Who do you think is proud to be a Gooner? Who is our Mr. Arsenal?

Have Arsenal Become Unloved? By Dan Smith

Why I never wanted Arsene Wenger to leave was his love for the club. I wrote at the time when the debate existed ‘be careful what you wish for, because now you might get it’. Some gooners will be too proud to admit it, but those who forced out the greatest manager in our history for the sake of YouTube views could not have imagined it would be this bad.

This is not about how far we are away from Liverpool, or even if we fail to return to the Champions League.

I said it when Ramsey was being disrespected by our board that when he left for Italy, with us in his heart, you felt he was the last member of an era of players who you could claim really cared about the badge.

If Mr Wenger was still our manager, I predict that Ramsey, Wilshire, Cazorla, Monreal and Koscielny would all be as well. None of them are perfect, Mr Wenger wasn’t perfect, but you would never question their commitment to the crest.

If I asked you now who do you think is proud to be a Gooner?

Who’s our leader?

Who’s our Mr Arsenal?

For over a decade, thanks to Stan Kroenke, we stopped being challengers for the title. We sold our best players, and with the massive TV contract they don’t seem to care like they once did about qualifying for the Champions League.

In the last couple of years their priority has been saving money at every turn.

The wage bill has been slashed which will only keep happening when we lose Auba and Laca. We clearly don’t want to pay a manager the salary Mr Wenger was on. We are one of the most indecisiveness teams when it comes to transfers, and all the while prices for tickets and merchandise continue to be way over the odds.

Worse than all of that though, is they have mismanaged us so poorly they have made us unlovable.

I wrote this week that being Arsenal coach should be a vacancy that is so appealing to every coach around the world.

A chance to live in London, great youngsters, a 60-000 stadium, great training facilities ,and a history that always had us known as doing things the ‘right way’.

With your employer also happening to be a Billionaire the resources could also be there for a decent wage and a huge transfer kitty.

Why do you think, even in their dark moments, Man United never struggle finding high profile candidates?

If ever there is a crisis, there is the class of 92 queuing up to help out.

Where’s our group of legends who, no matter what, love the gunners and would do anything to return?

Arteta by the way is not a legend. He was meant to be our leader when we suffered some horrible results, so why now would he have the skills to demand standards from a dressing room when he didn’t when he played for us?

You trust more a Henry kicking down the door telling certain talents that the current standard is not good enough. Being on radio and television and being a critic doesn’t count.

There is even talk of Arteta not being 100 percent sure of joining us, as he’s not sure he wants to leave Man City.

Think about that. Our former captain is given a chance to manage one of the biggest clubs in the country despite no experience, yet might prefer to remain being an assistant. A lot of that could come down to the respect he did have for us being affected by our recruitment policy, where he should have been made to feel more valued. He’s been interviewed more than once yet it’s clear he’s not everyone’s preferred target. Compare that to the Champions who couldn’t speak highly enough of him.

For the record City are believed to be bemused by how we have conducted our negotiations. Again, we used to be known within the game for our class – now we are being laughed at.

Vieira is another ex-skipper who was angry with how he was treated by our recruitment policy when we were last looking for a boss. How will he feel being overlooked again when he actually has more experience that their number one target?

Is Arteta our only number one target because it’s believed others have been put off by the lack of ambition. Once upon a time everyone in the world would be interested in this post.

Why I’m open about a former player replacing Emery is; in the last 18 months we lost our identity. If nothing else we would be commended by neutrals for being entertaining, always playing the game the right way. Now we lack any kind of ethos.

Then there’s our fan base…

Due to a rise in social media, some have embarrassed the rest of us by believing freedom of speech means you can say and do anything. The next generation of fan is being educated that you should go to a stadium with a sense of entitlement, people act genuinely offended if they don’t get their way.

We were never like this at Highbury. Football was an escape. If the world around wasn’t very nice, you had the comfort of 90 minutes where anything and everything could happen. Now watching Arsenal isn’t fun, listening to your fellow Gooners isn’t fun.

Some act offended when we don’t win, like someone has done something criminal to them.

Sport used to be about sometimes you can win, sometimes you can lose. It didn’t lead to shouting, swearing, players being driven out of clubs.

They say things go in cycles, that the cream rises to the top, that good things happen to good people.

I don’t hope that we win the Premiership again.

I hope that we become a club you can love again…

Dan Smith

12 Comments

  1. I agree about Arteta, he’s too much of a gamble. I see no difference between him and Freddie.

    However, the second last sentence sums up the author. Always whining and complaining about people whining and complaining. Apparently the board disrespected Ramsey? Did it occur to the author Ramsey disrespected the board? He had a contract sitting on the table for months yet he just had not found the time to sign it. WHO DOES THAT??? Don’t worry, I’ll answer that. Van Persie. Nasri. Clichy. All treacherous rats just stringing the club along with false hope of committing when in reality they simply want to keep their spot on the starting line up and quit for that sweet bossman money. I applaud the board for taking a firm stance with Ramsey, I hope Aubameyang and Lacazette will be kicked out as soon as the next transfer window opens.

    You cannot come and moan to us about some fans complaining when we don’t win as if something criminal has been done to them, yet you are the same person moaning Kroenke does not put in his personal finances to entertain you for 90 minutes. Kroenke is the owner, he does not owe you anything. Moreso, his personal money is his, you have absolutely no say in how he chooses to spend his fortune. Kroenke could decide to pay himself everything Arsenal makes and there’s not a single thing you could do to him.

