Knee Jerk Here, Sorry ‘Holics
Feb 1st, 2012 by 'holic
I need to write as the final whistle is blown. I need to write now because in twenty or thirty minutes I will write a different piece completely. I want to write while I can claim to understand what some people are unable to convey calmly or without abusing others.
I need not to be calmed by people not listening to the dissenting voices because they are generally making their points couched in abuse and not showing any wider understanding of what the club are telling us. Most of all though I have to say before what we will later mislabel as perspective takes over.
I hear the talk of European clubs not spending money in January, and I understand the reasons why. My shrinking pay packet, in real terms, is what is happening to the clubs and the economies of Europe. I understand that, and I am proud and grateful that my club has not wasted the millions that were wasted on donkeys like Torres and Carroll last January.
However, what that tells me is that we are in a buyers market, and anybody with money in the bank that was generated by football (that’s pretty much exclusively us in this country) could surely have taken advantage of those that are pulling their horns in. A simplistic assessment, I accept, but grounded in some degree of common understanding. I’m all for patting us on the back for reaching this point and being financially secure.
What is galling so many, including I suspect a large and silent if uncertain number, is that we were faced at the turn of the year with a situation where the squad has been stretched to the point that it is evident this current group of players are the least likely not only to challenge for the big prizes, but they are the group of players who may fail the manager in what has been his saving grace since the move to the Grove. A top four berth is not out of the question, but it looks unlikely in all honesty, and never before has anybody been able to say that about Arsenal in Arsene Wenger’s reign.
Now a little perspective has to kick in. Unlike some of our younger supporters I have seen worse Arsenal sides (that is plural, and much worse by the way). Most people with even a cursory knowledge of the blog will be aware that I am not one to throw my toys out of the pram because we are not winning trophies. I’ve been richly entertained by Arsene’s Arsenal, even in recent seasons as we have replaced some of the best footballers in the world with exciting young talent. I understand that was a journey of necessity until the ground was built and the property was sold.
What I don’t understand is that when we have our thinnest squad in fifteen years, and we have a buyers market, and we have players in the squad no longer trusted to be anywhere near the competitive matches, we have broken full-backs who may well come back in the coming weeks and break again, we have one bloody goalscorer in the club who is a Shawcrossing away from missing games, we haven’t spent SOME of the transfer fund on strengthening obvious areas of weakness.
I have been making all the excuses. No decent full-backs moved, I said. That isn’t to say our money wouldn’t have tempted one. What forward would you have taken? Give me Zamora ahead of Park and the shell that Chamakh has sadly become anyday. I’m playing the game I hate and despise now. But I just don’t understand how a massive club like Arsenal, outside the top five, never mind four, in a transfer window, has not made some effort to address the concerns of a loud minority, and I suspect a growing number of fans who wouldn’t dare to cross the line and join the dissenters, but have now some sympathy with their anger.
Match report? Robin hit the post and bar. We didn’t get our first League win of 2012. We face Blackburn on Saturday with the same squad we started January with.
Apologies to those ‘holics who come here to avoid negativity. Tonight, for one night only, I hope, I have to get that off my chest.
292 Responses to “Knee Jerk Here, Sorry ‘Holics”
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Cheers!
Or may be not so much cheers 😥
I’ll know more after reading the report. It’s good to be able once again to drop in for a drink. It’s been murder across the pond…
BMBD
Just you and me then lonestar? Have one on me *hic*
Thanks, Mark.
I haven’t seen the game yet, work’s been a beast, but it seems as though I will need to pen something to lift the Guv’nuh’s spirit.
I’ll get to work on that quick sharp.
BMBD.
Welcome to my world. It’s not rocket science is it?
But not to worry, in four years time we will be world beaters. I mean, some of these teenagers are really quite something.
I wonder if Stan was there tonight?
It’s 2012 ‘holic, sir.
(Edit. Thanks H2H. You may have gathered I am still fighting my blood pressure here.)
– Recent post not going through, so had to go mobile.
Thanks for the drink, Mark. Chin up, fellas. It’s gonna get better… it has to.
BMBD.
Balanced and sensible as ever even when jerking the knee ‘holic. It’s all very bewildering but, as you say, things have been much much worse. We have no divine right to be in the top 4 and it looks likely that our run is coming to the end. But we are still The Arsenal and we will ALWAYS be The Arsenal. And that, in itself, is a bloody good reason not to be too down on ourselves. The biggest concern in all this is the fracturing of the support. Not the internet / keyboard warriors who will be supporting City or someone else this time next year but the real, dyed in the wool Gooners. Together we are strong. Divided we are f~cked.
This feels like a moment to me in the bar where we all sit or stand, eyes to the floor or the bottom of our drinks, and just think about our shortcomings.
Thanks for the post ‘Holic, I’m an advocate for Brutal Honesty, and this is what I and I suspect a few others might need in the aftermath of our hollowing draw.
Till Tomorrow you Fine Gentlemen and Ladies.
Shall I tell you why I feel shit about that fifteen minutes after posting it?
I was sat in front of a bank of computers in the warm while the real Gooners were freezing their cobs off watching that and trying desperately to lift the side.
Have I the right, I wonder 🙁
I heard the manager of the team who held us to a point tonight was very happy with having one of our many talented youngsters on loan for 6 months.
I second Steve T, amazing bunch aren`t they? 🙂
In the smallest of Nutshells @ 8 Mr John Friend.
Excellent, detracts from my downer stupor a slight bit 🙂
I was banned for saying this in 2011. How times have changed..
‘holic – you, more than anybody should be allowed to post whatever thoughts you like. This blog is an excellent place to enjoy considered and thoughtful opinion. I share your frustrations about the transfer window, and I am equally worried about the effect of missinf a top 4 finish.
I feel so angry and sad and frustrated and… you know what, I need a drink.
Surely we could have brought our big money signing from Dortmund on 🙂 Sad times indeed but it all feels so avoidable, God knows what the reaction will be like if the LWCs do us at home – Just need Gazidis or Hill Wood to tell us how lucky we all are now 😉
Great piece
Well, thought I’d lift my last comment from the previous bar, seeing as probably only Snir and NbN saw it.
That’s this:
Just to offer my congrats to the wonderful away support, once again.
And my summary?
Too used to groundhog day now. You can’t blame the players for not being good enough. The fault is at a higher level, that Arsenal FC do not have good enough players to be able to beat Fulham Swansea and Bolton et al away from home.
The transfer window slams shut, with £60 or £70 million still firmly in the kitty.
Exactly where does the buck stop then?
It’s an honest question, not an Arsene out kneejerk.
So it’s in the similar vein to the barkeeper. Heads are being scratched.
NbN (last bar follow on) You name a couple of strikers that may well NOT be the long term solution, but we have ATM only one decent striker, and going into the run in, on poor form, with just that one striker, is pure folly.
So I ask again, where does the buck stop?
I understand your pain, which fan wouldn’t?
Go back one, two or even three years and you’ll find that this has been the main frustration of almost every fan. We’ve been also rans for the last few years when maybe a little bit more investment would of seen us end up top of the pile. (Back drink to Steve T’s posts over that period to see what I mean)
As Arseblogger astutly pointed out today, by not investing, the doomers (and others) have now been handed a massive stick if we fail to finnish in the all so important top four at the end of the season.
The only think I can’t agree with is that we should be hoping for a player like Zamora. If he’s now an answer to our problems then we are in a lot worse shape then I’d care to imagine.
Fuck it, let’s go bowling.
You could here the away fans right up to the end..Amazing support
When you feel depressed shoping is always a finest cure… for ladies. Our problem is that we are to predictable. Our problem is same old tactics every feckin game. Our problem is not the players we don’t have, but the players we do have and doesn’t get their chance. The moment the Ox was subbed I lost interest in the game. What Ramsey did this season, that Ox or Rocisky cannot do. Why is Coq not at LB when Vermaelen is having a mare at that position. He is CB and should play alongside Koscielny. Fact. I am sorry but no more Mert. We sometimes cannot bring the ball out of our half with him. And finaly, Walcott. Or no, its enough, aint gonna say a fucking word no more, ‘cose I am to pissed of now.
Arsene Wenger was responsible for turning our beloved but distinctly average team into a team of invincibles.
Unfortunately, he is also fully accountable for turning our team of invincibles into a distinctly average team.
We would have never gone for Zamora.. Park came 1.5 mi cheaper than Zamora. He is not basement bargain striker unfortunately.
Our away support has been maybe the saving grace of our season so far. Tears almost well up…
Well you’ve seen worse and we’ve got through it. Hopefully we will this as well.
‘Holic, I feel your pain, or at least frustration. Like you I have seen plenty of worse sides than the present one, and plenty of worse performances than today’s. My frustration with the recent Wegner years is that the squad is so tantalizingly close to success. This is a game of such small margins. Consider just RvP’s two shots on the woodwork tonight. Had we ended up winning 2-0, how different would the world look? But we didn’t win. Chance after chance was squandered, the old failing. If there is a shred of silver lining to our collective black cloud it is that, while it is indeed the same squad that we had at the start of January, at least some key parts of it are recovered/recovering from injury.
Where is fab money nasre money cleshy money yaya adebayor flameny hleb cole ect…. I mean they just making money for them self
Splendid piece of writing. Nail hit firmly on the head. It’s not that Arsenal should, its that Arsenal could be doing more. For me there are certainly other factors behind the scenes. A prudent long term investor would want to sustain on field success in order to reap the financial benefit that brings from advertising, sponsors etc. Perhaps there are other motives? Pay down stadium debt, inflate share price, sell to highest bidder? Bish, bosh, bash!
6Yrs Groundhog Day 1.miss chances 2.tippytappy 3.no ariel threat 4.concede set piece/counter atck 6.injuries 7.no transfers
H2H,
That’s the problem in a nutshell Zamora would actually be a decent addition to our frontline – that’s exactly how lopsided and bare our squad is,
We didn’t concede any goals tonight and we didn’t lose… Progress!!
Would someone please explain how watching disgraceful disgusting inexorable decline over a long period could, in anybody’s language be called knee jerk?
We have watched our club go from winning the top prize regulalry, to coming second, to comfortably finishing top 4, to heading a large group challenging for 4th to being a team who is now behind that group before our eyes. Its like bleeding to death, while all the time being lied to by a ‘genius’ who calls this progress!!!!!!
It is not fair to say we have been in decline for 7 years, as every team has lulls. However, for the last 4 years we have been laughable. Absolutely laughable. A team of clueless talentless cowards led by a delusional clown. A team who, even when things go right, have neither the temprement nor leadership to achieve anything.
Only a buffoon would call this ‘knee jerk’ . Nor should any fan be looking for ‘positivity’. We need to look at reality. And the reality is that our club has been falling apart for the past 4 years. And the irony is, while the fat slugs and their mouthpieces were calling for ‘self-sufficiency’, some of us cried at every opportunity that the time to spend bid money was when we were still in the CL places. Of course the mouth-pieces among the fans would have none of it. In order to get back there, we now have to spend serious serious money with much less income. I wonder where those wise advocates of ‘self sufficiency’ are now? Perhaps enjoying the sight of Park (and a fat full bank account for Kroenke) when we could have had Falcao. Take a bow boys.
Change must come, or we face a long time in the wilderness. A wilderness we are already 7 years into.
Oh Holic, Surely you know how you always manage to keep our spirits up. Don’t feel guily. I for one am glad you are only human, like the rest of us. But you know, despite the fact that I agree with your post, I believe we will turn things around, in short order. Until it is a mathematical impossibility. No one said it would be easy.
Holic@10. The big problem is that the board don’t seem to see it. It is as if they take the fans for granted. Who knows, perhaps that is why some react the way they do at games. I tried to articulate it in a post a fee days ago. I would suggest that the reaction of certain fans is not one based purely on the performance they are watching. It is an overflow of frustration built up over a number of years. When we are more than 30 million in credit from our transfer dealings since 2006 you start to understand why.
All in my humble opinion of course.
Cheers Holic even when your mad you come off verys sensible .. How sad I am at our demise .. and there are so many questions that just need to be answered .. why the fuck are we in this jam is one of them. We have money.
Top blog, please send it to the club. We are being bent over and shafted by wenger and the board
Still an incredible amount of restraint and dignity in that ‘negativity’ good sir. Thank you for that. A bottle for the ‘holic on me.
I feel like there is something very much amiss behind closed doors. I have a hard time accepting that a manager, who would shell out record money on Arshavin when we desperately needed defensive reinforcement, would refuse to go out and get the attacking and creative players we so sorely need if indeed that money is really there.
I am less and less convinced that it is as available as folks like Gazidis would have us believe. If it was, why is he so hell bent on going to China and Nigeria? How can we sit on the money we supposedly have when we need to strengthen the squad, then compromise our set-up of nearly 15 years by traveling the world in pre-season to unearth a little cash? If Kroenke is such a businessman, why not invest [beyond the purchase price] in the club he got, rather than sit and hold whilst collecting other sporting franchises? Just too many questions.
@ 34 ‘guilty’ not guily. Perhaps too much red wine, in the second half…
Chin up lads.
That was shite, I have no idea why we didn’t spend this month and we’ve a hell of a job on between now and May, but there’s fuck all that can be done about it tonight. And if we do finish outside the champs league spots, a draw at Bolton (shit as it may have been) won’t be in the top ten reasons why.
I’m depressed, we’re all depressed, but win on Saturday and we’re still well in the mix. If there’s any consolation here it’s that Chelsea have their own problems and haven’t spent big in Jan.
Drinks all round and let’s pretend it’s 2004 for a bit.
And the so called medical team can fuck off as well
What I find so confusing is what agenda Kroenke has. Has nowone filled him on the ramifications of us not finishing in the top 4? From a purely financial point of view, from a protecting his investment point of view, from a selfish point of view, to allow Wenger to not invest in a thin squad that is creaking at the seams and is very much on course to finish outside the top 4, and therefore outside the ‘attracting sufficiently good new players’ zone, outside even keeping our existing best players like RVP . . . is surely a recipe for decline, both footballing but probably more importantly for him, financially. It also threatens the influence and reach of the Arsenal brand that he has invested in. In purely business terms, you surely sometimes have to speculate to accumulate, no? I’m sure Stan knows that better than most of us. I love Wenger and still rate him, although he seems at the moment, to be almost destructively stubborn and dangerously myopic to the truth we have all been able to see for a few years now. And Kroenke seems to be content to let his investment unnecessarily decline at the expense of reasonably minor speculation. We didnt need to lose the last three league games and draw tonight’s game because of an unneccessarily limited squad. As ‘Eboue’ used to say on Arseblog Arsecast . . ‘I go now’
I’ve heard Glen Helders avaiable on a free:)
MtS@18: I honestly don’t know. My guess is that it is a collective buck stopping. AW won’t buy anyone who can’t improve the team overall, and established stars who could would only be available for silly money, money that Arsenal doesn’t have and the board won’t spend if it blows up the self-sustainability model. AW also doesn’t have the greatest track record in buying big-money stars (see Arshavin, et al). Again, guessing, the board isn’t going to break its self-sustainability model just as UEFA’s Financial Fair Play rules start to work in our favor. And, in all honesty, they would be nuts to do so. This transfer window, as we know, was not a heavy spending one. Only one of the top clubs, Chelsea, was in the list of the three biggest spenders. QPR and Newcastle were the other two. That trio accounted for more than half the total spend.
