Wenger is now basically a joke.

[DEADMAN 0]

wenger wont get anywhere with those shit players he has now mostly french

Edited April 25, 2011 by DEADMAN

[Marko 0]

wenger wont get anywhere with those shit players he has now mostly french

 

The same "shit players" who would practically walk into most sides in the premiership?

[DEADMAN 0]

maybe so but there not gonna win him the title are they

[Marko 0]

maybe so but there not gonna win him the title are they

 

possibly not, but they're far from shit!

[Park Life 71]

Think the shit player card has been played too early.

[Craig 6682]

I said after the close of the transfer window in September than Arsenal failing to get someone like Given in would cost them the title. But Wenger knows best....

[Park Life 71]

I said after the close of the transfer window in September than Arsenal failing to get someone like Given in would cost them the title. But Wenger knows best....

 

[Craig 6682]

I said after the close of the transfer window in September than Arsenal failing to get someone like Given in would cost them the title. But Wenger knows best....

 

 

Proven as well though isn't it? How many points have they thrown away due to keeping errors this year? The obvious one that springs to mind is Flapihandski against us at the Emirates. Seem to have been unable to make their mind up out of 3 of them as well - yes I know injuries have played their part.

[Park Life 71]

I said after the close of the transfer window in September than Arsenal failing to get someone like Given in would cost them the title. But Wenger knows best....

 

 

Proven as well though isn't it? How many points have they thrown away due to keeping errors this year? The obvious one that springs to mind is Flapihandski against us at the Emirates. Seem to have been unable to make their mind up out of 3 of them as well - yes I know injuries have played their part.

 

Oh I totally agree with you. He's probably too intelligent to rememdy the simple but glaring oversights in that big chess game he plays at night on his own in the dark.

[Tooj 17]

I said after the close of the transfer window in September than Arsenal failing to get someone like Given in would cost them the title. But Wenger knows best....

Even having someone like Given in goal, they'd still have bottled it.

[Rob W 0]

time for him to go I think

[Craig 6682]

I said after the close of the transfer window in September than Arsenal failing to get someone like Given in would cost them the title. But Wenger knows best....

Even having someone like Given in goal, they'd still have bottled it.

 

Possibly, but it's a position they're massively weak in. History proves as well that to win the league you need a fucking good keeper.

[Craig 6682]

 

Sergio Ramos favourite for Arsenal goalkeeping position

 

After dropping an expensive trophy from the top of an open-top bus, Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos has been installed as the bookmakers favourite to be the new Arsenal goalkeeper.

 

The exquisite handling demonstrated by Ramos is sure to make him a hit at the Emirates stadium, where fans have been treated to some of the most outstanding handling errors in recent memory.

 

Former Arsenal goalkeeper David Seaman told reporters, “Sure, he’s an attacking fullback by trade, but with that sort of handling he certainly wouldn’t look out of place behind an arsenal back four.”

 

“What you have to remember is that the Arsenal fans have come to expect the unexpected from their goalkeepers, going back to me being lobbed from halfway by Nayim, to Szczesny throwing the ball at the feet of Obefemi Martins in the final minute of the league cup final.”

 

“And what could be more unexpected than throwing your new trophy in front of a bus. It was exceptional.”

 

Ramos himself has been quick to distance himself from a move to the Emirates.

 

He told Spanish television, “I am flattered that Arsenal think I can improve their defence, but I see myself further upfield, making mistakes with my feet rather than my hands.”

 

“I don’t think what I did was anything special, and I’m sure if you’d stuck Jens Lehman on top of a bus with a trophy in his hands he’d have done exactly the same.”

 

Source: http://newsthump.com/2011/04/21/sergio-ram...eping-position/

[brummiemag1 0]

I dont understand what Arsenal fans are moaning about

 

I would give Wenger a 10 year contract at Newcastle tomorrow if I could - marvellous football - brilliant manager

 

Not that he would be the slightest bit interested in coming to a club as unambitious as us

[ohhh_yeah 2947]

 

 

Very interesting read even though it is a bit lengthy.

 

Arsène, if I say 6945, today on the 9th of October, what comes to mind ?

 

AW: Nothing

 

You have been manager of Arsenal for 6945 days. Thats as many days as all the current Premier League managers put together.

 

AW: Really? And how many seconds is that if youre so good at maths (laughs) ?

 

Easy: 6945 x 24 x 3600!

 

AW: For me it doesnt represent anything except doing a job that is exclusively turned to the future. Towards the next day. I always live in the future. Its planned. Tight. My relationship with time is filled with anxiety. Im always fighting against it. Thats why I ignore whats in the past.

