Arsenal clearout Wenger’s team – But not Steve Bould?

The signs are pointing more and more to Arsenal trying extremely hard to continue Arsene Wenger’s legacy at the club, but that doesn’t mean they are not removing most of his backroom staff that have worked with the Prof for many many years.

Wenger has told us that he will be clearing out his desk at the Emirates tomorrow, but he will not be the only one making space for the new era. Boro Primorac, a long-term coach and friend of Wenger, was always going to be a casualty and a number of other backroom staff have also been relieved of their duties.

Colin Lewin, head of the club’s medical department, has been at the club a year longer than Wenger but will also be departing — as well as coaches Neil Banfield, former Ireland goalkeeper Gerry Peyton and Tony Colbert, with Paul Johnson leaving his post as equipment manager. Vik Akers, the kit man who has been at the club as long as Wenger is also stepping down.

With Arteta or Vieira likely to be the next manager, it seems that the backroom is going to be populated with ex-Wenger acolytes that know the club inside out. Jens Lehmann has been retained, but he has not yet been here a year. Per Mertesacker is moving up to youth team coach. It was recently reported that Freddie Ljungberg was next to be approached although the Swede has since denied it, and the latest rumours suggest that Arteta wants Santi Cazorla to remain in a coaching position, but the big surprise for me was that Steve Bould was not on the list of outgoing staff.

One of the biggest things that annoyed Arsenal fans was that Wenger does not stand on the sidelines during games shouting out instructions and tactics to the players, but prefers to sit in the dugout doing nothing. He was always accompanied by his assistant manager Bould, who was even more immobile, simply chewing gum and nodding at Wenger from time to time. Bould was a legendary Gunner before becoming Wenger’s sidekick and we all hoped that he was brought in to organize our leaky defence, but since his arrival our defence has got steadily worse every year, so I would have thought he would have been a certainty to leave along with his boss. If he remains and becomes Arteta’s second in command we will all be wondering if anything is really going to change after all?

Darren N

44 Comments

  1. Steve Bould will be gone too I don’t think he will fit in with Arteta who might need his own number two I think Carzola will be perfect

  2. I just don’t understand all this crap with the money to be honest. Go get the best and be done with it. If the yank don’t want to win anything just sell our club to someone who will put money in. We sold enough the last 2 seasons ffs. We need to sell loads as we have a big squad Anyway. MA is not the man to lead us to glory

  3. The hate Arteta is getting even before getting the job is out of this world. Lol.. The same way we speak and spit on our players with every little chance we get. we really are something else of a fan base.
    yes I admit he’s a nobody and inexperienced, but so was Zidane, and yes Zidane has good players, but even with good players, a bad coach would perform badly.
    I do want Enrique or Jardim but that’s not to say I feel totally bad about Arteta.
    For a start we’ll see something different next year and the future is unpredictable, that’s enough to look forward to with the spirit of a positivist and hope but no, we choose to still punish ourselves even when Wenger is moving on, somehow we still find a way to talk bad bout him. Y’all something else I swear.

      1. Pores what crystal ball told you that?
        why are you all sounding like you’ve all written the future down? Was Mourinho even a Football player before he became a coach? What’s with all the ‘I want Arsenal invincibles to coach us’ What’s the guarantee that Any of the Invincibles will pull a Pep Guardiola or Zidane on the coaching scene? You were a successful footballer player doesn’t mean you’ll be a successful coach, and you were a bad football player doesn’t mean you’ll be a bad coach.
        My point is you guys should stop writing him off already and let’s just hope for good tidings to come to the club.
        If anyone of you here can guarantee it that Appointing Allegri means we’ll win the EPL next season then come out n say it.
        Just stop with the negativity about Arteta already.
        We all are adults, and we all love the club, please the whole negativity that the whole club had this season should stop please, including the negativity we the fans added

        1. @pires-I agree the fanbase do not hate Arteta.The abuse will be directed at the Owner and Board if Arteta is appointed and it proves to be the wrong decision.But IF he is appointed what will we call failure?There is no way the Club will finish lower than Sixth.We have too much quality to not finish in the same position to which we just have.Would that be a cause for dissent?Im not so sure.What we are looking for is progress and improvement.Arteta JUST MIGHT be the person to give us this.It could end up being a BOLD appointment.It seems as though Gazidis has championed Arteta and he is the one who will ultimately be judged on the appointment of whoever is installed as Manager.

