• Arsefan101

  The worst team I’ve seen under Arsene.
  Absolutely rubbish this season. It’s over.

• German

  I hate our current situation, it really sucks

• kiki

  Can I donate 500 million pounds for Arsene to be able to keep players and keep on getting youth talent?

• steven

  hi dev. i understand your frustrations and i agree with you. the problem as i see it, it lack of the ‘fabregas’ touch. no inciteful pass through the defence for a ‘RvP’ to pounce on. In fact, when i watched the swansea match, i think that our first shot at goal came in the 48′th minute. possession football is great to watch, but that’s all we got right now. when that changes, so will the results!

• Bop

  Without a shadow of a doubt, it is the worst team under Wenger. They have no drive, no determination and no idea… Podolski rubbish, Walcott rubbish.

  Santi + Jack are good, but they are surrounded with people who should be on the bench. Giroud, Podolski, Arteta, Mertersacker, Szcznesy etc – these players should be bench to come on when the first team are tired… not to start!

  Quality of the squad at an all time low

• sean

  So where was the guy with the 100 caps for Germany? Where was the guy
  who thinks he deserves £100,000+ a week and whose most noticeable
  contribution was, when having found space in the second half, was to
  hoof the ball aimlessly towards a teammate (essentially kicking it away
  because he didn’t want it) rather than try anything himself? Why was
  Gervinho?

  It’s the same with Arshavin. I’ll be the first to say he hasn’t done
  it at Arsenal, although playing his proper position might have been a
  decent start – you know, the position he was playing when he scored four
  goals at Anfield? Fair play to him, he’s not moaned publicly, and this
  year in his brief cameos he has generally looked likely to create
  something. He dug us out of the s**t at Reading with an
  uncharacteristically lung-busting performance. His reward? What was it,
  ten minutes at Villa?

  If these players are at the club, why not at
  least TRY to put them to use? But no, like his pre-planned
  substitutions, Wenger decided in the summer that these players weren’t
  part of his master-plan so they are effectively a couple of very
  expensive pieces of furniture.

  I don’t know why Arsène puts
  himself through it. He has gone from a manager we were so proud to have
  at our club to a figure of comedy. His ridiculous excuses and pitch-side
  behaviour have become painful to watch. He has started to have the feel
  of a gambler who just wants to stay at the table until he wins his
  money back. It’s not nice and it’s getting worse. I’ve long thought that
  he was a willing part of the money-grabbing cartel that our club has
  become, but I’m now hoping he doesn’t get the chance to spend any of it
  on players.

• sean

  There are still people out there who believe that Arsene knows best.
  Surely, their number has to be dwindling this season. Is there an
  argument for his retention? Sometimes in life, change is needed. Perhaps
  it might not to be too late to salvage this season if it were made now
  and a new manager able to spend in January. Sadly, that isn’t going to
  happen though and we’ll see a good few more matches like this before we
  can kiss goodbye to this wretched season.

• kevin

  Pound for pound, even with some of the stragglers, that’s an Arsenal
  team that should have been able to beat Swansea. There was enough
  quality and experience in that team to win the game. That they didn’t
  obviously raises uncomfortable questions. If a group of players who are
  capable of more continually fail to produce then questions have to be
  asked of the man who manages them. That is football, at Premier League,
  Championship, Conference or Sunday League level.

  And Arsene Wenger is that man. Afterwards he spoke about his squad
  being ‘physically jaded’. And you know what, I think it is. Physically
  and mentally. I get it. They’re tired. A bad result saps the energy so
  quickly, and we’ve had too many of them this season. But the reason
  they’re tired and jaded is because it’s the same players week in, week
  out with no real alternatives available. No options. Nothing different.
  And that is down to the manager.

  Part of me wonders if the manager hasn’t had as much support
  financially as he needs to maintain a squad but ultimately this is a
  squad of the manager’s making and it’s simply not strong enough. Arteta
  and Cazorla are being played into the ground. If Giroud is
  understandably tired after working on his own up-front then the fact we
  don’t have a replacement worthy of a place on the bench is down to the
  manager.

  Arsenal went into the new season with Jack Wilshere out injured,
  Tomas Rosicky out injured (Dec 1st marked his first appearance of the
  season), and took a huge, huge gamble that a decent pre-season might be
  the answer to all of Abou Diaby’s injury problems. It wasn’t. Diaby took
  a shot 17 minutes into the game against Chelsea on September 29th,
  hasn’t been seen since and is in some sort of permanent
  3-weeks-from-fitness limbo. Our midfield is exhausted, that is down to
  the manager.