It’s a sad situation for us all to be in. I have been a gooner all of my life and can’t remember a poorer squad than this one. I honestly can’t.
I really feel that the club needs a massive overhaul from the directors on down because, let’s face it, we haven’t been the same since David Dein left.
There’s just no passion or spirit in the team anymore. It all seems so insipid. What the hell happened to playing for the jersey and fighting for each other?.
At the moment we just roll over like a good boy when someone has a go at us and that is NOT the Arsenal that I know and love.
I need a drink too guys. Actually, make that two.
Of course you’ve earned the right ‘holic, the years we’ve racked up watching mid table Arsenal in the freezing cold with 17’000 like minded souls is your (and mine) badge of honour.
I’ve not posted for a while due to business commitments but also because I’m a voice in the wilderness (Steve T exception) and I’m made to feel a traitor when I post my feelings.
Wenger’s achievements are indisputable, he is a legend, a demigod but never again will he scale those heights.
Enough is enough. Judge me at the end of the season is the rhetoric so let’s give him enough rope to hang himself and them see if this club has the balls to compete and make a real statement of intent.
Goonerholic,
I don’t think this particular lousy performance can be put down to underinvestment.
It won’t explain the inability to put away all the chances in the first half; poor clearances by czezsny; BFG’s slow distribution; Song’s sloppy performance; the team playing as if diazepam had been infused into the halftime tea; the Ox trying to hard; Theo being Theo and ramsey being good, but not good enough to rely on week in week out.
I risk being ex-communicated, but I am going to speak the unspeakable: Leeds game aside, we have looked worse after all three substitute appearances by TH12. The team lose their head and composure when he is on the pitch.
It’s true Zamora would have been a decent addition to the only one goal scorer. Give Walcott a hatful of chances. Nothing. The first twenty minutes we cut them apart and could score, then the tired almost unchanged squad from Sunday weakens. And, I am sorry to go against the populist grain but what did Henry add in this game but take away width.
I’m finding that with each disappointing result we turn out, the ‘angered disappointment’ to ‘despondent acceptance’ ratio increases. Whereas this time last season I would have been getting involved in heated post-motems (not vitriolic, but certainly apportioning blame where appropriate), I find that my energy to do so has been sapped by the cyclic nature of our shortcomings, and deep-seated reluctance to do what’s necessary to turn things around, ie spending big bucks every now and then.
I’m just going to sit back, like a drunk celebrity in a taxi, and wait for this all too familiar dizzying ride to come to an end.
Wake me up if we win something.
I said it in the last drinks and I’ll say it again now.
What I really want right now is some clarity on where we really stand financially.
I either want to hear Ivan Gazidis admit that we’ve had the square root of fuck all dough available for transfers for nigh on five years, or Arsene Wenger admit to sitting on a freely available £30m war chest. One or the other.
It’s the guessing game as to what’s actually going on that’s doing my head in. It’s been going on far too long now.
11C@38: It is not the transfer pot that is the issue, it is having the continuing revenue to pay the players’ wages. That is why there is such a push to build up the non-match day and TV revenues, where we lag many of Europe’s top clubs.
Well said holic “a lttle venting” good for the soul ~ have to disagree on Zamora cannot stand him ~ Is it a sin to say i would have taken Cisse this window, a mature Balotelli.
More upsetting than the result is Arsenal fans on the mighty twitter abusing our players directly Ramsey does not deserve the abuse he is receiving.
Tonight in egypt at least 70 football fans died and rumours of 1000 injured Arsenal draw 0-0, get no more injuries, and the Bac is Back.
Its called perspective
33.
Spot on.
Came to this very blog in the summer to say we were in the shit but no one would have any of it. Ramsey was going to replace Cesc and Gervinho would smash it.
Blah blah blah.
Wenger says jumping off a cliff is a good idea and the morons drive to dover.
“Fourth is a trophy” yeah right.
Still even now track back through the comments and see people talking about “in four years our team will be great, the youth is amazing”. Been sold this bull for the longest time now.
RVP is gone in the summer, no two ways. In four years when one or two decent players do come through Jack will leave to win trophies too.
Its a never ending cycle of bullshit.
Well played all the way GG
I have been saying it for two years now – this team, sadly, is not good enough. It is not a question of talent, but a lack of resolve, ruthlessness, maturity and dare I say it, management. Because poor management has produced a technically superior but ultimately mediocre squad.
A perfect example of the malaise can be seen in the employment of the hapless Arshavin. He is not a winger – he lacks the discipline and defensive nous. Yet he is played in the same position, over and over, when he had much more success elsewhere (and at Arsenal) as a roaming support striker. Is it any wonder his confidence is broken? Why not try him in another position if he’s failing on the wing?
I could go on and on. The blind adherence to a football philosophy that has failed to produce results is sad to see.
I happen to think that AW is going through the motions for the last few months of his Arsenal career. He will depart with a damp squib and a litany of tired excuses as Arsenal finish 6th in May-maybe that can be a new trophy-Europa League qualification . He probably doesn’t care any more & will move on once the board agree his pay off. Never mind Chamakh will be back soon so we’ll definitely win in the San Siro not. In the meantime enjoy the rest of the self-pity, inept defending & bizarre substitutions.
I agree with 33sleepinggiant.
Holic – It’s not knee-jerk if you’re reacting to something that’s been happening for years now. We haven’t invested properly in the squad since we moved to Emirates. While that was understandable and actually prudent in the first few years, it’s downright neglectful now that we have money in the bank and fail to take advantage of the buyer’s market you mention.
Don’t beat yourself up for expecting more of the club you love and plough money into year after year. Nobody is asking for a win every week or £80m spent every window, but we are entitled to see our club run with trophies being the main aim, not a healthy balance sheet.
What I would give to have Eboue & Bendtner available
Really good piece.
Wenger has invited this sort of reaction but a point away to Bolton, an “in form” Bolton, is a good point.
Carnt for the life of me work out why people would have a go at Ramsey he always trys has plenty of ability and will be a top player – The real fault lies with those that a year after a major injury have asked him to fill the boots of a truely world class player without the chance of taking a breather – Its not his fault he’s not Cesc.
Not one for commenting although I read every post from the ‘holic and le grove,
At 19 I just about remember the good times, like winning the double twice and the days of paddy and Roy’s tunnel fight, passion. It really has changed from them, I can’t see that passion in the team any more, or in wenger either. As I am Irish and live in Ireland I don’t get to games much, but I remember the days when I would stay in the holiday inn and meet the team as they eat there dinner, once had lunch with overmars when I was 8. And I literally lived for arsenal, and don’t get me wrong I still do, but lately it is literally depressing watching our team with all our history come to the stage we are at. And from a background in the slow food movement, I fully support sustainability and yes I take pride in our sustainability. But I think there is a point at which sustainability is compromised by the negative profile that we are getting, other teams she us as a laughing stock, what must potential investors and commercial investors think of this? They are not going to view The Arsenal as a good investment when our reputation is dwindling.
Now I see fans frustration and the last thing I want is for Arsene to end his reign in the way that is looming, and no man can replace him, put by god is it difficult with him at the moment.
While fans rage and call for his head on a plate, I can’t but help feel like there is some exterior part of me missing when I watch arsenal play the way they are currently, we have too much deadwood on too high of a wage who we can now not get rid of, and sometimes it seems some players are too interested in twitter, table tennis competitions or writing kids books, than actually winning.
I am no akb
We need a new owner who understands football
We need a new board who understand the fans
We need a new medical team who understand injuries
We need a new Manager who understands tactics
Simple solution
I can not see how wenger is still in this job need to get someone in now to rebuild for next season
Yeah Chippy, I had a negative reaction to him early in the Season but over time you realise he is a true trier.
Effort counts.
AW: “We have gone through a difficult period where we lost the three championship games, but we could have won them as well”
Absolutely brilliant!
We are where we are due to the quality and experience of the players we have, pure and simple. We have one World class player left (who no doubt will leave us and who could blame him) some decent players and some total dross. We need more world class players and don’t have enough decent players to form a competitive squad. Players for the future are good, but we need players for the now !!…. I watched that game and there was no creativity, no heart and they looked like they could not be arsed. The Ox put in a shift, but for me that was about it, the rest were terrible (especially Theo – time to go – Walcott). I think that until a change is made in Arsene’s mentality or Arsene is changed, then we had best get use to this as it’s going to become a more common occurrence. Sad sad times ahead and slipping down the table at a rate of knots !
Top blog. Finally the straw that broke the camel’s back. Arsenal have been spiraling downwards at an increasing rate that has made even ‘holic’ to question the club’s policies.
I for one would lay the blame at Stan Kroenke. Arsenal are running around like a headless chicken. SK has hardly spoken about his vision for the club and I am sure his hands off approach is starting to permeate through all administrative staff at the club.
The oft repeated mantra by the administrators at the club is they run it like a proper business. But isn’t the aim of a good business efficient allocation of resources. They have misunderstood that concept by overusing what resources are available(players).
Iv seen some shit Arsenal sides over the years aswell, but at least those shit sides had spirit and fight, these lot dont seem to have that. it looks like they couldnt really give a toss.
Wheres all that stadium money going?? Whats every1 playing at, Im not going 2 go over what we need, we all know, but why havent we got the funds? Or is it Wenger who chooses not to buy??
Simple question, Im not anti Wenger, no way…..but that dont make him immune from criticism. Hes tactically naive, Iv never really seen him counter anyone. Hes never really had a game plan to contain certain teams, certain players. He loves football played in a certain way, as do most of us, but that doesnt always win u stuff. You need to mix it up abit.
Every1 goes on about barca being some super sik team pinging the ball here there and everywhere, which is true, but they can ruck 2, their fighters, trust me. They dont get pushed off the ball, they dont get bullied.
It seems Wenger has his head buried in the ground, he needs to wake up, otherwise, we are the new Villa.
Ta, holic. I needed that. I also need a drink… or four.
N 7 we know this much.
Arsenal is organically the most profitable club in the UK, Manure aside.
Arsenals majority shareholder is one of the richest men in the US. Waiting in the wings is the 21st richest man in the world.
We know these things so, by every conceivable measure, Arsenal is one of the very richest clubs in the world. There is no possible argument to any of this.
I suppose the question you are asking is whether the money is available to Wenger. There are two options.
Either the money is available and he won’t spend it.
Or the sickeningly rich owners are feathering their own nests, sitting on fortunes that dwarf Abramovichs at Chelsea, while raping the fans over ticket prices. And if the latter is the case, Wenger needs to remember that he is the clubs football manager, with responsibility to the fans for the footballing side of the club only, not its f’ing accountant and go and demand of his board that they break the cursed self-imposed self-sufficiency stranglehold that has destroyed the club, and go ahead and spend the kind of money that will force our way back to the top table and give the fans the Arsenal that their hard earned money deserves.
…… Nor am I anti wenger, just disappointed that the club has got to this stage.
It ain’t looking good, I would follow the club right to the conference, but I just hope there are still good days to come and that this is just a slight blip in order for us too reclaim the glory that we deserve
Just like you ‘holic needed to get stuff off my chest
Thanks guys
Hope there is better days to come
Holic, in an accountant’s suit and tie it remains easy to understand, although no less frustrating for that fact.
Yes, there are cash reserves, but…
1) There is a catch 22 situation which plagues the club’s number crunchers relating to a potential failure to finish in the CL spots. The aforementioned money in the bank serves to mitigate the potential loss of one season’s European revenue (£20-£35m) and allow the club to continue to function at it’s current levels of cost without compromise for at least another season. At the end of the following season (June 2013) one or two of the currently undervalued sponsorship deals come up for renewal, and this income could potentially compensate for a further one or two years. After that the debt should be significantly reduced, effectively enabling the club to ‘remortgage’ in order to acquire investment capital. That, I believe is the club’s thinking. They view this as a more manageable situation than blowing £30m plus wages on players this year, when the possibility of not qualifying for the CL would still exist, but in this scenario, with no safety net in the event of failure. I don’t personally agree with this attitude, nor indeed am I ultimately sure that a model of self sustainability will ever allow us to be competitive. But whilst I don’t agree with it, I do understand it…
2. A buyers market? Mmm, I’m not so sure about that. Real quality still costs top dollar. Witness the prices attached to Hazard, M’Vila, Goetze et al. A transfer fee of £25m would imply the same level of spend again on wages over 5 years, a total of £50m for any of the above. Yes, there are bargains to be had (Newcastle, notably have done ‘an Arsenal’ by bringing in Cabaye and Ba at very reasonable cost) but they still remain the exceptions rather than the rule, especially in January. Zamora..? I’ll have what you’re drinking. This type of signing is not the solution.
So basically, it’s as frustrating as hell, wrongheaded on many levels, but it’s still pretty easy to understand the thinking. It’s just the number of fans willing to accept this mindset is dwindling by the game. In a language the board would doubtless understand this gradual erosion of goodwill is not ‘sustainable’.
Anybody turning on Titi now can fuck off, quite frankly. The man has come back to help where he can a club that he loves. Given that we haven’t bought anybody else I cannot think of anybody who’s name I would rather be singing right now, in all honesty, to cheer me up.
It isn’t his fault, so get behind him.
Hey, holic. Howcome it has taken you 3 years to figure out what many fans have been abused – and banned by you – figured out all that time ago.
We’re going through the motions with Wenger. He will never change. When Robin, and he will, we are in DEEP, DEEP DOO DOO. He has scored almost 50% of our goals this season and he will walk.
At that point Arsenal will be a nothing club, trust me. This is why many fans have been tearing their hair out for years. They could see coming what you couldn’t, and you should be ashamed of yourself as an Arsenal supporter for being so complacent and putting Wenger ahead of Arsenal.
lurkers, a good anti-post. All please read. I’m not asking you to agree, just to understand a different view.
Good blog this indeed is, though I don’t comment much I’m a regular here. The only obvious answer to the question at hand – Greedy Bastards and Lady Luck. Let us wait for Fair Play Rule to kick in, that’s our only hope. Cut, but not dried I believe we still have some juice to pull it of. Godspeed to my beloved Gooners.
59Anti
Really good piece.
Wenger has invited this sort of reaction but a point away to Bolton, an “in form” Bolton, is a good point.
Also more grounded in fact than many will give credit for.
Open your minds, Gooners. Please?
If an idiot like me could see as long as five years ago that constantly selling experience, replacing it en masse with badly coached kids, making a profit on transfers more often than not and basically asset stripping the club (I would really like to know if Wenger is on a cut of transfer profits to boost his salary, but we’ll never know I suppose) is a recipe for disaster, what the hell has the board been up to all this time?
I know they have been distracted by internal power struggles over the last few years, but they have allowed Arsene Wenger to completely run the club and, as a result, they come across more like employees.
