Morning all.
Just a few days ago Stan Kroenke said something along the lines of ‘if you want to win Championships, then you’d never get involved’.
Well I wish he’d never got involved with Arsenal Football Club because ever since he became the majority shareholder, Arsenal have gone from bad to worse. I’m not knocking our two recent FA Cup trophies by the way but really, if he had anything about him he’d be wanting his club to win everything that is on offer in football, not just ‘taking part’.
Championships? Not a chance with him at the helm, no more than there is with Arsene Wenger as manager. Top four every May is all well and good and that seems to be enough to keep the majority shareholder happy but what’s the point in being in the Champions League with a squad never equipped to get past the first knock-out stage, let alone win it? Money of course which again has Kroenke smiling.
As for the league, well we’ve gone from looking good at Christmas to falling away quicker than a penny drops down and through a slot machine and that’s because the same old injuries occur and the squad just isn’t strong or good enough to cope. That’s down to the manager.
Ah but we could win the FA Cup again and make history. Wrong, that too is now over after another gutless performance, this time against Watford. Ozil was trying to weave his magic but no-one was on his wavelength to finish what he created. Watford wanted it more, they had a game plan and it worked. They were assisted by some really awful defending and I’ve seen better on a Sunday morning whilst watching my local pub team but I don’t just blame the defence, the whole attitude out there stank. No fight, no guts and certainly, no glory.
Gabriel’s tackle on Deeney was a shocker. His second wasn’t much better.
A 1-0 down, why were no changes made as it wasn’t like those on the pitch were truly threatening the Watford goal. Fresh legs might work and that was proved when Danny Welbeck grabbed a goal back but Arsenal needed him on the pitch earlier. The same player nearly grabbed an equaliser in the dying seconds but even if he had, it would only have papered over the massive cracks that are quite apparent at Arsenal.
Nothing will change until changes are made. The manager of any failing club is usually the fall guy but the sad thing for us Arsenal fans is that he seems to be achieving enough to keep Kroenke happy.
However, that could very well change this season as I think it’s an impossible task to overtake the two clubs above us in the league imo, in fact I think there’s more chance of us slipping further down the table into 5th or 6th with West Ham and Man Utd not far behind.
Perhaps only then will Stan Kroenke wake up or even better, sell up……..
Morning all.
Rico are you suggesting that Kronky should sell his English soccer brand? Wouldn’t that upset the customers!
We have more chance of winning the league than seeing silent Stan slip back to the states. In fact the only chance of that happening is no chance! Not while the cash cow keeps on rising in value. However, he may well be presiding over the next Aston Villa and where would that leave his investment? What would Billy Beane think of that?
Yes, I feel his ownership has run its course and the time is right for him to go and he should take Wenger with him and put him out to pasture in one of his more obscure ranches in west Texas!
The pair of them would just become another paragraph or two in the Arsenal Wikipedia page!
Morning all,
David Dein should come back, Usmanov send Stan back to his ranch and Wenger to get a role on the board and shake things up. I fear we will do nothing, lose Alexis and Mesut and be left looking like Liverpool….a mess and 8th 9th considered enough.
I am very suspicious and think , Wenger is being strongarmed…He is blind but not dumb…in the sense of not signing an outfiled player.
Another gripe i have is why has he been taking Campbell off when he is clearly our best perfroming attacker at the moment. Walcott has gone backwards, Giroud is average at best (good value for the money to be fair). we are just too soft. Campbell will put a foot in. Something alot of the Arsenal lads wont do. we are not winning the 2nd balls, and are too lethargic passing. When we shift the ball quicker , we can be menacing , i.e the Welbeck goal on Sunday.
Maybe Wenger could take over running the Colorado Rapids and breed a whole new master race of midget ball passing Americans which he couls sell back to Arsenal at a premium to keep the balance sheet in order.
we should clear out in the summer , not just the walcotts , but the board as well.
That is the best suggestion so far as to how Wenger should spend his declining years! He could call it, ‘Project youth, the retirement years.’
I am Wavy… 😉
Morning guys…
Good idea Potter..
I guess the silence here reflects our Arsenal mood…
Catch up later…
Afternoon All
Afternoon Rico, your flogging a dead horse today boss…
If everybody out there feels as deflated as I do then there isn’t a lot more any of us can add to this poor situation…
Just listened to the Arseblog podcast and I’ve never heard those guys sound so devoid of enthusiasm and flat…
Even if Wenger goes, we’re stuck with that useless plank Kroenke, and I really cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel but years and years of mediocrity and disappointment. He is the cancer at the heart of our club gnawing away at its soul and draining the life out of it…
It almost makes me want to turn my back on the club and just give up, as there seems no hope that we can be rid of our American owner.