  The change in the backroom staff has done little to improve things,
  if anything, they’re worse. Certainly if you go by the blindingly
  obvious measure of points on the board. After 15 games last season we
  had 29 points, this time around it’s a measly 21. Not that this is the
  fault of Steve Bould, not by a long way, but it just shows that those
  who shouted loudly about Pat Rice were a long way wide of the mark. The
  weaknesses, the frailties, the problems remain and the man at the top is
  the constant.

  This season is what last season probably would have been like without
  Robin van Persie. This time around the spark of genius, the flash of
  the left boot or the chocolate leg is missing. When Gervinho had a free
  header 8 yards from goal yesterday he didn’t even hit the target. He
  didn’t even hit the corner flag it went that far wide. I understood what
  the manager was trying to do this summer by making his team less
  reliant on one man for goals but in doing so he made them reliant on
  players who are now weary and on the verge of looking broken.

  Losing games is part and parcel of football, how you react to that is
  the key. In season’s past when results demanded a response we were
  capable of digging deep and producing that. Now, more often than not, we
  can’t. The man who creates a squad is the man tasked with getting the
  best out of those players and on both counts it’s fair to say Arsene is
  falling short. Not only is the squad light but he seems unable to wring
  performances from the players he has. After the two away draws a home
  game like yesterday was the perfect game to get back on track, to
  restore some pride and confidence, and to see Arsenal so listless and
  flat was massively worrying.

  That we have another seven games this month before anything can be
  done to boost the squad is a bit scary too. If the players are jaded
  now, and I always find that kind of excuse self-defeating because the
  minute a manager says his players are tired they’ll feel tired, how are
  they going to fare for the rest of this month?

  Ultimately football is a results driven business. The results this
  season have not been good enough and for me the biggest worry is that
  this is a situation which will be played out indefinitely. I can’t see
  Arsene Wenger walking away. For all the criticisms of him I don’t doubt
  his love for this club and his desire to do well. This will be hurting
  him, make no mistake, and he’ll want to put things right. At the same
  time I don’t think Stan Kroenke is interested enough, or knowledgeable
  enough, to have any kind of positive input.

  I worry that if and when the time comes that’s there’s isn’t
  sufficient football knowledge at the club to appoint the right man.
  Arsenal Football Club made a brave, forward thinking decision to appoint
  Arsene Wenger back in 1996. Is there anyone there now who could
  likewise? After just 5 wins in 15, (and it’s not just this season
  either, let’s face it) whether at Arsenal or any football club, the
  question ought to be asked – Is the manager getting the best out of the
  players he’s got and if not is there anybody else out there who will?

  If the conclusion is that yes, yes there is, then it’s something that
  should be considered. But Arsene is so entwined in the fabric of the
  club, particularly the footballing side of things where he makes all the
  decisions, it’s like there’s a vacuum. There’s nobody to ask that
  question, let alone act upon it. It’s all a bit sad and unseemly and
  it’s hard not to think there’s something fundamentally wrong with the
  way we’re set up.

  The timing of it seems awful too. Arsene hinted last week that his
  hands had been tied for years because of the stadium yet now there’s
  money on the horizon. Another couple of bad results, especially in the
  league, and the pressure will mount, faith will fall and it’d be not
  unreasonable to ask if that money should be available to somebody new
  rather than to firefight. But even if his hands were tied did he use
  what he had as well as he could have? Did he really have to sell his
  best players, his captains, summer after summer? Did he replace them
  properly?

  They say it’s always darkest before the dawn, it feels a bit like
  that this morning, and it’s not nice. I understand completely why people
  want things to change and to want a new manager, but I find the vitriol
  leveled at Arsene a bit hard to take. If you think it’s time for him to
  go, fine, but he’s not a clown or a cunt or any of those other hashtag
  inspired insults. He’s a man who has worked miracles for this club, but
  now the loaves are stale and fish are rotting.

  Nor am I convinced that changing the manager is the great panacea
  when there are clearly issues with how the club is run from the very
  top. In short, I don’t really know what to think, other than our
  problems go deeper than the manager. But the manager is the guy who
  takes the fall when the time comes. Clubs rarely change the make-up of
  the board, they don’t get rid of 8 players to solve their problems, it’s
  one man out, one man in.

  Do I see that happening at Arsenal? Not at the moment. I think things
  would have to get a lot worse for that to happen and while some may say
  it has to get worse for it to get better, it’s still something that can
  be dealt with if they just get better. But at the moment it’s hard to
  see how.

• Darren

  We have a lot of important games until January,” the manager said. “We’ll decide [on targets] in January but at the moment, we have to find solutions before then.