 

How is the coming minute a source of anxiety?

 

AW: Im always afraid of being late. Of not being ready. Of not being able to accomplish what Ive planned. My relationship with time is distressing in every way. Going back in time, looking back is just as scary. First of all its scary because theres not as much to come as what has already been lived The only way to fight time is to not look back too much. If you do, it can make you feel anxious and guilty.

 

You use the word anxiety to describe both tomorrow and yesterday

 

AW: The only possible moment of happiness is the present. The past gives you regrets. And the future uncertainties. Man understood this very fast and created religion. It absolves you of what youve done wrong in the past and tells him not to worry about the future, because hell go to paradise. It means make the most of the present. Man self psychoanalysed himself very quickly through faith.

 

Your lucidity on the relationship between man and religion is very different from your outlook as a teenager. In those days, you read the missal to help your team win

 

AW: Unfortunately, it doesnt work as well today ! Thats a good thing though it means my team doesnt necessarily need God to win.

 

In your relationship with the present, the game, does the manager feel like hes entrusted with an almost mystical power? You are the creator of your team, its playing style, its strategy.

 

AW: Religiously, it is said that God created man. I am only a guide. I enable others to express what they have within them. I didnt create anything. I am a facilitator of what is beautiful in man. I define myself as an optimist. My never ending struggle in this business is to release what is beautiful in man. I can be described as naïve in that sense. But it allows me to believe, and I am often proven right.

 

Not always

 

AW: Sometimes, I cant generate the best that man has in him. It gives me the opportunity to analyse where Ive failed.

 

Earlier on, while you were getting dressed for the photo shoot, I was reminded of a quote by Mircea Lucescu, the Shakhtar Donetsk manager, about you: Arsène is an aristocrat. He is not driven by the working class values of an Alex Ferguson or the aggressive nature of a José Mourinho. He tires to educate above all. Do you recognise yourself in that description?

 

AW: I dont deny that Im first and foremost an educator. However, I dont feel like an aristocrat at all. If you had lived with me, loading manure on carts, you would have understood. I try to be faithful to the values that I believe to be important in life and to pass them on to others. In thirty years as a manager, Ive never had my players injected to make them better. I never gave them any product that would help enhance their performance. Im proud of that. Ive played against many teams that werent in that frame of mind.

 

Aristocracy can be a state of mind; its not necessarily inherited.

 

AW: I dont deny what others feel, but feel like a kid from Duttlenheim who went running in the fields every day. Aristocrats had their heads cut off in France. I strive to pass on values. Not the right of blood. A civilisation that does not honour its dead or its values is doomed.

 

Precisely, youre in England, and you didnt keep your farmers outfit. Youre always impeccable on the bench on game day.

 

AW: Because I feel responsible for the image that football has, and the image that I want to give of my club. And also, football is a celebration. And where I come from, we dressed up on Sundays. I loved arriving in England and seeing the managers wearing suits and ties. As if they were saying, Listen lads, our goal is to make a celebration out of this moment. I joined in. I want that fan to wake up in the morning and say, Arsenal are playing today, Im going to have a good time. That guy starts his day off by thinking that something good is going to happen to him. And to do that, big clubs have to have the ambition to play spectacularly. Of shared happiness. We dont always succeed.

 

Spending a good day at the Emirates doesnt have very much to do with a good day at Highbury does it?

 

AW: The expectation has risen. The philosophical definition of happiness is a match between what you want and what you have. And what you want changes as soon as youve got it. Always more. Always better. Hence the difficulty to satisfy. An Arsenal fan, when you finish fourth, will say, Hey, weve been in the top four for twenty years. We want to win the league!. They dont care that Manchester City or Chelsea have spent 300 or 400 million euros. They just want to beat them. But if you finish fifteenth two years running, they will be happy if you finish fourth after that.

 

Its not only the fans that are impatient. Even Thierry Henry said on Sky Sports : Arsenal must win (in English in the original text), this season.

 

AW: Must can be used for death. We must all die one day. In my life, I prefer replacing must with want. Wanting more than having to. If you tell me, you have to go out tonight, I dont want to go out as much. If you tell me do you want to go out? Yes, I want to! Thats love for life. Must, must I mustnt do anything!

 

At least, thats said now

 

AW: For me, the beauty of sport is that everyone wants to win, but there will only be one winner. If you put 20 billionaires at the end of the twenty English clubs, there will only be one champion and nineteen disappointments. My grandfather used to say I dont understand, at the 100 metres, one runs in 10.1 seconds and the other one in 10.2 seconds, both are very fast. Whats the point?