      2. Wise words! So many fans confuse not wanting the man as a manager with not rating him as a person. These are completely separate matters. Sadly, certain small minded people cannot (or don’t even want to) see the vital difference.

    1. Please don’t compare Zidane to Arteta !!
      To say that Zidane was a nobody and inexperienced really undervalues your whole statement.
      If you are over 20 years old you should have a lot more respect for his career and achievements and to be employeed as RM manager is not a fluke or gamble.. they are the biggest club in the world and could chose any manager they wished for .. do you think Arteta was on their shortlist lol !

  4. You forgot about those horrible times when Bould was sitting there on TV chewing his finger nails looking a complete doughnut.

  5. If you remember bould was getting a lot of praise early on when working with defence on training ground then apparently the rumours were Wenger did not like that so took them duties away from him then we all know what happened since our defending is a complete joke so maybe bould has his hands tied and was not allowed to be vocal on touchline even before him pat rice was exactly the same just sat there and did nothing so it’s a bit harsh to have a go at bould maybe truth will come out one day!!

    1. From what I read Bould was reprimanded by Wenger for being too confrontational with the players. He probably tried to apply the self discipline and team critique he experienced playing with people such as Adams, Keown, Dixon, Winterburn, Viera and Bergkamp. We all saw how Bould’s hands off approach worked with the Arsenal defense this season.
      Hopefully a new manager will allow Bould to take off the kid gloves and impart the skills, techniques, discipline and tactics of defending he learnt as a player.

    2. You are accurate. I also well remember the three games or so that Bould coached and the instant defensive improvement, only to regress immediately he was prevented from coaching further.

    3. Did you not see or remember Pat Rice’s vocal passion every week laying into Rob Pires back when he joined !!
      ” THE BALL ROBERT !! GET TO THE BALL!!”
      It was only when Pat Rice’s passion from the touchline was lost with his relinqueshed position due to ill health i believe, that we got the monotone dull noninspiring touchline we have had!

  6. Vieira won a World Cup with France and the premier league with the gunner. He is currently a manager. He is a strong leader and will manager Man City when Pep leaves.

  7. Who ever comes in might not want Bold but, I would give him a chance under a new manager. Wenger was “all controlling” at Arsenal and I think Bold might be an asset?

    Comment about Arteta not being ready are pure garbage! He has not had a chance to prove himself as a manager yet! Give him a chance I say. It’s likely to be an uphill climb for a few years anyway!

    If money is limited, he may be a great solution any way as he will not be as demanding as the “so called” proven managers!

    I would say though, if Arteta is the man chosen I would love to see some old Arsenal blood taken on-board to support him. Some one in the form of Henry, Pires or even Viera. All if possible!!!

    1. I don’t see why money would be limited to a low number. We should have plenty of funds just not City Manu type funds, but we knew that anyway. Liv are really looking to make the ground up. The money they spent in summer then VVD and 60m for a midfielder who wouldn’t be arriving til following year. Oxlade Salah they spent good money, very good money in the first year making the CL for a long time. Liv are making us look really bad. Granted they got triple Coutinho’s worth which helped but they tried to hold onto him. All those years of us making CL yet money was held back and they wait til we lose the good footing we had before they start to offer real money for strikers and what not. We had a platform to work from and they blew it. Liv are gonna try and make the most of the platform they now stand on, they’ll now try to make the difference up.

