By Tony Attwood
The idea is simple: let’s make up someone who can be Mr Incompetent, and lets laugh at him a lot. Oh I know. Mr Wenger. The one man in the Premier League who never ducks a question, never refuses to talk to the media, always graces even the most stupid journalistic question with an answer – let’s get him.
It is difficult to think of a club that has come under such attack as Arsenal have in the last couple of weeks. Arsenal were one of three top clubs that lost to lower league opposition recently in the Cup. But has Tottenham and Liverpool undergone such attacks? I suspect not.
Arsenal lost to Bayern Munich – and were criticised for that. Forgetting perhaps the English teams already out of the competition. Did they get attacked? No.
Arsenal might not qualify for the Champions League next season. They might, but they might not. So let us look at the league table. Liverpool isn’t even listed in my little extract from the league positions.
| 1 |  |
(1) | Manchester United | 27 | 22 | 2 | 3 | 64 | 31 | 33 | 68 |
| 2 | |
(2) | Manchester City | 27 | 16 | 8 | 3 | 50 | 24 | 26 | 56 |
| 3 | |
(4) | Tottenham Hotspur | 27 | 15 | 6 | 6 | 47 | 32 | 15 | 51 |
| 4 | |
(3) | Chelsea | 27 | 14 | 7 | 6 | 55 | 30 | 25 | 49 |
| 5 | |
(5) | Arsenal | 27 | 13 | 8 | 6 | 52 | 30 | 22 | 47 |
| 6 | |
(6) | Everton | 27 | 10 | 12 | 5 | 41 | 34 | 7 | 42 |
Are Liverpool being torn apart week after week? I think not.
No, Arsenal, and in particular, Mr Wenger, is the target. And when the journalists have had enough, they go and get all the ex-players who can be found and who just reiterate the same old stuff, over and over. The ex-players quite like it, since they are all after media work. Funny thing that – if you want a job in the media, your chances of getting such a chance are enhanced if you are an ex-Arsenal player with a penchant for mouthing off.
Shame on you guys. We worshipped you, just like we worshipped the team and the club of your era. Turning your back on Arsenal now and spouting this drivel does not help anyone – except yourselves. Now we see you as you really are.
Then a minority of fans get onto the phone ins and slag off Wenger. The pro-Wenger lobby – the people who have cheered at the recent upturn in form in league matches – don’t bother with such tripe. So it goes.
In reality is that this is certainly not our best Wengerian season, but it is one hell of a lot better than we have been most of the time in Arsenal’s history. Do you remember when we were bottom of the league? Well, if you claim to have been an Arsenal supporter who saw the first double under Bertie Mee in 1971, you’ll remember. It was Bertie Mee who also took us to the bottom of the league. Under Wenger there has been more doubles and nothing like that.
Instead of the years and years of failure after 1972, we have had 13 years of playing in the knockout stages of the Champions league. And for all the years since we won a trophy, there is no reporting in the press of how many years it has been since Tottenham won the league. Why not? If Arsenal is due all this attack, why not Tottenham?
OK they may have won some things (I haven’t really noticed). But if that is the case it is only because of the way the media has framed the question. Why is winning anything the issue? Why not “winning the league” or “winning the league without losing a match”.
We also have the Emirates, which I think is a brilliant stadium. We are not like the clubs who have yet to develop a new stadium (rather like Tottenham, Everton and Liverpool). We didn’t have to get the state to build the stadium for us (as did Man City, and presumably as WHU are getting).
And we don’t have huge debts or a benefactor, just at the time when financial regulations are moving in a direction that benefits us.
Of course I would like us to be higher up the league, to have beaten Bradford and Blackburn, and not to be behind Tottenham. Of course.
But not at the cost of the spending of Manchester City or Chelsea and giving ourselves up to a benefactor who changes manager when he feels like it.
And so what I want to know is why the press corps let Roberto Mancini say that he has been the best manager in England over the last 15 months or so, without anyone who was at the press conferences having a bash at him, rather than bashing Arsene Wenger.
That is not to say that I want to attack Mancini, any more than I particularly cared about the fact that Sir Alex wouldn’t talk to the BBC for quite a while (actually I quite enjoyed that) but it really all does seem one rule for Arsenal, one rule for the rest.