 

Today, we glorify the one that ran in 10.1 seconds, and say the one that ran 10.2 seconds. But both of them are very fast. Thats dangerous for sports. We have reached an era in which we glorify the winner, without looking at the means or the method. And ten years later we realise the guy was a cheat. And during that time, the one that came second suffered. He didnt get recognition. And with all thats been said about themthey can be very unhappy.

 

You insist on being fair play, are you a real Englishman in that sense?

 

AW: I havent always been fair play. In each and every one of use there is the desire to win and hatred for defeat. It was very difficult for me to be fair play because of my aversion for defeat. Speaking of which, I still am the only manager to have won the league without losing a single game. But the English have something more when it comes to fair play. Look at the rugby team, knocked out in the group stages at home and they clapped the Australians off the field. That deserves respect! You know how much they suffer. How they are humiliated. Its good for the image of sport.

 

What I enjoyed about sumo in Japan is that at the end of the fight, the winner never celebrates so as to not humiliate the loser. Ive greatly suffered in defeat. When I see the behaviour and the excesses in some countries, I think the values the Japanese culture conveys or the English sense of values are remarkable.

 

In what way have you become English?

 

AW: Its the country of the heart. It is not afraid of emotion. In English, people will say I love it!. We pollute our emotions because of our Cartesian spirit. We dont know how to love without limits. We like PSG, but The English know how to lose themselves in emotions.

 

Many former Gunners stayed in England after their careers, people like Robert Pirès, Patrick Vieira or Thierry Henry. Will you be a Londoner forever?

 

AW: I havent decided yet. One thing is for sure; my link to Arsenal will remain until the end of my days. Ive had opportunities that Ive always refused. I dont see myself as a manager anywhere else.

 

Are you sure?

 

AW: Almost (laughs). If tomorrow morning Arsenal says goodbye and thank you, I cant swear that I wont keep working, keep living my passion. But probably not in England.

 

Educating rather than coaching?

 

AW: I dont want the will to educate to be opposed to the will to win. That makes the educator sound like an idiot. Any managers approach must be to educate. One of the beauties of our job is the power to influence the course of a mans life in a positive way. You and me have been lucky enough to meet people who believed in us and led us forward. The streets are full of talented people but who didnt have the luck of finding someone who placed their faith in them. I can be the one that facilitates life, that give an opportunity.

 

And when, during a game, youre confronted to an opposing manager for whom only the result matters, and not the means

 

AW: Ive been called naïf on that level. In any case, theres only one way to live your life. You have to conform to the values you believe to be important. If I dont respect them, I would be unhappy. And in any case, Ive always been a man who was completely committed to the cause. With my good and my bad sides.

 

If you had to pick one moment in your career?

 

AW: Arriving in London with complete scepticism. My first league title, my first double. Going from Arsène Who to the one who became a pioneer. Being the first non-British coach to succeed in England.

 

And if there was a pain?

 

AW: Being questioned on everything that has been done after every single loss, despite the consistency weve put in our work at the highest level. The immediate chuck it all out reaction. You have to find a balance between your masochistic capability to endure what youre being put through and the pleasure of accomplishment. Today, my masochistic capability must be bigger so as to express my passion. Ive reached that point. I do many things that make me suffer.

 

Is that why you stay away from the media?

 

AW: Of course. Do you know someone who wakes up in the morning and says: Hey, Id like to get fifty whiplashes.

 

 

You say youve been described as naive. Do you not prefer to be called an idealist?

 

AW: A guy said: There is only one way to live with the idea of death, it is to try and transform the present into art. That works with what weve just been talking about.

 

Art is not necessarily a source of universal beauty. Some works can be popular, or be shocking depending on the relation one has to beauty.

 

AW: I chose a team sport. There is a kind of magic when men unite their energies to express a common idea. That is when sport becomes beautiful. The unhappiness of man comes when he finds himself alone to fight against the problems he must face. Especially in modern society. Team sport has a value, that of being able to be ahead of its time. You can play with eleven players from eleven different countries and offer a collective work. Todays sports can show what the world of tomorrow will be. We can share fabulous emotions with people that you cant talk to. That is not yet possible in daily society. When tennis becomes the Davis Cup, it carries something it otherwise doesnt. Same with golf and the Ryder Cup. People feel it. The vibration is there.

 

Could you have been coach in an individual sport?

 

AW: I dont think so. Going to the bottom of an individual, finding out what motivates him also interests me greatly. But I was raised in team sports and my psyche was built around that. Being the coach of a single athlete would have frustrated me. Thats linked to my education. In my village, we only played football and basketball.