  8. The rumours of backroom staff so far are bould Lehman and carzola if it is to be arteta then need a very experienced coach in there with that lot to help him as the others with exception of bould have little coaching experience

  9. Let’s call invincibles back in coaching staff along with only Santi and Per from current squad to join them… Vieira Manager and Henry as assistant… Pires, Freddie, Jens, Santi, Per would be other coaching staff…

    1. Why not also invite those lionhearts , Walcott, Arshavin and Santos(our worst ever defender, which is SOME feat) while we are at it!

  10. Arteta is a gamble! We must move for an established guy like Ancelotti who has won countless trophies before! Anyway, as the board doesn’t seem bothered about it neither shall I be. Let’s toss the Arteta dice and humour ourselves. If it works out we can sit down for some beers and have a laugh about it. If it fails, we shall still sit down for beers..in fact even more beers. It’s just 1 year of failure..we’ve been failing for the past 14 years I’ve gotten used to it. Maybe next they can appoint the gardener and let him have a pop at it as well. All in all, every outcome will deliver a good laugh for me.

    1. Really ? So you will laugh if we fail once again? Sorry, but I don’t believe you, since I know you are a true fan and I have never met a true fan of ANY club who laughs at his/her teams failure. IT IS POSSIBLE TO DRINK BEERS, IN FACT SEVERAL OF THEM, WITHOUT LAUGHING. Many think to drink to drown their sorrows!

  11. Arteta might be a good manager, but why he is not appointed to know. I smell something fishy i think he will be the assistant manager under an expereinced manager ?

    1. But then why would be be leaving Man City and Guardiola? Makes no sense for him to make the move to be assistant.

      I’m hoping it’s all media hype to get people betting, however, I am becoming more and more convinced it is him.

      Naturally this is frustrating as we deserve better than someone with zero games managed but if it is him he has my full support when the season starts.

      1. He is number 3 at Man City. At Arsenal he will move up to number 2 as assistant to whoever we appoint and let’s be frank there’s less pressure to manager Arsenal than Man City with regards to expectations plus a faster route to number 1 ’cause i don’t see Guardiola leaving Man City anytime soon.

  12. We as fans, well most of us, wanted Wenger out and will have to put up with whoever the board decide to employ. If they perform badly they will be sacked, if not then great for us as we will have found someone who can at least save our sinking ship from drowning further.

  13. Mancini is getting 2 million euros as Italy coach. Even the board wanted a cheap experienced manager, there was one. So it’s all tactical and strategic. Wenger was responsible for coaching, recruitment & football affairs (contracts). Now those roles are being divided to make their execution more efficient – new manager will basically be the coach, Sven is at recruitment and Raul in charge of football affairs.

    What are the pros?

    1. The manager can focus primarily on football matters or matters on the pitch. All he has to do is win the games.

    2. Sven will focus on finding us the right talent to feed into our youth system which we can either integrate into our first team progressively from our youth teams or sell for massive profits like Chelsea did with a lot of its talent (De Bruyne, Lukaku, Schurlle, Bertrand to name a few).

    3. Raul will focus on his duties as director of football and oversee contracts (to avoid the Ozil, Sanchez & Wilshere dilemma or the Walcott 140k per week dilemma) and continuity in case the manager gets sacked. We cant have a manager spend a lot of money on players who then flop and expect a new manager to use those same players to win trophies for us. A new manager should be allowed to bring 2 or 3 of his own players. The core players should be identified and kept in the squad for years for continuity e.g R.Madrid has had Ramos, Marcelo, Modric, Bale, CR7; Bayern: Neur, Boateng, Alaba, Ribery, Robben, Mueller; Barca: Messi, Pique, Busquets, Alaba. New managers have come and gone but not the players. The reason why Man Utd & Chelsea aren’t doing as well as they should is because they don’t really have core players anymore because of managers who come in and make wholesale purchases that make a good team sheet but at the cost of losing their footballing identity.

