Arsene Wenger was the guest speaker last night for the charity Grief Encounter. The charity provides free services to support bereaved children in the UK and with Wenger as their speaker sold out their venue in under 72 hours.
I was not in attendance but I have been given permission from long-time Arsenal supporter and shareholder Darren (@DarrenArsenal1) who was there to use his tweets as the source so that we could get on record some of Wenger’s answers to the questions he was asked.
Wenger’s opening, and as always Wenger reminds us that football isn’t just about the head, but the heart: “I gave my brain, my head and my heart to the club. My heart is still at the club. When I arrived, it was a club with a touch of class, with respect, I was very proud to be at this club.”
On the post-Highbury years: “2006 to 2014 were difficult financially, we had to sell our best players, when I left the club they were in a very strong financial situation.”
This is backed up by Swiss Ramble’s many years of dissecting the Arsenal books. Each season it seemed like Arsenal’s finances were largely profitable through player sales. When Wenger left, he handed over an enormous cash-on-hand position and since his retirement Raul, Vinai, Stan, and Josh have spent £154m (net) on transfers. Some will argue that Wenger also left the club with ageing stars and mega contracts but that seems highly unfair given all that he had to do – get the club into Champions League every season, while selling off the star players – to get the club into the financial situation they are in.
Asked about the cost of moving the stadium, Wenger said “we went from 38,000 to 60,000. You can’t turn down 22,000 fans every week. Cost of stadium move was £40,000 per seat, plus the land.”
On the old Graham crowd: “the generation when I arrived were players who arsenal meant something to them, they all wanted to win for the club.”
Wenger admits that maybe there was something, sort of like, possibly a tapping up with Sol Campbell: “I met Sol many times at David Dein’s house and it would be 1am in the morning and it never came out… would be very difficult to do something like that today!”
Wenger speaks about Lauren: “he could go anywhere in the world and he would be ready for a fight.”
Wenger was asked if he could pick today’s lineup (against Brighton) and responds with his trademark humor: “I didn’t sleep half of my life as I had to think about always picking a team!”
On the regrets in the transfer market: “I made 400 transfers during my stay at Arsenal. I regret every mistake I made.”
Speaking about Piers Morgan: “people who haven’t been in the game you don’t always value their opinion too much.”
Wenger was also asked about the new head coach and whether he would recommend youth or an experienced coach. He dodged the question beautifully: “If Freddie can stabilise in the next 5 or 6 games you will need to put it to a guy with some experience. But I hope they take off with Freddie!”
Responding to the question of captains at Arsenal, “if you have a good captain it’s essential inside the dressing room as the motivation can go quickly.”
Wenger was also asked about the past and the future of football and said “what has not changed in the last 20yrs is the supporters, everything else in the game has changed. The money in football will double in the next 5 years.”
And of course the topic eventually comes around to that Champions League final in Paris: “I have not watched the game up to today (Paris final) I don’t have the courage. The second goal is still offside.”
This seems to have led to a question about VAR, Pat Rice (who Wenger invited onstage) said “VAR has taken the fun out of football.” But Wenger was gentler, “VAR is not perfect, but so far 98% correct decisions. In 2yrs time offside will be like goal line technology, it will be instant.” That’s a much rosier prediction than I would have!
Anyway, that’s all I have. Big thanks to Wenger, the charity Grief Encounter, everyone who attended and donated their time and money, Darren, the presenters, and of course, Pat Rice.
An interesting article, which I wasn’t aware of. Whenever I think of Wenger, Dein, Pat Rice etc, I marvel at how “Arsenalish” they all are. You can’t picture them anywhere else. The youth team games used to be at the UCH sports ground up in Hertfordshire . Pat Rice ran the side. You’d see David Dein standing on the touchline watching the games. He’d then get in his Bentley and dash off to Highbury to watch the first team. Here was a guy who was wealthy enough to do most anything, but that was obviously his ideal weekend. Is that significant? Yeah I think it is. That attitude would rub off on the coaching staff, which in turn would rub off on both the junior and senior players. Being involved with Arsenal was important and something to be respected and treasured.
Is that still the case? Doesn’t quite feel like it. A shame.