I don’t think any of them have a bloody clue about the game and they will end up allowing Wenger to choose his own successor, probably giving him a seat on the board and basically letting him run the show for the rest of his life.
DOOMED
Christ, we’re going to need to fumigate the bar in the morning.
Pete,
I’m enlightened by your greater knowledge of Arsene than I have ever been able to get from years of dialogue with the club.
Open your mind man.
I don’t have greater knowledge than you, you’ve just hidden it behind your hero worship of Wenger. Seems like a bit of you has woken up at last; bit like coming out of the closet.
A long term plan is hmm long term, develop a system of play,invest in youth, be self-sustaining,compete at the highest level. Good times are ahead if we stick to the plan.
Holic Old Son
When even AW’s staunchest defender is depressed at the goings on at AFC,then it must be bad.!!
But funnily enough i don’t think it is.
I thought the Boys played well tonight,they were coming off a very mental and physically draining Cup game on Sunday,and travelled North with 2 days preperation to face a Bolton side that had a bit of confidence back after winning their last couple of games.
So we were bound to lack a bit of sharpness and be a bit weary late in the 2nd half.
You could not in any way shape or form fault the player’s effort and commitment to the cause.
We just needed to take our early chances to open the gme up,but unfortunately it wasn’t to be.
I am still absolutely confident that we will finish Top 4.
I have to disagree anbout the Jan transfer window,i just don’t think there were any quality players that were available.
All the transfers that were done,were jobbing players that we wouldn’t entertain anyway.
We have had a lot of injuries to contend with,and rotation has been difficult because of that.
We’ve got to stick together in these trying times and get through this rough patch.
We’ve got some great games to look forward to in the CL and FA Cup
and i would still rather be an Arsenal Boy,than any other Club in the World.
Cheers
The Sweeper.
A point away at Bolton in a must win game is not a good point. Especially when you see the chances we created and then see that we only managed 4 on target. That tells me that the game was their for the taking and poor finishing cost us yet again. End of.
Lurkers, articulate post however I completely disagree. We are 30 million in credit fron transfer deals since 2006. We have the second highest turnover in the country, we are valued in the top ten sports clubs in the world, the board continue to tell us how well we are performing and we still pay the highest ticket prices in the land. If after all of that we can not afford the odd cheeky little dabble into the transfer market then we really do have problems.
Pete,
Quick question if Wenger was to leave do you honestly think there’s anyone on this current board that would have the faintest scoobie on who to appointant as his sucessor I wouldn’t trust Gazidis and Kroenke to boil an egg let alone make a football based decision !!
Oh come ON ‘holic. You are taking the mick, right?
A point away to an ‘in-form’ Bolton is a good point? And there are no easy games in international football either I suppose!!
If you want an open minded view, you look at the result in context. If we had just stuffed Manure, the Chavs and the Spuds, then a 0-0 draw with a relegation threatened team would be really annoying, but as we hit the bar twice, it would be ‘one of those things’.
Reality check. We are coming off three humiliating defeats on the bounce. This was a game when we needed to see what the team was made of. However ‘in-form, they are, Bolton are an awful premier league team. Football is about circumstance. Tonight’s game was about the character (the must inappropriate word ever to use about Arsene FC). It was a game to come out fighting and prove how good we are.And we showed tonight that we have absolutely no character and are well, I think I would call 7th a mid-table team, wouldnt you?
There is nothing good about tonight’s result. It is make believe to say otherwise. Spot on about Titi however.
Yes a point isn’t bad to take fro
The reebok against an inform side who have beaten Liverpool recently but just seems everytime we get a chance to resurrect our season we hit a wall. All is not lost, we have had no luck as of late, but we are only 5 points behind chelsea, we are in the fa cup still and champions league, just need to keep our chins up, booing and stuff like that is simply counter productive, we are gooners, we need to pick the team up, not one is playing with confidence, this lot is what we have till the summer so let’s stop moaning and show them our support
Every empire has a rise and fall, but rarely is it overseen by the same man.
It didn’t have to be like this, Arsene.
how can anyone call this a buyer market proven quality cost, and you have two dominate buyers in the prem Chelsea and man city
Clive, I am not blaming the players at all, but that won’t come over in such a piece.
I thought our performance in the game was an improvement over the recent defeats at Fulham and Swansea, but having said that it is indicative of where this squad is that Bolton finished the stronger and will also be annoyed at not getting the points tonight.
All I am suggesting is that for less than half of what is lying in the ‘account’ we could have signed players who would have helped strengthen our bid for fourth place, which as you know I consider a poison chalice in a Euro Championship summer.
One point in twelve against Fulham, Swansea, Man U and Bolton. Since Christmas it is one win in six league games, which came against the mighty QPR, with the other match being a draw with second from bottom Wolves.
It can’t go on like this.
Fair play Steve T, I don’t particularly agree with it myself. But if you look at the clubs accounts we sail pretty close to the wind profit wise despite the large turnover. We rely on the CL revenue, at least until the point the the stadium is significantly paid down and the ridiculously undersold commercial contracts are renegotiated.
Their thinking, I would say, is we could miss the CL spots without signing or with. In the first scenario it’s manageable, in the second it’s a disaster.
Of course another relevant question is why, with such a huge turnover, and high ticket prices, do we struggle to make profit? Leaving aside the stadium debt and interest the answer to that is the inflated wages (and length of contracts) we give to young players. £60k/week for Diaby is the most obvious example, but there are many others. This leaves no room in the wage structure for the ‘super’ salaries (£150k +) that the very top players demand.
This is a haven of sanity amidst the spiv blogs that make maximum noise with minimum constructive input.
I think we all know and understan Arsene pretty well by now.His capacity to surprise us is limite although his immaturity in defeat still occasionally amazes.
What concerns me is that I don’t think he entertained for one minute the notion of buying anyone this January.If we’d been offered Lionel Messi for £ 3 million I suspect he would only have been looked at for he sell- on value rather than ht he offers the team lest we upset the awesomely gifted Chamakh and Park.Arsene is living in a bubble of his own creation which gives him minimal interference from the Board”Arsene deals with all that football stuff”-I can almost hear ZpHW saying it now .We will miss th Champions League,we may well even miss the Europa League and we will still end up paying a huge and rising amount for the privilege.
For the sake of sanity,change must arrive and soon-and the longer I contemplate it that means Kroenke out way before Arsene.a rocket needs to be fired up his arse but no way will an absentee landlord do it with our ability to generate cash. Cheerio Stan it’s been no pleasure knowing you at all.
Can’t understand the surprise at the lack of signings as this has always been the Wenger way exept Ebenezer Wenger now has even more excuses to not invest adequate capital in the squad.
Its definitely Europa league next season. No way we’ll eclipse Chelsea and Totts now. I think we are 9 points behind what we were at the equivalent stage last season and were now 12 points behind totts. Wenger is walking the green mile now.
Not really surprised by the result. Although we scored 3 goals against Villa, we actually scored from 2 penalties and 1 fluke goal. None from open play. How can we seriously challenge for top honors when only one person is scoring. Squad is so think we have to keep playing same players until they are injured. We can’t even afford to rest RvP! Its going to be an interesting 2012. The writing has been on the wall for sometime now. Hold on…its gonna be a bumpy ride
I was bound to attract the hard of thinking tonight, wasn’t I?
jonesmalo, agree 100%.
As much as it pains me to admit, Sp*rs have a better squad. In terms of talent, technique we were superior last season but they still had a squad with players that allowed variety and were used in positions that played to their strengths – that gave them a better squad overall. We have too many of the same type of player.
Mind you, similar versions of this philosophy have worked in the past for Wenger.
However, I’d be making a similar comment if we had just beaten Bolton 5-0.
I dunno….
Sorry Andy, don’t want you to think that was aimed at you.
Those who are blaming the manager, have you considered his hands have been tied?
Think for yourselves. I’m not telling you the answers because I don’t know. I just know the alternatives and the options.
“I was bound to attract the hard of thinking tonight, wasn’t I?” – Sorry ‘h 😉
‘Holic @ 95, too right. Like moths to light.
This succinctly sums up my thoughts on the January window and the state of the team/club in general. It’s also nice to read an article on this subject matter that doesn’t resort to bizarre abuse of the manager and the players. I get no sense from this piece that the writer enjoyed typing it, sadly its is often the case over at the Online Gooner.
Regarding the article itself I would add another couple of points. There appears to be a degree of swimming against the tide in the way we do business these days. The boss seems to have selected “Very hard” mode for his premier league season and is unwilling (or unable) to tone down the difficulty to medium by signing 1-2 players of talent that could add to this team. Someone like Dempsey (who scored tonight incidentally) would have given us a massive boost in the race for 4th. He would have cost no more than 12m.
There were deals out there ready to be done, but we just don’t seem interested. In the meantime Squillaci, Craig Eastmond & Almunia amongst other less than able characters continue to eat away at the financial apple, like the useless, but hungry worms they are.
Now there’s a match report I can sink my teeth into. 😉
Hi ,occasional lurker from India here. Great stuff you’ve written above ,Holic.
I wish Wenger starts buying specialist players for specific positions assuming he stays this summer .We already have far too many flexible players. I would prefer a genuine winger in Walcott’s place ( or will that be OX? ) and not using strikers or CF’s there.
Also this discussion regarding the team’s character is amusing. We came back to win 3-2 after being 0-2 at HT and everyone hailed our “mental strength” as Le Boss puts it . And because we failed to take our chances and turn the screws over them means we have no character at all ????
Also regarding the AKB’s vs WOB’s,I only have one thing to say to you guys:
“Supporting Arsenal these days has become a case of
I am right and you are wrong
If you don’t agree with me
You’ve been an idiot all along”
To be fair, Holic, raw emotion tends to dominate thought in the immediate aftermath of events, no?
See AW’s often embarrassing post match comments, ludicrous persecution complex, and litany of excuses for further evidence of the above.
Surely if the managers hands were tied, if he had any integrity or ambition, he would challenge the board. If he really believed that investment was needed, and he had the clubs interests at heart, he would bust a gut to get it. There is no evidence or suggestion at all that this has happened. So if all this is being done against his will, he clearly values his job security over his principals.
So if you take away all the crap, all we can go on are a. the managers actions and b. his public pronouncements.
Both of these point to the fact that he is a key decision maker in the policies that have paralysed the club, and is a major element in the clubs current lamentable position.
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
Xclnt peice i watched the reserves tonight at swansea 2nil up eisfeld and ozyakup very good butt was carbon copy of first team edge of box and then overkill I have seen arsenal good and bad even very bad but I think we need a new direction now fresh ideas arsene took us to the promised land but I don’t think he can keep us there
Exactly lurkers, which is why I had to type like a twat at the final whistle. My match report now would certainly be different.
Worrying fact is RVP. Can’t see him signing especially at this stage in his career. Only winner is kronke. Has a manager that won’t spend, a stadium that generates money, cash reserves and a share price that increases. The club is merely an investment to him. Part of his sporting portfolio. He doesn’t understand football so Wenger has almost complete control. This indulgence has created a monster. Half romantic/half economist. No risks, no ambition, no ruthlessness.
sleepinggiant
Its BECAUSE the manager has integrity and ambition that he is making us compete to some level . He could have simply deserted ship. He didn’t.
Accuse Wenger of mistakes and tactical ineptitude,all of it is valid to a certain extent. Don’t ever accuse him of not wanting to give his best for the club that he chooses to stick with despite getting offers from far bigger clubs like Real Madrid. He could have taken a bigger paycheck at any club.
104 sleepinggiant
There are none so blind as those who will not see.
You don’t do irony, do you sir?
Holic,
A negative post it may seem indeed, but a certain insight of what has been happening with our club recently! It’s hard to not to agree with you as much as it hurts inside.
As I have mentioned in my previous drinks we looked like scoring anytime in the first half without a doubt, however after that we lost our composure yet again just the way we have done for almost half of the games we played and did not perform this season. As soon as we don’t know what to do with the ball we are utterly fucked. Ramsey seems to be running around like headless chicken not having a clue how to really pass the ball, Song was completely somewhere else. Arteta was the only one who new what to do when under pressure. No midfield no going forward it took players like Koscielny to have another one of those runs that paid off against Villa in the cup. We have no midfield and no depth in that midfield and Ramsey as good as he is he will never be like Fabregas let’s face it he was never replaced, but we have already covered that I thought on may occasions.
A slight bit of pressure puts us off our game completely, most of them panic don’t know how to position themselves, their passing goes astray , it’s really is painful to watch.
Second half was just pure SHAMBLES! I don’t wanna go into details here, yet again same old errors! Same old fucking errors! Yes we did not loose the game but for crying out loud we are The Arsenal and sides like Bolton should be taken care of full stop.
Yet again we allowed a side to play the ball because frankly we couldn’t be bothered to do anything about it. Bolton on the other hand looked like scoring anytime, I know RVP hit the post and then the bar but overall as Arsene would say it we were let’s say very average going forward.
Wlacott needs to seriously ask himself questions one on one not for the first time this season and he burns like fucking candle in a storm. Apologies Holics but the lad needs to go back to basics. OX in his shoes would round the keeper and slot it into an empty net.
Deep down I believe Wenger trusts his players too much, I knew we wouldn’t invest in the squad after all he doesn’t like January transfer windows and it’s always better to go down the bargain basement with a skinny looking, young and inexperienced players form Germany.
People who have a go at Henry should really fuck off and take a hike, Jesus he’s not the one responsible ffs!
Seeing is beliving and despite the great comeback on Sunday I’m not convinced we will finish in the top 4 this season, unless we have another revival coming the thing is this time around the time is not on our side!
Asrenal til I die for sure, however this is not the Arsenal I saw after having bad start to the season it’s almost like a repeat of what happened at the beginning.
Holic,
I take your point about the manager’s hands being potentially tied. However two questions arise:
1 – Where the hell is Kroenke in all this?
2 – Why hasn’t AW ever publicly stated that there is no money (or whatever)? Is he trying to protect the club? Why do fans always hear that there is money to spend but we see little activity in the transfer market?
These questions are largely rhetorical but it just shows that there are no answers for fans and this is a source of frustration as much as on the pitch performances.
Lurkers. I do take your points. However we were all told that despite the potential debt incurred in the move that our transfer budget would not be affected. We were told that if we did not qualify for the Champions League that financially we would still be fine. That that one step further and it reads that for the last 14 years when we have qualified that it has been a multi million pound bonus.
Taking the above into account and add in the profit we have made on transfers, if we do not have money to spend then we have been turned into a club that needs to sell due to gross miss management. The only other scenario is that we do actually have the money to spend and that for some reason we just have not done so.
Thank you for the insight though. A very interesting perspective.
I actually think our squad is not too bad.
In my humble opinion,we don’t fully utalise the players we have, nor do we play to their strengths.
We still play a 433/451 system when we cleary do not have the players (anymore) that can pull this off. I’m no tactical genius, but when I look at our squad, especially the starting XI, I think we could do a lot better in a 442 formation.
