Written by Mean Lean on Saturday, 09 April 2011 16:16

From nothing at all to talk about relating to the Arsenal and then Arsene Wenger walks into the press conference, numchucks in one pocket and a crowbar in the other.

Arsene Wenger was in no mood to play. The usually mild mannered Arsene was replaced by this fiery dismissive version that was about to stand in front of his players arms out wide and was saying 'come on then! give it your best shot' to the watching journos.

I absolutely loved every minute of it and have wished he had put a few of those journalists in their place before. It is not usually the Arsenal way. There has been more than one occasion that I have wanted Arsene to tell the journalists exactly how it is but instead we take the moral high ground and do not lower ourselves to correcting the endless nonsense.

I have often argued those thoughts in my own blogs but yesterday Wenger came out swinging.

I am not going to write all the quotes because I am sure many of you will have already read them. If you haven't listened to it yet then I suggest you do and you do not base any opinions on the usual tripe written by journalists who twist everything Arsene Wenger says.

Anyone who is writing articles about Arsene being happy to finish second has clearly got an agenda. No sane person can seriously take what the hacks write as fact without checking the actual content, by content I mean real content.

The media paint a picture of Arsenal being dark and doomy apart from the football we play. Everything else is just a shambles. Everywhere we turn it is Arsenal haven't won a trophy for 6 years, Arsenal cannot defend, Arsenal need steel, Arsene Wenger will not spend, Arsene Wenger is a moaner, Arsenal do not like it up em etc etc.

It is all a load of shit. How many pundits, journalists or ex players have praised Arsene and his squad for the work that has been done? Yet all our manager hears from all around him is negativity.

Why exactly should he listen to people who have not worked half a day in football? I totally agree.

Arsene was dismissive of Paul Merson saying that he had managed over 1500 games whilst Merson has done a bit less, subtle yet devastatingly deadly.

Why is our situation so awful when the likes of Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City are behind us having spent much more money?

'But it is six years without a trophy, we want a trophy!'

That is usually the cry from supporters and why not? I bloody want a trophy, I want to brag to my Tottenham supporting friends that we won x amount of trophies. I want that feeling that I had when I heard the words 'Adams put through by Bould.. would you believe it!' of course I do. But am I entitled to it?

Are Arsenal the only club who demand trophies? How do Liverpool fans feel these days? A club that were by far the most successful side in England for years are now a shadow of their former selves. Why? Mismanagement and poor work in the transfer market. When have all the other teams minus Manchester United and Chelsea won the league?

What I find frustrating about all this opinion is that only managers get to know if their thoughts and actions actually work. Pundits and fans call for player x,y and z without having any knowledge of his situation, his availability, if he would fit into the system, if he has the right personality and ultimately if he would be a success. Yet said player would be the saviour of Arsenal football club. A fan can suggest 1000 players and be 100% correct in their minds because none of those players have failed at Arsenal simply because the transfer never happens.

The funny thing is that when these players go to other clubs and do not succeed then nothing is mentioned. Wasted transfer fees and wages get deleted from memory. Unlike at Anfield, Tottenham, West Ham, Newcastle, Aston Villa etc where the fees are very much a reality.

I am thinking of the likes of Gomes, Gareth Barry, Joleon Lescott, Alberto Aquilani, Richard Dunne, Niko Kranjcar,  Lee Cattermole etc etc etc.

And that is just players who played in the Premier League. Do a google search on these players along with Arsenal in the name and you find endless comments sections with supporters demanding these players.

In the meantime the media and a section of support are slamming Wenger for keeping hold of Almunia as 3rd choice. Presumably everyone would have been content with Arsene paying an extra £1-2 million and bringing in Mark Schwarzer thus prompting Wojciech Szczesny to turn down his contract offer in search of first team football elsewhere.

Had that of been the case then the press and support would have had a field day at Arsene's expense.

Arsene is not infallible, he has his weak points as do every manager. Arsene makes errors, as do every manager. Arsene is not perfect as is the case with other managers but Arsene deserves credit for making us competitive at the fraction of the cost of the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool and the media darlings Tottenham, who have had a fantastic season this season and have been a breath of fresh air. Arry's boys have been thoroughly entertaining and offensive.

