Jibes from fans are nothing new for 66 year old Arsene Wenger but he thinks they could become a whole lot worse next season. The Arsenal chief believes that the changing landscape of the British football world could spell a totally new challenge in the upcoming season.
So far this year, everything from this manager’s tactics to his age have come under fire from a section of fans as they demand that the he leaves the club. He readily admits that the team’s performance isn’t where it should be but has a plan to fix it.
Underdogs seem to have been the theme last season with Leicester City coming from nowhere this season to snatch the Premier League title. Stories keep flooding in about those who bet on the team back at the beginning of the summer 2015 who have now received a massive windfall. No gambler could have anticipated Leicester would win the league, certainly not with odds of 5000/1.
Sites that give you free funds for registering are always in high demand but people who put their funds on the Premier League stood to profit huge amounts. Bingo is another game which is seen as one of the best ways to turn loose change into a big jackpot win but Leicester offered an even bigger return on investment.
On regrets about the season, Wenger had only to say that every team feels sorrow when they lose and each manager would be looking back at what could have been done differently. He said that it’s a matter of taking it in his stride and admitting that mistakes were made. Instead of getting hung up on the emotional side of the games, it’s more important to this manager to look ahead to their next victory.
The problem he faces next season is that more than one team will be gathering their forces before then, including Leicester City. They came out of nowhere this year but through the season they would have made more cash so can spend this summer. Arsene Wenger said that any team that can afford good players are capable of winning big and sponsorship will allow Leicester City to do so again.
Wenger is concerned that this is the start of a new era of football after Leicester City claimed top spot. He appreciates that it’s about the team but he also thinks that the way that football is played is changing. With significant investment coming into West Ham and a brand new stadium for Tottenham, he questions which teams will be able to afford to win next.
The top four, one of who were accustomed to winning the league each season are now on their way out according to Wenger. The pay to win attitude is seeping in through the league but Arsenal fans are left wondering if money really is the solution to winning the league for so long, or has it been just a case of poor management over recent times, especially last season.
Finally, Jack Wilshere won’t be in Arsene Wenger’s good books this morning after his comments about where he plays each week for his club. Oops, sorry, where he plays a couple of times a season…!
He’s been quoted as saying:
With Arsenal I’ve been playing out wide, which is not me. I’m not a wide man. But Roy seems to have faith in me in the middle, so I’m happy with that.
I like to play anywhere in the middle. I played the holding role before and I really enjoy that. I was a bit higher up the pitch against Turkey and I enjoyed that.
Perhaps he’s creeping around Roy Hodgson as he’s desperate to play for his country. Perhaps his comments have been twisted as the media like to do, but then again, perhaps he wants a big money move to Man City…
Whatever is the case, I doubt Arsene will be pleased, especially having played him at the end of the season just so Jack could prove his fitness to the England camp and in doing so, Tomas Rosicky remained on the sidelines when he could have had one more time on the pitch in an Arsenal shirt.
I bet Arsene regrets that decision now……
Very good read.
JW is a hammer and not an Arsenal fan and so he doesn’t surprise me with his lack of loyalty.
With city almost signing Gundogan bar insurers/underwritters refusal JW has a limited choice. Maybe the special one will sign him for Yanited…
Does Mourinho rate Jack then Ts?
Lol… I have no idea Rico. But we know Jose likes to meddle.
I might take a Mata-JW swap…
Rashford and Wilshere swap for me… 😉
Joey Barton is on his way to Rangers, good. Means we won’t be facing the little squirt when we play Burnley….
Jack needs to shut, get fit, and remember how much Wenger has stood by his childish ways. I wouldn’t have a problem with letting him go to be an injured central midfielder elsewhere. He should also remember that our season fell apart after the injuries to Cazorla, Coquelin and Sanchez, we didn’t seem too badly affected by his injury in August, did we?
Welcome KW.
Tough call for me re Jack as had he been fit, maybe he’d have solved the huge problem we had once Santi got injured. We’ll never know now but he might have.
But agree, he certainly needs to think twice about moaning playing wide, especially as it’s been pointed out by others, the last time he played wide was ages ago….