We have players like Arshavin and Walcott being played out of their prefered positions. Arteta is a much more forward thinking player, playing deep (to good effect) but wouldn’t it make more sense for him to swap positions with Ramsey? I’m in no way bringing Aaron down, I just think he’d be better suited playing deeper.
TV is not a left back and playing him there weakens our best possible team, he should be partnering Kos in the centre with Big Sack as back up, put Le Coq or Yennaris in at LB.
Just my opinion.
Hollaway,
Agree on Ramsey. He looks more box to box.
Agree with each of your points really – especially the point about failing to properly utilise players but this has been happening for a while.
Ok I’ve calmed down a bit now.
Ned, thanks for your reply. Questions, questions, – and no answers. That’s the crux. Which leads to summising whether AW is a tightwad, or has his hands tied, or has just become overly arrogant.
Who knows?
Bottom line is we didn’t actually play THAT badly, but once again couldn’t find a winning goal.
Unfortunately we could probably say that for about 40% of the games played in the last 4 seasons, games that were played, I hasten to add, with a lot more stronger (on paper) players than are currently available.
And there’s the frustration.
Just do *something* Arsene, please? The same old stories just don’t wear anymore.
Final conclusion. AW’s autobiography is going to be a VERY interesting read 😉
Oh, and lurkers first (financial) post makes a lot of sense, until someone spoils it and ask how the LWC’s seem to do ok without CL & 36k gates.
You would have swapped places with the LWC’s in the last gazillion years, Mark?
Cheers Mark, and well may you ask how the c**ts down the road “do ok”
There’s a simple two word answer. Joe. Lewis.
They are bankrolled by Enic, their net transfer spend over the last 5 years vastly exceeds their self contained income from tv, gate receipts etc. It’s simple really.
Having said that Bale was clearly a better choice than Walcott, Modric was relatively cheap given his current market value, and you’d have to say cunts like Parker have been sensible additions.
Twitcher may not be able to write, spell, maintain the same facial expression for more than half a second, or pay his taxes, but he has spent uncle Joe’s money reasonably judiciously in recent years. I guess it all our misfortunes that he isn’t still on the cut of transfer profits deal he had at Portsmouth. If that were the case the spivvy bastard would sell Bale and Modric and his grandmother in a heartbeat.
Arsenal will beat blackburn on Sat and the wenger apologists will say eveything’s all right and going to be ok.
It’s too late for that – things were not ok from 4yrs ago, let alone now
When a manager is paid 7mil, then it’s not unrealistic to expect to be a top team challenging at the top – and this comes from a supporter of 35yrs….
What’s galling is to see the wrong tactical substitutions; positioning of the players and constant lip service that there’s confidence and belief – if so, why can’t the players score the easiest of chances that other teams can manage??
On now looking at the table you’d think someone got the teams mixed up in their placing between Spurs and the Gunners. & 7th would’ve been if Spurs were doing well for themselves!!
[…] I’ll be honest folks, I’m pretty stumped for words at this stage. In any case, Goonerholic has summed up the mood perfectly after this very poor result. Check out his blog post here. […]
Holloway2Holland – totally agree with your analysis and, as we have a 7mil manager, you’d think he’d be able to get that right……….
Long day! Just in and have just finished watching the game on tape.
Great to see Sagna back in the starting line-up, his absence has cost us dearly. My pre-match team had Coquelin in for Song and Park up front with Robin and the Ox. Le Coq has been quite excellent playing out of his DM role, is spirited and positive and Alex Song Clearly needs a break. Walcott’s form is woeful and Park’s touch (witnessed only in excellence for Korea) is something I’d like to see more of in red. Nevertheless, a strong starting eleven on paper.
The game should have been over, done, dusted and replete within 20 minutes. At least 3-0 to the Arsenal by then. Arsenal were totally dominant in this period, created some excellent chances including an easy “just beat the keeper” for Walcott – but as in many games recently, we couldn’t convert. Bolton’s recent form has seen a good home win against Swansea an a thumping of King Kenute’s mega-milion men, but Arsenal made them look second rate.
Failure to convert saw Bolton’s confidence build though and by the end, a draw was a fair result in an open end to end game.
The Ox was my man of the match and looked to be the man who might create something. Theo was tonight’s duffer, even with some great support from Bacs. None of the substitutes added anything, I’m afraid, other than giving tired legs a break.
Came on NewsNow to read about the poor suffering Arsenal and have come across this site. I must admit, this is one of the best blogs I’ve read in a long time. Yes it’s a tough(ish) season for you guys, yes you are an injury or two away from maybe struggling even more and yes AW keeps taking off your best midfielder – but as transition seasons go – it really is not too bad. You still have a squad brimming with some outstanding potential. Maybe not qualifying for the Champions League will not be such a bad thing… it might finally force your hand to spend the additional 5-8 million per player to secure 3 really top players.
I feel that much of the blame in the (lack) of transfers must rest with AW – surely if he went to the board and said I, 100% want ‘X’ – they would have signed him. That said, every character has flaws – and often your greatest strength is quick to be your greatest weakness.
I have no doubt a lower finish than your guys desire may well prove to be the real turning point in the second phase of Wengers Arsenal legacy.
Nobody would put another league title past him, and surely he is the manager to be given the chance… I just hope we can get there before yo and win our first title (next year).
COYS
Amen.
So now you have woken up TSR even AW said we are no longer a big club- and set the expectation right there and then.
So what’s your problem now – fans like you are the reason AW was not pulled up about the crazy 30yr old 1 yr contract.
The most important thing for our young players is not to win but build character – girl guides B/s.
Hoo 6.5% is required by the club it’s just a bit more than inflation.
Where the club is now is a direct consequence – of the blind faith of the AKB brigade.
AKB is a myth the day DD left the wheels at this club started to come off.
Now this great club is like that ship in Italy getting battered – led by a ego maniac who will only change course when it’s too late.
‘Holic –
take your own advice on apologising 😉
Nothing wrong in stating true feelings without abuse, as you have said many, many times.
Personally, I read your piece and agreed with every word.
I can see Clive’s point of view, I can understand ‘lurkers’ to a point.
What I don’t get is that every time we fail to spend any money, the reason seems to be that the Player Transfer Acoount has to cover transfer fees and wages.
I understood the PTA to be ringfenced. Surely wages are an ongoing cost to be met every year and will come out of ticket receipts, TV money / prize money, sponsorships, merchandising and match-day income etc, etc.
I just don’t know what to think any more.
Is it Wenger stubborness, or is it the board tying his hands ?
Is there money in the bank or not ?
What do the owners want ?
Isn’t the best way to secure improved sponsorship deals to be successful on the pitch ?
All questions you notice. No answers. Exactly what we get from the club.
I am coming to the conclusion that the cautiously welcomed Mr Kroenke is turning out to be a bit of a disaster.
The club is hamstrung by split ownership and, therefore, a lack of decisive action and direction.
It seems the club is trying to get by on spending the least possible amount of money while waiting for the stadium and property development debts to be cleared.
At which point Mr Kroenke presumably feels the value of the club will increase and he can take a profit on his purchase and disappear.
I see no evidence of any other plan.
It must have occured to him somewhere along the line that the club will need to remain an attractive proposition for this plan to work – i.e. high profile / successful.
If you take a cold, hard look at the state of the squad – and I fully recognise the promising crop of young players we have – it smacks of mis-management.
So whose fault is it ?
Whichever way the cookie crumbles, it ain’t good enough.
Cider Vinegar for me please, and Goodnight.
Peckham – some decent points, well made.
I would only assume the governor’s responsibility, and point out that many on here find the ‘Y’ word offensive, and we are told not to use it.
Cheers.
On the bright side Wilshere and the Ox in the same team is a tasty proposition for next season.
all I can say tonight is our remarkable traveling support deserve much much more…..they make you proud
the worst aspect of this season…I’m losing interest….I’ve never felt that way in the 40 years since seeing my very first game at Highbury. hopefully this will pass
I’ve a feeling Arsene will tell all when he eventually does leave and we’ll realise that he wasn’t being as stubborn as we think
First point of 2012 not acceptable. Can’t say now that the is Team tired after Villa. Why not rotate. So do we have only 11 or 12 acceptable starters now? Of course there are injuries and the ACN but why start tired players. So little trust in the squad. Why not rotate? Are these players just not good enough? In different ways Fulham, Wolves, MU, Swansea have had our number. We became narrow without legit full backs but with Sagna returning and against Bolton, I thought it would be different. Certainly lots of chances (but no finishing) in the first half … but uninspired 2nd half and it wasn’t the handbreak. We don’t score, we give up too many goals. Simple fact. No we’re not as good as Tottenham, but it is going to be hard to get past Liverpool and Newcastle. I’d love to be proved wrong but I feel that we are already looking for a clean out for next season.
Afternoon “Holic
One question:
With your contacts in and around the club, where do you think the parsimony in Arsenal’s spending comes from, is it Arsene constantly trying to source diamonds for the future at the expense of the present or is it the board committing to an austerity policy?
Every blog and website is/has called for reinforcements that will make an immediate impact yet this transfer window has seen one “prospect” brought in.
The mad rush to sign five players in the last 72 hours of the summer transfer window seemed odd at the time even with the humiliation at Old Trafford factored in it just doesn’t fit.
Your thoughts,
Cheers.
Holic have to agree 100% with the post.
Zamora would have been a huge improvement on Park & Chamakh to share the striking burden for a modest outlay and minimal settling in period. When we played Fulham a couple of months back he gave TV serious problems all through the game, his holding up and ability in the air was really impressive.
I caught the whole of the 2nd half live over here and the performance was dire, we were really lucky to come away with a point. Bolton should have had a clear cut pen at the death.
Top 4 is looking a huge ask, the top 3 are obviously out of sight, but everyone is focussing on Chelsea as our rivals, but Liverpool have just beaten Man City & Utd in the last week in the Cup games and have Suarez coiming back from suspension.
I believe arsenal has finished in the top 4 for the past 17 years so after a couple of bad games at the start of the season I put a lot of money on them making the top 4 but now iam seriously feeling v nervous about that happening. I never miss a game always watch them live somewhere. What makes me so nervous is that we cannot score I just cannot see where the goals are going to come from we are so dependent on rvp it is sickening. Never before this season has that been the case we always had the players that could create and score almost at
will we could beat the smaller teams by a cricket score I always felt we had a chance in every game no matter who we played. But now that is not the case we are so predictable he never changes the formation and when he did today when he brought Henry on that’s when bolton became most dangerous. So now I don’t know what to think we pass it nicely but with no penetration except for the ox when I was eighteen I could’ve played back to back games no problem. Aaron ramsey typifies this arsenal team right now nice player but that’s it he’s no no.10 he will never be world class frustrating to watch his flicks doesn’t create enough or score vermaellan looks lost playing left back looks like he wants to cry. To me right now this is all the managers fault n iam starting to believe this is the beginning of the end for wenger unless he makes some major creative signings in the summer it could be mid table mediocrity for us.
great post Holic,and for those that say he only comes in when times are bad,Bollocks i have reasons i dont always shop here lol,anyway i would like to say our defense as leaky as the stats show this year,i wonder if this defense was managed by somebody else how it would look,individually we have a sound defense Kos has been one of the best CB in the league,Verm fights for every thing,losing the FB’s didnt help but we didnt get raped while they were out either,a back four of Sagna….Kos…….Verm……….Santos/Gibbs Imo is the best in the league but i bet if we were to run them out they would look terrible together,individually great so the coaching is what is missing,i will probably get lambasted for saying so,but onwards and upwrds Cmon Arsenal.
Holic in all the years Theo has been under AW tuition,lets see,he is unable to go around a player,his crossing is poor but i concede it has improved,his ball control for a forward/wing is poor,and he cant hit the side of a barn ………..reallyyou could go to any athletics club ask for there 100 matres runner ask him if he could kick a ball and there is Theo in a nutshell.
Great piece holic, and a lot of great posts by various drinkers above.
One thing we all have in common is our level of frustration at the moment. Hoever, I really don’t think Zamora is the answer to our problems. Talk about an inconsistent player…
“When the ball hits the head, of the guy in row Zed, that’s Zamora” anyone?
I personally don’t understand why Arshavin can’t play in Ramsey’s place if he’s tired. He’s good in that position. Workrate is one thing, but sometimes you have to play smart not hard. I see him making a lot of effort and I’m not having a go at him at all, but when you’re playing 3 games in a week and you have midfielders fresh on the bench it encourages a situation where a) the overused midfielder breaks and b) the midfielder on the bench becomes rusty. And that’s what seems to be going on. The volatile situation at the club seems to be one where the manager seems unable to gamble with the players on the bench anymore. He plays them and the fans aren’t happy, he doesn’t play them and we don’t get a result, the fans still aren’t happy. I can’t fault the players for the effort they put in against Villa but surely a rest is in order for players who aren’t 100% if a game is in 2 days?
I just want to know why the fuck these players get so nervous in front of goal.
It’s pissing me the fuck off.
Sleepinggiant@69: fact check. Abramovich is worth $13.4 billion. Kroenke is worth just $2.6 billion. Even his wife is richer than he is. Usmanov is worth $17.7 billion but doesn’t have a seat at our top table.
Clive@82: spot on. Firm hand on the tiller (or something), as ever….
THIS IS A RANT SO PLEASE SKIP IF YOU CAN’T BE ARSED – I WILL UNDERSTAND..
What the fuck? What is this? Now even after a good game, up at Bolton, where even some of the best Arsenal sides have had trouble in the past, where we drew a game that we easily could have won, where even the opposition manager was glad to avoid defeat, where we arrested a run of three defeats, we still have the walking dead coming out of their graves to assault our devotion to our club, our team and our manager!
Everybody is entitled to their opinion of course. But the only opinion that really matters is Arsene Wenger. He didn’t find anyone to buy. He did not want to really just go out and buy just any player – he has his mind set on certain players and he will wait for those players to become available. He also has good players out injured, who will be back in a few short weeks time. He also has good young players about to break through. He has money – always had – but he is not the type of manager (like Maureen, Twitchy or Mancini) to go after anything in a pair of shorts (down Wolfie)…he has an idea of what he wants..
I totally understand how holic feels: every single Gooner has felt the same sinking feeling these past few years. How I quickly get over it is to avert my attention to the long term project we are still in the middle of at the Arsenal. We are building from the ground up. We have established a solid foundation (Stadium, Training base, Youth Academy) whilst maintaining a decent showing in the league. Our trouble is that we have all been guilty of taking our progress for granted. Someone said we’ve come to believe that finishing 4th is a divine right. What this season is telling us is that we have a fight on our hands. All around us teams are improving. Standards are higher. Imaging if we were Shitty fans, who after spending near on half a Billion Pounds over the past 3-years, can’t seem to put some daylight between themselves and their hated enemy United. Trouble is also as fans we seem to not learn from the history of other teams: Imagine if we were Liverpool fans. Only ever being close on one single occasion in the past 20+ years to winning the league. That plus all the money they have spent and continue to spend..there are many more examples and we don’t even have to mention the unmentionables down the road..