It was a huge disappointment when we traded David Dein for Stan Kroenke. I suppose as a move to pre-empt Usmanov’s grab for control of the club it made sense, but it goes to show you can’t buy commitment and heart.
i, too miss david dein. it was nice having a proper football man who sat on the board. he worked as a bridge for the two and if he could have stayed on board, arsenal may be in a better place.
So Arsene admitted to doing to Spurs what Chelsea would do to us a few years later.
Not 100% but there was certainly an air of that. I think we also tapped up Cesc if I recall correctly. And Wenger was very much in Henry’s ear for years while he was still under contract.
I think the thing that pisses people off about Cole is that he was Ashley Cole.
What pisses me off about Cole is, we still haven’t replaced him. He was that good.
if i had to pick an all-time 11, ashley cole is still my left back, just slightly ahead of marcelo and roberto carlos.
the two things that stand out to me is his statement on captains and the ’06 champions league final.
he’s absolutely right that you have to have a player who can lead the team both on and off the pitch; a senior guy who can provide direction and purpose to victory in tough games when the strategy isn’t enough. arsenal haven’t had that player since arteta. the biggest gaff is when they had gallas, i feel that wenger didn’t back him. gallas knew the way to championships, helping chelsea to two premier league titles and a world cup final. however, i feel wenger allowed players to undermine him. that’s completely unacceptable.
second, in the champions league final in ’06, why did freddie ljungberg play ahead of jose antonio reyes? i know people will say that freddie had a good game but jose was unplayable and destroyed everyone he played against that season. in this game, would have had his weakest opposition playing right back for barcelona…so weak a player, i bet no one can even remember his name without checking. i know exactly who it was and it was the reason i believed arsenal would win that game. as for belletti being offsides, if reyes had played, belletti wouldn’t have even been on the field.
We were out possessed, out shot and out scored.
Is it too late to submit an entry for WORST team of the decade? LOL
Arsenal- the team of the decayed
There , fixed that typo for you Mat.
Brilliant 🙂
We may be in for a real relegation battle this year.
I predicted 4th in August. I meant to say 14th, of course (if we’re lucky).
It’s good. I mean, now we get to be the old-timers in 2035 who say we followed Arsenal when they were a mid-table or relegation-worthy team, so you new fans don’t know how good you have it!
I suppose those be careful what you wish for AKB fellas knew what they were talking about ,heh?
I came on here last week and said these players are average. I stand by what I said. Average.
Kolasinac? Average
Bellerin (2019 version)? Average
Sokratis? Average
Luis? Average
Xhaka? Average
Torreira? Average
Lacazette? Average
You take Aubameyang and Ozil out of this team and it’s an average team sprinkled with some promising young players. Might as well go whole hog on the youngsters then, you’ll get the same results but at least be getting them some experience.
Bring Nketiah back. Sell Lacazette. Holding and Chambers at CB. Swap Xhaka for f’n anyone, ffs he’s garbage. Make Torreira the ball boy or have him play guys his size in the U13s. Tell Hector to eat some meat ffs and regrow his balls. Ask Tierney to grow a beard so Freddie stops wondering if he’s a U17 academy kid come to clean the senior team shoes,
Man. I’m wiped.
“Might as well go whole hog on the youngsters then, you’ll get the same results but at least be getting them some experience.”
The club did that to a large extent by moving on from Monreal, ElNeny, Mkhitaryan, Lichtsteiner, even Iwobi (though that one was more about balancing books). In their place, we are giving significant minutes to Willock, Saka, Nelson and AMN, not to mention Guendouzi, Tierney and Torreira who are all still young. It’s hard to argue results are better but you’re right about the opportunity to develop talent. It comes with inevitable growing pains though.
I think he’s a real gem in the making, but Guendouzi lacks the expertise to take control of games with his passing or the size to impose himself physically. He really shouldn’t be in the lynchpin role he has been thrust into essentially by default this season. The peril for Guendouzi at this stage of his career is that he develops bad habits and fails to progress his game because he has no competition for his spot.
Torreira and Willock are being used as pressing midfielders who join the forwards, and Willock is beating out Torreira for that job right now. I intend that as a compliment to the young man but it’s also a comment on Torreira’s fit or lack thereof with this team after a promising debut campaign. I do think he has a future with us but needs to bulk up and stand up for himself more often because right now he is getting bullied off the pitch.