Hi all, at least Wenger seems to see shift in the so called big clubs, now what is he doing about it?
Well Jack was stating the obvious. He must be feeling the pressure too with addition of Xhaka (have we really signed him?)
Ah, the million dollar question Marshall, what is he going to do about it.
Something I hope…..
Afternoon All/ Rico
What was that quote for Wilshere, £18.75m…
That’s a figure in the real world, not the crazy madcap EPL…
If he has a good Euro 2016 we should be able to double that and a bit more…
Maybe it’s me, but I don’t think that saying that playing out wide ‘isn’t me’ is a lot different to what Ramsey said about not wanting to play out wide or Theo said about wanting to play through the middle.
Players’ say these things, it’s what they do…
Ha ha ha, Jack is just being a jack. I hate players who think loud about their preferences wrt playing position. Ramsey wined about wanting play central, and when put there he flopped. Walcott wailed about wanting to play central striker through the middle, he was given a chance and he flopped. Jack played central against Turkey and was average. Play where the coach says you must play according to the tactics of that da. I hate player power! I wouldn’t loose my sleep if we loose Jack to the petrol-dollar
Jack plus some money for Martial, who I find an impressive player. Doubt there is much chance though as I imagine we can look forward to that scumbag re-igniting his feud with Wenger before too long. Sociopaths just cannot let it go. Bad feeling between us and Man Utd for a few seasons now.
If they sell Martial, I only see him going to PSG and at a huge price tag.
When has there not been ? Just ask Nutty Nige and Good old uncle Keown.
Potter. Agreed, but Mourinho will take that to a new level.
Afternoon Kev and all..
I forgot about Martial Adam, definitely do that swap, chuck in Walcott, Sanogo and any others we don’t want… 😉
Hello All:
Jack is right!! How is he being disloyal? In my view, as a manager, you either play players at their proper positions or sit them. How many times have we all complained about the unbalanced line-ups AW keeps playing. Jack is not a winger we all know that. Alexis is constantly played on the wrong side, Walcott is not a”hold-up” striker, Ramsey should not be on the field……., Give the dude some credit about time a player said something – I don’t mind that he said it publicly, is off season.
Welcome Boyd, sorry for the delay in letting you out of moderation, I was out in the sunshine tidying my garden as it’d been so quiet…
Obi, all I’d say to any of those players is stop feeding the media. We all know they love to hate us and now Jack is with England, they’ll love him and print anything negative about Arsenal…
The question remains as to when was the last time Jack was actually played wide, a position he informs us he doesn’t like. FFS the bloke has been out for almost a year and that’s just with his latest injury.
The sense of entitlement that some of these players have is pathetic to say the least. Haven’t they got eyes to see what is happening in the world. It’s all gimme, gimme and the more they get, the more they bitch and the less they do.
You have a point Obi, but imo JW started out as a winger and played on the wings at Bolton. 2 seasons ago when he scored 5 or so goals he was played on the rhs.
Oddly, JW has not played as a winger for over a year; albeit he has injured and so in my opinion this latest ‘rant’ is not fair or merited.
With AS17 I doubt he even knows where or what his fave position is.
At Udinese he was a left winger. He was moved upfront to partner Di Natalie as a 2nd striker; when he moved to Barca he played on the rhs and flopped in his first season. In his second season his best season in Europe he played on the lhs.
Only AW and Chile’s current manager has trusted AS17 to play upfront. Soldati at Udinese did not even want to play AS17 upfront when Di Natali was out…
I couldn’t agree more with your above post Adam….
Good day all!
What is JW good for?
He dwells on the ball too much and we can’t even see one of his famed reversed pass when he was a teenager.
When we need him to conduct a fast-paced counter-attack, he prefers to take-on 2 or 3 players instead of “one-touch one-pass” to move and anticipate the return pass to set-up plays.
We all had been so spoilt by Fabregas, who always plays with his head up, scanning the pitch and think and move a split-second before his opponent even see the opening.
Look more like an English Diaby and doubt he can play 20+ games next season with his style of driving through a pack of 3 or 4 players, inviting them to hack him down, and not agile enough to skip out of tackles.