Holic my only problem with your touching and heart-felt blog is that it has opened a Pandora’s box for the Fuckwits to come on here and spew their bile all over the bar…they just love to strut their shit all over us and tell all who will listen how many times they have told us that Wenger is shit and has to go: OK we have heard you, now go back from whence you came and let the rest of us carry on our normal conversation please..
RANT OVER…
clive w,
sorry mate but you are repeating the same old same old akb verses. i don’t know how you lot come up with “no decent players were available”?? transfer market is not a shop or stall where you display your best players available for transfer it will be a suecide from business point of view, if you want a decent player you go and talk to the respective club, if you offer the going rate their is 90% chance you’ll be successfull because of the economic climate at present.
the problem is the arsenal football club is too big to run by one person i.e wenger, he needs to concerntrate more on football and less on the bank statement after all whats the use of ivan and the useless bunch that followed him.
as far as our league position is concerned i mean what did everyone expect, while everyone around us improved their already better squads than us, we on the other hand got rid of two of the best talents not just in arsenal but the whole league on the cheap. so lets not pretend no one knew what was coming.
st totteringham day.. you wish
SteveT @83 and others: can we get away with this obsession about net transfer spend? It means nothing. It isn’t even a realistic guide to how much might be in the transfer pot at any particular moment as transfer fees are depreciated in the accounts over a number of years, whereas actual spending is done on a current fiscal year basis. Total player costs is the financial measure that matters.
H2H@113: what about 3-5-2? That might suit this squad better than 4-4-2, which is too easy to overrun in midfield.
CoR@136: AA in Ramsey’s position isn’t such a bad idea, especially now Arteta is back to help Song with the donkey work.
Hey NBN, see what I mean about lurkers 😉
I figure we can have either Afobe or Oxlade on the left, and play either Arshavin or Ramsey as the situation dictates. Surely it must work. Do you think the boss is punishing Arshavin or something by throwing him out wide? It’s almost as if he bought a cat and is trying to have it bark at times…
Or he has sold a cat, CoR, and doesn’t want to risk delivering damaged goods.
Hmm, I see what you mean. But playing a sold cat in the wrong part of the house still is a recipe for poo in the wrong place init?
Holic you have every right to a post like that given your measured and civil thoughts. Basically the opposite of #33. It is the highest compliment to the general positivity of your blog that the second you post something approaching frustration and negativity it attracts a record number of whiners who can’t wait to say i told you so about the struggles of the club they supprt. Like flies on s***.
I for one agree completely with NBN. Unless I know the facts about the clubs financial situation, the actual price vs value of the players the Club might have been interested in, I’m not going to speculate on whether purchases should have been made. The club, unlike 6 years ago, has had to finance a move to a beautiful brand new stadium, during adverse economic conditions, and has had to deal with the new reality of massive oil money in the prem. Things were never going to be easy so it is surprising how negative parts of the support for the club have become under the false expectation of transfer outlays and automatic trophy contention year after year.
Hi Holic, you are immensely respected across Arsenalsphere and I have not encountered any rash pieces of writing from your end.
Today also, I feel you have spoken your heart out. Come to think of it, the situation was visible in December where Arsenal were struggling with the games coming thick and fast. Today’s draw (seems like defeat) was again after an supercharged FA encouter.
Why has Wenger becomes so thick that he plays the same team in FA as well as a PL match just couple of days later. The performance levels will fall and that just happened yesterday. Arsenal had to have a good back up of 4 to 5 decent players who could swap places and play in FA/CC or even CL. If Arsene is reluctant to sign any more, why play the first XI in the FA anyway, this is pure lunacy. I think we are going to have more dark days ahead, starting 4th Feb.
Anti
Really good piece.
Wenger has invited this sort of reaction but a point away to Bolton, an “in form” Bolton, is a good point.
========
Another “in form” Blackburn lost to Newcastle at home. All teams become “in form” when they meet Arsenal nowadays.
There is a simple truth to the mid-season transfer window. Most of the available players are available because their clubs want to off load them. Some may be square pegs in round holes, but mostly there is a reason their clubs find them surplus to requirements.
@Ricey
constantly selling experience, replacing it en masse with badly coached kids,
========
I think Wenger has lost the coaching ability for which he was so renouned. He still thinks he is a very good coach but results are there for everybody to see. He was a good coach and talent spotter but not anymore.
First two paras of Guardian match report on the money, to my mind.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/feb/01/bolton-wanderers-arsenal-premier-league
Holic
Welcome to the real world most Gooners have been living in since 2008.Wenger has lost the plot.There are no more excuses for him.To not buy a LB or a striker in the window was criminal.
They team is full of average players.Take away RVP’s goals we would be below 10th. And when he leaves this summer get used to no Champions league football for many years to come
Lets be honest.Kroenke did not buy Arsenal to win trophies.Its a business
Yikes, just been pointed out to me that the points gap between us and West Brom in 15th is smaller than between us and the Spuds in third. Grim.
It is clear that Wenger has got a blind spot in Walcott. If his blindness and stubborness continues, then we will surely continue with our free-fall towards West Brom. Walcott is too one-dimensional that each and every of his next move is predictable…but then Arsene knows best I guess….sighhhh.
Doesn’t Walcott have a celebration for missing scoring goals? he seems to be missing them by a dozen.
Thanks ‘holic for the voice of calm, which I hope has reduced the panic amongst the drinkers
a. Lurker raises good points which make me recall companies run by the bean counters (acc*ntants if you will), which lose their direction, cut out the slightest risk, and kill off all attempts at growth.
“‘The most important thing is to do well if we do not make CL, so lets cut back now – ( and thereby kill off any chance of making CL)”
b. Managing a team of a limited squad size, which all teams have to do these days, is constrained by the rules and crippled by the recurring injuries (that occurs in our mini league and drives me mad – ok so someone has to be 15th ); (I think) I understand how AW suffers with that problem juggling loans, short-term out of position cover, looking for the new miracle coming through the ranks
c. AW gets it in his mind that players can play as well for him out of their normal role and persists, even though they don’t deliver. For every good one there seem to be 4 or 5 failures, certainly a clear indication of his stubbornness (IMO).
d. The Ox has shown in the short time he has been here what we were expecting and have not got from Theo since he came
– skill on the ball
– the ability to drive forward on the wing and through the centre causing panic in defences
– good vision looking for the long pass
– unafraid to tackle back regularly without fear
e, Kos is showing more and more aspects of what he can do, and with TV , Bac and Santos will form a strong base from which to build in the coming years
We, as supporters through thick and thin, are allowed to think what might have been, and what changes we would have made, and of course that leads to frustration, but above all we love our team for ever COYRSSS
Yes, lets support Arsene through thick and thin and pay the highest ticket prices. Results just dont matter for us. Arsenal always had good base players but will they stay if the team loses due to dodgy signings ?
Song for Theo:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz64hWng2vM
While I agree that this squad might not be good enough for a top four spot, I am not ready to give up just yet. If we keep up our home form, then we still have a very real chance
lurkers@various – Some interesting and well put observations
Ramsey’s effort is immense but he just doesn’t seem to have that creativity at the moment. And that’s due to others around him playing like shit too
That RVP chip was something eh? Sometimes it’s fine margins
Roll on Saturday!
Well i hoped it never came to this, a Holic blog without positivity.
But i think it is time to be a little it less positive and more realistic.
The post today doesn’t represent this game only but the season itself.
Imagine being Arsene, getting let down by his players again, it wasn’t arsene who missed those chances.
Good read ‘holic. Cheers for that.
Seems like not only are you one of the best at perspective, you are one of the most level-headed kneejerkers around, if that isn’t an oxymoron. Nice work.
Frustrating times, but you know what I long for? A single summer where we don’t lose a top player, where every signing augments the squad rather than fill holes left behind. I cling to the hope that Van Persie will sign a new contract, because if so, this summer should be exactly that.
Never expected anything from January, to be honest, but it is clear that there are 4-5 players in the 25 man squad who Wenger no longer trusts. It surely isn’t a case of ‘if’ he will replace them in the summer.
I still believe.
I still haven’t given up on top 4 because I still think we can get over the line eventually with the players we have. Each bump along the way though feels like a hook from Mike Tyson (or Captain Hook) to the nuts though. It’s going to be a hard fight for the rest of the season. I hope our red and white soldiers are ready for it.
UTA
Fair post Holic
Forgive me if I don’t peruse the drinks – the usual wisdom from such as Steve T etc I presume? Quite rightly.
And of course the inevitable brain dead abusers…..
As you say – a mystifying strategy from seemingly intelligent people (the whole upper echelon of the club, NOT just Arsene).
I’m off….
PS – snowing in Spain!!
Snowing in Japan too!
Great piece ‘holic. Summed up my feelings.
didn’t see the game, read a lot of insults on twitter, but a couple of sensible posts and match reports make me think we were nowhere near atrocious.
If it weren’t for Cunstki’s late equaliser, while dropping to 7th we would have actually gained a point on 4th place. As it is, we kept it as is, very disappointing, but that’s about it.
Positive spin? Oh yes.
Oh yes, I dearly wish we’d signed an extra striker, but keep your chin up, Gooners! 4th is not ‘unlikely’, just getting hard to achieve. We might not make it, yes it’s getting harder, but we’ll still be the Arsenal.
Reading this I realised that the ‘Holic and I have a lot in common. I have been gradually getting more and more pissed off over the years with the fact that each season we knew we were just one or two players off from having a strong squad capable of achieving something. Now I fear that we have gone way past that – this squad needs such a major overhaul. Many of our starting 11 would be squad/back-up players but now are being played too much and risk burn out.
I have never been one to bang on about sacking Wenger and I have always felt that he deserved a chance to perform a bit of magic and turned things around but now I am left in a state of bewilderment and disbelief. If we can all see whats wrong with the team, how can he not? How is he not accountable for what has happened – and is happening – to the club we all love?
Sadly I think whatever happens between now and the end of the season (short of a miracle Champions League and FA Cup double!) we are witnessing the bitter, painful end of an era. I am not even the subject of piss-taking from various spurs/chelsea/Man utd fans anymore. That is how bad things have got. Its almost like they know that whatever they say cannot possibly be any worse than how I feel.
Harsha lets stop making excuses for Ramsey…Theo is not everyones favourite at the moment but has more assists and goals than Ramsey who is supposed to be our best creative player. Rosicky can do better in that position we saw against Villa on the weekend so why not play him? Reminds me of the time people blamed Denilson on not good enough and affecting the midfield!!
My fear now is that some of our fans will be cunts again on saturday if we don’t score early.
As a club, I feel we’re living a dangerous life on the edge at the moment.
Clay, indeed, I suggested sometime after sunday in another place that Arteta-Song-Rosicky (on current form) looked a good option to me to give Ramsey the occasional breather (can’t fault Ramsey’s effort though). But then, I’m only me, it’s a generic thought I had and I didn’t see the game at all yesterday so can’t comment on any particular player performance.
Oh well.
Holic, I don’t think that was knee-jerk at all.
(Post-added introduction: this became very long, I tried to get as many points in as I could and it was written in bursts while work allowed me to, so I hope it does not come out as just an incoherent mess!)
Yesterday’s result most likely means that we will not qualify for the Champions League. And while I know this is a massively thin straw that I am clutching at, that could be blessing in disguise.
Why? Because I think the club as a whole has perhaps been in a comfort zone where we were more or less guaranteed a CL spot and I am more or less convinced that Arsene has had his hands tied for quite some time. It just doesn’t add up that a manager that hates losing so much that he once had to stop the team bus on the way home from a game so that he could step outside and throw up would willingly create a worse team than he could. I have to say that for me the feeling is growing stronger and stronger that Arsene may very well walk away after the season ends. Almost no matter how bad things might have been over the last summer, he would never have walked in August because that would have meant murdering whatever chances we still had of having a decent season. It would have created utter, utter chaos and who could we have got in to replace him? Avram Grant?
“He should stand up to the board”, some say about Arsene. Well, how do you know he hasn’t? Maybe things would have been even worse with another manager? Maybe they would have been better too, but none of us know that for sure. Maybe Arsene IS the one who is to blame, maybe it is the board or maybe a combination of the two or something else. You won’t hear me demanding the sacking of anyone because we know too little about what really goes on behind the scenes.
However, that does not mean I am saying that we should just happily sing along to the corporate tune and pay the insanely high ticket prices. No, we can demand more of the club as a whole, but I don’t think any of us can point the finger at any one person – and besides, when an organization is underperforming it rarely is only one person who is at fault.
In any case, for me things don’t really add up. If we have money, I see little reason not to spend at least some of it and contrary to many others, I think Zamora would have been a really good addition to our squad. I think he is quite underrated, he is really good at receiving the ball and holding it to allow the rest of the team to push up. He would certainly have been a better bet than Chamakh or Park. Dempsey has also been mantioned, he too would have been a good addition. Basically, any reasonably good Premier League attacker would have strengthened us. So why didn’t we manage to get anyone in? Who said “no, it’s either the very best or none at all”? Or was Arsene told that he would not be given any money apart from the relative peanuts that Eisfeld cost?
As for the game yesterday, well we should have won it and on another day we would have. One off the post, one off the bar and if Theo’s shot had hit Bogdan’s heel half an inch to the left it would have been in. Play that game ten times and we win it nine times (and no, it should not have been a penalty for Bolton, how anyone can say that is beyond me – Szczesny clearly got the ball with both hands). But that does of course not change any major points, we have had too many games where we just haven’t turned up or played with that bloody handbrake on – and maybe this is where I can say with some conviction that Arsene has to accept a big (but not the whole) portion of the blame. It is the manager’s job to rip that handbrake right out of the car, it’s not easy but he has to do it.
Steve T: “Taking the above into account and add in the profit we have made on transfers, if we do not have money to spend then we have been turned into a club that needs to sell due to gross miss management. The only other scenario is that we do actually have the money to spend and that for some reason we just have not done so.”
This sums up what I feel as well. But quite obviously, the talk about the move not affecting the transfer kitty was (and the club has half-admitted it as well) not true in the end. This is also where things don’t add up, because as you say, if we didn’t need the CL money then we would have made tens of millions of pounds in pure profit (i.e. even without property/player sales) every season for the past six or seven years and should by now be sitting on something like £150-200 million in CL money alone. Adding the player sales and property deals we should have been able to pay off every single penny of the stadium debt and still be in the black. But quite obviously this is not the case, so where’s the money gone? It can’t all have gone on wages, can it?
But having said all of the above, let me give you this very possible scenario to ponder:
Szczesny
Sagna-Kos-Vermaelen-Santos
Song
Areta-Wilshere
Oxlade-RvP-Gervinho
Subs: Fabianski, Arshavin, Walcott, Jenkinson, Rosicky, Mertesacker, Ramsey
Is that really such a weak squad? I actually don’t think so. Note that a player like Benayoun doesn’t even make the bench, likewise Gibbs, Djourou, Squillaci and Chamakh. Nor a proper talent like Coquelin. Now, I am not blaming our injuries on bad luck alone, because there must be something else to it because we have too many injuries for that to be the case, but is the problem really only the quality of the squad? I say no.
