great that
he’s staying
Auba’s pace is unbelievable.
Great shot from Welbeck denied by the post. Where are all these thunderbolts coming from, today. Telling the boss that they would have won a lot more if they had been allowed to shoot all these years.
A day to cherish in the memory.
moooooooooooooooooooooo
oooh 69
dirty fuckin bastard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83bo9W7OORQ
A very emotional day indeed.
I’m glad I took shades.
It was a tough watch on the telly, Steve.
Glad the crowd got together for him.
Not one word about himself in his speech – all about everyone else, as ever.
Love him or not, he was a class act.
I’ll miss him as a man even if his time as manager was run.
Spot on, Trev.
There was a banner just above where I sit. It read…
One Arsene Wenger.
Forever in your debt.
That just about summed it all up perfectly for me.
just finished rewatching the post-game tributes. class all around, from vic akers through alex scott, the bfg, and finally, guttingly, the man of the day. our house is scarcer of tissues than at the start of the morning.
as i’ve said elsewhere: Thank you, Arsène. I am so sad you are leaving, you brought much joy and beauty to football, and to my life. You always reminded us who we were, what we were, and what we represent: the Arsenal. Thank you.
and what a nice show by the boys to go out and score 5. solid call solid gooner.
New episode of Arsenal Fan TV is online, following Wenger’s departure
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRJby3PCfbo
😉
? cynic.
I’ve made my way home proudly sporting my Merci Arsene T shirt which Im pleased to say I got into comfortably- ish ..
A very good day, very well – staged and Arsene came across very well, with his main emphasis on the club. It is very clear he lives tge club. Nice to see Bob presenting him such a beautiful gift. That will mean a lot to him.
Ironically we looked excellent today. I have been proclaiming Burnley as pants all year but having seen them I was bigging them up too much. We outclassed them and it has to be said that we did some terrific business in the last two transfer windows especially the January one with three very good additions. Mavropanos is a real find. He made some mistakes today but overall he was very effective as was Chambers who is definitely worth persevering with. Mkhi makes the team play and had Auba been able to play in the Europa we may well have got past Atlético so good is the combination between Lacazette and Aubameyang. Kolasinac was back to his early season form although carrying some timber if I’m not mistaken. I’m not sure he could have got into my t-shirt?.
A new chapter begins. I’ve been assured that Allegri is signed and sealed but don’t believe a word of it. This summer looks like being very interesting.
Merci Arsene and Au Revoir
Sorry- he loves the club I should have said.
He lives the club isn’t far off either, TTG.
It’s clear that Arsenal has constituted most of his life this past 22 years.
These past 22 years
Good point Solid Gooner. I think he has given a huge amount of himself to our club. I wonder if he will ever be a pundit commenting on us?
Sure he would like to be more involved in football than full time punditry.
Wherever he goes, whatever he decides to do, he will be a success.
TTG, would you know if there are any plans of immortalising him in marble or naming a stand or the training ground after him?
Today was really great but there must be something of tangible permanence in the offing?
No. 1 summer teansfer target must be –
a new Spillchucker for TTG ??
PS. The typo was intentional ?
Trev ??
It was a strange old day. I will save my final thoughts for later but the whole day was very emotional. It does seem strange to think that after 22 years the great man won’t be there anymore.
It’s funny how things actually turn out. Today felt like it should be the last game of the season. The fact we still have two to play just feels like one massive anticlimax. Bizarrely, today was made even more the day it was because we have nothing to play for. If we did actually have a top 4 spot or a cup final to look forward to then I don’t know if it would have been so relaxed.
From getting to the vicinity of the ground you could tell it was a special day. The queues for a match day programme were a hundred deep. People buying loads as souvenirs and to remember the day.
A great performance, a comfortable working n and a fitting tribute. The BFG came on for the last 15 mins and was cheered to the rafters every time even got close to the ball. I have always loved Per. He just gets it. He gets it all. Another really popular import.
Then time for the speeches. Bob Wilson as articulate as ever. Arsène equally so. His parting words were so typical of the great man. He even had the decency to talk about working with the players so they can be the best they can be. Older patrons of this fine establishment please take note.
Good luck writing that up H. A very emotion packed day.
One other point. There were two very short but raucous moments of booing. One was when Sir Chips was announced. The other was when a picture of Stan was briefly displayed. I hope that when people reflect on that along with the love shown for Arsène they may eventually realise who most view the real villains as?
A mention as well for the Burnley fans who at one stage started their own rendition of “one Arsène Wenger.” Nice touch.
Been sick as a dog the past 3 days, nasals blocked and immoveable, but the guard of honour pre-match loosened up the sinuses nicely. The match wasn’t bad either. It’s just about all been said above, so nothing substantive to add.
Merci Arsene and thanks for all the trophies.
Are you going to say it or am I, Cynic? 😀
I’ve slagged the board as much as
the next gooner but to be fair
yesterday was well done and
the trophy a meaningful gift.
What was the trophy, Matt? Coverage ended just as it was being announced. Everyone else got silver cannons, did Arsene get a gold one?
Chris.
They gave Arsène the gold Premier League trophy that was awarded after the unbeaten season.
A fitting gift and one well earned.
I had somehow got a seat in club level & found myself shedding many a tear with TV chef Ainsley Harriot which was rather bizarre!I shall miss the boss terribly & will be forever grateful for all the joy he has given us.There is indeed only one Arsene Wenger & I love that bloody man.
Excellent choice of trophy, Steve. Another touch of class from a classy club.
It’s times like this I almost feel sorry for supporters of ordinary clubs like our closest neighbours. No, scrub that!
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