• veny

  do we really want to give the funds to this inept manager? What has he done in the transfer market for the past few seasons? Bought Arshavin – ruined him by playing him out of position, and he doesnt even make the bench…chamakh….enough said, gervinho….why???? Skillachi….no comment. the list goes on and on…the only option i see is to terminate this dictators contract and boot him as far away from the club as possible

• derek

  Our chances of beating Olympiakos with a full squad was unlikely, with this squad it could get embarrassing !

• patrick

  OK guys bear with me need to get a few things of my mind this ever growing saga of the present day Arsenal “fan” runs along the
  lines of “Wenger out!” When I recently polled a group of Arsenal
  supporters during the half of a match, the consensus was the following:

  How long have you been an Arsenal fan? Most answered with a date range of when Wenger was already on board.

  How do you think we fix the current situation? This one was simple, most answered with “Wenger out!”

  And of course my final question was, who should replace him? The
  answer was something along the lines of what crickets do, “chirp, chirp,
  chirp.” They gave answers I’ve seen in this blog from some, as well as
  some showing their knowledge or lack thereof of who could actually be a
  suitable replacement with all things considered at AFC(transfer budget,
  wage caps, style, etc.)

  So you’re probably wondering where I’m going with this? Well here’s
  where I’m going. The overgrown dissent amongst Arsenal fans that I’ve
  seen of late seems to be common with those who have only seen the glory
  years of this club i.e. the last decade and not what I consider the dark
  years. As an Arsenal long, its difficult for people like myself, some
  posters in here like ‘Tom’ and a few other objective thinkers, to see
  the backlash against a manager who brought us back from those dark
  years. With that said, I am not going to say the Professor is without
  guilt here. He is as much as part of the current problem as he WILL
  be as part of the solution. The difference in what I believe and what
  I’m finding the “Arsenal fan opposition” to believe in is simply that I
  still trust in our manager to fix the situation.
  The following will be my first of two posts about the outlay of the
  current affairs at our club amongst our players and staff, as well as
  how we WILL climb out of this funk and head back in the right direction…

  An objective person would look at this table and would see that just
  as well as the Arsenal being in 10th place, the 3rd place team is a mere
  5 points off ahead of AFC. That’s precisely 2 matches difference.
  Someone with a little more knowledge of the league would also see that
  the clubs ahead of us up to 3rd place have easily shown the same
  inconsistencies we have, but have managed to eek out a win or two more
  whereas we’ve drawn those matches. We were never, ever going to
  challenge for the league this year, I’m fairly certain we all know that.
  If your expectation was as such, well that’s another argument to be
  have, but for now we’ll stick to this season & the current affairs.

  Looking ahead for the season, the outlook from most is that we’re not
  strong enough to finish in the top 4. To that I say, fair enough, but
  we’ve played 15 matches, are only 5 points behind 3rd, and I know that
  we have the quality in the team to achieve the feat. Will it be a hard
  fougt, tooth & nail struggle to the 3rd/4th spot? MOST DEFINITELY.
  Can this Arsenal team do it? MOST DEFINITELY. I mean, why not? We are no
  worse than the other clubs ahead of us like I said, and we’ve already
  seen the scoring power in this team, if we can get the run of confidence
  that is so direly needed and figure out how to bring back that cutting
  edge, I think you can objectively see the team has every much as chance
  as CFC or West Brom (yeah right) or Everton or the Spuds.

  Part II: Staff Issues – Quick & Long Term Fixes

  So now that we can all agree that AFC still has a reasonable possibility
  to make top 4 (I know, I know not good enough, we should be competing
  for the title!), let’s move on to the root of our current funk – the
  combination of squad implosion & lack of confidence and the
  questionable managerial decisions being made.

  As much as many want to put an emphasis of blame on the manager, the
  professor, the guy who wears that Marshmellow Man jacket, I beg to
  differ to some extent (note the “some extent”). Look, I know Arsene is
  not without fault, and I’ll actually dive into some of the faults I’ve
  seen recently where a few magical tweaks could be the difference between
  a draw and a win, but to put the level of blame people have on him
  might seem fair, but I think he deserves the opportunity to fix this
  situation. If he cannot fix it this season, then even the “longs” would
  be on board to say it’s probably time to at least start looking at who a
  suitable replacement would be. Beyond that, I’m baffled at the
  treatment of Wenger by Arsenal “fans”. I honestly have lost a bit of
  respect for the some Arsenal fans even in my circle, because this is not
  the way you treat a man who has given us quite a bit and this is not
  the way THEE ARSENAL FAN REPRESENTS HIMSELF.