Mark the Spark@116: the thing is that Looting Town are NOT doing ok with 36k gates and no CL. That is precisely why they are so desperate to either hog the Olympic Stadium or expand their crumbling dump of a stadium. The are blossoming right now, but they are doing it in a way that is akin to pissing yourself when it’s cold outside – warm at first but far worse after a few seconds – not to mention that they are actually funded in a not insignificant way by Manchester City. They are not even paying half the wages that Adebayor earns, and whatever we think about him as a character there is little doubt that he has been massively important for them this season.
West Upper@132: I am not convinced that Suarez coming back will neccessarily make Liverpool a better team. Ba to Newcastle, however…
Terry@140: good post, and I completely agree with your paragraph about ManCity and Liverpool fans. If Man Utd win the league this year, all City will have to show for all their money spent in the last three or four years is one solitary FA Cup. (yes, they might win the Europa League but winning a competition that you are only in because you got dumped out of the one you really wanted to win is hardly what they had in mind).
lurkers, very good posts all round.
If anyone is still reading this, have a drink on my tab!
I think lately the Arsenal players are not communicating with each other when playing.
They stuff up & don’t apologize to their teammates.
Keeper was poorly distributing the ball & did seem to care that much. No hand signal to apologize. Theo, Ramsey missed clear chances & did not seem to care that much. Song messes up & he just looks down & no apologizes to his team mates.
Are they really playing for one another? Their body language does not seem to show that.
Theo, Ramsy & Song could do with a bit of ‘rest’ & start with Yosi & Arshavin & Rosisky.
Morning all.
Holic: “You would have swapped places with the LWC’s in the last gazillion years, Mark?”
Of course not. As we say here, I don’t have a choice. Envy was never on the cards. Frustration at the financial comparisons as per Lurkers post and the Joe Lewis ‘cop out’ (sorry lurker, can’t find better terminology) is the at the fore. We are 5 years into the improved financial position that 60k gates give us, plus an unquestionable transfer pot surplus. Money simply can’t be the problem. Exactly who is holding the purse strings probably is.
And it all boils down to the theme of many of the posts. Questions, with no answers.
Hey ho. I’ve had plenty of years of enjoying watching Arsenal play, I’ve come to the conclusion that my enjoyment was inexplicably linked with the expectation that we probably wasn’t going to win anything, except on a match by match, week in, week out basis. Perhaps I should just lower my sights and go back to that way of thinking.
If it could just be seen that we were playing with some passion, drive and desire, then it wouldn’t be so bad. I can live with that.
But defensively we are headless chickens at times, which all adds to it.
Rambling now. Have a good day all.
Holic, I don’t mean to back the whiners here but your report is anything but knee-jerk – it’s a balanced view (as always) that asks some extremely pertinent questions.
Our subdued level of activity in the transfer market has imho gone on long enough for people to ask the question, “Seriously, what gives?” The fact that nobody knows the answer is immaterial, in a sense – the question is a fair one.
At the risk of repeating points that have been made ad infinitum: surely anyone connected with the club – from fanboy to tea lady to the top brass – can see that the squad could have benefited from even one more signing than was made in most of the past few windows (signings that, you know, could come in and start contributing straight away…). Surely the people holding the purse strings aren’t content to see us slip a bit more each season as long as they line their pockets, are they?
I’m very, very reluctant to believe that conspiracy theory nonsense, but seriously…what gives?
All I can say, as always, is chin up gooners. Rough with the smooth!
A drink for the very sensible Camberwell please, barman.
I’m convinced that Arsene is not getting the funds to strengthen the team and has to much pride and love for the club to officially come out and say so. This we all forget is a man who revolutionised Arsenal and the EPL with his ideas he’s not stupid and I’m sure he can see exactly what we can all see.
The worrying thing may be attendances dropping when they announce a sell out with obvious seats available means that they got the money for that seat but the fan never turned up, now that for me is worrying because sooner or later it may get to the stage where they don’t get the money and we have empty seats hence match day revenue will get less.
As it stands at the moment we have the best manager for this current situation as I can’t think of anyone who would have achieved what we have so far and we should be careful what we wish for.
Up The Arse
Yes Lars, I read every word 🙂
Hard to talk about the neighbours, as i have no allure to be ‘them’ in any way, shape or form. But the bigger ground scenario with them has been running for donkeys years now, yet they are still retaining their top players, and competing for top 4, without even a workable plan for a new ground, let alone CL money.
Joe Lewis is *only* a ‘double’ billionaire (lol, not exactly likely to find him queing up for fish & chips), and doesn’t have (to my mind) the sort of money required for a new ground/improved ground for the neighbours.
Yes, The Adeybayour deal for spurs with Man C bankrolling it is good for them… but surely there is a comparison with us? As the middle eastlands money has flowed into our coffers with the deals on Kolo, Ade, Clichy and Nasr$. Where has that money gone? Getting on for £100 mill there?
I’m just saying to anyone that cares to listen, is that we might never win the league again if the current money in football situation persists. We can’t compete with Chelski or Citey financially. Seemingly we can’t even compete with the neighbours 🙁
@Austrian – yes, Wenger did revolutionise Arsenal and the league in general, 17 seasons ago his ideas were fresh and new. He has kept to the same methods since then despite the fact that the league has evolved along with all the clubs in it.
As a great man once said “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results…”
That is why I have never been one to call for his head, hoping he may adapt to these changes as the likes of SAF has done at united. But with each passing season where he seems stubborn (especially with his pre-planned substitutions and insistence in sticking to tactics, regardless of the opposition etc) and reluctant to change means that maybe the time has come for a bit of a fresh approach and begin a new cycle?
Well done on reading all that, Mark 🙂
Holic, great post as always. Find it hard to disagree with most of it.
Lurkers @ 71. Re: Zamora. 100% agree. I can’t help but feel it has being purchases of Zamora quality in the past that probably has us in the situation we’re in.
Personally, I wouldn’t advocate huge sums being outlaid on “proven quality”, because I feel the club isn’t financially able to do so. Plus we have some previous mainly arshavin, reyes who haven’t/didn’t exactly repay the transfer fees.
Having said that, players like kos, arteta and mertesacker( I know some people are undecided on him), have really improved the team in certain ways. I just refuse to believe that players of their quality, for their price range aren’t out there, particularly in the forward department.
Although, its deeply frustrating, I think there is nothing that can be changed between now and the end of the season. We just have to get behind the team.
On a positive note, it was great to see Sagna back last night, I think he made a difference, unfortunately not to the result.
I read it all too Lars. I don’t mind admitting I am in two minds about all of this.
Austrian Gooner we can blame the board all we want but the board does not make the changes or choose the team it Wenger…i remember reading sometime ago a comment by Arshavin that no matter how good he plays he knows at 70 mins he is subbed. Same thing happens to Rosicky no matter how good he plays he doesn’t start the next game. Take Theo, Gervinho, Ramsey and Song no matter how bad they play they always start. No wonder why we keep on making same mistakes season in season out coz players know nothing will happen, they wont lose their places in the team. Wenger doesn’t play Park the whole season and when we losing a game against Man U he throws him in, to be honest to me it showed a manger who had run out of ideas. This season it has happened a lot that when we losing a game u find all the strikers thrown in and we still lose so whats the point of doing that?
@ Austrian Gooner
Myself I don’t believe theres a difference in the policy between Arsene and the board, and that Arsene is only towing the company line in public.
Arsene has said many times that he loves working for arsenal because they allow him the freedom to work, implement his ideas and manage the team in a way he sees fit. If a manager is as sought after and as intelligent as Wenger is, I don’t think hes going to be undermined at every turn by his employers, particularly publicly, for such a long time.
In my opinion, for arsenal to progress, I think both board and the manager have to freshen up there ideas.
Oh yeah. Fuck spurs, the instruments of cuntery…..feel a little bit better now…:)
Andy Goram 🙂 heh!
Andy Goram@184: I’d have been more surprised if you hadn’t been 🙂
Always can count on Andy Goram for a smile, or two 🙂
How different the mood among Gooners is in the last three days, between Villa and Bolton games. The difference between those two games is we conceded two goals at home against Villa and kept a clean sheet away from home at Bolton (different perspective). That we didn’t score from open play in those two games highlighted our deficiency in attacking (which I think is our main weakness at the moment).
Did Arsenal suddenly become a mediocre team right now? Some perspective is needed. From struggling at 17th place until end of last year (when we climbed to 4th place), our form was as good as the league leader. But after New Year, we just couldn’t keep it. Several things contributed to this, but my suspicion lies on the full backs being exposed. Our opponents knew how to make us suffer at the flanks and how ineffective our attacks were from the flanks.
I think people’s rage against the team and especially Wenger was because this draw happened just after the transfer window closed and we were at the end of 3 disappointing league game results.
With Sagna’s return, I hope the right flank will become our main source of attack again, and hopefully until Gervinho and Santos come back, we can survive this vital February. For the meanwhile let’s enjoy the glimpses of excellence from Chambo, and I’m really sure he could be as good as Wilshere last year finishing this season. Victoria Concordia Crescit!
Ollie – cheers! Mine’s a nice cold Black Sheep.
…And seeing as “it’s all gone quiet over there”, let me be the one to get the ball rolling – with an inch-perfect pass round the corner and out to the winger getting some chalk on his boots.
Looking to bring some other players into the build-up and avoid doing the dreaded Camberwell…
Heh at the other Andy Goram.
Two of them up in support!
Which one will drive to the byline and cut it back for the tap-in?
In terms of having money they shouldn’t have, may I moan about the Club for once?
So I booked a ticket for a Red Member mate for saturday, not even a week after the online sale to red, but turns out the ‘Family&Friends’ period had already started.
So the club’s policy then is to NOT activate membership cards but sent a paper ticket (the blurb on the ticket page say they can’t, but sure as hell there is no technical impossibility, as proved by Tx….), it’s just maybe easier for them to count things.
Anyway, in my previous experience, when 3 times either at Highbury or here I have had to ‘get’ paper tickets, the tickets never got sent to me and I had to collect a duplicate (or sometime the original) on the day.
Presumably that’s because I live overseas (even though it probably takes less for a letter to go from London to Paris than to Newcastle, admittedly it might cost a fraction more).
So I expected the same. I’m not ‘disappointed’.
But this time there was ‘improvement’ in the sense that the club sent me a ‘spontaneous’ e-mail saying they have ‘arraged for my ‘ticket and/or membership card to be available for collection’ (not very personal, very generic terms to cover different situations).
How kind, how nice.
So I paid increased booking fees (the booking fees in the F&F are 2.10 instead of 1.65 during normal period), a 2.20 ‘postage’ charge, to book a ticket for a fellow red member, that the club now freely admit (that’s an improvement of sorts) they never ever intended to send….
Thank you….
This being combined with early kick-off/Victoria Line closure, well I may not have time for a pre-game drink.
Let’s just hope that the cold doesn’t affect the Eurostar, eh?
I don’t even know if I can get the fellow member to collect it (he should be in town before me), or if it only works if I collect as the e-mail is addressed to me…
*punts the ball in anger from the goalkeeping position straight past the half-way line*
Chests it into the path of…
Perhaps a doppelgänger could be found in the pub to make the collection, Ollie? After all, there are two of many people.
Haha Andy Goram :).
I trust you are the Andy Goram I think you are then.
Lars @ 174; Just enjoying a braw plate of porridge with the first malt of the day liberally sprinkled over it. This fine fare has been enhanced considerably by your excellent post. We see things in a very similar way through the time-space continuum between here and Sunny Sweden.
I was never in the “buy Zamora” boat though. Second rate and I would rather have recalled Bendy from Sunderland. “Horses” (sic) for courses.
The money situation isn’t as rich as many proclaim. There was an excellent link on Arseblog a couple of weeks go. If you read it you’ll recall the continuing refrain “And, of-course, the salary burden continues to grow and grow”. (Can anyone give me the link, need to use it elsewhere). As we know, Arsene will want to make every single penny sing.
30M would have bought us ONE world class player or TWO lesser mortals. Only second raters come cheap irrespective of whether or not its a buyer’s market. I guess neither of these combos were available. I would have liked Goetze. I’m not so sure about Hazard.
I think the strategy will see the departure of Rosicky, Bendy, Squillacci, Almunia, Denilson (Boo-Hoo!), Benayoun, Chamakh, Arshavin and maybe Walcott in the summer. Only Denilson will constitute a loss (smile!)
In return we will recruit two world class players. That quality (and not the Zamoras of this world) is what Arsenal needs to prosper. Would we be where we are now if Cesc and Nasri or Cesc and Ade were still in the squad? I don’t think so. On such small differences and bad luck with injuries hang critical outcomes in football.
Our young talent is exceptional. AND we have the explosive Joel Campbell. We have only two and a half world class players RVP and Tommy V with half a Song. That MUST be the area of focus. FOUR is a must if we wish to challenge the world.
OK< off to work.
What a goal by BtM!
nods on….
..in recognition of the poaching by BtM!!
Played, sir.
Thanks for the kind words, BtM! (and what a way to score a century!)
On a positive note my copy of ‘so paddy got up’ arrived this morning.
Happy days.
Lars, nothing beats doing a Camberwell to get your ton. 😀
Good stuff, Steve T.
In other, rather shocking news, it looks like current activity will now end at the end of April.
My boss’s boss really is a backstabbing cunt who had placed his pawn well.
I might be tempted to vent some anger in an e-mail to many people at the same time as sending many thanks and acknowledgments when I actually leave the division.
I think the month just gone has been the one where I’ve felt the happiest in my job somehow, in all aspects of it, and I do know for absolutely certain that people over many continents will be disappointed that we won’t support them anymore or help them sell more products.
But if some cunts at the higher echelons of the company hierarchy have taken the decisions they have taken (of course they are not the ones directly affected by these), based probably on a few financial criteria that have nothing to do with quality or rationality in terms of organisation, well, I’m not wishing them any luck.
Well in, BtM.
BtM@200: was this the link you were looking for? http://swissramble.blogspot.com/2011/10/arsenals-finances-21-questions.html
I think there was a more recent one on another blog, NBN, I’ll try to find it.
Got it :
http://angryofislington.com/2012/01/19/arsenals-finances-the-plain-truth/
Tks, Ollie, will check it out. Meanwhile, this is the money graph from The Swiss Ramble:
It’s not overly dramatic to say that Arsenal leave at least £30 million a season on the table, because of [its] historical commercial deals, which would fund the purchase of one great player every season. One of the club’s biggest challenges is how to bridge this gap until 2014, when these deals are up for renewal.
Much as I hate to say it (and hope it doesn`t happen), we could be about to enter a very dark period in the club`s history. Without the prospect of CL football, even the splashing out of £25 or £30m on the likes of Hazard will be out of the question. We will be shopping in Europe`s bargain basement even though we have enough money to buy a Rolls Royce or two. And if we are only able to offer domestic football, we will end up topping up the pensions of over- the- hill stars, or paying inflated wages to even more unproven young talent.
I’ve been having a little meditation (siesta) about this state of affairs.