If Guardiola is daft enough to offer 50-mil for him, sell him as his continual off-field antics meant that he is another troubled “Gazza” never fulfilled his potential due to getting rich at too fast a pace at a young age and will remain undisciplined.
Brit Pack 1.0 is dead.
Cut the losses and start anew with the current bunch Brit Pack 2.0 like Iwobi, Willock and Crowley.
Claudio Ranieri’s men pocketed a little over £93 million for finishing on top of the English top flight.
Arsenal make the most
The highest earners were Arsenal, who ended the season in second place.
While the Gunners were slammed for the majority of the season amid the growth of the ‘Wenger Out’ brigade in north London, when it came to the balance sheet Arsene Wenger’s charges trousered just under £101 million.
The second highest earners in 2015-16 were Man City who, despite finishing fourth, took in just under £97 million.
Two other teams who made more money than Leicester were Manchester United, who collected £96.5 million, and Tottenham, who scooped a little over £95 million.
At the other end of the pay scale, Aston Villa scraped the bottom of the barrel with a payment of £66 million.
http://www.101greatgoals.com/news/leicester-earned-93m-winning-epl-arsenal-made-100m-coming-second-graphic/
The difference between Leicester City and Arsenal is 101 – 93 = £8 million, enough to pay Arsene Wenger annual salary. 😀
No wonder Silent Stan loves this rain-maker so much.
Cheers TS. I am just waiting to hear Jack’s views on Brexit.
Spot on Adam…
Rico, TS, and Adam, you are all making valid points. But I think that if a player doesn’t want to play in a certain position, then by default, almost always he becomes ineffective to the team goal. Because of this, we have an Arsenal team where everyone runs straight to the middle. Rather than play a player out of a position, just sit him. TS, Jacks problem with playing on the wing is not on the offensive side of things (goals) since he always cuts in anyways, is on the defensive when he gets expose tracking back. With Sanchez we know that he’s much better on one side than the other at Arsenal, and to me is not about a players’ fave position but his most effective.
Ts – the ‘next Liam Brady’ wasn’t he labelled??
Obi, the only reason I mentioned it in the post is A) Jack hasn’t played for all but a few minutes all season, B) as Adam and Ts said, he hasn’t played on the wings for a ages..
With his injury record, he should thank his lucky starts the club have stood by him and paid him and if I was him, I’d keep pretty quiet…
Rico to be honest, I think Jack just like many current English players are over hyped, and if Xhaka is done I would really consider selling him and go for Mkhitaryan. The problem I have is that most posters here act as though its a player’s fault that he gets injuries. Injuries are part of the game, you think that Jack wants to be out for a year or Diaby don’t want to play? You train your whole life for the big stage, bro.
I get that Obi but I wouldn’t say most of us think his injuries are his own fault, although the way he plays the game doesn’t help his cause and for sure he’d rather be playing than injured, just like Diaby and Tomas too…
Tbh, I don’t think AW would even consider selling him….
He was Rico.
Adam- you know Bojo will wheel out JW to help the Leave camp.. 😛
Merlin- your post is above is another indication why there is no point in AW to spend an extra £50m to win the title as the return will be less than what the club puts in…
neoliberalism within football. With AW being the best econmist in the capitalist world, he should aiming to replace Christine Lagarde at the IMF… 😉
In teh dream world Corbyn will be PM with Monsieur Wenger as Chancellor. Adam as Foreign secretary with Kev as Home Secretary. I will settle for the lowly the portfolio of Secretary for International Development, all funds would have to go through my personal accounts first.
True Obi re. effective position.
My view is that AW as much as I defend him is too liberal for these over paid male ‘prima- donaas’.
Iniesta has not played through the middle for a very long time but I never hear him complain.. ok maybe he does in Catalan but…
Wooney never complained to the media when he was moved behind Robin Van Purstrings either…
I guess the caveat is players wont complain as long as they are in a winning team. PV04 was an attacking midfielder when he joined us but I guess as part of a winning team he could not complain; plus he was a small fish then…
True Rico, AW will never sell JW. I wouldn’t mind bringing Tomas back for another season, he can be our Xabi Alonso, IF he can stay healthy. I don’t think both MA and him leaving helps the club. TS, AW has said it before, that it doesn’t pay to win the title. When Man City won it, I heard him say that the if Arsenal had won would’ve been 2m, not adjusted for transfer fees.
