My name is Cliff Findlay and I am fondly known as Sonia from my years at Highbury (gets onya nerves). This name was given to me as I was the voice behind the ‘we’re the east stand’ chant. I have been in two books about arsenal. Heroes and villains, where I supplied Alex Fynn with the insight into arsenal home and away games and marble halls where the photographer gave me a double page spread titled ‘were the east stand Highbury’. I only mention this to give you some context into why I found myself compelled to write to you. Hopefully the above shows my ongoing love for our club.
In the last few years I have found myself becoming more and more frustrated by the quality of football I paid to see week in and week out. Often I would find myself thinking that if I had paid £45 for a theatre ticket and everyone had forgotten their lines I would be entitled to my money back. Unfortunately there is no such rule when it comes to a football game however our players often looked like they had forgotten their lines as they strolled around the pitch and provided little to no entertainment, energy or desire.
This season I lost my season ticket. To be honest I was seriously considering whether to renew or not. Arsenal ticket office gave me the answer. Calling me to tell me that they would place it on hold for me only to find ten days later that they had sold it to someone else. They then offered to find me another seat. After informing them that I had, had the same seat for approximately 20 years (yes I bought a seat at the Emirates that placed me in exactly the same viewing position I had at Highbury….sad hey) they said “sorry, nothing we can do”. That kind of made up my mind for me and to be honest is probably the only bright part of this season so far.
I have watched from afar as season after season Arsene continued to play the same game again and again whilst becoming more and more frustrated by the fact that a. It didn’t work anymore as people had sussed it out and b. Well he hasn’t one.
You see Wenger is a players coach. He looks after the players and gets them to love him. Unfortunately in today’s game you need a team coach. Someone who protects the team not the players within it.
I heard someone last season suggest that what made him great, his arrogance and stubbornness, has now killed him and made him a figure of ridicule, and in some quarters, hatred. It’s a shame as he has provided me and many with possibly some of THE most wonderful footballing moments the world will ever see. For three seasons I woke on a Saturday excited. The first to watch Dennis, the second the whole team and the third Bobby. I knew every game I would see footballing genius, we would swat away the opposition, we were like no other. Only Man Utd could even dream of being our equal. It was like heaven after watching the grinding inevitable football under Mr Graham and the hideous groundhog days of one-nil to the arsenal…a song that still makes me break out in cold sweats.
Mr Wenger built this club. He and he alone gave us the chance of being a name, a brand, a club recognised in the same breath as Barcelona and Bayern and he did it at the same time as giving us pure footballing excellence.
Then it all went wrong. I can date this back to one moment. The day David Devin was stabbed in the back by the club. Instead of telling the footballing hierarchy that if they got rid of him he would leave. He asked his friend if he would mind if he stayed. What friend would say yes? And there we have it. Suddenly the fixer has gone. Suddenly Wenger is all alone. Suddenly he rules Arsenal and although he may have been happy at first you can see what a solitary existence it is where you make all the decisions.
The club is now owned by someone who knows that football value, regardless of winning or losing, is just growing as it becomes the single global sport and is only interested in the money. Hey he’s a business man.
The fans have been spoilt and expect the same as we were given the first few years, wonderful flowing football and winning.
The lackeys that work at the club are just on it for the gravy train.
What a shame.
I for one will always be indebted to Arsene for giving me some of the most wonderful moments I have ever seen on a football pitch. But he should have left a while ago. He has lost his way and not changed as football has caught up with him and his tactics, both on and off the pitch, and he is now a man lost.
Wenger out? Of course that goes without saying. Unfortunately I don’t feel it will happen until we have seen another season of poor quality (maybe two) and the Arsenal brand has lost is shine, gloss and swagger that Mr Wenger had so brilliantly conceived so many years ago.
As I said…..what a shame.
Cliff Findlay
Aka Sonia
Spot on Cliff!
As a supporter of AFC for 37 years I get where your coming from. We have to force their hands now and the o lay way to do so is to protest, one way or another.
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FOLLOW the protest and get involved:
HTeeTeeP://www.onlinegooner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=38888&p=1065533#p1065533
DONATE [money will pay for Banners, hand-outs, planes, projections etc]:
HTeeTeePeeS://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/chris-butler-2
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PLEASE Print and use on matchday and/or share on social media and help generate a groundswell of pressure against Kroenke and Wenger. If you don’t do it, who will. The rot MUST stop here!