 

Does the fact that you were a professional footballer, but not a great player, give you more leniency, patience regarding what your team can accomplish?

 

AW: You can explain that by the relationship with frustration of a player who didnt reach what he was striving for. Anything could have happened, however my career would have panned out, I would have stayed in football. Football was obviousness to me. A bit of a crazy obviousness. Sometimes, when I was 24-25 years old I thought: shit if I cant play football anymore Ill commit suicide! I was thinking: what is the point of life after it?

 

Seriously?

 

AW: Seriously. I tried for a long time to understand how you could be that stupid. Simply because I was raised in a bar-restaurant that was the HQ of a football club. We only spoke about football. The guys sorted out the teams on Wednesday and Tuesday to play on Sunday. I was barely walking and already watching them, listening to them. And I thought: Wow, theyre going to play him on the left wing, well its going to be another tough one.

 

Did you get involved quickly in the discussions?

 

AW: Oh yes. By the time I was 4 or 5 I started being conscious of them and I began joining in when I was 9-10. I was locked in a culture where, unconsciously, I thought football was important in life. Because people only spoke about that.

 

How did you become more secure, reassured about your anguished as a 24-25 year old?

 

AW: Actually it happened gradually. When I was 25-26 I went to give a conference in Mulhouse with a mate who was a technical advisor. He offered me to train coaches. The transformation process was gradually being put into place. Then, my manager at Strasbourg Max Hild told me: Come to the academy with me. I went there and I became his assistant. He quickly became first-team manager, so I was promoted as Academy Director when I was 30. At 32 years old I dedicated myself to it, I stopped playing. I didnt have time to ask myself any existential questions. Ambitions adapt to physical potential to start off. I knew I could play football forever.

 

Do you think about the end of your career as a manager? A new small death. Youve just turned 66.

 

AW: I completely ignore that question. Im kind of like the 34 year old guy whos still playing. He has a bad game and everybody says Time to hang them up mate!. I dont even ask myself the question of what I will do after because it will be a big shock. Much harder than switching from player to coach. Because this time, it will be about switching from hyperactivity to emptiness. Thats why I refuse to consider that question. Im like a guy whos not far from his goal, who keeps going and ignores the wall.

Now if I tell you Erik you have 24 hours to live. Will you imagine the blade that will slit your throat during all of your remaining 24 hours or will you try to live them to the fullest? Its the question of the ending of life really.

 

Are you inspired by the successful example of Alex Ferguson who suddenly retired at 71 because his distressed wife requested it from him after the passing of her sister?

 

AW: For me at that level Ferguson is an example. First off, he always found a way to renew himself, to evolve. He didnt stay frozen in success. Thats a quality of his I appreciate. He knew how to constantly challenge himself. Even if he did it instinctively. But he had other passions. He like horses. Wine. He knows red wine better than I do. I met him recently and I said: Alex, dont you miss it?. He said not at all. I was disappointed and comforted at the same time. Its a reason to hope.

 

You dont have other passions?

 

AW: No. Thats where my anxiety comes from. Im not Ferguson. I dont have a substitute and Im not interested in looking back. Like writing a book on what happened to me. I live it as a suffering when former players come and see me and theyre not fully happy. Being introduced as Mr. X, former Arsenal player, and not for what he is today, that hurts. Being what you were is a suffering. I hope that in my life after football, I can be something else than the former Arsenal manager. Coach kids. Be useful.

 

Why do you not keep anything from your past?

 

AW: It worries me a bit. If you come to my place, you could never guess Im a football manager. If you ask me where my last FA Cup medal is, I dont know. I think I gave it to the team doctor or the kit man.

 

Its paradoxical for the manager of a club that has an acute sense of history and passing on.

 

AW: Im very interested in the history of others. Mine Im much less interested in. Because I know it and not going through it allows me to forget all the stupid things Ive done. You avoid the feeling of guiltiness. I always found it a bit pathetic that people would tour their own museums and talk about all the good theyve done in their lives.

 

Who else other than you will leave a mark of your career?

 

AW: My club will do it very well. Media are so developed nowadays that they will tell a story about me, even if it wont necessarily be my story. The real one is probably more interesting because a lot of things are not known. My father, for example, used to collect everything that was written about me. Sometimes, I fell like Im betraying him. Because Im not interested in that. Maybe that will change. Who knows, maybe one day Ill think: my friend, its time to pause and reflect on whats happened.

 

Tell to transmit better?

 

AW: The most beautiful thing about my job is the power to pass on and influence the lives of others. In a positive way.

