• bops

  nice design dude..

• Pissed Off

  congrats Pete and nice design; looks like you want to fly our true colour this time.

• Fabrez

  Yeah Dev, all for that look! And great work Pete…u have written some good bits!

• Pete

  < ![CDATA[Nice looking design Dev. Loving the traditional Arsenal colour scheme!

  Cheers for the award guys :D Am really chuffed to bits!!! :D]]>

• merry

  < ![CDATA[I am totally with IHH and Percy here when I say how outraged I am that wenger is trying to turn this around by blaming the fans He has assembled the most lightweight, gutless, over-rated mercenary bunch of c**ts to represent this club in a long long time (if ever) but yet it is all the fans fault that we are regressing ?? The man should be pulled aside by someone from the board explaining that in any walk of life those that pay your wages have every right to question you when you are continually fed a line of shite week in and week out

  I said at the beginning of this season that I would give wenger this season and in particular the jan transfer window to put it right cos I didnt think that we should waste the coming transfer window again waiting for him to pull his finger out while falling behind all our rivals but I have now changed my mind.........he can fcuk off now as far as I am concerned It seems like he operates the same philosphy in his self assessment as he does when defending his players.....accept no responsibility We have heard every excuse under the sun from him now (tired players, inexperience, bad refereeing, bad pitch and now it is all our fault) but no acknowledgement that he is contributing to our downturn in quality and this lack of answerability to anyone for bad performances has to filter down to the players and a great example that is proving]]>

• merry

  < ![CDATA[It's clear to me that Arsene is finally feeling like a man under pressure, and to be honest I am astonished by his response.

  If he worked in a venture capital backed business and failed to deliver within 1 to 2 years he would be out on his arse. To start knocking the supporters of this club after 4 years of failure is a total fucking disgrace. It's called accountability Arsene - most of us live with it every day. Few of us have jobs where we have a completely free hand and are free from judgment of criticism from our managers or shareholders. Perhaps the arrival of Gazidis has brought your little cosy club to an end.

  The 'home' fans he refers to in such a derogratory fashion are the ones that keep his little youth development project alive. The ones who sell out virtually every game and raise £3m revenue per match, who pack in 50,000 + for Carling Cup games (more than the Mancs), the ones who buy season tickets and put up with getting fucked about by Sky and Setanta's schedules. The ones, who pay ridiculous prices for sub-standard food, drink and merchandise.

  There was a thread on here along the lines of "selfish, ungrateful fans be careful what you wish for". I would like to respond with "selfish, ungrateful manager be careful what you wish for". What type of fans would you prefer to have eh Arsene?

  1. The Newcastle fans who shouted "you don't know what you're doing" to Sam Allardyce after 3 months
  2. The Liverpool fans who booed their team off the field following a goalless draw in January when they were still top of the league
  3. The Mancs who booed Ryan Giggs in 2003 and suggested Ferguson was past it
  4. The Chavs who brought banners to home games calling for Scolari's head less than halfway through his first season]]>

• chris

  < ![CDATA[I understand Le Boss’ preference to stand in the path & protect the players. It’s admirable, and in a sense he’s correct in that everyone has ups & downs. But with some of the players it’s not one or two bad games. It’s down to a serious lack of effort in some distinct instances, and that is what has fans upset, I think. Not to single out Ade personally, but we are talking about him here…the two matches against United weren’t “down” games. He was completely invisible and utterly useless. That’s an effort and motivation issue, not a talent or off match thing.

  Personally, I like the guys on the team. We have some tremendous football talent, and by and large I think all the lads are decent guys. Yes, even Gallas, who’s a bit of a nutter on occasion. So not only do I bleed for the Gunners in general, but I like the team personally from what I know of them. In a sense, I think this is part of AW’s issue as well. He’s practically raised some of the guys…like Cesc, Theo, Wilshire & so forth. So there’s a connection there well beyond the football & Wenger must feel some paternal protectionism for the team.

  having read voluminous comments the one thing that stands out to me that the press get completely wrong is that NONE of us is saying that Wenger should “abandon” his experiment of developing a young team. But that gets printed a lot by so called pundits who think they have their finger on the pulse of all things Arsenal. I wholly discount this. What I think we’re asking for is a blending of that youth with some seasoning. Not an abandonment of the grand experiment, but an adjustment to get the absolute most out of those young players and to win trophies. I think we all understand the “trial by fire” method, but some players clearly aren’t ready for the trials they face week in and week out in the Premiership, let alone the FA or CL. For that we need at least a few guys with some notches on their belts who’ve been bled a bit more…just to add to the overall effect of the team.