This is what we have been hearing from the Hacks on Sunday Supplement, the Match of the day team and Sky Sports. Yet we are above them in the table by six points having played a game less. We have scored 18 more goals than there fantastic attacking team and have conceded 5 less goals even though Tony Cascarino said that Tottenham have a better defence than we do. We beat them in the Carling cup, went further than them in the FA Cup. They were beaten 4-0 by a Real Madrid side who were hammered 5-0 by Barcelona, the team beat us 4-3 over two legs.

But when you are fed the same Arsenal in crisis stories then that is what many are going to believe.

I loved Wenger's passion in his press conference and it has made me feel much better about tomorrow. I doubt very much that the players will go through the same motions as they did against Blackburn after knowing how the manager feels. They badly let him down last weekend, they let the fans down but hopefully a week on the training ground will allow us all to see the real Arsenal.

Personally I don't think we will quite get there after drawing our last three games against teams we should have beaten. I think winning at Stoke, Tottenham and Manchester United at home as well as the rest of the games is a tall order.

But I would like to see everything being put onto the pitch from now on. From tomorrow until the end of the season.

Should I have any reason to think that we will improve next season? Yes I do. Jack Wilshere will not have to settle into his first full season. Laurent Koscielny and Sébastien Squillaci will not have to hit the ground running in a new country, in a new league. The same for Chamakh. Wojciech Szczesny will not be starting the season as a rookie keeper at this level. Thomas Vermaelen hopefully will be fit from the start, Johan Djourou will not have to be eased back into top level football.

All these reasons for me explain our inconsistent start of the season. Partly explain our defeats to West Brom, Tottenham and Newcastle. I expect Arsene to buy well as he often does and I expect a few players do be let go. I am sure some will see these as excuses but if you look at what it is then it is fact.

Supporters are asking for a few experienced heads in the squad. Arsene Wenger wants the right players. What exactly is experience? Jack Wilshere is the most inexperienced player in our squad yet he has been one of our best players. Do we need experience like Silvestre? Who has won title after title at the Mancs. How about Squillaci who has International experience and has played in La Liga at the top level?

We need top players and that is all. Players like Vermaelen, Sagna and Nasri are top players. We need strong characters. It does not matter if they are English, Welsh, French or from the Ivory Coast. We need committed, technical players who will improve our squad and I am sure our scouts as always have their eyes on many possible targets.

Anyway, I totally stand by the stance of our manager, I just hope his players repay his protectiveness on the pitch.

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Comments (27)

• 09-Apr-2011 17:05 | | Mathieu
  

  Finally a blog with common sense

• 09-Apr-2011 17:07 | | chijide  - wenger's Clarion Call
  

  Spot On Mate !

• 09-Apr-2011 17:12 | | Carl Bovis  - Great article!
  

  Wonderful to see positivity from an Arsenal fan for once..... anyone would think we were in a relegation battle, not in with a chance of being league Champions!!

• 09-Apr-2011 17:24 | | jig
  

  im with you

• 09-Apr-2011 17:39 | | gooner
  

  Really good article and many good points ! one guy the other day said we should get rid of the whole team, i think the fans need to stop reading anti-arsenal papers. People hate us alot of the time becasue we play the best football, of course the team is going to have off day's. however in regards to experience i agree, however we need players that can come into the odd game and not need 2-3 games playing time to adapt. We haven't got that and i believe the only way your really going to get that is by keeping hold of the quality caliber of players like Gilberto for example.
  
  Wenger needs to be more of an arsehole when it comes to putting the club before the players. He lets players go in order to play more minutes for other teams when really he should tie down some 30 years olds maybe to two year contracts, so that we can use them in those odd games.
  
  That is where i believe Wenger has made most of mistakes, for example Rosicky although he's been with us for a long time becasue he's been in and out with injuries is still not well experienced prem player in my eyes. However it was great having Sol back at the club last year and i thought he was terrific and it vastly improved the players around him due to his qualities and experience, so yes you may argue that Silvestre didn't bring anything to us, but im not denying that i'm just saying buy the best experienced players or keep hold of them for longer when we have them, it will give ur youngsters the confidence and guidance they are in need of!