*ALL ARTWORK are A4 size [ remember to replace the ‘HTeeTeePee’ in the links!;) ]
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No More Excuses [C’est Fini – It’s all over]
HTeeTeePee://bit.ly/2xEB33f
Shooting Blanks
HTeeTeePee://bit.ly/2gx2ecg
Call to Usmanov
HTeeTeePee://bit.ly/2esbw55
Kroenke Fund Collection
HTeeTeePee://bit.ly/2wZA3tt
C’est Fini! [It’s All Over] – Simple Type
HTeeTeePee://bit.ly/2vSV8Rd
AOT
I am an Arsenal supporter of about 45 years but have never lived in the UK and I have come to basically dispise Wenger and Kroenke. It’s easy for people like me to ask people to boycott games etc but as Cliff Findlay shows this comes at huge personal cost with little perseptible benefit.
I think the crowdfunding is the way to go for all Arsenal fans.
I have donated again , like last year and am prepared to donate to cover those fans with less dosh.
We need to get these bloodsuckers out and I really believe negative publicity will do it.
Keep promoting in anyway possible this ( or alternative) areas where worldwide Gooners can help, even if just financially.
Top Man Kieran!
Your doing your bit mate to save the club!
Good man!
Arsene made Arsenal great? Don’t be ignorant.
Go and read up on Herbert Chapman. I know this is the GTA generation but I’m sure you can all read. There was a club before Arsene Wenger – and it was a great club then too!!!!!
True. And I liked George and his impenetrable defense that he forged and drilled. Remember the season before Wenger came we o my lost 1 game!
Was the foundations for Wengers team and reign.
Our club has great history but it is in the hands of an unambitious owner who is only interested in the revenue stream and not results and success on the fi led and that is the sole reason Wenger remains to this day.
Really? Which season was this where we lost only 1 match?
1990-1991
Oh and it was to Chelsea.
So not the season before. Point proven.
Apparently, the team that won the league 5 seasons before was a foundation for Wenger despite the 10th and 12th place finishes in between.
Away to Chelsea by 1-0 and we only lost that game as Bould was injured and did not play in second half. In those days we could not only defend but knew how to and had the passion and aggression to keep the ball out of our nets at all costs. Of course we had the priceless advantage of having real men play for us instead of little timid and afraid children in defence and especially in midfield or attack like Ozil, Walcott and all the other serail coasters who have made a rich living under their benevolent Uncle Arsene, who indulges their timidity and blames the refs, rather than coward players. This does not apply to all our players, but to a lot of them. In those days, cowards and non tryers were out the door in a trice. So many of todays young fans have grown up knowing no different but I started attending in 1958 when players were tough and so was society. And players really loved their club and not justfor the wage packet. God , how I hope weed Walcott reads this true comment.
It is annoying, that the old board seemed to have Arsenals best interests at heart, yet sold to Kroenke, who they knew would be bad for the club, had plenty examples of Americans asset stripping clubs for their own benefit, (I can’t think of a good American owner, past or present, yet plenty of bad ones), and indeed plenty of example and irate fans of clubs in the US that Kroenke has only managed for his own purposes. My only problem with Usmanov, was that he wanted to move to Wembley, but I had a lot more problems with Kroenke. If the board wanted to cash in there are plenty of Arsenal supporters they could’ve distributed the shares to, and let no one person have a majority share holding.
The answer to a lot of Arsenals problems are staring Wenger, the board and the team in the face, every time the walk into the stadium “Victoria Concordia Crescit” – Victory increases through harmony – we have AW and the board fighting each other, the fans hating Kroenke (entirely justified), and disharmony in the squad, caused by StatDNA etc. Kronke is a divisive character, and I can only think that he believes he can divide and conquer. – well it won’t work in a team sport, Enos.