Obi, I’m hoping Arteta will stay on and continue to around the players which would be good imo, keeping Tomas would be great IF he could stay fit and for a similar reason to Arteta but the reality is, he won’t…
Evening all…………….you are consistant with your quality, Rico !
So Wenger is saying it will be harder next season to win EPL !
OK Le Prof….Mr Inteligence….Degree in Economic…..speaks 17 languages ……former interpreter for the Klingon Ambassador…………….we choked this season with lack of goals because of your uncanny sixth sense that we didn`t need to buy an outfield player last summer ( the only club in the top 4 leagues in Europe not to do so !) and you know it`s going to be harder next season as per your quote……… so where`s the blatantly slap you in the face with Kroenke`s abacus shaped knob obvious super quality world class strikers (plural you notice) we need ?
As for Jack, well I`m a Wilshereite !………..I just pray he`s past his injury curse, but I wont hold my breath !
Not mine today LC, it was a sponsored post, I have to try an earn a living… Lol
As for the rest of your comment…..
??
Mourinho is close to being confirmed as the Utd manager…
Get a move on Arsene because that w****r will do all he can to beat you to transfers…
What concerns me, Rico, is that if we were to all hold our breaths for numerous Arsenal gripes such as….Wenger spending the money…..Kroenke fucking off…..Theo skillfully dribbling past a defender…..Giroud hitting a barn door……a pre 60 min tactical substitution……Arsene to beat Maureen…..Arsene to listen to someone other than his mirror etc` etc` etc`……………well, we`d all die !
So no holding breath`s HHers !…..I may be just a van driver with no medical skills, but believe me it`s bad for your health !
With you there LC…
So many words eh….
I’m off guys, you all have a good evening…
Night all…
Ginge, I want to be Minister of Transport…
I’d ban Uber and get rid of TfL…
I see that Edison Cavani is staying at PSG…
Does that mean that Arsenal will longer be linked to him?
Probably not, as long as people click on all those shit click-bait sites.
Just like me… ?
rico 7.53, transfers lol,……do you know something we don’t, come on gal spill the beans !
I wish Micko… lol
Like the rest of us, I just hope….
Morning all..
Kev- re. Uber you probably have to write a cheque to buy out Goldman Sachs ( the evil bastards) out first. Unfortunately none of the politicians bought and paid for will even dare balancing the unfair advantage they hold….
Good morning Rico and all…
Morning… so John hartson thinks wenger will spend 150m… I want some of what he’s smoking. 🙂
Morning Ts..
Brexit….. Jack has three for breakfast with warm milk Brudder!
He posted a selfie on Twitter eating them in his aventador!
Morning Kel, I believe him… 🙂
Kel- did John say pounds sterling or Vietnamese dong?
🙂 Lee, morning to you…
150 quid more like it rico. 😀
Still no confirmation of Xhaka? Strange.
Lol ts probably m8… i met hartson had a beer with him and tbh he’s a nice guy seemed a sensible guy. . I hope is right. ..
Morning all.
The only way Kroenke would allow £150M spent is on a cheap ranch or the most life like syrup where you cant see the join !.
Ha ha Kel.
Maybe Xhaka will be one of 2/3 signings announced at once… lol
I think the club knows they have to spend big rico they need a quality striker no ifs or buts Aubameyang, morata, Higuain…. All gonna cost 50m and up… add xhaka and a much needed centre half.. 100m looks likely imo…
I just hope we get the right players…
I’m just writing about that Kel… lol
🙂 LC, do they make such a thing?
You only have to look at the owners for how they will spend !
Kroenke is a billionaire and lets face it, he`s so rich he could have hair from his Arse, scrotum, his wife`s lady parts or even the rest of what Gazidis has left, but he wears an ASDA/Walmart value syrup !….what does that tell you ?
New post up now…