If you all heard or read what he said over the last few days, then it’s no surprise that he stays silent, because as soon as he opens his mouth and spouts off it casts a dark shadow over our club and send a cold shiver down my spine…
So thank you Danny Fizsman and thank you Nina Bracewell-Smith for selling the club down the river and into the control of Kroenke.
Thank God for Ursmanov…
Hang in there mate, you’re our only hope.
Afternoon Kev. I know and I nearly didn’t bother and not only today… Kroenke can’t be arsed, neither can Wenger so I thought, why should we??
Rico Spot On with those comments. Its hard to watch this team when we all know the outcome having seen this film many times previously.
Time for Regime Change and the dagger to Our Gooner Hearts will be to see the title end up at the Lane where it will be paraded enjoyed by a team and manager who fully deserve it. So sad to admit but true. Harry Kane is a super player who responds when his team needs him to deliver the goods.
I am lost for words as this was our best chance to win PL in a decade we peaked early and blew it. Wish i could pinpoint what is wrong with us except to say Owner BOD Manager and certain members of squad need to be shipped out. Time to give youth a chance who may care to wear Our Crest. Gutted and disgusted.Its True AW has ruined his Legacy by staying past his sell by date and going stale. Time has past him by. Younger managers such as Flores, Bilic, Martinez and Koeman etc have adapted to new styles tactics and strategy and outfoxed him multiple times.
Time for Arsenal fans to stand up and demand change and look at the Scousers as a good example of unified support beating the billionaire owners.
We own this club not them without us they have something of nothing…
Cheers
Couldn’t agree more A117, but I hope and pray that Leicester can hold their nerve, I really do…
Afternoon Rico and the house
Not angry or even disappointed any more
If we had an owner that had any balls he would of sacked wenger 6 years ago
I will have a party when he goes
Me also re Foxes Rico.
Just have this poor feeling that they will come short and Pochettino will rally his troops to finish line.
The way its gone script will play out to Spuds winning it, my spud brother will be happy and not go quietly.
How is it that we have been knocking on the door for over a decade. They hire Poch and in first season he wins it. I am speechless and maybe clueless to understand. My conclusion is youth, tactics, fitness, playing for the crest or out, no prima donnas and a freshness around the joint.
Thanks Rico for giving us this forum to air our feelings of both positive and negative vibes.
Cheers
Afternoon Mg. I am quite angry about it all really. How the owner has let it come to this beggars belief but as he himself said, he’s not interested in winning much… Useless bloke!
Pleasure A117..
I think Leicester have a pretty easy run in on paper, whereas the Totts have a few tricky ones yet… Fingers crossed eh, but they’ll still finish above us unless they truly choke and that alone will be hard to stomach…
The only way things will change at Arsenal is by getting rid of Kroenke. He is a sucking leech sucking the energy and money that the club need. The bar is set by Kroenke, and no matter how good a manager is, the team can’t rise above that, so maybe with a Guardiola type, we could get slightly better results, but they would be stunted by the Kroenke bar, and in reality, no such manager would work under Kroenke – it would be like Picasso painting for the local builders.
How he managed to get into this position, given Arsenal had Liverpool’s example of Hicks and Gillett to look at, beggars belief, but Arsenal will have to get rid of him in the same painful way as Liverpool, should they wish to progress
With Gabriel in the line up we never won a game. It’s the statistics.
prognostic: Leicester drop 3 points today and totts will be the champions.
I Forget to post this: we not only not win the FA Cup, The League, The champions League and League cup but we not commemorate also St’Totts Day this season.
So, no “titles” this year.
I do believe I am ‘up’ for a protest.
If wenger didn’t agree with the way the club is being run, why did he keep signing new contracts.
Wenger and kroenke are two of the same
Are you Adam?
Welcome gmv8..
I think so Rico. Enough is enough and it seems as if Wenger doesn’t see too much wrong as the excuses are flowing without regard for credibility. I can’t really see why he has the hump all the time as the whole of this season is really down to him. He wouldn’t listen to anyone and now it’s all gone wrong he wants to somehow infer that it’s the press and the fans who are piling pressure on him.
Having said that, I still think that the crap performances have their roots extending back several years.
How to protest though Adam?
Everything at and about Arsenal stinks of complacency… Imo of course.
The owner, the manager and the players..
Fans protests seem the only way Rico.
I get that Adam but how? Banners, non attendance? Or some other way?