there is no doubting that Arsene has helped to provide us with some incredible footballing moments in the formative years of his managerial career at Arsenal, but that certainly doesn’t and shouldn’t mean that he has earned the right to decide when and how he should leave this club…there has been numerous managers at each of the biggest clubs in Europe throughout the last decade who have waged far more successful campaigns than ours yet somehow and someway each were given their walking papers because they failed to meet the standards laid out by the hierarchy of their respective clubs…of course that doesn’t mean that clubs should simply follow the lead of others, especially if clubs of note have become too reactionary when it comes to issues of termination, for whatever reasons, but there should be some logical discourse when it comes to the setting of parameters for a changing of the guard…in the case of Arsenal, this sort of discourse was largely stifled when the higher-ups devised their sinister plan on the eve of our move to the Emirates…by giving Wenger a free pass due to supposed financial constraints he, unwittingly or not, set the bar too low…it reminds me of a landlord who says he will only rent to “professional people” to maintain a certain standard then does a complete about face when the market is lean and vacancies are up…for those who rented under the original mandate they of course feel cheated but there is little they can do, except move on, especially if the landlord clearly cares more about profitability than keeping their word…unfortunately for the lifelong fans of a football club it’s not so easy to switch allegiances and frankly why should they, in most cases we have been around far longer than them…so how does one deal with such an untenable situation…do you simply shut-up and hope for the best, do you place the best interests of those with only self-serving agendas above the collective and pray that karma eventually catches up with them, do you run away with your tail between your legs and only return when things have ultimately changed, do you keep trying to find silver linings to justify your very existence, do you lower your expectations by convincing yourself it could be worse or do you stand up for what you believe in by holding people accountable for their actions, especially when every fiber of your being tells you that something is rotten in the state of Denmark
Yes also Bertie Mee and George Graham, both winners!
You guys are really pulling at straws when you have to go back to the 1930s to talk about Arsenal success before Wenger. Back then there were only 3 divisions. You would have to be 90+ to even have a semblance of a memory of that success.
May be I was being optimistic when I made the being able to read comment.
Ok so you need educating. Arsenal had won the league in each and every decade prior to Arsene joining. This will be the first decade Arsenal don’t.
You need a more recent example? George Graham.
And don’t be ignorant and just dismiss Herbert Chapman. If you were a homer you would know what he had done for this club. You sound like an internet fan.
Well said and well done for putting this silly idiot in his place. However, we did not win the league again between 1953 and 1971, so no 60’s, but a mere detail. I have been supporting Arsenal since the mid 50’s and coming since 1958 and could write a huge book about many Arsenal names-not just players- that todays kids and ” know nothing before Wenger types” have even heard about. The club is now 131 years old and Wenger is trying to last that long. Over my dead body!
Tidan 2, I don’t like to be rude to Arsenal fans, which , I must assume you are, for the sake of argument. But by God, you are an extremely ignorant fan and like many youngsters, which you clearly are, think the club is all about the Wenger era. With a click of the mouse you can read all about the clubs history on it’s own site. When I was young I went to the local library regularly and took out books on Arsenal and when a littl e older and at work, I bought loads of them, which I still have. It is easy to call yourself a supporter now, without even knowing anything about our history or back story. I list some names now, at random. Why not see if you can actually find out about them and when you have perhaps you might care to withdraw the idiot comments you made on this site. The list: Sir Henry Norris, Bob Wall, Bob John, Alex James, Eddie Hapgood, Ronnie Rooke, Joe Mercer, Tom Whittaker, Jimmy Logie, George Armstrong, Joe Baker, Ian Ure, Terry Neilll, Sir Samuel Hill -Wood, Sir Guy Bracewell Smith, Wally Barnes, Bertie Mee, Dave Sexton, Frank McLintock, The Rev. Norman Bone(good luck with the last one). Educate yourself and then you might truly call yourself a proper fan!
Pretty sure George Graham had a say to, Wenger inherited the best defense in the league.
Such a pitty, the same person who brought us so much glory and fame is now the object of shame. Regardless #WengerOut
Yes, it was going to come to this. You may trample on people for a while, but a time will come when they will come to their senses and decide to take their destiny in their hands.
I hope the wake up call gets loud enough to force a most needed positive change.
We ignored the signs for a long long time .
selling good players with the over confidence that replacements will do the job. Alex Song in particular.
not buying a leader for over 10 years and being convinced on “team spirit” .
allowing a player and manager to feel larger than the club. so many tantrums and off field mischief was handled with a soft pat on shoulder. No fear for the Manager or the Player . “Arsenal” was no more a disciplined and well run club.
kept selling and achieving min 4th position with weak teams . A bigger feat than winning all the Trophies in my opinion. How Wenger managed it for so long is beyond normal reasoning.
