By dandan

Well what a frantic day you guys had on Tuesday chewing over Rasp’s super article. Sorry I missed it.

I will start by stating the blindingly obvious. I am an Arsenal supporter first, a Wenger fan second but do not believe in recent years the first would have been half as enjoyable without the super skills of the  second. I am not blind and am happy to concede he, like all of us, has faults

But having read the comments again on Wednesday including those questioning  Wengers integrity,  I thought a  view from a different perspective  might provide a cold shower of reality .

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What then is Arsenal FC? It was a works football team that has grown into a multinational, multi million pound business, that manages and markets football teams of the same name, the most well known and important of which plays in the English Premier league, at a purpose built stadium in North London, but many other teams of all ages from 10 to 18, including the most successful woman’s team in the country play in the Arsenal shirt.

Arsène Wenger is employed to manage the playing side of the company under a contract agreed with the board of the Holding company. His brief, as with all senior managers of large companies, is to manage the budget agreed with and approved by the board and to meet the targets laid down by the same board. His remuneration in all probability is a basic salary, with bonuses for meeting the above criteria. Arsenal FC is first and last a business.

The above is not the fans view of Arsenal, too most of them it is not just a football club; it is their football club and in many cases the single most important thing in their life. They buy their expensive season tickets and believe this gives them a say in the running of the club The whole idea of business and profit is an anathema to them, compared to the real business of winning not just football matches, but trophies. Trophies have become the Holy Grail for these fans who see the club almost in terms of a religion and thus the Emirates as a Cathedral.

Like all companies, Arsenal FC’s board have a duty to their shareholders to maximise the return on capital and drive the share price, for this reason from time to time statements are made or issued by management or through marketing. It may well be that these are more a statement of intent than fact. Their purpose is to enhance the profile of the club and protect the share price. This does not make anyone a liar, intentions change as markets change.

They have no obligation whatsoever to inform the fans, unless they are shareholders, of the state of the budget and what is available for transfers, in fact from a business viewpoint it makes no sense at all to tell your potential suppliers the thickness of your wallet.

Of course fans, certainly corporate fans are very important to clubs as they provide the base to support the marketing efforts, buying products, shirts, programmes or hospitality often on Arsenal branded credit cards an increasingly important way of generating profit for clubs.

Fans are customers, whether they like it or not. Bums on seats. No different to a ticket holder at the cinema or theatre, they are there to watch an entertainment. The vast majority of fans have not and will not, ever visit the Stadium, but their spend is enormous. They are the future. The world-wide potential that is driven by television  is mind-blowing and makes the Arsenal season ticket holder pale into insignificance. Of course all that cash from 60 thousand fans every week is important and the atmosphere itself is a part of the package sold to TV.

So Wenger or No Wenger, you will be told what the club wants you to know or what the board feels is in the best interest of the share price. Don’t shoot the messenger, he is doing what is right for the Company, as well as producing some very attractive Product

Calling supporters ‘Arsenal Haters’ because they dare to question is simply absurd.

The puritanical denunciation of any view expressed that does not first acknowledge Arsène Wenger’s achievements before daring to question any aspect of his tenure is a form of censure that has long made me feel uncomfortable. As an admirer of Arsène, I find it doubly unsettling when my natural instinct to allow freedom of speech impels me to come to the defence of a blogger who is expressing a view that does not necessarily reflect my own simply because he is being vilified.

Certainly the centre ground only exists because of the extremes on either side, but I naively expect that the good guys (Arsène supporters) who generally inhabit the intellectual high ground should have the self confidence and humility to allow others to express their view without being labelled as bad supporters.

The way some Arsène supporters unerringly defend his every action has the feel of cult brainwashing …. believe, because belief alone is all that is necessary. It’s the footballing equivalent of the ‘Stepford Wives’.

This has led me to ask myself, who is the more passionate supporter? ….the one who really hurts when we lose and lets his emotions overtake his reasoning or the one who one who shrinks back behind the Arsène force field that repels all criticism? The answer is in the question.

All human advancement has been driven by those who challenge accepted beliefs, otherwise we’d still accept that the earth was flat and we’d have no understanding of gravity.

Will the Arsène supporters still support Arsenal when there is no Arsène? Those who dare to question his decisions or implore more passion and work-rate from the players are derided for not swallowing the ‘belief’. It’s as if the desire of these supporters is somewhat dimished by their wish for the team to improve.

While there is an awareness and an acceptance that Arsène has been performing  miracles for the past 5 years on a limited budget it would have been ‘good’ to have known how much the financial restraints were going to have an influence on the football. This is a valid point to question.