• 09-Apr-2011 17:43 | | iceman
  

  the best blog i've read in weeks !! I used to believe that all this fuss was made by spuds,chavs n mancs pretending to be gooners, but i realise that there are stupider than stupid gooners that believe we're not on right track. We need more people like you blogging, not sum fuckface wanting loads of comments from 'pretend gooners' and gooners with no balls for a fight... Remember.... Good things come to those who WAIT...NOT MOAN. Morons !!

• 09-Apr-2011 18:13 | | Anonymous
  

  Absolutely correct spot on. What Wenger has done is set up the long term future of AFC. We will only appreciate what Wenger has done for the club after he has gone.
  
  How can fans seriously insult a man that has won and done soo much and who is a top top manager. I will tell you that if he was available he would be the most sought after manager from all the top clubs.
  
  I understand people being impatient but I don't understand people questioning the man's ability to build a top, winning side. The thing is we can all see that there has been a big improvement from last year and the players are at an age where they will naturally improve year on year. So to rip the team to shredds - is not constructive and not helpful.
  
  I beleive the team does need to improve and maybe one or two new faces but ability wise I think Arsenal are good enough to win the league it is just that they lack that winning mentality that Ferguson manages to instill into his players superbly (That's Ferguson's greatest strength). You can not use youth as an excuse but the fact that this team is still young means that there is big room for improvement.
  
  I am convinced trophies will come very soon be it this or next season and I think to adopt another business model would be taking a huge risk and potentially disasterous for Arsenal. Why dont all real Arsenal fans understand this?

• 09-Apr-2011 18:32 | | pat rice  - the boss is nuts!
  

  MAN UTD has just won the EPL with a team of OLD MEN with a handful of very new (brazilian) boys added to their team!
  
  Arsene Wenger is NOT a great football manager but a good project manager - Good in building/cost management project that is. Silly old Hillwood is pleased to death with him because of money and economics, that why he's so pleased with wenger. Mind you, he'd marry him if wenger is a female! The reason why wenger always talks about the future is that he always buys new young inexperienced players who cost very cheap. His excuse is always that quality players are too expensive, even british and english players are shunned by him as too expensive and mostly of poor quality.
  
  Building a team for the future? Since when? Since the days of Adam and co dismantled, the team has failed to win any title...besides having the arrogant egomaniac wenger belittling and dismissing the carling cup as kidstuff. Wenger's kids will mature and win titles and trophies when they mature in 10 years' time?? By still keeping almunias, denilsons, diabys, in the team year after year? Stupid to think if man utd, city, chelsea, spurs, lpool, barca, madrids, munich, milan, etc.etc. will be sleeping or will do nothing to be on top. Thats why Arsene Wenger is Nuts!

• 09-Apr-2011 18:41 | | Anonymous
  

  nice wan....wish stupid fans cud understand dis.....and if yu don like. arsenal...get another club to support,ya free to do so cos no one is forcing yu to be Arsenal fan

• 09-Apr-2011 18:54 | | Wenger Boy
  

  Super. Just super ML.

• 09-Apr-2011 19:13 | | Bala
  

  Awesome ML ! It just reflected the actual truth. I think this is your best post of all time (Sorry If I am wrong but certainly its ur best in recent times)

• 09-Apr-2011 19:34 | | MeanLean
  

  Thank you very much Bala and the rest of the comments. I actually thought that I would have far more people disagreeing with me today.

• 09-Apr-2011 19:40 | | jimmy  - mr
  

  i think your all bloody mad or blind or even both, first of all let me say this first, i would never critise wenger, but i have become really fed up with him and his excuses why we lost or why we didnt win, why cant he just see we are not good enough and do something about it, like buying better players, how many years do you have patient for, 1 2 3 4 5 6 years, did he wait all those years for veira,peteit ,henry, overmars anelka pires, gilberto, and all rest, NO, did we play tippy tappy football NO, so why has he changed his phlosophoy on making arsenal great again, have u ever known arsenal in the last 25 years to loose a 2, 3 and even a 4 0 lead, answer, NO, all he had to do was spend 30mill on a keeper, defender and striker, we been short every year in those departmaents, ive just read a quote from wenger today and he thinks we have a better defence than utd, you know why, cos he says we have more defenders than them, how crap is that, i been going to arsenal for 40 years and this is my last cos i cant stand him anymore, he thinks we are all stupid and blind, 9 finals in 15 years and we win 4, wow, george graham has a better record than him,, 6 trophys in 8 years on a limited budget, u do the maths all you wenger we trust.fans, we play the best football in our own half and then the other teams score a simple goal against us, they can keep my season ticket dont enjoy tippy tappy weak players with no back bone, u enjoy it cos i dont,