We as Fans, accepted all the above trends without being a collective force on the direction the club was headed.
Pure Bad luck that we , out of all famous clubs being bought, ended up with the worst scum as an owner.
given he’s signed for another couple of years there’s clearly no contingency in place to cover the event he fails to complete the 2 yrs. he’s hardly amongst those managers considered young is he?
A favourite wenger wise-saying i learned in the earlier days “consistency is impossible”. end quote. it suggests we are not robotic and therefore cannot be expected to produce constant outputs as if we’re never subject to varying degrees of downtime, exhaustion, wear and tear.
Yet, contrary to what he said here he is clinging onto management in an epoch marked by younger managers far more tactically astute than he is and more adept in the does-n-donts of entering the modern transfer market…*worse still he’s long lost that essential ingredient of “trust”, wenger’s no longer true to his word.
Kill the old fart in ya Wenger, and leave before the long winter comes ;D
A touching post from Ozil,anyone seen it?!
Yeah I seen Itzel. I think he was right.
Ozil has the best pedigree out of any Arsenal player. 2010 World Cup nominated for player of the tournament. 2014 World Cup winner with mos t goals for Germany in Qualifiers.
German player of the year 2011 2013 2013 2015 2016. UEFA Champions league top assists 2010-11. La luga top assists 2011-12. Champions league top assists 2012 UEFA team of the year 2012. 2013. Premier league top assists 2015-2016 and Arsenal player of the year. Has always played with the same languid style. But I don’t think he likes this formation coz it limits him in space and time he needs to create and decide. And I don’t know why Arsenal fans expect him to be Sanchez. Both players are have different qualities and styles. But i hate wenger for wasting their years like this ever since Cazorla was still playing Arsenal were always 1 player down from winning the league and wenger always didn’t get it!!! He always left us one player down. Now we are 4 players down RW, 2cms and a CB!!! Even though they are world class, I am confident that Ozil and Alexis will not cover all this holes in positions and they will get all the stick when we are all done and dusted!
spot on point of view, i hate that im frustrated at wenger and it then passes on to the players
what a honet heartfelt post. I have supported Arsenal for over 30 years, its something i am proud of. I will always cherish what wenger did, however, thats the issue i am now debating wether he actually did make us great or was he blessed with the defence left by Greyham and the lucky signings such as Henry. I understand those who do not wish to give up their tickets once bought, however, to continue to renew them is buying from the heart and not head. Personally i will not pay a single coffer into the funds of the club until there is a massive change. I will watch the premiership as its one of my few pleasures. I urge fans to try and show your disaproval in any way you can before this amasing club is torn apart. we dont have a right to win the PL we do have the right to compete for it.
We dont have the right to win the PL ,we do have the right to compete for it
ive being reading on the website for 3-4 years now and that as to be the best quote ive read hands down .You have summed up our club in 1 sentence.
reagards for that
https://www.google.com/amp/www.stltoday.com/sports/columns/jeff-gordon/gordo-heartless-kroenke-evicts-poor-texans-with-tragic-results/article_22e3c8e8-cf55-526a-8390-317848260731.amp.html
In case some of the Arsenal fans from across the across the pond aren’t familiar with who Stan Kroenke truly is…
He bought a ranch half the size of Rhode Island and then evicted numerous elderly and disabled people. These people were “living” on social security with barely anything to their names, except the homes Kroenke took. Rick Ellis was only 61 years old when he took his life as a direct result of Kroenke evicting from a home his grandfather lived in.
So, if Kroenke has ZERO qualms about evicting some of the most helpless individuals in our society, do we really believe he’ll somehow cave in to fan pressure and sell such a valuable asset?? This man is a heartless, gutless snake.
I totally agree with y0u Cliff (Sonia), very well put. Not much else I can add except I fear it will get worse before it gets better.
I am not going to make anymore comments on Arsene Wenger, it’s totally pointless. He is going nowhere for the next two years and neither is AFC, so roll on 2019.
With regard to Mesut Ozil, he is one of the classiest players to pull on an Arsenal shirt. If he had a finisher like Aguero or Costa he would head the assists table every year. He must be be totally frustrated and I wouldn’t blame him if he leaves next season.