  Regarding transfers, to my mind, we do all the youth development specifically so we don’t have to spend a fortune every transfer window. It’s smart business and it’s smart football. But that plan has a second part to it that AW simply hasn’t implemented, which is augmenting the talent each window as needed. It doesn’t have to be a blockbuster transfer every window (we grow our own blockbusters through the youth program). No one would say that buying Hangeland, Veloso or Upson would be the equal of buying Shava. But think of the effect on the back line having either of those guys would have.

  So…Arsene Wenger says he won’t bankrupt Arsenal to add players. I agree with him 1000%. But please, for the sake of all things Gooner, at least recognize that there are some areas of the current roster that CAN be improved with reasonable spending.]]>

• devday

  merry… you’re not too merry at the moment my friend… (which response by IHH and Percy are you referring to?)

• Fabrez

  i’m thinking it was a copy and paste job from another blog dev… I was quite lost myself…lol

• devday

  I still haven’t figured out why people do that!!!

• chris

  Intresting points here lads..keep em coming

• parsi

  < ![CDATA[The interesting thing is that no one seems to mind that transfer too much. Ade really hasn’t been his own best pal when it comes to making friends with the fans, endlessly talking up WC Milan, and commenting on how many more times they have won the Euro thing than we have. (We actually have a much better Academy side than them, and a much better Women’s Team, but I suppose those things don’t count).

  But I guess overall the reason why Ade drifting away on the high tide of Euros doesn’t worry many fans too much is that we have such an astonishing array of talent in attack. To give an example or three there is

  Robin VP - Bergkamp II

  Arshavin - Berkgamp III

  Theo - Henry II (at least in terms of speed - actually I can’t recall how old Terry H was when he came to us, but I suspect Theo has a year or three before we see exactly how good a forward he is - remember Terry was drifting into nothingness before the Lord Wenger rescued him, and he wasn’t that hot in his first season with us. In his first few matches all he got was groans - not least because he couldn’t score).

  Bendtner - Alan Smith II. He has a brilliant ability to hold up the ball - that way that he gets a difficult slightly misplaced pass and takes it down. OK his scoring is not everything we want, but he is still a kiddie winkie (witness the fact that he can’t quite fix his trouser belt properly yet) and in another year that scoring power will be there. The Lord Wenger believes in him totally, and knows that it is minutes of the pitch that will take him forwards.

  Eduardo - Eduardo II. We are waiting for next season to see the rebirth of one of the most clinical exceptional amazing finishers of all time. Imagine Eduardo and Arshavin on the pitch at the same time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  Carlos Vela. To whom shall I compare thee? I am not sure. Pires could do that lob over the keeper that Carlos loves to do, but Pires was an utterly different player. What I saw at Portsmouth was an incredible growth in his power - his ability not to be shoved off the ball by thugs.

  Jay Simpson. I’ve only caught glimpses of him playing for West Bromwich Wobbleyou, but I guess he is Bendtner II. The Lord Wenger believes in him too.

  And then Nasri and Diaby can on occasion stroll forward and score. Remember Nasri against Man IOU, and Diaby in Turkey?

  With a forward line like that we are going to have to have a lot of injuries to find a place for Ade, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if he goes - although I suspect WC Milan is still the most likely. He can sit on the bench with Flamini.

  Meanwhile the Almighty Lord W has repeatedly said he is going to buy one or two in the defending department, the ladies won the treble, the kiddies won by 80000 light years and the best news of all - Rosicky is back in full training.

  I really did rate Rosicky and felt that he was getting into the full swing of things when those repeated injuries happened that led eventually to his removal from the game. I personally do hope he is back, and I bought my tickets for Barnet away today, not just for a pleasant afternoon in the sun, but also in the hope that I might see him play again.

  I know the current flavour is to be thoroughly downcast, but I find myself extremely optimistic for the coming season. I’m not going to Man IOU on saturday (we’re having a dinner party in the evening and I need to cook) but there’s the final trip trop around the ground for the Stokey Wokey match, and then its only a short wait until Barney Warney.]]>

• merry

  < ![CDATA[hHello folks and sorry for the earlier post i was meant to have a little swivel on that one hmm yeh so anyways lets move on swiftly.