• 09-Apr-2011 20:11 | | red and white bear
  

  well said ML ,i dont know if u have tv3 in england but in ireland they show 1 of the 2 champs lge matchs midweek,,,cascarino is ALWAYS on talking shit bout arsenal whilst sitting next to keown who is always just smiling sarcasticly at the camera ,,TC is pro chelsea and totts to him they can do no wrong the man is clueless ,in september he said chels would win da lge by 8 points what a joker!!!!!!,,,,,a shit player a shit journo and a shit pundit,,take no notice ,,,keown doesnt either!!!

• 09-Apr-2011 21:11 | | Wenger Boy
  

  Just shows how on point your sentiments were that so many people agreed with you in this climate. Not easy to achieve.

• 09-Apr-2011 21:13 | | MeanLean
  

  Thank you WB, it certainly makes a change. I usually have to spend plenty of time justifying my comments.
  
  What are your thoughts on tomorrow? Do you think the players will find their mojo?

• 09-Apr-2011 22:21 | | Britto
  

  A delightful read!!

• 09-Apr-2011 22:28 | | K
  

  You're all deluded!!!!! This team is poor, the management is poor and worst of all the board is a joke. Second isn't good enough, and it shows a lack of ambition if that's what wengers happy with!

• 09-Apr-2011 22:49 | | MeanLean
  

  What is your definition of deluded?
  
  Deluded in my book would be not acknowledging the restraints that the manager has had to work with and not comparing our budget to that of our rivals yet call others deluded whilst still being in a 'title race' not mid-table or relegation.
  
  Delusion would be to ignore the position of our rivals and not analysing that we as a squad are on an upwards curve whilst big spending Chelsea have a squad full of players who need replacing
  
  Delusion would be not to realise that only two clubs have won the title in the last few years. Two out of the whole league. Delusion would be to not to understand the level of competition that we face especially considering the amount of debt that others have mounted on their clubs. Yet many of those clubs are still trailing behind us both in league position and potential for the long term.
  
  What is your definition of deluded?

• 09-Apr-2011 23:06 | | Goonzillla  - Super Post
  

  Hey ML, great post.
  
  I personally decided tp take sometime away from the blogosphere because I knew it was going to be flooded by the Doom/Gloom merchants. As always, you seem to be able to take a back seat and reflect on the issues at hand in a very transparent, yet realistic way. I take my hat off.
  
  Like you rightly point out, we have nothing to be ashamed of this season. We might still yet win the league. There is time to reflect on the season. We are in a good position and as fans/supporters, our team needs us now more than ever.
  
  I cant really make any more points here because you seem to cover it all. Nice post and im looking forward to the pre match thoughts tomorrow.
  
  Have a good one mate.

• 09-Apr-2011 23:45 | | Danish Gooner  - wenger
  

  You make Wenger out to be some kind of holy grail,he most certainly is not,he is there to win Arsenal football club a bundle of trophies and show some humility when you fuck up like he have done with a serious deluded vanity project.But what does he do,take the corner like some sort of spoiled child that have just tossed all the toys from the pram,the man is an egomaniac set to completely destroy our club before he leaves,Noone and i repeat noone will talk about Arsenal as serious contender for domestic albeit eurpean trophies when his wrecking ball have left the office.

• 10-Apr-2011 01:15 | | richie  - Fair Weather Gooners
  

  If you have really been watching the Arse for 40 years then you started in 71 when we won our first double. The year before that we won our first trophe in 18 years. From winning the 71 league until our next league title in 89 was another 18 years. In those years between we were dire, the football we played was horrible. The closest we came to capturing the league again was 73 when we were 2nd. Next up we were 3rd in 81 apart from a couple of top 4 finishes we were always outside the top 4 (16th&17th in a couple of those).
  