Where was the criticism of the failure of Man City and Chelsea in the Champs League this year? Sure there was some, but it only lasted a little time. And I don’t mean to compare that with Arsenal who will probably go out to Bayern after the next game. I simply mean, judged by their resources and expectations, surely they were due some criticism. And yes they got some – but nothing like the stuff thrown at Arsenal by the press day after day after day after day after day.
For me the worst possible outcome of this media and AAA hysteria would be not that Mr Wenger would leave (although that would be bad enough) but rather that he would leave and go and manage at Manchester City. Because with the endless resources there he would walk off with the Double. And the Champions League. Worse we would get one of the other supposedly top managers like Benitez. Now that would be a test of my endless loyalty.
But of course we don’t know who will go where or when, and we can only marvel at how Liverpool FC has managed to sink as low as it has, and to screw up its transfers as much as it has, without getting 5% of the negative comment Arsenal gets every day, every month.
I wonder also about the summer to come. If Luis Suarez is tempted out of Liverpool and Gareth Bale out of Tottenham, just as Cesc and RVP were tempted out of Arsenal, what then? Will they both find replacements that continue to keep them where they are (striving for a top four in Tottenham’s case, playing catch up in Liverpool’s).
But let’s try it backwards. What if Arsenal had not been the force it has been. Supposing we had continued with Rioch – would we have stood in the way of endless domination by Man U? I doubt it. Instead I rather think the league would have been closer to the situation in Scotland in their top league (and come to that in their third division).
Under Rioch I can’t see us having kept pace with Liverpool, let alone Chelsea. I rather suspect that we would be more interested in keeping up with the clubs at the foot of the league, rather than having created the only Unbeaten Season in either the 20th or 21st centuries. No doubles, just a mid-table job with occasional trips into the Championship – just like Man U, Man C and Tottenham before us. (Actually I am sure Chelsea went down as well sometime, but I just can’t remember when it was).
We have had a wonderful time, seen wonderful football, are still up with the elite, who spend so much more than us, and are ready to take advantage of our new money, and the new FFP regulations. Of course if you demand that Arsenal win the league all the time, that’s not enough. But perhaps I still remember being bottom of the league under Bertie Mee, and that’s why I am willing to wait a while longer.
The books…
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Arsenal’s early years
- Making the Arsenal – how the modern Arsenal was born in 1910
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal FC: crowd behaviour at the early matches
- Royal Arsenal: from the Common to the Manor. Coming next.
The other sites from the same team…
-
- Referee Decisions - just what are the refs up to this season?
- Parent News - what is going on in schools these days?
- The weight loss programme: The only guaranteed way to stay fit
- The Arsenal History Blog from the AISA Arsenal History Society
- Untold Dylan - the music, the lyrics, the meaning
- Looking for a terraced house in Northamptonshire?
- School sports minibuses: providing your child’s school with a bus
- The Direct Marketing blog: direct mail, email, websites, blogs
- Good Ad: reviews of some of the best and worst direct advertising there is
- The Massage Centre, serving Northants and Rutland
- Teacher News – UK schools from the teachers’ perspective
- UK Education News - rolling news service
For any “industry” dependent on the public, all entities are dependent on the media. If the media decided tomorrow that ManU was to be disposed of, it would not be long before ManU was gone (3 years?). Maybe it is 3 years before they fall out of the EPL, and then ….
What sports teams need from the media, is for all teams to be treated in the same way. And the media does not treat all teams the same. Some teams are essentially owned by media. They will be supported to the end. Perhaps the best one can hope for, is that teams at worst, are all treated the same if independent from media owners.
I thought there was a Chelsea comment in this thread. Benitez has made a statement. I gather he only signed on to be interim manager in the hope that he would become permanent. His blurb today admits he will not be here post May. Too much news about Laudrup moving anywhere from Swansea (I think he should stay there), but maybe he ends up a Chelsea?
Good for you Tony. I agree with the sentiment behind this post.
The press is the press though in this country. I see their attention as a back handed compliment. They need to sell their newspapers or whatever. Arsenal are news worthy.
Another you would do well to consider is that when a club makes lying its stock in trade(an attitude defended by some on here as being intelligent), then it should be willing to take the consequent ridicule. If you were a pressman, you interviewed a certain mr X today and he says something like “no, we will not sell. If we sell so and so players, then we cant say we are a big club”, 2weeks later, so and so are sold, u interview him again and he says somethng like, “of course we are a big club, where do you get that contrary opinion from?”. Or today he says we have the money, we can challenge the likes of chelsea and man city for the stars, two months later, while staring down at another failure says, we dont have the money to challenge the citys and chelseas. Will you as a pressman put any weight on his words? If you ask me, i would report the next interview this way; mr X says …, however from past experience, you should expect…
The press is not foolish, neither are they supposed to be subservient to any club, afterall they account for a good chunk of revenue generated in football. Dont treat them like kids and expect them to indulge you. Managers who are honest and open usually dont hav issues with the press.