    4. Gazidis will focus on the commercial aspect: stadium, shirt & TV sponsership, marketing, budgeting and other finance raising operations

    So in conclusion, that’s the system that Arsenal want’s to move on to to be at par with other big clubs in Europe.

    This way, the fans, owners & players are happy!

    1. Oh, Chelsea also sold Ake, Solanke (loan), Atsu & Traore under their system but still won 2 PL titles in 3 years

      1. I don’t like the Sokratis rumor, if it’s true and we are going back to Dortmund I think Auba Lewy and a couple of midfielders were the best thing about Dortmund plus Klopp. They are all gone, Mkhitaryan was one of the midfielders. Dortmund defenders I do not want us looking into, I don’t care if Sven likes them, it would show he has a soft spot for the relationships he builds if he keeps going back to that club. Also it might be the player or Dortmund that he is doing the good deed for. If it’s lies well then that’s ok, papers know we’ll believe a Dortmund rumor so I expect many over the coming years.

        1. Plus the guy is 29 years old. Why not get the 21 year old we’re being linked with?
          We don’t want a first team dominated by players above 28 years only (Ozil, Ramsey, Mhki, Auba, Sokatris, Welbeck)

  14. I don’t understand why they’d have to get rid of the kit man, that’s just silly. Bould is prob the one I would wish to see go the most, maybe because he’s regularly seen. I think he let Wenger down, those defenders should have been too scared or better drilled esp at the offside trap, for them to keep putting in those performances week after week. Some of it was on the balance between attack defense, but it was mostly players switching off letting their man go unchallenged and basically making a hash of everything. Bould needs to definitely go.

  15. Well said big g.Wenger was an unknown when he arrived at Arsenal and he did well for almost a decade.Arteta strikes me as an intelligent guy who will have learned a lot during his time with Wenger and Pep.How can fans slag him off as a loser when he might be highly successful?.A lot of tosh is spoken about the importance of experience both on and off the pitch.Let me remind Arsenal fans that experience in the form of Wenger,Czech,Kocielney, Mustafi are the main reasons for our mediocre performances this season.If he is appointed Manager, for God sakes give Arteta a chance.

  16. Allardyce gone from Everton, Moyes gone from West Ham, maybe we should approach them lol.

    Rumours are that Everton want Emery, and West Ham want Fonseca, while we want the untried, inexperienced Arteta.

    Who knows Arteta might be an inspired choice, but it’s not a risk I’d take if in charge at Arsenal, however, as a fan I’ll get behind whoever is put in charge and give them chance to prove themselves.

  17. Mr wenger clearing his desk tomorrow and we are bickering and complaining
    I blame the down on form on the supporters as it made Mr wenger uncomfortable until he had enough and resigned if Bould clears out his desk now who would look after things? who would welcome in the new manager and introduce players and strengths to the new boss ??Some one got to be there The new boss would want his staff so Bould position is temporally just to over see the take over ….We need to remain calm as a new boss will come in when all is over remember the season is not over yet the FA cup the Champion league final and Europa league final but also all European league and cup matches must be over Alegri cant be signed until his season is over and so with Vieira but also negotiations will take some time to be ironed out

  18. I just think Steve bould ought to go along with Arsene Wenger. What’s the point him staying when our defense has became worse under him? The crew needs a total overhauling. Bould is as motionless as Wenger, no need keeping him.

  19. Steve Bould should be the first to be shown the door , because he was an Arsenal central defender under George Graham the best defense manger but Steve Bould failed to make any considerable contribution to help Arsenal defense who conceded just last season over sixty goals . Steve Bould kept siing quietly under Wenger without saying a word that is why he does not desrve being a member of the new Arsnal back room . Martin Keown will be hundred times better tghan him.

    1. Unfortunately Wenger wanted Bould to get “money for nothing” as he rejected his input.

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