Arsene Wenger is clearly well aware about the protests being planned by the angry Arsenal fans for our Premier League match against struggling Norwich City at the Emirates stadium tomorrow, because the manager today issued a sort of rallying cry asking for us to support the team as he tries to avoid the complete disaster of dropping out of the Champions League places for the first time in his long tenure in charge of the club.
But in doing so, the Frenchman’s comments reported in The Mirror sounded to me as though he was actually laying the blame for the failure of the latest title challenge at the feet of the fans. Nothing to do with his decision to sit on around £200 million and only sign a keeper last summer then?
No, apparently it was the less than enthusiastic atmosphere at the home games, especially thos against the so-called lower teams in the league, that was the real reason why the Gunners let slip a five point lead at the top of the EPL table and are now 12 points behind unfancied Leicester City.
Wenger said, “We lost the championship at home against the lower teams, but we played at home in a very difficult climate.
“We have to realise that, away from home, we are championship winners. At home, against the smaller teams, we lost the league.
“This club does have special values though and one I’ve experienced over the years is to stick together and support the team. There’s no success without that.”
There was no success before the fans really lost their rag this season either Arsene. Four games without a win in January did not help our chances or the mood of the fans either, especially as there was a little thing called a transfer window open back then.
He went on, “Look, I can understand the frustration of our fans. But, despite that, they want to support our team.
“The best chance they can give our team is to be behind our team.
“Some groups of people try to manipulate our fans, and I believe apart from an agenda, a personal agenda, a big ego, there’s not a lot behind it.
“This team has character and attitude. Some people question them. I know them well, and they have less character than this team have.
“I saw them play and I know them very closely, and they shouldn’t question this team’s character. But when a club cannot enjoy anything any more, it’s in trouble.”
It was not until we lost lamely to an under strength Swansea in February that the fans really started to revolt. What do we know though eh? So if Arsenal do another ‘Crystal Palace’ tomorrow and fail to beat a team struggling against everyone else, don’t blame Wenger and the players, blame yourself.
Will the manager’s words actually have the opposite effect to what he wants and make the protest even bigger and more vocal?
Yes he did!
I just watched his conference in which he basically says our losses at home were because of lack of support from the fans!
I am fuming..so I may have to go back into the safe area to let of some steam and call this ‘….’ what he is showing himself to be with his myriad of ever emerging excuses for HIS failure.
OUT NOW you embarrassment. And poor excuse for a football manager.
Hahaha man is desperate …next time he’ll come out with :
Look the atmosfere at just arsenal . com isn’t helping either.
Who makes the sport, a sport? The fans. Without the fans there will be no game, no clubs, no stadiums, no media, no players, no staff, no managers and certainly no profit for any owners. And it is the fans who invest in a club with the intent to harvest glory and honour. The players, managers, staff and owners, all are financially benefiting from it. The Wengers and the Grahams and the Henrys will all come and go but the fans will be there forever. So, no one has the audacity to condemn the fans this way. And sure as hell not than puny little French pensioner who thinks his rule will never end at The Arsenal. No one is bigger than the fans! Know that Le Professeur De Ne Pas (The Professor Of failing)!
I hope the admin won’t delete my comment but Wenger must go it’s that simple,he’s failed the fans and it’s clear the players don’t want to play for him anymore that’s why they have zero passion on the field!
Why are we arsenal fans suddenly acting as victims and innocent. All these years we have just blindly followed the path of him and now we are against it. He made excuses, we supported it. Wenger never in his life time has praised other clubs and we fans followed his saying. He just blames refs, other managers, fixtures, other players, pundits and we fans have done that in a similar and in a more irritating way.
How funny now it looks when some years ago, some delusional arsenal fans dared to say Wenger is better than Sir alex. I laughed then and I am laughing now. Truth is Weneger could never match his greatest rival in Ferguson. Similarly we over the years could never match Manchester United, yes they are crap now but when they dominated, they dominated the football and not like us who just are the biggest pretenders in the world football. Worst part is we have let teams like Chelsea, City and now Spurs, yes I repeat SPURS to go ahead of us.
All in all we fans let this happen, had we woken up long ago and not live in delusional island and just laugh at other clubs we would have done something good. Even one month ago people in this blog were talking how arsenal can win the title, TITLE!. Leicester city are going to win it , that alone should be enough for everyone associated with this club to put their head in shame. Weneger or no wenger we fans let this rot set in and were just avoiding to face the truth.
Wenger also says “I want Arsenal to be better after I leave”…can he please leave I’m sure we’ll find a manager who’ll spend the club’s money by bringing in top quality players and make us better!
