It is getting a bit tiresome isn't it, this whole Arsene Wenger thing?
Arsenal fans seem to be falling out with each other over our own manager. There is a dichotomy forming between those called the "Wenger Out Brigade" and those called the "Arsene Knows Best Brigade".
These two groups are the extremes, they are polar opposites. In between I lie, along with the vast majority of Gooners. Let me explain the terms.
The "Wenger Out Brigade" have emerged over the last number of weeks. They blame all of Arsenal's woes on the current Arsenal manager, believing that he is a stubborn, selfish man who is putting his own interests in front of that of the club.
In recent games they have chanted "Wenger Out," but their views remain a minority for now.
The "Arsene Knows Best Brigade" have been around for a lot longer but are coming more to the fore now. They believe that Arsene Wenger is some form of God who does not put a foot wrong. The complete transformation of Arsenal has been attributed to Wenger by the AKBs.
There are various levels of AKB syndrome, but those that suffer from it the most never, ever question any decision made by the manager.
In MY honest opinion, I believe neither side of the divide are correct.
I have stated here before my support of Wenger and his style of play. Having said that, for me he will never be bigger than Arsenal FC. If he was in the wrong I would have absolutely no problem in saying so.
In fact, he does have questions to answer but not to the level that he has been accused. If I feel Wenger is in the wrong I will say so; however, if I feel he is wronged I will say so, too. Hence, I am not a WOB or AKB, I am simply an Arsenal fan.
There have been many stories emerging about the running of Arsenal lately. I liken them to a coin - there is a heads and a tails with a middle separating them. Just as there is my side, your side and the truth.
Below, I will outline some of these stories. The "Heads" will refer to the common story being told, the "Tails" to the opposite side of the story and the middle—well the middle is what you want to make of it, therein lies the truth for you.
So, without further ado...
Heads: In the last number of years, Arsene Wenger has decided that he is bigger than the club and is using it to his own devices. Having gone a whole season unbeaten, he now wishes to write himself into history by taking a club full of youngsters to the Premier League title. He will not divert from this because he is stubborn and selfish.
Tails: Suggesting that a man of Wenger's reputation and education thinking that he is bigger than any football club, particularly one with the history of Arsenal, is nothing short of ludicrous.
The unbeaten season dream was fulfilled by a team packed with experience and the current Arsenal squad is merely Wenger dealing with a budget with can in no way compete with Chelsea, Manchester United, or even Liverpool.
Heads: Wenger has turned Arsenal into a selling club. He buys young guys who are full of potential, plays them for a few seasons, and then sells them on for a large profit. With this kind of philosophy, the club can have little hope of winning anything under his reign.
Tails: The manager's hand has been forced by the greed of the new breed of player. Nicholas Anelka listened too much to his brother who made him take the money and run. The same can be said of Flamini who—off the back of one decent season—decided that more money, sitting on the bench, and UEFA Cup football was better than a better contract, first-team place, and Champions League football at Arsenal.
Heads: It has been constantly reported for the last three years that Wenger has anywhere between £30-75 million to spend in the transfer market. There is a glaring need for an experienced central defender and defensive midfielder, yet he refuses to act in the transfer window because he is too stubborn in his philosophy of sticking with youth players, some of whom are not up to it.
Tails: Arsene Wenger has never come out and stated that he had anywhere between £30-75 million to play around with. It is evident that he has some money to spend, as Nasri was bought for £12 million in the summer.
However, his inability to secure the signings of Inler, Cana, or Alonso during the summer suggests a lack of funds rather than a manager unwilling to spend. He obviously saw there was a problem but did not get the backing of the board to remedy them properly.
Heads: The board runs the club as a business not a football club. For every million that Wenger saves in the transfer market, those on the board give him a huge bonus as a sweeter. Thus, the board save money while Wenger adds to his pay packet.
Tails: Very few can doubt that Arsenal is run very efficiently, which a huge turnover of money from match days and merchandise, this suggests that the board are greedy. They make sure the club is not losing money and thus when the time comes to sell, they will see a tidy profit for their efforts.
To suggest Wenger would rather a few thousand on to his already large pay packet—between £4-5 million per year—over being portrayed as a successful manager is slightly crazy.
Besides, it is not as if he has much hobbies outside football, he doesn't own flash cars and huge houses—what exactly is the extra money for? To make sure his wife stays in stock of the latest Jimmy Choo's shoes or that his daughter gets sent to the finest of schools? Surely his current pay deal takes care of all that.