  In response the AW claiming the fans do not generate enough support esp at the CL SF: The away fans in the Semi Final were awesome as they were 2-0 up after 11 minutes of football, game over Arsene!! I was at the game, the atmosphere was electric, the best I'd ever seen at Arsenal. The club had a big say in that providing flags, adding impetus to our support of the team. But when 2 goals go in after 11 minutes, the team where never going to come back. I stayed the full 90mins, unlike a lot of others, sang on, cheered to no avail, but the crowd were not to blame that night. Even after the first goal went in the crowd still got behind the team noisily only for 2 mins later our throats to be ripped out with a second Utd goal. On other occassions the crowd is very quiet, but Stewards play a big part in this. Anytime you stand up to shout or sing your told to sit down. Why? This "crowd control" crap from Stewards is stiffling the atmosphere. Why do you think the Kop at Anfield is so noisy? They stand the whole game and are allowed to get pumped up for the game. They are the ones who generate the atmosphere for the whole ground. The Arsenal fans don't identify with the new stadium and the coloured quadrant system. I used to sit in the North Bank at Highbury and we started the singing "Were the North Bank...." if there was nothing else to sing about and the rest of the stands would join in! The Emirates has lost this. If the club wants to generate more atmosphere, do more to promote it like at the CL SF and lift the ban on flags!! Oh, and maybe pick a more energetically charged song to play before the games instead of that terrible Elvis song!! So Arsene get it right on the pitch, because we are sure as hell trying to give it everything in the Stands. It's hard to watch at times, but i always sing to the bitter end.]]>

• merry

  < ![CDATA[I’ve been to every home game this season in the league (apart from 2 when I was out of the country and one when I had to attend a wedding), and if you don’t recognise that the attitude of some of the supporters affects the players negatively I don’t know what to say.

  At times (January and February) the players were scared to play the ball forward because they were scared of the reaction they would get from the fans. And no, the groaning and shouting “you useless c**t” or similar abuse didn’t start after 10 bad passes by a player, but after one or two. And that was long before any “negative tactics” were deployed by Wenger. And even if we did play with only one striker we still went forward and tried to play our game, so those tactics weren’t negative as such.

  Do you ever wonder why Bendtner (for instance) scores the majority of his goals away from home? If you’re being booed before you’ve even entered the pitch it won’t fill you with confidence. We’ve scored 27 goals at home and 37 away from home this season, that’s hardly normal and hardly a coincidence.

  He is absolutely spot on with his assessment of our home support. Should he have said it after going out in two semi-finals and finishing the league 4th? Probably not, but it’s still true and I don’t see why the manager shouldn’t be allowed to talk about it in general.

  Fans are allowed to voice their opinion, I have nothing against that at all. But at the end of the day you’re going to the stadium to support you’re team and not to make things more difficult for them. Or at least I would hope so. The amount of money you pay for the pleasure of going there has nothing whatsoever to do with that. If you don’t want to support the team stay home and shout at the tele. It’s better for everyone.]]>

• gary

  < ![CDATA[Some of these posts beggar belief.

  So, Wenger acknowledges that yes, he is p!ssed off by the minority of home fans who boo, then people interpret it as attack on all fans, or rather them. For pity’s sake - he’s just pointing out that he doesn’t like it and that far from encouraging players it discourages them. He always agrees that fans have a right to complain, but feels this is the wrong way to do it. People outside Arsenal, especially in Europe, can’t believe that anyone in their right mind could turn on a man who has given us so much.

  People talk about Wenger as if he doesn’t but this is a man whose every waking moment is spent thinking about Arsenal, a man who famously goes home and spends half the night watching and re-watching a defeat to try to work out what went wrong. He may make mistakes, but believe me, he cares.

  Gunslinger’s made the point that if Wenger worked in venture capital he’d be out. True, because the corrupt, asset-stripping people who operate in that field are only ever interested in lining their pockets today and getting out by tomorrow lunchtime. No interest in the long-term whatsoever. Oh sure, let’s sack the second most successful manager in football history for failing to come higher than 3rd for a few years. Wenger is trying to build something that will still be successful when he’s gone, without breaking the bank or taking dodgy money from dubious benefactors. I don’t even care if he fails because he has tried to build success, not buy it, and in the meantime given us some amazing football, something we hadn’t had at Arsenal for decades.

  Behind all this is this assumption that we are doing badly. Well we’re not. There are 92 clubs in the full league and we’re 4th. That’s pretty good in my book. The collapses against Man U and Chelsea have gutted me and yes, there are some changes needed. Replacing a few poisonous, lazy wasters will be a good start but there is nobody better suited than Wenger to do the job.

  So come on the anti-Wenger brigade, answer these questions:
  1) who should Wenger have bought last summer who was a) actually available and b) available at a realistic price with similarly realistic wage demands - I don’t mean affordable, just realistic. Forget players (like Alonso) who were only available if other parts of a chain went through.
  2) if not Wenger, who?

