I know that fans of a lot of other clubs take the pee out of Arsenal fans because of our moaning but it is all about expectation really. That is why the Premier League title win of Leicester City was such a big story, because nobody expected it to happen.
So despite the fact that Arsene Wenger managed to keep the Gunners in the top four and qualify for the Champions League with a pittance to spend compared to others, there were plenty of grumpy Gooners who felt that a club like ours should be pushing for a trophy.
I agree to be fair, and now that we have been out of those financial shackles for a few years I say we have even more reason to complain, especially as Arsenal have now done what we laughed at the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Man United for doing and have failed to get in Europe’s top club competition.
Do we expect too much? Maybe, but at the same time this is sport and almost every fan of every club on the planet has unrealistic optimism about their team at some point, usually just before a season starts. So if Arsenal play some great games next season but also have the usual period of dross that rules us out of title contention, do not be afraid to speak your mind or shout it from the rooftops.
So Ivan Gazidis is pleading with us to get behind Arsene Wenger but I really don’t think he needs to. We all want the Frenchman to get it right this year and will be fully behind our team. If things go wrong, though, does Ivan the terrible really expect us to keep our mouths shut?
D.N.
If we’re talking purely about the relationship between Wenger, and the fans, I would say we should have changed managers for two reasons.
1) As we all know, the infighting has been getting worse, and it’s better for there to be harmony, but that will not be the case next season because Wenger is still in charge. The split within the fan base will remain, I expect there to be more protests, banners, from day one, and the I am sure the AKB’s will fight back in the way they usually do with verbal insults, and spitting on those who dare stand up against the tyranny. Removing Wenger would have been the catalyst for harmony.
2) Even if we were all to get behind Wenger, there’s no doubting the fact that Wenger is on more than ‘borrowed time’. One slip up, and all the memories come flooding back about previous failed campaigns. “Always the bridesmaid, but never the bride” will be hearing from journalists, and pundits alike. The majority of the fan base will start tearing him apart again, and suddenly all the negativity comes back, and Arsenal will then probably spiral into an all too familiar run of poor results. We all know how easily Arsenal can crumble after just one poor result (Everton last season), so Wenger needs to be almost flawless next season, to keep people off his back, and to create a stronger mentality within the squad. Wenger is not good enough to have a flawless season, so yet another reason as to way a managerial change was needed.
for the fans to back Wenger then Wenger has to back the fans with some good signings
Back Wenger? I have been a gooner all my life, and have had the pleasure of seeing Brady, Rocky, Berkamp, to name a few. I have seen us leave the marble halls behind, and seen the emergence of teams that were nowhere near us.
Now I feel detached from my beloved club. We have our new stadium, which has been carefully designed to ensure the corporate space is as large as possible. I pay an absolute fortune for a season ticket, despite the sale of Highbury, net spends ect.
But I had the enjoyment of seeing youngsters flourish into world beaters-not anymore
I had the beautiful attacking football to compensate for the lack of trophies-wengerball no more
I had that smugness when a signing was mocked but turned into a world beater-we spend over the odds on decent players and seem to tell ourselves ‘they need time’
Wenger needs to go, what I listed above was supposed to in some way highlight what made him great. Now we play five at the back? Ten years ago Mpappe, Silva, Lemar, Mendy, would be breaking into OUR first team.
Wenger created a near perfect club, the scouting system, the youth development, the spectacle/football played.
We are now nowhere regarding the above, antiquated ideas, staff, and every summer clinging onto this fallacy that two or three ‘top top quality signings’ will help us compete???
FA cup win meant f all when our rival has completely blitzed us in league position and quality of football. All with f lol money compared to us, shi@ty little stadium, and wasting money on a striker from a foreign Sunday league. Breaks my heart, they have become what made us great in the last twenty years.
We can’t keep players, discover players, buy world class players. But we can keep faith in a manager based on previous success, the same way he does with most of his current squad?