Heads: Wenger is a liar. Week after week after week, his postmatch interviews are full of the same old rubbish—how the team is full of potential, is full of spirit, and that we can go on and win the league. He has also lied about wanting to bring in a midfielder in the summer saying there was no one that he liked yet he made numerous bids for players. He is a liar and can't be trusted.
Tails: So it would be far better for Wenger to act all John Tosack every weekend—to blame it all on the players and single them out for criticism in the media? Dressing downs are for in the dressing room not in the full glare of the media. Whatever he has to say to his players he will say behind closed doors.
As for the "lie" about the midfield and the "potential" of Diaby and Denilson, what else is the man to do? For whatever reason, he could not sign Alonso, Cana, or Inler in the summer, and now he has no choice but to believe in the abilities of the rest of the squad.
To come out in the media and say he desperately needs a central defender or midfielder would only knock the confidence of the players he has to work with for now. He needs these guys to believe in themselves at least until January.
So there you have it, the two sides of the Arsene Wenger coin. Evidently some of the accusations thrown at the Arsenal manager are frankly insane and beyond belief. Others may hold some semblance of truth.
As for me?
Every time I flick the coin it tends to land on tails more often than not. Things are not as clear cut as they seem at Arsenal FC, and our board aren't the "great guys" that they are made out to be.
This is my opinion, others may disagree strongly but I have to have faith that Wenger has little money and is some kind of a managerial genius to keep this club competitive because of the failures of the board.
The only other option is to believe that this club is at the hands of a narcissistic, senile 59-year old and no Arsenal fan should want to believe that!
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about 1 month ago
i am kinda on the fence right now but as a fan all i can do is hope for the best.
from about 1 month ago
I must admit to be slightly hoping that I am correct, thanks for the read and comment Tanade
about 1 month ago
If there was an option of 'halfway between tails and the middle' I would be there. I love the team ethic and idea behind building a squad from the ground up, looking to act as a physical representation of a team being 'more than the sum of its parts' by building close relationships and a family atmosphere.
However, as has been clear with Bendtner and Adebbayor, Gallas in general, etc, families don't always get on and as everyone involved is an individual with an individual career its obvious that some will get frustrated, particularly if they are standout players, i.e. Cesc.
From the looks of things, unlike what predictions were, this is not the best crop of Arsenal stars, looking at the Carling Cup squad. So as long as Wenger can keep the team treading water or pushing for 2nd/3rd in the league and looking to collect silverware in cup competitions until the end of next season without a player exodus (which without a cup victory could be tough) then his decisions will be vindicated in my opinion.
from about 1 month ago
Gallas has really opened himself up for criticism hasn't he....you'd swear he was trying to promote his latest book or something!!
I think even the FA Cup would quiten fans a bit in their criticism although I think we can nab the Champions League. It'll be interesting to see if Wenger will act in January, I think he has to.
about 1 month ago
As an outsider looking in, I'm more in the tails camp. One mistake I think Wenger does make, though, is Niklas Bendtner. He is not good enough for a title chasing team!
from about 1 month ago
Always nice to get the objective view point Barney. I don't think Wenger ever had Bendtner in mind as a main striker, not for the moment anyway. With Van Persie, Eduardo and Adebayor out he has little choice but to play him as he sees Vela as an impact sub at the moment.
Liverpool have Ngog, we have Bendtner :-)
about 1 month ago
he's a good manager going through a bad time.
arsenal won't win anything this year, not with that team. and if they don't challenge for trophies, it won't be long before players start leaving. the road to ruin has started. it's easy to stop, but will arsene and arsenal do it?
from about 1 month ago
I think the league is out Sanjeev but not a cup trophy. I think Arsenal have a good shout of winning the FA Cup or Champions League. On the players leaving it all may depends if and who is bought in January
about 1 month ago
as a nuetral, the wenger situation is interesting. true, he's accomplished a lot, his team probably plays the most attractive football, but there comes time when a manager can become somewhat complacent. as an aussie rules fan, our coach had been in the position since the 1980's, before he was replaced by someone new this year. we didnt play very well, but there has improvement from last season. if you did get wenger, who would you want (that would be willing to come) to suceed him? i think its a case of better the devil you know.
from about 1 month ago
It may be that Wenger has got complacent but a lot of that may be down to the fact that noone has replaced David Dein. It does seem though that Wenger doesn't have to answer to the board which says more about the board than the manager in my opinion.