Torreira is not only small – he looks slow. I can’t think of a worse combination.
Against the likes of Dunk or Burn Torreira looks like a hobbit.
I don’t think the major problem was ever Emery’s tactics or coaching. We have 5th or 6th place talent but we are currently in a terrible run of form. Form usually balances out over the course of a full season and I still think we are going to have a 10-12 game run of good form and drag ourselves back into the Europa league spots which is where we probably belong.
It’s never any single thing when a team is as bad as this. The squad has talent but lacks balance, cohesion, and continuity. The players are committed but lack confidence in themselves, each other and in the football they are asked to play. The management has a plan for this club but you cannot simply undo the legacy of the type of business model Wenger described between 2006-2014 that typified the Arsenal we have come to know. The current iteration of the club and its football product is a confused conglomeration of its legacy and the future to which it aspires.
There’s lots of managers of teams with 5th or 6th place talent that have their teams play effective football with some level of style or personality.
We can’t afford to sell Lacazette. He has 3 of our last 5 goals. If we sell Laca we are down to only 1 player in the squad who is a legitimate threat to score a goal. If we did sell Lacazette we would need Auba to score in every game or we would be at a high risk to get shut out
Lacazette is a wonderful footballer.
Yeah, but taking his goal last night out of the equation (and it was a bit of a b.s. goal) – he was bad. And he’s been bad for a while now.
Well, this is rock bottom, innit? Not much more needs saying, except, it will get better because there is only one way from here.
I’ll have whatever you’re taking Doc 🙂
We haven’t hit rock bottom yet. Like most demises the damage is slow and initially invisible. We have a tough run of fixtures and holiday season ahead. Unfortunately I feel it will become much more unpleasant.
I don’t know. The result wasn’t any better, but I enjoyed watching it more than the last lot of matches. It felt like they were actually trying and moving about more, and might actually get something out of it, which I haven’t felt in awhile.
Bonus: I’ve found a new drinking game. Take a shot every time Torreria hits the deck…
Yes, maybe it is blind hope but you could see that they want to win but playing with a little bit (actually a lot) with the handbrake on…I’m hoping that Freddie is just trying out different combinations to see what clicks
This team has suffered from habit forming bad coaching a change of tactician won’t help. The habit of one pass through the middle taking out 4-6 players is so engrained that only clearing the difference and middle field will help.
From yesterday’s match:
Bellerin is poor and can’t run anymore. The injury has done him.
David and the Wiseman are not only unwise, n old but overage and shouldn’t be in the team. Zero leaders in there. How on earth was that corner defended Lacca marking GIANTS! ATRACIOUS
Kola is an elephant lost from the herd and surounded by lions. The ONLY thing left between him And football is his built body.
Torreira is small, weak, tired and must be on his way out in his head. Xhaka can not carry the load of arsenal badge. It is clear now why AW was not for signing him.
Lacazzete has no value outside Auba to arsenal. Can’t lead the line with or without Auba. As a club we must surely get our returns from the two guys because we hired Emery and one of his TOR was to lower the price and quality of our top players to suit his small mentality thinking. This club was too big for him and he was arrogant enough never to talk to Wenger. Did he know Wenger had to fight to get Ramsy who him and Sanhelli let go free?
Ozil is a success. He has achieved his main aim of being so bad and unfit for this league that what one sees is a MLF guy headed across the Atlantic in January. Why is he a success? He’s made sure is valueless to us but easy to get. His price is Zero to the MLF but retains his hefty packs.
Freddie…. A man betrayed by time and opportunity.
Finally
Arsenal is a dead team whose owner has not come out to claim the body for burial and has left it the state (PL) to do what it deems fit with the body.
Where I come from a successful herd is one composed of strong but few mature breeding ones and 60%,extremely viable, healthy young ones approaching puberty or at puberty. Here at arsenal, the breeding ones are old and dying and the young ones aren’t going to be around.
I have had guys saying we’re in danger of losing Auba… True and even Lacca. In this environment, tell me, which academy lads will want to sign to senior team.? That’s why I said Arsenal is dead. Remember we don’t have money to buy either. Our hope has been I. The academy which will sure not want to stay around.
I pray I’m WRONG.
COYG.