I was thinking of shutting Highbury house in protest…. 😉
That’s the problem for sure. I’d like to protest from the couch really. 🙂
Well if you sit on the couch and not go to the Ems, I guess that’s protesting…. 😉
Yes, I could wave my very own mini banner at the TV. 🙂
And there was me being serious…
Rico. It’s the general frustration I suppose. A tinge of guilt perhaps, as we all know what he has done for the club. I just don’t see how it can go on like this really.
I don’t feel guilt at all Adam. Yes he was great but he’s spent far too much time undoing all the good he once did…
But he’s not alone in causing the mess Arsenal are in.
All true.
It’s not going to improve any time soon either is it?
That looks likely Rico. I suppose that the fans protests, if significant, could help force the issue one way or the other. But, if everyone just shrugs then it could go on and on.
Anyway. I will bid you goodnight. 🙂
I’ve always been against banners Adam, but I think that’s the only place to start but it needs more than an odd one or two… Other than that and not turning up to matches, not sure what can be done…..
I’m off too. Night Adam and all..
Been irked by an article I’ve read on watford ‘keeper calling us a ‘small team’ and how they’ve figured us out. Don’t the players have lil pride left in them?
Fans should sit outside the stadium. Refuse to get in the whole 90 mins. Two-three games will get the board and already under pressure Wenger will reconsider how they treat the customers. Won’t be an appealing brand to see either.
rico, as usual, your being too kind, I’d say she has tonsillitis !
Arsene needs to fcuk off as far away from Arsenal as possible, the moon would be a good start.
Thank you rico. Does anyone know why the board backed Kroenke to get into a majority shareholder position by advising Nina Bracewell-Smith to sell her shares to him? It would’ve seemed advisable for her to sell them to someone else, or a consortium, so there was no majority shareholder. I’m sure she would’ve had no trouble selling them, if that was her aim.
gmv8 , The story that I was told is That the Arsenal board at the time was split by personalities . There were differing factions with David Dein on one side and Danny Fiszman and Hill Wood on the other. . Dein had originally introduced Kroenke but the others had rebuffed him ,After Dein was voted off the board he went to Red & white and bought in Usmanov . Fiszman being scared that Dein would get back in encouraged the others to get Kroenke on board and they took the money and ran, albeit not too far as they kept their positions in the club and incidentally refused to reinvest their financial gains even to loan the club any of their gains to help it over the Stadium expenses.
That’s a tawdry tale Potter. Not one I’d heard before but eminently believeable.
How about this in our quest to remove silent syrupy Stan?………:
Arsenal may have gone out of the FA Cup and seen their title challenge falter but majority shareholder Stan Kroenke has been nominated for a sports executive of the year award in America.
BBC Sport via the Evening Standard.
You couldn’t make it up. Tosser.
Wavy, Stan is obviously successful as an owner/investor, but football and on field success mean nothing to him, so until he’s gone, things will roll along.
I’ll actually be amazed if we ever win another trophy while he remains involved.
Blimey we would have got Crystal Palace in the semis..
What a balls up!
Morning All
Morning Rico
Kev, would we have beaten them?
🙂
Of course Scott…
We should have won on Sunday
Morning Scott, Kev and all..
I thought the same Kev, what a royal cock up eh….
Yeah, very disappointing and it still stinks.
Morning Rico.
Morning Rico, Kev and all.
Apparently it’s a farce.
Stan and Arsene for a few more years yet, they say.
Fun times ahead lol.
I can see veins popping in heads as we speak 🙂
Surely, he will leave.
Total farce that Leicester are 11 points in front of Arsenal, with a wage bill of sub £50m, no oil money to back them and no real star players……..
True Brudder. Arsenal wage bill is over £190 million. I can’t see how Kroenke is culpable here myself. For other stuff perhaps but where we are right now is on Arsene and the players.
So Leicester and the spud’s combined salary bill is a lot less than ours? Wow that’s unreal…..
Morning Adam.
Kroenke should just put Wenger out of his misery. The bloke looks like a forlorn sad figure sat helplessly on the touchline as we are getting our arses handed to us on a plate, again and again! Enough is enough…..
Hi Rico. It is Brudder. It’s obviously only a measure but it is, nevertheless, revealing and not just for Arsenal. Chelsea spend over £200 million a year on wages. The difference is that you know that Abramovich will move to put things right where we are somehow stuck in a feedback loop. Unless Arsene decides otherwise.
Wonder how Leicester would get on if Wenger managed their last 8 games???
Lucky for us then, Stan won’t go.