  PS - - I was at the AST meeting on Monday and only a couple out of 100+ people said anything derogatory about individual players so it’s not as bad as you might think. The meeting was very positive on the whole. Incidentally Wenger wasn’t there, just Ivan Gazidis, and to be honest I doubt they would have had the nerve to say anything in front of the manager.]]>

• cital

  < ![CDATA[I have two silver memberships, and use them for my partner and I to go to most games.

  I am more than happy with the current situation, perhaps because I bring a historical perspective. I have kept on attending the games (for 10 years as a season ticket holder) when for years and years we not only won very little, we were not likely to win anything. Years when Tottenham were above us, and a draw with them was satisfying.

  During much of that time not only were we just a solid regular run of the mill Division 1 team, one or more other clubs were so far above us (I think particularly of Liverpool in the period before George Graham) that there was no thought that we could catch them.

  I recall going to the League Cup Final against Luton, paying for the usual awful service that Wembley offers, and watching us lose, and then of course renewing the season ticket next year. And the year after year of nothingness.

  So to me the world Wenger brings us is the golden era, because

  a) the football is so brilliant
  b) we are now one of the top 8 clubs in the world

  In the days before Wenger we were often not one of the top 8 teams in England, and the English league in those days was very much a fourth rate competition behind Spain, Italy and Germany.

  Looking back to the time before Wenger, before the Champions League became all-dominant, there was no telling at this stage which of the clubs in England would move into a world where we play on an equal stage with AC Milan and Real Madrid. Believe me, it could have been Tottenham that joined the elite. Man U were, like us, for years and years a middle of the road team - they were even a second division team for one year. It could have been Everton rather than us that made it. It could have been Villa.

  But we made it into the top level, and we are still there, so we have moved from being middle ranking, to top ranking, in broad terms, and that means that we have a good chance to build a new team and start winning trophies again.

  So, I won’t be having to pay out my £1000 at once, but with two tickets to support I will be spending more than that during the year as I buy the tickets week by week. Plus I will be spending a fortune on travel. And I will love most of it.

  No I didn’t enjoy being beaten 4-1, any more than I enjoyed being beaten 6-1 at Man U (with a team including Henry et al). But I know what Wenger did after that defeat, and I look for the same again.

  Finally, I suppose I return to the home defeat by Leeds, 3-2 I think it was, with two games to go. I was very upset and depressed, we had thrown away the league, but I returned for the next match against Southampton and laughed at the touts who couldn’t even give away their tickets. We won 6-0, and that was the start of the 49. Leeds were looking like a team moving up once more. Instead they imploded and dropped to division 3.

  Yes, I willingly pay, and if I could work out what is wrong with the sodding on-line ticket purchasing system I would already have bought my two tickets to Barnet away in July.]]>

• AJ

  Congrats to Pete!

• Pete

  < ![CDATA[Some interesting points there guys, thanks.

  Personally I dont like what I refer to as "negative support", booing your own players etc. Even if its justified, it doesn't help players in the middle of a tough game. Take Adebayor and Eboue this season as an example. Yes, they had bad spells, and criticism is deserved, but there's got to be a distinction between criticism and down-right uncalled for negativity. There's no need to cross that line, in my opinion. Thats one of the reasons I've defended Adebayor a few times, even though he hasn't had a great season. Constructive criticism is fine, but it has to be just that, constructive. It's no use saying so-and-so is rubbish and we should get rid of them, that doesn't do anyone any good. Rather lets look at how to solve a problem instead of who to blame for it. e.g. play them in a different position/formation, and if we sell who we replace them with. Thats not just in football but in life too.

  There's only two transfer windows in the year, and you're going to be stuck with the same group of players anyway so we might as well get behind them and support them. Come the end of the season, we're able to evaluate who should stay, who should go, where we need strengthening, where we have enough etc.

  As for Wenger, I too remember the days before he was in charge, and believe you me we're much better off with him than without him. I think that if we'd try to replace the guy we'd be taking a huge step backwards, as great managers are hard to come by. In fact, I kind of admire him more for sticking with Arsenal through difficult seasons than walking away and abandoning the club he's worked hard to turn around in over a decade.

  Alex Ferguson won a total of 8 League and FA Cup tophies in his first 12 years at United and Arsene has won a total of 7 in his first 12 years with Arsenal, as well as overseeing the building of a new stadium and turning us into the third most valuable club in the world. So I don't think we're in trouble as a club, but we probably have missed a few oppertunities to win in recent years. But our future as a club is very secure and I'm very optimistic that success is but a matter of time for us again.]]>

• Pete

  Cheers AJ

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