My argument is very simple. It is possible to question and support. Actually, it’s healthy to question and those who do so are not necessarily being disloyal. The majority of the time, they will be incorrect and responding from anger and possibly ignorance, but they have a right to express their views and those of us who disagree should always take the time to consider their view because once in a while, they may just have a point.

By Guest Writer GhostFace

As the season comes to an end, I find myself being at the same stage I was this time last year for a couple consecutive seasons. I cant wait for the season to end and a new season to start. Allow me to play DJ Ghost Face here flexing my finger muscles ready to scratch you this match report with Dexterity.

FT: Arsenal 0 – 0 Manchester City

First of all what a bore that was.

The Italian manager stuck to what he knew best in big games. He played with 3 DM’s and stifled the midfield. I could care less about the sentiments during the game with certain ex-Arsenal players in a City shirt but it was great to see PV4 in the new stadium albeit weird that he wasn’t playing for us.

While I’m on the subject, I just want to quickly point out what an appalling ref Mike Dean is. Seriously, this guy has got to be a mixture of the exceptionally thick Collymore, Cascarino, Paul Parker and the ever disgraceful Graham Poll all in one human body, it’s incredible to believe but true!!! Some of those tackles Vieira had on Song and Nasri were a bit over the top in Vieira like fashion but the fact that he didn’t receive a card for any of them makes me wonder…would he have got as many red cards if he wasn’t wearing red and white? Anyways, despite Dean’s atrocious performance we were mindful of our duties defensively (no surprise given the collapse from the last game) but forgot what to do with the ball in the final third.

I do not necessarily agree that City came to get a draw . It has to be said though that Mancinni parked the bus with 3DM’s Italian football style. This was how he beat Chelsea 4-2 at Stamford Bridge on the counter attack with Bellamy and Wright Phillips running the wings but fair play to our boys especially Song. We kept Bellamy and Johnson very quite. They came to get 3 points but Bellamy was having a poor game. Mancinni couldn’t use SWP because he had already made a sub to counter Walcotts pace with Richards for Bridge, He had to bring on Ade because Ade tore us a new one at City, and of coarse was shorthanded in the 68^th minute when Given broke his shoulder. Historically SWP has tormented our fullbacks so I’m quite happy he was on the bench.

Scratch Record Mix Volume 1: Teams Park the Bus against Arsenal So… what do we do?

If we are going to improve as a football club we need to figure out what we should do when clubs play us only looking to sucker punch us on the counter by parking the bus or by long ball tactics. How many sucker punches have we suffered over the years? It’s absolutely gutting, the Birmingham one being the more completely unbearable game in recent memory. What do we do? What can we do? What we can do is different from what we actually do. What we actually do is pass for an eternity. Decide that we will let our worst crossers on the team deliver the final ball and then when that fails make substitutions that don’t make sense. This leads me to my second Scratch mix.

Scratch Record Mix Volume deux: Substitutions and Selections

What does Carlos Vela have to do to get a game? Why are we subbing off Rosicky for Eboue when clearly Eboue is our best attacking right back and Sagna surging forward is as potent as San Marino declaring Nuclear war against Russia? What is going on with Bendtner again on out there on the wings? With so many players out it is difficult to be too critical about the team selections, but who was going to stand up today and give us a very much needed lift for the red and white? Once again it just shows you how average we can be without Fab4 and Arshavin. Fabregas has had to have had the best form and season of his life for us to be title contenders and that is putting an unfair strain on the young man. I do not hold any delusions that we are like Barcelona. I am pretty sure I have seen Pique in the final 3^rd acting as a striker or on the wings…linking up play very well in that Milan clash. All their players have ideas in the final 3^rd and their final ball matches their ideas. So we can moan all we want about players being out injured but the reason why we train is to prepare and have a game plan to take down the opposition which leads me to my 3^rd mix.

Scratch Record Mix Volume 2.5: We don’t need the talent of Barca to Win

I look at Utd’s team and I don’t see class. What they lack in talent they more than make up for with hard work. I look at the bottom of the table and I see a hard working pompey and it just beggars belief that our title chasing brigade cannot muster the same tenacity as relegated Portsmouth. Pompey are at the very bottom with a cup final to play for and have only lost once in their last 5 games. Players like Diaby with all the talent in the world are so frustrating because I doubt his ability to sustain the level that is required to challenge for the title for 90minutes not to talk of 38 games. Diaby is the player that epitomizes this Arsenal squad for me in more ways that one. Bundles of talent, injury prone, lazy to frustration and….

Scratch Record Mix Volume 3: Anti-ShootBall

Since when did it take millions to shoot a ball. Since when did the lack of signings affect our shooting. Does it take reducing the debt to fire from outside the 18? Since when does our financial difficulty with the new Stadium and the recession stop us from having a go at our opposition? You cant score if you don’t shoot. In 90 minutes we only managed 4 shots on target.