  I am proud of the Graham years when just like Wenger, George managed on a tight budget. But under GG we were the kings of winning ugly. We nicked loads of games 1 nil often from set pieses.
  There is no comparing the AW GG years in footballing terms, our football now might not be up to the invincibles level, but we are still capable of playing sumtuous football of the quality of our 2nd goal at home against Barca. GG's record of 6 in 8 may look better than Arsene's 5 in his first 8 years until you remember the league doesn't lie. Wengers 3 league titles against Grahams 2 is different in its class level especially as the 04 season was the invincibles.
  Not only that but asthetically we are on a different plateau now in pure footballing tearms. Wenger's been around longer and so has won more, but its the maner of those victories that counts.

• 10-Apr-2011 01:34 | | richie
  

  Another fair weather Gooner? Try to remember Arsene built the invincibles the most successful defense in our clubs history all by himself. Arsene certainly knows how to build teams I think this is his 4th or 5th Arsenal team.

• 10-Apr-2011 06:34 | | CHGooner
  

  Honestly, ML and many of the respondent's I think Wenger could say anything at all and you'd support him. To me and I'm sure many Arsenal fans that press conference was an absolute embarrassment to him and our club. What he should have said; 'look I'm gutted we have messed up again at this stage of the season, but we're still in the title race and we will fight to the last drop to win it. I've told the players that they have 8 games to shape their destiny. If they give everything and fail, well we will look at things, but one thing neither me, nor the club, nor the fans will tolerate is anything less than 100%. Everyone knows we have to win something. No excuses. Until the end of the title though I am only focused on winning and so are the players'. instead we got a list of excuses and justifications. He's certainly getting them in early and shows me that he has the same belief as most fans in terms of the title. Some of his comments were simply ludicrous, just three I will highlight.
  i) 'nobody here (referring to journalists) believed we would finish in the top 5' Really? Where did that come from? because I cannot recall us being punted as 6th place finishers myself. Can anyone find any evidence for this statement at all?
  ii) look at the players in this team and I'll speak to you in 10 years. Comical.
  iii) if I finish 2nd every year then I'll be here another 20 years. Shocking admission that he doesn't report to anybody in reality and HE decides everything including how long he should remain employed at the club and under what terms.
  
  To me Friday was a big watershed. He took his treatment of fans and dismissal of critics to new levels. Well Arsene old chum, I'm not prepared to shell out over £1,000 of hard earned to support your £6m salary and the wages of our players (3rd highest in the country) to hear the same excuses every year with a slightly different spin.

• 13-Apr-2011 00:06 | | richie  - Not quite true on the pundits
  

  Its true most pundits gave us 4th place but there were some analyists like two BBC 5 live contributors Steve Claridge and Chris Waddle that put as outside of the top. So did a certain "jurno" the editor of 442. David Hall predicted we'd finish outside the top 4. I don't know how many others, there could be loads.

• 13-Apr-2011 01:41 | | richie  - Point 3
  

  Its not easy to finish 2nd in this league dispite spending a fortune over 18 years Liverpool have only finished 2nd twice in 2001& 2009. Finishing 2nd and gaining automatic CL qualification is a big carrot for all of the 19 who didn't win it.
  The record for finishing 2nd is
  Arsenal 5
  Man U 4
  Chelski 3
  Toon 2
  Blackburn 1
  A. Villa 1
  Its no surprise that there are only 6 teams who've done it, and 4 of the 6 are the only actual evenual winners.
  By the way do you actually think Taggart reports his progress to the Glasers?

• 13-Apr-2011 10:06 | | richie
  

  For the vast majority of Arsenal supporters Arsene is indeed the holy grail. For most of us he's the best possible manager, at the best club. Since he arrived we have built a great stadium with massive amounts of input from AW. Next up, we have the London Colney training facility's personally designed by the Messiah* descibed by many of those in the know who've visited as possibly the best in the country. Finally in the 15 years since he arrived we've never finished outside of top the top 4. No mean feat. A feat that Chelsea didn't manage. A feat that Liverpool didn't manage. Only Manu'er and Arsenal has been top 4 in the last 15 years. On top of that we now play football that most Gooners could only dream off. On top of that we've won more silver wear under Arsene than any previous manager, and we've had the chance to win even more.
  
  *(that just in case CHG reads this because he like irony)

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