  2. “Be careful what you wish for”…the standard, deflecting, go to line for Wenger fan boys, anytime real fans dare speak the truth!

    Clearly the writer doesn’t seem to realise that Wenger is hugely responsible for the mess we’re in. He, and Gazidis were left to their own devices by Kroenke, for at least 6 years too long, and look what happened. Fans who wanted what was best for the club, were ridiculed, intimidated, ignored by the mainstream media for years, and even spat at! All because we could see the direction we were heading in.

    Of course, the new regime have, and still are making some mistakes as well, but they’re having to clean up the horrendous mess they inherited, whilst simultaneously, trying to move the club forward. This will take years, not 18 months! We’ve still got another 17 months of trouble maker Ozil thanks to the previous regime, unless some club is stupid enough to sign him.

    So for all those fans who wanted Wenger forever, you should have been careful what you wished for, because look at the club now!

    1. Agree.
      The article is basically the usual attempt of clearing AW for his part in a steady decline for several years, and it is conveniently “forgotten” how much love, there was in the air, when planes were flying overhead with “Wenger Out” banners. As if all the problems have suddenly started after Wenger was sacked (asked to leaved).
      The fact is it was only in the first half of wengers regime, we were respected for our football. The latter years, we were becoming a laughing stock for:
      Lack of fight
      No guts
      No defense
      Naive tactics
      Not being able to sustain a title challenge
      Etc., etc.

    2. Agreed! This nonsensical “be careful what you wish for ” saying is designed for those who lack ambition , who are basically afraid of life and who want only to try to preserve the already failing state of play. In life – and football is not different – the prize goes to the brave , to the risk taker. If all you want is a false and hole riddled fake insurance policy that things will only gradually get worse, with no real chance of actual improvememt, then you stick limpet like , to your pathetic “be careful what….” etc . With this silly and negative attitude, the world would have never had electricity, heart transplants, penicillin, immigration, the growth of planetary communication in seconds and ALL other great inventions and dsicoveries thet the cowardly “Be careful…..” brigade would have you avoid, if they ever had their own STUPID AND COWARDLY WAY. BUT THEY HAVE NOT AND NEVER WILL , SINCE HUMAN NATURE WILL ALWAYS REIGN SUPREME AND DEFEAT COWARDS. Rejoice!

      I welcome Artetas (almost certain) and imminent appointment and I look forward with confidence to a better future than under the last dismal years of the regressive WENGER YEARS. IT WILL TAKE TIME, AS ALL GOOD THINGS DO, BUT BE AN OPTIMIST AND REJECT COWARDISM!

    3. well said. It’s the typical response of people who are afraid of the future. And that is why the club had no plans beyond Wenger to begin with. Because Wenger wanted the role for life and didn’t expect to be pushed out and the entire organization was built around whatever AW wanted. No regrets he is finally not managing anymore. I’d way rather go through this process than watch the club lay of their knees and not care about the stagnation that was going on for far too long. If the club had learned from Man United’s mistakes and prepared for an AW exit, and not given him and Gazidis so much control over affairs a lot of our struggle couldve been avoided.

  3. @DanSmith.
    Dan pines for the “good old days” 🙂
    If you grew up around the Invincibles then yes every season since has been a “failure”
    But I tell you standing on the North bank in the 1970’s was truly barbaric
    The football was mind numbingly dull + the results terrible.
    The football stadiums were medieval slums with crowd behavior to match.
    Football fans now days are far better behaved and with modern stadiums and multi media coverage to your PC following football is now a luxurious experience.
    Ranting and raging online is cathartic, healthy and fun
    Whether we win a title in the next ten years hardly matters.
    Its the fake ranting and raving Keyboard warriors where the fun is 🙂

  4. Dan i have to disagree with you regarding AW he was at fault because of one of two things

    1) if he wasn’t properly funded and as he says he loves the club then he should of walked 7/8 years ago in protest

    2) when we was selling our top players with wage cap and signing on cap that’s when we lost our greatness we bought average players less than half the price of our rival’s where AW was so desperate to keep his position he thought he could turn them in to world class players, they failed to see how much money there was in the EPL even teams below us were spending more then us and above us had an open check book, the only decent players we had and they were injury prone and hardly ever played,

    the only player in the last decade who was a true gooner was Jack Wilshere

    as much as i like Arteta but his not going to change much with our so called top senior players, we need to dig deep for a couple of seasons and get rid of our top players who WANTS to leave and develop some of our good arsenal youth and add some new blood who the new manager brings in to have respect, i thought hard and long and i think we should of offered the position to Nuno Espírito Santo for the long haul

  5. Hey peeps
    I wrote Wenger as faults
    What you can’t do is anytime points out a positive about Wenger, play the ‘fan boy’ card
    I never had a problem with Wenger leaving but it’s is who you then replace him with
    You can’t say two years down the line we have improved , not sure how you can say that , we are 10th
    How long can that be Wenger’s fault?
    Did Wenger tell the board Ramsey doesn’t fit into my team and then play Torreria as an attacking midfielder ?
    Did Wenger freeze out Ozil so he could play 3 DM’s?
    Did Wenger sell Monreal and keep Kolasniac?
    Did Wenger sell our best defender and replace him with David Luiz ?
    When Weneger left we had finished 5th . How that means he is responsible for us being in 10th?
    So yeah since Wenger left things have got worse , that’s a fact
    Just not what you want to hear

      1. it’s okay when I said Emery wasn’t a top class manager I was told ‘ your just a fan boy’.
        Seems like a section of our fan base can’t admit when they are wrong ?

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