@uk
Managers who are honest and open usually dont hav issues with the press
Tell me one manager who tells all the truth in his press conferences.
Arun, you cynic – we all know Arry has never told a lie!
I’m concerned for uk, clearly he’s taken a blow to the head and judging by his latest comment his state must be deteriorating rapidly. Uk if you are still conscious you need to dial 999, our prayers are with you
@iniez
Tnx. Now pray also for wenger.
Actually many managers i know tell the truth. If they don’t, you will need to prove they don’t first, before labelling them liars. So just to mention a few, moyes, o’neil and yes redknapp
@iniez,
Hope you’re still praying? You might need to also buy some indulges for your Lord wenger
*indulgences
Maybe arry’s dog told a lie?
Maybe
Quick thinking Mandy testing his cognitive functions but it’s worse than I thought! Uk we’re only trying to help, have any dogs tried talking to you recently?
@iniez
Thank you once again. Now please return to prayers, the soul of your lord is at stake
uk,oik,orc,
What planet are you on? For all your sanctimonious defense of the press, I’d say you were one of those jornos or the son/daughter of one. More to the point: how about your favored Lord Football’s behavior. Decent, respectful, not bullying, open, ever-available, never lying, never using the press to intimidate a referee before or after the fact. All horseshit and you know it.
@bob
Sorry mate, but like i said, if i were a pressman, i’d take wenger’s words with a pinch of salt. Consequently, whatever such a person says is subject to private interpretation. There’s no point of gooners going all sanctimonious on the press. Like the boy who cried wolf, arsenal fc has earned the right to negative press
I have been a regular here for over a year and i have to say ur level of optimism in here is depressing.i respect what wenger has achieved but in the light of the past 8 years, he either should step up or leave by 2014.my issue is not winning a trophy but a gradual downgrading of the ambitions of the club(u can’t see SAF hammering on about 4th place trophy). U don’t see management of players, u see mollycoddling of a lily livered litter of players.we now accept defeat against top opposition as usual. If you don’t win anything,shut up and work towards winning something.that’s the best way to deal with detractors.not engaging in verbal wars.wenger himself said it’s difficult to go back to sausages when u r used to caviar.this team lacks passion,aggression and a desire to spill their blood to win.the skill and potential is there.its his job to make this team he assembled,winners.and when they fail? No consequences,let’s move on to the next games seems to be his mantra.in here, your highest criticism is”it arguably could be beta but definitely could be worse” please. This team is not it and you know it. However it is your blog and if i don’t like what u write then i shouldnt read it right? Am just saying it wouldn’t hurt to admit we are shite sometimes. Kip up the good job. Fan from Nigeria.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4821564/Arsenal-takeover-REVEALED-How-bid-can-transform-Gunners.html
Wonder how true this is ?
For all those who think the useless Kroenke cares about the team and not in it for the quick profit, lets see.
Dein hinted at a recent Q&A stating he cannot predict the future of Arsenal. ‘Whatever happens, happens.’ Yet he closed by smirking and mentioning don’t be surprised by ‘a major event of change in the not too distant future.’
Word chibyke, word!
@ UK….thanks…cue in our 2 mins of madness in the NLD. Everybody saying 7 points is not 2 hard to catch up. What is the assurance that this team will pick up maximum points for the remaining matches? I have accepted wherever we end up this season. My major concern is..will wenger make arsenal fiercely competitive next season? Or do we expect the usual”i will only buy top top top players who will add value to (the world class he already has right?)*shakes head*
@chibyke, it wasn’t 2mins of madness. More lyk several seasons of madness. In the said match apart from the goals i could also mentionat least 3 other times when that thing called a defence was left for dead but spurs couldnt capitalize (bale 1st half, sigurdsson and bale 2nd half)
Of course he won’t. Quality players won’t suddenly become easier to find, would they?
And by the way walter, your predictions didnt come tru. First, mike dean wasnt assigned the tottenham match, 2ndly arsenal wasnt given a red card. Wat did come tru however was that we lost, the reasons for that werent as you predicted.