 

How do you feel about being alive and there being a statue of you, like Thierry Henry and Sir Alex Ferguson?

 

AW: I feel a bit uneasy about it. I prefer having to fight every day to convince people Im doing a decent job. Nowadays, questions are asked very quickly of you. Whats changes in our job is that the accolades you may accumulate dont protect you. We have to fight to be respected.

 

Is it harder for a modern manager to convince than to win?

 

AW: To win you have to convince. Society has switched from verticality to horizontality. In the 60s a coach would say lads were going to do it this way nobody contested it. Now you have to convince first. The player is rich. The characteristic of the rich man is the need to convince him. Because he has a status. A way of thinking. People nowadays are informed. Therefore they have an opinion. And they think their opinion is right. They dont necessarily share my opinion, so I have to convince them.

 

It took you some time at the beginning at Arsenal to get the club and its fans to follow your principle.

 

AW: Arsenal is a club with tradition that is not afraid of innovating.

 

Because you and David Dein, back then vice-president of Arsenal, but above-all your friend changed traditions.

 

AW: They were not scared of following me. That was a true act of courage.

 

They gave you time first and foremost. Youre starting your twentieth year at the head of Arsenal.

 

AW: Time is a real luxury. I give myself credit for one thing: I always treated Arsenal as if it belonged to me. Ive been criticised for it. Because I dont spend enough. Im not carefree enough. I give myself credit for having the courage to apply my ideas and to fight for them. I can understand that people dont agree. My great pride will be, the day I leave, that Im leaving a good squad, a healthy situation and a club capable of performing in the future. I could have thought: Im here for four or five years, we win everything, I leave and leave the club on the verge of bankruptcy. For me, consistency at the highest level is the true sign of a great club. Real Madrid didnt win the title for 21 years before Di Stefanos arrival in 1953 after all.

 

Today at Real Madrid, you can be crowned champion and be sacked anyway

 

AW: Theyve entered the modern path. They need new faces. The addiction to headlines. For me, consistency in the results depends on the cohesion within the club. Throwing everything out, all the time only makes sense if you have hyper unlimited revenue. Then you can win. If not youre done.

 

You speak of consistency and patience. When you were manager at Monaco, you were rather volcanic.

 

AW: Ive matured. I went to Japan. I learned to control myself. I have a hypersensitivity that Ive learned to master. I really started coaching a 33, Im 66 now. I had to adapt to survive.

 

Would your health have worsened if you hadnt?

 

AW: No. Ive always been prepared to stupidly pay the price with my health, but the price of survival in this business. Because I realised that I could cause irreparable damage after matches.

 

Your stint in Japan where you coached Nagoya Grampus Eight (1994 1996) changed you profoundly.

 

AW: The chairman, Shoichiro Toyoda, told me he wanted to make Nagoya the greatest club in Japan and in the world within 100 years. That negates the pressure of immediacy in a fabulous way. What becomes a loss if you project your destiny on a century? I also found that idea extremely generous. Only being a conveyor belt in history, as a part of a movement that is much larger than you are. Being part of something that is beyond you. Unfortunately, we live too often with the idea that the world is going to stop after us. That is not humanity. There is a form of scientism in that. Being the carrier of an always-improving destiny for humanity. We can question that today

 

Thats the least you can say

 

AW: Nagoya questioned it (laughs). They havent made much progress since Ive left them. Its only been twenty years though. Actually, Toyoda is back and they come back to see me for advice. Im still very close to them.

[toonotl 2962]

Interesting read. I hope he does decide to write an autobiography once he retires. It would be worth reading, which is more than you can say about the majority of footballers' autobiographies.

[Gemmill 44495]

Fucking hell, he's not thick is he.

[Howmanheyman 32826]

Disappointing interview, never used the phrase 'we was' once, let alone 'fret' and 'early doors'.

[Monkeys Fist 42129]

Bit harsh HMHM.

I thought the boy done good.

[Meenzer 15432]

Robbie Savage would have a thing or two to say about that.

[Alex 34912]

Fucking hell, he's not thick is he.

The thinking man's Alan Pardew. Good read.

[BLACKANDWHITEGEORDIE 0]

Robbie who???

[Rob W 0]

Idiot from Wales who only gets on the Beeb because he's really cheap..................

[The Fish 10779]

Good read that, even if I did have to stop myself reading every Wenger line as "Awww, I've matured. I went to Japan. " or whatever.

[ohhh_yeah 2947]

 

Arsenal will the opponents this season for the MLS All-Star match in San Jose.

 

 

 

 

As a bonus everybody's favorite American, Alexis Lalas will be in attendance.