If we make a few basic ASSUMPTIONS:
a) Arsene and the board are intelligent
b) They do want to club to be challenging and aren’t happy to be losing
c) They do have money but have chosen not to spend it at this point in time
Then, I guess much as BtM is saying, there has to be a plan:
Remember Ivan saying that he had had a meeting with Arsene about the squad personnel for (I think) 2014?
They are willing to take a hit on the this year’s CL if need be as they have a plan for the long term and so are not willing to buy now for the short term.
It could be assumed that they have identified exactly who they want to sign, probably in the summer when they are available, and who they will look to offload.
They are confident that this plan is worth the short term pain.
Well…. let’s see. But I can’t see how any other explanation could fit. Sooner rather than later, boys please!
In the meantime we can do nothing but get behind those who represent us and cheer on the outstanding stars, bright prospects and infuriating but loveable (at least we have got rid of the jerks!) individuals that make up The Arsenal.
Salud !!
PS – hope we’ve all noticed that Cesc, as well as Na$ri is in danger of ending up without any serious silverware this season.
World club things and charity shields don’t count..
Afternoon All ,
Thanks for the heartfelt post ‘Holic .
I kind of wish , however , that you had waited that extra half an hour . Not because I disagreed with many of your thoughts , ( I didn’t ) , but because , as GoonerTerry has already pointed out , it opens the door to those who would cherrypick those parts of your post to suit their own agenda , ignore those parts that don’t , and then proclaim without any semblance of either irony or self-awareness that you have now “seen the light” .
It says something about the current atmosphere being generated by the “I know best” Brigade that presently surrounds Arsenal games , that in the immediate aftermath of a football match , lest we forget , I had to wait until drink No.82 (eighty fucking two !!!) , to read anything of the game itself .
It was left to those triple pillars of common sense and rational thought , Clive @82 , BtM @122 , and Lars @174 to even mention that a game had just gone on .
Lars , that was a fantastic post . Particularly enjoyed the analogy of the Spuds as the man who is pissing on his hands to keep warm . Inspired !
As for the game ? It was obviously a pretty dispiriting experience . That 5 clear cut chances were created in the first 15 minutes were due , it appeared to me , to the ineptitude of Bolton’s defence rather than any excellence on Arsenal’s part . Rather than kick off in the same way we had played in the 2nd half against Villa , we stayed firmly in second gear , played in front of Bolton without any real incision or pace , and generally went nowhere .
As each missed chance came and went , with the woeful Walcott the most culpable , the feeling grew that Bolton would eventually sort themselves out and that we would come to rue the opportunities that we had declined to take .
That our defensive unit looked anything but cohesive against a very ordinary Bolton attack only served to exacerbate the increasingly prevalent feelings of gloom .
Second half , it has to be said , was pretty dire . Our only threat to the Bolton goal were two pieces of individual brilliance from the Captain . The Ox , who had begun brightly , faded , though he still offered more threat intermittently than the ineffective Walcott , and should have stayed on .
In the middle , Song had a night to forget (an occurrence becoming rather too familiar ) , whilst Ramsey was his usual mixture of endeavour and frustration . Arteta was the pick . He worked incredibly hard , won the ball well , and moved it on tidily . That said , one cannot escape the feeling that he lacks either the range of passing or the physical presence , to drive the team forward in the way that the position requires .
At the back , both Koscielny and Schez looked uncharacteristically nervous , and that nervousness permeated throughout the back four . It is a continuing mystery how 5 good footballers can continue to look so poor as a unit .
By the end , it looked more likely that Bolton would score the one goal that would win the game , and I was happy to hear the final whistle , and go home .
But no-one wants to talk about the football anymore do we !
Nope , The Arsenal haven’t won , and therefore we must have our weekly dissection of what is wrong at the Club .
The debate above , with a few exceptions ( you know that things are bad when those pygmies of footballing intelligence , Sleepinggiant and Pete , pop in with their half-baked and simplistic responses to deeply complex issues ) , was for the most part informed (or as informed as the Club allows us to be) , and well balanced .
I particularly enjoyed the exchange of ideas between SteveT and Lurkers , and the always wise interjections of NBN and N7.
At this point , I have little to add . The lack of transparency in regard to the Club’s finances , the absent owner and the subsequent power vacuum , our passive attitude to the Transfer market , the failure to adequately replace Dein , the blind persistence with a system built for the now departed Fabregas , the failure to mould the Defence into a cohesive unit , the failure to add new voices into the coaching mix , have all been mentioned before .
At this point I will content myself with one thought . Perhaps it is a romantic notion , perhaps it is a sign that I am getting old , but I think it is worth saying .
Back in the day , when just out and about , nothing used to cheer me up quite as much as catching sight of somebody else wearing an Arsenal badge /scarf in a context where you ordinarily wouldn’t expect to see it . More often than not there would be a conspiratorial nod or a grin , a sign that we had a shared memory bank of sometimes joy and more often than not suffering , a recognition that when everybody else wanted to take a pop at The Arsenal ( “you’re long ball! , you’re lucky! , you’re boring! ) , we were both in the trenches , defending our beloved Club even if it meant deserting all logic and reason .
That is a simple pleasure that is no longer afforded me . Now I find myself going through all kinds of mental gymnastics when I see that scarf . Is he a man who attacks our manager as a “deluded clown” (@33) , in which case I have far more contempt for him than I would for any Spud .
That is the most dispiriting thing of all .
When the world and his wife want to take a pop at Arsenal , you dig your heels in and defend ’em . It is astonishing that those that most carp about this team’s mental strength , are wholly unable to find the mental strength to do the one thing that their position demands – Support !!! .
Instead we move inexorably to disaster . You can only ignore a crying baby , (for that is what we have collectively become ) , for so long . The vociferous minority may well get what they want . The silent majority will stand passively by . Who knows where that might lead . I don’t , but I doubt that it will be anywhere good . What I do know is that we will deserve it .
Abusing our own players on Twitter ? Abusing our most successful manager ever ? Abusing each other ?
Time to wake up .
How can anyone trust Venga??
Look at the list of righteous complaints the Arsenal fans have had against him:
Always buys youth, like Chamberlain.
Only buys old has-beens like Mertesacker and Arteta
Never spends any money
Wastes 15 million quid on Chamberlain
Perseveres with the injury prone Robin Van Persie – will he ever reach his potential? Get rid and cash in now
Perseveres with unknowns who will never be good enough… like Song and Kos.
Never picks Chamberlain.
Never buys established stars.
Perseveres with Arshavin.
They can’t all be wrong, can they…??!
tabs – “Back in the day , when just out and about , nothing used to cheer me up quite as much as catching sight of somebody else wearing an Arsenal badge /scarf in a context where you ordinarily wouldn’t expect to see it . More often than not there would be a conspiratorial nod or a grin , a sign that we had a shared memory bank of sometimes joy and more often than not suffering , a recognition that when everybody else wanted to take a pop at The Arsenal ( “you’re long ball! , you’re lucky! , you’re boring! ) , we were both in the trenches , defending our beloved Club even if it meant deserting all logic and reason .
That is a simple pleasure that is no longer afforded me . Now I find myself going through all kinds of mental gymnastics when I see that scarf . Is he a man who attacks our manager as a “deluded clown” (@33) , in which case I have far more contempt for him than I would for any Spud .
That is the most dispiriting thing of all .”
That really is dispiriting, and something i hadn’t really thought too much about – but it is absolutely spot on these days. Unfortunately.
tabs, cheers and right back at ya’. Have a pint of the black stuff on my tab.
Meeja Tosspot: massive heh!
Lars
So much for the “massive heh”, I’ve heard you’re generous with your wallet – where’s my pint?? 😉
tabs, top post.
As usual.
Cheers Geo . Are you the Geo who regularly posts on ACLF ? If you are , keep up the good work , and give Jibber Jabber one in the nuts from me . 😉
Cheers Lars , that Black one will go down rather nicely . When is your next visit to the Ems for some real ones ?
A pot for Meedja Tosspot too.
Cheers Ollie . You about on sat ?
Yup that’s me tabs 🙂 Have been taking a bit more of a back seat recently, too much regurgitating going on… I read every day, but don’t get much work done once i get into the nitty gritty of debating The Arsenal!
Cheers, I’ll give Jibber a Jab from you for sure 🙂
Have a good one all
tabs, I hope to be over for the Milan home leg. I have tickets for that game for me and the Lars Management, but at the moment I am, for various reasons, not sure the trip will happen. It should become clearer in the coming five or six days.
BTM @ 200 You forgot the Kos on your world class player list. I’m sure it was just an oversight on your part. Cheers!
Blind support is not support at all, it’s called co-dependency. Like watching your kid failing at school stoned off his ass all the time, and saying, “no, my boy is perfect, nothing wrong! I support him, how dare you!”. Support is facing the cold reality of flaws, in the context of, what are your standards. If your standards are Gunners in 7th, then smile and clap away sunshine.
Afternoon Holics
216 tbs
A great resume of our current situation.I left ACLF because of the wingers/doomers who only post when the going gets tough,shame they dare to show their faces on this honourable institution!
Of course I am disappointed at last night’s result .The missed chances scenario has plagued us for most of the season and the remedy is not easy to find with our present personnel.We’ve missed the boat on signing reinforcements so must make the best of what we have. Whether or not those in situ will be good enough to make the top four is debatable.
My current concern is what we might see on Saturday! Sagna was dead on his feet last night ,so may not be up to playing two games in 2 and a bit days.Playing 3 games in less than a week without much rotation is asking for trouble against a side fighting for it’s life. AW can’t rely on his back-up players ,otherwise we would have seen more changes last night.Saturday is a must win game but dare Arsene use more than one or two squad players? I don’t think so and I fear tiredness could not only effect the outcome but result in more injuries to over used players!
The crowd will play a big part on Saturday. We must all stick together and avoid any repetition of the senseless booing of the Villa game.Our away fans have been terrific all season , let the rest of us sing our hearts out at the Ems come kick-off. Still hopeful of CL football next season but no longer sure, not like me at all!
As always COYRs
Lax X
I agree!!! Errr…. who are you talking to??
Cognacgunner @ 158 Love what you had to say about the Ox. How would you stack him up against Neymar?
BtM you said exactly the things I was planning to say in response to Lars’ excellent post – yes I too read every word TWICE!! I did because usually you are so succinct so when you allow yourself “free expression” I am bound to pay attention. I was worth it, from both you and BtM. And quite a few others too…
WE all struggle with this question: Is Wenger’s hands being tied? My short answer is NO! Someone else above said it: Wenger has stated many times that why he has always resisted Real & others was the freedom he gets at Arsenal to do exactly – on the playing side – as he pleases..So what isn’t it. I have some ideas:
1. Wenger loves to prospect for rough diamonds in unusual places: Before everyone else cottoned on to the African, French & lesser European leagues he was adept at finding gems because of his superior knowledge (lets not forget also that we have a huge scouting network in place that is second to none)… Now he is looking in Central & South America, hence Joel Campbell and the Argentinian that we pre-signed who chose to go to Italy instead..
2. Contrary to popular belief Wenger HAS tried to sign many top players in the past year. The aforementioned Argentinian, Mata, Goetze, Campbell (whom he did eventually get but had to farm out for work permit reasons), Cahill, Jagi-whatisface from Everton, the Fulham goalie to name just a few. So counting just these players we clearly see that they would have made up for the inherent weaknesses in the squad and the loss of Cesc & Na$ri.
3. People will read my point # 2 and say: Yes but Wenger refused to pay the extra 3 or 4 million and that’s why we lost out on many of those players. They will say so because they don ‘t understand that the transfer fee for a player is just one aspect of the problem and not even the most important. The real issue is that with paying more for players comes paying more in salaries and bonuses to agents. That then leads to increased demands from agents for players that are under already good contracts with the club! That is what Wenger has been at pains to avoid..
4. Normally Wenger does not like to pay over the odds for mature players but he will take a punt on a bright young prospect. I believe that he will try to break the bank on Goatze if he can get him this summer. He will pay a club record fee because he knows that at 20-years old he can see out a 5-year contract and still be worth the same if not more than we will have paid for him….who among us can fault that logic? This is what sets Wenger apart from all his peers in world football..
5. People need to stop this shit about the board holding on to funds to line their own pockets…that is most definitely not the case. That may well change in the future with a majority shareholder who has had to borrow to buy up his shares – but historically that has never been the policy of the Arsenal to pay dividends. What is happening is that most of that cash goes to pay player salaries. That plus pay down our short term debt (its all there in the annual financial reports). The short term debt is almost all paid off now. So with only the stadium mortgage remaining we will soon be able to benefit more from our increased matchday revenues.
That is what I know folks..
Delia, Hi. Sagna looked pretty effective to me. Woj, on the other hand was a bit worrying. Song has lost some of his rhythm, but he’ll get it back. Theo is simply not up to it, it’s not his fault. Agree about the away fans, they are simply the best!
tabs 225, aye and see 195
Geo @226 , Hey , good to see you in here .
Delia @233 – Thanks for the kind words , and agree entirely with yours.
Goonerterry @233 – Nice stuff Sir , all salient points , as was your last post .
Lars – noted , and hope to see you then .
Lax x @229 – Oh dear . Really no need to blow us all a kiss . Dreadful analogy followed by a wholly unrelated conclusion . The question that occurs to me is why you would choose to transmit your thoughts on Arsenal in writing , when you seem so desperately ill-equipped to do so . I would like to sing , but I find that I am tone deaf . I therefore desist from singing .
May I suggest that you communicate any further thoughts that you may have on Arsenal through the medium of contemporary dance .
H2H @various – Forgot to mention earlier , Welcome Back Sir . I , for one , have missed your afternoon shots .
You read my mind in that post Holic. I haven’t seen the game just ‘heard it’ on the live blog. Lurker’s explanation of our failure to buy what we need (a reliable foil/back-up for RvP) is plausible but adds to the frustration.
I’ll split a bottle if Talisker with you tonight mate.
Ollie , ah got yer , let’s hope you have time for a quick one .
TaBS @236
I have a bird in the “Arts” section of our rag – I could hook Lax X up with her.
I’ll pass his details on.
Great posts too from BtM, Lars, TABS and Gooner Terry. I do appreciate your analyses. It helps me keep the faith.
Double measures of Talisker all round.
Still in Suisse, baff?
Great work Ollie. I was just about to paste that link from “Angry” in response to Ned..
TABs I don’t know how many times I will say it before it becomes a Cliche but yet again…you speak for me too Brother….Just this morning as I dropped off my little girl at school, another Gooner Daddy was in the car next to mine (we both saw and acknowledged the Arsenal Crest on each others cars) but unable to drum up anything more than a wry smile and as shrug of the shoulders..
Thumbs up also to the usual suspects: CG, Delia, ABB …and of course unfamiliar ones (at least to me) like that young Meeja Tosspot! What a star in the making (0;
I love us when our backs are against the wall. We really come into our own. At times like these I cleave to Goonerholic not daring to go to other sites…Keep the faith Brethren this too will pass…we will soon have more than enough to cheer believe me (0;
Meeja Tosspot @239 – Good work Fella 🙂
Bath – Cheers Sir .