Maybe he will suddenly cut loose and spend.
Hey, ya never know Hahahahahahaha
Watching Ranieri leaping up and down last night it was hard not to think of Arsene sitting there, haunted, immobile and unhealthily pallid. If I was his age with about £50 million in the German tank I would be living the life of Lee myself. 🙂
I was talking to my dad about the “farce” which is Arsenal, and he said how amazing it was that the only 2 outfield players Wenger could find in the last 18 months that could improve us were Gabriel and Elneny!
Enough said….
Plenty of Gooners owe Ranieri big time.
I mean, at the start of the season, it was going to be Chelski, Utd and Citeh who, with their summer spending, we’re going to put that final nail in Arsenes coffin.
That didn’t work out, but thanks to Leicester and Tottnum, we will fall short and finally, Arsene may be gone.
Phew.
Except for the fact that Arsene had plenty of money to spend but chose, through the benefit of his own judgement (nobody else’s) that he had enough to win big this year. In this sense I would say that he has put the nail in his own coffin.
As footballing misjudgements go, this was a biggie. You might expect it from a rookie but from a man who has made 30,000 substitutions ?
Still Wenger has already dipped his bony toe in the transfer market, we’ve procured the services of two Nigerian embryos, should help thwart Guardiola’s master plan next season…..
Brudder. Do you think he will be Arsenal manager on the first day of next season?
Kroenke and Ranieri….together, will we finally conquer Europe?
Unfortunately yes. That’s the last year of his deal isn’t it?
I don’t, I think he’ll walk away if the fan stuff continues…
Someone mentioned Wenger moving upstairs, only if he was getting on the helipad and leaving Arsenal for good was the guy’s retort!
It is, but nearing in mind his statements about last year’s of contracts, I can’t see it unless there is a new deal in the offing.
Unless something changes though I will be surprised if Mesut is still here.
Rico. I agree.
He will go, and we will see the real impact Stan has, once and for all.
It’s probably exactly what’s needed.
Conte has confirmed he’s quitting Italy after the Euros. That’s the Chelsea job filled then…
Rico, who would you have replace Wenger?
Pick one that’s possible, though.
I don’t watch enough to make a fully educated call, but I still like Martinez.
He’s had a decent grounding, and at least knows the PL.
So many ignore or disregard that experience.
Oh, if we can’t get Dennis, of course 🙂
I’m hoping the kitty is being saved for a new guy to spend…
Like you Scott, I don’t watch enough football to comment really. I like Martinez but I doubt he’ll leave Everton now, not with a shareholder who has said they’ll be plenty of money available..
Quite like the idea of Simeone (spelling) as he seems to be ruthless and I think we need a dose of that injected into the players… But I doubt he’ll leave At Madrid.
Rico,
To think a club like ours could be run on a shoestring…incredible, but the truth will be revealed when Arsene leaves, either way.
It certainly will Scott and hope it’s real soon…
New post up now..
Wenger can be seen as a series of contradictions, a problem that often afflicts the old and infirm. They lose the power of memory and projection into the future. For example of a few Wenger balls:
“We have enough” and then releases our best youngsters out on loan. How many? 6, 8 or so. With the exception of Sanogo all the rest could and perhaps should have had some quality first team action. But they were not available! Instead he kept the permanent crocks who have occupied 3 valuable first team squad spots. Etc etc.
“You find me better than what we already have.” I’ll leave it to you guys to fill in the innumerable, quality players who could have filled those spots.
“We will buy if we can get value for money”. Mahrez, Payet, Kane, Delli Ali, Stones, the list is endless.
“We try hard in every game,” not bloody hard enough it would seem.
“After 30 years as a coach, at the very highest level, there is nothing you can tell me that I don’t already know!” (Or words of that sort.) Hubris? Where is it?
“We cannot compete with the citehs, Chelsea’s or Uniteds of this world. We don’t have their money.” Except of course, according to Sir Chips, we have. We have plenty! Or is the syrup creaming off the top without declaring how many millions he is farming, via the Cayman Islands, back to one of his ranches back in the ol’ US of A! (Allegedly).
The truth is………there is no truth. Well not yet. We have to wait for the autobiography and then the truth may really be revealed……..or not!
Time for a change. New owner required. One who gives a shit, would be progress. And new manager required. Well who’s available? David Moyes, Brenda’s teeth, Dougie Freedman, Tony Adams, Merse! The list is endless. I’d put my money on Billy Wright because he would make Wenger look good and enable him to say, “you don’t know what you had until it’s gone”. That’d teach us, wouldn’t it?