What aussie rules team do you follow? See Ireland kick some ass in the international rules :-)
about 1 month ago
Good read Mary.
I think that the Wenger Out brigade has existed for awhile.. they're just getting their chance to pounce on him now. Believe me, their views are a lot stronger than you make out in the "heads" part of the article.
It's almost as if he is making the club reliant on himself, earning more money, and taking them nowhere.
Ridiculous - I lean towards tails on most issues, except the board part - I read somewhere that they probably want to sell Arsenal, but are just waiting for the international markets to improve..
When you have characters like Nina Bracewell Smith and Danny Fiszman on your board - who are so incredibly secretive, only God knows what's going to happen next.
from about 1 month ago
I was trying to be objective as possible ha ha I tried :-)
I agree with you that they do seem to want to sell up and hence they are trying to make the club as profitable as possible. Usmanov ... yipee :-(
I wish the "Wenger Out" brigade would try to see the bigger picture - actually I read somewhere, and I didn't want to put it in because of its nature, that the Wenger Out Brigade are made up of bigoted Brits that could never stand a Frenchman or Foreigner managing the team, no matter how successful he was!!
about 1 month ago
Great article here, I love the thought and analysis that went into each argument.
This season I've found myself shifting from the Arsene Knows Best camp towards the middle. The club is a complex issue. While Arsenal have firmly entrenched themselves in the top four, you are right to point out that their budget is not as big as the other three at the top. I think you could make a case that Wenger is still attempting to rebuild from the departures of all the great veterans that have left in the past few seasons. Losing Bergkamp, Pires, Henry and Vieira will leave a huge hole in ANY team.
Yes, Wenger has made some mistakes during the process (Eboue, anyone?), but you can't name an experienced manager who has never made a mistake. Sir Alex isn't right 100% of the time, neither is Rafa, or Mourinho, or anybody.
from about 1 month ago
Cheers for the nice comment and pick Joe, greatly appreciated :-)
Take Fergie - he can but Djemba Djemba, Veron, Taibi, Kleberson and they may not work out and its a case of "agh sure they can't all work out, we'll just get some more" while if Wenger does that too often it is a case of "And what do you think you're doing wasting our money, we'd don't have cash to thrown around on wasters".
Back when things were going wrong for Fergie he had a lot more money to rebuild than Wenger has now.
about 1 month ago
by Jkutialo
Thanks at least iam relieved that all Arsenal die heart fans are thinking like me.we are always happy when arsenal demolish middle level teams in the league.It is a bonus when we out-class the other big 4s.This season iam not conifident 2 believe that we will win any trophy.The results of the matches we,ve played are disappointing.imagine we,ve dropped 12 points 2 hull,Villa,fulls and Stoke city at home and away respectively.Our midfield and defence is weak.we,re missing Flamini the hussler,Cesc lacks support in the midfield.Gallas is trying but we need tough un-comprimising stopper like cavalio.Analysing the last season perfomance i thot Arsene wenger will strengthen the team this season by accepting the cheque given 2 him and buying 2 defenders and tough tackling defencive midfield.However i kept waiting until the last minute of the transfer dateline closed,our coach did nothing.I think he should be blamed for believing in our current squad which is not inspired and lacks leadership .Arsene wenger should know that the premier league style of play has changed,hence a change is better than a rest,let him mix our sex football with success not just 4 entertainment.As gooners let us learn 2 live with hulls,fulls,Villa and stoke wknds they,will be more 2 come this season untill may be after January when Wenger shall listen 2 our advice and buy experienced defencive m/f and defenders who can manage conner kicks,Set-pieces andlong thro.
from about 1 month ago
I think he'll buy in the transfer window, I hope so..
17 days ago
tails for me, yeah we don't exactly have a leader in the midfield, especially with Fabregas out and we need a new one. As far as Bendtner goes, from a sub, all of a sudden he finds himself as main striker. That is scary, especially for a 20 yr old, coz everybody needs time.
from 17 days ago
Wenger said today he is "more likely to spend in January" get out the chequebook Fiszman cos instead of one midfielder we now need two, plus a winger and a central defender.
I don't think Bendtner is as bad as everyone makes out - he's not first team but is a decent sub to have
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