It’s a shame what happened to Given but what would’ve happened if Diaby didn’t take a shot. Not that it mattered in the end because we refused to shoot again but what is it with our incredible insistance to score tap-ins. I’m at a loss on this one.

We have the same problems that we’ve been having for a number of years and the same problems are very real in existence yet again today. These problems are basic footballing issues that have nothing to do with the finances and I doubt they will be resolved under Wenger. I would love to see my team take more risks, take more shots on goal, show more desire to win, put better crosses in the box and take their chances on set-pieces which I didn’t bother to discuss now because I’m tired of sounding like a scratch record.

Stringfellow Hawke’s view

AW knew as a club we could not compete with a mere 38,500 capacity stadium, so he encouraged the step up to the Emirates, knowing full well that a few seasons of hands tied on transfer side would ensue, but the overall long-term gain for club was secure.

He agreed to this, confident in his ability to breed a younger, cheaper side and remain competitive.

He succeeded without any shadow of a doubt; I think some struggle with the concept that competitive does not always mean picking up silverware.

AW had hoped the silverware would come as well, but the advent of the chav billions could not have come at a worse time in our history and development.

In the 4 years at the Emirates, we have challenged twice for the title, had a Carling Cup final, and CL and FA cup semis. Not bad at all on the budget.

So in summing up, I think project youth was not entirely forced on him, but it became the almost impossible job due to the 100’s of millions the chavs, the yanks at utd and pool, and the enic crew at spuds have been chucking around since we moved house.

Thankfully, the worst of our reliance on project youth is over and we can now fully compete for big signings, and blend these in with the youth.

The greatest indictment of project youth has obviously been the lack silverware; yet, the conveyor belt of talent that has been established within the football academy is now respectfully talked about all over the world.

Add to that the odd genius (Wilshire anyone) that the academy will produce from time to time and now with the fruits of the Emirates enabling Wenger to go out and add a 30M player to the mix and football utopia is closer than we think my fellow Gooners.

London’s view

I don’t want to throw cold water on all that optimism especially as I like to think myself an optimist as well. But I do differ, not by much but significantly enough. For example, I don’t believe that Wenger had anything to do with the decision to move to the Emirates. To make my point quickly, I use the crass example that this would be like a manager of McDonalds telling the corporation where they should open the next shop, as hard working as the managers of McDonalds are they have nothing to do with the expansion of that business. Wenger equally would have had nothing to do with the relocation of the ground; those decisions are made exclusively by the board on behalf of the shareholders.

I am equally critical of Wenger’s actual involvement in the construction of the training ground; an accolade credited to him by the board for reason that his elevation suited them at the time. If my memory serves correctly the old training facilities burnt down, naturally Wenger would have been asked by the architects what he would like included in the new build, although, no more than that. But to suggest that Wenger walked in and told the board that he wanted a new training ground and somehow designed it himself simply does not ring true?

If you believe, as I do, that Wenger reluctantly accepted project youth then to my knowledge there can only be two reasons for this decision: firstly as SFH suggests above that he agreed with the board to work on a much tighter budget for the first few years of the new stadium. Or, secondly that it was forced upon him by the arrival of Abramovich.  Prior to this it is worth remembering that by today’s standards Wenger used to spend money like a drunken sailor or shore leave – the arrival of the Russian billions changed everything.

The Tevez deal in Manchester will be pointed to in years to come as the symbol of when financial power shifted from one side of town to the other. In our case people will look back at the Wright Phillips deal as the point when financial power shifted in London.

Wright Phillips: playing for City at the time started making noises about wanting to come to London; we showed our usual interest but Abramovich sensing an opportunity to make the point trebled his wages and doubled the signing fee, I exaggerate but not by much; the Russian had made it clear that there was a new financial heavy weight on the block.

David Dein said at the time that it was like having a Russian tank land in your front garden and start firing fifty pound notes. There was simply no point in going after the top players because if we showed an interest Chelsea would go after them just to prove a point in the same way as they did with Wright Phillips. Radical change was required to combat this onslaught – and Project youth was formed.

But once this was started it had to be seen to fruition so for example when Wenger said he didn’t want to crush Alex Song’s confidence by bringing in someone more experienced I for one completely understood and still agree.

With the kind of financial imbalance that remains since the Russian’s arrival it is a miracle to me that Wenger has done as well as he has. Project Youth has been designed to outlast Abramovich’s financial strong arm tactics and by the noises he is making now we may just have done that…….the worm is turning again and we are better placed than most.