Arsene on good form this morning. Well said, imo.

[redgunamo]

"Some people question this team's character but they have character and attitude and some people who question them have less character than this team has."

[Billy Goat Sverige]

"Some people question this team's character but they have character and attitude and some people who question them have less character than this team has."

What sort of character are we talking here? Lads with great banter?

[redgunamo]

What sort of character are we talking here? Lads with great banter?

Yeah, He uses the term quite often, doesn't He. I think He means it takes alot of "character" to continue to play *our* way no matter what happens.

[Mo Britain less Europe]

Sure. But some of the people questioning the team ar not being paid in excess of £100,000 a week to win games against inferior teams which they are not doing. Whether they have character or not is irrelevant. What I want is results.

[redgunamo]

Sure. But some of the people questioning the team ar not being paid in excess of £100,000 a week to win games against inferior teams which they are not doing. Whether they have character or not is irrelevant. What I want is results.

We're not paying them to win, M. We are paying them to *play*

[Brentwood]

This is the thing people miss when judging him. He is admitting here that his objectives were actually to finish top 4, and to sell our star players, as well as keeping fans interested enough in the football that they'd continue to turn up to games. The fact that this was needed in order for us to pay our debts, means that he should probably be judged differently to managers at other clubs who haven't faced this unique challenge.

"When you build a stadium, we had five to seven difficult financial years where we had to pay back - we had (to qualify) for the Champions League three years out of five and have an average (gate) of 54,000 people (to finance the new stadium). We didn't know we would be capable of that.

"We had to sell our best players every year to survive, but we didn't do three years out of five in the Champions League. We did five out of five. But during that time, it was very difficult."

[Pat Vegas]

"When you build a stadium, we had five to seven difficult financial years where we had to pay back - we had (to qualify) for the Champions League three years out of five and have an average (gate) of 54,000 people (to finance the new stadium). We didn't know we would be capable of that.

"We had to sell our best players every year to survive, but we didn't do three years out of five in the Champions League. We did five out of five. But during that time, it was very difficult."


Funny when people said that when it was happening. It was completely denied by the club and by the 'wenger knows best' types.


I am hoping LA is online to catch the bait.

[Brentwood]

Yes, they definitely didn't acknowledge it at the time and went as far as denying it was the case on many occasions. I don't think it's a case of rewriting history though. I think it would have been foolish to publicly admit it at the time

[Ash]

Funny when people said that when it was happening. It was completely denied by the club and by the 'wenger knows best' types.


I'm fairly sure that most AW loyalists were, during the austerity years, saying that we were doing about as well as we could have been under the circumstances and with the richer clubs. I'm sure I was.

This year is a different matter. In the past the boss could be excused for not winning the league, but there aren't really any excuses this time. If he really is blaming the fans the shortcomings of himself and his playing staff then that is pretty rum stuff imo.

[Pat Vegas]

I wasn't keen on selling players to rivals though. We could have been a bit more strict on this imo. We set a bad precedent with Ashley Cole.
And those are the players that Arsenal fans hate the most.

Some of the players sold such as Clichy to city were ok, he wasn't going to make a huge difference.
van Persie to United should have never happened.

[redgunamo]

I'm fairly sure that most AW loyalists were, during the austerity years, saying that we were doing about as well as we could have been under the circumstances and with the richer clubs. I'm sure I was.

This year is a different matter. In the past the boss could be excused for not winning the league, but there aren't really any excuses this time. If he really is blaming the fans the shortcomings of himself and his playing staff then that is pretty rum stuff imo.

The denials were not made within the context of billionaire owners though. I don't think there *were* any when we began the Emirates Project, were there?

As I recall it, we had never really spent much money and the board assured as that this would continue to be the case, regardless of the new stadium's cost. We certainly weren't going to spend more, but we weren't going to spend noticeably less either.

The money was always Wenger's McGuffin anyway; nobody was demanding Ronaldos and Bales. We would've been perfectly happy with more Henrys and Vieiras. This is where He (wilfully, I think) misses the point. Like a new wife saying she doesn't want a new MX5 as she already has one and she will therefore only accept a new 911.

[Paul Vaessen's moment of glory]

Talking of attitude and character after a season like this one is rather funny. And accusing other people of having big egos...this from the little man who walks past his very own bust to work every day. Oh sure, he said he felt a leetle "uncomfortable" about that. Uh, yeah, of course he does.

[ghostlygunner]

all utter bull**** and excuses as per usual , still at least tomorrow the powers that be might start to get the message , we can only hope :cool:

[Alexism - Atheoist]

This year is a different matter. In the past the boss could be excused for not winning the league, but there aren't really any excuses this time. If he really is blaming the fans the shortcomings of himself and his playing staff then that is pretty rum stuff imo.

I agree here. We all cut him some slack because we knew the financial constraints were there even if we didn't know he was forced to sell 25+million per year. That he did so well during those years is a credit to him.

But we're now the 4th richest club. We needed to shift gears and didn't. Other than Cech, we added neither quality nor depth and that bit us in the butt (in terms of trophies.)

Given that the most profitable sporting clubs are usually not the ones that spend enough to win trophies but rather do just enough to make the playoffs (and gain that revenue), I wonder if a different constraint is being thrown onto Wenger now.

[Snin]

Surely 1. Dlagging off your home team support for not being happy with another poss poor managed claps from strength and 2. Using bulls **** facts of our away record which is not champions but 3rd place .. makes him look a cnut ? Seriously I've supported him but if I pulled his bulls hit in 8 years of sales meetings I'd be sacked but I'd ****ing resign years before that.. The cuts played himself..got to go.. I could not walk in my office with such a **** record in sales and back myself.. I'd resign for my own ****ing dignity. .and on his pay..verdict...just **** off ****

[Snin]

Talking of attitude and character after a season like this one is rather funny. And accusing other people of having big egos...this from the little man who walks past his very own bust to work every day. Oh sure, he said he felt a leetle "uncomfortable" about that. Uh, yeah, of course he does.

What vexs me is I'd have killed myself or killed 20 whorls by now n ****ed my mum live on sky in a ****ing rage..where is the cuts ****ing anger ? Cubt