  Arsene’s current faults mostly come in the form of squad selection in
  my opinion and could be remediated in the short term rather easily.
  First off, and I’m sure I’ll receive some backlash for this, but Ramsay
  should NOT, I repeat should NOT be starting for Arsenal. He is not of
  the starting quality for a team competing for top 4 honors. As I’ve said
  before, if he’s ok with being a rotational, squad/depth player then we
  have use for him, but beyond that, I’m sorry but I’m thoroughly tired of
  seeing his poor runs, poor control, poor crosses, poor lobs time and
  time again. He might have had a glimmer of prospect before his horrific
  injury, but sadly I think that really took the momentum he built up and
  I’m not sure if he’ll ever find it again, at least not with Arsenal.

  Secondly, we’ve got to stop playing Gervinho centrally. We were very
  lucky and I think duped into believing he could with his early season
  exploits, but it’s become apparent now, he’s far better played as a
  winger and wide (we finished 3rd last season with him there), than
  having him central and missing an 8 yard, open header. In my humble
  opinion, I fully understand having to give players a rest (i.e. Giroud),
  but we really should be using a guy like Podolski centrally who has a
  ton of familiarity in the role with prior clubs and has a good goal
  scoring record to boot. Hell, even if we’re going to sell Walcott, for
  the mere purposes of trying to salvage the season, I think Wenger may
  finally give him the go centrally to see if he’s up to par (I personally
  don’t think he will be, but that’s not for me to decide).

  Lastly, as good as Arteta was for us last season and earlier this
  season, I think we need to let him come forward a bit more. He’s one of
  the best passers on our team, and I think we could use his cutting edge.
  I alluded to this in his post-season assessment and I think if he’s
  free to roam a bit, our creative juices might start to flow again.
  Cazorla has been a godsend, but I think he can’t be absolutely and
  definitively our sole creator because defenses are wising up to us.

  That last statement, “defenses are wising up to us” is probably the
  biggest culprit for our issues in offense right now. It’s time to get a
  little creative and I know this is Wenger’s biggest fault right now.
  He’s going to have to start thinking outside of the box again like he
  did when he first came to the club. I could be wrong and it could be too
  late as he might be too adament about his ways, but I still give the
  Professor the benefit of the doubt in this department to turn things
  around for Arsenal Football Club. I’m still firmly in the category of
  “IN ARSENE WE TRUST”, but fail to get us back into the top 4 le Profess
  and even your most ardent supporters (Perry S., Tom, Gigi & Sh31kh
  to some extent) will probably be saying it’s time to look into a change.

  For the long term fix and future outlook, I think we are actually
  starting to see some of that in action already and will continue to see a
  revolution at Arsenal, even as soon as January. We obviously do need
  further, quality investments into the club and I think come January
  we’ll be seeing a player or two coming in and at least a player leaving.
  The continued effort and expunging of the old and the insertion of new
  is absolutely the right direction for Arsenal. We’ve got an incredibly
  brilliant group of homegrown youngsters who are hungry and will get
  better with every match played, but equally we’ve got to surround them
  with the Artetas and Cazorlas, the Mertesackers and the Poldolskis of
  the footballing world. The expecation laid upon AFC is always going to
  be high, but I think it’s not unreasonable to say we should at least
  temper our expectations a bit while the we work through these growing
  pains of gelling a new squad together. The least you can do the “longs”
  is look back at the last 30-40 years of Arsenal history, and then look
  at what we have now, I could stretch to say you might consider yourself
  fortunate. With that said, I’m definitely not saying we should be
  satisfied, not nearly the case as I fully expect a classy, hard working,
  quality team fielded yielding positive results in most situations. BUT,
  and a big BUT (I like big BUTs, what can I say?), to essentially turn
  your back on the manager not even half way through the season puts you
  in the class of a Chelsea or City fan, probably the worst fan there is.
  We compete, we stick behind the team, the staff, until the last day of
  the season and then assess the situation then. The players and staff
  need us, they really do. So I’m looking to you match goers out there,
  don’t boo the team or manager, be frustrated, vent it, be angry, vent
  it, but support the classy club that is Arsenal FC, so you can have the
  opportunity to say you supported them through thick and thin.

  On a final note for this first part of the two part post, Arsenal is
  making good strides towards offloading the “deadwood” contracts (some
  expiring, some sales, and some “permanent” loans). Combine that with the
  new Emirates deal, the stadium debts being paid off, the new players on
  contract, some additonal player resources coming in, and I still see a
  good future for the team. I’m far more of a fan of consistency than I am
  of a funding a trophy only to see us drop to 12th the following season
  and risk further obscurity with poor financial decisions. We’re not
  Chelsea, we’re not City, and we’re not United, we just don’t have that
  owner who will give fuck all to buy himself a trophy. We do things the
  right way at Arsenal and because of that we have remained consistent for
  ever so long. As I said above and I’ll conclude at this, if we somehow
  don’t finish with UCL this year, then I won’t question anyone who says
  it might be time for a change up top, but until then, we owe it to
  Arsene, Bould, and the team to work their way back from mid-table
  obscurity to top 4, and still the possiblity for a cup.