He is turning himself from a respected manager into a jerk
It wasn’t the fans who didn’t sign a single outfielder last summer
It wasn’t the fans who raised Theo Walcott salary to £140k per week
And it wasn’t the fans who caused Arsenal to lose home matches
Leicester had a better away record than Arsenal anyway
For a manager who makes £9 million a year, he should do a better job on the field and behind a microphone
Remind me again! Is Wenger’s masters degree in public relations or economics?
He has done himself the world of good:) before Saturdays planned protest. Well done that man.
He obviously wants to go!
The more Wenger stays, the more he drags his respected legacy of the past in the trash.
Wenger has now blamed everybody and everything for his recent failure, except himself.
This is the height of irresponsibility, blaming the fans
” Nothing to do with his decision to sit on around £200 million and only sign a keeper last summer then?”
Gazidis is in charge of transfers yet you still blame Wenger like an Ignorant fool.
Do i need to find the vid of Wenger himself saying if he stayed at home then Welbeck wouldn’t be here now?
Wenger doesn’t have final say on the money being spent, that is Ivan and Ivan is there for Silent Stan, to make sure the money isn’t wasted. Ivan has said Wenger is clueless when it comes to player values so even if Wenger wanted to spend some of that money… if Ivan thought the deal was too high priced then it will not happen.
I don’t agree fully with what Wenger said, I do agree that if you are a fan and you have paid to watch the team then watch the team, support the team, get behind the team! If you do not want to then do not buy the ticket. That is how capitalism works. You vote with spending your money, don’t like something, don’t give them your money.
If every unhappy fan suddenly stopped spending on Arsenal then how long do you think it would take for changes to happen? Esp if the busniess knew that the fans would spend if they actually went for titles…
Would they make titles more of a primary target?
Would they sake Wenger if he didn’t give them a title?
Or would they just let the Arsenal brand die and take a massive loss on share value?
@Midkemma
Common sense…
It is NOT commonsense at all.
Wenger himself said today that Stan hasn’t stopped him spending, so you now suggest Ivan is?
If that was the case which it isn’t,
Then that makes AW an even bigger yes man and subservient fool than I had him down for.
Figure that, a football manager who does not have a say in signing the players who will play for him.
Shambolic idea at a minimum.
You keep defending your father Wenger and put the blame on Ivan. I remember something in 2013 when Ivan said that Wenger is everything in the transfers department.
The Legend has quoted after a reporter asking if we could sign Rooney for 25m and offer him 200k a week wages: “Of course we COULD do that, we COULD do more than that, We have a certain amount which we’ve held in reserve. We also have new revenue streams coming on board and all of these things mean we CAN do some things which would EXCITE you, but what EXCITES ARSENE ISN’T NECESSARILY WHAT EXCITES YOU”.
I got that from a justarsenal article of that year. Whatever excited you might not necessarily excite Wenger, fans wanted Rooney but Wenger went on to buy I don’t know who, Sanogo may be. That’s who excited Wenger but Rooney didn’t, coz Wenger is a jerk who settlles with the lowest class, passes on on the high class players then comes back after so many years to say that I almost signed so and so.
What team responds positively to their own home fans booing at them during matches?
You guys are truly juvenile and in denial…
stop this b/s did the fans cause the loss in the first home game against west ham, ???
@john0711
Answer the question…
Oh goodness NY…. you idiot
er… Liverpool??? booed then went onto beat Manure and 1 game from a final. Chelski??? got rid of their manager.
I’m pretty sure with article like this comment ought to be more than 50 but admin with his usual propaganda has deleted it all including me. Perhaps I should stick to Twitter
Why should I moderate any anti-Wenger comments on a post about Wenger?
Maybe you SHOULD stick to twitter if you are going to whine every time you don’t get through the spam filter….
Yours is the only one that got moderated for swearing. My filter stopped it not me….
Now you have it… The “real” Arsene Wenger… The “manager” who does not take responsibility, who blames the players, the pitch, the referees and the weather, the one “who knows best” (according to some deranged deluded fans), who is tactically and “footballisticly” (just created that) clueless.
We don’t have a coach or “manager” in charge… This is just a “suit”… Wenger has been a “suit” for more than 10 years.
This guy could not win the league even if he was given Messi and Ronaldo… As a matter of fact, he would make them look average… That”s how poor he is as a manager.
At least for the first time, ive admitted that mourinho was right. Wenger is just used to failure and most of our delusional fans think, backing wenger is the ultimate characteristic to be a loyal gooner. Whoever told you to support failure has decieved you. Go and get yourself a gun and shoot the person who advices you to admire failure on the basis of past glories on behalf of the employee failing. They give reasons as if wenger never took a salary when the emirate stadium was being built. If we have a good financial position, why cant we give credit to our strategic leaders and our top level management including the finance officers and accountant for doing their job well but giving credit to the manager on different department who has failed to achieve his task?