Goonerterry – Thanks again , and another tip of the Beany to you Sir .
“Backs against the wall ” ? Not if Wolfie has got anything to do with it ! 😉
Oh I want to add to my post @ 140: I forgot to mention that the Arsenal’s work in the community is perhaps the single most important thing we are doing as a club to ensure that we build a solid foundation. 25-years of solid achievement on the ground means that we have become an invaluable institution to Islington that no other club can match in this country..
ABB – Completely with you on Song. Someone said way back in today’s drinks that he was crap and useless and all that, which is basically complete bollocks!
I know he may have had a bit of a shocker last night and might seem to be going through a bit of a dip in form but if you look at his performances in the past 2-3 seasons (including the beginning of this one), what has he been like as a DM? Pretty bloody good if you ask me!
He didn’t turn shit overnight etc etc.
The game? What a total shambles in the final quarter! No defensive organization whatsoever. I wanted to piss so badly but I knew that if I got up we would concede a late goal. I love RvP as club captain but I think that the way we like to play – always from the back – we have to have our captain at the back. Everyone loves Vermaelen but he was all over the place on Sunday. Perhaps making him Team Captain with the remit to keep the other defenders in line will ensure that he remembers that his first duty is to defend and not to race forwards at the first sign of an opening…If it weren’t for the BFG we would have been screwed because he was the only one interested in staying back..
Just to stir the pot and excite ABB….
http://fourfourtwo.com/news/spain/94698/default.aspx
GT @ 242 Gee, thanks. And what a great dad you are, if I might add.
CG, Stay put young man and give me a chance to read this!
Brilliant post tabs!
Have a pint on me for that bit of inspired writing
Lars, Clive et al – Excellent posts too
Ok CG, The funny thing is that I almost quoted Pep earlier on as I read some of his remarks at their website. Two brillant managers, Arsene and Pep being thrown to the wolves.
Catalan: this is my dream – I may as well reveal it to the world: That Le Boss steps up to the board and hand over the reigns to Pep Guardiola in the summer; ( Cesc coming back with him would be like the topping on my wife’s carrot cake) and RvP signing an extension to his contract.well I would kiss Wolfie full on the lips if that were to happen..That is the only scenario that I would be happy to see Wenger give up the management for..
takeabowson @ 216
You are a fucking geezer my son! Love it.
245 Camberwell Gooner, Yes the Song, how I love him, he’ll get it back. The way I see it we have 2 types of players, really good ones who occasionally have an off game or two, and those unfortunate ones, like Theo who are in over their heads.
GT
Pretty much with you on that one – the only other manager I have any particularly favourable thoughts towards.
As with Arsene, he has dignity. His handling of Maureen’s hysterics is perfect.
Well said. I love Arsenal, but I have gone from being frustrated with our lack of strengthening the squad to just making jokes about arsenal , much to the amusement of my Manchester united buddies.
If Wenger can’t see what the whole world can see, including Jose Mourinho of all managers, then surely we are fucked. I really love the old man, but I have an ever-growing feeling that perhaps his love for his players is clouding his objectivity when it comes to calling a spade a spade…
Abb + Catalan – Interesting article on a topic with intriguing parallels with Wenger’s situation, which got me thinking, and I believe I risk looking about 9 years old here…
How much difference can a manager actually make to a team’s performance? Or, put another way, what is the maximum height (in terms of say, final league position, progress in cups) that a manager can lift a team to?
Take Slur Alex for example. If we put him in charge of Wigan with their current squad, would he turn them around and start challenging for the title? Or if you put Alex McTwat in the driving seat at Barca, could he win the Primera Liga next season?
Pretty sure it would be ‘no’ to the first and ‘probably’ to the second question. Which means – as I see it – that no matter how good a manager is, if he doesn’t have good enough players, the glass ceiling of the team’s maximum performance over a given season MUST be below title-winning.
Noone can deny AW’s quality as a manager. NOONE – no matter what the haters say. He hasn’t become shit, he’s working with limited resources: limited in number AND quality. People think Pep could do a better job with the same group of players? Bollocks.
AW needs to stay until the cash starts flowing again. Give him the players he needs and he WILL take us back to the top.
Tabs@216: interesting observation about Arteta not having the physicality to carry the midfield alone. We have looked at our best this season when he, Song and Ramsey have combined to be greater than the sum of their parts, and at our worst when they don’t, as they didn’t in the second half against Bolton. Song was off-song for once and Ramsey is going through one of those runs where the harder he works the less of what he tries comes off.
I think you are also right about how much we are missing the deal-making skills of Dein. No matter how good the negotiating skills of Gazidis and his team, DD had an in in the world of agents that helped him work the system to our advantage. They clearly do not.
And I am with you on smelling the coffee!
Meedja Tosspot@217: 🙂
GT@233: spot on in debunking the line-their-pockets myth.
ABB@234: I have defended the improvement in Szcz’s kicking this season, but I must say that in the last couple of games his kicking under pressure has been distinctly wobbly. I hope it is a blip. When he radiates confidence, our back four’s confidence looks a little bit less fragile.
Pints all round for the old lags keeping the faith, and for those young ‘uns who would join us.
`Holic, I must say you got your money back and then some for your knee-jerk post!
I’m with Clive and BtM on this one. The result was disappointing, like Steve T said and backed up by AW: every game is a must win cup game now. But the real disappointment came from the feeling a win was well-deserved, the team played with a lot of heart and effort and hitting the woodwork twice was really galling.
Also seeing an out-of-form Sagna back in the team highlighted how badly we missed our fullbacks. Vermy was deputizing as well as he’s ever done but with a real fullback available to compare he suddenly looked out of sorts as GoonerTerry and PaddyGooner have pointed out. With Sagna and Gibbs back we’ll start looking again like the team who took charge in the last 3 months of 2011.
Aside from the result, my other disappointment was that Coq was left on the bench. As exciting as Ox is I do think that Coq is much closer to the finished article, he would have injected pace and vista in yesterday’s team and given Song the bit of rest he badly needs. Both Ox and Coq have this pittbull attitude that I really like.
As for the moaning there are certainly some valid arguments about the finances, the injury situation and some managerial decisions and excellent points have been made over the years in this venerable institution.
That being said many of the moaners are full of shit and are just finding excuses to pile on whoever they can mob like the cowards they are. Whoever abuses a 20yo giving it all is a steaming turd. As usual when the going gets tough the divide between the supporters and the glory hunters is exposed for all to see.
CatG@247: barca three games on the trot without a win? Club in crisis. Guardiola out. Rosell, spend some f***i g money! Oh!…
Lars, still enjoying your thinking. I’ve taken your squad, spent the 30M and bought Goetze.
I’ve sold Almunia (1M), Squillacci (3M), Denilson (6M), Bendtner (6M), Rosicky (4M), Arshavin (6M), Park (2M), Lansbury (4M – struggled with this), Eastmond (2M) and Walcott (36M) for a new investment fund of 70M.
So, I’ve got 28 players in my pool. I’ve got 70M to spend on two world class players. Who are we going for peeps?
What’s the collective judgement on Djourou, Diaby, Fabi and Bartley?
Szczesny
Sagna-Kos-Vermaelen-Gibbs
Song
Goetze-Wilshere
Oxlade-RvP-Gervinho
Rotators: Fabianski, Ramsey, Diaby, Santos, Campbell, Afobe, Mertesacker, Aneke, Arteta, Djourou
Sub-Subs: Shea, Iceman, Jenkinson, Bartley, Miyachi, Yennaris, Miquel,
Not commented in ages because I have little that is constructive to say.
So on a less than constructive note- if we had any quality finishers in our side outside the obvious one we would not be in half the sorry state we find ourselves in.
Just stop and think what abject finishing we have had from Arshavin, Gervinho, Chamakh, Walcott and Ramsay (who will be an Arsenal great). Four out of the five attacking players in the ‘first team’ and the primary alternative to Robin.
And we have not brought a goal scorer in the window. So I looked at the Arsenal reserve game just now and noticed the trend continues further down the club.
Is it a deliberate ploy?
Pint of despondency please barman.
The exclusion of Le Coq was a gross error. So many great youngsters, so little space!
I suppose I could start to wonder at the awesome prospect of Le Coq, Yonnaris, AOC, Frimpong, Eastmond, Jack, Bartley, Miguel, Jenkinson, Szezney et al and feel more positive.
Can any of them finish?
Evening all,
Post will be in a couple of hours. I have a podcast to do first. I absolutely love tonight’s piece.
You may therefore have worked out it is a guest post 😉
BtM@261: I’m going with a cutting-edge 3-5-2 formation:
Szczesny
Sagna — Koscielny — Vermaelen
Song
Gervinho — Oxlade-Chamberlain — Wilshere — Santos
Gotze — van Persie
…and snow is forecast for Saturday, so Ollie we may be on for another Stoke. Be prepared to get horribly awfully pissed 😉
Very busy at work and just checking in. Some excellent posts I must say. Some great and interesting reads. Some I agree with, some I don’t. What I do like is the amount of passion on display. Deep down, whatever our views the end result we all.crave is the same.
70 million BTM? I would make that stretch a bit further than 2 hopefully.
1) Benzema.
2) David Silva.
3) Xavi Alonso.
4) An older experienced keeper as back up mentor to Son.
Holic, BTM. You both have mail gents.
BtM: when you put it that way it seems real easy! Except we will not get 36-million for Theo (20 max)…I would be inclines also to keep Rosicky and the boy Lansbury for another year. Agree with most of the other suggestion – except I have Santos ahead of Gibbs. And as I have said on here before I would do away with fullbacks in favour of Wingbacks (Sagna & Santos); I would play three centerbacks (Verm, BFG & Kos); I would have Jack & the new boy Goatze in the middle with Song anchoring them and just in front of the back three. I would go with your front three but believe that the Ox will be in and out of the side for the next couple of years…so that will give a chance to Ryo, Campbell and the new chap that we have pre-signed (and no one is talking about) to come into the team and shine…
When you look at the young un’s coming through you have to feel that our future is great…let’s not forget we have Toral, Belerin, and 3 to 4 youth players that are way ahead of their age in terms of their development. WE could even see these players feature as soon as next season..
Up the Arse..
‘holic 267.
Oh dear. No snow this side though, and dry until sunday I believe (I give you ‘-10’ instead….) so at least I shouldn’t have to walk home from Gare du Nord at whatever time.
One thing I don’t know if it has been mentioned: if every game is like a cup final, given our recent record in such things, I would be very worried 😉
Little Dutch column is up while we wait for the guest post and oooh, new design on arseblog I see.
Steve, Why not bring Jens out of retirement, I feel he would do it for free. Plus, I miss him. But then I miss Tony Adams, terribly. My one true Arsenal crush. Of all time.
Top work from ‘holic’s apprentice there by the way.
Steve T, will get back to you later.
Will also see you Saturday, blizzards permitting.
*The wild-eyed radical checks in to see if perspective is back in style yet.*
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/2646003
No snow until sunday there either, ‘holic ;).
Looks like it will be more than just you and me in the Tollie then.
Match report? Robin hit the post and bar.
That pretty much sums it up, huh?
“Whoever abuses a 20yo giving it all is a steaming turd. As usual when the going gets tough the divide between the supporters and the glory hunters is exposed for all to see”
Matt…. a pint for you, and then some more! 😉
NBN @260
Bizarrely, that’s the way they’re beginning to talk here!
Go figure…
GT,
you know that dream we have abou Pep etc? Well if he comes he can
leave Cesc there. But he can bring that Lionel chappy with him… reckon he could be good.
I’ve been a Wengerite for many years. What he has done for our club is outstanding. However, for the first time I am thinking we need a new manager.
Why? Because he has turned me into a Spurs fan in all but name!
1. My season is now defined by how close we get to our North London rivals
2. Beating them in the North London derby has taken on huge significance
3. Finishing in the top 4 is seen as a success.
4. I watch their matches or results and rejoice when they lose.
Every year I look at the youth and potential we have and think “next year we’ll do it” and there are only so many times I can be let down.
This is unacceptable and it makes me very uncomfortable. Time for a change. We are better than that.
In answer to GoonerTerry; Yes, the future’s great. er………um…..isn’t that what we’ve been led to believe for the past SEVEN FUCKING YEARS?
KVC
re fnishing skills – you do have a very valid point. Presumably they do practise?
BtM – you’re playing Championship Manager now? Brilliant! Snir will be proud of you (when he gets back from his self-imposed exile)
You are so right that that squad of players has so much quality – so we need the confidence!!!
PS – you only signed Goetze. Anyone else??
PPS – I’m with you on all the sales – as I said way back, I can only believe we’re in the middle of a massive plan.
Hopefully 🙂
Ollie, Sorry not to reply promptly. Yes, still wn Suisse. Wandered off to the sauna here in Flims to warm up after checking into the bar here when I came off the piste. Froze my bollox off today on very misty slopes. Nice and empty but tested the reflexes a bit cos the contures were invisible. Home Sat after the game so the mini-Baths (copyright Mrs Woo) will be in the seats. They may drop into the Tollie.
Anyone misspelling there own name shall be ignored.
GT, BtM you have cheered me up (for the future)
Ollie – I’m sure you’ll find something to amuse yourself! We have -9 here tonight too.
Welcome to sunny Spain. My arse.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A big well done to some great,well thought out and presented posts by all the regs and a few not so regs.
It must leave all the other Blogs Green with envy.!!
I salute you all.
Cheers
The sweeper.
I now live in Chicago USA. This is a great sports city, with great fans providing great attendance. Chicago teams rarely excel, yet all enjoy sound financial models. With no promotion / relegation here in Sports there’s this awful acceptance of mediocrity. I hope I’m wrong, but have feared this business model being applied by Mr K @ Arsenal this season ….the retro hairpiece is cool though!
232 abb
sorry no to reply before as skiving off tonight
Anyway must show my ignorance of Neymar, but reading his very floral entry in the french wiki, he sounds very impressive
In spite of all that I confirm that I like the cut of young Ox
I am thrilled to have been directed to this site. It is so refreshing to read so many educated posts about the state of Arsenal. We do not have a god-given right to finish in the top four yet so many on other sites behave like we do. Everyone wishes that we would have signed reinforcements during the window but for one reason or another it did not happen. All we can do now is get behind the team and pull out of the funk they are in right now. Still lots to play for, COYG!
The reality is, when Arsene came to the club, his transfer market strategy was relatively unknown most of the other teams. He was able to look at stats and find players that other managers had been passing over. But, as time went on, other teams began to see he was on to something. Once other teams utilized his transfer strategy, Arsenal lost their advantage. Now, with everybody on the same page, Arsenal is stuck losing players to teams like Chelsea or Man City who have far more money. We are unable to attract big name players, and our league position shows accordingly.
I thought Keisuke Honda would have been a valuable addition to the squad. Especially after his deal with Lazio collapsed. Decent body sthrength to hold up balls, good passer, wicked left foot, and at an age where he can start to give his best performances.