We go and buy Mppape for 100 million, so? It shows we don’t produce these players anymore, it shows we don’t identify them before they are known anymore, and it shows we are no better than Chelsea or Man City as we now just keep chucking money at it hoping thing improve.
Get him out
Absolutely agree with you 1000%!
I’ve been a fan for 36 years, seen managers come and go and Wenger is far far far beyond his sell by date. He’s overstayed his welcome. He should never has been given another contract. It was cowardice by Stan and the board. The only reason they extended it after the season ended was so we wouldn’t riot in the stadiums if announced mid-season. Tactical cowards!
The author of this article is an absolute mug and one of many examples of why we’re in this predicament. Fans like this co-sign mediocracy. Zero ambition. Spineless.
Speak for yourself but not me. I’ll forever be vocal about my club and how I feel because without us fans, there is no club. We pay our way with tickets and merchandise etc.
Not this season though – I’m done, I don’t care if we sign Messi, Ronaldo or Thierry 2.0. Wenger should not be here – we made our voices heard and they didn’t listen. They heard but didn’t care. That’s the sad honest truth.
Hit them in the wallet and they will definitely take notice!
If we can keep alexis and add both Lemar Lacazette if we are tactically strong then surely we’ll be playing some Real Madrid quality football next season also not sure about the rumours for dalbert since Arsene recently acquired a lwb what do you guys think about this rumour?
Giroud, Welbeck, Wally Walcott, Oxlaide and all the other mediocre’s in the team who lack serious consistency aren’t enough for us to push for the title but may prove helpful in the long run
Arsenal would be back!
And any talented youth players leave or we sell,Chris Willock gone to Benfica free, Serge Gnabry sold now at Bayern, And look at some of the dross we have stealing a wage. Sanchez knows what he is doing sounds like he maybe leaving If we sell to City we may as well change our name to Manchester Academy.
What happens of we struggle in the first half of season, end up at 8th or 9th position by December with title race out of equation and top 4 impossible to reach, will Wenger quit?
8m is too much man, even if we get relegated he’ll still say he has all the ingredients to take us back to EPL, so in short the old man is too attached to his salary than the club’s success. We all should know this by now
Here at Arsenal we have something unique. A manager who hates the supporters. Wenger said as much at the end of this seaon. He hated the criticism. The odour of the man’s bitterness reached us all. He almost seems to do the opposite of what the supporters truly want. We supporters know we are not a couple of players away from winning the league and europeans, we need loads of players. Giroud. Walcott, Perez, Wilshire, Elneny, Gabriel and Debuchy all must leave and be replaced by real high standard players. It’s just not going to happen. We have drip by drip gone south. Weakened. We have the skeleton of a good team, but only that. Wenger will not buy 5 or 6 players. We cannot reach the levels required unless we get rid of the inconsistent players. Wenger is a man who is weak and scared of executive action. He dithers and is too anal to pay market prices. It was a great mistake to re-sign him. I fear for the team. If he sells Sanchez to Man City then, Nasri, Clichy, Sagna, and now probably Sanchez himself, show us to be Man City’s feeder club. We can’t even get Aguerro in part exchange. What a Dodo Wenger is!
What is failure? We would need to define that first before we know when to moan. We have some of the best managers in the world managing the top 6. Can we reasonably expect any of them to win the PL with the squad Wenger put together?
For me, success would be getting back into the top 4 as sad as that sounds. But at the moment it looks like most are not all of the top 6 is likely to improve their squads more than we will. We seem on a typical Arsenal summer campaign. If we are super lucky we will sign Lacazette. Some will be happy with that signing until they realize he was really brought in to replace Sanchez and Lacaette might be a decent player but he is no Sanchez. So net-net we will likely fall further behind the top 6 and even Everton is catching up with us.
So for me success is getting back into the top 4, expecting to compete for the PL title is naive (to use Wenger’s favorite word).