• limet

  Too bad Bould did not give them a dressing down after that
  performance. Because they deserved it. Wnger said this “This group of
  players is very strong, very highly motivated, has a very good spirit
  and they want to win”. Is he really that blind not a single player
  showed that against Swansea well except for maybe Schezny who did not
  get any help at all. Why even defend the players anymore. Show the
  players the door if they dont do their best at least someone has to be
  kicked out so that the others realise playing football is not being on
  vacation. Wenger sickens me with his comments like this he has no clue
  all he wants is his players to love him of course they now see that and
  don´t even bother thinking about what he says. He has clearly lost the
  dressing room.

• mike

  By picking 16 year olds from Spain like Cesc, and from Southampton like
  Walcott, you could eliminate some of the uncertainty of banking on players who
  are 9 or 10, and hoping that they come good in a decade. Instead, you could
  accelerate the academy process, if you picked right.

  Put those young players in real games, not practice sessions or reserves
  games, with legends like Henry, Vieira, Bergkamp and it would accelerate their
  learning curve while teaching them what it means to be Arsenal. Pay them well
  too, that had always been Arsene’s philosophy, it was the first thing he did
  when he took over at Arsenal, paid everyone well.

  It should have worked but it didn’t.

  One by one the players abandoned the project. Some were lured by greed, like
  Cole, Adebayor and Nasri. Some were lured by the siren call of their homeland
  like Cesc. And some were lured by the promise of trophies and playing with
  better players, like van Persie. Each seemed to have their reasons but in the
  end, the important thing is that they left. There’s only one remaining, Theo
  Walcott, and he wants assurances that Arsene could never give.

  Dein saw it coming, Arsene’s old friend, the rise of the super-billionaires.
  “Soccer” was being broadcast in America. The Chinese were getting richer. All of
  Asia was booming. And football is the world’s sport. It was only a matter of
  time before English Football, the home of football, would be the hottest
  commodity in the world.

  £70m or £100m a year seemed like a lot of money in 2004 but Dein saw the
  writing on the wall. The scale and rate of change in English football was going
  to be astronomical. Abramovich spent money like water to build Chelsea from a
  shit-hole of a team full of racist fans into one of the biggest brands in world
  football. £70m is what Roman would put out for 2 players. Chelsea’s salary would
  double Arsenal’s. Once that happened, building a stadium that seated 60,000 and
  brought in an additional £70m in revenue? Chump change. Arsenal would need their
  own billionaire to compete.

  “Kick greed out of football”? Impossible. So why not kick greed into the
  boardroom? Dein tried by bringing Kroenke to the table. But he soon realized
  that Arsenal didn’t need an owner who would be happy making a few million pounds
  off developing some property around the stadium, they needed an owner who would
  speculate to accumulate. Dein was wrong about Kroenke. Kroenke was small
  potatoes. Dein needed a big, Uzbek, potato and his London based Persian partner:
  Usmanov and Moshiri.

  But Arsene and the board rejected that notion outright and Dein was
  fired.

  Arsene could think back to the board from the 2004/2005 season; Clive Carr,
  Richard Carr, Lady Nina, Ken Edelman, Danny Fiszman, Ken Friar, Sir Gibbs, and
  Peter Hill-Wood. The only remaining members from that group are Ken Friar and
  Peter Hill-Wood and Hill-Wood is on borrowed time as the specter of a heart
  attack looms over him.

  The management’s not the same either. Pat Rice retired last summer after one
  of the toughest 4th place finishes Arsene has ever endured. Where are the
  familiar faces? Who can he talk to about the way forward? Jack Wilshere? He’s
  all that will be left once Theo is gone.

  And so, Arsene’s Arsenal and his dream of building a golden generation, of
  self-sustaining football bringing the club glory for decades, lies in tatters.
  And he is all alone, beset by enemies and relying on strangers. The warmth of
  Highbury has turned into a frozen fortress of Arsene Wenger’s solitude, The
  Emirates.

• Berth

  Like Patrick said, am still confident the team will finish in the top 4 this season. However, my main concern is the level of ambition from the club which is not acceptable.

• seamus

  if they do finish top 4 …means you can accept the same old bullshit from the manager…this club needs to sack him and that crunt gazidis

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